The Kevin Sheehan Show - NL Champs! Plus Alex Smith News

Episode Date: October 16, 2019

Kevin opened with the Nats' NLCS sweep of the Cardinals and what it means for the Nationals, and for Washington, for them to make the World Series. Adam Zielonka/Washington Times was there and called in to recap last night and look ahead to the World Series next week. Kevin also discussed Cooley's podcast comments that some believe that Alex Smith could be Skins' starting quarterback in 2020. <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. Aaron found that. That's John Walton, the radio voice of the Capitals, who I guess was at the game last night and decided that he'd do his own play-by-play of the ending. Maybe he's looking for another gig. Good job, John. That is a guy that's invested in his work. And he does a great job on radio. And that's a call that no one's heard probably. So good job, Aaron, finding John Walton, voice of the caps, in the crowd, doing play-by-play. Do you know that, you know, I've done some play-by-play over the years? And I really enjoy doing play-by-play. And it was actually a dream of mine at one point, although I really do like doing a talk show much more. But one of the, when I was much younger and I was working in my first job in sports broadcasting,

before I left broadcasting for like 15 years. I worked for Steve Buckhance and Ernie Bauer over at Channel 5. And Ernie and Buck said, well, if you want to get into play-by-play, you got to go do some play-by-play. And I said, well, where would you do it? Just find a tape recorder and go to a game and do it. And so I went to a Bullets game at the Capitol Center and sat like in the upper deck and recorded myself doing play-by-play of a game.

We've all to been there. We've all done. I remember going to a broadcasting camp, but they all took us to a minor league baseball game, and we did that. I definitely, I did it for video games. Definitely, if I look through my old tapes, I got some interesting stuff back there.

But here was the best one for me, Aaron, because you will remember this game. So I was, I didn't, broadcasting, my first job was in sports production for Channel 5, out of Maryland, interned, got hired, and then I left broadcasting for years, because it didn't seem like you could make any money doing, you know, sort of, you know,

behind the scene stuff. Anyway, loved my first job, by the way, with Buck and Ernie. The two best people to ever have a first job with. I've told them this before, and I probably mentioned this before on the podcast, but just two great guys, two great mentors, and always encouraging and always positive, and always giving more responsibility than, you know, a 22 or a 23-year-old. should have had at that point. But anyway, when I decided later on in life to try to get back into broadcasting, I wanted to do play by play, I wanted to do a talk show, all that stuff,

and I was lucky to have gotten the opportunities to do it, and here I am today. But one of the first things I did is I, of course, couldn't find those tape-recorded bullets games that I had done in like the late 80s. So there was a snowstorm, a shutdown, a shutdown, snowstorm where a Maryland Wake Forest game got rescheduled for a Monday afternoon. The game was scheduled for Sunday. It got postponed until Monday because there was a massive, you know, foot and a half snowstorm. And so I called out to their PR guy, didn't know who he was at that time. I wasn't back in broadcasting at that point. And I just said, hey, my name's Kevin Sheehan. I said, if you want anybody to vouch for me, Scott Van Pelt will, Steve Buchance will.

Can you give me a seat at the press table to record a play-by-play of the game? Because I'm going to be doing some of this work, you know, in a few weeks on other games. You know, that was totally made up. And he said, sure, just come on out. Today, we don't know who's going to show up. Right. You know, for this game because it's a snow rescheduled game on a Monday afternoon. And that was all students in the crowd.

All students. And I called that game from, you know, the press section at Xfinity Center. And it was, I think it was year one or year two of Comcast Center. And I called the game there, and that was the beginning of like sending that stuff around to different people. And then I got a gig doing it for Catholic University and some Division III Internet games, which was crazy. And then it led to the 980 thing eventually. Anyway, we're boring you with a lot of personal stories here.

Let's get to what happened last night. You know, last night for me seemed inevitable. You know, we talked about it yesterday and Monday on the podcast that I thought at 2-0-0, and you agreed with me. At 2-0, the series really did feel like it was over at 2-0. It felt like a 3-0 series command, even though it was 2-0, and it just seemed like the final result was inevitable. And I think, you know, it was, and it proved out to be. And when they scored those seven runs in the first inning, you know, the old, adage of they need to stop this fight. This fight should be stopped. I mean, St. Louis had nothing. I give

them credit because they came back, you know, they showed a pulse. They got the Yaddeer Molina home run to make it 7 to 1. They got 3 in the 5th that knocked Corbin out after a brilliant performance, which included 12 strikeouts in five innings. And they got into the 8th inning where the go-ahead run came to the plate with two outs. And Matt Carpenter grounded out, by the way, where Brian Dozier actually fumbled that a little bit there at the end. But, you know, St. Louis showed some life, got back into it. But it was never, like, I never had this feeling like, oh, if they blow this game, they're going to blow this series. They had a 3-0 series lead.

This was not a do-or-die game for them. But, wow, Washington World Series. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's less crazy for you because of your age. But still, your perspective is pretty. probably more about these nationals since 2005. Yeah, I just, you know, I know you just talked about personal and we didn't want it to be. I just do have to get a little personal here. Yeah, please.

I was a baseball guy when I was growing up. For me, it was baseball number one and everything else was a distant number two. So when I grew up, yeah, I was, you know, when I was younger, I was an Orioles fan, but even then I was never like, I never really embraced Baltimore because I'm not a Baltimore guy. So by the time middle school and high school rolled around, I had, kind of pushed away the Orioles and it just became a baseball fan. So when the Nats came, like I went in feet first. I was all in the second that they announced the Nationals. That's awesome.

Went to that first game at RFK. Was that the first game at Nats Park? Was that Strasbourg's first game? And through the years, I was at almost every big event either as a fan or, you know, later on as media. So yesterday just felt like everything to me. I know. You are a huge fan.

And that is the perspective of someone your age. For me, it was I had the choice when I was a young person to pick the Orioles since I didn't have a team or not pick anybody. Do you know, I rooted for the Oakland A's when I was a kid. Because when I was a kid and first remember meaningful baseball, the Oakland A's were in the midst of winning three world championships in a row. You know, those teams with Vita Blue, I loved Vita Blue, Ken Holtzman, Raleigh. fingers, catfish hunter. You know, Reggie Jackson was on those teams before he ended up in New York. It was Sal Bando, Bert Campanaris, like those teams, might north, like those teams were,

and I love the uniforms too, like the A's had more uniforms than any professional team in sports. You know, they had their white uniforms, they had their greens, they had their yellows, and they were a powerhouse, they were a juggernaut in the 70s. And I didn't have a team here. And I just was one of my, you know, of the friends that I had when I was a kid, they all gravitated towards the Orioles. And I always said, I'm not from Baltimore. I live in Washington. I'll wait until we get a team because we're going to get a team at some point.

And we didn't for 34 years. And to imagine that Washington is going to be a participant in the World Series is really remarkable. For everybody, for different reasons, look, you know, for a third of a century, Aaron, Major League Baseball treated Washington like it was Topeka, Kansas. You know, if you pull up a list right now, the top 20 metro areas by population in the country, Washington's number six. But over the years, you know, some of those cities have come and gone from that list. But right now, 19 of the 20, 19 of the 20 have had teams forever.

I mean, at least since 91. You know, and Washington was the one that didn't. Peter Angeloos prevented it. Commissioner after commissioner talked big, never delivered. There was always the discussion of, you know, D.C.'s lost two teams. Why should we give them another one? You know, and Denver and Tampa and Seattle and Miami and Phoenix got teams. It was a joke, really, when you think about it in hindsight.

You know, at the time, it made people from Washington feel a little bit inferior, you know, not to the extent that Baltimore people feel inferior, which we always take that gratuitous shot at the inferiority complex of Baltimore people. And by the way, the fact that they feel like Washingtonians think that they're so superior, I don't necessarily think that's true. But anyway, for all of that time, you know, we didn't have a baseball team. We were small town when it came to sports. Andy Poland was the first sports director. And I think the first person on air at 980 in 1992. And sports talk stations were just starting to, you know, become, you know, a thing. New York had had had it at FAN since 87, I think, WIP and Philadelphia,

and the big sports cities, you know, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, they all had sports talk stations. And Andy had worked at WFAN in New York. And I remember Andy telling me the story that when they came down here to launch 980, the first sports radio station in D.C., the guys up in New York and guys in Philly said, it's never going to work in Washington. You don't have a baseball team. How can you do sports talk radio

if you don't have a baseball team playing 162 games a year? And there was this thumbing their nose, which New Yorkers always do when it comes to Washington. I mean, we both went to the University of Maryland, where there are a lot of New Yorkers, a lot of New Yorkers that have always gone to Maryland. A lot of guys and girls from Long Island, from Bergen County, New Jersey, from Westchester, that Maryland's always been a popular school for New Yorkers.

It's like they feel like they're going south until they realize, you know what? It's pretty cold here, too, in the winter. It's not, you know, it's not Charlotte, North Carolina or Atlanta, Georgia. But there was always this sense, and some of those guys are still my friends today from college. there's always been this sense that they've had that Washington's just small time. And part of what sort of fed that was the fact that we weren't a big time sports town. How can you be if you don't have baseball? Anyway, I digress because really this is about now. But I've spoken about it here over the last week or so. And it really is remarkable. And I thought I really enjoyed last night, TBS really recognizing, wow, 86 years since they were last in the World Series, a Washington team. And we didn't get as much. much of the Montreal stuff last night. Because I don't know, for me, I don't really give a shit about the Montreal history. You know, I don't think personally that, you know, Cleveland Browns fans, or I'm sorry, Ravens fans really care about the Cleveland Browns history. You know, I just think

you have your own history. This city had baseball for 70 years. That's our baseball history. Not the Expos history. You know, with all due respect to the people in Montreal, who lost team, it's horrible. I, you know, we never, we lost a team here twice. I was barely alive for the second one, you know, when they, when they left for Texas in 1971. But I enjoyed last night for the first time, there was less about the expos in the Montreal history and more about the Washington baseball history, 86 years since the last World Series appearance, 95 years since the last World Series win. That's an amazing drought. You know, again, it's a drought that really More likely than not is a drought because we didn't have baseball for a third of a century.

You know, probably at some point during those 34 years, they would have had some competitive teams. And, you know, the other interesting part of that is think about this. If D.C. had never lost baseball and the senators had remained the senators. And, you know, sports became in the 70s, 80s, 90s, even bigger than they were. And baseball's popularity compared to football, you know, it flip-flop. This baseball was America's pastime. It was the most popular sport in this country for a half a century, more than that, 75 years probably in this country, before football really in the mid-70s into the 80s started to really become America's pastime, which it is now. The NFL is number one in this country in terms of fan interest. College football is number two.

You know, I bet most of you know that. Some of you don't. Let me repeat that. The NFL's number one by miles when it comes to any metric. trick you want to use. And number two is college football. And then you can count five spaces before you get to number three, which is probably the NBA and major league baseball in some order, with college basketball actually being in the mix in that conversation. But anyway, it was kind of cool to see, you know, that recognition that Washington had a baseball history before the Expos moved here in 2005. Oh, what I was going to say was, imagine if the senators never left and they had really good teams in the 70s and 80s and won a World Series or two. This might be a baseball town. Yes. You know, it could very well be that the senators, you know, and maybe we would

have reverted to calling the nationals. You know, if you look at their history, they were the nationals and then they were senators, but people always referred to them as the Nats, you know, even when they became officially the senators. They showed that program where I said like the national slash senators. Exactly. Yeah. So, you know, who knows? I mean, what if they win the World Series in 1977 and 1978? All right. 1977 was probably, I think that was the Yankees. 78, the Dodgers. Will you look that up? You'll be surprised that I know a lot of that stuff because I really was a massive baseball fan, especially when I was younger. 78 was the one game. playoff between the Red Sox and the Yankees to determine the American League East

winner, which was really dramatic coming home from school. 77 and 78 were both the Yankees. Both the Yankees. And then 79th Pittsburgh over Baltimore. 80s the Phillies. Eighty-one the Cardinals. Eighty-one Dodgers. The Dodgers.

82 the Cardinals. Yep. 83 the Orioles. Of course. So the, I swear to God, Aaron, you probably didn't have a lot of these moments as a kid. But back in the day, they would play these baseball playoff games in the middle of the afternoon. They still do. But in 1978, there was a playoff game to determine the American League East winner between the Red Sox and the Yankees.

And the Yankees went to Fenway and won that game. Anyway, so anyway, it's really cool to have had this. And again, I think it's interesting just to think that if you had never lost a team here and had had baseball over all of those years, it's very possible that the baseball team could have been the number one all of those years. And guys like me and many of you out there, you know, it's possible we would have loved and revered

and had a passion for baseball like we have had for football over the years. The other thing that's interesting about this, too, from just sort of a market perspective, is the timing of it. You know, the Caps won the Stanley Cup in June. That's not football season. The nationals are going to a World Series in the middle of football season. You all know this to be true.

Over the years, the World Series has been played without a Washington team in it, but it's always been for us in this city in the middle of football season. You know, it's October, and the Redskins are the biggest deal. And there have been opportunities and been situations where the Redskins may have had a Sunday night game or a Monday night game, and the World Series would have been on opposite of it. And you know what the World Series drew in terms of eyeballs? Flies, barely. And the Redskins would dominate it.

Now, you know, the timing of the Redskins being so horrible and people being so disinterested in it. And the Nationals going to the World Series is awesome. I can't wait to see the TV numbers for last night. I think I've shared this with you on the podcast. The TV ratings for the Saturday game, 8.5 on TBS, while the Redskins Dolphins game did a 14.2. Sunday, but the game that they played on Monday night did, I think, in 11-5.

Yeah, it was 11 or 12. So that was up. I would think maybe last night is up to a 13 or a 14, and then these World Series games are going to be off the hook. Yeah. By the way, we talked about ticket prices and what they would be for the World Series, and that last night was the opportunity to go. You cannot get in to Nat's Park for game three, game four, or game five, which is next

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for any less than $8,900, and for a decent seat, it'll cost you $2,000, $4,000. Now, those will probably go down a little bit. Especially if the Yankees aren't in it. Yeah, and as it gets closer and as the tickets actually get released and stuff. But yes, you're paying a pretty penny to get into it. Yeah, this is going to be, you know, again, it's $43,000 versus the $18,000, you know, at Capital One Arena for the Stanley Cup a few years ago, but this is going to be one tough

ticket to get. This is, you know, people refer to it as an event town, as a bandwagon town. It is in many ways when it comes to our sports teams. You know, there's no doubt about it. So many of you understand when I say this, and it's not meant to be condescending at all, but all of those people celebrating in Chinatown, you know, after they beat Tampa and there was the watch party, and after they beat Vegas in the Stanley Cup, two weeks previous to that, there were probably no less than 30% of the people down there that couldn't name anybody other than Alex Ovechkin on the team. And there is a true bandwagon element to the D.C. sports fan when it comes to some of these other teams. Personally, I think the audience potential for the nationals is much

bigger than it was for the hockey. In my opinion, I could be wrong. We will see here over the next week. And I also think it has a chance to truly stick in a way that hockey couldn't. I think there's a lot of baseball fans in Washington. You know, there are hockey, you know, there are people that enjoy playoff hockey. There are people that enjoy the capitals, but there are many more baseball fans. By the way, just the transience of the market, people from outside of the town are into baseball, like maybe perhaps some, you know, true Washingtonians aren't even into it as much as they are. and they've sort of adopted the Nats. This has a much bigger, broad audience potential.

Real quickly about the game last night. First of all, you know, it starts with Patrick Corbyn striking out just about everybody. I mean, he was, that slider was unhittable, almost as much as, you know, Strasbourg's changeup was unhittable the other night. 12 strikeouts in five innings. If he doesn't run into trouble in the fifth, he could have, you know, if he'd pitch, the sixth and seventh, which was a possibility going into the fifth, he could have ended up with 15 or 16 strikeouts in the game. It was unbelievable how good he was and how unhittable he was there for a while. But they did get that run and that knocked him out. And I thought the first key moment in

the game, you know, came in the sixth inning. The elite at that point is seven to four. And you've got to go to your actual real bullpen to get it done. You know, not starters out of the bullpen. You know, not starters out of the bullpen. There was no Scherzer, no Strasbourg, no Sanchez, going to be available for last night. Why would they be? There was a 3-0 series lead. It wasn't do or die, you know, in that particular moment. So you're going to have to go to Tanna Rainey. And Tanner Rainey came in the sixth. And by the way, this is his fourth appearance in the series, I believe, Tanner Rainey's fourth appearance in the series. And outside of game one, he's basically, I think, given up one hit and no earned runs. Now, they haven't been high stress moments.

Last night was a bit of a high stress moment to a certain degree. And he came in and St. Louis, by the way, having really for the first time in the four games some real offensive momentum, they're off a three-run fifth. They're off of four runs and two innings. They knocked out Patrick Corbyn. And Rainey comes in, and it's a one-two-three inning with some help from Trey Turner on a great play to end to six. Yes. Three and two thirds innings, Rainey has pitched in the postseason.

No earned runs in four appearances since game one against the Dodgers. Then Doolittle comes in in the seventh, asked to get Aaron six outs before turning it over to Hudson. And he got five of them. And then here comes Hudson in for a four-out save, and he gets in trouble. You know, he hits Molina, he walks the next batter, the bases are loaded with two outs, And that was the moment that you may have had some angst. Were you feeling like they were on the verge of blowing it there or not? I was a little nervous.

I was strangely confident. I don't know why, but I was strangely confident. But yeah, I will admit, I got a little nervous there. I mean, I thought, I was thinking in the moment, I'm like, there's no way they're going to lose the series, even if they blow this game. They've got Scherzer and Strasbourg ready to go in a game six, seven situation. You know, if they lose tonight, if they blow this league, it's going to be devastating that they didn't close it out, but they'll come back with Sanchez,

I would assume in game five, and then they'll have a Strasbourg, a Scherzer Strassberg finish. They're not going to lose this series with the cushion they had built up. But yeah, that was by far and away in this series, the one late inning dramatic moment. Pretty much the only one. Bases loaded, two outs, winning run at the plate for St. Louis, because really St. Louis didn't show enough life offensively to give you any other tense moments previously, even though Michaelis and Wainwright pitched great. And so they get Matt Carpenter,

Hudson gets Matt Carpenter to basically end the inning with a bit of a whimper with a ground ball, which was there, Dozier's there, he bobbles it a little bit, but they get out of that inning and that's it. By the way, the bullpen in this series now, if you think about it, in games three and four, right, do little, take it back to game one. Do Little in game one with a four-out save, right, with no Hudson.

Hudson comes in and gets it done in game two. By the way, with a one-batter appearance from Patrick Corbyn in game two, you had the Rodney-Raney low-stress spot in game three, but they were perfect. And then last night, Doolittle and Hudson get it done. So, you know, the one, you know, St. Louis wanted to get to the Nats bullpen, the real bullpen, they got to it last night, and there was nothing they could do with it. Down 7-4 and with some momentum. Howie Kendrick is your NLCS MVP, 5 for 15, four RBIs in the series.

Do you think he deserved it? I think he deserved it as much as anybody. It's one of those situations where it was really hard to pick one person. You could have picked really any of the starters if you wanted to. You could have picked, I think if you were picking a hitter, it was probably Kendrick. You wouldn't have picked Patrick Corby. Not Corbyn, but any of the first three, you could have made an argument for. And then I think Kendrick, and since Kendrick played every game, I think you give it to him.

I have no problem with it. it's totally deserving clutch hits five for 15 four rbis in a four game national league championship series is pretty damn good um look i rendone to me is not it's not even close he's the toughest out in this lineup and he went five for 12 in the series with two rbis and four walks if they'd given it to him i would have been fine with that um with kendrick and soto you know being right there in in In terms, not Soto, with Kendrick being a real close second and then any one of those first three pitchers being in the conversation as well, it's fine. Rendon's the toughest out in the lineup. I personally don't think it's that close, but Kendrick's been super clutch.

He's a pro hitter. He's delivered big in the clutch in this postseason. And he's got the single, you know, most indelible, you know, moment of this postseason. And of any postseason, really for the Nats, the grand slam in the top of the tent that Dodger State. him to win the NLDS. And I do think part of it was kind of a rollover that you don't announce an MVP for the NLDS. They're just like, okay, we could give it to him. He has the most RBIs for this team in the post.

And just give it to him. Yeah. And by the way, I love Howie Kendrick. You know, in all of his interviews, and I was up watching all of it late into the night, I love the way he talks about our city. You know, and by the way, a big part of last night, for me, again, I don't want to go over the top on this stuff, but I think some of you relate and some of you can feel it the same way I feel it. Last night in so many ways is like a celebration of the city. You know, the real

accomplishment, the achievement is obviously, you know, the team, the learners, Rizzo, Dave Martinez, the players, you know, they did it. But it allowed for a celebration last night of Washington, D.C., that, I don't know, it made me proud, like listening to Howie Kendrick talk about the city and how when he moved here, he's fallen in love with it. And we've heard that from Caps players over the last couple of years. And, you know, then to sort of recognize as a lifelong Washingtonian, that game's being played on the Anacostia waterfront, like an area that 20 years ago, if someone had said,

hey, you know, 20 years from now, there's going to be a baseball stadium down here, there's going to be bars and restaurants and other retail and high-priced residential, you know, in the same way that, you know, you would have thought about Chinatown 25 years ago. You know, it's like, it's such a great city. And it's always, I'm not saying before it wasn't, you know, I spent my whole life here.

I grew up here. I spent, you know, my teenage years and my years in my 20s, you know, in Georgetown, and in Tenley and in Adams Morgan and all. But the number of options now to live and to raise a fan. and to spend time going out is so much greater than it ever was. And obviously that's, you know, a matter of perspective. But just think about the way this city has been changed, you know, neighborhoods like Logan and Shaw and Columbia Heights. And the list goes on and on. You know, the city has always been great. You know, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say that it hasn't been,

but it's different now. You know, over the last 20 years, it has become a much better young person city, a great place to work, a great place to live, a great place to raise a family. And sometimes it takes a sports team and an accomplishment by a sports team and then words from people like Howie Kendrick to let the rest of the world or certainly the rest of the country know it. I love that part of it. You know, there was some pride listening to Kendrick and others sort of describe their love for this city, you know, and going out of their world, way, by the way, to acknowledge it. They didn't have to, but they felt it like we have for a long period of time. For you as Kendrick, for me, as far as the post game that really struck with me,

was Zim. Seeing Zim and seeing Zim have a major part in this postseason, you know, it was very reasonable to think that he would have been completely meaningless in this postseason, just a bench player maybe coming up. But him having a major impact on this postseason and getting to see him celebrate like that, that really started. with me. I feel the same way too because, first of all, you know, Ryan Zimmerman's been a first class guy the moment he got drafted out of the UVA and showed up here. He's had some of the better moments for the franchise, the home run walk off in the first night, you know, at Nat's Park. He has been a guy that in recent years, you wondered whether or not he was really going to be a part of anything

moving forward. He's their best defensive first baseman. That's why he's out there. And then for him to also come through the way he has with huge hits. In big moments, it's really been great to see. Obviously, you know, the home run in particular in Game 4 won't be forgotten. I'm happy for him to. I'm happy for everybody. I cannot wait for Tuesday night to actually be in the fall classic, in the World Effing Series, a Washington team. After all of these years, it'll be really, really cool. I'm going to bring Adam Zelinka on from the Washington Times here and really talk about what's next, the World Series, who they should face or who they want to face, the pitching rotation that should be set up for Tuesday night. How they're going to handle this long layoff, a lot of that stuff right after I tell you about mybooky.orgy.org. If you want to bet the World Series, all right, and the Nats are going to be an underdog to either team.

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Bet with MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie.org. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., and if you do, they will double your first deposit. That's promo code Kevin, D.C., K-E-V-I-N-D-C, at MyBooky.orgie.com. today. All right, let's bring in Adam Zalanka, who covers the team for the Washington Times, works at the same newspaper that Tom Levera works at. And Tommy will be back with me tomorrow and read Tommy's column today, too, and read all of Adam's stuff too. You can follow Adam on Twitter at Adam underscore Z-I-E-L-O-N-K-A. He's also, you know, been covering the caps, mystics, and other teams in town, but he was there last night. First of all, Adam, what was it like to be there last night? It was something, Kevin.

You know, I have not been in town for very long and not a native Washingtonian. So it's not something that necessarily tugs at my personal heartstrings when you see how the crowd has been reacting throughout these playoffs, how much in love they are with players like Herodipara, Rendon, Soto. I have not been around for the years of heartbreak personally, but you have to factor that in. And that is the dominant context here that everybody is getting over this history of Washington sports teams coming up short in every way imaginable, in some of the most disappointing ways imaginable, starting with the capitals. Now you've had the capitals and mystics win their first championships in their franchise history and the nationals making the World Series for the first time in their franchise history in such a short amount of time we're talking about a year and a half span. you can see it on people's faces. You can see just how fired up this crowd is.

They're still out like two hours after the game. I'm leaving the stadium, and, you know, people are still kind of partying in the streets a little bit. It's been a sight to see, and when the World Series comes to Washington, D.C. for game three and four, it's going to be like nothing we've really ever seen. Where are you from, Adam? I don't think I know that. Well, that's okay. Yeah, I'm from New Jersey originally.

Where in Jersey? Summerville. So were you a Yankees or a Mets fan? See, I never really picked aside. Baseball wasn't really a favorite sport in my household, so I never felt pressure to pick a side. I was a young boy, basically a kindergartner, the year of the subway series.

That's how young I am. I could have gone either way. I decided to really just play down the middle. I'm a New York Jets fan, if that means anything. Well, you know, it's funny because one of the things I talked about in the open is, you know, I think what last night does, you know, and it sort of legitimizes in many ways, you know, and reminds people that Washington, you know, is actually a sports town, you know. I mean, we didn't have baseball here for 34 years. And Aaron and I, who are sitting, Aaron's sitting here

with me right now, we both went to Maryland, and Maryland had a ton of New Yorkers. I mean, Long Islanders, Westchester County, Bergen County, Jersey, you know, just a lot of people, from the New York metro area for whatever reason, you know, Fairfield County, Connecticut all went to Maryland. It was a popular school. You probably know that, you know, growing up where you grew up. And so, you know, there was always this sense that, you know, my friends who were from that area, they always sort of thumb their nose at, you know, sort of D.C. as a sports town. They knew how big the Redskins were. And when I was in college, the Redskins were kicking everybody's ass and winning Super Bowls. And, you know, and they were better than the Giants, although the Giants got really good during

that stretch. But I just, I think it's interesting, you know, that last night even more than the hockey thing, and obviously much more than the WNBA thing. But last night, I think in many people's minds, sort of, you know, outside the market may, it may have legitimized Washington a little bit more as a sports town. I totally buy that. I really enjoyed covering the capitals and mystics and the personalities on that team, their personal storylines, but you can't deny that baseball, you know, say what you want about TV ratings and falling attendance. Baseball is still this country's pastime, and it's still a language a lot of people in this country speak with one another.

So naturally, a National's World Series birth is going to attract a lot more attention to D.C. as a sports town than, for instance, the capitals, even winning the Stanley Cup. Just by the nature of baseball being much more popular and much more, like I sort of said, like a common language in this country than maybe hockey is. All right, let's talk about what's next. First of all, Houston and New York have an American League Championship Series to finish up. You know, if the Nats, I mean, there are two ways to look at this, right? One would be the Nats right now are in a six-day break between now and the World Series game one.

Aaron, I don't know if I mentioned this already on the podcast. I did on the radio show a couple times. The last eight teams in championship series sweeps are one in seven in the World Series. series. So I was listening to Curtis Granderson last night on TBS. He was on two of those teams, Adam, and he talked about that the layoff really killed their offensive momentum. You know, it helps pitching to get the rest, but it hurts them in terms of the momentum that they had offensively. So we'll see how that plays out. So when thinking about New York and Houston, like one best case would be that they use up Verlander and Cole for a second time, and those guys aren't

available early in the World Series. But then again, that means that those teams are coming in with some momentum into the World Series. How do you see it? I follow that completely. I think that in the Nationals case, you see spurts like the seven-run first inning yesterday. They didn't score again after that. They had only like a couple other hits scattered through the rest of the other seven

innings that they were at bat. So it's not like they have a ton of offensive momentum. their particular case that is going to wither away. Those bats can get hot again. I would worry about it a small amount, but it's not like that stretch in the regular season where they were scoring double-digit runs for five straight games, whatever that was. They don't have that kind of momentum to lose right now, but it will get them the pitching

advantage to have everybody fresh. And Martinez and the staff can pick, okay, do we want to put Scherzer game one or Straussberg game one? They will have endless options. And if this Yankees Astro series does turn into into be like a six-game series or seven games, Slugfest against each other and Burlander has to go through twice in Cole or the Yankees pitchers, you're absolutely right. That gives the nationals a big advantage in an area where they're already advantageous.

When you've got three, everybody likes to say, oh, it's not a big three, it's a big four, but you do have to acknowledge that Corbin Scherzer and Straussberg are the big three strikeout guys. and they more than anything are the reasons that the Cardinals could barely score a run, barely get a hit to save their lives with the NSDS. That will help the nationals no matter what. I would be worried if they face the Yankees with how they can just hit home runs off virtually any pitcher. But we'll see. So I think one of the debates that Nat's fans are going to have here over the next six days

is how, you know, how should Dave Martinez set his pitching rotation? I think, and maybe I'm in the minority on this, I think the one big mistake that he got away with so far in this postseason is he got lucky starting Scher instead of Strasbourg in the wildcard game. They had to get a broken bat bloop single, hit by a pitch and an error by the right fielder on the Soto hit in that wild card game to survive what Scher did in the first few innings there, which was put him behind the eight ball,

and there was a lot of debate going into that, that Strasberg really should have been the starter. So who do you think should start game one? Who do you think he will start in game one? Yeah, first of all, I don't think you're really alone in thinking that. That was probably going to end up being the narrative if the Brewers won that game. That's right. And there was not that sort of stroke of good luck that the nationals and Washington teams at large

are finally starting to get in their favor and didn't used to get. So, yeah, there definitely was a contingent thinking that Strasbourg was the better option. That's a winner-take-all game, though. game one of the World Series isn't. So there's less risk picking Scherzer over Strausberg. Strausberg's the dominant guy. What I want to see is make sure that these guys, because the AL team, whether it's Houston or New York, they're going to be the home team in the first two games.

And the nationals haven't had home field advantage for the last couple rounds now, so it's not a big deal. But in the past couple rounds, they've been putting Sanchez out early in the series. you know, he's having his third or fourth starters have really good games on the road. And Scherzer and Strasbourg most of the time, I think they've been pitching at home, if I'm recalling correctly. I think he should use Scher and or Strasbourg in those first two games because you're going into Yankee Stadium in the World Series.

That is not something that the nationals have faced yet as a team. That kind of environment, if it is the Yankees. I mean, Houston, it'll be something similar. you should try to have one of your aces, probably Strasbourg early, get him out there on the road, try to deflate the home crowd a little bit if he's dealing some strikeouts early because he can. And beyond that, I'm not really the biggest strategist on this kind of thing. If it's better to pitch him game one, insurers are game two or vice versa. But keep in mind that if you can steal one of those games, thanks to one,

dominant pitching performance, whether it is straws or it is Max Scherzer, that sets you up really well coming home if you've got that type 1-1 coming into National Spark. Yeah, you know, I was just thinking about two things. Number one, and I forget who mentioned this to me earlier on Radio Aaron, somebody, it may have been Ray Knight, may have been Ray Knight, suggested that they may go with Sanchez in game three and save Corbyn for game four so that they can use Corbyn as a reliever. in either game one or game two out of the bullpen, which I thought was an interesting way to look at it.

But I think, look, no matter what you do, Scherzorzegner, and it's a really good point that game one is not the wild card game. It's not a do-or-die game. The good news is you get them both back later in the series if you need them. And then, you know, if you did start Sanchez game three, he would actually be the scheduled game seven starter if you actually had a game seven. I'm just curious, and I'm going to ask you this and Aaron this question simultaneously. Do you think any consideration is given to the pitcher as a hitter at home

versus not having to use him in the American League ballpark? Because we know Kendrick will be the DH in the games in New York or Houston, right? And then Dozier will probably play second, more likely than not. I mean, Corbyn's a terrible hitter, and he'd be scheduled to pitch at home where he would have to hit. Any, no considerations really given to that, right guys? No, not at all. Probably not. It's an interesting talking point for us on a podcast or a radio program. That's it.

On the other hand, you also wonder, Straussberg is one of the better hitters among NL pitchers. But you're not going to save him for game three. You know, you're going to get him out. He's going to pitch one of the, he insures her pitching the first two games, even though actually they would probably be your most competitive batters among the starters. Whoever pitches game one, they'll also pitch game five, so they'll get to bats. That's true, too. They would get game five as well.

Who's a better matchup for them? Houston or New York, in your opinion? It's tough. There's arguments on both sides why you don't want to run into either of these teams, because for good reason. Houston and New York had the two best regular season. records in baseball. They look like powerhouses. Even when the Yankees weren't healthy, they were winning games. Like I said before, I'd be worried about facing the Yankees,

home run hitters that they have up and down the lineup. The way Garrett Cole is pitching right now and the way you know Justin Verlander can pitch in the playoffs, you really also don't want to try and match up with Houston's best pitchers. Depth-wise, maybe the nationals have the best starting rotation left. So you've got that going for you no matter who you face. but at this point, I don't know, I guess I would take the Yankees because they could probably do a little more damage to their starting pitching probably just by virtue of the fact that Garrett Cole is untouchable right now and Verlander is a future hall family.

Right. And by the way, can you imagine it very likely could be this unless this Houston New York series gets extended, which more likely than that probably will at least a six. They got postponed. It did get postponed for tonight. Okay, well, there you go. They're going to be playing four straight to end the series. Yeah, it's not going to end the dates for games six and seven.

They're going to be Saturday and Sunday, regardless. They're just going to now play on the travel day that they had. But imagine if you got Verlander Scherzer in game one and Cole Strasberg in game two. Those would be heavyweight pitching matchups for a World Series if it's Houston. Adam, thank you so much. I really appreciate the time. Good to catch up. Kevin, it's been great.

on your podcast. Thanks for inviting me, and I hope to talk to you guys again soon. I like Adam a lot. Good guest. We've had him on when he was covering the caps back in the spring, I think right before the series with Carolina, does a good job for the Washington Times. Follow him on Twitter at Adam underscore Z-I-E-L-O-N-K-A. All right, I want to finish up with some football. The first thing I wanted to mention real quickly before I get to the Redskins. I don't know if anybody saw this statement from the league about officiating specifically the situation with pass interference challenges. We all know that this was the year, you know, in reaction to the New Orleans Rams game and all of the whining and crying that came out of New Orleans and all the legal action

taken by people in New Orleans suing the league for screwing them out of a trip to the Super Bowl. the league kowtowed to the Saints and put into effect a brand new rule that allowed for coaches and for the booth in the final two minutes of a half or game to review pass interference, whether called or not called, whether offensive pass interference or defensive pass interference. Coaches in the last three weeks are one for 25 on challenging pass interference rulings. So Rich McKay, Atlanta Falcons president and a big guy on the competition committee in the NFL put out a statement yesterday. It was actually part of a league statement. And he essentially said, we need patience regarding the controversial pass interference replay review thing.

He said, quote, it's too early to evaluate a new rule after six weeks of play. Let's let the season play out. It's a brand new rule. That was from Rich McKay. And I thought when I read this very early this morning, are you effing kidding me? You want us to be patient as you evaluate a new rule in the regular season? These games count.

You can't. Don't ask for patience on something like this in the regular season. regular season. We can grant patience in the preseason. This is when these things should be tested, piloted, trialed. I mean, are you kidding me? Patience for this stupid-ass rule, which we all knew was not going to really work out. You know, I think Troy Vincent had a statement as part of this. He said, the bar is higher than a normal review with these calls. Well, we didn't know that necessarily going in, you know, and we know that now, one out of 25. By the way, art Rooney weighed in on this as well in the league's press statement. Quote, we were concerned about the

rule from day one when we went into that meeting last March and he said, we really weren't that enthusiastic about putting that rule in, but the competition committee's communication made it so it wound up coming together, made a recommendation, we passed it. We agreed to pass it for a year and we'll see how it goes. Look, this is a lot different than moving the extra point back. You know, it's a lot different. This really, and look, the extra point moving back, I didn't like that either. I mean, it's like I didn't really think people cared about the extra point play being a non-play. I still don't, personally.

But this, we knew had the potential for a lot of controversy. I mean, in the Monday night game, you had a Detroit receiver mauled on a key play late in the game, not called, and they didn't even, Matt Patricia didn't even challenge it, because he knew that it wasn't going to be overturned. You cannot, as a league, ask for patience for something that people in your own league were skeptical would work in the first place. These things get tested in the preseason,

not the regular season. Really stupid. All right, some Redskins stuff. First of all, did you see the report from the Canton repository newspaper? I did see this. I was on the area and we were trying to figure out

whether it was worth talking about it, but no one credible backed it off. Yeah, I didn't even know that there was a newspaper called the Canton repository, nor did any of you, but Canton, Ohio, the guy that writes for, covers the Browns,

I guess, essentially said that a trade for Trent Williams was imminent. Haven't heard anything to back that up. There was actually a Browns blog site that claimed to have information on the details. Hold on, I got to find it. I had it earlier this morning. Browns Country. A very

reliable source says that the Trent Williams deal will bring back Higgins, no joke, no joko, a first round pick, a third round pick, and a sixth round pick, and the Browns will get a fifth rounder back. None of this seems to have many legs right now, although, God, there was a massive trade in the NFL yesterday. How about Jalen Ramsey going to the Rams for two? Two firsts and a fourth. That's big compensation for Jalen Ramsey, because they're going to have to pay him, too. Anyway, on the Redskins, a little bit more on the Redskins. So, Jay Gruden spoke yesterday.

He was interviewed on the Dan Lebitard show. Dan wasn't on the show. It was Diana Rusini and Stugats, who did the interview. And the truth of the matter is Jay didn't say a whole lot. Jay basically, you know, implied that, you know, there was a real disconnect between management and the football people, you know. And remember, he said back, you know, towards the end of the season or when the season ended, that that was an area of the organization that needed to get on the same page. Remember he said that. Well, he sort, he essentially said the same thing. He said the culture was fine. He wasn't going to rip the culture. He's still getting paid. remember. He's getting paid through next year, but he did say that there was a disconnect, you know, at times that they weren't all on the same page football people and management, which is something he said in the offseason. And he also very much subtly told you what we've known for months now. And that is that the football people didn't necessarily agree that

Dwayne Haskins should be the number 15 pick in the draft. You know, he said there were a lot of people in the organization, football people in the organization. There were others in the organization. he said that liked other quarterbacks later on in the draft, and they knew Dwayne was a project, and they knew it would take time. And if you drafted him 15, there was going to be a lot of pressure to play him. And he understood, after evaluating the tape, and I'm paraphrasing at this point, and taking some of what I know about the situation as well, is that they knew this was going to be a long-term play, that he had talent.

It's not like they didn't like him. They just didn't like him at 15 overall. their football people had a second round grade on him. There were other quarterbacks they thought they could get in a third round, fourth round. I think that there were some people in the organization that liked Jared Stidham, who New England picked. I think there were some people in the organization that liked Ryan Finley. And I definitely believe whether they're right or wrong that there were some people that liked Drew Locke. And even Josh Rosen, and after watching him Sunday, that wasn't very impressive.

But here's what I wanted to get to. to finish up the show. And I think Cooley will be on with us on Friday. I would urge you to listen to Cooley's podcast with Clinton Portis from Monday. It was a sort of a recap of the Miami game, but there was so much more. And I talked to Chris last night, and he said, well, make sure you listen to the podcast, because I'm pretty sure that's what I said, but I want to make sure that you get it from the podcast, which I did. I went and listened to the podcast. So Cooley suggested to Portis on his podcast that many in the organization believe that Alex Smith is going to be the starting quarterback next year. And there is his thought, Cooley's thought, all right, not necessarily the organizations,

but Cooley believes that one of the reasons they believe it would be a risk to play Dwayne Haskins this year is that he's not going to be the starting quarterback next year. Alex Smith is going to be the starting quarterback. Tom, by the way, in a column that I think came out yesterday, reported that Alex Smith has had 17 surgeries. Apparently Alex Smith spoke before some gathering of medical people and admitted that he's had 17 surgeries on that leg. Now, apparently Alex Smith is starting to work out,

starting to throw some balls. You know, we've seen him walking around without that, you know, contraption, that jungle gym wrapped around his leg, that X, whatever they call it, circulator. What is that thing called again? Forget what it is. Yeah, the weird contraption. Yeah, he doesn't have that. We see him all the time with Dan Snyder.

He's at games. Apparently he's in the building every day. Cooley and I had a bet, remember, in August. He said that Alex Smith would be on the game day roster before the end of this season with a chance to play, meaning that he would be active on the final game day active roster. And now he is suggesting that some in the organization believe that Alex Smith is going to be their starting quarterback next year. And that that may drive a decision not to play Haskins this year. Because if he plays, do they really want to then say, hey, Dwayne, Alex is our starter in 2020?

that it would be better off sitting, Dwayne, having him learn in the same way that Aaron Rogers learned for multiple years behind veterans before he finally got his opportunity. Remember, these rookie deals are only four years. So what are you going to do? Have him sit for three and then start him in his fourth year, pick up his option without knowing? This is, by the way, I don't know if this is what the Redskins thinking is. This is what Cooley was suggesting he thinks could be possible. You know, it was his opinion, not based on anything he knows from the organization, other than what he did say is some people in the organization do believe that Alex Smith has a chance to come back and play. Hey, this is a terrible idea.

Alex Smith is really like Case Keenham and Colt McCoy, he's better, he's more accomplished. I understand that. I'm not comparing them as true apples to apples. but in the same way that Case Keenham and Colt McCoy are paths to nowhere, Alex Smith is not leading this organization and this team to a deep into the playoffs situation. He didn't do that on really good teams in Kansas City. He got him to the playoffs, which may have been what he was on the verge of doing as a game managing quarterback a year ago, although I don't think they would have made the playoffs. I think they would have finished 8 and 8.

they were on the verge of becoming six and four in the game against Houston, and I think they would have won two of their final six. Maybe three, and perhaps they could have snuck in as a six-seed wild card? This is the organization. If this is a plan, and again, let me be very clear, Cooley doesn't know if this is the plan. This was a conversation with Clinton Portis on his podcast that you can go listen to. Clinton and Cooley do a really good podcast. You can get it anywhere you get a podcast, just like you get mine.

And it's usually an hour on Mondays, I think. And then Clinton's got his own podcast, too, where he does like 26 minutes with Portis or something like that. But imagine if the Redskins planned is Alex Smith in 2020 with Dwayne backing him up. And they signed Case Keenham and brought back They signed Case Keenham and drafted a quarterback because they didn't know what they were going to have this year. They figured they weren't going to have Alex Smith this year and they weren't even sure about Colt McCoy's status. I mean, can anybody seriously get excited about that? First of all, it would be a miracle based on what he's been through with that leg if he plays again. I think, I don't know.

That was always the impression I got that his career was over because of really what turned out to be a catastrophic injury. you know, a, I thought a career-ending injury. Well, maybe it isn't. And Cooley spoke about how, you know, Alex Smith is one of those guys that you can never count out. Like, he'll work his ass off. He's competitive as hell. He wants to play again.

And, you know, you see him paling around with Dan Snyder and with Bruce Allen. And he's in the box in some of these games. Apparently he's in the building every day. Apparently, I've heard not from Cooley from someone else, that he's throwing now. And he's looked pretty good. I just can't imagine going through the rest of this season, like a 2 and 14 or 1 in 15th season,

without Dwayne Haskins, the 15th overall pick in the draft, playing because they don't want him to be pulled. By the way, I wouldn't have any issue doing that. Like if Dwayne played these final eight games and was good, all right, and appeared to be the future, but Alex Smith came back and was healthy and you decided to start Alex Smith, I wouldn't think any lesser of Dwayne Haskins. I wouldn't.

You know, but also, consider, like, who's the coach going to be? Who's the coach going to want? This also brings up the whole question of the coach that they hire is going to have to, in essence, be on their plan, whether it's a Dwayne plan or an Alex Smith plan or another plan. But you would think that it's potentially, you know, it's a Haskins plan or it may be an Alex Smith plan.

We just threw that into the conversation. It's in the conversation now. Alex Smith, starting quarterback, Washington Redskins, 2020 with Haskins as the backup. Because they'll tell you, hey, the reason he's back is, first of all, what a badass to return from this injury. And let's not forget, when he was the starting quarterback, we were close.

We were close. Got a damn good culture here. All right, that's it for the day. Thanks to Aaron. Thanks to Adam Zalanka from the Washington Times. joining us. Tommy will be with me tomorrow, a lot of Nats tomorrow, a lot of football tomorrow, and we will get, I think, tomorrow to the LeBron James thing, which we have not had a chance to do. Poor LeBron just can't shut his mouth. He just keeps getting deeper and deeper into this thing.

By the way, just one last thought. When somebody explains and re-explains and talks and tweets over and over again when they're in hot PR water, isn't that the telltale sign that they're trying to backpedal. He can't back pedal fast enough. I've never seen, you know, well, that's not true. We've seen it before. But right now, LeBron James, the heat he's in from a PR standpoint. It's about as bad as situation for a big-time, big branded athlete as we've seen in a long, long time. We will get to that conversation tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of the day.