04/18/2021 – FOX Sports Sunday with Hartman and Ohrnberger - 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. Out a fabulous Sunday, Hartmann and Arnburger. We're
here in the Fox Sports Radio studios, getting ready for
the big show. It's always strange these sundays with you,
rich because for so many years we were, you know,

(00:21):
doing six days a week together. Now I only see
you once a week. I have to almost reintroduce myself.
You come in and I'm like, wow, that's rich Er. Yeah,
live in living color, in the flesh, walking through the doors. Yes,
like just an out of town or these days, got
you know, like those double saloon doors. I kick them open,

(00:42):
the organist stops, everybody looks over. It'll be whiskey. I
gotta I gotta tell a quick story. And we got
a lot to do, obviously in a very busy sunday
around the sports world. I had my second shot this week,
all right, So I got done right, you know, you
still have to wait a couple ways, just arbitrary, you
know it fourteen days, ten days, twelve days. So and

(01:06):
I didn't have any major setbacks or anything for my
second shot. Proven again, I am as old as I
say so. The old people, we don't have the same
devastating effects from those second shots. So anyway, I have
a friend of mine and he is a big time
Hollywood writer, and you may have heard out there they're
gonna have a new HBO series on the Showtime Lakers. Okay,

(01:28):
so they've done the casting on this and everything else.
It's gonna be great, and it's gonna be a great,
great show. And he is one of the main writers.
This is this is a project he's been working on
for a couple of years. He wouldn't work with me
because he knows I know a lot about Laker background everything.
So anyway, so finally they're shooting. They're they're beginning to
shoot the show now, and obviously everybody on the set,

(01:51):
the actors, directors, everybody has been fully vaccinated, fully vaccinated
before they started off in this. And so I asked him,
you know, how's this thing going, you know, and he goes, well,
I still am being tested three days a week. And
I'm like, hold on a second, ear. So you're fully vaccinated, yes,
everybody on the set fully vaccinated, yes, and you're being

(02:15):
tested three times a week. He goes yeah. I go okay,
I mean I'm messing something here, so you're vaccinated proof
everybody in the set is vaccinated. There's no outsiders coming in,
and you have to be tested three days a week.
I go, what what what am I What's going on there?
He goes, well, just because you're vaccinated means doesn't mean

(02:36):
you can't get it. And I'm like, what does this
mean for the rest of us? I'm trying to figure
this out right now? Well, I think what it What
it is is we're still in a situation like I'll
give you a perfect example, somebody gets the flu. Yes,
we're not shutting down businesses, correct, I mean even today,
like if you showed up to work and you had

(02:58):
the flu, right, and I don't mean shutdown businesses, but
I mean put things on pause whatever you're doing, sending
people home and stuff like that. Yes, certainly you should
stay home. But it's not like they're gonna now contact
trace and be like, oh, because Steve sat next to
you and you were the flu, you gotta he's gotta
go home too, and quarantine. Like, but with COVID, we're
still in this this this you know, narrow hallway of

(03:22):
if there's an outbreak, we need to limit the outbreak
somehow was not going away. No, and what I was
about to say until and this is true, until uh
we have better therapeutics, or we just get used to
the idea that, like you just said, COVID is going
to be an annual thing much like influenza, where people

(03:43):
get vaccinated or they choose not to, and it's going
to be treated at some point like the flu. But
until we cross that threshold, you know, for UH movie
studio to stay open in production and continue going. Yeah,
I think they're taking proper caution. Well, I mean, and
we saw it in baseball. The Minnesota Twins now are

(04:04):
going through this. They had their weekend series with the
the Angels had to be uh shut down because and
and and these are just constant reminders that obviously we're
getting close to the finish. We're getting close. And I
just I always love the NFL. We're gonna be doing
a lot of draft talk. We're a week away from
the draft, so we're getting very excited about things there.
But the fact that the NFL, who just I mean,

(04:26):
when I don't think we're gonna fully appreciate how the
NFL pulled off the season until like twenty years and
now We're gonna look back like, how did they do that?
I mean, how did they do that to not have
to cancel a single game? You postpone, you moved a
few games around, every game was played, You got all
the way through this when it was at its peak.

(04:46):
It's just it's an absolute miracle how the NFL pulled
it off. But they're saying now, yesterday, rich out at
the Sophi Stadium here in l A. Season ticket holders
got their first look at people are walking into the stadium.
They're they're they're fully expecting seventy fans. I fall. I
wouldn't put it past the NFL at all. You know,
for two reasons, frankly, One lot of open air stadiums

(05:09):
in the NFL. We know that too. They're huge, They're
enormous stadiums. So yes, while you're packing people into, you know,
maybe some crowding an indoor area, it is a gigantic,
well ventilated indoor area. And the third point is so
far and unless I'm unless I'm out of touch with

(05:30):
new data that's come out broken recently as as of
the past few days, because I haven't checked it recently,
but there hasn't been a single widespread outbreak traced back
to a sporting event, since sports have can have welcomed
back fans. Obviously, if there had been weed here about
I mean, i'mber the party after the Buccaneers super spread

(05:57):
are well, they're gonna wipe out half the population of Tampa.
Never happen. I don't know if anybody said that, but
I certainly think that it was fair to assume you
get large gathering gatherings of people in in a in
a close area, and we're gonna see huge spikes. But
I remember early in the pandemic, I was expecting to
see much larger spikes when we had protests where people

(06:19):
were shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow and streets. I
thought we were going to have a much larger outbreak.
After Alabama won the national championship in Tuscaloosa went crazy
tearing down lamp posts, and there wasn't a widespread spike
in Tuscaloosa. And I felt that same way when not
even really I I didn't feel that same way, but

(06:41):
I was like, huh, I wonder how's it gonna go
when they start welcoming fans back to stadiums. But so far,
including the Texas Rangers. Who are you know, showcasing you know,
global life and full capacity. We haven't seen one widespread
event yet, and I think that is a that it's
extremely well for the upcoming NFL season because, like you

(07:03):
just said, I mean maybe it was against better advice
at the time or the best available advice. They pushed
ahead and they made it through. And they were the
only league not to change a single damn thing, with
the exception of, you know, disallowing fans to a certain
percentage capacity. And the season went off without a hitch,

(07:25):
without a hitch. And ohkay, So I'm I'm just I
was talking to Sam and Vince and and Gavna on
the other side over here, just talking about our what
are we looking at? And I love always Sam always
likes to bring up a hundred years ago, and there
was no vaccine. A hundred years ago. They didn't have
a vaccine And it lasted a couple of years before

(07:46):
they weathered the storm and moved on to the Roaring twenties.
You know when people went from that to let's party. Yeah,
we had short haircuts party, we had flapper dresses. You know,
it was it was a part. Everybody was what do
they call that? The trolls during the prohibition. Yeah, you know,
and alcohol was flowing even though it's illegal. So we
have the Roaring twenties. We're gonna go We're gonna go

(08:09):
down to the local show and we're gonna see it
some some talkies they got playing. Let's go check out
the Yankees game. Yeah yeah, we're gonna have five cents.
You get to see the Bambino and they give you
a free pop. So that's over. I'll give you a pop.
Yeah yeah, I'll give you a rob Roy five cents.

(08:30):
So yeah, I was. I was a little taken back
in this when this guy told me that despite everyone
being fully vaccinated, he's still getting tests that three days
a week. So I I just had. By the way,
we do want to get a quick update on Rich.
He encountered yet another eating escapade. Gos. This this might
have been your ultimate one. Now you've taken on some
mighty challenges and this has been a new thing for you.

(08:51):
But tell everybody about your newest It's almost like count
It's almost like scaling Mount Everest. Is what you did.
Thank you? Thank you? Yeah, no, I I definitely yeah,
I brave. I packed I. I did everything I was
supposed to do in preparation, and still it was difficult. Okay,
what is this? So what I've been doing on social
media and you can find me on TikTok at rich

(09:12):
Ormburger Instagram, same name at rich Ormberger, and then at
Ormburger on Twitter where I post these secret menu fast
food reviews. All right, so secret menu, So this is
stuff again not on the menu, but everyone knows about them,
and if you order them, they know what you're talking
and some people know and some people don't. So there's
a little bit of education going on. And I think

(09:33):
curiosity is really the reason why I started down this
h this path, on this endeavor in the first place.
And my first review was Meet Mountain from Arby's Member
that yes. My second review was the Artery Annihilator, which
I found out when I went to the Five Guys
Burger and Fries is not actually even a secret menu item.
I had a I had an assemble it myself, and

(09:54):
this went similarly in and out Burger, the famed and
very secretive eight by eight. Apparently they cut it off
at four by four now, right, But I ordered two
four by fours and I stacked him. Okay, now you're talking.
I don't think you know what, Gavin, I don't think.
I don't think that's the last. Obviously have eight burgers

(10:17):
and eight burger burger in there. So this is what
they do. And you get an animal style which is
like pickles and spread, and they fry the burger patties
and mustard and all sorts of stuff. But anyways, so
basically what it is you got bun, you have burger cheese,
burger cheese, burger cheese, and you go that way until
you get to eight okay, and then on top they

(10:39):
have your lettuce, the requisite tomato, and then the top
of the bunch. So you're I'm literally holding a sandwich. Mean,
it's got to be eight inches. How do you do?
You just sort of dissemble? How do you take it apart?
Start eating them? Burger by burger? What do you do?
I basically my attack strategy was I'm just going bottom

(10:59):
to top. I'm gonna take a bite out of the
bottom four patties, bite out of the top four, and
I'm just gonna alternate so that I don't so that
I don't um divorce the burger of its structural integrity, Steve,
And so I did, I did this, I did? This
was the strategy. How long did it take to finish
that burger? That was a twenty minute experience? You had

(11:21):
eight patties? You had was it four total buns? Like?
There four slices of bread. So I'm doing the calorie
count here two slices of bread to so one bun
on top and bottom that's topping bottom, eight burgers in
between eight yeah, exactly, and each burger has its own
slice of cheese on it. And then uh, they have

(11:42):
whatever it is thousand islands saws and whatever the animals
spread they call it animal side. Whatever that spread is
that was thrown on top with a lesson tomato. But yeah,
so there was an attack strategy. It worked. I got
about to the halfway point, still enjoying myself, and then
something like it really was like one bite put me
over that where I was like, oh, now now this
is the Now this is a problem. You guys want

(12:04):
to guess how many calories that? All? Right? So let's
see I would say, uh, that's a thousand calories, rich,
What do you think? I gotta say it's two thousand plucks? Right?
Three thousand calories in eight remember your daily allotments around two. Thus, alright,
so three thousand calories. So but you you were only

(12:26):
a little over halfway done when you realize this could
be a problematic. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great way to
put it. I uh, it became a problem. I was
about it. I was a bite away from the halfway point.
I remember taking that bite and going, I can't believe
I have half half of a sandwich. LAFTA. That was tough,
and this is going to get worse. And it did.

(12:48):
But you know what, honestly, for science, for my loyal audience,
uh really for humanity at large, I felt obliged. I'm
glad I did it. Will I ever do it again?
Probably not? Probably not. You've done it once, you've done it.
What so my thinking is, even when you finished, you

(13:09):
really weren't finished. Oh no, no, no, let's put it
this way. The I mean, that was Thursday night, and
I'm not sure the final credits have rolled on this
experience just yet, still digesting it, and Steve Rachel's getting
some mad pub I say, you see all these fleets
on Twitter. You got Will Blackman saying hey get this

(13:29):
man A show kind of a diner's drive ins and
dive type of thing. And you got John Shaefer down
into you know, you guys work with him down in
San Diego. So this was a well publicized event here. Yeah,
this more and more popular. This is uh, it's it
might be my calling. Look, I I do sports talk
on the side, I've I've but you did this when
I when I first met rich and you know after

(13:50):
shortly after you retire from the NFL, you have one
of what we would call these cheat days where you
would just devour amazing amounts of food in one city.
I've always had uh, an ability and UH and frankly
a propensity to enjoy myself with large with large, cheap meals.
This this is scaling it up where I'm trying to

(14:13):
get it done in a in a reasonable amount of
time and put put words to the story. And and
most of these events, I put myself in the hurt
box at some point, all right, So you would think
in the aftermath of that that you know, you gotta
get yourself back in shape. I mean, even when you
talk about these eaters, the guys that devoured the sane
amounts of food, you know there's a process, Um, don't that.

(14:35):
Don't tell that to NFL players, though, they have a
different idea of how to condition themselves for the upcoming season.
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 s R to listen live Steve Irvan and

(14:56):
a rich Orneburger. This is in and Out, by the way,
the song from Van Halen, of course. And you think
they were talking about the eating challenge. This, uh yeah, this,
this in and Out may be different than the one
that I experienced with the And I just I'm not sure.

(15:17):
I mean, I don't know, I'm not Maybe Van hell
they were a huge cheeseburger. They could have been back
in the day, all right. The NFL players are making
it very clear that voluntary workouts are never gonna happen again.
Not that that that you know. And this was always
a joke. I have a story years ago Bobby Beth,
the Hall of Fame general manager of the Chargers, UM

(15:41):
I was working with my partner at the time, Philly.
Billy weren't never forget this, and they had voluntary workouts,
voluntary and one person that did not show up. Was
Junior say, now, Junior say, how at this point is
you know, the best linebacker in the NFL and if
he misses a voluntary workouts not really gonna affect his
status with the team. But Bether wasn't all that happy

(16:04):
about it. So I remember we went to practice that
day and Bobby Betha did something I've never done before.
He brought us on the field. He was like all buddy, buddy,
and and we were like walking on the field like
we're on the field of the players, and he just
sort of single this out. And we had, you know,
pretty big time local show going on at the time,
and he was sort of moaning and moaning about, you know,

(16:25):
Juniy should be here, he should be here, like you know,
I mean, you know, it's it's a volunteer, but he's
a team leader, he really, but he kept driving home
the point like he needs to be here. So we
went on the air saying, hey, you know, we're out
on the field with Bobby, and yeah, I would agree
with him, you know, I mean, come on, Junie, get
out there. And as it turned out, Junior did show

(16:46):
up the next day. So the next day we're out
of practice, you know, we're all buddy buddy with with Betha.
The day before we started, you know, sort of hanging
on the field like we got access and they're like,
where are you going? Like what are you talking about?
We were no, no, you go back to where you were.
We got we got used, We got used by Bobby
Bettre to somehow paint a picture that somehow Junior was

(17:10):
being irresponsible for the team by not showing up. And
the next day showed up and they're like, we don't
need you anymore. Get back back where you belong. So
when when we go back. When you play in the NFL,
these so called voluntary workouts, it was voluntary only in
name only. I mean you needed to be there. And

(17:31):
now the players are saying those days are over, and
thank goodness because they are widely a waste of time.
There were many many voluntary workouts that I attended where
I would think to myself the entire time, I I
would get a better workout. And I have been getting

(17:52):
better workouts training on my own, training with my own
uh individual personal trainers, or the gym that I've been
going to, working with a smaller group of you know
guys who I like training with and not to say
that I didn't like training with my teammates too, but
you get into your offseason habits, and typically in my career,

(18:13):
I lived where I played, So I would be in
the New England area when I was with the Patriots.
I'd be in the Phoenix area when I was with
the Cardinals. I was in San Diego when I was
with the Chargers. But I would train away from obviously
the physical location of the facility, to get away and
also to to change up how I prepared because I

(18:35):
wanted to get in shape the way I wanted to.
I'm a pro, I'm a professional. I know how to
prepare for the sport. I'm about the play. But there's
usually say between five and ten guys on a roster
who could potentially blow off voluntary workouts and not have
it held against them. You know, these are either the
highest paid players the best players. But by and large,

(18:57):
voluntary doesn't mean voluntary. The coaches want you there. The
coaches wanna touch base with you, they want to work
through things with you. They want to, frankly in some
ways waste your time because they have to be there anyways,
So they want to have the players there too, if
they have to be there. Let's get the players here also.
But but nobody needs to spend that much time in

(19:20):
one space anymore because everybody knows what they need to
do to prepare for a season. All right. So Demorris Smith,
the head of the players union, said, players are saying
no to coaches pressuring them to attend voluntary workouts. All right,
So let's let's sit in the coaches, See right, Bruce
arians sort of tongue in cheek, talk to you if
I I can't wait to get these guys back out there,
haven't worked. They're they're gonna fight out what this is

(19:43):
all about. And it's like they're yawning at him. So
the fact is we had no in person workouts last season.
We didn't. We barely had training camp, no preseason games
and day ramp up, I mean just a little bit
of a ramp up. And guess what we pulled off
a season at looked like any other season. It looked
better in some cases because you didn't lose any of

(20:04):
the star players in the off season the way you
typically do. So where are we going with this? Rich?
Because one thing, one thing, I guess coaches would say,
and from a player's perspective, when the obviously get your
thoughts here, that at the very least, sort of having
the team together physically together builds a certain bond, builds

(20:26):
a certain camaraderie as you come together as a team
through training camp and everything else. Even if the workout
schedules a lot lighter, at least you're all sort of
together and you know the coaches are there and we're
sort of re getting an acquainted We got new faces here,
new players, everything else not the same as last year
as you sort of come together to get ready for

(20:46):
the season. Is there is there any validity to that?
Oh no, they're absolutely as validity to getting to know
your teammates, working together in a competitive fashion, learning to
work together, communication, getting certain things right. Adding play is
to the playbook, defensively or offensively. New schemes, like you said,
you're adding every year, whether it being free agency or

(21:07):
the draft or via trade. So yeah, there is great
a great argument to be made to have some offseason
workouts together, No question. I think after the draft you
should absolutely have an appointment with the rookies, whether it
be a week long, that's a great idea. But as
soon as you're a second year player or beyond. I

(21:28):
I really, frankly, I don't think you need much more
than thirty days leading up to the season to get ready.
I think the preseason games are largely vestigial. There's no
reason for him anymore. You don't do it in college,
didn't do it in high school. You don't need to
do it in the pros because that is the top levels.
Is old school stuff where you had offseason jobs and

(21:50):
you needed to get in shape. Guys were working in factories,
Guys were substitute teachers, guys were bus drivers or truck drivers. Yeah,
you're absolutely right. They needed a ramp up. No longer
do they need to ramp This is a three sixty
five day a year job where even though these guys
go to whatever separate corners of the world they go
to in the off season, are still training for the

(22:12):
sport that keeps the lights on. 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 s R
to listen live. All Right, we're talking about an impast
right now between the players Union and some of the
NFL coaches especially that are insisting that there's still value

(22:36):
to an offseasons, you know, so called voluntary workouts, uh,
and coaches want their team, they want to see their team.
Um with the draft is now eleven days away, so
we're getting closer to the draft and we'll have an
update on a lot of things going on there. So
we had no combine this year. And you know, Richie

(22:56):
and I have discussed many times that the two major
feet years that really have value is none of these
you know charade that you see with forties and all
that kind of stuff, and the interviews and the actual
physicals you know where they actually hands on and you
can and you say, you know, they break down every
part of your body, make sure everything is so you

(23:17):
don't have those you have these pro days. But as
you as you get ready for this draft, and you know,
you always have to make those decisions with your roster,
like who's come to an end and which one of
these rookies. Not only do we draft, you know these
free agent rookies, and every year we see free agent

(23:37):
rookies emerge, not just guys that make a roster, but
actually have an impact. And how do you find out
without seeing them in action in the off season with
training cab and everything else, when is the time to
make a move on your roster. We're not talking a
lot of spots here for most teams from year to year,
what five to ten maybe spy might be on on

(24:02):
you know, because you know the carryovers probably you know,
if you have a fifty three man roster, let's say
forty three are going to be back if they're not
trade or something like that. But there's there's still spots
where you you have some movement and you have to
really evaluate what you got traffed and everything else. So
how do you navigate that if you don't have a
normal off season, how can you make that evaluation? Well,

(24:23):
I think in two ways. One, the the Zoom meetings
and all of the things that they did leading up
to last season clearly worked. Like we just talked about,
there was no like ridiculously precipitous fall off from you know,
as far as the level of play on the field
come the regular season. And then also, I mean there

(24:47):
there is there is a really like you know, it's
kind of out of sight, out of mind. So there's
a very simple equation or formula that certain veterans can
follow rookies certainly. Can you show up to the facility,
you can show I mean, the facility is open to
all the players all off season long. I mean many
times I would go train at the facility where I

(25:09):
was playing, just because I could get a great workout
in by myself, even if I'm not being led through
by the strength coach. And sometimes I'd ask them, Hey,
what what do you got for me today? You got anything?
You know? Well, what are you training today? I'm I
was thinking of doing like a heavy legs, you know,
and do a little conditioning. All right, Yeah, I got
something for you. You can do all those things. So
my my point being is like, if you are one

(25:32):
of these quote unquote bubble guys and you want eyes
on you, you want them to notice you, the work ethic,
whatever it is that the offseason program would typically bring you,
you could still do that. You could still make yourself
available so that they can see how hard you're working.
And then as far as like the lead into the season,
the actual football part of it, This is very simple

(25:52):
to me. You hold team scrimmages or you do inter
squad scrimmages with two other teams. Throughout the off season,
where that film is mandatory to share, and they have
the technology to do this. Everything's computerized now, it's sent
out across the all the league's networks and everybody gets
the same exact film to evaluate all the players who

(26:14):
could be potentially on the waiver wire come cut dates
in the training camp. Also, I think another intelligent idea
for the NFL to consider his expansion of the rosters
even further, carry more players on your team during the offseason.
Maybe have one more cut day, put that back in
an additional week. This way, everybody has film, everybody has

(26:35):
ample time, and there are plenty of positions to fill
on everybody's roster. I think. I think this is a
very simple problem that the owners and the coaches want
to over complicate because the owners want the preseason because
they want those to be a part of the regular
season ticket packages. They want to be able to sell
ten tickets instead of eight and goose how much money

(26:58):
they get for season tickets. And the other reason is
the coaches want to spend as much time with the
players as humanly possible because guess what, that's the fun work.
The boring work is all the stuff that they have
to do in their offices away from the light of day.
All right, we're going to a seventeen game season this season.
There's not gonna be an extra by week, So we're
talking about seventeen games in eighteen weeks. Still have three

(27:19):
games in the preseason, so it's a twenty games schedule.
Is that has been? Is just that one more game
is going to count? Does that change at all? If
you were playing right now getting ready for a seventeen
game season instead of a sixteen game season, change anything?
It changes nothing when you're getting ready for a season.

(27:39):
When I'm getting ready for our football season, I was
never getting ready for game six team. I was getting
ready for the stages I was entering. So as I
was ramping up to training camp, I was getting ready
for the rigors of training camp. Once I was in
training camp, I was getting ready for the preseason games.
Once I was in the preseason games, it was a
dress rehearsal for the regular season. Once you're in the

(28:00):
regular season, you're really you're really starting to get into
the groove and playing yourself into shape for the part
of the regular season that really matters, which is around
Thanksgiving time and then that prepares you for the postseason.
There's no jumping ahead. It's not like I can train
differently for an extra game on the docket, or if
I'm on a team who I think has a great

(28:21):
playoff chance, it's like, well, I better work out much
harder this offseason because we could play all the way
until February. No, it changes nothing. You train the way
you train to get in shape, just like any other
professional for any other any other business endeavor. You can
only do what's right in front of you. All right,
coming up, we're gonna be talking a lot more about
the draft itself. Um I I just I when I

(28:44):
keep thinking about the coaches aspect of this, I mean
there are still a lot of old school coaches. I mean,
you played for Bill Belichick a separate celebrated his sixty
ninth birthday the other day. Some coaches are set in
their ways. Yeah, and they don't want to feel like
somehow they've lost control of the team. You know, you know,

(29:08):
I'm not going to use the Bob McNair term, but
you know what I'm talking about, where suddenly the players
have control when the coaches like no, no, no, no,
no no, I have my rules. Now you could say, well,
you're gonna have to adapt to it. I'm not so
sure a lot of these coaches are comfortable with that.
I don't know how Belichick is gonna handle this well. Players,
especially for Belichick, because they have so many new players

(29:31):
coming into the team this year they've made They've invested
so much money into this team. And we were talking
about the whole Belichick dynamic about being on the hot
seat and everything else. Think about it, there's two different Belichics,
the GM and the coach. So I mean, this would
seem to be a huge offseason for him to be
able to evaluate the players that they've invested a lot

(29:53):
of money in. Think about the reason why anybody would
hire representation and and in any business like, it's because, Ay,
these are more skilled, potentially more skilled negotiators than you
understand the people they're negotiating with, because they've had other
players or other professionals before you who they've represented in

(30:14):
the past. And uh. And also there's distance professional distance.
So when I'm negotiating a new contract with a team,
and I have a good relationship with the coaching staff,
with the general manager, and I don't want to upset
that it's nice to have somebody to say no for me.
It's nice to have somebody to fight hard on my behalf.

(30:35):
So I'm not the one the face behind the negotiation.
That is the same way the players are with the
union that represents them. The executive director Demorris Smith, all
of the executives under him, they handle all of these
sort of things. Right now, it is the player's voices
being represented in action by their leadership on the union side.

(30:59):
So yeah, you could say it's these players they're asking
for this, and they're asking for that. Become the point
whenever this all gets resolved and everybody gets in the
building together, it's not like the coaching staff is holding
it against the players because the players are only trying
to maximize their benefit during the short window they have
to play this sport. And so the same way, if

(31:20):
a team felt like, man, you know, we probably overpaid
for this free agent, they're not gonna be mad at
the player They're They're gonna just be upset with the
negotiation and then just live in the world they now
live in. It's it's there. There will be no hard feelings.
It's just business when it comes down to it. Fox
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.

(31:43):
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio app. Search f
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 pipe been hot faceball talk, featuring
the biggest name to newsmakers in the sport. Whether you

(32:05):
believe in analytics or the eye test, We've got all
the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, So do
yourself a favor and listen to Inside the Parker with
Rob Parker on the I Heart Radio app or wherever
you get your podcast. Steve Irvan and a Rich Armburger.
We mentioned we are eleven days away from the NFL

(32:27):
Draft and Jacksonville has the topic and it's done. It's
like the free spot on the bingo board. Trevor Lawrence
to the Jacksonville Jaguars Number one. Yeah, this happens a
lot in the NFL draft. There's usually usually you can
say with some certainty who the first overall picks. I mean,
it's it's just not even a question. Herbert Meyers taken

(32:47):
over there, Trevor Lawrence will be the first person so
um drafted. So this was something I'm gonna read what
Trevor Lawrence said in Sports Illustrated and then I'm gonna
have his follow up to this. So what are said
in Sports Still Illustrated was It's hard to explain that
because I want people to know that I'm passionate about
what I do and it's really important to me. But

(33:09):
I don't have this huge chip on my shoulder that
everyone's out to get me and I'm trying to prove
everybody wrong. I just don't have that. I can't manufacture
that I don't want to. And so people read into
this that you know, this idea that you know I
have to succeed or you know, at all costs. That's
not me. So he had a follow up on Twitter.
He says, it seems as that people are misreading my sentiment.

(33:32):
I am internally motivated. I love football as much or
more than anyone. It is a huge priority in my life. Obviously,
I've driven to be the best I can be and
am maximized by potential and to win. I have a
lot of confidence in my work ethic. I love to
grind and chase my goals. You can ask anyone who
has been in my life. That being said, I'm secure
in who I am, what I believe. I don't need

(33:54):
football to make me feel worthy as a person. I
purely love the game and everything that comes with it,
the work, the team, the ups and downs. I'm a
firm believer in the fact that there is a plan
for my life. I'm called to be the best I
can be at whatever I'm doing. So, like I said,
he reminds me a lot of Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck
had an amazing commitment to football. He wouldn't have been

(34:16):
the quarterback he was if he didn't have a hundred
percent commitment. In fact, Andrew Luck was like a mad scientist.
He saw angles. He's a highly intelligent guy, and he
saw the game of football a lot differently than a
lot of people. And he loved the challenge of it
everything else. But he also had pretty made it clear
that I'm not going to be but defined as a
football player. I have much more than just being a

(34:37):
football player. And after, you know, the injury that sat
him out for an entire year, he came back with
a hugely productive year. You're like, all right, we're ready
to roll and then he made the decision to retire.
He walked away from a huge contract and moved on
to the next phase of his life. And So, if
you were Jacksonville right now, and maybe you're in the
back of your mind thinking, are we gonna have this

(34:59):
guy for ten fifteen years? Is he gonna be like
in Andrew Luck, who's gonna be here let's say six
or seven years? And there are options. I mean, there
are other quarterbacks. Obviously they're being very highly rd in
this draft. With that in any way, scare you off
in taking Trevor Lawrence number one? No, not at all, Um,
for two reasons. One, it's a strong man argument to

(35:21):
bring up Andrew Luck. When we're talking Trevor Lawrence. They're
two completely different human beings from different backgrounds, different upbringings,
different mindsets altogether. And Andrew Luck, while I love him
as a player, he was incredibly talented and elevated a
bad Cults team for a long time until they got
better around him. Um, he was made of glass. The

(35:44):
guy was hurt all the time, and he was playing
hurt all the time. I mean he had some injuries
now where it led to him being off the field
he lacerated in Oregon, and he continued playing through that
game and then how to be off the field for
a couple of weeks. He had a throwing, shoulder issue,
ankle issues that took him off the field at different times.

(36:04):
I mean, that was a warrior, and he gave it
as all for the time that he felt he could
give it to the game. As far as Trevor Lawrence goes,
he could have a completely different career trajectory than Andrew Luck.
He could stay healthy, everything is ahead of him, So
I'm not gonna make the comparison. And also, there's this myth.
This is the second part that people eat, breathe, drink,

(36:28):
live football, right or any sport baseball. I mean, everybody
loves to use the phrase off version one in Last
one Out. You know, all the guy does is football.
This is a I mean, it's just what makes his
heart beat in his chest. It's just nonsense. There's no
such thing. Everybody, everybody on the planet has varied interests.
Everybody does different things than what they're supremely talented at,

(36:52):
because if you don't, you'll burn out. I'm thrilled that
he's talking. If I'm Urban Meyer or any of the
people scouting this place. I'm thrilled that he has life
bounce because I don't want him to burn out when
he gets to this level because guess what, the workload
steps up once again. When you get to the NFL.
It isn't easy. There's more scrutiny. You're under even further

(37:13):
microscope than you were in your little college town of Clemson,
even though there was national relevance and everybody's talking about him.
You're in a bubble. You're protected. So yeah, you better
damn right. I'm I'm very excited that this guy has
work life balance. If he didn't, that's the red flag. Well,
I'm not worried about his commitment. The guy lost two
games in college and then oh, by the way, he's

(37:34):
the best prospect of this draft. And there's no question
about that. I mean, when you talk about Zack Wilson
and and Justin Fields, Lance and mac Jones everywhere else
in my in my opinion, based off their college credentialing,
I have Trevor Lawrence. I mean, and it's it's not
very close. And by the way, if you put in
perspective Jacksonville, right, Jacksonville, the Jaguars. Right, and if you

(37:57):
weren't even saying getting back to the Andrew like, if
you were saying, he will have Andrew Lux career for
seven years and you're Jacksonville, You'll take that in a heartbeat,
because that's whatever that was. I mean, remember Andrew lux
first year. There were there were come off what three
and thirty one eleven games that year? Yeah, his first

(38:18):
year Andrew Okay, So again, no, I don't love the comparison,
but if we're gonna go down that route, even if
you're worried that, Okay, this guy be based off what
he said in in one article at the end of
his college career. We're worried that he's gonna have a
short NFL career. You give me six years of that
high level play. I mean, sign me up, sign me

(38:39):
up right now. 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 s R to listen live.
Oh yes, rolling along on this beautiful Sunday, Hartmann and
arm Burger with you Hey for hot water that never
runs out? Tankless and Navy and Navy and Tankless water

(39:02):
heaters provide endless hot water for spotlight comfort. Visit tankless
made Simple dot Com and save hundreds with local rebates
Tankless made Simple dot Com. All Right, you know, we've
got a lot of things in the rear view mirror.
March madness is behind us, the Masters is behind us.
So we're really settling into our full focus right now

(39:24):
on baseball. We still have a ways to go before
we get to the NBA and NHL playoffs, so started
taking account where we are with the baseball scene. And
one thing that is very clear a couple of weeks
into the season is that the Los Angeles Dodgers are
just a step above everybody else. I haven't missed the
step from the end of last season. Well, they've taken
at the next level. They want eight straight games. They

(39:46):
just beat the Potteries again last night. They have the
best record in baseball. The over under on wins going
into the season Vegas for the Dodgers was a hundred
and two and a half. I heard that number has
gone up to hundred and four and a half. You
have a few teams have ever one hundred four games
in a season that's they're over under. I mean Seriously,

(40:07):
if this Dodger team stays healthy. They've been without Bellinger,
Mookie Bets actually miss five games. But when you look
at this team right now, if they stay healthy, they
are a serious threat to break the all time record
of a hundred and six team wins in a season.
I mean, they could do it. That's how good this
Dodger team is. Yeah, they're very talented. They're deep, and

(40:28):
their depth is really talented as well. We keep seeing
this team reload and not just developing one part of
their roster. It's not just go wow every time they
have a starting pitching prospect that pans out, no position players,
bullpen guys. It's it's fascinating how they've been able to
build this monster and then obviously in the in the

(40:49):
market of their size, being able to bring in the
revenue they're able to generate, they spend on talent. They're
not afraid too. They added Mookie Betts last season and
pay them um. But the Padres are doing that now too.
The Padres built a huge farm. The Padres have have
done a great job developing talent, uh and they've spent

(41:12):
a tremendous amount of money over the past three seasons
on talent. So you have with the Dodgers, you have
a stalking horse, uh if you want to call at that,
or something to keep the competitive juices flowing in division
with you, which which look, we know the old expressions.
Iron sharpens iron. You know, when there's something important right

(41:34):
in front of you, it keeps you lucid, It keeps
you in the moment, It keeps you fresh, it keeps
you paying attention. There's no complacency, and I think we
saw that as this weekend series against the Padres opened up.
They shifted around their rotations. They had the ability to
do so for other reasons, but it put their three
top line starters, uh right right into the fray against

(41:57):
the Padres. And uh So that that says two things
to me. It says one, the Dodgers are taking there
their serious competitors seriously. And to uh, what we're seeing
right now, because the Padres are arguably a top two,
top three team in all of baseball, we're seeing a
very dominant Dodgers team. I'm gonna take it a step

(42:20):
further on this so called rivalry between the Dodgers and
the Padres. And I say so called because there there's friction.
You know, there's a definite back and forth. You get
see it in the games. There's a lot of intensity
on the field right now. The problem is the Dodgers
are winning every game. Yeah, I mean, they swept the
Potreis in the playoffs. They've won two in a row

(42:41):
in San Diego. We know that the Padres in the
city of San Diego has been very anxious to get
a rivalry going with l A. This has been a
very one side of rivalry for many, many years. And
you know, having been from Los Angeles and lived in
many years in San Diego, l A never felt a
rivalry to San Diego. L A love San Diego. Who

(43:03):
doesn't love San Diego. But when I first came to
San Diego thirty years ago, I was like, Wow, this
is pretty intense. They really feel this animosity towards l
A and so, but the Dodgers. It's almost like this
rivalry has really been created more from the Dodgers than
it has the Podres. They when you go back when

(43:26):
the Dodgers signed Trevor Bauer after the Patres had brought
in you Darvish and Blake Snell and Joe Musco and
all these guys. And Andrew Freeman, the president of baseball
operations for the Dodgers, had the big press conference for
Trevor Bauer and and he was asked, does this have
anything to do with what the Potters are doing? And
you would think the normal answer would be like, look,
we're not worried about what other people who are doing.

(43:48):
We're just trying to be a better team. That that
would have been the normal answer. He brought up the
potteris not once, not twice, three times. And then you
have Justin Turners saying that all nineteen games we play
against the Padres this year is gonna be like World
Series games. Like you said, when you're so much better
than everyone else, it's almost like you're trying to create something.

(44:10):
The rest of the division, the Giants, the Rockies, the
Diamondbacks are all rebuilding right now, not much to offer there.
They have this attention that the Padres have been getting
because of Fernando Tatis Jr. And the money they're investing,
and then wanting to be where the Dodgers are, and
the Dodgers have taken that and taken it next level,

(44:31):
Like were you really this is a rivalry right now?
So I'm I'm very interested in how this will play
out over the course of a very long season right now,
but you mentioned that Dodgers almost trying to sort of
create interests in a season where they're just so much
better than everyone else, and it seems like they are
the ones really behind hyping up this rivalry against the

(44:55):
San Diego Padre. It's a real rivalry. It's a real rivalry,
and I'll tell you why, because is when there's animus
between two entities, it doesn't matter how much how much
more powerful one side is over the other. And that's
still up for debate. There's room for debate here. We
have seven tea more games between these two teams, and

(45:16):
even if the Padres say got swept here, the next
series come soon and it is a four gamer, and
we'll see how that next week out. Yeah, and we'll
see how it pans out. I mean, Dodger Stadium. This
could be one of those one of those great regular
season battles that we have really not gotten an opportunity
to partake in in a long time. But we'll see.

(45:37):
But what I do know from the first series, like
I said, at first, Blush, you knew the Dodgers were
taking it seriously. The way they reorganized their rotations so
they could have their their top arms pitching right they
have Bueler, Kershaw, and Bower, and they were not supposed
to be that way. They moved it up to make
sure they had their three top starters in this series.
And it was really intelligent because the Padres are really good.

(45:58):
I mean, these have been narrow victories. If you watch
the first game of this series, which people on the
East Coast must have been in bed for the end
of it. What a battle until you got taxtures and
and then you know it got away from them in
an inning. But but the Padres were there the whole way. Again.
Another game yesterday between between Kershaw and darvishis starts. Did

(46:21):
you see how the start went for Darvish? So you
Darvish starting against his former team, the Dodgers. He picked
seven innings. Six of the seven innings were one to three.
The one inning he had two outs, so he's working
on a perfect game at this point. He hits a batter,
then there's a base hit, then there's a walk, and

(46:41):
now he's facing Kershaw. The picture two out, bases loaded
and Kershaw works it for an eight pitch a bat
and he gets the walk. So the only four batters
that reached base against Darvish were four consecutive batters hit batter,
single walk, walk, and that was the one run. And

(47:02):
by the way, the everybody else he got out the
last of the lineup, you know what I mean, Like,
I mean, he had, he had done all the hard work,
right dude, I mean, but but that's baseball, and and
I love baseball because of it. You just never know
when the moment is going to come that that really
tells you the whole story of the game, and certainly
that was the game right there. We um, we have

(47:24):
a rivalry on our hands, because there's there's real hatred.
I remember feeling that way about the Jets when I
played with Did you guys ever lose to the Jets? Yeah?
We did? Yeah, well that you did? They beat in
the post seat. Well that's that's a real library because
they beat you. But then they stunk. Then they were
they had fallen off the map, and for years before
that they had really their relevance was lacking in that division.

(47:46):
And the Patriots, you know, the whole time before I
got there, enduring, but you never forget because your rookie year,
you guys lose to the Jets in the playoffs. No,
it was the Baltimore Ravens that year. It was the
Jets in and then the next year we got back
to beating up on the Jets. And like when I
moved on and I was with the Ghamasad do have

(48:06):
to do with Rex Ryan running his mouth about the Patriots? Well,
I mean it's some of it, But if that rivalry
was existing prior to Rex showing up, I promise you,
like you know, Mangini, there's a little bit of the
you know, well they got one of our coaches and
all that. But anyways, when I was with the Chargers,
I mean, Denver was a far better team. They had
Payton Manning at the time. Dever was a far better

(48:27):
team than say, the Raiders. But for whatever reason, when
we played the Raiders, there was more, There was more
to it. Could it be the fact that you would
show up at home against the Raiders and it's Raider
fans at the stadium. Oh, and that trust me factor.
They have such a large contingent of Southern California fans.
But that's my point. It doesn't matter if one side,

(48:48):
and the Chargers for years were way better than the Raiders.
It doesn't matter if one side or if the rivalry
quote unquote rivalry if you want to call it that
or not, is one sided. What matters. The feelings are there.
Hard feelings are not right, and there are really hard
feelings in this series, and I think for the first
time in maybe a decade maybe longer, the Dodgers are

(49:11):
really feeling it. And you could see it. There was
a bench is clearing incident. Uh in the first game,
the one that went to actress yesterday, you got Kershaw
shouting at pro far Well he's at first because the
catcher gets called for interference, but the profile actually extend
his bat to catch the Like there's you, I mean,
Clayton Kershaw. You know this guy who's been you know,

(49:33):
an ace for two decades. He's like halfway to first
base shouting at a brand new Padres player like screw you. Now,
this is this is a rivalry, and I'm excited to
see the rest of this season because baseball needs rivalry.
Yankees red Sox was great, I mean for years he
had what it was, Cups, Cardinals great, great central rivalry.

(49:54):
Now it comes to the West Coast and Padres Dodgers,
It's gonna float major League Baseball this year. 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
s R to listen live. Steve Harman, Rich Oremberger talking

(50:14):
about rivalries and there's definitely friction going on, no question
this series between the Dodgers and Podres. Because I'm thinking
back to Friday Night. Riche to talk about rivalries and
the problem. We even mentioned this going into the season.
If this turns out to be a big time baseball rivalry,
will anybody in the East Coast know about it? The
Friday Night game, which was a five hour extra Indian affair,

(50:37):
ended at three am. After three am on the East Coast.
I don't know if people were watching that point. What
do you think none? I I got one notification from
somebody on the East Coast who said, I mean I
tapped out. It's impossible to keep your eyes open even
if it is rivening baseball. Look, baseball has got two problems.

(50:58):
Baseball obviously is a sport of mainly regional interest and
it's difficult to say what game is going to be
the game that sparks national interest. So that's why rivalries
are really important to baseball, because when you have a
good one, you know you can showcase it. As a
matter of fact, I'm i'm I think the Cubs are

(51:20):
the game of the night tonight, you know on on Verse,
the Braves, that's right, as opposed to the Padres getting
and Padre's Dodgers getting getting the national game time. I
talk to Annie Firman yesterday and and I did the
show yesterday. You know, he's based out of Cincinnati, and
I was taking this talking about this big rivalry in baseball,

(51:40):
and he goes, not, in my book, that's not a
big rivalry. It's like it's in it. You're telling me
its nationally, like relevancy nationally, it's in its infancy. Still
when you watch that game on Friday, if you had
said that was in October, no one would argue with oh, no, no, no.

(52:01):
In my opinion, the national televised Sunday night game, if
there's a Dodger Padre game on that day, that needs
to be flexed into Sunday Night. Honestly, well, part of
it is for baseball. Is they have a player, Fernando
Tatis Junior, that they're banking on right now. They are

(52:21):
hoping that Fernando Tatis Jr. Tatis is going to be
the guy that's going to infuse some enthusiasm from a
younger demographic that normally would not have interest in baseball.
They think that he and he has all the things
you need. So we were speculating after the Padres gave

(52:43):
him a three hundred and forty million dollar fully guaranteed
contract extension, how would he react. So he's played seven
games this year. He missed several games due to injury
to his shoulder, which us it's gonna be repaired by surgery.
Is a looming problem. These are the numbers he has

(53:06):
in seven games. He's four for eight. That's a one
three batting average. He has struck out twelve times. He
has committed seven errors in seven games. Last year he
had three errors in fifty nine games. He has two

(53:27):
home runs, both solo shots. He struck out three times
last night. Kershaw, a veteran pitcher like Kershaw, can really
take advantage of an over anxious hitter throwing pitches that
he knows he's gonna swing at that, he's not gonna hit,
and that's exactly what happened yesterday. Look, I love this
kid and I don't even blame the Padres for what

(53:49):
they did. And I still believe that this kid is
going to have a fabulous career. But something, something's got
to happen right now, because you can see the frustration building.
He struck out the third time on on looking on
a call third strike, and by the way, it was
a strike. He thought it was low, but you know
it's where across the play. It was right at the knees.

(54:09):
It was a perfect pitch by kershaw Um. I don't
know if you're if you're I mean the manager Jason Tagler,
the general manager A. J. Pleiler, the controlling owner Peter Seidler,
what what do you do to sort of calm him
down and and say, look, we're not worried about a
weekend series. You played seven games. But if you feel

(54:31):
like right now that he's pressing, that he's trying to
do too much. I mean, on Friday night, he hits
the home run to take the lead, the crowd is
going absolutely nuts. Next inning, he makes an incredible backhanded
stop but then he turns and blindly throws a second
cronin Worth wasn't even there yet. He throws the ball

(54:52):
away two runs. Scory, You're just trying to do too much.
This idea of every place has got to be a highlight,
real play. No no, no, no, no, Just be routine.
Let the game come to you. Don't force things feeling
like you have to make every play like like it's
gonna be on YouTube the next day. How do you
get in the mindset of a twenty two year old,

(55:12):
he said, at all who plays one way and just
say calm him down. Well, all those things are are
common practice when you have a young and I think
you perfectly encapsulated what we saw yesterday against Kershaw, an
over eager player who who is trying to own every moment.
You can't. It's a long season. The season's a marathon,

(55:35):
and I think rattling out of the gates with an injury.
A lot of people probably are just catching up on
this storyline, are completely blind to it. Or maybe if
you're kind of a baseball fan, but only come playoff time,
you'll he'll here Fernando Tatis Junior's name. Come the end
of the season, I promise you. But um, but that's
if he's still on the active roster. Because he entered

(55:56):
after having a shoulder injury in the spring. It was
just looked hating on him. They call it sublexu sublexation. Uh.
He most likely is going to need some sort of
repair or labor surgery. He's gonna have to have surgery
and what and the good news is once he does
have the surgery. Talking to Dr David Chow, you know well,
he said, once he has a surgery, it will make

(56:17):
a world of difference. He will be able. It's not
some kind of careering injury. It's very correctable. But he's
gonna have to have surgery. I've had that surgery on
both my shoulders during my NFL playing career. And he's
absolutely right. What Dr Chow said is true. It really
does it you. You have a lot of instability, you
have a lot of pain, you may have weakness, and

(56:37):
then on the other side of the surgery, it resolves
a lot of those issues. You may lose a little
bit of mobility, but he's also a hyper flexible guy,
so it may not be perceivable mobility that I loses.
But but what you said is absolutely correct. But I'll
also caution anybody who gets overly excited or involved in
the statistics of any player who's fifteen games into his season,

(57:01):
just hold on, give him a hundred plate appearances, give
him time to settle into the season. This guy just
just signed a contract worth life changing money. This guy
is coming off a tumultuous spring with the injury. I
think he needs to settle down. And I think everything
he just said is what the managers and the front
office and even the owner, if he wants to get involved,

(57:23):
should be saying to him, like, look, Fernando, we know
you're the best player in the game. Slow down, just
just just not not slow down your play. Don't don't
try not to be the enthusiastic player you are, but mentally, like,
take a deep breath and realize you're here for a reason.
We gave you the money. We gave you for a reason.
We admire your talent and your ability. Don't try to

(57:47):
make every single play, and I think it's going to
the result will be better play. Now, that's only if
he can. Again, we don't know the severity of the
injury and how it's affecting him on a daily basis.
Maybe that factors too, you know, speaking of long term
contracts of young players, Ronald sign that eight year, hundred

(58:07):
million dollar deal. Yeah, we'll be seeing tonight against the Cubs.
Right now, he has a ops A fourteen O nine.
He leads the majors with seven homers, sixteen runs bad
at in twenty runs scored, twenty six hits. He's hitting
four thirty three with the nine seventeen slugging percentage. I mean,
this guy is off the charts, and he is a

(58:31):
year older than Fernando Tatis Jr. And you look at
the money that he's gonna get paid as opposed to
with Fernando's gonna get paid. It is literally pennies on
the dollars. Well, this is, this is and there's no
way out of this deal for him. And this is
what I encouraged the Padres to do with Tatis earlier.
I mean, I see her, Acuna's agent, what are you

(58:53):
gonna do? Well? Well, you, I mean he is being
You talk about under marketing, here's no question he's paid
under market value. But so the Braves risked it much
earlier than the Padres did with Tatise. You know what
I mean like when you pay not really, because they
played about the same number of games when they turned
this contrary. Remember Fernando only played a hundred forty three games,
that is true, but over over the course of more

(59:14):
seasons maybe than Amber. It's close. It's close. Look the Braves,
I know, if I'm if I'm a Kunia and I'm
looking at these numbers where he's leading the majors and everything,
I'm like, what a hundred million? He got three hundred
and forty million. The Braves got a great contract, and

(59:35):
great they stole him and well and and on top
of it, this is this is what I appreciate about risk,
and and the the game may have changed due to
this Tatis deal. But risk when you're willing to stick
your neck out and say, all right, we'll give you
a hundred million dollars, which is life changing money and
fully guaranteed in the sport of baseball, with an unproven commodity,

(59:56):
with a guy who's young, with a guy who's you know,
i mean, barely played professional baseball prior to his entrance
to Major League Baseball. And and it's worked out for
the Braves. Now you could on board a hundred million
dollars worth of risk with a special young talent and
get beat. That happens to well, let's hope the potteries
aren't getting beat with a three forty million dollar investment.

(01:00:18):
And it could be the case. And I mean, truthfully,
Ronald Kuna could be great this season and anything can happen.
You hope that it's all going to go better than
that Sason. Now, all of a sudden, you feel like
at age twenty three's twenty three. I mean, give you
an idea. The back end of his contract in seven
and eight team options for seventeen million. It's a flat

(01:00:40):
line of seventeen million a year. Meanwhile, Tatis is going
to be making thirty six millions. When when Tatis first
broke through, he made the team out of spring training
two years ago, I was like, sign him, now, extend him, now,
sign him to a long term deal. Now. I was like,
pull the trigger now, because whatever it is that you're
gonna pay this guy at some point in the distant future,

(01:01:04):
I said, it's going to dwarf the sort of money
you could get him for now, because well, that's fine
if you're getting Hall of Fame numbers. I mean, that's
a Hall of Fame deal. That's that's Mike Trout, that's
a statue contract, that is that is what the biggest stars.
I mean, no one's arguing about the Dodgers giving Mookie
Bets the money he got, argues about Mike Trout for
another TATIS Jr. In the years that he's been healthy

(01:01:26):
has been sensational. The problem is health. That's where you
may get beating the year he was healthy, which was
last year. One year he's been healthy. Right, So we'll
keep our fingers crossed because not only is it obviously
big for the Padres, it's big for baseball. They need
this guy to play at that highest level to draw
the audience. And the question is that he's putting too

(01:01:48):
much pressure on himself. We'll see, maybe maybe I'll have
a breakthrough day today. Find a game of that three
game series in the Padres and the Dodgers. Fox Sports
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
s R to listen live. I just saw the story

(01:02:10):
break here Rich that the Los Angeles Lakers will not
visit President Biden at the White House to celebrate their
NBA championship. Due to COVID nineteen protocols. Uh, there was
a window later this month when they play against the
Wizards to meet the president, and they will pass. You

(01:02:31):
know that no NBA champion team has visited the White
House since the Cas visited President Obama. As you know,
with President Trump in office, the Warriors, the Raptors, none
of them were interested in visiting with the president. Um.
This whole idea of visiting the president this sort of
started during the Reagan era. I think it wasn't It

(01:02:54):
just sort of became this ridiculous nous where you know,
like you'd have the women national volleyball team visits the
White House? Yeah, I mean is this did you? I
mean what you weren't part of a championship team. I
I know that Tom Brady passed a few times after
winning Super Bowls sort of passed on the whole White
As is this? Is that? Is that sort of coming gone?

(01:03:16):
I mean, is it even worth it anymore? Should we
move on from this idea that, you know, because everything
becomes so politicized and everything else, is it time to
just put an end to all that White House visit stuff? Well,
I just think that for for a very long time,
sports were used as a as a marketing tool for patriotism,

(01:03:41):
you know what I mean. I mean, the reason why
we play the anthem prior to UH sporting events is
for it was it was literally to market to to
get more people interested. I mean, initially, since it's become
a tradition and very rarely are you thinking about jeez,
you know, now is the time for me to sign
up at my local a recruiter. But back then, that's

(01:04:01):
the reason why they launched that idea in the first place.
And there have been links to patriotism all through. We
have the flyovers. This time it's from the Coast Guard,
next time it would be from the Navy or there force.
All those things, um have been used as marketing tools.
But you're absolutely right. We live in a very divided
political space now where there isn't much agreement over um

(01:04:26):
over over those optics. And so yeah, I mean, I look,
I'm not saying I'm not saying ban it completely. You know,
I don't think there's a need to make a sweeping
ruler regulation around it or anything like that, But I mean,
it's it's just what we're in We're in a time.
We're in a place where there's a lot of athletes

(01:04:48):
who don't even don't want to throw the hat into
the ring because well, they have to answer questions if
you're not going, why are you not going? I mean
it's like I'm just it's the Why House, right, I
mean the President. I mean, who cares? I mean, it's
the White House. It's the President. We're going to get
a private tour and everything else. It's a very cool deal.

(01:05:09):
I'm going to I'm gonna I'm gonna omit the name
of the congressman who showed us around the Capitol Building. Yes,
but um, when when I was with one of the
teams I played for, we were playing against the Redskins,
and we showed up in town and it was a surprise.
We were told either on the plane orroun the bus,
like when when we land, we're gonna go straight to

(01:05:29):
the Capitol Building. We're gonna do a tour. And one
of the representatives took us around the Capitol Building, gave
us a lovely tour, super informative. And I'm a history nut.
I mean, I on my drive here, I was listening
to a podcast on the Fall of Rome, Like, yeah,
I I dig this stuff. So I'm listening to every word,

(01:05:50):
hanging on everywhere asking questions. I loved it. I mean
I didn't think about politics no once during this tour.
I didn't think about you know this, this representatives agenda
versus my own personal beliefs, not once. I I just
enjoyed the moment. I enjoyed, like you just said, history,

(01:06:11):
walking around and building that has stood for centuries, that
has been the cradle of democracy, that it is important
to our culture as Americans. And I never once thought
about politics. But I think a lot, dude, that was
let me think that was seven years ago, you know,
so a lot changed over that time, and everything is politicized.

(01:06:33):
It's it's very frustrating. I had a chance when I
worked for the Raiders in the eighties. We play the Redskins,
was second in game of the eighties six season, and
we got a private tour of the White House. Now
we didn't get into the Oval office, but I mean
what I mean, but you know, Reagan was president at
the time. But no, we the Raiders, we we got
a White House tour. They don't do hey that anymore,

(01:06:54):
you know, pre nine eleven everything else. So, um, no,
I just I'm with you. I'm like, I'm a big
his buff, you know that rich and I don't think
about any of that. You know, I've been to Washington,
d C. Many times. I've had the Capitol tours. I
get excited every time it's a nation's capital. There's so
much history there. Uh So, anyway, the Lakers will not
be there, uh to visit President Biden at the White

(01:07:16):
House and decision being made there. By the way, speaking
of the Lakers, you know the world champions last night,
they got lucky. Last night they're playing the Jazz, who
have the best record in the Western Conference. The Jazz
were missing just a few players. No Goldbert, no Mitchell,
and no Contley. There three all stars were all out
of the game. So there were you know, but you
have Lakers Jazz, no Anthony Davis, no Lebron, Jay's no Golbert,

(01:07:41):
no Mitchell, no Kindly, it was a skeleton crew. Actually
turned out to be a pretty good game. But the
Lakers without both Lebron and Anthony Davis, some people thought,
I mean, they're gonna lose like fifteen a row, and
they've been able to just hold steady humming around five hundred,
really really good, and they're still sitting at the number
five spot and the I don't think seniors are gonna

(01:08:02):
make that much of an impact, especially whence Lebron gets back.
Andre Drummond Bright that ways playing some brick good basketball
for the Lakers, right, he had twenty seven last night.
But it's it's been interesting the NBA season how it's
navigating because there are some fans coming back. The Lakers
played the Celtics, they had about nine fans at the game.

(01:08:23):
They're only allowed ten percent capacity. They got their rings,
they got their rings, They're they're starting to get back.
How engaged have you been in the NBA season or
has it been still a little bit in the back
burners for you? I know it has for me. Oh no,
it's certainly in the back burner. But I will say this,
um because you know, they're coming off of a championship
season in the bubble, I've been watching a lot of

(01:08:44):
Lakers basketball, catching up to see what they're up to
this season, and it's and I will say this, I
and I never thought of myself as this type of fan,
but because it's what we're force fed it's become what's
important to me too. The Lakers are so much less
interesting to me, or really any team that I don't

(01:09:05):
have like a rooting interest in if their stars aren't playing.
I I just it's like the the NFL. Basically virtually
any game could become interesting to me if it's a
good game. But in the n b A and and
same with baseball. Actually, I could watch a really compelling
baseball game if it's just a good game. I don't
need to know who's on the mound, who's at the plate.

(01:09:26):
Just give me a good game. Basketball, though, it's star reliant.
They've built their league that way. The players understand that.
The owners certainly do as well. They're paying these huge salaries.
When these guys sit, I am so much less interested.
If I'm watching a Clippers game and I turn it
on and Kauai is taking a load management day, I'm

(01:09:46):
less interested if I turn on the Lakers and they're
down two stars and you know, it's just it's it
doesn't have the juice. So I am. Yeah, the Nets great,
great example of another team that is just loaded for bear,
But how many times have we seen all those players
irving Duran Harden on the four retiring suddenly. I mean,

(01:10:06):
you made this deal to get LaMarcus Aldridge, and I
guess he had some kind of hard situation, like irregular heart,
a little bit of an irregular harbor, and he just
shut it down. I'm done, and I don't blame him.
I mean, it's just one of these leagues now where
if if you don't have and the Pelicans, I mean,
how many times have we gotten to see that team
full boogie with um um blanking on his name out

(01:10:29):
a duke Um They're they're young star Kyrie Irin No,
no, no no, the Pelicans, the Pelicans, Ion Williams, Zion Williamson.
Unbelievable year. By the way, did you know Zion Williamson?
Right now? I saw the stat I mean, they always
come up with these stats. So he's averaging better than
twenty six points a game, shooting better than six Only
one player, one player in the history of the NBA,

(01:10:50):
has had a season in which he finished year averaging
at least twenty six points a game while shooting at
least sixty Kevin McHale, Kevin cam I mean, that's that's
that's an unbelievable number, right and I'm looking at it. Actually,
Zion has been on the floor a lot this season.

(01:11:10):
Oh no, He's had a tremendous year. Yeah, yeah, I was.
I was thinking more like how much? How much? But seriously,
I mean, is Zion jumping off the pages of the
sports pages? Everyone buzzing about Zion Williamson's season. Here here's
the other problem, and I mean this is the problem
that baseball shares with basketball. You have so many games

(01:11:30):
that people really largely tune out this season until you're
in the stretch run, until you're into the postseason, especially
in the NBA, because even the opening rounds of the NBA,
especially with these playing games. Now, okay, I want to
get to that. On the other side, here, here's the thing.
I have a problem with a lot of sports. And
you say, a Harman, you're like an old traditionalist man. No,

(01:11:51):
you don't want to change. I'm not against change. The
question is is that for the better. Fox Sports Radio
has best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and
to listen live Steve Harvin and Rich Armburger. All Right,

(01:12:12):
if you don't understand the play in format for the NBA.
Let me explain it to you. This is this is
the way it's gonna work, all right. So it used
to be very simple. You have eight teams in the East,
eight teams in the West, one through eight. Then you
play one versus A two, seven so on. So far,
very simple format. Those days are gone. Here is the

(01:12:35):
new format. And remember there are still thirty teams in
the NBA. So instead of sixteen teams having a shot
at the postseason, now you're gonna have twenty. So when
the season ends, the only teams that will be safely
in are the top six teams in each conference. You

(01:12:57):
will then have a one game playoff, but between the
seventh place team and the eighth place team in each conference.
The winner of that game will be the seventh seed
in the playoffs. You will then have a matchup between
the ninth place team and the tenth place team. The
loser of that game is eliminated. Then the winner of

(01:13:20):
the ninth place game tenth place game plays the loser
of the seventh place game and the eighth place game,
and that team will be the eight seed. This is
this really necessary, The dumbest, the dumbest playoffs structure sports

(01:13:42):
have ever rolled out. I'm talking about all leagues, all levels.
I mean, what are we doing? This is professional basketball.
I don't I don't understand who this is for. I
don't understand what what compels them to do. You know
what I do know what it's for. Its money. I mean, look,
they're the assumption is people are going to tune in

(01:14:04):
to watch these playing games, to watch teams that are seven, eight, nine,
ten seats mostly the nine intensities have losing records, and
and the this this ownership group in the NBA, they're
feeding the geese. They're trying to get more broadcast money,
trying to ring the sponge and dilute their product product.
Mark Cuban I heard him speak out on this and

(01:14:24):
and he is one hundred percent accurate. As a matter
of fact, his star player echoing those sentiments precisely. Luke
at we're trying to get the six situ. I understand
the idea of playoff playing. You play seventy two games
to getting the playoffs, and then maybe you loose to
in a row and the playoffs. So I don't see
the point of that. And Mark Cuban backed him up saying, look,

(01:14:48):
the worst part of this approach is that it doubles
the stress of the compressed schedule. In hindsight, this approach
was an enormous mistake. So all of them are. Look,
here's the problem the NBA has when you get to
the postseason. Even with the sixteen teams, there's only about

(01:15:09):
four who have a real shot at winning. And how
many times does an eight seed be a one seed?
It's having like three times. Ever it doesn't. And and
the reason is because this this league, there's so much
uh in inequity. I guess you want to call it
between the teams that have and the teams that don't.
And when you have all the stars, or you have

(01:15:30):
more stars, or you have a team that that you
know has ascended via trade or otherwise, uh, you you
have a much better chance of winning, winning at all
than anybody else. So adding teams this equation twenty teams,
you have thirty teams in the NBA. That means two
thirds of your league gets entrance into the postseason structure.

(01:15:53):
Now look in the n C Double A Bass, the
tournament March Madness. It works because a playing team can
make it, like for example, U c l A to
the Final four. That is not going to happen in
the NBA in this structure, these teams are at the bottom.
They they're there for a reason, unless you're a Lakers team,

(01:16:13):
who's gonna you know, clock in at six in the West,
if you know Lebron and a d are healthy until
the postseason. If you're not a one or a two
seed in these conferences, you barely have a shot. Yeah,
I mean, and I can understand where the Mavericks are
coming from. So Mavericks are sitting now? Is the seventh seed?
All right? There? Two games back of the sixth seeds

(01:16:34):
Portland's so under this format they would play the eight seed,
the Memphis Grizzlies, and a one game playoff for the
seventh seed. But if they lose that game, they then
might have to play Golden State, and if they lose
that game, they're out. Yeah, it's it's it's And you're like,

(01:16:58):
I don't look, I don't feel bad for the player
is having to play two extra basketball games. I don't
feel bad for you know, the coaches, you know, because
it's a quick turnaround, and don't you want to see
Luka don chritch out there in a in a in
a in a series. There's no question this is a
bad idea. Hopefully they scrap it after this year, and

(01:17:18):
if they don't, they're going to continue to see the
fall of their ratings in the postseason like it's been
over the past bunch of years. Fox Sports Radio has
the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and

(01:17:39):
to listen live. It is a Sunday, a lot of
baseball going on today. We've been talking about the impending
NBA playoffs. NHL playoffs are right around the corner. We're
getting uh hey, before we get into draft talk, yes
and no, we gotta get back to that lot or that.
I wanted to ask if you've seen any of the

(01:18:00):
clips because I know he didn't buy the pay per
view we had spoken, um, but but the clips of
the fight that went down last night between Ben Askron
and Jake Paul. I heard that Paul knocked him out
in one Oh dude, and I mean it was a
fast fight. Is this guy a legitimate fight or what
he can crack? I'll say this, he he has power.

(01:18:20):
I don't know if he would how we would look
against like a real trained boxer against YouTube stars so
far and former NBA basketball players and now an m
M a fighter who who held belts in the UFC.
Ben Askron was an ass kicker when he was in
the UFC. And you want to talk about a guy

(01:18:41):
who had an iron chin, Ben Askron could take a pummeling.
In fact, a lot of a lot of people have
been saying he took he took a fall like he
took the payday and and and he bowed out as
soon as he he got tapped by by Jake Paul.
But I don't necessarily think that's true because the chin
only gets worse, it doesn't get better. You know, It's

(01:19:03):
not like after retirement all of a sudden, you know,
Ben Ashkin is gonna have a better chin than he had.
And he's not a boxer, he's a brawler. He's a
mixed martial arts guy, you know. I mean they fight
off their back, they don't just strike standing, and certainly
they're allowed to use their legs uh and their elbows
in mixed martial arts. So it's completely different style of fighting,

(01:19:26):
albeit a combat sport. But yeah, Jake Paul beats him,
and there's controversy, and now the question is where does
he go from here? Like the question so well, actually
before you get to that, there's even a bigger question
is why should we care? I mean, are we we
have a sport of boxing that is struggling. I mean

(01:19:47):
we've got you know, Oscar de la Hoya coming out
of retirement to get some and it and it becomes
a story right right right, you know, it hasn't fought
in fifteen years, and like it's a story and boxing
that Oscar Delahoy is going to get back in the ring.
We have Mike Tyson get back in the ring. That
was a big story. It's a sports struggling right now.

(01:20:10):
So you're telling me Jake Paul is a guy that
the fact that he's getting huge national endorsements, UM pay
per view dollars, that that I mean, frankly, Jake Paul
is he pulls numbers. What's weird is we're we're in
a time in in sports, well in combat sports, where

(01:20:33):
we're willing to see exhibition because there's it's not like
watching guys play one on one hoops. It's not like
watching guys you know, uh talk, you know, you're you're
seeing you're seeing real skin in the game. I mean,
you gotta step into a ring and take some punches
if you're gonna be in in a boxing match. And

(01:20:55):
and that I think is the reason why people are
interested in these matchups now, Jake Paul reason why he's
in these fights and people care is the same reason
why at his height, Floyd Mayweather made so much money
on fights because everybody wanted to see him lose. Jake
Paul is a real life heal. He leans into the
hatred that he receives. He is a troll. He wants

(01:21:18):
people to talk about him, and he he doesn't care
if they talk fondly or if they talk negatively about him.
He just wants the juice. And that's what he's got
and it's it's brilliant marketing. It is the same way
that Floyd Mayweather went from went from uh what what
was his nickname when he first started uh, Floyd Floyd

(01:21:42):
was was a knockout artist when he first started his
career and uh, and then he turned into money Mayweather
And when when he was when he was a kid,
I mean, he was a dynamite puncher, but then he
became older and more veteran, more savvy, and he became
a counterpuncher and a defensive bob sir, And he just
flaunted his cash and he talked trash on every single opponent,

(01:22:05):
and people just wanted to see him lose. And that's
exactly the same playbook that Jake Paul is using. All right,
I'm watching the end of this fight right now. So
basically what happened was they get in the ring and
he catches him clean with a right right to the chin.
Asking goes down, all right, So he gets up immediately,
and the official is standing between the two of them,
and then he turns to Ascot and said are you okay?

(01:22:27):
And he didn't I'm ready, I'm ready to go, and
then he stopped the fight. Yeah, he said, no, you're not,
and he waved it off. It was very strange finish.
It was very strange finish. There's people saying, all right, Ben,
ask him. I mean, if you look at Asker and
he can clearly see that he's you know, he's alortad
of got caught. Yeah yeah, yeah, But I mean he
got up immediately, he looked right at the very yell

(01:22:47):
let's go, come on, let's go, and he stopped the fight.
I mean, what's going on here? I mean, is this
have any legitimate I mean it was a straight right.
I mean definitely landed a right, but yeah, he kind
of fainted. The I'm going with this, I mean, is
he I mean, is he looking to get some like
real opponents? Well, look as as and he again he
has a three fight record, but he's boxed a YouTube star, uh,

(01:23:13):
a retired basketball player and now retired m m A.
This is the first combat fight veteran that he's been
in the ring with. But I will say this, he's
got skills. Like when you watch him spar when you
watch him train, and then when you see the fights,
he does have some power. Now do I think he'll
hold up against the boxer? Probably not, But that's where
this is moving towards. Yeah, but I'm gonna ask you, look,

(01:23:35):
I know how much of a fight fan you are.
You know how much I am. We miss it. We
had a we were finally getting an opportunity to hit
the Vegas circuit and go to a couple of fights,
you and I, and then the whole thing got shut down.
We're hoping that would come back because it's always fun.
And I, as you know, I've covered fights in Vegas
over the years, and I love the fight scene. I
really love it. Um, but where are we going right now?

(01:23:59):
I mean seriously, I mean where are we going? The
fight scene? Yes? What do you got? Sam? So actually
have a piece of sound here. It's quite it's quite funny.
It's Pete Davidson prior to the fight Saturday Night Live,
um or still I don't know if he's still on
the show. Actor And he's kind of talking, he's kind
of summing up what you guys are talking about. How
how did we arrive at this point? Let's take a listen.
You can tell how professional this event is by them

(01:24:22):
having me here. We are backstage at Jake Paul's dressing
room or locker room if you want to call with that.
And uh, you know, today's a really wild day for
boxing because it just shows, you know, how low it's
truly sunk. I think today prove the fact that if
you have in our followers, you can truly do whatever

(01:24:42):
you want. I mean, maybe if your cancer and Charlie
Damelio will become a surgeon. Uh, who knows. Tonight we
have about between Ben Aspirin, who I don't know who
that is still and I've been reading up on him
all week and Jake Paul and uh, you know they've
all suck, but you know, at least somebody's gonna get hurt.

(01:25:03):
Now back to you guys in the booth. Uh, some
real announcements over there. It's hilarious. And by the way
that the real announcers, I think we're diplow and snooped
on like you know, so look, I mean trailer to
their credit, they they but is this how far boxing
has sunk? Well? No, no, no, this has always been around.
This is the celebrity boxing matches have always always been

(01:25:25):
around and boxing you know the good when Danny Bona
Duty fight Berry Williams. Yeah, now everybody remembers the duche
You never want to look. Here's the deal. Boxing. Boxing
is in a lull, there's no question about um. But
but you were getting some interest when you had Wilder

(01:25:47):
and all the costumes and Tyson Fury. That was one
great fight. Yeah, I mean that Fury Wilder fight got
a lot of buzz. What happened, Well, what happened was
Fury figured out Wilder. Wilder couldn't fight off his off
his heel. I mean, when you when you're a great
puncher wearing that gear, he was so worn out with

(01:26:09):
the weight of the gear, which, by the way, his gear,
he chose that he was exhausted when he took it off,
and that was it. And look, for anybody who's not
a fight fan, this is this is a funny enough
story to to really repeat him full So for Tyson Fury,
Deonte Wilder too. He comes walking out in this bizarre
ordinate like headdress slash shoulder pass like fifty pounds. There

(01:26:35):
was chain mail, yeah, and this was this thing. He
always came out in a mask at very least, if
not some sort of costume. But then you know, and
you think that all sounds really weird and stupid. He
takes that off and he goes into the ring and
he arguably has the strongest punch ever in boxing. I mean,
when this guy hits you, it's like he's I mean,

(01:26:56):
it's like it's an explosive punch. So he's got this
incredible right hand. He gets into the ring and Tyson
Fury just takes it to him from the get go.
From the get go, he had a completely different strategy.
Tyson Fury, he's pretty good fighter when he's backing up,
but he spent most of the first fight backing up,
and he allowed he allowed Deontay Wilder to sort of

(01:27:18):
dictate the pacing of the Warder was so worn out
from taking this gear off, and Fury picked up on
it immediately. Well, Furies planned from the jump was I'm
going to I'm going to be the aggressor. I'm gonna
keep on my toes. He's gonna be backing up in.
Wilder has never fought that way, could not, And then
after the fight says, yeah, jeez, you know what it

(01:27:39):
was that fight. If it weren't for carrying all that
that costume equipment into me, my legs were tired. It
was the worst excuse ever. I don't know if we're
going to see the trilogy. They're working that out, but
but boxing was heading in the right direction for a
short time and then it's deflated again. Yeah. Now we're
down to Jake Paul and Oscar Delaya, well, Mike Tyson

(01:28:03):
and Vander Holyfield and come yeah, Vanders coming back. Yeah,
Senior store. Yeah, dude, they do it in golf. People
love it. I'm I'm not. I'm not. I I I
just box. Seriously, back in the day, I told you
I was in Vegas every month, every single sometimes multiple times,

(01:28:26):
fight after fight after fight. Great stuff. Again, I like,
I like this part of this, and and this is
really the only part of it. I like, if everything's
on the up and up, if these guys aren't taking falls,
if these guys are actually going to the ring to
fight each other, I mean, you're taking real risk when
you when you get into a boxing match, I mean
you aren't. One punch could do a lot of damage

(01:28:49):
to you. So I I I that's the part of
this I above any other of these, you know, sort
of farcical ploys to money grabs, whatever you want to
call him. Boxing matches, even between celebrities, there is some risk,
there is some skin in the game. So it has
my interest from that standpoint, and virtually no other stampo. Alright,

(01:29:09):
So on the other side, though, I want to get
back to the draft. Okay, I mean it's very frustrating
talking boxing right now. It's not great. 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 s

(01:29:30):
R to listen live rich Armburger. For hot water that
never runs out, go tanklos and Navy and Navy and
Tankless water heaters provide endless hot water for spa light comfort.
Does it tankless made simple dot Com and save hundreds
with local rebates. Tankless made Simple dot Com. Alright, eleven
days away from the NFL Draft, and there are many

(01:29:55):
mock drafts that are predicting that something will happen in
this draft. It has never happened in any NFL draft,
and that is that the first four picks of the
draft will all be quarterbacks. We've had three last time,
I believe was in when we had the first three
picks were Tim Couch by the expansion Browns, Donovan McNabb

(01:30:21):
and Achilles Smith to bust and one guy that had
a great career. All right, So that's how that worked there. Yeah,
Tim Couch really proved us all not easy when you're
joining a new expansion. I didn't do him any favors.
And and frankly, like you know, we're talking about exceptional
athletes at the top and exceptional players at a college
football at the top of all these drafts, and it's

(01:30:43):
amazing how often those skills at the college level do
not translate to the NFL. And so even though these
executives and these scouts and these teams, they're paying all
these people really well, and this is their job. You
just need to find the guy to lead our organization.
About sixty percent of drafted quarterbacks in the first round

(01:31:08):
end up not even becoming franchise quarterbacks. It's incredibly difficult
to get It's very difficult, no question about that. But
everyone is in search of and so they'll roll the dice.
And look what the Jets did. They they had the
third overall pick for Sam Donald. They dumped him, didn't
even get a first in return, a second or fourth
and a sixth for the guy to clear the space

(01:31:30):
for another rookie quarterback, Zach Wilson, presumably with the second
overall pick, new head coach. And you know they didn't.
They didn't draft Sam darnaldin so the forty Niners moved
up to number three. And when you hear them moving up,
it tells you they got somebody in mind. There's a
reason you move up in the draft, move up because

(01:31:50):
there is a guy you want and you think the
only way we're gonna get him is that we're gonna
move up to number three. So when all these mac
Jones rumors starting saying, well, you didn't have to move
up to number three to get mac Jones, I mean,
I mean, And we asked this question a week ago.
If you have all thirty two NFL teams have their
draft boards, how many teams do you believe at a

(01:32:13):
thirty two have mac Jones listed in front of both
Justin Fields and Tray Lance at a thirty two? Again,
I I said this last week and I'll say it again.
Depending on system fit, it could be more than you think. Really, yeah,
because a lot of times there are coordinators and coaching
staffs who their mantras we need to find players who

(01:32:34):
fit our system, who can handle what we do here,
and and or they're not necessarily looking for what Tray
Lance and Justin Field offer at the quarterback position. Maybe
they're presumably more interested in a pocket passer who you know,
ran a pro style offense in college. Now technically tray

(01:32:55):
Lance ran a pro style offense in North Dakota State.
How do you know who do you play? But that's
the problem is it's an FC and he had one
full season and it was a year ago. Look here,
here's a wret shirt fresh. Here's my thought process. This,
this whole, this whole mac Jones right, this smoke screen
that some people are crediting the forty Niners with saying, yeah,

(01:33:18):
they're the ones who put this out there, because it
first came from oh what's his name? Whose buddies with
Kyle Shanahan, um and he oh sims and and he's
the one who floated it, and Shanahan wanted it out
and so Chris sim said that they're taking mac Jones
and blah blah blah blah blah. Well, we don't know
that came from Shanahan. He never said where he got

(01:33:38):
his source from. And it's very possible that this could
have come from a different team who said, yeah, we
got word that the Niners are interested in mac Jones,
and that's the reason why they was even further than that,
they were saying that, you know, Kyle Shannahan, John lynch
At Odds, you know, back and forth. I got a
suggestion here. I gotta give you a suggestion, Uh, forty

(01:33:58):
Niners stay at number three because there is one player
that I'm looking at at the top of the top
ten picks, that to me stands out clearly from all
the rest. And if you think about it, if the
forty Niners take this guy at number three, it's your
best move. And that's Kyle Pitts. I when you got

(01:34:21):
George Kittle. And if you haven't really seen Kyle Pitts
at Florida, this guy was such a mismatch it was ridiculous.
You know, he passes, he dropped this year zero. He's
a huge target. He's a nightmare defensively because you don't
know what to match up against. And there is no matchup.

(01:34:43):
Safety's corners, linebackers, nobody matches up with this guy and
all that's why you already have George Kittle on the field.
If I'm Kyle Shanahan offensive coach, and i go into
a game where I'm creating a nightmare for defenses Kittle
and Pits, I don't need a superstar quarterback to get

(01:35:07):
on the ball. Jimmy Garoppolo can get the ball from
point A to point B. Maybe he doesn't have all
the throws. But if I'm creating a weekly nightmare for
my opposition, all right, what is our attack Now, you
were there in New England when he had Aaron Hernandez
and Grock and it was devastating because you had to
superstar tight end talents and as a defense, you're like,

(01:35:31):
all right, pick your poison. You're the forty Niners with
Kyle Pitts and George kittle Wolf. I mean, that's that's
what I would do if I were to forget the
quarterback situation. You got a competent quarterback. He's twenty two
and eight as a starter. Okay, Garoppolo is not the
best quarterback in the league, but he's far from the worst.
But if I get Kyle Pitts and put him in

(01:35:53):
that offense with all the defensive weapons you have, health
is a big part of it. But man, you have
an opportunity. You're not going to see a guy like
this anytime soon at the tight end position. I would
be all over him. Well, I I agree with his talent. Uh,
everything you said about who he is as a player,
like I double stamp it. He's incredible and he is

(01:36:13):
a matchup nightmare. Now, he's not much of a blocker.
He's more of a receiver, there's no question about that.
But he's a matchup nightmare because he's used to the
releases from the line of scrimmage where a tight end
lines up and and he's big and he's fast, and
like you said, he's got great hands, and he wins
those tough catches those balls. So I look at I

(01:36:35):
look at Pits as probably the best prospect in this draft,
but I also look at the forty Niners and I
think about where John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan are now.
They got extended after winning their or excuse me, going
to the Super Bowl, winning the NFC championship game. Um,
and it was another six years. But and it's a

(01:36:58):
big butt. We know this league looks like you have
two bad seasons, you're you don't have much time left
the house of those injuries. Oh no, I get it,
but injuries, injuries. People have a short memory. You can
make that excuse. But then the other side of that
argument is, yeah, those there's a lot of teams who

(01:37:19):
battled injuries and still a good season. You're gonna start
over with a rookie quarterback. You talk about robbing the dice.
It because because Jimmy Garoppolo isn't the answer long term,
there's there's no doubting that um. And while Kyle Pitts
is a really really how you're going to see Kyle
Pitts in this You're You're not gonna see a lot

(01:37:39):
of quarterbacks in these drafts. But my point is, when's
the next time you're gonna see you think Justin Fields
is a is a guaranteed lock franchise quarterback? Do I
think he is? No? I don't think any of these
guys are guarantee lock uh quarterback in this draft? There's
no such things my But I look at Kyle his talent,

(01:38:05):
let me let from an ownership's perspective, because that's where
you have to look at this from. So I'm the
owner of this team, and my coach and my g
g M, who I just extended two years ago. They
draft a tight end, and we're all looking at each
other in this ownership ship group thinking to ourselves, well,
we thought were going to get a quarterback. That's I

(01:38:25):
know they explained it to us that they're really high
on this Pits guy, But this is we traded up
to get a tight end. Okay, I mean we'll trust
the experts and say this season starts going sideways. I mean, look,
I mean, that could happen any team. You don't know,
but hang on, now you have Now you have three
other quarterbacks. It's not just justin Fields, it's also Trey Lance,

(01:38:46):
it's also Mac Jones, who you could have drafted a
third overall, assuming that it's Wilson and Lawrence gone already
one and two, and then I'm the owner and I'm
supposed to sit here and be like, Okay, we got
this guy Pitts who's pretty good, but he's hurt again.
We're on our backup. Pitts has taken a little time
learning the offense. And I'm looking at either a Fields,
b Lance or Jones with whatever team they got drafted by,

(01:39:10):
and one of them is going to have some success
the rookie year. I guarantee Kyle Pitts on that team
would have an immediate impact. They are going quarterback. You
do not move Heaven and Earth. I agree with you.
You're not moving up to three to take a tight end.
They will. They're gonna regret it, that's my prediction. They're
They're absolutely gonna regret that decision. And I and I
have I've known John Lynch Jr. Since he was in

(01:39:32):
college and he's a really smart guy, so ultimately he's
gonna make a smart decision. But all I know is
Garoppolo is not the worst quarterback in this league. You
might have a chance to suddenly have George Kittle and
Kyle Pitts. I'm with you. I think that is an
that is you that puts every defensive playing matchup. What
do you do you bought? You can't put these guys

(01:39:53):
in one on one coverage? The downside of keeping Jimmy
Garoppolo and the what if he gets hurt again like
he's been every single season and he's played as a starter. Uh,
stack that against you know, the what if of what
if also Kyle Pitts doesn't work out? And then stack
that against what if one of these other quarterbacks has
a great season that we could have drafted a third. Overall,

(01:40:13):
you got problems joining us right now? Is he so
graciously does every single Sunday Fox Sports Radio, MLB Insider.
He's with the MLB Network, he's with the NHL Network,
the one and only John Paul Morosi and JP. We
we've been talking a lot, not only nationally but locally
about this uh anticipated weekend series between the Dodgers and

(01:40:36):
the Padres, and so far it's been as intense as
we expected it to be, but a disappointment for pottery
fans that they're on the short end of two games.
I want to go on the Dodgers right at the start,
right now. The Vegas over under at the start of
the year for wins for the Dodgers was a hundred
and two and a half. That number has grown to

(01:40:57):
a hundred and four and a half. Do you know
few teams have won that many games. I mean, if
the Dodgers stay healthy, is this a team that you
think could honestly challenge the record of one sixteen wins
in a season. Well, it's a great question. Good Afternoon
is always guys always loved catching up every Sunday. I
would be surprised if they get there to where the

(01:41:19):
Mariners were No. One. That is an awful lot of wins.
And this division is really good. The Giants are better
than expected, and the Padres, as we've seen this weekend,
are an equal foe for the Dodgers, and so to
get to that number would represent a tremendous achievement. I
think even getting to one oh five is almost in

(01:41:40):
the modern game. Uh, nearly unthinkable, but this team could
probably do it. And let's remember they're coming off a
year last season, which again was a brevigate in sixty games,
but by winning percentage the best they've ever had in
Los Angeles. So that was a tremendous team. Last year
they won the World Series. In some respects, they're even
better are now. I think we've seen the last couple

(01:42:02):
of nights in this series, the Dodgers bullpen depth has
won the day. They've had four different pictures now record
to save After Victor Gonzalez last night, you saw, even
even as the inning began and trying to give up
a base runner to begin um, they were still able
to negotiate things and get out and win the ball game.
So I think the Dodgers have proven the last couple

(01:42:23):
of days they're still the best team in the division.
They're still the best team in baseball. And I'm gonna
watch very carefully to see if I see more signs
from Tatiss beyond just one really good swing on Friday
that tell me that he's truly back to being the
game changing player that he was last year. JP. What's
your definition of a rivalry? And do you believe that
the Padres and Dodgers can be considered true rivals as

(01:42:48):
an excellent cross sport question there, Rich, because certainly, as
we know and have documented many times, I'm speaking to
you today from Ann Arbor, and the football rival between
Michigan Ohio State has not been very uh even in
the last couple of decades, I would say, but it's
still a rivalry because of the background and the culture

(01:43:09):
that goes into it. I think geographically it's a rivalry
from the Dodgers and Padres and the things, and culturally
it's a rivalry, as you guys both know from living
out there, So there's no question that it's a rivalry
in that respect. Is it an equal rivalry? Is it?
Is it a competitive rivalry based on championships? One? No,

(01:43:29):
and right now it's not. So it depends on how
you view it. I I would describe it, yes, as
a rivalry, but it is not a rivalry that is
even or necessarily all that close at the moment. The Padres, though,
can level it. They can they can close the ground
before the season is up, but there are some significant
things that have to happen, and and I think the

(01:43:51):
depth of the Dodgers just comes into play. And and
before we get too carried away and say, well, it's
it's all about Tatis getting back to being himself. Let's
remember Belier didn't play. Belier's on the i L right now,
and and he's an m v P player for the Dodgers,
And and what have they done? Will they bring in
Zach McKinstry from Central Michigan And he's playing great. So

(01:44:12):
that just shows you that the Dodgers, they have had
some negative things happen to them, but their overall depth,
their overall the payroll, yes, for their player development apparatus,
it's just so good. It is just it's the best
in the game, guys. And they are the center right
now in the sport in so many different ways. And
and for the Padres to be able to level what is, yes,

(01:44:33):
the rivalry, but for them to make it into a
competitive rivalry, they have a lot of work ahead of
them this season. All right, let's get back to Tatis. Yesterday,
a future Hall of Fame picture picture took full advantage
of him um an over anxious young player, and Kershaw
struck him out three times. And we look at the

(01:44:54):
numbers only seven games. Only seven games, four hitting, seven
errors and seven games. He is pressing big time. Um,
how concerned are you right now? I'm more only talking
seven games, We're talking a couple of weeks of the season.
The shoulders situation. We still don't know it's an X factor.

(01:45:17):
In fact, how about this? John paul A Rossi, Kevin Acey,
who you know covers the podres for the ut we
had him on Tuesday, asked him about whether or not
we were gonna see Tatis this weekend. He says, I'll
put it this way. Talking to people in the organization,
they say we're far more likely to see him this
weekend than we are in September, meaning that they understand

(01:45:40):
that the injury situation is not going to correct itself.
It's only going to be corrected through surgery. So if
you're the pot raise night now, knowing that you've guaranteed
him three d forty million dollars, do you have any
concerns at all? I think you definitely have concerns. Uh,
it's a question of what you're worried about. You you

(01:46:00):
can't look back and say, oh, we shouldn't have signed
him to the extension two months ago because It was
actually at the time regarded as certainly, there's obviously risking
any long term contract in any walk of life, especially
for a professional baseball player. But it was a logical
deal to sign at the time. Uh no one at

(01:46:23):
the time. If you go back and listen to every
minute of radio on this network and others in February
that said, oh, I think he's gonna be hitting under
two d uh in the middle of April, and and
there's gonna be panic about what the situation is. So
I you can't second guess that, but you do have
to find a way to have a meeting of the

(01:46:43):
minds of the people whose opinions really matter here. And
and that's his manager, as GM, a close friend or
two on the team, and and Fernando to say, listen,
we understand you're dealing with this. Don't worry about what
people like me or others you know, other critics or
analysts are saying. We all know that you're not on

(01:47:05):
our percent. Just give us what you've got. Your presence
is good enough. Don't worry about what the numbers look like,
because they're not. The numbers this year are not gonna
be reflective of who you are, so don't even worry
about them. Don't even have that on your radar because
you're not physically on our percent. Just play the best
you can and richly you know what that's like as
a pro athlete, just that the pride factor of wanting

(01:47:27):
to be the best representation of yourself and your family
that you can be, but not but knowing that you're
not there. And I think that's really a struggle for him,
and and every great player goes through where they're not
feeling good. It's just unfortunate for a minute's happening right
after signing his mega deal that has amped up all
the the attention and excitement around him. It's it's difficult,
but I think that to your point, see that there

(01:47:49):
is uh an acknowledgement that probably uh that he may
not be better, that that it's not going to get
better by playing this year, and the numbers are just
not gonna be what you normally expect to be. And
the one thing that I would say that worries me
the most if I'm the Padres right now, is that
his last at bat last night, for example, you could

(01:48:10):
just tell that he was anxious. He was jumping as
if he was not sure if he was totally comfortable
up there, if he's gonna be able to drive the ball.
You could almost look like and this is my own
read on it, and I can't speak for him, but
that he was he was eager for the at bat
to be over one way or the other relatively quickly.
Whereas when the superstar is feeling like himself he's up there,

(01:48:32):
he's soaking in every eyeball, every bit of attention, every
person watching around the world and saying, yes, this is
exactly where I want to be, and I'm gonna relish
this moment and all the attention. I don't think Tatis
was there last night. I don't disagree with you, and
I don't think that was by the padres Tatis himself,
for the league's design. It's just a terrible circumstance that

(01:48:54):
here injures this shoulder leading into the season, following that
jig Antic signing. Hey we got about a minute left,
jp um the thought process on the runner at second
and extra innings, this is now really kind of early
this season, taking uh taking, taking the mantle of sports

(01:49:15):
debates that people are dissatisfied with. Do you think there's
a better way to shorten games and extras. And if
you if you have the answer, I'm going to name
you Commissioner. I'll tell you this. I love the rule.
I love the rules since it came into being. Uh
and I'm gonna stand by it. And and the reason
is and I'll I will make this by A number

(01:49:38):
one rationale for why the rule needs to be as
it is is that when you have a eighteen nineteen
inning game that gets out of that gets out of control,
and you've got a kid who comes up and throws
five scoreless and then gets sent down after the game
because they need the roster spot for the next day,
even though you do a great job in the process,
I I just hate for that kid. I can't. I

(01:50:02):
don't like any scenario in which we are creating situations
where anything less than the best players are on the
major league roster. And too often kids who do a
good job, young players who do a good job get
sent to the minor leagues after the game is over
because of the way the game played out in the
overall bullpen situation from the next day. So I'm protecting

(01:50:24):
that young player. That's that's why I realized that that
by and large, There'll be some games that swing won't
way or the other, and maybe you win something, you
lose some. I'm a general believer that things will even
out at the end, and my heart would break for
the kids that would get sent down in the process.
So I'm rich I, I love you, but I gotta
stay with the rule as it is right now. Alright, Wow,
Commissioner Morossi reporting. I appreciate it, guys, Thank you so much. Well.

(01:50:49):
Sitting here with Rich JP, I want to say this.
We both love you. We don't like that's okay. We
are united, are stance again exactly, which is why we
love talking every week. JP. We always appreciate the time.
We'll talk to you next week. I love you guys
every week my friends absolutely. By the way, following him,

(01:51:11):
he's an amazing follow on Twitter at John with no age,
no age necessary, John Morossi, uh and find out not
just about what's going on with Major League Baseball anything NHL.
He's all over it. 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

(01:51:31):
I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live.
Steve Iro, Rich Hormburger. All right, I know. I I
hope you're ready for a surprise, but you're ready for this.
Yesterday Annie Firman and I talked to Pete Rose, whoa
Pete Rose. I give any credit, he and Pete have

(01:51:53):
known each other. I've known Pete as well. But we
had we had Pete on. We went like a half
hour straight. I wish we could repeat all the stories
we had. By the way, is all of that complete interview?
I say complete because there was some editing while he
was on the um is still off right Fox Sports
Radio dot com. To my knowledge, the interview in full
is on Fox Sports Trader dot com, and it is

(01:52:15):
all right. I want to take a clean portion of
that interview because we were talking about, just with John
Palmer Rosie, the state of the game, and you, you
and I are on the same page with this runner
on second base thing. But here's what here's what Pete
Rose said about the current state of the game. I,
like all commissioners of baseball, I'm just tired. I don't

(01:52:36):
know about you guys, but I'm just tired of changing
all these rules in baseball because they don't change any
rules and helps the game become a more interesting game
to watch. And I'm 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,

(01:52:57):
that's all they play for, that's all they Why do
you put a guy on second and extra any game
to start the extra and knees off with what the
hell kind of rule is that? Hear that now? And
here's the thing I've always known about Pete Rose, and
I've known him for over thirty years. He loves baseball,
you know, you know the taught me being a stat guy.

(01:53:19):
Nothing Pete is. Pete is a stat freak about baseball
who just also happened to be one of the greatest
baseball players of all time. This is a guy that
has unbelievable passion. He just heard what he said, what
you and I are echoated? What is that? What are
these gimmicks you? How is this making the game better?
And when you'd hear it from a man that loves

(01:53:39):
the game more than anyone, even though they turned their
back on this guy that hasn't given up his love
of the game. No, no, of course not. But he
he's sitting there watching games because that's what he does now, right,
he makes picks and sells his picks. I mean, this
is Pete, Pete. I love one of the things I
said at the end of the interview. The thing I
love most about you, Pete is that you never apologize
for being Pete. You admit I've made mistakes, Yes, I

(01:54:00):
made mistakes. You never apologize for being who you are.
And that's one thing I love about Pete. But when
when Pete Rose is saying something like that, you need
to pay attention because he loves the game. Yeah, well
here here you know my thought process. I am one
okay with ideas. I don't necessarily love change all the time,

(01:54:23):
but I'll adapt to change if the idea is a
good one. And sometimes I'm willing to test an idea
I don't think is a good idea, just to see
if maybe my mind could be changed. And I felt
that way about the Runner on second last year. I
was like, let's see how this looks. Let's yeah, I mean,
I'm I'm game. I let's see how it looks. Let's
see if it accomplishes what they hope to accomplish. And

(01:54:44):
I agree with Pete twofold one. It doesn't do much
to shorten these games. It can, there's no question it can.
But I mean, we had a five hour game on Friday.
Did it shorten that game? Now? And and and then
on top of it doesn't make the game more exciting
in my opinion, it doesn't. It really, it's not. It's
not like that isn't a reason for me to tune

(01:55:06):
into uh an extra ending ball game like, oh jeez,
you know and and boyd this is gonna make this
way more No, it doesn't build excitement. It doesn't necessarily
do what you were hoping it would accomplish in shortening
games to get rid of the rule d H. I
like the fact that they did d H in the
National League last year. Guess what. I like the idea,

(01:55:26):
let's do all you're gonna get that next year. This
is the last year you're ever gonna see pictures. So
my Polish, we can try new ideas. Yeah, if they
don't work, it's okay to scrap them and say, yeah, yeah,
you know, that was a one year trial. We screwed
it up. The NFL, doesn't They changed the p I rules.
You could review all of them, and then they went,
you know what, bad idea. Never mind, we're getting rid
of all that nonsense. The games better for it. You

(01:55:47):
gotta hear the Pete Rose Joe DiMaggio shower story, would
you Sam? One of the all time stories? And have
you ever heard? What do you think? It's pretty entertaining
little lude and very entertaining, very lude. Fox Sports Radio
all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com

(01:56:09):
and within the I Heart Radio app search f s
R to listen live. Oh, the conversation we have had
since we last spoke to you out there, it's been
It's all Pete Rose's fault. It's what we call bathroom humor, guys,
a lot of bathroom humor here that we cannot share
with the rest of you. All Right, very busy day today.
We've got all kinds of baseball going on right now.

(01:56:30):
We're well a couple of weeks into the season. By
the way, some guys are just off to uh some
fantastic starts around Major League based. So I know we've
been a little maybe over the top about Fernando Tatis Jr.
Uh And his struggles very early on the season. I'll
tell you one guy that never seems to struggle at all.
Is this guy named Mike Trot You might have heard him, uh,

(01:56:54):
Mike Trout. In thirteen games this year, rich is hitting
three eighties six, has a five six on base percentage.
He has an o PS of twelve seventy six. So
this is a guy who, in nine full major league
seasons has never finished lower than fifth in the m

(01:57:15):
v P voting, In fact, only twice as he's He's
finished first three times, second, four times fourth, and fifth
in nine seasons. And he continues to do this. What
is it gonna take for anybody to take notice of
Mike Trout, who, already already a decade into his career,
is without question, one of the greatest baseball players ever. Well,

(01:57:39):
we noticed the accomplishment, We appreciate the dominance, but part
and parcel with being great at something is the ability
to market your talent. And and there a lot of
players who are extremely talented are also really talented marketers.

(01:58:01):
Kobe Bryant comes to mind, and Lebron James and Michael Jordan's,
I mean, go down the list. A lot of them.
A lot of the stars, you know, are not only
unbelievably talented in the field of play, but they're also
tremendous marketers. Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, I mean, go through
the list, Aaron Rodgers, these guys know how to get there.

(01:58:21):
For Drew Brees, exceptional marketer, talent, no question. But to
be a star you have to be both. Is he
like I'm gonna give you an example. Is he like
the Tim Duncan of perfect Major League Baseball? So let's
go through another list of super talented athletes who aren't stars.

(01:58:42):
They never were, they never wanted to be, but they're
not stars. Tim Duncan is a great example. Kawai Leonard
is another example. I mean, he's playing in the second
largest market in this country. He's playing with the team,
uh you know, arguably could win the championship this year
and has one of finals MVP twice in his career
in championships. And he's largely anonymous. He doesn't have a

(01:59:04):
big following on Twitter. He doesn't because he doesn't market himself.
So he's a He's an NBA great, just like Tim
Duncan was, but he's not a star. He hasn't ascended
in that way. Um Philip Rivers terrific quarterback, great quarterback,
maybe a Hall of Famer, but was never a start.
Now again, Mike Trout is a dominant, once in a

(01:59:26):
lifetime player. We may never I'm included, I'm thirty five,
may never live to see another position player that dominant
for the rest of my life. But he's largely anonymous
because he refuses to market himself. I gave you are
the consummate Angels fan out there. He've been a Trout
fan from day one. I mean he's doing it again.

(01:59:47):
I mean that there's there's no off seasons for Mike Trott.
He just picks up where he left off and he
just continues to put up these ridiculous numbers. And assuming
he stays healthy for another ten years, I mean, we're
we're gonna see the all time list. I mean he's
gonna be You're at the top of all of these. So,
I mean, are you okay with that as an Angels fan?
But by the way, the Angels are playing some decent

(02:00:07):
baseball at least this year. Yeah. I mean, Mike Trout
in a way is the perfect Angel because that's kind
of the Angels franchises, you know, the little brother to
the Ellie Dodgers out here where all the attentions on them. Um,
the Angels have always had kind of under the radar stars,
Tim Salmon, of course, Jared Weaver, I mean a lot
of their But they're not Mike Trout generational player. No,

(02:00:28):
I know, and um, but no, I mean I can't
explain what he means to angel fans. I mean, he's
and the commitment he made to the franchise staying with them.
But well, I mean that's a great question of what
he means to Angels fans. I mean, I mean, I
think I think part of being a star, right Like
Reggie Jackson was that kind of a guy. I mean
he was, I mean he was, and he wanted that attention.

(02:00:52):
But I'm talking about players because if I own a
team and I'm paying Mike trust the highest paid player
in baseball, and based on what he does as a player,
he's earned that, he earned the right to be the
highest paid player in baseball. But is he putting butts
and seats? In other words, people are like we have
here in Orange County or even in the Los Angeles area,

(02:01:13):
the best player of this generation, hands down, and I
have a chance to see him. How many people are
running to the ballpark to see do you ever watch
an Angels? Well, I'm asking you as the Angels hacked
and right now with Otani, you have a double dip there,
another generational player. Yeah. So the excitement of Angel Stadium

(02:01:35):
right now is is at a Yeah. Now, we do
need to see him doing the postseason. That's the frustrating
thing is that the division has been so tough over
the years with Astros. Now that they're not cheating, all
of a sudden they've lost what six seventh straight. Um,
I do want to say I fell into the trap,
and this is I would hardly blame you, guys. I
played Fantasy Baseball. I had the number two pick and

(02:01:55):
I said, well, look, I know that I know Dodger
fans picking first. He's taking Mookie Bets. I can take
Trout or Tattoos. And I'm telling you, guys, I kind
of bought into the hype this year and I was like,
you know what, this year with all the tattoos hype,
I want to have Tattis And I picked him number
two and I regretted it the next day. Why did

(02:02:18):
I do that over my guy Mike Trout? Well, I
mean it's obviously early with Tott. The bigger concern isn't
whether he'll eventually put numbers up. He'll put up numbers,
but if he's even gonna stay healthy this year. Yeah,
it's it's been the question mark over a Tatis Jr.
His whole career so far. And it's a short career.
But is he going to be one of those players
who you can expect to play a hundred fifty a

(02:02:40):
hundred forty eight games a year, you know? Or is
he going to be one of these guys who you know,
I mean, at some point he's going to have something
that pulls him off the field for twenty days, for
for a month, you know. And and that's been that's
been the big question mark. Put back to Trout for
just a minute, to put a sort of put a
bow on this. I look, I I love I love

(02:03:01):
that that ideal. I like the idea of a guy
with a workman's attitude who shows up every day at
the ballpark. He's there to do a job and to
do it to the absolute best of his ability, and
he's naturally gifted, and he works at it and you
can tell it's important to him and and truly, like
Gavin said, Angel fans are spoiled because not only do

(02:03:24):
you got this guy Trout who's just i mean punishing
the baseball every single season, but you have this added
benefit of this two way player like show Heyo Tani,
who has really I mean think about it, a Japanese
ballplayer comes to your team, you're Mike Trout and and
he is the marketable star. It's incredible how that's happened.

(02:03:48):
But but truly it is. You don't see Trout and
commercials you don't see I mean, he actually does a
few national commercials, but his presence says I'm like, oh wow,
there he is he so so there's a lack of
what they call Q score, there's a lack of you know, recognizable. Uh,
he's not recognizable even most sports fans, which is a

(02:04:10):
shame because he's so talented. But um, but yeah, I
would prefer let's put it this way, what do I
prefer if I'm watching a team, if I'm rooting for
a team, Like you know, we're just talking about Fernando
Tatis Jr. So who knows what the rest of his
career is gonna look like. We hope he stays healthy,
and he's considered the next star, the next face of
Major League Baseball. He's on the cover of the show

(02:04:31):
this year. But what I prefer to have a guy
who is marketable or a guy who's consistent. I'm taking
the consistent guy. I'm taking Mike Trout every time. I
don't care if your name is on the paper, I
don't care if you're on the commercials. I don't care
if you're gonna make the flashiest play that night. Just

(02:04:51):
be consistent. That's what I care as if I have
a rooting interest. I mean, it's hard to put it
into words. I mean, the the amitment he showed. I
remember there was an article coming out a couple of
years ago and it was about what what's the decision
gonna be with Trout? Is he gonna stay, Is he's
gonna become a Yankee Red Sox? And in the article
they talked about what he thought of the franchise earlier.

(02:05:14):
You forgot he was picked at the end of the
first round. He was like second pick by the Angels
in that draft. Back to back um and the commitment
that the franchise showed to him early on stuck with
him and he's given that back to them, and he's
been through years and years of different rosters and bad

(02:05:35):
pitching and all this. Look at James Harden, that franchise
did everything they could, brought ever brought. Russell Westbrook did
all this, and he still was like, no, I'm out
and just forced his way out. So Trout's a different
kind of cat. Maybe that's what makes them so great.
Maybe that you know, you know, the irony is when
you talk about all time greats and you can still
make an argument that Ted Williams was the greatest hitter

(02:05:56):
in the history of baseball and he only got to
one World Series and he had five singles. He had
two hundred in that series. And it's always there three
batty Mike trasts the same way as one postseason experience.
They got swept by the Royals eighty three. That is
his career postseason average, the greatest, greatest of all time, right,
and you know he's dying give me back. So I

(02:06:19):
don't have to sit there staring at that o eighty
three postseason batting average for the rest of my life.
I think about somebody else who's in southern California and
has had post season blow ups like Clayton Kershaw. Look,
but finally he got over it by winning. Yeah, and
and it was and he contributed and he didn't have
that blow up game, and it was it was big

(02:06:40):
for him. But even if he didn't have that experience,
it doesn't change the narrative. Like you know, greatness achieved
over a hundred sixty two games of the regular season,
that consistently is worthy of the admiration that that both
of those players have received. But again, Clayton even more
marketable star than Mike Trout. He makes that for Mike

(02:07:01):
Trout just doesn't want to be that guy. All right.
On the other side, based on what you just talked about,
the fact that the fact that Clayton Kersha had no
yet that he didn't have no success but not the
same success in the season and the regular season certainly
never hurt his status. And yet sports are different when
it comes to just how important the postseason is as

(02:07:24):
opposed to the regular season. We had a prime example
of that with an argument about a recently retired player.
We'll share that with you coming up next. Fox Sports
Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports radio dot
Com and within the I Heart Radio app search f

(02:07:44):
s R to listen live Steve Harman and a rich Armburgery.
By the way, that Padre Dodger game is just on
Blake Snell. If you don't remember, Game six of the
World Series. Raised down three games to two. They needed
a big game and Snell was dominant in that game.
Mookie bats, Corey Seeger, Justin Turner the top three hitters

(02:08:05):
in the lineup against Snell in that game over six
six strikeouts, and then they pulled him. With the top
of the lineup coming up in that seventh inning, they
pulled him out of the game. Bets doubles and the
rest was history and that was the end of the series.
By the way that that they yanked him because near

(02:08:27):
I mean it was it was a mass that was
obvious that he had lost it. Um Snell is picking
up where he left off today, one to three, first inning.
Who won't is Snell? By the way, his last start
for the Pottery has only won two thirds of an inning.
H He just struck out Turner to end the first.
So Dodgers and Podres underway, we've been talking. We were
just talking about Mike Trout and the fact that no

(02:08:50):
one's gonna hold it if he never plays another postseason
game and he finishes with an O eighties three postseason average, Uh,
it's not going to prevent him from being probably unanimous
Hall of Famer. Baseball doesn't work that way. Willie Mays
played in four World Series, you know, I mean home
runs he hit in those four World Series combined zero.

(02:09:10):
No one ever talks about that with Willie Mays ever.
But when we talk about other sports, the impact of
the postseason for many has a much greater impact than
anything that goes on in the regular season. And the
real test of this, without question, is gonna be Julian Edelman.
The second that Edelman retired, and remember he retired after

(02:09:31):
failing his physical and he just decided, I don't want
to play for another organization. And by the way, smart
moved by him, very smart move. But anyway, so he
wraps up a twelve year career with the Patriots, and
the second that he retired rich the Pro Football Hall
of Fame, the actual Pro Football Hall of Fame put
out a membo saying eligible for the Hall of Fame.

(02:09:55):
In so the Hall of Fame even putting it out
there someday you're coming man and you're eligible in and
there was an immediately backlash. People say hold On made
a second. Zero Pro Bowls. There's no There's not a
single player in the Pro Bowl era since nineteen fifty

(02:10:18):
that's in the Hall of Fame. They had zero Pro Bowls.
Not only zero Pro Bowls, not only was he never
an All Pro, he never even received a vote, not
a single vote ever. And then on top of that,
what makes it interesting is the guy that preceded him
as the possession guy for the Patriots, Wes Welker. Wes

(02:10:40):
Welker went to five straight Pro Bowls, was a two
time first team All NFL player, led the NFL and
receptions three times, played in three Super Bowls to in
New England one with Denver cut twenty six passes in
those games. Oh but they lost all three of those games.
There's no ground swell for Wes Welker to get into

(02:11:01):
the Hall of Fame, despite the fact that he dwarfs
the numbers of Jillian Edelman, But because Edelman was on
three Super Bowl winners, had a Super Bowl MVP award,
second all time in these career categories. As far as
receptions everything postseason. Edelman is a very credible Hall of

(02:11:22):
Fame Canada. Too many people former teammate of years. So
I mean, where do you stand on this whole dynamic
of how much impact a player has in the postseason,
way outweighing anything he may have done in the regular season.
When you're talking about his legacy. Well, uh, I'll I'll

(02:11:42):
first start by saying, Julian is inarguably one of the
hardest working human beings I've ever met. This guy was
the seventh round Kent State quarterback when drafted to the Patriots.
We came into the league the same year we're both
drafted in two thousand nine. I was in the fourth round,
he was in the seventh. And uh. I remember when

(02:12:05):
when we were going through our first training camp together
and and we're all spending time at the hotel. There
were practices where he was like, well, boys, He's like,
I'm pretty sure that's it for old Jules. Well, it
was nice knowing all of you guys, you know, and
and he didn't know what his NFL career held for him.
But like you said, a three time Super Bowl champion. Uh.

(02:12:26):
During those seasons, almost all the seasons they won super
Bowls or contended. He had special years, um initials and
in the and in the postseason. I mean, it's just
ridiculous some of the things that you look at. Uh
look here here's my criteria. I think when it comes

(02:12:46):
to Julian Edelman, and it sort of matches up with yours.
Your overarching theme of who belongs in the Pro Football
Hall of Fame and who doesn't is can you write
this story of the NFL without said player? And you
cannot write the story of the dominant two decades span
the New England Patriots have had in the NFL without

(02:13:10):
mentioning Julian Edelman. Many times, He's not a footnote to
that organization during that span. He's one of the stars.
He was their top receiver in three seasons, uh, one
of which they won a super Bowl, One they got
to the conference championship game, another one they got knocked
out in the wild card round. Post season numbers stand
up in the regular season. Something that people often overlook

(02:13:32):
is how many first downs did he generate for this team.
I mean it was something it was fifty plus every
single year. I mean, think about how many drives and
he wasn't like Randy Moss where he's catching the ball downfield.
Every time he catches the pass, he's catching the ball
ten fifteen yards away from the line of scrimmage, usually
over the middle of the field. I mean, that's a
difficult space to do what he did, but he was

(02:13:54):
the guy in critical moments. How many times did Julian
Edelman get dub teamed on third down availing the opportunity
to go somewhere else with the ball? If Julian Edelman
isn't a New England Patriot, do they win as many
Super Bowls as they did? The answer is no. So
that's the way. And frankly, I look at west Welker similarly,

(02:14:15):
because West Welker. You can't write the story of the
NFL without West Welker because he revolutionized the position. There
was no Julian Edelman without West Welker. West Welker was
created almost in the same mindset as a Wayne Crabet,
remember him small crossing over the middle, sacrificed his body.

(02:14:39):
But that's the New England. The New England Patriots took
that idea and they ran with it with Wes Welker,
and they they virtually created a new offensive position, and
Julian Edelman may have perfected it. I will say this
in defense of Edelman, and I'm not a big fan
of Edelman for the Hall of Fame, but there is
some precedent and that's Lynn Swann and John Stalworth. An

(02:15:04):
incredible postseason player, not an incredible regular season He only
caught three hund thirty six passes and nine seasons. He
had a lot of injuries. Uh, he was targeted by teams.
He was a supreme talent. He was a Super Bowl
m v P. You know, John Stalward played much longer career,
but there was John Stalworth was All Pro one time

(02:15:24):
in his career, one out of fourteen years with the Steelers.
But he made the Hall of Fame because Swan and
stal wars was big part of them winning four Super Bowls.
And you know, it's it's interesting because what do you
think about the Packers of the sixties and how many
of their players are in the Hall of Fame. And
when you look at the Steelers of the seventies, I mean,

(02:15:47):
Johnny Shell just got in the Hall. They're still inducting
Steelers from the seventies and there's still an argument like
where's Elsie Greenwood? Why isn't he in the fame? So
when you look at the Patriots over wenty years, Brady,
I mean, how Tom Brady, h Matt light Logan. Man,
let me tell you who's in. All you have right

(02:16:09):
now in is you have Tom Brady, ty Law was
put in. Richard Seymour seems like he's knocking on the door,
and that would be going to the first three. Randy
Moss is there. But Randy Moss, you know his career,
his greatest years really were with the Vikings. I mean, yeah,
he had that one insane year with the Patriots, But

(02:16:30):
I'm about a true Patriots. I feel the same way
about the forty niners of the eighties. Yeah, Montana, you
have a lot. You have Jerry Rice. Roger Craig is
still not in. Why is Roger Craig not in the
Hall of Fame? He was on three Super Bowl winners,
a huge part of that dynamic running back. And you
start feeling like, are the Patriots gonna be underrepresented for

(02:16:52):
twenty years? An unprecedented twenty year domination. So I'm you know,
Edelman is gonna be there. Welker should be in the conversation.
You mentioned Matt Light and there's a lot of guys
that you could say these guys had a major impact.
Ronkowski will be a first ballot guy. I mean, how
many other guys, I mean, they're they're they're Wes Welker.

(02:17:16):
I mean we're just discussing him. There. There are so
many guys who played during this twenty year stress. What
about Rodney Harrison. Rodney Harrison I mean for two teams
was right? I mean, yeah, there, Look, they had an
unbelievable run, there's no questioning, but you've got to have
a lot of great players that keep it going. And
it can't be just the quarterback. And there's no doubting

(02:17:38):
that because they not only developed them, but then they
brought in free agents who either you know, seemed like
they were at the end of their road or got
revived in New England where they got got more out
of them than they did other places. I mean, I
I even go, I mean, this may be a little
bit of a stretch, but like I think about role
players who ascended, like you know, I mean, well, Matthew

(02:18:01):
Slater has got to be a Hall of Fame writer.
Special Teams Dynamo for years and yet eight Pro Bowls
now as a special teamer. Unbelievable. Ye, I mean a
lot of people are still waiting for Steve Tasker to
get in the Hall of Fame. Seven straight Pro Bowls
of the Little Bills. Gostkowski another potential Hall of Famer
who's still playing well. Obviously his minitary is going to

(02:18:23):
be a Hallary. I don't. I mean, I just twenty
years from now, you know, looking back, we're gonna say, well,
how how many how many Hall of Famers. It won't
be near what the Packers and the Steelers have from
their great teams. There won't. But but that's the problem
with you have Tom Brady sort of takes the air
out of the room, and it doesn't help them. When

(02:18:43):
Brady goes to Tampa wins the Super Bowl, immediately saying,
well maybe he was the reason they bowl. Bruce arians
will be in the Hall of Fame one day, he
might oldest coach to everyone a Super Bowl they masterminded.
You think you'll ever get any for that? And we
know he's he won't get it as much as he

(02:19:04):
deserves because frankly, he does deserve a lot of the credit.
I a little tongue in cheek there. Bruce Arons is
an incredible coach, but Tom Brady, his resume dwarfs virtually
any other football man we've ever encountered. Well, Tom Brady
has had an effect on the NFL from the get go,
not just in terms of when he championships, but he
has increased the impact of the quarterback position. The fact

(02:19:28):
that the one ninety nine guy drafted became the greatest
of all time means that every team says he's out there,
fight him. There's gotta be another top Brady out there,
fight him for me. All right, we'll figure out more
of that on the other side, but right now, let's
find out what's trending. As we welcome back Ralph, I
different we were going to give him a drum roll,

(02:19:50):
probably deserve Yeah, why not? It would have been appropriate
for Can we layer this? There is fine? Ralph? Yesterday
when we were hit sitting here with Andy Firm and
he I think he was he had envy of you?
Did he not? Wasn't it, Andy Firm? Why would he

(02:20:12):
have envy? And I don't know. I worked with you
a lot. No, I had nothing to do with that.
I don't know it's something he was just like he
he was enamored with you. He just special. But it
was a little envy. I don't know, and he was
very very high. I don't know. It could be anything. Uh.

(02:20:34):
There is NBA action going on right now. One game
in progress is Miami is a four lead over the
Brooklyn Nets to nine to play in the first half.
Who's leading the Heat scoring well, it is Coring Drag
off the bench with a leven. Right behind him Trevor
Ariza with ten. Trevor Reason still in the NBA, still

(02:20:55):
beating the scoring again. Those two players in double figures
for or the Heat, as they have now a two
point lead over Brooklyn Earlier. The nixt one their sixth straight,
beating New Orleans one, twelve and overtime. Julius randall is
fourth straight game with thirty points or more. He had
thirty three points and ten assist. Derrick Rose had twenty

(02:21:16):
three off the bench. Atlanta's one eight of their last ten.
They beat Indiana one one seventeen on the Diamonds, lots
of games going final. Arizona gets home runs from Josh
Rojas Carson Kelly. They went in Washington five to San
Francisco held Miami to just three hits. The Giants shout
out the Marlins one nothing, the White Sox three, two

(02:21:36):
winners and seven innings over Boston. Tampa Bay sweeps the Yankees,
holding New York to just three hits four to the
final score in that contest, Aaron Nola complete games. Shoutout
Philadelphia beat St. Louis to nothing. And on the Diamonds
right now the Mets a too nothing lead at Colorado.
There in the sixth Bittsburgh in Milwaukee tied at three.

(02:21:57):
Also in the sixth, Kansas City at two nothing lead
over Toronto. That game is in the seventh inning as
we send it back now it is Steve Hartman and
Rich Hornberger. All right, Ralph, thank you very much. I've
been meaning to ask you this for a few weeks now, Rich,
because there's a new phenomenon, well not so much a
new phenomenon, but a returning phenomenon in the sports world,

(02:22:19):
and that are collectibles. The pandemic has had a major
effect on many of our lives, obviously, but it has
resurrected an industry like we never thought it was ever
going to resurrect an industry. And I'm talking about the collectibles. Um,

(02:22:39):
I just s read today they're gonna put out a
new Ted Williams series to take advantage, just to jump
on this, this sudden surge again, and I think you
have to sort of go back now, you know, growing
up as a kid, I really got to introduced to sports,
certainly sports statistics by collecting baseball cards back in the
sixties when I was a very young kid, and I

(02:23:02):
continued with this fanaticism, and then eventually I sold my
baseball card collection. I remember it was about eleven hundred
dollars one which doesn't sound like a whole lot of money,
but my rent was only one eighty a month, so
it was like a year's rent for a bunch of
baseball cards. Pretty pretty darned good. So at the end
of the eighties and the early nineties, all of a sudden,

(02:23:23):
out of nowhere, seemingly nowhere, somebody came up with the
idea that there's a lot of value in those baseball cards.
There is, yes, and if they're in really good condition,
you can make an insane amount of money. So there
was a run there, I would say about a five
or six year run. Lad eighties early nineties where everyone
was into it, I mean shows about it, collectibles and everything.

(02:23:46):
People were investing huge money, retirement money. We put the
cards away, there's our retirement going to be like that.
Twenty years later people were like they're collecting dust seemingly forever. Gavin,
you know, you know this industry as well. Well, all
of a sudden, out of nowhere, I don't know, out
of boredom or whatever, has happening. What has happened, Agavin?

(02:24:10):
You know, I we're talking over the last three or
four months. We're seeing that Tom Brady Rookie cards self
for over like three million bucks. We're seeing some cards
selling for insane what happened. What happened was people were
stuck at home and able to dig through their old
things and notice their old cards, and then they also
went on the market to buy cards that they wanted

(02:24:32):
to collect. So my understanding is it was heavily influenced
by the pandemic. Unfortunately, a lot of my cards are
like from the nineties, which I was just talking to
my Carmen about this. He's very into all this time
is yeah, and he was saying, that's unfortunately the area, like, uh,
there's a term for it. But I think it was
overpopulated kind of thing like that as much. Yeah, but

(02:24:54):
the new cards now are going for a ton like kies.
And think what they did, and these manufacturers were smart
to do this is they're they're forcing rarity. You know.
This is actually the reason why diamonds are so expensive,
because the the main diamond holding companies stockpiled diamonds and

(02:25:17):
then they release them in limited quantities to make sure
that the diamond is considered a rare stone. I mean,
if if it weren't for that, they would they would
be average. They would be you know, like like we
wouldn't look at the diamond anymore special than we would
grantite countertops. Somebody comes out of the earth. But when
you force rarity like that, when you create um small

(02:25:42):
limited quantities of anything of of particular interest, it it
What it does is it floods the market with potential
buyers who will then buy those in some quantity and
then stock them away for a while and sell them
at a later day. Well, I'm asking you in particular
because I know that you're you have a young family obviously,

(02:26:03):
and you're looking for your future, and and you're I
know you have investments and everything else, property and a
lot of different things. Is this something that you would
just say, it's a it's a brief fad that there's
not gonna because the first time we went through this
and then all of a sudden, it just went away.
They were back in the day. They were collectible stores

(02:26:23):
all over the play I remember, I mean they were
gone towards the end of my childhood, and and Gavin
remembers this too. I remember going into video rental stores
and comic book stores and dalis and stuff like that,
and there were always packs of baseball cards for sale.

(02:26:43):
And like you said, and like we all know now
the nineties, the market got oversaturated. But since these manufacturers
are more careful about it, Am I particularly interested in
physical baseball cards right now? No? But I will say
that if you had some play money, is this something
you would say where it's gonna be, that's gonna be
a good investor, where I will probably spend some money.

(02:27:06):
And I'm not talking about millions or thousands even, but
like I could see myself spending a couple of hundred
bucks on some of these non fungible tokens from reputable dealers.
Where you are, you're you're in sole ownership of a
certain moment on the basketball court, or a certain moment
on the baseball diamond, or a certain moment on the

(02:27:28):
football field, and that's yours. And then there's now a
collectible online marketplace to buy and sell these moments, and
then f T markets starting to take off. So it'll
be interesting to see what collectibles look like in the future.
But like we know with baseball cards, those on the
front wave of things really benefited. And then you don't

(02:27:50):
have to take care of a physical item like I'll
never have to worry about my n f T being
graded and eight when I thought it was a ten.
You know it'll it'll be preserved and austerity. What what
you have to worry about is losing it, crash, lose
the hard drive. It's on the wallet, it's kept him,
whatever it may be. So what do you think, Gavin,
are they gonna be able to avoid the pitfalls of

(02:28:12):
the first time around when again the market got oversaturated
in the nineties. One of the rising cryptocurrencies right now
is based on a meme, so nothing would surprise me
right now. I don't know whether this is going to
be there for the long term, but it's really fun.
And these what I'm kind of getting into a little

(02:28:32):
bit is the twin is the rookie cards. So maybe
I can pull a Trevor Lawrence card, which, by the way,
Trevor Lawrence is giving a little shout out to Jacksonville
on Twitter right now, which is very interesting to me.
I guess uh the fans in Jacksonville donated, uh some
gifts and stuff for his wedding. I just think it's
kind of hilarious. It gets it seems like every year

(02:28:54):
we get closer and closer just admitting like, yeah, we're
gonna take him number. You know. I I go on,
I have I was at the game one of the
nineteen eight World Series, alright, I was after have I
have the ticket stubbed? And I've seen it listed as
much as eleven hundred dollars, but I've also seen it
listed as low as sixties six dollars. I heard that

(02:29:18):
I used to get Sports Illustrated for kids when I
was a child. I heard that the Tiger rookie card
that came in every magazine years ago, when for five
hundred thousand now it's still worth money. It's not worth
that much. They didn't know how to how to give
you saying my ticket stuff from Game one of the
nineteen eighty eight World Series, used ticket stub which is

(02:29:41):
a reasonable condition, has any value? We think that would happen.
I kind of wonder if it would have had more
value before they just won, because now you know, of
course there's no ticket stials for that. I don't know,
but no, I would. I would hold onto it and
hang out to it, pass it down to Drake. How
about my used autographed Lebron James Jersey from his rookie

(02:30:03):
season with the Cavali What about cha forties microphone? All
good stuff? All right, well, we get ready for another
big weekend. Sports. By the way, got an update coming
up here on this Dodgers pod raise Game three coming
up next. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at

(02:30:25):
Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart
Radio app search f s R to listen live. Steve Irby,
rich Oinburger. Want to thank the crew today, Iowa, Sam,
I was Sam, what a day? What is your shirt? Saying?
Meant to ask you. It's Michael Scott from the office
and he's saying, I'm running away from my responsibilities and

(02:30:46):
it feels good. Yes, big office fans, what do you think, Sam,
We're ever going to see any food here on a
Sunday again. We gotta get ribs going. Do you guys
want me to bring some ribs? I made the last
splurge here with the big pizzas we had. I've got
a hanker and it's just waiting. It's weird, like, I
don't know why we're We live in southern California. Every

(02:31:08):
day could be a barbecue day, but there's something about
the weather starting to get warmer. We're heading towards the
end of the spring. I'm not even really, but I'm
just picturing it. There is a barbecue restaurant out in
the Agora Hills area near you know what We's like
where you're coming in from. And I won't mention the
name because you know the little plug there, but um,

(02:31:29):
they are so good about letting the smoke come out
of the barbecue and literally even when you're driving on
the freeway, Oh you can get you could get that
huge whiff. That's just my favorite part of firing up
the smoker again. It going is first of all, the
house for the rest of the day, and I kind

(02:31:50):
of smell like smoke and you just you're just smelling
the rits out there, the brisket. The other part of
it I like is occasionally, you know, you'll go for
a walk with the kids or something, and then a
neighbor will be like, where are you on the grill? Yeah? Oh,
you know, just a half rack? Nothing. No, I mean
you can talk probably looking at my wife. Ralph Irvan

(02:32:12):
doing a tremendous job, toy. It's always good to see Ralph.
He's gonna take a little trip. You're ready to get
on a fly around the country these days, Gavin, how
about you? You're gonna have now what the idea you have?
Like a big You had to cancel travel plants. Remember
this was anniversary things. So our Hawaii vacation we were

(02:32:32):
supposed to go to second vacation canceled. The first one
was the Vegas NFL Draft vacation, right, and and you
substitute it for the Vegas one instead of Vegas. Where
did you Orange County? Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, we
did a weekend down in Orange County. We do have
our Hawaii vacation booked for August, so did you did

(02:32:56):
you get the good prices still or yeah? That everything said?
I mean, do you realize they during this we had
a one way ticket to New York leded New York
for ninety That's how type flights were. But now that
people are starting to book trips all over the place, yeah,
that the prices are going up, significant things are starting
to time up. Yeah, yeah, it's what what is your

(02:33:18):
next big family trip? What are you gonna have? Well, actually,
in June, I have, um one of my college teammates
is getting married on Cape CODs, So we're going We're
going to the wedding, but we're gonna make an East
coast swing to see some family out there. Right, So
when's the last time you were in New York? Well,
and we're actually not even I'm gonna land in Boston,

(02:33:38):
will drive down to Connecticut and then stay with my
sister there. I mean, I can't remember. I guess maybe
two years ago last time I was in New York
visiting family because a lot of times, you know, people
come out here. We got the weather. Yeah that's how
it goes. But yeah, I look it's opening up in
a big way. We're seeing a lot more travel we're
just looking at uh tickets the other nine. I was like, well,

(02:34:00):
we better get on this. Yeah, I mean, because yeah,
they take a price of going out of control here.
Um alright, So over the next couple of weeks, obviously
we got the NFL Draft, which is still eleven days away. Uh.
You know, by the time we get here next Sunday,
we're gonna have so many while rumors in the days
leading we don't know which which end is up. Well,

(02:34:20):
I will say this, can you see either the forty
Niners at three or the Falcons at four trading down? Well,
the Niners aren't trading down because you moved up to
go down. There's no way the Falcons I could see
trading down. I could see the Falcons. You think Matt
Ryan Stale has shelf life? Or we do take a
role on one of these quarterbacks at four? I think

(02:34:43):
we very well could see four off the board in
a row. And then who's fifth? And I remember this correctly,
is that since Cincinnati like they don't need a quarter
that could be where Kyle Pitts comes off the board.
Think about him. Can you imagine Kyle with Joey Burrow?
I mean that could be something special. Chance my Chargers
get pass, it is possible wool is going to be

(02:35:06):
off the what are the Chargers picking? Is going to
be on the board at thirteen? Wait, I haven't seen
a single mock draft. Have them below seven? Or what's
that kid on Northwestern? You got a Slater? Slater? Yeah,
Now they could trade up, but I don't think you
need a trade up. We're gonna see trades this draft

(02:35:27):
because there is some talent at positions of need. You
know what I mean? When you have edge rushers, is
the only position where it's not well represented. I think
what is in Miami or Florida one of the one
of those schools has two edge rushers coming out. I
think one of them sat out the season, but it's
not a great year from that standpoint. But receivers, I mean,

(02:35:48):
there are some great receivers on the board. Um, you
could potentially see maybe the Falcons jump. Well. I mean
you got three big time receivers, the two Alabama guys. Yeah,
I do wonder if the Falcons trade down. I think
that's the pick. If it really goes top three quarterbacks
one to three, then at four, there's gonna be a

(02:36:11):
lot of people wanting that pick. So see if I
if I'm Matt Ryan in Atlanta. Very similar with having
to Philip Rivers a couple of years ago when they
passed on to Shaun Watson and took Mike Williams. If
I'm Matt Ryan saying, pits three wide receivers. Come on, now,
give me one of those guys, right, you give me
one of those guys. I got four receivers. There, give

(02:36:33):
me one of those guys. Not organization offensively. It's amazing
how far they fell after the season. I mean that
that it was just a steep decline at so quick.
But you have, you know, new people running the show
and everything else. I think it's gonna be an extremely
interesting draft. By the way, Kyle Trask, yeah, is he

(02:36:58):
is he gonna get drafted? Did you see the numbers
he put up at Florida? We'll see I mean, I
I I mean, seriously, there's some justice. There's some distance
though a lot of people have a lot of distance
between the fifth on their board and Kyle Trusk. I
don't understand why the guy's not even in the conversation.

(02:37:18):
Got the Texas A and m Kid. Fox Sports Radio
all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com
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04/18/2021 – FOX Sports Sunday with Hartman and Ohrnberger

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