The Kevin Sheehan Show - Celtics Roll; Caitlin At Sold Out Cap One

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

Kevin and Thom today with a menu of excellence variety. The boys opened with a local PR legend making his way into the Boxing Hall of Fame which led to Thom realizing he never invited Kevin to his DC Boxing HOF induction back in 2016. The boys recapped the Celtics' Game 1 win over the Mavericks in the NBA Finals. Also on the show, tornado talk, Caitlin Clark's visit to a waiting sold-out crowd at Capital One tonight, and a preview of the Belmont Stakes with Eddie C.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. We start the show with this quick Apple review.

We got five stars from Smacky 23. And Tommy, he writes, I like Tom, I like Kevin. In no particular order except for Tom at one. So Smacky 23 is a big fan of yours. Rate us and review us if you get a chance. Five stars is great for us. A quick one to two sentence review like Smacky 23 wrote and we are good.

Tommy's back. We have not had a show together in over a week. Maybe Smacky 23 was pretty disappointed. Tuning in every day this week, not to hear you. You didn't feel well on Tuesday. Wednesday I had Legler on. Yesterday was my fault because we were going to record early, but I had to record an interview for radio before the show,

so it couldn't do it. You couldn't do in the afternoon. But we're back together on an odd day for us, but it's a Friday heading into a weekend after NBA finals game number one. But I'm sure you have other things that are much more important to you to talk about. Well, I did my homework. I did watch the NBA game one. finals as assigned by you.

As a signed by you. But I'm on the road. Where are you? Not home. I'm up. I'm in the Poconos right now. Are you looking for Mary? No, no, not looking for Mary. What are you doing? Well, I'm on my way up to Canistone, New York, which is about three hours from here now, to the Boxing Hall Fame induction weekend ceremonies. because two of my friends are being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

One of them I wrote about in the Washington Times yesterday, Fred Sternberg of Bethes. God, Fred is going into the Boxing Hall of Fame? Yes. Wow. Wow. Yeah. What a great guy. One of my favorite people when I was in broadcasting as a very young person for a brief year

and a half. Loved him. Tell me about it. Tell everybody about Fred Sternberg. Well, everybody loves Fred who's ever had to work with him. And like I mentioned in the column, boxing publicists are a little bit different. They're not like baseball or football PR guys. They're kind of like characters out of a Damon Runyon story.

Right. You know, they're trying to pitch. They're trying to sell a fight and a fighter, and they use all kinds of gimmicks to do it. And Fred was the king of the gimmick. and he wound up being Mani Pachia out, PR guy for most of his career and they like

he traveled the world with Mani but when he first got Mani I think it was when he was his second fight with Eric Morales maybe about you know 15 years ago Mani couldn't speak any English so he was trying to figure out way to promote him

and he came up with this gimmick called Manila Ice. You know, because Mani's from the Phillips. Right. And he's talked about how Manila Ice was his secret weapon that Mani had been working on in training. You know, that was going to change

the fight. That was just, you know, just shock everyone. And they made a big deal about it. So much so that when HBO met with the fighters and the promoters before the fight, all the announcers wanted to know from Fred

what Manila Ice was so they could talk about it on the air and Fred said, I'm sworn to secrecy, I signed it NDA, I can't, I can't talk about it. And it was all made up. There was no great, you know, great punch. But it became this big promotional thing that almost became bigger than the fight.

This secret weapon called Manila Ice. You know, and that, And that's what's a little bit different about. And Fred's the best at it. Fred is the best kind of thing. Fred was working for Charlie Broughtman when I first met him back in the, you know, the very late 80s and very early 90s. Yeah, that was his mentor. Charlie, for those that don't know, is one of the all-time great, well, the greatest PR guy in the history of our city, easily.

Yes. Yes, absolutely. absolutely, 96 years old and still kicking. I saw Charlie about a month or two ago, and he's very happy for Fred because it's a celebration of Charlie as well because he mentored Fred. And my other friend who's going in is Wally Matthews, the boxing writer. Sure.

You never, Wally wrote for Newsday. I know who he is, sure. I know the name. I think I know the face, too, yeah. Yeah. Wally and I, we always got along great. We were tight. Wally was a great boxing writer because he boxed, too.

I'll never forget. At the World Series once with the Indians, so it was the A-L playoffs, the Indians and the Yankees, and we're outside the Indians dugout, Wally and I, and we're talking about Albert Bell between the two of us. And this is in the crazy days of Albert Bell. And Kenny Lofton overhears us. It says something smart to Wally.

And Wally says something back. And all of a sudden, Kenny steps to him. Wally puts down his pad and his pen takes his watch off, and he's going to go to town with Kenny Lofton right there on the field. And what happened? Well, I mean, people broke it up before anything happened. Yeah. But Wally's going in as a contributor for his great boxing writing.

So I wanted to be there when my friends got inducted. And it's a great weekend. A lot of old fighters come up for, you know, they have like autographs sessions. They have question and answer sessions. They have a big dinner. And then they have a parade. You know, Michael Moore. The former heavyweight champion is being inducted as well.

Ricky Hatton being inducted this weekend. So that's where I'm heading. But I stopped off in the Poconos last night to see some of my friends, Frank Rickabono, who owns a great restaurant up here at a Poconos. If you're up here called Alaska Pets. And then I stopped at Rudy's to do my homework. Of course. NBA finals.

And I might want to point out. You watch the game at Rudy's? Yes. Okay. Yeah. And I might want to point out this is one of the reasons why I love Rudy's. I had to tell them to turn the game on because every TV had a baseball game on. That's what made you.

That's the real reason you love Rudy's, is the clean tell. So what, um, is there, I mean, you have had in your, you know, in your office back at 980, you know, I've often described it as like a shrine to Tom. I mean, you would walk into Tommy's office and it was just awards everywhere. Placks, trophies, and pictures, but mostly it was all about Tom and all about his awards and different things. And I'm just curious, have you ever been inducted into any kind of Hall of Fame? you know, an East Strasbourg, Writers' Hall of Fame, any Hall of Fame, have you ever, am I missing something from your life that I should know about?

Well, I've been inducted in two Hall of Fame. You, okay. I am in the East Strasbourg High School Hall of Fame for my meritorious service, basically my career, which is very funny, because, I mean, I barely got out of high school. And I'm not kidding when I say that. I mean, I had a 70 average when I graduated as a senior. I mean, that's barely above D. Yeah, but that's passing.

It's not that you barely got out. You have to fail to stay in. Right. Yeah. Right. So I didn't stay in, but I was just a couple of numbers away from staying in. I repeated my share of classes throughout high school. And now my plaque is on the wall in the Hall of Fame inside the school.

Now you've told me about that one. And I'm in the D.C. Boxing Hall fame. Oh, you are? Okay. You know what? Now that you've said that, I kind of know that too. What year did that happen? Were we together?

I think so. I think we were. Why didn't I go? Was I not invited? No, you weren't invited. Why wouldn't I have been invited? Well, because I'm sure it was an NBA game on or something. No, seriously.

If this, like, if you were to get inducted into a Hall of Fame today, all right, you would invite me, wouldn't you? Yeah. That was, you had to hesitate, and it was not very convincing. Why wouldn't you invite me? I would love to go and celebrate Tom. I'd have to go back. check to see if we were doing the show or not. Maybe we weren't at the time. How many people... I find it hard to believe that I wouldn't have invited you.

Yeah, I do too, but, you know, after the way you just answered the last question, maybe it wouldn't have been that surprising. How many people are in the DC Boxing Hall of Fame? I don't know. I mean, they have different categories. I'm in as a contributor because I was a writer. I wasn't a fighter. I wasn't a trainer or anything like that. You know, I don't know how many people are in the Hall of Fame. They don't drag people off the street and say you want to be in the D.C. Boxing Hall of Fame, you know? So I don't know. It's got to, it had to have been before we did the show.

Wrong. Because I'm sure. Wrong. I just found it. October 12th, 2016, Washington Times columnist Tom Leverro. Inducative. Oh, Jesus, I can't even read it because it's on your newspaper site. And I've already reached my maximum number of reads for the month. But Washington Times sports columnist Tom Levero has been named to the Washington, D.C.

Boxing Hall of Fame that was October 12, 2016. Not only were we doing this show together, we were six and seven years into our seven and a half, eight-year run. So I do, I vaguely remember. this, but I was certainly not there, and I was certainly not invited to go. Well, I feel bad now. I feel bad. You should feel bad. I don't think there's any more Hall of Fame waiting for me. So that's it, buddy. But you, you should be in your high school hall of fame. I don't think I deserve any Hall of Fame. I went to a high school with a lot of

famous people. I shouldn't say a lot, but hey, Mitch Rails went to Walt Whitman High School in Bethesdo, one of the owners. And, you know, a great philanthropist, a great business person in town, these are the people that should end up in Hall of Fame. Well, let's face it, you know, we're kind of surprised that we have not been inducted into the D.C. Sports Podcasting Hall of Fame yet. By the way, I'm reading the introduction of you into the Hall of Fame, into the D.C. Boxing Hall of Fame. And there's like two paragraphs about our show together about the radio show that you've done with Kevin Sheehan called the Sports Fix. Well, where's Sheehan? Where's he at this induction?

Tell me about the induction. Were there a lot of people there? Did you make a speech? Did somebody induct you? How was I not there? I don't know. I don't know. Were you involved? Were you embarrassed to have me there? No, no. I must have gotten limited tickets to you. Yeah. I wouldn't have qualified. I wouldn't have been on the list of limited tickets.

Did Liz go? Did one of your sons go? Yeah, my wife went, and my one son went. Yep. And my best friend Pete went. Right. And I think that was it. You know, a couple of other people bought tickets to go, who I knew.

But I have no answer for this, Kevin. I apologize. You don't sound very apologetic. Well, I do. I feel a little bad as much as I can. I mean, was anybody there that I should have been there in front of? No. I mean, were people from the radio station there?

No, nobody from the radio station. Andy wasn't there? Zabe wasn't there? No, Andy wasn't there. Zave. Come on. I mean, you had done, you know, you had been a part of their show long before we did our show together. No, they weren't there. You know, there's something very complex about our relationship, but it should be its simplicity that makes it so complex. But the issue is this.

Tommy, like a lot of journalists, kind of, you know, they kind of look down on this radio business, this talk radio business, which I'm not going to speak, you know, this into existence or even speak for you. But it's been a significant part of your professional career. Writing's been the most important part of your career. but you're also known, at least partially due to your radio career. And yet you and others, and I've always felt this way, I think a lot of us have always felt this way, about the people that are pure journalists that haven't done radio,

they just kind of snub their nose at these talk show radio people. Like it's so beneath them. It's so beneath them. And you have a little bit of that in you. Well, you shouldn't feel bad. We do that with everybody. Okay? We're pretty much smarter than everybody. Yeah, you think you are. You certainly think you are. That's for sure. I don't know if it's accurate, but many of you certainly believe you are.

Man, 2016. You know what it comes with? You know what brings that? You know, my analysis of why that happens, at least as a news reporter, newswriter, before I got in the the sports is you have to learn a little bit of everything. You have to become an expert quickly in zoning laws when you're a kid out of college. You know, so if you're good at what you do, you're a quick study. And when you're a quick study, you get kind of full of yourself that, you know, a lot of people might not be able to do what you do, but a lot of people could.

But I think that's what that is, is that the idea that you have to learn enough, just enough information to be able to present it to the public, it gives you a sense of intellectual authority. That probably is false. I will tell you that, as you know, I've spent time and met many of the people in your primary business, the business that you're proud of, the other one. not being very proud of because your partner of nearly eight years wasn't invited to your DC boxing Hall of Fame induction because you were too embarrassed to have your sports talk radio partner at the event. But there have been many of you, just like in many of the fields that I have been in professionally, including this one, that are very smart. And then there are many who are not so smart. I will tell you, and I, this is, you know, just from my experience, and I've only had really

one experience in sports broadcasting, and that is working at 980, you know. Yes, there was a brief respite with the, you know, the triple X stations and, and, and now we're owned by a different company, but the team 980, I've basically been a part of now since 2004. And four. 2004, 2005, right around there, I think it was. And I actually think some of the smartest people that I have met in this business actually are in sports talk radio. By the way, on the air, not behind the scenes. No offense to some of our management. It's not, you know, Gary Braun used to say, and Gary's a really smart guy,

Gary used to say, good God, this business, right? And I'd say, yeah. And he'd say, it's a C-miner. industry in terms of the people that are involved in running it. But I think, you know, there have been a ton of smart people, really smart people that I've met along the way that have been on the air. But whatever. I'm just, I can't believe.

I mean, it's not like you had to go to where are you headed to, Karnestoga, New York, to be inducted into this Hall of Fame. It was right down the street. It's just going to be a divide. It was going to be a divide, but it was in Atlanta or something like that. Yeah, it was in PG County. Hop skipping a jump for your boy. Is this going to be a divide between us now? Well, you know, I'm kind of wondering why, I mean, when you said D.C. Boxing Hall of Fame, I'm like, yeah, yeah, I kind of knew that. So you must have mentioned it on the show at some point, you know. I'm sure you have.

I'm sure I did. And at the time, I mean, nobody loves self-promotion more than you do. You had to have talked about it for weeks. Wait. Wait, here's what's more likely. I talked about it. I invited you and you couldn't go. Not true.

I would never have missed that. That is what's likely to happen. Tommy, would I have missed that seriously? If you had invited me and you were getting inducted into a DC boxing, Hall of Fame. Do you think I wouldn't have come? I go, anything that you tell me is super important to you, and I go too. You're one of the few people that I would never say no to. So I, there's no chance I was invited to this. No chance. I'm ashamed. You know what? As much shame as I can possibly have, which isn't much, I'm ashamed. The one thing, the one

about this in just thinking about it. I'm very surprised, and I will, you know, if I knew the details of this, I would have brought up on the show and off the show, well, what time and where, because I would have just expected to have been invited. And I would have said, let me just, you know, put this in my calendar. I want to be there. But if I had known about it, and I wasn't invited. I would have just shown up anyway.

Just to embarrass you. Who inducted you just out of curiosity? I don't remember who it was. Oh, come on. Really? No, I don't remember who it was. God, there are stories about this all over the internet about your induction to the D.C. Boxing Hall of Fame. Crazy.

Okay. Well, congratulations to Fred Sternberg. Fred, I haven't talked to Fred in a long. time. I think maybe on occasion we'll, you know, I'll get an email from him or something, but it's been a while, but Fred was an absolute great guy. And for somebody like me, who was in broadcasting briefly after college at a very brief period of time, there are people that I remember that were great and great to me, and Fred Sternberg was one of those people. And I'll tell you exactly where I met Fred. One of the

first jobs that I had at Channel 5 as a young 23-year-old was covering the D.C. tennis tournament, Tommy, which was a Charlie Broughtman special. Oh, God, yeah. You know, down at 16th in Kennedy. And the best was Channel 5, we did like literally, I mean, can you imagine this today? We did a one-hour-long wrap-up show each night of the tournament that Buck hosted, Steve Buckhantz hosted, and I produced because I was basically the only person in the sports department that knew anything about tennis. And Fred was basically running that. And so one of the first things I ever did as a working person at a college, working at Channel 5, was do that tennis tournament. And Fred Sternberg was awesome. God, there were a couple of people that worked for Charlie that I remember from that. I remember that experience so much. I'll tell you why. Two reasons.

The show started at 11.30 at 1.30 at 1.30 at night. That's when we ran it. 1130 at night. And Buck would show up at about 1125. I basically had to script out the entire show. By the way, I heard from Buck the other night. We were texting back and forth during these tornadoes, which I want to ask you about. And then the other reason that I remember this is the director of that show every night was, holy shit. I am, the last name was Weiss. Kathy Leon Regis's show, he was the director of for years. What was his first name? I am blanking on his first name, and I feel badly about that, because he was such a great guy

and he was apparently just an incredible talent. And he relied on me too because he didn't know much about tennis either. And he directed that show. But he eventually became the long-time director of the Kathy Lee and Regis show. And then I am pretty sure he won an Oscar for something. His last name was Weiss.

You mean an Emmy? No. He was involved in a movie. movie and won an Oscar. God, I'll figure this out before the end of the show. Weiss, director, Kathy

Lee, Regis. Yeah, I'm not finding it. God, I can't remember his first name. I'd be able to figure it out with a couple of texts in a second. But anyway, real quickly,

because I just reminded myself that I did want to ask you about this. The tornadoes, the other night, were actually south of you. You know, they came through Gatorsburg and that part, you know, of upper Montgomery County. So they were probably, you know, you were a couple of miles, I'm assuming, north of what was going on. But were you paying attention to it? Well, you know, I was paying attention to it in the sense that these emergency broadcast system kept coming across my TV and screwing up my Barney Miller reruns that I was trying to watch.

You know? Yeah. That's how I was aware of it. What is Barney Miller on? How do you watch Barney Miller reruns? What's that even on? On Antenna TV. Channel 201 on my cable system.

9 o'clock to 10 o'clock every night. And it's still such a great sitcom. Dietrich is my favorite character in the show. But I listened to your radio show yesterday, driving up here to the Poconos. I listened to your segment with Doug Kemmer from Channel 4. And I got to tell you, you were so juiced up. You're really so juiced up. Well, you know these things.

I love these things. Yes. They're interesting to me. It was like you were sitting there saying, God, I want to be you, Doug. I want to be what you're doing. Well, what we had the other night was pretty much unprecedented for the area, and I was glued, and I, there's a lot about torn. I really do, you know this about me.

I actually do understand kind of the winter storm phenomena around here and how it all comes together, probably too much. So, but tornadoes I'm not as familiar with, but I'm really interested in. Do you know that Twister? Remember the movie Twister? You remember? Helen Hunt's soft core porn. Yeah, Helen Hunt is in it.

And what's his face who passed away at a pretty young age? Bill Paxton. Yeah, Bill Paxton is in it. So I think Twister 2 is coming out this summer. Yes, I just saw a coming attraction for it last. night. I think they showed it during the basketball game. Yeah, yeah. Glenn Weiss, Joe Yashiroff just helped me out. Thank you, Joe

Yashiroff. Glenn Weiss, and I'm going to look up to see what Oscar he won. But, so go ahead. You were saying about the tornadoes. Well, I was just so impressed with how excited you were in your conversation with him. And now he's a sports guy, isn't he, Doug? Yeah.

He's a big sports fan. He likes basketball. He's a basketball player, right? I don't know about that, but he's a big sports fan, yeah. Okay. I mean, you two should make a deal with jobs for a day. Yes. Let him host your show and let you do the weather one night.

I think we've actually mentioned... On a Sunday night at 11 o'clock when no one's watching. Exactly. It would have to be that, you know, because I would butcher. The green screen thing would just fool me. You've got to get used to that thing. I think we've actually mentioned that to each other before because he loves sports and I love weather.

So other than the emergency broadcast, which by the way, can I mention, and I know you were annoyed by it because it was interrupting Barney Miller for you. I was actually a bit annoyed by it because it was interrupting the live coverage that Doug Camer was providing. Now, eventually it stopped because the threat was not. not, you know, for where I live in Upper Northwest D.C. It became pretty clear that we were not an area that was going to be affected by these tornadoes.

But I think that sometimes the live broadcast of what's going on is maybe more valuable than the emergency broadcast notification. Yeah, but the emergency broadcast notification breaks into all programming. Yes. Yeah. That's true. Good point. Fair point. Yes. Yes. Of course. It's every single. I mean, like Barney Miller's not helping you with the tornado situation. True. No. Right. You would have had no clue. We didn't get hit at all. We didn't get hit at all. How about some of that video? I was paying attention to it. And I was thinking, what would I do? You know, we're on the third floor of a three-story condo.

Mm-hmm. And I'm guessing I'd think we'd just go in a bathroom and hope for the best, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think your apartment building probably has a basement, doesn't it, somewhere? Or it's got a stairwell? Stairwells would be, I think, pretty good. It's got a stairwell.

It's got a stairwell. But it's got big windows, too, in the foyer area. I mean, what would Abe Vagoda do? That's what you'd really have to ask yourself. As long as birth But he was always in the bathroom Yeah Some of that video was amazing

Really amazing It was It really was I think there were what Five tornadoes in the area Yeah I Capital Weather Game The National Weather Service

You know they They go through the whole thing And ultimately What was the number? How many were there? Seven I think confirmed tornadoes Five Five were EF-1s, which are the lowest scale.

Although I think I saw that they listed EF-0s. But the highest wind count was 105 miles per hour on the ground. And that was that stretch with that big, what Doug Cameron described as a wedge tornado, which is the wider tornadoes that look like it's just, you know, a bunch of clouds have come together and they come down to the ground. That was the one that was traveling through Montgomery County, through Poolsville and then Gatorsburg, and then eventually into your old stomping grounds, Columbia. But pretty amazing night, you know.

Those are, we live in an area that we have had an earthquake. We have had tornadoes. We have had hurricanes, but usually they are tropical. storms by the time they get to us, but really we live in an area that is sort of immune to massively catastrophic weather events. We dabble in bad weather. We don't have to live with it usually. Right.

We dabble in it is a good way to put it. And really, to be honest with you, the biggest threat, weather threat, you know, if you include earthquakes, is kind of a, you know, a natural, you know, threat is a massive blizzard, which we have had, you know, many times. That's something that because of, you know, our location with the Atlantic Ocean, you know, 100 miles to the east and the mountains to the west, and we just end up, we are more prone to those than a serious, you know, landfall hurricane. We're just too far inland to get, you know, battered by a massive hurricane. It could certainly hit Bethany, Rehoboth, and Ocean City, you know, as a very strong hurricane or Virginia

Beach coming up this way. But we've had pretty bad tropical storm winds before. I mean, there have been some big ones before that have, you know, knocked down trees and knock down power. We had the dera show. That was the weirdest thing I think we've ever had, because I don't think I had even heard of a durate show before. But 2012, we had in the summer of 2012, we had that dera show.

And we didn't have power for like five days. you don't remember, do you? Oh, I remember the Daratio, yeah. I mean, it came out of nowhere. Right. Absolutely. You were probably being inducted into another hall of fame. I remember the hurricane, it might have been 99 or something like that, or something like that.

But we didn't have power for eight days. Yeah. And I just remember how depressing it was to be sitting at my kitchen table, listening to our portable radio, listen to the WTOP on a portable radio, watching it get darker and darker outside, knowing that once the sun went down, that was it. Yeah. I'm looking up to see what it would have been in 1999, what it was, because I kind of remember the same thing.

Honestly, the ones that I remember by name, Agnes, Hurricane Agnes. I was a young kid and I remember the flooding and, you know, my father driving around and looking at some of the, you know, the flooding especially down in Georgetown. That's the one that I kind of remember. Oh, I think Hurricane Ivan was a big one. Tropical Storm Ivan was a big one here. Anyway, all right. Let's get to the NBA finals. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

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Christopps Porzingis was the star of game won last night. 11 points in the first quarter off the bench. Ended up with 26 rebounds, three block shots. They barely, barely knew what to expect from Porzingis last night. He was great, and the Celtics rolled Dallas in game one of the NBA finals, 107 to 89. This segment of the show is brought to you by Window Nation. Windonation has extended their semi-annual sale, which means they are continuing 50% off all windows,

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They'll tell you which windows are too old and inefficient and which windows can stay. 86690 Nation, window nation.com. I got game one right, Tommy. I had the Celtics minus six and a half. The world was on Dallas. I don't know if you know this, but this is one of the most lopsided betting public NBA finals sports books are saying in their memory. The public has loaded up on the underdog, Dallas, for the series. And so I took Boston minus 225 at my bookie and took them last night minus six and a half.

And poor Zingis was great. To me, the story of this game was Boston's defense. It was awesome. And almost everybody on the floor was awesome defensively. They are a good defensive team. They didn't trap. They didn't blitz Luca. They basically switched every screen and they guarded them with multiple people. And they covered everybody else. And the corner three, and the lob passes that we watched in the last series just weren't there. He got 30, but he only had one assist in the game. I thought Boston defensively was awesome. These games tend to switch from one game to the next, but the Celtics were really good last night. What did you think? Yeah, Boston did play them tough defensively.

And you're right. Luca with one assist was not able to do the circus act with his passes to get his teammates involved. I think Boston has, with Porzenghis playing like that, the Celtics have too many weapons. You know, they just got too many weapons. I mean, they're just, they've got more talent than Dallas. If Porzengis plays like he did. Now, he only wound up with 20 points. he had 18 in the first half.

Yeah, they didn't necessarily. They needed him. I mean, that lead got cut to eight in the third quarter. Dallas made a run there, but yeah, they didn't ultimately need him as much in the second half. Yeah, he is, he's just, you know what it made me think of? Remember Tony Kukko? Cook coach who played for the, Chicago. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If he played in today's NBA, he averaged 50 points a year. game. Yeah. He'd be really good. He'd be really good. But he lacked. There was parts of his game that I felt were lacking. But Porzingus, Tommy. Well, I think there's parts of today's game that are lacking. So I think he would fit right in, you know, like the physicality part. But that game was pretty physical last night, didn't you think? Well, relatively. The Celtics played great defense. I'm not could argue with you that. I mean, they limited Dallas's weapons about getting to the ball. Here's another thing I want to ask you about Luca. But, I mean, everyone's curious about him because when he's on, you can't take your eyes off him the way he plays.

You know what? And tell me if this is just a reach. He has this ability to take you off your feet as a defender. you know, or for you to lose your place, you lose your feet as a defender. I don't see a lot of guys do so much anymore. I mean, that's the way it used to be years ago. The idea was to get the guy off its feet and stuff, and he's real good at that. It's a simple technique, but I don't see it use that much anymore.

What do you think? Well, look, if you're comparing it to back then, I mean, the no hand checking is a big difference in the game over the last now 15 to 18 years, however long, you know, it's been there. Legler and I were talking about this the other day, and I've talked about it before. There is a uniqueness to his ability to create. It's very methodical. It is crafty and what you just described in his quick movements and his, you know, his ability to sort of almost feign, you know, moves and get people off balance and then get them on his hip or get him on his back. It's, you know, you see that. And Legler and I were talking the other day and I said there are similarities. Like who plays like him?

Well, James Hardin actually is the guy that, you know, has played. similarly to Luca, it's just not with the same overall team results. He's not as big, first of all. And Legler explained, which I totally got. He said he uses the dribble on the perimeter for the step back much more versus, you know, driving. Although Hardin's got an array of scoring ability, too, not just shooting ability. But yeah, he's Tommy also incredibly wide. He's very strong, even though he doesn't look it.

He's an excellent ball handler. And, you know, and yet, there's something about the way he gets his defender and good defenders off balance, no doubt. Yeah, he's very good at that. But it was a good win for Boston. and if they've got all their cylinders pumping, I don't see Dallas win in this series. Well, I think that Dallas got blown out in game one against the Clippers, came back in one game two.

They got blown out by Oklahoma City in Game One, came back in one game two in won this series. Dallas has proven to be pretty damn resilient in these playoffs. And really, like I talked about on yesterday's show, I think like I loved Boston for the series in Boston last night simply because everybody else loves Dallas. But beyond that, in kind of analyzing the matchup, I thought it was very much a toss-up. And in fact, you know, I would probably take Kyrie and Luca over Tatum and Jalen Brown. Jalen Brown last night was incredible.

In fact, I think, you know, people probably believe this now to be true. I think Jalen Brown is really more of the alpha for the Celtics Big Two than Jason Tatum is. You know, I heard Doris Burke last night early on saying Jason Tatum's been great in his patience. He's not forcing anything, you know, and he had some early assists last night. Jason Tatum's a great player. Don't get me wrong, but there's just something that's missing. And Jalen Brown, it's not missing. This guy is fierce all the time.

And he is an incredible defender. He's really an unbelievable two-way star in the NBA. And that dunk he had in the first half where he took off and dunked, you know, over, I think it was lively. maybe even PJ Washington at the rim. Jalen Brown has been super impressive. He was the MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals. You know, it wasn't Jason Tatum.

But Porzingis is such an interesting guy, Tommy, because when he was here for the last, you know, two years or a year and a half, whatever it was, I mean, I would talk about him in a way in which, to me, is like, you know, they actually do have a top superstar elite talent on their roster, which they have not had in forever. You have to have one of these people to actually be a contender. Porzingis is that guy.

Like, he is an elite, elite talent. The problem, of course, is he just, he's had, you know, I was going to say a Walton-esque, career. He certainly wasn't Bill Walton early in his career, although he was certainly promising and you were like, holy shit, when he was in New York those first few years, you're like, this guy is going to be the face of the league. But he's really just been, you know, injured too much and injury prone. And look, he hadn't played in the last 11 playoff games. He had missed 38 days or whatever it was in this postseason. But he, you know, they dealt him as part of a three-way deal.

They've got a long-term vision. Porzingis is, you know, 29 years old or whatever. And you can't really rely on him to be healthy. But when he is right, he's so versatile. And I thought last night defensively, I mean, the block shots and the deterrent at the rim, which Al Horford isn't that. Although Al Horford played great defense last night, too. He really did.

He is, to me, the biggest miss of the wizard's tenure under Ted Leones. Yeah, they wanted him. Yeah. I mean, think how that would have changed. But that team the Wizards had then when they were going after Al Horford with a talent, with good team. Yeah, good team. You know? Yeah.

And he would have been on your roster and not on a division rival's roster. Right. You know? I mean, that's the biggest. but it's not Kevin Durant, which they had no shot at. It was Al Horford that Ted couldn't close the deal on. Yeah, I mean, that is, that's true. Look, he was a massive factor in that series when they beat the Wizards in the conference

semifinals now, the biggest factor in that series was John Wall getting hurt. But when they beat the Wizards at year, Horford was great in that series. still took six games. And here he is. Still getting it done. How old is he? It's got to be, what, 38? I think Corford is 37, 38, somewhere around there. Yeah. I mean, he was on the Florida championship team with Jokim Noah, coached by Billy Donovan.

Yeah, I mean, Porzingis was awesome. Boston's defense was awesome. Jalen Brown was awesome. One of the intriguing things heading into this. series was how would Boston guard Donchich? Well, they switched a lot of screens. They weren't concerned, you know, if Horford was on them or Porzingus was on them, or even if Sam Houser was on him. It was like, you know, they took away. I don't think we saw one lob dunk by Gafford or by lively last night. They roughed up lively last night, you know, the 20-year-old rookie who was sensational coming into this series so

far in the playoffs. And that was clearly their strategy. And they're very hard. Oh, the other thing they did is they targeted Luca defensively. You know, they went after him. And I mentioned on the show, you got to make him work defensively. You know, you got to wear him out because ultimately his offense is going to be much better if he's able to rest on defense, which is what he did during the Minnesota series, a lot. You know, guarding McDaniels, guarding Alexander. Walker and other guys, they went after him last night. They got him into switches and they attacked him. And it's not that Luke is a terrible defender.

I wouldn't say he's a great defender, but he's not a terrible defender. And by the way, he really anticipates well. He's one of these guys defensively that has real good feel for where the ball's going to be, which is why he ends up with some steals in games. I think he picked Drew Holliday's pocket. He also had his pocket picked by Drew Holiday in the first half. But they made him work on defense, which I thought was really big. Anyway, we get game two Sunday night in Boston.

Celtics up one, nothing. Did you have anything else on the NBA finals? Yeah. What did you think? What do you make of the story about Dan Hurley, potentially going to the Lakers? Well, I was kind of thinking, what's the more? despicable job. Coaching the Lakers or coaching college basketball these days?

More despicable job? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, what would be the money is pretty good? What would make you feel more miserable getting up in the morning? Well, it wouldn't make me miserable. Wouldn't make me miserable making $14 to $15, maybe $20 million a year. No, college basketball is different, no doubt.

It's not happy for coaches. No, it's not. And, you know, the Lakers, you know, the NBA coaching, Jesus. I mean, you know, I mean, the players are, you know, load management and agents. It's a players league. You know, I always thought that if he stayed in Connecticut, if he felt like that was, at least he could have more control there. and he wanted to create a legacy and answer that question about coaching the pros,

he could follow the Coach K route and coach the Olympic players. Yeah. Because I think Coach K, at least for all intents and purposes, answered the question, could he coach NBA players by his success with NBA players in the Olympics? You think that was an answer to that? Like, it's far different, don't you think? If I was him, I'd say, yeah, look what I did there. Yeah, if you were him, but would you buy it?

It's a little bit different than, you know, seven months together, 82 games. It's walking on the edges enough that I think you could sell it. I just think, I mean, I don't know what it's like to make, you know, to decide between, $10 million or $15 million a year. I always think that your happiness would be more important, but I don't know how driven Dan Hurley is either. He's driven. I think this is the reason that he's going to potentially take it.

Now, I predicted on yesterday's show, and it's just a gut, and it's an against-the-grain gut, but that he'll think about it and say, I'm a Jersey guy, I'm an East Coast guy, my family, that's who we are. I'm going to stay here and we're going to go win a third straight national championship. Isn't his brother in Arizona? He's been in Arizona for a while, yeah.

Bobby has, yes. Yeah. I mean, I thought the same thing, you know. That's the way I would think. I'm an East Coast guy. Yeah. You know, I can't picture myself on the West Coast. Plus, he's very controlling as a coach.

He's a micro-possession to possession. He is Tommy one of the best exes and O's coaches in college. basketball. He's really become that. You know, it was only a couple of years ago where there, you know, he was, there were people that would say about Hurley as a coach at Rhode Island in particular, even in the first couple of years at Yukon. He's a bit unstable, you know, and he's, you know, admittedly, he's grown. He's had an incredible life story. I've actually become a huge fan of his, you know, it's easy to become a huge fan of a guy that wins back to back, especially when you weren't expecting the first one,

and they were dominant in doing it. But I think there's just too much that he wants to be involved in in every single game that just doesn't really fit with the NBA. But I don't know. He's a great ex-as-and-Os guy. I mean, some of the stuff that he's been running at Yukon for the last couple of years is way, way above. what a lot of college coaches and even NBA coaches do.

So, you know, real quickly on Coach K in the Olympics, I think, and what I was going to say to you is the Olympics is the ultimate in putting ego to the side and being selfless. And we've seen that with, you know, Olympic teams, with big NBA egos, big NBA stars. even when we had, you know, the original dream team. And I just think that's not what you get in the NBA, you know, year and year out. I wonder, look, Calipari, you know, we've had, you know, Patino.

Brad Stevens did a nice job. He did a nice job. Billy Donovan, even though they have not really done a lot in the postseason, I think he's done a nice job. But this is interesting, to your point, for college coaches, because the college game has become so unlikable for many of the coaches. It's why Jay Wright's not coaching anymore. It's why a lot of these guys are moving away. All right. You wanted to talk WNBA.

We will do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, guys, most of us are interested in our mental and physical well-being to a certain degree. And with that in mind, I'd like to welcome and introduce a new sponsor to the podcast. The new sponsor is Unified Healing, Unified spelled, U-N-I-F-Y-D healing. It doesn't matter if you're a big-time world-class athlete or just a somewhat athletic podcaster like me. We all understand the importance of mental and physical well-being and proper recovery for top-notch performance. That's why I'm excited that Unified Healing is sponsoring the podcast now. Unified Healing is a new and super innovative global network of wellness centers

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You're going out to dinner and then maybe you're short. show. Maybe an awards show. Maybe some sort of an awards induction show. Yeah, maybe if you're lucky enough and they remember your name, yeah. Yeah. You get in, you go to an award show and you get out about 11 or 12 o'clock and you still got the itch. You still, you know, I mean, you're still saying yourself, I'm not ready to go home yet. Okay. Well, you know, COVID changed a lot of places in terms of staying home, staying out late, you know, a lot of places don't open late anymore. Well, not Shelly's back room.

Shelly's back room, tonight, on a Friday night, they're open until three in the morning. Okay? That's rare. That is rare. That's like that. Three in the morning. Now I know where to go when I'm up late at night. Looking for a bite to you.

Yes. Yes. And the kitchen, sometimes the kitchen may not be open until three in the morning, but it's open late. They keep the kitchen open late, open late. But Friday and Saturday nights at Shelley's back room at 1331 F Street, Northwest. They're one of the places in Washington. If you want to cap off a great night with a celebratory cigar, you know, or a great drink, the place still to go, just like the middle of the day or any time, is Shelley's back room. You can find out more. Like even Tuesdays and Thursday, they're open to.

until 2 a.m. Okay? So, I mean, Shelly's is an adult place. This is the way the adult world used to operate before COVID. Okay. And if you want to go back to those days, check out Shelly's Backroom. Find out more at shelley's backroom.com. By the way, real quickly, Glenn Weiss, who was the director that I was talking about, the television director at Fox Channel 5, back in the late 80s, early 90s when I was there for about two years working as Steve Buckhantz's producer and producing that one-hour nightly tennis show during the summer tennis event downtown. And Glenn was awesome. And it was basically just Glenn and me putting this thing together.

And Buck would show up, you know, five minutes before showtime and say, where's my script? Because he couldn't have cared less about the tennis event. But anyway, I mentioned that he had an Academy Award. Actually, he's got 14, he's won 14 Emmy Awards, eight Directors Guild of America Awards. Wow. He produced, I'm sorry, he directed the 94th Academy Awards.

That's what I was thinking about. By the way, his first national credit was America's Most Wanted, which was a show, Tommy, that, you know, aired from the Fox Channel 5 studios on Wisconsin Avenue in Upper Northwest. And then he went on to do great things and did direct Regis and Kathy Lee for many years. Glenn was a great dude and very, very successful. All right. Very accomplished.

Very accomplished. All right. What did you want to say about the WNBA? We did have last night the Chicago Sky in town for a game against the Mystics. That meant that you had Kennedy Carter and Angel Reese in town, and the Sky beat the Mystics, 79 to 71. And tonight, the Mystics, who are 0 in 10, by the way, may be the only team in the league worse than the Indiana fever.

host Caitlin Clark in the Indiana fever tonight at 730 at Capitol 1 Arena. Well, here's what I wanted to say. And you tell me, because you're much more plugged in to the WN. I am. I am. Okay. Yes. And I know there's been a lot of controversy about, you know, the foul against

Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese declaring that, you know, she's. if people are paying to watch her play to and all this stuff. And my question to you is, should I care about the WNBA? I mean, do I have an obligation now to care? You mean professionally? Either way, professionally or personally. Well, you certainly don't have to care personally.

Do I have to care professionally? Look, you and I... Is it the money losing life? league, okay, that still doesn't draw as much as MSL soccer. And I don't care about MSL soccer. I think it's MLS, but go ahead. MLS, yeah, you go, I can't even get the name right. Right.

Okay, and if that's the case, do I have to care about women's soccer, too? Do I have to? professionally now? I mean, I keep reading that it's taken off. There's franchises popping up everywhere. but I don't care about men's soccer. Why would I care about women's soccer? Do I have to care about women's golf now?

Do I have to care about all these things? Nelly court has been great. She's a great sport story right now. I don't know. Is there a professional obligation for me to care about these sports? I don't think there is. I can't speak to your professional obligation. To me, your professional obligation is to what will,

give you a chance and your audience a chance to be successful together, to, you know, sharing something together. And you and I both understand this business, which is, look, you either, you know, talk about the A topics, you know, or talk about the A team in town, which we all know, regardless of their results, is the football team. Or you, you know, you have great chemistry and you talk about whatever you want. But the bottom line is how many people are really interested in this? I think a sizable number in this moment. It's one of the reasons I've talked more about it. Tommy, the other day on radio, I could have taken calls on the Caitlin Clark Kennedy Carter, you know, cheap shot hit and the fallout from that. I could have taken calls for three straight hours on radio,

easily. The phone lines were packed and I did it for an hour and could have done it for three. But how many of those people actually have watched WNBA games? I think, well, a lot more than would have watched a game last year. Caitlin Clark is... I don't know about a lot more. Well, I would argue that this is like Lance Armstrong and the Tour de France. Nobody watched the Tour de France, but ever... Everyone had opinions about Lance Armstrong.

I love to talk about Lance Armstrong. Right. I didn't watch. I didn't watch the Tour de France. No, I didn't. No, of course not. Yeah. You know, so I just, I just, the fact that people were getting worked up,

look, I hope the WNBA takes off and does great, and someday they don't have to rely on the NBA to finance their entire league, you know. But I just don't care. I don't care about Caitlin. Clark. She's filling up arenas, Tommy. She's filling up arenas. The television ratings are, look, they're, they compared to other WNBA ratings. That's not even fair, but we know what the women's college NCAA tournament games did. They were, you know, the final four games in that elite eight game against LSU were, didn't it basically outdraw some of the world series games last year?

She is a phenomena right now. Yes, the answer is you probably, it's not that you have an obligation, but many of your readers, you know, the majority of your readers are paying attention to this story right now. For how long? I don't know. I think it is true. I think it is. I mean, I think it's the flavor of the months.

Well, let me just tell you, you know, anecdotally, when you're with people and friends, and golf outings, when I'm playing golf with friends, we have been talking about this, I would say, almost every single time out since the NCAA tournament. It is a major topic. And how many of those drunk golf friends that you play with watch WNBA basketball? They've watched some of the Caitlin Clark games, no doubt. WNBA or college games?

WNBA games. I've watched a couple of the WNBA games. I've watched a couple of her games. I have no interest in watching any of the other games, but I've watched some of her games. I have. You know, I wish them well. I just don't care.

I think this is a different thing than soccer, though, Tommy. It's not comparable because you have a transcendent star. You have somebody that's moved the needle like Tiger Woods did when he, came onto the golf scene. They are comparable, Caitlin Clark and Tiger Woods. I don't know how long it'll last, because I don't know if she's Tiger Woods.

What about the female golfer? Nelly Corder? I think I read something recently that a lot of these women's golf tournaments and the television ratings are way up because of Nellie Corder. She did not make the cut. I don't think of the U.S. Open last week, because she shot an 80 in the first round.

round. But yes. Now, I don't think that Nellie Cordo is equivalent to Caitlin Clark, not even close, even though she has been a spectacular performer winning many tournaments in a row. I mean, she's become kind of the Scotty Sheffler of the women's tour, you know, just a dominant player. But Caitlin Clark, it's beyond the basketball. Wouldn't you agree with that? This is a conversation about so many different things that have nothing to do with her as a basketball player. It's a conversation about race. It's a conversation about gender. It's a conversation about a lot of things.

But ultimately, it is a conversation about a woman's basketball player. Right. And I don't care about women's basketball. I hope they're successful. I don't wish any ill will on them. I'm not criticizing the game. it's just in my scope of interest it just doesn't appear and it's not going to probably it never appeared for us never and look it wouldn't have appeared if kately clark had just been a superstar

player at the college level and maybe you know her name was a recognizable name and you're like you know kind of like with senators and congressman you're like yeah i know i know that dude's a senator I just don't know what state he's from, which is essentially WNBA women's players for me. Like, yeah, that name's familiar. I think she's a WNBA player. Can't tell you for a lot of money what team she plays on or even what college she went to.

But I recognize the name, you know, Brianna Stewart or Lisa Leslie or Elena Deladon, who I think doesn't she play for the mystics? I recognize the name. What'd you say? Sue Bird. Sue Bird. Sue Bird.

Yeah. Diana Tarazi. Rebecca Lobo. By the way, the person that I like the most is this Dreia Carter, I think her last name is. She's excellent on television. She's very pretty, too. But beyond that. But Caitlin Clark is not any of those people.

She's not any of those people. I mean, no one's ever done for women's basketball, what she's done. And you could almost, you know, argue that she's up there in the pantheon of, in terms of needle movers, Serena, Martina, Chrissy Everett, Steffy. I mean, why has women's tennis always kind of matched interest-level men's tennis? You must have an answer. I mean, I agree. I'm interested in watching women's tennis as much as I'm.

I am watching men's tennis often more. Right. What's the answer? Well, it has something to do with, you know, sorry, but it has something to do with over the years many of those players being super attractive. But I think it's much more than that. I think that actually women's tennis

resembles much more the tennis that maybe, you know, people play on the weekends. It doesn't, I'm not saying that. that a weekend hacker could go out and play with Serena Williams. Of course not. But the men's game is just bomb after bomb. It's a serve game, and it's, it wasn't always that way. I don't know what the answer to that is.

But women's tennis, over the last 15 years during the most dominant era of men's tennis, there's no question that I've watched much more of Serena Williams because I was a big fan of Serena, then I have Rafa or Federer or Djokovic. I would agree. I have two in the limited tenets that I've watched. Yeah. Is it because she's American?

I don't think that's it. I don't know. I don't know. All right. What else? I mean, I think... That's all I got. I don't know.

I can't tell you if you have a professional obligation, but I can tell you that I think a majority of your readers. okay, at least 51%, at least 50.0-0-0-0-0-1% are paying attention to Caitlin Clark. And have even watched some of these games. Having an opinion and paying attention are two different things. I think they have an opinion. I think they do have an opinion, but I don't think they've been paying attention. Did you see what Gino Oriama said the other day?

He said they are targeting Caitlin Clark. That was the story of earlier this week. I know. I didn't get worked up about that either. They do that in the NBA too. I've been doing that for years. Yeah, but there's a big difference, Tommy, and you've already highlighted it. Nobody gives a shit about the WNBA or has previously.

So this is the first opportunity they've had at a, you know, so-called meal ticket. You know, the NBA wasn't going to go away or thrive less without, you know, Jordan or without LeBron so that they could target those players when they were younger. They could make them, you know, give them the rookie testing. But this league is different. You don't want to turn. People, there are people who have said they've been turned off by watching Caitlin Clark get targeted because they ascribe it to jealousy, and they're like, how stupid could these players in this league be that they're going to continue to allow her to be physically manhandled

when she's the one that has everybody watching these games? Well, it is a stupid league when it comes to media. I mean, you know, it's funny. Angel Reese says, you know, people are watching her, too. She's one of the reasons why the WNBA is growing. And yes, she gets fine. for not meeting with the media after it gave. Yes. Yes. That is kind of

ironical. Yeah. All right. I think we've exhausted this. Want to take calls? 301-2-3-0-0-9-8. All right. Enjoy the weekend. You'll be back with me on Tuesday? Yes. Okay. Have a good weekend. This was fun.

All right, boss. All right, we are not done yet. We say goodbye to Tommy, but we say hello on this Friday before the third and final of the Triple Crown races to our guy, Eddie C., who is at Saratoga, which is where the Belmont Stakes will be tomorrow. Eddie's got homes all over the eastern seaboard. He is a favorite of many people in town, specifically K-Town, as in Ken. And he joins us right now from Saratoga. So this is, you know, this is different. It's not at Belmont Park this year because of renovations.

So that makes it a different, you know, a different track. Tell everybody about the differences between the Belmont stakes tomorrow at Saratoga versus where we've watched it forever. Well, first and foremost, Kevin, thanks for having me on. Yeah, this is, you know, for me, I'm like a. kid in a candy store. I'm walking amongst the people, boots on the ground here at Taratoga. The races are going on right now. And, you know, the main thing is, you know, the Belmont stakes race is normally run at a mile and a half, they call it the test of champions.

Here at Taratoga, their track isn't quite as big, so it's going to be run at a mile in a quarter. So that kind of changes a little bit of maybe some of the strategies of the jockeys and how the race is going to be run. And, you know, fortunately, we've been so far blessed with the weather. So we hope it doesn't rain and let's see what happens tomorrow. But, you know, we've had a – unfortunately, we've come second a couple of times in the derby and the freakness. and hopefully we can put a winner out for the Belmont. Real quick thought back to the preteness with DeWain Lucas winning with Seize the Grey. That seemed to be a super popular win.

Well, I mean, D. Wayne Lucas, 88-year-old, has been in the game forever. Started out as a quarter horse trainer, and now he's, you know, one of the most champion trainers. in the history of the game and incredibly popular, very well-liked individual. I was fortunate enough on Wednesday to interview him, and he was beaming about Seize the Grey coming into this race for the Belmont Stakes again. And, you know, I think there won't be any dry eyes here, Saratoga, should D. Wayne pull it off again. All right, so tell us about the race tomorrow.

We do have the Preakness winner and Seize the Grey. We do have the Kentucky Derby winner as well in this race. So size it up and then give us your picks. Yeah, the Derby winner, Mystic Dan, Preakness winner Seas the Grey are in here. They're definitely both capable of winning this race. I think this race is going to be a little bit different than the Preakness, where Seas the Gray kind of had it, took the lead. Nobody really challenged them and ended up going Gate to Wire.

I think you've got a couple of other horses that are going to maybe give them a challenge. I know that Mystic Dan doesn't want to go to the front, but in talking with Penny McPeak, I know that he's not going to, if nobody else goes, he's going to go. I think there's a horse called the wine steward, the four horse. He's potentially going to go. The six-horse Dornock definitely has to go. And Dornock is a horse that was really highly thought of. as a two-year-old,

hasn't really, almost, he's almost digressed a little bit, but for him to have a chance, he has to be on the lead or right there with the lead. So, and then you have a very lightly race course, the 10-horse mind frame.

Trained by Todd Fletcher is going to be ridden by, arguably the best jockey in the game. I ride O.C., he's definitely going to be part of the pace presence. So I think the speed in this race is going to be totally different. I think you're going to see some fast fractions. And for me, that's going to set it up for the horse that I picked for the derby. So I'll let you go from there. Yeah, well, you picked Sierra Leone in the derby,

and it is the favorite for tomorrow, so I'm assuming you're picking the favorite. Well, Sierra Leone is two whiskers away from being five and O. Has done nothing wrong other than maybe being a little bit, what we call, meaning a little immature. I spoke with Chad about Sierra Leone, and, you know, we changed a couple of equipment pieces on him. He seems to have taken to it, training really well leading up to this race. They skip the preakness.

And, yeah, I just think with the pace set up, he's a closer. I think you're going to see him win. And quite honestly, I see him winning. by open length. I see him winning by 2, 3, 4 lengths. I don't, I think he's the class of the field. I don't see anybody being quite as good

as he is. All right. What about an exacta? Well, I'm going to definitely use Seas de Grey Mystic Dan as well underneath. I'm going to use the 8th horse, Honor Marie.

But the horse I like the most to come second, is going to be the five horse, an aquarium. Morning line 12 to 1. It's another Todd Pletcher horse. Todd has three horses in this race. This is a rapidly improving horse. He looks like he can just sit behind the speed

and maybe get the first jump on everybody, and I think he might have the lead turning for home, and then I think Sierra Leone blows by him. And, you know, I'm going to have more on Sierra Leone, which is the nine horse over the five, but I'm also going to use the one, three, and eight in the exactors and trackbackers as well. All right, the one three and eight that sees the gray, Mystic Dan, and Honor Marie, who will go off as the longest

shot of those three as well. But Sierra Leone, you think, is the class of this race, and will be a heavy betting favorite, you know, at post time, right? Yeah, I mean, I imagine he's going to probably end up being eight to five. But, you know, here's something interesting. The early money wagering, I saw the odds this morning, and Cesar Gray, who morning line is 8 to 1, was 8 to 5. So a lot of money went on D. Wayne Lucas's horse, And if I can share a quick story about D. Wayne Lucas when I interviewed him on Wednesday.

Yeah, I interviewed him on Wednesday. And I was at this my favorite spot here in Saratoga. It's called the old Brian Inn. And after lunch, I go, hey, D. Wayne, can we do a little two, three-minute interview? And it ended up going for five minutes. And, you know, he was great. And then after the interview, he's like, hey, you want a beer? And we sat up at the bar, had a beer, and he just told me stories after stories for like 20, 30 minutes.

And, I mean, my cheeks hurt. I was just smiling the whole time. It was just awesome. I can't explain. It would be like catching a pass from Sonny Jurgensen or something like that. Well, was there a story, a good story that was memorable that you can share with everybody? he he told me a story about uh when he was a quarter horse trainer and uh people thought that he didn't know what he was doing because he was a young guy young man at the time and he's like my horse is going to be it was a big quarter horse race it was like a stakes race for quarter horses then for the people to understand quarter horses typically like 440 yards it's just a quick sprint race and um

His horse went off at 28 to 1, and he goes, I made more money on that race than I did on my bet, than I did as a trainer in my trainer percentage of winning. So that was just kind of a neat little story. And, I mean, he told me some other stories, personal stories, that I'll keep those, you know, to my vest. Sure. But that was a neat, neat little story. All right. At Notebook Picks on X on Twitter. We're talking to Eddie C.

It's a home game for him at Saratoga tomorrow. Enjoy it. Thanks for doing this, as always. This is Christmas and June for me. You know that. Yep, for sure. Enjoy it. Thanks, Eddie.

And by the way, one of your boys is showing up here in about 30 minutes. So we can talk about that off the air. Yeah, we'll mention his name off the air, but I'm pretty sure I can guess who it is. Thanks, I'll talk to you. Appreciate it. Thanks, Kevin. All right, there it is, Eddie C. from Saratoga. He is boots on the ground, as he said.

Sierra Leone is the horse he likes. He also will throw Mystic Dan and Honor Marie and seize the gray into some of those exactas and trifectas. All right, back on Monday. Enjoy the weekend.