August 28, 2023 • 46 mins
Mookie and Freddie Freeman stay hot and the Dodgers took 2 of 3 in Boston. USC beat San Jose State in their season debut as Zachariah Branch electrified in his debut. El Segundo wins the Little League World Series.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Oh yes, Happy, Happy Monday. The sun is shining. The Dodgers
take two out of three from Boston. USC wins is opening game. All
is right in the universe. That'sall I'm gonna That's all I'm gonna say.
All is right in the universe.I'm smiling ear to ear right now.
(00:21):
Fred Rogan is out. Jason Smithis going to join me momentarily to
talk about a lot of a lotof things on this Monday. We gotta
get to the Dodgers, but we'regonna get to some USC football. Talking
about that opening win against San JoseState somewhere very impressed, some we're not
impressed at all. A lot ofquestions with this USC team, but I
can tell you this, there isa lot of talent, a lot of
(00:41):
young talent on that team. Butwe're going to the USC a little bit
later. Also, congratulations to ElSegundo Little League for winning the Little League
World Series Championship. They came fromthe Loser's bracket, had to win must
games, five of them, Ibelieve, all the way to beating Curoside
in the championship in dramatic fashion,walked it off. It was pretty incredible
(01:04):
for those kids. From El SagundoLittle League. But off the top,
we'll talk some Dodgers. And herehe is. He's a host of the
Jason Smith Show on AM five seventyat Thought Sports Radio from seven pm to
eleven pm Monday through Friday. MyMan Today, Jason Smith. What's up,
Jason? How you doing? Man, Dude, I don't know what
I'm more excited about, man,I mean all the different things we have
(01:26):
going on, and El Segundo witsLittle League series, Man, Dude.
I coach. I coach at Westchester, right and I've coach manage at Westchester.
I do Little League girls for thelast seven years. We play El
Segundo every year. All of thefamilies on my team a lot of them
go to El Sagundo High School,so I don't know them personally, but
the but the families of the girlsI coach, it's like the younger brothers
(01:49):
of the girls that I have coached, like they talked like like they know
the older brothers and the younger brotherswho played yesterday. So it's just so
odd going oh yeah yeah, liketext bass going oh so and so did
this and so and so did this. I'm like this is end up watching
them on TV. It's just itwas just that thing, man. I
mean, because you guys, I'msure, like you just mentioned that,
the dividing lines are crossed and blurred. So there's a lot of kids that
(02:12):
that play in your little league andthen play over and elsa Gunno little league,
So you do, I'm sure knowa lot of those kids, and
you probably obviously play against them.But growing up there, I'm sure households
and friendships are split between which kidsplay and which little league. I know
it was for me and I didthe same thing, Jason. I was
younger and my kids were younger.I coached the little league as well,
and Encino and a lot of ourfriends played in Sherman Oaks Little League,
(02:36):
which is right there dividing line.So a lot of kids, friends that
went to school together, played inSherman Oaks and some played in Encino.
So you know all those families,you know all those kids. So it
was just a joy joy to seethem win it all. And I know
for you and I want to getinto that with you later on when we
talk about it, but just seeingthose kids growing up, what it means,
what it takes from a little leaguelevel to get it, get all
(02:58):
the way there, and seeing thesekids flourished, it was it was amazing.
Man. I thoroughly enjoys. Itfelt like I was there rooting for
him, but but I was sohappy for those kids man. And like
I said, we'll get into thatlater, but I want to start off
talking about the Dodgers. They justkeep rolling along, Jays rolling along.
They're now eighty and forty nine,They're twelve games up on the Diamondbacks.
(03:20):
They go take two out of threefrom Boston. Boston's former favorite son,
Mookie Bets goes off in Boston.Freddie Freeman continues to be on fire.
Mookie Bets is by I think,not by far because it's a tight race,
but leading the MVP race right now. He just continues to stay hot.
Believe he's now fifteen games that he'sbeen hitting on his hitting streak.
(03:44):
This Dodger team is good, butthere's still are concerns, right, I
mean, how do you feel aboutthis team right now? Eighty and forty
nine, twelve games up, butdoes it feel like they're on a championship
run? Well? Well, look, first of all, you and you
met your Mookie Bets and let's talkwith him for a second. Because the
dude got three standing ovations every timehe came. Every game this past weekend,
(04:05):
the Red Sox game was standing ovation. This is like the team that
knows, Hey, I screwed up, man. This is like when when
the girl that got away or theguy who got away, you go,
man, my whole life, Iscrewed it and there's nothing you can say.
But what did I do? When? I mean, come on,
they clapped for him every single game. It's like the first game, Okay,
gets an ovation. I understand himin a lot to that team World
(04:28):
Series off. But then the nextgame he's tipping his helmet again. The
third game, he's tipping his helmet. It's like, who, we should
have never let you go. Iwas worried they were going to let him
back on the plane, Like,hey, BET's his here. Dodgers,
you go back to LA you leaveMookie here. No we made that trade.
No no, no, no,no no no no, he gets
he gets to stay here. Wescrewed that up. We guys screwed it
up. Guys in some dark suitsand dark glass. He's gonna show up
(04:50):
at the hotel room. I'm sorrywe're not gonna let you go. But
here's the thing I can't imagine andversus the Dodgers, but letting the face
of your franchise go in the middleof his prime. I just I mean,
(05:13):
if you're the Boston's an incredible fanbase, they have great fans there
for all, you know, allthe sports, the Red Sox story franchise.
But you let the face of thefranchise after winning a World Series walk
out the door in his prime day. I just if you look up and
you say and talk about the Dodgers, could you ever see the Dodgers.
(05:35):
I mean, we talked about thiswas Clayton Kershoff for years. They've always
found a way to keep him evenafter his prime. Let's take a step
further and go, what if thiswas Clayton Kershaw seven years ago and the
Dodgers decided, oh, we're notgonna keep you around, We're gonna send
(05:55):
you back east to the Red Sox. I just don't see an organization like
the Dodgers ever doing that too aguy that's the face of their fantise.
Man, No, and look,and what happened with with Mookie Betts was
it was one of those perfect stormkind of situations where the Red Sox wanted
to cut payroll. They were stillunder the auspices of do we really need
(06:16):
to spend this much money on oneplayer, because you know, they they
embraced the moneyball dynamics, you know, back you know, you know,
you know, fifteen years ago,and they had you know, they had
new people coming in running the team, and kind Bloom was just coming in.
So it was one of those timeswhere hey, he's available. Like
I don't know if it was ayear before or the year after, he
would have been available. But themoney that that Mookie Betts was looking at,
(06:38):
Boston just said, hey, that'sthat's too much for us. Right,
three hundred and fifty million dollars isjust too much. And now in
retrospect, it's crap. We neededto spend that money to keep him.
I can't believe we didn't do that, but it was it was a perfect
time to get Mookie Betts. Idon't know that that trade happens any other
time. We no, Look,dude, we're keeping this guy, right,
we have we understand, we wanthe does, he does everything for
(06:59):
us. We're going to keep him. But that was a time when you
know you're talking about after the twentytwenty and what were they going to do?
Were they good assign him? Andit seemed like the Red Sox and
John Henry had no intention of doingthat. It's like, no, we're
just not giving him that money.So let's let him go. We gotta
let him go a year early becausewe want to be able to get something
for him. And their return forhim was okay, but it wasn't nearly
what it was now. And thebetter Mookie Bets plays and the closure he
(07:23):
gets to winning an MVP, themore the more that trade looks terrible.
So this is this is where theDodgers just struck at the right time.
And they do that right. Theystruck at the right time for Surezer and
Tray Turner. And did they moveon from Trey Turner the right time?
Sure they did. You know,they got it to take over for Corey.
Seeger, Hey, this is whatwe're doing. Look, they strike
at the right time. It's youknow, the Dodges have rolled seven and
(07:44):
eleven for the last you know,decade plus and and you know when you
said to me, hey, thisrun they have right now, I'll tell
you, Roddy, I don't.This is the most impressive regular season the
Dodgers have had since they started theirrun over a decade ago. There's no
run more oppressed than yeah, becausebecause it's it's it's the worst team,
(08:05):
right I say worst, or theteam that's got eighty wins. But yeah,
it's the least talented team that theyhave had in the last twelve years.
But this is what happens when yourbest players play the way they do.
You got two MVPs at the topof the lineup in one two,
and you're getting everything you need.When it looked like the bullpen was gonna
implode, they had that horrible run. Was it? The next month and
a half, the bullpens eara wasunder two, Yeah, it was.
(08:28):
It was. It's like when theDodgers say they need something, they get
it and and but this team isnot nearly as talented as the other teams.
You get to the you know,you get past the fourth spot in
the batting order, Okay, yougot some question marks here, and our
guy's gonna come through and you know, James Altman always gonna get a big
clutch hit at some point. Butthat's what they've been doing, and they
make those trades of the deadline,and they couldn't land the big Fish because
(08:48):
Rodriguez wanted to stay in Detroit ratherthan you know, come to La which
good luck. Okay, you wantto look. I vacation Detroit, That's
why. But I live in LosAngeles, right, so I'll tell you
a vacation there. Live here?What is he going at? Upper Peninsula?
Ye? Go? Hang out inMichigan, Florida? Okay, yeah,
(09:09):
in Georgia where you just you know, drove across the border. Now
you're into your your home. Itwas Detroit, all the places you and
I used to go into trail.Hey, let's go downtown. The casinos
are downtown. Okay, that's whereI'll end up going. But but you
know, they didn't land the bigFish, but they got enough to steady
the team, and the Rosario tradeturns out to be even better today.
The Guardians let Synder Guarden go.I mean, what a great deal that
(09:31):
was. But this team overall,you look at it and say, yeah,
you compare it to Dodger teams ofyears past. No, they're not
nearly as deep, but they're stillgetting the clutch contributions at the bottom of
the lineup, And if it's notBraves Dodgers in the NLCS, something's wrong.
Something if it's not Brave, becausethe Braves are gonna be a time
you talk about eight All Stars anda loaded roster. Uh, they're gonna
be a really tough out. Butif it's not Braves Dodgers NLCS, there's
(09:54):
something wrong. But this team thisyear, they need pitching, they need
bullpen, they need more hitting,and still twelve games up in the NLS
when it looked like it was goingto be a year where maybe this is
a transition year for them before theytry to spend money in the off seas
Ozani, before they try to spendmoney in the off season. But it
doesn't matter. They put this teamout there and it looks if you didn't
know anything and just were fast forwardedfrom last year at this time or this
(10:16):
year at this time, you wouldsay, Okay, yeah, same Dodger
team, same record, same everything. In the NLS, everything changed,
They didn't spend money and instead ofbeing a transition year, now it's another
World Series year. This is themost impressive Dodger season they've had since their
run began twelve years ago. Isit enough? Though, here's the thing.
You know with Dodger fans and youknow it, say, okay,
uh, nothing is ever good enoughuntil you win the World Series. And
(10:37):
even after you win it, theywant you to win it again the next
year. But but going back towhat I was saying about Mooki in the
in the Red Sox, if you'rea Dodger fan, don't you have to
love your club even more because theydon't go through those cycles. Hey,
we're gonna take it for three tofour years because we don't want to pay
guys. We gotta cut the roster. We gotta cut the payroll. We're
(11:00):
gonna We're not gonna be good fora while, Dodger fans. So we're
gonna send off Clayton Kershaw, We'regonna ship off Freddy Free. We're gonna
ship off these guys so we canwe can rebuild and see what we got
on our friend. Dodgers don't dothat. They every year they're in the
conversation. And for that, whichis so hard to do in professional sports,
they gotta be commended. Now,the question is is it gonna be
(11:22):
enough this year? I know yousaid it's impressive, and it is.
I believe I'm right with you.It's an impressive run that the Dodgers have
been on when most people didn't evenpick them to win the division. Remember,
started season, it was all aboutthe Padres. It was all about
the Padres, and Diamondbacks obviously cameout of nowhere, and we see where
they you know, they were notable to last. Now be in twelve
(11:43):
game backs of the back of theDodgers, the Giants. You know,
people had their eye on the Giants, but it was about the Padres winning
the division. And look where thePadres are right now. The Dodgers are
doing it. Can the Dodgers canthey get it done with offense? I
mean their offense has been optional allseason long. You're just talking about Freddie
and Mookie at the top of theline. It Will Smith's had a good
(12:05):
year. They got some other guyssprinkled around there. But the pitching.
The pitching has been the concern.Yes, they had a good month from
a bullpen standpoint, but it's beena concern all season long, and we
kept waiting to go, oh,you know, they'll get it, They'll
get it figured out. Some guy'sgonna get off the injured list. They're
getting figured out, the pitching toget it figured out. But then every
time we think they get it figuredout, a week comes by and they,
(12:26):
oh, they're struggling again, orJulio has to go on the road
and he struggles on the road.What are we going to do about then?
Can they? Can they get itdone? You just mentioned the Atlanta
Braves, who's got it all andare rolling. Can the Dodgers get it
done? Or a team get itdone by just being an explosive offense and
having maybe a mediocre pitching staff,you know, and and here's why,
(12:52):
And it's actually this is actually theflip side of what the Dodgers have gone
through the last few years. Right, you get in the playoffs and you
haven't unbelievable regular season. And theDodgers have learned that, Okay, do
we need to have an unbelievable regularseason? We won one hundred and ten
games last year and we spent allkinds of money and didn't even get to
the NLCS. They realize, okay, regular seasons, we don't need to
be unbelievable. We just need tobe good enough. Now this team is
(13:13):
overachieved, and you know, Iknow you and Fred talked about this the
other day too. The only concernreally would be is are they peaking a
little too early because they're playing soincredibly well right now, you know,
as we get out of the dogdays of August. But here's where things
flip because usually Dodgers come into theplayoffs and now there's big advantage. But
seven game series, anything can happen, and pitching is the biggest wild card
(13:37):
in the playoffs. You have noidea what you're going to get. You
could start some rookie and a spotstart. He can give you seven innings
of one hit ball and completely negateswhat the other pitcher is going to do
so suddenly. But whereas in thepast it would that hurts the Dodgers because
it was like, boy, ClaytonKershaw pitch great, but this kid who
just came up and throws the ballsixty five miles an hour, and where's
(13:58):
a Rodney Pete Jersey on the mound? This kids, I can't believe what
he's doing us. And that's abig equalizer because pitching in the postseason is
such a dice roll. Right,you get you get to like gain three
of a playoff series and it's abullpend game, or you're just hoping your
starter gives you four innings before yougo to the bullpen. Because the games
are longer, they're throwing more pitchesin their tacks from the whole season,
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so all of a sudden, whenyou get to the playoffs, pitching sort
of levels out. And that's whyI hate building a team on pitching,
because pitching kind of comes back tothe pack of it. So if you
have if your offense is hitting andthe pitching kind of equalizes, because it
will. Yeah, No, Ifeel great about the Dodgers this postseason,
especially you know how they hit inthe clutch. You know how they hit
in late innings. They hit betterin late innings than any team in baseball
(14:43):
over the past few years. Sono, I feel great about this year.
I'll go flip side and play devil'sadvocate. Good last year, this
team was great offensively. You mentionedone hundred eleven games last year rolling into
the playoffs, and then they hitthe Padres, who were the hotter team,
and that that's what it is.It's really the teams that get hot
at the end of the year atthe right time, and the Padres got
(15:05):
hot the Phillies got hot, andobviously the Astros end up winning it at
all, but it was about thePadres, and when the Dodgers went down
to play the Padres in that series, the bats went cold. The bats
went cold, and the pitching wasnot good enough to sustain those bats not
doing what it did throughout the regularseason. Man. So that's the thing
that concerns me a little bit isthat if they have, you know,
(15:26):
a week where you know Mookie's noton his game, is not hitting,
or Freddie's not on his game,then and they don't have the pitching that
can shut somebody down to one ortwo runs. That's my concern because you
know, in the playoffs, youknow, you have two bad outings.
Now you're behind the eight ball andthe series could be over before you know
it. Yeah, well, they'renot going in his favorites. Don't get
(15:48):
me wrong. I'm not saying they'regoing in his favorites. But in a
year where if that's the NLCS,the Braves are the favorites. They have
eight all stars, right, everybody'sgood, everybody hits, everybody pitches,
they do all it. The thegap between the teams is going to be
negligible. I mean, and that'sand that's a great thing for the Dodgers
this year because they're not coming inas they won't come into that series as
(16:08):
the big favorite, and you know, hey, look, crazier things have
happened. You'd never know what canhappen to the Braves. You never know
who can get hot. I havemore confidence the Dodgers early round in the
playoffs. You never know who.You never know who they might wind up
play. But really, if it'snot Braves, Dodger or something's wrong,
but you never know, you mightnot even worry about that. But coming
in this year, it's more ofa hey, it's an advantage this year
(16:30):
for them to be on equal footing, whereas in years passed it was Hey,
everything we were able to do nowsort of gets canceled and that that
other team, that's the underdog team. They come in they have more confidence.
As they're playing, they have muchmore Hey belief we can do it.
Hey, look at this. TheDodgors is supposed to be great,
but look we're hanging with them andeverything is fantastic, and look at us
(16:51):
doing this and we believe we canwin and that Yeah, that's a tough
thing. It's a tough thing togo through, and it's suddenly all that
big advantage, that intimidation fact youhave, has all gone. Now this
year it's hey, you think thisis a this is a this is a
kind of year for us where we'rein a transition year. No, we're
still winning one hundred some odd gamesand we're coming to kick your ass all
right, like this is this isthe Dodgers. This year is much more
than it was last year. AndI don't know that that's a bad thing.
(17:14):
I don't know it's a bad thingfor them to come into the playoffs
and not be the overwhelming favorite,to play a little bit freer and play
a little bit with more joy andwinning is more of a of a of
a of a great confluence of circumstancesthan it is a relief because we should
win, because we're better, weshould win the first two games of the
series, because it's kershawn Urius.We should win this, we should win
this. They're not going to comeinto that series as should should should and
(17:37):
maybe that's a little bit better forthem going in there where they're not the
overwhelming favorites to win like they havebeen sometimes sometimes it's a little bit different
mental outlook and can can be differentfor you. And I think that could
be the Dodgers this year. Yeah, will a No. I want to
keep that going because we will see. I mean, I want to get
your thoughts on whether it's a goodthing to be, you know, comfortable
(18:00):
league going into the playoffs or havinga dog fight all the way into the
playoffs so every game feels like aplayoff leading up to them. We'll get
into that. Also, got totalk about my boys of Troy opening game
against San Jose State. They winit big, but still some concerns.
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Get ready to build your backyard dreams. Let oh yeah, here we
go. Let's keep it a goinghunt on Monday. Yeah, I look
at my man. Jayson Smith isright on time, mouthing the words.
(19:33):
He knows what time it is.Oh man, I'm back in the club.
In kidding, Oh, you kiddingme. The karaoke is going strong,
is going strong? Jason in forFred Rogan today. Also, we'll
let you know every hour we're givingaway a pair of Dodger tickets, giving
away a pair of Dodger tickets,or stay tuned every hour we will give
a pair of those tickets away.So, Jason, you mentioned uh Otani,
(20:00):
and I want to talk about thatreal quick because obviously this is gonna
be a very painful offseason for theAngels. You know, a lot of
talk about them trading them before thetrade deadline. They decided we're not going
to do that. We're gonna gofor it. They tried to trade and
bring in some guys. It didnot work. Mike Trout came back,
got injured again, and now Otaniis probably on the shelf for the rest
(20:25):
of the season in terms of pitchingbecause of the soreness in the ucl of
his elbow, and and now there'squestions about him going forward, whether or
not him as a two way player, as a player that pitches and hits,
how much longer can he do thatif he has to indeed have another
Tommy John surgery. Man, ifyou're the team out there or and you
(20:48):
mentioned the Dodgers may be in thatrace in the off season, if your
team out there does that, whatdoes that do to your thinking if he
does have to have another surgery andhe's not a picture and a hitter much
longer? Well, first of all, the Dodgers had Japanese Heritage Night when
they were playing the Angels, Soyou really come on, you know,
(21:08):
hey, where's that in the calendar? Where are we playing the angels.
Okay, let's go through. Let'sgo through right there, right, let's
show what life is like in Lauh so, yeah, of course,
I don't think you can. Idon't see there being anyway. And this,
this is a tough thing for Otani. He's still gonna make I'll get
a four hundred million dollar contract becauseof the hitter he is, but no
(21:32):
team is going to pay him tobe a picture even if there's no surgery.
There's no Tommy John surgery. You'retalking about two really bad injuries to
his pitching arm in a five yearspan, right, Tommy John surgery in
twenty eighteen, the UCL tear.Now, you have no idea what he's
going to be able to do pitchingwise, I'd be I'd be. I
think we're all fortuitous as fans.If he can wind up just closing,
(21:55):
right, if he can go somewhereand be it, you know, and
be a team's closer. He doesn'thave to throw a lot of pitches.
But no one's gonna pay him tostart because you have no idea. Look
at what happened to to Graham thisyear. The Rangers gave him all this
money. He's not only out thisyear, he's out all the next year
too. You know, you can'tpay for starting pitching that kind of money,
especially when someone has that kind ofinjury history. So those days of
him the seven hundred million dollars,eight hundred million dollars, that's not gonna
(22:18):
happen. Now. He's still gonnaget a Bryce Harper Aaron Judge type deal.
I'm probably a little bit more becausehe's a bigger drawing card than Bryce
Harper is or or Aaron Judges,just because you see O Toddy's popularity throughout
the league. So he's still gonnaget that four hundred million dollars deal.
And maybe there's some kind of creativeway he can get more money if he
(22:40):
does return to be able to pitchand be able to start. You know,
they could do crazy stuff with contractsnow, But that's gonna be His
deal is going to be as aslugger, and it's gonna be for around
that four hundred million dollars. Thatshould set the bar clearly, but it's
not gonna blow the bar away likewe thought it was, because you just
can't count. He's gonna say ifyou were in his camp, and I
think I said this a few weeksback when the Angels were you know,
(23:02):
they were they were making that push. I think there were six games or
four six games you know, awayfrom the wild Card and that race.
There was still some excitement that theycould probably get there and may be able
to get there. Uh then theythen they fell off a cliff, right,
and they started losing every other gameand just couldn't do it. I
said then and there that if I'mhis camp, I'm i'm I may put
(23:25):
him on the shelf and say,listen, I might, I'm my starts.
I'm just gonna be a hitter therest of the season. And I
know that may affect the MVP andall the things going on. But look
what happened now, Like he said, he goes from being that six hundred
seven hundred million dollar guy sit down, which is no chump change, to
it now with three hundred million dollarsfour hundred million dollar guy, which is
(23:48):
a lot of a lot of change. But I don't know, man,
I just I don't know if Iwould have continued on doing both. He
you know, it's you definitely seethe sense that there's Otani's reps and they
kind of tell the Angels what theywant, right, Right, There's it
doesn't seem like everybody's on the samepage. Right, You've seen just in
(24:08):
what's going on. You've seen quotesfrom Phil Nevin and you know people in
the Angels organization. Hey, youknow he refused imaging back when he had
the cramp in his in his handabout a month ago. Well, why
well, we talked to his people. His people felt he didn't need the
image, so they weren't getting theimage, so they didn't get the image.
We didn't feel it was that biga deal either because it was a
cramp. It wasn't anything to domusculature or something with the elbow, and
(24:32):
a lot of this is gonna beHey, we want to be on the
same page because we want him tostay as a free agent. But he
definitely get the sense that there's thatOtani's Otani's handlers and Otani have a plan
and they kind of let the Angelsknow what it is. Now. That
plan was to go all through thisyear to maximize the contract he was going
to get because if he pitches allseason long and let's say he wins the
(24:52):
MVP, Let's say people say theywant to vote for him for Cy Young,
he wins everything, then we're talkingabout a billion dollar contract coming on,
whatever it is. But you know, I definitely, you definitely see
that. Okay, they're calling theshots, so anything that's gone on,
they're the ones that have said,Okay, this is where we want to
go forward with. And it's kindof dicey right now because both sides are
kind of towing that line because youknow, there's going to be an investigation
(25:15):
or some kind of questions about shouldhe have stayed pitching, Should he stayed
pitching after they fell out of therace, should he have stayed pitching as
much as he did. So that'sgonna be a really really big thing between
the two sides. But in theend, you know, in the end,
arms only have so many pitches inthem, right, There's only so
much you can do. You know. It happens to pitchers, and it
happens to them all the time.Last thing we got to move on from
(25:37):
this is he and a Angel uniformnext year? No, No, he's
in the Dodge uniform next year.And this puts you know, but here's
the other thing now, and thisis for the Dodgers, right this they
went from there were two teams thatwere three teams that would be in on
him next year. Dodgers, Giants, Mets. Right, those are the
three teams gonna be in on onOtani because they're the ones that would pay
seven hundred million dollars for me.Now that he's going to be a three
(26:00):
your four hundred million dollar player,that puts some other teams in there.
That puts a team like Seattle sayinghey we can we can give you three
hundred and fifty million dollars here,we can move some guys around here.
So the good news is the Dodger. You know, it's a little bit
more tenable, but there might bea little bit more competition. But really
maybe he likes Los Angeles. Hesees what it's like. He comes up
to five and he plays with theDodgers. They're the overwhelming favorite together.
Oh yeah, he goes from beinga already being a superstar, but to
(26:25):
being a megastar playing for the Dodgers. It's just a difference of putting on
a different uniform, and that uniformif his Dodge are blue. Man,
he's through the roof all right,man, i I've been U been savoring
up man for this day because itstarted football season. It's started. You
got sp I saw you throw acouple of passes on Saturday game a little
(26:47):
bit, so you can move theCaleb. You can Bill chuck it a
little bit. I know, whenthe game gets out of hand, I
can step in a little bit.Coach. I'm ready. I'm ready,
coach, Come on, come on, see what I did. Rose Bowls,
Rose Bowls. They got a bigwin over San Jose State. Right,
A lot of a lot of peopleare, well, you know,
we were looking for something more outof USC. It's week one. Caleb
(27:11):
Williams still is the best player incollege football. I mean the things that
he's able to do, capability makingplays. You know, he threw four
touchdown passes two hundred and seventy someyards. But overall it was a good
start. But your thoughts on onon USC's first game against San Jose State,
are you, if you're a USCfan, are you concerned at all?
(27:33):
And what are you concerned about?And are you chalking it up?
Hey, it's week one. Nobody'sgonna play great and week one I would
say this if I'm a USC Isay this is great. But I kind
of gotta see it when it counts, because you saw the exact same thing
last year. Right, And that'sthe thing about USC is that when they
absolutely need to win, what arewe seen in recent history? Boy?
(27:56):
How do you lose this game?How do you lose this game? Here?
How do you lose Utah? Howdo you do that? But everything
you saw on Saturday you liked,You liked everything. For any question you
had about the offense, don't worryabout it. You know, bringing in
new freshman wide receivers makes no difference. Right, Caleb Williams is still gonna
do Caleb Williams things overwhelming favorite forthe Heisman Trophy. The offense is still
gonna be great in theory, thedefense is supposed to be better. You're
(28:19):
not gonna see this really come up. But then you get to that midway
point of the season when things startand get a little bit more difficult with
the schedule. So I'm I'm likein that wait and see, like you
gotta show me, Like, yougotta show me that you can lock down
games and not just have to winevery game fifty six to thirty five.
Right, you have to show thatat some point your defense can come through
(28:40):
and win and that's not gonna comeuntil they prove it in a couple of
big games and they have the chanceto do it, which is great for
them. But I'm one of thoseHey, this is great, but I've
kind of seen this movie, youknow, I kind of want to see
a different ending, like that movieClue that has like four different endings.
Right, I've seen the one endingwhere Miss Scarlett did it's already spoilerer,
you know, Hey, hey arewe doing? But I got to see
(29:00):
these other ones now and hopefully theending is a little bit better. So
I'm kind of like the things aregreat. Buh. That's where I am.
Well, I guess the big thingfor for USC is that they have
a very favorable schedule, you know, especially to start the season, right,
I think their challenge obviously, youknow Notre Dame. Everybody's now on
a Notre Dame due on the NotreDame bandwagon? Man, are you Sam
(29:25):
Heart? Are you? Are youBigham Heart? But listen, I watch
ACC football, so you don't haveto okay that that that's my dad,
because you know Syracuse ACC. I'veseen a lot of this kid play that
I'm not kidd I mean, heis legit. He's got though he does
well. Experience helps, you know, you went, you know, you
get the extra COVID year in theyear after COVID and then the year after
(29:48):
that and the year after that.So experience does help him. But he's
legit. He's not one of thoseguys that you can see right away always
got a rocket army. He's gotthis. He's one of those quarterbacks that
just does everything well and he's reallysmart, and he's exactly what they need.
When that when he went through thetransfer portal and I saw them get
him, I said, that's allthey need because they've needed that elite quarterback.
That's the only thing Notre Dame hasbeen missing. This. You watch
(30:11):
the hype around this USC Notre Damegame with Williams and Sam Hartman and both
teams. It's gonna be the mosthype for this game in years because both
teams are gonna be winning, They'reboth gonna be rolling, putting up a
lot of points. You watch theinterest in this game. This is gonna
be the This could be the collegefootball game of the year. Usually as
we talk Alabama, somebody else watchUSC Notre Dame, watch and it is
(30:33):
gonna be I'm still not I'm nota believer in Notre Dame just yet.
I hear what you're saying about Hartman. He's a veteran quarterback. They've got
a lot of talent on that team. Second year remarks Freman. Their coaching,
I think they are going to bemuch better than they were last year.
But again, I gotta see it. I mean, maybe got a
(30:56):
new coach of their own. Maybelooked like they were fish out of water
over in Ireland. They really did, and so much like USC beating up
on San Jose State, I gottasee it. And the good thing about
it, like I said, byUSC that is going to be their real
first challenge is Notre Dame, andthat doesn't come, you know to what
October sometimes fourteenth. You know,they've got Nevada and then they've got Arizona
(31:21):
and Arizona State, so they shouldbe able to figure some things out.
And yes, the defense is anissue, and you watch that game and
you feel like, Okay, Caleb'sgonna do this thing. Offense is gonna
do their thing. They're gonna scorepoints, but man, can we stop
anybody? And we can't stop SanJose State. You know what happens when
(31:44):
we do have to face and wego into the playoffs, or you know,
a good Utah team comes to townand we gotta face and stop them,
or in the Pac twelve championship game, we got to stop somebody,
maybe it's watching, maybe it's somebodyelse. All were gonna be able to
do that. And if we doget into playoffs, can we play with
Georgia, can we stop Alabama?That LSU Those are gonna be the question
(32:05):
because right now that is the onlyquestion is the defense. Because I look
up and see the offensive side ofthe ball and this new young kid,
Zachariyan Branch. Oh my god,remember that name. That kid is electric.
He's electric. He reminded me ofMarquis Lee. Remember Marquis you know,
just did everything he wanted to do. And to watch him catch the
(32:27):
first touchdown and then take the kickbackfor a touchdown, I was extremely,
extremely excited about USC and USC football. But I just gotta see I'm with
you, I gotta see them upagainst somebody that's going to pose a threat
to them and how they do it. Now, you know, it felt
(32:47):
like some of the same problems thatthey had last year with running quarterbacks,
guys that get outside the pocket gavethem fits. And they can't survive on
giving up thirty points to opposing team. It's just not gonna work. And
I'm I'm hoping they can go wireto wire, but they got to get
that defense figured out. And I'mgiving them, you know, the benefit
(33:08):
of doubt that it's week one,new faces, but man, I got
a little bit nervous watching that game. Well, and it's not that they
suddenly have to turn into the eightyfive Bears. They need to do Like
you see this in the NBA,a really bad defensive team in the playoffs
suddenly starts playing a little bit betterbecause they play good situational defense, right
(33:30):
like in the final two minutes ofthe fourth quarter final couple minutes of a
quarter and suddenly that it goes fromplaying no defense looking like they're playing and
you know, and they look likeyou know the the you know the Pistons,
you know, the Bad Boys teamor the two thousand and four Pistons.
Right, That's that's what they needto do, is just hey,
when it's time, make a coupleof stops. I'm not saying you got
(33:51):
it. Hey, these high payingtaine offense, come in and day we
gotta win thirty five nothing, Butit's hey, how about a couple of
stops. Let's get off the fieldon third down a couple of time times
and instead of turning those touchdown youinstead of touchdowns, would make them fun.
That's what they need to do.Just play that positional and situational defense
where hey, when they need to, you can get off the field.
That's all you're not saying, Hey, you gotta be up here. It's
(34:12):
you just be a little bit towardsthem. And if they're gonna more on
you, if they're gonna score onyou, make them drive the length of
the field, right, make themuse up seven minutes to score and execute
down the field. None of theseone two three play touchdown drives that USC
gave up on occasion or not onthe game. On many of occasions last
year where they go down and score, the momentum would change and then three
(34:36):
plays later the other team would godown and score. I mean, I
still got nightmares thinking about that twolane game and how much they ran all
over is last year. I justneed something to get that bad taste out
of my mouth. All Right,we got a lot more to talk about
today, Jason Smith and for FredRogan, we're gonna talk a little bit
(34:57):
a little league baseball elsa Gundo manjust doing it in dramatic fashion. Wanted
to touch on them and congratulations tothose young kids. Also, don't forget
we're giving away those tickets, threepairs of tickets, two tickets every single
hour. Still stay tuned, We'regonna give them away very very very soon.
A five seventy l A sports soundsgood man. Oh yeah. Today's
(35:30):
Afternoon Delight is the Girls by BlackPink. This track is the first release
by the K pop group since droppingtheir second studio album last September. The
group has spent the better part ofa year on tour, which included them
cohead lining at Coachella. They wrappedup the North American leg of their tour
(35:50):
this past Saturday night at Dodgers StadiumAgain. Today's Afternoon Delight is the Girls
by Black Pink. An Afternoon Delightis brought to you by Fantasy Springs Resort
Casine on near Palm Springs. Theyhave Vegas style gaming, numerous nightclubs and
award winning restaurants. Not to mentionconcerts by Jason Bonham, Foreigner and Wilson
(36:15):
of Hart, Trip, Sitter,zz Top and more. Reserve your Fantasy
Springs summer getaway today at Fantasy SpringsResort dot Com. Jason Smith and for
Fred Rogan And let's do it rightnow, Jason, let's give away those
two tickets. How about caller numberfive eight six six nine eight seven two
five seventy caller number five, You'regonna win two tickets to the Dodgers versus
(36:37):
the Diamondbacks tomorrow night. Jason,you're missing off the top man that you
you coach Little League and that youinteract with the El Segundo Little League quite
often. And again, congratulations toEl Segundo Little League. I mean they
did it the hard way. Theygot beat early by Texas and then came
(37:00):
back through the through the losers bracket, beat Texas in the championship, and
then went on to beat Curasaw inthe World Championship for the title. In
dramatic I mean dramatic fashion, LewisLappy hit a walk off in the bottom
of the sixth inning for the win. Man. It's some when I watched
that, and as a guy thatplayed Little League, and you know,
(37:22):
when you're in Little League, that'sall you think about is williams Sport.
And he talks to somebody that don'tthat doesn't play Little League or have nothing
to do with baseball and a kidand you say william Sport. Nobody knows
what you're talking about. But asa kid that plays baseball, Man william
Sport was on my mind since thetime I was six years old, thinking
about, oh we can get there. Little little little kid in Tucson,
(37:43):
Arizona with the Little League, withaspirations of gett into william Sport, Pennsylvania
for the Littleague World Series. ButMan, not only for Lewis Lappey and
especially for him because it's gonna bespecial, but for those kids, it's
something that they will remember for therest of their lives, being able to
go back there and do that.And I know first hand, and you
know firsthand. I mentioned I coachedmy son's team in Literal League. It
(38:05):
is hard to get there. Yougotta go through so many rounds and so
many districts, and the kids thatwe had and then Sino we ended up
winning the state title when they wereeleven, and then we come back and
we're very confident year twelve. Butmost of the teams that we played in
the All Stars when the twelve yearold year, they had a lot of
new faces. Jason, Yeah,yes, suddenly, where did this person
(38:28):
come from? Of they were playingtravel ball, but now they quit and
now they're here. And I'll tellyou, you know, you hit it
on the head with going through theloser's bracket to win. Right now.
I told you I coach at Westchesterand we played and I coached girls,
I coached my daughter's teams, andI coach All Stars and everything else.
And this year and fourteen, youthe one level older, we made it
(38:50):
to the state championship. We lostin the state championship to Baldwin Park one
hundred and five degree heat. Itwas just awful, right, Like I
could tell that all the games duringthe week at night, right, we're
like great, great, And thenhere's the chat. What day is it?
Oh, well it's Saturday. What'stime four o'clock at it's one hundred
and five degrees? Come on,man, Balwin Park gets hot out there
all the time. They're used toit. We're let's play on. Let's
(39:12):
play here on the coast where it'sa nice Balmy eighty degrees and let's see
what Happyeah. Yeah. But that'sthe thing is that we lost to that.
That's the only team to beat usin the turn we're ballwin Park.
They beat us in the third game, and so we had to go loser's
bracket to get to the championship,which is you have to win every day.
Right. If you go to thewinner's bracket and you win, then
(39:35):
you get a day off and youplay. Then you win, you get
a day off. You play,you win, you get a day off,
you can rest your pictures. Yet, yeah, it's tough. It's
like, okay, well you're outhere again, like like we are.
Our our pitcher, our star pitcher. Khali is she through like a thousand
dings because like she was it right, And so you have to win every
(39:57):
single day and that's a lot ofpressure. It's okay, you lost Tuesday.
What are we playing? We're playingWednesday at seven? What if we
win Wednesday? Said, we're playingThursday at six? What do we win
Thursday at six? We're playing Fridayat six? What do you win Friday
at six? You got the statechampionship on Saturday. Oh, by the
way, you got to win twicebecause Baldwin h Baldwin Park didn't lose all
the way to the end, andby the end it was it's so hard
to do. And it was atsome point after winning the US Championship and
(40:20):
going through the losers bracket, I'mgoing into yesterday going, man, what
are these kids gonna have left?Right? What are these kids gonna have
left? Because you're riding that lightningall the way through? And they struck
early, they struck often, andyou could tell there was just something about
that team. It was awesome tosee them play though and pull it out
the way they did. I meanit was it's fairy tale. It's fairy
tale. But had going that isso losers bracket is so incredibly hard.
(40:43):
Now are you are you? Areyou a vocal, feisty manager, man,
because then I know with the ELSAGundo team and in that championship game,
the home plate umpire, uh,it was having some issues. You
know. Here's the thing is yousee that that was all over social media
(41:05):
and the home plate umpire. Yeshe was awful, yes, but both
teams like, here's a pitch that'sthree feet outside the strike zone and he
calls it a strike and and youknow what people don't understand is that one
call at that age level flips theat bat so so so much because all
of a sudden, now you're chasingeverything and you're swinging at pitches that were
outside the strike zone, and andso much is is is in this But
(41:30):
it's not talked about enough. Isthat every ump little league, you know,
they want to encourage you to swing. So obviously the strike zone is
a little bit bigger. But whena ball is a ball, I mean,
come on, it's a ball,right, Like I'm here playing at
a high level. I'm in alittle league World Series. There's a champions
gap. I know what a ballis, and you're giving me something that's
like eight feet outside the plate sometimesthe sea, none of his neighborhood stuff.
Right. Sometimes the team that winsis the team that can adjust to
(41:53):
the home plate umpire without changing whatyou do fundamentally at the plate. Because
you could see it and affected andElsa Gundo had a much better strategy and
we're able to do it much betterbecause you sew those cuius out kids.
There be a pitch where it's wayoutside and he would and they would go,
oh, shake, their head andturn to their coach at third base,
and I'm like, they're out ofthe at bat. And then the
(42:15):
next pitch that comes is a greatlike sweeping curve that is thrown outside the
strike zone, but the kid wavesat because he's got no confidence with thee
where the where the strike zone isanymore. And there's so much with that
that and that was a big thatwas a big Elsa Gundo adjusted much better
to that, And you know,for me, all, I can't,
I can't believe it. That's justthe way umpiring is. Every everybody's got
(42:36):
a different strike. There's no realcontinent. Everybody's Angel Hernandez in literal league
baseball. It's like, hey,this is this is there was a strike
today, it was It's one ofthose that may be a strike right now,
but it won't be a strike thenext pitch. It may not be
a strike later. That's little leagueumpiring, and that's just how it goes.
And I can't get over how wellthey adjusted to be able to hit
the ball when clearly it could havebeen so come on. That pitch is
(42:58):
so far outside and you could seethat frustration, and I felt for the
curis out coach at third base,going, come on, just just just
stay in it, stay in it. And they would wave at the next
pitch, and the next pitch wasalways called outside, and the catcher would
set up outside or inside and itwas just genius. It was just a
great day all the way from it. I mean, as and as you
know, as a coach, Imean, that's the fine line that you
(43:20):
got to be able to adjust andlet your kids know that, hey,
it's not about you. Now,let's adjust to the umpire because he's calling
it that way. And we're talkingabout twelve year old kids. Now,
you know, you get used toa certain way and this is the fundamentals.
Now it's been you know, calleda different way. How do you
do how do you deal with thatas a twelve year old and you're right,
the frustration sets in. But asa manager, how do you not
(43:44):
go off on the umpire? I'mpicturing you number one, you know,
at third base coaching and going areyou giving him an earful? Are you?
What are you doing? You gettingtoughs? Are you? Earl Weaver
back in the day, I'll pullback, I'll pull back the curt little
bit for you. In my youngerdays, which is like, you know,
three years ago, I had noproblem getting into it a little bit
(44:05):
with the umpires, I had noproblem getting it. And and this is
for because I coached soccer too,and softball. I had no problem getting
into it. But then I realized, you know what, I'm not gonna
win that call, especially balls andstrikes. They have no they have no
patience for balls and strikes. Sowhat you can just do is and what
is if I'm you know, coachingthe base if there's a pitch that I
wanted for my for for our pitcherand it wasn't there, it would you
(44:29):
would just go, oh, hey, that was a good pitch, good
pitch, good pitch, good pitch, it's okay, good pitch, kind
of letting the umpire know, hey, you really miss that one, you
know, while letting by. Butit's but it's all disguised as I'm telling
my pitch. Don't get frustrated.That was a good pitch. Keep throwing
it. It should have been astrike, and maybe you get the next
one, because that's it's it's neverabout getting that you never it's always about
okay, does he know he screwedup enough to give me the next one.
(44:51):
Do I know I get the nextone on there? And especially something
when you're your your your players arebatting where you would you would always say
if it was a strike and itwas on a strike zone, it was
okay. Not your pitch, notyour pitch, right, not your pitch,
It's okay, It's okay. Again, say hey, I'm giving my
my batter a little bit of confidence. By the same time letting the umpire
note, dude, you miss that, man, you missed it, you
(45:13):
completely missed it. Yeah. Iwas the I was the sarcastic guy.
Man, I did. I wouldcome up with winners and things like that.
That's good, yeah, yeah,and it was. I did get
tossed a couple of times. Andyou know, I have to turn my
back on because I can see theumpires saying, do I really want to
throw Rodney Peete out of a game? Or do I not want to throw
Rodney Peet out of the game?Like do I want to be after the
(45:35):
game going you know what I didtoday? I threw Rodney Pete out of
the game, right, yeah,yeah. All these Rose Bowls and you
would see I went to UCLA.I didn't care about that. I was
dying to throw him out of thegame. Oh man, Yeah, I
used to get up under their skina little bit, man, because I
would I would be a little toosarcastic for him, and then wouldn't allow
them to talk to me because Iturned my back after I said something,
(45:59):
and that that pitch them off evenmore. We're trying to you almost what
fault? Do you know who Iam? You know who I am?
Look at the back of my footballcard right here. Let me show you
this damn right next time. Callit right. Oh yes, my man,
(46:19):
Jason Smith and for Fred Rogan,we got a lot more and check
this out. Our high coup attwo is coming at one today, So
get ready for some spirituality coming upon the other side of the break,
because we definitely death
Oh yes, Happy, Happy Monday. The sun is shining. The Dodgers
take two out of three from Boston. USC wins is opening game. All
is right in the universe. That'sall I'm gonna That's all I'm gonna say.
All is right in the universe.I'm smiling ear to ear right now.
(00:21):
Fred Rogan is out. Jason Smithis going to join me momentarily to
talk about a lot of a lotof things on this Monday. We gotta
get to the Dodgers, but we'regonna get to some USC football. Talking
about that opening win against San JoseState somewhere very impressed, some we're not
impressed at all. A lot ofquestions with this USC team, but I
can tell you this, there isa lot of talent, a lot of
(00:41):
young talent on that team. Butwe're going to the USC a little bit
later. Also, congratulations to ElSegundo Little League for winning the Little League
World Series Championship. They came fromthe Loser's bracket, had to win must
games, five of them, Ibelieve, all the way to beating Curoside
in the championship in dramatic fashion,walked it off. It was pretty incredible
(01:04):
for those kids. From El SagundoLittle League. But off the top,
we'll talk some Dodgers. And herehe is. He's a host of the
Jason Smith Show on AM five seventyat Thought Sports Radio from seven pm to
eleven pm Monday through Friday. MyMan Today, Jason Smith. What's up,
Jason? How you doing? Man, Dude, I don't know what
I'm more excited about, man,I mean all the different things we have
(01:26):
going on, and El Segundo witsLittle League series, Man, Dude.
I coach. I coach at Westchester, right and I've coach manage at Westchester.
I do Little League girls for thelast seven years. We play El
Segundo every year. All of thefamilies on my team a lot of them
go to El Sagundo High School,so I don't know them personally, but
the but the families of the girlsI coach, it's like the younger brothers
(01:49):
of the girls that I have coached, like they talked like like they know
the older brothers and the younger brotherswho played yesterday. So it's just so
odd going oh yeah yeah, liketext bass going oh so and so did
this and so and so did this. I'm like this is end up watching
them on TV. It's just itwas just that thing, man. I
mean, because you guys, I'msure, like you just mentioned that,
the dividing lines are crossed and blurred. So there's a lot of kids that
(02:12):
that play in your little league andthen play over and elsa Gunno little league,
So you do, I'm sure knowa lot of those kids, and
you probably obviously play against them.But growing up there, I'm sure households
and friendships are split between which kidsplay and which little league. I know
it was for me and I didthe same thing, Jason. I was
younger and my kids were younger.I coached the little league as well,
and Encino and a lot of ourfriends played in Sherman Oaks Little League,
(02:36):
which is right there dividing line.So a lot of kids, friends that
went to school together, played inSherman Oaks and some played in Encino.
So you know all those families,you know all those kids. So it
was just a joy joy to seethem win it all. And I know
for you and I want to getinto that with you later on when we
talk about it, but just seeingthose kids growing up, what it means,
what it takes from a little leaguelevel to get it, get all
(02:58):
the way there, and seeing thesekids flourished, it was it was amazing.
Man. I thoroughly enjoys. Itfelt like I was there rooting for
him, but but I was sohappy for those kids man. And like
I said, we'll get into thatlater, but I want to start off
talking about the Dodgers. They justkeep rolling along, Jays rolling along.
They're now eighty and forty nine,They're twelve games up on the Diamondbacks.
(03:20):
They go take two out of threefrom Boston. Boston's former favorite son,
Mookie Bets goes off in Boston.Freddie Freeman continues to be on fire.
Mookie Bets is by I think,not by far because it's a tight race,
but leading the MVP race right now. He just continues to stay hot.
Believe he's now fifteen games that he'sbeen hitting on his hitting streak.
(03:44):
This Dodger team is good, butthere's still are concerns, right, I
mean, how do you feel aboutthis team right now? Eighty and forty
nine, twelve games up, butdoes it feel like they're on a championship
run? Well? Well, look, first of all, you and you
met your Mookie Bets and let's talkwith him for a second. Because the
dude got three standing ovations every timehe came. Every game this past weekend,
(04:05):
the Red Sox game was standing ovation. This is like the team that
knows, Hey, I screwed up, man. This is like when when
the girl that got away or theguy who got away, you go,
man, my whole life, Iscrewed it and there's nothing you can say.
But what did I do? When? I mean, come on,
they clapped for him every single game. It's like the first game, Okay,
gets an ovation. I understand himin a lot to that team World
(04:28):
Series off. But then the nextgame he's tipping his helmet again. The
third game, he's tipping his helmet. It's like, who, we should
have never let you go. Iwas worried they were going to let him
back on the plane, Like,hey, BET's his here. Dodgers,
you go back to LA you leaveMookie here. No we made that trade.
No no, no, no,no no no no, he gets
he gets to stay here. Wescrewed that up. We guys screwed it
up. Guys in some dark suitsand dark glass. He's gonna show up
(04:50):
at the hotel room. I'm sorrywe're not gonna let you go. But
here's the thing I can't imagine andversus the Dodgers, but letting the face
of your franchise go in the middleof his prime. I just I mean,
(05:13):
if you're the Boston's an incredible fanbase, they have great fans there
for all, you know, allthe sports, the Red Sox story franchise.
But you let the face of thefranchise after winning a World Series walk
out the door in his prime day. I just if you look up and
you say and talk about the Dodgers, could you ever see the Dodgers.
(05:35):
I mean, we talked about thiswas Clayton Kershoff for years. They've always
found a way to keep him evenafter his prime. Let's take a step
further and go, what if thiswas Clayton Kershaw seven years ago and the
Dodgers decided, oh, we're notgonna keep you around, We're gonna send
(05:55):
you back east to the Red Sox. I just don't see an organization like
the Dodgers ever doing that too aguy that's the face of their fantise.
Man, No, and look,and what happened with with Mookie Betts was
it was one of those perfect stormkind of situations where the Red Sox wanted
to cut payroll. They were stillunder the auspices of do we really need
(06:16):
to spend this much money on oneplayer, because you know, they they
embraced the moneyball dynamics, you know, back you know, you know,
you know, fifteen years ago,and they had you know, they had
new people coming in running the team, and kind Bloom was just coming in.
So it was one of those timeswhere hey, he's available. Like
I don't know if it was ayear before or the year after, he
would have been available. But themoney that that Mookie Betts was looking at,
(06:38):
Boston just said, hey, that'sthat's too much for us. Right,
three hundred and fifty million dollars isjust too much. And now in
retrospect, it's crap. We neededto spend that money to keep him.
I can't believe we didn't do that, but it was it was a perfect
time to get Mookie Betts. Idon't know that that trade happens any other
time. We no, Look,dude, we're keeping this guy, right,
we have we understand, we wanthe does, he does everything for
(06:59):
us. We're going to keep him. But that was a time when you
know you're talking about after the twentytwenty and what were they going to do?
Were they good assign him? Andit seemed like the Red Sox and
John Henry had no intention of doingthat. It's like, no, we're
just not giving him that money.So let's let him go. We gotta
let him go a year early becausewe want to be able to get something
for him. And their return forhim was okay, but it wasn't nearly
what it was now. And thebetter Mookie Bets plays and the closure he
(07:23):
gets to winning an MVP, themore the more that trade looks terrible.
So this is this is where theDodgers just struck at the right time.
And they do that right. Theystruck at the right time for Surezer and
Tray Turner. And did they moveon from Trey Turner the right time?
Sure they did. You know,they got it to take over for Corey.
Seeger, Hey, this is whatwe're doing. Look, they strike
at the right time. It's youknow, the Dodges have rolled seven and
(07:44):
eleven for the last you know,decade plus and and you know when you
said to me, hey, thisrun they have right now, I'll tell
you, Roddy, I don't.This is the most impressive regular season the
Dodgers have had since they started theirrun over a decade ago. There's no
run more oppressed than yeah, becausebecause it's it's it's the worst team,
(08:05):
right I say worst, or theteam that's got eighty wins. But yeah,
it's the least talented team that theyhave had in the last twelve years.
But this is what happens when yourbest players play the way they do.
You got two MVPs at the topof the lineup in one two,
and you're getting everything you need.When it looked like the bullpen was gonna
implode, they had that horrible run. Was it? The next month and
a half, the bullpens eara wasunder two, Yeah, it was.
(08:28):
It was. It's like when theDodgers say they need something, they get
it and and but this team isnot nearly as talented as the other teams.
You get to the you know,you get past the fourth spot in
the batting order, Okay, yougot some question marks here, and our
guy's gonna come through and you know, James Altman always gonna get a big
clutch hit at some point. Butthat's what they've been doing, and they
make those trades of the deadline,and they couldn't land the big Fish because
(08:48):
Rodriguez wanted to stay in Detroit ratherthan you know, come to La which
good luck. Okay, you wantto look. I vacation Detroit, That's
why. But I live in LosAngeles, right, so I'll tell you
a vacation there. Live here?What is he going at? Upper Peninsula?
Ye? Go? Hang out inMichigan, Florida? Okay, yeah,
(09:09):
in Georgia where you just you know, drove across the border. Now
you're into your your home. Itwas Detroit, all the places you and
I used to go into trail.Hey, let's go downtown. The casinos
are downtown. Okay, that's whereI'll end up going. But but you
know, they didn't land the bigFish, but they got enough to steady
the team, and the Rosario tradeturns out to be even better today.
The Guardians let Synder Guarden go.I mean, what a great deal that
(09:31):
was. But this team overall,you look at it and say, yeah,
you compare it to Dodger teams ofyears past. No, they're not
nearly as deep, but they're stillgetting the clutch contributions at the bottom of
the lineup, And if it's notBraves Dodgers in the NLCS, something's wrong.
Something if it's not Brave, becausethe Braves are gonna be a time
you talk about eight All Stars anda loaded roster. Uh, they're gonna
be a really tough out. Butif it's not Braves Dodgers NLCS, there's
(09:54):
something wrong. But this team thisyear, they need pitching, they need
bullpen, they need more hitting,and still twelve games up in the NLS
when it looked like it was goingto be a year where maybe this is
a transition year for them before theytry to spend money in the off seas
Ozani, before they try to spendmoney in the off season. But it
doesn't matter. They put this teamout there and it looks if you didn't
know anything and just were fast forwardedfrom last year at this time or this
(10:16):
year at this time, you wouldsay, Okay, yeah, same Dodger
team, same record, same everything. In the NLS, everything changed,
They didn't spend money and instead ofbeing a transition year, now it's another
World Series year. This is themost impressive Dodger season they've had since their
run began twelve years ago. Isit enough? Though, here's the thing.
You know with Dodger fans and youknow it, say, okay,
uh, nothing is ever good enoughuntil you win the World Series. And
(10:37):
even after you win it, theywant you to win it again the next
year. But but going back towhat I was saying about Mooki in the
in the Red Sox, if you'rea Dodger fan, don't you have to
love your club even more because theydon't go through those cycles. Hey,
we're gonna take it for three tofour years because we don't want to pay
guys. We gotta cut the roster. We gotta cut the payroll. We're
(11:00):
gonna We're not gonna be good fora while, Dodger fans. So we're
gonna send off Clayton Kershaw, We'regonna ship off Freddy Free. We're gonna
ship off these guys so we canwe can rebuild and see what we got
on our friend. Dodgers don't dothat. They every year they're in the
conversation. And for that, whichis so hard to do in professional sports,
they gotta be commended. Now,the question is is it gonna be
(11:22):
enough this year? I know yousaid it's impressive, and it is.
I believe I'm right with you.It's an impressive run that the Dodgers have
been on when most people didn't evenpick them to win the division. Remember,
started season, it was all aboutthe Padres. It was all about
the Padres, and Diamondbacks obviously cameout of nowhere, and we see where
they you know, they were notable to last. Now be in twelve
(11:43):
game backs of the back of theDodgers, the Giants. You know,
people had their eye on the Giants, but it was about the Padres winning
the division. And look where thePadres are right now. The Dodgers are
doing it. Can the Dodgers canthey get it done with offense? I
mean their offense has been optional allseason long. You're just talking about Freddie
and Mookie at the top of theline. It Will Smith's had a good
(12:05):
year. They got some other guyssprinkled around there. But the pitching.
The pitching has been the concern.Yes, they had a good month from
a bullpen standpoint, but it's beena concern all season long, and we
kept waiting to go, oh,you know, they'll get it, They'll
get it figured out. Some guy'sgonna get off the injured list. They're
getting figured out, the pitching toget it figured out. But then every
time we think they get it figuredout, a week comes by and they,
(12:26):
oh, they're struggling again, orJulio has to go on the road
and he struggles on the road.What are we going to do about then?
Can they? Can they get itdone? You just mentioned the Atlanta
Braves, who's got it all andare rolling. Can the Dodgers get it
done? Or a team get itdone by just being an explosive offense and
having maybe a mediocre pitching staff,you know, and and here's why,
(12:52):
And it's actually this is actually theflip side of what the Dodgers have gone
through the last few years. Right, you get in the playoffs and you
haven't unbelievable regular season. And theDodgers have learned that, Okay, do
we need to have an unbelievable regularseason? We won one hundred and ten
games last year and we spent allkinds of money and didn't even get to
the NLCS. They realize, okay, regular seasons, we don't need to
be unbelievable. We just need tobe good enough. Now this team is
(13:13):
overachieved, and you know, Iknow you and Fred talked about this the
other day too. The only concernreally would be is are they peaking a
little too early because they're playing soincredibly well right now, you know,
as we get out of the dogdays of August. But here's where things
flip because usually Dodgers come into theplayoffs and now there's big advantage. But
seven game series, anything can happen, and pitching is the biggest wild card
(13:37):
in the playoffs. You have noidea what you're going to get. You
could start some rookie and a spotstart. He can give you seven innings
of one hit ball and completely negateswhat the other pitcher is going to do
so suddenly. But whereas in thepast it would that hurts the Dodgers because
it was like, boy, ClaytonKershaw pitch great, but this kid who
just came up and throws the ballsixty five miles an hour, and where's
(13:58):
a Rodney Pete Jersey on the mound? This kids, I can't believe what
he's doing us. And that's abig equalizer because pitching in the postseason is
such a dice roll. Right,you get you get to like gain three
of a playoff series and it's abullpend game, or you're just hoping your
starter gives you four innings before yougo to the bullpen. Because the games
are longer, they're throwing more pitchesin their tacks from the whole season,
(14:20):
so all of a sudden, whenyou get to the playoffs, pitching sort
of levels out. And that's whyI hate building a team on pitching,
because pitching kind of comes back tothe pack of it. So if you
have if your offense is hitting andthe pitching kind of equalizes, because it
will. Yeah, No, Ifeel great about the Dodgers this postseason,
especially you know how they hit inthe clutch. You know how they hit
in late innings. They hit betterin late innings than any team in baseball
(14:43):
over the past few years. Sono, I feel great about this year.
I'll go flip side and play devil'sadvocate. Good last year, this
team was great offensively. You mentionedone hundred eleven games last year rolling into
the playoffs, and then they hitthe Padres, who were the hotter team,
and that that's what it is.It's really the teams that get hot
at the end of the year atthe right time, and the Padres got
(15:05):
hot the Phillies got hot, andobviously the Astros end up winning it at
all, but it was about thePadres, and when the Dodgers went down
to play the Padres in that series, the bats went cold. The bats
went cold, and the pitching wasnot good enough to sustain those bats not
doing what it did throughout the regularseason. Man. So that's the thing
that concerns me a little bit isthat if they have, you know,
(15:26):
a week where you know Mookie's noton his game, is not hitting,
or Freddie's not on his game,then and they don't have the pitching that
can shut somebody down to one ortwo runs. That's my concern because you
know, in the playoffs, youknow, you have two bad outings.
Now you're behind the eight ball andthe series could be over before you know
it. Yeah, well, they'renot going in his favorites. Don't get
(15:48):
me wrong. I'm not saying they'regoing in his favorites. But in a
year where if that's the NLCS,the Braves are the favorites. They have
eight all stars, right, everybody'sgood, everybody hits, everybody pitches,
they do all it. The thegap between the teams is going to be
negligible. I mean, and that'sand that's a great thing for the Dodgers
this year because they're not coming inas they won't come into that series as
(16:08):
the big favorite, and you know, hey, look, crazier things have
happened. You'd never know what canhappen to the Braves. You never know
who can get hot. I havemore confidence the Dodgers early round in the
playoffs. You never know who.You never know who they might wind up
play. But really, if it'snot Braves, Dodger or something's wrong,
but you never know, you mightnot even worry about that. But coming
in this year, it's more ofa hey, it's an advantage this year
(16:30):
for them to be on equal footing, whereas in years passed it was Hey,
everything we were able to do nowsort of gets canceled and that that
other team, that's the underdog team. They come in they have more confidence.
As they're playing, they have muchmore Hey belief we can do it.
Hey, look at this. TheDodgors is supposed to be great,
but look we're hanging with them andeverything is fantastic, and look at us
(16:51):
doing this and we believe we canwin and that Yeah, that's a tough
thing. It's a tough thing togo through, and it's suddenly all that
big advantage, that intimidation fact youhave, has all gone. Now this
year it's hey, you think thisis a this is a this is a
kind of year for us where we'rein a transition year. No, we're
still winning one hundred some odd gamesand we're coming to kick your ass all
right, like this is this isthe Dodgers. This year is much more
than it was last year. AndI don't know that that's a bad thing.
(17:14):
I don't know it's a bad thingfor them to come into the playoffs
and not be the overwhelming favorite,to play a little bit freer and play
a little bit with more joy andwinning is more of a of a of
a of a great confluence of circumstancesthan it is a relief because we should
win, because we're better, weshould win the first two games of the
series, because it's kershawn Urius.We should win this, we should win
this. They're not going to comeinto that series as should should should and
(17:37):
maybe that's a little bit better forthem going in there where they're not the
overwhelming favorites to win like they havebeen sometimes sometimes it's a little bit different
mental outlook and can can be differentfor you. And I think that could
be the Dodgers this year. Yeah, will a No. I want to
keep that going because we will see. I mean, I want to get
your thoughts on whether it's a goodthing to be, you know, comfortable
(18:00):
league going into the playoffs or havinga dog fight all the way into the
playoffs so every game feels like aplayoff leading up to them. We'll get
into that. Also, got totalk about my boys of Troy opening game
against San Jose State. They winit big, but still some concerns.
Jason Smith and for Fred Rogan todaya five to seventy LA sports. Want
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Get ready to build your backyard dreams. Let oh yeah, here we
go. Let's keep it a goinghunt on Monday. Yeah, I look
at my man. Jayson Smith isright on time, mouthing the words.
(19:33):
He knows what time it is.Oh man, I'm back in the club.
In kidding, Oh, you kiddingme. The karaoke is going strong,
is going strong? Jason in forFred Rogan today. Also, we'll
let you know every hour we're givingaway a pair of Dodger tickets, giving
away a pair of Dodger tickets,or stay tuned every hour we will give
a pair of those tickets away.So, Jason, you mentioned uh Otani,
(20:00):
and I want to talk about thatreal quick because obviously this is gonna
be a very painful offseason for theAngels. You know, a lot of
talk about them trading them before thetrade deadline. They decided we're not going
to do that. We're gonna gofor it. They tried to trade and
bring in some guys. It didnot work. Mike Trout came back,
got injured again, and now Otaniis probably on the shelf for the rest
(20:25):
of the season in terms of pitchingbecause of the soreness in the ucl of
his elbow, and and now there'squestions about him going forward, whether or
not him as a two way player, as a player that pitches and hits,
how much longer can he do thatif he has to indeed have another
Tommy John surgery. Man, ifyou're the team out there or and you
(20:48):
mentioned the Dodgers may be in thatrace in the off season, if your
team out there does that, whatdoes that do to your thinking if he
does have to have another surgery andhe's not a picture and a hitter much
longer? Well, first of all, the Dodgers had Japanese Heritage Night when
they were playing the Angels, Soyou really come on, you know,
(21:08):
hey, where's that in the calendar? Where are we playing the angels.
Okay, let's go through. Let'sgo through right there, right, let's
show what life is like in Lauh so, yeah, of course,
I don't think you can. Idon't see there being anyway. And this,
this is a tough thing for Otani. He's still gonna make I'll get
a four hundred million dollar contract becauseof the hitter he is, but no
(21:32):
team is going to pay him tobe a picture even if there's no surgery.
There's no Tommy John surgery. You'retalking about two really bad injuries to
his pitching arm in a five yearspan, right, Tommy John surgery in
twenty eighteen, the UCL tear.Now, you have no idea what he's
going to be able to do pitchingwise, I'd be I'd be. I
think we're all fortuitous as fans.If he can wind up just closing,
(21:55):
right, if he can go somewhereand be it, you know, and
be a team's closer. He doesn'thave to throw a lot of pitches.
But no one's gonna pay him tostart because you have no idea. Look
at what happened to to Graham thisyear. The Rangers gave him all this
money. He's not only out thisyear, he's out all the next year
too. You know, you can'tpay for starting pitching that kind of money,
especially when someone has that kind ofinjury history. So those days of
him the seven hundred million dollars,eight hundred million dollars, that's not gonna
(22:18):
happen. Now. He's still gonnaget a Bryce Harper Aaron Judge type deal.
I'm probably a little bit more becausehe's a bigger drawing card than Bryce
Harper is or or Aaron Judges,just because you see O Toddy's popularity throughout
the league. So he's still gonnaget that four hundred million dollars deal.
And maybe there's some kind of creativeway he can get more money if he
(22:40):
does return to be able to pitchand be able to start. You know,
they could do crazy stuff with contractsnow, But that's gonna be His
deal is going to be as aslugger, and it's gonna be for around
that four hundred million dollars. Thatshould set the bar clearly, but it's
not gonna blow the bar away likewe thought it was, because you just
can't count. He's gonna say ifyou were in his camp, and I
think I said this a few weeksback when the Angels were you know,
(23:02):
they were they were making that push. I think there were six games or
four six games you know, awayfrom the wild Card and that race.
There was still some excitement that theycould probably get there and may be able
to get there. Uh then theythen they fell off a cliff, right,
and they started losing every other gameand just couldn't do it. I
said then and there that if I'mhis camp, I'm i'm I may put
(23:25):
him on the shelf and say,listen, I might, I'm my starts.
I'm just gonna be a hitter therest of the season. And I
know that may affect the MVP andall the things going on. But look
what happened now, Like he said, he goes from being that six hundred
seven hundred million dollar guy sit down, which is no chump change, to
it now with three hundred million dollarsfour hundred million dollar guy, which is
(23:48):
a lot of a lot of change. But I don't know, man,
I just I don't know if Iwould have continued on doing both. He
you know, it's you definitely seethe sense that there's Otani's reps and they
kind of tell the Angels what theywant, right, Right, There's it
doesn't seem like everybody's on the samepage. Right, You've seen just in
(24:08):
what's going on. You've seen quotesfrom Phil Nevin and you know people in
the Angels organization. Hey, youknow he refused imaging back when he had
the cramp in his in his handabout a month ago. Well, why
well, we talked to his people. His people felt he didn't need the
image, so they weren't getting theimage, so they didn't get the image.
We didn't feel it was that biga deal either because it was a
cramp. It wasn't anything to domusculature or something with the elbow, and
(24:32):
a lot of this is gonna beHey, we want to be on the
same page because we want him tostay as a free agent. But he
definitely get the sense that there's thatOtani's Otani's handlers and Otani have a plan
and they kind of let the Angelsknow what it is. Now. That
plan was to go all through thisyear to maximize the contract he was going
to get because if he pitches allseason long and let's say he wins the
(24:52):
MVP, Let's say people say theywant to vote for him for Cy Young,
he wins everything, then we're talkingabout a billion dollar contract coming on,
whatever it is. But you know, I definitely, you definitely see
that. Okay, they're calling theshots, so anything that's gone on,
they're the ones that have said,Okay, this is where we want to
go forward with. And it's kindof dicey right now because both sides are
kind of towing that line because youknow, there's going to be an investigation
(25:15):
or some kind of questions about shouldhe have stayed pitching, Should he stayed
pitching after they fell out of therace, should he have stayed pitching as
much as he did. So that'sgonna be a really really big thing between
the two sides. But in theend, you know, in the end,
arms only have so many pitches inthem, right, There's only so
much you can do. You know. It happens to pitchers, and it
happens to them all the time.Last thing we got to move on from
(25:37):
this is he and a Angel uniformnext year? No, No, he's
in the Dodge uniform next year.And this puts you know, but here's
the other thing now, and thisis for the Dodgers, right this they
went from there were two teams thatwere three teams that would be in on
him next year. Dodgers, Giants, Mets. Right, those are the
three teams gonna be in on onOtani because they're the ones that would pay
seven hundred million dollars for me.Now that he's going to be a three
(26:00):
your four hundred million dollar player,that puts some other teams in there.
That puts a team like Seattle sayinghey we can we can give you three
hundred and fifty million dollars here,we can move some guys around here.
So the good news is the Dodger. You know, it's a little bit
more tenable, but there might bea little bit more competition. But really
maybe he likes Los Angeles. Hesees what it's like. He comes up
to five and he plays with theDodgers. They're the overwhelming favorite together.
Oh yeah, he goes from beinga already being a superstar, but to
(26:25):
being a megastar playing for the Dodgers. It's just a difference of putting on
a different uniform, and that uniformif his Dodge are blue. Man,
he's through the roof all right,man, i I've been U been savoring
up man for this day because itstarted football season. It's started. You
got sp I saw you throw acouple of passes on Saturday game a little
(26:47):
bit, so you can move theCaleb. You can Bill chuck it a
little bit. I know, whenthe game gets out of hand, I
can step in a little bit.Coach. I'm ready. I'm ready,
coach, Come on, come on, see what I did. Rose Bowls,
Rose Bowls. They got a bigwin over San Jose State. Right,
A lot of a lot of peopleare, well, you know,
we were looking for something more outof USC. It's week one. Caleb
(27:11):
Williams still is the best player incollege football. I mean the things that
he's able to do, capability makingplays. You know, he threw four
touchdown passes two hundred and seventy someyards. But overall it was a good
start. But your thoughts on onon USC's first game against San Jose State,
are you, if you're a USCfan, are you concerned at all?
(27:33):
And what are you concerned about?And are you chalking it up?
Hey, it's week one. Nobody'sgonna play great and week one I would
say this if I'm a USC Isay this is great. But I kind
of gotta see it when it counts, because you saw the exact same thing
last year. Right, And that'sthe thing about USC is that when they
absolutely need to win, what arewe seen in recent history? Boy?
(27:56):
How do you lose this game?How do you lose this game? Here?
How do you lose Utah? Howdo you do that? But everything
you saw on Saturday you liked,You liked everything. For any question you
had about the offense, don't worryabout it. You know, bringing in
new freshman wide receivers makes no difference. Right, Caleb Williams is still gonna
do Caleb Williams things overwhelming favorite forthe Heisman Trophy. The offense is still
gonna be great in theory, thedefense is supposed to be better. You're
(28:19):
not gonna see this really come up. But then you get to that midway
point of the season when things startand get a little bit more difficult with
the schedule. So I'm I'm likein that wait and see, like you
gotta show me, Like, yougotta show me that you can lock down
games and not just have to winevery game fifty six to thirty five.
Right, you have to show thatat some point your defense can come through
(28:40):
and win and that's not gonna comeuntil they prove it in a couple of
big games and they have the chanceto do it, which is great for
them. But I'm one of thoseHey, this is great, but I've
kind of seen this movie, youknow, I kind of want to see
a different ending, like that movieClue that has like four different endings.
Right, I've seen the one endingwhere Miss Scarlett did it's already spoilerer,
you know, Hey, hey arewe doing? But I got to see
(29:00):
these other ones now and hopefully theending is a little bit better. So
I'm kind of like the things aregreat. Buh. That's where I am.
Well, I guess the big thingfor for USC is that they have
a very favorable schedule, you know, especially to start the season, right,
I think their challenge obviously, youknow Notre Dame. Everybody's now on
a Notre Dame due on the NotreDame bandwagon? Man, are you Sam
(29:25):
Heart? Are you? Are youBigham Heart? But listen, I watch
ACC football, so you don't haveto okay that that that's my dad,
because you know Syracuse ACC. I'veseen a lot of this kid play that
I'm not kidd I mean, heis legit. He's got though he does
well. Experience helps, you know, you went, you know, you
get the extra COVID year in theyear after COVID and then the year after
(29:48):
that and the year after that.So experience does help him. But he's
legit. He's not one of thoseguys that you can see right away always
got a rocket army. He's gotthis. He's one of those quarterbacks that
just does everything well and he's reallysmart, and he's exactly what they need.
When that when he went through thetransfer portal and I saw them get
him, I said, that's allthey need because they've needed that elite quarterback.
That's the only thing Notre Dame hasbeen missing. This. You watch
(30:11):
the hype around this USC Notre Damegame with Williams and Sam Hartman and both
teams. It's gonna be the mosthype for this game in years because both
teams are gonna be winning, They'reboth gonna be rolling, putting up a
lot of points. You watch theinterest in this game. This is gonna
be the This could be the collegefootball game of the year. Usually as
we talk Alabama, somebody else watchUSC Notre Dame, watch and it is
(30:33):
gonna be I'm still not I'm nota believer in Notre Dame just yet.
I hear what you're saying about Hartman. He's a veteran quarterback. They've got
a lot of talent on that team. Second year remarks Freman. Their coaching,
I think they are going to bemuch better than they were last year.
But again, I gotta see it. I mean, maybe got a
(30:56):
new coach of their own. Maybelooked like they were fish out of water
over in Ireland. They really did, and so much like USC beating up
on San Jose State, I gottasee it. And the good thing about
it, like I said, byUSC that is going to be their real
first challenge is Notre Dame, andthat doesn't come, you know to what
October sometimes fourteenth. You know,they've got Nevada and then they've got Arizona
(31:21):
and Arizona State, so they shouldbe able to figure some things out.
And yes, the defense is anissue, and you watch that game and
you feel like, Okay, Caleb'sgonna do this thing. Offense is gonna
do their thing. They're gonna scorepoints, but man, can we stop
anybody? And we can't stop SanJose State. You know what happens when
(31:44):
we do have to face and wego into the playoffs, or you know,
a good Utah team comes to townand we gotta face and stop them,
or in the Pac twelve championship game, we got to stop somebody,
maybe it's watching, maybe it's somebodyelse. All were gonna be able to
do that. And if we doget into playoffs, can we play with
Georgia, can we stop Alabama?That LSU Those are gonna be the question
(32:05):
because right now that is the onlyquestion is the defense. Because I look
up and see the offensive side ofthe ball and this new young kid,
Zachariyan Branch. Oh my god,remember that name. That kid is electric.
He's electric. He reminded me ofMarquis Lee. Remember Marquis you know,
just did everything he wanted to do. And to watch him catch the
(32:27):
first touchdown and then take the kickbackfor a touchdown, I was extremely,
extremely excited about USC and USC football. But I just gotta see I'm with
you, I gotta see them upagainst somebody that's going to pose a threat
to them and how they do it. Now, you know, it felt
(32:47):
like some of the same problems thatthey had last year with running quarterbacks,
guys that get outside the pocket gavethem fits. And they can't survive on
giving up thirty points to opposing team. It's just not gonna work. And
I'm I'm hoping they can go wireto wire, but they got to get
that defense figured out. And I'mgiving them, you know, the benefit
(33:08):
of doubt that it's week one,new faces, but man, I got
a little bit nervous watching that game. Well, and it's not that they
suddenly have to turn into the eightyfive Bears. They need to do Like
you see this in the NBA,a really bad defensive team in the playoffs
suddenly starts playing a little bit betterbecause they play good situational defense, right
(33:30):
like in the final two minutes ofthe fourth quarter final couple minutes of a
quarter and suddenly that it goes fromplaying no defense looking like they're playing and
you know, and they look likeyou know the the you know the Pistons,
you know, the Bad Boys teamor the two thousand and four Pistons.
Right, That's that's what they needto do, is just hey,
when it's time, make a coupleof stops. I'm not saying you got
(33:51):
it. Hey, these high payingtaine offense, come in and day we
gotta win thirty five nothing, Butit's hey, how about a couple of
stops. Let's get off the fieldon third down a couple of time times
and instead of turning those touchdown youinstead of touchdowns, would make them fun.
That's what they need to do.Just play that positional and situational defense
where hey, when they need to, you can get off the field.
That's all you're not saying, Hey, you gotta be up here. It's
(34:12):
you just be a little bit towardsthem. And if they're gonna more on
you, if they're gonna score onyou, make them drive the length of
the field, right, make themuse up seven minutes to score and execute
down the field. None of theseone two three play touchdown drives that USC
gave up on occasion or not onthe game. On many of occasions last
year where they go down and score, the momentum would change and then three
(34:36):
plays later the other team would godown and score. I mean, I
still got nightmares thinking about that twolane game and how much they ran all
over is last year. I justneed something to get that bad taste out
of my mouth. All Right,we got a lot more to talk about
today, Jason Smith and for FredRogan, we're gonna talk a little bit
(34:57):
a little league baseball elsa Gundo manjust doing it in dramatic fashion. Wanted
to touch on them and congratulations tothose young kids. Also, don't forget
we're giving away those tickets, threepairs of tickets, two tickets every single
hour. Still stay tuned, We'regonna give them away very very very soon.
A five seventy l A sports soundsgood man. Oh yeah. Today's
(35:30):
Afternoon Delight is the Girls by BlackPink. This track is the first release
by the K pop group since droppingtheir second studio album last September. The
group has spent the better part ofa year on tour, which included them
cohead lining at Coachella. They wrappedup the North American leg of their tour
(35:50):
this past Saturday night at Dodgers StadiumAgain. Today's Afternoon Delight is the Girls
by Black Pink. An Afternoon Delightis brought to you by Fantasy Springs Resort
Casine on near Palm Springs. Theyhave Vegas style gaming, numerous nightclubs and
award winning restaurants. Not to mentionconcerts by Jason Bonham, Foreigner and Wilson
(36:15):
of Hart, Trip, Sitter,zz Top and more. Reserve your Fantasy
Springs summer getaway today at Fantasy SpringsResort dot Com. Jason Smith and for
Fred Rogan And let's do it rightnow, Jason, let's give away those
two tickets. How about caller numberfive eight six six nine eight seven two
five seventy caller number five, You'regonna win two tickets to the Dodgers versus
(36:37):
the Diamondbacks tomorrow night. Jason,you're missing off the top man that you
you coach Little League and that youinteract with the El Segundo Little League quite
often. And again, congratulations toEl Segundo Little League. I mean they
did it the hard way. Theygot beat early by Texas and then came
(37:00):
back through the through the losers bracket, beat Texas in the championship, and
then went on to beat Curasaw inthe World Championship for the title. In
dramatic I mean dramatic fashion, LewisLappy hit a walk off in the bottom
of the sixth inning for the win. Man. It's some when I watched
that, and as a guy thatplayed Little League, and you know,
(37:22):
when you're in Little League, that'sall you think about is williams Sport.
And he talks to somebody that don'tthat doesn't play Little League or have nothing
to do with baseball and a kidand you say william Sport. Nobody knows
what you're talking about. But asa kid that plays baseball, Man william
Sport was on my mind since thetime I was six years old, thinking
about, oh we can get there. Little little little kid in Tucson,
(37:43):
Arizona with the Little League, withaspirations of gett into william Sport, Pennsylvania
for the Littleague World Series. ButMan, not only for Lewis Lappey and
especially for him because it's gonna bespecial, but for those kids, it's
something that they will remember for therest of their lives, being able to
go back there and do that.And I know first hand, and you
know firsthand. I mentioned I coachedmy son's team in Literal League. It
(38:05):
is hard to get there. Yougotta go through so many rounds and so
many districts, and the kids thatwe had and then Sino we ended up
winning the state title when they wereeleven, and then we come back and
we're very confident year twelve. Butmost of the teams that we played in
the All Stars when the twelve yearold year, they had a lot of
new faces. Jason, Yeah,yes, suddenly, where did this person
(38:28):
come from? Of they were playingtravel ball, but now they quit and
now they're here. And I'll tellyou, you know, you hit it
on the head with going through theloser's bracket to win. Right now.
I told you I coach at Westchesterand we played and I coached girls,
I coached my daughter's teams, andI coach All Stars and everything else.
And this year and fourteen, youthe one level older, we made it
(38:50):
to the state championship. We lostin the state championship to Baldwin Park one
hundred and five degree heat. Itwas just awful, right, Like I
could tell that all the games duringthe week at night, right, we're
like great, great, And thenhere's the chat. What day is it?
Oh, well it's Saturday. What'stime four o'clock at it's one hundred
and five degrees? Come on,man, Balwin Park gets hot out there
all the time. They're used toit. We're let's play on. Let's
(39:12):
play here on the coast where it'sa nice Balmy eighty degrees and let's see
what Happyeah. Yeah. But that'sthe thing is that we lost to that.
That's the only team to beat usin the turn we're ballwin Park.
They beat us in the third game, and so we had to go loser's
bracket to get to the championship,which is you have to win every day.
Right. If you go to thewinner's bracket and you win, then
(39:35):
you get a day off and youplay. Then you win, you get
a day off. You play,you win, you get a day off,
you can rest your pictures. Yet, yeah, it's tough. It's
like, okay, well you're outhere again, like like we are.
Our our pitcher, our star pitcher. Khali is she through like a thousand
dings because like she was it right, And so you have to win every
(39:57):
single day and that's a lot ofpressure. It's okay, you lost Tuesday.
What are we playing? We're playingWednesday at seven? What if we
win Wednesday? Said, we're playingThursday at six? What do we win
Thursday at six? We're playing Fridayat six? What do you win Friday
at six? You got the statechampionship on Saturday. Oh, by the
way, you got to win twicebecause Baldwin h Baldwin Park didn't lose all
the way to the end, andby the end it was it's so hard
to do. And it was atsome point after winning the US Championship and
(40:20):
going through the losers bracket, I'mgoing into yesterday going, man, what
are these kids gonna have left?Right? What are these kids gonna have
left? Because you're riding that lightningall the way through? And they struck
early, they struck often, andyou could tell there was just something about
that team. It was awesome tosee them play though and pull it out
the way they did. I meanit was it's fairy tale. It's fairy
tale. But had going that isso losers bracket is so incredibly hard.
(40:43):
Now are you are you? Areyou a vocal, feisty manager, man,
because then I know with the ELSAGundo team and in that championship game,
the home plate umpire, uh,it was having some issues. You
know. Here's the thing is yousee that that was all over social media
(41:05):
and the home plate umpire. Yeshe was awful, yes, but both
teams like, here's a pitch that'sthree feet outside the strike zone and he
calls it a strike and and youknow what people don't understand is that one
call at that age level flips theat bat so so so much because all
of a sudden, now you're chasingeverything and you're swinging at pitches that were
outside the strike zone, and andso much is is is in this But
(41:30):
it's not talked about enough. Isthat every ump little league, you know,
they want to encourage you to swing. So obviously the strike zone is
a little bit bigger. But whena ball is a ball, I mean,
come on, it's a ball,right, Like I'm here playing at
a high level. I'm in alittle league World Series. There's a champions
gap. I know what a ballis, and you're giving me something that's
like eight feet outside the plate sometimesthe sea, none of his neighborhood stuff.
Right. Sometimes the team that winsis the team that can adjust to
(41:53):
the home plate umpire without changing whatyou do fundamentally at the plate. Because
you could see it and affected andElsa Gundo had a much better strategy and
we're able to do it much betterbecause you sew those cuius out kids.
There be a pitch where it's wayoutside and he would and they would go,
oh, shake, their head andturn to their coach at third base,
and I'm like, they're out ofthe at bat. And then the
(42:15):
next pitch that comes is a greatlike sweeping curve that is thrown outside the
strike zone, but the kid wavesat because he's got no confidence with thee
where the where the strike zone isanymore. And there's so much with that
that and that was a big thatwas a big Elsa Gundo adjusted much better
to that, And you know,for me, all, I can't,
I can't believe it. That's justthe way umpiring is. Every everybody's got
(42:36):
a different strike. There's no realcontinent. Everybody's Angel Hernandez in literal league
baseball. It's like, hey,this is this is there was a strike
today, it was It's one ofthose that may be a strike right now,
but it won't be a strike thenext pitch. It may not be
a strike later. That's little leagueumpiring, and that's just how it goes.
And I can't get over how wellthey adjusted to be able to hit
the ball when clearly it could havebeen so come on. That pitch is
(42:58):
so far outside and you could seethat frustration, and I felt for the
curis out coach at third base,going, come on, just just just
stay in it, stay in it. And they would wave at the next
pitch, and the next pitch wasalways called outside, and the catcher would
set up outside or inside and itwas just genius. It was just a
great day all the way from it. I mean, as and as you
know, as a coach, Imean, that's the fine line that you
(43:20):
got to be able to adjust andlet your kids know that, hey,
it's not about you. Now,let's adjust to the umpire because he's calling
it that way. And we're talkingabout twelve year old kids. Now,
you know, you get used toa certain way and this is the fundamentals.
Now it's been you know, calleda different way. How do you
do how do you deal with thatas a twelve year old and you're right,
the frustration sets in. But asa manager, how do you not
(43:44):
go off on the umpire? I'mpicturing you number one, you know,
at third base coaching and going areyou giving him an earful? Are you?
What are you doing? You gettingtoughs? Are you? Earl Weaver
back in the day, I'll pullback, I'll pull back the curt little
bit for you. In my youngerdays, which is like, you know,
three years ago, I had noproblem getting into it a little bit
(44:05):
with the umpires, I had noproblem getting it. And and this is
for because I coached soccer too,and softball. I had no problem getting
into it. But then I realized, you know what, I'm not gonna
win that call, especially balls andstrikes. They have no they have no
patience for balls and strikes. Sowhat you can just do is and what
is if I'm you know, coachingthe base if there's a pitch that I
wanted for my for for our pitcherand it wasn't there, it would you
(44:29):
would just go, oh, hey, that was a good pitch, good
pitch, good pitch, good pitch, it's okay, good pitch, kind
of letting the umpire know, hey, you really miss that one, you
know, while letting by. Butit's but it's all disguised as I'm telling
my pitch. Don't get frustrated.That was a good pitch. Keep throwing
it. It should have been astrike, and maybe you get the next
one, because that's it's it's neverabout getting that you never it's always about
okay, does he know he screwedup enough to give me the next one.
(44:51):
Do I know I get the nextone on there? And especially something
when you're your your your players arebatting where you would you would always say
if it was a strike and itwas on a strike zone, it was
okay. Not your pitch, notyour pitch, right, not your pitch,
It's okay, It's okay. Again, say hey, I'm giving my
my batter a little bit of confidence. By the same time letting the umpire
note, dude, you miss that, man, you missed it, you
(45:13):
completely missed it. Yeah. Iwas the I was the sarcastic guy.
Man, I did. I wouldcome up with winners and things like that.
That's good, yeah, yeah,and it was. I did get
tossed a couple of times. Andyou know, I have to turn my
back on because I can see theumpires saying, do I really want to
throw Rodney Peete out of a game? Or do I not want to throw
Rodney Peet out of the game?Like do I want to be after the
(45:35):
game going you know what I didtoday? I threw Rodney Pete out of
the game, right, yeah,yeah. All these Rose Bowls and you
would see I went to UCLA.I didn't care about that. I was
dying to throw him out of thegame. Oh man, Yeah, I
used to get up under their skina little bit, man, because I
would I would be a little toosarcastic for him, and then wouldn't allow
them to talk to me because Iturned my back after I said something,
(45:59):
and that that pitch them off evenmore. We're trying to you almost what
fault? Do you know who Iam? You know who I am?
Look at the back of my footballcard right here. Let me show you
this damn right next time. Callit right. Oh yes, my man,
(46:19):
Jason Smith and for Fred Rogan,we got a lot more and check
this out. Our high coup attwo is coming at one today, So
get ready for some spirituality coming upon the other side of the break,
because we definitely death
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