The Kevin Sheehan Show - Kam Curl Never Offered

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

Kevin and Thom today with some Commanders' talk to start including Sam Fortier's report that Washington never offered a deal to Kam Curl. Kevin had 3 NCAA Tourney "Smell Test" picks for the day. All three games are night games. The boys responded to the claim Cleveland Cavs' coach J.B. Bickerstaff made about being threatened by sports gambler(s) and discussed Shohei Ohtani's potential involvement in paying off a $4.5 billion gambling debt for his friend and interpreter. Dan and Tanya Snyder donated their Potomac, Maryland home to charity....the guys finished up with that.  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.

Hey guys, I'm really pleased to have a new sponsor to the podcast. Prize picks is the largest daily fantasy sports platform in North America. They're the easiest and the most exciting way to play DFS. It's just you against the numbers rather than you battling thousands of other players, including pros and sharks. Football season's over, but Hoops Action is heating up, whether it's tournament season right through the end of this month or the fight for playoff home court advantage heading. into the postseason, there's no shortage of high-stakes basketball moments this time of year. Get in on the excitement with prize picks, America's number one fantasy sports app where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code Sheehan, S-H-E-E-H-A-N for a first deposit match of up to $100. You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin She and show. He is Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. First day of the NCAA tournament's full-fledged schedule. 16 games starting at 1210 this afternoon and lasting until the very early hours of

tomorrow morning. There's been baseball on Tommy the last two early mornings with the Padres and the Dodgers kicking off the season in South Korea. By the way, there's a huge Shohei Otani story. It involves gambling. We will get to that. The show's sponsor, as always, and presenter, is Windonation. Call them at 86690 Nation or head towindonation.com. Mention my name. You'll get a free, no obligation quote. I want to just start real quickly with this note from Sander.

Sander writes, Are you upset that Washington didn't offer curl? Maybe this will change benefit of the doubt, Kevin. No, I'm not upset that they didn't offer Cameron Curl a deal. I don't know if you saw it, Tommy. Sam Fortier had a story yesterday, and he had a source or sources tell him that Washington was not interested in Cameron Curl, didn't make Cameron Curl an offer. The fact that Cameron Curl signed for, you know, peanuts really compared to what I think a lot of people,

including yours truly thought he would get, made people think, well, why didn't Washington sign them for that level of a contract? Well, apparently, and accordingly, according to Sam Fortier, they like Jeremy Chin better. I like Jeremy Chin. I think he's got a really good chance. I like Cameron Curl, too. But the benefit of the doubt is exactly this kind of scenario here, Sander. They chose not to offer Cameron Curl, even an offer that would have been.

you know, a fraction of what we thought it would have been a year ago to keep them. They've moved on. I'm giving Adam Peters. And by the way, in this particular case, Dan Quinn, the head coach, who is a defensive head coach, the benefit of the doubt. I don't have any problem with them not offering camera. Well, here's, I think, what a reasonable position would be. You can have an opinion as to what you think of the move.

You know, obviously you can have an opinion about anything. I don't think it's unreasonable to have an opinion. But deep down, you have to adopt the philosophy that until they have, until this new group has a track record of success or failure here, you can't really judge how their personnel decisions are going to work out. You know? I mean, they need to have, they need to have, you need to have something to look back on to say, oh, well, look at their history here. They have no history here. Adam Peters has never been a man in charge, although he was very instrumental in a lot of the 49ers personnel decisions.

Dan Quinn has had success as a head coach, and he's had failure as a head coach, but not here. So you've got to let that – you've got to play the hand that you've been dealt. You've been happy. You've all been elated that you've got this hand dealt to you. Now you've got to let it play out. at you. I'm just sitting here and I'm just, I'm really proud of you. You've come a long way in a couple of weeks from, you know, the rich guy search committee thing is a major red flag. And now

you're all in on giving them some time here. You got to let this thing play out a little bit. Wow. But that's what I mean, you can't have an opinion. I mean, look, I think everybody feels a little bit queasy about Marcus Marriota as the backup quarterback. Just a little bit queasy. And just feeling like they could have done a little bit better, but that's who they picked. So that's their guy. Yeah.

And sometimes it's actually not the first choice. I mean, it could have been like Dan Quinn, like a lot of you think it could have been their 18th choice, Marcus Marietta, like the head coach apparently was, which wasn't true. But in the Marioita case, it's very possible that really. Sam Darnold was the guy that they really wanted, and maybe somebody else that we haven't thought of. We saw the report on Sam Darnold. No, you're right.

Of course, you know, when it comes to players that we have, you know, watched and we have opinions on, we're going to have opinions. And there's probably going to be a draft choice and there's probably going to be another move that's made that I'm going to say, really? but the Cameron Curl move isn't a really move for me. Dan Quinn's the head coach. He knows what kind of defense he's going to employ. We don't know enough about what he's planning on doing defensively. I think Cameron Curl's a good player.

I don't think he's a great player, but I think he's a good player. But I think Jeremy Chin is a very good player too. And they got Chin on a pretty low risk, very low risk deal as well. And I actually think Chin's upside is, even greater. He's played at a higher level than Cameron Curl has. But that's not going to get me worked up. The Marioota thing isn't going to get me worked up either, because I understand. I am right. I am right about the Marioota thing. It's not something that... With the fans, you mean? Jump up and down about. With the fan. What about you? You.

There was a time in which I was a bit of a believer in Marioota to a certain degree. Now, from that draft, and I still, I'm hanging on to the possibility that James Winston one day becomes an all-pro quarterback because I really, really loved James Winston coming out. And there have been times when you've watched him play as an NFL quarterback and you're like, wow, he should be able to do this every week. But he's obviously past that point, I would think. You know, you never know. These quarterbacks, sometimes like Gino Smith,

It takes years. But the thing with James Winston is, like Gino Smith, actually, the talent was never a question. You know, Gino's size, talent, arm strength, never a question. Same with James. But James totally believed in himself day one, probably too much so. But Mario T's played some decent football at times. The thing that's always driven me nuts about Marioita is it's probably just that island personality. He's very casual. He's incredibly laid back. I'm not, you know, I'm not being critical of his

competitive fire. He just doesn't display it the same way, and he tends to play very casually. Like, the ball is never paramount to him, but he can play, you know, a little bit. Like, if you had to start him 17 games this past year, you wouldn't have been 4 and 13. I mean, I know some people think Sam Howell would have been better. And it's probably six in one half dozen the other to a certain extent, except for Mario D's experience. So maybe they would have been four and 13. I think Berset, it would have been a better option. Somebody emailed me the other day and said, why not Flacco as a mentor? Yeah, I mean, I would have loved Flacco, but, you know, they're going to try to get a quarterback in there that's somewhat similar to the quarterback they're going to take. And Drake May and Jaden

Daniels are both mobile quarterbacks. My whole point to bring up Marriota was the idea that you may not be crazy about a decision one way to the other, but you've got to let this play out. Now, here's what I don't understand, which is kind of bizarre. I mean, I understand to some level, but not really. I mean, they have, and I wrote about this in my column in the Washington Times a couple of days ago. I mean, they have taken a butcher

knife to Ron Rivera's roster. Just sliced it and diced it, like a butcher cleaned it a deer. Okay. Two of the guys who helped build this roster,

the roster that they can't wait to tear apart are still in the building. Marty Herney and Martin Mayhew. Now, unless we think that they were just pencil pushers in the Ron Rivera era, they were instrumental in building this roster that Adam Peters can't shove out the door quick enough. Yeah, I hear you. I have a different take. It's not significantly different. I don't view Adam Peters as just having, you know, dropped an atom bomb on the roster. I think that that's a bit of an exaggeration.

I mean, if he traded, you know, John Allen and Terry McCorn and, you know, put together a deal to ship Jamin Davis off for like next to nothing or moved on from, I don't know, somebody like, you know, a Diami Brown for a conditional sixth round pick, something like that. Like if those things were happening simultaneous with what he's doing with the 16 free agents that he's added outside of the four that he kept here, then that would be more of an indication of just how much he hated the roster. Look, he didn't love the roster. And we got, you know, wind to that when, when David Aldridge asked him during his introductory press conference about what he thought of the roster. And there was like a two and a half second pause. So I understand that. But really what he's done here is add, you know, players who were, for the most part, take Frankie Louvre and Bobby Wagner and Tyler Biotish kind of out of the equation.

He's added players who have been backups or they've been rotational players. Now, he's added them to need positions, and this roster had a significant number of need positions. and he's giving himself the flexibility to draft best player available, really, when they get to the draft. So they're not going to be reaching for positions. But the nature of these contracts tells you that while, yeah, he wasn't in love with, you know, a couple of the positions that had holes or certainly several of the backup positions, and they had needs for special teams, you know, kicker and long snapper, et cetera. but the contracts tell you that, you know, as Sam Fortier described, this is, you know,

these are bridge moves, you know, outside of Louvo and Beattish and Armstrong, and I think Bobby Wagner for a year. But anyway, he doesn't love the roster, that's for sure. But I wouldn't describe it the way you did. But there was a lot of roster fixing needed for sure. but the real significant fixes to the roster in terms of what it's going to look like long term if they're ever going to be a contending team, that begins really with the draft. And all of the picks that they have in the first three rounds and specifically what they do at number two.

Right. I get that. I know that. And some of the players, a significant amount of the players that you mentioned who are still here, Ron Rivera and the two parties had nothing. take the two with. True. A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, Terry, Duran, John, basically the three best players on the team were here when Ron got here. You know, there are some players too. I'm interested to know, and we won't know until, you know, training camp, and they start playing games. I am interested to know, to know what they think of, the last three first round picks specifically, you know, Davis, Dotson, and Forbes.

Because all three of those players do have talent. But are they going to be just, I mean, because if those three players don't become significant contributors in this next regime, you're talking about four first round busts. That's hard to do to go 0 for four. We all know it's a crapshoot. Even Great ones get the number one pick wrong.

But four times, that's hard to do. Now, I think, I bet you Dan Quinn has an idea for Jamon Davis. I would think that Emmanuel Forbes has enough talent and playmaking skills on a guy that just, you know, preaches turnovers, Joe Witt Jr. and Quinn in every place they've been, it's been about turnovers. and I think Dotson's legit. Like I still believe in Dotson. I think, you know, they haven't had a quarterback here. They had an absolute, you know, wretched offensive scheme situation last year.

And I'm not just talking about the scheme itself, just a lot of the shenanigans around it and what was going on there. So I think with, you know, a better quarterback play and a better offensive coordinator, I think Dotson should thrive. I do. And, you know, there were players last year that were talked about that didn't get the opportunities, like the receiver out of Penn State, the other receiver at a Penn State, Tinsley. He looked like a real receiver in training camp. I thought the two defensive ends, KJ. Henry in particular, I thought he looked like, you know, a decent pass rushers.

So there's a lot of, you know, you can't, you're not an expansion team. So you can't participate in an expansion draft to fill 90 roster spots in time for camp. So there's going to be the majority of those players were on the roster last year. But there's no doubt they needed DNs, they needed backers, they needed offensive linemen, and they needed some depth pieces too. And they needed, this is what was talked about four years ago, they needed a culture reset. in the way they see a culture being.

And that's why guys like Bobby Wagner and Dorrance Armstrong and Dante Fowler Jr. And, you know, the guys that had played, Tyler Beaudish, the guys that had played for Quinn or had been, you know, close to Peter somehow or in the deal. There's really no Washington football team news to talk about. They had the pro day yesterday. Apparently there was a big hug between Caleb William. and Adam Peters. Okay? So let's get to other stuff.

Do you want to do that? Okay. Yes, let's do that. All right. Smell test to start the next segment. Also, two big-time gambling stories in the news that really speak to a problem that a lot of leagues and a lot of teams and a lot of players are dealing with right now.

We'll get to all of that and more right after these words from a few. of our sponsors. This segment of the show is brought to you by MyBooky, mybooky.combootie.combootie. Kevin D.C. for a cash bonus on your initial deposit. MyBooky's got everything you need for the NCAA tournament. They've got game lines. They've got money lines. They've got total.

Each game has about 150 prop bet opportunities. The tournament itself has prop bet after prop bet. You can bet by bracket. You can enter contests. MyBooky's got everything you need for the March tournaments. Go to my bookie.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. I'm going to get the smell test out right now.

Oh, and one. I had last night, Boise State plus three loser. They were up 49 to 45 with three and a half to go and got pummeled down the stretch. So not a good way to start 0 and 1. Three plays today. And I hate doing this, but I'm going to give out two favorites. Kansas in one of the last games of the day is actually a game I really like. Rarely do you see the public just pounding a 13 seed like they are, Samford.

Kansas is hurt. They're banged up. They haven't been playing well. Samford apparently is a legit team that can really score, can really shoot the three. Kansas is laying six and a half in this game, and the public is all over Sanford. It's one of the biggest bet teams of the first two days of first round actions. So I'm going to take Kansas and lay the six and a half. And there's another favorite Gonzaga against McNeese State.

McNeese is a very popular pick. is a 12 seed. They're getting six and a half. The public likes McNeese. I'll take Gonzaga and lay the six and a half. And then Oakland, I'm not going to sit here and tell you I know much about Oakland. I know it's in Detroit or somewhere in Michigan, the university. They're getting 13 and a half against Kentucky. Publix backing Kentucky in a big way. They're sharp money on Oakland. I'm going to take Oakland plus the 13 and a half. So there you go. Kansas minus six and a half, Gonzaga minus six and a half, and Oakland plus 13 and a half today. I actually like more games tomorrow, and I'll try to get those out as early as I can as well.

Follow me on Twitter at Kevin Sheen, D.C., because I'll tweet these picks out before noon in case you haven't gotten to the podcast. MyBooky.orgie.ag, use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. So there are a couple of interesting stories out there. I'd like to start actually with the J.B. Bickerstaff story. J.B. Bickerstaff, if you don't know, is Bernie Bickerstaff's son. Bernie Bickerstaff longtime assistant coach, you know, at times a head coach in Washington. He was on the staff with Dick Mata, Tommy, when they won the title in 1978. Bernie really was like a true Washington bullet, you know, icon really for a lot of us,

because he was just in the franchise for so long. But J.B. Bickerstaff is the head coach of Cleveland. Cleveland's pretty good this year. And he was asked after the game last night. I think it was a loss to Miami. I think Miami beat Cleveland last night. He was asked to follow up on comments made by Indiana All-Star Tyrese Hallibur. who said recently that sometimes he feels like a, quote, prop, closed quote, as in a prop bet or just a prop for betters.

And J.B. Bickerstaff last night said, quote, they got my telephone number. They were sending me crazy messages about where I live and my kids and all that stuff. It's a dangerous game and a fine line that we're walking for sure. closed quote speaking to threats that he's received from betters from gamblers as the head coach he did say specifically about the person that had telephone number and where the kids you know were etc he said they they told security and the gambler was located no charges but they found them I don't know why there would be no charges that's threatening right there's some sort of charge there But anyway, he continued. I'm betting there's no charges because, you know, the cavaliers or the NBA don't want this stuff getting out.

Yeah. Bickerstaff said, quote, it brings added pressure. It brings a distraction to the game that can be difficult for players, coaches, referees, everybody that's involved in it. And I think that we really have to be careful with how close we let it get to the game and the security of the people who are involved in it. Because, again, it does carry weight. A lot of times the people who are gambling like this, money pays their light bill or pays their rent. And then the emotions that come from that. So I do think we're walking a very fine line and we have to be extremely careful in protecting everybody who's involved.

There's no doubt about it that it's crossed the line. The amount of times where I'm standing up there and we may have a 10-point lead and the spread is 11 and people are yelling at me to leave the guys in so that we can cover the spread, it's ridiculous. But again, I understand the business side of it and the nature of the business of it. But, I mean, it is something that I believe has gone too far. Oh, Adam Stern must have just been livid. Adam Silver is that. Adam Silver, I mean, Adam Stern. Look at that.

Just missed it. This must have been going nuts. I mean, this is the last thing they want an NBA coach to go out there saying. And, again, this is just conjecture on my. part. You know, for him to publicly talk about this, maybe because he was frustrated about the lack of a resolution going after the guy who was making the threats. Biggerstaff. Yeah, possibly. Yeah. You know. It's just possible saying that, you know, you mean we're not going to charge this guy? He threatened

my family. You know, I mean, the only avenue Biggerstaff had then was the microphone he had. I mean, this is very unusual for a coach to be this explicit about the dangers. And, I mean, it's a big statement. And then, kudos to him. I've been a big fan of allowing sports betting, legalized sports betting. I mean, I think that people generally in these kind of situations, when it comes to vices and pleasures, should be able to exercise them as they see fit, you know, without any prohibitions.

Okay. So I've always been in favor of legalized, and I always point out to people, you know, the rest of the world mostly has been doing this for decades. You know, there's been legalized sports betting and civilized countries around the world for as long as I can remember. That's true. And they've managed, and they've managed. and they've managed to survive, but they've had their share of scandals, too.

And this is something new that American sports is going to have to deal with. Yeah. So I would tend to push back a little bit on, you know, they should charge somebody who threatens a coach, period. That can't be tolerated. And it actually has to be out there as a deterrent. If they think it's going to hurt, you know, the participation in NBA gambling or, you know, any sort of legal sports books, you know, ad dollars coming the NBA's way, so be it. You can't threaten somebody or somebody's family.

And so I would hope that they didn't say, yeah, no, we've got it on tape or we know that you threatened J.B. Bickerstaff and his family. but we're just going to let it slide because, you know, the NBA makes a lot of money off gambling. I think most reasonable gamblers don't want anybody behaving that way. Look, I've certainly screamed at my television set many times. God damn it, don't take him out. We're up nine and we're laying 10. I mean, there's just, there's all of those moments. But, you know, I think a lot of this, Tommy, has been there.

I wonder what the overall demographics of the sports better is now compared to when it was illegal. Like if you were able to take 100 normal sports betters from 20 years ago and compare them to 100 normal sports betters now, I would bet that it's a less reasonable crowd now. Probably. I would say so because, again, one thing is, It operated in the dark before. Okay, so you really, in some ways, maybe you were trying to, maybe you felt like you

should hide it. You know, it was only within your circle. Now that circle has gotten a lot bigger of people who bet, and it's more out in the open, so there's more expressions of frustration and anger, and, you know, stupid comments and stupid acts like this. But this is part of, this is the way it's going to be, and you're just going to have to deal with it. You know, you can't, you can't deny an entire population, I think, of a pleasure that they

want to take part in because of a small amount of people that can't seem to handle it. I agree with that. I think, though, the naivete, and this is, I guess, my biggest thought. and it's several years running since we first started talking about the legalization of sports betting. The naivete of so many people in sort of influential positions.

Like, you know, we've talked about, you know, Ace Leonces, you know, Ace Rothstein-Leoncis, and just the incredible, either disingenuousness or the naivete around sports betting. You know, the idea, you know, early on about, you know, look, we're going to have the best of the best, and you're going to be able to bet from here and you're going to be able to bet from there. And, you know, nowadays, because of all the analytics and all the data that's out there,

you know, you can really, you know, you can win and you can make this, you know, a steady stream of income. And, you know, I'm probably not, you know, quoting him verbatim. But there was very much, I thought, with him and others, he wasn't the only one, this incredible naivete around sports betting and how dangerous it is. and how it is. Gambling is a sickness. People who are addicted to gambling have a sickness. Yes. That's a real thing. Yeah. And that's not something imagined. That's a real addiction. Yeah. And that's the part of all of this that has driven me nuts. And watching the proliferation of it as part of, you know, our sports consuming lives. You know, it's everywhere on every game we watch, not just the commercials. but it's, you know, the numbers are everywhere and the prop bed opportunity.

Look, we've all benefited from more people being interested in sports because they're now betting on sports. This has increased the number of people interested in sports and conversation about sports and conversations, a conversation about gambling and sports. So there's a, I mean, I'm not being hypocritical here. I've benefited from that, but I also really do because it's not from the school of theory. It's the school of hard knocks. I've been there with not only myself, but many, many friends where it can get really dark. There is a real dark side to gambling.

Do not gamble if you think you're going to do it for a steady stream of income. do it for entertainment and understand that you are going to lose. If you bet, you know, and you bet often and consistently, you are going to lose. The whole system is rigged against you. You're going to lose. The data that the AOL smart people have aren't going to allow you to quit your job and become a professional gambler. There are like six of those people on the planet.

You know, I did some research for my business of sports media class because we've talked about the impact of sports betting because it's created a whole industry of sports media within sports media. Oh, and those people are inseparable so many of them. Yeah, so, I mean, there are jobs to be had now in the business of sports betting and sports media. but you're much more well-versed than I am. But generally, if somebody is a successful sports better, they're successful maybe 52% of the time. 52.6% I think is the number where you start to break even, you know, typically. I mean, especially if you're paying minus 110 on losses or somewhere around there.

Yeah. Yep. That's, that's, that is generally, what the winners get, that amount. That's what it takes to turn a profit on, you know. I mean, it's different now, Tommy, because the pricing with legal sports books in particular tends to be very, very pricey.

But the industry around the expertise in gambling is hysterical to a lot of us. I mean, it's funny. Like, I mean, no offense to these people. I got offered. You know this. Five years ago, four years ago, I got offered a gig to host a four-hour, everyday show about sports gambling. Yeah, I know.

And I just said, it's just not what I would want to do is to sit there and go through every prop bet every night and tell everybody why I'm convinced that, you know, Tyrese Halliburton is going to score, you know, more than 24 and a half points tonight. The smell test is, you know, this little niche thing, and it's the way I bet for years. And but, you know, and it's done well, but trust me, it could have easily done the flip of this. Instead of being, you know, 56% over 17 years or whatever it is, it could have been 44% over 17 years. but yeah the the the content that's out there with what I would call because this is an old school description that tout business you know where back in the day call my 900 number or you know subscribe to my newsletter and you'll get you know my big 10 lock of the year for free and like all that stuff those people don't know any more than you know

honestly. And look, in some cases, some of these offerings and outlets have been sponsors on various stations and shows I've been involved in. And God bless them for creating a good company and a good business and helping people who, you know, haven't bet before. But in all honesty, they're not helping you get over the top. I mean, they're not over the time. If they were so good at doing this, They wouldn't be hosting a one-hour radio show at night, you know, that's syndicated to like 40 markets. They'd actually be betting themselves. Yeah. There's one other thing we should mention is the showy autonomy thing.

Yeah, so get to that. We could talk about that. Yeah. Let's get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, guys, if you're into DFS Daily Fantasy Sports, listen closely. Prize Picks is a new sponsor, and I recommend them. They're the largest daily platform for DFS in North America. They're the easiest and the most exciting way to play DFS because it's just you against the numbers instead of battling thousands of other players, including pros and sharks. You can now win up to a hundred times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks.

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prize picks, pick more, pick less, it's that easy. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelly's. Okay, well, now it's official. It's on the D.C. Gray's website. Shelly's back room will host the annual Cigars and Curve Balls Fundraiser for the D.C. Grays on Monday, May the 6th. From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Although usually winds up running until about midnight sometimes.

for these things because people like to hang around and talk and and and power out because it's such a great event. You go to DCGraise.com to buy tickets. You can buy tickets online. It's a donation for a worthy cause. And Shelly's has been such a generous host, giving us the bar to use every year to host the event. And Bob Matarazzi always makes a donation. to Shelly's as part of it and puts up one of its humin doors for bid

as part of the auction that we have of sports memorabilia and other items as well. So it's turned into a pretty great event. And last year, it got so crowded in the one room for Shelly's. They're moving us to the main room this year. We're going to be in the main room at Shelly's back room because the crowd was so big last year. And you look, you get the yummy, you know, you got to pay for your own drinks, which means you get to pick from the great drink selection that they have at Shelly's. You get three cigars as part of your $100 donation.

There'll be food there, appetizers from the great menu they have at Shelly's backroom. It's at 1331 F Street Northwest, easy to get to, and a great time. You want to be there. Go to D.C.Graise.com for by. tickets. You can find out more at shelley's backroom.com. The main room for the event this year. I can't wait

for it. Monday night, May 6th. Tommy gets so many people to come out to this event. Mike Rizzo has been there most years. Davy Martinez occasionally if the Nats are in town. Doc Walker and just so many people

end up showing up for it. So Monday night, May 6th for the cigars. Curve Balls event. So let's get to this story. A couple of stories real quickly. We are kind of moving through this show quickly today because the tournament starts. We're trying to get this recorded early today and get it out a little bit earlier. So the interpreter for Shohei Otani was apparently a bad gambler and lost four and a half million dollars to an illegal sports book, an illegal bookie in Southern California.

He's one of Otani's good friends, lifelong friends. Otani, basically, according to stories, paid the $4.5 million off for his friend. The problem with that is that he was making wire transfer payments into a bank account of a known bookie in Southern California. Not exactly a great idea. Nightmare scenario. Yeah. So there is kind of this major investigation. Initially, the interpreter was going to or did tell his story to ESPN.

Then Otani's people realized that, hey, wait a minute, California, this is not a legal sports betting state. It isn't at this point. So these bets were actually made through an illegal sports book. We can't have you out there telling your story. I'll let you pick it up from there. Yeah, Otani's lawyers, as soon as they heard the content of the interview that the interpreter gave ESPN, where basically he talked about his friend and employer paying off his gambling debts to a bookie. Otani's lawyers came out and said, no, no, no, no, that's not true.

That didn't happen. You know, that's not what happened. They're basically saying that, you know, that Otani didn't know anything about it, that this guy stole the money. And again, another nightmare scenario, this one for Rob Manfred, not just the gambling part of it, which baseball is particularly sensitive to, because it's the one mortal sin in the game. It's what keeps Pete Rose out of the Hall fame.

It's the 1990 Black Sox scandal. But it's their biggest meal ticket they've had in decades. Otani. I mean, it's the reason why they're opening it over in the Far East this year with the Dodgers, instead of opening day here in the United States where a lot of people think they should do. So this is a nightmare scenario that I think is only going to get worse for them, given the conflicting stories right out of the gate. You know, there's a lot we know.

There's a lot we don't know, but there's a lot we know already, and none of it's good. So his interpreter and friend said, quote, obviously he wasn't happy about this and said he would help me out to make sure I never do this again. He decided to pay it off for me. I want everyone to know Shohei had zero involvement in betting. I want people to know I did not know this was illegal. I learned my lesson the hard way. I will never do sports betting again. I never bet on baseball.

That's 100%. I knew the rule. We have a meeting about that in spring training. So he bet on international soccer, the NBA, the NFL, and college football is what he bet on. And then here's my favorite quote in the entire story at the Associated Press story. I'm terrible at gambling, never going to do it again, never won any money. I dug myself a hole and it kept on getting bigger and it meant I had to bet bigger to get out of it and just kept on losing. It's like a snowball effect.

Yes, you know what? There is nothing and there's no worse feeling than the chase, my man. When you're down big and you're trying to chase it back to even or something to a number that you can afford, that is really, really anxious living. But to get to $4.5 million is really, that's quite the chase. Like I'm sure there was like, you know, a bad stretch of like three or four weeks on soccer or the NFL or whatever. And he's probably, you know, I don't know what his personal wealth is. But I'm going to lose that much money.

He was betting, you know, this guy was betting certainly somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 to $25,000 a game. Somewhere in that neighborhood is probably, I haven't done the math on it, but that would be my guess. somebody that gets in the hole that much, you know, sometimes is wagering a lot more than that. Don't get me wrong, but it happened over a period of time here. It wasn't like you lost $4.5 million in one weekend. But it's like he had a bad stretch, and all of a sudden he's down like, you know, 800 grand. And he's like, holy shit. And then the guy, you know, floated him, I guess.

And he decided to put together a couple of five-team parlays to try to get it all back on like a 20 to one shot. And, you know, he's putting 10, 15 grand on that. And all of a sudden, now he's like, fuck that. I'll play straight bets. I'm going to bet a half a million bucks on four different games to try to get. And it just got out of hand. And eventually, I'm sure the book just said, and it wasn't at four and a half million.

I don't know where their cutoff number was where he had to pay or to be allowed to continue to bet. I'm assuming that it was less than a million bucks, which was the settle number. It could have been more than that. But, I mean, that is, that's tough, man. That is tough. And then this guy, the book, did you read his quotes?

He said, you know, he realized where the payments were coming from. He recognized the name on the wire transfer. uh, Shohei Otani, but he decided not to speak or mention anything about it as long as the payments kept coming in. Well, of course. There you go. Yeah.

Of course. Yeah. That's where the blackmail comes in. Well, that's where the danger is. Well, the smart guys are taking the wagers, not making the wagers. That, you know, he knew. But the idea is, it's, now that bookmaker, if the,

If the payments don't come in, he has something on the biggest star in sport. No doubt. And it would have been O-Honni. If he had gone to O'Tani or O'Otani's agent or that guy, if he had – look, if the guy owed all that money and couldn't afford it to pay it off, that's where the problems come. If O'Tani refuses to pay it off is then using this guy to get information on games, you know. And that's that line that you can't cross. Crazy.

We're going to finish up the show right now with this story. I don't know if you saw it. Nikki Gibvala from the Washington Post wrote about it early this morning. A story titled, Daniel Snyder pulls Maryland mansion from market, donates it to charity. Eight months after selling the Washington commanders, Daniel Snyder donated his mansion

overlooking the Potomac River in Maryland to the American Cancer Society, reaping what could be a significant tax deduction on a property that had been on the market for more than a year. So this is the property in Potomac, overlooking the Potomac River, the one where he cut down all the trees years ago, apparently a beautiful property, I've been told. He purchased it back in 2001 for $8.64 million from King Hussein and Queen Nor of Jordan. He added parcels to the property. It's a 30,000 square foot estate. And he put it on the market a year ago for $49 million.

No bites on $49 million. Six months later, they reduced it to $34.9.9. $9 million, and no bites on that either. According to Zillow, Nikki writes, the listing was removed this past Monday. Property records show that on March 7th, a development company which owns and operates real estate for the American Cancer Society purchased the home for $0.00. A spokesperson for the American Cancer Society said that the organization intends to sell the property and use the proceeds to advance our mission of improving the lives of cancer, patients, and their families. From the CEO of the American Cancer Society, Karen Knudson, we are incredibly grateful for the gift and the generosity cannot be overstated, closed quote.

So, huge tax deduction, obviously, by selling it, by donating it, excuse me, They would have preferred to have sold it for $49 million or $34.9 million, or maybe even $20 million. Who knows? What's interesting to me is I understand that the clean tell for a property of this size is a very, very small group. With that said, I wonder if the reason it didn't sell is because it was owned by Dan Snyder. and nobody wanted to buy a property that was owned by Dan Snyder. It's hard to believe because I'm sure there are people that would have had that kind of money that perhaps would have known nothing about Dan Snyder,

but I wonder if that had anything to do with it. I don't know. I got an idea for Dan, though. What's the idea? Old school, baby. Old school. Isn't that that movie Old school? Yeah, what about old school?

Where they turn the house into a fraternity house? Yeah, that's a good idea. What a beautiful property to have, you know, a frat house for guys in their, well, were much older than they were in that movie. But I love the idea. There you go. There you go. There you go.

A fraternity house. For Lost Redskins fans. Get Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn to get involved in it. Who else was in that movie? I can't remember. But how about the fact that he's don't. this to charity, all right? I mean, it will be a big tax deduction for him, clearly. Yes, I'm kind of surprised we haven't seen the divorce papers yet, to be honest with you.

I wonder, I'm not wondering about that, although that's interesting. I'm wondering what the taxes are on that property and on that house, what the assessed value of the property in the house is, a lot less, I'm sure, than what they were trying to sell it for. But that would be interesting to find out. But, hey, you know, good for the American Cancer Society. I hope they have more success in selling it for as high of a number as possible. All right, we're trying to get this podcast done and out. We are actually recording this early in the morning before my radio show.

So we're going to try to get this out late morning, early afternoon. Again, the smell test picks. I'm going to post them on Twitter, but it's Oakland, Gonzaga, and Kansas for the day. Do you have anything else? I got nothing else for you, boss. All right, we're done for the day. I'll be back tomorrow.