Sports Live! With Steve and Justin

Week 12 NFL - F1 Vegas - MLB Trades and More

• Steve and Justin

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We wrestle with a head‑spinning sports week: the Mets’ Nimmo trade, baseball’s streaming maze, and whether analytics is helping or hollowing out rosters. Then we scan the NFL’s shifting top tier, unpack F1’s Las Vegas fiasco, and preview Michigan–Ohio State with real stakes.

• why the Nimmo for Semien swap confuses fans and metrics
• how streaming and blackouts erode everyday baseball viewing
• the line between smart analytics and soulless decision‑making
• honoring living legends to fix MLB’s storytelling gap
• NFC pecking order and what actually wins in January
• Vegas F1 missteps and the constructors’ drama
• Michigan–Ohio State matchups, weather, and pressure
• Giants coordinator change and leadership moments

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SPEAKER_04:

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Sports Live with Steve and Justin. Though it does say Boinger Sports now. I still haven't gotten a straight answer why that's there, but I know that's that is Justin. I recognize his Michigan paraphernalia. How are you, Justin?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm doing all right, Your Honor. Glad to be back.

SPEAKER_04:

Glad to be back on a Monday at five o'clock. I have to say, what the hell went on this week? Crazy sports week. I don't even know where to begin to start, where to begin to start, start to begin. Which one of those? Why don't you say something?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's been uh it's been a kind of a roller coaster. We had uh all the awards from baseball handed out last week. Otani and judge winning MVPs. We've had an insane NFL weekend where I wish I had bet on my instincts because I think I would have done all right. We had uh I had a crazy fantasy week. Um there was uh F1. There was a baseball trade that has Mets fans scratching their heads.

SPEAKER_04:

Um let's start at the Mets. I love to start with the Mets.

SPEAKER_00:

Sure, let's start with the Mets. So the Mets the Mets one of their core players, as far as I'm concerned, Brandon Nimmo, to Texas, where I think he's gonna thrive for Simeon, who I just don't know how that makes any sense other than if they're trying to save money in the long term. He's older. He had a very poor season compared uh to Nimmo. And uh, you know, I thought Nimmo was good for the Mets. I thought he was gonna be with the Mets till the end of his career. It kind of shocked me to see him go. I always like to rid Met fans that I would take Nimmo in a heartbeat to play center field for the Yanks because I thought he was a tremendous uh, you know, asset to them, and he was probably better than some of the options we had, not not judge, but you know, he's kind of a ball player you love to watch. I know Met fans love to root for the guy. And today when I sent the the text to my friends, they were they were Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

How could you be happy? How could you, as a fan, say to yourself, What are we doing? Yeah, I mean, one one moment you're like, doesn't matter what we spend, we're gonna win. The next moment is, oh, we're spending too much, let's get rid of some of the money.

SPEAKER_00:

So I you know, I don't know if they're gonna take Marcus Simmons Simeon and and put him at a different position, and they're gonna maybe they'll put him in the infield and they'll move McNeil to center field. I know some people, some people think McNeil is a better center fielder than Nimo is. I I don't I don't see that, but I I don't, you know, I don't watch Met Games daily. I know Dom does, but maybe he he could tell us.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, but he watches them to root against them, not not for the purpose of watching.

SPEAKER_00:

I know he's probably happy about the trade. But you know, if you look at their stats, you know, Nimmo's, and again, I hate going with the analytics, but Danielle McCartin posted this on her Twitter account for WFAN, showing the stats between Nimo and Simeon, and Nimmo hasn't beat in every single category except one, which is wins above replacement. And neither of them are very high. This was for 2025. Um Nimmo's war was 2.9 and Simeon was uh 3.3. After that, you know, Nimmo's got more home runs, more RBIs. Um he edges them out in stolen bases by two. But you know, uh Simeon hit 230 last year, and Nimmo hit 262, which in today's baseball, 262 is like, you know, that might as well be 300 from 25 years ago. Um Nimbo's on base percentage is higher, his slugging percentage is higher. So um his OPS plus is higher, whatever that means. And I I I just don't understand it other than that it had to have been about money, because I don't think he was a bad clubhouse guy. It's not like they traded him for pieces or got back young talent. They just swapped out a younger player who's more expensive in the long run than a for an older player who's who's still making considerable money.

SPEAKER_04:

Right. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

I I mean. And this could be a tell. I mean, this might be a tell that they're not, you know, they're ready to move on from Pete Alonzo. I I mean, I don't know if this saves them money and allows them it's not like they have to worry about cap space, right? It's not like they have to worry about money. They they they paid Soto three quarters of a billion dollars. You're not gonna pay Pete Alonso? I mean, really, you're not gonna pay him.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, I but I think if I recall, and I I I believe it still works the same way, is that um back when I used to watch the Yankees cap all the time, is that every year it gets a little worse till it gets a point where it gets really worse, and it kind of resets if you can get back under the cap for one season, and then it starts this uh exponential increase every year and year you're over the cap. So the Mets were over the cap. That's an understatement, right? They were more than the Yankees. And they're gonna be.

SPEAKER_00:

They're gonna continue to be.

SPEAKER_04:

Correct.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't I don't see the advantage there. You have to wonder what their general manager is uh is it David Stearns? Not David, yeah. No. Um yeah, David Stearns. Uh I have to wonder what what what he's doing and why why he made that deal, because it's not it's not something that sticks out like, oh wow, we got this guy. Like it's not like uh you traded Roberto Kelly for Paul O'Neill here. You know, if anything, you traded away Paul O'Neill.

SPEAKER_04:

But I think, you know, if we remember, when Cohen was trying to get approved by the owners, the complaint against him that seemed to be pretty pretty accurate for some knowing his history, is that they were afraid he was going to come in and since he has all this money, just spend all this money and throw the entire league out of sync and force all the other owners to spend too much money.

SPEAKER_00:

So yet somehow the Dodgers are able to continue just spending money like drunken sailors.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay. That's just that's just how the commissioner's, you know, balancing whatever stupidity he has in his head. I mean, I I don't like the commissioner at all. I have no clams to saying about it. I think he has no idea what he's doing. He's just another commissioner that's a manager in the pocket guy, I mean a owner-in-the-pocket guy, and and just doesn't really address the real problems in baseball. And he just continues to do it. It started as soon as they it's been ongoing ever since um not COVID. It's been ongoing since steroids, since you know Bart Giamatti died, since all the professional commissioners that weren't former owners or weren't in that owner realm were were commissioners, were they objective, where they put the sport above the team, above the player, above everything. And now it seems like to me, they're constantly playing catch up with the NFL. They've finally lost, and I think everybody would agree they're not the number one in sport anymore. They finally are realizing that NFL's making so much more money, and we own these teams too, and the NFL's teams are worth more. And why? Because they have revenue sharing. So they're what do they do? Now they're making all these deals with all these streaming services. You're gonna see more games than ever in ESPN, you're gonna see more games than ever, and and ESPN kind of re- ESPN realigned itself too, to be more of an app more out there than a broadcast uh station. You're gonna see more on Apple TV, and you're gonna see more on others. And this is just the wave of the future. And but what that does, what that does, it starts eroding your fan base. Right? And your product. And your product that you see no one can watch. What's the game on? I don't know. So in Doc James Cigar Lounge, we never know when the games are. What app? You gotta own an app because they have it hooked up to the television. So, I mean, they have it down now, but in the beginning, it was like guess your best. Oh, we can't watch the Yankee game tonight because it's on Apple on a Friday night and we don't have Apple hooked up to the television. I mean, it's it's a process.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, when you're watching it on TV, or you not TV, streaming service, right? You have to source the TV, find what source you want to hook up to. You click on the Amazon app or whatever, then it says where you want to be. You have to log into your account if you're not logged in already. Then you have to scroll to find what you want to watch, or you have to manually input, you know, one letter at a time, unless you talk to the microphone, remote control, whatever, which most features, most TV places don't have that. I mean, the other night we wanted to watch the Thursday night game at the bar, and it took a good, you know, couple of minutes for me to have to stop working to put the game on. And then you watch this broadcast when you finally get it, that it's pixelated, it's circling and buffering. It's a terrible product. Across the board, it's a terrible product. So I have to wonder why or how there was no consumer advocate that prevented this from happening. But this goes back to, you know, when we went from regular television to cable television and they sold us a bill of goods on that. And you get cable, you don't have to watch commercials anymore. Well, we have cable now, and it's nothing but commercials, it's just the same as regular TV.

SPEAKER_04:

It started, it started when the Muhammad Ali fights were on HBO. All right, so that's how long ago it started. If you had HBO, which you could get, we didn't have that. We're lucky we had television. We didn't have colored television. I want to say I was older already. I mean, it had to be, I want to say 71 or 72. We got and colored television been out since the 60s. We had this old black and white television that didn't even adjust itself when the sun was out. I mean, come on.

SPEAKER_00:

The difference here from going from cable to streaming is when you went from television to cable, you could still get up and change the channel, right? You had that box. And then when it became available through the cable box itself with the remote control, you could still turn the television on and flip channels and get to a channel immediately with the remote control. And it even made it easier because you didn't have to turn the dial or press the buttons. You could just manually enter the channel number and you were there. Now with streaming, it's not, and it's not, I mean, is it a big deal? It's not a big deal. But you're clicking six, seven, eight, nine times to find what you want to watch. And then when you find it, you're lucky if it's not buffering or lagging or pixelated. And then when you want to address that problem, it's oh, your Wi-Fi is not strong enough, which is a load of crap. But you call your cable provider and they tell you your Wi-Fi's running fine, do a speed test. It's just it's a bear to have to manage that. And it makes it to the point where I I don't even want to watch anymore. And you know, I know you use the fire sticks, and you know, I we seem to have a decent service, but even when we have every channel conceivable to watch, it's still a bear to find a broadcast that you want to see because there's so many options that you can't just flip through the channels. And the process has become a little overbearing, even when it's oh well, you have every broadcast, so if this one doesn't work and it's buffering, just switch to another uh provider or another broadcast for a different location. Well, who wants to do that? And then all these deals that they've made to increase their profits, all the while making the product virtually unwatchable. The product on the field stinks. And they're not, you know, they don't want to pay the athletes. It's just pure greed. And you know, I don't see an end in sight. I don't think it's gonna get better anytime soon. And there's, you know, we got more labor disputes ahead of us. This all contributes to that.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, well, here you go.

SPEAKER_00:

Players are gonna want them their their piece of this, and I don't blame them. They deserve it.

SPEAKER_04:

So the, you know, it would seem the only way to answer this with the players is to do what they did in the NFL and have revenue sharing. But the teams are never gonna do that because LA and New York make a fortune of money, and others make a fortune of money. But those are the top two Mets, I would say, as well.

SPEAKER_00:

I think the Phillies, Boston, and believe it or not, the Cubs are in the top five or six there.

SPEAKER_04:

But the Cubs are because of loyalty, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they have a brand. I mean, there's no question.

SPEAKER_04:

They have a brand and they have a following because people from Chicago go all over the world. You know people outside Chicago love the Cubs too. Right. But you know why that was? You know what made the Cubs different? They were on every day in the day because it wasn't until 1980 that they put lights up. Yep. So when you got home from school, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the Cubs were on.

SPEAKER_00:

The Cubs were in the 7G.

SPEAKER_04:

UGN, which was uh a Chicago station on channel, and you got to watch them every day, whether you liked it or not. It was the only baseball on.

SPEAKER_00:

And you got to watch some good players, and you got to see, you know, if you're a fan of the Yankees, you got to see some National League players that weren't Mets. Um, and you know, they had some good ball players back then, they were watchable, you know. Andre Dawson, Ryan Sandberg, you know, it was a different time for sure. Now you can watch everything, but it's the product itself is almost unwatchable. You know, I mean, especially when teams are getting beat up by the same franchises every week. And there are players in in Major League Baseball that are not Major League Baseball talent. They're just not. They're not major league level ball players. I don't mind watching a kid play and grow rookies and everything like that. But there are just some guys that have hung on in this league that are just they're not good ball players, and they're never gonna be. And they're they're everywhere. And you see it. I guess if you if you're new to it, you won't know the difference.

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe.

SPEAKER_00:

Years ago, it seemed like there were very few players like that. You did not last a very long time if you couldn't play at that level.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, when there were less teams, there definitely was you had better players. And then you entered the steroid era, and the lesser players using steroids made them better. Marginal players who used steroids became players became relevant. Became relevant. But now that you're taking the steroids, maybe taking the steroids where they've gotten better at it, taking the steroids out of baseball, those marginal players are just that marginal. And there's so many teams, and there's so many bad teams that if it wasn't for the salary cap and the tax salary cap, if it wasn't for the tax, the bad teams like Florida or whatever teams you want to take who don't make any money, who have who have payrolls under 100 million, wouldn't make the money they need to make. So I don't really get it. I don't get what the big plan is. I mean, what baseball needs to do is come up with a five-year plan, how they're gonna make themselves better. Having said that, the environment is changing, right? American, mostly we're talking about American people here, American tastes and and what they watch are all changing. So you have to take that into consideration to where it goes. I mean, certainly in the post-COVID era, things are much different. There are no 24-hour diners anymore because they just stopped doing it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. COVID changed a lot of that.

SPEAKER_04:

COVID changed everything. And you know, I'm a matter of fact, I, you know, I'm an arbitrator, so I just got a letter from one of the panels I'm on saying that are you do you want to still do live hearings? Because as time's going on, they're trying to get more people to do things live again. So, but there are some arbitrators out there that don't want to do it anymore. They've been doing it from their house, you know, with a suit jacket and tie on the top and their and their, you know, SpongeBob square pants, pajamas on the bottom. And and actually, dude, I used to do this thing when I was administrator law judge and we were doing them all virtual, where everybody was like, oh, before we get started, do me a favor, can everybody stand up? And everybody would go, huh? I'm like, stand up. And they're like, what? I'm like, that's a that's an order. And people stand up and you see what everybody had on. And it was fun, it was just funny that you could all laugh about what was going on in the middle of COVID. I mean, it was difficult. But so that was just making it a little bit lighthearted. But I mean, that's the way it is. It's a different world. And baseball's gonna have to figure out how they're fitting into that world. And baseball's really gonna have to have a plan. They can't keep flying by the seat of their pants because that's what they're doing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they already had a problem trying to sell the product.

SPEAKER_04:

And they already have a problem with gambling, even though everyone has a problem with gambling. And baseball's way easier to fix than football. You get to the right guy in baseball, you're in, you know? I mean, because every pitcher has a bad day. Does every quarterback have a bad day? Hopefully not. You know what I mean? I mean, when you have a really killer quarterback, they don't have bad days. Do pitchers have bad days? It's hard to discuss them.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04:

Who's that? Tom Seaver had a bad day.

SPEAKER_00:

Sure. Nolan Ryan. I um I don't know where it's headed, but it doesn't look good because there seems to be no leadership from the top, other than that, they they clearly just want to maximize maximize profit. And the further they go that way, the harder the players are gonna fight for more money and probably sacrifice a few things that are gonna make the game less watchable in the long run. Look at the NFL, where the owners were willing to share more money, the players decided we're gonna practice less. We're gonna be on the field practice field a lot. We want hours, we want time practices. We don't want to be out there at the coach's will for all hours practicing. And that affects uh certainly has affected the game, right? So the product is is suffering as a result and across the board. Except for maybe hockey. I I haven't seen it really affect uh hockey games just yet. It seems to be that you know, especially locally, the the franchises just kind of can't get out of their own way, even though hockey expanded recently, brought some teams back and uh changed some cities, you know, they're they seem to be a work in progress and they seem to do okay. But baseball, which used to be you know, I know the NFL's been popular forever, but baseball was way more popular when I was younger. Absolutely. And it it isn't as uh attainable and consumable as it was then, and because they've moved to the streaming and it's not on TV every day, you know, maybe you wanna they wanna change that, uh, make it accessible locally every day somehow, continue to broadcast via Yes Network and ESPN and uh SNY and uh Boston Sports, whatever that is, you know, entity. Um there's gotta be a way, like you said before, you know, maybe it's revenue sharing, um but you want people to consume your product. So what's the best way to do that? Sometimes you have to give to get. So why wouldn't you want your your team on television every day? Is it maximizing the dollar amount so much more crucial in the local market than continuing to grow the entire league? If if you're talking about expanding internationally, which I think is a huge mistake, then you're gonna have to give to get. You're gonna have to make your product accessible. So, you know, smarter people than me are gonna be in the room making those decisions, but it's clear to see that that whoever's making those decisions, they're gonna be making decisions based on maximizing profit and not.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay. Okay, we're we're just doom and gloom. So let's talk about something positive. We hope this is positive. So the MVPs have come out, right? They may have come out the day before, whatever, last time our show is, but we are off on whatever tangent we were off on. And here we are. Now that they're in different leagues, Judge and Oratani will be able to hold the MVPs. Now, you have to say these guys have three each. Actually, Oratani has four. They have four and three. These guys are gonna win a lot more MVPs unless somebody else comes along. Sure. So do you know who I'm just reading the list of most MVPs? Do you know who has the most MVP? Current players? No, total lifetime. It's gotta be Bonds. Barry Bonds, seven, nineteen ninety, ninety-two, ninety-three, and then twenty-one uh two thousand one to two thousand four.

SPEAKER_00:

It's incredible.

SPEAKER_04:

It's incredible. So in 90, he batted 301, uh 301, 406, and 565, 33 home runs. That's how home runs have changed, 52 steals. It's a lot. So uh, I mean, he really, really was an amazing player. Tremendous player. Tremendous player before. Nan Oratani with four, 21, 23, 24, and 25, missing 22. He was in an American league in the back then. He's missed in 22 because that's the year that Judge hit 62 home runs. Next, we're gonna start with, you know, going back. Aaron Judge had three, 22, 24, and 25.

SPEAKER_00:

Should have four.

SPEAKER_04:

Should have four.

SPEAKER_00:

He he got robbed. I don't I'm not gonna wince words. Altuve robbed him. That midget didn't deserve it. He cheated and they did nothing about it. And Judge was was robbed that year for sure. I agree. He should have won MVP.

SPEAKER_04:

So then Mike Trout, 14, 16, and 19. Good player. Good player. Albert Pulholtz, 2005, 8, and 9.

SPEAKER_02:

Another tremendous player. 4100.

SPEAKER_04:

Alex Rodriguez, 2003, 2005, and 2007, whatever you want to say about him. Um Mike Schmidt. Great third baseman. 1980, 1981, 86. The Mick, Mickey Mannell, 56, 57, and 62. Unbelievable. He had some great years, hit a lot of home runs, and one gold glove. So Yogi Berra. You want to talk about the best catcher to ever live? I don't know how they say it as in Yogi Berra. 51, 54, 55.

SPEAKER_00:

Probably the most underrated all-time great. It seems like Yogi's never in the discussion and and should be.

SPEAKER_04:

I agree. 5455, back to back. I mean, he hit 855 catcher OPS. He had 855 OPS.

SPEAKER_02:

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_04:

Roy Campanella, another great catcher. 51, 53, 55. His career cut short in 58 because of the car accident where he was paralyzed.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Stan the man Musual. If he played in New York, he'd be a god. Played for the St. Louis Cardinals.

SPEAKER_00:

That right there is the crux of the argument for baseball, right? Stan Muswell lived to 90, I think he lived to be 98 years old. He definitely lived into his 90s. And there's a guy that should have been celebrated and championed and paraded around for baseball to spread and advertise and monetize.

SPEAKER_04:

It's like a joke. He batted 357, 425, and 562. He had 48 doubles, 20 triples, 13 home runs.

SPEAKER_00:

13 home runs.

SPEAKER_04:

After missing, and and help St. Louis reach the World Series after missing the season to serve in World War II the year before.

SPEAKER_00:

That's incredible. You know, another example of someone like that. How old is Sandy Colfax? He's still alive.

SPEAKER_04:

He's still alive. Then Joe DiMaggio had three, 39, 41, and 50, and 47. He was on the cover of Life magazine 39 and 41. I have both those autographed by him, by the way.

SPEAKER_00:

I think Koufax is in his late 80s. When was the last time you saw Koufax do an interview or be interviewed or be celebrated? You know, these are living legends of the sport that you should be promoting. These are guys that would be in the conversation for some sort of, you know, Mount Rushmore conversation, whether it's greatest pitcher of all time, greatest lefty of all time, greatest dodger of all time, whatever, greatest New York baseball player of the world, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_04:

He was so he didn't even play that long. I don't know how many years he played. He was so dominant during those years that he was so dominant as a pitcher that even though he didn't play long, it didn't matter. They put him in a hall of fame.

SPEAKER_00:

I I mean, I was born in 1975. By the time I was eight years old, I knew every great ball player that ever lived, right? Like you knew the history of the game because it was promoted more, it was celebrated more, you watch it on TV. Even little things like this week in baseball, things like that made kids want to consume it because it was interesting, it was fun, it was competitive. And when you're young and you're getting into the sport or playing the sport or literally and you have a passion for it, you want to watch all that stuff because it gives you something to aim for. You want to, what do kids do, right? They they emulate their favorite players. They want to be superstars. So how much of those kids, you know, or how much what are those kids being exposed to, right? Those kids are are are not getting the exposure to these athletes the way we did. It's certainly not, you know, they downplay Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, you know, steroids aside, baseball really shot itself in the foot, especially the sports writers who watched these guys do it and didn't say a word until after they retired and said, Oh, you did steroids. We're keeping this guy out, we're keeping the and it's selective because there are guys that got in that definitely did steroids, and then all of a sudden you have no one to vote for because you're holding up this ridiculous standard of we're not voting for that guy because he did steroids. But you get you let guys into the Hall of Fame that don't deserve it, in my opinion. Harold Bain's not a Hall of Famer, okay? He's just not. Now the discussion is are Mattingley and Keith Hernandez should be in the Hall of Fame. Based on the current standard, absolutely. But before that, I would tell you they're not Hall of Famers. Great players. Mattingly's my favorite player of all time.

SPEAKER_04:

Mine too.

SPEAKER_00:

Hands down, any sport, any time, any day, not a Hall of Famer. And I I feel like I'm being objective. Why wouldn't I want my favorite player ever, the guy that I wish was the manager of the Yankees today to be a Hall of Famer. But they just don't, they really shot themselves in the foot by allowing this to happen.

SPEAKER_04:

Look at some of these stats. You just heard, you don't have to know about Joe DiMaggio. He had a 56-game hitting streak, you know, and I know he had a big hitting streak right after that one. It was like it was like 47 or something like that. So you take him, who's one of the great Yankee Clipper. I mean, he, you know, batted three 381. Batted 357, yeah. Next, Jamie Foxx, 20-year career, hit 534 home runs. 106 came within two seasons with the Philadelphia Athletics. All right? That's unreal. Unreal. Back-to-back AL MVP awards.

SPEAKER_00:

That's why today, watching someone like Aaron Judge as a Yankee fan, and hearing people criticize him.

SPEAKER_02:

You're not appreciating what appreciating what you're watching.

SPEAKER_00:

This is an all-time great compared to the world.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, Jamie Fox was amazing. So then Bryce Harper with two, Miguel Cabrera with two, Juan Gonzalez with two, Frank Thomas with two. I mean, the big hurt in his day was pretty damn good. Um he hit a lot of home runs. Cal Ripkin with two. What do you want to say about Cal Ripkin? You know, he he had great Cassiful royalty. Robin Youth with two, always played.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, incredible player.

SPEAKER_04:

Dale Murphy with two, Joe Morgan with two. I was never a big Joe Morgan fan. Johnny Bench with two, 70 and 72. I mean, though, and those teams, they had five. I remember that one year, I don't remember what year it was. They had it may have been 75. Five players who hit above 300. And you have Frank Robinson with two. Frank Robinson? Roger Maris. Roger Maris with two. Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub. His line was always, let's play two. He always wanted to play more baseball. He had two, 58 and 59. How about Gehrig? Will Mar. I'll get to that. Will Willie Mays, 54 and 65. You know, what do you want to say about Willie Mays? Ted Williams only had two. Ted Williams could be the greatest baseball player of all time. You know, he was in not only World War II and flew planes. And yeah, not only a uh a pilot in World War II, but he also was in the Korean War. He took two times off. And his lifetime, I forget what he has, some ridiculous amount of home runs. He would have broken the record if he played the whole time. He was a great he struck out probably less times his lifetime than Aaron Judge did last season.

SPEAKER_00:

It's what if conversation of all time. If Red Sox and the Yankees had traded Williams and DiMaggio for one another, it's it's incredible to think what their lifetime averages and home run totals would have been.

SPEAKER_04:

I told you my Ted Williams story, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

With the autograph? I told you that. All right. I won't bring it up on here. Did I say that on here? So I have I have all this Ted Williams memorabilia. I have a Ted Williams Life magazine when he was on the cover, and I had this wire photo that I cannot find, and I've searched all over for it. Um years ago, we used to promote my brother-in-law, we used to promote baseball autograph shows, and we had Allie Super Chief Reynolds on, and Tommy Henrick were the two. Old reliable, you know, back from the 30s. I mean, they played with the greats. Uh Allie Reynolds told me stories about Mickey Mantle that were just unbelievable to hear about about his extracurricular activities. And whatever. He's the nicest man. I drove him to the airport. I picked him up. I sat with him a whole day, and we talked about baseball the whole day. Just a gentleman, as anyone could say. So I had this wire photo where Ally Reynolds had two, twice in his career, he had two no-hitters. And one of those no-hitters was against Boston. And the wire photo was Ally Reynolds, who he his words, I always had Ted Williams' number. And believe me, there probably weren't many people that could say that out loud. No, certainly not. So he the wire photo said Ted Williams strikes out in the bottom of the ninth to seal the no-hitter. So Ted Williams is signing autographs somewhere up in Boston, and we get in the car, my sister, my brother-in-law, and me, we drive all the way up there. We stayed overnight in a hotel. It was like this whole thing. And we get in there, I have all my stuff, and we get up to him, and I'm talking to him, and he signs, he looks at the wire photo, and he looks at it. He reads, on the back, it has the A, it was an AP wire photo, Associated Press, and it had the caption that went underneath it, official, stamped, all that crap. It said, what I just said to you that he strikes out Ted Williams. And he looks up to me and he looks down at the picture and he throws it at me. And and he and he says, he goes, that never happened. And I said, but it's an AP wire photo. It had to have happened. He goes, I'm not signing it. It didn't happen. So I start to walk away, and my brother-in-law pretty loudly says, He's so old he probably doesn't remember. And he goes, Kid, come here. And I go back and he signs his name on it. He looks up, gives, tosses it back to me, and says, fastball low and outside. So I looked at him and I said, You remember? He goes, I remember every time I striked out. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a great story.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I wish I made it up. It's so good. But it's true. It's exactly what happened.

SPEAKER_02:

But anyway, low and outside.

SPEAKER_04:

In fact, so uh Ted Williams two. Hal Newhouse 2, 45 and 44 and 45. So those are during the war years. Hank Greenberg, 35 and 40, right before the war. Hank Greenberg was a great baseball player during the time. Carl Hubble. Carl Hubble was two. And he was a pitcher. So, you know, he posted in 33 posted the ERA of 166 over 308 innings. 308 innings. Tossed 20 scoreless frames in the World Series, which won the Giants over the Senators. Three seasons later, he was named MVP again with posting an ERA of 2.31 over 304 innings before uh 2.25 ERA and two starts in the World Series and a loss to the Giants. So it I mean it was great. So then you go pre-1931, you have Mickey Cochrane, two years, Lou Garrick, 27 and 36, Roger Hornsby 25 and 29, Walter Johnson, another great pitcher, uh, 1913 and 1924. So I I was thinking, I know we got off on a tangent here, but I was thinking about Cy Young.

SPEAKER_01:

Um because you were talking, I don't know. Who won the most Cy Young Awards?

SPEAKER_04:

Do you know who that is? Who won the most Cy Young?

SPEAKER_00:

I know it's not Cy Young.

SPEAKER_04:

R Cy Young was great. Roger Clemens, 86, 87, 91, and 97, 98, 2001, and 2004, seven times.

SPEAKER_00:

2004 was with the Astros.

SPEAKER_04:

Then Riley Johnson with five. Ray Johnson was a great pitcher. What a what a tough competitor.

SPEAKER_00:

He's a funny dude, too. His his his interviews now autographing for people, and just he's got some some really funny, funny quips.

SPEAKER_04:

And Greg Maddox.

SPEAKER_00:

Smartest pitcher ever, maybe.

SPEAKER_04:

What are you gonna say about Greg Maddox?

SPEAKER_00:

I think the guy could have been a doctor. I mean, he's incredibly smart.

SPEAKER_04:

That that Atlanta Braves team pitching, you wonder how anybody got a hit with that.

SPEAKER_00:

I I well the Yankees hit, you know, under 200 in that World Series. Uh I think it was 96, and they somehow they found a way to win. But it's because their starters were tremendous. I mean, ultra tremendous.

SPEAKER_04:

And Steve Carlton also with four. Um Randy Johnson with five, Greg Madnox with four. I'm just going through Steve Carlton with four, uh Justin Vrielander with three, um Max Scherzer with three, Clinton Kinshaw with three, Pedro Martinez with three, great pitcher, Jim Palmer in his day. You know that Jim Palmer 73, 75, and 76. That pitching staff under Palmer was just amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

Did they have four? They had four, three or four 20-game winners in one season.

SPEAKER_04:

I I don't know if it was three or four, but that staff was incredible. Tom Seaver with three, greatest right-hander probably ever to live.

SPEAKER_00:

Great era for big.

SPEAKER_04:

Sandy Kovex with three.

SPEAKER_00:

Where's Bob Gibson?

SPEAKER_04:

I loved Bob Gibson. Kovacs is one of the three pitchers to win three triple crowns, along with this fella, Walter Johnson, and Grover Cleveland Alexander. Pitchers with two, one guy I can't pronounce, Jacob DeGrom. I'm going through the ones I know. Roy Holiday, Johann Santana, Tommy Glavin, Saber Hagen, Gaylord Prairie, Bob Gibson, 68 and 70. McLean. Danny McClain's, unfortunately, everybody remembers that, you know, he got in trouble for a gambling issue. Yeah. But he also won 30 games one year with the Washington Senators. Absolutely incredible. I skipped over some of those ones that I can't pronounce.

SPEAKER_00:

30 game winning 30 games is you I mean, you won every start virtually. Today I don't even think guys make 30 starts anymore.

SPEAKER_04:

I remember when it happened. And he got in trouble, I think, the next year. Some kind of gambling thing. I don't really remember what it was. I was very young. But Ted Williams might have been the coach at the time. Strangely enough, yeah. Or he became the coach after that happened. So, all right, baseball, are we gonna move to football? Or are we just gonna Yeah, let's do it. So, you know, just to sum up baseball, you know, baseball really needs a five-year plan in my eyes. It may need a 10-year plan on how they're gonna move forward in this changing world, on what their plan is. They cannot be flying by the seat of their pants. They can't have these. They've created, and Justin talks about it all the time. They've created this environment of haves and haves nots and made it worse. They have made it worse because they let LA do whatever they want, and we don't have to go into the details. All you have to do is look back at every other time we rant and raved about what goes what went on in LA. They let teams cheat. Like they have. I mean, how many times could Houston cheat? How many times could Boston cheat? Analytics will destroy the sport. Why does everyone see it but you? Why does everyone see it but Major League Baseball? Analytics will destroy the sport. It ruins everything.

SPEAKER_00:

I agree. I just don't think there's there is a place for it somewhere, but it shouldn't be the overall shroud that runs your organization.

SPEAKER_04:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

You can't if you're gonna do it, you have to go all in on it. So you can't piecemeal contracts and spending for big names if it doesn't fit the equation, because then you've you're off, you're off the rails. So you you're either spending or you're not spending. And if you're not spending, you're doing analytics. And it worked when there was one, two, or three teams practicing the analytics. Now that everybody's doing it, it kind of caught up with itself and it's a broken approach. So you have teams like the Mets and the Yankees with high payrolls and owners with deep pockets that have an analytics team of 20 plus people doing a job that a 13-year-old could do, looking at stats. I mean, that's that's what they do, right?

SPEAKER_04:

Is that a computer, a computer can do? You don't even need a person.

SPEAKER_00:

You don't even need somebody who knows about baseball. You know, that that's it is affecting it. It's like building a car, right? Are you buying, are you buying maybe I shouldn't go there, but so you can buy one brand versus another. You know what the crappy brands are and you know what the good brands are. And the good brands use good parts and good machinery and have great mechanics and great engines. And the crappy ones have plastic crap and parts that are built to fail, and you're constantly in the shop and they're not reliable. So why would you build your franchise with parts that don't belong in the system? That's probably the cleanest way I can say it. When you hire people that are not baseball people because you want to fill a quota or you want to, you know, draw attention or, you know, make a splash, just hire baseball people. Hire people that have played this sport, hire people that know this sport, hire people that have been around this sport. And when you when you go outside that box, because you get somebody with a college degree that says they're a great statistician or you know, they're an accountant or they're and they've never even picked up a baseball or watched a game, what do you expect your your franchise to look like?

SPEAKER_04:

Well, I would say that if you want a mediocre team, you use mediocre methods. And the mediocre methods is analytics. Analytics is a way of putting a team together. It's just like when you play golf. You can learn how to really play, or you can learn how to fudge it. You can learn how to get a few.

SPEAKER_00:

A 12-year-old kid could pick up his phone right now, click his Chat GPT app, and have him design an approach based on analytics on how to build a roster.

SPEAKER_04:

They do it, they use analytics in in the fantasy baseball. Of course. Well, that's what it is. I used to do it all the time. I bought some algorithm and I would pick a team. It would pick it for me. I wouldn't have to do anything. It would just give me the team. That's it. And uh and I would and I would bet it. And I won some of the times, but not enough, just like everybody else. So, anyway, let's move on from baseball. We stick, that's our last note on that. We'll move on to the NFL. And the word of the day of the NFL is who's the best team? I don't know. I I don't know who the best team is. And I would say LA.

SPEAKER_00:

But the Rams are certainly in the discussion, no doubt about it. I know that uh, you know, there was some question as to the game last week against the Rams, against uh Seahawks, because uh Donald had the interceptions, and uh with all that, they still only scored 24 points or 21 points, a one by three or four, whatever it was. But they're uh they're a good football team for sure. They have enough pieces. I think they could probably use another player on defense. I don't know. I know last night they were showing Aaron Donald during the broadcast. I don't think he's making a return. Could he make a return, a late season uh signing or acquisition, whatever you want to call it, um, for a playoff push, certainly plausible. Um, I I don't know what kind of shape he's in. The guy's a monster, certainly a game changer. Um, but given the layout of the rest of the NFC, the Rams are certainly in the top of that discussion with the usual suspects. The Eagles, the Packers, the Bears are coming on. I don't think a lot of people believe yet. Like I said a couple weeks ago, they remind me of last year's Redskins, young quarterback defense is coming along each week. They're not great, but they're they're they're winning games. They're winning games late, they're making comebacks, they have all kinds of talent on offense. And Roma Dunze is in that offense, very unselfish player, probably their best offensive talent, in my opinion. Great receiver, young player. Two weeks ago, he had zero fantasy points and I almost lost my mind. And then I watched the film and he played hurt, and he was blocking the entire game, and he didn't really come off the field for much. And you get a player like that with that kind of talent at that age who's selfless, that that that's that's incredible. That's a guy that will be a factor in a championship run at some point, maybe not this year, but you need players like that to be successful. The Packers, you know, their defense is ranked high, but they're not a very opportunistic defense. They're certainly not as talented, not a knock on Michael Parsons, but I would give the edge defensively to the Lions in that division. I think they have a little bit more talent, and the Packers just don't, they don't create turnovers. This was the first week where they had, you know, I think they had 16 fantasy points. It's they've been in the single digits all year, and I know because I I dropped them this week, but they've got a rough schedule coming up. Those teams are all going to play each other to decide that division, and it's it's it's a crapshoot. The Lions are still probably the favorite, and I think that they're the most talented. They certainly are most the most talented on offense. I think they're probably as talented, if not more talented, than the Eagles, and that's saying a lot, with the exception of maybe the quarterback. Not knocking Jarek off, just Jalen Hurts is incredibly talented, and I would give them the edge of quarterback. But it's gonna be a fun next couple of weeks watching this play out. What do we have? Three, four, six, six weeks left, seven weeks left.

unknown:

Right?

SPEAKER_02:

We just play a what do we just play?

SPEAKER_04:

I really believe that the team at the end of the day is gonna be in the Super Bowl will be the team with the best offensive line and the most menacing defense.

SPEAKER_00:

Maybe both.

SPEAKER_04:

Maybe both.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You mentioned before the Lions had an issue, offense is their offensive line. You would think that it's kind of glaring their losses and how they kind of how they played against the Giants, at least in the first half, it was kind of gross. But I I think they'll they'll they'll put it together. We'll see. I mean, they're they're they're not as seasoned maybe as the Eagles or even the Rams.

SPEAKER_04:

So if you had to pick up here's the here's the teams here's rated by, I guess, NFL. So nobody's clinched the playoff spot, obviously, yet. So you have Patriots, right? They're one and two. Getting better every week. They're 10-2 and getting better every week.

SPEAKER_00:

I thought they would have a I didn't watch the game. I I I saw maybe three plays. I was I was thinking that they would have a blowout win in Cincinnati or that Trevion Henderson was gonna have a big game returning to Cincinnati during Ohio State, Michigan week. But I think from what I can tell, and I I've read very little, they're they're playing very close to the best, and they're not entering all their chambers, and they're getting better every week. They work on things. If they have a deficiency, they rotate, they they they don't shy away from their weaknesses. They don't just throw out their best every week in terms of giving their best player the ball, making the quarterback do something extraordinary. They just play within themselves and they they know how to beat teams.

SPEAKER_04:

So you have the Patriots, the Broncos, which we know uh just seem to be a well-coached team. You get things to happen. The Colts, you know, are number three here on the list. They're eight and three. You know what everybody says, it's sooner or later the quarterback's gonna blow up. I don't necessarily believe that at all. Then the Ravens, who are um Lamar is hurt. Six and five. I don't see that at all.

SPEAKER_00:

I I think they I think they can I still think they can win that division, but I don't think they're going very far in the playoffs, especially if Lamar is not Lamar.

SPEAKER_04:

Then it's seven to five, seven and five, you have Chargers, Jaguars, and Bills. Seven and four, I mean.

SPEAKER_02:

The Bills are are are beatable.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, there's no question about that. And it's not a knock on the Bills. It's just, you know, they don't have, they've got a revolving door at wide receiver right now. They not suspended, but they they benched their their one of their young wide receivers, Keon Coleman. Shakir looks pretty good, but they had two guys they called off from the practice squad. I mean, they haven't straightened it out, and it's week 12. And their defense at times looks like they can't stop anybody.

SPEAKER_04:

So the the two teams I would say that are on the bubble that may have some spring to them is the Texans. Because they really look good. Their defense is incredible. Their defense is incredible, and it may be enough at least to get them to the playoffs. And if they get in the playoffs, if the defense can cry, depending on who they play, may it may it may carry them a little farther than they should. And the Chiefs, who knows? I mean, he seems to turn it on. He just won his seventh overtime game. He's 7-0 in overtime in regular season. Who knows?

SPEAKER_00:

Everybody Patrick Mahomes, you talking about? No one wants to play them. And this weekend proved it. I mean, they that was a huge game. Huge game. That that could that could be the pivotal point in their season, because if they lose to Indianapolis, it's it's they're virtually written off, right? Like you can never write them off, but you lose to Indianapolis, and now your destiny is no longer in your own hands. Whereas they still have leverage. So and and tiebreaker.

SPEAKER_04:

Here we go, and tiebreaker. Here we go to NFL. I mean NFC. The Rams, who are 9-2, I think they're the best candidate out there. The Eagles, who seem to win, but they have no offense.

SPEAKER_00:

They seem they had it in the first half last night.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, okay. But I mean, until they get if they can get their run a game going, anything can happen, but they're not gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00:

You don't think they'll they'll they'll get him going? Nope.

SPEAKER_04:

And I don't think it's him.

SPEAKER_00:

I just think No, it's definitely not him. It's not him. It's never him.

SPEAKER_04:

It's never him.

SPEAKER_00:

You have to wonder, you know, Sirianni, I know he, you know, I don't like him. I don't I know you don't like him. Fire him.

SPEAKER_04:

Fire him today. Bring Belichick. I don't know that there's justification for Belichick out of out of uh North Carolina, and he'll he'll put that team together in three minutes.

SPEAKER_00:

I think I can't, I can't, I can't say that they're sandbagging offensively, but you know how I talk every week about the Patriots, how they're bringing along Drake May, and they're not trying to do things outside of his his his ability, but at the same time, they're working on the things that he doesn't do well, which aren't a lot of things. It's just he's gotta have more experience, right? Sometimes I'm like, why did Philly run that play? Why did Philly do that this way? And I'm thinking to myself, are they are they taking pitches on purpose? Are they swinging and missing on purpose?

SPEAKER_04:

Because it looks that way, but I can't, nobody's that smart.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no. And in the NFL, it's different. You really can't do that. But they went up 21-0 last night, and I'm like, watch Dallas come back and win win this game. Because we already know Dallas, the Dallas defense is a sieve. I mean, it's just not it's not a great defense. I know they they upgraded and they made a splash with the trade.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, come on, they suck.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I'm not I'm not gonna go that far, but they're not they're not a good defense. But they're but their defense is not better or worse than the Bears' defense. Their defense is not better or worse than uh the Packers' defense, and and the Packers may have more talent or better players or whatever, but the Packers have not been opportunistic and impressive. It's not like they're running away with sacking the quarterback. I mean, they play a very standard four-rush defense.

SPEAKER_04:

So with Philadelphia, the Bears. The Bears, who knows? What team shows up?

SPEAKER_00:

I think, like I said, I would not be surprised if the Bears make it to the NFC Championship game. They're very reminiscent of last year's Redskins.

SPEAKER_04:

And they have talent offensively. And their quarterback has games that sometimes you like, who is that guy? Yeah. The Buccaneers, they had a head of steam, starting to look a little weaker. Their quarterback could be hurt.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's you know, what a black eye that I I you know, you root for Baker, right? And you want Todd Bowles to be successful, but that one play kind of encompassed both guys in one shot. It was an egregious mistake that should never have happened, putting him in a position like that. And he didn't even get hit. He he he unloaded, you know, that pass and hit the ground, and it looked like he was he already hurt himself before he hit the ground.

SPEAKER_04:

But I think he had hurt himself prior to that. Yeah, he did, definitely. I think he's a real trooper, but I don't know what I don't know what his status is, but he looks that's that's the difference.

SPEAKER_00:

See, that right there, Baker has come so far, he's not gonna say no, right? Like he's not gonna go to the coach and say, look, I I can't make this throw, let's save it. I'll encork one at the end of the game. A veteran quarterback, and I'm not not that Baker isn't a veteran at this point, Baker's gonna go balls to the wall on every play and try and beat you. And, you know, if you get one in the end zone, a tip pass, and your guy catches it, maybe you come back. But at that point in the game, he's got to be able to say to the coach, we gotta take a knee here. Unless you're drawing some play in the dirt that doesn't involve him making a throw like that or putting himself in harm's way. So it just wasn't worth it.

SPEAKER_04:

So the next two teams, Seattle, Green Bay, I don't think either one of them's going anywhere. If they're making the Green Bay? Yeah, I think the 49ers have a better shot, and they're seven and four. The Packers are seven, three, and one. Seattle is eight and three. I I think the four niners, some people, if they can get them healthy, you know, Purdy comes back and plays a game of his life, I think they're more likely.

SPEAKER_00:

What does their schedule look like, the Packers?

SPEAKER_04:

I don't know. I have to look at it. That that tie may actually help them because it'll you know, look who you have on the bubble. So you have Lions, Panthers, Cowboys, Falcons, Vikings.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean I would take the Lions over any of those teams.

SPEAKER_04:

So would I. They're seven and four. Yep. And they're about to play the Giants, I think. They just played the Giants. I mean, they just played the Giants. So I don't know, week twelve, here we are. Panthers. Six and five. Cowboys five five and one.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know. Again, the tie is gonna be a factor.

SPEAKER_04:

Yep, always is. So, I mean, that's really that's really a lot to say about what's going on in the NFL.

SPEAKER_00:

What happens when the when the Cowboys and the Packers have the same exact record?

SPEAKER_04:

Packers win. Don't they have them didn't they beat him another time or nothing?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, they that's who that's that's the tie. The Cowboys and the Packers tied one another.

SPEAKER_04:

What if they both it goes to something else?

SPEAKER_00:

What if they both end up, you know, nine, six, and one?

SPEAKER_04:

I think it goes then to uh conference uh division. Division uh inside the division wins and losses. I think that's the next one.

SPEAKER_00:

That'll be interesting if it plays out that way. I don't know. Dallas wins and then ties Detroit somehow, comes back and then loses the tiebreaker, which is which would be like the second or third tiebreaker. That would be wild. They'd go nuts in Dallas. Points four, points against. That would be absolutely I mean, that would be epic. Either way, that would be a hell of a story. One team advances and the other one doesn't because it went to a second or third tiebreaker.

SPEAKER_04:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

They both and and they tied each other. Because we've seen it before, but now I don't think we've seen it where two teams played each other and tied, and there was a lot of hype going into that game. And neither team could score in overtown.

SPEAKER_02:

Or did they both did they both kick field goals?

SPEAKER_00:

And score touchdowns.

unknown:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't remember. Yeah. Yeah, it's a packed lot. I mean, it it's a pretty big heap. So it'll be interesting for sure. I I think you're right though about the Rams. Sean McVay is an incredible coach. If I had to pick one team right now, gun to my head, I I'd I want to go with the Rams.

SPEAKER_04:

And you know what? You want to laugh? Did you see when they called a when they were trying to call a play, and the two of them were going back and forth, and and the quarterback's flinging his arms at the coach because the coach, because their plays are so complicated they had to call a timeout. They had to call a timeout. And they got aggravated. That was just like a great moment. The two of them, and it kind of reminds me of of Brady and Bettelcheck.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, that kind of Parcells and Bill Sams. Well, I don't think their offense was that complicated.

SPEAKER_04:

Do you think you're right? I don't think their offense was too complicated. And, you know, I'll be honest with you, I don't think anybody gave Parcell shit. I really just don't.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, if they did, he didn't give a crap. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_04:

The best is when he used to pick on to try to motivate, not to go back in time again, but when he used to motivate Lawrence Taylor, it's like, oh, everybody's grabbing out there. Nobody's really playing. We gotta play a better defense. You see the way we miss that? He would like to need to wake up. And then he would go out and make this amazing play.

SPEAKER_00:

I my favorite story is him telling he left a plane ticket on Lawrence Taylor's seat in front of his locker. It was a one-way ticket to New Orleans. And Lawrence Taylor picks it up and looks at it, and he marches over to Parcell's office. He's like, What the hell is this? And he said, It's a one-way ticket. He goes, You go down there. There's another guy that wears 56, and he was talking about Pat Swelling. He says, You give him your helmet and you come back here. He goes, You don't even have to change jerseys because you wear the same number, and he'll come back here. And he can get paid. I was talking about um the Rams left tackle, who is a tremendous player. I got I forgot his name. Oh man. Might have been Panky. I'm trying to remember. Lawrence Taylor just had, you know, trouble with this guy for whatever reason. I mean, he was a Hall of Famer in his own right. And he said, Parcellus says that drove a, you know, lit the fire. And after that, I didn't have to worry about him. He went out there and had like three sacks.

SPEAKER_04:

I never saw, I mean, I was at a lot of those games. I was at the playoff game, you know, when when with the interception when Bert leveled was I was sitting right by the rail on the end zone where Burt leveled Montana. Montana, and he caught the thing. I mean, I was at so many of those games, and and the things I saw Lawrence Taylor do.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, you make a great point there. Something we talked about before. Jim Burt. The game was on television, right? Back then, the Jets and Giants did not play at the same time.

SPEAKER_04:

What is up with that?

SPEAKER_00:

Incredibly frustrating because you want to watch both games. And I I actually left the house. I I I I watched the first quarter flipping back of both games. I got disgusted because of my fantasy implications. So I left before Gibbs had it had gone off. Gibbs is on my roster. I was playing against Derrick Henry and uh Brees Hall. So I had a vested interest. My quarterback is Lamar Jackson, my wide receiver is Zay Flowers. So those two games were like the whole day. And I was so disgusted after the first quarter, I was like, that's it. I'm leaving the house. I took my wife to lunch. I just couldn't watch anymore because I was like, this is just some of the ugliest football I've ever seen. As a kid, you know, the Jets were on at one o'clock. Unless they were a West Coast game, and they were never on at the same time. The Giants were always the four o'clock game, or they were the one o'clock game if the Jets were the West Coast.

SPEAKER_04:

I think it was prohibited. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

It could have been it could have been a pro but now it's it to me, it's it's watching it, it doesn't make sense. I I just don't get it. And maybe it's because they want the national game to have all the attention at four o'clock, but you know, then they make a different time or or move the national game to you know 6 30. I don't know. I you know, it just stinks to have be in this market with two teams available to watch, and we can't see them both. We have to watch, we have to pick one over the other, and the Giants are always gonna win the face-off. They're just more interesting and they have more history.

SPEAKER_02:

And they're better. Traditionally speaking.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

I'll take your word for it. It's it's I don't even know what to say. I mean, I I'm so sick of that crap. All right, was there anything else there we had to cover with football? We can move on before we end up today. I have to, you know, we're gonna have to let football play out. We have some games. I don't think there's any crazy good games on on Thanksgiving. You know, usually ones we wanted to watch. I don't think there's any. But I would have to say, I I have to, as everyone knows, I'm a fan of F1 racing. I I enjoy it a great deal. I watch all the practices. I watch, I have the app so you can watch them anytime. I watch the qualifications. This week we're in America. We're in Las Vegas, the home of Flash all over the place. And what happens? During the practice, they leave one of the manhole covers off in the middle of the race course, and they have to suspend the thing because people are driving 120 miles an hour over a place they want to overall.

SPEAKER_02:

How until that happened?

SPEAKER_04:

Who the hell knows? They end up suspending it. So that's during the race? During the practice. They practice and then qualify. So they qualified on Saturday morning. Lando Norris wins the poll. And then they're not playing on Sunday. I don't know why. Is it the holidays? Because they have to go next week, they got to travel to the Middle East. I don't know what it is. But it's on Sunday night. Maybe because they don't want to race in the middle of the day because so much goes on in Las Vegas. But you can argue so much goes on in the middle of the night in Las Vegas. So it's 11 p.m. start to racing. Leonard Norris. I don't know what to say what happened to him. I have no idea what happened to him, but he comes out of pole position the first corner, he he gets distracted. I don't know what happens. Next thing you know, he's third. Two people pass him. Max Verstappen, who's in third or fourth, I don't remember the exact position, ends up in first. He ends up winning. Uh whatever happened, there's this huge fight with Ferrari going on. The president's saying out there, the president of Ferrari is out there saying that, you know, the drivers, meaning Hamilton and McClare, should be doing less talking and more racing. Well, Hamilton hasn't gotten along with that. This guy has seven world championships. And yes, is he a little bit of a diva? He is. But he's got seven world championships. He should have eight, to be honest. But even McLaren had said that recently. And the race goes down, Mac Verstaffin wins. And and now you got this issue, you know, because Max was in third in the points for the world championship, and now he's in second because Oscar Petres and him were tie, and now he's back and and Lendo's still in front, but by 25, 25 points and two races to go. Well, what if you have a do not did not finish? So there's all these issues, so it goes back and forth. And what happens? All McLaren drivers are disqualified because they have inappropriate thickness on their bottom plate of their cars or whatever the distance is to create a better downdraft.

SPEAKER_00:

Downdrafts.

SPEAKER_04:

So they measure that in the end of the race, which they always do. And both drivers get disqualified. So none of them get points.

unknown:

Wow.

SPEAKER_04:

Who are first and third are the only three guys that are left ability to win the world championship, and Max wins, and the other two guys get do not finish disqualification. So here we are going into two races left, both in the Middle East, Qatar and Dubai, I think. And it's just an amazing turn of events. First of all, they give a they give McLaren um they give out every year, whatever it is, the constructors award, where the team that supports them wins when they have the most points. McLaren won it weeks ago, they had so many points. And ever since then, there's seen this, it's kind of fallen apart a little bit. Certainly with Oscar, it's fallen apart a little bit because he his car, something happens to his car. I don't know what went on.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I I don't know, but I think so.

SPEAKER_04:

Here's where we are. Norris has 390 points with two races to go. Piastri has 366 with two races to go. Verstappen has uh 366 with two races to go.

SPEAKER_01:

They're the they're the top three.

SPEAKER_00:

So is it just those three that are competing for the the overall title? Like the ones that have a realistic shot? Correct.

SPEAKER_04:

So what does Verstappen need to win? I mean, Norris is probably gonna win no matter what happens. All he has to do is finish in somewhere in an in a in a in the top ten towards the top on both races, and he should win. Even if Max wins both races, it would seem that Norris should win, but he can't get disqualified. He can't have an accident and not finish. You know, that's that's really for Verstappen to win, he really needs some misfortunes and have a poor result by, and that seems to be what's happening to McLaren. So, and Max Race for Red Bull. Red Bull has two teams. They have an A team and a B team, even though they don't call it that. They are, which is pretty interesting because they're able to have this bullpen of drivers in case they need it, and that's really where it's at. But I found it embarrassing as an American that we can't even operate an F1 race. I mean, there were two ones. That is pretty embarrassing. There's one in Texas and there's one in Florida. They both went fine.

SPEAKER_00:

And you're and you're not racing through the city the same way you're racing through cities in Europe, right?

SPEAKER_04:

I mean you're in Las Vegas, but you're not on the streets of You're on the streets of Las Vegas. You raced right past it was so cool. If you can go back and watch the race, find a video. They go right past the sphere. And the sphere is like made like a character with eyes that are following the car as it drives by.

SPEAKER_00:

Are there are there I would imagine Vegas is less congested than these European cities, though, right? Well, they just close everything. Yeah, they're not driving through neighborhoods in Vegas. They're they're they're driving it's different.

SPEAKER_04:

So they're not not all. Some have tracks and some race through cities. Depends on this on the place. You know, Monaco's on the streets, that's the one everyone loves. Um I'm sure they have tracks in in the and uh I'm not sure. I shouldn't say that, but so that I mean that's where that's at. And I and I'm um I mean it just seems, and this is really the first year I've been really obsessed with it. It just seems at the end of this year, all these teams have gone in this disarray. Whether it's Ferrari that's been in disarray from the beginning, but you thought they would get it together. They got worse. Uh LeClaire has has gotten some podiums. He hasn't won any races, but he has gotten a third, he may have gotten a second. So I don't know. That's that's really where they're at. I mean, there's rumors that Hamilton may go back to Mercedes and somebody from Mercedes may come to Ferrari, and then you have two new teams this year. You know, you have Audi and Cadillac. Who knows where it's gonna go? All new cars next year, who knows where it's gonna go? A lot of money being spent for craziness. Kind of like the NFL and Major League Baseball. So that's where it's at. Anything else you want to cover? Michigan-Ohio State. Go ahead. I I've uh you know what? Until they force Notre Dame into a conference, I'm not gonna watch college football, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, who wants to watch Notre Dame anyway?

SPEAKER_04:

Go ahead. Tell me about Michigan Ohio State.

SPEAKER_00:

Some interesting stuff here. Both teams have a freshman quarterback. Um, so there's a lot of hype coming in this year from Michigan's quarterback, and then Ohio State rolls out um you know, Julian Saiyan, who's having a decent season, and they're undefeated, and they're looking like they're rolling. I think they're number one in the country. It's it's it's their tournament to win, so to speak. Uh, they have a true freshman running back named Bo Jackson, who's averaging, I think, for his career, six, five a carry, who is um pretty, pretty tremendous athlete, and they're loaded at every position like they always are. Any relation? No relation. His his first name is actually Lamar, and they I guess they nicknamed him Bo Jackson as a as an homage coming out of high school. I think he earned that nickname. Uh State, they they got a lot of players in from the portal. They lost players from the portal. Um, but they're, you know, they're loaded for bear. Um their offensive line is considerably big. It's it's they've got it, and not that they're playing against each other, but their offensive line is is bigger than Michigan's. They both average the same height, over six foot four. But uh Ohio State's uh offensive line is averaging, I think they're averaging like 330, which is incredible. That's just that's those are big people. But uh Michigan, Michigan's offensive line is averaging about 315-ish. So slight advantage to Ohio State there, but Michigan's offensive line is a little more experienced, if you will. They played together longer, they're a little bit more cohesive, they're getting better every week. You know, you're playing with a freshman quarterback on both sides. So they're, you know, you would expect a lot of energy, um, maybe some early mistakes in this game before things calm down. Last year you had the, you know, Ohio State's been licking they've lost four years on a row to Michigan, five years in a row to Michigan. And I haven't beat Michigan since I think 2020. And uh was that canceled and it was 2019? I can't even remember now. It's been so long since they beaten Michigan. And Michigan's gonna have to answer for how they treated Ohio State last year when they left the field with the flag and the fight and everything else that happened, and that was kind of a a black eye. I'm sure that's gonna be the lead, you know, coming into the game for the network. Um, and we'll see. Michigan's got some players. Like I said, they've been getting better every week. They've got a few transfers, just like Ohio State. Um, but they're gonna be, you know, rolling out Justice Haynes at running back. And uh it's gonna be in Michigan. It's gonna be about 30 degrees. There might be some snow because they did talk about precipitation, light precipitation.

SPEAKER_04:

11-point underdog. Let's just leave it at that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, that that favors Michigan because whenever they're a huge dog to Ohio State, they seem to always come out on top.

SPEAKER_01:

We shall see.

SPEAKER_00:

Ryan Day certainly gotta be blicking his chops to get at Michigan again. And then you've got Sherole Moore, who took over two years ago and got his first win, and then beat Ohio State, beat his undefeated against Ryan Day, which gotta stick in his grog. This is such, I mean, greatest rivalry in sports. So we'll see what happens on Sunday. Because I'm not watching the game where I normally watch it, I'm gonna be in a different venue for this. And I told my host, if Michigan wins, I'll be there every year. But if it goes the other way, I'm never coming back. So that's my prediction.

SPEAKER_04:

So I just want to say, Jose, Jose put in the chat, and I didn't see it right off the bat, for some reason the chats weren't coming up. I had to re- I had to uh flush it. And and he said, I wouldn't mind you guys being head coach and defensive coordinator for the New York Giants. They probably have a better season.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, you know, we didn't even mention that they fired the defensive coordinator. They fired, they fired Bowen today.

SPEAKER_04:

I was well, that's a long time coming. I didn't see anything today because I was working, but I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00:

Real quick, I'll just say that Kafka made the decision. He fired Bowen. Uh Kafka positioning himself as a head coach, not just interim coach, because that's a decision the head coach has to make. Like you just said, it was a long time coming. Uh clearly there had to be a relationship with Dable and Bowen that he didn't want to fire Bowen. There was no excuse. He should have been fired. Like I said, they should have left him on the tarmac in Denver. And I guess Kafka gave him, you know, one opportunity not to repeat again, losing a game in the fourth quarter, and here they go again. So Bowen's out. I didn't see who replaced him, probably somebody from within. I'm I'm sure they didn't go out and get somebody. But yeah, Bones out, and uh that's probably a good thing. Kafka making a statement that I'm not just here for the short term, I'm coaching to coach. And he wants this job. And he's proving good for him. Yeah, because you have to be a leader and you have to make those tough decisions, because if you don't make tough decisions, you're gonna have a tough road ahead. So good for Kafka. You know, whether or not he gets the job, I don't think we can make that determination yet. I don't think he will based on history, but you know, he's we'll see what happens now that he's kind of righted the ship, so to speak, if he can get these guys to fall in line and buy in and and and you know, get a win somewhere.

SPEAKER_04:

And there it is.

SPEAKER_02:

And there it is.

SPEAKER_04:

I think we'll leave it there. What do you think?

SPEAKER_02:

Go blue.

SPEAKER_04:

Go big blue. All right. That's it. Next week, we'll see what we were right about and what we were wrong about, which is probably everything and nothing. Thank everybody. Please like and subscribe. We need more subscribers. Please, if you're listening, if you're watching, if you're doing anything, please come and subscribe. Go to our website. You can put your name on our mailing list to keep you updated about what's going on with us. And that's at step andjustin.com. You can also see all our past YouTube videos are all on there. So we thank everybody. We thank Jose and everybody else that was on the chat. I thank Justin. And that's all there is. Talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_00:

See you next week.

SPEAKER_04:

Bye.