Softy & Dick 7-18 Hour 2: Jerry Brewer and Top Athletes List

In the second hour, Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain chat with Jerry Brewer about the Olympics, ESPN’s Athlete List, the Mariners treatment of Logan Gilbert and their roster build, then they further discuss ESPN’s 100 list and the ridiculous absence of Sue Bird.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's time for our weekly conversation withaward winning Washington Post columnist Jerry Brewer.
Brought to you by Northwest Handling Systems. From forklift to fellow jackers conveyors to
loading duck equipment, we sell,rent and service all your warehouse he needs
request a quote today at NWHS dotcom or give us a call at four

(00:20):
two five five five zero five hundred. Now with Jerry Brewer. Here's Softy
and Dick. All right. Bigthanks to our friends at Northwest Handling Systems
for sponsoring mischell Shindig every week onthe radio show Jerry a Jew and a
Gentile every Thursday at four o'clock,brought to you by our friends at Northwest
Handling Systems. Here he is ourfriend from the Washington Post on his way

(00:44):
to the Olympics, apparently in GayeEddy, our friend Jerry Brewer, How
are you pal? I'm doing goodman. You know this time next week
it'll be one in the morning mytime. So we got to do the
show live. We got to dolike, what what what is Jerry going
to be doing in Paris at oneA? I can't wait? Do we

(01:04):
need to have a breathalyzer? Waitingbefore we start the car. When you
come on and a dumb button done? Who said, travont lke toilette?
By the way, where's the bathroomin French? So I just want you
to make sure you take that withyou wherever you go. You know what,
I took French in high school andI did not retain anything, which

(01:25):
begs the question, why the helldid I take French in high school?
Spanish, Japanese, all these otherlanguages I could have learned that would have
made way more sense. So Imean, look, I guess we kind
of know why you're going, Buttell me about why you're going. Why?
Why? Why is the paper sendingyou to Paris? Man? Well,
I thought I was special, butI think we're sending in all like

(01:46):
twenty six people. So it's likepart of just this ridiculous effort to kind
of own the world, I guess. But it'll be my seventh Olympics.
Wow, I think it's my thirdSummer Games. I did Athens Rio in
twenty sixteen, and this one andthe other four have been Winter Games.
But I'm just excited to get outthe house. The last two Olympics have

(02:08):
been staged during the pandemic yep,And I was having throat swab tests in
Beijing and geez dart and you're throwingup every morning. And I'm just excited
for this one because it'll actually thisis the last thing that I think still

(02:29):
has that stint from the pandemic onit, And so it'll be really cool
to see the Olympics outdoors in theopen, tons of fans and what better
place. I mean, the venuesare just going to be beautiful to see
when you see them on TV.So do you go in with a game
plan I want to do a storyon X, Y and Z, or

(02:50):
do you just kind of, youknow, just let it happen and then
do the story on what theever thestory happens to be. Yeah, I
think in sports there's like fourteen emailof us who are reporting and three three
columnists. This is the first timeI think we've ever sent three of our
four columns. We normally sent two, So it'll be a little bit crowded.

(03:10):
I think, Uh, there arecertain areas of focus, you know.
I mean, I'm going to watchUSA men's and women's basketball and do
a little bit of that. Someown bials being such a huge story I
won't be on swimming at all unlesssomething crazy happens. I know, that's
the one thing that I won't befloating to. And later in the games

(03:37):
like heavy on track and field becausefor those who don't haven't paid much attention,
like the USA should be back ina big way in track, and
the sprints better in the middle distancesthat they've ever been and even some of
the longer races. So I thinktrack and field is going to carry some
of the attention that we remember atcarrying when we were younger, and that'll

(04:00):
be a lot of fun. Andother than that, just kind of floating
and just trying to explain to people, you know, what these Olympics are,
Like, the world is in sucha weird, crazy place. It's
not just our country, and sothe geopolitical stuff that comes with, like
the whole entire world coming together,both are things that I'll explore as well.

(04:24):
So I'm just excited to just whateverit is that I get into on
any given day, I'm just gonnahave a lot of fun. And then
at the end of the day,I'm gonna drink a bottle of wine.
I love it. Man. Goodfor you, Good for you. Yeah,
and then Joe, those bag gutswalk around, put a ton of
carbs on and then come home andgo on a diet. But Jerry Brewers
with us, and speaking of that, Dick and I were talking yesterday and

(04:46):
we'll do it today about the ESPNTop one hundred list that came out with
the top hundred athletes of the twentyfirst century. And they use the word
accomplishments when they put this list together, and Michael Phelps is number one,
which I have no problem with thataccomplished for sure. Sue Bird is not
in the top one hundred. Shewas left off the list. How surprised

(05:08):
are you by that? For thiscentury? Right? Correct? Yes?
Yes, correct, yep? Imean I'm stunned. Four WNBA championship,
five Olympic gold, is that right? Yep? Plus you know being know
her and Diana Tarassi being the mainanchors for the most dominant team in the

(05:32):
world perhaps you know, in anysport team USA Women's basketball, Like that's
got to get you in the topfifty at least. So yeah, like
they wanted to play the popularity contestinstead of really telling people what it is.
Jerry, We've waited long enough.We got to delve into the Mariner
conversation because it seems like another dayanother controversy with this baseball team, and

(05:56):
today's controversy is they're skipping Logan Gilbertin the Houston Series after pulling him out
early and potentially costing them the lastgame of the season prior to the break.
So your thoughts on how they're handlingthis guy, Uh, is there
any kind of concern about about somekind of injury that we don't know?

(06:18):
Load? Load Man, It's KawhiLeonard of the Mariners. Man. Yeah,
I don't like all of the preemptivebaby in and sports. I understand
that we've got a lot more uhinformation about how guys are that we can
measure. Uh, but but yougotta let you gotta let secretariat run,

(06:42):
right, And I think there's areason why Nolan Ryan pitched forever because he
he was not baby. And youknow it concerns me. I mean,
obviously, with this rotation, ifyou need to push him back a little
bit and all that, you've gotthe depth in order to do so.
But it's been very clear over ninetysomething games that for as good as you

(07:08):
are one through five in that rotation, he's clearly the best at least this
year. And I mean, I'mlooking at a guy who's at one hundred
and thirty two and a third inningspitch what that that's top in the number
one, number one in baseball.So I mean he's on a two hundred
something hinting pace. But I alsolook at this softy. I don't know

(07:30):
that it's always about innings like Ithink it's about stressful innings. And the
guy has the best whipped in baseballright, Like, he's still undero point
nine, he's like zero point eightyseven. Runners are not getting on base
against him. He doesn't overthrow,he pitches the contact. He's really smart.

(07:51):
I don't look at him as someonewho's like, oh man, like
Logan's had all of these taxing its. So yeah, that concerns me because
then to date and one of thebiggest of this run that they have been
on. And then you really needto make a statement here. They can't
let they cannot let Houston pull evenwhich would happen if Houston wins two I

(08:16):
three. They absolutely don't want tofall behind Houston. And if anything,
you want you want to at leastgain a game on them and come out
of that series with a two gamecushion. But she would really like with
all of this rest and crowds shouldbe dynamic. You want to go and
sweep them and get up four andget some of your cushion back. And

(08:37):
there's just no way you're going tosweep these guys without your best pictures.
Yeah pitching, Yeah, well youryour your take on you know, make
a statement. Clearly they don't agreebecause they're not pitching their ace right.
If they thought they had to makea statement, they'd throw out, you
know, the kitchen sink at Houston, and they're not doing that at all.
And you know, look, Imean, I mean logically, you
know, if I find is onpace for two to eighteen, which would

(08:58):
lead the league, you know,more than twenty seven innings, more than
he pitched last year, which wasa career high, I get it.
At some point, I do thinkthat the babying and the coddling at a
certain time gets a little bit outof control. And I wonder if it's
more a hindrance now that you're goingto throw this guy off his rhythm.
Maybe we keep an eye on howhe does next Monday and his first couple

(09:18):
starts after the All Star break.But you know I mentioned this to you
know, Dick and Jackson that youknow, George Carlin would talk about his
immune system because he's played in thesewer, right. I mean the more
these guys pitched, the stronger theirarmors become. So is this maybe potentially
having the exact opposite effect versus whatthey were looking for? Yeah, I
think that it's it's at least aconcern for me. I mean, the

(09:39):
guy's twenty seven years old, right, this is his fourth year is I
believe it's his third year as afull time starter. So and then the
last two years he's has he missedany time. He's had at least thirty
two, if not thirty three startseach of the last two years. And

(10:00):
like look at his body frame.I mean, you know, big,
big frames, someone who is justincredibly diligent about his work. I don't
think I've heard of any complaints ofany injury issues with him this year,
so just normal stuff. Right.I want to let this guy run because

(10:20):
again, guys were talked about thislast week. This is year four that
you're in this window when you're likeupper eighty to ninety one team, and
these first three years you've been tothe playoffs once barely got in there,
and then you barely missed the twoother years, and so just you this

(10:43):
literally can be like a one gamething that decides whether you're going to make
it or not. And then let'snot even talk about the ramifications of one
or two games in terms of youknow where you're going to be positioned,
in who you might play, whetheryou win the division or not, all
of that. Like this team needs. We've seen this team enough to know

(11:05):
that unless something miraculous happens at thetrade deadline, they need a perfect ride
as they can get. And ifthey got everything situated the right way,
I see a scenario where they canmake some noise, but everything has to
work for them. And this isa team that you've chosen to be right.

(11:28):
Like I say this all the time, and I've said it to people
in the Mariners organization. It's alwayslike, man, we're so close.
I'm like, you know, youwant to know how you build a ninety
five win team that gets yourself inthere easily. You build a team that
you think can win one hundred games, and you have some bad and you
account for bad luck and all this, and you win ninety five. They

(11:52):
look to me like they're constantly tryingto build a ninety win team and hoping
that they get that marker right.And if something goes you win eighty six
and everybody's upset. You win eightyseven, everybody's upset, and you're talking
about fifty four percent again, soevery little thing matters. But hey,
that's the team that you've built.If you want to not have your ace

(12:16):
pitching in a key series, builda team that has that kind of room
for era. They just don't haveit, and that's why people are going
to be riled up, and rightfully, so yeah, if they were still
ten and a half up, itwould be a totally different conversation. Jerry
Brewer joining us. Brought to youby Northwest Handling Systems, the material handling
Expert. You can request a quoteat nwhs dot com. You know,

(12:39):
Jerry, we talk a lot duringthe trade deadline about kind of the macro
issues with the offense, like whoare they going to trade for? Who
are they going to give up whenthey trade for that person? Let's talk
about the micro issues. Let's talkabout the macro issues, which is how
do you build an offense in thisballpark with the history that this team has

(13:00):
with offense for twenty not only twentytwenty four, but for twenty twenty five,
twenty twenty six. When free agentsdon't want to come here. You
don't seem like you want to giveup big time prospects for offensive players.
You don't want to spend a lotof money. So what is your plan.
You just said you had a greatplan of a building for one hundred
win team. What's the plan tohave at least an a mediocre middle of

(13:22):
the pack offense for this baseball teamgoing forward. I'd like the team to
see the team, and they've shownsome signs of it from time to time
with guys, but I'd like tosee him be faster and even more athletic,
you know, kind of mailed likesome of the earlier editions with this
current team. I think you gotto have real, real power and real

(13:45):
speed, and so you can dosome of the small ball things, so
you can you can turn a youcan turn a walk into a double.
Essentially the type of guy I cansteal bases. I don't want a team
in which Julio is my biggest threaton the bass path. I want a

(14:05):
couple of Julio's like on the basepath at least. So that's one thing.
I want the team to be moreathletic. I want the team to
be faster, and you got toget some guys who have some real power,
and it's you know, like Ihad concerns from the jump about Mitch
Garver because I didn't think that hewas just so exceptional and extraordinary as a

(14:26):
hitter in a hitter's ballpark in Texasthat he was going to come and play
particularly well here. I didn't thinkhe was going to be as bad as
he was like these first ninety games. And I think he's a guy who
might heat up a bit, whichthey desperately need, but it's still we
know that that's insufficient. And sowhen you go on and you get guys

(14:48):
that are particularly at the power positions, you know, infield, on the
corners, designated hitter, right field, you want guy that that can that
can still make an impact knowing thatthey're gonna get taxed at Team Obile.
If you're a forty home run hitterand you play half your games at Team

(15:09):
Mobile, you're probably gonna hit thirtytwo you know, you hope it's more
like thirty five, but you mightget taxed up to twenty percent. But
here's my thing with them, Dick, is that they're not just bad hitters
at Team Obile. Like they're notgood on the road, not with any
kind of consistency, right, andeverybody else they fall is like enjoying the

(15:31):
warm weather and everybody else who's good. You know, there's more games like
we saw recently when they won thatgame eleven to nothing, and there's more
games where they score seven and sixand five, and we just don't see
that. We see that that teamhas If the mirror score eleven runs like
that's you know, like they're probablygonna like year down for the rest of

(15:54):
the damn week. And so likethere's a bigger and I understand the psyche,
like when you're playing at home andyou were really scuffling for like nine
games, right, and yeah,you go on the road and it's a
better hitting situation, but you're stillcarrying that with you. I know there's
a psyche involved, but I justdon't see real power. I don't see

(16:18):
real speed, I don't see areal approach. Well, I'm glad you
brought up the home road thing,because you're exactly right. And it's not
just the new guys that are strugglingeither, because JP Crawford's having a terrible
year. Ty Franz had a terribleyear. And by the way, would
you guys believe it if I toreit the hore. Plonko actually is a
better hitter at home than he ison the road. This year. He's
got a six thirty two ops attea mobile. It's five ten on the

(16:41):
road. So he's been horrible whereverhe goes. And look, I mean,
I just think that if they hadsome history of this approach working,
like the Seahawks earned a lot ofcredibility Jerry, as you know in this
town, Mariners haven't done that yet. Like I just I just heard from
Stephen Susan just texted me. Hedoesn't understand not pitching Logan this week.

(17:02):
You got to have your best pitcherpitching series that matter, and they're not
giving the ball to Logan Gilbert.So this is kind of a head scratcher,
and it's one of those things thatif it backfires on them, they're
gonna get crushed for it. Yeah, and I try to have a balance
the approach to a softy and thatthey have done some nice things and I

(17:22):
think your show and everyone else hasrepresented that. But it's hard when you're
in the moment and all everyone isthinking about is a Pennant race and you're
pulling back. And so there's somuch trauma that's been associated with being a
fan of this franchise, and theyhave been close way too many times and

(17:45):
not made the playoffs. And sometimesyou just have to decide, if you
got a dog, let a dogbe a dog, because they have a
hard time acquiring dogs, and LoganGilbert is a dog. George Kirby Castillo,
Bryce Miller, you know, woowhen he's healthy. You just got

(18:07):
to like, hey, you canspend all your life preventing injuries, but
then you still get injured. Youknow. Think about Sean Alexander and the
Seahawks. Oh yeah, Like Seandid everything he could, did not get
hit hard, he still got hurtand he was done at thirty. And
the way that he ran, hethought he'd run till he was thirty six
years old, but he didn't.And this this whole idea of injury prevention,

(18:34):
which is pervasive throughout sports, justbecause of what we know and just
the advanced medical information that we have. You have to balance that with just
you know, you gotta be toughand you gotta let guys be tough too.
Yep. Agreed, God, you'reso wise. You're like a miniature

(18:56):
Buddha. It's unbelievable, Yoda,Jerry Brewer, great stuff. Man.
One week from today you're in Paris. We're talking at one o'clock your time
next week? Is that right?One am? There's not gonna be an
ounce of wisdom. We can't waitto hear what there is, though.
I'd be a couple ounces of winethey'll running through those veins. All right,
bet Jerry, enjoy it, Travelsafe out there, and we'll talk
next week. All right, man, all right, take it easy again,

(19:18):
all right, Jerry Brewer with uson the show. It'll be fun.
Yeah. I want to talk moreabout what Jerry's saying there about babying
pictures and Logan Gilbert and all that. And you know, look, we're
promised to a explosion. We werepromised interruption if Sue Byrd is not on
the top one hundred list and ESPNleft or off, So make way.
Mount Fain's gonna blow next on ninetythree three kJ RFM Live from the R

(19:42):
and R Foundation Specialist Broadcast Studio.Now back to Softie and Dick on your
Home for the Huskies and the CrakenSports Radio ninety three point three kjr F.
This is not about athletic ability anymore. This got accomplishment. It's just
got to do that. If they'regonna do that and say it's accomplishments,
then Superird's got to be on it. And if she's not on it,

(20:03):
I want you to lose your mindon tomorrow's show. I want Mount Fain
to blow all over the show,just ooze all over the program. Just
come on, man, you bettergo home to night and just get ready,
just warm up. I just beready. I was kind of graphic,
by the way, I apologize forthat. This is an absolute outrage.

(20:25):
This is an outrage. This isan absolute affront. All right,
This needs to be addressed. Soyesterday on the radio show, we discussed
ESPN's Top one hundred list and theywere through number twenty six. Yesterday today
came out went twenty five to one, and we found a article written by
ESPN a couple years ago where theyranked like the top twenty WNBA players of

(20:45):
all time, and Sue Bird wasnumber eight. I believe it was Dick
on that list, and the majorityof players that were ranked ahead of her
had already been mentioned in this topone hundred, So you got thinking,
are they maybe leaving her off?Are they leaving Sue Bird despite her what
five Olympic gold medals, four WNBAtitles? Are they? Are they leaving
Sue Byrd off? The list ofthe top hundred pro athletes since the year

(21:08):
two thousand and then we went tothe description of what the list is supposed
to be all about. This isnot the greatest athlete, it's the most
accomplished athlete since two thousand, thetop one hundred most accomplished athletes since two
thousand. So today ESPN has comeout with their list number twenty five through

(21:33):
number one. I'm gonna read youthe twenty five athletes that make up the
top twenty five of ESPN's top twentyfive athletes since the year two thousand.
Number twenty five is Floyd Mayweather.Number twenty four is Albert Poohols, Kevin
Garnett, Sidney Crosby is twenty threeDiana Tarassi is number twenty one. She's
the highest ranked female basketball player,by the way. Aaron Donald number twenty,

(21:56):
Lewis Hamilton f one, number nineteen, Patrick Mahomes is eighteen, Shaq
is seventeen. Tim Duncan is numbersixteen, Katie Ledecky the Swimmer number fifteen,
Stephan Curry's fourteen, Christiano Ronaldo soccerstar is thirteenth, Rafio nadalas twelfth.
Novak Djokovic is eleventh. Your topten most accomplished athlete since two thousand,

(22:19):
Kobe Bryant, Hussein Bolt, TigerWoods, Simone Biles, Roger Federer,
Tom Brady Lebron is number four,Leonel Messi is number three, Serena
Williams is number two, and MichaelPhelps is number one. That means Subird
has been left off the list ofthe top one hundred most accomplished athletes since

(22:44):
two thousand. They got them forcover Jackson because he's gonna blow. Well,
there we go. My blowing andyou're blowing are two completely different things.
I usually that's a drop, bythe way, Yes, I usually
provide a little more context than someinformation to my blowings. Oh, let's
just do blind resume the easiest wayto do this is blind resume. Right,

(23:08):
I've got two point guards. Let'sjust let's let's not compare apples and
oranges. Let's compare point guard topoint guard. I got a four time
WNBA champion on one side, Igot a one time NBA Champion. On
the other side. I got athirteen time WNBA All Star on one side,
I got a ten time all timeNBA All Star. On the other

(23:30):
side, I've got a three timeassist leader on one time. I do
have a five time dub NBA Assistleader on the other time on the other
side. But then when you goto Olympic accomplishments and college accomplishments, it's
a complete slam dunk. One's afive time gold medalist, one's a two

(23:51):
time gold medalist, one time isone is a four time world champion,
the others a zero time world champion. One is the college player of the
year, the other is the Pacten Player of the year. Let's go.
One's a five time Russian National Leaguechampion as well. If you wanted

(24:14):
to add that, I mean,the list goes on and on and on
and on, and if you wantto give Jason Kidd a little bump because
he's in the NBA versus the WNBA, and you want to play that game.
I think that game should be playedmore if you're actually talking about athleticism,
ye, and athletes not accomplished athletes. But when you are going to

(24:40):
include the word accomplished, you simplyhave to look at the accomplishments. Sue
Bert is the most accomplished athlete inthe history of this city. There is
no close second. And if youcan find one, please provide me the
information I just provided you on theair two minutes ago. And certainly Jason
Kid at number fifty nine or whateverhe was doesn't hold a candle to Sue

(25:06):
Bird not included in the list.He was stupid idiot. I don't get
it either, man, I reallydon't. I mean, I thought,
hey, there was a shot oncewe saw that again WNBA ranking from a
couple of years ago, that she'dbe left off. But then once you
read the accomplishments, it's hard toimagine a five time Olympic gold medalist and
four time champion being left off thislist, and thirteen time All Star and

(25:29):
thirteen time All Star and she wasleft off. I mean, look,
I get it. You know,I think everybody in the top ten deserves
to be in the top ten.I don't have any problem with anybody really
in the top twenty five, tobe honest with you, but I just
think you know, Chris Paul Imentioned him yesterday. Yep, James Harden
mentioned him. The other day,you mentioned Jason Kidd right there. I
mean, those are three guys thati'd throw off for her absolutely. You

(25:52):
know, I'm not saying she needsto be in the top twenty five or
even top fifty, but not havingme though, just based on accomplishments.
If you wanted to, totally couldbe. But if you want to argue
something else, great, But Ithink that I'm just I mean, James
Harden to me is known more forhis failures than his successes, to be
honest with you, It's like KevinDurant. Durant's on the list too,
That's right. As much as Ilove KD, I'd put Sue Bird over

(26:14):
him any day of the week onthat list. So the list itself,
this is what Pat McAfee party wastalking about. I think he might be
mentioning the politics involved more than maybewe'd think. I think that's a part
of this, But I just thinkthat it's it's a huge oversight, right,
and it's like they just forgot honestly. I mean, they could do

(26:34):
a special on this on TV andtake advantage of this and explain why there
weren't people that were listed here.Because it's kind of become a big deal
people are talking about it and nothaving her on it's like, yeah,
I think you go to the peoplethat voted and say, did you forget
the name super Bird? And it'slike, you know what we did,
Yeah, we forgot the name superbird. So what do you think? Four
nine four five one of that list? Do you like it? Not like

(26:56):
it? Not give it damn orlike the SBS, you couldn't care less.
Uh, we're gonna break textimonials fournine four five one. Brett Boone
is gonna join us at five CourtesyAvenue Kings dot Com