04/17/2021 - FOX Sports Saturday with Steve Hartman and Andy Furman - Fox Sports Radio

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listening to Fox Sports. Ah, Yes, living the dream
once again on a fabulous sports Saturday from the Fox
Sports Radio studios. Hartman and Firman with you, Andy, how
are you on this wonderful Saturday. Oh, it's a pleasure
to see you a smiling face. It's an honor to

(00:22):
be with you in the same arena. It really is,
Steve Hartman, it really is, Andie. You know how much
admiration I have for you. This is what I always
say when Andy and I get together, and if you
every once in a while, let's let's put Hartmann Inferman
together again. Is the fact that we have shared many
of the same sports life experiences, but in very different

(00:45):
regions of the country. Now, we've always covered all the
national stuff, Andy and everything else, but your perspective on
where you've lived over the majority of your life and
where I've lived in the majority of my life. Uh,
it sort of comes together every time you and I
are reunited, Stevie. The only thing that separates us is
the Mississippi River, a very wide Mississippi River. Indeed, by

(01:08):
the way, I wanted to there's so many things I
love to talk to you about, Andy, because again we
sort of share the same dynamic, the same life experience
over many years, and we were both bar mitzvah two. Well, okay,
now now I gotta make an admission right here. So um,
you know, I don't talk a lot of religion here,

(01:29):
but yes, I am a member of the very proud
member of the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Listen to you. Yes, I was very very proud. In fact,
Jeff Schwartz, who I normally sit here on Saturday with,
he's also a member of that Hall of fame. Um,
but I have to I have to admit something here.
So my mother was not only Jewish, Claudie Moskovitz, but

(01:52):
she was also a Holocaust survivor and so um, but
I was born, uh in the late fifties, and it
wasn't that long after what it transpired that you know,
the horrors of the war. And so my mother married
a Christian and had me baptized to hide my identity,

(02:12):
she had me actually baptized, And so I never had
a bar mitzvah. And and and the reason being was
so many mother, because of her upbringing was so I'm
not going to use the word paramoid, but fearful that
it could happen and get she she wanted to protect

(02:33):
my identity. So that's that's the fact. I don't know
how many other members of the Southern California do sports
shoot Sports Hall of Fame didn't have a bar mitzvah,
but I might be the only one. So I will
tell you this, Steve. It's never too late, and I'm
always in't for a party, Well, I'm always and I
want to be a man. I have yet to you know,
graduate the manhood. So anyway, that's that's now you've had Now.

(02:56):
I had to reveal it, Andy, I had to make
good public and everything else that the current baby, I
love it, believe me. I'm very proud of my heritage. Indeed.
Um So anyway, last night I wanted to talk about
rivalries and what generates a rivalry and and any you know,
you know, being in Cincinnati in l A, I mean

(03:17):
people there's there you have certain rivalries. And I don't
know about you, but to me, rivalries have zero to
do about geography. Zero. That is not a rivalry. A
rivalry is based on a little back and forth, a
little friction. You win a game, I win a game.
I'm not happy won that game. A little back and forth,

(03:40):
and I mean, for instance, back in the seventies, the
Reds and the Dodgers had a really fierce rivalry, I mean,
the big Red Machine and the Dodgers with Garvey Lopes
Russells say that was for a brief period, the best
rivalry in Major League Baseball and had nothing to do
with bography of just that they were the two best

(04:02):
teams at the time and they went back and forth.
And last night here on the West Coast, we had
a sneak peak of what right now in is the
best rivalry in baseball, and we don't know if it's
gonna last beyond we got a little sneak peak a

(04:24):
year ago, but it's here right now, and that's the
rivalry between the world champion Dodgers and of all teams,
the San Diego Padres, who Andy, I'm sure you would acknowledge,
have are so far off the radar with the rest
of the country that they don't even register a thought.
But everything has changed. With all the money the Potres

(04:46):
have suddenly sunk into this organization and the emergence of
Fernando Tatis Jr. As a possible face of baseball, and
last night we saw it in full display. Five hour
baseball game. Andy. Now I gotta ask how much of
that game were you able to watch or did you
watch it at all? I didn't watch it at all,
but I'm busy watching. I watched the Cleveland and Cincinnati

(05:06):
Reds after that. Some of the highlights of the bench
clearing brawl was it? And I gotta put the brakes
on you for a second. I disagree. I don't think
the Padres Dodgers are the best rivalry in baseball, and
for my money, and I don't live on the West Coast,
so maybe I'm speaking out of turn, but I think
if you with to pull people on the West Coast,
they'd rather see the Dodge a giant rivalry, think the
rivalry anymore. And here you're gonna say that Padres Padres

(05:30):
Dodges a rivalry. The last the Dodgers have won the
last six in a row against the Bodges, that's not
a rivalry. Well, you're right, I mean, Iverymbery, they used
the job about Notre Dame had a rivalry because they
had an annual game with Navy and they beat in
forty two straight times. I'm like, that's not a rivalry.
And it was that way with the Yankees and Red
Sox for fifty years. What rivalry? At one point, the

(05:50):
Yankees had rattled off twenty six World Series wins, the
Red Sox zero. Until the Red Sox came from three
oh down to win that American Lea Being Ship Series
and oh four, there was no rivalry. Now factored by
East Coasters, they just said, well, you know, Yankees, what rivalry?
If the Yankees won every single time, It wasn't until

(06:11):
the Red Sox actually finally won something that you can
finally say, all right, now it's a rivalry. Your question remains, though,
we have to define what exactly is a rivalry, and
you correct the ones count because it doesn't have to
be geographically because you've got conferences now, even in colleges
that spanned two or three time zones, so it can't
be geographically. So there's gonna be a reason. What makes

(06:32):
a rivalry, you know, and what makes this rivalry dodges
Padres and your mind and many others perhaps is the
fact that that the hate factor, the hate factor, well
let me tell let me tell you how this is
all played out here, Andy So here there, Dodgers finally
went a World Series for the first time in thirty
two years. Right, you're you finally you made it. You
climb to the top of the mountain. And this offseason,

(06:56):
the Podres, who have never just there like nothing, suddenly
they're out there and they're they're getting New Darvish, and
they're getting Blake Snell, and they're getting Joe musgro they're
adding all these pieces. Then they give their twenty two
year old short stop he's played a hundred forty three
total games, a three hundred and forty million dollar contract

(07:17):
on top of the three million the game Mounty Machado
hundred forty four million for Eric Hosmer. So all of
a sudden, they become the bus because they're the only
team doing anything, uh in in the winter. Right. And
so you're watching Major MLB Network and some of these
baseball outlets and they're talking Padres, Padres, Padres, and the
Dodgers get a little bent out of joint. And here's

(07:38):
here's one I knew things were a little different here, Andy,
because you're right, the Dodgers have won six straight against
the Padres. So when the Dodgers signed Trevor Bower on
loan from your Reds, and uh, of course we now
know he may have been cheating, but that's a whole
story we'll get into later maybe. Anyway, So Andrew Friedman,
who's the head of baseball operations for the Dodge, is right.

(08:00):
He's been around a long time, got to cut his
teeth with the Rays. He's done a great job with
the Dodgers. They had this big press conference for Ballard,
you know, big signing everything else, and they're basically asking Freeman,
so was this a reaction to what the Padres have
been doing? Now, I'm expecting Andrew Freeman and say, look,
we don't. We're not worried about other teams. We're just
we're just trying to make our team better. Right, that

(08:21):
would be the normal response. No, he mentioned the Podres
not once, not twice, but three times. And this weekend series,
which is down in San Diego at Petco Park, the
Dodgers rearranged their starting rotation specifically to get their three

(08:42):
aces Bueller, Kershaw, and Bower to pitch this series against
the Padre. So, if anything, the Dodgers, despite seemingly having
the Padres number, are the ones that have escalated this
rivalry to the next level. I find that hot. I
believe that the Dodgers have Padre envy, that really that's

(09:03):
a shop there in their head. It's great for baseball, which,
let's face the Stevie when it comes to chatter, when
it comes to sports talk radio, when it comes to
people just talking about sports in general, baseball's in the
back burner for whatever the reason. Localized sports. It's not
a national sport anymore. It's a localized sport. And the
game was big on the West Coast, not big on

(09:25):
these coast for various reasons, including the time factor. But
isn't this the same with all sports? And what makes
a sport? I must watch a couple of things. One,
you have to have dynamic stars. They have to be
stars that have the it factor where they deliver in
the clutch. Um Lebron, tom Brady. When you have stars

(09:48):
that rise to the occasion and then become polarizing, that's
even better. Like you know Tom Brady, either you love
Tom Brady or you hate Tom Brady. You know, it's
one of those type of things. Lebron is the same way.
Either love LEBRONI hate Broun Michael Jordan. So you have
to have that, but you need rivalries, right, But even
if you don't, even if you're an East Coast person,

(10:09):
if there is, if you're if you're you know, sort
of feeling like, wow, there's there's a little back and forth.
Because that's here's what always I get as a sports fan.
I don't know about you, Annie, As long as I've
done this, I've never stopped being a sports fan, you know,
I've never I've always thought that being a sports journalist
is like an oxymoron. I'm like, really, if I wanted

(10:31):
to be a journalist, I wouldn't be in sports. I'm
a sports fan and I follow sports. But as a fan,
when you've invested so much of your energy, you know,
into a team and everything else, you want to believe
that they feel the same way you do. Like there
were all these pottery fans. They didn't sell their tickets.
The secondary market, uh, for those tickets was out of sight.

(10:53):
Because they've opened up about fifteen thousand seats for this.
Dodger fans usually outnumber pottery fans four five to one
when the Dodgers come to San Diego. It wasn't that
way last night. Oh no, no, no. It was a
sea of brown, not a sea of blue out of Pecco, which,
if you're a San Diego persons exciting. But if you're
a fan man you hate the Dodgers, if you're a

(11:15):
pottery fan, you want to feel like the team feels
the same way. And there's a little friction there. Andy,
it's getting a little edgy. Even at the end there
you know, a little little players coming on the field.
Isn't that what you want to see as a fan?
You want you want the players feeling the same animosity
for their opponent. The un it had a feeling of
a postseason game in April, which is tremendous. But I'll

(11:37):
tell you what you mentioned, the term polarizing. I don't
think I can name five polarizing guys in baseball. On
one hand, I really don't think I can. And I
mean I go back to maybe a Rod. I mean
the guys that were taking p e d s that
had the opportunity to come back, those people are polarizing.
Other than that, who's polarizing? All right? From two guys?
To remember, when baseball is the undisputed king of the

(12:02):
sports world, undisputed, we get the NFL, forget the MBI
none of that. There was a time when you and
I remember when Major League Baseball was the king on
the other side, and he wanted you to think about this,
because I've been thinking about it a lot. Is it
possible for baseball to get back there? And what changes
have to be made to get baseball back on the

(12:26):
national map and not just the regional map? Will tell you.
Coming up next, Steve Harman, Andy Furman here on this Saturday,
we're talking a little baseball here on a Saturday. Now
that the season off and running halfway through the month
of April, and got a long way to go, looking
forward to a hundred sixty two games season, Andy, after

(12:47):
last year's sixty game abbreviation, back for the six month
long haul of the baseball season. I love baseball. I
love sitting under the sun having a cold brewing doo.
But right now they're only about twelve thou plus in
Great American Ballpark, and media credentials are basically limited. So

(13:09):
I'm home on winning for maybe June July when they
open it up a little more on winning for Mike
Dwine to give the Okay, come on, guy, Mike win
Well here in California, we have Gavin Newsom facing a recall.
So all of a sudden, he he went from like
complete shutdown to mentioning that June fifteen just an arbitrary day.
Everything seems to be arbitrary, right, just you know this

(13:30):
many days everything else I don't know. So he said
everything will be outdoors one capacity on June fifteen, Alread
announced it's gonna happen. We're like, really, so, how's that
social Nah, none of that social distance. You just got
to wear a mask, Like that's really gonna happen, right,
unless you're eating or drinking, which is I don't know,

(13:50):
when you go to the ball game, you know, hanging
out with buddies. I mean, it's pretty much all you're
doing is eating and drinking while you're watching the game,
unless you're staring at your phone like most people do. Well,
that's that's where we're at. Andy. You know, baseball. For
those of us old enough to remember when baseball was unchallenged,
it was the king, you know, like newspapers, Oh well,

(14:12):
I mean the Sporting News was essentially a baseball newspaper.
The Sporting News would actually have the box scores of
every game. Complete box scores. You know, I don't know
what it was like with the Cincinnati Papers, but even
in l A with the l A Times, you get
sort of the abbreviated hits at bats, you know, not
and not too expansive, but you get that Sporting News

(14:34):
Oh no, no, no, you they would post all the
box scores from the entire week. And so if you
were and then there was Baseball Digest. So if you
were a baseball fan as we were. You know, the
seventy five World Series was my senior of high school,
so that nine seven was a fall of seventy five
and I was a senior in high school, and you know,
that was one of the greatest, if not the greatest

(14:56):
World Series of all time. And you look at the
ra meetings for that series between the Reds and the
Red Sox. I mean, we're just never gonna see those
numbers again. But here's here's where I want to go
with you, Annie on this whole thing, because here's the
catch twenty two for baseball. So you feel like we
need to obviously infuse a new audience to appreciate our sports.

(15:21):
So we need to reach a younger demographic to make
the game appealing to them. But at the same time,
we don't want to alienate our core audience, because there
are still a lot of people out there that will
tell you baseball is and will always be my number
one sport. So how do you balance that andie trying

(15:44):
to maybe make some subtle changes to the game that
would appeal to an audience that maybe never consider baseball
while not alienating your core base How do you do?
Great question number one, I would take an educated gift
saying the average attendance, demographic and baseball at the age
of up of a white guy. Sure, okay, that we'll

(16:04):
take that in consideration number one. Number two, instead of
talking about changing the game and moving things around, his
de beauty of baseball. As you know, baseball's timeless. Baseball
has no clock. That's great, it really is. But today
people would rather go to a soccer game knowing that
they get there at seven o'clock and get on the nine.
It's two hours and away we go. People don't have detention.

(16:25):
They span to stay for two and a half three hours.
You hear all the complaints all the time. Baseball is
too long, not the season, but the game itself. So
you could talk about having a split season, two eighty
one game seasons. You can talk about eliminating the shift,
you can talk about raising them out, lowering them. Mount
took about all that stuff. But as long as baseball
as timeless, it's gonna hurt the game for many people.

(16:47):
Five hours was the game last night between the Dodgers
and the Padres. Five hour game. Who could do that? Really?
That game ended it passed three am on the East Coast.
Um well, one of the things they did to try
to shorten the game and it didn't work last night,
was the idea of putting a runner on second base
at the start of an extra inning. I mean, this,

(17:09):
this to me is so horrifying, and I mean it's
just I mean, I'm like, are you kidding? I mean
it just I mean last year was different. Obviously, they
had you know, they had seven inning games when they
had all these double headers, especially with the Marlins and
the Cardinals because they had so many games or postponed
due to the COVID I got last year. There were
a lot of things you had to do to just

(17:30):
get a season in. And you know, we're back to
a situation where there's no d H in the National
league there is in the American League this year, and
not gonna have eight teams out of each league in
the playoffs, so will be back to five. But they
kept this runner on second base roll and it's just
these are the kind of gimmicks that if you're a traditionalist,

(17:52):
you're like, what are you doing? Why are you doing
trying to answer the question of making the games and quicker?
You know, if that's the point, have ties. Let him
into the tie, then I'd rather end of the tide
than i have some clown on second base, which is
ridiculous because you could have a guy sacrifice once again,
hit a fly ball. God comes in with a run,

(18:13):
but a bang, But I banged the games over. That's
no way to win a ball game. All he knows this.
Even though we've seen diminishing attendance at baseball games, and
obviously the last couple of years don't count, but even
before that we had like a fifteen year gradual drop
in attendance, but the revenue generated by baseball was on

(18:33):
the rise thanks to TV. Thank you. See. This is
the thing, Andy, when we talk about television sports, the
reason that we have so much money in sports these days,
where like I go back to Fernando Tatis Jr. Kid
has played a hundred and forty three games, and a

(18:54):
team that is considered a small market team, San Diego,
gave him a fully guaranteed three hundred and forty million
dollar contract extension. And You're like, how did that happen?
You made no revenue last year. Not a single person
walked into bacco. Where is all this money coming from?

(19:15):
You said, television, because that's a tune off. That could
be a tune off with many fans. And also, you
know the money factor, you know the guys coming up,
he has improved himself, and the money factor right there.
That there's so many things. And I'll tell you something,
too much of television going up. And I watched the
Yankees all the time on w p i X Chilie Leavin,
New York City. There weren't many games on TV. There
were a handful of games. Now maybe too many games

(19:38):
have killed it. People don't want to go spend money
on parking and tickets whatever may be, stay home watching
on the couch. And he looked when we were up
in l A and we actually had a couple of
extra stations beyond CBS NBC and ABC. We had a
four local stations at the time. I always thought, wow,
I got seven station l A. Everyone else got three. Anyway, Um,
the only games we ever saw the do just played.

(20:00):
Never saw a home game. Obviously, you would see the
Dodgers at the Giants, so any game they had at
San Francisco against the Giants to be seen. And then
you had the NBC Game of the week that was.
That was the extent of it. And I remember the
thinking that the time was is that if you oversaturated,
fewer fans would show up. Well, Andy, the reality is

(20:21):
more fans do go to baseball games now in person
than they did years ago. There was an infamous game
with the Yankees back in nineteen sixty six when Red Barber,
the legendary Dodger announcer, had been hired by the Yankees
and got fired fired after he mentioned how few people
were Yankee stating the attendants that day I believe was

(20:44):
less than five hundred. Can you imagine at the old
Yankee Stadium, which I think held seventy eight thousand, five
hundred people. And this was when Mickey Mannow was still
on the team. So you know, there's a little distortion
in time. The fact is the money is there. So
I'm not sure if making gimmicky changes is something that's

(21:08):
going to work, like I said, If anything, it's gonna
turn off people by making changes. Like I've always said,
the only people that complain about the length of baseball
games don't go exactly, they're not baseball fans to begin with.
I mean when we're kids, everyone, you get a dobe
who wouldn't want to go to a double header? Exactly?

(21:30):
The more was better. The first game I ever went
through was a kid, was the Yankees against the Indians,
and Yankee standing was a double header on a Sunday
and Tom tresh At a home run. I remember, like yesterday, right,
I mean you and you were in heaven, Yes, you
were in heaven to let's play two or any banks.
Let's it was wonderful. On the other side, I want
to get into more legacy, but an individuals rather than teams. Okay,

(21:52):
on the other side, but let's find out what's trending
right now. We welcome in Ralph, Irban, Ralphie, how are
you today? Rolling along, Steve? Just like the Major League
Baseball scoreboard today, And I like that so smooth of that.
I don't know about that, and he knows best. So
we go to the Bronx where the Yankees are hosting

(22:14):
Tampa Bay and Joey Wendells just belted a two run
homer for the Raise. They now have a five one
lead over New York. That game is still in the
top of the seventh inning with the Rays batting. Meanwhile,
in d C. Washington, a three run fourth inning is
holding on to a four to lead over Arizona as
the Diamondbacks bat in the top of the seventh inning.

(22:36):
Toronto scored early and now they've added to Jonathan Davis
home run in the fifth. The Jay's with a three
nothing lead over the Royals. That is in the fifth
inning of a that's right doubleheader, so they're only gonna
be playing seven innings in this game in Toronto with
a three nothing lead, and the Braves in Chicago taking

(22:57):
on the Cubs. The Cubs scored one in the first,
one in the second, and then in the third, Wilson
Contreras hit his second homer of the day, followed by
Javier bay As a three run bomb. In Chicago now
is six nothing lead over Atlanta, a game. That game
is in the fourth enning of play. Coming up at
about four thirty Eastern time, the Lakers will be hosting

(23:18):
the Utah Jazz. Not going to be a full line
up for Utah. First, Donovan Mitchell went down with the
ankle injury yesterday m R I X rays negative. He
will need more time, but he's gonna be out at
least a week. He'll be evaluated in a week, but
also out today. Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, and Derrick Favors
all sitting for the Jazz as they take on l A.

(23:39):
The Lakers will have Marcusol and Andre Drummond in the lineup,
possibly Mark Keith Morris and Dennis Shrewder. They are both
game time decisions. No decision here though, as we sent
it back to Steve Hartman and Andy Furman, so smooth
he has had here they see Ralph handles that Annie
so Smith, Ralph, Yes, Ralph bad. Yes, Ralph and I

(24:02):
have been together for many, many years, many years. What
about twenty five years round? What is it that we'll
give it. We're both much younger, much younger than people think. Um.
All right, so here we are. Andy, by the way,
speaking of twenty five year old. My my producer during

(24:23):
the week Monday through Friday, just had his twenty five birthday.
He's a big sports guy, right, and we were getting
into this discussion about baseball, and he goes, here's here's
what they should do, because we were talking about these
seven inning games that when they're playing a double header.
He goes, just reduce all games to seven innings. What.
I almost fell out of my chair. I'm like, just

(24:44):
I told him, I said, look, I love you, but
stopped talking. Okay, you know enough, why not have a
white not reduced the quarters in the NFL from fifteen
minutes to twelve? What do you think about that? Well?
Almost stats geek, and you can't do a b You
know the problem with baseball. One of the problems as
many obviously too much analytics. I don't want to hear
about I don't I don't care about launch angles. I

(25:06):
really don't. I watched the Risk in the other night
and the announcers telling me about the launch angle. Hey,
the bull went in the stands. More on. I don't
care how high, far, fast, or whatever. I don't care
about launch angles. Well, and I find it ironic that
the Major League Baseball decided, understanding they have a pr problem.
They bring in theo Epstein. Right, theo Epstein, who is

(25:28):
going to be on the Hall of Fame someday. He
came in. I knew theo when he was an intern
with the San Diego Padres organization. He goes on to
become the general manager of the Red Sox. They win
their first series in eighty six years. He goes to
the Cubs, they win their first series on eight years.
So major League Baseball brings in theo Epstein. It was
ironic when he got hired. They said, so what are
you supposed to do? He goes, I'm supposed to undo

(25:49):
the mess that i'm help responsible for, and that's analytics.
So I'm trying to undo some of the damage that
I helped create by being married to Bill James. Essentially
is what everyone did. They married themselves to some night
watchman named Bill James. That's what he was. He was
some night watchman who was a baseball fanatic that started

(26:12):
scribbling down his idea of the new stats for the game.
And from that, that's how we end up. From night
watchman Bill James adopted changed the whole dynamic of a
sport right, get back to that later and he want
to switch gears for a second. Here, there was a
retirement announcement in the NFL, and the reaction to that
was just mind blowing to me. Okay, and speaking of

(26:35):
Julian Edelman, Julian Edelman retired after a dozen seasons with
the New England Patriots. Actually, who didn't really well. He
retired only after he failed his physical, so he was
released by the Patriots and then decided that he doesn't
want to further his football career. So technically I guess
it was a retirement. But immediately at all these people

(26:58):
saying Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of
Fame even put a picture of Edelman saying the year
he'll be eligible for the Hall of Fame, I'm like,
let me, let me get this straight. This guy has
been named to zero Pro Bowls. Zero. This guy has
never gotten a single vote, much less than a first

(27:20):
of second team All Pro. He's never gotten a vote
one vote for the All Pro team. During the course
of his career. He has six seasons on which he
either was injured all year or didn't catch many passes.
And when people cite the fact that he was a
Super Bowl m v P. Well, so was Larry Brown.

(27:41):
And I'm not talking about the basketball coach. I'm talking
about a corner for the Dallas Cowboys. Edelman was the
m v P of I don't know about you. Maybe
the worst Super Bowl of all time was New England's
boarfest against the Rams a couple of years ago, and
he had somehow certain people have elevated this guy with

(28:03):
no credentials. I agree with you to Hall of Fame status.
And the hardest party is gonna have the skill position
to receive a position is a skill position is the
hottest position to get into the Hall of Fame. And
there's a big waiting line. Believe me, A head of
Julian Edelman, and I believe me of heinz War doesn't
get in before Julian is going to be an investigation.

(28:23):
I sit here with t. J. Houshman. Zade has got
better numbers than Julian Adelman. I mean, Chad Johnson, how
do you want to go a little Cincinnati. It's like
Tory hold Cliff Branch. Come on now, how's Clip Branch
not in the Hall of Fame? Otis Taylor? I'm sorry, Sam,
do you have another name. Well, no, I wanted to
say that he did in that Super Bowl when he
winning the m v P at ten catches for hundred

(28:44):
forty one yard, made the Pro Bowl. Come on, that's
that's ten and KVP worth performance, first Super Bowl, MVP
dot m not hall of fame. Doesn't that help? Doesn't
make you a Hall of Fame sports. I was like,
somebody was saying that, and when when they played it
that he made the biggest catch in Super Bowl history?

(29:06):
When they I mean, and I'm like against the Falcons
and I'm thinking that was the biggest catch or was
it the and not even David Tyree think about it.
Who made the biggest catch to actually win a Super
Bowl game? Santonio Holmes the Steelers against the Cardinals. That

(29:33):
was the greatest catch to win a Super Bowl game
ever ever? Remember on the tiptoes, he barely got in
and Lauria Fitzgerald just had the go ahead touchdown for
the Cardinals. Perfect throat, perfect catch. This is just it's absurd.
And by the way, how much do you think any

(29:57):
success that Edelman had was due to Tom bra of course,
of course, but you know it's one of those things
you call it excellence by attraction, right, and people in
their minds this wall of the Patriots won all these
Super Bowls. He won three, he's on those teams he
hadn't won it. But then they don't do their homework
and see that the guy never made a Pro Bowl.
And yeah, he had an outstanding Super Bowl. But again,

(30:18):
if you have an outstanding World Series, and I remember
Bobby Richardson, I'm gonna go back in time. He led,
but he had RBI records and hit records. He's not
in the Hall of Fame. He had a great World Series.
I think he was the MVP of that World Series
as well. Yankee's lost at the Pittsburgh in nineteen sixty.
But the point is, you know, one series of one
game does not make you a Hall of Famer. The
irony of this is is that the guy that preceded

(30:40):
Edelman as the possession guy for the Patriots was Wes Welker.
Wes Welker went to five straight Pro Bowls, he was
the first team All NFL player twice, he led the
NFL and receiving three times. But the three Super Bowls
he played in, which by the way, he had twenty
six catches in the three games, that's nine a game.

(31:02):
All three were losses. The Patriots lose those two games
of the Giants that he wants to to Denver, and
you know they have the meltdown against Seattle. But there's
no comparison. Wills Welker. Actually, if you're trying to make
an argument, you could make an argument. No one seems
to be making it that he had a Hall of
Fame career. Talking about Julian Edelman, I'm just it just

(31:23):
it just it's not this conversation, believe me. But I
will tell you this much. I'm gonna put a little
caveat in this. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Julian
Edelman ends up in Tampa Bay pulling the Rob Gronkowski move.
Let that knee heal up a little bit and it
will over time next year, although his contract, his possession
of the New England Patriots. But I still believe he

(31:44):
may end up in Tampa Fine. I mean, and again,
you know what he could do that Cutch a couple
of passes and maybe made another Super Bowl ring. But
was he a difference maker? Come on? I mean again,
that's just I've always said this about Halls of fame.
Can you write the history of the sport without mentioning

(32:06):
this person. I think you could write the history of
the NFL and leave out Julian Edelman and no one
would put up a stick. And just and again, I'm
not knocking the guy. The guy was an overachiever. He
was a college quarterback, but he was always placed the
right time. Yeah, Tom Brady say it. And he was
a great contributor. And someday he'll he'll be rightfully in

(32:28):
the Patriots Hall of Fame. They got their own Hall
of Fame, you know. Perfect. But this idea that this
guy somehow has it taking a cand Ohio, come on,
I mean, I'm gonna tell you how stupid I am, Steve.
I'm not ashamed to admit this publicly. I've done it
on on these airwaves on Sundays when I'm on When
the Patriots were looking for quarterbacks and they still are obviously,
and Cam Newton was then, and Cam Newton got hurt.

(32:49):
I suggested that Julian Edelman go on the center because
he played quarterback at Kent State. And boy did I
get gough, Oh I got I thought, you know what,
Belichick is pretty creative. I thought maybe he would try
Edelman under center because he was a college quarterback. Didn't
have the well, I mean it doesn't seem that far.
The only thing that made it far infects. The guy
couldn't stay healthy. I mean ed on top of everything else.

(33:11):
With Edelman, he had a lot of injuries. He was
hurt a lot, and he could say, well, he played
the game hard. All right, great, he did play the
game hard. But look, if you're talking about wide receivers
in the Hall of Fame, where's Tory Hold, where's heinz Ward?
Where is Chas Johnson? Where is you know, going back
to Cliff Branch. I mean, come on, I mean, it's
just there's a long, long Reggie Wayne. I mean, there's

(33:33):
a lot of guys on that list that are waiting
whose credentials lap lap anything that Julian Edelman did. All right.
On the other side, I want to get a little
into the NFL draft with you and all focus right now,
and he seems to be on the San Francisco forty
Niners and what are they gonna do with the third

(33:54):
pick in the draft? And I got a quarterback question
for you on the other side coming up next. Fox
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio app. Search f

(34:14):
s R to listen live. Hey, it's me Rob Parker.
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
twenty two minutes of piping hot faceball talk featuring the
biggest name to newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe
in analytics or the I test, We've got all the

(34:34):
bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, So do yourself
a favor and listen to Inside the Parkner with Rob
Parker on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you
get your podcast. Steve Hartmann and Annie Ferman On this Saturday,
the NFL Draft a little more than a week away. Andy,

(34:55):
We're getting there. It's been a very different evaluation time
for the NF fell there's no combine this year, so
we had all these pro days and everyone will tell
you when we watch all these you know, forties and
all the agility drills, now that's meaningless. The only the
only matters about the combines are the physicals and the interviews.

(35:19):
That those are the two things that matter most that
they don't have By not having a combine for the NFL.
So now we're getting ready for the draft and we're
assuming that Trevor Lawrence is gonna go number one overall
to Jacksonville. Quickside, note, there are you concerned all about
Trevor Lawrence when he comes out and says, you know,

(35:41):
football isn't everything. There's much more in life than football.
Because when I heard that, it reminded me of a
guy named and Andrew Luck who sort of indicated, you know,
despite his supreme skills, that he may not be in
it for the long term, which is exactly how it
played out. So if you're if you're Uxonville, do you
have any hesitation? I do, Yeah, I do, And I'll

(36:02):
tell you funny. I got into a big argument but
way back in the day when I was on with
Lincoln Kennedy about that, because I remember Andrew Luck the
started to stay in Stanford for another year, and I say,
wait a minute, Why would a guy risk potential injury?
Why would a guy want to do additional term papers?
Why would a guy want to go back to school
when the money is there and the talent is there.
So I'm with you on that, and I would never

(36:24):
pass up the opportunity to play in the pros by
going back to school for another year. Yeah, I just
it just seems. And then you could say, well, the
guy's got a nice balance in his life. That's great.
But if I'm if I'm sinking a ton of money
into this guy's the number one overall pick, I'm not
thinking like a five year, six year run like Andrew
luck Had. I'm thinking a fifteen year run for a
franchise quarterback. All right, So Trevor Lawrence expected to still

(36:47):
go number one in Jacksonville. Urban Meyer will make that pick,
and the Jets apparently are just sold on Zach Wilson
out of b y U. Again. I'm not quite sure why,
but they seem to be a hundred percent sol that
he will be a vast improvement over what they already
had in Sam Darnham. That leads the forty niners up
at three. Now we're hearing we're hearing all this talk

(37:08):
about Mac Jones. Right, let me ask you this, Andy,
So you know there are thirty two NFL teams and
every team puts together their draft boards, right, they all
do this, and they cover them up because they don't
want other teams are spies, you know, looking on everyone's
individual draft boards. But let me ask you this, how
many draft boards of those thirty two teams do you

(37:29):
think have Mac Jones listed ahead of both Justin Fields
and Trey Lance. How many of the thirty two teams
you think on our draft board have mac Jones listed
a front of both Justin Fields and Trey Lance. Well,
I'll go separately. I think he's listed above Trade Lance
on every single one. Real, yeah, I do, because I

(37:51):
think Trade Lands right now, is it experienced. He played
at a lower level of college, and honestly, if you
look at the stats, he wasn't even asked to pass
the blow much. I think as already attempts all year long.
So playing in North Dakota State, I think that mac
Jones has it all over him there as far as
the other one with Justin Fields. I don't know why
all of a sudden, Mac Jones is getting so much
love and Justin Fields, isn't. I like Justin Fields. I

(38:13):
think the forty Nines will be very smart to take
Justin Fields. He's a winner, he creates things out of nothing,
He's very accurate, and I just like the way he
plays as far as mac Jones is concerned, don't never
confuse him with Lamar Jackson is a runner because he
can't run that well. No. I mean, and again, you
could say that Kyle Shanahan looks at a mac Jones
saying he's the kind of quarterback I need to run

(38:35):
the offense I want to run. But I'm looking at
him like, and he's that much different than Jimmy Garoppolo,
Like you couldn't run that offense or Jimmy Garoppolo and
you can run it with mac Jones. Here's here's the
point about the draft. It's not just who you pick
in the draft, it's where you pick him in the draft.
If the forty Niners really have their sight set on

(38:55):
mac Jones, you don't move up to number three, because
I don't think there's anybody that would move up to
number three to take mac Jones. Meaning you could take
the third pick, drop down a few slots. I bet
you could drop down to eight or nine, and mac
Jones will still be on the board and pick up
additional picks along the way. So I think that, And

(39:16):
and again I've known John Lynch, their general manager, since
he played in college at Stanford. His father launched our
first all sports station on the West coast. So I
have a connection to the Lynch family. And and and
this I know about John Lynch. He's a smart guy.
He's a really smart guy. So you know, he might
be a little back and forth with his coach about
the right quarterback. But if you know, if, if again,

(39:38):
Shannon Shanahan has sold on Mac Jones, and I'm then
I'm shopping. If I'm Lynch, We're not gonna draft Mac
Jones at number three. Okay, that might have six quarterbacks
going in the first round. They could have as many
as six, they really could. I don't know why Mac
Jones is getting all this love, and maybe because of
where he played Alabama, I don't know, but I like

(39:58):
the style better of a Justin Fields who played at
Ohio State. This guy is an athlete. He is a
different He's a true athlete. He's a dual threat. He
could run, he could pass, uh, he could create things
with his legs. I mean, I just like Justin Field.
And maybe because I've seen Justin Fields more because I
am living right near in Ohio, I'm I'm I'm leaning
on Fields. You know that I have all these rumors

(40:19):
that were thrown out there irresponsibly. I thought about, well,
you know, he's the last one into the meetings and
the first one out, and they got where where's that
coming from? Really? I never heard those complaints at Ohio State.
I mean, this guy was a gutsy performer. I know
how to state. I love his game, and yeah, I
think he Ultimately that's the way the forty Niners will go.

(40:40):
By the way Trey Lance and his one full season
as a start at North Dakota State Andy twenty eight touchdown,
zero interceptions for the season, twenty eight touchdowns, zero interceptions.
That doesn't apprect at that level, nor Dacotason. Carson Wentz
went there, right, That's right, Carson Wentz. Yeah, we see
where Carson Wentz is. He says, all, Okay. On the

(41:01):
other side, Uh, we've we've We've touched on baseball, we
talked some football. I also want to get into the
aftermath of the n c A Basketball Tournament and the
future of college sports coming up next. Rolling on on
this big sports Saturday, Hartman and Furman reunited as we
are every once in a while. It's amazing, Andy. We

(41:22):
haven't done more shows together over the years. Well, I'm
a paranoid kind of guy. I thought maybe he didn't
want me. I just didn't know. And you know, I
love you. I love you. I mean we we talked
the same language, and we we talked differently, but we
talked the same language. He understand it. Did we share
a meal in Indianapolis one time? Did y? Yes? We did? Yes,

(41:45):
prior to the Super Bowl? Yes, we did. That was good.
That was really good meal that day. Hey, you know,
I wanted to uh talk to you. By the way,
this was one of the first years in a long time, Andy,
I correctly predicted the n C champion. I had Baylor
winning at all. I mean I had to. I had
to do brackets from my TV work and everybody else,

(42:06):
and I had Baylor winning. How many practice did you have? Well,
I had to brackets, but they were identical. I had to.
I had to give one for my TV station. I
had to do one for radio. But I didn't do
separate brackets. I just want with one bracket and both
of them. I had Baylor beating Gonzaga in the championship game.
That was my prediction. So that one team I did

(42:28):
not have going to the final four was my school,
U C. L a UM. But the reason they got
there is a guy named Johnny Jousing And if you
remember the whole transfer the way he used to work
with transfers, right, And the reason there weren't a lot
of transfer athletes whether and they'll just stay with football

(42:48):
and basketball, is that you would have to sit out
a full season, and you know that you'd have to
burn your red shirt. And by the way, if you
don't reused your red shirt ear then we're gonna give
you another redshirt year. So you'd have to lose an
entire year of college eligibility. And then all of a
sudden things changed. We started getting these grad transfers. Remember

(43:10):
Russell Wilson went to Nancy State and he graduated, but
he still had one year of eligibility. So he goes
to Wisconsin. Has this big year changed the course of
his entire football career. And then all of a sudden
we get guys transferring with technicalities justin fields. So he's

(43:32):
at Georgia and he transfers to Ohio State without sitting
out a year because there was some kind of incident
in Georgia, so they had a waiver. Similar thing happened
with Johnny jus Ang. So Johnny jus Ang who suddenly became,
you know, nationally known because he was guiding u c

(43:53):
l A all the way to the final four. He
was at Kentucky last year, okay, and he transfer to
use c l A. So normally he would have had
to sit this season out. The reason he didn't he
was granted a waiver based on a personal family situation
that involved a need to be close to his relatives.

(44:15):
So he's from southern California and mccronin the u c
l A coach said of the time. Yeah, on Johnny's case,
it's more about his family and coming back home, not
just during the pandemic, but personal things with his family.
So suddenly you're coming out with these waivers. Uh CRONA
recruited it for Cincinnati though. That's the addendum to that story.

(44:36):
There you go, So you know they're all there's now
you're suddenly playing games with this and now all of
a sudden, we're realizing that they want to just no
more games. If you want to transfer from one school
to another, no more sitting out of year. You can
go from one school to another without sitting out of year.

(44:58):
None of these whatever waiver is that they're trying to
make up to get immediate eligibility. What do you make
of all that? Andy? Is the first question? Good or
Badford college sports? If you're if you're going from let's say,
and there's a student that went from Columbia to to Michigan,
I believe last year, right? Uh? If you go the
other way from Michigan to Columbia, this, does Columbia accept

(45:19):
your credits if you're a student athlete? Forget about the
athlete part. Let's talk about the student app at part
of it. First, how does one school accept credits from
one person to another to another school. I don't understand
that that that's something that blows my mind. But the
secondary situation here, I love it. It's like free agency
in baseball, free agency and basketball I love And why
do I love it? It's great for the fans because

(45:40):
when you talk about the guys in football, you forget
about these guys if they sit out for a year.
I think it's wonderful that initially they could just pick up,
go and leave. And why shouldn't they? Coaches do it
all the time. And again, going back to the student
athlete term, a student could leave from one school to another.
Things you have to sit out a year. If he
wants to transfer from Cleveland State to Miami of Ohio. No,

(46:02):
he just picks up and goes. And there's many reasons
why he wants to go. Obviously, playing time as a
major one. But maybe we'll be closer to Mom and
Papa and I want to see him play. Maybe he's
got a girlfriend there who knows what the reason is.
Let him go. I think it's tremendous. Going way back
in the Stone Age, when I was a guy that
I went to high school briefly and he graduated I

(46:25):
think a couple of years after I did. He was
he was a point guard, right, He was a point guard,
a valuable point guard. He actually played, and this is
in the seventies. He played on four different high schools
in four years. He he actually went from one high
school to another high school, to another high school to
another high schools four years of high school and played

(46:48):
at four different schools. Now, his family had the financial
means to make this happen. But at the same time,
would you like to see that? In other words, if
I didn't see it growing up in Brooklyn. There was
a player you noticed playing, James Fly Williams. Sure, okay,
he went to Uston p but he played for different
high play for Automotive High School in Brooklyn, play for
James Madison High School in Brooklyn, went to Lafayette High

(47:09):
School in Brooklyn. And I have no idea how he
pulled those strings. Maybe change of address. I don't know
what the deal was, but he played for three or
four different high schools. He pulled it up because Fly
Williams was a great player. Okay, So my question is
you want to see that in the college ranks. If
you're going to do away with the sitting out of
your transfer rule, what would prevent a player from playing

(47:30):
at two or three or even four schools over the
course of a five year span for college. Is that healthy?
What's wrong with it? I mean, I mean, Ny, what
are you gonna do? Are your kids would just do it?
Coaches do? But leave. But here's the thing. Put yourself
in a player's position. Okay, you're recruited, you're a back

(47:51):
up guy. You're a point guard. There's two point guards
ahead of you. Once a sophomore, once at junior, you're
a freshman, you're never gonna play. You want to get
out of it. You want to play. And then you
have the idea you can transfer once, but transferred twice,
transferred three times. Look, you could always go from one school, like,
all right, so you didn't work out the first place.
We see this happen all the time. You're like, you
said your third or fourth on the depth charts, and

(48:11):
suddenly they decided to start this guy over. You find
it's not gonna happen. I'm gonna transfer. Now you go
to the next school, and you find yourself in the
same situations. You're like, oh, go to another school and
another school. Um and you and by the way, the
fact that you brought out this student athlete and how
the transfer of credits come on? I love your old

(48:34):
about talking. Of course, nobody something about that, right. I
see the stories all over the papers. You know. The
Times had a story the other day antilated without transfers
never and I read the story twice. Never did I
see anywhere We're a provost or president of a university
said we don't want to accept transfers. We can't do academically. No,
I don't see that so obviously, by the way, it's

(48:56):
a legitimate case. And because I don't know how many
buddies a I have had. You know, they had a
kid who wanted to go out of state to some
expensive school for a year, and then they realized it
was a bad choice. And then you find out half
the classes they took at that university are not transferable.
How could you be eligible to play? That's my question.

(49:19):
They make exceptions for good athletes, you know, I bet
they do. I bet they And ultimately, how how serious
are they about their degrees as opposed to just trying to,
you know, increase their stock? All right, So let's make
this clear for the record. Any Firman is saying that,
not only are you willing to eliminate the sitting out

(49:42):
a year rule, but you could have unlimited transfers without
any penalty of sitting out of season. No, wait a minute,
you're a big U c l A them, well, probably
the biggest U c l A fan in the face
of God's green earth. Now, without that ruling, they may
not have been as okay, So so against the rule,
you must love it. You're a thing. Well, I'm not

(50:04):
The idea of not sitting out one year's fine, but
the idea of unlimited transfers based on the elimination of
sitting out a year. Roll. Now that what you say,
But I would think that the percentage of people who
are gonna transfer for a second or third time is very,
very small. I might think, yeah, well, and especially in basketball,

(50:24):
where it let's let's face it, you're gonna you're gonna
jump into the NBA draft as soon as possible. And
Johnny Jusang is a prime example. He went to Kentucky.
He actually should have been a senior in high school
that year Harvard Wesley got here quite lucrative high school
by the way here in southern California, and he went
to Kentucky and never played. And so he goes he

(50:45):
used c l A. No one's even heard of Johnny
jus outside of Westwood until he showed up in the
n c Double A Tournament and the guy put on
a show and Alvison Johnny jus he's on the NBA
draft or a radar. He won't be back. He shouldn't
be back. I would say, I even say this as
U c l A die hard. If he has an
opportunity to be a first round pick in the n

(51:07):
B A. And that's his dream. Take it go. I
want to make a ut for one second off because
I know you do. You love of U c l A.
And I worked with mccronin in Cincinnati. He was coach.
He had did a great job, he really did. I
wonder how he was received, and obviously I don't think
he was their first choice. What is the status now?
What is the base think of? Well, now he's a god.

(51:27):
I mean, I'll put it this way here. First of all,
I was a fan when he had to undo what
Steve Alford had done at U c l A. And
that's a major task. Alford is one of the worst.
I couldn't stand him when he got hired. I couldn't
stand him when he left. So anyway, Cronin comes in
with a defensive mentality, and he inherits a roster of
guys that don't played defense. So he basically that first

(51:49):
year last year, he's like, look at you, gotta play
some defense here, And by the end of the year
they were rolling. Then of course there was a cancelation
of the tournament. Was so funny about Johnny Jusdang. One
of the reason since Calipari, who also stressed defense. At
Kentucky Jose, anyone played defense, so Cronan. It was so
funny when they beat Michigan State in the first four

(52:09):
game and they were talking about jews An scoring these points,
but he said, no, he's in trouble. And they said
he's in trouble. He goes, yeah, because I saw he
could actually play defense. Now that I know you're capable
of playing defense, Johnny juzang, you're gonna play defense. Um.
I love Crona. I love Crona much as I love
Ben Hallen. Back in the day. Hallen did the same

(52:31):
thing when he inherited the program from Steve Lavin. Lavin,
you know, they changed to a defensive mentality, and then
U c l A fans after they went to three
straight final fours, they're like, oh, it's really boring basketball.
There's nothing boring about going to the final four. Nothing
nothing boring. Ruined U c l A. And he also
ruined St. John's in New York, so he ruined both coasts.

(52:54):
I feel, you know, laugh laughs, A guy that I
like personally, I really do. We've had somewhat of a
relationship over the years, back to when he's used to
like coach but as a coach, I agree with you.
I mean, he's a great way of talking his way
into these jobs TV. That's you know. I did some
l A TV with him when he was trying to

(53:15):
get into that, you know. And no, he's a natural,
you know. But yeah, he really talked his way into
that St. John's, you know. And they haven't been the
same this year. They made a little bit of a comeback,
but still in And I say this, that Conference to
Big East needs St. John's to be powerful. They gotta
get theyn't even played at home games and Maison Square
Garden anymore. They played on campus. They gotta get back

(53:36):
to the garden. They gotta be the way they were
when Louis was coaching Corneseca. All right, I want to
switch gears, as I usually do with you, Andy, but
I always know you're ready to follow. I want to
talk about perhaps one of the most iconic sports figures
in your lifetime and someone that I have the utmost
respect for. I've had many interactions with him over the years.

(53:58):
I know who he is. What's next, I know who
he is. For Pete Rose. Oh, I thought it was
Lincoln Kennedy. Pete Rose, who just celebrated his eightieth birthday.
The Future of Pete Rose with Andy and Yours Truly
coming up next Steve Hartman, Andy Furman Well, I teased

(54:28):
what's next for Pete Rose? I guess Andy, the best
way to find out is to actually asked Pete Rose
joining is right now? Is he all time hit king
of Major League Baseball? The one, the only Pete Rose?
And a blated Happy birthday, Pete. It's great to have

(54:49):
you on the show today. It's great to talk to you, guys.
I'm just sitting here watching the Yankees get beat by
Champa Bay and getting ready after that game to watch
the Reds beat uh uh, the Indians. That's my day,
just watching baseball games. Pretty good, pretty good, gig huh yeah,
not bad. Andy. How are you feeling, Pete? How you feeling?

(55:12):
I feel great, Andy. That's a good thing about living
in Vegas, man. You start getting these games early in
the morning and they go they go all night. Uh
you know, and there's not much else to do based
on the pandemic we're in. But it's getting better out
here in Vegas, but still uh not at the park. Pete.
I remember when you were down the street from us
here in Sherman Oaks, coming down here a few times

(55:35):
to join us in studio over there. You know, Andy,
I always, I always go back. I can remember the
date like it was yesterday. It was April seventeen nine,
and there was all this, you know, swirling around about
some investigation on Pete Rose and I I was. I
was my first year of radio. I was working with

(55:55):
a dear friend of Pete, the Steamer, but Farillo. I
introduced myself to Pete and then Pete, you gave me
a chance to come in and talk to you one
on when we talked some baseball. You know, we just
got into a lot of baseball and everything else. I
asked you about support you were getting. You're like, why
shouldn't I haven't done anything wrong. And then you've got
to see the scene. So where at Dodger Stadium. So

(56:16):
I walked out of his office. The door was closed,
and as I opened the door, there's all these reporters, Pete, Pete,
Pete and Pete. You looked at all the reporters. He
just said, I just did my one interview for the day.
Everyone's looking at me like, who is this guy? What
do you got? What do you got, I said, I'll
be listening with me. And but Parilla, I've never forgotten that, Pete.
And it's Andy knows. I mean Andy was in Cincinnati

(56:39):
and and nine and and I screwed up, no question
about it. But in eighty nine, from the time I
left home until I got back home after the game,
I was on TV cameras. You know, it's a wonder
I didn't have as the wonder I didn't have radiation
burn No, I mean Dodger's stadium, I remember because on money.

(57:00):
I actually just introduced myself. And you know, I told
you I worked with Bud and everything else, and he said, hey,
send the steamer all my best. But their cameras were
following you everywhere, I mean, wherever you want. They were
just all over the place, following I don't I don't know.
I thought I didn't have no idea what they thought
they were gonna see. I'm being investigated. I mean I

(57:21):
had excuse myself when I want to take a pee.
I mean, they're even coming in the restaurant. But but
the greatest story, Pete, the greatest story that's never been
told that you told me is when you took a
shower with Joe DiMaggio. No, no, I gave him a shower.
You gave let me. I don't want to get it right.
You want to hear the story. This is a true story.

(57:44):
I get a call from the State Department in nineteen
sixty seven. I'm just a couple of years in the
big leagues, actually four, and the guy says, you want
to go to Vietnam And I said, not necessarily, so
we're going on there. He said, well, Joe DiMaggio is going.
I said, I can meet you. He said, you can
live waiting for twenty three days. So him, me, Jerry Coleman,

(58:06):
and Conniglierio got on an airplane, a World Airliner food
to Saigon. Joe and I went south. They went north
to We end up meeting them on the Intrepid, which
is dr in New York at the present times, an
aircraft carrier and so damn hot. If you don't know Vietnam,
if you don't know Vietnam as a jungle, you know
you can hear his boom boom boom, mortars going off

(58:27):
and Joe decides you've got to take a shower. I said, Joe,
we're in South Vietnam in an Army camp. There's no
showers available. He said, well, I gotta take a shower,
and I'm Joe g So a guy had to get
up on a chair, me pour water in this canvas thing,
me pull the chain and give the guy underneath a shower.

(58:48):
So that was me. I gave Joe DiMaggio a shower. Okay,
Now I tell people the best way to describe Joe
DiMaggio as he was a penis with a man hanging
from guys. Guys. I don't know. I don't know how
in the world he hit in a row carrying that

(59:10):
damn thing around. Oh, Pete, Pete, feed you almost the
almost Do you envy her? You feel sorry for Marilyn Monroe?
Oh all right, Pete, I I gotta I gotta ask
you something here. The Pro Football Hall of Fame recently

(59:33):
UH elected the late Alex Carriss to the Hall of Fame.
He and Paul Horney were both suspended at the height
of their careers, two of the biggest stars in the NFL,
for betting on their teams to win when they were players.
They were suspended for an entire year and eventually both
were put into the Hall of Fame. Why because they

(59:55):
were dominant players and belonged in the Hall of Fame.
You and I've had John Doubt on my show a
dozens of times, and I've asked John Doubt the same
question over and over. Do you have any any evidence,
any evidence that Pete ever bet against this team? He goes, no, none,
you know, so see there won't be any. And then
because what you're talking about, what you're getting ready to

(01:00:19):
talk about, I'm one guy, really, I'm one guy. Really,
then understands what happened in Okay, I understand why they
had the rule. Uh, And a lot of people can
compare me to Joe Jackson. Joe Jackson took money to
throw games. He although he hit three seventy, he still

(01:00:40):
took the money. I've been on my own team to
win every night. That's how his faith I had on
my team. And I was wrong, no question about it.
But Anny, if you think about it, Okay, when when
I've been on my team, and what did that make
me do as a manager. It made me do everything
I could to win the game. That's what every manager
should do every night, because you're only playing the damn

(01:01:02):
game to win the game. Okay. I wanted to win
every damn game in the world, and I knew I
was gonna win a lot more than I was gonna lose.
When I was manager of the Cincinnati Reds, you know,
I took over, they were in last place. We we
finished fifth that year and I took over late August.
The next four years I finished second. So if I'd

(01:01:23):
have been a basketball coach, they just said, man, he
really turned that turned that program around. And the year
after I left, when I got suspended, what did the
Reds do? They won the World Although that wasn't my team.
I have to clarify that because they had four guys
on that ninety team that I didn't have, And if
I did have him, i'd have one dependent every year.

(01:01:44):
Billy Hatcher had a career year. How Morris had a
career year, Glenn Braggs had a career year, Randy Randy
a career year. If I'd had those four guys at
four years I finished second, I'd have won dependent every year.
And lou Panella did a great job with that bunch
of guys. You know, Andy, you are there. When I

(01:02:05):
managed the Reds, I saw I saw thirty two players
get their first Major League hits from uh eighty four
to eighty nine. That's how much I believe in young players.
You know. I brought up guys like Larkins, Sabo Jones, Uh, uh,
you know, Joe, Jerry McGriff, all those guys, and and

(01:02:27):
and then you put him with Dave Parker, who was
my leader. I love Dave Parker. I mean he really
helped Eddie Milner at Gary Redis Out, Tracy Jones, I mean,
he helped all those young players, and uh, it was fun.
It was Kurt still Will, Jeff tread Way, you know,
Dibble Charlton, you know, guys like that Rob Murphy. Uh.

(01:02:50):
You know, I had so many good players. The Reds
organization was really a good organization in the late eighties,
in the middle eighties when I was what's amazing now,
pe is Baseball's movie towards gambling. They got they're gonna
have gambling booths and various ballparks. You're gonna do predictions
now parting, but predictions of games. So it's it's amazing

(01:03:10):
that baseball is going in that direction for the money. Well,
you know, I mean when you say that, Andy, it's
uh you you you picked that's an afternom with down
in Mexico. Now what that means, okay, and you know
what it means. I'm not betting on baseball. I'm picking
baseball games through guys who want to join our team.

(01:03:31):
That's what I'm doing. I'm just using my knowledge and
my experience to try to pick games for guys who
want to been on the game. And if I do
a good job, they'll follow me. If I don't, they
won't follow me. It's as simple as that. But all
I have to do now in my life is watch
sports on TV. I got to getting to watch three
games today. I mean, but I enjoy that. You know,

(01:03:53):
I just had my eightieth birthday. I don't look at
I don't act it. But there again, I'm still involved
in the game. You know. I don't know if you Andy,
probably you can't get anything by him, not last year,
but the year before. All right, there's there's thirty managers
in the game at baseball. We all know that. Did
you know that every day every manager, fifteen minutes for

(01:04:16):
game time has to email his lineup to Baseball. Okay,
then you know what Baseball does with it? They email
it to the MGM. Really that I didn't that start
happening in nineteen two thousand nineteen because baseball don't want
to be part of a gig where a guy says

(01:04:38):
Kershall is supposed to pitch, and all of a sudden,
everybody makes your bets and Kershaw scratched. Pete, you know
when you're when you're talking about this, the hypocrisy is
just overwhelming right now. So all these rules against gambling
disassociated themselves agambling. By the way, the NFL was the
same way. They have the idea that they would ever

(01:04:59):
have a team in Vague that will never happen in
a million years. Yeah, well when they come up with
the money and now they have a team in in Vegas.
But the big because of this change of heart, because
of the potential billions of dollars being funneled into Major
League Baseball legally through gambling, now that's been legalized in
all fifty states, do you think at all? I mean,

(01:05:19):
a lot of this to me has to do with
the high profile people like yourself. I'm just I'm just
wondering to think that they may take a different stance
in evaluating your situation now that they've had a change
in policy peed on how they're approaching gambling and the
sport of baseball. Well, the baseball family got smart because
the other sports, uh, we're before them. It's all about

(01:05:42):
dollars and cents. Yes, you can't keep paying these players
four five hundred million if you don't have other uh
you know, other ways baseball. Baseball is making money. Like
I live nine tests of a mile from the new
Oakland Stadium in Vegas, Okay, on the same street. Inside
the stadium, they have a window to beat crazy. Do

(01:06:05):
you do you have any sort of relationship with Rob
Manford at all? Pete, No, listen. I like all commissioners
of baseball, I'm just tired. I don't know about you, guys,
but I'm just tired of changing all these rules in
baseball because they don't change any rules that helps the
game become a more interesting game to watch. And I'm

(01:06:27):
telling you, I'm watching the game right now, and for
me to watch a baseball a game today is boring
because if you don't hit home runs, that's all they
play for, that's all they what what Why do you
put a guy on second and extra any game to
start the extra and he's off with what the hell
kind of rule? Is that the second I break up

(01:06:48):
a double plays ride into a catcher if he's blocking
the plate or you, you can't pitch inside or the warning,
and it takes that pitch away from you. Now the
hitters have got the advantage because you can never pitch
inside or he'll get kicked out of the ballparks. Gotta
gotta face three batters. What is that all about? Yeah,
I mean, I just don't understand who's changing all these

(01:07:10):
rules in the baseball we started this game Andrew in
eighteen sixty nine, first night game in nineteen thirty five,
boats in Cincinnati. I always thought, over the years I played,
baseball was doing pretty good. You know, it's doing pretty good.
It was nice to bund a guy over. It was
nice to get a single with two men on, with
two hours in the ninth or the eighth. I mean,

(01:07:32):
those were big parts of baseball. Now, nobody sacrifices, Nobody
hits and runs, nobody does the things that made all
of us love the game of baseball and made all
of us practice so you'd win in the game of baseball.
How many bad teams, you guys know, how many bad
teams out of thirty or in the game of baseball today,

(01:07:52):
most of them, most of them? What do you guys
do You and I can sit here right now and
we could probably come up with eight teams that might
have a chance to winning the World Series this year.
That means over twenty have no chance of winning the
World Series. You know, Pete, you mentioned Dave Parker, who
was a player for you obviously had a great comeback
with the Reds back in the mid eighties. I had

(01:08:14):
him on. I read it. You know, he has a
book out and I had him on and he's suffering
from Parkinson's battling through. A great guy. And uh, but
the guy that I'm working with asked him this question.
He goes, so, Dave, what do you like about the
game today? What do you like about the game today?
And Dave pause, he goes nothing, nothing, And I knew
he was gonna like as soon as my partner asked

(01:08:34):
the question, I'm like, I already know where he's gonna
go with it. Nothing, what do I like about the
game today? I I agree with you, okay, But and
when I say that, I don't mean the bad Massive
Commissioner or anybody else. But one thing Baseball asked to
do Andrew, and I think you'll agree with this, is
they have to figure out a way to speed up

(01:08:54):
the game every pitch, every player steps out of box
that we readjust his school. Do you like the shot
clock or shot clock, but a clock for pitches? I've
never seen anybody call it, right, I've never seen anybody
call that. What's what's the penalty? What about all the

(01:09:15):
pitching changes today? There's so darn many chicken changes, and
every time you change the picture it takes time. I
got one remedy that you could change at the game
of baseball. Well calls a lot of of arguments, but
I think it would help have because let me tell
you something. I like, I'm watching a game today and
I have no idea what this guy behind the plates

(01:09:36):
strike zone is. Every umpire has a different strike zone. Okay.
When I played uh and, the umpires would walk up
from behind home plate to be one out of the
fourhead of mask. Okay, now I knew the guy with
the mask. Was he a pictures umpire? Was he a
hitter's umpire? Was he a highball umpire? Was he a
low ball umpire? Was he a good umpire? Or was

(01:09:59):
he a bad umpire? And all I wanted to do
is do was his consistency showed he did every time
he was behind there. Okay, so if you hit bumpires
that they start. You know, these guys all got their
pants tucked into their shoes. Okay, start calling pitches down there,
and you see how fast they pull our pants up.

(01:10:19):
You have to extend the strike zone. That speeds up
the game because there's too many balls thrown in the
game at baseball, the more balls thrown, no longer the
game is okay. And all you hear about from fans,
and I talked to fans every day is how long
the games are. I don't think they're that long, but
fans do. Fans got other things to do. It takes

(01:10:39):
three hours to play a football game. What about the
last two minutes of a basketball game? It takes forever.
But do you watch baseball, which I know you guys do.
And when the camera pans in on the audience, all
everybody at the ballparks doing one of two things. Think
about it. They're talking on their phone or they're eating. Yeah,

(01:11:00):
you're right, so right, yeah, I mean we talked about
guys will complained about the tickets to go to a
ball game. It's still the best bargaining sports because they
play eighty one home games. But basically your ticket. Then
you go to the ballpark, you drink, You drink three
beers and have four hot dogs. You're going to be
in the range of a basketball ticket. Now, are you

(01:11:22):
going to the game to watch the game? Are you
going to game to eat, or like you said, going
to game to look at your phone? Pete, I'll tell
you what we are up against it um. I am
so happy that Andy was able to bring you on
the show today. You know we love you Pete again,
a happy birthday. Like you said, it's hard to believe
eight because you have never acted your age ever and

(01:11:44):
maybe that's not always to your benefit, uh but but
at the same time, Pete, you know you've never stopped
just being who you are. And that's the one thing
I and I don't know obviously as well as Andy
does over the years, that I've always a appreciate it
about you. You've never apologized for rose base having Pete

(01:12:05):
rose into tent and out of the tent. Just remember
one time Andrew when he worked at Tonya, I gave
him a pair of Valigators. I still have him what
you know what? You know what the sub that asked me,
you know, wear him in the rain, said Andrew, there, alligator,
that's beautiful. All well, I love you, Pete. Thank you

(01:12:26):
so much for calling in, and get back to watching
those games. Beat anytime. Guys, have a great Thanks Pete Rose.
All right, let's find out what's trending right now. We're
gonna switch over to ralph having great stuff, Andy, great stuff.
Bring on the great Peter Edward Rose. How about that, Ralphie,
how about that? Indeed good stuff? Absolutely to say, I

(01:12:47):
had to turn off my attention from games just to listen.
But there was things going on. As we have three
games that have gone final. Washington finishes off Arizona six to.
The Knats have won three of their last four games.
Yahns a home run to r b I. The Yankees
fall at home to Tampa Bay the Rays six, three winners.
Francisco Mahia a home run he drove into as well.

(01:13:11):
Toronto a five one winner in seven innings at Kansas City,
Vladimir Guerrero hit his fourth home run of the season.
They'll play the second game coming up shortly now on
the field as we speak. The Cubs are absolutely destroying
Atlanta today. Chicago up to one in the sixth inning.

(01:13:31):
Chris Bryant has hit two home runs. Wilson and Raris's
hit two home runs. David Body has driven in four runs.
It is a slaughterhouse at Wrigley and games continue. Philadelphia
one nothing lead over St. Louis alec Boum. He has
an RBI single in that contest. The White Sox scored
two in the first. They lead at Boston to nothing
in the second. Oakland already up one nothing on Detroit.

(01:13:55):
That game is in the second inning and they're just
getting started. The Lakers taking on the Utah Jazz. As
we sent it back now to Steve Hartman. All right,
very good, Ralph. By the way, for hot water that
never runs out, go Tankles the Navy, Navy and Tankless
water heaters provide endless hot water for spa like comfort.
Visit Tankless made Simple dot Com and save hundreds with

(01:14:17):
local rebates Tankless made Simple dot Com. Alright, Andy on
the other side, will digest what we just talked about
with Pete Rose and we'll give our thoughts coming up next.
Steve Harman, Andy fern One, thank crew today I was
sam working it fun last half hour here. Unbelievable stuff.
And and first of all, Andy, thanks again for reaching

(01:14:39):
out to your friend Pete Rose. And I just figured
out that interview that I talked about that I did
with Pete was exactly thirty two years ago today. It
was April seventeen. It was a Tuesday game at Dodger Stadium.
I i'd introduced myself to him the day before, just
introduced myself, and then I went back to Dodger Stadium

(01:14:59):
the next day and he walked right by me and
he said my name, like he remembered my name was Steve.
And I just turned to him. I said, do you
have time to talk some baseball? He said, come with me,
And that's exactly what happened as I described it. We
sat in his office, the door was closed. He did
about ten minutes talking baseball. As you know obviously, I mean,
you can talk anything with baseball. He knows every stat

(01:15:19):
I mean, he's unbelievable. And as soon as I was done,
I opened the door to walk and that's all. It's
like a sea of reporters. And as I was trying
to make my way through this crowd, somebody yelled, hey, Pe, Pete.
He goes, I just did my one interview for the day,
and everyone looked at me like who are you? And
I'm like, uh, Steve Harbin K Fox Radio ninety three
point I was. He made my day. But it's great

(01:15:39):
to catch up with Pete. And I just cleared we
had some closure on the Jold Demagio shallow story because
it was putting me for years. I really well, honestly
where he took it. Maybe not everybody could hear every
detail we had. We had, you know, drop a little bit.
Oh why the by the way, the full interview will
be online, unedited, uncensored, baby censored, unedited, Fox sports radio

(01:16:02):
dot com. So if you missed a little bit of
the Joe di Maggio story, quite suitable for air, but
not just a little bit, just a little bit of it.
But we will have our podcast. We can always carry that, alright,
so Fox sports Radio dot Com. So, uh, thanks again,
and that's great to have Pete on. But you know, Pete,
Pete brings up a lot of the points we've been saying. Uh.

(01:16:22):
In fact, we talked about this earlier. I asked you
this question, what do you do to change the game
without alienating your base. I guess Pete answered to that
is why are you changing the game at all? Well,
he didn mention speeding it up, and he didn't mention
having a larger stride zone because it makes the gangle fast,
which makes a lot of sense. But you know, I
just think that right now, kids aren't playing. I mean,

(01:16:44):
you have to have a farm system as far as
players are concerned, the majors, and you have to have
a farm system as far as fans and concerns. I
think fans right now going to different directions, and kids
aren't playing baseball. They're playing soccer, they're playing basketball, and
you need a lot of kids in a field to
play baseball, where basketball you can play with two kids
in the ball. How do we do it? Though? Annie?
Yet over the line, there's a lot of ways to

(01:17:05):
play base I never remember having a problem organizing playing
baseball with my butt up. I'm with you. I mean,
it always found a game. We always had our bats,
you know, and in the school, you know, we had
a box against the wall one one. When this idea
that you can't do, we did it. What are you
talking about? We all when in our time we have
there are always ways to get a game going, whether

(01:17:26):
you're playing over the line or actually the game. So
I mean, I I think I just don't know that
kids here are growing up with baseball in mind. I
think that maybe it takes too long to get from
the miners to the big league. Let me ask you
this basketball and football. You've got a college of boom.
You're in the pros, all right. Let's say you're the
kind of athlete that can play any sport. Right, And
by the way, it's a very specialized skill set in baseball,

(01:17:49):
hand ei coordinations. What's all about? Right? So you just
saw a twenty two year old Fernando Tatis Jr. Who
had played a hundred forty three major league games, just
signed a three D forty lillion dollar contract. Gee, if
I was a young athlete and I'm thinking what sport
would I like to play where I'm not going to
get my brain beating in like in football, And I'm

(01:18:10):
not seven ft tall to play basketball, and I can
play eighteen years with the laverash lifespan in the NFL
hit four years. I've interviewed Dave Winfield, who was one
of those kind of athletes. I've asked him, why did
you choose base Probably because I knew I could play
twenty years, and that's what he did. Because I knew
I played twenty years and over the long hold, the

(01:18:30):
money will be a lot better in baseball, of course
it is. I mean, wow, I mean, I mean, if
you're a pitcher, think of you, if you played twice
a week, think about that. They don't and the only
throwing six innings a start now right, we're not. Do
you realize the days of the remember we when we
remember three hundred inning pitchers. Now you don't even have

(01:18:51):
two hundred inning pitchers. I remember during double heaters you
had the same reliever coming in the end of both games. Yes,
that's gone. Ryan dor And from the Yankees would come
in in the seventh, eighth, ninth innings in both games
of double eddits. Mike Marshall with the Dodgers four He
pitchs a hundred and six games that year, two hundred
and eight innings of relief in one year, and he

(01:19:13):
appeared in thirteen consecutive games. You know you have a
baseball caught on the back of the caught s CS
kids today don't even know what that stands. For and
it complete games with CG complete to me stealing, I
mean complete games. Yeah. The only time they have a
complete game anymore is if you're throwing no hitter like that.

(01:19:33):
The only time they'll let you actually go the full
game is if you're actually working on a no hitter. Um,
I don't know. It's frustrating because there is a beauty
to this sport that you talked about from the get go,
Andie is the fact that there's no clock. There is
no clock. How many times have we seen situations in
baseball where team seemingly was done finished, it's over, and

(01:19:57):
in any other sport it would have been because the
time would have run out, and we see a miracle comeback.
See it in the postseason. Almost every year we have
one of those kind of games in the postseason, multiple
games like that where if there had been a clock involved,
it wouldn't have happened. It's all on the show as
a theo Epstein, you gotta fix it. Theo's a job. Yeah.

(01:20:19):
I love Pete. I love Pete because even though he
admits I did wrong, he's never apologized for being Pete Rose. Ever,
he's the same guy when he was telling you that
the Maggio story was memory. He had the reality show.
He was sitting in the studio with me, Andy and
he and he blurted out. I asked him, so, do
you have a title for this show? And he said
something I can't say now. Uh. We almost fell right

(01:20:42):
of our chairs. But he's never apologized for being who
he is. Pete was exactly who he is. He's one
of the guys, not a phony at all. And he
loves baseball. He loves people. And I said before baseball
is better off having him in the tent than outside
the tent. He's best and bastard of basebook at ever half.
He loves the game. He does hee'ple always talk about

(01:21:04):
the most hits. You know what. The other record he
holds he plays. Thank you. He he won more games
than any player in the history of the game. Won
more games than any player in the history of the game.
And he's not in the Hall of Fame. This was
a tremendous experience today with you. I want to thank
you for having me, and it was thank you, thank

(01:21:27):
you very I'm glad I brought up Pete, I mean,
and he delivered a big way. And he loves you. Man,
thanks so much and continues success. I tell you, if
you enjoy that, don't go anywhere, keep it right here
on Fox Sports Radio

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