July 26, 2025 • 41 mins
Mike Harmon takes the bull by the horns and hosts with a plethora of your favorite fill in hosts this week! Plus, all the latest within the NBA and NFL world including an interview you don't want to miss!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon 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 3 (00:29):
Greetings and welcome in. We begin another beautiful week here
Fox Sports or Radio. As the Big Voice guy said,
there is no Smith. He is gone and gallivanting. Therefore,
like Keith Richards, I'm saddling up, sidling up to the
big microphone in the spotlight. I'll sing you a couple
of songs over the course of the week with some
guest stars. First up, coming off the left of the stage,
(00:53):
our guy Chris Plank at Plank Show. You hear him
on the weekends with our guy Arnie Spaniard. He's been
doing yeomen's work between his college football and softball work,
and then four straight days here on the network. So
let's see if he sounds like his aforementioned colleague, Arnie Spander.
It's Chris Blank. What's going on? Chris? Come on, man?
(01:13):
Four days in a row is child's play here? It's
it's all good. Jayson already fire. Well, you get it
out of the way early, then you're good. It's been
good man. We're getting close to football. The countdown is on.
We got a game next Thursday that everyone will be
excited about and then they'll grinch about two plays in
because no one's playing, of course, and then we're less
than gosh, we're less than a month really away from
(01:35):
the start of the first Saturday of college football. So
game on, Micha. Let's have some fun. Tonight should be
a fun week for you. You do have a very I
guess I should say, like rotating. It's an electic mix
that you're just gonna say. There's no settling into a
comfort zone. Is that in the contract? You gotta have
someone different every day. You can't just say hey, I
(01:56):
like Plank or I like Buyer. I know you wouldn't
like Arnie, but you just say, hey, that it's the
person I want to be with every day. Is that contractually?
So it stays fresh? Well, I mean maybe Jason's got
that in because it's in place of him. But you know,
for me, I kind of throw it up. Scott and
I come up with a you know, cursory list, and
then we see how it falls out based on availability,
(02:17):
based on other needs at the network or people's other
jobs and attending to so they're in. It becomes a
all right, here's what the computer spits back out. That
is the boos. Very much like Dave Roberts very much.
You just throw it in there and then it gives
you the lineup. By the way, I got to get
on that level. I have never not once had Scott
(02:38):
be like, hey, man, who you want. I gotta get
on that level like you Harmon I and Arnie you know,
runs the network. That's what he tells me. Yeah, right,
So I got to find that level good stuff. Man, Well,
pumped to be here should be an awesome kind of
a big deal in my own mind. If that's what else.
Glad to have you with as we've got some college
football we can get to with some of the media
days out there and some of the rumor conjecture speculation
(02:59):
A two hundred fifty million dollars to ken Bei mutumble
like rejection from one conference to a would be member earlier.
But we'll start where I know your heart is, and
that is also the same spot on my guy Justin Frostberg,
who's just those ten days away from that Hall of
Fame game, and his guy Antonio Gates going in, our
guy Steve Disager, who's at the news desk, who you
(03:21):
know all too well. And of course for you, Melk,
I've lived in Los Angeles a long time. I'm a
White Sox fan, so the fact that they're actually scoring
runs is a very exciting thing. But let's talk about
the Dodgers. Let's talk about the defending champion and all
the chaos that has ensued. Tonight is Mystery grab Bag
Championship Ring night, where you can get one of five players.
(03:43):
It's a pretty good looking replica of the World Series ring.
That's cool. Sho heeo. Tani is on the mound, that's fantastic.
We've got Freddie Freeman. He's gonna be in the lineup,
but he tells people he thinks he's figured out in
a sleepless night how to fix his swing, while Mookie
Bets just says, I don't know when asked about his
(04:03):
continued struggles going all the way back to the weight
loss and mystery illness that started the season. So all
of that things, all of those things converge into tonight, Chris,
the swoon of the Dodgers, the inability to get over
against winning teams, overall being owned by the Milwaukee Brewers.
And then last night, just after yesterday afternoon, I should say,
(04:25):
here West Coast time, after all of the positivity and
grab ass that Clayton Kershaw played during the All Star Game,
he was back to being red ass. Clayton Kershaw, throwing
his glove and refusing to comment, figuring he'd get himself
in trouble after several errors were committed in the field
to base running gaffs and everything else, and all of
(04:46):
a sudden, every string that was pulled right a year
ago looks like it's been snapped along the way, as
if we were in some horror movie. For the Dodgers
this season, they're struggling, and they were struggling before the
end of the first half. Disager had this note last night,
and it absolutely blew my mind. Mookie Bets in July
(05:08):
is hitting just ten to fifty three, just ten and
again this isn't all on Mookie. I don't know how
a team that appears to have so much talent can
be this enough defensively and antipaus death. He makes this
spectacular play and then has the one that I still
don't know how he missed it. I've tried to watch
that thing five or six. I don't know if he
(05:28):
got caught in the lights. I don't know what his
excuse was. And then you again, you mentioned Freeman's in
the lineup tonight, So that's good, but you know, glassnow
gives you a real What's frustrating about the suite to
the Brewers is that Tyler Glasnew gave you something, Mike.
He gave you something that was a solid outing from
him and his first what opportunity since April Frostbury. I
think that's right. But you got something from your staff
(05:51):
that you hadn't consistently got this year. You got to
do that took me on the fourth. So it's a
very confusing time. I think was Yeah, the hot streak
of product of just playing no offense to the White Sox,
but just a stretch of not very good baseball teams
right where you look back and say, oh, they won
like for it. They're good, but then you realize they're
now going up against good teams. Brewers are tied for
(06:13):
first skate of twins. Not so much, they're they're in
trouble right now in the American League Central. But this
is where you need to get right. And it leads
to a longer term question for me, which is simply,
are the Dodgers back? Are they going to be a
dominant team? Is this one of those things that guys
get healthy and you're ready to go in the postseason
or has it kind of dropped a bit because of
(06:34):
the struggles and maybe some guys have, you know, not
really lived up to the expectations. Injuries are killing this
team right now, which I Mike that being so consistent
with this team over the last couple of years is
absolutely mind boggling. It just makes no sense to me.
But I bring that up with NFL teams all the time.
I did it with the Chargers much and I used
to get things thrown at me by Frostburg for doing
(06:55):
so and so many other teams, the Ravens for years,
like what's going on in your training right where you
were having this year after year? And I know the Dodgers,
given the financial resources at their disposal, they can generally
buy their way out of trouble. And certainly we'll see
in the next two weeks what that could be. And yes,
you got everybody getting ready to ride back into the mix,
(07:18):
be it Blake Snell or some of these others who
have been waiting Glass now who you mentioned. But will
he make his next start? I don't know. We've seen him.
Ask out right, we've seen those issues through the bat
How does he recover five days later? Otani? How much
will you really be able to stretch him out? We've
seen three innings. How far does that go? Tonight? He's
going to start this game and then we'll see Dustin
(07:41):
May again. But it just you're bringing up the injury issue.
I mean last year they navigated it about as well
as you could. I mean they pulled the string at
every turn, all those starting pitchers, all of the relief appearances,
and the opener with Keith a Hernandez, although now he's
got an injury to his off arm so he can't
do any of that. But all of that to say,
(08:02):
I mean, you've navigated through it. But as much as
you marvel at what because they're still in first place
and you've got San Diego chasing, and we'll see what happens.
They finally got a good start out of doing Yeah, no,
that's just it. You got these teams hanging around. And
when we go to strength of schedule, well, Dodgers have
the fourth quote easiest path remaining a lot of losing
(08:25):
squads coming up here series for series, so some opportunity
maybe to create some distance again, but banking on full
health and for every every turn in the analytics to
work right again, it's a dangerous proposition and flirtation. And
if they don't get right hitting wise, I mean you
brought up the PA has a fielding issue and then
(08:48):
base running one oh one. I mean we're seeing on
display time and again with the squad some of the
fundamentals have just gone out the window. But the injury
issues is something that I think from an organizational standpoint,
you got to pull back and just try to figure
out what in your training processes. Even if you have
been really good at picking up the reclamation projects from
(09:10):
other squads, you know what's going on, what's in the
water for your own organization. Because while you can buy
your way out it's a dangerous way to live, but
it's still it's pretty cool to see show hee Otani's
he just jogs out to no matter that this thing started.
It's it's a very it's not necessarily a full sigh
of relief, but it's one of those. All right. I
(09:32):
took my tongue so the indigestion went away for a
little bit. See him out there for a couple of innings. Now,
is he only going three tonight? I thought they were
going to try to push him. They may try to stretch.
I think it's going to be dependent on on the
pitch count and ease. Right, we talked about stressful out
stressful innings, and the fact that the first pitch got
tattooed for a home run is probably not the ur
(09:55):
second pitch of the game. He goes sailing out Byron
bust in his twenty third home run of the year.
All right, recess, great start, a great start. Well, you
have him a fatball exit velocity of about one hundred
and five miles an hour, so now you know when
you're struggling, let's just go ahead and have the bottom
completely fallout. But I still it'll be very interesting to
(10:17):
see what the moves are coming up in a couple
of weeks now with the trade deadline, you know, it's
still because of the job their front office is done.
And not to like completely dodge your home or out,
but it's still one of the top prospects, one of
the top farm systems in all of Major League Baseball?
And you know, do you start risking some of that?
Do you really swing for the fences? Do you call
(10:38):
Pittsburgh and say, all right, what do you want for
Paul Skiins? You know actually won today, Chris I saw that,
you know, that first one since May twenty eighth? How
about that? So hold on, I just want to give
you an idea how behind my feet is for the
game right now? Boom Byron Buxton just hit a home run.
It's one Minnesota, but it's a h It really is
(11:00):
kind of a fascinating time to decide if your buyers
are selves it not just for the Dodgers, right look
at the Red Sox and are you satisfied with just
kind of battling for that wild card? Is that where
you want to be? Or do you think, hey, I
can get a little bit more and and maybe if
we get in the wild card great, but then we're
set for the future. I don't know. I know this,
the Dodgers are not a team that's going to be
(11:21):
in any other mode than buying. They're gonna be out
there trying to find the pieces that fit. If it's
if it's getting a third basement, if it's getting involved
in schemes or another starter, if they have to truly
go and find themselves a closer. I don't know what
it is, but Mike's there's no if, ans or butts
about it. This is one of those that it's kind
of hard to explain away with just how bad it's
(11:41):
been for the Dodgers. Struggle Bus has certainly been there.
And what's funny is, you know, you get the shot
and freud of it all where folks are gonna be
very excitable because you got to explain that one to me,
the shot and that is taking joy in the misery
of others. Okay, I don't have to google that. You
can do it in song form from Avenue Q I'm
(12:04):
a Publisher, which which I have always described since seeing
it off Broadway many years ago as the Muppets on
crack Okay, and they have a whole song about schadenfreude,
so you can go run with that one a little
bit as you will. Hey, Hey, who said we wouldn't
learned something tonight on the show I'm here for Oh No,
We're gonna teach a lot of stuff. We're speaking wisdom
into the microphone here. Thank you wherever you're listening, however,
(12:27):
you're listening on one of our five hundred affiliates nationwide
on the iHeartRadio app. Take us with you wherever you go, evangelize,
Send us to your family and friend. We're trying for
global expansion. As always, we love to put the little
pins on the map wherever we can, so you can
get us at Plank Show, at Swollen Dome, at Fox
Sports Radio. We'd love to know where you are and
(12:48):
how you're listening, and whether you're enjoying some of the
current struggles of the Los Angeles Dodgers. We coined them
the Evil Empire several years ago. As you know, we
are ahead of the curve once the buying where you
really started going and to your point about the wild card,
that's the beauty and the horror of all of this
stuff when you get to the trade deadline, Because once
upon a time you knew where that dividing line was, right,
(13:10):
and now you start looking at well, here's our expected schedule,
here's the guys coming back from injury. Here's all that.
I'm a White Sox fan. I just want them to
play spoiler to somebody. I don't care who pick a
name out of the hat, that one team gets wrecked
because of us. That's my goal. I just I was looking.
Do you let's see here, White Sox. We're thirty games
(13:33):
under five hundred. Okay, okay, join it. They just swept
the Pirates. GM was getting fired because of them. So
you got that. They were beating up on the Rays
the last I saw. Now, my screens are replete with
images of show Heyo Tani wherever I look right now.
So you got that going for you. So but you know, look,
the long road begins with the first step. I can't
(13:55):
be a front runner. I'm still celebrating two thousand and five.
You know that title that ESPN and refuses to acknowledge
one of the greatest pitching performances in baseball history. That's starting.
For hell, they put a statue up of Burley last week.
There's my celebration moment. That's all I got right there, Chris.
That's it. That's it.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
I'm living twenty years ago. 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 (14:28):
Joining us now on the hotline to try to make
some sense of what the hell's going on with NFL owners,
what's going on with the union and everything else across
our NFL landscape. It's our body one oh five seven
the fan in Baltimore. He's got his betting podcasts. Longtime
friend of the show at Jason Lock and for in
the Twitter verse Jason Lock and for Jay, what's going on? Buddy?
Speaker 4 (14:52):
What's going on? Gentlemen?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Welcome to the party as we get ready for what
we got ten days left till we get our haul
Fame game and all that excitement, which is at the
end of the weekend. There's a Nickelback show too. Who knew?
You didn't know and you didn't care?
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Actually I did. I saw it somehow popped up on
my Twitter. But what I didn't know is like that
they're like and special guests like Prudy mc nuggets or whatever,
like whoever the special guy. I'm like, I totally don't
know this person. I'm like, I don't know, did I
know this person? Like? Is this that big in Canada?
I don't know, you know, because they're Canadian. But yeah,
if you seriously though, if you see like the promo stuff,
(15:34):
there's like this other guy who they're with, who's wearing
like an old school Houston Oilers jersey, and I'm like,
I don't know that guy. I am unfortunately familiar with Nickelback.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
I'm gonna have to go do the deep dive of
what's going on there.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys probably know him. Like you guys,
I mean, it's good just be me an old man thing.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
But AnyWho, I'm right there with you. Hey, you want
to start with some Lloyd Howell fun Now he's now
it's his other job. You go through the bench reports J. C. Tretter,
He's no longer gonna seek a job in this process.
Demorris Smith. I haven't read the book yet, but does
this mean he was complicit or just dumb?
Speaker 4 (16:12):
No, jeez, you're gonna put You're gonna put Lloyd Howell
on him. I mean, I I don't think hell, I'll
see how you can do that.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Well, just say in terms of the overall union ineptitude
and some of those discussions about guarante.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Right now, I'm picturing d Smith like that Kermit Defragg
meme of him sitting back on a sipping his teak.
I mean D Smith, like, look how it looks. I mean, Jesus,
you can say to one about him having a replace
a legend, you know what I mean, Like you replace oself.
And he was never going to be it for everybody,
and he certainly had his faults, and that union remains
(16:49):
the weakest of the professional sports unions, despite the sport
making more money revenue wise than any other and frankly
more than most of them combined. But I think history
won't be quite as unkind to him as I mean.
He came in and was immediately in a bit of
a labor war, and it was one in which the
owners were willing to, you know, lock people out. It
(17:14):
was a really tough circumstance and I feel like, yes,
they could have done a lot of things better. But
the number of people who left when d Smith left,
who said, now the time to take my buyout because
this guy coming in looks like a total clown. It
was a charade, how he was elected, it was everything
was a mystery. Guides themselves. I think some of them
(17:35):
didn't even really know who else they could have voted for.
The process was a sham, and it has sham results.
And whoever takes over is now going to be I
don't know, at most a couple of years removed from
the league, opting out of these TV deals and you know,
having this global uh turned it into more of a
(17:58):
global sport. And they're in a cram eighteen games down.
People's thoats and franchise tags aren't going anywhere, and we're
going to continue to play more games abroad than ever before.
And I just think they're going to get whatever they want.
And the Union is in an incredibly vulnerable place right now,
far more so than any time during d Smith's themat
(18:21):
controversial tenure.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
I'm not a smart man, Jason, Jason Smith's out on
Chris Plinkson and Jason locking Forth, so good to talk
to you, man. I'm not a smart dude, So I
don't really know the ins and outs of how this
affects anything now for the Players Association, because it seems
as if what the CBA is in place until at
least twenty thirty, So are we just exhale labor piece.
(18:44):
We don't have to worry about about strikes or anything.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
How does it affect them? I mean, I feel like
if you read the sixty one page document, considering it
was a tangaroo court stacked against them and a special
master who's never going to look the you know, is
are going to throw too many rocks at uh, at
the five million pound guerrilla who employs them. But like,
(19:09):
I feel like that collusion case was a win for them,
and they're so inept and so compromised, and jac Trader
acted like such a jackass that they collectively decided not
even to spread the word like that. They they kind
of sort of wont a collusion case. And then they're
so backwards and and and so myopic that they've been
(19:30):
colluded with the league. They can't mat the fightings. I mean,
you're gonna tell me how it affect the players. How
do you think it affects Lamar Jackson's mind?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
I'm more as the fans. How it affects us watching
a day to day I mean, we're not gonna have
to worry about a lockout or anything. I mean, obviously no.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
It effects but me, well, I mean I don't know,
I mean eventually, I I don't. I mean I can't
answer that question because I don't. I mean, you're I
don't know that this is rock bottom. I can't remember
how many times, like with Jimmy Has I'm running the Browns,
I'm like, well, this has to be rock bottom. You know,
it's never rock bottom. So I don't, I don't. I mean,
are they going to clean up their process?
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Like?
Speaker 4 (20:05):
Are they? Is this going to be transparent? If it's not,
I mean, how will it affect it if someone gets
in there who doesn't know what they're doing, could that,
you know, further hasten or or prolonged a potential workstopics?
I don't, I don't know. I mean, is is the
PA going to be ripe with clicks? And is that
(20:27):
going to make it even harder to negotiate? How empowered
will this person be? I mean from a football day
to day watching games, you know, quality of play all that. No,
But in terms of the players, oh, the players can
definitely continue to get host and even more so than
ever by having completely enough leadership at the helm that
(20:48):
doesn't even isn't even smart enough to know when they've won.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Because that's always been the question in terms of the
rank and file, Jason, like, where we've got the different
les levels that players are at, salary wise, tenure, and
trying to get everybody on the same path to vote
towards the same things has always been a challenge. But
now how far removed does someone have to be from
the institutions to be trusted at this point?
Speaker 4 (21:18):
I mean, I don't know how to answer that. I mean,
it sounds like the last time around, the reps and
the rank and follow weren't even on the same page
as to the process itself. And if we're now led
to believe that the executive Committee didn't even think this
guy was worthy of it in the first place, yet
(21:40):
they passed it along to sort of the popular vote,
I mean, it's hard to speak about because it was
so shrouded in mystery. We didn't even know Loyd how won,
and up until recently most people didn't even know who
the hell he was running again, I I don't know.
I mean, clearly was doing clownish, buffoonish stuff. He wasn't
(22:05):
there that long. This started immediately. How yeah, Like, how
did he ever get that position in the first place?
How much of a leadership vacuum was there? And is there?
You know, do they need to have an independent audit,
some third party come in there and make recommendations like
(22:28):
do they need to make it a prerequisite that whoever
they hire next has had significant experience at a different
labor union, maybe ideally a sports labor union, and has been,
you know, in somewhat of a prominent role, whether current
or past. Like, yeah, I mean, and certainly there's discord,
(22:53):
there's a lack of harmony. I think among the players.
We're talking about what is it right now? Right he
had ninety eyes on rosters, you've got thirty teams. Do
the math. It's a lot of people at various points
in their career, with various earning potential and various earning
past and various earning futures. It's it's it's hard to
(23:17):
get them on the same page. I mean, looks how
hard it is to get thirty two billionaires on the
same page. And now we're talking about, you know, twenty
seven hundred guys.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
It's gonna be tough. Jason Loking, for is our guest.
All right, on the well kind of on the field stuff.
It looks like Michael Parson's gonna be still showing up
at Cowboys camp. But Jerry Jones is doing Jerry Jones things.
The bottom line more than anything else, he usually gets
these deals done. What kind of situation do you feel
like this ends up being for the Cowboys? Do they
(23:48):
get it done? Does it cost him too much? Or
could this one drag on a bit?
Speaker 4 (23:53):
No, they'll get it done. They'll get it done, probably
right before the Jesus starch, So yeah, it'll cost them
too much. Us still have the egg on their face.
I'll probably regret it within a couple of years. It's
just the same old dog and pony show. I mean,
(24:14):
like we were talking last week, Garry eats this stuff up.
I mean the fact that there's all this discord and
disharmony and then he eventually gives the guy more than
anybody else would have, and so you know, the guy
eventually gets a smile on his face. But the star
culture continues and certain people are propped up, and there's
an underbelly to that roster. There's never really cohesion in
(24:38):
that locker room because certain guys are treated like rock stars,
and you know, everybody else just is sort of everybody else.
And you know, I think Jerry's gotten increasingly callous and
flipp it with how he talks about injuries and talks
about players worth. And it really kind of started, you know,
(25:00):
around the Kaepernick stuff, and I feel like it's kind
of escalated since then, and he continues to message to
that locker room in a way that I don't think
resonates with a lot of those guys, especially the ones
who aren't being paid as best to breed in their positions.
So yeah, I mean, he'll get his, like that got his,
(25:21):
but he'll end up hurting the team because of the
contract structure and because of what else they won't be
able to do.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
And he just.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
He's just so stuck in his own ways, and the
older he gets, the more stubborn he gets, and it's
his way or the highway, and it's just going to
be another, I think, pedestrian season in Dallas.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Another big effort from us here out on Monday Night
from our guy, Jason Lock and for at Jason Lock
and for is where you find him in the Twitter verse.
See what he's got going on. The Want to Be Podcast,
and so much else than he does one O five
to seven the fan there in Baltimore, Jayceon, thanks for
taking a few time minutes out with us here on
a Monday night. Next time we'll be talking about more
(26:11):
camp fun and getting ready for that Hall of Fame game.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Yeah, get on Malmo and get on FC cloth and
from the Czech Republic tomorrow and Champions League qualifying. Think
of that. Take them both on the money line, maybe
parliam together.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Malmo is a wonderful place to visit, by the.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Way, gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Yeah, it's wonderful, lovely. Yeah, I can't wait to go back.
Thanks for hanging out with us, Bundy. We'll talk to again, guys.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
I was really getting ready to send a bunch of
really nasty, all right, kind of funny texts to my mom,
you know, Cubs fan, even though she still has now
adopted the raise as another part of her cheering section.
Hey it is what it is. White Sox were absolutely
bludgeoning the Cubs and it's like a a shutout going
into the seventh and all of a sudden, a three
(27:03):
run barrage. And it's not quite as fun once they
get a crooked number up there, but we'll celebrate it
as we will over the course of the show. We
got so much going on. We got the NFLPA with
more chaos, just as we predicted. The other day, I
saw a couple of movies one very late night as
(27:24):
Happy Gilmour two came out, and then I'm a fantastic
four nerd. I started a new program outside of our
sports world, Arnie. So we'll tease that ahead where people
can interact socially. There we got linn O MESSI a messy,
messy situation. And then we've got a strike. And no
(27:45):
it's not the WNBA, it's not Major League Baseball. No,
it's the concession workers at Fenway Park as the Dodgers
come in for a big series this weekend. Dodgers take
the opener five to two. Walker Buehler gets his ring
before the game and everything else. But they had striking
(28:08):
workers all around the facility. Don't buy food walking the
picket line. You've got the era mark, the concession vendor
fighting with their union and the Red Sox going, hey, everything,
we can tell you it's not us, it's not on us.
Bernie Sanders chiming in respect the picket line the union posted.
(28:30):
We know ticks are expensive. We're not asking you to
stay away from the home games, but we're asking you
not to buy concessions. No purchase of pretzels, pickles or peanuts.
How many of those folks then set up stands outside
and still made some money, like you know those mobile
hot dog carts that are everywhere here in Los Angeles.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
Yeah, that wild like a serious and by the way, hello,
how are you my f I'm great body.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
What's going on?
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Well?
Speaker 3 (28:54):
I feel we got four hours of pleasantries touting me
nine thousand times.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
I had four hours. I think that's going to wrap
up the show. So I'll been to you next week.
Thank you for for By the way, you threw me off,
I didn't know you were driving tonight, so but that's okay.
You'll never learn how to drive unless you do it,
so I'm gonna let you go ahead and do that.
It's good to speak to ice.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
It's good to have a you know, a kindred smart
ass in the chair. You and I go way back
I'm sorry, Arnie Spaniard, do we have any trumpets or
anything for his arrival that we want Red Cardiff? But
I'm like, he's got to get to be right. I mean,
we're I think this is our three now. I I
just had dinner, Like there you go, his Royal Highness
(29:41):
and side Sunday Night's a longside, Chris Blank. He and
I go back a long way in these sporting highways
and my ways. He's he's honored to be in with
me tonight. It's our guy, Arnie Spaniards. Fire on the
man all night long. We've been hearing that for weeks.
(30:04):
That's gonna drive me crazy. He's been buying that. That's
got nothing to do with you be on the show. No,
I know, it's it's driving me batty. And it's only
been twice right now. It's one of the great drops
that you've given us. There are many I saw.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
I saw a grateful Dead cover band my friend had
not my friend some lady I met invited me to
our house to wait for a cover band.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yeah, you gotta bet you want to get a stand
up bass player as you try to tell these stories
that I hear you call me.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
Yeah, exactly know this. This lady called my name in
the parking lot. I didn't know who she was, but
she's like, hey, you should come to our party. We're
having a cover band. It's Grateful Dead. So I told
my wife and we just kind of, you know, crashed.
We didn't know anybody there, but it was a good.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Did you throw the keys in the right bucket or what?
Speaker 4 (30:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Yeah, there you go, there you go. You gotta be
a certain age. You go look that up on the
exactly and your innerwebs and what I'm talking about.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
But yeah, hey, what's going on? I saw you like
thirty six topics today. That's like an all time record.
Are we gonna get to every one of them?
Speaker 3 (31:11):
I know, because a bunch of them are actually a
little dated in that I've been doing shows dated show wow. No, no, No.
The point is we're pretty good. I think between Frostburg
Alex when when Steve's in with us last night, Dan
Byer Monty Belango sending with us that we grab what's
current and new, which means it doesn't get to jest
(31:33):
date and see which way the dot you to that point.
Seven of them we already did. There's a couple that
I'm I like our license with the FCC. We know
one of the principles and in some of the notes
that you sent me is very litigious, resides here in
Los Angeles, doesn't show up when he says he's supposed
to show up at a pizza place. May or not,
(31:56):
may not be trying to force his way out despite
picking up a fifty two point six million dollar player option.
By declining it would have written made his life a
lot easier. But instead it's look at me, look at me, hey, hey,
look at me like I'm going straight. Things and ten
things I hate about you say plenty of movie references
(32:17):
over the course of the night, but you know, the
Lebron James stuff. It's fun to kind of look at
and wave at. I mean, we can talk about the team.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
It's changed today today, it's changed actually today because Jeff
Tigue walked it backward.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
But he can't. No, no, you can't walk that back Well,
what no, you can't. You can't under him, you might
you might have gotten threat of legal recourse, so you
will issue a public apology and you know, and walk
it back and like that had that siren truck.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
If it's true, you can't sue, right, I mean, that's
that's a pretty good defense at least I thought.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
I Well, for those unaware Jeff Tigue implying that miss
time by Lebron James in the past, I mean, since
you know you're walking it there, we'll go through it
implying shenanigans in terms of availability and in terms of
readiness to play and maybe supplements. How do you like that?
(33:16):
We'll dance around it that way. But and then immediately
within twenty four hours after backlash and we have seen
litigiousness on the part of Clutch Sports and Lebron James
that suddenly, oh, I you know, I was just speaking
off the cup. No, no, no, you knew exactly what
the hell you were doing. And it was only when
you got the call note multiple notes, maybe a courier
(33:39):
that showed up with a you know, a nice Manila
envelope of stuff that suddenly you're walking it back. So yeah,
you got that there. Whether you want to believe stuff
or not, right, I mean, that's up to you the
listening audience. You're an intelligent group of people, and I'm
not going to try to swell you one way or another. Arnie.
That's not what we're here to do. In the end,
(34:00):
I enjoy what's in between the white lines. History will
decide the rest of it. I don't care to be
honest with you. And I'm talking about all athletes. I'm
not just talking about Lebron.
Speaker 5 (34:12):
What supplements they're using, what they're putting in their body,
what they're trying to do to make themselves healthier, trying
to overcome get back from some injury, a steroid, whatever
it is, whatever doctor says, if the doctor says, hey,
this is gonna make you heal faster. They put their
bodies through so much, Mike and I and I'll speak
(34:33):
for America, how about that. I don't think Americans can
care anymore. I don't think anybody sits back right now.
Go ah, look at that guy, he's a running back.
He's gotta be on steroids. Or look at that baseball player.
Look at what he home runs he has. He's got
to be on something. Nobody cares, Nobody thinks about it anymore. Mike,
it's not important. And like I said, if you're gonna
(34:55):
put your body through that much stuff, you deserve to
go ahead and heal as fast as possible to get
back to the field and and whatever doctor says, do it.
Then it's not like you're, you know, putting you should
put bad things in your body. These are all healthy
things and good things to make you heal. So I
just don't think people care anymore. That's why maybe he's
(35:18):
walking it back. Maybe it's because he was gonna get sued.
But I'm on the Bron's side on this. I don't
think anybody cares what he you know, he should do
whatever it is good for his body.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
All right, So he's hijacked the show once. Keep that
score count over there to saga. As we get through
the night, we'll have the h We'll ring the bell
each and every time. I wanted to talk about labor strife,
instead we go down this. Sure they'll be twisted road
what But no, I mean yesterday, look, we commemorated the
life and life and times uh wrestling in particular and
(35:50):
Master Thespian that of Hulk Hogan. Tonight they did the
big ten bell, will salute his part of SmackDown. But
to that point, plenty of stuff back in the day
with home and substances which mayor you know, not just
training and saying your prayers and eating your vitamins, but
a big thing, and there's plenty of documentaries on it
through it all in the ends, that bridge between sports
(36:13):
and entertainment and trying to figure out where the lines are.
And certainly we've seen we'll commemorate the Hall of Fame
inductions this week and every year it becomes the same
question of all right, you leave certain people out, and
then you've got the other guys who might have been
better to the media or maybe had a better reputation, right,
(36:34):
weren't a jerk and dismissive of some questions in the clubhouse.
They're the ones that get left out. And then you've
got a couple of other guys that like, well maybe,
but hey they're in, and you know they get voted in.
And I think you all immediately as I'm saying that,
you get one, two, maybe eight names of the last
twenty years that suddenly pop into your brain. But it's
(36:56):
all to your point, aren't you In the end, if
it's going to get a player back on the field
and our all stars are there and available, something we
can plain about ad nauseum, particularly during the NBA season,
that you know, there is something to be said for
what availability is the best ability that our audience cares?
(37:16):
Do you think our people I think in general, I
think I think there is. I think there is to
a point, right, you know, the sense of fair play, truth,
justice in the American way and all that. I'm watching
Superman in between all my baseball games here. But all
of that to say that you're you're trying to figure
(37:37):
out you know, the quote level playing field, which, let's
face it, from day one, as soon as you put
on a pair of cleats, grab a bat whatever, like
science and uh, genealogy is you're already having problems. There's
no correlation.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
Yeah, there's no correlation between you know, taking a steroid
and saying that you're gonna hit more home runs. Otherwise
everybody would be doing it, and a lot of people
were doing it. I just think now people just want
to see their favorite athletes. They want to see big
time athletes. The way to do that is, you know,
keep yourself healthy. That's tough, man.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
You see what these do football players go through? You
such like football, nobody ever cared. Occasionally you'd have to
nab somebody who didn't follow the protocol right calendar and
they would get popped or occasionally the wrong thing at
the wrong time, and you'd have, you know, the sacrificial lamb.
(38:35):
But I mean football. You know, I think we've all
just kind of shrugged and laughed at that for a
long time. I can't know us. Why do you think
we stopped texting testing? Why do you think we stopped
testing from.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
Marijuana in the NBA and in all sports?
Speaker 4 (38:47):
Huh?
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Well, it also got legalized in the vast majority of states,
so you know, to that end, it became a wait,
this is helping guys fight through their pains and issues. Yeah,
let's go. So yeah, not the topic I was planning
to start with. I was celebrating the great American pastime
in another way. But well we we roped it back
(39:09):
in uh with some Hall of fame and with some
of the chaos uh and rumor conjecture speculation. Uh. So
you ended up getting that in shoehorning that topic into
the show. So take the w the it's your last
one of the nights. Put you unnoticed, now, Paal, Okay.
Speaker 5 (39:27):
There you go. I won't steer us into a ditch anymore.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
And I'm watching the the White Sox and the Cubs.
One of the great innovations of our time. Uh, the
White Sox wearing what looked like bulls uniforms that on
the MLB network.
Speaker 5 (39:43):
Is that what you're watching it on?
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Ummm no, I think I think this one's just your normal.
There is the Apple Friday game was I think the
Phill Easton Jay got that one going for you. But
which you know, again, people complain, cough up a buck
or don't watch. Well, it's upon a time you got
like three games a week?
Speaker 4 (40:00):
Is that what it?
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Shut the hell up? Is that what it cast? How
much does it cost from I don't even know what.
Apple's like one hundred bucks a year? Okay, Apple plus
and you get and you get shrinking. Yeah, well, I
mean that that is true. Your bunny ears thing isn't
gonna work.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
You know.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
It's part of the larger move topic. I was trying
trying to get to and tease with you. Here is
Arnie's on the move. So we're gonna try to help
his sports life along the way. Hashtag fire on the
Mountain at Fox Sports Radio at Stinking Genius one at
Swaltwen Dome for that as we try to navigate that.
But no, the the White Sox went and they they
(40:36):
found a nice hybrid of some of their their colors
and logos. Add to the bulls with the black and
the red, and you come up with something that looks
pretty pretty good. They also have a promotion that I
saw on ad for during this game, White Sox twelve
three lead here in the eighth wedding in a minute.
(40:58):
Oh like an old Bill Veck promotion. So you can
apply to get your marriage done on the mound in
a minute. So the change in a game that's a
total Bill vectig, Well, that screams you, and it screams
our guy Andy Furman back there in Cincinnati, we love you.
Some of the stuff Andy used to do at the
(41:19):
restaurant
Thanks for listening to the best of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon 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 3 (00:29):
Greetings and welcome in. We begin another beautiful week here
Fox Sports or Radio. As the Big Voice guy said,
there is no Smith. He is gone and gallivanting. Therefore,
like Keith Richards, I'm saddling up, sidling up to the
big microphone in the spotlight. I'll sing you a couple
of songs over the course of the week with some
guest stars. First up, coming off the left of the stage,
(00:53):
our guy Chris Plank at Plank Show. You hear him
on the weekends with our guy Arnie Spaniard. He's been
doing yeomen's work between his college football and softball work,
and then four straight days here on the network. So
let's see if he sounds like his aforementioned colleague, Arnie Spander.
It's Chris Blank. What's going on? Chris? Come on, man?
(01:13):
Four days in a row is child's play here? It's
it's all good. Jayson already fire. Well, you get it
out of the way early, then you're good. It's been
good man. We're getting close to football. The countdown is on.
We got a game next Thursday that everyone will be
excited about and then they'll grinch about two plays in
because no one's playing, of course, and then we're less
than gosh, we're less than a month really away from
(01:35):
the start of the first Saturday of college football. So
game on, Micha. Let's have some fun. Tonight should be
a fun week for you. You do have a very I
guess I should say, like rotating. It's an electic mix
that you're just gonna say. There's no settling into a
comfort zone. Is that in the contract? You gotta have
someone different every day. You can't just say hey, I
(01:56):
like Plank or I like Buyer. I know you wouldn't
like Arnie, but you just say, hey, that it's the
person I want to be with every day. Is that contractually?
So it stays fresh? Well, I mean maybe Jason's got
that in because it's in place of him. But you know,
for me, I kind of throw it up. Scott and
I come up with a you know, cursory list, and
then we see how it falls out based on availability,
(02:17):
based on other needs at the network or people's other
jobs and attending to so they're in. It becomes a
all right, here's what the computer spits back out. That
is the boos. Very much like Dave Roberts very much.
You just throw it in there and then it gives
you the lineup. By the way, I got to get
on that level. I have never not once had Scott
(02:38):
be like, hey, man, who you want. I gotta get
on that level like you Harmon I and Arnie you know,
runs the network. That's what he tells me. Yeah, right,
So I got to find that level good stuff. Man, Well,
pumped to be here should be an awesome kind of
a big deal in my own mind. If that's what else.
Glad to have you with as we've got some college
football we can get to with some of the media
days out there and some of the rumor conjecture speculation
(02:59):
A two hundred fifty million dollars to ken Bei mutumble
like rejection from one conference to a would be member earlier.
But we'll start where I know your heart is, and
that is also the same spot on my guy Justin Frostberg,
who's just those ten days away from that Hall of
Fame game, and his guy Antonio Gates going in, our
guy Steve Disager, who's at the news desk, who you
(03:21):
know all too well. And of course for you, Melk,
I've lived in Los Angeles a long time. I'm a
White Sox fan, so the fact that they're actually scoring
runs is a very exciting thing. But let's talk about
the Dodgers. Let's talk about the defending champion and all
the chaos that has ensued. Tonight is Mystery grab Bag
Championship Ring night, where you can get one of five players.
(03:43):
It's a pretty good looking replica of the World Series ring.
That's cool. Sho heeo. Tani is on the mound, that's fantastic.
We've got Freddie Freeman. He's gonna be in the lineup,
but he tells people he thinks he's figured out in
a sleepless night how to fix his swing, while Mookie
Bets just says, I don't know when asked about his
(04:03):
continued struggles going all the way back to the weight
loss and mystery illness that started the season. So all
of that things, all of those things converge into tonight, Chris,
the swoon of the Dodgers, the inability to get over
against winning teams, overall being owned by the Milwaukee Brewers.
And then last night, just after yesterday afternoon, I should say,
(04:25):
here West Coast time, after all of the positivity and
grab ass that Clayton Kershaw played during the All Star Game,
he was back to being red ass. Clayton Kershaw, throwing
his glove and refusing to comment, figuring he'd get himself
in trouble after several errors were committed in the field
to base running gaffs and everything else, and all of
(04:46):
a sudden, every string that was pulled right a year
ago looks like it's been snapped along the way, as
if we were in some horror movie. For the Dodgers
this season, they're struggling, and they were struggling before the
end of the first half. Disager had this note last night,
and it absolutely blew my mind. Mookie Bets in July
(05:08):
is hitting just ten to fifty three, just ten and
again this isn't all on Mookie. I don't know how
a team that appears to have so much talent can
be this enough defensively and antipaus death. He makes this
spectacular play and then has the one that I still
don't know how he missed it. I've tried to watch
that thing five or six. I don't know if he
(05:28):
got caught in the lights. I don't know what his
excuse was. And then you again, you mentioned Freeman's in
the lineup tonight, So that's good, but you know, glassnow
gives you a real What's frustrating about the suite to
the Brewers is that Tyler Glasnew gave you something, Mike.
He gave you something that was a solid outing from
him and his first what opportunity since April Frostbury. I
think that's right. But you got something from your staff
(05:51):
that you hadn't consistently got this year. You got to
do that took me on the fourth. So it's a
very confusing time. I think was Yeah, the hot streak
of product of just playing no offense to the White Sox,
but just a stretch of not very good baseball teams
right where you look back and say, oh, they won
like for it. They're good, but then you realize they're
now going up against good teams. Brewers are tied for
(06:13):
first skate of twins. Not so much, they're they're in
trouble right now in the American League Central. But this
is where you need to get right. And it leads
to a longer term question for me, which is simply,
are the Dodgers back? Are they going to be a
dominant team? Is this one of those things that guys
get healthy and you're ready to go in the postseason
or has it kind of dropped a bit because of
(06:34):
the struggles and maybe some guys have, you know, not
really lived up to the expectations. Injuries are killing this
team right now, which I Mike that being so consistent
with this team over the last couple of years is
absolutely mind boggling. It just makes no sense to me.
But I bring that up with NFL teams all the time.
I did it with the Chargers much and I used
to get things thrown at me by Frostburg for doing
(06:55):
so and so many other teams, the Ravens for years,
like what's going on in your training right where you
were having this year after year? And I know the Dodgers,
given the financial resources at their disposal, they can generally
buy their way out of trouble. And certainly we'll see
in the next two weeks what that could be. And yes,
you got everybody getting ready to ride back into the mix,
(07:18):
be it Blake Snell or some of these others who
have been waiting Glass now who you mentioned. But will
he make his next start? I don't know. We've seen him.
Ask out right, we've seen those issues through the bat
How does he recover five days later? Otani? How much
will you really be able to stretch him out? We've
seen three innings. How far does that go? Tonight? He's
going to start this game and then we'll see Dustin
(07:41):
May again. But it just you're bringing up the injury issue.
I mean last year they navigated it about as well
as you could. I mean they pulled the string at
every turn, all those starting pitchers, all of the relief appearances,
and the opener with Keith a Hernandez, although now he's
got an injury to his off arm so he can't
do any of that. But all of that to say,
(08:02):
I mean, you've navigated through it. But as much as
you marvel at what because they're still in first place
and you've got San Diego chasing, and we'll see what happens.
They finally got a good start out of doing Yeah, no,
that's just it. You got these teams hanging around. And
when we go to strength of schedule, well, Dodgers have
the fourth quote easiest path remaining a lot of losing
(08:25):
squads coming up here series for series, so some opportunity
maybe to create some distance again, but banking on full
health and for every every turn in the analytics to
work right again, it's a dangerous proposition and flirtation. And
if they don't get right hitting wise, I mean you
brought up the PA has a fielding issue and then
(08:48):
base running one oh one. I mean we're seeing on
display time and again with the squad some of the
fundamentals have just gone out the window. But the injury
issues is something that I think from an organizational standpoint,
you got to pull back and just try to figure
out what in your training processes. Even if you have
been really good at picking up the reclamation projects from
(09:10):
other squads, you know what's going on, what's in the
water for your own organization. Because while you can buy
your way out it's a dangerous way to live, but
it's still it's pretty cool to see show hee Otani's
he just jogs out to no matter that this thing started.
It's it's a very it's not necessarily a full sigh
of relief, but it's one of those. All right. I
(09:32):
took my tongue so the indigestion went away for a
little bit. See him out there for a couple of innings. Now,
is he only going three tonight? I thought they were
going to try to push him. They may try to stretch.
I think it's going to be dependent on on the
pitch count and ease. Right, we talked about stressful out
stressful innings, and the fact that the first pitch got
tattooed for a home run is probably not the ur
(09:55):
second pitch of the game. He goes sailing out Byron
bust in his twenty third home run of the year.
All right, recess, great start, a great start. Well, you
have him a fatball exit velocity of about one hundred
and five miles an hour, so now you know when
you're struggling, let's just go ahead and have the bottom
completely fallout. But I still it'll be very interesting to
(10:17):
see what the moves are coming up in a couple
of weeks now with the trade deadline, you know, it's
still because of the job their front office is done.
And not to like completely dodge your home or out,
but it's still one of the top prospects, one of
the top farm systems in all of Major League Baseball?
And you know, do you start risking some of that?
Do you really swing for the fences? Do you call
(10:38):
Pittsburgh and say, all right, what do you want for
Paul Skiins? You know actually won today, Chris I saw that,
you know, that first one since May twenty eighth? How
about that? So hold on, I just want to give
you an idea how behind my feet is for the
game right now? Boom Byron Buxton just hit a home run.
It's one Minnesota, but it's a h It really is
(11:00):
kind of a fascinating time to decide if your buyers
are selves it not just for the Dodgers, right look
at the Red Sox and are you satisfied with just
kind of battling for that wild card? Is that where
you want to be? Or do you think, hey, I
can get a little bit more and and maybe if
we get in the wild card great, but then we're
set for the future. I don't know. I know this,
the Dodgers are not a team that's going to be
(11:21):
in any other mode than buying. They're gonna be out
there trying to find the pieces that fit. If it's
if it's getting a third basement, if it's getting involved
in schemes or another starter, if they have to truly
go and find themselves a closer. I don't know what
it is, but Mike's there's no if, ans or butts
about it. This is one of those that it's kind
of hard to explain away with just how bad it's
(11:41):
been for the Dodgers. Struggle Bus has certainly been there.
And what's funny is, you know, you get the shot
and freud of it all where folks are gonna be
very excitable because you got to explain that one to me,
the shot and that is taking joy in the misery
of others. Okay, I don't have to google that. You
can do it in song form from Avenue Q I'm
(12:04):
a Publisher, which which I have always described since seeing
it off Broadway many years ago as the Muppets on
crack Okay, and they have a whole song about schadenfreude,
so you can go run with that one a little
bit as you will. Hey, Hey, who said we wouldn't
learned something tonight on the show I'm here for Oh No,
We're gonna teach a lot of stuff. We're speaking wisdom
into the microphone here. Thank you wherever you're listening, however,
(12:27):
you're listening on one of our five hundred affiliates nationwide
on the iHeartRadio app. Take us with you wherever you go, evangelize,
Send us to your family and friend. We're trying for
global expansion. As always, we love to put the little
pins on the map wherever we can, so you can
get us at Plank Show, at Swollen Dome, at Fox
Sports Radio. We'd love to know where you are and
(12:48):
how you're listening, and whether you're enjoying some of the
current struggles of the Los Angeles Dodgers. We coined them
the Evil Empire several years ago. As you know, we
are ahead of the curve once the buying where you
really started going and to your point about the wild card,
that's the beauty and the horror of all of this
stuff when you get to the trade deadline, Because once
upon a time you knew where that dividing line was, right,
(13:10):
and now you start looking at well, here's our expected schedule,
here's the guys coming back from injury. Here's all that.
I'm a White Sox fan. I just want them to
play spoiler to somebody. I don't care who pick a
name out of the hat, that one team gets wrecked
because of us. That's my goal. I just I was looking.
Do you let's see here, White Sox. We're thirty games
(13:33):
under five hundred. Okay, okay, join it. They just swept
the Pirates. GM was getting fired because of them. So
you got that. They were beating up on the Rays
the last I saw. Now, my screens are replete with
images of show Heyo Tani wherever I look right now.
So you got that going for you. So but you know, look,
the long road begins with the first step. I can't
(13:55):
be a front runner. I'm still celebrating two thousand and five.
You know that title that ESPN and refuses to acknowledge
one of the greatest pitching performances in baseball history. That's starting.
For hell, they put a statue up of Burley last week.
There's my celebration moment. That's all I got right there, Chris.
That's it. That's it.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
I'm living twenty years ago. 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 (14:28):
Joining us now on the hotline to try to make
some sense of what the hell's going on with NFL owners,
what's going on with the union and everything else across
our NFL landscape. It's our body one oh five seven
the fan in Baltimore. He's got his betting podcasts. Longtime
friend of the show at Jason Lock and for in
the Twitter verse Jason Lock and for Jay, what's going on? Buddy?
Speaker 4 (14:52):
What's going on? Gentlemen?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Welcome to the party as we get ready for what
we got ten days left till we get our haul
Fame game and all that excitement, which is at the
end of the weekend. There's a Nickelback show too. Who knew?
You didn't know and you didn't care?
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Actually I did. I saw it somehow popped up on
my Twitter. But what I didn't know is like that
they're like and special guests like Prudy mc nuggets or whatever,
like whoever the special guy. I'm like, I totally don't
know this person. I'm like, I don't know, did I
know this person? Like? Is this that big in Canada?
I don't know, you know, because they're Canadian. But yeah,
if you seriously though, if you see like the promo stuff,
(15:34):
there's like this other guy who they're with, who's wearing
like an old school Houston Oilers jersey, and I'm like,
I don't know that guy. I am unfortunately familiar with Nickelback.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
I'm gonna have to go do the deep dive of
what's going on there.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys probably know him. Like you guys,
I mean, it's good just be me an old man thing.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
But AnyWho, I'm right there with you. Hey, you want
to start with some Lloyd Howell fun Now he's now
it's his other job. You go through the bench reports J. C. Tretter,
He's no longer gonna seek a job in this process.
Demorris Smith. I haven't read the book yet, but does
this mean he was complicit or just dumb?
Speaker 4 (16:12):
No, jeez, you're gonna put You're gonna put Lloyd Howell
on him. I mean, I I don't think hell, I'll
see how you can do that.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Well, just say in terms of the overall union ineptitude
and some of those discussions about guarante.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Right now, I'm picturing d Smith like that Kermit Defragg
meme of him sitting back on a sipping his teak.
I mean D Smith, like, look how it looks. I mean, Jesus,
you can say to one about him having a replace
a legend, you know what I mean, Like you replace oself.
And he was never going to be it for everybody,
and he certainly had his faults, and that union remains
(16:49):
the weakest of the professional sports unions, despite the sport
making more money revenue wise than any other and frankly
more than most of them combined. But I think history
won't be quite as unkind to him as I mean.
He came in and was immediately in a bit of
a labor war, and it was one in which the
owners were willing to, you know, lock people out. It
(17:14):
was a really tough circumstance and I feel like, yes,
they could have done a lot of things better. But
the number of people who left when d Smith left,
who said, now the time to take my buyout because
this guy coming in looks like a total clown. It
was a charade, how he was elected, it was everything
was a mystery. Guides themselves. I think some of them
(17:35):
didn't even really know who else they could have voted for.
The process was a sham, and it has sham results.
And whoever takes over is now going to be I
don't know, at most a couple of years removed from
the league, opting out of these TV deals and you know,
having this global uh turned it into more of a
(17:58):
global sport. And they're in a cram eighteen games down.
People's thoats and franchise tags aren't going anywhere, and we're
going to continue to play more games abroad than ever before.
And I just think they're going to get whatever they want.
And the Union is in an incredibly vulnerable place right now,
far more so than any time during d Smith's themat
(18:21):
controversial tenure.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
I'm not a smart man, Jason, Jason Smith's out on
Chris Plinkson and Jason locking Forth, so good to talk
to you, man. I'm not a smart dude, So I
don't really know the ins and outs of how this
affects anything now for the Players Association, because it seems
as if what the CBA is in place until at
least twenty thirty, So are we just exhale labor piece.
(18:44):
We don't have to worry about about strikes or anything.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
How does it affect them? I mean, I feel like
if you read the sixty one page document, considering it
was a tangaroo court stacked against them and a special
master who's never going to look the you know, is
are going to throw too many rocks at uh, at
the five million pound guerrilla who employs them. But like,
(19:09):
I feel like that collusion case was a win for them,
and they're so inept and so compromised, and jac Trader
acted like such a jackass that they collectively decided not
even to spread the word like that. They they kind
of sort of wont a collusion case. And then they're
so backwards and and and so myopic that they've been
(19:30):
colluded with the league. They can't mat the fightings. I mean,
you're gonna tell me how it affect the players. How
do you think it affects Lamar Jackson's mind?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
I'm more as the fans. How it affects us watching
a day to day I mean, we're not gonna have
to worry about a lockout or anything. I mean, obviously no.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
It effects but me, well, I mean I don't know,
I mean eventually, I I don't. I mean I can't
answer that question because I don't. I mean, you're I
don't know that this is rock bottom. I can't remember
how many times, like with Jimmy Has I'm running the Browns,
I'm like, well, this has to be rock bottom. You know,
it's never rock bottom. So I don't, I don't. I mean,
are they going to clean up their process?
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Like?
Speaker 4 (20:05):
Are they? Is this going to be transparent? If it's not,
I mean, how will it affect it if someone gets
in there who doesn't know what they're doing, could that,
you know, further hasten or or prolonged a potential workstopics?
I don't, I don't know. I mean, is is the
PA going to be ripe with clicks? And is that
(20:27):
going to make it even harder to negotiate? How empowered
will this person be? I mean from a football day
to day watching games, you know, quality of play all that. No,
But in terms of the players, oh, the players can
definitely continue to get host and even more so than
ever by having completely enough leadership at the helm that
(20:48):
doesn't even isn't even smart enough to know when they've won.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Because that's always been the question in terms of the
rank and file, Jason, like, where we've got the different
les levels that players are at, salary wise, tenure, and
trying to get everybody on the same path to vote
towards the same things has always been a challenge. But
now how far removed does someone have to be from
the institutions to be trusted at this point?
Speaker 4 (21:18):
I mean, I don't know how to answer that. I mean,
it sounds like the last time around, the reps and
the rank and follow weren't even on the same page
as to the process itself. And if we're now led
to believe that the executive Committee didn't even think this
guy was worthy of it in the first place, yet
(21:40):
they passed it along to sort of the popular vote,
I mean, it's hard to speak about because it was
so shrouded in mystery. We didn't even know Loyd how won,
and up until recently most people didn't even know who
the hell he was running again, I I don't know.
I mean, clearly was doing clownish, buffoonish stuff. He wasn't
(22:05):
there that long. This started immediately. How yeah, Like, how
did he ever get that position in the first place?
How much of a leadership vacuum was there? And is there?
You know, do they need to have an independent audit,
some third party come in there and make recommendations like
(22:28):
do they need to make it a prerequisite that whoever
they hire next has had significant experience at a different
labor union, maybe ideally a sports labor union, and has been,
you know, in somewhat of a prominent role, whether current
or past. Like, yeah, I mean, and certainly there's discord,
(22:53):
there's a lack of harmony. I think among the players.
We're talking about what is it right now? Right he
had ninety eyes on rosters, you've got thirty teams. Do
the math. It's a lot of people at various points
in their career, with various earning potential and various earning
past and various earning futures. It's it's it's hard to
(23:17):
get them on the same page. I mean, looks how
hard it is to get thirty two billionaires on the
same page. And now we're talking about, you know, twenty
seven hundred guys.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
It's gonna be tough. Jason Loking, for is our guest.
All right, on the well kind of on the field stuff.
It looks like Michael Parson's gonna be still showing up
at Cowboys camp. But Jerry Jones is doing Jerry Jones things.
The bottom line more than anything else, he usually gets
these deals done. What kind of situation do you feel
like this ends up being for the Cowboys? Do they
(23:48):
get it done? Does it cost him too much? Or
could this one drag on a bit?
Speaker 4 (23:53):
No, they'll get it done. They'll get it done, probably
right before the Jesus starch, So yeah, it'll cost them
too much. Us still have the egg on their face.
I'll probably regret it within a couple of years. It's
just the same old dog and pony show. I mean,
(24:14):
like we were talking last week, Garry eats this stuff up.
I mean the fact that there's all this discord and
disharmony and then he eventually gives the guy more than
anybody else would have, and so you know, the guy
eventually gets a smile on his face. But the star
culture continues and certain people are propped up, and there's
an underbelly to that roster. There's never really cohesion in
(24:38):
that locker room because certain guys are treated like rock stars,
and you know, everybody else just is sort of everybody else.
And you know, I think Jerry's gotten increasingly callous and
flipp it with how he talks about injuries and talks
about players worth. And it really kind of started, you know,
(25:00):
around the Kaepernick stuff, and I feel like it's kind
of escalated since then, and he continues to message to
that locker room in a way that I don't think
resonates with a lot of those guys, especially the ones
who aren't being paid as best to breed in their positions.
So yeah, I mean, he'll get his, like that got his,
(25:21):
but he'll end up hurting the team because of the
contract structure and because of what else they won't be
able to do.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
And he just.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
He's just so stuck in his own ways, and the
older he gets, the more stubborn he gets, and it's
his way or the highway, and it's just going to
be another, I think, pedestrian season in Dallas.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Another big effort from us here out on Monday Night
from our guy, Jason Lock and for at Jason Lock
and for is where you find him in the Twitter verse.
See what he's got going on. The Want to Be Podcast,
and so much else than he does one O five
to seven the fan there in Baltimore, Jayceon, thanks for
taking a few time minutes out with us here on
a Monday night. Next time we'll be talking about more
(26:11):
camp fun and getting ready for that Hall of Fame game.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Yeah, get on Malmo and get on FC cloth and
from the Czech Republic tomorrow and Champions League qualifying. Think
of that. Take them both on the money line, maybe
parliam together.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Malmo is a wonderful place to visit, by the.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Way, gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Yeah, it's wonderful, lovely. Yeah, I can't wait to go back.
Thanks for hanging out with us, Bundy. We'll talk to again, guys.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
I was really getting ready to send a bunch of
really nasty, all right, kind of funny texts to my mom,
you know, Cubs fan, even though she still has now
adopted the raise as another part of her cheering section.
Hey it is what it is. White Sox were absolutely
bludgeoning the Cubs and it's like a a shutout going
into the seventh and all of a sudden, a three
(27:03):
run barrage. And it's not quite as fun once they
get a crooked number up there, but we'll celebrate it
as we will over the course of the show. We
got so much going on. We got the NFLPA with
more chaos, just as we predicted. The other day, I
saw a couple of movies one very late night as
(27:24):
Happy Gilmour two came out, and then I'm a fantastic
four nerd. I started a new program outside of our
sports world, Arnie. So we'll tease that ahead where people
can interact socially. There we got linn O MESSI a messy,
messy situation. And then we've got a strike. And no
(27:45):
it's not the WNBA, it's not Major League Baseball. No,
it's the concession workers at Fenway Park as the Dodgers
come in for a big series this weekend. Dodgers take
the opener five to two. Walker Buehler gets his ring
before the game and everything else. But they had striking
(28:08):
workers all around the facility. Don't buy food walking the
picket line. You've got the era mark, the concession vendor
fighting with their union and the Red Sox going, hey, everything,
we can tell you it's not us, it's not on us.
Bernie Sanders chiming in respect the picket line the union posted.
(28:30):
We know ticks are expensive. We're not asking you to
stay away from the home games, but we're asking you
not to buy concessions. No purchase of pretzels, pickles or peanuts.
How many of those folks then set up stands outside
and still made some money, like you know those mobile
hot dog carts that are everywhere here in Los Angeles.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
Yeah, that wild like a serious and by the way, hello,
how are you my f I'm great body.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
What's going on?
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Well?
Speaker 3 (28:54):
I feel we got four hours of pleasantries touting me
nine thousand times.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
I had four hours. I think that's going to wrap
up the show. So I'll been to you next week.
Thank you for for By the way, you threw me off,
I didn't know you were driving tonight, so but that's okay.
You'll never learn how to drive unless you do it,
so I'm gonna let you go ahead and do that.
It's good to speak to ice.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
It's good to have a you know, a kindred smart
ass in the chair. You and I go way back
I'm sorry, Arnie Spaniard, do we have any trumpets or
anything for his arrival that we want Red Cardiff? But
I'm like, he's got to get to be right. I mean,
we're I think this is our three now. I I
just had dinner, Like there you go, his Royal Highness
(29:41):
and side Sunday Night's a longside, Chris Blank. He and
I go back a long way in these sporting highways
and my ways. He's he's honored to be in with
me tonight. It's our guy, Arnie Spaniards. Fire on the
man all night long. We've been hearing that for weeks.
(30:04):
That's gonna drive me crazy. He's been buying that. That's
got nothing to do with you be on the show. No,
I know, it's it's driving me batty. And it's only
been twice right now. It's one of the great drops
that you've given us. There are many I saw.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
I saw a grateful Dead cover band my friend had
not my friend some lady I met invited me to
our house to wait for a cover band.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yeah, you gotta bet you want to get a stand
up bass player as you try to tell these stories
that I hear you call me.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
Yeah, exactly know this. This lady called my name in
the parking lot. I didn't know who she was, but
she's like, hey, you should come to our party. We're
having a cover band. It's Grateful Dead. So I told
my wife and we just kind of, you know, crashed.
We didn't know anybody there, but it was a good.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Did you throw the keys in the right bucket or what?
Speaker 4 (30:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Yeah, there you go, there you go. You gotta be
a certain age. You go look that up on the
exactly and your innerwebs and what I'm talking about.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
But yeah, hey, what's going on? I saw you like
thirty six topics today. That's like an all time record.
Are we gonna get to every one of them?
Speaker 3 (31:11):
I know, because a bunch of them are actually a
little dated in that I've been doing shows dated show wow. No, no, No.
The point is we're pretty good. I think between Frostburg
Alex when when Steve's in with us last night, Dan
Byer Monty Belango sending with us that we grab what's
current and new, which means it doesn't get to jest
(31:33):
date and see which way the dot you to that point.
Seven of them we already did. There's a couple that
I'm I like our license with the FCC. We know
one of the principles and in some of the notes
that you sent me is very litigious, resides here in
Los Angeles, doesn't show up when he says he's supposed
to show up at a pizza place. May or not,
(31:56):
may not be trying to force his way out despite
picking up a fifty two point six million dollar player option.
By declining it would have written made his life a
lot easier. But instead it's look at me, look at me, hey, hey,
look at me like I'm going straight. Things and ten
things I hate about you say plenty of movie references
(32:17):
over the course of the night, but you know, the
Lebron James stuff. It's fun to kind of look at
and wave at. I mean, we can talk about the team.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
It's changed today today, it's changed actually today because Jeff
Tigue walked it backward.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
But he can't. No, no, you can't walk that back Well,
what no, you can't. You can't under him, you might
you might have gotten threat of legal recourse, so you
will issue a public apology and you know, and walk
it back and like that had that siren truck.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
If it's true, you can't sue, right, I mean, that's
that's a pretty good defense at least I thought.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
I Well, for those unaware Jeff Tigue implying that miss
time by Lebron James in the past, I mean, since
you know you're walking it there, we'll go through it
implying shenanigans in terms of availability and in terms of
readiness to play and maybe supplements. How do you like that?
(33:16):
We'll dance around it that way. But and then immediately
within twenty four hours after backlash and we have seen
litigiousness on the part of Clutch Sports and Lebron James
that suddenly, oh, I you know, I was just speaking
off the cup. No, no, no, you knew exactly what
the hell you were doing. And it was only when
you got the call note multiple notes, maybe a courier
(33:39):
that showed up with a you know, a nice Manila
envelope of stuff that suddenly you're walking it back. So yeah,
you got that there. Whether you want to believe stuff
or not, right, I mean, that's up to you the
listening audience. You're an intelligent group of people, and I'm
not going to try to swell you one way or another. Arnie.
That's not what we're here to do. In the end,
(34:00):
I enjoy what's in between the white lines. History will
decide the rest of it. I don't care to be
honest with you. And I'm talking about all athletes. I'm
not just talking about Lebron.
Speaker 5 (34:12):
What supplements they're using, what they're putting in their body,
what they're trying to do to make themselves healthier, trying
to overcome get back from some injury, a steroid, whatever
it is, whatever doctor says, if the doctor says, hey,
this is gonna make you heal faster. They put their
bodies through so much, Mike and I and I'll speak
(34:33):
for America, how about that. I don't think Americans can
care anymore. I don't think anybody sits back right now.
Go ah, look at that guy, he's a running back.
He's gotta be on steroids. Or look at that baseball player.
Look at what he home runs he has. He's got
to be on something. Nobody cares, Nobody thinks about it anymore. Mike,
it's not important. And like I said, if you're gonna
(34:55):
put your body through that much stuff, you deserve to
go ahead and heal as fast as possible to get
back to the field and and whatever doctor says, do it.
Then it's not like you're, you know, putting you should
put bad things in your body. These are all healthy
things and good things to make you heal. So I
just don't think people care anymore. That's why maybe he's
(35:18):
walking it back. Maybe it's because he was gonna get sued.
But I'm on the Bron's side on this. I don't
think anybody cares what he you know, he should do
whatever it is good for his body.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
All right, So he's hijacked the show once. Keep that
score count over there to saga. As we get through
the night, we'll have the h We'll ring the bell
each and every time. I wanted to talk about labor strife,
instead we go down this. Sure they'll be twisted road
what But no, I mean yesterday, look, we commemorated the
life and life and times uh wrestling in particular and
(35:50):
Master Thespian that of Hulk Hogan. Tonight they did the
big ten bell, will salute his part of SmackDown. But
to that point, plenty of stuff back in the day
with home and substances which mayor you know, not just
training and saying your prayers and eating your vitamins, but
a big thing, and there's plenty of documentaries on it
through it all in the ends, that bridge between sports
(36:13):
and entertainment and trying to figure out where the lines are.
And certainly we've seen we'll commemorate the Hall of Fame
inductions this week and every year it becomes the same
question of all right, you leave certain people out, and
then you've got the other guys who might have been
better to the media or maybe had a better reputation, right,
(36:34):
weren't a jerk and dismissive of some questions in the clubhouse.
They're the ones that get left out. And then you've
got a couple of other guys that like, well maybe,
but hey they're in, and you know they get voted in.
And I think you all immediately as I'm saying that,
you get one, two, maybe eight names of the last
twenty years that suddenly pop into your brain. But it's
(36:56):
all to your point, aren't you In the end, if
it's going to get a player back on the field
and our all stars are there and available, something we
can plain about ad nauseum, particularly during the NBA season,
that you know, there is something to be said for
what availability is the best ability that our audience cares?
(37:16):
Do you think our people I think in general, I
think I think there is. I think there is to
a point, right, you know, the sense of fair play, truth,
justice in the American way and all that. I'm watching
Superman in between all my baseball games here. But all
of that to say that you're you're trying to figure
(37:37):
out you know, the quote level playing field, which, let's
face it, from day one, as soon as you put
on a pair of cleats, grab a bat whatever, like
science and uh, genealogy is you're already having problems. There's
no correlation.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
Yeah, there's no correlation between you know, taking a steroid
and saying that you're gonna hit more home runs. Otherwise
everybody would be doing it, and a lot of people
were doing it. I just think now people just want
to see their favorite athletes. They want to see big
time athletes. The way to do that is, you know,
keep yourself healthy. That's tough, man.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
You see what these do football players go through? You
such like football, nobody ever cared. Occasionally you'd have to
nab somebody who didn't follow the protocol right calendar and
they would get popped or occasionally the wrong thing at
the wrong time, and you'd have, you know, the sacrificial lamb.
(38:35):
But I mean football. You know, I think we've all
just kind of shrugged and laughed at that for a
long time. I can't know us. Why do you think
we stopped texting testing? Why do you think we stopped
testing from.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
Marijuana in the NBA and in all sports?
Speaker 4 (38:47):
Huh?
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Well, it also got legalized in the vast majority of states,
so you know, to that end, it became a wait,
this is helping guys fight through their pains and issues. Yeah,
let's go. So yeah, not the topic I was planning
to start with. I was celebrating the great American pastime
in another way. But well we we roped it back
(39:09):
in uh with some Hall of fame and with some
of the chaos uh and rumor conjecture speculation. Uh. So
you ended up getting that in shoehorning that topic into
the show. So take the w the it's your last
one of the nights. Put you unnoticed, now, Paal, Okay.
Speaker 5 (39:27):
There you go. I won't steer us into a ditch anymore.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
And I'm watching the the White Sox and the Cubs.
One of the great innovations of our time. Uh, the
White Sox wearing what looked like bulls uniforms that on
the MLB network.
Speaker 5 (39:43):
Is that what you're watching it on?
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Ummm no, I think I think this one's just your normal.
There is the Apple Friday game was I think the
Phill Easton Jay got that one going for you. But
which you know, again, people complain, cough up a buck
or don't watch. Well, it's upon a time you got
like three games a week?
Speaker 4 (40:00):
Is that what it?
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Shut the hell up? Is that what it cast? How
much does it cost from I don't even know what.
Apple's like one hundred bucks a year? Okay, Apple plus
and you get and you get shrinking. Yeah, well, I
mean that that is true. Your bunny ears thing isn't
gonna work.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
You know.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
It's part of the larger move topic. I was trying
trying to get to and tease with you. Here is
Arnie's on the move. So we're gonna try to help
his sports life along the way. Hashtag fire on the
Mountain at Fox Sports Radio at Stinking Genius one at
Swaltwen Dome for that as we try to navigate that.
But no, the the White Sox went and they they
(40:36):
found a nice hybrid of some of their their colors
and logos. Add to the bulls with the black and
the red, and you come up with something that looks
pretty pretty good. They also have a promotion that I
saw on ad for during this game, White Sox twelve
three lead here in the eighth wedding in a minute.
(40:58):
Oh like an old Bill Veck promotion. So you can
apply to get your marriage done on the mound in
a minute. So the change in a game that's a
total Bill vectig, Well, that screams you, and it screams
our guy Andy Furman back there in Cincinnati, we love you.
Some of the stuff Andy used to do at the
(41:19):
restaurant
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