Divisional QB rankings, all-time athlete nicknames and Dontrelle Willis on Ohtani, Bartman, Pete Rose & more
Plus, former All-Star pitcher and current TV analyst Dontrelle Willis joins the show! The D-Train reflects on some of his most memorable postseason moments including the surreal nature of beating the Yankees in the World Series and his perspective on the infamous “Bartman game” at Wrigley Field. Dontrelle also reveals the most difficult hitters he ever faced, shares his memories of the late Pete Rose and waxes poetic over the dominance of Shohei Ohtani.
Finally, Jerry tells us about the time he wore a Yankees jersey to a Yankee team party and, the guys each list their top 3 sports nicknames of all time in the debut of their new segment, “the Throwback 3.”
New episodes of Throwbacks drop every Thursday. Make sure you’re subscribed on YouTube and following on all podcast platforms. Also, make sure you’re locked in on social @ThrowbacksShow on all platforms for highlight moments, bonus content, and to engage with the guys & the Throwbacks community. (ThrowbacksShow.com)
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Transcript
Speaker 1
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Speaker 2 I didn't know that Sam Darnold's grandfather was the actor and also the Marlborough man who, you know, he played the Marlborough man, the cow, the famous cowboy, whose name was Dick Hammer.
Speaker 2 Dude, just Richard Hammer. Talk about the nickname, Dick Hammer.
Speaker 3 Can you be in? Just imagine being called Dick Hammer.
Speaker 2
All right, here we we go. Another episode of Throwbacks.
Thanks to everybody for joining us. And however, you're taking in the show today.
We appreciate it. Subscribe to us on YouTube.
Speaker 2
Follow on Apple and Spotify. All the handles on social media are at Throwback Show.
And it's a worthy follow because we actually respond to you on social media, unlike other podcasts.
Speaker 2 And like my esteemed co-host, Matt Leiner, has been getting a lot of heat on the Twitters and the Instagrams for the Jersey Take. Dude, just buy it yet?
Speaker 3 the gift keeps on giving dude every single day i love it actually my wife's best friend just texted me this week like we were on a group chat about getting the kids together and she just threw in a little oh we won't talk about matt's fashion because we know he likes to wear jerseys like it was just like i'm like what now my wife's friends are talking about this like i had people saying to me on Twitter, both on throwbacks and on my personal Twitter, like, you played a character who wore jerseys for like 10 years and you're not behind this.
Speaker 2 And I'm like, no, actually, I'm not i'm sort of siding with lion and we actually did a poll and we'll hit you with those poll results which was is matt correct in saying that you can't grow
Speaker 3 jerseys i think it's definitely leaned more towards it's allowed because of the the the fan right they want to wear jerseys to the game that's been the big the big pushback is like we wore your jerseys we're fans so like i understand that but i would say like It's pretty close.
Speaker 3 Like, I've had a lot of people, even on my show in Big Noon, it's like, oh, we side with you, dude.
Speaker 2 Like, i wouldn't i think you hit a certain age where you're like it's just not acceptable anymore but yeah whatever some good takes like hey you could wear you could wear jerseys of someone who's like your dad or grandpa's age so maybe that's how i mean
Speaker 3 let's uh okay we can move on from the jerseys though okay you uh dude you are just all over
Speaker 3 this week the new big weekend
Speaker 3 i mean we get shams on an emergency pod throwbacks to break down this this blockbuster trade have you recovered? I mean, have you soaked it in?
Speaker 2
Well, here's the thing I don't like about these Knicks and the way they're moving. I love the moves they're making.
I don't love that they seem to be dropping all this at Friday night at 10 o'clock.
Speaker 2
I feel like the Bridges trade was also, I'm like laying in bed. I just read Jacob a story thing.
The house is calm. And then, boom, that blockbuster.
Speaker 2
Yeah, but to get Shams, you know, I know Shams for a lot of years. Yeah, that was huge.
And shout out to Brief, come on. And by the way, my wife, shout out to Brie.
Speaker 2
She's the MVP because I was like on the soccer field. So it was my my Ari gold moment where I got word, hey, Shams is going to come on live.
Get home.
Speaker 2 And I kind of had to leave my kids on the soccer field.
Speaker 3
Dude, shout out to Bree, just understanding what, what was at stake. I mean, that was important, dude.
And shout out to Shams. I mean, that was awesome, man.
Like to get that.
Speaker 2 If you haven't seen it, you can go to the Throwbacks YouTube. The whole interview is up there.
Speaker 2 But I pulled what I thought was the most important minute because he gave you the step-by-step of like how far back this trade goes. So let's throw up that one part part of the Shams interview.
Speaker 2 And if you want to hear the rest, go over to throwbacks on YouTube.
Speaker 4 This pursuit of Carl Anthony Towns really picked up steam over the last, I think, week, two weeks when the Knicks started calling Minnesota about him, making offers, making concepts of offers.
Speaker 4 They were just giving hard no's.
Speaker 5 Wow. No, no.
Speaker 4 And way back, even around draft time, July
Speaker 4 and into the months of August, a lot of the offers that the Knicks were conceptually discussing, from what I'm told, were around Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson.
Speaker 4 And that just, from Minnesota's perspective, that was not going to get it done.
Speaker 4
And over the last week is when finally the inclusion of Dante DiVincenzo was made in this proposal, not Mitchell Robinson. So then you have Julius Randle, Dante DiVincenzo.
But still, that was a no.
Speaker 4
Minnesota wanted an asset. And last night.
the Knicks, from what I'm told, finally put that first round pick from Detroit on the table.
Speaker 4 And we got wind yesterday that that there were active conversations, ongoing conversations.
Speaker 4 But again, Jerry, like, I didn't know until, you know, maybe 15, 20 minutes before that you dropped the news, me and my colleague John Krasinski at the athletic.
Speaker 2
I mean, yeah, I didn't realize that this was. We've heard Nick, you know, cat to the Knicks for like two years.
I didn't know that this was going on for this long.
Speaker 3 So we're on the group chat, and the minute it happened, initially you're probably processing like, no, yes, what does this look like now that the dust has settled, right?
Speaker 3 And you get a perennial all-star, you get a stretch five who can shoot and reunited with Tibbs. And again, maybe that works well this time around as he's matured a lot, I'm sure, as a player.
Speaker 3 What are your thoughts? I mean, I would say now, my whole timeline is all Nick's stuff.
Speaker 3 And it's now they have the third best odds to win the NBA championship and arguably the best starting five in the NBA.
Speaker 3 It's settled. Are you happy?
Speaker 2
Well, welcome to hell. That is Nick's Twitter, Matt.
Welcome to hell. We brought you in to the depths of hell.
Speaker 2 It's an interesting place.
Speaker 2 Look, I had an emotional reaction at first. And, you know,
Speaker 2
shout outs, Rich Eisen. I love Rich Eisen.
Rich, hopefully, we're going to get to be a guest on.
Speaker 2 I'll tell you what, I'm going to ask Rich Eisen right away because he went on his show, which is amazing, and basically was saying, all right, Nick fans, F your emotions at this point, because this trade makes sense.
Speaker 2
And you know what? He's right. Once the emotional response wore off, it makes sense.
Here's what I'll end it with, because now it's just time to, let's just, we got to roll the ball out and play.
Speaker 2 There's no more analysis.
Speaker 2 When Leon Rose took over as the Knicks front office president or whatever his official title is, the Knicks starting lineup was Alfred Payton, Taj Gibson, Mo Harkless, Julius Randall, and R.J.
Speaker 2
Barrett. And that was five years ago.
So you cut to five years later. I know it seems like an eternity to Knicks fans, but it really wasn't.
Speaker 2 Now to be running out that lineup, which again, on paper means nothing, is pretty formidable. And the bottom line is, and I'll end it with this, Matt, they needed a center.
Speaker 2 And
Speaker 2
they didn't offer Randall the contract extension, which usually is the kiss of death. They didn't offer IQ one.
That usually means we're not going to give you a contract.
Speaker 2 So they basically got something back for Randall, who probably wasn't going to re-sign barring a finals run.
Speaker 3 And that's how I feel. The garden is going to be just.
Speaker 2 We're going, baby. We're going.
Speaker 2 I'm taking you. You don't have to wear a jersey.
Speaker 2 By the way, I will wear a jersey.
Speaker 3 I'll wear a jersey to that.
Speaker 3
You know what I'm going to get? I'm going to get Jalen Brunson from you because I know you guys are boys. I might even go Josh Hart because Josh Hart was a Laker for a little while.
I like Josh Hart.
Speaker 3 I'm going to wear that jersey court side.
Speaker 2 You're going to get so much. You're going to get, if they put you on the jumbo chart, you're going to get booed because everyone knows your jersey take now.
Speaker 3 No, not wearing a Knicks jersey, though.
Speaker 2 True. They'll love you for it.
Speaker 3 That's going to be exciting, man.
Speaker 2
Have you, all right, real quick, and we have a great show. I don't want to get too far ahead.
We have Dontrell Willis D-Trainer joining us, who you could catch him on Fox.
Speaker 2 We're at that point of sports now where, okay, we're full in football mode, and we have some good football stuff for you. Now it's baseball playoffs, World Series upon us.
Speaker 2 We have really good teams in the mix, and then also basketball is now creeping in. So we're getting ready to reach the sports utopia that is coming.
Speaker 2 But yeah, Dontrell, you know, you have a little relationship with Dontrell.
Speaker 3
Yeah, Dontrell. So when I, I mean, I'm at Fox, and now we're not in the studio.
We're on the road every week.
Speaker 3 But a couple years back before Big Noon kickoff became a thing, I was in the studio every weekend and
Speaker 3 Don Trell's a part of our MLB broadcast with those guys with A-Rod and Poppy and now Jeter came over.
Speaker 3
Big Hurt used to be a part of that. And it was always the coolest time of the year because I'm a die-hard baseball fan.
And October would be awesome because we have playoffs on Fox in October.
Speaker 3
And our green room, which is called the avocado room, it would be our crew of college football, you know, watching and all day. I'm talking from 6 a.m.
to 9 o'clock at night.
Speaker 3
And then it would be those guys. And it would be those guys.
And we're all in one room watching.
Speaker 3 We put the baseball game on the big screen and then the other 20 screens had all the college football games. And
Speaker 3 that's where I got to know D-Train and just a great guy. And just the stories in that room with those guys.
Speaker 3
And then, you know, we lost Pete Rose, the baseball committee lost Pete Rose this week, excuse me. And Pete was a part of Fox for a couple years.
And,
Speaker 3 you know, just sitting in the room with Dontrell and Pete and those guys and the stories and just as a sports fan and a kid, like the kid in me, and you've probably been in rooms when you're around athletes that you just grew up watching, you're like, holy shit, dude, this is like, this is cool, man.
Speaker 3 So I'm looking forward to talking to D-Train just about some of those stories. And he's, I mean, he what, won a World Series.
Speaker 2 He broke my heart in 03.
Speaker 4 He broke my heart.
Speaker 3 Beat the Yankees in the World Series and played with some of the greats and does a great job on TV, man. So looking fired up to hear from Dontrell.
Speaker 2
Yeah, you mentioned Pete Rose. I know a lot of people have talked about the legend of Pete Rose.
And then also this week we lost to Kembe Mutumbo,
Speaker 2 who also incredible on the court, but also some of the stuff he did off the court was unbelievable. But then I started thinking, too.
Speaker 2
And I think this is because of what happened this weekend with our guy, Sam Darnold. And we'll get into that.
This is where I'm going somewhere with this.
Speaker 2 Obviously, Pete Rose, iconic nickname, Charlie Hussell. The Kembe Mutumbo, Mount Mutumbo, really cool fitting.
Speaker 2 I'm getting a little worried, Matt, that we are losing the great lane that even the likes of Chris Berman once owned with some of these nicknames of what we have today versus what we had in the past.
Speaker 2
So I'm looking at Sam Darnold this weekend go off against the Packers. And I was giving him shit earlier in the year saying he can't win comeback player of the year.
What's he coming back from?
Speaker 2 No, he's just going to go out and win MVP possibly.
Speaker 2 He now has the third best odds plus 800 to win nfl mvp and looks totally like the real deal and you know what this is why i love getting to know you matt but it's so annoying because like you say stuff and i try to push back but you're the athlete and i but i want to prove you wrong as the fan but you've been saying forever right sister i have right guy calling the plays
Speaker 2 a couple of good wet layers it's all coming everything you've said it's all coming together and it annoys me because you're right i'm glad i I'm glad because my takes, my picks on Saturday have been awful with DraftKings.
Speaker 2 So
Speaker 3 I'm glad I'm hitting like 100,
Speaker 3 hitting 100 here.
Speaker 2 So
Speaker 3
I'm just thinking of Sam Darnold. I'm thinking of nicknames right now.
So his, wait, so his grandfather is.
Speaker 2 Yes. This is what got me thinking.
Speaker 2
I put out on Twitter watching that game and all the games. I'm like, you know what? I think if Darnold keeps going this way, he needs a nickname.
There's nothing wrong with the name Sam Darnold.
Speaker 2
It's a fine name. But we could do better if he's putting up these numbers.
I don't know if he quite has the look. Tom Brady doesn't need a nickname.
He sounds like a quarter. He's just the goat.
Yeah.
Speaker 2
Yeah, Tom, but Tom Brady, like, it says enough. Even with Mahomes, doesn't really need a nickname.
Darnold, I think, could benefit from a nickname. So I started doing the deep dive on him.
Speaker 2 And I know a lot of Jets fans from his Jets days know this.
Speaker 2 I didn't know that Sam Darnold's grandfather was the actor and also the Marlborough man who, you know, he played the Marlborough man, the cow, the famous cowboy, whose name was Dick Hammer.
Speaker 2 Dude, just Richard Hammer. Talk about a nickname, Dick Hammer.
Speaker 3 Can you be just imagine being called Dick Hammer? I mean, that's not the greatest name of all.
Speaker 2
But clearly someone who wasn't afraid of a nickname, right? Hey, you know what they call people short for Richard? Dick. You're going to be Dick Hammer.
He leaned right into that.
Speaker 2
So we got to figure this out for Darnold. Some people sent in.
You got one?
Speaker 2 Do you want to hear something that people on top of it?
Speaker 3 Yeah, let's hear what they said.
Speaker 2 Well, I was trying to work in the hammer, I was, or maybe like
Speaker 2
the Marlborough Sam instead of the Marlborough Man, something like that. But let me see.
Okay, yeah, some people had a few good ones.
Speaker 2
Max Mandel said Starnold, not bad. A few people had Slingin' Sammy.
Don't love it. Sammy Dimes, which is fun.
Speaker 2 But the one that stuck out to me, Sammy Darts, because also Marlborough Man, they call him Lum Darts, Smarkin the Dart. So what do you got?
Speaker 3 Dude, I got three. Okay.
Speaker 2 You ready for this? Yes.
Speaker 2 Okay.
Speaker 3 The red hammer.
Speaker 3 We got to stick with the hammer, dude. We got to stick with
Speaker 3
the bad. This guy is just slinging the hammer.
Okay. The red hammer.
Redhead. Okay.
I got the red hammer. I got the ginger assassin.
Speaker 2 Okay.
Speaker 2 Oh, my God.
Speaker 3
And then this one I saw. This one is not original, but this one kind of made me laugh.
The Ghostbuster.
Speaker 2 Because he was seeing ghosts on the sideline. Oh, I think
Speaker 3 I can't get over just being called Dick Hammer. Like, if we just start, we're going to start calling him Sam Hammer.
Speaker 2 Or
Speaker 2 Sammy the Hammer.
Speaker 3 The Red Hammer.
Speaker 2 Or Sammy. The Red Hammer.
Speaker 2 I tried to think of other hammers besides his Greg Hammer. We got Dick with Greg the Hammer Valentine.
Speaker 3 Everybody listening,
Speaker 3 tag us on all the socials of what you want Sam Darnold's nickname to be. I'm going with
Speaker 3 Sam the Red Hammer Darnold.
Speaker 2 I'm still, I am not locking into something yet because I think this is a nuanced conversation.
Speaker 2 I think this is important, Matt, because we then put out in our group chat, like, hey, let's talk about, let's pick our top three, our throwback athlete nicknames of all time.
Speaker 2 And we're going to do that later in the show, which, by the way, you do some research. There's about 4,000 amazing athlete nicknames, which brings me to why I'm troubled.
Speaker 2
Who are some of the current active player nicknames that we love? I did a little research. I'm going to throw a few at you.
All right, we we know we got King James.
Speaker 2
It's a great one, but LeBron's, you know, he's 40. How much longer do we have him? Chef Curry, always cooking.
Great one. Again, up there in years.
Slim Reaper for Durant. Great one.
Speaker 2 Kind of self-appointed. Gave it to himself.
Speaker 2
So other ones that I love that weren't maybe as high profile. Honey Badger, I thought, was a really cool one.
And the ones I like now the most, I love Sauce Gardner.
Speaker 2
That seems to have been his nickname forever. Forever, yeah.
I think Cheetah is amazing for Tyree Hill. I just think that's a cool one.
It fits. And then, like, Hollywood Brown.
Speaker 2
We haven't really seen much. He's hurt.
Danger Russ is over. I mean, that's over.
There's nothing dangerous about Russ.
Speaker 2 King Henry.
Speaker 3 King Henry. Derek Henry.
Speaker 2 King Henry, great one. Mad Max, Crosby, and Danny Dimes may very well have to give it back by the end of the year.
Speaker 3 It's going to be Danny Penny's coming up.
Speaker 2 Sammy Dime. Maybe we'll go Sammy Dimes.
Speaker 3
Yeah, I think you're onto something here. I think the basketball guys are better.
Like Chef Curry's sick, King James.
Speaker 3 I mean, and then he puts the crown on his head and all that kind of stuff, which is pretty badass.
Speaker 3 The football guys,
Speaker 3 like, to me, aren't as,
Speaker 3 like, it doesn't, it doesn't get me going.
Speaker 3
I cheetah is fine. I don't know.
Maybe it's just because I'm just such an old school and like, as you just said, like diving deep, dive into the old throwbacks, some of the names and the nicknames.
Speaker 2 Like, it's like, holy shit.
Speaker 3
These are like some of the best names of all time. And like, yeah, you think of this word and you think of that athlete.
And
Speaker 3 yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to dive into it.
Speaker 2 Well, I'm worried that we're losing it and it's all going to go away. So later in the show,
Speaker 2 we're going to do that. But, you know, being that I thought so much, the most I've ever thought about Sam Darnold was this weekend.
Speaker 2 And it got me looking around because we, you know, we love to talk quarterbacks and you are a quarterback, Matt.
Speaker 2 Start to go divisionally. Look around the divisions in football.
Speaker 2 For your money, one through through four in each division, what division do you think has the four best right now, current, not all-time, current best quarterbacks?
Speaker 3 This one,
Speaker 3 this one's challenging because are you going based on record, right? Okay, are they one and three? Does that mean they're not playing well? Do you go based on stats?
Speaker 3 Are you based on like circumstance with the team? I actually thought about this a little bit and I'm going to argue for the NFC West.
Speaker 2 Okay, I like it. Here we go.
Speaker 3 So you got geno smith right now
Speaker 3 awesome game three and one yeah um leads the nfl in passing yards second in completion percentage just playing i mean he's just playing good like he's playing for good for them and and they're first in their division you got brock purdy okay so they're two and two but doing it without cmc i mean talk about the injuries a little bit of disarray over there but like We still believe San Francisco is a really good football team.
Speaker 3 He's second in passing yards. Matt Stafford to me is like
Speaker 3
Puka's out, cup is out. He's doing, they're one and three.
Now, if they can survive and kind of kind of just hover over the next couple of weeks, danger until they get some of those guys back.
Speaker 2 Yeah.
Speaker 3
But he's an elite player, man. He's been an elite player for a decade.
And then Kyler Murray, the numbers are actually really good. Six touchdowns, one interception.
They're one and three.
Speaker 3 I just don't think Arizona is a very good football team. But top to bottom, I think you could argue that
Speaker 3 the West has really good quarterback play this year.
Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm with you. Geno Smith this past Monday night, that Lions Seahawks game was so fun.
Speaker 2 And also, maybe it was highlighted against a really uninteresting Titans-Dolphins game. But no, I mean, injuries all over the place, and Levis went out, but that game was so fun.
Speaker 2
And yeah, Geno Smith, one of the truly a comeback story. All right.
I'm with you. I have the NFC, but the NFC West is my number two.
Speaker 2 I tried really hard to
Speaker 2 be the contrarian and make the NFC South somehow work. Just, again, how they're playing now.
Speaker 2
Baker was unreal last weekend. Godwin looks like a whole new guy again.
All right, so we know we got Baker. I think Carr got off to the hot start.
Speaker 2 He's starting to
Speaker 2 trying to make the case. Kirk Cousins will always be able to make the case, at least in the regular season, a lot of fun, but then it just falls apart.
Speaker 2 Like, I can't get, as much as we love the Dalton story, we can't shoehorn Dalton.
Speaker 3
Dude, there's another red rocket, dude. He's the red rocket.
Sam's the red hammer.
Speaker 2 Yeah, I couldn't really shoehorn.
Speaker 2 So so i'm with you the nfc south that's my number two for me it's the it's it's the nfc what north it's the north yeah again it's it's right now i'm not going all time and maybe this changes what darnold's doing is outstanding golf and we're going to talk about golf later when we talk about wendy's unbelievable game for goff i think jordan love i mean he got hurt which was unfortunate but he'll he'll like he'll be there like they'll be there and he and he look he was they were out of that game he just started slinging it and brought them back in and then it gets a little like Caleb's the big question.
Speaker 2 I think he's getting better every week. It looks a little better every week.
Speaker 3 How's our boy Ashton Kutcher doing right now? He is talking about.
Speaker 2 Wellness check on Kutch.
Speaker 3
I should shoot well tech. Yeah, it is.
It's rough over there for Chicago Bear fans.
Speaker 2
It is pretty rough. It is pretty rough.
All right.
Speaker 2 We're going to now do another part that I love before we say goodbye to the NFL, almost for the show, because I'm going to really get into baseball and nicknames.
Speaker 2 All right, Matt, who needs it more this weekend? I don't know if you have the slate up in front of you.
Speaker 3 I have a team.
Speaker 2 Okay.
Speaker 3
I have a team, and you just mentioned them because they were awful on Monday night. Oh, no.
I'm going with the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 2 Yeah.
Speaker 3 We see now how great Tua is and how good that team is when Tua is playing, right? So first and foremost, want him to get healthy. He's going to be coming back in the next couple weeks, ideally.
Speaker 3 The Dolphins are one and three, okay? But their next three games, I wrote this down. The next three games, they got the Pats, they got the Colts, and they got the Cardinals.
Speaker 2 Could be three right there. Could be three right there.
Speaker 3 Tyler Huntley kind of get going a little bit. Tyler Huntley is a good player.
Speaker 3 He played really well when he was in Baltimore, like obviously struggle Monday, but now as he gets some more reps and experience, so sitting at one and three, all of a sudden
Speaker 3 you win two of those three games. You probably get two a back for Arizona, I'm assuming.
Speaker 3 And then all of a sudden, you're at, what, you're maybe at three and three when you get your starting quarterback, and you're still right there.
Speaker 3 So I just think for the Dolphins, because I I do think it's a playoff team when their quarterback is healthy,
Speaker 3 they have this window here where they just need, they need it, man.
Speaker 2 They can survive.
Speaker 3 One and four is tough.
Speaker 2 One and four.
Speaker 3 It's almost curtains.
Speaker 2
Yeah. That's a good one.
I'm with you.
Speaker 2
So I got the Packers and for a very specific reason. You know, they're playing the Rams.
Obviously, we know the Rams are good, but wounded.
Speaker 2
You can't let them hang around. They have to take control of this game.
Being two and two, so far, they're the team that's had the most hellish season with injuries and crazy stuff.
Speaker 2 So to come out of that 2-2, and LaFleur has shown me, not that he needs to show me, but what he did with Malik Willis was unbelievable getting two.
Speaker 2 Who would have thought Malik Willis would be 2-0 and Jordan Love would be 0-2? But two sort of winnable games. You take care of business against the Rams and go 3-2, you're on track.
Speaker 2
Because I worry about the Packers, and their defense has proven a lot to me falling too far behind. You go 2-3.
I think the Vikings are pedaled to the medal.
Speaker 2 I think the Lions now are starting to say, all right, we got to flex on some people.
Speaker 2 And then the Seahawks are 3-1 leading that division but you can't count the niners out when they get healthy so i'm looking at the playoff spots yeah
Speaker 3 and and the nfc certainly seems to be shaking up you might need 10 wins to to grab a wild card spot well you're talking just the division alone like your chance of winning the division is is almost shot because of those two other teams we know detroit's going to be 11 12 win team probably and the way minnesota's playing i mean why not like like that's four weeks in a row where they've been dominant like dominant probably argue that they're the best team in football right now i know the chiefs are still undefeated Buffalo, but
Speaker 3
yeah, again, it's the parody is such excuse me, so crazy in the NFL. Like you just, you want to hover around 500.
Like Malik winning those two games was increased.
Speaker 2 It's season saving.
Speaker 3 It's season saving because now all of a sudden you win a couple more and then well, you're four and two, you're five and three, and then you're right back in the mix. But yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3 I mean, and a lot of people had Green Bay shoot. I mean, winning a Super Bowl this year, there were a lot of experts out there.
Speaker 2 They were very trendy.
Speaker 3 Yeah, they were the trendy picks. So,
Speaker 3 yeah, they need it for sure.
Speaker 2
And now it's time for not no one who really needed luck because this is one of my favorite segments. And this is all about some sauciness.
All right.
Speaker 2
This is the can't get enough sauce moment of the week. Yes.
Brought to you by Wendy's. It's just, we cannot get enough of this player right now.
Speaker 2
The same way we cannot get enough of Wendy's new saucy nugs. And Matt, mine is, I'm just letting you know, mine is saucy.
I'm dipping it.
Speaker 2 I got several sauces lined up for mine, but I'm going to let you go for this.
Speaker 3 Okay. So I need several sauces because I'm actually going,
Speaker 3
I'll highlight a player or two, but I'm going a game. My moment of the week is a game, okay? It's Bama, Georgia, and college football this past week.
And I don't know how much you saw, okay?
Speaker 3
But this game lived up to the hype. It had the star power.
It had the moments. Bama's up 30 to 7 at halftime.
Georgia goes up 34, 33 with a couple minutes left.
Speaker 3 And then Bama, boom, has a pass to Ryan Williams, the 17-year-old Phenom, for 75 yards to go up. George is driving and then they have an interception to win.
Speaker 3
Jalen Milro, 491 yards, four touchdowns. The freshman Phenom, Ryan Williams, 177 yards.
Carson Beck was getting torn up on
Speaker 3 Twitter in the first half. The second half, he absolutely balled.
Speaker 3
That is my saucy moment of the week. The game lived up to the hype.
The players were, the stars showed up, man.
Speaker 3 It was a great, great college football game.
Speaker 2 Yeah, really quick on that.
Speaker 2 Williams did something it's rare now i see a player do something like i don't think i've ever seen that before by the way he's 17 years old right i i don't think i've seen a move in a very long time where i said i don't think i've ever seen anyone do that and then you of course started sending me stuff about milro with my giants so may very well might be the giants quarterback next year
Speaker 2 i got to start scouting that's a good one okay All right, mom,
Speaker 2
all right. This is so obvious to me.
And I've been talking about this player and defending this player for years. It's Jared Goff.
You want to talk about saucy, dude? My guy was 18 for 18.
Speaker 2
That's honey barbecue right there. Not only was he 18 for 18, it wasn't 18 for 18 for 157 yards.
It was just shy of 300 yards. That's garlic Parmesan sauce.
Speaker 2
And my favorite thing, my guy caught a touchdown. That's spicy honey barbecue right there.
So those are the three sauces.
Speaker 2 You see what I did there?
Speaker 3 By the way, and Campbell didn't even give him the game ball. Remember that? You see that after he was supposed to give it, he gave someone else the game ball.
Speaker 2 He didn't even realize his quarterback had a perfect qbr he didn't realize his quarterback was basically saucy so it's just so obvious people have been hating on goff for a little while
Speaker 2 and i even remember two years ago there was a lot of internet personalities who talk about sports saying oh they need to draft a quarterback at whatever they had six or the year they got sewell yeah and it's like i know quarterbacks are important but this this guy's close to top 10 and this is now i think he's easily a top 10 quarterback And he showed, he showed the whole bag.
Speaker 2 So that is my can't get enough sauce moment of the week. Jared Goff, you're dipping in several sauces, my guy.
Speaker 2 All right, we're going to take a quick break when we come back. Dontrelle Willis.
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Speaker 2
All right. He was a 2003 rookie of the year.
He was the Cy Young runner-up, an 05, two-time all-star. And for me, it was a little bit heartbreaking because I'm a Yankee fan.
Speaker 2
He's a World Series champion. And now you see him on TV with Fox and Apple TV and also has an amazing nickname.
We were talking nicknames earlier. The D-Train.
Dante Trell Willis joins the show.
Speaker 2 great nickname i do i hope you love it as much as i love it
Speaker 5 yeah
Speaker 5 no i you know he doesn't love it you know what's so funny and i told derek jeter this i didn't love it until he said it i mean i mean because this is nuance and you know what i mean and and a lot of people call me d-trained but they don't know my name dantrell they're like hey dante i'm like that's not my name but close enough but you know nevertheless that's a that's a legendary nickname and i appreciate it and now my soccer player we have have to call her B-Train now.
Speaker 5
So, it stuck for a long time. So, yeah, I like it now.
I like it now.
Speaker 3 That actually,
Speaker 3 I'm going to call you D-Train because I feel like we're close enough to call you. Didn't someone in the old avocado room at Fox call you D-Train? And you said, hey, you're not allowed to call me that.
Speaker 5 Yeah,
Speaker 5 you got to know me first. You know what I mean?
Speaker 5
I'm not going to walk up to him and call him Turtle. You know what I mean? It's just a certain nature.
You know what I mean?
Speaker 5
There's certain nuances and respect level that you have to earn that, be able to call a nickname. But I'm also a legendary ball buster as well.
So it's awesome. So
Speaker 3 speaking of respect, D-Train, the baseball lost a legend this week, man, in Pete Rose.
Speaker 3 We could say complicated and layered and all those kind of things, but we all know one of the best to ever do it and one of the best guys.
Speaker 3 And you and I both spent a lot of time with him at Fox, you more than I. But I remember, you know, a couple of years back before our show was going on the road,
Speaker 3 the best time time of the year for me was october because one i'm a diehard dodger fan i love i love baseball playoffs and i got to sit in that room with with you and with pete and with frank thomas and poppy and all those guys and i just remember like his presence in there it was just felt and he would he would come in and talk about ball busters he would talk about when i was playing games in college like he knew the lines of the games that i was still playing like 20 years ago like he was just he was one of a kind.
Speaker 3 And I take those memories with me to heart, man, because it really was awesome to get to know him. For you,
Speaker 3 any memory or story that sticks out from your time with Pete during those years?
Speaker 5 Well, first of all, you know, he's a legend even when he walked in the room with legends. I mean, he was somebody that gravitated and really, you know.
Speaker 5 He was one of those guys where everybody in the room just wanted to hear a Pete's story or
Speaker 5
hear one of his statistics. I mean, he was a very smart and witty old man.
You know what I mean? Like, asked for how many two-hit games he had. People know, three-hit games, four-hit games.
Speaker 5
And really just a fun presence. And I put him up there with the Ric Flairs and the Charles Bartleys of the world in the sense of he knew he was good.
He was going to tell you he was good.
Speaker 5
And he was going to get it done. And so, you know, and he didn't care.
You know what I mean? He was going to say exactly what he wanted to say, which was kind of...
Speaker 5 fun and nerve-wracking working with him on air because you didn't know what he was going to say.
Speaker 5 A funny story happened on air.
Speaker 5 Josh Donaldson,
Speaker 5 who's my boy, gets hit with the ball in his elbow guard, and he got this massive elbow guard. And so I'm like, oh man, he gets smoked by a baseball.
Speaker 5 And he turns to me on air and says, well, he's got enough armor to invade Afghanistan.
Speaker 2 I'm like, and what do you say after that?
Speaker 5 Like, what did you say? This is on national TV. And so I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 5 bottom of the seat.
Speaker 5 Where do you go with that? And so he countlessly had comments of that all the time. But at the same token, when you talk about hitting and the nuance of the game, nobody better to talk to.
Speaker 5
I mean, he was literally this a savant in the box and he loved talking baseball. I remember when I got to the Reds, I got a three-hit game, and he was just so proud.
And so he gave me a call.
Speaker 5 And so I thought about, damn, I must be a shitty pitcher because all he's talking about is my hitch. But
Speaker 5 This is the legend, you know. And so, you know, hopefully he gets in the Hall of Fame because you can't tell the story of baseball without talking about Pete Rhodes.
Speaker 2 Yeah, that clip that's been surfacing all week on like Twitter and stuff was him in the studio with Frank Thomas and A-Rod talking about when you're slumping. He's like, I hold it back here.
Speaker 2
You go in the front of the box. And you're just watching.
Even Frank Thomas and A-Rod were like,
Speaker 2
we're all witnessing. Like, none of us think of it this.
in this way and Pete's giving us some real knowledge. So
Speaker 2 yeah, we certainly all feel it.
Speaker 3 it and i imagine too like you said working on live air with someone that you know could you know old man syndrome is gonna say some stuff you're gonna be on your toes dude that's the hard part about tv is like you know and we all whether show or on you prepare you kind of know what you're gonna talk about or you're gonna react and i i think i think one of our producers on both of the bardio would tell me like dude he would have like no notes he would just you just yeah you had to react and you had to be on your feet and that's that's what makes great television obviously but it also can put you in a weird spot dantrell like how the hell am i supposed to follow pete rose when he's talking about all other sorts of you know he barely had a pen like so i'm sitting here with my laptop and my note cards and i'm looking at him and i'm like yeah i'm gonna follow you you know what i mean because how are you gonna trump one of the greatest hitters of all time you know what i mean but when he really talked about the nuance of baseball and how to play hard he was articulate i mean he was definitely somebody that did not hold back as far as like you need to go at it 100%.
Speaker 5 And really, he didn't really talk about that necessarily in baseball, but he talked about it in life. Now, he went at it 100%
Speaker 5
off the field, and some of that stuff got him in trouble. But in the end, you know what I mean? He's a legend to our sport.
And like I said, I think he's deserving of being in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 5
I think Roger Clemens is deserving of being in the Hall of Fame. I think Barry Bonds.
I think Oz Rodriguez. You can put an asterisk around their name.
Speaker 5 It doesn't matter, but you can't tell a story in my mind of baseball without having these individuals in the game.
Speaker 2 Well said.
Speaker 2 Look, I'm going to bring something up that I've been getting a lot of heat about, okay? I'm going to try to keep it short. I've made this pitch before.
Speaker 2 Matt thinks it's the most ridiculous thing he's ever heard, and I really don't think you're going to love it, but I have some questions for you based off it.
Speaker 2 Lifetime baseball fan, grew up as a kid, was my first love, Yankee fan, all that.
Speaker 2 And I still watch as much as I can, but I got two little kids, so it definitely cuts into the, you know, hundred and something game season.
Speaker 2 I want to know for you, especially, all right, when you're with the Marlins and you're going to New York for the World Series, just the weather change of you're used to playing in these conditions.
Speaker 2 I think about this all the time since I was a kid. One day on the East Coast, it's happening right now here.
Speaker 2 You wake up, it was 80 last week, and you just wake up and it's 40 and the leaves are on the ground and that's happening. You've been playing 162 games a certain way.
Speaker 2 Now you're walking into the Bronx and it's 40 degrees and freezing cold. Is that an entirely different game than you've played the whole season? Or does it not matter to an athlete?
Speaker 5 It absolutely matters. And so, you know, one thing I love about you, New Yorkers, there's always a little home field advantage.
Speaker 5
And I never told this story, but when we faced them in the World Series, it was freezing. It was like almost like November at this point.
So it was freezing.
Speaker 5 So, you know, I'm looking like an Eskimo, like, no disrespect. Like, you know, I'm freezing because like all of a sudden I'm in the bullpen and they had tears in the bullpen.
Speaker 5 So then the cold air would come in so we're all around the eater and meanwhile we're looking at the Yankee bullpen and they're all toasty and all that so love that New Yorker home field advantage and what have you but once your adrenaline kicks in man like you know I mean you warm up like a microwave very fast and and you know I remember I warmed up in game one I threw eight straight balls in the bullpen and I'm in the game
Speaker 5 Eight straight non-competitive pitches. Like, I'm like my heart rate, you know, I'm a 21-year-old going into the game.
Speaker 5 And so all of a sudden, by the time I ran all the way out there, I was sweating like Patrick Hewitt in the fourth quarter. Like,
Speaker 5
I was ready to go. And so, when your adrenaline kicks in, you'll be just fine.
But meanwhile, there was a lot of coffee sharing and everybody holding hot cocoa and stuff like that.
Speaker 5 But I like what you New Yorkers did with a little home-filled advance. Make these South Florida boys freeze a little bit of Rob.
Speaker 3 I was telling Jerry in 2008, I think, we went out to New England in November and it was a blizzard, and I was backing up.
Speaker 3 But the funniest thing, you just, I'm just literally visualizing you out in the bullpen just with a bunch of grown men, like, like, just like this.
Speaker 3 And, and I'll tell you what, we're on the sideline, and I, we have these big jackets on, and we have heaters in our seat, and we have like fans, and like, you're putting your, you know, you're putting your hands right next to that.
Speaker 3 And we look like a bunch of little five-year-olds, dude, who never been in cold weather, man.
Speaker 2 It is hilarious.
Speaker 5 You know, you're almost looking like who's making s'mores in the bullpen, and all of a sudden you hear the phone ringing, and they're like, Willix. I'm like, what?
Speaker 2 Like, they had the wrong answer.
Speaker 5 Next thing I know, I'm literally out there and Jack McKeon's like, well, Big D, go get him. And I'm like, this is Jason Giambi hit 30 home runs after the break and stuff like that.
Speaker 5
So my adrenaline definitely in my heart rate got me warming up. But it's definitely difficult for some people to play in that type of weather.
And I think... You know, you got to be New York tough.
Speaker 5 You got to be Northeast tough, man.
Speaker 5 And so that's why I think a lot of injuries start to plague both sides, whether it's the Mets or the Yankees also I think being in that car for two hours a day in that traffic doesn't help your body either but you know I think there's something to be said about the weather
Speaker 2 you know we were talking off air too about golf and that's why I was asking because I even know all right I'm gonna go play golf tomorrow I'm I'm not gonna hit the not to hit the ball far I'm gonna lose like seven yards because I just it's just the weather but even just when did it do anything to your pitches not even you physically but just the weather do anything nothing matters zero percent all right because because to be honest with you it was just cold like the weather the sun was out it was just like the sun was like y'all on your own down there in the bronx you know what i mean it just couldn't get all the way down there to warm us the warm was up but again in that situation though like i i mean
Speaker 5 maddie could play the national title game in twitzland and still be warm enough to where once you're you're in the huddle it is what it is and so yeah um you know when you're in the game man and you're in the world series and you're in the bronx and not new Yankee Stadium.
Speaker 5
New Yankee Stadium is too nice. There's too many martinis.
I'm with you.
Speaker 5 This is old Yankee Stadium where the rats weren't afraid of the humans and stuff. This is like, you know, it was a home field of bad things.
Speaker 5 And so for me, being a West Coast guy, I thought this was like the cathedral of baseball. You know what I mean? Like, we're in the World Series against the Yankees, bro.
Speaker 5 So it could have been a blizzard, we'd have been ready to compete out there at a high level.
Speaker 3
I was a pitcher growing up. It was my first love.
I tore my arm when I was 14.
Speaker 3 But I think, and Jerry, you know, being a lifelong baseball fan, I think all kids dream of pitching in the World Series, man, like game seven, bottom of the ninth.
Speaker 3 And you go through that moment in your head.
Speaker 3 You lived it. You won it.
Speaker 3 That, like, take us back to that, man. Like, how, like, what is the celebration like? Like, the team, the locker room, it's got to be up there all time.
Speaker 5 You know, I mean, for us to play the Giants, the Cubs, and the Yankees, you, you can't script that any better as far as anybody that loves baseball.
Speaker 5 And so, you know, being part of the Bartman game, if anybody that knows baseball about that in Chicago and what have you,
Speaker 5 overcoming the Cubs. I mean, could you imagine it was the Cubs, Yankees World Series? I mean, now that I work at Fox, I'm like, I'm rooting for that.
Speaker 2 Right, you want that World Series.
Speaker 5 But again, like, it was just surreal. And we really felt in our locker room that we could be world beaters.
Speaker 5 And we get to the Bronx and there's just countless videos of this, like, their history. And you see Yogi Berra, you see all these guys.
Speaker 5 And it's like, okay, this is when the road is going to end for the Marlins. This is when
Speaker 5 they go to this Disney movie that
Speaker 5
they go up to New York and they get killed. You know what I mean? So we took that personal, man.
And we knew we had some talent. We knew we had to take the crowd out of it.
Speaker 5 But it was fun to be able to be in the Bronx, man. Like, to me, when I got in game one, I tell everybody he was out of body.
Speaker 5 Like, I know I was there, but I couldn't believe that I was seeing the people like Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter.
Speaker 5 I mean, I've had these guys cards, and all of a sudden, now I'm at the highest stage going up against these guys at the highest level. And so, when we won it, and I told Barty and everybody this,
Speaker 5
when we won it, I never touched the trophy because it was too big for me. Like, it was just like, I can't believe we did this.
Like, I'm on my flip phone, like, mom, did you see us winning?
Speaker 5 That's how old I am. I'm talking about flip phone.
Speaker 2 StarTack, you're on the star phone.
Speaker 5 We're all like the same age.
Speaker 2 I'm the oldest guy in here.
Speaker 5 No, but again, like, I never touched the trophy. And so
Speaker 5 I told everybody I foxed this, and they finally let me hold the trophy. And I remember all these memories and these feelings flooding into me and stuff like that.
Speaker 5 So it was surreal to be able to beat them. And every time I go back to New York, I always blow my ring to kind of raise up the fans and stuff like that.
Speaker 5 They got 27 titles. They can give us one.
Speaker 2 So, you know, you mentioned playing in that,
Speaker 2 you know everyone calls it the bartman game little do we remember it was also game six right which is a huge game right you call it game six and we all know the cub fan reaction and everything there and i don't think we really heard much on the other side like you know we know it was like some of the cubs have spoken out you know when you're there and you see that is it so quick that you don't quite know what happened and was it a story the next day or did you know in that moment oh we just got a we just got an extra life here it moistens a little who's a good friend of mine you cannot bring this up to moistens like i wouldn't i wouldn't dare
Speaker 5 see moises in any of card signing do not bring this up because he had the perfect advantage point from the first base dugout he had that ball he had it he timed the jump perfectly and when that happened this energy came out of the stadium like
Speaker 5 what what just happened and all of a sudden we started getting base hit after base hit after base hit and then the crowd just started throwing stuff at them. Like, you know what I mean?
Speaker 5
They're not even paying attention to the game anymore. And so everyone kind of thinks that that Bartman game is really a game seven.
Really, it was a game six.
Speaker 5 And so when we won that game, we were all at the bar at the rest and drinking like we wanted because we were like, they messed up.
Speaker 5
They messed up letting us force a game seven because anything can happen in the game seven. Yeah.
So it was surreal. It felt like.
Speaker 5 The Cubs series felt more like a World Series than the Yankee series, to be totally honest.
Speaker 5 Like the intensity of the city, the fan base, they're finally there to where they can break a hundred-year curse. And now this dragony-ass Marlin team is in their way, giving them a series.
Speaker 5
It was surreal. And so, for us to be able to overcome that, beat Mark Pryor and Kerry Wood, who no one wanted to face back then.
You know what I mean?
Speaker 5 They were the two best pitchers in the game at that time. And to be able to do that, I remember warming up, and I tell everybody the story of the Cubs intensity.
Speaker 5 I remember warming warming up, and I saw this lady with something on her lap. And I was like, What is that?
Speaker 3 The lady had an urn.
Speaker 2 Who left the stadium with an urn?
Speaker 5 Like, the lady had to earn no cap. Like, they let her
Speaker 5 earn. Like,
Speaker 5
it sent me shockwaves to be like, oh my God, bigger than this, the team. This is bigger.
Like, this is historic, where a lady got to earn and goddamn, you know, the stadium.
Speaker 5 And so, this seeing that, like, it was like, okay, this is bigger than baseball this is historic and this is the series regardless of the outcome people will remember for all time
Speaker 3 hey you uh you talked about some of the best pitchers you know carry wood mark pryer usc guy um really felt like that postseason was kind of a coming out party for your old teammate miguel cabrera
Speaker 5 you got to have some story i mean maybe one of the maybe the best top two or three best hitters of all time one of the best players of all time yeah this a legend and i love that people got to really see his personality towards the telling of his career because he's hilarious.
Speaker 5
He's a funny guy, and he loves messing with me. Even to this day, he sends me photos.
Hey, Negro, Don Fego, meaning I'm super ugly. You know what I mean?
Speaker 5
He's a great teammate. I played with him since A-ball.
I mean, the guy was hitting. The day I got called up to the big leagues, he was in AA with me.
He was hitting 436 in AA, which is a joker.
Speaker 5 You know what I mean? He was always just the best player.
Speaker 5 I have a lot of cool stories. Some, I don't know, I don't know if I can say on air, but no, you know, it's I think you could give us one.
Speaker 3 You could give us one.
Speaker 5
I'll give you two. The first day he gets called up, he's like, 0 for 2 with 2Ks.
And I'm sitting on the bench just like, he's fine. Even as a rookie, I'm like, he's fine, guys.
Don't worry.
Speaker 5
Because it's kind of an energy on the bench. Like, can this kid handle all of it? And that was a game that he ends up hitting the walk-off home run in the rest of history.
You You know what I mean?
Speaker 5
And I'm the guy on the bench, like, I've seen him do this shit all the time. Like, he's obnoxiously good.
He's that good. And so, um, another one,
Speaker 5 he's gonna kill me for this, but um, back in our day when we were young, uh, we were playing in the Atlanta Braves, and uh,
Speaker 5 how can I say this? Uh, effects from the night before were blurred into the day game, if you will.
Speaker 2 Sure, yeah, yeah, that happened.
Speaker 5 Hello, Biggie. Yeah, he shows up probably
Speaker 5 an hour before game time with the stuff he has on. So he walks in.
Speaker 2 The walker shirt.
Speaker 5 Bad, club, bad, man on his arm and everything. Bad on his arm.
Speaker 2 Stamps.
Speaker 5
So I'm the captain of the team, so you know we're already up shit's creek anyway. So I grabbed him.
Say, hey, get in the shower. He gets in the shower.
He throws up everywhere.
Speaker 5 throws up absolutely everywhere and so he's still in the line so i i beg joe girardi not to take him out of the lineup so joe girardi if you know joe girardi he's fuming at i mean he's turned red at this point so he gets in the first and back he doesn't even sniff the pitch and it i can think he has some monster getting after where he like homers twice and you know what i mean i mean he did all this while he was half asleep you know what i mean and so get on the plane and he he's my like plane mate and he sleeps on the plane all the way back to Miami.
Speaker 5 And I'm just looking at this guy like, this dude is an X-Men.
Speaker 5 He's not of us. You know what I mean? This dude can do it at the highest level.
Speaker 5 And so I've never been to Cooperstown before, and I promised him I would go when he gets his speech in because he's a really big brother to mine. And I love the dude's personality.
Speaker 5 But, I mean, he's a legend that is all right of what he's done on and off the field.
Speaker 3 Dude, Eric Carroll, I told you, Eric Carroll, so you know EK well,
Speaker 3 tells the greatest story about, and he would love telling this, about being facing Greg Maddox one day. And he was like, dude, I couldn't touch this guy.
Speaker 3
I had like a lifetime, like 138 batting average. So the night before, he just got after it, right? He was like, I'm going to go 0 for 4 anyway.
Doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 The next day, like that, he goes 4 for 4 against Greg Maddox and says, he would say this. He says he had a double and literally almost threw up at second base as he was sliding into second.
Speaker 3 And he was like, mad, I thought I wouldn't even touch the dude. You baseball guys are crazy, man, because when I was in Arizona, I used to hang out with like Connor Jackson and
Speaker 3 Burns and Chris Young was those years.
Speaker 3 And like, they would party their ass off the night before, like a seven o'clock game the next day, go to the clubhouse, hit the sauna, hit the steam room, and they're playing, dude.
Speaker 3 I was like, if we did that in the NFL, I would get cut the next day. Yeah.
Speaker 5 You know,
Speaker 5 it's crazy because, you know, talking to other athletes and they're like, the first thing they bring up is you guys play every day like you know what i mean like to wrap the mind around that it's like yeah you basically start at valentine's day and you don't end until you know basically if you make it all the way to halloween so the grueliness of the body and everything you put yourself through i mean i used to you know after a start i would drink and then all of a sudden the next day run for 30 minutes and sweat all that gym beam out you know what i mean like it was a system that our body got used to and what have you so but yeah sometimes i see guys and I'm like, I'm not a gambling man, but if I saw guys now, I'm like, yeah, they're not going to be shit tomorrow.
Speaker 5 So, let me
Speaker 2 I've lost money that way before, Don Joe.
Speaker 2 Not gonna lie, there was a rumor one time about a player, not gonna mention the name, that was spotted out the night before a game and had to be like carried out.
Speaker 2 Yeah, and was let's just say he was a pitcher, he's pitching the next day. Oh, wow, we all, we all bet against that pitcher who threw a three-hit shutout and
Speaker 5
Three-hit shutout. I took Torrey Hunter out.
I will tell him myself. I took Torrey Hunter out, who's a big brother of mine.
I took him out to the Hard Rock Cafe in Fort Lauderdale.
Speaker 5
I took him out all night, all night. He comes the next day, and I look in the lineup.
I don't have stays on because I'm not pitching.
Speaker 5 So I'm like, I'm sitting there eating sunflower seeds, half asleep, watching.
Speaker 5
He literally gets four hits off of five pitches the next day. And everyone's like, he was out with you all day.
I was like, he is. I threw up twice.
Like, you know what I mean?
Speaker 5 So, yeah, some guys are just wired that way to where they can still perform at a highest level and even after a nice defender.
Speaker 3 We want to get into Otani, but before we do that,
Speaker 3 you had a what, a lifetime batting average, 244. Is that accurate?
Speaker 5 Close, yeah.
Speaker 2 That'd be like third in the NL right now.
Speaker 3 By the way, I looked up, I was like, all right, we're going to talk to D. I looked up like the best hitting pitchers of all time.
Speaker 3 And not going back back to like Bay Bruth and that, or like Madison Bumgardner, right? Zach Grenke could rake. Dude, you could rake, dude.
Speaker 2 You could rake.
Speaker 5 You know what?
Speaker 5 You know, I was a baseball player, like, you know, in a posture syndrome of a pitcher, to be totally honest with you. I just love the game of baseball.
Speaker 5 I'm a die-hard open age fan. I grew up right around the corner from the stadium.
Speaker 5 I just love competing at a high level. And whatever I could do to stay on the field, I was going to do it.
Speaker 5 And so I was a a utility all-American in high school where you know you play two positions, and I just hated sitting the bench.
Speaker 5 And so, you know, whatever I can do to try to win a ball game, I was sincerely going to do. And I remember Bobby Kotz used to talk to me about sliding head first.
Speaker 5 I'm like, Bobby, you don't want to see me slide free first. He's like, Well,
Speaker 5
D-Trained, your left arm, you're going to break it. I'm like, Well, so be it.
You know, this is the way I'm going to think, you know. And so, I always loved playing the game.
Speaker 5 And when I got a chance to meet Shoe Otani, Dave Roberts introduced me, like, he used to be you. And I was like, No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 5 no no no no no no no no I was the lunch portion Otani and you know what I mean you the dinner portion of it you know so uh but I just love playing the game of baseball man it's really a sport that saved my life
Speaker 2 wow you you said the o-word you said otani right so
Speaker 2 couple of things first because you said something earlier where you said you'd love you know the studio tv version of you would have loved to have seen like yankees cubs but and we can't really comment because you know we're taping this and it's it's early thursday so there's games going on.
Speaker 2 But just from you in the studio, who would you want? Not even giving analysis, just pound for pound entertainment.
Speaker 2 What's the best fan matchup you think for entertainment for a world for the World Series this year with the teams? Again, not knowing who might get bounced out for your money, who's the best matchup?
Speaker 5 Well, for the National League Championship, I want to see Padres Dodgers. I mean, what they've done down there in San Diego, they've turned Peco into,
Speaker 5 from a tourist perspective, to all of a sudden one of the most daunting places to win a ball game. And the intensity is there in San Diego.
Speaker 5 And they're tired of being a little brother to the Dodgers over there. You know what I mean? So I would love this.
Speaker 5
Yeah, absolutely. And so the World Series, obviously, it'd be Yankees-Dodgers.
I mean, judgment of time.
Speaker 5 I mean, I got a chance to call that game where Yamamoto went up against the Yankees in Yankees Stadium.
Speaker 5 You would have thought it was a World Series, how many media personalities and how many people were there at that series.
Speaker 5
It was a level of intensity. It was a nice barometer to see where both sides were.
And both sides wanted this matchup. You know what I mean? And so we always, we know the fan bases.
They travel.
Speaker 5 You know what I mean? We saw a lot of Dodger fans in the Bronx. I was a little worried about that, but everybody.
Speaker 5 But I think that will be a really big time matchup to see Judge because... Judge has been absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 5 I mean, the year that he started being horrible, and then all of a sudden having another MVP type year, and Shoe Timing is the biggest thing in sports right now. I've never seen,
Speaker 5 I'm a huge LeBron fan, but I don't think I've seen anybody have this much impact in Los Angeles on their first year. Like far
Speaker 5
getting on the team and being one of the best players. I'm good friends with Mookie Betts and Mookie.
I was like, damn, Mookie, you seem like a socket bitch now over there in that team out.
Speaker 5 Seriously. He didn't even take it personal because that's how good Shoe Hank has been to the point where we don't even remember him playing for the Angels at least one and if he peaks for them.
Speaker 3
Listen, thank God he's not with the Angels anymore. I can't, I grew up, I grew up in Orange County, man.
And I mean, talk about, you got Mike Trout, right? Who in our generation
Speaker 3
would go down. He has to stay healthy, maybe one of the greatest to ever do it.
You have Otani, who is this phenomenon and might go down as the best to ever play when it's all said and done.
Speaker 3 And they just like, just, they can't figure it out over there, man. And it bothers me.
Speaker 3 But how, I know Jerry spent some time with like Jeter and some of those boys at his event last week or a couple weeks ago. And
Speaker 3 just so tawny, man, like you kind of talked about it, but like we've never seen anything like this. And even as a pitcher, like how would you, how would you pitch to him?
Speaker 3 How would you describe what we're seeing in baseball now with him?
Speaker 5 Well, you know, a lot like Steph Curry, he's inspired another generation because now you're seeing a lot of kids that are two-way players getting drafted high. You know what I mean?
Speaker 5 To be impactful, to be two players in one.
Speaker 5 How I would pitch him is, first of all, a lot of prayer and belief. You know what I mean?
Speaker 5
He covers the baseball. I mean, he hits the ball out to left center like he's right-handed.
I mean, it's truly remarkable to see because he doesn't hit on the field.
Speaker 5 So for him to all of a sudden hit in the cage where no one gets to see him and then go into live pitching where
Speaker 5 you're the primary factor of everybody wanting to shut you down.
Speaker 5 And every time a pitcher makes a mistake i mean he's hitting it onto the pavilion i mean it's truly remarkable his power uh speed play coverage i believe the over
Speaker 5 and under for him to steal basis was 19 and the guy's still 54
Speaker 5 nuts so bananas impactful and uh a phenomenal teammate um understands the responsibility of the brand and uh
Speaker 5 not only for himself but for a whole nation I mean, it's nuts everything he's been doing. And so it's truly fun to watch him continue to be the best player in the world and stay healthy doing it.
Speaker 5 And so it's going to be scary hours next year. And if they make it to the World Series, he might come out of that bullpen and throw for the Dodge if they make it to the World Series.
Speaker 2 Could you imagine?
Speaker 2 Will he be back? Will he be back?
Speaker 5 We'll see about that, but he's fun to watch, and he's a phenomenal teammate, and he's great for the sport.
Speaker 2 Ah, you just gave me chills, though, thinking about
Speaker 2 coming out.
Speaker 3 Could he be healthy enough to pitch?
Speaker 4 He's already been doing
Speaker 5 trending, and so that's kind of been the talk of this him being healthy enough. Now, then they're gonna have to do sim games because obviously the triple-A season is over with.
Speaker 5 But if he's able to throw strike and command, could you imagine him versus Aaron Judge coming out of the wolf pen to just inject that into, yeah, give me all that.
Speaker 2 Could you imagine we need pitchers?
Speaker 5 It would be 10 times bigger than him facing Mike Trout in the wbc in the final i mean you remember that type of energy so as a baseball fan i hope to get to get a chance to see something like that oh man that would be awesome yeah i don't even know where to go from there i i want to i want to ask you a question about
Speaker 3 hitters the toughest hitter you ever pitched against
Speaker 3 man oh that's a brave like you just couldn't you just like you couldn't get up you're like god damn it i gotta pitch against this guy well that's a big threat first of all um
Speaker 5 a lot of guys that have that that have my number um
Speaker 5 you know like our plujos hit two home runs off me in one game and then took me to dinner i obviously made him pay so
Speaker 5 they're sticking lobsters on him you know what i mean like
Speaker 5 guys too you hear me i'm gonna give some mac and jetty all that stuff give me that dessert menu
Speaker 5
yeah give me all that so no uh I was blessed to be able to play against the Larry Walkers and, you know, all these guys that are getting into the Hall of Fame now. That's my area.
So I'm seniors,
Speaker 5
you know, the Chipper Jones of the world, the Jim Tome of the world. I mean, it was cool to be on the same field as those guys, man.
It was really, really fun to play against those guys. And,
Speaker 5 but Albert was just a machine, man. Like, he could cover the baseball, never made the same mistake twice.
Speaker 5 Big Poppy was the same guy as far as you couldn't continue to beat him the same way,
Speaker 5 it was one of those things where those guys,
Speaker 5 you had to get the guys out in front of them so they couldn't do the damage to take over the game, if that makes sense. You know what I mean?
Speaker 5 And so playing against these guys like, you know, like Albert and Poppy
Speaker 5 and Ramirez and guys like that, where they can win by themselves.
Speaker 5
It was fun to watch, but I got them as much as they got me, though. They'll tell good stories about it.
Like, I've got them, and I'm let them know on the field like, yeah, you owe me.
Speaker 5
But Barry Bond, I hit above all of them. Barry was the best hitter of all time.
So I bet against each other. If I got a chance to strike him out, he got to sign me a bat.
Speaker 5
And so Barry didn't always sign his own stuff. So, you know, I can't sign his stuff right now.
Barry didn't always sign his own stuff.
Speaker 5
But I struck him out when he was one home run from tying the record. And he comes down to the phone after the game and gives me a big hug.
He said, young man, you wouldn't have got me.
Speaker 5 Even back in my younger days, I was like,
Speaker 5 stuff like that. So it was just fun to be on the same field with guys that were your heroes, but Barry Barnes was by far the best hitter I've ever gone up against.
Speaker 2 So you said it was right. He was one shy of tying.
Speaker 2
So is that going through your mind of like, oh, great, I'm going to be a trivia question. Yeah.
I'm going to be a trivia question.
Speaker 5
My family, they didn't even care about the game. So I'm from the Bay Area.
So they didn't even care about the game. They were like, are you going to pitch the berry?
Speaker 5
I'm like, grandma, I'm going to pitch the berry. Okay, grab my wood.
I'm going to punch the bird. You know what I'm saying? So like the intensity of the whole
Speaker 5 And all of a sudden, they had to switch out the balls because the balls had special barcodes on them and stuff like that. So, this allowed the stadium's energy to get up.
Speaker 5 And the first time I kicked my leg up, I almost fell over because it was like the whole stadium took pictures at the same time. So, it was like,
Speaker 5 I was like, oh my God.
Speaker 5 And so, you know, again, another body experience to be involved in this so i i think my hardest pitches were 94 to 96 to him the rest of the team i threw 88 so he was pissed about it
Speaker 5 so if i was gonna be a game show answer he was gonna get i was gonna be give people my best and so
Speaker 5 oh yeah be part of that was pretty cool pretty cool oh that's awesome unbelievable well
Speaker 2 we're gonna let you go man i know you mentioned golf one of these days i i'm not i don't know if i can call you d-trained yet i don't know if we're quite friends but
Speaker 2 can we get on the golf course soon? Because one of my main objectives in life is to get Matt golfing more.
Speaker 2 We got to get him golfing.
Speaker 5
You know, he's down there in Matt Hangar Moses. We get it somewhere out there.
We'll get on this country club. I love to do that, man.
Speaker 3
That would be awesome. You're the man.
Yeah, Don. So thanks for joining us, dude.
Speaker 2
And keep up the great work. You're awesome on Fox.
Enjoy the playoffs and amazing career and amazing things going forward, man. You were better.
That was awesome. Thank you.
Speaker 5
Thank you, man. Thank you, guys.
I appreciate you guys.
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Speaker 2 That was great stuff from Don Trello Willis. Didn't know that he was almost part of Barry Bond's legacy there.
Speaker 2 But listen, yeah, for a moment, before we move on, we do have to just point out one thing. Obviously, we've all been watching what's going on in the South and Florida and the Carolinas and all over.
Speaker 2 So I just have to point this out that Sinclair will be partnering with Salvation Army for Sinclair Cares, Hurricane Helene Relief.
Speaker 2 The Salvation Army has teams operating in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and Florida. And their highest need is clean water as well as food and cleanup kits.
Speaker 2
So to donate, please go to sinclaircares.com. Any little bit helps.
And again, all of our thoughts are with everybody over there and what's going on.
Speaker 3 Yeah, it's just been just devastation. And
Speaker 3
we actually got, you know, got married in Asheville, North Carolina. So we have some friends who have family out there.
So just sending our love and hope everybody is doing okay. And again,
Speaker 3 sinclaircares.com to donate.
Speaker 2 Yes, thank you.
Speaker 2
Okay, Matt, you're not off the hook just yet. I think this ends it.
This will put a bow on it, although this might live on forever. But we did have our poll we put on the throwback show
Speaker 2 socials about the poll result about basically the question was, do you agree with Matt Leinert? By the way, Matt Leinert QB, what a badass social handle. I'm jealous that you get to put that in there.
Speaker 2 We all get it. Do you agree with Matt Leiner that grown men shouldn't wear other grown men's jerseys?
Speaker 2 After the poll, we got a few thousand responses, I believe.
Speaker 2
No was at 66.8%. It's actually a closer margin than I thought.
And yes was obviously 33.2%.
Speaker 2 So
Speaker 3
that's not that close, dude. That's 70, 30.
70%
Speaker 3 don't agree with me.
Speaker 2
All right, you ready for the unrelatable story of the day? I have an unrelatable story. Yes.
I say this, this, folks, listening and watching on our YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 I say this knowing this is completely unrelatable and might make me sound like a D-bag and will probably never come up again in my lifetime and most people's lifetime.
Speaker 2
But I went to a Yankees Angels game. This is probably an 08, maybe 07 with Kevin Connolly.
Shout out to Entourage's own Kevin Connolly. We went to a Yankees Angels game.
Speaker 2 We always tried to catch the Yankees when they came to Anaheim in L.A.
Speaker 2 And I wore, I want to say it was a Jeter jersey, I think, but I wore a jersey to the game, something that 66.8% of people agree with me on.
Speaker 2 And I want to say Connolly got a text. Now,
Speaker 2 I got to know Jeter over the years, and I go to his charity. We know that Connolly knows him a little, you know, they've been friends for a bit.
Speaker 2 And Connolly got a text like, hey, some of the Yankees are like getting together after the game if you want to come by.
Speaker 2
And I'm like, we got to go to that. So, and for all of you out there, this was not some wild, crazy, I'm sorry to break your hearts.
It wasn't some wild, crazy party.
Speaker 2
It was a few people gathered together. It wasn't some wild, like Hollywood after party.
But that being said, you know, you're in there. It's Jeter.
It's Clemens. It's all these amazing Yankees.
Speaker 2
And I'm in there. Like, who let the fan, who let the fan in with my jeter? And I couldn't take it off, Maddie, because I had like a tight white shirt.
And this, I was still chubby turtle.
Speaker 2
I wasn't fit turtle yet. So I couldn't go chubby white t-shirt guy.
So I had to rock the Yankee jersey in front of the Yankees.
Speaker 3 And I guarantee you that when you step foot in wherever the restaurant, wherever you were at, you thought that.
Speaker 3 That was in your mind.
Speaker 2 In my mind completely.
Speaker 3 I cannot be wearing these guys' jersey. They're going to think I'm a fanboy.
Speaker 2 Yeah, you want to go meet the Yankees? I'm like, yes, that's exactly my, yeah, I get that. But how often is that going to, again, being self-effacing, that's not going to come up often for people.
Speaker 2 Was it a pinstripe?
Speaker 3 Was it? Was it black? Was it?
Speaker 2
I think, no, it was a white. It was a white pinstripe.
I wore the home whites, even though it was a road game. Yankees won.
I got to meet some awesome Yankees. And yeah,
Speaker 2 the good news is no one remembers that but me. That's the good news.
Speaker 3 That's what you think.
Speaker 2 But you lost. You're going to be hearing about that for a while.
Speaker 2
All right. Now we're getting on to some fun.
We mentioned earlier, you know, we started thinking about old school throwback athlete nicknames.
Speaker 2
These are not the current ones, and I think the current state of affairs is in trouble. But we're going to do our top three throwback athlete athlete nicknames of all time.
Okay.
Speaker 2 Now, my disclaimer is I did not go with the obvious like Air Jordan Tiger one. No,
Speaker 2 these are, these are like my childhood personal favorites. And I encourage all of you, go look through some of these nicknames.
Speaker 2 Do you have them in a specific order?
Speaker 3 I
Speaker 2 it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 We can just go one by one.
Speaker 2 Okay. We'll say number three.
Speaker 3 I'll say my favorite for last.
Speaker 2
Okay. Number three, Matt.
Who was your number three throwback? This is the throwback three. The number one.
Speaker 3 This was so hard.
Speaker 3 I would say that two of my three are baseball because I was a baseball.
Speaker 2 Baseball has some good ones.
Speaker 3 I'm going Mr. October.
Speaker 3
Yeah. I mean, of course.
I mean, I wasn't a Yankees fan,
Speaker 3 but to have a whole month of baseball named after you, the most important month of the season, and just Mr.
Speaker 3 October, like I, I, it just, I just was like, and I was a little even too young to even watch him play, but like, I just thought that was pretty cool.
Speaker 2 I almost, out of sentimental reasons, put Mr. November for Jeter, because if you remember when they lost to Arizona the 9-11 year, all the games got pushed back and he hit the walk-off after midnight.
Speaker 2 It became November 1st. So he hit the walk-off on November 1st, but that's a great one.
Speaker 2 Baseball has great ones.
Speaker 3 Yeah, baseball has great ones.
Speaker 2
I went with the fun one. I don't even think this athlete cares that this is his nickname or likes it.
This is the one that made me laugh that my friends and I have been quoting for years.
Speaker 2 It is Eric Sleeping with the B enemy.
Speaker 2
It's a Chris Berman special. I'm sorry.
It's my number three. It gets the most attention.
I love Berman.
Speaker 3 I did not think you were going with that.
Speaker 2
Eric Sleeping with the B enemy. Berman had some bangers.
I'm going to just read you a few quick bangers before we get to our number twos. Greg Mathmatics, awesome.
Speaker 2
Bert, be home by 11. Bert Bly Levin.
Bly 11. Incredible.
Moises, we mentioned Alu earlier. Dontrell, Moises, skip to my Alou.
Speaker 2 Joseph, live and let a die.
Speaker 2 And my personal favorite, Jake Daylight, come and we gotta delohm.
Speaker 2 Jeff Brown paper bag well, honorable mention. But that's my number three.
Speaker 3 Oh, God, I'm pulling up some of these. Okay, so that's good.
Speaker 2 i didn't think you're going i didn't think you're going with it would be any it meant the most to me as a kid we talked about that so much when we were kids okay
Speaker 3 this was one of my favorite players because i was a pitcher i'm going with randy johnson the big unit yes 6'10 maybe taller i actually met him in person one time i was like holy shit dude and i'm 6'5
Speaker 3 6'10 throwing a hundred miles per hour literally when he threw a pitch he was halfway down to home plate um the sidearm and just the big unit. And you can
Speaker 3 take that name however way you want to do it.
Speaker 2 But yeah, the big unit. And I think between the nickname and the fact that he's like 6'11, but also is, you know, was he 7'5 on the mound, just the most intimidating pitcher.
Speaker 2 By far, right? Yes. Before my number two as well, honorable mention, we mentioned it earlier, but yeah, Mount Mutumbo,
Speaker 2 one of the all-time greats in Charlie Hustle as well. All right, my number two.
Speaker 2
My number two, you ready for this? Yes. It's a baseball one.
It's the kid. Oh, yeah.
It's Ken Griffey Jr. The kid.
I think I love that one too because I was a kid watching Ken Griffey Jr.
Speaker 2 I think it was the first junior anything, like first basically kid of a player I once knew who was playing.
Speaker 2 And now I'm at the age where I'm going to start seeing grandkids start playing in the league. But the kid, I mean, the swing,
Speaker 2 the shoes, everything. The kid is a perfect nickname.
Speaker 3 I feel like he, because we're same era, right? Same. I feel like he was every kid in our generation's favorite baseball player.
Speaker 2 Easily. Right? Easily.
Speaker 3 Like Ken Griffey Jr., like I actually had an autographed baseball by him. I forget, I don't even, I think my dad got it for us.
Speaker 3 And we had, we kept it in like the little case and then that upper deck, because I collect the upper deck rookie card, which was like the most famous card to get back in the day.
Speaker 3 Yeah, the, the kid. Oh, Griffey was the best, man.
Speaker 2 Yeah, I really, he wasn't at the Jeter golf event this year because I wanted to talk to him if he was there and just say,
Speaker 2 we got to remake your baseball shoe and basically make it into a golf shoe. That's very, become very popular.
Speaker 2 You can get Kobe's now and they could put some spikes on the bottom so you can rock Kobe's on the golf course, but to rock the Griffys,
Speaker 3
yeah, the kids, man. He's definitely one of my, like, I would have, like, I met him, I actually met him on the field.
He was a hitting coach, I think, for somebody a couple of years back.
Speaker 3 And I was on the field at a Dodger game.
Speaker 2 I think it was the Reds.
Speaker 3 Yeah, and we were talking. I was like, in my mind, I'm like, dude, I am just the biggest,
Speaker 3 like the the little kid of me. It was the coolest moment.
Speaker 2
Okay, my number one. Number one, here we go.
Drum roll. The throwback three.
Matt Leinert's number one throwback athlete nickname.
Speaker 3 Iron Mike Tyson.
Speaker 3 Okay. Does that not give you chills?
Speaker 3 Okay, so
Speaker 3 pound for pound, maybe the greatest fighter of all time, but iron Mike Tyson.
Speaker 2 Every time he stepped in the ring, and that was like fight was over before he stepped in. 5'9,
Speaker 3 little, like but like built like a brick house iron mike man i he's just one of my favorite just
Speaker 2 oh i can't even describe it like he's another i actually met i met him in arizona and i was like my my jaw like fell i was like holy shit that is mike tyson yeah we had he did a cameo on entourage couldn't have been nicer i watched a fight with him in vegas i'm trying to remember what fight i watched it might have been a floyd mayweather fight and i sat ring so i just happened to sit next to him yeah by far doing this exercise exercise, boxers have the best nicknames.
Speaker 2
It's not close. Golden Boy, Sweet P.
Prinnell Whitaker, Marvelous Mark.
Speaker 2 Well, the greatest.
Speaker 2 You know, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Tommy the Hitman, Hearns, just some of the best. I left boxers almost out because theirs are the best.
Speaker 3 But Iron Mike is just both quick and to the point, just Iron Mike. I was like, yep.
Speaker 2
All right. He was a bad, badass.
You ready for my number one?
Speaker 2
Which would not be anyone's number one because I don't even think this is a Hall of Fame player, but this was an iconic nickname that led to to also a business model. Penny Hardaway.
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 If you think about Penny Hardaway, okay, and those commercials, you remember with Chris Rock voicing Little Penny and then sneaker launch just as a brand, an athlete with a nickname.
Speaker 2
I mean, obviously, Michael Jordan did it at the highest all-time level. I thought it was so smart.
Of course, you know, Anthony Hardaway as his name, but everyone, that's Penny Hardaway. Yep.
Speaker 2
And I was an icon. Icon when he came in and injuries, obviously shorted, but Penny Hardaway is my number one.
I had the shoes. I had the Penny Hardaway Magic throwback.
Speaker 2 Well, it wasn't a throwback back then.
Speaker 3 Those jerseys were sick.
Speaker 2 And I still remember, dude, I still remember
Speaker 2
that draft. And I, again, this might make, this might make us old heads and throwback, but Chris Weber goes one to the Warriors.
Penny Hardaway goes three to the Magic, and they trade on draft day.
Speaker 2
I don't know if we'll ever see anything like that again. It sort of happened with Tatum and Faltz, although it it wasn't draft day.
It happened before. But on draft day, Weber for Penny Hardaway.
Speaker 2 Penny's going to play with Shaq. Have you ever done the thought in your head? Like, what happened if C-Webb stayed on the magic and it was C-Web and Shaq?
Speaker 3 Well, dude, remember if Kobe got drafted by the Hornets?
Speaker 2
Hornets. I mean, yeah.
And then went to the Lakers. He was ever playing for the Hornets.
Speaker 3
Yeah, Penny. Yeah, Shaq's always, Shaq said publicly, like, if Penny, if they would have stayed together and he would have been healthy, they would have won titles.
Like,
Speaker 2
Penny was a freak, man. Yeah, they made the finals, and then it's just an unfortunate situation.
So that's my number one.
Speaker 3
I have a couple. I have a couple.
I have a list. I'm going to name a couple because I want everybody to
Speaker 3 hit us up, send us their favorite nicknames, but I got.
Speaker 2 Honorable mentions.
Speaker 3
Honorable mentions. Well, the Black Mamba, Kobe's my favorite athlete of all time.
Of course. The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, just being called the Great One.
Speaker 3
Sweetness, Walter Payton. The Glove, Gary Payton.
Primetime,
Speaker 3
by the way, Primetime Dion, who's now goes by coach prime. Like, that's kind of badass.
Like, he doesn't go by his first name anymore.
Speaker 3
Say hey, kid, Willie Mays. Like, there's so, like, go down the rabbit hole, and you will be like, oh, yeah, I remember this guy, I remember this guy.
That was awesome.
Speaker 2 You see what I'm saying, though, right? We had it good, and this is not an existence.
Speaker 3 No, this now, this era, it is, yeah, we need to see it.
Speaker 2 But let's bring it back. I'm with you, dude.
Speaker 3 We are with the red hammer.
Speaker 2 The red hammer, Sam Darnold. Good luck to the Vikings.
Speaker 2 I wish so badly that the Red Hammer was going into MetLife because that could have made the Ghostbuster a real thing if he goes and beats the Jets in Met Life. But
Speaker 3 I think they're playing overseas, right?
Speaker 2 Yeah, they're in London, I think.
Speaker 2
So, all right. Two last things, Matt.
Number one, where are you going? Where are you off to?
Speaker 7 Where are you heading?
Speaker 2 We are
Speaker 3 going to Penn State.
Speaker 3 PLA Penn State for a barn burner.
Speaker 2 But listen, Penn State's going to be a fun place to be.
Speaker 3
Penn State's great. Happy Valley's great.
Fans are always great.
Speaker 3 Penn State, top 10 team, really good football team. Have a chance to make the playoff this year.
Speaker 3 They have, obviously, UCLA this weekend, and then they come to USC next weekend, which is a big massive, massive showdown.
Speaker 2
That might be the first. Would you say maybe that's the first game? We haven't really said this in college football yet, like playoff implications.
Well, often we use that in other sports.
Speaker 3 Yeah, we had Bama, Georgia last week. It's early, but you had Michigan, Texas early on.
Speaker 3 Next week.
Speaker 2 These are two teams that might not get it, right? They couldn't, you know, they're fighting for their lives.
Speaker 3
For sure. Next week's Slayton Games, this is when you saw that, the meme and like going around, like, don't get married on October 12th.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like, this is that weekend.
Speaker 3 You got OU, Texas, SC, Penn State. You got
Speaker 3
LSU, Ole Miss. You got like four or five ranked games.
Like, it's going to be fire.
Speaker 2 It's so funny you say that because I, like, a month ago, I got invited to several watch parties for October 12th, like a month in advance.
Speaker 2 That's never happened to me with college football or really any sport.
Speaker 3 Ohio State's going to Oregon next week, too. So
Speaker 2 I got invited. It's
Speaker 2
a fam. That's going to be awesome.
All right. Well, that'll be fun.
And then last thing, I think I know your answer. What are you watching this weekend?
Speaker 3 Honestly, I'm not, I'm watching, I'm watching the dock on Vince McMahon.
Speaker 2 Oh, you're going to count. Okay, I finished it.
Speaker 3 So I didn't finish it. So I started two episodes this week.
Speaker 3 A lot of travel for me this weekend. So I'm going to finish it.
Speaker 3 I grew up a wrestling fan. Yeah.
Speaker 3 And kind of just then like didn't follow it for a long time and then kind of slowly got back into it again just because it's just, it's just incredible.
Speaker 3 I'm fascinated so far, the first couple episodes, the Hulk Hogan and all that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 I keep watching it.
Speaker 3 That was before my time. So
Speaker 3 that's what I'll be watching.
Speaker 2
How about you? Yep. For me, playoff baseball for sure, because that's probably when I start to wake up, playoff baseball.
And then one of my buddies is in this too.
Speaker 2 And I've been super curious about the penguin, the sort of
Speaker 2 one-off for the penguin character, Colin Farrell, playing the penguin.
Speaker 2 I'm hearing it has like Sopranos vibes because the penguin in the Colin Farrell version in the movie is kind of, he's like a mob guy, right?
Speaker 2
So I'm hearing it has Sopranos vibes. That's all I need to hear to be in.
Of course, I'm plugging something for HBO. But yeah, I'm going to be starting the Penguin and basically.
Speaker 3 Shout out my Dodgers, baby. Let's go.
Speaker 2
Let's go. It is all right.
All right.
Speaker 2
Thank you, everybody, for listening. If you haven't hit all the subscribe and follow buttons, go do it because we will respond to you.
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