Steve Hartman and Rich Ohrnberger Discuss NBA Playoffs and USFL Kicking Off

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports. Yes, living the dream once
again on a fabulous Sports Sunday. It has heart Been
and Armburger Here Fox Sports Sunday. We got a big
day ahead of us. We have a lot of things
going on in the sports world. The NBA Playoffs are
off and running. Major League Baseball is off and running

(00:22):
right now. We got a lot of NFL news and yes,
Rich we have U s f L news as a
new league started last night. I'd like to start off
riched with a little quick, very quick commentary, which is
hard for me, but a very quick commentary. Yeah, go ahead. Okay,
So you know, we we look at our our news

(00:44):
outlets and they're accused these news outlets of sort of
picking and choosing what news they actually cover. This is,
you know, on whether side you're on. It's just there's
a lot of accusation that they have an agenda, right,
and so they're gonna cover the news that they feel
that their audience wants to hear, as opposed to maybe

(01:04):
another news outlet that's seemingly covering a different set of
news stories. So that we this is commonplace in the
news world, but it's very true in the sports world.
As well. And I'll give you a prime example at
Fox sports dot com. If you woke up this morning,
there's all this news about this USFL game last night

(01:25):
between the Stallions and the general's headlines Instant Classic. If
you go to ESPN dot com, Not only did the
game not happen, the league doesn't exist, and of course
they don't have a stake in it because the games
are showing on Fox. Although the last night's game was
also shown an NBC. But there's it never happened. There's

(01:49):
there's literally no no mention of it. There's no mention
of the league. None of it actually happens. And I
just look at that and just sort of laugh, like, yeah,
what happens in the news were old is very true
in the sports world. Everyone has their own agenda. They
cover the things that they have a stake in. So
I just found it hilarious, especially I went to Fox

(02:09):
Sports talk. Um you know, hadlines, multiple you know, layers
on this game, and it was a back and forth game,
and you know, and it late Instant Classic to start
off the USFL campaign and everything. Did you have a
chance to see any of the game highlights at least
last night? Oh, yeah, yeah, I you know what, I

(02:29):
thought that we saw some really pretty sound football at times.
I mean, don't get me wrong, this is going to
be the equivalent. I remember talking about this when the
last and latest league launched, which was the Alliance of
American Football, and it got very scattered coverage as well.
There were certain outlets that covered the Alliance of American

(02:51):
Football really well, and there were certain uh you know,
news conglomerates covering sports that barely mentioned it. So, um,
I figured it was going to be more of the
same this time around, and it is just like you described.
But yeah, I thought we saw some good football. It's
essentially it's essentially like watching a college um a college

(03:15):
all star game, but played over eight weeks. So as
opposed to just having one senior Bowl, we're going to
see eight Senior bowls, you know what I'm saying. If
it's an eight game season, you're gonna see um a
season's worth of college all star games, which is interesting,
you know, because it gives these guys a more expanded

(03:35):
opportunity to showcase their skills. And as a matter of fact,
today we've got another game on right now. It's Houston
taking on Michigan. What is it the Gamblers taking on
the Panthers. Shaye Patterson at quarterback for the Michigan team,
Jeff Fitzcher the coach. So there's some name recognition, either
from college football a year ago or or or from

(03:58):
from old coaches who were trying to find their way
back into football. I have good news for you. Yeah,
what do you got? It's a ten game season with
eight teams. Ten games season. Here it is even even better,
forty games all played in Birmingham. There's you know you

(04:19):
you have the different teams. Look, uh, You and I
are football fans, obviously, and the vast majority of everyone
listening right now, they're football fans first and foremost, and
the numbers don't lie. The NFL is king college football
is right there with them. But we talked about a
lot of different things with the USFL, the fact that
they didn't just launch the season the week after the

(04:40):
Super Bowl, which was not a good idea for the
Alliance of American Football, and the restart of the XFL,
which of course got aborted quickly because of the launch
of our pandemic um. But this seems to be about
the right time, right It's you know it's the early
part of the baseball season. Yeah, we're gonna be settling
in for a hundred sixty two games. Uh we haven't,

(05:01):
you know, the launch of the NBA playoffs. So that's
a long run that's gonna go to June. So yeah,
it does, you know, get a little football in right now.
The big surprise last night, the over under on this game,
Rich started in the low fifties, and the money was
pouring in on the under and it got all the
way down to forty one. I mean like all the

(05:24):
money was on the under for this game. Yesterday Jeff
Schwartz and I were talking about you know, he goes, yeah,
the play is the under fifty two points last night,
So that the on the end of the little more
offense than we probably thought we were gonna see. I
didn't get to watch all of it last night. By
the way, I'll tell you what I did do last night,
Rich do. So last night settled in and um and uh,

(05:51):
you know I didn't. I didn't have TV last night,
right So I was at the house, Denise was there,
Garrett was there, and I'm like, you know, we should
watch Koda the Yeah, yeah, that the best best picture. Now,
everyone that I had told me that they had seen
this movie said, dude, you've got to see this movie.
And you know, I'm sort of like, okay, you know what,

(06:12):
you know, I understand there's a deaf family and then
the one daughter who's not deaf. Sort of big I'm
a big look. If it completely meshes with my schedule,
or if I'm a captive audience, like I go to
someone's house and they're all setting down to watch it,
then yeah, I'll watch it. But let me tell you
something about this movie. Rich Let me because I know you,
because I've seen you cry many times. I am telling you,

(06:38):
so I sit down for this and it's amazing movie.
This was an independent movie. It premiated its sun Dance
and where they these independent movie makers are trying to
get a distributor for their movies. And it got these
rave reviews and Apple Plus decided to pay twenty five
million to distribute. This movie became the first movie ever
released on a streaming service. Actually win the Best Picture

(07:01):
of Oscar. I am telling you by the end of
this movie and these are happy tears. It's not a
sad movie. It's a happy movie. And I am just
choking all my tears. At the end of this movie,
Denise's pulling her eyes. I could not believe it. Even
though a lot of this movie you sort of know

(07:22):
where the movie's going, you can't help yourself. And I
am telling you rich if you were to sit down
with this movie and just watch them, you know, like
in privacy with our kids running around and everything else,
you know where you can actually sit down and watch this.
There's some funny stuff in it, but it's just about
family more than anything else. I mean, obviously a very
unique family because of the parents being deaf, uh and

(07:45):
the older brother being deaf and the younger daughters not
I am I cannot remember the last time I got
I was like choking in the last thirty minutes of
this movie. And it's happy. It's a happy movie. It's
not a sad movie. It's glad. Yeah, there's no I
mean happy tears, you know what I'm talking about. What's

(08:07):
amazing about um about look? I you know with respect
to motion pictures, yeah, you know, like there there are
just too many of them, so you like, when you
have such an oversaturated market, there are it is very
difficult to trust movie reviews. But if this one won
Best Picture, and then I know you see a lot

(08:28):
of movies, man, so you can sort of call the
the the proceedings and give us the goods in terms
of reviews. Well, you know how it is rich because
you you know how to cook, right, and what don't
we always talk about sweet and salty, right, that combination.
It's got to be balance, you know how, Like Denise
gets a little sea salt to the bottom of those
chocolate chip cookies and just take it next level. This

(08:51):
movie has a lot of laughs in it and then
they just wham you mean but it's happy like it's not.
It's a holy crap. It just just absolutely blew me away.
I'm like, damn, that was a good movie. Anyway, I'm excited.
I actually have the movie on the disk because you
know sag after so you know I can. I could

(09:13):
give it to if you want to sit but you
have to sit down watch it, you know what. Bring
it in tomorrow. I'll take a look at it. I'm
excited to check it out. I like the fact that
you saw it and give me the review first, because
it's difficult to know if you're in for something artsy
that's gonna put you to sleep. Actually going to be
a good one. I'm telling you, knowing you you'll you'll
be a blubbery miss. I've seen you many many times,

(09:35):
all right, all right, So we got the U s
fl underway. We got a lot of NFL news coming
up on the other side. Though, By the way, Dollar
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(09:58):
stars all right. On the other So, I want to
get to the launch of the NBA playoffs and still
look back on the play in games. Is that working
for the NBA these playing games? Or does the NBA
need to take a step back and maybe take a
longer look and a lot of different things, load management,

(10:19):
playing games, length of the season, how they conduct the playoffs.
We're gonna give the NBA a once look over coming
up next, Steve Harvan Rich Harmburger. This is Fox Sports Sunday,
brought to by one of our favorite cities, Las Vegas,
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It is always on whoever you for whatever sports you'll

(10:42):
love to watch. The biggest games are even bigger in Vegas.
So make sure to play in your tip today a
visit Las Vegas dot com. We need to make a
Vegas trip, Rich, we are we overdue for that, way overdue.
Let me ask you a theoretical for you today, Rich.
All right, I'm gonna to put ninety one point three

(11:03):
billion dollars billion dollars in your bank account. All right,
So my guess is if you had ninety one point
three billion with a B dollars in your bank account,
that you would probably spend most of your days smiling. Okay,
I'm just I'm just guessing that if you had ninety

(11:24):
one point three billion dollars in your bank account, you'd
be a pretty happy guy. Right, Well, I would pay
someone to be happy for me, okay. And with that
kind of money, you don't have to bother feeling emotions. Exactly.
You could literally hire someone to feel your emotions for you.
You could, exactly. I mean, there's really nothing wrong with

(11:46):
having ninety one point three billion dollars in your bank account. Well,
I'm gonna tell you about a guy that has that
amount of money in his bank account who was not
smiling the other day, and that is Clippers owner Steve Bomber.
His current net worth is estimated at one point three
billion dollars. Okay, that's his net worth. And yeah, I

(12:09):
mean the Clippers are going to win the Western Conference Finals.
They're going to compete for the chip for the Larry
O'Bryant for the trophy, right, I mean, that's what I'm
gonna blame you for this. Let me explain this. Let
me a little background on Rich Ornberger and how he
would like to operate the NBA. Rich is a huge

(12:29):
proponent of using the magical March Madness formula and adapting
it not just to basketball, really sports across the board.
The idea of this one and done situation. So here
the Clippers they're in a play in game one game
to decide whether they're in the playoffs, are out of

(12:50):
the playoffs, and day of game they get the report
that Paul George has tested positive for COVID nineteen. So
Kawai lent Nerd who played zero games this year and
Paul George, who missed the majority of the season. But
it come back now is out of this one game.

(13:10):
And the Clippers perform admirably their down ten of the half.
Then they're up ten at the end of the third quarter,
but they run out of gas and they lose to
the Pelicans, the team, by the way, that was thirty
six and forty six. So that team gets into the
playoffs and the Clippers did not. And there's the man
worth one point three billion dollars and he's not happy. Oh,

(13:33):
he is unhappy. Now I want you to sit down
with Mr ninety one point three billion and explain to
him why, although it makes for a bad night for him,
it's a great night for the NBA. Explain this to him, Well,
it's a great night for the NBA because did you
watch that game? Did I mean? That was a game seven?

(13:55):
That's what playoffs are supposed to look like. The reason
why college basket ball is so popular in its postseason
is because every game's your last game. You don't get
it tomorrow. So what you get to watch is the
best effort, the best possible lineups, the best nobody's saving themselves.

(14:15):
There's no load management. If you go by down by
twenty in the first half, there's never say die attitude
in the second half, as opposed to many times we've
seen in the NBA postseason. How many times are the
seven game series have we seen a team down a
bunch and they just let themselves lose by a million
And you say to yourself, how is this a postseason game?

(14:36):
That's just awful. It's a poor representation of what playoffs
are supposed to mean to athletes. Uh. If I were
a fan and I showed up to a blowout like that,
where you know, not only did a team come out
and flop around for a half, right, that's bad enough
if you're the you know, rooting for the home team
or away team whatever, and you go and you pay
an expensive ticket to see that. But then on top

(14:58):
of it, imagine in imagine having a circumstance where the
team comes out of the second half and they put
in their B lineup, guys start limping out of the
game with pretend injuries because they're ready for the next
game of the series, just so they don't have to
waste their legs in that game. That's terrible. When you
have single elimination basketball, it is some of the most

(15:19):
compelling basketball you can possibly watch. And I love it
to death. That's the reason why college basketball works so
well with march madness, and I wish the NBA would
adopt more of that format in their own playoff bracket.
All right, So here's another reason why despite the fact
that see Bomber's worth ninety one point three billion dollars,

(15:41):
then maybe he was a little upset because this season
he invested seventy nine million dollars in two players. He
paid them each in access of thirty nine million each
for this season. That would be Kawai Leonard and Paul George. Now,
out of a possible one hundred and six d four games,
so eighty two times two hundred sixty four games, those

(16:04):
two guys combined for thirty one games. That would be
Paul George playing thirty one of eighty two games and
Kawai Leonard Payne playing zero zero games. Um I I think.
And by the way, Kawhi Leonard wasn't the biggest culper
this year, John Wall coming off that blown Achilles, He
got paid forty four million dollars this year without playing

(16:26):
a single game. Slowdown, though, all right, let's talk about
the economics of the game right now. I know, I know,
but but let's point out something that some of our
listeners may not be aware of because many times you forget,
you know, a year goes by and what injuries occurred.
Kawai Leonard injured his knee, he tore his a c
L and as he mentioned, John Wall had to torn achilles.

(16:47):
So aside from and Ben Simmons who made thirty four million,
he had mental um Well that's not completely that. Well,
that's part of it. Why why is he out right now?
He's got a back injury. Look, the thing is, well,
it's it couldn't be basketball related because he hasn't played
any basketball, right, contracts as they're well, no, that's not true.
You can get injured at practice playing basketball, or when

(17:10):
you're doing drill work playing basketball, So you can injure
yourself playing football, basketball, any sport that you're playing at
practice as well. The point I'm trying to make is
you sign a contract with an athlete, you're signing up
for both the risk and the reward. The risk is
if that player gets injured, well you're on the hook
to pay them their salary. Because the reward is if

(17:30):
they're healthy and if they play to the abilities that
you're paying them for they could win you a championship.
So that's the risk reward. And that's on Steve Bomber
to make an appropriate risk assessment. And that's on luck
to a certain level. I mean, how would he know
if Kawai Leonard had a need that was a ticking
time bomb or he just got unlucky and landed a
funny way and and towards a c l it happens. Steve,

(17:52):
you can't blame an athlete for being hurt. I mean,
in these circumstances that you pointed out, I don't agree.
All all I know is this, here's here's what I did.
So go ahead. I saw an NFL running back, go ahead,
have a blown achilles right and come back to play

(18:12):
that season. Running back Cam Makers blows you know how
long it took him? Less than a season. It took
him six and a half months to return to the field,
but he did six and a half months. But as
a running back, I don't know. I don't know. If
you had a blown achilles, is that gonna put a

(18:33):
little strain on that achilles being a running back in
the National Football I'm just I'm just I'm asking these
questions because you're the athlete. I'm not. I'm just a
fan and I'm making some maybe some frustrated observations about
why this guy can come back from injury, but this
guy seemingly has taken his time. Um, I'm just curious.

(18:53):
I'm just well, not all people are built the same
in terms of their their propensity to recover, you know.
I mean, like I'll give an example that everybody can understand. Uh,
some people when they catch COVID, I mean, they end
up in the hospital worse, you know, sometimes in a grave.
I mean it's horrifying. And we're talking about certain people
who are very, very healthy, have strong immune systems, have

(19:16):
battled off flues and viruses with no sweat. But you know,
you call, you catch this virus and and it doesn't
number on you. And then you see people catch COVID
and it's like a breeze and it doesn't matter that
their sucking down cheeseburgers, or they're overweight, or they have
other comorbidities that could influence their recovery. They just seem
to have an easier time with it. Everybody recovers from

(19:37):
everything differently. You're on a different timeline. You're on your
own timeline, and so one A c L tear to
the next, those two things are not the same. Now
over the averages, Like you know, when you look at
many many, many athletes who have underwent successful uh A
c L tear surgeries or Achilles tear surgeries, um, many

(19:59):
of them recover in about you know, the eight month
timeline for an A c L tear and usually around
the eight and a half nine month timeline for an
Achilles tair? Are there guys who it takes longer? Absolutely,
some guys that their need doesn't feel right for a
year and a half after a c L tear or
an Achilles tear. Some guys like cam Akers come back

(20:19):
and they're good in six months, a technically five and
a half months, but we're talking about a half months.
We're talking about a bell. As to getting on the
field as a running back, you have you have one example,
right I do? I mean, and everyone said it was miraculous,
it is unprecedented. We've never seen anything like it before,
we cam Akers. But okay, I mean that's a fair

(20:41):
argument from you that you know, everyone has a different
recovery time from an injury. But I again just getting
back to Mr. Ninety one point three billion, there has
to be a lot of frustration because not only did
he get Kawhi Leonard coming off a second championship season
is great year that at in Toronto, but he also

(21:02):
gave away the farm everything to get the player that
he wanted to play with him, which was Paul George,
who also missed more than half the season, and then
again out of out of the blue, in the game
they had to win, he test positive for COVID. So, uh,
that's the reason why, ma'am we made three billion dollars.

(21:23):
Was less than happy the other night. I'm more frustrated
with the greed of NBA owners and the fact that
we have to watch two games. All right, well, I'm
gonna get to that. I'm gonna get to that. But
right now, let's find out what's trending. That's Oh, I
know where you're going next. I know where you going
next in this But first, David Gascons checked in, how

(21:44):
are you David? I'm good, I'm good. How are you
guys doing? We are good? Indeed, I mean you see
where I'm sort of like questioning, I don't know and
may mine again, I'm not a former athlete, you know.
So I don't have any clue as far as injuries
and recovery tie him. But you know, Acre's recovery was miraculous, Okay,
And I don't know some other guys, especially when you

(22:06):
have guaranteed money just pouring into your bank account, maybe
there isn't that sense of urgency, you know. I mean
I don't. I still don't feel a dent. So give
me another year, you know, next year, when I'm making
forty three million next year, maybe I'll take that year
as well. I'm not sure. It's not it's not a
knock on a lot of these guys because obviously we

(22:28):
don't know him, but there's certain guys that you can
it's evident that the dogs inside of him. Oh yeah,
I mean there are guys, first of all, forget I
mean we know that there are athletes that are hurting
and out there playing every game. I mean, yeah, everyone's different.
I get that. I know they're front center. But you'd
look at a guy like Kobe, you look at Manning Brady,

(22:53):
there's just guys I just want to be in it. Yeah.
I was at Staples Center the night that he blew
his achilles and then walked to the freezer line and
knocked down two freezings. He didn't come back until he
didn't come back until part of the way through the
next season, you know, exactly with the blown achilles and
knocked down right, he literally walked there and then they

(23:15):
blew the whistle for a substitution as soon as he
drained his second shot. And look, I mean, with credit
to Kobe Bryant, that was a really memorable and incredible,
uh show of toughness in the moment. I mean, his
trajectory wasn't any shorter than John wall I mean, it's
we're talking about coming back from an achilles tear. It's

(23:38):
not an easy thing to come back from. So look,
load management, you have my ear. I don't like when
guys take games off just to rest their legs. But
in terms of like recovering from a major achilles or
a c L tear, I mean, you're just I don't
I don't see how you have much of an argument there,
because major injuries are part of sport, and that's a

(24:01):
part of the risk that an owner takes on when
they sign a contract. Sometimes guys get major injuries. Speaking
of injuries, uh, I don't know if it's a hot take,
but I feel like l A is a Dodger town.
That place last night was barking, and it's a Saturday night.

(24:21):
It's against Cincinnati. But I'll tell you what. Hunter Green
sat at one one. That dude was sitting throwing bbs. Yeah,
that dude was sitting at hit that home run, Yeah
he did. He hit the hell out of that thing.
Clabbered as hard as you throw it, just as hard, right,

(24:42):
and he turned on When you turn on one oh
one and you connect on it, Wolf gets out and
her first. But I mean I feel bad for since
A because you just look at and you can't help
but think, is this another guy that's gonna go to
l A or New York or Boston? Yeah, as soon
as he's eligible to know and and and you know

(25:04):
sometimes when I see you like the pope and I'm like,
is that legit? I mean, it doesn't look at this guy.
Is it a home game? Do you have ye? It's
the way is on a twenty seven game hitting street. Yes,

(25:24):
ers record is yeah, Willie Davis, but Tray Turner, Yeah,
but yeah, when you connect. I always remember when Randy
Johnson threw the pitch of that juice up Mark McGuire
and he hit the five foot home run. Yeah that
was just got out back in the day. Yeah, yeah, Steve.

(25:46):
I don't know if you have read I mentioned to
you yesterday, but ESPN did a lengthy expose if you
will on on Brooklyn Nets owner Joe si Um. It
does talk at great length about his relationship between the
United States and China, and uh, i'd encourage you to
read it. I haven't read all of it yet. It's

(26:06):
a very complicated relationship for the NBA in China for
a multitude of reasons. Um, but the bottom line is
to stay invested a lot of money in the NBA,
tons and they feel like they've lost and millions and
millions of dollars because the Darryl Morey tweet from a
few years ago. So pretty uh, pretty fascinating. But I digress, gentlemen,
because we have NBA action going on right now. Um.

(26:30):
You get the Heat leading by six over Atlanta to
seventeen to score end of the first quarter in that contest,
Nets and Celtics to get things underway at three thirty Eastern.
As far as Major League Baseball goes, Yankees and Oils.
There's no score in the top of the second inning
from Baltimore and then on the ice right now, just
one game Florida and Detroit. Nothing to doing just yet.
It's about five minutes ago in the first period. Um,

(26:54):
I know you guys have taken peaks at the USFL. Yes,
we're watching it right now. I do think this is
a down gamblers, so random to grow out there. But
I think the best rule the NFL has changed or
tweaked over the last twenty years was the force out rule,

(27:15):
were a reception has to be made with two feet
in bounds is supposed to being forced out and having
one ft in. But that's still a judgment call, right,
you know what. I will say this though, to Gascon's point,
when you have to get two feet in bounds, it
creates some of the most incredibly athletic plays in Santonio

(27:35):
Holmes Horn of the Ends and will be fried into
my mind that play again. You could throw that past
from Big Bandip a thousand times and not doing can't
it a perfect past, perfect catch, perfect everything. You could
not duplicate that play again? And we see, we see it.
I mean even in this USFL already, Um, we've seen

(27:58):
some stupe this reception. They're going for two gabblers. By
the way, did you see how the touchdown happened? Uh? Yeah.
The Panthers quarterback Shape Patterson just get roughed up in
the backfield closing in on the goal line, and then
one of the Gamblers defenders it's a scoop and score

(28:19):
for about nine five yard fumble return. So they're short.
They're short of the two point conversion. Well, we had
a knee down. They're saying the knee was down, did
not count, So nine nothing Gamblers. Right now, there's I'm
a little tied into the Panthers because of their coach,
Jeff Fisher. I don't know if you know this. I
actually to high school with Jeff Fisher. I never you know,

(28:41):
I never told me that story once or twice. It's
just I just but not. By the way, I was
watching a little Hunter Green last night, the reds pitcher
pitching to Freddie Freeman. I mean it was just ridiculous.
He's just throwing bees and Freeman is just looking like,
are you kidding me? This guy who knows what he cocks?
All right, let's get back to the NBA. Here By
the way, David, thanks so much. We'll talk to you

(29:01):
a little bit later on Um. We're talking about the
NBA right now, and I know I was going down
this path. Okay, So we're talking about some of the
load management situation, which brings us to what I've seen
so far yesterday and today in these NBA playoffs. For years,
NHL fans will tell you that there's regular season hockey

(29:24):
and then there's postseason hockey, and it's not even the
same sport. I mean, it's literally a different sport. They're
playing postseason as opposed to regular season. I never thought
that so much in the n b A, But after
watching some of these games yesterday, watching the games today,
I'm thinking the same thing about the n b A.
I'm talking about the effort I'm talking about a lot

(29:46):
of what I'm seeing in the n b A is
far more entertaining right now that we are in the
postseason as opposed to the regular season, which, of course
beckons the question should the NBA regular season be We're
deuce now. I know your answer, but go into go
into detail again. Why do you believe reducing the amount

(30:08):
of games in the regular season would be a huge
positive for the NBA. Well, look, nobody will be happy
with the amount of reduction that I'd be interested in. Um,
I think you need to cut the schedule in half.
But you will not get, first of all, broadcast networks interested.
I mean you'll they'll be interested, but they'll want to Um,

(30:28):
they'll want a lot more or a lot less to
pay a lot less money for the rights to air
these games. UM. So that's not happening, right. You know,
the league isn't gonna go for that. The networks aren't
gonna go for that, So you could throw that out
the window. But I think the sweet spot would be
a forty game schedule. I don't I don't really see
why you need to play much more than college basketball.

(30:50):
And I also think you need to play shorter series
in the playoffs too. Look at seven game series. Yeah,
you can create some incredibly dramatic series, and we've seen
those in the past US, but you could have a
lot of dogs, and we see that more than we
see dramatic series. So I would love for them too
short not only the regular season, but the postseason as well.
And then also the players are telling you that they

(31:12):
don't want to play that many games. And that's unfortunate, right.
You know that the players are taking upon themselves in
a league that they have majority control. I mean that's
a player run league, or at very least the players
have more power than the owners. It seems you have
a much smaller body of players. You have much more
influence in the locker room with some of these veterans,

(31:33):
especially older veterans like a Chris Paul Lebron, James Kevin Durant,
Guys who have been around forever, who have seen a
lot of basketball, have done a lot of contract negotiations.
They understand their power in this league, James Harden, Steph Curry,
and so when they band together and they want to
do something that's gonna be for the betterment of the
players health or safety, the owners are gonna have to cave.

(31:57):
And that's what we're seeing. You're seeing stars, stars, the
best players in the league taking off twenty games a year.
So you gotta give this regular season schedule a haircut.
Because people are paying great money, hard earned dollars going
to blue collar jobs. Man working hard to earn their
money fifteen bucks an hour, twenty bucks an hour, and

(32:20):
there's been a lot of money for season tickets. And
guess what if they have a star who decides to
sit out on a special night for for the you
know that fan and maybe his family and his son
or somebody comes into town. You want to treat him,
take him out to a Clippers game, or a Bucks game,
or you know whatever. I mean. There's a chance that
you're not going to see honest because he's taking a

(32:41):
day off his legs. There's a chance you're not gonna
see Lebron. You're not gonna see Kauai when he's healthy, right,
And that's a big problem for the NBA. So I
think you need to give this regular season schedule a
huge haircut and make the urgency in the regular season
more important to these players. Right, A mubble against a
little bit, but just a very quick thought and your part,
because I know your thoughts on baseball. That's sixty games

(33:03):
season and two years ago it was like a dream
as a sprint two sprint. Alright, NFL is going the
other direction. They're they're raising the amount of games. Would
the NFL be better served if, let's say they had
a twelve games schedule instead of a seventeen game schedule.
Would they be better served, would you get better football?
Let's be honest. Yeah, I mean, if you have less

(33:25):
opportunities to win your division, if you have less opportunities
to potentially be a champion, you will have guys you
you want. You talked about fighting through injuries, serious injuries. Yeah, yeah,
I mean there there will be no excuses left. You've
you've got to show up every single game. There's no
tomorrow in the season night. So bottom line here, less

(33:47):
is more across the board is what you're saying. Pretty much,
less is more, and it'll give you a higher quality
for the games that are actually played over quantities. All right.
On the other side, we got some NFL news to
get to, including maybe maybe a hint of where Baker
Mayfield may land. In Coming up next, I'm George rice Stir,

(34:11):
host of the Rice Ster or Wrong Podcast. This is
the intersection where sports, business, society, and pop culture meet
the truth, absolute fire on Monday's, Wednesdays and Friday's Facts Only.
Make sure you check your feelings at the door, because
no bys is allowed. We keep it one hundred. This

(34:32):
is where real conversations happen. Listen to the Rights Are
Wrong podcast on the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast
or wherever you get your podcasts. Steve Harman, Rich Arnburger
Hare Fox Sports Sunday. By the way, they had a
review on that two point play and it was overturned.

(34:52):
So Gamblers leading the Panthers. Wileven? Nothing there? Uh, keep
you updating on the USFL even if SPN dot com
says the league doesn't actually exist. Yeah, forget forget updates
on the scores there. The league doesn't exist. Um obteo.
Who does exist? Is Baker Mayfield? Uh? Bucky Brooks rolling

(35:13):
out with Michael Harmon on the show right before us
I asked him, do you believe the reports that Baker
Mayfield could be heading to the Carolina Panthers. He shook
his head. No, No, I do not believe that that's
the direction they're going right now. But it's out there.
And what's interesting about this story is is they already

(35:35):
have a quarterback named Sam Donald, who most people thought
going into the eighteen draft was a better NFL prospect
then Baker Mayfield. And then when the Browns took Mayfield
number one overall, a lot of people are you made
a mistake there. Donald ends up with the Jets and
now here we are, you know, four years later, and
you think about the path of these two quarterbacks, Mayfield

(35:58):
and Donald and both of them are very uncertain, and
all of a sudden they seem to have intercepted, at
least in the moment with the Carolina Panthers. So where
where do you think this is going right now? As
far as Baker Mayfield is concerned, Well, look, I think
it's uh. I think this offseason for free agent quarterbacks
and traded quarterbacks is a little bit reminiscent of the

(36:21):
old game. We used to play musical chairs and the
music stopped and all of a sudden there weren't enough
chairs left then, and Baker is searching for his still.
I mean, even when you look at Seattle, Seattle could
be serious about their commitment to seeing what happens with
Drew lock for this season. You know, you look at

(36:42):
the Texans, I mean, Davis Mills, he showed some promise
last year. I mean, it's very possible that they're just
really isn't a spot And these thirty two teams, or
I should say one of these thirty two teams is
just waiting to see if the Browns cut them and
then maybe have a team take a chance on him

(37:02):
as either UH a QB competition in the preseason where
maybe he'll earn his starting spot, or having a very
competent backup UH quarterback just in case you need them.
Now here's the one issue I will say with going
that route with Baker Mayfield. If you make him your

(37:23):
quote unquote competent backup where he's going to be on
the shelf break glass in case of emergency style quarterback.
The problem you have is the same problem you had
in New York when Mark Sanchez was your starting quarterback
and Tim Tebow was on the bench. All of a
sudden you started hearing chance in New York for t bow,

(37:44):
T Bow, t bow. You can hear it already. You
know the starting quarterbacks struggling, and it's Baker, Baker, Baker.
You don't want that, ever to be the situation where
your fan base is encouraging you to make a change
that starting a quarterback. Let me let me if you're
the Panthers, right, I'm just using the Panthers. What's interesting

(38:06):
is they have the six overall pick in the draft,
and obviously a lot of people are predicting they might
go with a picket or Willis or you know, right, Ritter,
I don't know what they might go with the quarterback
with a six overall pick um, So here are your options. Remember,
Baker may for US an eight team point eight, fully
a million dollar, fully guaranteed contract. Now the Browns obviously

(38:26):
could pay some of that if they're unloadium in a deal.
Jimmy Garoppolos price tag is even higher with the guaranteed
deal that he has coming up. But I always, I
always go back to the name Ryan Fitzpatrick, right, yeah,
I mean he's just if you're Carolina and let's say
you decided to take Kenny Pickett six overall pick and
you sign Ryan Fitzpatrick. That's again, if you're absolutely convinced

(38:50):
that Sam Donald isn't all that. I don't know what
you do with Sam Darno, but you bring in a Fitzpatrick.
I mean, he's the perfect guy, right, He's like a
setup guy's event or and guy he started a few games.
Is what Miami did with him into a tongue of
a law. I don't think it would be the worst idea.
By the way, there's another rumor floating out there that

(39:10):
Detroit is dangling Jared Goff. Now I don't know what
the terms are of his contract because he signed that
huge deal with the Rams, but they're dangling him right
now seeing if anybody might be interested. So it's just
amazing there here we are, now what nine days away
from the draft or eleven days? Eleven days away from
the draft? Uh, and we still have all this uncertainty

(39:33):
about free agent quarterbacks or potentially trading quarterbacks before we
even get to the idea of drafting quarterbacks. Oh I know.
And and in a quote unquote down year for quarterbacks,
we'll still see first round selections because with the slotted draft,
it's never been less expensive to guess wrong on the

(39:54):
first round draft pick on any position. But at quarterback
you're talking about the most importan in position off sports.
So if you take the gamble and say you win,
say one of these guys end up being really special, um, well,
you can build around him for three seasons. Baseball is
off to an interesting start. The game is changing. Fox

(40:15):
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. Rolling along on this Big
Sports Sunday. It is Fox Sports Sunday, Harbin and Arnburger
and were brought to you by one of our favorite cities,
Las Vegas, the greatest arena on Earth. Plannier tip today

(40:40):
visit Las Vegas dot com. I had this strange story. Uh,
my daughter, Parish. I've just had our big twenty one
birthday celebration my youngest. Everything okay, everything's fine, but I
found this out. So on Friday, I was driving from
Sandy Go to Los Angeles for a busy weekend. I

(41:02):
had some TV work Friday night. Uh, and I called
her mother and I said, what's Paris up to? She goes, oh,
I just talked to her. She's studying, you know, she's
in college and everything else. So I thought, yeah, I'm
gonna get my daughter call. I'm not gonna see her
this weekend because she's busy studying. So I call her
and Hi, daddy, how are right? Great? How's it going?
I hear your studying? Oh yeah, I'm been studying. But

(41:24):
she goes, I'm taking a little time out right now.
I'm at Starbucks. I'm like, oh, what are you getting?
She goes, well, you know, by the way, this star
but it's right down the street from a Fenway Park. Huh.
And I'm like why She goes, yeah, you know, I'm
gonna go to New York tomorrow. And I'm like, am
I Am I missing something here? I'm like, you're in Boston.

(41:46):
She goes, oh yeah. In fact, I was over at
Harvard Law School today. We're walking around. Let me send
you some pictures. I'm like, how is it that I
didn't know that she was in Boston right now? You know?
But I didn't want to play stupid, like, you know,
like the dad that doesn't know. Oh well, yeah, everything
good and great, great, Yeah, you're gonna be in New

(42:06):
York tomorrow. Yeah, how was Cape Cod you? Everything's good,
you know, and everything else. So I get off the
phone wh her I call back her mother. I'm like,
I don't know. Was anybody gonna tell me she was?
She goes, oh, we told you. I'm like, no, no, no,
I would have remembered that, you know, like, hey, you
know Paris is heading about That's something like you would remember, right,

(42:27):
Oh you have somebody told you that? So I go no,
I just try to keep me in the loop, you know.
Every once in a while, nobody informs that it's just listen.
You're always like the last to know everything. If there's
one thing that I'm learning as as as Mother's Day
is quickly approached as fast approach once we're through the
pass Over Easter holidays, I'm telling you if you've if

(42:50):
you've got a wife and you have kids with her,
or you know you have a girlfriend or whatever, you
got a baby mom, it does not matter. If you
have a mom in your life, you make sure you
mark that day on the calendar is number one. I
remember when I was a kid, my dad forgot Mother's

(43:11):
Day and I will never forget this because my mom
woke up and realizing that he had forgotten, and she
just left the house. She got in the old sixty
five Malibu station way again. She just left. And I remember, like, Dad,
where did mom goes? She goes? He goes. I left

(43:31):
up big time and she was gone. He just took off.
Don't screw up, Okay, whether it's your mom or the
woman that has uh you know, you know is the
mother of the children that you procreated. You know that. Yeah,
make sure you take care of the mom's out there. Hey.
By the way, I we had a celebration on Friday

(43:53):
and Major League Baseball the seventy five anniversary of Jackie
Robinson breaking the color barrier. And I was thinking about
this whole day, and there's a lot of numbers. You know,
I'm a big numbers guy, and I was thinking about this.
So seventy five anniversary to the day that Jackie Robinson
made his Major League Baseball debut back in n It's

(44:14):
also been fifty years in October that Jackie Robinson passed away.
I'll get back to that in a moment. Also coming
up in July, Rich Rachel Robinson, his beloved wife, will
turn one years old. And she was there. A Dodger
stayed in the other This woman is mind blowing. I

(44:37):
actually saw her in person like ten years ago when
she was almost ninety. Literally did she look at day
of her sixty? I mean, this woman is just absolutely amazing,
not only in her appearance but her demeanor and everything else.
She's gonna be a hundred years old in July. There
she was a daughter stadium celebrating, God bless her. I mean,

(44:58):
this woman is just absolutely amazing. But you know, you
go back to Jackie Robinson and his last public appearance
It was during the nineteen seventy two World Series between
the A's and the Reds, and they were commemorating the
twenty five anniversary of his major league debut. And it
turned out to be his last public appearance because just

(45:19):
nine days later, at the age of fifty three, long
time battling with diabetes, he succumbed to a heart attack.
But in that last speech that he made, you know,
at this World Series game, he talked about that he
would be UH much happier if he could speak in
terms of a black manager in baseball at that time.

(45:40):
It would eventually happen three years later with the hiring
Frank Robinson as the first African American team major League manager.
But but here's where it gets distressing for the world
of baseball, all these years later celebrating the seventy five
anniversary of Jackie Robinson's UH debut in Major League baseball,
is the fact that the amount on a black or

(46:00):
African American players in Major League Baseball now is less
than seven per um. The numbers have never been lower
than they are right now. And you're wondering, because this
is something the commissioners addressed that we got to do
a better job. And then they had a big ceremony
UH in front of the Jackie Robinson statue at Dodger Stadium.

(46:22):
And you know, Dave Roberts, who is one of only
two African American UH managers currently a Major League baseball
addressed this. But but how do you go about that?
I mean, you could say, all right, I mean if
Jackie Robinson were still alive fifty years later, he would
not be happy with the trend that he's seen right
now in terms of African Americans at the major league level.

(46:45):
How is this something that you could address? Rich? I
know it's a it's a big question, but I just
I know there's frustration in Major League Baseball that it
seems to be in I mean right now seventy eight
percent white, Hispanic or Latino, seven point two percent, Black
players at six point eight percent, Asian at three point nine. UM,

(47:06):
But how do how do you change that trend? Is
there a way? I I wish I had the answer,
I really do. I don't and UH, and and it
saddens me that that I don't have a good answer,
because I wish I could help this help progress along
UH in any way. UM, But you know, one of

(47:28):
the things that I think help the circumstance, among others,
is talking about it, highlighting that right, you know, the
the one of one of the things that I learned
as an athlete um was you you've got to welcome criticism.
You have to if you're ever going to be uh

(47:49):
anything in any sport, you have to be so intensely
self critical that sometimes sometimes you'll pass that point of
diminishing returns where you'll actually be too critical of yourself.
Like that's where progress begins, is when you realize there's
a problem, and so just a mere fact that here

(48:10):
we are. However, many years seventy five years later, since
Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier, we can have this
conversation openly, and not only openly have the conversation, but
also be anxious and interested and and working toward an
answer to this problem. I wish there was an easy fix.
I wish there was a button we could press, or

(48:32):
there was a way for this to get better faster.
I don't know if there is, and I wish I
had that answer, but I don't. But I do know
that talking about it, that shining a light on it,
that focusing on it that putting some some energy into
the conversation of Hey, this is obviously still an issue.
We need to shine light on it. We need to

(48:53):
find a way to to come up with better answers,
whether it be outreach at the youth level in inner
cities or areas that are predominantly uh populated with people
of color, to give more opportunities to young people to
have access to athletics the same way the majority white
children do, or whatever it is. I I mean, continue

(49:16):
that outreach and and hopefully one day it will be
a more equitable circumstance at the professional ranks. Yeah, I
think that again when you know, in twenty nineteen, Major
League Baseball reported net revenues of an excess of ten
billion dollars. Okay, and then and we know these numbers
can be skewed many different ways, so that's what they announced.

(49:39):
Probably it was more than that, but you know, they're
announcing proudly that our net profits or over the ten
billion dollar mark for the first time ever. Um, it
just seems like we get to this Jackie Robinson celebration
every year, and you know, all the players were number
forty two and everything else, and then there's they addressed
this because this has meant a matter that's been talked

(50:00):
about now for a while, this downward trend as far
as black players in Major League Baseball, but nothing really
comes of it. And you think about baseball is an
expensive sport now. I remember, and I grew up in
the Los Angeles area, right, and I was in what
we call a city Section school uh C. I have
was a little more lucrative, you know, but we're are

(50:21):
what we call city section school and baseball was a
big part of it. My high school, uh Taft High
School produced, among others, Robin you out to the Hall
of Fame player played at my high school. Um. But
I remember at the same time he was playing, there
was a inner city school, Lock High School, and two
players that played as teammates on that Lock High School

(50:43):
baseball team in Los Angeles were Eddie Murray and Ozzie Smith.
We're talking about two guys who, by the way, in
consecutive years, were both voted into the Baseball Hall of
Fame on the first ballot. They were teammates in high school,
but that that set Darryl Strawberry went to Crunshaw High
School here in the Los Angeles area that seems to

(51:05):
have evaporated. It's an expensive sport. It's a you know,
basketball is a different thing. You got the ball, you
get a court, you're out there playing. Baseball has more
expense to it. So baseball has got to do if
they're really concerned about this, a Major League Baseball really
wants to back up their words that we gotta do
something about it. It's got to come out of the pocketbook.

(51:25):
I know they've made some investment, they need to make
a bigger investment, especially in inner cities where we have
these talented young athletes that end up choosing other sports
instead of migrating to baseball. Although there's still a question
about the game itself. Well, I'll give you I'll give
you an example of of some of the reasons why,

(51:46):
you know, certain players find their way into certain sports
and certain players don't. You know, there's there's you know,
to get great at golf, for example, right you you
need all the introduct three prices high. You know, you
need somebody to buy your clubs. You're gonna need some
private coaching. You're gonna need access to courses, which those

(52:09):
those tea times, those green fees are not cheap. You know,
golf is an extremely an extremely expensive entrance fee, Soccer
relatively low. You need to find some grass, you need
to grab a couple of cones to mark out, you know,
a goal, and you need to have somebody's basketball at

(52:29):
very least you need to have infrastructure of one basket
and a couple of friends in a ball. You know,
you you you have a lower entrance rate in terms
of the amount of money spent baseball though. Man, the
bats are expensive, the gloves are expensive, the uniform if
you have to buy your own or expensive. The club
teams are expensive, The travel is expensive. The time, the

(52:51):
resource of just having the time to get your children
to these practices, to these games or on a travel
squad like that, that's a valuable resource to for people
who have to work a couple of jobs sometimes. So yeah,
you're right, Steve. I think it starts with finding a
way to fostering more access for young people who can't
afford it. And I'm talking about just socioeconomically. I mean,

(53:14):
we're not even talking about race or or anything. We're
we're just talking about making it more affordable and available
to young people. And then you're obviously gonna have a
wider cross section, a more representative cross section of what
America looks like in the professional ranks. The Dollar Shape
Clubs six blade razor brings noticeably smooth shades or six
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(53:37):
strip that keeps things smooth. Dollar Shape Club razors are
sold at Dollar Shaved Club dot Com or in stores
all right. On the other side, staying with a little
Major League Baseball, a couple of things happened last week
that may raise an eyebrow and maybe an indication that
the direction of this game is hitting in something that

(53:58):
we haven't seen in the past. Two prime examples coming
up next Steve Harman and a Rich Armburger Fox Sports Sunday. UM.
I have a suggestion for the broadcasters of the USFL now.
I like the idea that they have these field level cams.

(54:19):
I mean they're almost shooting from the ground up. I
mean there's some interesting angles here which be really good,
except for one big problem here, Rich, there are literally
no people at this game. I mean they are showing
shots because of the ground level. You have to see
the stands behind right now. You're seeing from the ground level.

(54:41):
I mean when I say they're literally in the end
zones are there's not one person, literally not one person.
But even when they're showing from the side, I'm not
exaggerating like you can count the people. I mean there
might be might be fifty people at this game that
I'm watching right now. Uh sparse. I mean it's beyond

(55:02):
spot like there's nobody there. Now. They're gonna be playing
all the games in Birmingham. They're either gonna be at
Protective Stadium or at Legion Field. For instance. They got
a triple header today, so we got this Houston Michigan
game and later Philadelphia, New Orleans, Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh. Um,
I don't know if they're all on the same field,

(55:22):
but I mean there there's literally nobody at the game.
Yeah it is. Um. Look, I remember I was a
broadcaster in the Alliance of American Football and when we
would go to the first of the games and whether
it be the opening week for the league in uh,

(55:43):
San Antonio where I believe it was, Fox was on
the field and they had this huge opening weekend and
San Antonio really showed up for the week. And you know, look,
I mean there were all different cities, and the games
were being played in their unique cities, whether it be
Sandy ago or or San Antonio for example, or Orlando

(56:03):
or Salt Lake City. You know, the opening week you
saw huge numbers of a fan attendants and then slowly
but surely interest waned because you know, even with only
four home games, people want to be there for the
first one. The quality of football was far less than
you know, professional football, and like I said, it's kind

(56:26):
of a college all star game atmosphere. I got a
lot of people playing together for the first time. It's
a little sloppy. So fan attendants dwindled to the point
where I remember I was calling a game on the
road between the San Diego Fleet and the boy I'm
gonna forget the name of them. It was the Arizona

(56:46):
something to do with firefighters, right, and it was barely attended.
All right, but here, but here's here's the the the
Arizona hot shots those and those are that's a cool.
Helicopters and airplanes to fight far all right. Well, but

(57:07):
the reason this is different is again, the goal in
season one of the USFL is to have a season two. Okay,
so that is their only goal of season one is
to have a season two. So there's no home field here.
I mean every game essentially is an exhibition game. There's
no home field advantage, so there's nothing to to bring

(57:29):
fans out in these different cities where they're like, hey,
let's check it out, because they're all being plane in
one place and burning up for the entire season. So
they're doing a calculator risk. They're not gonna if there
are this few fans for week one. I mean literally,
they'll be playing in front of nobody here in a
few weeks. But that's not their goal. What they're trying
to do is established some kind of television audience. They

(57:52):
have multiple outlets. Obviously Fox Sports is really behind this league. Uh,
and that's all they're trying to do. Cut costs to
a bear men them. I'm here, no travel costs, nothing.
All these teams are sitting there in Birmingham and they're
playing these games. So but it but the one thing
I do say, when you're looking at these angles, which
are all cool, Hey, I like to look at football

(58:13):
from a lot of different angles, There's there's gotta be
a way. Can't you just simulate a crowd, you know,
like we can do. We remember the NBA we did
that with a bubble where they had like fake fans
there and everything else I would do. I would do
stuff stuff. I know they don't want to spend any money.
It's it's a weird look. Early on. Uh, quickly here
I wanted to do talk about a couple of things

(58:34):
that happened in Major League Baseball the you and I
covered this week. Rich, that's already you know that. You
take a step back, like, wow, uh, what's going on here?
One of them was Clayton Kershaw getting pulled out of
a perfect game after eighty pitches. Now, Stach, I mean
there's a situation now. Early on the year, the pod

(58:55):
raise you, Darvish, SHANM and I A had no hitters
through six and seven innings in the first two games
that got pulled. Those are no hitters. Okay. There have
been twenty three perfect games if you count the two
perfect games that happen in eight but twenty one since nine. Uh.
And by the way, this was in Philip Number or

(59:15):
Dallas Braden throwing a perfect game. This was Clayton Kershaw.
This is literally one of the most impactful and important
pictures of his generational question. First ballot Hall of Fame
picture has thrown eighty pitches. He has sailed through seven eighties.
He is six ounce away from joining this exclusive of

(59:38):
all clubs, the perfect game club in Major League Baseball.
And apparently he's saying, at his insistence, he forced Dave
Roberts to pull him out of the game. I'm not
buying it. I'm not buying it at all. I mean,
I I do not understand this for the life of me. Why,
I mean, bring him out for the eighth inning. Let's
see what happened, mab he gets up a hit on

(59:59):
the first pitch, what ever. But I just I don't
care what spin they're putting it on this. I have
no idea how that happened. I you know what, here's
my problem with all of it is this. I understand
that he could have thrown one more pitch in that
game and he could have blown out his elbow. I
completely get it. He could have thrown one more pitch

(01:00:21):
and it could have ended his career. You know, the
eighty first pitch of that game could have been so
costly for Clayton Kershaw that maybe maybe they made the
right decision in retrospect, but we'll never know. And also,
you know what, we don't know. We don't know if
his next pitch and his next start is gonna blow
out his elbow. We don't know if the twentie pitch

(01:00:43):
in his next start or his third start from now
is going to blow out his elbow or end his career.
So we put so much, we put so much into
this analytical revolution that has cast a spell over all
of us. The fact that starting pitchers really shouldn't get
up over a hundred pitches otherwise you're in the danger zone.
You're really you're really scratching the surface of of playing

(01:01:07):
with fire at that point. And Okay, I'm I'm dude,
I'm good with it. It's a it's a new era.
We do a lot of things differently now than we did.
You know, you mentioned the eighteen hundreds. You know what
was the most impressive medical revolution in the eighteen hundreds,
The one that kept the most people healthy during that time,
hand washing. Handwashing became prevalent across the gut. We we

(01:01:30):
we learned about germs, and we realized if we wash
our hands with a live based soap, we could prevent
people from catching sickness. I mean so yeah, lots changed
over the past however many years, and it continues to evolve,
and so we have better safety in every single aspect
of life. But this was different. We're not talking about

(01:01:51):
like you mentioned a no hitter for a couple of
pictures who got yanked in the fifth and sixth inning.
We're not talking about something that is not routiean but
something that is maybe excusable. We're talking about something that
I mean clean kershaw. Had he gone out and he
was able to get six more batteries out, his name
would be etched in history forever as one of only

(01:02:13):
twenty four people to ever do something in a game
that has existed over a hundred fifty years. I I
just I don't. You can never You'll you'll never be
able to explain to me why that decision was made
and why he went along with it, and I I
understand the reasoning and I totally get it. He said

(01:02:34):
it himself. Look, we got bigger fish to fry. This
season isn't about me. It would be a selfish decision
to stay in. I gotta preserve myself. My slider didn't
have any more bite. Left YadA YadA, YadA. You can
say all that, but the truth is somewhere in between you.
Like you said, Steve, he could have gone out there
for the first uh, for the first pitch of the

(01:02:55):
a Thanny and and thrown a pitch that got turned
around and it was a end up double and then
Yank come out of the game. It was a seven
and nothing game, so the game was not in doubt.
It wasn't like a one nothing game where you trying
to But again, like you said, and I think you're
right on the money. I mean, you're worried about his
first start of the year. What about in September. I mean,

(01:03:19):
isn't there a greater risk of that, you know, something
going with his arm but later in the year than
it would be early in the year. The spin on
this was outrageous to me. And again history could have
been made, but we'll never know. We got some other
baseball I want to get to on the other side,
but first let's find out what's trending right now. David Gascon,
I know you also were outraged that he didn't get

(01:03:41):
an opportunity to finish off that perfect game. As a fan, yeah,
especially when it's Kershaw. But as um as a baseball guy. Yeah,
I get it. I get it. How because Kershaw now
is not Kerr. Shot was a horse, and he had

(01:04:02):
no he had no shoulder, he had no elbow, and
he had no back problems. You're repeating what he had
to say. Well, healthier health, but no, David, David, if
you would have thrown yeah, I used your I used
your whole David, I am outrich, David. I mean, let's

(01:04:27):
say he threw ten more pitches and gave up his
first hit. Yeah, can't you just yank him? Of course,
of course I said. I made this point to Jason
Smith on Wednesday night, said, Okay, hypothetically speaking, you have
a great point, But what happens if the leadoff batter
is a tough at bat and he fouls off nine, ten,
eleven pitches, then you go from eighty to ninety, and

(01:04:50):
hypothetically speaking, yeah, he records the out, then you're looking
at the prospect of hitt and gung to a hundred
through eighty. But maybe these are all hypothetical even when
you're talking about you know, he's not the guy he
used to be. Dallas. Brandon won twenty six games in
his Major League career. One of them was a perfect game.
Philip Bummer won sixteen games in his major Caurier, and

(01:05:14):
one of them was a perfect game. They had that
one day, like the game and even for a downside
of his career. Clayton Kershaw, this was potentially that day. Okay,
But if he throws a perfect game, answer me, this
does that change his legacy? Yes, no chance in hell, Steve.
It doesn't make a Mortarshaw synonymous with postseason failure and

(01:05:37):
his inability to get out six and at Even even
though he is a first ballot Hall of Famer, he
will be synonymous fake game to his There are a
ton of marginal pitchers that have thrown perfect games. Yes,
that doesn't mean anything of their legacy and one day
that they were perfect. This is the same hold on

(01:06:01):
the same guy that did not want the rock in
Game seven of the World Series at home against Houston
on two days rest. If you can compare the best
picture in Dodger history and probably Baseball history, Sandy Kofax
to Kershaw, No chance at hell, Steve, you can you
can crank me if I'm wrong. Kershaw to Cofax, Well,
it's season Colfax through a three hit shutout in the

(01:06:26):
sixty world two days rest with a fastball. Yes, well
again sorts his career postseason, the r A was less
than one, of course, and so oftentimes you just ask
eight to the Dodgers win the game, do they score
runs for Coax? I'll just say this, Look, I I
I completely I guess you are you are you are, David.

(01:06:51):
You settled down too many peeps for you on this
Easter morning. Uh. Here's what I'll say about about all
this is, I completely support what he did for his team,
potentially for his his season, for the Dodgers season. But nobody,
and I mean nobody, if if Kershaw somehow sacrificed his

(01:07:13):
arm to throw a perfect game in whatever it is,
game seven of this season, yet nobody would bat an
eye and say, hey, jeez, you know what, it would
have been good if kerr Shaw didn't blow out his
arm in in Game ten. Otherwise we would have had
a shot this year. Everybody would have patted him on
the back. And if that was his career and and

(01:07:34):
that was the last of his arm, and they would
have been like, hey, job, well done, buddy. I I think,
for argument's sake, I think it'll have a bigger and
lasting impact if Kershaw not only makes it through the season,
but the Dodgers won a World Series. I think Peyton
Manning needed a second Super Bowl title to not only
catch his brother, but to further validate his career because

(01:07:58):
he got over five in the postseason. I think certain guys,
although they've won, they need a little bit more in
their postseason resume, and Kurshaw's one of them. He's way
too good during the regular season to be that human
in the postseason, and so I think for him and
for people probably the front office, like get him there
and then see what happened. By the way, I got

(01:08:19):
a quick note for you guys. So when kofax to
his perfect game back in nineteen, the game was one
hour and forty three minutes and he threw two hundred
seven hundred I'm not a hunches and the game was
one hour and forty three I'm not comparing kershout of
Johan Santana when he threw his no hitter and a

(01:08:39):
hundred thirty four pitches. But I think he's got bigger
aspirations and they're just airing him the set of caution. Okay,
you make excuses I'm not making excuses. I would have
done it. I wanted to see it too. I was
sinking rage. But whatever, I appreciate that. Is there anything
trending right now? My blood pressure, blood alcohol? Ryan burschingers Ye. Uh,

(01:09:04):
Miami's leading Atlanta seventy five fifty one. Is the score?
This isn't late in the third quarter? Um, I guess
we could check him. The lack of heat from Trey Young.
Dude is one of twelve, one of twelve from the field,
oh of seven from downtown guys. He's a minus twenty
on the court so far, he's got eight points. Atlanta's
got one player, Dani Gallinari's got seventeen. To wait a second.

(01:09:27):
If he's minus twenty and they're down twenty four, they've
done twenty four. Yeah, he's actually better than the rest
of the team. Yeah. Yeah, everybody else is doing damage though.
For Miami, they have nine players have scored eight point
Duncan Robinson had eleven in the first half. PJ Tucker
six of eight. He's got sixteen falling. This one will
be Boston and Brooklyn on the ice. Panthers four goals

(01:09:49):
in the second period. They him Detroit for to nothing
and uh, a picture due if you will. In the
fifth inting at Baltimore, Yankees and Orioles right now are scoreless.
All right, well you calm down, be a little rest
it here though, Well I got more drama for him.
Glad you has set me up. Hang on, Thank you
David very much. All right, I want to start this

(01:10:09):
conversation before I get to maybe a bigger issue with baseball.
I want to throw him one other quick note here
about something we saw in baseball that we don't often see.
So you don't often see a future Hall of Fame
pitcher yanked out of a perfect game after seven innings
and eighty pitches. You also don't see managers walking batters
with the bases loaded. And Joe Madden did that for

(01:10:31):
the Angels against the Texas Rangers. Now think about this,
how this played out? Right? So the Angels, it's the
fourth inning and the Angels are playing the Rangers, and
the Rangers are not a good baseball team. Okay, they
weren't good last year. They're off to a rough start
this year. So the Angels go on the fourth inning
there ahead two to one, and then the Rangers get
a two run double to give them the lead three

(01:10:54):
to two. Again. This is the bottom of the fourth inning,
and the next thing you know, the basis are loaded
and Corey Seeger comes to the plate. The score is
three to two, three to two, and he Alex to
intentionally walk Corey Seeger to make it for to two Rangers.

(01:11:15):
That was followed by a sacrifice fly in a box
and by the end of the ending they're down six
to two. Now, the Angels did come back to actually
win this game nine to six. And I don't know
if we have the Joe Madden sound, but we played
it yesterday and and Joe Madden had a certain amount
of reasoning, why do we have that? Sam? Here, let's

(01:11:38):
see if we got it quickly? Here? You do? All right?
All right, hold hang on a second here, um, But
before we get to all right, here's what Joe Madden
said after the game. I love this reasoning, or maybe
not on why he would walk Corey Seeger intentionally with
the bases loaded. I thought, by walking there, of course,
just trying to set up a big, big blow and

(01:11:59):
also just to stir group up quite frankly. And I thought,
you know, just by going out there and doing something
like that the team might respond as simple as that.
Seekers that good. So I know it's early in the game,
but I thought it could have changed the momentum of
the game. The box would really hurt. I made into
two run moment as opposed to a one run moment,
which I was perfect or happy with, But nevertheless, I

(01:12:19):
thought it was the right thing to do in that
moment for us. So when I heard that rich, I
was thinking back to Brandon Staley, the coach of the Chargers,
why he went for it on fourth and two at
his own eighteen yard line and a three point game
against the Raiders. And it was a similar reason, right,
He goes, well, I was looking a little spark, you know,
something to spark our team. That one failed, so to

(01:12:40):
this one, all that the Angels did come back to
win this game. Do you like that? Are you looking
for coaches and managers who think outside the box even
though the percentages don't actually work in their favor. I
don't mind it, um, but I do. I do. Really.
I Look, here's what I value. I value smart coaching

(01:13:00):
and aggressive coaching. I've always liked it when a coach
took gambles on fourth down conversions, when I was playing
offensive line, whether it be collegiately or professionally, I always
appreciated it because it's a lot of hard work to
advance the football. So say your drive starts at the
twenty and you get to the opposing forty yard line,

(01:13:22):
I mean, well, you know a lot of people will say, well,
you didn't do enough right, you know. I mean, so
you're gonna have to punt, and it's a plus it's
a plus fifty punt, and maybe you can spin them deep, uh,
pin them deep, and then your defense can can force
a three and out, and then you're gonna get possessions
somewhere around midfield and you'll have a closer look at
the end zone. Well now, I mean if you have

(01:13:42):
a yard to gain and you're in that area of
the field, kind of that alumni zone between the forties.
I like it when you have an offensive coordinator and
a head coach who believes in you and wants you
to get that one yard, right, you know, call your
best play. We'll do our best weekend to get the
one yard. I look when you take gambles, which at

(01:14:05):
different points and the one you pointed out from Staley
this past season with the Chargers or this this gamble
that Madden took. You better be right because if you're
wrong more than you're right all of a sudden, what's
going to happen is your your your Your players who
are a bit more cerebral, who pay closer attention to

(01:14:26):
the analytics, who understand the risk versus reward of some
of these propositions. They're gonna take umbrage with it. So
I don't mind it every once in a while, but
don't make a habit of gambling and guessing wrong, because
then you're gonna lose your locker room. Yeah, your your
credibilities on the line. You're just you know, you're you're
making wild decisions and they don't pan out. But it
didn't work out for the Angels. They came back to

(01:14:47):
win that game all right. On the other side, UH,
an even bigger question for Major League Baseball again stemming
from an incident this past week. Coming up next Steve
Harry Rich Abreger Fox for its Sunday once again. The
Dollar Shave Club six blade razor brings noticeably smooth shaise
with six stainless steel blades with four swift hair removal

(01:15:09):
and lubricating strip that keeps things smooth. Dollar Shade Club
razors are sold at Dollar Shave Club dot com or
in stores. Coming up in the next hour, We've got
an interesting thought about the talent level we're seeing currently
in the U. S f L. But I want to
get to something baseball related again here, Rich. We had
a game between the Giants and the Podres in which

(01:15:32):
the Giants jumped all over the Podres. I mean, they're
blowing them out. It's like nine to one in the
second inning. And two things happened in that game. They
got a lot of people upset. One with the nine
to one lead, the Giants dared steal second base, and
then later in the game laying down a bunt and gibe. Kapler,

(01:15:53):
the manager of the Giants, defended the decisions being made,
arguing a course that there were you know you, no
lead is safe and everything else like this, while others
were screaming that once again you're a major violation of
baseball's unwritten rules. And my quick take on that was, well,

(01:16:16):
if these rules are so important, these unwritten rules, then
make them written rules. I mean, that's that's easy. In
other words, if you see teams that seem to be
violating these unwritten rules that are so important to the game,
then just make them a written rule. Rule in baseball
it says, you know what, no, no, you can't lay

(01:16:37):
down a bum when you're up nine in the sixth inning.
I like it, you know. I mean, if you really
want to preserve the integrity of baseball, then you need
to you need to take the rule making out of
hands of the players and the umpires and the managers,
because it's ridiculous when you when you have managers and

(01:16:59):
players who are essentially officiating what's fair or not in
the in the game. Well, all of a sudden, you
have a situation where your league is being um how
should I describe it, sort of defanged by the players
and the coaches. Like Like. The whole point of having

(01:17:21):
a league office, the whole point of having like and
and UH competition committee UH an ownership group to oversee
the rulemaking in a league is so that you have
a fair and balanced circumstance where players go out and
they perform, and they perform within the rules you provide
for them. But when you have I mean, this isn't
the Wild West, this is Major League Baseball. I mean,

(01:17:43):
this has been around for you know how many, I
mean over over a hundred fifty years. We're talking about that.
The history of this game is rich, Like how on
earth do you have players and managers stepping in to
decide what's right and what's wrong. It should be in
the rule books, and if it isn't, there should be
suspensions for some of the bologny that we see on

(01:18:07):
on a baseball field as a result of the quote
unquote unwritten rules. Well that's my whole point. If these
unwritten rules are so important for the integrity of the sport,
then make them written rules, set the guidelines. Because everyone's
interpretation of these unwritten rules. Obviously he's different. Gabe Kapler
made the point, and you know when they stole second

(01:18:27):
base in the second in he already up nine to
one at that point. His thought was, I want them
to go into their bullpen deep, because it's not just
winning this game, it's winning the series. So if suddenly
we forced them to go one picture deeper into their
bullpen today, it may affect him tomorrow. And that's we

(01:18:49):
have a best of three series here, we're trying to
win the series. It sounds like a solid reasoning out there.
But not now people like no, no, no, no, no, no,
it's not good sportsmanship. But by the way, Bob Melvin,
federal manager of the pod Raise, he didn't even want
to comment after game, no comment, which leads you to
believe that here's the other thing. We got seven team

(01:19:11):
more games against this one particular team. We'll remember this,
And I think that's fair. You know, what if it
did upset you and you want to retaliate in some manner, okay,
you got plenty of time, Well we'll see you again.
We'll remember that, and that's fair. I mean, that's a
fair thing. But yeah, the idea of these unwritten rules,
like what is good? What is what? What's the right

(01:19:33):
thing about? How about? That's a big part of it
as well. You your infield is playing off the dirt
and somebody lays down a bunt on you just be better.
Don't don't be trailing by seven, eight or nine runs
at that point. You were part of both of these
as you know, either big lead or big deficit. As
a player, you know, look at the other Never, I

(01:19:54):
never put up the white flag and said my expectation
is for you guys to take it easy on us. Ridiculous.
All right, on the other side, you ready for this?
How good is the talent in the U s f L.
We're gonna break it down. Coming up next, Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot

(01:20:17):
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(01:20:37):
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Las Vegas dot com. Coming up later on in this hour,
we're gonna check in with our dear friend Fox Sports
Radio MLB insider John Palmer ROSSI talking about some of
the things we talked about in the last hour about
Major League Baseball. But I want to go back to

(01:20:58):
something you said earlier here as we're talking about the USFL.
Right now, the Houston Gamblers leading the Michigan Panthers seventeen
to six minute forty five to go in the third
quarter their debut weekend for the USFL, and you said
something along the lines of the USFL is like looking
at a college game, all right, Yeah, like a college

(01:21:20):
all star game where you smashed together a bunch of
players years the word all star. Yeah, I'm gonna give
you a stat right now. You're ready for those alright.
So when we think about all stars at the collegiate level,
I mean no bigger all star line up than the
University of Alabama, right, So I'm looking at their last
four drafts. You ready for these numbers. So this is

(01:21:41):
the nineteen twenty and twenty one draft. The last four
drafts in the NFL, Alabama has had, get this, a
total of seventeen first round picks. So this is a
four year span, which is a normal career in the
collegiate level. So in a four year span, they had
seventeen first round picks, by the way, ten additional players

(01:22:05):
either taken in the second or third round, a record
six number one picks last year, seventeen first round picks,
ten other players second or third round just over the
last four years at Alabama. So I don't know what
the makeup is on the draft history of these USFL players,

(01:22:26):
But I would sincerely doubt there are seven team players
in this league that were first round picks in the
NFL or even second or third round picks in the NFL.
So my argument is this, if you were to place
Alabama football against I'll even dare say, an all star
team from the USFL, Alabama, it's got a good shot

(01:22:47):
of winning that game. That's my thought right there. Well,
I agree with you, but maybe for different reasons. Look,
there's no doubt in my mind that even the least
talented USFL team could potentially have more talent than Alabama potentially,
you know, because we're talking about, you know, guys who

(01:23:07):
have some NFL experience. We're talking about guys who were
All Conference two times, are All American you know, second
or third team or even first team All Americans who
are washouts at the next level but dominated at the
college levels. So you're talking about a very high level
of play individually. But football is the ultimate team sport,

(01:23:30):
so it doesn't matter necessarily. It does in certain cases, obviously,
but it doesn't matter necessarily who has the most talent.
What matters more is who's got the best team an
Alabama or Clemson or Ohio State. You know uh LSU recently,
Like when you talk about some of the best teams

(01:23:51):
who are fielding NFL talent year after year after year,
pumping talent into the pros. The George's of the college
football ranks, if you were going to put them up
against USFL teams, the chances are most people are taking
the college football team. And it's because of that reason.
It's difficult to build chemistry. It's difficult to build an identity,

(01:24:13):
it's difficult to build culture. It's difficult to have teams
offensive and defensive teams learned the playbook, and you're slapping
together even though these are great college football players, are
potentially even pretty good NFL players who are looking for
another chance to to to get some stats behind their
name and get a little more heat on their name. Again,

(01:24:36):
it's really difficult to play as a team when you're
slapped together this quickly. Whereas Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia
l s U. I mean, you have guys playing together
in certain cases three four years in the system who
have created that chemistry and that culture together. All right,
But I guess my question is this, and again and

(01:24:59):
just taking it for a fan standpoint and what I'm
watching and talent. So when we talk about leagues that
were competitive with the NFL, is when they were actually
competing for the same college talent and other words, the
American Football League when it launched in nineteen sixty immediately
signed the Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon out of l

(01:25:20):
s u IS, the number one college player in the country,
and he signed with the new league. Same thing with
the USFL in nineteen eighties, where they decided, heck with
that senior rule, we're gonna sign the underclassman, Herschel Walker
the number one college football player, and they got three
straight Heighsman Trophy winners. And then they signed players like
Jim Kelly and Steve Young and Reggie White and Gary Zimmerman,

(01:25:42):
all guys that ended up in the Pro Football Hall
of Fame. So they were getting top talent. What we've
seen recently going back twenty years with the XFL the one,
one and done year or the Alliance of American Football
or the New XFL, or now with the USFL, they're
not competing for any of that talent. Well, they're one
is getting the leftovers that can't play in the NFL.

(01:26:05):
So my question to you is is there that big
of a drop off and talent When we talk about
the NFL being recognized as the best of the best,
just how far down the chain does it go? I mean,
if we're if if we're talking about the difference in
the first round, picking a seventh round pick at a
free agent and then those that can't even make it
at that level and now are being cast in the

(01:26:27):
drift and signed up by the USFL, how big of
a talent drop are we talking? Well? There, look, I
I if I were going to rate um where you're
going to see the most talent, it's gonna obviously be
the NFL first, and then the major and I'm talking
about the top ten college football program second, and then

(01:26:48):
it's a toss up between the USFL and the best
of the rest in college football. Because yeah, look, I
mean there's going to be guys in this league who
are going to find their way back into the NFL.
I mean, it's there's no question about it. You're going
to have scouts, You're going to have front office personnel
taking a good close look at a lot of the

(01:27:10):
players out here playing this spring and saying, hey, yeah,
this guy could help us. We have a weakness on
our special teams or we are lacking some wide receiver depth.
And he's fresh off of this USFL season and he
had a bunch of catches. Like, trust me when I
tell you, a lot of these players are gonna get poached.
So again, you know, when you're talking about against the best,

(01:27:32):
against the best college football teams, I would give the
edge to college football. But when you're talking about say
outside of the top twenty or so, the USFL is
going to produce some pump out some pros here. I mean,
there's no question about it. It's going to and that's
what the USFL's goal is is to get some heat
on this league's name. The XFL is gonna try to

(01:27:52):
do the same thing with a partnership that they overready
already have struck with the with the NFL. More football
is going to lead to more players getting more opportunities.
And that's not a bad thing to me because there's
so many guys on the field at the same time. Look,
when you when you have a super special talent at
any position, I mean you you can see it, right,

(01:28:13):
I mean, it could be I mean, when you have
that that elite player, like okay, but I have to
say when I'm just the eyeball test, you know, I'm
I'm not watching this game, you know, I'm sort of glimpsing.
But when the players go off, it doesn't look all
that different really than any other football. You know, the
guys completing a pass, the guys making a catch, guys
making run. Blocks of bad tackles are being made, and

(01:28:36):
I just it sort of keeps in mind, like how
arbitrary it is, you know, like you say so much
of and I even say this so guys who are
in the Hall of Fame, I'll be generous. Let's say
half the players that are in the Pro Football Hall
of Famer there because they were just better. They were
just that kind of player. The other half, we're probably
there because they're in the right place at the right time.

(01:28:58):
And I just imagine how many guy eyes there really
aren't all that more talented than the next guy, but
they just find the right situation. They work hard, they
show up for work, they're out there grinding, and suddenly
they put together, you know, a long career in the
NFL and all the benefits of that and I just
I just see him watching these guys who would love

(01:29:19):
to get back to that, and I don't know. For me,
I'm wing and then these guys look pretty good to me.
Oh no, Yeah, there's talent out here. And see that's
what it just seems so arbitrary. Wife. Certain guys get that,
you know, decade long career in the NFL, and other guys,
like these cast offs in the USFL just don't get
that opportunity. Well, i'll give you. I'll give you two

(01:29:41):
things that you said that we're really poignant and really
like you nailed it on this idea that just because
you're considered a great means that you're great. Yeah, sometimes
that is true, and it's easy for us to see,
and sometimes you're in a great situation and it amp
afies what talent you do have. And it's confusing when

(01:30:04):
you think about this because there's a lot of things
that go into it. You gotta be healthy, which is
I mean the majority of that is luck. You know,
does does your body hold up were did? Did the
guy fall into your legs and tear your knee or not?
I mean, that's that's what I'm talking about, you know,
I mean guys who are durable. Yes they're hard workers,

(01:30:24):
and yes, there's no question they put a lot of
effort into keeping their body healthy and they're tough because
they can play through injuries and they can play a
full sixteen game schedule. But the truth or seventeen game
schedule now. But the truth is certain guys are just unlucky.
Wrong wrong place at the wrong time, with the wrong
leg planted in the ground, and somebody rolls up on

(01:30:45):
you and boom, that's an ankle. Boom, that's a knee,
and it could happen multiple times to multiple players over
the course of their career, and essentially they don't get
the opportunity they would have had they been more lucky. So, yeah,
it's a crapshoot, man. And these leagues that XFL, the USFL,
they give an opportunity for that guy who maybe had
bad luck with health and didn't get a second look,

(01:31:07):
or maybe that guy who got into a little bit
of trouble, but he's a better person than that and
he's learned his lesson and he just needs another chance
to prove he's a good character guy. You know. It's
it's it's for that player who need a little longer
for that transition from college ranks to the NFL, to
get a little bit more football under his under his belt,
so that he could have he could have an easier

(01:31:29):
time with the transition to the NFL level. There's there's
all these different aspects that I really really respect and
support to have spring football leagues like the USFL, like
the XFL when it comes out in three because you
could see some special talents rise to the NFL as
a result. All right, on the other side, we're gonna
get to you know who, John Paula Rosie, We get

(01:31:53):
a little inside a couple of weeks now, Week two
of the Major League Baseball season coming up next. Steve Harbert,
Rich arm Burger, Fox Sports Sunday. By the way, Rich
and I had a chance to take in opening Day
for the Padres the other night on Thursday, and boy,

(01:32:16):
I don't know about you, rich Man, got my juices
flowing for this baseball season. That yeah, that was that
was like a perfect day for us. It's a special
across it. Yeah, And what really made it special was
the idea that they had chili in the press box
at Peco Park. I know people think I go on

(01:32:38):
nauseum about this. But you know, you know what I'm
talking about, Rich, I'm talking about and and by the way,
this I was mentioning this to Iowa Sam. See Sam
is of the mindset that there's no such thing as
chili unless there are beans in chili. I'll die on
this hill, right, I mean, like it cannot be called chilling.
I don't call it chili. Listen me mean, now you

(01:33:00):
understand Texas chili does not have any beans. You do
understand that, right, Iowa chili, Okay? But in his world,
if there are no beans, it cannot be labeled as chili.
So how do you stand on that, Rich, as far
as your definition of a chili, you know, and I
love food. I never really, I never really could consider

(01:33:24):
myself offended by somebody calling a chilia chili if it
doesn't have beans. You know, I don't know how important
the legumes are to the whole dish overall. I mean, like,
let's be honest, it does give a different textual component.
But are they making or breaking the chili if but

(01:33:45):
there's hot dog chili? And what we had the other
night was hot dog chili because just layer, Oh it's
so good. I know a guy that knows chili joining
us right now talks a Major League Baseball or Fox
Sports Radio MLB insider star of the MLB Network, John
Paul Morossi. So JP is a Michigan guy. Um, how
do you define chili Iowa? Sam says, no beans, not

(01:34:08):
chili Texas chili doesn't have beans. I was talking about
the chili that we had in the press box of Peco.
Is that perfect hot dog chili for a good chili dog?
How do you define chili out of Michigan? Now that
is an excellent question. Uh. First, happy Easters, all those celebrating.
I would say on on that question, I do think

(01:34:30):
beans are essential. Beans are essential. Now you can add
there are many different variations thereof but I just have
a hard time imagining chili without beans. I think that
is that is probably one of the more essential ingredients
in the entire recipe. That's just my own personal thing.
Well it's a Midwest thing then, right must be. Yeah. Look,

(01:34:54):
I mean that's a strong answer from a strong man.
I respected. I don't know how important lagoons are to
my hillis that I make necessarily If I don't, if
I have some in the cupboard. Don't get me wrong,
I'm not going to scoff at it all. They'll get
thrown in the pot. But I don't necessarily I don't
understand the attachment JP. Is there a needcessity certain things

(01:35:15):
that that are essential? Right? It's hard. If you're gonna
make certain types of pasta, you have to have tomatoes
as part of the sauce. So then that is it's
It's like what if you're gonna make a boulogne. Is
there has to be certain elements to the bouligners for
it to be a bouligners, And so I would say
that the chili, from my perspective, would have to include

(01:35:38):
beans to be chili. All right. Uh. Traditionally, as a
baseball season progresses, my first question is always related to
the team that currently has the best record in baseball.
Are actually four teams at six and two, three of
them reside in the National League West right now, So
I want to turn to the only six and two
team in the American League, and that is the Chicago

(01:35:59):
Whites Box with their seventies seven year old Hall of
Fame manager Tony Larusa. Ever since his return of Major
League baseball, it seems like I hear nothing but complaints,
and yet all the guy seems to do is win.
So what what impact, if any, does Tony LaRussa have
on the current success of the Chicago White Sox. I

(01:36:20):
don't think he is an element in it, Steve. I mean,
this is a team that has a lot of talent.
I still believe they have the most talented roster in
the American League Central. Uh, that to me is is
without question, at least at the moment. They of course,
we're missing Tim Managerson for the first two games of
the season. He has come back hitting better than four
hundred on the young season. I think he's really had

(01:36:41):
a nice start. Actually, their offense top to bottom is
not necessarily as impactful as we thought it was going
to be. With the injuries at To Moncada among others,
it has not necessarily been quite as deep as expected.
But the pitching I think has been quite impressive. And uh,
you think about the potential of someone like a Michael

(01:37:01):
Kopeck to come in and and be a more consistent
starting pitcher. Reynald Lopez came in yesterday and got the
win in relief, and he is someone that I looked
to is as potentially having a pretty huge impact on
this club. But when you look at Copac yesterday, five
innings nowhere and runs, he to me could be a
real X factor for the White Sox this season. So
I think with LaRussa he has sufficiently capitalized on the

(01:37:27):
talent with this roster. You might have argued that could
another manager I've gotten them past the Astros in the
first round of last year's playoffs, maybe, but the Houston
obviously had a very, very talented roster as well. So
it's an interesting dilemma about how much of an impact
that Tony has made. But when you look at what
has happened there, I think overall his impact has been

(01:37:48):
roughly what Jerry Ryan Stor thought he was getting when
he hired them when he hired him following regular season.
You know, JP, there's a trending headline on ESPN's website
today and it's it's uh, it's for an article that's
examining why the Padres baseball season fell apart so historically
during the season and why some of the offseason moves

(01:38:11):
they made um are improving things in two Yeah, I
don't know if we've ever really put a bow on
it from last season. But you know, since it was
such a historic meltdown, what went so wrong for the
padres in one and why is there any hope or
optimism around the baseball season for the same team. You know,

(01:38:34):
it's a great question. I think that the rotation let
them down. Quite simply, it's a team that we we
could look at any other number of chemistry elements or
or other factors about the way this team came together.
To me, the rotation just let them down, period. Uh,
there were other elements. There was there some club house turmoil, yes,

(01:38:54):
I think there was, and ultimately a failure of leadership
that led to Jayce Tingler's dismissal. But if the rotation
had been healthy and productive from the first game of
the season, they would have made the playoffs and and
jays Tinler might still be in that job right now.
This was an issue of of rotation failure first and second,
maybe you can bring another dynamics where they didn't get

(01:39:16):
the most out of certain players and there were some
inconsistencies and they still even to this day even though
they're playing pretty well right now. Um, there's still are
some pieces that don't seem to fit for the long term,
like a Will Myers for example. But they have I
think plenty of offense, and I think even that was
the case last year, maybe a little bit of an
inconsistency with Grisham in the top spot. But but for me,

(01:39:39):
I look at last year and Chris Paddock and others
who just simply weren't consistent enough. And and that to
me is is d a number one, clearest, most obvious
reason for the failures, whatever intriguing and enticing storylines happen
behind the scenes, to me rich more than anything else,
it was just a case of the rotation not being
healthy or effective enough when you consider what their hopes

(01:40:00):
had been for guys like Clevinger and Lament all right,
by the way, staying with that for a moment here,
a couple of years ago, the uh Padres and the
Cleveland Indians as they were then known now the Guardians
made a trade where the Padres acquired Mike Clevinger, who, unfortunately,
because of injuries, has only pitched a handful of games
since he's been in a Podre uniform. There were six players,

(01:40:22):
three major leaguers and three minor leaguers thrown in that
deal from the Padres to the now Guardians. One of
them Owen Miller. And if you haven't been watching the
current UH batters in Major League Baseball right now, he
leads the majors hitting five sixty with a thousand eighties
slugging percentage in an ops of sixteen sixties six So

(01:40:46):
I know it's you know, eight games into the season
and he buzz about this guy, did he just have
a hot week? Is a former third round pick of
the Podres. But is this is this a guy who
the Guardians may say, wow, we stole one here in
miss Owen Miller. Yeah, I think that he is someone
that is not getting quite enough attention for what he
has been able to achieve. Again, to your point, he

(01:41:08):
wasn't necessarily coming from a name brand national powerhouse program,
as you mentioned, a third round pick from Illinois State
Normal in the Great City of Normal, Illinois. He is
a native of Mequon, Wisconsin, also known for his hockey
talent there as well. But he's someone that you look
at his performance track record coming up to the minor leagues.

(01:41:29):
He has always hit. He has always hit a career
three batter in the minor leagues. And you're right. He's
someone that maybe had bounced around a bit defensively where
exactly he was going to play. He's played multiple different
infield positions. And I think Cleveland in general has surprising
people this year. I thought that, and I'm certainly one
of them. They were a club that I looked at

(01:41:50):
and said, you know, they might be due for a
for a diminishment in terms of their production, and perhaps
with some of the departures, they're not going to be
quite as good. But Owen Miller has come in play
first base and hitting a ton. Stephen Kwan has come
in playing left field barely ever swinging and missing. Miles
Strage has got himself a nice contract extension. He's playing
center field, and of course we know what a great

(01:42:11):
base runner he is. And then they just signed Jose
Ramires a long term. So for the Cleveland Guardians at
the moment, I think they have a lot to go on.
I mean, they've been to me more impressive than Detroit.
I thought Detroit coming out of spring training had a
real chance to put together pretty special season, but Cleveland's
rotation has been healthier. Zach Plisach, who had kind of
an up and down last couple of years, He's come

(01:42:32):
back and been I think pretty impressive. Shane Bieber as well,
has been basically himself. Cal Quanto is pretty solidist to
Mackenzie as well, and then Bropen. I think that Trevor
Stefan is one of the more underrated relievers in the
game as well. So I've been quite impressed by what
by what Cleveland has done. And I love that you
mentioned Miller because I think he's someone that, again coming
out of Illinois State normal, isn't quite getting the attention

(01:42:55):
he deserves. Right now, all right, we got about a
minute left, but we have to touch on this history.
He made last night between the Reds and the Dodgers
the most one hundred mile per hour plus pitches in
a single game since this stat has been tracked since
two thousand eight. Hunter Green throws thirty nine. The Reds

(01:43:15):
rookie is a phenomen Is this where baseball's trending? Or
is he just a cut above the rest? I think
it's both. To me rich because he's someone that we've
always done with a superior athlete. Of course, he came
from Notre Dame High School is outhern California, Say High
school is John Carlo Stanton two way player out of
the draft, number two overall pick. There was originally some
thought that he was gonna try to play both shortstop

(01:43:36):
and pitch, but as you mentioned that, when you would
have that kind of an arm, he has such special
stuff that you just have to take care of his
body and let him be the best pitcher that he
can be. Certainly, and probably it actually underscores just how
unique Otani is because pure athleticism, I think Otani and
Green are are very similar athletes. But Otani has always

(01:43:56):
been fully committed to this notion of being a two
way player, whereas I think Green the Reds really sort
of channeled him towards pitching. To me, he is a
phenomenal ambassador for the game. I just love his story.
He's someone that I think connects with with young people
and the fact that he grew up in this country
as a as a multi position athlete in baseball. I
think it's a very powerful story. And the reality is

(01:44:18):
he's staying healthy now, he's averaging better than a strikeout, renting,
He's actually controlling the ball pretty well in terms of
not walking too many guys. This is a great story.
For a team and a sport that needed great story
in Hunter Green right now from Notre Dame High School
there in Sherman Oaks is certainly delivering that. All right. Well,
speaking of great stories, every time we have the one
and only John Paul Morossi. It's a great story. But again,

(01:44:41):
it's a Midwest thing. If you don't have beans and anchilling,
all right, we're just made. I was Sam saying, Okay,
they are necessary in my opinion. Thank you very much
for the support. I appreciate it, Felice Pascual and my friends.
I will actually be there tomorrow night at Dodgers stating
to be happen to be around. We've got, of course,

(01:45:03):
the Dodgers, Freddie freem into playing his former team for
the first time. That's gonna be a lot of fun
to watch that game. JP or the best we always
appreciate at the time, Thanks so much, Black Wise, guys,
thanks so much. John Paul Morossy, MLB Network, Fox Sports Radio,
MLB Insider. So it's the Midwest thing here, Rich, I'm
about this chili deal. But I know what I had
on my dog at Peco. It was delicious. That's the

(01:45:23):
only thing that I know that was delicious. All right,
let's find out what's trending right now. Let's get a
third opinion on this, fourth opinion, fifth opinion on the
definition of chili from one David Gascon, who was quite
the chef in his own right. So, how do you
define chili? Had to have beans? Gonna have no beans?
What do I think you gotta have beans? I think

(01:45:44):
you have to. I think it's a requirements. I didn't
realize there was such. So you're not gonna fighting issue
like Texas chili. There's no beans in Texas show Yeah, yeah,
Tech Texas and Kansas City or drastically different from me
from barbecue. So curious with the differences on chili out there. Yeah, um,

(01:46:10):
I actually had some chili last night, did you? Did
you so? And you put the onions and cheese and
all the yea yeah. One of our colleagues, Ben Maller,
and I was we were at the Dodger game and
we decided to bolt from that and we went to
a spot. There's like a Tito's Tacos off Washington and
Culver City, but they closed at eight o'clock on the weekends.

(01:46:32):
I don't know if you did not know that right
down the street. Because I lived in Culver City for
a while. How many times I've been to Titos underd
Two times. So we went to a spot called Johnny's
which is right next to it, and he obviously wanted
some pastrami su Yeah, and I went up right next
to Salt Sauce there before. Yeah. Yeah, I went with
some chili, some hot dogs and it was pretty tasty.

(01:46:56):
Oh yeah, that's cheese onions, French fries, any rings, Yeah,
Rich and I on Thursday, I went to place called
Bubs in the gas lamp, loaded tots and by the way,
also they had these wings. You should have seen, Rich.
The last wing on the plate sallow. He basically put
it in his mouth and he just sort of, I

(01:47:16):
don't know what he was doing. He was just sort
of swimming in his mouth and he sort of yanked
it out and the bone was bare, like there was
nothing on. Yeah, you're a very thorough man, Rich. Well,
what can I tell you? I mean, when I see
something I like, yeah, he goes. I mean, you are
the Philip Rivers of Fox Sports Radio. That's after we
had down two pitchers on Pacific. Yeah. Man, I've never

(01:47:37):
seen you drink. I meant I think a year or
two ago, Steve, I had never seen him eat. I
don't know Riches see me like I devour. Yeah, he's
like he's like a reticulated python. Like I mean, he
he will surround his food and suffocated and then down
it in one single gulf. I've never seen it. The
reason why you haven't ever seen him eat is because

(01:47:59):
it happened so quickly. Gave always tells me slow down
when the eat, and I'm the opposite. Yeah, it's nice.
The next thing, you know, I'm gonna see I was
Sam work out. Hey, he's been doing his walks. I
walked eight miles on Friday. You send me beach pictures.

(01:48:19):
It's about it. I'm also a fast eater too, all right,
Yeah my dad, My dad is the same. I must
have inherited it. That's interesting. Any ride's a fast drinker.
I was a fast eater. Steve rich Um NBA today, guys,
m game one sucked. Um not good at all? Now

(01:48:42):
one was a score? Miami beat Atlanta. How about this?
So Duncan Robinson was eight of nine from downtown. He
shot from the field in this game nine of ten
twenty seven points and might blew the doors off of Atlanta.
Trey Young was one for twelve O seven from long range.
Finished the game with eight points. He was a minus

(01:49:04):
twenty two and the defeat. Miami's up in the series.
One game to love Boston and Brooklyn. Those two teams
get things under way about five minutes from now. Uh,
guys like Action will be on ABC. We go back
and forth T and T tonight, so we'll have three
games on the menu today, Bulls and Bucks Tonight. National
Hockey League Panthers scored four times in the second period

(01:49:24):
and they ran all over Detroit. Six to one was
the final score. By the way, you guys had JP
on and did not ask him one damn hockey. I
was going to, but I ran long stem. I apologize
because yeah, we I know, we make that a tradition.
But as we get ready for the uh, well we're
two weeks away from the start of the playoffs. Yeah, yeah,
a couple of weeks away, so we're we'll get to that.

(01:49:46):
I promise you we'll get plenty of that. Austin Matthews
fifty eight goals and four sists. Well, you remember the
last time I asked him potentially could he go down
as the greatest American born NHL player. But you got Madonna,
you got Chelios. I mean there's some pretty names out there. Yeah,
I mean, I but still, I don't know if you'll
ever get anyone that eclipses two points in a regular season.

(01:50:08):
No ever. Again, that was you know, Gretzky. When you
look at Gretzky's numbers, they were just man and some
sad news. Earlier the week Mike Bossy passed away. Mike Bossy,
by the way, still holds the NHL record. Now, he
had an reviated career, played ten seasons, but he still
holds the record for most goals per game for his

(01:50:29):
entire career. He had fifty or more goals his first
nine years in the NHL. Five of those seasons he
had more than sixty goals. Um. So you know, Potvin
got a lot of ink and leads, and I mean
there were a lot of great players on those Islands,
but you but I mean as far as just scoring,
I mean, Bossy was a machine. Were you at Rich's up?

(01:50:50):
You don't know about that? Yeah, there you go, great breakdown. Yeah,
well you remember this the Islanders run of more consecutive
Stanley Cup wins. We're all before Rich was born, so
that's that's true. But I will say this about the Islanders,
that those teams are what encouraged my grandfather to buy
season tickets to New York Islanders and he would we

(01:51:12):
would go, and we live close enough to nassa college
team that we could walk there. So there are many
occasions where I played tag long and the only way
to watch hockey is live. That was he did. Does
that mean that he was a Jets and Mets fan too?
He didn't love football. He in fact, he was part
of the reason why I didn't play football until much
later in my youth. I didn't play until eighth grade.

(01:51:35):
He didn't like all the head injuries that came out
of football. So he I mean, I love me. He
was a big time hockey fan, which I don't know
if those two things aligned, but yeah, that he liked
hockey like that sport, but he couldn't stand watching football. Yeah,
we went to a lot of hockey, went to a
lot of Islander games grown up. I mean, I don't
care what sport it is. You win four consecutive championships,

(01:51:57):
it's not that is insane, it really is. And then
the Islanders, uh, with all the great stars they have,
but Mike Bossy, he was the scoring machine, no doubt
about that. Well, beloved for years as an announcer and
unfortunately passed away of lung cancer. So just sixty five
years of age, way way way too young. By the way,
Dollar Shaved Club six plate razor brings noticeably smooth shades

(01:52:19):
with six stainless deal blazes or swift hair removal and
a lubricating strip that keeps things smooth. Dollar Shave Club
razors is sold at Dollar Shave Club dot Com or
in stores all right. On the other side, I want
to get into this series between the Nets and the
Celtics and whether load management is gonna work for one
of these teams. Coming up next, Steve Harbin and a

(01:52:43):
Rich Arborer are getting to the end of this Houston
Gambler's Michigan Panthers game. Heil Mary patt Is that a touchdown? Oh?
Oh no? Oh no, so there was There's one second
left again, was trailing Houston seventeen to twelve. They threw
a ball in the end zone. Was caught Shaye Patterson

(01:53:06):
with the ball in the former of Michigan. Are you
watching this at all? Oh? Yeah, look at that catch. Gorgeous.
This is what I was talking about. Let's foot in now,
what's do they have one foot in in this league
or two feet in or what's the deal? But did
he have control? Close? Wow? That was a heck of
a pack. There's a flag on the play. All right, Well,

(01:53:28):
we'll keep you updated on that. Hey, I want to
mention this Brooklyn Nets Boston Celtics series which is underway
right now, the to seed Boston versus the seven seed Nets.
And let's get a rule in on this field here,
because I really want to get into this. By the way,
the Michigan Panthers or my team to pick, we have
like a little thing going on. Rich and I and
our producer fletched down to Santy incomplete game over. Hold on,

(01:53:55):
there were two penalties on the play and that's it.
The game's over all right. Anyways, we always know when
they when they match up, it's fireworks every time. So
all eight people let the game are on their feet
right now celebrating the gamblers over all. Right. Um, so
we got this series when the Nets and the Celtics

(01:54:16):
and this this this is a series, it's really going
to show off whether load management works. Okay, and I'm
speaking of the Brooklyn Nets two star players, Kevin Durant
and Kyrie Irving. Now, when I say load management, neither
one played that many games this year. I mean Durant
only peered in fifty five games the entire regular season,
and Kyrie Irving, because of his UH status as far

(01:54:40):
as his immunization is concerned, only played twenty nine games
this year. Now, we were talking about this with the Lakers,
you know, with a d O and Lebron and UH,
you know, having limited games, whether or not they could
turn it on for the postseason. Well, they never got
to the postseason. Well the Nets did, Uh, they won
a game in the playing around. So so what do

(01:55:00):
you expect to see? I mean, by all accounts, both
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are a hundred percent physically
right now. So could their load management for a variety
of reasons work well for them as we're now into
the postseason. Of course it could work well for them.
I mean, look, when you don't have the strain on
your legs and you are fresh heading into a postseason,

(01:55:24):
there's no question it can be to an advantage, but
also it could be to a disadvantage. I mean, how
much time have any of these superstars played with each other.
Kyrie Irving has missed a ton of time with his
you know, his lack of vaccination status, so he wasn't
able to play with this team and gel with this team.
Uh Ben Simmons obviously has been out. He may come

(01:55:47):
back and and be a part of the reason why
the Nets win a championship, but what's more likely them
looking flawless with the addition of Simmons or it look
a little herky jerky. I don't know, man, I I
don't necessarily think I don't necessarily think it's a bad

(01:56:08):
thing to rest your legs. I don't think it's a
bad thing to want to be healthy and provide a
healthy team for a postseason run, if that's what we're
talking about with load management. But that's not what this was.
You had injury situations for Simmons, and you had the
vaccination circumstances for Kyrie Irving. And I don't think this

(01:56:29):
was like, Hey, we're gonna pick and choose our moments
um where this makes sense for us. I think this
was just by virtue of circumstance. They have one of
the better rested teams of stars heading into this NBA postseason. Well,
I think a prime example about load management working for
a team was when the Lakers won the championship two

(01:56:51):
years ago. I mean, you gotta wait a four month hiatus,
you know, before they resumed with an eight game schedule,
and you had a well rested Lebron James at age
thirty five at the time, and they always fragile. Anthony
Davis was healthy for the postseason, and the Lakers ended
up winning a championship. So I absolutely agree with you.

(01:57:11):
I think for the Nets right now, you get a
healthy Durant, a healthy Kyrie Irving. Those are two guys
you don't want to see when you're the other team
on the floor together. Oh no, there's no doubt. I mean,
and and look, Kyrie he basically, I don't want to
say he was solely responsible because Kevin Durant was going
to pick and choose carefully who he wanted to play

(01:57:32):
with two. But he recruited Durant to be a Net
and he somehow help alongside you know, the other influences
there in Brooklyn, assembled a super team didn't work out
with Harden, they trade for Simmons, But still like he's
got to make good during this post season on the
promise he made to Durant to be a part of
the reason why this was an alluring proposition. So if

(01:57:55):
this team is going to stay together at all or
much longer, this needs to be a deep on for Brooklyn. Also,
I think another team, and we saw it in full
force yesterday with the Warriors convincing went over Denver game
one of their series. That's another team that sort of
nursed their players throughout the season. Stephen Curry missed eighteen games.

(01:58:15):
Of course, Clay Thompson coming back from injuries, he only
played thirty two games. Uh Draymond Green only played forty
six games. But those guys coming back along with this
breakout star Jordan Pool. I mean, this guy has been unbelievable.
It put up thirty yesterday. You know, again, they're a
well rested team with fresh legs, at least healthy legs

(01:58:37):
to start the playoffs, and you get all that talent
on the court together in the postseason. Yeah. Um, And
again we go back to Kawhi Leonard just a couple
of years ago with Toronto set out twenty two games
that year. I guess what, he was under precent healthy
for the postseason and Raptors end up winning an NBA championship.
So this is all of a sudden, you know, you know,
Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, you know, put

(01:58:58):
it out there we gotta do something about this load management.
But I think I think your idea of let's let's
let's examine the bigger question is is the schedule too long?
Is that what we're looking If you want fresh legs
for all these best four out of seven series in
the postseason, maybe lighten the load in the regular season. Yeah,
lighten the load. And then also, you know, Adam Silver

(01:59:21):
is rooting for a team, any team that has had
its stars play, because if you have, for example, of
Brooklyn Nets win a championship, it only goes further to
support the idea that load management is the right strategy
for a basketball season. All right. On the other side,
we'll get much more into our USFL schedule, NBA playoffs.

(01:59:42):
Keep it around Fox sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio has
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(02:00:04):
Sports Sunday, Hartman and Orm Burger with you. The Dollar
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All Right, triple header in the USFL, Game two coming
up here shortly. We've got four games today in the

(02:00:27):
NBA Playoffs, Game two going on right now, early nineteen
leaf for the Celtics over the Brooklyn Nets. Major League
Baseball's underway. All of that's great, Rich, but let's face
it again, the NFL rules the world. And we are
now eleven days away from the NFL Draft. And what

(02:00:47):
is making this year maybe a little different than most years. Well,
a couple of things. When we've talked about the fact
that we have eight teams right now, they have multiple
picks in the first round, which means there are eight
teams that do not have a first round pick this
year in the NFL, But normally you get eleven days
before the draft, and there seems to be a real

(02:01:08):
consensus at the top of the draft. I'm looking at one,
you know, mock draft site where they got five different experts. Okay,
they got their heavyweights all in doing their updated mock
drafts and get this number one overall pick. They got
four different names among the five guys. One of them
has got a Kwanu, the offensive lineman out of NC State.

(02:01:30):
One of them has got to Evan Neil offensive lineman,
Trayvon Walker, Aidan Hutchinson. I don't remember a time in fact,
I was talking to our buddy, uh, Bucky Brooks about
this a little bit earlier. Obviously he does his updated
mock drafts. I said, how wrong are people going to
be on these mock drafts? And he goes, let's let's

(02:01:51):
be let's be honest this year because obviously these guys
have a lot of different sources and they're trying to
get you feedback on you whose interest and this guy
and everything else. He goes, there're gonna be more people
wrong with this year's draft because nobody knows that I
mean he goes there. There is no consensus right now
on just about anything, whether it's the quarterback position, offensive line,

(02:02:15):
edge guys go down the list, any position, wide receiver.
There's a lot of talent out there, but no one
seems to have a real consensus, unlike who is the
guy or who are the guys that we're gonna see
As the first name is taken off the board, it's
it's sort of wide open this year, which at least
for me, sounds like a pretty good deal. Yeah, I

(02:02:35):
I think it makes it somewhat interesting. Although I will
say this, quarterbacks drive interest in the NFL. Um We
know this because of the popularity of stars like Patrick
Mahomes or Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers or Josh Allen
or Justin Herbert or Russell Wilson, you know, I mean,
Nick Joe Burrow. We attach so much interest to that

(02:02:57):
position because it is so difficult to play, It's so
difficult to find a great one, and it really is
the lynchpin to success in the NFL. And the NFL
is king right now in terms of sports viewership and
interest in this country. So when there is a weak
draft in terms of quarterback play immediately you start you

(02:03:18):
start getting concerned if you're the NFL, about interest in
the draft, because that's how you truly change the fortunes
of any of these thirty two teams is if they
can guess right at the most important position or if
they already have an elite quarterback. So when you have
a lower buzz draft around that position, you're in jeopardy
of losing interest quickly. Because if I promise you, if

(02:03:41):
the top names off of the board our interior offensive
lineman and pass rushers, and then we start getting into
defensive backs. Boy if if if we're fifteen picks in
and we haven't seen a quarterback picked yet, Yeah, I
mean that, trust me. Now, don't mean we're you can
get excited about wide receivers, and and there's been more

(02:04:03):
interest in wide receivers and more money going to wide
receivers than at any point in the history of the NFL.
But even those names start to get a little difficult
to keep up with after the first five are taken. Yeah, well,
I mean it's gonna be a very different looking draft
this year. I mean, because everyone's looking at let's say,
the top ten picks in the draft. He got Caroline

(02:04:25):
at six, Seattle at nine, and both of them are
in limboll right now with their quarterback positions. So you
look at a lot of mock drafts and they've got
Kenny Pickett or Willis, you know, one of the quarterbacks
taken in the top ten picks for instance. Again, getting
back to Bucky, I asked him about Seattle. I mean,
I go, is it a done deal at nine that
Seattle is going to take a quarterback? Goes? No way

(02:04:46):
he goes. I don't think they're taking a quarterback period,
either whether Willis is on the board or Pickets on
the board, I don't think Seattle's going quarterback, you know,
like really, I mean, does that mean that they got
their sight set on signing Baker make Mayfield or getting
a deal done with Baker Mayfield. Again, we're only eleven
days before the draft, so this is why we could
still see a lot of action. And by the way,

(02:05:08):
there's some other veteran quarterbacks we talked about, Jimmy Garoppolo,
although it seems more and more than unless the forty
Niners really get the offer they want for Jimmy Garoppolo,
He's not going anywhere. I mean he's just not gonna
go anywhere. I don't know how that sets up for
the dynamic of the forty Niners quarterback position. But Rich,
you and I have talked to some people about that.

(02:05:29):
It's not set in stone that he will not be
the starting quarterback for the forty Niners next year. Definitely not.
I mean just led him to the NFC Championship Game.
You have a young quarterback that will eventually be the
guy for the forty Niners, but maybe he's not a
ready right now. So I just love the fact I
agree with you on the quarterback position. I mean, it's

(02:05:50):
a big part of the draft because you know, but
it's again, it's it's not like we've had in recent
years where you've had so many marquee college quarterbacks that
are going one, two or three in the draft. Can
he pick it? Uh? Malik Willis Desmond Ritter, you know,
the Steelers or a team city and number twenty. A
lot of people of slighter Ritterer if he falls there,

(02:06:11):
Uh to go to the Steelers. But I I I
because it's such a mixed bag with all these mock drafts.
A lot of these guys are updating almost on a
daily basis. It really does seem like, wow, this is
wide open, like no clue. Yeah, we really don't. And
and I think it's easier to connect some of these
dots when there are a lot of QB needy teams

(02:06:35):
and there are talented quarterbacks to be had. Now I'm
not saying that. Look, Ritter pick it willis you name him?
How one of these guys could end up being the
next Tom Brady. I mean that's true. It one d
percent is possible that you could get a steel like
a Patrick Mahomes, who, by the way, not a lot

(02:06:55):
of people saw it coming. Well, how about Dak Prescott?
Ford Prescott is a great example is I mean, look
Jimmy Garoppolo for for everything people say about him, you
know you're like, he is kind of a replacement level
starting quarterback. I agree, But he also got you to
a Super Bowl and got you to an NFC Championship
game as a second round pick, and and the forty

(02:07:17):
Niners only traded a second rounder for him. So I mean,
you get a lot of value out of quarterbacks sometimes
that you don't spend a lot of alley value to ascertain.
So I'm very curious to see how that position in
particular is UH is drafted in this year's draft, and
I think everybody's it. But when you have a lower

(02:07:39):
buzz QB draft like we have this year, it really
does throw a wrench into the Cocks people. That's the
reason why I think a lot of teams were interested
in trading out of the first round. And that's the
reason why you see eight teams with multiple draft picks
in the first or in the first round, or multiple
first round draft picks over the next few years, because
it's just one of the those circumstances where either everybody's

(02:08:02):
trying to get in so they can get their's or
everybody's trying to get out. And this is one of
those one of those one of those off seasons where
everybody's trying to get out of the first round because
you could get some great value in the second round.
Let me ask you this, all right, so you're the
Jacksonville Jaguars. You put the Urban Meyer nightmare behind you.
You bring on Doug Peterson, obviously an offensive coach, super

(02:08:24):
Bowl champion UH coach to you know, get a restart
on this organization. A year ago, you take Trevor Lawrence
and I think any doubts about his talent. We're sort
of dismissing that final game against Indianapolis, a must game
for the Colts, and he looked really good in that game.
We know he has a men's talent. What do you
do if you're Jacksonville? Do you go offensive lines saying

(02:08:46):
all right, we gotta we gotta protect our biggest asset,
which is Trevor Lawrence, our quarterback. Or do you just
look at all the players and through your own evaluations
say this is the best player avail But in this draft,
regardless of position, well, you know I I'm me personally,
I think it's smarter to draft for your needs unless

(02:09:08):
there is an irrefutable superstar that falls to your drafting position. Right,
But when you have the first overall pick, what do
you need? I mean, offensively? Is there any doubt that
you need to protect your starting quarterback better than he
was protected a season ago? The answer is no. I mean, look,
if Trevor Lawrence doesn't have time, Trevor Lawrence can't be

(02:09:30):
Trevor Lawrence. So you gotta you gotta improve this offensive line.
You gotta do it in a hurry. I loved, for example,
what the Bengals did this pass off season because they said, hey,
what's holding us back? Well, how about the nine sacks
in a divisional playoff game? Yeah, that is so. What
they did is they went out and they got themselves

(02:09:50):
a completely revamped offensive line. They brought in two new
guards and a new tackle and free agency, and who knows,
if the work's done, maybe they go back into the
draft and they continue to add to the offensive line.
So yeah, I mean, you know, QB past protector, pass rusher, cornerback,
and receiver are the top five positions of need across

(02:10:12):
all of the NFL. And there's no doubt that past protector,
somebody who's going to protect your pastors blindside, front side,
any side is one of the keys to the Jaguars
having any success in the upcoming year. A Right on
the other side, I want to ask you about um
physical talent, you know, it's beyond the norm, and equate

(02:10:36):
that to a desire to play the game and a
commitment to the game. Whether that's something that can be
taught to someone that has that physical player talent, but
maybe his motor isn't always running. I got a couple
of prime examples coming up next Steve Harman, Rich Arnburger.
This is Fox Forward Sunday, brought to by one of

(02:10:57):
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and that means all sports, every game, match, race, and competition.
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brightest in Vegas, the greatest arena on Earth. Alright, good
games so far. Celtics are leading the Nets thirty four
thirty three about ten minutes ago in the first half

(02:11:20):
in that game. Uh. And of course we got a
couple more games today in the USFL. Plenty of baseball
to talk about today on this beautiful Easter Sunday. By
the way, Happy Easter out there to everybody out there.
How did I go this morning with your boys? Uh?
Did you have an Easter egg hunt for your two
sons today? Oh? Yeah, yeah, Tie and Bash. They they

(02:11:42):
ransacked the entire yard. Living in southern California, we have
the benefit of weather agreeing with most Easter Sundays, so
we've done outdoor Easter egg hunts every year. And man,
I'll tell you it's getting more and more fun and
more and more competitive. Um. I don't know who won
the egg hunt, but the three year old gave the

(02:12:03):
six year old run for his money. Well, and he's
a big kid. Now. It's it's amazing. Richest two children.
You're beautiful. If an um, your son tie literally has
your wife's face and your younger son has your face, yeah,
they are. It is really stunning, to be honest with you. Um,

(02:12:28):
I can't wait for do you guys come up to
our house. I can't wait. We're all excited about that.
We're talking about this weekend. Anyway, it's gonna come up
later on that. The whole crew going to come out
to my place. UM I got a question for you
here about the draft. We're talking about the NFL Draft
now eleven days away, and we're always hearing about guys
that scouts tended downgrade or upgrade based on factors other

(02:12:52):
than what we go through during the combines. So you
do all the measurements you know, and how strong you are,
how high can you jump, how fast can you run?
Everything out else? And then there gets to that you know,
how hot does your motor run? And came on Thibodeaux,
who you know, came in at the University of Oregon
as probably the number one overall recruit in the country.

(02:13:14):
I mean, was that kind of you know, off the charts,
you know, checks every box in terms of physical skill,
and then people start looking him at Oregon saying yeah, yeah,
I mean he's an edge guy. He can make some
big plays, but there's a lot of plays that he
just seems to take off. Let me ask you this,
do you believe that if you get a guy that's

(02:13:34):
got all the physical tools to be a great player
at the NFL level? But maybe because he's been so
physically dominant through his high school years even in his
collegiate years, he really hasn't been challenged. And believe me,
he will at the NFL level. We have the best
of the best at every single position. Is there is
there a way to get a guy's motor running when

(02:13:57):
maybe it has him in at the lower levels and
you can turn it on at the NFL level or
is that just something that comes with the individual player. Well,
it's difficult because everybody's different, everybody's made of different stuff.
But it's a huge concern, uh, And it's something that Look,
it's so difficult to predict which players have that dog

(02:14:22):
and what players don't and you're right. There is a
connection between having certain physical gifts and certain ability to
dominate whenever you want and and not having that switch
stay on often enough. Now, and then let me just
show down for a second if you don't know about

(02:14:43):
riches background. So he's a kid from Long Island. Uh.
He is the only lineman ever in New York high
school football history to be named the state Player of
the Year. So you were one of those kids that
was just bigger, stronger. You dominate at the high school
level like you were. You were never really going up

(02:15:04):
against anyone that can match your physical skills. Now that
changed dramatically when you went to Penn State. Uh yeah, yeah,
when you know Levi Brown and you were introduced to
a different level of athletes. But I mean, but then
at that point you realize, Wow, I can't just be
the biggest kid on the block. I have I gotta
learn a few techniques along the way if I'm gonna

(02:15:26):
survive and continue my football career. So can that carry
over though once you get to the NFL again, Yeah,
you know it's uh, well, let's start from where you like,
because I can talk about my personal like journey and
and you can sort of make connections along the way
to other players who go through this, like, you're right.

(02:15:46):
At the high school level, because of my physical gifts
and my aggressiveness, it was a lot easier for me
than most guys. But then when you get to a
pool of players where your physical gifts are matched, and
maybe your toughness is matched to a certain level, and
maybe your aggressiveness is matched to a certain level, it
means that you need to bring your game also to

(02:16:09):
the next level. And there are a lot of guys
who can, and those guys have successful careers at the
college level, but there's a lot more guys who don't
and can't or won't, and they end up washing out.
But then there's this select few guys who don't have to,
whose physical gifts are so apparent and obvious and so

(02:16:33):
above the cut of everybody else that they can transition
from high school to the collegiate ranks and still dominate.
It's rare, but it happens, And you know, this is
one of those examples of a player like that who's
had an easier path because of his extreme physical gifts. Now,
will it translate at the next level, No, it won't

(02:16:55):
because now you're dealing with guys who are not only
as physically gifted as you in many cases, but they've
been dealing with guys who are also as physically gifted
as you for years now. Some of these guys are
ten ure all Pro players. Yeah, you just you are
now at the elite of the lads. So the question
is going to be for any of these players who

(02:17:15):
has that mark of like, does he have enough of
the it factor? Is he a big enough dog out
there that he can stay angry, stay aggressive play every
single snap. Is whether or not when he feels like
he's not good enough, does he wilt under that pressure
or does he force himself to make himself better. That's
a question that can't be answered unfortunately. By the way,

(02:17:38):
I did you see this comment by Hall of Famer
Edger and James about playing in the NFL. Did you
see what he say? So he was doing an interview
and uh Edgren James course, the Hall of Fame running back,
and he said, quote, the NFL is overrated, not really
that hard, and this is what he says. So when
he came into the league members first two years with

(02:18:00):
the Indianapolis Colts, he led the NFL and rushing, and
he goes, He goes, I can't down the sport. But
I think for me a lot of the time, I
was like, man, the NFL is overrated. And here was
his reason, he goes, I felt like it was overrated
because you're twenty one, twenty two years old. And then
I got this dude in the locker room that's thirty
thirty two. I know he can't keep up with me.

(02:18:23):
So the age difference, it made me like, man, this
game is like a joke. Now I'm playing with these
older guys. They got to be in the cold tub
with us. We just suit, I go up and play
and do whatever we want to do. So as a
young player, he felt like, there's a bunch of old guys. Man,
they can't keep up with me, at least for the
first couple of years in the league. He was absolutely right.

(02:18:44):
He had that kind of advantage out there. I don't
know about the league being overrated, but physically, I mean
there is something to be said. And of course mentally,
as you get older, you learn more about the game.
You learn techniques and a lot of the intricacies that
allow you to overcome the natural physical breakdown. Of your

(02:19:06):
body playing year after year after year in the NFL.
But what do you make of those comments? Well, you know,
I look, for me, the NFL was very different than
it was for Edge James. You know, he came into league,
like you said, and was an immediate impact player, and
so his skills translated. The lie he needed to tell
himself was I I belong here because look at all

(02:19:28):
these other old guys, right, I can hang because I'm young.
I still got fresh legs, and I'm I'm gonna bang
into them and they're gonna give up because sooner than
I will because I'm fresher I've been I've been around
less time, so I've less mileage on these tires. For me,
the lie I had to tell myself is even if
I'm physically overmatched, even if I am technically overmatched, nobody's

(02:19:52):
gonna be meaner, Like, nobody's gonna be nastier than me
in this game. And so that was the way that
I gave my my self the mental edge, Like I
just tried to outtough people and and you just you
have to lie to yourself. Athletes are the best liars
because in order to even play the game of football,
you know, your body has a natural defense. When you're

(02:20:15):
running into somebody, you flinch. You know, you you you flinch.
I mean, and it's too to save yourself, you know.
I mean, if you're gonna run full speed into a
brick wall at the last second, your brain is gonna
say this is a mistake. Let's flinch and you're gonna
close your eyes. You're gonna turn your head away from contact,
and a different part of your body is gonna hit
that wall. When you're playing football, you have to hot

(02:20:36):
wire your brain to believe that you can run through
that wall, you know, And so you have to be
a good liar. Ed you and James is just still
speaking from the programming that he put in his brain.
The reason why he belonged is because these are a
bunch of old people. I can go out there and
I can be fresh. And it's an interesting comment. I

(02:20:57):
don't believe it personally, but that look, if that's what
you have to tell yourself to be as astounding of
a player as he was during his time, Yeah, that's
what you have to tell yourself. Is interesting comment. And
what do you think about it? Yeah? You you played
ten years in the NFL, let's say on top of
college ball in high school ball. Yeah, put your body

(02:21:19):
through a lot over that pound of time. All right,
speaking of putting his body through a lot, let's find
out what's trending right now, because this guy is constantly
pushing the envelope. David Gascon. I mean you're you're a
physical guy, David, But where are all I mean? Now,
I know you have three sisters. Uh were they good athletes? Yeah?

(02:21:41):
My my sister Sarah, she's the middle of US four.
She set the n C double a record for sets
in a season at Southeastern Louisiana State. Um, she actually
tried out for the Silver Bullets. Um, she made the
women's U S National handball team. How about that. She's

(02:22:01):
a beast. Yeah, interesting endearing way a beast. I mean
that was your father after he finally had a son.
And your dad looks like a big, physical man. It
was the third He was a third baseman, my my
uncle Albert, we call him lefty. Um, he's a bigger man.
But he threw gas. He threw a what my dad

(02:22:25):
used to call the heaviest fastball he had ever seen. Yeah,
and um, he had a wild story. He was actually
he wasn't drafted, but he was called by the Cincinnati
Reds to try out. Tried out, made the team, and
the day that they wanted him in camp was the
day he was getting married, and so they're like, you
need to be here, and he's like, no, I dounb't

(02:22:47):
and he said goodbye. But he was a beast. He
was a multi sport athlete, but blew out his knee
a c L surgery. So with that kind of pedigree,
then you you felt forced that then I gotta I
gotta force my up to max out. No, I I
just um you know. I was being born in the
South Bay of l A. It's it's a blue collar town,

(02:23:10):
so you can run your mouth and then you're susceptible
to getting your ass kicked. And so I was young
and small before I hit my growth spurts. I got
my ass kicked, and but everyone was bigger than me,
and I always wanted to to respond. I I didn't
go like. I went to a really small high school.
So I was a big fish in a small pond
until I went to one of the local junior colleges

(02:23:32):
in Torrance, El Camino, and at that time they were
third in the country and recruiting across the country. Yeah,
and so when I went there, that's when I finally
played which I felt like were my equivalents. And for
people that know don't know I, once you get to
that next level, it's like being on the Autobahn. Walking

(02:23:53):
on the Autobahn. You were in the middle of traffic,
trying to just figure out how to get through it.
And Matt, I mean Rich telling the stories right now,
that like, that's the one thing I miss, you know,
because I was six, but I would go up against
guys that were six to three hundred, six three to nine.

(02:24:16):
You just gotta figure it out. I gotta figure it out.
And uh, some of them just weren't smart, or they
have bad technique, or they just underestimate you on size,
and uh, you just gotta take full advantage of it.
And I, I mean, I love the game. I should
have played baseball more because I was left handed. Picture,
but man, there's there's no replacement for athleticism and using

(02:24:41):
that on the field because it just teaches you for life.
You know, how to get your grass up when you
face resistance adversity. A lot of teams need left handing pictures. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
my my son Garrett left handed. To you know, let's
there's something about left handed baseball players. They just fit
like they game just seems natural well, and they typically

(02:25:03):
have a natural tail to their fastballs. They do, they do,
and everything just seems easier. Their swing is easier. Sales
a red hand stick. Yeah, I was a lefty through lefty,
but bad and right Yeah so but uh yeah I would.
I'd love to see some riches old school mauling tapes.

(02:25:24):
You probably have something on DHS, right, Yeah, that's the
only place they're available. Now. We could convert those bad boys.
We could watch them on one of the big screens
at Steve's house, and he's got flat screen at his
house Alibu overlooking the beautiful Pacific. Yeah, there you go.

(02:25:45):
Men se Russia from his house. Guys. NBA today, Atlanta
got slapped around by Miami one fifteen and ninety one.
Trey Young was brutal one of twelve, oh of seven
from downtown just points. Duncan Robinson had seven eight of
nine from three point Country Brooklyn's gonna one point lead

(02:26:06):
at forties forties six. Kyrie Irving's got thirteen points, a
rebound and an Assist Bowls Bucks tonight Pelicans and Sons
at nine o'clock Eastern Major League Baseball Dodgers and Reds
just under way trade Turner struck at his first at bat.
That consecuted game streak right now at one. UH, Pirates
Nationals five three. Pittsburgh has the advantage there, Mets five

(02:26:29):
nothing over the Diamondbacks. And speaking of five nothing, the
Orioles shut out the Yankees five nothing in Baltimore today
Red Sox eight one winners over the Minnesota Streets. By
the way, you mentioned, uh, that Orioles game against the Yankees. Uh.
Nestor Cortez, a journeyman pitcher starting for the Yankees today,

(02:26:50):
did something that doesn't happen very often. He had an
immaculate inning. In the fourth inning, Rich, Uh, he struck
out the side on pitches. It's called an immaculate inning.
So the first batter was a called strike, foul ball,
foul tip into the gloves. Second batter was swinging strike
two called strikes, third batter swinging strike called strikes, swinging

(02:27:13):
strike nine pitches. Immaculate inning, three strikeouts. He also became
the first Yankees picture ever to have at least twelve
strikeouts and pitch five or fewer innings today, No matter,
they still lost the game. And again it's not like
he's some pheno. But yeah, immaculate inning, nine pitches, three strikeouts.

(02:27:36):
That is impressive. I'll say this, it's even more impressive
because you know, baseball it's one of those sports that
has those certain milestones, um that are important to us.
No hitters, perfect games. There have been less immaculate innings
in the history of the sport than there have been
no hitters, you know, So when somebody points out, like

(02:27:59):
an immac killed inning, it's like, all right, I mean
how many. There have only been something like eighty or
ninety of them, I mean no hitters. There's been a
lot more comparatively, So that's that's no small feat to
be able to do that. Yeah, it says here ninety
six pitchers, so I guess, uh Cortez will be nineties.
So no, there have been a hundred and six immaculate innings,

(02:28:21):
the most recent being today, uh in Esther Cortez of
So yeah, that's way less than no hitters. Yeah, because
no hitters has at up over to hundred. I don't
want to say. Yeah, it's amazing. It's amazing that there
were certain gaps in Major League Baseball. For instance, Um,
when Don Larson threw his famous check this out. Through

(02:28:44):
September eleven one, there have been three hitters officially recognized
by Major League Baseball. So many many many many times
less um immaculate innings than no hitters. Yeah, I was
looking there's certain gaps in Major League Baseball when it
comes to pitching accomplishments. Uh. For instance, when Don Larson

(02:29:04):
threw his famous perfect game in the World Series in
nineteen fifties six, there had not been a perfect game
in Major League baseball in thirty four years. Thirty four years,
and this guy throws a perfect game in the World Series.
So I'm looking at these immaculate innings in between nineteen
twenty and nineteen fifty three, not a single picture did it?
Over twenty five years, spans, I had a lot of anomaly.

(02:29:26):
That's thing about baseball. Baseball is around so long, Uh,
you get these certain statistical anomalies. Like it was like
the last time we had a perfect game in baseball
was in twelve, and we had three of them that year.
There were three perfect games in twelve. Was that the
David wells here, No, that was back in oh nine,

(02:29:49):
I believe it was. The last guy was Felix or Nandez.
And let's see here, let me just go back here
on that perfect games. We were talking earlier about the
perfect game that wasn't with Um and Kershaw. But yeah,
back in twelve, which is the last year we had
a perfect game in base but the last one was
Felix Hernandez, so he threw his perfect game in August.

(02:30:12):
In June of that year, Matt came through a perfect game,
and then in April of that year Philip Number. So
there were three perfect games. And again since nineteen hundred
there's only been twenty one of these since nineteen hundred
three and twelve, and ironically there were two in two
Dallas Bright and Roy Halliday. So um, but this in

(02:30:34):
this day and age now, with you know, everyone talking
about pitch counts and everything else. That's why I'm sort
of amazed that we do have quite a few no
hitters nowadays that we haven't had suddenly a deficiency and
no hitters, because it seems weird because we rarely see
complete games, Like unless you actually are throwing a no hitter,

(02:30:55):
you're not gonna get a chance to throw nine innings.
That's just like, unless you're on us, you're throwing a
no hitter, they yank you the you you know, so,
so you better be on pace to do something special
to earn an opportunity to pitch a full nine, or
or just be pitching so unbelievably efficiently that there's no reason,

(02:31:16):
you know, because you'll see a lot of the no hitters.
You know. But at the same mark that Clinton Kershaw
was pulled or he himself pulled, pulled himself out of
a game, Um, you know you can. You you'll be
astounded by the number of pitches thrown, sometimes like less
than eighty. You know, you're like, whoa Like, it's it's bonkers,

(02:31:37):
right when you really think about what it takes to
throw a perfect game. And the fact that Clinton Kershaw
stepped off the mount and was fine with the decision,
whether it was his own decision or Dave Roberts, he
was okay with it. It really is shocking. And I
know there's a lot of people who say, hey, listen,
it's an athlete. He knows his body. And you know,

(02:31:58):
we're living in a day and age where these sort
of individual statistics are less important to players in certain circumstances.
And I get all that, and I agree with all that,
But what I can't wrap my head around is being
in that position and saying no, I'm good. The comparison
I make is imagine, imagine waiting your whole life to

(02:32:21):
scale Mount Everest and getting to the last I don't know,
four thousand feet and saying, yeah, you know what, I'm good.
Just how do you make that decision? All right? I
love phenoms, I love ns. On the other side, I
got a name for you, a name that you will
definitely hear from soon coming up next? Oh yeah, finishing strong,

(02:32:46):
Steve Harbor, Rich Rmburg, Fox Sports Sunday. I want to
thank the guys today. I was Sam who put his
foot down today and said, no, not chilly without the beans.
I'm gonna die on all it chili and call whatever
you want, but don't call it chili. It's just a
meat stew with no beans unless there are beans in

(02:33:09):
that chili. You know what. It's a strong take and
it's one that I uh, I find myself respecting more
and more as the day goes on. A lot to
think about on this Easter stunt that remember beans, beans,
the magical fruit. The more you eat and then you
can fill in the rest. Yeah, well the more BEANSI
you know what it's going to happen there. I didn't
want to finish David Gascon as always today, guys, they

(02:33:33):
forgot to tell you have one to acknowledge a special
person out there in the world. We have what over
four hundred or six hundred affiliates across the United States,
and then we have the Armed Forces Network. I want
to give a special shout out to what today, to
one h Ryan Burr Singer, I'm glad you mentioned why.
Ryan today came into the studio said good morning to

(02:33:56):
me my hand and eloquently asked, would you would you
like some lunch? And actually he and Sam are eating
right now. Yeah, we had him. We locked eyes, yeah,
and pugged and embrace. I said, you know what, no,
thank you, you're a good man. That's called progress, that's
good fort step to reconciliation. Yeah, they're they're loaded up

(02:34:17):
right now. Ryan again, good job, thank you. I ventured
out of the studio, walked into their room and man,
it was smelling good in there. Yeah, a lot of
things going on in five minutes. Yeah, uh uh so Ryan,
thank you for that. Ryan was here awfully early today.
What was it five minutes? I mean it was I

(02:34:39):
it was I was stunned. I'm like, wow, you really early.
Special anyway, and he and I gave him the extra
time to stop by and say hey, to go hi
to Gascon. So there you go, Hey, I want to
throw out a name for you guys. Roki Sasaki Ye.
This this twenty year old at the latest is mind blowing,

(02:35:00):
all right. So he's pitching over there in Japan and
his last starting throw a perfect game, something that had
not happened in their league in twenty eight years. So
his follow up to his perfect game, how about eight
more perfect innings? And then he got pulled in a
one nothing loss. And by the way, in the he

(02:35:22):
struck out the side in that eighth inning and his
pitches were hitting one on one on the gun. You
want to be ready for this. By the way, that's
fifty two consecutive batters he's now faced without anyone getting
on base. But here, but here are the numbers that
are staggering. So he's had four starts this year. This
is a twenty year old I don't care what leag
you're pitching it. He's twenty years old. He has pitched

(02:35:43):
thirty one innings this year. He has given up seven hits.
In thirty one innings, he has struck out fifty six
and walked to okay, So thirty one innings, seven hits allowed,
fifty six strikeouts, two walks, and he is on a
current streak of having retired fifty two consecutive batters. I mean,

(02:36:09):
I'm reading some of the comments, and the guy the
team it was a zero zero tie obviously when he
went out with the perfect game and the guy hit
a walk off home run for the other team where
they win the game one nothing, and this guy said,
the guy is just too tough. He goes the way
his fork ball drops. Forget about it, he said, forget

(02:36:31):
about it. So not only is this guy throwing a
hundred miles an hour, but apparently he's got a forkball
that literally's dropping off the table. How long until we
see this guy playing make Jerry baseball? I mean, I
I want to see this kid, because if you throw
that hard and then you got to pitch like a
fork ball, that is just it's like an extreme sinker.

(02:36:52):
That if you throw it, that heart can literally drop
off the table of the guy said, forget about it.
Unedible cannot hit this guy. I first and foremost I
had only heard about him, and I didn't, you know,
like just hearing you regal less of that tale. I'm
gonna go find video on this dude. That those sort
of things like the Hunter Greens of the world, we

(02:37:13):
just got to experience. Uh, you know, this sort of
this Red's phenomen picture who was drafted all those years
back out of Notre Dame High School, just had to
throw strikes. That was the key, that was it. He
just had to get the ball over the plate. And
and he was as good of a shortstop, if not
better at the high school level as he was a
pitch right down the road here Notre Dame High in

(02:37:34):
Sherman Oaks. Reds Organization made him a picture and he's
a special one. And so when you see a guy
who can hit triple digits on the gun, but not
only that, have control and be able to throw for strikes,
I mean, then you're getting into the Gram territory, you
know what I mean. Like, I mean, think about how
special Jacob de Gram is as a picture if he

(02:37:57):
had just played with better men teams, the better teams period.
I remember when Dwight Gooden came to the major leagues
as a nineteen year old and then the next year
is a twenty one as a twenty year old one
four and four for the Mets. I mean, it was
just unbelievable. I mean, I love this at something about baseball,
especially those pictures that come along and some don't pan out.

(02:38:21):
You know, Sandy Kolefax obviously one of the most famous
pictures of all the time. He was like green, he
was one of those kids, had electric stuff. He just
couldn't throw it for strikes. But once he realized and
that was you know, they finally said, look, instead of
just overthrowing on every pitch, just throw it a strike.
When you have your stuff, all you have to get over.

(02:38:42):
Randy Johnson was this way where he goodn't he throws
strikes and said, you don't. You don't just throw strikes.
They're not gonna take it. Take it a step farther,
and just you know, think about think about like all
the analytics, you know, like we got caught up with
launch angle and the exit V low and the I mean,

(02:39:04):
these advanced metrics, how about a hundred miles an hour? Like,
that's an analytic everybody understands, like, and when you see it,
it's like it's it's watching something you rarely get it off.
We've been see Roll the Chapman obviously has been the
guy that got clocked at the and we still see it.
And and believe me, when you guy throws a hundred,
you can see a hunter like watching all right. Next week,

(02:39:29):
by the way, we're gonna break down the entire USFL
schedule right right here on Fox Sports Media

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