Happy Bobby Bonilla Day!!!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Greetings and welcome inside
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmen, live from the
Geico Studios. Mike Harmon off tonight special delivery, Steve de
Seger in for him as boy. I'll tell you what
every day is sort of following the same I would say,

(00:46):
the same pattern where late in the day there's just
a flurry of news because the NBA and MLB and
the NFL have had meetings about something COVID restart related,
and we get a whole bunch of stuff just dumped
at us like five o'clock in the afternoon. Weird. Usually
all the big news happens in the morning, early part
of the day, and then once in a while we

(01:07):
get a story breaking at night that's a really big deal.
And usually when that happens. It's something coming from a game. Uh,
that that's going on. But obviously no games happening now.
But the last you know, month or two, it's been okay.
But after a whole day's worth of thinking things and
having conference calls and zoom calls, hey, we get big stories.
And we told you yesterday this is a huge, huge,

(01:31):
huge week for restarting sports, for the NBA and Major
League Baseball because this is when the players are getting
a little skittish and a little nervous about going and
restarting this season. You know, we had players bow out
yesterday in the NBA and in Major League Baseball today
again the same thing. Lou Williams still unsure if he's

(01:51):
going to restart the season with the Clippers, and if
the Clippers don't have Lou Williams. I don't think the
Clippers beat the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. I'm sorry,
I'm just putting both those teams in the Western Conference Finals.
I hope that's okay. Uh, this is the first real
big domino of boy. If they're missing him, If a
team is missing player X who decided to not come back,
that's gonna put a dent in their title plan. So

(02:12):
this is what we're getting, uh now, is that the
players need to be shepherded through this situation and being
told that a we got you, you know, the the
NBA and MLB saying listen, we're all set, we got you,
We're gonna take care of you. Well. Today, Adam Silver
went on a podcast on Time uh Time one hundred talks.
He did an appearance on Time one hundred Talks, and

(02:33):
he was asked about the NBA's chances of not going
to Orlando, and Adam Silver said, Hey, while the plan
is to go on and play, hey, you can't just
say full steam ahead. Never full steam ahead, no matter
what I think. One thing we're learning about this virus
as much as unpredictable, and I think we and our players,
together with their union, the Players Association, look at the

(02:55):
data on a daily basis, and if there were something
to change that was outside out of the scope of
what we're playing for, certainly we would revisit our plans.
I'd also say, I mean, we're testing daily. We haven't
put a precise number on it, but if we were
to see a large number of cases and we were
to see spread in our community, that would, of course,
would be a cause for us to stop as well.

(03:17):
There's two big things coming off this, And the first thing, Steve,
is that I'm glad. I'm actually glad that I heard
Adam Silver say, Hey, if the coronavirus gets out of control,
this could stop us playing. Actually, because with what's going
on now in the country, there's so much you know,
full steam ahead that no matter what, and it can
get out of control, and you're talking about people's health.

(03:38):
I'm actually glad to hear that Adam Silver saynywent, no, No,
can't say full steam ahead because the player's health is important.
We have to take care of this. That that could
stop us. Because when I see stories today like Major
League Baseball insinuating that if a player gets COVID, they're
gonna hide that test and just the player goes on
the injured list and they don't say anything, Well, the
implication was they have to hide the test. Federal forward

(04:00):
and sports sometimes, dude, I don't want to release the
medical information, sure, but you know, I think you kind
of have to let people know that. I think you
have to. You can get the thing that's important, sure,
but any any time, any time, I hear a sports
say we may hide positive coronavirus has from anybody. That's
never a good look because you're wondering, okay, are you

(04:20):
gonna just hide cases and just try to play no
matter what? Are are you? Are you gonna see teams
lie to players and say yeah, no, you're fine. It's
gonna sit for a couple of days. Meanwhile, you're in
quarantine or and you don't know what, or they don't
tell you're officially in it. So I'm kind of glad
to hear Adam Silver say, listen, we're not just gonna
go crazy and go and play no matter what and
just collect money at the gate and doesn't matter who's healthy.

(04:41):
He knows coronavirus could get to the point where that
stops basketball, and and there's no hard and fast time
where I could say, okay, this will stop it. It's
gonna be a smell test thing. It's gonna be we
can play until we realize we can't play anymore. So
I'm actually kind of buoyed by Adam Silver in the leadership.
He's showing here as far as this goes. It was
kind of took a little bit of pre sure off
me today going, Okay, the NBA, at least I know,

(05:02):
was gonna do things, although people were remember saying a
few weeks ago, Okay, are they going to pause the
playoffs if some star has to actually pause for a
couple of weeks because you're tested positive and flat out
this past week, Silver said, nope, You're gonna treat that
like you had an injured player during the regular season. Nope,
You'll just have to go without him, you know, And
that and that gets into a different, a different thing

(05:24):
where Okay, you're not gonna you're not gonna stop the game.
But let's just say this happens. Right, Let's just say
this happens. Let's say on you know, the two nights
before the end of the regular season or you know,
in the middle of the playoffs. Let's just say it
doesn't matter that the Raptors are gonna play the Celtics, right,
rap set to play the Celtics. Raptors and Celtics each
play on Monday night, they're gonna play on Wednesday night. Well,

(05:46):
on Tuesday morning, we find out three Raptors players test
positive for COVID nineteen. But they're going into isolation and
they're gonna be monitoring everything is everything is fine. Are
the Celtics who have no positive COVID nineteen tests, are
they gonn say yeah, we're ready to play this game
the next ding you're ready to go, No, we'll play
because you're not gonna know. You're not gonna know if
the other players you're playing against have COVID nineteen, if

(06:07):
you're gonna get it from them. So if you suddenly
have a team that says, yeah, we got three positive tests,
the NBA can say, Okay, well they're being monitored and
they're fine, and we'll get them back in and they
have to you know, they have to isolate and self quarantine,
but we don't You don't know what the effect on
the rest of the team is. Yeah, you could take
their temperatures, but sometimes the symptoms take a couple of days.
Is a team that has no positive tests gonna say yes,

(06:29):
we're gonna go play this game the next day. That's
a big thing that I think they're You're we're not
thinking about enough, because look, we we had we had
teams refused to play at the end. You know, Rudy
Gobert test positive for COVID nineteen. Right, all the games
are canceled. We're gonna play one more game with the
Kings and the Pelicans, and the Pelicans say, referee from
our game. Ref Rudy Gobert's game the other night. We're

(06:50):
not playing. So okay, there's no game. And this is
part of it. To the power of the player, especially
in this league. Right, So if you get a few
players together, it's kind of like the Donald Sterling since
you as you remember, and those Clipper players would have
stopped playing. Wasn't it a playoff game? And they would
have walked off. They would have walked off, would have
come together and forget it. So I I could obviously

(07:10):
seemed see a team coming together in this type of
situation with this COVID nineteen hovering over all sports. And
now whether or not Adam Silver is doing this because
he's you know, he's doing the right thing, or he
knows how powerful the players are. And that booys me too,
is that the players aren't going I I don't think
the NBA players are going to be herded into doing

(07:31):
anything they don't want to do. You know, it's it's
not on the professional athletes at the Star Baseball players
and NBA players gonna say listen, if we got this
going on, we're just not gonna play and we're gonna
figure this out, and it's not gonna be We're telling
you you have to go play, and and they're going
to be powerless in this look that the NBA players
are very, very powerful, and you know, so they're gonna
be the ones that are gonna make the decisions on this.

(07:53):
But the other thing about this is that I'm coming
around on an idea that I first thought was a
bad idea, and now I think it's the only idea
that can save the NBA. Yeah, it's amazing, right, It's
I didn't think this is a really great idea. I
thought this idea sounded great in theory, but now I
think it's the only idea that could save the NBA.

(08:13):
I was not a big fan of the bubble plan.
I didn't think the Orlando bubble ideas. I didn't think
it was a good idea because it sounded good in
theory versus in practice. Hey, we're gonna we're gonna get
the players all together, We're gonna quarantine them, we're gonna
test them every day. They're gonna be at a bubble.
They're not going to be amongst anybody else, and this
is what's gonna work. But if you qualify after the

(08:34):
first round, remember a limited number of family members can
go to the Disney complex. You gotta win. Yeah, but
if I lose, I can go home and see everybody.
Well yeah, that's true. Okay, Well but if I win,
I can see three people. If I go home, I
can see everybody. I'm gonna go home. So I didn't
think it was a good I thought it was good
in theory because once you saw the NBA's plans coming out,

(08:56):
it seemed like, how are you going to get get
a lid on this? When you play cards? But if
you play cards, you have to throw the cards away
right after. You can't play But to two verses to
ping pong, even though you're you know, slamming up and
down against other people's bodies the entire night. No, no,
but don't stand next to each other and play ping pong.
Cardiovascular and they've said heavy breathing. Of course, even an exercise,

(09:18):
they've proved that that's more likely to transmit because we're
talking respiratory troplets. So the heavier you're breathing, like say,
in competition and more likely it is to spread. Yeah,
I thought this is it sounds great. It's like time travel,
like you hear all these days, no time travel is possible,
time travels completely possible. How do you do it? Well,
there's the flux capacitor, and then there's timelines, and then

(09:39):
there's this, and there's quantum physics and lot'm forgetting jigawats. Yeah,
and you're like, wait a minute, you're you're explaining the
most complex thing in the world that probably isn't even real.
That's kind of how I thought, you know, playing in
the bubble is gonna be. It sounds a great idea.
I'd like to time travel, time travels trave but really
a cow impossible. Really is the time travel? I mean really,
unless you have a DeLorean, it's gonna be really difficult
to do, so I thought, But and those are harder

(10:01):
to find, of course, they're very Yeah, I mean it's
hard to find a Dolor. I don't know you're gonna
find a Dorian now, that's very difficult. You said to
wait thirty years have become a collector's item. Actually, the
odd thing is you'd have to go back to the
future to find the Dorian, and they didn't use it
to go back to the future. Hey, listen, you think
there's people out there that are selling things in the future,
that are taking money from people going yeah, I got it,

(10:22):
but it's in the future. Wait a minute, didn't Biff
had the Book of Sports with all the results in
Back to the Future too, and that's how he made
the big money because he knew the results of all
the future World Series games. I need I need a
Mickey Mantle rookie card. I got one, but it's in
the future. But here, if you give me twelve dollars,
that's your card, and then when you get to the future,

(10:44):
it's yours. I'll give it to you. I mean, is
there some kind of scam going on where that's happened,
you know, which brings the fact to all these leagues
if they don't even know And one of the leagues
actually said this, I don't even know three weeks into
the future. How how can you ask me to predict
three months into the future. And frankly, that's but now,
seeing as how things have evolved in the past couple

(11:07):
of weeks, where we can't really trust players people to
social distance the right way, where mass and stop the
spread of COVID nineteen. Right, we were on the the
the the way back down, coming down with everybody else,
and I'm thinking, we're gonna have fans at games. Everybody's going.
Everybody's making too much of this because look, look at

(11:28):
we're flattening the curve and coronavirus. We're taking care of it,
but no, not enough of us can go out and
do it safely. And you're seeing athletes who decide we're
gonna go to a bar one night and look what happens. Oh,
we have COVID nineteen. Now, I think the bubble is
the only thing that can save the players because they
need to be in an in a situation where everything
is controlled around them, where they can be said, okay, listen,

(11:49):
this is what it is. We're gonna test you, we're
gonna keep you safe. We're gonna play basketball. You're gonna
get paid, You're gonna get to have a great and
unprecedented amount of exposure to to everybody your sport. You can,
we can push social justice like we never have before.
We can do all these things. But the fact is
is that as we've seen trusting, you know, athletes in

(12:12):
their twenties and thirties to say, Okay, you've got to
do everything the right way and stay safe. I think
that's impossible. I I don't think you can say, yes,
we'll do that and look at the NBA gonna have
to worry about what what what some people might say is, oh,
it's a bad optic where you have all these players,
you have a lot of black players in a bubble
and under and and that's not going to be a
good optic, which is kind of what Chris Paul was

(12:33):
bringing about a couple of weeks ago. But I think
that's the only way you're gonna be able to play,
to say, okay, let's control everything. Let's leave the NBA.
We're going to control it all and keep everybody safe.
Positive tests here, you're not playing, we're doing X, Y
and Z. We are in control of this. Well. Even
in that situation, you don't have total control. It's just
the best you can do. Which is why one baseball

(12:54):
writer said that's the wild Wild West, because baseball is
still going to all the other stadiums in inter league
and all the other stadiums in your division, and they're
making flights and they're having series just like nothing's happening. Yeah,
you know, and the thing with baseball is that they're
going in a way where I don't know that you
can control. And look, if you can't control, you can
only do the best you can. You're right, and and basketball, clearly,

(13:17):
this is the best way you can do it if
we can control in a bubble and stop positive tests,
because we can stop players from making a bad decision
where they say, listen, I'm gonna go out for a
drink er, I'm gonna go out to a restaurant, I'm
gonna go do this, or somebody who has come to
visit them that wasn't social distancing. And you know, you
can control that, and that's gonna keep everybody healthy. And
that's a big positive for being able to play baseball.

(13:40):
The best part is that okay, yes you're traveling, and
that's probably not the best idea, but there is the
least amount of interaction. And as we've known for coronavirus
is the longer you are exposed to someone or the
more likely are you are to get it. Baseball is
the sport and most made coronavirus friendly of all the
team's team sports. You know, the individual sports, clearly, you

(14:02):
can do it because we're saying come back. But the
baseball of the team sports is the most coronavirus friendly.
So that's where okay, at least that's in baseball's wheelhouse,
and that's on their side. That okay, the less of
it's out there. But i'll tell you, you you know, if
if the NBA bubble really works and and and I
I wonder if you're not gonna see other sports go okay,
depending on how things go in our country, if we

(14:24):
see big spike and rise, it's gonna be well, guess what,
we all have to find some kind of bubble. And
that's the way forward because the first time somebody for
one league finds successful way to do it, all the
league are gonna copy. And do you know why? Overall,
the bigger story is why are we in this situation
in sports in this country because our country didn't take
the virus seriously, because there are other countries like Germany

(14:46):
that did and they were able to finish their season.
It just finished on FS one last weekend. They're done
with the actual regular season schedule. South Korea baseball have
been on TV, granted with no fans, but they've really
he needed the TV exposure financially to keep that league afloat,
and they've gotten it. And Taiwan, despite being close to China,

(15:07):
took it very seriously and they've had experience with pandemics
and it came in Andy and guess what, they were
the first baseball league in the country to start. So
these things and Japan Baseball recently started. These are the
things of why we're in a bind in this country.
I'll tell you the bubble. I went from the bubble
being this has never come on. How is this going

(15:27):
to work? To think in ten days it's you know,
the bubble. Maybe the only thing that saves us. Rocky said,
people can change. We've seen it on this show during
this fight. I've seen a lot of changing. And I
like how we got to talk to the crowd at
the end, you know, like, what what does that? What
does it usually do? But he got you got to
talk to the crowd with with of course, with a
with a translator, right, it's kind of translation. It was

(15:50):
Rocky after all, Twitter at out about a Fresco phone
number eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox The Jason
Swift Show with Mike Carmon, Steve De Sager in form.
Uh so, what is the NBA's big plan? Is this
the one that can really save it? Is Lou Williams
really not gonna play? Is j R. Smith actually going
to play? And he's gonna be signed? Rick Buker Fox

(16:11):
Sports One NBA Insider stops by with all the latest
coming up next, Keep it right here, this is Fox
Sports Radio j Hart Smith's huge boner. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app Fox

(16:33):
Sports Radio. That Jason Smith Show with Mike Harman live
from the Geico Studio. Steve to Seger in for Harmon tonight,
Gonna have Rick Buker stopping buying a couple minutes. Bleach
your report, Fox Sports One NBA Insider and look we'll
talk about the NBA restart, but really, Steve, you know
this Lou Williams story is a really big deal because look,

(16:55):
with players opting out of coming back to the bubble
and understandably so, uh for everyone who has has questions
about their health and taking care of their family. Are
yeah yeah, yeah, well yeah yeah, you're not gonna see
any they're not gonna come after your money. You're not
in violation of breach of contract. You're gonna be home
and not get paid. But everything is fine. They understand,

(17:16):
unlike Major League Baseball, who was like, you're good to play.
If I could have come to your house and gramb
you and throw you in the back of the car
and drive you myself. But if Lou Williams doesn't play,
he's the first of the woe. Now, this is a
guy that could affect how the playoffs goes. Because the
Lakers miss Avery Bradley. Okay, you know you're missing a starter,
and he was you know, he was really good from

(17:37):
three point range the last couple of months. He was
very good defensively. But really, can you say he's one
of those guys a boy the Lakers, if we only
had Avery Bradley, he would have won. But if you
could say for the Clippers, if they don't have Lou
Williams and suddenly that bench is missing, you know, twenty
points a game off it, because there's one or two
games per series. Lou Williams winds up with twenty some
odd points off the bench, and the Clippers win. Uh,

(17:59):
this is the first big where I say, wait made
him that the Clippers might be in trouble if Lou
Williams doesn't play nineteen points a game and six man
award winner three different times in the end. Yeah, that
would be. And why we're bringing this up. By the way,
it's July one, is tomorrow, and that's the deadline right
when you have to notify the NBA. These are our
thirty five people in the travel party. Yes, well that

(18:19):
is happening. Bobby Benia is getting a check for nearly
two million dollars Pacific Midnight Eastern. Didn't wish you a
happy Bobby vide a day, won't count down like it's
New Year's Eve, Bobby Beni a day joining us now
on the hot line. It is Bleach Report, Fox Sports One.
NBA insider Rick Buker and Rick Look will get to
this stuff with Adam Silver and as we get on

(18:40):
as the league is getting ready to come back, and
j R. Smith too. But you know the Lou Williams
thing for all the players not coming back, I mean,
am I overestimating that? Boy? If Lou Williams doesn't play
that that puts a huge dent in the Clippers chances
to win it all. Yeah, I don't know a dent certainly,
I don't know if it's a huge dent, I would say,
I think you're under to make a little bit. But

(19:01):
the Avery Bradley, I think the distinction between Avery Bradley
and Lou Williams is in it it's it's there's a
distinctive difference, but I don't think it's a monstrous difference. Uh.
And I'm probably probably not expressing that well. I think
I think the Lakers are going to miss Avery Bradley
in a significant way. A lot of that depends on

(19:22):
the condition of Rosan Rondo uh coming back. But there's
a reason that Avery Bradley moved into the starting lineup
and was getting a lot of runs. So, UM, the
question with Lou and I guess this is the thing.
You know, remember when when DeAndre Jordan's was headed to
the Dallas, Mavericks and Blake and Chris Paul and Doc
Rivers all staked out his his house. I would not

(19:44):
be surprised if Doc Rivers is doing the same thing
with Lou Williams right now. Um, I know their relationship
and um, and I would expect that Doc is going
to be doing everything that he can to convince Lou
to come a come along. I will I will be
I mean, look, it's very possible I would be there.

(20:05):
I would be surprised when all of a sudden done
if Lou ends up not going to going to Orlando.
He hates the practice, he hates like anything that's beyond playing.
Um So I get why he would be the guy
that would express the most reluctant for a variety of reasons, obviously,
But I just I feel like with what the Clippers have,

(20:27):
the possibility that they have the relationship that Doc has
with Lou, that they're going to find a way to
get this done. Rick, when it comes to now, let's
go across the across the hall to j R. Smith, who,
get you know, is gonna wind up taking Avery Bradley
spot per se for the Lakers big story in the
past twenty four hours. I don't I don't know that.

(20:48):
I mean, it sounds great and j R. Smith coming
back is awesome, and that's gonna be great because it's
gonna be fun. But I just don't know how much
he's gonna play. I mean, I feel like he's the
let's break glass in case of emergency, because the leg
you know, KCP is gonna play in, Waiters is gonna play,
and and Alex Caruso is gonna play in Rondo. All
these guys are gonna play. I think this is just Hey,
if something happens and we have to put you in,

(21:09):
we'll put j R. Smith in. Yeah, I think you're right.
It's it's a matter of are you gonna leave that
rostery spot open? Well, no, not if you can fill it.
And so who are you going to fill it with?
Jamal Crawford, Nick Young, j R. Smith. I mean, those
are those are the candidates, and those are the main candidate.
Jerr Smith at least has a familiarity with Lebron Um

(21:30):
Lebron maybe unfortunately has a familiarity with in some key situations.
But as far as a guy who could defend a
little bit and knocked down a big shot and understand
how to play off of Lebron, they are just makes
the most sense. Of course, I'm talking about the Jr.

(21:51):
That we saw about two years ago. There's a reason
that they signed uh Dion Waiters ahead of j R.
Smith at this point in their respective careers, and so yeah,
I would fully expect that j R Is only going
to see time. Let's put it this way. If j
R c is time, things are probably not going well

(22:13):
for the Lakers. Although you know at some point, you
know what's gonna come down to. He's gonna be on
the floor in the last minute of Game seven and
take an ill advised shot. I mean, you just know
somehow that's gonna happen. Well, wait a minute, I mean
you're like, you know it tomorrow is Wednesday, Like, yes,

(22:34):
of course he is. I mean, yeah, he's gonna he's
gonna hit about three like, oh my god shots, and
then he's gonna miss about seven in a row, and
then he's gonna hit two more oh my god shots,
and you just don't know when they're gonna come. See,
this is the thing. I don't know that it's a
matter of like in a in a crunch time situation,

(22:55):
or it's in the first quarter. It's kind of like
that roulette wheel. You know it's all gonna happen, you
just don't know when. And I don't think JR really knows.
I think that's why he's so good or so fearless
under pressures because he doesn't really know what's going on. It'says,
I got the ball, there's a basket, I'm going to
shoot it. And that's part for the course. Rick. This

(23:19):
is Steve amidst all the questions, and there are many
about this year. I do have one question about next
season to you in that it's a pipe dream, isn't
it that next season for the NBA is starting first
week of December. First off, this season's NBA Finals, even
if we get to the NBA Finals wouldn't end until
mid October. And they don't know about fans even being
back for games in December. Still right, Yeah, No, I

(23:41):
think we're a long way from I think we're a
long way from having fans in the building. But I
don't see anything as far as the timeline is concerned
that they wouldn't be able to come back in December.
What is what's your what's your reasoning for? That's because
they were talking early December and everybody, even before the
virus was saying, you know, they should kind of start

(24:02):
on Christmas because they get all this attention on Christmas.
They that would be a good starting point for a season. Yes,
except that you have all that attention and you're going
to see it at the beginning of this on July.
It's really see people, it's it's not very good basketball
the first I mean, we we've had a couple of
good games, like Lakers Clippers was was fun and I

(24:25):
was impressed, But by and large, we get a lot
of scrappy basketball early on, which is why Christmas is
your showcase. So you'd want to have your teams to
have five, six, seven, eight games under their belt before
you get to the showcase. Otherwise it's like, hey guys,

(24:45):
we're back. It's basketball on Christmas. Oh my god. This
is awful because you get a lot of people on
Christmas who are watching that may not watch the rest
of the year or are not watching on a regular basis.
So that's going to be their their impression. And if
you're buying, you know, if you're if you're buying a jersey,

(25:07):
if you're buying Kyrie Irving's jersey for your kid and
he opens it up on Christmas and then Kyrie Irving
goes to for nineteen, it kind of takes a little
the steam out of the gift, doesn't it. Well, that's
why Knicks jerseys are no one's buying them anymore. We can't,
we can't. I can't risk my kid opening this jersey
and being disappointed after he actually watches a game. I mean,
I don't think they make Necks jerseys anymore. They're saying,

(25:29):
I don't want to risk my kid walking out in
public with the next jersey. Well with with Tom stubod
O being the next coach of the New York Knicks,
I think guys are going to have to earn. Like
they're not gonna get jerseys until they meet a certain level.
They're gonna be playing shirts and skins up until then. Um, well,
is that's definitely happening, Rick, because the Nick the Knicks
have I think seventeen or eighteen more people they want

(25:51):
to talk to. Yeah, but you know what, in all seriousness,
I think that's a smart move by Leon Rose because
he's never he's never done this before, So why not
Kansas the league? I mean, he knows Tom. He knows
Tom the part of the a A represented by Worldwide
West or affiliates thereof, so they know who Tips is.

(26:13):
But why not bring in Mike Brown and pick his
brain and you know, find out what he did in
Cleveland and what the Warriors are doing in Golden State
and uh, just just you know, get his collect as
much knowledge as possible. I mean that's really Uh they're
not the first to bring in a lot of different

(26:34):
people and pick brains and get a base of knowledge.
And especially for a guy like Leon Rose who's never
been in that position, I think it's actually a smart
move because you're you're never going to get the opportunity to,
uh to to peek into the playbook of this many
different coaches or coaching candidates, and I dare say, you

(26:55):
get them where they're you know, they're they're buying for
potentially a job or if not just this time around,
maybe the next time around. So they're going to give
you their best good So I I don't have a
problem with with doing it, especially uh you know, there's
my understanding is what we'll get all we'll get the
announcement sometime uh second third week in July. We'll we'll

(27:19):
find out. And um, I honestly that's fine, But I
don't see any rush in in doing this. But ultimately
I guess they want to get going. They're thinking is
get the coach in place, get his um, you know
what he's expecting from the players to the players get

(27:39):
his playbook into their hands so that they can get going.
So I guess it as I think out loud, it
makes enough sense to do it, uh next month. But um,
as far as interviewing a bunch of people, I think
that's I think that's just collecting knowledge, and I don't
think that's a bad thing. Rick Buker with us The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen Steve de Seger in

(28:00):
for Mike. Now we get to the resumption of the
NBA season and certainly Adam Silver today making a lot
of headlines saying we're not full speed ahead, no matter
what COVID nineteen could could stop us at any point. Uh,
where is the NBA right now? Rick, Because this is
why I look at this week, is boy, this is
where the players are going to be the most nervous
about returning. Uh. Are you seeing a situation in which, boy,

(28:24):
things could change for the NBA as far as their
plans to resume. Not at not at this point. You
know the the I'll tell you the the g MS
that I talked to right before the players came in
on four, We're expecting a lot more positive tests than
we got. We got what sixteen out of two? I

(28:46):
think they were expecting like somewhere as they Nobody gave
me a number, but I would dare say eighty ninety.
Maybe they are a much higher number because they were
asking Adam at that time, the g ms were what's
what's the cutoff number? Like what what? How many have
to test positive where we might shut this thing down,

(29:07):
and they were thinking that they were going to get
to it. The feeling is that what they with only
his six team testing positive out of the three d some,
that you are now creating a a bubble and an
environment that should be safer and more COVID free and

(29:29):
COVID COVID protected than where those three hundred some players
were prior to this. So I think that that is
simply I think it's it's more pr because there is
the nervousness about Florida. We have the rise in cases nationwide,

(29:53):
and so for the league to to blindly say, hey,
no problem, we're going for word. You know, we're the
whole idea of blindly going forward in this under these
conditions would not be a good look. But I haven't
heard anything from the league that would tell me that

(30:15):
they have an increased nervousness or anxiety that what they
are building is not going to hold up and protect
their players at least to get there and to experience it.
If we get everybody in there and suddenly guys are
testing positive left and right, or we get you know,

(30:36):
an older coach Mike D'Antoni or now Gentry uh, and
they get gravely ill, then I think that would give
them pause. But we're not there yet, and so right now,
I think it's just a matter of um, Adam, um,
you know, testing, testing the wind, understanding what the you

(30:56):
know what, what the the atmosphere is like in the
in the country. Were all and playing to that and saying, hey,
you know what, we're aware of what's going on and uh,
and we're not going to just you know, play again
at all costs, even though even though the mindset among

(31:16):
the owners is we pretty much have to play at
all costs because otherwise it's gonna cost this way too much. Yeah,
and they've gone through this. Rick. My last question relates
to what Adam Silver talk today about. Players may have
to adapt their language, you know what gets picked up
by the microphones now on the telecast It actually brings
me to the question on this kind of a separate point,
have you watched live sports in the last month and

(31:40):
what telecasts have done with no actual crowd noise, Because initially,
like German soccer on FS one, you could hear everything
from the players. It wasn't like a scrimmage. And then
they started pumping in crowd noise. Yeah, I watched some
Bundesliga games and I gotta this is the thing that
tries be crazy about the n b A. I mean,

(32:01):
we're just we're almost a cricket. I mean, let's just
start wearing the white flax and the and and half
tea at halftime, and it it is. We're taking all
of the flavor and passion and personality out of the game.
We've taken the physicality out of it. We've taken the

(32:22):
you can't look sideways at a guy without drawing a
t you can't uh, you can't emote uh. And now
you can't curse. I mean I was looking forward. Anybody
has ever heard I'm dating myself a little bit? Anybody
ever heard Kevin Garnett curse? I mean it was a
work of art. It was it was profane and I

(32:44):
don't know necessarily that I want my kids under twelve
hearing it, But um, it was good stuff. So I mean,
where are you drawing on it? Like, you know, look
just you know, dropping f bombs all over the place
is one thing, but there's a certain trash talk that
is profane that this That's what I was looking forward

(33:07):
to is hearing the back and forth and the idea
that Adam is telling them that they've got to tamp
that down. I'm like, no way, man, I need that stuff.
And should they add crowd noise or NBA two K
sounds or something, you know what it's it's no. I
mean Orlando already does it in their regular game, and

(33:31):
there are other teams that do. I mean, guarantee teams
amplify their their their noise level. Um, and so but no,
I'm not I'm not for that. If we're look at
trying to trying to pretend this is going to be
the same or trying to create it like it's going
to be, it's not going to be the same. So
just embrace that. Embrace it. It's going to be different.

(33:54):
And let's let's go into this and experience something completely
new and different than trying to. I mean, look, I
don't know. I would just I would think it was
kind of bogus. Wouldn't wouldn't do it for me. It's
like it's like the last tracks, the Loft tracks don't
make you, don't make things funnier, do they? Mash took
it out Eventually, I think you can. You can follow

(34:17):
on Twitter with or without a laugh track. It is
at Rick Buker, Bleacher Report, Fox Sports One, NBA Insider
ripping that one, good one for you? Like that one?
All right? Yeah, good stuff as always funny. We'll talk
to you next week. Have ago on you go. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show

(34:37):
with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific,
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen
Live from the Geico Studios. And you know, it's a
little bit of viperbole every day when we say this
has changed forever. Certain things in our lives have changed
forever because of our living with COVID nineteen. Certain things
are changed for a little while, but certainly today I

(35:00):
think we saw a sport change forever. As the minor
league baseball season was officially canceled earlier today. We thought
this was coming. We didn't know what kind of season
minor league baseball was gonna have, and clearly it was
too risky, UH in many circumstances to have minor league
baseball continues. So they will not play. They will begin

(35:22):
again with a fresh start in UH. This is why
this is gonna change UH, minor league baseball and baseball forever,
because minor league baseball is not a big money maker,
right like that. You know, a lot of the minor
league teams are subsidized by the major league teams either
they're in some are independently owned. That's right. A lot
of them are not owned by the major league teams,

(35:44):
so they have to pay for the equipment and the salaries,
and they don't have the TV contracts that the majors do.
Of course, yeah, it's gonna some are gonna be Some
are gonna have to worry about Major League being able
to subsidize them. Some are gonna say, well, we have
to sell, and you're gonna see some own many owners
are gonna have to sell the team because they have
lost even more money. Now, and what I think this

(36:04):
is gonna wind up being is that we're gonna come
back to baseball next year and you're still gonna see
double A and triple A baseball will be the same,
like you're still gonna see because you need that pipeline
to get from double A to triple A to the
major leagues. And I think that will stay. But all
but all those lower minor league teams, I don't think
you're gonna see. I'm you may see teams only have
single A, double A, triple A. No short season single A,

(36:27):
no split season in double A, no no two teams,
no rookie leagues. No. I think you might see all
that go out the window, and it might wind up
being just straight A, double A and triple A. And
some teams, you might they might struggle have a single
A team. They might say, listen, let's we're gonna figure
something out and just bring some of our players and maybe,
you know, share a team with somebody. I mean, you're
gonna see minor league baseball in a different way than

(36:50):
we've ever seen it before next year. And this was
a problem before the virus. Remember the contract between the
major and minor leagues end this year anyway, and Major
League Baseball has already proposed reducing the minimum total of
affiliates from a hundred sixty down to a hundred twenty teams.
That's when politicians, especially with minor league towns, were saying, hey,
this is part of Americana, this part of baseball. We

(37:13):
we shouldn't be getting rid of these teams. Now they're
going to have to because, as the Association president and
the minors said, we here in the minor leagues are
fans in the stands business. We don't have the national
TV revenues, and more than half of our hundred sixty
clubs are in danger of failing without new money, now,
without a loan or government assistance. Look, and I I've

(37:34):
but to so many minor league games. Most of my
life have been to more minor league games, and the
stands are never filled. The stands never even filled a
ten thousand capacity or eight four thousand average if you
add all the levels. Yeah, we're going to see Major
League Baseball is going to see their minor league and
minor league baseball across the country change forever. After this

(37:57):
Twitter at, how about a Fresca fun number right seven
seven ninety nine on Fox Coming up next, two big
ideas for the NFL for the season. This is Fox.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Radio app. Hello and welcome inside our two of The

(38:18):
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon. Steve to say you're
in for Mike Harmon tonight as Bobby Bania is just
fifty nine minutes away for another one point nine million
dollar check. Yes, Bobby Bonilla day is coming, and I'll
tell you what I pictured. Bobby Benia his house like

(38:38):
New Year's Eve, where every June he has a big
party and they count down to midnight Eastern time like
it's New Year's Eve, except instead of watching television and
watching Ryan Seacrest or whatever else you're watching, he's just
hitting refresh on his bank account, going refreshed. Where's the
one point nine million what obviously you know, minus the

(38:58):
agent's feet. Where's that point? Where's that four thousand dollars?
Where's that one point nine million? Where's that one point
nine It's Bobby beenie a day, happy by every day
and every year. And I'm not lying to you everybody.
Look at sports fans. We always like to send text
to our friends about certain things, certain anniversaries in sports days.

(39:22):
Oh this is the day where you blew that big lead,
or this is the day where X happen. We like
to do that all the time, said it to our friends.
Sometimes I'll send videos remember this, play this play this play,
without a doubt, with all the things you can choose
from in my life, being a Mets, Jets, Knicks fans,
whatever it was, I never get any more texts in
one day than I get from my friends telling me

(39:43):
happy Bobby Beni a day. It just that, just people
I don't even have in my phone anymore. I go,
I even know what phone number this is. Happy Bobby
BENI a day, And I don't. I feel bad. I
don't want to write back. Hey, I'm sorry, I don't
know who this is. Can you please tell me? I
have your phone in my and my number my phone.
But that is the day of all the other things,
you know, Darnald throwing picks, the Jets losing big games.
The Mets added that no, no, no, I get happy

(40:04):
Bobby Banni a day from my friends. If only Jason,
if only the Mets themselves could say new phone who did,
and they could just ignore his entire story. But in fact,
after he was a Met in the Big nineties, Bobby
Bonilla played for other teams, plural plenty of other teams
before he stopped playing Major League Baseball in two thousand one. Yeah,

(40:26):
he's not still collecting for many of them. I mean,
he was a Dodger briefly, I remember, but Florida, Baltimore,
I couldn't even name them all. But yeah, Bobby Bania
in his fifties is still getting almost one point two
million from the Mets every July one, twenty thirty five.
So he's got It's not like it's drying up for

(40:47):
many times soon. He's not. He's still getting that that
million dollars a year for the day he's got another
fifteen years ago, this was a buy or whatever. This
is a buyout on a contract from twenty years ago,
where you know, And the thing is the funny thing
that financially it worked, like I don't I don't get
big banking, which is you know, probably why I don't
own a baseball team. But I don't get big banking.

(41:08):
But at the time and in everything I've read about it.
It look it made sense for the Mets to do
that because they were able to save money and do
things with the team. Then you just didn't see the
optic of boy, really, for the next thirty five years,
we're gonna give this guy a million dollars every July one,
And it's a it's a reminder of how embarrassing the
organization is that we're gonna pay a guy who you know,

(41:31):
you know, is going to be in his seventies, you know,
when when he's still getting paid by the team. And
I thought it was embarrassing in the seventies when like
Steinbrenner was paying Don Gullett, you know, when Gullett was
pitching for the Reds, and the look how embarrassing that is.
He's still paying Don Gullett. No no, no, no, no, no, boy,
but he is get paid. They could have paid him
a lump sum, right, Instead, they chose for the twenty

(41:53):
five year thing. And the subtext in one of the
ESPN articles is that the other embarras ersman in New
York history is that at the time they mean the other.
There's lots of them. You can't just say the other
related to this story. Sorry, let me be more specific.
We've already mentioned the Mets and the Knicks on this show.
That would be would be enough for a whole week

(42:14):
of shows, get a trick. At the time the Mets
ownership was involved, they said, with a Bernie made Off
account that promised double digit returns over the course of
the deal, So the Mets were poised to make a
significant profit. The Madeoff account for some odd reason, did
not deliver. And or they're still paying off Bibia with

(42:34):
the negotiated eight percent interest and never paid him the
lump sum, and we're still going through this every summer. Well,
listen when Bernie made Off calls and tells them, Mets, listen,
I have ways to make a lot of money. Get
people to come in under you that want to give
money to you. Get two people to come in under
you that give money to to you, and then you
kick it up to me. Then those people get people
to come in under them, give money to them, who

(42:55):
gives money to you, who gives money to me, And
it works out that way, and the Mets, Now let's
do it. I like that. What's it called. It's called
a pyramids. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go to that. I
think this whole sixty man player pool this summer is
a Pyramids game in a ball player. And then you
can bring into double A players and then wait a minute,
but they're never going to play in the majors, right, No,

(43:15):
but they're on the roster, but they're really not on
the roster. You know. Did you see, by the way,
when they announced the sixty man player pools, because you
know it's gonna be by opening day in baseball, the
active rosters have thirty at the most, and then you
can have the other thirty players. They'll be like your
taxi squad. I mean a couple can even come on
the road with you. But they'll be like at USC.

(43:36):
The Dodgers will have the other guys training at USC,
or they're a ball stadium east of Los Angeles, or
the Angels could have people working at it to long
Beach stage. Just put me in coach or hoping for
an injury or something. But the Dodgers only listed fifty
one players. They could add more later. I mean the
Redskins Redskins red Socks only players. Sorry that was last

(43:59):
week's news. But the Dodgers also had five catchers already
on their list, and the Red Sox already had five
catchers on their list. So anybody getting excited about, hey,
this draft choice they just had this year or last
Hey they put them in the player pool, that doesn't
mean that they're gonna be playing major league games this summer.
Let's take a step back on that. Well, first of all,

(44:20):
I know Bobby Benia is going to be added to
the Dodgers roster, so there is that no but but
that's but That's the whole thing is that nobody knows
how things are gonna go. And in the NBA we
talked about, well what happens if a couple of players
get test pods with COVID nine team they can't play?
You know, to the point for baseball is with more players,
they got to be able to feel the team. So

(44:40):
if if your two catchers wind up with what are
you gonna do? You gotta have other guys that can play.
So mean, you need a pool of of of five
catchers to be able to think how many relief pitchers
there will be on an active roster, much less in
the pool just waiting to be called on because the
starters are not going to be going long distances and
it's not gonna be a long season, so you're gonna

(45:01):
have picture after picture. And keep in mind this is
the year the new MLB rule change starts. That is
still in there, a three batter minimum for all pictures.
No lefty specialists like before that throw one batter and
come out because unless you end the inning, you have
to throw to three batters. Yeah, this will give them
Mets more chances to pick the worst relievers. Oh, we

(45:23):
never look at many we got. I still don't have
the right one. Still, anybody, we still picked the wrong ones. Still?
You know they had Nolan Ryan as a reliever at
one point, you know, I well, listen, hey, Jim for
Gosie was good? All right, it was good. You know
Ryan was okay? Uh, Steve, you know it was enough.
We talked about, well, let's go back to modern thing.

(45:44):
Because the Benia contract has been copied. Apparently Brett Saberhagen
got deferred money. Remember when, Uh, who's the Washington Nationals?
Not quite the Yankees or Red Sox in paying out
on the East Course and they wanted to keep Max Scherzer,
and so they got the total paid out over an
extra number of years, not twenty five years, granted that

(46:05):
they got the life of the contract paid over more
than the years of the contract. Twitter, Right, how about
a Fresco phone number eight seven, seven ninety nine. On Fox,
Steve and I are going to count down fifty one
minutes to Bobby Beni a Day right now, I'll walk
the Moon, will be playing their big hit Shut Up
and Dance with Me. We'll check in with Ryan Seacrest,
will be live in New York City in Times Square

(46:26):
as Bobby Beni A Day again, fifty one minutes away
and Anderson Cooper and the ball is gonna drop and
nobody will be It's gonna be insulting people. Sure, that's
what it's gonna be. You're gonna send that. People are
gonna be making out from a distance. Uh. Look, we're
counting down. Bobby Beni A Day is coming. Uh and
it is now fifty minute, fifty minutes away, fifty minute.
Will of course check in with our sister station in

(46:49):
Los Angeles because they always do that too. Oh that's
where all the other bands are playing. Let's go. Let's
go to Los Angeles where you're gonna see a couple
of bands. Here's we get ready for us let's go
live to Sydney, Australia. They are welcoming Bobby but a day,
the first the first first one, Yes at the international
date line. Yeah, you know it's always New Zealand, right,
was that the first one? Is it New Zealand that

(47:11):
has the first I just remember the Sydney shots because
of the bridge they had the fireworks the bridge next
to the opera all met mets blue and orange fire
fireworks are going off next to the opera house. The
fireworks have gone off related to the Mets before. Yeah.
So again, fifty minutes to Bobby Benia day. I really

(47:32):
I feel like it is almost like New Year's even again. Uh,
now you sound like an f M d J that's
just constantly giving the time exactly thirty one in the
morning as you get ready for your local commute. We
got news in traffic together coming up in about four minutes. Again,
still seven thirty one. Ben on the ones. Yeah, you

(47:53):
know of his double L. When I was on the
radio in college and I wound up. You know, people
that knew me, that knew I was on the radio,
they would always tell me the same thing. In the morning.
I need to say the time more often, and I'm like,
really said yes, and you said you don't say the
time enough, and I'm like okay, And they always, you know,
they always taught me when when you start there, you know,
when when you first talk, like you play a song,
you come out, you give the time, Hey, six o'n

(48:15):
on a Friday morning, blah blada, and then do whatever
you want to do. And I would say, you don't
say the time enough. And I would talk to people.
I would say, hope, d yeah, how often to me
to say the time? They go, I'm trying to get
out of the house and I want to know what
time it is, And I'm like, you can't just look
at your watch. And there's a new audience in drive
time every seven minutes. I've heard also when I started

(48:35):
when play by play in college, they were talking about
make sure to say the time more at the time
of the basketball game as you're doing the play by play.
Too many people on the radio still don't say time
and score enough. Well that I get because you're talking
about it's it's a timed event. I mean, it's but
if you I I don't know why if you need
to know what look at your watch, look and see
what time it's. I mean, I'm trying to ding you.

(48:58):
Why is it there responsibil Hey if it if if
you needed to know what time it was so badly
you would have a watch. I'm just saying, I don't
think it's a you know, I don't know. It's sorry,
I'm late again. What it's a drive time show? Time
is part of the show. Guy in the radio wouldn't
say what time it was. Yeah, but you're forty five
minutes late every day. I know. By the time the

(49:18):
guy finally set with time it was, I knew I
had to get the work. As I said before, just
don't do what happened on our college station once, which
was the six a m. D J, never woke up
one day, and so students who had set their clock
radios to the student run radio station. Well the clock
radio went off but to a blank station, and some
people miss classes. Wow. Well that's not that that's their fault.

(49:41):
They were being stupid. I'm sorry, I said, I said
it to a radio, you know, set it to an alarm.
I was no time at any point of that show
that morning, no time said, and no music. Yeah, because
I don't want to wake up to bee beep. I mean,
I mean, that's that's terrible. I keep actually used to
wake up that way, you know. That was It's like,
it's like I want to wake up to an air

(50:02):
horn every day. But you know that's why I used
to like those radios that would slowly play the music
and then it would get louder. So would kind of
slowly bring you out of sleep, like it would. It
would turn on and it would play a song and
it would be a lower volume, and then it's like
welcome to the world. Every few seconds it would get
loud and you realize, Okay, it's like in the delivery room,
have soft music. Sometimes I'm welcome to the world. Your

(50:24):
light refreshing favorites and fifty minutes of music an hour,
your chance to win ticket to see Phil Collins. Well
I about about Cayuga County fair Grounds. Hey, it's thirty
nine past the hour. That's coming up later on. Don't
forget you want to play in it to win it.
That's gonna be an eight oh five the joke of
the day at eight fifteen. Tune in fourteen past the

(50:44):
error right now. You know they just recently One Channel
showed the Happy Days episode where Richie Cunningham was sweeping
in the studio and the DJ stormed off in a
contract dispute, and they just made Richie the d J,
I Buddy's Richie the seas welcome to the show. I
think you're gonna say, like when Bob Yuker passed out

(51:06):
in Major League saying, go ahead, Monty, I'm in the bag.
And then the guy it's a flyball. It's a great
catch by the outfielder. He just goes fly ball. That
was it. That was it. That was broadcasting school. Is
really Parkman? What does he do with those paternity suits?
I don't have that here, Harry, uh, I think those

(51:27):
are parking tickets. Oh well, okay, no matter. You know,
we say all this, but we're gonna have actual live
radio sports, team sports on the radio in the car.
Can you imagine that that's gonna be happening soon? Well,
we're gonna have it. It's coming. It's coming. Also what
is coming? Today was a big day in the National

(51:48):
Football League as they are now looking at potential changes
for the fall when it comes to both the preseason
and the regular season. One idea, I think it is
absolutely happening. One I think there's no way they're gonna
be able to pull this off. We got that coming
up next. Keep it right here, Jason Smith, Steve de Sager,
This is Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch live

(52:09):
editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays
at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific Fox Sports Radio
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harman Live from the
Geico Studios. Uh now thirty nine minutes away from Bobby
Bennie a day. Everybody giddy with excitement. Meanwhile, Major League
Baseball trying to move forward into figuring out a way

(52:30):
for them to continue to play, as we have players
backing out not wanting to return to play, a very
big message last night by Rockies Ian Desmond. In fact,
Desmond's desire to skip the season for both coronavirus concerns
and concerns about making baseball better was backed by the
Rockies today officially. UH, we're seeing this now a lot

(52:53):
in the past few days of players who were now
standing up saying I don't know about going back. Do
I want to return? Is baseball gonna make me safe?
And then today you're dealing with the other uh doozy
of a story that the made the Minor League baseball
season has been canceled as well, joining us now on
the hotline, no one better, that's the wrong music. Let's

(53:14):
get the right music, right music. Alex Tai shirt, he's
got the right music for him. Let's get the right music.
Let's get the right I'm gonna I was gonna have
to sing the song if you didn't have it. Longtime
Baseball Inside to check him out on the Hall of
Justice podcast, the Sports with Friends podcast. Friend of the
Show Seth Evert, who I'm sure is gonna start out

(53:35):
by saying, I got a great Bobby Benilla Met story
for you. I know that Bobby Bania is not unhappy tonight. No, No,
he's waiting. Well, he's unhappy till he gets his money.
But that's gonna be in another you know, thirty seven minutes. Yeah,
but you know the New York Mets laid off people today. Yeah,

(53:56):
with a season coming, and you know they're good people
that work there, So you can love that team all
you like, I have no love. No. Well, listen, you
you worked there and you you said a lot of
correct things on the post game show that that the
Mets didn't like and you know that's that's what happens.
You have to say what the Mets like, but you know,

(54:17):
you don't have to be a sick of fan. And
the fact of the matter is is that you know,
I've done some research and I've found some of the names,
and I'm not gonna give you some of the names.
But some of the people that were let go today
are good, good people. But just remember folks, Tim Tebows
still in the organization. Hey, there are seven people who
have been approved to buy this team. Alright, seven people

(54:38):
have been approved. It's happening. It's the sport Coo exclusive.
My boy, Scott Saunick broke up. It's happening. It's gonna
it's gonna be. It's gonna be. Alex Rodriguez is gonna
own the team. He's gonna hit fourth. Everything is gonna
be hated enemy, my hated enemies. And Jennifer Lopez was
my intro to k Griff Jr. Really wait, wait your

(55:00):
your enemies with Alex Rodriguez. Kandarf Jr. Is one of
my favorite people on Earth. Okay, and and yet and
Jennifer Lopez introduced you to Ken Griffy sort of sort
of Um. We were at the Kingdom and Ken griff Jr.
Had a big issue with kJ R. He didn't like
that radio station at the time. And I went up
to Kan griff Jr. And I said, you're more than

(55:22):
welcome to hate me. There are plenty of people who do.
I said, but if you're gonna hate me, you're gonna
know me. And that's all I ask. And then they
went on a road trip and they came back and
the Kingdom had no real good scoreboard, and Jennifer Lopez
had just launched her singing career. This is and there's
a song called if You Had My Love, and Ken

(55:44):
Griffey Jr. Hits bombs. This is He's hitting bombs in
the Kingdom in batting practice and I'm down the third
base line and he walks over to me and I
didn't realize he was talking to me. And he says,
this song without the video is point us story. I

(56:04):
don't know how that didn't make the KINGERFO Junior documentary. No,
you know, sometimes some stuff it's the cutting room floor
flora that just happens that way. Hey, So you know, look,
the last couple of days, we're starting to see players
say they don't want to play there, staying home. Coronavirus
concerns us social I wanted to ask you something about that.
I'm sure, go ahead. I would rather these players just

(56:28):
have a standard line saying it's not safe, I'm not
I'm not into this, or I wish my teammates the best.
Can you give me a standard line. I don't want
to know their personal situations because I don't want to
judge them. I don't want to say that Ian Desmond
is doing it for a good reason. But I wonder
why Trevor Reason is. Trevor Reason has got a personal story.

(56:49):
He's got a custody battle for his kid. If he
did that in the middle of the season, in the
middle of March, with no pandemic going on, people would
have major issues with that. And and all of a
sudden now he opens himself up to criticism. And never
once did Trevor Reasons say this has to do with
COVID nineteen. He said it has to do with his
custody battle. That's not really what the lay of the

(57:12):
land was. It was supposed to be. If you're uncomfortable
because of coronavirus, not because of your personal custody battle,
and I'm not judging Trevor a reason. Don't get me wrong.
What I'm saying is I don't want to know. I
don't want to know their personal situations. I don't want
to know why Ryan Zimmerman doesn't And for those players
that sign big money deals or those players who are

(57:33):
going to be a free agent, if you don't want
to play, please make it about COVID nineteen and not
your contract because people think you're greedy enough. Seth Evert
whell Us The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carment, Steve
de seger In. Uh So, so with this going on set,

(57:53):
do you think we're going to see more players as
it gets down to it get more skinnish and talk
about not going and more players pull out or is
this what we're going to see? What we've seen so far,
these are the guys that aren't playing and that's it. No.
I I think it's gonna be a lot. I say,
between thirty and fifty, and I think there's gonna be
some frontline guys. And I have heard rumblings about stars,

(58:16):
but they haven't committed yet, so I'm not going there yet.
But there are some legit stars that have misgivings of that.
And I would tell you this, if I'm Mookie Betts,
I wouldn't touch Los Angeles right now, and that he's
not one of the guys that I heard about. But
I'm just saying he has a big money deal coming.
He's on three weeks of Corona filled locker rooms. I

(58:38):
would not if I if I'm going to be signing
a big contract, I wouldn't touch the field in this
Hodgepod season. That would be very expensive baseball card with
him in his spring training Dutch. You guys all know
Earl Thomas right you know who Earl Thomas is. Mookie
Betts could be baseball Darrel Thomas. Well, I saw a
transaction today, and man, I saw a baseball transaction today.

(59:02):
That's how I should say it. But the Padres acquired
a guy from the A's chain, Jorge Matteo, who had
twenty four steals at Triple A last year, notable because
he had over fifty steals in a minor league season,
which immediately made me and maybe everybody think of Hey.
For those who don't know, this new rule during extra
innings regular season this year, each f inning will begin

(59:22):
with a runner on second, the batter who made the
final out previous inning would be the guy. But expanded rosters,
you could pinch run, wouldn't you say, Especially with twenty
eight and thirty men on the roster, every team might
have a so called pinch runner at a speedster a
Herb Washington. If I can reference Charlie Finley's a somebody
like that, it's, uh, it's fine if you want to.

(59:43):
If that's something that you're interested in, that's that's fine.
What I think is going to be happening is there'll
be an intentional walk immediately and they'll be first and
second with nobody out, and they'll have a force at
any base. So I just think the whole thing is dumb,
and even in the top of the tent. Yeah, but
the problem with this whole thing is you're trying to

(01:00:05):
rush to end games. I'm trying to make games interesting
when they're being played, and if you're doing this, you're
trying to Jerry Riggan enthusiasm and that hasn't worked. And
I asked, I've asked this question a number of times.
If you are a typical person, this is not a
pandemic question. A typical person who has literally thirty minutes

(01:00:26):
to commit to sports on any given night. Let me
ask you a question. You'd picked the fourth quarter of
a basketball game, the fourth quarter of a football game,
the third period of a hockey game. What part of
a baseball game would you be looking at? Well, you
try to try to watch the end rights interesting. You
wouldn't because you know eleven percent of teams come back

(01:00:47):
when they're down more more than two runs. Listen, I'm
a Mets fan. Everybody comes back against us. That's when
something i'd be proud of today. That's a very embarrassing thing.
That's when games get exciting. For the matter, I think,
how how how fast much faster the Mets games are
gonna When you're actually putting a guy on second base
to start the any I don't have to worry about
craziest stuff happening to get the guy to second base. Yeah,

(01:01:08):
but the guy who but one of the clubhouse guys
who will be making sure that guy's uniform is on right,
That guy's not there anymore because they had to have
layoffs three weeks before a regular season starting. I get
that set. I was trying to make a fun joke.
I understand I understand your point. I got to get
your point early in the morning. I get it. I
I get it. Debbie Downer, I understand. I understand what

(01:01:29):
you're saying. I get it. It's awful. Other teams have
it's I was just trying to say something funny. No,
do you think it was pretty funny? No? No, But
but do you understand what my point is about not
wanting to know why these guys are doing it? Because
I just feel like we're getting put in a situation
where we're judging their personal lives, and I don't think
that's nice. I don't think that's right if it's very

(01:01:51):
awkward feeling, which comes up with the two gms who
said today that once we have the COVID injured list used,
we don't think we can disco is publicly who's on it,
nobody by name because of medical records. But that's also impossible.
And I said to one of the Syracuse s, I
d s because they're one of the dumb schools that

(01:02:12):
is not revealing to the media how many positive tests
they have on their team. They're telling health officials, but
they're not telling the media because this is some mystery.
And I said, oh, So, in other words, can I
go on Twitter and say the entire Syracuse offensive line
has COVID nineteen. I said, not only that, but all
the backups too. And I said, can you prove me wrong?

(01:02:33):
And they can't. And I'm not asking for names. I
don't think names is a situation. But if you have
a roster of twenty eight players and one guy is
not on it, you're not going to make up a
hamstring injury when it's COVID nineteen. So I think the
hippo laws don't apply. No, and that, And that was
my big concern is that even though you're still going
to get people are still going to know it. Just

(01:02:54):
the fact that you have Baseball potentially saying that we're
gonna hide the COVID nineteen from people. Yeah, I don't
know that that's the I don't know that that's the
right thing to do. My favorite fire confidence, my favorite thing.
First of all, I got the email today about how
to get credentialed. I feel very awkward. I'm just saying
right now, it's not safe for the American public. But

(01:03:15):
come on, let's let's let's go watch the Phillies play
the Mets. Let's do it. I just I feel very
weird about the whole thing. Um. My biggest concern with
that hundred one page book of all their protocols, what
does it say about the player who gets in his
car in the player parking lot, puts the car in drive,
and disappears off the face of the earth for twelve hours.

(01:03:39):
Are there anything about the protocols about what that person
can do? No, but they did include no catchup bottles
or mustard bottle individual packets only. No, no, no catchup bottles.
But go on Tinder all you like. It says it's
it's it's wrong on so many levels, and that virus
is going to It's not a question of if players
test positive, it's when clusters of players test positive. Because

(01:04:03):
these players have been told they can go wherever they want.
And I applaud the NBA and the NHL, who are
not full proof plans, mind you, but they're at least trying.
They're trying to tell you that in their little bubbles,
when you're done with your game, can you go back
to your hotel and stay there? That's all they're asking.
And what these what what the baseball players are saying

(01:04:25):
is just have fun. Just go on and rock on.
And what I'm worried about is what are the Diamondbacks
going to do when their home? What are the Marlins
gonna do when their home? What are the Rays going
to do when their home? And again, no fans are
going into the stadiums, but these players can go wherever
they want at any time and do whatever they want,

(01:04:45):
and all they have to do is come back on
time and take their temperature. Great rules. You can follow
on Twitter at Seth Underscore Everett That's at Seth Underscore
every Longtime Baseball Inside to check out Sports with Friends
Hall of Justice podcasts. I used to him, what an
hour and a half on Michael Keaton returning his batman potentially, No,
we're doing it on Mike Henry giving up Cleveland Brown.

(01:05:09):
I'm sorry, but I am. I am his black lives
matter as anybody in the world. There is no race
in cartoons. Wow. Wow, that is wow. That is something.
All right, there you go. You got Seth right there
a wonder woman last year? Did anybody say a boom
about it? Wow? You're at You're at a big, serious,

(01:05:29):
reflective mood tonight, Seth. I'm on fire, baby, you are
you are so again check them out Sports with Friends
Hall of Justice, uh podcast, and I played three more
words broken broken air conditioner, broken air about to see
you buddy? Yeah, alright, Wow, I didn't I don't know

(01:05:51):
what the broken air conditioner was, Steve, but I figured
we we should just move on. I did not know
Rosario Dawson was wonder woman. I did not know that. No,
I do not watch the tattoo as I guess. No,
I did not. I did. I did not know that.
I really thought I was. I was taxing my my
uh my comic book and and and Sports with Friends
knowledge with the Batman news. I didn't know. We're going

(01:06:11):
in deeper than that, by the way. And I we'll
get to thank you very good, on on on on
on on on on on on, and we'll get to
a couple of football items in a moment. But the
Herb Washington reference, who I know you know from the
nineteen seventy four World Series as beat the Dodgers. Charlie
Finley one of the crazy owners in sports history in
this country. He had Herb Washington on the roster as

(01:06:36):
a pinch runter. He literally played over ninety games that
year and didn't have a single plate appearance, zero at
bats for the entire season on a World Series winning team. Instead,
he had twenty nine steels and twenty nine runs scored,
and he got in three times as a pinch runner
in the World Series, got picked off once. But that
was HERB Washington. I'm sure some teams this year are

(01:06:59):
thinking aestially with expanded rosters. Let's just have some speedster
who's not gonna bat at all. Let's put your saying
Bolton and just just running on the basis exactly he was?
He a gold medalist in sprinting? Is that? What? Did
he win a gold medal in the Olympics? I know
he was a big sprinter. No, no, no, not you
saying bolt? Her Washington, Did you come on? Followed one

(01:07:24):
sentence with the other, Hey, you same bolt? He was?
I actually brought up you saying bolts Obviously, no, I
come on, you saying no? But he did he ever
win a gold college chap? I don't know if it
was the Olympics? Okay, all right? Wow, ninety games is
a pinch runner, you know. In fact, I think if
you go to his h official Baseball Reference page, it

(01:07:44):
says just pitch runner like he doesn't have a position,
just says runner. What position played doesn't matter, didn't he
just ran. I don't think he know what color the
grass was in the outfield. He never made it that far.
It was literally just the basis. Yeah, I'm looking at
a picture now. I got his baseball card up, and
of course it's him taking a lead off the base,
like if you don't have him with a bat with
his glove and anything has a lot of these day

(01:08:06):
he's taken a lead outstand and typical of the spring
training shoots, he probably didn't even have a helmet on. Yes, yes, right,
no helmet. You're right well, Steven Job. We got more
coming up in ninety. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at
ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio

(01:08:27):
and the i Heart Radio app Fox Sports Radio The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon. Steve to Sager in
from Mike Harmon tonight. Thanks to Seth Devan for stopping
by a few minutes ago. Did you know that? Right now?
Geicoes off for an extra fifteen percent credit on car,
motorcycle and RV policies that's fifteen percent on top of
what Geico could already save you. So what are you

(01:08:48):
waiting for save an extra fifteen percent when you switched
by October seven? Visit Geico dot com to learn more.
So today, the National Football League is thrown out to
potential I d is for this coming season. NFL Network
reporting that first thing is that this year they are
looking at cutting the preseason by at least a couple

(01:09:13):
of games. Uh, Steve to say, you're in from Mike
Harmon tonight, as I said, and you know, I gotta say, Steve,
this is something that they're going to wind up doing
it because they're gonna want to buy as much time
as possible right to start the season. So there's no
way it's gonna be four could it be too? I
could even see it being zero games. It's the same
reason baseball wants a short regular season. Just get to

(01:09:33):
the playoffs. What counts for money for us in August.
They're not making money especially now get to the season.
This is something that's not needed. And I can see
where you start the season, and look, the first week
of the NFL is always rough because you teams are
playing for the first time together. For four quarters, and
you can't assimilate that in camp. So even if you

(01:09:56):
had four games, the first week would still be rough.
So are gonna play this year? They're not gonna have
any preseason games. I in fact, I could guarantee you
this will go down to zero. Yeah, but until we're
gonna shorten it. Yeah, they're they're not gonna play. They're
gonna say, why are we going to risk this the
week before we're gonna start? For real? I mean they're
gonna come down to it and go, all right, either
you need a long preseason to make sure you can play,

(01:10:19):
or you say, we want to make sure we play
the games. And the only way you can make sure
that is by not having teams be next to each
other and playing and playing against each other until you
meet until you need to. So I can see this
getting down to zero games, and then they're gonna go
forward and go, yeah, we don't need the preseason anymore.
We don't need preseason games anymore. And I can see

(01:10:41):
the preseason slowly starting to disappear, and and and that's
where where we're going. And keep in mindful this year, Jason,
the training camps will be held in each club's facilities
this year, and no joint practices between the teams. That's
what used to occur, like the Saints coming out to
l A and facing the Chargers during practices for couple
of weeks during the week, and then the starters just

(01:11:02):
wouldn't play on the Saturday night because they got their
work in already. The joint practices aren't happening this year
and the training camps there's no traveling to camp this year. Separately,
the NFL players Union is apparently organizing a call for Thursday,
and then the players are gonna get the plans, to
get the information, know what to expect going into this
very different training camp. Yeah, Thursday is gonna be a

(01:11:24):
big day as as they get those play Like, what
what are we gonna get? Because then it's gonna be okay.
Now the players are gonna want to know certain things
and get certain concessions, just like NBA players want to
know they're safe. MLB players are gonna want to know
they're safe, and now NFL players are, Okay, there's a
lot more of us than there is in every other sport.
How are you gonna keep us safe? Are we still
gonna bring a hundred people to training camp. Is it

(01:11:45):
gonna be that many? Is gonna be seventy five people
of training camp? You know what? What's what? What? What
are we gonna do? How are we gonna make this work?
So you're gonna see that? But I can easily I
I can almost guarantee you there will be no preseason
games this year. There's just no unless we see such
a decrease in COVID nine team cases in the next
few weeks, and as you see, they're going up, and
I don't know that we're gonna get a handle on it.
Then it's gonna be. Let's keep everybody in a and

(01:12:08):
as much of a bubble as we can in, you know,
practicing just with their own team, and then we go
out and hopefully by the time we start the season,
which I'm telling you is gonna wind up being middle
of October, then everything is okay. We can get out
and play. But I can't see the NFL risking the
season by playing a preseason game or two and then
a couple of days. Lady, go, wait a minute, here
you go. You got a couple of you got a fee,

(01:12:29):
you got seven players on each team with COVID nineteen,
and now suddenly you know, seven players on each team,
you know, multiplied by thirty two teams, that's a lot
of COVID nineteen. And then maybe the season is at stake.
So I can't see the NFL actually doing that. They
want to buy as much time as possible. I think
it's the middle of August or a couple of days
before middle of August. The exhibitions are start due to start,

(01:12:51):
and then that Thursday night regular season kickoffs with the
champion Chiefs is supposed to be September tenth. So you
just a couple of bombshell the predictions here in this segment.
You're saying zero preseason game August and maybe no September
ten or no September football. Yeah, this it's gonna their plan.

(01:13:11):
They have not stopped anything all along, and I said
this a few times. They haven't had their going for
But no matter what COVID nineteen concerns, free agency, the draft,
everything else, schedule, release, everything else. But they put out
their plans saying, hey, we can go and start middle
of October if we have to play all the way
through and play the Super Bowl at the end of February. Uh,
the NFL is not gonna put that out there unless

(01:13:32):
that's their plan, because they eat if when they have
to do it, because players are not going to be
confident coming, you know, showing up at training camp in
a less than a month now because of what's going
on in the country. Wait a minute, we're not in
a bubble. We're kind of out of flying by the
seat of our pants. We don't feel safe. They're gonna
have to postponent at some point. They're gonna say, all right,
we're going to middle of October, and the NFL is

(01:13:54):
gonna say, well, we had that plan set up all along,
that's where we're going, and that's where they're gonna have
to do it. That they're going to have to do
that at some point because players are gonna say, wait
a minute, we're not ready to show and I don't
know that we're ready to have people are ready to
have seventy five people at practice, and then there's going
to be coaches that are gonna be there, and that
there's a media that are gonna be there. I don't
think we're gonna be ready for that in a month.

(01:14:15):
I don't think the numbers are gonna go down enough
players aren't gonna be well because people have to behave
for that to be the case, which is why Philip Fumer,
University of tennethe Athletic directors, said, people keep asking me here,
we're gonna have fans at Volves games, and he said,
point blank you the fans will determine that. Put on
a mask between now and kickoff, and maybe we'll have
fans in the stands. As far as NFL and the

(01:14:37):
consideration of just flying in and out of the city
for your road game on the game day, I could
see that maybe for a primetime game. Otherwise. Now, uh,
you think the thing is that's a crazy idea of
the NFL teams flying in and out on game days
in the fall. Now, I have two thoughts of that.
The first one I'll tell you right now is that's

(01:14:58):
not gonna happen. Really, our team is gonna fly lie out,
you know, fly from the Are the Jets gonna fly
to schedules? It's not I mean, come on, that's not
you know, that's not happening. The Chargers aren't gonna fly
to uh MetLife Stadium to play the Giants and we're
flying at three am. They're gonna get there. We got
the game. The Patriots play the NFC West and the

(01:15:19):
West this year. Yeah, that that that's simply not gonna happen. However,
this idea could get into something that's even more revolutionary
with the NFL schedule, which we'll get into coming up next,
because this idea said, Okay, well they're not gonna do it,
but could I see this actually happening? If something else happens,
then I can see it. Because if they're talking about

(01:15:42):
potentially flying into and out of cities on game days,
something big has to happen. We'll get into that coming
up next. Jason Smith, Steve de Seger. Also, the next
time you hear my voice, it will be Bobby Bennie
a day and he will be one point two million
dollars richer kind of down with Ryan Seacrest. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with

(01:16:04):
Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Greetings,
Welcome inside our three of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon. Steve to say you're in from Mike Harmon
tonight and on the East Coast, it is twelve oh
one am. It means we have said goodbye to June.

(01:16:25):
Hopefully July is a better way forward for us in
every way shape possible. But without a doubt, the man
happiest to see that calendar change from June July because
he has one point two million dollars richer. I'm very,
very excited about it. We're checking in live right now

(01:16:46):
at Bobby Benia his house. It is Bobby Bennie a
day officially, I mean with social distancing, of course, but
the music can still be loud even with social distancing,
pouring champagne over everybody. Fifteen more years the Mets will
be dealing this playing Bobby Benia nearly one point two

(01:17:06):
million dollars on Bobby a day. Uh, Bobby Bani a
day July one, and you know when the clock turns
to July, Steve, there's always a couple of big days. Obviously,
Bobby Benia a day on July from but July nine
is Jeff Fisher Day. Seven nine is Jeff Fish. So

(01:17:27):
we go from Bobby Benia day to Jeff Fisher Day,
which is seven nine. Palla always going seven and nine.
So July nine is Jeff Fisher Day. Bobby a day
on the first we have the fourth of July, and
then we have Jeff Fisher Day. It's it's three as
far as the Mets thing, though, in retrospect, and it's

(01:17:47):
their job to think of this in advance. Shouldn't you
just not be paying off a player like that over
such a long term simply because the story will come
up again every year? Isn't that reason number one? Maybe
to pay the list some check, be done with it.
I think if if you could go back to the
two thousand one Mets, I think there's many things they
would want to change. First thing is, don't listen to

(01:18:09):
Bernie made Off. Secondly, hey, it's gonna be kind of embarrassing.
And you know, this is a team that was worth
in the hundreds of high hundreds of millions of dollars
back in two thousand and one. It was it's like
five million bucks. Let's just figure out a way to
spread it out. Is that given him that money? Just
be I know, I know that's the Mets. That's how

(01:18:30):
it's that's how the Mets work. That's why I'm happy
that now seven bidders have been approved to buy the Mets.
Steve Disager, somebody is gonna buy the Mets and we're
gonna be out from under the Willpons and that will
be That will be the day I celebrate whatever day
that closes. Hopefully that closes in July, and we have
Bobby been A Day on the first, and then we
have the fourth of July. Then we have Jeff Fisher Day,

(01:18:50):
then we have Mets Freedom Day. I guess you could
call him and the first had the new owners are
gonna say, hey, listen, Bobby, we're gonna tear that agreement up.
Or you know, Bobby, we're just gonna send you all
that money now, Okay that Actually Mr Mett is not
going to be at any of these games. Right there's
no mascots and no fans. Well, I don't know. Mr

(01:19:12):
Mett could be there. He's got the big head on,
so he's got kind of got the mask already. He's
social distancing. Uh okay, he could make a case. I
wish he had a stronger union. I'm not expecting to
see any Oh do the mascots have a union? Is there?
Are you kidding? The cheerleaders were getting hourly pay and
they went to court. In sports in general in this country,

(01:19:34):
I'm talking about. This is not like career, where you've
got the cheerleaders with the masks on the dugout cheering
literally when they're backs to the field, cheering to no
fans in the stands. It's not right now, but I
wouldn't surprise if there was a mascots union. You never know,
there might be. We had some powerful mascots there. Yeah. Sure,
you have the Philly fanatic, you have Mr met other people,

(01:19:57):
led by the San Diego Chicken of course, bring Ted.
You know, he should have organized the union because he
was famous for one phrase. He was asked about what
it was like being in that hot costume on the
sunny afternoons during the summer ball games, sweating up a storm.
His reply was, if you can't stand the heat, get
out of the chicken. Frankly words to live and also

(01:20:22):
a labor issue. Yeah that's true, that's true. Hey, listen,
we have to make the that that would be the
first thing. Can we make these uh costumes a little
bit more more cooler? Okay? Can we just can we
do that? I mean they're really really hot. Remember passing
out was the equivalent of the old MLB wool uniforms.
You know, nothing, breathing back then, but they didn't pay
him off. I actually wore a chicken suit once at

(01:20:45):
you You are a good story. I wore a chicken
suit at Fox Sports Radio because Ben Maller and I
first my first time around a Fox. We used to
do a weekend show on Saturdays and Sundays together for
like two thousand one, two three, right at the time.
That and Benny Yagbayanni stars on the Mets. Yes right though,

(01:21:06):
Andy Chavez, sure yeah, all of all those players. Uh.
And and we did a we did a show together
on the weekends. There was a lot of fun. Oh
my god, the food we bought before the show was fantastic.
And uh, Ben and I did a show together. We
made a bet on the n c A tournament and
that we made the loser would have to wear a
chicken suit. So and I lost on the sidewalk, No no, no,

(01:21:27):
in the studio for the show, the loser had to
wear a chicken suit. So right, no, no. But it
was still the internet was big, and you know Ben
had a website and he was, you know, gonna put
it up on his book and said, all right, Greig,
we'll do It'll be fun thing. And I wound up losing.
Of course, I think, I think because I had Gonzaga
and I was stupid because I was way too early
on on the Gonzaga. Uh yeah, So so I had

(01:21:53):
to go and I went up from too far. Luckily
there was a costume store not too far for the station.
As I need to run a chicken costume. I long,
you need it four I go like four hours. I
go like, you return it for a day and return
bout how much it was like thirty five bucks. I'm like, okay,
that's not bad. So I got a chicken costume and
I gotta wear it for the entire show. And Ben
put pictures up on the website of me, and I was.

(01:22:16):
I wore a chicken costume, and I had to wear
the head in between uh segments. But obviously I couldn't
wear it. We were talking because you know that would
just sound like this all the time, and people sound
like that on the air now, right, So yeah, but
that this same thing is that's not good radio. So
but you can't have three hours of that. No, you
can't have that. So I would wear and it sounds

(01:22:36):
like the bad videotape in the old days, yea having it.
I thought, I take this game, but Joe Box voice
is really not coming through. Check the tracker. Actually, about
the time we were taping Mets games in two thousands
when that occurred, just turn the volume off, just turn

(01:22:57):
the volume off and wearing it in between segments. It
got so hot within seconds, I'm going, oh my god,
the sweat is and I and I and I I'm
somebody who sweats, you know something. Sometimes I just need
to like look one way to the other and I
start sweating. Uh. And so I'm like, boy, this is
really awful, like rivulets of sweat coming down my face.
And every time I would take that the chicken suit

(01:23:18):
head off, I was like, oh oh, I feel like
I'm in an air conditioned room. This is the best.
How does it all? The most of them have, you know,
the cartoon heads on. Yeah, but at least they're outside
walking around. I mean, I'm inside in the studio. There's
no breeze, there's no air. But there's also I don't
know how often they get to go take their costume

(01:23:39):
heads off and cool off for a little bit. I mean,
I have no idea. I mean I assume they get
they get they get regulation breaks to do that during game.
But is it every three innings? Is it every inning
and every half? At least football you've had halftime. I
believe I have seen a costumed person at halftime taking
the at the top of the chicken head off or
whatever the costume was, and just sitting exhausted for the

(01:24:01):
twelve minute break before he had to go back out.
Oh my god, look that guy's about wearing his head. Oh,
you've completely ruined the image of it. Wasn't the b
y U mascot. He was doing one of those flips
in the end zone where you jump on the trampoline
first and then the head flipped off. You might be

(01:24:22):
right about that, You might be right. I was separate
from the b y U game where they had the
parachutists coming in and landing right before kickoff, and one
of them kind of missed the midfield circle that they
had left for him. We went straight into the wall
beyond the item. This is where you're supposed to land.
Oh yeah, I know. We tried that. It was just
still not as bad as the parachutist before kickoff of

(01:24:43):
I believe it was a duke football game who landed
at the fifty yard line of the North Carolina Stadium
eight miles away. They did have a game. Where is everybody?
I don't know what this is where I was supposed
to go. I do not see the crowd from up there.
I got everything right. I don't understand this is the state.
I mean, how many stadiums could there be in the stadium,

(01:25:05):
But there's nobody parked. Oh there's you know. Wait, don
I get the time wrong? Maybe the games in an hour?
Maybe I jumped an hour too early. Oh, speaking of
getting the time wrong, I must bring up this hour
of the Las Vegas Korean baseball betting scandal from this
past weekend. I guarantee you some point in the next
half hour I will be bringing that up. Oh boy,

(01:25:27):
all right. Jason Smith Steve de Sager live from the
Geico Studios. Now. Earlier, we we talked a few minutes ago.
We were talking about two big changes for the National
Football You look, and we'll continue to celebrate Bobby Beni
a day because it's here, uh that the NFL is
considering for this fall. One is cutting the number of
preseason games. I can't see them playing any preseason games.

(01:25:48):
They want to buy time. They want to be able
to They're not gonna want to risk the season by
having players catch COVID nineteen when they're playing games that
don't match. So no Cam Newton versus Carolina preseason game
not gonna get that, not gonna happen realized. They're gonna say,
we're gonna do it, and we're gonna say the NFL
is not gonna make changes where it's gonna be dribs
and drabs like you're seeing with baseball in the NBA.

(01:26:10):
It's gonna be here's what we're doing, and here's our
changes for the season, and eventually it's gonna be we're
playing the middle of October. There's gonna be no preseason.
We're coming to camp on September one, whatever the days
are gonna be that then that's how we're doing it.
And that's it. It's not gonna be well, we're gonna
look and see how this goes, and see how this goes.
They're gonna make one decision and it's going to come
in the next couple of weeks and you know, and

(01:26:31):
and mainly because the the NFL is not going to
be able to see exactly what works because by the
time everybody's got to come to camp, which is gonna
be you know, less than a month from now. We're
gonna only be into the first couple of days of
the baseball season, and we're not even gonna have the
NBA yet. So it's not like they're gonna have games
and say, Okay, they're following this philosophy and this seems

(01:26:53):
to be working. They're not gonna know anything by the
time they come to camp. So that's why if they
if they come in September, Obviously, it gives coronavirus us
more time to burn out, for us to get under control,
to wear masks out in public, to be able to
make sure we're not spreading this and slowing the spread. Uh.
It gives them more time to say, Okay, this is
what worked for baseball, this is what worked for the NBA,
Maybe this part can work for us. And I think

(01:27:14):
that that that will happen sometime in the next couple
of weeks. I'll be really surprised if they wind up
coming to camp, you know, at the end of this
month and everybody is borrowing from everybody else worldwide in
leagues of what work. Because this is also unprecedented. We
talked last hour about our first hour television of sports
and how that has looked different with the pumped in
crowd noise. And then what's really been bad is one

(01:27:35):
of the European soccer leagues is maybe it's Italy, it's
just been maybe it's Spain. They're they've just been putting
the video game type of fans in the stands so
you don't have empty seats in the background. It is comical,
but not in a good way. Uh So, really, what
you're saying, if there's no NFL preseason, then yet again,
the Ram Stadium is still not opening yet because didn't

(01:27:57):
Harmon have tickets to tickets done and the Taylor Swift
opening of the stadium before the preseason was due to
start mid all got has when that new place is
due to start as it stands, if they if there's
not a preseason, then that means the first Sunday night
game is supposed to be Rams hosting the Cowboys, right
then that would be the grand opening, and then the

(01:28:18):
Chargers host in the same place one week after that,
assuming again we had that going now. And here's the
other part you talk about the schedule is the other
the other thing that came up today was the NFL
is looking into potentially teams flying in and out on
game days in the fall, right, and so instead of
flying in the day before, uh, they're flying in the

(01:28:39):
day of a game. Now, that's simply not gonna work
because teams are not going to fly across country, be
on a plane for four and a half hours, get off,
and then try to play a football game. You're not
gonna put guys on a plane at four o'clock in
the morning and then have them get off the plane
at ten o'clock get to the stadium here, right, That's
not gonna happen. That that's not But here's the interesting
part of this. And number one, there's the broadcast angle

(01:29:00):
of it, because that has to be set up the
day before and most of the team's broadcast teams fly
with the teams, and that's all got to be said
that so they're not gonna be able to get there
and set up their broadcast. So that's a big question.
But here's the here's the other part of the Stevens.
If they're looking into this, I wonder if the NFL
is going to have to eventually go we have to

(01:29:21):
adjust our schedule, and we have to have regional scheduling,
just like Baseball is doing. So we don't have teams
flying all over the country. They're flying into the same cities,
playing the same teams. You're exposed to less people, and
it's shorter and you can fly in on game days.
And so the schedule for the Jets then would be

(01:29:42):
the Patriots and the Giants and the Eagles and the
Redskins and places they can get to within a couple
of hours where you can fly in on game day
and flying it's only an hour and a half flight
and you can get in and get out, or if
you wanted to, you could take you know, you can
take the trade whatever however you want to get there.
Obviously you're gonna try to fly. You're flying the way
you are. But that's going to be something that is

(01:30:05):
looked at as a potential solution if it gets the
point where traveling is too tough that we don't know
where that where COVID nineteen is gonna go. And Major
League Baseball is already looking at stemming the tide by
saying we'll have regionalized scheduling. Right, We're not gonna We're
not gonna have the Mets fly out to two Chevez
Ravine and the Dodgers fly out to play. We're not

(01:30:25):
going to do that. We're going to have it a
little would do do it a little bit differently? And
I wonder if the National Football League they might get
to that point to where, you know what, it makes
smart sense just to play regionally and we'll redo the
schedule for this year. And maybe it's it's just like
in the A two strike here and they really they
got rid of the divisions and they just put teams
one through six. Team in the top eight niche UH

(01:30:47):
conference made the playoffs. I mean, you may see some
radical changes like that, which would be awesome and fun
to see. But I wonder if that's potentially where the
NFL could go. If they're, hey, how do we keep
it safe? Boy? This coronavirus is going crazy. We still
want to try to find a way to play. We
do it regionalized, and the NFL is such a TV
league they can make a boatload of cash still on TV.

(01:31:09):
And man, that would be extreme though, because two of
the early Sunday night games, for example, of Seattle hosting
New England, I think in Seattle hosting Minnesota, so you're
up in the corner of the country for that. Or
San Francisco home game against Philadelphia is a Sunday night
the first month of the season two at this point,
to have had contingencies that cover that and not have

(01:31:31):
it leak out, unlike all the leaks coming from I'm
talking about you, baseball, other sports, that would be kind
of amazing, wouldn't it. I tell you it would be.
It would It would be easy enough to do. You're
trying to redoing the scheduling, but you know where people
are gonna go. The West Coast. Teams are gonna stay
in the West Coast, and it might not be affecting fans,
you know, ticket holders, because we already know. The story

(01:31:52):
came out that the NFL will allow each team to
first off, determine its own stadium capacity for games, but
then teams are allowed to where the lowest rose with
the sponsor logos, assuming the stadium is now at full capacity.
And also even if fans were there, they don't want
fans down close to the players. Yeah, it will be away,
the fans will figure it out and sometimes yeah, I

(01:32:13):
get sometimes fans will go, well, I really bought tickets
for this day, and now you're telling me there's not
going to be a game that day. But look, COVID nineteen,
you kind of have to roll with the punch a
little bit, and we kind of have to figure things
out on the fly. And everybody's still gonna get the
same number of home games, still the same number of
way games. And really, if you told fans this, if
you told anybody this, this is what it takes to
play football, everybody would say, yes, do it. Whatever it

(01:32:36):
takes to play football. Where it takes play any sport,
fans would say yes, because the alternative is not playing.
And so if it's if it's not playing, or if
it's having the season that you normally want to have,
or changing things too so you can make sure you
can play, everybody would be okay with making sure you
can play. Yeah, you're gonna have fans complaining going on. Look,
this team has a pretty easy schedule. They play all
the sucky teams because I happened to be on the

(01:32:57):
East coast or but that's just how you have to
do it this year, and and that's gonna be certain
years you just have to say, all right, it's not
gonna be the best. It's not gonna be the best
we can do, but it's got to be the best
options that are available to us. And you know what,
if that comes up, I can see the National Football
League doing that and saying we're limiting all kinds of
travel that way, and everyone's gonna play regional, just like

(01:33:17):
a good coaching staff able to adjust, well, a good
league this year, all the leagues, you've got to be
able to adjust. And you could even be playing the
same eight teams twice because of that. Say, listen, we
we were gonna limit the exposure of team of teams
two different players, and so we're gonna have for these
two weeks back to back, the Jets will play the Steelers,

(01:33:39):
they'll play the play him at home, then they'll play
him in Pittsburgh, and then we're gonna see the Jets
are gonna play the Patriots, are gonna play the Patriots,
and they're gonna play I mean, you could see something
like that actually come come of it, just to make
sure we have football. I mean, how likely is this?
Look right now, the NFL is not thinking anything like that,
but the fact they're throwing out there, hey, we could
fly out in and out of game days. Is that
gonna work for some of us? It tells me that

(01:34:01):
as as COVID nineteen continues, if it continues to expand,
the NFL and other sports are gonna have to look
for other ways and and change their their plans. And
the NFL doesn't want to change their plans, but they
may have to. This could be one of those situations.
Twitter at how about a Fresca phone number eight seven
seven ninety nine On Fox, The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Carmon, Steve de Sager in for Mike. Coming up next,

(01:34:24):
Adam Silver on the NBA's restart. Boy did he drop
a bombshell earlier today? We got that next Fox. He
didn't say that. It's a real thing. It's really happening.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart

(01:34:47):
Radio app Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith's Show with
Mike Carman Steve to Seger's Best Delivery in from Mike
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getting the zone. Auto Zone So today Commissioner Adam Silver
had some pretty interesting things to say on the NBA's restart.

(01:35:34):
He did an interview today with Time one hundred Talks
and talked about what is going to happen the NBA's
plan for playing in Orlando, and he was asked, Hey,
the NBA, are you guys playing no matter what? And
here's the answer that Adam Silver gave, never full them ahead,

(01:35:54):
no matter what. I think. One thing we're learning about
this virus as much as unpredictable, and I think and
our players, together with their union, the Players Association, look
at the data on a daily basis and if there
was something to change that was outside of the scope
of what we're playing for, certainly we would revisit our plans.
I'd also say, I mean, we're testing daily. We haven't

(01:36:16):
put a precise number on it, but if we were
to see a large number of cases, and we were
to see spread in our community, that would, of course
would be a cause for us to stop as well.
Now you hear him say the big phrases in there. Look,
we're never full steam ahead no matter what. And and
look of all the sports, the NBA clearly has done

(01:36:36):
the best job of being cognizant of the players wishes, desires,
any antinus about going to play, questions about returning to play.
They have been extremely player friendly, player friendly when it
comes to how everybody was getting paid. Player friendly as
far as if you don't want to come play, we
understand you're not going to be in breach of contract.

(01:36:57):
You're not gonna get paid, but you're not gonna be
in breach of contract a ball. Everybody player friendly with
the service time, even if you don't participate in this
short season this summer. Yeah, but I would say the
other was not player friendly from the from the owner's steave,
I went, it was hard to one. Yes, Well, look
they did give him sixty games out of fifties, that
was more money for the players. So there was that,

(01:37:19):
But all along there's never been any real dissension other
than Kyrie Irving saying, who we should start our own league? Yeah. Yeah,
the players have been more partners and they've they've held
some power granted in the NBA through the players Union,
but yes, they've been more partners in the talks with
the front office. And when you hear Adam Silver talk

(01:37:40):
more about this is our plan and this is what
we have going on the minution of some of the
details in the Orlando bubble. When they first came out,
they sounded ridiculous. And how are you going to keep
an eye on all of this? And there's gonna be
a hotline that you call to see if cars that
shouldn't be cleared or coming in debt to be with players. Uh,
you're not. Can allow the players to be able to

(01:38:01):
play with a deck of cards more than once. You
gotta throw the cards away. You can't. They can't play
two onto ping pong. Uh. You know all of these
things are out there. And look, when this first came out,
I said, this bubble idea in Orlando sounds great in theory,
but in practical application, this is just never gonna work.
You're not the only one who thought that. Some epidemiologists
started scoffing at the fact that you could have people

(01:38:24):
in a so called bubble. There's there's just gonna be
a hole for the virus to get through at some
point because not all the employees are staying. I know,
you've got twenty tho hotel rooms at this complex outside Orlando,
but not all the employees are gonna be staying there.
They're going in and out. Yeah, bubble, it's a really
big bubble. It's gonna work because the bubble is really
it's It's like the the theory that hey, hey, time

(01:38:46):
travel sounds great, but then can you really make time
travel work? I mean, there's so many things have to happen,
and time travel just doesn't doesn't It doesn't work. I
mean it doesn't mean but it sounds great. It's the
same thing. The bubble sounded great in theory, but practical
application aatitions, it wasn't gonna work. And then the last
ten days happened as ten days to two weeks. And
what did we see In the world of sports, We

(01:39:08):
have seen players test positive for COVID nineteen because they're
working out together can't work. We've seen players test POSITI
for COVID nineteen because they went out to bars together.
We've seen players test positive because they went out and
they did in social distance the right way. Yeah, they've
not been able to do it. And so now you say,

(01:39:30):
all right, wow, what can happen now? I've said from
the beginning, the continuing of sports is going to come
down to people in their twenties and thirties making the
smart right decisions when it comes to social distancing and
not exposing yourself to COVID nineteen. That's a very difficult
esque because as you can see in the country right now,

(01:39:52):
we don't have we have a big rising uptick in
people in near twenties and thirties because they don't want
to wear maths when they go out. It's not that
our country opened up too early. We just didn't open
up smart enough. Because for some reason people decided masks
means that's the worst thing in the world. It's a
little bit of an inconvenience to try to keep everybody healthy.
But you know, people don't want to see that, or
they want to ignore that and get together and go

(01:40:13):
to parties and go to bars, and now you're seeing
COVID nineteen cases rage throughout the country. So I went
from this being this bubble is a horrible idea. This
is not gonna work. Now that there was a bad idea,
but just it was it sounded great. But proctic wheels
are gonna work. Right now. I think it's the it's
the only hope for the NBA to be able to play.
And I look at Major League Baseball and go, how

(01:40:34):
are they going to navigate this? Because the NBA is
as finally realized and their ideas. We're gonna take care
of everything. You're gonna be under our supervision. We're gonna
make sure you get tested all the time. We're gonna
make sure you stay in the in in the right
places so you don't expose yourself to COVID nineteen. As
time goes on, we can have more members of your

(01:40:55):
family come down, but we have to be in a bubble,
and we have to be away from everybody else. I
understand this is the optic that Kyrie Irving wanted to
fight against. Here you have a lot of African American
men that are going to be in a bubble and
not allowed to go places. But really, this is take
a step back. This is about sports resuming, This is
about everybody getting paid. This is about continuing on to
do your job. This is what needs to happen. This

(01:41:18):
may be the only way forward, because then the NBA
can control all this and say, Okay, this is not
gonna happen. You don't have to worry about one or
two guys making a bad decision and that ruins it
for a whole team, because it's not It's not just
where eleven guys on a team decided to go out
to a bar. It's if one or two guys decided
to go out and then that's it, and then something
you come back and maybe you give it to other

(01:41:39):
people on the team, and then the team is screwed
because of it. You don't need that many people to
make a bad decision. You only need one or two
and and that's what And that's that, that's what people
don't realize. But you can have an entire two But
if one guy decided to go out and go to
what to dinner and sit in a restaurant and crowded restaurant.
So I'm gonna do this you come back with COVID
nineteen and that winds up ruining it. So the fact
the NBA cans a we have everything you need. You're

(01:42:01):
gonna be living on resorts and for the NBA player's
gonna be like going to a resort for vacation, except
you're gonna play basketball. Have you ever done that for vacation?
Gone to a resort, spend a couple of days one
of those all inclusive resorts. You know, there are a
lot of money, but you save money, you go, and
it's great. They take care of everything for you. This
is what it's gonna be like for NBA players. They're
gonna be staying in these big gas resorts in condos. Sure,

(01:42:24):
I mean they're gonna They're gonna They're gonna be taking
care of anybody. What'd say, boy, I'd love to go
spend a couple of weeks here. Now, obviously, are they
taking a bit of danger with them in playing basketball, Sure,
but this is what it means to play basketball. If
they're gonna have a season. This may be the only
way forward because the NBA can say we can control
this because our focus is keeping everybody healthy and on
the basketball court and that is that is one and

(01:42:47):
two because everything else they'll take care We'll take care
of the TV and everything. But everybody is healthy and
everybody's on the basketball court, and when those are your
only priorities, you'll be able to take care of it.
That may be the only way out. And NHL was
talking about daily testing and it would cost them millions,
but that's what the players wanted to make them feel comfortable.
And they're talking about what two hub cities, not one bubble,

(01:43:08):
but as far as our only hope, and all leagues
are looking at all other leagues and what works and
what doesn't. So this is kind of NBA Wars a
new hope. It's episode four. It's helping help us. We're
looking out at the two the two sons and tattooing, going, boy,
it's hot here. I gotta get off this planet and
I gotta get away. By the way, Marv Albert, who

(01:43:30):
was an NBA announcer long before the original Star Wars,
did you see the New York Post item that he,
being nearly eighty years old, may not be making any
visits to Orlando, but he could call some games remotely.
And Hubi Brown, who's been an NBA analyst forever and
is in his eighties may avoid going on site for games.
This is another thing that's been happening with other leagues.

(01:43:51):
Soccer has been a regular at doing this. Even some
World Cup games have been doing this. The announcers don't
have to be in the stadium. We're gonna start seeing
that a lot as well. I mean baseball, that's been
a talk for this summer also. Yeah, I I I
think in football you'll see it too. I think you're
gonna see, Hey, we're gonna stay home and we're gonna
call the games this way, and there's not gonna be

(01:44:12):
that much of a difference, simply because in a in
a normal situation, if you have play by play announcers
at the game, you know what they're gonna sound like.
If you don't have them at the game, is it
a little weird. Yeah, but we've seen that before. We've
seen it happen. No fans in the background is a
little weird too, But but that's the thing with no fans.

(01:44:32):
How weird is it going to be? Is it really
going to be a difference if play by play uh
team is at the game or if they're at their
own location. It's not like they're playing off of fans.
It's not like they are they're interacting with anybody else.
I mean, there's not gonna be fans. There's not gonna
BELLI yes, without the you know, the screams after the three.

(01:44:52):
It's not what he had in mind. That is clearly
not what he had in mind. Time out. Mike for
Tello wants to talk it over m Mark. Mike for
Tello doesn't coach anymore. But and but now you want
to take in the next Another level from that is
you have the NBA coaches as well, because that's all

(01:45:14):
older men at the coaching staff. And look, Rick Buker
is gonna stop buying about forty five minutes and talk
about that with us. Is is you're gonna have a
lot of the coaches who obviously the older you are,
the more susceptible you are to have to have COVID
nineteen some series. Yes, yeah, I mean, well, I'm not
saying everybody, but generally, the look the head coaches are
older than the players. You know, when you're in your
twenties and thirties generally, and so far what's been good

(01:45:37):
is that you're in your twenties and thirties. Uh, if
you get it, your immune system is is good enough
to beat it away. And that's good because the deaths
are going down. The cases are just rising dramatically. So
that's you know, that's the bad you got. You got
the good part. In the bad part. The deaths are
going down, um, you know, but the cases are going up.
But when you have older men who are around, this

(01:45:57):
is gonna be coaching staff to what happens. I mean,
if if if Mike D'Antoni can't coach, if if somebody
else can't, you can't do it because hey, I got CORONAVI.
I can't be around the team. I got it. I
got a quarantine for a while, I really can't be around.
And hopefully no one ever has to go to the
hospital or anything, you know, really serious. But that's part
of the situation too, is that this might happen with

(01:46:18):
the coaches, and maybe you're gonna have teams being coached
by assistants because some coaches they're gonna try to go there,
but realize, Okay, maybe I can't. Somebody else has to
do it. There's a lot of stuff that's out there
right now, and we have to say out loud, anybody
at any age can get it. And I think the
last couple of weeks especially have proved in some states.
If you look at the median age of some of

(01:46:39):
the new virus cases, anybody can get it. Your age
doesn't keep you from getting it, might keep you from dying.
It might help you fight it off. But you know
who would actually want to be sick? Yeah, And and
when Adam Silver says, look, we are going to play,
but we're not full steam head because the coronavirus could
wind up doing something doing something against it, it's not

(01:47:01):
going to be a case where you're gonna see a
point where the NBA says, Okay, you know what, Well
this happened, we have to stop playing. It's gonna be
a smell test thing if it comes to it, because
if one or two players get it all right, they're
gonna try to figure it out. But we'll know when
it's when, when it's at the point where where the

(01:47:22):
NBA has gotta take pause and maybe stop playing. And
by and large, the players are gonna tell us because
they wanted to stand up and say, you know what,
we're not going to the arena. We're not gonna go
play where we we really don't think it's it's good.
We saw the positive tests here, we saw this team Atticut.
We're not going to go play because I'll throughout this
this regular scenario that could happen. Look, and you're gonna
see COVID nineteen tests. Right with any in any sport

(01:47:44):
that returns, you're gonna see COVID nineteen tests. Now, let's
say that the Mavericks are gonna play the Lakers in
a game, and they're gonna play on Wednesday night, Monday night,
the Lakers finished their game, the Mavericks finished their game,
and Tuesday morning, you find out three Mavericks layers test
positive for COVID nineteen and so, but they're they're taken

(01:48:05):
away right away and they are quarantined and they're looked
at and everything is okay, but obviously they can't play
and they have to sit out. Are the Lakers really
gonna want to play that game? Are there? Are the
Mavericks really gonna want to play that game? Well, we
just said three guys with COVID nineteen, what if I
got it? Well, well, whoa, I know? You tested me
and my temperature is okay and and but I might

(01:48:25):
not have symptoms for a couple of days. The Lakers,
who would be sitting there with no positive COVID nine
team tests, are saying, wait a minute, we can't risk
going to play this game. They just had three guys
test positive. Is a symptom after all? Right, Yeah, I
mean we're we're not playing this game. We're not gonna
but we don't feel good playing two days later, and
then that's a Then what's the NBA gonna do there?
I know they say it's gonna be full steam ahead,

(01:48:47):
but the players are really powerful, and Adam Silver's message
is more of, hey, we're all in this together, and
I understand the power of the players, and this is
why I'm saying we're not going forward, you know by
all means we're going to you know, stop and do
it the right way. But that's a huge concern that
I would think. That's the first thing I would think of,
because players are gonna go down there, Stephen. It's gonna

(01:49:08):
be like I got one ft in, one ft out
and they're gonna be, ah, I'm gonna play, but the
first side is uping. I don't like I'm ready to bolt.
So that's all stuff they're gonna have to deal with
if that did come up, if I'm the NBA, the
best case scenario out of that is that it happens
late in these eight rescheduled games that maybe parts of

(01:49:28):
the standings are already kind of decided, and then you
have a better chance of saying, well, we actually can
skip this game, kind of like what you're saying earlier.
You know, it doesn't mean anything this NFL preseason, We
actually could skip that game if some things are decided
in this in the standings. You know, just young players
are going to be brought up late in those two
or three weeks uh to finish the regular season in

(01:49:49):
the NBA, right, and so that might be a game
that you could skip. Twitter on how about a Fresco
phone number eight seven, seven nine nine on Fox Steven
I got more coming up at ninety, But first, be
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harman weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm
Pacific Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harman,

(01:50:10):
Steve de Seger, and from Mike Harman tonight. And you know,
I know we're we're hoping and praying the National Football
League is gonna be able to start on time. But
this story today makes you have a step back and
you realize that maybe we're not under as much of
a time constraint as we think we are. Uh. The
IVY League is potentially looking at in college football playing

(01:50:32):
their season in the spring and only playing teams from
the IVY League having a shortened season playing eight or
nine games, and well, okay, that's kind of interesting, and
they're playing in the spring. It makes you realize that
only the NFL's desire to stay to their rigid calendar
year of the game start in September and then the
Super Bowls in February, then free agency is March and

(01:50:55):
the draft. Only their rigid desires stick to. That has
us all out of the out of our heads, going, well,
that's what they gotta do. No, there's no time commitment
for the NFL that they don't have to start in September.
They could start in January if they wanted to. They
could play twelve games, They could have a break over
Christmas if they wanted, and start beginning in November. All

(01:51:15):
you would be doing is pushing a little bit of
the next league's years business. You wouldn't start free agency
the beginning of February OV or beginning of March. You
can start that in April. You have so much time.
You have ac Couardi in time in between times on
the NFL calendar. The NFL can start whenever they want to.
They don't have to start in September. They don't have
to start in mid October. They could start. They could

(01:51:37):
have their first games Christmas Day if they wanted to,
and still play a full season and playoff. People have
thought about it for college because stating the office the obvious.
The people who populate your team's not just football, are
on your campus all school year long, that includes February. Yeah,
it's it's not something that needs to look in college football.
You'd move the bowl games. You can do that too.

(01:51:58):
It's it's the rigid scare. Tool is not hard and fast,
and we can't move it. It's only their desire to
keep it that way. Both sports are gonna have to
be flexible as this goes on. I'm telling you they're
gonna have to be flexible. Two big stories out of
the NBA next on Fox. Be sure to catch live
editions of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays
at ten pm Eastern seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports

(01:52:21):
Radio and the I Heart Radio AP. Steve Sager Fox
Sports Radio, was that on the airtight shirt? Oh yeah,
gotta give him his just dessert? No, no, that's good.
I mean, you'd think we can make a special open
that would just say, heyman, is it? But no, this works.
What's more special than me introducing Steve? It is? It is?

(01:52:42):
It is very very special. It's very very special. Goes
along with the budget of the show. Uh, we're able
to do that. We're making guns sure, we are right there.
Hey listen, except when it says Harmon's name, just say
to Sager, Chris, Harmon's out tonight, mean like I'm I'm
gonna play No, no, just just the volume down and
you say it. Over the years, people know, alright, got it? Oh,

(01:53:09):
welcome inside the slide over Baby hour. That's what happens
when you're non union. It's happy Bobby Beni a day. Yes,
it's that kind of night here on the show. But Steve, hey, listen,
you got your name in and Babby Beni has got
another one point one nine million dollars was first every year.
It's working. And I'll give you another big thing today too.

(01:53:30):
It is July one, and the Knicks are not behind
on any NBA free agents. They have not had anybody
say we're not showing up, we don't want to go
to the Knicks. The Knicks are just fine free agent
wise right now. Do you remember you and I co
hosted this show on a July one a few years ago,
and the big breaking story was Timothy Moskov's contract. Bakers

(01:53:52):
that came down with that right about this time. It
was the first one It was Moskoff, and then it
was lu all dang right, and then it was all
that gratulations that mas That was like the low point
for the Lakers. Wait a minute, waiting they're gonna give
him up because they were just coming off the championship, right,
I think Cleveland just coming off the championship, and that
nobody else was taking their money, so they gave him

(01:54:14):
fifteen million dollars a year, and somebody is coming and
Timothy Moscoff who you know what his you know what?
His best claim to famous, his best name to fame
Timothy Moscow. But as he was, his best name to
fame was he did a local commercial in Cleveland, because
you know, looking in Cleveland and a lot of a
lot of the mid size cities, all all the all
the athletes are all the celebrities there, so you get

(01:54:35):
you get local commercials that that that athletes do. He
did a commercial I want to say it was for
a bar, or it was for a restaurant, and he
in the commercial to show everybody who he was. He
wore his Moscof jersey, but he wore it backwards so
you could see his name in fred that said Moscoff.

(01:54:55):
So you know, it was insane. I'm like, oh my god,
this is this is local commercial. This is fantastic. Of
course he's really tall, and maybe they could have just
backed off on the cameron. People have believed it was
a basketball player show some perspective or something. Well I
think if he says, I'm Timothy Moscoff of the of
the Cleveland CA, Okay, I get it. Yeah you're a Moscoff,
All right, great? Yeah, But but he had the jersey

(01:55:16):
on with his name backwards, with his name on the
front like that, Like what kind of shoot did he
show up? Hey, how are gonna know who he is? Is?
Anybody anybody have a jersey. Do you have a jersey?
Were your jersey? Clearly they were not playing the NBA
players union paying them for the logo on the front
of the jersey, so they had to turn the shirt around.
Can someone run to the store and get a Moscoff jersey? Right?

(01:55:37):
All right, Timothy, I'm sorry, we're gonna be about fifteen
minutes running to get one of your said Moscow not Molotov.
They didn't have it. So I got a Lebron jersey.
That's not gonna work, all right. Lebron is too much
amuctually in a couple of years. That's really not gonna work.
It's not gonna work here once you wear this. But
are people look gonna know who he is? I mean,
he's wearing the but he's wearing the Cavaliers jersey saying

(01:55:58):
his name and they hadn't on a playoff games back
then they would know. Have him put it on backwards
so we could see his name. Oh, yes, that's what
we'll do. We'll do that. Well, coming up this hour,
we will explain why Bobby Bandill a day is a thing.
We will also didn't you say Rick Bucker with all
the NBA talk and also before the hours over. We
have to mention the late great Carl Reiner as well,

(01:56:20):
years old, great run for Carl Reiner, the Bobby Benia story.
For those who weren't with us earlier, you just don't know.
Every July one, I'll say it because you're a Mets fan,
and it's painful every summer, every July one through I
believe he gets a check for nearly one point two
million dollars because of his agreement to leave the Mets

(01:56:41):
years ago. They could have paid him a lump sum
and just be done with the story and the checks,
and instead they're paying him off at interest. And so
it's over a million dollar every check every summer for
a couple of decades. I wonder if the Mets thought
back then, come on, guys, in tw me fifty, what's
a million? A million dollars is gonna be like a

(01:57:03):
hundred bucks. So yeah, let's do for example, think how
many tickets we're gonna sell. We're gonna be playing in
a hundred thousand seen stadium by man, are you kidding?
We're gonna have Piazza's kid is gonna be playing Forest
We got good and s kid. We're gonna find a
way to clone Strong on our fifth World Series title.
Everything we need, it doesn't matter. We're gonna make it

(01:57:25):
so much money. And now a million dollars is still
a million dollars. Still a lot of money. It's still
a lot of money. I will be in my sixties
before the Mets stopped paying Bobby Na that money. He does,
He does nothing, just all he's got to do is
click refresh on his bank account and suddenly bang. It
doesn't even have to be in the Cayman Islands. This
is an actual, legitimate payment that's coming to a US

(01:57:48):
bank account. This is not the firm where Gene Hackman
is doing some crazy things and yeah you're off shore
and no, no, no, no, this is legit. A here's
my one point one nine million dollars. Although it is
the kind of a deal that the firm might be
involved in, if you know what I mean, I could
be it could be. Well, well it's it's not like
the Mets ownership has uh not been involved in any
kind of financial bondsy scheme. Sorry that they had to

(01:58:13):
worry about the past few years. I here's my big
hope though, is that to one day they'll made off
they will make it. It'll be fun. Seven people have
been approved to buy the Mets. So how much? How
badly does Major League Baseball want the Mets al or
to play on the roster. No, no, well, if it's
a rod, he'll hit clean up and own the team.

(01:58:33):
Uh and and you know and and j Loa will manage.
So there will be there back this year. Right, But
but this is that well, yeah he'll d h yeah,
you know, he's in the contract to your sets. But
it's like, yeah, I'm sure he'll probably at the ball
a little now. Earlier people had tried to buy the Mets,
but then the TV channel wasn't part of it. So
what's the deal? S n Y. But some people want
to buy the Mets for less money. Some people will

(01:58:56):
spend more money if s n Y is included. And
I think what the Mets are real allizing is that
they have to include s n Y because that's the
big money maker. There's white people have to buy it.
But I mean, when someone gets approved to buy a
baseball team, it's usually this person wants to buy that
person gets approved, they buy the team. The seven people
have the approval to buy the Mets. Yeah, whatever, you're

(01:59:17):
going about by buy the Mets. Great. I got Smith
and to Sager, they put they gave us a hundred
bucks to put down. Yeah, approve them. That's great. Yeah.
Are you saying seven people in one group or seven
different groups different groups have been approved to buy the Mets'
I mean more than when the Dodgers were for sale
after McCord. I think one of the groups is the Yankees.

(01:59:37):
I think the Yankees are going to buy the Mets.
It's it's they would have an exhibition punching bag every year.
I think right now, with this check made out to
Bobby Benia, Benia has more money than the Mets do.
He can actually buy the Mets. They may say to him, listen,
Bobby got a deal for you. What's that all right?
Instead of a million dollars every year for the next
fifteen years, what's that? How about you just take over

(01:59:59):
the met We don't pay you anymore and you take over.
If Spis would just sell the ranch and not step it,
maybe he would have enough money to I think he
still has enough money to buy the Mets. He does
a lot of doctors bills for him in the last year. Yeah,
but if you have good insurance. I think you're okay,
and then look, one thing you know about Mets players,
they get hurt a lot. They have to have good insurance.

(02:00:20):
And in New York, I mean, look, there's a lot
of doctors P PO, H, m O whatever. I mean,
I'm sure the Mets have that. But this is why
Bobby Benia Day is such a big deal because if
any other organization had this, this wouldn't even be It
would be a fun thing, it would be a cult story. Hey,
this is the day that the Mariners are paying money
to eat urosazuki. Whatever it is, it's funny, but no, No,

(02:00:43):
Bobby a day becomes a thing where he's the number
one trending topic in all of Twitter tonight a day.
And this is I mean because the Mets. Because when
you have an organization you can laugh at, it always
becomes more important. Things that are embarrassing or even more embarrassing,
and things that are if that embarrassing, just get over
the top embarrassing. That's kind of how it goes. This

(02:01:06):
is embarrassing because you had a chance for this not
to be a story, A hundred ways a chance for
this not to be a story. And this is the
route you chose as a franchise wild the only way
it works if Benia buys the next I mean, I
think that's got to be I think that's that's part
of it. That would be the feel good ending, would
it not? For a New York sports fan? That would

(02:01:29):
be sensational. The bad news is is that guys like
Alonzo Morning probably made four times in his career what
Bania did in his It's just Benia's money is getting
spread out. Yeah. I look, if if I could go
back in time and say, listen, here's money that you
could give it to me now. But when I'm making
a lot of money. Look, because Benny it was a millionaire.
He signed big contracts, and you know, I I get

(02:01:51):
that part of it. But if you could go back,
I think everybody would take this deal. Wait a minute,
I could make six million dollars now, or you're gonna
give me a million dollars a year for like twenty years. Oh,
I think I'm gonna do that. I mean, I'd be
nervous getting to that point and go, I don't know,
it's something gonna happen somewhere. I'm not going to get
that money. But I think in the end, I think

(02:02:12):
everybody would do that. Yeah, I'm wake that nervous you're saying,
because you know your errors, would they get the money right?
It will get past I don't know. I don't mean
that you're gonna die. I mean that somehow you're gonna
find out, Oh, there's a loophole because five years have
gone by. The Mets don't have to bake that. You
were saying getting nervous because and then it gives your
errors more motivation to perhaps I'm not saying it's knives

(02:02:35):
out with Bobby Bania. No, you eat blank, and you
eat blank, you definitely eat like Jeffreys and you eat
blank too good. No, I mean that that something would
happen where you saying, Okay, here's a lot of money,
but you can't touch it for a long time. I
would think something where the Mets would go, ah, well
you didn't sign this paper by the date of July one,

(02:02:55):
two thousand and seven. That would take point in the
first place, we've already established that was not that was
not going on. That's not gonna happen. And the thing
is Bobby Benilla, you know, with with the Pittsburgh Pirates,
he was a phenomenal player. Okay, came up, they were great,
and and Bania was twenty four and a hundred, twenty

(02:03:18):
four and eighty six, thirty two and one, yeah, I
mean and hitting two eighty. I mean, he was fantastic.
And he hits free agency and the Mets sign him,
and then he has not one year as good as
any of those years I tell you about his prime years.
Of his best year was thirty four and eighty seven
with the Mets in seven RBIs, Yeah, eighty seven RBIs.

(02:03:42):
That was his best year with him at thirty four
and he was coming in seven being top three and
m v P voting back to back years with Pittsburgh. Yeah,
if four All Star appearances with Pittsburgh, he was terrific.
He was Okay, let's go get him. And it's not
that he was so awful, it's just he wasn't nearly
the player he was. He had thirty points were with
the Mets, he did with Pittsburgh. And then when you

(02:04:03):
think it's over for m Okay, he's completely done. The
Mets say goodbye and ninety five, no, he goes to
Baltimore and in ninety six he goes twenty eight and
one sixteen and he hits two ninety right drives in
ninety six runs for the Marlins in ninety seven. He
still had big years. It was the World Series team.
That's said. Those Sandwich three years with the Mets were

(02:04:23):
his worst ones. We had the great start with Pittsburgh
and the great end of his career. And didn't he
come back to the Mets And they paid him off
a small amount at the end because yeah, he came
back in ninety nine for a few games. I want
to say, I have two thousand. No, he wasn't not
we went to the World Series ninety nine. Uh, he
came back for a while for maybe half the season.

(02:04:43):
He was back for a little bit. I want to say.
But that's but that's I mean, that's just typical Mets
right there. You're paying a guy. Not only are you
paying guys, if you're paying a guy who was great,
Like if this was all the Cardinals of paying Albert
pool Holes, right, Carlins and paying Albert Pools, But look
what pool Holes did for them. They won a World Series.
He was so good, no going Hall of Fame. Yeah,
you're paying a guy who was great before he signed

(02:05:03):
with you. Then was just okay with you, and then
was great again after you. This is this is what
it means. I remember the Angels. At one point, we're
paying three third basement and I don't believe any of
the three were actually in the lineup that week. But
that does happen. Oh happy, But it's not like NFL contracts. No, no, no.

(02:05:24):
This is why you can all celebrate Bobby Benia Day
where I I count the time until July two.

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Mike Harmon

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