PTI - Is Misiorowski the NEXT Clayton Kershaw?

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss Wimbledon, the Miz, and the NCAA Tourney. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wobahn. Tony, I'm told it's National Sugar Cookie Day. When Tony Korn has a sugar cookie, that's what Jaja used to call me.

I'm sure. Jaja called me that there. How many people watching this show know who Jaja Gabor is or her sisters or her mother? Besides us, who knows? I'm going to say between 11 and 15 on any given day. Yeah, that's all there is. Jaja Gabor, Jolie Gabor, Magda Gabor, Ava Gabor. Nobody knows them.

I don't remember Abe. Nobody knows them, but us. Nobody knows but us. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, The Miz dominates the Dodgers, the NCAA tournament. Could be on the verge of expansion, and we've got not one but two inside the park homers to evaluate. But we begin today again with Wimbledon. On the men's side, top seed, Yonix Center, erased American Ben Shelton and straight

sets, winning all the opportune points. Novak Djokovic lost the first set to Flavio Koboli in a tie break, but stayed on the court for three hours and won the next three sets. On the women's side, Egochfiantek, who wins a lot of French opens, but no Wimbledon's, won in straight sets to reach the semifinals, and there she will play unseated Belinda Benchich, who won in straight set both tiebreakers. Wilbon, what stood out to you? The first thing that said out to me is Belinda Benchich. She had a baby. She gave birth. 15 months ago about that and she comes back and she's winning

and she's this deep into the most prestigious tournament in the world in her sport, that's a my God because the guys we're going to talk about, I can guarantee, I don't know much about their personal lives, but none of them have given birth and I don't think anybody's unlikely to. So

given that, Tony, I watched pretty closely the men. You know, I've been waiting hoping that Ben Shelter could break loose, but to break loose to break free to bubble up any higher than he is. He's got to beat, you know, he's got to win against a number one or a number two. And he might get that chance right now, right?

He had that chance against Center. And Tony, to me, is just that on those bigger points, he's not there yet. He's still young. He might get there, but he's not there now. And Center, even though he's got this thing going on his elbow, he's got to wrap, he's got a wrist, he's got this, he's got that, he's got to stop, he's got to pull it, he's got to push. He could still, he's better on the big points and he's more creative throughout the match, which Ben Shelton's going to have to add to his game. So that's, I spent most of my attention and energy on that match, even more so than Joker. I did. My biggest takeaway from watching,

and I watched a lot today, is one moment in time. It's right around the end of the Djokovic match. when he falls down by the baseline and does this very awkward split as the ball goes by him and he loses the second of two match points. In that moment, he's laying there in pain. It's obvious pain. Now, we hear all the time about his great conditioning and his amazing elasticity. He gets up and starts walking around. Doesn't call for a trainer, doesn't have to leave the court, doesn't come back and third. No, no, no, no, no. has a brief conversation with somebody, I think, might have been the chair umpire, and then calls for the tennis balls and goes back, serves the next two points, and wins the match. I was really impressed with that, I have to say. So now he's going to get Cinner.

You talked about Cinner beating Shelton. He's going to get Cinder in the semifinals, right? Now, they played the semifinals in the French and Cinner beat him. And I could be mistaken here, but I think Cinner's beating him something like five matches in a row. Four? I thought four in a row. Okay. Whatever it is.

It's a bunch. Okay, can he beat Djokovic on grass? This is the different thing. Can he beat him on grass, elbow or no elbow? You know, that, I don't know. Jokevich is great at Wimbledon, and Jokovic has come into this thing talking about the fact that this is his best chance to get the 25th thing, 25th major. I will just add this parenthetically. I sort of find myself rooting for Shfiantek for this reason. I want to see her win on something other than clay. Went on grass. I don't know if you agree with this, Mike. I don't think you can be an all-time great if you don't win Wimbledon.

I think Wimbledon has to be in your resume. Yeah, it probably does. Although the surface differences are not what they were when you and I were tennis fanatics. You know, it doesn't, you don't have the variety there. But I got your point, though.

I hear you. Let's move to the Mizz. Brewer's rookie, Jacob Miserowski, who Tony kind of dismissed as an ordinary cheesehead yesterday, surrendered a lead-off home run to Shoah last night, and that was that. The men struck out 12 Dodgers over his first five and went six and all,

out pitching Hall of Fame-bound Clayton Kershaw as the cheeseheads beat the Dodgers three, won the Ms. called it a dream come true. Tony, I think you heard about it by now. What do you call it? I would call it Wilbon's revenge. You talked about this yesterday. You had it completely right. You touted the fact that Mizorowski was going to go up against Clayton Kershaw.

You praised Mizorowski to the skies. You know, I don't know that everybody understands that the reason you know about Mizorowski is he plays in the one division you pay attention because the clubs are there. But that doesn't matter. You had it right. I was skeptical about this whole thing. I was a little bit dismissive about it. As you said, he gives up a lead-off home run to Shoheyatani.

he gives up nothing else. That's why people are batting, opponent batting average against him is 138. He strikes out 12 Dodgers. You know the last guy who struck out 12 Dodgers over the course of six innings because he stayed in the game for six innings? The last guy was Shohayatani when he was with the Angels, if you want to talk about irony. And before that, it was Max Scherzer, the warrior god. So you had this thing right. My point all along, Mike, was the same, was that let's not put him in the category of Kershaw now, maybe not ever, because Kershaw's going in the whole Hall of Fame and he's got 3,000 strikeouts. But the Miz

out pitched him last night and of Kershaw didn't know who he was coming into the game he knows now. My basic point is let me know when he wins 219 he's won four. Well, I'm going to pay attention before he gets to 219. And I remember a time when

there's a fireballer comes along and you wrote a column because I happened to look it up. And you wrote about this in the Washington Post when Carrie Wood struck out a million people and you said when There's a young, handsome fireballer pay attention. So I'm taking the advice of a young Anthony Kornheiser who said pay attention. And so the Ms. though he is a cheesehead, and I am by birthright required to hate him,

I watch this kid. I watch every start because he comes out and he throws 102. He throws gas and he says, sit down. And then he can pinpoint it. Tony, he's not just a thrower. Yeah. There's enough of a pitcher in there to pay attention. So I'm not going to say he's the equal of Kershaw yet, but I'm going to pay attention.

No, no, no, no. Last year you paid attention to schemes and you should be paying attention to him again. This is two in a row that we look at. Can they do it a second year? We move to college basketball. There is persistent talk that the NCAA tournament, both men's and women's, will be expanded beyond the 68 teams that we have now. If such expansion takes place, it will either be to 72 teams,

or 76 teams. Wilbon, you and I are old enough to remember the 1970s when there were 16 teams in this tournament. If this expansion happens, how does the logic sit with you? It doesn't.

I don't want to hear it. I'm not going to listen to it. I'm not going to boycott the tournament. I'm going to watch the tournament no matter what it does, probably. But, you know, you're leaving this to a body. Up there, that logo that says NCAA,

there's not a more worthless brand in sports. There's not a more mistrusted brand in all of sports than the one the logo that says NCAA. Because the people who rule for that body, they look like clowns much of the time as a body. Even if I know and you know, we know people who represent the organization and have wonderful careers. But when they convene and they act in the name of NCAA, they get it wrong, more often. and then not. So they're going to screw this up. It's an iconic event brand, the final four, March Madness, the big dance, all of that. And they're not smart enough to leave it alone.

The logic in this is very, very simple. There is only one reason for expansion, just one. It is money. It is more money. So the teams that come in at number 69 or number 71 or number 76, you know, it doesn't matter what number they are. They can't win this tournament. They cannot win this tournament. They are in there to gin up television revenue and gin up gate revenue. That's all this is about. They're going to say that there's a fairness issue here that more conferences will get more teams in which I don't believe. They're going to say there are 354, I believe, 354 D1 teams and only 20% are represented in the tournament.

Look, we see this in all sports. We see extra playoff rounds, extra playoff teams. There's more wild cards in baseball. There's a play-in in the NBA. It exists for money. That's why it's there. And if, Mike, there are 354 D-1 teams in basketball, 325 cannot win this. They cannot win this.

You're not going to get teams from one big conference. My school, Binghamton, is not getting in if we don't win the conference, right? It's not what's going to happen. You're going to get sixth and seventh place teams from big conferences. And they're never going to win, right? they're never going to win it. Stop. Tony,

let's take a break. Now that, they're not going to gin up the gate because nobody's going to go watch. No, those teams won't. No, 50 alums are going to watch those teams. What are they doing? No, I mean, you try progressively to ruin something,

and eventually you will. Eventually, they'll say everybody gets in. They'll put everybody in eventually. Let's take a break. Coming up, Lawrence Butler started a game with an inside-the-park home run, and then Patrick Bailey finished one with his, and that sounds like tossing.

And Cal Raleigh hit a big home run for the Mariners last night, but did a Yankee get a more notable one? The dump... I give you all credit for Mizorowski. I give you all credit. You were right, I was wrong. This is not hard. I watch. I don't watch the Nats.

I watched the whole league. You should. I watched the whole thing. Nobody watches the Nats, but me and Chuck Todd and Crystal Lism. It's time for toss-up. Two men enter. One man leaves. the show, then heads out on his evening streak through the neighborhood.

What's first? Toss up, how do you prefer your inside the park home runs, lead off or walk off? All right, let me just start by saying both of these home runs were tremendous. Fabulous to watch. Let's start. Lawrence Butler of the A's leads off the bottom half of the first inning last night. The first pitch he sees, he hits to the right center field wall, and he just keeps running, puts his head down, he just keeps going.

He slides head first into home. There's no throw. The throw doesn't even get there. So, boom, it's one nothing. And the other one, Mike, is better. The other one, the Giants are down in the bottom of the ninth inning. They're down 3-1. There's two on.

They're catcher. Patrick Bailey steps up there, hits one off the top of the wall in right field. It calms crazily. I thought it got all the way to left field on the track, and everybody keeps right. running three runs score. That throw to home gets closer, but there's no tag or anything like that. And what I would end with is saying he's a catcher. How many catchers hit inside the park home runs?

I mean, what are we talking about here? Tony, it's the walk off. It's not close. The other home run that happens in Sacramento in the minor league ballpark, the A's of playing it right now, you're not even in your seat yet. You're walking around, you're getting the dog, you're getting some popcorn. And it's a curiosity. There's some first pitch in the bottom half of the day. A guy's running the bases. What is this? Is this some kind of marketing thing where the kids are running the bases before the game? You don't even know what the hell's going on.

Anything that happens in Oracle's better. Oracle is one of the three great ballparks in Major League Baseball. Rigley, Finway, Oracle. Oh, I'll throw Yankee Stadium in it. That's the list. And if it happens in Oracle, which used to be AT&T, you got dementia. You got dimensions, you got McCovey Cove, you got all kinds of stuff that make it give you a throwback sense to the 1940s or 50s when ballparks were asymmetrical and a ball could go forever and you got inside the park home runs. It's Oracle.

It's the game winner. The guys running out of the dugout make it more dramatic. The whole thing makes it a no contest. Sorry, open aides guy. I would include Camden Yards. I think that's a great ballpark. What's next? Toss up.

Who had the most notable home run in the Yankees' route of the Mariners last night? Jean-Carrlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, or Cal Raleigh? Okay, it's not Stanton. It's his second home run of the year. They were already up in the game. It made it for nothing. Okay, so what? Judge hit his 34th home run of the year.

It's a lot of home runs. His fourth in the last six games. He's having a great year. Okay. No, no. Cal Raleigh hit his 36th home run of the year. That's the most in the major leagues. It is now Cal Raleigh's record, most home runs by somebody from Seattle before the All-Star break. He just broke Ken Griffey's record, and it allows me to say Big Dumper, Big Dumper, Big Dumper, Big Dumper. Yeah, but the notion that it's a record is Big Dumper. Because people don't know, there's not the same number

of games before every All-Star break. That's why it's bogus. It just allows people to get on TV, most of them under 40, and scream. It's the first time it's ever happened. We don't know that. Do you know how many games that

were played by those Mariners before they got to the break? No, you don't know. Know the people screaming on television don't know. It varies. It's not the same number of games. Yeah, that's right. That's right.

So it's a notion that it's a record is completely and utterly bogus so people can get on TV and radio and say record, record, record, record. Here's what's not bogus. He's got the most home runs in all of baseball right now. He's got the most. That's a big deal. Big deal. It's roughly, we're past the halfway point. I'll care if he's got that on October 1st.

The answer to the question is Stanton because it was won nothing and made it for nothing. And by the way, if the Yankees are going to be any good. this year. It can't be just judge, right? That's right. Tim Kirchton told us that a couple of days ago. That's right. Got to add somebody and that somebody is Giancaro's stand. Let me just say it again for the West Coast. Big Dumpur.

That's it. Let's take one last break still to come. The Buccaneers may be without one of their best players to start the season. And the thunder saw up another young star to big money. I'll take big money over Big Dumpur. That's just me. Is that what we wanted to call you Big Money? Yeah. Right?

I'd like that. I want to be true. Big Money Wilbon. I want it to be true, though. Big money. Not true right now. Happy time, people. Happy 69th birthday Tom Hanks.

Yeah, Tom Hanks, the great American actor. He is in one of the most wonderful sports movies, a league of their own, where he plays Jimmy Dugan, the manager of the women's baseball team, the Rockford Peaches. Hanks has the unforgettable line. There's no crying in baseball. He has been Forrest Gump. He has been Ben Bradley, who was our editor at The Washington Post. He's been Mr. Rogers and Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell and Walt Disney,

an airline hero, Captain Sully Sullenberger. He made one of the great rock and roll movies of all time, that thing you do. And Tom Hanks is a diehard Oakland A's fan who has crestfallen at them leaving his hometown Bay area. But that makes me wonder if he was out there in the hundreds of people on average who would go to those games. I told you, I'd wanded over from the Warriors they were playing for championships, and they were like, I don't know,

85 people in that mausoleum of a baseball stadium next door. I mean, if Tom was in there yelling and screaming and waving something and buying hot dogs, even better for him. You know, it was something sort of charming about it, even in its emptiness. Happy anniversary, Joe Sackick, on this day 16 years ago.

The first Ballot Hall of Fame retired after 21 seasons with the season, with the same franchise. The Quebec Nordique became the Colorado Avalanche, and Sackick scored 625 goals and 1,641 points for them. Sackick led the avalanche to the Stanley Cup in 1996 and 2001, then won another in 2022 as the general manager. Sackick was playoff MVP in 1996,

League MVP in 2001. He's the third person, along with Milt Schmidt and Serge Savard, to win a Stanley Cup with the same franchise as a player in the year. GM and he's in the triple gold club for winning Olympic gold medal, a world championship gold medal, and a Stanley Cup. How can a league be better served, a hockey league by having teams in Carolina, Florida and Florida, and not in Quebec City? What? Huh? Come on now. The NHL should have found some way to address that like the NBA is going to try to find one soon, I hope, to address not having one in Seattle. Don't do that. It's bad for it.

Happy trails to the start of the NFL season for Tristan Worf's. The Buck's first team all pro left tackle aggravated a right knee injury. Earlier this offseason, he had arthroscopic surgery on Tuesday. The Tampa Bay Times reports that Worf's is likely to be placed on the physically unable to perform list to start the season, making him ineligible for the first four games. 26-year-old is a four-time pro bowler and the team's highest-bade player. He protects Baker Mayfield's blindside in the passing game. In the running game, the bucks improved from last in the league two seasons ago to fourth overall last year. Tony, he's a great player of unquestioned toughness.

I'm not a better. But if I was, I would say, really, he's going to be on the Pupplest after arthroscopic surgery? Eh, you know, would I be all that shocked to see him on the field much sooner than that earlier sometime in September? I'm just saying, I'm just wondering. Thank you, Dr. Wilbon, update on the first. the Ken Griffey-Call-Rolly debate. Griffey's Mariners played 88 before the All-Star break in 1998.

Raleigh's Mariners have played 91, but both Griffey and Raleigh started 88, hot shot. Let's go to the big finish. AAC's star, Asia Wilson left last night's loss of Liberty with a wrist injury is that cause for concern? Yeah, because we don't know the results of the MRI yet. I hope we don't have any concern.

The Thunder signed Chet Holmgren to a five-year rookie max extension that could be worth Up to a quarter billion dollars, your thoughts? So they got him locked up. They got Gilgis Alexander locked up. Those are their core players. Some of them anyway, Nicole Yokic reportedly won't seek an extension this summer.

Is that a big deal? Yeah, and it could be a bigger deal if you're sacked to walk. But by not sign, he can go for like 77 more million in a season by waiting a year. We'll see the White Sox snapped the Blue Jays 10-game winning streak this afternoon. You're surprised? A little, but the White Sox are better this year than last year. Last one, Paris-St. Germain beat Real Madrid 4-0 in the Club World Cup semifinals this afternoon.

Your thoughts? PSD is trying to win everything. They play Chelsea on site. We are out of time. We will try to do better the next time, and I am Tony Cornhus. I'm Mike Wilbaugh, same time tomorrow, knucklehead. King Griffey Jr. hitting the cavernous ballpark. The big dupor hit to the phone booth.

Don't equate those two. Oh, stop whining. Mityaum.