The Kevin Sheehan Show - Kendrick!

Episode Date: October 10, 2019

Kevin opened up with the Nats's Game 5 win in LA. Thom was at Dodger Stadium last night and called in from Los Angeles. They finished up with some Skins' talk. <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. You're listening to The Sports Fix. This is deep to center field. Bellinger's back. It's a grand slam. Howie Kendrick with a 10th inning grand slam to break it open. Wow. It is 7 to 3, the former Dodger, breaking hard. Arts of Los Angeles. That was Ernie Johnson and Jeff Frankor last night on TBS. Last night, one of those moments, one of those games that will endure for years to come for sports fans in this city. I try not to get overreactionary to the recent. You know, it's like the thing we do in sports in this day and age, in politics in this day and

age. Everybody's sort of, you know, a beholden to recent events in comparing them. and exaggerating them is the greatest things they've ever seen. Last night, though, come on. Howie Kendrick becomes an unforgettable all-time figure for sports fans in this city. What happens moving forward is important. The opportunity is huge, but nothing that happens the rest of this month will ever replace howie Kendrick did in Game 5 in Dodger Stadium last night.

Tommy's going to be with us from Los Angeles. I'm giving him some extra time to sleep in. It was a very late night for him. He'll probably be in a terrible mood because I'm waking him up sorely. So I'm going to give him 15 minutes to sleep in, and I'm going to talk about this game here momentarily. Aaron is out. Claude Jennings is in. It's good to see you, Claude.

It's been forever. And he's going to be helping out today, and we'll get to Tommy in a moment. Look, this season and everything about the nationals this year, starting 19 and 31, the surge to the postseason, the comeback win in the wild card game over the Brewers, with the Juan Soto hit and the subsequent error in the eighth inning, all part of a team that is already destined to be distinguished in our minds as the nationals team that will remember. This is the furthest they've been since they got back to D.C. It came to D.C. I hate all the comparing, by the way, to what this franchise did in Montreal.

I don't give a shit what it did in Montreal. Like, that doesn't mean anything to me. Like, what Washington baseball history is, is it goes back to the senators and the nationals of the early 20th century through mid-20th century, turned into the senators, moved once to Minnesota, moved a second time to Texas, and then we didn't have baseball for 34 years. When they're rolling out the expose, you know, old film of the last time they won a series, that doesn't mean anything to me, that the franchise. that the franchise came from Montreal. This is the first time in Washington baseball history since 1933 that a professional baseball franchise is going to play a Best of Seven series. Since 1983, that's 86 years.

We didn't have baseball for 34. I understand that. But wow, what a finish last night. What a game. It had so many pieces to it. And now it leads to an NLCS series against St. Louis starting tomorrow night, 808 first pitch. I'm guessing that it could be Scher or Annabelle Sanchez or maybe even Corbyn. As we're recording this, no decisions been made on the starter.

They're going to face St. Louis, by the way, because St. Louis scored 10 runs in the first inning of their fifth and deciding game yesterday against Atlanta to advance to this moment as well. another chance, by the way, for the Nats to get revenge for past playoff, you know, meltdowns. The Dodgers meltdown in game five at home and the St. Louis meltdown, the first time they were in the postseason in 2012, is an all-time Drew Storren moment, that ninth inning with guys like Pete Cosma and Descalso, etc. So they get a chance at St. Louis, avoiding, by the way, a matchup with Atlanta that I think a lot of people would have been concerned about because the Braves sort of own the Nats this year. St. Louis won five of seven against the Nats this year. But I had Ray Knight on the radio show earlier,

and he's like, none of that regular season stuff matters. You know, the postseason is its own entity. And look, the Nats aren't throwing out their normal bullpen, right? They've been using starters out of their bullpen. Dave Martinez's approach to this postseason, to this postseason, excuse me, has been aggressive, and for the most part, it has worked out. So last night's game was really, again, game that I sort of broke down into chapters like it was a book. Claude, this is how it went, because there was so much to it. It was, you know, chapter one, the pitchers. One was really good, and one wasn't so good. Walker Bueller was excellent. Stephen Strasbourg wasn't. The second chapter, the Nats hang in there. You know, they're down three nothing. It could have been worse. I'll get back to

that in a moment, but they hung in there with Strasbourg still in the game. They got to run. They didn't get it didn't get away from them. And then chapter three would just be titled Kershaw. Wow, what a moment. Soto, Rendon, Rendon first, Soto second, back to back, and Kershaw is sitting there in the dugout by himself with his hands in his head. One of the lasting images of this postseason. One of the real incredible images that I don't think people in baseball will ever forget. One of the great all-time pitchers completely, it's by himself isolated, devastated after giving up a two-run lead in three pitches. That's chapter three. Chapter four then is Howie Kendrick and the Grand Slam that finishes off the Dodgers

to win the game. So back to Chapter 1. Strasbourg really was not very good. You know, Bueller was dominant. Strasbourg wasn't. Strasbourg could not find the strike zone early on. curveball wasn't anywhere near good enough. That first inning, to get out of that first inning was incredibly fortunate. How about the way the game starts off? The game starts off with a Jack Peterson what we thought was a home run, but it actually went through the door into the bullpen and one Soto saw it. I don't know that anybody else saw it. Soto saw it. If Soto hadn't seen it, I think it would have just been a rule, ruled a home run. Now, it turned out to be not a big deal because Muncie hits a home run in the next at bat off Strasbourg and two hitters up and it's a

two nothing Dodgers lead. And then he walks Turner in four pitches. And then you get Cody Bellinger, who by the way was just dreadful in this series. The National League presumed MVP if Yelich isn't, and I think we're now learning. Rendon's the best player. He's a better player than Bellinger with the game on the line. Bellinger strikes out, Beatty singles and then strikes. Strasbourg gets Seeger to ground into a double play. That's a huge moment in this game. When you're watching this, I'm thinking this has 4-0-0-0-0 written all over it in the first inning, and he gets out and it's only 2-0. That is a huge get-out-of-dodge before Strasbourg is replaced because it could have happened. Third inning, second inning, here comes Hernandez in a lead-off home run in like two pitches.

All right. Then you get Peterson back up in the second inning. He singles. But Strasbourg gets out of that inning with just allowing one run. Meantime, Bueller is just mowing everybody down, except for Strasbourg, who he inexplicably walks in the top of the third. But Bueller's got his stuff. And really three nothing in that moment in that first part of the game, it felt like it would hold up. It felt like it would hold up. You know, who knew that when. the Dodgers got three runs in the first two winnings that they wouldn't score again. They wouldn't score the rest of the way. That was really the first part of this game last night. Bueller, great, Strasbourg, not great.

And then came the second part of the game. And that was the Nats hanging in there. You know, Strasbourg's starting to really pitch well. You know, he gets through the third with giving up, you know, he gave up a one base runner because of another Kendrick error. but he gets Seeger to strike out again. Then he's really good in the fourth in his first one, two, three inning. Then he's really good in the fifth in another one, two, three inning.

Strasbourg keeps him in the game. Now, there was a moment in the fifth where the gnats are down three nothing. It's the top of the fifth. Suzuki walks, bottom of the order, Taylor singles to right. You've got two base runners on with Strasbourg due up. Who didn't think that Dave Martinez wasn't going to pinch it? at that point with Cabrera or Matt Adams or someone. For Strasbourg, you're down 3-0 at that point.

You're in the fifth inning already. You've got to get runs. And Dave Martinez says, nope, Strasbourg's staying in the game. And maybe because the runners run first and second with nobody out, he's going to use them to sack bunt those runners over. And Strasbourg tries against Bueller and is unable to do it and gets out. He bunted foul on his sixth pitch. He actually was ahead in the count at 3-1, and I remember thinking he's going to get a pitch.

He can bunt right here on 3-1, but I think it was Jeff Francoor, who's calling the game, said, you've got to take here. What if, what if Bueller walks Strasbourg, and now you've got the bases loaded, and you didn't have to worry about pinch-hitting for Strasbourg, and you get to keep him in the game, and he got to first base without creating it out. Anyway, he ends up fouling out on a bunt foul with two strikes. Turner strikes out. Eaton flies out and the fifth inning opportunity is dead.

They get nothing out of it. And I was thinking in the moment, I think Davy messed this thing up. Should have pinch it for Strasbourg. You needed the runs. But Davy was right because Strasberg still had a lot left in him. And he shut down the Dodgers in the fifth, shut him down in the sixth. Meantime, the Nats were able to create a run with the heart of their order. The Rendon-Soto connection was brilliant throughout.

I mean, what a series both of them. had what games they had last night. And they got that first run and it's three to one and Strasbourg gets out of the sixth and the Nats have a shot now. But, you know, here's the talk. It's going to be Kershaw at some point. You see Kershaw out in the bullpen and that brings up the third part of this game, which you would just title if it were a book, Kershaw in all capital letters, because it is one of the moments that baseball fans are never going to forget. A Hall of Fame pitcher, a first Ballot Hall of Fame pitcher, who came in, keep in mind, he comes in in the seventh to face Eaton with two on and two out for Bueller, and he gets eaten on three pitches.

And if you saw him when he walked off that mound, there was a lot of tension, by the way, there was a lot of angst with Kershaw coming into the game. A lot of Dodger fans, and I was following it on social media, a lot of Dodger media people, they didn't have the faith in Kershaw. It's not the same Kirshaw anymore. And when he got eaten, there was this huge sense of relief that Kershaw had come in, gotten a huge out, and now they could go to Maeda, or they could go to a normal bullpen rotation for the seventh, eighth, and ninth inning.

But that's not what Dave Roberts decided to do. Roberts decided to bring Kershaw back for the eighth to face the heart of the Nats order, starting with Rendon and then Soto. And by the way, in the bottom of the seven, That started the process of the Nationals relievers. Rainey gets an opportunity to come in and face two batters. Who wasn't nervous about that? And he gets Smith to pop out.

He gets Taylor to fly out. And then here comes Corvin. A lot of people didn't think Corvin was going to be available. And remember his last outing, six earned runs in game three. Although Ray Knight told me, and I felt the same way, that he didn't pitch poorly. I know it's hard to say you give up six earned runs that you didn't pitch poorly. They just made some incredible plays offensively. Now, he made one bad pitch in that game three to Hernandez, who clocked one,

you know, that two-run double. But Corbyn comes in and Corbyn gets four straight outs in relief, an amazing, four straight outs in relief, another starter coming in for Dave Martinez in the postseason to get big outs. Corbin didn't do it on Saturday or on Sunday, excuse me in game three, but he does it last night. And then you get to the eighth, and here comes Kershaw. Now, I was surprised because I figured he's going to come in with, you know, Bayez or Maeda right there. I mean, Maeda is the guy that they could not hit in this series. And he comes out with Kershaw, and Kershaw gives up the home run in two pitches to Rendon. Now you've got a leftie coming up in

Soto. It's still a one-run lead for the Dodgers. And you've got that guy Kolarik in the bullpen, been used as the get-soto out guy. And he's gotten him out three times, two-one strikeouts and once on a ground-out. And he leaves Kershaw in there. By the way, the Rendon Homer was not a bad pitch by Kershaw. That thing's a fastball low and outside, and Rendon reaches down for it and strokes it out. That's greatness by Rendon. And that was not a mistake pitch by Kershaw.

But the Soto slider that he leaves up and hanging, Soto Homer's, He demolishes the ball. 449 feet. I think I heard last night, and maybe it was from Scott on the radio show, Van Pelt, who joined me on the radio show today, that it's the longest home run ever hit off Kershaw in a postseason game, 449 feet.

Kershaw had never given up back-to-back home runs in the history of the regular season for him. He did it last night for the second time in the postseason. He's got a very difficult post-season record for a Hall of Fame pitcher, and last night was his worst moment by far. Back-to-back home runs. I put it on Dave Roberts. I don't think that he should have ever pitched a Soto.

Forget the lefty-lefty crap. You had Coloric in the bullpen who was the get-soto out guy. You had Maida who you should have started the inning with. This isn't second-guessing. This is first-guessing by a lot of people. Dave Roberts put Kershaw into that position. Kershaw ends up giving up back-to-back home runs, a 3-1 lead in the images of him isolated in that dugout with his head and hands

are images that really are going to never be forgotten for baseball fans, for Dodger fans in particular. It's probably outside of Washington. The biggest takeaway from last night's game was the Kershaw meltdown. For baseball fans, you know, and most of them would say, how did Dave Roberts put him in that game? He got the one out, he had the confidence, you've got my eight, they couldn't hit him. You've got choleric for Soto after Rendon homers. Never got to him. Then Maeda comes in and strikes out the remaining side. At that point, Dave Roberts had to think, oh my God, why didn't I just come out with Myeda? That's not second guessing. There was a lot of first guessing on that stuff. Dave Roberts was a big part of the storyline last night, a huge part of the storyline last night.

He did not manage his bullpen well at all. Again, most people on Social media in particular, we're saying, what are you doing? You've got Maida. You've got Chaloric in there. The lefty that throws sidearm. That Soto can't hit. It's still a three-two game. Are you serious?

You're going to leave Kershaw out there after Rendon just drilled one and two pitches off of them? And it did not pay off. The Soto, the Rendon and Soto back-to-back, the two of them last night, you know, combining to go five for nine, three RBIs. Rendon, in the final two games of this series, down two games to one, four for seven, four RBIs in this series. He was brilliant. And by the way, completely outplayed the MVP candidate that is apparently above him in the

MVP race, Cody Bellinger, who did have a very good last at bat. And when he got on via error or a base hit, he was an absolute monster on the base paths. he stole two bases last night. He had an incredible catch on a deep shot by Kendrick early in the game. But overall, in this series, Cody Bellinger, the MVP, ended up in this series. Where is it here? I had it here. Four for 19.

Not good enough. Four for 19. No RBIs for Cody Bellinger. Cody Bellinger, by the way, has never hit a home run in a postseason game in Dodger Stadium. For a guy that good, that's remarkable. I thought he choked in this series. I thought Corey Seeger choked in this series. And then came the final chapter of last night, and that is Howie Kendrick.

You had to know last night that the opportunity for the Dodgers, when the Nats had tied that game up, was in the ninth inning. Because if they didn't get it in the ninth, they were going to have to face Rendon and Soto again in the 10th. And that was in the moment last night, given the way they were seeing it. That was going to be a problem for the Dodgers, and it was going to be advantage Nats. And in the bottom of the ninth, you had Will Smith, the catcher, take one deep to right field off of Hudson who would come into the game. And everybody thought it was over. That ball was apparently gone and out. You see the Dodgers players coming out of their dugout, climbing over the railing to celebrate.

You see, and it's one of those things when you're watching it on TV, you're not exactly sure. you usually look for a reaction from the outfielders to see if it's gone, or listen to the crowd, or listen to the announcers, obviously. And that one all pointed to, this game's over, and it stayed in the park. And it was caught, and it was an out, and then this guy, Taylor comes out, lines out, and now you go to the 10th, and it's advantage Nats. And he brings in Joe Kelly after Kelly had pitched in the ninth, Dave Roberts did. And he still has guys like bias.

He still has Kenley Jansen his closer. About to face Eaton, Rendon, and Soto. He leaves Kelly out there. That's a killer decision for them. He walks Eaton. Rendon hits the ground rule double. They intentionally walk Soto, and they leave Kelly in there to pitch to Kendrick,

and he knocks it over the center field wall, 410 feet game over. Grand Slam, 7-3, all-time post-season moment. The first grand slam in extra innings in a decisive game on the road in Major League Baseball postseason history. Howie Kendrick forever. Now, in sports fans' memories for an unbelievable moment that surpasses the Jason Worth walkoff in game four of their first ever playoff

series against St. Louis. It surpasses what Juan Soto did in the wildcard game. Howie Kendrick is an all-time DC sports figure. You know, we get caught up in the recency, and you know, that people like me sometimes speak in massive exaggeration and hyperbole. Last night's not hyperbole. That's a grand slam in a fifth in deciding game in October against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium by a guy who had another error last night,

guy who has struggled in this series but has always been clutch, and he did it against his former team. What a moment. I'll tell you, just one last thing. I could not believe that Joe Kelly pitch to Kendrick. I couldn't believe personally that with Soto up and two men on, that he didn't bring Clark in at that point to pitch to Soto with two guys on. He had Eaton at second, Rendon.

I'm sorry, Eaton was on third. Rendon was on second. First was open. And the play typically is you got first base open intentionally walk, especially when it's somebody like Soto. But it is no outs. and you got a guy that can get Soto out and has owned Soto in this series. If he could have gotten a quick ground out or a punch out, you would have been better off.

Dave Roberts said, we decided to walk him, and I decided to leave Joe Kelly in there because I thought I could get Kendrick to, I thought I could get a ground ball out of Kendrick and a force at home, and then I was coming with Jansen against Zimmerman, who would have been up next, had Kendrick either gotten punched out or grounded out without a run scoring. And then he was going to come with Jansen. which, by the way, he didn't do it anyway. At that point, down 7-3 after the Grand Slam, he still didn't bring in, he still didn't bring in Kenley Jansen.

Unbelievable game. I was a little bit nervous with Doolittle in the 10th. I'm not going to lie to you, but with a four-run lead, he was safe there. I mean, if he had come in, if it had been a solo shot by Kendrick to give him a four-three lead, I would have been much more concerned about Doolittle in that spot. And I would have preferred, really, Hudson, to pitch

the 10th had it worked out that way and it didn't but what a baseball game what a sports moment for washingtonians and we've needed one here recently you know we really have needed one um quick uh mention about my bookie dot com then we'll bring tommy in from l a if you're looking for a place to wager if you're looking for a place to play my smell test picks my bookie dot a g is a really good spot. Guys, you've got to trust me on this. There are a lot of these websites, a lot of these online sports books that you can't trust. You can trust mybooky.ag. Where you bet and with whom you bet is just as important as who you end up betting on or certainly close to it. You want somewhere where you can rely on them to pay you if you win and give you good lines and good vigs and good offers

in terms of the kinds of bets that you want to play, and MyBooky.ag has all of that. If you join now at MyBooky.orgie.ag, they will double your first deposit if you use my promo code. My promo code is Kevin D.C. That's K-E-V-I-N-D-C. Use my promo code Kevin D.C. To activate the offer of doubling your first deposit.

Now, just to give you a quick heads up, you can't just put in $100, have them double your deposit, and then pull it out. You put them out of business. You're going to be forced to wager at a certain level for a certain period of time before you're able to pull that money out if you take advantage of the offer. If you don't want to take advantage of the offer, then you can take the money out whenever you want. But if you take advantage of the offer, which I encourage you to do by using my promo code, Kevin D.C., they'll double your first deposit.

And it's early in the football season still. You're going to want to wager from now through the NFL playoffs, through the bowl season, and you'll have all of that available to your disposal. MyBooky.ag, my promo code, Kevin D.C. You play, you win, you get paid. All right, let's bring in the older half of the sports fix, Tom Levero.

Tommy's out in L.A. It's his second trip to L.A. in this series. He was there last night, and when we just called you, it sounds like you're not feeling well again. What the hell's going on? Is the travel getting to you, or you're worn down? Oh, you know, all these kids on the beat, they're all sick.

So they got me sick. So, I mean, it's just unbelievable. I mean, I was sick a couple of months ago. I'm sick again. And I might want to add, I'm the better half of the sports. Well, I know you would add that. I was just speaking to the age difference. I didn't speak to the quality between the two co-hosts.

in the situation. One goes hand in hand. Well, sometimes that's true. I don't know if your experience makes you better. I just, you know, but I'm not going to disagree with you being the better half, and I don't mind you being the better half. I enjoy this.

I enjoy being, I enjoy being the one with low expectations. Are you okay? Because you really do... Yeah, I'm fine. Seriously? No, I'm fine. You know what? You may have to become one of those columnists that can't leave your house.

Like you're in a bubble. You mean like you? Exactly. Exactly. I'm not a columnist, though. I'm not a reporter, nor am I a columnist. I'm not going to be that kind of guy. So I'll be okay.

I mean, I got two hours, two and a half hour sleep. And I got up just to do this podcast. You're the best. So quit your complaining. How good was it to be there last night? Tommy, seriously. I just finished sort of the open, and that was so much fun, so compelling, so dramatic, you know, typical of postseason baseball, and then on top of it, it's, you know, our favorite team,

and you want them to advance. It was just so good the whole night and the way it ended, and what was it like to be there? It was, it was amazing. It was, I mean, having sat through all the failures, the past and having written a story when they were down three to one, basically saying that, well, here's another one, you know, to add to the list, and then have that crushed by Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto, and then really crushed by Howie Kendrick's grand slam. It was a great moment.

I mean, it was, I mean, for Mike Rizzo and for Dave Martinez, I'm happy for both of them. The celebration, celebration wasn't as good as the wild card, and here's why, because the visiting locker room at Dodger Stadium is small, so they didn't have enough room to dance, as it like they did in their home locker room.

Yeah, it's a small clubhouse. And these guys like to dance. They like a conga line all around the room. But they were just elated, And it was, I mean, for Washington baseball, it was a historic moment. I was glad to be there. Yeah, it really was. I'm curious, and Scott was on with me on the radio show this morning, and he came on, you know, doing,

it was actually at the end of his Sports Center show last night. And I said, obviously, there's the perspective we have as Nats fans, Nats and media members, and for you, you know, on the beat, well, as a columnist, you know, covering it. Do you think, I asked Scott, what was the bigger? takeaway in terms of the bigger story out of last night. The Nats winning and the Kendrick Grand Slam or Kershaw, and he said it's not even close. It's Kershaw. If you were writing a national story, would you feel the same way? Yeah, because the Dodgers are a national team. I mean, the Dodgers won 106 games. They went to the World Series the past two years.

I mean, the Dodgers are a high-profile franchise. The nationals are not. I mean, the nationals have their own story, which is compelling the first round exits and the dramatic way they've exited in three or four of those first rounds with bizarre circumstances. But the Dodgers, they're the Dodgers. They do four million fans this year. You know, so, yeah, they're the bigger story in almost every situation. And Kershaw, he's going to be a Hall of Favor. Yeah, that's the part of it.

It's crucial, and the images of him, and I'm assuming you're seeing the same cutaways of him isolated in that dugout with head and hands devastated over what it just happened. Well, you're assuming too much because the only thing I'm looking at at that point is my computer screen. Yeah. I'm writing. So, I mean, there's a lot that you wind up seeing that I don't see, you know, because I'm consumed with writing my story and then getting down to the clubhouse. and seeing the celebration and getting quotes and stuff like that. So I didn't see that still this morning, the Kershaw on the bench by himself.

And, you know, he owned up to it, but he'll, he's maybe the greatest pitcher of his era, but his postseason record, I mean, it's the opposite of what, like, a Kershilling or even a Steven Strasbourg, who wound up pitching a pretty good game for them. Damn right. after basically almost cratering.

Strasbourg, the old Strasbourg, that's a 6-0-0 game. You're 100% right. One of the things I mentioned at the top of the podcast is that this game for me was sort of like a book with four chapters. Like the first chapter was the pitchers. One's really good and one's not so good. The second chapter is how the Nats hung in there with Strasbourg pitching well after the start. And Soto and Rendon generating a run to keep. keep him in there. And by the way, Rainey coming in and getting two key outs and Corbyn getting four outs.

And then the third chapter was just titled Kershaw, because that was the stretch of the game that will be unforgettable for the back-to-back homers from Rendon's and Soto. And then the last chapter being a grand slam by Kendrick, who had another error last night. You know, it was... Oh, you had a terrible series. I mean, it had a terrible series. Yeah. Yeah. But what was really... You know what's interesting.

What Davey Martinez did is the same thing that Dusty Baker did with Jason Worth. See, certain managers, they will stick with a veteran player, and it's usually managers who spent a long time in a major leagues on their own, like Dusty did. Like Davey played for 16 years in the major leagues. So he sees guys like Halle Tendrick, and he sees himself, just like Dusty did with Jason Worth. It didn't work for Dusty because Jason Worth didn't do what Hallie Kendrick did.

But that's the philosophy. That's not an analytic. That's something personal that Dave Martinez. He invested in Hallie Kendrick's experience. And he almost paid the price for it, but he wound up celebrating for it. Yeah, I mean, that's true. And you could almost flip it to the other side. say that that's why Dave Roberts put Kershaw back out there in the eighth inning because it was

Clayton Kershaw and he had a hunch and he had a feel and he had been through so much with him and that one didn't work out and by the way the one thing that I wanted to mention about going back to Strasbourg is that it was an interesting start because he really was on the verge of getting battered around much worse. You know to get out of that first inning with only giving up two runs was fortunate. You know, part of the fortune was that Cody Bellinger was terrible in this series. You know, and he had an opportunity to really do some damage in that first inning. But, you know, Strasbourg in that first, after giving up, you know, the two-run shot, by the way, after the Peterson ground rule doubled, that everybody thought was a home run,

thank God Soto saw it, because I don't know if anybody else would have seen it. Yeah, he kept Plainting out there, and we're thinking, what's he pointing to? Exactly. At that point, we didn't know there was a hole in the bullpen fence. Exactly. Even watching on TV, you had no idea what he was pointing to. And I'm like, did the ball get stuck somewhere or what? But I don't know that if he hadn't seen it, anyone would have seen it.

But Strasbourg, you know, gives up the homer to Muncie. Then he walks Turner on four pitches. And you're looking at, you know, I'm thinking, this is four, five, nothing. He's out of the game possibility. But he hung in there and he pitched great. and Corbin pitched great, and they hung in there, and it was just, it was incredible. You know, there were some real interesting moments. I know you don't love this stuff as much, but I'm wondering in the press box,

if in the fifth, when Suzuki walked and Taylor singled at the bottom of the order, and Strasbourg's coming up, and it's the fifth inning, and they're down three-nothing. Did everybody up there think that Davy was going to pinch it for him? No, nobody did. People figured that Strasbourg would execute the bus. and get them over. Yeah. At that point.

And he didn't. He didn't execute it. No, no. At that point, and go to who? I mean, Corbyn that early, I don't think anyone felt good about that. Yeah. Again, I mean, look, I mean, Dave Roberts, I hate to do this, but fans love to do this. It's how they keep score.

Dave Roberts got out managed by Dave Martinez. Oh, there's no doubt. I mean, from the first aid, when he brings in shirts, in relief the first game that they won, you know, this game two, and Dave Roberts said that that surprised him. He didn't expect that. Right. Right.

Well, he managed aggressively, but last night, and I know you hate to do this, but whatever, it's the actual part of the game that I enjoy the most. There was no second-guessing Dave Roberts. There was first guessing all night. By the way, just as an aside, Ray Knight was shocked that Strasbourg wasn't pinched for because he said Bueller is almost impossible. to bunt off of and Suzuki can't run anyway. And he was really, really in the moment, he said, very surprised and thought it was really the wrong move at the moment that you needed runs at

that point down three nothing. But anyway, that's as an aside. But Dave Roberts, leaving Kirsch-Haw face Rendon was chancy to begin with. But then after that home run, when you've got this guy Kalarik who has been the guy to get Soto out sitting there, or Maeda, whoever you want to go to, and to have Kershaw face Soto in that spot was he was first guest for that by almost everybody. Yeah, yeah. It was a tough night for him. That seems almost insane.

And what about Soto? What a star this kid is? And it's hard, it's not fair, it's not fair to Bryce Harper, it's not fair to Soto, but it's hard not to compare the two of him, because he's basically the Bryce Harper replacement. here in Washington. And through circumstances, you know, two different lives, two different circumstances. Bryce Harper was considered a star, you know, when he was like a kid. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was 16.

Juan Soto was an undrafted free agent from the Dominican where everyone's trying to hit their way off the island in poor circumstances. But what's ironic is, remember when Bryce Harper, initially in his first year or two said he wanted to make baseball fun again. That was one of his clothes. Well, the guy who brings the fun to the game is Soto.

I mean, his style, his temperament. Wright Harper may not be able to do that because of the burden of being Bryce Harper. It just may be too much. But Soto, Soto has made Washington, that clubhouse fun, he's made going to games fun. When I sit in the stands, there's the two most jerseys I see people wearing, Surger and Soto.

Yeah, I mean, you know, the Bryce Harper conversation, I mean, people are having it. I personally don't know if they would have done any better or any worse with Bryce Harper here, because the truth is in the postseason Harper actually came up as big as anybody else did, But you're 100% right about Soto. But let's talk about Rendon here for a moment. Because Rendon, in two do-or-die games, went four-for-seven with four RBIs and was nearly impossible to get out, no matter what the count was. No matter what the count was, you know, in the 10th, on that ground rule double, he fell behind two nothing.

And you're seeing the close-up as you're watching on TV. He's completely unfazed. He has a pulse. He has a pulse. rate of like 46. He is so calm and so smooth. And really, I mean, he is a star, Tommy, and he completely outperformed Bellinger in this series. Yes, you did. Yes, he did. And, you know, when, in situations like this, like I explained before, you're writing two or three stories at the same time. What were the two or three you were writing? Well, I'm writing, I'm writing that they lose,

you know, and I'm writing in that story that this was probably Anthony Redone's last game as the Washington National because he's looking at, you know, free agency on the horizon. When they tie it, I mean, I'm writing when they lose initially that they went down with a whimper, you know.

When they tie it, I'm writing a story as if, well, they fought hard, but then they lost, and then I'm writing the win story. you know, so you write a lot of things before you get to the right thing. But, you know, in the initial story, I'm writing on Dome. This is it for him. This was his last game.

And it turns out not to be the case. Now you've got their first week championship series. It's amazing. It is actually, you know, and the whole nature of the six games that they've played, There have been so many of, you know, we've talked about this a lot, and we didn't have a chance to talk the other day. I did not follow your Twitter beef, which Aaron told me and a couple of other people told me about the crowd for Game 4. You can talk about it if you want here in a moment. But, you know, you have to have these moments to become, you know, a huge baseball fan with your own team.

Like these October moments, the Milwaukee game, the comeback, the tension, the pressure, pitchers. by pitch. We had that last Friday night. That game Friday night, the Strasbourg-Kershaw game, which went four to and Hudson had the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. And Davy Martinez is walking, intentionally walking the winning run to the plate because he doesn't want to face Muncie. And then he walks the guy, they walk the guy in four pitches, was incredibly compelling. You know, the sixth inning in game three where the Dodgers erupted. And then last night, you know, these are the kinds of things. Baseball in the postseason is addictive for sports fans. It is high, high drama and so unpredictable, which makes it so great. Absolutely. And by the way,

I would have walked Monty every time he was up if they were runners on base. He's the most feared hitter in that lineup. I understand that. Not Bellinger. But you know what? On Friday night, if he was the most feared hitter in that lineup, which is true, if he hit a home, home run, the score was tied. If the next guy hit a home run, the game was over. I'm still walking. I agree with that 100%. I don't think. I would have loved to have been talking to you in that moment to see if you're being honest that you totally agree with walking Muncie. Ask Mark Zuckerman next time you have on the show. I said it way before that.

You're going to walk, you're going to walk Muncie and bring the winning. You're going to bring the winning run to the plate in a 4-2 game. You were the only person that thought that that was the right thing. It paid off, although really it didn't. Apparently, I wasn't the only one because the manager seemed to think so good. Yes, well, you great minds think alike, clearly. But I will tell you this, it really didn't work because the matchup he wanted with Smith, they walked him on four pitches.

But anyway, we digress there. What else from last night? Like, first of all, Tommy, where do they go tomorrow night? Who's going to start tomorrow night? It would seem to be between Annabelle Sanchez, Scherzer on short rest. Corbyn, yesterday would have been his bullpen session, which I guess essentially is what he ended up pitching last night and the four batters he faced. Who starts tomorrow night? Because that news hasn't come out yet.

Sanchez will be the starter. Do you know that for fact? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it'll be Annabel Sanchez, who pitched well for them. Yeah, he did. And there's one appearance that he made in this series. And look, we're entering a different time zone now, okay?

And that's a seven-game series. And this little magic trick of mixing and matching starters to cover up the hydr-your-eyes bullpen, that's not going to work over seven games. So does that concern you about the matchup with the Cardinals? Well, of course. The bullpen will bite him and the ass finally in this series. Yes. Yeah, I just don't think you can ask that much of these guys if it goes to seven games.

What they really need now, they need starters to go seven. That's what they really need. They need Sanchez to go seven. They need their starters to go seven. Now, Sanchez in September, three of its starts, he went seven or more in. Right. So he's capable of doing it. He did it a lot at the end of the year.

But that's the key for them pitching-wise is to get to that eighth inning, you know, with their starters in tech. Because I just don't see how, I mean, over a five-game series, it's short. You know, like Dave Martinez said, they weren't playing a five-game series. they were playing a one game series. Well, you know, in a seven-game series, you can't do that. You just can't. So, I mean, I'm not optimistic about a second-game series. I don't know.

I haven't paid attention to the Cardinals that much. I don't know what they're capable of and what they can do and what their bullpen situation is. But for the nationals, the success is starting pitching, stretching out to seven, and that offense. And so do you know. not going to sleep. Yeah.

Three, four. Yeah, basically. Their offense, not going to sleep. And in particular, their late-a-ting offense, which has really been tremendous of late. I mean, I think they really feel like a heavy league box, like a championship boxer. Like, they call the championship rounds, you know, like 10, 11, and 12. I think the max feel, which is ironic because the eighth inning was their heart. story, I added a bullpen this year, but offensively in the postseason, the eighth inning

has been their lucky charm. Yeah, exactly. Before we segue to the loser in town, the Redskins and the week that's been because we haven't had a chance to catch up together on this, any lasting locker room, you know, thoughts that you had, people that you talk to. else you got on last night? Well, I didn't get, I got down to the locker room late, and they were still celebrating, but it was hard to get it.

And I wasn't going to get soaked with champagne and beer, to be honest with you, because I didn't bring a rain, like, you know, the beat riders, they're used to this. They bring raincoats with them, you know, and stuff like that. I didn't bring anything like that. But I saw Dave Martinez as he was walking to the interview room, and I'd I felt good for him. I mean, this is a guy who was in the hospital a couple weeks ago, worried about his heart and his life. Yeah, exactly.

So, and to have, I mean, people had him fired. You know, he took over a team that had a popular manager, Dusty Baker, had been to the playoffs of the previous two years, and he never, ever changed. he had been passed over for seven managing jobs. And for this to happen to him, as good a guys you'll find at baseball, that was a great moment, seeing him and seeing him smile and how happy he was. So happy for him, and especially with the personal scare that he just went through as well. I hope he's healthy.

That was so nice because he really is a really nice guy. And he managed to win, brother, in this postseason. If he was going down, he was going down aggressively and with his best. And I think most people would prefer that versus, you know, watch Matt Williams back there with his calculator, you know, trying to figure out what to do and not feeling the game. You know, he felt the game really so often throughout the six games that they played, the Milwaukee game, and then the five against the Dodgers. Any stories about L.A.?

I mean, you've been out there twice now in the last week. you know not a lot anybody that you're hanging out with you know those things who am I going to hang out with listen you need your driver

you need me to be there that's what I need in the old days you know the bee riders you go out you know I go out

well nobody does that anymore you know it's a different it's a different era you've got these kids that that I don't know what they do, but they don't go out. You know, so, you know, there wasn't much, you know,

carousing around Los Angeles here. They're about to shut the power off here in L.A. today. Wonderful. Well, because everyone's worried in California about the, you know, the fires. Right. And they've come to the conclusion that some kind of electrical sparks from the power grid caused the, you know, the fires. these fires that, you know, burn half the state. So they had a power outage out in North

California, I think, the past couple of days purposely. And now they're going to have it here in LA. So I'm just hoping they don't do that before I get out of town. All right. Let's get to the Redskins. Let me first real quickly tell everybody about stamps.com. If you're a small business, like the Kevin Sheehan Show podcast, use stamps.com. It saves you time. It eliminates trips to the post office, and it saves you money. It's one of the most popular time-saving tools for small businesses. It eliminates all those trips to the post office, saves you money, and it's really easy to use. You simply use your computer to print official U.S. postage 24-7 for any letter, any package, any class of mail, anywhere you want to send it.

Once your mail's ready, just hand it to your mail carrier, drop it in a mailbox. It's that simple. With Stamps.com, you're going to get five cents off every first class stamp and up to 40% off priority mail. There are over 700,000 small businesses using Stamps.com, and if you want to use it, you're going to get a benefit from being my listener. And here's how. My listeners right now get a special offer that includes a four-week trial plus free postage and a digital scale without any long-term commitment. Just go to Stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of it. the homepage and type in my promo code, Kevin, D.C. That's K-E-V-I-N-D-C. Stamps.com, Kevin, D.C.

All right, since we did not do a show together on Tuesday, we should go back to Monday with Jay Gruden being fired, and then that gem of a press conference that Bruce Allen gave on that particular day. And then later on, Callahan, and I don't even know if you heard Callahan yesterday, but that's a segment on its own, which I can do by myself a little bit later in the show or at the end of the show if you didn't see it. But let's go back to Monday. Gruden gets fired, hardly a shock, and then Bruce gets up there, Tommy, and describe what your reaction to that thing was. Well, I think Redskins fans saw that there's actually something worse than watching this team

play. And that's what listening to Bruce Brown in the press conference. I mean, he was delusional, he was arrogant. I went back and looked at some of the times he spoke to, you know, in press conferences before like in 2014

in the famous winning off the field press conference. He was asked about the culture then, too. And he basically gave the same answer. I mean, he wasn't as succinct as it's a damn good culture. But he basically gave, I mean, you go back, And you read some of the quotes from his past press conferences.

He talked about the draft and how good the draft was back in 2014. He uses the same crutches time and time again. And, you know, I mean, he has no personal accountability, so there's no accountability, period. People say, where's the accountability? Well, he has no personal accountability. So, I mean, why would you expect the organization? organization to have any accountability or him to have any accountability to the organization. It just doesn't exist. Yeah, it was unbelievable. It was, it became so obvious at the beginning what they were

doing. They were doing their thing. They were not being accountable. They were being delusional. They were blaming somebody else. You know, it was so obvious with the comments about, you know, Doug and Kyle have done a great job with the draft. We got a really good roster and Bill's going to come in here and he's going to put new plan and new schedule. I mean, it just basically, you know, took, you know, an axe and cut Jay Gruden in half on his way out in the same way that they did with Scott McLuhan and Mike Shanahan. That's, you know, that's what they do. I said on the show yesterday, that press conference is your mirror into the minds of Bruce and Dan. It's never their fault. It's always somebody else. You know, now that Jay's gone, we're going to be great. The lack of self-awareness

of this organization is mind-boggling. And, you know, Tommy, it's also, you know, and I don't know if I even mentioned this yesterday, I probably needed you to make me think about it, but it was, to me, confirmation that Bruce ain't going anywhere and that Bruce has flimflam the owner. The owner's being sold. You know, they say very often that the easiest person to sell

is a salesperson, and Dan's apparently a very good salesperson. He's the easiest guy right now. He's being completely bamboozled by Bruce Allen. But then I think to myself, does Bruce even really know what the truth is? Like, is he just flim-flamming him? Or are they in this little world out in Loudoun County at one Loudon where, you know, the Harvest Fest crowd and the draft night parties and, you know, the road show parties when they go to a city where people haven't seen him in years? And they get duped into believing that that's like really their fan base. It's, like I've said to you before, it's arrogance and incompetence in combination. There's nothing worse in people.

There's nothing worse in a business. It never, ever works out well because you make mistake after mistake. And the arrogant part of you, the narcissistic part, the, and by the way, combined with the lack of self-awareness, never allows you to admit that you might be the one. that is the problem. You're the one that's making the mistakes. It's always someone else's fault. It's unrepeat this shit show. Unrepeat. Yes. Yes, it is. That's exactly the case. You hear the same story every time. I mean, how about the nerve when asked about the Patriot fans in the stands to blame the fans for selling their tickets on secondary markets? I mean,

that's what he did. He basically blamed the fans for selling their tickets. I mean, what kind of nerve is that? That, to me, was the least of it, because it wasn't nearly as direct, you know, as the hatcheting of Jay Gruden and putting it on somebody else once again. You know, he even had the nerve to basically, you know, answer David Aldridge's question about, you know, sort of this notion that they're never, you know, close. And he said, well, you know, last year. See, and that's part of the flim-flam with Snyder. It's like, Dan, we were six and three last year, and then we had all the injuries. We have a really good team.

Doug and we're drafting well, which, by the way, they're really not drafting that well. No, they're not. And he said the same thing five years ago about how good they're drafting. It was the same defense. Yeah. It's, you know, and of course, the famous line, last night, by the way, I tweeted out late in the game. I tweeted out, the Nats have a damn good culture. And the bottom line is, you know, he's become Vinnie Serrato with the sound drops.

He may have more of them at this point, winning off the field, we're close, and now we've got a damn good culture. That was such, Scott said in his thing, he said, he couldn't have shown more lack of self-awareness if he had walked to the podium nude than that particular line that he used. And it's really remarkable. You know, by the way, one of the things, I'm not sure I have the answer on the following.

If he's just flim-flamming everybody, you know, and trying to, you know, pull the wool over everybody's eyes as if everybody's stupid, and maybe the owner is completely buying into it, or if they really believe it in that little bubble that they're in, I think part of it is that they really do believe this, you know, that they really do believe. believe that it's not them. And how can you ever fix it? If you can't recognize what the whole

world of sports recognizes is that Dan is the worst owner in professional sports are certainly one of the three or four worst, and Bruce Allen shouldn't be running a car wash, let alone an NFL team. Now, what did you think of the questions at the press conference? Well, I thought that they were fine. I thought they were fine. They were fine. They were okay. But I'm going to give a little journalism diatribe here,

and particularly with this team and this guy in particular. There's this notion out there that if you cover the team every day, you can't really go on attack mode with management because you have to talk to these.

guys every day. I hear that constantly, and that's a fallacy. That is absolutely not true. I mean, if you are worried that you can't hold Bruce Allen's feet to the fire on a daily basis, because he will talk to you if you do, if you do, then you're working for him. I didn't really hear any of those questions in that press conference that would have led me to believe that somebody was walking on eggshells? No, they weren't. But the point is, where are they every other day? Compare the tone of the coverage of this team now compared to Rick Snyder when he was

at the Times, Jason Lock and Forer, Jason Reed. I mean, you know, you don't see that kind of coverage with this media corps. and we're at the point now where you shouldn't fear being shut out by anybody. Oh, well, you don't. I don't. Most people on sports talk radio don't. I'm not there every day. I'm not there every day.

I'm talking about that. I mean, there, look, it's not just there. I see it in journalism a lot, this idea that, well, you know, I have to work with these people every day. I can't drop the hammer on them all the time or else they'll shut me out. Then you've lost. Then you've lost. They need the people who cover this team,

they need to keep the heat on all the time. Bill Callahan needs to be put on the hot seat every time he steps to the microphone. Every time. You know, I completely agree with you. you. Well, let me, let me back up for a second. I, when we were owned by the, by the team, when the radio station was owned by the team, as you know, we were never told what we could say or couldn't say. We never once were we called about anything. When we were highly critical,

when we were calling for Vinnie Serrato to be fired or Jim Zorn to be fired or Dan to, you know, spack off. Now, our personal styles on radio anyway was not a personal. attacking style. It was more of a professional attacking style. We were never told to do anything. But I do recognize the, you know, the, the ability to, hey, if I want to get them for the big interview, every once in a while, you know, I'm going to have to promo something they're doing and put somebody on that I don't want to put on that's boring to talk about, you know, some big event. Like, I don't know that that's really the thing that you're talking about. With that said, though, like at this point, knowing what I know, knowing what you know, and knowing what the press corps as a whole knows, there's absolutely no benefit you get from this team from being nice. No, absolutely nothing. There's no benefit. These people are not sharp when it comes to public relations.

One of the things they consistently do to the local media corps is burn them by giving and leaking stories to national people. You know, so why would anybody ever want to do their, you know, be nice to them and give them a break occasionally? I don't feel that way. You know, I mean, look, my medium, your medium when you're on radio is different. You just say what you feel. And, you know, hopefully you have a lot of data to support the way you feel. Not everybody does. Some people just rant and there's no basis for the rant and there's no factual backup.

But I don't really give a shit what they think. And I didn't really give a shit personally when they owned us. You know, and I was doing the pregame show. I was part of their radio network for 13 years. And on pregame shows, I would be critical at times when it was meant to be. And they never said anything. But I don't know why you would ever think that there's any benefit to give them an occasional break. They don't give anybody.

Well, that's not true. They give your station got the benefit of having a lot of people, you know, be guests. on that station that they wouldn't even give to the rights holder. So there was that, and so maybe, you know, there was some benefit there. And you guys bent over backwards and basically, you know, with Lafamina, I mean, you saddled up in bed next to him like he was the next coming of Jesus Christ. I mean, that was repulsive there. I might want to point out that when you mean you guys, if you're including me, I'm the one

He said Brian Lafamina wouldn't be there a year. Hold on for a second. Let me help you out there because you know I'm not referring to you. And by the way, I think I said this on the show without you on radio recently when we were talking about, God, I can't remember with the subject. It was something about them. And I just said, Tom Levero, on the very first podcast that we did, said about Brian, Lafamina, I hope you didn't buy, and you rented, because once you admitted that there was no

season ticket waiting list, your days are numbered, you will not, and you said, mark my words, he will not last a year. And you're right. You're right. And I was with you on that. I'm like, of course not. They're going to hate him. And I, and certainly they did. Well, the whole point of this is I think they need, and whether it's, I think, if they put Bill Callahan out there every day now as the face of the franchise to speak, his feet need to be held to the fire for everything that's going on with that team. Did you see his press conference yesterday? I didn't see that.

Oh, Tommy. So the first thing he, so you know how Jay Gruden would start every single press conference with Brandon, Sheriff, not a participant at John Allen. Like he goes through the entire injury report. Bill Callahan comes out, and the first thing he says yesterday is I'm not a big fan of really talking about injuries. And then, you know, the practice was open briefly so that they could see, so the media could see like referees out on the field and players running wind sprints and different

things. Like all the sudden, I don't know if you knew this, but Lombardi's still alive and he's back and they've got the dolphins and they're going to go win 11 games. Look, I think Jay Gruden should have been fired last year when the season ended. I wanted a new coach. I've never thought he was a good head coach. He's average at best and he's really subpar in a lot of different areas. But this narrative that they are trying to pass on that Jay's been the problem. And Callahan, by the way, he's all in. And if you recall, and you probably don't, because you only recall things that you say on this podcast. But last year I told you that the Callahan Gruden thing is not going to work.

They need, if they're going to keep Gruden, they've got to get rid of Callahan. This relationship is not good. The run game, you know, suffers from it. Callahan's run scheme is really a shitty run scheme. And it's a bad thing. Well, you're going to see a lot of it apparently. I'm sorry? You're going to see a lot of it. Oh, yeah. You're going to run the ball now. Oh, yeah, you're going back to ground and pound 1970s football. But I, Callahan, all of them out there. You can see it over the last, you know, couple weeks. If we can just get rid of that damn Jay Gruden.

Hello, you hired him. You gave him a contract extension. And then, by the way, drafted a quarterback that needed a new coach, but you still kept Jay anyway. The whole thing is so mismatched. Okay. What about not playing half? It's repulsive to me.

It's just the, you know, here's what I said yesterday, and I would have said to you had we done this show on Tuesday. Here's the bottom line in these situations. If he doesn't play significant games this year on a loser team, it'll be unprecedented. A first round pick on a loser team not playing a lot. It'll be the biggest red flag. This is something we were talking about in training camp.

If he's not playing eight, nine, ten games and starting, it's a massive red flag, and you should assume that they'd done messed up with the 15th overall pick. Because here's the bottom line, Tommy, in this sport. And I've talked to a lot of people about this over the last month. If he's not ready to play, that's your problem. That's a coaching problem. Okay?

You can get almost anybody ready to play in NFL. game that's got talent. You can completely simplify a game plan. By the way, Callahan's just basically talking about hand in the ball off all game. I know. You don't think this dude can do that. Yeah, you don't think this dude can do that. If you can't get him ready to play, it's your fault, not his. Now, Callahan talked about he's going to get him additional reps. Again, another slight at Jay because Jay wasn't giving them reps. And by the way, Jay should have been giving him reps. Jay shouldn't have been here. This dude should have been getting all the reps in training camp.

But again, we knew that, you know, hey, Case Keenan comes out. They go two and two. Let's just stick with Case and let's – you're 0 and 5 now. And you're playing the dolphins. And so who said this to me yesterday or today? It may have been Michael Phillips today. He said, yeah, they didn't want to play him against the Patriots. And then, you know, you get the dolphins.

God forbid you put him out there and he loses to the dolphins. He can't play him again. I'm like, who can you play him? against. Like, you can't play him against a Patriots because you're afraid, you know, he's going to get his ass kicked. You can't play him against the dolphins because if he doesn't kick their ass, it's going to look really bad. No, it's a coaching issue with somebody like this. If they want to take a week or two and get him some significant first team reps, that's fine. And then the 49ers are here next week, and then it's the Vikings on a short week. Let me just tell you right now,

He's not starting at Buffalo in week nine, and for the rest of the year, they done messed up in everybody in the organization, but the owner and the team president know it. I'd be shocked if he's not starting by then, absolutely. I mean, that would be stunning. I mean, I agree with you. I'd come on board with that. He should be starting now at this point.

He should be out there because, like we've had the same discussion, them, they need to know if he can play in this league. I mean, they need to find that out. The only way they're going to find that out is by him playing. So I agree with you 100% on that. I guess, though, this is the end of the culpical error, isn't it? I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for your loss.

I know. This is the end. I mean, because it's Godfather's God. There's nobody there who particularly has any affinity to, played Colt at this point. But he's the backup, apparently. He's the backup at this point. And you know that you're going to see Chase Keenham in a boot, you know, probably within the next week or two, and then maybe Cole will get a chance to play again. Yeah. So two things. I want to come back to that in a second. I just wanted to make one thing clear, because I know people are going to sit here

and say, Sheehan, you just want him to play because you didn't think he was going to be very good, and you want him to fail. That's not true. First of all, I was impressed with him in the preseason. That doesn't mean very much. I want him to play now because I want to know something rather than nothing. The bottom line is if he's not ready enough to play now or next week, then you have to assume that they over-drafted the crap out of him. That, to me, would be a no-brainer. You draft somebody 15th overall and on a one in 17

with no future veteran quarterback or great Hall of Fame quarterback on your roster and he's not playing, guess what? You overdrafted him, period. And by the way, we should say the owner overdrafted him. But back to Colt for one second. I mean, seriously, Sunday,

what was he doing out there, Tommy? That was a freaking disaster. And it's what, you know, we've talked a lot about it, and you know my feeling is that Colt McCoy is a backup up and he'd be a six in ten starter if he could even survive 16 weeks. He was terrible. It was so bad. And it's so, and it's Jay's final, you know, sort of salvo. It's his final opportunity to fire, and he puts cold out there for that thing. That was terrible. You're going to tell me Dwayne Haskins couldn't have done at least that on Sunday? That's true. That's true. You're right.

You're right. You're absolutely right. By the way, just as I side to Jay Gruden, I thought he should have been fired after he lost to the Giants at the end of that season when they had to win a game. Yeah. And the Giants were basically a sparring partner. You saw everything that was wrong with Jay Gruden in that game.

That should have told you right there. He's not the guy. He's not the guy. And I thought he should have been fired then. But yeah, I mean, And no team had ever been that, you know, less enthused for a must game against a team that had nothing to play for. And, you know, the mistakes. And he got out coached by the guy who was out of a job next year.

Ben McAdu. It was, I mean, we could go through the list of them. I mean, the defensive coordinators that were hired. The never being ready for the opening of a season. The giant game at the end of 2016. You know, all of it. I mean, this guy was never built to be. be a head coach. But back to sort of the original thought here.

Firing Jay Gruden isn't going to change anything. And the Monday press conference from Bruce Allen was, you know, case in point. If you know this franchise and you listen to that press conference, you know it's never going, it doesn't matter that Jay Gruden was fired. It just doesn't. It was Gruden. It was McLuhan. They had Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVeigh, Matt LaFleur, all in the building, and they couldn't fucking see that they had actual real quality people, who by the way already knew the people they were working for were a-holes of the highest order. And at that point, you're like, look, we're going to be nicer now. We recognize, if you're smart, this is, we've never had this much talent on a coaching staff assembled in one building.

Yeah, the results haven't been great, but we fucked up with the salary cap. and actually I think it was an unfair salary cap. We got to give them time. We can't bail on RG. But no, what did they do? They picked RG3 over those people. I mean, nothing illustrates the incompetence more than selecting Robert Griffin III, empowering him over two Shanahan's Lafleur and McVe.

It's just moronic. And it'll never change. It's just not going to change. How many times have I told you? It doesn't matter who coaches his team. It doesn't matter who plays quarterback for this team. It just doesn't matter. I've said that repeatedly.

I've never disagreed with you. Yeah. Yeah, I just, you know, it would be nice if one day, you know, the owner looked at Bruce Allen in the eye and said, yeah, no, not anymore. But it doesn't matter because no one wants to work for. for him either. And by the way, this is going to be really interesting to watch this coaching situation, because I would actually take a flyer on Bill Callahan being the permanent coach, because ultimately they just couldn't find anybody that they liked to take the job,

or anybody that wanted the job that wasn't willing to commit to Haskins. You know, because that's a big part of this. This is the RG3-timey thing all over again. Like they had to hire, Gruden had to say, I can fix. and work with Griffin, and the next head coach, even if he doesn't believe it, is going to have to say, I can make Haskins work. And look, we don't know that he can't work, and we're not going to know that until he's out there. Right. Right. That is the one difference. But there's a lot of similarities between this and RG3.

Some of them are maybe beyond the kids' control, too. I mean, there are the people around him, from the owner to, the team president to who knows what. Let me just read something to you because I enjoyed this, and as long as I enjoy it, that's all that count. Exactly. In Facebook, I got a comment.

When I wrote my Bruce Allen column and posted on Facebook, I got this comment, I'm not going to give the guy's name away. He says, I have to be honest. I used to despise you on radio and reading your column, not because you are a horrible

journalists, because as I knew deep down inside, you were 100% correct. And just like the rest of the fan base, I didn't want to believe this could happen to our team. Yeah. I know. Look, I mean, you and I have both been through this where you get a bunch of feedback of, oh, my God, you're overly critical, you're overly negative. This team's actually, you know, much better than you think, and it's a great defense.

And I'm like, yeah, but they tried to replace the defensive coordinator. Did you not follow that story? like they may not have good coaches and they weren't very good on defense last year. And by the way, the one thing that came out about the culture comment, I don't know if you followed this, John Allen was on the station yesterday and said, it's actually the best locker room he's been in since he's been here. And so I've talked to Cooley, I've talked to a couple of other people who actually say that the players in the locker room, like there is definitely a positive vibe with good quality, you know, players and attitudes anyway, that nobody's bailing, that people get along, that people work hard.

By the way, did you know Doug Williams, you can check his time card? He's there very early in the morning. Yes. Yeah. When are they going to supply those time cards first? Can you just picture Doug Williams coming in, Fred Flintstone? and clocking in. You know, Doug Williams reporting for work, sir.

By the way, don't look at the owner. Don't look the owner in the eye. Did you hear that whole thing? We had heard that before, you know, about not being able to look the owner in the eye. LaVar Arrington told that story the other day on something. I read it. I didn't see it.

But anyway, I lost my train of thought. Well, that's okay. Let me take you down another track. Okay. You say they're not going to be able to track anything of quality. I think you're missing the boat. here. Rex Ryan, baby. He wants the job. Yes. Wouldn't you like Rex at Richkins Park? You know, if we're going to suck, and I can say

we're going to suck because I'm a fan, I might, I'd rather, put it this way, I'd rather have Rex Ryan than Bill Callahan. You know what I want. I'm trying to be realistic here. The people that think that Urban Meyer or Lincoln Riley are coming here, you guys are insane. There's no chance. And a guy like Eric B. Enemies probably going to have a better option, too. If Todd Bowles was available and was interested, you know, and came, by the way, Bowles isn't going to come here and work with Bruce Allen and the organization more likely than not. I do, I've been a Todd Bowles fan.

So you have two, I think, for at least a little while when you sort of jumped on my back on that one. That's so bogus. It's not bogus. I've been talking Todd Bulls up with you for years. That's like a Bruce Allen press conference. No, it isn't. You have incredible ability to sort of just, you know, rewrite history. But anyway, you're trying to talk it into existence.

Almost always in your favor, by the way. Like, when you rewrite it, it always comes out better for you. Anyway, I don't, we're so far away from that, you know. Because, in anyway, they don't think that it more likely than that's going to be an issue because Bruce said they've got their goals still available to be accomplished. They've got 11 games left. You know, why would they need a new coach when they go 9 and 7 and get a wild card this year? They won't need one.

That's true. I'm on the Rex Ryan bandwagon, baby. That would be fun. That would be a lot of fun. He and his brother, the day they hired him, I would just write, if we were sitting, there together at the press conference on a piece of paper I would write 4, 11, and 1. That would be the record. Anyway, okay, I'm done with you.

I appreciate you getting up. I want you to feel better, travel safely. Are you going right to St. Louis? No, I'm not going to St. Louis. I'm coming home. I'm not traveling when I'm sick. That's smart. You're smart.

It really is, because I only get sicker. You know, so I want to look, and if they make it to gain six and seven in St. Louis, I'll be there for those. All right. Well, get better. Have a safe trip back. I'm going to save you this week from the NFL power pole because I know you wouldn't be prepared and it would just anger you. And since you're not feeling well, I just want the stress to be at a low level for you today. Drink lots of liquids, eat some soup.

No, I've got to throw this away. I got my papers right here. I got my wisp right here. I've got to throw it away now. All right. I'll talk to you. I'll talk to you when you get back. All right, boss. I'll see you. He was upbeat for not feeling out.

So it's good. And it must have been cool to be at Dodger Stadium for that last night. You know, it's funny because you know, you heard him say like he's writing and he's got all these columns and he's, and at the same time, and he and I've had this argument before. I really believe that you get more from watching it on television than you do when you're at a game. Football in particular, basketball is a little bit different, because you really don't miss that much in basketball

and you're much closer to the action. And I love going to big hoops games, whether it's Maryland or the Wizards aren't going to have any big hoops games this year. But I think when it comes to football and maybe even baseball, some of that stuff is, you don't catch nearly as much when you're at the game. And the Kirshaw image of him in that dugout,

head and hand, multiple shots of that is a lasting image from that game. All right, real quickly, the NFL power poll that we do on Thursday, look, right now the best team in football are the New England Patriots. The second best team in football, still more likely than not, even though they lost their first game, are the Kansas City Chiefs. I just will tell you that they are not, they're improved defensively, maybe still not good enough defensively to win a Super Bowl. I think we have to consider right now the Green Bay Packers to be the third best team in the league with what they did in Dallas. A lot of that was self-inflicted on Dallas's part in the first half. And now you get into that four and five spot.

Do we have to start considering the 49ers as a top five team? A little early. It's still too early. Way too early. Here's the thing, though, Claude. They are super fast on defense. Nick Bosa is a monster, and they can run the football. They're averaging 200 yards a game on the ground.

I think the Saints you sort of put in there because they're going to get Breeze back here shortly, and Bridgewater's won three games in a row, you know, since losing that week two game to the Rams, you know, on the road when Breeze got hurt. They went to Seattle and won, and that wasn't really a Bridgewater game. They had a special teams touchdown. Had a defensive touchdown in that game. Beat the Cowboys in a defensive struggle. But, you know, the win over Tampa on Sunday was, you know, his first big moment, 26 to 34, 314 yards, four touchdowns, you know, did have a pick in that game. But they, you know, they rolled up like 470 yards offense and 31 points over

Tampa team that had just beaten the hell out of the Rams the previous week. So there you go. So it's like, you know, it's it's Pat's, it's Chiefs, it's Packers, and then you've got teams like the Saints. And the 49ers you have to consider, you know, you look around the AFC. I'm telling a team to keep an eye on, really, the Buffalo Bills are a good football team. They're a very good defensive team, and they're going to be a team that I think is going to contend for one of those wild card spots in the AFC. By the way, they've got a buy week, and then they get the dolphins, so they're going to get to five and one.

Then two weeks after that, they've got the Redskins with the Eagles sandwich in between. They could be a six and two football team at the halfway mark. They're really good on defense. Keep an eye on Buffalo. Cleveland was so disappointing the other night. Man Baker Mayfield's turning into a bit of a fraud, you know, runs his mouth too much, is short, you know, turns the ball over. I still think they're really good defensively, and they got weapons offensively. We know that. The Indianapolis win on the road was impressive at Arrowhead. Houston, good God, is Deshawn Watson a beast.

Five touchdowns. They've got, you know, they've got some really good players. I still think Dallas is good. You know, I'm not off the Cowboys yet after two straight losses. I don't they're a good team. And you haven't mentioned the Ravens at all. Are you done with them in the north? So they very easily could have lost that game on Sunday. And Pittsburgh would have been sitting there two and three tied for first. Instead, they're one and four, and there are two games behind the Ravens.

And the Steelers have obviously quarterback issues now. And I don't know what the issue with Mason Rudolph is, concussion-wise, if he's going to be available to play anytime soon. I'm not, before this year, last year was a, I was. was on the Ravens from the jump. I said, best defensive team in the NFL, you know, and I liked what they had coming back. And then obviously Flacco got hurt and they became this incredibly dynamic run, dual threat, you know, with Jackson. You know, he threw some bad picks and he does throw some bad picks.

He's also an incredibly dynamic player. You know, they're in a division right now where they should win it. But I don't think they're a threat to come out of the AFC personally. I think the Patriots are better. I think the Chiefs are better. I think the Texas are better. might be better. And then you've got, you know, teams like the Chargers who, you know, have the talent to be there. The Raiders obviously got a big win. That division's crazy. And I, I picked Denver to be the Sleeper team out of the AFC. They're one and four, but they very easily and actually should be three and two worst case. All right. Claude, thank you for doing this. Anytime. Really appreciate it. Claude does a lot of work for Tony and for Mark and for TOP and for all

podcasts in town. He's one of the best around, and he came in to sub in for Aaron today, who is on his way to Las Vegas for some sort of wrestling event. Anyway, thanks to Claude. Thanks to Tommy for calling in. What a night last night was. Back tomorrow, we'll preview the St. Louis series, and obviously we'll have a full Friday football show. Enjoy the day, everybody.