The Kevin Sheehan Show - Washington's Schedule Advantage

Episode Date: May 19, 2023

Kevin opened with some thoughts about Jim Brown. He then expressed his promise to not discuss the "re-brand" topic with "outsiders". He talked about Warren Sharp's in-depth look at "rest days" on this year's NFL Schedule. Washington is in good shape for a change. Some NBA and a Preakness Preview with Eddie C as well.  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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. I played nine years, and I left at the age of 29 years old. I was MVP a living. And that's what I wanted to do.

The voice of Jim Brown, many believe the greatest football player in the history of the NFL. Jim Brown passed away today at the age of 87 years old. Yeah, Jim Brown voted the greatest player in the history of the league by the sporting news, by the New York Daily News, among others. On that countdown of the top 100 greatest players of all time that the NFL network did a few years ago, he finished second behind Jerry Rice. But nobody will debate, or very few will, that Jim Brown was the greatest running back that ever lived. Brown averaged 104.3 yards per game for his career. That's an NFL record. Barry Sanders is two at 99.8 yards per carry. Brown held for many, many years, the NFL record for a career for average yards per carry at 5.2. Jamal Charles broke that record back in 2012 when he retired. But in terms of the combined yards per game and average yards per carry, only Barry Sanders comes close.

at 99.8 yards per game and 5 yards per carry. Walter Payton doesn't come close. He averaged 88 yards per game and 4.4 yards per carry. Emmett Smith doesn't come close, 81.2 yards per game with a 4.2 yards per carry average. And Brown did it in just 118 career games. That was the max that he could have played while under contract to the Cleveland Browns. They only had 118 available games for him to play in, and he played in all of them. He was 6'2, 235 pounds. Back then, he was the size of many linemen and certainly linebackers in the league. Many will say that he was the fiercest running back and the most physical and violent of running backs of all time, and even others will say he was the most graceful of all time. He was voted the number one

college football player of all time. And many believe he's the greatest lacrosse player that's ever lived, played lacrosse at Syracuse while playing college football. He was a three-time MVP. He was an eight-time first-team all pro. He was a nine-time pro bowler. Jim Brown, for anybody of a certain age, is right there at the top of the list of the greatest athletes they've ever seen. I am not quite old enough to have remembered Jim Brown. But I have heard the conversations over the years. Off the field, it was a very complex and contentious person. He changed lives by finding, you know, a group that went out to curb gang violence. He was a civil rights activist in the 60s with other big-time black athletes like Kareem, Bill Russell, and Muhammad Ali. He was also arrested

a half dozen times, mostly on charges of battering women. He had a very, you know, checkered off-the-field existence. But as a football player, very few will debate more than one, two, or three players that were ever better than Jim Brown. Passed away today at the age of 87 years old. The show today has a guest, just one guest. It was supposed to be two guests today, but one of them fell through. I tweeted out yesterday. I couldn't do the pod yesterday.

Something came up. I tweeted out that we had a good guest planned for today, or tomorrow, meaning today. And we do have a good guest on the show today. Eddie C, our Triple Crown handicapper, will join us in the final segment of the show. But I had another good guest planned, and it fell through. But I think we may be able to work it out either tomorrow or sometime next week. I won't mention his name, but I think you guys will enjoy his perspective on all things, Washington football, including the draft. And no, it wasn't coolly.

It was not coolly. I wanted to start the show by just mentioning that on radio yesterday, and I did do radio yesterday, we continued to a certain degree the rebrand conversation. you know, should you or shouldn't you if you're the new owner, consider a rebrand? Should it be a priority or shouldn't it be a priority? For the majority of people out there, it is a priority. That's just a fact. Almost, you know, my poll, which had 4,400 votes indicated 56% think it's a high priority for them and should be for new ownership. And 80% had it on a priority list. Only 20% of the people and that poll that I put out on Twitter said that it wouldn't be on their list of priorities. But my position has been, from the jump, if you don't think a new name and new branding should be a

priority for the new owners, that's fine. If you do think it's a priority and should be a priority, that's fine too. It's a very personal, subjective, kind of emotional topic for long-time. fans, past and present. And I don't think lecturing is the way to go. So I don't have any time for those that are lecturing. But I took it yesterday in a direction in which I thought about when I was having a conversation with somebody who was not a fan of the team who insisted that this should not be anywhere near the top of the priority list. And I finally came to the conclusion, I don't really care about the people who,

are not invested, that aren't long-time fans of the team. That they're not, you know, for people who haven't been fans and haven't been emotionally invested in this team for a long period of time, I don't really care what they think. It's family that should be having this conversation. It's people that really, you know, are card-carrying members, have the bona fides and the credentials of being a long time, you know, emotionally attached. fan to this team. You know, if you've only read about it, I don't care what you think. You have to have felt it.

And so I talked about that on the show yesterday and came up with, you know, a bunch of, it's funny, it led into a call segment. But basically I said, look, if you don't know who Clint Longley is, I don't want to have this conversation about a rebrand with you. You know, if you can't explain what I'm bored, I'm broken, I'm back means, then I really don't have time to have any serious conversation about this team, you because you're not a fan. Now, that obviously dates a lot of people. So for the younger listeners, if you don't know what happened the first time Clinton Portis touched a football in

Washington, I don't want to have that conversation with you. If you don't know what Osaka means, you know, it's really hard to have this conversation with you. And then we could, you know, move it on to the last five or six years for people who are really young, but invested emotionally into the team. You know, one of the things I mentioned and it got a lot of response was, you need to have experienced going to bed in late November of 2007 thinking that Sean Taylor was on the mend. Remember the reports that Sean Taylor, the doctors were optimistic and things were looking up, and then you woke up the following morning to find out that he had passed away. You know, you kind of need to have lived through things like that. I just think the conversation about a

brand. It's for legit fans. It's for those who have been emotionally tied and vested in the team. You know, I think it's one of the reasons many of us have had a big issue with the current name. Because I've said this before, but it felt very much like kind of a hit and run job. You know, it felt like it was done by a bunch of outsiders, you know, a bunch of people who didn't feel or haven't felt what we have felt. I've talked about that for years, that there just hasn't been enough institutional knowledge in that building, historical knowledge. It just felt like a bunch of outsiders with some branding consultants, you know, said, here it is. And, you know, they didn't even really try to convince us. They didn't even sell it well. I mean, the rollout of the

name was uninspiring to say the least. You know, Doug Williams up there with Jason Wright and, you know, Lindsay's husband from Channel 4. I mean, the whole thing, it was like a root canal. It was painful. But my point was, you know, this is a conversation for family, period. You know, from my standpoint, I'm not telling you how you should feel. Those people are entitled to their opinion. I just don't care what it is.

So I got this email and follow up to this conversation that I had on radio yesterday. that I wanted to read to you because I thought it was a really interesting position. And it's not the first time I've heard it. It came from Peter, and Peter wrote, I'm an Eagles fan. And you've said before about our division, we're family. So in all seriousness, you said yesterday that the name conversation should be among family. Will you take my thoughts on the name? You said last year that you felt like you felt like you felt,

like you were watching a team that wasn't yours. You said last year that you felt like it wasn't your team that you were watching. And for me, I wanted you to know as a lifelong Eagles fan, it didn't feel like we were playing your team either. I would bet Cowboy and Giants fans feel the same. There's a history in the division that has been special over the years. Since the loss of Redskins, it's felt like one of the four-storied NFCEs, teams is gone. Just my two cents for what it's worth. Thank you, Peter, for that email. You can email us through the show's website page, the Kevin Sheehan Show.com. I mean, I've heard this many times in recent years after the loss of the name from Eagles, Cowboys, and Giants fans. A lot of them didn't

want the name to change either. You know, a lot of them haven't wanted our organization, the one that we've rooted for our entire lives to be as downtrodden as it's been. I remember I used to talk about when I really had passion for the team that, and some of you thought it was weird, but I used to say that I like it when the Redskins and the cowboys are both good at the same time. That's when it's great. Like the NFC East, 80s, 90s, top to bottom, best division in football. You can make the case that the NFC East is the non-frey.

number one known division in professional sports. I guess the AL East would be a second place to the NFC East. Ask any football fan who's in the NFC East. Yeah, that's the division with the Cowboys, Giants, Eagles, and Redskins. You know, Washington, Dallas, New York, and Philly. Everybody knows that. Not everybody knows and can rip off the teams in the AFC South or even the NFC South. If you talk about divisions and conferences, it's the NFC East, the SEC in football, maybe the Big Ten in football, the ACC in basketball. I mean, that's kind of it, the AL East in Major League Baseball. The NFC East is a brand unto itself. And part of that brand over a long period of time has been the team that played in Washington.

and last year it didn't look anything like the team that's played in Washington. And I can understand why fans of other teams in the division want to weigh in. They've been weighing in for the last few years. But to answer your question, Peter, no. You're not family. You're like a distant cousin. And this is a serious family conversation, you know, about what we're. going to do with mom.

And so this isn't one for you. But I do appreciate the fact that you reached out. And look, all of you that have been Washington fans your whole life, like, think about what it would feel like if they did a reconfiguring of the divisions in Dallas left the NFC East. It would cease to be the NFC East. You know, there are certain things that you become emotional. attached to.

And the NFC East, and I know St. Louis was in it. Arizona was in it for years, and they left it in 1997, 1998, whatever year that was, 99 actually. I think that was the year that they went to four divisions in each conference. But, you know, there was, you know, a time when they talked about, you know, realignment of the divisions that Dallas was considered for moving to something that represented them geographically a little bit more. The league said rightly so, no chance.

Dallas is an NFC East team. The history, the tradition, the rivalries. I mean, here's an idea for you. I may have suggested this in the past. How about a convention for the NFC East fan bases? Actually, I don't want a convention. A convention's like more than one day. I don't want to spend more than one night with these people.

That's enough. You do a big night. You know, you do it at a hotel ballroom, and you got to pay for it, probably, and you get some speakers and you've got a big dinner and you got cocktails and, you know, there's some videos and mostly it's just everybody sharing stories with one another. Hanging out with the enemy. You know, hanging out with the enemy that's also, you know, kind of like distant family. And that would be fun.

Imagine the giant fans telling us about the, you know, the championship game in January of 87 after the 86th season with all the rappers flying through the air with the wind, with Joe Morris running through us, Jay Schrader missing Gary Clark, Cowboy fans talking about God looking through the hole in the roof, Philadelphia fans talking about the vet and how difficult it was and how dangerous it was for opponents' fans. It wasn't that dangerous. We have plenty of RFK stories to share as well.

Anyway, thank you, Peter, for the email. But no, we don't need you to chime in. I appreciate your perspective, but you're not immediate family. This is just for immediate family to figure out where and what we want to do with mom. A couple of things to touch on here. Number one is this. I had Warren Sharp on the radio show today. Warren Sharp, a sharp guy when it comes to football.

He writes that huge book previewing the NFL season. Sharp did a breakdown of the schedule, which was released eight days ago, I guess, and determined which teams have what's called a net rest advantage and which teams have a net rest disadvantage. Meaning, everybody understands that a more rested team going into a game has a bit of an advantage. And the team that's coming in off a Monday nighter for a Sunday game with the other team playing on Sunday or a team that plays on Sunday, but then plays a team that played the previous Thursday, that there's an advantage to rest. And Warren Sharp actually also specified that it's more important after week six,

his teams get more physically, you know, worn down. And so he came up with, you know, the teams based on the schedule because it's not about who you play as much as it is when you play them. And he came up with kind of the rankings of the teams with the most rest in aggregate for the season heading into games, and those teams with the least. amount of rest heading into games. And you know how many in our fan base have said the NFL has screwed us with this schedule? How many times are we going to play a team coming off a bye week?

And yet it seemed like we got screwed a couple of times in the last few years. Well, not this year. According to Warren Sharpe's net rest edge, Washington is tied for first with the most net rest days for the season with a plus 12 tied with Chicago and the Jets. Meaning that Washington has this year, okay, six games in which they either have a rest advantage or a rest disadvantage. Only once, only one time this year do they have a rest disadvantage. It's at the end of the year before the season finale against the Cal when the Cowboys play the previous Saturday against Detroit, and so there is a one-day disadvantage. But Washington has five games this year where they have an advantage, three times

where they have a one-day advantage, one time where they have a three-day advantage, and one time off their by-week where they have a seven-day advantage. So if you add it all up, it comes out to a net 12-day rest advantage, tied for first in the league. He said something on the show today that I wanted to point out. He said last year, the nine teams with the worst net rest situation or the worst of it, the rest disadvantage, they're over under totals before the season started. Seven of them went under the total. And of the 10 teams, the top 10 teams that had,

The most significant rest advantage is seven out of the 10 went over the projected total. Washington, depending on where you get it, is somewhere between six and a half and seven and a half. So given that they are easily in the top 10, I wouldn't bet it blindly. That's just me. But they have the advantage in five different games this year of having at least a day, and in some cases three to seven days of rest. I thought that was interesting. Apparently he's done this for the last couple of years.

I know that he ranks schedules based off of projected upcoming over-under totals, which to me is a much better way to do it. That makes a lot more sense to me. Rather than on what you typically see with strength of schedules, you see it's based off of last year's records, that's stupid. That doesn't make any sense. Teams change so much. but I liked what he put together there.

By the way, Washington has their preseason schedule figured out. They're going to open up with Cleveland. Then they get a game with Baltimore after two days of practicing with the Ravens. August 15th, August 16th. And then they play on Monday night football. Monday night, August 21st. It's a national TV game on ESPN. And then their final preseason game is at home against Cincinnati.

Five days later, I don't think anybody's going to be playing in that game. But Rivera gets that thing that he's wanted, which is practicing with other teams. I think he had something somewhat set up with Buffalo last year, but the J.D. McKissick back and forth, pissed off Sean McDermott. At least that's what a lot of the beat reporters suggested. I didn't know much about that other than what I read. So, yeah. They've got it this year. They've got practice with another team. They've got a tough but nationally televised preseason game.

And they've got a significant net rest advantage when it comes to days to their advantage leading into five games this year. And they're only at a disadvantage once. And that comes against the Cowboys in the season finale. And they only have a one-day advantage. One other thing Washington related. the Maskey Nikki Jabala story from this morning. A lot of people had this. This was a report yesterday, actually, from the league,

that the owners are not going to hold a vote this coming owners' meeting, which is next week, early next week in Minneapolis. And I think we kind of got this sense that they weren't. Look, the finance committee, remember, it's two steps for approval. Finance Committee has to sign off on the structure of the deal. and, by the way, the investment group, and pass it on to league owners, and then league owners will vote on it. Last summer, even though the Broncos and the Boland family, or trust, missed the owner's meeting that was scheduled for an actual vote, there was a special vote taken in August when there wasn't an owner's meeting.

So that can happen, and maybe that's the way it will happen with Harris being voted in sometime over the summer. I hope they don't have to wait until October, which is the next owner's meetings. This is a more complex offer, as we've discussed previously, than the Walton Group offer. That's for sure. By the way, I saw something out there about free agents that are still available and predictions on where they would land. Like Teddy Bridgewater is still available. Carson Wentz is still available. Cody Benjamin wrote this.

story on CBS Sports. And there's an interesting player in my mind's eye. Unique Ngokwe, former Terp, Ngokwe has played for, you know, Jacksonville. He has played for Baltimore. He's played for Minnesota. His career has been kind of up and down. He had that great year in Jacksonville when Jacksonville went to the AFC Championship. game and lost in New England.

And he's been kind of up and down inconsistent since he was in indie last year. But I think he is a guy that would be insurance for Chase Young. I mean, he is a straight pass rusher. I don't know that Ingaqwe is going to be great and the way that Rivera wants him to be in every down kind of a guy. But I've always loved Ingaquay, going back to his Terp days. and I always felt like he would be a really good pass rusher. And he has been at times.

I mean, you look at his career. Those years in Jacksonville, the year that they went to the AFC championship game, he had 12 sacks. He had nine and a half the year after. In Vegas a few years ago, he had 10 sacks. He had nine and a half last year in Indy. I don't know what it would cost, but he's available right now. They've got some cap space.

You know, I've heard somebody was on, Lombardi was on with the junkies the other day and suggested Dalvin Cook would be a good ad for Washington. Washington doesn't need another running back. And I'm a Dalvin Cook fan, but Dalvin Cook isn't, he's going to be too expensive. You know, I don't know exactly what kind of money in Gokwe would need. You know, something like one year, seven million heavy incentives kind of seems to make sense to me. But that would be insurance, I think, for Chase Young. and they might need insurance for Chey Shung. I know they drafted two pass rushers.

I know they like James Smith Williams, but I love In Gokwe. And he's played pretty well here recently. Anyway, all right, when we come back, the NBA from last night right after these words from a few of our sponsors. So last night's Lakers Nuggets game wasn't as pretty as game one.

That's for sure. It was intense. It was chipped. man, lots of complaining early on, but it was not like game one, which was near flawless on both ends. Last night was sloppier. Both teams exhausted by the time they got to the end of it. But man, there were storylines in this game. Denver won at 108 103. Tonight, by the way, Miami and Boston game two, looking forward to that one. But last night, man, what is going on with Anthony Davis? This guy is a top.

Top five talent. You could argue top three talent in the game. And he has a game like he had in game one, 40 points, 10 rebounds. And then last night he's four of 15 from the field and horrendous in almost every way. Yeah, he had 14 rebounds. It's because the Nuggets missed a lot of shots. But, man, Anthony Davis, I don't know how you can rely on him. They've got five games left in this series.

If they're going to win four of them, he's going to have to be great in all four. I don't think they can win four games unless he's great in all four, and the consistency with him would say that he's not going to be great in all four. And by the way, he could be great in four of the five and still lose because he was great in game one and they still lost. Another storyline on the Lakers, LeBron James.

Heard a lot of discussion, heard it this morning, about how they thought LeBron James laid an egg last night because he missed all those threes. And yeah, he was 0 for six from behind the ark. He's one for 20 in the fourth quarter of the postseason from behind the arc. But I thought LeBron played great last night. He is their number one facilitator. I know he missed a layup. I know he missed that windmill dunk that he was going to try to perform.

I know he rolled around on the ground. Look, a lot about LeBron drives me nuts. has played great in these playoffs. And all six of those shots that he missed or most of them were halfway down in and out. And they could have been total game changers. I thought he was a little aggressive and early in some of those possessions, but I thought LeBron was great on defense. And I just think people that were hammering LeBron after last night's game,

where he almost had a triple double, by the way. 22, 10, and 9. 9 rebounds, 10 assists. I think those are people that don't know as much as they think they know. I'm not a LeBron fan. I think he's been great in the playoffs, and I thought he was crucial for them last night. But maybe the guy more than anybody else last night

that kept them in it and gave them a big lead. Rui Hachamura. How about Rui Hachamura in L.A.? Wizards traded him at the trade deadline for Kendrick Nunn and a few second round picks. for all of you that are saying so typical of the Wizards, you know, they deal the one guy that they got right in the draft. That's premature, first of all. Secondly, I'll remind most of you know this, because this was reported. They offered Rui a big contract extension before the season started, and he turned it down.

You know, and he was coming off the bench, and I know he wasn't happy about that, but Kuzamo was playing great. He was phenomenal last night. 21 points, 8 of 10, he made his first seven shots. He's coming off the bench in L.A. I know he wasn't happy coming up the bench here, and I think he kind of wanted to be traded. And he was a restricted free agent at the end of the year. I don't really, I mean, I wasn't the biggest Rui fan coming out.

It was a much bigger fan of Brandon Clark, his teammate at Gonzaga. But Rui looks good, man. He really is a good offensive player. And he's played pretty good defense in the postseason. Pretty good team around him, though. On the flip side, the Nugget side, when's the last time somebody said somebody went for 23 points, 17 rebounds, 12 assists and three steals, triple double with three steals? And you say, yeah, he had an off night. That was Yokic last night. 23, 17, 12, and three steals. And he didn't have a great game. It's crazy. See, Anthony Davis should be one of those guys that when you watch him and he's got an off. off night. He ends up with 25, 17, and 12th. That's Yokic. That's not Anthony Davis right now.

He was a little bit off. Turned the ball over, had a couple of passes that just were too high risk that ended up in turnovers. Missed some shots that he normally makes was 9 of 21 from the field. Missed all three of his threes. He had been shooting incredibly well from behind the arc. He's still averaging, you know, a triple double for the playoffs and had a mass, you know, an easy triple double last night. But the story for the Nugget. was Jamal Murray. Five of 17 going into the fourth quarter, but a shooter, a score, but really a shooter,

never stopped shooting because the next one's going in. I loved Jamal Murray last night. He was so badass. He couldn't hit the ocean from a boat for three quarters, and it didn't stop him from firing in the fourth quarter, and he just kept firing. And he got hot, and they are such an unselfish team that Nuggets are. so unselfish. They're feeding him. That dribble handoff screen with Yokic just clears so much space.

Yokic is so unselfish. But they all are. KCP is, Porter Jr. is Gordon is. They all knew that Murray was getting into it. And it was an avalanche. And it went from down 10 to up, you know, 10. Basically, they won by 5. What a ball game in the fourth quarter. Jamal Murray, 23 of his 37. in the fourth quarter on six to seven from the field. Four threes. He becomes the only player in NBA history to have four 20-point-plus quarters, fourth quarters, fourth quarters, excuse me, in the postseason. Game three over the weekend.

Tonight, Miami and Boston, Boston's laying nine, I kind of like the Celtics. I do, just a little bit. How about the hockey last night? Four overtimes. almost went to a fifth overtime. I didn't stay up and watch it, but man, overtime hockey's great. Four overtimes, the longest game in a championship series

since I think it was 82. 82, I think it was. The Caps and the Islanders had that famous Easter morning game, started Easter Eve, went six hours and 18 minutes, Pat La Fontaine for the game winner for the Isles at the Capitol Center in overtime for a four-three series win. All right, Eddie C with a Preakness preview next. All right, this segment of the show is brought to you by, our good friends at MyBooky.

Go to MyBooky.com or MyBooky.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. And you can bet on the 148th running of the Preakness Stakes, all of the odds are up for the second leg of the Triple Crown. they'll also give you the opportunity to do something. Most sports books don't let you do, and that is to get in and get out quickly. Just wager your deposit amount one time, and you're eligible to cash out right away.

They've got all of their NFL prop bets up already. MyBooky.ag, mybooky.com. plenty of PGA championship props as well. So you can find that at MyBooky.com. and my bookie.ag. All right. Joining us now, as he has for a few years now, before Triple Crown events,

including the Derby a few weeks ago, is our good friend from Montgomery County living in all kinds of different places these days. Is Eddie C? You can follow Eddie C on Twitter at Notebook Picks, a Twitter account titled, notebook picks by Eddie C.

All right, refresh everybody how you did on the derby. We were going to try to beat Forte who was the morning line favorite

and lo and behold and I had an inkling that this was going to happen he got scratched. So my top choice in the race was the five-horse

Tapat Trice and you know unfortunately for Tapet Trice he didn't get the the best of breaks and then had to check a little bit right before the first turn. And it's kind of a kick in the gut to me because the horseback kind of cut in front of them a little bit was the winner, Mage, who's owned by a good friend of mine, Ramirez Restrepo.

And I know we tried to get him on, but obviously he's being pulled left and right, I'm sure, down in Ballmore, as you say. but yeah, Tappetrius didn't get the best of trips. I think they're pointing him for the Belmont Stakes. And, you know, the other horses that I used, verifying was flying early and died late, basically. But Angel of Empire came running, and I think finished third or fourth. I can't remember off top of my head. But, you know, Eddie.

You went some, you lose some. What's going on down at Churchill Downs? They lost a lot of horses, and I think there was another horse that recently passed down there. What's the industry take on that? Well, they had, it came out to about seven horses that ended up passing, you know, dying. And two of the horses were from a trainer called Saffy Joseph, and Churchill Downs decided to, ban them and Churchill Downs is the main company is called CDI. So they've banned them from running at any tracks that they've owned,

even though they haven't found any wrongdoing. So I think it's a little bit of a jump in to try to save face that, hey, it's not our track, it's not our surface. We're blaming the trainer for everything. And it may come out that the trainer maybe was doing something wrong. But I know Safi personally. he's a friend of mine, and I don't believe him to be a cheater. That's just me.

But, yeah, there's a lot of things going on. Throughout all of horse racing, I mean, they just scratched the first mission, the eight horse for the pre-knit tomorrow that was going to be either the second favorite or the favorite and had a great chance to win was actually going to be my top pick. but they scratched them this morning. Okay. Well, let's get to the Preakness. How many horses and handicap the field for us?

Right, so there's only seven horses. And, you know, Maid, who won the Derby, is going to be the favorite. Mages, morning line is eight to five. He's probably going to be even money or less for the favorite, for the, Preakness. The one-horse National Treasure, here we go, Bob Baffert's back. Bob Baffert's, you know,

arguably the best trainer in the game, and he's training, he's got the one-horse national treasure with Johnny Belasquez's jockey, who's one of the best all-time jockeys that there is. And that horse is probably going to go with the four-horse, which is called Coffee with Chris. They're going to go to the lead.

the way I look at this race. So they're going to be the speed of the race. But I still think Mades is going to be very tough to beat in this race. He's a few lengths faster based on speed figures from looking at a couple of different entities that put out speed figures. He's just three, four lengths faster than all of these horses. But, you know, somebody could jump up in surprise. The other horse to look at is the seven horse blazing sevens, trained by Chad Brown, ridden by IRAD Ortiz.

This combination's been hitting at 29% over the last year. You know, Chad is arguably right there with Baffert as the best trainer. Irad Ortiz, the jockey, is the best jockey in the game. So you have to, and the horse is impeccably bred. he's out of Curlin who is one of the best sires going in the game right now so very, very tough horse.

But the way I'm going to play the race real quickly is I'm going to play Mades, the three horse, who's going to be the favorite. But I just don't think they can beat this horse. But I'm going to use a couple of prices. I'm going to use the five horse, Red Route 1, and the six horse perform.

I'm going to use them in the exactives. I'm not going to play a lot in this race because it's only seven horses, so you're not going to get huge value. But the five horses, 10 to one morning line, and the six horse per form is 15 to one morning line. And they're both conditioned by great trainers. Steve Asmussen is the trainer of the five.

Claude McGehy is the trainer of the six, incredibly well-bred horses. and the way the race is going to shape up, I give them a big chance to come in and, you know, maybe you get a $40 exact out of this race. You know, again, I've always said I'm looking for values. All right. So on Mage, you know, when you have a derby winner,

who's then the favorite at the preakness, and you like Mage, the three horse, the derby winner, do you see this, you know, if Mage comes through wins again, where will this horse be in the longest running of the Triple Crown, the Belmont? Will it be a favorite there to win the Triple Crown or not? I would assume that if it's not the favorite, it's going to be, no, I would assume it's going to be the favorite Tappet Trice. I know they're pointing that horse towards the Belmont,

so it would probably be those two are going to be close to co-favorics. But, you know, this horse mage is, you know, it's only run, four times. It's a very talented horse. And the only thing that's held it back a little bit is he doesn't break out of the gate perfectly all the time. So he's had a couple of struggles out of the gate and he comes running late. But this being for the preakness, only a seven-horse field, I think he should be okay. But again, he's going to be the favorite, if not very, co-favor at the very least for the Belmont.

That's huge for the sport, Eddie, isn't it, that you get to the Belmont in June and you've got a potential triple crown horse? I mean, I kind of feel this way as someone who's not, you know, a big horse racing guy. I mean, there was a time in my life

where I spent far too much time at Laurel and at Pimlico. But it's been many, many years from those days. And I think what generally, you know, garner's attention from the casual fan is a legitimate triple crown threat. So this would be big for Mage to come through tomorrow, right? Well, well, I mean, yes.

I mean nationally and also for me personally, just because, again, I'm friends with one of the owners. And he's from the area, right? Isn't he from the area? He's from Miami. Oh, he's from Miami, okay. Yeah, he's not from up here. Ramiro is. I thought I read something that he, did he go to?

University of Maryland? You know what? He may have. I'm not sure. Yeah, I think I read something that he went to, he went to school and college park. But anyway. Well, I'm just going to say, number one,

he's such a great guy. I met him at Gulfstream years ago, and I see him up at Saratoga, and, you know, he's a bloodstock agent, first and foremost. But now he's getting into ownership, and here he is. He picks out this horse, What a bloodstock agent, just to make sure people understand is they go to the two-year-old sales for horse racing,

and they pick horses for owners based on their pedigree and their conformity and the way they look. And now he's progressed from being a bloodstock agent to now he's getting into ownership. I mean, it's a fantastic story, aside from the fact that he's such a great guy. So, you know, in my heart, I'm rooting for him. I actually talked to him in the morning of the derby, and he said that Mage was sitting on a big race, and he made all my wagers and my predictions with you. So I threw a little something on Mage that kind of helped my losses a little bit.

But I'm rooting for him so much. He's actually... So I found the story that I was reading. the other day. In 2005, Ramiro Restrepo, who is one of the owners of Mage, the Kentucky Derby winner, rented a yellow school bus with a bunch of friends from the University of Maryland. From college park to

Baltimore, he recalled a race won by a fleet Alex. We loaded on that thing tons of beer. This year, I won't beat that party, he said with a laugh. Now, he went to the University of Miami and after graduating in 2000, went to work in the nightclub business, promoted, marketed, managed nightclubs. But, you know, I can imagine that a bunch of dudes from the University of Miami probably had some friends from the University of Maryland. And the reason for that is a lot of New Yorkers at Maryland and a lot of New Yorkers at the U. All right.

What else should we know about tomorrow's preakness? You know, again, I mean, there's not a lot of, the big storylines are that, hey, you've got to Kentucky every winter running in the race. And actually, it's the only horse out of 18 horses in the derby that are running in the preakness. And, you know, that's kind of a shame because the preteness is such a historical race. You know, I always think of Jim McKay when I think of. Maryland racing and the prequeness. You know, so, I mean, you know, it's a shame that there's only one out of 18 horses that are running in the prequeness after the derby. You know, and people talk about, well, it's only two weeks and they need to start spreading out the Triple Crown races a little bit.

I don't agree with that. I'm more of a historical guy. So I like that it's the test of champions. That's the way it's supposed to be. Um, but, you know, and then now you got Baffer back in the, in the fold. So that's going to be part of the story. I'm sure they're going to talk about Baport being back in it. And, you know, and then you've got the scratch of first mission.

That was a great, you know, the second choice at 5 to 2 in the morning line that could have gone off as the favorite. So, you know, for me as a fan, I'm rooting for Mage. And I think the horse racing industry and the fan base would love to have this horse run and win. And with, you know, again, out of my heart, Ramiro Restrepo being an owner and I know him. I'd love to see that that happen. And, you know, and, you know, if it made wins, maybe we have Ramirez on before the Belmont on your show. That would be great. That would be awesome.

Last question for you. Your first preteness that you went to and your best memory of the preteness. Two-part last question. Well, the first preteness I went to, I couldn't, I'm going to just guess that it was 1980 or 1981. I was in high school and we were in the infield and it was just, you know, it's one of those memories that you've experienced. yourself and let's just leave it at that. Yeah, I mean, I think I went like four or five years in a row, you know, always, you know, in the infield.

And, man, one of those years was a, it was always muddy in the infield, but one of those years was an absolute downpour. And it was a shit show of the highest order. I mean, the- Listen, if you got out of the infield unscathed, it was a, it was a, It was a successful day. It was a successful day. I did not one of those years.

Not that I was roughed up badly, but let's just say, you know, there was a lot of mouthing going on and a lot of beer muscles in that infield. Always. Always. So there's a lot of swinging. I don't know how much connecting there was. But that place when you're younger is. you know, on the to-do list. Oh, it's like

going to the Masters, going to a World Series. It's like being in the end field of the preakness at Timlico is, it's definitely a checkbox that you must do. Totally agree. My favorite, my favorite is, yeah,

what you just said about Romero when taking the school bus. I was there for a fleet of Alex, and I literally flew in from Florida. to see the horse race. And that horse was so talented. Shouldn't have won the race.

I almost fell to its knees. Jockey almost fell off him. But it was a tremendous race, and I was fortunate to be sitting with, in very nice seats and got to see the whole thing, and as opposed to being in the infield. Up there in the turf club. Yeah, it was nice.

Yeah, it was nice. Thanks for doing this again. Eddie C can be found at Notebook Picks. We will talk before the Belmont, sir. Thanks for doing this. Hey, I appreciate it. Kevin, always a pleasure. All right, we are done for the day, and as I mentioned in the open, hopefully we will be back tomorrow with a special guest.

See you.