The Kevin Sheehan Show - Lovey Likes The Bolts

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

Kevin and Thom today with an eclectic menu of excellence which includes debating the difference between a couple, a few, and several. Plenty of Commanders' talk including early local TV ratings. Thom gave his Sunday pick and likes the Chargers. Baseball, Paul Toboni, and the Caitlin Clark story. For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match Want to spruce up your lawn? FastGrowingTrees.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I'm here. The show's presenting sponsors, always.

Window Nation. 86690 Nation, window nation. com if you need new windows. Tommy, this is from Paul to open up the show. Paul writes, hi, hi, Keb. Been listening to you since you started. And remember when you and Tom first started, love you guys. I moved to my mind.

Montana a few years back, but always listen to the pods. So happy you guys do it. Can't believe this is what's getting me to email, but did the guy who wrote for newspapers say, I think I put several with a couple? Is he serious? In what world is several the same as a couple? Thanks for taking my email. I'll hang up and listen. We got into that last week, or was it the other day? I can't remember. Did you say it was last week. You didn't say that several is equal to a couple, did you? I think you said a few. I think you said a few is equal to couple. I said a couple is two. A few is three and several is more than three. And a couple is two. Right. Right. A couple is two. Okay. Several according to the dictionary is more than two, but not many. Okay. what's a few according to A.I. Several means between three and five.

That's what... Very greatly, depending on context. I would think that several is more than three. A couple is two. A few is three. A few is three. And several is more than three. That's what I said the other day.

Did you say several equals a couple? No, I thought I said several. I may have. I don't know. I thought you said a few equals a couple, and I took exception to that. No, I did not say that. Okay. I know I didn't say that.

Well, then if you said it's... I know a few is three. Then I missed really jumping on you if you said several equals a couple. I don't think that you, I don't think that you, I don't think you think that. You are a newspaper man for many, many years. You're a newspaper man. You're not an editor. He's not an editor, clearly.

Have you read his word? You know? Yeah. I mean, is this, you know, some kind of ultimatum or referendum? Several? Come on. I have several thoughts about this. Well, go ahead.

Share them. If you might. If you might. Or if you may. Or if you will. We have two few. Well, I don't want to spend a few minutes on it. No.

You don't want to spend a few minutes on it. a few minutes on it? No, okay. We've got a couple of things we've got to get to. Yeah, we've got a lot to get to. I'm also going to read this from my guy Bobby in North Carolina. Bobby's been a longtime listener and a long-time caller as well. He said, Steve Souter is excellent. I'm more concerned about the defense now than I was before yesterday's film breakdown.

Yes, Steve basically, in his film breakdown of the Falcons game, said that this defense, is going to be the death of the team. And just and discussed not only the issues with the secondary, which he believes are basically coaching and personnel. He's like the coaching is not up to snuff. You know, I'm paraphrasing here. He said there's a lot of communication issues. There are easy ways to get people open against Washington's defense.

motion has been the thing over the two games that they've lost to Green Bay and to Atlanta that's really made them, you know, disheveled defensively, like any sort of motion they seem to not be able to handle. But he also said, I also don't see anybody that can just flat out cover. And so I ended up asking him towards the end of the show yesterday, what's the solution? Like is it as easy as saying, well, if you can't cover and you're going to be, you know, in that vulnerable space all year long with your secondary, do you just sell out and on every passing down, send the house and try to get to the quarterback and just, you know, die a fast death if you don't get there? Or do you sit back, play, you know, cover two, shell coverage, play everything underneath and play bend don't break? And he said, you know, Ben don't break probably would be the best of those options because you force a team, you know, into a long drive where a mistake is more likely with more plays.

And by the way, you get to the red zone and it becomes a different kind of a game because of the condensed, because of the condensed field. But he was not, he doesn't see a lot of obvious solutions against teams. teams that are decent offensively and said, yes, this is going to be the death of the season. He said, maybe they win enough games because of Jaden in the offense and they get to the playoffs, but they can't go anywhere with this defense. Well, they can't be worse than last year's defense, right? I think it would be hard to be worse than last year's defense. It's my opinion.

But they are playing better teams this year than they did last year. Well, that's true, although two of their first four games may be against two of the weakest offensive lines they'll face all year in the moment, although the Chargers are banged up this Sunday along their offensive line, and they took a pounding last week against the Giants. But could they be worse than last year? I don't think so, but it's possible, you know, with injuries, etc. I do think, and even Steve said, you know, that Sunday was a bad day for the front four. He killed Durand Payne.

He said something must have been wrong with him. He gave no effort. And he pointed to multiple plays for me to look at. He's like, I've never seen a defensive tackle of his stature get. His term was washed out the way he did on this play and that play. He said, something must have been wrong with him. I said he was not on the injury report before or after. You know, we've seen that from Duron.

We've seen the best be as good as it gets. and the disinterest occasionally, and that's been his issue throughout his career is his inconsistency. But to answer your question, I think through four games, I don't know if I can say that I'm sure this will hold up, but I do think that they're a better run-stopping team than they were last year. But it doesn't matter if teams decide, well, we don't need to run it against you because we can throw it. all day against you. Yeah, it's... Does he think it's more of a personnel issue?

He thinks it's both. He thinks it's both. Like, he's not impressed with anybody in the secondary. Nobody. He thinks Sanry still's not playing well at all. He thinks Latimore, obviously, is not playing well. He's like, Amos is fine. He's like the safeties...

He actually likes Jeremy Reeves. He likes Jeremy Reeves. he also in this film breakdown gave the lowest grade, the lowest grade on offense to the quarterback, Marcus Mariotta. He pointed out multiple plays in which Mariotta just did not execute at a level for a veteran quarterback. There were a couple of things like the intentional grounding, he said, was just horrible. The interception was really a terrible throw. He said it wasn't as bad, it wasn't as much of a bad read. It was just a terrible throw, and he rushed it.

And he had a couple of other examples as well. He said the cadence was wrong on a couple of plays. I thought Marcus Mariotta played really well Sunday. I didn't think he played as well as he did against the Raiders because he did make many mistakes. I thought he made a lot of plays. And Steve said he did make a lot of plays, but some of the negative plays were just too hard to overcome.

He gave him his lowest offensive grade. He loves Debo Samuel. He's like, you got Debo as long as he stays healthy and you get Jaden back, you know. It's interesting with him because he used to be a big skins fan, but he hasn't really been a fan in recent years for a number of reasons. and he doesn't watch anything other than kind of the red zone on Sundays. So he's really kind of delving into this team for the first time. And I think that perspective is actually a good one.

I think when you have no preconceived notions of what the coaches think of certain players or have talked about as it relates to certain players during the offseason, I think that that's interesting. But back to your question, no, I don't think that they can be worse defensively. but I think they could be the exact same defensively just in a different way this year, and that's going to make it, you know, once again, a season that comes down

to what number five does on offense. Well, he doesn't have, I mean, Steve Seater, with all due respect, doesn't have like super X-ray vision. No. He's seeing this. They must see this in the building, too, right? Well, his first film breakdown was of the Packers game,

and he basically said, you got to get Brandon Coleman and Allegretti. You know, they shouldn't be in there. They were terrible. And what happened the next week? Brandon Coleman's inactive, and Allegrety gets benched. You know, he had no idea that was coming. No, you're right. So what do you think they're trying to do to fix it?

We briefly spoke about the possibility of Dan Quinn taking over to defense. defensive play calling. Do you think that's a real possibility? No, do you? I don't know. I mean, I don't know how much that helps them if they've got a personnel issue. Yeah, I don't. I mean, it's a combo. It's a combo of personnel. He loves Frankie Louvo, too, loves Louvoo. And I told him, I said, you haven't even seen the best of Louvue, because Louvue was their best defensive player by far last year. Yeah, I don't know what the solution is. He didn't have a clear cut other than to say you might have to play a little bit more.

You've got to coach it up coverage-wise. You've got to have a plan on how you're going to handle motion. That was, I think, one of his early big takeaways when he started. He's like, you can't go into a game and be confused on how you're handling motion. He's like, you're either passing it off, you're locking in, or you're playing in and out. You know, it's not like there are a lot of options, and they didn't seem to know how they were going to play this. At least that's the way it appeared to him. You know, what's so ironic about this conversation, because it's just, it's so NFL conversation,

is that last week, after the Raiders game, people were talking about how great this defense is. I know. And the same thing after the Giant game. Giants game, too. It's so week to week. And all you can do is really evaluate the most recent game and say, well, that's what they were this week.

Maybe it'll be different next week. But they do have, it would appear, in the secondary issues. and they also don't have a dominant pass rusher, which hurts as well. Go ahead, what? They're playing an opponent this week, a coach, who certainly is seeing this and will know how to take advantage of it. Yeah, I would think so. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, and they... This is not bode well for Sunday. Yeah, but the, you know, it's about when you play these teams. I know, not who you're playing, They got their own issues. They got issues. I know.

They are banged up along the offensive line, and they got beat up last week by the Giants. There's a big difference, though, between the giant defense and Washington's defense personnel-wise. Major difference. Anyway, I got this from Dave. Dave writes, Kevin, thanks for the tidbit on Bill. I was going to wave them. Now I'm going to keep them. hopefully it'll pay off later in the season.

Now, he's talking fantasy. At first when Dave mentioned Bill, I thought he was talking about an email that I got yesterday from someone who wrote Tommy, is it just Bill or is it Bill Kroski-Mert? The whole thing seems weird, just wondering. Yeah, his name is Jacori Kroski-Mert, but he goes by Bill,

and people I have found don't know whether or not to just refer to him as if he's, He's earned the one name, the mono, you know, name or mononym or whatever it's called, or you should refer to him as Kroski Merritt or Bill Kroski Merritt. How are you referring to him in your columns, Bill? Or by... I refer to him as Kroski Merit. You do.

I mean, I try to, you know, yeah, I try to follow the style. Last name, that's his, that's the last name that he's going by. So that's what I try to do. It's cumbersome. It is cumbersome. Isn't it? Yes. It's not his fault, is it?

No, it's not his fault. He could fix it by picking either Kroski or Merit, but you know, names are personal things, and you don't know who you're going to offend if you do that within your family. Oh, I don't think the last name is the cumbersome part. There are lots of hyphenated last names in sports. I mean, they're all over the place. It's the, his real name is...

Jacori. Okay, that's fine, but we've gotten used to it over the years. But Jacori is his real name, but he said early on that he wants to go by Bill. And actually, when I was watching, like, after they drafted him and I was watching a bunch of stuff on him, the people that covered him kept referring to him as Bill. And I'm like, who's Bill? And then I, you know, I, I googled it. And he's like, I like to go by Bill for whatever reason. that's the part that's cumbersome. We don't know what the reason is.

I smell a column here. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no column here. I mean, I'm just wondering, is it a nickname? It's something like his grandmother gave him years ago. I don't know. Is it something the kids in the neighborhood called him? I think I've heard the answer, but it wasn't that interested in it. Because when I heard the answer, he was a seventh-round person.

pick. And I'm like, yeah, our fans think he's going to be great, but he's a seventh round pick. Well, maybe the fans got it right on this one, because he is good. I do like him. But anyway, Dave's email. Dave's... Wait. Wait. Did you ever have another name to go by? Like a nickname or something? Not really. See, I did. What was yours? I did. Woody. I think you've told me this before. Why was it Woody? Should I ask? Because when I wrestled, every night in practice, I wore an Ohio State t-shirt.

And Woody was a coach. But there's a whole segment of my life that knows me as Woody. That's funny. You know, people I went to high school with, the fraternity. When we would get calls on the pay phone in a fraternity out for Tom Laverro, nobody knew who they were talking about. Right. and when I see these people at, you know, the bumstock, there's a handful of them that still call me Woody.

Right. So maybe this is that kind of thing. Maybe that kind of thing. Maybe we should probably look into it rather than spending 12 minutes at this point talking about it. Dave's email was actually about this item from Dan Graziano's column on ESPN yesterday. He was at the game Sunday and on the sideline covering it for ESPN and obviously talk to a number of people. And he said they view, meaning the skins, they view Kroski Merritt as the most capable one of the three running backs to emerge as an all-around threat out of the backfield. And as he gains more experience, I expect his role to increase.

So if you have him on your fantasy roster, hold on to him. He's a good back. Everything I like, everything about him as a runner is exciting. And I like Rodriguez, too. I mean, I think we've all liked Rodriguez from the moment we saw him. So, yeah. Okay, let's get back to the more important issue here. Which is?

According to AI overview, Kroski Merritt is called Bill because as a child, his friend's nicknamed him Little Bill due to his very short, nearly bald haircut resembling the character from a children's TV series, Little Bill. But why don't we refer to him as Little Bill? Isn't that what Keith Hackman's character was called and unforgiven? I don't remember.

I think it was. Little Bill, what a great movie that was. So that's where it comes from. It's a friend. It's a nickname. It was a nickname. Yeah. All right. So, I have so many things written down here to talk about. I guess we'll stick with the football team. I had John Orrand on the radio show yesterday.

John was on to talk about the monumental exclusion from YouTube TV, meaning if you've got YouTube TV, you're not going to be able to watch the Caps and the Wizards games. and that appears to be at least a small issue. I don't hear like, you know, people banging down the walls at the YouTube building saying put monumental back on so that we can watch the Wizards. By the way, do you know that they had their PR day the other day? Yeah, I know. I'm on the email list.

I'm not on their email list. I don't know why I'm not on their email list. But I didn't. You actually act like they. I actually act like they exist. And I didn't know it until the day after. And I saw, you know, on my social media timeline, I saw these, you know, interviews with players.

I'm like, you guys got to do a better job, man. You got to let people know because all due respect, they are at the bottom of the barrel in this market right now. Like nobody's, you know, anticipating this upcoming 65 lost season. Anyway, back to John Orrin. But wait, but wait, just one thing about this. Ted's got bigger problems, other problems besides just being dropped from YouTube and Hulu. On cable TV, your monumental sports network on regular Xfinity cable, they've been moved to a higher-priced cable package.

So if you have to now pay more to watch Xfinity, to watch Monumental. You do? On Xfinity. Yeah. Now, if you go to cable, you have to pay more to watch them than you used to. Well, it seems to me like their direct-to-consumer offering at $20 bucks a month, my producer told me it was, but you can, if you get it for the year, it's like $179 for the year, that you would do that rather than buy the upgrade.

Oh, well, I don't know what the upgraded package would be. It might only be, you know, an extra $15 a month on contest. It might only be. Yeah. But still, I mean, he's facing some challenges for a product that his one product is very good, the hockey team, but a very small audience. And the other product, if it was good, would have a bigger audience, is just horrible. Yeah.

Well, it's a process they're going through. I didn't bring up John Oran so that we would talk about the Wizards and the Caps. I brought him up because he had local TV ratings information on our football team. And, you know, going into a season in which the, you know, expectations were super high, the anticipation for the season as high as it's been in a long time, I would have thought that, you know, the regular season would have been sold out. Now, the first two games did sell out, and I would imagine the rest of the home games will sell out as well. But the local TV ratings, an average through the first three games, he did not have Sunday's game.

the number is a 13. It's not good. And in fact, it's in the bottom half of NFL television markets and teams. Why do you think that is? They didn't do good numbers last year either, you know, while they were building towards, you know, a playoff run with the rookie of the year at quarterback. Their numbers were bottom third, I think. but why do you think that they're not, you know, killing it from an attention standpoint on television? And I know television numbers aren't the end-all be-all, understood.

But what do you think this is about? Well, I mean, the obvious thing would be twofold. One is the leftover damage from the Dan Snyder regime that it's deep-rooted and it will take a long time for that to overcome. and the second part is the name. Yeah, you nailed it. Those are the two big reasons. Of course, I agree with you. Those are the two biggies as to why the fan base hasn't returned en masse.

You know, a 13 average local TV rating. I know TV ratings locally aren't the end-all be-all anymore, but based on what they did last year, that's such a bad number. it certainly suggests that we are in this bubble that we've talked about for the last nine or ten months. It's gotten bigger, but it's still a bubble that we're living in in terms of all of us that talk about the team, root for the team, etc. It is not, the product has not lured back the mass audience locally that it used to appeal to. And, you know, you nailed the reasons. the losing for a quarter of a century, not just the losing, but the way they lost and the owner's

mistreatment of the fan base. You know, I've mentioned this number many times in the past because it was told to me back in 2018, 2019 by somebody who knew. But at that point, two-thirds of the fan base, two-thirds had evaporated, gone. Worse for them, by the way, was that among the two-thirds that had disappeared were the biggest spending consumers, ticket holders, fans that they had. Clearly, all of those people have not come back. Most have not. And they at this point haven't been offset by new fans. And of course, the name has a big role in all of this. And I know that there's eye rolling from a few of you when people like me say, you know, the name is still impacting the acceptance, the consumption of the team, because I think it's always been your contention that

winning would cure all, that winning would make the hurt go away and it would bring everybody back. Well, it hasn't, not as of yet. And a 13 average local TV rating is at least circumstantial evidence of that. But, you know, like I've said before, new ownership was, you know, between a rock in a hard place on this. There was never an easy answer. And the path that they've chosen, and I think they chose this path based on, you know, a great season last year, I think they may have ultimately chosen a different path, had the team gone, say, seven and ten last year without a superstar quarterback. But they've chosen this path that I think they believe that winning eventually over a longer period of time will ultimately result in older fans being replaced

by newer and younger fans. And what they're giving up in the short term, of course, is a much larger audience potential. I think even those of you who, you know, have been stuck on, you know, stop talking about the name. It's irrelevant. Nobody cares. I mean, the dumbest position. taken by anybody that's paid attention to what's gone on here over the last five years. But I think even, you know, those of you who feel that way would admit that if the old name were back, the audience would be much larger based on the team that they had last year. I mean, I would guess that based on the season they had last year, if they had a new name or

certainly the old name, so much more so the old name and the old uniforms that etc. I would say to you that the season ticket base would be full, sold out. There would be a waiting list after last year, especially given the capacity of the stadium now, and that the local TV ratings for the first three games this year would have been double, would have been mid to high 20s, would have been in a top 10, top, you know, seven of NFL markets for local TV ratings. And so they forewent that short-term, large, you know, bringing back the mass part of this fan base for, you know, what they believe, I think, eventually will become the same-sized fan base it used to be, but with different people in it, you know, a younger and newer group. but I'll be honest with you. I was shocked when John Oran told me what those numbers were locally.

I thought for sure we would see something significantly better than last year because they weren't great last year either, even as they built that 7 and 2 record and became a significant playoff contender with one of the most exciting young players in the league. I was expecting something different. I wasn't expecting, you know, what it was 10 years ago or 15 years ago, but I thought, you know, it was going to be at least in the top 30% of league television ratings locally, you know, somewhere around a 17, 18, 19, something like that, because they were doing 13s and 14s all last year. I'm surprised. I am. And, you know, again, if I didn't mention this, John suggested that it was the schedule, you know, opening with the Giants, one o'clock, the Packers on Amazon, the Raiders. I don't think that has anything to do with it.

I think that the opener, people could not wait in our bubble couldn't wait for the opener. And anybody that was really into the team couldn't wait to see them play a real game this year. Anyway, all right, that's all I got on this. Give me your prediction for Sunday. My prediction for Sunday, unfortunately, is not very positive for this team. I've got the Chargers winning 34 to 21 over to command. You don't have any faith in the sun? No, no, no, no, no, no.

Not when Debo didn't take the field yesterday. in practice, you know? Yeah, he was out. There's still no Terry. Yeah. There's still no Noah Brown. Right. Yeah, they were, they, I mean, you know, he's going to be interesting.

To himself. No, but he can, he can run around for a while and let people eventually get open, people we've never heard of. 3421 chargers. Traveling, travel, yeah, travel 3421, travel on West, against a team that's well coached, even with their own injury issues, a team that's going to be hurting,

like the Falcons were after they're lost to Carolina, the team that's going to be hurting emotionally, after they're lost to the Giants. Like Washington's loss to the Falcons. Yeah, I know. So I think it's a Chargers win. 34-21. You know, they're going out early. They're going to be out there tomorrow, practicing. Last time they went out west early, they beat the Cardinals 42 to 14.

Okay. Okay, that's good. I'll have my prediction tomorrow. It's going to be different than Tommy's, much different. You know, it's a big game for Jaden, apparently, because he's from L.A. Yes. You know, and he's got a lot of fans that'll be there. So it will be a big game for him. And he, he, obviously, there's no question. He must have been a bear for that coaching staff to deal with for benching him for two games.

They didn't bench him. He was, now you sound like to call her Sabah. She called it a soft benching. I doubt they soft benched him. I don't mean for benching him. I know, I know, for not letting him play her. I mean, he was clearly irritated. by that. You know who really appreciates it, though? Bobby 3 sticks. RG3 really appreciates the way this

coaching staff has handled Jaden's injury. I don't know if he's tweeted about that. I don't even follow him anymore. I don't think I do. No, I don't follow him. But he always kind of pops up somewhere. Didn't he? Yeah, I don't follow him either, but, you know, he has a lot of followers, so he pops up sometimes. Didn't he say last week, this is how you handle a young quarterback when he's injured, you know, something like that. You know, you've got to protect him. You know, it's clearly all about himself. Of course.

Per usual. All right. We got other things to get to. We'll start to do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. So, guys, if you're like me and you've basically been buying and wearing this same type of underwear for years, in my case, boxer briefs, same brand, same type for a long time. Well, not anymore for me. want to tell you about skims for men, something I've discovered recently, the softest underwear I've ever worn. I got a few pairs of the five-inch boxer briefs so comfortable, no matter what you're doing from sitting in a chair in your office to working out, they are so comfortable.

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exercise to go through before the winter months arrive. Wind donation is a company you can trust. They've got over 45,000 five-star reviews, and they were recently ranked highest on the Forbes list of best window installation companies. 86690 Nation, windownation.com. So Tommy, we've got three win or go home baseball games today. The first, we talked on Tuesday as the first game was underway. The Detroit Cleveland game one was. underway. We are recording this Thursday, October 2nd show, actually in the morning. So these games have not started. What have you thought of the first two days of playoff baseball?

I think it's been absolutely fabulous. Yeah. I mean, really must watch baseball. I mean, closely, you know, most, for the most part, close games. My picks are looking good still. You know, Cleveland managed to bounce back and win game two. San Diego, with their great bullpen, managed to come back and win game two yesterday. So, you know, those are my World Series picks and they're still alive. The Yankees Red Sox series has been absolutely riveting, with great pitching, some great base running, some bad base running.

Just really, really exciting. I just think it's been great baseball. It really, I was talking to a friend last night, and he's like, are you watching these games? I'm like, yeah. He's like, it's just every year. It's so good. And he said, it's what you say about the NBA playoffs.

Like, you can't watch the regular season. And if you watch the playoffs, it's completely different. And in baseball, it's the same thing. It's like riveting. And in baseball, you have, the, you know, the extended drama of in-between pitches. Like there's that late game. Now, the game, by the way, all the rule changes,

these games are so much easier to consume. Even in the postseason, they're just faster. They move quicker. So everything they did to improve the game from my standpoint works for me as a fan, especially this time of year. But the, you know, the base is loaded. and nobody out in game one against Chapman was unbelievable. You know, he had a four-out save.

Last night, story was up with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh. And that thing I thought was gone when he hit it. And I'm like, oh, my God, that would have been sick. The New York crowd's always so good this time of year, especially if they're playing, you know, there are tribal. The play at the plate last night in the bottom of the eighth to give the Yankees, a four to three lead. The pitching in the Tigers

Cleveland series, like Scoobles game one was amazing. Yeah, it's just, it's great. I mean, even last night, you know, because I stayed up and watched until they, you know, blew them out. They were up three, two. The Dodgers were in the top of the sixth inning.

And Cincinnati had the bases loaded with nobody out. And I'm like, they're going to take the lead here. You know, Cincinnati was by far in a way the biggest, underdog. Yeah. It's phenomenal. By the way, Otani's going to pitch

game one against the Phillies. That should be incredible. Talk about a heavyweight matchup. God. There, Dodgers Phillies on Saturday. So this is, by the way, the first time since 1981,

and you'll know the reason why. The first time the Major League Baseball playoffs have ever had three win or go-home games on the same day. And in 1981, Tommy, because of the strike during the season, they expanded the playoffs. But they had a first half winner and a second half winner. Exactly.

And Yankees, Brewers went to a deciding game. Montreal, Philadelphia went to a deciding game, and Dodgers Houston went to a deciding game all on the same day. So this is a good, day for baseball, man. Three o'clock, Tigers, Guardians, Padres, Cubs at five, Red Sox Yankees at eight. So you'll have, you know, you'll have Detroit, Cleveland, and San Diego, Chicago going on at the same time. They could have spaced them out better, but I'm sure this is all TV-related. And yeah, and then we get Otani on Saturday in game one in Philly pitching. Yeah. In-Conn versus Godzilla. Otani versus

Bryce Harper at that filling lineup. Yeah, all of them. Yeah. I mean, are you a believer that Otani's the best ever? I'm not willing to make that jump. Again, the best ever includes Babe Ruth, who did the same thing

that Otani did, you know, pitched and hit early in his career until they limited him to hitting. And he was one of the best pitchers, of his time, in addition to be one of the best hitters. And Josh Gibson, in the Negro League, I

always include him among the greatest players of all time. The greatest player I ever saw was Willie Mays, and he always has to be the conversation as well. Otani is a unicorn because he does both. He pitches and he

hits, but he's in the conversation. Yeah. It's a short conversation. You know? I mean, some people would argue it's Babe Ruth and Otani. I think it's a little bit bigger than that. Yeah, it's certainly for this era. It is pretty unique what he's able to do,

and it'll be wild to see him pitch. Now, when he has gotten starts, he has not, you know, gone significant distances, right? They kind of tend to pull him. a little bit early. I'm looking just to see what the, his last, let's see as a pitcher. And remember, he was coming back from Tommy John's surgery.

Yeah, I know. His last start, he went to... They nursed him along this year. His last start was September 23rd, so just a little over a week ago. And he went six innings in Arizona, gave up five hits, no run, struck out eight. Jesus.

91 pitches. That's the most of the year by far. So I guess he's set up for a legitimate, you know, six inning kind of a start if he's pitching well. Yeah. Yeah. He faced the Phillies on September 16th, pitched five innings, no hits, no earned runs,

struck out five, walked one. Got pulled after five with a no hitter. I don't remember that. I don't remember that. He got pulled after a no-hitter. I mean, I know that happens all the time now, but he had a no-hitter through five innings, and they yanked him. Yeah, baseball's been great. It's been really, really good. All right. You had a couple of things that you wanted to talk about, and so do I. I think we should talk about this WN NBA commissioner and what she said, reportedly about Caitlin Clark. We'll do that and more after these words from a few of our sponsors.

All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelley's. Well, again, just like Tuesday, Shelley's backroom at 1331 S Street, Northwest is the place to be today. If it's baseball shelley's again with three games, you know, winner go home games at Shelley's back room, this is definitely, these are definitely cigar games. right here. These are the kind of games that you go through, not with one, but two cigars for one of these games. Okay, these are two smoke games right here because they're probably to be intense, just like the ones that have been so far. You know, the Yankees Red Sox, you know, the nightcap is really the one I'm looking forward to the most because I'm curious to see what the Red Sox will do with their bullpen

after they pretty much spent it yesterday. But, you know, that's what the cigars are forged. To chomp through those issues, to chomp through those questions. You know, sit there with your guy up at the plate with the winning run at third base and whether or not, you know, he's going to bring him home or not. That's worth a few puffs on your cigar, and Shelly's had the best puffs you can find anywhere

because they have the best cigars you can find in the district. You can find out about their cigars. Their cigar menu is available for you to peruse at shelley's backroom.com, along with their food menu and their drink menu. So if you get a chance, if you're looking for a place in D.C. to watch some baseball today or tonight, head to Shelley's back room. I will be there tonight. Oh, you are?

They'll have the football on, too. They'll have the football on, too. a football game tonight. Yeah, they will. Okay. Yeah, I know, but I think Yankees Red Sox will dominate the... You think so? I guarantee... Oh, God, yeah. I guarantee... Well, at Shelly's,

I guarantee you that San Francisco Rams gets a bigger audience than Yankees Red Sox. How can it? It's on Amazon Prime. Oh, yeah. No way it will. It's on Amazon Prime, right? Yes. That's true. I forgot about that. Well, you're mouth it off, huh? Well, if it would have been... If it had been a Monday night game or a Sunday night game. If, if, if, if.

You know, it still wouldn't surprise me if on Amazon Prime, it gets, you know, a comparable audience. By the way, the 49ers are all banged up in this game with injuries. They are just, same thing that happened to them last year is happening to them this year. No smell test pick on the game tonight. If you want to bet on sports, my bookie is the place to go. Get there by going to the Kevin Sheeonshow.com.

slash my bookie and use my promo code, DC Relo, to get a 50% cash bonus. I'll have all of my smell test picks for the weekend on tomorrow's show. So you went to the press conference introducing the new president of baseball ops, Paul Toboni. Yes. So you got up early and went. Yeah, you got up early and went. I mean, I live in Frederick, which is two time zones away from D.C.

particularly during rush hour. Right. You know? So I left at 6.40, and it was a 9 o'clock press conference. I got there at 9.10. You did? Yes. Yeah.

Traffic. I got there at 9.10. This is, oh, that's incredibly unusual for you. I understand the start time threw you off. But if the start time had been 3 p.m., you would have been there at 12 waiting for it to start. So you were actually late for something. I thought I left myself enough time. You are never late.

I thought I left myself enough time. I know. You are the early person at the party every single time. Yes, you're right. Yeah, I am. Okay. All right, so what happened? Not yesterday.

You lumbered in there 10 minutes after it started? Anybody look around and say, oh, now we can start? That Laverro's here? No. Okay. No, I was very discreet about sliding in. and he handled himself very well. He seems like a very, and we got to talk to him after, you know,

the press conference and ask him questions, too. He's very confident, seems very nice, very, I would categorize him, seemingly a nice guy, he was very confident and capable of being probably a president of baseball operations for any normal team in baseball. We'll see how he does with the Washington Nationals. The question of, you know, basically, this question came up numerous times,

or several times. Let me use several times. Yeah. In the press conference and after the press conference, were you given any kind of assurances on the commitment that the fact the owners would make to spending? and his answer publicly was, I felt incredibly supported during the interview process.

Okay. And the same thing, that was the learner's response. Mark Lerner was pretty much the same thing, you know. This word supported. They had latched onto this word that that was going to be their fallback word to avoid having to say, yeah, we're committing to spending a lot more money, which they should do, like, tomorrow. Okay?

I mean, this is not a wait, you know, down the line thing. Although that's the way Mark Lerner put it, like he used to do with Mike and Arizona the last couple years, you know, when the time's right, you know, we'll put up the money, you know, how GM will come to us asking us for the money. The time is right now, okay, because they're to, a disaster. And I think most of the people in a room were like, do you really know what you're getting into?

He has to know. He has to. He said ownership. Yes, because all everyone in league knows. Right. About the stories about the learners and ownership. You know, and the assurances are kind of useless. But I think, but you know what?

But like I pointed out before, it can be done. Rizzo did it. Yeah. You know, he managed them and was successful for much of the time. So it can be done. So he must think, you know, he's got the skills to be able to do it. Yeah. I'm a little bit skeptical because there's no Ted Lerner anymore.

There's two big differences between when Mike was successful and now. One is the absence of Ted Lerner, no matter how the family was involved, there was still one guy that you had to. convince about something. And that was Ted. That was the old man, yeah. Okay, he had, yeah. And the second thing is that was the learners pre-COVID.

Okay? Right. The learners post-COVID. No doubt. Because of their own businesses, their core businesses. Yeah, that, because they're in the real estate business. Now they're in the vacant building business.

That, I'm sure, if they're human beings, and they are, that probably affects the way they do business and everything. I mean, I'm sure they've been taken a beating. Now, no one's going to have to hold a bait sale for the learners. It's still a filthy rich, but I think that affects their mentality. So those are two differences that this guy will have to deal with

that Mike did not have to deal with until the last couple years, and it affected his ability to grow the team as well. But he seems like a very nice guy. The learners should, the learners are lucky. able to land a guy like them with his credentials. And we'll see how it unfolds moving forward. I asked him if there with any kind of timetable. You know, he envisioned to when they should be competitive on the field.

And he pretty much declined to, you know, answer that question specifically. But, you know, it was kind of like... Was he impressive or not? very impressive okay very impressive so he won the he won you over

with his press conference yes yeah I would say he won the press conference now he's you know he's got a lot of this motivational speed going on oh boy

talked about you got to move the big rocks first and we want everybody drinking out of the same fire hose and you know that but not but not a lot of business buzzwords hopefully. No. Okay.

No, more motivational. Okay. That's fine. No, because he's a baseball. He's not, he's not a, he has an MBA in business, I think, from Notre Dame. But he's a baseball guy first. He played, he grew up playing baseball. He played baseball at University of California.

Right. So he's a baseball guy first. Right. All right. Well, you know. He's very capable. Um, all right. Uh, I want to finish up the show with.

this story about Caitlin Clark. And I'll try to summarize it and then we'll react to it for those of you that haven't heard about it or read about it. But it involves the commissioner of the WNBA. Her name is Kathy Engelbert. And it also involves a player in the NBA. Her name is Nefisa Collier. She plays for the Minnesota Links.

And the Minnesota Links, they got eliminated from the WNBA playoffs. over the weekend reportedly. And after the game, she held a press conference in which she eviscerated, Collier did, the commissioner, Kathy Engelbert. As part of that evisceration, she essentially said that Engelbert provides, quote, the worst leadership in the world, closed quote. And then she told a story about something that Engelbert had told her, Collier about Caitlin Clark.

So Nefisa Collier said that Kathy Englebert, the commissioner, said about Caitlin Clark, quote, Caitlin should be grateful she makes $16 million off the court because without the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn't make anything closed. quote. Per usual, you know, every media outlet that covers sports reached out to Caitlin Clark and she declined comment. By the way, if you haven't been following the WNBA and why would you? Caitlin Clark got injured in June and hasn't played since, and the ratings have plummeted without her playing games in the league.

Of course they have. So this comment by the commissioner, Caitlin should be grateful she makes $16 million. dollars off the court because without the platform the WNBA gives her she wouldn't make anything. This is, you know, the continuation of a league, players, coaches, executives, the commissioner, for whatever reason attacking the golden goose, you know, biting the hand that has fed them, that has resuscitated them. This is a league that for, you know, two plus days, decades lost money hand over fist and had to be supported and funded and kept alive by the NBA. And now, you know, this gift appears and for whatever reason, they've attacked her on the court,

they've attacked her off the court. We talked about, you know, something aside from the WNBA, just the fact that the Olympics did not include her on the team in the 24 summer games in Paris. how stupid that was, how short-sighted that was, the estimates are that it would have been in the tens of millions of dollars that would have been generated just through the sale of Caitlin Clark's Olympic jersey. I digress. It's been the WNBA that's been incredibly aggressive towards her, both in words and in actions.

This coming from the commissioner of the league. first of all, just so everybody understands, Caitlin Clark makes in salary playing in the WNBA, she makes $78,000 a year. You heard that right, $78,000 base salary for 2025. That'll go up to like 97,500 in 2025. And almost all of her endorsement deals, she has were signed when she was at Iowa. Some have been signed or extended since she's entered the

WNBA, but Caitlin Clark was signing multi-million dollar endorsement deals when she was a college player. She wasn't earning money from H&R Block, from State Farm, from Buick, from Bowes, from Nike, from Hi-V, a Midwestern Iowa-based supermarket chain that I'm familiar with, because she was a WNBA player, a WNBA player. No, that's not why. Millions of dollars during the NIL era, one of the biggest earners in college sports when she was at Iowa. And we all know, I think, even objectively, she elevated a league that many people probably had heard of, but couldn't name one player in or one coach or one commissioner. I think, Tommy, what really strikes me about this is that every time somebody goes after

Caitlin Clark, no matter how stupid or how non-factual it is, by the way, let me just mention, you know, playing in the WNBA, Caitlin Clark is doing this. commissioner and everybody else such a huge favor because she's taken a massive pay cut to do it. What do I mean? Don't you remember when Ice Cube offered her $5 million? She turned it down. Offered her $10 million. She turned it down.

The thought was he might go to $15 million to play in his big three league. I mean, come on. She makes nothing in the WNBA. She is there to elevate women's basketball, women's professional basketball. This is her choice to make what she makes. The endorsement deals would never go anywhere if she was in the Big Three League or if she played internationally.

It wouldn't matter. In fact, I'm not even sure if she quit basketball, the endorsement deals would go away. But what this has done, Tommy, is it just, it perpetuates this stereotype about women that, they are catty, that they are spiteful, that they are, you know, gossipy and, you know, and jealous. And this, these are the things that always get said about this league every single time they go after Caitlin Clark. It's stereotyping, but it comes up all the time because this is the behavior that they are involved in.

It's unbelievable to me. How short-sighted this is. Why would you continually try to chop off the hand that keeps feeding you? I don't understand. You know, I had Christine Brennan on this show. She wrote a book about Caitlin Clark. And, you know, I said, when are the adults going to get involved in this? When are the NBA people going to come in and say, children, step aside.

what you're doing is not good for business. She is the league. She's the league. She's why you get paid, Kathy Englebert. She's why your salary might go up, Nefisa Collier. Nefisa Collier, by the way, wasn't criticizing her. And I said, why haven't the adults gotten involved and slapped the children on their wrist and said, go to your rooms, we're going to figure this out?

And she said that that's the biggest mystery that that has not happened, that people have asked the same question over and over again, why they're allowing the WNBA attitude behavior towards Caitlin Clark to continue. And now it's from the commissioner. What a dumb thing to say. First of all, it's not anywhere near true. And to say it just is incredibly stupid. I just don't get this league. This is an unbelievable, unbelievable situation that occurred for them, and they don't seem to get it. They certainly don't understand the business of their own league.

You know, Fonte, this woman can't be commissioner for long. She's got to go. I've never heard a commissioner. I've never heard a player roast the commissioner of a sport like that, like that player did. Yeah. And incredibly smoothly, she did it. too. It was very impressive. Yes. Well, yes. So I don't

see how this commissioner lasts in this role. But you're right. I was watching it in a place with other guys and like the conversation among them was these women. You know?

Women, it was exactly what you described. It's been a stereotypical you know, image of a group of women, you know, getting together. And this is damaging. I mean, and it goes beyond this. I mean, you know, I mean, like this talk,

it also speaks to the jealousy within the, you know, among the players themselves of Kate and Clark. We've seen it since she arrived in the league. Yeah. And they were physically trying to beat her up for two, for the first year. And barring the media from post-game press conferences and trying to keep certain media out,

you know, I mean, the immaturity goes from the bottom all the way up to the top. I really, you know, for a business that needs, that is, that is supported by the NBA. Yeah, of course. Yeah, this story, the absurdity of it almost is entertaining to get one of these every few months where, you know, they essentially, you know, take a winning lottery ticket and say, no, I'm not interested in it. I mean, this was something that got attention probably this got more attention than the actual playoffs.

I didn't even know the playoffs were going on until I read this and saw this. All right. 3421, your prediction. I'll talk to you on Tuesday. Yes.