Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Full Show — May 27, 2026

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote discussed the Cubs' continued woes as their losing streak has stretched to 10 games. They also debated whether Bears quarterback Caleb Williams needs to do less at times on the field.

This hour is brought to you by Vasectomy 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 and Grotie may change at any time. It's just sports. Okay, thanks.

Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grotie, 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. What I think Craig should do, here's what I feel like. This keeps going on. Let's say they lose again today. Let's say they get swept by the pirates. Here is what I think Craig Counsel should do. He should demand that all, well, laps, push-ups.

Everybody runs laps. Burpees. Yeah, we're bringing in Tyson-Badgett. Guys, I'll turn the team over to Tyson-Badgett. Let's go, guys. Burpees. One-mile burpee bra jump. Hour in seven minutes.

Let's go. Burpee brawl jump. Burpee brajump. Burpee brajum. One mile. Wait, can it be his dad? And he's just like making them too callous. It's Mr. Bejant and Tyson are here to whip the cubs in the shape.

And there is Daddy Bejant, the arm wrestling king. He's an electric cat. I love this idea. Guys, we brought in a new coach. We're going to arm wrestle all your asses. First of all, I've ever done this before. No. Perfect.

I'll take over from here. I can actually keep this if you don't mind. That's what we're going to do. It sounds like a bad episode of a. I'm a saved by the bell type of sitcom. Listen, the rest of these people, they've been calling me, Travis. You can call me daddy. Yes, sir.

Michael Bush coming up to the plate, he's just exhausted and sweating from all the burpees. It's not even his fault. Some aggregator is going to get a hold of this, and we are going to have some hell to pay. I'm just trying to get a good pitch to hit and drive a baseball. Left it a little over the middle of the plate. I was too busy grinding my absolute face off. Lila Rahini, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 104.3, the score. You okay, kid?

Man, between that and Abnera Riebe's triple chop, I don't know what's going on today. It's going on. The burpees didn't work. Now what? You know, I will say this. Calisthenics are underrated. You can get in shape doing those. Oh, big time. Burpees are for real.

Burpees in a broad jump. That's a, for Tyson, it's a more broad jump than it is for me. I'll see that. I don't have the ups like that. I can box jump okay, but that's about it. The burpees are good for everything. They are. Cardio, building some muscle, some core.

Like, there is not, it's kind of a perfect exercise, actually. Welcome to Burpee Talk. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score. And the sad part is, even that probably feels better than this stupid 10 game losing streak. It reached 10. Double digits. This is a significant day. 10 straight losses. That negates, by the way, in my brain. I was talking about this last night. I was out. I said this negates one of the 10 game winning streaks. You still have one that is left, but this takes it away. It is neutralized one of the two 10 game winning streaks.

I mean, that's it. Is that the congratulations, the money in the bank has run dry. And you're right. That's kind of how we have to look at it. the last team to do something like this have the 10-game win streak, the 10-game losing streak was the 2017 Dodgers, who yada, yada, yada, maybe if the Astros hadn't banged on some trash cans, won a World Series.

You know, another one. They won the pennant that year, the Dodgers did, and they lost to the Cheat and Astros. Was the great World Series, but the point is that doesn't really help us in this state of things right now. The other part is, unfortunately, Mark, you and I did the thing that I think

all of us do when we're trying to find, answers to why a team is struggling, whether it's asking for your backup quarterback at times or asking for a different left tackle candidate, or it's asking for perhaps a different guy to come off of the bench. You know, maybe your sixth man should start at a various position. We ask, what of Jordan Wicks? And in the first inning, my guy. He let you know.

Unfortunately, Jordan Hicks had to wear that one. Wicks. Five runs allowed to the Pirates. in the bottom of the first inning. Welcome back to the big leagues. Now, he did settle down after that. And I give him credit because I feel like as much as we, Mark, had been waiting to see him,

he had probably been waiting for this moment to get back to get another opportunity, 10fold, 20-fold, 100-fold. But unfortunately, when things are bad, it just felt like at that point, it was going from bad to worse. he walked the first batter on four pitches. Here I am kind of excited to see a first round pick who has just been lost, whether through injury or ineffectiveness,

the Cubs scraping the bottom of the, but we need you, kid, we need you first batter, four straight pitches. He walks, they get men on, then you get the Brian Reynolds two run double to left, and the whole thing is on. the Valdez home run comes on a two-two count with two outs. You're on the verge of getting out of it, and that could change the entire complexion of the game. Ten straight losses, and they give up, they lost the game in the first inning last night. There was no sign of life from the Chicago Cups.

There is no sign that they are on the verge or close to snapping out of what is now a 10-game losing streak. Well, and the frustrating part is, and Mark, you and I talked about this, I'm pretty sure it was off the mic yesterday. When you and I were saying to ourselves, even when it was one to nothing, the game before last game in Pittsburgh, to start the series, when it was one to nothing, I felt like that was a frustrating amount of a lead to have to overcome. I'm not even kidding. I'm not trying to exaggerate here. It's just when your team is playing like this, when nobody is hitting, when you can't get guys or, round when they're on third base, when the last win was May 15th, it starts to add up for all

of us who are watching in a way that can be incredibly frustrating. That's why I prominently mentioned the Brian Reynolds to run double because once that was cracked, it was like, okay, good luck. And then, like, we have to cherish the Cubs runs. like Ian Hap with an RBI double after Alex Bregman. By the way, Alex Bregman, two hits last night. These are the things. I was listening to the radio pregame yesterday.

And Zach, of course, has to do a segment where it's the who's hot and who's cold. Really tough to do that segment right now. And he said what I probably would have done as well. And that was Alex Bregman's on a five-game winning streak, I guess, or a hitting streak. So I guess he's hot right now. It's up to six. And then basically the cold... He's hotter than any other cups hit him.

Well, that's it. Zach Zend went on and said the rest of the team is cold, essentially, and, you know, proceeded to fire off a bunch of really horrible statistics of really cold players because that's, because that's it. That's what we're clinging to. I'm clinging to Alex Bregman going two for four with a run. Carson Kelly, two for four. He got two hits.

Dansby Swanson, though, O for three with a walk. He's hitting 183 right now. Say Suzuki, another O for three. Moises by a stairs. Happy birthday, Marshall Harris, but I'm sorry, Moises Biosteros was 0 for 4, and he continues to struggle. It's funny, Leila. David Haw left this here. For you.

He has a lineup here. As a clue, yes. And he has Moises Bayosteros catching and leading off today. Thank you, David Haw. I mean, why not? Why not? David Haw doodles, and I think David Haw also, just like the rest of us, has to get stuff out of his system. But David Haugh sarcastically refers to Moises Bayesteros' cast.

We at the midday show handicapped it. We decided. Oh, he's not being serious about this? I don't know because we were trying to figure out whether or not we said the overrunner for Moises by Astero's catching would be 13 games. And I said 15. And my own pace stat was looking pretty solid. Leading off, I can't condone this.

I can't condone this behavior. This losing streak is tearing us apart. Yeah, you're right. It's going to be like politics eventually. We're just not going to be able to talk about the Cubs as a society. When you go to your parties, you go on your dates, do not talk about the Chicago Cubs. It's going to break up families. Well, and that's not what you want.

And you know what else I thought about was we were talking about notable 10 game losing streaks in recent Cubs history. And I was thinking, oh, like the one who, the one that blew up the team, that blew up the core of the team who won the World Series, where you saw the fire sale, where Kimbril gets traded, Baez gets traded for PCA. Brian gets traded away to the Giants and Rizzo goes to the Yankees. That one? Yeah, you should have a losing streak after that.

Like, that's just a demoralized team at that point. So that's a good catch by you. 847 says 312, 644, 67, 67 is our number. 847 says saying Wicks settled down after a five run first is like asking, other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play? Kind of. Listen, it could have been worse, okay? like when I'm calling somebody up for the minor leagues who hasn't gotten a chance and we've been asking for him and clearly there's been reasons they kept him where he was, I get it.

Like I get that part of it. The best thing you can do after what happened in the first inning is settle down and start to throw strikes and adjust and that happened. But the problem is I have zero faith in the team to back him up with any sort of run support. And it only got worse from there. This was a 12 to one ball game. It's not like it was five to nothing. Right. And to your point, Layla, about the settling down, like he did somehow, after a five run first, he did pitch into the fifth inning,

albeit not eight runs charged to him. I know that a reliever came in and gave up one of those runs, but that was his guy. He did give the Cubs 80 pitches and they needed all of them. They're going to need James and Tyone to go deep tonight. But you're right. The offense, again, littered with examples throughout the day in the fourth inning. they had first and second with nobody out. Ian Hap hits it sharp right to second base, but an easy double play in that spot.

In the fifth inning, two on for Nico Horner, who strikes out. We don't see that from Nico, this much failure from Nico Horner. Sixth inning, they had the bases loaded and did nothing with it. And for the most part, those were examples when the game was still in hand before it got out of hand. So this was one of the worst losses along the way because you combined horrible timely hitting, non-timely hitting with horrible starting pitching. Well, in bad defense, too, at times.

You know, that's the other part of this. PCA failing to hit the cutoff man. Like, man, Howard, I get it. I get that there were signs of life at the plate and he's still remaining at lead off. Hitting it hard, working some good counts. But at the same time,

I can't have you guys as defense fail too. Then it's a multi-system organ failure, is it not? Can I tell you a Texas? that I just got. 312, 64, 64, 67, except this one was to Mark Grody's personal text line. You love it. I'm sorry to just jump into this, but... No, it's good.

This is from Brett Boone. This is from our friend. This is my guy. Booty just vent about baseball to Mark. It is my favorite wholesome thing. It's my favorite friendship because it's like two surprising texts a year I get from him, like just random wanting to talk baseball or life or whatever. I love that for you, too.

It's an interesting friendship we have. He said, oh man, maybe I spoke too soon with the Cubs. Yikes. And he's as optimistic as they come. He wanted to come on the radio and talk about how good our teams were when he came on with us. I mean, he had a reason to. He was happy about it. How about that?

We've disappointed Brett Boone. We have let Booner down. So let's count the list. Number one, I never want to hear anybody referred to as the Open did Tyson Bayesian or Mr. agent ever again. I love Tyson. Big Daddy. That's fine.

Gross. Daddy. You don't like that word just in general. Barf. Daddy. Where's Chris Ranji? Working. Oh, yeah.

Bear dads. Bear dads. Wow. That can also be unstable. Number two, not only, we've offended Coombe. We'll get to that in a second. Number three, we, I'm pretty sure Craig is perturbed at least, and that's as emotional as he'll get. The Cubs have let Boone down.

You don't let Brett Boone down or any of the boons. Brett Boone is disappointed. Yeah. Who else? Alex Bregman is straight upset. Alex Coon is probably upset as well. No, I don't know. Alex Coon is pretty, I don't know.

He's very calm. He is very calm. You're right. And he's, that's needed around here. The Cubs lost on Pat Hughes' birthday. And Marshall and Harris's birthday. No, no, no, wait. Today's Pat Hughes' birthday.

Oh, God. Oh, wait, Marshall and Pat Hughes are the same birthday? That's awesome. Isn't it? It's very fabulous. A couple of H-O-R-A. Don't lose on Pat Hughes' birthday, Cubs. You lose some weight? And then poor Jordan Wicks is taking the responsibility and carrying the weight of the world, and he just got here.

Poor Jordan Wix. He didn't even go here. I'm sorry, his ERA is 16.62. I love doing that unfair ERA to pitchers when they come in, start once, give up eight runs, and their ERA is 16.62. It's usually more fun when you'd be, like, mocking a member of the Pirates or something, the Rockies. And you're like, hey, here's this guy from Colorado Springs. the ZRA is 25. I did think about that.

The symbolism of the pirates pounce, like they haven't had a winning season since 2018, 2017, 2018. Now granted, there's a lot of baseball hipsters who pick the pirates with a sexy pick. No, they did. You know, to win the central.

Because they signed Marcelo Zuna, and they at least gave the appearance that they were interested in signing Kyle Schwerber, which I guess I believe since he's from the area. That's more than the cup. Tubbs did. And you know who could use him right now? You know who would make this lineup make a hell of a lot of sense.

Oh, no, I've done it. To whom? Kyle Schwerver. Oh, Kyle Schwerver. Does he lead the whole league? Is he still leading the league in home runs right now? Actually, after last night, Muda Taka-Morkeme. Well, Lune is tied, yeah.

Let's see, Homer. I think that was 19 for Morcomi last night, two-run Homer in the eighth inning to tie it. Schwerber's leading with 21, and Mune is right behind him with 19. 19. Yeah. What a game for the sock goes last night. At least there's the socks.

who lost, by the way. But it was a fun loss and not fun bad. It was just, it was a, it was a hard fought loss. It was like school announcements when you'd hear about your team losing a hard fought game. And it wasn't. It would be like 45 to nothing. Right, but you got to stay positive. But this time it was an actual hard fault loss.

It was. The socks were at the very least, highly entertaining in the late innings last night. That is for sure. Yeah. I mean, I worry that Sam Antanachi out hustled himself. Oh my goodness. But we'll get to that at 1045. In the meantime, unfortunately, the problem child is getting all the attention here.

But that's the point is that at no point during this losing streak, Mark, have I said to myself, this seems like something they can overcome? And my respective stats and measuring sticks and everything that I see have seemed even farther and farther away. Where's the lineup when the bases are loaded? Who's hitting in the lineup when, I don't know, you have two outs and there's two men on. And that's the part of this that has seemed so fruitless, bleak, et cetera. It's happened so fast, too, Leila.

I was going through some earlier notes from the season, and up until May 6th, the Cubs had had. Do you remember all the comeback wins, the comeback win era? Oh, yeah. I was joking that the Cubs game started to feel like. Bears games to me. Exactly. Spot on. They had 10 comeback wins.

They had up until May 6th, they had four walk-off wins. Everything was looking beautiful. And remember, like, there was a time where it felt like, it's so opposite now, where, like, when the Cubs were, say, down 3-1 in a game early in the season, like, you just knew they were coming back. And it happened a lot. Like, obviously, I just said it, 10-come-back wins.

You knew they would get timely hits? You knew they were going, you felt like, because they just felt so confident and dominant, which should give you a little hope that there is that with this Cubs lineup. And now it's the opposite, as we were talking about. As you said, when they score one run, you're like, oh boy, can the Cubs overcome this? And it's a fair feeling to have. Brian Reynolds ropes a two run double to left. It's two to nothing.

And I'm like, that's it. Good night Cubs. Good luck. Do you know what their numbers were with runners in scoring position? As if you just need that because what do you need to know in a 12 to 1 loss? Rispy. one for 13. Jesus.

Is that the worst of like all of the games? Like because that's probably pretty close. Oh, they had a two for 15 or against the socks. Yeah. They had that O for nineer against I think the, yeah, the first game of the Astro series left 11 on, O for nine with runners in scoring position. There was a Rangers game too, the six to nothing, Rangers lost. I feel like that was also the Rangers series.

Very failed rispy. And again, for me, it's not the, you're facing 2021 edition of James. Jacob de Gras. Like, that's not the loss that bothered me. That will happen in life. It's an Ashcraft. It's the six to nothing before that. And then it's the mess you've gotten yourselves into.

And it's the sweep by two teams and home. Do not, folks, do not talk Cubs baseball with your friends or family. It's just, Layla, and I are professionals. We can do this. But we don't suggest it to the rest of you. Enough. Enough. Enough of us doing this.

We got some anger we're going to talk about here, Layla. It's enough to hear from us. Whatever. You guys talk crap. about us all the time and we don't know anything about baseball and I don't even know why. Don't say that Lela. Don't give them time of day. No, no, you know what?

No, you've heard it for me enough. We'll listen to everybody else who makes you feel even worse. Ron Coomer like what about him? Alex Bregman, as I've mentioned, and more. We broadcast live from the scores on A 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. bind the signs, avoid the fines. Our producers are Ray Diaz, Tyler Beater, Bob, Rayden Friar helps us out. Our phone number, 312, 644, 67, and you can find us on Twitch, twitch.tv, slash the score Chicago, YouTube at the score Chicago as well.

Our video team is Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, and Cody Westreland. So yeah, you've heard us complain about it. Well, we're just us. We have no service time. I mean, Mark has a Cubs ring and that's pretty cool, but that's the closest we are. Let's hear from the baseball people next. Rahimi Harrison Grody.

I'm not a fan of any team. I'm just a fan of being right. Middays 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. And the 1-1. Driven towards center playable. Garcia's going to make the catch. And the Pirates make it two in a row and the Cubs have lost 10 consecutive games. The final tonight, Pirates.

12 Cubs 1 On the Northwestern Medicine Cubs Radio Network It's not the same I'm sorry When they've lost 10 I know it hurts This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043

The Score And you know what that song is called That Tyler Buterbaugh brought us back with Mark Everybody mad Everybody man Everybody man It's true

The problem is OT Genesis was getting too much money and that is not the case here. I feel like people are losing money by the day. We're keeping track. We're taking receipts on who the Cubs have angered. Otherwise, mild-mannered humans like Ron Coomer and Brett Boone texting me. We got the national folks converging on Chicago trying to get answers from us. So we're keeping a list here. This is upsetting families all over Chicago land. Yeah, it's one thing if I get mad, like that's going to happen. But it's another Wednesday, it's, it's Craig County.

getting ejected and then Ron Coomer gets in the mix. Now, Kevin Alcantra got an at bat in the game and I would also like to see a bore of that out of Kevin Alcantra and I get it. They ease guys in. Ease them in. Yeah. I don't know that that's the, nothing

is the best practice anymore is how I feel about it. So Alcantra gets in and I see why he wanted to get his money's worth so to speak or at least get what he felt like was an honest A.B. But listen to what happened during the game when the Cubs were down 12 to 1 and this occurs.

Santana ready and the 3-2 on the way. Strike three, call, and now the batter. Al-Contra wants that pitch to be looked at again. And Al-Contra. Now, wait a minute. I'm going to say he didn't challenge in time, I think. Counts is not going to accept this. No, that's not right.

No, he did it right away. That's just, that's not acceptable. Yeah, they're going to throw out of the game. Greg's going to go out and get his money's worth. I don't blame it. This is just bad. They just didn't like the young kid challenging to call in a blowout game. That's all it is.

And that's just wrong. Yeah, you've got to still play the game. Just what we were talking up. And now we've got the umpires not doing that. That's just not good. The pitch is in for a strike. He goes right away, taps his helmet. He's not even, he doesn't even make the call.

call yet for strike three. And then they did not give him a chance. That's just, that's terrible umpiring. And, you know, there should be a penalty for the umpires when they do stuff like that. Because that's just them being upset that a young kid challenged it. And that's just, that's just, that's just bad. And, you know, and they should have, they should have some issue with that. The league should, because that's just,

terrible baseball by the umpire, Dan Marzell. Nico Horn of the batter, one away, first and second, 12-to-one Pirates lead here in the ninth inning. That's embarrassing. Wow. I mean, you don't hear Ron Coomer call-out umpires by name like that very often. And let me just set this up a little bit because I heard it both ways. I heard that walking home last night. I was listening to them and I'm trying to catch up on what's going on.

I get home, I put the game on my DVR. I'll go right to that first. I want to see what exactly happened. It should be pointed out that it was a three-two count. Al-Contra gets called out, but Al-Contra sort of emphatically, that should be pointed out, because apparently got under the umpire's skin, sort of emphatically goes to the helmet. Like, pats it like three times. Like, you've got to challenge that.

The first base umpire, who is, as Coom said, Dan Merzel, also emphatically, when the ruling came and we all saw it. It was a strike. There was no doubt about it. Emphatically then calls him out, like gets the fist up. He's like staring him in the eyes. So that needs to be pointed out just the visual of everything that was going on. And I guess that's what happened. Like, because I still don't know exactly. I think Ron Coomer is right that the umpires were butt hurt over that, that they were mad that a rookie was challenging on 3-2. They mocked his, I feel like it was a mock of his movement to challenge. he hit his head like three times. And then Dansby, Dansby looks at him because Danzby's at first base and he's

got his hands up. Like, what was that? Yeah. Yeah. Dan's like, dude. You see him turn toward him and ask like, what happened here? Yeah, relax, man. What's up with that? So that, yeah, counsel had to get ejected, had to come out and fight that. And word for word, Ron Kumer was spot on. Screw the umps in that case. And you see Kevin Alcontory yell clutching his bat. Oh my God. Yes. That was pretty obvious. He's like, what the heck happened? He's like, what the heck happened here. Yes. And, you know, the famous phrase, oh, do they have a dinner reservation? Do the umpires have a dinner reservation? But I'm sorry, this is not an unwritten rule that he crossed. He's a guy trying to get his big league at bat and he's trying to do what he can. And at times where

you and I may have been like, oh, we're down 12 to 1, he has the right to do that in that moment. And get on Craig Castle for defending him too, because as a rookie, I think that that's a pretty good sign of backup. Big time. Dan Sby Swanson gestures to the first base umpire whose name I shouldn't have to know, Dan Merzel. We see. Hello, Marzell. Yeah. Well, and the only other, on television, they were, the conclusion they came to on television,

they were surmising that the first base ump was saying that Alcantra had swung because it was like a check swing on three two. And clearly he hadn't. But that, but you have to appeal. The umpire, the first base ump can't, I don't think he could just call a guy out without an appeal. Am I right? That never changed. You know that never changed.

First base hump is definitely still the one who also looks at the check swing. Yeah, but I don't think it can a first, this is a question. I don't know the answer to. Can the first base ump impose his will on a check swing or does he have to be appealed to before he makes that call? Yeah, that's a good detailed question. Yeah, I think, I think it has to be an appeal. I always assume there's a conference of some sort. Right.

The point down to the umpire. I don't think he can act alone. I don't think, but I'm not sure. I don't know. Maybe we could look that up. Well, vagueness is how they operate at times. And it just was unnecessary. Like that in that moment was unnecessary.

The guy's trying to do what he can. How many times have we criticized people for not fighting until the very end? And he's doing that. And in those moments, it's just not necessary. No, you're right. That's a good way to put it. This isn't personal, Dan. Dan, Dan.

He's just trying to get his at bat, which he's fought hard to get that opportunity. Dan made the list. This isn't about you, Dan. Yeah, right. that name down. You'll keep in a list of angry people throughout the process and people who have been angered. Dan Marzell just made a list.

Like heaven forbid you do your job, Dan. Dan. Here's what Craig Counsel had to say. Feels like kind of left saying the same stuff after the last few games just with how the offense is just yeah, look. Someone's just got to step up and get hits in those spots. I mean, I don't, there's

not much more to say than that. You know, you've got to conduct a big league at bat. It's the at-bats you want. Those are the at-bats you want to have during the course of a game. And you've got to deliver. That's, you know, that's the name of the game. You know, we're kind of having the same inning over and over again. And it's about delivering in those situations.

And until we do, we're going to be talking about the same thing. are pressing offensive? It doesn't matter what they're doing. Your job is to deliver every time, you know, you don't deliver every time, but we've got to have some level of production. Pressing, I don't know.

Like, I don't know. I'm not sure what the answer is to that. I think the answer is it's a big league bat with men on base. It's the bat you want in the game. It's the bat you can make a difference for your team. It's the bat you can flip the score of a game,

flip the course of a game. and, you know, it's time for us to deliver. I love that. Now, that is a step up in Craig Counsel. I wasn't hearing it yesterday. I know in the meeting it felt like people were trying to talk us into. Oh, listen to Craig. Now, that's a little different tone.

That is, I will go with that same inning over and over again. And then he's like, it cuts off the reporter. It doesn't matter about that. I think that was Megan Montemarrow. Good question and a great answer, quite frankly. And direct. Direct out of Craig Counsel. Direct with us and direct with you needed to hear it.

Well, he wasn't the only one. Let's add Alex Bregman to everybody, Matt. You look in the mirror and change something. Doing the same thing over and over again. And expecting a different result is definition of insanity. So if you keep getting beat, same way without changing anything it's on you so you got to fix we got to fix where the holes are in our game and um we all need to look in the mirror and figure that out

when you say fix it and what does that entail what does that look like it looks like getting the job done and um yeah that's simple get it done It doesn't matter how. Just get the job done. What do you think I'm into is preventing that? You got a lot of good ballplayers in this room? Yeah. I don't know.

You got to make adjustments. Can't keep trying the same things because they're not working. So try something else. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad with the communication between you guys because we always see you guys working and talking,

helping each other, you know, what that looks like right now. That's the message. change something. Somebody to do it. These are way better answers than we've been getting, quite frankly. It's better than the, with all due respect to Carson Kelly, that's better than the, we have 110 games left because there is a problem on this team right now. And if it doesn't get better, they're going to lose everything.

And I get what Carson Kelly was trying to say. Like, it's a game of chance. And maybe he thought he was sticking up for teammates there because he got two hits yesterday. You know, Carson Kelly. Mr. Big Schmatchett. the two hits. I mean, but he, yeah, we, we got to take them where we can get him at this morning.

Alex Breggman, oh, look at you fancy two for four. But Jed Hoyer had comments that we're going to get into with Russ Dorsey on our one o'clock hour, which I think very much speak to this being a top down thing. Like it starts, you know, fish rots from the head for a lack of a better term and it just goes from there. But the same meeting, the same lineup, the same production. no matter how you switch the parts. And in reality, as I've said before, the same hitter.

You know, Mark, there was a time where I heard Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer, and Jed say it too, that they wanted to diversify the lineup. They didn't want the same type of hitter. They wanted to contact. Not just contact. What kind of hitter? Hitters for a slug. Hitter is where you know.

Say, for example, you have a clear-cut answer as to who your cleanup batter is, who your 3-4 is. We don't have that. Not right now. You did have that. You don't have that right now. But even then, I don't know that it was as clear cut as it was last year when, yes, there were frustrating behaviors, especially in the second half of the season out of Kyle Tucker.

But you know that Sayas Suzuki was his best self when he was next to him and then Tucker would at least come in and get the job done. Tucker was a superstar. He was a superstar and played like a superstar until the injuries. Kyle Tucker. That's what makes a lot of this frustrating when you put it all together. in this way is I get it. We're all seeing the same things, but it's just a matter of how it's being put all together. Yeah.

Yeah, there is, it's really, I was talking about this last night too. It's like there is no, there's nothing redeeming happening right now. I guess the Ben Brown has like been a nice story throughout the struggle, but there's very little redeeming things that have come out of any of these games at any of these times where you're like, Well, at least we have that. Ben Brown, yes, but that's it. Well, there's also the concept of overperforming and underperforming expectations, and that is something that the Cubs have discussed. And right now you're seeing a bunch of people underperform.

Yeah, and hey, you know, we joke about my prediction last year the Cubs are going to win the division and never look back. Most people pick the Cubs to win this division this year. I would say 95% of those who are credible and who we ask these questions to because we value their opinions, picked the Cubs to win the division this year. Pocoda had them as a 90 plus win team. Yeah.

And they might still win the division, but it's really hard to see out of this right now. If I told you that the Brewers got rid of Freddie Peralta. Well, it didn't work with any of their other starting pitchers throughout the years that they got rid of and stars and Willie Domases and all those guys. You just cut an arm off a starfish and it grows right back. Ooh, starfish.

Yeah. Yep. Worms. I'm trying to think of other animals that you can cut. That regenerate? Don't worms regenerate? Yeah, I think so. Yes.

Are worms meat, by the way? Is that meat? Like, if a bird eats a worm, is that, is that, I know it's protein, but is that, is that meat? Is that meat? Somebody asked me that the other day. Not to me. Who asked you this? It would, it might have been one of my, I don't remember exactly who.

I could look back in my text messages. This feels like a possible niece question. Um, maybe. It was for some reason we were having a conversation about worms and I, yeah, I referred to it as meat and they challenged me on that. There's a worms aren't. Huh. Maybe they aren't. You know what they are?

The Milwaukee Brewer's arms. Sorry to bring the show to a halt. Put that. I'm sorry. That should be in half time. I'm sorry. Nah, this is a more productive conversation. 312, 614, 14, 67.

Are they meat? I guarantee you somebody probably knows. Probably. I'm sure somebody on the 3-1-2-6-44. There's also that whole internet concept. Yeah. Maybe they know the internets. There's no way to know.

Their new segment, worms are meat. Our worms meet. All of this, you could argue, is more productive than having watched the 12-to-1 ball game last night. In the meantime, the socks were productive. They just didn't get the win. But it truly was competitive. And I think we are seeing some emergence out of, I think, some key players. So let's examine and discuss next.

Rahimi Harrison Grody. We are the best show in this town to have the coach and or quarterback sit right here. Because we're here for a good time. We are here for a good time. We're fun. We're funny. We're serious sometimes. Sometimes we cry.

Sometimes we laugh. Like this is perfect. If you wanted a high chance of a drink spilled all over the studio, we are definitely for people. Middays 10 to 2. Maybe we're the show for you. On 104 3, the score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score.

And enough, enough about being mad. Can we go back to, I think, some progress still, Mark? A loss that was a win kind of thing for the White Sox? I don't know. I want to say that. That's insulting to the White Sox. It is. A loss that was entertaining.

It was just like middle school and high school announcements, it was actually a hard-fought loss. It was. Five to three, the final. of twins do beat the White Sox, but it took 11 innings to do so. And by God, the socks came back in this. Joe Ryan, who I still have no clue as to why he wasn't traded by the twins last year when they decided to just absolutely fire sale the thing, is still with the twins. And he pitched yesterday, and he proved to be a problem, somebody who, if I'm a general manager, I might want to trade for. Looks in the direction of people I know. Seven and two thirds innings for Ryan. Two earned runs.

You know what the two earned runs were? Don't look now, but. a friend entered the chat. Mune with his 19th home run of the season. How are we doing? Eighth inning, battling. Guess what happens? You lose somebody in there, even if it's Joe Ryan, even if he gets that

seven next to his IP innings pitch. We see what happens. So I think that that's what happens. And you know what else? Was look who got on base. Riku Nishita with his second major league hit. And Mune brings him home. Nishita was some excellent defense yet again in this

game. And it ends up going to extras. wins take it with three runs scored in the 11th, but at least you continue to like what you're seeing out of the White Sox. Yeah. And like you, they are like what we were talking about, the Cubs earlier in the season when the Cubs had had those 10 comeback wins. If a game is close,

you do feel like, like it was worth watching the White Sox, even though they were down because you're like, oh, okay, Muta Takamori coming up here with a runner on, ties up the game. And quite frankly, as entertaining as it was, I did get greedy. Once they tied it up, you probably should have won that game for the White Sox.

You had an opportunity in that eighth inning still to win the game. And then you had that wild occurrence in the 10th inning. Don't call it. I know what you wanted to call it. I know what you wanted to call it. What did I want to call it? Did you want to call it a cubby occurrence even though it wasn't the Cubby? No, I did not want to say that.

Again, I would not have disrespected the White Sox like that. White Sox fans don't want to hear Cubs lingo associated with the White Sox. It was. It was a weird occurrence, though. It was. It was not, no. A cubby occurrence, three runs would have scored in addition to what we're talking about here in the 10th inning. And that was a, you had Sam Antanacci on first base. I don't know who the batter was off the top of my head. He hits a low line drive to first base. Antanachi thought the ball was caught, but the ball was in fact, short hopped, one hopped. And so Antonacci thinking it was caught.

It was Mooney because he goes to first base. There you go. Munay, a scaldor. Antonacci thinks it's caught so he gets back to the base. Then the first baseman is tagging Antonachi who is backing up, like backpedaling. So the guy on, was it second or third? That he was allowing them time to score.

But it turns out to be a double play because Mutataka Morakami then arrives at first. Both guys get tagged out. Double play. inning over devastating in the moment. Yeah, it was Luis Angelica at third base. And if you're scoring at home, it was three unassisted double play.

Ooh, good. Yeah, which is a weird one. I was trying to think in my head. Did you come up with that yourself? No, I'm looking at MLB.com. Oh, I was going to say, I was like, I can't do the numbers on this. Now, I would have if I were still hosting

White Sox pre and post game, yeah, I probably would have made a comment about it, you know, and I do keep score, and that's how I host a postgame show. Yeah. But yeah, it was officially scored as such. Munitaka Murakami grounds into an unassisted double play. First baseman, Josh Bell, Sam Antonacci out at second, even though he wasn't out

at second. Yeah, right, right. Mutataka Murakami out at first. The funniest part was how he backpedaled. Yeah, I mean, pretty fast, too. That was a fast back pedal. Do you know what he did? He Caleb Williams ejected the pocket.

Oh, my God. He pulled a Caleb Williams against the ramps. Like, sir, the base path is that away. to your right, not behind you. But I feel like that's what happened. Then he put his hands off. It's a good back pedal, too. I thought it was strong.

Let's listen. 2-2 pitch. We're coming. It is gloved by Bill. And now trying to tag Antanachi, steps out of the baseline. He is out. And that's going to do it for this 10th inning.

Will Venable. Mike will challenge this one. He tells he'll play umpire just to wait one moment. You can hear it in the background. And he says, play on. Player. That was 100% something. And then Brooks Lee with a three-run double off Tyler Davis and the 11th in the game was

essentially over. The basis clearing double, no less. The bases were loaded. Like that was, yeah, so that was courtesy of CHSN. Let's also play the other fun part. The, the, uh, Nikita got another assist, another outfield assist and took down Cody Clemens at home plate. Two, two pitch.

that is popped in the right field Nishita he's going to come up throwing and they'll test him again throws out the runner I just I like the bell there the bell tolling but if there's one thing I love it's an outfield assist like that man I love a good outfield assist

somebody gets doubled off like you've got the laser at a home plate that it just makes me happy Steve Stone wondered out loud like is that unprecedented your first two games in Major League Baseball you have assist? I'm guessing it's probably happened with all the years of Major League Baseball that have existed.

And the oddities. Yeah, that's pretty good, though. I'd imagine there's not too many players who have begun their career with assists from right field and super. I mean, he was a dead duck at the play, too. That was on time. Oh, yeah. He got him by several steps. Yeah.

And not to be outdone. Sean Burke had a nice outing. Yes. He also got a seven next to his name, seven innings, two earned runs, only three hits, eight strikeouts, eight. That's how you get it done. And David Sandlin, going tonight.

He is the, would that be his debut? Is that his major league debut? He could throw a hondo. So it would be interesting to see what the white socks get out. And they'll probably get something great out of it because that's just the way it works with the white socks this year. You're bringing in guys that you didn't expect to that Derek guy.

You know, Derek Lee? No, who's the guy, the pinched home run guy? Yes. Derek Lee? Derek Hill is Derek Lee. Sorry.

You don't know who he is. It's that Derek guy. It's a lot easier. Hey, be nice to me. I was also reading. the nugget about how David's saying. I was like, why do I know that name? Why don't I know that name?

Because he pitched with Kate Horton at OU. Oh, really? There it is. Low key. Good stuff. Also, you've got to let the people know that there's been a ruling on our worms meat. Oh, it would appear, I guess, according to Ray and Tyler that it, yeah, and the text line. The text line always beats everybody.

Yes, it would appear that worms are meat. Yes. So just in case you needed that wrapped up. Yeah. And a nice gross bow. But it seems like a lot of people driving around right now listening to Rahimi Harrison Grotty knew that. We won't ask Mike Florio. We will ask Mike Floreo about an NFL case that is going to have to be made public. And in doing so, I think we're going to learn a lot about the league.

That's next. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a man who, who's got a massive brain. Mike Florio. He used to be a lawyer, then he decided to take his talents to the internet. NBC Sports. I'm sorry, I'm late.

I was talking to Robert Kraft. That is at the time for an airing of grievances. Pro football talk. I got a lot of problems with you, people. No, you're going to hear about it. On Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, the score. I want to keep talking Legos. Well, guess what?

Today is probably not the day for Lego Talk, but I'm not going to judge you if you want to have your Legos because it's a nice meditation. It is time for our weekly visit with Mike Florio, the creator and editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk. He is at Pro Football Talk on X, and he joins us on Twitch.

Twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. Mike has made his own graphics. He puts the fireworks up for you. Mike, how are you? We need to have some sort of a hand signal that results in a cascade of Lego bricks. I need to work on that.

Ooh, I like it. An animation. if you will. Or the thing where you set up all the dominoes and then they all fall down, like in a row. Oh, yeah. Those things you see, like the, like, Nickelodeon used to do stuff like that, right, where you knocked down like a million Legos. I'd like to see you set that up for you. Or Tetris.

I feel like Tetris is the next part of the discussion here. Did you see the story about the guy who bought the really expensive Lego sets, took them home, took out the bricks, replaced the bricks with dry pasta, and then returned the sets and got a refund. Yes. Yes, I did. Delicious. Wow.

That's good scamming if you can. No, they ended up pressing criminal charges, didn't they? Really? The jails are not full of smart people. I mean, it was smart until it wasn't. And Mike, I immediately thought of you in an ongoing conversation that you and I have had. I wouldn't say patiently, but you and I have been wondering, whether or not the Supreme Court was going to rule

and the NFL was asking them to regarding the Brian Flores discrimination case. Yesterday, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case and now we get to hear it. Can you explain the effect of what information could come out, how the process will go, and what this means for a case that you have been very, very curious about? Well, first of all, Jerry Jones probably wants back

the Super Bowl ring he once gave to Clarence Thomas. That was a down payment. That was for future considerations. Apparently, apparently not even Clarence Thomas was willing to make good on that one, allegedly. But the Flores case will now play out in court. That's the end result of what the Supreme Court decided on Tuesday. The Supreme Court only takes up a small percentage of the appeals that are presented to it every year. So this isn't a surprise. But the, the, the Supreme Court only takes up a small percentage of the appeals that are presented to it every year. So this is in a surprise. But the, the Supreme Court, And that result is, yes, Flores now gets to pursue all of his claims in court, along with Steve Wilkes and Ray Horton, who are also part of the lawsuit that was originally filed back in February of 2022. Every claim that he's made will play out in court. It'll go through the full discovery process. There will be public filings in court.

If it isn't settled or dismissed, there will be a trial that will be available for reporters to attend. So a lot of things will come out. And this is why the NFL prefers its own specific system of arbitration where not only does the NFL run the show and make the decision, but everything is secret. Everything is confidential. This stuff doesn't come to light, which tells me at some point they'll probably make Brian Flores a financial offer. He won't refuse. There you go.

But until then, he has the tiger by the tail and he is pulling it hard. And his latest claim is that he has not been hired to be a head coach by any team. over the last five cycles because of the fact that he has decided to do what he thinks is right and sue the NFL in court along with specific teams for this pattern of racial discrimination that he believes has existed for decades and how it has affected him. And also the other claims he's made like the idea that he was offered $100,000 to deliberately lose games in 2019. And that was part of the reason why he was ultimately fired by the Dolphins. There's a lot of stuff. there that's going to come out if this case goes forward to a trial in open court.

Well, that's the thing, Mike, is I get the indication that Brian Flores, who is still a pretty well-paid guy, want some of this stuff to come to light. When you talk about a culture of retaliation, when you talk about what he's faced as a minority man in the NFL in a head coaching spot where as we know, you don't see a lot of head coaches who represent the players that they're coaching in that manner. And it's something that the players have talked about,

of course, and we see how the Rooney rule is more so to the to, it's a formality now rather than being respected to the spirit of the law. So I'm not sure that Brian Flores, I'm not sure that money is the goal for Brian Flores right now.

And I hope that it's not because I think we deserve to know what goes on in this league. And see, that's where this gets interesting, because is there a dollar figure that he just can't say no to it? Right, right. I think we all would struggle with that. It's very easy to stand on principle when there's nothing behind door number one. But when that number gets larger and larger and larger, there is, in theory, a number that no one. will be able to refuse. Jim Trotter, who was fired by NFL Network for having the

audacity to question the commissioner at multiple public press conferences about diversity issues in the NFL network newsroom. He eventually settled with the NFL for a confidential sum. He had a tiger by the tail and they made him an offer that he ultimately in good conscience could not refuse. So the NFL has an unlimited tank of money when you split it up 32 ways. 32 million dollar settlement for example cost each team a million bucks and I'm not saying it would take 32 million to settle the Brian Flores case it may take more than that but my point is once they recognize he's serious about pushing this forward that's when they could if they want to make this all go away if they want to avoid any further expense delay

embarrassment whatever that comes from this litigation there's a a number, I don't think any of us could say no too. Well, the other part of this, Mike, as well, is that it made me wonder why the NFL was coutowing to other practices, like, for example, Florida's ruling on the Rooney Rule and measures of that nature. There's always a reason, perhaps, why they are pressing issues. Here, a lot of listeners thought that maybe the Bears not getting compensatory draft picks for Ian Cunningham's actual promotion.

Atlanta was perhaps because of that, did they feel pressure from the government? And if the NFL is asking for a favor or consideration from the Supreme Court, did that affect these other measures? Well, the political climate is a big part of this. Art Rooney, the second, the owner of the Steelers, the team that first gave Brian Flores a job after he filed his lawsuit. When he first filed his lawsuit, I just assumed he would be ostracized and he could continue to sue for that year after year, add to the claim. I wasn't considered for a job this year. I wasn't considered for a job the next year and it just cascades into the future like those dominoes we were talking about earlier. But Art Rooney said that, you know, things have changed.

And what the NFL, I believe, had tried to do before the political climate became what it is now, they wanted to create the appearance of diversity, even if the facts, the hiring practices, painted a very different picture. And what it had become was every year at the Super Bowl Press Conference, Commissioner gets a question about the latest hiring cycle this past year was another abysmal example of the lack of diversity in the actual coaching hires. You utter the word salad, you wait for the next question, you move on, and it's almost like Groundhog Day. And it usually happens right around Brownhog Day, where you come out, you make your statement, you say we're trying, and then a year goes by and nothing changes.

Now they're in a box because of this aggressive and misguided, in my opinion, effort by the Florida Attorney General to attack their diversity practices. The best evidence, if they want him to go away, the best evidence would be to say, dude, look at the results, look at the hiring numbers. It's not working. You can come after us for our diversity policies, but they're not effective. So leave us alone. That's what they should say. They won't,

but that's what they should say to get James Uffmeyer out of their business. One other thing on Flores, specifically, Mike, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm assuming that Flores to get to the point that it has reached the Supreme Court, he's already turned down

some sort of money figure ordeal to make this go away. And if I'm right about that, wouldn't it seem to signal that maybe, maybe, and I get it, money is money, man, and we know the NFL has it, that he can't be bought out on this, that Flores truly does want this to be out in the open for everybody to discern. I think it's more complicated than that. First of all, first of all, and this is my time spent working with firms that defend cases like this talking. They never want to leave money in the

file. So let's not settle a case too early. Let's let the case develop to a certain extent. Let's see where we are. And it would be very easy for the NFL and its lawyers who get paid by the hour, typically, to say, let's fire every shot in our in-house arbitration arsenal before we take this seriously. Let's try to force him into the procedure that we know will lead to the result we want without us having to air out our dirty laundry. And then once we have completely and finally lost that, let's start considering our options. And their option now at this point could be, let's see this through discovery.

We'll spend the money. There are plenty of corporate clients who would much rather spend twice five times, 10 times on the lawyers than what it would take to pay off and settle with the plaintiff. So I wouldn't assume there's been any settlement offer at this point.

As it goes forward, that's when they're going to have to take it seriously. How much of this do we want to allow? allow to come out. I think it's one of the big reasons why the concussion settlement, that massive class action settled some 13 years ago before the case really got going. You know as an entity, stuff is going to come out. Emails are going to be discovered. Text message is going to come to light. And they're going to be out there for us to scrutinize his media, for the fans to see. And there's likely going to be something in there that will embarrass the league. That's when it has settlement value. What is out there that could make the league?

look bad. That's what drives the decision to put money on the table back to the original point. How much does it take to get Brian Flores to say there's no way I can reject this offer? Well, I think the other part, though, Mike, too, is that Brian Flores already has a job. So I think if he didn't have a paying job, maybe he would be more inclined, you know, to put the information out there. That may change the calculus for him when it comes to how he was wrong. And I wonder at what point the Vikings ownership starts to get the side eye from their business partners because they are gainfully employing this individual who is causing them collectively to spend a lot of money to defend themselves in court to face this potential for a significant verdict if his claims

ultimately resonate with a jury. There's going to be at some point some awkwardness. Now, I'm not saying that means the Vikings should move on. from him, they're doing the right thing. They're doing the selfless thing. The inclination. Anytime a company gets sued, they don't like the person who has sued them. It is natural to retaliate. You have to have people of goodwill who are magnanimous enough to say, this individual has the right to pursue their claims. And we owe it to them to create an environment where they never believe it's being held against them. That usually doesn't have. happen. And for most plaintiffs, the retaliation case is stronger than the original case because

it's easier to convince a jury that this is why they're doing what they're doing. They don't like the fact that this guy is suing them. So he does have a bird in the hand. He is able to coach. And one of these days, he could get paid all the money he would have made if he had gotten a head coaching job dating all the way back to 2022. His original retaliation claim is against the Texans who had made him a finalist, along with Jonathan Gannon and Josh McCown for their head coaching job in 2022. He was one of three finalists. They went off the board and hired Lovie Smith. And one of Brian Flores' claims is, I would have gotten that job if you weren't holding it against me that I just sued the league. I don't disagree, but selfishly, I'm pretty sure Lovie Smith is

what got the Bears the first overall pick, which ultimately turned it to Caleb Williams. That aside. But, you know, Mike, the other wrinkle in all of this is the giant, or the Vikings, rather, don't have a GM. Still? Still? Still? Yeah, and this is going to be a strangement because how much power will the GM have? I think that's the thing that we haven't seen resolved. Is it going to be equal between the GM and Kevin O'Connell?

Will Kevin O'Connell have more influence, more juice, more say in the organization than the GM? Basically, who's working for whom or are they working together? The best scenario in any football organization is to have the GM and the coach truly working together. If we succeed, we succeed together. If we fail, we fail together. When you have two different spheres that can point fingers at the other when things aren't going well, that leads to dysfunction. So we'll see what plays out for the Vikings. But I think that Kevin O'Connell has proven he knows what he's doing when it comes to coaching.

How much influence is he going to have over personnel? And if he gets significant influence, how will he use it and how will it go as it relates to how the Vikings look as a football team, as a roster? The coaching between O'Connell and Flores has been very good. The quality of the player maybe hasn't been what it could be in Minnesota. And that's what they're trying to rectify. Last thing I have for you, Mike, from all of that to one of the headlines here. And I believe a story written by Mike Floreo, headline more arrests made in connection with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey Burglar. Can you get us up to date on that story real quick?

Yeah, well, there were seven people charged last year in Florida with this rash of burglaries. It was Mahomes, Kelsey, Joe Burrow. There were other athletes from other sports. It was a very simple scheme. We know when they're not going to be home. And then they had some high-tech and low-tech ways of concealing their entrance and their exit. They'd go in. They'd grab the expensive stuff and they'd move on.

So seven people were charged. The long arm of the law finally caught up with three of them. in Argentina. They were sent back to Chile where they're from. They're going to be extradited to the U.S. and they're going to face these charges. But they have broken up that ring. They should have stuck to buying the expensive Lego sets, swapping out the bricks for pasta. It would have turned out better for them, maybe. And then just quickly, Mike, because it is in the division, and they were, they were very shocking charges to read, Josh Jacobs, arrested yesterday morning, booked reportedly into Brown County Jail, five charges, battery domestic abuse,

damage to property domestic abuse, disorderly contact domestic abuse, strangulation, suffocation, and intimidation of a victim. These are very serious charges to levy. Well, they are. And the two key aspects of this felony charge, the strangulation charges of felony, and we're talking about domestic violence. That's when, when you combine those two things, that's when the NFL is typically apt to use the paid leave wrinkle under the personal conduct policy. They'll delay that as long as they can because they don't want to make a big news story prematurely. My guess is Josh Jake's would be excused from the offseason program. And if these charges aren't resolved by the time training camp opens, that would be the moment the league would probably put him on paid leave,

assuming that there is some basic evidence to support this charge. We learned a few weeks ago in this Stefan Diggs criminal trial that those charges never should have been brought. He never should have been prosecuted. Someone in the, in the either police department or the prosecutor's office should have said, we're never going to get a conviction here. What are we doing? So we have to assume that law enforcement is going to vet this thing. The NFL will do its investigation. But unless this case is resolved quickly, he, I think, is looking at paid leave at some point, possibly as soon as the start of training camp. Mike, Floreo, thanks as always. This has been incredibly informative today. Have a great week. Great talking to you. Thanks, Mike. Thank you, Mike. That is Mike.

joining us on Twitch as well, the creator, editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk. It's Wednesday. It's time to give away bears, or in this case, adjust bear totals. Yeah, something like,

it's going to get controversial today on my allotting of bears, which will happen next on Rehemi Harrison Grotie on the score. Yep. It's time for how many bears? Dylan Thedeman and his family, all dressed in Bears gear.

This was incredible. In 2006, they are all wearing a Brian Erlacker jersey except for the littlest Thineman. She has a Bears cheerleader uniform. Aw, baby. And there's two dogs in the picture. Dylan Thineman has just gone

from 3.5 bears to 6.3 bears. That's a big jump right there. How many bears? I love the spirit of this that a bunch of guys, most of whom are not from Chicago are like, let's get down with the Chicago Nis here. They're getting indoctrinated.

Let's get into it. So the fact that they are embracing Chicagerness with the Mallort, I'm going to give them 7.1 bears. It could have been more if Tommy Hadovielow. I heard it. The Haw brought up the old style. The old style was rejected right off the top there. I didn't like the way he skimmed past the old style, or it could have been more bears.

But 7.1 bears for the Mallort and the Cubs as a collective. How many bears? I said it was going to be controversial. On 104 3, the score. And the Cubs never drank the Lord again. They haven't had any since we've done this segment. Every Wednesday, we want to do it. How many bears?

You can also submit your questions if you think Mark needs to reward a situation or a person or somebody who qualifies bears. Bears. By the way, do you know what I've learned on the lovable reunion? I don't know how much of it you've watched with Anthony Rizzo. and David Ross, and I honest to God, I'm not just saying. It's awesome.

It's so good. It's amazing storytelling. Oh, it's like they are unfiltered for the most part. And one of the things that Anthony Rizzo admitted and revealed, and I mentioned it to them on inside the clubhouse, was that when they got into bad slumps and things were going poorly, a couple shots, a couple shots before the game. Mix it up.

Mix it up, yo. So I'm just saying, we wouldn't be mad at the Cubs if they got the Mallort back before the game. Interesting. Mm-hmm. Can we tell, can we tell a player who's? most likely to have had Mallort during the game? Who would be? You know, we both know who would be most affected by a Mallort shot, and that would be the guy that played center field. PCA would be bouncing all over the place.

What's up, everybody? Still my favorite, tipsy PCA after. This up, everybody. All right, how many bears? What are we doing here? What's my first, how many bears? Your first, how many bears is, number one, what is the baseline amount of bears for Bruce Levine and then number two, after doing this highly anticipated inside the clubhouse show with him on Saturday. How many does he get after the show? Okay.

We're going to roll the tape here to refresh people's memories here. So we are allotting, or at least I am looking at my scale, to potentially, we'll see give bears to Bruce Levine. Here's what went down. The other part, the reason for the

angst in May and even in April, is what you were asking about earlier to Ron Kumar, and that's the Milwaukee Brewers. You can't get over this team. You cannot get over this team that has been biting you since Craig Counsel was there, and then subsequently with Pat Murphy in the recent years to a dramatic way. Just remember, Green Bay sucks.

They do suck, and we can all agree on that. We can do a two-hour show. Yeah, let's go. We can do two hours on me still not understanding how that breaks out at a White Sox Cup game. Okay. I don't get it. I understand it when Milwaukee's here, okay? It's beautiful, Bruce.

There's nothing beautiful to that because I can't understand it. Oh, are you mad because football got injected into your baseball game? Yes, I am. Yes, I am. But I don't understand where Saxon Cubs fans actually have a moment together during a Saxon Cubs game. Yeah. Forget about it, okay? So, wait, you weren't moved by that?

I was moved off of the fact that I'm watching a baseball game and you're bringing in the NFL. It's like, well, we are. You have your time. It starts the end of July. It goes forever until February 8th. This is baseball season. It's my season. It's baseball fan season.

Don't give me Green Bay sucks, all right? Cancel the Bears segment. I had a Bears segment plan. Means nothing. It's not going to happen now. Underrated, even though we heard this yesterday, it was Bruce saying it goes on forever until February 8th, which definitively is not forever.

You actually gave it a deadline. Yeah, but we just talked to Mike Florio talking NFL. It never stops. It goes on forever. It does. It's my season. And actually, and in fact, baseball goes on forever. This is a very complicated case on my how many bears scale because Bruce did begin the topic

by saying Green Bay sucks. And then people just chatted right away. Right. And then so we got some people at Gallagher where that was at Gallagher. way inside the clubhouse on Saturday. Cubs for a Cure Day. That's where we were. That's what that was from.

So I give him, he gets his five bears because he's from here automatically. And then I boosted him. When he brought up the Green Bay Sucks, I got him up to 6.5 bears. But that little rant about what galvanized this city at a White Sox Park

and 40,000 Cubs and White Sox fans delightfully enjoy, instead of punching each other, in the face. Yeah. They are chanting Green Bay sucks. Bruce, you lost some bears, man. You're down to 5.2 bears.

So he's just barely holding on, man. Pun intended. Oh, no. Yeah. You have almost lost your grip, sir. You need to improve your attitude about bears and football in this town if you want to get some percentage bears back. 5.2.

Wow. Okay. So we have some rulings on our Twitch mob chat. Oh, really? Really? Twitch.TV slash the score Chicago. One Twitch mob member, Slim Jimithee 101, which is a hilarious name. Way too many bears for Bruce here.

Five point two is too many? I don't think so. I mean, point two is not a ruling. I've heard you issue. I don't know that I've ever heard a point two of a bear. Probably not. What is that a foot? Yeah.

I mean, like, again, he gets the, I don't know. Maybe I have to amend my rulings. Does he get five automatic bears just because he's, from here? Can I take those away too? He works for the score. He does a lot in sports for the community. He works for Marquis. I feel like that's at least five bears.

He's been here longer than any of us and he's still doing work at a very high level. In our stupid industry. In our stupid industry. Right. And he works his ass off. All right. 5.3. Yeah.

5.3. Five point three bears. Done. What about the people who chanted Green Bay sucks in the background there? Oh, that's, that is wow. I'm going to, hmm. that's an eight bear situation. The fact that they were just able to pick it up in the spur of the moment right there, that's eight bears.

I also have an audible to enter into the chat since we're here. You know who I thought of immediately was your conversation with our friend Antoine Randall L. Who was drafted by the Cubs and then didn't allow Cleefe Raymond to wear the socks hat and then decided that everybody was coming together for one good cause, as he put it, bringing peace to our nation. And do you know that what Khalif Raymond was then wearing? He had, I believe it was a Decatur Staley's hat. Yeah, you love that hat.

I mean, that's pretty cool if I got that right. But the fact that Antoine Randalel replaced it with the Bears hat. I, um, so you're asking me how many bears for Antoine Randallel for that? Antoine Randallel L gets many. He's from here. But just him saying that they came together for a good cost, Antoine Randal L essentially ruling as like bear counsel. As a bear. However, I got.

We're strict here. He had, he did, I informed him about, he did not know about the Green Bay Sucks chance breaking out at Rayfield. Like the fact that I had to tell him that, he loses some bears or he doesn't get as many. But he's concentrating because, as Bruce said, football season goes on forever. Okay, so now I'm giving him back for his strong focus on bears. Yeah, Antoine Randall is focused on the task. Seven bears for Antoine Randallel L. well, for that situation.

I feel like he gets more than that, just being in. himself. He's from here. He defected against Detroit and went with Ben Johnson. Lela, I'm going to tell you what I told to text her last week. All decisions are final. They're not. You took bears back from Jack Sandborn because he left even though it wasn't his fault. What if I told you about calling me out on the radio? How dare you bring facts into this conversation? Okay, 7.2. Just for you, Leila. 7.2 for Antoine Randall L. Y O'L. What up? 630 is a very important question. 312, 644, 67, 67. is average bar, bears above replacement, bear.

Bar. 5.0. That's a good question right there. And I appreciate the bar. It's kind of like 100 is weighted runs, created plus baseline. That's like you're a dude. I guess. Like a big deal.

Yes. And I appreciate the bar because Lawrence Holmes, shout out. Alex bars, we used to always, Lawrence and I thought that was funny, we would say bars instead of bears. It is. It was our little thing. Yeah, bars, bears, another Notre Dame. So, okay, yeah. If you have, how many bears questions, feel free, 312, 6, 44, 67, 67.

But there was another, unless you had a different audible you wanted to give us. No, no, I have to, I have a confession. Please. I think that I ran into quite literally a how many bears scenario. Now, this was not this week. This was earlier in the month of May. I was not, I was, I was mall walking past people on the river wall. walk in Chicago.

Beautiful place to hang. Because I like walking, but I don't like walking at a leisurely pace when I'm trying to like get around people. Right. You know, I get, and I'm not fast. So let's not, let's not say I'm wanting here. I bet you have a very good pace. You are a quintessential city of Chicago girl walking pace.

Hell yeah. Let's go. You mean Marshall have discussed this. Yes. But when it comes to, when it comes to like a running pace, no. Okay. Like I'll spread here and there when the workout calls for it. But then I'm like, I'm not doing that again.

But, you know, I run because I'm bad at it and because it's good for me. It's basically like the vegetables of my life. Cardio is good. So all of that said, I was zooming past some people and facing me was a man with curly reddish hair and mirrored shades shirtless in the vicinity of my height, also trying to zoom past people. And that's when I realized I had come face to face with Jeremy Allen White. Bear. Bear, the bear.

So close that I could smell him. He smelled like every dude who is working out. And I was like, holy crap. He needs some bear claw. And he's ridiculously in shape and probably has a smaller waist than I do. But like, it was him. Like I knew it was him. I could tell I've watched enough episodes of the bear based on height and whatever else.

Actors are always typically shorter than you think unless it's been spawn. Is he under six feet tall? Under six feet tall? Yeah. Yeah, he's probably five seven. Wow. You know, so somewhere around. there, but he was zooming.

So I ran into the bear. The bear. Carmen Bearsado is the character's name on the bear. So am I giving you bears or him? The situation. The whole situation. It doesn't have to be an individual. I give him, by the way, because he's from New York, I believe.

He's a New Yorker. Let's see. I believe so. And I think he's acted here for a really long time. Think about shameless. Yeah, I'm going to guess that he has a house in L.A. and that he's from New York, if I'm not mistaken. But you are right.

He's a hell of an actor. He's a great actor. He's from Brooklyn, according to the Butte. He's 35. 35 years old. He has, because I've read about him, he has... He's 5'7. Nailed it. There it is.

Which means he's probably 5'6. I know people my height. I'm not 5.7 by any means. Let's not go there. He has... And this is one of the things that I love, and I mean this. I love people that are not from Chicago, that discover Chicago and love Chicago and can't get Chicago out of their system, especially if you are from the metropolis of New York

City, which he is. And then you can come and just be like, wow, this is a, this is an, I never knew how amazing Chicago was. And he has said stuff like that. And you said, like he's been here for two shows now. He's of the people here. He is of the people. And he was Kerry von Eric in the, in the Iron Claw, which means a lot to me.

Okay. Wow, the bears are starting to pile up at this. But the whole scenario, that's in the 7.8 range. 7.8 bears. Because I ran into the bear. You ran into the bear. And we were both trying to do the same thing, which was get around the people. Yes. Right. Right. It was perfect that you were doing something Chicago-esque and that he was as well and his love for Chicago and his celebrity status, 7.8 bears. Also, he's fast as hell. That guy's in shape. So go on with your bad self, Jeremy Allen White. Thanks, Jeremy. And the entire bear cast because they do a tremendous job. And if you're listening, Jeremy, Call us. Well, we had a member of the Bearcast actually call our show. Oh, you did?

We did. Like randomly? Yes, the man who plays a Chicago party aunt. Oh, that's right. That's right. That was with you and Dan, right? Yeah. A guy, a fellow by the name of Dan Bernstein?

Yes, yes. That was him, Chris Wittoski. And he is part of the Bear cast. Withowski. Wow, that name is 10 Bears. Very nice guy. You know, very proud of being Chicagoan. So, yeah, he's part of it.

Okay. Yeah, he is high on the bear scale. I'm a Chicago party at. Does that still exist? I don't know because he's doing these progressive commercials and the bear. Bear. But he's great. You can follow him on Instagram. I do. And a very friendly guy. You got 10 bears from a texter, by the way. Who does?

You did. That's 10 bears for Lela. I need to be an actor and people won't know my height, L.O.L. Yeah, I can definitely overestimate your height because everybody's taller than me. I have found a special story for Mark Grotty. My algorithm giveth. We're going to listen to it next. What time is it? It's halftime. We asked the question.

When does it end, Cubs? It's Pat Hughes and Marshall Harris's birthday today. Don't let them down. Don't let them down. Don't. We asked for Jordan Wicks. It was rocky to start. But I felt better about it later.

The White Sox had a hard-fought loss. And not like your school telling you it was a hard-fought loss. when you guys lost 45-0-0. This is a real hard-fault loss. Five to three in 11 innings. They did the thing. Mike Florio went over not just Josh Jacobs' charges, but also the impending court case

between Brian Flores and the NFL. And then we played a game of how many bears? Were you revoked bears from Bruce Levine? Yeah, you should go back and listen on the Odyssey app. It was one of the more controversial editions of how many bears. Bruce Levine lost bears. That's the headline. I mean, Antoine Wandel L might have a bone to pick with you about how few bears you gave him.

I'm very strict. He didn't know. Again, I had to inform Antoine Randallel that the Green Bay Sucks Chance broke out. Now, he gave a good response to it. He's a bear working on the bears. And he was drafted by the Cubs once upon a time ago. I mean, that's a lot of bears. And there's a lot of bears from here.

He defected from Detroit. Hey, wait a minute. He did choose Indiana to play college ball at. So you might lose a bear there, too. Why don't you go to U of I, man? Okay, okay. We'll get a ruling on that from the committee. My algorithm is started to catch on to what I like to see, which is cat videos. Aw.

You know. Aw. Yeah. We love, you know, I like sending him to Grotie. I love when you send them. They're just a baby. And then I came across this from KARK in Arkansas. New at 10 nationwide's wackiest pet name awards are officially in the books.

year. One of the quirkiest winners comes from right here in Arkansas. Pet owners across the country submit their most creative names with more than 200,000 votes helping decide that coveted top spot. We have a knack for winning these things. We really do. Well, tonight we've got a local celebrity making headlines for a name that you have to hear to believe. Caden Michaels met the famous feline today. Caden, what's the name that took first place? Well, Bob and Laura, I don't think you guys could ever guess this name. Cheddar Big Booty Cheeseburger. Yes, that is the cat's name and there is a story behind it. The sound of Cheddar Big Booty Cheeseburger. Wait, not that one, this one. The eight-year-old award-winning cat from Benton, Arkansas. But who would name their cat

after a cheeseburger? Surely there's a good story behind that name. He's always just been like a little bit of a larger kitten. And just as he started like developing into more of an adult cat, I couldn't quite pick him up anymore with like just one hand. It became two. It became two. so it was like holding a burger. So cheddar cheeseburger fit. But what about Big Booty? He started to develop just this little habit of like, I love having my butt scratch.

So he would like present his butt. And then it got to a point for like you would do like bongo drums. And now I'll put together the name winning a national award for wackiest cat name. Getting that email today was a shock. It was pretty wild. I was internally screaming a whole day trying to figure out like, oh my gosh, what do I do? And no, I'm just, I'm really proud of him

because he definitely lives up to his name. Cheddar Big Booty Cheeseburger is a long name to pronounce, so he does have shortened nicknames at home. Pretty much I'll go like, you know, cheddar or Big Booty, something like that. And he really is just super responsive anyways if, like, you give him any attention because he loves attention.

Now Cheddar has the world's attention, but he's still not answering any questions from paparazzi. Mr. Big Booty Cheeseburger, what do you think about being famous? The fame hasn't changed him. He's going to keep living his best life. Lounging and loafing. He is very much a big couch potato.

Cheddar. Bravo. Big booty cheeseburger. Shout out. And he's an orange cat. Orange cat? He's very fluffy. Aw.

Cheddar, big booty, cheeseburger. The other, the other winners, dog name, Internet browser. Internet browser. I don't know why that sends me. Come here, browser. Internet browser. And then for exotic pet name, there appears to be an iguana or a Gila monster. And his name is Space Cowboy.

Space Cowboy. By the way, iguanas remind me of you. Yeah, because I like to sun myself outside. And then if it's too cold, I fall out of a tree. Because you're from Texas. Yeah, I do. I sit and I just soak up sun. I love that.

I'm a lizard. Lizard is me. And, you know, cheddar big booty cheeseburger also applies to my life. I'm very happy to see that the Arkansas news reporter when he goes Bob

What about Big Booty? What about Big Booty? Thanks Bob. The question of our time, really. Cheddar Big Booty cheeseburger. Yeah, man.

I thought they were going to say you ate cheeseburgers too. You heard some forced news anchor laughing there too. You got to have that fake laughter. I was, I had a I was in my, I live in a high rise

and I'm sitting in my place. There's at least one other cat on the floor, and I was hearing meowing. Showdown. I know. I know. They haven't met yet. No play day.

It's nothing like that. But I'm hearing meowing, and I'm like, oh, boy, poor kitty. Like the parents probably aren't home, and it's getting louder and louder in the hallway. And then I was like, oh, crap. That's Dave. I left Dave in the hallway. I'm like, oh, my God. I'm like laying down, you know, kind of calling in a night.

I had put Dave out in the hallway. and I forgot he was out there. And usually I'd lodge the door open so he can get in and out. I had locked him out. And so he's out there me on. I'm like, boy, that poor cat out there. He's just a baby. Yeah, bad owners out there not taking, they're not home for their cat.

And I'm like, oh, man, that's my cat. Oh, my God. And he looked at me like, bro, you just left me. His tail was all puffy. He was so upset with me for about five minutes. Oh, my God. His tail was puffy? All puffed because he was freaked out. Because usually he can come in.

If there's a sign, a hint of somebody coming up on the elevator or a door open, that cat dashes back in. But I left him out that he is a scarity cat. So did you keep the door open, then you forgot? I forgot and I shut the door. I slammed it in his face, laid down on my couch, heard cat sounds that I thought I was blaming other bad cat owners. I'm like, oh, that's mine.

Walking around the apartment. Dave, can you believe these cats just out here? Kind of. Wait a second. In my own mind, I was judging other cat owners while I was the bad. cat owner. Dave, aren't you glad I'm not one of them owners? Yeah. You and I got a thing, bro. I don't think Cheddar Big Booty Cheeseburger would approve of this. I don't think he moves, though.

I don't think Cheddar Cheeverger would want to go in my hallway. He'd want to sit on the couch. Cheddar Big Booty ain't going out that door. No, he's not. Big Booty. Cheddar Big Booty Cheasburger did move around, but he was like a very large, fluffy cat. Live in his best life. And why not? Like, that's always a question. Do I keep my cat healthy or let him live a shorter life, but be happier. This is what cat owners go through. Yeah, I mean, all of us as well. Like, you know, the concept

of I'm here for a good time, not a long time. Right. Exactly. Did you see, did you see Ray? This is important. Did you see Caleb Williams posted Drake, like in an Iceman tweet? And I'm like, he has been showing a lot of love to that Iceman album and the other releases. Like, he's been posting and using a lot of Drake songs on Instagram. But does he not know the Drake wore Packers jacket? I don't know if he does. I'm sure he does because he's omnipresent online. Like, I'm sure Caleb has to know.

I don't know, man. I might need a ruling on that too. Now the whole team's here. Speaking of that, at some point it was bound to happen. We've got to review a celebration. We'll do that next in five on it. This hour is brought to you by Menards. Save Big.

Money at Menards. As Marshall would do. Yep. It's time for five on it. Rahimi Harrison Rooney. Bring you five topics on their minds today. On 104-3 the score. I got five on it.

Number one. According to 104-3, the scores Bruce Levine, the Cubs had both an 11 and a 12-game losing streak in their brutal 20-21 season. The Northsiders reached their single-season loss record of 14 games to begin the 1997 season. Will the Cubs reach any of these high water marks during this current losing streak that is at

10 games? Are we in danger of seeing them surpass the single season loss record of 14 games? So not to be that girl, but I have to. Are they high water marks? Low water marks, whatever you want to call it. Maybe I can't think of

skid marks. More like skid marks. Maybe my brain for adjectives is is suffering because I'm suffering through bad baseball. Go, Ray. Go. Don't stop now, boys. You know what? I can't believe I'm saying this.

It ends today. I like that. It's Marshall's birthday. It's Pat Hughes's birthday. James and Tyone is facing his former team. And I don't necessarily know that that matters because he's been giving up some home runs. But I just, this has got to stop.

Or I don't know. Or else. And then I shake my hand at a cloud. That's where we are, though. And then tomorrow we're like, okay. There's no logical explanation for any of it. So it is just. Oh, there is.

That logical explanation was you should never let go. Kyle Schwarmer. Okay. Swarmer. Layla, give me one person who makes the lineup make sense that the Cubs used to have. This is the worst release since Hedekhiarabu on Seinfeld. How could you get $5 million to Hedkearabu? Oh, yeah, they gave him money.

That's right. I quote that line all. of the time. You know I get everything a little wrong anyway when it comes to... It's right enough. Lines and lyrics. Maybe that'll... Maybe those wrongs will make a right and the Cubs will win today. Okay. You and I are actually

fairly closely aligned. I'm just going to be a little more dramatic about it. I just banged my coffee. You be careful over there! Where's your vat? I don't see the vat. The vat. I love Laila's vat. The vat. I love Laila's vat. I make a vat of oatmeal. She does. Nobody makes better vats of oatmeal than Lela Rahimi. And I make oatmeal.

He does. It's an oatmeal lifestyle. And maybe I put some sweetener in it, but usually it's cheesy, it's in protein powder. Because I'm a boring girl. So today is James and Tyone. He has old Bubba Chandler. Old Bubba. You better watch out, Bubba Chandler. Old cheddar big booty cheeseburger is going to be out to get you today.

I kind of like the idea of the Cubs winning today because it is Jamison Tyone going back to Pittsburgh, the team which drafted him. And Jameson Tyone, I learned during the pregame show yesterday, It was Zach. He officially got his 10 years of MLB service. That is a big deal in the industry to players. I don't know if you guys recall, but it was a very big deal for Kyle Hendricks. Yes. And it changes how your pension is funded and how it is distributed for you. Now, granted, these guys make some money.

But it is a true individual mark that very much means something to players. Ian Hap got emotional talking about his 1,000, his 1,000. his 1,000th game played for the same reason. And the 10-year service time is something where if I'm in a clubhouse, I will absolutely congratulate somebody, especially a guy like James and Tyone on 10-year. 100% will widely consider one of the best guys in that clubhouse. He will have served his full contract, all of that after this year.

And for pitchers to be able to do that, even at the level he's at right now. It's an accomplishment. It really is. We could talk about the ups and downs of James and time. but he gave you, he has given, he has fulfilled his contract relative to what starting pitchers are worth these days, right? We might have to do a Jameson. How many Bears for the 10 years this time? Why don't we get James and Ty on? And his wife is from Barrington. Oh, that's right. Yep. So there's such a good time. Yeah, he does have a lot of appreciation for Chicago.

So I love that idea. Um, but you know what I love even more of the idea of when I'm fantasizing? Well, there's always that. That's going to be with me forever. CBBC. Can't take that away from us. I like the better idea of the Cubs just going crazy against Skeens tomorrow. Ham?

Just doing him up because they have done him up before. What's the ham thing? So it's another hobby. It's something we could bring back when we revisit a big hobby bias moment in Cubs history, but it was a hobby bias thing during an all-star game. He brought, refresh me. Ham is an acronym for hard.

as bleep. But you can go ham. And he was at the All-Star game. The year Baez was at the All-Star game, he did a pre-game interview with Carl Ravich. And he said something about, you know, we go ham. And he was like very, Carl Ravich was very confused. To which Baez then had to explain what Ham meant, but he couldn't really explain what Ham meant because you can't, you don't want to swear.

Carl's in too deep now. Because Hobby realized he was on a microphone. That's right. Hobby realized he was on a live mic. Oh, now that is now I'm remembering that. So his description was ham, like ham. Havere, you're saying hands? Hem, ham, like him.

Like him. Like him. That makes more sense when you say ham. That is a situation I would also like to enter into the too many or how many bears category. I feel like it should happen. Right all that down. Just let's get, let's continue to fill the. We keep a Google Doc for this reason. Fill the bucket.

And people, hey, look, we also like if text or folks on Twitch, if you have it, how many bears question? we bank them 312 644 67 we'll pick through them and if you've got a question maybe you'll be chosen on a random Wednesday to receive bears from me 815 says cubs are in a slag heap right now they are slag heap is a very operable term it's one of the worst slag heaps they've had I mean and again I mean the the only other team that has had this scenario two 10 plus game winning streaks and a 10 plus losing streak your 2017 Dodgers, which went to the World Series and lost to the cheat in Houston Astros. So tomorrow, the Cubs will break there.

Just went today. I'm tired of it. Okay. I'd be for you being right, but I think it's tomorrow. I don't think I'm right either. Number two. Does White Sox right hand of Sean Burke deserve the Mark Grotie? He deserved better award for his effort. And last night's 5-3 lost to the twins in extra innings. Point of order. I believe I coined this term in honor of one Jesse Schulte. who at the time when he started for the White Sox,

I think it was a couple years ago, he did deserve better because they lost, but it wasn't really his fault. So this is the Leila Rahimi he deserved better award? No, it's the Jesse Shultons Memorial. I think he's still alive. He deserved a better award. So I actually,

Sean Burke did great, but you're also facing Joe May, who is Joe May? Why am I like this today? Who's all Joe May? Derek, the Derek guy? Yeah, I'm having issues with my brain of recall. Joe Ryan.

He sound like me. Many people. Yeah, I said Derek Lee instead of Derek Hill. Derek Lee is an unconscious. Like, we just say the name. And Derek Lee is going to come out. Yeah, he's good. So Joe Ryan was starting opposite Sean Burke.

And I'm like, hey, why do you guys still have Joe Ryan, Minnesota Twins? Shouldn't you have traded him last year and you traded away your entire flipping team? So Sean Burke did deserve better. But unfortunately, his team did pretty well. It was one of those games where it was just excited. all the way around. There were some baseball happenings. You know, there was a comeback, but everybody just dueled each other, and then it went to

11 innings, and the dam broke. So I don't know. I think maybe not. I'm with you. Like, I think it was all... He got pretty good. It was appropriate. It was all appropriate, I think. And anytime I see a pitcher with a seven by his name, I'm

always impressed. Moreover, when I see a 100 by his name, as in Pitch's throne. That's really impressive in this day. age. It didn't used to be, but in the last seven to ten years, it's very, maybe not even that long. It's very impressive to see a guy go seven innings,

and that's exactly what Sean Burke did while allowing just two earn runs, eight strikeouts while we're at it to just two walks and three hits. So he was excellent, but I think it was appropriate. It was, it did feel like two different games. It was kind of boring from the White Sox perspective until the Morikami two-run

game tying Homer in the eighth inning, the Niko Nishita, or the Rikud Nishita. See, you're doing it now, too. Nico Horner and Ishita. It's tough. It's tough out here. It's because of the Cubs. It's all because of the Cubs. Also, dare I say, did we see a pitcher's duel last night?

I guess you could say that. I think we did. You're a little obsessed with Joe Ryan. With both guys go, I just don't know why he's still there. If I'm a GM, I would have traded for him already. I'd be like, oh, hey, twins. I see you're getting rid of your entire team here at the trade deadline. What do you want for Joe Ryan?

I could use that guy. 29 years old, been playing for five years. Absolutely. I point that out to say he's in his prime, folks. I don't know why he's still there. Well, honestly, that probably is somebody. The Cubs might be knock, knock, knock, or already have. If I am, January, I've been on the phone about Joe Ryan.

Right. I'm not giving up on Freddie Peralta either, and I'll never, ever give up on Yordon Alvarez. Hold on. That deadline is coming up. It's June 1st. Mm-hmm. That's the Mets critical mass deadline that we all, just text your buddy Brett Boone about it and see what he thinks.

I got you. He's text me back again, by the way. Would you like an update from the Booner? Oh, here, let's see. Oh, this is not a very... I wrote to him after he said, maybe I spoke too soon with the Cubs. Yikes. I wrote back. We are baffled. He wrote back, and this is a little disappointing. Baseball is crazy. That's not an answer, Brett. I need better from you than baseball is crazy. I don't need calm and rational observations right now. Don't go 110 games. left on the schedule with me, Brett Boone. How dare you become rational, Carson Kelly? Yeah, exactly. The rational, very intelligent, very engaging Carson Kelly.

Who can hold two beers at the same time and smoke a cigar. And he pops up on television. King stuff, Carson Kelly. Go off. Five on it. Number three. It's five on it on 104. One of four, three. The score with Laylorahimia and Mark Grody. Here's question number three. I'm going to read this description exactly as Yahoo sports writer Ryan Young wrote it. After closing out the eighth inning of the Brewers 6-0-0-0-1-9-Reworthy Releaver, Abner Uribe, quote,

turned and made three massive crotch-ch-chop gestures while facing the St. Louis dugout. Here's what Brewers' manager, Pat Murphy, had to say about Uribe's crotch-chop celebration after the game. That's unacceptable. Yeah, it's just unacceptable. Pat. I don't know what got over him.

I mean, he's been an emotional guy, but that kind of thing. that's just not how we do things and I was embarrassed by it and you know why are we doing it a 6-0-0 game what are we doing there must be something deeper that I don't know about I love the kid there is believe me I love the kid there's so much good in this kid he's been so great for us in so many ways but that's unacceptable it's bruce manager Pat Murphy clearly disappointed in Abner Uribe.

On a scale of 1 to 10 on the inappropriate meter, trademark, where would you rate Uribe's crotch chop celebration? Not inappropriate. It's like a four. And I will turn to the great philosophers key and peel. Drops back. Yes. He floats one into the end zone and McRingleberry, pose it down.

He's got it. Oh, my gosh, for his second touchdown of the day for this rookie, he has got to be feeling great about himself. God, I'll tell you, man. He's... Oh, see, now there's two pumps. Yeah, he's really testing the boundaries, and he's clearly gotten the ref's attention here.

A third pump will draw a flag no matter what. See, oh, he just did it again. Now, what is that, the second time? Now you have to flag him on it. Yeah, he had to. You know, Bill, it's just frustrating seeing young players without the ability to restrain themselves. Oh, it really is.

And then you know what happened? Rico Dowdell appropriately did it, and Adam Bean mentioned it on the air. It was a beautiful moment. It really was. So do we think Pat Murphy would have been fine with two pumps as opposed to three, like McRingleberry? They were really demonstrative. And my favorite part was that they were directed right at the Cardinals dugout.

Which, frankly, that's how I feel about them too. Well, let's not forget the Yahoo sports writer Ryan Young describing the crotch chops as massive. They were massive. He really put his body into it. And yes, it was six to nothing. Put your back into it. You sure did. I'm sorry.

I get funny points here. the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So therefore, not inappropriate, Abner Uribe. Maybe it's a four, maybe in the Leila book. It's just not that big of a deal. And it was funny. I love. But I'm an observer and I'm not Pat Murphy.

I'm not his boss. Right. Pat's a little older. Doesn't know what's going on. Don't understand what the- He's socially graceful. Right. And he's right.

Like they're up that probably shouldn't be going on. I love that anytime Key and Peel can be referenced here. It's beautiful. I, for some reason, you guys, you know who I thought of here? I thought of Sir Mix a lot because there was three gyter. Double up, uh, double up, uh, uh, or Ice Cube, as I just did put your back into it. I'm with you though, Leila. I'll go five though.

I'll go a little higher. We're not the ones to judge. We're like funny points. Right, right. But we're not in a, like we laugh at this stuff. There has to be a little decorum, though, still and a little respect. So I'll just, you know, just to respect Pat Murphy, I'll go five to your four. Watch the video and I dare you to not laugh.

It's funny. It really is. Number four. TARPS Off has become a thing at ballparks around MLB. Fans take off their shirts and twist them around like a helicopter. There's even an X account dedicated to tracking where the tarps have come off at baseball games at TARPS off BB. The tarps off celebration began in mid-May at a St. Louis Cardinals game. And last night, according to multiple accounts on social media,

a tarps-off section formed at the White Sox game at Rate Field. Are we ready for a summer of tarps-off bros in Chicago? Okay. And I know I just made light of the rivalry nature of St. Louis and Milwaukee and us and here in Chicago. but I see no problem with this. I like it when people join together to be happy about something. So, I don't know, you guys,

if you want to do that, go get weird. I can't stop you. You seem to be having a good time enjoying a baseball game. There are worse things in the world right now. But Wrigley has its own traditions, like the Cupsnake and the bleachers.

I don't know how they fail because I feel like you have to ask the fans in the bleachers themselves. Those who know, go there and live that life, whether or not they want to participate in something that originated in St. Louis. Excuse me. Excuse me.

Excuse me. This did not start in St. Louis. Cubs fans in the bleachers have been taking their, I have been sitting in the bleachers since the 80s. But where you swing in the shirt? Swing in the shirt. Everybody was standing together. They're yelling and they're twisting the shirts. The shirts off and the bleachers have been going on.

Like, people are older than me, probably. who were there at games in the 70s. He could probably tell me that there were shirts off. That's the original. The bleacher bumps were the original. Take your shirts off. So I don't want to hear people from St. Louis being like the Chicago stole her idea. Riggly has been shirtless for decades already. So of course they could pull it off.

They've already been there, done that. I mean, I myself am keeping my shirt on. I just feel like that's good business. Now, that would be the next level if we could get the women to take their shirts off at Rigglyfield. That is Mark Grady asking that question. Oh, there wasn't you. Not Laila Rahimi. Number five.

Okay. A video is going viral of Bryce Harper brushing his teeth. And in this video, Harper begins his tooth brushing routine by squeezing the toothpaste into his mouth directly from the tooth. Instead of onto a toothbrush. So I asked the question, not including Bryce Harper, of course. Who does that? Psychos. What the heck are we doing?

Bryce Harper, I always knew you were a little wired differently. Like, we knew that. We knew that Bryce Harper was not your average dude. But this is, this is an extreme, just blank you to society and norms. What is this is? Rink on Will Levis with the mayo and coffee and eating banana with the peel. There's something very rebellious about this, and I can't put my finger on why. But especially because I feel like Bryce Harper is not, he's like a, he,

I feel like he will question if the wordier like question the idea of something but I don't feel like he's like purposefully rebellious like that. It just is what he is. That's just... Right.

Like he's rebellious against like the score of a baseball game. You know, he's like I'll hit a home run. We'll see about that. But I feel like in this nature, this is unhinged. I feel like this is his

you know, screw you to the man, if you will. That's right. I do my toothpaste different. I go toothpaste first. I will admit, because I said to you guys,

backstage. I think I probably have done that before. And now I remember having done it a couple times in my life when you get to the end of the toothpaste and you don't have the backup and you're trying to get every, have you ever cut open your toothpaste tube? Every single container of a tube I have whether it's sunscreen, makeup. I cut everything up. Scrape it, right. So I think there was no prisoners. I think I might have sucked some about out at the top just to get the little bit that was left in there before. So I'm a little weird too. Okay. So everybody on our text line is correct. That is the DX move. I don't even know that I could say that on the year.

The DX move is probably the best description for all the wrestling fans. Right, what actually happened. But for the non-wrestling fans, massive crotch chop had to be the description. And then 630 with a very important message. Don't forget sunscreen if you go tarps off, safety first. Sunscreen every day, people. That's what they say. Even here, even in the winter, I still wear at least SPF 30.

I do. I was recently at the skin doctor just getting the routine checkup and they said, yeah, you should wear 30 every day. Yeah, and everybody's like, oh, lay that. How do you, like, look relatively young for my age, and I haven't had any Botox or anything yet. I will. I'm just cheap and lazy. 30. Copper tongue.

Sunscreen. Yep. So, yeah, I mean, if you're going to, if you're going to crotch-chop to it responsibly, but also if you're going to tarps off, wear sunscreen. Kids. That's to the kids. Too late for some people. For the kids, sunscreen. We have an actually football important topic coming up.

And you are the one who asked J.T. Barrett about it. regarding Caleb Williams. For the record, the topic we're doing, I did not ask. I think Weederer was actually in on this one. Well, he's your partner for the Tim North podcast. Always happy to give him credit. So T-TN asked the question. Yes.

But you asked us to do the segment and you farmed the information. That is true. So I feel like we should do that. The concept of Caleb Williams doing less. Next. You're listening to Rahimi Harrison Grody on Sports Radio 1043, the score. Doors closing. Nah, I can make any throw.

I mean, I believe you, Caleb Williams, but I just don't necessarily know that they are all necessary. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 The Score. And Mark, you spent a lot of time at Halls Hall last week talking to Bears' assistant coaches. And I think you had some really good answers out of it. Yeah, you know, Dan and I, Weeter, that is, did an episode recently on the Take North podcast. You can go check it out if you want wherever you get your podcast. We did a whole Caleb Williams episode and it was based on some of the plaudits that Caleb Williams is deservedly getting from the national audience, including Mike Florio, who's got him down as I think his number two quarterback.

Colin Cowherd had him in the top five, I think. Colin Coward also, we might not have to talk about his amount of bears because he's getting real bearsy. Okay. And he is based here, I think, too, and loves Chicago. His wife is from Chicago. Right. There's a lot of bears to be had for Colin. You are right about that.

Right down. That Colin Cowherd. I hear people might be into that show. It's got a future. He knows what he's doing. A lot of people say he's like the original hot take guy too, like before even Stephen A. Smith and everybody. But anyway.

So it's getting to the, and Dan and I, we did a podcast again about, you know, three weeks ago saying, look, yeah, it's all great. Like what he did. He had seven comeback wins last year. They trailed, and six of the games trailed in the final two minutes. And a lot of the reasons that they won those games is because of the throws by Caleb Williams led the Bears to a playoff win after being down 21

to 3 against the Green Bay Packer. So I know all the great things that Caleb Williams did last year. It's just a little bit quick to be like yeah, he's top three all of a sudden. And the reason we said that is because there are three quarters that you still have to work with before you get

to the fourth quarter of the game. I mean, that's a compelling thought process, that there are three other quarters of a football game. There are. And big of true. And wouldn't it be nice to be blowing these teams out as opposed to biting your nails and being stressed out at the ends of games as rewarding as they were last year. So J.T. Barrett, second year quarterbacks coach for the Chicago Bears, was expressing

the do less attitude for Caleb Williams. Listen to this. For him, it was one of those things where we just don't have to work as hard for our money. there's times where we could just work through our progression and get the ball out on time instead of having to create an extent play. So I think that was more of the conversation where it was like, hey, my God, I know you just made this crazy play. That was really cool. But we had a guy come up wide underneath that you just pop into it. Then he does the running and now you're not as tired.

So having those conversations with him don't realize like, hey, I don't have to do as much compared to maybe the past years or just him playing in general. So that's what he gets that even when it's like a really impressive highlight real Absolutely explaining it the easier more efficient way he's straight up Absolutely because I mean there's coming time where you also had late in the game where our guys bent over huffing and puffing and he's like yeah it's because you're running everywhere when you didn't have to So I think those conversations because with him he wants to be more efficient right and wants to have that ownership where he doesn't have to necessarily always take off and run and try to extend plays in that aspect. So with that, I think for him, it's been really good, being able to see

those clips again and be like, oh, I could just get to my tight in here and kick it to my back here instead of trying to also figure out what the defense is doing, like, what's the coverage where it's like, hey, I go through my progression, boom, boom, boom, there's going to be somebody that's going to be able to. This is married up with that. But Tehran, I'm sorry, you played with him in the performance. He said he really wants to see Caleb be more boring as a quarterback in 2020. Is that essentially what you're saying there? Is like, do less. This is a conversation we have where do less. It's like you're doing a lot right now.

Just do less. And do less as simple as, like I said, kicking it to flat or, you know, like just taking what's given more so, where it's like, yeah, could you hold on to the ball and make a crazy play? You could. But right now it's not necessary.

Second quarter. Yeah, it's not necessary. All good. J.T. Barrett Bears' quarterback's coach right there. And I will say specifically to that, I don't expect this to be. something that Caleb Williams just gets down right away. Because he, look, the reason he was considered to be a generational quarterback and a

consensus number one overall quarterback is because of the off-platform, spectacular throws that he made at USC. It was not because he was a pocket quarterback. It was not because he was in a pro system at USC. It was because of the spectacular. So I got time for Caleb Williams to work on that and to not always make the easy play because he wants home runs. Ben Johnson wants home runs, but there are times when you have to take your layups,

and that's what, in a very transparent and very easy going way, J.T. Parrott, Barrett made the point. Well, and he's right. He's right. Receivers want to run those routes. They will, a 50-yard pass and catch doesn't have to be 50 yards in the air. And I talked to DJ more about this, and he's like, you know, like essentially saying he wants to run. want to catch that ball in the runner. They want to catch and then run. That is something that receivers do want to do. And how much can you do that when you're 24? You can do that a lot.

But when you start to get older, you have to reserve your energy. The fourth quarter comebacks become physically that much more taxing. And his teammates too. He said he Barr kind of said with a laugh, you're tiring guys out in these scramble drills when you could have just thrown it 10 yards to Colcomette up the middle and he could have gone for 10 more. Now, granted, I think there's also a pocket very. vision discussion that has to be had. How well is he seeing in the pocket? Not just because of his height, but

just in general, if that's not something he's used to doing, if he's not used to physically making a re-progression in the pocket as routine as what he is forced to do as an NFL quarterback, then that's something that plays into this as well. I've seen him do it, though. He was in the quarterback and threw that ball to Colston-Lauvelin over the middle

who took advantage of a misalignment by the Bengals and got the touchdown and over time. So I've seen it. It's not like I don't think he can't do it. I think he can. But he's right. Barrett is right. You don't always have to be the one doing all of this to get the plays that work. To your point, too, about staying in the pocket and what his vision is like, I believe he led the league for starting quarterbacks and deflected balls. All the times that batted balls like with defensive linemen getting their arm. Max Crosby had a couple, I think. Especially on the left side.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so I mean, Max Crosby had at least two in that single game. Didn't he have the fumble, the strip sack? The strip sack, yeah. And he had at least one more batted ball. And by the way, and I know like at this point, it's the easy thing to go with Caleb Williams, the 58.1 completion percentage, which actually got worse than his rookie year. That'll be a lot better if Caleb was willing to concede to the simple.

And look, we all want the downfield passing game. It's why everybody's in love with Caleb Williams because of his arm, and he can make any throw, and he could throw the ball as far as his arm strength is probably top three in the league. So we all want to see that. There are just many times throughout a game where you can do the simple and be better, as he said. I just love it, J.T. Bear. Hey, my guy. Hey, my guy.

T.J. Watt was the strip sack. Max Crosby had a near one, but it was T.J. Watt who got the one that I was thinking of. But the point is, no, Max Crosby definitely had batted passes at the line of scurbanage. Oh, yeah, he was in Caleb's face all day that game when the Bears did come back and win. He was disruptive outside of the number of sacks that he actually recorded. He was disruptive. Let that be a lesson to you all. I was going to say, tell me more about that concept. Yeah, it's where you keep the quarterback out of his rhythm, but you don't necessarily have sacks to show for it.

But you've proven via the eye test to be a disruptive presence to the offensive rhythm and desired goal. The 2023 year of Dio O'Dangbo, which was referenced. Not 2025, but, oh, remember when he was with the Colts and he had eight sacks and nine TFLs and was in the backfield all the time? That's what we're looking for out of Dio Dio. I think the best logical question to ask after that conversation with J.T. Barrett would be, what are the plays where you feel like Caleb Williams can ease into? that concept, right? What are the routes he feels comfortable throwing?

Who are the targets that he feels comfortable, at least throwing to or considering first before he has to make a second or a third reading of progression? Avoid the sack. Everybody learned the lesson. Everybody nailed the assignment. The first assignment was avoid the sack. The next assignment was make a play happen. Now the next one is make a play happen in the boring way, not always the cool way.

And I feel like that is, that's the easier part to coach, not necessarily the special. The special is the hard part. So I have every confidence and belief that he can do this. It's just a matter of whether or not it's going to come quickly. And look, and another part of this too is Caleb might just keep doing what he is doing and being spectacular in the fourth. And that's what he is.

And from that will come power and more autonomy. And eventually it's like he is what he is, let him go. Don't worry about it. So Caleb does have some power in this. if he continues to win and do well that way. It's just not like, of course we all want to see that again from him, but it's not realistic to think that you're going to have seven comeback wins, six of them in the final two minutes.

That's hard. If you want to be Matt Stafford's age and be an MVP at 37 and throw for 4,000 yards, you're going to have to work less physically than what we saw Caleb Williams have to run yards wise to complete some of these passes and the like. And I think that that is as good of enough motivation for him, long term for the career as any, to try to make that happen more often now to save that energy. I agree. And then here's the thing, too, while I'm hesitant to put Caleb Williams as a top five quarterback right now, I just don't think there's a need to do it. I don't think he is

in the top five yet. He can get there pretty quickly if he gets that other part down and the numbers will go, will skyrocket as well. Profit. Profit and 4,000 yards, by the way. It came pretty close last year with the 3-942. And 3-1-2 is right on our text line. You also can't throw sidearm through the defensive line. You are correct. Sometimes it doesn't work. Yeah, you can't be Pat Mahomes on every play.

You know, I love a good, I love a good sidearm put out in the infield, but I don't necessarily know that that's always going to be the case. Sometimes, but not always. Yeah. It's good stuff out of J.T. Barrett. And the more we know what the coaches want to do, then the more we know what the game plan is. Right.

And that just validated. it our thoughts too, that isn't there another, like everybody's making them a top three court? Isn't there a little more to do still? It's okay that there's a little bit more to do for Caleb Williams. But I think that's the beauty of getting the hard part down first. That's true. And then having to work backwards again. You can't take that away. You're right. That it's such an essential and maybe the most difficult part, but there is still another part. Yeah. And I think that that's where the fun and the magic happens. Maybe that's just me.

Thanks to J.T. Barrett for coaching us as well as his quarterback there. Let's stay with the Bears because next on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, a man who talks football with us has reported that a player who many of you have mentioned as a possible defensive line solution has visited the Bears. So we'll examine next. Rahimi Harrison Grody. We are family here. We are family.

Middays 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. Let's be honest. You know the truths. You never miss a Brad Biggs mailbag. You just don't do it because, number one, mailbag is metaphorical. It's a lot of online questions. Number two, people ask good questions. They get answered.

Next thing you know, you've got some news. And that Mark Grotie is what happened this very morning. Hit me. Chicago Bears' Q&A in the Tribune. Will they sign a defensive end before training camp? Is the stadium saga near the end? I'm not touching the second question. But at Bears underscore

Dubbs, asked Mark Grody and it's Dubbs with Z. Do you think that the Bears are waiting until training camp to sign a defensive end? We don't know when Dyer-O-Dangbo or Shemar Turner are coming back. You are correct, Bears Dubs. Only have three healthy defensive ends

from the 53-man roster last season. Putting lots of confidence in two guys coming off of major injury seems like a big gamble. I got to tell you, I think this Bears' dubs is on to something. Mm-hmm. Well, Brad Biggs answered. The front office is keeping tabs on potential options.

It's my understanding. The Bears brought in A.J. Epinessa for a workout last week. What? The free agent had two and a half sacks in 16 games for the Buffalo Bills last season after totaling 18 and a half sacks over three seasons from 2020 to 24. Biggs goes on. When adding Epinessa or a player like him move the needle for you, Epinessa had an agreement with the Cleveland Browns on a one-year $5 million contract, but that deal fell apart in late March after the 27-year-old Iowa product failed a physical.

What specifically led the Browns to pull their offer is unknown. That's evidence that the bears aren't sitting around simply wondering how the players on the roster will perform. I'd probably classify the visit by Epinosa somewhere between interest in adding to the position and performing due diligence on an emergency list. He goes on to say, and I think we know this, the bears are optimistic about Austin Booker's performance this season, and Coach Ben Johnson has been very positive about what they got for Montes' sweat last year. When O'Dainbo and Turner are healthy, they will have players to fit into a rotation.

It would not surprise me if they add a defensive end for competition at some point. But right now, the bears are clearly more confident in O'Dangbo and Turner, returning healthy and adding to the mix than the public is. I agree with Bears' dubs. I don't think that it's as set of a deal as the bears make it out to be. Yeah, I would agree with that as well. And as you said, there is gamesmanship that goes on with these free agents as well. If you are a veteran, you probably don't want to sign with a team now if you're really confident

because you don't want to go through the mini-camps and the OTA, the off-season program, essentially. Training camp, maybe you show up after the first week. So there is some of that gamesmanship that occurs. As far as the player himself, Epinessa, A.J. Epinessa, six years with the Buffalo Bills, not exactly like dynamic sounding. I would have preferred that they had made a move on Dexter Lawrence if we're going to talk about defensive linemen. Yes, Mark, we all would have. Or I don't know, since we're throwing names out there, been more aggressive in the Max Crosby sweepstakes. Oh, wow, man, that feels like another time, doesn't it?

Sean the dark, right? But so, but that's way too consolation prizy. You know what I mean? Like when we're talking about, and I know the Dexter Lawrence thing was probably never realistic because the Bears didn't have the assets or the money or whatever. But when you start to go down a level, then it's like, yeah, but we had some opportunities to go after bigger, better guys. And does he get to the quarterback?

And we just heard yesterday Jason Garrett, the defensive line coach for the Bears, talking about how Diodangbo is going to rush from the inside. on third down, no less, the most important of the day. And that's what we got enough guys that aren't actually getting to the quarterback from the inside. You're just pretending. You wave your arms a lot. Give me, yes, they need another outside rusher. While if they do sign him, I wouldn't be like, that's a waste of time.

I'd be like, okay, add him to the rotation of defensive linemen. To the mix. And he'll be fine, but that doesn't exactly move the meter for me. I mean, this is of no offense to Neville Gallimore, but I feel like AJ. Epinessa may still have something left in the tank compared to like a Neville, you know, but Neville commanded a decent salary. So that's part of this too,

is how do you feel like these people fit on the line? I think the thing is I always have room for AJ Epinessa. You know, like I just, yes, the Iowa thing comes into play, but perhaps a change of scenery would do him some good as well. It's a fine player. But you have to ask what caused the failed physical. Yeah.

Yeah, right. And why he's only getting offered $5 million. Yeah. was as simple as we don't like his medicals up to five million dollars like we don't five million dollars like them maybe we two million dollars like them or something but i i feel like that that stands to be asked when it comes to well wait a second what happened there and the fact that it is in public that doesn't exactly it doesn't exactly help you know contavia's street 1.255 Shamart next year is supposed to make 1.6 roughly.

Dexter's in the last year his rookie deal, so that's a 2.1. Nevel's at 4. So would he be in the neighborhood of taking something around that? And he's not even 30. Yeah. Was he 27? Yeah. Who do you think is going to lead right now on this date, whatever today's date is?

May 27th. Thank you. May 27th. We looked that up. Who's going to lead the Bears and Sacks next year? We could do this like intermittently. Sure, default. I'll say Montez again.

And you go sweat? Do I dare go hipster and say Booker? Sure. That's the hipster pick, man. There's two hipster players for the bears. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

So maybe I go him. So I don't, I don't hate the concept of Austin Booker getting better. I just want backstops for exactly what was discussed. Absolutely. The confusing nature of the health of Dio O'Dango's Achilles, this being his second tear. And then also what's going on with Shemar Turner and the ACL? I think that's a fair question to ask.

And still figuring out exactly where Shemar Turner is best served on this defensive line as well. Outside or inside. Because he started on the outside. Second round pick. Yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah. This Saturday joined the score at White Eagle Auto Body and Oswego.

Gabe Ramirez will broadcast live from 11 to 2 p.m. White Eagle Auto Body when the score bet bet, score big for your business. Yeah, I was like, score big. Score bear. It looks like, so it's two different lines. It looks like White Eagle Auto Body won the score. Big for your business.

Brought to you by People's Bank. That is Saturday from 11 to 2, Gabe Ramirez at White Eagle Auto Body. Love Gabe. In Oswego. Coming up next, Geri, Rahimi Harrison Grady. Jed Hoyer made comments before the Cubs game yesterday. He made the trip. When the GM goes on the road trip, or in this case, the president of baseball operations, we raise an eyebrow.

We will go over it and more with Russ Dorsey next. This hour is brought to you by cars for kids. Russell Dorsey, National MLB Insider for Yahoo Sports. Oh, he's fine. He doesn't need the attention. Russell will be fine. You're probably right. We're going to have a conversation about some mediums when he gets in here.

I tell you that. Host of the Relay with Russ Dorsey podcast. Because of the way the rest of the American League has been, because of the way the season has kind of gone with injuries for different teams, the White Tocs have put themselves in a really good position here as we go into the middle of May. Insider and analysts for MLB Network and Friday night baseball on Apple TV. My eye is on which version of Pete do you get in 26? Because if you can get, we'll call it 65%, even 70% of the first half, Pete Coramstrong offensively with that same high-quality defense that we saw from him since he's gotten to the big leagues, to be honest.

Then you still have a high-quality player. Russell Dorsey. On 104-3, the score. The score. Russ Dorsey joins us every week, and he is here today on Rahimi Harrison-Rody. He is the Major League Baseball Insider for Yahoo Sports, Major League Baseball Network, and Friday night baseball on Apple TV. He is the host of the shirt he's wearing the relay with Rode.

Russ Dorsey podcast available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. The merch is out now. The merch is slowly rolling out. We have the athletic tease. We're finalizing what we're going to put out to the public. But very soon, people will be able to buy all their relay with Russ Adorsi merch. Oh my God. The Take the North has work to do.

We don't have dry fit. And you guys have been a pod for a while. Exactly. I got a wristband once. We did have Take the North wristbands. And not like an athletic wristband. like a little, you know, bracelet. You guys are saturating the wristband market.

We're going to do bottle heads next. Hey, I'm down with that. What's up, guys? How are you? How are you? I'm doing well. So we just started our show super annoyed. Okay. Obviously, because the Cubs have lost 10 in a row.

Yes, they have. And I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, that the entire lineup acts like the same person. Like, usually on a team of veterans, somebody's in there breaking up a slump because there's doesn't last as long as somebody else's. And, you know, people are different. And when there's nine of them hitting,

you tend to think that somebody would break through. But that's not been the case. And then poor Jordan Wicks got out there and unfortunately uncorked five runs in the first inning. Got better after that, but it hasn't been ideal. No, not ideal at all. It's so interesting that you ask that, Layla, because I was thinking about it after the game yesterday,

like you think of the offensive profiles of a lot of guys in that Cubs lineup. And outside of PCA and Dansby that is, you know, big swing and miss, you know, when you, you know, they have power, but like there's some swing and miss that comes with that. When you talk about Bregman, you talk about Nico, you talk about Michael Bush for the most part. Like, they're, those guys' offensive profiles aren't necessarily conducive to long offensive slumps, you know, especially Nico. Yeah. Right? Because that's a guy that almost has this slump-proof offensive approach.

And I feel like this is the first time in a really, really long time. We've seen even him go through a long stretch where offensively it's just not there. And I don't know how they get out of it without just getting out of it, if that makes sense, right? It seems it's a very unsatisfying answer. But it's like I don't know what they can do outside of starting to him. it's the most a baseball answer that can be given. Hey man, we're going to get out of it. And at some point, nobody knows what that point is.

You're just going to hear that for a while. Well, then maybe you've answered my question, and that is what I've been asking, and I don't expect necessarily a great answer, is it chronic? Should we be talking about offensive players the Cubs should add instead of starting pitchers? You know what I mean? No, I hear you. Like, is somebody that need to be replaced on the Cubs diamond? I just don't know if that solves their problem.

And I don't, like, there's no trade that you're going to make on May 27th to bring somebody in. Because one, no team is going to trade you somebody worth value to plug in the middle of your lineup on May 27th. Shooter, shoot. I think the other part is, I know what usually happens when you have a long stretch offensively like this. And it usually leads to somebody getting. fire. And it's usually the hitting coach in baseball. And it's not, it's never usually the hitting coach's problem. I don't know if that's going to happen. I don't think that's going to happen with the Cubs because I think when you hear everything that they say internally, whether it's Jed Hoyer,

whether it's, hey, the guys in the lineup have to swing the bats like we expect them to. And I think at the end of the day, like, they have guys in that lineup that they expected way more out of, not a little bit, like a lot more. And so until those guys start swinging the bat, we're just going to be looking at each other. They're like, oh, one run, five, six hits, yeah? That's what it's they're averaging two point five runs a game since May 9th. That's not some small sample size. And you know, up until that point, I was reminding our audience of this, the Cubs had had 10 comeback wins where it felt like if they were down 3 to 1 or some sort of like they were going to come back and overcome it.

They also had four or five walkoff wins. Things were really good. Things were really potent. Things felt unstoppable. Now you feel two runs. Somebody ever talked about the one run? I mean, they were down one and nothing and what the fifth inning on Monday. And it felt like I had to ask the question.

I'm like, can't even get out of this right now. And the other part of this is it's, I get it. players are always going to say you're going to find water find its level. You're going to play to the back of your baseball card. But what it doesn't measure is your back of the baseball card when a team is struggling and doesn't

have a good bullpen and you've already gotten the lead. There's so many variables to how those hits come. And weighted runs, Creative Plus does a good job with trying to at least identify that part of it. But that part of it is not happening

right now for this team. Runners in scoring position numbers. Nico was out of his mind last year with hits with runners in scoring position. He was also in a different spot of the lineup. And partially because you had a certified bopper batting cleanup in Kyle Tucker. I think the, because the runners in scoring position numbers are ugly.

I think the one thing with hitting with runners in scoring position, it's always a, how do I describe it? It's not necessarily something that you're going to, quantify from year to year. Like you could see a team that's the best at doing it one year. And then next year, they are horrible at it. Like, there's no necessarily rhyme or reason for it all the time. It's like one run ball game.

Right. Like, one run ball. That's exactly it. And so when I look at this Cubs team, it's kind of everything that can go wrong has gone wrong offensively. And I think the thing that I'm, I would be concerned about if I'm them, you are in this stretch where you're not getting anything offensively. You're lucky lately if you can score two runs.

And now your pitching staff that had pitched pretty well over the first, we'll call it, six weeks of the season, and maybe pitching above what they actually were, starting to come back to Earth a little bit at a point where you really can't afford that because you're not scoring runs. And now you have another situation on your hand. So it is not, it's not great right now. and I can understand why Craig's kind of like scratching his head. And I think the other thing and Cubs fans can tell me if I'm wrong in the text line. I think the one thing that doesn't make it satisfying is you talk about a lot of the players having a similar kind of offensive profile. They also have a similar way of responding to how they've played.

It's very even keeled. And their manager, very even keeled, even when things are going good. And usually when, especially when you have a 10-game league, losing street. You want somebody to be fired up and like give somebody the kick in the pants that, you know, light a fire, all the sports cliches that we like to say. That's just not them. And so I don't know if doing that would necessarily change anything. I think they feel like doing it the way they have, eventually it has to turn. But nobody wants to hear that when you've lost 10th straight. Because it's not an answer. You're leaving it up to chance and time is the

answer. And frankly, time is the answer for all of us in some way, shape, or form. And that's why when we were talking about this earlier, Russ, Carson Kelly talked to Mark and Bruce Levine on Saturday and discuss like the perilous nature of a game of inches in baseball, where you're inches away from a home runner or a foul ball. And while I get that, players still have to have to find approaches to fastballs. Players still have to have hitting approaches. Your hitter should have to have approaches. Carson Kelly got two hits yesterday. I don't know. necessarily know that he's falling into my category of you don't have an approach. But it just makes me wonder when he says it, what our team approaches and do the individuals

define their approaches enough to matter in cases like these? Ian Hap talked about it a little bit, but he's a veteran who's been at this a long time and he's had different managers. I do think the one thing with them, because I've thought about that too, while watching them is they are a team that usually goes up there with a plan. Like they're not just up there free swinging. No. You see teams that are just up there.

All right. Three. But that's, yes, but that's just his offense profile. A defined approach for center field would be a really good thing right now. I just don't think, I think there are a lot of issues in that lineup. So we got to go one at a time. And for me, that's the, you know what he is. I think when it comes to like Nico, Ian Hap, Bregman, Michael Bush, like, those guys are up there trying to see as many pitches as possible.

they usually have a decent walk rate when they're going good. That's not a team that doesn't have an offensive plan when you're going to the plate. So usually with teams like that, they don't have the issues that the Cubs are having. I do just think, like, earlier in the season, everybody was hitting except Michael Bush. Now Michael Bush is the only guy hitting and nobody else is. And so I think they have gotten caught in this storm, if you want to call it that, where everybody's kind of trying to swing their way out of this. thing now. And there is some pressure building because you go from being the best team in the

National League Central, one of the best teams in all the Major League Baseball to now you are in the seller in L Central in 14 days. Three games over 500 all of a sudden too if you care about those kinds of things, 29 and 26 with the L10 that has occurred. Outside of the lineup, I hate asking this question because he was a first round pick, but is that going to do it for Jordan Wicks? Like, is he done because he can't he's not good in relief had a horrible start last night and maybe he was amped up and maybe it's not fair but

is that it? I don't I don't think it can be it with all the injuries the Cubs have had. It's probably not it as long as Matthew Boyd isn't in the starting rotation. Yeah I think as long as they have as many injuries they have to their pitching

he's going to at least get an opportunity because you don't have. Somebody else? I guess I guess they just did Scrape the bottom of the barrel. It feels like every guy that they've brought up from Iowa has either gotten DFA'd or gotten hurt. So, like, you kind of need somebody to throw the baseball. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he did give him four and a third.

Hey, he did. That means something. You know, he wore it. That was 80 pitches. Second time through the order was a little different. Yeah. Hey, second, third, and fourth. He gave up zero runs in those innings.

Hey, gross, did you say that the Cubs won the division at some point? I did. This was last year. It's my greatest score sin. I've had many score sins through the years, and I've gone to confession for all of them, but there was a point last year, Russ, before the Brewers had their 12-game winning streak or whatever it was.

It was in June. It was June the last year. And the Cubs were just cruising, looking like they did during their 10-game winning streaks this year. And I said, I said, that's it. The Cubs won the division. Appreciate, nice try, Brewers. It's all over.

Yes, I did. And I've been, there's two or three texts a day about that. Then Pat Murphy clip that up. And then at Avner, Rebaid, basically. In the Brewers Clubhouse. I got a rebate. Yeah. Yes, I did do that, Russ.

You have to say Abner, because Juan is a totally different ball game. You know what my defense is this year, though, Russ? Everybody picked the Cubs to win the division this year. That's like, that's why I think when I was on with Lawrence last week, we would always, anytime you talk about the NL Central, there's always this, well, the Cubs are still the most talented team. I don't think you can say that. anymore. I remember that conversation. You have to stop saying that. How would I answer that?

Like, you're right. You're right. You can talk about the no-name Brewers as Aw Shucks Pat Murphy does, as Laila would say. I do call him All Shucks, Pat Murphy. When he said that we didn't know their names. Get out of here. We know who Bryce Terang is now, okay? You think I don't know who Christian Yeller is? Please. You think that I wasn't watching Orlando Arcia pinch hit yesterday for the twins? William Contreras. Don't get out. Get out of here with that mess.

Go on. Jacks, Pat Murphy. Go on, get Pat. Go on. I don't want to hear it from you. Yes, 815. Please search and find the date that Groh said that. We know it.

Didn't I sign you guys to do that? Of all people, I'm the one who asked our producers. Hey, when did I make that stupid prediction last year? You keep guiltily talking about it. June, was it 8th? See, I thought it was May, but I guess it was June. No, it was definitely June. I'm glad to hear I had a little bit of discipline and restraint.

Oh, you had the decency to hold off until June. I just say it. You said that before Memorial Day, that's why. But after June 1, you kind of get whatever. I felt like I was in the clear. You're right. After Memorial Day, we're all in the clear. June 18th was the date.

18th. Well, well, June 18th. There it is. That is around the time that the brewers got red hot and never. Textor's actually offering to search the Odyssey app to find the date. Just so they can stick it in my face. It's beautiful. Cubs are 4 and 16 in the past 2608 says, yeah.

It's not good. This is more than just the 10-game losing streak. I mean, that's it. This is not just about that. And that's why we're talking about this. That's why we're talking about this with the, I think, proper amount of urgency. Like, this is not, this is something that we knew this lineup was capable of. And I'm mad about it.

I guess I'll say it. 815 also says. It just always makes me mad about Kyle Schwerver, because he makes all of this damn. thing makes sense. I'm sorry I did not mean to make you spit out your coffee. I was going to do a spit take there. But it's just, uh, tell me what it like it just that every, he would make the entire thing makes sense right now. That can't be the only fix though. It was an obvious one. It ages like five years every year

though. That's it. Like I, for every hour you spend talking about, I know I do that thing where I'm like guys, we have to, but I, no, there are guys in this lineup that are supposed to hit. But there's no super stars. Every major leaguer is supposed to hit. No superstars. Well, they thought that they had the right lineup to score runs. You got the run prevention.

And maybe they do. Do that? Well, that's it. Is it chronic? We don't know. Nobody knows. Here's the issue is that, number one, Alex Breggman had a half of a good season last year. And you know that.

It was the first half. You knew you were taking a little bit of a risk. I don't think you realized. I would give him the injury because he was putting together a really, a really good season if he didn't injure his hamstring. Did I think that it was going to. linger like this the next year. No, you're also midway through a Danesby-Swanson contract where I don't know that I can expect him to bat over 225 in a season. Yeah, he's the new Alfonso

Soriano, always three years left on his contract, always here. But you know what I'm saying? Like there's that piece of it. So those are your two money guys. That's your money team, as I like to say. PCA, you're still trying to figure out who he has as a hitter. And I am not ready to just accept that that's who he's going to be. This strikeout heavy. Like you can't, you can't just well, this is who he is as a hitter and then just hope he makes contact on some. Like, I don't think it's that simple with him. I think when you've committed to somebody, you're saying, yes, you are hoping that they continue to improve as a player.

But I think when you look at this lineup holistically, you build it knowing what he is today on May 27th or whenever the season started. And then you go from there because him playing, him having this offensive profile is fine if the lineup, the way you built it, does what they're supposed to do. So they're just not doing that. Well, say Suzuki also, don't forget that he led the league in RBI at the All-Star break.

And that's not happening now either. His numbers with scoring position were great in the first half. And he had production in the lineup, and I feel like he was his best self. And that's also been a point of contention is just what he is supposed to be to this team. Yeah. Number three last night, Biosteros O for four.

I was going to say Moises, Byesteros is really fighting it. That's a wild card for me. And that was the guy that was supposed to, they said he is going to be our Kyle Tucker replacement. Slump for him against right-handed hitters. Moises by Estero's was going to be their Kyle Tucker replacement. We'll talk about it. Can we come back to that after the break?

Oh, yeah, we can. It's, yeah. I think we need to. We also want to go over some audio clips that we got from Jed Hoyer. Okay. So we'll do all of that with. Russ Dorsey of the Relay with Russ Dorsey podcast in studio next on

Rahimi Harrison Grody on the score. Rahimi Harrison Grody. Oh, sorry, but... Watch your profanity. You said Papa the mind. No, no. I do you know what? You got to let it flow. Our poor producer Ray spilled his coffee.

So thanks for christening our studio over here. No, no. It's okay. Midday's 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grody on 104 3, The Score. And watch your profanity also may have come up again, which, which, that inspired the famous Russ Dorsey line, invite you to somebody's private. Watch your profanity.

Yeah, that was said. Yes. Last week. Did you see Abner your rebate last night? I did see Abner. Give the old DX chop to the Carlin bench. Yeah. I'm sorry.

Pat Murphy was not happy. The triple. Pat is his boss, and I understand why he has to keep a buttoned up operation. But I keep the opposite of a button-up operation, and I thought he had funny points. Yeah, it's not okay because you put somebody's health at risk because the likelihood that you get thrown at the next day is very high. And everybody would understand.

I think from that aspect, it's selfish because you're not the dude that's going to get thrown at. It's going to be Jackson Churio or Christian Yellich that has to wear William Contraris, and that's not fair to your teammates. Eye for an eye. throw it really I'm not saying I'm not saying that's okay I'm just saying

that's what usually happens and that's unfair as a team You know it's also wild We were just Lely we were just talking about this Russ and I during the break It was on May 6th Russ?

It was May 6th Russ and I were doing the afternoon show filling in for Stiegel and Holmes Yeah it wasn't that long ago The Cubs were riding So high

That we were doing the Russ Dorsey game which was Grody I'm going to name teams You stop me When you hear a team better than the Cubs Right, and there was only two. Dodgers and Yankees, right? Yeah, that was it.

Oh, your World Series pick? And the Braves. The Braves. Yes, my very unique and creative. Because that legit was my World Series pick this year. Why would you just pick the Dodgers and Yankees every year in this era? Because sometimes the Yankees are not fail-safe. But they're about as fail-safe. They're fail-s safer than other teams in the American League.

But yeah, that was, that's sad. Yes, and this was the music that we used. Oh, my God. What is this song? This is the, do you want to be a millionaire? Oh, yeah, yeah. Who wants to be a billionaire? That's right.

That's what it was. Oh, phone a friend and all that. Yeah, all that. The pressure's on. Are you ready for this? The Cubs are trying to phone a friend right now. Oh, my God. Who would you phone?

Your Donne Alvarez? I'm obsessed. Sorry. You are obsessing him, but he's really good. Can I ask a question? Because any time I hear people like, hey, trade for Yordaun Alvarez. Couple things. You have to have a...

It takes two to tango when it comes to trades. Number two. You have Alcantra. You think you would be the only team in Major League Baseball that want Yordaun Alvarez, one of the best hitters in Major League Baseball. To be fair, Kyle Tucker was up for grabs. Yes, I do think. I only think the Cubs would be interested.

Yes, Russ. That's what I think people think sometimes. Only the Cubs are involved. Yoron Alvarez for Moises S biasedaron. Straight up. I'll throw in Metsha. I'll shaw it up. Yeah.

Matt Shaw. Is that good enough? Is that good enough? Okay. Okay. Okay, let's do this. People would like to say Shaw Plus, name whatever prospect. Kevin El Contraub.

Best dude on somebody else's team. Jordan Wicks. Yes, like, people put together packages like that. And I'm like, I promise you, that doesn't get it done. If it took your best prospect to get Edward Cabrera, you think Shaw Plus pick a prospect is going to get you, Yordaun-Alvarez? Jackson Wiggins, the pitcher. Is that the name, Wiggins? Jackson Wiggins.

So you think somebody's going to trade for an injured pitcher who hasn't made his debut yet for Yorda-Obris? I think this is what people do. But you know what? The holes you're poking, man. As much as we, as much as we like to hold on to certain prospects or try to trade them, I always think of the prospects that are, oh, you can't trade that guy. That guy's untradable and blah, blah, blah. And it's always, you know, I think all comes to mind.

I'm trying to think of who it was. He's been DFAed here twice for Austin Jackson. Michael. Michael was like untradable in the Texas Rangers organization. He was a Cubs and a White Sox. And DFA'd each time for Austin Jackson. I'm not even making it up. It's a trivia question because he was the Cubs starting third baseman in the year 2015

before he was holding the place for KB and once he got his service time, he was out of there. But the point is like the guy you think is untradable. You know, there's no way. Part of the reason you think that is because he's been kept in the minor leagues for a reason. And it is to keep his value up because the unknown plus that prospect is worth more in a package of some sort of deal like this. You can't do that as much now, but I still think about that. I just, we sometimes like to put value on prospects because you see them and you can find their names on a prospect list. And sometimes when it comes to how other teams see those prospects, they are not the same, right?

Like, you would like to assume that a team looks at, let's say, Kevin Alcantra and says, oh, this is a valuable piece. They might not, though. They might see a guy that was hitting 240. AAA. Well, yes, 15 homers, but struck out almost 40% of the time in the month of April. So you never know. Also, the thing with the Cubs, I'm going to ask you guys a question because you guys ask me a question. I'm going to ask y'all a question. It's May 27th, June 27th, where are the Chicago Cubs? That was the date I predicted they would catch the White Sox in the standings, that the two would be even. But I can't really...

Oh, that the socks would catch the Cubs. Correct. But I can't confidently say that because the socks have a brutal June schedule. It is pretty rough. But I think there's still probably, in theory, if this mercifully ends, the problem is two games could separate one through three in the central. I think they're still in the playoff picture, believe it or not. But it's really a good and legit, difficult question, again, because of the skittishness, the bipolarism of the Cubs this year, where they can have.

The two 10-game winning streaks and now a 10-game losing streak. So how do you predict what their next streak is going to be? For the sake of the question, I will say, yes, the Cubs are still going to be at that point, seven to 10 games over 500 and in the playoff picture and in the division race still. Okay. So what do you think? Yeah, I mean, even if you're third in the central, you're still in the playoffs. So I feel confident about that.

These are the Cubs opponents. So they got the last one, or today and tomorrow, it's Pittsburgh. And they have St. Louis for three, been playing really well. they have the A's that have been playing well for their division in the AAL-West. Then they have the San Francisco Giants have not been playing well, the Rockies, who haven't been playing well,

then they have the Giants again in San Francisco, then the Rockies again at Wrigley. So that might be your two-week reprieve where you got to get fat again and you have some opponents to do it. Then you have Toronto, the New York Mets, Milwaukee, in Milwaukee, and then three against the San Diego Padres.

If there was ever a time, to get yourself going again, it would be the month of June. I also thought that they'd get themselves right against the Houston Astros. That's the other thing, growth, about this whole thing. The White Sox took two and three. All right. Sox were playing really well going into that series. Then the Brewers swept you.

Great starting pitching, and they had been playing really well. And then the Astros come in with a fourth worst record in the American League. They were 11 games under 500. Fourth worst record in a bad American League, too. Yeah. And not a fundamentally sound team or any of that. You're not Alvarez. And Injured.

Hey, number 44. Was hurt. But that's the other point. And injured. Altuve is on the injured list. Correa's out for the year. Yeah. And they came in here and swept you.

And then they threw a no hitter. They were the Get Right. They got the Cubs to get right series. They were the Astros Get Right series. The Cubs were. Disturving. So, yeah, I, I ask you guys that because I look at the month of June and there are some opponents on there.

Now, we thought the. Cubs would play better, and they haven't. Maybe they play better against those opponents, like the Giants and the Rockies, that you get for two different series back-to-back weeks. Giants look pretty good in the way they had against the socks, I will say. But they're not that good. But they're not good. And they were at home.

No, but. But yeah, yeah, and so it's hard because it's a season. It's hard to figure out because they're in such a good division, too. I don't think that's why the Giants are bad. I think the Giants are bad because they're a bad, poorly constructed baseball team. I thought they were going to be good. I don't think their and their manager has never managed and their president of baseball operations. Has never president.

And I think he kind of gets to slit pass because he's a hall of him. I don't understand how they go from Andrew Friedman to this or Farhan's idea. And Ron Don't have a ton of success even. But Farhan, he did enough to help the Dodgers create the Juggerna. There were a lot. There are other things to that. But they've added... What are the other things?

They've added a lot of players in the last couple of years, right? Financially. You look at their payroll, like Willie Adomis, Raphael Devers. They just gave Matt Chapman new money. It's a big market team. I liked the Matt Chapman signing. I'm cool with them being aggressive, but none of their moves have worked. They've been booing in San Fran, man.

And right, really so. They won three World Series title. titles in six years. Exactly, Leila, they know what good baseball looks like and what San Francisco is playing is not good baseball. But it's so, the game is so different now compared to them. Like, that's what makes us hard. And again, you have the juggernaut down south on the five in L.A.

who lets everybody know that if you're available, they're going to get you. Yeah, they'll get, by the way, they'll get Yorda and all for us. 7.08 says, come on, everyone. You're talking like it's the end of the season. There's over 100 games left. I realize that. But at some point, these aren't just today issues. These are issues that have lingered now.

If you don't want to look at your credit card balance, it's not my business, but I look at mine. I look at every game as if it is a game that is of consequence. Not the most consequence, but when you see patterns, we would be naive and in denial to not acknowledge them. That's it. As the other text are said, 4 and 20 or 14 over the last 20. You know, that's not 416 over the last 20 is more indicative of what you're seeing. That's not a small sample. Also, I'm not a big half-faith person.

You know how people be like, have faith in Jed. I don't do that. Like, people make decisions. The decisions are what they are. We talk about the decisions. I don't have faith in any one individual. Also, I just don't even know how many good teams there are in major league baseball this year. Do we want to play the game?

That's way that game. Start the music. How many good teams are there? The problem is baseball doesn't know how many good teams there are. in baseball and that's what makes the trade deadline even more confusing. Rattle off some names and we'll just go yes or no. MLB.com slash standing.

27th. All right. The Atlanta Braves is the first name. Very good baseball team. Yes. That would be a yes. That's one. The Washington Nationals. I don't necessarily think the Nats are. 29 and 27. Their economy is based on Joey Weamer. They've played well.

They've played well. And surprisingly, the best offensive some major league baseball. I don't know how that's happening. And James Wood is the dude and C.J. Abrams has been playing great. I don't necessarily think they're good. These last three are, actually, this one I think is one of the best ones. The Philadelphia Phillies. Are they good?

They've been playing a lot better. They've been playing a lot better under Donnie baseball. I'm going to say, yes. I do think the Phillies are good baseball team. Okay, I'm going to bounce around a little bit here. I'm going to get out of the east here because Miami and the Mets, they're not great. Maybe Miami. I think the Barlins are good baseball.

team. They do this every seven years. People don't like saying it, but they're a good baseball team. How good? Like better than the Cubs good? They're going to be in the playoffs. When we get to September, the Marlins are going to be in the conversation. They have two of the best offensive players in Major League Baseball in Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards. They are a good baseball team. Otto Lopez is batting 3.30. He leads Major League Baseball in hits and batting average. He's batting 3.30. The Marlins are a good team. All right. The St. Louis Cardinals. 29 and 24. Second place.

in the central of the National League. Three and a half games back, they've lost three in a row. I feel like you can't put the Cardinals in there because they're playing with some found money of sorts. I mean, we're about to be in June, and they're, yes. Okay. How about the Arizona Diamondbacks?

I don't know. 30 and 24? No. We talk about San Francisco, no. Colorado. No. San Diego and the Dodgers. So here's the thing with the Padres.

I know what their record. is, if you look at their lineup, 31 and 23. They have like five dudes hitting below 200. Fernando Tatis Jr. still doesn't have a homer. Manny Machado's hit the under, still. He did a whole YouTube video about this and TikTok. Manny Machado is hitting under 200. Jackson Meryl's hitting under 200.

I just, I don't know how the Padres are winning games, but they are. That's crazy. That's crazy. Pitching. I know we got a break, but really quick, I'm just going to go through some in the American League. Yankees. Yes. Toronto.

No, not right now. say Baltimore and Boston. No and no. Okay, here, Cleveland. Yes. Are the Cleveland? Cleveland is good. I think Cleveland's a good team.

Minnesota, K.C., Detroit, blah, right? And then, God, the West is ridiculous. Do you realize that every team in the West right now is under 500? Exactly. Athletic, Seattle, Texas, Houston, and the Angels. Any of those teams good? The best of those, to me right now is the A's. Maybe.

A's are to the American League. Save Louis Severino, for the love of God. Get him out of there. He doesn't deserve this. We said like seven teams. Yeah. Yeah. So, that.

keeps hope alive for everybody, including the Chicago Cubs. That is the moral of the story. You know who you didn't mention? The White Sox. He didn't say to the White Sox. Are the White Sox, you know, the White Sox question is, and I really understand we have to break. Are they what they are right now? And that is a, what is their exact record right?

The White Sox are 27 and 27. Are they better than that? Are they a 500 team or are they 10 games over 500? They are exactly what their record is. They think they're about 500 by the time the season ends. Probably. Okay. Okay.

Yeah, you guys look at that. I don't think it's like that's a really good season. Oh, it's a really good season if they finish 500. Look at the month of June and that will be the truth tell. I know they got the Yankees in there. It's not just sad. For the Socos. Not just that.

Like they play the Yankees and they play the Dodgers and Braves at home. Like it's at their home, not at the Dodgers and Braves home, but it's, it's bad. It's a bear. It's a bear for any team, not just the White Sox. Bears. Coming up next year on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, it is time to observe an anniversary and Russ was there. What? Yes. In the meantime, we want to remind you this Saturday, join the score White Eagle Auto Body in Oswego. Gabe Ramirez will broadcast live from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

White Eagle Auto Body won the score big for your business contest. Brought to you by People's Bank. That is Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. with Gabe Ramirez at White Eagle Auto Body in Oswego. The anniversary of something where Russ was there. Next. Rahimi Harris and Grody 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 got to put clothes on to do this thing.

I can't peek too early. I got to kind of try to control my peeking. So it's a little early to already put a shirt and a hat on. Midday's 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. Happy anniversary to something some of you just call the play. The Javi Baez bass. running play. It was on May 27th, 2021, and a five to three Cubs win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, where Javi Baez basically broke a guy. Poor Will Craig, the Pirates first basement,

ends up playing in Korea that year after that. Now he's a coach. He was a first-round pick. I was still on the Cubs beat when that play happened, and I remember watching it in real time thinking, what the blank is going on. And you see Javi get in a rundown between the plate in first base, which is in and of itself hilarious. Because it's like, where are you going, Hobby?

And then the pirates are just like, no, we have to run this guy down, not realizing the run is scoring. And then you see Javi motion safe when he sees the run score. In front of him. And as he realizes, nobody's covering first base.

The ball gets thrown away. He ends up on second base. And then the other. thing I remember vividly is Justin Steele and Anthony Rizzo laughing. Dying laughing. Justin Steele is clapping. I remember sitting in the

Pirates Press Box saying, I can't believe this. What did we just see? And so then we're trying to watch the replay to see where things went wrong for Pittsburgh and after that you're just like, this dude is one of a kind because it just goes on the long

ass list we have of Javi Bai. plays where you're like, I don't know if I've ever seen this before. Right. That was like the 10th or 11th like El Mago moment, but it was the quintessential. Like, oh, that, nothing could be better than that moment. And I remember asking Kyle Hendricks after, because he started in that game, what did he see? And he was just like, we'll never see that again.

He's right. And we never have. So let's take you back. Is this our call? This is Pat and Ron on the score? Let's do it. See what happens. Baez bounces one to third, picked by Gonzalez.

The long toss, it pulls the man off the bag, and Baez trying to stay in a rundown long enough. And now sliding in the plate is safe. I don't believe this. The Cubs just got a run on an amazing play by Javier Baez. Baez is going to go to second base now as the throw gets away. He slides at second. He's safe.

The ball bounces away again. The Cubs have scored an unbelievable run. on a play by Bayez. He struck out. He ran to first. The ball was in the dirt. They had to either tag him or tag the bag. The first baseman Craig just started chasing Bayez back toward the plate.

Meanwhile, the runner from second Wilson-Contreras, rounded third and headed for the plate, and he scores. I can't believe that. Yeah, it's just a routine out. It's a ground ball of the third. Javi stops short of the bag because the throat takes Craig up the line. All Craig has to do is turn around and just walk over to first base and touch the bag. Instead, he keeps thinking I'm going to tag him and literally almost walks him all the way to

home plate. And then it just gets ugly from there because the flip to the catcher, Perez behind the plate, Contreras dives in safe. Now, Bayez sprints the first and they start throwing the ball all over the place. this is one of the craziest Little League type plays you'll ever see in Major League Baseball. I get what Kuhma is saying, but that ain't Little League because Bias knew what he was doing the whole time. He was directing traffic and waiting for guys to come around and then taking second base when it was his. Mike, microphone, there you go.

Bear. You good? Yes, now I hear you. Think about how he never ran out of the base path either. Yeah, yes. Like, presence of mind. all of this never got ruled running out of the base path somehow, magically. Yeah, it's, it's his baseball IQ is unlike any player I've ever seen or we've ever seen.

And to get to see him at his peak in the city, it, he was the, he was must see TV from 2017 to 2021. Yeah. Like it was about right. It was about as good as it got. Like the 2018 season where he finishes second for MVP. behind Yelich that year. The defense every night.

You just didn't know what you were going to see. The monster swings where he made contact where that ball's going 700 feet. Now that was, that's probably the craziest play I saw on the Cubs beat. Or the craziest thing. No, there's not a doubt.

And then Will Craig, who was a part of that play, he was the first basement in question, former first round pick of the Pirates ends up in the KBO that year after making his debut in 2020. You know what? We've seen enough, Will Craig.

We appreciate your time. I feel for him, though. I'm like, did that break you? And now he's a coach at Belmont for their baseball team. Imagine him having to talk about that. That's like you brought up Gorin Dragitch earlier. That's like when Dragich got Dragich by Derek Rose

and that became his legacy, basically. But Dragich made jokes about it afterward. Like, Dragich came here and laughed at it. After how many years? though. I mean, it probably took a lot. For the craziest thing I saw on the beat.

Alec Mills throwing a no-hitter in Milwaukee. Yes. And nobody was in attendance. And nobody, yeah, it was the weirdest no-hitter of all time. In fact, I was the only reporter from Chicago

that was in the ballpark in Milwaukee because it was like still during COVID where not a lot of people were going places. Oh, yeah. And it was on like some random Sunday and guy throws a no-hitter. And he was random himself. I have to make notice.

Very unassuming. I don't know. One of you texters on the text line alluded to this already happening. This is a few days ago. But it is Bob Nightingale who reported at first that Aaron Bummer has agreed to what I believe to be a minor league deal with the Cubs. So I don't know which one of you because he was released by Atlanta. I don't know which one of you somehow knew that that was going to happen.

But one of you did. So former white socks. I thought he was going to be a star. I thought he was really good for a moment in time. He pitched for the socks in the playoffs in 2021. Yeah, the socks were in the playoffs in 2021, kids. I remember it. He didn't pitch well in the playoffs, but he did pitch of the playoffs.

That breaking news is sponsored by IDOT, speeding at a work zone is a no win. Mind the signs, avoid the fines. Russ, as usual, a lovely time with us out. Thank you, Russ. Thank you, friends. The relay. Go watch the relay. Listen to the relay.

It's on TikTok, too. Russ does great clips. That's how you would know about Fernando Tatis. He had a very informative clip about him. Steal low home runs. It's okay. Together we are a team. Spegel and Holmes are next.