December 26, 2024 • 40 mins
On tonight’s edition of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon, Arnie Spanier and Bernie Fratto fill in on Christmas Day. Arnie kicks off the hour with a story from his life before becoming a massive radio star, while Bernie delves into the legendary history of the Oakland A’s. Next, the guys share their bold take on why they believe the NBA has gone SOFT! Finally, the guys look into the next College Football Playoff matchups! Don’t miss all this and more in Hour 2!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
If you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Oh that is us. Good evening, everybody, Bernie Fradoorney Span.
You're in for the guys tonight, Jason Smith and his
best friend Mike Harmon right here on Fox Sports Radio.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy honek appy Kwansie, happy to
(00:50):
whatever you want to celebrate out there. And of course
we're pretty much still. We have one more hour of
Christmas left, or the holidays left here in the East Coast, Bernie,
So I know it could be tough for a lot
of people out there. The holidays could be stressful or
very lonely. Maybe you're by yourselves, you're just happening to
tune in to listen to Birdie and I. We're here
(01:10):
to keep your company for three more hours. We'd love
to hear from you, and the best way is to
tweet us. We love to know where you're listening to
the show from and how you're listening to the show,
and we would just love the ear for you, and
we'll read your tweets on the air during the course
of the hours because a lot of people listen on Christmas.
You wouldn't think that a lot of people listen on Christmas.
(01:32):
But with two NFL games and five NBA games, you
can only watch so many Christmas movies, you know, Bertie,
After that, I'm done with the Christmas movies. You see
those on TV all the time, so you don't have
to just watch them on Christmas.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
You know, that's true. They typically have a way of
running throughout the year, and you've seen them all fifty.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Times exactly, exactly. Can only watch them so many times.
Bertie wants to get to a Rickie Hender Henderson story.
I'm gonna get to that in just a second. I
do want to say, we're live at the tyreck dot
Com Studios, broadcasting go live from the tyreck in dot
com Studios. We'll help you get there on unmatched selection,
fast free shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten
(02:15):
thousand recommended installers. Tyreck dot com the way tire buying
should be. I do want to get to this because
I think it was CJ from Dallas that sent us
a tweet because I was telling a story about when
I used to work out in Dallas, Texas, and he
wants to know if we have any more stories like
that or how we got into the business. I do
have one funny story. When I first got into the business, Bernie,
(02:37):
I was working in Phoenix, Arizona. Okay, one of my
first jobs. I started in Vegas and I took another
job in Phoenix, Arizona. I don't know if I should
tell this story. It's kind of dark, you know, But
what the heck, I already started it now, Bernie, might
as well go there. Ernie a lady by the name
(02:57):
of don Nietzsche. Okay. I only say that because it
has to do with the story, and she wasn't a
big fan of mine. But believe me, a lot of
people were irritated with me. So that's that was beside
the point. So I'm in my house one day, I'm
about to go into the station. I have the radio
(03:18):
on to another station, a news station, and I hear
over the radio and Don Nietzsche dies today, and it
goes on and on. I you know, I just caught
the name. And I'm like, son of up, the boss
died today. And I'm calling all the other hosts. I god,
you hear the boss died? And they're like no. I'm like, yeah,
(03:40):
I did. I just heard it on the radio. I go,
she died. I don't even know what the hell happened.
And they go, what are we gonna do? I go,
I'll go to the station now and see what's going on.
And I get to the station and the lady behind
the desk, the secretary's there.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I go, hey.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
She's like, hey, what's going on? The go? Are you
guys okay? And she's like, what's wrong? I go, the
boss died? She goes, what boss died? As an our
boss died? Don she died? She goes, she didn't die.
She's in her office. I go, no, I heard it
on the radio. She's done. It wasn't Donnietzschi that died.
It was the actor Don Amici. I don't know if
(04:18):
you ever heard of it.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
The boss died.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
The boss dies.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
I'm telling everything out of my cousin Vinny. No, not
Jerry Gallo. Jerry Callo.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah, well it was Don Amichi, the actor who was
he was in what trading places? And I think, can't.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Cocoon I remember yet famous actor.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
And I'm running around telling everybody the boss is dead.
And I'm thinking to myself, Okay, well she didn't like
me anyway. Now I can just do whatever that I want.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And that's how you got into the business.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
That was that was one of the That was my
first job out in Phoenix. She was our first boss. Yeah,
she she wasn't a big fan of mine, but that's
that was our first boss out there. And I actually
still keep in touch with her, with her husband, with
her ex husband. So yeah, that was a good one.
I thought for sure the boss was down, and people
(05:19):
looked at me like, what are you an idiot? I go, look,
I go, please don Neetsche Donna Meachi. Does that not
sound for you know, pretty cool?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Bertie?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah yeah it does.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
I mean, my goodness, man, all right, So at Bertie
fred I went thinking genius one. You wanted to tell
a story though about Ricky Henderson, And those are a
lot funny because there's a lot of Ricky Henderson stories
out there, Bertie, that's for sure. You know.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, look, everybody loved Ricky Henderson. This happened very suddenly.
I actually started getting some text from a well placed
source when I was signing up my show Friday night,
and I kept it under my hat. He was in
a hospital. I believe he had pneumonia. Very sad. I
don't think people realize how truly good he was. You know,
(06:02):
there have been only seventy players in Major League Baseball
history that battered right handed through left handed. He's the
only one to make it to a Hall of Fame.
He's the only want to make it to the All
Star Game. It's not that he just led the It's
not that he had more stolen bases than everybody. He's five.
He passed Lou Brock by five hundred. Okay, this is
the guy that he also had power, let off the
(06:24):
game of the home run eighty one times, and you
knew he had instant starredom. He signed out of high
school I believe in nineteen seventy six or seventy seven.
In his first year, while playing for Modesto in the
California League, he stole fifteen bases in one game, got
to the big leagues in seventy nine the rest of
his history, but he did some freaky things. He stole
(06:46):
over one hundred and nine bases after the age of forty,
all right, I mean yes, So of course the reason
everybody loved Ricky is because of his personality. You don't
see players like that anymore. Ricky played the game with joy.
There's only one guy in history that could stand before
a mirror naked in the locker room every game and
(07:06):
say Ricky, Ricky the greatest, Ricky the Greatest. He'd say
it six times. He got away with it because everybody
loved him. He was hilarious. And of course I'll just
tell a couple of the more famous stories and people
probably we played with my buddy Sean Green in Toronto.
So the team bus pulls up into the hotel and
(07:26):
somebody said they're traveling secretary. Somebody says, Ricky, go ahead,
you can get on the bus. You've got tenure. Ricky
was tenure. What do you mean I got sixteen years?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
I heard that one.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
And of course you know the story about you know,
when he got a million dollar bonus and he framed
the check if he was a million dollar check. It
was like office space. They found a glitch and payroll. Wait,
wait a minute, we have a million dollars in here.
They realized Ricky hadn't cashed the check. It was been
sitting in a frame. But maybe my favorite one. And
it's just crazy. You remember John Oliu. John played with
(07:57):
that helmet. Hey played with a helmet at first base
because while he was in Washington State he had a
brain aneurysm and the doctor said, you're gonna have to
wear a helmet all the time, even on defense. So
Ricky played with John Olerwood in Toronto. A couple of
years later, Ricky was somewhere else and John oler was
somewhere else, and Ricky goes, damn, look at that guy
in first base. We're taking a pregame infield. He's wearing
(08:17):
a helmet. Was I played with a guy like that
in Toronto?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Because that was me? I was your teammate. There's always
great Ricky Edison stories. I brought this up, Birdie, maybe
you could answer me. I don't think Chris Blank answered me.
Is he going to be the last oakland A to
get into the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
For the foreseeable future.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
I don't know. I can't remember if there was one.
Maybe McGuire, but he's a cardinal as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Well, you don't know what he what he would go
in as But because he's a card Deroyd allegations, Yeah,
I don't. I think you could pretty much scratch, at
least for this generation. McGuire, Sosa, Bonds, canseco. You can
sketch it off for dancecra But to your point, yeah, okay,
even though the A's were really relatively competitive between twenty
(09:10):
ten and twenty twenty, I think they made the playoffs
like five times. They did it with a low payroll.
They don't have any stars. They don't clud anymore. They
haven't had stars there, you know, in twenty five years.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Yeah. But when I was a kid in the seventies,
they had the Hall of Famers, you know they did, Yeah,
and stars like Joe Rudy, Gene Tennants. I don't know
if they were Hall of Famers back then, but they
were hell of a players, you know, they were great.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Well, they won three straight World Series, aren't he? They
won three straight seventy two, seventy three and seventy four right, absolutely, so,
I mean, yeah, they had and then Charlie Finley, you know,
unloaded the you know what he called luggage, and they
all went else where. Jackson went to you know, Rudy
went to the Angels, and Jackson went to Baltimore for
(09:51):
a year, and right on down the line, they all
ended up, you know, with other organizations. But the only
thing you know, in two thousand and two the Moneyball Team,
all right, and that's one of my favorite movies of
all time. They had some pretty good pitching on that team,
all right. So I mean you had Mark Mulder. Is
(10:13):
Mark Mulder hall of Famer?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I don't know the status.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Man, he's sixty. I don't have to look up his stats.
You know, he was a big time pitcher on that team.
I don't know who else is beyond that. And that
was the last team that really made some noise, right,
I mean they didn't. Carlos Peney's not a Hall of Famer,
is not a Hall of Famer. Eric Burns Is David
Justice a Hall of Famer?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
He may be, again, I'd have to look at the stats.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
That'd be Jervane Dye.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
But David Justice wouldn't go in as nay or anything
like that.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
But he played for the A's. I mean, you know,
Sparky Anderson went in as the Cincinnati read even though
people remember him more for his exploits in Detroit. So yeah,
I would say, for for purposes of a year of
this conversation, I would say, yeah, Ricky will be the
last Oakland A. And of course he's in the Hall
of Fame. He was, he was elected, I believe in
(11:04):
what two thousand and seventeen.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
The last time we had a Montreal expow was it? Well,
Gary Carter went? Is Gary Carter went? But he's a
New York met he.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Went right, Well, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. God, God,
that was a great team. Remember that ninety fourteen They
were like one hundred and seventy and forty or something
like that, and then the strike hit the people that
that organization had. Okay, the Pedro Martinez is the Randy
(11:35):
Johnson's right out down the line. I think there's only
by the way, Gary Carter's in the Hall of Fame. Okay.
I would bet you could google this. I would bet
you he has an expos cap an exposed. I would
bet that you got Andrey Dawson. You got Tim Range,
Vladimir Garrels in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Right Vladimir, Well, no, I don't know if he is.
I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm bad at that,
always bad at that. I'm not you know, you want
to get in, by the way, at Bernie Fradowitz thinking
genius one. Uh, there's a couple getting a lot of
tweets if you want to get in. Bowie says, I
loved watching Ricky play. I pulled this out after the
sad news broke the other day. It says Oakland A's
(12:15):
lighter as one of those zippos. I love that. Yeah,
I used to. They used to have cool uniforms, no
doubt about that.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Unfortunately, remember back in the day they wore those wedding
belt white uniforms on Sunday. Oh yeah, they had multiple
you know, they had the tank tops with the gold
and green. By the way, Jason Diamond tweets and he
says Tim Huntson or Barry Zito. Maybe the next day's
the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I don't know if Barry Zito. Yeah, I don't think
Barry Zito has the type of numbers, but I could.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Be probably not, probably not, but notable players.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, no, no doubt, Jimmy says, sneaking genius. Most people
listening to your radio show don't think you're doing a
radio show. Is that a compliment or.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Did we think that means you make it look EASi? Ernie?
I like watching Williams here right all right?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
So, like I said, where are you listening from? How
are you listening? Give us a tweet at Bernie Fratto
at Stinking Genius one. We would absolutely love to hear
from it. All right, Bertie, we've both have done shows
since the college playoff, right, yes, yes, and I was
filling in because I did the show at Plank. You
(13:24):
have your show on weekends. The outrage over the four
earlier games, the Ohio State Tennessee game, the Clemson Texas,
the Penn State route over SMU, and the same thing
Notre Dame over Indiana which was only ten but it
was twenty seven to three until you got a couple
of late Indiana scores. People were outraged. I was not
(13:46):
prepared for this. This is the first year. I didn't
expect everything to go smoothly. I didn't expect e there
would be one game that was clothes that would come
down to the wire, maybe we would have an upset,
But maybe that was more wishful thinking than it was
(14:06):
going to actually happen. Bernie, that's like going out on
the first day and saying, you better fall in love
with me right now on the first date. Otherwise it's
never gonna happen. Give it some time. I can't believe
people were so like, Oh, I knew SMU should not
have been there. I knew Indiana should not have been there.
We're doing this thing all wrong. Let's go to this,
(14:26):
that and the other. Were you surprised and all the
back last from the from the opening week of the
college football season.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Or one, whether they were disappointed the games weren't more competitive.
But let's let's not act like this hasn't happened before.
When that long ago Michigan got completely pull acted by
Georgia did the same thing to TCU. Not here name
got to a championship game years ago in Adabama. Roll right,
There been there been upsets in Super I mean checked that.
There have been blocks and Super Bowls. It happens all
(14:54):
the time, right right, And I think heading into this,
we see a couple of fundamental flaws that are easily fixable.
They wanted to make a championship base. So if you're
Florida State and you win your conference, but you lose
your quarterback, you're still getting in. We're not gonna penalize you.
Let's let it be decided on the field. Would Alabama
have beaten SMU, I think so, would Alabama beating Indiana? Yeah,
(15:16):
but the committee said, look, if you're Indiana and you
go eleven to one in the Big Ten, your only
offs is at Ohio State, you're not getting left out.
If you're Bama and you lost three games, you had
your chance to play.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
And I had to get in there, Bernie. They had
to get there.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
And SMU lost to Clemson in the championship game, and
they decided they were not going to The committee already
painted themselves into a corner of the week before when
they said, we're not going to penalize you for making
it to your conference championship game. Now. From so, SMU
got in and you knew they were gonna get hammered.
(15:49):
Look from a fan standpoint, let's keep it real here.
These games drew eleven million viewers, which isn't setting any record.
The Ohio State Tennessee game got almost fifteen million.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Yeah, but they they weren't against the NFL.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Just that's exactly what I was going to say next.
But here's what was really cool that they got right.
And by the way, they need to do next year.
You win your conference, you're in, but you're not guaranteed
to buy. You're just guaranteed to be in a right
because Arizona State really shouldn't have a bu And I
love Arizona State. I think they're live, man. I think
they're gonna scare Texas. Texas may wear them out, but
(16:23):
the bottom line is that's a real team with Cam scatable,
They're they're real. But could you make a case they
didn't deserve a buy nor Boise State. Fine, I get that,
But from a fans standpoint, if you get on these
camp easily fixable, and I think you need to get
rid of the buys. Just put sixteen teams. If you
are in fact the top four seed, because they deem
(16:45):
you a top four seed for the right reasons, and
if your schedule is one hundred and eleven in the country,
shouldn't be a top four seed, then you maybe get
two home games if you win, but not no more buys,
and I think you need to recede after the first round.
It's ridiculous that Penn State, who's zero to two versus
teams in this field, has ostensibly an easier path to
(17:06):
the championship game than say Oregon, who beat Penn State,
who beat Ohio State, and who beat Boise State. That's stupid,
but if you're a fan. He had one hundred and
three thousand maniacs in the horseshoe at Ohio State, and
thirty thousand were from Tennessee. He had one hundred and
two thousand for the Texas game. He had one hundred
and seven thousand for the Penn State game. He had
(17:27):
he had seventy eight thousand piled in a Notre dame.
You can't tell me this was a failure. Oh no,
It's still Made for TV product, and the beauty of
it is we get eleven playoff games this year instead
of three for that stupid Made for TV Invitational tournament
and the BCS, which is better than nothing, but not
much better.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
I agree with you one hundred percent. If there was
anything I learned from the first round is that I
don't want neutral site games. I want a home field
advantage for the higher seeds. The atmosphere for that Notre
Dame game on Friday night was elect trick. The same
thing for Penn State, the same thing for Ohios, Date
and Texas. Every venue was phenomenal. I don't want to
(18:09):
the Chick fil A Bowl or the Rose Bowl or
the Fiesta or the Sugar and no offense against them.
There's nothing like a home field advantage for the crowd
to come. Bernie. You know how many people are gonna
go to this Texas ASU game, especially if you're Texas
thinking you're gonna win and you'll wait to the next round.
(18:30):
Maybe the same thing for Penn State. Are the fans
gonna go to the Fiesta Bowl, travel out there to
Arizona to see them play Boise or are they gonna
wait to the next round in the Orange Bowl? Or
are they gonna wait for the championship. And of course
you got the Sugar with not your name, Georgia. This
is the reason why we have to go ahead and
have it on the home field, because really, these neutral
(18:53):
site games not newly as exciting as when you have
that home field advantage of Bernie.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Well, then the coach you said as much. Marcus Freeman
said he had never been part of an environment like
that what he saw in the Notre Dame Indiana game.
James Franklin said it was phenomenal. The turnout was unbelievable,
and even Steve Sarkisian said, he says, this is not
just amazing for Texas, it's amazing for college football. So
(19:18):
what they've done is now move the needle forward in
a positive way. Look, there are always going to be
people who complain. They're professional complainers, and the games were blowouts,
but you were going to watch it because you want
to see the damn thing decided on the field. You
don't want it to be theoretical. Look, it took a while,
(19:39):
but we eventually had a number sixteen seed knock off
a number one seed in the NCAA tournament. Right. The
beauty behind this twelve team tournament, and I think all
they need to do is make it sixteen and no
bias and reseed after the first round, and if you're
a top four seed, then you can maybe get two
home games if you're legit top four seed. Having said that,
(20:00):
you don't want college football was the only sport I
talked about this three years ago in Cincinnati, didn't get
in and they're undefeated. What other sport You wake up
in August and you start your two days and you
navigate the rigors of a long season, knowing full well
you have zero chance to win a national championship no
matter what happens.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, here's Bertie. Go ahead, he's Bernie. I was gonna say,
he's Bernie Fraddro, I'm Arnie Spanier. I'll tell you what.
We'll we get back. I want to go ahead and
go through the next round. The game's Bernie. Let's give
us four good games. Let's go through the next round.
We'll break that down. Bernie and Arnie In for the
Guys Tonight, Jason Smith and his best friend Mike Harmon
(20:39):
right here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I welcome back to the Tireck dot Com Studios. Bernie Fraddo,
Arnie Spanier in for the Guys night, Jason Smith and
his best friend Mike Harmon right here on Fox Sports Radio. Bertie,
A couple of things I want to get to so
we still we're getting a lot of tweets. William says.
My two favorite crows Heckel and jeck O. Merry Christmas.
(21:10):
Merry Christmas to you, William. We appreciate you tuning on in.
You know, Bertie, I'm always surprised we have more people
listening on Christmas than I always imagine, you know, especially
with all the sports that went on today, and we
got another NFL game tomorrow, we got three on Saturday,
full slate on Sunday, of course, the Bowl games, the
NBA games, hockey, whatever, whatever your heart desires. We got
(21:32):
a whole bunch going on. There's no time off from
the holidays.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
No, there's always plenty to talk about. We've done shows
on July fourth. People love to listen during you know,
the July fourth holiday. I've done the Mallord Show Thanksgiving Night.
You work Thanksgiving Night many years in a row. We
both enjoyed people wind down radio. It's your best friend.
And no difference, you know, between Christmas and New Year's.
(21:58):
And again you just said it. There's so much in
the sports tapestry right now. It's a lot of it's
game time. React. I'm I'm opposite. My favorite month to
do shows is July because it's a blank canvas, right,
you know. But but regardless, uh, you know, you want
to be a keen observer. You want to try to
give a good opinions and and you know, and back
(22:19):
it up with you know, relegated specifics. But look, the
bottom line is we're we're at Arnie. We don't have
royalty in this country. Our athletes are our royalty. Our
athletes and entertainers are royalty. And athletes are entertainers. So
there you have it.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Uh, Bernie, one thing I'm not happy about. I want
to get to this before we get into the next
round of the college football playoffs. Did you see Lebron
today before the Golden State Warrior game? Did you happen
to see when he.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Ran around and tried to block a Steph's shot there?
Speaker 3 (22:49):
You know, he tried the block Draymond green shot and
then he gave a big hug to Draymond Green. And
he gave a big hug this stuff like like it
was his long lost brother that he's never seen in
like one hundred years. Did you see the hug?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I didn't, But are you? I know it's against a
lot of practice psychology without a license. But are you
implying that Lebron is perhaps politicking or insinuating Before it's
all sitting done and he retires in fifteen years, we're
never gonna get rid of the guy. He wants to
be a Golden State Warrior. That yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
One, I am insinuating, Yes, he wants to be a
Golden State Warrior. Two. I really dislike when athletes do that,
whether it's Lebron or any other athlete. You know, before
the game, giving hugs, yucking it up, laughing and and
doing all that. It doesn't matter the sport. Hey, you're
going in to win a football game. Yucking it up
and laughing and all that stuff. No, no, no, no, no,
(23:45):
you got to get your game face on. You know,
we went to a football game, had the fight before
the uh Joe mix y guys in the backup and
what Joe Mixon like punted the ball into the stands
or that's what I want. That's the attitude you have
to have, not going around giving a hug. That's another
(24:06):
reason why the NBA finds their ratings just tanking. They're
just too friendly to each other. Everybody's good friends, and
they don't have that game phase that hated mentality, Like
we used Dad with the Detroit Pistons and the Chicago Bulls,
the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics. There was
some real animosity there. You don't have the animosity. I
(24:29):
thought it was ridiculous. I mean, come on, now, you're
like when he was politicking Bertie. That's for damn sure.
And two, I mean you could say hello after the game.
This is getting ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
You know, Lebron loves attention. Just leave it there. I mean,
a guy is he he'll never retire because he realizes
the spotlight will not miss him, but he will miss
the spotlight. He's not quite sure how he's going to
deal with that. And this is how he gets it now,
you know. And so look, I don't I can hold
(25:01):
two thoughts. Concurrently, he's had a good career, and I
do agree with you that the general ambience of professional
sports has changed dramatically. You just don't have the hate.
You do have it in pockets, the Steelers and Ravens
when they get together, that's that Fields and McCoy's. But
for the most part, everybody's making a ton of money.
Whether you win or lose. And you know, very rarely
(25:24):
does a player spend his entire careve with one team,
So you might be facing off against the guy tonight
and he's your teammate next week, SOS. Everything's changed dramatically.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
So you don't think that that's one of the reasons
why the NBA is going down in ratings then, because
it happens in a lot of the other sports. So
that can't be the reason why the ratings are going
down in the NBA.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Well, the ratings going down is a real thing. They
can be in the NIAL all they want. And again
I'll repeat my line, we don't have royalty in this country.
Our athletes are our royalty. Leagues are predicated on stars,
all right. When you look at the National Football League,
Lamar Jackson's, the Patrick Mahome Homes, the Saquon Barkley's like
a name a bunch of guys that are stars. You
(26:04):
add it in Major League Baseball. I'm not going to
do a roll call. There's nobody in the NBA right
now that I pay a ticket to go see. Nobody,
And I don't think a lot of the stars are
particularly likable now, and no one's gonna give me this
crap about get off my law. Come up with a
better cliche.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
What about Wemby though? What about him? Beyambo?
Speaker 2 (26:25):
What? Okay? He scores forty two points in eighteen years
and they lose win win.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah, but he's still a big, a big talent, is
he not? Would you not pay to see him?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
He's got physical skills. I saw him in Summer League
a couple of years ago. No, I know, No, I wouldn't.
It's eighty two games. A lot of times they're going
through the motions. The skill level is phenomenal, the athleticism
is phenomenal. I don't buy. I don't subscribe to the three.
They shoot too many threes. Can you imagine an NBA
without threes? So you gotta have threes?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
But people the way, I think that would hurt the
NBA if they took.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Of course it would, so you could shoot all the
threes you want. But who is shooting the threes? I
don't think Lucas particularly likable? Is Kyrie? Lebron's very polarizing?
And when you look at the men who built nobody
is elevating the game from the prior generation. Yeah, I
mean you went from from Chamberlain to you, Bar to
West to Elgin, Baylor, all the way up through Magic
(27:23):
and all that up until Kobe Shack. In their own way,
they elevated the game. This generation is benefiting from prior generations.
Nobody's elevating the game. You're not seeing anything new. You're
seeing load management. You're seeing guys on social media. We
don't really care, all right, Boston Celtics, what a phenomenal
(27:44):
basketball team last year. They're pissed off all the time.
You hear about sore winners losers. They're sore winners. Now.
I don't blame Jason Tatum for how they did him
in the Olympics, and he handled it very in a
very tegified fashion. But what's up with Jalen brownking around like,
you know, just smell the bad fart. These guys are
just pissed off people. Joe Miszula, he's always pissed off,
(28:06):
always complaining, They're getting fines, yelling at rest. What's up
with Joel Embiid? What is going on here? These guys
are magnificent technicians and athletes, but are they really producing
a product that causes you to go wow.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Yeah, yeah. By the way, Jason tweets in By the way,
what was the wire on the court? Did you see
Joel Embiid trip over the wire? Pregame at the Boston Garden.
That's actually like a thing they put up so people
don't come on the court while they were shooting. And
he tripped over backwards like an eighty year old man
that filled out and broke a zip or did you
(28:41):
have a chance to see that?
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Or I no, no, I didn't. Oh that's not good,
that's not that. Is he okay?
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Because you know, and he banged up his leg a little,
so he's going to.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Be out three three to six months now. I mean
he's worse than fred Linne.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Brendon says, Merry Christmas, both of you. I'm listening on
iHeartRadio and I'm listening to you from Palm Desert, California.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Oh, Palm Desert, beautiful area where the.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
High temperature is just under eighty degrees. Thanks for keeping
me sane. I appreciate it. Yeah, no, I see, Bertie.
It's eighty degrees now, but in the summertime it's on
you in twenty five degrees and it's not so funny anymore.
Now you're not yucking it up and allow to get
the rest of us around the country.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
You know, yeah, what are you gonna do? Your life
can't be predicated on weather. I you know, live a
lot of my life in Michigan, where they have four
real seasons. I lived a lot of my life in California,
where you don't really need weather man because it's just
you know, it's beautiful. It's the most temperate climate probably
in the world. But my life's not predicated on weather.
So it's just one of those deals.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
All right, Bertie. I want to get to some of
the games. As we told you, next round of the
college football playoff, Texas going to be playing Arizona State.
That's gonna be in the Peach Bowl. Texas a thirteen
and a half point favorite. Don't quote me on this.
I think the line was actually fourteen. Money must have
been coming in on Arizona's drops to that point. That's
not a lot of money. But we'll see what happens.
Is when we get closer toward kickoff. We's a little
(30:05):
got a long way to go. You said you think
that baby Arizona State could give Texas a little bit
of a fight, baby even pull off the upset.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
I well I didn't say that. Oh okay, Well here's
the problem. Yeah, Arizona State's missing Jordan Tyson, their star
wide receiver R and Clemson really passed the ball well
on Texas. Texas's past defense is not great, but their
run defense is not standing. So they're gonna have to
show if they can shut down cam scatter Bowl, which
(30:34):
I haven't seen anybody really do but Arizona State. Arizona
State's offensive line is not great, and Texas's defense in
front seven is strong. But when you put two teams
on the field in a one game affair, I remember
a game back in the day with Bernie Costard in Miami.
They were supposed to crush Penn State and the Orange Bowl.
Penn State was a five point underdog and Penn State
just smashed them around the field. And when that came up,
(30:56):
you know, I was at the at the Miracle Bowl
when SU You, Eric Dickerson, and Craig James lost to
BYU forty six forty five with Jim McMahon. So anything
can happen. Okay, but if you play this game ten times.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Remember now it's neutral night home, not Oldfield, but neutral.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Now it's neutral let's yeah, right, I get that. Look, Texas,
if they run the ball, which they can and shut
down Camp Scatibo, I don't see a path. I don't
see a path for Arizona State to win, all right.
And look, and by the way, the scatabol can catch
the ball out of the backfield, maybe they get some
(31:32):
chunk plays there. The games are typically one in the trenches,
and the truth of the matter is the Long Rune
have a better offensive line and a better defensive line,
and if the sun Devils have to play from behind,
it could be it could be a long day. Texas
is going to be the biggest most physical challenge up
front of Arizona's faced all year. And Texas completely owned
(31:54):
Clemson at the line of scrimmage. So Arizona State's going
to have to beat, you know, match their physicality and
beat that. And you're going to have to force quinn
Ewers into a couple of mistakes, all right. So and
again the X factor, what does Scatubo do against one
of the best defenses in the country. We're gonna find.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Out what does quentin Youwers do next year.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
I don't know, I don't know how high well.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
We can't come back to Texas, and he's not going
to go to the NFL. He's going to have to transfer.
I'm assuming I.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Think it's about time to give the job to Arch Manning. Yeah,
he does a lot of things better you may. Yeah,
he's far more mobile, and you know the Mannings do
it right. Right, there's an old saying. It's not a
it's not a quest to get there the quickest. It's
a goal to stay there the longest, right, don't. I
had a buddy, Marty cats to you. He lived with
us in the college, the same college baseball team. He
(32:46):
got to the big leagues with the Detroit Tigers. He
got into a big fight with Scartt Sparky Anderson. He
hit a home run in the World Series in eighty four. Anyway,
Marty only lasted two years in the big leagues, and
many years later he says, you know what, it was
horrible get into the big leagues and being done in
two years. I was in too much of a hurry
to get there, and I did all the wrong things.
I didn't act like a professional. Because it's like going
(33:06):
to this is what he says, like going to Disneyland,
disjey Land, opens up at eddym You're gonna ride every ride.
You're gonna stay there at midnight and all set at
ten am. Someone touched on the show and says, kid,
you got to go home, right, So arch Manning, it's
time to hand in the job. The analogy I'm making
there is the Mannings do it right. They play. They
played the long game, and he sat around for two
years and you can clearly play. So you're asking a
(33:27):
really good question about Quinn yours because they're not a
better team with quinn Ewers in my opinion.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
All right, by the way, shortly after the show that
our podcast will be going up. If you've missed any
of today's show, to be sure to check out the podcast,
j just search the Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon
wherever you get your podcast. Be sure to follow a
rate and review the podcast. Again. Just search the Jason
Smith Show with Mike Carmon wherever you get your podcasts,
and you'll see the show posted right after we get
(33:54):
off the air. Well, come back, we'll go through the
other three games. That's coming up next. Bernie and already
in for the guys right on Fox Sports Radio forks up.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Arnie 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 3 (34:16):
Good Evening, Everybody, Bernie fred or Ornie Spaniaran for the guys,
Jason Smith and his best friend Mike Harmon here on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Time.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Just flying on by Bernie. I want to get to
the other games before we get to the top of
the hour. It's almost half time of the show. Ohio
State Oregon is going to be the rematch. Ohio State
actually two and a half point favorite. A lot of
people were surprised about this, considering Oregon beat him the
first time around. Why is Ohio State a two and
a half point favorite when they lost the first time
around on this neutral field, but the first time around
(34:49):
it happened to be in Eugene.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Well, a couple things. It's a market line. A lot
of people feel o'house. They could have won that game
in Eugenie US by one point. And State made a
fundamental mistake in that first game. Army they army. They
allowed Dylan Gabriel, the quarterback for Oregon, to essentially have
a clean pocket no sacks, only two quarterback hurries. They
didn't try to get off after him. You saw what
(35:15):
Ohio State when they want to Jack Sawyer and J. T.
Timlow when they want to decide to overwhelm the opposing quarterback.
You saw what they did to Tennessee, and Tennessee was
pretty good in the trenches. So Ohio State has pass
rushers if they can bother Dylan Gabriel. Okay, the Ohio
State can win this game. Now. Look, Oregon's already beaten
(35:39):
them once. Right, Oregon fought fire with fire and they
outscored Ohio State. It was a one point game in Eugene.
But the margin between these two teams is very, very slim.
And as you just said, it's at a neutral site,
so Org's gonna have to be a lot more explosive
this time. They allowed forder in sixty seven yards against
Ohio State last time that was at home. So this
(36:01):
really truly is Arnie a toss up game.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
There'll be a lot more Oregon fans in Ohio State fans,
I'm assuming, or do you think it will be about
fifty to fifty at the Rose Bowl.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
I don't think it'll be fifty to fifty at all.
But those Oregon fans don't block or tackle, so I
think that'd be a little overrated.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
You don't Penn State and Boise State. Penn State now
up to eleven. I think Penn State's gonna win this.
My three touchdowns look very dominant against SMU, but Boise
is a step above SSEM. You I'm thinking, can Boise
keep this closer? There's gonna be another routy here.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Well, both teams played Oregon. Penn State, you know, lost
to Oregon and a neutral, and I think Oregon Morgon
did whatever they wanted. The Broncos lost by three points
at Oregon. In September, they went to to tow with
the Ducks Ashton Jenke, three scores, one hundred and ninety
five yards, never trailed by more than one score. Boise
(36:53):
State's really an underestimated program. They have been for twenty
five years. They're gonna match Penn State intensity. I think
Penn State was the great beneficiary for two defensive plays
early on that knocked SMU out of the game. That
game was a complete Fagasy drew aller that Penn State
(37:13):
passing the game. It's kind of a mixed bag. I'm
not sold on them. I don't think that Boise State's
gonna turn the ball over Ashton. It's all gonna be
whether or not Ashton genty. Can you know, make it,
make it a situation where they keep Penn State's offense
off the field, they score, And again, I know this
sounds cliche. I expect Boise State has a quarterback Maddox
(37:37):
match and he's a pretty good player, okay, but if
they forced the game onto his hands, he could make
a mistake or two. All right, So we'll see what
happens if Ohio State stacks the boxes. But keep in mind,
keep in mind other teams have stacked the boxes against
Ohio against Penn State, and there are a lot of
(37:58):
you know, he's gonna present problem. He gent runs very
well after contact and even before contact, so I think
it could be right around the number. If you got
a gun in my head, it feels like Penn State
wines game between seven and ten points. But I think
it is going to be a very competitive game, all right.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Dougley's damn Georgia. We know Georgia is making a change
at quarterback. Beck had surgery. He's gone Georgia a two
point favorite over Notre Dame. Wouldn't you think the irish
of the play here? Or is Georgia gonna be okay?
No matter what?
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Well, I think the game plan here is. You know,
Gunnar Stockton may become a household name. He's Georgia's quarterbacks, right,
tough kid. I loved what he did. There's no question
in your game.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Wait, very well, played very well, I thought so.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
I was very impressed with his physical his physical latitude.
Notre Dame's defense just really carried them this season. They've
had ten tackles for loss against Indiana, three sacks and
the truth of the matter is they need they need
to replicate that. All right, Notre Dame looks to be
very good. I think they're one of three teams that
can win this thing, and I actually think they can.
(39:05):
Georgia has the DNA though, and until until Notre Dame
gets over that hump, I'm not handing any anything to them.
I think that there's something about Kirby Smart. This is
where Georgia lives. And again it's gonna be a defensive struggle.
Look for that to be the lowest scoring game among
the among the games.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Okay, So do you think that would be the closest
game among the four games.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
It should be, it should well, Oregon Ohio State, Oregon
Ohio State.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
But this hasn't been Georgia's best defense under Kirby Smart.
They're only twenty first in scoring, but their physical and
in their biggest games, including the wins over Texas and Tennessee,
Georgia's defense is stepped up.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
All right, Bertie, We're two hours already in the books.
The time is just flying by. We're already at have time.
We're gonna come back, We're gonna reset. We're gonna get
them some tweets out there. I got another story that
I did when I started out in radio in Los Angeles.
You're gonna love this one, Birdie, absolutely hysterical. We'll get
to the feud with Channon Sharp and kerkburb Street, which
(40:05):
is crazy. We'll touch on that a little bit. We'll
get ready for week seventeen. I want to get into
Aaron Rodgers all that coming up here on Fox Sports Radio.
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
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 (00:23):
If you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Oh that is us. Good evening, everybody, Bernie Fradoorney Span.
You're in for the guys tonight, Jason Smith and his
best friend Mike Harmon right here on Fox Sports Radio.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy honek appy Kwansie, happy to
(00:50):
whatever you want to celebrate out there. And of course
we're pretty much still. We have one more hour of
Christmas left, or the holidays left here in the East Coast, Bernie,
So I know it could be tough for a lot
of people out there. The holidays could be stressful or
very lonely. Maybe you're by yourselves, you're just happening to
tune in to listen to Birdie and I. We're here
(01:10):
to keep your company for three more hours. We'd love
to hear from you, and the best way is to
tweet us. We love to know where you're listening to
the show from and how you're listening to the show,
and we would just love the ear for you, and
we'll read your tweets on the air during the course
of the hours because a lot of people listen on Christmas.
You wouldn't think that a lot of people listen on Christmas.
(01:32):
But with two NFL games and five NBA games, you
can only watch so many Christmas movies, you know, Bertie,
After that, I'm done with the Christmas movies. You see
those on TV all the time, so you don't have
to just watch them on Christmas.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
You know, that's true. They typically have a way of
running throughout the year, and you've seen them all fifty.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Times exactly, exactly. Can only watch them so many times.
Bertie wants to get to a Rickie Hender Henderson story.
I'm gonna get to that in just a second. I
do want to say, we're live at the tyreck dot
Com Studios, broadcasting go live from the tyreck in dot
com Studios. We'll help you get there on unmatched selection,
fast free shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten
(02:15):
thousand recommended installers. Tyreck dot com the way tire buying
should be. I do want to get to this because
I think it was CJ from Dallas that sent us
a tweet because I was telling a story about when
I used to work out in Dallas, Texas, and he
wants to know if we have any more stories like
that or how we got into the business. I do
have one funny story. When I first got into the business, Bernie,
(02:37):
I was working in Phoenix, Arizona. Okay, one of my
first jobs. I started in Vegas and I took another
job in Phoenix, Arizona. I don't know if I should
tell this story. It's kind of dark, you know, But
what the heck, I already started it now, Bernie, might
as well go there. Ernie a lady by the name
(02:57):
of don Nietzsche. Okay. I only say that because it
has to do with the story, and she wasn't a
big fan of mine. But believe me, a lot of
people were irritated with me. So that's that was beside
the point. So I'm in my house one day, I'm
about to go into the station. I have the radio
(03:18):
on to another station, a news station, and I hear
over the radio and Don Nietzsche dies today, and it
goes on and on. I you know, I just caught
the name. And I'm like, son of up, the boss
died today. And I'm calling all the other hosts. I god,
you hear the boss died? And they're like no. I'm like, yeah,
(03:40):
I did. I just heard it on the radio. I go,
she died. I don't even know what the hell happened.
And they go, what are we gonna do? I go,
I'll go to the station now and see what's going on.
And I get to the station and the lady behind
the desk, the secretary's there.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I go, hey.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
She's like, hey, what's going on? The go? Are you
guys okay? And she's like, what's wrong? I go, the
boss died? She goes, what boss died? As an our
boss died? Don she died? She goes, she didn't die.
She's in her office. I go, no, I heard it
on the radio. She's done. It wasn't Donnietzschi that died.
It was the actor Don Amici. I don't know if
(04:18):
you ever heard of it.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
The boss died.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
The boss dies.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
I'm telling everything out of my cousin Vinny. No, not
Jerry Gallo. Jerry Callo.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah, well it was Don Amichi, the actor who was
he was in what trading places? And I think, can't.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Cocoon I remember yet famous actor.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
And I'm running around telling everybody the boss is dead.
And I'm thinking to myself, Okay, well she didn't like
me anyway. Now I can just do whatever that I want.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And that's how you got into the business.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
That was that was one of the That was my
first job out in Phoenix. She was our first boss. Yeah,
she she wasn't a big fan of mine, but that's
that was our first boss out there. And I actually
still keep in touch with her, with her husband, with
her ex husband. So yeah, that was a good one.
I thought for sure the boss was down, and people
(05:19):
looked at me like, what are you an idiot? I go, look,
I go, please don Neetsche Donna Meachi. Does that not
sound for you know, pretty cool?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Bertie?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah yeah it does.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
I mean, my goodness, man, all right, So at Bertie
fred I went thinking genius one. You wanted to tell
a story though about Ricky Henderson, And those are a
lot funny because there's a lot of Ricky Henderson stories
out there, Bertie, that's for sure. You know.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, look, everybody loved Ricky Henderson. This happened very suddenly.
I actually started getting some text from a well placed
source when I was signing up my show Friday night,
and I kept it under my hat. He was in
a hospital. I believe he had pneumonia. Very sad. I
don't think people realize how truly good he was. You know,
(06:02):
there have been only seventy players in Major League Baseball
history that battered right handed through left handed. He's the
only one to make it to a Hall of Fame.
He's the only want to make it to the All
Star Game. It's not that he just led the It's
not that he had more stolen bases than everybody. He's five.
He passed Lou Brock by five hundred. Okay, this is
the guy that he also had power, let off the
(06:24):
game of the home run eighty one times, and you
knew he had instant starredom. He signed out of high
school I believe in nineteen seventy six or seventy seven.
In his first year, while playing for Modesto in the
California League, he stole fifteen bases in one game, got
to the big leagues in seventy nine the rest of
his history, but he did some freaky things. He stole
(06:46):
over one hundred and nine bases after the age of forty,
all right, I mean yes, So of course the reason
everybody loved Ricky is because of his personality. You don't
see players like that anymore. Ricky played the game with joy.
There's only one guy in history that could stand before
a mirror naked in the locker room every game and
(07:06):
say Ricky, Ricky the greatest, Ricky the Greatest. He'd say
it six times. He got away with it because everybody
loved him. He was hilarious. And of course I'll just
tell a couple of the more famous stories and people
probably we played with my buddy Sean Green in Toronto.
So the team bus pulls up into the hotel and
(07:26):
somebody said they're traveling secretary. Somebody says, Ricky, go ahead,
you can get on the bus. You've got tenure. Ricky
was tenure. What do you mean I got sixteen years?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
I heard that one.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
And of course you know the story about you know,
when he got a million dollar bonus and he framed
the check if he was a million dollar check. It
was like office space. They found a glitch and payroll. Wait,
wait a minute, we have a million dollars in here.
They realized Ricky hadn't cashed the check. It was been
sitting in a frame. But maybe my favorite one. And
it's just crazy. You remember John Oliu. John played with
(07:57):
that helmet. Hey played with a helmet at first base
because while he was in Washington State he had a
brain aneurysm and the doctor said, you're gonna have to
wear a helmet all the time, even on defense. So
Ricky played with John Olerwood in Toronto. A couple of
years later, Ricky was somewhere else and John oler was
somewhere else, and Ricky goes, damn, look at that guy
in first base. We're taking a pregame infield. He's wearing
(08:17):
a helmet. Was I played with a guy like that
in Toronto?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Because that was me? I was your teammate. There's always
great Ricky Edison stories. I brought this up, Birdie, maybe
you could answer me. I don't think Chris Blank answered me.
Is he going to be the last oakland A to
get into the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
For the foreseeable future.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
I don't know. I can't remember if there was one.
Maybe McGuire, but he's a cardinal as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Well, you don't know what he what he would go
in as But because he's a card Deroyd allegations, Yeah,
I don't. I think you could pretty much scratch, at
least for this generation. McGuire, Sosa, Bonds, canseco. You can
sketch it off for dancecra But to your point, yeah, okay,
even though the A's were really relatively competitive between twenty
(09:10):
ten and twenty twenty, I think they made the playoffs
like five times. They did it with a low payroll.
They don't have any stars. They don't clud anymore. They
haven't had stars there, you know, in twenty five years.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Yeah. But when I was a kid in the seventies,
they had the Hall of Famers, you know they did, Yeah,
and stars like Joe Rudy, Gene Tennants. I don't know
if they were Hall of Famers back then, but they
were hell of a players, you know, they were great.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Well, they won three straight World Series, aren't he? They
won three straight seventy two, seventy three and seventy four right, absolutely, so,
I mean, yeah, they had and then Charlie Finley, you know,
unloaded the you know what he called luggage, and they
all went else where. Jackson went to you know, Rudy
went to the Angels, and Jackson went to Baltimore for
(09:51):
a year, and right on down the line, they all
ended up, you know, with other organizations. But the only
thing you know, in two thousand and two the Moneyball Team,
all right, and that's one of my favorite movies of
all time. They had some pretty good pitching on that team,
all right. So I mean you had Mark Mulder. Is
(10:13):
Mark Mulder hall of Famer?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I don't know the status.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Man, he's sixty. I don't have to look up his stats.
You know, he was a big time pitcher on that team.
I don't know who else is beyond that. And that
was the last team that really made some noise, right,
I mean they didn't. Carlos Peney's not a Hall of Famer,
is not a Hall of Famer. Eric Burns Is David
Justice a Hall of Famer?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
He may be, again, I'd have to look at the stats.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
That'd be Jervane Dye.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
But David Justice wouldn't go in as nay or anything
like that.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
But he played for the A's. I mean, you know,
Sparky Anderson went in as the Cincinnati read even though
people remember him more for his exploits in Detroit. So yeah,
I would say, for for purposes of a year of
this conversation, I would say, yeah, Ricky will be the
last Oakland A. And of course he's in the Hall
of Fame. He was, he was elected, I believe in
(11:04):
what two thousand and seventeen.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
The last time we had a Montreal expow was it? Well,
Gary Carter went? Is Gary Carter went? But he's a
New York met he.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Went right, Well, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. God, God,
that was a great team. Remember that ninety fourteen They
were like one hundred and seventy and forty or something
like that, and then the strike hit the people that
that organization had. Okay, the Pedro Martinez is the Randy
(11:35):
Johnson's right out down the line. I think there's only
by the way, Gary Carter's in the Hall of Fame. Okay.
I would bet you could google this. I would bet
you he has an expos cap an exposed. I would
bet that you got Andrey Dawson. You got Tim Range,
Vladimir Garrels in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Right Vladimir, Well, no, I don't know if he is.
I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm bad at that,
always bad at that. I'm not you know, you want
to get in, by the way, at Bernie Fradowitz thinking
genius one. Uh, there's a couple getting a lot of
tweets if you want to get in. Bowie says, I
loved watching Ricky play. I pulled this out after the
sad news broke the other day. It says Oakland A's
(12:15):
lighter as one of those zippos. I love that. Yeah,
I used to. They used to have cool uniforms, no
doubt about that.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Unfortunately, remember back in the day they wore those wedding
belt white uniforms on Sunday. Oh yeah, they had multiple
you know, they had the tank tops with the gold
and green. By the way, Jason Diamond tweets and he
says Tim Huntson or Barry Zito. Maybe the next day's
the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I don't know if Barry Zito. Yeah, I don't think
Barry Zito has the type of numbers, but I could.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Be probably not, probably not, but notable players.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, no, no doubt, Jimmy says, sneaking genius. Most people
listening to your radio show don't think you're doing a
radio show. Is that a compliment or.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Did we think that means you make it look EASi? Ernie?
I like watching Williams here right all right?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
So, like I said, where are you listening from? How
are you listening? Give us a tweet at Bernie Fratto
at Stinking Genius one. We would absolutely love to hear
from it. All right, Bertie, we've both have done shows
since the college playoff, right, yes, yes, and I was
filling in because I did the show at Plank. You
(13:24):
have your show on weekends. The outrage over the four
earlier games, the Ohio State Tennessee game, the Clemson Texas,
the Penn State route over SMU, and the same thing
Notre Dame over Indiana which was only ten but it
was twenty seven to three until you got a couple
of late Indiana scores. People were outraged. I was not
(13:46):
prepared for this. This is the first year. I didn't
expect everything to go smoothly. I didn't expect e there
would be one game that was clothes that would come
down to the wire, maybe we would have an upset,
But maybe that was more wishful thinking than it was
(14:06):
going to actually happen. Bernie, that's like going out on
the first day and saying, you better fall in love
with me right now on the first date. Otherwise it's
never gonna happen. Give it some time. I can't believe
people were so like, Oh, I knew SMU should not
have been there. I knew Indiana should not have been there.
We're doing this thing all wrong. Let's go to this,
(14:26):
that and the other. Were you surprised and all the
back last from the from the opening week of the
college football season.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Or one, whether they were disappointed the games weren't more competitive.
But let's let's not act like this hasn't happened before.
When that long ago Michigan got completely pull acted by
Georgia did the same thing to TCU. Not here name
got to a championship game years ago in Adabama. Roll right,
There been there been upsets in Super I mean checked that.
There have been blocks and Super Bowls. It happens all
(14:54):
the time, right right, And I think heading into this,
we see a couple of fundamental flaws that are easily fixable.
They wanted to make a championship base. So if you're
Florida State and you win your conference, but you lose
your quarterback, you're still getting in. We're not gonna penalize you.
Let's let it be decided on the field. Would Alabama
have beaten SMU, I think so, would Alabama beating Indiana? Yeah,
(15:16):
but the committee said, look, if you're Indiana and you
go eleven to one in the Big Ten, your only
offs is at Ohio State, you're not getting left out.
If you're Bama and you lost three games, you had
your chance to play.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
And I had to get in there, Bernie. They had
to get there.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
And SMU lost to Clemson in the championship game, and
they decided they were not going to The committee already
painted themselves into a corner of the week before when
they said, we're not going to penalize you for making
it to your conference championship game. Now. From so, SMU
got in and you knew they were gonna get hammered.
(15:49):
Look from a fan standpoint, let's keep it real here.
These games drew eleven million viewers, which isn't setting any record.
The Ohio State Tennessee game got almost fifteen million.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Yeah, but they they weren't against the NFL.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Just that's exactly what I was going to say next.
But here's what was really cool that they got right.
And by the way, they need to do next year.
You win your conference, you're in, but you're not guaranteed
to buy. You're just guaranteed to be in a right
because Arizona State really shouldn't have a bu And I
love Arizona State. I think they're live, man. I think
they're gonna scare Texas. Texas may wear them out, but
(16:23):
the bottom line is that's a real team with Cam scatable,
They're they're real. But could you make a case they
didn't deserve a buy nor Boise State. Fine, I get that,
But from a fans standpoint, if you get on these
camp easily fixable, and I think you need to get
rid of the buys. Just put sixteen teams. If you
are in fact the top four seed, because they deem
(16:45):
you a top four seed for the right reasons, and
if your schedule is one hundred and eleven in the country,
shouldn't be a top four seed, then you maybe get
two home games if you win, but not no more buys,
and I think you need to recede after the first round.
It's ridiculous that Penn State, who's zero to two versus
teams in this field, has ostensibly an easier path to
(17:06):
the championship game than say Oregon, who beat Penn State,
who beat Ohio State, and who beat Boise State. That's stupid,
but if you're a fan. He had one hundred and
three thousand maniacs in the horseshoe at Ohio State, and
thirty thousand were from Tennessee. He had one hundred and
two thousand for the Texas game. He had one hundred
and seven thousand for the Penn State game. He had
(17:27):
he had seventy eight thousand piled in a Notre dame.
You can't tell me this was a failure. Oh no,
It's still Made for TV product, and the beauty of
it is we get eleven playoff games this year instead
of three for that stupid Made for TV Invitational tournament
and the BCS, which is better than nothing, but not
much better.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
I agree with you one hundred percent. If there was
anything I learned from the first round is that I
don't want neutral site games. I want a home field
advantage for the higher seeds. The atmosphere for that Notre
Dame game on Friday night was elect trick. The same
thing for Penn State, the same thing for Ohios, Date
and Texas. Every venue was phenomenal. I don't want to
(18:09):
the Chick fil A Bowl or the Rose Bowl or
the Fiesta or the Sugar and no offense against them.
There's nothing like a home field advantage for the crowd
to come. Bernie. You know how many people are gonna
go to this Texas ASU game, especially if you're Texas
thinking you're gonna win and you'll wait to the next round.
(18:30):
Maybe the same thing for Penn State. Are the fans
gonna go to the Fiesta Bowl, travel out there to
Arizona to see them play Boise or are they gonna
wait to the next round in the Orange Bowl? Or
are they gonna wait for the championship. And of course
you got the Sugar with not your name, Georgia. This
is the reason why we have to go ahead and
have it on the home field, because really, these neutral
(18:53):
site games not newly as exciting as when you have
that home field advantage of Bernie.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Well, then the coach you said as much. Marcus Freeman
said he had never been part of an environment like
that what he saw in the Notre Dame Indiana game.
James Franklin said it was phenomenal. The turnout was unbelievable,
and even Steve Sarkisian said, he says, this is not
just amazing for Texas, it's amazing for college football. So
(19:18):
what they've done is now move the needle forward in
a positive way. Look, there are always going to be
people who complain. They're professional complainers, and the games were blowouts,
but you were going to watch it because you want
to see the damn thing decided on the field. You
don't want it to be theoretical. Look, it took a while,
(19:39):
but we eventually had a number sixteen seed knock off
a number one seed in the NCAA tournament. Right. The
beauty behind this twelve team tournament, and I think all
they need to do is make it sixteen and no
bias and reseed after the first round, and if you're
a top four seed, then you can maybe get two
home games if you're legit top four seed. Having said that,
(20:00):
you don't want college football was the only sport I
talked about this three years ago in Cincinnati, didn't get
in and they're undefeated. What other sport You wake up
in August and you start your two days and you
navigate the rigors of a long season, knowing full well
you have zero chance to win a national championship no
matter what happens.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, here's Bertie. Go ahead, he's Bernie. I was gonna say,
he's Bernie Fraddro, I'm Arnie Spanier. I'll tell you what.
We'll we get back. I want to go ahead and
go through the next round. The game's Bernie. Let's give
us four good games. Let's go through the next round.
We'll break that down. Bernie and Arnie In for the
Guys Tonight, Jason Smith and his best friend Mike Harmon
(20:39):
right here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I welcome back to the Tireck dot Com Studios. Bernie Fraddo,
Arnie Spanier in for the Guys night, Jason Smith and
his best friend Mike Harmon right here on Fox Sports Radio. Bertie,
A couple of things I want to get to so
we still we're getting a lot of tweets. William says.
My two favorite crows Heckel and jeck O. Merry Christmas.
(21:10):
Merry Christmas to you, William. We appreciate you tuning on in.
You know, Bertie, I'm always surprised we have more people
listening on Christmas than I always imagine, you know, especially
with all the sports that went on today, and we
got another NFL game tomorrow, we got three on Saturday,
full slate on Sunday, of course, the Bowl games, the
NBA games, hockey, whatever, whatever your heart desires. We got
(21:32):
a whole bunch going on. There's no time off from
the holidays.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
No, there's always plenty to talk about. We've done shows
on July fourth. People love to listen during you know,
the July fourth holiday. I've done the Mallord Show Thanksgiving Night.
You work Thanksgiving Night many years in a row. We
both enjoyed people wind down radio. It's your best friend.
And no difference, you know, between Christmas and New Year's.
(21:58):
And again you just said it. There's so much in
the sports tapestry right now. It's a lot of it's
game time. React. I'm I'm opposite. My favorite month to
do shows is July because it's a blank canvas, right,
you know. But but regardless, uh, you know, you want
to be a keen observer. You want to try to
give a good opinions and and you know, and back
(22:19):
it up with you know, relegated specifics. But look, the
bottom line is we're we're at Arnie. We don't have
royalty in this country. Our athletes are our royalty. Our
athletes and entertainers are royalty. And athletes are entertainers. So
there you have it.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Uh, Bernie, one thing I'm not happy about. I want
to get to this before we get into the next
round of the college football playoffs. Did you see Lebron
today before the Golden State Warrior game? Did you happen
to see when he.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Ran around and tried to block a Steph's shot there?
Speaker 3 (22:49):
You know, he tried the block Draymond green shot and
then he gave a big hug to Draymond Green. And
he gave a big hug this stuff like like it
was his long lost brother that he's never seen in
like one hundred years. Did you see the hug?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I didn't, But are you? I know it's against a
lot of practice psychology without a license. But are you
implying that Lebron is perhaps politicking or insinuating Before it's
all sitting done and he retires in fifteen years, we're
never gonna get rid of the guy. He wants to
be a Golden State Warrior. That yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
One, I am insinuating, Yes, he wants to be a
Golden State Warrior. Two. I really dislike when athletes do that,
whether it's Lebron or any other athlete. You know, before
the game, giving hugs, yucking it up, laughing and and
doing all that. It doesn't matter the sport. Hey, you're
going in to win a football game. Yucking it up
and laughing and all that stuff. No, no, no, no, no,
(23:45):
you got to get your game face on. You know,
we went to a football game, had the fight before
the uh Joe mix y guys in the backup and
what Joe Mixon like punted the ball into the stands
or that's what I want. That's the attitude you have
to have, not going around giving a hug. That's another
(24:06):
reason why the NBA finds their ratings just tanking. They're
just too friendly to each other. Everybody's good friends, and
they don't have that game phase that hated mentality, Like
we used Dad with the Detroit Pistons and the Chicago Bulls,
the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics. There was
some real animosity there. You don't have the animosity. I
(24:29):
thought it was ridiculous. I mean, come on, now, you're
like when he was politicking Bertie. That's for damn sure.
And two, I mean you could say hello after the game.
This is getting ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
You know, Lebron loves attention. Just leave it there. I mean,
a guy is he he'll never retire because he realizes
the spotlight will not miss him, but he will miss
the spotlight. He's not quite sure how he's going to
deal with that. And this is how he gets it now,
you know. And so look, I don't I can hold
(25:01):
two thoughts. Concurrently, he's had a good career, and I
do agree with you that the general ambience of professional
sports has changed dramatically. You just don't have the hate.
You do have it in pockets, the Steelers and Ravens
when they get together, that's that Fields and McCoy's. But
for the most part, everybody's making a ton of money.
Whether you win or lose. And you know, very rarely
(25:24):
does a player spend his entire careve with one team,
So you might be facing off against the guy tonight
and he's your teammate next week, SOS. Everything's changed dramatically.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
So you don't think that that's one of the reasons
why the NBA is going down in ratings then, because
it happens in a lot of the other sports. So
that can't be the reason why the ratings are going
down in the NBA.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Well, the ratings going down is a real thing. They
can be in the NIAL all they want. And again
I'll repeat my line, we don't have royalty in this country.
Our athletes are our royalty. Leagues are predicated on stars,
all right. When you look at the National Football League,
Lamar Jackson's, the Patrick Mahome Homes, the Saquon Barkley's like
a name a bunch of guys that are stars. You
(26:04):
add it in Major League Baseball. I'm not going to
do a roll call. There's nobody in the NBA right
now that I pay a ticket to go see. Nobody,
And I don't think a lot of the stars are
particularly likable now, and no one's gonna give me this
crap about get off my law. Come up with a
better cliche.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
What about Wemby though? What about him? Beyambo?
Speaker 2 (26:25):
What? Okay? He scores forty two points in eighteen years
and they lose win win.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah, but he's still a big, a big talent, is
he not? Would you not pay to see him?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
He's got physical skills. I saw him in Summer League
a couple of years ago. No, I know, No, I wouldn't.
It's eighty two games. A lot of times they're going
through the motions. The skill level is phenomenal, the athleticism
is phenomenal. I don't buy. I don't subscribe to the three.
They shoot too many threes. Can you imagine an NBA
without threes? So you gotta have threes?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
But people the way, I think that would hurt the
NBA if they took.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Of course it would, so you could shoot all the
threes you want. But who is shooting the threes? I
don't think Lucas particularly likable? Is Kyrie? Lebron's very polarizing?
And when you look at the men who built nobody
is elevating the game from the prior generation. Yeah, I
mean you went from from Chamberlain to you, Bar to
West to Elgin, Baylor, all the way up through Magic
(27:23):
and all that up until Kobe Shack. In their own way,
they elevated the game. This generation is benefiting from prior generations.
Nobody's elevating the game. You're not seeing anything new. You're
seeing load management. You're seeing guys on social media. We
don't really care, all right, Boston Celtics, what a phenomenal
(27:44):
basketball team last year. They're pissed off all the time.
You hear about sore winners losers. They're sore winners. Now.
I don't blame Jason Tatum for how they did him
in the Olympics, and he handled it very in a
very tegified fashion. But what's up with Jalen brownking around like,
you know, just smell the bad fart. These guys are
just pissed off people. Joe Miszula, he's always pissed off,
(28:06):
always complaining, They're getting fines, yelling at rest. What's up
with Joel Embiid? What is going on here? These guys
are magnificent technicians and athletes, but are they really producing
a product that causes you to go wow.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Yeah, yeah. By the way, Jason tweets in By the way,
what was the wire on the court? Did you see
Joel Embiid trip over the wire? Pregame at the Boston Garden.
That's actually like a thing they put up so people
don't come on the court while they were shooting. And
he tripped over backwards like an eighty year old man
that filled out and broke a zip or did you
(28:41):
have a chance to see that?
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Or I no, no, I didn't. Oh that's not good,
that's not that. Is he okay?
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Because you know, and he banged up his leg a little,
so he's going to.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Be out three three to six months now. I mean
he's worse than fred Linne.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Brendon says, Merry Christmas, both of you. I'm listening on
iHeartRadio and I'm listening to you from Palm Desert, California.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Oh, Palm Desert, beautiful area where the.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
High temperature is just under eighty degrees. Thanks for keeping
me sane. I appreciate it. Yeah, no, I see, Bertie.
It's eighty degrees now, but in the summertime it's on
you in twenty five degrees and it's not so funny anymore.
Now you're not yucking it up and allow to get
the rest of us around the country.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
You know, yeah, what are you gonna do? Your life
can't be predicated on weather. I you know, live a
lot of my life in Michigan, where they have four
real seasons. I lived a lot of my life in California,
where you don't really need weather man because it's just
you know, it's beautiful. It's the most temperate climate probably
in the world. But my life's not predicated on weather.
So it's just one of those deals.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
All right, Bertie. I want to get to some of
the games. As we told you, next round of the
college football playoff, Texas going to be playing Arizona State.
That's gonna be in the Peach Bowl. Texas a thirteen
and a half point favorite. Don't quote me on this.
I think the line was actually fourteen. Money must have
been coming in on Arizona's drops to that point. That's
not a lot of money. But we'll see what happens.
Is when we get closer toward kickoff. We's a little
(30:05):
got a long way to go. You said you think
that baby Arizona State could give Texas a little bit
of a fight, baby even pull off the upset.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
I well I didn't say that. Oh okay, Well here's
the problem. Yeah, Arizona State's missing Jordan Tyson, their star
wide receiver R and Clemson really passed the ball well
on Texas. Texas's past defense is not great, but their
run defense is not standing. So they're gonna have to
show if they can shut down cam scatter Bowl, which
(30:34):
I haven't seen anybody really do but Arizona State. Arizona
State's offensive line is not great, and Texas's defense in
front seven is strong. But when you put two teams
on the field in a one game affair, I remember
a game back in the day with Bernie Costard in Miami.
They were supposed to crush Penn State and the Orange Bowl.
Penn State was a five point underdog and Penn State
just smashed them around the field. And when that came up,
(30:56):
you know, I was at the at the Miracle Bowl
when SU You, Eric Dickerson, and Craig James lost to
BYU forty six forty five with Jim McMahon. So anything
can happen. Okay, but if you play this game ten times.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Remember now it's neutral night home, not Oldfield, but neutral.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Now it's neutral let's yeah, right, I get that. Look, Texas,
if they run the ball, which they can and shut
down Camp Scatibo, I don't see a path. I don't
see a path for Arizona State to win, all right.
And look, and by the way, the scatabol can catch
the ball out of the backfield, maybe they get some
(31:32):
chunk plays there. The games are typically one in the trenches,
and the truth of the matter is the Long Rune
have a better offensive line and a better defensive line,
and if the sun Devils have to play from behind,
it could be it could be a long day. Texas
is going to be the biggest most physical challenge up
front of Arizona's faced all year. And Texas completely owned
(31:54):
Clemson at the line of scrimmage. So Arizona State's going
to have to beat, you know, match their physicality and
beat that. And you're going to have to force quinn
Ewers into a couple of mistakes, all right. So and
again the X factor, what does Scatubo do against one
of the best defenses in the country. We're gonna find.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Out what does quentin Youwers do next year.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
I don't know, I don't know how high well.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
We can't come back to Texas, and he's not going
to go to the NFL. He's going to have to transfer.
I'm assuming I.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Think it's about time to give the job to Arch Manning. Yeah,
he does a lot of things better you may. Yeah,
he's far more mobile, and you know the Mannings do
it right. Right, there's an old saying. It's not a
it's not a quest to get there the quickest. It's
a goal to stay there the longest, right, don't. I
had a buddy, Marty cats to you. He lived with
us in the college, the same college baseball team. He
(32:46):
got to the big leagues with the Detroit Tigers. He
got into a big fight with Scartt Sparky Anderson. He
hit a home run in the World Series in eighty four. Anyway,
Marty only lasted two years in the big leagues, and
many years later he says, you know what, it was
horrible get into the big leagues and being done in
two years. I was in too much of a hurry
to get there, and I did all the wrong things.
I didn't act like a professional. Because it's like going
(33:06):
to this is what he says, like going to Disneyland,
disjey Land, opens up at eddym You're gonna ride every ride.
You're gonna stay there at midnight and all set at
ten am. Someone touched on the show and says, kid,
you got to go home, right, So arch Manning, it's
time to hand in the job. The analogy I'm making
there is the Mannings do it right. They play. They
played the long game, and he sat around for two
years and you can clearly play. So you're asking a
(33:27):
really good question about Quinn yours because they're not a
better team with quinn Ewers in my opinion.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
All right, by the way, shortly after the show that
our podcast will be going up. If you've missed any
of today's show, to be sure to check out the podcast,
j just search the Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon
wherever you get your podcast. Be sure to follow a
rate and review the podcast. Again. Just search the Jason
Smith Show with Mike Carmon wherever you get your podcasts,
and you'll see the show posted right after we get
(33:54):
off the air. Well, come back, we'll go through the
other three games. That's coming up next. Bernie and already
in for the guys right on Fox Sports Radio forks up.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Arnie 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 3 (34:16):
Good Evening, Everybody, Bernie fred or Ornie Spaniaran for the guys,
Jason Smith and his best friend Mike Harmon here on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Time.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Just flying on by Bernie. I want to get to
the other games before we get to the top of
the hour. It's almost half time of the show. Ohio
State Oregon is going to be the rematch. Ohio State
actually two and a half point favorite. A lot of
people were surprised about this, considering Oregon beat him the
first time around. Why is Ohio State a two and
a half point favorite when they lost the first time
around on this neutral field, but the first time around
(34:49):
it happened to be in Eugene.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Well, a couple things. It's a market line. A lot
of people feel o'house. They could have won that game
in Eugenie US by one point. And State made a
fundamental mistake in that first game. Army they army. They
allowed Dylan Gabriel, the quarterback for Oregon, to essentially have
a clean pocket no sacks, only two quarterback hurries. They
didn't try to get off after him. You saw what
(35:15):
Ohio State when they want to Jack Sawyer and J. T.
Timlow when they want to decide to overwhelm the opposing quarterback.
You saw what they did to Tennessee, and Tennessee was
pretty good in the trenches. So Ohio State has pass
rushers if they can bother Dylan Gabriel. Okay, the Ohio
State can win this game. Now. Look, Oregon's already beaten
(35:39):
them once. Right, Oregon fought fire with fire and they
outscored Ohio State. It was a one point game in Eugene.
But the margin between these two teams is very, very slim.
And as you just said, it's at a neutral site,
so Org's gonna have to be a lot more explosive
this time. They allowed forder in sixty seven yards against
Ohio State last time that was at home. So this
(36:01):
really truly is Arnie a toss up game.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
There'll be a lot more Oregon fans in Ohio State fans,
I'm assuming, or do you think it will be about
fifty to fifty at the Rose Bowl.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
I don't think it'll be fifty to fifty at all.
But those Oregon fans don't block or tackle, so I
think that'd be a little overrated.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
You don't Penn State and Boise State. Penn State now
up to eleven. I think Penn State's gonna win this.
My three touchdowns look very dominant against SMU, but Boise
is a step above SSEM. You I'm thinking, can Boise
keep this closer? There's gonna be another routy here.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Well, both teams played Oregon. Penn State, you know, lost
to Oregon and a neutral, and I think Oregon Morgon
did whatever they wanted. The Broncos lost by three points
at Oregon. In September, they went to to tow with
the Ducks Ashton Jenke, three scores, one hundred and ninety
five yards, never trailed by more than one score. Boise
(36:53):
State's really an underestimated program. They have been for twenty
five years. They're gonna match Penn State intensity. I think
Penn State was the great beneficiary for two defensive plays
early on that knocked SMU out of the game. That
game was a complete Fagasy drew aller that Penn State
(37:13):
passing the game. It's kind of a mixed bag. I'm
not sold on them. I don't think that Boise State's
gonna turn the ball over Ashton. It's all gonna be
whether or not Ashton genty. Can you know, make it,
make it a situation where they keep Penn State's offense
off the field, they score, And again, I know this
sounds cliche. I expect Boise State has a quarterback Maddox
(37:37):
match and he's a pretty good player, okay, but if
they forced the game onto his hands, he could make
a mistake or two. All right, So we'll see what
happens if Ohio State stacks the boxes. But keep in mind,
keep in mind other teams have stacked the boxes against
Ohio against Penn State, and there are a lot of
(37:58):
you know, he's gonna present problem. He gent runs very
well after contact and even before contact, so I think
it could be right around the number. If you got
a gun in my head, it feels like Penn State
wines game between seven and ten points. But I think
it is going to be a very competitive game, all right.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Dougley's damn Georgia. We know Georgia is making a change
at quarterback. Beck had surgery. He's gone Georgia a two
point favorite over Notre Dame. Wouldn't you think the irish
of the play here? Or is Georgia gonna be okay?
No matter what?
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Well, I think the game plan here is. You know,
Gunnar Stockton may become a household name. He's Georgia's quarterbacks, right,
tough kid. I loved what he did. There's no question
in your game.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Wait, very well, played very well, I thought so.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
I was very impressed with his physical his physical latitude.
Notre Dame's defense just really carried them this season. They've
had ten tackles for loss against Indiana, three sacks and
the truth of the matter is they need they need
to replicate that. All right, Notre Dame looks to be
very good. I think they're one of three teams that
can win this thing, and I actually think they can.
(39:05):
Georgia has the DNA though, and until until Notre Dame
gets over that hump, I'm not handing any anything to them.
I think that there's something about Kirby Smart. This is
where Georgia lives. And again it's gonna be a defensive struggle.
Look for that to be the lowest scoring game among
the among the games.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Okay, So do you think that would be the closest
game among the four games.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
It should be, it should well, Oregon Ohio State, Oregon
Ohio State.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
But this hasn't been Georgia's best defense under Kirby Smart.
They're only twenty first in scoring, but their physical and
in their biggest games, including the wins over Texas and Tennessee,
Georgia's defense is stepped up.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
All right, Bertie, We're two hours already in the books.
The time is just flying by. We're already at have time.
We're gonna come back, We're gonna reset. We're gonna get
them some tweets out there. I got another story that
I did when I started out in radio in Los Angeles.
You're gonna love this one, Birdie, absolutely hysterical. We'll get
to the feud with Channon Sharp and kerkburb Street, which
(40:05):
is crazy. We'll touch on that a little bit. We'll
get ready for week seventeen. I want to get into
Aaron Rodgers all that coming up here on Fox Sports Radio.
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Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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