Best of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon

Jason Smith and Mike Harmon explained how rough a week it’s been for science. Jason threw a crazy bold prediction for one NFL QB. And the guys debated if the Rams leaving Aaron Donald at home, was the right call. The guys welcomed in longtime MLB Insider Jon Paul Moroi. The guys chatted about Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. Plus, all the latest from around the diamond and Todd Fuhrman for all the Vegas Odds!

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Episode Transcript

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,
7 to 11 p.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find
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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 (00:29):
Greetings. Welcome inside. Happy Tuesday. The Jason Smith Show with
my best friend, Mike Harmon. 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, then tap the thumbs up icon. Comment away
whether you agree or disagree. Let us know what you think. Again,

(00:50):
just search Jason Smith Show on YouTube and subscribe. Well,
here we are, officially, NFL Eve. Yay! We have made it.
We are on the cusp. We are less than 24
hours away of breaking down the first NFL game of
the season. And because... We have an overseas game. We

(01:11):
have a game on Wednesday. We have a game on Thursday.
Pretty soon. Hey, the opening week is going to be Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
We can take it every single day.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
But here's the problem for Roger Goodell. Congratulations on that
contract extension. And the NFL is that you.
You got to make sure that this really doesn't work
out well for the Rams, because you know what? You'd
like for your NFL teams to show up more than
eight hours before a game to maybe promote your product,
shake hands, kiss babies, especially when you're going to go

(01:44):
all the way across the globe.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Well, I think that's going to be something where Roger
Goodell said, you know what? Oversight? Not happening again. From
now on, we're playing overseas. You're going to be required
to be there for this day to push that. Oversight? Oh,
it's okay. We'll take care of it, make it official,
the next CBA, whatever we want to do. That's what
we're going to do. That's how it's going to be.
I mean, unless they had a bunch of official forms
they filled out. with problems of all the things that

(02:09):
might try to kill them in Australia. So they wanted
to spend as little time as possible. There's no shortage
of things that can kill you there. The spiders, the animals.
I think just flying in from the airport, like Rodan
can come in and just grab the plane and just
kind of take it places. Wow, that just went next
level right there. Yeah, that's what Godzilla fought right there.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
All of the, like, you're going to start listing off
spiders and snakes and sharks.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Nope. Went straight to Roday. Now, because we are here,
we got big news on the Rams 49ers game coming
up in a second. Let me just say this because
we got to get this out of the way. This
week is going to be a bad week for science.
For science. Yeah, it's going to be a bad week
for science. And I don't mean like a bad in
discovering things. I don't mean like that, like we're not
going to discover things or figuring out cures for things.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
No, I thought you were just kicking everybody out the
labs and giving them a couple of days off.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
No, this is going to be a bad week for science, right?
Because you know, and specifically the sport of sleep science. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because surrounding this game in Australia- The 49ers have been
in Australia since early June to acclimate and be ready
for the game, right? They got there last week, right?

Speaker 3 (03:17):
They were also trying to get away from the substation.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
Right.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Well, that's true.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
So a few extra days might get whatever is leeching
into their systems out.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, but they got there a week ago. They want
to acclimate. They want to make sure they're ready to go.
We're ready for the game.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
The Rams are taking the exact opposite where they're going to,
I think, actually fly in and they're going to land
an hour before the game and they're going to go
play and they're going to get on the plane right after.
They are going to spend less than 72 hours in
Australia overall. They're waiting until the last possible second to
leave tomorrow to go play this game on Thursday. This

(03:59):
is why this is going to be a bad week
for science. Because you know the 49ers. They went to
all the experts possible, right? Everybody, Silicon Valley, Bay Area, whatever. Hey,
what's the best thing to do? What's the best way?
You know they had people both sides of the aisle saying, hey,
do this, do this, do this. And whatever experts they
talked to told them, No, you need to get there

(04:21):
a week early. You need to acclimate. You need to
get your sleep patterns on, and you need to get
used to everything. Now, I know you worry about jet
lag and being there a long time, and it's going
to catch up with your body, but the benefits of
getting there a week early far outweigh getting there later, right?
Because you know all teams do that. What do we do?
They made a big deal. This is a big deal.
First game of the season. We have to play here.

(04:41):
What do we do? You know, the Rams did the
exact same thing. They talked to the experts and said, okay,
what do we do? And whatever sleep science experts they
had told them, you know what, I know getting there
and acclimating is probably, but the best thing to do
is to treat it like a, you get there, you
get in, you play, you get out. So you fly
the day before and you stay as little as possible

(05:01):
and you fly back. So it's going to be a
bad day for science because these two teams went and asked,
what should we do? And they got two complete and
total opposite answers that you could possibly get on this topic.
Once I know you actually go and you stay, you stay,
get there as soon as possible.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
One.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Nope. You wait until the last minute and get there. OK, great.
Because someone's going to be right and someone's going to
be wrong and we're not going to know anything. Well,
and that's the worst of it. We got to know stuff. Like,
science should be... I get that science is a way of, hey,
it's trial and error, and you keep going until you
figure something out, right? This is how all cures for
things are figured out and solutions, right? But this is,
we're not going to find out anything. Because if the

(05:40):
Niners win, people are going to say, well... It was
their way to do it. Or the Rams didn't care.
If the Rams win, it's going to be, well, the
Rams are the right way. But do we really know
that's the right way? You needed both teams to go
on the same way. Okay, who's it going to work?
So we're not going to know anything because in the end,
one team's going to be right, one team's going to
be wrong, and we're not going to know what this had.

(06:01):
So science is going to have a bad week this
week because you want to be proven right at some point. Hey,
we're on the right track. We're finding here. How many
times do you see in the movie when they say,
I need years, I need years. Oh, you don't have years.
You've got to find the cure for this radioactive spider
in the next 10 minutes. Oh, I can't have it.
What if I give you $ 15 billion? All right, I'll
do what I can. So science is going to have
a bad week, man. Bad week.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
You can do it just on the micro of your family.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
You've traveled abroad. Did all three of you respond the
same way?

Speaker 4 (06:29):
No.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
No, right? Well, when we went to the UK two
years ago, we decided, hey, what should we do? Because
we're flying overnight and we're landing. What do we do? Well,
let's hit the ground running and let's go do the
day and then we'll be tired and we'll go to
sleep early. We'll get on the clock right away.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Awesome. We land. We land at Heathrow. Now, we have
to stay at Heathrow for like an hour because there
was a bomb threat of some kind.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
Oh, there you go.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
And we were waiting to get off the plane, waiting, waiting.
But anyway, so we land at like 8.30, 9 o'clock. Yeah, yeah,
we're feeling good, feeling good, feeling good. By noon, we
were all done. We were all done. I have pictures
of all of us because then I fell asleep. We're
all sitting on a bus going out to the Warner
Brothers lot where they shot all the Harry Potter movies, right?
We're going out there to go see everything. And we're

(07:15):
on the bus, and we all just collapse. And I go, well,
I guess getting up and raring to go, that was
the wrong thing to do. We should have got in
and gone to take naps and then come out and
be ready to raring to go in the afternoon at
some time.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
But that's just it, right? I'm really good at sleeping
on planes. You give me a much longer flight, it's
the longest night of sleep I'm ever going to get.
It's like a week.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Condensed into a night. So I'm ready to go. Rest
of the family, not necessarily as much. Likewise, I got
to imagine.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
I'd love to see the Subruder film from these flights
going overseas. How many guys can't get comfortable and fall
asleep and are tossing and turning and whatever? I mean,
they've got the best of amenities and all of those things,
but you have no idea how you're going to respond
in a day. But it's great. It's great theoretical work

(08:03):
that we'll get to see. Rip apart, however it goes.
You don't need to be there a week. Either way,
I do believe the NFL biffed it by not having
the Rams.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Forced to go. Like I said, I think Roger, okay,
you know what? Oversight. This way, okay, oversight. And we're
going to fix that for next time. But, I mean, look,
if I have to err on the side of one
of these, I would say, well, you probably want to
meet in the middle, right? I feel like I should
have a hot take on this. But I don't think

(08:34):
flying the day before is the right thing. I don't
think that long flight and trying to recover and staying
hydrated and getting on and then playing a game, I
don't think that's the right thing. I also don't think
going there for a whole week is the right thing
because then are you still going to have your edge?
Are you going to be ready to play the game
and go, oh, we've been here for too long? I
think if you get there, I think the right thing is, hey,
you get there three-ish days before. That way you have time,

(08:56):
you get used to your rhythms, you have a couple
of practices, and by the time you are at your peak,
you're playing the game, right? Because I think the Niners
have been there too long, and the Rams won't be
there long enough. So I think the right thing is, okay,
we really want to be there. Because when you go
on vacation, sometimes it takes you a day or two
to get used to the The surroundings, a day or
two to get used to the time clock. You're sleeping late.
You're waking up early. So I think really, honestly, the

(09:19):
best thing is meeting in the middle because you want
to be sharp, but you don't want to go too long. Really,
it's a difficult thing and it's impossible. But if I
had to... If I had to lean one way or
the other, I would say I'd rather be the team
that's there for a few days than to go and
feel like I'm rushing because it's hanging over your head. If,
you know, people forget about that mental part, the travel,
it's hanging over your head where we're going to go out.

(09:41):
It's going to be the day before. There's so many
things we got to do just right to get to
this game the next day. Whereas if you get there
a week ahead, okay, well, something comes up. We can
troubleshoot things, figure stuff out. You have more time. You
have more time to go. So I'd say if I
had to say on who I think is doing it right,
I would say the 49ers. But I mean, really, it's honestly,
I think. they're there a little too long.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Well, you could air express anything that your equipment guy forgot.
You know, creature comforts from home, all of those things.
And we'll just figure out where it meets in the middle, right?
Because everybody would say going into the year and the
betting line certainly suggests that the Rams are the far
superior team, right? The 49ers are older and blah, blah, blah.

(10:23):
You know, we're going to see Nick Bosa. We're going
to see George Kittle most likely. But maybe it evens
things out. A groggy Rams team helps level the playing
field so we get a better product.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
I mean, really, I want to say that. Really, it's
just bad week for science. Science, man. But the fact
that we're leading the show talking about science. Science won
right there.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
If we could get Bill Nye on to break it down.
But then he would tell us something. You can get
another expert to come on and say, no, no, that's
completely wrong.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
I'm like.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
When I see stuff like this, I go, how did
we ever go forward with stuff?

Speaker 3 (11:01):
Oh, I read, I read multiple articles about the whole
sleep science and they were all over the place.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
But in the end, each individual is going to respond
how they respond.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Like, so why did we spend millions of dollars on
your research and in your lab?

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Now I will say the right thing. The other right
thing out of this story, big story today, Aaron Donald
not traveling to Australia. He will not play opening week
for the Rams as he ramps up to get ready
to play. This is the right call. As I have said,
the Rams are handling this wrong. I don't need to
see him until the middle of the season. And I
know they gave him $ 20 million because if I'm going

(11:36):
to come out of retirement, you got to pay me
$ 20 million. But you want him to be ready to
go when it's the most important time of the season.
And the guy's been out of the NFL for two years.
You could talk to me about practicing and staying in shape,
but the guy's going to hit the wall and we're
going to get to a point where he's going to
be irrelevant because he's out of gas. The best players
in the world leaving the game for two plus years,

(11:57):
it's going to have an effect on you. Every single
player that hasn't played for two years, they don't come back.
You're not the same guy. You want to just be
close to the version you were when you left. If
I'm the Rams, yes, stay home. We're not going to
worry about seeing him. Talk to me about Aaron Donald
after Halloween. Get me there, because if he plays seven,
eight games, then he's really rolling. You're going to get
the next best part of him in the playoffs when

(12:19):
he should be peaking, and you're not nearly playing a
whole year. So this was a great decision. It should
be even more. We should not be seeing him until
after Halloween at the earliest.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
No, this is the buffet at your Super Bowl party,
wherever you go. If you go out somewhere or if
you have it catered in. That's the whole point of
Aaron Donald is you already had the team to get
you there. He's the guy that shows and says, surprise,
I got something a little extra. So week one, even
though it's a division game and all of this, it's.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
The only thing that, you.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
Know, it counters McVay and everybody. Oh, yeah, all our
guys are there. Well, that got everybody excited. It's like, yeah,
except him. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
Yeah. I'm telling you, man, this is a decision that
the Rams really have to look at and say, are
we doing the right thing if we come back and
we ramp them up and we put them out there
in the middle of September, right? When the temperature's 90-some-odd
degrees and we're playing, I think he's a guy you
can wait and see. Because look, even when this happened,

(13:21):
when Roger Clemens would come back and he would say, oh,
look at him, he's being able to to push his
return whenever he wants to. The guy's in his 40s.
The guy knows I'm not going to start 35 games
and be ready to go in the playoffs. I want
to be able to be at my best in the playoffs.
I also don't want to play the entire year, but
I also want to make sure that I am rolling
at my best. For everybody, this should be the way

(13:41):
things are done. When you get older, I don't get
what the Rams are doing with the Donald and the
whole thing that he could be playing from the beginning.
What are they doing?

Speaker 3 (13:49):
Look, you like to sell even more hope. Not that
you needed much more when you're already the Super Bowl favorite.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
You signed Miles Garrett. You just brought in 20-some-odd sacks.
Hope is an easy sell if you're the Rams. Hey,
you've got this, but what if you think we need
one more? Could they have pulled it off without the
little guy in Ocean's Eleven? I don't know.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
I mean, who's getting in that vault? But you look
at just the trend that we've had going on many years.
You bring up Clemens. Keep going on down the line
in the NFL. Oh, that guy's got a contract thing. Yeah,
he just doesn't want to be at camp. That guy's
got an injury and he's healthy.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
We'll be ready for week one. Yeah, he's ready for
week one.

Speaker 4 (14:27):
Right.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Christian Gonzalez. Guess what?

Speaker 3 (14:29):
We'll see him on Wednesday night. Oh, also summer long.
It's like, oh, he's got this contract dispute and he's hurt.

Speaker 4 (14:36):
Oh, wait.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Oh, wait. The contract got resolved and he's ready to
play on Wednesday night. Oh, OK. And go on down
the line. Plenty of examples.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
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 (14:55):
Yeah, you don't even have to do that Eve, Eve
thing anymore. No, it was Eve, Eve yesterday. It was
Eve Plum the day before that.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
It was... George Glass. Sure, sure. But, like, by this
time tomorrow... Mm-hmm. We'll probably be early in the fourth
quarter of Patriots-Seahawks. Just think about that, man. Oh, it's
so wonderful.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
Great.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Long wait is over. Hope springs eternal.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
And by the end of Sunday night, people will be
either ecstatic or they'll hate their lives.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
So we'll have more NFL throughout the show. We gave
you our picks for opening night tomorrow night. Again, you
can find that in the Best of podcast.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
But.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Two new developments in the college football story that I
promise you is going to go away. No, never. By
the time we get to this weekend, the Western Michigan, Michigan,
one second scandal clock story will be gone, right? It's
going to burn hot, but then we're going to get
to the second week. And as we said last night. Okay,
it's Western Michigan and Michigan, week one. Western Michigan's not

(16:00):
going anywhere. Michigan, they need to win their games to
make the playoff. They look like they're terrible. This wasn't,
you know, 10th week where Michigan beats Penn State and
suddenly there's a domino effect and one team is out
of the tournament. This will go away. Now it's still hot, hot,
still hot, just like the temperature across the country. It's
still hot, but by the time we get to this weekend,

(16:20):
it will be gone. But the good news for us
is we still have big stories and big developments on
it today.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah, it's not the weekend yet. They haven't kicked off
the next week yet.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
So earlier today, and I love this part of the
story because you just know there was a conversation. The
Mac put out a statement saying, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, wait.
We were a little too early on. Everything is fine
and there was nothing untoward. We were too nice. Michigan
getting the win on the Hail Mary. Everything is fine.

(16:52):
We don't want to cause any waves. Apparently something was done,
either something wasn't done to the Macs or Western Michigan's satisfaction,
or there was a conversation where it was, hey, you
got to have our backs, all right? No one's going
to make you Big Ten commissioner there, okay? So now
the Mac had to put out a statement saying, hey,
we would like the NCAA to reverse the outcome of

(17:15):
the game and give the win to Western Michigan. I
like that. Ah, okay. I'll, I'll, I'll file that under
the category of things that sound great, but will not happen.
And in fact, the NSA has already said, we're not
going to overturn the final of this game. Like I
get it.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
You want to get, we want to make it look
like we're standing up for it. It's like, Oh, I,
you know, if you needed me, I would have given
you a ride to the airport.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
I text you like seven times. You ever texted me back. Well,
what I really did. was I waited for you to
not text me and text somebody else, get a ride.
Then I called you to say, hey, what's going on? Oh,
I needed a ride to the airport, but you're already going. Oh, hey,
I would have done that for you. That's kind of
what the Mac is doing. Oh, hey, hey, now we'd
like you to get rid of the result and give
Western Michigan the win. Oh, you mean after it's all

(17:57):
done and finished and we've moved on and it's Tuesday? Yeah,
thanks for nothing.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
Now, I didn't expect them to quite go all the
way out on this end of the pendulum, right on
this giant swinging ride. But I was disappointed with the
initial response. Like, it was just way too accepting.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
I'm like, ah, what are you going to do?

Speaker 4 (18:17):
No, no, no.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Well, it's like all the schools in Michigan exist to
prop up the University of Michigan, which is the biggest
moneymaker in the state. Hey, even though we're Western Michigan,
we're a separate conference, separate team. Yeah, we all exist
to make sure Michigan, the University of Michigan, does as
well as it can. That's kind of what it looked
like after the game was over. Or if they protested
too much, would the check not clear? Is that the problem?

(18:41):
We're not getting our money? 1.3 million, you don't get
it now because you didn't stand up for us. But
that's really what it seemed like right after... Western Michigan
saying nothing untoward was done. What are you going to do? Hey,
we understand the university of Michigan is a big moneymaker, man.
Everybody exists in Michigan to serve the university of Michigan.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
Right.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
I tell you all the time when, when, you know,
here in LA, every third person is wearing a, an
LA Dodger hat, right? Something Dodgers t-shirt shorts. It's Dodgers.
They are a Dodgers tower, a Dodgers tower, a baseball town, Michigan,
every third person is, is wearing something University of Michigan.
It is the biggest thing in the state. It's bigger
than the Tigers. It's bigger than the Red Wings. It's

(19:22):
bigger than the Pistons. I mean, lots of bigger Pistons.
No other colleges really matter. The University of Michigan is
the number one... Moneymaker, sporting team, people that don't go
there support the University of Michigan. Doesn't matter. Can you
imagine growing up in Illinois and going like, yeah, I'm Northwestern,
but you're all wearing Illinois gear? No, you're not. Everybody

(19:43):
wore Notre Dame gear. Yeah, that doesn't happen in Michigan.
That doesn't happen. So that's kind of what it felt
like was that, well, in the end, we're all in
for Michigan. I'm borrowing that from Rich Rodriguez. We're all
in for Michigan, so yeah, we're okay with none of
this happening. I really expected the back to come up
and go, hey, wait a minute, we got screwed here.
The clock hit zero. We didn't get this. What's going on? No, no, no,

(20:05):
we're all good. Oh, now you're happy. If I'm Western Michigan,
I tell the Mac now, oh, now forget it.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
Beat it.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
We're leaving. When all these conferences expand, we're going to
go join someplace else because you did not have our
backs at all. Blank you, Mac. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
I'm saying you wait. We go win the big, when
we go win whatever championship we win, figure skating, and
Western Michigan is there because they're like a power. Yeah,
we're not going to hold up Mac sports. No, no, no, no, no.

(20:33):
We're all in for ourselves. Thanks for nothing.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
And I want my draft picks back.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
The Mac is like when all of you are lifting
a couch to move it and the one person who
fake lifts, I'm not really carrying this at all. I'm
just standing there. Like, that's the Mac. Oh, three days later. Hey,
we really like you to give the win to Western Michigan.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
Really?

Speaker 1 (20:52):
Come on, man.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
They said pretty, please. Have more guts than that. They
put it in a nice font.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Ah, it's a load of crap. Good letterhead. What a
load of crap. Sent a Bundt cake alongside with it.
I mean, come on. Hey, Michigan, we did really well.
Will you continue to play our teams in the MAAC
and continue to get them $ 1. 3 to $ 1. 5 million? Will
you keep doing that? Will you keep doing that for us? Hey,
we got your back, buddy. I'm helping you out over here. Like,
I'm embarrassed that it took four days for the MAAC
to say, hey, we really don't think things were done right.

Speaker 4 (21:21):
Like, what? What?

Speaker 3 (21:22):
You had that full night that you could have just
gone insane and you sat there like someone took your dog.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
We fought hard, played well. It's like, no, you played
a great game.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
You had the opportunity to bang the drum right there
to have this protocol further explained to really expose all
of the conversations you're having on the sideline as you're
waiting for this to be adjudicated and everything else. And
you kind of went meekly into the night. And then
you're going to send out the corporate letterhead on a

(21:59):
Tuesday after everything's long done and people are moving.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
On to insert team here. We're moving on. It's NFL Eve,
for crying out loud.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
I know.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
The rankings got updated. I mean, all of these things. Oh,
now you're coming. Now you're coming. Oh, thanks. Appreciate it, Mac.
Appreciate it coming. That's fantastic. Things I couldn't use yesterday.
That's great. That's great.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
Now?

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Really?

Speaker 1 (22:20):
Now you're showing up? Oh, okay.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
I got here. I got here as soon as I can.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
I'm just... It took them three days to realize that
the sanctity and the fabric of the college football world
was being torn asunder.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
The best gift for this would be the scene from
the beginning of one battle after another where the revolutionaries
are all talking about what they're doing. It's Tiana Taylor
and Wood Harris. and Leo is running up, hey, hey, hey,
I'm here. Okay, the explosives guy is here. Yeah, here
you go. He's like, I want to see it, hear
everybody talking about it, and he's the Mac. I'm running up. Yeah,

(22:54):
I'm sorry I'm really late, but I'm here. Yeah, I'm here.
I'm ready. What are we going to do? What do
we got going on? Oh, thanks for showing up for
nothing for us. I appreciate that. Well, he got there
at the wire, you know. But the other story, and
this is late breaking over the course of the last,
I would say, half hour or so, The NCAA... Now,
I'm going to explain this to you because there's a
lot of big words in here. The NCAA is issuing

(23:16):
a new guidance to establish a standard timing protocol that
ensures consistency in the administration of all college football games.
This in the wake of Michigan's controversial win over Western Michigan.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
Yeah, that was some good legalese right there, yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
Basically, the... memo from the NCAA is saying that the
official time for all college football games is the in-stadium
game clock. That's going to be the official time now.
because the worst part of it, and quite honestly, it
needs to be that, because the worst part of this
was the fact that the clock hit zero, then they

(23:52):
went back and put a second back on, right? Because
if this happens in stadium, right? Let's just say, because
we've talked about instances where the clock is at 0-1
before the 2009 Big 12 Championship game. There's a Michigan-Michigan
State game 25 years ago with the clock stayed at
one second. If Michigan throws that Hail Mary... and it's
knocked out of the end zone, and one second is

(24:14):
still on the clock somehow in the stadium camera. then
it's not that big a deal. It's, oh, there really
should have been another second. It was a slow start.
There should have been a little bit of lag time.
Why was there no lag time? But if that one
second stayed up there, this is not nearly the deal

(24:34):
we say it is. It's more of a curiosity. Oh,
look at that. But still, you need to stop the
Hail Mary. You need to do a better job. And
that would have been the conversation. But the fact that
it hit zero. And then it got put back on.
That's the whole thing. So now what the NCAA wants
to do is eliminate that where the in-stadium game clock
is the official time clock. Like that's what it's going

(24:55):
to be. So this is the best way to figure
that out. And in the future, okay. But I see
a whole new slew of problems where can you get
it down to the second, down to the hundredths of
a second? Can you do that? Because what Michigan had
was less than half a second left on the clock
by the time they did it. So I see that

(25:15):
they're solving one set of problems, but they're potentially opening
up some new problems.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
But it's still the display versus reality in some cases, right?
So ESPN got a copy of the memo from National
Coordinator of Officials Ron Snodgrass, and this was approved by
their secretary rules editor. But it says, when a replay
review requires time to be restored or otherwise adjusted, the

(25:40):
replay official's decision will be based on the embedded game
clock contained within the program feed.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
Okay, now we're getting inside baseball. Oh, now, yeah, it's really, yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
If the broadcaster's unable to provide an embedded game clock,
the replay official will use the game clock graphic displayed
as part of the broadcast feed.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
So basically, it breaks down like this. It's the official
in-stadium game clock. If there is a question, they will
go to the broadcast to see if that is the
way they're going to see the time left, the time
on the clock, the time on the clock.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
This is where we get to our tenths of seconds
and whatever else. But it's now known to everybody that
this super secret clock exists.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
This is a super secret clock. We're in 2026 and
we have super secret clocks. Like, I wonder, was there
even a super duper secret clock? Like, if this clock
didn't have the second on it for Michigan, would there
be another door they could open and say, oh, hey,
you have the... Yes, I actually have four seconds left
on the clock for Michigan. Oh, four seconds? Yes, that's

(26:43):
the official super duper secret clock answer.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
Our clock administration is kind of like the Winchester Mystery
House up in the Northern California where they kept adding
doors on. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
It was a great movie with Helen Mirren. I've been there.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
I've been there. I did that during Halloween season once.
Steps that go nowhere and doors.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
Yeah, that's a fun house. And the little doors and
all of a sudden like, hey, I'm walking down a hall. No,
I'm not. I'm running into this mini door.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
I mean, look, I.
I like the fact that this is what the NCAA
is doing, and I like the fact they're looking to
solve this problem. And again, if it was just the
case of if they had left the one second on,
why couldn't it all sync up? They brought on this
problem themselves.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
But they said they synced it all up, except for
that we didn't know that clock with the tense existed.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
And I'm always a fan of, hey, if nobody's got
a problem, we don't need to go crazy on it.
Nobody would have had a problem if that clock hit zero.
Nobody would have. It's not like Kyle Whittingham's going to,
I thought we had a second left. He's not going
to run on the field and go, there's one second left.
There's one second left. No, it would have been, man,
I just lost my big house debut at home. They
want me fired. I should have retired instead of taking

(27:54):
this game. Who told Whittingham to say that, though? That's
what I... Like, yeah, I thought there was one second. Like, where?

Speaker 3 (28:03):
One does not look like a zero. I got fuzzy eyes, man,
and I can't see a lot of things. I'm not
confused as zero to one. If I was the official
and they buzzed down to me after the game was
over and everybody's on the field celebrating, hey, Jason, I
think there's actually maybe like less than a third of
a second.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
No, we're good. Pack up, guys. Go home. Pack up.
We're good. The game's over. The game ends. And everything
would have been fine. That's why this is so unnecessary,
because nobody would have complained had the clock just hit zero.
Michigan wouldn't have complained. Western Michigan wouldn't have complained. We'd
have had a big upset, different story. But that's what
I would have said. I would have said, yeah, no,
we're good, guys. But I think there's a third. Guys, guys, guys,
we're good. The field. They're storming the field now. Western

(28:41):
Michigan is storming the field. I mean, it's a Western
Michigan storming the field. It's over. The game's over.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
No one cares.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
The important question. How's your wife doing? She is ready
for the next game. Okay, good. She's ready for it,
but I don't know that she's ready for the result
because I've yet to talk to her about the game
and tell her what she should be in for. Exactly.
But she's ready for the next game.

Speaker 4 (28:59):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
You have to know when enough is enough. Today, Live
Golf filed for bankruptcy protection. Okay. And they are entering, quote,
the next phase of their existence. That's right, reorganization. They
owe Jon Rahm $ 7. 5 million, Bryson DeChambeau like $ 5 million,
Dustin Johnson $ 5. 5 million. They owe all this money. These

(29:27):
are the largest creditors the league has among their 30
largest unsecured claims, and yet they're still talking about, we're
going to come back. We're going to be Live Golf
2.0 next year. Understand it's over. Hey, our restaurant didn't
work over there. It's over, man. But we went with
the wrong formula. It's over. But now we're going to
be streamlined over here. We'll do a food truck.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
And because it costs us nothing, we'll get one of
those hibachis that I could make hot dog, bacon-wrapped hot dogs,
and that'll supplement the other business.

Speaker 4 (29:56):
See?

Speaker 1 (29:57):
I've got it all figured out.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
It's over, Jenny.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
We just need to get past these tough times.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
It's over.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
The league says they want to return to play next
year and is expected to be majority owned by its players. Oh,
by the players you owe all the money to? Like, guys.
Now he's got an ownership stake. How great is that?
Look at that. But do you want an ownership? Didn't
you watch the big short? If you have an ownership
stake in stuff that's not worth any money, you're not
doing well. You're not going to make money, man. I

(30:21):
recognize this. You had to. My sarcasm bucket overflowing. It's over.
Live golf. It's over, man. Know when it's time to
go home. I got to take the ball and go home.
It's too dark out. The street lights are going off.
It's a school night. We're done. We're done for the day.
We're not playing any more sports today. There's no more
live golf. It's dark. The lights have turned off. It's

(30:43):
a school night. And not only is it a school night,
the SAT is the next day. It's time to go home.
It's time to go. And that's it. It's over. But
maybe they can find that way.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
One guy that has gobs of money who hasn't been
paying attention, but loves the game of golf.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
You can have an ownership stake.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
Look at, I mean, look at all of these guys
that have come in and these groups that have come
in to buy real estate in these different professional sports.
You could be the king of this side of golf.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Oh, it's over. There might be one. It's over. It's over. No,
it's over. It's a, it's the guy in the movie. When,
you know, they're trying to escape and he gets hit
with a laser, whatever it is. And the hero says,
come on, I'll take you. And he goes, yeah, I
can make it. It's like, I know. No, you can't
really make it.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
I know.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
It's like, you're already in the hole. You're already in
the hole. You're in the hole. Like, no, you're not
making it, man. I'm sorry. That laser just cut you
in half, man. I'm sorry. You're not making it. No,
I can make it. I can make it. No, you're
not making it, man. You're not making it. That's live golf.
You're not making it. I like that you lasered that
guy in half. We're going to get the laser. Well,
I kept thinking about the whole Darth Maul thing from

(31:52):
earlier in the show. But you've got to get it.
no one's going to really come back. No one's going
to invest. Everybody wants out. Once you show the weakness
and we know that it's not happening anymore, man, why
just know when you had a run, it was great.
And the end is ugly. I get it, but you know,
leave with whatever self-respect and dignity that you have. Cause

(32:15):
it's just going to, it's just going to be embarrassing.
You try to keep this going.

Speaker 3 (32:18):
Now you're just being crazy using things like dignity and
self-respect or else. I mean, that jumped the shark a
long time ago. And look, I appreciate the efforts. Look,
we can get into the geopolitics and whatever else as
many have, but keep it just to the straight business perspective.
If there's an opportunity and you thought there was a
viable vehicle by which to start a second league, Cool.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
That's great. But after several years and a hemorrhaging of
cash left and right, now you're talking about, well, how
do we keep this thing on life support? Can we
get one more loan? Can we mortgage the house more?
one more time. Like, what can we do?

Speaker 3 (32:59):
No, you're listing as your major creditors. You went down
the list of the golfers that are at the top
of the list. Hey, you still owe me for all
that work I did for the last couple of months.
How about instead of the millions of dollars I owe you,
I make you an owner. So I can own this league.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (33:16):
Great.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
You have to pay these guys. You're one of the owners. Congratulations.
You now owe the rest of these guys $ 45 million. Wait,
but how? You agreed to be the owner. I'll see you. Bye.
And the kid gets in his car and takes off. Ah, boy,
that was easy. I got him to sign those papers fast.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
We got out of his $ 7 million. He picked up
these other $ 7 million.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
I own Live Golf now.

Speaker 4 (33:39):
Uh, yes.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
Well, if there's a new league, there's some sort of draft.
I'm not sure how it goes.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
Ooh.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
Yeah. I don't know about that yet. We'll have to,
we'll have to wait and see. But right now I
think he does. I mean, I'm surprised he, wow. They
owe him money.

Speaker 4 (33:50):
Really? Like, okay.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
Some of the people I get, I get the, oh,
John Rahm money. I understand you owe Bryson DeChambeau. I
get it. But like, wow. Dustin Johnson's own money.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (33:57):
All right.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
But there's, there's guys that they probably have owed money
to for like two plus years at this point.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Jack Nicklaus has owed money. You don't even know that.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
It's just sitting out there and it's like, Hey, if
they're not fighting it.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
No, no. Whatever you got, you cashed a lot of checks.
You cashed a lot of checks. Well, but that's what
I hope.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
As you went through this process the last couple of years,
every time one came to your inbox... You verified that
it was actually in your accounts.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
It's like when you get fired as the Raiders head
coach when Al Davis owned the team. He wasn't paying
you anymore. But you got to pay me out for
the rest of this contract.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
No.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
No, I'm really not. Oh, okay. As long as you're employed,
you still owe me. For these guys, they just have
to say, hey, we're glad we traveled the world. Not
paying you. Yes, they did. That $ 7 million is gone.
You made so much money, and now you're going to
crawl your way back to the PGA Tour, okay? But
you made your money, but it's over. It's done. It's done.
This should be something that we don't hear about anymore.

(34:57):
They had a good run. Yeah. The run was much
longer than I thought it was going to be. I
thought this would have a much longer tail. It would
be a couple of years, and then they would— you know,
the Saudis would get disinterested. They wouldn't be making money.
Why are we pouring money into this? They made it
way longer than I thought it would be.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
No, I mean, the fact that we got to these
final events and suddenly it's like, yeah, we're 40 million
short or whatever else. Like, I thought it would just condense, right?
That you'd have some kind of league that only had
a handful of stops by the end. That they were
going to grind it out with this long tail. It's like,
and now we have our championship. Wait, it's also opening week.

(35:36):
Speaking of opening week, It is opening week in the NFL.
We already have injury news for the 49ers-Rams game as
we get ready for the game in Australia. News for
the Rams, we know that Aaron Donald is not going
to travel. for this game. He's staying behind, which is
the right call. 49ers, unfortunately, in a huge blow, have

(35:58):
lost starting defensive tackle Alfred Collins for the season, suffering
a torn patellar tendon in the team's Tuesday practice in Australia. Again,
he's going to be out for the entirety. of 2026
so as we get ready for this game on on
Thursday it's weird because hey here's the game it's in
Australia but you just get the sense that nobody wanted

(36:18):
to go to Australia to play neither team wanted to
go it's just going to be they don't want to
play they want to leave they want to go back
and not only does it feel like a game that
nobody wanted to go play this is going to wind
up being a bad week for science Bad week for science.
Science is going to have a really tough week this week. Well,
you and science have been at odds your entire life.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Oh, yeah. Science, no, no. Me and science never really
get along. Math, somewhat. English and history, hey, best friends.
But math and science, yeah, not so much. Your math's
gotten better since we've worked together. I think we have
helped a little. I was good in math because I
went to class every day. And you'll do okay in
math if you go every day, even if you're not
math good. intense or you're not math inclined. No, if

(37:01):
you go every day and pay attention, you're fine. Science,
I just never got. I just don't understand. What's a protein?
I don't know. What does it look like? No idea. Okay.
What about cartilage? Yeah, I don't know about that. What
is it? Yeah, it's in your body. But what? Yeah,
I don't know. I just wasn't a science guy. But
I know science is going to have a tough week
this week because you know that certain scientists or sleep
scientists were talked to by both the Rams and the

(37:27):
49ers in advance of their travel to Australia for this game.
And the 49ers, well, they've been in Australia for about
a week. They wanted to go early, get acclimated. Your
sleep cycle, your schedule, your rest, when do you get
out of peak.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
Don't go cage diving with the great white sharks.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
Okay, they might not have done that. Stay away from you.
Watch out. Don't watch out for the kangaroos. Watch out
for the flying snakes. Watch out for these things. So
they said, you know, they talked to all kinds of experts.
When's the right time? to go to a foreign country
if we need to be at a peak level physically.
And everybody they talked to, they got the answer saying

(38:07):
go a week ahead of time. Awesome. Rams did the
same thing. They talked, I'm sure, they talked to scientists, experts,
sleep apnea people, experts, whatever it was. They probably talked
to anybody Sean McVeigh wanted them to talk to. Hey,
what are we doing? And they were told, yeah, just
fly as late as you can and leave the day before.

(38:28):
They're leaving tomorrow or they're leaving late tonight to get
there in time. They're going to be in Australia for
the grand total of 72 hours. before they fly back.
So now you have two teams that you know talk
to experts, and one set of experts said, leave a
week ahead of time, and one set of experts said,
leave as late as you can. Bad week for science, man.

(38:48):
We can't get on the same page with what the
best time is, when to go. Like, I'm... I'm looking
for advice to go, okay, if I'm going to travel someplace,
if I'm going to go on a hike somewhere, if
I go to a foreign country, when's the best time
to do something physical? I'm looking for answers, man, and
science is failing me, man. There's going to be medical
licenses revoked after this week. No, because in the end,

(39:09):
there's only one Jason Smith. And how you respond may
be different than Frostberg. then Tyshirt, then me, then Popeye. Wow,
there's a lot of guys named Jason Smith. Medical licenses
revoked because someone's gonna, so one team is gonna win
the game, we're gonna say, well, they were right, the
other team's going to say, well, they were wrong. And

(39:29):
we're going to learn nothing. And that's the thing about
science is you've got to learn stuff. Every experiment, every
action has an equal opposite reaction. Francis, okay. You're not
going to learn anything from this.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
But yeah, if one of the teams looks absolutely lethargic,
you get confirmation bias.

Speaker 4 (39:44):
See?

Speaker 1 (39:45):
That worked. Because.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
Whether it was the short run or you were there
a full week, you're going to be able to say, well,
the chalk went up for us. Now, individual players, again,
body's going to respond differently. So it's going to be
kind of chaotic. Guy feel bad in all of this.
Raheem Morris lost his birthday because they were traveling. He
lost his 50th birthday. literally in the travel days.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
Look, they're going to be, potentially, their leaving coming back
is going to be a little less than 72 hours.
They're going to be on the plane both ways, I think,
longer than they're going to be in Australia. Like it's
like a 13 to 16 hour plane ride to Australia. Yeah,
you come running out of the tunnel and away you go.
Change on the bus. It's two days flying and then you're–
I mean, look, I don't know which way is the

(40:32):
best way because I don't think you should be there
a week before because I'm sure if you're the 49ers,
you're going to risk coming out flat. We've been here
for a long time. We're ready to play the game.
But there's no way I think leaving the day before
is the right call either. But again, we're not going
to know. We're not going to know what the right
call is. We're going to learn nothing, which is the
worst thing from science. What do we learn?

Speaker 4 (40:51):
Nothing.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
What do you mean? We're back to ground zero. I
couldn't get any more spiders to bite people, and all
of a sudden they have all kinds of powers. It
didn't work that way. Okay. So, I mean, we don't know.
We're not going to know anything. And, again, I'm looking
at what's the best way, and I'm just thinking when
I travel internationally, when are you at your peak? When
are you not at your peak? I know I'm not
at my peak right after I land and the hours

(41:13):
after I land, so I can't think that's the right
thing for the Rams. But I mean, I think for
the 49ers, Being there for seven days, like, okay, the
possibility they could come out flat for this game is
a big deal.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
They're also snakebitten, TJ, because you've lost Collins now for
the year.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
So, I mean, they couldn't avoid the injury, no matter
where they are, no matter where they practice.

Speaker 4 (41:35):
No, no.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
It's coming for you. Now, Frostberg, you have the right way? Ooh,
there you go.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
The informal poll of just going team by team. I'm
calling each NFL team to talk about travel best practices.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
Yeah. I mean, it's a bad week for science, man.
Science is going to be a big loser this week.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
What's funny, because I read a couple of articles that
were talking about this very thing, right? Here's the two
theories and practices and approaches by these squads. And the
summary statement is like, well, we'll see.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Like, thanks.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
Yeah yeah great i appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
It was a long read too like that was that
was very dense a lot of medical terminology i mean
how many sleep apnea machines have to travel on.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
One of these things yeah yeah well what kind of
opinions do you have like where do you think where's
the where's the rem cycles going to be and again
but it's that's the crazy part is that you have
two sets of experts and one say let's go a
week ahead of time and once they go the day
before like i mean come Do.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
You force the guys awake to eat a sandwich if
they're in pleasant slumber?

Speaker 1 (42:33):
I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
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 (42:44):
Joining us now on the hotline to break it down.
Nobody better than MLB Network and Fox Sports Radio baseball
insider extraordinaire. He's on Twitter at John Marossi. It is
the Pope, John Paul Marossi. John Paul, I want to
remind you, because I'm reminding everybody tonight, especially people I
know in the state of Michigan, set your clocks back
one second tonight before you go to bed, just so

(43:06):
you know.

Speaker 4 (43:09):
There is no time limit on this interview, and just
as importantly, remember, we do have an individual pitch timer
in baseball, but there is no clock. The game is
not over until we say it is, to quote Belushi there.
I do believe that game on Saturday, we thought for

(43:33):
about 48 hours or so that it had gone away,
and then the Macs came out with a statement today, oh,
we are just in the early days of trying to
parse through all that transpired there, and you can only
imagine how I watch that game as the son of
a proud... Western Michigan University grad and the spouse of

(43:55):
a Michigan grad. Caught in the middle, my friends. It's
a story that has now captivated the nation. You know
what else is going to captivate the nation? If Michigan
ends up losing by a score that's less august than
27 to 20 this weekend of the Sooners, they got
to get this offense going. They got to get that

(44:17):
going a little bit that they don't. The Sooners, I believe,
will be prevailing at Michigan Stadium on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
So being caught in the middle as you are, as
soon as that Hail Mary came down and Michigan caught it,
if I was you, I would have stood up, grabbed
my keys, and said, okay, I'm running to the store
to get some things. I'll be back. You guys figure
it out amongst yourselves. I'll be back.

Speaker 4 (44:36):
Well, here's the thing. So my amazing bride, she was asleep.
She had gone to bed long before that happened. My
mom was watching the game, not physically in the same
place as me, so I was texting with her, trying
to keep her spirits up a little bit. So I really,
if Western had won, to be honest, this is the

(44:57):
blessing of not having gone to either school, I would
have been happy for them to have a signature win.
And in some ways, they won in the realm of
public perception. I think they handled it the right way.
They were the better team. And so as the public
judges it, it's in a strange way, it's different, but

(45:20):
somewhat similar to the Armando Galarraga perfect game, right? In
some ways, that perfect game is remembered more fondly than
other perfect games that happened right around the same time,
just because he was wronged in the end. And I
think that in some small way, Western and the perception

(45:42):
of the program and the athletic department might actually be
a little bit brighter because of what happened. If they
had just won the game, it's, oh my gosh, they
beat Michigan. Now it's, they should have beaten Michigan. They
were wrong in the process. And there will now be,
I believe, more people around this world wearing Western Michigan

(46:02):
University football shirts than perhaps if they had actually won
the game. I really believe that that is a possibility here.
And listen, they'll be a force to be reckoned with
in the Mid-American Conference this season, without a doubt. I'm
not so sure if you get to the same about
the Wolverines and the Big Ten, but we'll know a
lot more after Underwood has a chance to play against

(46:24):
the Sooners on Saturday afternoon.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
Yeah, I'm already waiting for the car versus car matchup
when they face Notre Dame, but we got plenty of
time before we get to that, JP. Aaron Judge makes
his triumphant return to the field today. Pitching the order
of the day, of course, Schlittler with another massive performance.
But Aaron Judge coming back, no minor league rehab, no

(46:48):
straight to business. What are we expecting these next couple weeks?
How long is it going to take him to ramp?

Speaker 4 (46:54):
Mike, it's a great question. I think he'll be ready
relatively soon. I realize that he's been off for a
long time. Aaron Judge has a swing that works. He
always has. It's not a slump-proof swing because no one
has one of those except maybe Tony Gwynn or Ichiro
in his prime. But he's not going to rush back

(47:17):
until he's ready to go. And it sure seems like
he's ready to go. Now, the important thing, I want
all Yankee fans to not get too worried about this.
Aaron Boone is going to be pulling him out of
games a little bit early just to make sure that
you rest him up because Any major league player will
tell you, especially an outfielder and sometimes an infielder too,

(47:38):
that just standing on your feet for all those innings,
it takes a toll. It doesn't sound like it would,
but it does. And so I think that Aaron needs
to take some time to work fully back to that.
It's just a much better and deeper lineup when he's
in it. And in an American league that is so well-balanced,

(47:58):
a Yankee lineup with an effective Aaron Judge– has as
good of a chance to win this league as any
other team in the AL.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
I'll go a step further. I think Aaron Judge coming
back is what we've been waiting for. What team is
going to now rise up? He comes back early part
of September. Enough time to get in the rhythm. We
know how good their starting pitching is. You know what
a difference he is to that lineup. I expect the
Yankees to be in the World Series now. I mean,
the fact you didn't need him to come back. They
didn't come back. You would come back healthy. He was

(48:27):
cleared for baseball activities two and a half weeks ago. So,
you know, they didn't rush him back. Like I expect
the Yankees to now go on a run and be
in the World Series.

Speaker 4 (48:36):
That's a very reasonable take. I would concur with you.
The fascinating thing about this along those lines is that
one very plausible result is that the Yankees and Red
Sox meet in the first round. And that's where exactly
it would be right now if we got started. And

(48:56):
that to me is just so interesting because if we're
being honest, and the Astros have played better baseball recently.
But the two hottest teams in the American League, especially
if you imagine a world in which Judge gets going,
it's the Red Sox and Yankees. That to me is
the winner of that. If that's a wildcard series, the
best of three that happens while the two top seeds
are just watching, maybe it ends up being the.

(49:20):
Perhaps the Rays and the White Sox, let's say, to
watch that first round. Then the winner of that series
ends up becoming arguably the frontrunner in the American League
because they're just right now in a very flawed American League.
They're as complete as any team could be. And then
on the National League side, I'm sure we'll get more

(49:41):
into this here with Otani, but the Dodgers are, of course,
the favorites until someone proves otherwise. But when you look
at how well the Braves and Phillies competed over the weekend,
the Padres are still a very dangerous team. There's a
lot of ball clubs right now. The Cubs and Brewers
certainly stand out. What a classic game they played tonight.

(50:04):
As you acknowledge that the Yankees are as favored as
anyone else to win the American League, if you give
me Dodgers versus the field right now, I take the
field by a pretty comfortable margin. And I think a
lot of it's because of just the quality of baseball
that we're seeing right now in the National League. And
then Otani's absence and lack of clarity on exactly when

(50:25):
he's going to come back.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
Yeah, that is the curiosity.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
Obviously, we're here in L.A., J.P., because he's out of
the lineup once again, made a return for a day.
I guess the positive side is something's awakened both Tommy
Edmond and Teoscar Hernandez.

Speaker 4 (50:42):
Very possible. And I think that with respect to Otani,
in some ways, they're liberating him from having to worry
about the pitching side. He clearly wants to do both.
it's been something that he has done since he was
a teenager. It was part of the reason and the
rationale why he came over to the U S when
he did and how he did and what his idea

(51:04):
would be when he got here. He's, he's checked every
box that a mortal player could check. And I think
his body right now is telling him if not, not never,
but just not right now in terms of when, when
he can actually come back and pitch. It's just, You
saw the tone of resignation in his voice through interpreter

(51:26):
Will Ireton the other day. It just looks to me
like it's just not going to happen. It's not just
the bicep, it's the knee. And the other piece of it, too,
that we have to remember is this is a 50-50 player.
And part of his overall skill set and value is
on the bases. And that just hasn't been the same

(51:48):
component this year, which I do think further opens the
door for for Pete Armstrong to win the MVP. I
believe that PCA will win it. There's just so much
talent there that the PCA has. And listen, Otani at
his peak, obviously is he stands alone, but he's not
at his peak right now. And I think the entire
idea for him not playing tonight, or at least not

(52:09):
starting tonight was just to help him get as rested
as he can be for what the Dodgers hope, but
can't be too sure, but they hope will be yet
another long October.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Well, the thing is, John Paul, with Otani is that
we're moving towards him not pitching anymore because it's clear
that his body cannot withstand the rigors of being a
starting pitcher in Major League Baseball and continuing to bat.
At some point, they're going to make him a closer,
and they'll figure out the final innings if he gives
up a lead, and you'll figure out losing the spot

(52:40):
in the batting order. It's not that big a deal
to figure out, but we're close to maybe 65, 70
innings a year is what he can do, and if
that doesn't go, then... he's not going to pitch anymore
because his bat is just too valuable. We're slowly going
to see him pitch less and less and less until
we just don't anymore.

Speaker 4 (52:57):
It's fair. And remember, he's a free player from the
standpoint of the count. So if he's listed as a
two-way player, that behooves organizations to have that player that
can do both. And as shown, he can do both.
And so I agree with you that there is an
intermediate step. It doesn't have to be all or nothing

(53:20):
in the sense of a starting pitcher or a DH only.
Only is obviously in air quotes because he's still a
great player even when that is his job. So I'm
with you. I would just slightly amend the statement to
say we are very likely seeing the end of him starting,
but not the end of him pitching. And it's also

(53:41):
possible that if he ends up going through this progression–
and building up his ability to just at least stay
in the game that long and get healthy again, closing
is probably the most plausible option for a variety of reasons.
We touched on this last week, the ability to enter
the game. Yeah, you lose your DH, but if it's

(54:03):
the ninth inning, you're not so worried about it because
the game's probably going to end. And by the way,
Dave Roberts is not going to use him unless it's
a very specific situation. when it's in the ninth inning. Again,
that's a 2027 question, not for 2026. But that is
what this looks like to me, is that he's going
to be a DH only, at least for now, and
they may have to rethink the entire concept when they

(54:26):
show up for spring training in 2027.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
That's a long process from there, but we've got something
more immediate for you, JP. As we do each and
every year, we start getting your picks. Lions, 6.5 or
7-point favorites against the Saints this week, over under 49.5.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
What's the pick?

Speaker 4 (54:42):
Okay, here we go. The Detroit Lions will win this
football game 28, not 27. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
New year, new score. New year, new man.

Speaker 4 (54:54):
New year, new JP. Detroit, 28 to 20. So I've
got 48 points right there on the over-under. So just
barely under, I believe. And yes, I've got Detroit 28 points.
New Orleans, 20. Let's have a great season, my friends.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
He's on Twitter, at John Marossi, at John Marossi, MLB Network,
here with us at Fox Sports Radio. John, Paul, thanks
as always. We'll talk to you next week, and enjoy.
Hopefully there are no clock snafus against Oklahoma this weekend.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
Let's hope it's resolved before the final second, and I'll
tell you what, one of the other teams that my
grandmother devoted Notre Dame fans, they look real good on Sunday,
so they do not be surprised if they end up
being the number one team at some point this season.
All right.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
There goes John Palmer. All ready to go.