Golf in the Rain, the Mets Make Changes, and LeBron Is Looking for a New Home.

It was a wet and wild day of golf at The Travelers Championship. Erik was there, dodging raindrops. The guys are also talking about LeBron, Lonnie Hawkins, and the birthday game.

The ED/BC Podcast. You think you hate it now, but wait until you listen to it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Welcome back to another edition of the EDBT podcast, Eric Dobratz and Brian Coleman on a Tuesday morning. We normally would tape on a Monday morning, but uh we had a golf tournament to worry about, Brian. As a fan sitting home, you shot me a few text messages. I'm sure you're trying to get under my skin at one point on Sunday. Didn't work a little bit, a little bit. By the way, didn't work. Um, I was at the course in that rainstorm, which was unbelievable. And I was there for the finish. I did not work yesterday on Monday. I was out of town. I had a prior commitment, so I didn't miss the I missed the I watched the seven strokes on TV and then from a different location. But what was your thought as a fan? Disappointment they blew the horn at uh you know 820 on uh Sunday night? Did you want to see them try to play in the dark? What was your thoughts? Well, a couple things.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

It was um no, I I I knew it was probably gonna be they're gonna have to blow the horn. It was like 820. Um even 820, which is so funny is I live about an hour south of Cromwell, Connecticut, and uh we didn't see a drop of rain. It was actually kind of half sunny, half cloudy here. And I'm watching like an app, you know, an hour drive north to just under an hour, and it's like a monsoon up there. Um but no, I thought it was really the last hour after the rain delay, I thought it was a lot of fun. I thought it was kind of cool that uh, you know, the the leaderboard for most of Saturday and Sunday seemed to be really grouped. It was pretty tight, and there was some back and forth, a lot of back and forth with uh Scotty Scheffler, number one player in the world, and Victor Hudlin. That was what it boiled down to in eight, you know, eight o'clock, eight twenty Sunday night. They they got through, you know, they got through 18, man. And like, well, okay, we gotta go to playoff. Bad news is you can't go to a playoff. We're out of time, we're losing daylight here. And the other funny part, of course, is NBC, who really I know you weren't watching it just from the TV coverage. I mean, they kind of like didn't leave themselves a lot of wiggle room because they have their Sunday night baseball starting at 7 o'clock at night. And when you have the leaders tee off at 2 55, you're saying, okay, we really make to make sure this ends around 7. It's getting really tight. You throw in the hour rainduler or whatever it was, and the reaction from Red Sox and Yankees fans on social media go, get this stupid golf off the TV was kind of funny for me. I found it almost as amusing and as enjoyable as the actual golf the prior hour.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

It's NBC's fault. We talked about it before the tournament started, Brian. They those tea times should have been 155 on Sunday. That's times they've always been. And 100%. NBC pushed them back an hour because they wanted golf to bleed right into MLB. So I'm glad it went long screw them. That's it blew up in your face. You had to put baseball on, I'm assuming they put baseball on Peacock or something like that. Yeah. Um, so people were pissed off, but that's your own fault. It's your own fault. 255 is a really ridiculous start time. I mean, and play was called at 557. They blew the horn at 557. So the tournament would have been over if they had played their normal times. And then you know, you do your post-game celebration, your trophy, do a little recap of the highlights, but they didn't want to have to go to world uh to you know NBC Nightly News at 6.30 or local news, god forbid. They wanted to go, they wanted to hog the whole hour from six to seven, and they got screwed. So shame on them. But uh my feeling with the tournament is I just thought that uh Scotty never never he he had a big, you know, that big second round, and then it was his tournament to win. He just couldn't pull away. I mean, he missed a lot of putts, but then down the stretch on fifth 14 and 15, he made par saves. On 17, he lips out a birdie putt. And then of course on 18 to force the playoff, he makes a huge parse as well. So like you can't kill him, uh, because the guy, you know, made huge putts when he had to, and then of course he lost the tournament on a putt the next day, which is funny. I don't know if you were watching live when it happened. I was, but when he pulled off the ball to kind of remark his ball, I knew right then and there he was gonna miss the putt. Just when you get out of the room like that, that's what I thought.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

So I uh forgot I was on, so about 9.10, it clicked on on my brain, and I ran over and turned the TV on. I was working from home. And of course, I swear I turned it on just as he's like, as the putts going going wide of the hole. I'm like, oh and then they show whipped whipped your hovlin. Like, so I missed it all because I forgot that it was like the one. So we had well like about seven minutes of golf on Monday morning after all that weekend and a such a long Sunday. Everybody that can come back on Monday morning, we're gonna be here for just about 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Yeah, they played uh you know, 13 hours later, they had seven strokes. Four by Scotty, three by Hoblin. So and that that post worth a million bucks. He missed it because the difference of finishing first and second was probably a million bucks, or at least maybe more. So, but overall, Brian, it was a great weekend. Uh I think they said they had like 45,000, 50,000 fans. The tournament director mentioned it could have been more, but for fans from 42 different states, um, it was electric out there all weekend long. And I I don't know if you saw some of the social media chatter about it, because obviously, you know, in the beginning of the week, Brian, uh, when Tiger Woods came to town, which was also very cool. Um, there was talk that this is this tournament going to make the champions tour, that that champions circuit. Is it gonna be an elevated event going forward? They have all yeah, uh they think all likelihood it will be, but I mean everyone was saying, like it felt like uh I don't know if it was Brandle Shamp Brandon Brandle Chambly or somebody or one of the other guys said it felt like a major out there. That's how great the fan base was and the excitement on that final. You know, you've been there, those final four holes, 15, 16, 17, and 18. It's yeah, it's great. And the players love it. They love going there. The caddies get a rental car, which doesn't happen in other places. The families are taken care of. So it's just a great week of golf. Uh I hate giving away a week of summer selfishly because that's what you're doing. You're out there Tuesday through Sunday from nine to nine, but um it's a great event to cover. And it always, always has a dramatic finish. I've been to all of them. I've been they put up the board on uh yesterday morning, Brian, uh before that, uh dating back to 2005 with Brad Faxton playing in a playoff. I was at the Harris English eight-hole playoffs. I remember that.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

I was at that one, yep.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

You know, I was at the COVID one where Dustin Johnson won, and I was standing on the hill by myself with Chris Furman and Nathan Groove and Andy Bissett because there was only one media person allowed from each TV station and no fans.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

I I don't I kind of vaguely I guess I I remember that one a little bit. I doubt that one doesn't jump out to me out to me as much. The Harris English one again. I was there. That was great. That was awesome. The ending. Um, I love how they called it a you know, good. I love the 18th, everybody does. It's like they described on TD as an amphitheater. Like, yeah, that's exactly it. I always say call it a bowl, but yeah, it's like an amphitheater. So that's kind of cool. Um, you know, and then I wasn't for the I know you were this one, you know, my guy Jordan Speeth uh chipping up for that sudden death overtime hole. That was an awesome moment. Very cool. And yeah, TV, it's hard to gauge, but it did look really crowded out there, and of course, as is the case right now, and probably the next several weeks in this country, you even had like a World Cup things going on there because they kept showing the the Norwegians. And I don't know, we said like I don't know if they're Norwegian fans or they're actually Norwegians, but they all had their jerseys or what do you call them, soccer? I don't know, call them jerseys, soccer jerseys on looked like a lot of fun. Um, and the difference was, you know, and I think Terry Gannon or Dan Hicks mentioned it on Saturday, not Sunday, maybe it was Saturday. You know, after a week ago with the US Open, which was kind of a bummer event between the crowds being kind of jerks and not a great crowd out there, and a course that's a bitch. Like you could tell, like me and the the players must have been like loving getting back up to the travelers, which is you know, not the most challenging course on the tour. And as they, as I think one of those two guys said, because this is not Shindikok, this is not last week. So that was that to me, I'd rather watch tests.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

It was fun. You can score there. The the one thing I'll say about the fans, the thing you're gonna run into at all these tournaments. So, you know, my son was out there with all his buddies. Uh the the the the yelling out of certain things. Um it's almost like a a copycat thing, Brian, where people are trying to make viral things by yelling things and taping themselves on their phone and all that. So that's a little bit annoying because it does seem uh not organic for lack of a better term. Um so you're gonna get those that that bro generation of you know 20-something year olds with the beer muscles because they've been drinking all day, you know what I mean? So but it was cool.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Out of those Mickel of ultras for 10 and 11 in the morning, like okay, guys, go get them.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Yeah, no, 100%. And but again, lots of great people had a good time. A lot of people stayed, Brian. I will tell you that, man. There was a lot of people um that stayed throughout that rain delay. It was, you know, day 557, the horn went off and it was boring. I don't know if you could tell at home, but it was boring. Like the metal roof we were sitting on, man, it sounded like a pellet storm, like it was coming down. Uh, but we went back out there at 720, and there was still probably a thousand people hanging around the green waiting for it. They just stood in the rain, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

What was the uh it's hard to tell on TV, you know, they they're trying to tell you about some areas where there's pooling and all this kind of crap of like puddles. What did you think? What was the level of play? How much was it impacted by that rain and then that hour of just like you know uh what was the play like either? How much of the impact had on the last hour of play, you think, when they came back?

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Well, listen, you get you have the ability to go right for the hole because you don't have to worry about your ball spinning off 25 yards from the green because the greens aren't hard, sun-baked all day, they're soft. So that was the the only difference was the guys were going right for the pin on 18. And I was on 18 for the at 720. My colleague John Pearson went out to 17. Um, but 18, like that hole, you're going right at it. So those even Scotty, who on his set his drive went into went far right on Sunday night, and he was 170 yards out and put it within, you know, a few 10 feet of the cup. So then, yeah, no, an 18 on the final hole because his drive went real right and he was able to scramble and get the par. So yeah, I don't think it had that much. It was funny watching the guy squeegee like at an intern with me, and he's like, wait a minute, they're out there squeegeeing the fairway. Is that turf or real grass? Because that's how nice the grass is out there, squeegeeing it right in the drainage holes. So there was a few puddles here and there, but for the most part, I don't think it affected play. It was more about the darkness. And by the way, that is a PGA tour call that is not done at the local level. It's kind of like MLB when MLB has control of a game until they call the range. So then the tournament director Nathan Group was standing 10 feet to my right when he made the announcement there would be a playoff, and he got booed, obviously. But right before that, he'd been on his cell phone and he was on the cell phone with the PGA because they were calling saying, This is it. You know, you gotta think about it, Brian. It's a lot of money. I mean, it's a $20 million purse. The winner gets, I think, $3.2 million or something like that. You want them playing in the dark. I mean, I personally think they could have played one more hole. Could have played one more hole. But the problem is they have they want him to go to the tent and fill out their scorecard, and then they're gonna walk back to the 18th T. No, no, no. We all saw the score. Don't just drive it back to the T-box and let them go again. You know? They've done that before. I don't know why. Whatever. Yeah. So anyway.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

It worked out. It was a quick immediate, it was a quick Monday. Good for Victor Hovlin. I don't believe he's I don't know if this is his first PG or tour when I think it is. I'm not sure. Not sure. But you know, and people like, oh, Scotty keeps coming in second or third. Like, oh Tiger, and I of course he always gets gets what you got on Monday morning. I know you were out of town, maybe you didn't see it. Oh, Tiger would have made that putting. Can we stop with the Sheffler Scotty Tiger? Nobody's comparing Scotty to Tiger. There's nobody comparing Jack Nicholas, maybe. That's a tiger comparison. But Scotty Scheffler's still the best freaking player of the world. Oh, you he's had what like fourth top three finishes, and that's bad? Settle down. Settle down. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

So it's funny. On the second hole, we you know, we we divide and conquer on the when the guys tee off. So I was on two. John Pearson was on. So I do two and four until the guys clear those holes, then we readjust to the back half. And uh Scotty had a butt on two and he left it short, and one of the guys yells out, hit it with your purse.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

I shouldn't laugh at such things, but you know, I know.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

But it just, you know, that's the type of thing we're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

You know.

unknown 12:23

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Oh, anyway.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

And good, you know what? Again, just my last note on it. And you know, again, for years and years, and you like, you know, uh, you know, obviously, you know, it was all about well, Tiger never played there, but you know, he's always like, oh, Phil's the big draw. Rory was very, you know, you had a great experience with your Barori and your kid, Rory McElory, his kids there, your kids there last year. What was it last year? And you know, Phil's well, let's not get to what's going on with Phil Mickelson right now, because not great.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

But the fact that you haven't paid attention to that, educate me on that. I saw Craig Carton posted something about your first step is recover. I uh what what's the problem? What's going on?

SPEAKER_01 12:57

There was just an article, I believe, engulfed digests are one of those things by Al, I don't want to call I don't see Alan Shipnut, I think is his name, the author. And it was just a bear basic an airing of a lot of dirty laundry. I Phil had some issues. Oh, I saw that from a couple, I thought there was something else. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, that's just I was just saying, you know, my my my my own my long-winded point was that I love to see the crowds out there, even though they didn't have the quote unquote some of the big names that are always big draws out there. Phil ain't coming back, Rory's playing a shorter special. Hopefully he's there again next year. But again, you got to see the number one player in the world in a freaking playoff. It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

No, I agree too, 100%. All right, we're gonna you want to start. We've been going here for about 10, 12 minutes. You want to take a timeout and come back? Yeah, let's take a timeout. We'll talk, we'll give the Mets their own little uh segment here. All right, go ahead, take it away. We'll bring it up.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

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SPEAKER_00 14:34

All right, man. So listen, the Mets did the inevitable, they fired their manager, and now of course everybody and their brother has to throw their two cents in. Eric Chavez is doing podcasts, you know, uh the athletics writing stories, and again, they're talking about leadership issues. But listen, Brian, this is pretty simple to say. The the general manager, president of basketball, uh baseball operations did a horrible job putting this team together. They've had a ton of injuries. I don't care if Casey Stengel's managing this team. They got no pitching, Clay Holmes is hurt. The bullpen has been good, but other than that, Brian, the team is not put together well. And someone's gonna take uh the bullet for it, and it's Carlos Mendoza.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Yeah, and uh it it had to happen. They had a disastrous homestand uh series with the Cubs where they get swept by the Cubs uh at City Field and they've got their brains beating a couple times. Really sloppy baseball, hard to watch. And again, I I listen, I liked Carlos Mendoza. I don't know him personally, but I thought he was he was decent. I I I'm of the opinion that baseball more than the other sports certainly like football. And then I think the managers always get too much credit when things are going great. I think they get too much blame when things are in the crapper. Uh so uh this is not a needle mover per se. Maybe jumpstart should. I mean, yeah, I know there's cases in the past when you like we we're seeing it this year. The Phillies can't lose ever since they got rid of Rob Thompson. Early in the year when the Phillies were really bad, about as bad as the Mets, they replaced them with Don Manningly. They've been fantastic ever since. So, but that team has talent more than talent than the Mets have, especially pitching. Um, and you know, unlike the Mets, they did not when Carl Schorber hit three agents in this last and Erickson knows I'm gonna beat this horse right to the ground and dig it up and beat it again and then bury it and dig it up again. You know, Carl Schwarber, when he was free agent this year, the Phillies didn't say Carl Schworber, who's 33, by the way, that Dave Nebraski didn't say, Well, I don't think he's gonna age well. I don't think we're gonna have him a contract. No, they offered him a contract, he's the best damn power hitter on the planet. Metz felt otherwise. I I'm running out of things to say about this stupid team. It sucks. I I know I think the owner's taking a lot of some unfair bullets. I know you had your little comment to me, and I'm gonna get to get into it because quite frankly, in the grand scheme of things, uh mo mo more owner more 15% of the owners in sports are a problem. Look at the teams re-root for. So, I mean, the thing of it is Steve Cohn, the owner, who's the richest guy in baseball, he hired the wrong guy. He hired the wrong guy. And now the problem is, of course, and it all boils down to this is they've had such issues during Cohn's ownership, and this is where Cohn really deserves really the real criticism he deserves. He hasn't got the higher rate yet. And we're on like the fourth guy. And this, unfortunately, which is supposed to be the last hire, we're finally okay. This is saddle, I've got my guy, we're good to go. Let's build a team over the next several, let's build a team this decade that we can be proud of. It was the worst of all the hires. Why do you do and now what do you do? I don't know. I have no idea because everyone's right. And you know, I several of the prominent national baseball writers made the same point. Are you gonna fire David Stearns and do this all over again? And then who do you go get? I don't know. But I know this is not there's what's that word? This is not this is an untenable situation, and it's just a matter of either Steve Cohn's gonna be really stubborn and this is just gonna be the way it is for the next few years, and you gotta hope you gotta hope you luck into some success, you know, at fall ass backwards into some good moves, or you get this is gonna be your ball club for the next several years. I don't know what it's it's dire.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Yeah, I I just you know the I the again, the idea, and and again, we all the spring training, oh, so-and-so looks great, so-and-so looks great. You hear that all the time.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Everybody here looks great.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Oh, Anthony Volpe is hitting the ball more to right field. He worked on that all winter. And then when the season starts, they all go back to right doing what they were doing before. So my biggest problem is just you know, having Brent Beatty out right field, you know, having Mark Mark Vientos is a butcher at first base, you know, and and you you want the run prevention thing is the thing that would bother me if I was a Met fan. He still sat up there at that podium with this, you know, and and any the little smarmy look he has, Stearns, and I know it drives people crazy, but it's true. He thinks he's he's got a little Aaron Rodgers in him, he thinks he's smarter than you, and he goes and puts people all over the field that are out of position. You know, and even last year, Brian, going back to the what was the closer they got from the um the Cardinals, they didn't have a scout look at the guy. It was purely analytic. Not one scout watched him pitch. I mean, how how is that happening in this world we live in? Not one scout watched him pitch, hell's Ryan Helsley or whatever his name was. Yeah, they just they looked at his numbers and said, Yeah, he'll work in New York. Not one scout looked in a pitch. I just he thinks he's smarter than you guys. And and the other thing he's done, Brian, is he's terribly overvalued the farm system. And the farm system he didn't draft either, by the way. No, he didn't. He didn't draw it. No, I mean, uh listen, Benge looks like he's gonna be a good player. Ewing looks like he's a good player. Um, I read a scathing report from uh one of the scouts the other day saying that they're gonna ruin Nolan McLean because they took away his north to south curveball and have him throwing more of an east to west breaking ball, and he hasn't been the same since this year since they took away his north to south. That was a scout who wrote it. Kevin Kern had the scout who's been pretty good about this stuff. But the little things were you saw with the Yankees, they wouldn't let Sonny Gray or um the left-hander there who went to Texas, they let go their um throw throw their certain, you know, I forget his name. He came up as a Yankee and went to Texas.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

No, I he's he's been good in Texas and I'm above my own.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Anyway, but they they they take away they they think they're so smart and the analytics tell them, oh, throw the sweeper instead of this or throw that. Sonny Gray's been ten times better since he left the Yankees because he's able to throw what he wants to throw. You know?

SPEAKER_01 20:26

I don't I don't understand that logic of like, why wouldn't you see this guy's really good at this? Why don't we build on that? I don't understand that. And I that's depress- I didn't know that about Molin McLean. That's depressing because he had some real he looked like he was a real ace and now he's just been not great the last couple months.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Yeah, and then you talk about the Soto stuff, Brian. Listen, I told you last year I know a guy at Work Security, and he told me that Soto is not part of that team. He does his own thing, he has his own separate stuff, you know, family, separate private rooms, has everything on his own. And then this report comes out, Eric Chavez says that Soto will go sit in the clubhouse during the games and have an assistant general manager like pat him on the back after a tough at bat or something like that. And Chavez went to Stearns and said, Listen, this is not good for young players to watch this. And Stearns said, Well, the young players aren't Juan Soto. So I don't know if you've paid attention to that.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

I want to do a little bit of a counterpoint to this because I've heard this before. And it's I kind of go back to sorry, this is an old school reference to Bill Russell drinking coffee and reading the paper while the rest of the team practiced back in the day and Red Arbax in. He's built, why does he get to do because he's billing Russell and you're not. You're practicing. He wants the morning off, he gets the morning off. There's not a lot of guys that get that leeway, and I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

He hasn't done it for the Mets, is the point. He hasn't done a thing for the Mets. He's been great, Eric. He had an MVP double. But Bill Russell won championships with the Celtics.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

I understand, and I I was about to make that point. I know he's not on he's not the Bill Russell of baseball. He doesn't have a he doesn't have a bag full of title of championship rings to to put on his finger. I understand that.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

That's the only difference.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

I do think there's a little bit. I would love it more if they could if there was less of that. But I he's one of the few guys. And I'm not I don't like it. But I think you sort of just have to deal with it. And I know that's not great.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

Yeah, you can't do it.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Especially on this team. What would be nice though is if this team had guys to sort of counteract that. Okay, Juan does his own thing. Let him be, whatever. Let him do his thing. We're together in this. If that's there, if they had some of that, I think they'd be better. They don't have that type of leadership. And I don't know if Brendan Nimba was that guy and they miss him. Or if uh I don't think Alonzo, from everything I've read and heard, was sort of that type of guy. He was a little bit of a guy who was sort of a down, you know, did his own thing too. And you if you have too many of those guys, it's probably a problem.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

So the old 25 players, 25 calves with the Red Sox thing. You know, but you can't criticize Soto on the field. But they the one thing I will counter on you on that too, as someone brought this up, was you did have another person on the team who wanted to be the leader and who wanted to be the captain, and you neutered him in the offseason. Lindor. Yeah, I mean Soto, because Soto didn't want him to be the captain. That's everything you hear. That Soto was didn't want him to be the leader of the team. So you that's why that's when Cohen came out and said we'll never have a captain, blah, blah, blah. So it's kind of, I don't know. I guess it to me, Brian, just it's it seems like there's a lot of people going in different directions, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

There definitely is. And I think the captain thing's overrated. How many captain does that? This is not this is not hockey. I there's not too many captains in baseball. I mean, the Mets have had, as far as I know, two. Uh and it didn't, you know, I I don't think it had a huge impact because that kind of that kind of stuff when you're winning. This is a this is a knock on Lindor, okay? If you don't have the okay, so you don't have a C on your jersey jersey. So what? Do you want to lead the team? Lead the team. Okay, you don't need this goddamn Mickey Mouse title. It's not a Mickey Mouse title, it's a big deal. I understand that. But part of me agrees with Cohn, like look, we're not we're not doing this, guys. Everyone just do the thing. Leaders have to emerge. We're not going to anoint a leader. Quite frankly, this team isn't earned that.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Oh, I get it. I get it. It's just a it's you're going right back to 1992. This this is worse than the worst team money can buy, Brian. When you really, I mean the Brett Saber Higgin, Vince Coleman's, Bobby Vanilla's, this might be worse. That was pretty bad. I lived through that. I lived through it as well. I get it.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

So, you know, I remember, you know, then, you know, it's gonna be with if you get anybody you like, they're gonna trade them off. You know, I was remember like throwing stuff when they traded David Cohn that year, um, because I love David Cohn. And any guy you like in this team like Clay Holmes, if he's right now, the Mets want Clay Holmes to get healthy so that they can trade him. Yeah, they want Luke Weaver to keep who's been phenomenal. That was right. I got I gotta give, and that was a Stearns move. Weaver and Devin Williams, who've been X excellent to, and Williams has been good to very good. I gotta give him a little credit for that. I mean, they've been pretty good, but you're waiting for you want Luke Weaver to keep pitching like this so you can sell him, you know, for you know, you sell high on him. He's been phenomenal. So any of the guys that you sort of have been good, or you have been, but here three ex-Yankeys who've all been good. That's kind of funny. Um, you're just waiting to sell them off. Thanks, guys.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Uh it's just, you know, listen, I I'll I'll I'll uh I could tease you all I want, but it's just it sucks. It it sucks. It just sucks when you see you wait all year for baseball. Like you said, now not all summer long. You're gonna be sitting there going, Jesus, what do I gotta watch now? Do I really want to play parts easy with my kids for a third time this week? I mean, it's a little rough. That's all. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

What am I gonna read? I don't want to read the news. It's depressing. I'm like, yeah. How long till how long till training camp starts? I'll be like, uh, you know, oh this guy looks great. You talk about spring training. Oh, this guy's really making a lot of plays in training camp. And you know, then he gets cut the third week of the NFL season, that kind of crap. I'm waiting for that, man. Like, when do the Cowboys go to camp?

SPEAKER_00 25:53

Yeah, well and I'll and I'll spend it, we'll spend a minute on the Yankees. Uh the only game of the series I watched was the Thursday night game where they gave up six unearned runs when Cam Schlitler was on the mound, dropping fly balls, dropping pop-ups, uh, throwing the ball around the yard. I mean, they're the this is the the we thought we were gonna get by a June, a June uh a June a June a free June swoon, but we have not. They clearly miss Aaron Judge right now. Team's not hitting a lick. The pitching has gone a little south. Garrett Cole's been average since he came back. Um I think it's a little the pitching staff might get a little tight because no one's hitting. I mean, three different times over the weekend, you got one hit going into the seventh inning. They were getting no hit on Sunday night when I turned the game on, and that was a brutal loss on Sunday night. I actually got home from Travelers and came into the game going to the um saw the last out of the top of the ninth when the Yankees had come back to take up uh to tie it, and then I watched the 10th, and then to cut to watch them give it all back in the bottom of the tenth. It was like, uh, and then I said a great stat I saw, and I never would have guessed that. But in the month of June against the Red Sox over the last few years, the Yankees are one and eighteen at Fenway Park.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

That's another time, especially that right now this is a really bad Red Sox team. Yeah, 100%. So the little brother thing, they do. They love they that place was there was joy at Fenway this weekend for a team that doesn't uh inspire a lot of joy. They got at least they can say, well, we beat the crap out of the Yankees for for this weekend.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

And one other thing, not to change the subject, but man, we talk about prospects of overvaluing things. You know Jaron Durant's hit 197, Brian?

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Yeah, and they had a chance, and they remember they had a chance to move him last year. They said, no, we're keeping him. Try moving him now. Hey, I'll get I I will say this, Jared Durant, the Sox outfielder. If you want to swap Duran for Vientos, I'll do that right now. I'll take your garbage, you take my garbage. Maybe he can't be worse. Let's do that. The right-handed power hitter and Fenway. And by the way, the only thing Ventos can do is I don't know what that got me started again. You know, he only does if he's not hitting home runs, he has nobody who is a ball player. Can't run, can't field, can't throw. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

Simpson's error game last week, Brian was just even I laid low on that. I mean, that's that was rough.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

That was very, very rough. That was a little rough. You knew the media.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

I think I I think I did text you something because I was cutting highlights for the game, and I literally was like, I ended up scoreboarding the game because I had so much other golf stuff. I think that I don't know what day that was. Was that Wednesday they played the doubleheader? Yeah, like that was the day with the Will Farrell Pro. And I did I did we have we talked since the Will Farrell thing? I kind of We have not talked since the Will Farrell thing. So I don't know if you saw the piece. I'm gonna give John Pearson all the credit here. Uh Will Farrow was tremendous, Brian, as his character Lonnie the Hawk Hawkins. He got a new TV show coming up, yeah. Yeah, Netflix next month. I Brian, he could not have been better to all the media, to all the fans. Like I didn't get a chance to talk to him. I saw him briefly because I was doing the other stuff while John was doing that. We kind of flipped a coin on who would do that. So um, so I was bummed that I get a chance to do the interviews, but he was so good with his time. And he the here's the deal, and I think I told you this. When he came to the event, as long as you called him by Lonnie the Hawk Hawkins, he would play ball with anything you said. And he did. He was terrific.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

So that is uh that's kind of cool to see. I did see John and some of the other John did a good job of posting his stuff on social media. Um, so good job by John. He he was it was it was really cool um uh to see that thing with him. Yeah, the the stuff was great, you know, Colin Cromwell, the Paris of Connecticut, stuff like that. So funny. It was great, and you know, talking about being airlifted because he got his foot stuck in the hole. Uh so good job by John of listening to that and John playing the straight man. Good for John, man. I playing the straight man perfectly. He was like Stockton just throwing layups for uh for uh Will Farrell's uh Carl Malone. He just a perfect he did a great job with that. So good for that was kind of funny. That was terrific.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

Uh do you want to mention this LeBron James story that's I was about to mention that.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Yeah, you can't.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

I saw you were distracted. I heard the dun dungeon. No, no, no. I I I I heard it as well. So tell us what you're uh what we're getting about.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

All right, Yahoo Sports uh says LeBron James has told the Lakers that he will play next year with a new team. He is a free agent as of tomorrow. Free agency opens in the NBA. And LeBron, who's been the Lakers now for eight years, is now apparently gonna go uh maybe to a fourth team unless he goes back to Cleveland or he there's a way for them to work it where he goes back to Miami. I guess neither one are possible. That's kind of a big deal, though. LeBron at 42 is gonna play for a new team. A lot of, and I don't see anything in this. I'm just reading the breaking news blurb. It's one sentence. But there has been a lot of smoke around him with Golden State. So that'll be interesting. And the NBA has already been working. Uh it's been, if you're an NBA fan, you know it's been a crazy week last week of going on, and we haven't even got to free agency yet. So uh, you know, with the Giannis trade, what happened, which happened right after we went off the air last week, but Jalen Brown still up in the air. You know, the Knicks had some good news. They resigned Landry Shamit. They're probably still gonna lose a couple guys. But LeBron, man, I mean, I don't know. Who knows where he's gonna wind up?

SPEAKER_00 31:21

I would hate him to be on Golden State. I'm a LeBron fan. I don't like everything he's done, Brian, but uh I don't I don't understand the need for him to go play with Golden State. That just doesn't seem like a good fit to me. I understand not going to Cleveland or I mean, is he gonna go to Miami and join the John join Giannis? I know we didn't talk about that. Giannis traded to Miami last week. Uh or did we? I don't remember if we did that. No, we didn't. We missed that one. Yeah, we just missed it, too. The Celtics. Uh again, the my quick take on the Giannis trade, I know it was a week ago, but I don't think his situation is any better in Miami than it was in Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

No, it's not. I mean, they had to get a lot of the Miami teams, so it's basically Jan, Bam Alabado, Norm Powell, if they can resign him. I think he's a free agent who's that's oh that after that, not a lot. It's kind of weird. I mean, it feels like with their best case, is like you're a 48-win team, and maybe you could avoid the play in tournament. But I don't think this it's good news for the Knicks, right, Eric? Because I think if he'd gone to Boston, even with the subtraction of Jalen Brown, I think that just becomes an interesting team. Uh I I'm I I was sort of lukewarm on it. Like five minutes, like one minute I loved it, one minute I hated the idea of it. So, but I don't think this moves the needle in the East that much other than making them for like a middle impact playoff team. So I think you're right.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

But he gets live in Miami and there's no tax in Florida, you know. I mean, you put LeBron on that team for the five million exemption or whatever. Maybe we could talk a little different, obviously. But yeah, uh, I'd be curious to see where he lands, man. Is he taking his son with him too?

SPEAKER_01 32:50

That's a damn it, I wanted to make that show first. Yeah, I don't know what happens to Fronnie, but yeah, uh, and listen, if they go to Golden State, that's like the all-time jarry actor team, right? They just re-signed Christoph Brazingas. Uh and they're gonna probably bring Breck Draymond, who opted out of his contract, which means everyone says, oh, that le Oh, so that leaves them, and now they have a whole bunch of room in the in the budget, and LeBron's a free agent. We'll get it. We'll find out.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

So Draymond's a free agent too. If you're San Antonio, do you call them and try to put him as a protector? Put him as a protector for uh the big boy.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

I'd rather go somebody else. I still love your uh Jalen Brown to them idea. I haven't there's been no smoke around that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

But either typically but DeAndre Fox and either uh uh Harper or uh they just re-signed Champagne to a four-year, fifty million dollar deal, which I was surprised about. But no, he's not going anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

But yeah, I mean there's it's gonna be it's gonna be interesting. We'll have stuff to talk about next week because stuff's gonna happen between now and then, and we'll see what happens with the NIPS. They still have some things to move around. Um, but I think Daniel Landry Shamit back, he's not like the huge difference maker, but I think it's a nice you'd rather have him on the team than lose them.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

That's 100%. A couple UConn guys got drafted last week, Brian, well after the 11 o'clock uh 11 o'clock news. I mean, the news started afterwards, but I was I was in bed when they got drafted, to be honest with you, Brian. I mean I was too. I know I know um Terrace Reed Jr. went to San Antonio. Where did Carabin go to? Utah, is that where he went?

SPEAKER_01 34:16

I think uh I thought it went up to Sacramento, but I might be in the world. Yeah, Sacramento. That's right. Sacramento. He got moved. I think he got he got moved.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

Um yeah, I mean, man, Yukon South in San Antonio. Yeah, good for them, man. That's a great move, Terrace Reed Jr. that he'll help them.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

It's a good move. And they even even it was just Wemby and Luke Cornette as their like primary bigs, that means he doesn't have to. You can ease him in. And I think that you know, you know him a little bit better than I do, but my impression is he need he's gonna need a little more time to cook before he's ready to be up.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

And he's a good guy. Like he's a really he's a nice kid.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Like it's a great organization. You know that's one of the best organizations in sports. They have great culture, and you know, I think that's yeah, good for him. That's a great place to go.

unknown 34:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

Well, take a timeout, Brian. Then you got some birthdays. One more uh time out, and then we'll uh go some birthdays. I don't think there's anything else we missed that I wanted to talk to you about. We hit pretty much everything. It was funny. We ended the podcast last week, and as it always happens, all the news breaks.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

That's that's yeah, I was gonna say we'll have like you know we'll find out LeBron where LeBron's doing three hours after we sign off today. Uh yeah, quick quick break here. I just want to remind folks uh we have a great email address, edbcpodcast at gmail.com. Um, you know, we've been getting some good feedback from people, and we've been getting some I even heard some people this week saying, great job. My one of my wife's one of my mommy daughters' friends said she listened to our podcast, and I got very scared about that. Yeah. Yeah. Great. But anyway, if you want feedback or you just tell us how much we suck, I don't care. I hear that anyway. EDBCpodcast at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_00 35:44

The thing I got to message real quick before you do your birthdays, is I I was at the doctor for I'm now going to physical therapy twice a week for a right Achilles. My they're trying to prevent me from snapping my Achilles, Brian. So getting old sucks.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

Hey Eric, I'm going to uh I'm going to I'm doing physical therapy twice this uh twice a week going this afternoon for a left meniscus that's probably torn that I'm trying to avoid surgery on. So we are old guys going to physical therapy trying to avoid surgery. Let's just hope we can make our next birthday. And speaking of that, nice segue. There you go. All right. All right, Eric, let's see here. Um yeah. That's good. The guy that refuses to age, uh, him and Paul Rudd. John Cusack has a birthday today, Chicago board actor, and uh he's been in stuff all the way back to the 80s. 16 candles. He was like 14 or something. I gave you a little hint there. It's John Cusack 56, 60, or 64.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

I'm gonna say 60.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

He is 60. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Yeah, I bought tickets to him in New Haven in September for my wife to go visit him at uh College Street Music Theater. He's doing a little show. So I saw that. Good for that. Good for you. Nice job by you, Eric.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Nice, nice profiting.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

Two minutes left in the podcast. What else we got?

SPEAKER_01 36:55

All right, two-minute warning here. Last another funny guy, we love his work. I mean, geez, we're kids in the 80s, so we've saw we saw this guy on big screens a lot. Dan Accurate, Eric. Since he's he's starring in the 80s, so he's getting up there, but he's still with us, still hanging, looks good. Is he 70, 74, or 78?

SPEAKER_00 37:12

Wow, that's a tough one, man. I'm gonna say 78. He's 74.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

Wow. Okay. Forget how young he was in SNL. He looked like he was like 22 or something. 100%. Yeah. Uh all right, two more from the sporting world. Two legends. Football legend, John Elway. All right, John Elway again. You know when he played, so maybe it should help you out. Is he 58, 60, or 66? Yeah. I would say 66. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Drafted in 1983. Last guy here, Mike Tyson, Iron Mike. Hey, there was a time when we wonder that Mike would get to this ripe old age, but good for him. He's still hanging out. And uh sometimes you see him, and it's always interesting. Mike Tyson, former world heavyweight champion. Is he 58, 60, or 63?

SPEAKER_00 38:05

63.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

Sorry, John. He and John Q's have sure the same share of birthday in the 60, yes.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Wow. Great list, Brian, as usual. All right, folks. Hey, we'll come back with uh more breaking news that happens later today. We'll talk about it next time. All right. Until the next time, I'm Eric Keys Brian. Until the next time, Brian, say goodbye. See ya.