Softy and Dick 6-19 Hour 3: Larry Stone, Wilson Stafford, DeChambeau Image

Larry Stone joins the show to talk about the passing of Willie Mays, including stories of his interactions with him, and much more.  Who is more likely to get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame? Matt Stafford or Russell Wilson.  What made Bryson DeChambeau change his image?

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
No from the Star Rentals Sports tous jord ninety three point three k j
R FM Sports headlines, Girls HeavyWednesday headlines and SOFTI and Dick with Jackson
anders in for Jackson. Brought toyou by your friends at Vinue Kings dot
com. So it's kind of funchallenge now we love it. Kayln Clark
back in town Thursday with the IndianaFEVA. You want to go watch the

(00:21):
Phenom play menu Kings dot Com canget you in. Jump on the web,
use coach Sofia checkout for a discount. Baseball scoreboard Orioles Yankees one one
the middle third from the Bronx RedSox lead. The Blue Jays won nothing
from Toronto after three raising twins,no score bottom one from Minneapolis coming up
a five oh five Tonight Mets andRangers and the Astros and White Sox.

(00:43):
The Mets, I believe, havestill not lost a game since Grimace threw
out the first pitch over a weekago. How about that. All we
need is Ronald McDonald to come toSeattle. Did the Rangers not come back
and beat them yesterday? No?They lost seven six. Edwin Diaz closed
it out. Let's go and TIOscar Hernandez at the game winner. If

(01:04):
I saw him, I saw theRangers jump ahead, and I was like
a grimace is over. A greatnight for ex Mariners, baby. How
about hockey Oilers jump out to athree zero lead. They held on to
force Game six and the Stanley CupFinals. Coachella Valley racked up six goals
last night, including a Max McCormickhat trick. Down in Palm Springs.

(01:26):
They drubbed Hershey six to two.They take a two to one lead in
the Culture Couple of finalsh w anb a storm Vegas tonight. It's from
Vegas TV, Yes, Channel oneten and Amazon Prime. The reason why
he's dressed like that, by theway, I don't always dress was like
a million bucks. Smell like,smell good twice smelling Yeah, I smell

(01:51):
my microphone well, because your breathis on the microphone the mine. I
didn't even need to walk over there. Larry Waiting loveday, he can take
a nap as fuck La Sparks rookieCameron Brink the number two pick out of
Stanford by the way, out forthe year with a torn aco. I's
get the Larry right now. It'stime for our weekly conversation with legendary sports

(02:13):
writer Larry Stone, brought to youby the Ram Restaurant and Brewery, Bigger,
better, and fresher since nineteen seventyone, with eight Fugit Sound locations
from Marysville to Lacey and everywhere inbetween. There's a RAM there you now
with Softy and Dick, here's LarryStone. It's really funny about that open.
By the way, is that Larryhad agreed to do this radio segment

(02:35):
with us every Wednesday, but said, the only way I'll do it is
if you call me a legendary sportswriter, and so we had to agree
to put that in the open.And by the way, I think it's
time for the RAM to drop offof a couple samples here on Wednesday nights.
There. What's that turkey have already? Sandwich? They have there?
That thing is freaking amazing, man, fantast Hey, let's go, come
on, banger, get your assdown here, drop off some freaking tots

(02:58):
or something. Larry Stone, legendarysports writer, is with us on the
ear. How are you, man? I'm doing great. Legendary is just
code word for old. I gotyou well, you deserve it. No
doubt about it. And you knowhe's talking to Dick off the air that
every week we have you on,we say it's a great day to have
Larry on the air because Bill Waltonpassed away, Jerry West passed away,

(03:20):
and now maybe, just maybe,and you can make a debate for sure,
the greatest baseball player of all time, Willie Mays died yesterday at the
age of ninety three years old.And great photo of you and Willy and
Barry Bonds on your Twitter account rightnow. But give us, first of
all, your reaction when you heardthe news, and then second of all
kind of went through your mind afterthat. Well, stunned, of course,

(03:40):
just because he was Willie Mays.But I can't say I was shocked
because I knew he was in failinghealth. You know, they were having
that game in Birmingham, which reallywas designed to be a tribute to Willie
Mays at the ballpark where he startedhis career with the Negro League, and
one May announced on Monday that hewasn't making the trip. I got a

(04:02):
little suspicious then, but the timingis incredible that that he died right when
they're in Birmingham. His hometown,the Giants. Uh. But uh,
you know we were talking about JerryWest and how he has this hallowed place
in the sporting uh hierarchy. Well, Willie's Willie's a cut above. He's

(04:24):
in that short short list of theall time you know, the Michael Jordan's,
the Tiger Woods. Will Willie MaysUh true, true, icons that
he just was so emblematic of baseballin my in my youth, and then
beyond that, he was the guy, the one everyone emulated, the basket

(04:46):
catch, the hat falling off.You know, you wanted to be Willie
Mays. And he was just suchan electric performer, could do everything on
the field. I do believe heis the greatest player of all time.
You know, he a two fivetool player. You know, Ruth has

(05:06):
the stats, but he played inthe pre integration era and was pretty much
a one trick guy. But Willie, Willie did it all with flair and
just made an indelible mark on notjust baseball, on the American you know
fabric. Well, in the lasthour, you tweeted out a photo of

(05:29):
you handing Barry Bonds an award withWillie Mays in the background. There you
say, it's Candlestick Park nineteen ninetyfour. And you also say I might
tell the story of prompted during myappearance was Softy and Dick. So we're
prompting you. Let me prompt you. That's right. Tell the story,
all right. I've told the storya few times, not for a while.
It's pretty it's actually pretty funny.It was Opening Day ninety four,

(05:53):
which was later turned into the strikeseason, but we didn't know it at
that time. And full of courseis there always is an Opening Day.
And Barry had won the Nation LeagueMVP Award and he was to receive that
award in a pregame ceremony from WillieMays. And he had also been voted

(06:13):
the Player of the Year by theby the Bay Area Baseball Writers Chapter,
and I happened to be the chairman, so it was my duty to give
him our You could see it inthe in the picture, it's this modest
pen and pencil set compared to thegiant glittering trophy that that he was going
to get for MVP. So Iwas going to give the award and then
give way to Willie who was goingto give him the MVP award. But

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just as they were about to startthe award, a Giants official comes running
up and since we're short on time, we got to do them together.
You know, we can't. Wedon't have time to do them separately.
Wow. So so there Suddenly theannouncement came over the PA. Now to
present Barry Bonds with his awards,we have Larry Stone of the San Francisco
Examiner and Willie Mays, who gotthe bigger applause. Well, I always

(07:02):
say that that was the one andonly standing ovation of my career. Wow,
the thunderous standing ovation. And uh. They told me I didn't have
to say anything, just hand himthe award, shake his hand and get
awesome there. Well I was That'swhat I was going to do with Willie.
And you can see it in thepicture. He's pointing at the microphone

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and he's pushing me towards the microphoneand saying, in this, you know,
in his trademark kind of high squeakyvoice, you got to say something,
man, you gotta say something.Wow. Well what did you say?
Yeah? I hadn't prepared anything,so I just said gratulations Berry and
uh and uh walk and moved aside. So that Willie could give him a

(07:46):
war. I love it well.You had you had way more interactions than
than I did with him. Ijust had one night, a couple of
hours we had a dinner with theguys up from Mill Creek Sports. He
was in town for an autograph signing, and he seemed to be, you
know, pretty mellow guy. Iknow, he was always hanging around the
ballpark and the players would love talkingbaseball with him. But what was he
like as a person, What washe like as just a guy off the

(08:07):
field? You think? You know, I covered the Giants for ten years
before I came to Seattle, andhe was always around, particularly in spring
training that the longtime clubhouse manager justretired after I think sixty five years in
the organization, Mike Murphy, Murph, the famed Murph. Willie was extremely

(08:31):
close with Murph, and he wouldjust hang out in his equipment office just
shooting the breeze, and the playerswould come in and have an audience with
him. You know, Willie McCoveywould be there sometimes. Orlando cepaida Juan
Marish all the royalty of the Giants, but Willy was the one who was
holding court. And you know,it kind of depended on what day you

(08:54):
got him. He could be verypleasant and talkative, and some days he
didn't want to be a per coachedat all because somebody always wanted a piece
of Willie Mays, you know,and he I think he learns much like
Griffy, that you had to beat arm's length at times, or else
you would never have a moment's piece. So uh, there was definitely times

(09:16):
when when he made it clear hedidn't want to be approached, But other
times you could sit with him,not necessarily do an interview, but talk
talk about the glory days and youknow, hey, what was it like
facing Sandy Koefe's and that sort ofthing. It was, you know,
an incredible education in baseball because hecalled all the writers writer, hey,
writer, come over here, exceptfor Nick Peters, who who was a

(09:43):
longtime Berrier writer who who he hada good relationship with him. And then
in the later days, John Shayof the San Francisco Chronicle became kind of
his his guy and wrote the bookwith him that called twenty four, which
I highly recommend to anyone. Itwas published within the last two or three
years, and it's it's a greatthing that John was able to interview him

(10:07):
one final time to reflect on hislife and wrote this great book and I'll
talk to everybody Obama, Clinton,Hank Aaron when he was still alive,
then Scully, everybody's Willie May's story. So you know the fact that he
led a writer like John into hisinner circle is said a lot about John

(10:31):
and about Willie. But yeah,he was there. There was an aura
about him that was unmatched by anyoneI've ever been around. He was He
was Willie Mays. It was.It was Jordan esque, no doubt.
Well you mentioned Coo fact, Ijust looked it up. Willie Mays had
a nine to sixty two lifetime opsoff of By the way, that's unbelievable.

(10:52):
You know, I'm glad you broughtup Junior earlier because he's the closest
thing we have in Seattle to WillieMays. So maybe talk about the similarities
and how close was Junior to WillieMay's not personally, but like as a
baseball player. Yeah, well personallyhe was very close to him. He

(11:13):
in the in the message that hethe statement that he issued yesterday, he
talked about how his whole life hehad been going to Willy for advice and
when he's when he came back tothe Mariners in two thousand and nine,
it was remember he was torn betweenwhether he should go to Atlanta or or
or sign with the Mariners, andit was Willie Mays who called him up

(11:33):
and counseled him and advised him toto go to to the Mariners. For
his legacy, how important it wouldbe for him to finish to the same
place that he started. Yeah,that's that's and that's and Griffy has said
many times that's what pushed him todo that. But Griffy, Yeah,

(11:56):
I think Griffy was on the wayto being the new Maye. It's a
shame that injuries kind of robbed himof the second half of his career because
I think for the first half he'sabout as close as we've as we've seen
there to Willie Mays. And thenI think all those years of playing on
the Kingdome, the hard Kingdom turftook its toll. We've we all know

(12:22):
about what happened, and he justwasn't the same player when he got to
Cincinnati and probably kept him from hittingseven hundred home runs. But yeah,
there's a lot of similarities. Ithink to the current generation, I think
he is there. He is theWillie Mays of this generation. One thing

(12:45):
that struck me over the years ishow many players that you current players or
players within the last five and tenyears, just worshiped Ken Griffy Jr.
And when they see him in theMariner Clubhouse, when he comes comes around
as he does periodically, they're justnot struck. No, no question.
Well, Larry Stone is with uson the radio show, and Larry Willy

(13:07):
wasn't the only legend we lost thisweek. Blaine Newnham, who you work
with for a long time at theTimes, Calmness for many many years in
this city, passed away just acouple of days ago. Steve Kelly was
in with the End today in thestudio talking about Blaine. So give us
your thoughts on Blaine Newonham and whathe meant to you as a teammate at
the paper. Yeah. I listenedto Steve that was really interested what he

(13:31):
had to say about Blaine and acknowledginghow they didn't get along, which was
not a secret. You know,everybody could see it. But nobody gets
along with Steve anyway, So it'snot I got along with him. Blaine.
Yeah, Blaine was just a reallythoughtful writer. He wasn't a hot
take artist at all. He wouldhe would really research a topic and he

(13:56):
wouldn't just write it off the topof his head. You go to an
event, a Husky game, you'dsee him talking for a long time with
the athletic director or the coach oryou know, or had a practice or
you know. He did his homework. And I think I learned a lot
from him about reporting a column,that that the best columns are ones where

(14:20):
you where you did the leg workand the and the phone work and and
got to the bottom of the story. And that was that was Blaine.
Everybody respected him. Uh And Andthe other thing about Blaine is when I
was I started in Yakama, Mymy career started in Yakama, and he
was in Eugene at the time.And you and Eugene Paper was a groundbreaking

(14:43):
pioneering paper in the use of colorand layout and the like. They had
a peep with their prize winning photographernamed fran Lanker. But but Blaine was
the architect of that. He wasthe sports editor. So I knew of
him long before I came to Seattle. My dream was to get on the
Eugene Registered Guard. Everyone, everysports writer wanted to work in Eugene,

(15:05):
and so that's a part of hiscareer that's definitely worth mentioning, is,
you know, is what he didin Eugene. Of course, that was
a different era when newspapers were thriving. Now papers decided if Eugene barely have
a staff anymore. But back thenit was really really good and it was

(15:26):
a pleasure to work with him,and I did learn a lot from him,
and I was really really sad tohear that he had passed the legendary
Larry Stone Joining us here brought toyou by the Ram Restaurant Brewery. Larry,
We saw a coach this last weekdo something that we don't commonly see
and certainly didn't commonly see in thePee Caroll era, and that's give the

(15:48):
media and his team a day off. He said, that's it, We're
done. Doesn't matter if I'm abrand new head coach of an NFL football
team, I'm not going to takeadvantage of this last day of practice.
What did you make of that?I was kind of surprised that, Yeah,
it struck me it's like, boy, that's a way to win over
the team. Give him a dayoff, everyone will love him. Uh.

(16:11):
I think it showed that he's gonnabe kind of a player's coach and
not a hard ass kind of guy, even though I'm sure he has.
You can't be a football coach withouthaving some of that in you. But
uh, you know, for arookie coach to have the I don't know,
courage isn't the right word, butthe the whatever to to go against

(16:33):
the grains and give him the dayoff. Confidence. Yeah, I think
it showed me something who knows inthe big picture won't mean anything, that
one practice won't make or break them, but it may be said it gives
kind of a hint of of howhe's going to run the ball club.
Well, Larry Stones with us onthe air courtesy of the Ram and Larry

(16:56):
before you go. Mariner's getting clobberedright now in Cleveland, but ten games
up. Second time in forty eightyears of Mariner baseball that we've seen this
team with a double digit lead atany point in time during the season.
Last time was two thousand and one. So I don't know what does this
mean? A lot of Folks aresaying, hey, you've got three and

(17:17):
a half months left, calm down. Others saying, my god, Baseball
Reference has like a ninety percent chanceto make the playoffs right now. How
significant, in your opinion is thisten game lead. Well, it's just
kind of snuck up on us,kind of. It was just a few
days ago with the Texas series,where they had lost the three, they

(17:37):
would have been down to two anda half, and they've picked up a
game every day since. Yep.But it's a comfortable cushion and it makes
you sort of dream on where thisseason could go. But I think it
would be a danger to think that'sin the bag because teams have blown double
digit leads before. We saw ithere in Seattle in ninety five, and

(18:02):
it happens periodically. So to me, it shouldn't lessen the urgency to go
get a bat and then bullpen arm, which they still need this game.
I was watching through the fifth inningwhen this interview started, and they were
just getting manhandled by Bipe with Clevelandwith eleven strikeouts. I don't know what

(18:26):
happens since, but I'm jump infor a sec because you mentioned the offense
and the bullpen, and up untillike a week ago, if somebody would
have asked me what's more pressing,I would have said the offense, for
sure. But it really kind offeels like this bullpen desperately needs some help
here. I mean, Muno's willget back in the closer role at some
point, Santos knock on Wood willbe back. But how imperative is that

(18:51):
is? Is it almost more importantnow than getting a bat? I say
they're equally important. I still thinkwhen you look at all the swing and
miss on this team and and thebatting averages and the scarcity of runs,
yeah, they're they're in a nicestretch of run now, but of offense
now. But I still think thatif you add like one really solid back

(19:15):
to this team, it ticks themup a level. But they do they
do need one one more leverage armtoo, I think. But every contender
in baseball wants another leverage arm,and there's there's going to be It's going
to be more costly, I thinkthan people think it is to get a
copact or somebody like that, becausethere's just you know, all this talk

(19:36):
about Alonso uh going to get him. The Mets are a half game out
of a playoff spot right now.You know, I think he's off the
market. Uh So, there's moreand more teams that are in contention,
and fewer and fewer teams that arewilling to give up bats and leverage arms.
So the the price tag is justgoing to be astronomical because it's a

(19:59):
it's a seller's market, and soI think you're going to have to grit
your teeth and give up some prospectseven to get even to get a bullpen
arm and to get a bat.Luis Robert kind of bad. I think
that the price tag is going tobe very difficult to give up, and
you're gonna have to greet your teethand do it. Yeah, well,

(20:19):
you were exactly right when you saidit shouldn't preclude them from getting a bat.
But what if they are thirteen gamesfourteen games up the trade deadline and
the offense is at least, youknow, marginally good at that point,
will it preclude them forgetting a bator will they just kind of say,
you know what, we're good,look at this, We're going to win

(20:41):
the West, no problem. Well, I think that's a possibility for sure.
It's hard to answer what that Ithink because of what I just said
about the prospect price tag, thatmight give them cover to do that.
You know, if they do,if they do get it up to thirteen

(21:02):
or fourteen by the budes, andI think there's a higher chance that they
do that they don't do anything thathas opposed to If they're suddenly slumping and
here comes Houston and they're starting tocut into that lead, I think there'll
be more urgency. But I reallyit's hard to answer that question. But

(21:26):
I, like I said, Ithink I don't think that should determined because
your goal here is to win thewhole thing, no doubt, and another
bat would would it would help becauseruns are going to be at a premium
when you get to the postseason,no question. Larry Stone, great stuff,
man, appreciate all the insight andstories and for sharing that photo with

(21:47):
everybody. Great stuff and we're talkinga week man. Thanks Larry all right,
thanks guy. You bet Larry Stonewith us on there. I think
he was shocked. There was noold joke there. Okay, we made
it, you made it through,We made it through. Next week,
Larry Stone talks about his interviews withBabe Ruth on the radio show courtesy of
the RAM. We're gonna break alot more coming up, including Mike Florio

(22:07):
on ninety three three KJRFM Live fromthe R and R Foundation Specialist Broadcast Studio.
Now back to Softie and Dick GoneYour Home for the Huskies and the
Kreken Sports Radio ninety three point threekJ R FM. This Matt Stafford Russell

(22:29):
Wilson debate is really lighting up thetext line razing. It's unbelievable. Jeez.
I mean, we had one guyor one gal or I don't know
who it was that was what itmatter, one person texting the radio show
nine seven one? Where's ninety sevento one? By the way, look
that up nine So I'm going toguess somewhere in California. I think it's
so pretty good. Guess if youdon't know where it is, Ptland?

(22:52):
Here you go, Well, thismakes sense. Then if it's a Portland
person, are you kidding me?There's no co parison between Russell Wilson and
Matt Stafford. Stafford is a borderlineHall of famer. Wilson hasn't done squat
only they didn't say squat since twentytwenty, and he wasn't even close than
Jesus, says the ninety seven toone. So I'll say this, and

(23:15):
this is going to really rile upHu mill And if he's listening. By
the way, Matt Stafford has twoPro Bowl appearances. Russell Wilson has eight
of them. Now I know someof those are altered, it says Millan's
pointed out many many times. Buteight verses two is eight versus two.
Gino's got as many as Matt's mean, So for this SA this Portland person,

(23:37):
Jesus, it's not close. Imean, number one, you're wrong,
it's very close. And number two, somebody could debate that you're wrong.
Period, that Russell Wilson has hada better career than Matt Stafford has.
Now, what is Matt Stafford,by the way, is he's like
thirty seven, thirty eight years old. Somebody looked at us, this is
the kind of stuff that we shouldknow off the top of our head because

(23:57):
we're sports talking. Is six.He's thirty six, So Russell's thirty five.
So he's a year older, whichis weird, right, Yeah,
you think of Matt Stafford, gothe's a lot older. He's been playing.
He came into the league in twothousand and nine, and Russell came
in in twenty twelve. Because Russellwas like thirty when he made when he
made the NFL. But he's gothe's got more games, he's got more
pass attempts, the whole thing.So I don't think it's a slam dunk

(24:21):
either way. But to say thatit's not even close and it's Matt Stafford,
this is the same people that argueit's Lebron Jordan not even close,
ridiculous. I think ridiculous, ridiculous. I think you've got to take emotion
out of it, which you can'twith Russell Wilson. No I can,
I totally can't. I am completelytaking emotion out of No. No,
I'm saying a lot of a lotof people can't. I'm trying to take

(24:42):
emotion out of it as well,because there are there are Seahawk fans out
there that still love Russell Wilson,and there are Seahawk fans that hate Russell
Wilson, and there's everywhere in between. So it would be much easier to
throw out a Matthew Stafford or PhilipRivers, there's something like that, right,
It's a lot harder to throw outsomebody that people have a strong emotional

(25:07):
attachment either positively or negatively with.And I think anybody that comes out like
that Portland dude, he obviously hasa strong emotional attachment to Russell Wilson,
there's no question about it. Andnegatively negative right yestre all towards Russell Wilson.
So look, one guy's got almosttwo thousand more pass attempts than Russell

(25:29):
Wilson does two thousand more, andthen Russell's got the five thousand rushing yards
that Matt Stafford doesn't have. Souh again, I saw this today and
I was like, wow, youknow what, It's been a long time
since I've ripped off something from socialmedia and actually thought, this is a
really really good question. We thinkhe was going to say, I don't
know, I'll let him know,or should we just hit him with him

(25:52):
on Friday he'll say Matthew. Ithink he'll say, Matthew Stafford. Yeah,
just you gotta do the ab like, go which career would you rather
have? And they just list theirnumbers and then sure see what people would
say, I don't know, Yeah, hey I did that. Though.
One guy's got a passer rating ofone hundred. One guy's got a passer
rating in ninety one. One guyhas got forty three hundred passing yards.

(26:14):
One guy's got fifty six thousand,But again, two thousand more attempts than
Russell Wilson does yards per attenpt.Russell Wilson's got him interception. Stafford's thrown
seventy four more picks than Russell intwo thousand and more passes. That doesn't
seem like a lot more, No, it doesn't. One guy's got four
thousand more rushing yards though than theother. I mean, why do we

(26:36):
ignore that? Right? Like?Because I think a lot of people just
look at quarterbacks as passers. Theyjudge them as passers, not as athletes.
But I think, you know,a guy like Steve Young definitely got
him to helped him get in theHall of Fame with his wheels. Frank
Tarkington got in with his wheels.I think Russell Wilson. The problem is
that the guys with the wheels,they lose the wheels. And we watched

(26:56):
them play five, six, seven, eight years of the career without wheels,
and you kind of forget how elusivethat they were. Right, and
if Russell's still playing in twenty twentyeight. There's gonna be a lot of
people who don't even remember Russell Wilsonas a running quarterback or even a mobile
quarterback because they would have seen overa decade of him not be well.
And then they got me thinking aboutthat conversation we had with Mike Florio,

(27:18):
which he'll readhere by the way,about a half an hour from now,
wait to go more on or thoughtit was live, let's coming up at
six' ten and when he saidthe Comeback Player of the Year award,
that sucking doesn't get you the awardanymore. And somebody I think he kind
of mentioned Gino Smith and like,well, Gino Smith wasn't playing right and

(27:38):
then he became a starter and hekilled it and had a good year and
won the Comeback Player of the Award. Would Russell Wilson qualify for a Comeback
Player of the Year award? Ithink so. The Broncos dumped him,
they got rid of his contract.They're paying him a bunch of money to
leave. He's on a one yeardeal, he had to compete for a
gig. Well, how good ishe this year? You saying, I

(27:59):
don't know if he ends up being, you know, a top five quarterback
in the NFL. What if hethrows for thirty five touchdowns and eight picks
and four thousand yards and runs forthree hundred and makes the Pro Bowl?
Would say, if Geno can winit, ye, Russ can definitely,
right, I think he can winit because he got benched, right,
Yeah, But the AP now wantsyou to factor in like personal tragedites like

(28:22):
you lost a leg, or yougot six gor blah blah blah, that
impressive one a horrible dental accident,right, I mean, it's not just
about playing poorly anymore. That's thepoint. That's what Mike said, That's
what the AP is now saying.So under those qualifications, Russell Wilson's stinking
and losing his job would not qualifyhim for the Comeback Player of the Year.

(28:47):
He's got to get hit by abus. If that happens, then
yes, he can win the ComebackPlayer. I'm wondering if Russ's struggles over
the last couple of years could actuallyhelp him in the long run get in
the Hall of Fame. What doyou mean, because if he turns in
the next story and you have theRussell, you have Russell one point oh,
you have Russell two point oh,and then you have Russell three point

(29:10):
oh. That looks like Russell one. I think that might the narrative will
be a look at this guy resurrectedhemmed himself the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers to the
AFC Championship. He rose from thedead. What this guy he was?
He was buried, he was done, he was finished. And look at
him now. And if he ifhe takes Pittsburgh to like deepen the playoffs,

(29:32):
what if he does more in Pittsburghthan he did here that what if
he wins a title in Pittsburgh.What if when he goes into the Hall
of Fame he says, you knowwhat, I want to be known as
a Pittsburgh Steeler. I'm pretty confidentthat at this point in his career will
not be able to leave a teamto a Super Bowl. Cham you don't
think so? Yeah, all right, we're gotta break. Why is Bryson

(29:53):
D. Chambeau being so nice toeverybody? He actually addressed that today at
the Live tournament in Nashville. We'llhear it next on ninety three three kJ
R F m My from the rn R Foundation Specialists Broadcast Studio. Now
back to Softie and Dick on yourHome for the Huskies and the Kraken Sports

(30:14):
Radio ninety three point three kJ RFM. You know, every time I
hear that rejoin right there, it'slike a game show theme. Can you
restart that, by the way,just you can just fade this out and
then just go ahead and just tellme if you don't expect a game show

(30:36):
theme to be starting in three twoone. Yeah, every time I hear
that thing, I was like,what game show is this from? Or
some late night talk show? Homesbusting through the curtain exactly? And now
Don Reckon Bryson d Shambo, Man, why is he being so nice to

(31:00):
everybody? Right? He's hanging out. He's going to his house at Pinehurst
last week and he's on the streetwith the neighbors. You see, he
was hitting glow balls in the darttrunk drunk, so he wrapped it around
like Christmas lights on the US Opentrophy. He's siting autographs and taking pictures
during his US Open round with alot of like can you ever imagine Tiger

(31:22):
Wood's doing that, by the way, during a US Open, Not a
lot of players would have done thatduring that moment. So Bryson is in
Nashville with the Live Tour this week. What a great spot to go to
after winning a US Open by theNicville. You're kidding me. Bryce is
gonna shoot about plus thirty And Idon't care he won. What will be

(31:44):
higher his score or his blood alcoholafter he leaves Nashville. So somebody asked
him, why are you being sonice to all these fans? Man?
So when I was eleven, Iwas lucky enough to play in this charity
golf tournament and with Dereck California calledthe Save Mart Shootout, and there was
a bunch of pros that came thereto support the Valley Children's Hospital and numerous

(32:07):
other foundations. And my dad wasthe general manager of that golf course at
the time, and when I waseleven, it was the first experience with
professionals. I went out there andmet Adica Sormstam, Nancy Lopez, Arnold
Palmer, Nick Watney, Jason Gore, Peter Jacobson, signed Boy. I

(32:30):
met all these pros as the sonof the general manager, you know,
the GM, and randomly for theirclinic, I got thrown in to hitting
three drives in front of all thosepros, and I was so nervous.
I mean, you couldn't he couldn'tbelieve it. I was more nervous in

(32:52):
the bunker shot last week and Iwent up there and I didn't know how
to speak in front of people.I was mumbling and stuttering all the way
through it. Peter Jacobson helped methrough it and signed boys like get it
out, come on, get itout, and he goes, okay,
fine, just go hit a shot. Go to a shot. I hit
a shot and he goes, ohmy gosh, that was awesome. A
second shot that's right on the topof each other. That's unbelievable. And

(33:14):
the third one He's like, youcould throw a small handkerchief over those golf
balls. And there was so muchsupport of fitting three drives perfect under the
gun under precious stuition as an elevenyear old, and the support that I
got from all those pros going upto me and saying we'll see you out
there on tour in a few years, we'll see you out there, and
the signing the autographs I got.I still have the hat that has all

(33:36):
the signatures from the same our shootout. That's what changed my life. That's
what made me want to be aprofessional golfer and give back to the game
of golf. And that inspired meand pushed me to this point to where
it's my time to do that.It's my time to sign it's my time
to get back to those kids toinspire a younger generation. So that's a

(33:58):
great story. But he wasn't doingthis three four years ago, right,
I mean, this is a wholenew level. This is a new level,
like something has happened. Maybe it'sgoing to live and the crap he
took for going to live. Maybeit's the little spat with Brooksy. I
have no idea, but this isnow Bryson d Chambeau giving back on steroids

(34:19):
compared to where it was a coupleof years ago. Right, Well,
I think it all started with Brysonbeing the analytical guy. He was really
the start of the analytical movement involved. Was it him or Brooks that would
complain about everything and get rules officialsinvolved in all that? He would he
would okay, got you right,right, So it was that it was
the analytics, which now everybody's following, by the way, like it's just

(34:40):
like baseball, like the first guyto do analytics, and now everybody's following.
Everybody's doing now what Bryson did five, six, seven years ago,
right, and and then the livething. So I don't I don't think
Bryson was ever a jerk. Hewas just weird, like he was different.
He was and I don't necessarily thinkhe was a standoffish. But he

(35:02):
even said when his dad passed awaya couple of year years ago, that
kind of changed him as what wasSo I mean, I think I think
it's just a maturation process. Andyou know, I kind of bristle at
those folks on Twitter that have beencoming after him, like they came after
him when they thought he was ajerk and now they're coming after him because

(35:22):
he's nice. Well what's happening now? And I heard some of this over
the weekend. And I don't meanto just assume that the golf course is,
you know, the best example ofthe real fan opinion or whatever,
but it's a good spot to start, right, And a lot of guys
and gals over the weekend would saythe same, Well, he's just he's

(35:42):
fake, he's being fake right,Well again, and I would say so
what Why do they think that becausehe wasn't doing this a couple of years
ago, and they and now theysee a different person and they say he's
being fake, to which I wouldjust say, okay, So you are
dismissing the idea that somebody can change, that's what you're doing. It sounds
like you are literally dismissing the ideathat somebody can go through a life changing

(36:04):
experience like losing your dad, rightgoing to a different tour, taking some
shots from people and just waking up, you know, and just like the
Grinch and just saying, you knowwhat, I want to do things differently.
They're all dismissing that. And ontop of that, if he is
being faked, so what you thinkthat handicapped kid gives a damn if Bryston's
being fake? No, when hesigned his hat and gave him a high

(36:28):
five during the US Open. They'realso dismissing the fact that Bryce and d
Chambeau won his only other major infront of like twenty people right right during
COVID. That's right, he didn'thave the roars coming up eighteen and he
mentioned that like that made it evenmore special this time. That's why he
went over the top in celebration.That's why he went over the top to

(36:51):
have everybody touch his trophy going through. He didn't get to experience that when
he won it the first time.Here's the thing. He's not stopping.
He's still doing it. Did yousee what happened today? He's walking through
the media center in Nashville with theUS Open trophy and Teresa Walker got to
touch it. Oh, that's cool. It's unbelievable. The gal that we
have on the covers the Titans allthe time, It's insane. This is

(37:12):
now what is this five days lateror four days later and he's still on
this just unbelievable happy tour. Ibet he hadn't. I bet he hasn't
swung a golf club until like today. Maybe not right with like four days
without swinging one golf club. Ithink when he was drunk in the globals.
I think he's endearing himself to alot of people. Golf needs that

(37:32):
they needed, they need to getaway. Golf has needed to get away
from the shadow of Tiger Woods,and Scotti, Scheffler and Bryson D.
Schambeau were helping them do that.Absolutely, Yeah, and it's it's and
maybe it'll bring them. Maybe it'llhappen like in the w NBA. You
know me go, I think golfis an absolutely fabulous sport. It's it's.
I have as much fun watching golfwhen then every year at Johnny cum

(37:55):
lately. Yeah, I mean Ihave as much fun watching golf on a
weekly basis I do any other sport. And maybe this will get more eyeballs
in kind of like, hey,it takes something. Right. If it
takes Kaitlin Clark to get people watchingthe WNBA, which I've been watching for
twenty years, great, If ittakes Bryson d. Chambeau to get people
watching golf that I've been watching forforty years, great, fabulous. I

(38:19):
have more power to them, andI welcome everybody that wants to start watching
golf. Let's get a break.Mike Florio gonna join us coming up on
ninety three three KJRFM