Furness Show 8-30: Heidi Watney, Danny O'Neil, Rob Rang

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
No from the Star Rentals Sports to us Jordan. Ninety
three point three KJRFM.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Sports headlines and headlines are brought to you by Buddies
Goodies in glass. Week one college football, you dub Weaver
State eight pm tomorrow, latest kickoff in the nation, by
the way, four o'clock pre game. All the action right
here in ninety three point three KJRFM. If you have
the Big ten network on Comcast, you won't see it.
If you have the Big ten Network via any other service,
you will. But listen, just listen to the fellas here

(00:27):
on KJR coogs Portland State at noon. That game everyone
can see because we all know the Cook's got the
great TV contract right CW Network is having that game
at noon tomorrow. College football last night, it's Week one.
We've got here, people, here we go. Colorado beat North
Dakota State barely. North Carolina last second field goal missfield
glup in Minnesota has the tar Heels over the Golden Gophers.

(00:50):
Big ten takes a loss there. Brandon Ayux signs a
four year, one and twenty million dollar extension. Seahawks sign
outside linebacker Tyas Bowser to the practice squad. He played
for Mike McDonald and Baltimore has missed the last couple
of years. Achilles two years ago, knee injury last year.
Sounds like he's healthy. Could be a sneaky good signing
for Seattle Mariners at LA tonight. Down four games now

(01:11):
in the Al West because the Houston Astros won their
second game in hand. I'll explain it about that in
just a couple seconds. The game is on Apple TV tonight.
How do you Watney from Apple TV will join us.
Coming up a twelve thirty and really sad news. Tragic news.
In fact, seven time NHL All Star Johnny Gudroau Johnny
Hockey was his nickname A Loom with his brother Matthew,

(01:31):
died as a result of being hit by a reported
drunk driver while bicycling in New Jersey yesterday. They were
there back home in their home state to attend their
sister's wedding, which was scheduled for today. Tragedy striking in
the National Hockey League. Let's start the show.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
This is the e Infernest Show. Text us at four
nine four five one and hit the talkback Mike on
the iHeartRadio. This is the News Sports Radio ninety three
point three KJRFM.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
We'll touch more and I'm Johnny get Gril think coming
up one forty five daily Power. But but we'll keep
it up beat here for this first segment. Welcome in.
He in front us with you. No Vaka, she's off,
No Anders, he's off. My man Mitch is in today.
He just listen. How much easier, how much more relaxed
are you sitting in today than you were earlier this
week when you had to do that three to seven show,

(02:22):
my friend A couple less sweat drops? Yeah, it should be. Yeah,
a little easier for you, a little more relaxed. I'm
not quite as demanding, certainly, not as loud as as
Fain no No as those guys. We love those dudes.
But thanks for coming in. Mitches in here today filling in.
He' usually doing all kinds of stuff here behind the scenes,
but doing the show today for us. VK is on

(02:43):
our way to pullman to cover the coops tomorrow against
Portland State and Andrews. I don't know what he's doing.
So here we are. We got a lot to get
to today. Let me just I want to start before
I get to sports, and I'm remiss. I want to
I'm I like, I need to punch myself in the face.
Two things. One, my mom's still listening. My mom's still
got to fighting some stuff in the hospital right now.
So get well, mom. I love you, and I hope

(03:05):
you're feeling better. I know you're getting tired of poking
produdt and all that fun stuff. But hanging there to
my mom. Tough ole Canadian from Moose Jos and Sketchewan.
The other thing I want to mention here is this,
and I've been remiss, but I want to get this
out there. You're driving to listen. I know a lot
of people right now are probably in their cars. You're
probably on your way out of town. You're on your

(03:26):
way home from work to get out of town. You're
just on your way home from work, and you're starting
your three day weekend early. So let me remind you
this because maybe you're not going to be with us
on Monday. We will be here live in local Monday,
but many of you won't be. We know how it works,
so listen up. This is big news. Factor fiction starts
on Tuesday next week, So the Tuesday after Labor Day

(03:47):
Factor Fiction starts. I love the contest I think it's
I think it's one of the most fun things we
do on the station. To be honest with you, there's
a little bit of competitiveness with the shows, a lot
of smack talking out in the sports out there. Chris
Kidd is the worst Factor Fiction player in the history
of man. I think Bucky's the second worst event of
all time. I'll have to check all those numbers. Ham

(04:09):
or Fiction. Yeah, we we Our show wasn't great last year,
but we were not as bad as others. So but
it starts on Tuesday. And what is Factor Fiction. It's
really really simple. First of all's brought to buy the
Umal Queen Casino, the been in Capitol the Northwest, come
down the beautiful EQC sports book to bet watching winning
all the games. Basically, what we do is we go

(04:34):
and we pick at seven thirty five, eleven thirty five,
two thirty five, and three thirty five. We take a
pick of an upcoming college or pro game, either against
the spread or we're using the over under, and then
you have twelve minutes to text in fact to four
nine four or five to one or fiction to four
nine four to five one. You text fact if you

(04:54):
agree Fiction if you disagree, So I would say I
think I saw a number. I usually there aren't numbers
for this. I might take a peek out of here.
In a second. Let's just say for arguments, well, i'll
give you what. I'll give you this one, all right,
I'll give you this one. So last night Colorado and
Colorado and North Dakota State Colorado. At one point when

(05:18):
I was at the snow call Me Casino on Tuesday
this week for an event, might have put some money
on this thing. That game was Colorado had a t
was a ten and a half point favorite, So ten
minus ten and a half for Colorado for Colorado. So
if I would have said Buffalo's minus ten and a half,

(05:38):
meaning they got a win by eleven or more, fact
four nine four or five one. And I know a
lot of you guys know betting, and so handle this
for me, because not everybody does. If I would have said,
my pick is Colorado minus ten and a half, fact
four nine four or five to one. If you thought
the Buffs would cover, you would text fact to four
nine four or five one. If you thought that North

(05:59):
Dakota State would it actually would cover that spread and
they'd keep it within ten and a half or ten
points or what have you. Then you would text fiction. Now,
if you did that, whoever texted fiction would be automatically
entered to win a weekly prize of one thousand dollars.
At the end of the contest. Our grand prize is

(06:19):
ten thousand dollars, but every single week we are going
to give away one thousand American dollars. All you have
to do is have one correct pick and you have
twenty chances during the course of a normal week. Next
week you have sixteen chances because we only have the
we don't have or we're not doing it until Tuesday.
But all you have to so you could have twenty

(06:41):
chances to win if you get twenty correct during the
course of the week. It's that simple, and it's really
it's just easy and there's no no strings attached. You
just text factor fiction to four nine, four or five one.
That's all you do. And our listeners have been phenomenal
on this show. In terms of the numbers, you guys
are a bunch of degenerate gamblers, and I love you
for it. But looking at the numbers of the years,

(07:02):
we always have probably if we don't have the most
in terms of texting Factor Fiction on a given day,
we're in the top two always because again, our show
is filled with people that love to put choose something,
so congratulations for that, but we want to make sure
you guys are texting Factor Fiction those four times a day.
It's a ton of fun. We'll keep and then at

(07:23):
the end of the year, the person with the most
correct guesses throughout the entire season wins ten thousand dollars.
So there you go. It starts on Monday, Factor Fiction
or Tuesdays, Tuesday, Tuesday. Tuesday starts on Tuesday. I almost
messed that up myself. Starts on Tuesday, So make sure
you get your picks in for Factor Fiction starting on Tuesday.
Join us ever, and again, if you're just kind of
tuning in and out all day, just make sure you

(07:44):
tune into eleven thirty five, seven thirty five, eleven thirty five,
two thirty five with us and three thirty five with
Softy and Fain, and we'll have those for you throughout
each and every day. Good got that out. We'll mention
it again as day goes on. One other note, mayor
IPA still available, get yourself down to Georgetown Brewing pick
some growlers up for the weekend, especially you Husky fans.
You guys aren't kicking things off till eight o'clock tomorrow night,

(08:06):
All right, eight pm. You need a little juice to
get you going, get yourself down to Georgetown and pick
up a couple grours to go. All the proceeds go
to Hlinsky's Hope, Avery Huffman Defeat DIPG Foundation and Jordan
Morris Foundation. The beer is still available probably for another
week or two, and we want to get you down
there and get those growers picked. And people say, Phil growl,
you don't have to bring unless you have it old

(08:27):
Georgetown growler. You come, just drop it off. The growlers
are already filled. There's no growler fills per se there. They
just they just give you what's in the growler. But
if you have old Georgetown empty growlers, make sure you
drop those off and then pick up the new ones
to go. But if you don't, don't worry about it.
They don't charge you like a deposit feed or anything
like that. And the growlers, I believe, are just twelve
dollars apiece, which is an unbelievably just a screaming deal.

(08:49):
A twelve dollars growlur with all the money go to
charity like you can't end. The beer's phenomenal. Trust me,
it's really good. So go check that out this weekend.
All right, let's go do a couple of things. I'll
get to football in a second. A Mariner's Howdy, Watt
and Neil join us coming up at twelve thirty today
from Apple TV. Looking forward to that conversation. The Mariners
now all of a sudden find themselves and I say,

(09:12):
all of a sudden find themselves in a little worse
shape than they were before yesterday. And what do I
mean by that? Well, before yesterday, the Houston Astros had
one less game played than Seattle. A week ago was two,
so the Astros had two games in hand. We talked
about this, Anders and I talked about this last week.
That doesn't mean anything. In fact, it could be really

(09:34):
good for Seattle if Houston doesn't win those two games
in hand. Unfortunately for the Mariners, on back to back Thursdays,
they won both games, so now they have a true
four game lead for in the win column, for in
the lost column. All right, we've talked about this over
and over again starting tonight in LA against the Angels.

(09:55):
If you're going to catch the Houston Astros, if the
Astros just play five hundred ball. Now, the good news
is they haven't played five. They're four and six in
their last ten with two wins. So they were playing
sub five hundred before beating Philadelphia and beating Kansas City
last night. But if you have to, the Marriers have
to play almost seven hundred to almost a seven hundred
winning percentage the rest of the way. If Houston plays

(10:17):
just to five hundred, the Astros may not do that.
Their schedule is tougher than Seattle's Angels and then the Athletics,
And crazy enough, the Athletics are better than the Angels.
Right now, they're three games up on them in the
standings in the battle for last place in the American
League West. So your chances in the chance is still
for Seattle. In this what we're heading into. You know,

(10:40):
the end of the first week. Seven days ago, Dan
Wilson made his debut on the bench for Seattle as
a Mariner Mariners manager. As we head into the weekend,
Seattle is four games out in the standings. The bad
news is this the wild card because they're still in it.
And Houston looks like they're kind of leaking a little
bit of oil, but it probably as much as anything
has to do with their schedule, but they're leaking a

(11:02):
little bit of oil right now. Meanwhile, Seattle in the
wildcard race, and Mitchell were talking about this earlier. I
had not looked really at much other than how many
games behind the ms were of the final wildcard spot
right now being held down by the Minnesota Twins, and
I went, wow, you know, they're four and a half out,
so that's kind of the same. Well, Boston's ahead of

(11:22):
Seattle by a game. They're three and a half behind Minnesota,
and lo and behold, there's other teams that, somehow, someway
are still in the mix. Tampa is only a game
and a half behind Seattle in the wildcard race. They're
not a threat. They're run differentials minus sixty three. Can't
imagine that they're a threat. But they're kind of hanging

(11:45):
around the team. That's curious to me. I don't know
how they're doing it, but they do have a plus
run differential and they're one game about five hundred. The
Detroit Tigers are only a half game behind Seattle on
the wildcard race. So it's not like you just have
to get by Boston Minnesota. You also have to hope
Detroit stumbles and doesn't jump past you and get red hot.
So the wildcard's still and we thought this for a while.

(12:06):
Wildcard seems like it's like kind of a long shot
and a tough go along the way. So well, we'll
talk more about that with Howie Watney coming up and
what her thoughts are on the national level, what the
Mariners are doing. That's coming up at twelve thirty today.
Danie O'Neil's going to join us at one o'clock. He's
got the dang apostrophe newsletter out right now. It's a
ton of fun, he wrote. He wrote about the carriage, well,
he called it not a carriage issue today he called

(12:28):
it a blackout issue on in his calm. We'll talk
about that with him coming up at one o'clock. And that,
of course is the Big ten network. I don't want
to dwell on the TV. In fact, that's the furthest
thing I'm gonna do is dwell on the TV. I like,
if it's it is, I find it pretty funny, interesting,
kind of humorous, that Adam All. And don't get me wrong,

(12:54):
none of us are dumb enough to think that it
was a mistake for Washington and USC you see, and
Oregon to go to the Big ten. The way things
are working, it was a smart move. But how funny
is it? How rich is this the fact that all
of a sudden, the problem that you had with the

(13:16):
PAC twelve from day one when the PAC twelve went
from ten to twelve teams, and now the problem you're
going to have the first year in the Big ten
is that there are certain people that may not be
able to watch your product on television, some of your fans,
depending on what they use for television before. And this
seems like eons ago, like just it feels like a

(13:39):
different century and it kind of close to us. Remember
when all we can't get the PAC twelve network. We
can get the PAC twelve network everywhere except direct TV.
Who has Direct TV? I know some people that have Dish,
but that was the place. And you know why people
have Dish that, I know, because that's where you can

(14:01):
get the PAC twelve network. You couldn't get it on
direct TV. But that was the end of the world.
We couldn't get DirecTV. That was the beginning of the
end before the Pack twelve even began. It was the
beginning of the end for the PAC twelve network because
lo and behold, we couldn't. We weren't able to get
anything on the pack on direct TV. Now Comcast and
the Big ten network are in a battle, toe to toe,

(14:22):
throwing fists, throwing hands, getting after it. Nobody knows, like
everyone's it's it's their fault. It's their fault that Comcast
Infinity will tell you that it's the Big ten network's
fault because you know, they should be on a higher
tier with live games for that those markets now were
before nobody cared because they weren't in those markets La
and Seattle, Portland specifically. Now Comcast says that and just

(14:44):
it's a mess, man, It's just a mess.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
I did see Washington sending out a link for a
site that you can go and kind of complain to Comcast.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
If anybody thinks for a second that that's going to help,
it's it's it is, honestly, Honestly, Mitch, that's a great
example of here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna pass
the buck here, We're gonna say, hey, man, go to
this website. You complain to Comcast as a Big ten

(15:13):
sand It's all Comcast fault. It has nothing to do
with the Big Ten Network, which by the way, is
also owned by Fox. No, that's where the problem lies,
and it's not Nobody at Comcast is going to give
one hoot about what anybody says on a link from
a website provided by the Big Ten who you're in
a battle with. But you do you you want to

(15:34):
go complain. If it makes you feel better, you just
go ahead and do it. Nobody cares the empty suits
in both those big offices, the empty suits in the
Big Ten and the Big ten Network offices, and the
empty suits at Infinity Comcast, which is a lot of them.
You know what, they don't care what you think. They
do not care one second what you think. Anybody in
business knows that. I could go complain right now to

(15:55):
the head of iHeartRadio and say, man, you know what,
I want to get all of our producer paid more.
I want to get all of our on air talent
paid more. And I here's my link and here's my
website to our two CEOs. Ay, they'd probably fire me
if I said that to them directly, but b they
don't care that the way you guys going tagging there, Yeah,
I mean nobody's nobody cares. I get that level. This

(16:19):
is this is a big money, high leverage situation that
those empty suits are gonna have to work out, and
hopefully they do, because right now I think Washington has
three games initially three games planned for the Big Ten
network and probably some more to come along the way.
And of course, don't forget, you got Peacock with the
Apple Cup this year, so you got to pay for
that too. Just keep putting your hands in your pocket.
The bigger issues the football in the field. Jed fish

(16:39):
Air begins tomorrow for Washington as he takes over for
Kaitlin to bore with basically eleven. I think, what is it?
It's twenty one of twenty two starters are new gonna
be new for the Huskies. We lost about that with
Softy in the crosstalk, but I mean they got a
ton of new guys, and my guys over in Pullman
start their first season without being in a real conference,

(17:00):
at least a Power five conference, playing Portland State, Jake
Dickard and company trying to keep Wazoo relevant on the
CW network and if nothing else, trying to make sure
that people know that eyeballs do watch them. But I
don't know how many eyeballs is going to watch when
you're playing Portland State at noon on a long weekend.
Dickard's got that. There's a double edged sword there. I'll
keep an eye on. And the double edge sword is

(17:21):
really simple. If he wins and has great success this season,
if they if Wazoo goes eight and four or better,
Jake Dickard's going to have a lot of job opportunities.
I think in the off season, his personality, who he is,
how he handles himself. If they finished the season, which
they didn't do last year, he's going to have opportunities.
So we want them to do well. I want them
to do well. But if he does do well, there's

(17:41):
a good chance, thanks for coming, we may not see
him down the roads. So we'll keep an eye on that. Games.
Last night, Colorado knocked off North Dakota State barely. We'll
talk about that with Rob rang at two o'clock. Shador
Sanders is an interesting one to me, athletic as all
can be. I'm gonna ask him a little at robbab

(18:04):
about the arm strength. It looks like he's got a
pretty good arm, but he did under throw a couple
guys during the game. Travis Hunter just makes plays. He's
the stud. He's the guy I'm looking. Listen. If the
Heisman Trophy is truly the best college football player in
the country, which is what it says it is, and
I've got to vote for that, I don't even care

(18:25):
what anybody else does this weekend. To be honest with you,
I'd vote Travis Hunter right now. And much like voting
Michael Pennock's number one last year, which I did pains
me as a Husky vote to vote for a Husky
number one, but he was to my mind, he was
more deserving the Jade and Daniels and it wasn't close,
even though Daniels won it. Travis Hunter's best college football
player in the country right now. Now, if you are

(18:48):
it's been pointed out a lot, can you can you
give it to a guy whose team ends up going
seven and five, five and seven, maybe eight and four
at best, because that's probably what their high mark might
be wins. Maybe that's a hard one to do. Man,
He's a stud. We'll talk to Rob about what position
he plays in the National Football He coming up at

(19:08):
two o'clock today, So we got a busy show coming up.
We got a lot going on today. I'm excited for
the show. We'll tell you more about Factor fiction. We
will do a quick little tribute to n Gudroau, Johnny
hockey tragedy that's struck and it sucks. I'm promoting a
beer here and I kind of in the back of
my mind, I'm like, I don't think I need to
tell people to be responsible. You know, There's always going
to be people that aren't. There's always gonna be people

(19:29):
that are going to do that and make bad decisions,
like the guy that hit Goodrow in his and his
brother last night. That's why we'll get a growler to go.
Bring it home, have some fun, settle in Collin Uber,
whatever you want to do. But yeah, it's it's a
tragic story for I mean, we don't see athletes in
their prime all that often leaving us like that happened.
And he's one of the better players in the National

(19:50):
Hockey League or has been over the last decades. We'll
talk about that at one forty five today as always
your text messages are welcome four nine, four or five one.
That is the tulnem or new text line. When it's
game time, it's total time. You're just on it. Yeah,
you're on it. You're absolutely on it. Mitch, How do
you Watney? From Major League for my Apple TV and
MLB Network crew and joint just coming up.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
Next live from the R and R Foundation Specialists broadcast
studio back to Ian Fernantz, powered by Seattle's closest sportsbook,
Snop Call me Casino on Sports Radio ninety three point
three kJ R FM.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
How are you Watney? Calling in in just a couple
of seconds from the MLB Network and Apple TV. She's
going to join us here today and we will talk
to her about what's going on with the Mariners and
the Angels tonight. That it's an Apple TV game. How
they'll have the call for them that game. So if
you don't have Apple TV and you want to watch
the MSNIGHTE, she'll tell you at the end how to.
I don't want to say pirate it, but just kind

(20:53):
of get yourself a nice, good little deal along the
way so they can do that. And she's calling in
right now, so we'll get hid you on here in
a second Mariner's first of the road trip before they
head to Oakland after this weekend as well, of course,
Husky's tomorrow eight o'clock kickoff, four o'clock pre game right
here in nine three point three k FM Coog's on
the CW at noon tomorrow. We get our old friends

(21:14):
Stanford playing tonight too against TCU Go Horn Frogs. I
hope they kill the trees, all right, but we won't
be worried about that. We watch them baseball, and we'll
be watching it in the high, high high. It's not
even ten eighty. I don't even know what the high
definition is that Apple TV has, but it's big, it's big,
it's clear. How do you Watney joins us right now
from Apple TV on the call tonight with the Mariners

(21:34):
and the Angels. Hello, Heidi, how are you hello?

Speaker 4 (21:38):
It's true four K. It's the clearest picture you will
see in television.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
Four K and there and for folks right aroundgo on
for nowt what the hell are you talking about? Ian?
And there is a difference, There is a massive, massive difference.
And I'll just tell I'll give you an example. Mariner fans,
if you watch the Seahawks on our local Fox a
Field Fox thirteen, my now former employer, on my own terms,

(22:04):
I don't want to make sound like a bitter guy,
but Hotty, we have ten eighty definition there, so people
go kay the sea how game doesn't look as good
as maybe something else because it's ten eighty that's the
pixel quality four K Apple TV. Hell, that's worth buying
the Apple TV subscription right there, isn't it?

Speaker 4 (22:22):
I certainly think so. But I also like the other
offerings Apple TV has to offer in addition to the
baseball But I do have on my ex profile a
free trial offer.

Speaker 5 (22:30):
Just posted it.

Speaker 4 (22:31):
Earlier this morning. If you haven't seen it, click the link.
Come check us out for free.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Let's talk about the game tonight and your first chance
to see the Mariners without Scott Service. We talked to
you earlier this season. He was let go eight days ago.
Dan Wilson comes in there four and two since he
came in, I didn't play real very good teams. But
what was your takeaway from the move that the Mariners made?
Was it kind of a hail Mary, last ditch effort
trying to make a run here in the playoffs for

(22:56):
a season that was slipping away, or do you think
I mean, cause Scott Servers seem to be veryvery popular
in the clubhouse, So what was your takeaway there?

Speaker 4 (23:03):
I think Scott is very popular in the clubhouse. He's
one of Jerry Depoto's closest friends. I know it was
an agonizing decision for Dapoto to make, but with the
team in the seeming freefall that they've been in since June,
and honestly, we saw them run about Memorial Day week
and as the last time we had a Mariner's game,
and even then they weren't hitting. Their pitching it's obviously

(23:26):
been keeping them in it, and offense has just been
a struggle for them all year, and they as they've
seeked answers to it, maybe having the Hall of Famer
Edward Martinez in theirs, they didn't go to work. Although
sometimes Hall of famers, it's interesting as you talk to
people in baseball, sometimes Hall of famers just they just
have something special in them, especially guys who their entire

(23:48):
career is designated to just hitting. They don't necessarily get
the struggles of some major leaguers. But then there's also
Hall of famers that have threw their work ethic and
through their struggles, has forged the Hall of Fame career.
So it sounds like the returns from and working with
Egar Martinez are working well. Julio Rodriguez has praised him.

(24:11):
I'm looking forward to talking to him this afternoon for
our pregame show. But I mean, it's just been been
the offense and Scott Servis couldn't pick up a back
and go hit for them. But he is kind of
the scapegoat in this situation because they weren't able to
stop the bleeding and they have a team that they
believe is talented enough to go to the postseason. And

(24:32):
so you know, if Depoto was going to let him
go at the end of the season regardless because he
thought a new voice was needed, what's the harm in
doing it now? Really with the way the team was
going well.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
And that was kind of what we were thinking out here, Heidie,
is that it's at this point in time, with that
pitching staff, which we'll get to in a second, why
not take take a show Because listen, if you don't
make the playoffs, you're all out anyway, probably as it is,
but they you know, here's a team with the second
worst ops the worst batting average on base percentage is
slightly better. They're twenty seventh out of thirty and their

(25:02):
slugging percentage is twenty ninth out of thirty. And yet
base and pitching wise, Heidi, the pitching staff is the
number one eer and their number one whip in all
of Major League Baseball. When you're traveling around doing these
games every week and talking to people for your job
in MLB and watching this, what do people think about
the mirrors if they get in, Because our perception is, hey,
if they get in with that pitching staff, despite the massive,

(25:26):
massive ineptitude on offense, they've got a chance to take
a run. What do you hear from people and what
do you think around the league?

Speaker 4 (25:33):
Well, you can see teams like and obviously the Royals
have Bobby with Junior and they have Bennifaxton, you know
who's actually on the shelf now. But they and Cyborg
read they have some offense, but they manufacture runs better
than a lot of people, and that's I think something
that the Mariners need to do. But I'm actually asked
this question as I've gone around to different ballparks and
people that are familiar with Seattle that played here before,

(25:54):
or are just familiar with it. What is it about
that team that ball I mean, people, no one seems
to be able to hit there in the past few years.
Is it the ballpark?

Speaker 2 (26:05):
Is that?

Speaker 4 (26:05):
You know, everyone talks about that with Oracle Park and
the Giants that a big name Creagan suckers don't want
to go there. But Jadie Martinez said to me, I
didn't want to sign with San Francisco this offseason because
I thought it would hurt my numbers in a pillow
contract to try to keep playing. He didn't. He took
less money to go to the New York Mets than
to sign with San Francisco. So I asked if that's

(26:26):
the case in Seattle, And some people say, yeah, it
probably hurts their offense, but it also helps their pitching, right, yeah,
I mean, we're not I'm not discrediting the pitching staff,
but those numbers could be partially aided by that park effect,
by the thick air in Seattle. Whatever is happening to
put a cap on the offense at t Mobile Park.

(26:47):
But you know, I think that the moves that they've
made can help a lot of times people say just
a new voice is what they needed. And so I
just thought Typhrance and Cincinnati right after the trade and about.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
It, Yeah, what did ty friends have to say? That's
I'm curious about that.

Speaker 4 (27:08):
You know, he didn't have anything negative to say about
the Atoletto. He absolutely loved his time there. He just
said that sometimes, and I've talked to a couple other
people too that say, sometimes you know, the stats and
invoke can get overwhelming and maybe things need to be
more tailored to someone. But also like going over to
Great American ballparks time, I mean that's like, that's like
hitting it a little league field after being at that's

(27:31):
tough to head of offensively, and new voices and the
new set of eyeballs on your swing saying hey, maybe
you're doing this or maybe this is going wrong. I mean, look,
the Mariners are known for their analytics, their data, their
approach to giving players everything they could possibly need to
be better players. But sometimes some players need to take

(27:52):
a step back. That's the thing I talked to Jared
Kalmick about in Atlanta. He said, you know, sometimes all
of that information was overwhelming for me and I just
need to simplify. But that's his approach. Some guys want
I've talked to Justin Berlinder. He wants all the data
and more and he wants to be the person to
sipe them through it and decide what he can use
and what he can throw out. But everyone's different, and

(28:13):
that's why you really have to tailor to the individual approach.
That's also something Scott Service had said to me in
our manager meetings, so you know, who really knows what's happening.
Every player is different. But the fact that the team
as a whole has struggled this badly offensively for a
number of years now, you have to look at the
park factor or something else that's going on that needs

(28:34):
to change, and it could be something like San Francisco
is just struggling to get the big hitters into the
market because of the reputation of the market.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
Well, and that's the thing here is you know they
play half the games here, they play them half on
the road. Their road numbers are a little bit better offensively,
but not a ton It's just not a good offensive team.
And the analytics part is interesting. You talk to players
every week for your job, not just with this team
but around the league, and sque my interest there because
there is criticism here sometimes with this particular front office

(29:05):
baseball side of things that maybe just maybe they rely
too much, too much on the analytics and the deep numbers,
and that dictates sometimes as opposed to a sport that
for a long time just how to feel to it right,
just we've got to like a Tommy Lasorda would manage
my feel or whoever, right, So it's a little different.
Verlander is an interesting story. What do you hear from

(29:26):
players around the league? Is it kind of split? Some
people love all the deep numbers and others just say, hey,
leave me alone, let me adjust my swing myself.

Speaker 4 (29:33):
You know, it's really very split. A lot of the
younger players that come up are more versed in that
language of analytics because it's something that they grow up
having crammed down their throats and you kind of have
to know that language. Whereas more veterans tend to a
lot are adapting or they like some of the information,
they don't like all of it. They'll use what they need,

(29:55):
and I think that's part part of what's helpful is
veterans that are understand themselves and understand the feel of
the game can take that data and see what can
help them and what can screw them up. But there
is a lot of players, a lot of players I
talk to that say they have a hard time figuring
out the data is almost too much. Okay, I need

(30:15):
to my bat path needs to be flattered, but I
need to do this and I need to, Like, it's
just too much in their heads. You're already thinking about
so much time trying to put around that on a
round ball and hit it out of the park when
it's coming at you at one hundred miles an hour.
It seems like from everyone who is sick, so that
those difficulties are something that players have to balance. But

(30:37):
the younger guys kind of seem to come up with
that language and that knowledge. And for front office, I've
also thought that the best front offices manage bolts right.
They have they have they have scouts with eyeballs on
players that are doing their homework, because nothing can compete
with the person to first in contact and making sure
you have a player who's going to fit into your system,

(30:57):
who's got the you know, the the brains to tackle
the game, that got the brawn to tackle the game.
Like all of the piece is put together, and you
can't put those numbers through a computer.

Speaker 5 (31:07):
Right.

Speaker 4 (31:08):
So you have the old school veteran guys and the
field guys, but you need to have the analytics guys too,
And then you need someone who is essentially your GM
or your front office that can merge those two thoughts
together to help you build your roster and help explain
all that information to the players and put it in
Layman's terms kinds of thing. The best teams are the
ones that balance both, so you don't really see one

(31:29):
team that's heavy in one direction or the other doing
that well for sustained success.

Speaker 5 (31:35):
Right.

Speaker 4 (31:36):
The Dodgers have a good balance of both, and they
have been on top of the nl wes for quite
a few years now, and that's kind of where the
Manners need to go. But I will say that everything
I've heard from Services players and Service himself makes me
think he had a good balance of both. They just
see I don't need it to change.

Speaker 5 (31:56):
What are you going to do exactly?

Speaker 2 (31:58):
You want? Ny on the call time Rapple TV. One
of the stories you guys will be telling tonight, the
globalization of Major League Baseball. Tell people who's starting on
the mound for the Angels.

Speaker 4 (32:10):
Well, actually, if I cut out just a little bit ago,
it's because Sam Aldergary's agent, who's calling me back right
now to I've put in a call with him to
get some background and to find out if the family
is going to make it from Italy. Born and raised
in Italy, Sam Algegary twenty two years old. He grew
up playing baseball in Italy. It is not a dumbness

(32:31):
sport in Italy.

Speaker 6 (32:33):
Basically his parents didn't have the time to take him
to soccer practice and the baseball field was a five
minute walk down the street, so he and his brother
grew up playing baseball Lessmander watched.

Speaker 4 (32:44):
Clayton Kershaw videos on YouTube to learn how to throw
the ball, became so passionate about it as scouts and
people around him said, hey, you know there's something different
about you, your arm, action, your movement, like you could
be something. So he said, when he was a team
as you, told his parents, I'm going to go to
the Major League Baseball and they kind of laughed at him,

(33:05):
and he made it. A Philly scout saw him at
an international competition and they signed him for around tw
hundred thousand dollars in twenty nineteen, came over after the
pandemic that kind of screwed everything up for him. But
he was just traded over to the Angels last month
and it's a fantastic story. I'm hoping his family makes
it in time. I'm waiting to hear back. It skipped

(33:27):
the call for the information, but yeah, tune in tonight
to see the first ever Italian born and raised player
to pitch in Major League Baseball make his debut tonight.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
That's awesome, what a great story. If you guys do
a great job on Apple TV of telling that story
as well, you can file follow her at Heidi Watney
wat n e Y on the old x dot com
formally Twitter, and right there at the very top three
hours ago hot he posted how you can get a
free trial. So if you want to watch the game tonight,
your an Apple not an Apple subscriber, how do you
people can actually do that for free?

Speaker 7 (33:57):
Right?

Speaker 2 (33:59):
They can click on the link, Click on the link,
go check it out. Have a great call tonight. Get
back to that agent because you got a story to
tell tonight. We appreciate you coming on. Thanks Heidi, All right,
take care, Hii Watney joining us. Take a quick break.
Come back, We'll tell you about the Mariner's road splits,
because they're a little better, but not much. We'll tell
you about that next.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Live from the R and R Foundation Specialist broadcast studio.
Back to Ian Fernance Power Advice, Seattle's closest sportsbook, Snow
call me Casino on Sports Radio ninety three point three
kJ R FM.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
Thanks, Hi, you why you're just going to a minute
or two here? Just I want to hit this real
quick before we get to Danny O'Neil at one o'clock
today or weekly visit with Danny. The Mariner's pitching staff
I mentioned with Heidi leads the majors and Whip leads
the majors in the ra leads the majors in opposing
batting average. The hitting is the exact opposite, basically average
on base percentage, slugging and ops. They're no better than

(35:01):
twenty six along the way. Now, the other part that
comes in it was like, well it must be the ballpark.
Not necessarily, they're nineteenth in ops on the road. As
far as the road batting average the Mariners, and you know,
I mean, does a ballpark come into play? Perhaps it does,
but in road, batting average the marriage twenty eighth, and
batting average on the road, they're on base percentage on

(35:23):
the road for the Mariners is eighteenth. They're slugging percentage
on the road is a little bit better, they're twentieth.
And it is at home, but again they're below average
whether it's home or away in every offensive category. It's
not just the home ballpark. And my god, if I
hear one more time when an opposing team hits a
home run to right field in Seattle, the following words

(35:45):
out of a broadcaster's mouth, that would only be a
home run here, Mini Made Park is minimis right minimate,
I think, and Yankee Stadium. There's three ballparks that if
you hit one kind of short right field it's a
home run here and two other ballparks. Okay, that's just

(36:06):
one part of the park and just one part of it.
But stop it. Stop complaining with the ballpark. You're a
bad offensive team and your pitching is unreal. You have
to win the division. It feels like it's a necessity
to win the division. If you don't win the division,
you're not getting in. You're probably not getting in. You'd
have to have a lot more go for you than
just leaping leap frogging one team. You got to allow

(36:27):
four other teams you gotta deal with to get to
the wild Card. You gotta win the division. They're four out.
Kansas City and Houston continue their series later on tonight. Meanwhile,
Seattle taking on the Angels before they go to Oakland.
That will soft part of the schedule here for so
they could, I mean, by a week from now, they
could be in a whole different situation, but it doesn't
feel like they've been able to take advantage of it
so far. Danny O'Neil All Things Seattle Sports written from

(36:51):
New York. We love talking to Danny. He joins us next.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
No from the start rentals Sports to US. Three point
three KJRFM Sports headlines.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
Headlines brought to you by Venue Kingsvenue Kings dot Com.
Week went of college football is here. We made it. Here,
We go you Weaver State tomorrow right here on nine
three point three KJRFMA to clock kickoff four o'clock pregame.
If you have a Comcast account, you can't watch the game,
so you'll be listening right here on KJR less you're
at the game, Coog's in Portland State kickoff at noon
tomorrow on the CW Network. Everybody gets that ninety nine

(37:26):
percent of the company of the country. Colorado beat North
Dakota State last night. Dion Sanders team, we'll talk about
that barely beat him by I should mention it. Travis
Hunter looks like an absolute stud. We knew that that's
not breaking news. But Rob Brangles on us two o'clock
to discuss h North Carolina last second win because Minnesota
missed a field goal at the buzzer. So win for

(37:46):
the acc over the Big Ten last night ano the
Marquee game last night in college football, brand now you
exigned four year, hundred and twenty million dollar extension with
the forty nine er. Seahawks signed outside linebacker Higas Bowser
to the practice squad. He played a couple of years
for Mike McDonald in Baltimore's missed the last couple of
years old with injuries. If he's healthy, that might be
a sneaky good signing for Seattle Mariners at LA tonight
against the Angels. Taken on a young man making his

(38:10):
first career start out of Italy. How do you want
he told us about that? A short time ago. Four
games out after a win by Houston last night against
Kansas City. Now are the ms in the al West
and sad news from the National Hockey League. Tragic news. Indeed,
seven time NHL All Star Johnny Gudreau, along with his
brother Matthew died is a result of being hit by
a reported drunk driver in New Jersey last night. So

(38:31):
sad news there. Storm also in action night taking on
Brianna Stewart and the New York Liberty. Let's get to it.
Daniel' neil standing by live.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
From the R and R Foundation Specialist broadcast studio. Back
to Ian Fernetz power ad by Seattle's closest sportsbook, Snow
Call Me Casino on Sports Radio ninety three point three
KJR FM.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
Welcome back against second out of the show in fronesk
with you as we roll along on a Friday afternoon,
started the long weekend, and let's kick the long weekend
off with a good friend, Danny O'Neil, who joins us
right now the best Seattle sports writing you'll get out
of New York City. Danie O'Neil, he joins us for
his weekly visit. I think it's some of the best
seat sports writing you will get, period, but you know
it does. It does originate from beautiful New York City.

(39:21):
How are you, my friend?

Speaker 7 (39:23):
I am doing well.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
I think when you talk about is it the best
sports writing on Seattle sports, that's debatable. But what's unquestionable
is it's the best Seattle sports writing done by someone
who lives in New York City. That is, that is clear, clear,
and above the above board.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
Yeah, our buddy Jerry Brewer doesn't live there anymore, right,
or didn't ever let you live in DC for a while.
He's back here. I'm just trying to think if there's
any alternatives. No, I think it's you. Yeah, I think
it's exactly right. One of one, one of one. I
like to think I'm the best show from noon to
three on KJR every day, you know, and the only
show on KJR new to three every day. So we
can go with that.

Speaker 4 (39:57):
You don't need that the last part.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
You just don't need to say the last Let's just
just put a period at the end of the sentence
along the way. Mariners are in Anaheim tonight to take
on the Angels of Los Angeles. The word salad that
that is after winning Danny. They're four and two under
Dan Wilson. It's on. Here we go, it's the turnaround.
Here we go. Dan Wilson has turned things around for

(40:19):
this Mariners team.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
I crunched the numbers this morning and they are averaging
four point seven runs under Dan Wilson, which is up
from the three point nine runs they averaged under Scott service.
Isn't enough to get them over the hump, we'll see.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
Of course, a lot of those came in one game,
but sure, sure also.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
Six games sample size we're dealing with there, but.

Speaker 8 (40:44):
Take where you can find it.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
When we last spoke, it was right after the move
was made and they had done everything and we're kind
of waiting to see and Edgar's there, Dan's there, and
we're all celebrating hot dogs from heaven and ninety five
and two thousand and one all over again. And as
they've now settled in, do you think there's any change
or basically, have we just seen them play two really
bad baseball teams at home where even under Scott's service,

(41:10):
they had a stellar home record and that's kind of
what we saw.

Speaker 7 (41:13):
Yeah, I don't believe we've seen a market shift now.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
Maybe if Julio is going to be healthier and start
hitting better going forward.

Speaker 7 (41:22):
That might be.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
I'm not willing to say that, Hey, the switch to
Dan Wilson has jump started anything.

Speaker 7 (41:30):
I don't think it hurts.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
The real question here is you've got what at this point,
twenty eight games left, and you've got a gap of
ground to make up. It's going to be real hard
to see that happen, but I hope it does, if
only because this pitching is so freaking good that if
they were able to get into the postseason, you got
a shot.

Speaker 7 (41:51):
But no, I don't think anything has markedly changed.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
But even Logan Gilbert the other day was stellar on
Tuesday and took a lot. And I think the number
now is I think in Gilbert starts, the Mariners are
fifteen and there are two games under I believe in
Gilbert starts this season, Like, how can that be? Like,
I just that's remarkable that you're under five hundred with

(42:15):
well any of those guys on the mound.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
Yeah, you have a you have a collective vra that
is among if it just by itself, would be one
of the.

Speaker 7 (42:25):
Very best pictures in the league. And you're you're doddling
along bobbing just above.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
Five hundred because your lineup strikes out a billion times
and you haven't been able to sustain any sort of
success at the plate.

Speaker 7 (42:40):
It's pretty mind boggling.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
Let's go bigger picture. You wrote about this in the
News Tribune and for those who don't know, Danny's right
in the News is twice a week now in the
News Tribune.

Speaker 7 (42:48):
Once every other week. So Jim, Jim Moore and I
are tag team partners. We alternate each week.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
Not a lot of people would say that with that
kind of bravado, but good, good for you. No, we
love chess, right, Go Koog's right, walking a dog, Go
Koog's have a beer, Go Koog's all right. But you
wrote about it a little bit this week. Let's go
down that road because we spend a lot of time
this week Danny on our show here talking about ownership

(43:14):
and and you know, the systemic issues that you have
throughout the organization, a lot of old school thinking they
rely on you know, I mean, they make money, they
make a lot of money, they invest in as they say, bars,
et cetera. And what's going on there and you know,
like building a getting rid of the pyramid and building

(43:35):
their own bar, those types of things. That's kind of
what we what they rely on to make some money.
That's on one side, But the baseball side, which is
all kind of tied in, is still Jerry to Podal
and our listeners were still to the point of we
want to get rid of Jerry, but we really want
to see ownership change as well. You wrote a little
bit about all this will let you kind of take

(43:56):
it from there, But but where is it? Where do
the issues lie with this organization? And still how they
can still get to the playoffs? But where do the
biggest issues lie with this organization?

Speaker 3 (44:05):
The biggest issue is this team's ownership has been unwilling
to foot a higher cost to put this team over
the hump. It is in position to go from being
a rebuilding team that has a young core to being
a perennial playoff participant. And over the past two off seasons,

(44:30):
and I really think since the addition of Luis Castillo,
they've been really frugal and reluctant to make the financial
commitment that would allow them to predictably do that, and
instead have hoped that bargain budget additions and rearranging the
deck chairs by trading giving away a U Hennio Suarez

(44:53):
so you can bring in Mitch Garverer, and trading Jared
Kelmick so the other people will swallow the cost of
Marco Gonzalez and Evan White will allow you to get
Jorge Polanco, And so far that has kept them in
the exact same spot.

Speaker 7 (45:08):
They've been in the same spot for four straight years now.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
I think separate from that is the question of how
is your baseball operations functioning? And I believe at this
point that the issues that Jerry Depoto has with how
he manages people and the culture that he set in
baseball operations, I believe that that has become a net

(45:35):
detriment as well. I don't know if ownership is going
to okay spending more money. I hope that they will,
and I believe they should. But even if they do,
I still think there does need to be a change
a top baseball operations. And even if they don't allow

(45:56):
for more spending, I still think there should be a
change a time off the baseball operations.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
The I mean, like the po we mentioned it before,
I mean with the Poto, it's it's a guy that's
he wants yes men around. I now, Danny's a radio professional,
by the way, so I can't even I can't. I
can't even set him up for this because I really
want too badly. But Danny, do you know anything about
working with someone who's maybe not the best in the

(46:24):
workplace environment and let his ego come into play more
so than what's good for the bigger picture?

Speaker 3 (46:29):
It can, it can definitely be a challenge, and I
think ultimately in those situations it is you're as a manager.
You're asked to get the most out of people and
to put them in possessions that they can succeed. And
a lot of times managers aren't in ideal situations or

(46:53):
what they would prefer and have to make.

Speaker 7 (46:54):
The best out of them.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
But ultimately, at the end of the at the end
of the day, the big part of your job is
putting people in positions where they can perform well for you.
And I think I don't think Jerry Depoto's sort of
challenges with managing people is new.

Speaker 7 (47:15):
I think early on you looked at it and there
was a lot of turnover, But.

Speaker 3 (47:18):
That's because he's installing his people and he's getting things
to run the way he wants. And there's also the
question that sometimes as a manager you have to be
hard nosed and you have to do things that will
ruffle feathers. This is an organization and a franchise that
needed some help. But I look at it now, man
Scott's service is that was his guy right, Like they

(47:41):
came in here.

Speaker 7 (47:42):
Their background together.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
It sticks out to me that Scott's Service didn't thank
Jerry in his is the statement that was released through
the team. I don't know enough to say it was
Scott's responsibility or I'm sorry that it was Jerry's fault
that got found out first. For all I know that
had nothing at all to.

Speaker 7 (48:03):
Do with Jerry Depoto.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
But it is indicative and not surprising that that sort
of miscommunication ham handed handling of things.

Speaker 7 (48:15):
And there are other examples that have clearly been Jerry.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
Depoto's fault, including the fifty four percent press conference last year.

Speaker 5 (48:22):
And at some point, like I would ask, like, Okay,
what exactly.

Speaker 7 (48:27):
Is Jerry responsible for?

Speaker 3 (48:28):
Does he just it doesn't matter what his decisions are
because he doesn't have enough of a budget.

Speaker 8 (48:34):
And I would say, like, no, his job is to
make the most out of what he has.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
And at this point nine years in, I do think
that that there has been a cost to the way
Jerry manages and deals with people.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
Danie O'Neil joining us, I really feel like, and maybe
this is unfair for me, and it's it's kind of
the It's a phrase we hear a lot of times,
especially in sports, but it truly feels to me like
the POTO is the guy that feels like he's the
smartest guy in the room. Now. I brought this up
the other day with the NFL cut down day. You
covered the NFL for a long time, you could like

(49:08):
when NFL cut down Day comes, it's kind of the
same way, like every GM thinks he's the smartest guy
in the room. Who can I, you know, slide through
to practice squad? Who can I slide through? And then
you know, teams get burned by one or two guys like, oh,
I guess I wasn't. Every GM thinks it, but Jerry
does have this and maybe it's the smugness from the
news conferences it comes across. It's a massive turnoff for fans,
Like it's a massive, massive turnoff for I, you know,

(49:31):
in your call, him got a lot of people revved
up here this week. You should probably do more than
one every two weeks, FYI, because people were repped up
for that thing. And and but it's his his attitude,
and I think it feels I don't know if you
can truly in the eyes of the fans here in Seattle,
and people can text in four nine four or five one.
I don't know if you can truly separate to Poto

(49:51):
from Stanton or so. I use Stanton as the ownership group,
so you know, we know there's others, Chris Larson and others.
But I don't know if you can separate the I
think fans are just so kind of done with the
whole thing. Barring a massive run here in a World
Series appearance or at least an ALCS appearance, people are
just fed up. They want change. They're not going to
sell the team, Danny, but they want change.

Speaker 7 (50:13):
Yeah, I would agree with that.

Speaker 3 (50:15):
And what are the things that you have an opportunity
to do. You're going to have a new manager. I
would be very surprised if Dan Wilson ends up being
their manager when next season starts. Maybe it is, and
maybe that's really what he wants to do. And you
have the at least the possibility of a managerial change
going forward. Would you benefit from having a new GM,
someone who's different in charge of baseball operations. I think

(50:38):
Jerry's done a good job rebuilding the farm system. I
think that Jerry has shown that he can oversee, even
or execute. They have a system for getting young pitching,
keeps acquiring and developing young pitching. Is that enough to
offset the other things that we've seen. We haven't seen an.

Speaker 7 (50:56):
Ability for them to develop bats or to find bats
on the open market.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
And not only that, but it seems like the guys
that they do spotlight have a tendency to backslide here,
not all of them.

Speaker 8 (51:08):
Mitch Haniger came here and hit well well the first time.

Speaker 7 (51:11):
Mitch Haniger came here and hit well this.

Speaker 8 (51:13):
Time not so much.

Speaker 3 (51:15):
Is that enough to think, like, okay, if you get
a new manager, or would you benefit from giving somebody
else as shot to get it over the hump? And
I just don't find they've done a good job stocking
the pitching to be a compelling enough argument to say like,
let's give him another shot to see if this year
he can get him over there.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
Let me let me throw this at you because I
kind of you know, and I believe that the general
manager more in his case, president of baseball operations, is
more like the football college football head coach than the
managers like the college football head coach. And here's why
I bring that up. Like Sark did an incredible job.

(51:55):
I thought of getting Washington back. He got players here
that could play. He got really good talent here. You
look at the NFL guys that were here in that
little run of dudes, it was I mean, almost all
of them are Sark for a while, and Peterson got
a lot of credit. Peterson didn't build that thing. Sark
built it. But Sark left on his own. But Sark

(52:17):
wasn't necessarily going to take them to the same level
that Chris Peterson was. Sometimes you can have somebody build
it to a certain point and you got to make
a change. I almost feel like that's where we're at.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
Yeah, I would agree with the parallel because when Sark left,
I was ready for him to go.

Speaker 5 (52:32):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
In fact, like really felt even though you guys were competitive,
even though the team wasn't, like I mean, the Tyrone
stuff was gone, you had NFL caliber players. You're recruiting
and all that, but it was time, right, It was
just time.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
There was a level of disorganization there, and in retrospect
there is the question of alcohol and how that might
have sure hackeded Sark's ability to be a stable personality
who is organizing things. But there really was a feeling
that I had that this is what it's going to
be with Sark. This is what it's going to be.

(53:09):
Is that you're going to have talent, and you're going
to be combustible, and you also are probably going to
finish the regular season with seven or eight wins because
that's just how this program is working under him. And
I would say that that's kind of the level the
Mariners are at right now. Is they're good enough to
win between eighty five and ninety games and be in
the conversation for the playoffs, and they might make the

(53:31):
playoffs if a couple of things go right or break
their way, but they're they're not close to being that.

Speaker 7 (53:37):
You've outlined the last.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
Couple of times we've talked, they've never come close to
winning a division No Under in this in this run,
they've never come close. And the only reason this year
is because the Wheels have kind.

Speaker 7 (53:49):
Of come off, it's the worst division in the American League.

Speaker 3 (53:51):
I just I think that it would benefit that give
somebody else a set of fresh eyes and a breath
of personality.

Speaker 8 (53:58):
There's there's a.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
Guy that I do know that was in that club,
so I actually and one of the things he said
is like he really didn't think. He joked to me
that he didn't believe Jerry had ever been a player.
And the reason he said that is because he could not.
He's like, you can show me all of the reference
page or whatever. The way he looks at players, I
just don't believe he was ever a player. And I

(54:20):
do think that there has been a net negative that
you can trace all the way down to the clubhouse
about how those players feel the front office feels about
them and whether and that includes some of the comments
from Kevin Mather, but just that feeling. And I think
there is a benefit to getting a reset in that

(54:41):
relationship and sort of unloading some of the baggage that
comes with that.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
Daniel O'Neil joining us for a few more moments. All right,
we got college football ahead of us games last night,
but games tomorrow as well. Everyone's revved up for weaber
States and Washington's start to the Big ten. I say
that somewhat tongue in cheek, but the bigger issue is,
of course, you can't see the game if you have
Comcast in Seattle, so that's kind of a little bit
of a nightmare. How rich is that that distribution is

(55:08):
a problem again for a PAC twelve former Pac twelve team,
it's actually all four of them, is the two schools
in California and Washington, Oregon.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
I would also like to make the point that people
have tried to use the phrasing of carriage issue.

Speaker 7 (55:22):
Like call it what it is.

Speaker 8 (55:23):
These are blackouts. I know that the TV.

Speaker 7 (55:26):
Networks don't want to call it that, and the people.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Who old school NFW is this an old school? Is
an old is this an old school NFL? If you're
not sold out in seventy two hours, you're gonna black
it out.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
And if you notice, nobody uses those terms anymore because
they know it is a boogeyman, so we it should
be more emphasized. There is a potential blackout of Washington
Husky games for Washington Comcast subscribers.

Speaker 8 (55:49):
It's ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (55:51):
And I have YouTube TV and I am not going
to be affected by this. In fact, living in New York,
I don't have access to.

Speaker 7 (55:59):
Count Comcast can't pose me.

Speaker 3 (56:02):
I'm still pissed off about this because of the whole
principle is this is an example of how the loyalty
of college football fans is being used to leverage more
money out of this TV system and ultimately it's going
to end up with the customers paying the more money
to this and it's just awful, Like it pisses me

(56:25):
off so much where I'm like that that describes exactly
what has happened in college football over the past two
years is completely bend over backwards every way you can
to take the loyalty of college football fans so you can.

Speaker 7 (56:40):
Pry more TV money out of people, and then ultimately
the fans will pay.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
For And but it's not even just a college to me,
it's a Comcast issue, because you know, I was talking
to somebody from from Ruth about it as well, and
you know, everyone just blasted Root Sports for what happened
last year with the crack, and and you know the
thing is is that it was Comcast Exfinity whatever we
call these guys these days. The day before the NHL
season started that said we're gonna up the the you know,

(57:06):
whatever the fee is and put you on a higher peer,
higher tier, and that like that caught both Root Sports
and the Cracking off guard. And they they did the
same thing to Bally's, which you know, bankrupt them basically
across the country. And they did somebody else to another
another league or something like that's a it's a Comcast

(57:26):
Exfinity thing. But they whether it's college football or pro sports, Danny,
what you said is true. What they're doing is is
they're holding you hostage because cable companies like I don't
know who who would be their cable company in New York,
but you know they have a monopoly. Whether it's you know,
Comcast Infinity here or if it's way you know, wave
Band in Kidsap County or whoever it is, they have

(57:49):
a monopoly on you, like and they and they have
they have a hold on you, and they're gonna just
squeeze every dollar out of you. And unfortunately those guys
like Meal pay for it.

Speaker 7 (57:58):
Yeah, and it's it is. There's no good guy in this.

Speaker 3 (58:02):
It is like watching two gangsters arm wrestle over who
gets the right to completely extort you and either way
you're going to pay for it. And it's it's really,
it's so frustrating. And there's part of me that thinks
that having the Koogs like their TV availability completely beyond

(58:22):
approach on the CW.

Speaker 8 (58:24):
Like there's a certain amount of like yeah, like that's
that's the way. At least you can watch them add
up right now.

Speaker 3 (58:31):
The idea that you can't that Washington's, that the Pacific
Northwest largest cable provider might not be airing the University
of Washington football game in their new conference because their
new conference can't come to an agreement with Comcast is
just absurd.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
You can watch the go Kog's a't be three o'clock
your time on the CW locally there in New York
City DWNY. On Saturday, it's the Portland State Vikings rolling
into town. We do know what happened with Alex Grinch's
defense against Portland State about seven or eight years ago.
It was not good, didn't end well. So I don't
think that'll happen this week, but you can watch it.

(59:11):
I'll get a full update from you on what you
think of the Koogs and the Huskies next week, and
we'll talk NFL opening weekend. We'll talk after the first
game of the NFL season, but in the meantime, tell
people about what you got going on with the newsletter
and what you're writing.

Speaker 3 (59:24):
It is the dang Apostrophe. You can find it at
Danny O'Neil dot com. There's a free newsletter that goes
to folks every Wednesday, with an option for more.

Speaker 7 (59:33):
If you really can't get enough.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
Cow Bell, if you really can't, no, and honestly you
can't get enough, so go ahead, go subscribe people. Get
that thing going on. Man, it's great stuff. Danny does
a great job. It's great to hear your voice on
the airwaves here in Seattle again. And luckily you've never
worked for a guy that will kind of be like
the Poto. It's always been guys you've worked for have
been just selfless and far from self center, including Jesseman. Yeah,

(59:57):
well that's a stretch.

Speaker 8 (01:00:00):
Make the best of what you got.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
That's what I feel, and I'm excited about what's going
Thanks buddy, I'll talk to you soon. That's Danny O'Neil,
Danny O'Neill joining us. We got a lot more to come.
Rob Rang's gonna join us at two o'clock today to
previous the college football weekend. All right here on ninety
three point three kJ FM.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
Live from the R and R Foundation Specialists broadcast studio
back to Ian Fernetz Power Advice, Seattle's closest sports book,
snowp Call me Casino on Sports Radio ninety three point
three kJ R FM.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
We'll check all the texts coming up today at two
thirty four nine five one on the Tellmorte text line.
When it's game time, It's totally time, Thank you, Mitch.
I'm just looking at a couple. Uh, I gotta read
this one, Mit, tread this one to be later. I

(01:00:59):
had to go look and set my filf just to
get a chuckle. I just had to get a chuckle
out of this. Hey, Ian rookie pitcher, first start against
the M's kind of sounds like twelve to sixteen strikeounts.
Another heartbreaking loss. Oh god, man, I'm telling you it is.

Speaker 5 (01:01:15):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
This team's got so they have so much work to
do to get back to just having people in this
town feel good about them, you know, like they've got
they just have. They got a lot of work left.

Speaker 7 (01:01:29):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
They just do and I I think we're all in
the same boat. If you're a mentor fan and you know,
growing up like I was, and it's just you can
only be beaten down for so long in terms of
wins and losses. And then on top of the wins
and losses, when I say getting beaten down, like, yeah,
your team never goes to the playoffs, I get that,

(01:01:50):
you know, I just I Then you throw on top
of that an ownership group that really the majority of
this market in fan base just feels crappy about, like
they just feel not good about it. And you want
to support your team. And yet the older you get,

(01:02:10):
the more you like it's harder to support the team
when you hate what's the team is? You know who
and what runs and owns a team that's just depressing,
you know. And you know, a good conversation with Danny
just now, and I appreciate his insight too as a
guy that's been here and you know, works here and
everything else. But yeah, I don't know. I bang my

(01:02:31):
head against the wall. It's I never get to the
point where I root against them, but but my passion
for them sometimes wanes a little bit. And I've never
let the outside I don't know how you guys feel
about this. You can text me four nine four or
five one. You know how hard is to separate, you know,
ownership slash management with the actual on field product and
the team. The older I get, the harder it gets.

(01:02:53):
I mean I live through the George Arduous days of
owning the Mariners, and it was just, I mean all
you thought about on a daily and maybe that was
just a fear factor because we were so fearful the
team would leave. They were going to pack up and leave.
And then Ken Bearing with the Seahawks when he owned them,

(01:03:13):
that was kind of the same thing. I never, you know,
stopped loving the teams. You grew up rooting for the
Seahawks and the Mariners. But with those two teams, I
guess I was able to separate more the on field
product from who owned the team because those two ownership groups,
Bearing and then the George Arders, they were so flipping bad.

(01:03:35):
I think the one time it started to affect me
is like, and maybe it's because I had been gone
for a while, but I got back right, you know,
the first year that the Sonics were owned by by
the Oklahoma City guys, and and I kind of lost
my luster for the NBA team I grew up the
last couple of years they were here, which were the
first two years I came back to Seattle, and I

(01:03:57):
was a big NBA guy. I mean I did pretty
impost in Utah and pre and post game shows in Portland,
and that was kind of the I loved it. You know,
people kind of wise, oh, you're a hockey guy. Yeah.
I love hockey, love hockey to death, and love football
to death, and used to love the NBA. The Sonics
were my first love of a team when Clinton Bennett

(01:04:19):
bought them. You know, that's probably why I don't have
any affinity or any love or any kind of I
don't feel any type of bonding with Kevin Durant because
I don't associate those last two Sonic teams with the Sonics.
They to me, were just kind of a vagabond group
that was Yeah, they were just renting space. The Maritors. Meanwhile,

(01:04:42):
they've been here since seventy seven, lived and died and
most of the time not on the good side of
things with this team for all those years. And they're
a hard team to just to kind of wrap your
arms around because a they don't win, they don't give
you a lot of pleasure in terms of wins and losses.
They don't give you any kind of excitement in terms
of going to the damn playoff us. And yet at
the same time it feels different as the years go on,

(01:05:04):
because ownership has soured me so much, and Depoto has
soured me so much. His comments last year, we overplay
them and it kind of gets overbearing us sometimes we
talk about it all the time. But his comments were
so flipping and sulting and and really in terms of it,
maybe condescending as well, I think could be the better term.

(01:05:25):
Uh is what they were, and that's just that's just frustrating.

Speaker 7 (01:05:28):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
It's a bummer. But uh, winning point. Yeah, it's Jerry
and Stanton, and Stanton's the figurehead for all ownership. You know,
can say Stanton Arrison, it doesn't matter. It's just yeah,
it's just a bummer. Hey, But winning cures all get
to the playoffs and all will be forgiven. It's amazing
what the playoffs can do for an organization. I was
just talking to it to Purple Sheet a minute ago.
You know, when the Cracking went to the playoffs two

(01:05:50):
years ago. I mean, the whole bolt rose like it
was crazy all of a sudden, Like you know, from
our standpoint, our numbers are up, people are excited, they're
wearing cracking jerseys. I mean, even going into the last season,
you saw people all there just geared up. They've lost
a lot of that. They need to get that back,
and I don't think it'll take much. They will get
it back. It's the only thing going in town in
the winter times, the darks of winter, So if they

(01:06:10):
put a competitive product on the ice, it'll be fine.
So winning can here all or it can grow all
as well, So hopefully that happens down the road. All Right,
we come back. I'm gonna hit on this story a
little bit. Just an absolutely gut wrenching tragedy in the
National Hockey League. The worst part about it is it
could have been and should have been avoided. So we'll

(01:06:33):
tell you the story of Johnny Hockey coming up in
just a second in what is just a really sad, depressing,
awful thing going in the weekend, But it's also serves
as a reminder for all of us, and we'll talk
about that coming up next in a daily power play
two o'clock. Rob rang will join us I'm really curious
what Rob thinks. And this is funny. I mentioned this yesterday.

(01:06:56):
Here we are, it's the for thirtieth of August, and
we are going to have our first conversation today with
Rob rang talking about the National Football League Draft. Every Friday,
Rob joined his courtesy of Farelli's we look at big
college football games coming up in the weekend, draftable players
and how they may relate to our team here in Seattle.

(01:07:18):
So we'll do that with Rob coming up as well,
and tell you about Factor Fiction All coming up next.
Ninety three point three kjr FM. Falkin shoots twenty on
Gold of Plucks and they start It's Crosby Stop.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
This is the Daily power Play Deep Slot one timer
McKennon now Ian Fernesz Sun Sports Radio ninety three point three.

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
Wait kJ r FM Daily power Play on your home
with the Cracket ninety three point three kJ r FM.
In just a couple of seconds, we're gonna hear a
little bit from the television of the crack in. John
Foresland his thoughts on the passing of Johnny Hockey. Johnny Gudreau,
thirty one years old, seven time All Star in the
National hockey league long with his brother Matthew, killed in
a tragic car accident. And I don't even want to

(01:08:11):
call it that because that's not right. He was riding
a bike alum with his brother. They're in New Jersey
last night yesterday. They were there for his sister's wedding,
which was scheduled for today has since been canceled. They
were hit by a suspected drunk driver who was arrested
for vehicular manslaughter and homicide, and they both died on

(01:08:31):
the scene. His brother was a high school hockey coach.
They both played college hockey at Boston Boston College. I
believe Goudreau played for many years for the Calgary Flames,
was one of the best players of all time. Signed
a free agent deal a couple of years ago with
the Columbus Blue Jackets to be closer to home back
east in the States. The tragedy speaks volumes of the

(01:08:54):
dangers of drinking and driving, and it also was so
preventable that it makes you stick to your stomach. And
the worst part about it all like if there is,
I mean, everything about is bad. The tragedy involved Gudreau,
his family, his kids. It's Johnny hockey. His brother's wife
was pregnant due in December, and yeah again on the
eve of his sister's wedding. Unfathomable tragedy is Johnny Ready

(01:09:16):
John FORSLND with Mike Benton on the Crack and Overtime
podcast in the iHeartRadio Network, John FORESLN voice of the
of the Krack and of course also a national television
voice on Johnny gudrou.

Speaker 5 (01:09:29):
Thank You before in the Morning, which is obviously, you know,
surrounding this entire situation. It's the utter shock of how
quickly life can be taken away from anybody, how senseless
this was, and how unfortunate and unthinkable it is for
the family to carry on now under these circumstances. Of

(01:09:51):
these two young men were unbelievable individuals, according to everybody
that I know that knew both of them. Of course
I knew Johnny a little bit. Actually met his mom
and dad a couple of years ago in Calgary and
it struck up a really nice conversation. And they've gone
through a lot during the pandemic because he was in

(01:10:12):
Calgary and they were in the Philly, New Jersey area
and couldn't get to see him because of the COVID
restrictions between the two countries and all that. So in
and around all that, he started a young family and
moved on to Columbus, and and now his life has
been taken away in a blink of an eye, along
with his brother Matthew. So it's it's horrible. I mean,

(01:10:33):
it's just I think the amount and the outpouring of
emotion Mike, we've seen from everybody in the hockey world
today speaks for itself. It's deserved. It's just unfortunate that,
you know, we have to talk about this because again,
no one can wrap their head around what happened.

Speaker 9 (01:10:50):
Yeah, a day that feels like none other really in
recent NHL history, and just devastating. And I granted that
you never called games in front of john they could
row eighty two times a year, but you seen him
across a circuit for rough with the last decade. What's
the one thing you'll remember about Johnny?

Speaker 5 (01:11:09):
Absolute excitement. I mean every shift, you know, when he
came on the ice, something could happen.

Speaker 8 (01:11:16):
Even in.

Speaker 5 (01:11:18):
The period of his struggles that he had recently with
a really tough Columbus crew that couldn't find their way
I think this past season when they came through Seattle,
there's just flashes of this brilliance that's an automatic highlight
realiity strikes gold every time he touched the puck. It
was amazing. I know he loved the game because I

(01:11:41):
did have the pleasure of talking to him covering him
over the years nationally. And I think what happened during
my meeting with the parents, and sometimes doing what we do,
we're very lucky to hear this. Parents will sometimes tell
you what they think of your work because through your
work they see their sons or their daughters perform on

(01:12:04):
a big stage. And it made me feel good. And
I got to know Gee and missus Goudrow a little
bit that day, and it was it was great. And
of course I'm sure you're aware that it's a hockey family.
His dad has been a triple A coach in that
area for a long time and helped a lot of
kids get through that hockey hotbed that it is in

(01:12:25):
and around Philadelphia, get them to college hockey, get them
beyond college hockey. And Johnny was the poster boy for
that area. And Johnny recently had dumped a lot of
financial support into his hometown rink and the Triple A
program there, and I talked to the young man that
I had a pleasure of building here over the last

(01:12:47):
ten years back when he was a junior player, and
he's now coaching the Triple A sixteen you team that's
in the rink, the Hollydale Rink and outside of Philadelphia
where Johnny is, but a lot of that final financial
support into So it's a really tough day for those
people there because they knew him and the family very well.

(01:13:09):
Johnny comes from a hockey family, his brother the same situation.
Terrific college player, minor pro player. But it's how they
were as people that's the most important thing. And I
think we're lucky to work in a sport that's surrounded
by great people. And that's what makes it even more
devastating when things like this happen, because it's incredibly senseless.

Speaker 2 (01:13:32):
John foreslan television voice of The Crack and also a
national TV voice on TNT, with his thoughts on Johnny Gaudreau.
It's just it's sickening, it's sad. It's a lot of
things and none of them are positive. And no more
words other than man what John said at first, I
think is so true, and I think a lot of
us take it for granted. You know, life is short,

(01:13:53):
and it can be fleeting, and it can end at
the blink of an eye. You just never know when
try to enjoy it. I need to do a better job,
but I think we all need to do a better
job of it. You should need a tragic reminder to
to get to that point. But we are now reminded
again that you should never take each day you're here
for granted. Every day you're on this earth and you're
able to enjoy your family, your friends, your passions, and

(01:14:16):
for so many of us, I say passions. Enjoy your
sports this weekend, Enjoy watching your teams play, Enjoy watching
your kids grow up. Enjoy being with your spouse because
you just never know when it could get taken away.
So just crappy and awful. God makes makes you question
a lot of things, faith included. We'll take a break,
We'll come back. Rob Rang will join us, speaking of
football on a much more positive and upbeat note. College

(01:14:41):
football season. God, last night was great, man. I don't
know about you, Mitch. I got home last night and
I settled into it. My chair had myself actually a
Seattle cider yesterday maybe at home and watched a lot
of college football to the point where I ended up

(01:15:02):
point this is how much I missed it. I watched
Sacramento State, San Jose State last night till the bitter
end on True TV. I was waiting for the March
Madness music to break out at any point, right con true,
Where's true to me? Seven oh five? Comcast is where
it's at. But yeah, a glorious time. So Rob Rang's
gonna join us next. We'll preview the college football weekend

(01:15:24):
with Rob, especially how it relates to guys that are
draft eligible, especially guys draft eligible that fit for Seattle.
We got tok quarterbacks with him. The whole Geno Smith thing.
Sam Hell may not be at all, So we'll find
out more from Rob. He'll join us coming up next.

Speaker 1 (01:15:41):
Now from the Star Rentals Sports to Us Jordan ninety
three point three j j R FM sports.

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
Headlines headlines, Let me try that again, Mitge three two
one headlines brought to you by I'm gonna make my
mom clim up right now. You know what they're brought
to you by Today Druid's Glen Golf Course Why because
we love those guys. Luke Company, Drewizglendolf dot com. Let's

(01:16:07):
go you Dub Weaver State eight o'clock tomorrow at four
o'clock pregame Softy in the Hawks. College football Week one
is here. Coogs Portland State noon on the CW Network.
Colorado beat North A Goota State barely. Last night, North
Carolina outlasted Minnesota on a missed late field goal in
that game. ACC Big ten Battle, Brendon and I Yux

(01:16:29):
signed a four year, one hundred and twenty million dollar
extension with the San Francisco forty nine ers. Seahawks signed
outside linebacker Tias Bowser to a practice squad contract. He's
missed the last couple of years of injuries, was a
productive player before that with the Baltimore Ravens with Mike McDonald,
who's now the head coach. Here makes sense that might
be a sneaky, sneaky good signing. To be honest with

(01:16:49):
you with that one right there. Manners in Anaheim tonight
take on the Angels. They are down four games now
to the Astros in the American League West. Both games
the Astros had in hand, they had played too fewer
than Seattle as of eight days ago. They've made those
two games up. They won both of those games. That's
a full game they gained with those two games in hand.

(01:17:10):
If you're keeping track at home, there now a true
four games ahead of Seattle four and the win four
and the loss. That's where the Astros are Ms are
a little further back in the wildcard race as well.
Tragedy in the National Hockey League. Seven time NHL All
Star Johnny Goodrow nicknamed Johnny Hockey one of the most
exciting players in the National Hockey League and his brother
Matthew Doder result of being hit by reported drunk driver

(01:17:32):
in New Jersey on the eve of their sister's wedding today,
which has been canceled. Just a tragedy in the NHL
football Seahawks are off until next week. It's all about
the colleges. This weekend, all about the colleges. Is he
with us? Is he standing by? We have the open
ready to rock and roll. Let's hit it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:51):
As part of our never ending coverage of the NFL,
It's time for Ian's weekly visit with Rob rang from
foxsports dot Com, brought to you by Farelli's Pizza On
your home for the twelfth Man and the NFL Sports
Radio ninety three point three kJ r FM. Big thanks
to Farrellis Frelispizza dot com. They're located in the South Sound.

(01:18:13):
There are all kinds of locations everywhere. Late night, happy hour,
early happy hour.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
The best pizza you're gonna find in the area all
at Ferrelli's Pizza. An incredible tap list of local craft
beers as well. If you're looking for pizza, cal zones, pasta, wings, appetizers,
it's all there at Farelli's Pizza. Family friendly and of
course on the bar side, you can watch anything you
want to watch, Mariners, Seahawks, Huskies, Coogs, whatever, it's all
there at for Elli's Pizza, Freli's Pizza, local company, locally owned.

(01:18:40):
Big thanks to Fareli's Pizza for all of their support
this season. Okay, Rob rang is with us. Rob, my friend,
how are you.

Speaker 8 (01:18:49):
I'm doing very well.

Speaker 5 (01:18:51):
Good.

Speaker 2 (01:18:51):
We got to it, buddy, We got we got to
the college football season.

Speaker 8 (01:18:54):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (01:18:54):
We are here. It is upon us. Let's go. Let's
let me start first though, before we go, And for
people new to this, Rob has been doing this with
us for a long time. Every Friday, we sit down,
We talked about the big college football games on the
weekend upcoming. We talk about some of the games to
keep an eye on and the players specifically as it
relates to the draft. As Rob is our guru as

(01:19:15):
far as all things NFL draft is concerned, and maybe
a lot of times how it relates to Seattle and
the Seahawks and guys it would fit as well. We'll
get into that in a second. I do want to
ask you just your thoughts.

Speaker 5 (01:19:28):
What was it?

Speaker 2 (01:19:29):
Is it? Six of eight? Seven of eight, seven of eight?
I believe Seahawks draft picks make the final fifty three
man roster. You like their draft class? Anything jump out
at you from what the Seahawks did cut down day,
especially as relates to the young guys.

Speaker 10 (01:19:42):
I think the biggest thing is the one exception as
far as the drafted players that didn't make seatles roster
orgs back to squad and this point is that the
Auburn corner DJ James. I was a little bit surprised
considering that that already Burns went down and the.

Speaker 8 (01:19:58):
Seahawks elected not to keep him.

Speaker 10 (01:20:00):
But at the same time, you understand why that this
is a very young secondary as a whole. You know,
it's going to be highlight of course by the two
corners in Devil Witherspoon entering year two and you know
in Tarik Wollat entering year three, even Trey Brown entering
your four.

Speaker 8 (01:20:17):
So you understand the you.

Speaker 10 (01:20:19):
Know why they would focus in on the players that
they already have here, and then just the continual improvement
that we've seen from Bira Murphy, from Christian Haynes, then
from Tyrese Knight as well. Those to me are going
to be the three rookies that are going to come
in and make a significant impact this year. And just

(01:20:40):
just in general, I've been really impressed by how just
the transition that the Seahawks have made here from Pete
Carroll to Mike McDonald.

Speaker 8 (01:20:50):
It just feels like a more physical team.

Speaker 10 (01:20:52):
And that is really where I thought that this club
struggled a year ago, as we talked about ad nauseam,
I mean the run defense was a year ago. This
is like a club that is going to be much
more physical. I think it gonna be a you know,
a pretty dark, good football team. You know that the
people are gonna want to make sure that they get
on board early because once they I think they're gonna

(01:21:14):
start off too and oh against the possibly the two
rookie quarterbacks and bow Nicks and Denver uh, you know,
coming up of course next week, and then going on
the road in New England to Patriots, possibly Drake May.
Right now at the starter is the veteran Jacobe Prissett.
But I just think the seal is significantly better than
either of two of those two clubs. And for those

(01:21:35):
Seayorks fans out there, who have you know, been eager
to see Sealle return to the playoffs and be and
make a run in the playoffs and they get there,
I think you may want to jump on board early
on because once they start off this season two and oh,
like I like, I anticipate they think there's gonna be
awful lot of excitement.

Speaker 2 (01:21:54):
I think I'm with you on that, Rob Rang join us. Rob.
I've got a long time listener fan and sometimes host
here at kJ I that want me to ask you
a question. His name is Greg Bell. You might have
heard of him along the way. He had one more
pro question to ask before we talk about the college
games this week, and we'll start with Clemson and Georgia
in a second. Actually, we'll look back at Colorado last
night for in a second as well. You also do

(01:22:16):
scouting for the BC Lions, and Nathan Urke went back
up there after getting cut in the NFL. Do you
think he's gonna find his way back to the NFL.

Speaker 8 (01:22:25):
I hope not.

Speaker 11 (01:22:28):
He's with us no, I mean, he had four opportunities
in the NFL in and look, he's got the mind
for he's got the size, he's got a solid arm.

Speaker 8 (01:22:38):
I help see, he's got an elite arm.

Speaker 10 (01:22:40):
And that's one of the limitations that we have seen,
especially in his last stop of the Atlanta Falcons, they
struggled in a preseason game. Even in his first two
games back with BC, he's kind of it's taken him
some time to kind of reacclimate to our offense. And
I do believe that that he is not only the president,

(01:23:03):
but the future of our club. His current backup is.

Speaker 8 (01:23:07):
Vernon Adams, who also you know, had a cup of
coffee in the NFL.

Speaker 10 (01:23:12):
I just think that Nathan Rourke is a quarterback that is,
I don't know that he's among the top one hundred
quarter professional quarterbacks in the world.

Speaker 8 (01:23:21):
I think he's are on the outside of that one
oh one.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
Maybe, and that's a good way to look at it. Yeah,
three teams, three times three thirty two. Yeah, Okay, that's
a good way to look at it. I like, I like, Okay,
that makes sense.

Speaker 10 (01:23:31):
Yeah, but I still think that he is a quality
quarterback that a lot of NFL clubs could keep on
their rosters and number three guy.

Speaker 8 (01:23:38):
But you usually want somebody who's younger.

Speaker 10 (01:23:41):
That has more physical upside to him. I think that
he is going to be a very effective player in
the CFL. I mean he was the almost MVP we
call it the most outstanding player rather than the most
valuable player in the Canadian Football League. I think that
he has that type of upside and we're looking to
make a great Cup run with Nathan Rourke.

Speaker 2 (01:23:59):
As that makes sense. Yeah, I was curious. I mean
he's been when he's on and healthy, he's been the
best quarterback in the Canadian FOOTBA League for a while,
but it just hasn't quite worked out in the NFL.
I just went and Greg had a good question cause
I cure. I mean everyone's looking for quarterbacks. I mean
Sea X haven't signed one of the practice squad yet.
We'll wait and see if they bring back PJ. Walker
or what have you. Colorado last night got us win

(01:24:19):
over North Dakota State, and I like barely. They didn't
cover the spread. North Dakota State's a FCS powerhouse, so
it's not like they weren't playing Weber State or Portland State.
They were playing, you know, the number two team in
FCS in terms of rankings and maybe the best program
in the country at that level. I won't get into
all of Colorado right now. Let's just talk about a
couple of players. Let's start first with Travis Hunter. He's

(01:24:39):
the most exciting player in college football. The Heisman Trophy
is supposed to be for the best player in college football.
I've got a vote. I think he's the best player
in college football. But I'm not sure if he's going
to get that kind of votes because in the end,
his quarterback might take them away, and his team probably
won't win enough games as well. For most of the
voters across the country, the other question is what is he?

(01:25:01):
Is he a quarterback or is he a is he
a wide receiver? He played almost every snap last night
at both positions.

Speaker 10 (01:25:09):
He's absolutely unbelievable. Player, and I one hundred percent agree
with you at least at this point. If I had
a Heisman Trophy vote, and I do not, but if
I did, then then yes, Travis Hunter would be my
my easy favorite at this point for all of the
reasons that you just talked about.

Speaker 8 (01:25:26):
I mean the fact that he did play as much
as he did.

Speaker 10 (01:25:28):
They got three touchdowns, including the you know, the really
the one that kind of salted things away. Of course,
anybody who watched last night in North Dakota State got
real close. I mean, they had a hail Mary that
put him in position to possibly make the you know,
the game winning score. But but Travis Hunter is just
a different level of athlete. I mean, he is a

(01:25:50):
guy that will be a top five selection in next
Springs Draft.

Speaker 8 (01:25:54):
He's six one hundred and eighty five pounds. He can absolutely.

Speaker 10 (01:25:58):
Shadow receivers, and he has encoveraged as a corner he
is more physical than you would expect one hundred and
eighty five pounds. He is willing to drop his shoulder
not only to make the tackle, but to take on
oncoming blockers, and you don't always see that at corner back,
especially one as high profile as he is. And then
the ball skills that he demonstrates as a wide receiver.

(01:26:20):
You know, the touchdown that again essentially when the game
was on third down, was basically a one had, one
handed reception to a ball that was thrown towards the defender.
So his concentration, his ability to make that catch essentially
one handed and pull it into his frame was unbelievable play.
He has shown incredible ball skills and body control in

(01:26:43):
the past as well.

Speaker 8 (01:26:44):
I think they can play either position.

Speaker 10 (01:26:46):
I feel very confident that he can be a very
very good, high end starter at either corner or wide
receiver in the NFL. And Ian I have to tell you,
I mean, that's incredibly rare. And we're going back to
his coach, Deon Sanders had that type of fability. I
just think that when it's all said and done, just
given the fact that the NFL seems to be paying

(01:27:08):
wide receivers so incredibly well, now you know, five wide
receivers just this offseason in the NFL have signed thirty
million dollars a year contracts. I think Travis Hunter is
crazy if he doesn't at least consider focusing at the
wide receiver position, just because of what he can offer.
But to me, it's it's a versatility that he offers

(01:27:28):
that I think he's going to be most intriguing. And
so I think the NFL team that selects him that
can feel really lucky that they have got an elite athlete.
You can play either spot right now. As much as
I love him on defense, that's where I've done the
most of my valuing of him, I just think his
upside at wide receiver is through the move, and so

(01:27:49):
I wouldn't be surprised you all if that's what somebody
ultimately winds up asking Travis Hunter to focus on.

Speaker 2 (01:27:54):
In the NFL. What about your standers? I mean, I
watched him last night, pretty carefully, watched that entire game,
and like there's some flashes. I wonder if his name
was Joe Smith and he was playing for Iowa State,
if if there would be that much hype around him.
He's very athletic. I get that there's some skill sets there,

(01:28:15):
but what do you think? Maybe I'm way off, but
just tell me about Shader Sanders.

Speaker 10 (01:28:18):
No, I agree, if you I do think that if
his name was not her last name wasn't Sanders, if
he didn't have a really cool watch that he likes
to show everybody, and then maybe there wouldn't be quite
as much much hype around him.

Speaker 8 (01:28:31):
But I got to give him some credit.

Speaker 10 (01:28:34):
I thought that he, for the most part, made good
decisions with the football. I saw some prows that were
definitely NFL caliber. I think you can make an argument
that he has the number one pro style quarterback in
this draft class. And Carson Beckett Georgia, who I think
we'll be talking about, if not today then certainly in
the future, is the one that's getting all the hype.

(01:28:55):
I think that Sheder Sanders is frankly a more accurate quarterback,
especially on touchthrows. I didn't love the decision that in
his own father, Dion Sanders, of course as head coach,
kind of threw his own son under the bus a
little bit and said that that was Shoulder's decision to
throw that deep ball towards the end of the game
that actually put North Dakota State in position to possibly

(01:29:17):
have a miraculous comeback. So those types of decisions are
are certainly concerning. You know, you could just run the
ball and salt away a victory. But the touch he
had some throws to the perimeter. That showed a little
bit more juice on his arm that I.

Speaker 8 (01:29:33):
Thought that he had.

Speaker 10 (01:29:34):
I've always been impressed by his decision making and his accuracy.
I have not always been impressed by the arms trek,
but he does physically look bigger. He listed at six
two to twenty.

Speaker 8 (01:29:45):
I think that he is that.

Speaker 10 (01:29:47):
And you know, it's funny because when you when you're
the son of Dion Sanders, one of the elite athletes
I have ever seen in my life, I think sometimes
you get stereotyped as being a dual threat quarterback. Shoulders
a pocket passer. I mean, he can move around, but
he's not a scrambling kind of the quarterback. And and
so I think that again, his game translates very well.

Speaker 8 (01:30:08):
To the NFL.

Speaker 10 (01:30:09):
He's just got to prove that he has the you know, frankly,
the mindset, the leadership that you're looking for at the
quarterback position. But that's something that he's going to have
to demonstrate all year long.

Speaker 2 (01:30:18):
Is it a down year for quarterbacks in college football
compared to say last year?

Speaker 8 (01:30:22):
Oh, no questions.

Speaker 10 (01:30:23):
Last year we saw six quarterbacks. You know that, that
was six quarterbacks in the first round A year ago.
And basically set a record, you know. So I think
it's a it's an average year quarterbacks, which I which
when I say that, I think that there's gonna be
two or three that are probably going to go in
the first round. And you know, the last several years
now we have seen somebody can completely out of the
woodwork to be a first round selection. Michael Penix did it,

(01:30:46):
you know here in our own backyard. Bonnicks did the
exact same thing a year ago in Oregon. So I
think that this it feels like a very average year quarterback.
I don't feel confident that any of the guys right
now are a slam dunk, top five, top ten kind
of a guy. But I think the Shoudeur Sanders I
mentioned Carson Beck from Georgia earlier, Quinn Ewers from Texas,

(01:31:10):
those are somebody. Even Jaylen Monroe. It will be interesting
to see what Caitlin de Bor can do in Alabama
because Jale Morou is the most physically gifted to the bunch.
He just at times couldn't hit the broadside of a
barn as the Alabama quarterback. But we will see what
Kaylen de Bor is able to do there. So I
think those are, to me are the big names of
the quarterback position this year. Ian and I would hate

(01:31:33):
to need a quarterback entering next year's draft at this point.

Speaker 8 (01:31:37):
But again, there's an awful lot of football to be played.

Speaker 2 (01:31:39):
Some of us are the games wor clems in Georgia.
Number fourteen Clubs at number one Georgia is a nine
am game on ABC now, your new home for the
SEC Conference. We mentioned it Carson Beck, the quarterback for
the Georgia Bulldogs, among many players you're watching.

Speaker 10 (01:31:54):
Yeah, you know it's funny because you know, one of
my competitors for a long time, the great mel Kiper Junior,
just recently was on ESPN and basically said that he
thinks the Carson Beck is the you know, the odds
on favor to go number one overall, and I just
I haven't seen that yet. I mean, this is a
guy who is a red shirt senior, and we know

(01:32:17):
how underclassman quarterbacks have been increasingly just jumping at their
opportunities to head to the NFL. Last year was his
first year as a starter at Georgia, and look, I mean,
obviously george Bulldogs had a great deal of success and
he was very good.

Speaker 8 (01:32:32):
You know, he has a seventy two.

Speaker 10 (01:32:34):
Percent completion ratio and last year through twenty four touchdowns
six interceptions, but he also was very protected by a
terrific offensive line. Some unbelievable pass catchers out there, not
the least of which was the first round tight end
Brock Bowers. I want to see him make more plays
this year. So he's a guy, he's intriguing. He definitely
has an arm. He can make the especially the deep crossers,

(01:32:58):
deep post, those types of traditional NFL staples. I want
to see a little bit more touch now, a little
bit better decision making when he has to make plays
on his own. So I'm intrigued by Carson Becky for
my money in that game, as you said, Georgia and Clemson,
which is as splashy.

Speaker 8 (01:33:16):
As it gets an opening weekend. MIKEL. Williams is an
edge rusher for the Georgia Bulldogs.

Speaker 10 (01:33:22):
He's sixty five, he's two hundred sixty five pounds and
he is a guy in if they move up and
down the lion scream and he plays nosegard He plays
a stand up edge rusher. You know, a couple of
years ago, the Georgia Bulldogs had a guy, Travon Walker
that basically went from being just a guy to the
number one overall pick after a splashy season.

Speaker 8 (01:33:42):
Michael Williams, to me, had that type of upside.

Speaker 10 (01:33:45):
So if you're watching this football game, of course everybody's
going to be focusing in on the Georgia quarterback Carson Beck.
Keep an eye at number thirteen on defense. To me,
he is the guy that'st fly at draft boards this year.

Speaker 2 (01:33:59):
Let me get a couple of other games. Well, what
does Clemson look like in terms of do they have
the talent they used to have at Clemson.

Speaker 8 (01:34:07):
I don't believe that they do.

Speaker 10 (01:34:08):
You know, I think that Davis Swimming has done a
terrific job of kind of keeping things in house. He's
not playing the transfer portal game that a lot of
teams are. Look I I the traditionalist in me, the
the kind of the old man, get off my yard,
you know, kind of a guy in me appreciates that.
At the same time, I think that the talent has

(01:34:30):
certainly dwindled at Clemson, very quality football program. I just
don't know that they're necessarily a national champion contender, uh,
you know, as much as that kind of pains me
to say, for all those passionate Clemson fans out there,
my favorite player on their roster at this point is
actually the inside linebacker Barrett Carter, and he could be

(01:34:50):
interesting player for the Seahawks, just considering the fact that,
you know, this is the club that you know in
Seattle that has an awful lot of linebackers that are
basically on one year type of deals, you know, And
so I'm intrigued by him. Barrett Carter six foot tour
and thirty pounds. He wears number zero, so he's gonna
be easy enough to spot. And you might remember a

(01:35:11):
year ago, I mean, I was really excited about the
Clemson inside linebacker Jeremiah Trotter junior. You and I talked
about him a lot. I think one of the reasons
why Jeremiah Trotter Junior dropped into Day three is because
the scouts really started pouring to the tape. They could
see that Barrett Carter was actually the better football player
compared to Trotter. And so it's difficult to tell your

(01:35:32):
your general manager, the team owner, hey, let's draft the
guy who's second best on his own team at the
same position.

Speaker 8 (01:35:38):
But but but Carter again six foot tour.

Speaker 10 (01:35:41):
And thirty pounds. He's got kind of that classic inside
linebacker frame. He's physical at the point of attack. He's
a very instinctive player. He Gavil Swinging himself called him
quote one of the best pure football players I've had
in twenty years. I mean again, when Swinging is saying
those kind of words about an inside linebacker, that gets
my attention. And again, what I like about him is

(01:36:04):
that not only is physical and run support, which is
the first priority, number one at the inside linebacker position,
he also.

Speaker 8 (01:36:11):
Is very talented in coverage.

Speaker 10 (01:36:13):
Had eight passes broken up a year ago, and you
could just see his speed traveling.

Speaker 8 (01:36:18):
With running backs and tali ends down the scene.

Speaker 10 (01:36:20):
That's a true three down inside linebacker and those don't
grow on trees.

Speaker 2 (01:36:25):
Final, We've got a lot of games. We're not gonna
get to all them today, but I do want to
get to this one because it's twelve thirty. It's a
great game. Number nineteen Miami at Florida, twelve thirty kickoff
on ABC. We might know a familiar name at quarterback
for the Miami Hurricanes. Also familiar running back by the
Oregon State for the Canes as well Florida team that

(01:36:45):
they probably have a coach on the hot seat along
the way as well. Give us some thoughts on Miami
and Florida.

Speaker 10 (01:36:50):
Yeah, both coaches I think are on the hot seat there,
you know, and that's what's going to make this fascinating.
I think that you know, Mario Christobal, formerly of course
of the Oregon Ducks and now at Miami.

Speaker 12 (01:37:02):
I think that he has got the advantage just because
he's got the Franklin the better quarterback. And as you said,
there's gonna be a lot of Pacific Northwest fans who
are going to remember, probably fondly, cam Ward.

Speaker 8 (01:37:14):
I'm gonna be playing with number jersey, number one again,
just like he did at Washington State.

Speaker 10 (01:37:18):
And it's to me, it's it's it's really fun to
kind of watch the maturation of quarterbacks. We talked about
before about Bo Knicks and his naturation from Auburn to
Oregon to being a top fifteen NFL draft selection. To
see it incarnat Woods cam Ward and then go to
Washington State where he was you know, at times unbelievable,

(01:37:42):
at times very forgettable. It's a rollercoaster that is the
cam Ward experience. That I think is going to make
him a fascinating evaluation for NFL teams. He is bigger
and thicker, uh six and twenty pounds is what Miami
listened them ads, and I was able to watch some
of their uh you know, their the spring in summer tape.

Speaker 8 (01:38:00):
And he looks that. You see the accuracy that he
flashed at Washington State.

Speaker 10 (01:38:06):
He has the arm strength, he has good touch, and
he's got a three quarter side on release I think
could be really effective. You have to have that when
you're a slightly undersized quarterback again six foot one, he's
got to be able to throw around.

Speaker 8 (01:38:19):
Defenders round and just over the top of them.

Speaker 10 (01:38:22):
He's shown that, so to me that that's what gives
Miami a little bit of the advantage in this football game.
At the same time, there are definitely some times where
he plays hero ball and he puts the ball on
the ground as a fumbler, and he'll throw the ball
in the coverage as well. So I think this is
going to be a fascinating game, fascinating season for Cam Mooden.

Speaker 2 (01:38:39):
It should be a lot of fun.

Speaker 7 (01:38:40):
Rob.

Speaker 2 (01:38:40):
Thank you so much. We'll talk to you next week.

Speaker 8 (01:38:43):
Looking forward to his albody, take care.

Speaker 2 (01:38:45):
Rob Rang joining us I brought to you by Farelli's Pizza.
They got the Italian Flag Pizza the month for two
more days. Fantastic pizza. Go check it out, just had
one a couple weeks ago. Locations in Lacy, DuPont, Sumner
to Comba, Parkland, Maple Valley, Frederickson Port, Rustin Silverdale, Yeah, Tumwater,
and Hawk's Prairie Forrellispizza dot Com in the South Sound.
If you're out and about, man, go check it out. Hey,

(01:39:06):
big thanks to Relli'sizza for bringing Robberrang every week. We'll
come back. Check your text messages next nine three point
three Get your FM

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