7/15 H2: David Vassegh; Rodney speaks on media-player relationships

David Vassegh joins us to talk about where the Dodgers stand at the All-Star break. Rodney talks about the respect that players will have for media members who are fair and honest in their criticism.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All right, we continue on FredRogan, Rodney Pete on seventy LA Sports,
the difference between soccer players and athletesin this country. That's coming up
later, and Dodger fans Panic metertime, Are you have one? Are
you concerned? We'll open the phonelines and give you a chance to talk
about that coming up as well.But now let's bring on David Bassay a

(00:22):
special edition of Dodger Talk tonight.John Schmaltz will be his guest, and
Dave Good Afternoon. Hey guys,Hello Dave, Hello, Dave. Oh
y, how was your weekend?Dave? It was better than the Dodgers
weekend? Damn right, it wasgeez Dave, Dave. I mean,

(00:43):
we're going to have some people talkabout this, and you know Fred is
always on his panic meter where heis years in the past he would be
all the way red on the panicmeter. Is it panic time? Dave?
I want to say it's panic time, but certainly the Dodge have to
get their house in order. Again. This is not something that just crept

(01:04):
up in the last road trip orthe last two games. If you go
back to May twenty first, they'rea game under five hundred, so there
has been cracks in the armor goingthat far back, and really it's dems
with the starting pitching. It's incrediblethat Dodgers thought they had shored up their

(01:25):
starting pitching and here they are again, you know, calling up River Ryan
to start the second half of theseason, having to have Justin Robleski and
Land and Knack make their major leaguedebuts in the first half of this year.
Obviously, they did not expect Yoshiyamamototo go down two months into his
major league career. So and BobbyMiller being sent down, they were that

(01:49):
was not part of the plan.Yeah, So, Dave, when you
look at it, and that's whatI was saying to Rodney earlier. They
thought going in they were okay pitchingwise, but they we certainly didn't expect
all of this, And then youadd Walker Buela to the mix, and
now Dustin May has done with theesophagus. There was no way they even
imagined that anything like this could happen. All they have to do now is

(02:12):
find pitching. The question, Daveis how much could they possibly trade for
or will they trade for? Yeah, that still remains to be seen.
Fred. I know Garrett Crochet isdefinitely still on their radar. The Rangers
have been defiant that they are notgoing to be sellers, but if that
changes between now and July thirtieth,former Dodger Nathan Vivaldi would be an attractive

(02:37):
starting pitcher for any contending teams.So there are pictures to be had out
there. Nobody that is like ideallythe guy that you would It's no Garret
Cole on the market or at JustinVernlander or are you darbish? But certainly
Garrett Crochet, even with the inningslimitations that he may or may not have,

(03:00):
certainly is the prize of the tradedeadline. And look, you mentioned
Dustin May and Walker Buehler. IfDustin May came back in September, it
was going to be as a reliever, and that could have given the Dodger
bullpen a big boost. Walker Buehler, I mean I never for all of
you that were counting on this guylike it was a certainty he was coming

(03:21):
back. I was never sold onthat. And he's somewhere in Florida right
now trying to get himself straight witha hip and his pitching issues. I
don't believe that's the guy you couldcount on either it's crazy to believe that
Clayton Krushaw might be the one guythat you can count on to come back

(03:42):
if he came out of his reapsstart feeling good. Hey, hey,
Dave, real quick, can youcan you tell us exactly what happened to
Dustin may Or. We think itis like physical arm and all of a
sudden, it's as esophagus. Whatare some details on that? Well,
the only information I have is whatthe Dodgers put out there and what I
tweeted out over the weekend regarding it. He was at dinner on Wednesday and

(04:08):
he had sudden pain in his esophagusand stomach that continued when he was at
home, and then he contacted themedical staff and he he underwent surgery for
his torn esophagus. So very freak. I've heard of one other Dodger prospect

(04:30):
that they drafted in twenty sixteen.He never made it to the major leagues,
but made it to the bachelorette asa contestant, and he also had
a torn esophagus. Made it tothe bachelorette. Yeah, never made it
to the big leagues, but hemade it to the bachelorette. He gave
just talking about pitching, you know, and now forecasting down the road and

(04:51):
trying to think about what could happenfor the playoffs, and let's say everything
went the hell, and I meanit is what it is, playoffs Diamondbacks
now right, Well I know that, but I'm still assuming they're going to
make the playoffs. Oh that's whateverybody seems to believe. But you got
to get there. I understand.I understand. That's why I'm not panic.

(05:12):
But do you do you try totrade for a couple of pitchers not
one? I mean, if thiscontinues, they're going to need pitching.
And again, you know, themore you trade for, the more you
give up. Do you think they'reall in this year? I mean,
what their off season was like tellsus that they were. I mean,
that was the message they sent.Their payroll is three hundred and twenty five

(05:38):
million dollars, So why would youstop there? You know, if they're
willing to go that far with theluxury tax, why would they stop?
So they're all in, it's justwhether or not they can find a trade
partner. Yeah, and Dave,we talked a lot about pitching, but
you know, over the weekend andin in recent In recent weeks, it's
also been clutch hitting, timely hittingrunners, and scoring position Dave. That's

(06:01):
been a struggle for the Dodgers aswell. Is this All Star break happening
at the right time or is ithappening at the wrong time. Maybe they
can need to continue playing and getsome guys back and getting some reps.
What do you think? I wouldsay the All Star breaks coming at a
great time for the Dodgers, Rodney, considering how they ran out of pitching

(06:25):
in that series in Detroit, Iwould say it has come at a perfect
time for them to regroup and figuresomething out for the second half of the
season. The only problem is theirpitching situation is not going to change just
because of the All Star Break.You're still not going to have Yamamoto,
You're still not going to have WalkerBuehler, You're still not going to have

(06:47):
Tyler Glass now, at least forthe first part of the Homestand so that's
the reason why now there's reports thatthey're going to call up River Ryan because
they don't have anybody else. Sothe pitching issues is not being cured by
the All Star break. What itdoes is give your bullpen a breather because
they've been pitching mornings than they everhave all season long leading into the break,

(07:13):
Dave, as long as you've knownDave Roberts, is this the most
frustrated he's been. Yeah. Ifeel like his hands are tied to a
certain extent. He only has theplayers that he has to go to.
Yesterday. I have a few questionsabout the way that game ended, but
the facts are, you know,his starting pitching is not going deep into

(07:33):
the game, and they got adecent start from Brent Honeywell, if your
bullpens, then why wouldn't you letyour starter go a little bit further?
I know the pitch count all that, and where are some of these other
pitchers, the starting pitchers that didn'tthrow that many pitches in their last start.

(07:55):
Why weren't they available the last daybefore the All Star break? I'm
looking at landon Nack. Why wasn'tlandon Nack voluntary to pitch a couple of
innings to help the burden of thebullpen. Yeah? No, absolutely,
When you're in a slide like thatand you're very thin, why not,
especially when knowing you got a breakcoming up? Dave? Why wouldn't you

(08:16):
exhaust that, especially with some ofthe young guys, the guys you brought
up. Is there any any concernsat all about TI Oscar and home run
derby and all of that. No, not at all. That's a myth,
Rodney that the home run derby putyou in. Say that again.
Say that again, Dave, that'sa myth. That's exactly right, it's

(08:37):
a myth. We're still living offof Bobby of Brayh's bad second half in
the early nineties. So I mean, tell me another player that's had a
second half soon because of the homerun derby. Yeah, Fred, I
didn't say that, but I wasnot the one that said that, not
this time at least, Dave.First half great for the Dodgers. I

(08:58):
think, given everything they've been throughand the lack of pitching, I think
it's a B plus. I mean, given where they're at right now.
Am I being too generous? Yeah? You are, I would say so.
I would definitely say B plus istoo generous. I would say,
you know, it's hard for meto give a great thread. Their record
speaks for itself, and their recordssince middle of May speaks for itself.

(09:22):
They've been an average team. Hey, Hey, Dave. You know,
I've been on a few teams.There's teams that when you're when you're struggling
and the season is long, likeyou know this, we all know that,
especially you, that that's inside it. You know, the ebbs and
flows go with the baseball season orany season for that matter, and then
you know, when those downtimes arebad times start to happen, you got

(09:43):
leaders that step up and they youknow, there'll be some team meetings.
And then I've been on teams wherenobody they really didn't want to have team
meetings because it was you know,same old guys talking, saying the same
old thing, and it's just amatter of going out and playing and not
having these these multiple team meetings toget ourselves. I was on track in
the Dodgers clubhouse. When something ishappening like this, do they come together

(10:09):
as as teams without Dave Robertson themanager or coaches around, or is it
just is a part of the ebbsand flows of a season. And who
are the leaders that are being vocalin the clubhouse day that can kind of,
you know, help write this shipor just kind of get everybody back
on the same page. Well,those conversations nowadays, from my experience with

(10:31):
the Dodgers, happens in hitters meetings, first game of the series, first
game back. I'm sure when theDodgers regroup before that first game on Friday
at Dodgers Stadium, there's a greaterchance Dave Roberts or these players may you
know, have some sort of somesort of words for each other to hang
in there and you know, don'tstart pointing the fingers, try to stay

(10:54):
together. Jason Hayward's that guy.I'm not sure who else there is,
and that may be part of theissue here as well. It's who is
that guy for the Dodgers. Usuallyit's not one guy, it's usually multiple
guys. I know in the bullpenthey have a few of those guys.
Who in the starting rotation, whoas position players? Are those guys?

(11:15):
And it can't just be a roleplayer. I know Jason Hayward has a
lot of respect from the team,but you know he's on the il,
he's supposed to come back. Whereare some of the best players on this
team when you need him the mostto be that type of guy? All
right? Lotly again, Dodger Talktonight, Dave John Smoltz your guest,
right, John Smoltz is the guest, and we'll actually do our top ten

(11:39):
plays of the first half tonight.Nice. All right, Dave, thanks
for coming on. Okay, thanksguys, Bobby A brave you by the
way, home run Derby two thousandand five, bad second half two thousand
and five. There it is nextup on the Petros and any number tours

(12:00):
is Friday and Nelsigundo and it's broughtto you in part by Angel CITYFC.
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Wave. Get your tickets today atAngelcity dot com. All right, Dodger

(12:24):
fans, you heard David vasse ourone. We talked about it. Anybody
panic? Anybody concerned? Where's yourpanic meter? You know how it goes?
Green? Good? Orange man concernedread I'm in full blown panic mode.
Eight six six, nine eighty seven, two five seventy. Let's hear
from you next. Oh, let'skeep it moving. Many thanks to our

(12:46):
man David vasse breaking it down.You know, the best part about David
Vassay is that he uh, hedoesn't he doesn't uh. He can never
be called a a homer fred ora guy that just you know, sugar
coats things when it comes to theDodgers. He speaks his mind. He
speaks it like it is. Andyou gotta love that about him, because

(13:07):
you know, there's a lot ofguys in a lot of towns that work
for a club that all they dois they they're a buffer and they want
a sugar coat things. They'll neversay anything bad about the club or anything
like that. And and David justkeeps it real for us man, and
that's why he's, uh, he'sone of the best in the business.
Yeah, he really does. Hecalls it the way he sees it.

(13:28):
And I think that's why he hasthe respect of all the players too,
Rodney, because he's abundantly honest inwhat he says, and because he's putting
all the work and taken all thetime. He's normally right. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, like yousaid, he'd done it. He's done
his homework on every level, fromthe player's perspective, from the manager perspective,

(13:50):
from front office perspective, he's gotall the angles. And again,
it's so it would be so easyjust to toe the company line and say,
oh, everything's fine and this guy'sgood to He's called out guys and
we're like, whoa calling them out? Dave? How's that working? How's
that land in the clubhouse? Andlike, your point is they respect him

(14:11):
for that, which I always didtoo. I always respected a guy if
he was gonna if he was gonnarip me after a game, or he
was gonna get on me about myperformance to it. But don't be don't
do it from afar be, youknow, don't be afraid to come back
in the locker room afterwards. IfI have a difference of opinion or I

(14:31):
don't I disagree with you, lookme in the eye and say, hey,
I this is what I'm gonna writeor this is what I said,
and I stand by it. Youtell me something different and wanted the real
answer from me or what really happened. Always respected those guys, and that's
why those guys like David are welcomein the locker room because they shoot you

(14:52):
straight. But they are not goingto just be a yes person for the
either the club or the individual.So it's good, good for him,
and we're glad and leck it happened. Is the other side of that to
Rodney, if somebody, if somebodytook you to task, got a performance,
if they were honest, just behonest, Just be fair. Yeah,

(15:13):
you know, I would always sayin our business, you know,
because people wrote about us back inthe day in local TV. Just be
fair. Right, If you wantto say something about me, that's fine,
but be fair. If there's twosides, all right, let me
let me respond to it. Kevindemof with the Rams, if you know,
and he said it on this showand we've both known him forever.

(15:33):
If you want to rip us,rip us, rip us, but be
fair, be fair. If wedid something and we need to be called
out, call us out, callus out, No problem, we can
take it. We're the ones thatdid it. Go ahead. But then
just don't start unloading here there everywhere. Yeah you know what I mean?

(15:58):
Yeah, or just yeah I heardit first home in center. Just make
it yeah, don't make it personalfor one, and don't just pull stuff
out of the air without doing yourhomework just because you may have heard it
from some other reporter. You heardit from somebody else. Oh, I'm
gonna print this. I'm gonna runwith this story without talking to me or
talking to someone that's close to thesituation, that that knows more than one

(16:18):
side of the facts or one sideof the story. You know, first
taught me that was and then thefirst guy that came up to me was
Mitch Album. You know, MitchAlbum and Detroit Free Press, very well
respected, been there for years,been on TV as well as you know,
written for the Free Press. Hewould be he was the guy that
would call, hey, I'm I'mgonna be all over you in the mall's

(16:40):
paper. I'm a you know,I gotta I'm coming after you a little
bit because of this, this,this, and this, And we would
sit down and I would say,well, that's fair, that's fair.
Let me tell you what happened onthis I mean, then let me tell
you what happened on that particular play. And so he would. He would
he would give me the opportunity tojust explore sing what the situation was and

(17:03):
looking at it from my perspective,rather than to go, oh, it
was just a horrible game, andthere was a horrible throw in the first
fourth quarter. Well there's there's reasonswhy certain things happened, and he was
willing to take the time to understandthose reasons. He still ripped me,
you know, he's still ripped me, but at least he would come to
you and say, this is howyou know, I'm shaping this this column

(17:25):
tomorrow. Just I'm just coming toyou man and man, this is how
it's gonna go and want you tobe aware of it. And I respected
him, still respect him to thisday because I coming out of college where
you know, you're a college student, and even back then it was a
little jaded, like you know,you know, go at college kids like
I mean they do now, butback then they really didn't go it because

(17:45):
they still felt that you were youweren't making money, so you were not
fair game. Once you start makingmoney and have a contract and you're getting
really, really paid, and thenthe press is like, okay, now
it's open season. You got yourfair game. And he was the first
one that came up me in Detroitand was going, hey, this is
this is different now than when youwere in college. You know, you
know, you're you're you're it's abusiness now and you're making real money,

(18:10):
so you you may get ripped.You you aren't there, the gloves are
off if if something goes bad.And and I always respected him for it,
but he would come to you that'sfast, Yeah, get it tomorrow.
I'm just telling you're gonna get it. I'm letting you know I'm gonna
give it to you tomorrow. Andit was a you know, it was
a horrible loss at a bad time, and you didn't play well safe to

(18:32):
say it was same to say youdidn't play well, right, Yeah,
No, I didn't. I playedlike blank. Yeah. And then we
would get into certain specifics, butfor the most part he would if he
would like, give me heads up, hey man, I'm coming, I'm
you know, it is what itis. So it was. It was
good man, It was definitely.It really helped me grow and understanding dealing

(18:53):
with you know, whether that bebeat writers or sportscasters or you know,
TV radio, all those guys.He was really good to me in that
way. Did he ever make itpersonal, No, No, never made
it personal. And in fact,there were times where where I would I

(19:14):
would actually sit down with him andI don't know if I should be saying
it but I would sit down withhim and and and go through a couple
of film sessions and clips and thingslike that to show him what actually really
did happen on a particular play ora particular series in the game of this
is why this happened, or thisis what went down on that particular play.

(19:38):
And I think that's why we alwayshad that you know, had had
a good relationship, is because hewould allow me and was actually willing to
sit out and say, Okay,let me understand why in the fourth quarter
you guys were doing this, andand why you made that particular decision in
the fourth quarter and ended up costingyou the game where the game was lost

(20:00):
in that series of plays, Letme understand. And he was willing to
sit down with me and let meshow you a little something. Let me
show you kind of what happened righthere. You know, First of all,
our starting left guard went out ofthe game and we had nobody left
to replace him, so we hadto put a guy that played right tackle
in the left guard. He wasn'tfamiliar with the calls at that particular time.

(20:22):
He missed his block, so theleft tackle had to cover for him
while he was covering for him.He left his own guy open, and
that made Barry compromise, so Barrycouldn't do So it was like a series
of those things that happened on everysingle play that if you look at it
from the surface, it's like thequarterback made a bad read and was intercepted,
or you know, a receiver mayhave ran the wrong route, didn't

(20:45):
read, or wasn't on the samepage as a quarterback. Because in playing
quarterback, especially at the high level, the guys that are really good,
it is all about anticipation. Youhave to anticipate guys are not running wide
open like they were in college.In college, you could you always,
you could have a physical difference onyour opponent most of the time if you

(21:07):
were a good team like at USCwhen I was there, we were physically
better than most of the teams thatwe played against, and so we had
a physical advantage, and I knewmy guy could beat your guy, and
my guy was gonna get open,whereas in the pros it was a smaller
margin for error. Whereas that guyis not open for very long and that
window is tighter, So you betteranticipate and you better be on time because

(21:30):
if you're late, or the ballis not in the right location, yes,
where you're you know, most peopletalk about yeah he's got physical tools,
but he's not accurate. Accuracy isbetter than the big arm. Accuracy
is better than the strength of somebody'sarm. Or if a guy can throw
it at eighty yards or one hundredyards, give me, give me a
quarterback that is accurate. That's whypeople love Joe Burrow so much because he's

(21:52):
so accurate. And that is thedifference a lot of times, and the
completion or noncompletion or an interception oran interception for a touchdown is being being
very accurate. So there's a lotof things that go into it. But
yeah, he did me a greatservice while I and that actually helped me

(22:14):
when I did end up, whatsix years later playing in Philadelphia, because
those guys didn't care. They didn'tthey didn't really care. You know,
you know you have those you've beenaround the business, loan the guys don't
care. It's like I got mymind made up and I'm just going I'm
going at this guy. I don'tlike him for whatever reason. I'm just
gonna rip him, and I don'tcare to know the truth I just I'm

(22:36):
just going with I walked down BroadStreet in Philly and this is what the
fans were saying, and I'm gonnarip him. Would they get your hedge?
No? No, no, no, no no. There were a
few, there were one, maybeone or two with it, but man,
and that was the that was thebirth for me of of what we

(22:59):
do. Now. That's where Iknew, man, this is this is
uh, this whole sports talk radiothing is a It is not going anywhere.
It is a monster, and itis a and it could be ruthless.
Uh, because that was the birthof WIP in Philadelphia. If anybody

(23:21):
knows about sports and sports talk radio, you know, you know about the
fan in New York, right,you know about the fan, but you
also know about WIP in Philadelphia.They had they Freddy you want to talk
stories they had They had not acare in the world. They were the

(23:41):
original. I think they they tookthe TMC model WIP. They they they
didn't care if the story was true, they would They took the philosophy it's
it's better to apologize and ask forpermission. Oh God, yes, yes,
it's better to apologize and ask forpermission. We're just gonna go run

(24:03):
it. We're gonna run it,We're gonna go with it, and if
we gotta we gotta apologize after thefact, then we'll do that. But
we're gonna get the clicks and we'regonna go for it. There was a
time I got to I got toPhiladelphia, and Holly's from Philadelphia, grew
up in Philadelphia, all of hercousins and family, all of them from
Philly. She actually moved out toCalifornia with her mom when when she was

(24:26):
ten. But everything is back inPhiladelphia. Brothers is her dad, everything's
Philadelphia. So I'm in Philadelphia,which was crazy because I came there after
Dallas, and you know phill Philly. In Dallas, everybody hates they hate
each other, right, So Ithe year before I went to Philadelphia,
I spent a year in Dallas,and they her family, her family hated

(24:51):
me, hated me, couldn't standthat their cousin or their cousins husband was
playing for the Cowboys, because inPhilly, green is bigger than family,
is bigger than family, so theycouldn't stand that I was a cowboy to

(25:11):
the point where they were they werethey would cuss me out and Holly had
a couple of close relatives that wouldgive her the scoop and let her know
that, oh, so and so'stalking about Rodney. He just kid going
up and down about Rodney just whenyou see him, you know, don't
don't just know that he hates yourhusband and he's going after him and all

(25:32):
that kind of stuff. And thentwo weeks later, it'd be the same
cousins asking me for twenty tickets togo see the Cowboys coming to town,
and we can't get Eagles tickets?Can you get us Cowboy tickets? And
they would be in the stands inthe Cowboy visitors section in their Eagles gear,
rooting for the Eagles, and I'mand it happened to be one of

(25:53):
the games at Troy. Eigman wasdown and I started like four or five
games for the Cowboys, and oneof them was in Philly, and it
had to be one of those gamesthat they came in there, Philly,
Philly out Philly gear paraphernalia, sittingin the Cowboys section, cussing me out
through the whole game, and Holly'sin the stands. It was. It

(26:18):
was absolutely absolutely crazy. And thenI got to Philly the next year,
and I was like, now wasbeloved by them right game, except if
I had a bad game, thenthey cussed me out like every Philadelphia fan.
They cussed me, cussed me out, and still want tickets. The
next week, They're gonna get sometickets. It was a speaking of w

(26:40):
I P. And there was astory. So I get there and I
had no idea about that hardcore talkradio, and I'm I got to know
because it was a few years marriednow, So I got to know a
lot of Holly's brother lives. Andwhen I went to Philly, It's like,
oh, yeah, show me around. I don't know where to go.
This is great. I got familyhere on on my my my wife's

(27:02):
side. I'm out to dinner andwith Holly's cousin. And they had this
thing with w i P. LikeI said, they were the they were
the TMZ of sports talk radio.And they did it around town and Philly,
and I don't know if they startedit, but they did it around
town. They had this thing calledsightings, and the objective of sightings was

(27:26):
to have people in the street gospy on athletes, celebrities, whoever was
in town in Philly, and spyon them, take you know, pictures
or whatever or and then call inand say, I have a sighting so
and so it was over there.So they had a sighting of me with

(27:48):
a a young, a young,light skinned, tall black woman having dinner
in the corner, Rodney Pete,who just got married. And it was
Hollie's cousin that I was having dinnerwith. And it's all over the radio
waves. It's on the radio liketwo days after we have this dinner,

(28:12):
and the guy's telling the story say, yeah, yeah, they were very
friendly, like they knew each otherforever, and they're talking and and and
then next thing you know, there'sthere's two o there's an older woman,
and somebody else comes by and joinsthem at the table, and and uh,
you know, it's at this darkrestaurant and and Rodney is out there
with these three women, Tolly's cousin. I'm like, oh my god,

(28:36):
what have I got myself into it? I stopped going out and Field I
was like, man. But theyhad a literally they had a thing called
sightings, and they encouraged people togo out and find dirt on athletes in
town and celebrities that came to townor that were in town. It was
crazy. Wip wip. You knowwhat we we Oh? I ran over.

(28:59):
I'm sorry. No, you didn'trun over at all. No,
you didn't run over. Let's justDodger panic meter, real quick story was
better than this ab and hanging allright, come on, come on,
come on, Dodger panic meter.Where are you rone? I'm going with
a new color, which is orange. It threw fig for a curveball.

(29:23):
Orange is the color that's between yellowand red. We already have we have
orange. Reason. Okay, wellthat's where we're at because the only reason
why we're not on red is becausethe calendar is still in July. But
this team has a major, majorissues. I don't care with the talking

(29:44):
head you're trying to sell us.I don't care about all of the deflection.
Man. This team is in serioustrouble now, not only roster wise,
but I think the biggest problem,guys, that nobody ever brings up
is the Dodgers are pissed poor atfundamentals. You can't bunt or field to
bunt man. That is pathetic,like pathetic in all capital letters, and

(30:08):
I'm sick of it. I loveDavid Roberts and I love Freedman, but
this organization has got to get theirs together with the fundamentals of baseball or
they will never win. We aregonna be the Braves again. So that's
all I got for you, fellasyou know, I love you. Autro
all right, and let's do Javierin La Thanks for holding where's your panic

(30:30):
meter? Javier? Hey, guys, love the show. Listen to y'all
daily shut up. To all thebell carriers out there, I all read.
I mean, we got three startingpitchers after this week, So where
are we gonna go from there?You know, It's just it's hard to
think where we're gonna pick up arms. I feel like Dodgers are gonna try

(30:52):
to sew like prospects on the highI don't know. It doesn't look pretty
in my opinion. Thank you Gays. All right, Yeah, I can
understand why people are concerned. I'mmore air on the side of Manuel.
Long way to go here, Along long way to go. This July
is a long way to go.But I will say yes. And just

(31:15):
so you know, Manuel and andeveryone knows those are you know, when
you talk about the fundamental player,that's what they do they do in spring
training all the time. And whenyou put the young pitcher in at the
end of the game, remember thatRamira's right, yeah, yeah, just
giving up the walk off the daybefore, yep. Right, So the
bunt goes down, he's it's abang bang play at theirt heat panics and

(31:38):
just wheels and throws it a mileand you know Roe has said no chance,
no chance to catch the ball.And and that was a an individual
thing with him, you know,turning in for a young guy, turning
and throwing and just not not youknow, not thinking that he had time

(31:59):
to make a good But that's somethingthat they don't work on on a regular
basis. No, they work onit. They work at it. Let's
have a word from Jacob. Accidentor injury called Jacob and Morni you call
Jacob. As a sports fan,you always want your team to be well
coached and win. You know who'salways winning, always getting ready for the
next opponent. That's right, it'sour guy, Jacob. Think about this.

(32:22):
If you've been injured in a caraccident, a truck accident, a
slip and fall, a store ride, chair accident, whatever it is,
it feels like you lost the game. But don't worry. The accident is
only the beginning of the game.You call Jacob, you'll get a free
consultation. Trust me, Jacob knowsthe weakness of the opponent. He knows
how to exploit and go on theattack against the insurance company to provide you

(32:42):
the victory you deserve. That's right, so make sure you're on the winning
team. If you're injured in anaccident, don't wait. Call Jacob.
When you call an attorney, youwant one who is respected, and Jacob
is the real deal. And remember, the consultation is free. Y'all call
him twenty four Jacob eight four twentyfour Jacob, or visit called Jacob dot

(33:05):
com and make sure you're following.Called Jacob on Instagram, go to it.
Called out Jacob for great advice,prizes and a lot more. Call
Jacob Clipper. President of Basketball OperationsLawrence Frank not pleased with USA Basketball's decision
about Kawhi Leonard. We will havethat coming up in a bit. But
when we come back. The differencebetween soccer players and other athletes, Oh

(33:32):
yeah, go on, keep itmoving right now on a Monday All Star
break. Yes, the players aregetting ready for the home run derby taking
their photos. All good stuff.Ridney Pete, Fredrogan on a beautiful Monday.
Let's go all right. So LaurenceFrank, Clipper's president of basketball operations,
just talking to the media. Hecommented on Kawhi Leonard not being on

(33:54):
the USA basketball team. He's nowspoken about the Paul George deal and we
will get to that coming up hereright after the top of the hour.
I said this earlier, and Iwant to clarify something, and you guys
started to get on me a littlebit. In the soccer match last night,
the guy from Columbia win's the playerof the tournament, Player of the

(34:15):
match. He lost, but hecame out and got it. And I
explained that Connor McDavid and the EdmontonOilers didn't pick up his award. He
lost too. And you can say, well, they were playing in Florida.
Here's a difference. And actually,when I saw this last night,
I was thinking about it. Rodneyis the guy that played. You tell
me what you think of this theory. I'm not saying it's right, but

(34:38):
it hit me last night. Whenyou watch soccer, certainly from around the
world, what do you see theplayers. Do think about it for a
second. First, they all walkout with little kids at the beginning.
And the other thing is they applaudthe crowd. And when you live in

(35:01):
this country, you think that's odd. Why are you looking up and clapping
toward the fans. Why guy comesout of the game, he looks around,
he claps, and the crowd collapsefor him. They applaud him because
I think the mentality there is thatthey are playing, obviously to win and

(35:22):
compete, but they play for thefans, They play for the supporters,
so they acknowledge the supporters. Thatmeans something to them. Where in this
country we play to win and thefans aren't as big a part of it.
And when you watch soccer, youthink, God, that's odd.

(35:43):
Why are these people are clapping?When they come out of the game and
they're looking around and they're clapping,you think, why are they clapping for
themselves? That's really weird. Idon't think that's it at all. I
think they are applauding for the fans, and I think they're mindset is that
they play for the fans, theyplay for the supporters. Is that completely

(36:07):
insane? Thinking, Yeah, itis. Now, why is it insane?
I thought i'd really thought that out. No, No, it's insane.
Yeah, why do you think soccerplayers play? Why do you assume
that they play for the fans moreso than anybody else. So when a
player comes out and in and isintroduced in the NFL pregame warm ups,

(36:31):
they're not pumping up the crowd,and they're not you know, pumping their
fists with the crowd. Let's go, get up, get up, get
up, do that kind of thing. That's not acknowledging the crowd. I
mean, I don't know, isit. I mean the crowd? Is
it not acknowledging the crowd when youcome up? And then on top of
that, to suggest that they're playingmore for I think if you ask individually

(36:58):
to plan for themselves, their family, whatever religion they may be a part
of the crowd is down is thelist. They appreciate the crowd, they
appreciate the fans. They're playing fortheir family, for their dad, for
their mom, for their kids,for their you know, for the for
the people that supported them got themthrough there, got them to where they

(37:20):
are today, more so than theyare from somebody that they don't know.
Maybe and maybe it's it's a functionof these guys are playing for their national
teams. Oh that's a difference.Yeah, you know, you see the
you will see in the Olympics.You see it all the time where you
know, the and the players talkabout it. The sense of pride playing
for your country and wearing that flagand hearing the national anthem when you when

(37:44):
you want to gold medal, andthey they do acknowledge and pray and appreciate
the crowd, appreciate the fans thatare there that have traveled that are Americans.
They're a sense of bonding when you'rein and playing for your country,
and it is a different as opposedto Real Madrid playing you know, l
a FC. It's a it's adifferent deal. But when you see Premier

(38:07):
League or let's say Real Madrid,if I remember correctly, Kevin, you
may be able to set me straighthere. I think I see the same
thing. I feel like it's partof soccer culture. Usually after a game
ends, you'll see, you know, the players walk over to the fans
and look up at them and havea round of applause towards the fans.

(38:27):
You see that very often. Ithink it's just part of soccer culture that
might not necessarily be a part ofthe culture of other sports. I have
certainly a part of the culture incollege sports with the with the players for
sure. Yeah, and saluting thestudent section, Yes, absolutely, the
band, they go over to theband. We do it every game,
go over and salute the band inthe crowd and our charing section, especially

(38:49):
if it was on the road,and we acknowledged all the people that traveled
to see our game. But yeah, I don't, I don't. I'm
not like, Oh, they appreciatetheir their their crowd more than more than
we do over here. Remember theirtheir crowds are not always the nicest crowds

(39:09):
over there. They do it maybebecause of this tradition, not because they
genuinely believe it. There there thereare unruly fans that, even with their
own players, treat certain players ina bad way. All right, as

(39:30):
we continue here on a Monday,Uh, they will have the high coup
later on in this hour and whenwe come back. Clubber President of basketball
Operations Lawrence Frank is addressing the mediaa he talks about the Paul George deal.
Well, Paul George had his say, Lawrence Frank will have his and
he also talks about Kawhi Leonard beingleft off the USA basketball team