Softy & Dick 4-16 Hour 1: M’s, Caitlin Clark, Fun w/ Audio, Jon Wilner

In the first hour, Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain react to the Mariners’ blowout win over the Reds on Monday night and improving pitching, discuss Caitlin Clark having a massive impact on the WNBA already, then have some Fun with Audio before talking to Jon Wilner about Damien Martinez, UW finances, media rights, and OJ Simpson dying.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We're at the Lineman Kirkland Man greatspot here literally about one block west of
the Kirkland Costco in the Rose HillPlaza. This spot's been here for a
long time and they are awesome atwhat they do. Big thanks to our
friends at Crack and Rum. Gotsome drink specials as well, the Crack
and Stormy. The Krakens keep comeon out and take advantage of it all
day long here at Lime in Kirkland. All right, So yesterday I was

(00:22):
mocked. They laughed at me.They pointed fingers at my proclamation of the
Mariners being back to five hundred orbetter by Monday. And that train is
off to a hell of a startafter last night's win over the Reds nine
to three victory. George Kirby getsto win, Jonathan Classe gets his first
major league hit, Jore Polanco andhanderg go long. All of a sudden,

(00:43):
everything feels right in the world nowafter one stupid game from last night.
So to get to five hundred nowby Monday, the boys gotta go
four and one and the next fiveand they'll pull it off. Well,
if this game would have been thefirst game of the season, could you
imagine if the Mariners looked like theydid last night, game one of the
season, everything been like, ohmy god, this team is I mean,
they looked excellent in every phase ofthe game. Kirby, I mean

(01:07):
kirk dominant, but he was goodenough. The offense started well because they
weren't swinging at all of Frankie Montesa'sMontess's horrible pitches in the first inning.
They were taking bases and then theyhit the home run. And then Polanco
with the defense, I mean thedefense was Loco now has made two incredible

(01:29):
defensive plays over the last week orso, saving the saving the win,
the last win we had before thisone right in the ninth inning, and
then this one here, this wasa great I mean, this wasn't a
game saving play, but it wasa tremendous diving stop in the hole.
Well, and look as far asthe defense goes, obviously, we asked
Jerry Depoto about that opening day becauseeverybody sees the defensive metrics that these guys
brought to the roster and they're notgood. How about this for an idea

(01:53):
play better defense? Be better?Okay, I mean you can always get
better defensively, right, Being abetter Pitcher being a better you kind of
are what Yard at some point,but get better defensively and that's going to
solve a lot of this team's woes. And I'm kind of curious what you
guys think about what Steven Susans saidyesterday, because George Kirby last night,
as you said, wasn't great,but needed to get a win after that

(02:13):
train wreck against the Guardians a weekago at T Mobile Parker, it feels
like a month ago now. Weasked Stephen Susie yesterday to give us the
number one guy that he would wanton the mound in a must win game
for the Mariners, and he saidLogan Gilbert, and then I think he
said Bryce Miller. After that hesaid, I think Bryce Miller was third
after Kirby, or maybe it washe second. I think he had Miller

(02:35):
second, and then Kirby was numbers. He had Castile last he did,
And I don't know, man,are we now at a point where Logan
Gilbert is now the number one starteron this baseball team? Have we seen
enough at a Luis Castile to bumpthis guy? I think it's debatable on
Gilbert or Kirby. I think Iwould still have I just think Kirby's upside
is a little higher than Logan's,although Logan has shown to be more consistent

(03:00):
in his time here. I wouldprobably give the upside edge to Kirby,
but I would absolutely have Castillo afterboth of those guys. I wouldn't put
Miller ahead of Castillo yet because Igot to see it for a longer period
of time than just three starts fromBryce Miller. But Castillo just, I
mean, he looks like a guythat his best days are behind him and

(03:23):
he's gonna give us good starts onoccasion, yeah, and be a fairly
decent pitcher by the time it's allsaid and done. But his era of
dominance appears to be over. Well, if you go back to last year,
his last couple of starts against theAstros and Rangers weren't very good at
all. I mean, he hadkind of a bad September. He five
runs and five against the Mets,five and six against the Astros, and

(03:44):
four and two and two thirds againstTexas and the second to last game of
the year. So really he hasnot been that great lately. Even going
back to August, he wasn't verygood. Look at his numbers in August
Man for God's sake. So Ithink there's kind of cause for a slight
concern about Luis Castillo. Yes,he's thirty one years old. Obviously he's
not forty, but he's not twentyone either. His age, to me,

(04:06):
really isn't a big factor yet.You can still be dominant and be
thirty one years old, for sure. But what's concerning about Luis Castillo is
that we really haven't seen that dominant, lockdown guy that's gonna end a losing
streak. We haven't seen that guyin a wild dick. No, we
haven't. I put a I puta tweet. I gotta put a poll
on a few days ago. Now, it was right after Logan Gilbert's last

(04:27):
start. Are we doing a pollon? How long has it been since
we had an update? It's beena long time. Wow. Now,
this may be skewed a little bitbecause it was tweeted out after Logan Gilbert's
last start, which I believe waspretty darn good. Right last time Gilbert
came out, I just said,who's the ace of the Mariners period?
In the story, Luis Castille gotten percent of the vote. Ten percent.

(04:48):
George Kirby got thirty seven percent,and Logan Gilbert they agree with Stephen
Susa. Logan Gilbert got fifty threepercent of the vote. So Logan,
show me tonight, show me theace of the staff, and you follow
up George Kirby's outing and Bryce Miller'souting with a good one of your own.
I want to go back to Castillofor a second, because here's the
issue with Luis Castillo. First ofall, after four starts, he leads

(05:10):
the league and hits aloud. He'sallowed thirty two hits and twenty one and
two thirds innings. He's also walkedfour batters. That's thirty six base runners
in twenty one and two thirds innings. If you go back to last year,
in his last eight and two thirds, he had nineteen base runners on
in eight innings last season. Thatmeans, in roughly forty four innings of

(05:33):
work, this guy has put nothat's backward, sorry, in thirty six
plus eight forty four. Yeah,in forty innings of work. He's put
almost sixty based runners on in fortyinnings of work going back to the last
two starts of last year. Butthat's ridiculous, man, unbelievable. That

(05:54):
number's got to come down. He'sputting way too many guys on base.
And the issue with Luis Castillo,and I think Stephen talked about this yesterday.
He's not fooling anybody, right,George Kirby's fooling people. Logan Gilbert's
fooling people. Bryce Miller can foolpeople right now. Luis Castillo was tricking
nobody. Well, we just gotto go back to the year before the
Mariners got him. I mean,twenty twenty one in Cincinnati, he was

(06:15):
eight and sixteen with a forty RAled the league in walks, had seventy
five walks to lead the National League, and almost had more hits than innings
pitched. Right, I mean,his whip was one point four that year
and he went eight and sixteen andthen had a better, much better twenty

(06:35):
twenty two with Cincinnati. Mariners tradefor him, and he's great down the
stretch for the Mariners. But thisisn't a guy that has just been consistently
dominant and made any baseball his wholecareer. Fifty five base runners in thirty
and a third. I'm sorry Ihad the numbers run, but it's still
terrible. It's still awful. Fiftyfive base runners in thirty and a third

(06:56):
innings in his last six starts.Wait sixty too thick about that? I
mean starts in six starts. LuisCastillo has put fifty five men on base
in six starts. That is crazy. I mean, I understand wins and
losses, It's kind of like quarterbackwins. Does it really matter? Do
wins and losses really matter for astarting pitcher? But show me an elite

(07:16):
pitcher that has a sixty two andsixty eight career win loss record, right
right? You know, so somethingthe teams don't win when Luis Castillo's on
the mount. Well, he's gota career three five ninety RA, which
should be enough. It should beenough to be well over five hundred,
and it's just unfortunately not. Imean, some of this is the offense
obviously that he's played with, youknow, both in Cincinnati and now in

(07:39):
Seattle. But again, I mean, I'm still thinking that Luis Castillo has
a lot more in the tank.We're not seeing the true Luis Castillo.
But if I'm the Mariners, I'mgoing back to his last six starts and
just saying what's going on here?Why are so many guys getting on base?
And look, we have, youknow, five and a half months
to figure this out, and hopefullywe will be able to figure out because
the Amazon make the postseason. Butright now, if you're playing in a

(08:01):
playoff game or a must win game, he's not my guy. No,
he's probably third at best, maybeeven fourth. Well that's the question.
Is he fourth? I mean,I think he's clearly third. If anybody,
if anybody thinks that Castillo is abetter pitcher than Gilbert and Kirby right
now, I don't know what you'rewatching. I don't know what you're watching
short term. I don't know whatyou're watching long term, because nothing in

(08:22):
the numbers we just spit out indicatesthat Luis Castille is a better pitcher than
Logan Gilbert and George Kirby. Nowthe question is what Steven Souser raised.
Is he better than Bryce Miller?And certainly not this year. He's not
better than Bryce Miller. But wehave to project is Bryce Miller over the
next two years, yes, abetter pitcher than Luis Castile over the next
two years, And the answer mightbe yes. I just think we're seeing

(08:45):
the worst of Luis Castile right now, and it's not even close like this
is awful baseball by him, whichis it? Which is again another reason
why I realize it's seven and ten, it's not, you know, eleven
and six. It's another reason whyI'm fairly optimistic about where this team is
going. We all knew the firstfew weeks of April, we're gonna be
hard for these guys. It's gonnabe brutal schedule, braves are coming up

(09:05):
soon as well. But you gota baseball team who's number one starting pitcher
as picked by the manager right,has been getting tattooed by everybody. You
got your highest paid player in Julio, for the most part, has done
nothing for this baseball team so far. Right, And you're still sitting here,
and you're a game and a halfout, you're seven to ten,

(09:26):
and I realize they've looked bad attimes. There's no doubt they've looked bad
at times. And the schedule ofthe standings, the game's back whatever.
Unless you're eight and a half gamesback, that the White Sox in your
year is over already, forget aboutit. But I just think that we
have seen at times Dick and Jacksonthe absolute worst of this baseball team.
And I can't imagine this continuing.As I said yesterday, everybody Dick is

(09:46):
on the suck bust together. Yeah, I think I think we've seen the
pitching now start to come around.I think, what was it three?
How many quality? Five quality startsin a row? Right, I gotta
take a look. I tweeted thatout yesterday, yes about last night Mariner's
pr Mariner's starting pitcher of tossed fiveconsecutive quality starts. So you've gone through
the rotation once everyone is pitch qualitystarts. That is going to continue.

(10:09):
You're you're gonna get a ton ofquality starts from these guys. Well,
you're not gonna get is what yousaw last night from the offense. Right,
You're not getting nine runs? Yeah, I don't think you're gett nine
runs once a week. Sure,this baseball team, let alone, you
know, let alone even more frequentthan that. So you gotta squeeze out
four or five runs. If youdo that, this pitching staff is good
enough that you will win ninety plusgames if you can just can you just

(10:31):
average four runs a game? Itdoesn't seem hard. They're three and two
in those five games. And Iknow this is just fun with math and
fuzzy numbers and all that stuff,and I'm just I'm twisting the narrative to
fit what I want you to hear. Okay, I'm admitting that here on
the radio show. You go threeand two and every five games, you're
winning ninety seven games. If youwin three of every five, you're a

(10:52):
six hundred ball club and you're aninety seven win teams. So formula,
that's all this takes, right,I mean, honestly, like you can
break it down in any way.You want ten games, fifteen, twenty
thirty. I know you're always bustingmy balls. What hey, the Mariners
have to go thirty one and ninetheir next forty to get well, which
they usually do, right, well, they the last two years they have.
But that's all this takes. Justgo three and two, three and

(11:15):
two in every five games, whichdoesn't seem like that great. It's barely
above five hundred over a five gamestretch. But you do that and you're
a ninety seven damn win team.Man, Just just give me four runs.
I mean, what's there? Howmany how many games have they lost
where they've scored more than four runs, lost to five to the Brewers,

(11:37):
twelve to four to the Brewers.One game, they give them more than
one twice when they score more inrun one, well more than one twice
twice, when they've scored four runsor more, they've lost the guss twice
they've lost the game. Give mefour runs, right, that's right,
that's it. You're gonna be You'regonna be ninety five wins three time.
Sorry if you continue to just scorefour runs. And that should be that

(12:00):
hard for an offense that was puttogether that we thought, Okay, at
least this offense is average. Thisoffense should be thirteenth, fourteenth, maybe
even twelfth. And what wally theylast year twelfth or thirteenth in Major League
Baseball and runs scored. They werejust unlucky. It's actually happened three times.
Yeah, they lost the opener toBoston six to four, lost to
Milwaukee twelve to four, and thenlost six to five. Correct, So

(12:22):
three times that's happened. That's it. Yeah, that seems to be the
magic number. If you can getfour runs, you're in your you're you're
in a very very good spot.And I just think that That's the fear
that everybody had before the year beganis still the fear now despite the fact
the rotation hasn't been phenomenal. Thefear is is that the rotation will get

(12:43):
phenomenal, right, but the offenseis not gonna come along and they're gonna
hold you down. I mean,how old is this story, right that
we're potentially painting here? We're thisgo back to Felix Hernandez days, goes
back to even before him. Itis absolutely insane. How many times have
you heard me in thirty years onthis radio station say things like, hey,

(13:03):
just don't suck offense, just beaverage? Can you be average?
Because if you're average, this pitchingstaff is good enough to get you to
ninety plus wins, if not moreeasily. So we're having the same argument
and the same concerns, Dick,that we've had for thirty years in this
town, if not longer. It'sthe park, though, I mean,
you take a look at it.Just look at the numbers I did at

(13:24):
the end of last season. Thepark factors. It was the hardest and
this for both teams, not justthe Mariners. Hardest park to hit singles,
hardest park to hit doubles, hardestpark to hit triples, and it
was like middle of the pack tohit home runs. It's a terrible park
for offense. Yeah, contrast thatwith the Kingdom. Why were the Mariner
bullpens so awful in the nineties,Well, they were playing in a freaking

(13:46):
band box, so they actually weren'tas bad as what we thought they were.
And the offense in the nineties probablywasn't as good as what they thought
they were. They were just playingin that band box. And now it's
the reverse here over the last twentyyears a team over all. Right,
Well, I'm sticking in my opinion. There'll be five hundred by Monday,
four and one minimum. Next twogames against the Reds, three with Colorado.

(14:07):
The problem with this Red series here, the next two pitchers is that
nobody's ever seen these guys on thisbaseball team, So who knows how much
offense. When I was hearing ChuckChuck said today something that worried me.
He said, this guy's got moretalent than Logan Gilbert. That's what scares
me, is it? Not onlyis it a guy you haven't seen Green
you're talking about. It's a guy. Yeah, and Hunter Green that has

(14:28):
just a boatload of talent that justhasn't been able to put it together and
be elite yet. Ah, that'sa great idea for a segment. By
the way, something Chuck said everyday on the radio show. Something Chuck
said, coming up next? Allright, worth a Lime in Kirkland,
hanging out until four thirty before crackingpregame against the Jets, the second to
last game of the year. Therewill be no Stanley Cup playoffs for our

(14:50):
boys. They're trying to wrap itup with pride, playing for jobs for
next year. All those cliches youcan come up with, why not swing
by the Lime in Kirkland, RoseHill Plaza one block east of the Kirkland
Costco and take advantage of the rinkdrinks they have going on the cracking stormy
the Krackings keep cracking gold spice rumthat's my favorite. By the way,
orange juice, pineapple juice, andorange peel for ten bucks here at the

(15:13):
Lime. Taco Tuesday. Traditional tacosare a dollar. Street tacos are two
bucks. What more do you freakingwant? Hanging out all day at Lyman,
Kirkland. John Wilner at four Finewith audio at three forty five.
Coming up right here on ninety threethree KJRFM, NFL drafts Now back to
SUCKI and Dip on your home forthe twenty twenty four NFL Draft and Seamle's

(15:35):
Best NFL Draft covers Seattle Seahawks APTShow the Sports Radio ninety three point three
kjr FM. Alright, kiddos,back here at Lime in Kirkland, hanging
out with Cracking Rum. We gotpregame and a cracking jets at four thirty.
John Wilder joining us at four o'clock. It's Taco Tuesday at Liman,

(15:56):
Kirkland. Tacos are a dollar streetTacos are two dollars here all day long
at Lime in Kirkland. I oh, by the way, not just that,
but Thursday is all you can eat. Crab is starting at five o'clock
for thirty two ninety five. Wednesdayis Prime Rib Night at five o'clock for
eighteen ninety five, and today isTaco Tuesday and Softy and Dicker here,
So what more do you want?Absolutely, this is the first time I've

(16:18):
ever been here. Really, yes, I mean this location's been here forever.
It's had different names, but it'sbeen the line for about I think
ten years now to get from whereI live. That's trip to this location
right now at this time of daymight take me. I mean a plane
trip to LA would be short.How long do you think until we can
take a drone here from your house? Who? Jackson? How how far

(16:40):
away are we from that? Becausewhen I weer drone when I was in
college, in high school, thebig flying car thing was the next phase.
But now we're talking about drones thatare heavy and can carry you like
five hundred pounds worth of stuff.How long Jackson, until Dick and I
can take a drone from Des Moinesto Kirkland. Well, first we need
the testing phase. Then we needthe phase where it gets rejected because somebody
in that has a I shouldn't saydies, but somebody has something go wrong.

(17:03):
So they'll be rejected for another fiveyears. Then they'll restart the program
and people will need to get comfortable. So give me about twenty five thirty
years, twenty five years. Thejet pack in super Bowl one, that's
remember Super Bowl one? A guylanded on the field with the jetpack.
That was like fifty five sixty yearsago. Uh, have you guys heard
of Waymo by the way. No, okay, I wanted to google way

(17:26):
Mo w a YM. Should Ibe doing this on a work computer?
Yes? Yes, and that sentme the h exactly. It's a self
driving car. When I was inPhoenix for the Final four, I saw
one of these things Dick drive rightby me. Scared the piss out of
me because I was like, whatthe hell's going on? Ghost? There's
nobody in that car. I thoughtat first, for about half a second,

(17:51):
there's a runaway car. It's unbelievable, and they're all over the place.
I saw one, I saw ten. It's insane. I want to
know how long until I can upon a drone and bypass I five.
Because Dick and I are looking attraffic right now back to my house,
it's ninety minutes to get home.They have to do one of these wings
like autonomous cars. They have todo with a old Volkswagen Beetle and just

(18:11):
fully go. Yeah, but you'reright. The jet pack at the Super
Bowl back in the day. Itwas a long time ago. Hey,
Dick, you see this draft I'mlooking at right here by the way.
Yes, it's spiked this last year. What is that? You know?
What that is. That's the viewersfor the w NBA Draft before and after
Kaitlyn Clark. Two and a halfmillion people watched the w NBA Draft versus

(18:32):
a half a million last year.That's the effect that Caitlin Clark is having
on women's basketball. And look there, you know, Jake Whittenberg did a
big thing on King five this morning. He was comparing the amount of money
that Caitlin Clark is gonna make arookie year, which is like seventy five
grand. It's nothing, obviously,I mean, you can't even survive on
that, you know, in aplace like Seattle, for crying out loud,
to what Victor wembin Yam is making, which is like twelve million I

(18:56):
think in year one. And obviouslyit's apples to orange. Is the NBA's
bringing in twelve billion dollars a yearand the WNBA is bringing in I've seen
anywhere from two hundred mil to sixtymillion. I've seen ten billion to twelve
and a half billion for the NBA. We know it's a buttload of money.
It's a lot more money than theWNBA. But she's gonna make a
lot more money in endorsements millions ofdollars in endorsements ten times more then she

(19:21):
will and salary. But it gotme thinking, guys, about the most
influential athletes that we've ever seen inour lives. And I never saw Babe
Ruth play, but for baseball.He put baseball on the map. Wayne
Gretzky put hockey on the map.Magic and Larry and Michael after him really
kind of took the NBA to awhole new level. Right, So,
is are we about to watch theBabe Ruth of women's basketball? Now?

(19:45):
She's got to perform at that level. She can't ride her coattails from Iowa,
you know, for you know,too long. Yeah, but are
we talking about potentially the Wayne Gretzkyof women's basketball? Is that what this
girl's gonna do. The only personin my lifetime that I can think of
that just brought an entirely new swathof people into a sport like Caitlin Clark

(20:07):
is doing right now is Tiger Woods. Right, He's the only guy I
can think of because before Tiger Woods, it was golf fans and everybody else,
right, And after Tiger Woods,a whole ton of people that was
in the everybody else category is aTiger Woods fan. I think, maybe
not an overall golf fan, buta Tiger Woods fan and will watch him
play. I think you can arguethat Tiger Woods is the most influential athlete

(20:30):
of all time when it comes towhat he meant for his sport. And
somebody could say, Babe Ruth,but again that was eighty years ago.
What else apples and oranges and arecomparing, you know, seventy eighty years
apart. How many driving ranges openedup because of Tiger Woods, how many
golf courses opened up because of TigerWoods? How many kids black and white
picked up clubs because of Tiger Woods. Do you think the Masters wants Tiger

(20:52):
Woods? And the mix on dayfour? Of course that you see the
numbers. By the way, mynumbers on Thursday Friday on ESPN were record
breaks, right, But CBS,they were bad. They were bad Tigers
worse than like four or five years. Tiger struggled. On Saturday, he
was done and nobody watched. Andthat's the thing is that even when he's
not playing his best and he's almostbroken down, which let's face it,
he kind of is right now,he can't even walk. For God's sakes,

(21:15):
he still has that kind of effecton golf, and that still is
a little bit of a concern forthe game of golf, Dick that I
don't know if anybody honestly will everbe able to do for golf what Tiger
Woods did. I think that's fair. I really was lifetime. I wish
that Tiger's Saturday and Sunday were switchedbecause Sunday he actually played well. He

(21:37):
had a triple on the front andother than that, I think he was
one over for the round, right, And so he had a very good
Sunday. He had a good Thursdayand a good Friday. He just had
a disastrous Saturday. And if youwould have flip flopped, if you would
had Sunday on Saturday, Tiger Woodsgoes into Sunday in the top ten.
Yeah, and those ratings are offthe charts. He blows up. Those

(22:00):
ratings are off the charts. Ifhe goes up into the top ten on
Sunday. And it's still difficult,let's face it, to compare the WNBA
to the PGA, the NBA,the NHL. You know, I get
all that because there's not as manyeyeballs but I just wonder the hype right
now surrounding Caitlin Clark. I mean, we just gave you the numbers.
Last year, a half a millionpeople watched the Draft. This year five

(22:22):
times as many, two and ahalf million people. The National Championship Game
went from six million to eighteen intwo years, tripled because of her.
Teams are selling out every game thatthe Indiana Fever will play in their city.
That team's got thirty four nationally televisedgames already on their schedule of forty.
I don't know if we've seen afemale athlete to have this kind of

(22:48):
impact on a sport before she evensteps on the field or court. It's
insane what she's doing. I can'tthink of anybody. I mean, we've
had megastar female athletes. I mean, Serena Williams comes to mind. Obviously,
tennis was big before Serena Williams.Now, she probably brought in a
huge swath of people as well,but women's tennis, I don't think women's

(23:10):
tennis vaulted ahead with Serena Williams theway Caitlin Clark is making women's basketball vault
ahead right. I don't think she'sdoing the same as far as the overall
popularity of the sport, Well,look, I think she's recognizable. I
think she walks down the street.I think a lot of people would know
who she is, right, Andthere's a lot of women's basketball players that

(23:32):
still can't say that yet. Soyou mentioned this, and I want you
to bring it up with John bythe way, at four o'clock. This
super league that's being tossed around forcollege football, seventy permanent members would be
divvied up among seven different conferences andthe Western Conference. Tell me if you're
a fan of this, guys wouldinclude Arizona, ASU, Cal Oregon,

(23:55):
Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA,usc U, dub and Washington State.
I'm familiar with that ten. Yeah, it looks familiar. Earlier with that
ten, I think it was we'veseen those teams before. There is a
conference of those ten times before.No Colorado, no Utah. So if
we did a seventy team super leaguebut brought back the old Pac ten,
I know what Beaver and Cougar fansthey say, hell, yes, the

(24:17):
life boat. What would Husky fanssay? Uh, I'm good with it.
I I think that, you know, being selfish, the thirty two
team super conference right. Better forWashington, right, because you know it
separates the week from the chaff,right, and you've got just the elite
of the elite in that. ButI'd be okay with this as a life

(24:37):
boat for teams like Washington, WashingtonState, and a ton of other teams.
There's forty other teams in this leaguethat would have a life boat.
Where you're talking about sixty two teamsor whatever it is, fifty two that
would not be a part of it, right, You're talking about getting rid
of basically, you know, onethird of college football right now. And
they and they would do relegation likethey do in European soccer. Uh,

(24:57):
They're they're They're proposed seven different divisionswith an under league division that would include
teams like Boise State, James Madison, New Mexico State, Toledo, Tulane,
UMV and those would be the teamsthat would be fighting every year for
a spot in the seventy team league. I love the relegation idea. I've

(25:18):
loved the relegation idea since the firsttime I heard of it, like three
or four years ago. And Ithink we need relegation regardless of whether we're
doing this super league of seventy teamsor we're doing the smaller super league of
thirty two thirty six teams. Youneed to have a carrot, right,
if you're on the outside looking in, you need to have a carrot.

(25:40):
Let's say you're team thirty eight andyou're not in the thirty two team playoff.
You need a reason to try toget to there. And so I
think this is great. Both theteams seventy one through eighty or teams thirty
three, forty four, or needto have an ability to get into whatever
super league there is. Jackson,what do you think about relegation lodge football

(26:00):
loge? A soccer fan, whatdo you think about bringing that idea to
the States. Not only does itadd of the incentive that Dick just talked
about, but it also becomes sucha big thing for just your average Joe
fan where you could be Let's justwe here in Washington, right, if
we are just rooting our own teamin the middle of you know, whether
we're at the top of the seventy, of the bottom, you know,

(26:21):
middle of the seventy, we canlook then at another school even remotely in
our area, like I don't knowGonzaga or Eastern I don't know Pigotine.
And if they are on the edgeof getting relegated out of the seventy then
suddenly, regardless of us being notfans of them, fans of the Huskies,
we are then suddenly like, ohmy gosh, can you believe what's
going on? Can they actually fallout of this seventy things? It's gonna

(26:44):
bring in fans from all around thecountry. Just in terms of the pro
rel I don't I'm a fan ofTottenham. We're never gonna get relegated.
But still I'm interested to see whichteam in the Premier League it's gonna get
relegated because it's entertaining. What's what'sthe name of the second division called the
champion Yeah, it's called the Championship, the champions the Championships kind of iron
But here's my question. Let's say, for Shiggles and Gets, the Huskies

(27:11):
get relegated, which Alley would neverhappen. But let's just say they do
get relegated, okay, and thenthey got to play a year in this
stupid ass league that nobody cares about. Why should I Why should I care?
For a year well, because whenteams win the championship it becomes such
a massive celebration. I don't knowif you guys are aware of this team
called Wrexham, which is a teamin Wales, and they have a TV

(27:32):
show on FX around them bringing peoplein the in the soccer here in America,
and they have been promoted now twicetwo years in a row. And
they're in leagues where listen, thoseleagues don't get a lot of viewers,
not many people actually care about thoseleagues, but the fan bases go absolutely
insane when they get promoted to thefourth level league. So regardless of the
who cares or not, just beingpromoted means so much to those teams.

(27:56):
Yeah, but what I'm talking aboutmy team getting demoted for a year?
Well right, why? And bythe way, you know much crap we'd
take from Oregon fans if that happened, I'm sure I'd probably just quit my
job and put my head in thesand for a year. Here's the best
here's the way I'm not doing that, here's the best comparison. You know
what it's like, dude, Bythe way, started interrupt you. When

(28:18):
I was in sixth grade, wehad a choice of staying in elementary school
for a year or going to whatwas then called middle school. Right,
and a bunch of my friends wentto middle school, and a bunch of
us stayed at Woodwards Elementary. Theguys that went to middle school thought they
were king you know what, andthey looked down on us like they were
king you know what. That's whatit's gonna feel like if that happens to

(28:41):
us. But it also makes abig difference when a team who either is
about to get relegated or has justgotten promoted to the top league then goes
and upsets and beats a team who'snear the top of the conference. When
that happens is in a story acrossthe entire country. Here's what it'll feel
like, guys. It'll feel likethe hust basketball team in the last five
years, right, Because let's faceit, relegation relegation in college football is

(29:07):
the same thing as not being atournament team in college basketball. You're still
there, you still go to thegames. You're just not good enough to
make the big time, boys,so you're trying to get back to the
point where you can make the bigtime. And the Huskies have spent a
vast majority of the last ten years. I don't want not making the big
time. I don't want to doit. I'm scared. It's fun.
We're gonna break fun with audio comingnext to from Lime and Kirkland. Right

(29:29):
here on ninety three to three kjrff. It's now time for Softy in Digg's
fun with audio. Jimmy g pawnStar, Jimmy mister garoppolo. Now let's
have some fun with audio, allright, three forty eight Jackson, have
the dump button ready back in thestudio. No, Dick and I are
already partaking here at the Lime inKirkland. It's a short show. Well,

(29:51):
you know, the cracking stormy,the crack and keep cracking black spice
rum lime ginger beer, the krackings, keep cracking, bikes run my person
favorite orange juice, pineapple juice,orange peel. Two of those in front
of us as we speak, rightnow where we go? Are you trying
to make mi jells? He justtold a fifth. There's actually like one
and a half left done. Ohhe's on his second one already. Jeez,

(30:17):
No, you got to get fadethe number for shick shale already.
Hey day, Hey, I gotnews for you. You're driving the way
home. All right back here atLime and Kirkland, it's Taco Tuesday.
Tacos are one dollar. Street tacosare two dollars here all day long at
Lime in Kirkland. Here we goall the fun with audio slash. Hey

(30:37):
did you hear that? Hey,Dick, did you happen to hear that?
What's that? Dick? We startswith our friend John Sterling, the
longtime voice of the New York Yankeesover five thousand games. I saw where
John Sterling called over thirty percent ofall the Yankee games in their history.
By the way, when you includethe postseason. That's what somebody said on
X so it must be true.Until yesterday, Sterling abruptly retired from broadcasting,

(31:02):
effective immediately. An honor of John. Let's go back and remember a
few of us great or maybe notso great moments as the voice of the
Yankees. First from twenty twenty two, when Aaron Judge hit what Sterling thought
was a home run. Here's theone to Ozho swung on. There it
goes Dave Love Center. That ballis high, that is far, it

(31:23):
is gone, but caught might tapiaboy, I thought that was gone.
So Stanton got close and he sentTapia back to the wall to make the
catch, and the Yankees come upjust empty. That would have tired the
game. You know, you know, you've reached a point of legend status

(31:45):
where you can get away with stufflike that. David Dave nails did Dave
did last three years ago? Ohyeah, the ball has swung on him,
belted cot by the short stop.That happened a lot, and it
was okay because it was Dave.How about this one? During twenty twenty
one, Sterling continued to call gamesfrom a Yes Network studio due to COVID
and mistook a replay for a liveAaron Judge home run. Here's joj Man.

(32:07):
The breaking ball is heading the airto deep left. That ball is
high, that is far. Hereis gone. Unfortunately that was a replay
of the home run. But itwas a good replay. Hey, well,
I'm sorry, and it's on themonitor supposed to do. This is

(32:28):
a great way to do a game, isn't it. Yeah? Yep,
Susan Waldman with him. She's beenthere forever. Can we have a good
call for yes? Yes, Yes, the guy is a legend for crying
out loud. How about this OneJune of twenty three last year Yankees playing
the Red Sauce, Sterling showed histoughness when a foul ball hit him in
the broadcasting booth, and he continuedto call the game the belt Now the

(32:52):
three two swing, Uh up hopfoul back here. It really hit me.
I didn't know it was coming backthat far. So once again,
it'll be a three to two hand. The three two is grounded foul.

(33:12):
You know that foul ball actually hitme. It kind of glanced off my
forehead though. I took one forthe team. That is awesome. Good
for your forehead. And he justkept trucking. He's famous for the Yankees.
Wain, that's him. I lovethe Oh, it'll be a wan
Wong. It's right, go toMo's and buy a tennis ball, all
right, Dick? Did you happento hear that? What's that? Dick?

(33:35):
Oh? God? Uh? SomeMariner fans are complaining about the team
seven and ten starts, but thingsare much worse than Chicago, where the
White Sox are two and fourteen andhave scored thirty two runs, fourteen lower
than the next lowest team in baseball. After losing the Kansas City. Yesterday,
NBC Sports Chicago and Ozzy Geehan talkedabout how bad things are for the
White Sox. We got six guysix six hitting two hundred or less.

(34:02):
That's a lot. You might havetwo three early in the season. Yeah,
you might two or three. Youknow. I don't think you would
have had that in the end ofthe season. See, I was gonna
give you some stats and you say, don't tell me. I don't want
to know, and then you giveme that. Because we met, people
laugh with you. People are goingto cry. Are people laughing or are
they crying? When you say you'vemade people are like very very sad.

(34:25):
Hey, I want to cry myself. I know if I was a pitcher,
I say, it's a skip.Can you just kip me? I
want to face a White Sox,all right? So he says, the
White Sox have six guys under twohundred. Yeah, I mean the Mariners
have as far as regulars really kindof four of them. Julio's hitting a
buck ninety, Raley's hitting a buckeighty, Well, he's not a regular.

(34:46):
JP's hitting a buck fifty four.Garber's hitting a buck fifty six.
Urius is hitting a buck seventy four, they got four of them. Would
you ever too far off so thatthat basically was the root sports post scheme
of the White Sox, right?Would you ever hear criticism like that on
Root Sports of the Mariners. Ijust think the more honest you are,

(35:06):
the more entertaining you are, themore people will watch. I agree,
it's always better to get people involved. It doesn't matter how they're involved,
they're involved. All Right, we'regonna break John Wilner courtesy is Simply Seattle.
He's gonna join us next on ninetythree three KJRFM. It's time for
our weekly Pac twelve conversation with SenosMercury News reporter John Willner, brought to

(35:27):
you by Simply Settle. Our friendsat simply Seattle dot com have the most
amazing collection of all things Seattle SeahawksGear UW had some of the largest selection
of sonics gear anywhere in the world. Learn more at simply Seattle dot com.
Hey, big thanks to our friendsat simply Seattle dot com. And
again, do not forget. Alwaysremember whatever you got your eye on the

(35:50):
website. Cracking Gear, Mariner Gear, Husky Gear, Seahawk gear, what
EM's always used code KJR fifteen tocheck out for fifteen percent of anything.
Any Ah, I'm baby at simplysattle dot com. We're continuing live from
Lime and Kirkland inside the Rosehill Plazauntil four thirty. It's Taco Tuesday,
Dick. You can get ten tacosfor ten bucks. By the way,

(36:12):
here at the Lime in Kirkland,traditional tacos are one dollar. Street tacos
two bucks. I can afford thatunbelievable. Well, a guy who might
you know, who knows, maybeVenmo West some money and maybe buy us
a few tacos, are buddy.Johnny Wilner from the San Jose Mercury News,
John, how are you man?I'm good. Thanks. Just to
make sure I was fully prepared forour conversation, I've been checking the transfer

(36:34):
portal about every fifteen minutes. Okay, let me ask you a question,
because when I want to check theportal, I just go to two four
seven's website. Is there like asuper secret website address that you have that
we should be aware of, bythe way, Uh No, I do
the exact same thing. I dothink that there there is a super secret
access, but I don't have it, and I think it's mostly for the

(36:57):
twenty four to seven reporters. UhNo, I just hit. I hit
refreshing. Frankly, I've been doingit for football and basketball the last few
days because it's crazy for both.Well, it was a big time offensive
lineman that SMU had that is rumoredto potentially go to Washington. And then
also Dami Martinez. He is DamiMartinez the biggest Pac twelve name in the

(37:21):
portal right now from Oregon State probablyas of right now, but that you
know, that could certainly change inan instant. Colorado. Colorado is losing
a lot of guys to the portalthese days. I think Martinez to me
is just he's just a tremendous back, right, I mean, he could
he can play anywhere in the SECor Big ten, he's so good.

(37:44):
So I would say probably, andI think that there's there's gonna be more
offensive lineman. I know the guyfrom SMU is high on Washington's list and
would be a good addition, Butthere are a lot of linemen in that
portal, and there's a lot ofgood players that only are carrying three star
you know, ratings, but they'rebetter than that. I think Washington's gonna

(38:06):
be fine. Well, the DamienMartinez thing, to me is interesting because
I gotta tell you, guys,I don't know if they're outside of Caleb
Williams at USC and Dick. Youwere at that game with me in LA.
I don't know if a Husky opponentplayer impressed me more than Damien Martinez,
Dick, that's fair. I mean, he was a beast in that
game. My god, was hehard to bring down. So is Damien
Martinez just looking for a better dealpotentially from Oregon State or is he looking

(38:30):
for maybe a bigger spotlight before hegoes to the NFL. I think it's
both. He is clearly thinking aboutthe NFL, and you know, playing
against top competition and playing on TVso he can be visible. I think
it's a whole bunch of factors.And those are similar issues that both Oregon

(38:51):
State and Washington State are facing,not only in football but also in men's
basketball. Just the unfortunate reality thatthey're in on your road about campuses in
the PAC twelve this year's subsidizing aquarter of a billion dollars to their athletic
departments this last year. Is thata normal number or is that inflated because
we were still kind of coming outof COVID, And do you think that'll

(39:14):
continue. I think it's on thehigh end of normal. You know,
it was the latest official numbers arefor the twenty two to twenty three school
year, right, and the twentytwo football season was the first without COVID
restrictions. But they it was stillyou know, kind of building back steam,

(39:36):
a building steam back up across theWest coast. So I think it
was a little bit impacted by youknow, delayed impact by COVID. But
schools get subsidized heavily across the countryby by their central campus, right,
because athletic departments have eighteen to twentysports that are losing money, two sports

(39:57):
that are making money, and areyou know, the goal is to have
football, men's basketball pay for everythingelse, but that's not realistic. So
you see a lot of subsidies andand you know, you can make the
case that it's not wrong. Washingtonbasically sent ten million bucks to athletics.
Is that wrong? They're sending moneyto all departments across campus, and athletics

(40:22):
does more for Washington's visibility than chemistryor engineering does. Yeah, absolutely,
and that ten million dollars that theywere in the red without the support of
the upper campus. That's actually relativelygreat compared to the rest of the conference.
Right, didn't you dub do veryvery well this last year? You
DUBB did do well. When youinclude the subsidy, Washington basically ended up

(40:45):
making a profit of like one pointsix million. Washington had the highest revenue
of any school in the PAC twelve. I believe the Huskies were over one
hundred and fifty million in total revenuefor FY twenty three, and I think
that's the first time they've ever beenover one point fifty. I would expect
it'll be even higher for FY twentyfour because that will include the football season

(41:08):
that just happened. But yeah,they actually came out. Well, you've
got schools like ASU Arizona House UCLAthat are plowing thirty forty million from campus
into athletics. Yeah. Well,John Wilner is with us, and John,
I gotta tell you about eleven daysago we were in Phoenix at the

(41:28):
Final four, and we had DannySprinkle join us on the radio show down
there, and I asked him,how far away are we from hearing about
your coaching staff. And he saidto me on that day, he said
about a week to ten days.Well, ten days was yesterday. Yesterday
was also the day that Tony Bland'sshow cause from the nc DOABLEA expired,
all right. And there's a lotof rumors and a lot of reports out

(41:51):
there that Tony Bland is coming tojoin Danny Sprinkle on Montlake as an assistant
coach. And when you type inhis name on Google, the first thing
you see is ated in twenty seventeenby the FBI. So how should Washington
fans feel about the idea of TonyBland coming to Motlake. Uh, you
know, I'm not sure. Ithink probably a little bit mixed, right,

(42:14):
I mean, he clearly was partof that thing. And you know
we talked about weeks ago before thehaired Sprinkler. You asked me, should
the heir Will Wade? Right?And you know I was against Will will
Wade. I'm less against Tony Blandbecause he's not the face of your basketball
program, which is an important pieceof your university's public persona. You know,

(42:40):
guys are getting hired who have beenaccused of NCAA violations left and right
because a lot of those violations areno longer violations. You know, he
would help their program. I wouldif I'm a Washington fan, I'd probably
have some mixed feelings about that,but I can see why people would be
in favor of it. The guycan recruit, he knows, speaking of

(43:01):
violations, So Michigan has received threeyears probation of fine and recruiting restrictions for
their COVID era recruiting violations. Isthat fair and just punishment for Jim Harbaugh's
former team. I think it probablyis. It's interesting, though, Jim
Harbaugh's got no problems, right hedid face suspensions last year, but he's

(43:27):
off to the NFL, you know, and doesn't have to deal with it.
This is part of the issue thatthe NCAA has with their enforcement process,
is that coaches can escape by leavingfor the pros, you know.
I think Michigan certainly has been througha lot. To me, the spygate

(43:47):
was a much bigger deal than theCOVID issues, and I'll be interested to
see if there's anything more from Spygate. I doubt there will be. Harbot
had three games suspension, but tome, that was much worse. Yeah,
apparently his deal with the NCAA isseparate right from this thing John,
that was announced today? Is thatcorrect? Yes? I believe that's right,

(44:10):
gotcha, John, We're waiting.The other thing is we're waiting on
ASU ASU's COVID you know, theirtransgressions for COVID improprieties. That happens a
year and a half before the Michiganstuff ever surfaced. And ASU still hasn't
heard from the NCAA. Right,Hey, John Wilner with us again.

(44:30):
Courtesy is simply Seattle and John.For some reason, I ended up on
the Oregon State Athletics email distribution listand they just sent out an email about
twenty minutes ago with a message tob Vernation from Scott Barnes, the ad
down there in Corvallis, and says, look, we've received multiple gut punches.
You can either pack it in orkeep fighting, right, trying to

(44:51):
get the Bvernation all fired up,and says a football media rights agreement will
be announced soon. What is hegetting at and what does that but potentially
look like for Oregon State and evenWazoo. Well, I think it will
look very similar for both. Ithink that it's gonna It's not gonna be
a ton of money, right,Yeah, I mean it's they have thirteen

(45:12):
combined home games next season. TheBeavers have seven and the Cougars have six.
You know, I'm guessing that they'regonna get a million or two million
bucks per game. It's not gonnabe you know, trajectory changing money.
But what it is gonna be isis visibility because I think they're gonna end
up with pret with you know,not being relegated to streaming. They're gonna

(45:36):
be on you know, network andor broadcast television, and I think that
they're gonna have pretty good TV windowsas well. They're not gonna be playing
all their home games at seven thirtyat night. So I suspect it's gonna
be pretty good for those schools forvisibility, because the key for them is
they can't get forgotten, right,Being seen is more important than the money

(45:59):
when it comes to their football mediadeal Next year and the year after,
well, John, we might havea lifeboat for the Oregon States and the
Washington States of the world. Whatare you hearing about this CFT super League?
Because always thought the Super League wasgonna be ay six thirty two teams,
and I'm hearing maybe seventy teams,and you could put the old Pack

(46:21):
ten back together in a Western division, that's what they're talking about. I
don't think that's gonna work. Seventyteams doesn't make sense to me. And
it's actually like eighty teams. It'sseventy permanent members, and then you've got
ten floating members with relegation and promotionlike European soccer, and there's a Western
wing that has the packed ten schoolswith you know, Utah and Colorado or

(46:45):
in a different division. I justdon't think seventy works. Why would ESPN
or Fox pay for some of thosegames? Right? If there's gonna be
a super league, in my it'sgonna be twenty four or thirty two,
maybe forty teams. Washington's in it, Oregon's in it, USC's in it.

(47:08):
I don't know who else from thePAC Old Pack twelve would be in
it. But financially it's inefficient forthere to be a seventy or eighty team
league. Well as a guy that'scovered the West Coast and college football,
college basketball, PAC ten, PACtwelve, hell, maybe you're an Old
Pack eight guy for all I knowa lot of different responses to the passing

(47:31):
of OJ Simpson last week, right, a lot of people wanted just more
in the football player. A lotof people want to talk about what was
obviously a much bigger story off thefield. So how do you remember OJ
Simpson And what was your reaction whenyou heard that news? Well, so
a couple things. One of myinitial reactions was he's still he died with

(47:55):
having a Heisman trophy and Reggie Bushdoes not have a Heisman trophy. It's
just insane, absolutely insane. Uh. The other thing, and it's a
little bit personal my you know,with such big news. My kids were
asking about it, right, they'resixteen and twelve, and so my wife

(48:15):
and I were telling them that theycould not imagine what a big deal that
the whole thing was, starting withthe Bronco chase and the trial, and
there's nothing that I can remember thathas come close to meeting that terms of
gripping the nation, you know,for a long period of time. And

(48:35):
so we actually watched the first threeor four episodes of that that documentary,
you know, the Trial of theCentury, you know, Crime of the
Century. It's really good with CooperGooding Junior. It's very good we're three
or four episodes in and we're gonnafinish it. But it's it's great for
you know, for my kids whoare seeing it and just now understand ending

(49:00):
what that whole thing was like thirtyyears ago. No question, Hey,
John, I want to go backback to watch that whole thing. I
watched the whole Yeah, I watchedit during COVID. Yeah, among you
know, among the other million seriesthat I watched during COVID, John will
well done, it really really was. I loved for Bolta, Yes,
yes he was. He was fabulousin that John. You know, I

(49:22):
want to go back to this restructuring. Let's say the Super Conference doesn't work,
and let's say we're back to thisPAC two situation for a while.
What makes the Pack two enticing tojoin or is it a place for teams
just to kind of fall into ifthe ACC collapses. Well, I think
it's certainly something to fall into ifthe ACC collapses for Stanford and cal right,

(49:45):
But to me, what is enticingif you are a top four six
team in the Mountain West. Youknow, there is more value playing under
the banner of the PAC twelve thanthere is playing is a Mount West.
If You're boys Ofer San Diego,Fresno. The play in the PAC twelve

(50:06):
meets something, and they could also. I don't think it's just if they
reform the conference. It won't justbe with Mount West schools. I don't
think they're going to try to expandthe footprint. You know, Rice,
Memphis, Tulane. You know,they're schools that would have a little bit
of value and would really help fortifythe league. I think that we're gonna

(50:28):
see something. I don't know whenit's going to be exactly, but by
the end of the decade, therewill be a pack eight anywhere from a
pack of eight to a pack sixteen. I think. Wow. Well,
John Wilner again with us. We'reat the Lime in Kirkland. Taco Tuesday
one dollar Traditional Tacos two dollars StreetTaco Stop, N Buy and CEUs and
the Rosehill Plaza right here in Kirkland. Crack and pregame coming next obviously with

(50:52):
Winnipeg. But John, I gotto ask you because Jed Fish just announced
on social media a few minutes agothat the spring game honorary coaches are gonna
be Lincoln Kennedy, lawyer, MaloyDanny Shelton and Jake Locker. They're doing
this on a Friday night. It'sgonna be on May the third, So
two weeks from this Friday is theSpring Game. And you know, Dick

(51:12):
and I were talking yesterday about Jedfishobviously has aspirations for the NFL. I
mean, you're gonna be a moronto not see that he's running an NFL
style system. He's bringing in BillBelichick, John Lynch. You know a
bunch of X players and coaches haveall been at practice so far. He's
got a you know, hankering tobe in the NFL. And who can
blame the guy? What does heneed to do to be attractive to the

(51:36):
National Football League as a head coach? How many wins? How long does
he need to stay here for?What does he need to do with Washington
to really show off to the NFL? You think, oh, good question.
Uh. I mean everybody knows whatWashington's roster was like when he took
over, right, he ends upwinning eight or nine games games and competing

(52:00):
in the Big Ten. I thinkhe could be attractive next winter, and
I wouldn't put it just limited justto the NFL. I think he would
have interest in his alma mater,Florida if there's a vacancy there. But
he he is any Husky fan whothinks that he's going to provide long term
stability. I think that is amisguided approach that I don't blame Fish at

(52:23):
all, but you know, ifhe if he wins, he's only going
to be there for two or threeyears. Yeah, I agree with you,
John. They should have known thatwhen they hired him, and I
think they did know that. Theydidn't care. They didn't care. Yeah,
they didn't care. So then youknow that's the consequences of making that

(52:44):
move, and you just have toYou hope he wins, and then you
hope your programs in good shape whenhe leaves and you hire somebody who continues
that. Well, it's Troy Dannonmade the higher, and I agree with
the higher. I don't like Dan, but I agree with the higher.
I have no problem of Fish beinghere. I'm totally with you. I
think Dixon board as well. Thisis a short term deal for Jetfish.

(53:04):
I mean, god, if he'shere for five years, then oh my
god, that's gonna feel like onehundred years. For trying out loud,
But Yep. Did they do thewrong thing? Should they have gone after
somebody who maybe would give them alittle more stability in your opinion? Well,
I don't know the extent to whichthey went after, say Lansley pulled
from Kansas or let's claim Chris claimingfrom Kansas State or some other guys.

(53:27):
Uh, they may have put outfeelers. I don't know if fish was
their number one choice all along,Yeah, but they were certainly it was
a you know, it was alittle bit of a tough spot, given
given the timing of divorce departure inthe offseason cycle. But I go back,
you know, and your listeners maynot want to hear this. I
go back to the first Oregon game. Why was there not a contract on

(53:52):
Debor's desk the next morning? Eightyears, eight nine million a year.
Why did they not try to lockhim up then instead of instead of letting
him gain all the leverage into Novemberand December. That's the answer I would
love to know from Hono Maury CousetJohn. With all the eyeballs on women's

(54:15):
basketball recently, the PAC twelve nowno longer has the winningest coach in basketball
history. Your thoughts of Tara Vanderveerof Stanford leaving and is there even a
close second to the best program ofthe Big three sports men's basketball, women's
basketball, and football in the packera? Oh boy, good question.

(54:39):
Probably not, because USC football didnot sustain the way Stamford women's basketball,
did you know? I think Ihave a little bit of a nuanced view
of Vanderveer. I think she getsa little bit too much credit for what
she did for her first, say, twenty years at Stanford, and not
enough credit for what she's done thelast five or ten. She had enormous

(55:02):
advantages when there was no WNBA,and if you're the best women's basketball player
in the country, of course yougo into Stamford because you don't have You're
not getting a pro contract. Yougot to go to get an education to
get a job, right, Soshe had a huge advantage. But lately
that advantage has flipped, and it'sa disadvantage in a lot of ways,

(55:24):
with Stanford's policies on transfer, nnil and the WNBA leveling the playing field,
and she has still produced a reallytop tier program. So I think
she deserves a lot of credit forthat. John, Do you know why
I can't be the man because you'rethe man. No, I refuse to
believe that. I believe that youare the man. All right, listen,

(55:45):
have a good week and we'll talknext Tuesday. Buddy, appreciate this
pal. Thanks a lot, guys, all right, John Wilner with us.
That'll do it for us. FromLyme in Kirkland, Rose Hill Plaza
here, great spot. One dollartraditional taco, two dollars soft tacos on
Taco Tuesday and somebody just dropped offa big old plate of taco. Perfect

(56:06):
timing for me and Dick. Wegot a break, we got cracking,
and we got the Jets the penultimategame of the year. Two more to
go, one tonight, one Thursday, and the Boys are done for the
season. Cracking pregame with Winnipeg comingnext right here on ninety three to three
KJRFM. Se Yah