May 29, 2024 • 55 mins
We try and talk Jason off the Mets ledge. Longtime MLB Insider Jon Paul Morosi joins the show for all the latest on the Mets collapse, the Dodgers and Angel Hernandez. Why we need Jerry Jones Cam now. Plus, the guys react to the Wolves forcing a Game 5 against the Mavericks with NBA Insider Marc Stein!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmon podcast. Be sure to catch us
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the best of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hello and welcome inside. Happy Monday or actually happy Tuesday. Tuesday,
I was a day behind Thursday. Wednesday The Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon live from the
ti rack dot Com studios tirec dot com. I hope
you get there an unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free
(00:50):
road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers tirack
dot com the way tire buying should be. Now before
begin we got big night of NBA. Tons of stuff
to get to third quarter Game four Mavericks and the
te Wolves. Because I know he's just going to burst
if he doesn't say anything. Let's check in with Justin
(01:13):
Frossburg are intrepid producer who has been keeping track of
the Mets and the Dodgers double header. Frostburg, what's going on?
My internet's down. I haven't able to watch anything. I
only have two words for America right now. Okay, Mets
Yo sums it up nicely. Look, there's only the Dodgers
who just swept the double header from the Mets after
(01:35):
the Mets gave away a game in the eighth and
ninth inning in Game one. There's only one problem with
the Mets. There's only one problem. Serious. I can all
the there's only one problem, like dials down to one day.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
But you can say, over the last month, we have
now found that really all of the talking, all of
the column inches hours of sports talk radio in local markets, Yes,
complaining about players and coaches and strategies can be boiled
down to one thing, like really simplified this entire universe.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
You can hear to say, the Stars aren't hitting, Why
aren't they trading anybody? They can't close any games. Edwin
Diaz is avatar. Oh yeah, so they.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Fire that guy and Timmy l he's never coming I'm
not coming back for this.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Hey, he's like texting the Mets every day. Hey, when
can I come back and Bay, we'll call you. We'll
call you. Don't worry about it. To worry about it.
There's only one thing, one thing. One thing. The Mets stink.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
No, not good number one.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Sorry, the Mets really stink. I mean, I'm at this point.
It's and it's not like the I wish they would
just get blown out every day. I'm just okay, let's
find a way to lose a game that's gonna yanke
your soul out, because that's what the Mets. Everything we're
good at. We're just good enough to lose every single day,
(02:55):
one out of every four games. But that's it.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
You know what's great though, And I pointed it out
to you and the uh oh. His Game two came
to a final Dodgers with completing the doubleheader sweep three
nothing on the match.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
The seatbacks look really good bye. Yeah, yeah, it does
look nice. It does look That's what I mean. It's
like a row of the lower It looks really nice.
And attendance you guys tonight. Yeah, that's the thing. As
the season goes on, you'll be able to see that
much more often because nobody's gonna pay to buy seats
to sit there. No, it's gonna spend them uth.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Are we going to get a section when they're gonna
play The Angels later on this year?
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Oh yeah, we just get a section to ourselves. It's Anaheim.
Sure of course we can. We whatever we want. That
Sandwich guy will like walk hang out with us, it'd
be great. Did you check in on your blood brother, Frank? Oh,
Frank the Tech is not happy. Frank the Tek is
after game one. I knew I said he's gonna.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
But at this point I can't give him any more
credence until he either takes you know, twenty three and
meters and figures out if he is a direct descended
a Personval Pringle the Third also known as Paul Bear,
or he's just.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
Stealing the your aunt ants or sures twenty three minutes
something they weren't supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
And I'm related to uh Bert Young too, right, righted
all these people.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
But this is where it gets even better, because not
only was he on social media losing his mind about
the games, he went back to the origin story today
complaining about the windows on the New Jersey trends and.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
How filthy they were.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
Look listen, because they were the absolute worst, the tank's
mouthpiece or the Mets.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Oh, the Mets at least fright that that only has
to worry about that, like for a minute a day,
the Mets. The Mets are a good three hour fie.
You know. Look, just because there is this one headline
with the Mets, sake, there was one. Okay, now, when
are they going to start trading everybody? Because they just
absolutely stink. David Stearns, who runs the team, Well, I
have a pipeline too with John Palm Morosse, who's going
to join us in about ten minutes, you know, said Listen,
(04:57):
it's a little too early to evaluate. We have plenty
of time to see what kind of team we're gonna
be between now and the deadline. Big headline in the
New York Post today for tomorrow's is what are you
waiting for? They should be the first team selling. Let
me just say what that translation is. We have plenty
of time to see what the team is gonna be.
Translation is a it is early because not as many
teams are buyers and not as many teams know what
(05:18):
they're gonna be because it's still the end of the Yeah,
you know, it's fine. Nobody else knows yet. Are we
gonna be buyers or sellers? We buying? Should we buy now?
We won't know until we get closer to the deadline.
So there is that, and that is one hundred percent true.
Doesn't mean you can't trade players, if you could trade
really good players at any time. But here's the problem.
(05:40):
There's only one problem, one, only one problem. Everybody the
Mets want to trade they all stink. So no one's
gonna say, yes, let me give you some of our
future for a guy who stinks. They can't trade Nimo,
they can't trade Alonzo, they can't trade McNeil. They can't
even trade lindyt love to trade lind Dor at this point.
But they all stink.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
I'll tell you who doesta. They all stand boy from
Long Beach State who pitched Game one. Yeah he was,
he was great, All take him. Glass Night was great. Hey,
and McGill was great too.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
They just didn't hit for him. Then game will game
away in the eighth. That you know, that's the all.
It just boils down to, they stink, and you can't.
You can't trade players at stink. No one wants players
who stink. People want good players. So maybe if these
guys start hitting a little bit, Hey, get hot for
a week, I can trade you. But if you're hitting
two hundred, I can't trade any of you. Know, this
is where you start, Angel Hernandez.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
You gotta go and you gotta find someone in your
statistics department to figure out who's coming up on any
kind of milestone, and then you have to go find
the true dregs of Major League Baseball. You go to
the Marlins, you go to the White soaka, hey, this
guy's coming up not a big milestone, it can really
look good for you and maybe help bolster attendance and
interest for a game and not. The other part that
(06:49):
I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge was as
we're getting ready and we come into these tiraq dot
Com Fox Sports radio studios, we got the basketball game
on right our four monitors, we're watching the end of
Dodgers Mets, and then they did a little cutaway to
show the exploits of Zach Wheeler. If I could have
gotten a shot like that moment of your blood pressure,
(07:12):
that would have been the greatest medical moment in sports radio.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And the Mets had six pictures. No, we're gonna keep
these five and the guy we let go turns out
to be the best one. And that's him watching a
game fourteen. It's just awful.
Speaker 6 (07:25):
Man.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I'm really Hazard pay Hazard pay for watching the Mets. Man.
That's all right, they have good hood stuffs there. She
still got that going for you. We're live at the
Tirec dot Com Studios, Jason Smith, Mike Harmon. We'll have
more baseball. We got John Paul Morosi coming up in
a few minutes. And boy do I have now that
we know show hey Otani is back throwing. Do I
(07:45):
have an idea for what his future should be? And
it's one hundred percent. I guarantee this is what it
should be when he resumes pitching. Now he's starting to
throw a little bit. Now should do but right now,
minutes and Dallas, Dallas going for the clincher. It would
mean there would be forty six days between the end
of the finals, end Game one of the NBA Finals.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
We could watch a Fast and the Furious movie every
day before.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
The ooh, or Harry Potter movie every day. Remember seven
is in two parts. Yeah, Harry Pottery, while you watch
sortzerers Stone, we do that. Everything night is Chambers secrets
and we get to they will do gobble of fire.
They will do a little order of the feeding that
common house red shots, that many of them. Yeah, yeah,
there's seven. There's seven movies. And the seventh movie was
(08:36):
broken up into two parts. Did we really need a
seventh with two parts?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
No, you never do.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
But that's a way to make money. Now, strikes when
something is ending, let's put The worst part was Twilight
Part four being in two parts. I'm like, are you
kidding me? Nothing? Nothing, Nothing upset me more than that
being in two parts. I'm like, come on, man, really,
but right now, five and a half to go on
the third quarter, the Mavericks going for the closer at
home against the Tea Wolves Minnesota with the lead sixty
(09:03):
six sixty two, Anthony Edwards nineteen points to lead the
way so far from Minnesota, so far for Dallas. Been
a great night for Luka Doncic, not so much for
Kyrie Irving, who's got nine points on three of ten shooting.
But still much like when we talked about Game four
of the Celtics and the Pacers, even though wow, how
are they not winning this game? Boat racing them? It
(09:25):
felt like you're just waiting for the Celtics to turn
it on a little bit and win this game and
win the series. I feel the same thing here. We're
just waiting for the Mavericks to turn things on a
little bit, take control of this game and win. It's
a four point game, but it looks like, you know,
the teams are going up and down the floor pretty good.
It's not a game where the Timberwolves defense is really
playing havoc with the Mavericks. So this is where Dallas
(09:46):
is like, Okay, we're just waiting for at some point
midway through the fourth quarter when Minnesota shots start not
falling and Dallas starts making them and PJ. Washington starts
hitting threes because he's got none tonight, you're gonna see
Dallas pull away this game. And we're talking about the
NBA Finals.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Hey, you got at the edge of nine rebounds for
Minnesota tonight. Dallas in the game because they've had three
more three point makes no lively for the Mavericks in
this one. They do get Kleba back, so you know,
trying to gut it out a little bit. He's played
nine minutes, given them two points in a board thus far,
(10:24):
but you know got that they've tried to do everything
they can to rush back into service here. But to
your point, yeah, Washington has been awful this point. And Luca,
even though he's got his twenty one, he is also
a game high minus thirteen, so struggling a little bit defensively,
and as you expect, without Lively there that the advantage
(10:45):
on the boards would be there for Minnesota taking full advantage.
And Anthony Edwards wants to stop some of the narratives,
so he will not go down without a fight.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
No, look, and it's great that the Timberwolves are putting
up this fight now, but it's just you've just seen
that this team and really Anthony Edwards in front of
this because he is okay, he's next, right, he's Michael Jordan.
Yet not quite ready for this moment, like the entire
team not quite ready for this moment. Not that they're
not good enough. Can you knock out the defending champs?
(11:15):
You should be ready. This can be your moment. This
is not where hey, we beat a team that everybody injured,
we beat another team everybody injured, and we suddenly showed
up in all Hey no, no, no, they're plenty good enough,
but they weren't ready for what it means. They weren't
ready to have big players play big and big games.
They had not been there. And you saw the little
bit more that Kyrie and Luca who have played in
just a few more big in Look, Kyrie's got a
(11:37):
championship and Luca's played in the conference final before. These
are guys that like to shoot the basketball and understand
what the pressure is all about. Everything is new for
Minnesota so so far it's just been so far, they're
not up to the moment, and Karl Anthony Towns has
been killing them with his bad offensive series so far.
So it's no surprise to see Dallas playing this well.
But when you look at from Minnesota, it's just, hey,
(11:58):
you're hoping that when the series ends for next year,
it's okay. Now they know what it's like, and now
we have to go into next year with more of
a where the hunted instead of hey, we're the new
kids and respect us, and look at look at all
the desire we played with against Denver, and you know,
we come up short with nothing left against against the
Dallas Mavericks. So that that's kind of where you're at.
You're hoping for next season.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yeah, as a squad shooting fifty one percent for the night,
and kat is actually at come come in. As we
saw in the last couple of rounds, right wasn't terribly consistent,
but had a couple of big games. This series, he's
been awful. He's six to seven from the field, and
Mike Conley also giving them a boost offensively, He's five
to nine from the field, So a little bit of
(12:40):
supplementation there to give them a puncher's chance as we
roll on. But yeah, we're waiting for the wheels to
come rolling off of this one. Even if Brick Carlisle
is not involved in the game, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
He's tweeting out, Hey, you know, the small town Minnesota
Timberwolves not getting the calls of the big city Dallas Beverick,
there we go.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Oh they are in fault trouble, multiple guys, right, Bear
and towns, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
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(13:24):
he is back throwing, getting back towards resuming pitching at
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Speaker 2 (14:15):
Be 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 iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
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All happening in only one place. This League Uncut, the
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Haynes and me Mark Stein.
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Join us as we team up to expound on everything
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Listen to This League Uncut with Chris Haynes and Mark Stein.
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On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
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Speaker 1 (14:57):
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Carmen
live from the Ti rag dot com Studios. Three and
a half to go in the third quarter, t Wolves
four point lead over the Mavericks seventy to sixty six.
We love more in this game coming up in a
few minutes. Meanwhile, the Rangers just tied their game with
the Panthers at two a piece. Ranger, We're going to
(15:18):
go up three to one in the Eastern Conference Finals
in the NHL, but joining us now on the hotline
a man who is uniquely qualified as an MLB insider,
NHL reporter and my official go between between me and
David Stearns who runs the Mets. It's John PALMERROSI, Pope,
what's happening, Bud.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
I'm doing great. I do regret to inform you, though,
that I do not think tonight is the best time
for me to text Sernsey and get a fresh take
on the Mets. I just don't think it's the right time.
There has to be space and respect given in friendships,
and I'm gonna have to give Sernsey a bit of
(15:59):
space here tonight.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah. The biggest thing I could come up with positive
You always say, hey, give David Sarns a positive message
from me. My big positive message night would be is
I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do at
the deadline. That would be my positive message right now.
All you kept it within a slam? How about that? Yeah? Sure?
Speaker 5 (16:16):
Sure?
Speaker 6 (16:16):
What a day. And I thought so much of the
Mets twenty twenty fourth season could be summarized by the
Freeman home running next ratings. Even in New York, You've
got a lot of Dodger fans there going crazy around
the dugout, and then immediately the camera pans to Pete
Alonzo in the Mets dugout. He had already been replaced
(16:36):
for a pinch runner, just sitting there, and it was
just a real juxtaposition. The Dodgers were down in that game,
but I'm sure they never felt like they were out,
and I'm sure the Mets never felt like the Dodgers
were out, because that's just the way that both of
those teams seasons have gone. And I do think, Jason,
(16:59):
in a serious note, they now have the benefit of clarity.
It is clear to me where the Mets are going.
It is clear when you look up and down their roster.
If there were to be a conversation hypothetically, hypothetically at
some point about what's to do with Peter Aronzo, and
(17:20):
the front office could say to Steve Cohen, listen, do
you really think that, in light of the way your
payroll looks right now and the ROI that you're getting on,
let's just say, lean Or or DS or Jeff McNeal,
that we are going to be eager to jump in
and give Alonso top dollar right now when the alternative
(17:43):
is to trade them and get better in the near
term and long term, especially at a time when the
Philadelphia Phillies and still the Braves, even minus Akunya, look
pretty darn unbeatable in your own division. It is about
as clear up a decision as there possibly can be
in baseball. And yet, and yet we have seen some
(18:05):
owners ardy moreno with the Angels, one notable example with
Otani in the last two years, who look at reality
and say, nah, I have different motivations here, And I
think that's going to be the big question for Steve
Cohen going forward.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Now you mentioned o TODDI here the Dodgers in and hey,
nothing cures a five game losing streak like a series
with the Mets. Big stuff. In the last twenty four hours,
he's now resumed a throwing program, at least whatever he's
he's doing to eventually make his return to pitching. I'm
gonna throw my idea by you, and you tell me
good idea, bad idea? You ready? Sure when Otani comes back,
(18:42):
he comes back as a closer because you worried about
the stress on his arm already two UCL injuries before
the age of thirty. Right, this is less It's less
stress on him you don't have to worry about him
sitting out an extra game because he would sit out
the game before he Pitches's what he did with the
Angel So you talk about already twenty five games he
would sit and not play. He would extend his career
(19:05):
as a pitcher, and think about the electricity that would
go through a team in the ninth inning knowing that, hey,
Otani's going to come in and close us, and it'd
be like Rivera coming in for the Yankees or Hoffman
coming in for the Padres. When Otani comes back, he
comes back as a closer.
Speaker 6 (19:21):
Great idea. I don't think that it's Otani's first choice,
and for that reason alone, I don't believe it's what's
going to happen. I'm not saying that it shouldn't happen.
I think that you raised a lot of excellent ideas,
and to be honest, Jason, the idea that you're advancing
is something that a lot of people in the industry
(19:43):
were wondering about last September when the injury recurred. For Otani,
it does make a lot of sense, But I also
think two things. Number One, O'tani wants to pursue and chase.
This dream of doing both on a consistent basis, and
(20:03):
being a starting pitcher and a position player, or at
least and a dh that has been his dream. And
I believe that when he signed with the Dodgers, it
was with the understanding that they would mutually respect to
each other's dreams. Of course, the Dodgers' dream of building
a sustainable, long term winner, Otani's dream of being able
(20:24):
to continue to make history improve yet again that he
can do this. I also think there was something about
Otani's regiment of pitching in preparation where and he spoke
about this through an interpreter and within the last couple
of days. The routine, the excitement, the ritual of preparing
for a start, having to start, and then going into
(20:46):
the next, the next start after that. It's something that
he likes, and so I think it's what he is
comfortable with. I do believe, and certainly, hey, we saw
it in the World Baseball Classic on the grandest of
stages when he struck out my route. He's perfectly comfortable
coming into the game. Wait, we saw it was one
of the more in double the moments of his career.
(21:07):
He can clearly do it. I just think that he
believes and the Dodgers believe that his impact is greatest
as as a closer. Now the one thing or as
a starter, the one thing that I think becomes interesting.
And we've talked about this a bit. The MLB is
working on different ways to potentially change the rules of
(21:31):
the game to incentivize starters to go longer, and one
of those ways is what's called the double hook. In
other words, once once the starting pitcher leaves leaves the game,
the team then loses the DH and then have to
put that starting that bat into the lineup. For example,
so once you lose the starting pitcher and you start
(21:52):
rolling in a sixth hitting guy or seventh hitting guy,
they then enter the lineup and have to be pinch
hit for does that then as the possibilities and all
of a sudden having Otani involved. But but again, if
you're if he's already your DH, especially in that rule,
then you would lose your DH if he then, say,
it gets very complicated to where if then he's replaced
(22:16):
on the mound, is he also then replaced as the DH,
that becomes very complicated. So I think for all those reasons,
I would still say, most likely scenario is he's a
starting pitcher in twenty twenty five, not a Knicks already
time table to pitch in the postseason. I'm sorry, justin
I know you wanted to ask that question. I don't
see it happening this.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Calendar year now, since we're on the subject of, you know,
rules changes and and how we adjudicate the game JP,
Angel Hernandez is going going away.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
As the road hadn't hurt as the robot over lords come.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Hey, maybe folks took Memorial Day off from Great Sports
Talk radio. I don't know, but you know, I don't
think I've ever seen something so universally celebrated in our world.
We're divisive about everything Angel Hernandez. Only Joe West just
come up to defend him at this point.
Speaker 6 (23:08):
It's a very interesting topic. And I did look up,
by the way, his umpire scorecard for this year in
terms of accuracy percentile, and I'll just get without looking
it up if you haven't already, where do you think
he ranks? So if you put all Major leagunplayers zero
(23:29):
to one hundred in terms of accuracy of calls this season,
in which percentile is Angel hernad This one hundred and fifty.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
Okay, any other guesses get in.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
There and sell one hundred. He ranks one hundred and
second sixty two, So sixty.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Second percentile would mean that he is better than let's say,
just using rough map, he's better than sixty one percent
of the empires. He's actually the twenty second percentile, meaning
give or take, about one fifth of the umpires in
MLB right now are less accurate than angel Z according
to umpire scorecards. Just point of fact, is he the
(24:10):
most controversial, Yes he is, but it would based on
those numbers, it would not be correct to say that
he is the least accurate. So perhaps, and again, indeed,
about twenty percent of umpires are less accurate this year
than he is. It's certainly not excusing the myriad controversies
(24:33):
that have existed with angel in the past, but it
was I thought a very interesting insight. Listen, he's got
The job of the umpire is difficult. There is also
no doubt that perhaps in certain situations he certainly could
have handled them differently in a way that would not
have resulted in such renown. I also know that there
(24:54):
was I will say that I had one interaction with
him over a longereriod of time where we were on
the same flight going from Florida to Cuba for the
twenty sixteen Havana Series Havannah game between the Rays and
the Cuban national team. Angel born in Cuba, grew up
in Miami, in Florida, and he was talking about just
(25:16):
how special and meaningful that trip was for his family. So, yes,
there are reasons out there to criticize, and that's part
of the job. But I wanted to share that one
little anecdote about the time that I was on a
flight with Angel Hernandez.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Did he throw you off the flight?
Speaker 6 (25:34):
He did not, Oh, okay, say Mercy, you're out of here,
nor did he inject me. And I did say this
as I was talking to my kids, not that they
really know a lot about baseball, but I did say this,
going back to the famous Ian Kinsler story. I said, girls,
just so you know, in terms of how you interact
with an official umpire and any sport that we play,
remember this. Ian Kinsler was once ejected from a game
(25:58):
because of how he looked at the umpire.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
It's like Bryce Harper the other day, he was trying
to have a nice conversation, nice well meaning, and in
the first inning he gets himself ejected.
Speaker 6 (26:09):
Yeah, he got ejected. It's almost like that scene in
Field of Dreams when when Doc Graham's character at the
younger Doc Graham winks at the pitcher and then gets
gets He winked at me. You didn't like it. He
winked at me. So you never know how these personalities
(26:30):
in the great Game of Baseball intersects with one another.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
But that's the thing about Angel Hernandez Pope, is that yes,
you can miss calls, but then there's Angel Hernandez missing
calls by a wide swath because it looked like I
wanted to call it that way. I want to ring
you up on three pitches, regardless as to where the
pitches end up. I want to call you out on
this ground out, regardless of the fact that you know you
(26:54):
beat it by a half step. Like there's missing calls,
and then it seems like Angel Haners is doing it
because he just wanted to.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
Well. I do think that there is a lesson in
this for everyone who does a job in the public
sphere that mistakes, mistakes are part of the job, Mistakes
are expected, and it is often how we handle those
mistakes that in a lot of ways defines the way
(27:20):
in which the public opinion perhaps is shaped. And I
do think there were multiple moments in which, perhaps after
a game or a MYSS call, the famous Adam Rosales
home run that wasn't in Cleveland years ago, where and
I'm sorry I made a mistake, would have gone a
long way. And I think that again, that's and that
(27:42):
is one thing as we talk about, whether it's Angel Ornandez,
there times when Joe West was in the headlines too.
Transparency goes a long way. And when a situation comes
up and an umpire talks about it, at least you
want to be able to say, I spoke with the media,
I acknowledged what happened. Jim Joyce perfect example, one of
(28:04):
the toughest moments on a baseball field. The way that
he handled it was exemplary for years to come. And
I think that perhaps looking back, and maybe for MLB
and umpires looking forward, that yes, you hope to have
a your best home plight ball strike people calling the
calls in the biggest moment. That is one major part
(28:25):
of the postseason. I'm a big believer in if some
of the greatest balls and strikes. Let them just keep
calling balls and strikes as much as their body will
tolerate it, as opposed to rotating through a really good
based empire to call balls and strikes. And maybe it's
other strong suit. I think that's one thing to think about.
But the second piece is transparency is always the way,
and graciousness and admitting wrong tends to go a long
(28:48):
way in our society. Still, it is not a lost.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Artsuing the league saying you were slighted when you're ranking
twenty second doesn't help either. Last one for you real quick, JP,
this one has got some legs to it today the
incorporation after a three year research project of the Niger
League stats into Major League Baseball, so we see some
changes a top this.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
How how's this gone over through through the industry.
Speaker 6 (29:15):
In terms of I think it's important and it's it's
an important part of the history to where Josh Gibson, Cool,
Papa bell Oscar Charleston. We need to think about their
place in the game. And if we're going to be
real and honest about this, clearly they they would have
put up numbers similar numbers had they had the opportunity
(29:38):
to play, and it was clearly not their fault that
they did not have the opportunity to play. And that,
to me is is the effort to to write the
historical wrong. And and this is not it's not taking
away numbers of other people have put up. It's merely
recognizing that which the Negro League's players had done. And
(30:00):
I think it's the right thing to do. I know
that the effort that Bob Kendrick and his amazing team
at the Negro League's museum and put into for a
long time to make sure that these players are recognized
the way they should be. And Joe Posnansk, I think
about the Baseball one hundred book that he wrote that
I'm looking at right now on my shelf. Look at
where Oscar Charleston was in that book. And Norman Turkey
(30:22):
Stearns here in Detroit. There are so many powerful stories
that I hope that this change does two things. Number
one gives the proper historical recognition to players who deserved it.
And number two makes those of us who obviously are
of a younger age and we're not watching the Negro
Leagues in person or alive at that time, gives us
(30:45):
a moment to pause, reflect, consider, celebrate the achievements. I
think that's really important for us to really think about
going forward.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
He's on Twitter at John Morosi, that is at John Rossi,
the Pope, John palm Rose, the MLB Network Insider. As always,
we appreciate your time, thanks so much, And if the
Mets make a trade tonight, we'll call you back.
Speaker 6 (31:05):
Please do you guys this amazing time of year. And yes,
I'll probably text David. I may give him a day
or two after the double letter sleep probably.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Thanks buddy, I'll talk to JP. I'm gonna give him
a couple of day. Yeah, give him a couple of days,
give him a couple send him some ice cream or something.
Street Meet. I don't know, something to make him Feelman
Street Met the Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Carmen, live from the Tirack dot Com studios. Yes again,
just still feels like okay, Mavericks waiting, when are they
(31:35):
gonna throw their hammer down? Luca got some rest on
the bench, throwing up ally up since he's come back
in Kyrie Ona floater. Eight minutes to go, eight and
a half to go. It is a one point lead
for the t Wolves over the Mavericks, who are looking
to win and head to the NBA Finals. But speaking
of the NBA Finals, speaking of the Stanley Cup Finals,
we talked about this a couple of days ago, but
(31:56):
now it is. It is def Con one is the
serian Most seriously, it is def Con one to get
the greatest idea in sports going. And it's gotta be now.
We get to that coming up next right here, Jason
and Mike. Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon
live from the Tireck dot Com Studios, Minnesota and Dallas
eighty nine eighty eight te Wolves with the lead six
minutes left to go in the fourth quarter, Dallas could
be six minutes away from the NBA Finals. Meanwhile, Rangers
(32:39):
in the Panthers two to two late third period. Tomorrow night,
of course, Dallas Stars look to go up three games
to one on Edmonton as they try to reach a
Stanley Cup Final.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Frostburg loving every moment of it. I mean, it is
time at the Oilers well documented, Like.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
We mentioned this a few days ago, but now it's like,
you got to get going on this. We need those
cameras following Jerry joeund to get his reaction as he
watches every Dallas area team except for the Cowboys play
for a championship. This year, you had the Rangers win
the World Series. Okay, we kind of missed the boat
and that nothing we can do. But now you have
(33:14):
the Mavericks and the Stars could be playing for the cha.
You gotta follow, You gotta follow Jerry. You gotta get
those cameras now, like office style, like whatever you wherever
you have cameras. One's gotta follow him every second of
the day and follow him. Just see what it's like
when he's watching the Mavericks continue to win and the
Stars continue to win, and people keep writing in the
(33:35):
Dallas Morning News, don't know what Jerry's doing, don't know
about this all and stuff, and really just see the
blood drain from his face and his eyes out get
really white, said he just loses everything, just trying to
come to grips with the fact that all these other
teams in the city all become championship teams. We we
(33:55):
we're worth the most, we spend the most money. H
We're not close over ten thousand days.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
And I don't have you today since.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
The last NFC title game appearance by the Dallas Cowboys. Meanwhile,
you've got winners. I want winners. Oh you got you
gotta get those cameras out now.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
And you know more than that, I mean, this is
this is a great idea, Like this is a great idea.
This this could be the highest rated show in sports.
Forget about Hard Knocks. This is Hard Knocks with Jerry
Jones and just talking about this.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
It's not quite Basketball Wives. But I'm with you because
you'll get two great things. I guarantee you'll get two
great things.
Speaker 5 (34:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
You will get one where Jerry Jones. I guarantee you
will do something to gain a huge headline. If both
of these teams are playing for the championship, he will
do something Cowboys wise to take the intention away. He's
gonna do something right, just like you know Lebron's gonna
do something in the in the time off of me.
Are you kidding?
Speaker 3 (34:47):
If you know it's fighting Out, it's a full docu
series where he's got to go pro on his head.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
You are gonna top bringing Zeke back. It's gonna be
tough man time. I don't know. Maybe a question, Hey, Dak, Dak,
here you go. Here's the here's eighty five million dollars
for next year. Congratulations. What do you got? Question?
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Is is it more likely that he is aware of
this or that he's just completely unaware that there are.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Oh no, no, he knows you kidding, He knows. He I
still got his age deals. He's not really up on
the news like that Stave. See.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
I don't think he's in one of those you know,
chambers like they had Darth Vaylor.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
But he's on the He's not like the ESPN app
or anything checks. He doesn't. He's in line McMuffin right now. No, No,
he's got stando. Stephen calls him and Steven call me
every five minutes, let me know what's going on. Every
five minutes, let me know how things are going. Okay,
the hockey thing maybe every ten minutes. Not as many
points scored now if points is that what? It's? Okay? Great?
But basketball, yeah, every five minutes, call me. I gotta know,
(35:44):
I gotta know now. So you get that right, you'll
get that.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
But even if he isn't aware, I mean, this is
now somebody's job to agitate the hell out of it.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Oh yeah, yeah, you said it all prompt action.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Whether it's a Dallas local reporter that just keeps calling him,
we need the TMZ reporters that that of the cameraman
and reporter at the same time that finally go hey,
Dean Kine, how do you feel about not being cast
in Smallville?
Speaker 1 (36:04):
The return? And he's at Costco like unloaded, So well,
everything is fine. That's who you need doing this.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
You can't just have you got the bright light.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah yeah, oh yeah, no, I thought you just had
a cat phone. No yeah, no, no, no, that's what
you need. You need like you know, hey, mister de Niro,
can you talk about what happened? Mister de Niro? I
know that's what happened tonight. Uh the other great thing
you'll get right, the other great thing you'll go there,
didn't you? Well, I mean I was thinking about guys
losing their mind today. It happened.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
I mean, yeah, but that wasn't he It's just a
random hey, we found you on the street.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
He injected himself into that situation. Head line of the
New York Post was raging bold. Of course I think
he was. He believed he was filming a movie. Maybe
it was it could be yeah, oh something for a
time back. But they that's what they told them.
Speaker 6 (36:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Yeah, listen, I need you to really a mote right now.
Bob worked the moat mote. Okay, this is what watch
is that it's gonna check's gonna clear, right, So so
you're gonna get that. You you, if you follow him,
you will get that Fromry Jones. And now I really
want to call TMZ to say, just send a guy
following Jerry Jones. Hey, Jerry, it's going to give you
up to I know Steven's gonna call you. But wow,
another three by Lucas and a point lee. What do
you think, Jerry. The other thing is this is I
(37:11):
want Jerry Jones to submit to a lie detector where
the questions are older, because I could do it Friday.
I didn't know which process are going through day lie detector.
Only about how he feels about the other Dallas area
teams playing for a chance.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Because another in sports that was tied to something that
would require a test, which was emphatically denied.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
There's look, and there's too many things that you could
ask Jerry Jones he would say no to but say, hey,
lie detector, just to know how you feel about this,
and if there's a buzzer whenever he lies, so you
can say, like, hey, Jerry, so, how do you feel
about the Dallas Stars making the Stanley Cup Final? I've
always been a big star.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Say I'm not happy for them that there's enough room
for us here in the city.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Very happy?
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Or is it like the Seinfeld thing where you ask
a bunch of innocuous questions then you get deep into
whether Jerry is ahead on Melrose Place or not?
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Jerry, how do you feel about Luga doncics? Well, I
talked to Mark Cuban. We're both excitted. Okay, I want
to elect your cute and old man. I just camera.
I didn't know, not that he gets bud. Just a
buzzer goes off. To know that he's like, okay, because
you're shaking violently. If we could have to take I
gotta sound a buzzer. How to hurt him? Fake buzzer?
(38:32):
We just buzz all the time. I thought the buzzer
is only going to go off on a line. Why's
it going off all the time you open your mouth, Jerry,
are you all in on this season? Well? Absolutely well,
your definition of all in the mind is different. Okay,
truthful statement. Mately when he does do.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
Something rash here because it's coming, whether it's a giant
check to see d Lamb or.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
To Dad Kack, here's a hundred million dollars.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
The first question at the presser has to be were
you prompted by the success of the other teams at
the Dallas market?
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Jerry?
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Are you doing this just because the other teams are
doing well? No, not at all. We had this plan. Nah, can't.
I can't win on this Onegaina. I just we're happy
for Dak. I'm happy to pay Dak and uh, I
expect us to be in a Super Bowl. Sevin, who's
about that buzzer? That's not my Stephen, Steven, Stephen, get
in here. This is not going how I thought it
was gonna go. While Steven controlling the buzzer the whole time,
(39:27):
I'm stopping.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
This is it.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
We're not doing this anymore.
Speaker 5 (39:29):
This is we're not speaking all in happy National Hamburger Day.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Now, I want to hamber Hamburger Day. Exit out bout
a Fresco exit swollen down. The Jason Smith Show with
my best friend Mike Carmon. Coming up next. Are we
talking about a Dallas Maverick sweep or the Tea Wolves
keeping it alive? That's next, Jason and Mike Fox, Fox
Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with my best friend
(39:56):
Mike Harmon, Live from the Tireck dot Com studios where
we just watched the Timberwolves upset the Mavericks. Game four
was supposed to be. It was supposed to be an exhibition,
an exhibition. Everybody's man too.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
All the guys on set because they were packed and
ready to go found their own day case.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
I had a nine day vacation. Nine days. This like
in the TV show where that guy comes into work. Hey,
come on, we had a vacation. Now we all got
to work through it. Nine days I had, and these
guys are like, gay, we're done. Four months. I had
it all looked T and T don't have the finals.
We're out. T and T was like, we're finished. The
show was going away. Oh no, we got a couple
more days. Oh all right, we couple more days, a.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
Couple more days for Chuck to get after the bosses
and their business decisions.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Uh, the t Welves beat the Mavericks one oh five
to one hundred to force game five back in Minnesota.
So the Salad Days from Minnesota still going on. Greatest
time Minnesota sports history. Twins great t Golves their first
Western Conference Final winning twenty years. Look at them keeping
this alive. And we talked about the heroics of Anthony
(41:03):
Edwards and Karl Anthony Towns hitting three pointer after three
pointer in the final couple of minutes where he came alive.
And while the Minnesota you give Minnesota all the credit
in the world, where they could have packed it up,
they could have gone home. They're on the road, they're
down three zip, they know it's impossible. I never got
the sense for Dallas where it was like, okay, we
kept waiting for them to take over again. I never
(41:25):
got the sense of, Okay, now things are getting serious.
You know, we watched Kyrie turn the ball over late,
we watched Luca miss a big free throw. I never
got that sense of urgency from the Mavericks, where hey,
now it's winning time, like normally you get, hey now,
like we saw that from the Celtics and the Pacers.
The other nay, hey, now it's winning time. Now, Jason
Tatum's gonna start blowing by you. Now you're gonna get
(41:46):
a big three from Derek. We're finding the right guy.
Jalen Brown's gonna get a big hoop here, Like I
got that from them. They say what you want about
the Celtics. They knew time to throw the hammer down
now and win this game, and they did, and Rick
Carlisle helped. But I never saw that point tonight where
I said, Okay, now the Mavericks know it's winning time.
Like I'm just watching the Tea Wolves continue to get
(42:07):
hoops and it's almost like I felt like the Mavericks
going well, eventually one of them is gonna miss. You know,
we're gonna sing guard Anthony Edwards. We're not gonna make
them give up the ball, and and they just kept
making shots in the final three minutes.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
Maybe it's just as simple as the shots that didn't
fall for the Tea Wolves and pass games did tonight
and PJ. Washington needs to pay for repairs to the basket.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
Joining us now the hotline to break it all down.
No body better NBA Insider check them out on substack.
You can follow him on Twitter at the Steinline. It
is Mark Stein, Mark, what's happening about? How are you, Kent?
Speaker 4 (42:42):
I'm good. I'm good, all right? So I mean without
surviving without your Nick.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Yeah, it's okay, it's I mean a little. He's still
got the Mets, Mark nom. I don't have that anymore either.
I don't have that. No, I'm good, I'm good. No,
I just I just keep I just keep thinking about
what it's gonna be like for Jerry Jones. And all
the Dallas area teams are in the final this year
and not the Cowboys' like that. That's like you're putting
a smile on my face.
Speaker 4 (43:04):
It's it is remarkable to see the Cowboys have not
advanced this deep into the playoffs for almost thirty years,
and all these other teams are just rampage. It is.
You're not the first one to bring it up.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
Yeah, we've storyboarded an entire mini series, all right, So
let's deal with this.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Tonight. We watched the t Wolves win scale of one
to ten, with one being you were completely surprised and
ten not surprised at all. How surprised are you that
this series is still going on this wasn't the Mavericks
winning and four?
Speaker 4 (43:39):
Oh, I think a solid seven or eight if that
really is the not surprised end of the scale, since
I think you did that backwards.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
I mean, you know, I just want to make sure
you're paying attention.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
I mean, yes, this is late late hour for maths,
but I mean I never thought this series was going
to be a sweep. And you have to give the
Wolves a lot of credit, you know, just like you
would say about Indiana, the way they battled facing a
sweep without Halliburton. And you know, so often when teams
(44:11):
get down three to zero, you do wonder if they're
going to just say, you know what, there's no way
we can win this. It's never happened in NBA history.
But you know, the Wolves do have two of the
next three games at home. They have been as confident
as you can be in this situation. I'm sure you
guys have heard the anecdote with Mike Conley telling John
(44:35):
Krasinski of the Athletic longtime Wolves beat reporter that you
know you're going to be covering history. We're coming all
the way back. So I mean, look, they're saying all
the right things and you know, tonight, offensively, they finally delivered.
We've heard Chris Finch talk about how badly the last
three minutes of each of the first four you know,
(44:57):
the first three games, how badly the last three minutes
of the fourth quarter went from Minnesota. Well this was different,
and you Karl Anthony Towns has been dealing with a
lot of heat and he answered tonight.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
Huge game from him before he falls out trying to
step in on that Luca ridiculous three point attempt.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
When we look.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
At the Mavericks going forth, though, how bad is the
injury to.
Speaker 4 (45:22):
Lively, Well, the initial fears were much worse. I don't
know that he can make it back in time for
Game five. And look, there's no question that defensively they're
much more vulnerable without him. I mean, he is the
(45:43):
best rim protector they have. But I really think tonight
they lost it offensively. I mean this was just you know,
Kyrie and Luca combined to shoot thirteen for thirty nine.
Washington was three for thirteen. I mean, this was this
(46:04):
was an offensive struggle again, because the MAVs have basically
just been so good in crunch time throughout this series,
so obviously You're going to point to Lively's absence, but
this was a winnable game without Lively tonight. I mean,
they just didn't have anywhere near the fourth quarter production
the closing that we've seen. And I mean Karl Anthony Towns,
(46:28):
I mean, it is still astounding to think that he
was three for twenty two from three coming into this
game and made four to three tonight and did a
lot of that damage after he had already picked up
five fouls. Way Towns played with style trouble, with so
much scrutiny and after so much criticism, I mean, gave
(46:52):
the Wolf season. It's too much to say that because
it's only one win, but certainly as responsible as anyone
from the Wolves in extending this series.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
NBA insider Mark Stide with us A Jason Smiths er
with Mike Harmon, live from the tyreq dot com studios.
All right, now, getting down to the final couple of
minutes of this game. Look, you saw all the threes
from Towns, which were terrific. They're able to hold on Anthony,
Edward's able to get to the rim, He's able to
hit step back jumpers. I was really surprised, Mark, especially
after Towns filed out. The Mavericks didn't do more to
(47:24):
try to get the ball out of his hands, like
they seemed comfortable they were going to single guard him
and see how things go, and it didn't go very well.
That's kind of the theme of the playoffs. Hey, great
one on one players are winning all these battles offensively.
Speaker 4 (47:39):
Well, I mean, look, you know, I again, I'm more
focused on where the Mavericks were offensively tonight, and this
was a huge opportunity for them to try to finish
this thing off because to me, honestly, the big winners
tonight of the Boston Celtics. You know, Luka Doncic, you know,
(48:00):
eight or nine nights off with the basketball, not good
for your show, not good for me, not good for basketball.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
Then.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
But I think I think, I think Luka Dancic would
have loved to have a week plus off three charge.
I honestly think he would benefit from that as much
as anyone. Obviously, you know Lively has this injury now
for Zingis, we know that all the extra rests he's
going to get the Celtics able to get through the
(48:28):
first Celtics able to get through two rounds without Porzingis
and now he gets an additional week. But I really
think Luca would have benefited as much as anyone you
could have looked at on either team. And now Dallas
has to go to Minnesota and try to win for
the third time on the Wolves floor because if not,
(48:50):
you know, all the pressure shifts back to Dallas to
finish that thing off in game six on Saturday night.
Back on Therefore, because again the Wolves, the one thing
they can really point to, besides the fact that towns
about back in such huge fashion tonight, is that they
do have two of these remaining three games at home Mark.
Speaker 3 (49:11):
As we look at the way the Wolves attack things,
all five guys in double figures, Rudy Gobert has become
He's always been polarizing, but certainly everybody taking their shots
at Draymond Green on the broadcast.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Included, but he goes for thirteen and ten tonight. Size.
You know, we always joke size matters, but we watched
the big guys kind of force that offense to bog
down to where you're settling for jump shots. And for PJ. Washington,
who has been great tonight, it just was not his night.
A couple that were really the antithesis of what he's
(49:48):
been truly all through these playoffs.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
And honestly, what I would say is, I think what
it wasn't just Towns Go Bear and and Qutt for
in foul trouble too.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Sure, you know the Wolves bench.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
You obviously nas Reed reigning six Man of the Year now,
but the Wolves didn't get a ton off their bench.
They're only going with the eight guys. It's really just
nas Reed, Kyle Anderson, Mikhail Alexander Walker. So the ability
or Towns Edwards Go Bear to all be able to
(50:24):
make it to the finish line in this game when
they all played through foul trouble and the muster nearly
seventy points among the three of them. Again, I think
if you really listen to Chris Finch, you know his
concerns throughout this series had been offense and just the
way that things have been just bogged down in crunch time.
(50:46):
So this you know, you know, I don't think I'm
not sure that a lot of my colleagues were expecting
sweet because again, Minnesota was such a good team this
season and the best defense in the league. And I mean,
you know, did anybody pick Dallas to win this thing
and four No, I mean, did anyone really so? But
(51:11):
saying all that, I do think the wolf showed us
something tonight.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
Now, Mark outside of it. You know, you wrote a
great column on substack and you get it. The link
is on mark twitter page at the steinline about how
the luckiest guy in the world has left us. We
spent a lot of time last night talking about the
life of Bill Walton. What are just some things that
have been going through your head in the last twenty
four hours trying to process what happened.
Speaker 4 (51:35):
Yeah, I mean it's just you know, Bill Walton was
you know, and I think this has been a common
refrain I'm sure from whoever you've spoken to, but just
over the last thirty years, after everything that happened to
him in his pro career with injuries and again we're
talking about someone who endured nearly forty surgeries, not for
(51:59):
four but in his broadcaster life, when you would encounter
Bill Walton, I mean, he was just so relentlessly positive,
in love with the game, and you know, bills himself
as the luckiest guy in the world when you think
(52:23):
about what happened in his playing career and how could
he adopt that approach, and so, you know, I was
it is. It is a terrible loss. I mean, he
was beloved by so many people in basketball, the college
game and the pro game, and so it did, frankly
(52:44):
take me a while to put my remembrance piece together.
And you know, I was, I was tremendously lucky. I
started out covering the Clippers at a very young age
when Bill was the team's color analysts alongside the Hall
of Famer Ralph Lawler, and for a very young reporter,
(53:04):
I mean when I was young, Bill would call me
and ask me, you know, what I was hearing about
other teams, what I was hearing within the flip Flippers,
and just you know, he made me feel like such
a part of it when I didn't feel like a
part of it. And I was, you know, again just
starting out, and I you know, I was right around
(53:26):
I was like twenty five. I was one of the
youngest beat writers, maybe the youngest traveling beat writer in
the league when I started, And you know, I would
sit there thinking, like, I've been covering the NBA for
five minutes, Why is Bill Walton asking me to share
things with him? But I mean, I'm sure you guys
(53:48):
have heard this from anyone you've talked to about Bill.
I mean, he just had this incredible ability to make
you feel like you were the most important guy in
the room and maybe even the most important guy in
the world. I mean, he just he did that for
so many people, and he made friends with again, so
(54:09):
many people inside the NBA and the college game. And
you know, there's there's literally billions of us who adored him,
and it's it's just an incredible it's it's incredibly bad
to lose him. And he's, for me in my thirty
thirty odd years doing this, just one of my favorite
(54:32):
people who I've ever encountered.
Speaker 1 (54:34):
The piece is the luckiest guy in the world has
left us. You can check it out on substack or
get the link off of Mark Stein's Twitter account that's
at the Steinline. Also podcast This League Uncut. Mark as always,
appreciate your time. We'll talk to you as the Western
Conference Finals goes on.
Speaker 4 (54:50):
Sound good, guys, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
Mark. Thanks great stuff from Mark Stein there. You know,
it's funny here the stories that my I think my
favorite story today the last few days. You know, like
I said, last night, hear a thousand stories are all
gonna be true. I think my favorite was Dave Pash,
who was his Bill Walton's longtime broadcaster and now is
his last partner doing all the PAC twelve After Dark games.
And he told the story that Bill would be he'd
(55:12):
be on vacation somewhere and would text him and go, Dave,
are you watching this game between Arizona and here are you?
This is what's happened, knowing full well that Dave Pash
is announcing the game, but Texas, you should watch this game.
You should watch more basketball. Dave so and so is
having a big game, knowing that he's broadcast in the game,
He's sending him these texts you should watch this game.
Speaker 3 (55:34):
Wanted you to be keep aprized with important things.
Speaker 5 (55:39):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
I just thought that was the best teammate right there.
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmon podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from ten pm to two am Eastern
seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find
your local station for The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the best of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hello and welcome inside. Happy Monday or actually happy Tuesday. Tuesday,
I was a day behind Thursday. Wednesday The Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon live from the
ti rack dot Com studios tirec dot com. I hope
you get there an unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free
(00:50):
road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers tirack
dot com the way tire buying should be. Now before
begin we got big night of NBA. Tons of stuff
to get to third quarter Game four Mavericks and the
te Wolves. Because I know he's just going to burst
if he doesn't say anything. Let's check in with Justin
(01:13):
Frossburg are intrepid producer who has been keeping track of
the Mets and the Dodgers double header. Frostburg, what's going on?
My internet's down. I haven't able to watch anything. I
only have two words for America right now. Okay, Mets
Yo sums it up nicely. Look, there's only the Dodgers
who just swept the double header from the Mets after
(01:35):
the Mets gave away a game in the eighth and
ninth inning in Game one. There's only one problem with
the Mets. There's only one problem. Serious. I can all
the there's only one problem, like dials down to one day.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
But you can say, over the last month, we have
now found that really all of the talking, all of
the column inches hours of sports talk radio in local markets, Yes,
complaining about players and coaches and strategies can be boiled
down to one thing, like really simplified this entire universe.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
You can hear to say, the Stars aren't hitting, Why
aren't they trading anybody? They can't close any games. Edwin
Diaz is avatar. Oh yeah, so they.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Fire that guy and Timmy l he's never coming I'm
not coming back for this.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Hey, he's like texting the Mets every day. Hey, when
can I come back and Bay, we'll call you. We'll
call you. Don't worry about it. To worry about it.
There's only one thing, one thing. One thing. The Mets stink.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
No, not good number one.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Sorry, the Mets really stink. I mean, I'm at this point.
It's and it's not like the I wish they would
just get blown out every day. I'm just okay, let's
find a way to lose a game that's gonna yanke
your soul out, because that's what the Mets. Everything we're
good at. We're just good enough to lose every single day,
(02:55):
one out of every four games. But that's it.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
You know what's great though, And I pointed it out
to you and the uh oh. His Game two came
to a final Dodgers with completing the doubleheader sweep three
nothing on the match.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
The seatbacks look really good bye. Yeah, yeah, it does
look nice. It does look That's what I mean. It's
like a row of the lower It looks really nice.
And attendance you guys tonight. Yeah, that's the thing. As
the season goes on, you'll be able to see that
much more often because nobody's gonna pay to buy seats
to sit there. No, it's gonna spend them uth.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Are we going to get a section when they're gonna
play The Angels later on this year?
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Oh yeah, we just get a section to ourselves. It's Anaheim.
Sure of course we can. We whatever we want. That
Sandwich guy will like walk hang out with us, it'd
be great. Did you check in on your blood brother, Frank? Oh,
Frank the Tech is not happy. Frank the Tek is
after game one. I knew I said he's gonna.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
But at this point I can't give him any more
credence until he either takes you know, twenty three and
meters and figures out if he is a direct descended
a Personval Pringle the Third also known as Paul Bear,
or he's just.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
Stealing the your aunt ants or sures twenty three minutes
something they weren't supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
And I'm related to uh Bert Young too, right, righted
all these people.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
But this is where it gets even better, because not
only was he on social media losing his mind about
the games, he went back to the origin story today
complaining about the windows on the New Jersey trends and.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
How filthy they were.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
Look listen, because they were the absolute worst, the tank's
mouthpiece or the Mets.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Oh, the Mets at least fright that that only has
to worry about that, like for a minute a day,
the Mets. The Mets are a good three hour fie.
You know. Look, just because there is this one headline
with the Mets, sake, there was one. Okay, now, when
are they going to start trading everybody? Because they just
absolutely stink. David Stearns, who runs the team, Well, I
have a pipeline too with John Palm Morosse, who's going
to join us in about ten minutes, you know, said Listen,
(04:57):
it's a little too early to evaluate. We have plenty
of time to see what kind of team we're gonna
be between now and the deadline. Big headline in the
New York Post today for tomorrow's is what are you
waiting for? They should be the first team selling. Let
me just say what that translation is. We have plenty
of time to see what the team is gonna be.
Translation is a it is early because not as many
teams are buyers and not as many teams know what
(05:18):
they're gonna be because it's still the end of the Yeah,
you know, it's fine. Nobody else knows yet. Are we
gonna be buyers or sellers? We buying? Should we buy now?
We won't know until we get closer to the deadline.
So there is that, and that is one hundred percent true.
Doesn't mean you can't trade players, if you could trade
really good players at any time. But here's the problem.
(05:40):
There's only one problem, one, only one problem. Everybody the
Mets want to trade they all stink. So no one's
gonna say, yes, let me give you some of our
future for a guy who stinks. They can't trade Nimo,
they can't trade Alonzo, they can't trade McNeil. They can't
even trade lindyt love to trade lind Dor at this point.
But they all stink.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
I'll tell you who doesta. They all stand boy from
Long Beach State who pitched Game one. Yeah he was,
he was great, All take him. Glass Night was great. Hey,
and McGill was great too.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
They just didn't hit for him. Then game will game
away in the eighth. That you know, that's the all.
It just boils down to, they stink, and you can't.
You can't trade players at stink. No one wants players
who stink. People want good players. So maybe if these
guys start hitting a little bit, Hey, get hot for
a week, I can trade you. But if you're hitting
two hundred, I can't trade any of you. Know, this
is where you start, Angel Hernandez.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
You gotta go and you gotta find someone in your
statistics department to figure out who's coming up on any
kind of milestone, and then you have to go find
the true dregs of Major League Baseball. You go to
the Marlins, you go to the White soaka, hey, this
guy's coming up not a big milestone, it can really
look good for you and maybe help bolster attendance and
interest for a game and not. The other part that
(06:49):
I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge was as
we're getting ready and we come into these tiraq dot
Com Fox Sports radio studios, we got the basketball game
on right our four monitors, we're watching the end of
Dodgers Mets, and then they did a little cutaway to
show the exploits of Zach Wheeler. If I could have
gotten a shot like that moment of your blood pressure,
(07:12):
that would have been the greatest medical moment in sports radio.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And the Mets had six pictures. No, we're gonna keep
these five and the guy we let go turns out
to be the best one. And that's him watching a
game fourteen. It's just awful.
Speaker 6 (07:25):
Man.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I'm really Hazard pay Hazard pay for watching the Mets. Man.
That's all right, they have good hood stuffs there. She
still got that going for you. We're live at the
Tirec dot Com Studios, Jason Smith, Mike Harmon. We'll have
more baseball. We got John Paul Morosi coming up in
a few minutes. And boy do I have now that
we know show hey Otani is back throwing. Do I
(07:45):
have an idea for what his future should be? And
it's one hundred percent. I guarantee this is what it
should be when he resumes pitching. Now he's starting to
throw a little bit. Now should do but right now,
minutes and Dallas, Dallas going for the clincher. It would
mean there would be forty six days between the end
of the finals, end Game one of the NBA Finals.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
We could watch a Fast and the Furious movie every
day before.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
The ooh, or Harry Potter movie every day. Remember seven
is in two parts. Yeah, Harry Pottery, while you watch
sortzerers Stone, we do that. Everything night is Chambers secrets
and we get to they will do gobble of fire.
They will do a little order of the feeding that
common house red shots, that many of them. Yeah, yeah,
there's seven. There's seven movies. And the seventh movie was
(08:36):
broken up into two parts. Did we really need a
seventh with two parts?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
No, you never do.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
But that's a way to make money. Now, strikes when
something is ending, let's put The worst part was Twilight
Part four being in two parts. I'm like, are you
kidding me? Nothing? Nothing, Nothing upset me more than that
being in two parts. I'm like, come on, man, really,
but right now, five and a half to go on
the third quarter, the Mavericks going for the closer at
home against the Tea Wolves Minnesota with the lead sixty
(09:03):
six sixty two, Anthony Edwards nineteen points to lead the
way so far from Minnesota, so far for Dallas. Been
a great night for Luka Doncic, not so much for
Kyrie Irving, who's got nine points on three of ten shooting.
But still much like when we talked about Game four
of the Celtics and the Pacers, even though wow, how
are they not winning this game? Boat racing them? It
(09:25):
felt like you're just waiting for the Celtics to turn
it on a little bit and win this game and
win the series. I feel the same thing here. We're
just waiting for the Mavericks to turn things on a
little bit, take control of this game and win. It's
a four point game, but it looks like, you know,
the teams are going up and down the floor pretty good.
It's not a game where the Timberwolves defense is really
playing havoc with the Mavericks. So this is where Dallas
(09:46):
is like, Okay, we're just waiting for at some point
midway through the fourth quarter when Minnesota shots start not
falling and Dallas starts making them and PJ. Washington starts
hitting threes because he's got none tonight, you're gonna see
Dallas pull away this game. And we're talking about the
NBA Finals.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Hey, you got at the edge of nine rebounds for
Minnesota tonight. Dallas in the game because they've had three
more three point makes no lively for the Mavericks in
this one. They do get Kleba back, so you know,
trying to gut it out a little bit. He's played
nine minutes, given them two points in a board thus far,
(10:24):
but you know got that they've tried to do everything
they can to rush back into service here. But to
your point, yeah, Washington has been awful this point. And Luca,
even though he's got his twenty one, he is also
a game high minus thirteen, so struggling a little bit defensively,
and as you expect, without Lively there that the advantage
(10:45):
on the boards would be there for Minnesota taking full advantage.
And Anthony Edwards wants to stop some of the narratives,
so he will not go down without a fight.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
No, look, and it's great that the Timberwolves are putting
up this fight now, but it's just you've just seen
that this team and really Anthony Edwards in front of
this because he is okay, he's next, right, he's Michael Jordan.
Yet not quite ready for this moment, like the entire
team not quite ready for this moment. Not that they're
not good enough. Can you knock out the defending champs?
(11:15):
You should be ready. This can be your moment. This
is not where hey, we beat a team that everybody injured,
we beat another team everybody injured, and we suddenly showed
up in all Hey no, no, no, they're plenty good enough,
but they weren't ready for what it means. They weren't
ready to have big players play big and big games.
They had not been there. And you saw the little
bit more that Kyrie and Luca who have played in
just a few more big in Look, Kyrie's got a
(11:37):
championship and Luca's played in the conference final before. These
are guys that like to shoot the basketball and understand
what the pressure is all about. Everything is new for
Minnesota so so far it's just been so far, they're
not up to the moment, and Karl Anthony Towns has
been killing them with his bad offensive series so far.
So it's no surprise to see Dallas playing this well.
But when you look at from Minnesota, it's just, hey,
(11:58):
you're hoping that when the series ends for next year,
it's okay. Now they know what it's like, and now
we have to go into next year with more of
a where the hunted instead of hey, we're the new
kids and respect us, and look at look at all
the desire we played with against Denver, and you know,
we come up short with nothing left against against the
Dallas Mavericks. So that that's kind of where you're at.
You're hoping for next season.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yeah, as a squad shooting fifty one percent for the night,
and kat is actually at come come in. As we
saw in the last couple of rounds, right wasn't terribly consistent,
but had a couple of big games. This series, he's
been awful. He's six to seven from the field, and
Mike Conley also giving them a boost offensively, He's five
to nine from the field, So a little bit of
(12:40):
supplementation there to give them a puncher's chance as we
roll on. But yeah, we're waiting for the wheels to
come rolling off of this one. Even if Brick Carlisle
is not involved in the game, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
He's tweeting out, Hey, you know, the small town Minnesota
Timberwolves not getting the calls of the big city Dallas Beverick,
there we go.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Oh they are in fault trouble, multiple guys, right, Bear
and towns, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
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(13:24):
he is back throwing, getting back towards resuming pitching at
some point, I'll tell you. And it is glorious.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I thought you were going to make another Kyle Chandler
early like the Mets job opening.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
It is glory, well it should be. It is glorious.
That's coming up next right here, Jason and Mike Fox
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Speaker 2 (14:15):
Be 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 iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Two NBA Insiders podcasting twice a week to plug you
right into the NBA Great Five.
Speaker 7 (14:32):
All happening in only one place. This League Uncut, the
new NBA podcast with Me, Chris.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Haynes and me Mark Stein.
Speaker 7 (14:41):
Join us as we team up to expound on everything
we're covering. Hearing and Chason.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Listen to This League Uncut with Chris Haynes and Mark Stein.
Speaker 7 (14:50):
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Carmen
live from the Ti rag dot com Studios. Three and
a half to go in the third quarter, t Wolves
four point lead over the Mavericks seventy to sixty six.
We love more in this game coming up in a
few minutes. Meanwhile, the Rangers just tied their game with
the Panthers at two a piece. Ranger, We're going to
(15:18):
go up three to one in the Eastern Conference Finals
in the NHL, but joining us now on the hotline
a man who is uniquely qualified as an MLB insider,
NHL reporter and my official go between between me and
David Stearns who runs the Mets. It's John PALMERROSI, Pope,
what's happening, Bud.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
I'm doing great. I do regret to inform you, though,
that I do not think tonight is the best time
for me to text Sernsey and get a fresh take
on the Mets. I just don't think it's the right time.
There has to be space and respect given in friendships,
and I'm gonna have to give Sernsey a bit of
(15:59):
space here tonight.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah. The biggest thing I could come up with positive
You always say, hey, give David Sarns a positive message
from me. My big positive message night would be is
I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do at
the deadline. That would be my positive message right now.
All you kept it within a slam? How about that? Yeah? Sure?
Speaker 5 (16:16):
Sure?
Speaker 6 (16:16):
What a day. And I thought so much of the
Mets twenty twenty fourth season could be summarized by the
Freeman home running next ratings. Even in New York, You've
got a lot of Dodger fans there going crazy around
the dugout, and then immediately the camera pans to Pete
Alonzo in the Mets dugout. He had already been replaced
(16:36):
for a pinch runner, just sitting there, and it was
just a real juxtaposition. The Dodgers were down in that game,
but I'm sure they never felt like they were out,
and I'm sure the Mets never felt like the Dodgers
were out, because that's just the way that both of
those teams seasons have gone. And I do think, Jason,
(16:59):
in a serious note, they now have the benefit of clarity.
It is clear to me where the Mets are going.
It is clear when you look up and down their roster.
If there were to be a conversation hypothetically, hypothetically at
some point about what's to do with Peter Aronzo, and
(17:20):
the front office could say to Steve Cohen, listen, do
you really think that, in light of the way your
payroll looks right now and the ROI that you're getting on,
let's just say, lean Or or DS or Jeff McNeal,
that we are going to be eager to jump in
and give Alonso top dollar right now when the alternative
(17:43):
is to trade them and get better in the near
term and long term, especially at a time when the
Philadelphia Phillies and still the Braves, even minus Akunya, look
pretty darn unbeatable in your own division. It is about
as clear up a decision as there possibly can be
in baseball. And yet, and yet we have seen some
(18:05):
owners ardy moreno with the Angels, one notable example with
Otani in the last two years, who look at reality
and say, nah, I have different motivations here, And I
think that's going to be the big question for Steve
Cohen going forward.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Now you mentioned o TODDI here the Dodgers in and hey,
nothing cures a five game losing streak like a series
with the Mets. Big stuff. In the last twenty four hours,
he's now resumed a throwing program, at least whatever he's
he's doing to eventually make his return to pitching. I'm
gonna throw my idea by you, and you tell me
good idea, bad idea? You ready? Sure when Otani comes back,
(18:42):
he comes back as a closer because you worried about
the stress on his arm already two UCL injuries before
the age of thirty. Right, this is less It's less
stress on him you don't have to worry about him
sitting out an extra game because he would sit out
the game before he Pitches's what he did with the
Angel So you talk about already twenty five games he
would sit and not play. He would extend his career
(19:05):
as a pitcher, and think about the electricity that would
go through a team in the ninth inning knowing that, hey,
Otani's going to come in and close us, and it'd
be like Rivera coming in for the Yankees or Hoffman
coming in for the Padres. When Otani comes back, he
comes back as a closer.
Speaker 6 (19:21):
Great idea. I don't think that it's Otani's first choice,
and for that reason alone, I don't believe it's what's
going to happen. I'm not saying that it shouldn't happen.
I think that you raised a lot of excellent ideas,
and to be honest, Jason, the idea that you're advancing
is something that a lot of people in the industry
(19:43):
were wondering about last September when the injury recurred. For Otani,
it does make a lot of sense, But I also
think two things. Number One, O'tani wants to pursue and chase.
This dream of doing both on a consistent basis, and
(20:03):
being a starting pitcher and a position player, or at
least and a dh that has been his dream. And
I believe that when he signed with the Dodgers, it
was with the understanding that they would mutually respect to
each other's dreams. Of course, the Dodgers' dream of building
a sustainable, long term winner, Otani's dream of being able
(20:24):
to continue to make history improve yet again that he
can do this. I also think there was something about
Otani's regiment of pitching in preparation where and he spoke
about this through an interpreter and within the last couple
of days. The routine, the excitement, the ritual of preparing
for a start, having to start, and then going into
(20:46):
the next, the next start after that. It's something that
he likes, and so I think it's what he is
comfortable with. I do believe, and certainly, hey, we saw
it in the World Baseball Classic on the grandest of
stages when he struck out my route. He's perfectly comfortable
coming into the game. Wait, we saw it was one
of the more in double the moments of his career.
(21:07):
He can clearly do it. I just think that he
believes and the Dodgers believe that his impact is greatest
as as a closer. Now the one thing or as
a starter, the one thing that I think becomes interesting.
And we've talked about this a bit. The MLB is
working on different ways to potentially change the rules of
(21:31):
the game to incentivize starters to go longer, and one
of those ways is what's called the double hook. In
other words, once once the starting pitcher leaves leaves the game,
the team then loses the DH and then have to
put that starting that bat into the lineup. For example,
so once you lose the starting pitcher and you start
(21:52):
rolling in a sixth hitting guy or seventh hitting guy,
they then enter the lineup and have to be pinch
hit for does that then as the possibilities and all
of a sudden having Otani involved. But but again, if
you're if he's already your DH, especially in that rule,
then you would lose your DH if he then, say,
it gets very complicated to where if then he's replaced
(22:16):
on the mound, is he also then replaced as the DH,
that becomes very complicated. So I think for all those reasons,
I would still say, most likely scenario is he's a
starting pitcher in twenty twenty five, not a Knicks already
time table to pitch in the postseason. I'm sorry, justin
I know you wanted to ask that question. I don't
see it happening this.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Calendar year now, since we're on the subject of, you know,
rules changes and and how we adjudicate the game JP,
Angel Hernandez is going going away.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
As the road hadn't hurt as the robot over lords come.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Hey, maybe folks took Memorial Day off from Great Sports
Talk radio. I don't know, but you know, I don't
think I've ever seen something so universally celebrated in our world.
We're divisive about everything Angel Hernandez. Only Joe West just
come up to defend him at this point.
Speaker 6 (23:08):
It's a very interesting topic. And I did look up,
by the way, his umpire scorecard for this year in
terms of accuracy percentile, and I'll just get without looking
it up if you haven't already, where do you think
he ranks? So if you put all Major leagunplayers zero
(23:29):
to one hundred in terms of accuracy of calls this season,
in which percentile is Angel hernad This one hundred and fifty.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
Okay, any other guesses get in.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
There and sell one hundred. He ranks one hundred and
second sixty two, So sixty.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Second percentile would mean that he is better than let's say,
just using rough map, he's better than sixty one percent
of the empires. He's actually the twenty second percentile, meaning
give or take, about one fifth of the umpires in
MLB right now are less accurate than angel Z according
to umpire scorecards. Just point of fact, is he the
(24:10):
most controversial, Yes he is, but it would based on
those numbers, it would not be correct to say that
he is the least accurate. So perhaps, and again, indeed,
about twenty percent of umpires are less accurate this year
than he is. It's certainly not excusing the myriad controversies
(24:33):
that have existed with angel in the past, but it
was I thought a very interesting insight. Listen, he's got
The job of the umpire is difficult. There is also
no doubt that perhaps in certain situations he certainly could
have handled them differently in a way that would not
have resulted in such renown. I also know that there
(24:54):
was I will say that I had one interaction with
him over a longereriod of time where we were on
the same flight going from Florida to Cuba for the
twenty sixteen Havana Series Havannah game between the Rays and
the Cuban national team. Angel born in Cuba, grew up
in Miami, in Florida, and he was talking about just
(25:16):
how special and meaningful that trip was for his family. So, yes,
there are reasons out there to criticize, and that's part
of the job. But I wanted to share that one
little anecdote about the time that I was on a
flight with Angel Hernandez.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Did he throw you off the flight?
Speaker 6 (25:34):
He did not, Oh, okay, say Mercy, you're out of here,
nor did he inject me. And I did say this
as I was talking to my kids, not that they
really know a lot about baseball, but I did say this,
going back to the famous Ian Kinsler story. I said, girls,
just so you know, in terms of how you interact
with an official umpire and any sport that we play,
remember this. Ian Kinsler was once ejected from a game
(25:58):
because of how he looked at the umpire.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
It's like Bryce Harper the other day, he was trying
to have a nice conversation, nice well meaning, and in
the first inning he gets himself ejected.
Speaker 6 (26:09):
Yeah, he got ejected. It's almost like that scene in
Field of Dreams when when Doc Graham's character at the
younger Doc Graham winks at the pitcher and then gets
gets He winked at me. You didn't like it. He
winked at me. So you never know how these personalities
(26:30):
in the great Game of Baseball intersects with one another.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
But that's the thing about Angel Hernandez Pope, is that yes,
you can miss calls, but then there's Angel Hernandez missing
calls by a wide swath because it looked like I
wanted to call it that way. I want to ring
you up on three pitches, regardless as to where the
pitches end up. I want to call you out on
this ground out, regardless of the fact that you know you
(26:54):
beat it by a half step. Like there's missing calls,
and then it seems like Angel Haners is doing it
because he just wanted to.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
Well. I do think that there is a lesson in
this for everyone who does a job in the public
sphere that mistakes, mistakes are part of the job, Mistakes
are expected, and it is often how we handle those
mistakes that in a lot of ways defines the way
(27:20):
in which the public opinion perhaps is shaped. And I
do think there were multiple moments in which, perhaps after
a game or a MYSS call, the famous Adam Rosales
home run that wasn't in Cleveland years ago, where and
I'm sorry I made a mistake, would have gone a
long way. And I think that again, that's and that
(27:42):
is one thing as we talk about, whether it's Angel Ornandez,
there times when Joe West was in the headlines too.
Transparency goes a long way. And when a situation comes
up and an umpire talks about it, at least you
want to be able to say, I spoke with the media,
I acknowledged what happened. Jim Joyce perfect example, one of
(28:04):
the toughest moments on a baseball field. The way that
he handled it was exemplary for years to come. And
I think that perhaps looking back, and maybe for MLB
and umpires looking forward, that yes, you hope to have
a your best home plight ball strike people calling the
calls in the biggest moment. That is one major part
(28:25):
of the postseason. I'm a big believer in if some
of the greatest balls and strikes. Let them just keep
calling balls and strikes as much as their body will
tolerate it, as opposed to rotating through a really good
based empire to call balls and strikes. And maybe it's
other strong suit. I think that's one thing to think about.
But the second piece is transparency is always the way,
and graciousness and admitting wrong tends to go a long
(28:48):
way in our society. Still, it is not a lost.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Artsuing the league saying you were slighted when you're ranking
twenty second doesn't help either. Last one for you real quick, JP,
this one has got some legs to it today the
incorporation after a three year research project of the Niger
League stats into Major League Baseball, so we see some
changes a top this.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
How how's this gone over through through the industry.
Speaker 6 (29:15):
In terms of I think it's important and it's it's
an important part of the history to where Josh Gibson, Cool,
Papa bell Oscar Charleston. We need to think about their
place in the game. And if we're going to be
real and honest about this, clearly they they would have
put up numbers similar numbers had they had the opportunity
(29:38):
to play, and it was clearly not their fault that
they did not have the opportunity to play. And that,
to me is is the effort to to write the
historical wrong. And and this is not it's not taking
away numbers of other people have put up. It's merely
recognizing that which the Negro League's players had done. And
(30:00):
I think it's the right thing to do. I know
that the effort that Bob Kendrick and his amazing team
at the Negro League's museum and put into for a
long time to make sure that these players are recognized
the way they should be. And Joe Posnansk, I think
about the Baseball one hundred book that he wrote that
I'm looking at right now on my shelf. Look at
where Oscar Charleston was in that book. And Norman Turkey
(30:22):
Stearns here in Detroit. There are so many powerful stories
that I hope that this change does two things. Number
one gives the proper historical recognition to players who deserved it.
And number two makes those of us who obviously are
of a younger age and we're not watching the Negro
Leagues in person or alive at that time, gives us
(30:45):
a moment to pause, reflect, consider, celebrate the achievements. I
think that's really important for us to really think about
going forward.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
He's on Twitter at John Morosi, that is at John Rossi,
the Pope, John palm Rose, the MLB Network Insider. As always,
we appreciate your time, thanks so much, And if the
Mets make a trade tonight, we'll call you back.
Speaker 6 (31:05):
Please do you guys this amazing time of year. And yes,
I'll probably text David. I may give him a day
or two after the double letter sleep probably.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Thanks buddy, I'll talk to JP. I'm gonna give him
a couple of day. Yeah, give him a couple of days,
give him a couple send him some ice cream or something.
Street Meet. I don't know, something to make him Feelman
Street Met the Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Carmen, live from the Tirack dot Com studios. Yes again,
just still feels like okay, Mavericks waiting, when are they
(31:35):
gonna throw their hammer down? Luca got some rest on
the bench, throwing up ally up since he's come back
in Kyrie Ona floater. Eight minutes to go, eight and
a half to go. It is a one point lead
for the t Wolves over the Mavericks, who are looking
to win and head to the NBA Finals. But speaking
of the NBA Finals, speaking of the Stanley Cup Finals,
we talked about this a couple of days ago, but
(31:56):
now it is. It is def Con one is the
serian Most seriously, it is def Con one to get
the greatest idea in sports going. And it's gotta be now.
We get to that coming up next right here, Jason
and Mike. Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon
live from the Tireck dot Com Studios, Minnesota and Dallas
eighty nine eighty eight te Wolves with the lead six
minutes left to go in the fourth quarter, Dallas could
be six minutes away from the NBA Finals. Meanwhile, Rangers
(32:39):
in the Panthers two to two late third period. Tomorrow night,
of course, Dallas Stars look to go up three games
to one on Edmonton as they try to reach a
Stanley Cup Final.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Frostburg loving every moment of it. I mean, it is
time at the Oilers well documented, Like.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
We mentioned this a few days ago, but now it's like,
you got to get going on this. We need those
cameras following Jerry joeund to get his reaction as he
watches every Dallas area team except for the Cowboys play
for a championship. This year, you had the Rangers win
the World Series. Okay, we kind of missed the boat
and that nothing we can do. But now you have
(33:14):
the Mavericks and the Stars could be playing for the cha.
You gotta follow, You gotta follow Jerry. You gotta get
those cameras now, like office style, like whatever you wherever
you have cameras. One's gotta follow him every second of
the day and follow him. Just see what it's like
when he's watching the Mavericks continue to win and the
Stars continue to win, and people keep writing in the
(33:35):
Dallas Morning News, don't know what Jerry's doing, don't know
about this all and stuff, and really just see the
blood drain from his face and his eyes out get
really white, said he just loses everything, just trying to
come to grips with the fact that all these other
teams in the city all become championship teams. We we
(33:55):
we're worth the most, we spend the most money. H
We're not close over ten thousand days.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
And I don't have you today since.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
The last NFC title game appearance by the Dallas Cowboys. Meanwhile,
you've got winners. I want winners. Oh you got you
gotta get those cameras out now.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
And you know more than that, I mean, this is
this is a great idea, Like this is a great idea.
This this could be the highest rated show in sports.
Forget about Hard Knocks. This is Hard Knocks with Jerry
Jones and just talking about this.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
It's not quite Basketball Wives. But I'm with you because
you'll get two great things. I guarantee you'll get two
great things.
Speaker 5 (34:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
You will get one where Jerry Jones. I guarantee you
will do something to gain a huge headline. If both
of these teams are playing for the championship, he will
do something Cowboys wise to take the intention away. He's
gonna do something right, just like you know Lebron's gonna
do something in the in the time off of me.
Are you kidding?
Speaker 3 (34:47):
If you know it's fighting Out, it's a full docu
series where he's got to go pro on his head.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
You are gonna top bringing Zeke back. It's gonna be
tough man time. I don't know. Maybe a question, Hey, Dak, Dak,
here you go. Here's the here's eighty five million dollars
for next year. Congratulations. What do you got? Question?
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Is is it more likely that he is aware of
this or that he's just completely unaware that there are.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Oh no, no, he knows you kidding, He knows. He I
still got his age deals. He's not really up on
the news like that Stave. See.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
I don't think he's in one of those you know,
chambers like they had Darth Vaylor.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
But he's on the He's not like the ESPN app
or anything checks. He doesn't. He's in line McMuffin right now. No, No,
he's got stando. Stephen calls him and Steven call me
every five minutes, let me know what's going on. Every
five minutes, let me know how things are going. Okay,
the hockey thing maybe every ten minutes. Not as many
points scored now if points is that what? It's? Okay? Great?
But basketball, yeah, every five minutes, call me. I gotta know,
(35:44):
I gotta know now. So you get that right, you'll
get that.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
But even if he isn't aware, I mean, this is
now somebody's job to agitate the hell out of it.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Oh yeah, yeah, you said it all prompt action.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Whether it's a Dallas local reporter that just keeps calling him,
we need the TMZ reporters that that of the cameraman
and reporter at the same time that finally go hey,
Dean Kine, how do you feel about not being cast
in Smallville?
Speaker 1 (36:04):
The return? And he's at Costco like unloaded, So well,
everything is fine. That's who you need doing this.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
You can't just have you got the bright light.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah yeah, oh yeah, no, I thought you just had
a cat phone. No yeah, no, no, no, that's what
you need. You need like you know, hey, mister de Niro,
can you talk about what happened? Mister de Niro? I
know that's what happened tonight. Uh the other great thing
you'll get right, the other great thing you'll go there,
didn't you? Well, I mean I was thinking about guys
losing their mind today. It happened.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
I mean, yeah, but that wasn't he It's just a
random hey, we found you on the street.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
He injected himself into that situation. Head line of the
New York Post was raging bold. Of course I think
he was. He believed he was filming a movie. Maybe
it was it could be yeah, oh something for a
time back. But they that's what they told them.
Speaker 6 (36:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Yeah, listen, I need you to really a mote right now.
Bob worked the moat mote. Okay, this is what watch
is that it's gonna check's gonna clear, right, So so
you're gonna get that. You you, if you follow him,
you will get that Fromry Jones. And now I really
want to call TMZ to say, just send a guy
following Jerry Jones. Hey, Jerry, it's going to give you
up to I know Steven's gonna call you. But wow,
another three by Lucas and a point lee. What do
you think, Jerry. The other thing is this is I
(37:11):
want Jerry Jones to submit to a lie detector where
the questions are older, because I could do it Friday.
I didn't know which process are going through day lie detector.
Only about how he feels about the other Dallas area
teams playing for a chance.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Because another in sports that was tied to something that
would require a test, which was emphatically denied.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
There's look, and there's too many things that you could
ask Jerry Jones he would say no to but say, hey,
lie detector, just to know how you feel about this,
and if there's a buzzer whenever he lies, so you
can say, like, hey, Jerry, so, how do you feel
about the Dallas Stars making the Stanley Cup Final? I've
always been a big star.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Say I'm not happy for them that there's enough room
for us here in the city.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Very happy?
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Or is it like the Seinfeld thing where you ask
a bunch of innocuous questions then you get deep into
whether Jerry is ahead on Melrose Place or not?
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Jerry, how do you feel about Luga doncics? Well, I
talked to Mark Cuban. We're both excitted. Okay, I want
to elect your cute and old man. I just camera.
I didn't know, not that he gets bud. Just a
buzzer goes off. To know that he's like, okay, because
you're shaking violently. If we could have to take I
gotta sound a buzzer. How to hurt him? Fake buzzer?
(38:32):
We just buzz all the time. I thought the buzzer
is only going to go off on a line. Why's
it going off all the time you open your mouth, Jerry,
are you all in on this season? Well? Absolutely well,
your definition of all in the mind is different. Okay,
truthful statement. Mately when he does do.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
Something rash here because it's coming, whether it's a giant
check to see d Lamb or.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
To Dad Kack, here's a hundred million dollars.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
The first question at the presser has to be were
you prompted by the success of the other teams at
the Dallas market?
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Jerry?
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Are you doing this just because the other teams are
doing well? No, not at all. We had this plan. Nah, can't.
I can't win on this Onegaina. I just we're happy
for Dak. I'm happy to pay Dak and uh, I
expect us to be in a Super Bowl. Sevin, who's
about that buzzer? That's not my Stephen, Steven, Stephen, get
in here. This is not going how I thought it
was gonna go. While Steven controlling the buzzer the whole time,
(39:27):
I'm stopping.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
This is it.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
We're not doing this anymore.
Speaker 5 (39:29):
This is we're not speaking all in happy National Hamburger Day.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Now, I want to hamber Hamburger Day. Exit out bout
a Fresco exit swollen down. The Jason Smith Show with
my best friend Mike Carmon. Coming up next. Are we
talking about a Dallas Maverick sweep or the Tea Wolves
keeping it alive? That's next, Jason and Mike Fox, Fox
Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with my best friend
(39:56):
Mike Harmon, Live from the Tireck dot Com studios where
we just watched the Timberwolves upset the Mavericks. Game four
was supposed to be. It was supposed to be an exhibition,
an exhibition. Everybody's man too.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
All the guys on set because they were packed and
ready to go found their own day case.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
I had a nine day vacation. Nine days. This like
in the TV show where that guy comes into work. Hey,
come on, we had a vacation. Now we all got
to work through it. Nine days I had, and these
guys are like, gay, we're done. Four months. I had
it all looked T and T don't have the finals.
We're out. T and T was like, we're finished. The
show was going away. Oh no, we got a couple
more days. Oh all right, we couple more days, a.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
Couple more days for Chuck to get after the bosses
and their business decisions.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Uh, the t Welves beat the Mavericks one oh five
to one hundred to force game five back in Minnesota.
So the Salad Days from Minnesota still going on. Greatest
time Minnesota sports history. Twins great t Golves their first
Western Conference Final winning twenty years. Look at them keeping
this alive. And we talked about the heroics of Anthony
(41:03):
Edwards and Karl Anthony Towns hitting three pointer after three
pointer in the final couple of minutes where he came alive.
And while the Minnesota you give Minnesota all the credit
in the world, where they could have packed it up,
they could have gone home. They're on the road, they're
down three zip, they know it's impossible. I never got
the sense for Dallas where it was like, okay, we
kept waiting for them to take over again. I never
(41:25):
got the sense of, Okay, now things are getting serious.
You know, we watched Kyrie turn the ball over late,
we watched Luca miss a big free throw. I never
got that sense of urgency from the Mavericks, where hey,
now it's winning time, like normally you get, hey now,
like we saw that from the Celtics and the Pacers.
The other nay, hey, now it's winning time. Now, Jason
Tatum's gonna start blowing by you. Now you're gonna get
(41:46):
a big three from Derek. We're finding the right guy.
Jalen Brown's gonna get a big hoop here, Like I
got that from them. They say what you want about
the Celtics. They knew time to throw the hammer down
now and win this game, and they did, and Rick
Carlisle helped. But I never saw that point tonight where
I said, Okay, now the Mavericks know it's winning time.
Like I'm just watching the Tea Wolves continue to get
(42:07):
hoops and it's almost like I felt like the Mavericks
going well, eventually one of them is gonna miss. You know,
we're gonna sing guard Anthony Edwards. We're not gonna make
them give up the ball, and and they just kept
making shots in the final three minutes.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
Maybe it's just as simple as the shots that didn't
fall for the Tea Wolves and pass games did tonight
and PJ. Washington needs to pay for repairs to the basket.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
Joining us now the hotline to break it all down.
No body better NBA Insider check them out on substack.
You can follow him on Twitter at the Steinline. It
is Mark Stein, Mark, what's happening about? How are you, Kent?
Speaker 4 (42:42):
I'm good. I'm good, all right? So I mean without
surviving without your Nick.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Yeah, it's okay, it's I mean a little. He's still
got the Mets, Mark nom. I don't have that anymore either.
I don't have that. No, I'm good, I'm good. No,
I just I just keep I just keep thinking about
what it's gonna be like for Jerry Jones. And all
the Dallas area teams are in the final this year
and not the Cowboys' like that. That's like you're putting
a smile on my face.
Speaker 4 (43:04):
It's it is remarkable to see the Cowboys have not
advanced this deep into the playoffs for almost thirty years,
and all these other teams are just rampage. It is.
You're not the first one to bring it up.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
Yeah, we've storyboarded an entire mini series, all right, So
let's deal with this.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Tonight. We watched the t Wolves win scale of one
to ten, with one being you were completely surprised and
ten not surprised at all. How surprised are you that
this series is still going on this wasn't the Mavericks
winning and four?
Speaker 4 (43:39):
Oh, I think a solid seven or eight if that
really is the not surprised end of the scale, since
I think you did that backwards.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
I mean, you know, I just want to make sure
you're paying attention.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
I mean, yes, this is late late hour for maths,
but I mean I never thought this series was going
to be a sweep. And you have to give the
Wolves a lot of credit, you know, just like you
would say about Indiana, the way they battled facing a
sweep without Halliburton. And you know, so often when teams
(44:11):
get down three to zero, you do wonder if they're
going to just say, you know what, there's no way
we can win this. It's never happened in NBA history.
But you know, the Wolves do have two of the
next three games at home. They have been as confident
as you can be in this situation. I'm sure you
guys have heard the anecdote with Mike Conley telling John
(44:35):
Krasinski of the Athletic longtime Wolves beat reporter that you
know you're going to be covering history. We're coming all
the way back. So I mean, look, they're saying all
the right things and you know, tonight, offensively, they finally delivered.
We've heard Chris Finch talk about how badly the last
three minutes of each of the first four you know,
(44:57):
the first three games, how badly the last three minutes
of the fourth quarter went from Minnesota. Well this was different,
and you Karl Anthony Towns has been dealing with a
lot of heat and he answered tonight.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
Huge game from him before he falls out trying to
step in on that Luca ridiculous three point attempt.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
When we look.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
At the Mavericks going forth, though, how bad is the
injury to.
Speaker 4 (45:22):
Lively, Well, the initial fears were much worse. I don't
know that he can make it back in time for
Game five. And look, there's no question that defensively they're
much more vulnerable without him. I mean, he is the
(45:43):
best rim protector they have. But I really think tonight
they lost it offensively. I mean this was just you know,
Kyrie and Luca combined to shoot thirteen for thirty nine.
Washington was three for thirteen. I mean, this was this
(46:04):
was an offensive struggle again, because the MAVs have basically
just been so good in crunch time throughout this series,
so obviously You're going to point to Lively's absence, but
this was a winnable game without Lively tonight. I mean,
they just didn't have anywhere near the fourth quarter production
the closing that we've seen. And I mean Karl Anthony Towns,
(46:28):
I mean, it is still astounding to think that he
was three for twenty two from three coming into this
game and made four to three tonight and did a
lot of that damage after he had already picked up
five fouls. Way Towns played with style trouble, with so
much scrutiny and after so much criticism, I mean, gave
(46:52):
the Wolf season. It's too much to say that because
it's only one win, but certainly as responsible as anyone
from the Wolves in extending this series.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
NBA insider Mark Stide with us A Jason Smiths er
with Mike Harmon, live from the tyreq dot com studios.
All right, now, getting down to the final couple of
minutes of this game. Look, you saw all the threes
from Towns, which were terrific. They're able to hold on Anthony,
Edward's able to get to the rim, He's able to
hit step back jumpers. I was really surprised, Mark, especially
after Towns filed out. The Mavericks didn't do more to
(47:24):
try to get the ball out of his hands, like
they seemed comfortable they were going to single guard him
and see how things go, and it didn't go very well.
That's kind of the theme of the playoffs. Hey, great
one on one players are winning all these battles offensively.
Speaker 4 (47:39):
Well, I mean, look, you know, I again, I'm more
focused on where the Mavericks were offensively tonight, and this
was a huge opportunity for them to try to finish
this thing off because to me, honestly, the big winners
tonight of the Boston Celtics. You know, Luka Doncic, you know,
(48:00):
eight or nine nights off with the basketball, not good
for your show, not good for me, not good for basketball.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
Then.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
But I think I think, I think Luka Dancic would
have loved to have a week plus off three charge.
I honestly think he would benefit from that as much
as anyone. Obviously, you know Lively has this injury now
for Zingis, we know that all the extra rests he's
going to get the Celtics able to get through the
(48:28):
first Celtics able to get through two rounds without Porzingis
and now he gets an additional week. But I really
think Luca would have benefited as much as anyone you
could have looked at on either team. And now Dallas
has to go to Minnesota and try to win for
the third time on the Wolves floor because if not,
(48:50):
you know, all the pressure shifts back to Dallas to
finish that thing off in game six on Saturday night.
Back on Therefore, because again the Wolves, the one thing
they can really point to, besides the fact that towns
about back in such huge fashion tonight, is that they
do have two of these remaining three games at home Mark.
Speaker 3 (49:11):
As we look at the way the Wolves attack things,
all five guys in double figures, Rudy Gobert has become
He's always been polarizing, but certainly everybody taking their shots
at Draymond Green on the broadcast.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Included, but he goes for thirteen and ten tonight. Size.
You know, we always joke size matters, but we watched
the big guys kind of force that offense to bog
down to where you're settling for jump shots. And for PJ. Washington,
who has been great tonight, it just was not his night.
A couple that were really the antithesis of what he's
(49:48):
been truly all through these playoffs.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
And honestly, what I would say is, I think what
it wasn't just Towns Go Bear and and Qutt for
in foul trouble too.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Sure, you know the Wolves bench.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
You obviously nas Reed reigning six Man of the Year now,
but the Wolves didn't get a ton off their bench.
They're only going with the eight guys. It's really just
nas Reed, Kyle Anderson, Mikhail Alexander Walker. So the ability
or Towns Edwards Go Bear to all be able to
(50:24):
make it to the finish line in this game when
they all played through foul trouble and the muster nearly
seventy points among the three of them. Again, I think
if you really listen to Chris Finch, you know his
concerns throughout this series had been offense and just the
way that things have been just bogged down in crunch time.
(50:46):
So this you know, you know, I don't think I'm
not sure that a lot of my colleagues were expecting
sweet because again, Minnesota was such a good team this
season and the best defense in the league. And I mean,
you know, did anybody pick Dallas to win this thing
and four No, I mean, did anyone really so? But
(51:11):
saying all that, I do think the wolf showed us
something tonight.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
Now, Mark outside of it. You know, you wrote a
great column on substack and you get it. The link
is on mark twitter page at the steinline about how
the luckiest guy in the world has left us. We
spent a lot of time last night talking about the
life of Bill Walton. What are just some things that
have been going through your head in the last twenty
four hours trying to process what happened.
Speaker 4 (51:35):
Yeah, I mean it's just you know, Bill Walton was
you know, and I think this has been a common
refrain I'm sure from whoever you've spoken to, but just
over the last thirty years, after everything that happened to
him in his pro career with injuries and again we're
talking about someone who endured nearly forty surgeries, not for
(51:59):
four but in his broadcaster life, when you would encounter
Bill Walton, I mean, he was just so relentlessly positive,
in love with the game, and you know, bills himself
as the luckiest guy in the world when you think
(52:23):
about what happened in his playing career and how could
he adopt that approach, and so, you know, I was
it is. It is a terrible loss. I mean, he
was beloved by so many people in basketball, the college
game and the pro game, and so it did, frankly
(52:44):
take me a while to put my remembrance piece together.
And you know, I was, I was tremendously lucky. I
started out covering the Clippers at a very young age
when Bill was the team's color analysts alongside the Hall
of Famer Ralph Lawler, and for a very young reporter,
(53:04):
I mean when I was young, Bill would call me
and ask me, you know, what I was hearing about
other teams, what I was hearing within the flip Flippers,
and just you know, he made me feel like such
a part of it when I didn't feel like a
part of it. And I was, you know, again just
starting out, and I you know, I was right around
(53:26):
I was like twenty five. I was one of the
youngest beat writers, maybe the youngest traveling beat writer in
the league when I started, And you know, I would
sit there thinking, like, I've been covering the NBA for
five minutes, Why is Bill Walton asking me to share
things with him? But I mean, I'm sure you guys
(53:48):
have heard this from anyone you've talked to about Bill.
I mean, he just had this incredible ability to make
you feel like you were the most important guy in
the room and maybe even the most important guy in
the world. I mean, he just he did that for
so many people, and he made friends with again, so
(54:09):
many people inside the NBA and the college game. And
you know, there's there's literally billions of us who adored him,
and it's it's just an incredible it's it's incredibly bad
to lose him. And he's, for me in my thirty
thirty odd years doing this, just one of my favorite
(54:32):
people who I've ever encountered.
Speaker 1 (54:34):
The piece is the luckiest guy in the world has
left us. You can check it out on substack or
get the link off of Mark Stein's Twitter account that's
at the Steinline. Also podcast This League Uncut. Mark as always,
appreciate your time. We'll talk to you as the Western
Conference Finals goes on.
Speaker 4 (54:50):
Sound good, guys, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
Mark. Thanks great stuff from Mark Stein there. You know,
it's funny here the stories that my I think my
favorite story today the last few days. You know, like
I said, last night, hear a thousand stories are all
gonna be true. I think my favorite was Dave Pash,
who was his Bill Walton's longtime broadcaster and now is
his last partner doing all the PAC twelve After Dark games.
And he told the story that Bill would be he'd
(55:12):
be on vacation somewhere and would text him and go, Dave,
are you watching this game between Arizona and here are you?
This is what's happened, knowing full well that Dave Pash
is announcing the game, but Texas, you should watch this game.
You should watch more basketball. Dave so and so is
having a big game, knowing that he's broadcast in the game,
He's sending him these texts you should watch this game.
Speaker 3 (55:34):
Wanted you to be keep aprized with important things.
Speaker 5 (55:39):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
I just thought that was the best teammate right there.
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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