The Kevin Sheehan Show - The Best Player On The Team Is...

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

Kevin and Thom with plenty of options on the menu today. The boys started with a discussion about the paper route jobs they had as kids. They also talked RFK site and the Commanders' new team President before getting to answering the question...."who's the BEST player on the team ?". Kevin talked about the Terps' blow out win last night over Ohio State in their Big 10 opener. Thom had thoughts on MLB's potential "Golden-At-Bat" rule.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. The show's presenting sponsor, as always, is Windonation. Give him a call, 86690 Nation or Windonation.com.

Who's the best player? Not the most important player, but the best player on the football team right now. We will answer that question at the beginning of the best player. the next segment. We'll get Tommy's thoughts on the Rob Manfred Major League Baseball Golden at Bat idea. Sounds interesting. Not really. How you doing, Tommy? I'm doing okay, buddy. Do it okay. You sure? wondering. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'm doing fine. It just sounded like you were kind of trying to, you know, tough it out today.

No, no, no, no, no. It's pretty cold out there, so I didn't get to walk. today. At least it was pretty cold this morning. You don't walk in the cold? I don't walk when it's 29 degrees with a 30 mile an hour wind. It was windy this morning. That's true. We had high wind warnings. I mean, that's like the guy who basically walks in a hundred degree weather. You got to sometimes surrender to the elements around you. Do you have a workout room in your place where you can go down and get on the treadmill? Well, I don't I don't walk on a treadmill. You know, I stopped walking on a treadmill year ago when my knee got hurt from walking on the treadmill. I don't know what it was, the surface or something. Okay. I don't do that,

but I do an upper body workout with bands and dumbbells. I don't picture you as much of a pellet. You're not much of a peloton or bike guy, are you? No. Yeah. Were you a bike rider when you were a kid? Oh yeah, before. I had a car. My bike was everywhere. Right. Took my bike to J.M. Hill School to play football or basketball after school. Rode my bike home, rode my bike on my paper routes. You know, rode my bike in a lot of places. I had paper routes when I was a kid. I had two of them actually simultaneously.

I delivered the Post and the Washington Star. The Post was, of course, the morning paper, and the Star was the afternoon paper. although on weekends the star was a morning paper as well. So Saturdays and Sundays were heavy lifting. But yeah, always had paper else. You were a real go-getter, weren't you? I always worked. I don't know about go-getter, but I always had to have a job.

It wasn't like during the summers I was going to the pool and hanging out all day. my father very much was you're getting a job. You know, once I guess I was like 12 or 13, 14 maybe, I had to have a job. And, you know, I started probably delivering papers when I was 9 or 10, maybe, 11. But yeah, but you were the same way, right? Yeah, but mine was, that didn't come from my parents. I don't think I had to work. You know, they didn't give me, like, much of it allowed.

You know, but again, I didn't want for much, you know? You still don't. I just don't remember not wanting for much. I had paperouts. You know, when I was a kid in Brooklyn, I used to deliver groceries when I was like nine years old. And, yeah, I worked when I turned 16. I worked at the drive-in movie theater. I worked at the local department store.

Yeah. but I don't think I was the same, the same motivated like you were, two paper routes. I had one paper route, and it was allowed the out-of-town paper, so I didn't have, it was funny, because it was the out-of-town paper. I only had about 35 or 40 daily subscribers, the Allentown morning call, but it was the only Sunday paper in the area, so I'd have 175 subscribers for Sunday paper. It would take me all day to deliver the Sunday paper. That's a lot.

175. That is a lot. Of the Sunday, 175 phone books. Yeah, of course. I mean, we used to have to, with the Post and the Star, I guess, we'd have to, you'd get two big bundles. You'd get the paper, and then you'd get the inserts. And so you'd have to actually do the, put the inserts into the paper before you started the paper out on Sundays in particular. The one thing I do remember about delivering newspapers, and I'm assuming it's the ink. but on really cold mornings, you could put your hands in between the newspaper pages, and they would warm your hands. I don't remember that. Yeah.

I don't know what the reason for that is. I should probably look it up, but I'm going to assume it's the ink maybe. I don't know. It may have been the paper itself. How the cheap labor that newspaper used. Kids, you know, this is why they made a play called Newsies. because this was an issue in the turn of the century of the 20th century, right around then, I think, and I'm probably getting a lot of this wrong,

between newsboys and newspaper owners. And I think the newsboys went on strike in New York, you know, because they weren't making any money back then. So it's always been a cheap labor thing. And then, you know, in the 70s and maybe like the 80s and 90s more, delivering papers became more of an adult thing. Oh, well, I don't know about, what year, what decade are you saying, the 90s? 90s, 80s, 90s?

It wasn't the 80s, I don't think, but probably, yeah, maybe in the 90s, certainly this century. It's now a grown person's job, they're in a car, and they have not one paper route, but they have an entire area, and that's a job. You know, I have no idea. This is why, as customers kept expanding farther and farther away. from the city, which has helped contribute in a way to the demise of newspapers. It was a lot easier to publish a paper when your 100,000 customers were within three miles of each other. But, you know, when they're 90 miles away, you have to start printing at, you know, 5 o'clock in the afternoon the day before. So you don't get any news in your paper,

really, if you're living in Hagerstown or something like that. I mean, I hear a car coming through our neighborhood early in the morning, and it's very early in the morning, dropping off newspapers. I get no newspapers delivered to the house. Have it for several years now. I mean, I can't imagine that business is booming. The newspaper delivered business. I don't get newspapers delivered either.

I have subscriptions to a couple hundred. line. And you know, if I stop to think about it and take the romanticism of my profession out of it, it's probably better for society that we don't print newspapers. Oh, sure. Yeah.

You know? I mean, the worst polluters in the world are paper mills. Right. You know, you said a little while ago that you're not one to want for much that is true for the most part.

You're, again, like we said so many times, it's your simplicity that makes you so complex. But you do want for attention when you believe that you deserve it. And I had on the radio show yesterday, I had Sam 48 on the show. And I talked about on the show, the podcast yesterday,

this story that the post had the other day about Maryland, wanting essentially a quid pro quo for yes votes on the RFK site bill. The three things being an Air National Guard squadron from D.C. A stating of intentions of what the team wants to do with the next stadium. And then lastly, a plan from the team on what they will do with the FedEx Field, the Northwest Stadium field. site in Landover and I did mention several times to make sure that I didn't forget or that you

somebody at least told you that I said it because you don't listen to the show that Tom was the first to have this story two months ago now you didn't have the Air Squadron part which was kind of a a big headline to this story but you were the first you were the first to report that more so than Senator Daines, the real hold-up and the team is concerned more so about the senators from the state of Maryland, Chris Van Hollen, in particular.

Yes. That's true. So you got your proper attention from me. Well, thank you. Thank you. It didn't take much. It's a little arm twist in here and there. Yeah. Now, what did you make, though, of the National Guard

request, Air National Guard Squadron request? Well, I don't think any would have thought that that would have come into play. It was such a bizarre or unique request that doesn't really usually come into a stadium story. That made a very flashy headline. But as Sam said on his ex account, the more significant thing are the plans for the land. That's the more significant item for Maryland at this point.

Yeah. Which seems reasonable that they should have a plan. for what they would do with that land and for the stadium that will sit there if they leave. That seems reasonable. What I said didn't seem reasonable. It sounds like the Air Squadron thing isn't that reasonable for the city, that that's not something that they deem to be reasonable. But I could be wrong on this, but I can't imagine the team wants to state its intentions,

you know, publicly. that would be kind of a losing of some leverage in their negotiations. So that doesn't seem doable, but just netted out for us right now. What do you think? Is this thing going to get attached to this national defense bill in the next week or so or not? I don't know about that. I don't know about that. Well, that seems to be the only path to really the RFK site plan getting, you know, approved

and moving forward potentially with D.C. If not, they've got to start all over in January with the new Congress. Yes, they do. I don't know if it will. I have no Capitol Hill. I don't have a Tom Leverro Capital Hill Bureau, okay? So I don't really know what will happen. I think it might.

I think it might, and that would certainly turn the tide and change the whole focus from my contention that the state it would wind up in Maryland, I think that the new owners are so adamant about wanting it at RFK. I think at some point Maryland realized that, you know, they were going to be kind of holding the commander's owner's prisoner if they forced them to put it in Maryland. This is just my reading of it. No insight information.

because I think they've relented over the last six months or so. You do. A little to the realization that the owners want to put it at the RFK site. Sure. I guess just the, you know, looking for something in return for these yes votes is a bit of an indication that they understand how badly the current owners want to get to. DC and how hell bent they are on getting to DC. And by the way, how much the area in general wants them to return to DC, including a lot of constituents in Maryland that Chris Van Hollen and,

you know, Ben Cardin, but soon to be Angelo also Brooks, will have to answer to. Right. And then, you know, this is just, you know, this is, this is a step that has to be done. But, I foresee a much bloodier, messier, more difficult step in the financing of any stadium. And with the City Council approving everything. Yeah. You know, you know, everyone knows this, who's followed the stadium thing. You know, Josh Harris's team up in Philadelphia to 76ers, are in a process of trying to get a new arena built for the basketball team downtown.

Well, they're paying for the whole thing. there's no public money involved in that. Not only that, in order to ease the controversies that are going on up there, they're willing to kick in more money to the city for various programs that they want to use. So they're willing to fork over money for the city to have to use for programs. Plus, they're billed in the stadium. If I'm a city council member in D.C., I say, well, hey, what's good for Philly is good for, for Washington. Why should we pay anything when you're building an arena in Philadelphia out of your own

pocket? Well, it's not as expensive. That's not as expensive. It's not as expensive. Okay. Okay. No, it's not as expensive. It's about, it might be a billion less expensive. I think it's $1.3 or $1.4 billion. I think that's what they're looking for from the city. Yeah. Yeah. So that's not going to go over well with elected officials, or should it. Yeah. I don't know what to think about this. You've predicted Maryland all along. I've kind of always felt that somehow, some way it would get back to RFK. You know, the truth is that this is a crucial time for where the stadium lands, but the stadium isn't going to land anywhere for another five or six years. And it's so far down the road, and it's like there's going to be so much football and so many other organizational things that happen between now and the opening of a new stadium, including, by the way, probably the first half of this new quarterback's career. And by the time they get there, I mean, I'm not sure it will be a massively important thing.

to people that are older. It will be important to younger people, for sure. But, you know, look, there will be events if it's a dome stadium, and it looks like it would be a dome stadium, because I think a retractable roof stadium is actually more expensive than an open air or a dome stadium. But I think Muriel Bowser mentioned to John Kime that it would be a dome stadium.

And I think that was the plan all along. And maybe they'll attract final fours and, you know, big, massive events, and it'll probably be cool to see some of that. But in terms of, you know, being super excited about a stadium opening five, six years from now, I don't know. I understand the significance of the story right now. I do.

And then once that happens, periodically we'll get updates over the next few years. You know, the breaking ground and then, and update every once in a while, but it's a long process before they can get something opened up. And look, you know, they have to get it done right now in the Senate in about a week and a half, or they'll start all over in January. But, you know, long story short, I mean, this is a big story because of how crucial this period of time is. and then once it's determined where the stadium will get built, it'll be four or five years before it becomes important again.

It could be if it gets done right a tremendous new part of the city. No doubt. I mean, just absolutely vital, tremendous vitality going on down there. Right. You know, if this is done right. I agree with that. Enough of that. Okay, one other thing about this.

Yes. to do with the financing. You know what I wonder? I wonder if Josh Harris at some point in the very near future would sell his share of the Sixers. Right. You know? Yeah.

For money. I mean, because if they get the arena approved in Philly, and they're in the process of building a new arena in downtown Philly, and at the same time, the Celtics who were for sale, are sold for a record amount of money for an NBA franchise. People expect them to go for maybe $6 billion or more for an NBA team, the same amount that the football teams has went for. That means that $76 a franchise,

the value of that franchise will be through the roof. And, you know, it can't be fun owning an NBA team, especially that team. It really can. Remember. They're such a train wreck. What's a train wreck? The 76. Oh, the 76ers.

I thought you just mentioned. We're talking about NFL teams in general. It just can't be fun. That would be the time to sell your NBA team. When they've established a new value with the Celtics sale, which raises everybody else's value, that's probably going to be what the new expansion fee is going to be when they expand to maybe Seattle.

and Vegas maybe or someplace else. So the value will be really high. I'm just wondering if he would sell the 76ers to come up with money to finance the stadium in Washington. Well, remember when we were talking about the $6 billion price tag, and, you know, he obviously needed to come up with basically the largest ownership group that isn't the Packers publicly owned ownership group to pay the $6 billion for the team. And I think, if I recall, for the primary owner, the managing partner of the ownership group, that person has to put up, I think it was 30% of the price.

So we had to come up with $1.8 billion of the price tag. And the debt limit was somewhere around $1 billion, right? didn't the league have the debt limit at about a billion dollars? And we talked about how, I mean, look, that was not an easy capital raise for Josh Harris at all. And so, you know, there's definitely some debt involved in the deal. You know, there's no doubt that there's debt involved in the deal. And by the way, at different interest rates than it would have been had it been three or four years ago. And so, yeah, at some point, I would imagine that he'd want to pay down that debt.

And, you know, look, everybody else is in, I would expect on straight equity, you know, a straight equity deal versus any sort of debt or convertible debt. But they definitely raise some debt to buy the team. So, yeah. I mean, and look, this is not, I think we do know this, that the team that the team he just purchased this team here is for him a lot more personal. Yes. Yes.

Absolutely. And like I said, you know, I just got a feeling that he'll wind up selling the 76ers for money at the point where they get the new arena approved and it's under, the construction is underway and a new sales price is kind of a fixed to, what an NBA team goes for. Do you know what'll happen if he were to sell the 76ers? The Philadelphia 76er fans would rejoice. They don't like him. He's not a popular Philadelphia 76ers owner with Philadelphia 76er fans.

So he's popular here so far. Oh, yes, he is. That's for sure. So I wanted to do one other thing here in this opening segment. It is football team related, even though it's not football related. I sort of save this for you because I do think it's kind of interesting, or it may be. The team announced on Tuesday that it had hired its new team president to replace Jason Wright, who is outgoing, as we've known now, for several months at the end of this year.

And they hired a gentleman by the name of Mark Klaus. Mark has been the president and CEO of the Campbell's company. That's the Campbell's Soup Company since 2019. He's been in the consumer product and the consumer food business for a long period of time. Graduated from West Point was a basketball player, by the way, at West Point. later served six years in the Army as a helicopter pilot, ended up completing his service in the Army as a captain in the Army. His professional background includes prior to arriving at Campbell's.

He was with Kraft Foods. He was with Pinnacle Foods, which is a company that has brands like Vlasic pickles Pickles and Swanson TV dinners. And I think one of the companies that he worked for was affiliated with, yeah, he was with Kraft forever, but he was also with Canagra. He was with Canagra for a while. So he's been in consumer goods, food businesses for pretty much the entirety of his professional career.

And I bring this up because I talked to somebody on Tuesday and I just was trying to dig into anything about him and what his specialty is. And the only thing somebody said to me, and it really hit home for me because of what my background was before I got into broadcasting is that he really understands the power of a brand, a really strong brand. And for all of those years, Tommy, when we would talk about the name and the people that wanted the name gone, and they would say, oh, this would be the greatest thing ever to have a new name, new merchandise. And I would always tell you and tell everybody, you know, when you have something that's longstanding and has a passionate following and a real emotionally attached following, You don't mess with that stuff because the value can go away in a heartbeat because people become less attached emotionally. We've seen that. I mean, it came true when they were forced to give up the name.

Now, there were a lot of other things going on simultaneously that led to, you know, two-thirds of the fan base exiting stage right. But I bring this up because this is a guy who understands, you know, brands and understands. consumer attachment to brands and what it means to change brands. And I think he'll understand, for those of you, and I'm one of them, that, you know, are still interested, yes, in the name issue and in the branding issue, you know, I would be surprised if this isn't a guy that understands what a big portion of the fan base is going through right now. You know, his background isn't sports necessarily.

He played college basketball at West Point. But it is in businesses where, you know, direct to consumer and the power of that relationship and how that relationship, you know, is developed through a great product and then ultimately maintained through a lot of the stuff that you do from a branding standpoint. you know, this is a guy that might come in and understand exactly what needs to be done. I still don't think there's an easy answer here other than there should be an answer. Doing something is still better than doing nothing, in my opinion. But I just thought his background was interesting as it relates to, you know, this particular situation,

this team and how big of an issue the team name and the association, associated branding is and certainly has been for the last couple of years, and we'll be moving forward. Anyway, that's all. Did you have any thoughts on him? Do you think he should rent or buy? Oh, we're not in a rent or buy situation anymore. Okay.

Right? I'm just curious. I agree. Yeah. I agree. But that came along with the job of team president briefly. Rent or buy. One of your great all-time predictions.

I mean, Brian Lafamina, pal. pal friend governor do me a favor rent don't buy because you're not going to be here and you predicted you said he won't make it a year and he didn't um

ol Lopamina it's funny because you brought this up many times I mean most fans of teams don't know who they're president of business operations is no no this was the thing that was truly off-putting

about the last situation And not only that, I mean, you know, you had a head coach who was flailing, a head coach and general manager, coach-centric Ron who was flailing, who was basically the face of the franchise during all of those ridiculous, you know, investigations and a pandemic and cancer and all of it. We've talked about it so many times. And then this guy came in and he wanted to be the face of everything. But everything he touched went, you know, went the wrong way, consistently the wrong way.

No, to your point, Tommy, this should be kind of the last time we hear about Mark Klaus, although because of the situation he's entering with respect to the name and the brand and everything else and how important it is. And the stadium. He'll be involved in that. Yeah, then we're probably going to hear a little bit more from him. But yeah, most of the time you don't know. who your head of business operations is.

That's for sure. All right, we got some things to get to. We will start doing that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Is there anything better when you're a football fan than this time of year? It seems like there are games on around the clock. It's a changing time of year.

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From numbers to pricing, you can trust My Booky. Take the free money even if you've got another place. where you're currently betting. MyBooky.ag promo code, Kevin D.C. The game tonight is a good one, a really good one. Right now at MyBooky, Detroit is a three and a half point favorite at home tonight against the Packers. The total is 51.5. No smell test pick on the game tonight, although I would lean Packers.

I have had six winning weekends. in a row. I'll just remind everybody, tune in for tomorrow's smell test picks. We've got a lot of college football and a big NFL card on Sunday. I do like Green Bay a little bit tonight, plus the three and a half. I'll probably play it myself, but it's not an official pick for the smell test. But my bookie's got everything you need on the game tonight, everything you need for all of Sunday's games. Go to my bookie.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin D. So Tommy, who's the best player as we sit here in the buy week with four left after we come out of the buy week? Who's the best player on the team? Right now, not in terms of what that player will be in the future.

Right now, who's the best player on the team? You know, this is so hard for me. It requires a lot of thought and analysis. I mean, I need to do some stunt. Jade and Daniels. Let me think about it, Jaden Daniels. But he's the answer for everything, Dane Daniels. That's the answer. It's hard to say anyone else, at least offensively, is better than him since they're so dependent on him. So what you just implied or said is going to be a part of how I answer this question.

Jaden Daniels is the most important player on the team. And you can certainly make the case that he is the best player on the team. There's no question that if we were to ask this, I think, a year from now, and definitely two years from now, it will be an absolute given that Jaden Daniels, you know, hopefully he's healthy, will be the best player on the team. But in terms of the way this particular player is playing right now, I think Frankie Louvo is the best player on the team right now. Jaden's the most important.

Jaden is in the conversation for the best player on the team right now. I think actually there are three players, maybe four if you want to include Bobby Wagner, but it's Jaden, Terry, and Louvo. Wagner's a very important player too and he's played very well this year. He may be headed towards another Pro Bowl. Jaden, I think, is going to make the Pro Bowl. Terry, I think, is going to make the Pro Bowl. I think there's a chance Terry will be an all-pro this year, a second team all-pro with the season he's having.

But I think right now the best pound-for-pound football player on the team is Frankie Louvo. I can't believe how good he is. And I was a fan of the signing because I knew he was a good player at Carolina and had watched occasionally and said, that dude's pretty good. He is certainly high motor, high energy. But he has well exceeded, I think, anybody's expectations. And here's the thing. The way they use him, he is the player that has to be game planned for by an offensive

coordinator. And Jaden's got to be game planned, of course, by a defensive coordinator. They haven't had a player this good on defense in a while. I guess sweat was really good. John Allen and Payne have had moments. right now, Frankie Louvue's the best player on the team. Jaden's the most important. It is interesting that you pick a defensive player.

I know. That's the best player on the team. Definitely, because I'm not that confident in the defense at all. I can't argue with it. He makes his presence felt in every game. Absolutely. Who is Dante Fowler, for that matter? Dante Fowler's been good as a pass rusher.

Right now, Louvo is a half sack behind Fowler Jr., but he's been a much more consistently impactful player in so many ways. Right now, in terms of sacks, in the NFC, Louvue is fifth, Fowler is fourth. You know, for a team that hasn't been great defensively, they've got two of the top five sack guys in the NFC. I think Louvo is going to make the Pro Bowl and I think Wagner might make the Pro Bowl.

I mean, Washington may have two defensive pro bowl players. Yeah. So. I could see that. And I think... I'm not going to argue with you about it. I mean, because it is such a subjective thing. You know, I'm curious, you know, when healthy,

Brian Robinson could be in that mix. Yeah, he just has missed too much time and there's so, you know, you've got great. You've got great running backs in the NFC right now. Yeah. You know, you've got Barkley, you've got Josh Jacobs, you've got Gibbs, you've got Montgomery, you've just got so many good backs in the NFC. But I do think Terry, definitely right now, NFC-wise, you have Justin Jefferson is a gimmy,

and I do think that probably a guy like Lamb or a Monroa St. Brown might be the second receiver. but Denton was telling me, my producer was telling me the other day that you get on the all pro team, there are three receivers on first team all pro and three or four on the second. So he's going to make all pro. I don't think he's made an all pro yet. He's made one pro bowl, right? I think one pro bowl. But I don't think he's been an all pro yet.

Yeah, he hasn't been. He made the 2022 Pro Bowl. That's it. He's a pro bowler. I think he will be at least a second team all pro this year. That would be, I'd be very happy for him. All right. Louvue.

A guy who deserves everything that comes his way. You surprised I didn't say Daniels? No, because you're that kind of guy. You're a contrarian in every way. That's not a contrarian take. Well, I think it is. I don't. That doesn't mean you're wrong.

I look, contrarian has worked out. I think the first thing that would come to most people's minds would be Jaden. Daniels. And he'd certainly be right there. Right there. I'd probably go Louvre, Daniels, McLoran in that order. And then Wagner after that, in terms of the best player. The most important player, Jaden's one.

Bobby Wagner might be two. Yeah. But actually, Terry might be two. I might agree with that. Terry might be two because you, without having a true number one wide receiver, This would be a challenge for sure. I wanted to real quickly talk about Maryland basketball. Last night, I don't know if you were paying attention, Tommy.

They played their first Big Ten game of the year. They played Ohio State. And the score at halftime of the game was Maryland 50, Ohio State 17. That was a real score in a Big Ten game. the 33-point lead by Maryland at halftime in a Big Ten game was the largest lead in a Big Ten basketball game in 28 years at halftime. They've only been in the Big Ten for 10 years. This is the 11th season. But you have to go back to 1996. 1996. That would be, yeah, 28 seasons to find the last time that somebody had this big of a lead. I know that I get excited about Maryland basketball, sometimes prematurely understood.

This team is really talented. Derek Queen's a one-and-dunner. Enjoy him while he's here. Apparently, Kevin Wildard said that after the game. Yeah, I read that quote. He's incredibly skilled. He's definitely a pro. He's an incredibly skilled player.

He just knows how to play the game. I've talked about him a lot of time. This is the guy that, you know, would be the 40. year old at the YMCA or Bethesda Sport and Health, who, you know, isn't super athletic, but just absolutely slays everybody that tries to guard him. He does everything. He's got great hands, great feet, great spacing, great spatial awareness, great vision, great all of that, feel for the game. He's an old school player, and he's really good, as is their point guard, Jacoby Gillespie, who is a transfer from Belmont in Nashville.

This is a really good, and this is a totally different team from last year. They're very talented. Julian Reese is back for a senior year. Deshaun Harris-Smith is coming in off the bench. The Virginia Tech Transfer, Rodney Rice is good. The USF transfer, Seltin Miguel, is really good. They are right now in the Ken Palm rankings 19th. This is a tournament team, I think, for sure.

sure. I don't know where they'll finish in the Big Ten. The Big Ten's got, you know, a lot of good teams, not a great team necessarily, but it's, it was an absolute, it was absolute destruction last night of a pretty good Ohio State team. They're not great, but they beat a ranked team early in the season, Texas. They played Pitt, one of the better teams in the ACC, and lost the buzzer the other night to them. I can't remember watching a Maryland basketball. ball game, and that's because it hadn't happened to see what they did to a team in the first half. It was like they were playing Florida A&M or Alcorn State. Terps are good this year. They're going to have, they play Purdue's Sunday at 12. Big test. Purdue's ranked eighth in the

country. They've still got the guards, lawyer and Smith. Zach Edie's gone. He plays for Memphis and the NBA. But that'll be their first test. And you never really know a lot about teams this time a year, and you really don't know a lot about teams until they go on the road, a true road game for a first time, and that's what they'll do Sunday, so I'm looking forward to that. But Marilyn Hoops, looking pretty good right now for this year. Kevin Willard completely remade that roster. That would be exciting to have something in basketball to pay attention to in the winter. Yeah, because the Wizards aren't very good.

Oh, for November. Yeah. I think I saw Dan Steinberg tweet out that the Dodgers more recently won a game than the Wizards have. The Wizards have lost 15 in a row, and of the 15 losses, only one of them was a single-digit loss, and that was a nine-point loss to San Antonio, the night that Wembeñana went for 50. I mean, they are truly horrific. They played Dallas tonight. Like their general manager said, we're watching the deconstruction phase.

The deconstruction face. Yes. All right. I wanted to ask you about this golden bat idea. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Euro step around that hot take and make a play today with Robin Hood. With a 3% boost on your annual IRA contributions with Robin Hood gold, your money starts working for you.

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All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelley's. Well, if it's Thursday, I'm going to give you Shelley specials on their food menu for the week. They always have such great specials on their menu of excellence when it comes to food. They have three menus of excellence. They have one for food, one for drinks, and one for cigars. You can read about all of them if you go online at shelley's backroom.com. This week's one of Shelley specials is the double-dip burger, It's a half pound of their custom blend, you know, Angus ground beef, you know, that special blend that Shelley's gets with Swiss cheese, roast beef on a butter toasted potato roll.

You know, they have another one, buffalo chicken tender sandwiches. They have a lemon pepper chicken pasta Caesar salad. And besides, are you a tater tots guy? I love tater tots, sure. Who doesn't love tater tots? They've got fried potatoes tots as a side as they're special this week. I like potatoes in almost any form. Sure.

But I particularly like tater tots. Tater tots are great. Deli's backroom, 131, F Street, Northwest, in the district. Other than, you know, kind of a fried potato, like tater tots or French fries, what other potatoes do you like? Do you like mashed potatoes? Do you like baked potatoes? More than mashed. I like baked more than mashed. Baked more than mashed. I like mashed more than baked. But I'll eat potatoes just about anyway. All right. This golden bat idea, a Rob Manfred Major League Baseball special. After pitch clocks and, you know, extra inning, you know, runners on base on second, now comes the idea of a golden.

at bat, meaning a team once a game could send its best hitter to the plate, regardless of where he was due to hit. Just put them in wherever you want, break up the order, and that would guarantee that the best hitters got up in the most clutch and important situations. So I'll ask Mr. Hall of Fame baseball voter and writer, what do you think about the golden at bat rule? Well, I think the proposal for a golden at bat deserves a golden shower. That's what I think.

Whoa. Is that one of your favorite genres? No, it's not. Okay. But for what I've read, that's exactly where this golden bat should be, under a golden shower. Oh. Okay.

This is just so stupid. It's such a bad idea. It doesn't, it shows a lack of grasp of what the joy of baseball is, what the attraction of baseball is. You just, you said it yourself, any place in the order. Well, the order, the lineup is part of the allure of baseball. Sure. You know? I mean, and you just could just, just could toss it out and say, oh, I'm sending my best guy up here.

I mean, it's ridiculous. It's a ridiculous idea. You know, I'm sure the kids who don't watch baseball think it's a great idea, you know, but for the rest of us who actually watch baseball a lot during the summer, we have nothing to do with the gold is bad. I think this is the last you'll hear from it in a while. You know, they had the uniforms in the All-Star game where they all-war the same American National League uniforms. That's done.

They're getting rid of that and going back to the old uniforms. and I'm not even going to have to get rid of the golden bat. It's never going to surface again. So much of me wanted to just, for the purpose of getting you riled up, just really go hard on loving the idea. And me like, what do you mean? You wouldn't love to see Otani, who bat, you know, batted in the bottom of the eighth, come right back and batting the bottom of the ninth?

Come on, that would be great. But this really is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. lack of understanding. It's, yeah. One of the things fans look forward to is the posting of the lineup, hours before the game starts. But Tommy, but this is where, look, who under the age of 30 or 40 looks forward to the posting of the lineups? Seriously. Well, you know what?

Fuck the young people. You know, they don't know what? That's going to happen to the young people. they're going to get old. And then they're going to watch baseball. That's my contention all along. Baseball, all they have to do, it's just wait until these punks get older,

and then they'll be geysers, and then they'll watch the same game that you're watching. They're not watching baseball when they get older if they don't grow up with the sport. No way. Oh, yes, they are. Why? What else would they watch?

Football, basketball, the sports that are their favorites. I don't know if you've noticed. Soccer. But basketball is self-destructing right in front of our eyes. I don't know if that's true. I certainly don't think that's true from a financial standpoint. No, but it is true from a rating standpoint.

Yeah. Well, it's a hard watch this time of year. There's no doubt about it, but I think it's a more popular sport than Major League Baseball using a lot of metrics and in other ways that you would measure, perhaps not. but I mean, look, because... Children with crayons. I've been around younger people more recently than you have. Baseball is not anywhere near the top of their list.

It just isn't. Now, not even playing it. Playing it is, you know, trying to find people that will play it beyond when they're a little kid is tough. But it just is hard to pay attention. to it. You know, there are a lot of intricacies to baseball to really enjoy it. They're not willing to put in that effort to learn it. Other games are faster moving and more exciting. In many ways, have you become your father? If you're talking about from a sports watching standpoint, no, I haven't. My father loves me. Generally, generally. I don't, I don't think so. In some ways,

yes and some ways don't know. I know. I know. I'm different. Most of us become apparent. Yeah. Okay. I'm not worried about the kids. God, I hope my wife doesn't become her parents, her mother. God rest her soul. No, I, I, my father loves baseball.

My father grew up with baseball, though, Tommy. I didn't grow up with baseball. I didn't have a team. It's why, I mean, I love baseball postseason. It is almost impossible to get me to watch a baseball game start to finish. even in the middle of summer when nothing else is on. But you see, the kids that you talk about, they don't watch any sports start to finish. And I think they watch the NFL start to finish.

No, they watch highlights. They can't get them to stay for three hours for anything. All right. Rob Manfred, golden shower time for you. Real quickly, before we leave, Eric Bienemy is out as UCLA's offensive Gordon. That is. I know. Now, his agent put out some statement that said it was always about going to help Deshaun Foster,

the first year UCLA head coach, a friend of his, and that he always had his eyes on returning to the NFL in 2025 after he was finished getting paid by the commanders. Remember, they signed him to a two-year deal. So they paid him this year. I wish him the best. I hope it works out for him. I know it's been a challenge for, it certainly was a challenge.

for a lot of the people that played for his offense. There was zero chance he was coming back after last year. But, you know, there's always Andy Reid, and maybe there's always an opportunity that, you know, whatever has kept him from getting gigs, from getting jobs, he can change. You know, I had this conversation yesterday about Russell Wilson, right? Russell Wilson's having a banner year.

I mean, the Steelers are completely different offensively. Russell Wilson came to Pittsburgh and Mike Tomlin said, look, I'll sign you, but all the BS that has surrounded you stops now. There's no entourage's no special offices. There's no shower that you have that no one else has. You don't have any, you know, you don't have any perks by being the quarter of. back here other than your play on the field. That's what matters and it's all that matters in our organization. And, you know, Sean Payton claimed to have said that to Russell Wilson, but it didn't work out for whatever reason. So you can always evolve and become better and learn from your

mistakes and learn why people got frustrated with you and or why people didn't give you the opportunity and become better. That's what I'm striving for with you every day. Maybe the word was all along that he wouldn't be a very good head coach. Well, no one ever came close to offering him a head coach position. Right. Yeah. But as a coordinator last year, he wasn't very good.

And UCLA was the last team in college football to score 20 or more points in a game. They were a bad offensive team for much of the year. All right, anything else? I got to run. I got nothing for you, boss. By the way, you didn't ask me what I have going on this afternoon. Are you interested? What do you have going on this afternoon?

I have a dentist appointment that I cannot miss because I missed the last one because I was recording a podcast too long with you. So it's not my favorite thing to do, but I'm going to go anyway. This is like two dentist appointments in a row. Yeah, yours is more painful. The first one today is much more painful. All right, I'll talk to you. next week. Have a good weekend. I'm back tomorrow, everybody, with Jay Gruden.