The Kevin Sheehan Show - Champs!

Episode Date: October 31, 2019

Kevin and Aaron recap the Nats' World Series title from every angle. Kevin got to the Trent Williams news and a thought about Alex Smith and 2020 too. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. Here they are. One strike away, one out away. Three two. Washington Nationals are world champions for the first time in franchise history. And Trent Williams's helmet isn't comfortable for him. I promise we're not doing that today. Actually, we will do some Redskins later on because I did no Redskins today, Aaron. on the radio show. As it should have been. But the podcast is different because I know a lot of you, as you are on the radio as well, are listening for Redskins News and there was some of it yesterday.

But wow, what a night. The Nationals won the World Series last night. And, you know, there was a big sort of feeling and takeaway at the end of that game last night. And maybe as they were building that lead up, you know, from the seventh inning on. And it was this. It was, for those that are going to describe it, and there were many that did after the game and have done during the course of this postseason, as some sort of Cinderella, you know, all-time underdog, shocker, it's just not true.

This team is really, really good. The best starting rotation, superstars offensively and defensively, they have been the best team in baseball since May 23rd. That's five months now. And I'm surprised that Vegas didn't see it coming and a lot of the pundits didn't see it coming. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night. Whenever you're listening to this show, this is one of those days where, you know, we haven't had many of them around these parts. You had it a couple of years ago with the capitals. And I know some of you really, you know, a few of you really celebrated the mystics championship here recently, but for the four major professional sports, it is just the second

title. And it's two in two years now, and it's really, really cool that it's the nationals for me. I am so happy for Mike Rizzo. I am so happy for people like Ryan Zimmerman and Steven Strasbourg and Max Scher and Howie Kendrick and Anthony Rendon. You know, the list goes on and on. I was saying earlier today that, you know, not all championship teams look alike. Not all championship teams sort of, you know, evoked the same sort of emotion. Now, if you're a fan of a team and that team's a bunch of bad boys and a bunch of guys that aren't necessarily individually likable, you're still rooting for that team. You know, Detroit fans rooted for the Pistons. Raiders fans love their bad boy Raiders. But this team is likable.

From all corners, people were genuinely excited about the Nats winning the World Series last night. I'm not talking about D.C. You could feel it on the post-game shows, a lot of the former players, a lot of the analysts, a lot of the true broadcasters. There was a sense that a really good team with a really good bunch of guys won the World Series last night. And it was awesome. It really, you know, we're not getting comfortable with, championships at this point. It's just two in two years, all right? But from going from a city that

seemingly never won anything, and you know, you get that reputation of D.C., sports city, they don't win anything. They haven't had a team win anything since when. You know, 1991 was what we talked about for so many years and now twice in two years. There's going to be another parade, people, another downtown parade on Saturday at 2 o'clock. You know, Saturday afternoon, 2 o'clock. Crazy time for a parade sort of, but whatever. We'll certainly be there for it. The Caps thing two years ago was really cool to be there. It is fun to win. And when one of your favorite teams wins it all, there's nothing better. I want to start, though, with sort of a macro view of the city, because I think we've sort of talked about this to a certain extent, Aaron.

Aaron's here, by the way. Tommy's not going to be here today. He's on a flight back, so he will be in tomorrow. But this team, you know, had a great season regardless of what happened last night. They had a memorable October, regardless of what happened last night. But this was a great baseball team. This was a team that's been 86 and 43 since May 23rd. They were really good. This was no fluke. This was no Cinderella story. One of the most... remarkable things about this series is that after the fact, you know, I think everybody's realizing how great they were, but Aaron going into it, nobody gave them a shot against the Dodgers. Nobody gave them a shot against the Astros.

They were massive underdogs in both series. And they ended up beating a team that won 106 games, 107 games. They had phenomenal starting pitching, legit stars who are really hard to get out. All right, Rendon and Soto, for starters. professional hitters like Eaton and Cabrera and Kendrick, you know, but beyond all of that, like how did people miss out on the fact that this was a team that was 74 and 38 from May 23rd on? They were rolling through the postseason. This is not NC State or Villanova, you know, in 1983 or 1985.

They were just damn good. Really one of the better teams and one of the better runs in recent Major League history. You know, you're thinking about a comparison. The comparison to me would be those 0-1 Diamondbacks teams, a team that was very, great pitching, very good hitters. Louise Gonzalez was, you know, an MVP candidate that year. But they were overshadowed. They were facing these other just juggernauts in that case, the Yankees, in this case, the Astros, who were a juggernaut. The Astros were one of the best teams we had seen in baseball for the past couple decades.

And that's the reason why this snuck up on some people and why I don't know where the game four ended up going off. I know that was close. It was bouncing back and forth. But why the nationals were underdogs in every single game with the exception of game four in this World Series. That's what it was. It wasn't so much a knock on. Of course, the knock was the bullpen. And they decided, you know what?

We won't use the bullpen. Yeah. Which ended up working. You know, there was questions about whether it would or would not working, would or would not work. would or would not work. Sorry, I'm still tired from the celebration last night. The point I'm trying to make is this wasn't a plucky little train that, you know, that tried hard. But it'll be remembered like that Dimebeck's team, who is now remembered,

not necessarily as a plucky little train, but as a underdog who, I don't know about overachieved, but an underdog who pulled off big upsets in the playoffs. Bottom line is, if you take the last five months, not the last month, the last five months of the season, the nationals were the best team, and they proved it with a hot run through the postseason. You know, they were fortunate. You know, I've mentioned this many times over the last month. They were fortunate to get by Milwaukee in the wildcard game.

You know, they needed some questionable, certainly some questionable bullpen management by Dave Roberts to beat the Dodgers in game five. You know, but again, 86 and 43, they were winning two out of every three games over a five-month period. and they beat a team that won 106 games and a team that won 107 games to win it all. They were the hottest and they were the best team at the end of the regular season, and they were the absolute best team in the postseason. Yeah, they were a wild card winner. But those who identified this before the playoffs started were few and far between.

There were a couple of people that said, hey, they're dangerous because of their starting pitching, but almost everybody said the same thing, that they can't get it done because they have a major flaw, an historically bad bullpen. But what did Dave Martinez do, as you just mentioned, Aaron, he managed around that bullpen. He didn't use it, basically. And you can do that in the postseason. And he did it as aggressively and smartly as anybody's done it in a long, long time. Dave Martinez did a phenomenal job managing, you know, around this clear flaw. And then I am so happy today for Mike Rizzo. I like Mike Rizzo a lot. I don't know Mike Rizzo super well, but we've had occasion over the last eight, nine years

to be in different places at the same time. He used to come on the radio show all the time before he was contractually obliged to be a part of the station that has the team's rights. But he's smart. He's also one of these dudes who is competitive as hell and is a backed into a corner come-out fighting guy. Remember his reaction to Strasbourg being shut down? He knew he was right in the moment. He's been proven right to a certain degree. You know, you don't know that Strasbourg wouldn't have, you know, that they wouldn't

have won the World Series with Strasbourg pitching great in 2012. And then having, you know, Tommy, you know, having a perfectly spotless career with respect to injury. You don't know that that wouldn't have happened. But he did win it here in 2019. He is right now the best pitcher in the game. Maybe, you know, he and Garrett Cole combined. But, you know, saying World Series champion. Washington is really something to say for people of my age, older, and certainly some people

who are younger as well. It just never, ever seemed possible. We're sitting here on October 31st, Halloween, and how many years, you know, a lot, okay? Like, you know, we're talking about essentially 50 years of having, not 50, because we've had opportunities here in the last state, but you went 34 without even a chance of participating in this thing. And I've always enjoyed the World Series. I've always enjoyed the baseball postseason. And how many times that there was a seventh game or a game six in the World Series and you're just watching it as a baseball fan, as a postseason baseball fan,

not ever even thinking. You have to understand. It got to a point in the 80s, in 90s, you didn't even think about a Washington team being involved in the fall classic. Well, they were involved in it this year. and they won it. And they are World Series champions. And last night's game was fascinating. It was another one of those games where there will be a lot of questions asked of one of the two managers for weeks to come. And the bottom line with last night's game is, A, they won it the way they've won it

all postseason long with another come-from-behind win. Their fifth come-from-behind win in an elimination game in this postseason. It's never happened before. But to me, the story of the game last night, before we got to the seventh inning, was Zach Granky. Oh, yeah. He was incredible.

He was incredible in the same way that Annabelle Sanchez was incredible in game one of the NLCS. It wasn't with overpowering might. You know, it wasn't dominating. It wasn't, you know, intimidating. It was, you know, intimidating. It was crafty.

It was artistic. He was throwing 63-mile-per-hour off-speed stuff with 90-to-91-mile-an-hour perfectly placed fastballs. He had the Nats completely, completely on their heels. They were swinging and missing. They were looking at stuff that they thought was going somewhere else. He really had a masterpiece going into the seventh inning. and then he gave up on the one mistake he made all night long. He gives up a homer to Rendon and then look, the Nats were on the wrong side of almost every ball strike call in this series in the first five games anyway.

And last night, two and one on Soto, he throws a strike, a bottom line. I mean, that's not even debatable. He throws a strike. It should be two and two on Soto. Instead, it's called a ball. It goes to three and one and you could see the reaction from Granky. It's almost like it took a little bit of the life out of him because maybe he knew then that he was coming out.

Maybe he needed to get Soto. And at 3 and 1, he was not going to give Soto something to hit. And so he walked Soto, and that was it for Granky. That was it. After, you know, two hits and one earned run and the pitch count at 80. That was it. This dude, I mean, go through his innings. One, two, three, top of the first.

All right, now he did. in the top, the second inning, I'm sorry. He gave up the single to Soto, and then he got Kendrick to ground into a double play. So it was three batters faced in the bottom of the second. One, two, three, top of the third. One, two, three, top of the fourth. In the fifth, he walked Kendrick, but then got the other three.

In the sixth, a one, two, three inning. Like, this dude was killing it. And A.J. Hinch decided that the Rendon Homer and the walking of Soto was it. And this is where we get into this conversation, Aaron. And I want to have this conversation here for about two minutes about analytics. And all of the analytics people out there when it comes to this sport more than any other. And to me, you know, I am open-minded. I like as much information as I can have.

I would never ever in any of these sports manage or coach based just on numbers and math, just based on historical numbers and probability. I would never manage that way. I would never coach that way. I think context is everything. I think understanding, you know, your players and the psychology of where they are in the moment is just as important. However, this was my reaction when Granky got pulled. CJ sent me a text.

He said, oh, my God, did Hinch just make a mistake? I've been brainwashed into this because I was expecting him to get pulled. And I said, I texted him back and I said, maybe he got him out just in time. Because that's what you hear from all the analytics people. You take them out one pitch too early rather than one pitch or one batter too late. I have no idea what Zach Granky would have done moving forward. Have no idea. But I would have never felt that way two or three years ago, but I felt it coming.

Look, A.J. Hinch was hoping to get five innings from Granky, but he was getting, at that point, he had six and a third. And he was still dealing. all right. He had one bad pitch and then got robbed on a 2-1 pitch to Soto. And yet I'm sitting there and I'm like, I think it's probably time. It sounds like they know what they're doing. They understand where he is. They understand what's going on with his arm angle, with his velocity, with each of his pitches.

They know. And, you know, Galdi said this morning, Galdi's a big analytics guy. Absolutely. That was 100% the right thing to do. But in hindsight, been better off. leaving Granky in there than pitching Will Harris. Harris comes in and promptly in two pitches gives up two-run Homer to Kendrick and then gives up a single to Cabrera and he's gone. You know, some will say maybe the bigger mistake was he should have taken Granky out,

but he should have put Garrett Cole in or he should have put Asuna in. You know, it was a high leverage spot, you know, air quotes, high leverage, you know, you put your best pitcher in there. And Will Harris really probably wasn't the best pitcher, although he was a good reliever this year. He was a little bit gas, too. He talked about that, apparently, from the night before. Remember, he gave up the home run the night before to Rendon. So what did you think? I thought, here was the interesting thing.

Granky looked rattled by that ball call, the bad call. He did. It looked like he was kind of muttering to himself. You saw Soto, you know, do the Soto thing with him. He did look a little bit rattled, and it might be a situation where the manager saw that. You know, he had just made a bad pitch to Rendon. he made that miss. He was talking to himself a little bit.

And with someone like Granky who does get in his head sometimes, you know, get his own head sometimes, it might have been a mistake. It might have been a mistake to, or it might be the right move to pull him there. But yes, obviously in hindsight it was a mistake. I do want to address one part of that, the Garrett Cole aspect. You were never putting Garrett Cole in that situation. This is a guy who has never since college come out of the bullpen in any situation. If you are pitching. Why was he up pitching? Why was he up warming up?

Because you could have pitched him, but you had to give him a clean inning. You weren't bringing him in mid-inning. Like that's not something, maybe he could have done it, but it's not something that I'm trusting him to do in that situation. A starter in general, I want him to have a clean inning. Yeah, I mean, I know that that's the, I know people agree with that. Personally, I think you're trying to win a game and you need to get a dude out. need to get Howie Kendrick, and you need to get Cabrera out to end the inning and to... I think Azuna was the right call. Yeah, well, Ozuna would have been a guy, but, you know, typically a closer has, you know, a full

inning. I don't know how many four-out saves he has. He's had a decent amount. Okay. Well, the bottom line is that I bring it up because I know all the analytics people were like, yep, they took him out just in time because it was getting late early for him. and typically in the past I would have been like, what is he doing? You're going to take this dude out with a two-hitter, one mistake, and a bad break on a ball strike count,

and you're going to take him out. The nationals are flailing against this dude. Now, it was also what, the third time around in the order? And I'm sure he was hoping to get, you know, I'm sure he was hoping to get him through three or four times around the order. When they came up in the seventh, is that their third time around the order, fourth? Third. Yeah, third. So, but anyway, I personally two, three years ago would have said, got to pull them.

I mean, got to keep them in there. It's nuts to pull them. But I've been brainwashed by all these people because I saw it and felt it coming. And I actually said to myself, and I texted CJ back and I said, maybe they got them out just in time. We'll see. It didn't turn out well for Houston. It turned out great for the Nats. and the middle of that lineup, you know, starting really with, you know, Eaton, in the two-spot,

Eaton, Rondo, Kendrick. Do you know they had 78 RBIs in this series, in the playoffs, excuse me, 51 of the 78 RBIs, Eaton, Rendon, Soto, Kendrick. That's amazing. That is what happened in this postseason. At every turn, in every big spot, it was one of those four guys that came through. And they all at times seemed very difficult to get out. Rendon really more than any of them.

Rendon was the guy that when he got out or he didn't make great contact, I was shocked. I mean, he was so good. You saw that stat going after the home run last night, right? Like the outrageous numbers he put up, it was like after the seventh inning in elimination games, it was walk, home run, double, double, walk, home run, double. That's right. They put that up there and then he flew out to center in the eighth hour. way last night.

With, I think, one base runner on. But I didn't write it down because it popped up pretty quickly. But essentially, Rendon in the postseason, seventh inning on, had a stretch where it was, you know, nothing but home. In elimination games. It was seventh inning on. So the Milwaukee game, the Dodgers, two games against the Dodgers, and the two games against Houston. That basically all it was were walks, singles, doubles, and home runs. He didn't have any outs until last night in the eighth inning when he flew out

to center on a pretty well-hit ball. Here we go. Yeah. Elimination game this postseason, Anthony Rendon. Walk, home run, double, home run, double, home run. That's unbelievable. I mean, that's incredible, actually. A couple of key portions to the game. So Scher didn't have his best stuff. I mean, bottom line, Scher was putting a lot of people on base. These were not stress-free innings for him. He was battling just like he did in game one without his best stuff. They were hitting balls hard against him. You know, from the get-go, they were hitting balls hard. And he was in trouble in the bottom of the second to start with. Guriel homers, and then you go Alvarez and Correa back-to-back. And I really thought when Cherinos sacked bunted and popped out,

I thought that was a big mistake for Houston. You know, that's a big mistake. You know, that that's one of those moves. That's a National League move. You know, you got one in, you got runners on first and second, and your eight hitters going to sack a guy, by the way, who's hit two home runs in the World Series, like what were they doing there? Did they think, because it's the second inning at that point, and you got Granky who you're not expecting him to throw what he ended up throwing. You're expecting you're going to need runs tonight. I was shocked. That was a huge out for the Nats to get. Right. Chorinos pops out. on a sack-bunt attempt, and then he gets out of that inning, by the way,

with a catch by Soto and left field on a hard-hit ball by Springer to end that inning with runners on first and second, runners on second and third, excuse me. Then in the bottom of the third, you know, he walks Bregman. He's already allowed Altuvei on. He's got two runners on in the bottom of the third. He's got two runners on in the bottom of the fourth. You know, Reddick singled, Springer walked.

He was each of these innings, and what did we, keep seeing pop up the same thing we saw all weekend long for the Nats. They are leaving men on base and they are O-for-whatever with runners-in-scoring position. And I really felt like the two-nothing was a big problem for Houston. I really did feel that way as the game was getting deeper and deeper. I was like, except for the fact that they couldn't hit Granky. But I was like, is that going to last? You know, but the problem was if it lasted until they got to Garrett Cole, that was going to be a problem too. But I really felt like Houston could have had a much bigger lead in the game and probably should have had a much bigger lead

in the game. But, you know, Scherzer seems to grind it out and walk off the mound for good, only allowing two earned runs, even though he was under siege there for a while. It felt like it to me. That's just what Scherzer does. You know, he... Not all the time. Sometimes he's unhittable. Well, exactly. Sometimes he's unhittable. But when he's under siege, he doesn't tend to, you know, he might give up the... one or two runs, he doesn't get a barrage of runs for the most part. And that was part of it last night.

I was surprised by that bunt too. I think they were just getting too fancy. They were thinking, oh, if we can just chip away a run here, run there. We'll get Scherzer out of the game early, which would have been, at least at that point, looked like a disaster for the Nats. If Scher hadn't gone along, I assume that's what they were thinking. But, yeah, I mean, they got too fancy for their own good, and it cost them. Yeah, it cost them big.

Obviously, you know, Kendrick, you know, so the other thing about that stretch of the game in the seventh is, you know, you've got a Houston team there, and he's got, you know, he's got a guy throwing well. And this is where sometimes you're just too smart for your own good. You know, if you're not sure, just ask a team like Houston, how smart they are. And so that's the question they'll ask all, have to answer all off season. And AJ Hinch said afterwards, now I felt like we got them at the right time. You know, we wanted them. him two, you know, through the order twice, and he was brilliant, but we think we got him at the right time, and we think we had the right reliever in there. Will's been one of our,

Will Harris has been one of our best relievers all year, and it just didn't work out. Amazing, amazing game. The last two games in particular, I had no problem with Stephen Strasbourg. In fact, I thought and predicted he would win the MVP, but at the same time, I would not have had a problem had Rendon won it. I mean, those were the two. You could throw in Soto if you wanted. you could actually make a case for Eaton, you know, in the series that he ended up having. But to me, you got two unbelievable starts in this series on the road from Steven Strasbourg, including an epic performance in game six to save them. You know, to me, that is the guy.

And I know that Rendon played seven games and came through in every single big spot for them. But I had no problem with Strasbourg winning the MVP. I think he deserved it. wouldn't have put up a fight or argued much if Rendon had gotten it? I thought it was going to be Rendon. I probably would have voted for Rendon just because of his impact on, you know, all those games. But, yeah, you have a very good case for Strasbourg, especially when a lot of times the MVP award also, even though it's not, you know, totally supposed to, takes into account the rest of the postseason as well.

I mean, his story in the postseason, incredible. I know we talked about it earlier this week, but my God. Steven Strasbourg, this is what we were expecting back in 2010. It was incredible. And what a transformation. I loved watching him late last night with his young wife and young two daughters. They're super young. And I just watched that.

And I just thought, wow, what a nine years, you know, eight or nine years he's had here in Washington. And by the way, let me just mention, because I want to come back to Strasbourg here in a second. We didn't mention how great Patrick Corbyn was last night. in relief. I wanted him to come out for the eighth. I'm glad he came out for the eighth. He was great. That slider just had them completely stymied, and those three scoreless innings pitched by Patrick Corbyn were awesome. And then Hudson was great in the ninth, and I love the way he threw his glove when he got that last strikeout. But Strasbourg, I talked about this this morning on radio, and it sort of dovetails into just the whole feeling of being a Washington.

Washingtonian today, especially, you know, a long life, you know, native Washingtonian like I and some of you are. But he's on set on the MLB network with his wife and his two young kids. And I'm just looking at this guy and I'm like, wow, he's 31 years old now. You know, that night back in June of 2010 when he threw 14 strikeouts in his debut against Pittsburgh and the cost of his call, which is, you know, epic. And you've got, you know, you've got this promising, you know, unbridled era. to come. You know, just the thoughts of, wow, they're going to have one of the best pitchers in the sport for years to come. He is, by the way, the first pick overall in the draft to ever win a World Series, the highest drafted pitcher in the history of baseball to win a World Series.

Actually, I'm sorry, the highest drafted player to win a World Series. Josh Beckett was the second overall pick, I believe, and Reggie Jackson was the second overall pick. So, him being the first overall pick, he's the highest drafted player to ever win a World Series. I'm pretty sure I saw that last night. But I started thinking about, you know, now that this series is over, Aaron, he's got three days to opt out. You know, he's got three days to opt out. And, you know, Rendon's going to be a free agent as well. And in looking at him last night, you know, in hearing what Tommy has said about Rendon and Strasbourg and others have said the same thing,

I think they're both going to be on the team next year. I think that they are both guys that don't seek the big media markets like New York and LA, Chicago, Boston, whatever. You know, they don't need that. They don't want that. They like the comfort of where they are. They're not big into change. You know, Strasbourg's a Southern California guy.

But, you know, the one thing that you realize about Washington, and some of these athletes, you talk to some of these guys and some of these front office people that end up moving here to work for the teams. They love it here. This is a great city, and it's a great city to raise young kids, kids in general. It's a great place. And so maybe Strasbourg understands that and wants that, and I hope he does, because I would hate if he and Rendon aren't on this team next year. How epic would it be if they fly back? You have learner negotiating there, and then at the parade, they announce that they've given Strasbourg a new contract. It would be awesome. It really would be. I want to see this team back next year intact, and that means more than anything right now, Rendon and Strasbourg.

Just give them a blank check. You're going to have to with Rendon, because Rendon's going to be able to get, he will get numbers that are ridiculous. Remember, this postseason, you know, was awesome, and it ends up in a World Series title, but for the nationals, it made the negotiation with Anthony Rendon and Stephen Strasbourg much more difficult. because here's the bottom line, and you may not feel this way, Aaron. I think most sports fans really had no idea who Anthony Rondone was, and a lot of baseball fans just didn't know how good he was. The hardcore baseball people knew. The casual baseball fans and just the sports fans, they didn't know.

Well, now everybody knows. He's a top five player in the sport. You know, he might be as good as Trout. I mean, he is defensively, he is great. and he is clutch and he is also a great dude. It's not about him. He's a great teammate. He's low maintenance. All of the things an organization would love to have without necessarily the big booming personality of Bryce Harper. By the way, when you think about this too, Patrick Corbyn last night and spending all that money on Corbyn, which wouldn't have been spendable if they'd spend it on

Bryce Harper. I loved Bryce Harper. I think they would have been great with Bryce Harper, but boy, did they need Patrick Corbyn last night? That contract came through last night. It was what I was sitting. I went to Nationals Park for the watch party. Oh, yeah. How was that? Oh, it was crazy.

It was, I mean, it was a little bit dampered early on because of the rain and people were in the concourse or in the club level, you know, inside. But, you know, throughout the night, it stopped raining more and more. And by the end, it was absolutely crazy. But I'll sit here with some friends. And they were all freaking out. They didn't want to see Corbin in this game. And Corbin just, that was the performance of a life.

time for him. Oh, yeah. It was unbelievable. He also had that four-out performance in the Dodgers series as well. A couple of things from the series. The three winner take all games that the Nats won during this postseason, first time that's ever happened. The Milwaukee game, the game five against the Dodgers, and the seventh and deciding game last night. We know about the seven straight road, the six straight road wins in a World Series. Now it's seven, like the first ever World Series, the first ever series period, best of seven in any sport, where you had six road teams win, but never, obviously, have you had all games won by the road team? Not in Major League Baseball, not in the NHL, not in the NBA, any best of seven.

Mention that come from behind in the five elimination games. How about this? The second team ever to win a World Series where they were 12 games or worse below 500, The last team to do it was the 1914 Boston Braves. That's 105 years ago, boys and girls. A couple of other things real quickly that I wanted to mention. Number one, did you see Garrett Cole what he did after the game? I did see this, yes.

Garrett Cole, who was going to be a free agent, when he was interviewed, he had a hat on. It was a Scott Boris Corporation hat. And he said the following in the locker room after the game. Quote, I'm not an employee of a lot of. the team, I guess as a representative of myself in me in terms of how he was going to speak after the game. That is one first rate tool moment by somebody. That's a true colors moment. That is a, you know, you just lost your team and you just lost game seven of the World Series and he was making it very clear that the team that he's been a part of and that just lost game seven doesn't mean

anything to him anymore. That's stupidity, by the way. His talent, his incredible pitching ability is going to get him a great contract. But I'll tell you what, that's one of those things where if your team interested in signing him, you look into him a little bit deeper than you once did. Because that is not a great way to handle something. It is a terrible look. To have Scott Boris Corporation hat on your head and to be talking about how you're not an employee of the team anymore like, hey, it's over. I'm glad I'm leaving. I don't want a part of you and I don't want to be a part of you anymore. It's really off-putting. And I kind of liked Garrett Cole throughout this postseason. I thought he was really good as an interview after these games and

obviously he was an electrifying pitcher to watch. Last thing on the World Series. So I said this on the radio show and I got a bunch of feedback, both positive and negative on this. But basically, for the first night of October when they played Milwaukee. And then really when you started to see what I'm going to describe here in a moment, it happened at the end of the Dodger series because they were on the verge of winning the National League Division Series and they were advancing to the National League Championship Series for the first time as a franchise. And during that stretch, you saw a lot of references to Montreal. A lot of Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Gary Carter, and the Expos in the team's history in Montreal.

And I said this before in the podcast earlier in the month. I said, to be honest with you, I don't have any feelings about, you know, or any connection to any of those names or the team or the city. You know, my city's baseball history is from 1901 to 1971, part of the American League. You know, there was a World Series title with Walter Johnson, the greatest pitcher in the history of the game in 1920. and there were World Series losses in 1925 and 1933. Ted Williams came here to manage the senators in 1969.

That's part of the team's history. I remember the senators before they left in 1971. I yearned for another team when I was a young kid and into baseball in the 70s and in the 80s. The references to Montreal, for me, just didn't connect. and what I really liked about the World Series, and it really started to happen towards the end of the National League Championship Series against St. Louis,

is that all of the references were to Washington and Washington's history in baseball. And so I got a lot of people from Montreal and a lot of Expo's fans that were tweeting me and saying, we were really into this, we've been following the nationals, and how dare you? And listen, I understand there's a parochial regional, you know, sort of feeling, maybe even narrow-minded view when I say that.

But it's the way I feel. And I tried to explain to a couple of the people. Do you think Baltimore Ravens fans talk about Bernie Cozar being one of the great franchise quarterbacks in history? Of course not. Johnny Unitas was one of the great quarterbacks in Baltimore football history. Not Bernie Cozar. They don't celebrate the dog pound in Baltimore.

Just like when the senators, and we lost two teams in Washington, all right? I wasn't alive for the first one. I was barely alive for the second one. When they moved to Texas, do you think Texas people referred to the senator's history? Now, they didn't have a previous baseball history, so maybe they did, but we had a baseball history. It's not a knock on Montreal. It's not a knock on the expos. It's not a knock on people who rooted for the expos who are now rooting for the nationals.

I just preferred and found it much better and much more connective to me when later in this postseason in this World Series in particular, when Fox and others talked about Washington's history with baseball, rather than the franchise's history going back to Montreal. That's all. I liked the full screens last. night of what it was like in 1924 and Walter Johnson and all of that much more than the Gary Carter, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Expos of 81 team, which I've got no connection to. So anyway,

that's the way I feel about that. And again, it's not a knock. It's not a criticism. It's not condescending towards Montreal or the Expos or any of those players. It's just that's the way I think most Washingtonians feel. The history of baseball in Washington isn't the Expos. It's the senators. And I was glad to see the network really push that and focus on that. Rather than earlier in the postseason, there was a lot about Montreal. Anyway, that's my feeling on that.

What a season. What a freaking season. Seriously. I got to apologize. Think about back in May, I was calling for Davey Martinez's head every show basically. Yeah. You and Tommy both were talking about that. And then, you know, how about just the conversation and it was brief about what can they get from Max Scherzer before the trade deadline? I mean, you know, and by the way, we're going to lose Anthony Rendon.

And that's going to really suck because you've already lost Bryce Harper. And man, don't the learners and Mike Rizzo, they're looking foolish here. I mean, look, if they went out against Milwaukee in that wild card game, there would have been a lot of that conversation. Of course. A lot of that conversation because I still believe that Dave Martinez managed brilliantly for the entirety of the postseason. But if they had lost to Josh Hater, if, you know, if Zimmerman doesn't get a broken bat-bloop single, if Michael A. Taylor doesn't get hit by a pitch, if you don't have a rookie error in right field on a Soto hit in the bottom of the eighth, and you lose that game, personally, I would think that the big mistake in that game was not starting Steven

Strasbourg and that it really cost them because Max Scherzer was not great in that game. He gave up two home runs early and they got behind and then somehow they beat the best closer in the sport. If not, we would be long gone and long done talking about the nationals, except we would probably spark the conversation up today because there'd be the three-day window for Strasbourg to opt out. But what a difference a month makes and what a fine line in sports. I've talked about it a lot They were so close to losing a wild card game. They had to rely on Dave Roberts to keep Clayton Kershaw in there, you know, one batter or too long, if not two batters too long.

But the bottom line is, with all that said, this was a really, really good team. The best starting pitching, that they had incredible stars offensively. A very good defensive team, as it turned out. Certainly in this World Series, Rendon, Turner, and Cabrero. were outstanding, you know, Zimmerman at first base, outstanding. Soto was outstanding in left field, eaten and right. You know, Robles finally got a hit last night. He was happy about that. So it was just a hell of a season. And I don't know, you know, we can have this conversation on another podcast, but I'll just briefly address it. I don't know what this means in terms of like the

increased interest for baseball in this city, the increased interest in the Nats. Like, Will attendance be significantly higher next year? Because it was down last year. Will television ratings jump up next year? Because they were down this year. I would expect that yes to both of those answers. But I think I mentioned this to you the other day, Aaron, or it may have been on radio. What I do absolutely expect is that if they are a playoff team, this city will be so fired up next October for another postseason.

100%. You know, even more so than it was for this one. And it's why, you know, going back to what we had said. earlier, it really is important to keep this team together. I'm not normally the guy who goes out, says, oh, well, you know, they did this for you, so you have to pay them for it. But because of what this could mean for this franchise, what this could mean for this city, I think you do need, you can't have this high off of the parade and then immediately potentially lose two of the best players off of that team. I think that would be damaging. Yeah, I mean, look, when the caps went

it two years ago, what happened? Barry Trotz was gone, you know, and I don't know how big of a deal that was it's not nearly as big of a deal as losing Strasbourg or Rendon. Yes. But still, you finally won a title and you got, you know, sort of chintzy to a certain degree. You got cheap with your coach. And by the way, they didn't win it last year without him, did they? Although they are the best team in hockey right now, points wise. They're really good early on here.

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So my bookie.ag for all of your football betting and basketball betting to come. By the way, just remind me to mention the Wizards game last night because it's just a phenomenal basketball game that I didn't see any of, but I did record it and I may go home and watch it because it was crazy good for a regular season NBA game. But anyway, my bookie.orgie.orgie.g is reliable, guys. There are lots of places that aren't. This place is big. They're proven.

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I'm going to mention the Wizards right now because I didn't see any of this game. But on social media last night, there were some people that were watching it. There were. And the Wizards and Rockets last night played a game that finished final score in regulation with no overtimes. 159 to 158. I saw that on, as it popped up on like my ESPN app or something, I thought it was a glitch. I really did. This is like for some of you that loved the NBA in the 80s, this is like a Nugget Spurs game, you know, where there was no deal.

defense and somebody won the game 163 to 149. It was an all-star game. 159 to 158. The score at halftime, the Wizards had a 77 to 76 lead at halftime. In the second half, the wizard scored 81 points, and the Rocket scored 83. There were no overtimes in this game. James Hardin had 59 points. He was 18 of 32 from the floor, 6 of 14 from behind the ark, and 17 of 18 from the free throw line. Westbrook had a triple double. Westbrook's playing for Houston now, if you didn't know. They're 3-1. For the Wizards, okay, Hachamura is off to a great start, their first round pick.

He had a double-double in the opener. I think he was averaging 16 and 9 coming into last night's game. He had 23 last night and 5. Had 23 points last night. And then Bertans, the guy that got from San Antonio, continues to shoot lights out, had 21 off the bench. Isaiah Thomas is a wizard this year for those that didn't know it. 17 points, 10 assists off the bench. Beal went for 46 last night.

Best shooting night of the year, 14 to 20 from the floor, 7 of 12 from behind the ark. And the Wizards lost the game 159-158. It's funny because I had Scott Brooks on the radio show the other day, and he said, we're going to be very entertaining to watch. you're going to enjoy watching us play this year. And so far, through four games, they are one and three, but they could very easily be three and one, very easily. They lost 124, 122 to San Antonio the other night.

The problem is their first four games, Aaron, have all gone head up against the Nats World Series games. So I haven't seen any of them, but I will start paying attention now. Also, by the way, college basketball starts next week. One verse two and three, verse four. I know, on Tuesday night. You get Duke, Kansas and Michigan State Kentucky, right?

Is that the double header? And Maryland opens up Tuesday night against Holy Cross at home. Maryland is the number seven team in the country preseason. But my God, 159 to 158. Other NBA, as long as we're on it, real quickly, Steph Curry broke his hand last night. The Warriors, who have been obviously a dynasty, are going to stink this year. You know, no Thompson for the season pretty much, right?

I'm pretty sure he's lost for the year. I believe it would have been, you know, end of the season type thing. I'm forgetting, was it the ACL or the Achilles? ACL, I believe. Yeah, I think it was too. Yeah. And now Steph Curry's got a broken hand. He'll be out for a while.

And by the way, they're one and three. And they got beat last night at home by Phoenix, who's a much better team, just if you're interested. All right, that's enough NBA talk for the day. Very little of it. I want to remind everybody that we have an app now. the app in the app store on your iPhone or the Google store on your Android. Tell me what you think of the app at Kevin Sheand, DC. A lot of people like it. It's very easy. It's very, very simple.

We didn't put a lot of stuff in there to give you too many options and make it cumbersome. But it's another way to listen to the show. It doesn't mean you have to go that route. If you're listening to it on iTunes or Apple Podcasts or Google Play or Spotify or Stitcher or tune in or any of them, keep listening to it. that way. That's fine. If you're listening to it on the website, we're going to continue to have a website and post it there. I'm pleased that so many people are still listening to the podcast, even though I'm back on radio now, three hours in the morning on 980. And I'm enjoying being back on radio. I really am. And I'm continuing to love doing this podcast because it's different. Get to do something with Aaron. I get to do something with Tommy twice a week. Coolie comes on a lot

as well. So it gives me an opportunity to work with other people that I like that I can't have on the show. So anyway, try out the app if you don't mind. Don't do it if you really don't want to do it, but it's another way to listen to us. And then it's right there on your phone, the app that you can turn to in the podcast. We'll get downloaded to the app right when it's done. And we did fix that, by the way. Some of you reminded me that you had downloaded the app and you weren't getting the show until late in the day. I think we had fixed that. You're now getting the show right when it's done. All right, let's get to the Redskins. So, Trent Williams yesterday failed his physical.

All right? He's not going to play for the Redskins, just so everybody understands that. The chances that he's going to play for the Redskins again are like 3% at best. He ended his holdout on Tuesday, and the reason he didn't pass his physical is because there was discomfort when he put on his helmet. Now, remember, he underwent that surgery to remove the growth on his head, the benign tumor, we believe, on his head. offseason. Callahan said he would have passed the physical otherwise, and he said that, you know, there might be a need for a specially designed helmet. The Redskins were given a two-week roster exemption for Trent Williams. So it's two weeks to basically find a helmet. I don't know what that

means if they do find a helmet. Here's what I believe, and I can't say this for sure, because I don't know what his head looks like. All right, I don't know if wearing a helmet is uncomfortable, and if he needs a special helmet. By the way, if they can't find him a special helmet, he's done, right? Or maybe a helmet will fit next year. I don't know. But my guess is, is that there's probably, of the other 31 teams in the league, my guess is that the helmet probably would have fit better on the other 31 teams in the league had he been there. You know, certainly another 25 of them. They would have found a helmet or he would have been fine with the helmet. Williams, by the way, unavailable for comment on all of this. He hasn't spoken at all on this. Callahan said a lot of nice things

about Trent Williams. I'm hearing what I mentioned to you yesterday, which is, you know, the Nats. The Redskins are going to use this two-week exemption on him. If it becomes a three-week exemption, there's the possibility that contract will carry over into next year. That'll be the interesting thing to keep an eye on when it comes to when it comes to, when it comes to, you know, to Trent Williams. All right, a couple of other things on the Redskins yesterday. There was a report. I'm going to find this on my Twitter because I retweeted it.

So that's the easiest way for me to find it. Somebody sent this to me, and a lot of people referenced it. But basically, Charles Robinson of Yahoo said that six weeks ago, the Redskins could have had a first round pick for Trent Williams. By the way, Joel Corey, the former agent, who does work for CBS Sports.com, also says the Redskins would have had much better deals had they made a move for Trent earlier. But Charles Robinson basically said six weeks ago the Redskins could have had a first

round pick for Williams from Cleveland. Washington waited six weeks. Cleveland basically said, kiss my ass, you're not calling me now. And that sort of goes hand in hand too, if you recall, with the J.P. Finley report from yesterday or two days ago that I read on the show yesterday. which is that, and let me find that, because I've got that here somewhere, JP tweeted out, the one quote that stands out talking with league sources on possible Trent Williams move, Redskins wouldn't take calls on a trade for months, and now nobody wants to bail them out.

And I said yesterday that that rung very true to me. And, you know, it's the bottom line with them when it comes to almost anything that they do. They're arrogant and they're simple. and that's a terrible combination, and it's not a combination that typically leads to making really good deals. I don't think there's any doubt that the Redskins had an opportunity to pounce on a very, you know, a deal that you could describe it any way you want. If it was a first in something, to me, that would have been Blockbuster. You know, it may not have been the Laramie Tunsell deal because Tunsell's six years younger. But if it were half the Tunsell deal, it would have been a first plus.

So you just, it's what they do. This is what they are and what they do. They let their emotions influence their football decisions in a negative way, consistently. Do they have justification for really being angry with Trent Williams? I actually think they do. And I hope they go after him in a way in which he can't get the accrued deal this year. You know, he didn't come in.

He had two years left on his deal. He let his teammates down. And by the way, he really stabbed and backstabbed an organization that was very loyal to him. Now, we don't know the circumstances as to why he's really upset. So I will, I'll withhold, you know, total judgment on this thing. But I tend to think that the Redskins have every reason and good reason to be super angry. with him. But that's really not the point. They let those emotions influence football decisions. And the football decisions that they make emotionally never work out for them. Because Bruce in

particular is, you know, a hard-ass, sensitive, and very petty in making sure that if he feels he or the organization was wronged, he's not going to let you get away with it. Part of Part of that I like about him, you know, part of the way he's been fiscally responsible at times compared to the last guy that was here, and we've got to go 10 years ago with Vinnie Serrato. There's some aspects of the way Bruce operates that I don't have a major problem with. But in this particular case, like it was the case with Kirk Cousins, they let their emotions influence a football decision that didn't turn out well for the team. this thing didn't turn out well for Trent either. Okay, it didn't turn out well for Trent very well, especially if he's got to come back next year with two years left on his deal. This guy's lost a lot of money through fines and lost salary. I mean, this has been a big,

big loss for him financially. He better make it up with a new deal somewhere else. If not, he will look back on this at 50 years old and say, what in God's name was I doing? How did I throw all of that money away for that. But, you know, if the Redskins passed on first-round picks and packages that included first-round picks, which I believe that they didn't. And by the way, I think they're going to try to convince everybody that nobody was really that interested in Trent. You know, but I believe the reporting of Charles Robinson, of Joel Corey, of others.

I know from my source, you know, three months ago, that New England at the very beginning of August would have been willing to part with a first round pick. Doesn't mean they had a conversation with the Redskins about it. The Redskins weren't all ears, you know, on Trent Williams, which was so, so stupid. But, you know, what are you going to do at this point? It's like it's gotten old. Like, we're just continuing to beat the same dead horse. They're not football people.

They're not even good business people. you know, when it comes to football things. And it's a shame because it's a big reason why they are where they are. I wanted to mention one other Redskins-related thing. Actually, two other Redskins-related things. So I was thinking, I had a bunch of conversations, but my thought on this really wasn't based on conversations that I've had. Maybe they were to a certain degree.

But I was thinking about the Haskins thing. and I've been thinking about some of the conversations that they've been having about Alex Smith recently. And I think that there's a chance that Bruce and Dan are believing that Alex Smith will be healthy enough to be their starting quarterback in 2020. And that that's the plan right now. And that's why they're not super worried about Haskins' lack of readiness right now. because they're not going to play Haskins unless they have to play Haskins this year. They're not going to play them next year. That's not the plan. Their six-and-three quarterback, Alex Smith, is going to be back to save the day.

You know, with this wonderful team that's so close that they've been building, but they just haven't had a good coach and they haven't had good enough quarterback play. Trust me on this. There is a chance that Bruce and Dan and others in the organization, organization, maybe Bill Callahan, are planning on Alex Smith being the quarterback in 2020. We'll just leave it at that. Although actually, I wanted to add to that. I don't want to just leave it at that. Because think about it this way, too. They think that the six and three was super close to something, and some of you agree with it. I don't. I think that they were not very good offensively,

and I think they were about to hit the meat of a schedule, and I think they're going to end up eight and eight, maybe nine and seven, but they were not a Super Bowl contender. They were not really a legitimate, you know, win a couple of games in the playoffs contender. That's not what they were last year at six and three. And by the way, when they say six and three and others say six and four, all right, it's not six and three. Alex Smith, if he stays upright in the Houston game, they're going to be six and four, all right? But they think, you know, that's when they were close and that's when they had a damn good culture. And in their own mind, they were close last week against Minnesota. They were close the week before that against San Francisco.

And if they can get their six and three, they say six and three, I say six and four quarterback next year, they probably are also thinking, hey, you know, Jordan Reed, if we can get him back healthy and just keep him healthy, how many times have we heard that? Hey, how about Eric Flowers? He'll be in year two of the Callahan system. We feel pretty good about that. Landing College, year two of the Minusky system? You know, being a part of Greg's system, he'll be even better. They like Bill Callahan, too. Bruce does. So anyway, that was more of sort of a trying to connect the dots. I don't know anything with respect to Alex Smith, but I think that Alex Smith is part of what they're hoping will be the 2020 plan. And that's why they can

be super patient with Dwayne, because Dwayne's not going to be the starting quarterback here next year. It's going to be Alex Smith. And if it's not Alex Smith, and they figure that out by March, then they'll try to re-sign Case Keenham for another year, for another one-year deal. Boy, great times, excitement, you know, in the future, Aaron, with this football team. Cannot wait for some of this stuff. One last thing, sort of Redskins-related. Did you see Joe Thysman on Twitter last night?

I didn't. Okay, so I love Joe. Most of you know I love Joe. Joe's the quarterback of our first world championship. And Joe's a great guest, and Joe is so generous with his time whenever I ask him to come on the show. He's always been great. So he was tweeting his ass off last night during the baseball game. He's a big sports fan.

Joe's a huge sports fan. He's rooting for all the D.C. teams, which is awesome. Love that he is. But in the midst of the game, he sent out basically a turd that landed in the punch pole tweet. It read as follows. You know, by the way, let me give you a couple of lead-ups to it. You know, go Nats. Just jumped out of my chair.

Way to go Nats. Hey, what a great ride they took us on. What a great sight for our fans. And then he tweeted out, and by the way, ended up being the biggest response to any tweet he had all last night. Hoping the skins can ride this wave of enthusiasm into Buffalo and get a win. Oh, Joe. Oh, no.

Joe, you didn't read the room very well. I love you. You're the best. Wait, did he delete that? I don't see it right now on the timeline. Oh, I have it up. Okay. I have it up.

Yeah, at Thys and 7. Oh, there it is. Yeah, I see it now. Hoping the skins can ride this wave of enthusiasm into Buffalo and get a win. The one team that didn't congratulate the Nats earlier in the post-season. Well, actually, the Redskins put out a big thing, go Nats yesterday. Go-N-NATs yesterday, but that was after they faced the criticism after, I believe it was the NLD. So if you want to have five minutes of entertainment, go to the Redskins' Twitter account,

look at the responses to them wishing the Nats good luck, and go to Joe's Twitter account and look at the responses to Joe saying, hoping the skins can ride this wave of enthusiasm into Buffalo and get a win. By the way, I do like Joe. And if Joe were on with me right now, I would say, Joe, you basically took a dump in the punchpole. You do realize that. And I'm sure he realizes it after the fact, because here were the responses. And they came fast and furious.

If Dan Snyder owned the skins in the 1980s, we'd have no idea who you even are. All right. If only decent, intelligent people ran the organization instead of Dan and Bruce, wish you could talk some sense into Dan Snyder into firing Bruce. Then don't kill the mood, Joe. Buzzkill, my friend. Why would you do that, Joe? Then, you know, love you, Joe, but then you've got, you know, all these, you know,

gifs and gifts of, you know, Jerry Seinfeld. I'll tell you, I don't see that happening, Joe, going into Buffalo, and you've got a bunch of different, you've got the one gif where you've got the hot chick walking away from the dude with his girlfriend, and the dude's got D.C. on him. His girlfriend has redskins on him and the hot chick walking ways, the gnats. And of course, you have all of the hashtag fire Bruce Allen stuff. Let me find a couple of other good ones. I mean, it's just it goes on and on.

You know, a lot of it's just, you know, oh, Joe, I hope they get blown out and the realization of Dan Snyder that this team will never have this kind of season under his leadership only intensifies. Here's another one. I'd rather lose every game 60 to nothing until they're bankrupt, and that disaster known as Dan Snyder is forced to sell the team. Joe, I love you, but the skins have not shared any love with the mystics caps or gnats. They keep thinking they own the town.

Anyway, it just goes on and on and on. It's hysterical. I mean, poor Joe had no idea. I don't think what he was in for when he sent that tweet out. And who knows? probably Joe is probably not even looking at the responses, although I think he did actually. I think he may have responded to that one. Oh, he responded to somebody who said, don't kill the mood. He said, not trying to. I'm just hoping. Anyway, that was that. All right, that's enough of that.

No smell test picks tonight. I think I would lean Arizona tonight, but I'm not going to play it. I'd probably lean West Virginia tonight a little bit at Baylor, but I'm not playing those. games. I'm probably not going to play anything. I'll have a full smell test tomorrow on the podcast. Thanks to Aaron for hanging out with me today. Tommy, he'll be back tomorrow because he was on a plane today. But we'll be back tomorrow to preview the NFL weekend and we'll have some more Nats talk with Tommy as well. Have a great day.