Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio. Welcome to the program. A tour one on
Speaker 1: this Wednesday. We could use some sleep late night, some
Speaker 1: great baseball NBA as well a lot to talk about.
Speaker 1: Come on in and stay a while. We got drama
Speaker 1: with the Philadelphia seventy six ers. There was drama last
Speaker 1: night with the LA Dodgers and Cody Bellinger. The Astros
Speaker 1: are still alive with the Red Sox eight seven seven
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Speaker 1: the country, numbering nearly four hundred. The Great Bob Costas
Speaker 1: will join us coming up a little bit later on
Speaker 1: recapping all the baseball If anyone leaves a sporting event
Speaker 1: and miss is a great comeback, then that's on them,
Speaker 1: especially in the playoffs. But we do know some fans
Speaker 1: have made mistakes before, and maybe some fans in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles yesterday might have left. Dodgers were down five two
Speaker 1: in the eighth inning. They'd never come back when they
Speaker 1: were trailing by three or more after seven innings in
Speaker 1: their long COO season history, so what's la do? They
Speaker 1: turned to Cody Bellinger, the former MVP who hit just
Speaker 1: one sixty five on the season, but Bellinger, putting that
Speaker 1: behind him, a three run homer tied the game. Mookie
Speaker 1: Betts delivered the game winner and they win six to five.
Speaker 1: They now trail Atlanta two one in the series. Doesn't
Speaker 1: feel like that that they're down to one, but after
Speaker 1: those wins, those kind of wins, those sometimes feel like
Speaker 1: more than just one victory. A few more outs in
Speaker 1: this series could have been basically over, But now Los
Speaker 1: Angeles has momentum and they head into Game four. Each
Speaker 1: game has been decided late by just one run for
Speaker 1: the Dodgers and Braves fans. It's exhausting for the rest
Speaker 1: of us. It's fun baseball, and I started to wonder
Speaker 1: about Cody Bellinger. Cody Bellinger, you know, when you're getting
Speaker 1: late into a game, has been great in the postseason
Speaker 1: so far, and you know that's what you want. He
Speaker 1: struggled but found a way to somehow be able to
Speaker 1: come up with a big hit. And you know, it
Speaker 1: was a rough regular season for him. But the Dodgers,
Speaker 1: they're ten to o against the Braves in their last
Speaker 1: ten meetings at Dodger Stadium, twenty three and four against
Speaker 1: the Braves and Dodger Stadium. That goes back to the
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen National League Division Series. The Astros, meanwhile, they
Speaker 1: tied their game at two two in the eighth inning,
Speaker 1: then blew it open seven runs in the night a thinning,
Speaker 1: beating the Red Sox and evening the American League Championship
Speaker 1: Series at two games apiece. And once again the Astros
Speaker 1: do it. They scored all their runs in the ninth
Speaker 1: inning with two outs, matching the most runs in an
Speaker 1: inning with two outs in postseason history. They're great with
Speaker 1: two outs. They've scored thirty six two out runs this postseason.
Speaker 1: That's the most by any American League team. Prior to
Speaker 1: the World Series in baseball history. That clutched gene that
Speaker 1: they still had. And you know, you can start to
Speaker 1: look at some of the calls because in the postseason
Speaker 1: we care about this, a strike here, a ball here,
Speaker 1: a miss call here. And it just felt like it
Speaker 1: was bad for both teams last night in Fenway, and
Speaker 1: I know there's going to be this cry for all
Speaker 1: we need to have, you know, robotic umpires or do
Speaker 1: what Tennis does where you have a strike zone and
Speaker 1: you have a beep when it's in and you know
Speaker 1: there's no beep when it's not. We're not there yet.
Speaker 1: I would just love for these umpires to have to
Speaker 1: answer after a game, just to say, give us an
Speaker 1: idea of what you're looking at, because if you're missing
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty pitches in a game, including a big
Speaker 1: one in the ninth inning, then you know, that can
Speaker 1: change a series. That can change the fate for players, managers, gms,
Speaker 1: certainly the fans. And I don't think we're there yet
Speaker 1: with the robotic umpire or you're gonna have a strike zone,
Speaker 1: an automated strike zone, but I do think we'll get
Speaker 1: to it, because if you have the technology why not
Speaker 1: use the technology. And I know you're going to get
Speaker 1: the old school, which I'm supposed to be part of.
Speaker 1: They're gonna go, oh, you gotta that's part of the
Speaker 1: flavor of the game where the umpire misses a call. Okay,
Speaker 1: but then is it the flavor when he misses a
Speaker 1: call at first base or at home plate or second base. No,
Speaker 1: it's not the flavor. Oh, that's part of the folklore.
Speaker 1: That's what makes the game so great. The interpretation of
Speaker 1: a strike zone really not for me. If I'm a pitcher,
Speaker 1: do I go ah? It's part of the game. It's
Speaker 1: part of the personality of it. He just missed that
Speaker 1: call there, Nathan Vivaldi is probably not going. Man, that's
Speaker 1: part of the game. You know, I'm all right with that.
Speaker 1: I never understood why umpires would give great pitchers more
Speaker 1: latitude or longitude when it came to a strike zone.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're going to Greg Maddox, it's Greg Maddock,
Speaker 1: you gotta give him that, or Tom Glavin Like, no,
Speaker 1: it's like a phantom foul that Michael Jordan would go
Speaker 1: to the hoop and you knew somebody was gonna get
Speaker 1: whistled for a foul, whether he found him or not.
Speaker 1: It's like, it's Michael Jordan. Don't you give that to
Speaker 1: the guys who aren't as good to help him out
Speaker 1: a little bit. But this is always going to be
Speaker 1: that curiosity of I don't I just don't know why
Speaker 1: baseball doesn't go this is how we call a strike,
Speaker 1: and this is how we call a ball, not you know,
Speaker 1: I always give the high strike. You know, I never
Speaker 1: give that eye strike. You know I'll give you on
Speaker 1: the black, And I never understood that it shouldn't it
Speaker 1: be Do we do that in any other sport where
Speaker 1: you got an official, maybe a back judge in the
Speaker 1: NFL goes you know, i'd like to I like to
Speaker 1: let you put your hands on the wide receiver, or
Speaker 1: I don't let you put your hand on the wide receiver. No,
Speaker 1: this is how you call a game. But for some reason,
Speaker 1: we've allowed Joe West and some of these other umpires
Speaker 1: for decades to be able to have their own personality.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if baseball's headed in that direction.
Speaker 1: But there were some pitches in the Red Sox Astros
Speaker 1: game where I went, man, oh man, this guy's and
Speaker 1: I don't mention names. He was consistently bad, you know,
Speaker 1: and he was consistent for both teams, just bad, And
Speaker 1: you go, how does baseball not and this is supposed
Speaker 1: to be your elite umpires, this is a postseason, this
Speaker 1: is a reward here, and you're going, I'm missing something here.
Speaker 1: And I know sometimes the anger that camera, that center
Speaker 1: field camera is not really right, you know, behind second
Speaker 1: base looking in it's off to the side a little bit,
Speaker 1: so it is deceiving. But they do have stats, analytics
Speaker 1: of course, that will tell you what is a missed call,
Speaker 1: and miss call usually means it has to be six
Speaker 1: inches outside of the strike zone. If you miss a call,
Speaker 1: it's got to be kind of a blatant missed call,
Speaker 1: not just something that's on the edge. But watching last
Speaker 1: night yesterday, they see a different game than I do.
Speaker 1: And I don't think it's great for baseball, not when
Speaker 1: you're at this stage of the season and you had
Speaker 1: that on display last night. Yes, Paulie, it was interesting though.
Speaker 1: Red Sox fans are very upset because you have all
Speaker 1: these curveball they thought was a strike and the ending
Speaker 1: would have been over to been tied to too. But
Speaker 1: it's the ninth inning if that umpire was having a
Speaker 1: tight strike zone side to side nine innings in, shouldn't
Speaker 1: the pitchers know this. Shouldn't they be discussing the dugout
Speaker 1: and realize you may not get that pitch that you
Speaker 1: you by the ninth inning, you would know what that
Speaker 1: ump is doing. You're tracking every pitch. That's all the
Speaker 1: pitching coaches do. They should know what they can get. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't one of those where you go, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's not going to give that to me. That was
Speaker 1: one of those where that's strike. That's it, that's strike,
Speaker 1: and then they show it from up above and then
Speaker 1: you see it where it goes over the plate, because
Speaker 1: sometimes you can throw a breaking ball and it sort
Speaker 1: of comes around the plate and then where the catcher
Speaker 1: catches it. That was where's it going to go over
Speaker 1: the plate? Oh yeah, that's inside corn. Yeah, that's definitely
Speaker 1: a strike. Actually that was an outside part of the plate,
Speaker 1: but that was strike. Absolutely. Yeah. You gotta do like
Speaker 1: Kelley Jansen the Dodgers, just strike everybod take the umpire
Speaker 1: out of it. Yeah, that was great. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of drama there, and I was busy. I was busy.
Speaker 1: I was La Centric, although I flipped around a little bit.
Speaker 1: I was watching the Lakers. I watched the Bucks get
Speaker 1: their championship rings, and uh, we'll talk about that in
Speaker 1: a little bit. I thought it was wonderful. That was great,
Speaker 1: great night there in Milwaukee. And you know, you got
Speaker 1: the nets in town and they rough them up. You
Speaker 1: honest look great. But flipping them back and forth. I'm
Speaker 1: watching the Dodgers game and I'm thinking, man five two, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're not doing anything offensively, and Bellinger hits a ball
Speaker 1: and this is how it sounded on KLAC, the Dodgers
Speaker 1: Radio network, with Charlie Steiner with the call, how don't
Speaker 1: find all the right center field? It's well, hit is Callinger.
Speaker 1: We've got a new game. It's time to fun. You know,
Speaker 1: it's little things. Sometimes he got on bass in the
Speaker 1: Giant Series with a walk, and then Taylor hits the
Speaker 1: home run. And then this one that pitches up and
Speaker 1: went after it. I didn't think it was out and
Speaker 1: it just kept carrying into the night. And Charlie Steiner
Speaker 1: with the call, McLevin, you got a pull question for me?
Speaker 1: Do you want to put up? Should they computerize the
Speaker 1: strike zone to see what the fans are. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like a negative question. But I still don't totally
Speaker 1: get why they're not doing it to something. I don't
Speaker 1: know how you know the rhythm of the game, That's
Speaker 1: what I want to know. The games are so long now, ye,
Speaker 1: I mean sometimes thirty forty five an hour longer than
Speaker 1: they used to be. The Dodgers using nine pitchers. I mean,
Speaker 1: the games are just long. I don't want them to
Speaker 1: go longer. I want them to get the call right.
Speaker 1: But I just don't know. If we remember, replay was
Speaker 1: instant replay and then it's now just called replay because
Speaker 1: it takes forever. And I think the game. You can
Speaker 1: have a four hour game, but I like a four
Speaker 1: hour game when it actually moves along, not let's start stop,
Speaker 1: start stop, start stop. And that would be my biggest
Speaker 1: apprehension here. How do you then signal a strike? Is
Speaker 1: there a sound effect? Is there a red light or
Speaker 1: a blue light that comes on? Like, I don't know
Speaker 1: how they would do that, but I'd be curious about it,
Speaker 1: and I'm open to it. It's just because I watched
Speaker 1: baseball for you know, better part of fifty years, and
Speaker 1: you sometimes will watch and you know, that umpire doesn't
Speaker 1: like that hitter or doesn't like that pitcher, plain and simple,
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you that pitch. I'm not giving
Speaker 1: you that pitch. I remember talking to somebody in baseball.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't want to even hint at who
Speaker 1: it was, but they talked about a hitter and said,
Speaker 1: he's always going to get if he takes a pitch,
Speaker 1: he's going to get that call always. And I want
Speaker 1: why because and I was told because he's bleeping Wade Boggs.
Speaker 1: And I went, so, Wade Boggs takes a pitch, the
Speaker 1: umpire knows Wade bogs is going to be correct more
Speaker 1: than the umpire will be. And this is coming from
Speaker 1: somebody who is a person of authority who would say, yeah,
Speaker 1: that you have umpire, Because when when this is brought up,
Speaker 1: when they have these meetings and you know, somebody say, hey,
Speaker 1: you know these pitches or the you know these are
Speaker 1: outside in their minds, they're like, who's at the plate?
Speaker 1: Did they take a pitch? And if they if Bonds
Speaker 1: took a pitch, if Tony Gwynn took a pitch, if
Speaker 1: Wade Boggs took a pitch, that umpire knows, man, I
Speaker 1: I don't want to be I don't want to show up.
Speaker 1: Wade Boggs, Tony Glenn Bert, You're like, these guys don't
Speaker 1: make mistakes. There. That's Wade ff and Bonds. Yes, Paul
Speaker 1: Tony Gwynn, the great guy from the Padres. He only
Speaker 1: got kicked out of one game in his career. And
Speaker 1: the story goes that he was arguing with the umpire,
Speaker 1: which was Joe West by the way, and he goes,
Speaker 1: you know how I know that pitch was a ball
Speaker 1: because I didn't swing at it. And that was the
Speaker 1: opening line of the argument. By the way, Cody Bellinger
Speaker 1: in the seventh inning or later this postseason is batting
Speaker 1: five seventy one. That's the highest average by any player
Speaker 1: with more than five plate appearances. All Right, we'll take
Speaker 1: a break. There's a lot to get to and we'll
Speaker 1: certainly talked to Bob Costas about the baseball. This situation
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia is not getting better anytime soon. Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: basically said, hey, I don't want to practice, and now
Speaker 1: he's been suspended. Crazy day yesterday, I thought, okay, this
Speaker 1: is when Ben grows up and he shows he's tough
Speaker 1: like I still don't know why. Who is Ben mad At?
Speaker 1: That's why I want to know. Thanks for listening to
Speaker 1: The Dan Patrick Show podcast. Be sure to catch us
Speaker 1: live every weekday morning nine to noon Eastern or six
Speaker 1: to nine Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local
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Speaker 1: dot com, or stream us live every day on the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app by searching f s R, or stream us
Speaker 1: live on the Peacock Act. Before we check in with
Speaker 1: Marcus Hayes, the Philadelphia Inquire columnist, here's some comments yesterday,
Speaker 1: Doc Rivers on kicking Ben Simmons out of practice. It
Speaker 1: was a distraction today and think he wanted to do
Speaker 1: what everybody else is doing. And it was early, It
Speaker 1: wasn't a big deal. Just tell him he should leave
Speaker 1: them and we went on with practice and then Joe l.
Speaker 1: Nbad talked to the media about Ben Simmons. At this point,
Speaker 1: I don't care about that man, honestly. If he does
Speaker 1: whatever he wants. Uh, you know, that's not my job.
Speaker 1: You know, that's those guys jobs. You know, I'm only
Speaker 1: focused on trying to make the team better, win some games. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, play hard every night, trying to lead in
Speaker 1: love of gods that we have here. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: that fel the same way because you know, our chemistry
Speaker 1: has been excellent despite you know, everything that's been happening
Speaker 1: if in the last few months. Uh so yeah, like
Speaker 1: I said, I don't I don't really care. Oh but wait,
Speaker 1: there's one more from Joe l Nbad. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, our job is not to baby
Speaker 1: see somebody. Uh you know, we we get paid up.
Speaker 1: We're just on the Clark. Go out play Hark, win
Speaker 1: some games. That's how we get paid phone. We don't
Speaker 1: get paid to come out here, you know, try to
Speaker 1: baby see somebody here. So that's that's on our job.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure my timms fold aw. That is courtesy
Speaker 1: MDC Sports Philadelphia. Let's bring it in Marcus Hayes to
Speaker 1: Philadelphia inquire a columnist, what the hell happened yesterday? They've
Speaker 1: had enough. They've just had enough. I mean Ben's been
Speaker 1: there for you know, counting his quarantine, more than a week,
Speaker 1: and he hasn't engaged with his teammates. He won't acknowledge
Speaker 1: people in the building. He talks to the d guess
Speaker 1: the G League coaches now, but he won't talk to
Speaker 1: his own coaches. I mean, he's he's committing careers suicide
Speaker 1: because zan I mean, what team is going to take
Speaker 1: a chance that he's not going to do the same
Speaker 1: thing with them once he lands there. Who is he
Speaker 1: mad at? He's mad at Doc Rivers for not continuing
Speaker 1: to defend him and not promoting him as a point guard.
Speaker 1: At the end of last season, when they lost Game seven,
Speaker 1: one of my colleagues, David Murphy, asked, Doc, do you
Speaker 1: think Ben can be the point guard of a championships team?
Speaker 1: And Doc clearly doesn't, as Doc was a point guard
Speaker 1: himself in a very similar point guard too Ben Simmons,
Speaker 1: And he said, I don't know. I can't answer that question.
Speaker 1: He didn't say yes, that's the problem. And then after
Speaker 1: Doc spoke, Joel Embiid was asked, what do you think
Speaker 1: the turning point of the game was, and he said,
Speaker 1: you know, when we didn't make the when we didn't
Speaker 1: take the dunk with three and a half minutes left.
Speaker 1: So he's mad at them, he's embarrassed by the reaction
Speaker 1: from him not taking that dunk, and he's kind of
Speaker 1: he's in a spot I think personally where he thinks
Speaker 1: a fresh start changes everything, where Philadelphia is mean to him,
Speaker 1: and if he gets out of Philadelphia everything will be better.
Speaker 1: Because you know, we're in nineteen we're in eighteen fifteen,
Speaker 1: and nobody knows what happened in Philadelphia. Wherever he goes next.
Speaker 1: I don't know what he's thinking there. What happens today? Nothing,
Speaker 1: I mean, he doesn't go he didn't fly with the team.
Speaker 1: He's not with them for their first game tonight, and
Speaker 1: the Sixers are weird, say never practice after the day
Speaker 1: after the game, especially a road game, so they won't
Speaker 1: practice tomorrow. Doc Rivers said, hey, you know, we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens Thursday. Well, nothing's gonna happen Thursday. Guys come
Speaker 1: in for treatment if they want it, they maybe do
Speaker 1: some film stuff. Ben won't be asking to do the
Speaker 1: film stuff because he wasn't involved in the game. So
Speaker 1: it'll be before the shootaround Friday before we know kind
Speaker 1: of where the next shoe drops, because there won't be
Speaker 1: another practice, so I don't expect him to play anytime soon.
Speaker 1: I think Doc has had enough. Finally, after a year
Speaker 1: of carrying water lying for Ben Simmons, you know, and
Speaker 1: insulting anyone who deigned to ask, well, Ben Simmons has
Speaker 1: these agencies, can you fix him this way? This way that? Oh,
Speaker 1: you have to treasure him. He's special. I think he's
Speaker 1: embarrassed of how he acted last year, feels betrayed. So
Speaker 1: does Joel Embide, who carried water for him a lot.
Speaker 1: So I just don't think he's going to play or
Speaker 1: get paid more importantly until he capitulates, and I'm not
Speaker 1: sure that that's going to happen anytime soon either. I
Speaker 1: just wonder he's trying to take the James Harden approach.
Speaker 1: He's just not as good as James Harden. Like James
Speaker 1: Harden is still valuable even if he's out of shape
Speaker 1: and doesn't want to play for Houston. Ben Simmons still
Speaker 1: can't shoot. He's still a liability in certain areas here.
Speaker 1: Who's gonna want to trade for him? Like? Do you
Speaker 1: have actual teams that would actually be interested in him?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Cleveland would be interested in him,
Speaker 1: in him as a as a rebuilding centerpiece to sort
Speaker 1: of do whatever he wants and market the team, but
Speaker 1: certainly no contender. I mean, he's putting himself a position
Speaker 1: where no team that is viable can risk his psychology,
Speaker 1: can risk his mental state. Not to mention the shooting,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think he'd be a spectacular powerful you know,
Speaker 1: Dennis Rodman with a handle, Draymond Green with you know better,
Speaker 1: even better passing ability. Maybe not as good a defender
Speaker 1: as Draymond, but he wants to be a point guard,
Speaker 1: and he wants to do things his own way, and
Speaker 1: he wants to be a point guard who doesn't have
Speaker 1: to shoot and doesn't have to be accountable. So it's
Speaker 1: it's a very very small box. But I think it's
Speaker 1: a place like Cleveland where things are horrible and there
Speaker 1: they need they need a centerpiece is a spot they
Speaker 1: just don't have anything the Sixers would be interested in
Speaker 1: trading for to make them decent. You know, they don't
Speaker 1: have pieces in Cleveland that can play, that can break
Speaker 1: the starting lineup. Well, I look at Ben. You can't
Speaker 1: put him in a situation where it's a high pressure situation.
Speaker 1: He really has to go to a team that doesn't
Speaker 1: have any chance of winning. Therefore, he doesn't get into
Speaker 1: these situations where he doesn't want to shoot a big
Speaker 1: free throw or make a big play, a big dunk
Speaker 1: and I agree with you. He's not a point guards.
Speaker 1: He wants to be Magic Johnson. Well, Magic played at
Speaker 1: a time when he didn't need to have a jumper.
Speaker 1: He did get a jumper, or at least a set shot.
Speaker 1: Ben doesn't have that. You can be six to nine
Speaker 1: and have a good handle, but in today's NBA, if
Speaker 1: you're gonna play the point, got to be able to
Speaker 1: make free throws and you got at least be respectable
Speaker 1: from you know, fifteen to eighteen feet or like Jannis,
Speaker 1: I mean, you have to be willing to fail. That's
Speaker 1: the issue with Ben. It's not that he can't make
Speaker 1: free throws. I mean he hasn't lately, but it's not
Speaker 1: that he can't make free throws at a clip where
Speaker 1: you don't hack a Ben in the middle of the game.
Speaker 1: I mean that's kind of over. And he's not a
Speaker 1: good shooter. But you can shoot thirty one percent from
Speaker 1: fifteen feet and out and still be a threat. I mean,
Speaker 1: your head fake works, but he won't do it like
Speaker 1: Jannis has is not a good shooter. Is a you know,
Speaker 1: there's a ritual that you know, road teams go through
Speaker 1: to embarrass amount of free throw line. But he's so great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's so courageous. He's such a man that he doesn't
Speaker 1: care about that because he wants to win and he
Speaker 1: wants to do what's right. He wants to do what's best.
Speaker 1: And that's the paradox with Ben. He wants to go
Speaker 1: somewhere to win, but he doesn't want to do what
Speaker 1: it takes to win. Yeah. Well, when you've been coddled,
Speaker 1: and we talked about this the last time, that you
Speaker 1: know why I love Yannis because he had to prove himself.
Speaker 1: He works hard every mean, he's still working hard, and
Speaker 1: he's not afraid of being laughed at embarrassed because he
Speaker 1: just wants to be great. Ben gets laughed at and
Speaker 1: then he wants to go into a shell and then
Speaker 1: say stop doing that to me. Instead of being a man,
Speaker 1: step up and go, hey, I'm gonna be great. I
Speaker 1: want to be great. I want to prove everybody wrong.
Speaker 1: And he just hey, send me someplace else, all right,
Speaker 1: He'll send you someplace else. And then what happens when
Speaker 1: things go wrong? Well, I mean, in your profession, you've
Speaker 1: been at the pinnacle of your profession for years, right,
Speaker 1: I'm near the top of my profession. I have looked
Speaker 1: ridiculous thousands of times, even you know, after I arrived
Speaker 1: or whatever. I'm sure there are tapes of Dan Patrick
Speaker 1: out there you don't want anybody to see. But that's
Speaker 1: what it takes to become better. And that's the other
Speaker 1: thing that people don't realize about Ben Simmons. Just because
Speaker 1: he looks like an Adonis and he's ripped up and
Speaker 1: he's got a good handle, it doesn't mean he's much
Speaker 1: better than he was when he got in here from LSU.
Speaker 1: He has not progressed as a player or a person.
Speaker 1: You know, he went to LSU under protest, tanked for
Speaker 1: a year, and was the number one overall pick. His
Speaker 1: plan worked. But he's the same person that I met
Speaker 1: in New York City in the ballroom at the Hilton
Speaker 1: in the pre draft of media availability. Six years later.
Speaker 1: It's the same guy. He's the same spoiled, entouraged, immature,
Speaker 1: narcis cystic, smart capable athlete that he was back then.
Speaker 1: He just hasn't he hasn't grown. I remember when Kobe
Speaker 1: got embarrassed when he was eighteen years of age, the
Speaker 1: airball and the playoffs, and but you know that was motivation.
Speaker 1: All the great players are motivated. Something Jordan would, you know,
Speaker 1: create something to be motivated. You know, Magic was motivated.
Speaker 1: He wanted to beat Bird. Bird was motivated, like the
Speaker 1: greats want to be motivated. I don't know what motivates
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons. Money and attention. That's all he cares about.
Speaker 1: That's all he's ever cared about. Money and attention. I mean,
Speaker 1: Kobe misses a free throw, he builds a gym in
Speaker 1: his house to practice free throws at three o'clock in
Speaker 1: the morning. You know, Michael Jordan gets beat up his
Speaker 1: first year in the NBA. He goes back to UNC
Speaker 1: and he starts working out with the track team and
Speaker 1: the football team to get stronger and faster. You're not
Speaker 1: seeing Ben, you know, working out with the Australian rules
Speaker 1: football team national team or the rugby team to get
Speaker 1: stronger and master and better and tougher. You know, he's
Speaker 1: going to Wimbledon with pretty pretty ladies. You know, he's
Speaker 1: buying a house. He's going on Instagram and he's showing
Speaker 1: you on Instagram or Twitter a video of him making
Speaker 1: a jump shot that he never takes in the game.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's it's insane. I mean, I don't care
Speaker 1: if you make a thousand of them in this gym
Speaker 1: with your trainer, take one in a game, what happens
Speaker 1: on Friday night. I just think it's I think we're
Speaker 1: in this folding pattern for a while and he'll be
Speaker 1: fined more. And I think it's some point the Sixers
Speaker 1: may seek relief, you know, like a breach of contract
Speaker 1: thing and try to get out of the deal. But
Speaker 1: they're not going to trade him for nothing. They're not
Speaker 1: gonna let him win. Daryl Moore is a very difficult
Speaker 1: guy to deal with, the Sixers president, and you know,
Speaker 1: he'll stand on principle until he can't stand any longer.
Speaker 1: And he's gonna win this. He really is. I mean,
Speaker 1: Clutch Sports and Rich Paul and Lebron James is a conglomerate,
Speaker 1: are going to take a big l here. And the
Speaker 1: the biggest loser is going to be bad because he's
Speaker 1: gonna be if he if he plays again, and that's
Speaker 1: a possibility. If he plays again, he's never going to
Speaker 1: be respected. He's going to be a pariah no matter
Speaker 1: where he's at. When he's on the road, he's he's
Speaker 1: going to be a laughing stock and he's gonna lose
Speaker 1: hundreds of millions of potential dollars and earnings. It's just
Speaker 1: it's suicide. I mean, he's got a small window in
Speaker 1: the next one month to get over himself, come back
Speaker 1: and play here and play well and get traded to
Speaker 1: a good team and refurbishes it, refurbishes image, resurrect himself.
Speaker 1: But that's probably the end of the window. Great to
Speaker 1: talk to you. Has always got a lot to write
Speaker 1: about there, Marcus, Thanks for joining us again, Buddy, my pleasure.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. That's Marcus Hayes, Philadelphia inquire a columnist.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to The Dan Patrick Show podcast. Be
Speaker 1: sure to catch us live every weekday morning nine until
Speaker 1: noon eastern six to nine Pacific on Fox Sports Radio,
Speaker 1: and you can find us on the iHeartRadio app at
Speaker 1: FSR or stream us live on the Peacock app. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm Doug Gottlieb. The podcast is called All Ball. We
Speaker 1: usually talk all basketball all the time, but it's more
Speaker 1: about the stories about what made these people love their
Speaker 1: sport and all the interesting interactions along the way. We
Speaker 1: talked to coaches, we talked to players. We tell you
Speaker 1: stories they download it, you listen to it. I think
Speaker 1: you'll like it. Listen to All Ball with Doug Gotlieb
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, orherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1: MLB on TBS Nation League Championship Series host joined by
Speaker 1: Pedro Martinez, Jimmy Rollins, Curtis Granderson on site, pre and postgame.
Speaker 1: TBS is exclusive coverage of the National League Championship Series.
Speaker 1: TVS's Game four coverage from LA begins to night at
Speaker 1: seven thirty Eastern four thirty pm Pacific. As we welcome
Speaker 1: in the great podcast is, Bob, how would you answer
Speaker 1: that question? You know, I thought that each of your
Speaker 1: compatriots had an excellent point. And I do believe, given
Speaker 1: the trend that we're now observing, that it is inevitable
Speaker 1: that there will be some sort of electronic balls and
Speaker 1: strikes within our lifetime if I live another X number
Speaker 1: of years. But yet, as was pointed out, there is
Speaker 1: a rich tapestry to the game, Dan, and I appreciate
Speaker 1: all of those nuances, the little subtleties of a catcher
Speaker 1: framing a pitch to make a borderline ball appear to
Speaker 1: be a strike, a pitcher working the zone, figuring out
Speaker 1: what that particular plate umpire has as his strike zone
Speaker 1: that day. Can I go an inch further off either corner?
Speaker 1: And so, yes, Well, it is inevitable. It will be
Speaker 1: a blow to the game and to its connection to
Speaker 1: generational history. That's my answer, Dan, because that's what your
Speaker 1: guys want my answer to be. But I wonder, though, Bob,
Speaker 1: we have the technology, but we want the umpires to
Speaker 1: get every other call right. But when it comes to
Speaker 1: the strike zone, we're sort of okay with it being
Speaker 1: loosely interpreted. Why Yeah, Like yesterday, for example, it looked
Speaker 1: like it looked like Walker Bueller had Jack Peterson with
Speaker 1: strike three. The replay clearly showed the ball had the corner,
Speaker 1: it was an O two pitch would have been strike three.
Speaker 1: The outback continued, he got a base hit. It was
Speaker 1: part of a scoring inning for the Braves. You're right,
Speaker 1: we want everything down to the micro millimeter in every
Speaker 1: other call where replay is allowed. It's not allowed by
Speaker 1: the way on check swings. And we saw how that
Speaker 1: happened the last pitch of the game in Game five
Speaker 1: in the Division Series between the Giants and the Dodgers.
Speaker 1: I guess the resistance with balls and strikes is whether
Speaker 1: or not they really believe that an electronic strike zone
Speaker 1: is infallible. And there are some arguments about the depth
Speaker 1: of the strike zone and whether we can exactly get
Speaker 1: a guy's stance. What if the guy's stance changes, he
Speaker 1: goes into more of a crouch's whatever the case may be,
Speaker 1: the break of the pitch, can technology perfectly capture that
Speaker 1: to where Okay, the plate umpire is ninety eight percent accurate,
Speaker 1: but can the I'm making that figure up. But let's
Speaker 1: say that's the figure ninety eight percent accurate and electronically,
Speaker 1: if we're only ninety nine percent accurate, is that worth it?
Speaker 1: And I'm not so sure that I'm as up as
Speaker 1: I should be on all the aspects of this to
Speaker 1: be able to say that they've gotten it to the
Speaker 1: point where an electronic balls and strikes approach will be infallible.
Speaker 1: What was the mood infallible? If it's infallible, it's inevitable.
Speaker 1: What was the mood like prior to Cody Bellinger's home run?
Speaker 1: Last night? Dodger Stadium was a out as quiet as
Speaker 1: fifty thousand people can be. You heard murmurs rather than cheers.
Speaker 1: A few brave souls tried to get a let's go
Speaker 1: Dodgers chant going, and it went nowhere. When Will Smith
Speaker 1: and Aj Pollock got hits and brought Bellinger to the plate,
Speaker 1: then the place came alive. And when he connected, it
Speaker 1: changed from a morgan into a madhouse, just like that.
Speaker 1: And what is it about Bellinger? You know, like used
Speaker 1: to be the Mendoza line was the embarrassing number at
Speaker 1: two hundred and he's bat one sixty five during the season,
Speaker 1: but seventh inning on in the postseason, he's become a
Speaker 1: different hitter. What has gotten into Bellinger? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: he's he's had excellent regular seasons previously. In this season
Speaker 1: there was a combination of things injuries, and then he
Speaker 1: couldn't get untracked. And now I guess he's just feeling it.
Speaker 1: What was really interesting the home run yesterday that he
Speaker 1: hit off Luke Jackson. That pitch was up, and usually
Speaker 1: the book with Bellinger is if you're gonna miss, miss up,
Speaker 1: because he has that extreme uppercut swing and he'll just
Speaker 1: lash a low pitch out of the park. And somehow
Speaker 1: he got on top of the pitch that probably was
Speaker 1: above the strike zone and hit a four hundred feet
Speaker 1: what's the biggest storyline so far the postseason, Well, I
Speaker 1: think one of them would be if the Braves who
Speaker 1: are still up despite the fact that the momentum seems
Speaker 1: to have changed. The Braves are up two games to one.
Speaker 1: The biggest storyline could be that if we ever didn't
Speaker 1: realize it, we realize it now. This is a tournament
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty two games to get there, but
Speaker 1: already the team that won the most one hundred and
Speaker 1: seven is out. Didn't even get to one step from
Speaker 1: the World Series. Out close series with the Dodgers, but out.
Speaker 1: The Dodgers won one hundred and six, they could very
Speaker 1: well be out. The Braves, let's say, could make it
Speaker 1: to the World Series. Eighty eight wins was the fewest
Speaker 1: for any division winner, and the Red Sox could very well.
Speaker 1: As a team that barely qualified as a wild card,
Speaker 1: the Red Sox could very well be their opponent. The
Speaker 1: old saying in sports, it's not so much who you play,
Speaker 1: it's when you play him. It's a long season. The
Speaker 1: way pitching staffs are used now, with openers and starters
Speaker 1: being applauded for giving you four solid innings. It's just
Speaker 1: a different game than it used to be, and more
Speaker 1: so than ever, especially with two wild cards, and maybe
Speaker 1: in the future there'll be more wild cards than that.
Speaker 1: The postseason is just a roll of the dice. How
Speaker 1: do you think history is going to treat Jose l
Speaker 1: two Bay the longer his career goes and the better
Speaker 1: he performs. It's a good question. But the longer his
Speaker 1: career goes, the better he performs, the further it is
Speaker 1: in the rearview mirror. I think, on balance it'll treat
Speaker 1: him kindly. Carlos Korea said recently that Jose was somebody
Speaker 1: who did not want to hear the banging on the
Speaker 1: trash can, that he did not benefit from that. But
Speaker 1: then there's the image of him coming around third after
Speaker 1: hitting that series winning homer, offer all this Chapman and
Speaker 1: he appears to be clutching his jersey and he's yelling
Speaker 1: at his teammates, don't rip my jersey off, And that
Speaker 1: led to speculation that there was some kind of wire
Speaker 1: on him. So, if Carlos is correct, maybe al Tuve
Speaker 1: was an innocent spectator who just didn't spill the beans
Speaker 1: because of the code of Omerta. But if the thing
Speaker 1: about wearing a wire is true, and if we ever
Speaker 1: get a definitive answer to that, that could change the picture.
Speaker 1: But I think that generally speaking, people's memories, outside of
Speaker 1: those who feel that they were directly burned by the
Speaker 1: Astros Dodgers fans from twenty seventeen whatever, I think most
Speaker 1: will be forgiving because he's a terrific player and from
Speaker 1: all indications he seems to be a very nice guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but Shulis Joe Jackson maintained he never took any money
Speaker 1: and he hit three seventy five. But yep, you know what,
Speaker 1: he's paid the prices. Well, obviously Bart from the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame never going to get in. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: he was actually people don't realize this. He was actually
Speaker 1: on the ballot in the early days of the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. He was on the ballot, never got enough support.
Speaker 1: He died in nineteen fifty. He was still technically eligible
Speaker 1: for Veterans committees until in nineteen ninety one, two years
Speaker 1: after Pete Rose was banned by Bartjamati, the Board of
Speaker 1: Director of the Hall of Fame put it in a rule.
Speaker 1: It said, anybody who's on the permanently ineligible list is
Speaker 1: not eligible for the ballot, and that was obviously aimed
Speaker 1: directly at Pete Rose, since at that point Joe Jackson
Speaker 1: had been dead for more than forty years, you know,
Speaker 1: and he was just an aside. I'm not a moralist
Speaker 1: on this. I don't know if I've talked with you
Speaker 1: about this before, Dan, but my dad Ad was an
Speaker 1: inveterate gambler of the Guysendalls Damon Runyon School. He bet
Speaker 1: with guys named Blinkie and three Finger, who undoubtedly were
Speaker 1: connected to the mob. And this is in the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: and very often the mortgage roade on whether he would
Speaker 1: win his bets or lose his bets. So I'm not
Speaker 1: being a moralist about this. But within the last decade,
Speaker 1: every Commissioner of Baseball has testified before Congress that legalized
Speaker 1: gambling would be the end of sports as we know.
Speaker 1: It would be the worst thing it could ever happen.
Speaker 1: And now there's so much money available they can't turn
Speaker 1: their backs on it. And not only do they embrace it,
Speaker 1: they promote it. And yet Pete Rose, who's in his
Speaker 1: eighties and who you wouldn't want to defend, in every
Speaker 1: respect as a person. I am not going to defend
Speaker 1: everything he did in baseball or outside baseball. He never
Speaker 1: did anything, so far as the evidence we have, did
Speaker 1: anything that undermined the integrity of the competition as much
Speaker 1: as those who are still in the game and have
Speaker 1: been suspended but have returned, those who were on the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame ballot, whether they get elected or not.
Speaker 1: Here he is on the outside looking in. How can
Speaker 1: this be made any more absurd? What would the harm
Speaker 1: be if Pete Rose went on the Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: ballot or was eligible before a Veterans committee, And if
Speaker 1: he's on the ballot, the clock should start from zero.
Speaker 1: He was never on the clock, So you should get
Speaker 1: ten years on that ballot if you want to do
Speaker 1: it that way, or make him, given his age, immediately
Speaker 1: eligible for Veterans Committee considerations. And if people want to
Speaker 1: hold the gambling against him in light of all the
Speaker 1: present realities and the light of all the comparisons to
Speaker 1: other people within baseball and their misdeeds, let them do it,
Speaker 1: but at least let him be considered. Well, I just wonder,
Speaker 1: and I've talked to the previous commissioner about this of
Speaker 1: further evidence. Did Pete bett when he was playing, which
Speaker 1: I believe he was betting when he was playing, and
Speaker 1: we know that he bet when he was managing, and
Speaker 1: he said, well, and years ago he told me and
Speaker 1: Keith Overman, I bet on my team to win. Well,
Speaker 1: you can manipulate the lineup to help you win, and
Speaker 1: I don't. Can you separate Pete as the manager betting
Speaker 1: on baseball with just Pete as the player? And maybe
Speaker 1: we don't have as much evidence there that I could.
Speaker 1: I put him in the Hall of Fame because he
Speaker 1: was a Hall of Fame player, and you know, punish
Speaker 1: him by keeping him out of baseball because of what
Speaker 1: he did as a manager. Is it fair to split
Speaker 1: him up like that? Well, in the big picture, I
Speaker 1: think you can. You can temper justice with mercy people
Speaker 1: who've committed Hainau's crimes. And I realized as an apple
Speaker 1: apples and oranges aspect here, but people who have committed
Speaker 1: heinous crimes get paroled in less time than this. And
Speaker 1: we know that if Pete Rose lives to be a hundred,
Speaker 1: in the first parag half of his obituary will be
Speaker 1: the fact that he bet on baseball and was banned
Speaker 1: for baseball from baseball because of it. The price that
Speaker 1: he has paid in his life and in his legacy
Speaker 1: is enormous, So you could take that into account. I
Speaker 1: would think, by the way, I asked a Rob Men
Speaker 1: for that question about five years ago. Is there anything
Speaker 1: in that Baseball has on Pete Rose that the public
Speaker 1: does not know about? You don't even have to specify it,
Speaker 1: but is there something beyond the public understanding that leads
Speaker 1: Baseball to say to say, no, this is a non starter.
Speaker 1: And his answer to that was no, Yeah, our reasons
Speaker 1: are out there. We know what our reasons are. If
Speaker 1: I gave you one vote, Pete Rose, Roger Clemens, Verry Bonds.
Speaker 1: You know, Dan, you asked such good questions. You know
Speaker 1: I've said this before, and I said it to you.
Speaker 1: Some people with regard to Barry Bonds, let's say Tom
Speaker 1: Berducci is one. I have great respect for Tom. He says,
Speaker 1: I don't care if you took steroids the last year
Speaker 1: of your career and you already had a record number
Speaker 1: of home runs. If you ever did it once, that's it.
Speaker 1: As far as I'm concerned. My position is a little
Speaker 1: bit more lenient than that. When you talk about Clements
Speaker 1: and especially Bonds, you're talking about people who are on
Speaker 1: the shortlist of the greatest of the great. If you
Speaker 1: shrunk the Hall of Fame by eighty or ninety percent
Speaker 1: on their performing merits, they'd still be in the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. So, you know, I could see voting for
Speaker 1: all of those guys, especially because of the price they
Speaker 1: have paid to their reputations, the amount of time that
Speaker 1: they have waited. I probably go. I'd probably actually go
Speaker 1: Rose Bonds, Clements in that order, Rose Bonds, Clements, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but with ambivalence, with ambivalence. You know, in the case
Speaker 1: of Bonds, it's a terrible shame. Barry Bonds is a
Speaker 1: very intelligent guy, and his baseball IQ is at an
Speaker 1: Einstein level, and on his natural merits, he'd be in
Speaker 1: the discussion of the dozen or so greatest all around
Speaker 1: non pitchers who ever played. And think how much better
Speaker 1: his legacy would be outside San Francisco, where they love
Speaker 1: him seemingly unconditionally. But think how much better his legacy
Speaker 1: would be if he had hit five hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: five career home runs, you know, hit two ninety five lifetime,
Speaker 1: won all the Gold gloves had all the great seasons,
Speaker 1: you know, he'd be in the Hall of Fame, and
Speaker 1: he'd be he'd be close to universally respected and admired.
Speaker 1: And when Barry Bonds wants to sit with someone and
Speaker 1: talk with them, he's so engaging. He has that beautiful smile.
Speaker 1: People who know him well talk about his charitable acts
Speaker 1: and how and how engaging he can be. But he
Speaker 1: did play a good portion of his career with a
Speaker 1: chip on his shoulder because of the mistreatment that his
Speaker 1: dad had received and because of some of what he
Speaker 1: saw Willie Mays go through earlier in his career. Although
Speaker 1: now Willie is beloved by everyone. So there was a
Speaker 1: chip on his shoulder and a lot of that was
Speaker 1: projected to the media. But so what. Had he never
Speaker 1: used steroids, had he never turned baseball into a video
Speaker 1: game and distorted the competition, all of that would have
Speaker 1: been a mere footnote, and he'd now be at the
Speaker 1: top of the Hall of Fame pyramid. It's a shame.
Speaker 1: I remember asking him about all of this information that
Speaker 1: you know he is, you know baseball IQ, and I said,
Speaker 1: do you share this information with your teammates? And he goes, no,
Speaker 1: because one day they could be my opponent, not my teammate.
Speaker 1: Oh god, wow, okay, yeah wow, Yeah tonight we're teammates. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but tomorrow we might not make care it during the
Speaker 1: World Series. Yeah, kind of win the World Series. Uh,
Speaker 1: we'll have fun tonight, Bob. It's great to talk to you,
Speaker 1: and thanks for joining us. As always, thank you. Take care,
Speaker 1: Bob cost Us. I'll be joined by Pedro Martinez, Jimmy Rollins,
Speaker 1: Curtis Granderson, pre and post game that's on TBS, the
Speaker 1: home of the National League Championship Series and Game four
Speaker 1: coverage tonight in Los Angeles, seven thirty Eastern four thirty
Speaker 1: pm Pacific,