June 16, 2025 • 34 mins
Well hello there Gregg Bell! Gregg is back filling in this week for Marc James. The duo get the show rolling reminiscing about their show last year and how the Mariners were on a downhill spiral this time a year ago... The Mariners have responded and swept the Cleveland Guardians but will they catch the Houston Astros? Gregg and Christopher also touch on the NBA Finals as game 5 is Monday night, can the Indiana Pacers get another win on the road?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Remember we were talking about playoffs and how are they
going to set up the rotation?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Yes, yes, Chris, what do you think they're gonna do? Yeah,
I honestly don't know. I mean at this point you
just want something to work. Anything you throw whoever out there.
Ryan Bliss was the time of the talk for a
few weeks, actually a couple months, and then anything Yeah,
then just kind of all flipped, and now we're wondering
can this team even make a push? They were digging
(00:24):
such a hole that I was trying to say, Greg,
I think they can do it, and you're like, Chris,
the time is running out. How much longer are you
going to give them to make a bounce back return?
And I found out the hard way. I should have
listened to you when you said that early June. I'm like, oh,
here we are August, and yeah, it didn't work out.
So you know what, they did get a sweep. They
played good ball. Now let's just hopefully continue the rest
(00:47):
of the week.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I got the Red Sox coming in the twenty nine
game span. They're playing twenty three of those games against
teams that are predicted to be in the playoff run.
For the rest of the season. Cleveland is one of them,
but then the Mariners just when we're counting them out
a three game series.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
We'll talk about that. The Sounders.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
I mentioned the Club World cop. It's new to this area.
It's a new format. This used to be a kind
of a hidden tournament and nobody from North America usually qualified,
and they now they've expanded it. The Sounders qualified for
winning the concer caff a couple of years ago. We're
talking to mos Fita mahreor As I said. He's a
great friend of mine. We're on the Seahawks beat together.
He's also on the Sounders beat for Cascadi of Sports.
(01:26):
He was in the yard last night and so I'm
gonna ask about the crowd. My son was watching it
on his phone and I'm not sure it was legal
or illegally, but he was watching one dozen and he
said the crowd looked pretty good. And we have there's
something that they set of a record that had to
do with crowd before the match. We'll talk about that
as well. But two more crazy, ridiculous challenges in that
(01:50):
group play against Athletic Goo Madrid Thursday afternoon. They're playing
in the afternoon Chris, because it's primetime back in Europe,
so at Madrid or they want to have at Spanish
prime time eight nine pm. They got to start a
noon on Thursday here in Seattle. Yeah, we'll talk about
the Seahawks. What I saw last week in the mini
camp that ended, and it effectively ended the veterans offseason practices.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
They're off now until July twenty third, and so it
was Greg, Ladies and gentlemen, Yes exactly, you will hear,
I am with you. But yeah, the Seahawks are off
now until July twenty third. The rookies are back in
the training or the facility Virginiamation Athletics Center this week
for a mini mini camp. It's really like OTA's just
for kids. And then they'll be off until July twenty
(02:38):
third as well. I'll tell you what I saw. Offensive
line battles already on at two positions. It looks like
three of them are set. I'll tell you what. The
offense is way behind, Chris. It sounded like the defense
a few years back when Mike McDonald first ride. Yep,
well I guess the offense was too, but you get
my point. Yeah, the defense is way ahead as it
should be. If it wasn't that way, you'd be worried.
(02:59):
Right now, he's some concern. You'd be like, yeah, well,
this team's winning six games.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Because yeah, the defense is the strength of the team.
They should be and they are. We'll talk about the
NBA Finals, Chris sport and it's thought on the series
between the Pacers and Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
And you have a rooting interest of the Seattleite. I'm
sure you know. To be honest, I have now kind
of removed myself as a fan because I haven't had
it in so long. I don't even know what it's
like other than when I traveled to Portland. Apathy is
the worst guy, Chris. Sorry, I probably probably we'll just
gloss over that. But I've just enjoyed the game by itself,
(03:33):
kind of like what you do. You just watch the
game for themselves and you enjoy it or you just
That's kind of where I'm at with it, and I'm
hoping that the product continues to get better. And I
know it's two markets. One market that was familiar to
one specific states that is, I you know Washington in
that regard, but now you have Oka see and you
have an Indiana team that a lot of people probably
didn't watch a lot of Pacers basketball last season or
(03:55):
this season in general, and to see how well they've
played and their comebacks and how they're fighting, it's just
been really fun to witness. So I haven't been as
a fan as much as oh I want the former
Sonics to lose. I want the Pacers to win. I
just want to see a great game. Whoever wins great
although it does sting, it will sting if Okac does
(04:15):
win it because I grew up as a Sonics fan.
I went to a few games as a kid, and
now knowing what quote unquote as no one can see
me throwing in the air quotes what could have been,
but greed got in the way and they sent them
out of there. So here we are now, So let's
just stay again equivocally, it is not going to be.
It would not be the second franchise title for no
(04:37):
thunder es. Yeah, it's that. When you hear that, you're thinking, wait, wait, wait,
wait wait, that's that's not accurate.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
No, inaccurate. It would be there first, thank you. We'll
talk about the Stanley Cup finals. Edmondson's up against it again.
Are you you're buying in now, I've always been.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Last year you were kind of like, no, I bought it,
and I just, you know, I didn't have much to say.
I just I still don't have much to say. But
it's entertaining. It is I can't knock it. The competitiveness
is just incredible. I mean, as I mentioned many times,
multimillionaires diving face first in front of the puck. It's
going ninety five miles an hour, ice skates all in
your face. You're risking it for the biscuit. Right.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
You watch the especially the third period in overtime of
a Stanley Cup final game. Those guys they line up
like logs in the goal behind the goaltender. If the
goaltender comes out, you guys just start dog piling each
other in the crease to keep the puck from going in.
It's just like Lincoln logs on top of each other,
multimillion dollar million Lincoln log It's amazing and no other spot.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I know.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I know that people will argue with me, but the
other sport in the postseason to me, is like that.
It's not in the NFL. It's one game a week
and has to be for the nature of the game.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Now you know, like Greg, the way things are moving,
we might get you might have you never know.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Man, It's true Wednesday Sunday turn around for the playoff
games coming. But in the NFL you can't have that
intensity every night. No, you can't even have it twice
a week in the playoffs. You have to have it
once a week. The Stanley Cup finals are like that
for two months, or I should say that the Stanley
Cup playoffs are like that for two months, and then
(06:17):
by the time you get the finals, it's just crazy.
That is the most That's why they say, and it's true.
It's the hardest trophy in sports to win because of
how long you have to play to get there. Now
you can say that there's too many teams in the
playoffs and that waters it down. But the intensity of
two months, teams having the grind and guys playing with
broken bones, yeah, I know that they did in the
(06:37):
NFL as well, but they do it every night. There's
guys who have played the Stanley Cup.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
You don't get a week off on NHL unfortunately. No,
that'd be nice, I bet. I don't know if that
would help the play and all that, but I think
it'd be fair just considering what they're going through on
the ice, just going that out there.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, anyway, And as I always say, if you're lucky
enough to have cable, well I should say, if you're
stupid enough to pay for cable every month like I
do nine a month, you might as well use the
one great thing about it, which is having CBC and
Sportsnet to watch the Canadian broadcast of the Stanley Cup.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
The young bell help you out, man, He doesn't want
to do it for you. He enjoys the CBC as well.
Fair enough, and we love the Canadian broadcast. We love
the in between periods with Kevin b X is really good.
We learned something every night from him about hockey. The
former Vancouver Connects. Wait, can you not get it on
the streaming services at all? Not the Canadian version? No?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Oh okay, that makes sense because it's they have an
American tnt is broadcasting it, so that.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Completely get it. You have to get some download crazy
app and all this other stuff. And Greg's like, you
know what's good, I'll just pay the X amount of
dollars and I get it. That's fair, right.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
It's so if you have comcasts and you're already paying
a second mortgage for Comcast every month, you might as
well use. What is one of the great things about
Comcast is having CBC Sports Net to watch the Stanley
Cup Finals. It is an incredible experience that just the
audio is great. I mean I have been in places
or friend's house or bars and places that don't have
CBC and I listened to t try to listen to
(08:04):
the TNT broadcasts or even ESPN's broadcast. Its style like
a plas. It's like I'm watching it in a museum
or something. They had the audio turned way down in
this arena and in the early rounds, Chris, the announcers
weren't even in the building on some of those games, off.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Side and everything. Yeah, they did the remote thing, no way.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So I watched the Canadian version and they've got the
volume in the arena cranked up to twelve. You can
hear guys from behind the net barking out signals on
the play to everyone on the ice through through television.
And I don't have any crazy audio system in my house.
It's just an off the box, off the shelf TV
and I can still hear all those It's just an
amazing production. Yeah, anyway, I say that every single time
(08:46):
I'm on the radio. I was success to try to
get everybody else to enjoy the Stalely Cup playoffs the
way I do at twelve thirty, where we back your
text as we do every day twelve thirty, four, nine,
four or five, when it's still not a sponsored text line, Chris,
is that right?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I know that sounds crazy, is it's not. It's a
free agent market, so it's still a free agent. It's
been months. Yeah, we hopefully will get that taken care
of very soon though, four nine, four or five one
is your chance you can text in with if you
want to sponsor it. If you're out there owning a
small business, or you're in a large business, or even
no business you just want to You're going to have
three hundred mentions a day of the text line. You
(09:24):
and I Chris, how many times a show we mentioned
it last year about a hundred. Well, that was like
one of our favorite parts of the show, reading back
with you guys are yelling at us, disagreeing with us,
all of it. So we used it quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
We used to and we used the sponsor's name at
least one hundred times two hours and multiply that by
four shows that's value added. Man, I don't know whatever
the sponsorship cost is, you're going to get it back
because you're going to get your name mentioned all that times.
How many times a day? Four nine, four or five
one if you want to phoney up an offer. I
thought Jesson and McIntyre had won when I was hosting
(09:56):
for Believing a couple of weeks ago, and then it
fell through. You know, some good things come to an end.
I mean, I would think that's a no brainer. It's
all the things that you could advertise if you're a
business that one man, we wear that out you and
I'll do our best. Chris, we'll figure out that out. Yeah,
twelve thirty. We'll reback your text at four, four or
five one. So the first question I'll ask you the
(10:17):
text on where are you on the Mariners?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Because you you, most of us were off of them.
Probably were going to tell you, Greg, why are you
doing this? Why you know? How you know where're at?
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Now?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
That's what I say. Are you already like, come on, man,
I've lived here more than a day like Chris than
I have. You just where Chris grew up here. That's
all he knows is Mariner baseball. Yeah, well, well we'll
get into it. Yeah, it's okay. You are you with them?
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Three games against Cleveland, a playoff team last year. They
beat Emmanuel Classe on Saturday Night, who was the closer
who was untouchable last year. They get him with the
wild pitch. It should have been caught by the catcher.
And then Dylan More had a great break on that
from third when it was a three to two game,
to tie to three to three, and then Hory Polanco
comes through with the single. And then yesterday the grand
(11:07):
slam by JP Crawford pretty much ended the game because
of what Emerson Hancock did. That's your sixth starter, by
the way, Hancock Man, Yeah, that was all right. Four
hit shut out for Bullpen and Handcock. So now here
comes Boston and the problem is the same. I feel
like deja vu this time last year. Remember the trash
(11:27):
Cans wouldn't lose, and we were saying the trash Cans
are going to start winning.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
No, let's be very clear, you were saying. I was like, Greg,
I don't know you like Chris Man. The writing's on
the wall. You don't see it. Well, I see it,
and I'm like, yeah, Greg, I'm just holding out hope
for the Mariners. And You're like, Okay, you do that.
I'm telling you the Assles are coming. They're not. They're
not falling apart. And unfortunately for my sake, Greg was
(11:52):
one thousand percent correct. Well, the same thing this year. Yeah,
they were in May. I'm making that same mistake. By
the way, Greg, I see the as know it. I
figured it out. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Houston, well, and the division is not that good. I mean,
Oakland's won like three in a row, but they were
they won one of twenty four games before that. The
Angels are below five hundred. Texas can't get hits act together.
For all the money they've spent down there, and they
they're sub five hundred. The Mariner's now two games above
five hundred, but four and a half games back of
(12:22):
the trash Cans because Houston's now starting to win again.
That's the problem is you can't count on the Astros.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
It just collapsed.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
The other thing the Astros do every year, Houston adds
at the trade deadline Buster only Today on ESPN dot com.
The longtime used to be the New York Times beat
writer for the Yankees when I was covering baseball with
the A's and the sacrament will be He's now the
long time in ESPN dot com column. This on Baseball
Buster Only Calumn today was on the seven major league
(12:50):
executives under the most pressure before the trading deadline. Guess
who's on that list? Jerry Depoto. Can we be surprised,
President of Baseball Operations for your Seattle Mariners on that list?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Of course?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
To add a bat, not just a bat, but an
elite bat that would cost money beyond just this year,
or even renting one whatever to upgrade the offense. Man
talk about deja vu, Chris and grondog Day. How many
times we talk about deav You.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Want to just grab the audio trouble from last year
sixteenth and we can just play that July sixth. It'll
be good.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
You could run all of last summer, rewind that up
until the trading dead Training deadline is July thirty first,
four nine four five one. What do you expect on
the text line? What do you expect Jerry Depoto and
the Mariners to do? And we will probably be able
to delineate who's been here in this city for more
than a couple of years, and who hasn't by these answers,
(13:48):
what do you expect them to do? They're going to
add a bat. They're going to add an actual bat bat.
Not like Raphael Devers who just got traded to the Giants,
but like that, the Mariners aren't about to take a
contract for two hundred and fifty million dollars through twenty
thirty three like Giants just did for Devers. They're gonna
have to need new ownership before they do something like that,
which is a whole other story.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
But four nine, four to five one, what do you expect.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
The Mariners to do before July thirty? First with Jerry
Depoto on one of the national hot hot seats on
executives under pressure before the trading deadline. We'll see up
next what changed this weekend for the mayor? What exactly
changed and the guy that changed it we'll talk about
back next. We'll read back your text at twelve thirty.
Lots to do with Christopher K. Greg Bellow, The News
(14:33):
Tribune on ninety three point three kg AARFM.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Testing live from the R and R Foundation Specialist Broadcast Studio.
Now back to MJLE Midday on your home for the Huskies,
Kraken and Sounders Sports Radio ninety three point three JJR.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
FL ninety three point three KJRFM, Welcome back. It is
(15:13):
not Mark James, he's away this week.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Greg Bell the News Tribune back in the old ten
am time slot with my man Christopher kibdbre Reunited, playing
it back like its twenty twenty four or something here.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Right on the radio session. I'll be with you all week.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
We'll be together all week ten am to noon, and
then Ian Forness will join us at twelve forty five
leading show one until three. He's got Mollywop Monday going on.
They got three.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Married positivity there we thank although they will be honest,
They will be honest better than Greg and I probably can.
They will lay it all on the line, So make
sure you're tuned in for that, because yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Nathan Bishop and Chris Crawford will join the interness at
one o'clock for Mollywop Monday, right after our show ending,
and they're gonna talk about the Marriagers have won three
in a row after going one and nine against sub
five hundred teams. Heading into that series, it was almost
out of nowhere that they would sweep. They did come home,
but still they were playing Cleveland, the playoff team last year,
(16:07):
one in five on that road trip that ended in
Arizona with a thud. As I said, they'd lost the
eight of nine of the teams with all the losing records,
and that had gotten them from first place to second
and under five hundred. But then Chris was curious to
me Friday, this is part of Now. I know they
won three games, but let me just say this. You
know where I'm going with you.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I do. Friday night, Yes, the weather was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yes, kids are getting out of school. Yes, it's graduation
weekends all across the Pazilic Northwest. The team had just
gone one in eight against sub five hundred teams, had
fallen not only out of first place but in under
five hundred. Their first game back thirty four thousand plus.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
In the yard on fireworks night.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I'm only saying that to say the bottom line for
the ownership remains.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Fireworks and bobbleheads will make money. The on field product
it is immune to it.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
It really is in this market, and they know that,
and so that prefaces some of the moves that they make.
And more to the point, they don't make Why make
a spot. Let's just use a hypothetical that would never
happen in Seattle. Why trade for Raphael Devers, a three
time All Star third baseman, who's a slugging third baseman
(17:21):
who could absolutely fit the middle of your lineup.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Why pay him a.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Two hundred and fifty million dollars that he's owed until
twenty thirty three when you're still going to get thirty
five thousand plus. If you just throw up some fireworks
or some bobbleheads. It's a very cynical way to look
at it. But if that does affect what the Mariners
do and don't do. The Giants, they're filling their yard
no matter what. But they have had down years because
(17:45):
they've not performed like they did when that park opened
down in San Francisco on the Bay, and they do
feel pressure to add players to make the plasis. They're
also in a division with the runaway Dodgers, who if
nobody does anything else, the Dodgers are just gonna win
the division and go to the World Series again. Where
so it's games, but there is it's a different calculus
in cities than it is in Seattle. I'm just saying
(18:06):
that is a factor. And when we asked the text
line four nine four five one, what are the Mariners
going to do before July thirty first and the trading deadline.
If they're going to get thirty five thousand plus after
a one to eight stretch against sub five hundred teams,
after one and five road trip, after falling from first
place to under five hundred and out of first place,
then all's well. On those who count the pennies or
(18:28):
the dollars or the one hundred dollars bills, there is
a tangible effect there is what I'm trying to say.
But anyway, that's a very cynical way to look at
what was otherwise adages.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
It was a great weekend.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
So thirty five thousand and thirty four plus coming to
the yard Friday night just for fireworks, and they happen
to see the home team.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Win on the way there to the fireworks.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Seven to two, a sixteen hit night, strong start from
Louis casts to only two solo home runs allowed that night,
scoreless night by the bullpen. Saturday, Amanya I mentioned Emmanuel
Classe last year was a lights out closer for Cleveland,
probably the reason they got to and advanced in the
playoffs before the Yankees took him out. Classe comes in
(19:09):
to close a three to two lead for Cleveland. The
ind said the Indians. I grew up in Ohio. The
Guardians had not lost a game since September of twenty
twenty three that they led entering a ninth inning. They
were leading three to two and a ninth inning on Saturday, Classe,
Dylan Moore gets his way to third base. Klasse bounces
a pitch that the catcher really should have caught, but
(19:30):
it was ruled a wild pitch got away. Great read
by Dylan Moore. There are a lot of players who
would not have taken off in that situation, knowing you're
the tying run a third He did, read the ball
in the dirt, took off safe, tie game three to three,
and then Jorge Polanco with the sharp single through the infield,
wins the game for to three. And the Briners do
(19:50):
something that no one had done to Cleveland in two years.
That's win a game that they were trailing Cleveland entering
the ninth inning. So now you win the second game
and then yesterday.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
One nothing game.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
JP Crawford makes it a five or on second, ending
with the grand Slam, his fourth career grand slam on
his first ever Father's Day.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Is a new dad since last Father's Day. And that's enough.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Because Emerson Hancock goes seven innings scoreless, the Mariners only
have four hits and they win six nothing. Now, all
of a sudden, the Meredith in town is okay, They're
right again.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
They can do this.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
The one guy Chris, the one guy text line, the
one guy listeners who has done this the most in
the last two weeks, even when the Mariners were subterranean
is JP Crawford. He was the nine hitter. Of course
we know for most of the season. He's now batting leadoff.
Why because in the last two weeks. Check out these
numbers for JP Crawford fifteen games. He has multiple hits
(20:46):
nine times in those fifteen games. His batting average over
fifteen games chris four thirty nine. His on base percentage
is five thirty six. His slugging in that time is
six thirty two. I don't need Luke Arkins to tell
me that that is an ops of one point one
six eight. Shout out our nerd Luke Arkins, Thank you, sir,
a kid, because my Navy man. Luke Arkins will be
(21:07):
on the show. I think pretty much guarantee he'll be
on the show at some point this week. It's a
new week here, we'll have Luke Arkins on it. He'll
talk about JP Crawford and his ops of one point
one six eight in the last fifteen games. That's why
he's now batting leadoff. Julio Rodriguez is batting second. Luke
Arkins wrote a story I'm going to ask him about.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yes see, that's why I also want it because he
just wrote a really cool story on Julio, and hey, guys,
maybe we should you know, pump the brakes just a
little bit. Not saying he's not playing his best ball,
but he's not actually terrible as some may make it seem.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
How did Luke put it in Mariner's consickly our newsletter,
the hate the internet hate for Julia Rodriguez is displaced.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
It's it's it's quite a bit. That's he'll talk to
us about that this. We already try to have him
on probably tomorrow for the season.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Now, Crawford's leading all shortstops with a all not just
all shortstops in baseball, with a four to eleven on
base percentage. He's third among American League shortstops with the
two ninety six batting average forty six walks are tied
for second among all American League players, not just shortstops,
all positions. So there's some talk now he might be
on the All Star team with cal Rawley because of
(22:16):
his streak of these last fifteen games. So now you
got a JP Crawford at the top of the lineup,
you can move Julia Rodriguez down a little bit. You
may get one or two of those guys on base
for cal Rawley, and all of a sudden, those home
runs are two or three runs homers instead of one
run homers. That's what JP Crawford's emergence and putting him
at the top of the lineup could mean to the Mariners.
(22:36):
Now they get Logan Gilbert.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Back tonight April twenty fifth, last time he pitched. Hey,
I just hope he is I was not too soon.
I hope they really took the time with him to
bring him back. And he's one hundred percent. I know
you're probably not always one hundred, but you get my point.
You don't want to rush a guy back, you would
They're pretty good about that though. Let's keep it that
way right. I know he might be a little rusty,
(22:58):
that's fine, but I don't want and oh we'll get
a scare. We're gonna sit him out for a few weeks.
Let's I want him to be back. He's back, let's go.
Let's roll now.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
They usually do put a pitch down of seventy or
so on their pitchers when they do come back from injury,
even after rehab starts at the minor league level, So
expect Logan Gilbert to pitch seventy plus and then the
next time eighty or so. That's what they've done habitually
when their starters do come back. But yeah, to get
their rotation hole again. Obviously, it's going to improve their
(23:28):
chances of making a run. Here, trash Cans are four
and a half games up because they found a five
game winning streak. Guess where the trash Cans are playing
while the while the Mariners are hosting Boston. Guess where
Houston is. Go ahead and tell us Greg Wes Sacramento
against those A's. That's not gonna go well for Seattle.
So so Seattle's got their work cut out for him
(23:49):
to not lose more ground while Boston is in town.
As an aside, I was driving last night through downtown
Seattle at about ten thirty, ten forty five, and my
life was with me and the police. There was a
police escort for two big buses coming off of five
and the Madison Street exit, and she said, what is
(24:11):
that for? It was kind of holding up traffic and
it was a backup because of it. You know what
that is, don't you. The Boston Red Sox just came
into town because they all stayed down usually at the
Fairmount of the four seasons off of sixth and.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Every pro sports team, even the college team.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
When I worked for the University of Washington, I was
fascinated by this off duty policemen and off duty usually
it's it's city, but sometimes it's state patrol. Sometimes it's sheriff.
Off duty policemen will give them police escorts from the
stadium from the excuse me, from the tarmac of SeaTac
Sometimes it's bowing field to the team hotel. Why the
(24:51):
hell did they do that? They're not if they're ten
minutes later to get check into their hotel. There's no
game that night. When we used to fly in with
you deb football. I travel with you football and basketball.
The football team, we'd land at LAX on a Friday
afternoon at say four o'clock for a Saturday evening game
(25:11):
against USC at the Coliseum, and we would get a
police escort from LAX to the coliseum, Chris at four
thirty or five o'clock on a Friday in Los Angeles
across the.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
One oh five Freeway and up to one ten.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
It was ridiculous. They were stopping traffic for a college
football team that wasn't even playing until the following night,
just so we could go to the coliseum and have
a walk through and have some in and out burgers
at the stadium with the trucks privilege. It's crazy, man.
This is even before nil and the kids are getting
paid well.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Multiply that by all the pro sports teams around, and
that's what those sirens are and those buses are coveted. Anyway,
I just threw thousand in the side because my wife's.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Like, they get a police escort for a they don't
play till tomorrow night, right, See, Yeah, that's right. We're
new text.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
We've already asked and gotten a lot of feedback on
what you think the Mariners are gonna do before the
July thirty first deadline, and I will tell you it's
almost a consensus.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Isn't it almost the same what was all maybe a
year ago, But we'll read that at twelve three. Yeah,
it's well learned. Your cynicism, I will say, is well learned.
Next the NBA Finals. We know where we're leaning on that.
I'm gonna lean on my man Chris Kidd, NBA guy,
to talk about the NBA Finals and where it stands.
Twelve o'clock maz Vita Mary, great friend of mine, Cascade
(26:27):
of Sports, going to talk about the Sounders last night
in the Club World Cup and the road ahead of them.
Still whatever happened to that protest.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
That they were not happy about the revenues. We'll talk
to him about that as well. We're gona be back
your text at twelve thirty. Infiness will be here from
one until three all that on ninety three point three KJRFM.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I even missed the music, Chris. This is very familiar
to had Greg bellenstribute for Mark James is away all
week and I am reunited with Christopher Kidd at the
same ten am slot that we were in for what
was that ten months?
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Eleven months, twenty twenty four, ending in February. So it's
great to be back. I'll be back all week. Great
to have you back. Man, you sir, I missed you.
I told you that a couple of weeks ago, and
it's true.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Absolutely. Man, miss you too. Man all the banter, all
the discussions, all the fun, all of it. So it
was great, good little run.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
It's great to hear you. And yeah, like I said,
Mitch Moore, say hey, you want to come fill in
host ten? Yeah, ten o'clock, Chris k gonna be working,
he said yeah. I said, hell, yeah, I want to
do that. So that's why I'm here instead of Mark James.
The NBA Finals are well on their way now. They're
in Game five two two series in Oklahoma City to
(27:46):
night for Game five and always the pivotal game of
a seven game series when it's tied to two of
Game five, Chris and your gut, Yeah you really think
that Gandiana can do it again?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I don't know. There's still has done a really really
good job of adjustments and just showing different things offensively
and defensively, and the biggest surprise, Ben Halliburton. I think, well,
I'll just start here. I think the biggest surprise of
the Indiana Pacers. I'm sure when the NBA Playoffs started,
you did not pencil in even if you went to
(28:17):
I know you don't gamble, but even if you hypothetically
just went to it. Stidan was like, you know, let
me put some money on a team. You were not
thinking the Pacers. No, I don't know who you were thinking,
but I know for sure the Pacers are not coming
to your mind. Second third team, not over the Celtics
even then. So to see what this team has done
has been really impressive. And that's where I would say
(28:38):
it starts, and then after that it continues on with
guys coming off the bench. Matherin a lot of these things.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Man, I was watching the other night and I said,
that's my son, who's Mathron.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
That's my point. They have a lot of players that
are like that, that are really good with the system
they're in. Because maybe you put them on a different
team and he's not as good. I don't know. But
with Carlile and what this team has, this is a
team that has earned the right to be in the
NBA Finals. They beat the teams in front of them,
(29:11):
no matter what they had heroic play. They took a
three to one lead over a New York Knicks team
that was they were supposed to be in this position.
They thought they had a chance to win a championship.
And I think with Carlile, he has the experience over
mac over mac Over Mark, who's the coach for the
OKC Thunder, It's a new guy. He's still learning the ropes.
(29:34):
That's where I think the Payers have the advantage of
the coaching. In game coaching, the in game adjustments as
simple as out of timeout. Those little things matter. When
do you use a challenge, All those things matter. I
think Mark is in a is it a difficult spot?
You know, this team was dominant throughout the regular season.
As we all saw, they won a lot of games,
(29:55):
and they did it in epic fashion. You have Sga
who was just taken the next step. Everyone talks about how, oh,
the NBA is just a three and three and D league.
Shay By himself is shattering that mold because he is
getting to his spots. He's six six, he has great
lift off his jump shot, and he is just fun
to watch, Like if you want to watch a prototype
of like, hey, I want to sit down and watch
(30:16):
good basketball. Flip on the TV and watch him play ball.
They do a phenomenal job of allowing him to get
to his spots. And they do it at the right time.
And now don't just give him the ball and just hey,
be a hero. They do it when they really need
a spark. Maybe they get a couple of defensive stots
from Dork. Maybe Chet hits a big three, it gets
a big block. Okay, you know what, Let's go to
(30:38):
our MVP and you watch how he breaks on the defense.
And he's never he never gets off his spot. He's
always centered. No matter what he's stumbling, he finds a
way to one to two, gather and pull up and
hit a jump shot or five. The other night, yes
I believe it. That was Friday night. Yeah, first he
pushed off and chicken wing. He got away with the chicken.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
He walked from Anyanapolis back to Oklahoma City on that play.
And they didn't call it right in front of the
baseline official.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
The officiating. They missed things quite a bit. They miss
things quite a bit. It's just one of those things that, hey,
what can you do about it? Either and complain or
you're gonna go to the next play. And I think
the biggest thing for me going into Game five would
be can the Pacers find their continuity out in this
(31:24):
hostile environment because I've never been to Okay See, but
watching it on TV, it sounds like at a pretty
crazy place. And yes, they've done They've done a pretty
good job for the most part. But now it's game five.
Winner of this is probably gonna win at all. I
know the stats. The analytics say seventy percent of the time,
you know you win game three. It's a rap, right.
Can the Pacers can Tyrese be magic? Magic?
Speaker 1 (31:47):
The key, isn't it in the first half, especially to
keep themselves from having to chase the game. There's been
games in this series where He's had five points in
the first half, and you know what, he also has
a bunch of turnovers. You can't have that going on
the road.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
It's got to be it's gotta be one of the
those nights where you don't have five points, and if
you do have five points, maybe you have thirteen assists.
You have to be a facilitator and taking care of
the basketball and getting your guys good looks Matherin Miles Turner,
and I also want to see something from Pascal Siakam.
But he's been good in the playoffs. He's been good,
but I wanted to be excellent, damn near great. I
need him just to take over damn near kind of
(32:19):
what we saw in the twenty nineteen finals. I know
it is Kawhi Leonard, but don't forget about Pascal. He
was the number two guy. So we need Pascal to
kind of step up and be the number one guy.
If Hally Burden is going to be a guy that's
dishing out and playing ball through his teammates because he
can do it. He just be turning the ball over,
just mental arrows on the court, and I've seen that
time and time again, and hey, that's kind of why
(32:41):
they went. They had an opportunity to go three to one,
but late in the game they Reggie Miller choked it
away with turnovers and bad shot selection, and you can
see Rick probably want to call a timeout, but hoping
his guys could figure it out, and they unfortunately never did,
and now they find themselves in a tie to too.
Going back to OKC, trying to figure out okay, hostile environment.
(33:02):
Damn SGA. He gonna get to the bucket, He's gonna
force fouls. The Reds are gonna call it. How do
we minimize that? How can we affect his game? It's
gonna have to be all five guys playing great defense,
and you gotta make a tough on him. That's the
best you can do. Because he's six', six he can
get to his. Spot he's really. Talented but if you
(33:22):
can make someone else beat, you that would be your.
Hope but that's gonna be my questions coming into this next,
game just BECAUSE i think what they capitalize on thirty
eight free Throws greg thirty, eight last, game thirty. Eight
you're not gonna lose a game with that many unless
you miss twenty of, them, Right and there's not a
team that misses a lot of free. Throws AND sga
(33:43):
is going to be shooting fifty percent if not, more
of those free throws out of thirty. Eight so in that,
scenario you can't. Foul you just gotta play, soundball and
you gotta do it on the. Road so they're climbing
a tough. BATTLE i know a lot Of sonic fans are, like,
ah this is just the worst thing. Possible but the
players have proven they can they can beat this. Team
they already beat them on the road. Once can they
do it?
Speaker 1 (34:03):
AGAIN i saw in The Seattle times there's a sports
bar In ballad that is a Go. Pacer they Have
pacer watch parties going, on And i'm sure they'll be
doing it again tonight For game five that's at eight
thirty ON abc. Two two series back To Oklahoma city
and now best of. Three The pacers chance to derail
The thunder is going to have to happen on the.
(34:23):
Road good, Look, yeah it's gonna have to happen IN.
Okc that's tonight at five thirty up. NEXT i was
out of The seahawks practice facility the last couple weeks
to see five different offseason practice including the mini camp it.
Ended now The seahawks are off Until july twenty, third
but they had a ton of work to do in training.
Cap i'll tell you WHAT i. Saw i'll tell you
(34:45):
what would concern me a little, bit even though it's Only,
june IF i were A seahawks, fan and What i'd
be really encouraged. About In Who All Seahawks? NEXT a
ninety three point THREE, kjrfm
Remember we were talking about playoffs and how are they
going to set up the rotation?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Yes, yes, Chris, what do you think they're gonna do? Yeah,
I honestly don't know. I mean at this point you
just want something to work. Anything you throw whoever out there.
Ryan Bliss was the time of the talk for a
few weeks, actually a couple months, and then anything Yeah,
then just kind of all flipped, and now we're wondering
can this team even make a push? They were digging
(00:24):
such a hole that I was trying to say, Greg,
I think they can do it, and you're like, Chris,
the time is running out. How much longer are you
going to give them to make a bounce back return?
And I found out the hard way. I should have
listened to you when you said that early June. I'm like, oh,
here we are August, and yeah, it didn't work out.
So you know what, they did get a sweep. They
played good ball. Now let's just hopefully continue the rest
(00:47):
of the week.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I got the Red Sox coming in the twenty nine
game span. They're playing twenty three of those games against
teams that are predicted to be in the playoff run.
For the rest of the season. Cleveland is one of them,
but then the Mariners just when we're counting them out
a three game series.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
We'll talk about that. The Sounders.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
I mentioned the Club World cop. It's new to this area.
It's a new format. This used to be a kind
of a hidden tournament and nobody from North America usually qualified,
and they now they've expanded it. The Sounders qualified for
winning the concer caff a couple of years ago. We're
talking to mos Fita mahreor As I said. He's a
great friend of mine. We're on the Seahawks beat together.
He's also on the Sounders beat for Cascadi of Sports.
(01:26):
He was in the yard last night and so I'm
gonna ask about the crowd. My son was watching it
on his phone and I'm not sure it was legal
or illegally, but he was watching one dozen and he
said the crowd looked pretty good. And we have there's
something that they set of a record that had to
do with crowd before the match. We'll talk about that
as well. But two more crazy, ridiculous challenges in that
(01:50):
group play against Athletic Goo Madrid Thursday afternoon. They're playing
in the afternoon Chris, because it's primetime back in Europe,
so at Madrid or they want to have at Spanish
prime time eight nine pm. They got to start a
noon on Thursday here in Seattle. Yeah, we'll talk about
the Seahawks. What I saw last week in the mini
camp that ended, and it effectively ended the veterans offseason practices.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
They're off now until July twenty third, and so it
was Greg, Ladies and gentlemen, Yes exactly, you will hear,
I am with you. But yeah, the Seahawks are off
now until July twenty third. The rookies are back in
the training or the facility Virginiamation Athletics Center this week
for a mini mini camp. It's really like OTA's just
for kids. And then they'll be off until July twenty
(02:38):
third as well. I'll tell you what I saw. Offensive
line battles already on at two positions. It looks like
three of them are set. I'll tell you what. The
offense is way behind, Chris. It sounded like the defense
a few years back when Mike McDonald first ride. Yep,
well I guess the offense was too, but you get
my point. Yeah, the defense is way ahead as it
should be. If it wasn't that way, you'd be worried.
(02:59):
Right now, he's some concern. You'd be like, yeah, well,
this team's winning six games.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Because yeah, the defense is the strength of the team.
They should be and they are. We'll talk about the
NBA Finals, Chris sport and it's thought on the series
between the Pacers and Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
And you have a rooting interest of the Seattleite. I'm
sure you know. To be honest, I have now kind
of removed myself as a fan because I haven't had
it in so long. I don't even know what it's
like other than when I traveled to Portland. Apathy is
the worst guy, Chris. Sorry, I probably probably we'll just
gloss over that. But I've just enjoyed the game by itself,
(03:33):
kind of like what you do. You just watch the
game for themselves and you enjoy it or you just
That's kind of where I'm at with it, and I'm
hoping that the product continues to get better. And I
know it's two markets. One market that was familiar to
one specific states that is, I you know Washington in
that regard, but now you have Oka see and you
have an Indiana team that a lot of people probably
didn't watch a lot of Pacers basketball last season or
(03:55):
this season in general, and to see how well they've
played and their comebacks and how they're fighting, it's just
been really fun to witness. So I haven't been as
a fan as much as oh I want the former
Sonics to lose. I want the Pacers to win. I
just want to see a great game. Whoever wins great
although it does sting, it will sting if Okac does
(04:15):
win it because I grew up as a Sonics fan.
I went to a few games as a kid, and
now knowing what quote unquote as no one can see
me throwing in the air quotes what could have been,
but greed got in the way and they sent them
out of there. So here we are now, So let's
just stay again equivocally, it is not going to be.
It would not be the second franchise title for no
(04:37):
thunder es. Yeah, it's that. When you hear that, you're thinking, wait, wait, wait,
wait wait, that's that's not accurate.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
No, inaccurate. It would be there first, thank you. We'll
talk about the Stanley Cup finals. Edmondson's up against it again.
Are you you're buying in now, I've always been.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Last year you were kind of like, no, I bought it,
and I just, you know, I didn't have much to say.
I just I still don't have much to say. But
it's entertaining. It is I can't knock it. The competitiveness
is just incredible. I mean, as I mentioned many times,
multimillionaires diving face first in front of the puck. It's
going ninety five miles an hour, ice skates all in
your face. You're risking it for the biscuit. Right.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
You watch the especially the third period in overtime of
a Stanley Cup final game. Those guys they line up
like logs in the goal behind the goaltender. If the
goaltender comes out, you guys just start dog piling each
other in the crease to keep the puck from going in.
It's just like Lincoln logs on top of each other,
multimillion dollar million Lincoln log It's amazing and no other spot.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I know.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I know that people will argue with me, but the
other sport in the postseason to me, is like that.
It's not in the NFL. It's one game a week
and has to be for the nature of the game.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Now you know, like Greg, the way things are moving,
we might get you might have you never know.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Man, It's true Wednesday Sunday turn around for the playoff
games coming. But in the NFL you can't have that
intensity every night. No, you can't even have it twice
a week in the playoffs. You have to have it
once a week. The Stanley Cup finals are like that
for two months, or I should say that the Stanley
Cup playoffs are like that for two months, and then
(06:17):
by the time you get the finals, it's just crazy.
That is the most That's why they say, and it's true.
It's the hardest trophy in sports to win because of
how long you have to play to get there. Now
you can say that there's too many teams in the
playoffs and that waters it down. But the intensity of
two months, teams having the grind and guys playing with
broken bones, yeah, I know that they did in the
(06:37):
NFL as well, but they do it every night. There's
guys who have played the Stanley Cup.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
You don't get a week off on NHL unfortunately. No,
that'd be nice, I bet. I don't know if that
would help the play and all that, but I think
it'd be fair just considering what they're going through on
the ice, just going that out there.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, anyway, And as I always say, if you're lucky
enough to have cable, well I should say, if you're
stupid enough to pay for cable every month like I
do nine a month, you might as well use the
one great thing about it, which is having CBC and
Sportsnet to watch the Canadian broadcast of the Stanley Cup.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
The young bell help you out, man, He doesn't want
to do it for you. He enjoys the CBC as well.
Fair enough, and we love the Canadian broadcast. We love
the in between periods with Kevin b X is really good.
We learned something every night from him about hockey. The
former Vancouver Connects. Wait, can you not get it on
the streaming services at all? Not the Canadian version? No?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Oh okay, that makes sense because it's they have an
American tnt is broadcasting it, so that.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Completely get it. You have to get some download crazy
app and all this other stuff. And Greg's like, you
know what's good, I'll just pay the X amount of
dollars and I get it. That's fair, right.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
It's so if you have comcasts and you're already paying
a second mortgage for Comcast every month, you might as
well use. What is one of the great things about
Comcast is having CBC Sports Net to watch the Stanley
Cup Finals. It is an incredible experience that just the
audio is great. I mean I have been in places
or friend's house or bars and places that don't have
CBC and I listened to t try to listen to
(08:04):
the TNT broadcasts or even ESPN's broadcast. Its style like
a plas. It's like I'm watching it in a museum
or something. They had the audio turned way down in
this arena and in the early rounds, Chris, the announcers
weren't even in the building on some of those games, off.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Side and everything. Yeah, they did the remote thing, no way.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So I watched the Canadian version and they've got the
volume in the arena cranked up to twelve. You can
hear guys from behind the net barking out signals on
the play to everyone on the ice through through television.
And I don't have any crazy audio system in my house.
It's just an off the box, off the shelf TV
and I can still hear all those It's just an
amazing production. Yeah, anyway, I say that every single time
(08:46):
I'm on the radio. I was success to try to
get everybody else to enjoy the Stalely Cup playoffs the
way I do at twelve thirty, where we back your
text as we do every day twelve thirty, four, nine,
four or five, when it's still not a sponsored text line, Chris,
is that right?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I know that sounds crazy, is it's not. It's a
free agent market, so it's still a free agent. It's
been months. Yeah, we hopefully will get that taken care
of very soon though, four nine, four or five one
is your chance you can text in with if you
want to sponsor it. If you're out there owning a
small business, or you're in a large business, or even
no business you just want to You're going to have
three hundred mentions a day of the text line. You
(09:24):
and I Chris, how many times a show we mentioned
it last year about a hundred. Well, that was like
one of our favorite parts of the show, reading back
with you guys are yelling at us, disagreeing with us,
all of it. So we used it quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
We used to and we used the sponsor's name at
least one hundred times two hours and multiply that by
four shows that's value added. Man, I don't know whatever
the sponsorship cost is, you're going to get it back
because you're going to get your name mentioned all that times.
How many times a day? Four nine, four or five
one if you want to phoney up an offer. I
thought Jesson and McIntyre had won when I was hosting
(09:56):
for Believing a couple of weeks ago, and then it
fell through. You know, some good things come to an end.
I mean, I would think that's a no brainer. It's
all the things that you could advertise if you're a
business that one man, we wear that out you and
I'll do our best. Chris, we'll figure out that out. Yeah,
twelve thirty. We'll reback your text at four, four or
five one. So the first question I'll ask you the
(10:17):
text on where are you on the Mariners?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Because you you, most of us were off of them.
Probably were going to tell you, Greg, why are you
doing this? Why you know? How you know where're at?
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Now?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
That's what I say. Are you already like, come on, man,
I've lived here more than a day like Chris than
I have. You just where Chris grew up here. That's
all he knows is Mariner baseball. Yeah, well, well we'll
get into it. Yeah, it's okay. You are you with them?
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Three games against Cleveland, a playoff team last year. They
beat Emmanuel Classe on Saturday Night, who was the closer
who was untouchable last year. They get him with the
wild pitch. It should have been caught by the catcher.
And then Dylan More had a great break on that
from third when it was a three to two game,
to tie to three to three, and then Hory Polanco
comes through with the single. And then yesterday the grand
(11:07):
slam by JP Crawford pretty much ended the game because
of what Emerson Hancock did. That's your sixth starter, by
the way, Hancock Man, Yeah, that was all right. Four
hit shut out for Bullpen and Handcock. So now here
comes Boston and the problem is the same. I feel
like deja vu this time last year. Remember the trash
(11:27):
Cans wouldn't lose, and we were saying the trash Cans
are going to start winning.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
No, let's be very clear, you were saying. I was like, Greg,
I don't know you like Chris Man. The writing's on
the wall. You don't see it. Well, I see it,
and I'm like, yeah, Greg, I'm just holding out hope
for the Mariners. And You're like, Okay, you do that.
I'm telling you the Assles are coming. They're not. They're
not falling apart. And unfortunately for my sake, Greg was
(11:52):
one thousand percent correct. Well, the same thing this year. Yeah,
they were in May. I'm making that same mistake. By
the way, Greg, I see the as know it. I
figured it out. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Houston, well, and the division is not that good. I mean,
Oakland's won like three in a row, but they were
they won one of twenty four games before that. The
Angels are below five hundred. Texas can't get hits act together.
For all the money they've spent down there, and they
they're sub five hundred. The Mariner's now two games above
five hundred, but four and a half games back of
(12:22):
the trash Cans because Houston's now starting to win again.
That's the problem is you can't count on the Astros.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
It just collapsed.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
The other thing the Astros do every year, Houston adds
at the trade deadline Buster only Today on ESPN dot com.
The longtime used to be the New York Times beat
writer for the Yankees when I was covering baseball with
the A's and the sacrament will be He's now the
long time in ESPN dot com column. This on Baseball
Buster Only Calumn today was on the seven major league
(12:50):
executives under the most pressure before the trading deadline. Guess
who's on that list? Jerry Depoto. Can we be surprised,
President of Baseball Operations for your Seattle Mariners on that list?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Of course?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
To add a bat, not just a bat, but an
elite bat that would cost money beyond just this year,
or even renting one whatever to upgrade the offense. Man
talk about deja vu, Chris and grondog Day. How many
times we talk about deav You.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Want to just grab the audio trouble from last year
sixteenth and we can just play that July sixth. It'll
be good.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
You could run all of last summer, rewind that up
until the trading dead Training deadline is July thirty first,
four nine four five one. What do you expect on
the text line? What do you expect Jerry Depoto and
the Mariners to do? And we will probably be able
to delineate who's been here in this city for more
than a couple of years, and who hasn't by these answers,
(13:48):
what do you expect them to do? They're going to
add a bat. They're going to add an actual bat bat.
Not like Raphael Devers who just got traded to the Giants,
but like that, the Mariners aren't about to take a
contract for two hundred and fifty million dollars through twenty
thirty three like Giants just did for Devers. They're gonna
have to need new ownership before they do something like that,
which is a whole other story.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
But four nine, four to five one, what do you expect.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
The Mariners to do before July thirty? First with Jerry
Depoto on one of the national hot hot seats on
executives under pressure before the trading deadline. We'll see up
next what changed this weekend for the mayor? What exactly
changed and the guy that changed it we'll talk about
back next. We'll read back your text at twelve thirty.
Lots to do with Christopher K. Greg Bellow, The News
(14:33):
Tribune on ninety three point three kg AARFM.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Testing live from the R and R Foundation Specialist Broadcast Studio.
Now back to MJLE Midday on your home for the Huskies,
Kraken and Sounders Sports Radio ninety three point three JJR.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
FL ninety three point three KJRFM, Welcome back. It is
(15:13):
not Mark James, he's away this week.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Greg Bell the News Tribune back in the old ten
am time slot with my man Christopher kibdbre Reunited, playing
it back like its twenty twenty four or something here.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Right on the radio session. I'll be with you all week.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
We'll be together all week ten am to noon, and
then Ian Forness will join us at twelve forty five
leading show one until three. He's got Mollywop Monday going on.
They got three.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Married positivity there we thank although they will be honest,
They will be honest better than Greg and I probably can.
They will lay it all on the line, So make
sure you're tuned in for that, because yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Nathan Bishop and Chris Crawford will join the interness at
one o'clock for Mollywop Monday, right after our show ending,
and they're gonna talk about the Marriagers have won three
in a row after going one and nine against sub
five hundred teams. Heading into that series, it was almost
out of nowhere that they would sweep. They did come home,
but still they were playing Cleveland, the playoff team last year,
(16:07):
one in five on that road trip that ended in
Arizona with a thud. As I said, they'd lost the
eight of nine of the teams with all the losing records,
and that had gotten them from first place to second
and under five hundred. But then Chris was curious to
me Friday, this is part of Now. I know they
won three games, but let me just say this. You
know where I'm going with you.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I do. Friday night, Yes, the weather was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yes, kids are getting out of school. Yes, it's graduation
weekends all across the Pazilic Northwest. The team had just
gone one in eight against sub five hundred teams, had
fallen not only out of first place but in under
five hundred. Their first game back thirty four thousand plus.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
In the yard on fireworks night.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I'm only saying that to say the bottom line for
the ownership remains.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Fireworks and bobbleheads will make money. The on field product
it is immune to it.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
It really is in this market, and they know that,
and so that prefaces some of the moves that they make.
And more to the point, they don't make Why make
a spot. Let's just use a hypothetical that would never
happen in Seattle. Why trade for Raphael Devers, a three
time All Star third baseman, who's a slugging third baseman
(17:21):
who could absolutely fit the middle of your lineup.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Why pay him a.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Two hundred and fifty million dollars that he's owed until
twenty thirty three when you're still going to get thirty
five thousand plus. If you just throw up some fireworks
or some bobbleheads. It's a very cynical way to look
at it. But if that does affect what the Mariners
do and don't do. The Giants, they're filling their yard
no matter what. But they have had down years because
(17:45):
they've not performed like they did when that park opened
down in San Francisco on the Bay, and they do
feel pressure to add players to make the plasis. They're
also in a division with the runaway Dodgers, who if
nobody does anything else, the Dodgers are just gonna win
the division and go to the World Series again. Where
so it's games, but there is it's a different calculus
in cities than it is in Seattle. I'm just saying
(18:06):
that is a factor. And when we asked the text
line four nine four five one, what are the Mariners
going to do before July thirty first and the trading deadline.
If they're going to get thirty five thousand plus after
a one to eight stretch against sub five hundred teams,
after one and five road trip, after falling from first
place to under five hundred and out of first place,
then all's well. On those who count the pennies or
(18:28):
the dollars or the one hundred dollars bills, there is
a tangible effect there is what I'm trying to say.
But anyway, that's a very cynical way to look at
what was otherwise adages.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
It was a great weekend.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
So thirty five thousand and thirty four plus coming to
the yard Friday night just for fireworks, and they happen
to see the home team.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Win on the way there to the fireworks.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Seven to two, a sixteen hit night, strong start from
Louis casts to only two solo home runs allowed that night,
scoreless night by the bullpen. Saturday, Amanya I mentioned Emmanuel
Classe last year was a lights out closer for Cleveland,
probably the reason they got to and advanced in the
playoffs before the Yankees took him out. Classe comes in
(19:09):
to close a three to two lead for Cleveland. The
ind said the Indians. I grew up in Ohio. The
Guardians had not lost a game since September of twenty
twenty three that they led entering a ninth inning. They
were leading three to two and a ninth inning on Saturday, Classe,
Dylan Moore gets his way to third base. Klasse bounces
a pitch that the catcher really should have caught, but
(19:30):
it was ruled a wild pitch got away. Great read
by Dylan Moore. There are a lot of players who
would not have taken off in that situation, knowing you're
the tying run a third He did, read the ball
in the dirt, took off safe, tie game three to three,
and then Jorge Polanco with the sharp single through the infield,
wins the game for to three. And the Briners do
(19:50):
something that no one had done to Cleveland in two years.
That's win a game that they were trailing Cleveland entering
the ninth inning. So now you win the second game
and then yesterday.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
One nothing game.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
JP Crawford makes it a five or on second, ending
with the grand Slam, his fourth career grand slam on
his first ever Father's Day.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Is a new dad since last Father's Day. And that's enough.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Because Emerson Hancock goes seven innings scoreless, the Mariners only
have four hits and they win six nothing. Now, all
of a sudden, the Meredith in town is okay, They're
right again.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
They can do this.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
The one guy Chris, the one guy text line, the
one guy listeners who has done this the most in
the last two weeks, even when the Mariners were subterranean
is JP Crawford. He was the nine hitter. Of course
we know for most of the season. He's now batting leadoff.
Why because in the last two weeks. Check out these
numbers for JP Crawford fifteen games. He has multiple hits
(20:46):
nine times in those fifteen games. His batting average over
fifteen games chris four thirty nine. His on base percentage
is five thirty six. His slugging in that time is
six thirty two. I don't need Luke Arkins to tell
me that that is an ops of one point one
six eight. Shout out our nerd Luke Arkins, Thank you, sir,
a kid, because my Navy man. Luke Arkins will be
(21:07):
on the show. I think pretty much guarantee he'll be
on the show at some point this week. It's a
new week here, we'll have Luke Arkins on it. He'll
talk about JP Crawford and his ops of one point
one six eight in the last fifteen games. That's why
he's now batting leadoff. Julio Rodriguez is batting second. Luke
Arkins wrote a story I'm going to ask him about.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yes see, that's why I also want it because he
just wrote a really cool story on Julio, and hey, guys,
maybe we should you know, pump the brakes just a
little bit. Not saying he's not playing his best ball,
but he's not actually terrible as some may make it seem.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
How did Luke put it in Mariner's consickly our newsletter,
the hate the internet hate for Julia Rodriguez is displaced.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
It's it's it's quite a bit. That's he'll talk to
us about that this. We already try to have him
on probably tomorrow for the season.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Now, Crawford's leading all shortstops with a all not just
all shortstops in baseball, with a four to eleven on
base percentage. He's third among American League shortstops with the
two ninety six batting average forty six walks are tied
for second among all American League players, not just shortstops,
all positions. So there's some talk now he might be
on the All Star team with cal Rawley because of
(22:16):
his streak of these last fifteen games. So now you
got a JP Crawford at the top of the lineup,
you can move Julia Rodriguez down a little bit. You
may get one or two of those guys on base
for cal Rawley, and all of a sudden, those home
runs are two or three runs homers instead of one
run homers. That's what JP Crawford's emergence and putting him
at the top of the lineup could mean to the Mariners.
(22:36):
Now they get Logan Gilbert.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Back tonight April twenty fifth, last time he pitched. Hey,
I just hope he is I was not too soon.
I hope they really took the time with him to
bring him back. And he's one hundred percent. I know
you're probably not always one hundred, but you get my point.
You don't want to rush a guy back, you would
They're pretty good about that though. Let's keep it that
way right. I know he might be a little rusty,
(22:58):
that's fine, but I don't want and oh we'll get
a scare. We're gonna sit him out for a few weeks.
Let's I want him to be back. He's back, let's go.
Let's roll now.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
They usually do put a pitch down of seventy or
so on their pitchers when they do come back from injury,
even after rehab starts at the minor league level, So
expect Logan Gilbert to pitch seventy plus and then the
next time eighty or so. That's what they've done habitually
when their starters do come back. But yeah, to get
their rotation hole again. Obviously, it's going to improve their
(23:28):
chances of making a run. Here, trash Cans are four
and a half games up because they found a five
game winning streak. Guess where the trash Cans are playing
while the while the Mariners are hosting Boston. Guess where
Houston is. Go ahead and tell us Greg Wes Sacramento
against those A's. That's not gonna go well for Seattle.
So so Seattle's got their work cut out for him
(23:49):
to not lose more ground while Boston is in town.
As an aside, I was driving last night through downtown
Seattle at about ten thirty, ten forty five, and my
life was with me and the police. There was a
police escort for two big buses coming off of five
and the Madison Street exit, and she said, what is
(24:11):
that for? It was kind of holding up traffic and
it was a backup because of it. You know what
that is, don't you. The Boston Red Sox just came
into town because they all stayed down usually at the
Fairmount of the four seasons off of sixth and.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Every pro sports team, even the college team.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
When I worked for the University of Washington, I was
fascinated by this off duty policemen and off duty usually
it's it's city, but sometimes it's state patrol. Sometimes it's sheriff.
Off duty policemen will give them police escorts from the
stadium from the excuse me, from the tarmac of SeaTac
Sometimes it's bowing field to the team hotel. Why the
(24:51):
hell did they do that? They're not if they're ten
minutes later to get check into their hotel. There's no
game that night. When we used to fly in with
you deb football. I travel with you football and basketball.
The football team, we'd land at LAX on a Friday
afternoon at say four o'clock for a Saturday evening game
(25:11):
against USC at the Coliseum, and we would get a
police escort from LAX to the coliseum, Chris at four
thirty or five o'clock on a Friday in Los Angeles
across the.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
One oh five Freeway and up to one ten.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
It was ridiculous. They were stopping traffic for a college
football team that wasn't even playing until the following night,
just so we could go to the coliseum and have
a walk through and have some in and out burgers
at the stadium with the trucks privilege. It's crazy, man.
This is even before nil and the kids are getting
paid well.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Multiply that by all the pro sports teams around, and
that's what those sirens are and those buses are coveted. Anyway,
I just threw thousand in the side because my wife's.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Like, they get a police escort for a they don't
play till tomorrow night, right, See, Yeah, that's right. We're
new text.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
We've already asked and gotten a lot of feedback on
what you think the Mariners are gonna do before the
July thirty first deadline, and I will tell you it's
almost a consensus.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Isn't it almost the same what was all maybe a
year ago, But we'll read that at twelve three. Yeah,
it's well learned. Your cynicism, I will say, is well learned.
Next the NBA Finals. We know where we're leaning on that.
I'm gonna lean on my man Chris Kidd, NBA guy,
to talk about the NBA Finals and where it stands.
Twelve o'clock maz Vita Mary, great friend of mine, Cascade
(26:27):
of Sports, going to talk about the Sounders last night
in the Club World Cup and the road ahead of them.
Still whatever happened to that protest.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
That they were not happy about the revenues. We'll talk
to him about that as well. We're gona be back
your text at twelve thirty. Infiness will be here from
one until three all that on ninety three point three KJRFM.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I even missed the music, Chris. This is very familiar
to had Greg bellenstribute for Mark James is away all
week and I am reunited with Christopher Kidd at the
same ten am slot that we were in for what
was that ten months?
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Eleven months, twenty twenty four, ending in February. So it's
great to be back. I'll be back all week. Great
to have you back. Man, you sir, I missed you.
I told you that a couple of weeks ago, and
it's true.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Absolutely. Man, miss you too. Man all the banter, all
the discussions, all the fun, all of it. So it
was great, good little run.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
It's great to hear you. And yeah, like I said,
Mitch Moore, say hey, you want to come fill in
host ten? Yeah, ten o'clock, Chris k gonna be working,
he said yeah. I said, hell, yeah, I want to
do that. So that's why I'm here instead of Mark James.
The NBA Finals are well on their way now. They're
in Game five two two series in Oklahoma City to
(27:46):
night for Game five and always the pivotal game of
a seven game series when it's tied to two of
Game five, Chris and your gut, Yeah you really think
that Gandiana can do it again?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I don't know. There's still has done a really really
good job of adjustments and just showing different things offensively
and defensively, and the biggest surprise, Ben Halliburton. I think, well,
I'll just start here. I think the biggest surprise of
the Indiana Pacers. I'm sure when the NBA Playoffs started,
you did not pencil in even if you went to
(28:17):
I know you don't gamble, but even if you hypothetically
just went to it. Stidan was like, you know, let
me put some money on a team. You were not
thinking the Pacers. No, I don't know who you were thinking,
but I know for sure the Pacers are not coming
to your mind. Second third team, not over the Celtics
even then. So to see what this team has done
has been really impressive. And that's where I would say
(28:38):
it starts, and then after that it continues on with
guys coming off the bench. Matherin a lot of these things.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Man, I was watching the other night and I said,
that's my son, who's Mathron.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
That's my point. They have a lot of players that
are like that, that are really good with the system
they're in. Because maybe you put them on a different
team and he's not as good. I don't know. But
with Carlile and what this team has, this is a
team that has earned the right to be in the
NBA Finals. They beat the teams in front of them,
(29:11):
no matter what they had heroic play. They took a
three to one lead over a New York Knicks team
that was they were supposed to be in this position.
They thought they had a chance to win a championship.
And I think with Carlile, he has the experience over
mac over mac Over Mark, who's the coach for the
OKC Thunder, It's a new guy. He's still learning the ropes.
(29:34):
That's where I think the Payers have the advantage of
the coaching. In game coaching, the in game adjustments as
simple as out of timeout. Those little things matter. When
do you use a challenge, All those things matter. I
think Mark is in a is it a difficult spot?
You know, this team was dominant throughout the regular season.
As we all saw, they won a lot of games,
(29:55):
and they did it in epic fashion. You have Sga
who was just taken the next step. Everyone talks about how, oh,
the NBA is just a three and three and D league.
Shay By himself is shattering that mold because he is
getting to his spots. He's six six, he has great
lift off his jump shot, and he is just fun
to watch, Like if you want to watch a prototype
of like, hey, I want to sit down and watch
(30:16):
good basketball. Flip on the TV and watch him play ball.
They do a phenomenal job of allowing him to get
to his spots. And they do it at the right time.
And now don't just give him the ball and just hey,
be a hero. They do it when they really need
a spark. Maybe they get a couple of defensive stots
from Dork. Maybe Chet hits a big three, it gets
a big block. Okay, you know what, Let's go to
(30:38):
our MVP and you watch how he breaks on the defense.
And he's never he never gets off his spot. He's
always centered. No matter what he's stumbling, he finds a
way to one to two, gather and pull up and
hit a jump shot or five. The other night, yes
I believe it. That was Friday night. Yeah, first he
pushed off and chicken wing. He got away with the chicken.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
He walked from Anyanapolis back to Oklahoma City on that play.
And they didn't call it right in front of the
baseline official.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
The officiating. They missed things quite a bit. They miss
things quite a bit. It's just one of those things that, hey,
what can you do about it? Either and complain or
you're gonna go to the next play. And I think
the biggest thing for me going into Game five would
be can the Pacers find their continuity out in this
(31:24):
hostile environment because I've never been to Okay See, but
watching it on TV, it sounds like at a pretty
crazy place. And yes, they've done They've done a pretty
good job for the most part. But now it's game five.
Winner of this is probably gonna win at all. I
know the stats. The analytics say seventy percent of the time,
you know you win game three. It's a rap, right.
Can the Pacers can Tyrese be magic? Magic?
Speaker 1 (31:47):
The key, isn't it in the first half, especially to
keep themselves from having to chase the game. There's been
games in this series where He's had five points in
the first half, and you know what, he also has
a bunch of turnovers. You can't have that going on
the road.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
It's got to be it's gotta be one of the
those nights where you don't have five points, and if
you do have five points, maybe you have thirteen assists.
You have to be a facilitator and taking care of
the basketball and getting your guys good looks Matherin Miles Turner,
and I also want to see something from Pascal Siakam.
But he's been good in the playoffs. He's been good,
but I wanted to be excellent, damn near great. I
need him just to take over damn near kind of
(32:19):
what we saw in the twenty nineteen finals. I know
it is Kawhi Leonard, but don't forget about Pascal. He
was the number two guy. So we need Pascal to
kind of step up and be the number one guy.
If Hally Burden is going to be a guy that's
dishing out and playing ball through his teammates because he
can do it. He just be turning the ball over,
just mental arrows on the court, and I've seen that
time and time again, and hey, that's kind of why
(32:41):
they went. They had an opportunity to go three to one,
but late in the game they Reggie Miller choked it
away with turnovers and bad shot selection, and you can
see Rick probably want to call a timeout, but hoping
his guys could figure it out, and they unfortunately never did,
and now they find themselves in a tie to too.
Going back to OKC, trying to figure out okay, hostile environment.
(33:02):
Damn SGA. He gonna get to the bucket, He's gonna
force fouls. The Reds are gonna call it. How do
we minimize that? How can we affect his game? It's
gonna have to be all five guys playing great defense,
and you gotta make a tough on him. That's the
best you can do. Because he's six', six he can
get to his. Spot he's really. Talented but if you
(33:22):
can make someone else beat, you that would be your.
Hope but that's gonna be my questions coming into this next,
game just BECAUSE i think what they capitalize on thirty
eight free Throws greg thirty, eight last, game thirty. Eight
you're not gonna lose a game with that many unless
you miss twenty of, them, Right and there's not a
team that misses a lot of free. Throws AND sga
(33:43):
is going to be shooting fifty percent if not, more
of those free throws out of thirty. Eight so in that,
scenario you can't. Foul you just gotta play, soundball and
you gotta do it on the. Road so they're climbing
a tough. BATTLE i know a lot Of sonic fans are, like,
ah this is just the worst thing. Possible but the
players have proven they can they can beat this. Team
they already beat them on the road. Once can they
do it?
Speaker 1 (34:03):
AGAIN i saw in The Seattle times there's a sports
bar In ballad that is a Go. Pacer they Have
pacer watch parties going, on And i'm sure they'll be
doing it again tonight For game five that's at eight
thirty ON abc. Two two series back To Oklahoma city
and now best of. Three The pacers chance to derail
The thunder is going to have to happen on the.
(34:23):
Road good, Look, yeah it's gonna have to happen IN.
Okc that's tonight at five thirty up. NEXT i was
out of The seahawks practice facility the last couple weeks
to see five different offseason practice including the mini camp it.
Ended now The seahawks are off Until july twenty, third
but they had a ton of work to do in training.
Cap i'll tell you WHAT i. Saw i'll tell you
(34:45):
what would concern me a little, bit even though it's Only,
june IF i were A seahawks, fan and What i'd
be really encouraged. About In Who All Seahawks? NEXT a
ninety three point THREE, kjrfm
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