Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio Final.
Speaker 2: Hour in this Thursday Dan and the Dan That's Dan
Speaker 2: Patrick Show. Glad to have you on board. SEC Commissioner
Speaker 2: Greg Sanke in the on deck circle and Tim Kirchin
Speaker 2: for the Mothership. It's baseball's opening day or reopening day
Speaker 2: if you are a Dodger fan since they opened up,
Speaker 2: and a Cubs fan as well, but Dodgers overwhelming favorites.
Speaker 2: And my question for Tim Kirchen. Are the Dodgers good
Speaker 2: for baseball? We know they're good for Los Angeles and
Speaker 2: they're a hard team to not like because of the
Speaker 2: personalities that they have Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and
Speaker 2: sho hey O Tani and Clayton Kershaw, Dave Roberts one
Speaker 2: of the nice people in sports. And it's sort of
Speaker 2: like the Yankees. They were called the Evil Empire, but
Speaker 2: when George Steinbrenner was there, you could root against George Steinbrenner.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you rooted against the Yankees the
Speaker 2: personalities that they had. And I'm talking about the Core,
Speaker 2: the Core four. You know, if you had Pettitt and Burn,
Speaker 2: you know, Derrek Jucha. I mean they were a likable
Speaker 2: group of people, but they people didn't like that they
Speaker 2: were buying championships. And then all of a sudden, the
Speaker 2: Red Socks go, oh, well, why don't we try to
Speaker 2: buy you know, you just everybody's trying to take what's
Speaker 2: the new model? And how how can we take advantage
Speaker 2: of that? Well, now the Dodgers have said, we got
Speaker 2: a lot of money, and we got a pipeline to Japan,
Speaker 2: and who wouldn't want to play in Los Angeles? Yeah,
Speaker 2: you think it's a real free pass.
Speaker 3: During that era of the Yankees Evil Empire, and although
Speaker 3: the spending, the Chicago Cubs had the like second or
Speaker 3: third highest payroll, sometimes the first highest pay roll in
Speaker 3: all of those years and did nothing. They were terrible
Speaker 3: or at least didn't win any rate.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, if you look back at the Yankees
Speaker 2: when they had Jeter and Bernie yeah, Tino Martinez, like,
Speaker 2: they were really good at drafting players, but the difference
Speaker 2: was that they kept their players. I mean that's really
Speaker 2: like if Pittsburgh could keep all their players, of the
Speaker 2: Reds could keep all their players, then they could build
Speaker 2: something that's sustainable. It's just they haven't been able to
Speaker 2: they can't. You know, the Big Red Machine wouldn't have
Speaker 2: stayed together because they would have gone elsewhere. The Reds
Speaker 2: couldn't have afforded all of those Hall of famers. But
Speaker 2: the Yankees drafted, well, we have them, will re sign them,
Speaker 2: and then you'll sprinkle in a couple other players. And
Speaker 2: they did it better than anybody for a long period
Speaker 2: of time. But Tim Kirkchim will join us coming up
Speaker 2: a little bit later on. All right, so you have
Speaker 2: basketball tonight, you have Bama. Wallely Zerbiak, who's part of
Speaker 2: the coverage from March Badness, said, that's the game. He said,
Speaker 2: that's the BYU is the team you want to watch.
Speaker 2: Maryland against Florida, Arizona against Duke in Arkansas versus Texas
Speaker 2: Tech are good. Buddy Russell Wilson junior third. He was
Speaker 2: introduced yesterday to the New York media and nobody is
Speaker 2: more positive than Russell Wilson coming here.
Speaker 4: Obviously being in New York, it's an exciting place to play.
Speaker 5: It's a place that wants to win. It's a place
Speaker 5: that knows how to win and has one before.
Speaker 6: And so for me, it's bringing everything I know, all
Speaker 6: the experiences, all the touchdowns, all the wins, but.
Speaker 5: Also all the love and passion for the game to
Speaker 5: this locker room. And that's what I'm really excited for.
Speaker 2: And it's going to be a special, special thing and
Speaker 2: we got to go go work for it every day
Speaker 2: and go do it. Who's with me? The Giants are
Speaker 2: going to win the division. If you've seen the movie,
Speaker 2: the cartoon, the animated movie up Russell, Russell's a little
Speaker 2: scout and it's I got balloons on the house. Yes. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's always in a good mood. He's always cheering up
Speaker 2: the old man. That's Russell Wilson. He's always positive. But
Speaker 2: he's been this way, but he had a mentor who
Speaker 2: helped him think this way and it did work for
Speaker 2: a long period of time. But now with the New
Speaker 2: York Giants, and nobody's more positive out the Giants. Ben
Speaker 2: Russell Wilson, he's the SEC commissioner. He's Greg sank Back
Speaker 2: on the show, commissioner. Thanks for joining us. When did
Speaker 2: the SEC first start to focus its resources maybe on
Speaker 2: making the Conference of Basketball powerhouse. Was there a moment
Speaker 2: where you said, why don't we just take the headlines
Speaker 2: in other months?
Speaker 5: Well, Yeah, I can speak to when it became really
Speaker 5: raw for me, and it was March of twenty sixteen.
Speaker 5: That was the end of my first basketball season as
Speaker 5: the SEC's commissioner, and we had three teams selected to
Speaker 5: the NCAA Tournament on the men's side that dan. That
Speaker 5: was the fourth time that had happened in the prior
Speaker 5: to ten years. So it's not like we had a
Speaker 5: great trend going. But when you're in the commissioner's share,
Speaker 5: that moment was pretty raw and we had to do
Speaker 5: some things differently from our end in the conference office.
Speaker 2: Okay, but what was the plan that you put in place?
Speaker 5: Yeah, A couple of things. One, we had had some
Speaker 5: consulting relationships where we really weren't talking about the right things.
Speaker 5: You remember the old RPI, which is now the NET.
Speaker 5: We would spend in an ordinate amount of time trying
Speaker 5: to figure out how to gain the RPI in scheduling.
Speaker 5: We weren't talking about hiring the right people. We weren't
Speaker 5: talking about facilities, we weren't talking about recruiting. The day
Speaker 5: after that selection, Sunday, I transitioned away from one advisor
Speaker 5: and I drought Mike Trangeesi in the next day, and
Speaker 5: what Mike did is help us talk about the right things.
Speaker 5: The other bonus with Trengeese and I grew up outside Syracuse,
Speaker 5: New York, so watch the Big East form was like
Speaker 5: when Mike said you're good at basketball to the media,
Speaker 5: you were automatically good at basketball. But one of the
Speaker 5: things he did was he talked to our ads as
Speaker 5: they were going through the hiring of coaches, and not
Speaker 5: tell them to to who to hire, but talk to
Speaker 5: them about perhaps who not the hire, who may not
Speaker 5: be ready for the stage that we have. Those kind
Speaker 5: of conversations became much more relevant. We had some other
Speaker 5: tweaks we needed to make, but that was a big
Speaker 5: part of the conversation.
Speaker 2: Did you take the same approach to football at any
Speaker 2: point where you guys have been successful winning titles, but
Speaker 2: now with more teams in the playoffs, and is there
Speaker 2: any a different shift in philosophy?
Speaker 5: You know the reality of this job. And a long
Speaker 5: time ago I was Southland Conference commissioner. I was like
Speaker 5: way off Broadway. You never called me for an interview,
Speaker 5: so I never had the opportunity. I made a decision
Speaker 5: that every day in that role, you had to think
Speaker 5: about football. One way or another. And I think the
Speaker 5: reality of the Southeastern Conference is football is dominant on
Speaker 5: a daily basis. We have twenty one other sports. But
Speaker 5: we also have to recognize the conversation allocation, the time allocation,
Speaker 5: so football is a bit more natural. Do we talk
Speaker 5: about issues, Absolutely, We're talking about scheduling in the conference,
Speaker 5: we talk about non conference scheduling, we talk about CFP impacts.
Speaker 5: That's daily. We had to be a little bit more
Speaker 5: intentional on the basketball front ten years.
Speaker 2: Ago, are you in favor of more teams qualifying for
Speaker 2: March Madness?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm in favor of fully exploring that. I think
Speaker 5: there's advantages to doing so, given there's more Division one
Speaker 5: members right now, there's one less conference. But what we're
Speaker 5: doing is excluding from participation some of the top fifty teams.
Speaker 5: And I think when you look last year at North
Speaker 5: Carolina State on eleven seed makes it to the Final four,
Speaker 5: You've had two or three teams playing Dayton that have
Speaker 5: made it to the Final four or made it into
Speaker 5: the Elite eight and Sweet sixteen. What that tells me
Speaker 5: is there's a competitive balance at the high end, and
Speaker 5: we have to think about providing access.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't just run to expand for the sake of expansion.
Speaker 5: I've never put a number on it, I think, and
Speaker 5: I've been clear that it needs to be fully explored.
Speaker 5: I'm pleased at the NCAA leadership and the committees involved
Speaker 5: they're doing so.
Speaker 2: I'm talking to Greg Sanki, SEC Commissioner. I'm more concerned
Speaker 2: about transfer portal and nil with college football or college basketball.
Speaker 5: I think both are are relevant. You know, I watched
Speaker 5: the rhetoric right now, Dan, and I mean, we forget
Speaker 5: that we've just seen coaches transfer, right We've seen head
Speaker 5: coaches leave a program last week to go to another program.
Speaker 5: I've had in my league. I've had it in my
Speaker 5: league a year ago where a coach leaves Program A
Speaker 5: and the SEC to go to Program B. That's reality.
Speaker 5: The commentary about young people doing the same thing needs
Speaker 5: to be in the context that the adults have that advantage.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 5: There needs to be an orderly process. So when you
Speaker 5: watch coaches move, it's a pretty tight time frame. There
Speaker 5: are anomalies to that, and I think we need to
Speaker 5: tighten up the time frame. Don't forget, like three or
Speaker 5: four years ago the transfer portal was opened. Three hundred
Speaker 5: and sixty five days a year. It's been narrowed, it's
Speaker 5: been moved back a week. Plenty of opining that we
Speaker 5: shouldn't have the transfer portal open during the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 5: I'll give you that, but I also know there's a
Speaker 5: lot of backroom conversations that take place, and at least
Speaker 5: right now with the portal open, everything's on the table.
Speaker 5: If somebody is looking to leave, they go in the
Speaker 5: portal and it's known and people can deal with that.
Speaker 5: It makes it busy for sixteen teams, and I'm empathetic there,
Speaker 5: but we ought to just think contextually about what happens
Speaker 5: big picture in the game quick the nil front we've got,
Speaker 5: we're going to see in a week and a half
Speaker 5: the outcome of a lawsuit settlement, and whether that provides
Speaker 5: meaningful oversight of third party namemage and likeness activity, it
Speaker 5: can be a much healthier environment.
Speaker 2: What if we cap the number of transfer portal players
Speaker 2: that you can bring in or like I'm just trying
Speaker 2: to everybody you know says we have a problem. I
Speaker 2: just haven't heard solutions here. How can we make this
Speaker 2: better for all involved?
Speaker 5: Yeah, we've talked about solutions. So I think some of
Speaker 5: you have to go back. There used to be an
Speaker 5: NCAA limit on the number of entering team members in
Speaker 5: a year or over two years. The basketball community really
Speaker 5: ended up railing against that. Miles Brand was the president,
Speaker 5: but that came in. We go right back to that
Speaker 5: and create some continuity. I do think you have to
Speaker 5: remember that we have had attorneys general in states file
Speaker 5: lawsuits over transfer policies, even common sense transfer policies. We
Speaker 5: also have to remember the NCAA has a habit of
Speaker 5: being asked for waivers and granting waivers, which I think
Speaker 5: magnifies the problem. So if we came to a point
Speaker 5: where he said, hey, the rules are the rules, here's
Speaker 5: the timeframe you can engage in certain behavior, and there
Speaker 5: are no waivers and there are no lawsuits out of
Speaker 5: those waves, that'd be idyll it for us. Compared to
Speaker 5: where we.
Speaker 2: Are now twelve teams in the college football playoffs, when
Speaker 2: do we go to fourteen?
Speaker 5: We'll see not this season. It's a topic of conversation.
Speaker 5: My view is it took us a heck of a
Speaker 5: long time to just get to twelve. I think twelve
Speaker 5: was a success by all accounts, you saw continuing interest
Speaker 5: through the playoff. We actually took a deeper dive as
Speaker 5: a CFT management committee. So that's like Gobbly Goook for
Speaker 5: the commissioners and the Notre Dame ad Looking at an
Speaker 5: analysis of viewership throughout the playoff, a lot of positive stories.
Speaker 5: You would hear this like year over year comparison of
Speaker 5: a particular game being down that didn't tell the full story.
Speaker 5: So I think it was the right time to expand.
Speaker 5: I think it worked well. I think we learned a lot.
Speaker 5: We've got some work to do before the twenty five
Speaker 5: season to make some adjustments. I think the bracketing where
Speaker 5: we had these seeds that got moved into the top
Speaker 5: four and people lost home games, I'd like to see
Speaker 5: that change. I think that's immediate. I do think there's
Speaker 5: some relevance to thinking about expanding the number, whether it
Speaker 5: stays at twelve or fourteen. I think even sixteen is
Speaker 5: a relevant conversation in advance of the twenty sixth season.
Speaker 5: That doesn't mean we just go there, but like that
Speaker 5: NCAA tournament expansion, we should be looking at what are
Speaker 5: the impacts and what are the opportunities.
Speaker 2: Give me an alternative to these selection committees.
Speaker 5: Well, we had the old BCS computer or anchorings, remember
Speaker 5: those days, and everybody said, you know, how can we
Speaker 5: have computers making these decisions? We need people. And what
Speaker 5: we have now is how can we let people make
Speaker 5: these decisions? We need computers. So it's the full on
Speaker 5: pendulum swing. Maybe there's something in the middle where the
Speaker 5: combination of a committee and better informed data help support decisions.
Speaker 5: What I do think is really important from a Southeastern
Speaker 5: Conference perspective is the number on the left hand side
Speaker 5: of wins and loss is the most important or the
Speaker 5: right hand side. And what happened last year and maybe
Speaker 5: the last couple of years causes, at least among my
Speaker 5: athletics directors, the question of we need to lose fewer games.
Speaker 5: That creates thinking about non conference scheduling that kind of
Speaker 5: dumbs it down. I don't think that's good for the game.
Speaker 5: I don't think Nebraska canceling the Tennessee series is good
Speaker 5: for college football. And the citation was that members of
Speaker 5: the CFP selection committee said, well, it won't hurt you
Speaker 5: that much for dropping the game. I think that's problematic.
Speaker 5: I tend to think we should play nine conference games.
Speaker 5: But to get there, we have to have more clarity
Speaker 5: on the CFP selection process. So in answer to your
Speaker 5: direct question, there's likely a balance that can be struck
Speaker 5: between the human thought process and the analytics. We know
Speaker 5: that people didn't like just analytics, and now they're trending
Speaker 5: towards we just don't like humanity as much as we
Speaker 5: thought we did. So where's the middle ground? Is another
Speaker 5: one of.
Speaker 2: Those work Would you be in favor of a college
Speaker 2: Football scheduling zar?
Speaker 5: Some of these outside ideas have said that I'd welcome
Speaker 5: a conference commissioner having more authority over just deciding conference
Speaker 5: and non conference schedules. I don't think the culture of
Speaker 5: college football lends itself to csurs. I probably said to you,
Speaker 5: like the Russian czar thing didn't work out very well
Speaker 5: over time, and remember, like the eighties, drugs are and
Speaker 5: we still have problems. So I don't think just identifying
Speaker 5: that one mechanism solves the problems. I'd welcome if people said, hey,
Speaker 5: you go set my conference schedule, picked the number of
Speaker 5: games in this league and our non conference opponents. I'd
Speaker 5: pursue that in a different way. But that's not something
Speaker 5: that resonates within a room of athletics directors and had
Speaker 5: football coach is quite the same way it does on
Speaker 5: a zoom with you.
Speaker 2: One other item, and this is off topic with football
Speaker 2: and basketball, but it does relate to it. Can we
Speaker 2: can you see where we separate college football college basketball,
Speaker 2: and then you have these other sports that we don't
Speaker 2: want to lose. They're not revenue producing but softball and
Speaker 2: lacrosse and soccer, and and we make them regional so
Speaker 2: they're not flying. You know, Cal and Stanford aren't flying
Speaker 2: cross country for wrestling or volleyball. That we make this regional.
Speaker 2: So you know your budget is not at stake here
Speaker 2: and you can still keep these smaller uh you know, sports,
Speaker 2: Olympic sports.
Speaker 5: Maybe I don't know what kind of awards you give
Speaker 5: for genius decision making, but I think you just gave
Speaker 5: me a gold star because we are a regional conference.
Speaker 2: And for example last week, well you guys are, yeah,
Speaker 2: but college sports is not.
Speaker 5: Well, that's because others made different decisions and that after
Speaker 5: to live with those decisions.
Speaker 2: I'm running college sports to me, So it's why I'm
Speaker 2: asking you know that that's I'm making you the college
Speaker 2: football not czar. You're you're running college sports, why don't
Speaker 2: we let these other sports, smaller sports, non revenue producing,
Speaker 2: stay regional while football and basketball, if you want them
Speaker 2: going cross country, great.
Speaker 5: Again, I'm gonna I'm gonna hold the Southeastern Conference up.
Speaker 5: Was the bright shining example of decision making. And here's
Speaker 5: a why. I actually think I'm not gonna speak to
Speaker 5: everybody else. They made their decisions for different reasons, but
Speaker 5: I've made those decisions. I think you can look at
Speaker 5: what we've done and say, no, they wouldn't have done
Speaker 5: the same thing. We had a pack stadium for LSU
Speaker 5: at Texas last week in baseball packed, we had a
Speaker 5: pack stadium for Auburn or Texas and softball. I think
Speaker 5: those build on each other. I think those build on
Speaker 5: each other. So your question kind of the foundation was
Speaker 5: take football and basketball. I think if you're going to
Speaker 5: do something in basketball, you're doing it for men's and
Speaker 5: women's basketball. We have to acknowledge that. And I'm going
Speaker 5: to have baseball programs first round draft picks. In baseball.
Speaker 5: You say, wait a second, I play in front of
Speaker 5: more people for conference baseball games, and my basketball team
Speaker 5: plays in front And I'm going to sign an eight
Speaker 5: figure contract with a signing bonus. That's enormous, right. Why
Speaker 5: don't I deserve the same treatment as my basketball colleagues,
Speaker 5: men or women. I think there are distinctions that can
Speaker 5: be made, but I think some of that has to
Speaker 5: play out in decision making. So for the Southeastern Conference,
Speaker 5: I think what we do in football has great meaning
Speaker 5: and what we do in basketball, and you saw it
Speaker 5: with our environments in basketball this past year. I think
Speaker 5: what we do in football and basketball plays out in
Speaker 5: baseball and softball and meaningful ways. I think people want
Speaker 5: to be in those environments. If you want to spend
Speaker 5: your time preparing, learning and competing, not on airplanes, you're
Speaker 5: going to come and challenge yourself here at the highest
Speaker 5: levels my recruiting pitch. Others may have to make different
Speaker 5: decisions because I think you've seen with these coast to
Speaker 5: coast conferences people opine about, hey, maybe we need a
Speaker 5: central hub for competition so we're not flying all over
Speaker 5: the place. I think they're probably all learning from this
Speaker 5: first year as they go. But I really like the
Speaker 5: way we've configured ourselves because it meets the exact question
Speaker 5: that you've asked me on a sport by sport basis.
Speaker 2: He's the former great commissioner from the Southland Conference. He's
Speaker 2: Greg SANKI great to talk to you again. Enjoy the
Speaker 2: rest of the tournament. Good to visit with you again.
Speaker 5: I certainly hope I do.
Speaker 2: Thank you Greg. All right, Tim Kirchin, it's a baseball
Speaker 2: opening day. We'll talk to Timmy coming up here in
Speaker 2: a little bit. More of your phone calls as well.
Speaker 2: We'll recap what we heard from the commissioner.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 2: We're back after this on the Dan Patrick Show.
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
Speaker 1: the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
Speaker 1: dot com and within the the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR
Speaker 1: to listen live.
Speaker 8: Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're
Speaker 8: Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio. You could catch
Speaker 8: us weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to
Speaker 8: four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of course the
Speaker 8: iHeartRadio app. Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.
Speaker 8: We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on
Speaker 8: in the world. We have a lot of fun talking
Speaker 8: about the stories behind the stories in the world of
Speaker 8: sports and pop culture. Stories that well, other shows don't
Speaker 8: seem to have the time to discuss. And the fact
Speaker 8: that we've been friends for the last twenty years and
Speaker 8: still work together. I mean that says.
Speaker 2: Something, right, So check us out.
Speaker 8: We like to get you involved too, take your phone calls,
Speaker 8: chop it up. As they say, I'd say, the most
Speaker 8: interactive show on Fox Sports Radio, maybe the most interactive
Speaker 8: show on planetar. Be sure to check out Covino and
Speaker 8: Rich live on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app
Speaker 8: from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific,
Speaker 8: And if you miss any of the live show, just
Speaker 8: search Covino and Rich wherever you get your podcasts, and
Speaker 8: of course on social media that's Covino and Rich.
Speaker 2: One thing about Greg Zankee before we get to Tim Kirchin,
Speaker 2: the commissioner of the SEC saying yes, they're going to
Speaker 2: get to fourteen. I wouldn't be surprised if they go
Speaker 2: right to sixteen, because he said we might eventually get
Speaker 2: to sixteen. I wouldn't wait. If you're going to go
Speaker 2: to fourteen, just go to sixteen. And I think what
Speaker 2: he wants to do is fix the seating. So a
Speaker 2: school like Arizona State and Boise state don't get first
Speaker 2: round byes. That is going to be changed here, probably
Speaker 2: a lot sooner than people think. Tim Kirchin, of the
Speaker 2: Mothership and a Hall of Famer, he joins US opening
Speaker 2: day double dip with the Mothership Brewers, Yankees at three
Speaker 2: Eastern Tigers and the Dodgers seven Eastern. Joe Buck will
Speaker 2: be on the call for the game in New York,
Speaker 2: and you can catch Timmy on Baseball tonight following the
Speaker 2: Brewers and the Yankees. Let me hit you with a
Speaker 2: poll question. Are the Dodgers good for baseball?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think they are dan Now.
Speaker 7: The way they do business, as we know is completely legal,
Speaker 7: and if everyone else had the.
Speaker 4: Same advantages of them, they would do the same thing.
Speaker 7: I think they're great for baseball because wherever they go,
Speaker 7: they're gonna draw a lot of people. I think every
Speaker 7: great drama needs a hero and a villain, and to
Speaker 7: some people, the Dodgers are the villain.
Speaker 4: There's also a chance they will be so good.
Speaker 7: This year that they potentially could make history in some
Speaker 7: kind and of course be the first team since the
Speaker 7: potentially Yankees ninety eight through two thousand.
Speaker 4: To win back to back World Series.
Speaker 7: So look, I understand this isn't fair to smaller market
Speaker 7: teams that they can defer all of this money, and
Speaker 7: I think it needs to be changed, and it.
Speaker 4: Will be changed, I believe. But to say that they're
Speaker 4: terrible for baseball, I'm sorry. I'm just not buying it.
Speaker 7: Dan, those two games in Japan were really cool, and
Speaker 7: the Japanese players are so good, and the rookie Sazaki's
Speaker 7: going to pitch in the big.
Speaker 4: Leagues this year. I think it's good for baseball.
Speaker 5: I do.
Speaker 2: Was it good for baseball to have Opening Day in Japan?
Speaker 2: And the reason why I bring this up is couldn't
Speaker 2: you play two spring training games over there and accomplish
Speaker 2: the same thing? Did it have to matter to the
Speaker 2: Japanese baseball fan?
Speaker 4: Look, Dan, I'm older.
Speaker 7: Than you, Okay, I'm sixty eight, and I enjoyed a
Speaker 7: parade in Cincinnati and that was the first game to
Speaker 7: lead to the season.
Speaker 4: Still do a parade in Cincinnati.
Speaker 7: But I believe they should all start on the same
Speaker 7: day we should start in this country.
Speaker 4: However, I'm also a realist.
Speaker 7: This is all about money, Dan, We're growing the game.
Speaker 7: Those games in Japan were tremendous and the more and
Speaker 7: more growth that.
Speaker 4: Baseball can get the better it is.
Speaker 7: If you're asking me what would I like, I would
Speaker 7: like every team to open the same time on April
Speaker 7: the first in this country. But am I going to
Speaker 7: argue with what we saw and the Otani show and
Speaker 7: the Suzaki show.
Speaker 2: No, I'm not arguing how many teams can win the
Speaker 2: World Series.
Speaker 4: Dan, I'm again in the big minority here. The beauty
Speaker 4: of this sport is its unpredictable nature.
Speaker 7: I think the Dodgers are the best team, and I
Speaker 7: think there are six other teams in the NASH, five
Speaker 7: other teams in the National League, maybe six that have
Speaker 7: a chance to win the World Series is if, of course,
Speaker 7: everything goes right.
Speaker 4: I'm not so sure about the American League. I don't
Speaker 4: see a.
Speaker 7: Great team in the American League, although the Rangers can
Speaker 7: just mash when everybody is healthy.
Speaker 4: But the beauty of the sport.
Speaker 7: Dan, is that there are so many teams in the
Speaker 7: American League that are pretty good and not great.
Speaker 4: It's going to be a free for all.
Speaker 7: And there are so many really good teams in the
Speaker 7: National League that's going to be an equal free for
Speaker 7: all to see who maybe gets to play, say the
Speaker 7: Dodgers in the NLCS.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's run down the teams. You got the Phillies
Speaker 2: and the Braves. Are you in your cluton the Mets in.
Speaker 7: Yes, Now, the Mets have to get their starting pitching healthy.
Speaker 7: Sean and I has got to be as good as
Speaker 7: he was down the stretch. So those are three teams
Speaker 7: I think could win it. From the East.
Speaker 2: Who else?
Speaker 5: All right?
Speaker 4: The Brewers are.
Speaker 7: A pain in the neck to play Dan they catch it,
Speaker 7: they're hungry, they're young, they're aggressive, they steal more bases
Speaker 7: than almost anyone. They are a dangerous team. So I'm
Speaker 7: going to put them in there. And then in the
Speaker 7: National League, of course, you have the Dodgers. You have
Speaker 7: the Diamondbacks, who are vastly underrated, especially with the pitching
Speaker 7: they have now. And I know the Podres aren't spending
Speaker 7: much money right now, but they're going to be a
Speaker 7: nightmare also if everything works there.
Speaker 4: So I think you could find six seven teams that
Speaker 4: could win the World Series from the National League.
Speaker 2: How much does Otani pitch this season?
Speaker 7: I thought he would be ready sooner than this. I
Speaker 7: was told in spring training he might be ready on
Speaker 7: May the first. We don't need him until then because
Speaker 7: of all the off days in April, they can go
Speaker 7: to a six man rotation. I'm not sure when he's
Speaker 7: going to pitch, but I promise you when he does pitch,
Speaker 7: he's going to be really good. Let's say it's let's
Speaker 7: say it's mid Let's say it's the All Star break.
Speaker 7: When he gets back, he's going to be really good because,
Speaker 7: as you know, Dan, he is a machine in getting
Speaker 7: his body and everything else ready to play in the
Speaker 7: big leagues and be like no one we've ever seen.
Speaker 2: But because of that, I don't know how he does
Speaker 2: in factor into the MVP every year if he's still
Speaker 2: able to pitch and hit. He's like Travis Hunter at Colorado.
Speaker 2: He's a two way player that nobody is like that,
Speaker 2: so he has a decided advantage. It feels like every
Speaker 2: single season going in, you know, for the MVP, he does.
Speaker 7: Dan, And I'm sorry, I don't like it that way.
Speaker 7: When I first started voting for these things in nineteen eighty,
Speaker 7: it depended on whether your team won or not. Chipper
Speaker 7: Jones won in nineteen ninety nine because he carried his
Speaker 7: team the last two months into the playoffs. I refuse
Speaker 7: to believe that we're just gonna give it to Otani
Speaker 7: before this season starts, even though he's the best player
Speaker 7: in the game period. But let's say Juan Soto hits
Speaker 7: three seventy and hits forty homers and carries the Mets
Speaker 7: into the playoffs. You're telling me that's not an MVP
Speaker 7: season and is going to get aced out just because
Speaker 7: the most remarkable player we've ever seen is really good. Again,
Speaker 7: I'm sorry. I can't look at it that way. I
Speaker 7: want to watch the season play out.
Speaker 2: Give me the next player to make six hundred, seven
Speaker 2: hundred million dollars.
Speaker 7: I'm not sure anyone's going there anytime soon, but I
Speaker 7: think Gunnar Henderson of the Orioles has a chance to
Speaker 7: get somewhere near there because he's so young, he's so good.
Speaker 7: He plays a premium defensive position shortstop exceptionally well. Louis
Speaker 7: Gonzales remember him from the Diamondbacks. He met Gunner Henderson.
Speaker 7: I was standing right next to him last year and
Speaker 7: he shook Gunnar Henderson's hand at the batting cage, first
Speaker 7: time he'd ever met him. Gunner walks away, and Louis
Speaker 7: looks at me and goes, I think that's the biggest
Speaker 7: shortstop I've ever seen, and I think he's got the
Speaker 7: biggest hands of any shortstop I've ever seen.
Speaker 4: That's what we're dealing with here.
Speaker 7: And Dan great high school basketball player, tremendous athlete, He's
Speaker 7: going to figure everything out, and an absolute dirt dog
Speaker 7: when it comes to playing the game and playing it properly.
Speaker 4: He would be next on my lips.
Speaker 2: Can we do anything about those elbow things that these
Speaker 2: guys wear when they go to the plate.
Speaker 7: I think it's a little too late for that, Dan.
Speaker 7: What we really care about is protecting our players and
Speaker 7: making sure they don't get hurt. Dan, we have healthy
Speaker 7: scratches now. I got three hits last night, but he
Speaker 7: ran an awful lot last night. So one of the
Speaker 7: people are saying he might be a little tired. We're
Speaker 7: going to give him the day off. So as long
Speaker 7: as we're trying to keep our players healthy, I think
Speaker 7: where they're going to allow ear and arm arm armor
Speaker 7: and stuff like that. And yet the ironies or the paradoxes,
Speaker 7: the more we've protected.
Speaker 4: The more it seems they get hurt. It's a little
Speaker 4: confusing to me.
Speaker 2: And I rail on this, and I have for a
Speaker 2: while and then nothing can be done about it.
Speaker 5: I don't think.
Speaker 2: But the White Sox had six pitchers go down and
Speaker 2: spring training and they all need Tommy John surgery. And
Speaker 2: you know, this is it's concerning that. You know, maybe
Speaker 2: maybe it's analytics that God is to this point here,
Speaker 2: but if you're the commissioner of Baseball and you're watching,
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's not a question of if, it's
Speaker 2: when this happens, and that's a health issue for Major
Speaker 2: League Baseball. So what do you do about it?
Speaker 4: Well, Dan, you have to go all the way back
Speaker 4: to the little league. And I know this sounds corny.
Speaker 7: You got to stop the ten twelve year old from
Speaker 7: throwing off a mound twelve months out of the year.
Speaker 4: That's how guys are getting hurt. Dan.
Speaker 7: You know, when you played baseball as a kid, November
Speaker 7: fifteenth came around and whatever you were doing at that time,
Speaker 7: you picked up a basketball. And that's what we should
Speaker 7: be doing more often. When you play this game, which
Speaker 7: is so diabolically difficult to play, and you're throwing off
Speaker 7: a mound twelve months out of the year, no wonder
Speaker 7: you're gonna get hurt. Plus the industry has demanded that
Speaker 7: our pitchers throw as hard as they can on every pitch,
Speaker 7: and when they don't throw a heater, they want them
Speaker 7: to spin a slider or curveball at the highest rpm ever,
Speaker 7: and we wonder why they're getting hurt. The reason you
Speaker 7: were a good high school pitcher is you played other
Speaker 7: sports that made you a better pitcher when March came around,
Speaker 7: because you just got back from the basketball season. I
Speaker 7: am really worried that we are specializing with our young kids.
Speaker 7: We have to go back to the little league and
Speaker 7: make those changes otherwise we're going to keep having these
Speaker 7: Tommy John and other arm injuries.
Speaker 2: What would Pete Rose's stats be, Tony Gwynn stats, Rod
Speaker 2: Caruz stats, Wade Bong stats if they played in today's game.
Speaker 7: Well, with the shifting a little bit different. I think,
Speaker 7: first off, they would be great players today, because great
Speaker 7: players fransend All ears.
Speaker 4: If you're going to.
Speaker 7: Play Rod Grew the way that they play certain guys,
Speaker 7: he's going to get two bunt hits a game.
Speaker 4: And I'm not making that up.
Speaker 7: George Brett, who's a very humble man, told me a
Speaker 7: couple of years ago when everyone was shifting all over
Speaker 7: the place. He said, if I played today at four fifty,
Speaker 7: he would see where to hit.
Speaker 4: Tony Gwynn was a magician.
Speaker 2: But would they be power hitters because of the analytics though,
Speaker 2: Tim when they're coming up in the minor leagues, they
Speaker 2: you know, the emphasiss is on power.
Speaker 7: Yes, I'm well aware, and it really bothers me that
Speaker 7: we would take a player like Wave Bogs, who's hit
Speaker 7: three twenty eight lifetime walks well over one hundred times
Speaker 7: because he can hit a hard line drive single to
Speaker 7: left field better than any left handed hitter I've ever seen,
Speaker 7: and they would tell him, way, you're unbelievably strong. You
Speaker 7: need to hit forty homers. That's that's what they would
Speaker 7: do with him today. And he wouldn't hit three twenty eight.
Speaker 7: He'd probably hit two eighty eight with thirty five homers.
Speaker 7: But I would rather watch Wave Bogs hit it to
Speaker 7: all fields than be just another guy who hits a
Speaker 7: million homers.
Speaker 2: When was your first opening day?
Speaker 7: My first was in nineteen eighty two. I count that
Speaker 7: Dan as my first one, even though I did eighty one,
Speaker 7: but eighty two I was full time beat writer covering
Speaker 7: the Texas Rangers. And the first three games of the
Speaker 7: season got snowed out in New York, so we had
Speaker 7: to open in Cleveland. Seventy four thousand people in Cleveland
Speaker 7: for opening Day. The next day they had like three
Speaker 7: thousand people. So it was memorable for a lot of reasons.
Speaker 4: And this is so.
Speaker 7: George Wright was the rookie leadoff guy for the Rangers.
Speaker 7: He got three hits on opening Day. I went to George,
Speaker 7: rookie from Oklahoma City. I said, George, did you have
Speaker 7: a good time today? He goes, yeah, I've never been
Speaker 7: to a major League game before, so the first game
Speaker 7: he had ever attended in his life, he got three hits.
Speaker 7: And I just found out like six months ago that
Speaker 7: Mickey Rivers, the mischievous center fielder, maked an injury in
Speaker 7: spring training in order for George Wright to make the team.
Speaker 7: And that's how George Wright ended up on the roster
Speaker 7: on opening day because Mickey loved George right, he said,
Speaker 7: I'll fake an injury and you could play center field
Speaker 7: out opening day, and then he got three hits in.
Speaker 4: The only game he'd ever attended in his life. That
Speaker 4: is the beauty of baseball.
Speaker 2: Have fun today. Tim great to catch up with you
Speaker 2: as always.
Speaker 4: Well, good to see you, Dan, Take care.
Speaker 2: That's Tim Kirchin, ESPN Baseball analyst and a member of
Speaker 2: the Baseball Hall of Fame. You know, you talk to
Speaker 2: certain guys in certain sports and they are just big
Speaker 2: cheerleaders for their sports. You know, when you have Tom
Speaker 2: Verducci on or you have Timmy on, they just they
Speaker 2: champion baseball. The glass is three quarters full, and I
Speaker 2: always appreciate that because it's easy to look and find
Speaker 2: the negatives there because we're always tweaking complaining about something.
Speaker 2: But Tim, well he might complain, We'll try to find
Speaker 2: an answer for you as well. We're going to take
Speaker 2: a break. I believe the back room guys, led by
Speaker 2: Dylan are going to give us some ballpark franks. Yes
Speaker 2: I'm not sure I trust them, but they have some
Speaker 2: ballpark franks coming up here shortly. We're back after this.
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Speaker 1: Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
Speaker 1: on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio wapp.
Speaker 2: Charles Barkley on the show tomorrow, Dylan surprised us with
Speaker 2: some ballpark franks. He really surprised us with he had
Speaker 2: an apron on and no shirt on underneath. That stops
Speaker 2: some people's appetites. But I just said, I'll take a ballpark.
Speaker 2: Frank tastes good a little mustard on ith. Okay, we
Speaker 2: don't have a problem when we go to a game
Speaker 2: and let's say you're in the middle of the row
Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden, you go, I'll take
Speaker 2: a hot dog, and then seven people are handling your
Speaker 2: hot dog as it comes down. Hey, when it comes
Speaker 2: down to you, we're okay with that. Uh yeah, here
Speaker 2: you go, Here you go, here go, thank you get
Speaker 2: a pretzel? Yeah yeah, here you go. Everybody's grimy hands
Speaker 2: all over. Make sure you go to Dan Patrick dot com.
Speaker 2: Almost everything is on sale under twenty dollars. Great items there.
Speaker 2: Stat of the Day has been brought to you by
Speaker 2: Penninia America. Let's see. So we got games coming up tonight.
Speaker 2: Oh here was something we talked about this before the show.
Speaker 2: CD Lamb is going into the NFL rule book. The
Speaker 2: league made a rule change this week and it targets
Speaker 2: CD Lamb. He has a signature nose wipe celebration, and
Speaker 2: if he does it again, it's called a violent gesture.
Speaker 2: So the exact wording on this celebration is any violent
Speaker 2: gesture which shall include, but not be limited to, a
Speaker 2: throat slash, simulating firing, brandishing or gun, or using the
Speaker 2: nosewipe gesture, or an act that is sexually suggestive or offensive.
Speaker 2: Now Pro Football Talk notes that the nosewipe is a
Speaker 2: gang sign associated with the Bloods to indicate someone is untrustworthy.
Speaker 2: He was saying, that's an untrustworthy first down. He has
Speaker 2: been using the nosewipe since he was drafted in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Lamb appears ready to adjust accordingly, according to Yahoo Sports,
Speaker 2: and has indicated on social media he has other celebrations
Speaker 2: in mind. So the nosewipe gesture that I did not
Speaker 2: know was somehow affiliated with the Bloods to indicate someone
Speaker 2: is untrustworthy. Now can I do that? If I point
Speaker 2: towards Todd?
Speaker 3: What did you learn to say?
Speaker 10: Todd?
Speaker 2: Famously a crip does not appreciate that. No, Todd is trustworthy.
Speaker 9: He is.
Speaker 2: He's very trustworthy. A couple of phone calls in here,
Speaker 2: we'll do this day in sports history. How about Kenny
Speaker 2: in La, Hi, Kenny, what's on your mind today?
Speaker 6: Hey?
Speaker 5: Dan?
Speaker 10: You had that interview with the possibility of Cooper Flag
Speaker 10: going back to do because I think Wallly's your Verac
Speaker 10: who I love Pooh Poo Da and most of you'll.
Speaker 9: Have and I agree. But going back to my era,
Speaker 9: Ralph Sampson, of course, was a three time Player of
Speaker 9: the Year and he was going to go out in
Speaker 9: eighty two, but the Clippers and Lakers had the coin flip,
Speaker 9: and rather than going back or going into the draft,
Speaker 9: he did not want to risk being drafted by the Clippers,
Speaker 9: and so the Lakers ended up taking Worthy, which worked
Speaker 9: out real well. But you'll recall me All Star game
Speaker 9: mass and played with Seasid.
Speaker 10: He was tremendous.
Speaker 2: You sound like Tom Arnold.
Speaker 9: Never heard that one before.
Speaker 2: Yes, you sound like you sound like the actor Tom Arnold. Well,
Speaker 2: thank you, Kenny, thank you. Uh Jeremy in Texas, Hi, Jeremy.
Speaker 11: Good morning, sir. I just wanted to maybe showcase the
Speaker 11: brilliance of my hero Nolan Ryan, or maybe just he
Speaker 11: was just a freak of nature and maybe too late
Speaker 11: to get a stat of the Day nineteen seventy four
Speaker 11: for a bad California Angels team. He was twenty two
Speaker 11: and sixteen two eight nine, era A twenty six complete games,
Speaker 11: three hundred and thirty two innings, one thousand, three hundred
Speaker 11: and ninety two batter's face and no Tommy John surgery.
Speaker 8: Now stand a day Stan Today, out Today, out today.
Speaker 4: This is the style.
Speaker 2: Richard in Riverside, Hi, Richard, what's on your mind?
Speaker 4: Morning?
Speaker 10: Dan?
Speaker 6: First time, long time? Two hundred pounds five or eleven.
Speaker 8: I have a.
Speaker 6: Suggestion for a specific SoundBite for stat of the day
Speaker 6: in honor of baseball. I was hoping that you guys
Speaker 6: should get a hold of Will Ferrell and that he
Speaker 6: do a rant as Harry Carey for a baseball stat
Speaker 6: of the day.
Speaker 2: Hmmm, well, I already have Will Ferrell doing a stat
Speaker 2: of the day's song, so I don't want to ask
Speaker 2: too much of it. He does have another job. Just
Speaker 2: he's always very helpful, and I think he wants to
Speaker 2: go to Iowa with us. I think he's shooting a
Speaker 2: movie with Zach Efron. But I did say to him,
Speaker 2: why don't you think of my career first? And so
Speaker 2: maybe maybe he'll join us for a day or two
Speaker 2: in Iowa. Just stay in sports history Pauline, nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 12: Sports Illustrate exposed Pete Rose's gambling activities. In a cover story,
Speaker 12: they alleged you bet from the dugout during games with
Speaker 12: a hand gesture to associate in center field. I know
Speaker 12: you know a lot about this and magic. Johnson nineteen
Speaker 12: ninety four became head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 12: He coached the final sixteen games of the ninety three
Speaker 12: ninety four season.
Speaker 2: On this date, twenty eleven, Lebron, d Wade and Chris
Speaker 2: Bosh all had thirty ten games, thirty three ten rebounds,
Speaker 2: thirty ten rebounds, thirty one to twelve rebounds. They and
Speaker 2: that's the first time in fifty years that that happened
Speaker 2: at least three teammates with thirty and ten in a
Speaker 2: non overtime game. I saw where Ryan Clark of the
Speaker 2: Mothership was mistaken for d Wade on a plane flight.
Speaker 2: I think, has that happened yesterday?
Speaker 9: Time?
Speaker 5: It's true?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, people gushing all over you, man, I
Speaker 2: loved you. You were so great, so many great memories.
Speaker 4: We're so happy.
Speaker 5: Wow, follow the NFL live.
Speaker 4: They really know who I am.
Speaker 2: Then all of a sudden, they go, yeah, d Wade,
Speaker 2: great to meet you. Todd, would you learn today.
Speaker 1: While e zerbiak'says the hardest player you ever had to
Speaker 1: defend was Paul Pierce and of course Kobe Bryant.
Speaker 2: Seatan, while e Xerbiak had a hell of a collection
Speaker 2: of coaches in college, Marvin Fritzy is about self care,
Speaker 2: Paul eating hot dogs, Todd Wood and I learned.
Speaker 1: It's hard to hate the Dodgers.
Speaker 2: We'll call them an evil empire when their players and
Speaker 2: manager are quite likable. The voice of March Madness, Clark Kellogg,
Speaker 2: will stop by, as will Charles Barkley. Hope you'll join
Speaker 2: us as well for a meet Friday. Have a great day, everybody,
Speaker 2: Enjoy the games.