The Show! Sports Talk with The Host
The Show! Sports Talk with The Host
The Show Episode 550
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NBA Playoffs, Stanley Cup Playoffs, Aaron Rodgers, MLB Stats
Some people had a four-day weekend. Yours truly. So I got to enjoy that. Of course, there was uh all kinds of sports action going on. You know, we had uh the Indianapolis 500 with its annual run uh during Memorial Day weekend. We got the NBA playoffs still going on. We got the NHL playoffs going on, we had a bunch of Major League Baseball. We got uh some uh French Open kicking off now up there in Rolling Garrus. Uh just all kinds of stuff going on. We had a golf tournament over a weekend with uh one of the hosts, the nemesis winning. Uh, we're so we're not gonna really talk about that. I heard everybody crumble. I heard everybody said, Oh no, host, no more golf. Why am I gonna start the show with a little golf story? It was Memorial Day weekend. So I got to tell this story because I just have to tell this story because there's people that know the host and will get a kick out of it. Especially what I did. Some people will laugh and say, Yeah, that's you, host, not paying attention. Some people think the story's funny. Some people will email me after and say that the host, you know, loves to steal stuff. So I know that's what I know that's gonna be the case after I tell the story. So the host and the guest uh played some golf this past weekend. Uh we went to uh uh one of the courses we usually play. I'm not gonna give the name, but I'll describe what we did. So the host of the guest Memorial Day weekend decided, hey, let's play some golf. So the host and the guests venture out to uh play on Friday. We show up at one of the courses we we uh normally play, and on the T-boxes, they've neatly addressed the back T's with some flags, the white T's with some flags, and the red T's with some flags, all in honor of celebrating Memorial Day. They had uh U.S. Marine flags, they had Navy flags, they had Air Force flags, they had U.S. Army flags, they had Coast Guard flags, uh, all in honor of celebrating Memorial Day, which is past being. Uh, just to give you a little uh history of maybe a couple months ago, the host of the guests were playing here. Uh they were giving the guests a hard time for playing slow on the court. And the like the guest didn't take that uh kindly, and he remembers that, and um he feels like the course owes him because the guest argument was that nobody on the behind us was waiting, but the guy, Marshall's argument was we were six holes behind the people in front of us. So that was the uh the guests getting yelled at for playing slow, and the guests didn't like that. So as we're playing the course, the guest comes out to me on one of the tees and he says, uh, hey, that's a nice U.S. Army flag that we got on a T box, don't they? And I said, Yeah. He goes, he goes, let's take that for what, because I remember what they did. I said, okay. I said, let's just wait though, because a lot of the T-boxes are close to houses. Like if somebody's looking out their backyard, they could easily see someone take the flag and put it in their cart and drive off. So I said to the guest, let's let's let's wait a few holes so we get to a T-box where there's no houses. Well, that's hard on this certain course because every T-box is by someone's front window, it seems like. So you had to be very careful of what we were trying to do is to you know borrow one of the flags, should I say, uh, for our own home use. What are they gonna do with it after this weekend? Just put it back in the shed until next year? I mean, they're not gonna do anything with the flag. Guest is gonna take it and hang it up. So the guest says, Yeah, I really want one of those U.S. Army flags. I said, okay. We get to a certain hole. I tee off, because I was teeing off from the back teeth, and I look over and it was a white flag. Well, as we were looking at the flags all day, the the white flag was the U.S. Army flag. And of course, for those of you who don't know, the guest was in the army. He fought in Vietnam. He is a Vietnam veteran. Thank you for your service, guys. So the guest is a Vietnam veteran, wanted the U.S. Army flag. So I teed off on this certain hole, reached over, grabbed the flag, rolled it up, put it in the guest's golf bag as like it was one of the clubs. And we drove off. No, no harm, right? Me and the guests are laughing. We're like, oh, I got the flag, we're laughing. We finished around, no big deal. Of course, here comes everybody now. Oh, that's you, hosts. That figure's host taking more stuff from the golf course. You'd be surprised what the guests and I have collected from different golf courses over the years. So you'd be surprised what the hosts of the guests have collected from golf courses over the years. I've played them. So this isn't the first time. Um so we've played around, we get done, guests goes home, I go. Next day, guest texts me. Hey, you got the wrong flag. It was a U.S. Coast Guard flag that I picked up. So I went through all that trouble to sneak it off with the flag, putting it in the guest golf bag, no questions asked as we left the course, and I ended up with the wrong flag anyway. That was the first white Coast Guard flag, and it could have probably been the only white Coast Guard flag on the course because every other white flag we looked at said U.S. Army. So that's what you get for borrowing the flag from the course for your home use. See, I knew you people would like that. I knew you people, the hosts grabbing the wrong flag, thinking he was sneaky, thinking that he was he had the right one for the guests, the guest all excited as we drove off, laughing off the tea, all excited that I had the had the right flag, and lo and behold, I didn't. Oh boy. So that's my Memorial Day weekend a story. Hey, how about those Knicks, people? I told you they're going to the finals. I told you. I told you they're gonna go to the finals. I call I called it before this series. The way they've been playing, you talk about a team that got hot at the right time. They are just manhandling Clepra. And they're playing game four right now as I recorded this. I expect them to sweep tonight. I expect them to close this game out. I expect them to win the series four games and none. Now, a few weeks ago, or maybe a few episodes ago, I don't know when it was, I talked about Libra. And I said, moving forward, I don't think when the Knicks make the finals, I don't think they're gonna be able to beat OKC or San Antonio. And I said, and on one of my other shows, well, if that happens, the Knicks need to take the next step and get Lee Brown because that would that would make them a solid team and they'd be able to win the finals next year. That's what I said. Well, I'm starting to rethink that. If you've been paying attention to the OKC San Antonio series, you would see that this is turning gonna turn into a seven-game series. And we already have several guys beat up, several guys banged up, several guys with injuries. This is a hard-fought physical series. Jamal Williams is out again towards hamstring. We don't know, they say day to day, but we have no idea. Uh you know, DeAron Fox uh keeps on hurting, re-injuring his ankle. Uh he, of course, he's played the last few games, but he went out some of game three and came back in. We don't know how, what percentage he's at. We've seen a castle get hurt for San Antonio. We've seen other bumps and bruises on OKC, guys missing time, guys coming back in, aggravating injuries, ankles getting taped up, coming back in. This is a brutal series. And whoever makes it out of this series, they're gonna end up playing a Knicks team who beat Philadelphia four games and none. Now they're gonna beat Cleveland four games and none. No one's injured. Everyone's gonna be well arrested. And you're gonna have to play three games in that crazy Madison Square Garden. All the Knicks would have to do is win one game on the road. One out of four if they could win on the road against OKC or San Antonio. And right now, I think they can do it. Right now, I don't even think they need LeBron. These Knicks fans are gonna be going crazy. They're gonna be out of their minds that this might be the best chance they're gonna have at winning is this year because of the way OKC and San Antonio are just beating each other up. You know, the last time the Knicks were in the finals was 1999. And of course, they got to throw it down your throat every uh every game. Every game they throw it down your throat, and they tell you that the last time the Knicks were in the finals were 1999. I'm gonna I'm gonna be totally honest with you, and I follow NBA basketball. I don't remember them being in the 99 finals at all. I don't remember that at all. They keep on showing Alan Houston. Well, more to him, more about him in a second. They keep on showing Alan Houston all the time in the stamps, rooting, rooting on the this Knicks team. I don't remember the 99 Knicks. I remember the 95 Knicks playing against Houston more because they're the game that got broken into for the OJ chase when they were chasing OJ and the Bronco with Al Collins driving. Everybody remembers that NBA final. That was Houston and the Knicks. Everyone remembers that. But we don't remember the 99th final. I don't I don't I can't recall one game. But they keep on bringing it up. First time since 99. I remember 95. I don't remember 99. And you know, I mentioned Alan Houston. How many times during a Knicks game do we have to see Patrick Ewan, John Stone, Alan Houston, and Walfrey. And every time we gotta hear there's the Knicks legends. There's the all-time Knicks. This goes back to my same rant about Allen Iverson a few weeks ago. All-time Nick legend? Okay, Walt Frazier, fine. They won. He was on a winning team. Okay. You want to say he's an all-time Nick legend? I'm all fine. Wears the fancy suits, always looks ridiculous, always has a uh a seat down on the court. Fine. You want to tell me that Patrick Ewing, John Starks, and Alan Houston are legendary Knicks? For what? I don't see any banners or anything up in up in the Raptors there at Madison Square Garden, which says NBA Championship? All-time Knick legends? For getting to the finals once? You're a legend? I guess if you've done so poorly for the last 30 years as a basketball franchise, I guess getting to the finals, you're automatically considered a legend. I mean, is Richard Jefferson a legend because he got the Nets to the NBA Finals against the Lakers? Him and Jason Kidd? Is he considered a New Jersey Nets legend? Richard Jefferson? He's on the broadcast with uh Tim Legler, but both are terrible. Why they got rid of Jeff Van Gundy and uh uh Mark Jackson, I I have no clue. No clue why ABC ESPN did that. Um yeah, legends. Nick legends. Never want to think. Legends. Never wanna think. But they're legends. Just think. When these Knicks go to the finals, Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikel Bridges, just think. You're gonna see them sitting in the stands rooting on the Knicks 30 years from now, and the broadcaster is gonna go, look at those Knicks legends. Remember those? Because they're gonna end up, they could end up getting beat by San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and never making it back to the remember those guys? Knicks legends, Jalen Bruns. Legends. I just shake my head. I have a few things about Madison Square Garden here. Did you know for the Knicks Cleveland series? Now the series is of course uh gonna be over with, but did you know that in this series uh the get in price for the first two games against Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals was $730 a game. That's not for that's folks. That's not sitting on the floor. That's way up in the nosebleed at Madison Square. That was the get-in price. $730 a game. You know what the total get in price if you wanted to go see the Knicks play in Cleveland for games three, four, and five? Five hundred and seventy-eight dollars for three games. The Knicks fans are paying more for one game than the Cleveland Clavieliers are for three. Can you believe that? Can you believe that? This story came out today, and I didn't know this about Masses Square Garden. Back in '99. Now we did a whole thing about Masses Square Garden on the show last year when the Knicks had their playoff run. We talked about the uh special Knicks club that they had with the drinks and the sandwiches and the food. Remember, we talked about all that, that exclusive Knicks VIP club. Well, I didn't know this. Back in '99, when the Knicks made the NBA final, there was 90 court side seats. 90. That's it. This year, the Knicks, when they make the NBA Finals, they got 704 court side seats. And I said, What? Right? You ask yourself the same thing. You all want the same thing. You probably said the same thing. You went, what host? Are you sure you're reading? I'm reading this exactly the way it says. So the Knicks had 90 courtside seats back in 1999. Right now they got 704. They count seven rows on each side of the court deep as a courtside seat. On the bench side, they're labeled AA, B B 1, 2, 3, or I'm sorry, AA, B B A, 1, 2, 3, 4. On the opposite side of the benches, they're labeled AA 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Okay. You can spin it any way you want, Nick's, into making as much money as you want with the alleged court size seats. If my feet aren't on the actual court where I could trip some one of the players coming up the floor, if my if my drink isn't sitting on the floor and SGA comes running by in the NBA Finals and he is unable to kick it, that doesn't mean I'm courtside. You could spin the courtside seat however you want. AA, B B A one, two, however you want to spin it, Knicks. If you're not in the very front row, you're not courtside. So you can you could spin it that some guy seven rows deep is sitting courtside. He's probably, he's probably even. He doesn't have a very good view. He could be sitting on the floor of Madison Square Garden, but that's not a courtside seat. You're that's that's misleading. You're you're making money off someone who thinks they're paying for courtside seats, think they're gonna be sitting right in the very front row next to all those other stupid Knicks fans, Ben Stiller and all that. They think they're sitting next to him. Meanwhile, they're trying to see around his big head, looking over somebody else's shoulder, bumping into the guy next to him, uh, you know, squeezed in on some some crappy, comfortable folding chair, trying to look over. Uh, next thing you know, you got you know Mike Breen's head in the way as he's doing the announcing, as you're seven rows deep. How's that a courtside seat, Knicks? That doesn't make any sense to me. That doesn't make any sense to me. Just ridiculous. And the Knicks are getting away with selling the seats at these high-level prices like this. Courtside seats, seven rows back. Of course, those dummy Knicks fans, they'll fall, they'll fall for anything. You know, they get they're so excited that their team is this far in the playoffs and they're gonna be in the NBA Finals, these idiot fans will fall for anything. They'll fall for anything. Bunch of morons, those Knicks fans. Um the other series, like I said a little bit ago, OKC San Antonio has been uh it's been a battle. 2 2. Um, if I would have done a show prior to game four, after OKC won game three, I would have said the series is over. Oh, OKC's winning the series. I would have been so confident in that, in that, coming on here and saying that. This, like I said years ago when Golden State beat Boston. Austin in game three in the NBA Finals. I said the series is over. Golden State's going to win in six. I would have felt just as confident saying that the day after Oklahoma went up two games ago. Then I watched him play last time. And they manhandled OKC. They beat SGA up. They were swarming him. Those defenders on San Antonio were swarming him like you wouldn't believe. He couldn't find any breathing room, anywhere to shoot, anywhere to get his shot off. Wasn't getting the calls like he normally does. And he was just super, super, super frustrated about that. Then you see something like that, and you're like, oh, maybe San Antonio does have a shot. So now this series has turned into a three-game series, two games left in OKC, one in San Antonio. I still think OKC wins this series just because they got the home court advantage. I think if they even lose game five, I still think they come back and win this series. They just have the heart. They've been there before. They know what it takes. San Antonio's still learning. And, you know, they're feeding off their old coach Greg Popovich, who's up in the booth with uh a ragged-looking Tim Duncan. If anybody's seen that. You see the way Tim Duncan looks these days? Oh my God. I don't think Tim Duncan's seen a uh a barber in about three, four years. He's got this hair all braided. It looks all you know braided back. He's got the kind of dreadlocks working. He's up there with Greg Popovich talking. Sometimes he's sitting down on the floor with David Robinson. You know, Spurs legends. Guys who won NBA final. Spurs legend. Tim Duncan. You know, a guy who's won not one NBA final, multiple NBA Finals. Now that's a legend. I have no problem when they show him and the announcer goes, Spurs legend, Tim Duncan. No problem with that. See the difference, people? Knicks legend. Never won anything. But uh that OKC series with the with the Spurs. Man. Three games to determine who's gonna be facing the Knicks in the NBA final. Now on to this. And I know a lot of people have been dying for the host to say something about this. Yep. Yep. Golden Grams. They're gonna be in the Stanley Cup Finals again. They're gonna be in their third Stanley Cup final in nine seasons. They are destroying the President Cup champion Colorado Avalon. Colorado goes up three games. Colorado was up three goals to none last night after the first period. That would deflate any team. That would take the sails and wind out of any team to play like that and get start getting beat like that at home. Not the Golden Grams. They shook the serial box, they mixed it up, they came out flying, scored five straight goals, they won 5-3, and now lead Colorado three games to none, and most likely are gonna be in the Stan final. Well, hell, they're in the Stanley Cup final. There's no way that they're gonna blow a 3-0 series lead. Not the way they're playing. And it's amazing. And I'll get to why it's amazing in a second. But this thing, these dummy fans here, these dummy Vegas Golden Graham fans are gonna get a third Stanley Cup in nine years. That's three Stanley Cups in nine years. What's that? What what's three, right? Three plus nine is twelve. That's probably the total IQ of the 18,000 people that are in the arena to watch Golden Knights fans. That's the hockey IQ of a Golden Graham fan right there. 12. They know nothing about hockey. They sit there and cheer on the team because it's good. They don't know any of the rules. They think Mark Stone is a good player. They don't understand how coaching works. All of them were shocked when they let their coach go during the season with seven games left. You should have seen the people I work with. Stunned that they let the coach go with seven games left. Well, someone knew what they were doing. Because they hired John Torortello, Tortarello or Torotello or Torottini, whatever his name is. And now they're one game away from being in the final. They went 7-0-1 in the eight games he played. I mean the eight games he coached in the regular season to get hot and put on a streak to get into the playoffs. Someone knew what to do. Someone is pretty smart in the uh Golden Graham's organization. And here's the amazing thing about. They weren't playing well. They fired their coach. A coach who they won the Stanley Cup with.
SPEAKER_03They won a Stanley Cup with the coach they fired. And they brought in John Tortell. Tortell's been a journeyman as a coach.
SPEAKER_04A journeyman as a coach. He's coached the Rangers, Tampa Bay, the Rangers, Vancouver, Columbus. And now he's coaching them in the Golden Gram.
SPEAKER_03He's coached. This is his eighth NHL head coaching stint.
SPEAKER_04Eighth. He's won one Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in 2003, 2004. His career record is 777, 648, and 37 ties before ties were abolished and they went to the overtime with the shootout work. He also was the coach of the Rochester Americas and the AHL. He won the Calder Cup with the Rochester Americans in 1995-96 as the head coach. So clearly he's a good head coach. He knows what he's doing. And as people know who follow hockey, the average lifespan of a head coach is less than three seasons. So that's why he's moved around so much. That's why this is his eighth team. Your message as a head coach in hockey gets across and it gets stale and old very quickly. And teams need to, you know, be changed up. Teams need a new voice. And this is what this is why in NHL a lot of teams switch out their coaches all the time. Hoping for a spark like this, hoping to light some fire under their team, hoping to ignite the fan base and get it excited. And, you know, go on a run like these Golden Grams are doing. But man, who saw this coming? I didn't. That's for sure. Of course, the Golden Grams, they're going to end up playing the winner of the Montreal Carolina series. I know Carolina uh got off to a shaky start in that series. Of course, they had the longest layoff ever. 11 days between the last time they played and between game one of the Eastern Conference Finals against Montreal. 11-day layoff. They came out rusty in that first game and they got blown off the ice. But uh I expect them to still end up winning the series, and I expect them to beat the Golden Graham in the Stanley Cup Finals. I think Carolina is still the best team. I would have loved to see them play Colorado because that would have been the two best teams playing each other, but we're not going to get able to see that at all because the Golden Graham are ruining that party as usual. Um, and I don't know if I discussed this. I've mentioned this a thousand times on this show. And I can hear people covering their ears right now.
SPEAKER_03No, host, not golf again. Not golf, not golf.
SPEAKER_04No, it's the other guy you don't like, people.
SPEAKER_03No, host, no, no, no, not Aaron Rodgers.
SPEAKER_04Yes, Aaron Rodgers, yes. Aaron Rodgers finally signed a one-year $25 million with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was been in Pittsburgh for the last few weeks, getting to know uh some of his new teammates, uh, getting to reacquaint with Mike McCarthy, met with ownership. Everything was kept under the radar, everything was kept quiet. No one even knew. They had word that he was in town, but no one ever saw him. And then finally, someone got a picture of him eating ice cream with his teammate. And then after that, shortly after that, is when the one-year $25 million deal was announced. And to go along with that, Aaron Rodgers came out and said, This is it. I'm done. I'm not playing anymore. This is my final season. I'm gonna hang it off. Now, by him saying that, if you're, I'm just talking about any team, not just talking about the Pittsburgh Feeling. It could be your team. It doesn't matter. Baseball, basketball, football, hockey, doesn't matter. It could be one of the better players on your team. Are you for a player announcing that it's gonna be his last season? Or are you for the player not saying anything and just having them play the whole season and at the very end say, you know what? I'm done that with it. I mean, what what what would you rather have as a fan of your team? You rather have the guy say this is his last season, and then the stadiums he's gone to before, they do a little tribute, they might give him a little gift, they might hand him this. Is that what you want? The farewell tour? Is that what you want to see? I don't. I don't want to see that. I don't want to see every team hand him some stupid present or some stupid gift or part of the basketball floor or part of the hockey boards or a piece of the pitching rubber or part of home plate somewhere. Nobody wants to see that. Part of the goalposts of football. No one wants to see going through and sit through all that in every game and see somebody honor a player on another team. I just wish he would have kept his mouth shut. Well, maybe it's for the better, too, because he they would have got he would have got asked that every game. Just your last season, Aaron. Aaron, is this your last season with the Pittsburgh Skiel? Aaron, do you plan on playing in 2025? Aaron, what are your thoughts after the 2026 season? Do you plan on playing in the future? I guess he cut all that out by saying that this is his final season. He just took care of business and just said, okay, that's it, I'm done. So now we don't have to worry about that. But wouldn't you just rather have him just play and not to go through the nonsense and all the questions anyway? Wouldn't you just want the guy to play and just play the season and see what happens? Now we got this whole cloud hanging over the Steelers season. We got a cloud hanging them all over them already due to the fact that they let this guy come back and play anyway. But now we got a double cloud hanging over this team. Season's already hard enough to play. Football's already hard enough to win. And now we we got to make it all about Aaron again. We made it all about Aaron waiting for this guy to sign. Is he gonna sign? What are we gonna do? Should we draft a quarterback? Should we not draft a quarterback? Is Mike McCarthy gonna get along with him? Does Aaron want to get along with Mike McCarthy? Didn't their last season in Green Bay not go well? Are they gonna be friends? Have they talked? All blah blah blah blah blah blah. And Aaron Rodgers signs. Now, of course, he still makes it about himself because he said, This is my final year, this is it. And now it's all gonna be about Aaron Rodgers. 17 games ago, 13 games ago. Aaron's got eight more games in the season. This is his final home game, this is his final game playing this team, this is his final time. He's played here 40 times. It's just on and on and on. Man, man, oh man. I'll be cheering. I'll be sitting in that seat on Sundays or whatever day the football plays. Now they play, it seems like they play every day but Sunday when the schedule came out. I'll be cheering every week. No matter what day of the week it is, I'll be cheering my team up. I had my I had my my fan rights up for sale. No one bought them. I mean, still early. Still at the end of May, still early. The host fans rights, the whole host fan participation could still be bought for the 2026 season. You can still have me. But there hadn't been many offers, the same. Um but but I'll be there rooting his team out. And here's the best part Aaron Rodgers coming back. Now, I talked about this. This is the last thing I'm gonna mention about Aaron Rodgers. I talked about this last year. Aaron Rodgers when playing a top 10 defense last season. He was one and eight. One and eight. The only top ten defense he beat last year was the New England Patriots, and that was week two. And they needed five turnovers to do it. Five splash plays to do it. This year. They played the third toughest schedule of pass defense. Third. Amongst those, they play five games against the top four pass defenses from last year. The Texans against the Browns twice, the Eagles and the Broncos. So not only do they have the third toughest schedule against defenses from last year, they play five of the top four teams. The Browns twice. And you remember, Aaron was one and eight against those teams. The win toll is eight and a half. Eight and a half. Ravens could be with Jesse Minister. And we don't know how Miles Garrett is gonna play when they let go of you know Jim Schwartz. He loved playing under Jim Schwartz. Jim Schwartz left because he wasn't given the head coaches. So eight and a half, people. Eight and a half. So of course it's Memorial Day weekend, and pretty soon baseball will be the only sport to uh you know watch on television because we got probably maybe what three weeks left of NHL and NBA action, uh the way everything is going. Uh so let's let's just wrap up the show with a bunch of uh baseball stuff. Um I got this Greg Maddox staff. This is pretty incredible, Greg Maddox staff. For those of you who uh follow Greg Maddox's career, uh mostly pitched for the Atlanta Braves, had two stints pitching for the Chicago Cubs. Of course, he started his career for the Cubs, went back to the Cubs after pitching with the Braves. I think he finished pitching for the San Diego Padres, I believe. Um he was known for great control and pitching really quickly, and you'd go to a game, and the game would be over in two hours and 15 minutes if he was pitching. Because he was just such a uh strategic pitcher of what his pitch is and so accurate that he never walked anywhere. So I had this stat for it to share with you. Greg Maddox faced 20,421 batters the course of his career. Only 310 saw a 3-0 count. That's 1.5%. Of those, 310 people batters who saw a 3-0 count, over half of them were intentional loss. 177 were intentional lots. So think about that. He faced over 20,400 batters, and he only had a 3-0 count on 1.5% of those deaths. Pretty amazing stat by Greg Madden. Juan Soto has played 1,127 games and is one stolen base from reaching 100 in his MLB career to go along with 250 home runs and 914 walks. No player in Major League Baseball history has reached 250 home runs, 900 baseballs based on balls, and 100 stolen bases in fewer than 1,257 games. Mickey Manel currently holds that title at 1,257 games. So the next stolen base Ju Soto gets, and he could have gotten it already today. I don't know about it. He is gonna eclipse Mickey Mann in that stat in 130 games less. On May 18th, the A's held the California Angels to two hits, but they lost. On May 23rd, the A's held the San Diego Padres to two hits and lost. The A's are the first team to allow no more than two hits, but still lose twice in a span of seven days or less since the Boston Red Sox did that on back-to-back days in 1964. You imagine losing those two games within a week, but Boston lost the two games back to back? Damn. 20 years ago today, or sorry, 20 years ago this weekend, Memorial Day weekend, the Yankees released outfielder Ruben Rivera. Ruben Rivera was caught stealing Derek Jeter's glove in the locker room and later sold it on the black market for $2,500. You imagine going in, you're just some player on a team, and you're on a team with a bunch of stars, and you go in the locker room and you steal the best player's glove and then sell it on the black market for $2,500. You didn't think about, hey Derek, um I I need a little money. Um and I want to make some you know, I got I got I got a couple kids. You know, I want to I want to give them something for the birthday. And you know, I've been down in the miners and this, I haven't been collecting a check. Would you mind giving me your glove? I could sell it. Get some money to do it. You think he'd make something up like that? No, instead, he just stole the glove, sold it, and then got cut by the team. So now you're not making any money. What a dumbass. Oh my god. Um, this Japanese player plays for the Chicago uh White Sox. Uh, this happened today. Uh Morakama. He hit his 18th home run this afternoon. He retakes the American League over Aaron Judge with 18 home runs. Aaron Judge has 17. Most home runs and their first 53 major league games. Cody Bellinger did it in 2017 with 22. Gary Sanchez did it in 2016 with 20. Wally Berger did it with 20. 1930. Jordan Alvarez had 19 in 2019. Raj Hoskins of the Phillies did it with 19 in 2018. Jose Abreu did it with 19 in 2014. And in 2026, Muracama of the Chicago White Sox has 18 home runs in his first 53 career games. Welcome to Major League Baseball, Muracama. You are becoming a home run threat, and I have no idea why you ended up going to the Chicago White Sox. My gosh, you could have been on any other team besides that. And you chose the White Sox. Still doesn't make any sense to me why that he ended up on that team. Alright, I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy the short working week. For those of you out there, you only gotta work four days. Maybe we'll be back this week. I don't know. I still got all kinds of stuff to uh talk about. Of course, the uh we got the uh schedules out, as I mentioned before. So the uh wins loss over and under are starting to be uh had and starting to be cracked down. So pretty soon we'll be starting those shows beginning this summer. And we still have the NBA files and Taylor Cup files to wrap up. So a lot going on, a lot to talk about. We're here. I hope everyone has a great week. And you know where to get the show by now as opposed to Field Episode 2. IH Google Play, of course, Amazon Music. And as always, it's nice to be important, but more important to be nice. Now I'm gonna wrap it up with this little special treat here. Uh this band came out with a brand new song. They got a brand new album coming out. Of course, these guys sing the lead-in title song of the host's podcast, the show, the 97th ranks podcast in all sports talk radio. This is Las Vegas' own five finger death punch with their brand new track, Eye of the Storm.
SPEAKER_00It's the only one.