April 29, 2025 • 48 mins
Adam Auslund hosts with Rodney again and they talk about the competitive balance issue in sports (mostly MLB) as one of the highest payrolls in MLB (the Dodgers) faces the lowest payroll in MLB (Miami). They discuss Tommy Edman's walkoff single last night and the pitching attrition that is plaguing the Dodgers.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, let's go, let's go. It is a Tuesday. Yeah,
it is Tuesday, Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Rodney, Pete, Adam Austin back with me again for Fred today, Adam, yesterday.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Was great, man.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I always love your insight and you back do it
again with me today, Man, Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Oh, it's good to be here. I may have spoken
into existence at the end of the show yesterday like
I'm a bar ball or something. I said, let's do
it all over again tomorrow, thinking that Fred would actually
be here. Well he's not. I'm back.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Deal with it.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Rodney is going to be here as always.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I love it, man, I love it. Run it back, baby,
run it back, all right, man. A lot to get to.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
We're, you know, right in the middle and the thick
of the NBA playoffs, the NHL Playoffs, which we'll we'll
touch on a little bit because the Kings are knotted
up at two now, kind of squandered some leads late
and late in some of those games, and now it's
to two, but they are back at the crypt.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
So touch on the King and give him some love
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
But and then and then obviously the NBA playoffs, Lakers
are up against it now down three to one, coming
back home to play. We're going to have Dan Woyke's
going to join us next hour. But sometimes that came
up and our good friend Any mccullo wrote Adam about sports,
(01:20):
and in particular baseball and a competitive balance, and I
think it came into play because the Dodgers hosted Pittsburgh
this past weekend and then are currently playing the Miami Marlins,
and both of those teams have they have and they
have historically had some of the lowest payrolls in baseball
(01:44):
over several several years, and that's just the way they operate.
In fact, he writes that the discrepancy is really amazing.
The Dodgers are at four hundred and seventy six million,
and that's including the competitive Allen's tax that the Dodgers
pan out, and the Miami Marlins are at sixty nine million. Nice,
(02:08):
that's a big that's a big gap.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
That doesn't include the deferred even right, so it could
be worse.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
It could be a lot worse.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
But but he writes on both sides of it that
you know a lot of the owners, especially owners that
that don't have the large payrolls or really or just
pitching pennies out there. Have complained that it's eventually not
going to be competitive anymore because the rich are going
to get richer. The teams like the Dodgers, the Mets,
(02:40):
the Yankees and Phillies, the Braves, the Padres, they're just
going to outspend everybody, and they're going to always have
the best players, and they're always going to be the
ones that that win the World Series, that are in
the playoffs every year, and the lesser teams are just
going to continue to dwindle. I don't know if that
is true. First of all, you know, I'm siding with
(03:04):
the player because I'm a player side, and I want
the players to get as much as they can get.
And I'm at the I'm at the point now it's
not nineteen seventy five, or it's not you know, back
in the day where you know, you know, owners their
whole life was baseball or owning the team, and that's
where they got all of their income from. And and
(03:24):
they scraped together two nickels they go buy the Oakland
A's or go buy some team, and and they got
to they gotta pinch pennies in order to make a profit.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I think now, if you're owning any kind.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Of professional sports team, you have to have some real cash.
You got to have deep pockets. Otherwise, why are you
owning the team? Because it's a different age, it's a
different time, and salaries are going to continue to go up.
TV contracts are going to continue to go up, and
you should not be in the business of owning a
(03:58):
team if you're going to be one of the those
guys that wants to pinch pintings and cut corners. Agree,
So this whole competitive balance things ones that are whining,
What do you what do you think just keep it
with baseball for now? How do you feel about some
of those teams like the Pirates and Marlins that have
this low pay roll and them complaining that they don't
(04:21):
really have a chance to win, because I think differently.
I think there's enough players that they can be competitive.
We've seen it where teams have gotten there, they haven't
won it. But I look at baseball and there hasn't
been a repeat champion in baseball since the Yankees did
it in the late nineties.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah, ninety nine to two thousand. That was the last
time we saw it. So they've already been successful to
some degree to having a level of competitive balance even
without a salary cap. And that is the dirty word
in baseball that people don't want to hear. Some that
are on the opposite side. Here's how I think about it.
You know, I grew up in Sacktown, up in NorCal
(04:58):
and so it was small market with the Sacramento Kings,
col Town cow Bells all that, and we felt like
we were slighted because of it. We didn't have a
chance forgetting and bringing in some of these big time
free agents. But the truth is the NBA had a
salary cap going back to like the nineteen forties or something.
I don't know how it evolved over time and how
(05:18):
much more strict it got, but it had nothing to
do with that. It had to do with big markets
and guy's willing to go there so they could get
more endorsements, so they could be seen on the national
stage more. Now there's a level playing field there. There's
NBA TV. You can watch any game you want. It's
not the same way Shay Gildess. Alexander's gonna win the MVP,
(05:40):
and he's gonna do so in Oklahoma City and he's good.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, and people know him and if you're good, Like
you said, every game is on TV now you don't
have to be in that particular market to watch SGA play.
And if you watched him play, he is a tremendous talent,
and which is why his face is now on different
endorsements and all over the place. Because that was a
(06:04):
gripe too. It's like I play in a small market.
I'm in Oklahoma City or I'm in Green Bay. I
don't get the commercials like somebody that plays for the
Jets or the Rams or the Raiders get because I'm
in the small market. But now, as you mentioned, every
game is on TV, the NBA and all the leagues. Really,
I've done a good job of spreading and really getting
(06:24):
these TV contracts. So it is it is a first
of all national, but even more so now it's a
global game and these guys are taking advantage of it.
So you cannot cry I live in a small market anymore.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
No, but my thinking over time has evolved since I
came down to LA, since you know, I got out
of the bubble of NorCal and feeling like we're the
little brother. Now some would say, Adam, you should still
feel like that because you root for the Clippers.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Ha ha ha.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Well here's the thing, guys, I don't think you should
put a salary cap or put limitations on owners that
actually want to spend on their teams and reinvest in
their investment. It is not the haves and the have nots.
It's the halves and the spend knots. The competitive balance
(07:15):
to me is this.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yes, it is that have and the spinknots.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, here's the bleep and competitive balance, Rodney. They're all billionaires.
Every owner of a sports franchise is a billionaire. They
all have the ability to dip into the luxury tax
to get over the first or second apron or the
competitive balance tax. When it comes to baseball, should they
choose to Some don't care enough. Some look at it
(07:45):
as owning a team is just diversifying their portfolio. That's
the only thing. That's what it means to them. They're
not necessarily a fan. I mean, in going back to
the Clippers, Donald Sterling, who obviously did worse things than this,
but he only cared about making a buck, making a profit,
and he did with losing teams. He didn't care how
(08:09):
good they were. He just cared about turning a profit
whatever that meant, so cutting costs elsewhere, he didn't care
about winning. Now you go from the worst owner in
sports to the best in Steve Balmer. And what does
the NBA do. Say, Ah, he's spending one hundred and
fifty million dollars in the luxury tax every year. He
doesn't care. There's no real penalties. So they add the
(08:31):
first and second apron and now you can have first
round picks frozen, and you can't aggregate salaries and trades,
and it's very restrictive, impunitive to stop the high spenders.
But the truth is they could all be high spenders
if they want to be, because they're all billionaires. That's
what bothers me. So why are you stopping the guys
that actually want to win?
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah? Exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And if you're a player as well, I think lake
Trianon was quoted as saying that that's what a player wants.
You want to go to a team that wants to
win every single year. And why are you trying to
punish a team that wants to do that or an
ownership that wants to do that? And stand casting a
president of the Dodgers, said it best it's like we
(09:17):
want to reward our fans for showing up. Dodgers have
the biggest fan base and they win the attendance battle
every single year, and the fans come in and they
love going to Dodger Stadium. And what do the Dodgers
do they in First of all, they put the product
out on the field that the fans want to see.
(09:38):
They put a winner out on the field every single
year with a chance to win a championship. And then
they invest in the stadium, They invest in the clubhouse.
They put the whole new scene out in center field
at Dodger Stadium to make people feel more comfortable or
feel better about being at the stadium for three to
five hours. So they invest a lot of their money
(09:59):
back into the club. And if you're a fan in
Pittsburgh or Cincinnati or some of these other places, I
get it. While they're chanting, sell the team, sell the
team to some of these owners, because in today's world,
like you said, they're all billionaires. They all there is
nothing that the Dodgers are doing, or the Yankees are doing,
(10:21):
or the Mets are doing that some other team can't do.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
And they're choosing not to for a lot of different reasons.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I don't think you should punish the owners that want
to give their fans a better product. I don't think
you should the ones who actually want to reinvest. They're
looking at this as a competitive endeavor, maybe like horse racing,
and they want to be the best, and you want
(10:48):
to pull them down. You want to pull them back
and have a salary cap and maybe a salary floor
to make some owners spend more. I can see that,
But the cap being inserted in there, that's not a
solution to this. To me, the solution is better ownership.
The solution is proper vetting of prospective owners and making
sure they actually care about their product and they're not
(11:10):
just looking at it as a right off in some
ways or just another investment. That's what it can't be.
That's how you screw the fans over. Because I get
it all these leagues, and we talked about it earlier
with not having back to back champions in baseball since
ninety nine two thousand, well, the NFL just went fifteen
(11:32):
years before they had a back to back champion before
Kansas City won two in a row. The NBA hasn't
had a back to back champion. Since twenty seventeen or
twenty eighteen with KD on the Golden State Warriors. And
you know why that happened. It wasn't supposed to. Adam
Silver actually said it was a fluky spike in the
salary cap because they didn't realize the TV revenue that
(11:54):
was coming in. That raised the salary cap thirty percent
in one year when typically it goes up. And so
it opened things up for the Golden State Warriors to
somehow get Kevin Durant. But they don't like that. They
want competitive balance, and I'm fine with that too. The
reason that you add more playoff teams to every league
every year, the reason that we have to play in
(12:15):
now in the NBA is to make more fan bases
feel like they're in it. And if they're emotionally invested,
of course, the leagues think they're going to be financially invested.
So that's that's fine to me, But that should be
about the owners actually caring about their team and treating
their fans the right way. Maybe I'm asking too much.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
No, no, you're you're not asking too much, and so
I mean you mentioned a floor, which I think would
it should be a floor? It should be some sort
of floor where you can't get away with, you know,
having a forty million or fifty million dollars payroll if
you're you know, the Pittsburgh Pirates or the Miami Marlins,
(13:01):
when other teams are spending three hundred to four hundred
million dollars on their payroll. It just should not should
not be that way. There should be an entry level.
Like you mentioned, there should be more vetting when it
comes to ownership in order for these guys to pay people,
uh and pay the players what they're they're actually making.
(13:21):
But what do you think about some of these owners
that cry broke and we're just breaking even? And Andy
mccull is gonna join us, we'll ask him that question too.
But the ones that are out there can't We just
trying to turn a profit. We're just trying to stay
stay in the black, you know, not not going the red.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
What do you make of.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
These guys crying broke that are in Cincinnati or Chicago
or some of these other places because you start the
season like like they have the White Sox or even
the Rockies who have won i think for six games
something like that and can't get anybody in the stadium.
You're not gonna make any money that way, well, at
least in the stadium on attendance, you're not gonna be anybody.
(14:00):
Why not put a competitive team out there.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
You gotta spend money to make money. What's my response
to those owners like the World's Smalls violin I some
of these owners, It's like, I have a better chance
getting eye drops in my cat knucketting scratched than these
owners spending ten dollars. It is so difficult to get
them to invest. But you have to, like, what do
you think they want? A risk free investment apparently, where
(14:25):
it's just a money compounding machine and they don't have
to do anything to make sure that that same return
comes in every year. That's how some of these guys
look at it. But the truth is just what you said, Like,
wait a second, you got to spend money, make your
team better. Therefore the fans come out, spend money, you
end up making a profit on your investment. That's how
(14:46):
this should work. So why not make sure there's more.
Steve Balmer like owners who actually care in, are fans
of the team and are willing to spend whatever it
takes to win. Those are the owners they should looking
for period.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
That's the way.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Now do you do you believe because we just you know,
ran through the NBA was what twenty seventeen eighteen back
to back. Baseball hasn't had it since the nineties, and
you know football, the Chiefs were the first team in
what twenty years or fifteen years to do it that
(15:23):
because that's what they've cried. The owners have cried that
the same teams are going to win it every year,
there's not going to be competitive balance that eventually there's
only be a handful of teams that got all the
great players. I always argue that there's enough players, especially
baseball as we're talking here, enough baseball players that a
(15:46):
lot of teams can be incompetitive and be competitive. Even
your Oakland A's, you know who's don't have a home,
that Sacramento A's or the Vegas A's or whatever can
be competitive because there are enough baseball players out there. Now,
you know, there comes a time where you're gonna have
to pony up. And this is why the owners don't
(16:08):
want to be you know, want to be cheap in
that way when the guy it's three hundred for three
straight years and his contracts up, they decide that they
don't want to sign him back or they don't want
to pay him, and then they go back and restart
the whole cycle again. But there are enough There are
enough baseball player, there's enough basketball, there're enough football players
that you can be competitive in any of these leagues.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Now.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Billy Bean is a perfect example. The A's have been competitive.
They haven't won it all, but they have been competitive
while having a lesser payroll. Out there moneyball worked. What's
going to be the next advantage you can find where
you win on the margins somehow better scouting, better drafting
out there. That's how you can still get an edge.
(16:51):
Is still a level playing field there, even if you
can't hold on to Jason Giambi or Tahata after they
go through your system. If you keep bringing more guys in,
if you keep drafting well, you have sustained success. And
there are ways. The Giants I feel like when they
won in twenty ten, they didn't have this crazy payroll.
(17:11):
There have been teams that have done it over the years.
It is going to be more difficult to take down
the Dodgers, but that's because over the years you didn't
want to stop them before they became this ultimate supreme
juggernaut that went out and got Otani. This is on you.
You've been trailing behind.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Angels had an opportunity to sign Otani, Yeah, and they
decided not to.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Ardie Marino's a great example, right, does he not have
the money. I'm not trying to tell these guys what
they should do with their money. But if this is
this level of issue of oh, we're afraid of the
super teams and the teams that we can't stop, you're
a super team. The level playing field is the fact
(17:58):
that you're all billionaires. It starts there, and make better decisions,
invest the right way, personal responsibility.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Come on, come on now, all right, now that we
got that off our chest at him, it's all good.
Let's talk about the Dodgers. The Dodgers win it in
walk off fashion last night. I don't know about you, Adam,
but I'm watching that game, and to me, it was just.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Never a doubt.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Even when they got down in the tenth inning, it
was never doubt the Dodgers were going to come back
and win that game. It seems like that's how they've
won a lot of games this season. And but there's
still some Oh yeah, welcome back on the Tuesday, Rodney Pete,
Adam Auslin and for Fred Rogan. Today am five to
seventy LA Sport, the home of your world champion LA Dodgers.
(18:49):
Dodgers beat Miami last night on a Tommy Edmund walk
off in the tenth inning and it seems like they
were cruising along at him and then Vanda gives up
the Grand Slam ties the game, and the Marlins go
up and the Dodgers come back and win it.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
First.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Give me, I want to get your take on just
the feeling, because Dave Roberts said something also that kind
of is kind of way I feel. He said, even
though we're, you know, tied in the inn L West,
the second best record in baseball, feels like we're a
five hundred team just because I guess they're not. It
feels like they're not playing or hitting on all cylinders.
(19:33):
There's there's guys that are cold. These guys have been
hot and cold. The pitching staff has been injured, all
those things. Doesn't feel like the dominant team. I guess
everybody felt the Dodgers would be at this point. Just
your take on the season so far and where do
you think the Dodgers are? Are you surprised or this
(19:56):
is exactly where you saw them at this point in
the season.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
I mean, if you told me all the injuries with
the starting pitching that we're going on, I could see
them stumble out of the gates and only be nineteen
to ten at this point. But I like the fact
that they're saying this is the standard and we're not
meeting it yet. We know what the expectations are from fans.
We know what we did this offseason, spend a boatload
(20:20):
of more money. We're trying to be I think they
know they have a chance to be the greatest team ever.
If you win the World Series, come back, set the
all time record for wins on the regular season, go
back to back, I mean, in the modern era, I
think is pretty definitive they would be the greatest team.
They're scary because of how inevitable they are, even in
(20:41):
a game like that yesterday, where they could be up
five runs, give it back and still find a way
to win. And even though they didn't dominate in the
ball game, even though they haven't dominated so far this season,
they have another level or two or three to get
to and that is what the rest of the league
should be worried about.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Yeah, yeah, when you look up, because they haven't played
I guess exceptionally well. Although you know, getting off to
that I mean, I think getting off to that hot
start that they did, they started eight to zero or
whatever it was. But if you even look at those games,
they were or there were a lot of come from
(21:24):
behind wins, right there were a lot of you know,
Dodgers found the magic in the eighth or ninth inning
to come back and win the game. And it wasn't
the dominant blowout. We're winning by double digits, or we
got up eight runs on you by the fifth inning
and we just cruised to a win.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
It's not been the case. And I get it.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Like teams they come into Dodgers Stadium or when the
Dodgers come to town, there's a level of excitement. There's
a level of Okay, we're gonna play our best against
the Dodgers. We're gonna give the Dodgers all we have
because everybody believes they're the big bad Dodgers and we
can beat them. That's why I think you see a
lot of pitchers come out and have some of their
best outings against the Dodgers. In fact, they you know,
(22:05):
they got Alcantara going for Miami, uh tonight, and he's one.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Of the better pitchers in the league.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
But that's one of the things that I look at
and go, h, you know, that's I don't want to
say concern at this point in the season, but it's
something that I look at and go, they have struggled
a bit when they faced a top notch pitcher when
they face you know, the a lot of teams do
(22:35):
not even necessarily the ace on the other staff, but
somebody that's really good on the other other side, whether
it's you know, Paul Skins is on a different level,
you know than the rest of the league, and everybody's
struggling against him. But tonight is going to be a struggle.
They face schoobl from Detroit. It's a little bit of
a battle facing good pitching. Even with this lineup and
(22:58):
how potent this lineup can be, the Dodgers have struggled
a little bit this year.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
You tell me your philosophy on this when you played,
because I've always been another thinking that it matters who
you play and how you play against them. In other words,
a win isn't a win. It matters how you play
against top flight competition. And I think the Dodgers are
in that place right now where we don't want to
just see them win. We want them to dominate the
(23:25):
best in the league and show that separation and talent.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Absolutely were spoiled. We're spoiled here that you just don't
want to, Like you said, you just don't want to win.
You want to You want to dominate the giants. You
want to dominate whoever comes to town, they come to
Dodger Stadium. You want them to know that they left
Dodgers Stadium with their tail between their legs and they
(23:52):
just kind of beat down because they're playing the big
bad Dodgers. And the fact that you can come here
think you gonna okay, I'm focus on Freddie Freeman.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
No, you better not.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Khani's gonna kill you, and Mookie's gonna kill you, and
now Edmund's.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Gonna kill you. You know, uh Teaskar's gonna kill you. So
it is.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
It is one of those things where they they are
the the big bad Dodgers, and people come to town wanting
to beat the big bad Dodgers, but at the same
time The scary part is he said they haven't hit
their stride at all yet. Yeah, I mean, they're gonna
get pictures back. Gonsolin's coming back. You know, we're gonna
(24:34):
get kershow back at some point. Otani's gonna pitch at
some point, blake'snell will come back at some point, so
they're gonna get.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
I mean, it's possible right now, Rodney, that the Dodgers
have played their worst baseball of the season and they're
still tied atop the NL West at nineteen and ten.
Like that's a real possibility. That's what makes it's so
terrifyed for everybody else.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
No, it does.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
But are you are you worried that they could cruise
thinking that we're gonna get it together, We're gonna get
it together, and they don't hit their stride at all,
and and they try to hit their stride in September
October as they are. Are you are you concerned that
(25:26):
what they tried to fix in this offseason, which is
not having to rush out and find pitchers and a
trade deadline, or worry about having too many bullpen games,
which they're doing tonight. Uh have too many bullpen games.
So we're gonna stock up on pitches, and then we
look up and we're barely a month into the season
(25:46):
and we've got injuries to our pitching staff that has
decimated our whole our whole staff.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
I'll say this, and this is you know, picking out
zits on Miss Universe or whoa, whoa whoa? Is that
the saying? Is that how it goes? I'm not it's nitpicking.
It's nitpicking. But if you're looking for an area of
concern with this Dodgers team right now to me and
what could come back to haunt them later on down
(26:14):
the road, I think it's exactly what you just said,
that you could overtax the bullpen earlier in the season
because of what's happened with starting pitching. The old saying
you can never have too much starting pitching has never
been more true, even for the Dodgers with everything they've
done this offseason, with the guys that we thought were
coming back from injury, dust to May last night, Gonsolin
on Wednesday, but they had to go eight innings with
(26:38):
their bullpen on Sunday and now yesterday because I think
Dustin May was at eighty six pitches and got into trouble.
They give up the Grand Slam, some of those pitches
were or some of those runs were tacked or attacked
onto him. They had to go almost five innings last
night in a game that goes into extra innings. At
what point does it break them? And you just have
(26:59):
to say, you know what, maybe instead of going with
our bullpen too much, we might just have to roll
the dice with Bobby Ice, with Bobby Miller back out
there on the mound and hope that he can give
us some relief that he's a glorified opener and he
can give us four or five innings something like that
and only give up four or five runs and the
offense can compensate. That's what I would look at, because
(27:22):
I'd be worried about because they got really good relief pitching.
You don't want to rely on it too early in
the season to this level.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
To me, yeah, because that's one thing you don't want
to show your hand too often throughout the whole season.
You look up and you're in late June July and
you're still having multiple bullpen games in a series. You
don't necessarily want to do that because you know, again,
to your point, you don't want to overtax your bullpen. Plus,
you don't want people to constantly see you doing bullpen games, right,
(27:53):
you got to have the starters out there offensively. Is
there anything that concerns you? I mean, the one concerned
I may have is, you know, the production and we
it used to be the case, but everybody comes around,
but the production from the bottom of the lineup. But
now Pa has has been on fire, so that's kind
of alleviated a lot of that. But Max Munsey, Max Munsey,
(28:19):
Max Munsey is it's struggling. And he's been a guy
that you counted on for thirty plus home runs and
you looked away from his defense because he offensively is
what he was going to give you. Plus he was
a guy that got a lot of walks, but now
he's gotten a lot of strikeouts and he's not hitting
the ball like he has done in the past. And
(28:40):
plus he is not necessarily the most defensive third basement
in the league. So what do you do with him?
Do you You keep trotting him out there and hoping
that he kind of finds it again because you've seen
that happen in the past.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
I mean, he's just got to run into one right now.
He doesn't have a run on the season yet in
one hundred about one hundred at bats, he's at eighty
five and he's hitting one eighty eight. We're not asking
for a lot from months he hit two thirty last year.
We were still like, that's all right, that's all right.
He had a better second half of the season. He
figured it out. They don't need a ton they need
(29:16):
the threat of power from Max Munsey, I think. And
he is thirty four to thirty five now at some
point there's going to be a major dip in production.
Is this the season or we seeing the huge decline
in Max Munsey? Was it last year as well? And
you can only expect so much from him now. I mean,
that's not nothing to me because he has been integral
(29:37):
to their lineup over the years. That's not nothing, Boddy, No,
it's not.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
It's not. It'll be interesting.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
But again, they the Dodgers have the luxury to allow
him to kind of come out of this slump because
they've got so many other weapons and so many other
guys that are producing. I mean, they can throw key
Ky Hernandez in there for a series or a game
or two and you know, is going to.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Do his thing.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
He's as solid as they come and one of the
most valuable Dodgers I think on this team. He's one
of those guys that is unsung. He can do everything
you ask him to do, play every position, and by
the way, when it comes to October, there's nobody more
clutch than kik. So he's a guy that you got
to keep on the roster, but they have the luxury
to let Max kind of work through his situation.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
What do you think about Otani this far?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
You know, he not necessarily on the fire path that
he was on last year and the heater he was
on last year with the home runs and the steels.
Is there a little bit of fifty to fifty World
Series kind of hangover with him?
Speaker 1 (30:40):
He hasn't quite gotten it going either yet.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
I think that's fair, the media tour, everything that comes
with it when you win the World Series. You know,
we always talk about Super Bowl hangovers because it's very
evident in the NFL with so few games, but with
baseball there's so many. He can write the ship the
second half of the season and still beat the MVP.
I mean, he can put this thing together again. The
(31:04):
question is is he gonna come back to pitch?
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Like?
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Is that gonna happen this year? Has that changed something
with just putting more focus on that in the ramp
up and it sounded like he was doing some then
they shut it down. It's off and on again. Has
that taken any focus away from his swing? I'm look,
I'm not overly concerned. This man is smack dab in
(31:28):
his prime. He still has six bombs so far, he
had a single yesterday and their win got things started
for them. This is a team that it really comes
down to this. You tell me, should they be chasing
the all time wins record in the regular season?
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Like?
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Should that be a goal for them? Because I remember
when the Golden State Warriors got to seventy three wins,
they complained after they lost in the NBA Finals that,
you know, maybe we pushed a little bit too hard
for that. I wonder if something like that.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Yeah, that's hard.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
It's hard when you get when you get in striking distance.
When you get to the striking distance, then then that's
a point. I think you can say, yeah, let's go
for it, or or let's let's shut it down. I
don't think you do it or think about it in April, May, June,
or even you know, July, or even before the All
(32:22):
Star Break. I think if you're if you're close and
you're on that path and say, you know, early August
and you got a chance to do it, and they
run the numbers and say, look, you only got to
win x amount to do this, then then you go
out and it's in your mind. You can't help it.
(32:43):
It's going to be subconsciously in your in your head
that we got a chance from very to break history
and and make history.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
But you don't do it now.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
You don't do it because if you try to do
it now, then it throws everything off and you're you're
chasing that instead of working on your skill, working on
your game, You're like, oh my god, we got to
get this win, and then every loss becomes magnified because
oh no, that that's that's keeping us away from that.
And even with the Warriors, I think they they knew
(33:14):
they had a good team and as they were rolling through,
they had a chance to do it, and they went
for it.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
You know, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
And then but there's there's there's individual guys that you know,
we looked at they go one Barklay last year didn't
go for the record of Ed didn't go back into
the game, but they asked though he had, they asked him.
He could have gone back in. If he would have
animated about it, he could have gone back in. But
he didn't go back in. So it all depends. But
I don't think you think about it until you know
(33:43):
and it's close that you got thirty games left or whatever,
and you're in striking distance. Hey, let's go for it.
You know, sometimes you only get one opportunity to do that,
and why not.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Why not let it happen organically. Yeah, let it happen.
Let it happen organically.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
And if it's down to the wire and you're like, yeah,
we only got to win in a few more games
to break this record, let's go for it. Let's go
for it. But that doesn't mean you pitch Otani on
consecutive days, you know.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
The of this season. It's not creaking out ther record.
Let's not go crazy. But here's the one other thing.
Do you are you concerned with him pitching.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
And hitting now if you're the Dodgers, or is this
something that you do long term or is this something
that in the back of your mind, like he's going
to be our designated hitter.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
We don't necessarily need him to be our pitcher.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
He doesn't have the season he does last year if
he's pitching right, doesn't He doesn't have the fifty to
fifty year if he's pitching. But because he wasn't, we
got to see that. I think there's still just the
intrigue of I need to see it now in a
Dodgers uniform. I need to see him do both and
(34:57):
be the eighth Wonder of the World or whatever the
modern day babe Ruth. I need to see it, even
if it takes a little bit away from his swing
or vice versa. One hears the other. I need to
see it. And because they've had so many issues with
starting pitching, you don't push him to come back sooner,
even if you feel like you have a need. You
(35:18):
don't press things like that. But maybe if guys come
back and Kershaw's looking good, and we'll see with Gonsolin soon,
and then you get Blake Snell back and maybe uh
we do see Tyler Glass now back within you know,
the next couple of weeks he's on the IL. I
if it comes a luxury, whether or not you need
(35:39):
Otani to pitch sure. I like that situation for the
Dodgers much more.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
See, I love that he because he's becomes a luxury
as opposed as a necessity for the Dodgers. Oh yes,
let's to get to don't beget Dan Woyke. He's gonna
join us on the in the next hour. We're talk
some more NBA and more Lakers than being down three
to one. How that's going to affect Game five? And
(36:05):
can they pull this out? Also, our man Jacob Maronnie
is going to join us on the other side, Adam
Austin and for Fred Rogan am five to seventy la sports.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Okay, there it.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Is Today's afternoon Delight is Whenever by Megan the Stallion.
The Raps star dropped this sing along with the music
video over the weekend. And what is her first musical
release since last year's Meghan Act two, which was a
deluxe extended edition of her third studio album, Meghan Fresh
(36:40):
Offer two Weekends set at Coachella. The three time Grammy
winner says that a forthcoming third edition of her Megan
Act series is currently in the works. Again, Today's Afternoon
Delight is Whenever by Megan D. Stallion and Afternoon Delight
is brought to you by Half Kings Pick six.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Download the Draft Kings Pick six app and use Code
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Speaker 1 (37:19):
All right and no.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
From the Court to the court Room with Jacob m Ronnie.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Oh yes, and now it's time for our weekly chats
with our favorite attorney, my man Jacob and Ronnie.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Jacob, how you doing.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
I'm doing wonderful. How are you, my man.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Doing fantastic, doing fantastic. Adam is in for Fred this
week at least today. Hey, Jacob, Lakers down three to one.
I know you're a confident fella. You wouldn't be where
you are without having all kinds of confidence. You still
have the confidence in the in the purple and gold
(37:58):
to pull.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
This out, you know I do. And it's it's interesting.
I was talking to my boys over the weekend. Obviously
the weekend was not a great weekend for LA Sports,
but it was a bit tough, but you know, talking
to my boys, and I said, hey, the Timberwolves want
three in a row, why can't the Lakers win three
in a row? I mean, you got to figure out
(38:20):
some of the things that got you here. You got
to be able to make the changes. But if we're
going to ride with anybody, you want to ride with
the team, and that's got a lot of talent. We
just have to figure it out. I mean, JJ's got
to just make you know the right you know, the
right moves in the playoffs, which obviously it's been a
little bit challenging. But I feel like you take this
(38:41):
one at a time. You have this, you know, we
got the next game here at home, you win that,
and you go to Minnesota and you know they're going
to be nervous because they don't want to come back
here for a game seven. So is this a position
we want to be in? No, but you know, never
say never. That's the way I look at it, Jacob.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
I got kind of a legal question here for you.
Let's say your head coach makes you play all twenty
four minutes in the second half of a ball game,
and he makes all five starters.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Do it.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Maybe it's a class action lawsuit I'm not sure about this,
but let's say it's the first time it happens in
over thirty years. Do you have any legal recourse if
your leg falls off or something like that from playing
too many minutes in the second half.
Speaker 4 (39:24):
Well, thank god the legs didn't fall off, and we
need all the legs that we can have. I know,
I know you were saying earlier. You know, that's not
a good it's not a good position to be in,
especially for the games that are coming up for you know,
for the Lakers. But I think, I think, you know,
one of the things is that you got to take risks.
And I think JJ has been the type of person
(39:44):
that has been coaching in of any very unique manner,
and I think that he thought that playing them all
you know, second half is going to give him the
best chance in order to win the game. My question
is why are not seeing Dalton connect? My question is,
you know, why are we not allowing him to get
(40:06):
some time because a couple of those three pointers could
have you know, spread that lead to a higher number
so that we're not running out of gas, you know,
in the fourth quarter. I mean, I look at this
thing and I keep seeing, you know, Denver again right
where we've got every game, we can win every game,
and then it comes to the fourth quarter and we're
(40:26):
running out of gas. You know, obviously it's a game
where some of the calls make a difference, but you can't,
you know, you can't be blaming the reps for losing.
And I'm hoping, you know, some home cooking, some La weather,
some La sun is going to help us win the
next game.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
You know, they win this when all the pressure goes
to Minnesota to win at home in Game six, because
you're right, they don't want to. They don't want to
have to come back to the Crypt for Game seven.
So obviously critical, but I think Game six is the
one that all the pressure falls on on on Minnesota
and with Lebron.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
And Luca uh you know.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
I I think with the experience that they have, hopefully
they can they can close it out and bring it
back to the Crypt.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Take a bar.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
One question. I want to ask you one more question
before we move on, and why are we not playing
Vando more? I mean, nas Reed, yeah, killing us. I
mean that guy is killing us. And Vando is one
of the very few guys that is not that's.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
What you got him, right, That's why you got.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
Why do you not have Vando in there? Why are
you not allowing him to rough them up a little bit?
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Right?
Speaker 4 (41:40):
I mean you remember, you know, when they were playing
back at home, Vando came into the game the other
you know, Minnesota players got two techs, the crowd got
into it. You got to have some of the people
that are willing to do the dirty work. You got
enough scores, you need to have some of the people
that are willing to be in there.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
And that's why you got him to play deep. They
play d and play physical, and so I don't get
it either. I just think, you know, it's one of
those things where I think he got caught up. JJ
got caught up into the moment, and I'm not gonna
say he panicked, but he the trust factor was with
the guys that he had running in the second half,
and he was not willing to change that up. But
(42:20):
my concern is that the guys like van Do and Vincent,
you know, as they go into game five, you know,
is there self esteemed down or are they feeling like
a little slighted like this, they don't trust me to
be in the game, and that's why we didn't play
in the second half. There's going to be a little
(42:41):
bit of that seeping in, and I hope it doesn't
and I hope JJ has had conversations with him and say, listen,
that wasn't about you. That was all on me for
not substituting or getting you guys in the game. I'm
hoping he had that conversation because guys can get into
their feelings a little.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Bit, right.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
I'm also thinking, you got this veteran leadership, and you know,
the veteran leadership is going to have next man up, right,
and in this situation, uh, you know, next you know,
next man up is not necessarily God God forbid somebody
getting injured, but it's more about the next man up
knowing that, hey, we need some of you to bring
(43:19):
the energy, We need some of you to bring what
we haven't had in the last three losses. And you know,
when when you get to step up in the NBA,
that is the way you get your next big contract.
So I think this is just as much of an
opportunity for them to show why it's important to be
part of this team. And you know, if JJ gives
them the opportunity. You know, hopefully they're going to be
(43:41):
able to step up and make it easier, you know,
so we don't have to be going down to the
last second again game after game.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Yeah, because it's been a pattern they've been. They've been
horrible in the fourth quarter in all four games, and
so it's it's one of those things where they've got
to figure out something different and hopefully they do that.
Jacob Our listeners always love when you give us give
us advice. And one of the things came up is
that California is now have a mandatory minimum limit for
car insurance has gone up. Why is that and what
(44:10):
does that mean?
Speaker 4 (44:12):
So that's great news for California because you know, in
the past California has minimum insurance is that you could
drive a car as long as you buy insurance that
has a fifteen thousand dollars coverage. That is very low
in comparison to you know, to the whole country, because
(44:33):
places like Texas and you know, even Vegas they're carrying
a minimum of twenty five thousand dollars coverage. And what
that means is that if you're ever involved in an
accident and you get hit by somebody, the minimum amounts
of money that should be available to you so far
has been fifteen thousand dollars. But now, starting January first,
(44:55):
any of the policies that are renewing, the minimum policy
has moved up to thirty thousand dollars. And that's a
huge move because I can't tell you how many of
my clients are seriously seriously injured and the other party
is only driving with a fifteen thousand dollar policy. Have
(45:15):
had people who have lost limbs and the other party
only has fifteen thousand. Not to say that for a
serious injury a thirty thousand dollars minimum limit is enough,
but it's definitely definitely an improvement. And why that's important is,
you know, in a city with so many cars and
so many accidents, you need to have enough coverage even
(45:37):
for the people that may now be able to afford
to pay a lot of money for insurance. So if
you were somebody that couldn't afford, you know, to buy
great insurance, you'd be fined by paying a couple hundred
bucks a year and have fifteen thousand, But then you
would injure somebody who would have had damages into the
hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that person had no
choice but to take her fifteen thousand because what are
(45:59):
they going to do if they sue you? You don't
have much to go after anyways. So this has been
the works for many years. You know, the attorneys like
myself and a lot of other great attorneys that are
local here have worked very hard, you know, with you know,
the people who make those decisions to be able to
get this moved up, you know, to thirty thousand dollars.
(46:22):
But I just want to let our listeners know that,
you know, insurance is really important, and hopefully when you're
listening and you've never been in an accident, you haven't
had to go through it, but just for a little
bit of money, a little bit of extra money, talk
to your insurance carriers and try to get as much
coverage as you can, because unfortunately, when an injury occurs,
(46:43):
there's never enough money, and especially when there's a lot
of people driving around with minimum policies. That's been fifteen
thousand and now moving to thirty even thirty thousand dollars
is not you know, it is not enough for many
people who are injured. So I hope it's information, you know,
really sparf something in the mind of our listeners to
actually make sure they have insurance, make sure their insurance,
(47:04):
have them laps, and make sure they buy the best
insurance they can.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Absolutely, I'm sure our listeners appreciate that. Thanks for the
information and thanks for joining us, Jacob and listen. Three
to one is nothing. Come on, man, that's nothing we
care about. Yeah, come on now.
Speaker 4 (47:21):
Care about this game. That's its Make sure that we
went tonight game up. That's it. Next game up?
Speaker 1 (47:28):
I like that? Ready, all right?
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Thanks Jacob, appreciate you man, Thanks for joining us. Bye, guys,
many thanks to Jacob and Ronnie for joining us and
does it every week and always gives us great insight
and great knowledge on the legal profession and what she
should do with insurance. Dan Wookie joins us on the
other side, and also we'll talk about coaching decisions. I
(47:51):
know Adam has some thoughts on some decisions in these
NBA playoffs that some of these coaches have made, and
we'll get into that. On the other side, Adam awsin
and for fred A M five sunday La Sports
Oh, let's go, let's go. It is a Tuesday. Yeah,
it is Tuesday, Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Rodney, Pete, Adam Austin back with me again for Fred today, Adam, yesterday.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Was great, man.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I always love your insight and you back do it
again with me today, Man, Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Oh, it's good to be here. I may have spoken
into existence at the end of the show yesterday like
I'm a bar ball or something. I said, let's do
it all over again tomorrow, thinking that Fred would actually
be here. Well he's not. I'm back.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Deal with it.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Rodney is going to be here as always.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I love it, man, I love it. Run it back, baby,
run it back, all right, man. A lot to get to.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
We're, you know, right in the middle and the thick
of the NBA playoffs, the NHL Playoffs, which we'll we'll
touch on a little bit because the Kings are knotted
up at two now, kind of squandered some leads late
and late in some of those games, and now it's
to two, but they are back at the crypt.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
So touch on the King and give him some love
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
But and then and then obviously the NBA playoffs, Lakers
are up against it now down three to one, coming
back home to play. We're going to have Dan Woyke's
going to join us next hour. But sometimes that came
up and our good friend Any mccullo wrote Adam about sports,
(01:20):
and in particular baseball and a competitive balance, and I
think it came into play because the Dodgers hosted Pittsburgh
this past weekend and then are currently playing the Miami Marlins,
and both of those teams have they have and they
have historically had some of the lowest payrolls in baseball
(01:44):
over several several years, and that's just the way they operate.
In fact, he writes that the discrepancy is really amazing.
The Dodgers are at four hundred and seventy six million,
and that's including the competitive Allen's tax that the Dodgers
pan out, and the Miami Marlins are at sixty nine million. Nice,
(02:08):
that's a big that's a big gap.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
That doesn't include the deferred even right, so it could
be worse.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
It could be a lot worse.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
But but he writes on both sides of it that
you know a lot of the owners, especially owners that
that don't have the large payrolls or really or just
pitching pennies out there. Have complained that it's eventually not
going to be competitive anymore because the rich are going
to get richer. The teams like the Dodgers, the Mets,
(02:40):
the Yankees and Phillies, the Braves, the Padres, they're just
going to outspend everybody, and they're going to always have
the best players, and they're always going to be the
ones that that win the World Series, that are in
the playoffs every year, and the lesser teams are just
going to continue to dwindle. I don't know if that
is true. First of all, you know, I'm siding with
(03:04):
the player because I'm a player side, and I want
the players to get as much as they can get.
And I'm at the I'm at the point now it's
not nineteen seventy five, or it's not you know, back
in the day where you know, you know, owners their
whole life was baseball or owning the team, and that's
where they got all of their income from. And and
(03:24):
they scraped together two nickels they go buy the Oakland
A's or go buy some team, and and they got
to they gotta pinch pennies in order to make a profit.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I think now, if you're owning any kind.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Of professional sports team, you have to have some real cash.
You got to have deep pockets. Otherwise, why are you
owning the team? Because it's a different age, it's a
different time, and salaries are going to continue to go up.
TV contracts are going to continue to go up, and
you should not be in the business of owning a
(03:58):
team if you're going to be one of the those
guys that wants to pinch pintings and cut corners. Agree,
So this whole competitive balance things ones that are whining,
What do you what do you think just keep it
with baseball for now? How do you feel about some
of those teams like the Pirates and Marlins that have
this low pay roll and them complaining that they don't
(04:21):
really have a chance to win, because I think differently.
I think there's enough players that they can be competitive.
We've seen it where teams have gotten there, they haven't
won it. But I look at baseball and there hasn't
been a repeat champion in baseball since the Yankees did
it in the late nineties.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah, ninety nine to two thousand. That was the last
time we saw it. So they've already been successful to
some degree to having a level of competitive balance even
without a salary cap. And that is the dirty word
in baseball that people don't want to hear. Some that
are on the opposite side. Here's how I think about it.
You know, I grew up in Sacktown, up in NorCal
(04:58):
and so it was small market with the Sacramento Kings,
col Town cow Bells all that, and we felt like
we were slighted because of it. We didn't have a
chance forgetting and bringing in some of these big time
free agents. But the truth is the NBA had a
salary cap going back to like the nineteen forties or something.
I don't know how it evolved over time and how
(05:18):
much more strict it got, but it had nothing to
do with that. It had to do with big markets
and guy's willing to go there so they could get
more endorsements, so they could be seen on the national
stage more. Now there's a level playing field there. There's
NBA TV. You can watch any game you want. It's
not the same way Shay Gildess. Alexander's gonna win the MVP,
(05:40):
and he's gonna do so in Oklahoma City and he's good.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, and people know him and if you're good, Like
you said, every game is on TV now you don't
have to be in that particular market to watch SGA play.
And if you watched him play, he is a tremendous talent,
and which is why his face is now on different
endorsements and all over the place. Because that was a
(06:04):
gripe too. It's like I play in a small market.
I'm in Oklahoma City or I'm in Green Bay. I
don't get the commercials like somebody that plays for the
Jets or the Rams or the Raiders get because I'm
in the small market. But now, as you mentioned, every
game is on TV, the NBA and all the leagues. Really,
I've done a good job of spreading and really getting
(06:24):
these TV contracts. So it is it is a first
of all national, but even more so now it's a
global game and these guys are taking advantage of it.
So you cannot cry I live in a small market anymore.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
No, but my thinking over time has evolved since I
came down to LA, since you know, I got out
of the bubble of NorCal and feeling like we're the
little brother. Now some would say, Adam, you should still
feel like that because you root for the Clippers.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Ha ha ha.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Well here's the thing, guys, I don't think you should
put a salary cap or put limitations on owners that
actually want to spend on their teams and reinvest in
their investment. It is not the haves and the have nots.
It's the halves and the spend knots. The competitive balance
(07:15):
to me is this.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yes, it is that have and the spinknots.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, here's the bleep and competitive balance, Rodney. They're all billionaires.
Every owner of a sports franchise is a billionaire. They
all have the ability to dip into the luxury tax
to get over the first or second apron or the
competitive balance tax. When it comes to baseball, should they
choose to Some don't care enough. Some look at it
(07:45):
as owning a team is just diversifying their portfolio. That's
the only thing. That's what it means to them. They're
not necessarily a fan. I mean, in going back to
the Clippers, Donald Sterling, who obviously did worse things than this,
but he only cared about making a buck, making a profit,
and he did with losing teams. He didn't care how
(08:09):
good they were. He just cared about turning a profit
whatever that meant, so cutting costs elsewhere, he didn't care
about winning. Now you go from the worst owner in
sports to the best in Steve Balmer. And what does
the NBA do. Say, Ah, he's spending one hundred and
fifty million dollars in the luxury tax every year. He
doesn't care. There's no real penalties. So they add the
(08:31):
first and second apron and now you can have first
round picks frozen, and you can't aggregate salaries and trades,
and it's very restrictive, impunitive to stop the high spenders.
But the truth is they could all be high spenders
if they want to be, because they're all billionaires. That's
what bothers me. So why are you stopping the guys
that actually want to win?
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah? Exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And if you're a player as well, I think lake
Trianon was quoted as saying that that's what a player wants.
You want to go to a team that wants to
win every single year. And why are you trying to
punish a team that wants to do that or an
ownership that wants to do that? And stand casting a
president of the Dodgers, said it best it's like we
(09:17):
want to reward our fans for showing up. Dodgers have
the biggest fan base and they win the attendance battle
every single year, and the fans come in and they
love going to Dodger Stadium. And what do the Dodgers
do they in First of all, they put the product
out on the field that the fans want to see.
(09:38):
They put a winner out on the field every single
year with a chance to win a championship. And then
they invest in the stadium, They invest in the clubhouse.
They put the whole new scene out in center field
at Dodger Stadium to make people feel more comfortable or
feel better about being at the stadium for three to
five hours. So they invest a lot of their money
(09:59):
back into the club. And if you're a fan in
Pittsburgh or Cincinnati or some of these other places, I
get it. While they're chanting, sell the team, sell the
team to some of these owners, because in today's world,
like you said, they're all billionaires. They all there is
nothing that the Dodgers are doing, or the Yankees are doing,
(10:21):
or the Mets are doing that some other team can't do.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
And they're choosing not to for a lot of different reasons.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I don't think you should punish the owners that want
to give their fans a better product. I don't think
you should the ones who actually want to reinvest. They're
looking at this as a competitive endeavor, maybe like horse racing,
and they want to be the best, and you want
(10:48):
to pull them down. You want to pull them back
and have a salary cap and maybe a salary floor
to make some owners spend more. I can see that,
But the cap being inserted in there, that's not a
solution to this. To me, the solution is better ownership.
The solution is proper vetting of prospective owners and making
sure they actually care about their product and they're not
(11:10):
just looking at it as a right off in some
ways or just another investment. That's what it can't be.
That's how you screw the fans over. Because I get
it all these leagues, and we talked about it earlier
with not having back to back champions in baseball since
ninety nine two thousand, well, the NFL just went fifteen
(11:32):
years before they had a back to back champion before
Kansas City won two in a row. The NBA hasn't
had a back to back champion. Since twenty seventeen or
twenty eighteen with KD on the Golden State Warriors. And
you know why that happened. It wasn't supposed to. Adam
Silver actually said it was a fluky spike in the
salary cap because they didn't realize the TV revenue that
(11:54):
was coming in. That raised the salary cap thirty percent
in one year when typically it goes up. And so
it opened things up for the Golden State Warriors to
somehow get Kevin Durant. But they don't like that. They
want competitive balance, and I'm fine with that too. The
reason that you add more playoff teams to every league
every year, the reason that we have to play in
(12:15):
now in the NBA is to make more fan bases
feel like they're in it. And if they're emotionally invested,
of course, the leagues think they're going to be financially invested.
So that's that's fine to me, But that should be
about the owners actually caring about their team and treating
their fans the right way. Maybe I'm asking too much.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
No, no, you're you're not asking too much, and so
I mean you mentioned a floor, which I think would
it should be a floor? It should be some sort
of floor where you can't get away with, you know,
having a forty million or fifty million dollars payroll if
you're you know, the Pittsburgh Pirates or the Miami Marlins,
(13:01):
when other teams are spending three hundred to four hundred
million dollars on their payroll. It just should not should
not be that way. There should be an entry level.
Like you mentioned, there should be more vetting when it
comes to ownership in order for these guys to pay people,
uh and pay the players what they're they're actually making.
(13:21):
But what do you think about some of these owners
that cry broke and we're just breaking even? And Andy
mccull is gonna join us, we'll ask him that question too.
But the ones that are out there can't We just
trying to turn a profit. We're just trying to stay
stay in the black, you know, not not going the red.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
What do you make of.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
These guys crying broke that are in Cincinnati or Chicago
or some of these other places because you start the
season like like they have the White Sox or even
the Rockies who have won i think for six games
something like that and can't get anybody in the stadium.
You're not gonna make any money that way, well, at
least in the stadium on attendance, you're not gonna be anybody.
(14:00):
Why not put a competitive team out there.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
You gotta spend money to make money. What's my response
to those owners like the World's Smalls violin I some
of these owners, It's like, I have a better chance
getting eye drops in my cat knucketting scratched than these
owners spending ten dollars. It is so difficult to get
them to invest. But you have to, like, what do
you think they want? A risk free investment apparently, where
(14:25):
it's just a money compounding machine and they don't have
to do anything to make sure that that same return
comes in every year. That's how some of these guys
look at it. But the truth is just what you said, Like,
wait a second, you got to spend money, make your
team better. Therefore the fans come out, spend money, you
end up making a profit on your investment. That's how
(14:46):
this should work. So why not make sure there's more.
Steve Balmer like owners who actually care in, are fans
of the team and are willing to spend whatever it
takes to win. Those are the owners they should looking
for period.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
That's the way.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Now do you do you believe because we just you know,
ran through the NBA was what twenty seventeen eighteen back
to back. Baseball hasn't had it since the nineties, and
you know football, the Chiefs were the first team in
what twenty years or fifteen years to do it that
(15:23):
because that's what they've cried. The owners have cried that
the same teams are going to win it every year,
there's not going to be competitive balance that eventually there's
only be a handful of teams that got all the
great players. I always argue that there's enough players, especially
baseball as we're talking here, enough baseball players that a
(15:46):
lot of teams can be incompetitive and be competitive. Even
your Oakland A's, you know who's don't have a home,
that Sacramento A's or the Vegas A's or whatever can
be competitive because there are enough baseball players out there. Now,
you know, there comes a time where you're gonna have
to pony up. And this is why the owners don't
(16:08):
want to be you know, want to be cheap in
that way when the guy it's three hundred for three
straight years and his contracts up, they decide that they
don't want to sign him back or they don't want
to pay him, and then they go back and restart
the whole cycle again. But there are enough There are
enough baseball player, there's enough basketball, there're enough football players
that you can be competitive in any of these leagues.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Now.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Billy Bean is a perfect example. The A's have been competitive.
They haven't won it all, but they have been competitive
while having a lesser payroll. Out there moneyball worked. What's
going to be the next advantage you can find where
you win on the margins somehow better scouting, better drafting
out there. That's how you can still get an edge.
(16:51):
Is still a level playing field there, even if you
can't hold on to Jason Giambi or Tahata after they
go through your system. If you keep bringing more guys in,
if you keep drafting well, you have sustained success. And
there are ways. The Giants I feel like when they
won in twenty ten, they didn't have this crazy payroll.
(17:11):
There have been teams that have done it over the years.
It is going to be more difficult to take down
the Dodgers, but that's because over the years you didn't
want to stop them before they became this ultimate supreme
juggernaut that went out and got Otani. This is on you.
You've been trailing behind.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Angels had an opportunity to sign Otani, Yeah, and they
decided not to.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Ardie Marino's a great example, right, does he not have
the money. I'm not trying to tell these guys what
they should do with their money. But if this is
this level of issue of oh, we're afraid of the
super teams and the teams that we can't stop, you're
a super team. The level playing field is the fact
(17:58):
that you're all billionaires. It starts there, and make better decisions,
invest the right way, personal responsibility.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Come on, come on now, all right, now that we
got that off our chest at him, it's all good.
Let's talk about the Dodgers. The Dodgers win it in
walk off fashion last night. I don't know about you, Adam,
but I'm watching that game, and to me, it was just.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Never a doubt.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Even when they got down in the tenth inning, it
was never doubt the Dodgers were going to come back
and win that game. It seems like that's how they've
won a lot of games this season. And but there's
still some Oh yeah, welcome back on the Tuesday, Rodney Pete,
Adam Auslin and for Fred Rogan. Today am five to
seventy LA Sport, the home of your world champion LA Dodgers.
(18:49):
Dodgers beat Miami last night on a Tommy Edmund walk
off in the tenth inning and it seems like they
were cruising along at him and then Vanda gives up
the Grand Slam ties the game, and the Marlins go
up and the Dodgers come back and win it.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
First.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Give me, I want to get your take on just
the feeling, because Dave Roberts said something also that kind
of is kind of way I feel. He said, even
though we're, you know, tied in the inn L West,
the second best record in baseball, feels like we're a
five hundred team just because I guess they're not. It
feels like they're not playing or hitting on all cylinders.
(19:33):
There's there's guys that are cold. These guys have been
hot and cold. The pitching staff has been injured, all
those things. Doesn't feel like the dominant team. I guess
everybody felt the Dodgers would be at this point. Just
your take on the season so far and where do
you think the Dodgers are? Are you surprised or this
(19:56):
is exactly where you saw them at this point in
the season.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
I mean, if you told me all the injuries with
the starting pitching that we're going on, I could see
them stumble out of the gates and only be nineteen
to ten at this point. But I like the fact
that they're saying this is the standard and we're not
meeting it yet. We know what the expectations are from fans.
We know what we did this offseason, spend a boatload
(20:20):
of more money. We're trying to be I think they
know they have a chance to be the greatest team ever.
If you win the World Series, come back, set the
all time record for wins on the regular season, go
back to back, I mean, in the modern era, I
think is pretty definitive they would be the greatest team.
They're scary because of how inevitable they are, even in
(20:41):
a game like that yesterday, where they could be up
five runs, give it back and still find a way
to win. And even though they didn't dominate in the
ball game, even though they haven't dominated so far this season,
they have another level or two or three to get
to and that is what the rest of the league
should be worried about.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Yeah, yeah, when you look up, because they haven't played
I guess exceptionally well. Although you know, getting off to
that I mean, I think getting off to that hot
start that they did, they started eight to zero or
whatever it was. But if you even look at those games,
they were or there were a lot of come from
(21:24):
behind wins, right there were a lot of you know,
Dodgers found the magic in the eighth or ninth inning
to come back and win the game. And it wasn't
the dominant blowout. We're winning by double digits, or we
got up eight runs on you by the fifth inning
and we just cruised to a win.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
It's not been the case. And I get it.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Like teams they come into Dodgers Stadium or when the
Dodgers come to town, there's a level of excitement. There's
a level of Okay, we're gonna play our best against
the Dodgers. We're gonna give the Dodgers all we have
because everybody believes they're the big bad Dodgers and we
can beat them. That's why I think you see a
lot of pitchers come out and have some of their
best outings against the Dodgers. In fact, they you know,
(22:05):
they got Alcantara going for Miami, uh tonight, and he's one.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Of the better pitchers in the league.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
But that's one of the things that I look at
and go, h, you know, that's I don't want to
say concern at this point in the season, but it's
something that I look at and go, they have struggled
a bit when they faced a top notch pitcher when
they face you know, the a lot of teams do
(22:35):
not even necessarily the ace on the other staff, but
somebody that's really good on the other other side, whether
it's you know, Paul Skins is on a different level,
you know than the rest of the league, and everybody's
struggling against him. But tonight is going to be a struggle.
They face schoobl from Detroit. It's a little bit of
a battle facing good pitching. Even with this lineup and
(22:58):
how potent this lineup can be, the Dodgers have struggled
a little bit this year.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
You tell me your philosophy on this when you played,
because I've always been another thinking that it matters who
you play and how you play against them. In other words,
a win isn't a win. It matters how you play
against top flight competition. And I think the Dodgers are
in that place right now where we don't want to
just see them win. We want them to dominate the
(23:25):
best in the league and show that separation and talent.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Absolutely were spoiled. We're spoiled here that you just don't
want to, Like you said, you just don't want to win.
You want to You want to dominate the giants. You
want to dominate whoever comes to town, they come to
Dodger Stadium. You want them to know that they left
Dodgers Stadium with their tail between their legs and they
(23:52):
just kind of beat down because they're playing the big
bad Dodgers. And the fact that you can come here
think you gonna okay, I'm focus on Freddie Freeman.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
No, you better not.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Khani's gonna kill you, and Mookie's gonna kill you, and
now Edmund's.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Gonna kill you. You know, uh Teaskar's gonna kill you. So
it is.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
It is one of those things where they they are
the the big bad Dodgers, and people come to town wanting
to beat the big bad Dodgers, but at the same
time The scary part is he said they haven't hit
their stride at all yet. Yeah, I mean, they're gonna
get pictures back. Gonsolin's coming back. You know, we're gonna
(24:34):
get kershow back at some point. Otani's gonna pitch at
some point, blake'snell will come back at some point, so
they're gonna get.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
I mean, it's possible right now, Rodney, that the Dodgers
have played their worst baseball of the season and they're
still tied atop the NL West at nineteen and ten.
Like that's a real possibility. That's what makes it's so
terrifyed for everybody else.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
No, it does.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
But are you are you worried that they could cruise
thinking that we're gonna get it together, We're gonna get
it together, and they don't hit their stride at all,
and and they try to hit their stride in September
October as they are. Are you are you concerned that
(25:26):
what they tried to fix in this offseason, which is
not having to rush out and find pitchers and a
trade deadline, or worry about having too many bullpen games,
which they're doing tonight. Uh have too many bullpen games.
So we're gonna stock up on pitches, and then we
look up and we're barely a month into the season
(25:46):
and we've got injuries to our pitching staff that has
decimated our whole our whole staff.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
I'll say this, and this is you know, picking out
zits on Miss Universe or whoa, whoa whoa? Is that
the saying? Is that how it goes? I'm not it's nitpicking.
It's nitpicking. But if you're looking for an area of
concern with this Dodgers team right now to me and
what could come back to haunt them later on down
(26:14):
the road, I think it's exactly what you just said,
that you could overtax the bullpen earlier in the season
because of what's happened with starting pitching. The old saying
you can never have too much starting pitching has never
been more true, even for the Dodgers with everything they've
done this offseason, with the guys that we thought were
coming back from injury, dust to May last night, Gonsolin
on Wednesday, but they had to go eight innings with
(26:38):
their bullpen on Sunday and now yesterday because I think
Dustin May was at eighty six pitches and got into trouble.
They give up the Grand Slam, some of those pitches
were or some of those runs were tacked or attacked
onto him. They had to go almost five innings last
night in a game that goes into extra innings. At
what point does it break them? And you just have
(26:59):
to say, you know what, maybe instead of going with
our bullpen too much, we might just have to roll
the dice with Bobby Ice, with Bobby Miller back out
there on the mound and hope that he can give
us some relief that he's a glorified opener and he
can give us four or five innings something like that
and only give up four or five runs and the
offense can compensate. That's what I would look at, because
(27:22):
I'd be worried about because they got really good relief pitching.
You don't want to rely on it too early in
the season to this level.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
To me, yeah, because that's one thing you don't want
to show your hand too often throughout the whole season.
You look up and you're in late June July and
you're still having multiple bullpen games in a series. You
don't necessarily want to do that because you know, again,
to your point, you don't want to overtax your bullpen. Plus,
you don't want people to constantly see you doing bullpen games, right,
(27:53):
you got to have the starters out there offensively. Is
there anything that concerns you? I mean, the one concerned
I may have is, you know, the production and we
it used to be the case, but everybody comes around,
but the production from the bottom of the lineup. But
now Pa has has been on fire, so that's kind
of alleviated a lot of that. But Max Munsey, Max Munsey,
(28:19):
Max Munsey is it's struggling. And he's been a guy
that you counted on for thirty plus home runs and
you looked away from his defense because he offensively is
what he was going to give you. Plus he was
a guy that got a lot of walks, but now
he's gotten a lot of strikeouts and he's not hitting
the ball like he has done in the past. And
(28:40):
plus he is not necessarily the most defensive third basement
in the league. So what do you do with him?
Do you You keep trotting him out there and hoping
that he kind of finds it again because you've seen
that happen in the past.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
I mean, he's just got to run into one right now.
He doesn't have a run on the season yet in
one hundred about one hundred at bats, he's at eighty
five and he's hitting one eighty eight. We're not asking
for a lot from months he hit two thirty last year.
We were still like, that's all right, that's all right.
He had a better second half of the season. He
figured it out. They don't need a ton they need
(29:16):
the threat of power from Max Munsey, I think. And
he is thirty four to thirty five now at some
point there's going to be a major dip in production.
Is this the season or we seeing the huge decline
in Max Munsey? Was it last year as well? And
you can only expect so much from him now. I mean,
that's not nothing to me because he has been integral
(29:37):
to their lineup over the years. That's not nothing, Boddy, No,
it's not.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
It's not. It'll be interesting.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
But again, they the Dodgers have the luxury to allow
him to kind of come out of this slump because
they've got so many other weapons and so many other
guys that are producing. I mean, they can throw key
Ky Hernandez in there for a series or a game
or two and you know, is going to.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Do his thing.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
He's as solid as they come and one of the
most valuable Dodgers I think on this team. He's one
of those guys that is unsung. He can do everything
you ask him to do, play every position, and by
the way, when it comes to October, there's nobody more
clutch than kik. So he's a guy that you got
to keep on the roster, but they have the luxury
to let Max kind of work through his situation.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
What do you think about Otani this far?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
You know, he not necessarily on the fire path that
he was on last year and the heater he was
on last year with the home runs and the steels.
Is there a little bit of fifty to fifty World
Series kind of hangover with him?
Speaker 1 (30:40):
He hasn't quite gotten it going either yet.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
I think that's fair, the media tour, everything that comes
with it when you win the World Series. You know,
we always talk about Super Bowl hangovers because it's very
evident in the NFL with so few games, but with
baseball there's so many. He can write the ship the
second half of the season and still beat the MVP.
I mean, he can put this thing together again. The
(31:04):
question is is he gonna come back to pitch?
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Like?
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Is that gonna happen this year? Has that changed something
with just putting more focus on that in the ramp
up and it sounded like he was doing some then
they shut it down. It's off and on again. Has
that taken any focus away from his swing? I'm look,
I'm not overly concerned. This man is smack dab in
(31:28):
his prime. He still has six bombs so far, he
had a single yesterday and their win got things started
for them. This is a team that it really comes
down to this. You tell me, should they be chasing
the all time wins record in the regular season?
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Like?
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Should that be a goal for them? Because I remember
when the Golden State Warriors got to seventy three wins,
they complained after they lost in the NBA Finals that,
you know, maybe we pushed a little bit too hard
for that. I wonder if something like that.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Yeah, that's hard.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
It's hard when you get when you get in striking distance.
When you get to the striking distance, then then that's
a point. I think you can say, yeah, let's go
for it, or or let's let's shut it down. I
don't think you do it or think about it in April, May, June,
or even you know, July, or even before the All
(32:22):
Star Break. I think if you're if you're close and
you're on that path and say, you know, early August
and you got a chance to do it, and they
run the numbers and say, look, you only got to
win x amount to do this, then then you go
out and it's in your mind. You can't help it.
(32:43):
It's going to be subconsciously in your in your head
that we got a chance from very to break history
and and make history.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
But you don't do it now.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
You don't do it because if you try to do
it now, then it throws everything off and you're you're
chasing that instead of working on your skill, working on
your game, You're like, oh my god, we got to
get this win, and then every loss becomes magnified because
oh no, that that's that's keeping us away from that.
And even with the Warriors, I think they they knew
(33:14):
they had a good team and as they were rolling through,
they had a chance to do it, and they went
for it.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
You know, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
And then but there's there's there's individual guys that you know,
we looked at they go one Barklay last year didn't
go for the record of Ed didn't go back into
the game, but they asked though he had, they asked him.
He could have gone back in. If he would have
animated about it, he could have gone back in. But
he didn't go back in. So it all depends. But
I don't think you think about it until you know
(33:43):
and it's close that you got thirty games left or whatever,
and you're in striking distance. Hey, let's go for it.
You know, sometimes you only get one opportunity to do that,
and why not.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Why not let it happen organically. Yeah, let it happen.
Let it happen organically.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
And if it's down to the wire and you're like, yeah,
we only got to win in a few more games
to break this record, let's go for it. Let's go
for it. But that doesn't mean you pitch Otani on
consecutive days, you know.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
The of this season. It's not creaking out ther record.
Let's not go crazy. But here's the one other thing.
Do you are you concerned with him pitching.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
And hitting now if you're the Dodgers, or is this
something that you do long term or is this something
that in the back of your mind, like he's going
to be our designated hitter.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
We don't necessarily need him to be our pitcher.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
He doesn't have the season he does last year if
he's pitching right, doesn't He doesn't have the fifty to
fifty year if he's pitching. But because he wasn't, we
got to see that. I think there's still just the
intrigue of I need to see it now in a
Dodgers uniform. I need to see him do both and
(34:57):
be the eighth Wonder of the World or whatever the
modern day babe Ruth. I need to see it, even
if it takes a little bit away from his swing
or vice versa. One hears the other. I need to
see it. And because they've had so many issues with
starting pitching, you don't push him to come back sooner,
even if you feel like you have a need. You
(35:18):
don't press things like that. But maybe if guys come
back and Kershaw's looking good, and we'll see with Gonsolin soon,
and then you get Blake Snell back and maybe uh
we do see Tyler Glass now back within you know,
the next couple of weeks he's on the IL. I
if it comes a luxury, whether or not you need
(35:39):
Otani to pitch sure. I like that situation for the
Dodgers much more.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
See, I love that he because he's becomes a luxury
as opposed as a necessity for the Dodgers. Oh yes,
let's to get to don't beget Dan Woyke. He's gonna
join us on the in the next hour. We're talk
some more NBA and more Lakers than being down three
to one. How that's going to affect Game five? And
(36:05):
can they pull this out? Also, our man Jacob Maronnie
is going to join us on the other side, Adam
Austin and for Fred Rogan am five to seventy la sports.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Okay, there it.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Is Today's afternoon Delight is Whenever by Megan the Stallion.
The Raps star dropped this sing along with the music
video over the weekend. And what is her first musical
release since last year's Meghan Act two, which was a
deluxe extended edition of her third studio album, Meghan Fresh
(36:40):
Offer two Weekends set at Coachella. The three time Grammy
winner says that a forthcoming third edition of her Megan
Act series is currently in the works. Again, Today's Afternoon
Delight is Whenever by Megan D. Stallion and Afternoon Delight
is brought to you by Half Kings Pick six.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
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Speaker 1 (37:19):
All right and no.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
From the Court to the court Room with Jacob m Ronnie.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Oh yes, and now it's time for our weekly chats
with our favorite attorney, my man Jacob and Ronnie.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Jacob, how you doing.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
I'm doing wonderful. How are you, my man.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Doing fantastic, doing fantastic. Adam is in for Fred this
week at least today. Hey, Jacob, Lakers down three to one.
I know you're a confident fella. You wouldn't be where
you are without having all kinds of confidence. You still
have the confidence in the in the purple and gold
(37:58):
to pull.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
This out, you know I do. And it's it's interesting.
I was talking to my boys over the weekend. Obviously
the weekend was not a great weekend for LA Sports,
but it was a bit tough, but you know, talking
to my boys, and I said, hey, the Timberwolves want
three in a row, why can't the Lakers win three
in a row? I mean, you got to figure out
(38:20):
some of the things that got you here. You got
to be able to make the changes. But if we're
going to ride with anybody, you want to ride with
the team, and that's got a lot of talent. We
just have to figure it out. I mean, JJ's got
to just make you know the right you know, the
right moves in the playoffs, which obviously it's been a
little bit challenging. But I feel like you take this
(38:41):
one at a time. You have this, you know, we
got the next game here at home, you win that,
and you go to Minnesota and you know they're going
to be nervous because they don't want to come back
here for a game seven. So is this a position
we want to be in? No, but you know, never
say never. That's the way I look at it, Jacob.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
I got kind of a legal question here for you.
Let's say your head coach makes you play all twenty
four minutes in the second half of a ball game,
and he makes all five starters.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Do it.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Maybe it's a class action lawsuit I'm not sure about this,
but let's say it's the first time it happens in
over thirty years. Do you have any legal recourse if
your leg falls off or something like that from playing
too many minutes in the second half.
Speaker 4 (39:24):
Well, thank god the legs didn't fall off, and we
need all the legs that we can have. I know,
I know you were saying earlier. You know, that's not
a good it's not a good position to be in,
especially for the games that are coming up for you know,
for the Lakers. But I think, I think, you know,
one of the things is that you got to take risks.
And I think JJ has been the type of person
(39:44):
that has been coaching in of any very unique manner,
and I think that he thought that playing them all
you know, second half is going to give him the
best chance in order to win the game. My question
is why are not seeing Dalton connect? My question is,
you know, why are we not allowing him to get
(40:06):
some time because a couple of those three pointers could
have you know, spread that lead to a higher number
so that we're not running out of gas, you know,
in the fourth quarter. I mean, I look at this
thing and I keep seeing, you know, Denver again right
where we've got every game, we can win every game,
and then it comes to the fourth quarter and we're
(40:26):
running out of gas. You know, obviously it's a game
where some of the calls make a difference, but you can't,
you know, you can't be blaming the reps for losing.
And I'm hoping, you know, some home cooking, some La weather,
some La sun is going to help us win the
next game.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
You know, they win this when all the pressure goes
to Minnesota to win at home in Game six, because
you're right, they don't want to. They don't want to
have to come back to the Crypt for Game seven.
So obviously critical, but I think Game six is the
one that all the pressure falls on on on Minnesota
and with Lebron.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
And Luca uh you know.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
I I think with the experience that they have, hopefully
they can they can close it out and bring it
back to the Crypt.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Take a bar.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
One question. I want to ask you one more question
before we move on, and why are we not playing
Vando more? I mean, nas Reed, yeah, killing us. I
mean that guy is killing us. And Vando is one
of the very few guys that is not that's.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
What you got him, right, That's why you got.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
Why do you not have Vando in there? Why are
you not allowing him to rough them up a little bit?
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Right?
Speaker 4 (41:40):
I mean you remember, you know, when they were playing
back at home, Vando came into the game the other
you know, Minnesota players got two techs, the crowd got
into it. You got to have some of the people
that are willing to do the dirty work. You got
enough scores, you need to have some of the people
that are willing to be in there.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
And that's why you got him to play deep. They
play d and play physical, and so I don't get
it either. I just think, you know, it's one of
those things where I think he got caught up. JJ
got caught up into the moment, and I'm not gonna
say he panicked, but he the trust factor was with
the guys that he had running in the second half,
and he was not willing to change that up. But
(42:20):
my concern is that the guys like van Do and Vincent,
you know, as they go into game five, you know,
is there self esteemed down or are they feeling like
a little slighted like this, they don't trust me to
be in the game, and that's why we didn't play
in the second half. There's going to be a little
(42:41):
bit of that seeping in, and I hope it doesn't
and I hope JJ has had conversations with him and say, listen,
that wasn't about you. That was all on me for
not substituting or getting you guys in the game. I'm
hoping he had that conversation because guys can get into
their feelings a little.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Bit, right.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
I'm also thinking, you got this veteran leadership, and you know,
the veteran leadership is going to have next man up, right,
and in this situation, uh, you know, next you know,
next man up is not necessarily God God forbid somebody
getting injured, but it's more about the next man up
knowing that, hey, we need some of you to bring
(43:19):
the energy, We need some of you to bring what
we haven't had in the last three losses. And you know,
when when you get to step up in the NBA,
that is the way you get your next big contract.
So I think this is just as much of an
opportunity for them to show why it's important to be
part of this team. And you know, if JJ gives
them the opportunity. You know, hopefully they're going to be
(43:41):
able to step up and make it easier, you know,
so we don't have to be going down to the
last second again game after game.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Yeah, because it's been a pattern they've been. They've been
horrible in the fourth quarter in all four games, and
so it's it's one of those things where they've got
to figure out something different and hopefully they do that.
Jacob Our listeners always love when you give us give
us advice. And one of the things came up is
that California is now have a mandatory minimum limit for
car insurance has gone up. Why is that and what
(44:10):
does that mean?
Speaker 4 (44:12):
So that's great news for California because you know, in
the past California has minimum insurance is that you could
drive a car as long as you buy insurance that
has a fifteen thousand dollars coverage. That is very low
in comparison to you know, to the whole country, because
(44:33):
places like Texas and you know, even Vegas they're carrying
a minimum of twenty five thousand dollars coverage. And what
that means is that if you're ever involved in an
accident and you get hit by somebody, the minimum amounts
of money that should be available to you so far
has been fifteen thousand dollars. But now, starting January first,
(44:55):
any of the policies that are renewing, the minimum policy
has moved up to thirty thousand dollars. And that's a
huge move because I can't tell you how many of
my clients are seriously seriously injured and the other party
is only driving with a fifteen thousand dollar policy. Have
(45:15):
had people who have lost limbs and the other party
only has fifteen thousand. Not to say that for a
serious injury a thirty thousand dollars minimum limit is enough,
but it's definitely definitely an improvement. And why that's important is,
you know, in a city with so many cars and
so many accidents, you need to have enough coverage even
(45:37):
for the people that may now be able to afford
to pay a lot of money for insurance. So if
you were somebody that couldn't afford, you know, to buy
great insurance, you'd be fined by paying a couple hundred
bucks a year and have fifteen thousand, But then you
would injure somebody who would have had damages into the
hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that person had no
choice but to take her fifteen thousand because what are
(45:59):
they going to do if they sue you? You don't
have much to go after anyways. So this has been
the works for many years. You know, the attorneys like
myself and a lot of other great attorneys that are
local here have worked very hard, you know, with you know,
the people who make those decisions to be able to
get this moved up, you know, to thirty thousand dollars.
(46:22):
But I just want to let our listeners know that,
you know, insurance is really important, and hopefully when you're
listening and you've never been in an accident, you haven't
had to go through it, but just for a little
bit of money, a little bit of extra money, talk
to your insurance carriers and try to get as much
coverage as you can, because unfortunately, when an injury occurs,
(46:43):
there's never enough money, and especially when there's a lot
of people driving around with minimum policies. That's been fifteen
thousand and now moving to thirty even thirty thousand dollars
is not you know, it is not enough for many
people who are injured. So I hope it's information, you know,
really sparf something in the mind of our listeners to
actually make sure they have insurance, make sure their insurance,
(47:04):
have them laps, and make sure they buy the best
insurance they can.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Absolutely, I'm sure our listeners appreciate that. Thanks for the
information and thanks for joining us, Jacob and listen. Three
to one is nothing. Come on, man, that's nothing we
care about. Yeah, come on now.
Speaker 4 (47:21):
Care about this game. That's its Make sure that we
went tonight game up. That's it. Next game up?
Speaker 1 (47:28):
I like that? Ready, all right?
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Thanks Jacob, appreciate you man, Thanks for joining us. Bye, guys,
many thanks to Jacob and Ronnie for joining us and
does it every week and always gives us great insight
and great knowledge on the legal profession and what she
should do with insurance. Dan Wookie joins us on the
other side, and also we'll talk about coaching decisions. I
(47:51):
know Adam has some thoughts on some decisions in these
NBA playoffs that some of these coaches have made, and
we'll get into that. On the other side, Adam awsin
and for fred A M five sunday La Sports
Roggin And Rodney News
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