PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Arizona Sports Thanksgiving

Episode Date: November 17, 2021

It's an Arizona Sports Thanksgiving! Makayla Perkins is joined by Greg Esposito, Derek Montilla and Petey as they discuss what about sports makes them the most thankful PLUS which Thanksgiving dish is the best! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome into the Phoenix Sports Podcast presented by Draf King Sportsbook America's Top Righted Sportsbook app. I'm your host, Michaela Perkins, and joining me today is Derek Montia, Greg Esposito. Actually, it's Greg Esposito's evil twin. You guys are going to hear his voice in a second, and it's not going to sound like Espo. So I'm calling it Espo's evil twin. And Steve Peters, the one and only. How are you guys doing this lovely Wednesday? This is the evil twin?

Not as good knowing I'm sitting next to an imposter. I mean, Espo, do you want to share your voice with us? I'm doing great. How are you guys today? Oh, my God. No, I'm not. I'm not what it sounded like. I'm not the evil twin.

I'm just, apparently I've overtaxed my vocal cords lately, so. No, you don't say. I'm just talking way too much for the people of Phoenix. Well, that's what you get for your bragging in our faces about how many shows you appeared on in a week. Who holds the record right now? I take Derek. Really? Seriously?

He's got me beat by one show. He's got you beat by one show. Oh, that's incredible. That's right. Derek's on every show ever. We're going to have a week where I just do every show just to see if I can live through it. The poor viewers and listen. I'm so sorry.

No one's breaking down the door to do those coyotes podcast. I haven't gotten any invite yet. I did not bet on them to lose, Petey, and they won, so things are going good. I don't think anybody needs to do the coyotes podcast. I don't know how. I was saying this before we started the show, but Leah, Craig, and Petey have somehow managed to make a hockey team. that has only won two games this entire year, actually interesting.

I really enjoy watching that show. Did you have any doubts? Sounds like she had lots of doubts. Sounds like it was going to be a dumpster fire, much like the team this year on the ice. I was like, why are we even doing a coyote show? Yeah, we thought the same thing. If you guys have it checked out at the pH and X coyote show,

you have to. They do an incredible job, even if you don't care or like the coyote is still watch their show because it's so good. We do have fun. Yeah, you guys do have fun. Thanks, Mac. How about we get into our Valley Sports temperature check?

Speaking of the coyotes, they won! They won! They won! For only the second time this season, the coyotes managed to win a game. They beat the Blues. Pee-Pee, what is it about the Blues that they just can't seem to win? You know, it's four straight wins in St. Louis in a tough building

against a team that's battling for first place in the Central. There is no explanation. It's different coaches, different. players, different management, and they still win in that building. I don't know what it is. It's not system. It's not players. There's just something about playing in St. Louis. I tell you what, though, it was a fun game to watch. Goaltending got him through. I mean, Wedgwood made the saves he needed to make when he was called upon, gave the team a chance to take a deep breath and create some offense. They haven't had that all season. It was fun. Do I think they're going on a big

streak like our hometown sons? You know, pump the brakes a little bit. but it was nice to get a win. Probably not. Does Wedgey have to keep the New Jersey gear now? Question, though. This is good because we talked about the discourse. I'm actually glad you brought it up. The New Jersey gears, people were saying, well, what's the problem?

Is he just superstitious? Reality? Supply chain issues. They can't get the gear. That gear is handmade. So, one, it takes a long time. Two, when they do finally get it, they have to break it in. But they are having, it's difficult to get equipment.

and some of this stuff is made around the world. And they're having a hard time. I actually checked into it today. It's a case of if it's not broke, don't pay a whole ton of money to fix it. And you know what, thank goodness, the New Jersey Devils are black and red, so it's kind of like if you squint a little bit

or take your glasses off like Craig does, then it doesn't really matter. Goldier is expensive, isn't it? Yes. Everything in hockey is expensive. I'm guessing a NHL franchise can afford it. Yeah, that's true. Do they have to pay?

They don't pay for the own gear, too. No, they don't. You know what they do, though, for their masks? Because they get them custom paint. So you got to get the custom paint job, and the team does not provide. So you can't just roll down to Sports Authority or Dick's sporting goods and just. I can't. I mean, the swap meets closed, or else I'd say go down there and have one of those airbrush artists hit it up.

Sick. We should do that. I've got a blank goalie mask at home. We should get a PNX stop. Let's do that. That would be pretty sweet. Can we do that? Can we get Phoenix on the side of it?

PHNX. Can we get that? That would be pretty cool. I think we should. See if Saw has got that in the budget. I approve the expense. It's approved. And we'll put it right.

Yeah, I'm in. I'll bring it in. Well, the coyotes that they did manage to beat the Blues. I don't know how everyone is injured, right? Pete, the whole roster is just designated at this point. And the big news? Nine guys. They had one more win than the Diamondbacks this week.

That's awful. That's true. That seems like a completely unnecessary side swipe. To be fair, they had one more win than the Cardinals this week, too. Oh, geez. They will play the Blue Jackets tomorrow. Do you have them winning that game? No.

No, I don't know. It's a tough travel coming from east to west, their first game back. It's going to be a tall task to beat Columbus. But if they get that kind of goaltending, I think they'll be in the game. So we'll see. Which is really crazy because at the beginning of the season, we were terrified about the goaltending. Carter Hutton was not looking too hot.

We only really had Vamalka and Nett, which was not great case scenario. You don't want to only be having one goal. in the National Hockey League. But now we have two somehow. They take a wedge. He's 25-year-old guy that's never played in North America before. They put a lot on his plate early

and, you know, I think the chance for MVP may be a little too premature. He struggled when he was finally given the mantle. And I think this is a better spot for him to be backing up Wedgwood. Wedgwood's a veteran guy. He understands what's going on here in the organization. He gets the rebuilding.

He's mature enough. And you know what? He's getting a chance to play because he wasn't playing in New Jersey. So it's a good fit for everybody. So I'm actually really excited for him. Is it, though? Is there a chance when Hutton comes back,

that they go back to the plan that originally was there? I don't look for Carter Hutton to rush back. Okay. I was just wondering because that will be an issue. Because you'll have three goalies that are, you can't keep all three of them. There's no point in sending him to the minors because he need Ivan Prasvatov to develop down there

and be the guy. There isn't room for three. Somebody's going to be the odd man out. And to me, right now, Scott Wedgwood has to be the guy you play. And believe me, this team is not going to make the playoffs. They're not going to threaten for the playoffs. They're still going to lose games, whether Scott Wedgwood's in the net, Carter, Hutton, or Carrelva Malcolm. They're still going to lose.

So the plan is fine. But let's give the team a chance to win a game now and then. And I think Wedgwood's done the best of that. I mean, and more importantly, it's Wedgie and Veggie. So that's like a television show waiting to happen. Exactly. Golly tandem nickname duo in a whole week. It's like a roommate show, one of who's foreign, one of them's North American.

Perfect stranger. It is. Arizona Coy's, if you listen to this, hit us up. We'll get a commercial series going. Wedgie's a nerd that gets picked on all the time. Veggie's a health freak. I think we got some. I love it.

Brett in the comments giving a shout out to PD. PD's in a little bit of a feisty mood today. So prepare for a lot more of those things. Everybody's out of control. If you're in the comments, Say what's up. Let us know you're there. We'll give you a shout out on the show.

We love it when you guys interact with us. Well, going from one team that can't seem to win every now and then to a team that can't stop winning, Phoenix Suns are on a nine-game win streak, the longest active win streak in the NBA right now. What is going on with the Suns Espo? What's working for them? I believe it's called Mooi-Caliente. They're not even playing that well. That's the impressive thing.

They have not put together a full game. They've had issues. CP3 is playing well, which is always helpful. He's back to picking and choosing when he turns on his offensive game to kind of give them room and kind of spread a lead. Devin Booker's still not shooting as effectively as anybody'd hoped. DeUnder Ait and finally back had a double-double after missing, I believe, it was six of seven games.

So look, they've won nine in a row, and they haven't come close to reach. their potential. So I'm not saying they're going to win 18 in a row, but this is this is their longest win streak since 2010. They've really just found a way to win even when it's ugly, like the other night in Minnesota. And to me, that's a sign of an actually good team. There were some people that were like, were the sons pretenders, what was last year? There were so many doubters at the beginning of the season when they were having that rough patch. There still are even after this win streak. But to me, this. is a sign of no they're a team that understands how to win and that they'll do it even when

they're not playing their best basketball which is which is key they're still playing down to their opponents a little bit but look I think the streak ends tonight against the Mavs I was going to ask they are playing the Mavs tonight Frank Kaminski is out what are you expecting that's this big problem right there yeah I suppose a limousie now so what does that do with DeAndre 8 and back in the line up for the big men down the middle this is If Kaminsky were healthy and we're still in the lineup, the minutes are gone? No, I don't think Frank's minutes would be gone necessarily. He just, Monty would have to ride the hot hand backing up DA.

So you'd have to figure out, okay, if Javail's really got it going, you know, how do you play him? Javale and Moni said this tends to play better in five-minute stretches. so there is opportunity to have Frank play as well. But to be honest, Frank has disappeared to the bench on multiple occasions over his time in Phoenix. And he's just a guy that's always ready if and when you need him. I mean, beginning of the season, he wasn't playing much. Dia gets hurt. He comes in.

Obviously, has a great stretch there. So I think Moni will find minutes, but also I'm prepared as much. as it hurt me. That Frank may not play significantly, you know, after he comes back from injury as well. So the 30-point night is not looming in the near future. I sure hope not. You're not shaving your light hair yet. Not yet. But Mac, to answer your question, I think I really feel they lose tonight against the Mavs coming off a road trip back home for the first game. Late game on ESPN, you're playing the Mavs, even though. Luca won't be playing because he's ducking DA.

I still have an off feeling, but I think they win again late night game on ESPN against Dallas on Friday because who in the hell does the scheduling for the NBA? I don't know, but you get an 8 p.m. Wednesday game against the MAVs on ESPN and an 8 p.m. Friday game against the MAVs on ESPN, both in Phoenix. So I think they win the second one. They lose the first one. Okay. DA has been playing great, by the way, in his return.

And I think that the schedule helped with that win streak a little bit. Oh, definitely. But you got to win against whoever you're facing. You can't do much about the schedule. That is true. All right. Moving on to the Cardinals. I know Derek, you are our Diamondback's guy,

but we're going to talk a little bit cards here. They lost their matchup against the Panthers. This is their sixth straight game against the Panthers that they've lost. It's awful. I don't understand. It seems like the complete opposite from the Coyotes in the blue situation. The Cardinals and the Panthers. and the Panthers constantly lose against the same thing.

It doesn't even make sense. It transcends over years. I feel like the last time they beat the Panthers was in the playoffs when they went to the Super Bowl. So wild. It is wild. Cam came back. And I mean, again, I think you can't underestimate what his impact was in that game. Even though it was small, it's, you know, like I said on the Cardinals show this week,

a lot of these guys grew up idolizing someone like Cam Newton. So to be now able to play with him on the Panthers, it probably got that team really. fired up for him to get in there on a game where he really had no business even being active considering how recently he was picked up by Carolina. When in the Cardinals defense, the, you know, Kyler was out. Then Colt got hurts. They have their third string quarterback in there. It was just not a good game for the Cardinals.

I mean, it just looked. Right. It was, it's like a lot of things. You get down behind, you get behind early like they did due to the turnovers and just Colt McCoy not being able to be really effective against their defense. And, you know, they had a hard time just getting. everything back on track. I'm just more concerned about their defense, to be honest, and what Carolina was able to do to them. You could take away those two, you know, scores, the two

touchdowns due to the turnovers. And it still was a beatdown by Carolina. So I think that they have a lot of things to address, not just their quarterback situation. Hopefully we'll see Kyler Murray back he practiced today. Still no word on whether or not he's going to be available on Sunday. But yeah, I was going to say, according to Darren Urban, he was at practice. And all three quarterbacks did practice today, Kyler Colt and Chris. And Kyler, he's, Cliff Kingsbury said Kyler was moving around better than he was, but he is obviously still questionable for Sunday. But he was participating. And Kyler said that he is ahead of schedule and he's feeling better earlier than he thought he would.

But I think that the loss, the way it went was so bad that they have to probably expedite him. getting back on the field maybe a week earlier than they wanted to. Yeah, I don't think you have a choice. They just can't, you know, they can't risk now losing two in a row going into the by week and just really kind of, you know, wondering where they stand when they come out of that by week. And it's a division game. In-conference, obviously that's all going to impact playoff seating and how you do. And that's the way the Cardinals have to think at this point is, you know, can they get that by?

Can they win this division? So I think you have to rush from back. would have guessed if you're missing your starting quarterback your best receiver you're starting running back and a bunch of offensive linemen that you might play a bad game oh now we want to acknowledge injuries we didn't want to talk about it when the dbacks were missing half of their roster the debacks were built to fail so even with that they still would have been a bad baseball team it's not historically bad i still can't get over their preseason depth chart that had literally the same guy backing up three different people it's like well what if all three of them are out is he

going to play all three positions? Yes. Well, speaking of the Diamondbacks, just check in with them really quickly. It is the offseason, but they are making some great moves, in my opinion. They just are bolstering their coaching roster. Derek, what are your thoughts on their latest acquisitions for coaches? I think it backs up what Mike Hayeson said that they

are not going to necessarily go to free agency for positional needs. Because they have a big positional needs. I mean, their defensive runs, last and defensive run saves at center field and at second base. So Cotel Marte needs to go back to second base. They'll have to fill Cole Calhoun's position, third base, and center field. And I don't know if they have enough young players in the minor leagues ready to do that.

So I wouldn't be surprised for them to pick up a free agent or two, just not make any drastic moves or any huge big money moves. The coaching hires, though, back up what Hazen said as far as going to their farm system for, you know, these positional needs. They really did bring in an all-star team of coaches. when you look at Joe Mather, Bannister, and now Brent Strom from the Houston Astros. I spent four weeks talking about how much I admired watching Brent Strom in interviews and stuff through the playoffs and literally saying how much I would like a guy like that.

So it's like my dream come true that they went after somebody that's, you know, just I was like, we need somebody like that with that experience. He has over 50 years of experience in Major League Baseball. You know, you can't, you can't discredit how important that is. but he's also not kind of like an old fogey when it comes to like analytics and using newer technology in order to better the team. Like the head coach of the wine song. Yeah. I've been saying that for a long time.

Totally. But yeah, I'm excited because I really think that at times I believe baseball is a game that you don't have to go out there and pay guys a ton of money. I really feel like if you can develop guys, make them better with good coaching, that that's the key to teams like the Tampa Bay raise. another organization. The thing about Strom, though, that excites me is the Astros had almost the identical record that the DeBACs had this year, the year before Strom joined the team. And I'm not saying it was exclusively him, but within two seasons, the team was, you know, over 500 and were competing for playoff positions. And they ended up becoming one of the most successful teams as far as reaching the ALCS over a five-year period and making the World Series. Are you surprised that they invested so much in a coaching staff?

with Tori Lavello on a one year? Like, does that shock you? It shocks me because of these all-being personal Tori Lavello hires, but I think that they really believe in Tori, and I don't think that they feel like this season was his fault. I do think that when you looked at his staff around him, they didn't have that much experience. Matt Hurges hadn't been a pitching coach for very long.

It's primarily with the debacks over the last two years. His bench coach was, you know, basically had pales in comparison to the experience that Jeff Bannister's coming. in with, right? So, like, I do say that they do have a coaching staff in place now, that if they were to let Tori Lavala go mid-season, they could not miss a beat and have an interim guy with as much experience, if not more so, than Tori. I mean, Bannister won the AL manager of the year as the Texas Rangers manager in 2015. The guy is just an outstanding human being when we had him

on the podcast, and he's somebody I get really excited about his approach and his philosophies to baseball. I just, I do think that it's a surprise move, but I think that they're committed more to the development of the young players rather than giving Tori the ultimate staff. I really do think at this point, Tori could be replaced and probably they'd retain the rest of the

staff. I hope that wasn't the thinking, hey, let's get these big names. So if we have to let Tori go, we've got options. I'm excited about, I think that coaching staff is really like what Derek was saying. They have so much experience and they're the perfect staff to develop all of the young talent of the Diamondbacks have because they have ton of it. Mac Huff in the

comments saying Tucson legend. That's right. Is he from Tucson? He is from Tucson. He still resides there. He was actually the pitching coach for the Tucson Toros back in the 70s. Well, there you go. I think that was his first gig. Welcome back to Arizona. I'm very optimistic. Just I don't know, baseball is one of those games that I see, I've seen teams

throw a lot of money around at big names and it doesn't necessarily work out when you're adding to a core that you develop and you bring in those guys either through trades midseason or, you know, a free agency acquisition here or there to just put you over the top, that's different. But the Diamondbacks right now are so far off that right now they need to focus on developing who their core is, who's going to be a part of it.

They just, they have some great young talent right now right at that level. I mean, you've seen some of these guys in Fall League. Buddy Kennedy and Dom Canzon have been just tearing the cover off the ball over the last week in Fall League. And Kennedy, for instance, wasn't having a great, you know, fall up until that point. These guys can turn it around and the coaching and, you know, developing them is such a big part of it. Yeah, absolutely. There's no more important time for the Diamondbacks organization than now to have good coaches because they are at the precipice of all of their young talent coming up through their system.

So all right, that was your Valley Sports temperature check. Before we get into our topic of the day, I've got to tell you guys about drafting sports book. Football fans, who's ready to score some free bets? Now you can bet on any NFL game this week with draft king's sports. book, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. New customers who bet just $1 on either team to score can win $100 in free bets when a team scores you score. I feel like scoring happens in football.

Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes, you know, the offense struggles a little bit. But to me, this seems like a pretty solid bet. Draft King's sports book customers can also get skin in the game with new same game parlayes. Combine multiple bets from the same game for a bigger payout, the more legs you add, the more money you can win. Drop Kings is safe, secure, and reliable. And best of all, you can deposit and withdraw your cash whenever you want.

That's one of my favorite parts of the Drag King Sportsbook app. Download the Drop King Sportsbook app now. Use promo code PHNX bet $1 on either team to score and you win $100 in free bets. If they score, you score with promo code PHNX this week at Jack King's Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. 21 and up only, Arizona only gambling problem call 1,800. Next step. New customers only eligibility restrictions apply.

see draw kings.com slash sportsbook for details. Oh, that was a mouthful. That is a lot. All right. How about we get into our topic of the day? It's Arizona Sports Thanksgiving. Woo. I know it might seem a little early.

We're a week, more than a little bit of a week away from Thanksgiving. But I already have our topic planned out for next week. And it has all to do with rivalries. Obviously, as a territorial cup is on Saturday. So I figured we might as well talk about Thanksgiving now because tis the season and Thanksgiving is my holiday My favorite holiday and this is my show. So you know what? We're going to talk about Thanksgiving. We do everything really now. You got to start decorating Halloween in September. There's a war on Thanksgiving right now. There's so much Christmas stuff out there. It makes me so mad. Give me an inflatable turkey. Damn it. Don't. I don't need Christmas right now. There's a whole holiday in between Halloween and Christmas. Everyone forgets about it and it makes me so angry. I don't want to hear Christmas music.

I don't want to see your stupid Christmas decorations. I don't want to even, like, think about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I called the police on 99.9KZ already for playing Christmas music this early. I'm serious. You're doing us all serving. You know, come on. Come on. We need stinging the police?

No. Oh, the actual police. Oh, okay. But neither wanted to hear from me about it. I literally feel like I'm just watching a show right here. Like I'm on like a live studio audience. Steve, do you have your Christmas decorations? No, but we've talked about it on our show.

that, well, somebody might have heard. We, my wife and I, we won the neighborhood Halloween decorating contest. Like, that's real. The H.O.A. head is a thing. And we won it. That's how you know when you're old. Yeah. I like that. It is so.

And they're all craft. That's a real. They're all homemade. They weren't store bought. They're all homemade crafty. And we're gearing up for Christmas, but it will not go up before Thanksgiving, Mac, because I agree with you 100%. Oh, thank you.

We are not going to premature you decorate. And we're going to wait. until Friday or maybe Saturday for Christmas Day. Isn't that why we have Friday off from work? It is. That's what we unleash Mariah Carey. The Friday after Thanksgiving, until then, keep her trapped in her box or whatever.

What does that say? Mariah Care needs to be restrained. Oh, my God. It's not Mac a person. Yes. It's the funniest Mac on the show right now. Oh, my gosh. You said I was the evil twin.

Wow. But thank you. I'm glad we're all in the same. about that because people who are listening to Christmas music and decorated for Christmas right now really just make me upset. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. There's literally no better combination on the planet than food, family, and football. I'm sorry, but it is an elite holiday.

Like, I will stuff my face with food on the couch, hanging out with my family watching football 10 times out of 10. It's the best part. There was a study that said apparently people who decorate for Christmas earlier are happier. What's that about? I call that some crap. I agree. I think they're just trying to rush their lives away

and speed it up so they're actually miserable, but they're just hiding. I can't wait. I can't wait. And to Max's point, it is about football. And one thing I will go back into my little tiny world of hockey for a minute. There used to be a lot of hockey games on things. I worked a lot of Thanksgiving's and it stunk. You'd get up, you'd have to have Thanksgiving breakfast because you either had a fly. I've had Thanksgiving dinners and hotels.

It stinks. Oh, man. But there are no NHL hockey games on Thanksgiving this year. That's fantastic. Are you happy about that? You guys are going out with your family. It's football. It's football.

It should be. It is kind of funny how we develop some of these holidays that everybody should be taking off and spending with their family into like, no, no, no, not you guys. Not you guys. You want to watch you guys while we're hanging out with us. Speaking of which, we're going to have live shows on Christmas here on P.H. There's games all over. Like the Christmas thing's gotten out of hand.

Like I get the basketball thing, but now football. football's playing on Christmas too. I will say I absolutely dread, dread watching the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. I don't know why they're America's team. Something needs to be changed about that because it really just upsets me. Do they still pull out Madden's mutant turkey with all the way? Aren't those the memories you have to kid though? Don't we need John Madden on Thanksgiving?

That's part of, and we're talking what we're thankful for and all these things. It's the voices and the people that bring us our sports. It's Howard CoSell on Monday night. Those are the people that, like, they bring us our sports and they come into our homes and they're our best friends. Joe Buck literally works every sport everywhere. I don't know how he does it. But he's like part of our family now because he delivers our sports to us. And we're talking about we're thankful though.

So thankful that those people deliver those sports to us. And in our own little world, we're trying to do that here. So true. Well, speaking of PD, why don't you tell us what you're thankful for about? about sports or Arizona sports this season. Won't be Arizona sports. Sorry. Sorry, Coyotes.

Not your year. There's a couple of things that come to me. We're talking about thankful in sports. And it's all in the most recent history. And you go back to when the day sports stopped for all of us. And all of a sudden you went from real life, everything's normal, to now you stay in your house. And what we all wanted to do, I think, would we have that time?

is put on a baseball game, put on a basketball game. Let's watch some football. And it was gone. And I think that void, we still had our Netflix, we still at our weekly sitcom, but we didn't have sports. And to me, that void, we talk about music being the soundtrack of our lives.

I think for me personally, it's sports. There's always a game on. I literally don't care what live sport is on. I like the sound in the background of the crowd, the energy, the squeak of the shoes on the floor. And when that went away, during the pandemic, I think that was the saddest point of the pandemic for me.

I didn't mind sitting at home eating pizza and hanging out watch TV. It's great, but there's no sports. Sure. And so when that came back, you realized how important sports were to all of us. And the first sport that came back, I think, and Derek might know this, was Thai, was a Taiwan baseball. So I was, I literally was watching that and excited. I was getting about three o'clock in the morning to watch it. And then I realized I can DVR it.

And I, it's actually so crazy. I remember the, uh, the, uh, the, first moment, I felt a little, this is kind of depressing. Geez, the first time that I kind of felt like a little glimmer of hope was I heard all over Twitter that, you know, there was this Korean baseball game happening and all my Twitter friends were talking about it. It's like, okay, I have to watch this. And I watched a Korean baseball game and I literally cried because I was so happy that there

was a sporting event happening. And also, I'm a big baseball person. So of course, I was extra happy that it was baseball. But I didn't even care that I couldn't understand what the broadcast was. were saying I knew none of the players on the field or in the dugout, but I was just ecstatic that there was a live sporting event, and I literally cried watching that game. It was a Korean baseball game.

The minute I saw KBO, I was, the first thing I did was, I was like, all right, which one of these teams are my teams now? Yes, I did the same thing. I was like NC Dinos, and somehow I rode the team that ended up winning the championship all the way to the end. And that made it even more exciting. Like, that made me want to be a fan of it for life and just surpassed, just watching it while I was waiting for my other.

sports to come back. I was, I was in it, you know? Their trophy was a sword, you guys. A sword, an actual sword. It was great. I tried to buy a jersey. That's how much I was like, I need this in my life. Mac, I tend to be the loud, the boisterous, the joking one, not that anybody's surprised at this submission. But for me, what I'm thankful about in sports is we live in a a world that can be very divided by a lot of different things, right? Like just general life right now can be very much two factions pitted against each other, people not having being able to have civil discourse. And sports is that thing that kind of transcends that and still seems to now where it's a common language.

It's a bond. It doesn't matter your race, your religion, the language you speak even sometimes, you know, you put on, you know, Cardinals Red or Coyote's 16 colors that they have or, you know, purple and orange or D-BACS, Sedona Red. Or purple or teal sometimes. Yeah, well, that's the better color scheme. And all of a sudden, it's an instant connection to another human being. It doesn't matter any of the other stuff. We're part of this fraternity, sorority, whatever you want to, however you want to refer to it. And we have a common bond.

And we can put all the other noise and all the other crap aside for two, three hours and literally and figuratively become one voice. And that really hit me when I went to a playoff game against the Lakers when it was. was right after they had basically reopened the arena to fans downtown. And, you know, you get this chant and it's one voice as a group and it's loud. And it's, this is my city. This is my team. I don't care about the other stuff. And to me, you know, I'm grateful for that because a lot of us grown up didn't feel like we fit in,

didn't, you know, those kind of things. but sports was always a space where you could feel like that where you could you could really connect with people and it's even on a personal it's how I connected with my dad as a kid too and I think a lot of people experience that you know that that was one of the bonding things in those memories so to me that's what I'm thankful for is that we have this thing that can be so much bigger than

other aspects of what's going on and be used as a tool to help you know push things forward in society as well. So that common bond is what I'm thankful for. Have you ever been in Las Vegas wearing a Phoenix Sun's jersey and came across another person wearing a Phoenix Sun's jersey?

Not just Las Vegas. Or anywhere. Yeah. Outside of the city, it's incredible. It's an incredible feeling. I think I've far too often compared the division like you're talking about in politics, in

religion, all these other things, to sports. I've said that kind of at times, I feel like people's biggest problems with these things is that's their team now. And their team, they root for that team no matter what. They back that team. Kind of like people sometimes do with sports, where they often like excuse the mistakes their team makes.

And if it's a player on their team, they're not very critical versus if it was a team player on another team. But I don't think that's a fair comparison because like you're saying, sports, even when it's been people that are on opposite teams, has always brought me and my friends together. I think when my team is playing my friend's team, it brings us together even more.

Like, yeah, we're going to say very terrible things to each other during the course of that game. But at the end of the night, we're going to be arm and arm and drinking beers. Yeah, because we enjoyed the end result. Exactly. That's the thing, too, about it. I know that's a little cheesy,

but it's very much that. You talk about the, and you talk about your dad, and it's the bond, and if you don't cry, watching Feel the Dreams, when Kevin Kosher says, Dad, can we have a catch? Like, if you don't cry, you're not human. You're a heartless.

You are. And it's just, it's not your family. It's your friends. I call my dad, and the first thing I said, do you see the game? Yeah.

That's what brings us. We can go to a sports bar tonight and sit with 50 people we don't know and don't care about and we're all rooting for the same thing. Nothing in this world does that like sports. It is, I, like,

I don't want to overstate it, but you look at when you're friends together, Super Bowl party, watching the game. It brings people together. It brought us this group of misfits that comes to PHS. Yeah. It's all brought together because of our love of sports. I think it does immediately break down walls. And yes, there are people that take it too far and you don't want the fights in the stands and those. No, the friendly rivalries. Sure. Like my wife and I, she's a Royals fan. I'm a Twins fan. Yeah. American League Central. We can't wait for baseball. We love rooting against each other

It's teams. It's so fun. You're a Diamondback's fan. I know. We always talked about that, though. We talk about that openly. When you're born and Razor, every other game, I'm a Diamondback fan. I do have a Diamondback hat. I swear I have got the T-shirts. I swear I do. You sound like you do. But I swear I do. But I got the Twins stuff too. It's hard to shake that. Let's not act like Petey's a front runner. He just admitted he's a child. A Twins fan.

That's similar to the pain that a lot of people here feel too. But thanks for having it. You're talking about this. Mack, it's kind of choking me up. I know. I was, I was literally just about to say, I wasn't expecting to get so emotional on this podcast. You didn't think that was coming for me. I know.

You are all so intelligent and well-spoken. Geez, what happened? The evil twin. PD, I did want to make, did you wrap up your, I wanted to make sure you got to finish your, what you're grateful for. No, I think I did. Perfect. I thought you did.

I'm sorry that I interrupted you for a long. It's a golf, so. Derek, what are you the most grateful for about sports? You know, it's interesting because it goes kind of along the same lines as what they said just about sports bringing us together. But I am grateful for the Arizona Diamondbacks. And I say that because I think now is a time where they need a little bit of a hug. They need a little bit of love.

And I want to say personally, for at least me, the Arizona Diamondbacks have meant so much to me. I still remember to this day when my friend Charles came up to me during PE and told me that we were getting a baseball team. And I was like, what do you mean a baseball team? And he had to like a real baseball team, like like a real one or like the firebirds, you know, and like no, really. one. And then we went over the names and I remember hearing that the Tampa Bay rays were getting double rays and we were going to be the Diamondbacks. Of course, we were like freshman in high school. So when we found out they were going to be nicknamed the D-backs, we had a lot of funny things to say. We knew we were like, we were going to get blasted for this name. But anyway, you know, all these years

later, you know, it's crazy to me that this is my job, right? And the Diamondbacks have always kind of been interwoven into my life somehow. My wife and I were big fans. So like when we were dating, We used to go to baseball games a lot. That was like our movies. My wife didn't really like to go to go to the movies, but she'd love to go sit at a baseball game for three hours with me. And, you know, watching on TV.

And that's kind of where we bonded and developed a lot of our relationship and stuff. You know, but also realizing this person that I was kind of in love with was awesome. And she watched baseball and, like, knew about it. And we could sit here and have like these great conversations during it, you know. But then fast forward to when I started working for a small website for the sports cave and the Diamondbacks, the organization themselves, were so open to us. They were so open to me to credentialing me.

For us being a little no-name website, it was we were treated the same way like any other publication or anybody else was, right? And so I wouldn't be sitting here now if it wouldn't have been for the way that the Arizona Diamondbacks, you know, gave me that opportunity, allowed me to be part of their media, and also made me kind of part of the family. You know, I have received more messages from people at the PR department at the Diamondbacks congratulating me on the successes of my life or checking in with me about bad things that have happened more than I probably could say I've received from my own members of my

family. You know, they just are an incredibly caring group of people. And I've been doing, I've been covering this team for 10 years. And every single year still feels like a, like a dream come true that I get to watch baseball. I get to cover baseball. And we have it here in our town, like, you know, growing up as a baseball fan, uh, here. you just grew used to like spring training was the thing we go do you know and that's it but and we get to see all the teams so like you know my dad always tried to spin it in a positive way like we don't have one team we have half the league you know that kind of thing before we ever had a baseball team so it's it's the connection with my dad you know and my wife and just everything but the diamondbacks have just they've always meant a lot to me and it's uh it's kind of it transcended now past the winning and the losing i've you know watched them win i've watched them lose uh being in the clubhouse with them when they celebrated, you know, their wildcard victory was, again, for me, as a sports fan growing up, where my favorite show was SportsCenter, like eight years old, that was a dream come true.

You know, so the Diamondbacks have just honestly made my dreams come true, covering them, being a fan of them. He's much more evolved than me. He said the wins and losses don't matter. I'm like, I still live and die with that stuff. Let me tell you. When you have to watch 162 games on a bad season, you do. stop. It's like a lot of things, right? You have to start looking for other things to care about.

And this season, the Diamondbacks had two of their four no hitters in their 23-year existence. That's something to say. One and a half, we'll say. But you know. You get that. The other thing, too, is when it gets to be, and I am a huge baseball fan. I love the sport. I love baseball. If I don't tell any of the hockey people, I love baseball. Like it's sunny, it's warm. Hockey's cold and it's snowing. If I can come back and do it all over and be a baseball guy. But you're right, it becomes at 162 games, it's almost like a soap opera.

Who's playing? Who's good? Who's on a streak? Who's in? Who's out? You care more about the people and the players and they become your guys, your friends, your buddies. Oh, this guy's struggling right now. It's too bad.

And those storylines would keep you coming back to the TV, not the wins and the loss. It's so true. especially when you have a struggling team, you have to find something to invest yourself in. And I'll say this. You can look at what the Dodgers and the Giants did in the division, right, and how many games they won and how great they were.

Neither one of them are the World Series champions at this point. Right. So that's another great thing about baseball is, I know this is the case in a lot of sports, but you can throw all the money you want at it. It's not going to fix the problem. It's how you spend the money. And importantly enough right now for the debacks,

it's who you have in charge of the players and, you know, developing them. I will say that to watching playoff baseball, and I know we're digressing, sorry, back. But you watch playoff baseball, and I watch as much baseball on TV as I challenge anybody every day. And there are, hey, yeah, might I fall asleep for an inning? Yeah, I might. I might mow the lawn and miss a little bit. Absolutely. But I tell you what, playoff baseball, every pitch matters, and you're on the edge of your seat for every pitch for nine innings.

It's insane. Like that's what's so great about that sport. Is it people literally on the address each for that game takes forever by the way, Derek. You need a clock. Yeah, no kidding. You and me both are on the same page. But my gosh, I was so fun watching the World Series again this year. I miss baseball right now.

I'm thankful for digressions that we're allowed to go on. You're welcome. We don't get paid by the hour, Espo. Clearly. You don't. You don't? No, I know. Okay.

All of your answers were awesome. I think mine is obviously going to be along the same lines of what I'm the most grateful for. I mean, sports is my life. Obviously, I work in sports. I went to school for sports. I played sports. I mean, sports is pretty much all I've ever known. I think more than anything,

the connection that it provides to other people, I think is so beautiful and rare and something that you can't get in any other avenue. Try not to get to cry. A lot of people always ask me, like, where do my love of sports come from? Because, you know, I'm a woman in sports, so I get that question a lot.

Obviously, you know, I didn't play hockey. I didn't play baseball. I didn't play football. So where do you like sports? or why do you like sports? And my love of sports, obviously, not obviously, but my love of sports comes from my grandmother.

I lived with my grandmother for 18 years, and she is the biggest Denver Broncos fan you will ever meet. I mean, she had her own little section of the house, and I would hear this woman screaming at the television. I always knew it was Sunday, because she'd be screaming at the television for the Broncos to run faster or whatever it was,

and I could hear her all the way across the house. And eventually I started watching games with her, and just watching how much my grandmother loved the game of football, made me think like I can love something this much too. And so my grandma still texts me to this day. She lives in Florida now in a retirement, a little retirement park with all of her friends. And she still texts me to this day. I have to text her the score updates of the Broncos game every single Friday because the Broncos, they don't get to watch the Broncos in Florida, unfortunately. So the bond that I have with my grandmother on sports just means so much to me. My grandma's my

favorite person in my life. I will love that woman forever and always. And so, the fact that, you know, she'll still text me on Sunday. Well, how are the Broncos doing? Tell me the score. She'll also tell me if she puts her Broncos flag out or if she puts it in, depending on how they're performing. You don't just lie to her and be like, the Broncos are the greatest team of the NFL.

They won by 72 again, Grandma. It was so funny because she was scared to put her flag out after the Broncos be the Cowboys because she's like, I don't want to curse them. I'm like, Grandma, it's okay. Like, you put that Broncos flag out. Don't worry. Teddy Bridgewater will do it for you. Exactly.

So, I mean, the connection that the sports provided me to not only my grandmother, but now my mom, and, you know, my dad and I will watch football every time I go home Friday through Sunday. And, you know, my mom is so invested in in what we're doing here just because she loves me and supports me. I think you all have heard her. She is. She's seen her in your Twitter DMs. She's bought two memberships. She's a double member to PHNX. She knows she can buy the shirt without buying the membership, right?

Yeah, yeah, she knows. So, um, keep buying memberships from every show she wants. The connection that my, the sports has provided me to my family, um,

you know, in my life now, obviously, you know, getting to work with you guys has been a dream come true. But the community that sports provides in general is just incredible. I was fortunate, obviously,

to work in Denver for DNVR, who's our sister company. And, you know, the community that they built there is incredible. I mean, they have people who support their brand day in, day out will come to anything and everything that has a DNVR name on it.

And now that we, have a chance to build something like that here is something that makes me so excited because Arizona sports fans are insane, but amazing because even though their teams are usually really bad, they still care so, so, so much. And I love the Arizona sports community beyond measure. I mean, they are incredible humans who just are so passionate about their teams. And more than anything in this world, I want to instill, you know, the community that DNVR has in Denver here in Phoenix, because Arizona sports fans deserve that. They deserve a community that cares about their sport just as much as they do

that they can turn to that they'll always know like there's going to be someone else who cares just as much as they care within our family, within our PHNX family. So I'm so fortunate that I get to work for a company that allows me to express my sports love and also fosters a community of people who love sports just as much as I do, if not more. So obviously that is an incredible part of what we get to do. And I'm so thankful for that because like Espo was saying, there's nothing in this world that provides a connection for people like sports does. I mean, the Olympics, there are people that compete in the Olympics that, you know,

are from all different countries, all different backgrounds, all different languages that don't even speak the same language and still come together to play sports. That's a great point. The history of the Olympics, too, I was a classics minor. So sorry, their nerdiness here. But, you know, they used to stop war. because of sports to go to the Olympics back in in Greece and

Roman times where so they would literally they'd stop war and everybody would come from across the globe to compete in the Olympics so it's always had a powerful pull for people so yeah and one thing you said that hit home with me was I do remember being a kid and watching how much my parents my dad and his

friends and my uncles enjoyed sports And like, I remember like wanting to, like, I want to be a part of this. I want to, I want to have that much fun. Like, they seem like they're having a blast. They're screaming. They're throwing chips around. It's great, you know. And so, like, I just remember that being not some, like at a young age, not getting it.

And then once I made that connection to sports, it was my favorite thing. Yeah. It's the coolest thing in the world getting to share commonalities with people that you would have never had something in common with before. And sports provides that. So shout out to Denver, too, by the way. My mom was born in Denver. So when I was a kid, before we had the Cardinals, we were Denver Broncos fans. Hey, I was an avalanche fan when I was, when the avalanche came around.

And I also now work for a company that is somehow attached to a company based out of Denver. Crazy how that happens. It's really insane how there's that connection. Yep. Love it. Got to love it. I love sports. It's everything to me, obviously, like I was saying.

And it's apparent that it's important to all of us too. So that is what we are all grateful for. And if you want to be a part of something like I was just saying, our PHNX family, you guys have to, you guys have to join us. We really care about what we're doing and we care about our community and we want to build an awesome Arizona sports fan base here in Arizona. So make sure you go subscribe to go phnx.com. That's where you'll get access to our members only Discord. All of us are in the Discord talking constantly with everybody that's in there, the members of the Coyotes Discord. It was on fire last night.

It was popping last night in Discord. But they got a sneak peek at our shirt before anybody else did. And they also got a chance to buy it before anybody else did. So obviously, when you're a member, you get awesome perks. We obviously want to hook you guys up before we hook anybody else up because we care so much that you are supporting us. We want to make sure that we are returning the favor. You'll also get access to amazing great content. The articles that are on go page.com right now are some of the best I've ever read.

Mike Luke is doing a five-part series on the downfall of Arizona. football, which I never thought I would care about because I went to ASU, but it's actually very interesting. So make sure to check out all of our written content. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you're watching on YouTube, you can also get access to this podcast and all of our other podcasts on Apple, Spotify, wherever you listen to the podcast, make sure you subscribe to those. And we would love your support.

You'll also get a free t-shirt if you sign up for an annual membership. And our T-shirts are pretty sweet. You've got the Sun's Gorilla shirt on ESPO, the gray flag, PHS flag on Derek and our, of course, Cody Coyote shirt. And by the way, two new colors hit yesterday and the new coyote design this morning. So good. It is sick. So good.

And literally ordered it at 1002 today. Wow. True story. So for the cost of a cup of coffee, you can support a rag-tag bunch of sports media people in Phoenix. That's right. We are a rag-tag, but we're lovable, and we care a lot about what we do. And I love that about us. Some of us are lovable.

Not so much. No, you're not. Thank you guys for sharing what you were grateful for. That actually was really beautiful and made me very emotional. So thanks for sharing. On a lighter note. Did you have doubts? You're like, yeah.

What are these guys going to bring? I do really want to know, though, however, on the topic of Thanksgiving, what your favorite Thanksgiving food is. And you can only pick one because this is going to be our Phoenix Sports podcast poll of the week on Twitter. Well, I'm about to piss on a lot of people. I'm going to go ahead and start because I already know mine. And I don't want to be it else to take it. It's stuffing.

There's literally nothing better than stuffing on Thanksgiving. I'm sorry, but stuffing is elite. I would eat a bowl of stuffing by itself, honestly. You have to pick something else. The more basic, the more basic, the better as far as stuffing goes. I like regular old stope top that has not touched a chicken or a turkey. Okay, no, no, no, that's weird. It has to be inside of a turkey.

You are wrong. Yeah, that's weird. No, no, no. Stuffing that's inside of a turkey is elite. Stuffing is the best Thanksgiving food. No questions asked. Also, if you're in the comments and you're watching, please comment and let us know what your favorite Thanksgiving food is because we would like to know.

I want to go in two different directions with this because I want to say my personal one, because I'm the only person that gets this and it's the cranberry sauce. They buy a whole can of cranberry sauce just for me. Damn you. You're a picky. I thought I was going to be controversial. No, here's the thing. I'm going to let you have it.

I'm going to let you have it. I'm going to win the polls. I'm going to go rolls. Rolls. You could hate every other side. You're eating rolls with butter on it. Both of you just pick bread. One slightly stale.

Mine is seasoned bread. And then one in a basket. Oh, I can do sweet potatoes with the little marshmallows on top. I'm being honest here. I'm going to eat a dozen rolls myself. Carb, you can't go wrong with carbs. Mac Huff saying stuffing hands down.

Thank you, Mac Huff. The Macs are on a roll today. I think Mac is my long loss. It's mail and cheese. Oh, geez. What's your nomination for best things? It's cranberry sauce out of a can. It must be out of the shit.

Matt, never had it. Never had it. I'm bringing it to our friend. I'm bringing it to our friends giving. I'm bringing it to our friends giving. Who would eat that? What do you mean you've never had it though? Just the sound it makes sploishing out of the cat.

Who do you eat that? That means it's good. Is that food? That's part of it. That's part of it. That sound is elite. The shape of the can. I put it in the same category of spam.

I agree. Next level. No, no. Spam is disgusting. None of that cranberry sauce is disgusting. sauce is disgusting. I don't want that. No, no.

I want to slice of what came out of the can. Nobody wants that. I feel like we should have done this first because all of my warm feeling fuzzy feelings have gone away. Gone away. By the way, anything Thanksgiving, I'm in. I'm about because now, remember when I was a kid, but I lived close to my family in the Midwest, it was grandma, grandpa, uncle's, aunts. And everything was there. And now it's just not that.

And so there are a lot of thanksgivings that. that you know what let's just make tacos it's easy if you say tacos I'm walking off this side no I'm not saying tacos but we do it or or let's just order a pizza and watch football done it sad but true I'm gonna go with the end of the meal turkey clearly is too easy the pies are the best I grew up with Apple because I'm a Midwestern kid but I'm all about a pumpkin pie with whipped cream right now or a little bit of warm vanilla ice cream because you overdo pumpkin this time of year pumpkin everything I hate it

cookies everything chips coffee pumpkin pie the one day a year you get an excuse to have a pumpkin pie well thank you guys for making this easy win for me does anybody actually like the turkey I feel like the turkey's just there because you need something

I feel like the turkey is just like a side when you douse the turkey and cranberries what is wrong way No, nobody. I feel like the turkey just exists because I feel like the turkey is just there because it has to be there. It's like tradition. But like I don't care about turkey on Thanksgiving.

Like I'm there for the mashed potatoes, the stuffing, the cheesy potatoes. I'm making brisket. That's what I'm making brisket. I'm excited for your brisket. You're going to stuff the stuffing in the brisket? I can do that. I can figure it out. I feel like the turkey's just there as a vessel to make the stuffing.

Somebody is bringing turkey to the Friendsgiving. Deep fried turkey. I believe it's Arnold or graven. Grab a little. That sounds dangerous. I was just going to say, what's the backup plan? Brett making a great point saying

cranberry is only good with some vodka. Brett, I agree completely. Now that's somebody that belonged to the coyotes after our show. Brett gets it. Brett also saying that we miss mashed potatoes.

I agree. I was thinking that someone was going to take mashed potatoes, but apparently I'm on a panel with some dinguses. Hey, look, look, I'm going for a universally loved,

not often thought of side. All right. Well, you heard what we had to say about our favorite Thanksgiving dishes. I'm going to put a poll on Twitter. Make sure you go follow at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter. You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook, but follow us on Twitter for the poll. We didn't have a poll last week, so I can't update you on the results.

Sorry about that. Make sure you vote and tell us what you think is the best Thanksgiving food or nominate your own. Obviously, we missed a bunch and went in a direction I did not anticipate. So you can definitely tell us what you think your favorite Thanksgiving food is. I hope you all who are listening have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families. You get to enjoy some good football. You get to eat some good food. And you get to connect over your love of sports with other people.

Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to go to go phoenix.com and become a member of our family. And we will see you next week.