July 25, 2025 • 48 mins
On a Friday edition of the Best Of The Doug Gottlieb Show: Doug and the crew discuss the reaction to the passing of Hulk Hogan.
Doug welcomes legendary baseball pitcher Jim Abbott on the show to talk about his memorable career and catch up on what he is up to now.
Doug weighs in on the new Executive order by President Trump that impacts college spots.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
three to five Eastern twelve two Pacific on Box Sports Radio.
Find your local station for The Doug Gottlieb Show at
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on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR Boom, What Up America,
Doug Gottlieb Show by Sports Radio. Are you doing? Welcome
(00:26):
in Hope. You having a great day. That's it feels
like a smattering of applause. My goodness, thought we did?
There we go, There we go. I didn't. Band's been
(00:49):
filling in for other shows. Jay stew has been pouting
because the Dodgers are losing, so we haven't had the
full crew together. And you know, I don't usually like
to do this, just because the one thing we do
a great job of, and when I say we, I
mean Jason Stewart does, because he's the one who keeps
(01:09):
us on topic, on task, is looking forward. You know.
It's like, you know, you go too far behind in
the past. It's like, what are we what are we
doing here? Right? But but I do think yesterday and
now we're like twenty four hours into this into our
(01:31):
reaction to the death of Hulk Hogan that it's still
worthy of discussion because we haven't been together. That's the
big that we haven't been together. So I look, there
have been people that are critical of my comments. There
(01:54):
are people that are critical of others who have gone
completely the other way and act like you know, some uh,
some incredible icon has passed away, right, And look, my
thing is, I've never really been a wrestling guy. And
once I heard the tape that what Hulk Hogan, I
(02:18):
don't even know his real name whatever, Terry Terry with
a V or B with Terry Belea, you drop n
bomb with a hard R. Several times admit to be like,
I'm just that doesn't exist in my world. Those aren't
people that I will ever associate with or think of
(02:38):
an unfriendly terms. Sorry, And I'm sure there are people
that I know that, or I'm not sure. I'm guessing
there are. There are a person or two that I
know that may say that I just haven't heard it.
Once I hear it, I'm like, I'm good here. So no,
I didn't spend time thinking about it. I'm not super bummed,
but it. On the other hand, I do under stand
(03:00):
the spectacle in the eighties and nineties that was Hulk Hogan.
But you know, there's lots of things we did in
the eighties and nineties that we don't do now, or
we're not into now, or we realize it's bad for us.
Jay s dou, I thought you had great perspective when
we discussed this, right, because my thing has been I
(03:22):
think that people and this is I know we joked about, hey,
when Malcolm Jamal Warner died, you know, whoever dies next,
it's gonna be death in threes and it has it
has been, right Ozzie him and Hulk Hogan. But I
also think that, like, look, what's fascinating to me is
(03:45):
the eighties come to kind of like real life, like
what we saw in the eighties on TV Cosby Show,
what we learned about Bill Cosby since oh yeah, by
the way, that show really not funny. On the other hand,
you can't deny what a breakthrough it was in network
TV at that time slot and what was big then
(04:06):
is not now and it is so different. Then you
go to Ozzy Osbourne, who you know was was basically
seen as a devil worshiper, at least by my parents
when I was a kid, and you know later on
in life. They were kind of the first American or
not American, but first rock family to let us into
(04:28):
their home with the Osbourne's, And I thought Ozzy became
a very likable, likable person if you watch that show.
And then Hulk Hogan went from kind of an American
icon to exposed to being something completely different in his
personal life, and he had a reality show as well.
(04:50):
But I thought that that people who kind of mourned yesterday,
they were more mourning the loss of their childhood. I thought, man,
remember when wrestling was super fun. Now it's like I
got to keep up with the script. I don't know,
you know now it now it really now we always
I always knew it was fake, but it had that
(05:12):
maybe some of this is real to where now it's
just a TV show. But Jay Stu, you had a
different perspective, and I thought it was great and I'd
give you the Florida share it.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah, I mean I think that I understand. I understand both.
I heard what you had to say, and I've seen
others that were quick to criticize or how about this
not as uh not as celebratory and embracing of of Hulk.
And then I understand why there was such a massive
(05:45):
reaction to it. Part of it is what you said.
I think part of it is like losing the childhood.
But like Sam just said on the air, his real name,
and I just found this out today as I was
googling it. Terry Bolea is a very flawed individual, bordering
on like a despicable individual. And I blame the entire
(06:08):
business model of wrestling. As I was growing up through
the eighties, I didn't watch it. I have never caught on,
so I come at it from that perspective. But it
always seemed like an entity that always functioned with a
kind of a wink and a nod, like, you know,
smart people know this is fake. But for all the
other people that don't know it's fake, let's not tell them.
(06:31):
And we're gonna have this massive fan base of people
that don't know if it's fake or not, and that'll
just create this amazing entertainment. And then you have the
biggest entity, Hulk Hogan in that. So you have this
entire generation of people that are just like Hulk Hogan,
He's my hero, whole Hogan, the ultimate heel. He's iconic
Hulk Hogan. So I think all of the celebration yesterday
(06:55):
in his passing was celebrating Hulk. But I think you
can and should make the differentiation between Terry Bolea and
Hulk Hogan, and that Terry guy is disturbing. And why
do we know that Doug because of a lawsuit when
he sued that website for the sex tape. All this
(07:19):
discovery came and those the N word and all that
stuff came with it, and then we find out all
these less than nice things about the guy. And if
you watch the Vince McMahon documentary that I just did,
he did a lot of things business wise that were
not up to par. So it's like that guy was
not the character. Isn't that great? But I thought that's
(07:43):
wrestling's fault for doing this to us. They've confused us
between the character and the guy.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I thought that the one of the parts that you
brought up when we were discussing this, which is I
thought brilliant, is when you once you go rest professional wrestler,
you can never come out of character. Think about that
for a second. You can never come out of character
(08:09):
like that would be as if Gene Simmons could would
always have to walk around with makeup on okay, that
would you know? Pick your favorite actor, even the guys
that are like method acting, you know, and I've heard
some of these stories of a guy but he's a
method actor. It's annoying. You go to get coffee and
(08:30):
he answers you as you know, he talks to you
as the character he's in the film. Yeah, but once
the film is shot and edited, the method acting ends.
And not in pro wrestling, like Dwayne Johnson's been able
to do a little bit of it, but he's still
the rock. He still has to carry on some of
that kind of persona. And yeah, it's one of those
(08:53):
things where you once you take on this caricature and
his character, that's who you have become. So we don't
No one knows who Terry Pagoula Pagoula actually is Terry
b Terry Pagola owns the bills, right? Does he owned
(09:13):
the bills? I think he owns the bills? Dan, how
about you were you were you a pro wrestling guy
growing up in Wisconsin?
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Well, I liked I liked wrestling and I liked hull
Cogan and that's where I thought all of it was
about yesterday. I don't disagree with some of the things
that you said, Doug, you're not being a wrestling fan.
I think it's when you were a kid, or even now,
which I am not now, but I was when I
was a kid. I think that it's it is different
(09:43):
for those that were. I felt like yesterday was about
about our childhood and about nostalgia. I was talking last
night with Mike Harmon about this because obviously it wasn't
on your show yesterday, and I felt like it was
the same thing with mal Jamal Warner, like I know
Bill Cosby was. We completely looked different on him back
(10:08):
in the day. But I think we all related to
theo because we were somewhat around that age, and I
think that hit home Ozzy. The same thing with the
music in Hull Cogan. As you look at the eighties,
it was always about big, enormous superstars, whether it be
in music, whether it be in acting. It was the bigger,
(10:31):
the better, and there was nothing bigger than hul Cogan.
And so I felt with all of us as coming
from that era, that lived in that era, that's what
yesterday was about. I could be wrong in that we're
going to look at hul Cogan the rest of the
way now until eternity, in however fashion, you're going to
look at him. But I just felt in that twenty
four hour period it was about us looking back on
(10:53):
our childhood and remembering the excitement and all the fun
that you had in watching wrestling and watching him enter
the ring and do his thing in the ring.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
That's what I thought yesterday was about. I I again
to be fully transparent. Okay, One, no, I never I
didn't like wrestling. I wasn't a wrestling guy. I did
watch it, Okay, I did watch it. But the two
there's a couple of main reasons why I wasn't really
a wrestling guy. One, not only was it fake, but
I had my I was like a constant argument with
(11:25):
my dad, was like, Dad, that's fake. No, it's not, yes,
it is no. It's like it was an insane argument
to have. By the way, it's a lot like some
of the arguments people are having now. It's like the
did you guys see the video of Trump yesterday with
the head of the FED. It's like, look, it's three
point one billion. They're like, that's a building that was
built five years ago. Like what just when you're having
(11:47):
arguments with people that that it doesn't matter what you say,
they're just it it like it does no traumaunt of
truth actually matters. It makes for an awkward conversation. So
that's part of it. And then I was also little brother.
Remember so the role of the little brother and I
because I was the little brother, I was also basically
the little brother for all of my brother's friends. So
(12:09):
you know, whatever Jimmy Supervis Snooka did, somebody did to me, right,
that was and and these are moves that every big
brother did on a little brother, or buddies did on
each other, and they should not have during that time period.
So there's a reason that I have a bit of resistance.
And then again it's just like one of those I
(12:31):
I just ever never kind of got into the storylines
or whatever. But it is crazy that we created this
bigger than life figure like Hulk Hogan during his prime.
Remember they he'd get hit by a chair and they
they'd have a truck come out and run him over,
and they about to pin him and they'd hold up
(12:53):
his hand and it would fall down, and they'd hold
up his hand and it would fall down and they'd
hold up his hand and all of a sudden and
then they've be made into a fist or to a
number one, and he was and and Hulk was back
like it was. It was. It was so over the
top to me that I was like, oh, why are
we watching this? And yet everyone I know was into it.
(13:14):
They were all into it. But it is interesting on
how when somebody dies, like we we choose, you know,
it's like we're gonna would choose to either remember fondly
the image and achievements, or we're gonna remember the whole picture,
(13:37):
and some will be hyper focused on the negative. I
try and be in the middle on all these things.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Yes, Sammy, So Hulk Hogan died. He died suddenly, like
this was you know, not expected. He passed away. That's
not necessarily true.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, okay, yeah, well okay, I mean the rumors and
stuff and people have talked about how they found out
he wasn't in good health.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Okay, so he wasn't good, but I think this was
a shock to most people. What did that be fair
to say? Yeah, yeah, he just passed away. Oh, Hulk
Cogan is said, So, I think when we talk about people,
like if Hulk Hogan was terminally ill and we had
six weeks to have two months to be ready to
say goodbye to him, then I think people would discuss
all the good in the bad. When someone dies it
kind of like out of the blue. I think people
(14:19):
tend to look at the positives first. It's almost like
you go to a someone's funeral, you're gonna eulogize him.
You're not gonna get up there and say awful stuff
about them. You might say that stuff between friends after
the fact, but I think a lot of people will
tend to look at the positive things first and then
the negative things after. I think, Doug, maybe people were
a little resistant to you yesterday just going right at
like the bad stuff he did in his life, or
(14:41):
as you know, as Terry Bulea. So I think that
it's it's sort of a timing thing. Like if we
had all the time to kind of eulogize and look
at his life and he was a slow descent towards death,
that's something else. But he was just gone all of
a sudden, Oh my gosh. We have to look back
at Hulk Hogan's life, you know, all at once in
one show.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
I agree with that's like this assumed grace period. I
remember after Pete Rose passed there was a sentiment from
the media that was like, yeah, sure he had a
lot of flaws, but today isn't the day to bring
those up. And it's like, I don't know why that's
the rule.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I don't either.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
I don't tell you why, because I thought of Pete
Rose as well. Pete Rose lived his life off off
of him betting on base like that. There was for
how many years, thirty five years of his life. I
feel like it was all about the betting baseball sort
of deal, the autograph signings, all of that stuff, like
it became him. I don't think that this took over
(15:40):
Hulk Hogan's life. I think they kind of run from it.
We're finding out stuff like after the fact. But I
think that's why we look at it differently, Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
I Steinbrenner to me was the one that jumps out. Obviously,
Pete Rose happened most. I was working at ESPN Radio
the time when Steinbreder died, and there were all these
people like eulogizing Steinbrenner, and I was just again it
was the day he died, and I just said, like,
what are we doing, Like, here's the guy who spread
lies about Dave Winfield. Hey, and you know that trying
(16:19):
to destroy a guy trying to destroy Dave Winfield. That's
what because you know, because what was because he was
he was injured when he signed with the with the
Yankees or whatever, like whatever your logic behind it was,
that's what George Seinberg got suspended for. And it was like, well,
(16:39):
you know they won four World Series. Yeah, but that
was after like fifteen years of the same thing over
and over again and hiring and firing, you know, the
same manager over and over again. It was a circus.
And you know, just because the baseball department, you know,
was smart enough to draft Derek Cheeter and to develop
Mario Rivera and the players. And the other part was
(16:59):
it's like they kind of represented the steroid era as well,
you know, not Jet or not Mo, but Roger Clemens
and others. So I just thought it's a time. You
never get a chance to circle back two weeks later
and go like, hey, by the way, Hulk Hogan blatant racist,
dropped hard r N bombs you know, like we're not
(17:20):
circling back to talk about Hulk Hogan after the day
he died. So I understand there's supposed to be some
grace period and we're only supposed to say nice things
and we're supposed to remember them finally, just like you know,
Kobe Bryant only remembered fondly. Now again, I think Kobe
Bryant's complex. I thought Kobe Bryant really ended his when
(17:40):
his life ended. Unfortunately, it was when he had really
matured and become way more thoughtful, way more likable. So
you know, that stuff was sort of buried, but it was.
It was part of the entire story. And I just
think when you die, it's part of the entire story.
And part of the whole Colgan story is we had
this he was Captain of America. That's who he was.
(18:02):
He was Captain America. And then we find out like, yeah,
he he said did some things that are terrible. There
is one other part to hold Coga which should be mentioned.
You know, he was like early on when he became champion,
he was like in his mid thirties, and you know
he was he was bald then, and it's one of
(18:24):
those if you're gonna go bald, you are almost better
going bald in your thirties, because then he was seventy one.
And yeah, I mean some of the close ups he
didn't look great, but he definitely didn't look seventy one.
And a lot of it is he went bald. If
you're gonna go gray, go gray early. If you're gonna
go bald, go bald early. Just again, you know, oh man,
(18:50):
what that was just quite the left turn. It was
a left turn. But it's true. It's true.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I thought he balded gracefully.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
To be honest, I thought it worked for him.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
Yeah he was. He was just tan and swollen his
whole life. Like you're just like you could be fifty,
you could be seventy.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Right, but I'm telling you had he had like a
full head of hair when he started and then had
the look that he had. You know, at the end,
it would have been like, man, ho Colgan's looking older.
But you have no idea how old you. No one
had any idea how OLDI it was, you know, because
he was already bald when he became a star.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
He kept the peroxide industry in business for his entire life.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
He did This is the best of the Don gott
Leeb Show on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
It's the Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio. If you uh,
if you go to ESPN Plus or Disney Plus. There's
a documentary out on a player who I was I
think the entire sports world and again I was fourteen
at the time when he kind of broke through with
the Angels, one of the most memorable players of my
(20:00):
lifetime in professional sports. It's called South Ball. It's based
upon the life of Jim Abbott, and he's kind of
spent some time this year on the Doug Gottlieb Show
on Fox Sports Radio. Jim, how are you.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
I'm great, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
It's so interesting because I'm watching the documentary and I'm
just it's like I felt I was there. I remember,
but there's lots of parts I did not know. And
I think there's so many people in this generation of
sports who have no idea about your story. You were
born without a hand, Like, what's your first memory of
(20:38):
being different than other kids?
Speaker 6 (20:42):
You know, I guess the best my memory recollection would
be was kindergarten. You know. My parents, you know, were great.
They were my heroes. They had me at a young age.
I was born a little bit differently, and they searched
for a lot of ways to help me, you know,
just kind of throwing them things against the wall to
(21:03):
see what would stick. And so they they suited me
up with the prosthesis and the shape of a metal hook.
You know, it's kind of awkward. It was cumbersome. I
went to kindergarten wearing that, and obviously that brought the
stairs and the questions and different awkward moments. And I
think that, you know, when I walked into school for
the first time, was the first time that I was like, man,
(21:25):
I am really different from the rest of the kids.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
What was it like the first time you thought about
playing baseball?
Speaker 6 (21:36):
Well, I grew up in Michigan, so you know, that's
just what you did. And I grew up in a
tough town. I grew up in Flint, Michigan, as you know,
a great basketball town. I used to junior high school.
I used to play basketball with Glenn Rice every day,
you know, but in Flint, it was a it was
a way to to make your name, you know, to
(21:57):
to fit in, to belong was to on a team.
And so it wasn't particularly baseball, although I could always
throw things. I loved basketball. I loved football, and I
love the sense of belonging that it gave me at
recess or on a playground.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Yeah, but baseball specifically. Again, like I had no understanding
that anyone with one hand could play baseball like basketball. Again,
it seems limiting, but and that that had to be hard. Right,
So when you played basketball, did you play with the
hook on or did you play with it off?
Speaker 6 (22:33):
No? I quickly, you know, I dropped the process pretty quick.
It didn't you know it. It may work for a
lot of people, but I, you know, it didn't help
me to do the things I love to do. It
didn't help me drivel to my right, you know, it
didn't help me to play baseball or hold a bat.
So I gave it up after a couple of years.
(22:54):
And then I just, you know, with my parents blessing,
I just started, you know, trying to do it things
my own way. And whether it was switching the glove
on and off of my left hand and throwing and
catching with the same hand, or you know, holding a
baseball bat or to this day, trying to hold a
golf club. You know, I just tried to take a
(23:14):
lot of trial and error, a lot of trying to
figure things out, but just trying to figure out what
seemed most natural to me.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
How did you How did you developed the ability to
to to field as well as you did, because, like
it was, it was honestly like a thing of beauty.
It's like, wow, it happens like so quickly where you
throw and then you'd you'd put put the glove on
your on your left hand. Take me through the steps
of how that How you learned that?
Speaker 6 (23:44):
Well, there were several steps. You know. I first started.
It was very slow. It was kind of cumbersome. You know,
I had a baseball myt that was probably more like
a softball mint, and you know, it just it didn't foh.
So I had to learn, you know, to get the
right size glove, and I would throw a ball against
(24:04):
a brick wall and try to catch it over and
over again because I love to do it, much like
shooting baskets. It was just something that was a release
for me, something that I spent time doing alone. And
then you know, when I made it. I got to
the University of Michigan, and I knew playing at the
collegiate level D one level that you know, people were
(24:26):
going to start trying to take advantage, and that's fair enough,
you know, so I would. I really started devoting a
lot of time, you know, to my fielding and working
on bunks and working on you know, bun down the
third baseline and switching the glove on and off. So
I spent a lot of time doing it right up
until you know, my last days in the major leagues.
(24:48):
And honestly, I you know, I was proud of my fielding.
I felt like I deserved, you know, I felt like
I had earned some recognition for fielding because of all
the hard work.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
In eighty nine, he got called up to the big club,
right and you're playing for the California Angels at the
old Anaheim Stadium, which is a big, gigantic kind of
a model of What do you remember about your first
start in the bigs?
Speaker 6 (25:18):
Not much, not much. It was such a blur. I
remember pitching against Mark Langston, who was one of the
best left handed pitchers in the major leagues at the
time and now a great friend of mine. We became
teammates later, but you know, I was drafted by the
Angels in nineteen eighty eight and I quit and played
(25:41):
in the Olympics. So I spent the entire summer playing
in the Olympics the previous year and we won we
want to go medal. I didn't play professional that season,
and then I went to spring training in eighty nine
and I made the team. I made the club out
of the out of spring training.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
And how they tell you, by the way, how they
tell you, how did you find out you made the club?
Speaker 6 (26:02):
They were my pitching coach, Marcel Latchman, who was a
great mentor and a hero to me to this day.
We were at the Gene Autry Hotel in Palm Springs.
Back then, the Angels spent part of spring training in
Palm spring and we were just about ready to break camp.
I thought I was heading from Midland, Texas to Double A,
and he pulled me aside and said, hey, we're gonna
(26:25):
You're coming with us. You're coming with the big club
back to Anaheim, and you're going to be our starter. So,
you know, pretty exciting. So that's why I don't remember
much of that first game, because things were just moving
so fast and I was, you know, I was just
trying to adjust, trying to recalibrate the idea of going
from amateur baseball to professional baseball.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
When did you feel like I can do this? You know,
because your your whole life. You know, it's very understandable, reasonable,
But people just looked at you and said, there's no way.
Like he doesn't. There's just no way. When did you
feel like I can do this?
Speaker 5 (27:06):
You know?
Speaker 6 (27:07):
I felt like playing on the in the USA team.
I played two summers with the USA team, one in
the PanAm Games and the second following year. After my
junior year in college, I played in the Olympic team.
And I was playing with guys, you know, Robin Ventura,
Tino Martinez, Ben McDonald, Charlie. You know, we were playing.
(27:31):
I was playing.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Mark McGuire was on that team, right, wasn't he?
Speaker 6 (27:36):
No, McGuire was nineteen eighty four. I was nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Okay, okay, Soul Korea. That's right, eighty He was on
the eighty four team that never played was eight No
eighty eighteen? Wait, didn't you get which was the year
that they didn't go? Uys, we didn't go. I guess
eighty we didn't go. Eighty we didn't go.
Speaker 6 (27:53):
Yeah, that's right, that's right. Yeah. And then so you
know I was playing we were playing the Cuban team,
you know who were you know, in their late twenties thirties,
you know, hitting with Eastern bats and going up in
incredible competition. And I beg you know, I was a
big part of the rotation on that team. And so
(28:13):
it was playing with those first round draft picks. It
was playing with those guys and holding my own that
I finally started to believe that maybe I could play
professionally and you know, and kind of fit in with
that potential.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Okay, so your first win, just so you know, was
against the Orioles. This is your third start, right, right,
and it was it was at the Big A. And
here's the big thing. I don't know if you know
this game duration two hours and thirty nine minutes. It
wasn't just that you were awesome and that you you
had this amazing ability to field and ultimately threw a
no hitter in ninety three. It was that you were
(28:49):
You weren't wiping the sweat, taking a trip around the mountain.
You're just in there doing your job and getting the
heck out. I mean, two hours and thirty nine minutes.
That's the end, even of teams. Now with the pitch clock, it.
Speaker 6 (29:01):
Was different back then. You know, it was you know,
you moved fast, you got the ball, you got it
out of your hand, and you get up and you
did it again. And I'm a big fan of the
pitch clock. I think it pulled the game back in
that direction. It's so much easier to watch when the
game moves quickly.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
The no hitter, you know, it's it's interesting when I
was watching the documentary right, and the no hitter is
like the culminating moment. I guess for so many people.
I don't know if you feel that way for you.
For me, it was more just your rookie year and
watching you and you kind of took over the league
and everybody was paying attention. But the no hitter is
interesting because I'm trying to figure out what you were thinking, because, uh,
(29:43):
have you ever seen the movie Let's Sake, Kevin Costner
Baseball not Bull Durham, the Yeah, for Love of the Game, right,
where he's got all this other stuff on in his
life and then for that three out, he's having all
these flashbacks. Do you remember what was going on in
your in your brain any stadium that day.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
You know, that is one of my favorite baseball movies
and in the book by Michael Shara was also terrific
because it captured the stops and starts of a game.
You know, it's I mean, it's pitching. Is you're out there,
You're in this rush, You're in this moment, you're pitching,
you're strategizing, you're throwing, and then then you have everything
(30:25):
stops and you come in and you sit in the
dugout and the you know, what goes through your mind
can have everything to do with the game and it
can have nothing to do with the game. And that
movie captured that perfectly, you know, just sitting there and
that no hitter, you know how it goes your teammates
quit talking to you. That adds a different dynamic that
(30:47):
you know, the mood in the stadium changes, you know,
so your mind is just kind of running in all
these different directions. And I remember you're very observant those
times in between the innings as much as I remember
being out on the mound that day. Excitement.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
You know, how do you want people to describe your career?
Speaker 6 (31:15):
That's a good question, you know, I you know, the documentary,
and I appreciate you bringing it up. Obviously, I was
born missing my right hand, and for a long time, Doug,
I fought against that and I didn't want the label,
you know. I didn't want the first perception of me
(31:37):
to be what people thought of me or what I
could do. But I think the documentary in some ways
captures the journey of coming to terms with my hand,
you know, because I met so many kids, so many
families like me, similar to me, like my parents, and
(32:01):
there was a time when I didn't want to be
known for that. But I had to embrace that, you know,
I had to come. I had to say, yes, this
is who I am, and I wouldn't have done the
things that I did had I been born differently. I
believe that deeply, and so now for me, I want
to I don't mind being remembered for having done things differently.
(32:25):
You know. I know it's who I am, and I
know it pushed me in ways I never would have
been pushed before, and later in life. I'm proud of it,
and I'm not you know, I don't shy away from
a label that I once wasn't, you know, didn't always embrace.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Well, I can only tell you this as a young
athlete that was born with all my working limbs, it
was still inspirational for me. Like I think, I'm sure
anyone you met who needed a prosthesis, you know, you
were inspirational. But for anybody else, you're like, hey, if
Jim Abbott can overcome what he was born with, you
condemn right. So it's amazing that. I'm sure so many
(33:07):
people think, wait, such an inspiration is so many? No, No,
you were actually inspiration to all young athletes, especially in
southern California. And I think also part of it was
you never talked about it. It wasn't You did kind of
shy away from it, and so it made it like
it it's not even part of his thought process. He didn't.
He didn't think this is anything special. So yeah, we
(33:28):
should be able to achieve way more considering what we
were born with. Does that make sense?
Speaker 6 (33:35):
Yeah? I believe that, you know, you know, it cracks
me up as I meet people, and I have met
people along the way, kids boys, and they'll say hey,
you know, and they have two hands, you know, and
they play baseball and arm away, and I hear all
the times say, we used to be on the street.
We would switch the glove on and off.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Sure everybody, And.
Speaker 6 (33:57):
I say, well, why do you do that? It's probably harder,
but who knows. You know, it's the way I was born.
It's all I ever knew, and so you know, I
do think it's a testament to making the most and listen,
a lot of people have it a lot worse than me.
I know that it's up to us to make the
most of what we've been given. And it doesn't matter
(34:17):
if you're the most talented person on a team or
the least. You know that the effort is the measurement.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Could agree with you more well, I just I just
want to tell you an inspiration to me and I
love watch watching the documentary and as soon as it
came out, I talked to Jason and I said, Jason,
can we have Jim Abbatta? And he's like why. I
was like, why not, and he's like, that's a very
good point. It's a very very good point. I encourage
people to watch it and to fall in love with
your story and Jim, it's just an honor to catch
(34:44):
up with you. Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 6 (34:47):
Thank dog, Take care man.
Speaker 5 (34:49):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation yet. Catch all of our shows at Foxsportsradio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
But you doug out the show sports Radio, we got
a heck of a show for you today. If you
miss any today's show, check out the podcast to be
available at the top of next hour. Just download the
I Got Leap Show podcast wherever you download podcast. Jim
Abbott played eleven years of the Biggs Angel Yankee through
No Hitter with the Yankees. Of course, he's the subject
of the new documentary South Pod. It's pretty good. Check
(35:22):
it out on Disney Plus and on Amazon. Got to
talk about Hall of Fame Kansas Hall of Fame head
coach Bill self getting a medical scare yesterday, and I
want to play for you something Nick Saban said about
rumors of his return to coaching. We'll do that in
a second though. But it's really interesting. You know yesterday
(35:42):
I got text from people and we talked about this
a little bit on the show yesterday about the presidential
what is it? The Executive Order, the Executive Order on
College Sports. And here's what's I mean, Look, politicians, grandstand.
(36:06):
I think what's really interesting is that our President came
in as the anti politician politician, but everything he does
is like an expert politician, only only it's so obvious
and so transparent, that kind of mafia type of hey,
pay up or else type of thing that whereas other
(36:31):
politicians are a little bit more artful and you only
find out about the ties and connective tissues kind of
after the fact. But President Trump's signed an executive order
to protect student athletes and collegiate athletic scholarships and opportunities,
including Olympic and non revenue generating programs, and the unique
American institution of college sports. The order, and this is
(36:53):
from white House dot gov. The order requires the preservation
of where possible expansion of opportunities of scholarship, collegiate athletic
competition in women's and non revenue sports. Okay, it's kind
of contradictory, I understand, but well, that one was placed first.
I do think it's really really interesting that this is
(37:15):
a White House that has run on the hey, no DEI,
no woke, no whatever, and yet the first part of
the order is to protect non scholarship, non scholarship, non
revenue generating and women's sports specifically, which by the way,
are going to be destroyed because of the new rules
(37:36):
or the new revenue sharing or use of nil. Just reality.
The order prohibits third party pay for play payments to
college athletes. This does not apply to legitimate fair market
compensation that third party provides to an athlete, such as
brand endorsement. So what are you talking about. Oh, it
has oversight into what is and what is not fair
(37:58):
market legitimate. Now, not sure how many people know this,
but I've said this before. The NCAA does a lot
of stuff. Everybody criticizes any of the dumb stuff they do.
They try and do some smart stuff. They already have
this I believe it's called NCAA go And anytime you
get compensated from a third party over six hundred dollars,
(38:20):
they have to investigate and clear it. The order provides
that any revenue sharing permitted between universities and collegian athletes
should be implemented in a manner that protects women's and
non revenue generating sports. How again, this is just simply ay,
what about Title nine? We don't know. The order directs
(38:40):
Secretary Labor and National Labor's Board to clarify the status
of student athletes in order to preserve non revenue generating
sports and irreplaceable educational development opportunities. It goes on to
some other things, but basically it's the hey, uh, are
you guys watching how much they're paying these kids and
what do we do to save women's sports and non
(39:03):
revenue generating sports, And the answer is very little. The
answer is in this quest by so many, including a
lot of Republicans and a lot of Democrats. Okay, to
free them from free them from the oppression of the NCAA.
That's what people use. You're just Robin Peter to pay Paul.
(39:26):
So you're doing that's what you're doing. So there is
only so I don't know how much you guys saw this,
but Iowa State estimates that over the next five years
they'll be I think it's over two hundred million dollars
in debt. So they're not doing construction on a new
wrestling wrestling room and stopping construction on Hilton Coliseum, which
(39:51):
is a palace that needs a refresh for their basketball program.
And by the way, those are two programs. Wrestling probably
makes a little bit of money, basketball makes them good
amount of money. Football obviously makes them the most money.
Those are revenue generating sports in the state of Iowa,
and they're not doing any facilities upgrades because they're going
to be operating a whole And that's not even talking
about women's sports. Just so we're aware, Okay, when the
(40:14):
president gives an executive order, it doesn't actually mean anything.
It is grand standing. The funny part about it is
it's grand standing for things that protections that already exist.
And a problem that I don't know how you solve,
which is how do you funnel any of your revenue
(40:35):
and pay twenty up to twenty two million of it
and that's at the highest level, twenty two million of
it to your athletes and still have women's sports on scholarship.
They're just going to get phased out unless they can
raise their own be self sustaining and raise their own money.
And look, i'm parent of my daughter is in a
(40:58):
non revenue generating sport that is really expensive and they
have fifty girls, and they did expand the scholarships. All
the new rules do is you can have up to
fifty scholarships for a question probably can't afford it. Can't
afford it. Byer, when you saw the executive order. Did
(41:22):
you think there was anything different or profound about it?
Speaker 3 (41:24):
I didn't look into it, Doug. I'm gonna be completely honest. Yeah,
I saw Ross Dellinger tweet about it, looked a little
into it, but I didn't pay much mind, so I
would be of no help in this discussion.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Jay Stu, when you and I discussed it today, you
thought it was something. But finally somebody said something, Finally
something that did someone. I was like, yeah, actually, it's
kind of already been said, already been done. I guess
it brings attention to it, but it doesn't actually do
anything to it.
Speaker 6 (41:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
I mean, I honestly didn't even know if this executive
order was anything different than what's already going on. But
I will make this point in my trigger. Some people,
you guys are probably gonna think, oh, he's just some
magi guy. Nope, he says nothing political. This is fact.
Executive orders, by and large, by presidents are kind of
(42:12):
worth what they're printed on, and they are grand standing
and they are just you know, strong messaging from the
White House hoping everybody will fall in line. But there
is a process to things. But Trump's different, right, and
the proof's in the pudding with it. With with my example,
zero border crossings, zero border crossings since he took over
(42:35):
all by executive order. No legislation has been passed since
he's been in office, and they have completely stopped the
spigot at the border. So I would say in general,
executive orders are kind of frivolous and grand standing, but
there's something about this presidency where people are falling in
(42:56):
line and adhering to these orders.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Uh, there aren't zero border crossings. There's a substantial decrease,
but there's not zero ber crossings, just so we're aware.
But yeah, I mean they unleashed ice on people, so
there's gonna be less. There's gonna be there's obviously gonna
be less, and they they've done a better job of
beefing up border security. So I kind of think you're
(43:23):
connecting things that aren't really connected because it's the ice
is not based upon the executive order. There's been He's
had a million executive orders that nothing has happened about nothing.
Now he ran on immigration reform, and I don't want
to make this a political show, but I again, I
just in an effort to be as knowledgeable as possible.
(43:43):
There's not zero border crossings. There's far fewer.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Yeah, I would I would hate for anybody to detect me. Literally,
I know that there's not zero. That's an exaggeration to
make a point significantly less or even how about this
a very small percentage of what was being allowed in
the last four years.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Wasn't there a wasn't there a stat where actually Obama
deported more people than Trump and Trump's first administration. It
was like crazy. But again, a lot of this is
about one side celebrates their successes, the other side seems
to run from them. Just weird that way. But the
(44:30):
college sports thing, and I had a conversation with a
dad who's a good friend of mine. His son's a
super high level recruit and his son's going to make
a lot of money in his first year playing college sports.
And he was like, yeah, I hate this. All these
coaches hate this. He's like, don't you hate this? And
(44:52):
I said no, you know, it doesn't feel good when
you sign a kid and you give them an honest
outlook and you're like, hey, this is what I think.
I think. This is what YR one looks like the ceiling,
this is what your one looks like the floor. It
probably lands somewhere in the middle. This is I think
what year two looks like. Whatever, Hey, coach, I'm never leaving.
(45:13):
I had two guys who left last year. We're in it.
You can redshirt us, not play us, don't care. We're
in it for four or five years whatever. We just
want to grow. And they both like, I didn't like
this that I don't know my growth. Like I your
year ended up better than even I toold told you
could have been. And I bring it up because I
(45:38):
actually enjoyed. I like it. Some coaches really like it.
They'll never sit it on camera more because they like
the refreshing and getting a good cycle of new guys
every year, new energy. Because at the end of almost
any of you you can only play five guys, only
have one basketball. There's gonna be some unhappy people. You
get rid of the unhappy ones. The problem is that
a lot of times you get rid of the happy
(45:58):
ones too, because they transfer up a lot. But when
you're a level like ours and so many these old
coaches don't like it because it's not what they signed
up for. It's not what it used to be about.
It may be about the team at the start of
the year, but by the end of the year, everybody's
looking for their own success stories so they can get
elevate themselves. And it's never about the school. It's never
(46:20):
about the team or very seldom is about the team
or about the school, and it's often about them and
about how much money. And you have to deal with
agents and some don't like to do that. Now. For me,
I came in in this era, so I don't know
what it used to be like. I don't know from
a coach's side if it was way better. And the
common persumption is that's why guys like Nick Saban aren't
(46:42):
in the game anymore. This was Nick Saban. Okay, Nick Saban,
I love this line. He didn't he say that his
wife made him vacuum downstairs and he's like, Man, my
job when I was head coach Alabama was a lot
of these years, so it was the first time I
(47:02):
ever thought about coaching again. I do think most of
the old guard will get out of it because it
is a lot. You're managing budgets, you're managing salaries with players.
You still have coaches, right, you can't bump up coaches
in terms of what they want to make what they
feel like they're rightfully deserving of in compensation, you know,
(47:25):
fifteen twenty years in the business, because now you have
to compensate players who you don't really know what you're getting.
I'd be interested to see if Saban comes back, but
I don't think it comes back. Hey, yeah, I love
it here, I just don't. I just don't. And the
Presidential Executive Order, it sounds great, but it's it's grand standing. Hey,
(47:49):
we really got to pay attention to these women's sports
and non revenue generating sports. Okay, we'll pay attention to them.
Do you have a way in which we can compensate
athletes be competitive at the top of this and and
have enough money left over to have scholarships and coaching
staff and travel and budget for those sports
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
three to five Eastern twelve two Pacific on Box Sports Radio.
Find your local station for The Doug Gottlieb Show at
boxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day
on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR Boom, What Up America,
Doug Gottlieb Show by Sports Radio. Are you doing? Welcome
(00:26):
in Hope. You having a great day. That's it feels
like a smattering of applause. My goodness, thought we did?
There we go, There we go. I didn't. Band's been
(00:49):
filling in for other shows. Jay stew has been pouting
because the Dodgers are losing, so we haven't had the
full crew together. And you know, I don't usually like
to do this, just because the one thing we do
a great job of, and when I say we, I
mean Jason Stewart does, because he's the one who keeps
(01:09):
us on topic, on task, is looking forward. You know.
It's like, you know, you go too far behind in
the past. It's like, what are we what are we
doing here? Right? But but I do think yesterday and
now we're like twenty four hours into this into our
(01:31):
reaction to the death of Hulk Hogan that it's still
worthy of discussion because we haven't been together. That's the
big that we haven't been together. So I look, there
have been people that are critical of my comments. There
(01:54):
are people that are critical of others who have gone
completely the other way and act like you know, some uh,
some incredible icon has passed away, right, And look, my
thing is, I've never really been a wrestling guy. And
once I heard the tape that what Hulk Hogan, I
(02:18):
don't even know his real name whatever, Terry Terry with
a V or B with Terry Belea, you drop n
bomb with a hard R. Several times admit to be like,
I'm just that doesn't exist in my world. Those aren't
people that I will ever associate with or think of
(02:38):
an unfriendly terms. Sorry, And I'm sure there are people
that I know that, or I'm not sure. I'm guessing
there are. There are a person or two that I
know that may say that I just haven't heard it.
Once I hear it, I'm like, I'm good here. So no,
I didn't spend time thinking about it. I'm not super bummed,
but it. On the other hand, I do under stand
(03:00):
the spectacle in the eighties and nineties that was Hulk Hogan.
But you know, there's lots of things we did in
the eighties and nineties that we don't do now, or
we're not into now, or we realize it's bad for us.
Jay s dou, I thought you had great perspective when
we discussed this, right, because my thing has been I
(03:22):
think that people and this is I know we joked about, hey,
when Malcolm Jamal Warner died, you know, whoever dies next,
it's gonna be death in threes and it has it
has been, right Ozzie him and Hulk Hogan. But I
also think that, like, look, what's fascinating to me is
(03:45):
the eighties come to kind of like real life, like
what we saw in the eighties on TV Cosby Show,
what we learned about Bill Cosby since oh yeah, by
the way, that show really not funny. On the other hand,
you can't deny what a breakthrough it was in network
TV at that time slot and what was big then
(04:06):
is not now and it is so different. Then you
go to Ozzy Osbourne, who you know was was basically
seen as a devil worshiper, at least by my parents
when I was a kid, and you know later on
in life. They were kind of the first American or
not American, but first rock family to let us into
(04:28):
their home with the Osbourne's, And I thought Ozzy became
a very likable, likable person if you watch that show.
And then Hulk Hogan went from kind of an American
icon to exposed to being something completely different in his
personal life, and he had a reality show as well.
(04:50):
But I thought that that people who kind of mourned yesterday,
they were more mourning the loss of their childhood. I thought, man,
remember when wrestling was super fun. Now it's like I
got to keep up with the script. I don't know,
you know now it now it really now we always
I always knew it was fake, but it had that
(05:12):
maybe some of this is real to where now it's
just a TV show. But Jay Stu, you had a
different perspective, and I thought it was great and I'd
give you the Florida share it.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah, I mean I think that I understand. I understand both.
I heard what you had to say, and I've seen
others that were quick to criticize or how about this
not as uh not as celebratory and embracing of of Hulk.
And then I understand why there was such a massive
(05:45):
reaction to it. Part of it is what you said.
I think part of it is like losing the childhood.
But like Sam just said on the air, his real name,
and I just found this out today as I was
googling it. Terry Bolea is a very flawed individual, bordering
on like a despicable individual. And I blame the entire
(06:08):
business model of wrestling. As I was growing up through
the eighties, I didn't watch it. I have never caught on,
so I come at it from that perspective. But it
always seemed like an entity that always functioned with a
kind of a wink and a nod, like, you know,
smart people know this is fake. But for all the
other people that don't know it's fake, let's not tell them.
(06:31):
And we're gonna have this massive fan base of people
that don't know if it's fake or not, and that'll
just create this amazing entertainment. And then you have the
biggest entity, Hulk Hogan in that. So you have this
entire generation of people that are just like Hulk Hogan,
He's my hero, whole Hogan, the ultimate heel. He's iconic
Hulk Hogan. So I think all of the celebration yesterday
(06:55):
in his passing was celebrating Hulk. But I think you
can and should make the differentiation between Terry Bolea and
Hulk Hogan, and that Terry guy is disturbing. And why
do we know that Doug because of a lawsuit when
he sued that website for the sex tape. All this
(07:19):
discovery came and those the N word and all that
stuff came with it, and then we find out all
these less than nice things about the guy. And if
you watch the Vince McMahon documentary that I just did,
he did a lot of things business wise that were
not up to par. So it's like that guy was
not the character. Isn't that great? But I thought that's
(07:43):
wrestling's fault for doing this to us. They've confused us
between the character and the guy.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I thought that the one of the parts that you
brought up when we were discussing this, which is I
thought brilliant, is when you once you go rest professional wrestler,
you can never come out of character. Think about that
for a second. You can never come out of character
(08:09):
like that would be as if Gene Simmons could would
always have to walk around with makeup on okay, that
would you know? Pick your favorite actor, even the guys
that are like method acting, you know, and I've heard
some of these stories of a guy but he's a
method actor. It's annoying. You go to get coffee and
(08:30):
he answers you as you know, he talks to you
as the character he's in the film. Yeah, but once
the film is shot and edited, the method acting ends.
And not in pro wrestling, like Dwayne Johnson's been able
to do a little bit of it, but he's still
the rock. He still has to carry on some of
that kind of persona. And yeah, it's one of those
(08:53):
things where you once you take on this caricature and
his character, that's who you have become. So we don't
No one knows who Terry Pagoula Pagoula actually is Terry
b Terry Pagola owns the bills, right? Does he owned
(09:13):
the bills? I think he owns the bills? Dan, how
about you were you were you a pro wrestling guy
growing up in Wisconsin?
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Well, I liked I liked wrestling and I liked hull
Cogan and that's where I thought all of it was
about yesterday. I don't disagree with some of the things
that you said, Doug, you're not being a wrestling fan.
I think it's when you were a kid, or even now,
which I am not now, but I was when I
was a kid. I think that it's it is different
(09:43):
for those that were. I felt like yesterday was about
about our childhood and about nostalgia. I was talking last
night with Mike Harmon about this because obviously it wasn't
on your show yesterday, and I felt like it was
the same thing with mal Jamal Warner, like I know
Bill Cosby was. We completely looked different on him back
(10:08):
in the day. But I think we all related to
theo because we were somewhat around that age, and I
think that hit home Ozzy. The same thing with the
music in Hull Cogan. As you look at the eighties,
it was always about big, enormous superstars, whether it be
in music, whether it be in acting. It was the bigger,
(10:31):
the better, and there was nothing bigger than hul Cogan.
And so I felt with all of us as coming
from that era, that lived in that era, that's what
yesterday was about. I could be wrong in that we're
going to look at hul Cogan the rest of the
way now until eternity, in however fashion, you're going to
look at him. But I just felt in that twenty
four hour period it was about us looking back on
(10:53):
our childhood and remembering the excitement and all the fun
that you had in watching wrestling and watching him enter
the ring and do his thing in the ring.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
That's what I thought yesterday was about. I I again
to be fully transparent. Okay, One, no, I never I
didn't like wrestling. I wasn't a wrestling guy. I did
watch it, Okay, I did watch it. But the two
there's a couple of main reasons why I wasn't really
a wrestling guy. One, not only was it fake, but
I had my I was like a constant argument with
(11:25):
my dad, was like, Dad, that's fake. No, it's not, yes,
it is no. It's like it was an insane argument
to have. By the way, it's a lot like some
of the arguments people are having now. It's like the
did you guys see the video of Trump yesterday with
the head of the FED. It's like, look, it's three
point one billion. They're like, that's a building that was
built five years ago. Like what just when you're having
(11:47):
arguments with people that that it doesn't matter what you say,
they're just it it like it does no traumaunt of
truth actually matters. It makes for an awkward conversation. So
that's part of it. And then I was also little brother.
Remember so the role of the little brother and I
because I was the little brother, I was also basically
the little brother for all of my brother's friends. So
(12:09):
you know, whatever Jimmy Supervis Snooka did, somebody did to me, right,
that was and and these are moves that every big
brother did on a little brother, or buddies did on
each other, and they should not have during that time period.
So there's a reason that I have a bit of resistance.
And then again it's just like one of those I
(12:31):
I just ever never kind of got into the storylines
or whatever. But it is crazy that we created this
bigger than life figure like Hulk Hogan during his prime.
Remember they he'd get hit by a chair and they
they'd have a truck come out and run him over,
and they about to pin him and they'd hold up
(12:53):
his hand and it would fall down, and they'd hold
up his hand and it would fall down and they'd
hold up his hand and all of a sudden and
then they've be made into a fist or to a
number one, and he was and and Hulk was back
like it was. It was. It was so over the
top to me that I was like, oh, why are
we watching this? And yet everyone I know was into it.
(13:14):
They were all into it. But it is interesting on
how when somebody dies, like we we choose, you know,
it's like we're gonna would choose to either remember fondly
the image and achievements, or we're gonna remember the whole picture,
(13:37):
and some will be hyper focused on the negative. I
try and be in the middle on all these things.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Yes, Sammy, So Hulk Hogan died. He died suddenly, like
this was you know, not expected. He passed away. That's
not necessarily true.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, okay, yeah, well okay, I mean the rumors and
stuff and people have talked about how they found out
he wasn't in good health.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Okay, so he wasn't good, but I think this was
a shock to most people. What did that be fair
to say? Yeah, yeah, he just passed away. Oh, Hulk
Cogan is said, So, I think when we talk about people,
like if Hulk Hogan was terminally ill and we had
six weeks to have two months to be ready to
say goodbye to him, then I think people would discuss
all the good in the bad. When someone dies it
kind of like out of the blue. I think people
(14:19):
tend to look at the positives first. It's almost like
you go to a someone's funeral, you're gonna eulogize him.
You're not gonna get up there and say awful stuff
about them. You might say that stuff between friends after
the fact, but I think a lot of people will
tend to look at the positive things first and then
the negative things after. I think, Doug, maybe people were
a little resistant to you yesterday just going right at
like the bad stuff he did in his life, or
(14:41):
as you know, as Terry Bulea. So I think that
it's it's sort of a timing thing. Like if we
had all the time to kind of eulogize and look
at his life and he was a slow descent towards death,
that's something else. But he was just gone all of
a sudden, Oh my gosh. We have to look back
at Hulk Hogan's life, you know, all at once in
one show.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
I agree with that's like this assumed grace period. I
remember after Pete Rose passed there was a sentiment from
the media that was like, yeah, sure he had a
lot of flaws, but today isn't the day to bring
those up. And it's like, I don't know why that's
the rule.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I don't either.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
I don't tell you why, because I thought of Pete
Rose as well. Pete Rose lived his life off off
of him betting on base like that. There was for
how many years, thirty five years of his life. I
feel like it was all about the betting baseball sort
of deal, the autograph signings, all of that stuff, like
it became him. I don't think that this took over
(15:40):
Hulk Hogan's life. I think they kind of run from it.
We're finding out stuff like after the fact. But I
think that's why we look at it differently, Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
I Steinbrenner to me was the one that jumps out. Obviously,
Pete Rose happened most. I was working at ESPN Radio
the time when Steinbreder died, and there were all these
people like eulogizing Steinbrenner, and I was just again it
was the day he died, and I just said, like,
what are we doing, Like, here's the guy who spread
lies about Dave Winfield. Hey, and you know that trying
(16:19):
to destroy a guy trying to destroy Dave Winfield. That's
what because you know, because what was because he was
he was injured when he signed with the with the
Yankees or whatever, like whatever your logic behind it was,
that's what George Seinberg got suspended for. And it was like, well,
(16:39):
you know they won four World Series. Yeah, but that
was after like fifteen years of the same thing over
and over again and hiring and firing, you know, the
same manager over and over again. It was a circus.
And you know, just because the baseball department, you know,
was smart enough to draft Derek Cheeter and to develop
Mario Rivera and the players. And the other part was
(16:59):
it's like they kind of represented the steroid era as well,
you know, not Jet or not Mo, but Roger Clemens
and others. So I just thought it's a time. You
never get a chance to circle back two weeks later
and go like, hey, by the way, Hulk Hogan blatant racist,
dropped hard r N bombs you know, like we're not
(17:20):
circling back to talk about Hulk Hogan after the day
he died. So I understand there's supposed to be some
grace period and we're only supposed to say nice things
and we're supposed to remember them finally, just like you know,
Kobe Bryant only remembered fondly. Now again, I think Kobe
Bryant's complex. I thought Kobe Bryant really ended his when
(17:40):
his life ended. Unfortunately, it was when he had really
matured and become way more thoughtful, way more likable. So
you know, that stuff was sort of buried, but it was.
It was part of the entire story. And I just
think when you die, it's part of the entire story.
And part of the whole Colgan story is we had
this he was Captain of America. That's who he was.
(18:02):
He was Captain America. And then we find out like, yeah,
he he said did some things that are terrible. There
is one other part to hold Coga which should be mentioned.
You know, he was like early on when he became champion,
he was like in his mid thirties, and you know
he was he was bald then, and it's one of
(18:24):
those if you're gonna go bald, you are almost better
going bald in your thirties, because then he was seventy one.
And yeah, I mean some of the close ups he
didn't look great, but he definitely didn't look seventy one.
And a lot of it is he went bald. If
you're gonna go gray, go gray early. If you're gonna
go bald, go bald early. Just again, you know, oh man,
(18:50):
what that was just quite the left turn. It was
a left turn. But it's true. It's true.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I thought he balded gracefully.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
To be honest, I thought it worked for him.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
Yeah he was. He was just tan and swollen his
whole life. Like you're just like you could be fifty,
you could be seventy.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Right, but I'm telling you had he had like a
full head of hair when he started and then had
the look that he had. You know, at the end,
it would have been like, man, ho Colgan's looking older.
But you have no idea how old you. No one
had any idea how OLDI it was, you know, because
he was already bald when he became a star.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
He kept the peroxide industry in business for his entire life.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
He did This is the best of the Don gott
Leeb Show on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
It's the Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio. If you uh,
if you go to ESPN Plus or Disney Plus. There's
a documentary out on a player who I was I
think the entire sports world and again I was fourteen
at the time when he kind of broke through with
the Angels, one of the most memorable players of my
(20:00):
lifetime in professional sports. It's called South Ball. It's based
upon the life of Jim Abbott, and he's kind of
spent some time this year on the Doug Gottlieb Show
on Fox Sports Radio. Jim, how are you.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
I'm great, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
It's so interesting because I'm watching the documentary and I'm
just it's like I felt I was there. I remember,
but there's lots of parts I did not know. And
I think there's so many people in this generation of
sports who have no idea about your story. You were
born without a hand, Like, what's your first memory of
(20:38):
being different than other kids?
Speaker 6 (20:42):
You know, I guess the best my memory recollection would
be was kindergarten. You know. My parents, you know, were great.
They were my heroes. They had me at a young age.
I was born a little bit differently, and they searched
for a lot of ways to help me, you know,
just kind of throwing them things against the wall to
(21:03):
see what would stick. And so they they suited me
up with the prosthesis and the shape of a metal hook.
You know, it's kind of awkward. It was cumbersome. I
went to kindergarten wearing that, and obviously that brought the
stairs and the questions and different awkward moments. And I
think that, you know, when I walked into school for
the first time, was the first time that I was like, man,
(21:25):
I am really different from the rest of the kids.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
What was it like the first time you thought about
playing baseball?
Speaker 6 (21:36):
Well, I grew up in Michigan, so you know, that's
just what you did. And I grew up in a
tough town. I grew up in Flint, Michigan, as you know,
a great basketball town. I used to junior high school.
I used to play basketball with Glenn Rice every day,
you know, but in Flint, it was a it was
a way to to make your name, you know, to
(21:57):
to fit in, to belong was to on a team.
And so it wasn't particularly baseball, although I could always
throw things. I loved basketball. I loved football, and I
love the sense of belonging that it gave me at
recess or on a playground.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Yeah, but baseball specifically. Again, like I had no understanding
that anyone with one hand could play baseball like basketball. Again,
it seems limiting, but and that that had to be hard. Right,
So when you played basketball, did you play with the
hook on or did you play with it off?
Speaker 6 (22:33):
No? I quickly, you know, I dropped the process pretty quick.
It didn't you know it. It may work for a
lot of people, but I, you know, it didn't help
me to do the things I love to do. It
didn't help me drivel to my right, you know, it
didn't help me to play baseball or hold a bat.
So I gave it up after a couple of years.
(22:54):
And then I just, you know, with my parents blessing,
I just started, you know, trying to do it things
my own way. And whether it was switching the glove
on and off of my left hand and throwing and
catching with the same hand, or you know, holding a
baseball bat or to this day, trying to hold a
golf club. You know, I just tried to take a
(23:14):
lot of trial and error, a lot of trying to
figure things out, but just trying to figure out what
seemed most natural to me.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
How did you How did you developed the ability to
to to field as well as you did, because, like
it was, it was honestly like a thing of beauty.
It's like, wow, it happens like so quickly where you
throw and then you'd you'd put put the glove on
your on your left hand. Take me through the steps
of how that How you learned that?
Speaker 6 (23:44):
Well, there were several steps. You know. I first started.
It was very slow. It was kind of cumbersome. You know,
I had a baseball myt that was probably more like
a softball mint, and you know, it just it didn't foh.
So I had to learn, you know, to get the
right size glove, and I would throw a ball against
(24:04):
a brick wall and try to catch it over and
over again because I love to do it, much like
shooting baskets. It was just something that was a release
for me, something that I spent time doing alone. And
then you know, when I made it. I got to
the University of Michigan, and I knew playing at the
collegiate level D one level that you know, people were
(24:26):
going to start trying to take advantage, and that's fair enough,
you know, so I would. I really started devoting a
lot of time, you know, to my fielding and working
on bunks and working on you know, bun down the
third baseline and switching the glove on and off. So
I spent a lot of time doing it right up
until you know, my last days in the major leagues.
(24:48):
And honestly, I you know, I was proud of my fielding.
I felt like I deserved, you know, I felt like
I had earned some recognition for fielding because of all
the hard work.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
In eighty nine, he got called up to the big club,
right and you're playing for the California Angels at the
old Anaheim Stadium, which is a big, gigantic kind of
a model of What do you remember about your first
start in the bigs?
Speaker 6 (25:18):
Not much, not much. It was such a blur. I
remember pitching against Mark Langston, who was one of the
best left handed pitchers in the major leagues at the
time and now a great friend of mine. We became
teammates later, but you know, I was drafted by the
Angels in nineteen eighty eight and I quit and played
(25:41):
in the Olympics. So I spent the entire summer playing
in the Olympics the previous year and we won we
want to go medal. I didn't play professional that season,
and then I went to spring training in eighty nine
and I made the team. I made the club out
of the out of spring training.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
And how they tell you, by the way, how they
tell you, how did you find out you made the club?
Speaker 6 (26:02):
They were my pitching coach, Marcel Latchman, who was a
great mentor and a hero to me to this day.
We were at the Gene Autry Hotel in Palm Springs.
Back then, the Angels spent part of spring training in
Palm spring and we were just about ready to break camp.
I thought I was heading from Midland, Texas to Double A,
and he pulled me aside and said, hey, we're gonna
(26:25):
You're coming with us. You're coming with the big club
back to Anaheim, and you're going to be our starter. So,
you know, pretty exciting. So that's why I don't remember
much of that first game, because things were just moving
so fast and I was, you know, I was just
trying to adjust, trying to recalibrate the idea of going
from amateur baseball to professional baseball.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
When did you feel like I can do this? You know,
because your your whole life. You know, it's very understandable, reasonable,
But people just looked at you and said, there's no way.
Like he doesn't. There's just no way. When did you
feel like I can do this?
Speaker 5 (27:06):
You know?
Speaker 6 (27:07):
I felt like playing on the in the USA team.
I played two summers with the USA team, one in
the PanAm Games and the second following year. After my
junior year in college, I played in the Olympic team.
And I was playing with guys, you know, Robin Ventura,
Tino Martinez, Ben McDonald, Charlie. You know, we were playing.
(27:31):
I was playing.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Mark McGuire was on that team, right, wasn't he?
Speaker 6 (27:36):
No, McGuire was nineteen eighty four. I was nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Okay, okay, Soul Korea. That's right, eighty He was on
the eighty four team that never played was eight No
eighty eighteen? Wait, didn't you get which was the year
that they didn't go? Uys, we didn't go. I guess
eighty we didn't go. Eighty we didn't go.
Speaker 6 (27:53):
Yeah, that's right, that's right. Yeah. And then so you
know I was playing we were playing the Cuban team,
you know who were you know, in their late twenties thirties,
you know, hitting with Eastern bats and going up in
incredible competition. And I beg you know, I was a
big part of the rotation on that team. And so
(28:13):
it was playing with those first round draft picks. It
was playing with those guys and holding my own that
I finally started to believe that maybe I could play
professionally and you know, and kind of fit in with
that potential.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Okay, so your first win, just so you know, was
against the Orioles. This is your third start, right, right,
and it was it was at the Big A. And
here's the big thing. I don't know if you know
this game duration two hours and thirty nine minutes. It
wasn't just that you were awesome and that you you
had this amazing ability to field and ultimately threw a
no hitter in ninety three. It was that you were
(28:49):
You weren't wiping the sweat, taking a trip around the mountain.
You're just in there doing your job and getting the
heck out. I mean, two hours and thirty nine minutes.
That's the end, even of teams. Now with the pitch clock, it.
Speaker 6 (29:01):
Was different back then. You know, it was you know,
you moved fast, you got the ball, you got it
out of your hand, and you get up and you
did it again. And I'm a big fan of the
pitch clock. I think it pulled the game back in
that direction. It's so much easier to watch when the
game moves quickly.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
The no hitter, you know, it's it's interesting when I
was watching the documentary right, and the no hitter is
like the culminating moment. I guess for so many people.
I don't know if you feel that way for you.
For me, it was more just your rookie year and
watching you and you kind of took over the league
and everybody was paying attention. But the no hitter is
interesting because I'm trying to figure out what you were thinking, because, uh,
(29:43):
have you ever seen the movie Let's Sake, Kevin Costner
Baseball not Bull Durham, the Yeah, for Love of the Game, right,
where he's got all this other stuff on in his
life and then for that three out, he's having all
these flashbacks. Do you remember what was going on in
your in your brain any stadium that day.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
You know, that is one of my favorite baseball movies
and in the book by Michael Shara was also terrific
because it captured the stops and starts of a game.
You know, it's I mean, it's pitching. Is you're out there,
You're in this rush, You're in this moment, you're pitching,
you're strategizing, you're throwing, and then then you have everything
(30:25):
stops and you come in and you sit in the
dugout and the you know, what goes through your mind
can have everything to do with the game and it
can have nothing to do with the game. And that
movie captured that perfectly, you know, just sitting there and
that no hitter, you know how it goes your teammates
quit talking to you. That adds a different dynamic that
(30:47):
you know, the mood in the stadium changes, you know,
so your mind is just kind of running in all
these different directions. And I remember you're very observant those
times in between the innings as much as I remember
being out on the mound that day. Excitement.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
You know, how do you want people to describe your career?
Speaker 6 (31:15):
That's a good question, you know, I you know, the documentary,
and I appreciate you bringing it up. Obviously, I was
born missing my right hand, and for a long time, Doug,
I fought against that and I didn't want the label,
you know. I didn't want the first perception of me
(31:37):
to be what people thought of me or what I
could do. But I think the documentary in some ways
captures the journey of coming to terms with my hand,
you know, because I met so many kids, so many
families like me, similar to me, like my parents, and
(32:01):
there was a time when I didn't want to be
known for that. But I had to embrace that, you know,
I had to come. I had to say, yes, this
is who I am, and I wouldn't have done the
things that I did had I been born differently. I
believe that deeply, and so now for me, I want
to I don't mind being remembered for having done things differently.
(32:25):
You know. I know it's who I am, and I
know it pushed me in ways I never would have
been pushed before, and later in life. I'm proud of it,
and I'm not you know, I don't shy away from
a label that I once wasn't, you know, didn't always embrace.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Well, I can only tell you this as a young
athlete that was born with all my working limbs, it
was still inspirational for me. Like I think, I'm sure
anyone you met who needed a prosthesis, you know, you
were inspirational. But for anybody else, you're like, hey, if
Jim Abbott can overcome what he was born with, you
condemn right. So it's amazing that. I'm sure so many
(33:07):
people think, wait, such an inspiration is so many? No, No,
you were actually inspiration to all young athletes, especially in
southern California. And I think also part of it was
you never talked about it. It wasn't You did kind of
shy away from it, and so it made it like
it it's not even part of his thought process. He didn't.
He didn't think this is anything special. So yeah, we
(33:28):
should be able to achieve way more considering what we
were born with. Does that make sense?
Speaker 6 (33:35):
Yeah? I believe that, you know, you know, it cracks
me up as I meet people, and I have met
people along the way, kids boys, and they'll say hey,
you know, and they have two hands, you know, and
they play baseball and arm away, and I hear all
the times say, we used to be on the street.
We would switch the glove on and off.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Sure everybody, And.
Speaker 6 (33:57):
I say, well, why do you do that? It's probably harder,
but who knows. You know, it's the way I was born.
It's all I ever knew, and so you know, I
do think it's a testament to making the most and listen,
a lot of people have it a lot worse than me.
I know that it's up to us to make the
most of what we've been given. And it doesn't matter
(34:17):
if you're the most talented person on a team or
the least. You know that the effort is the measurement.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Could agree with you more well, I just I just
want to tell you an inspiration to me and I
love watch watching the documentary and as soon as it
came out, I talked to Jason and I said, Jason,
can we have Jim Abbatta? And he's like why. I
was like, why not, and he's like, that's a very
good point. It's a very very good point. I encourage
people to watch it and to fall in love with
your story and Jim, it's just an honor to catch
(34:44):
up with you. Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 6 (34:47):
Thank dog, Take care man.
Speaker 5 (34:49):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation yet. Catch all of our shows at Foxsportsradio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
But you doug out the show sports Radio, we got
a heck of a show for you today. If you
miss any today's show, check out the podcast to be
available at the top of next hour. Just download the
I Got Leap Show podcast wherever you download podcast. Jim
Abbott played eleven years of the Biggs Angel Yankee through
No Hitter with the Yankees. Of course, he's the subject
of the new documentary South Pod. It's pretty good. Check
(35:22):
it out on Disney Plus and on Amazon. Got to
talk about Hall of Fame Kansas Hall of Fame head
coach Bill self getting a medical scare yesterday, and I
want to play for you something Nick Saban said about
rumors of his return to coaching. We'll do that in
a second though. But it's really interesting. You know yesterday
(35:42):
I got text from people and we talked about this
a little bit on the show yesterday about the presidential
what is it? The Executive Order, the Executive Order on
College Sports. And here's what's I mean, Look, politicians, grandstand.
(36:06):
I think what's really interesting is that our President came
in as the anti politician politician, but everything he does
is like an expert politician, only only it's so obvious
and so transparent, that kind of mafia type of hey,
pay up or else type of thing that whereas other
(36:31):
politicians are a little bit more artful and you only
find out about the ties and connective tissues kind of
after the fact. But President Trump's signed an executive order
to protect student athletes and collegiate athletic scholarships and opportunities,
including Olympic and non revenue generating programs, and the unique
American institution of college sports. The order, and this is
(36:53):
from white House dot gov. The order requires the preservation
of where possible expansion of opportunities of scholarship, collegiate athletic
competition in women's and non revenue sports. Okay, it's kind
of contradictory, I understand, but well, that one was placed first.
I do think it's really really interesting that this is
(37:15):
a White House that has run on the hey, no DEI,
no woke, no whatever, and yet the first part of
the order is to protect non scholarship, non scholarship, non
revenue generating and women's sports specifically, which by the way,
are going to be destroyed because of the new rules
(37:36):
or the new revenue sharing or use of nil. Just reality.
The order prohibits third party pay for play payments to
college athletes. This does not apply to legitimate fair market
compensation that third party provides to an athlete, such as
brand endorsement. So what are you talking about. Oh, it
has oversight into what is and what is not fair
(37:58):
market legitimate. Now, not sure how many people know this,
but I've said this before. The NCAA does a lot
of stuff. Everybody criticizes any of the dumb stuff they do.
They try and do some smart stuff. They already have
this I believe it's called NCAA go And anytime you
get compensated from a third party over six hundred dollars,
(38:20):
they have to investigate and clear it. The order provides
that any revenue sharing permitted between universities and collegian athletes
should be implemented in a manner that protects women's and
non revenue generating sports. How again, this is just simply ay,
what about Title nine? We don't know. The order directs
(38:40):
Secretary Labor and National Labor's Board to clarify the status
of student athletes in order to preserve non revenue generating
sports and irreplaceable educational development opportunities. It goes on to
some other things, but basically it's the hey, uh, are
you guys watching how much they're paying these kids and
what do we do to save women's sports and non
(39:03):
revenue generating sports, And the answer is very little. The
answer is in this quest by so many, including a
lot of Republicans and a lot of Democrats. Okay, to
free them from free them from the oppression of the NCAA.
That's what people use. You're just Robin Peter to pay Paul.
(39:26):
So you're doing that's what you're doing. So there is
only so I don't know how much you guys saw this,
but Iowa State estimates that over the next five years
they'll be I think it's over two hundred million dollars
in debt. So they're not doing construction on a new
wrestling wrestling room and stopping construction on Hilton Coliseum, which
(39:51):
is a palace that needs a refresh for their basketball program.
And by the way, those are two programs. Wrestling probably
makes a little bit of money, basketball makes them good
amount of money. Football obviously makes them the most money.
Those are revenue generating sports in the state of Iowa,
and they're not doing any facilities upgrades because they're going
to be operating a whole And that's not even talking
about women's sports. Just so we're aware, Okay, when the
(40:14):
president gives an executive order, it doesn't actually mean anything.
It is grand standing. The funny part about it is
it's grand standing for things that protections that already exist.
And a problem that I don't know how you solve,
which is how do you funnel any of your revenue
(40:35):
and pay twenty up to twenty two million of it
and that's at the highest level, twenty two million of
it to your athletes and still have women's sports on scholarship.
They're just going to get phased out unless they can
raise their own be self sustaining and raise their own money.
And look, i'm parent of my daughter is in a
(40:58):
non revenue generating sport that is really expensive and they
have fifty girls, and they did expand the scholarships. All
the new rules do is you can have up to
fifty scholarships for a question probably can't afford it. Can't
afford it. Byer, when you saw the executive order. Did
(41:22):
you think there was anything different or profound about it?
Speaker 3 (41:24):
I didn't look into it, Doug. I'm gonna be completely honest. Yeah,
I saw Ross Dellinger tweet about it, looked a little
into it, but I didn't pay much mind, so I
would be of no help in this discussion.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Jay Stu, when you and I discussed it today, you
thought it was something. But finally somebody said something, Finally
something that did someone. I was like, yeah, actually, it's
kind of already been said, already been done. I guess
it brings attention to it, but it doesn't actually do
anything to it.
Speaker 6 (41:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
I mean, I honestly didn't even know if this executive
order was anything different than what's already going on. But
I will make this point in my trigger. Some people,
you guys are probably gonna think, oh, he's just some
magi guy. Nope, he says nothing political. This is fact.
Executive orders, by and large, by presidents are kind of
(42:12):
worth what they're printed on, and they are grand standing
and they are just you know, strong messaging from the
White House hoping everybody will fall in line. But there
is a process to things. But Trump's different, right, and
the proof's in the pudding with it. With with my example,
zero border crossings, zero border crossings since he took over
(42:35):
all by executive order. No legislation has been passed since
he's been in office, and they have completely stopped the
spigot at the border. So I would say in general,
executive orders are kind of frivolous and grand standing, but
there's something about this presidency where people are falling in
(42:56):
line and adhering to these orders.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Uh, there aren't zero border crossings. There's a substantial decrease,
but there's not zero ber crossings, just so we're aware.
But yeah, I mean they unleashed ice on people, so
there's gonna be less. There's gonna be there's obviously gonna
be less, and they they've done a better job of
beefing up border security. So I kind of think you're
(43:23):
connecting things that aren't really connected because it's the ice
is not based upon the executive order. There's been He's
had a million executive orders that nothing has happened about nothing.
Now he ran on immigration reform, and I don't want
to make this a political show, but I again, I
just in an effort to be as knowledgeable as possible.
(43:43):
There's not zero border crossings. There's far fewer.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Yeah, I would I would hate for anybody to detect me. Literally,
I know that there's not zero. That's an exaggeration to
make a point significantly less or even how about this
a very small percentage of what was being allowed in
the last four years.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Wasn't there a wasn't there a stat where actually Obama
deported more people than Trump and Trump's first administration. It
was like crazy. But again, a lot of this is
about one side celebrates their successes, the other side seems
to run from them. Just weird that way. But the
(44:30):
college sports thing, and I had a conversation with a
dad who's a good friend of mine. His son's a
super high level recruit and his son's going to make
a lot of money in his first year playing college sports.
And he was like, yeah, I hate this. All these
coaches hate this. He's like, don't you hate this? And
(44:52):
I said no, you know, it doesn't feel good when
you sign a kid and you give them an honest
outlook and you're like, hey, this is what I think.
I think. This is what YR one looks like the ceiling,
this is what your one looks like the floor. It
probably lands somewhere in the middle. This is I think
what year two looks like. Whatever, Hey, coach, I'm never leaving.
(45:13):
I had two guys who left last year. We're in it.
You can redshirt us, not play us, don't care. We're
in it for four or five years whatever. We just
want to grow. And they both like, I didn't like
this that I don't know my growth. Like I your
year ended up better than even I toold told you
could have been. And I bring it up because I
(45:38):
actually enjoyed. I like it. Some coaches really like it.
They'll never sit it on camera more because they like
the refreshing and getting a good cycle of new guys
every year, new energy. Because at the end of almost
any of you you can only play five guys, only
have one basketball. There's gonna be some unhappy people. You
get rid of the unhappy ones. The problem is that
a lot of times you get rid of the happy
(45:58):
ones too, because they transfer up a lot. But when
you're a level like ours and so many these old
coaches don't like it because it's not what they signed
up for. It's not what it used to be about.
It may be about the team at the start of
the year, but by the end of the year, everybody's
looking for their own success stories so they can get
elevate themselves. And it's never about the school. It's never
(46:20):
about the team or very seldom is about the team
or about the school, and it's often about them and
about how much money. And you have to deal with
agents and some don't like to do that. Now. For me,
I came in in this era, so I don't know
what it used to be like. I don't know from
a coach's side if it was way better. And the
common persumption is that's why guys like Nick Saban aren't
(46:42):
in the game anymore. This was Nick Saban. Okay, Nick Saban,
I love this line. He didn't he say that his
wife made him vacuum downstairs and he's like, Man, my
job when I was head coach Alabama was a lot
of these years, so it was the first time I
(47:02):
ever thought about coaching again. I do think most of
the old guard will get out of it because it
is a lot. You're managing budgets, you're managing salaries with players.
You still have coaches, right, you can't bump up coaches
in terms of what they want to make what they
feel like they're rightfully deserving of in compensation, you know,
(47:25):
fifteen twenty years in the business, because now you have
to compensate players who you don't really know what you're getting.
I'd be interested to see if Saban comes back, but
I don't think it comes back. Hey, yeah, I love
it here, I just don't. I just don't. And the
Presidential Executive Order, it sounds great, but it's it's grand standing. Hey,
(47:49):
we really got to pay attention to these women's sports
and non revenue generating sports. Okay, we'll pay attention to them.
Do you have a way in which we can compensate
athletes be competitive at the top of this and and
have enough money left over to have scholarships and coaching
staff and travel and budget for those sports
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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