The Press Box - Mock Draft Week in America, Knicks Mania, the Yankee Umpire Affair, and Howie Schwab Stories With Peter Schrager

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Hello, media consumers! Bryan is back on Tuesday and joined by Fox Sports senior writer and 'Good Morning Football' host Peter Schrager! Peter kicks off the show by discussing the move of 'GMFB' from New York to California (2:20). They discuss the NFL draft, starting with some draft terminology, how Peter puts together a mock draft, and more (7:04). Then they get into New York sports, starting with the Knicks' big Game 2 win and the electricity of the fans (32:54), and followed by Yankees manager Aaron Boone's ejection for something a fan yelled at the umpire (39:43). To close the show, Peter shares a few Howie Schwab stories (44:06). Host: Bryan Curtis Guest: Peter Schrager Producer: Brian H. Waters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on with Kate Middleton? Which cult is popping off right now? What the hell is a trad wife? And why are we so obsessed with them? I'm Jody Walker. And I'm Chelsea Stark Jones. And we're obsessed. Obsessed with all the pop culture happenings,

filling our group chats and for you pages. And we want to talk about them with you. Our new show, We're Obsessed, is for all the things we're loving, buying, watching, listening to, and spiraling over right now. Follow the ringer dish feed on Spotify to listen to We're Obsessed every Friday. Hello, media consumers. Welcome to Pressbox.

Brian Curtis of the ringer here, along with producer Brian Waters. Coming up on the podcast, the absolute glory and the abject nuttiness of NFL draft week, Knicks mania is underway in New York after a miracle win against Philly. Plus, we've got Schwab stories, as in Howie Schwab, the Yankee umpire affair and why comedy podcasts are better than sports podcasts. All of this with our guest host today. He is Peter Schrager, the Secretary General of Mock Drafts. He'll be doing analysis on the NFL network this Friday, Saturday.

You know him from Good Morning Football and from Fox. He may be the most loyal listener of this here podcast that is not a member of the Curtis or Shoemaker families. Peter, welcome to the press box. Thank you. Jason Gay will take offense to that. Family listens to this podcast, as often as I do as well. Huge fan and love what you guys often talk about because I feel like it's the text chains that I'm on.

And I'll say this, in the last few weeks, I have been introduced to people that I have not known ahead of time. I guess I'm not part of the Syracuse Mafia. I don't live in Chicago. I'd never heard of Danny Parkins. And I think that sounds insulting now. But I loved your interview with him. And I was like, all right, now I'm following him. I bought the book.

And it's like, if I can get some new voices, the press box is usually the one that's going to introduce me to them. So I appreciate it. You're very nice. Yeah. We try to get out of the usual podcast group that all of us, you know, that go from podcast to podcast doing each other's podcast. We've got to admit new people into the secret society every once in a while. All right, Peter, some nosy questions to start off. I heard on a media podcast. It might have been even been this media podcast, that your show Good Morning Football is moving from New York to Los Angeles. your co-host, Jamie Erdal, has already announced she's making the move. Are you going to be going from Brooklyn to Los Felas?

Los Felas. I saw myself more as a Glendale guy. Is that in California? That tells you how much real estate I've been looking at in L.A. that I'm just naming random parts. Look, the truth is we've got good morning football this week at the draft. And when we're on hiatus until July 29th, and decisions do have to be made. I still have not made a decision if I'll be moving out to Los Angeles. But as of now,

I will have obviously a role in the new version of Good Morning Football, which not only is going to be in L.A., but is going to be two hours on NFL network and then two hours syndicated, which is a big part of the sell here. Obviously, this had a lot to do with the cost savings. And this is a way that the NFL and the NFL network can maybe make some money on Good Morning Football, as opposed to just being a cult classic and a show that people love watching and waking up to. And I've been so appreciative by that. But this is a way to maybe make revenue. And the thought is two hours on NFL network. So we still serve the fans that watch us every morning on NFL network. This, of course, will be out of L.A. at an earlier hour on the West Coast, but would still run on East

Coast hours. And then the two hours syndicated is really the big sell here in that like random UPN-9 channel in New York could pick up good morning football. and run us after Kelly Clarkson, or you can have Topeka, Kansas, 3 o'clock after Wapner is Good Morning Football. But like, that's really, it's an outside the box approach. And this is Michael Davies, who you probably know is the showrunner for Jeopardy or the executive producer of Jeopardy. But before that, watch what's happening live and men in Blazers and who wants to be a millionaire.

And this has been the arrangement that they're going to do it now syndicated, which is actually very exciting and new. and I don't know what markets we're going to be in or what hours we're going to be on, but like it could be 4 o'clock in the afternoon. You're watching Judge Mathis, and then there's my face talking about the backup tight events for the Saints this year,

and that might be what it is. There's a way they're going to sell those, and hopefully we can start making money for the NFL network as opposed to costing a lot of money and the ad sales, not necessarily being there on NFL network in a cable environment that seems to be going to different, direction than it was when we started the show in eight years ago. We usually talk about stuff like this from a big picture media reporter point of view.

What are the factors in you making a decision to move from the East Coast to the West Coast? Contract situation. What I'd be, you know, asked to do in the short and long term. In this case, you know, each one of us, and I don't know if I'm breaking news or each one of us. And I don't think anyone's following the Good Morning Football beat as closely. as I might think in my own head that they are. Jason, Jamie, Kyle and I all have different contract situations. We're not on one of these like friends deals.

We're not on one of these where we're all up at the same time. So each one of our situations is very unique and very different. So we're having individual conversations with the network on. All right, what's this look like? Do we move our entire family to LA for this opportunity? What's the long-term future of this? And, you know, NFL network, all things considered. this was a bomb that was dropped on all of us has been very amenable to those conversations and

flexible. And so we're trying to figure out what's the best situation for us individually and then also for the show to make sure it's the same show that you guys, that watch, know and love. I saw a headline in the sun like the UK tabloid the sun that said, Peter Schrager makes career revelation live on Pat McAfee's show with Future of Good Morning Football up in the air. Who on your team is planting stories in British tabloids? Isn't it amazing? Like that, like the sun was picking us up. And then we had one today like deadline in the Hollywood reporter that Good Morning

Football's back for Thursday, Friday, Saturday of the draft. And I'm like, who's liking that story? Is that major news? But I was flattered. I did a final like farewell to the New York City studio, which sounded like an odd like hedge, you know, goodbye to New York City studio. But my future is still up in the air as far as what that means. And I think like TMZ picked it up.

And then from TMZ, like Australia was picking it up. New Zealand was picking it up. It's very flattering. But yes, the UK tabloid seemed to be following us as well as anybody, which I appreciate. All right. Let's talk NFL draft. You're on your way to Detroit. Draft starts Thursday night.

There's some draft analyst terminology that I would like you to help me define and then we can fire it into the sun. Number one, my stack. I'm going to give you my stack. You want to tell the folks at home what that means? It's not a thing. That's a fantasy football term that has been tried to migrate over to real football and I don't like it. My stack means here's my order by position.

Like if I had to go at the wide receiver position, my stack is one Harrison, two neighbors, three at Dunezay. But that is not how real people talk and that is not how NFL teams talk. If anything, it's called the horizontal and the vertical. The vertical is your quote. unquote stack of how you stack each position. And then after you build that out, your horizontal is, okay, am I going to take a wide receiver over an offensive tackle? Do I like Tallyi Thuonga at Oregon State more than Adunze?

If I do, here's how it looks on the horizontal. You look at a board that way. But stack is a fantasy football term and it is not a real football term. So if I still hear stack rather than horizontal, I know that somebody is just pretending to be a true draft guru. Yes. You're not a real draft Nick. Yes. we used to call them. Here's another one. Pet cat. This guy is my pet cat, which I think means like a day

two or three prospect that you love slightly more than the other draft necks. Oh, I don't even know that one. That used to just be my diamond in the rough, but pet cat, that's a new one. I don't know that term. Is that a, where have you heard that term, Brian? I have seen this on draft Twitter. Like people that tweeted Brian Brutus, the old Cowboy Scows now a radio host. My pet cat. My pet cat I love Brian Brodus. I didn't know he used that term, and I love that term. I don't want to smear Brian. I don't know if he's using it, but people around him are definitely giving it.

Petcat. This is my friend speaking of Dallas people, Bob Stern down there, host a radio show and writes. He loves the phrase, there are only about 20 players with first round grades. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's, here are the guys that are actual first rounders. There's 20, meaning 12 of them who go in the first round and are first rounders. They don't really qualify because they didn't have first round grades. by who by who now look i am as as uh guilty of this one as anyone where i've been all around me to say there are 15 blue chip guys in this draft and most of them are an offense and then there's a bit of a drop off but to say that they have first round grades i you know if you're drafted in the

first round you're a first rounder and you can you know have that for the rest of your life despite there will be 32 players that have first round grades after Thursday night uh is it my imagination or this year have we had more reports about teams taking prospects out to dinner than ever before. That's kind of my niche. So I'm not going to, I'm not going to let you ruin this. This is my deal. So I'm trying to find something that no one else has, and I'm doing all these appearances.

And, you know, I knew in Chicago that they took Caleb Williams to a place called Bird Streets out in L.A. before his protee. Now, Bird Streets, you're an L.A. guy. You might know this is part of the H. Wood Group. And the H. Wood group is Delilah and nice guy in a real, like, cool high-end club where you'd see Drake or Justin Bieber or whoever. Bird Streets is their private dinner club where you have to be a member. And I think there's only like 150 members. So I thought this was significant that the bears got in touch with the folks at Bird Streets and somehow arranged it so that they were able to access a table there, took Caleb Williams out.

And one of the reasons why was obviously they were in L.A. It's a cool spot to go. but they wanted to see how Caleb interacted in that setting. And it just so happens that Jamie Fox was at the next table. And, you know, they were just able to observe Caleb in the L.A. element. Then they took him to a place called Sophie Steak in Lake Forest, Illinois, as opposed to Chicago, where typically you'd take him to Gibson's or Chicago Cut. And they wanted to see him and they put teammates of his future teammates at the table.

So a lot of the Bears guys, T.J. Edwards, others were there. I think that's information. I think that's interesting. And I'm trying to uncover things that no one else has. Now, am I also a foodie? Do I also live in New York and love looking to see who ate where and what they ate? Yes. Does this play to all of my strengths?

Yes. But I have been told by many to be like, no one gives a shit where they had dinner, dude. And I'm like, I care. And if I care, people care. And guess what? It's made news. So this is like a draft scoop and a Yelp rating. No doubt.

At the same time. But I think it is fascinating. because what you're talking about with Caleb Williams has a little bit of an element of a reality show to it. Like we're going to put him in these situations. Obviously, they're going to take Caleb Williams number one. That is not in doubt at this point. But we're trying to figure things out about him before we push the button and make him the number one pick. And I'll give you another one.

J.J. McCarthy. Again, if you're listening to the press box, you're a media news person. You're into it, whether it be political, whether it be sports, whether it be whatever it is. You follow this stuff. J.J. McCarthy. the night before Easter, the entire Giants brass flew out to Ann Arbor and took J.J. McCarthy out to Ruth Chris Steakhouse in Ann Arbor. They had a three-hour meal. And then they worked them out all day Easter Sunday. Now, I had in a previous mock draft J.J. McCarthy going to the Giants. And a lot of people said,

well, that's ridiculous. They won't take a quarterback. I assure you the Giants aren't flying out to Ann Arbor the night before Easter and on Easter Sunday to spend 48 hours with J.J. McCarthy, if they aren't interested in getting to know J.J. McCarthy as well as they can't. That is not how they want to spend their Easter. They're not doing their Easter Sunday and their Easter weekend with J.J. McCarthy to put out a smoke screen just to screw with someone later in the draft. That's not how they want to spend their downtime. So again, when they had the dinner, where they had the dinner, look, Schepter and Glazer,

they'll have the transactions, they'll have the trades. Here's my little corner. I'll tell you about the interactions that the teams have. And yes, it does seem to be a lot more coverage on the. actual interactions, whether it be top golf or Ruth Chris Stakehouse or Bird Streets out in L.A. It feels like you're pre-writing the athletic now. They tell a story about how the Giants settled on J.J. McCarthy. That's the kind of detail that they would absolutely want after the fact. Yeah. It's who's at the restaurant? Who's at the bar when he walks in? What do you order?

And we get that after the fact. And we love those stories. Well, I'm just telling you beforehand. Here's what it is in case they take them. Also, Giants brass. Great only in journalism. somewhere there. Great. Giants brass. And it's so nebulous. Like it might have been two coaches. It might have been seven people.

It might have been the owner. It might not have been. But if I say brass, no one questions it. They're like, okay, it makes sense. Just in a vagary. I didn't have those details, but I do know that someone was there. Some brass of some sort. Your first mock draft came out a week ago.

You tweeted, I don't throw darts at a wall. And you are working on 2.0 right now, I believe, as we speak. How do you put together a mock draft? Yeah. So if you listen to Bill's Pod on Fridays, and I know the Bill Simmons Reddit pod will kill me for it. It sounds like I'm just a name dropper, and I'm just plug in who I talk to and what I talk to. But that's what I offer. I've grown into a reporter who's got great sources at all these teams.

And I will be the first to tell you, if you put video of J.J. McCarthy and video next to Michael Penix, I'm not going to be the one who's going to tell you who's better than the other. A lot of these mock drafts, and most of them are here's what I would do. do or here's what I want to see or here's how I would do it. If I was Denver at 12, I would take. I don't have the hubris to tell you that I know more than any of these people at the teams, nor did I have a football background where I played, coached, etc. It's also how I look at football TV a lot of times. This is going to come off as a flame thrower. It's not meant to be because it's a very common thing done. But like I don't, I don't necessarily have much

place in my brain space for the right after the game. Let me show you how they got it done. Let's get the tell us straighter out. Let me break it down. Like, I didn't coach high school football. I'd rather have the story. I'd rather have the narrative. I'd rather know, you know, who's going where and why they're going where and, you know, how the game came to be as opposed to here's the X's and O's. There is an audience for that. And, you know, that's that. For me, it's a different audience. And that's what I play to. And when it comes to my mock draft, I think a lot of pride and talking to at least somebody from all 32 teams, try to get a feeling for where they're at. And And then I have a little fun with the first mock draft.

So I had the Giants trading up to four to get J.J. McCarthy. Now, we're a week removed from that. And the feedback that I've gotten is that likely won't happen. Now, Giants like J.J. McCarthy, they had a good meeting with them. But I have something else happening at the top. And it likely won't be the Giants trading up from six to four. But I used that first mock draft where I came in with, you know, good information to then formulate what I do for the second mock draft.

I think great pride in the accuracy of it. And two years ago, I was lights out when I was like, you know, I had 12 of 32 direct hits and then maybe I had like 26 of 32 guys getting selected in the first round. And that's how I grade it. The direct hits are hard because of the traits. But how many first rounders did you get? And did you get the top 10 kind of close to right last year? Please don't Google how I did last year.

The C.J. Stroud picket to then the trade up with Houston. Like it screwed me all up and I did horrible. And like I showed a little bit of arrogance going into the draft. and I told everyone I've got the most accurate mock draft. You should check the stuff. I've got it all, all this stuff. And then I just felt fat in my face. So I do take pride in it.

I take a lot of time in it. But I'll tell you, we're recording this. Like, I've spent the entire morning on the phone with different teams. And a lot of it's, what have you heard this team's doing? What have you heard that team? What do you guys think of this player? What do you think of this team player? I think there's fun in that.

And there's a lot of information to be gained. And I think over the last 15 years of me doing these mock drafts, I've gotten great respect from around the league and people say like, you know, it used to be Dr. Z and Rick Goslin and, you know, Peter King and those are the ones. And I feel like my mock draft now is one that, you know, people wait. I don't put out 16 versions. I don't do it in February at the Combine. I do two mock drafts, one the week before the draft and one the week of the draft.

And I'm happy to say that, you know, league-wide people pay attention and they usually comment and call me based on what I have. I grew up reading Ray Goslin in the Dallas Morning News. And his draft was always the guy who knows stuff draft. So the highest compliment I can give you is that you were the inheritor of the guy who knows stuff draft. I take that at the utmost respect. And I'll tell you, like Goose Goslin, I used to cover the draft at Radio City before they would move at every place. And one year I sat behind him and like, you know, it's cool to see Adam Sandler out in the wild.

And it's cool to see, you know, whoever artist, the Rolling Stones, like, to meet and be at the draft and watch Rick Gosselin from like, you know, 10 foot, 10 feet away as a young sports reporter working for Fox Sports.com. It's like, all right, this is, this is the real deal. I'm here. And Schaefter mentioned those names on a podcast that he did. I was listening to Shepter's podcast. And I was like, as much as we love the Mel Kuiper on TV and we give the respect to the guys on TV, like when Rick Gosselin put out that one mock driver, Bob McKin, Bob McGinn up in Wisconsin would, do his, you know, here's what scouts are actually saying stuff. Like, gosh, that, that moved the needle more than anything and maybe even more than Mel Kiper, because at the time, it was like, we waited for that one bomb to drop. And when Goose Gosselin put out his mock draft, it was like, all right, it's out there. What's he got? You know he talked to somebody. So fascinated by how your mock draft number one informs mock draft number two. So you will do something. And people then call you up and be like, that's not happening. And here's why that's not happening.

Yes. Or what did you hear to inform you on that? because I've heard this. So like I had, I had the Broncos taking, um, lot to the defensive end out of UCLA 12th overall. I heard from two different teams saying, he's not on our board in the first round because of a neck injury.

He suffered at Washington. You think that Denver would take him that high 12? And I say, yeah, I do. I think Denver likes him. I really do. I think Denver likes him and Dallas Turner. They know,

I have a relationship with Sean Payton. And they assume that I'm talking to Peyton, whether it's true or not on this pick in particular. particular, would they really take LATU that high, LATU that high? And then it's, okay, well, we've heard that one team actually has LATU above Dallas Turner. And then another team doesn't, so it just starts the conversation. And then now suddenly we're doing 30 minutes on LATU, the UCLA transfer student from the

University of Washington, who I think could be the first pass rusher off the board, but opinions that, you know, differ on it. And gosh, you'd put Denver with their quarterback needs taking LATU? well, now the conversation starts and it helps lead to more information and more what you're hearing around the league. What is the hardest thing for you to get every year? The trades are so hard up front. So like I do think there's going to be a massive trade somewhere in the top six.

And then that just sets off an avalanche of trades afterwards. And then you're totally off skew. And you just have to hope that you get those first few picks right. And you can say, okay, I had those right. And then hold on tight. I talk to somebody who I trust in the league. What we like about your mock draft is that you'll give names that aren't in there. There's a lot of group thinking these mock drafts.

And at the end of the first round, you start saying, well, I got to place this guy here, here. Like I put a player in my last mock draft there was a gentleman, Jalen Polk, wide receiver out of Washington. He was the third wide out at Washington. I put him in the first round to the Chiefs because I know one team is very high on them. I know another team's very high on them. It doesn't come from the Chief. and I got a compliment on that. And a couple years ago, I put Jordan Brooks to the Seahawks where no one had Jordan

Brooks in the first round. He went there. I had a guy Logan Hall going in the first round. The Buccaneers ended up taking Logan Hall in the first round. These are things that no one in a million years other than me would ever keep track of or no, but the people in the league respect that when in a mock draft, you give names that aren't just Verpink and aren't just everywhere else. Like my guy this year is this player Darius Robinson out of Missouri, and he's actually been invited to the draft.

So it's not so off the board, but I've got him going a little higher than most people have him going. And that's generated a lot of conversation. Oh, you really? I'm like, I do. I think it's a really weak draft for defensive line. And I think once Jared Verst is off the board and the other two are off the board and Murphy from Texas, who Brian, I know you've watched, I think the next guy is Darius Robinson out of Missouri. And again, this is the press box podcast. You're like, I'm not here for the Darius Robinson takes, but like in my world, in my world, that matters.

So I'm very curious to see where a guy like that goes who you put your name on and say, yeah, he's a first round pick. Do you ever hear from a source? I can tell you what our team is thinking, but don't put this in your mock draft because I don't want it out there. It's don't burn me. That's what they'll say. And you can add that, don't burn me on this. But here's what we kind of have. Like I've had draft boards, visuals of them, the day of the draft texted to me.

and that's like a fireable offense, you know. So like don't, but use this for your own knowledge if, you know, you need to start doing some piecing together. Like you could say a team actually views this player above this player on their board. But yeah, and then I've been lied to. I've said that before. I've been lied to a couple years. I won't mention the team, but a couple of years, a head coach was like,

we, we like this guy more than this guy. Both guys were on the board. The other guy was taken. And then the next day or that night, I said, you know, I know you're in the glow of the draft, but like that was kind of screwed up. And he's like at the end of the day, it wasn't my pick. The GM came, okay, whatever, sure.

But like that stuff happens too. And then you're just like, ah, all right. You've lost me in the future. Like I'm not trying to do you any, you know, I'm not going to value what you tell me because it feels like I was led down the wrong road for what reason. I don't know, you know. That was a head coach who said that.

Yeah. That's amazing. Now, craziest thing you've had a source tell you before the draft that actually turned out to be true. Ooh. All right. It'll sound ridiculous now because, you know, I was told the Mahomes draft, there's a couple good ones, but the Mahomes draft that Patrick Mahomes won't get out of the top 12.

Now, now we say, of course, you know, I'm sorry, I was like top 12. And Kansas City moved up from 27 to 10. And then after the fact, I found out that, you know, Sean Payton was taking him at 11. The story's great. The one thing I would wish, because I've worked with Sean Payton at Fox for a year, and then I became the Sean Payton fanboy. I'm not. I just love Sean as a storyteller. I think he's a fantastic storyteller, and he was really good on Fox as a storyteller in the brief year he was there. But his story was, and you'd love this. That year, he fell in love with Mahomes. He had the 11th overall pick, and they had Drew Breeze. And as the story goes, and I love it. Drew Breeze in all his years as a New Orleans saint has never. asked to come to the to the facility on draft day never and out of nowhere the day of drew brief says hey i got a couple buddies in town is it cool if we sit in the war room during the draft Sean Peyton has Patrick Mahomes as the top player on his draft board says okay they get in there he goes but we have to have a conversation first if this guy's there at 11 Drew I'm just telling you

I know you're going to be it's going to be very awkward I have to tell you like there's a chance we're taking this guy at 11. And he said, Drew was so cool about it. Drew was like, all right. Now, Drew Bruce was still in the prime of his career. They had just gone to the NFC championship game like a couple years earlier. Or we're going to go the next year or whatever it was. And Drew's like, okay, well, there go.

Pick by pick by pick. They're going off the board. And there it is. Endth overall. The Buffalo Bills are on the clock. And Sean Payton is all but ready to hand in the card for the 11th overall pick. And Andy Reid swoops in and takes him at hand. and then Peyton takes Marshawn Lattimore,

who goes on to be a great defensive player and defensive rookie of the year and the whole thing. But I love stories like that. And that year I had info from a few different teams that you're way overlooking this Mahomes, that air raid or not, this guy is going to go in the top 12. He ended up going 10th.

And at the time, and all those mock drafts, if you look back, it was like Mahomes goes 18th, 19th, 20th. It was that kind of talk. And it turns out he did go 10th overall. And at the time, it was like, wow, he went before Watson. That's crazy. Yeah, he went before Watson. He's also potentially the greatest quarterback to ever play the game.

What's the craziest thing you heard before a draft that didn't turn out to be true? The COVID draft was crazy. No, no. The year after the COVID draft was crazy because there was no college football for some of these guys. And then there was no like pro days. And there was no, not. So that whole draft, 2021, was so all over the board. The craziest thing was that the Niners, who had the third overall pick, were going to trade

the third overall pick for Aaron Rogers straight up to the Packers. And that came from like not a Packers or Niners source, but someone like a good source. And this is when, you know, you're talking about Rogers coming off an MVP season, like, whatever, and you're like, what? But that Kyle Shanahan had worked it out and like just keep an eye on that. And then the draft goes down and everyone assumes it's going to be Mack Jones and they end have taken Trey Lance. That draft was crazy. And if you look back at that 2021 draft, the quarterbacks were all over the place. And that was, but the other players in that draft were excellent. And there's

a lot of guys who are going to be like several time all pros. And some of those players, whether it be Michael Parsons or Jamar Chase, like didn't even play that year because of COVID. And you're sitting there and you're like, okay, all that stuff of, well, didn't, didn't play. Because that was a major, like didn't participate this year. It was just training on his own. We don't know if we trust that. And all those guys ended up being awesome. The year off was fine.

Here's a scoop I wanted to ask about. You mentioned Bob McGinn, longtime writer in Wisconsin, now with Go Long. He wrote about the Texas wide receiver, A.D. Mitchell. And he says he has type one diabetes. And he was doing the anonymous scout thing.

And this is what the anonymous scout said. When his blood sugar's off, he's rude. He's abrasive. He doesn't pay attention in meetings. It's why you get really, really shitty character reports coming out of Georgia in Texas. But when his stuff is normal and they get him normal by lunchtime, he's at his practice, high energy, best practice player loves football, et cetera, et cetera.

Is that something that NFL teams are talking about? Because that just hit all of us in non-NFL world like a ton of bricks when we read it this week. Yeah, of course, of course, anything negative these days. And like, I'm not on night one of the draft. I work night two for NFL network. And then day three is where I'm just the biggest draft geek and I love it. And I'm there all day, day three on the main stage with Eisen. and Jeremiah and the rest.

You won't hear a negative thing about any of these players night one anymore. You won't. And so like Bob comes out and says that. And of course, then he ties it to the health thing and then it gets a little sensitive

with that. But like there used to be negative things written about players positive set. It became such a trigger that now everyone's the greatest player ever. And if you even question one of these kids,

it becomes a story. So he's from a different generation. He's not making that up. Whoever told him, that. I don't think he's going to put it out there. But like, let me give you, I don't want to put it on screen, but like, so that article, I was looking for it. Here's from, here's from someone I trust at a league source. Based on the McGinn article that day, this goes back. This is last Wednesday or something. Three things on A.D. Mitchell. One, he's going to be a stud ready for for rookie mini cam because he's

working out right now. Two, he's an amazing, he's an amazing kid and is all. awesome with his parents and his daughter. And three, can't say enough about our meeting with him, thought he was awesome, one of the best kids that we've met. Just so you have it, if you're asked about the McGinn report. That's what I would say, having done my work as well. They read it. Everyone reads it. Uh-huh. In case you're on a media podcast and somebody asks you about this. Here's my take. Here's my take. But that's real. But I also think, you know, what was the guy, Nolan Naraki back in the day? Used to always come out. with just like flames.

I don't know if he's still doing it, but to me it's a dangerous game if you want to be doing this long term because people hate like, you know, when you tear down a kid who's 18 or 19 years old, but you better believe there's negative stuff written about players.

How many players are described as knucklehead to me on the board? And I'm like, eh, that's kind of, that's a little, but it doesn't get out, you know? So we don't hear that as much anymore because people are worried about pissing off the agent.

I just don't think it's productive. And then like, you know, everyone on ESPN, ABC, NFL network, they might question the fit for a team. They might question the selection where it was, but you don't get the character attacks anymore.

You certainly don't get that kind of stuff where it's like, I don't think he's going to work because of his character. You don't see that anymore. Even like last year, and who was it? In the NBA draft, Malika Andrews, I think, mentioned what happened

with Brandon Miller and went through it all. And I thought, journalistically you had to do that, even if it is his moment and like the outrage that she even mentioned. it was immense, but that's part of the, that's part of the pick. He's second overall. And he just went through that whole thing, like Jalen Carter to the Eagles.

Like if we don't mention it, who are we serving? So I think it's all part of the total package. And I feel like we've, in the last few years, it's been really, really purified to every player is awesome and every kid's going to be class president and win the award for greatest human ever. Last note on the draft, you mentioned this a minute ago and I wanted to circle back to it. It feels like there's two different practices. of covering the draft. There is, I'm going to arrange the players in the order that I think

they belong in. I'm going to do my stack. I'm going to do my vertical. And then there is a second one, which is I'm going to try to figure out where these players are going to go. Do you think those are just completely separate skills and we should almost divide them? You do one or you do the other? I think the best person doing any of this draft stuff right now is Daniel Jeremiah in the NFL network. And what he does is he does a top 50 prospect list, which is his board of top 50, one to 50. And in this year, he had Marvin Harrison two, Malik Neighbors 3, and Roma Dunesay 4. That's 2, 3, 4, all wide receivers. They're not going 2, 3, 4 in the draft. And then he also does a final mock draft, which will be released, I think, tonight or tomorrow.

And that's two different skill sets. And it's two different things. And if you keep that in mind, it helps you inform you on the draft. But, like, I'll never forget. It might have been Helen Moore was like the best player available on Mel's board an entire day three. I don't think Kellan got drafted. And it was like it became the focus of the entire broadcast. Like he's the best player on Mel's board. How is he not drafted? It's like you fixate on one person's opinion of, you know,

here's how it's stacked on my board, best player available. But teams, there's 32 different teams. There's, you know, now 30 people working on this for 32 different teams. You're going to get different opinions. And you can't tie yourself to the one person's board or what, team actually thanks let's talk about the new york nix because i know you've got takes on this absolutely crazy sequence last night in game two the nicks are down five to the 76ers with 28 seconds left to go somehow they are then up one with 13 seconds left to go what did you make of that and nicks mania

generally we kind of had it last year we kind of had it the covid year when trey young came and it was like this but like i have been to probably 15 nicks games this year It has been electric all season long. And what I loved last night, it's on national TV, and they have those shots of the crowd. And of course, we get obsessed with the Ben Stiller and the Chris Rock and the Gary V. And then for you sports media people, Stephen A. Smith with Mark Shapiro from Endeavor sitting there on court side.

You see these faces and Zaz is in the front row. Yeah. You got all this people. And it was a big day for NBA rights. It was. They all seemed to be right there watching what the NBA can be. It's all going. I love seeing that big wide angle of the crowd just going bananas and the people in the upper deck and the people. And like, that's when the garden is alive. It's not about,

you know, what Ben Stiller's reaction is. And what was really cool was, you know, growing up in the New York, New Jersey area, we'd always hear about Dave DeBusher and Bill Bradley and Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe. And last night or Monday night, when that. play happens. They shot it and you saw LaTrell Spreewell, John Stark's, you know, Bernard King and Marmello and Tim Thomas. We even just had a cup of coffee with the Knicks, but it's been, and it was really cool to see like the next generation of Knicks Legends in years that they did not win much. They went to the finals of 94, 99, but like it's not like this great glorified. It's been a lot of bad years for the next fans, but like the next generation was there. I just, the city,

And my friend Eric Ziff said this, who's a sports fan, with the Rangers winning, the Knicks winning, the Mets having a couple good games here, and the Yankees being good to start season. Like, the city is different. It really is. The city is different when these teams are winning. And especially the garden and the Knicks and Rangers right now has been the coolest thing to just be a part of living in New York City. Sports Twitter is also different because all these people come out of the woodwork. Woodwork, right?

Like Johnny come lately. And I, as someone who watches, you know, the Knicks play the best. Pistons on a random Tuesday. Like, you're welcome to come aboard. It's cool. Like, it's fine. I'm fine with it. It's all right. It's crazy. As last night, my son is seven years old. I wasn't at the game. And I let him stay up. And it's like, my wife's like, he's got to go to bed. Like, he's got to go to bed. It's 10 o'clock. And then they're down five and Lowry's at the line. And my wife's like, just go to bed. There's a minute left. And my son is like this new basketball fan wide. I was like, no, there's still a minute left. And in my head, I'm like, all right, he's just trying to stay up late. And then

they actually won the game and he's going nuts. And to share that with him was really cool. And I think that's happening a lot across New York City now because the Knicks have not been good very often over the last 20 years. It's cool to share that with the next generation. I love the courtside celebrity lineup with Sting and John McEnroe because it felt like it could be any Knicks game over the last 30 years. Totally.

Maybe that's that I love. I love the garden. Like Steve Sharipa is like a garden regular and that's Bobby Bacula. and like, you know, Blue Bloods, but like, he is viewed as, all right, Matthew Modine for years was like, first row, like, it's not, I don't care if you the hottest single out, like, you know, Duelipa is not getting a seat over Tracy Morgan. Tracy Morgan's been there all the way along. Like, there are Knicks fans, and it's funny, they've got like certain new, like Sam Maril,

the comedian, he's, he's always there. Chris DiStefano, the comedian, like, those are guys that play the garden. They play the Beacon Theater. Bronson is now a regular. It's not necessarily who's, you know, selling the most albums or who's in page six. It's like these are our Nick fan celebrities, which I appreciate. National broadcast last night was on Turner.

Brian Anderson did a good job. But there's this little quirk in the NBA where a first round series is also on your local cable channel, which means that in New York, on MSG, Mike Breen was calling the game. And here's Mike Breen on that. Fantastic final shot. Martinstein gets it out to Ananoby.

Devencenzio a three. The rare double bang. Double bang. I've heard there's five double bangs in the history of Mike Breen's calls. That was one of them. And I know we collect those, but you know, the real skill there is getting your voice to that place right away in that absolutely strange and chaotic moment. And understanding, this is what great announcers do, understanding that your voice needs to be at a 19 right then. Boom, here we go, right?

In an instant, figuring it out. It's amazing to me. He's amazing. And I'll tell you, I was watching the game on MSG. And immediately after I, you know, I turned over Turner and they're off to the Nuggets Lakers, which is fine. That's what you should do. I'm keeping it on MSG. You got Bill Pito, Alan Hahn, Wally Zerbio.

Of course, you get it. ESPN, Wally Zerbiak. And then they go to Monica McNutt, who had done the radio and she's there. And it's like, it was an hour postgame show. As I'm in a world of studio shows where it's bells and whistles and Fox has all these amazing technology and NFL networks moving it because the studio in L.A. is, you know, they're sitting there in what might be a hotel room across the street at the, you know, New York, Pennsylvania Hotel.

And it's great. It's great because those guys and ladies, they live it every single day. And that's what the fans want. So the MSG broadcast was awesome. and their post-game show is awesome. Monica, my wife and I were watching, she's like, she's really good. I'm like, yeah, and she also does some of the first take stuff. So I've, hats off to her. I thought she captured the moment, having been in the building and then kind of recapping it for the studio show there. But like, I live in New York, so I get yes. And the yes

broadcast is Ian Eagle doing a horrible Nets team this year. Like, Iron Eagle's coming off of March Madness where he's finally calling the finals. And then the next day, I think he's doing like Nets Wizards with Sarah Kustak and they're doing it over on yes, but like that's what I love about guys like Green and I and those who like, yeah, this is also, I still am the full time voice of this local basketball team and I'm going to do those games when I'm not on the call for the playoffs. As a New Yorker, can I get you interested in this Yankee umpire story that was burning up Twitter yesterday? I saw it.

Yeah. It's almost the perfect WFAN story. And I say this to a former WFA and maybe still current WFAN caller. in yourself because, I mean, what could be more perfect, right? Aaron Boone, Yankees manager said something to an umpire about a check swing. Umpire says, no more. Gave him that little sign. He doesn't say anymore, but a fan says something.

The umpire runs him. But the amazing thing now is that we have cameras everywhere. So we can see that Aaron Boone was not speaking to the umpire when the fan said something. In fact, the wonderful camera shot, Aaron Boone is looking at his nails, which is itself just a hilarious visual. What did you make of that entire brouhaha? Well, I love the coverage right away. They're like, go, you don't need a job boy video for that, which was like the total meshing of new media and old media. Yeah, if ever there was an argument for robot umps. That was the one where caught red-handed, like Aaron Boone were watching him and he didn't say it. Classic New York

sports radio story. And then only rivals. by LeBron James after a heartbreaking loss calling out the refs for a third quarter decision to go to the New York City replay booth or SACAus wherever that is. Like, yeah, that stuff is what we're made. And I think I'd be fascinated. I didn't watch it this morning. This is Tuesday morning you and I are doing this. Like, did first take start with that, the LeBron quote about the refs?

Or does first take start with the Knicks win or with the Yankees thing? Because I feel like they had a lot of fruits to work with. That is a great question. I did not see it either. What was the A block? Yeah, I was going to say, A block, LeBlock, LeBron, Lakers' heartbreaking loss, LeBron tweet. That's the Picasso right there. Those are the elements. Brian, what do you make of John O'Rand at Huck just taking his game to another level, breaking all this news? And then having within six weeks, I feel like everyone in the industry reading a newsletter that they, that they subscribe.

to because I'll tell you what I he had like a little party in New York I wasn't there but I feel like Orrand who had been at sports business journal forever is now at puck which is again new age company those guys do a nice job obviously Matt Bologna is a you know ringer guy as well um I find that interesting too that like all right new media old media for years he was the sports business journal you know beltway guy always breaking news but and now it's on any like We have John Boy in baseball. We have Pat McAfee on TV. And now we've got like even in the covering of your beat, there is a new player in town.

It's fantastic. And first of all, I'd love to know how many times he used the word defenestrated in his copy at Sports Business Journal. I'm going to guess it's a goose egg. It's already been in there at least once at puck. So to see John not only breaking news and doing all that stuff, because John's like one of those guys. It's like it's always nails. It's never showy. It's never jazz hands.

I don't have anything, but I'm going to kind of convince you that I have something. Nope, it is. Here's what's going on. Here's what's happening. And he would always do those end of the year columns. I was talking about this on Monday. He would have predictions. And like six would come true.

And he'd be like, oh. It's my mock draft. I'll tell you. Yes. Yeah. But like I don't work at ESPN. And he did an article on Friday. A little blurb in his newsletter.

Like here's who could replace Norby Williamson. And he listed about 10 names. And I know most of those names. And it's like they're all executives, whether it be Mike Mariano at Amazon or Jared Stacey at Amazon or Brad Zager, who is my boss at Fox or Charlie Yook, who's one of my bosses at NFL network. And it's like, oh, like, so guys, this is what it's like when we cover the players in the code. Like, oh, now there's someone who, and Marchand obviously does it as well. But like your whole world of covering that stuff. And then you guys break it down, you and Shoemaker are like are so good at like the morning after.

Let's discuss. I don't know. It's almost like the fifth sport right now. Absolutely. That was Alran doing his stack to replace Norby. Vertical. It's my vertical to replace Norby. Speaking of ESPN, we lost researcher slash producer slash unlikely game show star Howie Schwab over the weekend. You got a Schwab story for me. I do.

I shared this with you in a previous interview. I've done with the press box. But my first brush with any sports media was I tried out for the ESPN reality show. ESPN dream job back in the spring of 2003, I want to say. I stood outside an ESPN sport zone in Atlanta. And I wore a I love Bill Clement shirt with a picture of Bill Clement's face, the old hockey analyst from ESPN. And then what they do is the old dream job, if you're not familiar.

It was like American Idol for the next sports center anchor. And they had a full tryout for it. And I walked into that sports zone. and there was thousands of people. Like, this was the show. There wasn't any doubt that, like, this was going to propel us. And you see a lot of these people who are on TV now who ended up winning. Anyway, the first part of it was a, you know, sports quiz, and it's 15 questions, and it was written.

So you did a written exam, and then you waited online all day, and then you would talk to Al Jaffe. In this case, for me, it was Kevin Frazier, who was on ESPN at the time, and Howie Schwab. But the written part of it, this is the Atlanta. one. So who knows whether it was as valued as the New York or the L.A. But the written one was a test. And I got 15 out of 15. And Howie Schwab, I'd never heard of him, never met him. This is long before. Stump the Schwab. He literally says, who's this? Who's Peter Schreger? And I'm 80th in line. I'm like, I raise my hand. He's like, come with me. Pulls me aside. Cust the line. It's like, you got a perfect score on this test. Do this one. And Brian, I assume, listening to you for years,

You were like me. I'm the guy who obviously created the Fantasy League in seventh grade with my friends and would tabulate the scores and the box score, the USA Today on Monday morning. And I memorized every single baseball, basketball, football card. You can name any player in the NBA from 1991 to 1997. I'll tell you their college and what it said on their Skybox card on the back. I was that guy. So I was able to do it and I aced it again. And Howie Schwab is the one who said, okay, what do you want to do? when you grow up and I said, I want to write for ESPN.com. This is when Bill was just starting with page two, and you had Ralph Wiley, and you had all these other incredible writers on page two. And Howie Schwab was like, okay, I am going to introduce you to someone named Kristen Fisher and to Stacey Pressman. I go, okay, I don't know who those people are. I'm a junior in college. They were launching a site called ESPN page three, which was very short-lived, but it was like page two, but a little younger in like pop culture.

and it was Howie Schwab who would check in with me throughout my senior year of college. I'm literally at Peter.shrager at Emory University.edu. And he would proactively, a guy from ESPN would proactively reach out to me and be like, have any more clips, have any latest stuff that you've written about? Like anything you've done on the college radio station? Like, send it along. Let me know, let me know. I graduate college and like Howie Schwab, who had nothing to do, like, no reason to do this

would reach out to me weekly and be like, what do you got? What's the latest? until I eventually landed with page three, which he helped usher in. And then long after my time with ESPN at the time, which was very short-lived, I was a freelancer, I would eventually go to Fox. I would get like an email every six months from Howie Schwab, all caps lock, short to a great point on this. And then you mentioned on your podcast the latest one that, you know, he was with Vital and you guys went out to dinner and he was, you know, but also he was upset about. how things ended with ESPN. Like, I don't have, I, I, I, I,

one of my great regrets is after he got ill and fell ill and, like, we kind of lost touch. But I would say for a good 15 years, as my career was progressing, and no one had any other interest in it other than my wife and my parents, like, Howie Schwab would send an email and say, hey, great job. I saw you do an interview with, you know, Colin Coward, you know, two weeks ago. I thought you were great. Like, that was really, just all the stories you hear are the people that actually know and they have better stories than I do.

The Dan Patrick's and the Keith Obermans have said wonderful things. But like, for me, like my story also adds because, and it also, you know, it tracks because here I am a 19, 20-year-old kid in college, and he took a lot of time to help bring me along because he saw a glimmer in my eye or whatever. Like, that's the cool stuff. And I wish I was better at that stuff now that I'm in my 40s and I get all these emails from people who want to get involved and like, I'll respond here and there. but I'm usually like I got big I'm busy

Howie Schwab wasn't too busy like I could probably be too bit I could probably be less busy to kind of lend the hand to some people next generation so cool that he was a mensch and that him being a mensch started with you impressing him with your trivia knowledge that was it like

this guy's for real and I'm sure it was like you know where did everyone know Sam Bowie went before Michael Jordan but where to go to college and I'm like Kentucky next you know Jay Berwanger here we go

all those sports trivia books of those days. Gosh, you just knew that stuff. I miss it. Like, I talk to Michael Davies a lot who obviously does Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. Like there was two minute drill. There was that,

like, I think there's a play still for sports trivia. Like, I don't, you mentioned the whole researcher. Like, I live and die by sports researchers. Like,

I grew up with like, you know, in my world. And we had a guy, Rich Goldberg on Good Morning Football, who I don't know if he's currently, you know, what his situation is with the NFL network, because he was employed by the NFL network and they made a lot of, you know, decisions. But like every show, Rich Goldberg would send me six nuggets to just kind of help make my point,

whether it's here's why the Patriots should, you know, trade the third overall pick. He would give me like a couple nuggets. And it's not cheating. It's just researchers are the backbone of all of these shows that you're watching on TV. Absolutely. Make everybody look smarter. All right. Last note, Peter, before we go, you texted me this morning and you said, comedy podcasts are greater than sports podcasts. This is from somebody who hosts a sports podcast.

Tell me why. Yeah, it's shut your brain off and laugh. Now, everything that, you know, who, which comedians, you like, if you're a fan of the smartless podcast and you like celebrity interviews, that's your cup of tea. If you like Tim Dillon or Theo Vaughn, that's your cup of tea. like the comedy podcast, those comedians, I feel like that's the biggest story of the last like five years that like they don't need to be on the tonight show and they don't need to be on late night or they don't need to do the today show anymore. They have their own audiences. So I give a lot of credit to guys like Andrew Scholes and, you know, Mark Norman and Sam are real comedians that might not be household names. But like Shane Gillis like his podcast, like he didn't need

Saturday Night Live. His podcast. He didn't need Saturday Night Live. His podcast. podcast and his stand-up was enough to still get them along. And a lot of these guys are inappropriate and you can't put them on TV and it goes right down the list that if you could be canceled for all this stuff. But like, I don't know. I feel like to me, if I'm on a flight, like, I live in sports. I breathe it every day. I don't need to hear another person talk about, you know, necessarily what they would do with the seventh overall pick up. They're the Tennessee Titans. But if Tim Dillon has a rant on why, you know, Disney World is the worst place on Earth, like that's kind of funny to me. I'll listen to that instead.

Yeah, like the comedian is this character in American life who just needs an outlet, right? They've got 10 minutes of the comedy store headlining somewhere else. They got that couple of minutes on the late night show. But if you just give them an hour twice a week, they're also really funny. And they're funny. And it's like, I think it's Neil Brennan who helped write Chappelle's show and whether you're a fan or not. And his latest stand-up, he has a whole thing where he's like, and where are we as a society now that like, Joe Rogan and Dave Chappelle, when they comment on things, we're so offended.

Like, they're the moral arbitrator. Like, these are comedians. Like, do we no longer have politicians that we actually look to for their opinions? Do we no longer have people on the news? Like, no. And Chappelle or Rogan says something. We're outraged. And it's because they have an audience.

And it is what it is. But like, I think the young up in, there's like, here's one for you. There's a podcast called, Are You Garbage? Have you heard of RU Garbage? No, I have not. deep hole stuff, man. So it's two guys, one guy named H. Foley, the other guy

named Kevin Ryan, and they're like two Philly guys that for 10 years were ham and egg, you know, stand-up comedians. And they decided during COVID to do a podcast where they interview other comedians and they talk about their childhood. And it's like, did you have a second refrigerator in the

like, did you have a refrigerator in the garage? Yeah, what'd you have in that? Oh, we had like high C and they're like, yeah, hi C's okay. we had sunny delight like garbage like they do a point system on like your childhood where'd you should who was your supermarket when you were a kid like we we were path to market what the hell's pathmark you know like you go through it all they talk about all the childhoods and like there's creativity in that and to me i think uh i almost enjoy listening to that stuff more than i do just the sports podcast which i've been listening to for years like obviously cousin sal and bill i'm

going to listen to on mondays i'm going to do rsillo and bill like i'm going to do those ones and the part of my take guys, I listen to their stuff. But like, I don't know, man, if you're talking about the bench, like most of my podcast downloads are these comedy podcasts more so than, you know, deep cut sports podcasts. You're identifying a phenomenon, which is we all need a tier two podcast in our life or a tier two category. Totally. Where we unplug, especially us because we're listening.

I don't do true crime. Do you do true crime? No, I'm out on that. But like when you and I are listening to sports podcasts, we are studying, right? We're thinking. we're studying or getting mad at the person. I'm like, what do you know about this?

We get frustrated. Yeah, we're engaged. I do this thing where it's for me, it's wrestling podcast, not shoemakers, but like Bruce Pritchard telling stories about old wrestling.

And when I go to sleep, I'll put my earbuds in and turn it down to the lowest possible volume. And all of a sudden, I just feel myself relaxed. Right. And I fall and I'm just, I spend like 20 minutes,

just at the happiest moment of the day and then I just fall asleep so peacefully. And it plays. all night. And the only thing that screws it up is when Spotify somehow puts a press box episode in there. And I hear my own voice and I do the undertaker sit up. I'm like, get me out of here. Totally. That's me in comedy podcasts. And like I could list 20 of them that are just in my regular rotation because I fly to LA every week during the football season. And it's like I've already done my work. I know for six days I've talked to football. Like, all right, I'm going to listen to

a comedian talk about his tour stop at the funny. bone in Atlanta instead. All right, Peter Schrager, NFL Network this Friday, Saturday. Podcast is the season. Make it, make it your first tier podcast, not your second tier podcast. Peter, thanks for coming on the press box. I so appreciate it. I'll be listening, man.

All right, David has been patiently waiting. I really thought you'd have an NFL draft take or two. Something on the Cowboys, at least. No, no, you know, I'm a Panthers guy, and we traded away our pick for our quarterback last year. where you finally unmuted yourself because it's time for the second weekly edition of David Shoemaker guesses a strain pun headline. Yeah. Monday's headline about the new team running the Daily Beast was the beast and the brightest.

Today's headline, David, comes from listener Larry Gast. It is from the Economist. Always a publication we like to feature here on David Shoemaker, Guess is a Strain Pun headline. It's actually from the Economist podcast, which is called The Intelligence, and I will read you the headline here. All over the world, young men are identifying more with the political right, even as women drift more to the left. What is behind the Gulf and how to close it. Now, the idea we're getting at here is what may happen if, let us say, a man in a relationship drifts to the right and a woman drifts to the left. I'm going to start you with the phrase

he said she said and allow you to go from there what was the economist's strain pun headline he's red she's no it's not quite that good but that is a really funny way to start

is it is a takeoff on he said she said yeah he I can no longer be with this right leaning man anymore so I must go. I must.

He said she. Oh, he said she. I must run away. Fled. He said she fled. He said she fled. I might need to listen to that podcast to totally understand the nature of that headline. A little strained even for us. All right. That is the press box. I'm Brian Curtis. Production Magic by Brian Waters. Before we go, some personal news. April

is almost over. How did that happen? I am not sure. You will see me very soon tweeting out the May lineup of press box guests that unusual combination of sports and politics and media. I can give you our lead-off hitter, though. He is athletic baseball writer Andy McCullough. Excellent writer now out of New York. He was a former Dodgers beatwriter here in L.A. He is gimlet-eyed in the best tradition of baseball beatwriters to use only in journalism word. It's also got a new book coming out about Clayton Kershaw. That is Thursday, May 2nd. And if there's big news out of the Trump trial or elsewhere this week, I'll hop back on here and add some thoughts.

Otherwise, enjoy the NFL draft. Enjoy live. Shoemaker returns Monday with more lukewarm takes about the media. See you then.