DL416: The Great Baseball Race. Plus, Do You Believe Woody or Cush?
We start the show talking about the great races in MLB, specifically the fact that with 50 games to go . The next few months — even with football starting — should provide some compelling (and attention grabbing) baseball.
Will we get a Game 163 again this year? Can you imagine the AL Central without one at this point? And what will happen with all the rain outs that will turn late-season off days into extra days of travel and baseball.
We also talk about Jason Heyward’s birthday homer (more on that later today at Press Coverage).
SPECULATION STATION
We play a game of “Do you believe” to discuss if we believe Woody Johnson when he says he doesn’t expect Darrelle Revis will play this season. THIS SEASON?!@?
DL415: HOF, Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, Bill Leavy, Derek Jeter, No-Hitters, Barack Obama, LeBron James
The headline basically says it all.
We talk about the Hall of Fame. We talk about Bill Leavy’s admission to the Seahawks that he may have had a few bad calls in the Super Bowl FIVE YEARS AGO.
TALKING BASEBALL
We talk about Derek Jeter’s hits and how despite being the most prolific Yankee of all time, he’s still 39th in MLB history and doesn’t yet have 2,900 hits, let alone the magic 3,000. What does this latest “record” mean for baseball? Nothing, other than the Yankees had great teams in their history, but never a player who had 3,000 hits. That’s about it.
We also talk about Brandon Morrow’s near no-hitter to go back to our conversation from a few weeks ago asking if you root for the no-hitter or for it to be broken up. Evan Longoria did just that with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, taking a no-no away from the Blue Jays hurler. It would have been the THIRD time the Rays were no-hit THIS YEAR (add in the one Matt Garza threw and that’s a lot of no-hitters to be involved in) which is pretty amazing for any team, let alone a team fighting for a division title.
HOUSEKEEPING
Nick brings up Barack Obama’s celebrity pick-up game with LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, et al that the President had for wounded troops to mention the fact that the media was not allowed in. Did not allowing the media inside make the story more interesting to the media, and thus create more coverage from an event that you were trying to not have covered?
On that note, we briefly discuss if the First Family is living two lives — one of governance and one of celebrity. They seem great at the celebrity, but is that hurting the other role? Or could anyone be successful right now in the other role?
Somehow this turns into a conversation about Obama hanging out with LeBron and how you can be famous, but not all that well liked by those in America. That leads to a conversation about how Brett Favre should be hanging out with George Bush, and they should play in some kind of pickup game against Obama and LeBron. They have to be the four people in America we like/hate the most right now. It just seems right to get them on some kind of field or court together.
Speaking of not liking those who represent your country, some very prominent English soccer players got booed on their home soil in this weekend to their World Cup failures. Would that happen in America? Do we care enough about any international competition? Landon Donovan and Bob Bradley did the talk show circuit after the World Cup and they were knocked out in the same round as the English team. Should our expectations be higher, or is booing those who represent your country bad form?
The headline basically says it all. And I wish we knew about the latest Cushing details before we recorded. Alas…click to listen.
Everyone wants to talk to the draft guys before the draft. Who is my favorite/local team going to pick? Where will Tebow get drafted? I couldn’t care less about talking with someone like NFLN’s Mike Mayock about that kind of stuff because EVERYONE is talking with him about that kind of stuff.
No, I’m more fascinated with talking about the process after the process is over. So how did this year’s draft go for him, the teams, and the league?
We talk about when the draft evaluation process begins and how long it is for everyone involved. We also discuss the differences between a big board and a mock draft. Turns out, Mayock only does one mock draft a year…the day the draft starts. But his information does come from a balance of scouting reports, talking with teams and his own assessment of tape and workouts. And man alive does he watch a lot of tape and go to a lot of workouts.
He explains that he looks at his job like he’s a scout/GM for a team, but on top of that, he’s trying to look at every team and, during the draft, fit players he thinks will be good for their specific system. In essence, he’s playing GM for all 32 teams, PLUS his own evaluations. That’s a lot of work.
I ask about NFLN and the amount of interviews he did in advance of the draft. Does he feel like he has to be a pitchman for the network now that they’ve been doing the draft for a few years? Ultimately, the goal is to get more people watching, right? Well, not to Mayock. He makes it perfectly clear that his job is to evaluate football talent and not worry about TV. He’s a football guy, who happens to ply his trade on television. He’s rather specific about that.
What about Mel? Doesn’t he have a rivalry with Mel? It would make the rest of us so much happier if he had a rivalry…nah, hatred…with Mel. Get ready to be disappointed.