The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1570 - College Baseball World Series, Stanley Cup Finals Game 5 Recap, Rich Rodriguez, PK Suban, Karl Ravech, Rich Paul, Randy Mazey

Episode Date: June 12, 2026

On today's show, Pat, AJ, and the boys are live from Omaha Nebraska at the College Baseball World Series. In the first hour head coach of West Virginia football Rich Rodriguez joins the show and talks about the state of West Virginia athletics. PK Suban joins the show and breaks down the NHL Finals where Carolina has taken a 3-2 series lead. Karl Ravech joins the progrum to break down the college baseball World Series and the season leading up to this point. Rich Paul joins the show and discusses the future of LeBron James basketball career. Before heading to the West Virginia baseball game the Godfather of WVU Baseball Randy Mazey joins the progrum.  Make sure to subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow or watch on ESPN (12-2 EDT), ESPN’s Youtube (12-3 EDT), or ESPN+. We appreciate the hell out of all of you, and will be back Monday. Cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to beautiful Omaha, Nebraska. At the corner of 12th in Mike Faye, the Charles Schwab Field. This program starts now. Sports are absolutely spectacular, and we are live here from the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, the home since 1950 of this electrifying event, where the wood gets hot, the balls get tossed, a double elimination battle to find out who's the best in the country. country and oh yeah, West Virginia is in this thing for the first time ever. Now, the mountaineers have certainly traveled in abundance.

We're having a good time out here. This is supposed to be the greatest event in sports. Everybody that's ever been here has told us how awesome it is. We got a chance to experience a city a little bit last night. We certainly have some thoughts on how this all goes. But once again, this is our first time here. We don't need to be given too many opinions other than the fact that you get publicly peer-pressured into giving hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For shots, that seems like an interesting gimmick, and don't know how that whole thing is going to fly in my world going forward, especially with the people that we interacted with at that particular place. But on that note, everybody's celebrating sports here. It's very obvious that sports are the epicenter of all the happiness. There's festivals lined up down the streets. There's tents. There's concerts.

Every single bar was packed out last night. The weather seemingly perfect, and what's about to happen here is going to be historic. Now, this is not the only historic. thing happening as the final eight teams in the college baseball world will try to do battle to become world champs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, not just national champions. We'll beat all the European college baseball teams as well. No questions asked. So we're excited to be here. West Virginia throws first pitch at 2 p.m. Eastern. This show will only go for one hour as we will try to

dive into this building that is going to be electric as Troy from the fun belt tries their best. We interacted with some Troy folks last night. It's their first time in like 27 years here or something like that. They're having as much fun as we are trying to learn what you're supposed to do here in Omaha because the names of the past aren't necessarily being represented. The top seeded teams got knocked out early, which is why West Virginia was able to showcase Morgantown in such a beautiful way. One of the higher seeds left.

That's because all the top top seeds kind of got knocked out. It's anybody's title that starts today. Now, we'll be talking about other stuff other than just the incredible college baseball series, even though we'll have Carl Ravich here, who will be on the call. We have Randy Masey, the godfather of West Virginia baseball stopping by. And we also have, ladies of the head coach of the West Virginia University mountaineer football team, a man who's become a Mountaineer baseball fan over the last couple seasons because of his respect for Randy Macy and obviously the environment.

Ladies of gentlemen, Coach Rich Rodriguez. Let me go, Coach. Let's go mountaineers. It feels like we're having a good time. riding alongside this baseball team representing got some hats on here got the shirt on it's all good yeah you got a hat and a shirt on i'm dressing black today now w v u though is uh i think we're represented yeah loudly that's it okay we did too i like what we just did right there let's go mountaineers uh tox table here at boston connor at ty smit one half of the hammer done cowboy's apitone is here

travel, have a good time, especially whatever our team's great, which the boys are. You got some stats we'll dive into here in a little bit that actually tell us that the baseball team's going to be great. But it's also a big beer drinking and drinking event as a whole.

We're in an interesting new time, though. And I don't know if anybody has really gotten a chance to experience it in the fashion in which I experienced it last night. Rockos, which is bar I'm looking at right over here. Okay, it's right over here. It's literally right here. On that corner.

They, we've seen it from afar on the internet, They sell these shots for five bucks, Jello shots. And we assume they're making it in there, obviously. We appreciate the fact they're doing that. Sure. Jellos shots, five bucks. Buck 50 goes to charity. Dollar goes to University that purchases it.

50 cents goes, or university's food pantry. 50 cents goes to a local food pantry here. $3.50. So it goes to Rockos, which incredible gimmick to kind of publicly force people who are the boosters for other schools to come compete for this at our place. So guy puts out video from Morocco's last week, saying West Virginia's coming. And he adds me in it, at Pat McGee's showing it.

So I was like, cool, I can't wait to go participate in this. I love buying drinks for people. Yes, you. It's like one of my favorite things to do. Got loans out in college so that I could buy drinks for folks because I want everybody to have a good time. It did feel as if this is going to be a thing. Now, we get there last night, obviously.

We were supposed to call ahead to this guy, who was the general manager. He was not happy that we did not call ahead, okay? Did not know we were supposed to do that. We've never done this before. West Chies has ever been here. We were just kind of happy to come and do this entire thing. So then I start asking questions.

I go, how's this work? Like, do I write out, I brought checks. I brought checks. I've got checks with me. I've checks with me. Like, this is fucking 1995. I literally brought checks because I assumed that was going to be the thing. I go, so like, do I write checks?

The guy goes, yours would bounce, I think. Just kept walking. Wasn't like a joking thing. This is the general manager of the place. The guy that was in the video of the entire thing. All the videos. So I'm walking behind this guy. Okay.

He's not happy we're there. supposed to give my heads up. I walk in. I go, do I just write a check? Nope. And yours is probably bounce or something. Not a joke just keeps walking. I'm like, okay. So actually, how's this work? I'm like, I know seriously. I'm pretty exhausted. I came here literally to do this to represent for West Virginia before this thing get started. How does this work? He goes, he goes, well, how'd that guy do $300,000? I go, okay, well, that guy do $300,000? He's got to, is there a credit card out there? There's a $300,000 limit? That's incredible. I need to find that. He goes, well, he wrote a check. I'm like, so can I write a check?

He goes, no, we'll figure it. And then he puts us into an area. So, so And then we're like, well, that's not where we're saying. We're going to sit back here. So we go to a complete different spot. So then as we're sitting there, these boxes of these shots are just kind of being tossed at us. I guess that's kind of way there. They're pre-made shots. Okay?

Which I guess is a good idea, especially whenever there's thousands of them getting created. I've never really been a big jello shot guy. I will say chewing alcohol is something, especially when you've got a sucky, sucky the entire thing. But people were buying shots, and it was not like a sell of it. It was an interesting, it was nowhere near what I thought. was going to be like, I did contribute, I would like say, I didn't see it go up on the video thing. I was going to say, I don't know if the shot board has been up there. I felt obligated to, but it wasn't like, it was very much like a, you're lucky to be giving us this money to do this

entire thing as opposed to like a celebrate, and I think they were treating everybody like that, but we are lucky to be participating. Certainly. There is somebody that's been here, though, with us that heard the amount of money that it would potentially cost. Yeah. And I'll tell you what, I didn't expect this angle from our head ball coach, but I don't know if it's good news for Rockos, if this is what the future looks like in this entire thing. I mean, selfishly, but, you know, that's a lot of money. I could be buying me a three technique or a, you know,

backup linebacker or something, you know, I mean, I mean, it's important that we win the shot thing, but not nearly as important as getting a three technique or a damn linebacker, you know what I mean? This is real. Right to check for NIL, West Virginia. Okay, so Rockos, this is what life is. And obviously, at some point in my life,

hopefully I'll be able to just write $300,000 checks to everybody to win everything. But I brought checks to do that entire thing. Yeah. Interesting way you went down over there. I'm going to be honest. That was an interesting place. I wish there was another place we could have done that at. But I know that Rockos is the place that does the entirety.

Him just immediately going, how much? That's what he said to me. I said, I think it's like $33,000 in total to beat the LSU thing. And it's like, well, the boys are going to have to win. We're not just to write that right now. But like, I think we try to, we plan a good base in that entire thing. You know, $330,000? Yeah.

I could get a fucking swing D-line. We could, we get to do it. Give me that money. Rockos were buying shots. Yeah, yeah. WVU's on a dry race board at a baseball thing. Sweet. Yes.

Dollar 50 donation. Why don't you just do the $1.50 donation to wherever you want to do it? Right. And then give me the rest of the money we can do it. That's the world we're in right now. Actually, that is kind of your world right now. And that is the reality of what college is. Yeah, we'll forget about Rocko's thing, you know, in a day.

But the three technique, you got them for three or four. four years, you know what I'm saying? Seriously. We need to win. Tell me about college football, though, and college sports as well, because that is how you're running a business now. And in order to run our business, you've got to have money. You know, let's not kid ourselves.

If you don't have money to buy your players in the NIO area, you're going to have a hard time winning. That's what happened in the baseball team here. So Ken Kendrick's, our biggest donor from West Virginia. He owns the Arizona Diamondbacks. He built this massive baseball. Great supporter of West Virginia as a whole for baseball. built this massive new facility, new training compound,

and it's paying benefits. West Virginia here at the World Series is a big deal, Tyra. It's great for the program. In Omaha, it's been a fascinating 12 hours, I will say. Just everybody, I think everybody may be getting, gearing up for the big weekend. Yeah, getting up for the big weekend. Getting ready.

Yeah, Omaha hospitality, the Hitchcock family here, Blatt, for making this happen. We appreciate it. But nobody's allowed up here. Right. So it's been just, it's been a very interesting. time here, but history is made here in Omaha. Yeah, and, you know, we've talked about, I mean, metal bats are one of the reasons that people love college baseball, but it's also the great

equalizer. Any team can get hot. West Virginia, this may be their first appearance in the College World Series, but they legitimately have as good of a chance to win this whole thing as everyone else. And I think that is one thing that I would say. I've been here several times throughout my life. I love this event. I haven't been in a long time. I haven't been since it went to Charles Schwab Field and moved from Rosenblatt. stadium, but the real fireworks are where they're going to be on the field. You know, I think all of the shot

challenge and some of that other BS, like, that steals a lot of attention because, yes, people love... They feel like they're bigger than the World Series. Didn't you feel like they kind of thought they were bigger than... World Series. College World Series has been here since 1952. I don't know if that guy we talked to last night is 76 years. He didn't look at. No.

I don't know. I don't know if he is. But it does feel like they think they are bigger than the World Series. But that's because of how special all this is. Right. And And like I said, when we go in there and watch this game, like, I think we're going to be, you know, treated to fireworks. You know, the wind's blowing out a little bit today. Like any of these games, you could either get a one-nothing, you know, pitching matchup that's unbelievable between two aces. Or you could have both teams combined for 10 home runs.

And it really is just kind of any team that is here. If you're here, I mean, there are so many teams in college baseball. You have to play so many games. You have to win so many games just to get here. So if you are one of the final eight, like you have a chance. to win at all. And I don't know if that's necessarily the case in college football. We saw a lot of the first round matchups in the college football playoff last year where you have a 12 seed and it's like, okay, well, they're going to get their asses beat. They have absolutely no chance to win. Any of the

teams that is in this bracket right now, they have a chance to win it all. And that's part of the reason why it's so special, I think. Well, and when you just think about like the atmosphere, like it has been kind of odd these first couple days. But even when, you know, McGee's next week said, this place blows up. Well, and like McGee has. also said, you know, listen to the reality is, this is the greatest show on dirt. Bingo. And yeah, we got a lot of the other pomp and circumstance and BS. And again, you know, the tournament hasn't started yet because it was, I don't want to say

it was sleepy last night, but, you know, it wasn't kind of the, oh, you got fans from every single team that's in the event here yet. But once, you know, two o'clock rolls around and, and I mean, Coach Rod, you would probably know, better than a lot of us. but I feel like the excitement around West Virginia. I mean, how much of the state is coming out to this thing? Yeah, this is the first time ever, you know, to be in the World Series. And our fans will travel, you know, wherever it is.

It's particularly when it's something like this, so first time ever, they'll kind of support. The atmosphere in a super regional in Morgantown was out of the world. You know, people that have been doing, watching baseball games, college baseball games for a long time, it told me they've never seen any atmosphere in college baseball like we've had in a super regional. And so, and we're just getting started. You know, our facility is top-notch.

Coach Sabins has obviously done a great job. Coach Mazy set the foundation, and we got some really good young players as well. We got a live look at Pat here, boy. Yeah, and it looks like, yeah, there we go. Boom. Pat's down with the people. Man of the people. Buzz is palpable.

Yeah, I don't know if I can go down with the people because of the service connection. I'm realizing I can't hear a thing. But yeah, this place is packed out. So we're upstairs just black. Okay, so these people have a lot of them. I think it's kind of like, which I don't think it's good news when I go see that for big time. All the Mount Luce fans have come hang out with us all down here and we're like Sunday. Thank you.

Love you people. Hey go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so then I'll come back. Nice spot out here. Hey, how you guys doing? Good to see you. Great fist bump with this.

guy okay I like that appreciate you sir way to lock it down super security and then if you look out here I think there's a lot of mountaineers boom yeah I think they've been there all night they have a lot of jello now they might feel the same way as I would think same thing that we say listen we'll do booze how we got to do yes exactly hey moonshine we'll do the whole thing they've told me it tastes like apple and there's like actual unleaded taste. Oh yeah. So West Virginia will certainly do booze how I'd want to do. I can't believe that thing is so successful

as it is. Yeah. Jello shots. Crazy. Especially because it could what it could be. Like we were even just talking about like, hey, maybe you know, Pat, you open up a different bar around here. We might mix this thing up. Maybe instead of Jellow shots we do a cheaper version of a better type of shot. But again, that is

hearsay at this point. But it is sweet like having an event like this just because if you think about like, you know, March Madness, like the Sweet 16, it feels even bigger than that because everyone's in one spot. It's a whole, you know, 10 plus days. Like, yeah, it is going to be awesome to watch West Virginia hit bon. What a certain portion going to NIL. To the baseball players.

Give it to the baseball guys. We're talking about the bar rods. I'll tell you, Rod, coach Rod, you have been one of the funniest humans that have come into my life here as of late. This guy, listen, we're going to win football games because he is coaching the team. We know that. We, I understand that. We all know that. His style wins. Like, if you just look at his style, it wins. But I think he's also finding the guys for him. I couldn't even imagine these modern age guys that aren't rich rod guys going to the mountaineers getting there and then just be like, this ain't for us. It's like, no, he is not. But when you find your guys, which I think you have, I think we've got to, I think we have. Likes his guys. I do. I like our guys too. I think we're going to have dogs forever. And I like the fact that you have not lost your hard edge at all. A lot of cream in the. coffee though. Oh, no.

A lot of cream in the there was a lot. But there was a lot of milky looking coffees there. I didn't know Pat was an ice coffee guys. Oh, okay. Is ice coffee really hard edge?

It was 100 degrees. It was a hundred degrees. It was a little soft to have ice coffee. Now, Coach Rod, obviously we're here at the men's college world series in Omaha. And I did not expect you to be a guy that was going to be a statistician.

Oh, yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, Rich Rod showed up on the plane with some Dusty's baseball. Yeah, my big fella, Dusty. Yeah, so what are the stats telling you, basically? Well, listen, everybody wants to talk about it. It's hard to know.

Understand, stats in all sports are important. I'm not a big stats guy, but in baseball, it's really critical. Now, look here, for Mountaineer fans, you're really going to like this. We had the lowest ERA. ERA. Left in the tournament. We got the lowest hits allowed in the tournament. Double plays.

We played great defense, West Virginia baseball. The best, the most left in the tournament. Look on the other side of the ball. on offense. All right. Stolen bases. Key, we're going to manufacture runs. Hell yeah.

Most best left in the tournament. Sacrifice buntz, you know, that's been, that's coaching, right? Coaching. All ball, baby. Holder buying. All right. Most left of the tournament. Batting average, the second highest left in the tournament.

Scoring the second highest left in the tournament. Here's another stat that's not out here. You know where we were last in the country in? Home runs. But it don't matter. This is a big park. Did you know the fence back in the back? It's five feet higher?

Okay. And the win usually blows in. You're telling me it blows out. I think it's going to change before the game. It's going to blow in. And a team that manufactures runs and pitches and steals bases does all the little stuff well. This is a mountaineer. That's a mountaineer.

I'm betting on the mountaineers. But I'm not betting. No, excuse me. I didn't say that. No, no, you're picking. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're going to have to put out a 21-minute video. Not literally.

Picking. I think we got a great chance to win it all. I like your stats that you showed us because. Did you see the other stat, though, most common opponent? Everybody know that's a pretty relative to that. Yeah. You know, against Maryland, Marshall, Georgia Southern. Troy's four and five.

What's West Virginia? Seven and O. Undefat. What's that tell you? Well, it sounds like those who get wins over Troy cannot beat the mountaineers. Sounds like the mountaineers. So if so facto, mountaineers basically sweep in the hell out of the entire world series. Now, we got to remember, this is not a series thing.

This is a double elimination. So if they lose first game, they head into another bracket. it, they lose again, they're out. ERA being the lowest left in tournament, that feels important. Great stats out of you. Hits allowed that lowest left in the tournament. That feels important. Double plays, most feels important.

Stolen bases, most feels important. Sacrifice punts, that's culture. It feels important. Batting average, scoring. Tie, these are all very important things. And Rich Rod showed up on the plane with these on a little fucking card. And he goes, listen to S. And he starts rattle them off.

It does feel like W. V.U. has like a legit contender here, especially with these types of stats. Which ones matter? Which ones don't on the kids? Kiss my ass, Stats from Rich Rodriguez. Yeah, I mean, Rich Rod knows ball. That's pretty evident to see. You're having the lowest ERA, you're not, you know, other teams aren't scoring

runs against you. In baseball, you need to score runs to win the game. And then on the flip side, West Virginia has the second highest amount of runs scored in the tournament. That's also very important. But like you said, you get to the typically, now, you know, I haven't done the in-and-out research of pitching on every single team, but typically you get to the college World Series and you got horses for all the different teams. So if you have a team that puts the

ball and play can move runners over, steals bases, you can win a game against a guy who might be a top-tier draft picker. You know, you don't have to hit 10 home runs to win. Nice little nugget I saw as well going into today's game. Troy's big, their workhorse. He is a big left-handed pitcher. West Virginia has done very well against left-handed pitching leading up to the college world series 16 and 1. So that is another big thing. You see a lefty on the mound. A lot of times that guy is going to, you know, it's just different. You don't see as many of those. West Virginia has fared very well against left-handed pitching. So they have a decisive advantage today going against you. You know what else is interesting? What's that? Seven of our starters played shortstop in high school

or junior college. Which means where do you put your best player? Athlete guy? Shortstop. Put your athlete that shortstop guys can cover. And so guys that play shortstop can cover ground. Big field. All right. deep field, pitchers feel, right? All right, we cover a lot of ground. We'll stop the doubles. There you go. Because we can run. No gaps.

I like everything about what you're saying there. You think Connor would have been a good shortstop? He'll look good in his shirt, maybe. Okay. I'll take that. I'll take that all day. Connor and Rod have a good relationship brewing. You have been so good to hold them.

Hey, he sucker punched me a little bit. I jacked him up a little bit. Right when we got off the fan, he wasn't paying attention. And now he shot him. Yeah, I saw the little swollen. It bounced back a little bit. Last night, obviously the Stanley Cup finals continued as the Carolina Hurricanes at home

moved to a one victory away placement of Lord Stanley Cup heading down to Raleigh. Joining us now, the man who was in the building, ladies of gentlemen, P.K. Sub-K. P.K., okay, good to see you, man. Thank you for making the time. I know it's been crazy trying to connect with you. Vegas had you, now Carolina has you.

You dressed like Aladdin at one. point. You're having a hell of a finals, pal. You're doing it out there, PK. You know what? It's been probably the best final. It's the best final I've ever seen. I've never seen a final better than this one. Both teams, like guys are banged up, playing hurt, playing through whatever they're playing through, and we're getting some of the best performances. Now we're seeing guys step up that haven't stepped up earlier in the series. It's just turning out to be just an insane series. People thought this was going to be one of the worst and it's like literally the best final I've ever seen which it's insane tell me about bussy tell me

about bussy going in there obviously having a massive moment for himself whenever he gets subbed in in game four now he gets a start game five obviously I think he gets the three star whatever it is from the place and he's potentially going to win this for the canes while on the flip side carter heart becomes the first goalie ever to let up four goals at another one in the first five games the Stanley Cup final. The over under went to six and a half, so the under hit for the first time this year is after a massive goals being everywhere. Tell me about the

goalie situation, both on Bussie and Carter Hart. Well, I'm going to tell you something. Before I even address Carter Hart, I got to address the biggest golden nights for the facts. They have not been good. Like, they have made a lot of mistakes

and you know what? These guys are expected to play better. Anderson's got to play better. Some of these guys just got to make better decisions. It's decision-making. Like, Mess said it, you know, two games ago, he said, this time of the year, it's about brains. It's not about brawn.

So you've got to be thinking the game. And Vegas has a really good defense court. That's the foundation of their team. Those guys have to play better. Like, their penalty kill has to be a lot better than a lot. And if they clean that up, oh, they'll be a game 70. But you can't go into a game six situation or a game five. and have a penalty chill like that, you know, it's just not going to,

you're not going to get it done. Like Carolina's playing way too well. They've got no weaknesses right now. So for Vegas, they've got to clean that up. Okay, so let's go. Let's talk about. Okay, so everybody that knows hockey, including Wayne Gretzky. Wayne Gretzky was on yesterday, and he's like,

Carter Hart's playing great. And then Ty, who's Vegas gold Knights fan, goes like, the only goalie ever that has let up four goals through four Stanley Cup finals every single game. and then Waino and Moose and you now, everybody's like, not his fault. They're wide open. DJ Oshy was like, not his fault. Like, is Carter Hart feeling as if he's playing ass or does everybody in hockey know that it's not him,

even though the fans are saying, can we get a change because Carolina changes it? They were down for nothing. Or make some changes defensively because we've been saying this for three games now. It's not on Carter Hart. The defense needs to be better. It's like, okay, well, it is the Stanley Cup finals. We're just going to keep playing the same way every single game and conceding five goals. It makes no sense.

So let's talk about Carolina and Bussy. That's a huge decision, obviously. And I don't know who told us that it might have been E.J or you or T.J. or somebody in the hockey world said he was probably pulling Anderson just to give him a breather. Okay, he's down for nothing. Let's get this guy kind of to the bench, maybe get a water, take a nap, maybe. Let's not get this guy embarrassed. And then Bussie stands on his head.

Then they win. Now they win again. Now Bussie's going to be talked about as the guy potentially that can lead Carolina other than Stalzi who's just outrageous. But the Bussy story is a big one, P.K. It feels like that was a hard decision, a big decision. It wasn't a hard decision because a lot of people had him picked as the number one goalie during the regular season.

Like a lot of people thought he was capable of playing this way. So this is not a secret. When he came in, I said this guy's got a certain style. He can play to make second and third stage. Like anybody that, a goaltender that can do that, is a special guy. And he's as cool as a cucumber. This guy's not stressed at all.

He's happy to be in this situation. So it's a dangerous situation because that was a weakness for Carolina coming into this series. Everybody had question marks about Freddie Anderson. Why did the goals are his fault of that? With Carter Hart,

we haven't seen him letting a bad goal at a bad time with. Every single time he's had to make the saves, he's made him. So you can't look at the goaltender. I look at the turnovers. I look at the lackless to play in your own zone, but not blocking shots.

That can't happen. And Torch knows it. That's why he's saying they'll be back for game seven, because they're going to clean those things up in game six. If they don't, they'll be going home. You're the man. Safe Travel is for you wherever you're headed. We appreciate the hell out of you, P.K. Let's go. That's right.

He's still fail in Vegas. Bussie improved the 20 and two at home, which is the best record by any goaltender in a 20-plus start season across the last 80 years. My God. It's good to have two goals. It's good to have one. It's all you really need.

If you have none in the playoffs, you're what we like to call F. Uct. Yeah. The 2006 Chevrolete Equinox awarded the most dependable compact SUV in the U.S. by J.D. Power is designed for your everyday.

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It's how we're making banking more human. Joining us now, ladies or gentlemen, is a man who is so smooth on a microphone. His brain is so deep with knowledge. A guy who's synonymous with Omaha, who I have a lot of questions about since we've been here for about 12 hours. Ladies and a friend of the program, voice of baseball, Carl Ravitt. There we go, Pat. Welcome to Omaha. Feel the vibe, baby. Feel that vibe.

Finally, a welcome. Thank you for a welcome. That's very kind of you. We had not felt the vibe here at all. We had thought to ourselves. Backerfee's in Omaha. Come on, people. No, Rabin, Rabin.

We don't want to feel welcome. We would like everybody to feel the buzz. Last night, it felt like maybe there was still just like a buildup for the event that's about the... Calm before the storm. Yeah, that's what it felt like. And we'll have a story. I mean, A, the field is great. These eight teams are unique.

You've got, you know, the West Virginia team that's wearing slippers. You got Troy that's wearing a glass slipper. And then you've got some real blue bloods. And, yeah, no, this, and by the way, thank you, the weather usually isn't 80 degrees, 78 with the wind blowing out. Usually it's 104. It's blowing in. We've had series where you don't get any homers. We're going to have a bunch.

There'll be a lot of fireworks. You'll feel it. So you think because the wind has flipped and it's... No doubt. It's the opposite of what, Rich Rod last night, you should have heard him. This guy. He didn't know about the wind. I didn't know about the wind.

How do you control the wind? Yeah, no. Figure it out. Figuered out. Ask certain ballparks about how you control the wind. Here, wind blows out. You'll get balls leaving the yard. Okay, so West Virginia, 29 runs, I think, throughout the two...

Oh, yeah. ...withedos or whatever. It was like the top five in the history of the scores that we put. Morgantown, obviously, alive. Our first time here, you talk about the Gloves. last slipper. Randy's Ridge, baby. Let's go. Randy's Ridge, unbelievable. They're going to have to figure that out for next year because I, you know, five people ended up getting injured, I think, but they shouldn't have been there. They were told to leave because of the storms, but nonetheless,

mountaineers will take care of mountain ears, but Western and Mountaineers rallying behind this baseball team. Yeah. Feels like a lot of the mainstays aren't here, right? Is that an accurate depiction of this year's field? And what is your thoughts? You have five teams from the SEC. We don't have Vanderbilt, of course, a couple years ago with Danjby Swanson and company. They were winning, you know, all the time. Tennessee's been great lately, and now their former coaches managing the Giants. So there are some of the blue bloods. Heck, we thought Georgia Tech and UCLA were going to be here. UCLA is the number one team all year. Find me a sport where the number one team all year

doesn't end up playing at its premier event, whether it's a national championship or anything else. UCLA was the number one team the entire season. Didn't lose a series. That's impossible. And they're not here. They get knocked out. Again, you know this as well as anybody. It's the beauty of this sport. It doesn't matter if the talent level, is better than the team that you're playing that day. Chance and Cole could go out there and absolutely shove. And the game will be over and West Virginia will win. And he's done that a lot this year.

Boom. There's a lot of other guys. Wait, do you see the arms tonight. They're very different teams that do many different things, but all of them were good enough to get here. And that's what makes a World Series, college World Series, so good. I ran in North Carolina center fielder. Owen hole.

Owen hole. Ridiculous. phenomenal. Good good. He's a great player, right? Stud. Yeah, it was obvious. It was very obvious by talking to him.

He was so big. The way he talked was like a professional. And you could tell just by looking at him like, this guy's a guy. The way he carried himself at all. We were just walking in a hotel, ran into him. He said, man, great to see you. And I was like, you too. Clearly young, big, strong.

Strong. Yeah. Strong dude. And he's a junior, I believe, for UNC. I think he said something along the lines of, they were here in 24, right? Yep. The only team that's been here twice in the last three years. Other than that, you know, think about college basketball in the Blue Bloods or college football where you tend to have the same schools.

We've had 23 different schools here the last three years. That's really hard to do. Carolina is the only team that's been here twice in the last three years. It speaks to a little bit of the parody of the game. It speaks to NIL. It speaks to the portal. All of those subjects, the boxes get checked. And that dude is, he's a major league player.

He is a major league player, Owen Hall. Happy, we got a photo. Because he took a photo with us. I also. Yes. Let me steal one of those. Ty is a question for you, Ravi.

Speaking of like NIL and the way it's kind of changing, do you think the SEC kind of needs to win this year to kind of put that stranglehold back on college? Because for the longest time, it was, hey, a team from the SEC is probably going to win. But now you see, especially with teams like UCLA and Oregon and USC going to the Big 10, you know, West Virginia and the Big 12, like the playing field seems like it's kind of evened out a little. Well, I think the fact that we've had all these different teams here, but you have five teams from the SEC. One entire bracket is SEC,

meaning you're going to have an SEC team in the final. You know that already. Now, whether one comes out of this side that's played in the day remains to be seen. That would be seven years in a row that the SEC has won the college world series. I think that they have obviously certain advantages that other schools don't. Like what? Warm weather all year round. They have warm weather.

They have history. They have facilities. I will say this, though. you were there. West Virginia's facilities now, especially the bio-mechanics lab, like that stuff is top level and Kendrick's contributing, but schools have figured out what we need to be competitive. The problem that many of them face, they develop pitching, like Wake Forest for a few years, and

Nick Kurtz is killing it in Major League Baseball. They had pitching labs. They were the best at pitching. West Virginia is going to be great at pitching. Can you then round it out by having great defense and great offense. And the SEC tends to have all three of those things covered. Here's what you're talking about with the Bio Mechanics Lab that has been placed in Morgantown, West Virginia. Quote comes

for Courtney Simkwick, it was kind of a no-brainer. She's a unicorn. PhD and Biomechanics. That's a baseball rat that wants to be in a dugout and be a practice all day and grind. You can't just go create that person or system. I believe Schino is training down there as well in the office. Yeah, a lot of guys are going down there.

But for years, Vanderbilt's had facilities like that. Mention Wake Forest has said facilities like that. Florida State, we were there this year, just put in a facility that's got more cameras than you have by dozens to shoot every aspect of every pitcher, every pitch he

throws, their numbers attached to everything they do. It's a scientific world. Tell me about the numbers at this Rocco's thing. I walked in there last night, none of it made sense to me. Not of it, not of it made sense. And he was telling me, this money's not going towards Jello shots

in Omaha. This money's going towards a linebacker for the West Virginia Mountaine Nears. You tell me about the Rockos thing because the Rockos challenge. We didn't get it. I'm going to be honest. We went in there as a person that was going to write a check for probably a hundred to 150,000 just break all the records.

No, 330,000 would be the record, which he doesn't even like that. I know that number. He has been disgusted with me and bring it out. I walked in there three checks in my thing. So I was going to, first time I've had checks on me. I couldn't leave his side because I was afraid what would happen if I went to the restroom.

So I was ready to do it. And then I got in there, and I'm like, this just isn't what I thought it was going to. It was just an interesting little thing. I think it sort of speaks to the, let's say, the way that baseball operates. Baseball is not a sprint. It is a marathon. So in Rocco's case, and I have no idea, I'm kind of making this shit up right now. In Rocco's case, if you spread it out over the course of the entire college world series, you get to big, big numbers.

I don't think that they're after. Let's just scratch a big check. You don't think that's what they're up? Yeah, that is what they're up for. LSU guy gives $68,000. You said you're just making this up as you go. I've looked into this because this guy publicly told me I need to come give hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy shots at this guy's bar, basically.

And I come in there, and the guy told me that my check was going to bounce and then did this entire thing. And people were buying these shots. And it was zero celebrating. It felt like I'm telling you, I was very bummed out. I was like super excited. When's the last time a Mac if he checked bounced? Well, well said, Rad. I don't know if this guy knew that I was, it was, I think he had no idea that it was me.

Had to have not known. Benefit of the doubt. Which is okay. Give him the benefit of the doubt. It happens all the time. Let's try again. Let's see what happens. I'd rather do it here in Blatt with Hitchcock's bar here.

I'd much rather do it here at the black play. Many people will agree with you. I don't look. A, I don't do shots. I got a game tonight. I ain't doing shots. But I will say this, that maybe it is the, whole concept of let's just go marathon, keep accumulating. Hopefully, hopefully we give some money

to charities and things like that. I mean, that's what we should be doing. It is beautiful. It is wonderful to be a part of, but I'm telling you, that was a bummed out start to our world. Super bummed out. And we're all bummed out. We are very bummed that. We walk back to our hotel. Bummeda. Vives flying over here. Oh, my God. Best sporting event of all time we've been told. Yeah, and it is. You got off to a rocky start. Rock-O start. We got to pick a up here. Yeah, we will. West Virginia is going to hit them out because the wind's going. We're going to celebrate. Everybody else we've ran in. Yeah. I mean, this place has been alive. We are ready for it. How long you're here?

For another six days. You're the best, ladies and gentlemen. I love you guys. We appreciate you for having me on here. Paul Ravage. This would be a one and done thing for us, I think. No, no, no. If West Virginia's back here, you're back here. Make that promise. I'll definitely talk about it. Final four, you know, let's see if they get to next weekend. All of a sudden, we might be thinking, hey, they're playing for a title in the finals, you're here. I don't know, I got a three-week-old, you know, daughter. Babies and baseball, baby, let's go.

Yeah, maybe McKenzie needs to come out here. There you go. Daughter McKenzie needs to come out here and experiences. I'll tell you what, I live in a Midwestern state. Mm-hmm. We host a lot of things. I'm not judging. Omaha's great.

So are you, ladies of gentlemen, Colorado. I'm not starting an entire war. This is our first size six bigger for 76 years. Plus, Blatt. We're gonna bury the ball. We're burying the Rocko's ball. Okay, we're at Blatt now. Blatt, David Blatz is freaking amazing.

Hey, we're not giving them a swing D-Liman either though. We're not giving them. No, no, no, that's West Virginia football only. That's it. You are hilarious. I'm staying by your side too. You leave town. I'm telling you.

Joining us now as a man who I think will have a lot of questions about me potentially into that place I've ever been before and write a $150,000 check like I was going to do last night. Founder of the Clutch Agency. Ladies and gentlemen, he was once selling jerseys out of the trunk of his car. Now he's one of the most influential people on earth. Rich Paul. Hey, Rich.

Hey, Rich. Rich. Rich, do you know much about the College World Series or no? Yes, I do. I love the College World Series. Me too. I love watching it. It's absolutely electrifying.

The West Virginia Mountaineers are a part of it this year. So you have a team to cheer for. Congratulations. Okay, let's go Mountaineers. Let's get in there. Hey, my guy, Mike Gansy, who is now the president of the Sixers. I played against him in high school who went to West Virginia. And Bob Huggins is my guy.

So I'm West Virginia. I have West Virginia ties. Okay. I like Gansy gave you buckets, too. I know it. It's not your phone. Gansy got beat and put out the playoffs. Now, he was a lot better of a player than I was.

My team was better than his. Who's your team? Who's your team? The Biddicton. bangles. We went on to win the state championship day. What position were you? Point guard or are you power forward? I was a guard, but I was really the best practice player you ever saw in your life, Pat. Yeah. Okay. It worked out. Yeah, yes, you certainly did. I think your knowledge of the game helps. I think you being a grinder obviously helps. I think the way you approach being a representative

of these players as if you're an older brother slash dad of theirs is a good thing. And obviously, you've had a lot of success. Congrats on that. Let's dive into what your what your world is right now. Obviously, the NBA finals are spectacular. You rep people all over the league. What's going on right now other than trying to put out fires about where LeBron James is going? Well, you know, the finals, I've been back and forth. I was at games one and two. I'll be at game five.

Obviously, I have guys on the Knicks and Jordan Clarkson and representing the Spurs. We have everything for coach, the front office, to players, Deeran, Kelden, Lindy. So, you know, the finals is the finals. Like every year I'm at the finals in some capacity, even if I don't have someone playing, I like to be there. And so it's just, it's just this series has been insane, you know, up and down roller coaster. This could easily be 3-1 the other way. It could be 2-2. Both teams are pretty exciting.

But the garden, as you can see, exploded the other day. And, you know, game five, we'll see what happens. I've been here before, so nothing surprises me in the playoffs, that's for sure. But it's been great. It's been really great. Yeah, I think the league is in a great place right now, Rich. And obviously, you did a podcast this year. Congratulations. Ruffled a lot of feathers. Thank you, Rich.

Ruffled a lot of feathers as one of the most influential people in the league who reps a lot of the players. Whenever you say things from a pundit standpoint, as opposed to insider standpoint, people going to go crazy. How has the year been? How many fires do you think you kind of got into? And did you enjoy the ride while doing that? Yes. Look, I just got to show just now, Max and I. You know whose feathers I didn't ruffle?

Yours. Amen. You want the few people to call and say, Rich, this is the right thing for you to do. Content is keen, obviously. But, you know, look, I think there's a world where you do things and you don't do it the way someone else would like you to do it, or just because it hasn't been done yet doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. And so our show is about insight, you know, giving perspective and only way.

that I can. And so I enjoy it. I will continue to do so. And I enjoy coming on your show as well. So thanks for having me again. But it's great, man. It's great. You know, I thought it would be a lot harder to be honest with you. But then now Max and I have a rhythm. And so it is a lot of prep, but it's good. And it doesn't interfere with my work day. I'm in the office every day. I was the first one in the office yesterday. I even beat my assistant to the office who said she was there. I saw evidence of her bag, but I didn't see her. So therefore, I was. the first one day. Okay, I like that you're still working hard for your clients. I like that you're able to be in a content game, put out any opinion or narrative that you need. And I am a big fan of you getting your voice out there. And the reason why you say it might be easier is because you get attention with everything you say because you're Rich Paul. Okay. So if you were Richard Paul in high school still selling those jerseys out of your trunk, I think nobody's going to listen to. But now, because you have insight and power, I think everything is going to matter. Speaking of power, okay what you two have built is special i think every follow athlete is going to try to follow in the

same footsteps of you guys obviously you mav lebron the entire team have built an empire over there uh who i forgot somebody randy randy randy shout out randy we love randy obviously doesn't get enough but now we're at a critical time it feels like for that entire business where the face of the NBA has a real option. And it feels like he's falling in love with retirement right in front of our eyes with this golf thing. It feels like that is real. Oh, God. Yes. How should we view the LeBron James situation right now? We all just assume he's going to play again because he's in such great shape. But it does look like he's loving life off the court. It feels like there's real questions right now for the first time on whether or not he's going to play. Can I, I'll finish this.

A lot of people who are in the nose say they think he's going back to the Lakers. This would be crazy move for him to go somewhere else. Then there's people fantasizing, maybe He goes back to Cleveland because that would be maybe the one final ride. Golden State. Him and Steph Curry are in love. I've heard the Indiana Pacers. Sure. Because him and Tyrese Halliburton are good friends, obviously.

Why wouldn't he want to go play with Wendy, maybe pass the baton actually to the next generation? Like all these things are kind of just going into the world right now. From your standpoint, what's a realistic conversation about LeBron James, the 41-year-old man who's entering year 55 potentially or retiring to a golf course. Here's what I'll say to you, Pat, believe nothing that's out there because I haven't had one conversation with him at the end of the season. I made it clear that I would respect he and the family because this is going to be a family decision for him. This is not, look, you know, I went on and build a business that will do great long after LeBron retires. And so I'm not dependent of that at all. And Maverick has done the same thing. You know, he's done a tremendous.

tremendous amount for everyone he's ever encountered with ex-teammates, coaches, executives, et cetera. I don't think there's a player that has done more for not just the game, but people in the game that has benefited throughout his 23 years. And so whatever decision he decides to make, that is his decision. He don't need to make a decision for anybody but himself in this regard. And so, but there's been no conversation. had one conversation with him. We played a couple rounds of golf. I don't mention it. When he comes to me

and wants to sit down, I am more than prepare for every scenario that there could be. But when you think about numbers that's been thrown out, what we're asking about and all these things, that's all false. We haven't had one conversation with anybody about anything. And so I'll continue

to give him his time. And when he's ready to talk, we'll talk. That's crazy to say that none of those numbers are real. Because what was it like he was going to play for three million or something of Cleveland? I thought that was something you would tell people, Rich. You'd be the one.

None of those numbers are real. You know, here's what happened. Oh, 500,000. He played for 500,000. That's very nice of you, Rich. 50 million, too. Yeah, free. See that?

Here's what happens. People speculate. And there's certain situations like if you're talking to a Bobby Marks, he knows what teams can pay, what they can't pay, etc. If you talk into a Brian Woodhurst who knows me forever, knows us forever,

he's speaking from a place understanding how these guys do their business, right? But there's nobody that can say to you, they know what we're planning to do or what LeBron's planning to do because I don't even know what he's planning to do. I literally do not know. And I said to him, and I will repeat this,

take your time, take as much time as you need and want. That's it. And when you're ready to talk, whatever that conversation may be, I'll be here. It's just that simple. Are you guys going to set fire to the rain still or no? What do you think?

Are we in a deep end? Are we rolling still? Yeah, we might be. Rumor has it. Are we still doing that? Listen, me personally, again, I think he said it in this Time magazine article, which congrats to him on that as well. And me.

That is based upon, you know, where he's at mentally, you know, the approach. He goes into everything with so much detail. So he doesn't have like an hour day where he's preparing. You know, if he's going into a practice, he's probably working out twice before practice even starts. And so, you know, that's the thing that I know that for a fact, because if I had to meet with him before practice, I would have to meet him somewhere 530 or 6 in the morning before he starts off doing whatever he's going to do. And so there's a lot that comes with that, being away from home, et cetera. And again, it's, we can also.

all see he still loves the game. He loves golf as well. But it's, you know, like I said, I'm not, we don't, I don't have anything. I wish I had something for you guys. I wish I had something for the basketball industry. But the only thing I have is to respect for him and his family to take the time, enjoy his time off. And whenever he decides that he wants to talk about things, all I can do is prepare. I'm prepared.

I'm ready to go. All right. Well, Rich. I can tell you this, Pat. I can tell you guys this. I tell you guys this. There are, there has been incoming calls from every team with the excitement of possibly him playing for them. And so at 41 years of age going on 42, I think that's something to be extremely proud about.

And, you know, just it's one of those things where it's like, wow, even at 42, I'm still wanted. That's, that's admirable. Yeah, certainly is. If you had to put a number on that, and obviously you rep him as well, so the higher the number would be better for your leverage, but everybody understands everything. Would you say five to ten teams have called him

or the teams that could potentially get him? Would you be able to put a number on that? Like the Pacers called, obviously. Yeah, I would say without naming names, I would say, yeah, about 10 to 12. 5.10. Okay, all right, we appreciate that number. And you know what to make everybody's life easier? What?

If Adele put out another album. Certainly. That would help all of us. Yeah. That would help me. Absolutely. That would help me. Yeah, well, you know what?

I think it would help a lot of people. She's pretty great at what she does, right? Yeah. Yeah, she is. Tell her we need something about, nope, not going to say. You're the best, ladies and gentlemen. Rich Ball, thank you, buddy.

Yeah, Rich. You guys. See, dude. We need another adela. Yeah, big time. Maybe that's what Braun's waiting on. Could be. Could be, actually, yeah.

He's got four years of eligibility, he's got football. NIL. Oh, you weigh more than 300 grand. I'm not giving any money. Just a tad more. Coach, all you need is a local judge, coach. He could be on yours.

I can tell you it's the way we're going. Let's do it. It is crazy, right? I'm not going to put you on the spot to have to talk about that because all you care about is getting what? Money. First downs, first downs. I want to move it this much.

Can we move it this much? Can we move it this much? Yeah. We're your first downs. And wins. And money. And money. If you'd like to support a college football team, we have the right team for you.

You have it. Are you buying shots at this place? Okay, with a buck 50. Way to go? Sure. Very good. Very good. Donation.

Or maybe we get a player. Yeah. Maybe we get a player. Let's see. If West Virginia wins this game, like excited, maybe we roll over. I never know. I think so. Ladies of gentlemen, it's Friday.

And we have a shorter show today because of the chaos. that's happening here. Shout to Blatt, by the way, for allowing us to set up in here. We didn't know what the setup was going to be. It all came together very late. We got people downstairs and outside. We appreciate you all so much. We'll see you over at the stadium there at the Charles Schwab Field here at Omaha. But we like to round up kind of the weak sport that were good and it was bad. Let's start with a good, shall we, with five things that aren't ass. Rich Ron Reg.

Five things that are not ass. Do something sweet. You ever hear that song? I hope not to hear it again. Just wait. It's coming at the end of this. Come on a bit. Not ass.

Let's go out to Vegas. First game for the athletics out there. Chris Angel was chosen to throw out the opening pitch. Yes. Obviously, we've seen this man take somebody's upper body and mix it with somebody else's lower body in a park. He put shack up over a hotel. Chris Angel has done all things, including throw an absolute C.

for the Las Vegas ath. Hey! Way to go, Chris. Magic trick. Put that in the glove. Didn't even throw a ball. Chris Angel. It's Chris Angel.

Shout to him. Remember, he dropped down from the Las Vegas Allegiance Stadium. Yes, he did. Football. Yeah, I was surprised not wearing baseball in a straight jack. Let's go to Jacob Mizoroski of the Brewers. He shakes off manager Pat Murphy who wanted to pull him out.

Nope. Nope. We're not doing that, pal. It was a seventh inning. What would he go on to do? Yeah, I'm going to. finish this thing, Pat. Pat was the manager of the year, I do believe, great coach.

Obviously, Mizorowski, good fan. He said, I don't think so. Let me close this out. Strikes out the guy. That's not ass at all, time. Not ass at all, and that's kind of the next level of his maturation, because every pitcher wants to keep going, but most of the time, the manager will be like, hey, tough shit, pal, you're coming out. But when you throw 102 miles an hour, you

let it eat. All right, let's go to another baseball game that only happens once a year. Oh, yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, when the Republicans and the Democrats take each other on in baseball. There's a chance of magic could happen. How about Missouri Senator Eric Schmidt diving play, breaks his nose, loses his hat. What a catch. The Republicans will go on to win 11 to 2. If he didn't make that catch,

11 to 3. So that was a big time play for the Republicans out there. Yeah, I mean, well worth the strawberry all over his face and probably his elbows. And we didn't even get a view of what he did at the plate because I believe he was the MVP of the game. So you would normally just think like ages for both these teams and who would who would have bode well for i wonder what the overall record is from the modern history here for ball and not ball just to see who it maybe that would help us understand politics a little bit yeah maybe let's got talk to uh we just talked to rich paul let's talk about a guy who's uh enjoying retirement lebron for birdie rich rodriguez he's six

foot nine obviously his clubs are as long as a hockey stick uh-huh on the other side of a sand trap. Could have to land it short. Don't go in a sand. Boy, he likes it. Tiger Vision. Staring it down. Yes, he is.

Tracking. No way. And count it. Little guy on the green jumping for joy. Love everything about that. That's certainly not ass. Let's go to the Belmont States at Saratoga. Second horse to win two Triple Crown races and just...

Oh, we're skipping that one. We don't have that. Okay, let's go to women's soccer as this World Cup is obviously happening. The women's soccer team. certainly selling out stadiums as well. Trinney Rodman, absolute dog, boom, right in the face, takes a shot. Yep, that's not ass at all. There was, I think, 11 cards in this game.

A ton of them. Okay, between USA and Brazil. Trinney Rodman was not one of them. Yeah, she's pumped about it. But she was certainly in the middle of all of it. She's our superstar. And I love the fact that our women's team, a bunch of dogs, and we're beating Brazil's ass.

I like everything about that time. Yeah, hard not to like that. And listen, you know, if you come mess with the bull, you're going to get the horns. You should know that. con man there's a chance of trinity could uh our women's team could beat some of these men's team in the world cup

but we're certain for gold when this women team takes a big stage yeah exactly i love that they did that before USA takes the pitch tonight maybe the men kind of see this and they say you know what we are so gonna go to war all right let's go to soccer anthony robinson in a lead-up game against Germany and Chicago as we prepare

for paraguay tonight an absolute ripper coach look at this one he might be able to kick a ball for you oh hey a cracker And I owe money for a kicker. How about that? Do that backflip. 25, 50 grand.

I think Anthony might be more. And then let's go to the game of all games from Madison Square Garden, things that aren't ass. OG Ananoby put back. Ah, Indiana, who's your legend? insane. What a comeback. They were down 29, which Rodriguez.

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Easy, breathable, and effortlessly cool. With a fit that creates natural movement and a wide leg that feels modern, not overwhelming. Plus, that signature, wait, for this price, moment. Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg. Speaking of coming back and went in doing something special, there's a man that has this West Virginia baseball team, in the national conversation.

He was hired in 2012. He passed on to Steve Sabins. Ladies and gentlemen, the Godfather, Randy Mazy. Yeah, Razzie. I don't know what Nancy. What's up, coach? How are we doing, coach? I should have known.

I don't know what baseball is. Is baseball more this one? Like soccer? A lot of high fives. Yeah, high fives. What ass ass lot. Randy, can you please tell me about the amount of pride is we have about four or five minutes here left?

This is my dream to sit in this chair, by the way. Wow. Where are you going to start? Thank you. tell you what it's an honor to have you on it's an honor to have you sing a song with my name in it yeah hey i heard that yeah okay uh shout out savings m a z i know right yeah i tried to return to favor i'm trying to think there ain't shit that rhymes with mackafee oh yeah i can't come up with anything just try pat try pat yeah that one there's a lot how about from my old brittany

spears days pat's not that innocent okay i like that i'm not that innocent uh pat and hot That's bad. Yeah. I mean, we can get going. You're the godfather of this West Virginia baseball team. Legitimately would like to get into this because what you did for our university is special. Obviously, massive donation from Ken Kendricks, but what you were able to piece together, Big 12 baseball in Morgan Town is special. And it's kind of all happening right now.

Obviously, you're not the coach of the team that's here, guy that was assistant coach for you. Sabins is in charge. Like, you tell me about how this has been for you from like day one to where we're at now. Proud Papa feeling. Is that kind of how I can look at this? Well, you make me sound old. calling me the godfather. While you are retired, bro, is on you. Amen. But yeah, you know, we celebrated a 14 year anniversary of my press conference last week during the regional.

And so in those 14 years, I had a vision. Oliver Locke hired me. And we had a vision for this day to come. People have been waiting for over 100 years for this day to come. And I always wanted to do it. I've been to Omaha a bunch of times with other teams. So I never wanted to do it for myself. I wanted to do it for the people you see around here, the university, the fans, Coach Sabins and his staff and the players, because I knew what it was like, and I knew I wanted them to experience it

because they never have. So this is fun for me just to see the people, just like you are. You've become a West Virginia baseball fan. Yeah, hell yeah. Hell yeah, I'm a big fan. That was the most fun. I've had a baseball.

That's the first time in my life I've stayed for an entire baseball game. Yeah, World Baseball Classic. Oh, no, World Baseball Classic. Classic house there. Country roads, yeah. Yeah, we had a great time. The tradition, the pageantry, the environment. It's come out of nowhere for the baseball team.

It's come out of nowhere. And, you know, if I can put an administrator hat on right now, stuff like this really helps enrollment. As you guys know, I mean, there's probably some junior in high school that lives in Sheboygan, Wisconsin right now, that watched what's going on and be like, hey, man, I'd love to go to school there. So this is so far outreaching what's happened here. Just congratulations to the players and coaches.

Hell yeah. We cannot wait to go watch the team play here at 2 o'clock. Our show's rapping here on ESPN and 5. We'll see you on Monday. Have the greatest weekend of all time. Goodbye. Okay, we're still live. We're still live.

We're still live. Let's remember that. Still live. Still live. Still live. Still live. Still live. You did everybody.

Everybody. I know I make him nervous. No, but you talk about enrollment. You talk about enrollment. We experienced that whenever our first run, no doubt. whenever he was here. And we had plaques around the building.

That was like Thursday night football. We had the highest rated, three highest rated games the ESPN had had before the NFL got in there. I think there was a Wednesday night game. Obviously, the amount of bowl games we win. We were everywhere. The West Virginia brand. Brand.

It was everywhere. Enrollment went up, school one up. Sports has the capability of doing that. No doubt. And your baseball team is certainly fantastic. So we've enjoyed watching the rise. And what Steve Samins, can you tell me a little bit about him, why he's the perfect guy?

He looks like he's a sawed off. off baseball. Yeah. I mean, he is stout fellow. He's a no nonsense, work ethic kind of guy. And that's what, when I retired, I didn't want somebody coming in from the outside to coach the mountaineers, because you've got to kind of know the West Virginia way if you're going to have success here.

And he was with me for nine years. And when I made the decision to retire, I knew the guy was in place that could do what's doing right now. So this has been a win-win for everybody. And I think he just got named National Coach of the Year. accurate. I'm not about that. Unbelievable what's happening.

And the favorite part for me is going to be, I think Omaha has adopted the mountaineers because of what's been happening. I think a lot of people, if we have a lead late in the game today, I think a lot of bipartisan people are going to stay just to sing with us. True. Yeah. That would be cool. Country roads.

So in 2002, I believe you were the one that said, hey, we're singing country roads. I'm sick of it. And then if we win. If we win. Obviously, if we win, it's started. It's become now a full thing. And global. I mean, Country Roads is sung everywhere.

But I think it's actually like West Virginia's song, too. I think West Virginia has like the right. I think West Virginia University has the rights to Country Roads. And the fact that it's caught on so much is a beautiful thing. Now you as a godfather of that tradition, are you crying a little tear the other day as we're pretty boozed up watching that baseball team go to win, singing Country Roads with what, five, six thousand mountaineers around? That was an awesome moment.

What was really neat is that Coach would tell you, they stay. A lot of them stay, even though they know you're going to win, they'll stay to the end just to sing that song. Yeah, right? And everybody's embracing each other. And it is amazing all over the world how people know that song. And now they're associated with our great university. And we're aligned right.

You know, we got President Benson here, Ren Baker. Mr. President. We got so much great support in all of our sports that it's fun to watch our baseball team that's got really good players, but also has, that West Virginia attitude. You know that grit, hard nose, blue collar kind of thing. The things that you had and your teammates had when you played at West Virginia. So I'm honored to be part of it.

You know, Coach, we don't push people that far in baseball. Yeah. If you do that in baseball, you get thrown out of the game. A whole different deal. Yeah, but I think your team would win that if we had to. Right. I think we had some dogs in that dugout, I mean, that's the kind of guys you recruit here, as you know, and you played here.

And that's how we win. Blue collar work ethic, man. That's how we roll. Tone has a question for you. Yeah, I do, coach. The MLB, it feels like now it's basically all strikeouts and home runs. College World Series, for someone who doesn't pay attention to the college game as much as the MLB, is it more of a small ball or is it team-based? What is the winning formula for a college world series?

You know, we always had to play according to the players we had. We would steal a lot of bases because we had fast guys. Yeah. If you have powerful guys, you try and hit a lot of homers. So it's different. Recruiting is such a crapshoot sometimes. as we were building this thing, you kind of get the players you get.

And then once you start winning, it kind of feeds off of itself. Yeah. We were stealing a lot of bases. So all of a sudden, all the fast kids in the country wanted to come to West Virginia. If we start hitting homers,

now all the big strong kids will want to come. So it's a little bit different, depending on the team that you have. You're buying shots at this Rocco's place because Rich Rod wants me to spend no money in there. I embarrassed the shit out of myself yesterday. I don't know if you saw the tweet, but it's not a regular shot.

glass. No. Got to be a damn engineer to figure it out. You got to push up from the bottom and sucky, sucky. Yeah, I'm struggling with this thing and I'm like, I'll do one just to say I did. Well, I got the whole show started. That's what we did. Yeah, we're kind of, everybody's kind of doing. We'll come do it.

Okay. I did my part, baby. I did my part. So do we. I've never chewed a shot before. That's different. It is. It's kind of chewy.

That's a little different. I'll tell you what. Okay. Okay. Sustainable here? Very sustainable. Is this new norm? Is this what we're thinking? Four years ago, I don't know how I've said that, but now very sustainable. Just because of all the national attention and, like I say, kids all over the country now are going to look at what's happened the last two weeks and say, hey, I want to be a mountaineer. So very sustainable.

Ty, go ahead, pal. Yeah, so you guys have, I mean, they've been to three super regionals in a row and couldn't, you know, quite get over the hump. Did you know this was on the precipice or not necessarily? within the last year and a half or so that you were like, okay, like we're right on the doorstep and we are going to knock it down. Yeah, you know, the evolution of a program, if you look back on what's happened, it's kind of gone the way it's supposed to go. You know, in 2017, we've got an at large bid to a regional for the first time in 100 years

or whatever. And in 2019, we hosted for the first time in 100 years. But it's hard to win the first time you host a regional. It's hard to win a super regional first time you play. it because you have no experience. But all of a sudden, you're playing three of them, and you end up winning one. Yeah. It's hard to win in Omaha the first time you come because our kids aren't used to seeing this.

So sustainability is going to be the key. I think we have a chance to win this thing. We've got a good enough team to win the whole thing. But experience in these championship environments goes a long way. So the evolution of the program on the front end, you're looking at it's like, let's do it now. We've got to do it now. But on the back end, looking back at it, it's gone about the way it's supposed to go.

That's awesome. Well, we appreciate the hell out of your service to the university, to sport. And thanks for stopping by. We're going to try to make our way in there. Hey, I'm a man of the people, man. I'm going to see this. Right now. I love West Virginia.

I love this state. My wife and I, my daughter, are ingrained in this state. And couldn't be happier right now, brother. All right. All right. We're going to go have, I guess, 10, 15 beers. Tired. No, jello shots.

Wow. No. It's a perfect day for it. I am very just what I had in my mind. Burry the ball. There's no clouds out. West Virginia's about to fly. It's going to be awesome in there.

And we had a fun. Yeah, great times. Let's not get it twisted. It's been fun hanging out walking around. Could do that literally in any city we found out last night. That's true. But not in Omaha. We're in Omaha, baby.

We are in Omaha. Come on. Look at that. It's beautiful. It's come on there. Oh, my news. Oh, my nears. My better memory of you is when you came to the super at West Virginia, and I came down to see you.

I literally had to step over all the empty beer cans to get next to you. It really wasn't that many. For some reason, it looked that way. They're pounders. Oh, yeah. And I got recruits in the night, so I can't. I'm going to watch the game, but I can't do. Of course.

I can't do what you guys do. Sure, sure. Shut up. Yeah. A little soft edge. I didn't know we had. My God, Coach. I got a little pizzazz. You're saying?

Yeah. Sounds like it. You do have a lot of pizzazz. I think that's a good thing. No, no. You're the man. No. You are, brother.

No. Pat's not innocent, right? My new song. Yep. He's not innocent. Thank it. Pat and bats too. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. We can go back of fee, flea, bumble bee. I'm trying to think of more now. Oh, boy. C should leave Yeah it was like P

good idea All right Randy you're the man Let's do this Thank you all so much for watching this show Thank you to Blatt piece in this together We're supposed to be off Then we're able to get on They give it to us shout to the production crew

Shout to Michael Foss obviously Hey Foss all Driving for five hours this morning to get here Obviously there's storms around So we appreciate that Shout to the president You're the man Thank you Mr. President

Thank you Mr. President Not of the United States West Virginia University. Now speaking to that, big fight on Sunday. Yeah. Seemily all coming together. Big fight. Looks great.

Looks great. Angers crossed. D storms in the area. Come on, we're being positive. I know. What's all this negativity? It's not negative. Be your friends.

Another friend, something nice. It might change their life. We're in this thing together. Coach, anything to say as we get out of here? Let's go, baby. Let's go. Let's win this thing. Boom. Thanks for having them.

Well said, Coach. Coach, how about you? Anything say to the team here? Hard edge. Going win out. Yep. On the ears, baby. Team on me.

Team on three. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye.