March 31, 2023 • 35 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon discuss all the latest from Opening Day. Angels still won't spend $$$ to send the radio team to announce games...and they're going to re-sign Shohei Ohtani long-term? He's gone by the deadline... Plus, Jason and Mike tell you why they were huge fans of Megan thee Stallion's first pitch at the Astros/White Sox!
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(00:46):
buying should be well right now. Major League Baseball Opening Day, Uh,
probably gonna be the Padres looking up at the Dodgers.
After Day c J crone and Day one sixty one,
the Rockies lead the Padres seven two. Meanwhile, Dodgers over
(01:06):
the Diamondbacks seven to two. So it's been a big
day so far for the Dodgers and James Outman, a
big day for showhe Otani, whose night is now done
on the mound ten strikeouts, in six innings, he threw
ninety three pitches, did not give up a run, Angels
lead the a's one nothing going to the top of
(01:27):
the eighth inning. Otani called all of his own pitches tonight.
There's a thing about that for a second, because of
the pitch clock situation, which we're gonna get to in
a bigger way right here. This is a big story
coming in tonight. That showho Tani was going to call
his own pitches via device that's under his jersey. Easy,
jose Al twove this one's allowed device under's jersey to
(01:50):
let the catcher know, Hey, this is what I'm gonna
throw this romana go because Otani throws a lot of
pitches and for the catcher to cycle through. They were
worried about numerous pitch clock violation. So Otani was calling
his own pitches tonight, and well, let's see six innings,
two hits, ten strikeouts. I think he's gonna get to
call his own pitches the rest of the way. I
don't think. I don't think you're gonna get Hey wait, wait, wait, guys,
(02:12):
wait wait, I really think we have to look into this.
I don't know the show he should call his own pitches,
and this is now he's not going to nearly be
the last guy. How many aces are going to say, yeah,
I feel a little more comfortable calling my own pitches
because of the pitch clock violation. Whether they're whether it's
a real thing for them or no, absolutely, go Hey,
I kind of want to call my own pitches. I'm
(02:32):
gonna say it's a pitch clock violation thing. Hey, I
want to call my own pitches. Now, Oh, okay, You're
gonna see more and more Aces do this because the
aces will have the cache to get something like this done.
You know you're you're a left handed specialist. Your middle
relievers aren't gonna co Your fourth and fifth starters aren't
gonna say, hey, I want to call my own game. No,
you're a fourth or fifth starter or middle reliever for
a reason. But the Aces, you're going to see more
follow and show hey Otani's footsteps. No, as we've said,
(02:54):
no matter what the business you're in, if you've got leverage,
you use it right. If there's the opportunity to take
that extra day off here and there, extend a trip, Hey,
I'm out there for business, but you know what I'm
gonna take a day or two. Some companies want you
to fly back immediately. Others say, you know what, you're
a special guy or gal. You do what you need
to do. We'll see in the office in a couple
(03:15):
of days. Likewise, here for pictures. I still have I
have an issue with this pitch con thing, though. Okay,
why is that? I thought we don't want the electronics
stuff in. Now it's okay, Now, now it's okay. Yeah,
it's okay. Now the astros were the they were the gateway.
They they were the gateway to it. It's like, I
feel better, It's okay. But it's like, yeah, they approved it,
(03:36):
and here we go with it. And it's like, I
thought that was the whole point. Honestly, we didn't have
this as part of the game. But let me tell you, honestly,
do you think there would be a way to say
we can keep electronics out of the game? Now, get right,
you can't. You It's it's it's a very big part
of all games out because you see, especially a buzzer,
(03:58):
how oh that means a fastball, got it ready to go? Ready?
So I thought saying you're electrocuting the guy, this isn't
the Joker walking up and giving you a handshake and
charting you. But he got the joy buzzer. Wait why
walk in? And you know in the nineteen eighty nine
Burton film and that guy, why is Carlos Beltrans dressed
as an electrician? Oh? I got a live when he No,
(04:21):
he's like, come on, Carlos Beltran's Electro from Spider Man.
He's just got it all floating through his whole body,
flying in the air. Here comes a fastball, guys, here
it comes. I'm here to fix the cable. Can they
go back and retro fit that and fix that Jamie
Fox character? You know? I yeah, I was kind of disappointed.
(04:42):
I thought I thought it would be a better character.
I thought it'd be flat. Yeah. Well, look, Spider Man
villains they have, it's a lot of great villain It's
tough when you fall flat as a Spider Man villaincause
Spider Man's got great villains. But that's the problem is
you're on the depth chart. You're pretty low. But Electro wasn't.
Electro was never a great villain. Elector just had the
cool look. No, no, he had a great outfit. I
(05:02):
WWE Superstar. But as far as a villain. No, he
wasn't Green Goblin. Yeah, yeah it was. It was Vulture
really good. He Man Sandman was good. Yeah. No, but
elect like okay, because Electro was very similar to Green Goblin.
To me, I'm like, ah, it's kind of fly. They
kind of do this a bi Yeah yeah it was.
It's almost like, hey, we really like Green Goblin, but
(05:22):
we need somebody else. How about Electro? All right? Great?
Yeah green what else we got in the primary colors?
All right? So but whatever, the electronics are here to stay.
Otani fantastic outing. Uh, you'll see the catch nine billion
times once the game goes Fine, but but he butchered
(05:42):
that play written like he turned around the wrong way,
first step, wasn't back, all those things they teach you
fundamentals learning to play the outfield, and he just reaches
his glove up. It's like, look what I found. Okay,
let me describe this play for you, because you know,
Steve to Sayer hit the nail on the head with
this earlier this hour that you may not see a
catch like that again the rest of the year and
(06:05):
opening day No, because it was a complete luck job.
That's why I mean, it's one of those catches where
when somebody makes a lucky catch like that in softball,
I look at the girls on my team and I
go look in the other hand, you'll find a gold
watch like that. That's all it was. It's a line
drive hit over Hunter Renfro's head to right field. He
goes back and he turns to his left and he's
(06:25):
running back and he turns and he realizes that the
ball is going over his right shoulder, so he turns.
He turns, his back is completely to the plate and
he doesn't look at all. He doesn't He simply just
sticks his glove out straight out and the ball lands
in it and he turns around and it really, you're
(06:48):
not gonna get a luckier catching it. Honestly. It reminded
me of the Kevin Mitchell catch, the one we've seen
so many times where he's running towards the line and
he reaches back barehanded and grabs it. Like that's the
lucky catch I've ever seen. That's a lot what this
reminds me of. And Otani's reaction was he's standing there
with his hands out like, oh my god, you caught that.
I mean, really, that's why that was the hands around first,
(07:11):
Why oh my god, I just gave up this big hit.
Oh oh. This is one of those questions where if
I was in the press conference and I was interviewed
after Hunter round for Hunter Jason Smith Fox Sports Radio,
at what point did you realize you would misjudge the
ball really badly? When was that? When that? That's what
I would start my question. It's a good question. I
really the catches, you look at it go there's no way.
(07:33):
It's like the ball just was a magnet for his glove.
I I can't understand how he made that. Are you
implying that there are magnets in the ball? But maybe
another scandal, Hunton. You let the electronics, You let the
magnets say it all happens comes back to electro. That's
what it does. It's the luckiest catch. I don't I
(07:54):
Is it the luckiest catch I've ever seen? Maybe? I
mean that's how that's how it was. It Maybe the
luckiest catch. I can't remember seeing a lucky your catch
that that's one of those. We're even he in the
outfield as they did the ISO shot on him, kind
of hading that smile like, oh okay, we dodged that one,
and you can see that he was already starting to
think about what the answer is that he's gonna have
to give it post Jason, you know what the second
question to him would bet him? What's the second one?
(08:16):
How much doesn't suck playing on the Raiders? Hey, do
you think you're getting phased out at wide receiver? I
mean just want to them. Would you rather go to
New Orleans and catch passes from Derek? Oh, you're the
other onrren bro So. The pitch clock as a big
as we mentioned with Showy at times, like calling his
own pitches the first day in Major League Baseball. The
(08:37):
two biggest things about the pitch clock. Number one, we're
only seeing it a little bit on screen now. Remember
watching it in the exhibition season. The pitch clock was
right there for you to see. And I said last night, Hey,
if this is what it is, you are never gonna
watch a game the same. If they show this pitch
clock on, you're gonna watch that every single time. Your
eyes are not going to leave it. But most of
(08:59):
the games today, the way the pitch clock is going,
you didn't really get it. You just got a regular.
You didn't see it behind you. It's kind of to
the sides a little bit more, so you're not seeing
it on a big screen now. Some games, like we're
watching on Ballely and Root Sports, they have the countdown
right We're watching The Angels of the A's on Root
Sports right now, and you see the countdown around where
(09:20):
the runners are on based and they show you where
the runners are and you see the countdowndown from twenty
sac all the way down, so you are seeing it,
albeit now it's a much smaller part of it. So
that part of it for us watching the game, it's
not going to be as as impactful as it was.
And for the players, Let's be honest, I thought today
was gonna be much worse. I really did. I'm thinking
(09:40):
there's gonna be each teams it's opening day, and you're
gonna default to taking more time just because the games
count now, and you're gonna lose your way a little bit.
There were gonna be way more pitchclock violations for both
pitcher and batter than I expected to see, and there wasn't.
So that tells me this is going to be a
pretty easy assimilation four batters and pitchers that they'll get
(10:02):
used to this pretty quick. You are going to get
your contry. There's gonna be home runs that are waved
off you actually, I mean during the Mets game today,
I mean seriously, Jeff McNeil had a strike called on
him because Pete Alonzo didn't get back to first base
fast enough after a foul ball, like as a foul
ball hit and Alonso was kind of making his way
back to first base, but the pitch clock started and
(10:22):
McNeil got a strike on a buck Shawl that came
out to arguments like, I mean, really, is that the
spirit of the rule? I mean, come on, but if
he just wants to wander in between basses who don't care,
but that's not a bit. But that's not the batter
that's taking tis. But overall, it's fine. Overall, what we
saw today was fine, and we're going to get what
baseball needs, and that is to be more viewer friendly
(10:44):
and bloated games of three fifteen, three thirty just don't
work anymore. They just don't. Everybody changes in television. Habits
change and this is something that MLB was in on
the ground floor and a few years ago. But when
they had the umpires enforcing staying in the box between pitches. Eventually,
the umpires decided to not enforce that, they let guys
step out of the box. By the time we got
(11:04):
to the playoffs and Red Sox and Yankees were playing,
games are taking four and a half hours, So that
didn't work. So now we're back to this being something
that is more enforceable. And we've already seen so much
time being taken off the games. The Dodgers and the
Diamondbacks started at seven ten LA time, and already this
game is going to the top of the eighth inning.
So you're getting these games done now, not in record
(11:27):
setting two hours and fifteen minutes, but a much more
palatable two forty five, which is a great time for
a baseball game. Baseball has never been the most TV
friendly sport. Yeah, I was just telling Ty Shirt this
in the room a few minutes ago. College basketball is
the most of you are friendly sport there is because
games come in about two hours and fifteen minutes. Right,
it's perfect. Soccer is great too, right, but then you
(11:48):
have the end of soccer. Even when you get to overtime. Okay,
soccer gets a little long, but still you're just over
two hours. Right in the same to college basketball. You
get the ringer of double overtime. You're coming in two
hours and thirty minutes, right, Football will get because you
need to watch a football game from beginning to end,
because the game can be decided at any point. Sports
like baseball and basketball, yeah, they need a little bit,
a little bit of help because the games get bloated,
(12:09):
they get long, but especially baseball, because we're now no
longer beholden to Hey, I'm just gonna watch a baseball game. Well,
it's eleven forty five at night, and I fell asleep
at ten o'clock. So if you can bring these games
in in two forty five, I think that's the sweet spot.
It's not two and a half hours to twenty. But
if you bring that game two forty five, that's If
(12:30):
that's what this does from Major League Baseball, and you're
saying this is what the average times and games are,
that's a big success. It's a big success for the
pitch clock. Yeah, gon to be a curiosity once we
get into the third, fourth, fifth members of a rotation,
depending on how injury riddled your staff is, maybe you're
down to pitcher number seven in the second week of
the season, you have no idea, but then't met you.
(12:51):
But the idea of being that you're you're trying to
keep even make it to We didn't make it to
the first game, flooring down to seventh pitcher, goody Luskin Anna,
we lost for Orland and now we're down to our
seventh pitch. Don't forget ds uh Frostburg. But the idea being,
it's all about activity, right, It doesn't feel as long
(13:12):
as there's stuff going on, right, John Wick. We went
and saw it as a group, right, John Wick? Four? Yeah,
that movie could have been five hours long, though I didn't.
But it was almost three hours long, right, Yeah, but
it didn't feel like I even took a nap. No, yeah,
two naps. Didn't feel like you got two naps in it? Yeah,
you got naps, got two ten minute naps. Skin. Well,
it was operational efficiency. I missed a couple of kills.
(13:33):
Guess what, I'll watch that movie again. There more than
a couple three hundred and fourteen kills. I think you
missed about eighty of them. Okay, yeah, well so when
you got them got I got I got the bulk
of it, and I got the important once. But that
the idea of being important. Ones like me, I fell
asleep because I was dog tired. But you're captivating. You're
not thinking about the run time of a movie like
(13:54):
that is the point because there's so much activity, so
much gone, and that's what baseball's trying to do. The
actual time of the game is important, but it's more
so how many minutes do we have of inactivity? Right,
John Wick, There's not a lot of dialogue baseball. There
was a lot of stepping out of the box, a
lot of crotch adjustments, a lot of hey, let's just
(14:16):
stand on the mound for twenty seconds and stare off
into space, find myself clear the mechanism like Kevin Costner
and for love of the game, all of that stuff.
That's what's being eradicated here, and you're getting back to
the action. Whether guy actually puts the ball in player
or not. We'll see some of these teams still had
massive strikeout totals today, so they achieved the objective of
(14:38):
getting it under three hours, but there was no more
activities because the team sucked. Yeah. Yeah, So we'll see that.
And then as we have more pitching changes and the
worst pitchers in a rotation, how much that's affected, but
no a good first step. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harman weekdays
at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports
(14:59):
Rate and the iHeart Radio app Fox Sports Radio. The
Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Army Hobo
live from the ti iraq dot Com studios, where Night
one and Day one of Major League Baseball really something
My Mariners, Remember I told you Mariner was going to
the World. Three in the eighth they lead the Guardians
(15:24):
three to nothing h France with a big home run.
Good the thing that wall was another four inches taller. Yeah,
well that's okay, that's still counts. Walls get built smaller,
it's gonna look like a four hundre. Uh. So Mariners
lead the Guardians again, three nothing as the Guardians batting
(15:45):
in the top of the ninth inning. Meanwhile, Dodgers in
control of their game against the Diamondbacks seven two in
the eighth end, the Rockies in control over the San
Diego Padres seven to two. Meanwhile, well, this is this,
This is what happens for the Shoeo tanih This is
how it goes Otani goes six innings tonight, two hits,
ten strikeouts, comes out of the game ninety three pitches. Okay,
(16:07):
Angels nursing a one run lead, Nope, A's now lead
it two to one. After pushing across two runs in
the eighth inning, Kemp with a double to score run,
Das with a single, make it two to one. A.
So now the a Matt Kemp, the Angels, Matt Kemp. Yes,
it's it's it's Tara Kemp from the nineties. Just want
to hold your Jason. Yeah, how many hits does Trout out?
(16:32):
Mike trout Is, Oh for three in a walk tonight?
Oh for three in a walk? Yeah? How about Rendown
for three? He's playing. Okay, let's just celebrate the Rendona's
actually playing in your game. You know what he was
up to bat his last plate appearance. That exact line
went through my head. Hey, he's playing, he's playing at
(16:53):
least why not and you can't. No, Look, let's have
a serious conversation for competence about show it's right. We
talked about him calling his own pitches before the game tonight.
There's nothing he can ask of the Angels that they're
going to say no to I want to hit twice
in every inning. All right, we'll clear it with Major
League Baseball. Baseball would clear that too. Yeah. I think
(17:15):
he had judge you can get that day and twice
said yeah, we could do that. He could lead off
every inning and he comes up with two outs at
every inning? We do that? What drove himself in? That
just sounds weird. I'd like to fly the team playing, yes,
of course. No, I'd like to be the pilot. Oh sure, okay,
show hey, whatever you want. Now, let's just be honest
for a second here, because if you think the Angels
have any chance of keeping Shohotani, why did I tell
(17:37):
you Julio Rodriguez is going an MVP in the American
League last night because Shohyotani's not going to be on
the Angels at the deadline. He's not the Angels. Maybe
you saw this headline the other day that said that
Artie Marino is not sending the radio play by play
broadcast crew to away games because it is cost prohibitive,
(17:58):
and so they're going to be calling the games from Anaheim,
or from their homes or from Disneyland wherever it is. Hey,
guess what I'm getting on the Incredibles ride like all
this real fast. Hey, I'll be right back. I'm here, Yoho,
pirates life for me. Hey, someone's got a fill in
for a couple of things. Why I'm going on. It's
(18:18):
a small world. It's gonna be a while. It'll be
there for minutes. I got stuck in Hawaii. Yea, So
they didn't send the broadcast crew. They're not sending the
broadcast crew on the road to do games because it's
cost prohibitive. Okay, just think about that for a second.
Guy's worth a billion dollars. They're not sending the broadcast
crew four away games, but they're gonna give show out
(18:40):
honey the money to keep them in angel Come on, man,
it's the cost savings of this. It's not happening. To
expand the conversation. I mean, this happened a lot during
the height of COVID, right where you had a lot
of broadcasts done from home. We've seen it for college football,
we've seen it for college buckets. It seems shortsighted and silly.
(19:03):
I don't know what the cost savings truly are here
in coach seats or seats on the private charter hotel rooms.
I mean, that's not that expensive. Put them out of
Motel six. He's at Extended Stay America. Whatever the case
may be, Artie Marino. This is now the fourth year.
(19:23):
The Angels aren't doing this because they started during COVID.
They're one of only two teams that don't do this, right.
The Toronto Blue Jays don't do it either because that
also started during COVID as well a lot of things
that you couldn't do related to Canadian travels. Yeah, that
makes sense. So what they are saving for the year, Yeah,
somewhere between one hundred and eighty five thousand and two
(19:46):
hundred thousand dollars. Again, I ask you they're really gonna
keep show? Hey Otani? Of course not. He's gone. When
they do another bubblehead, He's gone. I mean it's it's
when you're nickel and diming things were I'm not going
to send a radio broad It doesn't justify the cost. Dude,
you're a multi billionaire and this is two hundred grand. Nope,
(20:07):
get do it. Gonna let everybody call games from home,
every class at such. You know, look, at some point
when you get older as as a and you work
as you do. You know, Doug Gottlieb actually had a
great line in this when you told me this once,
is that when you do stuff in sports in the
beginning of your career, you do it. You do everything
(20:27):
they you know, you do everything, they send you, places,
you go, you go. Then as you get older, he said,
you know, when you get older and you do things
is he still does a lot of college basketball and
different things, travels around and he said, you know at
the end, they're paying you to travel. Now, as you
get older and you have commitments with your family and
staying home, they're paying me to travel. Like you know,
I pay you the salary, pay you because I'm taking
(20:47):
you away from your home now and go to travel.
So I'm sure whereas some of the broadcaster would like
to go, a lot of bards, well, hey, I'd love
to go to a studio, would just call the game.
So you don't see as much as much outrage from
the broad catching because you know, a lot of these
baseball broadcasters they're all a little bit older. They're all
people with families. Not everybody starting out with your twenty five,
twenty six years old calling a baseball game. So yeah,
(21:08):
I'm okay with it, But for the just for this,
this perspective of this is two hundred thousand dollars that
you have decided that that's a big experience and part
of the game, and you've said, no, that's not and
you're really gonna think Otani's gonna stay. Of course, he's gone.
He's gone. So I couldn't pick him to an MVP
because he's gonna be on other team unless his stature
just so good for the first four months of the season,
(21:28):
no one can outrun them. In the final two months
the year in the American League, he's not going to MVP.
Or when he goes to the Mets and his record
down the stretches six and zero and he hits fifteen
home runs in the last two months, he'll win the NLMVP.
That's where I can see him happening. But I mean,
Otani is as great as he is and the show
that he is, and he's more of a show now
than ever before because of the World Baseball Classic m Yeah,
(21:52):
he's not gonna stay. He's a new team. I mean,
your owner is pinching Benny's from two hundred crand no, no,
and that's completely Marino says the cost doesn't justify. We
love our radio people who do a great job at
the economics. Forty fifty thousand miles is not going to
change that experience, So they've chosen that. He's chosen that
to not send his crew. Yeah, Otani, I think the
(22:13):
bigger issue here is how tone deaf telling you it's
a cost cutting thing, as opposed to managing to the
last couple of years and saying, you know what, we've
had a great experience. It's been good. You could have
sold all of what you just said, the Doug Gottlieb
line and everything else and made it a positive that
we're looking out for our team. They're more cohesive, they're
(22:36):
ready to call the game because they get to have
their lives. They're not on the road, and it makes
it a better product. Whether it is or not, whatever,
that doesn't matter. But citing cost as you release this
statement is just dopey. When you've got Trout and Randon
on these monster contracts and Shohei Otani is Godzilla in
(22:58):
this equation. And I say that because it is a
six hundred million dollars deal that you're going to, I mean,
that is a monster contract that you're looking to that
is going forward. I'd rather just say, hey, we know
we're gonna stink, So why are we sending the guys?
Why are we sending them? You know? I mean that's
party moreno, Jason, I mean it's worth four point one
(23:20):
billion dollars. Yeah, and we're not setting for two hundred
thousand dollars on the road. Now, that's four point one billion.
Does that include the estimated value of the Either way
the way, it doesn't matter. I'll cash flow it. Man,
come on Twitter at ou about a fresca, Mike and
swollen down The Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Harmen. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
(23:43):
seven pm Pacific. My favorite moment, and I say this
for a while the Mets one opening day, the bullpen
got it done. A day where Justin Verlander's not gonna
pitch for a little while, but Megan thee Stallion's first
pitch at the Astro's White Sox game. I was a
very big fan talk about setting the top. I was
(24:06):
a very big fan because I'm a very big fan
of making these who isn't I mean? And she comes
out in her astro's top and her tight white as
astro's top and her tight white pants. And she comes
out and she stands at the mound in front of
the pitching rubber, staring out to the outfield. Yeah, because
you know, hey, we want the camera to get Hey
(24:26):
that I spent a lot you know, I do a
lot of work on this to hey, this this is
my calling card, right. You said I spent a lot
of money too. No, no, at a lot of work
because Jennifer Lopez say the same thing has been a
lot of spent a lot of time. So she said
that where they're back to the to the to the
home play thought she was lost, which is awesome, and
then turns around and throws a first pitch. She dances
a couple of moves. I could watch that first pitch
(24:49):
a long time. I'm I'm a big fan. I'm a
really big fan. I'm saying I watch you know what's great.
You'll be able to commemorate it. Because they always do
a thing with the top. They do the curse pitches. Okay,
it might not beat on next year's set. If they
made you at tops now specially for this one. Okay,
I think I think you have to have it, but
(25:09):
it really would be unfair if they also don't do
one that has Fernando Valenzuela, Oral Hirsch Hazer, Mike Soccha
and the Cavalcade of Stars. I mean, if you're gonna
do the set now, because they've done a ton of
these through the years. You've got Um Hayley Atwell has
a card, Jack White has a car like there's Stephen Colbert,
(25:29):
you name it, gone down the line. If you're a
famous person a bit, it's one, two, three four. Take
the elevator at the Hotel Yorba. I'd be glad to
see you later. All they got inside is vacancies. T
j oh boy. I actually drove by the Hotel Yorba
a couple of times. Yeah, and you're driving by in
Detroit going back on to visit Pam's family. One of
my friends. Hey, look look right there. What it's a
(25:51):
hotel Yourba? I go, oh my god, it's a real place.
It is a hotel Yorba. Nicely done. Why did that
make you free? Or take the elevator at the hotel
you are, I'll be glad to see you later, I
felt like I was seeing I wanted to stop and
get a picture in front of it, but we were
going on the highway and when we couldn't, well, you
could have feigned like you had a flat tire. It's
full Grab your umbrella and next to me, because I'm uh,
(26:13):
that's probably my favorite white stripe song. Okay, yeah, I
mean sevenation army. Everybody likes that. It's become so such
a big deal. But hotel you were I was walked
in with what you like? You have a little bounce
in your step every now and again. I got fifteen
people telling me don't move. I got moving on my mind.
But yes, Megan thee stallions for our first pitch, that's
(26:33):
that's quality. But she also milked it, right yeah oh yeah.
But you also had the announcers going, well, the pitch
clock is yeah, yeah, pitch clock. Uh. And you know
what I like. I like that she tried to throw
a good pitch. Yeah, this wasn't Oh I'm gonna throw
it horribly because it's gonna gain attention. Well, she was
gonna get attention for just showing up. Yeah, fifty cent whatever,
nobody cares. Yeah, right, but you throw a bad pitch
(26:57):
you're talked about forever Megan thee Stallion. Yeah, all she
had to do is show up, to show up, throw
that pitch doesn't matter, and to look good. It look
the pitch look good. I've seen a lot worse pitches
for people, actually dry. But they were saying in the
warm ups that she was throwing strikes. Yeah, so, I
mean there was a lot of excitements and strikes. Do
you want to talk about leading into a tremendous event
(27:20):
like the White Sox winning and snapping the Astros ten
game winning streak on opening Day? Look, Jr. Don Alvarez,
my MVP pick from last year, did hit a home
run that I don't think ever landed? No? No, no,
no, no no did not? You walked in right? Does that happened?
Bad luck guy? Yeah? Yeah, So let me tell you this.
I did this to Harmon tonight. So Harmon, when we
come in, it's the White Sox are up by a
(27:41):
run in the ninth inning, and who was up for
the was who was up for it was the Astro
was up for the Astros, And you had to the
bathroom and frost arm and so Harmon's I'll be right
back and going to the bathroom and he leaves and
it's three to two with a runner at first and
two outs. I forgot about the pace of plaything for
a moment, right because they were meandering and it's like,
(28:01):
all right, there's a lot going on. The catcher's coming
out to the mound. I'm like, all right, cool, I
got time. No no Harmon comes out of the bathroom
and I go, huh d has a two run Homer
to win it? What what the hey? You know, I
get a little bit excitable pale hosts looking for better
things than last year. Ye, no, absolutely, I got I
(28:24):
got you, I got you. Andrew Vaughan made it exciting
to run double, but also missed on a pop up
in full grounds that well should have been caught. Serious question. Yeah,
who throws a better first pitch right now tonight, Magan
the Stallion or Justin Verlander? And I will take her
pitching if Justin Verlander can't, I will, I will absolute. Hey,
(28:48):
I am all for that. Hey, you start ten day
contract doesn't matter. I mean, we got guys wouldn't even
be they would just staying there back go. Oh my goodness,
that's making the Stallion. Oh my god, strike three. This
is where we get friends of the show Sean Merriman,
and you know how he does the videos where there's fight,
signed him off, sign him up? He even do that
after Megan thee Stallion's first pig. Managers, how come none
(29:08):
of you are taking the beat off your shoulders? Skip,
It's Meghan the Stallion on the mount. I'm just kind
of watching her dance. She's a huge storm. Come on, Skip,
Come on. She struck out the first thirteen batters tonight
and she hasn't reached the plate once, and you guys
keep just sitting there. He going out to the mountain
of striking out real quick. Yeah, Max Muncy, what the
(29:29):
platinum sombrero? Oh boy? Wait? Doesn't wait? Wait? So Will
Smith has four hits and Max Muncy has four strikeouts?
Is that we're going on five strikeouts? What is the
golden Wow? He's got the platinum smbarrero, Ladies and Jo
went platinum. Not exactly what Max Munsey had in mind.
Time Out, Dodgers, they want to talk it over. Be
(29:50):
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart Radio app
Erlander Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my
best friend Mike Harman. I'm gonna eat that ass up
life from the tire rack dot com studios. You want
(30:11):
to talk about pace of play, It's not even ten
o'clock here in Los Angeles. Every Major League Baseball game
is over ninety nine PM. About a minute ago or
maybe ninety seconds ago. The Dodgers ended was the last
game going on tonight. Game started at seven ten, So
(30:32):
you're talking about a game that ended around two hours
and forty ish minutes. So yeah, pace of play has
kind of worked. And if this is what the games
are gonna be for a Dodger game, these games usually
go to eleven thirty, eleven forty five. That passed the
local news. I mean it has been so far today
it has been a big success. There's been no games
that were caused because of the pitch clock violation. The
(30:55):
teams have lost, they can't play all. We didn't get
this home run. We walked this guy at the bases
low so one day and I know where everybody's holding
their breath because this is a brand new thing. How's
it going to be when we throw pitches for real,
then the baseballs fly for real. And so far pretty good.
Ten to ten and all the baseball games are you
get to x handling a little bit, and you're only
half joking about those Dodger games. There has there been
(31:17):
many a night you and I are getting off air
and Ben Maller's coming in to the studio and the
game is either just finishing, or it's gone to the
ninth inning and we listen to the end of it
in our cars, or get there right as the post
game is starting. So that is an accurate depiction. I mean,
this is perfect because you can do a full four
(31:39):
or five minute wrap and then go straight to the
town o'clawk news here in Los Angeles, not the eleven
o'clock news, the ten o'clock news. No, it's bia wait,
people are gonna watch us night. The Dodgers are over
all right? Great? Is there a car chase in somewhere?
Can we get that somewhere? Now? Look, it looked that's
a thing. And look, well we'll get to other stories
(32:00):
out of Opening Day in a minute. But now that
everything is in the books, think about that for a second. Yes,
the West Coast games start. They've start them all seven, seven, ten,
And you did have the pageantry of Opening Day, right,
we had, we had even with an extends to it.
The Dodgers brought out legends to throw the first pitch.
Everybody had their own Opening Day thing. So that's an
(32:21):
extra few minutes from the beginning of the game. And
still you have everything over by ten to ten. All right,
it's pretty impressive. It's a good start. They exhale a
little bit. They're on Park Avenue and whatever street they're on,
but here's Avenue worthy. Yeah. But here's why this is
going to continue, because this is not a situation where
(32:44):
when pace of play first came up, and now the
pitch clock is what's going to work. Because when pace
of play first came up a few years ago, it
worked really well. The umpires were keeping the batters in
the box. If you didn't swing it a pitch, you
couldn't get out of the batter's box. If you didn't
get they were keeping them in. And then after a
little while the umpire like, I feel ridiculous keeping you
guys in. All right, So the guys are able to
leave the batter's box getting without penalty Okay, that didn't work.
(33:07):
So now we got to do something a little bit more.
Now it's the pitch clock, and it's now that there's
an absolute number that you need to hit. Hey, this
is a ball, this is a strike. This is going
to keep the players honest. And so far there's nobody
who had a horrible game where I can sit here
and say it was the pitch clock. I mean maybe
maybe maybe de grab de gram putting out the ranger's
(33:32):
uniform is what did that man. But now this is
going to continue, and it's going to get great pace
of play results all year long because of the pitch clock.
And not only that, the games may even get a
little bit faster because pitchers don't want to bring the
pitch clock down to the last second, right, They don't
want to do that. They want to be able to say, Okay,
I want to throw my pitch, not worry about it.
So you may wind up even getting pitchers throwing a
(33:54):
little bit faster as they are used to the used
to the pitch clock. So now you may be able
to save a couple of seconds, two more seconds eventually
off of every pitch. So you're talking about ten seconds
per at bat which maybe is maybe forty five seconds,
and inning, which is another ten minutes off the game,
(34:15):
so you can maybe get down to two thirty five
by the time it's all said and done. This is
gonna work. Now, it'd be interesting to watch as you
get to the back end of the rotation if there's
some chaos that ensues, but I'd love to see. But
you're also going to go to the bullpen more frequently,
so there's gonna be some of that that starts to
play a role. But I'm thinking about my old favorite
(34:37):
Mark Burley. I mean, he was pitching at a two
oh five pace when he was on his game. I mean,
right now, I'd be like, just get in there, let's go.
But we saw Jeff Schwartz, our teammate here, former NFL lineman.
He's a Giants fan. Because it was a pleasure to
watch Garrett cole mois down in less than three hours.
So I'd get back to my life Twitter at al
about a fresca. Mike, it's swallen down the Jason Smith
(34:59):
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. So coming up next,
what's going to wind up being the highlight of the
night in Major League Baseball? And it's not Hunter Renfro.
Keep it right here. Fuck
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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(00:46):
buying should be well right now. Major League Baseball Opening Day, Uh,
probably gonna be the Padres looking up at the Dodgers.
After Day c J crone and Day one sixty one,
the Rockies lead the Padres seven two. Meanwhile, Dodgers over
(01:06):
the Diamondbacks seven to two. So it's been a big
day so far for the Dodgers and James Outman, a
big day for showhe Otani, whose night is now done
on the mound ten strikeouts, in six innings, he threw
ninety three pitches, did not give up a run, Angels
lead the a's one nothing going to the top of
(01:27):
the eighth inning. Otani called all of his own pitches tonight.
There's a thing about that for a second, because of
the pitch clock situation, which we're gonna get to in
a bigger way right here. This is a big story
coming in tonight. That showho Tani was going to call
his own pitches via device that's under his jersey. Easy,
jose Al twove this one's allowed device under's jersey to
(01:50):
let the catcher know, Hey, this is what I'm gonna
throw this romana go because Otani throws a lot of
pitches and for the catcher to cycle through. They were
worried about numerous pitch clock violation. So Otani was calling
his own pitches tonight, and well, let's see six innings,
two hits, ten strikeouts. I think he's gonna get to
call his own pitches the rest of the way. I
don't think. I don't think you're gonna get Hey wait, wait, wait, guys,
(02:12):
wait wait, I really think we have to look into this.
I don't know the show he should call his own pitches,
and this is now he's not going to nearly be
the last guy. How many aces are going to say, yeah,
I feel a little more comfortable calling my own pitches
because of the pitch clock violation. Whether they're whether it's
a real thing for them or no, absolutely, go Hey,
I kind of want to call my own pitches. I'm
(02:32):
gonna say it's a pitch clock violation thing. Hey, I
want to call my own pitches. Now, Oh, okay, You're
gonna see more and more Aces do this because the
aces will have the cache to get something like this done.
You know you're you're a left handed specialist. Your middle
relievers aren't gonna co Your fourth and fifth starters aren't
gonna say, hey, I want to call my own game. No,
you're a fourth or fifth starter or middle reliever for
a reason. But the Aces, you're going to see more
follow and show hey Otani's footsteps. No, as we've said,
(02:54):
no matter what the business you're in, if you've got leverage,
you use it right. If there's the opportunity to take
that extra day off here and there, extend a trip, Hey,
I'm out there for business, but you know what I'm
gonna take a day or two. Some companies want you
to fly back immediately. Others say, you know what, you're
a special guy or gal. You do what you need
to do. We'll see in the office in a couple
(03:15):
of days. Likewise, here for pictures. I still have I
have an issue with this pitch con thing, though. Okay,
why is that? I thought we don't want the electronics
stuff in. Now it's okay, Now, now it's okay. Yeah,
it's okay. Now the astros were the they were the gateway.
They they were the gateway to it. It's like, I
feel better, It's okay. But it's like, yeah, they approved it,
(03:36):
and here we go with it. And it's like, I
thought that was the whole point. Honestly, we didn't have
this as part of the game. But let me tell you, honestly,
do you think there would be a way to say
we can keep electronics out of the game? Now, get right,
you can't. You It's it's it's a very big part
of all games out because you see, especially a buzzer,
(03:58):
how oh that means a fastball, got it ready to go? Ready?
So I thought saying you're electrocuting the guy, this isn't
the Joker walking up and giving you a handshake and
charting you. But he got the joy buzzer. Wait why
walk in? And you know in the nineteen eighty nine
Burton film and that guy, why is Carlos Beltrans dressed
as an electrician? Oh? I got a live when he No,
(04:21):
he's like, come on, Carlos Beltran's Electro from Spider Man.
He's just got it all floating through his whole body,
flying in the air. Here comes a fastball, guys, here
it comes. I'm here to fix the cable. Can they
go back and retro fit that and fix that Jamie
Fox character? You know? I yeah, I was kind of disappointed.
(04:42):
I thought I thought it would be a better character.
I thought it'd be flat. Yeah. Well, look, Spider Man
villains they have, it's a lot of great villain It's
tough when you fall flat as a Spider Man villaincause
Spider Man's got great villains. But that's the problem is
you're on the depth chart. You're pretty low. But Electro wasn't.
Electro was never a great villain. Elector just had the
cool look. No, no, he had a great outfit. I
(05:02):
WWE Superstar. But as far as a villain. No, he
wasn't Green Goblin. Yeah, yeah it was. It was Vulture
really good. He Man Sandman was good. Yeah. No, but
elect like okay, because Electro was very similar to Green Goblin.
To me, I'm like, ah, it's kind of fly. They
kind of do this a bi Yeah yeah it was.
It's almost like, hey, we really like Green Goblin, but
(05:22):
we need somebody else. How about Electro? All right? Great?
Yeah green what else we got in the primary colors?
All right? So but whatever, the electronics are here to stay.
Otani fantastic outing. Uh, you'll see the catch nine billion
times once the game goes Fine, but but he butchered
(05:42):
that play written like he turned around the wrong way,
first step, wasn't back, all those things they teach you
fundamentals learning to play the outfield, and he just reaches
his glove up. It's like, look what I found. Okay,
let me describe this play for you, because you know,
Steve to Sayer hit the nail on the head with
this earlier this hour that you may not see a
catch like that again the rest of the year and
(06:05):
opening day No, because it was a complete luck job.
That's why I mean, it's one of those catches where
when somebody makes a lucky catch like that in softball,
I look at the girls on my team and I
go look in the other hand, you'll find a gold
watch like that. That's all it was. It's a line
drive hit over Hunter Renfro's head to right field. He
goes back and he turns to his left and he's
(06:25):
running back and he turns and he realizes that the
ball is going over his right shoulder, so he turns.
He turns, his back is completely to the plate and
he doesn't look at all. He doesn't He simply just
sticks his glove out straight out and the ball lands
in it and he turns around and it really, you're
(06:48):
not gonna get a luckier catching it. Honestly. It reminded
me of the Kevin Mitchell catch, the one we've seen
so many times where he's running towards the line and
he reaches back barehanded and grabs it. Like that's the
lucky catch I've ever seen. That's a lot what this
reminds me of. And Otani's reaction was he's standing there
with his hands out like, oh my god, you caught that.
I mean, really, that's why that was the hands around first,
(07:11):
Why oh my god, I just gave up this big hit.
Oh oh. This is one of those questions where if
I was in the press conference and I was interviewed
after Hunter round for Hunter Jason Smith Fox Sports Radio,
at what point did you realize you would misjudge the
ball really badly? When was that? When that? That's what
I would start my question. It's a good question. I
really the catches, you look at it go there's no way.
(07:33):
It's like the ball just was a magnet for his glove.
I I can't understand how he made that. Are you
implying that there are magnets in the ball? But maybe
another scandal, Hunton. You let the electronics, You let the
magnets say it all happens comes back to electro. That's
what it does. It's the luckiest catch. I don't I
(07:54):
Is it the luckiest catch I've ever seen? Maybe? I
mean that's how that's how it was. It Maybe the
luckiest catch. I can't remember seeing a lucky your catch
that that's one of those. We're even he in the
outfield as they did the ISO shot on him, kind
of hading that smile like, oh okay, we dodged that one,
and you can see that he was already starting to
think about what the answer is that he's gonna have
to give it post Jason, you know what the second
question to him would bet him? What's the second one?
(08:16):
How much doesn't suck playing on the Raiders? Hey, do
you think you're getting phased out at wide receiver? I
mean just want to them. Would you rather go to
New Orleans and catch passes from Derek? Oh, you're the
other onrren bro So. The pitch clock as a big
as we mentioned with Showy at times, like calling his
own pitches the first day in Major League Baseball. The
(08:37):
two biggest things about the pitch clock. Number one, we're
only seeing it a little bit on screen now. Remember
watching it in the exhibition season. The pitch clock was
right there for you to see. And I said last night, Hey,
if this is what it is, you are never gonna
watch a game the same. If they show this pitch
clock on, you're gonna watch that every single time. Your
eyes are not going to leave it. But most of
(08:59):
the games today, the way the pitch clock is going,
you didn't really get it. You just got a regular.
You didn't see it behind you. It's kind of to
the sides a little bit more, so you're not seeing
it on a big screen now. Some games, like we're
watching on Ballely and Root Sports, they have the countdown
right We're watching The Angels of the A's on Root
Sports right now, and you see the countdown around where
(09:20):
the runners are on based and they show you where
the runners are and you see the countdowndown from twenty
sac all the way down, so you are seeing it,
albeit now it's a much smaller part of it. So
that part of it for us watching the game, it's
not going to be as as impactful as it was.
And for the players, Let's be honest, I thought today
was gonna be much worse. I really did. I'm thinking
(09:40):
there's gonna be each teams it's opening day, and you're
gonna default to taking more time just because the games
count now, and you're gonna lose your way a little bit.
There were gonna be way more pitchclock violations for both
pitcher and batter than I expected to see, and there wasn't.
So that tells me this is going to be a
pretty easy assimilation four batters and pitchers that they'll get
(10:02):
used to this pretty quick. You are going to get
your contry. There's gonna be home runs that are waved
off you actually, I mean during the Mets game today,
I mean seriously, Jeff McNeil had a strike called on
him because Pete Alonzo didn't get back to first base
fast enough after a foul ball, like as a foul
ball hit and Alonso was kind of making his way
back to first base, but the pitch clock started and
(10:22):
McNeil got a strike on a buck Shawl that came
out to arguments like, I mean, really, is that the
spirit of the rule? I mean, come on, but if
he just wants to wander in between basses who don't care,
but that's not a bit. But that's not the batter
that's taking tis. But overall, it's fine. Overall, what we
saw today was fine, and we're going to get what
baseball needs, and that is to be more viewer friendly
(10:44):
and bloated games of three fifteen, three thirty just don't
work anymore. They just don't. Everybody changes in television. Habits
change and this is something that MLB was in on
the ground floor and a few years ago. But when
they had the umpires enforcing staying in the box between pitches. Eventually,
the umpires decided to not enforce that, they let guys
step out of the box. By the time we got
(11:04):
to the playoffs and Red Sox and Yankees were playing,
games are taking four and a half hours, So that
didn't work. So now we're back to this being something
that is more enforceable. And we've already seen so much
time being taken off the games. The Dodgers and the
Diamondbacks started at seven ten LA time, and already this
game is going to the top of the eighth inning.
So you're getting these games done now, not in record
(11:27):
setting two hours and fifteen minutes, but a much more
palatable two forty five, which is a great time for
a baseball game. Baseball has never been the most TV
friendly sport. Yeah, I was just telling Ty Shirt this
in the room a few minutes ago. College basketball is
the most of you are friendly sport there is because
games come in about two hours and fifteen minutes. Right,
it's perfect. Soccer is great too, right, but then you
(11:48):
have the end of soccer. Even when you get to overtime. Okay,
soccer gets a little long, but still you're just over
two hours. Right in the same to college basketball. You
get the ringer of double overtime. You're coming in two
hours and thirty minutes, right, Football will get because you
need to watch a football game from beginning to end,
because the game can be decided at any point. Sports
like baseball and basketball, yeah, they need a little bit,
a little bit of help because the games get bloated,
(12:09):
they get long, but especially baseball, because we're now no
longer beholden to Hey, I'm just gonna watch a baseball game. Well,
it's eleven forty five at night, and I fell asleep
at ten o'clock. So if you can bring these games
in in two forty five, I think that's the sweet spot.
It's not two and a half hours to twenty. But
if you bring that game two forty five, that's If
(12:30):
that's what this does from Major League Baseball, and you're
saying this is what the average times and games are,
that's a big success. It's a big success for the
pitch clock. Yeah, gon to be a curiosity once we
get into the third, fourth, fifth members of a rotation,
depending on how injury riddled your staff is, maybe you're
down to pitcher number seven in the second week of
the season, you have no idea, but then't met you.
(12:51):
But the idea of being that you're you're trying to
keep even make it to We didn't make it to
the first game, flooring down to seventh pitcher, goody Luskin Anna,
we lost for Orland and now we're down to our
seventh pitch. Don't forget ds uh Frostburg. But the idea being,
it's all about activity, right, It doesn't feel as long
(13:12):
as there's stuff going on, right, John Wick. We went
and saw it as a group, right, John Wick? Four? Yeah,
that movie could have been five hours long, though I didn't.
But it was almost three hours long, right, Yeah, but
it didn't feel like I even took a nap. No, yeah,
two naps. Didn't feel like you got two naps in it? Yeah,
you got naps, got two ten minute naps. Skin. Well,
it was operational efficiency. I missed a couple of kills.
(13:33):
Guess what, I'll watch that movie again. There more than
a couple three hundred and fourteen kills. I think you
missed about eighty of them. Okay, yeah, well so when
you got them got I got I got the bulk
of it, and I got the important once. But that
the idea of being important. Ones like me, I fell
asleep because I was dog tired. But you're captivating. You're
not thinking about the run time of a movie like
(13:54):
that is the point because there's so much activity, so
much gone, and that's what baseball's trying to do. The
actual time of the game is important, but it's more
so how many minutes do we have of inactivity? Right,
John Wick, There's not a lot of dialogue baseball. There
was a lot of stepping out of the box, a
lot of crotch adjustments, a lot of hey, let's just
(14:16):
stand on the mound for twenty seconds and stare off
into space, find myself clear the mechanism like Kevin Costner
and for love of the game, all of that stuff.
That's what's being eradicated here, and you're getting back to
the action. Whether guy actually puts the ball in player
or not. We'll see some of these teams still had
massive strikeout totals today, so they achieved the objective of
(14:38):
getting it under three hours, but there was no more
activities because the team sucked. Yeah. Yeah, So we'll see that.
And then as we have more pitching changes and the
worst pitchers in a rotation, how much that's affected, but
no a good first step. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harman weekdays
at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports
(14:59):
Rate and the iHeart Radio app Fox Sports Radio. The
Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Army Hobo
live from the ti iraq dot Com studios, where Night
one and Day one of Major League Baseball really something
My Mariners, Remember I told you Mariner was going to
the World. Three in the eighth they lead the Guardians
(15:24):
three to nothing h France with a big home run.
Good the thing that wall was another four inches taller. Yeah,
well that's okay, that's still counts. Walls get built smaller,
it's gonna look like a four hundre. Uh. So Mariners
lead the Guardians again, three nothing as the Guardians batting
(15:45):
in the top of the ninth inning. Meanwhile, Dodgers in
control of their game against the Diamondbacks seven two in
the eighth end, the Rockies in control over the San
Diego Padres seven to two. Meanwhile, well, this is this,
This is what happens for the Shoeo tanih This is
how it goes Otani goes six innings tonight, two hits,
ten strikeouts, comes out of the game ninety three pitches. Okay,
(16:07):
Angels nursing a one run lead, Nope, A's now lead
it two to one. After pushing across two runs in
the eighth inning, Kemp with a double to score run,
Das with a single, make it two to one. A.
So now the a Matt Kemp, the Angels, Matt Kemp. Yes,
it's it's it's Tara Kemp from the nineties. Just want
to hold your Jason. Yeah, how many hits does Trout out?
(16:32):
Mike trout Is, Oh for three in a walk tonight?
Oh for three in a walk? Yeah? How about Rendown
for three? He's playing. Okay, let's just celebrate the Rendona's
actually playing in your game. You know what he was
up to bat his last plate appearance. That exact line
went through my head. Hey, he's playing, he's playing at
(16:53):
least why not and you can't. No, Look, let's have
a serious conversation for competence about show it's right. We
talked about him calling his own pitches before the game tonight.
There's nothing he can ask of the Angels that they're
going to say no to I want to hit twice
in every inning. All right, we'll clear it with Major
League Baseball. Baseball would clear that too. Yeah. I think
(17:15):
he had judge you can get that day and twice
said yeah, we could do that. He could lead off
every inning and he comes up with two outs at
every inning? We do that? What drove himself in? That
just sounds weird. I'd like to fly the team playing, yes,
of course. No, I'd like to be the pilot. Oh sure, okay,
show hey, whatever you want. Now, let's just be honest
for a second here, because if you think the Angels
have any chance of keeping Shohotani, why did I tell
(17:37):
you Julio Rodriguez is going an MVP in the American
League last night because Shohyotani's not going to be on
the Angels at the deadline. He's not the Angels. Maybe
you saw this headline the other day that said that
Artie Marino is not sending the radio play by play
broadcast crew to away games because it is cost prohibitive,
(17:58):
and so they're going to be calling the games from Anaheim,
or from their homes or from Disneyland wherever it is. Hey,
guess what I'm getting on the Incredibles ride like all
this real fast. Hey, I'll be right back. I'm here, Yoho,
pirates life for me. Hey, someone's got a fill in
for a couple of things. Why I'm going on. It's
(18:18):
a small world. It's gonna be a while. It'll be
there for minutes. I got stuck in Hawaii. Yea, So
they didn't send the broadcast crew. They're not sending the
broadcast crew on the road to do games because it's
cost prohibitive. Okay, just think about that for a second.
Guy's worth a billion dollars. They're not sending the broadcast
crew four away games, but they're gonna give show out
(18:40):
honey the money to keep them in angel Come on, man,
it's the cost savings of this. It's not happening. To
expand the conversation. I mean, this happened a lot during
the height of COVID, right where you had a lot
of broadcasts done from home. We've seen it for college football,
we've seen it for college buckets. It seems shortsighted and silly.
(19:03):
I don't know what the cost savings truly are here
in coach seats or seats on the private charter hotel rooms.
I mean, that's not that expensive. Put them out of
Motel six. He's at Extended Stay America. Whatever the case
may be, Artie Marino. This is now the fourth year.
(19:23):
The Angels aren't doing this because they started during COVID.
They're one of only two teams that don't do this, right.
The Toronto Blue Jays don't do it either because that
also started during COVID as well a lot of things
that you couldn't do related to Canadian travels. Yeah, that
makes sense. So what they are saving for the year, Yeah,
somewhere between one hundred and eighty five thousand and two
(19:46):
hundred thousand dollars. Again, I ask you they're really gonna
keep show? Hey Otani? Of course not. He's gone. When
they do another bubblehead, He's gone. I mean it's it's
when you're nickel and diming things were I'm not going
to send a radio broad It doesn't justify the cost. Dude,
you're a multi billionaire and this is two hundred grand. Nope,
(20:07):
get do it. Gonna let everybody call games from home,
every class at such. You know, look, at some point
when you get older as as a and you work
as you do. You know, Doug Gottlieb actually had a
great line in this when you told me this once,
is that when you do stuff in sports in the
beginning of your career, you do it. You do everything
(20:27):
they you know, you do everything, they send you, places,
you go, you go. Then as you get older, he said,
you know, when you get older and you do things
is he still does a lot of college basketball and
different things, travels around and he said, you know at
the end, they're paying you to travel. Now, as you
get older and you have commitments with your family and
staying home, they're paying me to travel. Like you know,
I pay you the salary, pay you because I'm taking
(20:47):
you away from your home now and go to travel.
So I'm sure whereas some of the broadcaster would like
to go, a lot of bards, well, hey, I'd love
to go to a studio, would just call the game.
So you don't see as much as much outrage from
the broad catching because you know, a lot of these
baseball broadcasters they're all a little bit older. They're all
people with families. Not everybody starting out with your twenty five,
twenty six years old calling a baseball game. So yeah,
(21:08):
I'm okay with it, But for the just for this,
this perspective of this is two hundred thousand dollars that
you have decided that that's a big experience and part
of the game, and you've said, no, that's not and
you're really gonna think Otani's gonna stay. Of course, he's gone.
He's gone. So I couldn't pick him to an MVP
because he's gonna be on other team unless his stature
just so good for the first four months of the season,
(21:28):
no one can outrun them. In the final two months
the year in the American League, he's not going to MVP.
Or when he goes to the Mets and his record
down the stretches six and zero and he hits fifteen
home runs in the last two months, he'll win the NLMVP.
That's where I can see him happening. But I mean,
Otani is as great as he is and the show
that he is, and he's more of a show now
than ever before because of the World Baseball Classic m Yeah,
(21:52):
he's not gonna stay. He's a new team. I mean,
your owner is pinching Benny's from two hundred crand no, no,
and that's completely Marino says the cost doesn't justify. We
love our radio people who do a great job at
the economics. Forty fifty thousand miles is not going to
change that experience, So they've chosen that. He's chosen that
to not send his crew. Yeah, Otani, I think the
(22:13):
bigger issue here is how tone deaf telling you it's
a cost cutting thing, as opposed to managing to the
last couple of years and saying, you know what, we've
had a great experience. It's been good. You could have
sold all of what you just said, the Doug Gottlieb
line and everything else and made it a positive that
we're looking out for our team. They're more cohesive, they're
(22:36):
ready to call the game because they get to have
their lives. They're not on the road, and it makes
it a better product. Whether it is or not, whatever,
that doesn't matter. But citing cost as you release this
statement is just dopey. When you've got Trout and Randon
on these monster contracts and Shohei Otani is Godzilla in
(22:58):
this equation. And I say that because it is a
six hundred million dollars deal that you're going to, I mean,
that is a monster contract that you're looking to that
is going forward. I'd rather just say, hey, we know
we're gonna stink, So why are we sending the guys?
Why are we sending them? You know? I mean that's
party moreno, Jason, I mean it's worth four point one
(23:20):
billion dollars. Yeah, and we're not setting for two hundred
thousand dollars on the road. Now, that's four point one billion.
Does that include the estimated value of the Either way
the way, it doesn't matter. I'll cash flow it. Man,
come on Twitter at ou about a fresca, Mike and
swollen down The Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Harmen. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
(23:43):
seven pm Pacific. My favorite moment, and I say this
for a while the Mets one opening day, the bullpen
got it done. A day where Justin Verlander's not gonna
pitch for a little while, but Megan thee Stallion's first
pitch at the Astro's White Sox game. I was a
very big fan talk about setting the top. I was
(24:06):
a very big fan because I'm a very big fan
of making these who isn't I mean? And she comes
out in her astro's top and her tight white as
astro's top and her tight white pants. And she comes
out and she stands at the mound in front of
the pitching rubber, staring out to the outfield. Yeah, because
you know, hey, we want the camera to get Hey
(24:26):
that I spent a lot you know, I do a
lot of work on this to hey, this this is
my calling card, right. You said I spent a lot
of money too. No, no, at a lot of work
because Jennifer Lopez say the same thing has been a
lot of spent a lot of time. So she said
that where they're back to the to the to the
home play thought she was lost, which is awesome, and
then turns around and throws a first pitch. She dances
a couple of moves. I could watch that first pitch
(24:49):
a long time. I'm I'm a big fan. I'm a
really big fan. I'm saying I watch you know what's great.
You'll be able to commemorate it. Because they always do
a thing with the top. They do the curse pitches. Okay,
it might not beat on next year's set. If they
made you at tops now specially for this one. Okay,
I think I think you have to have it, but
(25:09):
it really would be unfair if they also don't do
one that has Fernando Valenzuela, Oral Hirsch Hazer, Mike Soccha
and the Cavalcade of Stars. I mean, if you're gonna
do the set now, because they've done a ton of
these through the years. You've got Um Hayley Atwell has
a card, Jack White has a car like there's Stephen Colbert,
(25:29):
you name it, gone down the line. If you're a
famous person a bit, it's one, two, three four. Take
the elevator at the Hotel Yorba. I'd be glad to
see you later. All they got inside is vacancies. T
j oh boy. I actually drove by the Hotel Yorba
a couple of times. Yeah, and you're driving by in
Detroit going back on to visit Pam's family. One of
my friends. Hey, look look right there. What it's a
(25:51):
hotel Yourba? I go, oh my god, it's a real place.
It is a hotel Yorba. Nicely done. Why did that
make you free? Or take the elevator at the hotel
you are, I'll be glad to see you later, I
felt like I was seeing I wanted to stop and
get a picture in front of it, but we were
going on the highway and when we couldn't, well, you
could have feigned like you had a flat tire. It's
full Grab your umbrella and next to me, because I'm uh,
(26:13):
that's probably my favorite white stripe song. Okay, yeah, I
mean sevenation army. Everybody likes that. It's become so such
a big deal. But hotel you were I was walked
in with what you like? You have a little bounce
in your step every now and again. I got fifteen
people telling me don't move. I got moving on my mind.
But yes, Megan thee stallions for our first pitch, that's
(26:33):
that's quality. But she also milked it, right yeah oh yeah.
But you also had the announcers going, well, the pitch
clock is yeah, yeah, pitch clock. Uh. And you know
what I like. I like that she tried to throw
a good pitch. Yeah, this wasn't Oh I'm gonna throw
it horribly because it's gonna gain attention. Well, she was
gonna get attention for just showing up. Yeah, fifty cent whatever,
nobody cares. Yeah, right, but you throw a bad pitch
(26:57):
you're talked about forever Megan thee Stallion. Yeah, all she
had to do is show up, to show up, throw
that pitch doesn't matter, and to look good. It look
the pitch look good. I've seen a lot worse pitches
for people, actually dry. But they were saying in the
warm ups that she was throwing strikes. Yeah, so, I
mean there was a lot of excitements and strikes. Do
you want to talk about leading into a tremendous event
(27:20):
like the White Sox winning and snapping the Astros ten
game winning streak on opening Day? Look, Jr. Don Alvarez,
my MVP pick from last year, did hit a home
run that I don't think ever landed? No? No, no,
no, no no did not? You walked in right? Does that happened?
Bad luck guy? Yeah? Yeah, So let me tell you this.
I did this to Harmon tonight. So Harmon, when we
come in, it's the White Sox are up by a
(27:41):
run in the ninth inning, and who was up for
the was who was up for it was the Astro
was up for the Astros, And you had to the
bathroom and frost arm and so Harmon's I'll be right
back and going to the bathroom and he leaves and
it's three to two with a runner at first and
two outs. I forgot about the pace of plaything for
a moment, right because they were meandering and it's like,
(28:01):
all right, there's a lot going on. The catcher's coming
out to the mound. I'm like, all right, cool, I
got time. No no Harmon comes out of the bathroom
and I go, huh d has a two run Homer
to win it? What what the hey? You know, I
get a little bit excitable pale hosts looking for better
things than last year. Ye, no, absolutely, I got I
(28:24):
got you, I got you. Andrew Vaughan made it exciting
to run double, but also missed on a pop up
in full grounds that well should have been caught. Serious question. Yeah,
who throws a better first pitch right now tonight, Magan
the Stallion or Justin Verlander? And I will take her
pitching if Justin Verlander can't, I will, I will absolute. Hey,
(28:48):
I am all for that. Hey, you start ten day
contract doesn't matter. I mean, we got guys wouldn't even
be they would just staying there back go. Oh my goodness,
that's making the Stallion. Oh my god, strike three. This
is where we get friends of the show Sean Merriman,
and you know how he does the videos where there's fight,
signed him off, sign him up? He even do that
after Megan thee Stallion's first pig. Managers, how come none
(29:08):
of you are taking the beat off your shoulders? Skip,
It's Meghan the Stallion on the mount. I'm just kind
of watching her dance. She's a huge storm. Come on, Skip,
Come on. She struck out the first thirteen batters tonight
and she hasn't reached the plate once, and you guys
keep just sitting there. He going out to the mountain
of striking out real quick. Yeah, Max Muncy, what the
(29:29):
platinum sombrero? Oh boy? Wait? Doesn't wait? Wait? So Will
Smith has four hits and Max Muncy has four strikeouts?
Is that we're going on five strikeouts? What is the
golden Wow? He's got the platinum smbarrero, Ladies and Jo
went platinum. Not exactly what Max Munsey had in mind.
Time Out, Dodgers, they want to talk it over. Be
(29:50):
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart Radio app
Erlander Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my
best friend Mike Harman. I'm gonna eat that ass up
life from the tire rack dot com studios. You want
(30:11):
to talk about pace of play, It's not even ten
o'clock here in Los Angeles. Every Major League Baseball game
is over ninety nine PM. About a minute ago or
maybe ninety seconds ago. The Dodgers ended was the last
game going on tonight. Game started at seven ten, So
(30:32):
you're talking about a game that ended around two hours
and forty ish minutes. So yeah, pace of play has
kind of worked. And if this is what the games
are gonna be for a Dodger game, these games usually
go to eleven thirty, eleven forty five. That passed the
local news. I mean it has been so far today
it has been a big success. There's been no games
that were caused because of the pitch clock violation. The
(30:55):
teams have lost, they can't play all. We didn't get
this home run. We walked this guy at the bases
low so one day and I know where everybody's holding
their breath because this is a brand new thing. How's
it going to be when we throw pitches for real,
then the baseballs fly for real. And so far pretty good.
Ten to ten and all the baseball games are you
get to x handling a little bit, and you're only
half joking about those Dodger games. There has there been
(31:17):
many a night you and I are getting off air
and Ben Maller's coming in to the studio and the
game is either just finishing, or it's gone to the
ninth inning and we listen to the end of it
in our cars, or get there right as the post
game is starting. So that is an accurate depiction. I mean,
this is perfect because you can do a full four
(31:39):
or five minute wrap and then go straight to the
town o'clawk news here in Los Angeles, not the eleven
o'clock news, the ten o'clock news. No, it's bia wait,
people are gonna watch us night. The Dodgers are over
all right? Great? Is there a car chase in somewhere?
Can we get that somewhere? Now? Look, it looked that's
a thing. And look, well we'll get to other stories
(32:00):
out of Opening Day in a minute. But now that
everything is in the books, think about that for a second. Yes,
the West Coast games start. They've start them all seven, seven, ten,
And you did have the pageantry of Opening Day, right,
we had, we had even with an extends to it.
The Dodgers brought out legends to throw the first pitch.
Everybody had their own Opening Day thing. So that's an
(32:21):
extra few minutes from the beginning of the game. And
still you have everything over by ten to ten. All right,
it's pretty impressive. It's a good start. They exhale a
little bit. They're on Park Avenue and whatever street they're on,
but here's Avenue worthy. Yeah. But here's why this is
going to continue, because this is not a situation where
(32:44):
when pace of play first came up, and now the
pitch clock is what's going to work. Because when pace
of play first came up a few years ago, it
worked really well. The umpires were keeping the batters in
the box. If you didn't swing it a pitch, you
couldn't get out of the batter's box. If you didn't
get they were keeping them in. And then after a
little while the umpire like, I feel ridiculous keeping you
guys in. All right, So the guys are able to
leave the batter's box getting without penalty Okay, that didn't work.
(33:07):
So now we got to do something a little bit more.
Now it's the pitch clock, and it's now that there's
an absolute number that you need to hit. Hey, this
is a ball, this is a strike. This is going
to keep the players honest. And so far there's nobody
who had a horrible game where I can sit here
and say it was the pitch clock. I mean maybe
maybe maybe de grab de gram putting out the ranger's
(33:32):
uniform is what did that man. But now this is
going to continue, and it's going to get great pace
of play results all year long because of the pitch clock.
And not only that, the games may even get a
little bit faster because pitchers don't want to bring the
pitch clock down to the last second, right, They don't
want to do that. They want to be able to say, Okay,
I want to throw my pitch, not worry about it.
So you may wind up even getting pitchers throwing a
(33:54):
little bit faster as they are used to the used
to the pitch clock. So now you may be able
to save a couple of seconds, two more seconds eventually
off of every pitch. So you're talking about ten seconds
per at bat which maybe is maybe forty five seconds,
and inning, which is another ten minutes off the game,
(34:15):
so you can maybe get down to two thirty five
by the time it's all said and done. This is
gonna work. Now, it'd be interesting to watch as you
get to the back end of the rotation if there's
some chaos that ensues, but I'd love to see. But
you're also going to go to the bullpen more frequently,
so there's gonna be some of that that starts to
play a role. But I'm thinking about my old favorite
(34:37):
Mark Burley. I mean, he was pitching at a two
oh five pace when he was on his game. I mean,
right now, I'd be like, just get in there, let's go.
But we saw Jeff Schwartz, our teammate here, former NFL lineman.
He's a Giants fan. Because it was a pleasure to
watch Garrett cole mois down in less than three hours.
So I'd get back to my life Twitter at al
about a fresca. Mike, it's swallen down the Jason Smith
(34:59):
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. So coming up next,
what's going to wind up being the highlight of the
night in Major League Baseball? And it's not Hunter Renfro.
Keep it right here. Fuck
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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