Softy & Dick 6-26 Hour 3: Larry Stone, Draft Hype, Richard Zane

In the third hour, Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain chat with Larry Stone about the Mariners need for another bat, discuss the lack of interest in the NBA Draft, then visit with Texas A&M Reporter Richard Zane about his interaction with Jim Schlossnagle.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's time for our weekly conversation withlegendary sports writer Larry Stone, brought to
you by the Ram Restaurant and Brewery, Bigger, Better and fresher since nineteen
seventy one, with eight fugit Soundlocations from Marysville to Lacey and everywhere in
between. There's a Ram there younow with Softy and Dick, Here's Larry
Stone. God, dude, AdamSilver is one weird looking dude. Man,

(00:23):
I am looking up on TV rightnow. He is a scary guy.
I'm you're just waiting for weeping nextto him and waking up and seeing
that in the morning. Holy,He's like he's like Lobot from Empire without
the electronics on his head. Rememberthat guy. Yes, I asked Larry
the question that you asked you,Larry. Cal Worthington's dog is named Spot.

(00:46):
Go see Cow, Go see Cow, Go see Cow. Every time
cal Rowley hits a home run,we say, go see cow Cow.
He'll stand on his head till hisears are turning red. That's right,
count go see cow. And nobodyhas any idea what the hell I'm talking
about unless you're over like forty fiveyears old. So Larry Stones back with
us courtesy of our friends at theRam Restaurant and Brewery. Always a good

(01:07):
day to have you on. Manand the Mariners finally salvage one today in
Tampa Bay, but not the roadseries and the road trip that we were
all looking for three and six andthought, okay, two out of three
to Cleveland, whatever, I canhandle that. But then you got to
mop up on the Marlins and theRaisin and that just did not happen.
So your thoughts on what we sawthe last six games in Miami and Tampa,

(01:30):
Well, first of all, canyou imagine if they had blown that
game today? Faces loaded, youwere I'm sure you were thinking when they
had the bases loaded with nobody out, that they were going to lose that
in the ninth in it, youknow, sornt and bailed them out after
Munios couldn't get anybody over and getanybody out. It was a rough road

(01:52):
trip. It was It's not panictime, but it's grave concern time.
I would say, I think alltheir all their flaws kind of came to
the forefront in those in those games. They're just not they're they're they're a
bad offensive team and they've got toinvest that. And there they've got some
bullpen halls too, So I thinkto me, I mean, they're still

(02:13):
in a fine position. Uh youknow, last year at this time,
they were ken, and they wereten and a half games out on June
twenty eighth last year, and andhere they are four and a half up
and seven and a half up onTexas. So it's not panic time.
But you really can see what theyneed to do. They've got to go
out and get bat I mean,uh, it's just it's just glaring.

(02:37):
They their offense was was bad thiswhole road trip really, except for you
know, maybe one or two games. Well, I think a lot of
it. You could kind of seecoming even two or three weeks ago when
they were winning Larry, because theywere winning ugly. I mean they were
they were not looking good when theywere rattling off all those wins. I
mean that White Sox series, theyplayed horrible baseball and still were able to

(02:59):
win three or four against that terriblebaseball team. And now is just catching
up to them, right, Yeah, I think you're right. That was
you. You scratched your head afterthose games and wondering how they came away
with them, and that's what theyneeded to do against an almost equally bad
Miami Marlins team, and they didn't, uh, and they didn't do that.
They needed to take that series.But you know you're going to have

(03:21):
you are going to have those stretches. And they are coming home now where
they are almost you know, thebest team in baseball close to it at
home. It's going to be arough it's going to be a tough,
a tough homestand that this will thiswill tell tell a lot. But one
thing they did was they Tampa Baywas on the verge of being a seller.

(03:44):
And maybe they're back in it nowbecause they you know, they won
that series. And uh, Houstonand Texas were also both close to being
realistically out of it, and nowthey've crept back in it too. So
getting somebody at the trade deadline isreally going to be tough. You know,

(04:04):
I was looking at the standings justnow. There's thirteen of the fifteen
teams in the National League are withinfive games of a playoff spot, twelve
of fifteen in the American League withinsix and a half of playoffs. But
that's one good week and you're you'rein bad position because of the extra wildcard.
So basically there's five teams that youcould say or sellers right now.
There'll be more, you know,teams like Texas and Toronto or right on

(04:29):
the brink of probably being eliminated.But if one of them gets hot,
like the Mets, you know,Alonso is not going to be traded.
They're too close to they're too closeto a playoff spot and they're playing too
well. So unless they collapse inthe next few weeks, I don't think
he's going to be on the market. So, you know, if it
stays as the parody ridden in theNational League as it is right now,

(04:54):
you know, the price tags forthe Luis Roberts and guys like that is
going to be a mess, noquestion. I think they're in trouble guys,
to be honest with you. Atthe deadline, as far as making
a move, I think it's gonnabe really, really difficult to pull this
off unless they change their perspective onhow much they're willing to take on financially.
I mean, they've really kind ofin the years pass for the most

(05:15):
part, been a team that likesto take on expiring contraction. They may
have to revisit that and think aboutgrabbing somebody who's got maybe two, if
not three or four years left ona deal because of exactly what you said.
And I think if you're looking forhelp, Larry, the help is
going to come in the form ofMitch Garverer not hitting a buck seventy six.
Honestly, the help is going tocome in the form of Julio Rodriguez
having more than thirteen extra base hits. I mean, look, every week

(05:38):
it seems like we ask you,are we concerned about Julio? No,
no, no, here we are. We're three months in. He had
fifty six extra base hits his rookieyear, seventy one a year ago,
and now he's on pace for liketwenty five. If we're not concerned,
now, when do we get concerned? Yeah? No, I'm officially concerned.

(05:59):
Now. They passed the halfway pointof the season, and this road
trip he regressed in a lot ofways. It was a terrible road trip
for it. You know, Ithink one measure of how far he's fallen
is the praise that was gushing forthtoday for a walk that he got.
I mean, it was a greatat bat, but you know, when

(06:21):
good at bat, taking some closepictures and earning a walk is your big
contribution for a guy who should beyour lynch pion on offense. You know,
that's worries. Yeah, you mentionedthe thirteen extra base hits. That's
just staggering. Dylan Moore has twentyfour at extra base as virtually twice as

(06:41):
many a part time player. Wow, So he's got six doubles. He
should be a forty double guy andhe's on pace for twelve, so something.
You know, I still think he'sgoing to have a hot streak and
maybe a blistering hot streak like youdid last year. But you know,
it's getting it's it's getting too farinto the season now for you for for

(07:05):
you to still be still be waitingfor that. So it's it's a it's
a huge problem. And I butI agree with you, Softy that that's
probably where the bulk of their improvementis going to have to come is guys
on on the roster. You know, JP, JP Crawford's had some great
moments, but he's hitting two seventeen. Uh, and you can just kind

(07:26):
of go down and go down theline. But I do think even beyond
yes, you need the guys uhon the roster. I do think you've
you've got to pick up You've gotto pick up somebody. And in addition
to what you said about picking upmoney, I think it's also going to
come down to how how deep intoyour farm system are you willing to go.
And you know it, because theyhave a lot of really good,

(07:47):
coveted prospects they could make. Theycould get anyone they want if they're willing
to give up enough from their farmsystem. And that's a really tough call
because you don't want to look twoyears, three years down the road and
you've given a Tatis like the WhiteSox did a couple of years ago.
You know though, that's always therisk of those kind of those kind of

(08:07):
deals, is that you end upgiving up the next superstar. Larry.
What frustrates me is it doesn't looklike this baseball team adjust to the park
that they're in. They pitch thesame at home as they do on the
road. They just throw strikes inthe middle of the zone and you can
get away with that at Team Mobile. It's for me, it's like,
if you use the football analogy,the Lions play the Packers twice in the
season. They're gonna play him onetime in Detroit indoors and Jared Goff can

(08:31):
throw for three hundred and fifty yardsif he wants to, And then the
next time they play him it mightbe twenty degrees and a blizzard at lambeau
Field. You can't play the samegame. And T Mobile Park, to
me is the blizzard of Major LeagueBaseball. And I don't understand why they
don't adjust well. I mean,certainly Gilbert and George Kirby have shown that

(08:56):
they could attest. Are you talkingabout the pitchers or they hit it well?
Both? Because the pitchers don't.I mean, we're winning at home,
so I guess you can't complain toomuch about what they're doing at home.
I don't think they try to manufactureenough runs at home offensively, they
just try to swing for the fenceslike they do every place and on the
road. I think the pitchers,and we talked to Steven Susan he agrees
this week that they just they don'tnibble enough. They just throw it right

(09:16):
down the middle. And so Ihear hit it because it works at Team
Mobile, but as it doesn't workelsewhere. Well, look, I mean
Kirby pitched to Jim. Gilbert pitched, Jim, you know those guys could
win on the road, and I'mnot worried about Castillo. But uh,
but I agree with your premise thatthat they're they're obvious, the stats are
obvious. They need to do somethingdifferent on the road. And and uh,

(09:39):
I mean, you don't want togo too far away from what's worked
for you. But and as faras manufacturing runs at home, you know,
they they laid down a sacrifice bunchtoday with you're hardly ever about that.
Look at that. Give him thebig blue ribbon for doing that.
Man. I mean, but Larry, you're right, because it's like,

(10:01):
you know, we're going nuts aboutyou know, Rojas or Canzone or whoever
has a big week and Luke Railey. The guys lead the league or the
team in ourps but or ops,but they're not even top fifty in baseball.
We're so starved for offense that anymorsel, any nuggets of success,
we just like flock to it likewolves going after a piece of meat.
Man, it's unbelievable. But LarryStones with us on the radio show,

(10:24):
and Larry Kaylyn Clark is back intown tomorrow. Last time she was here,
there was a lot more buzz Ithink around her. There still is
buzz around her, but it's adifferent kind of buzz, right, It's
a buzz where people are taking sidesand having all these arguments and getting mad
at her for not saying enough,and other people say, no, just
shut like Lebron. Lebron came outand literally said Caitlin Clark should just play

(10:48):
basketball and let everybody else worry aboutall this stuff going on. Yet a
lot of people don't agree with him. So the Kaitlin Clark buzz, the
aura around her, is it differentfor you now it was when she was
maybe first coming out. Yeah,it's a little bit different. There was
the excitement of seeing what she coulddo in the league and that's still there.
And you know, she's, forthe most part, I think,

(11:11):
performed very well under a lot ofpressure and seems to be getting better.
But the cultural buzz around her iskind of gotten out of hand a little
bit, you know, like youdescribed it perfectly, Everybody wanting her to
be this, wanting her to bethat, wanting her to speak up politically,

(11:31):
wanting her to shut up and justplay. Does it Larry remind you
of anything. I mean, youwent through a lot of this in the
Bay Area sixties seventies. Does itremind you of anything that you've ever covered
like this before? Fifties, forties? Right, it's not that old boy.

(11:52):
I'd have to think about it.Nothing jumps to my mind right away.
Guys, But I'm sure there's something, but I just I can't think
of it on the spot like this. Got it, Larry, We're gonna
have Richard Zaane on at six o'clocktoday. I don't know if you know
that name, but he's been inthe news the last forty eight hours.

(12:13):
He is the young journalist at TexasA and M who asked the Texas A
and M baseball coach if he potentiallywas going to Texas and he got excoriated
in the press conference, only tosee the coach leave twelve hours later for
Texas. So he was exactly rightin the question. Did you ever tick
off a coach with a question thatyou asked? You? Any stories where

(12:35):
you got done just you know,getting getting ripped by some guy? Yeah,
I have. Let's see Tony LaRussagot mad at me once long long.
I can't if somebody something about apitching change. I can't remember the

(12:56):
exact details, but he didn't likethe implication that he shouldn't have taken the
picture out, and he jumped allover me. He apologized like Schwatznagel.
That's the name rights Schlasnagel apologized toZay I saw today. I think it

(13:18):
must have been his introductory press conference. But uh, it was a perfectly
legitimate question. And you know,it's a tough situation because it's a situation
where you're almost obligated to lie becauseyou can't. It has not officially yet,
you can't acknowledge that you're doing it. But there's an artful way of
doing that where you're not lying,you're you should you should be more ambiguous.

(13:41):
And and he had no right toto go after the reporter who did
ask a legitimate question and turned outto be a very legitimate question because he
took the job. So uh,I think it made Schlasnagel look really bad,
especially in light of what happened uhin the uh in the ensuing twenty
four hours. For sure, Ihad that happened to me one time.

(14:03):
It was not like this, butit was at the eleven Alamo Bowl,
when the Huskies scored fifty six pointsand lost the game to Baylor because they
gave up eight hundred yards to RGthree seven. It's right, I'm sorry,
twenty three less than what I said. It's a totally different story.
Now. I asked Sarka about NickHolt, and he got pissed and told
me to grow up, and thenhe fired him the next day. Okay,

(14:24):
by the way, this will onlywork for me and Dick. This
is the scoring summary from the AlamoBowl that day. Look at that,
dude. Oh my god, it'slike it's like three pages long, the
yellow pages. But I don't know, I mean, like, what are
coaches supposed to do? I mean, obviously there's a there's a way to
handle it. There's cliches, there'sa there's a there's a reference pamphlet.
You can you can you know,reference to get yourself out of it.

(14:45):
But would you rather have coaches justadmit yes, I'm talking to Texas or
just lie through their teeth? Well, I mean, I'd rather have them
admit it as a journalist, butI can understand why they want to be
evasive about it. But what ifhe doesn't get the job, then your
your players know that, uh youwere you know, you were looking and

(15:07):
then you've you've lost some credibility.But from I mean, I was reading
that he was interviewing for that jobwhile that before the World Series even began,
which is kind of uh, whichis the kind of bogus I think.
You know, So he's coaching theteam in the in the biggest games
of his careers, first time theyhad ever gone to the World Series,

(15:31):
and and you could say that's hewasn't totally there because you know, invested,
because he was investigating another job.So you know, and everyone gets
on the players for the transfer portaland everything, but the coaches are just

(15:52):
this is a guy who you know, just jumped ship on on the program
that I'm sure, as he saidin his quote, you know, I
didn't come here to I came hereto get my heart and sould to Texas
A and M and then he's outthe door the first time he gets a
good offer. So the as longas the coaches do stuff like that,
I think the players deserve to havethe ability to change programs as well.

(16:18):
Oh, Larry, last thing foryou from me. We got word of
the training camp schedule for the SeattleSeahawks and a little addendum that says,
leave your cell phones in your pockets. No pictures, no videos, no
Facebook posts, no Instagram posts.What do you What do you think of
that? I know, it justit strikes me it's a little bit paranoid.
Is there really any information that's goingto be gleaned from a grainy cell

(16:45):
phone videos most of us, uh, you know, it seems that they're
so they're so paranoid about that sortof thing. Is that really Are the
Seahawks pouring Maybe they do this.I don't know. Are they pouring over
twenty nine other teams or thirty oneother teams social media just to see if

(17:12):
they see a formation that the DenverBroncos are running in the second week of
training camp. I don't know.Maybe they do that, but it strikes
me as a little bit of,like I said, paranoia. I'm totally
with you. And maybe we're justkind of getting a window into what McDonald's
all about. Maybe this is justwho he is. I mean, we

(17:33):
know nothing about this guy rights asa head coach, and so we'll see.
But I can just imagine I'm sittingaround and McDonald's like, hey,
guys. Get to the rams TikTokpage now before they take it down.
All right, Larry, you're theman, you know, I was gonna
say, for a guy that's supposedto be retired, he knows everything,
but I know a lot about what'sgoing on. Have you had a day
or two where you've said, thehell with us, I'm going outside and

(17:56):
having a beer and sitting in myold tank top and my lawn chair in
the grass and just ignoring sports alltogether. Well, I would do that,
but then I then I'm afraid thatI'm gonna get on this show and
You're going to ask me a questionand I'm not going to know the answer.
Well, we don't know the answerseither, so you fit right in.
So it's okay. You can makestuff up, Larry, and we
wouldn't know the diffights. So areyou Are you honestly watching like a ton

(18:18):
of baseball right now at home?I have watched every single Mariner game this
year, but I'm not watching alot of other games. I watched the
College World Series and the Men andWomen, But you know, I've been
that I'm kind of invested in thisMariner's season just to see see where it

(18:41):
goes. And it's kind of kindof been a fascinating season. And now
without having to work, and Ihave the luxury of just kind of relaxing
and watching the game each day.I love it. Man, You're a
fan through and through. Great stuff. And we're talking a week. Appreciate
Pale, all right, thank you? All right, Larry Stone with us.
He's working hard for the burgers fromthe ram. Amazing. Are we
taking care of him? By theway, Let's let's get that guy taken

(19:03):
care of taking care get him halfthe restaurant. At six h five ish
tonight. Richard Zayne, the kidthat you mentioned that got his head ripped
off by the head coach. Iwas wonder why baseball coaches in college are
not managers. They're head coaches.Weird. Jim schlossel Ganger, not really,
Jim Sausage longer ripped this kid's headoff and then went and took the

(19:27):
job that the kid was asking himif he was going to take. The
very next day, we're gonna hearfrom Richard Zane, who was the young
man that got barbecued by Richard Snosselganger. That's coming up at six oh five
on ninety three three KJRFM Live fromthe R and R Foundation Specialists Broadcast Studio.
Now back to Softie and Dick onyour home for the Huskies and the

(19:49):
Kraken Sports Radio ninety three point threeKJR FM. All right, NBA draft
is through pick number four. Forthose that are curious about the NBA Draft.

(20:10):
If there's a million people listening rightnow, which there usually are,
how many of those million are lookingfor updates on the NBA draft? You
think three three three of the million? Wow, that's not very much.
Zachary Risache, as I say hisname, I don't know how to say
the last name, from France,we number one to Atlanta. Alex Sar

(20:30):
from France went number two to theWizards. Reed Shepherd from Kentucky went to
the Rocket to three, and StefanCastle, the point guard, the leader
of the Yukon offense to general fromthe Huskies went to the Spurs at number
four. So the Detroit Pistons noware on the clock at number five in
the NBA Draft. And I'll behonest with you, I have no problem

(20:52):
admitting this. I have zero interestin the NBA Draft, none at all.
I'm curious if the Lakers take Bronni. The way this actually worked out
with the two days with the roundone today, Round to tomorrow actually worked
out really good for this year becausethe story tomorrow will be Bronnie. Unless
Bronnie goes this year, I don'tthink he I don't think he will.
I don't think he will. Youthink he will? No, I don't

(21:14):
think I would. I would bethe goes tomorrow. But I've seen more
than one mock draft that has Bronniegoing late. Now. First, all
right, well you know what,I take it back. That would be
the only reason why I would runhome if I do get home in time,
flip on ESPN to see if BronnieJames gets his name called. Outside
of that, I just I haveno interest in this at all. None.

(21:37):
I mean, am I alone?Tell me I'm not alone. I
think I have a negative interest inhim? Is that possible? I just
I'm like the NBA, I justdon't care about the draft. Well,
see for me, right now,I'm aware of things going on. I'm
aware of like, okay, whoare the good players? Who are the
good teams? But right now it'sit's sort of is like it's just in
a in a holding area, right. I just I under stand that it's

(22:00):
a sport that we need to careabout in two years from now, an
maybe in one year from now,yes, but right now I have too
much in my brain to actually fiveNBA. But I do care about the
league a lot. I watched almostevery game of the finals. I just
don't care about this. Yes,it's like the NFL and the preseason.
I love the NFL. I hatethe preseason with a passion. You guys
know that, And Dick, oneof the reasons why I say I don't

(22:22):
care about the NBA draft is becauseI get the feeling that the teams don't
even care about the NBA Draft.No, because they trade draft price,
Like there are teams that trade havetraded their draft picks for the next five
years. So yes, they don't. They don't care about the NBA Draft.
They want to clear up cap space, they want to get the free
agents in. Yes, yeah,they don't have to worry about developing an

(22:42):
eighteen year old kid part of this. And I just said this to Dick
in the break. I'm watching ESPNand I have no idea who these people
are covering the draft. I knowRichard Jefferson, that's it. Well,
and I have heard that. Youknow, ESPN made a decision, They
made a decision to hire Pat McAfee, and at the time they hired Pat

(23:03):
McAfee, they lay a whole lotof people that got laid off, right,
and they're paying And now they're negotiationswith Steven A. Smith again.
And guess what if they if theypay Steven A Smith what Steven A.
Smith wants, he wants twenty fivemillion, Guess what else happens at ESPN
more people get laid off? Well, I mean, so it's like it's
almost as if it's like a footballor like a football team. Do you

(23:26):
want to pay Dak Prescott, MicahParsons and Cdee Lamb all of your money
and have no one else or doyou want to balance team? And ESPN
has clearly said we want to payPat McAfee and Steven A. Smith and
no one else. Yeah, butyou can, you can. You can
grow talent, right like you can. You can. You can find x
NBA players that don't deserve big moneymedia wise yet because they're rookies and they're

(23:51):
sophomores and they're just getting going.I just feel like they're just plucking people
from other broadcasts on the network andslapping them on TV to cover the NBA
Draft. I mean, again,not that I really care, because I
don't have much of an interest inthis anyway, but it just struck me
as I'm watching this thing that numberone, the teams don't care. And
we've talked about that before. Uh, the broadcasters are nobody's the network that

(24:17):
covers the draft doesn't really care,So why should I care? And in
the half, these guys are fromEurope and nobody's ever even seen them play
before. No, I think it'sI think it's totally fair. And I
will say as well. I mean, yes, I pumped basketball all the
time, but I will also tellyou when basketball is not good. And
I didn't think the NCAA tournament wasgood, right, And I think the
NBA playoffs were good. Playoffs wereokay. The final stunk. The final

(24:41):
stunk. There was like three outof all the series. There was like
three decent series out of all theseries that were played in the NBA finals.
And so but you know what,You're gonna have years like that,
right, You're gonna have years thatyou just don't have intriguing games and the
NCAA Tournament. I remember we hadColorado Florida, right, great game like
one oh three, one oh one, great game, went down, the
wire went over time, what haveyou? Buzzer beat That was an unbelievable

(25:03):
game. But I you know whyI can remember that game because it was
like the only one, Yeah,that was really good, and the rest
of them were like twelve point wins. I mean, there just was not
a lot of intrigue in March Madnessthis year, and there was not a
lot of intrigue in the NBA playoffsthis year. But you're gonna have one
off years like that because usually they'rereally good. And I guarantee you when
the Sonics come back, and theywill come back, I will my interest

(25:25):
in the NBA draft will grow exponentially. Part of this is me not having
a team, I'll totally admit that. And by the way, we're getting
more and more responses to the MikeFlorio proclamation that the Seahawks are better off
as an organization if Sam Howe winsthe starting quarterback job. And this is
the smallest sample of what people aresaying. I wrote on Twitter two hours

(25:47):
ago Mike Florio Pro Football Talk sayingthe Hawks will be better off organizationally if
Sam Howe won the starting quarterback job, to which Kyrie got Game wrote on
Twitter, Geno Hayes is out ofhand, Emo MS fan underscore twenty seven.
There's not even a competition. Whatare we talking about here? Lol?

(26:10):
Nick Bobby one four five five oheight three Florio isn't qualified to speak
on such matters. What else wegot? Let's see Taylor Trent saying this
about a guy that threw twenty pickslast year. Actually was twenty one,
by the way. So a lotof people are just kind of, you
know, blowing this up and sayingthat this is ridiculous. What a dumb,

(26:32):
stupid opinion that somebody would have thatthe Hawks are better off? Do
people not understand? And you dida good job of laying this out earlier.
If Sam Howe beats out Geno Smithand it's not injury related, you
might want to get out of Gino'scontract for next year, save yourself a
bunch of money. And you're payingyour starting quarterback a million dollars, barely

(26:53):
over a million dollars. It's theperfect scenario for a championship how you win
a championship in the NFL is loadyour team up position by position and have
a quarterback that is capable making nomoney. And if Gino Smith beats out
or excuse me, if Sam Howebeats out Geno Smith, he is clearly
a capable quarterback, a more thancapble quarterback, because Gino Smith is a

(27:17):
capable quarterback. But he's a capablequarterback making twenty five times more than Sam
Howell, right right, And soSam how has a one point one million
dollar cap at Now you can buythree stud players to play with Sam Howe
that you could not have if GinoSmith was your starting quarterback. Simple economics,

(27:38):
Geno Smith. So when I sayone point one million, yeah for
Sam Gino Smith next year has athirty eight million dollar cap pick for the
Sealfs. Sorry, thirty eight timesmore, okay, not twenty five times
thirty eight? Now you can youcan cut him for thirteen to five and
save twenty five million dollars. Yesunder the cap. Bye, buy So
you'd be saving twenty five million underthe cap and you're paying your starting quarterback

(28:03):
a million bucks. So I don'tknow, I mean, I guess I
would take the opposite approach to whatsome folks are saying on Twitter in response
to it, that what Mike Floriosaid is actually kind of obvious, right,
yes, Because if you've got aquarterback making a million dollars that clearly
is a better player than the guythat was starting the last two years,
you're in a hell of a positionfinancially. That is amazing. Everybody should

(28:29):
be rooting for Sam Howe to bebetter than Gino and to win the job
because of talent and not because ofinjury. I mean, Gino Smith had
twenty touchdowns and nine interceptions in aQBR of fifty nine point five last year.
He was an above average, actually, Hugh says, and probably rightly
so. Hugh says, he wasthe Dictionary definition of average quarterback in the

(28:52):
NFL. Sam Hall threw for fourthousand yards, had twenty one touchdowns twenty
one interceptions. The only difference isSam Hell was in his first year of
a starting quarterback and second year overallin the NFL. Gino Smith's had a
decade to cure in the NFL,both on the bench and as a starting
quarterback. So the upside for SamHell is far greater than genus well,

(29:14):
and the money, even if youget just equal performance. I'd rather pay
a guy one than pay him thirtyeight. Absolutely everybody should be rooting for
that to happen. I mean,I feel like sometimes Seahawk fans, and
this is not unique to this,every fan base does this. Sometimes they
just root for their guy, nomatter what it means financially, no matter
what it means to the team.You mean the Jamal Adams fan base out

(29:34):
there, well, was that thelast year. Most people are just flat
out wrong, not everything. Ijust feel like everybody should be rooting for
Sam how to clearly show up andlook like a better quarterback than Gino.
I just don't think that'll happen.We're gonna break Richard Zane, who was
the young reporter that the Texas Aand M head coach went off on a

(29:56):
couple of days ago for daring toask him about his future at A and
M. Then the guy goes outand leaves the next day for Texas.
He'll join us and give us hisperspective on that story at six o'clock tonight.
Coming up on ninety three three kJRFM Live from the R and R
Foundation, specialists Broadcast Studio. Nowback to Softie and Dick on Your Home

(30:17):
for the Huskies and the Kraken SportsRadio ninety three point three kJ R FM.
Hi, you know what that is? But one of my favorite comedies
on all time, absolutely hysterical.Well tell people what it is, Monty

(30:38):
Python and the Holy Right. Thereare five, like every scene is good,
yep, but there are at leastfour or five just side splitting.
So I agree with that number one, and I think that's a mark of
a great comedy when every scene isa nie slapper. That's the difference to
me between the Original Vacation and ChristmasVacation. Every scene in Vacation is a

(31:00):
knee slapper. Christmas Vacation has thescene with Clark in the attic crying his
eyes out watching the film because hegot locked upstairs, which was fine,
but it's not a knee slapper.Okay, that's the difference. Air the
the First Airplane, the First Vacation, and Blazing Saddles, to me are

(31:21):
the top three in my book,Okay, number one, two and three.
I just think Christmas Vacation is adifferent version. It's it's not like
a different movie. Vacation was yes, Vacation had funnier scenes, but I
think I like Christmas Vacation better.That's fine, you can like it better,
I would agree. I would agreeit's probably not as funny as the
original Vacation, but I think it'sjust an overall better movie than you.

(31:45):
Well, you gotta go back andyou gotta watch the original Airplane, and
then you gotta go watch Naked Gun, the first one, and they are
funny as hell. And you knowwhat, if somebody really really wants to
take a chance, because I believein Jackson and I have had this conversation
before. I don't off the year. I think there is not enough original
content in mainstream movies like Apple,Amazon or whatever. But when you go

(32:06):
to actual movie theater there there's nota lot of new ideas. Like they're
redoing space Balls terrible. Okay,it's part two? Is it not correct?
There's no need to do that.There's just not Sometimes something is so
good it just can stand on itsown till the end of time. So
I would say to mel Brooks,who's ninety seven years old, by the
way, you're gonna do this,you better Dan will do it right.

(32:30):
Otherwise there's no point in doing itdumb and dumber. Ruur was ridiculously stupid.
No need to do it, SoI would just say you want to
do it, then do it right. But then number two, there's no
original content left out there but one. If somebody had the balls to do
Blazing Saddles Part two and to makefun of the massive people of today,

(32:51):
I imagine the news. Imagine thebuzz good and bad on both sides of
the aisles that that thing would generate. There'd be protes there'd be people lighting
up for miles to come watch yourprotest. It'd be unbelievable. It'd be
the movie event of the century.But if they redid Blazing Saddles or made
a sequel, the problem with thatis whoever decides to take a role in

(33:13):
that movie, produce it direct,et cetera, et cetera. They're basically
just saying, we are signing upto be excommunicated by a large bit of
Hollywood, and a lot of themdon't give it damn. You think Larry
David gives it damn with the rightthings, or vice versa. The problem
is you're gonna have to cast alot of younger people who want to have
careers in Hollywood in that movie.The problem with Blazing Saddles that people don't
get it's a parody. Yes,they're making fun of idiots, Yes,

(33:37):
in Blazing Saddles, And nobody stillto this day understands that that's the thing.
And there's and there's a lot ofthings that Blazing Saddles could make fun
of. Oh god, there's probablymore things today that Blazing Saddles could make
fun of than they could forty yearsago. For the love of God,
just redo it, or dude,dude, just do Part two? What
happened? Looks were a great originalcomedy? Has there been? I mean,

(33:59):
what was the last great original comedy? Well, the great ones all
happened I think between around two thousandand six toes, that era school era.
Well you have, for me,my favorite comedy of all time is
super Bad. Super Bad, Ithink is maybe a perfect comedy movement.
Thinker, it's my generator, it'sBut you also had in that you have

(34:20):
step Brothers, you have Anchorman,you have the Hangover, you have that
five year period that was sensational andthen would kind of just didn't could you
say? Step brothers? We getbigger about this all night. But what's
done is done. You guys gonnainvest or not? But we got we
got a buddy of ours who wastrying to sell his house, and we

(34:45):
think we're gonna pull off a WillFerrell and John c Riley next door.
No right, oh no, allright, there's ten thousand pounds of fertilizer
next door. You don't want tobuy this house. There's a dead body
in the basement. You don't wantto buy. We got a couple of
polls we got to get to beforeRichard Zane joins us around six oh five.

(35:07):
He's the young kid that the Aand M head coach blasted two days
ago before he went out and tookthe Texas job. Which one did you
like first of the baseball one orthe football one? Let's do baseball by
football? All right? Are youa more or less of a Scott's Service
fan than you were a couple ofyears ago? I asked you that question

(35:28):
on the air? You did youstole my poll? I told you I
was gonna put it out there becauseI thought it was a fabulous question.
Okay, so what do people say? First of all, it's a landslide,
of course, less, yeah,yeah, way, less and most
of them, and the comments mostof them, the comments are didn't like
him, then still don't like him, but voted less. Scott, do
you think you're doing a better orworse job than you were two years ago

(35:51):
with this Mariner baseball team? Youtell us, Scotty, come on,
are you serious with that question?Here's what I think, and I've said
this, and I asked you guys. All we do is sit here on
the air and talk about how playersare underperforming right and left? How much
of that is on the manager?How much of that is on the players
themselves? Luke Rayley, Mitch Garver, Jorge Polonko, Julio Rodriguez, right,

(36:15):
whatever, These are not you know, all young rookies. They're you
know, Julio's in year three.But we're talking veteran guys that are doing
nothing. So the fact that they'refour and a half up and they've gotten
almost nothing collectively from their offense,Hey, maybe a new manager would kick
those guys into gear. Maybe it'scertainly possible. Well, we know Scott
doesn't kick him in the ass.He doesn't, but they're also not performing

(36:37):
for him whatsoever? How much ofa how different is this conversation Dick if
Ore, Polonko, Julio, Garver, Raley are all doing what they were
brought here to do. Of courseit's totally different, but Scott holds some
responsibility for getting them to do theirjob. I mean it worked for Philadelphia
two years ago. I get that. I get that. But if it's

(36:59):
not if it Scott's fault, whyisn't it also not Jerry's fault for these
guys not performing. Because when theplayers come in and they perform, Hey,
this was a great signing. Goodjob by Jerry. But when they
don't perform, it's on the manager. Well, no, it's I mean
I think it's on Jerry has gotpart of a GM's job is to project,
right, It's not only see whatguys have done, but also read

(37:22):
the back of their baseball card.Where are they trending? They trending up?
Are they trending down? Mitch Garvertrending down, Mitch Haniger trending down?
Holy hey, Blonco trending down.So and then you put them in
a bad hitters park on top ofthat, and so, yes, some
of it is on Jerry Depoto.I'm not putting it all on Scott's SERVI
there's blame to go around, man, GM manager, and the players go,

(37:43):
this is again. You're four anda half up. Listen to us.
If somebody just got off and aroundthe world cruise turned on KJR.
I want to get a sense ofwhere the Mariners are at. They think
they're ten games out, they're fourand a half up. All right,
we gotta break Richard Zane, whogot blasted by the Texas A and M
head coach for daring to ask abouthim leaving for Texas, and then he

(38:04):
went and left for Texas. He'lljoin us in about ten minutes on ninety
three three KJRFM. All right,hey, you may have heard this two
days ago. Jim Schlasnagel was theTexas A and M head coach. After
A and M lost a heartbreaker toTennessee in the College World Series, was
asked by a young reporter about rumorshe may be taking off for a new
job. Coach with respect to thedifficult outcome tonight, but with the rumors

(38:25):
circulating today about a specific job opening, what you have to say about your
future in Aggiland. Yeah, Imean I think he's pretty selfish of you
to ask me that question, tobe honest with you, but I left
my family to be the coach atTexas A and M. I took the

(38:45):
job at Texas A and M tonever take another job again, and that
hasn't changed in my mind. That'sunfair to talk about something like that.
They'd be like you asking Montgomery ifhe's going to sign in the draft.
But I understand you got to askthe question. But I gave up a
big part of my life to cometake this job. And I've poured every
ounce of my soul in this job. And I've given this job every single

(39:07):
ounce I can possibly give it.Write that coach, thank you very much.
So he blasts this reporter, andthen that day, that night he
indeed left and took the Texas job. The reporter who had the guts to
ask that question, the man whoput himself out there, is joining us

(39:29):
right now on the radio show.His name is Richard Zaye. He's with
texts Aggs by the way. Hecovers Texas A and M in College Station.
Find him at Twitter at Richard Zanethirty two. A wild couple of
days for you, pal. Firstof all, thanks for doing this man,
And then second of all, Dude, you gotta tell us, from
soup to nuts, top to bottom, what's the last forty eight hours man

(39:51):
been like? For you? Afterthat press conference, Man, it has
been. To call it a whirlwindseems like an understatement almost, And I'll
take you back all the way toyou know, the end of Sunday Sunday
night, right, A and Mloses a game four to one. They're
seven outs away from their first nationalchampionship in history. And the A and
M has been waiting for a BigThree national championship in football, basketball,

(40:14):
or baseball since nineteen eighty nine.And they were seven outs away before Tennessee
scored four two out runs thanks totwo to two out home runs, two
run home runs, and you getdone Sunday and you're like waking up some
Monday morning and we're like, allright, well, we got to go
back to the ballpark in Omaha,and we've been there for twelve days almost
the time, and there's a hugegame to play. And then of course

(40:37):
Texas announces, you know, threeweeks after their season, it ended that
they were departing or parting ways withhead baseball coach David Pierce after eight seasons
in Austin that saw him take theLonghorns to the you know three to Omaha
three different times. And we werewe've been chasing a chasing stories and hearing

(40:58):
things for you know, a fewweeks now at that point about coach Slashnagel
Jim Schloshniggle being a potential candidate forthat job. And that's that's despite him
being wildly successful in what was thethird year of his tenure in college station
and of course it being the ultimatearch rival. It's it's like it's it's

(41:19):
it's like the iron ball in Texas, even though they don't play each other,
they haven't played each other for thelast thirteen years, stuff like that.
It's Michigan, Ohio State, It'sAlabama Aubert, It's Duke Carolina.
It's it's absolutely on that level asfar as vitriol and hatred goes. So
the idea of him going to Texas, while it seems like to the fans
like a preposterous message board rumor,it had at legs for a few weeks

(41:43):
at that point, and then oncethe firing of Pierce comes out, it
really started to pick up. Andwhile the game between Texas and and Tennessee
was huge Monday night, and thatwas obviously top of mind for everybody in
that press box at Charles Schwab Field. It wasn't just the local beat writers
talking about the potential of Jim Schlosnagelcoaching his last game as coaching the Aggies

(42:06):
in his last game kind of thing. It was being talked about by other
national sites and stuff like that.So when A and M loses that game
by one run, six to five, they come up just short. They
try to rally late, they can'tget it done. Now you're in a
difficult position because in college baseball youdon't get an end of year press conference
with the head coach or anybody likethat, the take stock kind of like

(42:28):
they do at the professional levels,stuff like that. You don't get that
because the coaches are immediately hitting theroad, the players are to start recruiting,
the players are going out to summerball stuff like that. Legitimately,
when the when amm landed that incollege station on Tuesday morning, Tuesday afternoon,
whatever it was, that was thelast time that entire group was going

(42:49):
to be together, regardless if thehead coach was leaving. So back to
Monday night, you know, weknow this is this might be the last
chance we get to talk to coachSlashnagel, and there's obviously legs to this
rumors, but you have to takea respectful approach to it because this is
a guy who had been to Omahaseven times as an eight as a head
coach, an eighth if you includea trip as an assistant at Tulane.

(43:13):
This is his first time playing inthe Championship Series, and there's been There
are a lot of great baseball coachesand a lot of great coaches in any
sport that go their entire year withouther entire career, excuse me, without
winning a national title. So forhim to be that close, I can
imagine there were so many emotions hewas feeling postgame that you know, we've

(43:34):
waited until the end of this pressconference. It was the last question that
he was asked, and this isa moderated press conference by the NCAA,
so it's not like he stormed off. He knew this was his last question,
so once he was done with hisanswer, he could pack up and
walk and he obviously gave a veryemotional response to it, which at the
time you could take it one oftwo ways you could have taken it as

(43:57):
oh, he says. He saidthis, He said to them like I
came to text A and M tobe the last job I was ever going
to take, So you could takethat to me. No Coach Slashnagles leaving.
But at the same time, he'sspoke in past tense and stuff like
that where it wasn't it wasn't definitiveenough to where the door was still open,
to where he could just sneak outand leave. But he had to
add he was asked the question becauseif he wouldn't ask the question, he

(44:21):
would have snuck off anyways and neverbeen asked about it. And it changes
the entire narrative of Texas stealing thecoach. So and at the moment,
there's plenty of aggies that take hisresponse to me, and he's leaving the
reporters disrespectful for asking such a difficultquestion at a difficult time, which is
ridiculous. You were you were great, Yeah, And I tried to I

(44:45):
tried to frame and pose the questionas respectfully as possible and and I hope
that you know, Coach Slashnagle Heapologized earlier today, but earlier on Tuesday
and or Wednesday, what day.I don't even know what day of the
week it is. I mean,I was an im all the way too
long. But he apologized, andI hope he didn't take it as me

(45:05):
being intentionally disrespectful, because I'm justa reporter. I'm just a journalist.
All I wanted to do was getan answer for not only our audience,
which consists of lifelong and you know, bleed maroon Texas A and M fans,
but the college baseball world was talkingabout it too, so somebody had
to ask the question. It wasme and now that night man. Social

(45:29):
media and our message boards on techSAgs dot com were not too kind to
me, which I grew up inAggie. Both my parents went to A
and M. All the jokes aboutA and M being a cult in them
pushing me to A and N wouldbe incorrect. Here. They just took
me to a football game in twothousand and two and I loved it,
so I found it on my own. My dad actually wanted me to go

(45:52):
to Michigan, but I don't thinkI was smart enough for that. But
I grew up in Aggie, lovedit, loved being here, loved my
time as a student, stuff aroundthe work for a media company that covers
A and m athletics. So tosee all these aggies and people just written
on me really really hurt, andI couldn't sleep Monday night. We had
to get up at five point thirtyin the morning to drive back twelve hours

(46:13):
from Omaha to College Station. SoI was with my I was alone with
my phone for a long time andprobably made the mistake of reading, you
know, most of the stuff thatwas posted about me. But it changed
on it. It turned on adime pretty quickly, did a complete one
eighty when the reporting started to comeout that the rumor was true. And

(46:35):
the last twenty four hours it's justbeen going like wow, my phone's been
going off NonStop. And yeah,it reached a officially surreal moment earlier when
coach Slashnagle was introduced as the nexthead baseball coach at the University of Texas.
And I say surreal because I writefor an A and M outlet that

(46:57):
covers sex, a and m athletics. So to hear my name, Richard
Zane said by the head baseball coachat the University of Texas at his introductory
press conference was not something that Iever thought i'd hear. A little odd,
but you know, he apologized.I think that was pretty big of
him. But or you know,earlier I said that I was just a

(47:19):
journalist doing my job and I hada question that needed to be asked and
needed to be answered. I didn'tthink I was. I don't think I
need to be lauded as a heroas some people on our message boards are.
And I also don't think I wasowed an apology by coach Losnegel.
I think he I thought he wasjust emotional in the moment. We had
a great working relationship through his threeyears in college station. Uh. He

(47:42):
allowed me to have a pretty solidaccess to his program, was always thoughtful
and every question I asked him goodor bad softball or a difficult one in
postgame or pregame press conferences. SoI do appreciate him taking the time to
apologize to me publicly. But yeah, since then, it's it's been a
little it's been a little while.Not something I ever thought i'd lived through.

(48:04):
No doubt, you handled it perfectly, And I will disagree. In
Richard Zane's joining us from Tech SAgs, I will disagree with one thing you
said. Not only should he apologizeto you in public, he should call
you and apologize to you in private, because he handled it like a four
year old. To be perfectly honestwith you and Richard, what reaction did
you expect to get from him?You, like you mentioned you've had a

(48:25):
lot of interactions with this guy.Has he always been kind of a hair
trigger guy? Or did you expectto get a completely different reaction? I
expected to get a thoughtful answer,That's really all I thought. I figured
I thought i'd get because I'd neverbeen in that spot. I'd never talked
to him after a you know,this Game three of the Championship series,

(48:47):
right, But I knew in mytime with him that he was going to
give us a very thoughtful answer thatcould be used in the story and in
writing. So I knew I couldcount on that what we had known as
far as our intel and stuff wewere hearing. As far as the rumors,
it was much more than message boardstuff. So what I was expecting
was one of two things. Eithercoach Slosnagel is going to see Kee off

(49:15):
on this softball question and put tobed any rumors that he's going to the
University of Texas to rest. Hewas going to do that, or he
was going to sidestep it in away that left the door open. You
know, he could have he couldhave gone the route of saying, you
know, we just lost Game three. I'd like to, you know,
take the take the time and takethe evening to you know, be with

(49:37):
my players and think about the teamand worry about the future later. And
you know that would that would haveleft the door open. That would have
been uh, you know, thatwould have you know, obviously opened him
up to more questioning from people onsocial media and other people in the media
because he wouldn't have said something sodefinitive. But I think he tried his

(49:58):
best to put it to put itto us and just didn't do so enough.
In the moment, I didn't takeit as a shot, right and
I know he used the word hesaid, I was pretty selfish of you.
I didn't take it as a shotin the moment. All I took
it as was man, this isthe guy that just had the most heartbreaking
loss of his career. He's emotional, he got asked a difficult question at

(50:20):
a difficult time, and that's howhe reacted. And you know, if
he had stayed at the university,if he had stayed at Texas A and
M, I'm sure that we couldhave worked through that, and you know,
moves past it. But obviously he'snot. He took the time to
apologize. That's fine, it's awesome. I appreciate it. But yeah,
it's it's an emotional game played andcoached by emotional people. And you know

(50:45):
that I thought that was that responsewas no, I don't want to say
warranted, but not unexpected. Yeah, yeah, well you learned a lesson
for sure, Richard Zane. Again, tech SAgs dot com is with US
covers college baseball for that website andCOVERSXS A and M. You learned a
lesson that you can't control what peoplethink. End of story. You go
out and you do your job,and if you do it right and you

(51:07):
know in your heart you're doing theright thing, whatever reaction people have is
the reaction they're gonna have. Right. We've been doing this a long time
here, Dick and I, youknow, almost sixty years combined, so
we've taken a lot of shots.You've taken some shots, Pal, and
this will not be your last one. But I thought I thought your question
was perfectly timed. I thought itwas perfectly presented, it was respectful in
the moment, and the way hereacted, I'm with, Dick, was

(51:29):
completely absurd and that aligned so sogood for you for sticking to your guns.
And I'm sure a lot of thosepeople that were ripping you on Twitter
and on the website are now comingback to completely have the exact opposite reaction,
buddy. So I want to justleave you with this because I think
for us in the Northwest, weget the college football rivalries, we get
the college basketball rivalries, but wedon't really understand what college baseball rivalries are

(51:54):
like in the South. Yeah,Oregon State's had some success here in the
Pacific Northwest, but this is nota college baseball region at all. Can
you kind of just give us anidea and you kind of said it briefly
about the rivalry aspect. This islike Michigan, Ohio State. Give us
a minute or so, Richard beforeyou go on how big college baseball is

(52:14):
in College Station, Texas. Soat a lot of places, and I
would say at most places, thepecking order of the big resports goes college
football, college basketball, and thenthere's probably a wide margin for a wide
gap between basketball and baseball, andbaseball being the third one. That's not
the case here in College Station.Baseball is absolutely the second biggest show in

(52:37):
town behind the football team, andthey've got themselves one hundred and eight thousand
seat stadium to prove that. Andthen the baseball stadium is getting an eighty
million dollar renovation here shortly. Obviously, they're going to have to hire a
new head coach, but at thesame time, College Station and this program
is elevated itself to a point inthe last five years where they're going to

(52:59):
have their pick the litter. Essentially, they're gonna have as many top name
candidates as they want interested in thisjob, whether that be using the A
and M opening for leverage or actualinterest in coming to the coach the Aggies
A and M's gonna have interest fromall the big names. And as far
as college baseball goes, the SECis without a doubt the best college baseball

(53:21):
conference in the country. It isso hard to win just weekend series in
this league, let alone win theregular season, which Tennessee did this year
at a ridiculous twenty two to eight. Will if you guys follow baseball,
I'm sure you as you do upin the Posis Northwest with the Mariners.
It's so hard to just be fivehundred in Major League baseball. It's the
same way in college baseball. Andcoach Slashnagle, one of the things he

(53:44):
said when he got here is hewill as a college baseball coach. He
said, I always wanted to coachin the American League East once, and
he likens the SEC West. Andnow the divisions are gone because Texas and
Oklahoma are joining the league. TheSEC West was the American League East.
The college baseball programs like Arkansas,lsu Ole, miss Mississippi State, I

(54:06):
just rattled off three of the pastfour national champions, not to mention Tennessee
and Florida and South Carolina. Thisis every bit as like it's big time
baseball. And now that inn ilis the thing, it's the lifestyle for
the players is so much better thanit is to be in the minor leagues
and ride buses all over the place. That college baseball is attracting a higher

(54:27):
caliber of athlete than it ever hasbefore. And the SEC is just going
crazy with it. It's just asgood as it has ever been and ever
will be. Right now, RichardZane, great stuff. Keep up the
good work, pal. We'll followyou for sure. Techsags dot com is
the website. Keep doing your thingand we'll talk down the road. Man.

(54:50):
Thanks man, of course, Iappreciate you guys and web. Ryce
Miller know that I said hello.I used to hang out. Oh,
I didn't hang out with him.I used to cover him when he was
pitching for a a summer league teamin College Station, are where he started
his tenure with the Eggs. Thenobviously his great success up in Seattle.
You got it. We'll do it, man, appreciate it, buddy.
Richard Zaying again from techsags dot com. He is the reporter that asked a

(55:14):
simple question about rumors about the TexasA and M head coach moving on uh
to be the next head coach atTexas And I don't know if even mentioned
any names in detail, and hesnapped at him. He kind of completely
barked at him. And since thenthe manager the head coach has taken off
for the job that he was beingasked about that he said he was not

(55:34):
leaving for so good for Richard Zayand a young reporter there from college station
Texas for sticking to his guns.We're gonna break, Mike Florio, are
gonna join us courtesia simply Seattle nexton ninety three to three KJRFM