Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Transition: We need to see Kalif Raymond throw out a first pitch at a White Sox game

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote welcomed on Laurence Holmes and Carmen Vitali for the daily transition segment.

Cheers to the freaking weekend. Thanks, Mark, Rodi. Yeah, well, you said Rihanna, that would be the dream, hanging out with Rihanna. And I shorted her a billion. Fenty Beauty is valued at over $2 billion. Is it really now? I knew that she was a billionaire because of Fenty. I didn't realize it had surpassed $2 billion.

Yeah, that's how you do it. Find the place that the market isn't serving and then create something for them, and that's how you do it. I make it sound so simple, right? Except I've never done that in my life. That's the voice of Carmen Vitale. She and Lawrence Holmes are here. Thanks to Ray Diaz.

Thanks to Tyler Buterbaugh. Thanks to Brandon Fryer for helping out. Mitch got us coffee and pizza. Oh my God. A classic combination. I rounded that corner and like everything because everything is also just like really well staged for lack of a better term because like all of the popcorn is just all in a row. And then there's just pizza boxes as far as the I can see. It's Friday.

Friday. I have I have popcorn pizza and coffee in my system right now. I don't know. I don't know. He's all hooped up. Yeah, I guess so. He's all whooped. It's like a Friday school pizza party.

Oh, I love those. What was the espresso? I'm all coffined up or what did he say? Oh, yeah. He said, Vinnie Pasquintino said I'm all beaned up. Beamed up. Spresso beans. Thanks also, Chikato, O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz.

Max Curtis, thanks to our guests. We had on Patrick Finley today. We had on Daryl. And thanks to you guys, we're also just coming on our show. This was a lot of fun today. Speaking of high school and pizza. Oh, and Jeremy Werner. Speaking of high school and pizza parties, my high school is playing in the state playoffs for basketball.

York. York. The Duke's for the first time ever are down at state. Oh, is it the first time ever? Boy's basketball has never made it to state before. Marshall's going to be on the call for that. Yes. Yes.

Oh, is that what he's doing? Oh, my gosh. So, yeah, they're playing Marist. And I'm, like, I'm thrilled. I'm literally one of those people that's like, thrilled to be here. Don't care what happens. It's your alma mater versus Alyssa Bergamette's alma. Is that where she went to Maris?

I'm like, I know that I know somebody that went to Maris. That's amazing. I don't know if you know. I think I talked about this with you at one important time of the tally. The fact that my parents both taught at York. My mom taught at Sandberg and Elmer's. I was with your mom at Sanberg. Oh, you did have her?

I don't think I had her, but she was there when I was there. Oh, okay. I want to make sure she was. No, I mean, sure she was. Yeah. I like, it's funny because I knew your last name, like when I started to know you for, like, you. Yeah. And I would hear you on whatever.

I was like, oh yeah, it's like Mrs. Grotty and whatever at Sandberg. Yeah. What was that? I didn't realize that you guys related. Yeah. Yeah. There's multiple Grodys that have taught in the Elmhurst School District. I was in Sanberg early 2000s.

Okay. And there's Brian's the other. Brian and Churchville. Brian and Churchville was the other one. That's right. That's right. Sandberg was the best though. And our very own Dustin Rhodes.

Shout out to Dustin Rhodes. It's also a proud York High School. Alumn. Yes. Yeah. York went to the state football. championships last year. That's right.

And I gave them a shout out on my Fox Sports Radio show because that was a big deal. And this year is awesome because they've literally never even gone to the state tournament for boys basketball. I did not realize that. I think two years ago I went to go see ICP. Oh, yeah. We're Matt Bowen. Bowen. Bowen.

Yeah. I always say Bowen. It's Bowen. And they were playing at the same time that York was playing. So I drove through and I'm like, wow, you know, is higher, York is what, 7A or are they 8A? They're the top of the top. They're the top of the top of the top.

And I see Catholic, I think, is 3A. Yeah. So it was so interesting to like go by and like see the 8A game where it's like thousands of people. And then to go to IC Catholic, it was ICatholic versus St. Lawrence. And I get over there and I was like, oh, this is nice too. I see got good at football way before York did, though.

Oh, yeah. Like, I see has been like a powerhouse in their division for a very long time. Very long time. And I think a lot of that has to do with Matt Bowen. He's done a great job. The whole school has done a great job of building up. And the bowling that you have to watch out for now is Matt's kid. Yeah.

Because that young man has got a lot of opportunities in front of him. And already with a whole bunch of letters from a lot of teams in this area that would like to have him play wide receiver or linebacker or safety or whatever he grows into. Yeah, ATH. How are you feeling Homewood's Floss More, huh? Hearing all these other schools talk about their athletic success. That's, uh, usually it's the other way around now, isn't it?

Over there, sailing program. Well, we've, Sailing program? No, we've, we have canoes. Sailing. It's different. I heard a yacht. That's what I heard.

I mean, there are people who had yachts, that that's for sure. And race tracks and horse racing tracks that now the Bears own and stuff like that. A broadcast program in the 90s. Yeah. Computers. That's true. And a very good basketball program that did win.

They went to the Supersectional this year. So they've been a state championship team. You know, it's not like those kids at Thornton. Yeah, Antoine, Randallel. Yeah. To the dummy texting me, by the way. Grody, Randallel went to Thornton High School and Harvey. Please do your homework before you speak.

I never even mentioned what high school he went to. I did mention that I used to cover high school. school basketball in central Illinois with teams like Lincoln and Peoria Emmanuel. So listen Textor, thank you. I needed to get that off my chest. Yeah, but he shouldn't be telling people not to wear white socks caps. I didn't get

that. Like the socks cap is a cool that would be a cool look at the winter. It was drafted by the Cubs though. Fair. Oh, yes. I think that's what it is. One of our texters was really funny and said, so that's why DJ Moore got traded because DJ was always rocking socks caps. Yep.

Yep. We've got some theories on on trades and stuff. We've got choices that are being made. Are you talking about the Adam Schaefter report this morning? It's funny how we talked a lot about it in transition yesterday with you guys. And then we did a whole segment about it on the show. And now maybe some more people are going, hey, that's a little weird what's happening over there with the bears.

I wonder if it can be connected to. So we'll get to that. Yeah, we're going to get to that. But yeah, we joked about it at the end of the show yesterday. Like, why can't he wear a socks cap? Let that man, let him rep whoever he wants to rep. And I said it at the end of the show yesterday. I'll say it today.

White Sox, your number one job is to get Khalif Raymond and throw out the first pitch at a White Sox game in a Sox cap. That's a great idea. That's a really good idea. Also hilarious that Cleef Raymond is here and we're already just giving him Bears 301 mode, Chicago 3. He skipped 101, 201. It's like, oh, you're up to Sox Cubs hats now.

Well, he's already up to 301 in Ben Johnson's offense for all of the experience he has there. So we're just accelerating him all around. I don't see the issue. Yeah, four years with Ben in Detroit. So, yeah. He's got a lot of skills. And Texers, I misspoke. ICC.

My brother was like, you went to go see insane clown posse? No, ICC. I see Catholic prep. So I'm old enough that I lived in Elmhurst when it was Immaculate Conception High School. Like it was I see high school. It was not I see Catholic prep. And then they rebranded and we were like, oh, okay. And then they got good at football and I was like, oh, okay.

Yeah. I do enjoy Fago Pop though. I'm not going to lie. Fago is great. And my dad used to drive to Michigan to get Fago Pop when we were kids. What is that? Yeah. You would know the label if you saw it.

Yeah. Would I? Yes. So Fago is like. To the Internet. They're related to Fresco. If you're from Michigan, you're all about Fago Pop. And the insane clown posse, like that's kind of their thing.

like we love Fago, but anyone from Detroit, Metro, or basically Michigan overall. It's kind of like a cartoonish font. Yeah. Oh, I had no idea with this. Really? Okay. And there used to be a time where it was so regional that it wasn't sold anywhere outside of Michigan. So my dad really liked the flavor.

I think it was called moonshine. It was kind of like a... A flavor was called moonshine. Yeah, but it was basically mountain dew. Like, it was basically like a mountain... We're just down here to throw it out. hard alcohol. And so he would drive up and they used to have the,

I think it was just fruit punch. Was it just for a punch? But I mean, I was just like a red. I'm sure it's changed now. Like that's what we would call it. Yeah. It's like,

give me a red one. But they used to have these beautiful glass bottles. Yeah. Like it was a whole thing. I found out about it in college because my best friend went to Michigan State. So like. Also, props to having like true regional stuff because that doesn't happen anymore.

Like when I found a tasty cake at an Amazon grocery store, were in L.A. I was amazed. Then I bought one, but then I was like, what is happening here? Yeah. It was, it was weird when Wawa came down to Florida and I was still living there. And like, I could, I just could have all the tasty cakes. And even the Philadelphia soft pretzels, like the federal soft pretzels came down. And I was like, this doesn't feel as special anymore as much as I love those things. You can't find Wawa west of a certain point. No, that's true. Wawa is so reasonable, but it goes all the Eastern Seaboard now. It's like White Castle popping up in the frozen food section at any grocery store in America.

Look, capitalism, baby. I put it on Instagram. I saw the most beautiful White Castle in the world. In Scottsdale. Really? Yes. No, what made it beautiful? It was just clean and grand.

It's a really nice. There's outdoor seating. Yeah. Whole. Okay. Like, it is. Give me the family pack. You've seen the portilloes in like tempi and stuff.

They're really nice too. Not to say like the ones here aren't nice because they are. A lot of them are. But the ones in Scottsdale are like they have the outdoor seating with the misters and like all of that. Grotie, I'll send you the picture of it. Please.

I felt like I was watching. I was seeing like a mirage. Because you know, you're out in the desert and you're like, that looks like a white castle. Nah. That was like the nicest white castle I've ever seen. Am I dehydrated? Is this a literal oasis?

Right. So I just like started. walking towards it, it's not far from Sloan Park. Like, it's right off like... I mean, I'm sure that's on purpose, right? Like, they have all of the Chicago... Yeah, smart move. Smart move. The Portillo's is not far from there.

The Herald's is not far from there. And they have, don't they have, like, Judge Yardanos? The drive-through liquor stores also not far from there. The one that I used to go to with my fake ID. Oh, they have those in Arizona? They had one right off campus, and it was right by my freshman year dorm. And, like, you can, like, they're pretty strict about it, but if you have a legit ID like I did that was just not me, but it looked like me, but it was a real ID.

I would give it to them as I was going through the drive-through because the shadows, I would do it at night. And so the shadows, you couldn't really tell if it was me or not. I feel like it always helped. So it was, but they were also notorious for like if they knew it was a fake ID, they would take it from you. Well, it wasn't fake. It didn't get taken from me.

It was just somebody else's ID. I know, exactly. That was, that's why I was bold enough to do it. And it worked. So I was able to get liquor, you know. Because Arizona State. Cool kid. Contrary to popular belief, Arizona State is a dry campus.

Like on actual campus, you're not allowed to technically have liquor. And they really enforce it? Well, all of, but what's funny is around all of the perimeters of Arizona State is like some type of bar or liquor store or whatever. So all you have to do is like go right off campus. You have to cross the street to get any sort of alcohol. Wow. Okay. So that makes it easy.

Yeah. So Grotie, I've texted this to you. I'm sending you two pictures of this white castle and telling me it's not the nicest white castle. that you've ever seen in your life. Although that's what happened to Wawa, by the way. Wawa went to Clearwater, or as they call it, clear water, to be with all the Phillies fans. Oh my God.

It's all, like, lit off. Look at that. It's all bright. I've never seen a white castle like that in my life. That looks like a fancy restaurant. The lighting, the, is it a glass structure? Is it a glass structure? It's incredible.

And it's Chicago West. Oh, yeah. The outdoor. It's Chicago West. Even when I was there, however long ago, which I'm not going to say how long ago it was that I was there. In college, like, that's what I was like, wow, I'm right at home, except for the blistering heat and desert. Go-to hangover food? Just taking down a, I guess it's a craved case.

I said family pack. I mean, the White Castle wasn't out there when I was there. Oh, okay. Yeah. No, the Portillo. The Portillo. What was your girl? No, Portillos wasn't even out there yet.

That's true. They came right after I left. And so it was still like. honestly it was filberto's what it was open 24 hours Kentucky fried chicken buffet

it was after the bar food oh after the post bar is very important for us that was La Bamba burritos at Illinois as big as your head as big as your head and then the next

burritos is big as your head the hangover there's nothing like a KFC buffet where you can just load up gravy where do they even have KFC buffet Not a lot of them sounds like a bad food fight

I mean it worked you got to get the grease in there that's the only way to counter act the alcohol. At least that's what we were told. I drink coconut water. Well, you were healthier than us. I believed it. Oh, no, that was a late edition. I don't know what I did back in the day. You didn't have like a go-to for like, dealt with it. You've gone out, you've been out a little late, like five, was it five faces? That's a big Chicago thing where

people go down to division and get their pizza puffs back in the day when I was in college. That's where they would go. And the thing about Chicago is, like, there's so many great Mexican restaurants that are still open. Even in the suburbs. You better believe it. When we were in high school, we would go, like down Roosevelt, there was, I remember there was like an El Burrito or something like that, and it

was just open really, really late. And yeah. Taco Cabana for us. Yeah. We would like sneak out of the house just to go to El Burrito in high school. Or the nugget? Dangerous. Gotta hit up the nugget.

Yeah. Go to get some pancakes. That was the one. Taco Cabana. My mom's calling me. right now. Uh-oh. Is she said about something that you said?

No, I don't know. No. Did she not know that you drank in college? Maybe not. Maybe she's like, hey, stop talking. Also, I'm dying. She's in Florida. What's your mom's name on your phone that just came up right now?

Ma. M. That's what mine is. Yeah. Ma. Ma. She actually hates what I call her, ma. But I'm like, it's like, yeah, because she's like, it sounds terrible when you

say like that. And I'm like, well, all right, Renata. Renata. That's her name. Lovely. Yeah. A lovely woman. That sounds like a soap opera character.

I know. She was named after a Polish opera singer. Ooh. So. That's a lot of cool stuff. She's a, she's a wonderful lady. Did you enjoy all?

She doesn't necessarily know when I'm on air or doing anything. Did she, did she know you're on the air? I don't think she does. Oh, okay. She's in Jacksonville. My parents live in Jacksonville. Oh, okay.

They go back and forth between here and there's snowbirds kind of. How do they feel about David Gerard? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's amazing. I mean, Bell-Gallimore and David Garrard.

My dad has kind of gotten into the Jaguars just because they're the closest team, but he doesn't. He's still very much a, like, my mom listens to like all Chicago radio. Like, she'll tell me things about Chicago. And she's like,

did you hear that you guys are going to have a windstorm? And I'm like, yeah, Ma, I live here. It's happening outside my house. Yeah, I'm like,

I can see it. There's a tree down in front of my house right now. Like, I can see it. It's the building creaking for me that I have never got in the hallway. Yeah. It's, It's in the office too.

Unsettling. My building too, I'm like, ah, yeah, they're creaking. The St. Regis, isn't it built specifically for that? Like, isn't it that part of the reason? That's why they had to do those two pass-through floors. So they were building it. I've been on the architecture tour multiple times. I absolutely love it.

I will do it with anybody that comes in town. Everyone should do it. Everyone should. So when they started building it, they realized that it was going to be too tall and not up to code to where it was going to sway, the grade that it was going to sway at was going to be way too much. So basically in the middle of constructing it, they decided to create this breezeway and this pass-through of two floors that are just open.

And that way it cuts how much the wind will actually like the surface area of the wind against the building. So it won't sway as much and this, that, the other. It's a very, very interesting building. It's also the tallest building in the world designed by a woman. That is correct. It is a beautiful building. It's a gorgeous building. And we got to use our connect here again.

guys, Jana Dottleston is over there. Oh yeah, she's over there. She works in Mirro, and we've, we need to bug her. I haven't even been inside that yet, and I want to go. There's multiple restaurants. There's a really cool bar. Trey Dita is really cool. I have not been there yet. It's, it's kind of like a 90s, late 80s vibe, I feel like in a good way.

Yeah. So I'm going to feel like I'm in Goodfellas when I walk in. It's op-dance. La Jain. So before the show today, I wanted to celebrate Carmi Vee. be in here and Team Italy. So I went down to the lids. And I was like, hey, do you guys have a Team Italy

snapback cap? I figure, you know, because Carmen's got long hair. I don't know where her head size is. So I get her a snapback cap. Then I can adjust it. Yeah, that makes sense. Right? And they were like, we don't have any. And I was like, what? In Chicago.

In my mind, there are three caps from the WBC that they should have. And then I'll add the fourth one. Team USA Yeah Team Mexico Yes Team Italy

Yes And then the fourth one I'll add Is team PR Team Puerto Rico Yeah yeah yeah Right And I'm like What do you mean

You don't But then it turned into a great conversation About the WBC And I'm like You guys might want to get Some Team Italy hats in here There's

There's yeah There's like the socks What's his name again That's on Antanachi And Kyle Teal He's out Out four to six weeks

Hey It's not a season Unless somebody on the socks Has a sock tissue injury. Somewhere an angel got its wings. The legs can't work at all. Here's what we're going to do on today's show.

At 3 o'clock, some nice man named Dave Hellman is going to join. He's fine. He's fine. He's just fine today? Maybe she's saying he's fine. He's fine. Will Mazi be joining him? I'm sure.

Mazi has been on one lately, so I'm sure you'll hear Mazzie in the background. Mazzie's my guy. Yeah, he loves you. How's your pup? That's that's Mazzie. Oh, that is. That is Mazzi. That's the dog.

No, he is Lawrence's best friend at this point. So. It seems to d'orbs. I love the pictures. He was playing through the storm. Yeah, I saw on your Instagram. He doesn't care about storms. He doesn't care about lightning or thunder or loud noises.

It's great. He cares about treats. He cares about treats. And he cares about never sitting still. And he has gotten more and more vocal as he's gotten older. So he has like an entire language that he speaks. And every single week, there is a different word that I realize that he knows in English. You got to get into the buttons.

I know. I know. But like that I just, I'm so daunted by like trying to train him to do that. That sounds like it's going to take forever. If he already learns words, he might do it on his own. I mean, I need to harness it somehow because I said something the other day. We were talking about our wedding guest list, I think. And I was like, oh, my aunt and uncle from so-and-so are coming or whatever.

And he just looks at me, jumps all over me, runs to the door. And I realize it's because when we go away, he goes to my brother's house with him and his fiancee, Uncle Joe and Auntie Carey. So he was able to pick out aunt and uncle, even though I didn't say Uncle Joe and Auntie Carey. He's like, where they at? He immediately thought it was them. And I was like, I need to be careful what I say around this dog. So Dave is going to join us.

And maybe Mazzie will be in the background. That would be great. Kail and Kaler is going to join us at 4 o'clock. The NFLPA stuff is gotten out of hand. It's bathroom. And the fact that J.C. Treader is on a ballot to be in charge of it is beyond belief. No, thank you, please. So Kaelin is going to help us with that.

We are also going to try to figure out how to get the Pope to Carmi V's wedding because it's right outside. Literally. We're getting married in his backyard. You are. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I'm not saying that figuratively.

Like, you can see the dome and you can see and say, like you can see the Vatican from where we're getting married. Can't Cardinal Supage help out? I mean, he's, you know, around. If anybody's listening that can put me through to the vicariate in Rome and therefore the Pope, my paperwork is coming soon, I promise. It's all coming. This is what we figured being that the Pope was clearly a scorehead and might have some disciples

who are also scoreheads. I worked for the white socks. We can talk about that. Also, my fiance is from New Orleans and his family. He has family from New Orleans in the ninth ward. So this all seems like, hey, we're making most of the journey, you know? Yes. We need you to come like a half a kilometer.

So we're going to do some of that stuff on today's show today. Which is fun. Selfishly using the show to, like, try and get the Pope to go to my wedding. You got to do it. Shoot or shoot. Shooter shoot, especially when it comes to the Pope. So that's something. Carmen and I had a very similar reaction to the NFL being like, you know what we're going to do?

Blackout Wednesday. We now have a game on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I told you they were turning into action. I told you the Wednesday game completes the cycle. So we're going to spend some time talking about that. But when we come back, since we actually have. an NFL reporter here. We're going to get Carmen's thoughts on what it is the bears are doing with their offseason.

And it's fun because Alex is also feeling that fans are getting antsy and angsty. So we will spend some time doing that in the first hour of the show. That is coming up after, I'm guessing, Sean's open because speaking of Italy, Tanny is on his way there right now. I'm so happy for him. We'll do that next. They're on the score. And this segment is brought to by almost free.

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