*Rich Kincaide, talks Detroit Tigers, Detroit Lions & more

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're going to stay right, Jack gambling here with my
good friend Matt Sloan a grap of ochemists. Big summer here, Matt.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
That's right, Jack.

Speaker 3 (00:06):
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
You zero percent.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Can't get my flower than that. That's exactly right, Dopacy
Matt in the gang here on West Grand River, Omiz.
They're making friends and here Rob and waiting patiently. I
don't know. Was he patient, do you think when you
talk to him? Yeah, I was pretty patient.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
Yeah, he seemed pretty patient. I mean it was eight
every time he comes on with you.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Some people have suggested that too. I want to welcome
in our guest, rich Kincaid, and he is our Detroit correspondent,
Richard talking earlier with Bluebelly Tom Tom Crawford about the
tiger reaction to the World Series. I gave mine. I
thought it was the best I have seen, and I've

(01:05):
only seen sixty seven of them. What did you make
of this? And were you as enamored as we were
of what we were seeing?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Absolutely?

Speaker 5 (01:16):
I I could go back and think about that seventy
five World Series, the Red Sox and the Red Yes,
ben Way Park and Carlton. This was a whole run
of fourteenth and all the rest of it. But i't
think overall this was still a this is still a
better World Series.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
I know you had mentioned Braves twins back in ninety four.
I guess ninety one, But what ninety one?

Speaker 5 (01:37):
I'm sorry, but yeah, no, I I guess the one
I would compared to is the one that I didn't see,
So I can't compare it to is that'd be Was
it sixty that Mazarroski.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Hit the one to be Yanke?

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yes?

Speaker 5 (01:48):
It was, yeah, And that was in Game seven. And
that was such a weird series because when the Yankees
won their free games, they averaged about fifteen one.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
That's right, that's right, it's got about thirty five more
runs and let's burg and lost.

Speaker 5 (02:00):
The series exactly. So I'm thinking that's the heck of
a thing. That must have been a drum out of
series to watch, but for having, you know, thinking about
nineteen seventy five, watching those series games fifty years ago
in my dorm rom at mail home, right, I mean,
you know, perfect memories. Yeah, but this this past week
and a half with the World Series twenty twenty five,

(02:22):
I don't know, there's never been anything like it in eighteen.
I mean, yes, there was an eighteen inning game a
few years ago between Newston and the l anybody right,
for the series to go seven and then to go actors,
and for a pitcher to win three games. I didn't
think I'd see that again in my lifetime, all right.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Someone mentioned earlier I think I asked Crawford the question
about what the Tigers learned, and he said, well, he
learned it. You know, they need to have a deeper
pitching staff and more reliable and they need to have
a little bit better work at the plate in clutch situations.
He didn't mention the strikeout rate he could have. But

(02:58):
Detroit turns out, thank you very much. Steve is ninth
in terms of runners left on base. And let me
give you the teams that had more runners left on base.
There's only one team ahead of them that had more
runners left on base and made the postseason. So you're

(03:20):
talking about Colorado Rockies, Washington Nationals, the Cleveland Indians, believe
it or not. But then they have the Angels, Tampa Bay, Baltimore,
the White Sox Texas. So there's a common thread here
that the more runners you leave on, the more missed
opportunities you have, likely the more losses you're going to have.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
Rich that's an amazing stat that the Tigers rank could
be next on that particular list.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, because you're talking, I.

Speaker 5 (03:51):
Mean, that list starts with one of the worst baseball
teams a long time, and it doesn't get much better,
you know, for a few spots after that. But on
the flip side of the coin, they were so very
very close to defeating Seattle and it took fifteen innings
to knock them out.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
You know, one of the best games in the Tiger's
history was as as we talked about.

Speaker 5 (04:12):
So I'm looking at it like, you know, there are
one breakaway from getting a chance to take on Toronto
in the in the league Championship series, and who knows,
you know, what might have happened then. But I you know,
I understand the problems of the Tigers, you know, hitting
in the second half of the season. That's why Cleveland,
by the way, was on that particular list because they
were so fourth hitting in the first half of the season, right,

(04:35):
you know, then they got they got themselves turned around.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
But loyal boy.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
So if you had to describe the twenty twenty five
World Series in one word, just one what would you say?

Speaker 2 (04:54):
I think electric?

Speaker 5 (04:55):
Yeah, so it's not you know, you got to I
mean a little bit, I could, I could do our
fat a little bit more time.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Maybe something popping in my head.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
But for ports Roder literally come with an inch of
a World Championships in the ninth inning of that that
that play at home plate, it couldn't have been couldn't
have been more than it is so close.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
And the runner at third base didn't take a lead.
He was only like three feet off the base, and
the third baseman was twelve feet away from the base
if he had taken one more step toward home plate
as he should. Yeah, I mean, you're supposed to be
as far off the base as the fielder is from
the base, and he wasn't. I don't know what he
was doing. But then when the ball was hit to

(05:37):
ROAs at second base. He had time to come home
and get him by a toenail.

Speaker 5 (05:43):
Yeah, it's another step, would have made me play at
the plate, not even close.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
How about Dave Roberts. How about that defensive substitution with
Andy Pajez exactly going into the game for Tommy Edmond.
He gained about six inches in height. Then he needed
every one of them for that drive to left center
when he steamrolled keyk Hernandez to catch that ball, one of.

Speaker 5 (06:08):
The greatest, probably a greater catch than the GM Fredo
catch against the Yankee back in the early nineteen fifty
Ye be a famous to catches Willie Mage, Yes, all
right at the Fulo Grounds in fifty one.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
Oh my god.

Speaker 5 (06:25):
Yeah, that that just lives in baseball. It is for Yeah,
I cannot imagine what it must have felt like to
be a Toronto fan in the in those two moments. Yeah,
you know, so so so close. They had to figure
there were snaking at that point.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's like they rubbed Toronto
maple leafs juice all over them or something. But two
exactly to have that three to two series lead coming home,
but the World Series once again, Rich was the home
field disadvantage because the road teams won five out of seven.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
There you go.

Speaker 5 (06:59):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I was looking over it. I was
just looking over it today. Statistically, you might make the
case of Toronto ship have one, they had two sixty
three in the series of Dodgers had two all three. Yeah, God,
just hit more home runs and will love it to wait.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Well, let's talk a little bit about some other things
involving Detroit teams. And you were there Sunday. I was
going to be there, and then I decided I'm going
to go to Minnesota and see if Michigan State can
salvage something here, and almost did, but failed again at
the end, and got home just in time to flop

(07:41):
down and watch the Lions flop against Minnesota. What happened.
They were nine and a half point favorites. And I
don't think anyone thought that JJ McCarthy would come in
and beat the Alliance.

Speaker 5 (07:56):
No, I don't think any re JJ McCarthy was coming
to beat the Lens.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
But he did.

Speaker 5 (07:59):
He'd of them up and down the field a little lentlessly,
And it seemed to me, with the with the relative ease,
the lines made so many mistakes on Sunday. It's a miracle.
They only lost like three, all right, and the three
was they had a field goal block. Yes, I mean
that's the three right there. But as far as what
happened Jack, I went with a friend and I was
sitting way way up in the end zones, like two

(08:22):
rods from the top and from way up there to
tell if the pass has been caught it out I used,
I was, I would wait for the referee to run
in from the sylinder to spot the ball, that kind
of thing, you know. So I can only tell you
in general terms what was going on down there. Wasn't good,
but it was. It was going on on a love
But I'll say what they have this if you were

(08:42):
if you're in, they have the neatest thing. It's called
Power Hour. So if you show up on the gates open,
which is two and a half hours before game time,
which is way too willing to get to a game
in my estimation. But they had a bobblehead and my
friend wanted to bottle at h and and so we're
there at ten to thirty during Power Hour half price.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Ah.

Speaker 5 (09:02):
So he fought himself ten thirty on a Sunday morning,
when they actually should be in church saying hey, let's
get a bloody Mary.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yeah. Well, from where you were sitting, and then with
the drink time you had, the game must have looked
a little different.

Speaker 5 (09:17):
Well it was. It was okay, drink plays we had
like two. It was just kind of funny to sit
there and watch people watch the watch the building fill up.
But there was there was literally I think one decent
play in the football game. That was Sam Laporto with
his forty yard touchdown, during which he dragged the entire
Minnesota secondary into the end zone with him.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, Laporta and Jamo had a big touchdown at the end.
I thought where he kept.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
His at the end at the end.

Speaker 5 (09:44):
One of the we had to leave before the end. Okay,
so I actually missed that one. But Sam Laporta has
the company first line tight ender log three touche receptions
of forty or more yards since the merger in nineteen seventy.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
That's a cute little.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah it is.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
You know.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
I think back in the line we've had good tight
ends too. That Charlie Sanders, a Hall of Famer, and
some others there. Of note, T. J. Hockinson was a
very good tight end. And going back before that, they
had Jim Gibbons was a terrific tight end for the Lions.
But what about where we are with the Red Wings now,
rich as you look.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
At this, good shape, pretty good? Huh, we're at the boys.

Speaker 5 (10:27):
The Boys are having themselves a heck of a.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Road trip here. I mean, you got a triple.

Speaker 5 (10:31):
Saint Louis and then Los Angeles and then Anaheim and
then San Jose and there's three and one so.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
Far, and that's not too shabby.

Speaker 5 (10:40):
They go to Vegas tonight to play a very tough
Las Vegas team, But then they come home and they've
got like nine home games. Wow, that little sews is
between now and the end of the month, so you
know they can play well at home.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
They're going to come out of this. You know, we're
in pretty good shape.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Could they win this division?

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Right there? What's that?

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Could they win this division?

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Damn? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (11:02):
Okay, I mean I'm starting because the number of good
games that they're piling up is outweighing the badouts.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
That they have.

Speaker 5 (11:09):
Yeah, yeah, and by a considerable my love, they're nine
and four now, so and that's that's right there.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Well, Hey, we'll just bear with me a second.

Speaker 5 (11:17):
I can see, you know, look real fast and see
where that stands in the overall standards.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
But it's not too bad.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
What do you think, Rob, you think about the Red
Wings now? Is this just a spurt or is this
something that is going to be sustainable? And we'll be
talking about the Red Wings a little longer in the
spring than we have.

Speaker 4 (11:36):
I think you'll talk to them longer in the spring
than you have. But I think they're gonna it's going
to be up and down. It always is. Eighty two games,
they're gonna they're gonna go through some times here. I
don't know. I don't put them at the top of
the division even with this fast start. It's a long season,
but I do think they will most certainly make the playoffs,
but to win the division. I'm not going that far yet.

(11:56):
But I can't ask for a better start for the
Red Wings. As as our guest has mentioned, for.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Sure, well, the team that is right there with them
at the top Sean Belligian's Montreal Canadians. And I don't
know that anyone had invested heavily in Montreal either as
a team that could do that. So another pleasant surprise.
Canadians are very young.

Speaker 4 (12:22):
I don't think it's very pleasant, Jack, how dare you
say that being a Boston Bruins die hard. No, it's
not a pleasant surprise at all.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Well, the Wings nine wins, four losses, eighteen points.

Speaker 5 (12:36):
Nobody in the league has Nobody in the league has more.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Right, right, So what do they need to do better? Rich? Well,
what's the area for improvement?

Speaker 5 (12:46):
They need to score more goals? Yeah, yeah, Okay. The
NFL has become a league where the first team to
get to three generally wins.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Yeah, all right, so.

Speaker 5 (12:58):
Which doesn't sound like a lot, but these days it
kind of is. And they alice to brink it after
the snake fit for the first three weeks of the season,
he's begun scoring. So so they're they're they're picking it
up and you know, we'll see hi when they get
back home on Friday night. But what a road trip,
and so then to do this on that again, that's

(13:20):
not unimpressive.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Can I give you one more Liones? Now?

Speaker 5 (13:23):
Yeah, Jeff Goff did not have a good day Sunday, right,
Jared Goff? Jared Goff, Yes, had a court side. Nevertheless,
here's the third quarterback in NFL history to accumulate at
least seventeen touchdown passes, a seventy three percent completion percentage,
and have passed already one hundred and fifteen through the

(13:44):
first eight games of the season. Here's the quarterbacks he
joins on that list, because again, he's the third in
NFL to do it, Drew Brees twenty eighteen and Tom.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
Brady in two thousand and seven.

Speaker 5 (13:56):
He had the best he touched statistically, the best first
half that a res ever had in in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
I guess that would surprise me. Maybe it's a recency bias,
and I'm thinking about what I saw Sunday and.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Yeah, it might be yes, But you.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Know, he'd been pretty hot, pretty consistent.

Speaker 5 (14:14):
Too, and he had been getting sacked five times a
game either.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
The interesting thing about Sunday's game, Rich is, uh, you know,
we saw the touchdown you mentioned from Laporta, and we
saw Jamo returned come off the missing person's list, but
we didn't see amen Ra in the end zone. And
Jamier Gibbs, who can be so good sometimes, was a

(14:42):
no show.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Well that's the weird part of it.

Speaker 5 (14:47):
And Babo had a you know, on top of everything else,
golf did not look sharp.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (14:52):
One thing about being that's far away from the field
is you really get to see it spread out in
funny that he was missing. Yeah, we're not used to
seeing that. And again you described them as one of
the great pure pocket passers that there is. But when
you're getting sacks five times and you're rushing for sixty
five on the day, you're not getting anything going from
your old line and you're just you know, if your

(15:14):
pocket passer can't serve.

Speaker 4 (15:15):
Out in that environment, I asked, go, are they going
to do anything before the trade deadline? We've seen some
teams makes.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Four o'clock trade deadline, So unless something is filtering in,
we're going to talk with data.

Speaker 4 (15:25):
Cannapolis cold yeah, Philadelphia Eagles that made moves. Seattle has
made the move, yes, so.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
You know, maybe they're like the Tigers. They just think
they're better than anybody else could be.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
We're going to talk with that jacket, you know, you know,
in all fairness, because that would have.

Speaker 5 (15:43):
Loved seem to get soft guardened, you know what I mean,
it wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Oh yeah right, yeah, yeah, detroiter.

Speaker 5 (15:48):
He goes, he goes, he goes, he goes to Indianapolis,
all right, But when the Lions had to step up
and use we had to use replacements for everybody in
the secondary against Baker Mayfield and Tapa Bay.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
Those guys stood up, you know they did.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
They were great, They were great.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
I think a bigger concern right now is the offensive line,
which is banged up again, and those guys are hard
to find. I mean, you can, you can find guys
to play skill positions, but when you start to lose
guards and tackles, good luck.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah, exactly, a little tougher and Jared, we.

Speaker 5 (16:23):
All know this is going to happen because it's it's football,
and you get halfway through the season like this and
guys start dropping.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
So Rich, last.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Thing for you, I know what a hockey guy you are.
And once again I refer anyone who is a Red
Wings fan to Rich's book Gods of Olympia Stadium and
if you want to flash back and really get a
feel for what the Red Wings organization is about, it's
a great read. But college hockey, which is now becoming

(16:53):
such a pipeline for the NHL, has a big series here, Robo.
We were going talk about this for just a minute.
And with Penn State and Michigan State coming in now,
they're gonna they're gonna meet again, right, and they're gonna
have the outdoor game in Happy Valley. But how much
are we going to learn this weekend?

Speaker 2 (17:13):
Rob?

Speaker 4 (17:14):
Huh? I mean, this is what everybody's been waiting for,
and I think we're gonna I've Gavin McKenna, the big name,
the number one phenom, number one picking this upcoming NHL draft.
But I'll tell you what, Jack, real quick, if you
ask me. I think Michigan State is favored in this,
no question being at home number one, But I question

(17:36):
Penn State's goaltending and defense. We've seen a lot of
these games, if you've paid attention, fellas, Penn State's had
to come from behind numerous times by multiple goals together.
They've been able to do They've been able to do that.
I think they've been able to do that. But I
think Michigan State's depth and defense and goaltending. I give

(17:57):
high marks to Michigan State, and I wouldn't be a
prize Jack if Michigan State takes the sweep this weekend
at Money Ice.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
Wow and Boston, Rob doesn't throw that around easily. I
think a week ago, right, you talked about Michigan State
going to be you and you had to bu sweep
and turned out the other way around.

Speaker 4 (18:19):
I did, so bringing that up.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Well, you know, at anytime a Boston team has a
chance to lose, I like to remind you, so, yeah, Rich,
when's the last time that you watch any college hockey
meaningful games? Have you been a month for a game recently?

Speaker 2 (18:37):
No, not recently at all.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Well, it's totally different.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
You know.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
It used to be you could go up and buy.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
I remember when it was a hole in the ground.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 5 (18:48):
I think the first game there was a Rubens active
Misian game and I couldn't get tickets and I was mad,
they're playing the Blues.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
There was a period of time in the Mason era
when people you had to be willed hockey tickets to
get them. And I got heath Coat mad one time,
and I said, hey, a friend of mine had a
choice between two hockey tickets and eight basketball tickets, and
he took the two hockey tickets and just said you.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Son of them.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
You know, he was mad, but that's the way it was.
And then it went through a long period. Rob. You
remember not too long ago, when you know you could
go in and you could count the people in some sections.
But now the library, Yes, it's time, not like that now. No, no, no, yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
It's good, it's back. I went the games of them all.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yes, yes, yeah, looking around the post.

Speaker 5 (19:45):
Hey, hey, shout out to Dylan Dinglis for one of
the goal gloves.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yes, yes, well.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Absolutely, yeah, it's not.

Speaker 5 (19:54):
It's fun to watch and play defense, and I know
that as a former catcher he takes a lot of
private of that and uh and gosh what I do?

Speaker 2 (20:02):
What are on on that? Shit? So good for you.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Don't get me started on the Tigers and Dylan Dingler
because they were so concerned that they had to keep
not one, but two catchers in their farm system to
ready to replace him.

Speaker 4 (20:17):
Wonder how how long Dylan Dingler will wear the old
English d with these so called phenomenal catchers in the pipeline.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, well he's he's a better catcher than either of
them right now, and I think he will be in
three years, so I'll be surprised. Gone, Thanks so much
for joining us, Rich, We'll talk to you soon. Enjoy
your week.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
Power, Jack, don't forget.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
Power power hour, power hour. You got.

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Speaker 1 (21:14):
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Speaker 2 (21:18):
That's right, Jack.

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That's exactly right, Dopacy Matt.

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