September 2, 2026 • 54 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon told you ten days ago to watch how many pro franchises are sold in the next three years in the major sports. Plus, Longtime MLB Insider Jon Paul Morosi dropped by for all the latest on the Angels sale, Paul Skenes, the Yankees and the Dodgers. Plus, a massive story out of football!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern,
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the Best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Greetings. Welcome inside a Haley's Comet Day at Fox Sports Radio.
Shock and awe. The Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Well-dressed hobo.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
You work in logistics, you know nothing moves without you.
Companies need skilled people now, and Express Employment Professionals can
help you find contract or full-time work that fits at
no cost to you. Visit ExpressPros.com, get support, get options,
and get to work. Like, today, we're going to start
the show, the first half hour is going to be
(01:04):
the Angels and loosely the Clippers. Like, that's never going
to happen again.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
No.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I mean, Ridd, it's a once every 76 years. The
two No. 2 teams in the second biggest market have
the biggest stories right now. Almost the age of the
second story when you talk about Haley's Comet coming around. Yeah,
things we did not see for a hundred. When does
Halley's Comet come around again? I came around when we
(01:32):
were kids. So it's got to be, we got to
be like halfway to it at least, right? 76 years
for Halley's Comet. It came down like in the late 70s, right? 2061. Oh, 2061. Oh,
that's a long time. That's a long time.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Really?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I want to say. I'm not going to make 90.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
70?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
No, no, no, no, no, no, no way. No way.
Halley's Comet's every 76 years.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Last time it came was 86. Oh, was that late?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Some of you thought it was like in the 70s. No,
it was when the Mets won. It was celebrated. So
that's the next time the Mets are going to win.
That's probably right. I got to make it to 2061. See,
now forever those two will be fused in your brain.
Right there. That's also the year that the Mets will
finish paying Bobby Bonilla. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, today
I'm like, oh my God, we have, it's angels.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Clippers. By way of the Clippers. It's a crazy online
story that just keeps getting more and more attention. One
of those that you're looking for the headlines and you're like, wait,
it's not there. It's like, no, no, you got to
look a little harder and you will find it all.
This is never going to happen again.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Never.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I mean, when are we ever going to start a show?
Angels and Clippers. We should put a plaque on.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Oh, man.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
We should put a plaque over in that corner of
the wall right here. Things we never thought we'd see
on the same day. And forever, when we have two
really random stories that coalesce, we celebrate it. So the
big story, we have two takes on, well, look, the Angels.
The big story of the day is they were sold
to Stan Kroenke, who owns the Rams. He owns about
17 other teams. He buys the Angels today for $ 4 billion.
(03:07):
Artie Marino has been trying to sell the Angels off
and on for the better part of the last decade.
He was selling them. He wasn't selling them. I'm selling them.
Now they're off the market. What do you mean off
the market? It's like what websites do when they leave
something that's on clearance for a while, but nobody buys it.
They put it back at a regular price. Why would
you do that? No one's buying it on clearance. You
got to make it go down if you want to
sell it. But he finally agrees to sell the Angels today.
(03:29):
Stan Kroenke going to buy it for an MLB record.
$ 4 billion. I know that this is the rub and
this is, this is the thing. The angels have sold
for an MLB record.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
$ 4 billion.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Not the Mets, not the Yankees, not the Dodgers, not me,
not Hermione.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
You.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
The Angels have set a record. I'm going back in
time to when the Clippers were sold for $ 2 billion
and all of a sudden the NFL said, well, the
number two team in LA is worth $ 2 billion. We
have to get NFL teams to Los Angeles. It was
right after that happened, Steve Ballmer bought the Clippers. After
years and years of, if we don't get a new stadium,
(04:11):
we're going to move to Los Angeles. Nope, LA got
two teams. But you remember that time you and I
talking about it as it transpired and everybody thought $ 2
billion was just outrageous and ridiculous. And I think we
might have been the only contrarians in a marketplace going,
when do these properties come up in major marketplaces like this?
(04:31):
Distressed properties and the opportunity. You come over the top
and you build from there. So the big thing to realize,
like one of the big takeaways from this is that
About 10 days, we told you, Lakers being sold, right?
We've seen teams being sold across the board now. The
next five years, wait till you see how many professional
(04:54):
teams in the big three, and outside of it too,
but NFL, NBA, MLB, wait till you see how many
teams are sold.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Why?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Because this is a new time. Now with the government
getting involved in business, it changes every five minutes. Owning
a sports team is no longer for the old guard.
It's no longer for the old money. It's for the
new money who are up on the ever-changing rules and
regulations and how to make tons of money and how
(05:25):
I can come in and buy a team because I'm
worth $ 20 billion.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I'm not....
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Worth a billion, so I need three other guys to
come in with me to buy a team. Those days
are gone. Those used to be how teams were. Hey,
like with A-Rod and his investors buying the T-Wolves. Yeah, okay.
But that's how it used to be done. Now, people
are so rich. They're coming, yeah, I can buy this team,
and now... People are owning more than one team. They're
owning two, three, four teams until you get in trouble
(05:50):
and potentially investigate and you start selling the team. Well, yeah.
But this is just what you're going to see now.
If you think, wow, seeing the Lakers get sold. Lakers
have not been sold twice in the past year. The
number of teams that get sold in the next five
years are the three major sports. I'm going to say
a third of the teams in each of those leagues
wind up getting sold because the old guard that has
(06:12):
owned the team for a while and also... maybe not
quite in tune with running a team in 2026 and
what it takes to win and to stay relevant and
to keep people involved, how to stay at the top.
They knew one way to do things, right? People knew
one way. Even people that bought teams in 2010 are
looking to say, how do I move on from this? Now,
LaGuardia Marino bought the team. He's not a guy that's
(06:34):
owned the team since the 70s. You bought the team
just 25 years ago, and now things have changed so much,
I want to get out of this. I want to
get out and I want to move on. A third
of the teams, I think, in each league will wind
up getting sold the next year because the old owners
are going to say, now's the time to cash out.
I can make so much more money on my investment,
and I don't have to worry about the value going down.
(06:56):
I don't have to worry about staying... up with all
the business things how to how to navigate this new
business world because i'm in my 60s or 70s or
80s how i deal with staying competitive because now staying
competitive in 2026 is much different than it used to
be it's no longer my game i own the team
and my day has come and gone and now you're
going to see new money hedge fund people tech people
(07:18):
all kinds of stuff Big conglomerates, one man, one woman
franchises come in and say, yes, I'll buy this team,
but I'm going to get approved. I'm worth $ 25 billion.
I can buy a team for $ 5 billion. Oh, okay.
And the approval process will go quickly. Again, you'll see
a third of each of the leagues sold in the
next five years. Would not be surprised. There's a lot
of factors to it. Hopefully Kroenke tries to one-up the Padres'
(07:41):
ownership with the We Want to Win song. He's got
to come stronger than that. I mean, because if you're
going over the top for the four billion dollars, which
gets you no land, which is a whole other part
of this process. And you also had a recent edict
from Governor Newsom that they're called the Anaheim Angels. That's it.
(08:01):
Like there's no longer the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
It's back to your roots. But you don't get any
of the land around you because immediately you start thinking, well,
it's a good land deal. talking about $ 850 a square
foot in Anaheim. Can you tell who got his research
hat on and was trying to figure out what's the
(08:22):
proper valuation of the land around there near the House
of Mouses? But you look at all of those factors
that you laid out. Also look at what happened with
the Lakers when you talk about succession plans. You've got
some owners that we've known that their kids want nothing
to do with the business. It's like trying to hand
(08:42):
down a hardware store, a service shop, whatever. Like, nah,
I grew up in that. I don't want to do that.
Breaks the heart of mom and dad and the grandparents,
whoever started it. But it's the reality here. They like
the money. They like everything that goes with it. It's like,
I don't want to live that life. I don't want
to have to know that. And you see all the
ancillary stuff in terms of running a business. And the
(09:04):
Rams are a good example of it. The Dodgers have been. Again,
the Mark Walter stuff notwithstanding. But of all the secondary
parts of the business that you have to operate, it's
not just putting a team on a field and owning
the building. Now we're talking about all the sports science
and adding tens, if not hundreds of people to your
(09:26):
payroll to build out the businesses of keeping that machine going.
It's not the simple ways of rub some dirt on
it and get back out there. Give them the shot
like you're James Woods in any given Sunday. No, no,
there's a lot going on here. Matthew Modine wouldn't give
the shot, then I learned to give the shot. I
like the attention. It's just the new way, the new
(09:48):
big business tycoons, the big billionaires, multi-billionaires, this is how
it's going to go. These are who are going to
own teams now, and sports is ever evolving the old way.
That's just not happening anymore, and these guys are all
going to cash out. Time to go. I'm going to
make so much money. I bought the team for $ 300 million.
$ 182 million in 2013. Right, and now I'm turning it
(10:10):
into whatever billion. Now I can go buy a different
team if I want to. I can go put my
money into something else. I can go do this, right?
Now is the time to cash out. It's going to
be a race. for teams to put their money because
because the approval process will be easy yeah right because
it's not like well we got to wait well i'm
bringing in this money guy and bring it no i
got it what we no no i got it here
you go i can i can write you a check
(10:30):
right now you can have the five billion dollars it
what it's going to take till tuesday to clear tuesday
i can write it's not tied to any insurance policies
or any of those i'm going to put it on
my special credit card here it's a special credit card
it just says buy a team going through but i
you know last night we we had a big discussion
after talking to jason lock and four about your new
york football jets and i see that i hope has
(10:54):
really sprung into you today because that is a shiny
yeah talking about mike tomlin talking about you know lamar
jackson chaos or whatever enforcing the hand either for a
sale or just to operate properly of woody johnson In
the background of that, we'd mentioned the Angels because they
(11:15):
came up when we were having that discussion about USC.
That is now in day, what, five? All sorts of
coaches try to sideswipe the attendance from Saturday's game. But
the idea of you're still, even if a team is bad,
there's going to be a lot of times where you're
still printing cash and tickets are sold, right? The Angels
(11:35):
rank in the middle of attendance this year and have...
there or better every year yeah once upon a time
you had otani sometimes you have mike trout now but
you're near disneyland you're in southern california it's a tourist
like it's another check the box if i saw another
stadium so they draw over three million a year so
people will still go uh but i didn't think within
(11:58):
24 hours when we were talking about the forcing the
invisible hand on the coasts so that every big big
market team was competitive that arty moreno would be shown
the door yeah Oh, okay, I'll finally sign those papers.
It's like we put it into action. Yeah, thanks, thanks,
appreciate it. And now you're gone, right? And look, and
the other part of this, too, is that, as we
also mentioned last night, that, hey, with the whole Jets
(12:21):
story with Mike Tomlin, Jason Locke and Fora telling us that, hey,
there's a lot of people in the NFL talking about this.
I know Park Avenue is definitely up on Mike Tomlin
becoming the Jets head coach because... After seeing the way
that the leagues have gone the last years, they know
the top teams need to be relevant. The teams in
the biggest markets. We went through all the different teams
(12:43):
in New York and L.A. The last five years, the
huge changes that have come to everybody. And the last one...
that was kind of sitting out there has been the Jets, right?
Everybody else has gotten the new coaches, the players that
gotten funneled to them, whether it's Luca, whether it is
John Harbaugh, whatever it is, you, you have seen all
the teams in New York and LA all get funneled
(13:04):
towards being good. The Knicks winning the title, Jalen Brunson going,
wait a minute, there was collusion. There was Tampa. OK,
we've seen it all happen. The Jets were the only team. Hey,
we stink no matter what we can do. Now, maybe
the league is OK. We're going to help Woody Johnson
because a team that plays in New York can no
longer be bad. We can't just say, well, we got
great teams in Green Bay. We got great. No, it
doesn't matter anymore. You got to get those teams in
the big markets. Good. And really, you know, yes, it's
(13:27):
technically Anaheim, but it's still Los Angeles. Now, here come
the Angels. who are hopefully going to be bought into
some sort of relevancy, where money is going to be
spent smartly and not badly like Artie Marino spent it.
Maybe suddenly now, hey, the Angels are going to be
really good. So now we're really taking care of those teams,
the big market teams in New York and L.A. We're
(13:49):
getting the second teams in each of these markets to
make sure they're good they get raised up telling you
i'm not saying i know anything that each league is
is is in cahoots making sure that the teams from
new york and los angeles are good but i mean
you look at what each team uh in every one
of the major leagues has done in the last couple
of years and you see wow okay they're all they've
all been raised up they've all gotten better to some
(14:11):
extent and the last holdout was the jets but now
hey hey we'll get outside of la we'll help the
anaheim angel oh Oh, great. We're going to help the
angels out.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
All right.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Awesome. Yeah. 41 years later, a much different version of
the frozen envelope. But just two things really quick. One
that was circulating quite a bit about ownership, having a
baseball team and an NFL team in the same marketplace, whatever. Yeah,
that rule existed. a decade ago. It's been gone since 2018,
so you can forget about that. The fact that they're
(14:40):
also called Anaheim might also have something to do with it.
But here's the question I have to ask you, though. Yeah,
go ahead. How quickly does Kroenke get a deal done
with Anaheim at maybe a premium over that 850 square
foot for of real estate land to where some of
it reverts to his company as opposed to being owned
by the city pretty quickly i think what he's going
(15:01):
to do is the old uh from there will be
blood like at the end when daniel day lewis says
if i have a straw and it reaches all the
way over to your yard and into your milkshake i
drink your milkshake if i own property here and it
extends all All the way to Los Angeles. Then I
(15:22):
drink your milkshake. And he would win. Somewhere in the
system is a young Madeline Harmon doing that entire bit. Drainage, Eli. Drainage. Drainage, Eli.
I'm ready to sell to you. Eli, let me tell
you what happened, Eli. I'm going to take all these
parking lots and they're going to be beautiful. So we
got more on this story coming up in a bit. Again,
(15:43):
biggest story. The Angels are sold, right? But yeah, we
got some football stuff. And we absolutely have to talk
about what's been happening on social media. Kind of about
the Clippers, but not really. But boy, is it something.
It is aspirational. Okay. You mean like you might choke
(16:03):
on something? Oh, I was thinking you're aspiring.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
I'm thinking, okay.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
No, not asphyxiating. Well, you aspirate. You aspirate. Two different words.
That's coming up next right here. Jason Smith. Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
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Speaker 1 (16:31):
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Speaker 4 (16:34):
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Speaker 2 (17:04):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
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(17:40):
Sports Haley's Comet. The Angels, the biggest story.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Yay.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Right behind it, this developing craziness kind of involving the Clippers.
Kind of, but you'll see what I mean. So I'm
hanging out today. I'm at home, and all of a sudden,
Frostberg texts me, dude, Ralph Lawler. I go, oh my God, what?
Because Ralph Lawler, 88 years old, longtime Clippers announcer, right?
Retired a few years ago. What happened? He goes, no, no, no.
(18:07):
Go check out his social media. I go, okay. So
I go check out Ralph Lawler's social media. And oh me,
oh my, is there some stuff on it?
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
So I saw this. I said, okay, now the first
thing is I want to make sure this is Ralph Lawler.
Is this Ralph Lawler's official Twitter account? It says, retired
play-by-play announcer for the Clippers, 60 years in broadcasting. He's
been tweeting. It seems like it's his page. It seems
like it's him. I actually called Monsi, who's the biggest,
her and Ben Maller, the biggest Clipper fans. I said, Monsi,
is this Ralph Lawler's Twitter account? She goes, yeah, I'm
(18:38):
pretty sure it is. That's Ralph Lawler's Twitter account. Okay. Now,
whether this is Ralph Lawler or him getting hacked, however,
seeing the responses, I would think if Ralph Lawler was hacked,
we would have known this by now. Now, again, and
oh me, oh my on Twitter, which is kind of okay.
That's just cool. In the middle of a lot of
basketball posts, there was a post on social media today
(19:00):
that made a lot of ways, and I think this
is probably how it got found out. A woman, or
a post from a woman, said, And it's her in
a bathing suit, smiling for the camera. And Ralph Lawler,
the Ralph Lawler Twitter account, quote tweeted it and just said, oh, yes. Yes. OK. Also,
(19:25):
right before that, there was a post saying, hey, if
you could be honest, if you could only take one
of these women on a date, who are you picking?
And there's six really attractive women in a post. And
that is quote tweeted by Ralph Lawler three times. The
third woman in is who he would be picking to
take on a date. Now, he's since been talking back
(19:47):
with people going, Ralph, what are you doing? What's going on? here, man?
You're 88. He's like, what are you talking about? I
have grandchildren older than them and all this stuff. And
I'm going, oh, wow. This is wow.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Oh, man.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Again, it could be Ralph Lawler. It's Ralph Lawler. Is
he hacked? Okay. But when I saw this, my first thought,
you know, because my first thought wasn't Ralph Lawler. My
first thought was I'm sitting there going, okay, Ralph Lawler's 88, right?
And here he is. And he's tweeting. And nothing, you know, inappropriate.
Just a little weird. Yeah, a little weird.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Well, I mean, he's just responding. And if you decide
to take it weird, you certainly can go down that path.
And I started thinking, I'm.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Going, hmm.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Do I want to know or do I not want
to know what my dad's online profiles are like on
social media?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Fair.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Because he's on Facebook, so I see all his Facebook posts.
But do I want to see, what's my dad's late 70s?
And I want to think that everything he's searching is Yankees,
MLB Network, PGA Tour, who to pick in the MLB
streak that we do.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Oh, sure.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
But is that really what his- Might have something to
do with streaking. What his computer activity is like. That's
the first thought is, oh, Ralph Waller. What is my
dad doing? Like, that's really my thought was, what is
he doing? Like, if I went to his house and
I went through his social media activity or his search activity,
(21:18):
what would I find? Is that something a son should
find for his father? Well, eventually you might have to,
whether you want to or not. Yeah, I would say...
It's a dark path, right? I mean, the reality, and
you want to keep everything sunshine, rainbows, and lollipop, but
recognizing the humanity of it all. Because as I'm reading
(21:41):
back through it again, because this goes back over a week, actually,
where this started, right? To be clear, it began with
a thing with Sophie Cunningham, and he replied with a...
Stop with the Ralph is flirting nonsense. I like the
way Sophie shoots the three and I admire her outreach
and social media. I only flirt with my sweet Joe.
For a second while I was seeing all these pictures,
(22:03):
I'm going, does he think that woman is Sophie Cunningham?
It seemed like maybe, oh, there's a picture of Sophie.
I like a picture of Sophie Cunningham. But just the
oh me, oh my for what, you know, women, you know,
because we can have the women tattoos, no tattoos conversation. No,
I mean, it's a legit conversation for, you know, whatever
you like. Ralph Lawler, what is my oh me, oh my?
(22:25):
Let's put it that way. What does my being 88
have to do with anything happening online? And it just
goes all the way. And then there's a bunch of
things about the Clippers and he hasn't been around because
he doesn't like Clippers. Kawhi. There's a lot going on.
Should they fire this guy or fire that guy? And
it's quick responses. But yeah, this has been going on
a little while here. Yeah, it's some next level stuff.
(22:49):
I like it. And of course, the internet just makes
him a creep. He's just a guy. Stating a preference.
It's a little weird. It's just a little weird. Well,
you just didn't see it coming. It just made me
think about my family. What about them? maybe i gotta
find a way to go over my dad's apartment in
the next couple of days and just find a way
(23:10):
to hit his search bar on his computer go dad
what are you searching for dad dad i i want
to i want to show you something i found on
youtube yeah let me let me look dad let me
just see you know what don't you oh hey could
you grab me something out of the fridge that like
people do in the movies when it's like they want
to get on their computer and they you know they
stick in the uh uh the the the drive the
thumb drive i'm pulling out i gotta I got the
thumb drive now. I got the thumb drive. Come on,
(23:31):
come on. Copy, copy, copy. Go. I need eight more
seconds to get it all. And of course, it goes,
you know, filling up. 77%, 78, 85, 93. 100%. Let's
pull the thumb drive out. I got it. I got
all my dad searching for it. But now you got
me thinking. I'd be like, horse racing, conspiracy theories and
news stuff, whatever nonsense you and I were yelling about. Yeah.
(23:54):
And then my mom, computer games and deals.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
All right.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
All right. Where to find a deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because everything's got to be on sale.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Even if it's really not. Oh, yeah, no. But if
they can convince you that it's a deal. They can
make up any price. Normally $ 78. Now $ 34. Oh, well,
it's $ 45 off. I got to go buy it. Got
to have it.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
I got to buy it. I got to buy two. No,
not really. But, you know. Because I know my dad,
like a lot of his searches would be Yankees. PGA tour, uh,
online crossword puzzles. My dad's a huge crossword guy. You know,
he passed that down to me, uh, all this stuff,
but I'm just going to, well, what's everything, you know,
is he, is he, is he rating people? Like, is he,
(24:35):
is he doing this? Is he, is he rating people online?
But this also got people to start looking up the
word goon.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Oh, It's not just a hockey enforcer anymore. It's tough. Dad,
what are you doing? You raided somebody. You said number six. Yes,
which of these Yankees is the greatest of all time?
One through six. Oh, so you picked Mickey Mantle. Okay,
got it. Got it, Dad. You're all good, Dad. I'm leaving.
It's all good. It's all good, Dad. I'm going. I'm going.
He'd just put a halo on St. Walt right there.
(25:05):
He'd be searching, Red Sox announcer Will Fleming, right? Like
all the things like that. He'd be very, very upset.
How many message boards did he get involved with with that?
How many times did he start flaming the Red Sox announcers?
I can't wait. Red Sox fans? No, no, no. I
can't do that. You don't want to go down and
open that door. I can't do that. I can't. Now, so, okay,
(25:26):
so hopefully, you know, this Ralph Law, again, it's a
little weird, but, you know, hey, okay. It's all good. Well,
good for Ralph. Yeah, it makes me, you know, think about,
you know, okay. Well, what are you going to be
doing when you're 79? What do people do? I don't know, man.
Probably soon. Why do the Mets still stink? Now, you
won't actually have to type anything at that point. It's
(25:46):
going to be all just voice actualized. No, again, I
know it'll be. It'll be, who did the Jets let
go in their final round of cuts? Who did they
pick up that I think is going to be any good?
Here's year 76 of being fruitless because they stink. That's
what's going on. Whatever happened to... yeah insert dot insert
(26:07):
name dot dot dot uh meanwhile speaking of baseball okay
one of the one of the biggest stories tonight the
absolute pounding that paul skeens took uh on the mound
again for the pirates right now one of the most
entertaining games uh the pirates win in a walk-off 13
12 uh but skeens a rough day he goes just
(26:28):
over four innings he gives up Eight runs as ERA
is up at four right now. And what is wrong
with Paul Skeens? What is wrong with Paul Skeens, right?
His line tonight, four and two-thirds, eight hits, five runs,
three walks. Again, ERA is 3.97. 95 pitches, 56 for strikes. Yeah,
a reminder that they played the Giants. Yeah, that's the thing. Well,
(26:48):
they played the Yankees. No, no, no. They played the Phillies. No,
they played the Giants. Ooh. The good news is, is that...
This is not something, because everybody is all doom and
gloom in the fall off for Paul Skeens this year.
I've never seen a fall off so bad. This guy
was the rock star in Major League Baseball. Him and
Livvy Dunn, and every five days was an event for him.
(27:10):
But this year, he's been bad. It's been a bad year.
I know how to solve this, and it's going to
be easy. It's just going to take until next April.
You're taking Livvy Dunn out of the equation. Hey, listen,
you're ruining the team. Hey, take off that shirt before
you break up the band, you psycho. What's going on
(27:33):
with Paul Skeens? He's shown you enough over the course
of his first two years. You know how great he is.
This is not a guy that had a meteoric eight-start
run one year, but then a bunch of years come
back and he's come back down to earth. Two full years,
he has been the best pitcher in baseball. His stuff
is electric. He's that good. What's happened to him this year?
And generally pitchers like that who are that good, when
(27:55):
they have a down year, there's a reason. And it's
always one of the following. It's always physical. They're injured.
They're dinged up. And they just can't throw like they
used to. It's mechanics. and their mechanics are off a
little bit. Jacob deGrom was famous for that. If he
had a start where he gave up three runs in
six innings, which is like the worst he ever had,
he would go back and say, my mechanics were off.
I went back and looked at the film, this, this.
(28:17):
He was so particular about his mechanics, he would never
let it go off more than a game or two.
Or it's something, like I said, or something physical. And
a lot has been made the fact that since he's
come into the major leagues now, he's put on 25
pounds at least. So this is for Paul Skeens. Yes,
it's one or all of those things. It's putting on weight.
(28:38):
It's it's your mechanics are off a little bit. It's physical.
It's a tired arm. This is nothing that an offseason
away from baseball isn't going to fix where you get
back into workout mode. You get back into focus mode.
You rest your arm. You take a look and see
what you're doing, why your mechanics falling off. Whatever that is,
this will absolutely be fixed from the beginning of next year. Now,
(29:00):
the bad news is they want to fight for a
wild card over the course of the last month, and
Skeens is killing them every time he goes out there.
I said three weeks ago, hey, Skeens, give him some
time off. Let him rest that arm. They rest him
an extra three days. He came back. He had a
pretty good outing. Okay, now you see he's still not
throwing like he used to. But this is not the
doom and gloom, and this is the death of Paul
Skeens is a great pitcher, and now he's done. No,
this is simply he's a great pitcher. Things have happened
(29:24):
physically to him this year that he just has to
straighten out in the offseason. Sometimes that's what you need,
and there's nothing you can rush on it. It's just
a way to get away from the day-to-day and refocus
on getting yourself back to where you are. By the
time we get to next spring, they'll manage his workload better.
He'll be throwing 98, 100 miles an hour like he
(29:45):
used to. Everything's going to be fine. The bad news
is the rest of this year, yeah, every fifth day
you might get what's wrong with Paul Skeens. But you
think Paul Skeens is terrible? No, no, no. This is
by the beginning of next year, he'll be back to
being Paul walk to strikeout ratio uh k to walk
still 4.3 still pretty good careers 4.9 so a dip
from last year as it is with everything he's been
(30:06):
more hittable staying in the zone Might be one of
those guys that we wonder about where the margins were
in terms of pitches that he got last year versus
this year, where he's got to stay a little more
on the plate. And he's been more hittable for that.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
And hasn't adapted there as well over the course of
the season. The putting on the extra pounds. This might
be the first time that we've ever had an athlete
have the more of the dad bod that he didn't
get chided for because he was in frame with Livvy Dunn.
Like normally guys put on a couple of pounds like, ah,
you know, it's the girlfriend, it's the wife, and it
(30:45):
becomes the derision. Like, no, I mean, if he thought
that it was going to help in terms of his
push and whatever he's doing, cool. Maybe it backfired. All
of those things could be pitching hurt. to the point
you made off the jump. They've got a team that's
still competing. Would he have been shut down if they
were three games worse?
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Maybe.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
But it's a conversation worth having because you're looking at
the long-term effects, too, because you've got this valuable pitching prospect.
We've seen this go south for so many guys in
the past. DeGrom ended up having a couple of lost
years before now he's back on his hall of fame
(31:28):
path right i mean we watch him every fifth day
and like him and pca every day uh you grimace
a little when we've got to read the stat line
aloud but some guys don't find their way back and
but more often than not we we do those elite
guys have a down year and come back once upon
a time that was not the case because they didn't
get the grace and didn't get to clear the mechanism
(31:51):
and all of that stuff uh and it just spiraled
down from there Because you're also looking at the long-term
effect also for the Pirates, very much in their purview
to sit down with him, his team, and figure out
what the hell's going wrong. Because eventually, either they have
to pay him, or they want to get some kind
of big return for him. Because that's been the promise
(32:12):
that's been there the last two-plus years, which suddenly is
dwindling by the start. Yeah, he'll be fine. It just
isn't going to be in the next month. That's Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon. Well-dressed hobo. You miss any of today's show,
be sure to catch the podcast. Just search Jason Smith
and Mike Harmon wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the podcast,
rated five stars, provide a review again. Just search Jason
Smith and Mike Harmon wherever you get your podcasts, and
you'll find today's full show and a best-of version posted
(32:54):
right after we get off the air.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
So we got John Polmarosi stopping by in about a
half hour. All the big news from baseball today. More
on the Angel sale and Paul Skeens, but The Angels
being sold today, you've seen one message all the way through.
What a great day for Angels fans. Artie Marino selling
the team, and now they have a chance. Mike Trout
even put out a statement saying, hey, it's a fresh
(33:16):
start for us. It's the strongest thing he's ever said.
All of a sudden, Mike Trout is saying, wow, you
know the Angels had to be sold if Mike Trout
is saying, hey, we needed this. Whoa, thank you for
saying something other than what the weather is like in Philadelphia. Whoa,
look at Mike Trout. I've got to say, I'm quite
disappointed in him. Why is that? That this was what
it took for him to finally open his mouth?
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Well.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
It's like five years ago, you had clout. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Right?
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Obviously, we had the burgeoning records and craziness going on
with Shohei Ohtani. But Mike Trout was the guy.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Long ago, you could have opened your mouth and maybe
affected some sort of change. Not that you were going
to get him sold. I don't know that a star
can get a guy to sell a team. No, no,
I'm not saying to get, but to actually do something
with said team. Well, you have to be on the field,
and you have to be someone who year in and
year out is a superstar. That's why I said five
years ago, maybe seven. You go back and look, I
(34:11):
think he had trouble that time too, staying on the field.
Either way, I'm just trying to say, in the Wayback Machine,
when he was that guy. But look, obviously, yes, it's
a great day for the Angels in that Artie Marino,
they won the World Series in 2002, and they've not
been able to make the right decisions, whether it's the
right manager, whether it's the right players. They gave contracts
(34:33):
to all the wrong players, developing players, any sort of winning.
They've been a AAA team for the past few years, right?
So it's time that, hey, somebody new is coming in,
and maybe they will spend better. Maybe Stan Kroenke will
be able to get the right people in place. All
of these things could happen, because clearly most of his
teams do pretty well. So, okay, great day. Great day, right?
(34:53):
Great day, great day. Congratulations, Mike Trout. But it's also
a disaster. It's a disaster. It's a disaster because as
someone who goes to Angels games, that loves the experience
of Angels games. Yeah, you get that sandwich in.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
No time flat.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
That's going to be gone now, man. Like, okay, driving
to an Angels game, you can pull up and park
right outside of whatever gate you want to walk into.
It's $ 20. Okay. Remember Bill Plasky when he joined us
that time and he was laughing? He goes, look, I
can see my car. Parking's going to be $ 150 a
game now.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Easy.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
And you're not going to be able to park in
the stadium. You're going to have to park in some
ancillary lot. Like, that's not going to happen. All the
different food trucks that are out there. Now, wait until
you see how much that's going to be. I bet
you there's going to be a– they bring you food
to your seat in Angel Stadium.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
They do.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
It's clean. It's a wonderful place. You order right off
a QR code and they bring you the food. It's
there in five minutes. Watch there be like, oh, there's
going to be a tax now on bringing this food
to you at your table. Like all of the things
that I love about Angels games, that's going to go
by the wayside now because now he's going to spend
money on players and it's going to be the thing.
(35:55):
And the one thing Artie Marino did was, hey, it's
a fun fan experience. The ballpark is great. There's fireworks
every night. Is there still going to be fireworks every night?
We're going to save money. We're not going to have fireworks.
Like it's a great experience now. And I think now
all the stuff that I love about going to see
the Angels– No, that's all that's going to change, man.
It's weird. The last two weeks, I've been getting pretty
much daily, are you sure you don't want to bring
(36:17):
a group to an angel game email from their marketing folks?
Because they've had some great promotions. They had that SpongeBob
jersey day. They just had that Joe Adele jersey giveaway.
A little late, but okay. But, I mean, they still
did it. Wait, wait, wait. On September 16th, you had
the Adele home run robbery bobblehead. But that was actually
(36:38):
the singer Adele. They changed that. There's an Angels and
Ducks blanket night. I mean, come on. The Angels now,
the Angels are gone. This is where they are. The
Angels went from being the local independent amusement park. That
wasn't really affiliated anything. Prices were low. You didn't quite
get all the stuff you would get at a Six
(37:00):
Flags park or one of the big parks or Disneyland
or Disney World. But it was fun. You would go
and it would be easy, right? The lines wouldn't be
too long. The convenience of going, right? You would go
and it would still be a water ride. Get in
and out of the roller coaster. Parking lot. You're not
in a line ride necessarily there yet. You know, you're
going to see the Angels. You're not going to see
the Dodgers. You're going to an independent park. Amusement park,
(37:22):
not one of the big ones, but you still were
going to have a pretty good experience, and it wasn't
going to be a lot of money. Now it's like, oh,
Six Flags, we're bulldozing this and building a whole new park,
and now it's going to be $ 175 a ticket to
get in. I fear that's what's going to happen to
the Angels now, man. It's going to take a while.
though you got to build infrastructure you got to have
the full change of the plan put into motion because
that's the one thing with Stan Kroenke and the squad
(37:43):
right we talked about that it's all about the infrastructure
and building from the ground up you can buy players
it's everything else they had a niche and not a
lot of fans you don't have to worry you can
spread out at the stadium great concessions you had your
own section to go shag fly balls that's going to
be a disaster now from one disaster to another that's
what's going to happen there'll be no more Rendons though
(38:04):
well that's true Exit out about a fresca. Exit swollen dome.
Coming up next, we get into a huge story out
of the NFL today. Jason and Mike, Fox Sports Radio.
Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Well-dressed hobo.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
A huge day in Major League Baseball. The Angels are
sold to Stan Kroenke. What is going on with Paul Skeens?
Joining us now on the hotline. Nobody better to break
it down. Give him some time away from his lion
season preview. Then MLB network insider extraordinaire. Check him out
on Twitter at John Marossi. It is the Pope, John
(38:45):
Paul Marossi. What's happening, man? Happy Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Happy Tuesday to both of you. I believe the lions
will have a 10 win regular season. And then a
couple of wins after that. Is that a standard expectation
for the lion this year?
Speaker 1 (39:02):
But that's never been the standard expectation for the Lions
over the most of the last 50 years.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Right. But the standard representation on this show would be
a 24-17 win basically every week.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Or 27. You pick them winning by 24 or 27 points.
Those are the options. Those are the good numbers.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
To have on the grid, though. 27 to 23. It's
always in that range. I don't know. The game hasn't
changed that much. I mean, it's changed since I used
to really know the players in the sport. That was
back when I was like in middle school. But it
(39:42):
hasn't changed that much. I will say this. The Super
Bowl matchup that would give me the greatest joy would
be Lions-Bills, which I know is also a matchup that
will happen 16 days from now. That will be a
good one on a Thursday evening. But I do digress.
Ten-win season for the Lions, plenty of skill, like the
(40:04):
overall defensive look from what I've been able to pick
from my colleagues in the media here in Detroit. So
I'm feeling pretty good about that.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
All right, how do you feel about the Angels? Sold
for $ 4 billion, Stan Kroenke, many Angel fans excited, a
new era. Mike Trout. We haven't heard from Mike Trout
in years, John Paul. Today he says, hey, this was needed.
It's a fresh start. It's like, Mike Trout, where you been?
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Well, Mike Trout has actually become increasingly candid in his comments.
I would say Jason... You just probably haven't had any
reasons to listen, if we're being totally honest, in terms
of the way the Angels have played in recent years.
And Mike is very comfortable there in Anaheim, which is
(40:48):
why he's never really seriously considered waving that no-trade clause,
at least as far as I can tell. And now
for him, it is a new chapter, a new lease,
if you will. And certainly still plenty of conversation about
what the ballpark situation looks like long term. But I
do think we can say, after you missed capitalizing on
(41:13):
the prime of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, And the
team was for sale several years ago, and then it wasn't.
And obviously, very quickly, at least to the public's knowledge,
it happened right now. And certainly, I'm sure we'll get
into what it means for the Cronky sports empire. And certainly,
(41:35):
there will be some ramifications, I'm sure, on the television
front and local streaming front. I'm seeing that landscape change.
But the problem is here, guys. It is still at
least adjacent to the second largest market in our country.
(41:56):
You've got the Olympic games coming to California in a
couple of years. There's just a lot of, as both
of you know, and it's a play for Cronky to
buy a table in May. Everything else. And Moreno clearly.
He had taken this thing about as far as he
(42:16):
could go. He got the team to a lot of
successful years there in the aughts, less so ever since then.
And at least from that perspective, the Angels have a
new chapter to embrace.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
So as we look at the baseball world as a whole,
we're starting to get into our wild card chases and everything, JP.
But another night, another miserable outing for Paul Skeens. We
went up and threw a lot of darts at the
board as to try to figure out a cause. Anybody
give you any insights as to what they're seeing with him?
Speaker 3 (42:49):
Mechanics not good. Velocity obviously is not what it's been.
And I think that we all have to acknowledge that
he's just not in sync. He's not himself right now. Now,
is it enough for him to be on the injured list?
I mean, that's obviously a matter for him and for
the organization there. But there's also no question that in
(43:09):
the big picture here, he's one of the faces of
the game. And also, let's not forget the other dynamic here.
Of course, we're entering this potential– new labor agreement, however
things play out this wintertime, schemes on some level, any
time that you're on the IL for any reason, it's
(43:33):
a mark in the book that ends up being brought
out whenever you become a free agent. And I'm sure...
To some extent, the Scooble situation will get mentioned about
having the bone chips removed this year and what that
does to his value. I suspect probably not a ton
because he's performing well. The reality is Skeens is not
performing right now. And it does seem to me to
(43:56):
be pretty apparent that whether it's technically an injury or
just mechanically not sound, he doesn't look like himself. And
that's a concern not only for the Pirates, but for
the game and also for Paul's long-term, depending on when
there's ever going to be a conversation about a long-term
(44:17):
extension in Pittsburgh, which sure seems unlikely, at least in
this moment, but you never know what the next CBA
could look like. So perhaps in that universe, an extension
becomes more realistic, and in that light, this really is
not the type of impression you want to be leaving
right before you have that conversation with the Pirates.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
MLB Network insider John Palmarosi, our guest, Jason Smith, Mike
Harmon live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. Okay, so
from Paul Skeens to Aaron Judge. We're getting good reports
out of New York that Aaron Judge looks like he's
on his way back, maybe in the next few days.
Does that jibe with what you're hearing about Judge's return
to the Yankees?
Speaker 3 (44:57):
Likely within the next week. And the very good news
for the Yankees is that he is on the road
trip with them to Anaheim. So obviously a lot of
news happening in Anaheim. It does appear that things are
on track for Georgia to be back that quickly. Of course,
they had a very impressive end of their series against
the Red Sox on Sunday, of course. And it does
(45:18):
look to me like the lineup of the Yankees, while
they may not necessarily catch the Rays in the East,
they're starting to show some signs of life. In fact,
they're probably not going to catch the Rays. They're still
four and a half games back there as play began today.
But you look at how important the collective group is.
(45:38):
And they've gotten to this point with Schlittler being awesome,
with Freed. Obviously, they've had a really strong performance from
Ben Rice. It's been a little bit of a different
cast today. than what they've had before. And Caballero, what
he brings to the team is, I think, a different
element This, to me, as much as there is still
(46:00):
some active concern about the catching position, they've gotten, I think,
about what they expected from Luis Garcia Jr., not so
much Elliott Ramos, although he finally was able to break
through and get his home run. We'll see what Spencer
Jones can bring. There's just a little bit more dynamism
to this team than there was a year ago when
(46:21):
the playoffs rolled around and you put Judge right back
into it. Again, I would expect, based on what we're hearing,
likely within a week or so, gives him plenty of
time to get his legs under him for the playoffs.
And I think the overall net effect is the Yankees
could be as much of a favorite as anybody else
(46:41):
in the American League by the time the postseason gets underway.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Flipping over to the National League, Shohei Otani was scheduled
to pitch yesterday, scratched the knee and bicep, not feeling
right after a bullpen session. How much longer do they
play this game here, JP?
Speaker 3 (46:58):
Well, so this is the interesting part, and obviously we've
got to remember about the Otani rule that you're basically,
if you're going to put them in the lineups, as
the starting pitcher, if you will, or as a pitcher.
He has to start because that's what allows him to
be able to be the DH. And so while we
might love this notion of, oh, maybe he can come
(47:19):
in and at least pitch an inning during the course
of the playoff, as a closer type, I think that's
asking a lot. And given the way that the knee
has not responded– It seems like, and this is my interpretation,
one man's opinion, that there's an awful lot of accommodating
(47:42):
happening and people being held up in the air about
what's going on with their own schedule and when they're
going to pitch. Last night, I wasn't sure what his
routine was. I get it. He's the best player ever.
And so you make accommodations for the best player ever.
But I do think you're getting to the point where
there has to be some type of toll on the
(48:03):
rest of the group about everyone's schedule. And I think
that just backing off and saying, listen, it's not going
to happen right now. The knee is not going to
comply at the moment. Let's just focus on the offensive side.
Because let's be honest, the team overall– they were able
to win that series over the weekend against Detroit, but they,
they're not really this unstoppable force that we've seen in
(48:26):
the past. Now they did get Will Smith back today.
It's very good news for them that they certainly have
missed him for a long time. And maybe the catching
position will help alleviate what's been an up and down lineup.
But I think to me, guys, they've got to focus on,
on that core of, of what their lineup is looking
like and, and finding a way to get Otani back
to being a threat on the basis. I, I'm of
(48:48):
the mind that, that it is P Crow Armstrong's award
to lose here, that he is the front right now.
And the numbers to me are, are fairly strongly in
Pete's favor. But if Otani is going to either make
a late push in the MVP or just be more
of the game changing player that we've seen him be
for most of his career, that he's going to have
(49:10):
to get back to being himself on the base a
little bit more. And I realize he injured himself last
year during the playoffs, during the World Series, He's back
running the bases, but that to me is something that's
got to be back into his game if the Dodgers
are going to threaten teams in different ways during the
course of October.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
John Paul, we've said this a few times. We've talked
about this on the show. At some point, because he
still wants to pitch, obviously, I remember talking about this
with you, our big preview interview when I said he's
going to win the Cy Young this year because it
seems like he's focused on pitching more than anything. He
started out great. Then, obviously, he got hurt. At some point,
if he wants to pitch, isn't the happy medium that
(49:49):
he becomes a closer? I mean, wouldn't that allow him
to do everything else and then he could still pitch?
You can figure out the positions at the end of games.
You lose the DH spot, but you're just going to
pinch it for the pitcher the next time up anyway.
That's something that's manageable for the Dodgers, and maybe this
is something more manageable for him health-wise that instead of
trying to pitch 130 innings a year, he pitches 60
(50:10):
innings a year and he closes.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
Right. It's certainly conceivable. I will say this, the Dodger bullpen,
and when they were in Detroit last weekend, I was
talking to people there. I mean, you're right. I think theoretically,
I agree with you. Obviously, if he blows the save
and then has to stay in there, that makes things
a little more interesting. But I think when you look
(50:33):
at the way that things have gone to this point,
in the near term, for the 2026 Dodgers, Their bullpen
is better now than it was last year when they
won the World Series. It's deeper. They've got different options.
Evan Phillips coming back has changed things. It's a much
different version of Tanner Scott. So there's a lot to
(50:53):
like about this particular group to where having Otani close
is probably not a pressing need right now. But I
do agree with you in general that The back and
forth about when he can pitch and how many days
of rest he needs, it's a lot. And I would
also say this. Let's say he does come back and
(51:15):
is able to pitch. Well, is he able to go back-to-back?
And can he go more than three outs? It would
seem probably unlikely. He is very routine-oriented. and that's what
makes me wonder the variability of being a closer might
in some way free him up mentally, and you play
it almost a different style, and you're not really sure
(51:36):
what's going to happen in a given game. But everything
we have seen, guys, with the way that Otani has played,
for very good reasons, has been incredibly scripted down to
the moment. And I just wonder if there might be
a little bit of, reticence in inviting that level of
variability to someone who is very, for very good reasons,
(52:01):
structured in his ways.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
So we got two guys named Pete that vex my
good friend Jason Smith here. You already mentioned Armstrong, so
let's go the other way. Eight and two in their
last ten. Can Pete Alonso drive these Orioles into the playoffs?
Speaker 3 (52:15):
Man, tell you what, and not only Pete Alonzo, but
also the former Met icon Luis Robert Jr. now joining
the parade.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
Hey, not every ex-Met the Orioles sign is going to
be really good. I just want to warn everybody about
that right now.
Speaker 3 (52:33):
Start building the statue next to Boog's Barbecue right now
of Luis Robert Jr. and Pete Alonzo while we're at it.
But in all seriousness, You think about their rotation. Rogers
has been pretty good. I think all things considered this year.
I think that they seem to finally be getting into
(52:55):
a rhythm. Remember, it's a first year manager doing this
and Alonzo was there. There was all the disappointment early on,
but you got to credit Mike Elias for hanging in there.
And I, I like their chances, maybe not necessarily to
win that spot. The Guardians got a huge win today
over the Blue Jays, which I think gives them a
(53:16):
little bit of breathing room. I would give the slight
advantage to Cleveland, but Baltimore is right in there. And Jason,
my goodness, if Alonzo is there and finds some October
magic again after the home run against Milwaukee a couple
years back, You can just call me.
Speaker 1 (53:35):
You can call me.
Speaker 3 (53:36):
We'll commiserate on the air, and we'll talk about how
the Lions should have won the Super Bowl a couple
years ago. There'll be some commiserating, but I'm here for
you because that's what friends do. So you call me anytime,
especially when you've got the noted White Sox fan sitting
beside you. Actually, I'm now talking myself into it. Am
I now really rooting for a White Sox-Orioles playoff series
(53:57):
just to see how– How that all goes over the,
over the table with you guys doing the show together.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
As long as it comes better than 1983, the revenge
of 83 and Lamar Hoyt. Sure.
Speaker 3 (54:07):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
I do bits with a member of the Ripken family.
That's not good.
Speaker 3 (54:11):
Those old school white socks uniforms. Those were, those were sweet.
Those were pretty good back in the day. We've got to,
got to bring those back. A lot of nostalgia. And
by the way, this would only be, I'm counting here
the fourth time. that both Chicago teams qualify for the
playoffs in the same year. Doesn't seem possible, but it is.
(54:31):
The fourth time ever, ever. And I'm sure that'll be
one of the many topics we get into here in
the weeks to come.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
He's on X at John Marossi. That is at John Marossi,
John Paul Marossi, the Pope.
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern,
7 to 11 p.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find
your local station for the Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon at foxsportsradio.com or stream us live every night on
the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the Best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Greetings. Welcome inside a Haley's Comet Day at Fox Sports Radio.
Shock and awe. The Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Well-dressed hobo.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
You work in logistics, you know nothing moves without you.
Companies need skilled people now, and Express Employment Professionals can
help you find contract or full-time work that fits at
no cost to you. Visit ExpressPros.com, get support, get options,
and get to work. Like, today, we're going to start
the show, the first half hour is going to be
(01:04):
the Angels and loosely the Clippers. Like, that's never going
to happen again.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
No.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I mean, Ridd, it's a once every 76 years. The
two No. 2 teams in the second biggest market have
the biggest stories right now. Almost the age of the
second story when you talk about Haley's Comet coming around. Yeah,
things we did not see for a hundred. When does
Halley's Comet come around again? I came around when we
(01:32):
were kids. So it's got to be, we got to
be like halfway to it at least, right? 76 years
for Halley's Comet. It came down like in the late 70s, right? 2061. Oh, 2061. Oh,
that's a long time. That's a long time.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Really?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I want to say. I'm not going to make 90.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
70?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
No, no, no, no, no, no, no way. No way.
Halley's Comet's every 76 years.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Last time it came was 86. Oh, was that late?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Some of you thought it was like in the 70s. No,
it was when the Mets won. It was celebrated. So
that's the next time the Mets are going to win.
That's probably right. I got to make it to 2061. See,
now forever those two will be fused in your brain.
Right there. That's also the year that the Mets will
finish paying Bobby Bonilla. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, today
I'm like, oh my God, we have, it's angels.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Clippers. By way of the Clippers. It's a crazy online
story that just keeps getting more and more attention. One
of those that you're looking for the headlines and you're like, wait,
it's not there. It's like, no, no, you got to
look a little harder and you will find it all.
This is never going to happen again.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Never.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I mean, when are we ever going to start a show?
Angels and Clippers. We should put a plaque on.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Oh, man.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
We should put a plaque over in that corner of
the wall right here. Things we never thought we'd see
on the same day. And forever, when we have two
really random stories that coalesce, we celebrate it. So the
big story, we have two takes on, well, look, the Angels.
The big story of the day is they were sold
to Stan Kroenke, who owns the Rams. He owns about
17 other teams. He buys the Angels today for $ 4 billion.
(03:07):
Artie Marino has been trying to sell the Angels off
and on for the better part of the last decade.
He was selling them. He wasn't selling them. I'm selling them.
Now they're off the market. What do you mean off
the market? It's like what websites do when they leave
something that's on clearance for a while, but nobody buys it.
They put it back at a regular price. Why would
you do that? No one's buying it on clearance. You
got to make it go down if you want to
sell it. But he finally agrees to sell the Angels today.
(03:29):
Stan Kroenke going to buy it for an MLB record.
$ 4 billion. I know that this is the rub and
this is, this is the thing. The angels have sold
for an MLB record.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
$ 4 billion.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Not the Mets, not the Yankees, not the Dodgers, not me,
not Hermione.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
You.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
The Angels have set a record. I'm going back in
time to when the Clippers were sold for $ 2 billion
and all of a sudden the NFL said, well, the
number two team in LA is worth $ 2 billion. We
have to get NFL teams to Los Angeles. It was
right after that happened, Steve Ballmer bought the Clippers. After
years and years of, if we don't get a new stadium,
(04:11):
we're going to move to Los Angeles. Nope, LA got
two teams. But you remember that time you and I
talking about it as it transpired and everybody thought $ 2
billion was just outrageous and ridiculous. And I think we
might have been the only contrarians in a marketplace going,
when do these properties come up in major marketplaces like this?
(04:31):
Distressed properties and the opportunity. You come over the top
and you build from there. So the big thing to realize,
like one of the big takeaways from this is that
About 10 days, we told you, Lakers being sold, right?
We've seen teams being sold across the board now. The
next five years, wait till you see how many professional
(04:54):
teams in the big three, and outside of it too,
but NFL, NBA, MLB, wait till you see how many
teams are sold.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Why?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Because this is a new time. Now with the government
getting involved in business, it changes every five minutes. Owning
a sports team is no longer for the old guard.
It's no longer for the old money. It's for the
new money who are up on the ever-changing rules and
regulations and how to make tons of money and how
(05:25):
I can come in and buy a team because I'm
worth $ 20 billion.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I'm not....
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Worth a billion, so I need three other guys to
come in with me to buy a team. Those days
are gone. Those used to be how teams were. Hey,
like with A-Rod and his investors buying the T-Wolves. Yeah, okay.
But that's how it used to be done. Now, people
are so rich. They're coming, yeah, I can buy this team,
and now... People are owning more than one team. They're
owning two, three, four teams until you get in trouble
(05:50):
and potentially investigate and you start selling the team. Well, yeah.
But this is just what you're going to see now.
If you think, wow, seeing the Lakers get sold. Lakers
have not been sold twice in the past year. The
number of teams that get sold in the next five
years are the three major sports. I'm going to say
a third of the teams in each of those leagues
wind up getting sold because the old guard that has
(06:12):
owned the team for a while and also... maybe not
quite in tune with running a team in 2026 and
what it takes to win and to stay relevant and
to keep people involved, how to stay at the top.
They knew one way to do things, right? People knew
one way. Even people that bought teams in 2010 are
looking to say, how do I move on from this? Now,
LaGuardia Marino bought the team. He's not a guy that's
(06:34):
owned the team since the 70s. You bought the team
just 25 years ago, and now things have changed so much,
I want to get out of this. I want to
get out and I want to move on. A third
of the teams, I think, in each league will wind
up getting sold the next year because the old owners
are going to say, now's the time to cash out.
I can make so much more money on my investment,
and I don't have to worry about the value going down.
(06:56):
I don't have to worry about staying... up with all
the business things how to how to navigate this new
business world because i'm in my 60s or 70s or
80s how i deal with staying competitive because now staying
competitive in 2026 is much different than it used to
be it's no longer my game i own the team
and my day has come and gone and now you're
going to see new money hedge fund people tech people
(07:18):
all kinds of stuff Big conglomerates, one man, one woman
franchises come in and say, yes, I'll buy this team,
but I'm going to get approved. I'm worth $ 25 billion.
I can buy a team for $ 5 billion. Oh, okay.
And the approval process will go quickly. Again, you'll see
a third of each of the leagues sold in the
next five years. Would not be surprised. There's a lot
of factors to it. Hopefully Kroenke tries to one-up the Padres'
(07:41):
ownership with the We Want to Win song. He's got
to come stronger than that. I mean, because if you're
going over the top for the four billion dollars, which
gets you no land, which is a whole other part
of this process. And you also had a recent edict
from Governor Newsom that they're called the Anaheim Angels. That's it.
(08:01):
Like there's no longer the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
It's back to your roots. But you don't get any
of the land around you because immediately you start thinking, well,
it's a good land deal. talking about $ 850 a square
foot in Anaheim. Can you tell who got his research
hat on and was trying to figure out what's the
(08:22):
proper valuation of the land around there near the House
of Mouses? But you look at all of those factors
that you laid out. Also look at what happened with
the Lakers when you talk about succession plans. You've got
some owners that we've known that their kids want nothing
to do with the business. It's like trying to hand
(08:42):
down a hardware store, a service shop, whatever. Like, nah,
I grew up in that. I don't want to do that.
Breaks the heart of mom and dad and the grandparents,
whoever started it. But it's the reality here. They like
the money. They like everything that goes with it. It's like,
I don't want to live that life. I don't want
to have to know that. And you see all the
ancillary stuff in terms of running a business. And the
(09:04):
Rams are a good example of it. The Dodgers have been. Again,
the Mark Walter stuff notwithstanding. But of all the secondary
parts of the business that you have to operate, it's
not just putting a team on a field and owning
the building. Now we're talking about all the sports science
and adding tens, if not hundreds of people to your
(09:26):
payroll to build out the businesses of keeping that machine going.
It's not the simple ways of rub some dirt on
it and get back out there. Give them the shot
like you're James Woods in any given Sunday. No, no,
there's a lot going on here. Matthew Modine wouldn't give
the shot, then I learned to give the shot. I
like the attention. It's just the new way, the new
(09:48):
big business tycoons, the big billionaires, multi-billionaires, this is how
it's going to go. These are who are going to
own teams now, and sports is ever evolving the old way.
That's just not happening anymore, and these guys are all
going to cash out. Time to go. I'm going to
make so much money. I bought the team for $ 300 million.
$ 182 million in 2013. Right, and now I'm turning it
(10:10):
into whatever billion. Now I can go buy a different
team if I want to. I can go put my
money into something else. I can go do this, right?
Now is the time to cash out. It's going to
be a race. for teams to put their money because
because the approval process will be easy yeah right because
it's not like well we got to wait well i'm
bringing in this money guy and bring it no i
got it what we no no i got it here
you go i can i can write you a check
(10:30):
right now you can have the five billion dollars it
what it's going to take till tuesday to clear tuesday
i can write it's not tied to any insurance policies
or any of those i'm going to put it on
my special credit card here it's a special credit card
it just says buy a team going through but i
you know last night we we had a big discussion
after talking to jason lock and four about your new
york football jets and i see that i hope has
(10:54):
really sprung into you today because that is a shiny
yeah talking about mike tomlin talking about you know lamar
jackson chaos or whatever enforcing the hand either for a
sale or just to operate properly of woody johnson In
the background of that, we'd mentioned the Angels because they
(11:15):
came up when we were having that discussion about USC.
That is now in day, what, five? All sorts of
coaches try to sideswipe the attendance from Saturday's game. But
the idea of you're still, even if a team is bad,
there's going to be a lot of times where you're
still printing cash and tickets are sold, right? The Angels
(11:35):
rank in the middle of attendance this year and have...
there or better every year yeah once upon a time
you had otani sometimes you have mike trout now but
you're near disneyland you're in southern california it's a tourist
like it's another check the box if i saw another
stadium so they draw over three million a year so
people will still go uh but i didn't think within
(11:58):
24 hours when we were talking about the forcing the
invisible hand on the coasts so that every big big
market team was competitive that arty moreno would be shown
the door yeah Oh, okay, I'll finally sign those papers.
It's like we put it into action. Yeah, thanks, thanks,
appreciate it. And now you're gone, right? And look, and
the other part of this, too, is that, as we
also mentioned last night, that, hey, with the whole Jets
(12:21):
story with Mike Tomlin, Jason Locke and Fora telling us that, hey,
there's a lot of people in the NFL talking about this.
I know Park Avenue is definitely up on Mike Tomlin
becoming the Jets head coach because... After seeing the way
that the leagues have gone the last years, they know
the top teams need to be relevant. The teams in
the biggest markets. We went through all the different teams
(12:43):
in New York and L.A. The last five years, the
huge changes that have come to everybody. And the last one...
that was kind of sitting out there has been the Jets, right?
Everybody else has gotten the new coaches, the players that
gotten funneled to them, whether it's Luca, whether it is
John Harbaugh, whatever it is, you, you have seen all
the teams in New York and LA all get funneled
(13:04):
towards being good. The Knicks winning the title, Jalen Brunson going,
wait a minute, there was collusion. There was Tampa. OK,
we've seen it all happen. The Jets were the only team. Hey,
we stink no matter what we can do. Now, maybe
the league is OK. We're going to help Woody Johnson
because a team that plays in New York can no
longer be bad. We can't just say, well, we got
great teams in Green Bay. We got great. No, it
doesn't matter anymore. You got to get those teams in
the big markets. Good. And really, you know, yes, it's
(13:27):
technically Anaheim, but it's still Los Angeles. Now, here come
the Angels. who are hopefully going to be bought into
some sort of relevancy, where money is going to be
spent smartly and not badly like Artie Marino spent it.
Maybe suddenly now, hey, the Angels are going to be
really good. So now we're really taking care of those teams,
the big market teams in New York and L.A. We're
(13:49):
getting the second teams in each of these markets to
make sure they're good they get raised up telling you
i'm not saying i know anything that each league is
is is in cahoots making sure that the teams from
new york and los angeles are good but i mean
you look at what each team uh in every one
of the major leagues has done in the last couple
of years and you see wow okay they're all they've
all been raised up they've all gotten better to some
(14:11):
extent and the last holdout was the jets but now
hey hey we'll get outside of la we'll help the
anaheim angel oh Oh, great. We're going to help the
angels out.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
All right.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Awesome. Yeah. 41 years later, a much different version of
the frozen envelope. But just two things really quick. One
that was circulating quite a bit about ownership, having a
baseball team and an NFL team in the same marketplace, whatever. Yeah,
that rule existed. a decade ago. It's been gone since 2018,
so you can forget about that. The fact that they're
(14:40):
also called Anaheim might also have something to do with it.
But here's the question I have to ask you, though. Yeah,
go ahead. How quickly does Kroenke get a deal done
with Anaheim at maybe a premium over that 850 square
foot for of real estate land to where some of
it reverts to his company as opposed to being owned
by the city pretty quickly i think what he's going
(15:01):
to do is the old uh from there will be
blood like at the end when daniel day lewis says
if i have a straw and it reaches all the
way over to your yard and into your milkshake i
drink your milkshake if i own property here and it
extends all All the way to Los Angeles. Then I
(15:22):
drink your milkshake. And he would win. Somewhere in the
system is a young Madeline Harmon doing that entire bit. Drainage, Eli. Drainage. Drainage, Eli.
I'm ready to sell to you. Eli, let me tell
you what happened, Eli. I'm going to take all these
parking lots and they're going to be beautiful. So we
got more on this story coming up in a bit. Again,
(15:43):
biggest story. The Angels are sold, right? But yeah, we
got some football stuff. And we absolutely have to talk
about what's been happening on social media. Kind of about
the Clippers, but not really. But boy, is it something.
It is aspirational. Okay. You mean like you might choke
(16:03):
on something? Oh, I was thinking you're aspiring.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
I'm thinking, okay.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
No, not asphyxiating. Well, you aspirate. You aspirate. Two different words.
That's coming up next right here. Jason Smith. Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Hey, it's Covino and Rich from Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
Now, in addition to hearing us live weekdays from 5
to 7 p.m. Eastern, 2 to 4 Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio, we're excited to announce a brand new YouTube
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Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yup, that's right.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
You can now watch Covino and Rich live on YouTube
every day. All you gotta do, search Covino and Rich
FSR on YouTube. Again, go to YouTube, search Covino and
Rich FSR. Check us out on YouTube, subscribe, hit that
thumbs up icon, and comment away.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon. Well-dressed hobo. Be sure to check out our
YouTube channel for the show. Just search Jason Smith Show
within YouTube. Again, that's Jason Smith Show. Hit the subscribe button.
Tap the thumbs up icon. Comment away whether you agree
or disagree. Let us know what you think. Again, just
search Jason Smith Show on YouTube and subscribe. So, again,
(17:40):
Sports Haley's Comet. The Angels, the biggest story.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Yay.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Right behind it, this developing craziness kind of involving the Clippers.
Kind of, but you'll see what I mean. So I'm
hanging out today. I'm at home, and all of a sudden,
Frostberg texts me, dude, Ralph Lawler. I go, oh my God, what?
Because Ralph Lawler, 88 years old, longtime Clippers announcer, right?
Retired a few years ago. What happened? He goes, no, no, no.
(18:07):
Go check out his social media. I go, okay. So
I go check out Ralph Lawler's social media. And oh me,
oh my, is there some stuff on it?
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
So I saw this. I said, okay, now the first
thing is I want to make sure this is Ralph Lawler.
Is this Ralph Lawler's official Twitter account? It says, retired
play-by-play announcer for the Clippers, 60 years in broadcasting. He's
been tweeting. It seems like it's his page. It seems
like it's him. I actually called Monsi, who's the biggest,
her and Ben Maller, the biggest Clipper fans. I said, Monsi,
is this Ralph Lawler's Twitter account? She goes, yeah, I'm
(18:38):
pretty sure it is. That's Ralph Lawler's Twitter account. Okay. Now,
whether this is Ralph Lawler or him getting hacked, however,
seeing the responses, I would think if Ralph Lawler was hacked,
we would have known this by now. Now, again, and
oh me, oh my on Twitter, which is kind of okay.
That's just cool. In the middle of a lot of
basketball posts, there was a post on social media today
(19:00):
that made a lot of ways, and I think this
is probably how it got found out. A woman, or
a post from a woman, said, And it's her in
a bathing suit, smiling for the camera. And Ralph Lawler,
the Ralph Lawler Twitter account, quote tweeted it and just said, oh, yes. Yes. OK. Also,
(19:25):
right before that, there was a post saying, hey, if
you could be honest, if you could only take one
of these women on a date, who are you picking?
And there's six really attractive women in a post. And
that is quote tweeted by Ralph Lawler three times. The
third woman in is who he would be picking to
take on a date. Now, he's since been talking back
(19:47):
with people going, Ralph, what are you doing? What's going on? here, man?
You're 88. He's like, what are you talking about? I
have grandchildren older than them and all this stuff. And
I'm going, oh, wow. This is wow.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Oh, man.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Again, it could be Ralph Lawler. It's Ralph Lawler. Is
he hacked? Okay. But when I saw this, my first thought,
you know, because my first thought wasn't Ralph Lawler. My
first thought was I'm sitting there going, okay, Ralph Lawler's 88, right?
And here he is. And he's tweeting. And nothing, you know, inappropriate.
Just a little weird. Yeah, a little weird.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Well, I mean, he's just responding. And if you decide
to take it weird, you certainly can go down that path.
And I started thinking, I'm.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Going, hmm.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Do I want to know or do I not want
to know what my dad's online profiles are like on
social media?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Fair.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Because he's on Facebook, so I see all his Facebook posts.
But do I want to see, what's my dad's late 70s?
And I want to think that everything he's searching is Yankees,
MLB Network, PGA Tour, who to pick in the MLB
streak that we do.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Oh, sure.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
But is that really what his- Might have something to
do with streaking. What his computer activity is like. That's
the first thought is, oh, Ralph Waller. What is my
dad doing? Like, that's really my thought was, what is
he doing? Like, if I went to his house and
I went through his social media activity or his search activity,
(21:18):
what would I find? Is that something a son should
find for his father? Well, eventually you might have to,
whether you want to or not. Yeah, I would say...
It's a dark path, right? I mean, the reality, and
you want to keep everything sunshine, rainbows, and lollipop, but
recognizing the humanity of it all. Because as I'm reading
(21:41):
back through it again, because this goes back over a week, actually,
where this started, right? To be clear, it began with
a thing with Sophie Cunningham, and he replied with a...
Stop with the Ralph is flirting nonsense. I like the
way Sophie shoots the three and I admire her outreach
and social media. I only flirt with my sweet Joe.
For a second while I was seeing all these pictures,
(22:03):
I'm going, does he think that woman is Sophie Cunningham?
It seemed like maybe, oh, there's a picture of Sophie.
I like a picture of Sophie Cunningham. But just the
oh me, oh my for what, you know, women, you know,
because we can have the women tattoos, no tattoos conversation. No,
I mean, it's a legit conversation for, you know, whatever
you like. Ralph Lawler, what is my oh me, oh my?
(22:25):
Let's put it that way. What does my being 88
have to do with anything happening online? And it just
goes all the way. And then there's a bunch of
things about the Clippers and he hasn't been around because
he doesn't like Clippers. Kawhi. There's a lot going on.
Should they fire this guy or fire that guy? And
it's quick responses. But yeah, this has been going on
a little while here. Yeah, it's some next level stuff.
(22:49):
I like it. And of course, the internet just makes
him a creep. He's just a guy. Stating a preference.
It's a little weird. It's just a little weird. Well,
you just didn't see it coming. It just made me
think about my family. What about them? maybe i gotta
find a way to go over my dad's apartment in
the next couple of days and just find a way
(23:10):
to hit his search bar on his computer go dad
what are you searching for dad dad i i want
to i want to show you something i found on
youtube yeah let me let me look dad let me
just see you know what don't you oh hey could
you grab me something out of the fridge that like
people do in the movies when it's like they want
to get on their computer and they you know they
stick in the uh uh the the the drive the
thumb drive i'm pulling out i gotta I got the
thumb drive now. I got the thumb drive. Come on,
(23:31):
come on. Copy, copy, copy. Go. I need eight more
seconds to get it all. And of course, it goes,
you know, filling up. 77%, 78, 85, 93. 100%. Let's
pull the thumb drive out. I got it. I got
all my dad searching for it. But now you got
me thinking. I'd be like, horse racing, conspiracy theories and
news stuff, whatever nonsense you and I were yelling about. Yeah.
(23:54):
And then my mom, computer games and deals.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
All right.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
All right. Where to find a deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because everything's got to be on sale.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Even if it's really not. Oh, yeah, no. But if
they can convince you that it's a deal. They can
make up any price. Normally $ 78. Now $ 34. Oh, well,
it's $ 45 off. I got to go buy it. Got
to have it.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
I got to buy it. I got to buy two. No,
not really. But, you know. Because I know my dad,
like a lot of his searches would be Yankees. PGA tour, uh,
online crossword puzzles. My dad's a huge crossword guy. You know,
he passed that down to me, uh, all this stuff,
but I'm just going to, well, what's everything, you know,
is he, is he, is he rating people? Like, is he,
(24:35):
is he doing this? Is he, is he rating people online?
But this also got people to start looking up the
word goon.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Oh, It's not just a hockey enforcer anymore. It's tough. Dad,
what are you doing? You raided somebody. You said number six. Yes,
which of these Yankees is the greatest of all time?
One through six. Oh, so you picked Mickey Mantle. Okay,
got it. Got it, Dad. You're all good, Dad. I'm leaving.
It's all good. It's all good, Dad. I'm going. I'm going.
He'd just put a halo on St. Walt right there.
(25:05):
He'd be searching, Red Sox announcer Will Fleming, right? Like
all the things like that. He'd be very, very upset.
How many message boards did he get involved with with that?
How many times did he start flaming the Red Sox announcers?
I can't wait. Red Sox fans? No, no, no. I
can't do that. You don't want to go down and
open that door. I can't do that. I can't. Now, so, okay,
(25:26):
so hopefully, you know, this Ralph Law, again, it's a
little weird, but, you know, hey, okay. It's all good. Well,
good for Ralph. Yeah, it makes me, you know, think about,
you know, okay. Well, what are you going to be
doing when you're 79? What do people do? I don't know, man.
Probably soon. Why do the Mets still stink? Now, you
won't actually have to type anything at that point. It's
(25:46):
going to be all just voice actualized. No, again, I
know it'll be. It'll be, who did the Jets let
go in their final round of cuts? Who did they
pick up that I think is going to be any good?
Here's year 76 of being fruitless because they stink. That's
what's going on. Whatever happened to... yeah insert dot insert
(26:07):
name dot dot dot uh meanwhile speaking of baseball okay
one of the one of the biggest stories tonight the
absolute pounding that paul skeens took uh on the mound
again for the pirates right now one of the most
entertaining games uh the pirates win in a walk-off 13
12 uh but skeens a rough day he goes just
(26:28):
over four innings he gives up Eight runs as ERA
is up at four right now. And what is wrong
with Paul Skeens? What is wrong with Paul Skeens, right?
His line tonight, four and two-thirds, eight hits, five runs,
three walks. Again, ERA is 3.97. 95 pitches, 56 for strikes. Yeah,
a reminder that they played the Giants. Yeah, that's the thing. Well,
(26:48):
they played the Yankees. No, no, no. They played the Phillies. No,
they played the Giants. Ooh. The good news is, is that...
This is not something, because everybody is all doom and
gloom in the fall off for Paul Skeens this year.
I've never seen a fall off so bad. This guy
was the rock star in Major League Baseball. Him and
Livvy Dunn, and every five days was an event for him.
(27:10):
But this year, he's been bad. It's been a bad year.
I know how to solve this, and it's going to
be easy. It's just going to take until next April.
You're taking Livvy Dunn out of the equation. Hey, listen,
you're ruining the team. Hey, take off that shirt before
you break up the band, you psycho. What's going on
(27:33):
with Paul Skeens? He's shown you enough over the course
of his first two years. You know how great he is.
This is not a guy that had a meteoric eight-start
run one year, but then a bunch of years come
back and he's come back down to earth. Two full years,
he has been the best pitcher in baseball. His stuff
is electric. He's that good. What's happened to him this year?
And generally pitchers like that who are that good, when
(27:55):
they have a down year, there's a reason. And it's
always one of the following. It's always physical. They're injured.
They're dinged up. And they just can't throw like they
used to. It's mechanics. and their mechanics are off a
little bit. Jacob deGrom was famous for that. If he
had a start where he gave up three runs in
six innings, which is like the worst he ever had,
he would go back and say, my mechanics were off.
I went back and looked at the film, this, this.
(28:17):
He was so particular about his mechanics, he would never
let it go off more than a game or two.
Or it's something, like I said, or something physical. And
a lot has been made the fact that since he's
come into the major leagues now, he's put on 25
pounds at least. So this is for Paul Skeens. Yes,
it's one or all of those things. It's putting on weight.
(28:38):
It's it's your mechanics are off a little bit. It's physical.
It's a tired arm. This is nothing that an offseason
away from baseball isn't going to fix where you get
back into workout mode. You get back into focus mode.
You rest your arm. You take a look and see
what you're doing, why your mechanics falling off. Whatever that is,
this will absolutely be fixed from the beginning of next year. Now,
(29:00):
the bad news is they want to fight for a
wild card over the course of the last month, and
Skeens is killing them every time he goes out there.
I said three weeks ago, hey, Skeens, give him some
time off. Let him rest that arm. They rest him
an extra three days. He came back. He had a
pretty good outing. Okay, now you see he's still not
throwing like he used to. But this is not the
doom and gloom, and this is the death of Paul
Skeens is a great pitcher, and now he's done. No,
this is simply he's a great pitcher. Things have happened
(29:24):
physically to him this year that he just has to
straighten out in the offseason. Sometimes that's what you need,
and there's nothing you can rush on it. It's just
a way to get away from the day-to-day and refocus
on getting yourself back to where you are. By the
time we get to next spring, they'll manage his workload better.
He'll be throwing 98, 100 miles an hour like he
(29:45):
used to. Everything's going to be fine. The bad news
is the rest of this year, yeah, every fifth day
you might get what's wrong with Paul Skeens. But you
think Paul Skeens is terrible? No, no, no. This is
by the beginning of next year, he'll be back to
being Paul walk to strikeout ratio uh k to walk
still 4.3 still pretty good careers 4.9 so a dip
from last year as it is with everything he's been
(30:06):
more hittable staying in the zone Might be one of
those guys that we wonder about where the margins were
in terms of pitches that he got last year versus
this year, where he's got to stay a little more
on the plate. And he's been more hittable for that.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
And hasn't adapted there as well over the course of
the season. The putting on the extra pounds. This might
be the first time that we've ever had an athlete
have the more of the dad bod that he didn't
get chided for because he was in frame with Livvy Dunn.
Like normally guys put on a couple of pounds like, ah,
you know, it's the girlfriend, it's the wife, and it
(30:45):
becomes the derision. Like, no, I mean, if he thought
that it was going to help in terms of his
push and whatever he's doing, cool. Maybe it backfired. All
of those things could be pitching hurt. to the point
you made off the jump. They've got a team that's
still competing. Would he have been shut down if they
were three games worse?
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Maybe.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
But it's a conversation worth having because you're looking at
the long-term effects, too, because you've got this valuable pitching prospect.
We've seen this go south for so many guys in
the past. DeGrom ended up having a couple of lost
years before now he's back on his hall of fame
(31:28):
path right i mean we watch him every fifth day
and like him and pca every day uh you grimace
a little when we've got to read the stat line
aloud but some guys don't find their way back and
but more often than not we we do those elite
guys have a down year and come back once upon
a time that was not the case because they didn't
get the grace and didn't get to clear the mechanism
(31:51):
and all of that stuff uh and it just spiraled
down from there Because you're also looking at the long-term
effect also for the Pirates, very much in their purview
to sit down with him, his team, and figure out
what the hell's going wrong. Because eventually, either they have
to pay him, or they want to get some kind
of big return for him. Because that's been the promise
(32:12):
that's been there the last two-plus years, which suddenly is
dwindling by the start. Yeah, he'll be fine. It just
isn't going to be in the next month. That's Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m.
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon. Well-dressed hobo. You miss any of today's show,
be sure to catch the podcast. Just search Jason Smith
and Mike Harmon wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the podcast,
rated five stars, provide a review again. Just search Jason
Smith and Mike Harmon wherever you get your podcasts, and
you'll find today's full show and a best-of version posted
(32:54):
right after we get off the air.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
So we got John Polmarosi stopping by in about a
half hour. All the big news from baseball today. More
on the Angel sale and Paul Skeens, but The Angels
being sold today, you've seen one message all the way through.
What a great day for Angels fans. Artie Marino selling
the team, and now they have a chance. Mike Trout
even put out a statement saying, hey, it's a fresh
(33:16):
start for us. It's the strongest thing he's ever said.
All of a sudden, Mike Trout is saying, wow, you
know the Angels had to be sold if Mike Trout
is saying, hey, we needed this. Whoa, thank you for
saying something other than what the weather is like in Philadelphia. Whoa,
look at Mike Trout. I've got to say, I'm quite
disappointed in him. Why is that? That this was what
it took for him to finally open his mouth?
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Well.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
It's like five years ago, you had clout. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Right?
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Obviously, we had the burgeoning records and craziness going on
with Shohei Ohtani. But Mike Trout was the guy.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Long ago, you could have opened your mouth and maybe
affected some sort of change. Not that you were going
to get him sold. I don't know that a star
can get a guy to sell a team. No, no,
I'm not saying to get, but to actually do something
with said team. Well, you have to be on the field,
and you have to be someone who year in and
year out is a superstar. That's why I said five
years ago, maybe seven. You go back and look, I
(34:11):
think he had trouble that time too, staying on the field.
Either way, I'm just trying to say, in the Wayback Machine,
when he was that guy. But look, obviously, yes, it's
a great day for the Angels in that Artie Marino,
they won the World Series in 2002, and they've not
been able to make the right decisions, whether it's the
right manager, whether it's the right players. They gave contracts
(34:33):
to all the wrong players, developing players, any sort of winning.
They've been a AAA team for the past few years, right?
So it's time that, hey, somebody new is coming in,
and maybe they will spend better. Maybe Stan Kroenke will
be able to get the right people in place. All
of these things could happen, because clearly most of his
teams do pretty well. So, okay, great day. Great day, right?
(34:53):
Great day, great day. Congratulations, Mike Trout. But it's also
a disaster. It's a disaster. It's a disaster because as
someone who goes to Angels games, that loves the experience
of Angels games. Yeah, you get that sandwich in.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
No time flat.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
That's going to be gone now, man. Like, okay, driving
to an Angels game, you can pull up and park
right outside of whatever gate you want to walk into.
It's $ 20. Okay. Remember Bill Plasky when he joined us
that time and he was laughing? He goes, look, I
can see my car. Parking's going to be $ 150 a
game now.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Easy.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
And you're not going to be able to park in
the stadium. You're going to have to park in some
ancillary lot. Like, that's not going to happen. All the
different food trucks that are out there. Now, wait until
you see how much that's going to be. I bet
you there's going to be a– they bring you food
to your seat in Angel Stadium.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
They do.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
It's clean. It's a wonderful place. You order right off
a QR code and they bring you the food. It's
there in five minutes. Watch there be like, oh, there's
going to be a tax now on bringing this food
to you at your table. Like all of the things
that I love about Angels games, that's going to go
by the wayside now because now he's going to spend
money on players and it's going to be the thing.
(35:55):
And the one thing Artie Marino did was, hey, it's
a fun fan experience. The ballpark is great. There's fireworks
every night. Is there still going to be fireworks every night?
We're going to save money. We're not going to have fireworks.
Like it's a great experience now. And I think now
all the stuff that I love about going to see
the Angels– No, that's all that's going to change, man.
It's weird. The last two weeks, I've been getting pretty
much daily, are you sure you don't want to bring
(36:17):
a group to an angel game email from their marketing folks?
Because they've had some great promotions. They had that SpongeBob
jersey day. They just had that Joe Adele jersey giveaway.
A little late, but okay. But, I mean, they still
did it. Wait, wait, wait. On September 16th, you had
the Adele home run robbery bobblehead. But that was actually
(36:38):
the singer Adele. They changed that. There's an Angels and
Ducks blanket night. I mean, come on. The Angels now,
the Angels are gone. This is where they are. The
Angels went from being the local independent amusement park. That
wasn't really affiliated anything. Prices were low. You didn't quite
get all the stuff you would get at a Six
(37:00):
Flags park or one of the big parks or Disneyland
or Disney World. But it was fun. You would go
and it would be easy, right? The lines wouldn't be
too long. The convenience of going, right? You would go
and it would still be a water ride. Get in
and out of the roller coaster. Parking lot. You're not
in a line ride necessarily there yet. You know, you're
going to see the Angels. You're not going to see
the Dodgers. You're going to an independent park. Amusement park,
(37:22):
not one of the big ones, but you still were
going to have a pretty good experience, and it wasn't
going to be a lot of money. Now it's like, oh,
Six Flags, we're bulldozing this and building a whole new park,
and now it's going to be $ 175 a ticket to
get in. I fear that's what's going to happen to
the Angels now, man. It's going to take a while.
though you got to build infrastructure you got to have
the full change of the plan put into motion because
that's the one thing with Stan Kroenke and the squad
(37:43):
right we talked about that it's all about the infrastructure
and building from the ground up you can buy players
it's everything else they had a niche and not a
lot of fans you don't have to worry you can
spread out at the stadium great concessions you had your
own section to go shag fly balls that's going to
be a disaster now from one disaster to another that's
what's going to happen there'll be no more Rendons though
(38:04):
well that's true Exit out about a fresca. Exit swollen dome.
Coming up next, we get into a huge story out
of the NFL today. Jason and Mike, Fox Sports Radio.
Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with my best friend,
Mike Harmon.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Well-dressed hobo.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
A huge day in Major League Baseball. The Angels are
sold to Stan Kroenke. What is going on with Paul Skeens?
Joining us now on the hotline. Nobody better to break
it down. Give him some time away from his lion
season preview. Then MLB network insider extraordinaire. Check him out
on Twitter at John Marossi. It is the Pope, John
(38:45):
Paul Marossi. What's happening, man? Happy Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Happy Tuesday to both of you. I believe the lions
will have a 10 win regular season. And then a
couple of wins after that. Is that a standard expectation
for the lion this year?
Speaker 1 (39:02):
But that's never been the standard expectation for the Lions
over the most of the last 50 years.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Right. But the standard representation on this show would be
a 24-17 win basically every week.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Or 27. You pick them winning by 24 or 27 points.
Those are the options. Those are the good numbers.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
To have on the grid, though. 27 to 23. It's
always in that range. I don't know. The game hasn't
changed that much. I mean, it's changed since I used
to really know the players in the sport. That was
back when I was like in middle school. But it
(39:42):
hasn't changed that much. I will say this. The Super
Bowl matchup that would give me the greatest joy would
be Lions-Bills, which I know is also a matchup that
will happen 16 days from now. That will be a
good one on a Thursday evening. But I do digress.
Ten-win season for the Lions, plenty of skill, like the
(40:04):
overall defensive look from what I've been able to pick
from my colleagues in the media here in Detroit. So
I'm feeling pretty good about that.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
All right, how do you feel about the Angels? Sold
for $ 4 billion, Stan Kroenke, many Angel fans excited, a
new era. Mike Trout. We haven't heard from Mike Trout
in years, John Paul. Today he says, hey, this was needed.
It's a fresh start. It's like, Mike Trout, where you been?
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Well, Mike Trout has actually become increasingly candid in his comments.
I would say Jason... You just probably haven't had any
reasons to listen, if we're being totally honest, in terms
of the way the Angels have played in recent years.
And Mike is very comfortable there in Anaheim, which is
(40:48):
why he's never really seriously considered waving that no-trade clause,
at least as far as I can tell. And now
for him, it is a new chapter, a new lease,
if you will. And certainly still plenty of conversation about
what the ballpark situation looks like long term. But I
do think we can say, after you missed capitalizing on
(41:13):
the prime of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, And the
team was for sale several years ago, and then it wasn't.
And obviously, very quickly, at least to the public's knowledge,
it happened right now. And certainly, I'm sure we'll get
into what it means for the Cronky sports empire. And certainly,
(41:35):
there will be some ramifications, I'm sure, on the television
front and local streaming front. I'm seeing that landscape change.
But the problem is here, guys. It is still at
least adjacent to the second largest market in our country.
(41:56):
You've got the Olympic games coming to California in a
couple of years. There's just a lot of, as both
of you know, and it's a play for Cronky to
buy a table in May. Everything else. And Moreno clearly.
He had taken this thing about as far as he
(42:16):
could go. He got the team to a lot of
successful years there in the aughts, less so ever since then.
And at least from that perspective, the Angels have a
new chapter to embrace.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
So as we look at the baseball world as a whole,
we're starting to get into our wild card chases and everything, JP.
But another night, another miserable outing for Paul Skeens. We
went up and threw a lot of darts at the
board as to try to figure out a cause. Anybody
give you any insights as to what they're seeing with him?
Speaker 3 (42:49):
Mechanics not good. Velocity obviously is not what it's been.
And I think that we all have to acknowledge that
he's just not in sync. He's not himself right now. Now,
is it enough for him to be on the injured list?
I mean, that's obviously a matter for him and for
the organization there. But there's also no question that in
(43:09):
the big picture here, he's one of the faces of
the game. And also, let's not forget the other dynamic here.
Of course, we're entering this potential– new labor agreement, however
things play out this wintertime, schemes on some level, any
time that you're on the IL for any reason, it's
(43:33):
a mark in the book that ends up being brought
out whenever you become a free agent. And I'm sure...
To some extent, the Scooble situation will get mentioned about
having the bone chips removed this year and what that
does to his value. I suspect probably not a ton
because he's performing well. The reality is Skeens is not
performing right now. And it does seem to me to
(43:56):
be pretty apparent that whether it's technically an injury or
just mechanically not sound, he doesn't look like himself. And
that's a concern not only for the Pirates, but for
the game and also for Paul's long-term, depending on when
there's ever going to be a conversation about a long-term
(44:17):
extension in Pittsburgh, which sure seems unlikely, at least in
this moment, but you never know what the next CBA
could look like. So perhaps in that universe, an extension
becomes more realistic, and in that light, this really is
not the type of impression you want to be leaving
right before you have that conversation with the Pirates.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
MLB Network insider John Palmarosi, our guest, Jason Smith, Mike
Harmon live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. Okay, so
from Paul Skeens to Aaron Judge. We're getting good reports
out of New York that Aaron Judge looks like he's
on his way back, maybe in the next few days.
Does that jibe with what you're hearing about Judge's return
to the Yankees?
Speaker 3 (44:57):
Likely within the next week. And the very good news
for the Yankees is that he is on the road
trip with them to Anaheim. So obviously a lot of
news happening in Anaheim. It does appear that things are
on track for Georgia to be back that quickly. Of course,
they had a very impressive end of their series against
the Red Sox on Sunday, of course. And it does
(45:18):
look to me like the lineup of the Yankees, while
they may not necessarily catch the Rays in the East,
they're starting to show some signs of life. In fact,
they're probably not going to catch the Rays. They're still
four and a half games back there as play began today.
But you look at how important the collective group is.
(45:38):
And they've gotten to this point with Schlittler being awesome,
with Freed. Obviously, they've had a really strong performance from
Ben Rice. It's been a little bit of a different
cast today. than what they've had before. And Caballero, what
he brings to the team is, I think, a different
element This, to me, as much as there is still
(46:00):
some active concern about the catching position, they've gotten, I think,
about what they expected from Luis Garcia Jr., not so
much Elliott Ramos, although he finally was able to break
through and get his home run. We'll see what Spencer
Jones can bring. There's just a little bit more dynamism
to this team than there was a year ago when
(46:21):
the playoffs rolled around and you put Judge right back
into it. Again, I would expect, based on what we're hearing,
likely within a week or so, gives him plenty of
time to get his legs under him for the playoffs.
And I think the overall net effect is the Yankees
could be as much of a favorite as anybody else
(46:41):
in the American League by the time the postseason gets underway.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Flipping over to the National League, Shohei Otani was scheduled
to pitch yesterday, scratched the knee and bicep, not feeling
right after a bullpen session. How much longer do they
play this game here, JP?
Speaker 3 (46:58):
Well, so this is the interesting part, and obviously we've
got to remember about the Otani rule that you're basically,
if you're going to put them in the lineups, as
the starting pitcher, if you will, or as a pitcher.
He has to start because that's what allows him to
be able to be the DH. And so while we
might love this notion of, oh, maybe he can come
(47:19):
in and at least pitch an inning during the course
of the playoff, as a closer type, I think that's
asking a lot. And given the way that the knee
has not responded– It seems like, and this is my interpretation,
one man's opinion, that there's an awful lot of accommodating
(47:42):
happening and people being held up in the air about
what's going on with their own schedule and when they're
going to pitch. Last night, I wasn't sure what his
routine was. I get it. He's the best player ever.
And so you make accommodations for the best player ever.
But I do think you're getting to the point where
there has to be some type of toll on the
(48:03):
rest of the group about everyone's schedule. And I think
that just backing off and saying, listen, it's not going
to happen right now. The knee is not going to
comply at the moment. Let's just focus on the offensive side.
Because let's be honest, the team overall– they were able
to win that series over the weekend against Detroit, but they,
they're not really this unstoppable force that we've seen in
(48:26):
the past. Now they did get Will Smith back today.
It's very good news for them that they certainly have
missed him for a long time. And maybe the catching
position will help alleviate what's been an up and down lineup.
But I think to me, guys, they've got to focus on,
on that core of, of what their lineup is looking
like and, and finding a way to get Otani back
to being a threat on the basis. I, I'm of
(48:48):
the mind that, that it is P Crow Armstrong's award
to lose here, that he is the front right now.
And the numbers to me are, are fairly strongly in
Pete's favor. But if Otani is going to either make
a late push in the MVP or just be more
of the game changing player that we've seen him be
for most of his career, that he's going to have
(49:10):
to get back to being himself on the base a
little bit more. And I realize he injured himself last
year during the playoffs, during the World Series, He's back
running the bases, but that to me is something that's
got to be back into his game if the Dodgers
are going to threaten teams in different ways during the
course of October.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
John Paul, we've said this a few times. We've talked
about this on the show. At some point, because he
still wants to pitch, obviously, I remember talking about this
with you, our big preview interview when I said he's
going to win the Cy Young this year because it
seems like he's focused on pitching more than anything. He
started out great. Then, obviously, he got hurt. At some point,
if he wants to pitch, isn't the happy medium that
(49:49):
he becomes a closer? I mean, wouldn't that allow him
to do everything else and then he could still pitch?
You can figure out the positions at the end of games.
You lose the DH spot, but you're just going to
pinch it for the pitcher the next time up anyway.
That's something that's manageable for the Dodgers, and maybe this
is something more manageable for him health-wise that instead of
trying to pitch 130 innings a year, he pitches 60
(50:10):
innings a year and he closes.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
Right. It's certainly conceivable. I will say this, the Dodger bullpen,
and when they were in Detroit last weekend, I was
talking to people there. I mean, you're right. I think theoretically,
I agree with you. Obviously, if he blows the save
and then has to stay in there, that makes things
a little more interesting. But I think when you look
(50:33):
at the way that things have gone to this point,
in the near term, for the 2026 Dodgers, Their bullpen
is better now than it was last year when they
won the World Series. It's deeper. They've got different options.
Evan Phillips coming back has changed things. It's a much
different version of Tanner Scott. So there's a lot to
(50:53):
like about this particular group to where having Otani close
is probably not a pressing need right now. But I
do agree with you in general that The back and
forth about when he can pitch and how many days
of rest he needs, it's a lot. And I would
also say this. Let's say he does come back and
(51:15):
is able to pitch. Well, is he able to go back-to-back?
And can he go more than three outs? It would
seem probably unlikely. He is very routine-oriented. and that's what
makes me wonder the variability of being a closer might
in some way free him up mentally, and you play
it almost a different style, and you're not really sure
(51:36):
what's going to happen in a given game. But everything
we have seen, guys, with the way that Otani has played,
for very good reasons, has been incredibly scripted down to
the moment. And I just wonder if there might be
a little bit of, reticence in inviting that level of
variability to someone who is very, for very good reasons,
(52:01):
structured in his ways.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
So we got two guys named Pete that vex my
good friend Jason Smith here. You already mentioned Armstrong, so
let's go the other way. Eight and two in their
last ten. Can Pete Alonso drive these Orioles into the playoffs?
Speaker 3 (52:15):
Man, tell you what, and not only Pete Alonzo, but
also the former Met icon Luis Robert Jr. now joining
the parade.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
Hey, not every ex-Met the Orioles sign is going to
be really good. I just want to warn everybody about
that right now.
Speaker 3 (52:33):
Start building the statue next to Boog's Barbecue right now
of Luis Robert Jr. and Pete Alonzo while we're at it.
But in all seriousness, You think about their rotation. Rogers
has been pretty good. I think all things considered this year.
I think that they seem to finally be getting into
(52:55):
a rhythm. Remember, it's a first year manager doing this
and Alonzo was there. There was all the disappointment early on,
but you got to credit Mike Elias for hanging in there.
And I, I like their chances, maybe not necessarily to
win that spot. The Guardians got a huge win today
over the Blue Jays, which I think gives them a
(53:16):
little bit of breathing room. I would give the slight
advantage to Cleveland, but Baltimore is right in there. And Jason,
my goodness, if Alonzo is there and finds some October
magic again after the home run against Milwaukee a couple
years back, You can just call me.
Speaker 1 (53:35):
You can call me.
Speaker 3 (53:36):
We'll commiserate on the air, and we'll talk about how
the Lions should have won the Super Bowl a couple
years ago. There'll be some commiserating, but I'm here for
you because that's what friends do. So you call me anytime,
especially when you've got the noted White Sox fan sitting
beside you. Actually, I'm now talking myself into it. Am
I now really rooting for a White Sox-Orioles playoff series
(53:57):
just to see how– How that all goes over the,
over the table with you guys doing the show together.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
As long as it comes better than 1983, the revenge
of 83 and Lamar Hoyt. Sure.
Speaker 3 (54:07):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
I do bits with a member of the Ripken family.
That's not good.
Speaker 3 (54:11):
Those old school white socks uniforms. Those were, those were sweet.
Those were pretty good back in the day. We've got to,
got to bring those back. A lot of nostalgia. And
by the way, this would only be, I'm counting here
the fourth time. that both Chicago teams qualify for the
playoffs in the same year. Doesn't seem possible, but it is.
(54:31):
The fourth time ever, ever. And I'm sure that'll be
one of the many topics we get into here in
the weeks to come.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
He's on X at John Marossi. That is at John Marossi,
John Paul Marossi, the Pope.
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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