May 20, 2025 • 41 mins
Bill Plunkett from the So Cal Newsgroup hops on to talk about the Dodgers' recent skid, when we can expect to see Ohtani on the mound and more. A man is going to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 'Jaws' movie by swimming with sharks.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ellie Continue on Fred Rugan, Rodney Pete on se La Sports. Okay,
let's bring a friend. Don had a I believe a
best selling book.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I know TWI was recently at the La Times book.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Event signing hundreds of copies. It has Bill Plunkett of
the OC Register. Was that right now?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
It's a selling book. I don't know if it's best selling,
but it's selling.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Hey, Bill, we're not going to sell you short man's
best selling come home.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Hey Hey. That Festival Books thing at USC was fantastic.
It was a really rainy Saturday and the place was
still packed. People were out there with their umbrellas, going
from booth to booth and tent to tent.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, they do a great job over there, they really do.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
My wife, my wife and daughter wrote children's book together
and they had it over there, and and I remember
the crowd and just set up at the boost like
you mentioned, really really a cool event.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah. The people come up and know you, Bill.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, they come up and they say, hey, PLASKI, that
thing you wrote every book event I've done. The first
thing I do is apologize for not being Bill Plasky.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I'll tell you what I think you should.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I think you'd wear there's a badge of honor, to
be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Bill.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay, so they've lost four in a row the.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Angels, Yeah, I read that somewhere.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, just awful.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
And last night they got plunked early and couldn't come back.
These Dodgers aren't in trouble, are they?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
That that's been happening a lot that fallen behind early,
The starting pitching has once again dissolved on them. And
the five days, five games in a row, they've been
down before they had their first at bat. You know,
they're giving up runs right out of the gate and
playing ketchup every night. And that's that's not an easy
(02:09):
way to live.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
No, no, it's not.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
And if we remember even that that big start that
they had, I think we started eight and oh there
were a lot of comeback wins in that that first
start too, that they fell behind and had to come
back and win it in the later innings. So you
still have no concerns even with the injuries to the
pitching staff. Uh, I know, it's May twentieth, when do
(02:34):
you start to get concerned about this team? And look,
they're still in first place even after losing four straight games,
and they still have all the talent, but the injuries built.
The injuries are the things that are very very concerning.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, you got if you're following, you know the big picture.
You got to tell me who's back and healthy on
August first. That's I mean, that's the key. Are you
going to have your compliment that pitching staff going to
be at least near full strength for the last two
months of the season. That that, to me is the key.
(03:09):
You can absorb the hits. Now you can tell yourself, oh,
Snell is going to be back, glasnow is going to
be back, Otani's going to pitch at some point, et cetera,
et cetera. If all those things actually do happen on
August first, you've got them all back, then you're in
great shape. If all those things don't happen between now
(03:29):
in August, then you got some worries. Then the Dodgers'
front office has to make a very difficult decision. How
long do you wait for those guys to come back,
or do you have to go out on the market
again at the trade deadline and for the third year
in a row shop for starting pitching, which is probably
(03:51):
the most expensive thing to acquire at the deadline.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, that's why Andrew Friedman did what he did in
the off season.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
It out of the ash shopping and pay you know,
double the price.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, yeah, exactly that. Uh it didn't work out so
well so far. I mean the guys that they I
put this in yesterday's story. They've signed seven free agent
pictures in the last two off seasons. Only two of
them are on the active roster. Yea, I'mamoto and Tanner Scott,
you know, and you've invested over seven hundred million dollars
(04:25):
in those guys. That's not that's not good investments. That's
not wise investments. If these guys are are that undependable?
Uh So again, you gotta you gotta make a difficult decision.
Do you start chasing after more or do you do
you cross your fears and hope these guys get healthy
(04:46):
for the you know, the final two months.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Fred reminded us that they did the Dodgers did an
internal investigation study whatever you want to call it, on
some of these injuries. Do you think there's some then
something going on with the Dodgers because of the last
three four years. I can go back yeah, even maybe
further than that that that that it feels like the
Dodgers have more injuries to their pitching staff than any
(05:12):
other team in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
They do, and the only team that rivals them, I
think are the Rays, and there's a lot of common
think between those two teams. They both operate very similarly,
although the Dodgers have a lot more resources. We asked
about this in spring training at the UH. After the season,
(05:38):
we talked with Andrew Friedman. He said they were going
to do a deep dive into these pitching injuries. So
in spring training I asked him, you know what, when
you dove, what did you find? And he was very nonspecific.
He wouldn't tell us any of the you know anything
that they found. He wasn't going to give away anything.
He did keep hitting very hard on the idea that
(06:02):
this is an industry wide thing, that a lot of
the factors that lead to pitching injuries happened before these
players are even in the Dodgers organization. The way that
they're trained in high school, college, travel ball, etc. Constant.
(06:23):
The thing that's rewarded in baseball now for pitchers is
not going in a game and getting out. It's your
velocity and your spin rate, and the pitching profile of
your vertical break and horizontal brain. All that kind of
analytics stuff is what guys get rewarded for, so naturally
they're going to go out and try and do those things.
(06:46):
So I think a lot of the injury problem is
chasing spin rate and velocity with max effort on every
pitch and guys are just going to break down. Now,
why does it happen more to the Dodgers. I think
there's a couple factors involved. I you know, this is
just observational, but I think the guys that they choose,
(07:11):
they are more willing to take a chance on a
guy with injury history than other teams. And they do
that because they have the resources to absorb guys going
on the in theory. So you see, the perfect example
is Tyler Glass. Now, even the guy had had one
season of over one hundred innings and they gave him
(07:31):
a five year contract extension, willing to take the chance
that he might be entering a healthy phase of his career.
And the other thing is the il moves themselves. I
think because the Dodgers do have a lot of depth,
they are more willing to put a guy on the
IL quicker, whereas another team might have to ask him
(07:54):
to push through it because we need you. That kind
of thing. The Dodgers will say, Okay, just go on
the IL for two weeks. We'll we'll manage without you.
We want you to get healthy for the long run
and the big picture in October.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
All right, Bill, you've covered the Dodgers, I would say,
for a few years and several. Okay, well you we'll
use the term several. That's fine. I was surprised by this.
We've talked about it. I don't remember a time during
the season where they made decisions on two veteran players
(08:29):
and dfat them. It didn't seem to me like it
was the Dodger way. Were you surprised by this?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Only by the timing? It maybe happened a little sooner
than I expected. They cut ties with Jason Hayward a
year ago, that one with another one that kind of
rocked the clubhouse a little bit. But in both cases,
coming into the season, if you had looked at the
Dodgers roster and said where can they improve on the margins,
(09:02):
well you would appointed right at Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor.
So the fact that they didn't make it through the
season with the Dodgers is not surprising or shouldn't be.
The timing of it is a little sudden, And I
think Andrew Friedman kind of hinted at it when he
said the other day about a feeling of urgency because
(09:23):
of the quality and the competition in the NLS. You know,
they didn't They're not running away with the division this year,
by you know, if you if you go by what
we've seen so far. So things move up a little bit,
the calendar moves up a little bit on them.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, yeah, are you are you?
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Are you concerned at all? I know we talked about
about the about the injuries, but is there any concern
about Otani? And because of the injuries, you know, I
know scheduled to pitch after the All Star break at
some point that they are in a position where they
(10:08):
need him to pitch as opposed to having him as
a luxury pitching.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah, it's kind of It's kind of changed, hasn't it.
I think he I think they thought of him as
a luxury when they came into the season, and I
think when they decided to slow down his recovery program.
I think they did that because they thought of him
as a luxury. I don't see him as a luxury anymore.
(10:34):
You know, the guy is I think it's twenty months
out from his surgery. Most guys twenty months out would
be pitching in games.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
I think they're sticking to it. I think the overriding
factor is they don't want to risk anything that would
take him out of the lineup as a hit right
and certainly understand that ops over one thousand, leads the
majors and home runs, et cetera. So that's more valuable
(11:08):
to him right now. But the way that starting pitching
has crumbled on him, there might be some regrets in
the back of their minds that, you know, maybe we
should have stuck with that original plan and had him
ready to go in May or June.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, but I but I understand they're thinking, you know, egos.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
They're in trouble.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yes, he is. I have said this for a while now.
I think the Dodgers would be fine if he never
pitched during his ten year contract. It's it's like, you know,
a luxurier or icing on the cake. I think they
would be happy paying seven hundred million dollars, you know,
deferred over ten years for an aeron judge level hitter.
(11:51):
I think they're fine with that. And the pitching. You know,
Otani wants to pitch, so that that's the major driving
force behind that.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
No, that's whole deal.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
They told him he could pitch, and he wants to pitch,
so they're not gonna rush it. But here's the thing.
I think you see him too. But you know, you
use that August deadline for who's healthy who's not. Maybe
that's when you'll start to see him.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
I think it'll be very close to that. I don't
think it will be before the All Star break, so
you're already in mid July right there.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Yeah, that's gonna be interesting because I'm with you, Bill,
I think he is what we've seen of him. You
certainly don't want him out of the lineup, and if
it means he's got to go on il for a bit,
that's gonna really really hurt the team, especially him being
the callous at the top of the lineup.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
And I think you're right.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
I think that I think most people, although it's a phenomenon,
he's a unicorn, and people would love to see him
pitch and hit and all that kind of stuff. But
I think Dodger fan at the end of the day
would be just as happy if this ten year contract
he didn't really pitch at all.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, I think it is extra. It is not required.
And in the minute he starts pitching in games or
facing hitters, the chances of him incurring an injury that
takes him out of the lineup increase significantly. You know,
even as simple as a live batting practice session thrown
(13:20):
to hitters. Maybe he slips from the mound, sprains an ankle,
maybe there's a comeback, or somebody hits one back off
his shin or something, and he's out of the lineup.
The minute he starts throwing to hitters, the chances that
you lose him from your lineup increase.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
All right, well, Bell will appreciate you coming on. Thank
you very much for spending a few minutes with us,
And congratulations again on the book.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Oh thank you. Now go out and go to your
nearest Barnes and Noble and buy five or six copies
for your friends. What a wonderful Father's Day gift it
would make absolutely How's that for a sales pitch am
I doing?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Okay? Love it? Am out of nowhere? That made it
even more impressive.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
I'm not much of a salesman. That's the best I got.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
It was organic, That's right, Bill, Bill, don't call me
Platsky punkin not about that.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
They'll take it easy.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yeah, you got it, guys, all.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Right, Rodney.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Do you think I think people truly understand what it
was like to get to d f A Chris Taylor
and Austin Barnes. Do you think people are sad about that?
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yeah? Yeah, I do. I do. You know certain guys
are are are you know? You remember them?
Speaker 4 (14:44):
And I think that And I hate to say this
about certain guys that that that play in major leagues
or or professionally, because they've obviously.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Worked very very hard to get there.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
H And it don't mean this in any kind of
condescending way, but if from the outside looking in, they
look like you feel like they're overt cheers, right that
they kind of they worked hard and they finally got
their shot and they were able to stay here for
a period of time, and they were the kind of
guys that you rooted for because they weren't the big
giant stars, right, they weren't. They weren't Otani or Freddie
(15:22):
Freeman or Mookie Betts. They were guys that you know,
and Chris Taylor that you know, moved around a bit
and then got a shot with the Dodgers and made
the most of it during his time here.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
So you root it for those guys.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
So yeah, absolutely, I think that a lot of the
fans remember those big moments that they both had here
in the Dodger uniform.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
And it's sad to see him go. Sad to see
him go.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, I think people feel that way as well. I
think it's hard because they did have those incredible moments
which supplied the memories.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
But the Dodgers do have to move on. It's like
not to cut job.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
But it's I mean, you remember when they didn't sign
Justin Turner back that that was a hard one to take, right,
And he's a he was such a valuable Dodger on
and off the field, but he had so much love
for him. And these guys are you know, kind of
you know, maybe not as large as a personality as Justin,
(16:20):
but but in terms of likability, both those guys were
very very likable.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Difference is justin off season these guys during the season.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Right, right, right, which is a big difference for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, and you kind of think about it as the
season was beginning and everybody on this show was talking
about Chris Taylor and you know, he shouldn't come back,
and we said, no, he's got to play so they
can see what he can do. Really, maybe it was
even preordained if if it was going to be this way,
maybe they should have let him know before the season
(16:53):
if it was going to be this way. Now, when
he played, he didn't tear the cover off the ball,
And the other side of it is didn't seem ready.
They had to start him at Okay, see, maybe that's
what it was.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
If he Kim was ready, then that might have been
it might have been a different story. Right.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
But he's one of the you know, Betsy, Chris Taylor,
and you know Austin Barnes. Obviously he's a he's not
your everyday catcher, but as a backup catcher, he was
very very good to be your number two catcher, which
is why he lasted. He was valuable to the team.
But as we talked about early in the show, some
of the physical skills had kind of diminished a little
bit with Austin, especially his arm strength. But with Chris,
(17:35):
you know, you hate to you hate to see one
of those guys go that can do so many things.
It's like key k right. You know, you think about
the moments Key k Hernandez has had for this team,
and they were to let him go, You'd be like,
you know, how does that happen? Because I remember the
big moments that Kek has had in the playoffs in
(17:55):
the postseason, and you just feel like they're always going
to be those moments that he's going to have again,
and you don't want to let those Those guys are valuable,
maybe not to the Mookie Betts valuable, but they're valuable
that you can put them in in any spot in
a game and there's a chance that they can have
a big moment.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
One thing I'll say too about Chris Taylor. If you
guys remember last year, I don't know if it was
August or July, but he started out slow, then he
got hot and was playing extremely well. Then he suffered
an injury. I don't know if it was a light
or something like that, and he went on the injury
lists for a few weeks, kind of lost his spot
in the shuffle and never regained it. So I think
there might have been optimism going into the spring that
Chris kind of figured something out in the middle of
(18:34):
last season and that he can be productive again this year,
and unfortunately it just didn't work. So I don't think
the riding on the wall was there for Chris. I
think they were optimistic that Chris actually found something last
year it could be productive again. Unfortunately it just didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
That's fair because there was a point last year where everybody, what,
hold on, I mean he's hitting now, Yeah, everybody hold
on because he's suddenly coming around. I guess he just
couldn't recapture that this year, and there's really no place
for him to play. That's another issue.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Yeah, if you don't play consistently, it's it's hard to
get on in a rhythm and get going. That's why
it's it's always impressive when you see a guy in
a game, a big game, especially pinch hit and come
up with a big hit or a home run or
something like that, or a guy that plays, you know,
every seventh.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Game and they have a they have a really good game.
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
That's why it's so impressive to me about Kyk is
that he doesn't play every day, doesn't play every game,
but he's seventh, eighth, eighth, any ninth Inny. They put
him in oftentime, he comes up with a big hit,
you know, And same thing with the games he plays.
You know, he plug him at at third base, all
of a sudden, he's he's in a home run.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
It's first hit bat. You know.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
It's things like that that that Keyk brings to the table.
And uh, you know, but key K has kind of
maintained that, whereas Chris is dropped off a little bit.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (19:56):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
When we come back, I'm going to read you something
and then I want you to tell me if the
person I'm talking about is insane. Oh ooh, I'm gonna
give you a scenario. You're talking about yourself, aside from me, okay,
(20:19):
aside from me. I will give you a scenario, and
you tell me if the person is insane.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Oh yes, down a home stretch right to Pete fred
Rogan on a beautiful tuesday.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
It feels like summer already.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Okay, so here's the question. Let me say, are you insane.
Is that what you're saying? Are you insane? I'm you know,
I have issues. No one will deny that. I don't
know if I were to be described as clinically insane,
but there would be the worst.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I would suggest I have issues. Yeah. The first step
is to admit, rightight, And you're doing that so good? Right?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
You know it's not like I haven't been to rehab.
I understand the twelve steps. I know what you have
to do.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
First, you have to admit you have a problem. Okay,
in this scenario, the problem is not mine. Let me
give you the story. Do you know what this year is?
Of course you don't do You have no idea what
I'm gonna say. Anyway, It's the fiftieth anniversary of the
movie Jaws.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Oh oh, yeah, nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, okay, okay, Jaws.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Do you remember where you were you remember that time
when Jaws came out?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I saw it. I don't remember where I saw it,
But do you remember that buzz around it? Yeah? I
was in high school. I was in Phoenix. The buzz,
the buzz around that movie coming out.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Oh, and if you've not seen it because you weren't
around then it is a classic. You should see it.
It terrified the country. I mean everybody was talking about Jaws,
and just to let you know what it is, it
became a movie where the sharks became the villains and
started attacking people. But I mean they weren't walking around
(22:17):
or anything. It's like, don't go in the water kind
of attack.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah. It got to the point where you didn't even
want to go into a pool. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
They really did a good job with that movie. All right,
so it's a fifty year anniversary. So Lewis Pugh, Louis
Pugh is fifty five years old, so he was five
years old when Jaws came out. He's got an idea
to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Jaws. He will be
(22:50):
swimming sixty two miles around the island of Martha's Vineyard
in Massachusetts. The water temperature is forty seven degrees, so
right off the bat, it's gonna be chilly, right, and
you're gonna swim sixty two miles in the water. So
you have to be in very good shape to be
able to do that. Can we agree to that?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Oh yeah, all right.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
He's going to wear his swimming uniform it's not a
wet suit. He'll be wearing trunks, a cap, and goggles
swimming sixty miles in forty seven degree water. So he's thinking, Wow,
this guy's a little bit off. But the thing, the
thing that makes this swim even more fascinating because it
(23:35):
is the fiftieth anniversary of the movie Jaws. The water
he'll be swimming in will be shark infested. He's going
to swim sixty two miles in shark infested waters. How
(23:56):
do you think that's gonna work out?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
What do you think think? Mmmm?
Speaker 1 (24:01):
He has gone swimming near glaciers and volcanoes in the past. Uh,
he has been around hippos, crocodiles, and polar bears.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
But now he is going to show me ask you this,
which is he a white guy? Well, if Eric Differson
was here, of course he is. Of course he is.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
See of Yeah, as we're talking here, it was certainly
and they had to guests who would do that amongst
the four of us on this radio station, it certainly
would not be Kevin and myself.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
That's fair.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Yeah, But I think, okay, you want to the homage
to Jaws, Yeah, and you want to swim around Martha's vineyard. Yes, okay,
because he had The movie was set obviously in New England.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
I think with Rhode Island or something like that, Connecticut
somewhere when the town Amity Amity, Yeah, Amity Amity exactly.
I just think it's this. I'd be shocked if something
didn't go wrong, but it that way. I'd be shocked
if something didn't go wrong, right, And now they know
(25:16):
this is shark infested waters because I'm sure they know
those waters very well, that this is where sharks hang
out this time of year.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
And they're there. He said.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
His goal is to raise awareness of the need to
protect sharks and to change public perception of the mighty fish.
It just reminds me, and we've talked about it, the
guy that thought he could talk to bears. Remember that guy.
There was a guy that actually thought he could talk
to bears. And I believe he'd have his wife record
(25:54):
him trying to communicate with wild bears. These are not
trained bears, his bears. They would go out and find
bears and he would walk up to them as if
he was approaching another person, and he would communicate in.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Bear language whatever that.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Language is, yeah, which is bear language. I don't know,
you got to know. I mean he'd grunt or something.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
I don't know what he would do, but he really
believed that he could communicate.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
And speak to bears. What was that again, the big
I mean, how do bears talk?
Speaker 6 (26:33):
Needs help say that right now?
Speaker 1 (26:37):
I don't know how they talk, but I mean that's
what he thought.
Speaker 5 (26:40):
I just thought a song like balloo from a jungle book.
Maybe that's what he assumed. He'd go out there singing songs.
What happened.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
He had done it many times and all were chronicled.
So he went out there and again he was going
to communicate, maybe with a new bear, maybe with an
old friend.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
And he kind of moved slowly toward the bear, and he.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Stood and he was maybe ten feet from the bear
and started talking his bear language, and the bear came
up with one swipe of its giant claw paw hand
and just tore his head off. Now this was traumatic
to his wife, who was filming it, So what would
(27:25):
she do? She obviously would be traumatized and start screaming,
which was not the thing to do. So then the
bear killed her. And that is because this guy thought
he could talk to bears. This guy thinks I will
swim for sixty two miles in shark infested waters to
(27:45):
show that the sharks are our friends. What could go wrong?
What possibly could go wrong for this guy?
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Nothing? Yeah, nothing to see here, just all safe. Wow?
But why and and and who he he must not have?
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Well he just talked about the bear guy who had
a wife that was filming it, So that goes out
the water my theory of who he must not be married,
or he must not have somebody close to his life,
because what would Rachelle ever let you do anything remotely
close to that she would encourage it. Ah, go ahead,
(28:30):
go ahead, freddie, Yes, that'd be great for you.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Here's the problem. I can't swim. Oh, you'll be fine.
Just get in there with the sharks.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Don't even talk about the doggy paddle. For a doggy paddle,
it's fine. This cannot possibly go right.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
There's there.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
There's nothing could go right about this, and we're gonna
read about him in the next day.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
So, as I pointed out, he has done his swimming,
he's uh, swim your glaciers and volcanoes. Well, obviously the
volcan know it didn't erupt in the glacier didn't start collapsing.
He swam around hippos. I don't know if that was wise.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
No, because hippos, even though they seem friendly and they're big, cuddly, lovable, big,
gigantic animals, hippos are mean. Yeah, hipples are ferocious. And
hippos can run. That's the thing you don't know. Yeah,
hippos can run. Don't try to outrun a hippo.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
And the thing is you think, oh, they're so big
and slow, you'll just kind of deak them, you know
you can. Oh, I'll move to the left and they'll
go right by you because they're so slow.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Right, Yeah, well you'll find out how slow they are.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
So he's done that. He's also been with crocodiles. Okay,
that was a bit of insanity. That was probably not
a good call. And he's done it with polar bears
again not a good call either, Probably not a good call.
But this go around, it's it's for sharks. Is he
getting anything for this? Is he getting is it not
(30:03):
a reward? But getting any kind of benefit from doing this?
Like there's a challenge and there's a we'll give you
a million dollars if you do this, No, anything like that,
remotely like that.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
He's just doing it for the publicity.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Yeah, he said this the movie Jaws. It was a
film about sharks attacking humans. And for fifty years we
have been attacking sharks. It's completely unsustainable, it's madness. We
need to respect sharks. Okay, well we respect them. I
don't think you have to go in there and swim
with them.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
No you don't.
Speaker 6 (30:38):
Is he denying that sharks attack humans?
Speaker 5 (30:40):
Well, he just had a number of surfers over the
last couple of years down in Australia especially that would
argue against that.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
No, you're one hundred percent right. Look, bottom line, bottom line,
and all of this pretty simple. As people, we live
on Earth. We live on Earth. This is where we live.
Walk around on Earth now, sometimes we go swimming, sometimes
we fly in a plane.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
But our home base is Earth. The shark's home base
is the ocean. That's where the shark lives. Imagine if
you were walking down the street and all of a
sudden you turned and you saw a shark chasing you.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
What would you do. Well, you would probably try to
kill the shark. You'd be terrified. Why, because the shark
doesn't live here with you. The shark does not live
on land. When we go into the water, that's where
the shark lives. It's no different than a shark being
at your front door ringing the bell. You open the
(31:44):
door and there's a shark, and you go, oh my god,
why is the shark here? It doesn't belong here. It's
here to kill me. So now imagine the shark in
the water. You're swimming around. What does the shark thing,
What are.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
You doing here?
Speaker 4 (32:00):
You don't live here. Maybe you're here to harm me. Yes,
that's exactly what the shark is thinking. You're here to
harm me because you're not supposed to be here, right,
So what does the shark do protects himself? Correct, And
the shark attacks you and tries to eat you because
you shouldn't be there, because that's not where you live.
(32:22):
If you just stayed where you lived, the sharks wouldn't
eat you. Now, surfing on the in the desert would
be difficult because there's no water. I understand there are
some obstacles here, but the bottom line is this, what
do you want the shark to do? It's like a
home invasion. It's a home invasion of the shark, and
the shark is exactly what it is. It's a home invasion.
(32:46):
You've come into my home and the only thing I
can think of is you come into my home to
cause me harm, Right, So I'm going to protect myself
my family by any means necessary.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Period. Look at it like this.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
You walk up to a bear. The bear knows you're
not supposed to be there. So what does the bear think?
You're there to harm the bear?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
So what does the bear do? Protect itself? Andrect just
protect itself? Let you have it, because you shouldn't be here.
Be no different if a knock on the door, you
open the door and there was a bear standing there,
you would go, what are you doing here? You would
protect yourself. See it's pretty simple if you break it
down to its fundamental level.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
Right by the way, I'm pretty sure that's how people
will react if they're at a cabin and they hear
a knock on the door and they open it up
and a.
Speaker 6 (33:37):
Bear, Oh, what are you doing here? That's exactly how
they react.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Would you like some porridge? Exactly? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (33:52):
So what happens when you're at your house though, and
you get out of your car and there's like a
bunch of raccoons staring at you going through your trash can.
That's your house, but there your and this happened to you, Fred.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Well, it happened to me when the raccoon was eating pizza, right,
That's what got me. And the raccoon was not my friend.
I'm gonna be honest. The raccoon was not my friend.
That's why I ran back in the house after I shouted, raccoon,
put down that pizza. Now why I would speak like
that to the raccoon, I don't know.
Speaker 6 (34:21):
I'm assuming the raccoon didn't listen to you.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
I think the raccoon finished it up. I'm sure I
believe that did he wipe his mouth at least I
didn't see. But then that well, of course was the
possum that chased me and I had to throw a
bricks and then he saw it three blocks away.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yes, save possum, same possum. Here's the thing, okay, and
that emphasizes my point about the sharks and the bear.
The possum is walking around. I'm driving my car. The
possum believes I don't belong there. That is not where
I should be. So the possum starts chasing me.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Then I get to my house and the possum is
now on the porch another night, What do I think
the possum shouldn't be there. I threw a brick at
it and run in the house. That's what I'm saying.
If everybody stayed where they were supposed to, we'd have
no attacks.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Oh there's so much there. There's so much there. I
forgot about this story. You threw a brick at the
possum and the possum kept coming back. Didn't you see
this possum like three times in three different situations, Rodney.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
The possum waited for me at Kwanga and moor Park,
and it's set by the light.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
And it didn't just happen to just be in its
territory or wherever its nest is. It specifically said, you
know what, Fred Rogan comes buy here every single night.
I'm gonna get his ass. One day, it saw me
waiting for him.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
It saw me. I stopped at the light. I turned,
I looked at it. It had really beady eyes that
thought it was a giant rat. And it scared me.
It scared me so much that it gave me chills.
That was the evil look it gave me. So I
drove away. Okay, I broke out in a little cold sweat.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
But I was fine.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
The next night, it was about eleven forty eleven forty
at night, I drive down there. I stopped at the
light to make a left, and the possum is still there.
But the possum, the same one from the night before,
looks really pissed.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Now.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
I don't know why I knew that, but I could
sense it. I could feel danger. I knew something was imminent.
Just as the light started to turn, the possum charged
the car, leapt at my tire and tried to bite it,
but I sped away. That was two nights in a row.
The third night, I pulled up, stopped again, and I
(36:43):
was nervous. I mean I was actually frightened because the
possum had charged my car and tried to bite the tire.
But that night there was no possum, and I was
thrilled and relaxed and I could exhale, and I drove,
and I drove up into the hill and studio City
where we lived at the time, and I pulled up
and it was that same damn possum standing on my
(37:05):
front porch. It had found out where I lived, and
it came to close the deal and finish the business.
That possum had it out for me. It had it
out for me, and I realized it. So I got
out of the car, but I didn't want to move
too quickly because I wasn't aware of how quickly the
possum could move out of the car gently and I
(37:29):
walked out. I kind of got out because the house.
The possum was at the front door.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
At the front.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Door, so I got out and there was some distance,
and I figured if the possum charged me, I could
get back in the car real fast. So I got
out slowly and I walked to the side and there
was this big brick and I came around the back
of the car and I made a noise and the
possum looked at me, and I threw the brick at it.
(37:57):
The possum ran away, and I ran in the house,
and I never saw the possum again because the possum
challenged me. The possum challenged me at my own door,
and I proved the possum didn't belong there.
Speaker 7 (38:14):
Go Oh my god, oh, Maddie.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
The giant rat. Who was the possum?
Speaker 4 (38:32):
He's doing bricks at a possum that's sitting at your
front door. Did the possum having his arms crossed? He's waiting, right,
alf Freddy, take us home, baby, All.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Right, past out of here.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
My buddy Jake Downey, very big in the high school
sports scene here for years. You used to produce a
high school show. Good guy, He sends me a text.
I heard one stat that there are twenty two million
human attacks on sharks for every one shark attack on people.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Do you believe that? One away?
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Say that again, there are twenty two million human attacks
on sharks for every one.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Shark attack on people. Yeah, I believe it. Yeah, because
we people fish for sharks. Sharks.
Speaker 4 (39:22):
Shark fin soup is a big thing, delicacy in the world,
especially in Asian countries, big time, big time people. Yeah,
sport fishing as well. So yeah, if that's considered an
attack on a shark fishing, yeah, easy to believe.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
I didn't know anybody tried to catch sharks. Oh, come on,
come on.
Speaker 4 (39:43):
Sometimes you get these like the the there's a there's
a soup, there's a shark fin soup in Asia, the
special kind of shark. I don't know what kind of
shark it is, but they go for thousands of dollars,
thousands of dollars, these these shark fans that they get
and capture, and it's a big, big deal. So I
(40:03):
think they did sixty minutes on it one time. But
it's a huge, huge, huge industry, these the sharks, and
then people just catch them just to catch them because
they want to put them on their wall things like that.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
But I I buy that. I buy that.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
I would not put a stepped fish on my wall.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
No, No, I would not catch a fish and then
put it on it up there. Now, even if it
was a great white shark.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
No, put a big, big fish of a big carcass
of your great white with the jaws and everything in it,
You wouldn't put it up there.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
No, would you put like a big elk head on
your wall. No, I'm not there.
Speaker 6 (40:44):
Neither of you see white taxi durm folks.
Speaker 5 (40:45):
So I don't know if that would fit either of
your profile.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
By the way, Yeah, I'm not a I'm not a
hunter either. Yeah, I'm not either, So I wouldn't put Yeah,
I wouldn't put a shark up or anything.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
Yeah, possum though, awesome you made sure.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Yeah, that's what I'd put up, all.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Right, Ronnie. Thank you, Kevin, great job. See if the
Dodgers can turn it around tonight with Yamamoto on the hill.
Rodney will see tomorrow, yes, sir,
Ellie Continue on Fred Rugan, Rodney Pete on se La Sports. Okay,
let's bring a friend. Don had a I believe a
best selling book.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I know TWI was recently at the La Times book.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Event signing hundreds of copies. It has Bill Plunkett of
the OC Register. Was that right now?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
It's a selling book. I don't know if it's best selling,
but it's selling.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Hey, Bill, we're not going to sell you short man's
best selling come home.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Hey Hey. That Festival Books thing at USC was fantastic.
It was a really rainy Saturday and the place was
still packed. People were out there with their umbrellas, going
from booth to booth and tent to tent.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, they do a great job over there, they really do.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
My wife, my wife and daughter wrote children's book together
and they had it over there, and and I remember
the crowd and just set up at the boost like
you mentioned, really really a cool event.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah. The people come up and know you, Bill.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, they come up and they say, hey, PLASKI, that
thing you wrote every book event I've done. The first
thing I do is apologize for not being Bill Plasky.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I'll tell you what I think you should.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I think you'd wear there's a badge of honor, to
be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Bill.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay, so they've lost four in a row the.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Angels, Yeah, I read that somewhere.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, just awful.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
And last night they got plunked early and couldn't come back.
These Dodgers aren't in trouble, are they?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
That that's been happening a lot that fallen behind early,
The starting pitching has once again dissolved on them. And
the five days, five games in a row, they've been
down before they had their first at bat. You know,
they're giving up runs right out of the gate and
playing ketchup every night. And that's that's not an easy
(02:09):
way to live.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
No, no, it's not.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
And if we remember even that that big start that
they had, I think we started eight and oh there
were a lot of comeback wins in that that first
start too, that they fell behind and had to come
back and win it in the later innings. So you
still have no concerns even with the injuries to the
pitching staff. Uh, I know, it's May twentieth, when do
(02:34):
you start to get concerned about this team? And look,
they're still in first place even after losing four straight games,
and they still have all the talent, but the injuries built.
The injuries are the things that are very very concerning.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, you got if you're following, you know the big picture.
You got to tell me who's back and healthy on
August first. That's I mean, that's the key. Are you
going to have your compliment that pitching staff going to
be at least near full strength for the last two
months of the season. That that, to me is the key.
(03:09):
You can absorb the hits. Now you can tell yourself, oh,
Snell is going to be back, glasnow is going to
be back, Otani's going to pitch at some point, et cetera,
et cetera. If all those things actually do happen on
August first, you've got them all back, then you're in
great shape. If all those things don't happen between now
(03:29):
in August, then you got some worries. Then the Dodgers'
front office has to make a very difficult decision. How
long do you wait for those guys to come back,
or do you have to go out on the market
again at the trade deadline and for the third year
in a row shop for starting pitching, which is probably
(03:51):
the most expensive thing to acquire at the deadline.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, that's why Andrew Friedman did what he did in
the off season.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
It out of the ash shopping and pay you know,
double the price.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, yeah, exactly that. Uh it didn't work out so
well so far. I mean the guys that they I
put this in yesterday's story. They've signed seven free agent
pictures in the last two off seasons. Only two of
them are on the active roster. Yea, I'mamoto and Tanner Scott,
you know, and you've invested over seven hundred million dollars
(04:25):
in those guys. That's not that's not good investments. That's
not wise investments. If these guys are are that undependable?
Uh So again, you gotta you gotta make a difficult decision.
Do you start chasing after more or do you do
you cross your fears and hope these guys get healthy
(04:46):
for the you know, the final two months.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Fred reminded us that they did the Dodgers did an
internal investigation study whatever you want to call it, on
some of these injuries. Do you think there's some then
something going on with the Dodgers because of the last
three four years. I can go back yeah, even maybe
further than that that that that it feels like the
Dodgers have more injuries to their pitching staff than any
(05:12):
other team in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
They do, and the only team that rivals them, I
think are the Rays, and there's a lot of common
think between those two teams. They both operate very similarly,
although the Dodgers have a lot more resources. We asked
about this in spring training at the UH. After the season,
(05:38):
we talked with Andrew Friedman. He said they were going
to do a deep dive into these pitching injuries. So
in spring training I asked him, you know what, when
you dove, what did you find? And he was very nonspecific.
He wouldn't tell us any of the you know anything
that they found. He wasn't going to give away anything.
He did keep hitting very hard on the idea that
(06:02):
this is an industry wide thing, that a lot of
the factors that lead to pitching injuries happened before these
players are even in the Dodgers organization. The way that
they're trained in high school, college, travel ball, etc. Constant.
(06:23):
The thing that's rewarded in baseball now for pitchers is
not going in a game and getting out. It's your
velocity and your spin rate, and the pitching profile of
your vertical break and horizontal brain. All that kind of
analytics stuff is what guys get rewarded for, so naturally
they're going to go out and try and do those things.
(06:46):
So I think a lot of the injury problem is
chasing spin rate and velocity with max effort on every
pitch and guys are just going to break down. Now,
why does it happen more to the Dodgers. I think
there's a couple factors involved. I you know, this is
just observational, but I think the guys that they choose,
(07:11):
they are more willing to take a chance on a
guy with injury history than other teams. And they do
that because they have the resources to absorb guys going
on the in theory. So you see, the perfect example
is Tyler Glass. Now, even the guy had had one
season of over one hundred innings and they gave him
(07:31):
a five year contract extension, willing to take the chance
that he might be entering a healthy phase of his career.
And the other thing is the il moves themselves. I
think because the Dodgers do have a lot of depth,
they are more willing to put a guy on the
IL quicker, whereas another team might have to ask him
(07:54):
to push through it because we need you. That kind
of thing. The Dodgers will say, Okay, just go on
the IL for two weeks. We'll we'll manage without you.
We want you to get healthy for the long run
and the big picture in October.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
All right, Bill, you've covered the Dodgers, I would say,
for a few years and several. Okay, well you we'll
use the term several. That's fine. I was surprised by this.
We've talked about it. I don't remember a time during
the season where they made decisions on two veteran players
(08:29):
and dfat them. It didn't seem to me like it
was the Dodger way. Were you surprised by this?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Only by the timing? It maybe happened a little sooner
than I expected. They cut ties with Jason Hayward a
year ago, that one with another one that kind of
rocked the clubhouse a little bit. But in both cases,
coming into the season, if you had looked at the
Dodgers roster and said where can they improve on the margins,
(09:02):
well you would appointed right at Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor.
So the fact that they didn't make it through the
season with the Dodgers is not surprising or shouldn't be.
The timing of it is a little sudden, And I
think Andrew Friedman kind of hinted at it when he
said the other day about a feeling of urgency because
(09:23):
of the quality and the competition in the NLS. You know,
they didn't They're not running away with the division this year,
by you know, if you if you go by what
we've seen so far. So things move up a little bit,
the calendar moves up a little bit on them.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, yeah, are you are you?
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Are you concerned at all? I know we talked about
about the about the injuries, but is there any concern
about Otani? And because of the injuries, you know, I
know scheduled to pitch after the All Star break at
some point that they are in a position where they
(10:08):
need him to pitch as opposed to having him as
a luxury pitching.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah, it's kind of It's kind of changed, hasn't it.
I think he I think they thought of him as
a luxury when they came into the season, and I
think when they decided to slow down his recovery program.
I think they did that because they thought of him
as a luxury. I don't see him as a luxury anymore.
(10:34):
You know, the guy is I think it's twenty months
out from his surgery. Most guys twenty months out would
be pitching in games.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
I think they're sticking to it. I think the overriding
factor is they don't want to risk anything that would
take him out of the lineup as a hit right
and certainly understand that ops over one thousand, leads the
majors and home runs, et cetera. So that's more valuable
(11:08):
to him right now. But the way that starting pitching
has crumbled on him, there might be some regrets in
the back of their minds that, you know, maybe we
should have stuck with that original plan and had him
ready to go in May or June.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, but I but I understand they're thinking, you know, egos.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
They're in trouble.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yes, he is. I have said this for a while now.
I think the Dodgers would be fine if he never
pitched during his ten year contract. It's it's like, you know,
a luxurier or icing on the cake. I think they
would be happy paying seven hundred million dollars, you know,
deferred over ten years for an aeron judge level hitter.
(11:51):
I think they're fine with that. And the pitching. You know,
Otani wants to pitch, so that that's the major driving
force behind that.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
No, that's whole deal.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
They told him he could pitch, and he wants to pitch,
so they're not gonna rush it. But here's the thing.
I think you see him too. But you know, you
use that August deadline for who's healthy who's not. Maybe
that's when you'll start to see him.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
I think it'll be very close to that. I don't
think it will be before the All Star break, so
you're already in mid July right there.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Yeah, that's gonna be interesting because I'm with you, Bill,
I think he is what we've seen of him. You
certainly don't want him out of the lineup, and if
it means he's got to go on il for a bit,
that's gonna really really hurt the team, especially him being
the callous at the top of the lineup.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
And I think you're right.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
I think that I think most people, although it's a phenomenon,
he's a unicorn, and people would love to see him
pitch and hit and all that kind of stuff. But
I think Dodger fan at the end of the day
would be just as happy if this ten year contract
he didn't really pitch at all.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, I think it is extra. It is not required.
And in the minute he starts pitching in games or
facing hitters, the chances of him incurring an injury that
takes him out of the lineup increase significantly. You know,
even as simple as a live batting practice session thrown
(13:20):
to hitters. Maybe he slips from the mound, sprains an ankle,
maybe there's a comeback, or somebody hits one back off
his shin or something, and he's out of the lineup.
The minute he starts throwing to hitters, the chances that
you lose him from your lineup increase.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
All right, well, Bell will appreciate you coming on. Thank
you very much for spending a few minutes with us,
And congratulations again on the book.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Oh thank you. Now go out and go to your
nearest Barnes and Noble and buy five or six copies
for your friends. What a wonderful Father's Day gift it
would make absolutely How's that for a sales pitch am
I doing?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Okay? Love it? Am out of nowhere? That made it
even more impressive.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
I'm not much of a salesman. That's the best I got.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
It was organic, That's right, Bill, Bill, don't call me
Platsky punkin not about that.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
They'll take it easy.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yeah, you got it, guys, all.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Right, Rodney.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Do you think I think people truly understand what it
was like to get to d f A Chris Taylor
and Austin Barnes. Do you think people are sad about that?
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yeah? Yeah, I do. I do. You know certain guys
are are are you know? You remember them?
Speaker 4 (14:44):
And I think that And I hate to say this
about certain guys that that that play in major leagues
or or professionally, because they've obviously.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Worked very very hard to get there.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
H And it don't mean this in any kind of
condescending way, but if from the outside looking in, they
look like you feel like they're overt cheers, right that
they kind of they worked hard and they finally got
their shot and they were able to stay here for
a period of time, and they were the kind of
guys that you rooted for because they weren't the big
giant stars, right, they weren't. They weren't Otani or Freddie
(15:22):
Freeman or Mookie Betts. They were guys that you know,
and Chris Taylor that you know, moved around a bit
and then got a shot with the Dodgers and made
the most of it during his time here.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
So you root it for those guys.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
So yeah, absolutely, I think that a lot of the
fans remember those big moments that they both had here
in the Dodger uniform.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
And it's sad to see him go. Sad to see
him go.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, I think people feel that way as well. I
think it's hard because they did have those incredible moments
which supplied the memories.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
But the Dodgers do have to move on. It's like
not to cut job.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
But it's I mean, you remember when they didn't sign
Justin Turner back that that was a hard one to take, right,
And he's a he was such a valuable Dodger on
and off the field, but he had so much love
for him. And these guys are you know, kind of
you know, maybe not as large as a personality as Justin,
(16:20):
but but in terms of likability, both those guys were
very very likable.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Difference is justin off season these guys during the season.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Right, right, right, which is a big difference for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, and you kind of think about it as the
season was beginning and everybody on this show was talking
about Chris Taylor and you know, he shouldn't come back,
and we said, no, he's got to play so they
can see what he can do. Really, maybe it was
even preordained if if it was going to be this way,
maybe they should have let him know before the season
(16:53):
if it was going to be this way. Now, when
he played, he didn't tear the cover off the ball,
And the other side of it is didn't seem ready.
They had to start him at Okay, see, maybe that's
what it was.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
If he Kim was ready, then that might have been
it might have been a different story. Right.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
But he's one of the you know, Betsy, Chris Taylor,
and you know Austin Barnes. Obviously he's a he's not
your everyday catcher, but as a backup catcher, he was
very very good to be your number two catcher, which
is why he lasted. He was valuable to the team.
But as we talked about early in the show, some
of the physical skills had kind of diminished a little
bit with Austin, especially his arm strength. But with Chris,
(17:35):
you know, you hate to you hate to see one
of those guys go that can do so many things.
It's like key k right. You know, you think about
the moments Key k Hernandez has had for this team,
and they were to let him go, You'd be like,
you know, how does that happen? Because I remember the
big moments that Kek has had in the playoffs in
(17:55):
the postseason, and you just feel like they're always going
to be those moments that he's going to have again,
and you don't want to let those Those guys are valuable,
maybe not to the Mookie Betts valuable, but they're valuable
that you can put them in in any spot in
a game and there's a chance that they can have
a big moment.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
One thing I'll say too about Chris Taylor. If you
guys remember last year, I don't know if it was
August or July, but he started out slow, then he
got hot and was playing extremely well. Then he suffered
an injury. I don't know if it was a light
or something like that, and he went on the injury
lists for a few weeks, kind of lost his spot
in the shuffle and never regained it. So I think
there might have been optimism going into the spring that
Chris kind of figured something out in the middle of
(18:34):
last season and that he can be productive again this year,
and unfortunately it just didn't work. So I don't think
the riding on the wall was there for Chris. I
think they were optimistic that Chris actually found something last
year it could be productive again. Unfortunately it just didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
That's fair because there was a point last year where everybody, what,
hold on, I mean he's hitting now, Yeah, everybody hold
on because he's suddenly coming around. I guess he just
couldn't recapture that this year, and there's really no place
for him to play. That's another issue.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Yeah, if you don't play consistently, it's it's hard to
get on in a rhythm and get going. That's why
it's it's always impressive when you see a guy in
a game, a big game, especially pinch hit and come
up with a big hit or a home run or
something like that, or a guy that plays, you know,
every seventh.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Game and they have a they have a really good game.
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
That's why it's so impressive to me about Kyk is
that he doesn't play every day, doesn't play every game,
but he's seventh, eighth, eighth, any ninth Inny. They put
him in oftentime, he comes up with a big hit,
you know, And same thing with the games he plays.
You know, he plug him at at third base, all
of a sudden, he's he's in a home run.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
It's first hit bat. You know.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
It's things like that that that Keyk brings to the table.
And uh, you know, but key K has kind of
maintained that, whereas Chris is dropped off a little bit.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (19:56):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
When we come back, I'm going to read you something
and then I want you to tell me if the
person I'm talking about is insane. Oh ooh, I'm gonna
give you a scenario. You're talking about yourself, aside from me, okay,
(20:19):
aside from me. I will give you a scenario, and
you tell me if the person is insane.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Oh yes, down a home stretch right to Pete fred
Rogan on a beautiful tuesday.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
It feels like summer already.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Okay, so here's the question. Let me say, are you insane.
Is that what you're saying? Are you insane? I'm you know,
I have issues. No one will deny that. I don't
know if I were to be described as clinically insane,
but there would be the worst.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I would suggest I have issues. Yeah. The first step
is to admit, rightight, And you're doing that so good? Right?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
You know it's not like I haven't been to rehab.
I understand the twelve steps. I know what you have
to do.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
First, you have to admit you have a problem. Okay,
in this scenario, the problem is not mine. Let me
give you the story. Do you know what this year is?
Of course you don't do You have no idea what
I'm gonna say. Anyway, It's the fiftieth anniversary of the
movie Jaws.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Oh oh, yeah, nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, okay, okay, Jaws.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Do you remember where you were you remember that time
when Jaws came out?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I saw it. I don't remember where I saw it,
But do you remember that buzz around it? Yeah? I
was in high school. I was in Phoenix. The buzz,
the buzz around that movie coming out.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Oh, and if you've not seen it because you weren't
around then it is a classic. You should see it.
It terrified the country. I mean everybody was talking about Jaws,
and just to let you know what it is, it
became a movie where the sharks became the villains and
started attacking people. But I mean they weren't walking around
(22:17):
or anything. It's like, don't go in the water kind
of attack.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah. It got to the point where you didn't even
want to go into a pool. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
They really did a good job with that movie. All right,
so it's a fifty year anniversary. So Lewis Pugh, Louis
Pugh is fifty five years old, so he was five
years old when Jaws came out. He's got an idea
to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Jaws. He will be
(22:50):
swimming sixty two miles around the island of Martha's Vineyard
in Massachusetts. The water temperature is forty seven degrees, so
right off the bat, it's gonna be chilly, right, and
you're gonna swim sixty two miles in the water. So
you have to be in very good shape to be
able to do that. Can we agree to that?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Oh yeah, all right.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
He's going to wear his swimming uniform it's not a
wet suit. He'll be wearing trunks, a cap, and goggles
swimming sixty miles in forty seven degree water. So he's thinking, Wow,
this guy's a little bit off. But the thing, the
thing that makes this swim even more fascinating because it
(23:35):
is the fiftieth anniversary of the movie Jaws. The water
he'll be swimming in will be shark infested. He's going
to swim sixty two miles in shark infested waters. How
(23:56):
do you think that's gonna work out?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
What do you think think? Mmmm?
Speaker 1 (24:01):
He has gone swimming near glaciers and volcanoes in the past. Uh,
he has been around hippos, crocodiles, and polar bears.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
But now he is going to show me ask you this,
which is he a white guy? Well, if Eric Differson
was here, of course he is. Of course he is.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
See of Yeah, as we're talking here, it was certainly
and they had to guests who would do that amongst
the four of us on this radio station, it certainly
would not be Kevin and myself.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
That's fair.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Yeah, But I think, okay, you want to the homage
to Jaws, Yeah, and you want to swim around Martha's vineyard. Yes, okay,
because he had The movie was set obviously in New England.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
I think with Rhode Island or something like that, Connecticut
somewhere when the town Amity Amity, Yeah, Amity Amity exactly.
I just think it's this. I'd be shocked if something
didn't go wrong, but it that way. I'd be shocked
if something didn't go wrong, right, And now they know
(25:16):
this is shark infested waters because I'm sure they know
those waters very well, that this is where sharks hang
out this time of year.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
And they're there. He said.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
His goal is to raise awareness of the need to
protect sharks and to change public perception of the mighty fish.
It just reminds me, and we've talked about it, the
guy that thought he could talk to bears. Remember that guy.
There was a guy that actually thought he could talk
to bears. And I believe he'd have his wife record
(25:54):
him trying to communicate with wild bears. These are not
trained bears, his bears. They would go out and find
bears and he would walk up to them as if
he was approaching another person, and he would communicate in.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Bear language whatever that.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Language is, yeah, which is bear language. I don't know,
you got to know. I mean he'd grunt or something.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
I don't know what he would do, but he really
believed that he could communicate.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
And speak to bears. What was that again, the big
I mean, how do bears talk?
Speaker 6 (26:33):
Needs help say that right now?
Speaker 1 (26:37):
I don't know how they talk, but I mean that's
what he thought.
Speaker 5 (26:40):
I just thought a song like balloo from a jungle book.
Maybe that's what he assumed. He'd go out there singing songs.
What happened.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
He had done it many times and all were chronicled.
So he went out there and again he was going
to communicate, maybe with a new bear, maybe with an
old friend.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
And he kind of moved slowly toward the bear, and he.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Stood and he was maybe ten feet from the bear
and started talking his bear language, and the bear came
up with one swipe of its giant claw paw hand
and just tore his head off. Now this was traumatic
to his wife, who was filming it, So what would
(27:25):
she do? She obviously would be traumatized and start screaming,
which was not the thing to do. So then the
bear killed her. And that is because this guy thought
he could talk to bears. This guy thinks I will
swim for sixty two miles in shark infested waters to
(27:45):
show that the sharks are our friends. What could go wrong?
What possibly could go wrong for this guy?
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Nothing? Yeah, nothing to see here, just all safe. Wow?
But why and and and who he he must not have?
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Well he just talked about the bear guy who had
a wife that was filming it, So that goes out
the water my theory of who he must not be married,
or he must not have somebody close to his life,
because what would Rachelle ever let you do anything remotely
close to that she would encourage it. Ah, go ahead,
(28:30):
go ahead, freddie, Yes, that'd be great for you.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Here's the problem. I can't swim. Oh, you'll be fine.
Just get in there with the sharks.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Don't even talk about the doggy paddle. For a doggy paddle,
it's fine. This cannot possibly go right.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
There's there.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
There's nothing could go right about this, and we're gonna
read about him in the next day.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
So, as I pointed out, he has done his swimming,
he's uh, swim your glaciers and volcanoes. Well, obviously the
volcan know it didn't erupt in the glacier didn't start collapsing.
He swam around hippos. I don't know if that was wise.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
No, because hippos, even though they seem friendly and they're big, cuddly, lovable, big,
gigantic animals, hippos are mean. Yeah, hipples are ferocious. And
hippos can run. That's the thing you don't know. Yeah,
hippos can run. Don't try to outrun a hippo.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
And the thing is you think, oh, they're so big
and slow, you'll just kind of deak them, you know
you can. Oh, I'll move to the left and they'll
go right by you because they're so slow.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Right, Yeah, well you'll find out how slow they are.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
So he's done that. He's also been with crocodiles. Okay,
that was a bit of insanity. That was probably not
a good call. And he's done it with polar bears
again not a good call either, Probably not a good call.
But this go around, it's it's for sharks. Is he
getting anything for this? Is he getting is it not
(30:03):
a reward? But getting any kind of benefit from doing this?
Like there's a challenge and there's a we'll give you
a million dollars if you do this, No, anything like that,
remotely like that.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
He's just doing it for the publicity.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Yeah, he said this the movie Jaws. It was a
film about sharks attacking humans. And for fifty years we
have been attacking sharks. It's completely unsustainable, it's madness. We
need to respect sharks. Okay, well we respect them. I
don't think you have to go in there and swim
with them.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
No you don't.
Speaker 6 (30:38):
Is he denying that sharks attack humans?
Speaker 5 (30:40):
Well, he just had a number of surfers over the
last couple of years down in Australia especially that would
argue against that.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
No, you're one hundred percent right. Look, bottom line, bottom line,
and all of this pretty simple. As people, we live
on Earth. We live on Earth. This is where we live.
Walk around on Earth now, sometimes we go swimming, sometimes
we fly in a plane.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
But our home base is Earth. The shark's home base
is the ocean. That's where the shark lives. Imagine if
you were walking down the street and all of a
sudden you turned and you saw a shark chasing you.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
What would you do. Well, you would probably try to
kill the shark. You'd be terrified. Why, because the shark
doesn't live here with you. The shark does not live
on land. When we go into the water, that's where
the shark lives. It's no different than a shark being
at your front door ringing the bell. You open the
(31:44):
door and there's a shark, and you go, oh my god,
why is the shark here? It doesn't belong here. It's
here to kill me. So now imagine the shark in
the water. You're swimming around. What does the shark thing,
What are.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
You doing here?
Speaker 4 (32:00):
You don't live here. Maybe you're here to harm me. Yes,
that's exactly what the shark is thinking. You're here to
harm me because you're not supposed to be here, right,
So what does the shark do protects himself? Correct, And
the shark attacks you and tries to eat you because
you shouldn't be there, because that's not where you live.
(32:22):
If you just stayed where you lived, the sharks wouldn't
eat you. Now, surfing on the in the desert would
be difficult because there's no water. I understand there are
some obstacles here, but the bottom line is this, what
do you want the shark to do? It's like a
home invasion. It's a home invasion of the shark, and
the shark is exactly what it is. It's a home invasion.
(32:46):
You've come into my home and the only thing I
can think of is you come into my home to
cause me harm, Right, So I'm going to protect myself
my family by any means necessary.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Period. Look at it like this.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
You walk up to a bear. The bear knows you're
not supposed to be there. So what does the bear think?
You're there to harm the bear?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
So what does the bear do? Protect itself? Andrect just
protect itself? Let you have it, because you shouldn't be here.
Be no different if a knock on the door, you
open the door and there was a bear standing there,
you would go, what are you doing here? You would
protect yourself. See it's pretty simple if you break it
down to its fundamental level.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
Right by the way, I'm pretty sure that's how people
will react if they're at a cabin and they hear
a knock on the door and they open it up
and a.
Speaker 6 (33:37):
Bear, Oh, what are you doing here? That's exactly how
they react.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Would you like some porridge? Exactly? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (33:52):
So what happens when you're at your house though, and
you get out of your car and there's like a
bunch of raccoons staring at you going through your trash can.
That's your house, but there your and this happened to you, Fred.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Well, it happened to me when the raccoon was eating pizza, right,
That's what got me. And the raccoon was not my friend.
I'm gonna be honest. The raccoon was not my friend.
That's why I ran back in the house after I shouted, raccoon,
put down that pizza. Now why I would speak like
that to the raccoon, I don't know.
Speaker 6 (34:21):
I'm assuming the raccoon didn't listen to you.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
I think the raccoon finished it up. I'm sure I
believe that did he wipe his mouth at least I
didn't see. But then that well, of course was the
possum that chased me and I had to throw a
bricks and then he saw it three blocks away.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yes, save possum, same possum. Here's the thing, okay, and
that emphasizes my point about the sharks and the bear.
The possum is walking around. I'm driving my car. The
possum believes I don't belong there. That is not where
I should be. So the possum starts chasing me.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Then I get to my house and the possum is
now on the porch another night, What do I think
the possum shouldn't be there. I threw a brick at
it and run in the house. That's what I'm saying.
If everybody stayed where they were supposed to, we'd have
no attacks.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Oh there's so much there. There's so much there. I
forgot about this story. You threw a brick at the
possum and the possum kept coming back. Didn't you see
this possum like three times in three different situations, Rodney.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
The possum waited for me at Kwanga and moor Park,
and it's set by the light.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
And it didn't just happen to just be in its
territory or wherever its nest is. It specifically said, you
know what, Fred Rogan comes buy here every single night.
I'm gonna get his ass. One day, it saw me
waiting for him.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
It saw me. I stopped at the light. I turned,
I looked at it. It had really beady eyes that
thought it was a giant rat. And it scared me.
It scared me so much that it gave me chills.
That was the evil look it gave me. So I
drove away. Okay, I broke out in a little cold sweat.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
But I was fine.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
The next night, it was about eleven forty eleven forty
at night, I drive down there. I stopped at the
light to make a left, and the possum is still there.
But the possum, the same one from the night before,
looks really pissed.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Now.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
I don't know why I knew that, but I could
sense it. I could feel danger. I knew something was imminent.
Just as the light started to turn, the possum charged
the car, leapt at my tire and tried to bite it,
but I sped away. That was two nights in a row.
The third night, I pulled up, stopped again, and I
(36:43):
was nervous. I mean I was actually frightened because the
possum had charged my car and tried to bite the tire.
But that night there was no possum, and I was
thrilled and relaxed and I could exhale, and I drove,
and I drove up into the hill and studio City
where we lived at the time, and I pulled up
and it was that same damn possum standing on my
(37:05):
front porch. It had found out where I lived, and
it came to close the deal and finish the business.
That possum had it out for me. It had it
out for me, and I realized it. So I got
out of the car, but I didn't want to move
too quickly because I wasn't aware of how quickly the
possum could move out of the car gently and I
(37:29):
walked out. I kind of got out because the house.
The possum was at the front door.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
At the front.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Door, so I got out and there was some distance,
and I figured if the possum charged me, I could
get back in the car real fast. So I got
out slowly and I walked to the side and there
was this big brick and I came around the back
of the car and I made a noise and the
possum looked at me, and I threw the brick at it.
(37:57):
The possum ran away, and I ran in the house,
and I never saw the possum again because the possum
challenged me. The possum challenged me at my own door,
and I proved the possum didn't belong there.
Speaker 7 (38:14):
Go Oh my god, oh, Maddie.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
The giant rat. Who was the possum?
Speaker 4 (38:32):
He's doing bricks at a possum that's sitting at your
front door. Did the possum having his arms crossed? He's waiting, right,
alf Freddy, take us home, baby, All.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Right, past out of here.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
My buddy Jake Downey, very big in the high school
sports scene here for years. You used to produce a
high school show. Good guy, He sends me a text.
I heard one stat that there are twenty two million
human attacks on sharks for every one shark attack on people.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Do you believe that? One away?
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Say that again, there are twenty two million human attacks
on sharks for every one.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Shark attack on people. Yeah, I believe it. Yeah, because
we people fish for sharks. Sharks.
Speaker 4 (39:22):
Shark fin soup is a big thing, delicacy in the world,
especially in Asian countries, big time, big time people. Yeah,
sport fishing as well. So yeah, if that's considered an
attack on a shark fishing, yeah, easy to believe.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
I didn't know anybody tried to catch sharks. Oh, come on,
come on.
Speaker 4 (39:43):
Sometimes you get these like the the there's a there's
a soup, there's a shark fin soup in Asia, the
special kind of shark. I don't know what kind of
shark it is, but they go for thousands of dollars,
thousands of dollars, these these shark fans that they get
and capture, and it's a big, big deal. So I
(40:03):
think they did sixty minutes on it one time. But
it's a huge, huge, huge industry, these the sharks, and
then people just catch them just to catch them because
they want to put them on their wall things like that.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
But I I buy that. I buy that.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
I would not put a stepped fish on my wall.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
No, No, I would not catch a fish and then
put it on it up there. Now, even if it
was a great white shark.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
No, put a big, big fish of a big carcass
of your great white with the jaws and everything in it,
You wouldn't put it up there.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
No, would you put like a big elk head on
your wall. No, I'm not there.
Speaker 6 (40:44):
Neither of you see white taxi durm folks.
Speaker 5 (40:45):
So I don't know if that would fit either of
your profile.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
By the way, Yeah, I'm not a I'm not a
hunter either. Yeah, I'm not either, So I wouldn't put Yeah,
I wouldn't put a shark up or anything.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
Yeah, possum though, awesome you made sure.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Yeah, that's what I'd put up, all.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Right, Ronnie. Thank you, Kevin, great job. See if the
Dodgers can turn it around tonight with Yamamoto on the hill.
Rodney will see tomorrow, yes, sir,
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