November 25, 2025 • 37 mins
Ned Colletti hops on to talk World Baseball Classic, hot stove and more. Former Raiders' President Amy Trask says that former broadcaster, Jim Gray, has a heavy influence in how the team is currently being run.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, we continue on.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Fred Rogan, Rodney Pete and I am five seventy l
a sports counting down to Thanksgiving, and a man we
are very happy to bring on who we have a
lot of thanks for, Ned collecting the man in the
big chair.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Ned, good afternoons.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Hey, good to be with you, guys. It's been a minute,
but hey, good to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Good to talk to you. Big Thanksgiving plans.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Yeah, I guess I haven't really thought about it, but yeah,
thank you.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Wait a minute, hold on, stop big thanks Fred doesn't
have to You don't have to worry about Fred calling
you at three o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
There, no, wait, no, no, no, that's what I'm That's
one of the things I'm thankful for.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
No, fine, it's more confusing, Ned, Big Thanksgiving plans. Yeah,
I guess I haven't thought about it. Well what does
that mean?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I just go with the flow. Whatever it is. It is.
You know, got grandkids, so whatever anybody wants to do, Hey,
count me in. Count me in. There'll be no hockey
that day and no baseball that day, so I'm good.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
All right then, fine, Fine, have big plays. Fred.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
You just kind of go with the flow. Well, now
I understand and know, Hey, we're having people over for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
You want to come over? Yeah, I don't have to cook. Yes,
come on there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
See all right, man, I know you're gonna be uh
you're involved in the WBC with the Italian team. So
earlier we were talking about sho Heyo Tani pitching in
the WBC and Yamamoto or Suzaki. You think those guys
should pitch in the WBC. How do you think the
Dodgers will look at that?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Well, I think they. I can't tell you how they're
going to look at it, but I think that you know,
they You're talking about three guys that really know themselves
well and know how to prepare and know how to
take care of themselves. And you know, I've been on
the other side of the WBC, the GM side for
for obvoc the Dodgers the As long as I knew
(02:01):
that the pitching coach and the manager understood where the
pitchers were at and what they were likely to be
asked to do, I would be okay with it. You know,
it's going to have to be limited, it's going to
have to be regulated, and you're going to have to
have really the best thought of the team that's not there,
the Dodgers over your own country's team. So as long
(02:26):
as those criteria were met, I would I would be
open to doing. The player's got to want to do
it first and foremost and understand that, hey, you know,
this is a great honor. Obviously, we saw how the
last one ended with with Otani and Trout. Great great drama,
great ending. You know that's going for three in a
row is probably the dominant thought for everybody. So in
(02:51):
the right circumstance, everybody's communicating with everybody, and your trust
who you're talking to. You let it happen if that's
what the player wants.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
So you don't.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
You don't straw only suggest that, hey, Roki, there's some
other things we want to do. We strongly suggest that
you don't. You don't participate in the WBC. So there's
none of that. It's really about the player because you
don't want to piss the player off. Is that, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well, Well, in Roki's case, it might be a little
bit different because of his youth. It is spent a
lot of time in the big leagues last year, so
that may be a little bit different. Case for me
than Yamamoto or Show. Hey, you know those two guys obviously,
you know, very accomplished of what they do and who
they are. Sosaki still working his way through it. I
(03:40):
think he'll be tremendous. That's as good, but tremendous. As
time goes on, he may be a little bit different.
I'm not sure I should have put him all in
the same group. I think it's one thought process for
two and a third four Sasaki.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Okay, yeah, and that's how I would look at it
as well.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
How's Italy look, Well, it's a it's a little bit
of a struggle for the teams that aren't in Japan
or USA, Canada, Venezuela, Dominican, Puerto Rico. You know, we're
trying to get established as far as making us a destination.
There are many players that are of Italian descent, plus
(04:20):
they have to be able to qualify to you know,
there's more. There's more players that have been born in Japan,
let's say to use that example, that are born in
Italy that are playing in the Big League. So the
first step is the heritage that they'd be able to
get an Italian passport, which is you know, not everybody.
I mean, I cannot get one because my grandparents, who
came from Italy and and barely spoke English even in
(04:43):
their last their last days on earth, became US citizens.
So my parents were were born to US citizens, even
though they're from Italy, and even though so like you know,
somebody of my heritage would not qualify for to play
for Team Italy.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Oh wow, I thought they just put them in.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Put them and figure out how how well they cook
their spaghetti then and it'll be okay if to let
them play.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
No, well, well we may have to resort to that.
But you know, I know some great Italian restaurants, and
I'm sure I could.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Get a bit.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Speaking of uh, you know in the off season here,
you know, is a guy that sat there. Can you
fall into the trap of because now there's more shows
than ever about hot stove and off season and every
day it's something new and and you hear the noise
all the time. Can you fall into the trap of
feeling like you have to do something even though you
(05:48):
might not need to do something.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Well, I think you probably always need to do something.
I think every team needs, uh needs to get better,
even even this team that's but it's good as any
team I've ever been around or watched on a daily basis.
But you don't you don't listen to people that are
not involved in it. And what I mean by that
is other gms. You know, people will use the media
(06:13):
to get certain messaging out that may be false, that
may try to create panic or create somebody that to
make a move. I mean that happens all the time,
whether it's a trading deadline or whether it's a free
agent situation. That happens all the time. Teams use the media,
agents really use the media to just say, you know what,
(06:34):
we're trying to get this player to team A over here,
but you know they're not really ready to do it.
So you know, if you'll, if you'll start writing a
team B, C and D, their competition is really heavy
on them. You know, I may throw you some information
down the road. So I think a lot of that happens.
So you got to really just you got to quiet
(06:55):
that you can't listen to that. You know, the Dodgers
don't need our see an overhaul. They may need a
player here, a player there, So para list is probably
very very refined and they and they know who the
agents are, they know how the agents deal. I mean,
I had Scott Reports on every agent I knew who
would it flat out you'll tell you a falsehood, and
(07:18):
those who would be getting right to the point and
they didn't trust what you were hearing, and those that
want to negotiate for a week, a month, two months.
So you know, I'm sure they're very focused. They know
who they're dealing with, and they know what the list is,
and it's probably not a very long list.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I don't know, ned it seems to me at this point.
First Kyle Tucker, he wants everybody says ten years. Too
many years for me, too many years. And you look
at what Corey Seeger. We signed this long deal with
the Rangers. Now they're cutting money, Simeon's gone, they want
to trade Corey Seeger. I just don't think these gigantic
deals work.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Now.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
The Dodgers have been lucky with Mookie Freddy side a
six year deal. Obviously that to pay for Yamamoto, So
I guess in the in the right circumstance they work.
But when you are signing guys for tons of dough
over many years, it just means to me you're going
to have to start again, and I think that's a problem.
(08:14):
I don't like those long deals.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Net well, very few of them work out. Very few
are you know, you're hoping, you're really hoping to win
a World Series or two early on, because that will
help you pay for it, and that'll help you get
through maybe the last two or three years of it
that it's not going to be as as enticing as
it was today. You said, Ley, let's do this. That happens.
(08:38):
I think any any long term deal that you know
that goes really it's a position player beyond five years,
or a picture that really even goes beyond three years,
which is obviously tough to do these days, is really
a somewhat of a gamble. And as long as I
guess you know what the gamble is, it's okay. But yeah,
(08:58):
it does. It does was effective, you know, I mean,
I you know, I signed Clayton for a long term deal,
and nobody worked harder, and nobody was more competitive. Nobody
had I mean, you know, he was if you had categories,
he was at the top of every category. In the
character work out. It just who he is and how
he competed, and anybody could do. But I can't tell
(09:21):
you that when we when we signed that, which was
I think for six seven years, it was that it
was an easy thing to do because you don't know
how it's going to end. They don't know how it's
going to turn out. His case, obviously he ended up
signing Beetles after that, so that worked well. But that
that is not always the case. And in some cases
you really have to think about so what will And
(09:43):
this is what probably insists on every GM's tombstone. You
know who is going to be whose hunger is going
to be taken away by a ten year deal that happens.
I don't care what sport it is. There are some
guys that say, hey, I got it made. Now you
know I'm not. I'm not crushing it anymore. I'll do
it here and there, but don't do In some cases,
(10:07):
not everybody, they don't do what got them there right. Ever, again,
you know, there's there's like stages of the athlete's life,
and one of them is, hey, I got to get
to the big league, or I got to get to
the NFL or NBA, NHL. I got to get there,
then I got to get established. Then I'm going to
start getting paid more and more and more, and so
(10:28):
there's different stages, and so I would always I was
always a little bit wary of so, you know, if
I don't know the player and you're bringing them from
the outside, really have some good intel as to what
is the hunger for this player to continue to do
what he's done, to do it in the future. Because
you're really paying as Bizarres and saying you're you're paying
(10:51):
off the past for something that you're going to pay
for in the future. It's kind of a different dynamic.
So it's always you got to you gotta be careful
with it. You got to know who it is because
some guys, you know, in Clayton's case, if the going
rating was a dollar, you know he was going to
pitch like crazy for a dollar. You know that it
was more than that, Well, you knew he was always
(11:12):
going to do it. You could trust him. I think
the first question they asked is do you trust the player?
I can't tell you how many times yet ran through
my mind that every deal I made, can I trust
the player? And sometimes I made a deal knowing that
I was going to have a tough time trusting the player.
But there's only so many guys that can play in
the big leagues too, so to try to keep those
deals as short as.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Possible, then you got to You got a guy like
Anthony Rendon, Yeah, a big deal. It just feels like
he just shut it down after he got paid. Man,
it really does. And they all could be legitimate injuries,
don't get me wrong, but man, it certainly feels like
the Angels got the short short side of that one.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
But man, when do you know? When do you know?
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Like, if a guy signs a ten year deal, what
is what is winning for you? If you get six
quality years out of that ten year deal and the
last four are he's on the back nine and it's
just not you know, the numbers change. Is that enough
to say that was a deal worth doing?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
If you won?
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Yeah, if you want so, you want to if you
want a title, he was producing for six of those
ten years. You won one title and that's those six years.
Is that a win for you? Because you got to
look at it the way the way salaries are nowadays,
they just keep going up and at you know, you
sign a guy today in twenty thirty five, he may
be a bargain.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Yes, yeah, he could be a bargain. But if he's
if he's if he's broken down, and he's never going
to be a barge. So you know, I think you know,
you there's so many dynamics that you have to really
almost stage your your signings so that some go longer
than others and some are going to no matter what
(13:02):
the length are, that they're not all going to expire
at the same time. And you've got to be able
to commit to the winning piece of it because this
you know, like you read something. Some teams are interested
supposedly in Schober Okay, their teams that struggle to get
one of them struggles to get the five hundred. So
(13:22):
they're going to add one guy to that group. What
does that mean they're going to get the five hundred?
You know, if you're going to make that type of investment,
it can't be the only investment. I mean, that's what
the Dodgers have done so well, they don't. They've made
a big investment. Okay, then they made a second big investment,
in a third big investment, and they keep going because
(13:44):
they know just one isn't going to get the job done. Yeah,
you may get some excitement in the preseason and maybe
for a couple of months, but if your goal is
to win, you've got to be able to fortify a
big signing, whether it's dollars or term or both, with
more than that player. And you know that's that's part
(14:04):
of the thought process too. One guy that doesn't make
it happen. You know, sometimes in basketball, one or two
can make it happen, but in baseball, one one player
doesn't make it happen. It's a team sport. You've got
position players, you got pitchers, so you've got to you've
got to have the courage and also the financial wherewithal
if you're going to get involved to that extent. You
(14:25):
can't involve just once. You're going to have to really
commit to the entire project and everything that entails, including
maybe having two or three guys that have got long
term deals. And so when I get seventy five into it,
your return isn't what it was which you thought it
would be. But you have to have been able to
win in the meantime, I think, to make it worth
(14:46):
the worth the choice. But you got to you can't
predict winning either. So I mean, there's so many different
things as a GM or as a president of baseball officer,
an owner or a president of a club. You got
to be thinking through there's a lot different different pieces
to it. You know what something else that's coming. It's
a yeah, so nobody really knows what a CBA is going.
(15:07):
So that's that's another thing that people have to think about.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, and that being said, Hank Steinbrunner, you know, basically
said that the Dodgers, He complained that the Mets the
Yankees made seven hundred million dollars last year and that, yeah,
this is tough. We can't. I mean, we got to
pay the City of New York one hundred million. Things
are out of control. They even want to sell or can't.
(15:32):
When I hear that, I'm thinking, how incredibly disingenuous is
that comment from him?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Well, that's why it's an accurate statement. Obviously he's not
big on history, because nobody was bigger than that group
for probably twenty years, and he had twenty another teams
saying that about them. So you know, it's Hey, it
is what it is. Nobody's breaking any rules and if
(16:03):
if you can't, if you can handle it, then hey
you got to move on. But nobody, nobody wants to
hear anybody crying poor the sport that has generated the
revenue that this has, in the excitement that this has,
and ed.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
When you sign a guy just I was thinking about
this and as we go through the off season and
you had guys that have incredible years and you know,
maybe have a year or two left, and you got
to decide how you want to lock them up now
or not? Or do you have a guy that it
struggles you sign him, say, like a Tanner Scott, how
(16:38):
do you evaluate that it was just a down year
and he's gonna come back and he's gonna be okay,
We'll be all right with the guy, uh? Or is
it just man we missed?
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Well, they know far more today about Tanner Scott than
they did a year ago. Today, they know more about
the person, they know about the health. They just know
far more because he's been inside the organization. So no
matter of who it is, you do know more. So
it's just in a general sense you measure, Okay, so
(17:13):
what do we know about about the person? What do
we know about the athlete? And do we think that
that there's a chance that there's rebound. It's not that
the player hasn't ever done it, just didn't do it
in the last twelve months, So you got to measure
it that way. And you know, the most like anybody
that's taken over an organization for the first time, obviously
(17:34):
there's been a long time now, but you know, you
have to be truthful with your evaluation of who you're
looking at. And this is just a general overview, you know,
like like when Buster Posey took over the Giants and
people asked me what I thought about that. Well, he's
obviously the Hall of Fame player and then many you know,
(17:54):
great attributes. But knowing who is in his organization, the
player wise and staff wise, but really knowing how people think,
how they react, how they sacrifice, how much you trust them,
so to speak, is a key thing. So I think
in any situation you've got to you've got to run
that equation with your inner circle, with those people who
you trust their evaluation, you trust how and you know
(18:17):
how they look at things, and that's those are key discussions.
And sometimes you know, you mentioned that I got, you know,
signing a guy to even a three or four year
deal and maybe a little bit too long. Well, you know,
you've got to you've got to measure that in kind
of the same way that hey, we may be paying
for an extra year here that won't won't necessarily bear fruit,
(18:40):
but you know you've got to You've got a chance
to win, so you do it. I would almost overpay
for shorter term. Then determines what crushes you because they're
taking a roster spot, and they're taking a spot. You
know we're going to try it. We're going to give
this player every opportunity because we sign them, sign them
for a few years. You know that can be dangerous too.
(19:01):
So I'd rather go short and a little bit heavier
than than longer and spread it out a little bit
more depending on who it is.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
All right, Net, thanks for jumping on. We know you
got to jump on a call. I have a great Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
All right, thankful for you guys, Appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Thank you buddy, our good friend Ned Kaletti. Okay, when
we come back, just a crazy story about the Raiders,
A crazy story about the Raiders, and we'll get to that.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Make AM five to seventy LA sports a preset before
you plug in your phone. Presets in the iHeartRadio app
now available with Apple CarPlay and android autom just another
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Speaker 4 (19:46):
Many thanks to our guy Ned COLLETTI always bringing it always. Okay,
Kevin came in earlier and he said, you got to
hear this story.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I'm just gonna let him set it up. Go ahead, Kevin.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
So I'm scrolling through X and I see an interview
with Amy Trask, the former president of the Raiders, going
back to the Al Davis days. Al of course hired
Amy to be the president of business for the team. Rodney,
you were obviously there when Amy was there. She's now
an analyst for CBS Sports, and they asked her about
the struggles that the team has had on the field
that she took it in a completely different direction. I
(20:18):
want you guys to hear what she said on CBS
Sports HQ.
Speaker 7 (20:21):
There are, of course, on field problems, but there are
also a lot of problems off the field, behind the scenes.
And many people will assume when I say behind the scenes,
that I'm referring to Tom Brady, but I'm not the
individual who orchestrated Tom's purchase in the Raiders. Of the
limited partnership interest in the Raiders, Jim Gray has been
(20:42):
working to orchestrate the purchase of an interest in the
Raiders since Al was alive and we were in the
process of selling a minority interest in the team. Well,
he finally orchestrated that purchase, and he is now involved
in every aspect, or almost every aspect of the organization.
And this is having an impact on the organization, not
(21:03):
only off the field but on the field. So look,
Pete Carroll is a very good head coach, but the
problems we're seeing on the field are related to the
problems that are rampant throughout the organization. They've got to
fix the off field, behind the scenes issues in order
to give Pete a chance to be his best, which
(21:25):
he can be, and address the problems on the field.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Wow, Jim Gray's every about that. I think Jim Gray's everywhere.
Jim Gray is everywhere. It not he owns a piece
of the Raiders.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Well, Tom owns it. But first of all, he was
a good friend of Al Davis for years. He's a
good friend with Tom Brady, so Amy said, helped. Yeah,
so he helped orchestrate Tom's purchase minority stake. Not that
Jim is an owner, but obviously he's that tight with
Tom that according to Amy, he has some sort of influencers, say.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Over what's very tight with Al and Mark as well.
But yeah, he and Tom Brady. You'd be shocked how
close they are and have been. I had no idea,
but they they are really really tight. In fact, they
have I think they still have. They had a traveling
exhibit together in the Fountain Blue Hotel in Vegas, which
(22:18):
is really odd and I don't know if it's still
still going, but.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Well, it's just it's just just odd. You know.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Jim is not the most subtle guy in the world,
and Tom tries to stay under the radar as much
as he can. Doesn't one doesn't like to always draw
attention to himself. But Jim is very controversial. It has
been and and them, you know, partnering on a venture
like this, you know, it's basically a traveling museum that
they have together. Was just uh and that was up
(22:52):
during the Super Bowl this past year, so or two
years ago, I don't know when. Whenever the Super Bows
and Vegas it was there, but yeah, very very very interesting.
But yeah, I could see and look. Amy is dialed in.
She is one of the sharpest women I know especially
when it comes to sports. She was Owl's right hand
(23:15):
for a number of number of years, even through the
LA and Oakland transition back and forth. She was very
involved in a lot of that. She's dialed in. But
it doesn't shock me that, you know, you got a
guy like Brady that you know, has been a part
of championships and understands the building and how the building
should be run, off the field, how it should be run,
(23:37):
all those things that are conducive to winning. He's seen
it before and he knows what works what doesn't work.
And in fact, I think that part of it, part
of him getting out of New England, was that it
was going in a different direction that they didn't have
in years previous. So I could see that where that
kind of can create some tension, especially with the existing
(23:57):
coaching staff and even probably with some scouts and some
front office folks.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, I'm just amazed. Jim Gray's everywhere. Jim Gray. If
you remember, Okay, how did Jim Gray vault onto the
scene one hundred years ago, maybe not that long ago.
One hundred years ago, he was a reporter for NBC
Sports and they were doing the football pregame show. Jim
Gray would do I think a feature on the show
(24:23):
every week. Right, he was the guy to go out
and do interviews.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
I remember him doing sidelines for the NBA on NBC,
all the Chack Kobe Laker runs. He was their key,
their number one sideline guy. So that is how I
most remember Jim Gray.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, but I think it started. I think it started
when he was doing the NFL stuff. Okay, And what
would happen is, you know, during the duration of the day,
they'd cut back to the studio with rotating halftime some
postgame shows. Everybody still does that. Well, there were times
where somebody wasn't in their chair. In other words, they
(24:57):
were in the bathroom, they were talking to somebody, and
they'd cut back because they he had so many and
they would rotate. Anytime somebody wasn't in their chair, Jim
Gray would sit down.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Honestly, Jim would sit down. Every time it's an open chair, Yeah,
he would sit down.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
So they'd come out of breaking Jim be sitting here
because it was open.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
I mean, he was.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Pretty He's very smart. He really is very smart. So
he would sit there and then obviously he became a
pretty good interviewer and he is. I mean, give Jim credit,
and Jim knows everybody. When he was inducted into the
California Sports Hall of Fame, I was inducted the same
year he had like Mark Davis and Dean Spanos at
(25:38):
his table. You know, I had a guy I saw
outside my family, Hey, you want to come in and eat,
you can sit at my table. He had like Dean
Spanos and Mark Davis, and they rolled these and I
think I told you they rolled these clips and they
were like four minutes long talking about each nominee or inductee.
Got to Jim, the thing was like thirty minutes long.
(26:00):
I'm not exaggerating. It started during his path through the
birth Canal. I mean, this was his life. Everything he
talked to, Barack Obama, it was amazing the people he's
talked to. And maybe now he does have influence, but
I mean, how much influence could he have over Tom
Brady that would affect the way they play in the field.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Rodney doesn't. That's not what the report was.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah, she's saying that he can influence Tom Brady. Tom
Brady is in there.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
So you know it was he's instrumental in helping Tom
Brady get to the ownership.
Speaker 6 (26:35):
Did you take it differently, Keviny, Yeah, well she she
said that the issues on the field are a direct
correlation to the issues off of the field, which started
her on her whole talk about Jim Gray and Tom Brady.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
So right the way, I Brady Brady being involved in
what's going on off the field, then Jim Gray being
involved in what's going on off the field.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
It's I interpreted as she said, Tom Brady is you know,
it has the influence he has, and he's passed some
of that if wants on to Jim Gray, who has
more influence than he should. That's why I interpreted it
that Jim Gray through Tom Brady has influence on the
organization that he probably shouldn't have. That's how it sounded
to me. Okay, we can ask Benny about this at
two o'clock. By the way, who's more.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Dial Gray always had influence over the Raiders, and it's
just only enhanced since Tom Brady's got there.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Who knows what it is?
Speaker 4 (27:23):
But Jim is, you know, and he's always been that
guy's not afraid to answer that asked that controversial question.
You remember the I think it was an All Star game,
Pete Rose went after Pete Rose. Yeah, when at Pete
Rose really hard and people forget it was Jim Gray
who did the Lebron interview, right, the decision, that's right,
you know, I'm taking my talents to South Beach. That
was Jim Gray. So yeah, he's always kind of been, uh,
(27:46):
in the middle of things.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Get more into that next hour when Bennye bon Signor
joins the show.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
Hello, Rogan and Robbie listener. Did you know Am five
seventy LA Sports has a wide range of LA Sports podcasts.
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Talk with David Vasse, the Dodger Podcast of Record, Clipper
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(28:18):
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Yes, Yes, yes, yes, Hey, Rodney, Pete, Fred Rogan on
a Tuesday, A beautiful Tuesday. I might as we head
into Thanksgiving weekend. A lot of big sports going on
this weekend. Fred Rivalry week USC UCLA. You mentioned LA
are USC earlier.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah. Can this be a success?
Speaker 4 (28:45):
I think if they go and really blow out UCLA,
it could put back a good taste in everybody's mouth,
not to the point where, you know, missing the playoffs
it will alleviate that. But I think a big win
at home again to UCLA could go.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
A long way.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yeah, and I love that Ben Boltch. Just quickly, Ben
Boltch is writing in the Times the open letter to
the chancellor of the school imploring them not to move
from the rose bowlt What is this with this love affair?
The road was the same way right, Yeah, he did
the same thing. What are you doing? How could you
(29:24):
do that? Can I ask you something? Seriously?
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Why? Why is this such a big deal?
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Why?
Speaker 2 (29:31):
I really don't get it. They don't draw the team
is not good and it's a schlep from west Wood.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
Now, Ben did talk to a couple of people who
are tailgaters who've been going for years, and they say
that so far, which is true, does not have a
real good tailgate situation, and UCLA has an excellent one.
But I don't know if that is that the only
reason or the biggest reason why you wouldn't make the move.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Wait a minute, let me ask you a question. Yeah,
can people tailgate before the rams and chargers?
Speaker 6 (29:57):
Yeah, it's a very small, confined area but yeah, it's
not great.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
No, it's not.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
The Rose Bowl's got the golf course there, they got
brook Side, they got all that land right there around
the Rose Bowl and it's and I think it's more nostalgic,
and you know, space wise, it's bigger at the Rose Bowl.
But if that's the reason the tailgating is the is
the issue?
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Come on?
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah, exactly? And also, Kevin, what do they draw a
game thirty thousand?
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Maybe? If that?
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Okay, so you know what we're gonna do. We're gonna
ask the people that come here what they think. Isn't
the goal to encourage more people to come? I would
think wouldn't that be part of it? And money's involved obviously,
but it's closer. Let's just start with that.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
It's closer.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
But I think what Plaski all, you know, argued that
you know, so Far is not quite a college.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Stadium. This is insane pro pro.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
Stadium, and you know, they would be the third tenant
in the stadium and just really would take away from
UCLA football by going there because they would be an
afterthought at so Far.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Okay, so let me ask you a question. It would
take away from UCLA football and afterthought. Fair, what are
they right now in the big ten? An afterthought? Yes,
what are they? They need the third tenant? So does
that mean the Chargers and UCLA are going to play
on the same day as the third tenant?
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Right?
Speaker 3 (31:27):
I mean?
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Is that what that means?
Speaker 2 (31:28):
I'm serious, Well there'll be the third Who cares they
play in a different day?
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Right?
Speaker 2 (31:35):
You know what our teams bad? We draw thirty thousand
people a game and this one hundred thousand seat stadium
and these folks are sad.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
No one's going exactly, And there are a number of
schools that actually do. Right.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Philadelphia Temple plays at the Link, you know, where the
Eagles play. I think in Vegas they play at Allegiance
where the Raiders play the UNLV Does I mean it
just because of College Pittsburgh? The University of pitt plays
where the Steelers play, you know, and I get the
whole you know, third ten But it's really about pro
(32:12):
and college. But there are a number of colleges that
took over. When a new stadium's built for the NFL team,
those colleges want to play in that NFL stadium. I'm
shocked at the UCLA didn't jump at the chance or
jump to see, hey, how do we get the Sofi?
Speaker 2 (32:27):
But I'm just like flabbergasts by the whole thing. I
do not understand what it is this fascination. The football
team's terrible. They don't draw. You have to drive to
Pasadena and people are going to lie. You know, I'm
gonna miss it. Do you think if the football team
(32:48):
was better, let's try this, let's say they're winning. Do
you think they would draw more at SOFI because it's closer?
Do you think more students would go if the football
team was good, if they played it so far? Do
you think that would happen?
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Did they? Would they draw a bigger crown? Yeah? Yes,
I do too, Yes, I do too.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
You know the philosophy with the Rose Bull and God
loved the Rose Bull. It's an iconic, beautiful, beautiful facility.
It's it's incredible. But this is kind of like, well,
you know what, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Yeah,
you understand it's broke. You understand that, right. You know
(33:33):
why past Plaski lives in Pasadena or Alta? Dina got it? Yeah,
he's got alterior motive, right? And Ben Bulge, I mean
he should work, and we love Ben he had to
work for the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce because he loves
the Rose Bowl. And I don't know, maybe I'd feel
differently if the team won or didn't look so overmatched.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
I will say when the team did win, they had
a good run under Jim Moore before that fell apart.
They now they never got close to eighty ninety thousand, ibusly,
but they.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Were Did they lead the pack in one time one year?
Speaker 6 (34:08):
In the sentence, they absolutely did, Rodney, they were very good.
They packed that place out. You know, for their standards,
you know that they would they would get fifty to seventy, Yes,
fifty to fifty in there. So it can be done.
So for the people who arguing, I guess in favor
of the Rose bulll Fred would say, when the team
is playing well, we can, for all intents and purposes,
realistically speaking, pack out the Rose Bowl.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
How grand. They haven't done that in a while.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
But wait a minute, didn't I hear the argument and
correct me if I'm wrong. They'll never be able to
pack out so far, so FI seats less.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Than the Rose bul right, correct?
Speaker 2 (34:39):
So if they were winning, wouldn't it make sense that
it would appear there would be more people in the
crowded so fie than the rose buwl makes sense to me.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Empty, Yeah, it's empty.
Speaker 6 (34:49):
Makes all the sense in the world to me.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
You can be creative with so fi You know, the
rose bul is a straight bowl, there's no getting around. Oh,
you can mix in the club seats and kind of
shoot it a certain way.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
It doesn't look that you shoot the.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Rose bowl from above, from anywhere, those empty seats are
gonna show up.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
They're claring in your face.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
I'm gonna pull a you, Fred, and do some programming
here on the air. Do you want me to see
if Ben can come on the show tomorrow to talk
about this?
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yeah? Yeah, and then he'll start laughing like you did
last time. See if Ben can come on tomorrow, and
then I'll tell him the exact same thing, and it'll
start laughing again, cause he is. And maybe I'm missing
it because I didn't go to UCLA. Maybe I just
don't get it.
Speaker 6 (35:33):
I mean, there are a contingent of people who do
agree with Ben. I think that's where he's getting it from. Oh,
it's coming from somewhere, I do.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
I think it was early you were here, Fred, so
it was the early eighties right that they moved to
the Rose Bowl. They used to play for those that
are a certain age and just got to la USC
and UCLA used to play their games at the Coliseum,
both of them, and at some point in the early
eighties they they went to the Rose Bowl. Made a
striking deal with the Rose Bowl. And that's when you
(36:03):
know UCLA football is pretty good. You know, it was
competitive with USC Ucla and year and in year out,
I mean great players going through both schools at that
time in the late seventies, early eighties. So it was
very very very very competitive. And then when UCLA got
their own home, that was a huge deal, if you remember,
(36:23):
a huge deal that UCLA was now going to play
at the Rose Bowl. And I can remember growing up
in Arizona and you know, my dad coaching for u
of A and knowing that, oh, they getting to play
at the Rose Bowl, playing a regular season game at
the Rose Bowl. U of A gets to go to
the Rose That's very cool. Play Ucla at the Rose Bowl,
(36:44):
and it was a cool thing. And they back then,
you know, they would get sixty thousand in there, you know,
and on a regular basis and if it was a
big game, they'd get eighty thousand in there, so it
you know, but eventually obviously it fell off. But there
were times, as Kevin been in with Jim Mora, even
with Bob Toledo, when Kate mcdown was there, they would
(37:04):
get eighty thousand in that thing when they were rolling
a little bit. So I get the nostalgia and the
folks and all that kind of stuff, but it ain't
going back to that anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
All right. What is Jim Gray's influence with the Raiders?
Does he have it?
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Bennye bon Signori joined us next and then later next hour,
Kevin will get us caught up on everything that's happened. Also, Kevin,
we got to talk about Lakers and Clippers and its slit. Okay,
gotta do that too, all right,
All right, we continue on.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Fred Rogan, Rodney Pete and I am five seventy l
a sports counting down to Thanksgiving, and a man we
are very happy to bring on who we have a
lot of thanks for, Ned collecting the man in the
big chair.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Ned, good afternoons.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Hey, good to be with you, guys. It's been a minute,
but hey, good to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Good to talk to you. Big Thanksgiving plans.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Yeah, I guess I haven't really thought about it, but yeah,
thank you.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Wait a minute, hold on, stop big thanks Fred doesn't
have to You don't have to worry about Fred calling
you at three o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
There, no, wait, no, no, no, that's what I'm That's
one of the things I'm thankful for.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
No, fine, it's more confusing, Ned, Big Thanksgiving plans. Yeah,
I guess I haven't thought about it. Well what does
that mean?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I just go with the flow. Whatever it is. It is.
You know, got grandkids, so whatever anybody wants to do, Hey,
count me in. Count me in. There'll be no hockey
that day and no baseball that day, so I'm good.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
All right then, fine, Fine, have big plays. Fred.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
You just kind of go with the flow. Well, now
I understand and know, Hey, we're having people over for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
You want to come over? Yeah, I don't have to cook. Yes,
come on there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
See all right, man, I know you're gonna be uh
you're involved in the WBC with the Italian team. So
earlier we were talking about sho Heyo Tani pitching in
the WBC and Yamamoto or Suzaki. You think those guys
should pitch in the WBC. How do you think the
Dodgers will look at that?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Well, I think they. I can't tell you how they're
going to look at it, but I think that you know,
they You're talking about three guys that really know themselves
well and know how to prepare and know how to
take care of themselves. And you know, I've been on
the other side of the WBC, the GM side for
for obvoc the Dodgers the As long as I knew
(02:01):
that the pitching coach and the manager understood where the
pitchers were at and what they were likely to be
asked to do, I would be okay with it. You know,
it's going to have to be limited, it's going to
have to be regulated, and you're going to have to
have really the best thought of the team that's not there,
the Dodgers over your own country's team. So as long
(02:26):
as those criteria were met, I would I would be
open to doing. The player's got to want to do
it first and foremost and understand that, hey, you know,
this is a great honor. Obviously, we saw how the
last one ended with with Otani and Trout. Great great drama,
great ending. You know that's going for three in a
row is probably the dominant thought for everybody. So in
(02:51):
the right circumstance, everybody's communicating with everybody, and your trust
who you're talking to. You let it happen if that's
what the player wants.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
So you don't.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
You don't straw only suggest that, hey, Roki, there's some
other things we want to do. We strongly suggest that
you don't. You don't participate in the WBC. So there's
none of that. It's really about the player because you
don't want to piss the player off. Is that, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well, Well, in Roki's case, it might be a little
bit different because of his youth. It is spent a
lot of time in the big leagues last year, so
that may be a little bit different. Case for me
than Yamamoto or Show. Hey, you know those two guys obviously,
you know, very accomplished of what they do and who
they are. Sosaki still working his way through it. I
(03:40):
think he'll be tremendous. That's as good, but tremendous. As
time goes on, he may be a little bit different.
I'm not sure I should have put him all in
the same group. I think it's one thought process for
two and a third four Sasaki.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Okay, yeah, and that's how I would look at it
as well.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
How's Italy look, Well, it's a it's a little bit
of a struggle for the teams that aren't in Japan
or USA, Canada, Venezuela, Dominican, Puerto Rico. You know, we're
trying to get established as far as making us a destination.
There are many players that are of Italian descent, plus
(04:20):
they have to be able to qualify to you know,
there's more. There's more players that have been born in Japan,
let's say to use that example, that are born in
Italy that are playing in the Big League. So the
first step is the heritage that they'd be able to
get an Italian passport, which is you know, not everybody.
I mean, I cannot get one because my grandparents, who
came from Italy and and barely spoke English even in
(04:43):
their last their last days on earth, became US citizens.
So my parents were were born to US citizens, even
though they're from Italy, and even though so like you know,
somebody of my heritage would not qualify for to play
for Team Italy.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Oh wow, I thought they just put them in.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Put them and figure out how how well they cook
their spaghetti then and it'll be okay if to let
them play.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
No, well, well we may have to resort to that.
But you know, I know some great Italian restaurants, and
I'm sure I could.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Get a bit.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Speaking of uh, you know in the off season here,
you know, is a guy that sat there. Can you
fall into the trap of because now there's more shows
than ever about hot stove and off season and every
day it's something new and and you hear the noise
all the time. Can you fall into the trap of
feeling like you have to do something even though you
(05:48):
might not need to do something.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Well, I think you probably always need to do something.
I think every team needs, uh needs to get better,
even even this team that's but it's good as any
team I've ever been around or watched on a daily basis.
But you don't you don't listen to people that are
not involved in it. And what I mean by that
is other gms. You know, people will use the media
(06:13):
to get certain messaging out that may be false, that
may try to create panic or create somebody that to
make a move. I mean that happens all the time,
whether it's a trading deadline or whether it's a free
agent situation. That happens all the time. Teams use the media,
agents really use the media to just say, you know what,
(06:34):
we're trying to get this player to team A over here,
but you know they're not really ready to do it.
So you know, if you'll, if you'll start writing a
team B, C and D, their competition is really heavy
on them. You know, I may throw you some information
down the road. So I think a lot of that happens.
So you got to really just you got to quiet
(06:55):
that you can't listen to that. You know, the Dodgers
don't need our see an overhaul. They may need a
player here, a player there, So para list is probably
very very refined and they and they know who the
agents are, they know how the agents deal. I mean,
I had Scott Reports on every agent I knew who
would it flat out you'll tell you a falsehood, and
(07:18):
those who would be getting right to the point and
they didn't trust what you were hearing, and those that
want to negotiate for a week, a month, two months.
So you know, I'm sure they're very focused. They know
who they're dealing with, and they know what the list is,
and it's probably not a very long list.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I don't know, ned it seems to me at this point.
First Kyle Tucker, he wants everybody says ten years. Too
many years for me, too many years. And you look
at what Corey Seeger. We signed this long deal with
the Rangers. Now they're cutting money, Simeon's gone, they want
to trade Corey Seeger. I just don't think these gigantic
deals work.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Now.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
The Dodgers have been lucky with Mookie Freddy side a
six year deal. Obviously that to pay for Yamamoto, So
I guess in the in the right circumstance they work.
But when you are signing guys for tons of dough
over many years, it just means to me you're going
to have to start again, and I think that's a problem.
(08:14):
I don't like those long deals.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Net well, very few of them work out. Very few
are you know, you're hoping, you're really hoping to win
a World Series or two early on, because that will
help you pay for it, and that'll help you get
through maybe the last two or three years of it
that it's not going to be as as enticing as
it was today. You said, Ley, let's do this. That happens.
(08:38):
I think any any long term deal that you know
that goes really it's a position player beyond five years,
or a picture that really even goes beyond three years,
which is obviously tough to do these days, is really
a somewhat of a gamble. And as long as I
guess you know what the gamble is, it's okay. But yeah,
(08:58):
it does. It does was effective, you know, I mean,
I you know, I signed Clayton for a long term deal,
and nobody worked harder, and nobody was more competitive. Nobody
had I mean, you know, he was if you had categories,
he was at the top of every category. In the
character work out. It just who he is and how
he competed, and anybody could do. But I can't tell
(09:21):
you that when we when we signed that, which was
I think for six seven years, it was that it
was an easy thing to do because you don't know
how it's going to end. They don't know how it's
going to turn out. His case, obviously he ended up
signing Beetles after that, so that worked well. But that
that is not always the case. And in some cases
you really have to think about so what will And
(09:43):
this is what probably insists on every GM's tombstone. You
know who is going to be whose hunger is going
to be taken away by a ten year deal that happens.
I don't care what sport it is. There are some
guys that say, hey, I got it made. Now you
know I'm not. I'm not crushing it anymore. I'll do
it here and there, but don't do In some cases,
(10:07):
not everybody, they don't do what got them there right. Ever, again,
you know, there's there's like stages of the athlete's life,
and one of them is, hey, I got to get
to the big league, or I got to get to
the NFL or NBA, NHL. I got to get there,
then I got to get established. Then I'm going to
start getting paid more and more and more, and so
(10:28):
there's different stages, and so I would always I was
always a little bit wary of so, you know, if
I don't know the player and you're bringing them from
the outside, really have some good intel as to what
is the hunger for this player to continue to do
what he's done, to do it in the future. Because
you're really paying as Bizarres and saying you're you're paying
(10:51):
off the past for something that you're going to pay
for in the future. It's kind of a different dynamic.
So it's always you got to you gotta be careful
with it. You got to know who it is because
some guys, you know, in Clayton's case, if the going
rating was a dollar, you know he was going to
pitch like crazy for a dollar. You know that it
was more than that, Well, you knew he was always
(11:12):
going to do it. You could trust him. I think
the first question they asked is do you trust the player?
I can't tell you how many times yet ran through
my mind that every deal I made, can I trust
the player? And sometimes I made a deal knowing that
I was going to have a tough time trusting the player.
But there's only so many guys that can play in
the big leagues too, so to try to keep those
deals as short as.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Possible, then you got to You got a guy like
Anthony Rendon, Yeah, a big deal. It just feels like
he just shut it down after he got paid. Man,
it really does. And they all could be legitimate injuries,
don't get me wrong, but man, it certainly feels like
the Angels got the short short side of that one.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
But man, when do you know? When do you know?
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Like, if a guy signs a ten year deal, what
is what is winning for you? If you get six
quality years out of that ten year deal and the
last four are he's on the back nine and it's
just not you know, the numbers change. Is that enough
to say that was a deal worth doing?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
If you won?
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Yeah, if you want so, you want to if you
want a title, he was producing for six of those
ten years. You won one title and that's those six years.
Is that a win for you? Because you got to
look at it the way the way salaries are nowadays,
they just keep going up and at you know, you
sign a guy today in twenty thirty five, he may
be a bargain.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Yes, yeah, he could be a bargain. But if he's
if he's if he's broken down, and he's never going
to be a barge. So you know, I think you know,
you there's so many dynamics that you have to really
almost stage your your signings so that some go longer
than others and some are going to no matter what
(13:02):
the length are, that they're not all going to expire
at the same time. And you've got to be able
to commit to the winning piece of it because this
you know, like you read something. Some teams are interested
supposedly in Schober Okay, their teams that struggle to get
one of them struggles to get the five hundred. So
(13:22):
they're going to add one guy to that group. What
does that mean they're going to get the five hundred?
You know, if you're going to make that type of investment,
it can't be the only investment. I mean, that's what
the Dodgers have done so well, they don't. They've made
a big investment. Okay, then they made a second big investment,
in a third big investment, and they keep going because
(13:44):
they know just one isn't going to get the job done. Yeah,
you may get some excitement in the preseason and maybe
for a couple of months, but if your goal is
to win, you've got to be able to fortify a
big signing, whether it's dollars or term or both, with
more than that player. And you know that's that's part
(14:04):
of the thought process too. One guy that doesn't make
it happen. You know, sometimes in basketball, one or two
can make it happen, but in baseball, one one player
doesn't make it happen. It's a team sport. You've got
position players, you got pitchers, so you've got to you've
got to have the courage and also the financial wherewithal
if you're going to get involved to that extent. You
(14:25):
can't involve just once. You're going to have to really
commit to the entire project and everything that entails, including
maybe having two or three guys that have got long
term deals. And so when I get seventy five into it,
your return isn't what it was which you thought it
would be. But you have to have been able to
win in the meantime, I think, to make it worth
(14:46):
the worth the choice. But you got to you can't
predict winning either. So I mean, there's so many different
things as a GM or as a president of baseball officer,
an owner or a president of a club. You got
to be thinking through there's a lot different different pieces
to it. You know what something else that's coming. It's
a yeah, so nobody really knows what a CBA is going.
(15:07):
So that's that's another thing that people have to think about.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, and that being said, Hank Steinbrunner, you know, basically
said that the Dodgers, He complained that the Mets the
Yankees made seven hundred million dollars last year and that, yeah,
this is tough. We can't. I mean, we got to
pay the City of New York one hundred million. Things
are out of control. They even want to sell or can't.
(15:32):
When I hear that, I'm thinking, how incredibly disingenuous is
that comment from him?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Well, that's why it's an accurate statement. Obviously he's not
big on history, because nobody was bigger than that group
for probably twenty years, and he had twenty another teams
saying that about them. So you know, it's Hey, it
is what it is. Nobody's breaking any rules and if
(16:03):
if you can't, if you can handle it, then hey
you got to move on. But nobody, nobody wants to
hear anybody crying poor the sport that has generated the
revenue that this has, in the excitement that this has,
and ed.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
When you sign a guy just I was thinking about
this and as we go through the off season and
you had guys that have incredible years and you know,
maybe have a year or two left, and you got
to decide how you want to lock them up now
or not? Or do you have a guy that it
struggles you sign him, say, like a Tanner Scott, how
(16:38):
do you evaluate that it was just a down year
and he's gonna come back and he's gonna be okay,
We'll be all right with the guy, uh? Or is
it just man we missed?
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Well, they know far more today about Tanner Scott than
they did a year ago. Today, they know more about
the person, they know about the health. They just know
far more because he's been inside the organization. So no
matter of who it is, you do know more. So
it's just in a general sense you measure, Okay, so
(17:13):
what do we know about about the person? What do
we know about the athlete? And do we think that
that there's a chance that there's rebound. It's not that
the player hasn't ever done it, just didn't do it
in the last twelve months, So you got to measure
it that way. And you know, the most like anybody
that's taken over an organization for the first time, obviously
(17:34):
there's been a long time now, but you know, you
have to be truthful with your evaluation of who you're
looking at. And this is just a general overview, you know,
like like when Buster Posey took over the Giants and
people asked me what I thought about that. Well, he's
obviously the Hall of Fame player and then many you know,
(17:54):
great attributes. But knowing who is in his organization, the
player wise and staff wise, but really knowing how people think,
how they react, how they sacrifice, how much you trust them,
so to speak, is a key thing. So I think
in any situation you've got to you've got to run
that equation with your inner circle, with those people who
you trust their evaluation, you trust how and you know
(18:17):
how they look at things, and that's those are key discussions.
And sometimes you know, you mentioned that I got, you know,
signing a guy to even a three or four year
deal and maybe a little bit too long. Well, you know,
you've got to you've got to measure that in kind
of the same way that hey, we may be paying
for an extra year here that won't won't necessarily bear fruit,
(18:40):
but you know you've got to You've got a chance
to win, so you do it. I would almost overpay
for shorter term. Then determines what crushes you because they're
taking a roster spot, and they're taking a spot. You
know we're going to try it. We're going to give
this player every opportunity because we sign them, sign them
for a few years. You know that can be dangerous too.
(19:01):
So I'd rather go short and a little bit heavier
than than longer and spread it out a little bit
more depending on who it is.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
All right, Net, thanks for jumping on. We know you
got to jump on a call. I have a great Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
All right, thankful for you guys, Appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Thank you buddy, our good friend Ned Kaletti. Okay, when
we come back, just a crazy story about the Raiders,
A crazy story about the Raiders, and we'll get to that.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Make AM five to seventy LA sports a preset before
you plug in your phone. Presets in the iHeartRadio app
now available with Apple CarPlay and android autom just another
easy way to listen to LA's best sports talk.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Many thanks to our guy Ned COLLETTI always bringing it always. Okay,
Kevin came in earlier and he said, you got to
hear this story.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I'm just gonna let him set it up. Go ahead, Kevin.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
So I'm scrolling through X and I see an interview
with Amy Trask, the former president of the Raiders, going
back to the Al Davis days. Al of course hired
Amy to be the president of business for the team. Rodney,
you were obviously there when Amy was there. She's now
an analyst for CBS Sports, and they asked her about
the struggles that the team has had on the field
that she took it in a completely different direction. I
(20:18):
want you guys to hear what she said on CBS
Sports HQ.
Speaker 7 (20:21):
There are, of course, on field problems, but there are
also a lot of problems off the field, behind the scenes.
And many people will assume when I say behind the scenes,
that I'm referring to Tom Brady, but I'm not the
individual who orchestrated Tom's purchase in the Raiders. Of the
limited partnership interest in the Raiders, Jim Gray has been
(20:42):
working to orchestrate the purchase of an interest in the
Raiders since Al was alive and we were in the
process of selling a minority interest in the team. Well,
he finally orchestrated that purchase, and he is now involved
in every aspect, or almost every aspect of the organization.
And this is having an impact on the organization, not
(21:03):
only off the field but on the field. So look,
Pete Carroll is a very good head coach, but the
problems we're seeing on the field are related to the
problems that are rampant throughout the organization. They've got to
fix the off field, behind the scenes issues in order
to give Pete a chance to be his best, which
(21:25):
he can be, and address the problems on the field.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Wow, Jim Gray's every about that. I think Jim Gray's everywhere.
Jim Gray is everywhere. It not he owns a piece
of the Raiders.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Well, Tom owns it. But first of all, he was
a good friend of Al Davis for years. He's a
good friend with Tom Brady, so Amy said, helped. Yeah,
so he helped orchestrate Tom's purchase minority stake. Not that
Jim is an owner, but obviously he's that tight with
Tom that according to Amy, he has some sort of influencers, say.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Over what's very tight with Al and Mark as well.
But yeah, he and Tom Brady. You'd be shocked how
close they are and have been. I had no idea,
but they they are really really tight. In fact, they
have I think they still have. They had a traveling
exhibit together in the Fountain Blue Hotel in Vegas, which
(22:18):
is really odd and I don't know if it's still
still going, but.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Well, it's just it's just just odd. You know.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Jim is not the most subtle guy in the world,
and Tom tries to stay under the radar as much
as he can. Doesn't one doesn't like to always draw
attention to himself. But Jim is very controversial. It has
been and and them, you know, partnering on a venture
like this, you know, it's basically a traveling museum that
they have together. Was just uh and that was up
(22:52):
during the Super Bowl this past year, so or two
years ago, I don't know when. Whenever the Super Bows
and Vegas it was there, but yeah, very very very interesting.
But yeah, I could see and look. Amy is dialed in.
She is one of the sharpest women I know especially
when it comes to sports. She was Owl's right hand
(23:15):
for a number of number of years, even through the
LA and Oakland transition back and forth. She was very
involved in a lot of that. She's dialed in. But
it doesn't shock me that, you know, you got a
guy like Brady that you know, has been a part
of championships and understands the building and how the building
should be run, off the field, how it should be run,
(23:37):
all those things that are conducive to winning. He's seen
it before and he knows what works what doesn't work.
And in fact, I think that part of it, part
of him getting out of New England, was that it
was going in a different direction that they didn't have
in years previous. So I could see that where that
kind of can create some tension, especially with the existing
(23:57):
coaching staff and even probably with some scouts and some
front office folks.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, I'm just amazed. Jim Gray's everywhere. Jim Gray. If
you remember, Okay, how did Jim Gray vault onto the
scene one hundred years ago, maybe not that long ago.
One hundred years ago, he was a reporter for NBC
Sports and they were doing the football pregame show. Jim
Gray would do I think a feature on the show
(24:23):
every week. Right, he was the guy to go out
and do interviews.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
I remember him doing sidelines for the NBA on NBC,
all the Chack Kobe Laker runs. He was their key,
their number one sideline guy. So that is how I
most remember Jim Gray.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, but I think it started. I think it started
when he was doing the NFL stuff. Okay, And what
would happen is, you know, during the duration of the day,
they'd cut back to the studio with rotating halftime some
postgame shows. Everybody still does that. Well, there were times
where somebody wasn't in their chair. In other words, they
(24:57):
were in the bathroom, they were talking to somebody, and
they'd cut back because they he had so many and
they would rotate. Anytime somebody wasn't in their chair, Jim
Gray would sit down.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Honestly, Jim would sit down. Every time it's an open chair, Yeah,
he would sit down.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
So they'd come out of breaking Jim be sitting here
because it was open.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
I mean, he was.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Pretty He's very smart. He really is very smart. So
he would sit there and then obviously he became a
pretty good interviewer and he is. I mean, give Jim credit,
and Jim knows everybody. When he was inducted into the
California Sports Hall of Fame, I was inducted the same
year he had like Mark Davis and Dean Spanos at
(25:38):
his table. You know, I had a guy I saw
outside my family, Hey, you want to come in and eat,
you can sit at my table. He had like Dean
Spanos and Mark Davis, and they rolled these and I
think I told you they rolled these clips and they
were like four minutes long talking about each nominee or inductee.
Got to Jim, the thing was like thirty minutes long.
(26:00):
I'm not exaggerating. It started during his path through the
birth Canal. I mean, this was his life. Everything he
talked to, Barack Obama, it was amazing the people he's
talked to. And maybe now he does have influence, but
I mean, how much influence could he have over Tom
Brady that would affect the way they play in the field.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Rodney doesn't. That's not what the report was.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah, she's saying that he can influence Tom Brady. Tom
Brady is in there.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
So you know it was he's instrumental in helping Tom
Brady get to the ownership.
Speaker 6 (26:35):
Did you take it differently, Keviny, Yeah, well she she
said that the issues on the field are a direct
correlation to the issues off of the field, which started
her on her whole talk about Jim Gray and Tom Brady.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
So right the way, I Brady Brady being involved in
what's going on off the field, then Jim Gray being
involved in what's going on off the field.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
It's I interpreted as she said, Tom Brady is you know,
it has the influence he has, and he's passed some
of that if wants on to Jim Gray, who has
more influence than he should. That's why I interpreted it
that Jim Gray through Tom Brady has influence on the
organization that he probably shouldn't have. That's how it sounded
to me. Okay, we can ask Benny about this at
two o'clock. By the way, who's more.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Dial Gray always had influence over the Raiders, and it's
just only enhanced since Tom Brady's got there.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Who knows what it is?
Speaker 4 (27:23):
But Jim is, you know, and he's always been that
guy's not afraid to answer that asked that controversial question.
You remember the I think it was an All Star game,
Pete Rose went after Pete Rose. Yeah, when at Pete
Rose really hard and people forget it was Jim Gray
who did the Lebron interview, right, the decision, that's right,
you know, I'm taking my talents to South Beach. That
was Jim Gray. So yeah, he's always kind of been, uh,
(27:46):
in the middle of things.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Get more into that next hour when Bennye bon Signor
joins the show.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
Hello, Rogan and Robbie listener. Did you know Am five
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Talk with David Vasse, the Dodger Podcast of Record, Clipper
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Just go to AM five to seventy LA Sports on
(28:18):
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Yes, Yes, yes, yes, Hey, Rodney, Pete, Fred Rogan on
a Tuesday, A beautiful Tuesday. I might as we head
into Thanksgiving weekend. A lot of big sports going on
this weekend. Fred Rivalry week USC UCLA. You mentioned LA
are USC earlier.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah. Can this be a success?
Speaker 4 (28:45):
I think if they go and really blow out UCLA,
it could put back a good taste in everybody's mouth,
not to the point where, you know, missing the playoffs
it will alleviate that. But I think a big win
at home again to UCLA could go.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
A long way.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yeah, and I love that Ben Boltch. Just quickly, Ben
Boltch is writing in the Times the open letter to
the chancellor of the school imploring them not to move
from the rose bowlt What is this with this love affair?
The road was the same way right, Yeah, he did
the same thing. What are you doing? How could you
(29:24):
do that? Can I ask you something? Seriously?
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Why? Why is this such a big deal?
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Why?
Speaker 2 (29:31):
I really don't get it. They don't draw the team
is not good and it's a schlep from west Wood.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
Now, Ben did talk to a couple of people who
are tailgaters who've been going for years, and they say
that so far, which is true, does not have a
real good tailgate situation, and UCLA has an excellent one.
But I don't know if that is that the only
reason or the biggest reason why you wouldn't make the move.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Wait a minute, let me ask you a question. Yeah,
can people tailgate before the rams and chargers?
Speaker 6 (29:57):
Yeah, it's a very small, confined area but yeah, it's
not great.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
No, it's not.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
The Rose Bowl's got the golf course there, they got
brook Side, they got all that land right there around
the Rose Bowl and it's and I think it's more nostalgic,
and you know, space wise, it's bigger at the Rose Bowl.
But if that's the reason the tailgating is the is
the issue?
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Come on?
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah, exactly? And also, Kevin, what do they draw a
game thirty thousand?
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Maybe? If that?
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Okay, so you know what we're gonna do. We're gonna
ask the people that come here what they think. Isn't
the goal to encourage more people to come? I would
think wouldn't that be part of it? And money's involved obviously,
but it's closer. Let's just start with that.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
It's closer.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
But I think what Plaski all, you know, argued that
you know, so Far is not quite a college.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Stadium. This is insane pro pro.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
Stadium, and you know, they would be the third tenant
in the stadium and just really would take away from
UCLA football by going there because they would be an
afterthought at so Far.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Okay, so let me ask you a question. It would
take away from UCLA football and afterthought. Fair, what are
they right now in the big ten? An afterthought? Yes,
what are they? They need the third tenant? So does
that mean the Chargers and UCLA are going to play
on the same day as the third tenant?
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Right?
Speaker 3 (31:27):
I mean?
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Is that what that means?
Speaker 2 (31:28):
I'm serious, Well there'll be the third Who cares they
play in a different day?
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Right?
Speaker 2 (31:35):
You know what our teams bad? We draw thirty thousand
people a game and this one hundred thousand seat stadium
and these folks are sad.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
No one's going exactly, And there are a number of
schools that actually do. Right.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Philadelphia Temple plays at the Link, you know, where the
Eagles play. I think in Vegas they play at Allegiance
where the Raiders play the UNLV Does I mean it
just because of College Pittsburgh? The University of pitt plays
where the Steelers play, you know, and I get the
whole you know, third ten But it's really about pro
(32:12):
and college. But there are a number of colleges that
took over. When a new stadium's built for the NFL team,
those colleges want to play in that NFL stadium. I'm
shocked at the UCLA didn't jump at the chance or
jump to see, hey, how do we get the Sofi?
Speaker 2 (32:27):
But I'm just like flabbergasts by the whole thing. I
do not understand what it is this fascination. The football
team's terrible. They don't draw. You have to drive to
Pasadena and people are going to lie. You know, I'm
gonna miss it. Do you think if the football team
(32:48):
was better, let's try this, let's say they're winning. Do
you think they would draw more at SOFI because it's closer?
Do you think more students would go if the football
team was good, if they played it so far? Do
you think that would happen?
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Did they? Would they draw a bigger crown? Yeah? Yes,
I do too, Yes, I do too.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
You know the philosophy with the Rose Bull and God
loved the Rose Bull. It's an iconic, beautiful, beautiful facility.
It's it's incredible. But this is kind of like, well,
you know what, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Yeah,
you understand it's broke. You understand that, right. You know
(33:33):
why past Plaski lives in Pasadena or Alta? Dina got it? Yeah,
he's got alterior motive, right? And Ben Bulge, I mean
he should work, and we love Ben he had to
work for the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce because he loves
the Rose Bowl. And I don't know, maybe I'd feel
differently if the team won or didn't look so overmatched.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
I will say when the team did win, they had
a good run under Jim Moore before that fell apart.
They now they never got close to eighty ninety thousand, ibusly,
but they.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Were Did they lead the pack in one time one year?
Speaker 6 (34:08):
In the sentence, they absolutely did, Rodney, they were very good.
They packed that place out. You know, for their standards,
you know that they would they would get fifty to seventy, Yes,
fifty to fifty in there. So it can be done.
So for the people who arguing, I guess in favor
of the Rose bulll Fred would say, when the team
is playing well, we can, for all intents and purposes,
realistically speaking, pack out the Rose Bowl.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
How grand. They haven't done that in a while.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
But wait a minute, didn't I hear the argument and
correct me if I'm wrong. They'll never be able to
pack out so far, so FI seats less.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Than the Rose bul right, correct?
Speaker 2 (34:39):
So if they were winning, wouldn't it make sense that
it would appear there would be more people in the
crowded so fie than the rose buwl makes sense to me.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Empty, Yeah, it's empty.
Speaker 6 (34:49):
Makes all the sense in the world to me.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
You can be creative with so fi You know, the
rose bul is a straight bowl, there's no getting around. Oh,
you can mix in the club seats and kind of
shoot it a certain way.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
It doesn't look that you shoot the.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Rose bowl from above, from anywhere, those empty seats are
gonna show up.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
They're claring in your face.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
I'm gonna pull a you, Fred, and do some programming
here on the air. Do you want me to see
if Ben can come on the show tomorrow to talk
about this?
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yeah? Yeah, and then he'll start laughing like you did
last time. See if Ben can come on tomorrow, and
then I'll tell him the exact same thing, and it'll
start laughing again, cause he is. And maybe I'm missing
it because I didn't go to UCLA. Maybe I just
don't get it.
Speaker 6 (35:33):
I mean, there are a contingent of people who do
agree with Ben. I think that's where he's getting it from. Oh,
it's coming from somewhere, I do.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
I think it was early you were here, Fred, so
it was the early eighties right that they moved to
the Rose Bowl. They used to play for those that
are a certain age and just got to la USC
and UCLA used to play their games at the Coliseum,
both of them, and at some point in the early
eighties they they went to the Rose Bowl. Made a
striking deal with the Rose Bowl. And that's when you
(36:03):
know UCLA football is pretty good. You know, it was
competitive with USC Ucla and year and in year out,
I mean great players going through both schools at that
time in the late seventies, early eighties. So it was
very very very very competitive. And then when UCLA got
their own home, that was a huge deal, if you remember,
(36:23):
a huge deal that UCLA was now going to play
at the Rose Bowl. And I can remember growing up
in Arizona and you know, my dad coaching for u
of A and knowing that, oh, they getting to play
at the Rose Bowl, playing a regular season game at
the Rose Bowl. U of A gets to go to
the Rose That's very cool. Play Ucla at the Rose Bowl,
(36:44):
and it was a cool thing. And they back then,
you know, they would get sixty thousand in there, you know,
and on a regular basis and if it was a
big game, they'd get eighty thousand in there, so it
you know, but eventually obviously it fell off. But there
were times, as Kevin been in with Jim Mora, even
with Bob Toledo, when Kate mcdown was there, they would
(37:04):
get eighty thousand in that thing when they were rolling
a little bit. So I get the nostalgia and the
folks and all that kind of stuff, but it ain't
going back to that anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
All right. What is Jim Gray's influence with the Raiders?
Does he have it?
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Bennye bon Signori joined us next and then later next hour,
Kevin will get us caught up on everything that's happened. Also, Kevin,
we got to talk about Lakers and Clippers and its slit. Okay,
gotta do that too, all right,
Roggin And Rodney News
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