July 20, 2024 • 26 mins
Dan thinks the MLB All-Star uniforms were a disaster. He talks to soccer insider Paul Tenorio about the security issues at the Copa America Final. And he believes Caitlin Clark is deserving of some MVP vote for her overall contributions to the WNBA.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's awesome when the British opener Wimbledon. It's early in
the morning and you're like yeah, and then all of
a sudden, you start to plan your day. Next thing,
you know, you got soccer in the afternoon with the Euros,
and then Summer League basketball, and then at night you
had COPA And I'm watching because I friends with Rob Stone,
(00:25):
He's the host of Fox Sports, and so he's hosting
this and I keep waiting, like I'm waiting to go
when are they going to go out to the event,
And they kind of downplayed what was going on prior
to the game leading up to the game, and all
of a sudden you realize that, you know, the Copa
America final with Argentina and Columbia was a mess, and
(00:50):
we wanted to talk to somebody who was there. Paul
tan Orio, the senior writer for The Athletic. He was
there and joins us from the Fort Lauderdale area. Paul,
thanks for joining us. When did you really something was
something was wrong?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Pre game?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Yeah, it was a little bit before six o'clock. We
started to hear that there were issues with people that
were jumping fences trying to get into the games, and
we saw a couple photos on the getty wires actually
of people being arrested. And so at that point, my
colleagues Felipe Card and us Jack Laying and myself we
went down to the gates to see what was going on.
And I got down there at about six five or so,
(01:28):
and right around when I got down there, they closed
the gates. And at that point you're kind of thinking, Okay,
they're going to try to get control of this situation.
But very quickly, within a few minutes, I realized that
the decision to close the gates was going to be
one that made the situation worse, not better. And I
didn't go back upstairs and still, you know, well after
(01:49):
eight pm and just spend the next two hours documenting
everything that was going on around the gates and all
of the madness and the issues that were playing out.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
How close was this to a disaster last night? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:03):
I think really close. There was a point, probably around
eight o'clock I turned to my colleague and I said,
I think someone might end up dying tonight if they
don't do something to change this drastically and you know.
That's why when they opened the gates at eight fifteen,
it was not an ideal scenario at all, and it
was not a safe, you know, a safe solution, right
(02:24):
to just let everyone into the stadium, not check tickets,
not pat people down, not go through metal detectors. But
I felt it was the only solution. The people that
were crushed up against those gates had been there for hours.
The temperatures were in the nineties. It was my hottest
day here in South Florida of the five days that
I was here in the lead up to the game.
(02:45):
You know, when I came into the stadium at three pm,
obviously it's three or four hours ahead of this, it
was it was it was just so hot. The sun
was bearing down right on that gate, the southwest gate
of the stadium where I was watching, and I was
thinking to myself, I wasn't surrounded by anybody at that point.
And I came in soaking, wet with sweat, and hours
and hours of watching people come through the gates having fainted,
(03:06):
being carried in, unconscious, kids coming in completely red soaked,
their t shirts, soaked and sweat, crying that something had
to be done, and again it wasn't a perfect solution,
but had they not opened the gates, I think it
would have been worse.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Who was running the security, well.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
The logistics of this tournament were run by cole Ma Ball,
the association of the South American teams that puts on
the Cope America. You know, the last time Cope America
was here in the United States was twenty sixteen the
Copa America Centinadio. That tournament, a lot of the logistics
and operations were run by Soccer United Marketing, which is
Major League Soccer's marketing arm. US Soccer played a big
(03:46):
role this time around. Cole mad Ball wanted to run
everything top to bottom, and you know it was, you know,
it was a little bit of a mess this entire tournament.
For I was there in opening night Argentina played Canada
and Atlanta. The logistics weren't great and all the way
through the last day. Now, once you're at the stadium,
of course, the coordination was happening between the security firm
(04:07):
that works at hard Rock Stadium, the hard Rocks Stadium
operations people. I saw many of them down at the
Southwest gate trying to I don't even want to say coordinate.
I don't know exactly what they were doing, because there
wasn't a lot of communication happening even behind the gates,
let alone to the people that were stuck in front
of them. And then the Miami Dade police officers and
fire department were right there at the Southwest gate where
(04:28):
I was, So there were a lot of organizations working
in the moment, but there wasn't a lot of organization happening,
and almost no communication. I mean, my editor's family was
outside of the gates. Friends of mine outside of the
gates were telling me they had no idea the game
had been delayed. You know, they went to get to
the gate and they were within eight feet of the
gate when it closed, and then you're stuck. You can't
(04:49):
go anywhere, And it was just a really, really dangerous situation.
And I'm surprised that the organization the preparation for this
was not good enough, almost as if, you know, hard
Rock thought to themselves, Hey, we're hosting a soccer game,
not a continental final, with two of the most passionate
fan bases in the world, who also happen to have
(05:11):
enormous communities in South Florida. They were not ready for
the rush of people that were going to come to
that stadium.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Okay, let's fast forward to this, the United States hosting
the World Cup in a couple of years. How do
we learn from this? It feels like this keeps happening
over and over and over. I don't know if we're
learning from that. So how do you troubleshoot this? Well?
Speaker 4 (05:32):
I think FIFA has their hands full in multiple ways.
First of all, I think they need to be able
to communicate to people that it'll be different when they
run things, when they organize things, it'll be a completely
different set of operations, different organization running things. Commabole is
an organization that reports essentially to FIFA. They are not FIFA,
so you know that hopefully will give you a little
bit of security. Thinking FIFA's done World Cups before all
(05:55):
around the world. But I think for the American stadium
operations in all of these different cities, I hope that
they learn that the security logistics for these big games
have to be different around around the stadium. You know,
in other countries they have multiple layers of security to
get to the stadium so that you don't have these
rushes at the gates because this is happening more and more,
(06:15):
Like you said, we saw it in a Champions League
final in Europe. Obviously, with what happened yesterday, there has
to be there have to be checkpoints in order to
kind of filter out some of the people who who
are trying to get into these games without tickets or
else you end up with these with these bad situations.
And I will say at the early portion of this,
you know, they tried to open the gates a couple times,
(06:36):
crack them open, and people would rush towards those openings,
and that's human nature. I mean, they were they were
stuck there, they were trying to get out, and then
they would close the gates again. It was there was
this concern between letting people in that didn't have tickets
and the issues that can come from that and the
safety of the people themselves. And again I think it
shows that the security that FIFA has to go through
(06:57):
with these stadiums, with these local police offices, they have
to be diligent in creating checkpoints to prevent a build
up at the gates themselves.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Could this have been Messi's last big match, Yeah, it
could have been.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
You know, he didn't first of all, Argentina didn't come
through the mix zone at the end of the night,
so we didn't get to talk to the players at all.
After the game, a lot of the focus, and Messi
made sure a lot of the focus was on on
Healdy Madia. It being his last match. He was never
going to take that moment away from him, and so
you know, they said, no one talked about it being
Messi's last match. I wouldn't be surprised if he decided
at one point it was. But I have a feeling
(07:34):
he's going to stick around. He seems to. I've never
seen him so happy. You see him in the mix
zone after the semifinal. He was smiling and laughing and
just really enjoying himself.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Within this group.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Argentina is still playing in World Cup qualifiers. He's still
playing for Inner Miami, I think, as long as he's
playing club soccer, but probably play for Argentina. But now
we wait, We wait and see how the ankle heels up,
and we wait and see if giving himself a couple
of days of space between this trophy and starting some
medical work on his ankle make some reflect on whether
this this should be the end.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Thank you Paul, we appreciate you joining us and thank you,
thanks so much. That's Paul t an Oreo the Athletic
covering last night. Yeah, there were there were two different events.
There was the game itself, the match itself, and then
what was happening prior to that. And you know there's
the documentary that was on Wembley. Was that the Euro's
(08:29):
Seaton a few years ago?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yeah, that was just the last ones England, Italy, Italy.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yes, and if you're watching that documentary, it is you
can you can see it, you can feel it. I
think it's it's coming. And all of a sudden these fans,
now there was a ton of drinking and they started
early and it was a mess. And then all of
a sudden they brought the party to Wembley and they
(08:56):
were getting in and they were getting in no matter what.
You almost have to if you can have a barricade
outside of the barricade, like you have these checkpoints to
allow people in. But you know, the World Cup is
going to be on home soil. Here it's different, like
we don't we're not passionate about soccer the way these
(09:17):
countries are. And you have to understand that with your
security measures. They were going through air conditioning ducks, you know, vents.
They were trying any way they could. And there were
people who had tickets who went to their seats and
people were sitting in their seats and they weren't getting up.
People didn't get in who had tickets. It's a lot
(09:40):
of money that you spent and then you didn't even
get into the event. Like that's inexcusable. I'm not going
to put this all on South Florida and the police
and security there because it wasn't run by them, but
I mean there's enough blame to go around. I've mentioned
this before. I was working in eight in Ohio and
(10:01):
we had tickets to the Who concert in Cincinnati, the
Who concert where eleven people died. And we got down
there and we saw ambulances and you saw body bags,
you know, on the viaduct there with Riverfront Coliseum. You know,
all it takes is and it shouldn't take that. But
(10:21):
you have something that is etched in my memory bank
of this was festival seating. Doors were crashed, glasses crashed,
people were squished, they were crushed. So I hope, and
we always say this, well, the next time we'll learn
from this. Okay, I hope we learn from this and
(10:44):
understand this and the passion that's there. And you saw
that last night, watch that Wembley documentary. It is a
very sad day on a variety of fronts there when
you're watching how that unfolded.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
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Speaker 5 (11:09):
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Speaker 2 (11:47):
So the All Star Game, it was fun. I thought
baseball had a great night last night. The uniforms are terrible,
and I think they're going to go back to maybe
that the player is going to present his team, which
I think is the best thing to do, and it
certainly would have been last night. And I said this,
not that you can change it once, you know, thirty
(12:09):
two first time All Stars, but because of that, I
wanted you to wear your uniform so I could go, oh,
he plays for the Guardians. I just think you have
to have more personal brandings sometimes with Major League Baseball.
Paul Skeens went out there and kind of had non
eventful first inning, but the hype was great. Got a
(12:30):
chance to face Aaron Judge, so that worked out. Show Hey,
Otani hit a bomb that worked out. You know the
game ends, they you know it's a home run that
wins now, So I thought it was good. I thought
the uniforms were softball ish and they tried too hard.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I think, just make it an All Star game.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
You wear your uniforms if you want to wear those things,
and I call them things if you want to go, hey,
we're going to a Texas theme for the home run derby, fine,
not for the All Star Like I felt bad for
some of those guys that just didn't look good in
those colors. But it was definitely a softball like feel.
But they've had problems with the uniforms, not only how
(13:15):
they look, but the quality of them.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
And you know.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
What, Todd, would you see if the Commissioner's office is open,
could you see if the commissioner, you know, maybe we
got a theme going. Tory Lavello, you know, came on
and said, Paul Skenes could be the he's going to
be the starting pitcher. Maybe we get the commissioner to
join us and he could talk about uniforms here.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I think that's a great idea.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Maybe we changed the uniform Maybe calls in and says, Dan,
we're going to change the uniforms.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
We're going back to old school.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Now, there is a tweet that's out there now that
the Commissioner of Baseball says there will be conversations about
returning to the individual jerseys for next year's All Star Game.
He says that he is aware of the sentiment that's
according to the Commissioner Najor League Baseball, Rob Manfred. Once
(14:07):
you say something like that, get ready for a change
in uniforms. It's like when Roger Goodell goes, you know what,
we're listening for the eighteen games, and you know we're
taking that under consideration. Okay, Commission, there's going to be
an eighteen game schedule. The question is when, not if?
And I do think we'll go back to the uniforms
(14:29):
of the individuals.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yes, poem.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
It almost made me sad last night because some group
of people put together these Texas themed uniforms and they
had some cool touches to them, like the belt and
the script and the colors were trying to be Texas art.
And I respect that it's creative. However, the public sentiment
is so far against any type of novelty uniforms. They're
going in Uphell, Trey Turner, the baseball player, he go
(14:53):
for a ball and he got up and he was
talking to John SMOLTI goes, yeah, this belt's a little wonky.
It's like a real belt with metal tips. He goes,
it's pinching me a little bit in my gut.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Yeah. Well, I think they're going to change.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
But baseball, Look, I here's the problem that we have now.
Maybe older school you know baseball fans or former baseball
fans are like, well that you know that game's not
for me. Anymore, whatever it might be. Once again, those
uniforms may not be for me. Maybe it's for your
son or daughter. Maybe it's for the younger audience. That's
(15:27):
what they're going for. Just because I may not like
it or you may not like it, doesn't mean baseball
won't stay with something like that. They're trying to attract
the younger fan. Every sport is, and I get that.
So when people tweet out that, oh, you know, I
don't watch it anymore, Well, you're not twelve or you're
not fourteen, I get it. I mean, how many grown
(15:50):
ups go, boy, I love a good parade, But ask
your kids and they're like, God, can we go to
the parade? Yes, we get sparklers and fireworks and in candy,
and that's what you want. I mean, we all fell
in love with certain sports because we were young at
the time. Baseball you fell in love with it. Maybe
(16:11):
you don't. You know, you're not watching it all the
time now, and it's not the sport. It's you changed now.
I can argue about, you know, some of the finer
points of baseball that are not for me. But once again,
your son or daughter, you know, somebody younger may love
that they hit home runs all the time, that they're
(16:32):
not bothered by strikeouts, that maybe look at those uniforms,
they look awesome. It's like the guy who loves the
NFL but doesn't play fantasy football. Oh I would never
do that. Yeah, you don't have to, but there are
a lot of people who are. And that's why I
always I laugh when I have the older baseball fan
or former baseball fan and says, oh, I don't watch
(16:54):
it anymore. Yeah, I get it. Other things to do,
but it's more on you than it is baseball. All Right,
we'll take a break. John Smoltz was on the call
last night. Smoltzy had a great night. He'll join us
coming up top the next hour, and the nationally go
star manager Tory Leavello from the Diamondbacks will stop by,
and the founder of Fanatics, Michael Rubin as well.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
We'll come back. We'll settle on a.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Poll question and Todd I was being serious about asking
Major League Baseball if the commissioner could join us, because
he might say, Dan, you know what, I've given it
a lot of thought in the last twelve hours.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
We're going to change the uniforms.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app the WNBA.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I just I hope they're able to add stars that
you're going to tune in to watch other than just
Caitlin Clark. You need to have that. You need to
have a few more stars there, Juju Watkins when she
comes in, or Page Becker's when she comes in. You
just you need more teams and you need more stars
that you'll tune in to see. And last night Caitlin
(18:05):
Clark put on a show twenty four points, nineteen assists,
And that's why I'm watching. And I'm kind of laughing
at the people or trying to make this an argument
or a discussion that Angel Reese is somehow the rookie
of the year. And this isn't anti Angel Reese. I
told you she is relentless. She reminds me of Moses Malone.
(18:28):
If you're old enough to remember how Moses played. His
shot wasn't pretty, but he was relentless both ends of
the floor. He was going to get rebounds, he was
going to get garbage points. He'll put backs, you know.
Esthetically wasn't pleasing. But Angel Reese is kind of like
(18:48):
Moses Malone. Caitlin Clark is on the worst team. There's
a reason why they got the number one pick. They
weren't good. She's making them at least playoff worthy now granted,
and you know just about everybody makes the playoffs in
the WNBA. But you're watching last night, and I mean,
she scored or assisted on sixty six of her team's
(19:12):
ninety three points. That's a WNBA record. She's gone twenty
and ten a couple of times this year, three times
twenty and ten, three times this year. I mean she's
going to set all the rookie records in the WNBA.
And for those who think she's just a logo shooter,
(19:33):
just watch her play. She has the ability to pass
that is equal or surpassing players in the NBA. Her
ability to find the open person, it's remarkable, and as
we talked about this yesterday, to see a play maybe
one or two plays before it happens, or a pass
(19:54):
here leads to a pass there. And she's unselfish, probably
a little too much. She should a shot a little
bit more last night. And I always go back when
we started this year, her season I said she might
be more of a facilitator and lead the league and
assist more than just and I thought she would be
a twenty ten player this year. You know, she gets
(20:16):
in a pick and roll with the Leah Boston and
you know it's Stockton and Malone and you saw that
last night. But I and we talked about how they
front loaded the schedule. They wanted to make sure everybody
got to see Caitlin Clark. And she looked gassed, she
looked tired. And I did say she didn't deserve to
be on the Olympic team. And I meant that at
(20:36):
the time. Now is it a discussion point? Now it is,
But it's too late unless she gets on because somebody
is injured. I don't know when you freeze your lineups
there that she can't go on, but she is an alternate.
We did ask about the men's team as well, when
you have to freeze your lineup that Jalen Brown couldn't
join the team. Let's say if Jobe Ellenbiid wasn't able
(20:59):
to play. But with Caitlyn Clark, she's playing her way
into that conversation and this is what's going to happen.
You're going to get questions to the players on the
Olympic team about Caitlin Clark. And there's two ways to
approach this. You either you embrace it. Good for our game.
(21:20):
We hope that she'll be an Olympian, she'll have a
lot of opportunities, she'll probably be on the team in
Los Angeles. Or hey, I'm not here to talk about
somebody who's not here, and you're going to get two
different philosophies here.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
The best way to go about it acknowledge her.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
This is the team and we're proud to come home,
you know, bring home a gold medal here. And Caitlyn's
been great for the WNBA and you'll be able to
see her on the Olympic team in Los Angeles in
four years. But you know, they just signed this new deal.
No great timing, but that's the Caitlin Clark effect. She
(21:58):
had a large say in this TV deal that you now,
all of a sudden, you know, players might get their
salaries doubled. Now, is it just because of her?
Speaker 3 (22:10):
No?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
But I've said this before about Tiger had people who
didn't even like golf but were fascinated with Tiger. Wayne Gretzky,
people watched hockey. They weren't hockey fans, but they wanted
to see what Wayne Gretzky was all about. You may
tune in to the WNBA just to see Caitlyn Clark.
Hopefully you'll see the other players and you'll see how
(22:34):
far the game has progressed evolved and that there are
great athletes there. You know, Asia Wilson has been playing
great basketball for quite some time. It's just now people
are starting to recognize her. Caitlin brought the spotlight. But
the spotlight's big enough for a lot of other players,
and that's where you benefit from it. You know, Tiger
(22:57):
came there, prize money all of a sudden, you know, doubled.
Now everybody benefited from Tiger Woods, you know, Charter planes
in the WNBA. But you have to embrace it, and
you have to acknowledge what she's done. I mean, she
she should get MVP votes from this standpoint, Is she great?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Is she the most valuable player in the league? And
the answer is yes, for the league, she's the most
valuable player because of what Like Michael Jordan should have
been MVP every year because he was the most valuable
player for the league and that's what Caitlyn Clark has been.
But watching last night, she's amazing at times, spectacular at
(23:43):
times basketball acumen off the chart. I did want to
text my good buddy Doug Gottlieb, who is a college
coach at Wisconsin Green Bay, and I said, could Caitlin
Clark start for your team? He said, lebron James, his son,
Bronnie couldn't. So I wanted to see if Doug Caitlyn
and could start for his team. Oh, tomy in cheek
there with Douglas. All right, so let's pull question aside
(24:06):
from that one the stock that I'm investing in, Oh dear, Oh,
By the way, Bronnie James played pretty well last night.
He had I think he had.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
A two three pointers there season.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
A two, yeah, I think I think so A one
two yes, yes, And he looked okay last night.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
I watched a little bit of that looked okay.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
But once again, he's not ready to play any kind
of big minutes in the NBA, not yet. And maybe
it's a couple of years down the road, and maybe
he goes to the G League, which is probably where
he should be, and hopefully he gets that opportunity I'm
gonna guess there are probably going to be moments where
Lebron goes into the front office and says, hey, we
(24:56):
got a nationally televised Game'd be great if we brought
Ronnie yup and all of a sudden, Brownie will be
there on the bench.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Yes, Mark, in that first game, Bronnie's on the actual
Lakers roster.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
That Nike commercial with Ken Griffey Junior and Ken Griffy
Senior along with Bronnie and Lebron.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Okay, that's going to debut. Okay, I'm calling it all right,
all right, I'll give that to you.
Speaker 6 (25:17):
Yes, pomp Or, You're gonna have the most popular G
League team of all time. I think it's the South
Bay Lakers.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Is the G League team?
Speaker 6 (25:24):
Yes, they will have sell. I'm not even really joking
about this. They could to probably play thirty five minutes
a game and have the team to himself. Almost he'd
be get all the minutes that he didn't get last year.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
USC.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
Yeah, and playing basketball is the best way.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I like how people are saying, well, man, they're going
to sell a lot of merchandise. I go, how much
merchandise did USC sell? I mean probably not usc when
he was playing. I don't know how much merchandise they
were selling, but yeah, I did watch a little bit
of that last night, but I didn't watch most of
the game with Caitlin Clark. And it was a great game.
It was on back and forth and Dallas ended up
(26:03):
winning
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's awesome when the British opener Wimbledon. It's early in
the morning and you're like yeah, and then all of
a sudden, you start to plan your day. Next thing,
you know, you got soccer in the afternoon with the Euros,
and then Summer League basketball, and then at night you
had COPA And I'm watching because I friends with Rob Stone,
(00:25):
He's the host of Fox Sports, and so he's hosting
this and I keep waiting, like I'm waiting to go
when are they going to go out to the event,
And they kind of downplayed what was going on prior
to the game leading up to the game, and all
of a sudden you realize that, you know, the Copa
America final with Argentina and Columbia was a mess, and
(00:50):
we wanted to talk to somebody who was there. Paul
tan Orio, the senior writer for The Athletic. He was
there and joins us from the Fort Lauderdale area. Paul,
thanks for joining us. When did you really something was
something was wrong?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Pre game?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Yeah, it was a little bit before six o'clock. We
started to hear that there were issues with people that
were jumping fences trying to get into the games, and
we saw a couple photos on the getty wires actually
of people being arrested. And so at that point, my
colleagues Felipe Card and us Jack Laying and myself we
went down to the gates to see what was going on.
And I got down there at about six five or so,
(01:28):
and right around when I got down there, they closed
the gates. And at that point you're kind of thinking, Okay,
they're going to try to get control of this situation.
But very quickly, within a few minutes, I realized that
the decision to close the gates was going to be
one that made the situation worse, not better. And I
didn't go back upstairs and still, you know, well after
(01:49):
eight pm and just spend the next two hours documenting
everything that was going on around the gates and all
of the madness and the issues that were playing out.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
How close was this to a disaster last night? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:03):
I think really close. There was a point, probably around
eight o'clock I turned to my colleague and I said,
I think someone might end up dying tonight if they
don't do something to change this drastically and you know.
That's why when they opened the gates at eight fifteen,
it was not an ideal scenario at all, and it
was not a safe, you know, a safe solution, right
(02:24):
to just let everyone into the stadium, not check tickets,
not pat people down, not go through metal detectors. But
I felt it was the only solution. The people that
were crushed up against those gates had been there for hours.
The temperatures were in the nineties. It was my hottest
day here in South Florida of the five days that
I was here in the lead up to the game.
(02:45):
You know, when I came into the stadium at three pm,
obviously it's three or four hours ahead of this, it
was it was it was just so hot. The sun
was bearing down right on that gate, the southwest gate
of the stadium where I was watching, and I was
thinking to myself, I wasn't surrounded by anybody at that point.
And I came in soaking, wet with sweat, and hours
and hours of watching people come through the gates having fainted,
(03:06):
being carried in, unconscious, kids coming in completely red soaked,
their t shirts, soaked and sweat, crying that something had
to be done, and again it wasn't a perfect solution,
but had they not opened the gates, I think it
would have been worse.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Who was running the security, well.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
The logistics of this tournament were run by cole Ma Ball,
the association of the South American teams that puts on
the Cope America. You know, the last time Cope America
was here in the United States was twenty sixteen the
Copa America Centinadio. That tournament, a lot of the logistics
and operations were run by Soccer United Marketing, which is
Major League Soccer's marketing arm. US Soccer played a big
(03:46):
role this time around. Cole mad Ball wanted to run
everything top to bottom, and you know it was, you know,
it was a little bit of a mess this entire tournament.
For I was there in opening night Argentina played Canada
and Atlanta. The logistics weren't great and all the way
through the last day. Now, once you're at the stadium,
of course, the coordination was happening between the security firm
(04:07):
that works at hard Rock Stadium, the hard Rocks Stadium
operations people. I saw many of them down at the
Southwest gate trying to I don't even want to say coordinate.
I don't know exactly what they were doing, because there
wasn't a lot of communication happening even behind the gates,
let alone to the people that were stuck in front
of them. And then the Miami Dade police officers and
fire department were right there at the Southwest gate where
(04:28):
I was, So there were a lot of organizations working
in the moment, but there wasn't a lot of organization happening,
and almost no communication. I mean, my editor's family was
outside of the gates. Friends of mine outside of the
gates were telling me they had no idea the game
had been delayed. You know, they went to get to
the gate and they were within eight feet of the
gate when it closed, and then you're stuck. You can't
(04:49):
go anywhere, And it was just a really, really dangerous situation.
And I'm surprised that the organization the preparation for this
was not good enough, almost as if, you know, hard
Rock thought to themselves, Hey, we're hosting a soccer game,
not a continental final, with two of the most passionate
fan bases in the world, who also happen to have
(05:11):
enormous communities in South Florida. They were not ready for
the rush of people that were going to come to
that stadium.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Okay, let's fast forward to this, the United States hosting
the World Cup in a couple of years. How do
we learn from this? It feels like this keeps happening
over and over and over. I don't know if we're
learning from that. So how do you troubleshoot this? Well?
Speaker 4 (05:32):
I think FIFA has their hands full in multiple ways.
First of all, I think they need to be able
to communicate to people that it'll be different when they
run things, when they organize things, it'll be a completely
different set of operations, different organization running things. Commabole is
an organization that reports essentially to FIFA. They are not FIFA,
so you know that hopefully will give you a little
bit of security. Thinking FIFA's done World Cups before all
(05:55):
around the world. But I think for the American stadium
operations in all of these different cities, I hope that
they learn that the security logistics for these big games
have to be different around around the stadium. You know,
in other countries they have multiple layers of security to
get to the stadium so that you don't have these
rushes at the gates because this is happening more and more,
(06:15):
Like you said, we saw it in a Champions League
final in Europe. Obviously, with what happened yesterday, there has
to be there have to be checkpoints in order to
kind of filter out some of the people who who
are trying to get into these games without tickets or
else you end up with these with these bad situations.
And I will say at the early portion of this,
you know, they tried to open the gates a couple times,
(06:36):
crack them open, and people would rush towards those openings,
and that's human nature. I mean, they were they were
stuck there, they were trying to get out, and then
they would close the gates again. It was there was
this concern between letting people in that didn't have tickets
and the issues that can come from that and the
safety of the people themselves. And again I think it
shows that the security that FIFA has to go through
(06:57):
with these stadiums, with these local police offices, they have
to be diligent in creating checkpoints to prevent a build
up at the gates themselves.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Could this have been Messi's last big match, Yeah, it
could have been.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
You know, he didn't first of all, Argentina didn't come
through the mix zone at the end of the night,
so we didn't get to talk to the players at all.
After the game, a lot of the focus, and Messi
made sure a lot of the focus was on on
Healdy Madia. It being his last match. He was never
going to take that moment away from him, and so
you know, they said, no one talked about it being
Messi's last match. I wouldn't be surprised if he decided
at one point it was. But I have a feeling
(07:34):
he's going to stick around. He seems to. I've never
seen him so happy. You see him in the mix
zone after the semifinal. He was smiling and laughing and
just really enjoying himself.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Within this group.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Argentina is still playing in World Cup qualifiers. He's still
playing for Inner Miami, I think, as long as he's
playing club soccer, but probably play for Argentina. But now
we wait, We wait and see how the ankle heels up,
and we wait and see if giving himself a couple
of days of space between this trophy and starting some
medical work on his ankle make some reflect on whether
this this should be the end.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Thank you Paul, we appreciate you joining us and thank you,
thanks so much. That's Paul t an Oreo the Athletic
covering last night. Yeah, there were there were two different events.
There was the game itself, the match itself, and then
what was happening prior to that. And you know there's
the documentary that was on Wembley. Was that the Euro's
(08:29):
Seaton a few years ago?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yeah, that was just the last ones England, Italy, Italy.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yes, and if you're watching that documentary, it is you
can you can see it, you can feel it. I
think it's it's coming. And all of a sudden these fans,
now there was a ton of drinking and they started
early and it was a mess. And then all of
a sudden they brought the party to Wembley and they
(08:56):
were getting in and they were getting in no matter what.
You almost have to if you can have a barricade
outside of the barricade, like you have these checkpoints to
allow people in. But you know, the World Cup is
going to be on home soil. Here it's different, like
we don't we're not passionate about soccer the way these
(09:17):
countries are. And you have to understand that with your
security measures. They were going through air conditioning ducks, you know, vents.
They were trying any way they could. And there were
people who had tickets who went to their seats and
people were sitting in their seats and they weren't getting up.
People didn't get in who had tickets. It's a lot
(09:40):
of money that you spent and then you didn't even
get into the event. Like that's inexcusable. I'm not going
to put this all on South Florida and the police
and security there because it wasn't run by them, but
I mean there's enough blame to go around. I've mentioned
this before. I was working in eight in Ohio and
(10:01):
we had tickets to the Who concert in Cincinnati, the
Who concert where eleven people died. And we got down
there and we saw ambulances and you saw body bags,
you know, on the viaduct there with Riverfront Coliseum. You know,
all it takes is and it shouldn't take that. But
(10:21):
you have something that is etched in my memory bank
of this was festival seating. Doors were crashed, glasses crashed,
people were squished, they were crushed. So I hope, and
we always say this, well, the next time we'll learn
from this. Okay, I hope we learn from this and
(10:44):
understand this and the passion that's there. And you saw
that last night, watch that Wembley documentary. It is a
very sad day on a variety of fronts there when
you're watching how that unfolded.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Fox Sports Radio as the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 5 (11:09):
Live, Hey, gang, listen is Jay Glazer, host of Unbreakable,
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(11:32):
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Speaker 2 (11:47):
So the All Star Game, it was fun. I thought
baseball had a great night last night. The uniforms are terrible,
and I think they're going to go back to maybe
that the player is going to present his team, which
I think is the best thing to do, and it
certainly would have been last night. And I said this,
not that you can change it once, you know, thirty
(12:09):
two first time All Stars, but because of that, I
wanted you to wear your uniform so I could go, oh,
he plays for the Guardians. I just think you have
to have more personal brandings sometimes with Major League Baseball.
Paul Skeens went out there and kind of had non
eventful first inning, but the hype was great. Got a
(12:30):
chance to face Aaron Judge, so that worked out. Show Hey,
Otani hit a bomb that worked out. You know the
game ends, they you know it's a home run that
wins now, So I thought it was good. I thought
the uniforms were softball ish and they tried too hard.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I think, just make it an All Star game.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
You wear your uniforms if you want to wear those things,
and I call them things if you want to go, hey,
we're going to a Texas theme for the home run derby, fine,
not for the All Star Like I felt bad for
some of those guys that just didn't look good in
those colors. But it was definitely a softball like feel.
But they've had problems with the uniforms, not only how
(13:15):
they look, but the quality of them.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
And you know.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
What, Todd, would you see if the Commissioner's office is open,
could you see if the commissioner, you know, maybe we
got a theme going. Tory Lavello, you know, came on
and said, Paul Skenes could be the he's going to
be the starting pitcher. Maybe we get the commissioner to
join us and he could talk about uniforms here.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I think that's a great idea.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Maybe we changed the uniform Maybe calls in and says, Dan,
we're going to change the uniforms.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
We're going back to old school.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Now, there is a tweet that's out there now that
the Commissioner of Baseball says there will be conversations about
returning to the individual jerseys for next year's All Star Game.
He says that he is aware of the sentiment that's
according to the Commissioner Najor League Baseball, Rob Manfred. Once
(14:07):
you say something like that, get ready for a change
in uniforms. It's like when Roger Goodell goes, you know what,
we're listening for the eighteen games, and you know we're
taking that under consideration. Okay, Commission, there's going to be
an eighteen game schedule. The question is when, not if?
And I do think we'll go back to the uniforms
(14:29):
of the individuals.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yes, poem.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
It almost made me sad last night because some group
of people put together these Texas themed uniforms and they
had some cool touches to them, like the belt and
the script and the colors were trying to be Texas art.
And I respect that it's creative. However, the public sentiment
is so far against any type of novelty uniforms. They're
going in Uphell, Trey Turner, the baseball player, he go
(14:53):
for a ball and he got up and he was
talking to John SMOLTI goes, yeah, this belt's a little wonky.
It's like a real belt with metal tips. He goes,
it's pinching me a little bit in my gut.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Yeah. Well, I think they're going to change.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
But baseball, Look, I here's the problem that we have now.
Maybe older school you know baseball fans or former baseball
fans are like, well that you know that game's not
for me. Anymore, whatever it might be. Once again, those
uniforms may not be for me. Maybe it's for your
son or daughter. Maybe it's for the younger audience. That's
(15:27):
what they're going for. Just because I may not like
it or you may not like it, doesn't mean baseball
won't stay with something like that. They're trying to attract
the younger fan. Every sport is, and I get that.
So when people tweet out that, oh, you know, I
don't watch it anymore, Well, you're not twelve or you're
not fourteen, I get it. I mean, how many grown
(15:50):
ups go, boy, I love a good parade, But ask
your kids and they're like, God, can we go to
the parade? Yes, we get sparklers and fireworks and in candy,
and that's what you want. I mean, we all fell
in love with certain sports because we were young at
the time. Baseball you fell in love with it. Maybe
(16:11):
you don't. You know, you're not watching it all the
time now, and it's not the sport. It's you changed now.
I can argue about, you know, some of the finer
points of baseball that are not for me. But once again,
your son or daughter, you know, somebody younger may love
that they hit home runs all the time, that they're
(16:32):
not bothered by strikeouts, that maybe look at those uniforms,
they look awesome. It's like the guy who loves the
NFL but doesn't play fantasy football. Oh I would never
do that. Yeah, you don't have to, but there are
a lot of people who are. And that's why I
always I laugh when I have the older baseball fan
or former baseball fan and says, oh, I don't watch
(16:54):
it anymore. Yeah, I get it. Other things to do,
but it's more on you than it is baseball. All Right,
we'll take a break. John Smoltz was on the call
last night. Smoltzy had a great night. He'll join us
coming up top the next hour, and the nationally go
star manager Tory Leavello from the Diamondbacks will stop by,
and the founder of Fanatics, Michael Rubin as well.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
We'll come back. We'll settle on a.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Poll question and Todd I was being serious about asking
Major League Baseball if the commissioner could join us, because
he might say, Dan, you know what, I've given it
a lot of thought in the last twelve hours.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
We're going to change the uniforms.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app the WNBA.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I just I hope they're able to add stars that
you're going to tune in to watch other than just
Caitlin Clark. You need to have that. You need to
have a few more stars there, Juju Watkins when she
comes in, or Page Becker's when she comes in. You
just you need more teams and you need more stars
that you'll tune in to see. And last night Caitlin
(18:05):
Clark put on a show twenty four points, nineteen assists,
And that's why I'm watching. And I'm kind of laughing
at the people or trying to make this an argument
or a discussion that Angel Reese is somehow the rookie
of the year. And this isn't anti Angel Reese. I
told you she is relentless. She reminds me of Moses Malone.
(18:28):
If you're old enough to remember how Moses played. His
shot wasn't pretty, but he was relentless both ends of
the floor. He was going to get rebounds, he was
going to get garbage points. He'll put backs, you know.
Esthetically wasn't pleasing. But Angel Reese is kind of like
(18:48):
Moses Malone. Caitlin Clark is on the worst team. There's
a reason why they got the number one pick. They
weren't good. She's making them at least playoff worthy now granted,
and you know just about everybody makes the playoffs in
the WNBA. But you're watching last night, and I mean,
she scored or assisted on sixty six of her team's
(19:12):
ninety three points. That's a WNBA record. She's gone twenty
and ten a couple of times this year, three times
twenty and ten, three times this year. I mean she's
going to set all the rookie records in the WNBA.
And for those who think she's just a logo shooter,
(19:33):
just watch her play. She has the ability to pass
that is equal or surpassing players in the NBA. Her
ability to find the open person, it's remarkable, and as
we talked about this yesterday, to see a play maybe
one or two plays before it happens, or a pass
(19:54):
here leads to a pass there. And she's unselfish, probably
a little too much. She should a shot a little
bit more last night. And I always go back when
we started this year, her season I said she might
be more of a facilitator and lead the league and
assist more than just and I thought she would be
a twenty ten player this year. You know, she gets
(20:16):
in a pick and roll with the Leah Boston and
you know it's Stockton and Malone and you saw that
last night. But I and we talked about how they
front loaded the schedule. They wanted to make sure everybody
got to see Caitlin Clark. And she looked gassed, she
looked tired. And I did say she didn't deserve to
be on the Olympic team. And I meant that at
(20:36):
the time. Now is it a discussion point? Now it is,
But it's too late unless she gets on because somebody
is injured. I don't know when you freeze your lineups
there that she can't go on, but she is an alternate.
We did ask about the men's team as well, when
you have to freeze your lineup that Jalen Brown couldn't
join the team. Let's say if Jobe Ellenbiid wasn't able
(20:59):
to play. But with Caitlyn Clark, she's playing her way
into that conversation and this is what's going to happen.
You're going to get questions to the players on the
Olympic team about Caitlin Clark. And there's two ways to
approach this. You either you embrace it. Good for our game.
(21:20):
We hope that she'll be an Olympian, she'll have a
lot of opportunities, she'll probably be on the team in
Los Angeles. Or hey, I'm not here to talk about
somebody who's not here, and you're going to get two
different philosophies here.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
The best way to go about it acknowledge her.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
This is the team and we're proud to come home,
you know, bring home a gold medal here. And Caitlyn's
been great for the WNBA and you'll be able to
see her on the Olympic team in Los Angeles in
four years. But you know, they just signed this new deal.
No great timing, but that's the Caitlin Clark effect. She
(21:58):
had a large say in this TV deal that you now,
all of a sudden, you know, players might get their
salaries doubled. Now, is it just because of her?
Speaker 3 (22:10):
No?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
But I've said this before about Tiger had people who
didn't even like golf but were fascinated with Tiger. Wayne Gretzky,
people watched hockey. They weren't hockey fans, but they wanted
to see what Wayne Gretzky was all about. You may
tune in to the WNBA just to see Caitlyn Clark.
Hopefully you'll see the other players and you'll see how
(22:34):
far the game has progressed evolved and that there are
great athletes there. You know, Asia Wilson has been playing
great basketball for quite some time. It's just now people
are starting to recognize her. Caitlin brought the spotlight. But
the spotlight's big enough for a lot of other players,
and that's where you benefit from it. You know, Tiger
(22:57):
came there, prize money all of a sudden, you know, doubled.
Now everybody benefited from Tiger Woods, you know, Charter planes
in the WNBA. But you have to embrace it, and
you have to acknowledge what she's done. I mean, she
she should get MVP votes from this standpoint, Is she great?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Is she the most valuable player in the league? And
the answer is yes, for the league, she's the most
valuable player because of what Like Michael Jordan should have
been MVP every year because he was the most valuable
player for the league and that's what Caitlyn Clark has been.
But watching last night, she's amazing at times, spectacular at
(23:43):
times basketball acumen off the chart. I did want to
text my good buddy Doug Gottlieb, who is a college
coach at Wisconsin Green Bay, and I said, could Caitlin
Clark start for your team? He said, lebron James, his son,
Bronnie couldn't. So I wanted to see if Doug Caitlyn
and could start for his team. Oh, tomy in cheek
there with Douglas. All right, so let's pull question aside
(24:06):
from that one the stock that I'm investing in, Oh dear, Oh,
By the way, Bronnie James played pretty well last night.
He had I think he had.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
A two three pointers there season.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
A two, yeah, I think I think so A one
two yes, yes, And he looked okay last night.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
I watched a little bit of that looked okay.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
But once again, he's not ready to play any kind
of big minutes in the NBA, not yet. And maybe
it's a couple of years down the road, and maybe
he goes to the G League, which is probably where
he should be, and hopefully he gets that opportunity I'm
gonna guess there are probably going to be moments where
Lebron goes into the front office and says, hey, we
(24:56):
got a nationally televised Game'd be great if we brought
Ronnie yup and all of a sudden, Brownie will be
there on the bench.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Yes, Mark, in that first game, Bronnie's on the actual
Lakers roster.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
That Nike commercial with Ken Griffey Junior and Ken Griffy
Senior along with Bronnie and Lebron.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Okay, that's going to debut. Okay, I'm calling it all right,
all right, I'll give that to you.
Speaker 6 (25:17):
Yes, pomp Or, You're gonna have the most popular G
League team of all time. I think it's the South
Bay Lakers.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Is the G League team?
Speaker 6 (25:24):
Yes, they will have sell. I'm not even really joking
about this. They could to probably play thirty five minutes
a game and have the team to himself. Almost he'd
be get all the minutes that he didn't get last year.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
USC.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
Yeah, and playing basketball is the best way.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I like how people are saying, well, man, they're going
to sell a lot of merchandise. I go, how much
merchandise did USC sell? I mean probably not usc when
he was playing. I don't know how much merchandise they
were selling, but yeah, I did watch a little bit
of that last night, but I didn't watch most of
the game with Caitlin Clark. And it was a great game.
It was on back and forth and Dallas ended up
(26:03):
winning
Hosts And Creators
Todd "Fritzy" Fritz
Dan Patrick
Patrick "Seton" O'Connor
Paul Pabst
Marvin Prince
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