Throwbacks with Matt Leinart & Jerry Ferrara - Divisional QB rankings, all-time athlete nicknames and Dontrelle Willis on Ohtani, Bartman, Pete Rose & more

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

In the latest edition of Throwbacks, Matt Leinart and Jerry Ferrara provide you with some final thoughts on the Karl-Anthony Towns trade, analyze which NFL division is currently home to the best quarterback play and divulge which teams are most in need of a win heading into Week 5.   Plus, former All-Star pitcher and current TV analyst Dontrelle Willis joins the show! The D-Train reflects on some of his most memorable postseason moments including the surreal nature of beating the Yankees in the World Series and his perspective on the infamous “Bartman game” at Wrigley Field. Dontrelle also reveals the most difficult hitters he ever faced, shares his memories of the late Pete Rose and waxes poetic over the dominance of Shohei Ohtani.  Finally, Jerry tells us about the time he wore a Yankees jersey to a Yankee team party and, the guys each list their top 3 sports nicknames of all time in the debut of their new segment, “the Throwback 3.”  New episodes of Throwbacks drop every Thursday. Make sure you’re subscribed on YouTube and following on all podcast platforms. Also, make sure you’re locked in on social @ThrowbacksShow on all platforms for highlight moments, bonus content, and to engage with the guys & the Throwbacks community. (https://link.chtbl.com/throwbacks)   A big thank you to our sponsors:   DraftKings  Don’t miss out on all the action this week at DraftKings! Download the DraftKings app today! Sign-up using https://dkng.co/throwbacks or through my promo code THROWBACKS  GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, [phone] or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY).  Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT) or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD).  [1.5%] 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT/OR/NH. Eligibility restrictions apply. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min. $5 bet. Max. $200 issued as non-withdrawable Bonus Bets that expire in 7 days (168 hours). Stake removed from payout. Terms: sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos. Ends 10/31/24 at 11:59 PM ET. Sponsored by DK.  Wendy’s  Try Wendy's New Saucy Nuggs Today https://wendys.com/nuggs  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get a credit card annual fee waiver and earn C plus points faster with the Scotiabank Ultimate Package. And bank more entertainment. Learn more at scotiabank.com slash banking packages. Conditions apply. Scotiabank. You're richer than you think. I didn't know that Sam Darnold's grandfather was the actor and also the Marlboro Man. You know, he played the Marlboro Man, the famous cowboy whose name was Dick Hammer.

Richard Hammer. Talk about a nickname. Dick Hammer. Can you just imagine being called Dick Hammer? Alright, here we go. Another episode of Throwbacks. Thanks to everybody for joining us. And however you're taking in the show today, we appreciate it. Subscribe to us on YouTube. Follow on Apple and Spotify.

All the handles on social media are at Throwback Show. And it's a worthy follow because we actually respond to you on social media are at throwback show and it's a worthy uh follow because we actually respond to you on social media unlike other podcasts and like my esteemed co-host matt liner's been getting a lot of heat on on the twitters and the instagrams for the jersey take dude just quiet yet the gift keeps on giving dude every single day i love it actually my wife's best friend just texted me this week like we were on a group chat about getting the kids together and she just threw in a little oh we won't talk about matt's fashion because we know he likes to wear jerseys like it was just like i'm like what now my wife's friends are talking about this like i had people saying to me on twitter both on

throwbacks and on my personal twitter like you played a character who wore jerseys for like 10 years and you're not behind this? And I'm like, no, actually I'm not. I'm sort of siding with and we actually did a poll and we'll hit you with those poll results, which was, is Matt correct in saying that you can't mention your jerseys? I feel like it's pretty, I think it's definitely leaned more towards

it's allowed because of the fan, right? They want to wear jerseys to the game. That's been the big pushback is like, we wore your jerseys. We're fans. So I understand that. But I would say it's pretty close. I've had a lot of people, even on my show on Big Noon,

it's like, oh, we side with you, dude. I think you hit a certain age where you're like, it's just not acceptable anymore. But whatever, man. Some good takes like how you could wear, you could wear jerseys of someone who's like your dad or grandpa's age. So maybe that's how I'm going to do it. Let's uh, okay. We can move on from the jerseys though. Okay. You, uh, dude, you are just all over this week. The big weekend. I mean, we get shams on an

emergency pod throwbacks to break down this blockbuster trade. Have you recovered? I mean, have you soaked it in? Well, here's the thing I don't like about these Knicks and the way they're moving. I love the moves they're making. I don't love that they seem to be dropping all this at Friday night at 10 o'clock.

I feel like the Bridges trade was also, I'm like laying in bed. I just read Jacob a story thing. The house is calm. And just read Jacob a story thing. The house is calm. And then boom, that block was, yeah. But to get Shams, you know, I know Shams for a lot of years. Yeah, that was huge.

And shout out to Shams. Come on. And by the way, my wife, shout out to Bree. She's the MVP because I was like on the soccer fields. Those are my Ari gold moment where I got word, hey, Shams is going to come on live. Get home. And I kind of had to leave my kids on the soccer field. Dude, shout out to Bree just understanding what was at stake. I mean, that was important, dude.

And shout out to Shams. I mean, that was awesome, man, like to get that. If you haven't seen it, you can go to the Throwbacks YouTube. The whole interview is up there. But I pulled what I thought was the most important minute because he gave you the step-by-step of how far back this trade goes. So let's throw up that one part of the Shams interview. And if you want to hear the rest, go over to Throwbacks on YouTube. This pursuit of Carl Anthony Towns really picked up steam

over the last, I think, week, two weeks when the Knicks started calling Minnesota about him making offers, making concepts of offers. They were just giving hard no's. Wow. No, no. And way back, even around draft time, July and into the months of August, a lot of the offers that the Knicks were conceptually discussing, from what I'm told, were around Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson. And that just, from Minnesota's perspective, that was not going to get it done. And over the last week is when finally the inclusion of Dante DiVincenzo was made in

this proposal, not Mitchell Robinson. So then you have Julius Randle, Dante DiVincenzo. But still, that was a no. Minnesota wanted an asset. And last night, the Knicks, from what I'm told, finally put that first-round pick from Detroit on the table. asset and last night the knicks from what i'm told finally put that first shot pick from detroit on the table and we got wind yesterday that there were active conversations ongoing conversations but again jerry like i didn't know until you know maybe 15 20 minutes before that you dropped the

news me and my colleague john krasinski at the athletic i mean yeah i didn't realize that this was we've heard nick you know cat to the knicks for like two years i didn't realize that this was, we've heard Nick, you know, cat to the Knicks for like two years. I didn't know that this was going on for this long. So we're on the group chat and the minute it happened, initially you're probably processing like, no, yes, what does this look like? Now that the dust has settled, right? And you get a perennial all-star,

you get a stretch five who can shoot and reunited with Tibbs. And again, maybe that works, works well this time around as, as he's matured a lot, I'm sure as a player, what are your thoughts? I mean, I was saying now my whole timeline is all Nick stuff and it's now they have the third best odds to win the NBA championship and arguably the best starting five in the NBA. It's settled. Are you happy? Well, welcome to hell. That is Nick's Twitter, Matt. Welcome to hell. We brought you in to the depths of hell. It's an interesting place. Look, I had an emotional reaction at first and shout outs, Rich Eisen. I love Rich Eisen. Rich, hopefully we're going to get to be a guest on.

I'll tell you what I'm going to ask Rich Eisen right away because he went on his show, which is amazing, and basically was saying, all right, Nick fans, F your emotions at this point because this trade makes sense. And you know what? He's right. Once the emotional response wore off, it makes sense.

Here's what I'll end it with because now it's just time to, let's just, we got to roll the ball out and play. There's no more analysis. When Leon Rose took over as the Knicks front office president or whatever his official title is, the Knicks starting lineup was Alfred Payton, Taj Gibson, Moe Harkless, Julius Randle, and RJ Barrett.

And that was five years ago. So you cut to five years later. I know it seems like an eternity to Knicks fans, but it really wasn't. Now to be running out that lineup, which again, on paper means nothing, is pretty formidable. And the bottom line is, and I'll end it with this, Matt,

they needed a center. And they didn't offer Randall the contract extension, which usually is the kiss of death. They didn't offer IQ one. That usually means we're not going to give you a contract. They basically got something back for Randall, who probably wasn't going to re-sign, barring a finals run. That's how I feel. The garden is going to

be just... We're going, baby. We're going. I'm taking you. You don't have to wear a jersey. By the way, I will wear a jersey. I'll wear a jersey to that. You know what I'm going to get? I'm going to get Jalen Brunson from you, because I know you guys are boys. I might even go Josh Hart because

Josh Hart was a Laker for a little while. I like Josh Hart. I'm going to wear that jersey courtside. You're going to get so much. If they put you on the gentleman's chart, you're going to get booed because everyone knows your jersey take now. No, I'm not wearing the Knicks jersey though. True. They'll love you for it. That's going to be exciting, man.

Have you... Alright, real quick. And we have a great for it. That's going to be exciting, man. Have you... All right, real quick. And we have a great show. I don't want to get too far ahead. We have Dontrell Willis, D-Train, joining us, who you can catch him on Fox. We're at that point of sports now where, okay,

we're full in football mode and we have some good football stuff for you. Now it's baseball playoffs, World Series upon us. We have really good teams in the mix. And then also basketball is now creeping in. So we're, we're getting ready to reach the sports utopia that is coming.

But yeah, Don, you know, you have a little relationship with Don. Yeah. Don. So when I, I mean,

I'm at Fox and now we're not in the studio. We're on the road every week, but a couple of years back before big noon kickoff became a thing, I was in the studio every weekend. And Don Charles, a part of our MLB broadcast with those guys with a rod and poppy. And now Jeter came over, uh, big hurt used to be a part of that. And, um, it was always the coolest time of the year because I'm a diehard baseball fan and October would be awesome because we have playoffs on Fox in October and our green room, which is called the avocado room. It would be awesome because we have playoffs on Fox in October. And our green room, which is called the avocado room,

it would be our crew of college football watching all day. I'm talking from 6 a.m. to 9 o'clock at night. And then it would be those guys. And it would be those guys. And we're all in one room watching. We put the baseball game on the big screen, and then the other 20 screens had all the college football games. And that's where I got to know D-T just a great guy and just the stories in that room with

those guys. And then, you know, we lost Pete Rose, the baseball community lost Pete Rose this week, excuse me. And Pete was a part of Fox for a couple of years. And, you know, just sitting in the room with Don trail and Pete and those guys and the stories and just as a Sports fan and a kid like the kid in me and you've probably been in rooms when you're around Athletes that you just grew up watching like yeah, holy shit, dude. This is like this is cool, man So I'm looking forward to talk to D train just about some of those stories and and he said I mean he won a World Series He broke my heart Yeah No three broke my heart beat the Yankees in the World Series and played broke my heart in 03. He broke my heart.

Beat the Yankees in the World Series and played with some of the greats and does a great job on TV, man. So fired up to hear from Dontrell. Yeah, you mentioned Pete Rose, and a lot of people have talked about the legend of Pete Rose. And then also this week, we lost to Kembe Mutombo, who also incredible on the court,

but also some of the stuff he did off the court was unbelievable. But then I started thinking too, and I think this is because of what happened this weekend with our guy Sam Darnold, and we'll get into that. This is where I'm going somewhere with this. Obviously, Pete Rose, iconic nickname, Charlie Hustle. Dikembe Mutombo, Mount Mutombo, really cool fitting. I'm getting a little worried, Matt, that we are losing

the great lane that even the likes of Chris Berman once owned with some of these nicknames of what we have today versus what we had in the past. So I'm looking at Sam Darnold this week and go off against the Packers. And I was giving him shit earlier in the year saying he can't win comeback player of the year. What's he coming back from? No, he's just going to go out and win MVP. He now has the third best odds plus 800 to win NFL MVP and looks totally like the real deal.

And you know what? This is why I love getting to know you, Matt, but it's so annoying. Cause like you say stuff and I try to push back, but you're the athlete. And I, but I want to prove you wrong as the fan,

but you've been saying forever, right? Sis, I have right guy calling the plays a couple of good wet. It's all coming. Everything you've said, it's all coming together and it annoys me because you're right. I'm glad I I'm glad. Cause my takes, my picks on Saturday are been awful, uh, with DraftKings. So I'm glad, I'm glad IKings. I'm glad I'm hitting 100 here. I'm just thinking of Sam Darnold. I'm thinking of nicknames right now.

His grandfather is who? This is what got me thinking. I put out on Twitter watching that game and all the games. I'm like, you know what? I think if Darnold keeps going this way, he needs a nickname. There's nothing wrong with the name Sam Darnold. It's a fine name, but we could do better if he's putting up these numbers. I don't know if he quite has the, look, Tom Brady doesn't need a nickname. He sounds like a quarterback. He's just the goat. Yeah. Yeah. Tom Brady, like it says enough. Even with Mahomes doesn't really need a nickname.

Darnold, I think, could benefit from a nickname. So I started doing a deep dive on him. And I know a lot of Jets fans from his Jets days know this. I didn't know that Sam Darnold's grandfather was the actor and also the Marlboro Man. He played the Marlboro Man, the famous cowboy, whose name was Dick Hammer. Dude.

Richard Hammer. Talk about a nickname, Dick Hammer. Can you just imagine being called Dick Hammer? I mean, that's not the greatest name of all time. But clearly someone who wasn't afraid of a nickname, right? Hey, you know what they call people short for Richard? Dick. You're going to be Dick Hammer. He leaned right into that. So we got to figure this out for Darnold. I got one. some people sent in you got one i got you want to hear some that people on twitter yeah let's hear what they said well i was trying to work in the hammer i was or maybe like the the marlboro sam instead of the marlboro man something like that but um let me see okay yeah some people had a few good ones uh max mandel said starnold not bad a few people had Slingin' Sammy. Don't love it.

Sammy Dimes, which is fun. But the one that stuck out to me, Sammy Darts, because also Marlboro Man, they call them Lung Darts, Smoking a Dart. So what do you got? Dude, I got three. You ready for this? Yes. Okay. The Red Hammer. We got to stick with the hammer, dude. The Red Hammer. We got to stick with the hammer, dude. The Red Hammer. This guy is just slinging the hammer. Okay. The Red Hammer. Redhead. Okay. I got the Red Hammer. I got the Ginger Assassin. Okay. Oh my God. And then this one I saw, this one is not original, but this one kind of made me laugh. The Ghostbuster. Because he was seeing ghosts on the side. I think you're on to something with the Red Hammer.

I can't get over just being called Dick Hammer. Like if we just start, we're going to start calling him Sam Hammer. Or Sammy the Hammer. The Red Hammer. The Red Hammer. I tried to think of other hammers besides his grandpa. Greg the Hammer Valentine.

Everybody listening, tag us on all the socials of what you want Sam Darnold's nickname to be. I'm going with Sam the Red Hammer Darnold. I'm still, I am not locking into something yet because I think this is a nuanced conversation. I think this is important, Matt, because we then put out in our group chat, like, hey, let's talk about,

let's pick our top three, our throwback athlete nicknames of all time. And we're going to do that later in the show, which, by the way, you do some research, there's about 4,000 amazing athlete nicknames, which brings me to why I'm troubled. Who are some of the current active player nicknames that we love?

I did a little research. I'm going to throw a few at you. All right, we know we got King James. It's a great one. But LeBron's, you know, he's 40. How much longer do we have him? Chef Curry, always cooking. Great one.

Again, up there in years. Slim Reaper for Durant. Great one. Kind of self-appointed. Gave it to himself. So other ones that I love that weren't maybe as high profile. Honey Badger, I thought, was

a really cool one. And the ones I like now the most. I love Sauce Gardner. That seems to have been his nickname forever. I think Cheetah is amazing for Tyree Kill. I just think that's a cool one. It fits. And then like Hollywood Brown. We haven't really seen much. He's hurt. Danger Russ is over.

I mean, that's over. There's nothing dangerous about Russ. King Henry. King Henry. King Henry, great one. Mad Max, Crosby, and Danny Dimes may very well have to give it back by the end of the year.

He's going to be Danny Penny's coming up. Sammy Dime. Maybe we'll go Sammy Dimes. Yeah, I think you're onto something here. I think the basketball guys are better. Like Chef Curry's sick. King James. I mean, and then, you know, he puts the crown on his head

and all that kind of stuff, which is pretty badass. The football guys, like, to me, aren't as, like, it doesn't get me going. Your Aikido's fine. I don't know. Maybe it's just because I'm just such an old school. And like, as you just said, like diving deep, dive into the old throwback names and the nicknames. Like it's like, holy shit.

These are like some of the best names of all time. And like, yeah, you think of this word and you think of that athlete. And yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to dive in. Well, I'm worried that we're losing it and it's all going to go away. So later in the show, we're going to do that. But you know, being that I thought so much, the most I've ever thought about Sam Darnold was this weekend. And it got me looking around because we, you know, we love to talk quarterbacks and you are a quarterback, Matt. Start to go divisionally. Look around the divisions in football. For your money,

one through four in each division, what division do you think has the four best, right now, current, not all time, current best quarterbacks? This one's challenging because are you going based on record, right? Okay, are they one and three? Does that mean they're not playing well? Do you go based on stats? Are you based on circumstance with the team? I actually thought about this a little bit, and I'm going to argue for the NFC West. Okay, I like it.

And hear me out. So you got Geno Smith right now. Awesome game. Three and one. Yeah. Leads the NFL in passing yards. Second in completion percentage. I mean, he's just playing good.

He's playing for good for them, and they're first in their division. You got Brock Purdy. So they're two and two, but doing it without CMC. I mean, talk about the injuries. A little bit of disarray over there, but we still believe San Francisco is a really good football team.

He's second in passing yards. Matt Stafford, to to me is like, who goes out cup is out. He's doing their one in three. Now, if they can survive and kind of, kind of just hover over the next couple of weeks, dangerous until they get some of those guys back.

Yeah. But he's an elite player, man. And he's been an elite player for a decade. And then Kyler Murray, the numbers are actually really good. Six touchdowns, one interception.

They're one in three. I just don't think Arizona is a very good football team, but top to bottom, I think you could argue that the West, the West has really good quarterback play this year. Yeah. I'm with you. Gino Smith this past Monday night, that, that lions Seahawks game was so fun. And also, maybe it was highlighted against a really uninteresting Titans-Dolphins game. But, and no, I mean, injuries all over the place and Levis went out, but that game was so fun. And yeah, Geno Smith, truly a comeback story.

All right, I'm with you. I have the NFC, but the NFC West is my number two. I tried really hard to make, to be the contrarian and make the NFC South somehow work. Just again, how they're playing now. Baker was unreal last weekend. Godwin looks like a whole new guy again.

All right, so we know we got Baker. I think Carr got off to the hot start before he started. Yeah, they lost two in a row. Trying to make the case. Kirk Cousins will always be able to make the case, at least in the regular season, a lot of fun, but then it just falls apart. Like, I can't get, as much as we love the Dalton story,

we can't shoehorn Dalton. Dude, there's another Red Rocket, dude. He's the Red Rocket. Sam's the Red Hammer. Yeah, I couldn't really shoehorn. So I'm with you. The NFC South, that's my number two. For me, it's the NFC North.

It's the North. Yeah. Again, it's right now. I i'm not going all time and maybe this changes what darnold's doing is outstanding goff and we're going to talk about golf later when we talk about wendy's unbelievable game for goff i think jordan love i mean he got hurt which was unfortunate but he'll like he'll be there like they'll be and he and he look he was they were out of that game. He just started slinging it and brought them back in. And then it gets a little, like, Caleb's the big question. I think he's getting better every week.

It looks a little better every week. How's our boy Ashton Kutcher doing right now? He is, talk about. Wellness check on Kutcher? Wellness check? It is, it's rough over there for Chicago Bear fans. It is pretty rough. It is pretty rough. is pretty rough all right

we're gonna now do another part that i love before we say goodbye to the nfl almost for the show because i'm gonna really get into baseball and nicknames all right matt who needs it more this weekend i don't know if you have the slate up in front of you i have a team okay i have a team and you just mentioned them uh because they were awful on monday night oh no i'm going with the miami dolphins yeah we see now how great tua is and how good that team is when two is playing right so first and foremost want him to get healthy he's going to be coming back in the next couple weeks ideally uh the dolphins are one in three okay but their next three games i wrote this down the next three games, they got the Pats,

they got the Colts, and they got the Cardinals. Could be three right there. Could be three right there. Tyler Huntley kind of get going a little bit. Tyler Huntley's a good player. He played really well when he was in Baltimore, like obviously struggled Monday, but now as he gets some more reps and experience.

So sitting at one in three, all of a sudden you win two of those three games. You probably get to a back for Arizona, I'm assuming. Um, and then all of a sudden you're at what you're maybe at three and three when you get your starting quarterback and you're still right there. So I just think for the dolphins, cause I do think it's a playoff team when their, their quarterback is healthy. Um, they have this window here where they just need, they need it, man. They can't go away. One and four is tough. It's almost curtains.

That's a good one. I'm with you. I got the Packers for a very specific reason. They're playing the Rams. Obviously, we know the Rams are good but wounded. You can't let them hang around. They have to take control of this game. Being 2-2, so far, they're the team that's had the most hellish season

with injuries and crazy stuff. So to come out of that 2-2, and LeFleur has shown me, not that he needs to show me, but what he did with Malik Willis was unbelievable getting 2. Who would have thought Malik Willis would be 2-0 and Jordan Love would be 0-2? But two sort of winnable games. You take care of business against the Rams and go 3-2, you're on track.

Because I worry about the Packers, and their defense has proven a lot to me falling too far behind. You go two and three. I think the Vikings are peddled to the metal. I think the lions now are starting to say, all right, we've got to flex on some people. And then the Seahawks are three and one leading that division, but you can't count the Niners out when they get healthy. So I'm looking at the playoff spots and the NFC certainly seems to be shaking up. You might need 10 wins to, to grab a wild card spot. Well, you're talking just the division alone. Like your chance of winning the division is, is almost shot because of those two other teams. We know Detroit's going to be 11, 12 win team probably. And the way Minnesota's

playing, I mean, why not? Like, like that's four weeks in a row where they've been dominant, like probably argue that they're the best team in football right now. I know the chiefs are still undefeated Buffalo, but, um, yeah, I, again, it's the parody is such, excuse me. It's so crazy in the NFL. Like you just, you want to hover around 500. You get like Malik winning those two games was huge. Oh, it's season saving. It's season saving. Cause now all of a sudden you win a couple more and then what you're four and two, you're five and three, and then you're right back in the mix. But yeah, you're right. I mean, and a lot of people had green Bay shoot. I mean, winning a Superbowl this year, there were a lot of experts out there. They were very trendy.

Yeah. They were the trendy picks. So, um, yeah, they need it for sure. And now it's time for, uh, not no one who really needed luck. Cause this is one of my favorite segments and this is all about some sauciness. This is the can't get enough sauce moment of the week brought to you by Wendy's. It's just we cannot get enough of this player right now the same way we cannot get enough of Wendy's

new saucy nugs. And Matt, mine is I'm just letting you know, mine is saucy. I'm dipping it. I got several sauces lined up for mine but I'm going to let you go first. Okay, so I need several sauces because I'm just letting you know, mine is saucy. I'm dipping it. I got several sauces lined up for mine, but I'm going to let you go first. Okay, so I need several sauces because I'm actually going, I'll highlight a player or two,

but I'm going a game. My moment of the week is a game, okay? It's Bama, Georgia in college football this past week. And I don't know how much you saw, okay? But this game lived up to the hype. It had the star power. It had the moments. Bama's up 30-7 at halftime.

Georgia goes up 34-33 with a couple minutes left, and then Bama, boom, has a pass to Ryan Williams, the 17-year-old phenom, for 75 yards to go up. Georgia's driving, and then they have an interception to win. Jalen Milrow, 491 yards, four touchdowns. The freshman phenom, Ryan Williams, 177 yards. Carson Beck was getting torn up on Twitter in the first half. The second half, he absolutely balled. That is my saucy moment of the week. The game lived up to the hype. The players were, the stars showed up, man. It was a great,

great college football game. Yeah, really quick on that. Williams did something. It's rare now I see a player do something. I'm like, I don't think I've ever seen that before. By the way, he's 17 years old. Right. I don't think I've seen him move in a very long time where I said,

I don't think I've ever seen anyone do that. And then you, of course, started sending me stuff about Milrow with my Giants. So very well might be the Giants quarterback next year. He's a beast, man. I got to start scouting. That's a good one. Okay. All right.

Mine. You got it. This is so obvious to me. And I've been talking about this player and defending this player for years. It's Jared Goff. You want to talk about saucy, dude? My guy was 18 for 18. That's honey barbecue right there.

Not only was he 18 for 18. It wasn't 18 for 18. That's honey barbecue right there. Not only was he 18 for 18, it wasn't 18 for 18 for 157 yards. It was just shy of 300 yards. That's garlic Parmesan sauce. And my favorite thing, my guy caught a touchdown. That's spicy honey barbecue right there. So those are the three sauces. I see what you did there. You see what I did there? By the way, and Campbell didn't even give him the game ball. Remember that? You see that after he gave someone else the game ball? He didn't even realize his quarterback had a perfect QBR.

He didn't realize his quarterback was basically saucy. It's just so obvious. People have been hating on Goff for a little while. I'm so happy for him. I remember two years ago, there was a lot of internet personalities who talk about sports saying, oh, they need to draft a quarterback at whatever they had, six, or the year they got Sewell.

And it's like, I know quarterbacks are important, but this guy's close to top 10. And this is now, I think he's easily a top 10 quarterback. And he showed the whole bag. So that is my can't get enough sauce moment of the week. Jared Goff, you're dipping in several sauces, my guy. All right, we're going to take a quick break.

When we come back, Dontrell Willis. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference. Securian Canada gives you that coverage. For more than 65 years, Securian Canada has been helping Canadians build secure tomorrows. Their insurance solutions are designed to help protect you and your loved ones financially, giving you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters. Find their products through banks, credit unions, and associations, or visit

SecurianCanada.ca Securian Canada. Insurance designed for life. There's only one place you can hear a three-time national championship winning head coach. A Heisman Trophy winning running back and national champion. And someone to keep everything on the tracks.

Every week, coach Urban Meyer, running back Mark Ingram, then me, Rob Stone, get into what matters most to you. We take you inside the biggest moments of college football while having some fun bringing you new guests from all over sports and entertainment. Watch Triple Option on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts,

Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Alright, he was the 2003 Rookie of the Year. He was the Cy Young runner-up in 05, two-time All-Star. And for me, it was a little bit heartbreaking because I'm a Yankee fan. He's a World Series champion. And now you see him on TV with Fox and Apple TV. And also has an amazing nickname.

We were talking nicknames earlier. The D-Train. Dontrell Willis joins the show. Great nickname. I hope you love it as much as I love it yeah I love it no you know he doesn't love it you know what's so funny and I told Derek Jeter this I didn't love it until he said it I mean I mean because this is nuance and you know what I mean and a lot of people call me D trainTrain but they don't know my name Don Trello they're like hey Dante I'm like that's not my name we're close enough but you

know nevertheless that's a that's a legendary nickname I appreciate it and now my soccer player we have to call her B-Train now so it's stuck for a long time so yeah I like it now I like it I that actually I I'm gonna call you D-Train because I feel like we're close enough to call didn't someone in the old avocado room at Fox call you D-Train and you said, hey, you're not allowed to call me that? Yeah. Didn't that happen? You got to know me first. You know what I mean?

I'm not going to say hello. I'm not going to walk up to him and call him turtle. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? There's certain nuances and respect level that you have to earn that to be able to call a nickname. But I'm also a legendary ball buster as well so so so speaking of respect d train um the baseball lost a legend this week man and pete rose um we could say complicated and layered and all those kind of

things but we all know one of the the best to ever do Um, and one of the best guys and you and I both spent a lot of time with him at Fox, you more than I, but I remember, you know, a couple of years back before our show was going on the road. Um, the best time of the year for me was October because one, I'm a diehard Dodger fan. I love, I love baseball playoffs. And I got to sit in that room with, with you and with Pete and with Frank Thomas and Poppy and all those guys. And I just remember like his presence in there. It was just felt. And he would come in and talk about ball busters.

He would talk about when I was playing games in college. Like he knew the lines of the games that I was still playing like 20 years ago. He was just one of a kind. And I take those memories with me to heart, man, because it really was awesome to get to know him. For you, any memory or story that sticks out from your time with Pete during those years? Well, first of all, he's a legend even when he walked in the room with legends. I mean, he was somebody that gravitated and really, you know,

he was one of those guys where everybody in the room just wanted to hear a Pete story or hear one of his statistics. I mean, he was a very smart and witty old man. You know what I mean? Like, ask him how many two-hit games he had, he would know three-hit games, four-hit games.

And really, just a fun presence. And I put him up there with the Ric Flairs and the Charles Barkleys of the world in the sense of he knew he was good, he was going to tell you he was good, and he was going to get it done. And he didn't care.

You know what I mean? He was going to say exactly what he wanted to say, which was kind of fun and nerve-wracking working with him on air because you didn't know what he was going to say. A funny story that happened on air because you didn't know what he was going to say. A funny story that happened on air. Josh Donaldson, who's my boy,

gets hit with the ball and his elbow guard and he got this massive elbow guard and so I'm like, oh man, he gets smoked by a baseball and he turns to me on air and says, well, he's got enough armor to invade Afghanistan. I'm like, and what did you say after that? What did you say? This is on national invade Afghanistan. I'm like, and what did you say after that? Like, what did you say?

This is on national TV. And so I'm like, yeah, but I'm going to say this. Where do you go with that? And so he countless comments of that all the time. But at the same token, when you talk about hitting and the nuance of the game, nobody better to talk to. I mean, he was literally just a savant in the box and he loved talking baseball um i remember when i got to the reds um i had a three-hit game and uh he

was just so proud and so he gave me a call and so i thought about damn i must be a shitty pitcher because all he's talking about is my head. This is the legend. Hopefully, he gets in the Hall of Fame because you can't tell the story of baseball without talking about Pete Rhodes. Yeah, that clip that's been surfacing all week on Twitter and stuff was him in the studio with Frank Thomas and A-Rod talking about when you're slumping.

He's like, I hold the bat here. You go in the front of the box. Even Frank Thomas and A-Rod were like, we're all witnessing. Like, none of us think of it in this way. And Pete's giving us some real knowledge. So, yeah, we certainly all feel that. And I imagine, too, like you said,

working on live air with someone that you know could, you know, old man syndrome, he's going to say some stuff. You got to be on your toes. Dude, that's the hard part about TV is like, you and we all whether show we're on when you prepare you kind of know what you're gonna talk about or you're gonna react and i think i think one of our producers on both of the party would tell me like dude he would have like no notes he would just you just yeah you had to react and you had to be on your feet and that's that's what makes great television obviously but it also

could put you in a weird spot, Dontrell. Like, how the hell am I supposed to follow Pete Rose when he's talking about all other sorts of shit, you know? He barely had a pen. Like, so I'm sitting here with my laptop and my note cards, and I'm looking at him, and I'm like, yeah, I'm going to follow you, you know what I mean? Because how are you going to trump one of the greatest hitters of all time? You know what I mean?

But when he really talked about the nuance of baseball and how to play hard he was articulate i mean he was definitely somebody that did not hold back as far as like you need to go at it a hundred percent and really he didn't really talk about that necessarily in baseball but he talked about it in life now he went at it a hundred percent on and off the field and some of that stuff got him in trouble. But in the end, you know what I mean? He's a legend to our sport. And like I said, I think he's deserving of being an Hall of Fame. I think Roger Clemens is deserving of being an Hall of Fame. I think Barry Bonds. I think Osweiler Rodriguez. You can put an asterisk around their name. It doesn't matter. But you can't tell a story in my mind of baseball without having these individuals in the game.

Well said. Look, I'm going to bring something up that I've been getting a lot of heat about. I'm going to try to keep it short. I've made this pitch before. Matt thinks it's the most ridiculous thing he's ever heard, and I really don't think you're going to love it, but I have some questions for you

based off it. Lifetime baseball fan, grew up as a kid, my first love, Yankee fan, all that, and I still watch as much as I can, but I have some questions for you based off it. So, lifetime baseball fan, grew up as a kid, my first love, Yankee fan, all that, and I still watch as much as I can, but I got two little kids, so it definitely cuts into the you know, hundred and something game season. I want to know for you, especially, alright,

when you're with the Marlins and you're going to New York for the World Series, just the weather change of you're used to playing in these conditions. I think about this all the time since I was a kid. One day on the East Coast, it's happening right now here. You wake up, it was 80 last week, and you just wake up and it's 40. And the leaves are on the ground.

And that's happening. You've been playing 162 games a certain way. Now you're walking into the Bronx and it's 40 degrees and freezing cold. Is that an entirely different game than you've played the whole season or does it not matter to an athlete? It absolutely matters. And so, you know, one thing I love about you New Yorkers is always a little home field advantage.

I never told this story, but when we placed them in the World Series, it was freezing. It was like almost like November at this point. So it was freezing. So, you know, I'm looking like an ephemeral, like no disrespect. You know, I'm freezing because, like, all of a sudden I'm in the bullpen, and they had tears in the bullpen, so then the cold air would come in. So we're all around the theater, and meanwhile, we're looking at the Yankee bullpen, and they're all toasty and all that.

So I love that New Yorker home field advantage and what have you. But once your adrenaline kicks in, man, like, you know what I mean? You warm up like a microwave very fast. And, you know, I remember I warmed up in game one. I threw eight straight balls in the bullpen, and I'm in the game. Eight straight non-competitive pitches. Like, I'm like my heart rate. You know, I'm a 21-year-old going into the game.

And so all of a sudden, by the time I ran all the way out there, I was sweating like Patrick Hewitt in the fourth quarter. I was ready to go. When your adrenaline kicks in, you'll be just fine. Meanwhile, there was a lot of coffee sharing and everybody holding hot cocoa and stuff like

that. I like what you New Yorkers did with a little home for the fans. Make these South Florida boys freeze a little bit. i was telling jerry in 2008 i think we went out to new england and in november and it was a blizzard and i was backing up but it the funniest thing you just i'm just literally visualizing you out in the bullpen just with a bunch of grown men like like just like this and and i'll tell you what we're on the sideline, and we have these big jackets on, and we have heaters in our seat, and we have fans, and you're putting your hands right next to that.

And we look like a bunch of little five-year-olds, dude, who've never been in cold weather, man. It is hilarious. You know, you're almost looking like who's making s'mores in the bullpen, and all of a sudden you hear the phone ringing, and they're like, Willis. I'm like, what? Like they have the wrong answer next thing i know i'm literally out there and uh jack mckinnon's like well big d go get him and i'm like this is jc

giambi hit 30 home runs after the break and stuff like that so my adrenaline definitely in my heart rate got me warm enough but it's definitely difficult for some people to play in that type of weather and i think you know you gotta, you got to be New York tough. You got to be Northeast tough, man. And so that's why I think a lot of injuries start to play both sides, whether it's the Mets or the Yankees. Also, I think being in that car for two hours a day in that traffic doesn't help your body either.

But, you know, I think there's something to be said about the weather. You know, we were talking off air, too, about golf. And that's why I was asking because I even know, you know, I think there's something to be said about the weather. You know, we were talking off air, too, about golf. And that's why I was asking, because I even know, all right, I'm going to go play golf tomorrow. I'm not going to hit the ball far. I'm going to lose like seven yards because it's just the weather. But even just when did it do anything to your pitches? Not even you physically, but just the weather do anything? Nothing.

Matters 0%. All right. Because to be honest with you, it was just cold. Like the weather, the sun was out. It was just like, the sun was like, you're on your own down there in the Bronx. You know what I mean? You just couldn't get all the way down there to warm us up.

But again, in that situation though, like, I mean, Maddie can play the national title game in Portland and still be warm enough to where once you're in the huddle, it is what it is. And so, you know, when you're in the game, man, and you're in the World Series and you're in the Bronx and not New Yankee Stadium, New Yankee Stadium is too nice. There's too many martinis. I'm with you. This is old Yankee Stadium where the rats weren't afraid of humans and stuff. This is like, you know, it was a home field advantage.

And so for me, being a West Coast guy, I thought this was like the cathedral of baseball. You know what I mean? Like we're in the World Series against the Yankees, bro. So it could have been a blizzard. We would have been ready to compete out there at a high level. I was a pitcher growing up. It was my first love.

I tore my arm when I was 14. But I think, and Jerry. And Jerry, being a lifelong baseball fan, I think all kids dream of pitching in the World Series, man. Game 7, bottom of the 9th, and you go through that moment in your head. You lived it. You won it. Take us back to

that, man. What is the celebration like? The team, the locker room, it's got to be up there all time. You know, for us to play the Giants, the C like, like the team, the locker room, it's got to be up there all time. You know, I mean, for us to play the Giants, the Cubs, and the Yankees, you can't script that any better as far as anybody that loves baseball. And so, you know, being part of the Barman game, if anybody that knows baseball about that in Chicago and what happened,

overcoming the Cubs. I mean, could you imagine it was the Cubs-Yankees World Series? I mean, now that I work at Fox, I'm like, I'm rooting in Chicago and what happened. Overcoming the Cubs. I mean, could you imagine if it was the Cubs-Yankees World Series? I mean, now that I work at Fox, I'm like, I'm rooting for that. Right, you want that World Series. But again, like, it was just surreal. And we really felt in our locker room that we could be world leaders. And we get to the Bronx and there's just countless videos of this, like, their history.

And you see Yogi Berra, you see all these guys and it's like, okay, this is when the road is going to hit for the Marlins. This is the start of this Disney movie that they go up to New York and they get killed, you know what I mean? So we took that personal, man, and we knew we had some

talent. We knew we had to take the crowd out of it, but it was fun to be able to be in the box. To me, when I got in game one, I tell everybody he was out of body. I know I was there, but I couldn't believe that I was seeing the people like Bernie Williams and Gary Jeter. I've had these guys' cards, and all of a sudden, now I'm at the highest stage going up against these guys at the highest level. And so when we won it, um,

I told Barty and everybody this, um, when we won it, I never touched the trophy because it was too big for him. Like it was just like, I can't believe we did this. Like I'm on my flip phone. Like,

mom, did you see him? Wait, there's a whole star tack. You're on the star. We're all, we're all like the same age. I'm the oldest guy in here.

Yeah, but again, like I never touched a trophy. And so I told everybody I boxed it and they finally let me hold the trophy. And I remember all these memories and these feelings flooding into me and stuff like that. So it was surreal to be able to beat them. And every time I go back to New York, I always wear my ring to kind of razzle up the fans and stuff like that. But they got 27 titles. They can give us one. So, you know, you mentioned playing in that, you know,

everyone calls it the Bartman game. Little do we remember, it was also game six, right? Which is a huge game, right? You call it game six. And we all know the Cub fan reaction and everything there and i don't think we really heard much on the other side like you know we know it was like some of the cubs have spoken out you know when you're there and you see that is it so quick that you don't quite know what happened and it was in the story the next day or did you know in that moment oh we just got a we

just got an extra life here moist as aou, who's a good friend of mine, you cannot bring this up to Moises. I wouldn't. I wouldn't dare. You cannot bring this up. You ever see Moises in any of the card signings, you do not bring this up. Because he had to come to that point from the first base dugout.

He had that ball. He had it. He timed the jump perfectly. And when that happened, this energy came out of the stadium like, what just happened? And all of a sudden, we started getting base hit after base hit after base hit. And then the crowd just started throwing stuff. Like, you know what I mean? They're not even paying attention to the game anymore.

And so everyone kind of thinks that that Bartman game is really a game seven. Really, it was a game six. And so when we won that game, we were all at the bar at the Lurks and drinking like we wanted. Because we were like, they messed up. They messed up letting us force a game seven. Because anything can happen in game seven. It was so real. It felt

like the Cubs series felt more like a World Series than the Yankees series. To be totally honest. Like, the intensity of the city, the fan base, they're finally there to where they can break a 100-year curse, and now this draggy-ass Marlin

team is in their way. It was surreal. And so, for us to be able to overcome that, beat Mark Pryor and Kerry Wood, who no one wanted to face back then. They were the two best pitchers in the game at that time. And to be able to do that,

I remember warming up, and I tell everybody the story of the Cubs intensity. I remember warming up and I saw this lady with something on her lap, and I was like, what is that? The lady had an urn. Who let the lady have an urn? Like, the lady

had an urn, no cap. They let her take it with her. It sent me shockwaves. Oh my God, bigger than this team. This is bigger. This is historic where a lady got a earn and got down the stadium.

Just seeing that, it was like, okay, this is baseball. This is historic. and this is a series. Regardless of the outcome, people will remember it for all time. You talked about some of the best pitchers, Kerry Wood, Mark Pryor, USC guy. Really felt like that postseason was kind of a coming-out party for your old teammate, Miguel Cabrera.

You've got to have some story. Maybe the best, top two or three best hitters of all time, one of the best players of all time. Yeah, this is a legend, and I love that people got to really see his personality towards the tail end of his career, because he's hilarious.

He's a funny guy, and he loves messing with me. Even to this day, he sends me photos saying, I'm super ugly. He's a great loves messing with me. Even to this day, he sends me photos. Hey, Negro, don't fake the whole meeting. I'm super hungry. You know what I mean? He's a great teammate. I played with him since A-Ball. I mean, the guy was hitting, the day I got called up to the big leagues, he was in AA with me. He was hitting 436 in AA, which is a joker. You know what i mean like he was always just the best player um i have

a lot of cool uh stories so i don't know i don't know if i can say on air but no you know i think you could give us one you get us one i'll give you two the first day he gets called up he's like oh for two with two pays and i'm sitting on the bench it's like he's fine even after looking i'm like he's fine guys don't worry because it's kind of an energy on the bench just like, he's fine. Even as I'm looking, I'm like, he's fine, guys. Don't worry. Because there's kind of an energy on the bench, like can this kid handle all of it? And that was a game that he ends up hitting the walk-off home run

and the rest is history. You know what I mean? And I'm the guy on the bench like, I see him do this shit all the time. Like he's obnoxiously good. He's that good. So another one, he's going to kill me for this, but back in our day when we were young we were playing

the Atlanta Braves and how can I say this effects from the night before were blurred into the day game if you will yeah that happened he shows up probably an hour before

game time with the stuff he has on. So he walks in. The walk of shame. Yeah. Band, club, band. Band on his arm and everything. Band on his arm.

Stamps. The whole night. The whole night. So I'm the captain of the team, so you know we're already up Schitt's Creek anyway. So I grab him and say, hey, get in the shower. He gets in the shower. He throws up everywhere. He throws up actually everywhere.

And so he's still in the lineup. So I begged Joe Girardi not to take him out of the lineup. So Joe Girardi, you know Joe Girardi, he's fuming out. I mean, he's turned red at this point. So he gets in. The first to bat, he doesn't even sniff the pitch. And I think he has some monster game to back he doesn't even sniff the bitch and it has some monster getting

after whether you like homers twice and you know i mean i mean he did all this while he was half asleep you know i mean and so get on the plane and he he's my like plane mate and he sleeps on the plane all the way back to miami i'm just looking at this guy like this dude is an x-man he's he's he's He's not a bus. You know what I mean? This dude can do it at the highest level. And so I've never been to Cooperstown before, and I promised him I would go when he gets his speech in

because he's a really big brother of mine. I love the dude's personality, but, I mean, he's a legend in his own right of what he's done on and off the field. Dude, Eric Carroll. I told you, Eric Carroll, so you know EK well, tells the greatest story about, and he would love telling this, about facing Greg

Maddox one day. And he was like, dude, I couldn't touch this guy. I had a lifetime, like 138 batting average. So the night before, he just got after it. He was like, I'm going to go 0 for 4 anyway. doesn't matter he the next day like that he goes four for four against greg maddox and says he would say this

he says he had a double and literally almost threw up at second base as he was sliding into second and he was like mad i thought i wouldn't even touch the dude you baseball guys are crazy man because when i was in arizona I used to hang out with Connor Jackson and those boys. That's my guy. Yeah, and Burns and Chris Young was those years. They would party their ass off the night before

like a 7 o'clock game the next day, go to the clubhouse, hit the sauna, hit the steam room, and they're playing, dude. I was like, if we did that in the NFL, I would get cut the next day. at Valentine's Day and you don't end until, you know, basically if you make it all the way to Halloween. So the gruelingness of the body, everything you put yourself through, I mean, you know, after a start, have a drink and then all of a sudden the next day run for 30 minutes and sweat all that gym beam out. You know what I mean? Like it was something that our body got used to and what happened. So, but yeah, sometimes I see guys and I'm like, I'm not a gambling man,

but if I saw guys now, I'm like, yeah, they're not doing shit tomorrow, so let me know. I've lost money that way before, Dontrell. Not gonna lie, there was a rumor one time about a player, not gonna mention the name, that was spotted out the night before a game

and had to be carried out. And let's just say he was a pitcher. He's pitching the next day. Oh, wow. We all bet against that pitcher who threw a three hit shutout. Three hit shutout. I took Torrey Hunter out. I will tell him myself. I took Torrey Hunter

out, who's a big brother of mine. I took him out to the Hard Rock Cafe in Fort Lauderdale. I took him out to the hard rock cafe in fort lauderdale i took him out all night all night he comes the next day and i look at the lineup i'm not pitching so i'm like i'm sitting there eating sunflower seeds half asleep he literally gets four hits off of five pitches the next day and everyone's like how was that with you all day i thought he is i threw up twice like you know what i mean yeah, some guys are just wired that way to where they can still perform at a high level

even after a nice win. We want to get into Otani, but before we do that, you had a what? A lifetime batting average, 244? Is that accurate? Close, yeah. Dude, that'd be like third in the NL right now. By the way, I looked up.

I was like, all right, we're going to talk to D. I looked up the best hitting pitchers of all time. And not going back to Babe Ruth and that or Madison Bumgarner, right? Zach Granke could rake. Dude, you could rake, dude. You could rake. You know what? You know, I was a baseball player with an imposter syndrome of a pitcher, to be totally honest with you.

I just love the game of baseball. I'm a diehard Oakland A's fan. I grew up right around the corner from the stadium. I just love competing at a high level. And whatever I can do to stay on the field, I was going to do it. And so I was a utility All-American in high school where, you know, you play two positions. And I just hated sitting on the bench.

And so, you know, whatever I could do to try to win a ball game, I was sincerely going to do. And I remember Bobby Cox used to talk to me about sliding the head first. I'm like, Bobby, you don't want to see me slide free first. He's like, well, that's a different D-train. You're left arm is going to break it. I'm like, well, so be it. You know, this is the way I play the game.

You know, and so I always love, you know, playing the game. And when I got a chance to meet Shohei Otani, Dave Roberts introduced me like, he used to be you. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I was the lunch portion of Otani. You know what I mean? The dinner portion of it. You know, so, but I just love playing the game of baseball, man. It's really a sport that saved my life.

Well, you said the O word. You said Otani, right? So, a couple of things first, because you said something earlier where you said you'd like, you know, the studio TV version of you would have loved to have seen, like, Yankees-Cubs. And we can't really comment because, you know, we're taping this and it's early Thursday, so there's games going on. But just from you in the studio, who would you want? Not even giving analysis, just pound for pound entertainment. What's the best fan matchup, you think, for entertainment for the World Series this year with the teams? Again, not knowing who might get bounced out.

For your money, who's the best matchup? Well, for the National League Championship championship i want to see padre's dollars i mean what they've done down there in san diego they've turned peco into from a tourist perspective to all of a sudden one of the most daunting places to win a ball game and the intensity is there in san diego and they're tired of being a little brother to the dodgers over there you know what i mean so i would love yeah yeah absolutely and so World Series, obviously, it'd be Yankees-Dodgers. I mean, just for the time. I mean, I got a chance to call that game where Yamamoto went up against the Yankees in Yankee Stadium.

You would have thought it was a World Series how many media personalities and how many people were there at that series. It was a level of intensity. It was a nice barometer to see where both sides were. And both sides wanted this matchup. You know what I mean? And so we know the fan bases. They traveled. You know what I mean?

We saw a lot of Dodger fans in the Bronx. I was a little worried about that. You know, but everybody was. But I think that will be a really big-time matchup to see Judge because Judge has been absolutely phenomenal. I mean, the year that he started being horrible and then all of a sudden having another MVP type year and Shohei Otani is the biggest thing in sports right now. I've never seen, I'm a huge LeBron fan, but I don't think I've seen anybody have this much impact in Los Angeles on their first year. Like getting on

the team and being one of the best players um i'm good friends with mookie betts and luke i was like you seem like a now over there that team seriously you didn't even take the personal because that's how good it's been to the point where we don't even remember him playing for the angels and he's one heavy piece for them listen thank god he's not with the point where we don't even remember him playing for the Angels, and he's won every piece for them. Listen, thank God he's not with the Angels anymore. I can't. I grew up in Orange County, man. And, I mean, talk about you got Mike Trout, right, who in our generation would go down.

He has to stay healthy. Maybe one of the greatest to ever do it. You have Otani, who is this phenomenon and might go down as the best to ever play when it's all said and done. And they just, like, they can't figure it out over there, man, and it bothers me. You have Otani, who is this phenomenon and might go down as the best to ever play when it's all said and done. And they just like just they can't figure it out over there, man. And it bothers me. But how I know Jerry spent some time with like Jeter and some of those boys at his event last week or a couple weeks ago. And just so tawny, man, like you kind of talked about it, but like we've never seen anything like this.

And even as a pitcher, like how pitcher, how would you pitch to him? How would you describe what we're seeing in baseball now with him? Well, you know, a lot like Steph Curry, he's inspired another generation because now you're seeing a lot of kids that are two-way players getting drafted high. You know what I mean?

To be impactful, to be two players in one. How I would pitch him is, first of all, a lot of prayer and belief. You know what I mean? To be impactful, to be two players in one. How I would pitch him is, first of all, a lot of prayer and belief. You know what I mean? He covers the baseball. I mean, he hits the ball out to left center like he's right-handed. I mean, it's truly remarkable to see because he doesn't hit on the field. So for him to all of a sudden hit in the cage where no one gets to see him and then go

into live pitching where you're the primary factor of everybody wanting to shut you down and every time a pitcher makes a mistake, I mean, he's hitting it onto the pavilion. I mean, it's truly remarkable his power, speed, play coverage. I

believe the over and under for him to steal bases was 19 and the guy still 54. Nuts. Bananas. He's impactful and a phenomenal teammate. Understands the responsibility

of the brand and not only for himself but for a whole nation. I mean, it's nuts, everything he's been doing. And so it's truly fun to watch him continue to be the best player in the world and stay healthy doing it. And so it's going to be scary hours next year. And if they make it to the World Series,

he might come out of that bullpen and throw for the Dodgers. Could you imagine? Will he be back? We'll see. We'll see about that, but he's fun to watch. He's a phenomenal teammate, and he's great for the sport. You just gave me chills, though, thinking about him coming out. Could he be healthy enough to pitch? He's already been trending,

and so that's kind of been the talk of him being healthy enough. Now, they're going to have to do sim games because obviously the AAA season is over with. But if he's able to throw strikes in command, could you imagine him versus Aaron Judge coming out of the Wolfman? Dude, just inject that into – yeah, give me all that. I mean, could you imagine? We need pitchers.

He's 10 times bigger than him facing Mike Trout in the WBC in the final. I mean, you remember that type of energy. As a baseball fan, I hope to get to get a chance to see something like that. Oh man, that would be awesome. Yeah.

I don't even know where to go from there. I want to, I want to ask you a question about hitters. The toughest hitter you ever pitched against. Man. Oh, that's like, you just couldn't, Man. Oh, that's a great one. Like, you just couldn't get up. You're like, God damn it.

I got to pitch against this guy. Well, that's a big frat, first of all. A lot of guys that have my number. You know, like, Albert Pujols hit two home runs off me in one game and then took me to dinner. I obviously made him pay. So, this second loss was on him, you know what I mean?

You hear me? I'm going to give some mac and cheddar, all that stuff. Give me that dessert menu. Yeah, give me all that. So, no, I was blessed to be able to play against the Larry Walkers and, you know, all these guys that are getting into the Hall of Fame now,

that's my era. The last seniors, the Chipper Jones of the world, the Jim Tomeys of the world. It was cool to be on the same field as those guys. It was really, really fun to play against those guys. Albert was just a machine.

He could cover the baseball. never made the same mistake twice. Poppy was the same guy as far as you couldn't continue to beat him the same way. It was one of those things where those guys, you had to get the guys out in front of them so they couldn't do the damage to take over the game, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? So playing against these guys like Albert and Poppy and Ramirez and guys like that where they can win by themselves, it was fun to watch. But I got them as much as they got me, though.

They'll tell good stories about it. I let them know on the field. I'm like, yeah, you owe me. But Barry Barnes, I hit him above all. Barry was the best hitter of all time. Yeah. I hit against each other. If I got a chance to strike him out, he got to sign me a bat.

And so Barry didn't always sign his own stuff. So, you know, I can't sign his stuff right now. Barry didn't always sign his own stuff. But I struck him out when he was one home run from tying the record. And he comes down to the game and gives me a big hug and stuff, but I struck him out when he was one home run from tying the record and he comes down to the game and gives me a big hug and said, young man, you wouldn't have got me in the back of my younger days. I was like, yeah, dude.

It's not like that. So it's fun to be on the same field with guys that are your heroes, but Barry Bonds is by far the best drop ever. So you said it was right. He was one shy of tying. So is that going through your mind of like,

oh, great, I'm going to be a trivia question? Yeah. I'm going to be a trivia question. My family, they didn't even care

about the game. So I'm from the Bay Area, so they didn't even care about the game. They were like, are you going to pitch to Barry? I'm like, grandma, I'm going to pitch to Barry,

okay, grandma? We're going to pitch to Barry. You know what I'm saying? And so like, the intensity of the whole stadium was there. I mean, that water looked like a bowl of cereal.

It was so many commodes in there because people didn't need to give it up. You know what I mean? And so, you know, we had an open base, and all of a sudden, they had to switch out the balls because the balls had special barcodes on them and stuff like that. So this allowed the stadium's energy to get up. And the first time I kicked my leg up i almost fell over because it was like the whole stadium took pictures at the same time so it was like

i was like oh my god and so you know again another body experience to be involved in this so i i think my hardest pitches were 94 to 96 to him the rest of team, I threw 88. So he was pissed about it. So if I was going to be a game show answer, I was going to give people my best. So being part of that was pretty cool. Pretty cool. Oh, that's awesome. Unbelievable.

Well, we're going to let you go, man. I know you mentioned golf. One of these days, I don't know if I can call you D-Train yet. I don't know if we're quite friends, but can we get on the golf course soon? Because one of my main objectives in life is to get Matt golfing more. We got to get him golfing. You know, he down there in Manhattan or Hermosa. We get it somewhere out there. We'll get on one of those country clubs.

I'd love to do that, man. That would be awesome. You're the man, yeah. So thanks for joining us, dude. And keep up the great work. You're awesome on Fox. Enjoy the playoffs and amazing career and amazing things going forward, dude. Keep up the great work. You're awesome on Fox. Enjoy the playoffs and amazing career and amazing things going forward,

man. That was awesome. Thank you. Thank you, guys. I appreciate you guys. That was great stuff from Dontrell Willis. Didn't know that he was almost part of Don Terrell Willis. Didn't know that he was almost part of Barry Bond's legacy there. But listen, yeah, for a moment, before we move on, we do have to just point out one thing. Obviously, we've all been watching what's going on in the South,

in Florida, in the Carolinas, and all over. So I just have to point this out that Sinclair will be partnering with Salvation Army for Sinclair Cares, Hurricane Helene Relief. The Salvation Army has teams operating in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and Florida, and their highest need is clean water, as well as food and cleanup kits. So to donate, please go to Sinclaircares.com. Any little bit helps. And again, all of our thoughts are with everybody over there and what's going on. Yeah. It's just been just devastation. And, um, we actually got, you know, we got married in Nashville, North Carolina. So then we have some, some friends or family out there. So just sending our love and hope everybody is doing okay. And

again, um, Sinclair's dot Sinclair cares.com to donate. Yes, thank you. Okay, Matt, you're not off the hook just yet. I think this ends it. This will put a bow on it, although this might live on forever, but we did have our poll we put on the Throwback Show socials about the poll result about basically the question was,

do you agree with Matt Leinart, by the way, Matt Leinart QB, what a badass social handle. I'm jealous that you get to put that in there. We all get it. Do you agree with Matt Leinart that grown men shouldn't wear other grown men's jerseys? After the poll, we got a few thousand responses, I believe. No was at 66.8%.

It's actually a closer margin than I thought. And yes was obviously 66.8%. It's actually a closer margin than I thought. And yes was obviously 33.2%. So it's over, man. That's not that close. That's 70-30. I'm trying to help you. 70% don't agree with me. All right, you ready for the unrelatable story of the day?

I have an unrelatable story. Yes. I say this, folks listening and watching on our YouTube channel. I say this knowing this is completely unrelatable and might make me sound like a D-bag and will probably never come up again in my lifetime and most people's lifetime.

But I went to a Yankees-Angels game. This is probably in 08, maybe 07 with Kevin Connolly. Shoutouts to Entourage's own Kevin Connolly. We went to a Yankees-Angels game. We always tried to catch the Yankees when they came to Anaheim, not in LA. And I wore, I want to say it was a Jeter jersey, I think,

but I wore a jersey to the game, something that 66.8% of people agree with me on. And I want to say Connolly got a text. Now, I got to know Jeter over the years, and I go to his charity. We know that Connolly knows him a little. You know, they've been friends for a bit. And Connelly got a text like, hey, some of the Yankees are getting together after the game if you want to come by. And I'm like, we got to go to that. And for all you out there, this was not some wild, crazy, I'm sorry to break your hearts,

it wasn't some wild, crazy party. It was a few people gathered together it wasn't some wild like hollywood after party but that being said you know you're in there it's jeter it's clemens it's all these amazing yankees and i'm in there like who let the fan who let the fan in with my jeter and i couldn't take it off maddie because i had like a tight white shirt and this i was still chubby turtle i wasn't a turtle yet so i couldn't go chubby white t-shirt guy so i had to rock the yankee jersey in front of the yankees you and i guarantee you that when you step foot in wherever the restaurant the house wherever you were at you thought that that was in your that was in your mind you're like my mind i cannot be wearing

these guys jersey they're gonna think i'm a fan boy yeah you want to go meet the yankees i'm like yes that's exactly my yeah i get it but how often is that gonna again being self-effacing that's not gonna come up often for people was it a pinstripe what was it was it was it i didn't know it was a white it was a white pinstripe i wore the home whites even though it was a road game yankees won i got to meet some awesome yankekees. And yeah, the good news is no one remembers that but me. That's the good news. That's what you think. But you lost. You're going to be hearing about that for a while. All right. Now we're getting on to some fun. We mentioned earlier, you know, we started thinking about old school throwback athlete nicknames. These are not the

current ones. And I think the current state of affairs is in trouble. But we're going to do our top three throwback athlete nicknames of all time. Okay. Now, my disclaimer is I did not go with the obvious, like Air Jordan, Tiger Woods. No, me neither.

These are like my childhood personal favorites, and I encourage all of you, go look through some of these nicknames. Do you have them in a specific order? I, uh... It doesn't matter. We can just go one by one. Okay.

We'll say number three. I'll say my favorite for last. Okay. Number three, Matt. Who was your number three throwback? It's the throwback three. This was so hard. I would say two of my three are baseball because I was a baseball kid.

Baseball has some good ones. I'm going Mr. October. Yeah. I mean, of course. I wasn't a Yankees fan, but to have a whole month of baseball named after you, the most important month of the season, and just Mr. October. I was a little even too young to even watch him play, but I just thought that was pretty cool.

I almost, out of sentimental reasons, put Mr. November for Jeter because if you remember when they lost to Arizona, the nine 11 year, all the games got pushed back and he hit the walk-off after midnight became November 1st. So he hit the walk-off on November 1st, but that's a great one. Mr. October has great ones. Yeah. Baseball is great ones. Uh, I went with a fun one. I don't even think this athlete cares that this is his nickname or likes it. This is the one that made me laugh that my friends and I have been quoting for years. It is Eric sleeping with the B enemy.

It's a Chris Berman special. I'm sorry. It's my number three. It gets the most attention. I love Berman. I did not think you were going with that. Eric sleeping with the B enemy. Berman had some bangers.

I'm going to just read you a few quick bangers before we get to our number twos. Greg mathematics. Awesome. Bert be home by 11. Bert Bly 11. Incredible. Moises, we mentioned Alou earlier.

Dontrell, Moises skipped to my Alou. Joseph live and let a die. And my personal favorite, Jake, daylight come and we gotta de l'homme. Jeff Brown, paper, Bagwell, honorable mention. But that's my number three. Oh, God, I'm pulling up some of these. Okay, so

that's good. I didn't think you were going with it. It meant the most to me as a kid. We talked about that so much when we were kids. Who's your number two? This was one of my favorite players because I was a pitcher. I'm going with Randy Johnson, the big unit. Yes. 6'10", maybe taller. I actually met him in person one time.

I was like, holy shit, dude, and I'm 6'5". 6'10", throwing 100 miles per hour. Literally, when he threw a pitch, he was halfway down to home plate. The sidearm and just the big unit. And you can take that name however way you want to do it. But yeah, the big unit. And I think between the nickname and the fact that he's like 6'11",

but also is, you know, was he 7'5 on the mound? Just the most intimidating pitcher. By far, right? Yes. Before my number two as well, honorable mention, we mentioned it earlier, but yeah, Mount Mutombo, one of the all-time greats, and Charlie Hustle as well. All right, my number two.

My number two. You ready for this? Yes. It's a baseball one. It's the kid. It's Ken Griffey Jr. I think I love that one too because I was a kid watching Ken Griffey Jr. The kid. I think I love that one too because I was a kid watching Ken Griffey Jr. I think it was the first junior anything. First, basically, kid of a player I once knew who was playing.

And now I'm at the age where I'm going to start seeing grandkids start playing in the league. But the kid, I mean, the swing, the shoes, everything. The kid is a perfect nickname. I feel like he, because we're the same era, right? I feel like he was every kid in our generation's favorite baseball player. Easily. Right? Easily.

Like Ken Griffey Jr., like I actually had an autographed baseball by him. I don't even, I think my dad got it for us. And we kept it in like the little case. And then that upper deck, because I collect the upper deck rookie card, which was like the most famous card to get back in the day. Yeah, the kid. Oh, Griffey was the best, man. Yeah, I really, he wasn't at the Jeter golf event this year

because I wanted to talk to him if he was there and just say, we got to remake your baseball shoe and basically make it into a golf shoe. That's become very popular. You can get Kobe's now and they can put some spikes on the bottom so you can rock Kobe's on the golf course. But to rock the Griffey's, yeah, the kid, man.

He's definitely one of my, I met him, I actually met him on the field. He was a hitting coach, I think, for somebody a couple years back and I was on the field at a Dodger game. I think it was the Reds. Yeah, and we were talking and I was like, in my mind I'm like, dude, I am just the biggest fan. The little kid in me was the coolest

moment. Okay, my number one. Number one. Here we go. Drum roll. The throwback three. Matt Leinart's number one throwback athlete nickname. Iron Mike Dobson. Okay. Does that not give you chills? Okay, so maybe the greatest fighter of all time,

but Iron Mike Tyson. Every time he stepped in the ring, and that was like my childhood. The fight was over before he stepped in. Five, nine, little, but built like a brick house. Iron Mike, man. He's just one of my favorite. Just, oh, I can't even describe it. Like he's another one. I actually met him in Arizona

and I was like, my jaw like fell. I was like, holy shit, that is Mike Tyson. Yeah, we had, he did a cameo on Entourage. Couldn't have been nicer. I watched a fight with him in Vegas. I'm trying to remember what fight I watched. It might've been a Floyd Mayweather fight and I sat ringside, just happened to sit next to him.

Yeah. By far, doing this exercise, boxers have the best nicknames. It's not close. Golden Boy, Sweet Pea, Pranel Whitaker, Marvelous Marvin, the greatest. Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Tommy the Hitman Hearns, just some of the best.

I left boxers almost out because theirs are the best, but Iron Mike is both. Just quick and to the point, just Iron Mike. I was like, yep. All right. He was a badass. You ready for my number one, which would not be anyone's number one

because I don't even think this is a Hall of Fame player, but this was an iconic nickname that led to also a business model, Penny Hardaway. Oh, yeah. If you think about Penny Hardaway, okay. And those commercials, do you remember with Chris Rock voicing little Penny and then sneaker launch just as a brand and athlete with a nickname? I mean, obviously Michael Jordan did it at the highest all time level. I thought it was so smart. Of course, you know, Anthony Hardaway as his name, but everyone

as Penny Hardaway. Yep. He was an icon. Icon, when he came in injuries, obviously shorted, but Penny Hardaway is my number one. I had the shoes. I had the Penny Hardaway magic throwback. Well, it wasn't a throwback back then. Those jerseys were sick back then. And I still remember, dude, I still remember that draft.

And again, this might make us old heads in throwback, but Chris Webber goes one to the Warriors. draft and i again this might make this is might make us old heads and throwback but chris weber goes one to the warriors penny hardaway goes three to the magic and they trade on draft day i don't know if we'll ever see anything like that again it sort of happened with tatum and faults yeah although it wasn't draft day it happened before but on draft day weber for penny hardaway penny's going to play which have you ever done the the thought in your head like what happened if c-web stayed on the magic and it was c-web and shack well dude remember if uh kobe got drafted by the hornets hornets i mean yeah and then went to the lakers he was ever playing for the hornets but penny yeah penny yeah shack's

always shack said publicly, like if Penny, if they would have stayed together and he would have been healthy, they would have won titles. Like Penny was, Penny was a freak, man. Yeah,

they made the finals and then it's just an unfortunate situation. So that's my number one. I have a couple, I have a couple, I have a list. I'm going to name a couple because I really,

I want everybody to, to, to hit us up, send us their favorite nicknames, but I got. Honorable mentions. Honorable mentions. Oh, the black Mamba. Kobe's their favorite nicknames, but I got... Honorable mentions? Honorable mentions. Oh, the Black Mamba. Kobe's my favorite athlete of all

time. Best, of course. The Great One. Wayne Gretzky just being called the Great One. Sweetness, Walter Payton. The Glove, Gary Payton. Primetime. That's a great one. By the way, Primetime, Dion, who now goes by Coach Prime. That's kind of badass. He doesn't go by his first name anymore.

Say, hey, kid, Willie Mays. Go down the rabbit hole, and you will be like, oh, yeah, I remember this guy. I remember this guy. That was awesome. You see what I'm saying, though, right? We had it good, and this is non-existent now. This era, it is. Yeah, we need to step up.

Well, let's bring it back. I'm with you, dude. We are with the Red Hammer. The Red Hammer, Sam Darnold. Good luck to the Vikings. I wish so badly that the Red Hammer was going into MetLife because that could have made the Ghostbuster a real thing if he goes and beats the Jets in MetLife.

But I think they're playing overseas, right? Yeah, they're in London, I think. They're in London. So, all right. Two last things, Matt. Number one, where are you going? Where are you off to? Where are you heading?

We are going to Penn State. Penn State. UCLA, Penn State for a barn burner. But listen, Penn State's going to be a fun place to just go. Penn State's great. Happy Valley's great. Fans are always great. Penn State, top 10 team. Really good football team. Happy Valley's great. Fans are always great.

Penn State, top 10 team, really good football team, have a chance to make the playoff this year. They have obviously UCLA this weekend and then they come to USC next weekend, which is a massive showdown. That might be the first, would you say maybe that's the first game, we haven't really said this in college

football yet, like playoff implications? It's not often we use that in other sports. Yeah, we had Bama-Georgia last week. It's early, but you had Michigan-Texas early on. These two teams that might not get it, right? They're fighting for their lives. For sure.

Next week, Slay the Games. This is when you saw the meme and going around, like, don't get married on October 12th. Yeah. This is that weekend. You got OU-T Penn State you got um LSU Ole Miss you got like four or five ranked games like it's gonna be fire it's so funny you say that because I like a month ago I got invited to several watch parties for October 12th, like a month in advance. That's never happened to me with college football or really any sport. Ohio State's going to Oregon next week too.

So there you go. That's what I mean. I got invited to the fan. That's going to be awesome. All right. Well, that'll be fun. And then last thing, I think I know your answer. What are you watching this weekend?

Honestly, I'm watching the doc on Vince McMahon. Oh, you're going to count. Okay. I finished it. So I didn't finish it. So I, I started two episodes this week. Um, a lot of travel for me this weekend. So I'm going to finish it. I'm, I, I grew up a wrestling fan. Yeah. Um, and kind of just then like, didn't follow it for a long time and then kind of slowly got back into it again just because it's just incredible. I'm fascinated so far, the first couple episodes, the Hulk Hogan and all that, like how it all started.

Yeah, keep watching it. That was before my time. So that's what I'll be watching. How about you? For me, playoff baseball for sure because it's really when I start to wake up, playoff baseball. And then one of my buddies is in this too

and I've been super curious about the penguin, the sort of one-off for the penguin character colin farrell playing the penguin i'm hearing it has like sopranos vibes because the penguin in the colin farrell version in the movie is kind of he's a he's like a mob guy right yeah so i'm hearing it has sopranos vibes that's all i need to hear to be in of course i'm plugging something for h. But yeah, I'm going to be starting the Penguin and baseball. Shout out my daughters, baby. Let's go. Let's go.

It is our time. All right. Thank you, everybody, for listening. If you haven't hit all the subscribe and follow buttons, go do it because we will respond to you. And we'll see you next week.