Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Full Show — April 13, 2026

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris discussed the Cubs' come-from-behind 7-6 win against the Pirates on Sunday and welcomed on Shotgun Start host and Fried Egg Golf founder Andy Johnson to discuss Rory McIlroy winning the Masters for the second straight year.

The score. This hour is brought to you by Vesectomy Clinics of Chicago. The views and opinions of Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grotty should not be taken too seriously. Especially when they give advice. Do not take Marshall's analogies, literally. Especially when it comes to Russell Dorsey. The sports thoughts of Rahimi Harrison Grody may change at any time. It's just sports.

Okay, thanks. Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grody. 10 to 2 on 1043, The score. Ironically. this is the second straight year in which Tiger Woods has not participated in the Masters. It is Tiger Woods that is the only one that can still stop. How would he do that, Mark?

I read this story this morning, and I was laughing in my hotel room, even the headline. Tiger Woods pissed off Rory McElroy's white ferricostole with frequent late-night texts. Not to her. Let me be clear. to Tiger McDonald's just go to work Tiger was used to text

Rory McElroy in the middle of the night Hey what's going on on man According to a new book on McElroy McElroy's wife Erica Stoll

reportedly took issue With the interruption As they tried to sleep Who he's talking to? It's Jake from State Farm Sounds like a really good deal Jake from State Farm At 3 in the morning

Who is this? It's Jake from State Farm What are you wearing Jake from State Farm? Uh khakis She sounds Well, she's a guy, so...

I will say, the U-Up text. This is a different... You-up. This is a different umbrella that he's under. Well, I want to hear all about how you two met. Oh, it's just an online dating app. Not much to it.

Just text, text, send. Next thing you know, she's right here next to me. What's too late? You guys tell me, what's too late to get a text from a friend? Because I don't think there is a limit. Well... Well, my D&D goes out at 11, but then I'll just reply later.

But you can't... Do you do not disturb type? Tiger Woods? Don't you just D&D? You got to answer his text? Tiger Woods. I'm sure let's text him back tomorrow. What?

No, no, no. That's great. You got to text him back right now. If you call me and I answer, cool. If I don't, my phone is never on vibrate. It is never on ring. If I see it, I see it. If I don't, I'll hit you back.

So Tiger Woods calls you. He's up. He's up and you're not up. So if it's a you up, you're not up. Yeah, I'm not up. If I'm up, no, but if I'm up, I'm answering. I'm cool. I learned a while back that if I don't text 911,

people will not return my calls. But now people always return my calls because they think that something horrible has happened. Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio. 1043, The Score. Please don't text 911 unless you mean it. Don't listen to Michael Scott.

This is Rahimi Harris and Grotie on 1043, The Score. We are back from Vegas and with you on this. this Monday. Thank you for joining us. And I think we have to begin where we ended. Kind of like the hangover, but in reverse. Except maybe I was a little hungover when I embarked on my flight yesterday. Oh, you stayed out later than me on Saturday, right? Evergreen. I stayed out later than you. Well, everybody stays out later than me to be fair. You don't even need the words in Vegas. You don't even need Saturday. That's just how it goes. We had a great time. We had a lot of fun. see mantis.

Grotty got to see the mantis. Like I said, Ray nearly got captured by a woman with a feather boa and not much else on. That happened. We saved Ray. It was like a lifetime movie. But in the meantime, we were all trying to figure out how to consume the Cubs game on the score, of course. And pregame on a Sunday game when you're trying to salvage this series against the pirates,

when you lost the first two games, the discussion surrounding Michael Bush, because as we know, the Cubs team wasn't hitting, but it was in the ways that we saw them not hit successfully. Runners in scoring position numbers for the entire city. Both the White Sox and the Cubs were atrocious over the weekend. And that's just another indication. You talked about it a lot, Marshall, in the two days that we had on air Friday and Saturday. And it was proving us correct in that and that heartbreaker of a game in extras on Saturday afternoon. So as I'm leaving Vegas, absorbing the atmosphere and a woman who is listening to a woman in a bathroom having a much worse morning that I could ever have. There's a lot of coughing, violent coughing. You could hear

in the airport, in the concourse. I thought you met at the hotel, but you're at the airport. No, no, no, there were, but that's the point is you could hear it. Like I was sitting at a gate and this guy was sitting next to me. We were cackling. That's unfortunate. It was really, We were to the point where we were just cackling. And people kept looking over at me. And I was like, oh, don't look at me. That's not me doing this. I'm trying to listen to the Cubs pregame.

And that's when I heard this exchange between intrepid reporter Elise Minnaker and Craig Counsel, who had decided to give Michael Bush initially a day off because he was over 30. We talked to Michael Bush before the game. Obviously, he's been struggling at the play just your decision to give him a day off. And what you're looking for, you know, for him to get out. out of it. Yeah, I mean, this is just trying to give a reset to a player that's a really good hitter, that's probably just a mental break a little bit. You know, there's, he's just got stuck a little bit and, you know, is not having any success and not getting any results. And I think sometimes just a

day where you're not in the lineup and you can go in the cage and work and not know that, not prepare for a game that day, but prepare to kind of like make things better here is, is helpful and put you at ease. He's available to play, and there's a good chance that you're going to see him, you know, later in a game. How do you decide the timing of those usually pretty good about his good? Well, he's old for 30. That's also early. That's, that's, that's, that's, that's, he's old for 30. You can choose a different, I don't know, I'm just, I'm just, and I'm telling you, he's old, he's old for 30. Simple as that. I mean, that's a, it's, it's, you can, you can see, there's a lot a line drives in there, but it's, that's, that's, you get to a place of playing every day for a week

and not, not producing, um, and not, not having any results and it wears on you. Just, it wears on you mentally as much as anything. This swing has been kind of low maintenance. He's been so consistent, but I mean, is there anything you're seen within, is it bats or anything that stands out or? I mean, nothing stands out. I mean, I think you got, you, you get into like some, I think what I've seen is that when you go into their bats and they feel mechanical, that's when you need a break. You know what I mean? And that's what everybody's got their own mechanics.

But when you get into the box, you kind of get rid of them. And when they become the central thought of your at-bats, then that's when that's when the kind of the trouble happens. April 1st, Lela, April 1st. Today is the 13th. Yesterday was the 12th, by the way. April 1st was the last time that Michael Bush had gotten a base hit. It was a two-hit day. This is not an April Fool.

And it was not April Fool's. But I understand everything Craig Counsel was saying there because you could say what you want about how he's quote-unquote looked at the plate, everything else. But at the end of the day, when you go hitless for 30 straight at bats, sometimes you just need a blow. And I love the foreshadowing there before the game. You'll probably see him later in the game.

Right. And he had a plan. And that's hard to go from everyday hitting to then. trying to see if you mix it up with having him as a pinch hitter. Now Michael Bush is no stranger to not being an everyday player this time last year. We were talking about how he was being platoon, even as the cleanup hitter. He was being platoon. But then I thought that we had moved past it based on his playoffs. That was enough for me to say, this guy needs to be in your everyday lineup. But when you're over 30, something had to change. And unfortunately, it wasn't quite as much

he goes, they go, the Cubs. But it was an indication of how this team offensively has struggled. So he ends up coming in in a pinch-it situation. Matt Shaw was at first base. And Bush comes through. Singles in the bottom of the eighth inning. And also thanks to an error, you know, put your opposing team in a position to not succeed. And that brings around, say, Suzuki.

And it helps the Cubs get to that bottom of the ninth to walk it off. And at least get one game from this. series with the pirates. It's not two out of three, but your job is on that day is to try to win that one one. And at least that's what happened. And not just one game to, you know, stop the sweep, which would have been the first sweep at the hands of the pirates since 2019. And the first sweep at Wrigley since 2017 for the Buccos. But understand this. First place team against the first place, even after you beat them, they are in first place. Now, the great news. You're in first place. The words of two chains. The philosopher of our time. Even though the

Cubs are in last place, and I know it was a rough weekend for Cubs fans to have to watch that happen at Wrigley, you're just two games back to the division lead. Everything is fine in terms of you've been good enough to just kind of hang around amid some really bad news with your starting pitching. And also, one of your best players, arguably your best player in last year's playoffs, having the most horrible start to the season you can imagine. And it's not just him. It's a lot of guys right now who are off to bad starts from a hit- perspective for the Cubs. Credit to Scott Merkin, another great

philosopher of our time, the White Sox writer for MLB.com, who at 240 yesterday pointed out that the Cubs and White Sox were a combined one for 40 with runners in scoring position over their respective weekend series. So that means

the Cubs had the one hit between the two teams at that point because the Cubs were one for 23 with runners in scoring position through the first two games of their series. That's rough. It was bad. But you know what this reminds me, Leila, and I want to make sure, because Craig

Counsel knows. You could hear from his answers and also by the displayed results of, you know, getting the walk-off win. But 162 is a freaking grind. It is a grind that most sports don't understand because it's one thing to even play 82 game season like the NBA and the NHL. It's one thing to play the 17 games with the violence that the NFL brings. But to go 162 and to get very few days off over the course of six months for Major League Baseball teams,

you're going to have stretches like this. It just becomes painfully obvious that things aren't going your way when it happens at the beginning of a season. Although they're just a game under 500, they're hanging around and they have not played great baseball, but they're hanging around. Well, yeah, because good teams do that. In baseball, there is a linear relationship a lot of times, too. you're getting what you're paying for to some extent. Now, we've said this before.

Here are the pirates who are, you know, a lot of people's hipster, sexy pick to try to win the Central. And I see why, given the improvement and given the maturation of Paul Skeens. And O'Neill Cruz decided to pick this series to play like a baller in center field, had a great sliding catch on Friday, if you guys recall. But all of that said, this is a Cubs team that is supposed to produce more. We know that. And when it gets to 0 for 30,

What I thought was really interesting about the retort from Craig counsel was that we talk a lot about hard hit ball rate and how that affects this team. And I think it is a good measurement. Jordan Bastion did a lot of good work on it too. He said entering Saturday, the Cubs had a 44.2 percent hard hit rate as a team. That was good enough for fourth in the majors. Is their offense fourth in the majors? No, it is not. And the team's 8.7 percent barrel rate per stack cast was tied for the seventh highest in baseball.

Well, we know that they weren't the seventh best offense, so we understand you may be making good contact, but you're hitting them where they are instead of hitting them where they ain't. Craig Counsel in that conversation did not use that as an excuse. I'm not saying Bash and did. He's just doing his job providing good stats for us. But a lot of times we say that.

We're like, oh, they're hitting the ball well. This is a hard hit ball rate. He's like, no, he's out for 30. We're going to mix it up. And then he helped him be one of the heroes. No, for sure, you look at what Michael Bush was able to do. And let me tell you something. Craig Counsel sounds a little bit, not tired, but certainly grindy.

He sounds grindy at a time where you'd hope you're settling into your offense and you're getting, you know, with Say Suzuki back, don't forget about that this weekend. You're hoping now that you've got your pieces in your lineup, you're going to put some stuff together. And immediately now the lineup gets shaken up. I don't expect to see Michael Bush play today. You know why? Because Christopher Sanchez is on the freaking. amount for the Phillies today.

I don't know if you heard, he's left-handed and throws nasty stuff. Well, and you know who else needs to do better against lefties? The team. So, this isn't just a Michael Bush issue. Sounds like a 2025 callback to the first half of last season to me. Well, and when you say Craig, counsel

sounds grindy, that's the kind of discussion you typically hear in like an August. Right. You know, like dog days of summer. And that's not where this is. Yeah, The adage that 574 brings up on our text line at 312, 644, 67, is the truth.

You cannot win the division in April. You just don't want to lose it. And you and I have seen a lot of teams lose a division in April. But they're not doing that right now. The other part of this is, do you feel any better knowing that the nationals weren't just a bugaboo to the Cubs? Did you see them sweep the brewers? The Nationals swept the brewers. So one of the things that I love about this baseball season already is we're two weeks in

and we've seen a little bit of a sample size now where we can say, hey, this is about what, you know, because some people will tell you, oh, it's not the NFL, you can't be looking at every game like it's life or death. It's only April. Well, then why are you watching the games at all if it's only April? Just put your sleep mask on. But my point is if it's a 162 game schedule and we're, you know, 15, 16 games in, I think that's a large enough sample size to get some indications and some indicators of where

baseball is headed. One of the things I love, Leila, is that there are three teams right now that have double-digit wins. Three teams. Yeah. The three teams, that's all. Out of 30 teams, everybody else has between six and nine wins. I love a degree of parity that baseball is showing us this season that we have not necessarily

seen. Like the Rockies and the White Sox don't have two and three wins, you know? who one of the three teams is. Well, it's the Dodgers. And then... Padres. And the other one, okay, a little different in the Braves. Well, but the Braves are finally healthier. Correct. Compared to what they start off last year. They also already have a plus 46 run differential. They have been smoking fools. Yes. A bit of a buzz saw to start the year for the Braves. But my point is, even if you're a last place team like the Cubs or the White Sox, the Cubs are two games out of first place. The White Sox are three games out of first place.

You just got to, as the text are pointed out, just hang around. If you're if you're going through some things with, you know, Kate Horton, Matthew Boyd, not being around, just hang around for a while. I'm not even there. I'm not a standings person yet. I'm not a standings person for a while. For me, it's more of how are you taking series? How are you getting your outs?

Are you taking two or three against teams you should be? And you were supposed to do that over the weekend and it didn't happen. So that gives you an indication. But then do I feel better knowing that the Nats at least aren't just frustrating to the Cubs, that was the first sweep of the brewer since 2011 for the Nationals and their first sweep in Milwaukee since 2006. That's a note for me. So you're saying, thank you, Washington.

That's what you're really saying. Well, or at least you know it's not as dire as you may have thought when it came to the Joey Weimer show. If you told me, hey, by the way, we'll be more than two weeks in the season and the Brewers and Cubs will be, you know, the bottom of the National League Central. My first question would be like, well, how far back are they? And that's what gives me pause to not get too caught up in the fact that the standings exist, but it's not something that you should be terribly concerned about.

Everybody has their units of measurement. Right. You know, for you, that's your unit of measurement. For me, it's how are you doing in respective series, at least early? 7-3 is correct. The Brewers did start bad last year. And then they had the greatest month ever. So that was August for them.

But I don't necessarily know that you're going to see a swing like that happen again. to replicate that would be a baseball wild oddity, not just even an oddity. But this is very much a work in progress as we're seeing. The fact that I talk about Matt Shaw at first base, you know, even Saturday, we were on ahead of the game on Saturday from Stadium Swim and Circa Marshall. But I was even surprised to see some of the decisions are still very interesting and I feel like working it out. You know, Caleb Thielbar struggled on Friday and then unfortunately was part of a fielding issue

that costs the game for the Cubs on Saturday. I don't know that I would have brought him in two days in a row after that. He was laboring in that outing that he had on Friday. And he is older. I'm sorry, it's just how this goes. But maybe that was time for him to get a day off Craig Counsel said, no, you're coming in. Maybe it's a mojo thing.

But this is still very much a tinkering and trying to figure out who this team is going to be this year. We've made a lot out of the injuries to the starting rotation, Kate Horton out for the year. Matthew Boyd's going to have some time. with his bicep. But the bullpen has had its own list of injuries to start a season that you would rather not see. And so the Thielbar thing made sense to me because who else does Craig counsel trust down there?

Right. If you really want to go through it and who's healthy enough to actually pitch. And for Thielbar, I think because of just how atrocious his Friday appearance was, getting him back on the horse seemed like the right idea. And he had a chance to get out of that any. There are a couple positives for me from yesterday's game in particular. Okay. And I say that knowing that there was a grand slam early and things look pretty bad when you're down five to nothing.

But if the wind is going to help the pirates, then you also want the wind to help the Cubs. And yesterday it actually did. We saw homers from Danesby Swanson and Mosei's by Astero's. And enough productive outs like with the Bregman's Sacrifice Fly. And then the hits that I mentioned late in the game from not just Michael Bush, but the also, of course, Carson Kelly to help as the hero. You know, that's what you want to see. Yeah, if the weather's going to help one team, better sure help the home team.

If you told me that the Cubs were going to be down 5-0 and you don't have to say if, the Cubs were down 5-0 and I asked the question to Ray and Mark as we're getting ready to go to the airport. I was like, do you really think the Cubs can score six runs? I was like, that's not even the question, actually. Do you think with seven innings left the Cubs can score more runs than the Brewers, or excuse me, not Brewer's team, then a Pirates team that has already put up six and, like,

can you stop them from scoring more runs? And with that bullpen, the way you described it, the way James and Tyone was pitching, giving up multiple home runs to Brennan Lowe, I was like, I can't see it. But you know what? Craig showed me the vision. He showed me. Craig's vision? Yeah. Is it like Ben's vision?

Does it get a sponsorship? Like, how does this work? You know what? The man used every position player on his roster to get the win. Well, and on the other side of things, the White Sox used nine pitchers yesterday. Well, we'll talk about that later. We will talk about that at 1045. Coming up next, you mentioned it, Marshall, this isn't just an issue when it comes to your starting pitching. You're trying to figure out who's in your circle of trust. You're also trying to figure out where you need to put other people who have multiple skill sets. Ben Brown is one of them. So he was on hit and run yesterday, and we asked the question next. We'll listen to Ben Brown. How much can the Cubs rely

on him in this time of neat. We'll examine next. network. That is Pat Hughes on the call. You know him well. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 The Score. And the Pirates and Cubs series not only had a bit of a wild twist in turn, as we saw, but it also featured a lot of people. And one of them who is getting his fair share of opportunities is Ben Brown. Ben Brown can be a reliever. That is what his current role is, but we know that I think at some point the Cubs would still like him to be a potential starter for them.

He's got that skill set. He just hasn't had a third pitch that has worked well for him. He's been working on a sinker most recently. He was on hit and run yesterday morning, talking about what he's been working up on the most leading up to the season. I think what we were able to see it's a difference between this year and last year.

I'm making big pitches when I have to. I'm not, you know, the bad things are just a little bit less bad. You know, a face and a good hitter with runners in first and second. I'm trusting my new pitches. The singer is just huge for me against right-hand hitters. And at the same time, they're still a runner on, you know, third base with two outs. I'm still making pitches to get out there even no runs. You know, it's like the little things.

It's a little, these aren't, this isn't a big physical change. Obviously, there was some physical stuff that went on the offseason, but there was some fish design stuff. But I think you look at these little things that I'm doing just a little bit better at the margins if I was able to maybe do these last year as my year as ballooned as it was, probably not. So, no, it's been really encouraging. But, yeah, I think a lot of this is just in what's in between the years, you know,

and how you're able to just kind of limit damage and control your intensity levels. And it's been really fun. And I think his most reason outing was his best of the year, two winnings against the Pirates on Saturday, gave it just two hits, had one walk and three strikeouts, no one runs to his name. Yeah, I think what's impressive about the way he's been able to come into this season is understanding it's a different type of role. He's been multiple innings every time that he's taken the hill in all five games, and he's not gone less than two innings. And it's got me wondering, because we saw him go two innings the last three times, three and a third the first two times. Is he going to have to be this Colin Ray-style pitcher while Colin Ray is in the rotation, or will there be another means?

and then you would hope that once Matthew Boyd comes back, that race shifts back to that sixth man. If that's the case, now you've got some flexibility, if you're correct counsel. Right now, the flexibility ain't there. Yeah, you need Ben Brown. You need Ben Brown to perform. You need him to progress.

And Ben is a guy who will tell you how the sausage is made. I remember last year, especially when he talked about how the first inning really would set him back. And if he struggled in that first inning or he would explain that even if he got the ship right in innings two through whatever that the first inning set him back in such a way that was a problem. So to hear him speak like this when it comes to his new role, it's encouraging. I know he had the three and a third against the Angels as well to start the year, but to me it's another

thing to be able to replicate a similar performance later on. You know, you come out of the gate strong because that's typically how you want to see guys go. But for me, this last outing on Saturday, whether it's more conducive to hitting. I just feel like we were in a better place to watch a more accurate version of him. The thing you need to understand is Ben Brown is going to be so key to this team, however you want to chalk it up going forward. We know what the bullpen looks like on day one versus the final day, or day one, and what you hope is day one at the playoffs, right?

Regular season versus playoffs. and if Ben Brown's on that playoff roster, that means they're in a good spot. That means he's had a very good year. If he's not, you have to wonder, well, what went wrong with Ben Brown? Like you said, they have higher hopes for him and his role on this team going forward

than what he's in right this second. And there are some pitchers who can use only two pitches and maybe they throw the fastball a bunch of different ways. They can give it some armside run. They can pick and choose their spots depending on who's at the play to righty or a lefty. But in Ben Brown's case, the third pitch is crucial, and right now that is a sinker. But it might be surprising as to where the idea for having a sinker came from.

Listen to what he said on hit and run about who had been working with him. Yeah, well, the first two months before I didn't do off him now, which guy is pushing me. I mean, the way that he trains, he's ridiculous. I haven't really met anyone bigger stronger than him ever. I mean, just the way he gets after it. Similar story. He struggled his first couple years in the big leagues, and then you obviously saw what happened in New York

just becoming a closer, and I was a three-year contract starter. It's a big deal. But, yeah, so, yeah, he challenged my thoughts. I think that was the biggest thing that started. You know, Tarlov's season. He's pushing me just to think different about my career, about who I am. And then once we got into the pitch design, process. It was, I mean, it was special. It's just, it's me, him, a catcher, an attraction,

and sometimes not even having a catcher. And we're just, we're going through stuff. We're learning how things work. We're trying new things. And I'm just so incredibly grateful for play. And it was definitely something out of this world that got us together. And I'm just, I'm just super blessed that I got to work with him. And he's, he's still is huge for me. And even now, I still chat with him pretty regularly, and I'm really thankful for him. And it's exciting to see what he's doing over there, too. He's selling the ball well. Yeah.

And when he says Clay, he means Clay Holmes, the starting pitcher for the Mets. That is not exactly where I expected Ben Brown to come up with something. But that's the point when players can hear another ear, you know, whether it's Alex Bregman for the team, or whether it's Clay Holmes, the Yankees, Mets, and Pirates pitcher who's helping Ben Brown. This is an unlikely source, but it seems to be productive. Last year, and in previous seasons, he's thrown his four seamer over half the time, right? And it's a good pitch, but this is the big leagues and you need a little variety to spice things up. And so while he was throwing his curveball 40% of the time last year, and that number's

not dipped much, 37.4%. The fact that this changeup stays where it is, which is not much, almost never, 3.4% of the time, and you add this sinker, which is now 17.5% of the time. It could be what unlocks him as a guy who can go deeper into games. And when I say deeper,

that means the potential to be a starting pitcher. And that's really what people have been waiting for this whole time talking about Ben Brown. Well, and that's the thing. You know, you said the change-up and then you mentioned the percentage. Yeah, you can have a third pitch.

But if you don't want to throw the third pitch... Is it really... And if you're not confident in it, you're still trying anyway. Is it really? It doesn't end well, as we've seen. No. And that's been a part of this too is perhaps, you know, from Clay Holmes, who he's worked with, really fun story and a great discussion.

Just guys talking ball. You know, you get to this concept of maybe being able to use the sinker and have it work for you. And there are times where I feel like already this season, you're going to be a little more hesitant to mix it in, which is what we've seen. So that's been my goal. with Ben Brown is it's one thing to have a third pitch, but you've got to want to throw it.

And you have to feel confident enough in it to be able to do so at a big league level. And it's going to take time, right? It's not something, and we saw that obviously his first appearance of the season. You're like, oh, here we go again with Ben Brown. But Craig Counsel has been steady in giving him opportunities, and the leverage has increased of when he has to give him opportunities because of the shortage of bullpen arms that Craig Counsel can depart. depend on because you look at all these guys who have been called up and it's like slowly

working them in in lower leverage situations just to see what they have right but ben brown is gone from a guy who was okay we think he can be important to he has to be important well and that's it right is that especially your your biggest test of whether or not you like what you're doing is coming in this series against the Phillies and then it's the Mets and then you have the Phillies again for four. Then it's the Dodgers from three and the Padres for three. That doesn't sound like a pitcher-friendly schedule

that you just threw at me. Citizens Bank Park, Marshall Harris, could tap the ball and it's going to fly out to right field. Taparoo. It might get to first base. I don't have much power. I'll be honest. A big league hitter. How many balls you've seen fly out to right field in Philly?

Very many. Very many. Thousands? Well, think about Tommy, Howard. Utley Mashers and now Schwabber mashers. You can square one up there

and have it go far. The ball travels well at Citizens Bank Park. Now is it going to be as good as the wind helping everybody out yesterday that I'm not sure. But we get to find out

quickly right? Because again, you're done with the here's the good news. You're done with the Phillies in April. The bad news is you got to see the Phillies

twice in April. Well, it's kind of like how last year they faced the, entire NL West in the first six weeks of the season. Out of the gate. And in this case, you've got the Phillies and then the NL West.

Yay. And the two teams that you just mentioned who have double digit wins. This is a good Monday programming note for everyone listening as well. Pre-game on the score for Cubs and Phillies is 505. So nice and early for you for your Cubs baseball today. Oh, those afternoon kids have a short show, do they? They got a shorty over there on Speaks and Holmes. A little bit.

They've had a lot of shorties lately. We got the two on Friday and Saturday at the pool, which for us was 1045 Pacific time. It was nice and early. I will not lie. I do like the idea of brunch and baseball together. That Vegas, they don't observe the daylight saving time because they got a lot of daylight. So that's what ended up happening. I want to give a shout out to our crew today, by the way.

And you've been texting us 312, 64467.67 is our number. You can also find us on video. We're at The Score, Chicago, both our. on YouTube and on Twitch, twitch.tv.tv. slash The Score Chicago, where our Twitch mob is up and they are chatting. They're using emotes. We got a lot of symbols, like subscriber and 30-year score and all that stuff. I feel like it's a robust Twitch chat today.

So you can join the show within a show there. Additionally, we also have our video team. It is Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, and Cody Westerland. Ray Diaz, Tyler Bueberball, are our producers, and Brandon Friar helps as well. Brandon Fryer rocking his Chicago sky gear because the draft is tonight. I feel like before we went to Vegas and then after we came back, the sky have a completely different team. It's been a facelift of sorts. Or maybe they just got a complete makeover.

It's like a team lift. They jumped on a plane. Team lift. They jumped on a plane. Maybe they headed to Miami got some work done. Something along those lines. Yeah. Or if you've ever been to Turkey and maybe you need some new follicles.

replenished on top of your head. A lot of people are doing that. Same vibes. If you go to Turkey, I highly recommend the coffee. If you're allowed to have it. I don't know what the caffeine situation is there if you get a procedure done. But Turkish coffee is essentially jet fuel. And by essentially, I mean, essentially.

I'm just letting you know that makeovers are in style. And a lot of women are applauding men for also taking their makeover seriously. Well, you know, we're not here to gate key. and it's nice when people chat about things, which is what we do here every day. We broadcast live from the score Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. When we have breaking news on the score,

it is sponsored by IDOT. Speeding in a work zone is a no win. Mind the signs. Avoid the fines. We have something fun coming up. Is it fun? Yes. Noah Schultz day is tomorrow. You know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to tell you exactly how I found out the Noah Schultz news and what the response was to my response and how that went down. I think you should because I think we got an update on your response to the response to the response. We got a response three times over. Okay. Let's play a little back and forth, a little foosball, if you will, with the responses. Also, I'm very glad personally because I joke that this was the wait for Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith Invitational.

Well, thanks, guys. I didn't have to wait very long. We'll do that next. Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043, the score. Now the fastball by Schultz and his ninth strikeout of the game. He is not allowed a base runner since Bernal reached on the drop throw at first base with two outs in the first inning. That is courtesy of Charlotte Knights TV. this is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 the score.

And it's here. I was hoping to see this happen this season. I did not think it was going to happen this soon. Noah Schultz, the Oswego East product, is going to be called up and is expected to pitch tomorrow. This is welcome news for a team that needed starting pitching help badly. You know what they need more than starting pitching help? they need hitting help.

They're dead last in baseball and pretty much every major category. Oh, yes, I do. It might just be equally bad. No, no, it's more. Since you brought it up, like, do I think it's more? Let me give you this stat because. It's all a problem in the words of Johnson. No, I don't see, here's the thing.

I don't think it is all a problem. And here's why. We're so focused on what happened at the start of the season where things were just absolutely terrible. heading into yesterday in which Grant Taylor, by the way, pitched two scoreless innings to start the game yesterday. White Sox pitching in their last nine games when you look at either the starter or the guy who came in after Grant Taylor, who would be the bulk guy. A 1.27 ERA, best in Major League Baseball, period. A 0.93 whip, 33 to 12 strike out to walk stretch.

And during that stretch, by the way, they were three and six in those nine games, which tells me they need hitters. So going back to what we said before the break, I'll tell you how I found out the news, your friend and mine, your coworker in mine, Mark Grody comes up to me as we're getting ready for dinner. In Vegas. In Vegas. And says, Marshall, did you hear the news? It's like, what, what's up? It's like, Noah Schultz is getting called up. And I think he thought I was going to be really, really excited.

and the first thing I said to him was like I think right you're sitting next to me right? This was at dinner at night two at what's the name of the restaurant they were at? Adiamo. On Diamo. Also where Layla spotted Doug Flutty by the way.

I saw Doug Flutty. And then we all saw Doug Flutie. I had to, well Marshall you missed Doug Flutie. Yeah, I had to scoot past him, past the host stand and I was like, I'm sorry. And he was wearing a cool like banana leaf print shirt. It was well done.

And I'm like, oh, I'm sorry, guy who's shirt I like, oh, my God, it's Doug Flutty. I'm pretty sure he heard me yell the name to our table because he walked by and stared at us. Like, we had six heads each. But Doug Flutty was there and Noah Schultz. It was a very star-studded dinner. And so Ray is sitting next to me and Mark tells me this. And the first thing I say is like, oh, where's he going to hit? How are you not?

Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith are two of the most. most appreciated and just biggest symbols of White Sox fans looking forward to the season. Like we haven't had, I haven't been this excited about a prospect call up since I want to say Michael Copac. Hey, Grody was very surprised in Marshall's reaction as well. I did. This is a sign of hope. Like there's a prospect that you're excited about that you want to see.

You've been watching him for years. And he finally gets called up because they realize this isn't okay. What's gone on with the starting pitching. And by the grace of God, it's an actual pitcher, six foot nine who you think is going to be a big deal in baseball, ultimately in his career. And you're not happy about it. Don't get me wrong.

Don't get me wrong, Leila. I understand what Noah Schultz represents. We haven't had something like this in a really long time. But let me give you the context of this. This is right after, I think, a rain-delayed game in which the socks had lost to the Royals by an identical score of the day before. You know what that score was?

Two nothing. As in, they didn't score when he runs for a second straight game. So that's where my brain was when this news was given to me. I was like, let me know when Sam Antanachi gets a call up. That was my next thing I said to Grotie. Well, according to Ken Rosenthal, it might be soon. He wrote that today. According to Bruce Levine, according to Ken Rosenthal,

Bruce said this at noon yesterday. White Sox have not decided to bring up in-field or outfield or Sam Antenotche. there had been a bunch of reports that he was coming up tomorrow. Which didn't make any sense to me because it's the 14th and you got to wait until the 15th to get him up without getting the year's service time. Well, Bruce said they've discussed it when insider said nothing in motion as of yet for him. Charlotte's off today, correct?

Not sure about the Charlotte schedule. I can tell you that the White Sox are off today before starting a series with those Tampa Bay race. but I haven't even I haven't even it's been years since I've cared about the Charlotte night schedule they're off today I I care a little bit about the Charlotte night schedule because you keep up with what's going on but my point is you're carrying I'm caring because I want to see who's getting called up yes like it's that part of it like this is this is a good time this is a time of hope like I

this is a prospect that I've been wanting to see for years be here I am excited about Noah Schultz the other part of that context is Noah Schultz getting called up does is remind me of players past. I did mention Kopeck. Garrett Crochet. Dillon Cisease. Oh, you're hurt. You're hurt.

We can go down the line of Marshall. Well, Garrett Crochet, that was a, he, that was 20-20, too. He got drafted in 2020 and then ended up, you know, ultimately being a part of this early. My overriding point is that when these guys that we get so excited about, with the White Sox in particular, get called up. You're starting a clock that is not a favorable clock because it is the clock in which these guys end up getting moved. And I...

They get moved because they don't develop enough around them or sign enough for agents to fill in the gaps. I understand that. But it's not their fault. They still have value. No, no, no. They have value. But when we get to the point where a guy like this gets called up

and you're excited because he's going to be part of a playoff push because he won't be moved and he's going to be a guy who could pitch for the White Sox for a decade, that's when I'll get excited to the level that apparently everyone else around me was excited. So do you understand? You don't think Sam Antanachi can't get flipped? Oh, no, of course he can get flipped.

But he's a guy who, offensively, if you get him up, you know, we did this question about when will the White Sox pay someone $100 million? You don't have to pay a hitter like that. Sam Antinachi's not getting paid $100 million. He's a guy who's going to cost a reasonable amount of money to keep in your organization, buy out the arb years if you want to, if you even need to. That's a different story.

Well, but that's it, though, is you've talked about guys getting called up to only get flipped. And Sam Antanachi helps an offense that's struggling. But in theory, don't you think he can get moved to? Yeah, he'd get moved down the road, but it wouldn't be the same effect. because no one's getting as excited about Sam Antonacci and his overall effect on the White Sox organization as Noah Schultz is. That's, to your point, you haven't been caring about Charlotte Knights' games.

And Sam Antanachi's been there the whole time. You weren't worried about when is Sam Antenachi getting called up, but you were with Noah Schultz, Hagan Smith. These guys, with arms specifically, the White Sox aren't going to pay to keep the arms like they will to keep bats. I mean, I remember I was watching everything in Charlotte because I wanted to see what Eloy, Menez was doing when he was batting 375 and you were watching that schedule to see if that was

the day he was going to get called up. And I felt I felt that way about a bunch of the White Sox prospects. We had the shirt like trust the prospects. And I hadn't felt the same way about it until recently until that was the same feeling I had when I saw that he was getting called up. Like God, good. A hundred losses isn't acceptable enough this year. I'm not saying I'm not saying you get to 81, but something had to be done. And for them to be able to call up a big name prospect for that reason is a good thing. It's not just about guys who have earned it, like a Tim Elko last year, and he did earn it. But this is a different deal.

630, Marshall's a web blanket. Let's be excited about Schultz being called up. Again, I am excited about Schultz being called up. I'm just not as excited as everyone else because I would like Schultz to be able to get, I don't know, that overrated stat next to his name, a W. you. I would like to have them a chance to some offense would like the sucks to not use nine pitchers

in a game. Nine. Your son was absent nine times. And yeah, three, two, three, you're right. Eloy did just get called up for Toronto. The Blue Jays of all things. That's not exactly an easy roster to make. They're after a rough start, though.

Yeah, there were a lot of injuries. That's not the point. The point is, I'm now keeping an eye on the Charlotte Night's schedule for personal baseball reasons. The Charlotte Knights, I've not ever realized this as I'm looking at the schedule. They're like your favorite barbershop or beauty shop. Every Monday they're off. Are they really?

Yeah, I didn't realize that part of it. At least this year, maybe it's a schedule quirk. No, it looks like I'm going through the whole thing. Every Monday they're off. I think that's a Meyer League thing in general now. Yeah, I didn't realize. TEPA teams are doing to have more consistency in their schedule. My hair stylist is off on Mondays.

That is not a day where you can go. So welcome Noah Schultz. I think this is a big deal. And especially with him being a local guy, it was a big deal when the Sox drafted him in 2022. And I'm nice to see this. I'm happy to see something nice happening. I am nice to see happening thing. I am also excited to see something nice happening.

I would also like some offense to be nice and happening. And then the best part is, yeah, nice and happening offense. That's what we request. We know when we see it. Next right here, I'm Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104. The score. You might have missed it last night because I don't blame. you. There were not a ton of reasons

to watch the Bulls and Mavericks game, but Billy Donovan's postgame press conference was. I think we now have a better understanding of whether or not he's even coming back. Let's listen together next. This hour is brought to you by Menards.

Save big money at Menards. And this ball game is over. Ball game over, season over. The final from Dallas Mavericks 149. and the Bulls 128.

Mercifully, the Bulls season has ended. You may go in peace. Thanks be to God. That was Chuck Sworski. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score. And there was a reason

to watch the Bulls and Mavericks game last night. It was a fun tribute, by the way, to the former Mavericks of years past. Stacey King's name was on the court over the American Airlines Center. And they were wearing their throwbacks, which I think they should have never stopped wearing. That's another story for another day.

But in the meantime, there was also a record watch that was being had. We were trying to see if Nembert was going to get the assist record. He was too short of tying it. He ended up with 23 assists. The Mavericks scored 149 points, and the Bulls had 128. But there were a couple of reasons, Marshall, to actually watch this game if you're into it like we are. Patrick Williams watch? Is that one of the reasons?

What was your watch for Patrick Williams? Minutes, points, what? A dollar? He played 36 minutes. He's 5 and 15 from the field. Well, Lachlan Oberg is the thing. Triple double, baby. Let me just say,

10 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists. Layla, this all feels so very, I'm trying to think of the, anti-climactic. Prefunctory. Keep going. You just keep, I mean, there are several adjectives

you could use to describe this NBA season, not just through a Bulls lens, but through an NBA casual fan lens. You know why? For the first time in league history, eight teams, the Bulls are not one of them, by the way, but eight teams have finished with 55 or more losses.

The Mavericks are one of those teams. Yeah, take. And that told you the state of the NBA to me, the fact that eight different teams had more than 55 loss. That's hard to do. That's because eventually those 55 lost teams, they all got to play each other. it's just not good.

And the polls, as you said, 31 and 51. And MacMoclung's out here getting run. And Yuki Kaua Moore's out here getting run. Listen. Isn't that what you're supposed to do, though? Shouldn't those guys? They should have been doing that for the last however many weeks. Adam and Stacey have been calling for Mac McClung for a long time in these games.

And they had every reason to do so. And Mac McClung didn't do the dunk contest because he wanted to be an NBA player. And they still didn't have him on the court as much. Well, he's an NBA player, although Buclain. get on the, you know, the whole deal that he's on with the two-way and everything. Is it free somebody if they're not in the league? Like, with Bobby Portis, it's free Bobby P. I was literally thinking that.

I was literally thinking maybe we should have printed the free Mac MacKlegg's shirts. But it's not free. Essentially, you would have to commit. You would have to commit to Mac McLong. Oh, no doubt. But I mean, you're free Mac Mac MacLong. It's not, it doesn't have the same ring.

Mac. Mac. Hmm. I see what you did. Commit McClund. Is that what you're all saying? Well, he just started going to the Max Crosby. Mack.

Listen. Colin Sexton, we have enjoyed your time here on the Bulls. We thank you for your service. It's time to move on. These are the, like watching the game,

Leonard Miller. Do you believe that Leonard Miller is a rotation player on a good NBA team, a playoff-bound NBA team? This is a basketball segment, and every time somebody says the name Leonard, and I know I'm in Chicago,

I think you're talking about Leonard Floyd still, Bears. Oh. So, okay. So that's where my brain is still with the name Leonard and sports in the city. But yeah, I watched the, the,

the, the, what's the word I'm looking for? Oh, condensed game of the Bulls and the Mavericks. I did not watch it in real time. I, my stupid random self, got home at 630 yesterday from the,

from the flight. And I was like, I'm going to watch this. and Bulls game. Why? Why? Why? Yeah, I didn't do that. I was watching what was going on with the White Sox because I wanted to figure out what happened because I couldn't watch that game because I was watching the Cubs game. I was watching the Masters on the plane because we had no Wi-Fi, but that's fair. That's fair as well. But some exciting finishers. The only thing that happened of importance to me was after the game. That's it. We've been trying to figure this out for a while now.

Billy Donovan maintained consistently and was for his word when he said, talk to me about this stuff after the season. He wanted to focus on coaching his team. The future for him, whether it be with the Bulls or somewhere else, was going to come after the season. He really didn't have time to think about who is going to be the VP of basketball operations, the general manager, and the like. And Sam Smith did the damn thing yet again.

excellent post-game questions. He made the trip, and here's what he asked about whether or not the new GM should bring in his own head coach. You know, is it appropriate that if you're going to bring in a new, you know, top-level manager, you know, should he already have the coach? What do you think about that? Should somebody who gets hired in that job, should he have that coach or, you know, do you have any opinion about that? Yeah, I think that's part of the certainly would be the discussion with ownership. And I said this before. One, I really appreciate, you know, Michael and Jerry's support.

I really appreciate the relationship with the both of them. I think, and I said this before, I think maybe some of Michael's comments, I understood what he was saying in terms of support of me. But I'm very, very confident that Jerry and Michael are going to do what's best for the Chicago Bulls. And they should. And we all need to because we work for the organization. So that's probably some of the things we probably need to discuss, quite honestly, you know, when we get at some point this time this upcoming week to be able to do that. You know, I totally understand it from a lot of different levels.

And those are the conversations that I need to have with Jerry and Michael about. Does that sound like a guy who is committed to anything yet? Because that was not my take. So I heard this and I was like, all right, this actually sounds normal to me because he just got done coaching a game and he's got a lot on his plate as far as what to think of. Specifically, first thing, exit interviews with the players. And then we know he's not meeting with ownership tomorrow or I guess today. And I felt like this was going to be a process that took some time. He needs a couple of days to just think about what he wants.

He had said this also, I believe, in the same process. conference. Somewhere along the way, Sam had asked him about reflecting on it. We thought the most important thing for you guys to hear was what we just played. Sam and Casey do an excellent job every day. There's no doubt about that. Casey Johnson as well, who was on with our morning show today. He was on with Molly and Haugh. But for them to ask the pointed questions like this, one of them was, how would you look back on this season? And unique is the word Billy used. There's no doubt about that. But I also think it was uniquely exhausting. you know, from a level of him having to deal with two deaths and the family,

and his father being one of them. And then what happened regarding the trade deadline and Jane Ivy and the like, this is not a season you can replicate, so therefore it is unique. But at the same time, once again, he's finding really graceful ways to describe. What I can only imagine is incredibly trying. He deserves some time to rest. I would call the season dysfunctional because any season that starts with one vision, a 5-0 start.

I can't just remind people that the Bulls were 5-0 to start the season. They were 5-0. And then the vice president of basketball operations, Archerich Karnas Chauva, saying midway through the season, we're going to do something different this time. And then that different was worse than what, you know, the grass really is not always greener on the other side. What they did was not good in terms of what they got back as far as draft capital,

in my opinion. But were you happy that at least, and the bar is in hell, but then at least they got draft capital back for some of the expiring contracts. Sure. Because you got to get something back, right? And they hadn't in the past. And so they did that. And then maybe that opens eyes as to why they hadn't gotten stuff in the past

because they didn't know how to get stuff back. I don't know. I mean, I feel like the trade deadline became the search for the nine or ten very good players that Arturis Karashev spoke of. Like, we're just going to take flyers on all these guys. A lot of them, we've scouted previously. And that's what became the idea. we know that it wasn't executed to its finish.

That obviously happened when they decided to fire Arturus Karnasovas and Mark Eversley. But Billy Donovan, when he talked about this, I think he translated to me what was what I gathered, which is the organization wanted to compliment him. They don't want to punish him for what happened around him. It's just procedurally this is not usually how it goes. And that's the disconnect. I don't know that there is a disconnect, though, between Billy Donovan and ownership in the same way that there is between, or was, I should say, between Mark Eversley, Archerich, Carnas Chavez, and ownership, and or Billy, because we were told how bad of communicators they are. And when you take that into direct- I think we also experienced it from the lack of press conferences.

Yes, clearly. And in contrast, every time someone did have to step up. to the podium? Jayne ivy specifically comes to mind. That's when your head of front office, the people who made the deal to bring Jayon ivy in, should be front and center and taking accountability for where that decision led. The lack of due diligence leading to such a catastrophic result

is a fireable offense, period. The basketball results were a fireable offense. But let's take it out of the NBA as far as how I think Billy interpreted and told us what he thinks, of what Reinsdorf said last week. Say you're not running an NBA team. Say that you're running a regional paper company.

See. You're probably not going to fire the assistant to the regional manager, even though the regional manager was bad. But this is not a typical business. But I'll tell you one thing. When you fire the regional manager and the assistant to the regional manager is there, when you hire that new regional manager,

he gets to pick his assistant to the regional manager. Well, here's the scarier part in this extension of this analogy of this random regional paper company. You then typically promote the assistant to the regional manager. Do you not? Depends on how... If you like hiring from within. Depends on how much you believe in the assistant to the regional manager. I think...

To be fair, Billy Donovan is not Dwight Shrew. There's only one Dwight Shrewd. And there's only one Billy Donovan. Well, but to take it even further, if the assistant to the regional manager says, hey, I really like being the assistant to the regional manager, but I don't want to be the regional manager. Now, when you bring in the regional manager, don't you have to have him give his say of who he wants to be his assistant? Or you end up with Robert California. Let's see this. We've exhausted this analogy, I believe.

Or we're just telling you the plot of the office. Yes. But that's kind of the thing here is that I think there's being, there's some traditional business thing that's being applied to a non-traditional business. But either way, Billy Donovan did not sound like a dude who was committed and and I don't expect him to. But if he did lean one way or another more definitively, then that would help us understand what's next. I expect Billy Donovan to be back until he's not back until he says, I'm not coming back in whatever role, whether that's front office guy. Because would you be surprised if Michael Rinesdorf handed him the keys to the franchise? No. And that's the point. 630. You can text us 312, 64, 64, 67, 630 says, why is Billy the only

adult in the room. I hate this team. I don't think he's the only adult, but I think he has been the adult, and he's had a lot on his shoulders to say he absolutely. Joe Kelly. He's not. Soothsayer. He's the guy who tells you like, hey, the Iads of March are bad. And you're like, whatever random soothsayer, I don't believe you. That's like, oh, maybe that guy had a point. It's just bad. It's all bad. Except I actually I would not have dissed on on Joe Kelly so I would probably be like

oh interesting the I'm March you say runs away 815 don't you get Will Ferrell first yeah I forget where he came in that order of operations there

what was his name it was like Alonzo or something on the office I don't remember but on the scale of like the he gone meter for Billy Donovan after hearing that

Are you changing your scale Yeah did it change for you No He said there was nothing he said in that press conference that I was like, oh, that's surprising that he said that. DeAngelo. Like the dude who never got traded to the Bulls, DeAngelio, Jeangelo Russell. Remember that time, 70 hundred times where DeAngelo Russell was supposed to be traded to the Bulls? I mean, every team thought they were getting DeAngelo Russell trade was supposed to happen like a hundred times and it never happened.

Everybody forgets about that era. here's here's what i'll say about billy donovan and what he had to say after the press conference nothing he said surprised me nothing made me even raise an eyebrow because billy dodvin's giving you his real-time thought process in my opinion an authentic real-time thought process where he doesn't have some canned answer he's listening to the question he's answering answering the question as best he can in that moment and shout out to sam smith and others who were asking those questions after, and the point was made in that press conference, and it lasted quite some time,

longer than a typical Billy Donovan post-game press conference. This might be the last time we hear from Billy Donovan as Bulls head coach. And I think that that possibility, after hearing what he said yesterday, got more real. Yeah, it didn't for me. I think he's going to, now I'm not saying he's not going to leave, but I think he could very well be back as the Bulls head coach, and that might be problematic for whoever has to take over the Bulls. Well, that was a great question by Sam Smith and really the one we all wanted to know.

A man who is no stranger to a good conflict or resolution is next. A.J. Piersinski. We wanted to talk to him about Noah Schultz Day. Always good to catch up with him about baseball in general. And he's got something for us. So the two-time all-star catcher, the man himself, is joining us next here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. Now coming to Ben. A two-time All-Star and World Series champion with your Chicago. AJ Bersensky!

People just like to hate me. A.J., swinging a high-fly ball. Right field. This is going to go. Three-round Homer. Soxed out of their last strike. Go ahead. Light it up.

His fifth of the season. Usually the first thing that comes to their mind is, man, I really hate that guy. Number 12, A.J. Prisinski. Where's Jonah Heim? Oh, by the way, your guy's charging the mound. Isn't that your number one job is a catcher to not let that guy get there? With Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043, the score.

Really a good Jonah Heim point. We are happy to bring in our next guest. You know his music. You know his intro. That is A.J. Piersinski, the All-Star Catcher, 2005 World Series champion, host of Fowl Territory. And he joins us not only on our hotline, but on Twitch. dot TV slash the score Chicago.

AJ, how are you? Good. I can't believe how fancy you all are now. I mean, it used to just be a radio calling show. Now I've got to put clothes on to do this thing. I mean, don't you host a show today? What's going on with FAL Territory today? Oh, no, we do have a show today, but I mean, you know, it's a little early for me to,

I can't peek too early. I got to kind of try to control my peeking. So, you know, it's a little early to already put a shirt and a hat on. Yeah, peaking is better than, uh, peacocking, so I guess you're halfway there, but thank you for allowing us to siphon some of your on-camera presence for this interview. Yeah, it's changed. Like I said, people change.

You know, you guys change. You guys get bigger and bigger and bigger. And now we have all, you have TV cameras involved. Here we are with the WrestleMania-style intro. You know what's happening in Vegas this weekend. I thought you'd at least be happy with the wrestling side of it. Oh, of course. I mean, WrestleMania, by the way, WrestleMania, I don't think it's doing so good right now.

they're struggling, I think, with ticket sales. So maybe you guys can buy me a couple of tickets and fly me to Vegas this weekend. We were just in Vegas. Our timing is off. Unbelievable. We were at Circa. In the meantime, AJ, we get some good news.

I feel like at least as far as a pitcher is concerned, I haven't been this excited about the White Sox calling up a prospect. I want to say for me since Michael Kopeck. You know, we get the news about Noah Schultz coming up, local guy, a big name prospect, even when he was drafted. by the Sox.

You know, how do you feel about them doing this, given their record and their performance so far this year? Well, they have to have somebody that can pitch Grant Taylor can't start every game for him. I mean, it's like, holy cow, I thought he was one of your seventh or eighth inning guys, and he's out there opening every game. I think it's great. You know, Noah Schultz, first rounder, been there for a while. We'll see what he can do. He looked like he cleaned up his walk issues, which he's had in the past this year,

at least early on so far. So if he can throw it over the plate, he's going to be tough. The biggest thing for him is the walks. That's always been a question for him in deep counts, large pitch counts early. You know, I said for years, Noah Schultz was three years in his professional career. He never pitched into the fifth inning. So he did that last year, which was a good step for him in the right direction. We'll see.

I hope he does really well. He's what a six, what is he, six nine? Yeah, six nine. Six nine. Sixth nine. Lefty. I mean, I don't want to face the six. I faced Randy Johnson.

That was tough. I don't want to face a six. eight, six, nine, whatever he's listed at, lefty kind of side-sling. And so if he can throw it over the plate, he's got a chance to be really special. We'll see. Hopefully it works out.

Back to the aforementioned player that you just talked about, Grant Taylor. Now, he pitched two innings in being the opener yesterday, which is a stretch because he'd only been pitching one inning at a time. Do you feel like this is the gateway for him to become starting pitcher

sooner rather than later? Or was this just a one-off because they had a bullpen game? Why not? if you want to make him a starter, why not make him a starter in spring training? Why are we trying to do it in the middle of the season? I don't. If his role is to be a starter down the line, wouldn't you think you'd want him to start? And I mean, I hate to say this, but in AAA, if he's going to be a starter, if he's not ready

to start at the big league level, I don't know. I understand the opener to a certain extent, but it's usually the teams, and I don't want to say that aren't very good, because that's not always true, but it's usually the teams that don't really trust their starting rotation, because basically what you're trying to do is steal the first inning for the guy who you have coming in usually next, which is the bulk guy. So they don't have to face the top three hitters in the lineup. And I don't know. It's a weird thing. Does it work? It obviously worked yesterday. The White Sox won. Does it work all the time? Not always because all it takes is one guy to

have a bad inning and all of a sudden you're way behind and you have to bring in your starter, your so-called starter, even though he's your second pitcher in the second inning and try to cover a bunch of innings. So God forbid the long guy goes down like what happened yesterday when Cannon got hurt. So it's an interesting strategy. I understand the strategy, but I don't know if you can maintain that for an entire season, especially when Taylor's pitching like four out of five and starting and doing all this.

It's a lot. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's just it's antithetical to convention. I think, AJ, to the point of extreme. And that's what it is. You know, the rays are probably the best example of a good team. They kind of pioneered the opener concept. But, you know, when Taylor's out there for stretches like three out of four games,

you hear he's going again, Yesterday, Sox ended up using nine pitchers, as you mentioned, because of the injury to cannon. This isn't even how you draw it up when you're trying to be creative. No, I know. And listen, it's a learning process, I think, for everybody involved right now. And they're trying to build depth. They're trying to build an organization that has more than five options as a starter. And any time your opening day starter gets option after three starts, that kind of puts the organization on notice, right?

And I feel terrible for, you know, Shane Smith getting sent down so early. but you know they're trying to make moves or trying to get better they're trying to be competitive and hopefully Noah Shultz can help them do that but at the end of the day you have to have starting pitching starting pitching usually wins over 162 games

AJ I'm curious as to your thoughts on the Chicago White Sox offense specifically they're hitting 193 as a team they're the only team in baseball with an OPS below 600 is Will Vennible just left to his own devices of picking lineups out of a hat I mean how how would you go

trying to get something started for the White Sox office? Well, I mean, I can't even, I don't know because, again, I'm not in there every day. I know this. They have power. I like my draw at the lead off spot. I know they moved him out yesterday and they won. Listen, they got to get Marikami going. They got to get Colson Montgomery going, right?

They got to get a lot of people going. Kiro's not hitting like he was last year. So is it sophomore slump or is it teams are figuring out what? they're doing and now they're making adjustments. Now it's time for the hitters to make adjustments, right? I don't know what you can do. You have the pieces you have and you can try and you can try to get cute and try to switch up lineups and move guys here and move guys there.

But the end of the day, if the guys aren't hitting, it doesn't matter who you have hitting where because if they're not hitting, they're just not hitting. And you need someone to, you need a couple guys to get hot and carry them for a little while. Well, and I think that that's it too. We feel like the socks lineup looked pretty good to start as we saw. That was before everybody made adjustments. as you mentioned, but Murakama

really added some pop, at least for the lack of on base, there was slugging, as we saw, you know, Colson Montgomery a huge part of that. But to see it kind of shut down like this, like we've seen, teams go through streaks, but what do you think about just the extreme lack of offense we saw like in the past

first two games of this thing against the Kansas City Royals? Can we talk, everyone, every other team saying it's cold? So can we say it's cold then? We can. I mean, I mean, it's cold. You were a professional hitter, you know better than I do. Listen, I got off to slow starts.

I got off from fast starts. It was just one of those crazy years. When you get off to a slow start, everyone worries. If you have the, let's say the White Sox did this for a two-week stretch in the middle of July, right? People will be like, ah, it's just the middle of July. They're a little bit tired. But because when it happens at the beginning of the year and the numbers are out there and like you said, hitting under 200, the OPS is what it is, everyone's like, oh, my gosh,

they're never going to figure it out. Let's give them a little bit of time. This team was actually, I think, on paper, supposed to be built around their offense, not around their pitching. And these guys, maybe Kyle Teal is that big of a loss. I don't know. But we'll see when they get fully healthy, everyone back, and we'll see where they end up. Let's talk again in about June and see where they are. All right, that's fair.

Meanwhile, across town, the Cubs have gotten off to a slow offensive start as well. And I'm curious as to your thoughts, not just about the Cubs in general, but how the National League Central stacks up. I know it's only been a couple of weeks. They're in last place, aren't they? They are. Yes, they are. Is that supposed to make me happy or sad? I'm guessing it doesn't make you sad.

No. Listen, I pick the Cubs and win the division. I still think the Cubs are the of the cream of the crop in the NL Central. I think they'll figure it out. Now, listen, losing Kate Orton really, really hurts. Bregman's going to figure it out. I mean, you look at some of their numbers. They have a bunch of veteran guys.

It's not like they're running a bunch of young guys. Kind of like what we talked about, the White Sox that don't have a track record. Dansby, Bragman, PCA will figure it out, right? Ian Hap, Nico Horner, all these guys, Carson Kelly, they've been around a little bit. So they've kind of figured it out. Now, the one that surprised me is Michael Bush going 0 for 30. I didn't think, I thought he was too good. Now, it happens everybody in the big leagues at some point, but I never thought I'd see him go

for 30. So that was a shocker to me. And then he ended up getting the hit last night to kind of got him going. That was a big win for them last night against the pirates who were in Regley trying to sweep them. They figured out a way to rally late. Now the pirates made some defensive miscues, but they figured it out. They figured out how to win that game. And they're like, what, one game behind? Everyone in the NL Central is like one game on. The Brewers got off to a huge start. They've lost five in a row, just got swept by the nationals at home. I bet you they didn't think that was going to happen. So I think the Cubs are going to be fine. I think show does look good.

You know, I think their pitching is really good. Cabreras look good. The back into their bullpen is really good. So I think the Cubs are going to be fine. Again, it's two weeks, and it's cold out. The wind's blowing in and Wrigley. You guys can't have it blowing out every day. Well, and it was blowing out yesterday just to make your point.

Like, that helps too. It was wind-aided for everybody. And that was my issue, AJ, was a lot of times we've talked about the weather helping the opponent. But theoretically, it should help the home team, too. And I feel like that occurred yesterday. Normally both teams have to bat, right? They both get 27 outs on the same field.

That's what they tell us. It's not like one team. It's not like the old Metro Dome where people accuse the twins of turning the fans on when they were hitting. And when they were not hitting, they'd turn them off so the ball didn't go as far or something like that. Riggily, it's outside and the wind blows the way it blows. So I think both teams have to hit. And again, I'm not worried about the Cubs. I think they're going to be fine.

I don't, I just don't see how in this division, listen, Pittsburgh off the nice start, since he's doing fine. Milwaukee is Milwaukee. St. Louis obviously is not trying to win. They're trying to kind of in a rebuild mode. They want to win, but they're in a rebuild mode. The Cups should be the pride of this division. They should win this division.

You have to get into the groove of the season. I think that's what people understand with baseball. It's not football word. Oh, game one, game two, oh, no. Well, in baseball, two weeks is not a whole lot. It's basically what, under a, they're about a tenth of the season in. Let's let them again, let's get into June. Let's see how they're doing in June.

and they'll be fine. Everyone, I know people are going to die when I say this. Cubs fans, calm down. Actually, you know what? No, Cub fans, panic, please. Panic in the street. It was a reasonable take, then it was not a reasonable take. I can appreciate it.

AJ, what did you think of Ozzy Guy and getting his number retired in that announcement coming through? It's about time. I've been kind of beating this drum behind the scenes for a couple of years now. Because first of all, if it hasn't been issued, right? then what are we doing? If it's not issued, then that means they're going to retire it at some point. So what were they waiting for? That's why I didn't understand. Listen, Ozzie, rookie of the year, great player for the White Sox, won a World Series, managed this team for a long time, still is around. The White Sox organization still loves the

White Sox organization. I just didn't know what took so long. I'm so happy for Ozzy. I'm happy for his family. I can't wait to see him cry like a little baby when he gets up there and has to give a speech. it's going to be a great weekend and I'm happy that the White Sox finally came around and did it. AJ, I've got to ask you another question more league-wide, just because obviously your position as a catcher. What do you make of what we've seen so far from the new ABS and the challenges and how this thing has kind of gone? I love it. I think it's great. If you guys go to games and you watch it, it involves the fans. I mean, the fans are into this stuff, man. They're like, oh, oh, every pitt. You know, as soon as someone

taps their helmet. The whole crowd just looks at the big screen. And oh, no, oh. And then it's a tenth of an inch off. And the crowd's like, yeah, especially in big moments. So I think it's great. I think it keeps umpires on their toes. Now, I've done, I did a game opening weekend. The Braves ran out of challenges in the top, in the bottom of the first four hitters into the game because they were wrong twice. So that puts you behind the A ball a little bit. But I've said this before, I think it's great. The more involved me can get, the more correct calls we can get. The only thing I wish, I wish it was 3D the way the strike zone is supposed to be calculated by umpires. So we've seen some that are a tenth of an inch low because the strike zone is in the middle of the plate, not the front of the plate.

And the ball is probably a strike coming in, but because of where it's measured, it's considered a ball. So umpires are taking a little bit of a front of it. But I think overall umpires have done a great job. The players have done a great job of it. And plus it's always funny when guys don't mean to touch your hat and then they get charged a challenge. And we saw it, I think, a couple of times yesterday, and they were both right, even though they didn't mean to challenge it. Yeah, the unintentional being correct. Yes.

No, no. Wait for it. Wait for it. Do you have a part of, you're part of these really fun city cruise events, and I saw you announce on your Instagram that you've got a couple of these coming up. One is April 26th, the other is September 20th. What can you tell us about the city cruises? Well, if you didn't get to go last year, you guys should come. It's great.

It's me and Ozzy Gann, and the first one, April, is Sean Burke and Davis Martin, two of the starting pitchers. We did a pitching one. And then the one in September is going to be my draw off in teal, so position player won. So we're just going to go out. We leave from Navy Pier. It's a great time. We'll sign autographs. We'll have drinks with you. We'll just tell stories. And fans get to interact with us. They get to have questions. It's three hours. You go out off Navy Pier. You watch the sunset. You enjoy the nice, hopefully weather. Fingers crossed April and September can be a little dicey. But we did this last year with some 05 guys, Germain, Scott Besetning, and Joe Creedy. Fans loved it. You just get to interact with White Sox people, White Sox, White Sox legend, Ozzy Gian.

And as you guys said, now there's number retired. So it's just a fun time. Again, we're personal. We tell a bunch of stories. Ozzie will tell a bunch of lies. And we get to interact with current and former players. And it's just a great time. Tickets aren't that expensive.

And I promise you, you'll get your money out of it if you put your money into it. We love stories at the library. Those books, whether they're fiction or nonfiction. So we'll tell you, Jay. Don't let the truth get in the way of a true story. We used to tell Hawk that all the time. And now we decided to tell Ozzie that one. I feel like Hawk may have had that happen in a time or two.

AJ, this has been a lot of fun. What's the latest on Fowell Territory? When can we catch you next on the show? Today, 1 o'clock Central, 1 o'clock Eastern. Every day, Monday to Friday. I honestly don't even know who we have on today. Tristan Gray, I think, from the NASDA. Scott, who's on today?

Oh, Twin, sorry. National show. so Spencer Nuthbaum from that show is coming on. Sorry, sorry, I got half of it right. I got the over 30 shows. Yeah, we have over 30 shows. It's hard for me to keep up. And then with all the player movement,

I got Tristan Gray confused with, you guys, do you guys know how it is? You guys only have to focus on Chicago. I got to focus on 30 teams. No, no. And you're doing a great job. The Almanac does take some time to reload. Scott brought in the background,

tell him we said hello. AJ, thanks again. He's using the bathroom, so he wasn't proud of me for yelling on him, so I apologize. At least he replied. Well, in between tinkles. Oh, that's control. Nicely done.

AJ, thanks again. Thanks, AJ. Thanks, guys. That is A.J. Piersinski, featuring Scott Braun. You can check out Fowl Territory. It comes on in about 20 minutes. And he was nice enough to share his on-camera glow with us for an extra, extra 20 minutes today. So that was nice.

Coming up next year on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, it's time for halftime. We've gotten a lot of questions about what happened in Vegas. So we will give you the lowdown next. What time is half time here on this Monday edition of Rahimi Harris and Grotie. We have sprayed to all fields today. Yes, I used a baseball term on purpose. The Cubs did not take the series against the pirates, but Michael Bush broke an 0-for-30 slump, and he was part of the reason the Cubs rallied to salvage the game on Sunday.

We asked the question how much the Cubs can really rely on Ben Brown, and he told us about what he is working on. He was on hit and run yesterday, so we wanted to play the hits from that discussion. Noah Schultz days tomorrow. Alert yourselves. 11 o'clock, we listen to Billy Donovan and his postgame comments from Dallas following the final game of the bull season.

And we just heard from A.J. Persinski. He's about to go host Fowl Territory at noon. Talked about the White Sox, Ozzy Gehan, and more. It's laptop. We made it back last night at various times. From our trip to Las Vegas. We were there visiting Circa Resort and Casino for the big golf tournament.

We got to watch it at stadium. swim and we had fun guests along as well. How about Woody Buick? Woody Wooding and Jerry Roberts, we had Jeff and Lives Clemens from Grand Appliance and Walter and Sean Binstein from Binney's Beverage Depot that came along as well. They were great to have on the trip. We had a really good time. It was a good group of people and we had time at the bandit together, a couple of dinners to set it off. It was a, you know, always a good process to get to know a new group. of people and then to bond over something. And you were healthy this time.

I kind of did. I worried about jinxing it when I said it the first time and then I just kind of laid off. No, no, we're weird. You got to walk around and be outside at Circa. Listen, I went for two runs on consecutive days while I was out there. I'm, I'm good. I'm as healthy as I've been since I, maybe a year after I moved to Chicago.

That's exciting. I'm good. I had a tremendous time. I wish, wish my bet paid off. I placed the one bet off the $5 that I found on the street. Forget about your street dollar, Lela. I got a street $5 bill, which is amazing. Yeah, the street $5 bill is Vegas style.

I can't find that. I can only find the street $1 here and there. Now, it always gives me a dollar when I need it, because it knows I'm going to lose a bet to Marshall potentially. But five is a different deal. There was a lot of good wagering going on in the sports book. That sports book was hype, too. Max Muncie with the walkoff in the Dodgers series,

there are so many Dodgers fans at Circa. Did you notice that too, Ray? Oh, yeah. Even last year. We had history. Oh, yeah. You guys saw, like, fans get in a fight at the sports book, didn't you? So last year, it was, there was a Dodgers-Padre's game going on when Marshall and I were

sitting at the sports book. And it was a close game. And it was tense between those two little groups there at the sports book. And the Padres fans started talking trash to the Dodgers fans. One guy got into another guy's face. Security had to come. all in the sports book. It was pretty crazy.

The sports book gets hype. And so did stadium swim. We saw a couple master's parties out there. I feel like people were wearing the green jackets. You had one on earlier that fit you perfectly. I did have a green jacket on to start our shows on Friday for the first segment, just because I wanted to feel like that. And we've gotten a couple of questions.

Oh, I love the questions. Yeah. So on our text line 312, 644, 67, 67. I'm sorry I hadn't posted the Mansus video yet. I was going to. And I was like, I don't want to be predictable and post it right away. If there's one thing about me, I will post on Instagram when I feel like posting. I'm not timely.

I don't care about the trends. Like, I just, I do what I want over there. And I'm not sorry about it. So you'll get the, you'll get the Mantis video today. We saw Mantis. Woody had a great time watching the Mantis. Woody was smoking a cigar taking pictures with the mantis while he was doing so. I feel like he really liked the oddity of it, Ray.

He really did. It was, it was cool. to bring someone else in our mantis experience and he was appreciative of for sure. I could tell he was enjoying himself. We also got a question about Dave the Cat. So Mitch brought Vegas Dave, which was a cat stuffed animal.

Yes. We got a follow up. So Grody brought Vegas Dave home to Dave the Cat. And apparently Dave the Cat did not like Vegas Dave Dave and hissed at Vegas Dave. And Grody said he's never heard Dave the Cat hiss in his life. But is any part of you surprised that

Dave the cat is territorial when he sees any other feline-like creature in his space? I think Dave the cat thought Vegas Day was real. Maybe. 3-1-2 wants to know who had the most expensive dinner order. Yeah, so Grody, as we found out,

is just careless with the company card. And we did want to know who was going to buy. Mitch ordered two seafood towers for the group. So that was a Mitch production over at Berries at Circa. Okay. I got the scallops.

I don't know who had the most baller of the food. There was a bone marrow entree. It was Ray. Oh, yeah, Ray. I cheated. So I've been pescatarian for a few years now. Even before that, I was like, I've been moving the goalposts. Oh, the goalposts have been moved after last weekend.

I'm not going to say I'm going back to eating red meat, but there was surf and turf on the menu. And I was like, you know what? I'm going for it. And it was like a pretty expensive dish. wasn't the most expensive dish on the menu so I felt good about that but it was delicious I had steak for the first time in like

11 years and along with you know some lobster but it was it was all delicious the lobster it was all delicious it's the way you try to downplay the lobster did the risotto at that Andeamo at the D that was so good too

I had that that's the sister casino to Circa that was incredible I had regular people orders ordered salmon the first night and then I had the beef tips with Nyoki the second night. Oh, that looked really good. Yeah, I believe Sean Binstein ordered that. They were great, too, just talking to them about wine. Like, here we are sitting in this massive wine cellar. And I was like, well, we have the group. We've got great appliance,

who does a thing or two about a wine cellar. And we've got Binnie's. Like, this was a one-stop shop socially for us. They had all the answers between them. We really used to them on this trip. Talk to what about cars a bit. I was dying laughing at everybody saying, Woody here, though. Woody here. Yeah. He's a character.

We were watching the Cubs game in the cabana at Stadium Swim, and I don't remember what, at what point he said it, but like, we were just watching the Cubs game and he said, Woody here. It sounds just like the commercial. I love it.

It's like us saying Max Crosby over and over again. We're just like, Max. Max. Max. Hey, I'm lucky to have you right now, Ray and I went on our usual walk that,

hey, did we not get into the real? real part of Vegas. We sure did. We walked past that container park. We walked past the strip mall with the chapel and seeing a bunch of people getting married. We walked to the 7-Eleven again. We walked past the 7-Eleven last time. So, Ray, what happened?

Why did you almost get ensnared by the girls on Fremont? Yeah, there's a lot of ladies, beautiful ladies on Fremont Street that want you to take a picture. Stop and take a picture. For the monies. Yes, yes. And so, like, she started walking. as we were on our walk, she started like walking right next to me at my pace. And she said, hey, why don't you take a picture with me?

And I said, oh, no, not today. And then she had this like feather boa on. And she wrapped her feather boa around me. And then she said, but if not now, then when? And she just like looked right into my eyes. And I was like, I can't do this. I got to go. Grotie and I were just tootling along.

And I was like, wait, where's Ray? right we stopped you ran up and I'm like what happened apparently Ray almost got ensnared it's like it's like you escape the sirens from the Odyssey or something she was giving me strong eye contact would you have wanted to get stolen by this person what's that would you have wanted to get stolen by this person if I had no if we weren't on a business trip maybe oh see that's what I said there are worse things to be insured by I want to make sure that but also I have a girlfriend so of course not but if I was single and Not on a business trip, sure.

Because if she's listening right now, she didn't like that first answer. I'm like, Ray almost got stolen out here. Like, what kind of pictures? What kind of monies for the pictures? Oh, God. I could only imagine. So, as usual, a lovely time was had that I can recall at Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. And Stadium Swim was, as usual, fantastic.

We also got excellent weather. So there really is no reason to complain about a thing. So definitely check out Circa. You know we love it. And when it comes to watching sports, especially multiple games, too, there's nothing better. Five on it is next on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. This hour is sponsored by WinTrust. It's time for five on it.

Rahimi Harrison Brody bring you five topics on their minds today. On 104-3, the score. Number one. Are the Cubs back? I had to do. I had to do it. because what are you doing, Cubs, W-Y-D? How are you not taking two or three against the pirates?

And Ray, why is it every time I call them the pirates? I secretly want to call them Pirates. At least they're only one game below 500. That's really what this is about. It's like I said, I measure this part of the year, not in your record necessarily, and not in a pattern, but in series. You know, just take series against teams

you're supposed to take the series against. I wouldn't even be that critical of you against this stretch with the Phillies and the Dodgers and the Padres. I wouldn't even be that critical, but at the same time, because you didn't do things like take the Pirate series. I'm a little like, hey, dude, do something. Do something different. Hit more.

I don't know that they're back, but I feel a lot better after Michael Bush breaks out of the over-30 slump. They get the win in the walk-off as opposed to the day before and extras. So they're back enough for me, for now. but I'm watching you, Cubs. I know what you're up to. I know where you guys play. I'm watching you. I want you put the word out there.

We back up. See, I don't even know that that is, I don't know that we can be that declarative yet. Is that too much? I think so. Maybe a little bit. I think we got to wait. I think we got to wait to do the way back up thing.

They've won three of their last five games. That's a winning record over the last five, right? Oh, wait, but you're saying they lost a series to the Pirates, a team that they should probably take care of at home. Yeah, I don't know that I can say they're back. In fact, I'm not going to say they're back. I'm going to say they're right where they were before the series started, which is hanging around.

That's the goal here. A lot of men make a good living by just hanging around. Explain that one. You know how it is. Dudes will just be hanging around. Oh, you mean people's lives. In the status of a relationship that maybe isn't even a relationship, but they're just hanging around.

Exactly. Okay, yeah, the Cubs are not in a relationship. I can tell you that. They are very much just hanging around. Maybe doing some parking lot pimping as we used to call it back in the day. Explain that one for our audience. AKA, also known as the let out. So you've been out all night with you and your boys.

Y'all are here trying to see if y'all can find some nice young ladies to talk to. Maybe romance at a future date. Maybe romance that evening. And you know what? You just, you haven't cleared anything. No numbers, no nothing. but then got a saving period of time, a period of grace known as the let out. And that's when the club shuts down and everybody goes outside and all of a sudden you can actually see everybody's faces on what they actually look like.

And if you want to make an approach, you got a little more liquid courage than you. She's probably lowered her standards a little bit because of her liquid courage. Now you make a move. They call that parking lot pippin. Nothing was more insulting than somebody trying to holler at me to in two in the more. morning. You say that. I'm like, oh, oh, now, why don't you talk to the tree? It'll be more productive.

Tree doesn't talk back. No, see, I disagree. Here's why. Here's why. Nothing more insulting. In the club, the music is loud and the conversations are not happening. But when you get outside, you can't hear you. You could actually have a conversation. You could actually, she might be feeling what you're saying now

because she's getting a fuller version of you, as opposed to the version of you trying to two-step with her or if you're more aggressive, pull on it, you know? So this is what I'm saying. The Cubs right now, they are parking lot pimping. They're hoping that when the club lets out, they're within striking distance, and they

have enough courage to go ahead and win the National League Central. But we're a long ways away from the actual letout of a 162. It is a grind. So no, the Cubs are not back. They're just hanging around. There is an alternate universe where I face all of these teams in person face to face. And the Bulls are like, what do you mean on the assistant to the regional manager? And then the Cubs are like, what do you mean?

I'm hitting on girls at 2 a. I mean, hey, I'm just here for processes that work. I heard you said I was Dwight Shrewd. Well, at some point, we're going to have to start paying a toll for all these examples and analogies and illustrations. And by the way, it's dark outside sometimes, and I'm still six foot.

What's good? Nothing more insulting than the 2 a.m. holler. Number two. Go talk to that girl over there. She looks interested. To you. The Cubs needed a Carson Kelly walk-off single to avoid a sweep in their 7-6 win. Over the Pirates, they face the Phillies today.

And in seven of their next 10 games, with those two series wrapped on three games set with the Mets. What do you think of the Cubs position as a last-place team that's only two games out of first place? I'm going to quote Dustin William Williams-Rote. Oh, okay. who pointed out this morning that if the Cubs finish the month 500, that's a good month. Given the schedule,

given what they were dealing with on their own as their own main character, I feel like for the Cubs and the respective record, when you're playing in Philadelphia, as I mentioned, you're playing in, you're at Dodder Stadium,

you're at Petco on the West Coast. You do have that series at home against the Mets. Who gave the Cubs some challenges? But Edwin Diaz ain't walking through that door. Juan Sotom is still trying to get back. same time though you know these are very talented teams they spend a lot of money putting these groups together and their quality opponents this might be one of the hardest parts of their schedule given the back to back to back nature of it all so one of the not the hardest i don't think that's the case

but the point is i'm good with 500 for the month of april i agree with dustin i think that would be a success and i know that it doesn't sound like a high bar but given the opponents i think that would be a step in the right direction So knowing that the Cubs have all these games, which you have so aptly pointed out, against higher level competition. At least expensive competition, right? Is that fair? Yes. That is fair.

It gets a little easier in May, you know? They can't be exactly 500 because they have played 15 games in our 7 and 8, and they have 16 games to go. So that puts them at 31. If they're winning a couple of games, three games under, three games under I'm comfortable with. Like, just get, just be hanging around again. At the end of April, if you're hanging around, you're in good shape.

Unless, you know, the Brewers win, I don't know, 21 games in a row or something, then you're probably not in good shape at that point. But with the way the National League Central has played out, with everybody being where they are, and understanding that if you could have just found a way to win two out of three of the Pirates, you would be a half game back of the division lead. I think it's just important to mount up wins, find ways to win by any means possible.

It's a very grindy part of the schedule, and Craig Counsel has shown that he can be a grinding manager who's not afraid to take someone out of a lineup. He's not afraid to use all of his position players in any given game. This is the lineup that he's going to have. The players that he has available to him right now are the players, unless somebody gets hurt. Knock on wood.

That was me knocking on wood. He's got to figure out. what why Craig counsel gets paid the very, very big dollars. So I'm looking at this and feel pretty good about them being a last place team right now that's just a couple of games out of first place. Five on it. Number three. Five on it. I'm 104.3. The score with Laila Roheamy and Marshall Harris. Here's question number three. What do you make of Grant Taylor throwing a season high 27 pitches and two innings as the opener in the White Sox six five win over the royals? So I did say I wanted to see Grant Taylor throw two innings

And at some point I wanted to see him stretched out And until we found out about Noah Schultz coming up I thought that Grant Taylor is probably the most intriguing pitcher That the White Sox had to try to build on But I've also seen how he's been deployed recently And A.J. Persinski brought it up too. It's been too many times in two short of stretches Where he's been opening and not being used as a bullpen guy

I just wonder at what price does it begin to become detrimental and how many uses per week and how many uses consistently. And no matter how you look at it, using nine pitchers in the game yesterday is going to set you back as far as availability. Jonathan Cannon has to leave the game. We're waiting to get an update on his health. But this could not have been the plan originally.

I think it's something that they've come to see. But I don't know what, if there is an actual plan as far as his long-term progress, tailors and all of this. This feels like what you have to do right now. But at what point do you try to tailor the plan to growing him as a pitcher? Well, Lila, to your point, even when he was first shown to us as an opener, that second turn through the rotation, the rotation had been so bad overall that I could completely understand where the organization was coming from and saying, okay, Grant Taylor needs to be an

opener right now for this. But again, as I pointed out earlier in the show, with the way the White Sox pitching has been the last turn through the rotation, and I'll tell you, you've had three Eric Fetty appearances in which he's given up a total of three earned runs over three appearances. You've had a couple of Sean Burke appearances where he's given up a total of three runs in 11 innings. You've had a couple of Anthony Kay appearances. in which he's thrown a total of 10 innings and given up just two earn runs. Now seems like the time where you wouldn't need Grant Taylor to be the opener anymore because the starting rotation has become a little more stable than what it was a couple of weeks ago.

And Davis Martin, he's been good. He's giving you 13 innings over his last two starts and only giving up two total earn runs. Now, we know Shane Smith got sent down. We know that Noah Schultz is up. I don't know how deep Noah Schultz is going to go in that game. Tomorrow, you heard A.J. Prisinski talking about it. He can only go as far as his control will allow him because he goes deep into counts and he loses batters sometimes. But I like to think that Grant Taylor has made the last of his opener starts or opener appearances for a while.

Maybe this is when they are now going to put him back in the bullpen and be a guy who can pitch multiple innings. Man, I don't know. I guess we'll get an update ahead of the next series. but I just, it's a big question mark as far as the whole picture of it all. Yeah. Number four. Did you think Rory McElroy was going to choke on the mastered stage on Sunday? You know what I kept thinking when I was watching Sunday was, well, if golf didn't just golf?

Here we are on Saturday at Circa asking after Rory's incredible Friday round, is it possible that he can even be caught? You know, here he is just in the zone, had the biggest lead after 36. I think at Augusta, that it happened one of the biggest in any major. And if golf didn't just show me that golf is what it is. And it sounds cliche, but if you know, you know. He was almost caught. How about Scotty Schaeffler just being incredible per usual?

Third and fourth rounds of the masters, and he didn't have a single bogey. And that hadn't been done since the 1940s. So I definitely thought that there were times where Roy was starting to break down. And we even saw that a little bit on Saturday, guys. If you remember we were watching over at Stadium Swim, and I'm like, did he just bogey? And some short putts being missed.

We saw that too. At one point, CBS didn't know where the ball was yesterday. Did you notice that on one of the final holes? So I definitely didn't think it was safe, even with like three to play. I didn't think that it was going to happen. And we saw the short putt from Scotty Sheffler. Was he an inch? From the hole, that could have forced it to a playoff.

So the fact that he bogeyed the 18th hole to make it as dramatic as possible, right? You're thinking, okay, he's got it. It's good. But it wasn't good until it was absolutely over. I thought this quote from Roy McElroy kind of summed up the emotions that he took us all through when he was blowing out the field after Friday. And then to go one over part and then one underpar the next two days. Like he was no longer blowing out anyone.

and he was just trying to hang on for dear life. Here's the quote. I thought it was so difficult to win last year because of trying to win the Masters in the Grand Slam. And then this year, I realized it's just difficult to win the Masters. I tried to convince myself it was both. Like, think about how golf just messes with people's heads and you're on the biggest stage in your sport,

an individual sport. So, like, never is the focus off of you and what you're doing because it is an individual sport. You don't have a teammate that you can rely on, to, okay, you take this shot. Or maybe my teammate will hit a home run, and that's how we'll win this game. Your teammate will usually sink you

when your teammate is you. That's the thing. Yeah. So to understand that this guy became just a fourth golfer in the last 40 years to have a piece of the lead, at least in each round of the Masters, it looked easy after two days.

It looked really difficult after days three and four. Number five. The Bull season is over. What's your most positive takeaway from the 2025-26 campaign, which saw the Bulls finish 31 and 51 on the season? I think it's the regime change that you know when is coming in the next year and that the Bulls finally decided after six years

that having some direction to start with under the Cardasovus Eversley regime did not sustain because we didn't really know what the direction was for the last four. So because of that, I think it's the, it's the positive. positive is change because we don't get that very often and that's the biggest one. Other than that, it's modest Buzellis, racking up the reps, getting significant minutes, just learning who he is in the league. But those would be my two, but number one is by far change at the top because change needed to happen. So I'm tempted to jump on that bandwagon with you about the regime change.

Here's why I can't because I don't know what's coming next. If I knew what was coming next, I'd be like, yes. But I worry about what's coming next. And I can't say that I'm here thinking everything is good. Because I'm not sure. I don't know. I won't know until they make a decision about who's going to be the next head basketball executive in charge and then who that person's coach is going to be.

And the ensuing really the moves. I mean, we got a game we got to watch is the Portland. Trailblazers who have a chance to win. And if they win their game, and they get two chances to win, by the way. If they win either of their next two games, because they're playing in that 7-8 game, if they win the first game, they're in the playoffs, the Bulls get their pick. Yeah, they're playing the Sons. Yes.

I'm not trying to say this to Wishcast. I actually just, I think the Sons are a better team. But it's pretty even. It should be an interesting game. Depending on which son, not if the sun's team that showed up when the Bulls came to town. Do you remember when the Bulls beat the Suns in Phoenix? Well, that's the thing. With a bunch of just nobody, not nobody's, but like not their top players.

I just can't use the Bulls as a gauge in this. I can't use the Bulls as a gauge in opponent games, especially in the Western Conference. Okay, that's fair. But I will say this. for the Bulls, it's modest. And it's modest's continued development as a guy who is able to make threes, who can help defend both as a help defender and gotten a lot better as an on-ball defender. That needed to happen.

If you're going to do anything of consequence anytime soon, and when I say anytime soon, really the next three-year-old, four years. Modis has got to be a dude. He's got to be a guy who's in all-star consideration, if not an actual all-star. And that defense is going to be key. He's got a lot of work to do on offense with his handle specifically. But I like the development that I saw from Modis. That is five on it here on Rahimi Harris and Grotie. We're going to expand a little bit more on that incredible round we saw yesterday on Sunday at the Masters with Andy Johnson. He is the founder of Friday Egg Golf,

co-host of the Shotgun Start podcast. So we'll wrap up the Masters next. Rahimi Harris and Grody. We are family here. Middays 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. And here we go. His year again. Rory is a rare

repeat winner at Acosta. I just can't believe. I waited 17 years to to get one green jacket and you know i get two in a row it's just sort of the way i don't know i think all of my my perseverance at uh this golf tournament over the years um has really started to pay off um it was a tough weekend i i did the bulk of my work on on thursday and friday um but just so so happy to hang in there and get the job done and rory really did hang in there he became a back-to-back winner at Augusta.

And after an incredible final round of action, we go to our hotline. That is where we find Andy Johnson. He is Andy T-F-E on Twitter. He is the founder of Friday Egg Golf and co-host of the Shotgun Start podcast. Thanks for joining us, Andy. Hey, Leila, thanks for having me on. A long-time fan of the score I used to fall asleep at night to the score as a kid growing up in Chicago. always a pleasure to come on.

Well, hopefully you stay awake, but we are happy to bore you again should you need some Zs. What did you think of the final round where we were laughing at it on Saturday when we were doing our show from Las Vegas? Rory had put together one of the great rounds for the ages in the lead after 36, burning six of his last to seven holes on Friday, only for that lead to be just enough to outlast a threat from Scotty Sheffler. It was an amazing weekend. You know, after Friday, you thought it might be one of those snooze runaway winners where you don't get a lot of action on the weekend. But Rory didn't really have his A game all week.

He was driving it pretty wild. Usually, you know, kind of his superpower is his driver. And it was off all week. You know, it got a little bit better on Sunday. But then it ended up in that kind of classic master's mold where you're coming down the back nine, it seems like there's, you know, three, four players, any one of them, if they go out and just grab it, they can take the win. And I think Rory had a few key shots, you know, namely the iron on 12, a hole that, you know, often is where everything on wind.

He had just a great approach shot there and kind of took it while everybody else couldn't really make a run. And I'm curious when you saw Rory's ability to stay at the top of that leaderboard for four straight days, we talked about earlier, just the fourth guy to do that. Like how difficult is that mentally do you think on a golfer, even of his caliber, and especially after having broken through last season to get his first green jacket? Yeah, it's definitely the unique aspect of golf where, you know, you obviously, it's really, it's not a reactive sport like everything else.

It's kind of like I think the best comparisons are pitching in baseball or, you know, kicking field goals in the NFL where you like really have to think about every shot. And then you span it out over four days where, you know, you get done with the day, whether it's the morning or the afternoon you're playing. And you have to think about it all night and the next morning. And you get, you know, it just kind of weighs on you. And in doing that over four days, I think it's super hard. And one of the things with Augusta being just such a demanding golf course

where if you hit great shots, you can really score out there. But the second you're just slightly off, it becomes very, very challenging. And with that aspect, it's really hard to play with a lead out there because you're subconsciously kind of take your foot off the gas and you play conservatively. and that's the worst thing you can do at Augustin National. You kind of have to keep your foot on the gas, and it's really hard to do when you have the lead out there.

We are talking to Andy Johnson, the founder of Fride Egg Golf, co-host of the Shotgun Start podcast on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. And Andy, I did want to get into a little bit about what we saw in the third and fourth rounds out of Scotty Shuffler to be one of the first players to go bogey-free since the 1940s. I believe it was 1942. You know, what do you think of just what he was able to in those last two rounds to challenge?

Yeah. After the first two days, he kind of got the bad end of the draw where it was really, really hard on Thursday afternoon. Definitely the players that went off in the afternoon on Thursday got the tougher aspect of the draw, but that's kind of part of golf. And you see them, you know, every tournament, there's this air that kind of hangs over the whole event of when's Scotty going to make his run or who's going to beat Scotty. He's been the best player in the world for now, going on three years, undeniably the best player in the world.

And he keeps stacking more and more accomplishment. And this week, you know, he brought probably his beat game the first two rounds and he's 12 out of the lead. And then for him to end up one back, it's just astonishing. He's such a great player. I think he's played the best, golf since Tiger Woods the last three years.

So, you know, he's just a historic player. And I think Rory adding one, adding a major, he gets to six. God, he's at four. The next five years of golf, watching these two kind of go back and forth and seeing where each of them end up with their major

count is going to be just an amazing thing to watch. Andy Johnson is the founder of Fried Egg Golf and the co-os of The Shotgun Star Podcasts. Joining us here on Rahimi Harrison Grotty, Andy, just to go back to what you just said. Is this what golf needs at this time is to have this kind of two-man game where you've got team Scotty Sheffler and you've got team Roy McElroy,

and now it can elevate the sport itself with two guys who have elevated themselves above the rest? Yeah, obviously with Tiger, Tiger was such a force of nature. You know, Chicago sports fans don't, you know, he's basically the Michael Jordan of golf. and took golf to places it had never been. And, you know, in his, I would say, post-playing career at this point, he, you know, golf has always been looking for the next big thing. And, you know, Scotty's personality is never going to, you know, jump off the page and windstands over, but his dominance does.

And Rory, I think, has been, you know, he's the, now, I would say, undeniably the greatest European golfer ever. And it seems like we're in this kind of second run of his career where he's starting to stack majors again. He won his first four majors really early in his career and then went through an 11-year drought. And now he's got two in the last five majors. And seemingly is the best version of himself as he's ever been. And Scott, he's as good as we've seen since Tiger.

So it really sets up for great storylines. There's a lot of other really good players, but these two have separated themselves out at the top. I think the one thing we haven't really seen from them, we've seen some great duels between Bryson and Rory in recent years. The one thing we haven't seen is that classic Scotty Rory duel at a major. And obviously, when we look back on this one 10 years from now, you're going to be. to see, oh, Scotty finish one back. But it never really felt like Scotty was going to win the golf tournament. And if we get one of those kind of classic duels between these two, I think it would really

kind of set the sport off onto, you know, a whole new trajectory. But, you know, in recent years with obviously Steph Curry's been a golfer forever, but with like LeBron getting into golf, golf is caught kind of more of the public attention than it ever had. Oh, Andy, I mean, Scotty Schaeffler came so close on that long putty he had where he could have forced a playoff if it had just been an inch to the right. Yeah, yeah, I mean, he made a great run. I'm not discounting it, but I think, you know, from the sense of where he, you know, he never made Rory earlier in the round feel him and put that pressure on. I think, you know, where he probably would go back and feel like he missed some opportunities.

You know, Friday, he played a really soft, getable golf course. He shot over par. And, you know, he was in it, but he never made that kind of run that put him out in front and made people think about it. You know, Rory was coming down the stretch with a two-shund. Uh-oh. Did we lose Andy? He broke up and his signal just gave out there. Remlins.

Andy, you're back? Yeah, there you are. Thanks. Yeah, we lost you for a second. Yeah, I was just saying, yeah, Scotty just, I feel like he just, you know, in the middle of the round, he went about 10 holes without a birdie and not making those, the birdies on 13 really felt like kind of the dagger and his chances to win. Okay, so where do we go from here?

I mean, golf schedule is kind of unfolding now after the Masters. we all look forward to this big event, but there's so much more to look at going forward. Where do we go from here with this group of golfers who've kind of declared themselves and made themselves known here with a weekend in Augusta? Yeah, I think, you know, obviously we're only about four weeks away from the next major championship as the PGA championship aeronimic.

I think it's going to be kind of Rory fever. And obviously Scotty's going to be storyline 1B, but it's going to be, you know, last year, Rory won the Masters, and then he went into kind of a lull. He didn't play great golf and the rest of the year. And I think he talked about it a little bit in his press conference. He said, you know, he kind of thought that the career Grand Slam was the destination, and now he knows that he's got much more, you know, ahead of them.

And so I think I think Rory's going to obviously be a huge storyline and that Rory, Scotty, you know, battle with majors, you know, Rory at six, Scotty at four. Also, Brooks Kepka is back on the PGA tour and really committed to playing golf. He's got five career major championships. And then you also have the emergence of a young player, Cameron Young, who played with Rory in the final group. He won the players earlier this year and has really kind of elevated his game to where, you know, he's probably the third best player in the world right now.

And Andy, I know we asked about what's next, but I do want to spend a little time laughing about Sergio Garcia throwing an absolute temper tantrum. What did you think of Sergio getting a code of conduct warning? I mean, it's been an incredible career of temper tantrums from Sergio. You know, he's 45 at this point. And, you know, he hasn't grown up. He's been throwing the same temper tantrums as he was 20 years old. famously, you know, right before he went to the Live Tour, he was upset with a ruling on the PGA Tour. And he was, you know, these people travel week to week together.

And he was saying to the rules officials, oh, I can't wait to be out of here. I can't wait to never see you again. And then obviously this week, this week he smashes his driver on the second hole. He wasn't even in contention. You know, he was so far out of the tournament. He smashes his driver on the second hole. He has to play with a three with the rest of the day. I found it, I was laughing.

I was out there, and I saw, you know, the ninth hole has this big hill, and everybody smashes driver down, and it gets you to the slap part. And Sergio there is, you know, 25 yards behind his playing partner, John Rom. And he's on the downslope of the hill, and I was just laughing to myself. I'm like, I bet he wishes he had his driver. So, you know, Sergio, you always say the kids never grow up. Well, Sergio's never matured. And he remains one of kind of golf's most misbehaved golfers.

It's kind of comical at this point. Well, he was pretty petulant afterward, too, when he was available for the post game, whatever you want to call that. And then he's post-getting the code of conduct. And then he's like, I use my three, what, it was fine. Was it? Like, he didn't sound conciliatory at all. my favorite was when they when people were asking him about like what did the official

stadium and he was like I'm not going to tell you I'm not going to tell you that he I mean he's acted this way for his entire career it is truly amazing that like through marriage through fatherhood he has not matured at all he's you know a 45 year old man that still acts like a, you know, a 13-year-old at a junior golf tournament. I'd say I find my fair share of those out in the wild. Andy, thank you so much for coming on with us. Thanks, guys. A huge fan.

And talk to you soon. Thank you, Andy. That was Andy Johnson. He is the founder of Fried Egg Golf. And he is the co-host of the Shotgun Star podcast talking Masters with us. I don't think I realize that Sergio Garcia is 45 years old, by the way. That tells you right there, right? Well, unfortunately for me, I'm laughing because I'm like,

how can a former champion behave like this? And then that's when you realize it was 2017. And 2017 was not three years ago. This is in 2020. It was nine years ago. It's been some time. Yeah. Just antics.

That's all that was out of Sergio. Coming up next year on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, a lot has happened for the Chicago sky since the Angel Reese trade. We have a lot to discuss. The WNBA draft is tonight and they've put together some really compelling moves. So we will figure out who this team is. next. Rahimi Harrison Grody.

Spares tight end. Cole Kamet. Cole, welcome to the party, pal. Well, thanks for having me. I heard it was a big day. So naturally, I dropped everything I had going on today. You've complained a lot through the years about not being able to hear the score

on the 670 a.m. dial when you're inevitably cruising around downtown. And now that we have an FM signal, Cole, you can now hear the score all day, all the time, all you want. You can hear all the bear's hot takes you want. Well, that's perfect. I'll make sure I blast that in the locker room.

Beautiful back! Rahimi, Harrison Grody, Midday's Tyndle 2 on 1043 The Score. We have some breaking news on the score. Breaking news is sponsored by IDOT. Speeding in a work zone is a no win. Mind the signs, avoid the fines. The White Sox have issued this information. They sent out the info in the last hour.

The Sox have acquired Jordan. rich and a player to be named later or cash. The options are still open doing business with Toronto in exchange for Lenin Sosa. Lenin Sosa batting 212, the slash line is 212, 212, 303, 3 doubles and 3 RBI and 12 12 games a season. His fifth with the white socks. He led the socks with 22 home runs and 75 RBI in 2025. Most importantly, this frees up an infielder as Sosa is traded, who I feel like never got

to fully realize his potential with the team. And the Sox 40-man roster decreases to 39. The 26-man active roster decreases to 25. So who is this clearing the spot for? Isn't that the million-dollar question? If Schultz is getting the call up, is it the officially the Schultz spot, or does it become the time for friend of the midday show?

And by friend, we mean Russ Dorsey told us about what his scout, but he said about him, Sam Antanachi. We heard not yet, but is now yet? What about now? Well, a couple of things. Noah Schultz, I think at last check, was not on the 40-man roster. So that may be the roster move that corresponds. Yeah, you can always move people around. You know how this goes, especially with a team that's not that good.

There's a lot of spots to go around. But for Lonine Sosa, this made sense for a couple of reasons. reasons. Number one, for the Blue Jays, they're just hurt, right? Aloi Jimenez is now getting called up and he's a Blue Jay. Yes. Hi, Mom. Addison Barger has like an ankle thing for the Blue Jays, so they need help.

Lenin Sosa couldn't find a solid everyday place to play in the White Sox lineups. So now you move him out, get a young player in return of prospect, plus, as you said, player to be named later, or straight cash, homie, however you want to do it. I like this as clearing out space so that, yes, the Antinacci thing can happen maybe sooner rather than later. Well, here's my question, though, is if this ended up being a result for Linne and Sosa, even in this press release, they tell you, led the socks with 22-home runs in 75 RBI in 2025. If the concept of trading him was a possibility, why not do it when his value was higher last year? You mean like at the end of the season?

Because I don't think his value peaked until the second half of the season. Or maybe it's too early to say the trade deadline for him, but still. Yeah, I think I don't think he- Before this season would have been, if it was a possibility or at least conceived as a possibility. Me trying to understand the Chris Gets decisions here in the early season, that's not going to go well because I don't understand a lot of what Chris Gets is trying to do as far as, I mean, we go back to the opener and sending down your opening day starter. There's a lot of questions I have about all those decisions.

To be fair, Lenin Sosa was a pick of the, it's the same regime. Gets is an extension of the regime. Who was in charge of Skate? Yeah, that was a Rickon, Kenny Williams' front office at the time when he came up. And I remember as a rookie, I thought Tonya Larissa never really gave him a fair shot. He didn't like rookies. He didn't like where he's playing. It was a playoff team.

So I figured in this stage of the game, after the playoffs were no longer a possibility, then he would find a more everyday role for himself. But it's hard when nobody has a set position like that. Again, last year was the only year where he played, where he had a positive war. Which is why, in hindsight, maybe that was the best time to find a deal. But also, I don't know that. You guys are funny. Eloy is the player to be named later.

Very funny. Oh, no. Very funny. I just, my whole thing with this is wait and see, really, because I don't know. My honest answers, I do not know. Well, I don't, I think that's kind of their point, too. I mean, we don't even know if they're getting cash or a player to be named later back. That's still being discussed.

So either way, good for Lenin Sosa to find a change of scenery and on a team that, as we've mentioned, spent a ton of money in the offseason to be able to have the opportunities. They wanted to try to make the difference up between winning and losing Game 7 of the World Series and the Jays. So it's a great opportunity for him, at least, to add some depth to their roster. For both him and Eloy at this point in time, they can make some hay on a Blue Jays team that has much higher expectations of how their season's going to go compared to the White Sox. There it is. But at the same time, yeah, at this point, that's what you're asking. It's kind of like with the Luis Robert deal, you know, what's the timing and what's the return based on what could have been the timing and the return on a deal. That's where I sit with it. And so now we wait to see what the White Sox do on a Tuesday when they're going to have Noah Schultz apparently on the mound as a starter.

can they get some offense? We just know that Lenine Sosa will not be providing said offense. Correct. And at least now that that gives another infield spot in the organization that maybe might be upwardly mobile. 7.0.8 says getting anything for Sosa is a bonus. Also fair. But I think his stock ended up being higher last year. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score. And coming up next, if you haven't gotten the chance to check out Herb Howard's sit-down interview with Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson from the Biggs media. He did that at the owner's meetings. It is worth your time. And Ryan Poles addressed the offensive and defensive line concerns ahead of the draft

with Herb Howard. We will examine what he had to say next. This hour is brought to you by Menards. Save big money at Menards. A second in goal. This is gently. I'm able to slip the initial tackle. Good push.

was Dominique Robinson and Shamar Turner, but Robinson was the man who forced that first maneuver as Gentie loses too. I was courtesy of CBS Sports. This is Rahimi Harris and Grody on 104-3, the score. And Herb Howard, in case you missed it, had a really good discussion with Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson at the owner's meetings. It is on the Biggs Media YouTube page, and it's about a 20-minute interview altogether.

it's worth your time to say the very least. It also gives us some direction when it comes to how we're trying to figure out what the Bears are going to do in the NFL draft with that 25th pick, first and foremost. Various people have said various things when it comes to the need for, whether it may be defensive line, whether it may be safety, or even offensive line, as we've heard recently. That's why I appreciate Herb Howard asking Ryan Poles about what's happened so far in the trenches. Ola and Dela are positions that you're always going to be in need in terms of starter impact starters in depth I think the biggest thing I was bummed about this

past year was the injuries I felt like Dio's impact on our team both inside and I also was going to be something we'd be really happy about I thought that was coming along and same with Shamar if there's a player that I'm most excited about in terms of being healthy and getting back on trap to help us, it'd be Shamar. I felt like he was going to be on the same track as Colson and Luther and Ozzie. And that came up short with the injury. So I know he's been hard at work.

But yeah, and then the other thing is as we go through the draft, we'll continue to, we're always going to prioritize defense alignment and keep plugging the way there. So also looking forward to Montez and him taking the next step next year as well. So we got somewhat of an admittance about how the line was put together and how it's maybe not progressing as much as he would have liked to have seen it. He spent a lot of money on a lot of different parts that did not necessarily produce. Certainly if you ask which part of the team was more productive. you would say offense based on their standing outside of course the big I guess difference maker of turnovers and takeaways and then of course turnover margin by way of that

but for Shamar Turner to be put in the same category of Luther Bird and the third and Colston Loveland like I have to imagine what would that look like right and so you look back at the players who were taken before and after him and what kind of impact they had on different teams and Samar Turner was taking 60 second overall, and then just four picks later, Ashton Gillett was taken by Kansas City. He had one and a half sacks as a defensive end. Darius Alexander was taken at 65th. He had three and a half sacks as a defensive tackle. I know Turner's this part where, in theory, you can move him around, right?

He can play defensive tackle. He can play defensive end. And so does that mean he would have had a number of sacks? Like, you tell me what that means to you, Lela, when he says in the same category as those all offensive players having the same type of impact but on the defensive side. Well, I mean, it hasn't happened. It didn't happen. Luther Burton and Kyle Menungai became focal points of the offense.

You know, and Menonga, not necessarily as much, but the run game, what he built as part of it, he contributed. And especially for a rookie, he contributed significantly. Then you had the seventh round to it. And was it smooth to start? No, but it became a really big, big, gross. piece for the team. That's how they constructed the offense. Colson Loveland

earned his draft pick status. We haven't been able to say that with the Bears very often. Darnel Wright going back has become an all pro as we saw. So if that's the case, then you need your defensive picks to hit

like that, and they have not. And that's a big part of this too. You know, we credit Ben Johnson and his understanding of who he needs offensively. and I think that that did color how the draft went. I think it influenced it. But on the defensive side of the ball, we haven't seen that.

Shemar Turner had a torn ACL. You're hoping for for Montes-Swed? The guy who you traded for and then extended? That's out of order. Don't you say that prior to an extension? Step two, the next step, the way he put it. This is the haymaker time for him right now. I feel like what we're seeing is what we're getting.

At least he had 10 sacks. No, no, I think Montes Sweat. I'm fine with his production last year. But Ryan Pulse said that. And that comment to her. I focus more on what he said about Shamar because Shamar Turner is the guy, look, if you're comparing him to the offensive picks of last year

and understanding how important they were, Turner only played five games, which is not a full season, but it's almost a third of the season. And so I got a whole whole. you to now a standard that's different than maybe what I had for you. I was like, okay, this is a guy they drafted.

I know second rounders are supposed to make an immediate impact, right? I don't think he made an immediate impact worthy of a second round pick at that position. So in year two, if you clear all the medical hurdles and you're getting a training camp, I need to see numbers that back it up. I need to see a tangible impact on the game on the defensive side of the ball. I just think so many times, whether it's football or anything else, because of free agents that you put a lot of hope into or a trade, for example, that you extend, because of somebody who didn't acquire via draft, that that person is not producing in a way you wanted, because front offices, front offices don't always get it right.

And then now you've put a lot of pressure on the unknown. when the unknown is a rookie, for example, who tore his ACL, and now you need that guy to produce in a way that maybe is outside of the scope of his capability. Because you know what you're getting with the other guys? Who financially mean more to your team and therefore have more responsibility placed on them? Who during Ryan Pohl's tenure do you think is the best front guy that he has drafted on defense? I have my answer, but I'm curious as to who you think it is because I want to see if we have the same guy or not. And I think that tells kind of the story of where this thing has gone left, but also where it could go right.

My guy is Austin Booker, who was taken in the fifth round. And I think that speaks to Austin Booker's development as a drafted player in later rounds. But it also speaks to higher guys that have not shown up in a way that you would want. tell me if you have a different guy for that. Well, and that's it. So this is the mystery. The mystery is that Shemar Turner now needs to be a world beater. He said Colston Love on Luther Bird and the 3rd.

I think we can both say that we know what to expect from them going forward based on what we saw as rookies last year. It's a, this is, I think this is just what happens. Now, you do, an NFL truth is you do need to hit on your draft pitch. but defensively they took a lot of risks last year and they're drafting. I hear what you're saying about hitting on your draft picks, but I think when you're a second round pick, those are the ones you can't miss on. I agree. First second and two degree third round, although we see third round.

Safely, they avoided the third round as a team last year and I think that might have been the best for all parties. But since he was the guy taking closest to the third round out of the second round picks, so far, it's kind of lining up. to he feels like a third round pick in the Ryan Poles there. Shemar Turner, Ozzie Tripillo, through no fault of his own, 56th overall pick. That guy, that guy is supposed to be contributing. And all of the offensive linemen who were picked ahead of him did prior to Ozzie getting

the nod, finally, which happened because of injury. And then unfortunately, the Patelertenden injury is one where we have to take it very seriously. We cannot assume his timeline or how he is going to be after that. I would argue he lived up to the billing, though. He loved up to the billing, Ozzie Tripillo. But long term, no, we don't, we're trying to figure it out. I don't, I can't put the injury on Ryan Poles. I'm just saying from a production standpoint, year one, I'm good with what Ozzie Tripillo provided.

Not entirely sure, but glad he had a redemption arc. Shemar Turner, 62nd overall pick. Sixth defensive tackle that was taken. And in his last game, we saw him play at end, which doesn't give me confidence. that they were happy with what they saw. Clay Harbor was in here last week and said he's concerned about his durability after undergoing that ACL tear. Fair.

Very much fair. And his long-term outlook. But that's not what's on the record and documented now in that conversation with Herb Howard, by the way. Now he's put it on record, this is what I expected from him, and this is what I still expect going forward. He didn't have to say that.

No one forced him to say that. That's him telling us what he expects. And if his expectations are not met, then that's a poor job evaluation, regardless of the ACL thing. Because that's included in that when you say going forward. This guy also who told us that he's going to get more production out of guys like, I don't know, Diow coming off in Achilles. Well, that's it. I mean, and we don't even know then what's going to happen because it's his second torn Achilles.

So when you consider all of this, I appreciate the fact that he was okay with owning up to it. But at the same time, now the question becomes, what are you going to do about it? And I don't think all the pressure should be applied to Shemar Turner. I don't think putting a relative rookie in that position is okay. If it's a quarterback, it's a different thing. But in this case, he can't make good for all of the miscues on the defensive line or the lack of production. We're still trying to figure out what we want to see in Austin Booker,

who did make, I think, some really big strides. Again, I think he's the best up-front defensive player that he's drafted so far. Like, it's been several years now. Hasn't been just one or two years. And Austin Booker is a guy who not only have you seen some consistency in the way he plays football, you feel like you have an identity for him and you know what he's going to do, but there's still room for growth for Austin Booker. Well, and that's it.

And there is a ton of room for growth for Shemar Turner, but at the same time we have to figure out what his role is going to be first. I still think the draft is next week. I still think that they end up picking somebody in a very big defensive line class. I feel like that would make the most sense. Oh, one of those top-through picks is definitely going to be a defensive line pick. It's just a matter of how quickly will they pull the trigger on that. Right.

And I would argue, you know, offensive line, it's an area of concerns. when you're talking about drafting perhaps for the future and getting another center down the line, I'm saying. And more importantly, at left tackle, I think we'll find out very quickly in this draft how much belief they have in the left tackles in the building at Hall's Hall. You'll find out pretty quickly. Well, I think that we saw it at the beginning of last year, didn't we not? We didn't know who was going to be the left tackle. They have the same people. One of them is now injured. Well, I think one of those guys coming into that conversation last year, though, was coming off injury and was not full strength, Braxton Jones. And so... But when he was,

they decided they had seen enough. Do we feel like he got back to full strength during the season? I'm saying? Braxton Jones? I don't feel like, I felt like he was still hurt when he was, when we heard sound from him talking about how, you know, I'm doing the best I can. I'm trying to, you know, get back to full strength. Even when he was deemed, quote, unquote, healthy, it doesn't mean he was all the way good to go, is my point. And now with a full offseason now, he's going to be the best Braxton Jones we've seen post-surgery. And that, that's my point, is that you take that into account and you mix in the other

names. And now, if they take someone at 25 that plays left tackle, like, okay, they clearly, they feel like, one, Ozzie Tripillo, they can't wait for him, two, what they had in house was not good enough. And that's where I think that. question will be answered very quickly in the draft. As opposed to if they come out, let's say, and they take a safety or a defensive end or a defensive tackle with the 25th pick and then take one of those three positions with the next

pick. And then now you're like, okay, offensive line doesn't seem to be as bigger priority as maybe you thought it was going in. Okay, so here's, you basing this on the reports over the weekend. Like, for example, Courtney Cronin thinks that there's a very good chance they take a left tackle. I'm not there yet. I still think defensive line is a bigger concern. and there's more people available.

Oh, you already know what I think is the biggest concern. Can you get to the quarterback? But the facts changed a bit. You know, the reporting has changed since we last talked about this. That's why I said that. No, no. The Courtney Cronin report doesn't, that's not what I'm going off of when I say this. I'm going off of just who you have on your roster now compared to who you'll have on your roster

come the end of next week when the draft takes place. I think they end up probably getting somebody on the offensive. line because you have to and Poles said that to Herb as well. You have to address those two every year. You have to reload. Yeah, but how early? But that's what I was going to say. I just don't think it's happening.

I don't think it's happening in the first round. And odds-wise, it doesn't make sense. They maintain they're going to go with their board. I don't think that their board is so inflexible. You might have a list of players who are available at that each spot. And if there's one that's undeniable, I feel like Luther Borden was to them, then they make their decision. I think the BPA thing rings true again this time around, best player available. So again, it depends on what Ryan Poles and his staff thinks and remembering that he doesn't think this is that deep of a draft class to begin with.

And that's why it's good that they have the three picks in the first two rounds. Right. But you're right. At the same time, it's weird that we have similar questions now. compared to what we had at the beginning of the draft last year. On the text line 708, will the bears take the best available talent in the first round like they did the last two years or go with biggest need? I think that there's a point where those two lists converge and that's where they'll be. I think they have enough different needs.

And the way this specifically, the way this draft class shakes out with all the talent we've been told is up front as far as defensive. on defensive end, it should line up that they could take both. 708 says Braxton was nowhere near. I assumed you missed the word healthy. That's why he was number three in the death chart. I don't think that was it. I think that when Braxton Jones was healthy, he wasn't as dominant as we had seen in blocking.

But what I'm saying is when you call him healthy, I don't think he was fully healthy. That's my point. With another full year, he will be as healthy as he has been, much healthier than he was at this time. certainly that last year and then even in training camp

and then started the regular season because I just remember that sound from Braxton Jones this is after the season started where he talked about where he was physically and he was clearly not where he felt like he needed to be. Well, at the end of the day, I think the bigger concern I have is why do you have this many question marks

still at these crucial positions ahead of the same draft? One is injury because of Ozzie Tripillo. But the other, you spent the majority of your money on the defense. I think Ryan Poles knows this, and I think Ryan Poles is just thinking that it will work out because those guys will be healthy again. Again, you brought up the Achilles with Dio

and not knowing where he's going to be and how long it's it. We don't even know which foot, which, which leg it is that the Achilles was torn. Well, we know this one. We know the most recent one, but not the first one is what you're trying to say, right? No, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

We don't know if it's the same one or not. And so that's, that's an issue. That is a real issue. Well, and the bigger, the bigger question became, if it's the same one, can you really expect him to have a burst? And the Achilles, when you're talking about a three-year contract? And maybe more importantly or equally as important, here's the bottom line. Players first year back from Achilles, no, it's a no.

They're not the same. It takes usually that second year, that second season, whatever sport you want to talk about, where the Achilles is back, if it ever is, to being like it was before surgery. I mean, he's young. If it's not the same one, then I tend to think that he'll recover at a typical pace. But that would also mean not being at full strength this season, correct? Yeah, that would mean the last year of the deal. Which at that point, you could just get rid of the deal.

Do you mean contractually? Yeah. Like the opt-outs? Yeah. The time to get out of the deal would be after the second year. and not take on huge cap hit problems. Yeah, I mean, and that's the part that I think there's so many variables that you speak of. I think that that's all pretty valid.

Coming up next here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, let's get back to some Cubs talk. Alex Cohen, play-by-play voice from Arquay. He also is the host of the Cubs Now podcast. He will join us next. Rahimi Harrison Grody, Midday's 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. Orkidie fired Hit the right center Cruz back

No chance Base it Kingery scores Cubs win Sol the things down It's a good foot to drive You know again like I said We went down early

But we just keep fighting And put together Good AVs chip away And you know Just fortunate to be able That position That was Carson Kelly The Walk Off winner

Thanks to the Cubs winning 7 to 6 over Pittsburgh, taking one game from the series, was hoping it was going to be two, but we didn't get such luck. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, The Score, and we go to our hotline. That is where we find our friend Alex Cohen. Alex also joins us on Twitch, twitch.tv. The Score, Chicago. He is at voice of Cohen 2 on X.

He is also the Marquis Sports Network Play-by-Played announcer in the co-host of the Cubs Now podcast. Alex, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me on. really appreciate it. Always. What do you think of, I think we just have to start with your impression of that win after a really,

really rough loss on Saturday that went into extras and then losing the first game of the series too on Friday. Yeah, that's just big of an April 12 victories you could possibly get. When you're down 5 to nothing, the third pitch of the game is a solo home run by O'Neill Cruz, then a Grand Slam given up to Brandon Lowe, a win-aided Grand Slam that would have been on the warning track, if not for 25 mile per hour wins.

You're staring at a 5-0 deficit. You're staring at a sweep. But you chip away at the deficit. And I remember talking with J.D. in the seventh inning. And he said, to the masses, I don't know how the pirates are going to finish this game with this bullpen. Cubs have an opportunity to capitalize. And then they did. They drew walks opportunistic hitting.

Michael Bush breaking out of a slump. And then Carson Kelly with the icing on top of the cake. So it was a huge win for the Cubs. Unsung hero to me, Alex, in this game was James and Tyone. and I know that's probably weird for a lot of people to hear me say that. But to give up the Grand Slam, to give up a second home run to Brandon Lowe, and to just keep getting out, just finding a way to keep getting outs on a day in which you knew you had to keep it tamed down.

Like you give up six runs and understand that as long as it stays in six runs, you've got a chance. But if you start giving up more than six runs, the Cubs are just going to have what feels like a hill too large to climb. Yeah, the Cubs needed Javis and Tyone's lift. for a multitude of different reasons with, you know, starting pitching depth, with injuries, with going to Philadelphia today and not having an off day. So the fact that James and Tyone gives up five runs and two winnings and is able to go six,

it keeps your bullpen fresh. He struck out 10, which is the most in the start since 2024. I think he pitched pretty well. Again, the Brandon Lau Grand Slam was a win-aided home run. The O'Neill Cruz home run was a win-a-home run on a win-neutral day. They're both flyouts. The only blemish that he had, really, what was the same? second home run to Brandon Loud, which would have been a home run in any conditions.

So I think he really weathered the storm and he put the Cubs in a position to make a comeback in that game and the offense did that. Alex, you've seen Jameson's body of work. We saw what happened last year where he gave up a bunch of home runs and then settled in, especially in that second half of the season and the playoffs. How do you describe what you saw him working on in spring training and then how it's kind of manifesting itself or at least showing so far at the beginning of this year? Yeah, I mean, we talk so much about professional hitters, and Jady mentioned this on the broadcast as well.

If there was such thing as a professional pitcher, James Entire will be the professional pitcher, you know, in spring training, he's tinkering on some stuff. But then he recognizes that, hey, we got to turn these pitches into results and buckle down. And once the regular season starts, he has buckled down. That being said, I mean, you saw the frustration that he had coming off the mound after the sixth inning. I don't think that he liked giving up six runs and three home runs. but he's the type of guy that you know that whether it's a windy day in April or it's a cold day in October, he's going to come out, give his best stuff, and be prepared. So I think James and Tion is a constant professional, and I think that he's a luxury to have in the Cubs rotation.

Craig Counsel by force is deep into his bag when you look at the number of moves he has had to make over the weekend. And I'll be honest, with Sayas Suzuki back in the life, I thought, okay, this is a chance for Craig Counsel to roll. out what he thinks is his best lineup for all of these games. They should be in a great position to score. But when you see a team go one for 23 with runners in scoring position and leave 17 men on base through the first two games, I felt like a shakeup of some kind was coming. What did you make of Craig Counsel's moves? Well, I mean, he did make a shakeup on Sunday. No Michael Bush until the end of the ball game. And he contributes with a pinched RBI single, a snap and over 30 skid. And then hitting Moises by Astero's young designated hitteros,

second, ultimately pinch it for a Miguel Amai, drew a crucial walk in the latter stages of that game. But yeah, I think not having Michael Bush in the lineup against a righty on Sunday and batting Moises by Astero's second, I think is, you know, as big of a move as you're going to see from Craig Counsel this early in the season. So I think he shuffled the lineup, but I think it paid off. And Alex, he was pretty, he was pretty straightforward about it when he talked about, you know, it's not hard hip ball rate. You can, you can use a lot of metrics. It was simply the fact that he was over 30. So gives him a little bit of a rest. We see him come on in the pinch hit scenario to help the Cubs win. But what do you think of just the fact that Craig was pretty, he was pretty

straightforward about it. There wasn't a lot of other stats that were brought up. You know, it can be that simple sometimes. No, and I think with Craig said it at the end of that quote, it's as much mental as it is physical. I mean, there's a player that, it doesn't matter how hard you hit the ball. Over 30 is over 30. You look at over 30 on the box score. And it's, it's a mental grind. So it's not like he's benching Michael Bush for two days. He benched for eight innings, but he was able to get him in the cage

and throw off his routine a little bit, start fresh. And he came in and he snapped the over 30 skits. So I think that's a really good characteristic of Craig Counsel. He doesn't really beat around the Bush. He's pretty blunt. He says what he feels. He says what he thinks. And he made it very clear.

Over 30 is over 30. So Michael Bush sat. He came in, pinch it RBI single, and the Cubs come back and win the game. Alex, I love that. we're talking to you fresh off of you calling the game, but also because what's next is looking kind of rough. Now, I know a lot of people think Phillies. They think about Kyle Schwerber, Bryce Harper, and just how much power they have.

And of course, that ballpark, what are your expectations going into a series like this, understanding the stretch of series that are to come with the Phillies again after the Mets? And then you go with the West Coast teams with the Dodgers and the like. Yeah, it's a crucial stretch. I mean, you have 16 games where I'm not going to say can make or break a season, but you're one game under 500. And then you go, as you said, to Philadelphia, back home against the Mets, home against the Phillies, to the Dodgers, to the Padres.

So you're looking at May 1st. If you're five games under 500, that's difficult. It's difficult to match that 20-25 team. That was 22 games over 500, which means you're, you know, 20% through the season. You're five under. That means you have to play 27 games over 500, the next 100 and 30-125 games. So the math kind of figures out that way. I think yesterday's win was crucial.

And you said, looking out for the Phillies, are you concerned about Bryce Harper and Kyle Shoreborough? I am. I'm more concerned about Christopher Sanchez and Hazers Lizardo. I'm more concerned about their stable left-handed pitching that I've proved to be so huge for that Phillies rotation over the last couple of years. They'll be a tough task. I just want to follow up on that.

Do you expect Michael Bush to be in the lineup for these games that we're talking about, especially today with Sanchez on the mound, a very, very tough lefty? Yeah, I mean, I think Michael Bush got the recent. set yesterday. I'm not saying he'll play all three games, but I wouldn't be shocked if he starts two of the three. I think you need to have your first baseman who had 30 plus home runs in the lineup whenever you can, especially with this depth of the Cubs. You don't have your backup first baseman and Tyler Austin, who you expected to hit against left hand of pitching. He's out with a knee injury. Matt Shaw is doing his best to learn a new position. But yeah, I think the way that

the Cubs go, that their best offensive nine is when Michael Bush is in the lineup against righties and against lefties. So I would expect it to be in the lineup for the majority of the series. We are talking to Cubs play by play man. Alex Cohen, who also, I want to get to the football stuff in a second. But before that, I have to ask you, Javier Assad is on the mountain tonight. What do you think about his performance so far since getting called back to help? Yeah, I mean, I think it's aligned with his big league performance throughout his entire career. He just gets out. I mean, if you look at his numbers throughout his entire professional career, it's a sub four ERA. He throws a good percentage of strikes. He doesn't walk that many guys. He's a guy who pitches to contact, but he's a gamer.

And I think that Javier Assad is a big league pitcher in any capacity, but as a starter where you know that you're going to get, you know, consistency from a guy like that at the back end of your rotation. That's really all you could ask for him. I'm not expecting him, not asking him to be a Cy Young contributor or an All-Star, just stability to the back end of the rotation. I think he's given that his entire career and I think he's giving it now. I want to ask about the indoor football. because I think you have a pretty fun side hustle being part of the team of announcers for the indoor football league. What can you tell people about the sport you're calling when you're not calling Cubs? Yeah, it's a lot of points.

If you're looking at the betting odds and the over-unders are 88 and a half. Like you know that, you know, we're going to be scoring a lot of points. So get ready for the touchdown calls. It's a great league. I mean, you can watch the broadcast on, you know, a couple different streaming sites. Yahoo Sports Network is the biggest one. I really got to give a shout out to Jared Whitman, who's responsible for putting together. You know, all the broadcast people, the analysts, the play-by-play broadcasters, the sideline reporters,

you know, bringing in a bunch of national names, bringing in, you know, former NFL players to be analysts. You know, he's working really hard to make, you know, this a formidable broadcast at a formidable league when it comes to everything outside of the NFL. So, yeah, I did my first game last week. I think there was 89 total points. there was 34 points in the last five minutes. So yeah, a lot of fun. Very exhausting by the end of the broadcast. I felt like I got this in the dark room for two hours and ponder my life choices.

But aside from that, it's a lot of fun. I really enjoyed. I think the IFL is doing a lot of really good things. And you can hear it and you can see it from the broadcast talent that they provided. Going back to baseball for a moment, are you surprised at all at how much parody there's been so far? I know it's early. Most teams are 15, 16 games into the season, but we're looking at a lot of teams that are in that six to nine win range,

and it doesn't feel like there's really bottom feeders, so to speak. It's more of who gets hot at a certain time. You see what just happened to the Brewers over the weekend. They get swept. Yeah, I think it's a combination that it's early in the season and the bottom feeders that you said. They've outperformed their expectations early. I mean, the Pirates starting pitching is really good,

and they're going to be really good for a long time. time and it's not just Paul Skeens, it's Braxton Ashcraft, it's Bubba Chandler, it's Jared Jones when he gets back. You look at the St. Louis Cardinals and, yeah, they might have a pitching issue, but their line-ups got some juice. Like Jordan Walker at one point was the top position player prospect and all of baseball. And if he could put it all together, he could be a stud. You put that together with JJ Weatherhole and Mason win. Like, that's a nice nucleus for the Cardinals. And I know that Cubs fans don't like to hear that. So I think that you have two teams, especially in the Central that nobody expected to be really good that have a plethora of talent, pirates pitching,

Cardinals sitting that, you know, they're starting to show the talent level early on in the season, which not many people expected. Alex, I think you bring up a good point, too, when Cardinals, for example, are in a massive time of transition. You know, we see them trade away. They're all-star. They make some call-ups. That's one where, to see the early success, I mean, it's a compliment to the farm system and maybe a bit before schedule for a lot of people.

initially thinking? I think it's for both teams that we talked about. I think the pirates, too. I think that when you draft, you know, first round, second, round, third round talent, and you invest in all of these prospects. You don't know when they're going to hit,

but for the pirates, their pitching is hit early. And for the Cardinals, their position players have hit early. Like, J.J. Weatherholt coming up. You have two years before he's drafted. He's young Jordan Walker. Like, remember, he's just, what,

24, 25 years old. He feels like he's been in the big leagues for 10 years. But he's still young relative to big league standards. So I think you have to give credit to the Pirates and the Cardinals for identifying talent early on in their drafts, capitalizing on them, developing that talent and getting them ready for big league action early. So yes, I think it's happened quicker than most have expected for the Pirates pitching and the Cardinals sitting. I would agree with you, Leila. All right. I want to ask about Moises by Asteroz real quick because you mentioned where he was.

It feels like after a very rough start to the season, he has put himself together pretty well. If you look at the multi-hit games, his last two times out, including the home run yesterday, but he's hit safely in four of his last five, and it looks like he's getting into a bit of a rhythm. Back to what you said about Michael Bush being in the lineup, is that going to be a different story for him, though, because of the logjam of position players of him getting A-Bs against these lefty starters? Yeah, I mean, I think Moises is biased Harris right now. You know, factors into the D.H role. You're getting to the point where Moises said you're going to play him against righties and against lefties

because he's one of your, what, top three, top four hiters. He's going to hit really against anybody. And it was interesting during the last home saying, I saw Moises, we were down at your locker media availability, and he was looking at an iPad, and he was looking at his video from down in Iowa. He wasn't looking at his last couple at bats against the big leagues. He was looking at Iowa stuff from 2025 and 2024.

So I asked him why, and he points at the screen, he goes, timing. It doesn't matter what level of you have timing you're going to hit well. So he just wanted to get recalibrated. And he did. It started in the Tampa series. and then what, back-to-back multi-hit games. Then on Sunday, I think it was a home run against Bubba Chandler, two strikes against him, and he goes 429 to dead center field.

He's got that power. I mean, he has the makings for being one of the best pure hitters in baseball. I think the sky is very, very high in the ceiling for Moises by Astros. That agrees with Marshall. Yeah, Marshall said something similar. It's almost like you two know each other from other places outside of Chicago. Yeah, right? Yeah, we meld when we can.

You guys work together in Sacramento, right? No, it was more Philly. It was more Philly for Marshall. And I was a young pup and Marshall showed me the rope, so I appreciate that. You are a fully grown hound dog now. Maybe not a hound dog. Whatever dog is dangerous. I'm definitely fully grown.

We don't have to worry about that. Yes. Well, bulldogs are fun and they're dogged. That's a good one. I don't know. I'll figure it out. I'll take a full grown bulldog. There goes.

Alex, thanks so much. We appreciate the time. Thanks so much, Alex. Really appreciate it, guys. Thanks. Thank you. That is Alex Cohen. Yeah. Is it two markets that you

overlap? Because Alex was in North Central California too, wasn't it? Yes. But like he said, he was younger back in Philadelphia. Because you know how I know that? Because I was younger when I was in Philadelphia. You know what? Interesting. So was I. Big if true.

Big if true. But Moises, that batting average up to 294, I told you who the best hitter on the Cubs is going to be this season. You still have time to jump on the bandwagon. Ray, I'm talking to you. If you want to jump in his mowball or being the dude. It's a no offense to. always us. I just think there are other hitters.

Next on Rahimi Harrison Grody. There is a Hall of Fame performance that happened over the weekend that is getting a lot of talk. So let's all be the judge together. Next. Rahimi Harrison Grody. Could you imagine Lovey Smith doing the whole good

better best thing and saying bleep the Packers? Come on guys. Good better best. Never let it rest. I'll see on Tuesday. Midday's 10 to 2. 104-3, the score. Oh, I see what you did there.

I see what you did there, Tyler Beaterbaugh. This song is called Blow the Whistle, written by one of the greatest artists of our time. Maybe not greatest, but I like him a lot. Same thing, right? Too short. It's all subjective. I mean, the man, first of all, massive, massive Warriors fan. Is that the parade and all that?

He performs at games from time to time. He does. Secondly, this song still hits, so there's that. But there's a reason we played it. It's because of a whistling Hall of Famer who performed the national anthem. Chris Allman is a four-time whistling champion. I didn't know that was a thing. And in the Whistling Hall of Fame.

And he was appearing at the Baltimore game, and it was Game 2 the series between the Orioles and the Giants. And there's a lot of discussion over this. So let's take a listen. At times that did not sound like a human whistling. It did sound like at the very, very end, like he just, he ran out of steam on that last note. If you listened to that last note, it sounded like you ran out of steam. And like the other stuff, like I took as his, everybody's got a different take on the national anthem, right?

When they sing it, play it, whatever, like the notes sound a little different. But at the very, very end, that's all, I enjoyed it, though. I enjoyed it. Could you do that? because there's a bunch of people saying they could do that and they're lying to themselves. I thought the trills and the there were almost chords in there at times.

I can't whistle it, but I can do the national anthem without singing it. I can do a different version. I'll give you a sample. Just the first few notes, okay? The way you back to your microphone. I don't want to be anywhere near the mic when I hear this. Okay, so like, do you know about clicking with your tongue?

Yeah. So I can do it at a very, like, I love to look on your face right now. I could do it and hit notes pretty well and so it's pretty loud Okay, I got headphones on see?

Yeah So like there's The high notes are a little harder to hit when you're under the gun Yeah, they are But if I have more time I can lose some of my You know

Because I can go up and down and off How did you learn how to do that Was that just somebody you like worked on as a kid? No, I just did it And I was like Oh, that's louder than I thought it was going to be And then I just started doing it like I can do it softly like

hanging it. See, there's got to be a skill set with that specifically. I'm sure. I'm sure. But some of my, like, did you read the online comments on this? Well, I mean, listen, if there's one thing I've learned is that everybody thinks that they can do everybody else's job better, especially sports fans. And it was reminded of a tweet that I read earlier today.

There's a cohort of American males that believe with one to two years dedicated practice, they could win the masters. And as a marketer, it is very important to understand that you can sell these people anything. Wait, what's the percentage of people who believe that? He said there's a cohort of American men that believe with one to two years dedicated practice, they too could win the Masters. It's a small percentage, though. And, sir.

No, I'm the one to two years. I guarantee you, we know somebody between the two of us who thinks that if they practice for one or two years, they could win the Masters. So I would not be surprised if everybody thinks that they can also win. whistle the national anthem to that extent. One or two years? Do you know how long these golfers have been? I know too many amateur golfers who know they stick a golf.

Men think they can land a plane. I think in one or two years you can definitely land a plane. Does that make me insane? No, that's actual training. That would be actual classes. But my point is, like, immediately right now they think they can land planes. Like regular dudes. Could you, if...

You have become a sucker for marketing. Are you getting... Are you getting instruction from, like, the tower? Or like, how is that? Haven't you seen that? There was some study done where they said that, where they, like, there's a huge survey done and a bunch of men thought that they could,

they could land a plane. Without help, you're saying. So I'm sure. The same people can also think that they can whistle the national anthem. I can not whistle the national. I'm a terrible whistler. That sounded like a piccolo at times. Didn't it?

I'll say it sound like a flute. I just know. Something along those lines. A woodwind. Yeah, yeah. The only piccolo I know is sad piccolo girl. Sad piccolo girl. She had every right to be sad.

According to Olman's website, he has whistled the national anthem at Charlotte Hornets, Washington Wizards, Washington Nationals, and Duke Men's basketball. It even says he won serenated former president George W. Bush at the Oval Office. And that Olin whistles happy birthday to more than 650 people per year. And the Orioles won. Is that like a cameo thing? like he tells him, hit me up, I'll put this happy birthday on display.

I don't know. But I think this just goes back to the idea that people think they can do a lot of things that they can't. And this man has put a lot of time into this. The master's thing kills me because what? Like, that's golf. Golf is hard. But that's the point. Even when you try to predict golf, you can't do it.

This thing is over after Rory's Friday. No, it is not. 100% it was not. Why did you even think that? Stupid. Lela. I mean, it was over. He won.

Barely. Took a little turn this way, a little twist that way, but he stayed on top all four rounds, although he did fall behind for a little bit on Sunday. Stressful. What are you going to say, Ray? At Rahimi underscore Harris on XR show account. If you go there, there is a poll. Do you think you could win the Masters with one to two years of practice?

Please take our survey and we will give you the results tomorrow. Twitter's at Wasteland, though. So people are going to mockingly say they could, even if they don't believe they could. Oh, so you mean just like the comments in response to the whistling of the national anthem? Is that kind of the idea? I took a lot of those as genuine. I could see where people, like the criticisms, I could understand because they were like, well, why isn't he sound perfectly like what I think the national anthem should sound like,

as opposed to mocking it, really? You know what I'm saying? There's a difference here. I think some nuance. I low-key want to see one of these whistling. championships. Oh, I'm sure they're on YouTube. I got to watch one because I'm like, if they do like an a cappella, that'd be awesome. I am, I'm always

intrigued by the random national championship. Excel, whistling. Burt calling. All of them. The random skill national championship, I am into them. Oh my God, the Microsoft Excel champion. You didn't know about these? No. Dude. What? What? How am I

the only one who knows about this? Well, I saw it on the guide one day and it was like, Excel Championship? Oh, let's go. And it was on ESPN? It was on TV. On sports television. I'm done. I'm out.

No way, dude. I want more Excel national championships. I need to pick up a thing or two. Let me put my hat back on. What's the hat for? Spikeball. Spike ball's another one. But like the random skill set,

like Excel. I need to go back and just do more Excel in general. Spite ball's an actual physical sport. I don't know how to create a PowerPoint anymore. I've lost all of my real skills, like normal skills that get you. employed? I have none. So I'm watching the Excel spreadsheet thing. I'm watching it every time. What are you laughing about? These comments. I love it. Oh yeah. The comments are hilarious. Let's,

let's see what I what old Spiegel and Holmes think about this. They're next.