*Digital Exclusive* Pugsley's Pit Take Over

In this 75 minute commercial video digital exclusive, Sean "Pugsley" Martin and Goz talk college football, the Olympics, MLB and much more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, let's go. Hope everyone's having a day filled with awesomeness.
Thank you for tuning into Pugsy Spit. As for the
second time, we invade the airwaves of WOFX Radio as
part of blow Back and Guys Show ninety five ninem
nine eighty AM on the iHeartRadio Network. I am Sean
Puggely Martin. This is episode one hundred and six of

(00:26):
Pugsy's Pit, and as we always do this time of
the show, we begin by asking you the question, worlds
would you rather be than right here? Boom right now.
By way of introduction, I'm a freelance sports writer for
the Albany Times Union, avid sports enthusiast, big time homer
for my sports teams without apologies. You can follow the
show on Twitter at Pugsy Spit, taking the podcast on

(00:47):
YouTube channel at Pugsley ninety two seven. Yes he's back.
I'm Gozlowsky, friend of the program. Welcome back to the pit,
my friend.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Thank you, my friend. And this is the interesting part
about this you mentioned this is the second time that
we have the invasion style of Pugsy Spit. I have
to thank you for this because for those listening on
the traditional radio side since Lavak and Goz came over,
since this afternoon drive time slot has been a thing
for the last year and a half. I've promised to

(01:19):
myself and hopefully some listeners who remember this, that this
was going to sound different than anything you've heard of
the Capitol Region before that We're going to try some
different things, do some things a bit different. We understand
in the world post COVID it maybe far before that,
how you consume this content is different. So now this
is a double edition. If you're listening to Fox Sports
on the iHeartMedia app, Levak and gos anchored Spotify, you're

(01:42):
hearing this, and we wanted to do a little cross
sport for the digital content creators in the Capital Region
that man I'm staring at right now with Sean Martin.
So this is cool. This is both digital and on air.
As we move into the Pugsies Pit invasion takeover of
the radio side here, which although you are taking over
the show, I'm gonna sit behind the driver's seat as

(02:04):
they call it a radio so I will be driving,
but you're more than welcome to bump me and elbow
me and say let me take the wheel for a second,
So with all that, yes, yes, with all that being said,
you know, in two weeks from now, we are gonna
be talking about week zero college football action. We are
gonna be talking about college footble. So I guess before
we can talk about week zero in week one and

(02:25):
all the other good things that start with something you
and I are both passionate about, that's college football. Let's
just start with the top teams. Because I have an
idea of who I think are the top teams. Your
thought may be a bit different when you're looking at
the landscape of the twenty twenty four regular season in
college football, who do you believe will be some of
the top teams this regular season?

Speaker 1 (02:45):
I think right now it's it's all Georgia. Yeah, They're
They're the They're the layup pick, right, Carson Beck just
under four thousand yards last year. You know, they bring
back a lot of lot of players. And one thing
about Georgia and they have NFL players up and down
that roster. Anyway, the thing about Georgia is they got
a chip on their shoulder. They thought they should have

(03:06):
been in the playoff last year. Maybe a little something
extra to prove to get them through the off season
and through camp to hit the ground running when the
season starts. I think it's Georgia's world and we're kind
of living in it. But after that, I got a
lot of questions.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, Georgia feels like the team to beat because they're
so deep. And if you want to make this a
drinking game, if you go back and listen to this
like two or three weeks from now on the digital side,
you're gonna notice the team. I'll keep saying the word
depth this we do our college football talk, because that's
gonna be the storyline of this season. For a variety
of reasons. George is so deep, Like you could have

(03:42):
the second or third stringer for Georgia, the eighteen nineteen
twenty year old kid play contribute and be really really good.
I'm gonna add three teams to the Georgia mix, though,
although I got no pushback on the Bulldogs and how
good they've been for me. If we went to Rivers
Casino and they gave me this prop, I would struggle

(04:03):
to a wager on who I would take. And that's
if you gave me the entire field in collegeable, every
team as one bet or Georgia Texas, Oregon or Ohio
State is the other three plus Georgia. I feel like
I would almost take the four, like that's how gonna.

(04:26):
It feels like it's Georgia, then everybody else of that
three and then everybody else. I don't know if you
have a feeling about Texas, Oregon or Ohio State. I
feel like one of those teams you despise in Ohio
State is a Nebraska fan that you are, and welcome
to the club. Now Oregon, I guess let's start with
the big ten teams. How do you feel about Oregon
and Ohio State?

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Here, here's the thing with Oregon, and thank you for
asking about them. Right, So, when we last left you,
Jim Harborough Michigan was dominating NCAA. Levac is probably still
basking in that one an he should, and Nick Saban retired,
so it's a whole new landscape. Right. But here's the
thing with this, with the team's changing conferences, Ohio State's

(05:11):
the team to beat the big for sure, although there's questions.
There's questions. There's questions a quarterback. They ran poor Kyle
McCord off to Syracuse because he lost one game. Here's
my problem with the Oregon. Dan Lanning's a great coach,
He's had two great years there. The talent wise, they
got it. Here's the reality that they may find out.

(05:32):
The Big Ten is not the Pac twelve. And I
speak that from being a Husker fan from fourteen years ago.
We went to the Big dem like, we're gonna take over.
We're gonna, you know, with the speed the athletic said,
we're gonna we're gonna take care of this conference. We're
gonna own it. That hadn't happen been in a conference
title game once or twice. That's it Oregon is they're

(05:53):
not gonna be able to play that high speed, flash
and dash style and survive in the Big Ten because
if you watch the Big Ten, it's a grind. It's
a grind, and it's even some of the down teams.
You gotta go earn it and it takes something out
of you. As the season goes along, we'll see if
Oregon can handle that grind.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, that's the oddest team the Ducks to get a
hold of. As you mentioned the perspective there of being
a Cornusker fan and seeing the transition to a conference
because Oregon historically as he mentioned like the team that
invented the high powered hybrid super speed offense. When everyone
thinks of Oregon football, why they got good, they think
of two things. They think of cool jerseys and uniforms,

(06:35):
and the word cool can be interpreted how you ought
and super fast offense last year was a little odd
because they did run the football and have big guys.
But that doesn't matter because it's like you said, Okay,
you have big guys, can run the foot. You're in
the Pac twelve. Who you smashing around? Like the idea
that the Pac twelve biggest offensive lineman, those guys can

(06:55):
match up to the Big ten will find out. I
think those are very fair question marks. And back to
your Ohio State point. It feels like Ohio state the
reason they get so much love again, super deep take
another shot if you want four or five star talent.
But when your biggest concerns are you don't have a
quarterback and you've given this team, isn't it talk to

(07:15):
thirty million dollar roster, Like thirty million dollars in then
il money. The last time I saw say that much
money soaked into a program with Texas A and M
and they went like eight and four the coach got fired.
So yes, be careful when you start giving teenagers millions
of dollars and just assume they're gonna do what you
want them to do all of a sudden.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
That's it. Here's the problem with Ohio State. They have
for all the reasons you listed and the fact that
Michigan has owned them recently, oh Ohio State has the
most pressure on it than any team in the country
anything short of a National title game appearance. And they
were calling for Ryan Day last year when he lost

(07:53):
to Michigan, who was the best team in the country,
and they lost close. It wasn't a blowout, but look,
you lose to the school from up north, there's always
be they're gonna be aftery in Columbus. They is those
expectations and the weight of that, especially the nil cash,
is that gonna be an albatross on their back.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
It is the storyline that's gonna hang over them all
season long. Oh, we didn't mention Texas. You know, it
was fun for a few years on Twitter and I
was the number one culprit. I'll even say the guy's names.
I know Jack and DJ and dr who anytime Texas
would lose. It became a threat of is Texas back
the same gift no matter what time of the day.

(08:33):
I was tagged in that famous intro. Here's the thing
about the Longhorns. I I mean, if someone's got to
throw money out there and throw some money on, okay,
I just don't want to take Georgia. Texas is a
fun bet. They've got everything you want. A first round
quarterback who is a phenom out of high school, are
coach who's really good as a play caller. What they're
four and maybe I'm being too critical, maybe two plays

(08:55):
away from beating Washington in the semi final game and
they're playing for a national chachampionship. So as fun as
it's been to beat up on Texas, when it's hard
to find a weakness on a team, that's probably a
big compliment of yeah, they can probably win the national championship.
When I don't have much to criticize about them this season.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
I criticize them because I loathed them with a deep,
burning passion. And that goes back to the Huskers being
in the Big twelve and the Big twelve doing everything
they could do a peace Texas because they didn't want to.
They didn't want to. You know, honk off the meal
ticket right, Well, now the meal ticket left. I think
Oklahoma is going to have a tougher adjustment to the

(09:35):
SEC than Texas because Texas is Taylor made for a
run yours. I think he's a great quarterback, and you're right.
I really thought they were going to beat Washington last
year in that semifinal game. I'm glad they didn't. You'll
find out early Texas at Michigan and I think the
second week. I think that's a September seventh game, so
you're going to find out. You know, it's a tough thing.

(09:57):
They're going to be the better team taking the field
they think, but you'll find out a lot about them
really early.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Let's shift it here because you mentioned Texas there. It's
almost the perfect segue from the old school Big twelve
the Big Eight, to the new school Big twelve. And
the biggest new school storyline of the Big twelve is
Dion Sanders. We'll get to the Colorado Buffalo team in
the expectation lot. I do want to touch on something

(10:25):
that happened over the weekend. I'm not have you seen
the video that's been shared? Okay, I see you already.
You knew, and I'm glad you knew because you knew
I was going to throw this to you as someone
who's sat in many of press conmerce and I love
getting your perspective on this is because you do this
for a living. For those who haven't seen it, Dion
Sanders an absolute jerk to the local media and the

(10:46):
local media session combative knit picking refuse to answer questions
from stations because it isn't like CBS. What do you
make of Dion's attitude and performance over the weekend? To
the local media, I.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Thought it was unprofessional. I thought, let me just make
this first. Dion was one of my favorite non Raiders
ever to play in the NFL. I loved him. He's
a showman. He an unbelievable cornerback, one of the best ever.
But I think as a coach, my problem with Diana
is I think he's more style than substance. And if

(11:26):
you're gonna coach at this level, you gotta be thicker skinned.
And you know, some people came out and said, really,
he is upset that CBS ranked him as one of
the worst coaches in the Big twelve. Other people said
that CBS did an unfavorable piece on Shiloh, who had
a lassuit going on from an incident when he was
a teenager. It doesn't matter, right, those people are there,

(11:49):
they're doing their jobs, and as a coach, especially at
the D one college football level, it's your job to
deal with them. So him to be like that, I thought,
at best it was unprofessional. I could call it a
lot worse than that. I think he's trying to do
everything he can to control the narrative so much, and
he does a great job. I mean, he put Colorado

(12:10):
football back on the map and they won four games
last year, So he's doing great at what he's trying
to do. But at some point you got to put
your big boy pants on an answer a question. And
the question was innocent as it was. He just said,
I'm not talking to CBS. Oh, come on, that's that's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
It feels sometimes that college football coaches in this new
era of nil, the new era of the transfer portal.
Yes you have to be leaders, Yes you have to
be role models, and I don't want to demean those
things in any way, but I always talk about the
role as almost being an agent and not the agent
you think of like R. List or R. E. Gould,
like not that agent. But I'm going to work as

(12:48):
a representative in working in someone's best interest. Like, yes,
you if you have a son or a daughter who's
going to play college athletics, you want the head coach
to make them a better manner a woman, to be
a leader, to be a better member of the commune.
All things are great. Again, I'm not trying to demean
any of those things are incredibly important. But when I
say the word agent, I mean there are people who
say Travis Hunter and Shador standers a great example is

(13:11):
because he has both of them. My goal is to
put you in a spot to be better for the future.
My job is not to have the attention on me.
It's to have attention on my players and on the
school so we can make money, so we can profit,
so I can stay employed. I know how's important is
the winning losses are how much money my schools make it?
As you put out, Because Colorado had not only improved
in the wind loss come of gosh, they had how

(13:33):
many nationally televised games, how much better were ticket sales?
All those things? So that's gonna be Dion's problem. Like
it's cool that he's Dion, it's cool that he's Prime Time,
the Hall of Fame, like the Flash and all this.
But there are gonna be a lot of players who
get rubbed the wrong way by that because they are
a five star recruit and the best player in their

(13:55):
state and the greatest things in slice spread and they
have fifty thousand Instagram followers that the generation some won't work.
Like as much as we know Colorado hit the portal
and won a lot, they also lost a lot of kids,
and they wanted to bash. I think it's an ESPN
recent article that like tries to trash the program, So
I'm with you. I think it was absolutely ridiculous. I

(14:16):
became far less of a fan of Dianna after that.
There's a few things that bother me. That one bothered
me of, like don't be a jerk that people are
trying to do their jobs. You don't have to be that,
and like like let's talk about the team, Like I
think they could be a Bowl team. I don't want
to wager on them. Like if they get six wins,
I guess that's good. But nationally people are gonna roast

(14:36):
him if they're playing in the Boca or Tone Ball
at six wins. You know, like people think there's suposed
to be a conference contender this year in the Big twelve.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
But you know, it's funny. Back to the out for
a second. Yeah, I don't like what he's become in Colorado,
but I get it cause he's I think it's part
of a shtick. But if you go back to a
year ago, they beat a kind of a really down
TCU team whoever he thought was really good because they
were in the playoffs final the year before and they
were Colin coward An. They're saying Dion's canna be in

(15:04):
the NFL coach next year. Oh wait a minute, put
the brakes on that. Okay, they got off the good
start of Colorado. The Huskers gifted him about twenty one
points on turnovers in the game to turn into a
disaster for US in September. But four and eight, it's
four and eight. You are what your record says you are.
Somebody has said, right, and they had through the portal,

(15:24):
they had no offensive line. Shaduur was. He had great
stats for a guy that was running for his life
most saturdays. We're gonna find out about him I think.
I think they're gonna find the big twelves a little
easier to navigate than the Pac twelve. But yeah, six
six and six get to a bowl game, that's probably
not a bad year for them. The thing I'm gonna
watch with Colorado is the maturity of Shaduur quarterback, because

(15:48):
people talk about him as a top ten pick next year.
I don't know that I see that. You know, they
were getting drilled in one game last year at halftime
and someone said, I don't follow this Instagram stuff much
so that he was somebody had his Instagram account was
promoting some of his apparel at halftime of the game.
It was never proven that it was him, but that's

(16:08):
just a bad look that if you're gonna he's got
a chip on his shoulder that he's inherited from his dad,
And that's fine if you're a cornerback, but as a quarterback,
the leader of a football team, you got to show
a little better than that. I think, so his maturity
I think will be interesting this year as he prepares
for the NFL.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yes, and to add to that, just probably because we're
off the Olympic coverage, if beach volleyball is a very
watched sport in this house, like the Dslawsky House is.
My wife's a former college volleyball player. If it was
a two on two team, they might win the National Chamis.
But like, if you just heads it towards Andrews and
Travis Sonder, great, you need twenty other guys out there though,

(16:49):
so uh you know, we mentioned the portal talker about Colorado.
One of my storylines I'm looking at involves both the
Big Twelve, the new Big Twelve and the new ACC
with new teams. And I'm not avoiding this, but who knows,
maybe a future episode of Pugsley's Pit or some more
digital content on Fox Sports nine eighty. My two favorite
plays wagering whys from the college football season will come

(17:11):
from both of those conference. That's like a nice little
tease for later on to the ACC. Clemson, Miami, Florida State.
Don't worry, we'll get to my Orange and your corn
Huskers soon. But let's sit on Clemson for a second.
What's going on with Deabo? Like Dabo was like the
toast of college football. He's the man, and then he
just like I'm not doing the portal like at all.

(17:33):
We're just not doing it. It's killing the program that
he just refuses to bring in transfers.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
It's look, you don't have to like the rules, right,
like if people got all over John Calipari with the
one and done and he embraced it. He was the
first to embrace it. And Kentucky's in the final four.
You know, a whole bunch of times now everyone caught
up to him. But with the portal, I mean Dabos
when he took Clemson, he gave him the national title.

(17:59):
They were in the playoffs every year. It seemed like
during that stretch with the Shawn Watson through Trevor Lawrence,
this is gonna kill him because the game has changed.
I don't like it, but it doesn't matter what I think,
doesn't matter what deb that's the rules now and you
can bring in all these recruits. But everyone's been kind
of conditioned that nobody wants to sit and learn for

(18:21):
a year or two anymore. They want to play. And
you can't blame them, right, they worked hard. But the
portal now you don't have to sit out that year,
you just go. You take them off. So him him
and not embracing bringing and it's gonna kill that program.
He's gonna have to come around.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
The ACC is such a difficult conference to predict the
season because if you look at that Florida State team
last year who went undefeated. Some of my favorite stats
about Florida State last year were that because of COVID,
the offensive line had sixty combined starts going into the season.
That's unbelievable. Didn't have six what So Florida State hit
the portal found veterans went Jared Vers got to give

(18:58):
him love. Obviously, former Ull being stud Florida State became good.
Three teams Off the top of my head, I heard
this this past weekend is what helps on your mowing
your launy to your college football research up here when
you're getting sweaty.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
MoMA lau On.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
Oregon's the only college team in the country that has
the top ten recruiting class and transfer class. Yes, those
things are ranked now. Lane Kiffin. By the way, for
those who aren't lane Kiffin fans, there's no doubt that
Old miss has got actual talent now because they've gone
to two and one in the transfer class portal. So

(19:31):
Lane Kiffin has called himself the king of the transfer portal.
They're a lot better. It's working and this season they
have more expectations than ever in the history of that
program in Miami, like the Hurricanes have had. I love
this that the Hurricanes have had one ten win season
the last twenty years, and it was that first year

(19:51):
with the turnover chain and that wild Notre Dame game.
It's like he was twenty seventeen. But now they got
cam Ward from Washington State, Amy and Martinez who I
was drooling all over last year on Puggs. He's fit
for Oregon State, both playing for the Hurricanes. So it's
a really tough conference to figure out. It's gonna be
a lot of fun though, to figure out what goes
on there. All right, let's get into your Nebraska Cornhuskers,

(20:14):
because if you want to talk about social media and
drama and fun and excitement and teams with the tradition
who are looking for next, let's talk about a certain
quarterback who's been compared to Patrick Mahomes for your Nebraska squad.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
He looks like Patrick Mahomes. The first time I saw
him in spring practice wearing fifteen, I'm like, he's almost
got like the same face mask as Patrick Mahomes. I'm like, God,
he looks like Patrick Mahomes looking. Then he shows up
at the beginning of Trampa. We attract camp a week
ago and I was like, look at the resemblance. I
hope he can play even just a little bit like him.

(20:50):
I mean, the fact that Nebraska is his father is
a legend in Lincoln. A center played with the Detroit
Lions for a number of years. Dominic Dylan Rayola was
the hot recruit a year ago. They lost him to
Georgia and then he went to Athens and I think
he thought about it a little bit, he said, I
think he transferred to high school in Georgia and everything,
and here he is in Lincoln and he's fair or not.

(21:13):
He's the savior, right, and he knows it. He knows
the expectations on him. They're going to need more, and
I think he's going to get it. They brought in
a great running back transfer from Oregon. That's going to help.
They got to stop turning the ball over. I mean,
this is a team that is just I don't even
want to research the record and won one score games
in the last seven years. It's it's I have enough

(21:34):
dents in my head. I don't have to go back
and look at that. But I love what Matt rule
has done. But what's going to help Nebraska this year? Turnovers?
They got to end it. But the defense returns a
lot of starters, and the defense was top eleven nationally
last year. And they got some some players on that
backside that's going to really help them and maybe help

(21:55):
Rayola ease into it. And plus the schedule, you got
first four at home, you tep Colorado, Northern Iowa and Illinois,
and then you're at Purdue Rutgers home at Indiana. That
could very well be seven and oh if they can
they can clean up the mistakes against Colorado and win
that rivalry game seven to zero before you go to
Ohio State.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
Okay, you said seven and oh. With Matt Ruhle head
coach trying to build a program, give me a prediction
on the win total. You could say twelve if you want,
But what's a realistic scenario of how many wins your
Cornhuskers can get?

Speaker 1 (22:32):
I think realistic we can get nine? Right? Are they
gonna go seven? And oh? Now you know what for
a program that's found very creative ways to lose games
late in the last few years, I think it's unrealistic
to expect that they're gonna clean that up in one
off season six and one for sure. But yeah, then

(22:54):
it gets a little dicey. You goot Ohio State. I
was always tough Wisconsin. But yeah, I'll say nine to
three in that be a very very good year in Lincoln.
The Huskers haven't been to a bowl game. The last
Husker bowl game, my boys were four months old. They're
gonna be eight in a few weeks. That's they've never
seen a bowl game. They saw it, but they were

(23:16):
Google Gaga and you know, not really with it. So
uh yeah, they I want them to experience a bowl game.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Well, I'll transition from Nebraska to awkwardly. There's no perfect
segue like I set myself up for the last few times,
because uh, I want to push back a little bit
on your Bbraska pick. But you did a nice job
on that. I just got a bit like three years
ago about bitting the court Huskers on that early schedule
one of Scott Frost's final season. I also thought they

(23:47):
were going to start off like five and oh, and
they didn't, And I was like, gosh, I don't think
I can ever do this again to myself, but I
flipped it to my Orange, which, by the way, you
could hear right here on Fox Sports ninety five to
nine and nine eighty this upcoming fall and are sister
station WGY. You're home for Syracuse Orange football right here
in the Capitol region. Here's my thing with fran Brown,

(24:07):
Like he's recruited to a point where I'm at times
I'm stunned about the players they have on the roster.
This is me if I'm thirteen playing a video game, Like,
how did I get a four star and a five
star in the Syracuse football team. The roster's loaded, They've
got a cupcake schedule. They've got a five star quarterback

(24:28):
from Ohio State, Like, this is a dream master. With
all those things being said, Fran Brown, we know can recruit,
but eventually you gotta call the plays. You have to
be a head coach. Like, let's think about Dino Babers
for a second. So Dino Babers, there's things he did great.
Pep Talk's postgame pregame speech is going viral. Fantastic leader,

(24:51):
no doubt, he's been a fantastic offensive play caller. He
was in the he called it. Orange is the new
Fast off the old Netflix show to show how long
he'd been in Syracuse, basing it off of that. So
his style worked. Now, stopping the clock after the first
down hurt him with the new rule changes. The biggest
thing with Dino Babers is great play caller, great leader.

(25:14):
Didn't know what the hell to do with timeouts, didn't
know what in the world to do with clock management,
just had no idea what to do if he'd have
a running quarterback. So glaring weaknesses came out quick about
Dino Babers. Here's what fran Brown's got. You got the players,
you got the Joe's As the old cliche goes, what
do you do on third and two? Are you running

(25:35):
the ball? What are we doing on fourth and one?
What are we doing down eight with three minutes to go?
We puttoned, were going for it. See I rarely ever
dropped the Wii, but I don't even drop the we
there in the sense of Syracuse football. I'm like, as
a coaching staff, what are we doing? You know, if
you're gonna make a collective decision, that's wonderful, But you're

(25:56):
the one with the headphones on and the refs looking
at you so Syracuse. For me, I think eight and
four is realistic because of the schedule more so than
the talent. I hope it's nine and three and ten
and two in college football contender probably like you are
for Nebraska. But I don't know if he's a good coach.
I don't. I don't, Sean, I'm going to be screaming

(26:17):
Bugsley's pit. I'm gonna be on here yelling and screaming
about third and one calls because I don't know if
Fran Brown knows what he's doing yet. I think that's
a very fair criticism.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
I should thank you, by the way, not to change
his subject, but thank you for Tony White. When when
Nebraska hired him, I called you and I said, what
do I got here? And this guy just transformed? But yeah, look, Syracuse,
I'm looking at the schedule. It's there, and I love McCord.
He flirted with Nebraska before Rayola flipped. As soon as
he did he left. You got a winner there, and

(26:46):
that's where it starts, right, So maybe maybe you'll get him,
get himself a clock management coach that Baber should have had.
You know they have those. It's just like to get
back coach in basketball.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
I hope so I could talk collegellege football all day
with you. If you're enjoying this college football conversation, by
the way, make sure you continue to listen to Pugsley's pit.
We continue to roll on on this digital version of
lav Agon gons Our terrestrial radio side is still hear it.
We're gonna transition now from college football to Major League baseball.

(27:20):
And we sit here in mid August and both the
New York Yankees and the New York Mets are in
playoff contention. Let's start with the New York Yankees. Aaron, Judge,
it's another home run. They've got a primetime series with
the Seattle Mariners. Toss it over to you. This is
Yankee team from super hot to super cold to hot again.

(27:43):
What do you make of this twenty twenty four Bronx
bomber squad.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
They're a tough group to figure out, right, Judge, just
having another great year. They still haven't paid one Soto
hashtag fiscal responsibility. They need to pay him. I I
don't know one thing that jumps out to me. They're
thirty two and twenty seven at home. You would think
that would be a little better. They've been great on

(28:07):
the road thirty eight and twenty two. I have real
concerns about their pitching. Cole is not himself yet. Is
did they rush him back too early when they kind
of didn't, did they force that? I don't know. Stroman's
been terrible heals over his career high in innings, I don't.
I think he's probably gonna regress a little bit. We're

(28:28):
in the dog days of August now and Rodnna's Rodan.
I have grave concerns about the Yankees. And then I
don't think they's can a whole lot of help. You
hear Yankee fans, not a whole lot of them like
the bullpen so and they didn't do I don't think
they did enough at the deadline to help.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yeah, it's this New York Yankee team is extremely difficult
to figure out because we've done this all spring and
all summer long. Like I with my guy Levak, who
is a big time Yankee fan, there are days where
he's come on this show and yelled and screaming about
this team's winning the World Series, and this team's the
best team in baseball, and that my beloved Baltimore Orioles

(29:07):
are bums. And there's days where I'm like, gosh, it
feels like that's the truth today. And there are other
days where somehow the Yankees didn't make it on the
show till far later in the program, and somehow we
had half shows and vacations the first week of July
and we didn't mention it, but that that's how the
Yankees did. I agree with a lot of the things
you said, like Carlo's earl done is supposed to be

(29:30):
the man he hasn't been. I called it roll down
the one bed pitch. Every outy like, don't just throw
it over the middle, just just yell fastball if you're
gonna blow this for the team. Marcus Stroman, he's been
rough the last couple starts. Maybe layoff Twitter. I predicted
this summer he was gonna have a meltdown on social media.

(29:51):
We haven't had it. He's decided let's not do it
on Instagram, just do it on the mound instead. We'll
just have the melt down in front of everybody during
the games. The thing about the Yankees, and it almost
feels like the theme of this side of the show
is again we'll bring back to her depth. Like, gosh,
if Soto ever gets hurt, if Judge ever gets hurt, Stanton,

(30:11):
I know he's been hurt, but man, it feels like
they fall off. I mean I see some of these
lineups they trot out there. I'm like, this is the
New York Yankees, the division potential champion team, and why
there's not more depth. Look, it could because of the
farm system, it's good, because of injuries. They're just not deep.
Now I say all of those things, and we all

(30:32):
still have to realize that by the time you listen
to this or the time you're listening, they could have
the best record in the American League by next week.
You know, we're complaining about the team with the best
record in the American League. So it's if their name
was and I don't mean to do this to hurt
your team, but if they were named the Oakland Athletics
and they were doing this right now, everyone would be saying,

(30:52):
this is the greatest season in thirty years for your a's.
But because their name are the Yankees, everyone wants to
fight up that wrong with them.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yeah you know why, I'll tell you why. Because in
the Bronx, By the way, I love the Jazz Chisholm pickup, right, yeah,
or the great player. The problem with the Yankees and
the Yankee fan. For the Yankee fan is that anything
short of a World Series title is a failed season. Right,

(31:23):
So the Yankees are measured and through their own doing.
That's the culture George Steinbrenner cultivated all those years, that
anything short of that is a disappointing season. And so
when it's great, yeah, it's great. But when it's not, it's,
oh my god, you know what are we doing here?

(31:45):
And that's where I talk about getting Jazz was a
nice pickup. They can hit, they can score some runs,
although they've had some weird line Like you said, I
mean JD. Davis got DFA by the Oakland Athletics of
all teams, and he was batting cleanup for a while
with the Yankees. Go figure that out. I mean, someone's
gotta help Boonie there with the lineup card. I just
don't get it. But again, it goes back to the pitching.

(32:06):
You're not gonna win games nine to four in the playoffs.
That's not how it works. In the playoffs. You get
team's best shots, you get teams that actually have depth
in their starting rotation that can hang in there with you.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
We shift from one New York team, Yeah, we shift
from one New York to the other New York team.
That's the New York Mets. Where if we got in
a time machine and you and I talked in March this,
who else we might have actually done this? Now thinking
about I don't think we did. But if we talked
about this in March or April and said, Okay, you
guys have to make a prediction about the twenty twenty
four New York Mets, what do you think is gonna happen,

(32:40):
we both probably would have said, Oh, they're gonna be
in a weird spot where they might be close to
the playoffs, but if they have to make a decision
on Pete Alonso, they're probably gonna deal them because they're
gonna be a little too far out. You don't on
the walk. Sure enough, they're not just in the playoff mix.
They've been at top of those spots, rotating back and

(33:01):
forth between trailing in that spot not trailing in that spot.
They've benefited here in August by the Atlanta Braves deciding
to somehow forget how to play baseball and tank all
of a sudden, this Mets team, to me, is gonna
keep hanging in, keep hanging in. It feels like there's
more equipped teams that have better pitching and have had

(33:22):
more success recently. The Diamondbacks got to the World Series
last year, the Braves and others. This Mets team feels
like they won't give up, and they are becoming a
little more interesting and fun to root for because of
this attitude developed in this twenty twenty four squad. What
do you see the Metropolitans throughout this summer?

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Here's what I see. Okay, here here's our starting rotation
right now at the depth Shart, Jose Cantanna, Luis Sevarino,
Tyler McGill, Sean and I and Jose Budo egadds. But
but pie Alonzo's Pee Alonzo, Francisco Landor is having a
great year. Respond finally the player he was in Cleveland

(34:02):
now with the Mets. But Edwin Diaz has returned. I
mean he was lost his job what late June? Right, Yeah,
he's got it figure it out. Now. They are a
fun team to watch. I'm rooting for the Mets, and
I actually think if they're one of those teams that
if they can ride this wave for the next two
not even two months, seven weeks, if they can make

(34:23):
the playoffs, they're gonna be a tough out because they
seem to have whatever that factor is that gets some
of these teams through the tough times. They seem to
have it. Kind of like you brought up the d Backs,
you know, the National League the last two World Series
reps for the sixth seed in the playoffs, and so
the Mets, I think they could. They got some gamers

(34:44):
on that staff. They're not gonna shut you down, but
they can they can give you some innings.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
Get to the dance. Get to the dance, as the
old march man is cliche, right, get to the tournament,
Get to the dance, and see what happens. I love
the baseball expanding the post season. I was never a
fan of the one game wild card teams with one
hundred wins, where felt like they're getting cheated out of
an opportunity. I think back to that Cubs Brewers when

(35:10):
they were both tied for the division and the Cubs
eventually didn't even make it to the next round because
they had to do double one game sets. I think
back to the Mets. I believe they were involved in
a one game wild card with the Giants. Gosh, I
want to say it was de Grom versus Bumgardner where
it's like, imagine if you didn't get Bumgardner in the postseason.
If I'm a rubbering that correctly, they would have been fine.

(35:30):
But this idea of being the six sied as you
mentioned it, teams from the National League could make a
run at it. I mentioned my o's in passing, and
I get to talk to a non o's hater in
you because you're a fan of the Oakland Athletics. I'm
fine with Baltimore. And I know I'm being cautiously optimistic
because it felt like in twenty twenty three they were
just happy to get the T shirt, happy to celebrate

(35:53):
in the locker room, just happy to be here, you
know the old cliche at the award shows, I'm just
happy to be nominated. I felt like they were just
happy to be in the postseason. Jackson Holiday has gotten hot.
He's hitting a few home runs now. It feels like
the kids got the monkey off his back. When you
look at this Oriole squad, true contender, world serious, potential winner.

(36:14):
What do you like or dislike about my beloved O's.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
I love the O's and honestly on it look well,
I filed separation papers with the Oakland Athletics Baseball Organization
for this year if they move them out. Okay, so
my fan free agency quest, I'm down to four teams,
and the O's are on that list. I love the O's.
I love what they got. They they drafted great players.

(36:40):
We talked about it last time we were together. They
drafted Gray and they developed them. I don't understand what
they were doing at the trade deadline. They you know,
and now Gray Rod's a little dinged up. Corbyn Burns
has been a god send. Good for him. I would
have traded one or two of those Blue Chippers and
gotten in some experienced arms to help on the stretch.

(37:01):
I still think they can win the division. I still
think they will win the division, and I think they're
going to the World Series. I think they're gonna find
a way to get there. But it would have been
a lot easier of a road to get there if
they brought in at least one more arm, because if
they're in that spot where you can't play all these kids,
you gotta get them at bats to keep them going.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
We hear this word use a lot in horse race,
especially during Sara took of the word value. Our guy,
Brian Mariannao is gonna Jonas on Friday. He always loves that.
He was giving grief about using the word value. But
you mentioned it there. Like when the minor league system
is so stacked for Baltimore and they're not in the majors,
they have no value unless you trade them there. It's
well use another cross sport comparison, like fantasy football. Right,

(37:42):
some people love drafting two or three quarterbacks in a
one quarterback league. Okay, if they're on your bench, you
needn't trade from they're scoring zero. They have no value
unless somebody gets hurt. It just like the minor league
is your back up right fielder is not gonna play
unless somebody gets hurt. So I'm with you, like I
wish we could have seen an opportunity or a big
blockbuster trade for any team really in baseball because it

(38:03):
would have been fun of the old school days of
seeing guys like c C and Verlander, and even though
it didn't work out, sunning grades like huge arms really
getting delted on them. I feel like gosh, I want
to say Roger Clements got dealt at the deadline to
the Blue Jays. Maybe that was right, but like hearing
these massive arms get dealt. Because even the thing with Baltimore,
corn Burns has been really good. He's gonna be in

(38:23):
contention for the sign young the wordmen's all said and done.
I fear that he's gonna be a met next season
because of the connections to David Sterns and Milwaukee and
everything else, that they're gonna see him hit free agency
and Steve Cohen's gonna be like we want him. So
Baltimore doesn't realize that this might be the best staff
they have in a while. So there are some questions
with the oas there's questions with the Yankees. The Guardians

(38:44):
are probably gonna hate it on because if all that
stuff we just said about Baltimore, we could say all
the same things about Cleveland. That Cleveland's got an opportunity
to go all in. Cleveland's got a chance to knock
off these teams. They got a better farm system, they
weren't active. Oh yeah, and by the way, there's teams
called Philadelphia in LA in the National League that when

(39:05):
we look at the World Series, like, it feels like
the Dodgers, even with all the pressure we just put
on Baltimore and New York, in Cleveland and Philly, I
still feel like the Dodgers a running more pressure than
everybody else because they've gotten further than everybody else and
having got the job done. Besides the COVID season.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
They spend a billion dollars on contracts and and they
and I still don't see where the where what's going
to be different for them on the mound in October.
I don't see it that. You know, my man, Clayton
Kershaw one of my favorite pitchers ever. I cringe when
I watch them in playoffs cause I'm like, where's the
Clayton Kershaw of the regular season. So and Dave Roberts, right,

(39:48):
is he a good manager or not? Yeah? They won
the World Series during the COVID year, Okay, And I
chucked that up to Kevin Cash screwing it up for
Tampa Bay overmanaging. But if not, when now for the Dodgers,
I think it's the Phillies. They've been struggling lately. I
think they're the team to beat. Zach Wheeler's up top
of that rotation. Suarez has pitched well this year. Philly

(40:12):
Baltimore probably the two. I like Cleveland. I like Stephen Bode.
It loves Stephen Bode. He's a's legend. The garbage can
team down to Houston. Now you know the team to
look out for. I think in the al if Seattle
can find a way to start hitting with that starting staff.
That's a starting staff that could win any series because

(40:33):
of Gilbert and Castile gets it together, George Kirby. They
can pitch, and that's that's what wins in October. But
that team is just so offensively challenged right now, it's
hard to really give them too much, too much of
a chance. As it stands, I gotta go back to them.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
Seattle drives me crazy because every year I feel like
it's the year for them. And they had that streak
of longest consecutive non playoff teams and twenty years and
they got there, and it feels like Seattle's until they
prove it. To me, I'm gonna pause for sale. Although
they'd be fun to root for, and I'm doing the
mathad there's a chance Baltimore play Seattles to me, I've
already convinced myself to again. I do want to go

(41:13):
back to something you said out. I want to get
the update because you mentioned that you are leaving your
A's fandom because of how bad ownership's been. And if
you are listening on the Puglies Pugsly's Pit side, uh,
you already know about that. If you're listening for the
first time on the levak Gas digital side, go find
some episodes. Go follow Sean Martin on Twitter and find
out the battle seats and over A's ownership. Who are

(41:37):
the other three teams in contention for this and when
could we potentially get a decision on your favorite.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
I do give it out. The A's aren't going to
Vegas ever. Okay, they're not moving to Vegas. They're gonna
screw that up. If they go anywhere, they're gonna end
up in West Sacramento, where there's just nothing there except
for one hundred and ten degree heat and artificial turf field.
And if that's what they choose, then good luck. So
this year I'm kind of trying to not watch too

(42:03):
many A's games. It kind of eases the pain a
little bit. Last week I had five. I was down
to five. They were Atlanta, Baltimore, Philly, and Boston. Although
I'm not over the nineteen seventy five playoffs when the
Red Sox beat the A's and first my first playoff
loss as a baseball fan. After the A's one three
straight World Series, I had the Yankees in there. Really,

(42:25):
just one of my kids is a Yankee fan. I'm like, boy,
wouldn't that be fun? But no, No, I just can't
do it. And one of my problems with the Yankees
is I can't listen to them on the radio, and
I can't listen to my TV. I just the announcers
are just too Michael Kay's. I actually thought it was
an AI hoax of Michael Kay on this radio show

(42:46):
suggesting Major League Baseball should recalibrate the lineups in the
ninth innings, and I'm like, this is a joke, this
can't be real, and it was. So I can't do
the Yankees. So those are the four Baltimore, Boston, Boston's
close Missus Buggley's from the Boston area, So that'd be fun,

(43:08):
but I don't think it's gonna be the right. But
the A's and the Phillies and the Orioles are probably
the Big three.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
As much as I love Okay, as much as I'd
love to have you as an Oriole fan and welcome aboard,
here's what I'd here. I kind of like this idea
just as much like there have been rumors floating around
that Major League Baseball was going to expand for a while,
that they were going to go from thirty two to
thirty four. I know the Nashville Stars had been rumored

(43:34):
as a potential team. Gosh, there was another team that
was out there that was being rumored. I'm blanking on
right now. It would be more fun. Although all those
teams are fine, that like, you were the first to
embrace the Nashville Stars. We had a guy we worked
with named Kyle where Kyle was a kind of a
hockey fan, but he wanted to be the first Vegas

(43:54):
Golden Knight fan and it worked out well for him.
So so if you make it a sick by the
end of the year, I'm hoping it's Baltimore. But if
this goes on for like two years, if this is
like the Bloodline WWE version of a storyline for Pugsley's Pit,
and you hold off to a new franchise emergency, and
you're fan number one of that team. I'm also for

(44:15):
that play.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
I'll keep that in mind. You never know, I never
say never, you know. I think one of the allures
to Baltimore is I know so many Red Sox and
Yankee fans that when I really want to kick it
up my obnoxious meters can it has no ceiling. And
I love getting into those with people, and that's just
a lot of fun for me, you.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Know what, you know what I love. I don't even
know if you're doing this on purpose. I don't know
if you're speaking in code, but you keep setting me
up so perfect for segue. Well, that should take note
of what Pugsy's doing right now that I'm reading his
cues and codes of you're speaking of obnoxious people who
are rubbing it in people's faces and love talking trash
in sports. Let's talk about the Americans in the Olympics. Shit,

(45:00):
Let's talk about Team USA at times being very American
on the podium, Joel and beating company, enjoying the booze.
People sometimes say we are loud, obnoxious Americans. God, there
were moments like that during the Olympics. But I don't
want that to be the storyline of the Olympics. Let's
do this question. I feel like my answer is different

(45:22):
on Thursday of last week, Friday of last week, and
now Monday when we speak on this last week of
what's the moment that stands out to you? So I'll
hold my answer for now, but for you, I'll give
you up the three moments. How about that? When we
think back to the twenty twenty four Summer Olympic Games
in Paris, what are one to three moments that you're

(45:44):
definitely gonna remember and always stand out for you.

Speaker 1 (45:46):
I'll give it three, right, And a lot of it
is just look, I always root for team USA, but
I love everything about the Olympics, and I love the
passion you see from countries. Julian Alfred winning the one
hundred meters women's race from Saint Lucia, the reaction of
the watch party there on the island was just priceless
because it's one hundred meters. That's like the signature race

(46:11):
of the Olympics. That was great. I would have said
the US men beating Serbia because that was fun to watch,
and what I enjoyed about it was the USA is
you know, they're not as good as they were in
the Dream Team ninety two. The world is caught up.
But you saw some of the best players in the
world playing with a lot of fire and a lot
of passion just to get enough by Serbia. But the

(46:33):
top that was Steph Curry yesterday and there during the
gold medal game on Saturday, draining those threes in the
fourth quarter. My oldest son's a big Steph fan. I'm
a big step fan. That was awesome to watch. Again,
what I love about sports is in the big moments,
who steps up, who becomes the legend? Then? And Steph Curry,

(46:55):
he said it was his first and probably the only
Olympics that was a fourth quarter remember for him, him
and the other one. And I'm gonna really try hard
to pronounce his name right, the Palma Horse guy, Stephen
net Euosic, right from what that was just money. They

(47:15):
show him meditating, they show him getting ready, all the
pressures on him. He's there for one event, one event,
and he delivers. And that's that's what was awesome.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
For me, Steph Curry. For me watching the Steph Curry cuts, wife,
both sons going berserk, going nuts about it. Steph Curry.
I've said, just take on this podcast before, I'll do
it again, and I'll probably always do it every time
Steph Curry comes up for a new audience. If tomorrow

(47:46):
the Aliens invade planet Earth and they say we want
your athlete who represents the United States of America to
complete an athletic task, I'm gonna find Steph Curry, hand
him in basketball and say please make this shot to
save human kind. So Steph Curry to save all of mankind.
That moment, Noah Lyles and one hundred meter winning but

(48:08):
sort of not winning, but his torso got over first,
but the commentator said it didn't but the other guy's
foot loved it all loved everything about the hundred meter.
That is the super Bowl to me of the Olympic Games.
And you can say you're the fastest man on earth,
so give me the hundred give me Steph Curry. I
know I took a lot of grief on air about
my Simone Biles take. But if he told me something

(48:30):
to remember of twenty twenty four, I will remember that
she was in five events, had a golden three in
a silver and one. I will remember that. So I
know mine's very American based, but those are my three,
like Noah Lyles, Simone Biles, and Steph Curry. That's what's
gona You know what? If I had to pick a
non American storyline though, and maybe it's the freshest in mind. Gosh,

(48:52):
I watched Italy dominate in women's volleyball and I'm very
fascinated about how in the world that happened. So if
you've got to give me a non American storyline, I
will take Italy trying to figure out how the hell
they got so good at women's volleyball. So, okay, that's
the twenty twenty four Olympics. I'm gonna throw this storyline.

(49:13):
You know, Jason McIntyre, who's on Colin Kawer Beforos, loves
this segment of Today Tomorrow's Headlines Today where they try
to predict the future of what's gonna happen on a
Friday show. We're on a Monday show. My guess for
the twenty twenty eight Olympic Games. The two new stars
of Team USA of any sport we're not on a

(49:35):
roster in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
I'll give you the two and they're gonna be on
the same team.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Ooh, I wonder if're thinking the same thing.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
Go ahead, it's Caitlyn Clark and Angel Reese.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
Yes, Ding, Ding, Ding totally with you. Why is that you.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
Go back to two years of NCAA tournament action where
they developed a natural rivalry. They are having great years.
I thought, Team USA, you know, the women's seem good
for them, they want another gold. I felt Clark should
have been on that team to help grow that sport.
You're trying to do that right, And I understand why

(50:11):
Reese didn't get picked way back when when they named
the team. But if they had named the team two
weeks before the Olympic Games, how do you keep her off? Right?
She's had a great year. I honestly think some people
might tell you, tell me, I'm crazy. I think the
Clark and Reese have a chance to be the Burden
Magic of their generation because they have enhanced the visibility

(50:34):
of women's basketball more than any other before in US.
Diana Serrassi, I know, Look, she's a great player, She's
an all time legend. Did you really need a sixth
gold medal? I would have found a spot to get
Clark on there, just that team didn't get talked about
enough during this tournament, but that changes if Caitlin Clark
was there and even Angel Reese, those are the two

(50:56):
that's gonna be their Olympics in twenty eight.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
With you, those are the two they will start getting
hyped up about this in twenty twenty seven. It's in
the United States, it's in Los Angeles. I know flag
football is gonna be out there, and some are gonna
argue it's gonna be the year of American football and
the new era of football dominance will now become what

(51:21):
basketball was in the early nineties. That could be a
fun storyline. We could see if that crazy Australian breakdancer
comes back, which I don't think she will like. We
can find other twenty twenty eight fun storylines. But the
answer is exactly what you said. It's Caitlin Clark, it's
Angel Reese, and they will be the faces of the Olympics.
The game that the women's basketball team played against for
France was fantastic. The problem with France and why they

(51:43):
lost that game in Team USA is the girl for
I should say, the woman who played for France thought
she was Steph Curry and was trying to be Steph Curry.
She was airballed every shot, so they probably if they
played better team basketball France, I could have pulled off
the upset. But you mentioned Burdon Magic. You know, I'm

(52:03):
a little too young to remember the impact of Burden Matgic.
But it's one of those things that if you ask
anybody who's a bit older than you, they'll say they
changed the sport. The NBA Finals just be on tape delay.
It was right like it was. It changed the entire sport.
That rivalry with two well known traditionally powers in the

(52:25):
NBA and Larry Berry Bnjohn's been there. Here's the thing,
I go back to what you mentioned there about kat
and Clark being on the team in angelries. It's I
can't stand my answer about the Caitlyn Clark angel recing
because I know, for this medium, I need to have
a stronger take, like you're either in Lane A or
Lane B. Come on, God, sports radio boy, give me
the take. Can't both people be right? Like I'm with

(52:48):
the take that for the visibility and popularity of women's basketball,
Kaitlin Clark should have been on the team. There are
people who would have watched that game because Caitlyn Clark
is playing more so than not. So if hey, if
I could make my sport more popular by doing this,
I'm gonna continue to do it. Yes, won't argue that.
I think that's the right take. I also think the
right take is people claim the reason she got left

(53:09):
off the team is because he was gonna be criticized
the coaches about how much Caitlin Clark wasn't playing and
that would be a storyline that would take away the
successive team. Ussay, that's also true, and some would say, well, gods,
that's not fair, Like who cares how much he doesn't play?
Blah blah blah that should no one should care. Okay,
I watched Sports Center and Fox and everyone else that

(53:31):
complain about Jason Tatum not playing. So if they're complaining
about Jason Tatum not playing for the Men, that's about
a third of what we would have got for Caitlin Clark.
So that's there. It is like, both people can be right,
but I want to see him both play and I
want that is no doubt. Injuries, Gosh, let's all hope

(53:51):
and pray neither one gets hurt by twenty twenty eight.
I'm with you. That is the storyline I'm most impressed
about for twenty twenty eight.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
You know, I loved the NCAA men's basketball tournament this
past March was great. I watched more of the women's tournament.
And you start to watch it, you get interested in
the players, you start to see it. I think the
women's game is more pure, right, there's not you don't
have the dunking and all that stuff. It's more fundamentally sound.

(54:20):
There's probably a better way to put it. It's a
lot of fun to watch. And there were past years.
I'm not gonna lie to you, there were past years
I'd hear, oh, the WNBA Finals start next week. I
didn't know the season was going. I just never paid
attention to it. Now I do, and why it's really
because of those two and you can really appreciate their greatness.

(54:40):
And I knew the names of the top players, the
grind Or Tarrassi, Sue Bird and whatnot. But they've changed
it and they're they're the fresh faces of it. And
again they're they're good for each other. They're good to
build that rivalry. You have that natural thing. You have
the lsu Iowa thing going two years in a row
and especially for us here in all but having be

(55:00):
in our backyard back in March, I think it's great
for the game. If the ninety two Dream Team could
add Christian Latner to carry everyone's luggage off the bus
into the hotel, they could have found a way to
get Kate and Clark on that team.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
Exactly right. Yes, you know I do want to get
I still got some few things we're gonna get to
involving fantasy football, because August feels like the fantasy football
all I want to get. But I'm throw a little
curveball here because I know we were talking a lot
of Olympics and you brought up a point I really
I wonder about with college basketball next year, more so
women than men. I wonder how women's basketball is going

(55:37):
to be marketed next year. I wonder how they're going
to do it. They ESPN because they're the rights holders
to the NCAA Women's Tournament, and they have the most
coverage of any network because we've seen this for what
thirty years. ESPN picks one player, maybe two now the
last two years with Angel Rees. But really it's been

(55:58):
about Kate and Clark of who got to tune in
because you can't miss the greatness of superd Diana Tassi,
Maya Moore, Breonna Stewart, Sabrina Neescu, like Kelsey Plum, Caitlyn Clark,
where usually they just pick like one dominant superstar and
said you can't miss now Caitlyn Clark's popularity with no

(56:20):
disrespect to all those legends I just mentioned, went to
a whole different stratosphere compared to everybody else. Why that
happened might be for another podcast, But like I'm a
little fast, do you find that fascinating if someone who's
you know, covers sports for a living, of what the
storyline might be for an entire sport next year, now

(56:40):
that the most popular women's player for most people's lifetime
is gone, of how you like? Let me rephrase this.
You mentioned the Bird Magic comparison. Wasn't there a little
space between Bird and Magic and Jordan or was it
just straight Bird Magic? Okay, they're old Jordan takeover because
Jordan came next.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
Jordan did came next. And the best thing David Starn
ain't not hurting the NBA years down the road and
they got it fixed. Was every promo back then was
Jordan and the Bulls against Ewing and the Knicks. They
promoted the individuals and it took the NBA to the stratosphere. Right,

(57:19):
That's what I would do with NCAA. Bass. I would
identify the top players and promote them. You could tell people, hey,
I was playing Tennessee this week. But if you're if
you're not really an NCAA guy, you may not know
who they are. Or you know Tennessee's name, they're pat
someone built that program at Legendary, you know Yukon. But

(57:40):
you got to know the stars because stars sell. That's
what I That's what the NBA did back then. Yeah,
Jordan Magic, Jordan was losing in the conference finals to
the to the Pistons when during Magic's last year the
Lakers last run into the finals and then Jordan finally
took over UH in the early nineties. But that's kind

(58:01):
of how it happened. Yeah, the Pistons ended the Bird
Celtics run and then Jordan was probably two years behind that.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
If you're Juju Watkins at USC, if you're Page Buckers
at Uka Beckers, I should say page Buckets is what
her nicknames can bound your nickname or last there's marketing
for you, and you actually know the person's nickname as
well as their last name. If you could find some
things around uh, who gets marketed? And just one quickly
back to the both of those games. I'm a more

(58:32):
of a college basketball fan than an NBA fan. I
think that's more regionally of where I grew up in
Syracuse and what sports I followed. The level of excitement
and quality of an actual sport of Olympic pro I
guess you can call it pro still now the pros
play Olympic basketball compared to a regular NBA game. Gosh,

(58:53):
give me Olympic basketball all day long. Some dudes don't
want to play in the NBA. Some guys want to
take games. There was none event, every possession, everything mattered
in those Olympic games. So I'm already looking forward to
twenty twenty eight like you are. I'm also looking forward
to winning a fantasy football championship this season. You and
I have competed against one another in fantasy leagues before.

(59:15):
We are both fantasy football fans. We're talking in August
about a month away from the season gets underway. Let
me throw a very softball generic question, because I always
have to remember there's diehards like you, and there's people
who are still getting used to it and still doing
it for the first time. Let's talk draft strategy. So
very simple, one quarterback. You know, the regular roster leagues

(59:39):
and nothing crazy, no dynasty, nokeeper. If someone's pulling up
their fantasy team for the first time, twelve team league,
give me your strategy in twenty twenty four, and if
it's different than strategies you may have used in the past.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
I have to change my strategy after I don't know
twenty years. I have to stop. I have to stop up.
My Fantasy Baseball league is in our thirty fifth year,
by the way, woo yeah. I have to get away
from the strategy. And then when I go to click
a guy to pick him, I have to no longer
take the best raider available, and I do, and the

(01:00:15):
back can vouch for that. So make it very very
difficult for him each year to get his raiders, because
you know, I'll take Daniel Carlson in the third round
if I need it. You know, if there's a guy,
I'm not going to be any I'm not going to
be quiet about it. There's a guy out there that
I love and I'm going to take him, probably earlier
than a lot of other teams will. I think that

(01:00:37):
the superstar of the year, the breakout is Jayden Daniels
in Washington. I love it, and I was praying the
Raiders could move up to draft him. The Commanders weren't
trading him, and I had traded that pick and I
wouldn't either. I think Jayden Daniels is going to explode
this year, and he's a guy you can let other
people take my homes and some of the other quarterbacks.

(01:00:58):
I think Jayden Daniels is going to have a great ye.
I want him on all my teams.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
I don't know if you and I drank the same
thing today. I don't know if you and I have
been hanging out too often. I don't know if I'll
go as far as to say he's who I really
want fantasy because I have some questions about his vibility.
But I will add to the Washington commander or hype
this season if you missed it our way too early
NFL preview show I had as my biggest boldest take

(01:01:27):
of the season is that the Washington Commanders are gonna
win ten games this season and get to the postseason.
That was my right, like with dan Quinn, and because
of the schedule. So if you're right, I'm right, and
if I'm right, you're right. So here we go. We
both become commander supporters this upcoming season. He looked okay.

(01:01:48):
He looked fine against the Jets in the preseason game.
You know, first time as a starter, someone say great,
someone says stuff to improve on. So you're going with
a young rookie. And let's also remember history, right, Like,
I know it's almost a decade plus ago, but Washington
in year one with Robert Griffin the third, Like, this
is a franchise that I believe. The stat is eight

(01:02:08):
straight week ones with eight different starters. The best they
had was RG three a long time ago. And he
got into the postseason that rookie season before he played
through that knee injury. So I love that pick. My
strategy for fantasy this year though, and it goes to
that quarterback position. And this was my strategy last year,
And I yelled at to whoever wanted to hear it.
It sounds so basic, but it didn't feel basic last year. Hey,

(01:02:34):
I'm guy off the street. I've never played fantasy football. Before,
how do you play well? You build a roster, You
draft guys to score points. Okay, that seems easy enough.
Who scores the most points?

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
Well?

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Quarterbacks? Okay, what quarterback scores the most points? Patrick Mahomes.
Wouldn't you want them on all your teams if that
guy scores the well I used that theory, the basic
one oh one question, and I drafted Mahomes in like
every league last year. Today reached out him sometimes, yeah,
but I'm like, he scores the most. Let me not

(01:03:08):
overthink this. Let me just draft Mahomes in as many
leagues as I can get him. Now, if people remember
Patrick Mahomes, they sure remember him winning the Super Bowl.
Fantasy players will remember him being the eighth or ninth
depending on your league's scoring quarterback. Him and Baker Mayfield
weren't too far away on points. So my theory of
just draft the highest scoring player didn't work out for

(01:03:32):
me last year. New strategy, similar to you. I'm gonna
get big play receivers and hope I play in a
lot of bonus leagues, so I absolutely love Tyreek Hill.
Oh Goss's taking Tyreek Hill. No like Tyreek Hill like players.
So if I can get a guy who get me
one hundred and fifty yards and two touchdowns or a
two hundred yard game. I'm talking like Tyreek Hill, like

(01:03:54):
Cooper Cup. Obviously McCaffrey. I'm trying to give another example.
If we're shot White. We had a ton of touches
last year for the Bucks, Like I want guys who
keep hitting one hundred, one hundred and fifty two hundred.
That way, if they have a monster, huge game at
least twice in a season, I get bonus points if
you play in leagues with bonuses. So new strategy. Give

(01:04:16):
me guys who have monster individual weeks and hope I
just lap people when this is all said and done.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
You know it used to be you got to build
with running backs because they get they touched the ball
twenty times a game. Well, guess what. The game's changed
and it now you can invest early on a top
running back and he might get twelve touches because he's
got his The guy carrying the bag is coming in
for eight or nine rushes because they The NFL has

(01:04:44):
devalued the running back position so much none of them
get paid anymore. That you're right, I think the receivers
are the way to go. You just got to get
the right one. And sometimes you can't even look at
like you could look at Nay Sayers would look at
Justin Jeff for instant and said, oh, who's gonna throw him?
Sam Donald or JJ McCarthy. Who cares because he's gonna

(01:05:05):
go get it right? You gotta go get him and
go get your studs. And those are the guys I
think sometimes I get too old school, like I will
not draft anybody in the Raider Division because I don't
want to root for Jeevesos. No thanks, no thanks.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
It's the oddest, strangest, weirdest, most uncomfortable. Probably if this
was dating, the biggest turnoff for people for fantasy football.
I don't want to root against my favorite team. Why
would you give me ruises to root against my favorite team?
It again, it's so simple, It makes so much sense
of I don't want to root against him all season long,

(01:05:46):
and that's why people avoid it. Here's the thing I
think that would and I wonder if you have one
of these, So I'll go first on this. I'll answer
my own question before I present it to you. As
we get deeper into the show. One of the things
that I used to always get the question of is
who is your fan? I see football sleeper, like who
somebody nobody's talking about this season that can win you
a league. And if you ask me that question now

(01:06:07):
in twenty twenty four it's way different of what I
think about it in twenty nineteen, and way different when
I think about it in twenty fourteen. What I mean
by that is that like when people would say the
word sleeper back in the day they met, like who
can I get in like the seventh or eighth round
that nobody knows about my league? And that used to

(01:06:29):
be just like a rookie wide receiver if you had
friends who didn't fall college football. Okay, that's not so bad.
Or it'd be like some running back who is a backup? Okay,
that's not some Now everybody wants tell me the seventeenth
round pick, who's a third string preseas the I don't
even know if the word sleeper exists anymore because so

(01:06:51):
many people play fantasy there's so much coverage. I'm not
gonna give you a guy in the fifteenth round who's
gonna win you a championship anymore. You have to find
him in a way for a wire. So if you
told me to give you a sleeper for fantasy, yeah,
I would just say Cooper Cup just because, like, my
new answer is, I'm gonna take people who come off

(01:07:12):
of injuries and people forgot how good they are. Like
Cooper Cup got hurt. He's been really good in the past.
Mark Andrews got hurt. He's been really good in the past.
My new answer, Joe Burrow got hurt. My new answer is,
if you want a sleeper, take guys who got hurt.
So of all those players, I didn't even say my favorite,
I'll had one other one, Nick Chubb. There's my sleeper.

(01:07:35):
Nick Chubb got hurt. He's been great for the last
eight years. So there's my new answer. I'm gonna ask
me a fantasy football sleeper. Take who got hurt? Because
there's people in leagues that I'm sure you have these
people who will never draft them because, oh, they got
hurt last year. That he get hurt from me, that
doesn't really make sense, but people think in draft.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
Like that, and you know what, it's because they burn you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
Yes, hey I had Joe Burrow.

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
I'm in four leagues. Hey, Joe Burrow in two. In
my leagues last year, and guess what, I was watching
the playoffs because you know it's killer so and you
get you're right, you got to get through that bad
feeling that one year is not the other, you know,
and that's that's what makes it tough. I'll give you
a guy. You're not gonna get him late, but you

(01:08:19):
can get him in the middle. Is and I'm going
going back to my safe place for this pick. Jacoby
Meyers for the Raiders. He has been their best player
in camp so far. This year. Devana Adams is gonna
draw the He'll draw the double coverage if there is some,
and with Brock Bauers and Michael Meyer coming through the
middle is the tight end. Jacoby Myers is gonna probably

(01:08:41):
see a lot of single coverage. And he had a
great year last year for them, better than I thought
he would because before last year, all I knew from
Jacoby Meyer was he threw the ill fated lateral trying
to throw it back to Mac Jones two years ago,
where Chandler Jones intercepted it midfield and won the game
for the Raiders on the last play of the game.
Jacoby Myers has been the best Raider in camp this year.

(01:09:03):
He's a great guy to go get in the middle rounds.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
We've only got about five minutes left of this Lavaca
Guzze Pugsley's pit Invasion digital takeover. So for like the
next three to five minutes, here's what I do and
we can break early if you want, because you are
a very busy man. I appreciate you giving me three
hours on a Monday. Thank you for new For those
people who are maybe listening from outside of the Capital region,

(01:09:29):
for those people who are getting ready for the fall,
like you and I are, where can they find your stuff?
Not just here on the digital side, but what does
the September October November schedule look like for Sean Martin
around the five one eight.

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
Oh well, high school football will get ramped up on
Friday nights, say you can find me on a sideline
with my clipboard, microphone in hand and my pen. Saturday
it is usually cross country meets for me. Then we
hit October and I've covered Union and RPI hockey since
twenty ten, so I expect to be in the rinks

(01:10:04):
again this year, covering the covering the local teams and
really looking forward to the college hockey season. Then once
we get through that, we get into this thing and
get some high school hoops in maybe a little high
school basketball wherever they need me. And in the spring
it's usually track and field, which I love, love doing it,
and so that's what's coming up. So it's a couple
more weeks of my summer vacation from there and look

(01:10:27):
forward to getting back into the greatest part time gig
you could ever ask for, going to going to sporting events,
talking to coaches and talking to great student athletes and
writing about sports and making some cash on the side.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
You will see him all around the five, winning this
upcoming fall, doing his thing. One other thing before we break,
because I haven't told you this, I'll tell you this
on the air. We have to talk about this during
one of the breaks, or we'll probably have to talk
because we talked during the week as much as we can.
You've inspired me, my friend, because you were an author
of two books. Yes, I have a book that is

(01:11:03):
almost done. Then I got to get some feedback from
you on and I'm a little nervous, as you are
a professional writer, to get feedback from a professional writer
about the book. But you've inspired me to write a book,
and I'll tell you more about it later, but you
have writen too. For those who don't know, let's talk
about the two books that are now available for purchase.

Speaker 1 (01:11:20):
Yeah, I wrote a book a few years ago. You know,
people talk about you. Ever hear people throw a thing.
You know, if you write a letter to your eighteen
year old self, what would you say as you get older? Right?
I didn't do that. I have twin boys that are
going to be eight in September, and I was older
first on dad. I was fifty when my boys were born.

(01:11:41):
So I wrote a book to them called Dear Liam
and Noah, Letters from Daddy. It's experiences on my life
that are common that they're going to go through school,
handling friendships as you grow up, paying attention to your grades,
keeping a eye on what's important in your professional career,
just different life circumstances that come up. What did I
do well and what did I do that could have

(01:12:04):
could have been could have been better? Right? So I
wrote a book on that, and that was actually very
interesting to write because I learned a lot about I
think my life growing up. For context, my father passed
away when I was six weeks before I was nine.
So I had probably a different sort of upbringing than
a lot of people in the two family home. So

(01:12:25):
I just talked about my experience. Hopefully they don't ever
experience that, But this is what I did. I moved
around a lot when I was a kid. I was
always the new kid. And we'll get to that in
a second. How did I handle that? How could I
have done better? When I went to college, I found
my footing. I made a ton of friends, wasn't academically
committed as much as I should have been. That was wrong, Okay,

(01:12:50):
So don't learn what I did. Learn from my mistakes
was my point, and try and improve on that. And
then I just had a book published in May this
past May, a children book called The Three Bulls, where
there's a new kid in town, Darius, and his dad's
not home and he's having trouble making friends. Going back

(01:13:10):
to my experience of being the new kid in schools,
I went to five schools in six years growing up.
We moved around a lot. And his grandmother takes them
to a park playground. They have what's called a buddy bench,
which I have at our elementary school. You sit there
with hopes the kids come over and introduce themselves, and
you make a friend. Through the end of the book,

(01:13:30):
the story becomes that Darius meets two kids who happened
to be named Liam and Noah, as crazy as that is,
and they become lifelong friends. And they took it. They
went over and saw him on the bench, they said hi,
and it takes them through there to their senior years.
So it was kind of fun to do that and
kind of relay at least what I had gone through
as a kid and how it worked out for those three.

Speaker 2 (01:13:54):
Do yourself a favor, purchase them, go out and support
do all those great things. Awesome stories from our friend
Shaun Martin. Pugsley's Pit available Apple, Spotify, download, subscribe, a
rate and review. Thank you for doing this. I know
you're super busy. I appreciate you paving the new wave
on Fox Sports ninety five, nine and nine ety opening

(01:14:16):
up the Capital region to traditional and podcast versions, consuming
content in different ways. Hopefully people will enjoyed this. And
as I said to you last time, and I held
my word to this, I knew this wouldn't be the
last time. You're back again this time and who knows,
I got a baby on the way in November. The
next time we might hear you on Fox Sports, it
could be just two Raider fans celebrating on the air

(01:14:39):
for three hours. If Levax says you're filling it with him,
so who knows. I'm very likely this won't be the
last time with your voice on Fox Sports ninety five,
nine nine eighty.

Speaker 1 (01:14:49):
Well, dude, I appreciate you having me, and by the way,
the books are available on Amazon. Got's throw that in,
but I really appreciate it, love it and enjoy catching
up with you guys whenever I can.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
Now we have a different sign off. You're on Pugsy's
pit on Love Hack, and guys, we say, wash your hands,
don't touch your face, and gods hit the button. Now
I can't hit the button because you did the tech
side of this today. So wash your hands, don't touch
your face, and Pugsy Sean Martin, you hit the button.

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
You got it. Enjoy your day.