June 8, 2026 • 34 mins
David Vassegh joins the show as the Dodgers get ready for a road trip to Pittsburgh and Chicago. Its Lit features the college football world being up in arms over Brenan Sorsby being ruled eligible, Sam Presti defending SGA and more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, we continue on Fred Rogan, Rodney Pete on
seventy LA sports Dodgers off today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
They needed a day off.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
You know, I had to fly east get that bad
taste out of their mouth after what happened yesterday. And
by the way, the way they've been playing that they
can have one of those occasionally, they can have one
of those. Let's bring out a man who's at every
one of them, every single one of them, our good friend,
David Vasse and Dave.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Good afternoon, Fred. Bad taste in their mouth. I'm glad
you quantified that after you said that. I mean, they
did take two out of three and beat the Angels
five out of six times this year after losing all
six last year. So that was a weird yesterday. Yeah,
I know, I know, but bad taste out of their mouths.
(00:48):
I mean, take a look at the standings.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, Fred, so greedy, You're just a typical greedy Dodger
fan thick five out of six from the Angels and
scored one hundred and seven two runs versus there or whatever.
So take that, ready, take that. You want him to
go one hundred and fifty two in.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Tenus in It's like, yeah, do you think the Dodgers
are wallowing in that lass from yesterday. Maybe Ema Shean is,
but that's it.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, what what happened with him yesterday? Day just wasn't
on it.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
It just wasn't on it. And you know, people are saying,
why why did Dave Roberts take him out in the
second inning? You got to leave him in there? Well,
I guess you could have, but that would have been
kind of irresponsible on Dave Roberts's part, And that's what
he said after the game. A guy that is just
what less than two years removed from coming back from
(01:42):
Tommy John surgery and he's starting thirty eight high stress
pitches in one inning. No starter is going to be
allowed to stay in there for forty pitches in one inning.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, you know, on the frick flip side of that, Dave,
it feels like Rokie sazaki them giving him a long leach,
allowing him to keep going back out there. Feels like
he's number one, gaining more confidence but also looking better, which.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Is yeah, for sure. Yeah, the confidence is there, Rodney,
because in his last six starts he's been so good.
Hitters are only hitting about two hundred against Roki Sasaki.
He's throwing more strikes and he just seems to have
a lot more mound presence. So the developmental part of
this where Roki is starting to pay off with the
Dodgers patience and really putting in a lot of resources
(02:32):
manpower time to try to get him up to speed
and get him back to the guy that everybody was
raving about when he was coming out of Japan. But
I will say this, I know everybody believes that there's
no looking back now. I feel like this is in
the developmental stage. Usually we don't see that at the
major league level. A very unique situation. But Roki did
(02:56):
dominate the Angels, dominate them twice. He had eighteen strikeouts,
he went seven fourteen innings seven innings each. So I
think it is a lot of Rokie, of course, but
I think we have to just understand the lineup that
he was facing. But certainly things are trending in the
right direction.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, and you mentioned in the walks, Dad was that
the biggest concern is command walks based on balls or
getting deep into counts and throwing a lot of pitches
early in his starts. And now that he feels like
he's that has deteriorated quite considerably, especially the walks. But
(03:37):
it felt early on when he was struggling that every
batter was at three to two, at three two, three
balls he was behind in the count. Has that been
an emphasis for him to work on his command and
make sure that he's throwing more strikes.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
That's number one. Games were going over three hours virtually
every time he pitched. The infielders and outfielders behind him
were just standing around, and it was becoming laborious even
for them because there was no action in the game.
There couldn't be in the action in the game because
he was throwing so many pitches and so many pitches
outside the strike zone that these guys were flat footed.
(04:14):
So that was a big problem. And I really believe
that there's been a couple of different things that have
gone into why he's been able to be better. His
number one confidence he's getting results. And also he did
change the grip on his split finger FORKBA forkball, where
it's a little bit more of a tighter grip and
(04:35):
a tighter spin. It's not so much of a knuckleball.
It's more of a harder pitch that goes east to
west and that's kept hitters off balance. But number one
is fastball command. He has it, he's stronger, he's sitting
one hundred again. That seems to be something that means
a lot to him, because if you remember when he
signed coming out of Japan, when teams recording him, he
(04:58):
gave the teams homework project that said, how will you
help me get my one hundred mile an hour fastball back?
And the Dodgers obviously have passed that homework test by
getting that one hundred mile an hour fastball back in
his last start.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Dave, let's talk about Tyler Glass. Now.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Now he's on the sixty day injured list, so ultimately
he's going to be gone for a while.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, a back injury that was supposed to only be
fifteen days now all of a sudden, his two months.
And look, I nobody can question whether or not there's
pain or what it is, but it seems it seems
like quite a departure from a minor situation to a
situation where Glass now can't even play catch. I watched
(05:46):
him play catch a couple of times and it just
seemed very light catch. And after those plays, the day
after he was reporting soreness in his lower back. So
I feel it's like, look, it's a situation where a
guy that has had a career of having injuries has
(06:08):
another injury, and I think at this stage of his career,
I don't feel like it's unfair to say he's injury
prone because he's injured every year.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, it's a shame. We talked about a little bit
earlier because he you know, had a stretch there he
was pretty good and going back to the injury which
has followed him since Tampa Bay. Speaking of injuries, how's
Max Munsey's head?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
He's fine. He was actually the day that he didn't
start against the Angels, he came off the bench as
a pin shitters. So he seems fine, And I'm thinking
it was more of a situation where if there was
any residual effect from that collision, there would be a
lot of body soretness, which which I'm sure he has
to a certain extent. But he's back in there. He's fine,
(06:55):
and I think maybe greater cause for concern is the
fact that Will Smith has missed the last two games
with a stiff neck, and Dave Roberts couldn't say definitively
whether or not will will be catching tomorrow night in Pittsburgh.
Maybe he's got Skeen's idis, maybe that neck that he's
(07:17):
not going to loosen up until Wednesday after Skiens pitches.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Hey, not so quietly kept a lot of folks as
Skiens itis.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Hello, Hey Dave, we kicked this around last week. We
haven't talked to you about it. So the Tigers are
gonna have to move Trek school.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
We know that.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Ten the Dodgers or one of the Dodgers put together
enough of a package to get him without a guarantee
that they'll be able to hold him after the season.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Yeah. The stance I have on all that said is, hey,
can we just see Trek Scooble pitch in a major
league game? I know he had a successful first rehab
start and it's unbelievable how well he pitched. But the
trade deadlines not until August second, and the Tigers GM
Scott Harris is a guy that is very disciplined to
(08:08):
his ideas and his thoughts about players and whether or
not he should trade a Trek Schooble or not. So
it still remains to be seen whether or not he
will do what everybody believes he should and that's to
trade Trek Schouoble. But there's a lot of time between
where we're at right now and the second day of August,
(08:28):
when the trade deadline happens, to see whether or not
the Tigers can get back into a very weak Al
Central race. So I just feel like there's a lot
of time between now and then and for everybody to
start coming up with trade packages about what the Dodgers
may or not need or do. It's so premature.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Because he's been here for three years already and just
have we and people kind of gone a little. It
feels like a little numb to the greatness of Otani
in what he's doing so far this year. I mean,
hitting over three hundred is ere as low as he's
number one at war. I mean his ops is in
(09:13):
the top three. I believe he's just doing everything from
both sides right now, and it just feels like we
expect it out of him. It's not as amazing as
it probably should be reported of what he's doing, especially
this year.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Yeah, it feels after that starting Arizona Rodney, people are
starting to take notice of what he's doing. And the
reality is is he's no longer in a slump anymore.
He has coming out of that first month slump and
is at the top of all the offensive leaders in
Major League Baseball, along with being one of, if I
(09:52):
would say, one of the top three pitchers in Major
League Baseball. So it feels like ever since he's come
out of that slump and now all of a sudden
and is back to being the Otani hitter that we
know him to be. People are starting to recognize what
Joey Vado pointed out a couple of weeks ago on
the Dan Patrick Show before anybody else, and that's the
(10:12):
fact that we may be witnessing the greatest single season
by any pair. And right now I would say we are.
I you know, I know everybody talks about Christopher Sanchez,
they talk about some you know, hitters, but who combined
Christopher Sanchez with Ben Rice And that's show Hey Otani
(10:33):
and he's done it year in and year out, and
that's why he's a four time MVP. So I feel
like people on the outside are starting to recognize the
fact that we may be witnessing the single greatest season
we've ever seen in Major League Baseball history.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
You know, people love to kick that around d I
think you're right. By the way, there's no one that
can do what he can do. And when you go
back you have to consider Babe.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
It's like, would you say.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah, they're always looking for an excuse. Like Rob Parker,
your old buddy, showed up at Dodgers Stadium yesterday and
he's like showing me the teams that Otani has pitched against.
And I said, to a certain extent, yeah, that's true,
but he's still doing it. Everybody wants to poke holes,
whether it's who he's pitching against or you know, when
he wasn't hitting. All the pitching's taken away from the hitting,
(11:23):
and he's not hitting now the Dodgers need him as
a hitter. Well, he silenced all the critics in every
single way over the course of the last three weeks.
And it feels like, you know, anytime he does have
a slump, people will try to poke holes into a season.
But instead of doing that, I mean Fred and Rodney,
you guys have seen this in the NBA, the NFL.
(11:45):
You know, the great ones, whether it's Brady or Jordan,
or Kobe or Shack. It doesn't feel like when it's
happening in the moment people give these guys their due.
It's only until like ten years after they're done playing
people go back and re examine their season then say, man,
we should have appreciated that a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, that's a that's a fact. And I can't think
back into all those names you mentioned. Maybe you know
that last season in Chicago for Jordan, people started to
really appreciate him, but it wasn't until then when it
was feeling like it was the end of that run.
But up until then, You're right, I don't think people
really appreciated him in the moment, and certainly certainly not
(12:27):
Kobe and Shaq and some of the other ones that
you mentioned. It's it's it's real. It's really interesting in
this time and with so much information, so much social media,
that it goes like it's like hole home, like he's
supposed to do it. No, it's the hardest thing in
the world to be able to pitch at that level
and still hit three hundred. It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, I'm with you, Rodney. I just feel like I
feel like everybody doesn't want to give Otani what he deserves,
and I don't know, it's I know there's a Somemo
Tani fatigue out there. But the reason why people are
talking about him as much as they are is because
we're seeing something that nobody ever thought could be done
(13:10):
at this level in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
See Dave, here's the issue. I know you gotta go.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I know you gotta go. As a matter of fact,
I'll just pick it up because I know you probably
got to run. Thanks for doing this. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Okay, do you take it from here?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
See Dave, No, because he's not always a very tight
time schedule. Rodney, Yeah, I know, I know, I know.
I'll give it to us. That's great. Love that.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, here's the thing. We talked about it last week.
Here's the issue. When someone is that talented, that unique,
and that special, and we'll start with here in LA,
when someone is that talented and unique, there is an
expectation they will deliver. You See, they've set the standard
so high that for anyone else it is impossible to
(13:57):
achieve it. But that is the expectation for this individual.
And I think mentally, the only thing you actually acknowledge,
because you know how incredible it is, is if they
do not live up to that. That's why great players
oftentimes don't get their due because expectations are so high
(14:17):
and their expectations ultimately that they've set.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, because they're Yeah, you're comparing them against themselves. That's
exactly right. Yeah, yeah, Because you remember he came on
burst on the scene with the Dodgers. He couldn't pitch.
What did he do? He goes fifty to fifty, the
first player in history go fifty to fifty. Right, I
can't pitch, but I'm gonna show you something else, right.
And then and then he comes back and pitches half
(14:41):
the season, still hits fifty home runs. But I think
now it's like people look at them and go heast,
He's not necessarily on page for the fifty home runs.
So it doesn't feel like that first year where he
was hitting home runs and stealing bases. He was just
doing so many things even though he didn't pitch. His
presence was just a domin it force where I think
(15:02):
people have gotten used to that, like you said, in
the last couple of years. And and the ball's not
even though he's got what ten eleven home runs something
like that, it's still not flying out the ballpark the
rate that it was those first two years, and so
people are like, well, he's not what he's not at
the plate, he's not what he was the you know,
first year he got here. Well, still a long season, guys, now, yeah,
(15:25):
and he got to he was in start out in
a bad slump. But now he's out of it, hitting
three hundred and doing what he's doing on the mound. Yeah,
you gotta you gotta really appreciate it, you really do,
and stop and focus on what he's actually doing at
this level. And I brought up before. You know, there
are a lot of guys in college that did both
that pitched and hit and were pretty good. But when
(15:47):
you've got to do it at this level, it's the
best of the best. It's it's truly remarkable what he's doing. Yeah,
it really is. And just consider that for a second.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
I think around the country people do have an expectation
that he will perform, but I think they have more
of an appreciation because if you don't see him or
hear about him every day, he's sort of like a
freak right here.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
He is What do he do tonight? For us here?
We just well, that's what he does. I mean, he
went out two games ago and he won and he
thought he pitched poorly. Right, I wasn't very good. You
didn't give up, you didn't up a run, but I
wasn't very good.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
That's but that's the level of expectation he's placed himself at.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I think I think two. I think people are not
they're separating the two fred. I think they they look
at him and go, okay. Pitching wise, all right, so
you got school who's not pitching out. But you've got
Paul Skemes, you got Christopher Sanchez, who are just going
and having great, great years, even on his own team.
(17:04):
Some would argue that Yamamoto might be the better pitcher
just from a pitching standpoint, and then you flip and
go to hitting standpoint. Is he is he the most
dominating hitter? Do we look at him like we looked
at you know, Ken Griffy Junior, Barry Bonds? You know,
does it that same kind of tenacity, that same kind
(17:26):
of oh my god, is going four hundred feet into
the water. Every at bat is gonna be either a
home run or double off the wall. He's more of
a long play kind of guy. So he can go
zero for four, and he can go one for five.
He can do this and that. So I think individually
people look at it. Is he the best hittering league?
(17:47):
Maybe not? Is he the best picture maybe not? And
they lump that together without going well he's doing both,
and they go, well, okay, So I'm not as impressed.
He's not the best hitter in the game. He's not
the best pitcher in the game. He's maybe top three,
top four, but he's not the best. So that's that's
(18:10):
why I can't get overly excited. I think people's mind. Kevin,
do we know? Do you have a cheese for it's lit?
Speaker 4 (18:18):
I do, Fred? You want it now?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yes? Well, if I asked for it after the break,
then that's a problem. Oh wow, I believe it slip.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Well instead of asking me to say, keV, what's coming
up next in its lid?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Well, Fred, okay, keV, what's coming up next to it?
Speaker 5 (18:32):
Well?
Speaker 4 (18:33):
You know, with all these different conferences and affiliations in
college sports, nobody ever agrees on anything until today. We'll
talk about that coming up next?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Oh juicy? What we will answer. We'll have the answer
to that question when we come back.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
Hello Rogan and Rodney, listener, did you know AM five
seventy LA Sports has a wide range of LA Sports
podcasts shows like Petros in Money, We are streaming Matt
Dodger Talk with David Vasse.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
The Dodger Podcast of Record.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Clipper Talk with Ada Musk, follow us All, and many more.
Just go to a five to seventy LA Sports on
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Oh Yeah, Let's keep it moving. Rodney Pete, Fred Rogan
on a Monday hit it keV.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Is lit.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
Stories lighting up their sports headbox.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Ro story've been talking about for the last couple of
weeks is Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorosby bet on his
own team when he played at the University of Indiana.
Admitted that he had a gambling addiction and he had
been banned by the NCAA because he bet on his
own team. It went to the courts, he won a
temporary injunction, then the NCAA appealed, then it was put
on hold. This morning, it officially came down from a judge.
(19:49):
He is now eligible to play, and this set off
a giant firestorm across the college football landscape. Several people
were upset that he was able to keep his eligibility
the Big Twelve. There was even rumors. I had a
lot of schools in the Big Twelve for trying to
petition the conference to say they don't want to play
against Texas Tech because the ruling like this came down.
There was a the ad at Kansas State and he
(20:09):
set this on the record quote it's fingbs, and he
did not say fingbs. He actually sat the words. He says,
I know the kid has a problem, Well get well
and focused on your problem. It's absolutely devastating for him
to be able to play when in every other sport,
no matter the level, it deems an athlete and nagil
eligible or they are punished severely for betting on their team.
(20:30):
Another athletic director said this. He was unnamed, but he
said this to Yahoo's Sports. If this is now the president,
then I owe it to my players to bringing people
from Las Vegas to teach us how to gamble. Then
collectively we need to decide which games we will play
hard in to cover the spread in which ones we won't.
A lot of people believe this is a watershed moment
for college football as we know it right now.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
I can't believe. I can't believe it what the way
he did.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
That's why people are so surprised.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, that's the thing. You can't let that happen.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Even the lawyer, by the way, guys, and I forget
his name, but the lawyer who was in charge of
the nil payments, who really attacks the NCAA and the
majority of these cases and wins, he was not part
of this case. And even he was surprised that the
courts ruled this way.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
What could they possibly even think it? Seriously, this makes
you absolutely no side places.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
That kid got somebody some high places. That's what it is,
isn't it. It might be because I don't I mean,
like we've talked about this. It's it's there's a lot
of things out there, but in sports, the number one
taboo is gambling, right, And I know and part of this,
you hate to say it, part of this is the
(21:42):
greed of college sports in the NFL and pro sports
now with all of the interactions and intermingling with gambling
and the sights and being it, you know, all intertwined
into the business. Not saying that that's uh, you know,
that gives you a life since to go gamble. No,
but the accessibility is a lot greater than it than
(22:04):
it used to be. That being said, he don't get anything,
as they want to say, he don't get nothing to play.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
He does get suspended for the first two games. Two games,
I mean when you face the juggernaut Apley and Christian
opening weekend Rodney, I mean, come on, that's gotta coount
for something.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Come on, right they yeah, they did that sense, And
let's look at who do you guys open to win?
What's your first two games? Okay, we're gonna we're gonna
penalize you those those two games. Had those two games
been in November, you know, you know what, we don't
want to punish you at the beginning of the season,
So we're gonna wait for the seasons going a little bit.
Those two first two games in November, Yeah, those are
the ones we got a price sitting happen to be
against those two cup kicks.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
It is.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah, I feel bad for for anyone else out there,
or any other players that really got because some of
them people have gotten banned for life and gotten right
kicked out of school and all kinds of things have
happened to him. And here we are and a slap
on the rest at the very worst sit out. You
got to sit out a year before you can come back.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Remember, our friend Rick neuisl got fired at Washington for
for having a bracket challenge in the CAA tournament. It
wasn't even his own sport, and you got lost his
job over it.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
And now this you get banned in professional sports forgetting.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
You can't do that. You just can't do that. It's
really interesting that this ruling came.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Down and set a precedent. Now, and that's my point there.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
I was going to say that there's the president. What
do you mean I'm suspended? What do you mean I'm banned?
What are you talking about? Look, here's a legal ruling.
I just gotta sit out a game or two. Yeah,
you can't do.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
That, I will say. So there was a second game.
You know, Roddy Fred might take issue with you saying
that there were a cupcake. That's your Oregon State Beavers.
There are Fred. So there there're no walkover out there
in the new the newly meant at PAC twelve, you know,
moving on, I said what I see. So Sam Presty,
the GM of the Thunder, had a press conference earlier
(24:05):
today and he went off. He had like a seven
minute rant defending shake. Yo just Alexander. People were talking
about him foulbating. I'm gonna play a little bit of it,
and mostly people kind of understand where he's coming off here,
but he says a lot of people are using the
bully pulpit, is what he called it, when talking about
criticizing other people's players. Here's a little bit of what
Sam Press he had to say in his defense of
Shake Yo, justs Alexander and foul baiting.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
The postgame press conference has turned into the bully pulpit
to create competitive advantage.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
I mean, we know what that is.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
I mean, it used to be you get up there,
you talk about your own team. Now everyone gets up
there and they talk about the officials and they discredit
the other team and again like they're great competitors.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
So we know why that's happening.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
And I don't fault them because I think they may
think it works. So the question is why why are
they continuing to do it? Because there's financial incentives not
to do it, but everyone's competing. But let's also recognize
that it's the bully pulpit for competitive advantage, and that's
what it's kind of turned into, which is which is
part of competing I get we all get that. Relative
(25:13):
to Shay and the narrative on that. You know, he's
he's playing against six people. He's got five defenders and
the sixth defender social media, and you know that's a reality,
and he's not going to be the last player that
the machine decides to target. But no one's going to
(25:34):
handle this gracefully because when they turn it on somebody else,
they're not going to step up there every night and
not acknowledge it.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
But tell me how superstar it doesn't get bullied like
with social media, that doesn't have to go through certain
things like that. That's the territory when you're back to
back MVP. Unfortunately, that's a territory you got to deal with.
And I get it. You know he can't, you know, Shay,
He's not gonna go on a rant and defend himself
(26:09):
or anything like that, and it's up to the people
around him to do it. And then I credit Sam
Presty for sticking up for his guide. I really do.
But that's not act like Shae's the only one that
gets bullied in the press game or postgame press conference
or anything like that. From back in the day, there
was always guys said, Oh they get all the calls.
The magic used to get that. Oh he gets all
(26:31):
he just complains and gets all the calls and ah
blah blah blah blah. It happens when you're the guy,
and we do we live at a different time where
there's people like on the keyboard just wants to pick
and say this and say that with no concertquences and
you just can't let it in. That's the thing.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Sam Presty had to defend his guy, so you respect that.
The other side of it is it's an occupational hazard, right,
you fly above the cloud, sometimes you get hit with light.
You're the best player in the league or you know,
arguably in the top two, but you've been the MVP,
you make a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
This just comes with it. Is it fair? That's up
for you to decide. But that's just part of this
and that's.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
How it goes and it's not going to change and
quite frankly, it'll only get worse for people.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Sam also said, and I don't have the audio of this,
but he also defended chet Holmgren you know, because he
you know, got dominated by Winby and the Spurs in
that previous series. And he says he's our guy. He
did not say this explicitly, but it doesn't sound as
if there's any designs of them looking to trade him
at any point in time. He referenced the fact that
a lot of great players throughout their career start off
this way, where they have a tough struggle to begin
(27:41):
and they end up overcoming it, and that he's mentally
tough and he'll be able to do that. I found
it funny that at one point he referenced that Holmgren
was an underdog, which I find interesting considering he was
a McDonald's All American and like the second rated player
in his class when he came out. But that's neither
here nor there. He's defended his guy and underdog.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Freddy called him him for he's the underdog, the.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Best player in it, the best player in his class
when he came out, taken overall pick in the draft. Sure, okay,
whatever works.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Well, if he was a top pick in the draft,
you wouldn't have been an underdog.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
There you go see it. Okay, you're right, that's right.
Speaker 7 (28:11):
Fine, By the way, speaking to the NBA, for a
lot of people talking about and people have agendas and
don't even look at facts when it comes to this,
speaking of social media noise, saying like no one's watching
the NBA and it's ridiculous and all this.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
They actually had Game one of the NBA Finals. The
results are back. This is the highest rated Game one
of the NBA Finals that we've seen since twenty eighteen,
and that was the Stephen Katie Warriors their first year
playing against Lebron and the Cavaliers. And actually Game one
last week was rated higher than Game one of Yankees
Dodgers in the World Series back in twenty twenty four.
(28:47):
So we could talk about foul baiting, We can talk
about tanking rightfully, so we can talk about low management,
which I think there's a little bit less of nowadays
than it was a couple of years ago. It sounds
like from the returns, the NBA is doing just fine.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
No can talk about it's the Knicks and the Finals.
We can add that to that list.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Oh okay, with all the regular season ratings numbers I've
given you in the past two I mean I don't
believe those Okay, may just make those up.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Yeah, you just make those up. People believe this. No
U with the Knicks in the finals and the.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Way this works and Wimby that doesn't hurt.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
No, that's huge. And I said this before it started.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
I mean the Knicks, you're controlling New York, so that's
gonna be gigantic.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
That's number one. Number two.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Wemby, he's like a freak to most people, They've not
seen anything like him. He's like an Otani a basketball.
He's really tall, but he can do this, he can
do that, and you just want to see what he
can do. I think the combination of the two is
driving people to watch it. I think that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, I don't get that always. You know, it's the
same people say, oh, we're never watching the NFL. Ratings
are gonna tank. It's gonna tank. Do the loose, They're
not gonna be able to do anything. And the next
thing you know, they got the highest ratings that they
go to bat year. It's just I don't know why
people gotta sit back and hate without the facts. Right,
(30:07):
you got the New York Knicks in the NBA finals.
Of course the ratings are gonna be high. And then
like you said, you throw in Wimby. The freaking nature
in it. They're high I'm I'm sure the everybody thought
the ratings for okay see and the Spurs were gonna tank,
and I'm sure those things were through the roots. I
don't know the numbers, but I don't think they were
through the root. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
We talked about game one of that series a couple
of weeks ago, Rodney, and that was the highest rated
game one of a Western Conference finals since the Lakers
and Kings back in two thousand and two, the generation ago.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah, there you go. It's matchups number one. Obviously stars
in the game, but yeah, it's not going.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Anyway, and that's what's lighting up the headlines.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Okay, and we will come back and wrap this up.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
Make AM five seventy LA Sports a preset before you
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another easy way to listen to LA's best sports talk.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Thank you for hanging out with us on a beautiful Monday.
Roger Pete, fred Rogan, A couple of minutes left, Freddy,
what you got? All right? Do the next go up three?
All tonight? My mind says yes they do, but my
heart is telling me the Spurs find a way to
(31:32):
win Game three. That's kind of where I stand. It'll
be another nail biter, but I think that I think
the Spurs figure out a way to win.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Well, look at it like this. The Spurs better figure
out a way to win. That's pretty simple.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
They don't figure out a way, they don't win. If
they don't win tonight, they get swept. Yeah. Oh, I think, yeah,
get it done at home, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
I think the next Wendy night, I think they're going
to be out of their mind. I think this would
be the one night where they will be completely out
of their mind. That place is going to go insane.
Speaker 6 (32:11):
Me.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Sometimes that's a good thing. Sometimes that's a bad thing.
Where you're so hyped up to play back at home
and the crowd is so ready that it doesn't happen
for you. You got to settle yourself back down. Yeah.
But the thing is this Rodney.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I know it was crazy and nuts, and that's how
it is in San Antonio because you're at the NBA Finals.
It's nothing is going to compare. So what it's going
to be like in New York? And I thought the
stage was too big for the Spurs. I think the
stage has been too big for Wemby. Quite frankly, he's
made some mistakes because he's not there. He hasn't been
(32:45):
in this kind of environment yet. And down the road
they're going to be great. But I'll tell you this,
if you thought the stage was big in San Antonio,
you just wait till tonight.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah. I don't know if the stage is too big.
I don't because I think playing a thunder to defending champs,
the heated battle head back and forth, what I think
is they exhausted and market looted. To this Mark Madena
had alluded to this, they exhausted so much energy and
you could see them after and sometimes this happens with
a young team that finally gets there, that they exhausted
(33:19):
so much energy emotional, physical energy that when that series
was over, it was like they exhaled when they still
had one more series to go, and you could see
it on their faces. Weinby crying and there was a
big thing for them to get to the finals, whereas
I think the Knicks weren't about getting to the final.
They're about winning it, and that's the difference of a
(33:42):
young team. So I don't think it's so much of
being overwhelmed by the moment is that they they I think,
were happy to get there as opposed to focusing on
we got one more job to do. Remember that famous
speech by Kobe afterwards. Job not done exactly, Job not
done exactly. Yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
All right, Ronnie, thanks for today, great work, Kevin appreciate it.
Dodgers in Pittsburgh tomorrow, so we will have a very
short show and join you again at noon.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Rodney talked to you then. All right,
All right, we continue on Fred Rogan, Rodney Pete on
seventy LA sports Dodgers off today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
They needed a day off.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
You know, I had to fly east get that bad
taste out of their mouth after what happened yesterday. And
by the way, the way they've been playing that they
can have one of those occasionally, they can have one
of those. Let's bring out a man who's at every
one of them, every single one of them, our good friend,
David Vasse and Dave.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Good afternoon, Fred. Bad taste in their mouth. I'm glad
you quantified that after you said that. I mean, they
did take two out of three and beat the Angels
five out of six times this year after losing all
six last year. So that was a weird yesterday. Yeah,
I know, I know, but bad taste out of their mouths.
(00:48):
I mean, take a look at the standings.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, Fred, so greedy, You're just a typical greedy Dodger
fan thick five out of six from the Angels and
scored one hundred and seven two runs versus there or whatever.
So take that, ready, take that. You want him to
go one hundred and fifty two in.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Tenus in It's like, yeah, do you think the Dodgers
are wallowing in that lass from yesterday. Maybe Ema Shean is,
but that's it.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, what what happened with him yesterday? Day just wasn't
on it.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
It just wasn't on it. And you know, people are saying,
why why did Dave Roberts take him out in the
second inning? You got to leave him in there? Well,
I guess you could have, but that would have been
kind of irresponsible on Dave Roberts's part, And that's what
he said after the game. A guy that is just
what less than two years removed from coming back from
(01:42):
Tommy John surgery and he's starting thirty eight high stress
pitches in one inning. No starter is going to be
allowed to stay in there for forty pitches in one inning.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, you know, on the frick flip side of that, Dave,
it feels like Rokie sazaki them giving him a long leach,
allowing him to keep going back out there. Feels like
he's number one, gaining more confidence but also looking better, which.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Is yeah, for sure. Yeah, the confidence is there, Rodney,
because in his last six starts he's been so good.
Hitters are only hitting about two hundred against Roki Sasaki.
He's throwing more strikes and he just seems to have
a lot more mound presence. So the developmental part of
this where Roki is starting to pay off with the
Dodgers patience and really putting in a lot of resources
(02:32):
manpower time to try to get him up to speed
and get him back to the guy that everybody was
raving about when he was coming out of Japan. But
I will say this, I know everybody believes that there's
no looking back now. I feel like this is in
the developmental stage. Usually we don't see that at the
major league level. A very unique situation. But Roki did
(02:56):
dominate the Angels, dominate them twice. He had eighteen strikeouts,
he went seven fourteen innings seven innings each. So I
think it is a lot of Rokie, of course, but
I think we have to just understand the lineup that
he was facing. But certainly things are trending in the
right direction.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, and you mentioned in the walks, Dad was that
the biggest concern is command walks based on balls or
getting deep into counts and throwing a lot of pitches
early in his starts. And now that he feels like
he's that has deteriorated quite considerably, especially the walks. But
(03:37):
it felt early on when he was struggling that every
batter was at three to two, at three two, three
balls he was behind in the count. Has that been
an emphasis for him to work on his command and
make sure that he's throwing more strikes.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
That's number one. Games were going over three hours virtually
every time he pitched. The infielders and outfielders behind him
were just standing around, and it was becoming laborious even
for them because there was no action in the game.
There couldn't be in the action in the game because
he was throwing so many pitches and so many pitches
outside the strike zone that these guys were flat footed.
(04:14):
So that was a big problem. And I really believe
that there's been a couple of different things that have
gone into why he's been able to be better. His
number one confidence he's getting results. And also he did
change the grip on his split finger FORKBA forkball, where
it's a little bit more of a tighter grip and
(04:35):
a tighter spin. It's not so much of a knuckleball.
It's more of a harder pitch that goes east to
west and that's kept hitters off balance. But number one
is fastball command. He has it, he's stronger, he's sitting
one hundred again. That seems to be something that means
a lot to him, because if you remember when he
signed coming out of Japan, when teams recording him, he
(04:58):
gave the teams homework project that said, how will you
help me get my one hundred mile an hour fastball back?
And the Dodgers obviously have passed that homework test by
getting that one hundred mile an hour fastball back in
his last start.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Dave, let's talk about Tyler Glass. Now.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Now he's on the sixty day injured list, so ultimately
he's going to be gone for a while.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, a back injury that was supposed to only be
fifteen days now all of a sudden, his two months.
And look, I nobody can question whether or not there's
pain or what it is, but it seems it seems
like quite a departure from a minor situation to a
situation where Glass now can't even play catch. I watched
(05:46):
him play catch a couple of times and it just
seemed very light catch. And after those plays, the day
after he was reporting soreness in his lower back. So
I feel it's like, look, it's a situation where a
guy that has had a career of having injuries has
(06:08):
another injury, and I think at this stage of his career,
I don't feel like it's unfair to say he's injury
prone because he's injured every year.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, it's a shame. We talked about a little bit
earlier because he you know, had a stretch there he
was pretty good and going back to the injury which
has followed him since Tampa Bay. Speaking of injuries, how's
Max Munsey's head?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
He's fine. He was actually the day that he didn't
start against the Angels, he came off the bench as
a pin shitters. So he seems fine, And I'm thinking
it was more of a situation where if there was
any residual effect from that collision, there would be a
lot of body soretness, which which I'm sure he has
to a certain extent. But he's back in there. He's fine,
(06:55):
and I think maybe greater cause for concern is the
fact that Will Smith has missed the last two games
with a stiff neck, and Dave Roberts couldn't say definitively
whether or not will will be catching tomorrow night in Pittsburgh.
Maybe he's got Skeen's idis, maybe that neck that he's
(07:17):
not going to loosen up until Wednesday after Skiens pitches.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Hey, not so quietly kept a lot of folks as
Skiens itis.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Hello, Hey Dave, we kicked this around last week. We
haven't talked to you about it. So the Tigers are
gonna have to move Trek school.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
We know that.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Ten the Dodgers or one of the Dodgers put together
enough of a package to get him without a guarantee
that they'll be able to hold him after the season.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Yeah. The stance I have on all that said is, hey,
can we just see Trek Scooble pitch in a major
league game? I know he had a successful first rehab
start and it's unbelievable how well he pitched. But the
trade deadlines not until August second, and the Tigers GM
Scott Harris is a guy that is very disciplined to
(08:08):
his ideas and his thoughts about players and whether or
not he should trade a Trek Schooble or not. So
it still remains to be seen whether or not he
will do what everybody believes he should and that's to
trade Trek Schouoble. But there's a lot of time between
where we're at right now and the second day of August,
(08:28):
when the trade deadline happens, to see whether or not
the Tigers can get back into a very weak Al
Central race. So I just feel like there's a lot
of time between now and then and for everybody to
start coming up with trade packages about what the Dodgers
may or not need or do. It's so premature.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Because he's been here for three years already and just
have we and people kind of gone a little. It
feels like a little numb to the greatness of Otani
in what he's doing so far this year. I mean,
hitting over three hundred is ere as low as he's
number one at war. I mean his ops is in
(09:13):
the top three. I believe he's just doing everything from
both sides right now, and it just feels like we
expect it out of him. It's not as amazing as
it probably should be reported of what he's doing, especially
this year.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Yeah, it feels after that starting Arizona Rodney, people are
starting to take notice of what he's doing. And the
reality is is he's no longer in a slump anymore.
He has coming out of that first month slump and
is at the top of all the offensive leaders in
Major League Baseball, along with being one of, if I
(09:52):
would say, one of the top three pitchers in Major
League Baseball. So it feels like ever since he's come
out of that slump and now all of a sudden
and is back to being the Otani hitter that we
know him to be. People are starting to recognize what
Joey Vado pointed out a couple of weeks ago on
the Dan Patrick Show before anybody else, and that's the
(10:12):
fact that we may be witnessing the greatest single season
by any pair. And right now I would say we are.
I you know, I know everybody talks about Christopher Sanchez,
they talk about some you know, hitters, but who combined
Christopher Sanchez with Ben Rice And that's show Hey Otani
(10:33):
and he's done it year in and year out, and
that's why he's a four time MVP. So I feel
like people on the outside are starting to recognize the
fact that we may be witnessing the single greatest season
we've ever seen in Major League Baseball history.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
You know, people love to kick that around d I
think you're right. By the way, there's no one that
can do what he can do. And when you go
back you have to consider Babe.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
It's like, would you say.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah, they're always looking for an excuse. Like Rob Parker,
your old buddy, showed up at Dodgers Stadium yesterday and
he's like showing me the teams that Otani has pitched against.
And I said, to a certain extent, yeah, that's true,
but he's still doing it. Everybody wants to poke holes,
whether it's who he's pitching against or you know, when
he wasn't hitting. All the pitching's taken away from the hitting,
(11:23):
and he's not hitting now the Dodgers need him as
a hitter. Well, he silenced all the critics in every
single way over the course of the last three weeks.
And it feels like, you know, anytime he does have
a slump, people will try to poke holes into a season.
But instead of doing that, I mean Fred and Rodney,
you guys have seen this in the NBA, the NFL.
(11:45):
You know, the great ones, whether it's Brady or Jordan,
or Kobe or Shack. It doesn't feel like when it's
happening in the moment people give these guys their due.
It's only until like ten years after they're done playing
people go back and re examine their season then say, man,
we should have appreciated that a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, that's a that's a fact. And I can't think
back into all those names you mentioned. Maybe you know
that last season in Chicago for Jordan, people started to
really appreciate him, but it wasn't until then when it
was feeling like it was the end of that run.
But up until then, You're right, I don't think people
really appreciated him in the moment, and certainly certainly not
(12:27):
Kobe and Shaq and some of the other ones that
you mentioned. It's it's it's real. It's really interesting in
this time and with so much information, so much social media,
that it goes like it's like hole home, like he's
supposed to do it. No, it's the hardest thing in
the world to be able to pitch at that level
and still hit three hundred. It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, I'm with you, Rodney. I just feel like I
feel like everybody doesn't want to give Otani what he deserves,
and I don't know, it's I know there's a Somemo
Tani fatigue out there. But the reason why people are
talking about him as much as they are is because
we're seeing something that nobody ever thought could be done
(13:10):
at this level in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
See Dave, here's the issue. I know you gotta go.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I know you gotta go. As a matter of fact,
I'll just pick it up because I know you probably
got to run. Thanks for doing this. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Okay, do you take it from here?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
See Dave, No, because he's not always a very tight
time schedule. Rodney, Yeah, I know, I know, I know.
I'll give it to us. That's great. Love that.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, here's the thing. We talked about it last week.
Here's the issue. When someone is that talented, that unique,
and that special, and we'll start with here in LA,
when someone is that talented and unique, there is an
expectation they will deliver. You See, they've set the standard
so high that for anyone else it is impossible to
(13:57):
achieve it. But that is the expectation for this individual.
And I think mentally, the only thing you actually acknowledge,
because you know how incredible it is, is if they
do not live up to that. That's why great players
oftentimes don't get their due because expectations are so high
(14:17):
and their expectations ultimately that they've set.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, because they're Yeah, you're comparing them against themselves. That's
exactly right. Yeah, yeah, Because you remember he came on
burst on the scene with the Dodgers. He couldn't pitch.
What did he do? He goes fifty to fifty, the
first player in history go fifty to fifty. Right, I
can't pitch, but I'm gonna show you something else, right.
And then and then he comes back and pitches half
(14:41):
the season, still hits fifty home runs. But I think
now it's like people look at them and go heast,
He's not necessarily on page for the fifty home runs.
So it doesn't feel like that first year where he
was hitting home runs and stealing bases. He was just
doing so many things even though he didn't pitch. His
presence was just a domin it force where I think
(15:02):
people have gotten used to that, like you said, in
the last couple of years. And and the ball's not
even though he's got what ten eleven home runs something
like that, it's still not flying out the ballpark the
rate that it was those first two years, and so
people are like, well, he's not what he's not at
the plate, he's not what he was the you know,
first year he got here. Well, still a long season, guys, now, yeah,
(15:25):
and he got to he was in start out in
a bad slump. But now he's out of it, hitting
three hundred and doing what he's doing on the mound. Yeah,
you gotta you gotta really appreciate it, you really do,
and stop and focus on what he's actually doing at
this level. And I brought up before. You know, there
are a lot of guys in college that did both
that pitched and hit and were pretty good. But when
(15:47):
you've got to do it at this level, it's the
best of the best. It's it's truly remarkable what he's doing. Yeah,
it really is. And just consider that for a second.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
I think around the country people do have an expectation
that he will perform, but I think they have more
of an appreciation because if you don't see him or
hear about him every day, he's sort of like a
freak right here.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
He is What do he do tonight? For us here?
We just well, that's what he does. I mean, he
went out two games ago and he won and he
thought he pitched poorly. Right, I wasn't very good. You
didn't give up, you didn't up a run, but I
wasn't very good.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
That's but that's the level of expectation he's placed himself at.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I think I think two. I think people are not
they're separating the two fred. I think they they look
at him and go, okay. Pitching wise, all right, so
you got school who's not pitching out. But you've got
Paul Skemes, you got Christopher Sanchez, who are just going
and having great, great years, even on his own team.
(17:04):
Some would argue that Yamamoto might be the better pitcher
just from a pitching standpoint, and then you flip and
go to hitting standpoint. Is he is he the most
dominating hitter? Do we look at him like we looked
at you know, Ken Griffy Junior, Barry Bonds? You know,
does it that same kind of tenacity, that same kind
(17:26):
of oh my god, is going four hundred feet into
the water. Every at bat is gonna be either a
home run or double off the wall. He's more of
a long play kind of guy. So he can go
zero for four, and he can go one for five.
He can do this and that. So I think individually
people look at it. Is he the best hittering league?
(17:47):
Maybe not? Is he the best picture maybe not? And
they lump that together without going well he's doing both,
and they go, well, okay, So I'm not as impressed.
He's not the best hitter in the game. He's not
the best pitcher in the game. He's maybe top three,
top four, but he's not the best. So that's that's
(18:10):
why I can't get overly excited. I think people's mind. Kevin,
do we know? Do you have a cheese for it's lit?
Speaker 4 (18:18):
I do, Fred? You want it now?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yes? Well, if I asked for it after the break,
then that's a problem. Oh wow, I believe it slip.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Well instead of asking me to say, keV, what's coming
up next in its lid?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Well, Fred, okay, keV, what's coming up next to it?
Speaker 5 (18:32):
Well?
Speaker 4 (18:33):
You know, with all these different conferences and affiliations in
college sports, nobody ever agrees on anything until today. We'll
talk about that coming up next?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Oh juicy? What we will answer. We'll have the answer
to that question when we come back.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
Hello Rogan and Rodney, listener, did you know AM five
seventy LA Sports has a wide range of LA Sports
podcasts shows like Petros in Money, We are streaming Matt
Dodger Talk with David Vasse.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
The Dodger Podcast of Record.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Clipper Talk with Ada Musk, follow us All, and many more.
Just go to a five to seventy LA Sports on
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Oh Yeah, Let's keep it moving. Rodney Pete, Fred Rogan
on a Monday hit it keV.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Is lit.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
Stories lighting up their sports headbox.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Ro story've been talking about for the last couple of
weeks is Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorosby bet on his
own team when he played at the University of Indiana.
Admitted that he had a gambling addiction and he had
been banned by the NCAA because he bet on his
own team. It went to the courts, he won a
temporary injunction, then the NCAA appealed, then it was put
on hold. This morning, it officially came down from a judge.
(19:49):
He is now eligible to play, and this set off
a giant firestorm across the college football landscape. Several people
were upset that he was able to keep his eligibility
the Big Twelve. There was even rumors. I had a
lot of schools in the Big Twelve for trying to
petition the conference to say they don't want to play
against Texas Tech because the ruling like this came down.
There was a the ad at Kansas State and he
(20:09):
set this on the record quote it's fingbs, and he
did not say fingbs. He actually sat the words. He says,
I know the kid has a problem, Well get well
and focused on your problem. It's absolutely devastating for him
to be able to play when in every other sport,
no matter the level, it deems an athlete and nagil
eligible or they are punished severely for betting on their team.
(20:30):
Another athletic director said this. He was unnamed, but he
said this to Yahoo's Sports. If this is now the president,
then I owe it to my players to bringing people
from Las Vegas to teach us how to gamble. Then
collectively we need to decide which games we will play
hard in to cover the spread in which ones we won't.
A lot of people believe this is a watershed moment
for college football as we know it right now.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
I can't believe. I can't believe it what the way
he did.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
That's why people are so surprised.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, that's the thing. You can't let that happen.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Even the lawyer, by the way, guys, and I forget
his name, but the lawyer who was in charge of
the nil payments, who really attacks the NCAA and the
majority of these cases and wins, he was not part
of this case. And even he was surprised that the
courts ruled this way.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
What could they possibly even think it? Seriously, this makes
you absolutely no side places.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
That kid got somebody some high places. That's what it is,
isn't it. It might be because I don't I mean,
like we've talked about this. It's it's there's a lot
of things out there, but in sports, the number one
taboo is gambling, right, And I know and part of this,
you hate to say it, part of this is the
(21:42):
greed of college sports in the NFL and pro sports
now with all of the interactions and intermingling with gambling
and the sights and being it, you know, all intertwined
into the business. Not saying that that's uh, you know,
that gives you a life since to go gamble. No,
but the accessibility is a lot greater than it than
(22:04):
it used to be. That being said, he don't get anything,
as they want to say, he don't get nothing to play.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
He does get suspended for the first two games. Two games,
I mean when you face the juggernaut Apley and Christian
opening weekend Rodney, I mean, come on, that's gotta coount
for something.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Come on, right they yeah, they did that sense, And
let's look at who do you guys open to win?
What's your first two games? Okay, we're gonna we're gonna
penalize you those those two games. Had those two games
been in November, you know, you know what, we don't
want to punish you at the beginning of the season,
So we're gonna wait for the seasons going a little bit.
Those two first two games in November, Yeah, those are
the ones we got a price sitting happen to be
against those two cup kicks.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
It is.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah, I feel bad for for anyone else out there,
or any other players that really got because some of
them people have gotten banned for life and gotten right
kicked out of school and all kinds of things have
happened to him. And here we are and a slap
on the rest at the very worst sit out. You
got to sit out a year before you can come back.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Remember, our friend Rick neuisl got fired at Washington for
for having a bracket challenge in the CAA tournament. It
wasn't even his own sport, and you got lost his
job over it.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
And now this you get banned in professional sports forgetting.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
You can't do that. You just can't do that. It's
really interesting that this ruling came.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Down and set a precedent. Now, and that's my point there.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
I was going to say that there's the president. What
do you mean I'm suspended? What do you mean I'm banned?
What are you talking about? Look, here's a legal ruling.
I just gotta sit out a game or two. Yeah,
you can't do.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
That, I will say. So there was a second game.
You know, Roddy Fred might take issue with you saying
that there were a cupcake. That's your Oregon State Beavers.
There are Fred. So there there're no walkover out there
in the new the newly meant at PAC twelve, you know,
moving on, I said what I see. So Sam Presty,
the GM of the Thunder, had a press conference earlier
(24:05):
today and he went off. He had like a seven
minute rant defending shake. Yo just Alexander. People were talking
about him foulbating. I'm gonna play a little bit of it,
and mostly people kind of understand where he's coming off here,
but he says a lot of people are using the
bully pulpit, is what he called it, when talking about
criticizing other people's players. Here's a little bit of what
Sam Press he had to say in his defense of
Shake Yo, justs Alexander and foul baiting.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
The postgame press conference has turned into the bully pulpit
to create competitive advantage.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
I mean, we know what that is.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
I mean, it used to be you get up there,
you talk about your own team. Now everyone gets up
there and they talk about the officials and they discredit
the other team and again like they're great competitors.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
So we know why that's happening.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
And I don't fault them because I think they may
think it works. So the question is why why are
they continuing to do it? Because there's financial incentives not
to do it, but everyone's competing. But let's also recognize
that it's the bully pulpit for competitive advantage, and that's
what it's kind of turned into, which is which is
part of competing I get we all get that. Relative
(25:13):
to Shay and the narrative on that. You know, he's
he's playing against six people. He's got five defenders and
the sixth defender social media, and you know that's a reality,
and he's not going to be the last player that
the machine decides to target. But no one's going to
(25:34):
handle this gracefully because when they turn it on somebody else,
they're not going to step up there every night and
not acknowledge it.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
But tell me how superstar it doesn't get bullied like
with social media, that doesn't have to go through certain
things like that. That's the territory when you're back to
back MVP. Unfortunately, that's a territory you got to deal with.
And I get it. You know he can't, you know, Shay,
He's not gonna go on a rant and defend himself
(26:09):
or anything like that, and it's up to the people
around him to do it. And then I credit Sam
Presty for sticking up for his guide. I really do.
But that's not act like Shae's the only one that
gets bullied in the press game or postgame press conference
or anything like that. From back in the day, there
was always guys said, Oh they get all the calls.
The magic used to get that. Oh he gets all
(26:31):
he just complains and gets all the calls and ah
blah blah blah blah. It happens when you're the guy,
and we do we live at a different time where
there's people like on the keyboard just wants to pick
and say this and say that with no concertquences and
you just can't let it in. That's the thing.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Sam Presty had to defend his guy, so you respect that.
The other side of it is it's an occupational hazard, right,
you fly above the cloud, sometimes you get hit with light.
You're the best player in the league or you know,
arguably in the top two, but you've been the MVP,
you make a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
This just comes with it. Is it fair? That's up
for you to decide. But that's just part of this
and that's.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
How it goes and it's not going to change and
quite frankly, it'll only get worse for people.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Sam also said, and I don't have the audio of this,
but he also defended chet Holmgren you know, because he
you know, got dominated by Winby and the Spurs in
that previous series. And he says he's our guy. He
did not say this explicitly, but it doesn't sound as
if there's any designs of them looking to trade him
at any point in time. He referenced the fact that
a lot of great players throughout their career start off
this way, where they have a tough struggle to begin
(27:41):
and they end up overcoming it, and that he's mentally
tough and he'll be able to do that. I found
it funny that at one point he referenced that Holmgren
was an underdog, which I find interesting considering he was
a McDonald's All American and like the second rated player
in his class when he came out. But that's neither
here nor there. He's defended his guy and underdog.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Freddy called him him for he's the underdog, the.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Best player in it, the best player in his class
when he came out, taken overall pick in the draft. Sure, okay,
whatever works.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Well, if he was a top pick in the draft,
you wouldn't have been an underdog.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
There you go see it. Okay, you're right, that's right.
Speaker 7 (28:11):
Fine, By the way, speaking to the NBA, for a
lot of people talking about and people have agendas and
don't even look at facts when it comes to this,
speaking of social media noise, saying like no one's watching
the NBA and it's ridiculous and all this.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
They actually had Game one of the NBA Finals. The
results are back. This is the highest rated Game one
of the NBA Finals that we've seen since twenty eighteen,
and that was the Stephen Katie Warriors their first year
playing against Lebron and the Cavaliers. And actually Game one
last week was rated higher than Game one of Yankees
Dodgers in the World Series back in twenty twenty four.
(28:47):
So we could talk about foul baiting, We can talk
about tanking rightfully, so we can talk about low management,
which I think there's a little bit less of nowadays
than it was a couple of years ago. It sounds
like from the returns, the NBA is doing just fine.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
No can talk about it's the Knicks and the Finals.
We can add that to that list.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Oh okay, with all the regular season ratings numbers I've
given you in the past two I mean I don't
believe those Okay, may just make those up.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Yeah, you just make those up. People believe this. No
U with the Knicks in the finals and the.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Way this works and Wimby that doesn't hurt.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
No, that's huge. And I said this before it started.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
I mean the Knicks, you're controlling New York, so that's
gonna be gigantic.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
That's number one. Number two.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Wemby, he's like a freak to most people, They've not
seen anything like him. He's like an Otani a basketball.
He's really tall, but he can do this, he can
do that, and you just want to see what he
can do. I think the combination of the two is
driving people to watch it. I think that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, I don't get that always. You know, it's the
same people say, oh, we're never watching the NFL. Ratings
are gonna tank. It's gonna tank. Do the loose, They're
not gonna be able to do anything. And the next
thing you know, they got the highest ratings that they
go to bat year. It's just I don't know why
people gotta sit back and hate without the facts. Right,
(30:07):
you got the New York Knicks in the NBA finals.
Of course the ratings are gonna be high. And then
like you said, you throw in Wimby. The freaking nature
in it. They're high I'm I'm sure the everybody thought
the ratings for okay see and the Spurs were gonna tank,
and I'm sure those things were through the roots. I
don't know the numbers, but I don't think they were
through the root. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
We talked about game one of that series a couple
of weeks ago, Rodney, and that was the highest rated
game one of a Western Conference finals since the Lakers
and Kings back in two thousand and two, the generation ago.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah, there you go. It's matchups number one. Obviously stars
in the game, but yeah, it's not going.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Anyway, and that's what's lighting up the headlines.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Okay, and we will come back and wrap this up.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
Make AM five seventy LA Sports a preset before you
plug in your fulle presets in the iHeart Radio app
now available with Apple car Play and Android autom Just
another easy way to listen to LA's best sports talk.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Thank you for hanging out with us on a beautiful Monday.
Roger Pete, fred Rogan, A couple of minutes left, Freddy,
what you got? All right? Do the next go up three?
All tonight? My mind says yes they do, but my
heart is telling me the Spurs find a way to
(31:32):
win Game three. That's kind of where I stand. It'll
be another nail biter, but I think that I think
the Spurs figure out a way to win.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Well, look at it like this. The Spurs better figure
out a way to win. That's pretty simple.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
They don't figure out a way, they don't win. If
they don't win tonight, they get swept. Yeah. Oh, I think, yeah,
get it done at home, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
I think the next Wendy night, I think they're going
to be out of their mind. I think this would
be the one night where they will be completely out
of their mind. That place is going to go insane.
Speaker 6 (32:11):
Me.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Sometimes that's a good thing. Sometimes that's a bad thing.
Where you're so hyped up to play back at home
and the crowd is so ready that it doesn't happen
for you. You got to settle yourself back down. Yeah.
But the thing is this Rodney.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I know it was crazy and nuts, and that's how
it is in San Antonio because you're at the NBA Finals.
It's nothing is going to compare. So what it's going
to be like in New York? And I thought the
stage was too big for the Spurs. I think the
stage has been too big for Wemby. Quite frankly, he's
made some mistakes because he's not there. He hasn't been
(32:45):
in this kind of environment yet. And down the road
they're going to be great. But I'll tell you this,
if you thought the stage was big in San Antonio,
you just wait till tonight.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah. I don't know if the stage is too big.
I don't because I think playing a thunder to defending champs,
the heated battle head back and forth, what I think
is they exhausted and market looted. To this Mark Madena
had alluded to this, they exhausted so much energy and
you could see them after and sometimes this happens with
a young team that finally gets there, that they exhausted
(33:19):
so much energy emotional, physical energy that when that series
was over, it was like they exhaled when they still
had one more series to go, and you could see
it on their faces. Weinby crying and there was a
big thing for them to get to the finals, whereas
I think the Knicks weren't about getting to the final.
They're about winning it, and that's the difference of a
(33:42):
young team. So I don't think it's so much of
being overwhelmed by the moment is that they they I think,
were happy to get there as opposed to focusing on
we got one more job to do. Remember that famous
speech by Kobe afterwards. Job not done exactly, Job not
done exactly. Yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
All right, Ronnie, thanks for today, great work, Kevin appreciate it.
Dodgers in Pittsburgh tomorrow, so we will have a very
short show and join you again at noon.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Rodney talked to you then. All right,
Roggin And Rodney News
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