Divisional QB rankings, all-time athlete nicknames and Dontrelle Willis on Ohtani, Bartman, Pete Rose & more

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I didn't know that Sam Darnold's

grandfather was the actor

and also the Marlboro

man who, you know, he played the

Marlboro man, the famous cowboy whose

name was Dick Hammer.

Dude. Richard Hammer.

Talk about a nickname, Dick Hammer. Can you just imagine being called Dick Hammer.
Dude, just... Richard Hammer.
Talk about a nickname, Dick Hammer. Can you be in college? Just imagine being called Dick Hammer.
All right, here we go. Another episode of Throwbacks.
Thanks to everybody for joining us. And however you're taking in the show today, we appreciate it.
Subscribe to us on YouTube. Follow on Apple and Spotify.
All the handles on social media are at Throwback Show. And it's a worthy follow because we actually respond to you on social media, unlike other podcasts.
And like my esteemedemed co-host, Matt Leiner's been getting a lot of heat on the Twitters and the Instagrams for the Jersey take. Dude, just the gift keeps on giving, dude, every single day.
I love it. Actually, my wife's best friend just texted me this week.
Like we were on a group chat about getting the kids together and she just threw in a little, oh, we won't talk about Matt's fashion because we know he likes to wear jerseys. Like it was just like, I'm like, what now my wife's friends are talking about this.
Like I had people saying to me on Twitter, both on throwbacks and on my personal Twitter, like you played a character who wore jerseys for like 10 years and you're not behind this. And I'm like, no, actually I'm not.
I'm sort of siding with Lyon. 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 men should wear jerseys? I think it's definitely leaned more towards it's allowed because of the fan, right? They want to wear jerseys to the game.
That's been the big pushback is like, we wore your jerseys, we're fans. So like, I understand that, but I would say like, it's pretty close.
Like I've had a lot of people, even on my show on big noon, it's like, Oh, we side with you, dude. Like I wouldn't, I think you hit a certain age where you're like, it's just not acceptable anymore, but yeah.
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 I mean're going to do it.
Let's, okay, we can move on from the jerseys though, okay? Dude, you are just all over this week. The big weekend.
I mean, we get shams on an emergency pod throwbacks to break down this blockbuster trade. Have you recovered? I mean, have you soaked it in? Well, here's the thing I don't like about these Knicks and the way they're moving.
I love the moves they're making. I don't love that they seem to be dropping all this at Friday night at 10 o'clock.
I feel like the Bridges trade was also, I'm like laying in bed. I just read Jacob Astori thing.
The house is calm. And then boom, that blockbuster.
Yeah. But to get Shams, I know Shams for a lot of years.
Yeah, that was huge. And she agreed to come on.
And by the way, my wife, shout out to Bree. She's the MVP because I was like on the soccer field.
So it was my Ari gold moment where I got word, hey, Shams is going to come on live. Get home.
And I kind of had to leave my kids on the soccer field. Dude, shout out to Bree just understanding what was at stake.
I mean, that was important, dude out to Shams I mean that was awesome man like to get that and if you haven't seen it you can go to the throwbacks YouTube the whole interview's up there 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 of the Shams interview and if you you want to hear the rest, go over to Throwbacks on YouTube. This pursuit of Carl Anthony Towns really picked up steam over the last, I think, week, two weeks when the Knicks started calling Minnesota about him making offers, making concepts of offers.
They were just giving hard no's. Wow.
No, no. And way back, even around draft time, July and into the months of August, a lot of the offers that the Knicks were conceptually discussing, from what I'm told, were around Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson.
And that just, from Minnesota's perspective, that was not going to get it done. And over the last week is when finally the inclusion of Dante DiVincenzo was made in this proposal, not Mitchell Robinson.
So then you have Julius Randall, Dante DiVincenzo, but still that was a no Minnesota wanted an asset. And last night, the Knicks from what I'm told finally put that first shot pick from Detroit on the table.
And we got wind yesterday that there were active conversations, ongoing conversations. jerry like i didn't know until you know maybe 15 20 minutes before that you dropped the news me and my colleague john krasinski at the athletic i mean yeah i didn't realize that this was we've heard nick you know cat to the knicks for like two years i didn't know that this was going on for for this long So we're on the group chat, and the minute it happened, initially you're probably processing like, no, yes, what does this look like? Now that the dust has settled, right, and you get a perennial all-star, you get a stretch five who can shoot and reunited with Tibbs.
And again, maybe that works well this time this time around as, as he's matured a lot, I'm sure as a player, what are your thoughts? I mean, I was saying now my whole timeline is all Nick stuff and it's now they have the third best odds to win the NBA championship and arguably the best starting five in the NBA. Um, it's settled.
Are you happy? Well, welcome to hell. That is Nick's Twitter, Matt twitter matt welcome to hell we brought you in to the depths of hell it's an interesting place um look i i had an emotional reaction at first and you know shout outs rich eisen i love rich eisen rich hopefully we're gonna get to be a guest on i'll tell you i'm gonna ask rich eisen right away because he went on his show, which is amazing, and basically was saying,

all right, Knicks fans, F your emotions at this point

because this trade makes sense.

And you know what?

He's right.

Once the emotional response wore off, it makes sense.

Here's what I'll end it with

because now it's just time to,

let's just, we got to roll the ball out and play.

There's no more analysis.

When Leon Rose took over

as the Knicks front office president or whatever his official

title is, the Knicks starting lineup was Alfred Payton, Taj Gibson, Moe Harkless, Julius Randle,

and RJ Barrett. And that was five years ago.
So you cut to five years later. I know it seems like

an eternity to Knicks fans, but it really wasn't. Now to be running out that lineup, which again,

on paper means nothing,

is pretty formidable.

The bottom line is, and I'll end it with this, Matt,

they needed a center.

They didn't offer

Randall the contract extension, which usually is

the kiss of death. They didn't offer IQ

one. That usually means we're not going to give you

a contract. They basically got something back

for Randall, who probably wasn't going to re-sign, barring

a finals run. That's how I feel.
The garden is going to be just we're going baby we're going i'm taking you you don't have to wear a jersey by the way i will wear a jersey i'll wear a jersey to that i'll wear i got you know what i'm gonna get i'm gonna 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. I like Josh Hart.
I'm going to wear that jersey courtside. 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. No, not wearing a Knicks jersey though.
True. They'll love you for it.
That's going to be exciting, man. Have you, all right, real quick.
And we have a great show. I don't want to get too far ahead.
We have Dontrell Willis, Dis d train joining us who you could catch him on fox uh it we're at that point of sports now where okay we're full in football mode and we have some good football stuff for you now it's baseball playoffs world series upon us we have really good teams in the mix and then also basketball is now creeping in so we're we're getting ready to reach the sports utopia that is coming.

But yeah, Dontrell, you know, you have a little relationship with Dontrell.

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.

But a couple of years back before Big Noon kickoff became a thing,

I was in the studio every weekend.

And Dontrell is a part of our MLB broadcast with those guys,

with A-Rod and Poppy. And now Jeter came over.
Big Hurt used to be a part of that. And it was always the coolest time of the year because I'm a diehard baseball fan.
And October would be awesome because we have playoffs on Fox in October. And our green room, which is called the Avocado Room, it would be our crew of college football, you know, and all day, I'm talking from 6am to nine o'clock at night.
And then it would be those guys and it would be those guys. And we're all in one room watching.
We put the, we put the baseball game on the big screen and then the other 20 screens had all the college football games. And, um, that's where I got to know D train and just a great guy and just the stories in that room with those guys.
Um, and then, you know, we lost Pete Rose, the baseball community lost Pete Rose this week, excuse me. And Pete was a part of Fox for a couple of years.
And, um, you know, just sitting in the room with Don trail and Pete and those guys and the stories and just as a sports fan and a kid, like the kid in me, and you've probably been in rooms when you're around athletes that you just grew up watching like yeah holy shit dude this is like this is cool man so uh i'm looking forward to talk to d train just about some of those stories and and he's i mean he won a world series he broke my heart and no three broke my heart beat the yankees in the world series and played with some of the greats and does a great job on TV, man. So fired up to hear from Dontrell.
Yeah, you mentioned Pete Rose, and a lot of people have talked about the legend of Pete Rose. And then also this week we lost to Kembe Mutombo, who also incredible on the court, but also some of the stuff he did off the court was unbelievable.
But then I started thinking too, and I think this is because of what happened this weekend with our guy, Sam Darnold. And we'll get into that.
This is where I'm going somewhere with this. Obviously, Pete Rose, iconic nickname, Charlie Hustle.
Dikembe Mutombo, Mount Mutombo, really cool fitting. I'm getting a little worried, Matt, that we are losing the great lane that even the likes of Chris Berman once owned with some of these nicknames of what we have today versus what we had in the past so I'm looking at Sam Darnold this 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 no he's just gonna go out and win MVP possibly 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 a couple of good wet like it's all coming everything you've said saying forever.
Right, sis? I have. Right guy calling the plays.
A couple of good wet. It's all coming.
Everything you've said, it's all coming together. And it annoys me because you're right.
I'm glad. I'm glad because my takes, my picks on Saturday have been awful with DraftKings.
So I'm glad I'm hitting like 100 here. So I'm just thinking of Sam Darnold.
I'm thinking of nicknames right now. So his, wait, so his grandfather is who? Yes.
This is what got me thinking, right? Yeah, okay. I put out on Twitter watching that game and all the games.
I'm like, you know what? I think if Darnold keeps going this way, he needs a nickname. There's nothing wrong with the name Sam Darnold.
It's a fine name. But we could do better if he's putting up these numbers.
I don't know if he quite has the, look, Tom Brady doesn't need a nickname. He sounds like a quarterback.
He's just the GOAT, yeah. Yeah, Tom Brady, like, it says enough.
Even with Mahomes, doesn't really need a nickname. Darnold, I think, could benefit from a nickname.
So I started doing the deep dive on him. And I know a lot of Jets fans jets days know this i didn't know that sam darnold's grandfather was the actor and also the marlboro man who you know he played the marlboro man the cow the famous cowboy whose name was dick hammer dude just richard hammer talk about a nickname dick hammer can you be in just imagine being called dick hammer i mean that's not the greatest name of all time clearly someone who wasn't afraid of a nickname, Dick Hammer.
Can you just imagine being called Dick Hammer? I mean, that's not the greatest name of all time. But clearly someone who wasn't afraid of a nickname, right? Hey, you know what they call people short for Richard? Dick.
You're going to be Dick Hammer. He leaned right into that.
So we got to figure this out for Darnold. I got one.
You got one? I got one. Do you want to hear some of that people on Twitter said? Yeah, let's hear what they said.
Well, I was trying to work in the Hammer or maybe like the Marlboro Sam instead of the Marlboro Man, something like that. But let me see.
Okay, yeah, some people had a few good ones. Max Mandel said Starnold.
Not bad. A few people had Slingin' Sammy.
Don't love it. Sammy Dimes, which is fun.
But the one that stuck out to me, Sammy darts. Cause also Marlboro man, they call them lung darts, smoking a dart.
So what do you got? Dude, I got three. Okay.
You ready for this? Yes. Okay.
The red hammer. We got to stick with the hammer, dude.
We got the red, this guy's just slinging the hammer. Okay.
the red hammer redhead okay i got the red hammer. This guy is just slinging the hammer.
Okay. The red hammer.
Redhead. Okay.
I got the red hammer. I got the ginger assassin.
Okay. Oh my God.
And then this one I saw. This one is not original, but this one kind of made me laugh.
The Ghostbuster. Because he was seeing ghosts on the sidelines.
I think you're on the side with the red hammer. I can't get over just being called Dick Hammer.
Like, if we just start, we're going to start calling him Sam Hammer. Or Sammy the Hammer.
The Red Hammer. Or Sam the Hammer.
I tried to think of other hammers besides his grandpa Dick. Greg the Hammer Valentine.
Everybody listening, tag us on all the socials of what you want Sam Darnold's nickname to be. I'm going with Sam, the Red Hammer, Darnold.
I'm still, I am not locking into something yet because I think this is a nuanced conversation. I think this is important, Matt, because we then put out in our group chat, like, hey, let's talk about, let's pick our top three, our throwback athlete nicknames of all time time and we're going to do that later in the show which by the way you do some research is about 4 000 amazing athlete nicknames which brings me to why i'm troubled who are some of the current active player nicknames that we love i did a little research i'm gonna throw a few at you all right we know we got king James.
It's a great one, but LeBron's, you know, he's 40. How much longer do we have him? Chef Curry, always cooking.
Great one. Again, up there in years.
Slim Reaper for Durant. Great one.
Kind of self-appointed. Gave it to himself.
So other ones that I love that weren't maybe as high profile, Honey Badger, I thought was a really cool one. And the ones I like now the most, I love Sauce Gardner.
That seems to have been his nickname forever. Forever, yeah.
I think Cheetah is amazing for Tyree Kill. I just think that's a cool one.
It fits. And then like Hollywood Brown, we haven't really seen much.
He's hurt. Danger Russ is over.
I mean, that's over. There's nothing dangerous about Russ.
King Henry. King Henry.

Derrick Henry.

King Henry.

Great one.

Mad Max.

Crosby.

And Danny Dimes may very well have to give it back by the end of the year.

Danny.

He's going to be Danny.

Danny Penny's coming up.

Sammy Dime.

There we go.

Sammy Dimes.

Yeah.

I think you're onto something here.

I think the basketball guys are better.

Like Chef Curry's sick.

King James.

I mean, and then, you know, he puts the crown on his head

and all that kind of stuff, which is pretty badass.

The football guys, like, to me, aren't as...

Like, it doesn't get me going.

You're like, Cheetah's fine.

I don't know.

Maybe it's just because I'm just such an old school.

And, like, as you just said, like, diving deep, dive into the old throwback names like it's like holy shit these are like some of the best names of all time and like yeah you think of this word and you think of that athlete and um yeah i'm excited i'm excited to dive in well i'm worried that we're losing it and and it's all gonna go away. So later in the show, we're going to do that.

But being that I thought so much,

the most I've ever thought about Sam Darnold was this weekend.

And it got me looking around because we love to talk quarterbacks

and you are a quarterback, Matt.

Start to go divisionally.

Look around the divisions in football.

For your money, one through four in each division,

what division do you think has the four best right now, current, not all time, current best quarterbacks? This one, this one's challenging because are you going based on record, right? Okay. Are they one in three? Does that mean they're not playing well? Do you go based on stats or based on like, like circumstance with the team? i actually thought about this a little bit and i'm gonna argue for the nfc west okay i like me out so you got geno smith right now 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 first in their division.
You got Brock Purdy. So they're 2-2, but doing it without CMC.
I mean, talk about the injuries. A little bit of disarray over there, but we still believe San Francisco is a really good football team.
He's second in passing yards. Matt Stafford, to me, is like Puka's out, Cup is out.
They're 1- three. Now, if they can survive and kind of just hover over the next couple weeks.
Dangerous. Until they get some of those guys back.
Yeah. But he's an elite player, man.
And he's been an elite player for a decade. And then Kyler Murray, the numbers are actually really good.
Six touchdowns, one interception. They're one in three.
I just don't think Arizona's a very good football team. But top to bottom, I think you could argue that the West, the West has really good quarterback play this year.
Yeah. I'm with you.
Geno Smith this past Monday night, that, that Lions Seahawks game was so fun. And also maybe it was highlighted against the really uninteresting Titans Dolphins game, but in, and no, I mean, injuries all over the place and levis went out but that game was so fun and yeah geno smith one of the truly a comeback story all right i'm with you i i have the nfc but the nfc west is my number two okay i tried really hard to make to be the contrarian and make the nfc south somehow work just again how they're playing now Baker was unreal last weekend.
Godwin looks like a whole new guy again. All right, so we know we got Baker.
I think Carr got off to the hot start. We're starting to...
Yeah, they lost two in a row. Trying to make the case.
Kirk Cousins will always be able to make the case, at least in the regular season, a lot of fun, but then it just falls apart. Like, I can't get...
As much as we love the Dalton story, can't shoehorn there's another red rocket dude there's he's the red rocket sam's the red hammer yeah i couldn't really shoehorn so i'm with you the nfc south that's my number two for me it's the it's it's the nfc what north it's north yeah again it's it's right now i'm not going all time and maybe this changes what doing is outstanding. Goff, and we're going to talk about Goff 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 be there.
And look, they were out of that game. He just started slinging it and brought them back in.
And then it gets a little like, Caleb's the big question. I think he's getting better every week.
It looks a little better every week. How's our boy Ashton Kutcher doing right now? He is talk about wellness check on, on Kutcher.
Yeah, it is. It's rough over there for Chicago bear fans.
It is pretty rough. It is pretty rough.
All right. 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.
All right, Matt, who needs it more this weekend? I don't know if you have the slate up in front of you. I have a team.
Okay. I have a team and you just mentioned them because they were awful on Monday night.
Oh no. I'm going with the Miami Dolphins.
Yeah. We see now how great Tua is and how good that team is when Tua's playing, right? So first and foremost, want him to get healthy.
He's going to be coming back in the next couple weeks, ideally. The Dolphins are one in three, okay? But their next three games, I wrote this down, the next three games, they got the Pats, they got the Colts, and they got the Cardinals.
Could be three right there there could be three right there tyler huntley kind of get going a little bit tyler huntley's a good player he played really well when he was in baltimore like obviously struggle monday but now as he gets some more reps and experience so sitting at one and three all of a sudden you you you win two of those three games you probably get to a back for arizona i'm assuming um and then all of a you're at what? You're maybe at three and three when you get your starting quarterback and you're still right there. So I just think for the Dolphins, because I do think it's a playoff team when their quarterback is healthy.
They have this window here where they just need it, man. They can't go away.
One and four is tough. It's almost curtains.
That's a good one. I'm with you.
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.
Right. You can't let them hang around.
They have to take control of this game being two and two so far. They're the, the team that's had the most like hellish season with injuries and crazy stuff.
So to come out of that two and two and LaFleur is showing me not that he needs to show me but what he did with Malik Willis was unbelievable getting two who would have thought Malik Willis would be two and oh and Jordan Love would be oh and two but two sort of winnable games you take care of business against the Rams and go three and two you're on track because I worry about the Packers and their defense has proven a lot to me falling too far behind you go two and three I think the Vikings are peddled to the metal I think the Lions now are starting to say we got to flex on some people and then the Seahawks are three and one leading that division but you can't count the Niners out when they get healthy so I'm looking at the playoff spots yeah and in the NFC certainly seems to be shaken up you might need 10 wins to to grab a wild card Well, you're talking just the division alone, like your chance of winning the division is, is almost shot because of those two other teams. We know Detroit's going to be 11, 12 win team probably.
And the way Minnesota's playing, I mean, why not? Like, like that's four weeks in a row where they've been dominant, like probably argue that they're the best team in football right now. I know the chiefs are still undefeated Buffalo, but yeah, again, it's the parody is such, excuse me, it's so crazy in the NFL.
Like you just, you want to hover around 500. You get like Malik winning those two games was huge.
Oh, it's season saving. It's season saving.
Cause now all of a sudden you win a couple more and then, 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.
I 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 they were very trendy yeah they were the trendy pick so um yeah they need it for sure and now it's time for uh not no one who really needed luck because this is one of my favorite segments and this is all about some sauciness all right 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 the same way we cannot get enough of wendy's new saucy nugs and matt mine is i'm just letting you know mine is saucy i'm dipping it i got several sauces lined up for mine but i'm gonna let you go okay so i i need several sauces because i'm actually going i'll highlight a player too but I'm going to let you go first. I need several sauces because I'm actually going...

I'll highlight a player or two, but I'm

going a game. My moment of the week

is a game.

It's Bama, Georgia, and college

football this past week. I don't know how much

you saw, but this game

lived up to the hype.

It had the star power. It had the

moments. Bama's up 30-7

at halftime. Georgia goes up 34-33 with a couple minutes left.
And then Bama boom has a pass to Ryan Williams, the 17-year-old phenom for 75 yards to go up. Georgia's driving and then they have an interception to win.
Jalen Milrow, 491 yards, four touchdowns. The freshman phenom, Ryan Williams, 177 yards.
Carson Beck was getting torn up on Twitter in the first half. The second half, he absolutely balled.
That is my saucy moment of the week. The game lived up to the hype.
The players were, the stars showed up, man. It was a great, great college football game.
Yeah, really quick on that. Williams did something, it's rare now I see a player do something and they're like, I've ever seen that 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 giant so very well might be the giants quarterback next year man i gotta start scouting that's a good one okay 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.
That's honey barbecue right there. Not only was he 18 for 18, it wasn't 18 for 18 for 157 yards.
It was just shy of 300 yards. That's garlic Parmesan sauce.
And my favorite thing, my guy caught a touchdown. That's spicy honey barbecue right there.
So those are the three sauces. I see what you did there.
You see what I did there? By the way, and Campbell didn't even give him the game ball. Remember that? You see that after he was supposed to give it, he gave someone else the game ball.
He didn't even realize his quarterback had a perfect QBR. He didn't realize his quarterback was basically saucy.
So I, it's just so obvious people have been hating on golf for a little while. 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.

And it's like, I know quarterbacks are important, but this guy's close to top 10.

And this is now, I think he's easily a top 10 quarterback.

And he showed the whole bag.

So that is my can't-get-enough-sauce moment of the week.

Jared Goff, you're dipping in several sauces, my guy.

All right, we're going to take a quick break.

When we come back, Dontrell Willis.

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All right. He was a 2003 Rookie of the Year.
He was the Cy Young runner-up in 05, two-time All-Star. And for me, it was a little bit heartbreaking because I'm a yankee fan he's a world series champion and now you see him on tv with fox and apple tv and also has an amazing nickname we were talking nicknames earlier the d train don trell willis joins the show great nickname i do you i hope you love it as much as i love it yeah i love it no you know He doesn't love it.
You know what's so funny? And I told Derek Jeter this. I didn't love it no you know he doesn't love it you know what's so funny and i told derrick jeter this i didn't love it until he said i mean i mean because this is nuance and you know i mean and a lot of people call me d train but they don't know my name don't show they're like hey don't say i'm like that's not my name we're close enough but you know nevertheless that's a that's a legendary i appreciate it and now my soccer player, we have to call her B-Train now.
So it's stuck for a long time. So yeah, I like it now.
I like it. That actually, 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? Yeah. Didn't that happen? You got to know me first.
You know what I mean? Yes. I'm going to say hello.
I'm not going to walk up to him and call him Turtle. You know what I mean? It's just a perfect thing.
You know what I mean? There's certain nuances and respect level that you have to earn that to be able to call a nickname. I'm also a legendary ball buster as well.
So, it's awesome. So, speaking of respect, D-Train, the baseball lost a legend this week, man, and Pete Rose.
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. And you and I both spent a lot of time with him at Fox, you more than I.
But I remember a couple years back before our show was going on the road, the best time of the year for me was October because one, I'm a diehard Dodger fan. I love, I love baseball playoffs.
And I got to sit in that room with, with you and with Pete and with Frank Thomas and Poppy and all those guys. And I just remember like his presence in there, it was just felt.
And he would, he would come in and talk about ball busters. He would talk about when I was playing games in college, like he knew the lines of the games that I was still playing like 20 years ago.
He was just, he was one of a kind. And I, and I, and I take those memories with me to heart, man, because it really was awesome to get to know him for you.
Any memory or story that sticks out from your time with Pete during those years? Well, first of all, 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, he was one of those guys where everybody in the room just wanted to hear a Pete story or hear one of the statistics.
I mean, he was a very smart and witty old man. You know what I mean? Like, you asked him how many two-hit games he had, you would know three-hit games, four-hit games, and really just a fun presence.
And I put him up there with the Ric Flairs and the Charles Bartleys of the world in the sense of he knew he was good. He was going to tell you he was good, and he was going to get it done.
And so, yeah, and he didn't care. You know what I mean? He was going to say exactly what he wanted to say, which was kind of fun and nerve-wracking working with him on air because you didn't know what he was going to say.
A funny story that happened on air. Josh Donaldson, 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. He turns to me on air and says, well, he's got enough armor to invade Afghanistan.
I'm like, and what did you say after that? Like, what did you say? This is on national TV. And so I'm like, yeah, Bob would have said it.
Like, 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.
I mean, he was literally just a savant in the box. And he loved talking baseball.
I remember when I got to the Reds, I had a three-hit game, and he was just so proud. And so he gave me a call.
And so I thought about, damn, I must be a shitty pitcher because all he's talking about is my hitter. But this is the legend.
And so hopefully he gets in the Hall of Fame because you can't tell the story of baseball without talking about Pete Rose. Yeah, that clip that's been surfacing all week on Twitter and stuff was him in the studio with Frank Thomas and A-Rod talking about when you're slumping.
He's like, hold the bat here. You go in the front of the box.
Even Frank Thomas and A-Rod were like, we're all witnessing. None of us think of it in this way and Pete's giving us some real knowledge.
Yeah, we certainly all feel that and i imagine too like you said working on live air with someone that you know could you know old man syndrome is going to say some stuff you got to be on your toes dude that's the hard part about tv is like you know and we all whether show wrong you prepare you kind of know what you're going to talk about or you're going to react. And I think one of our producers on both of the Bardia

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 what makes

great television, obviously,

but it also could put you

in a weird spot, Dontrell.

Like how the hell

am I supposed to follow Pete Rose

when he's talking about

all other sorts of shit, you know?

He barely had a pen.

Like, so I'm sitting here

with my laptop

and my note cards

and I'm looking at him

Thank you. when he's talking about all other sorts of shit, you know? He barely had a pen.
Like, so I'm sitting here with my laptop and my note cards, and I'm looking at him, and I'm like, yeah, I'm going to follow you, you know what I mean? Because how are you going to trump one of the greatest hitters of all time? You know what I mean? But when he really talked about the nuance of baseball and how to play hard, he was articulate. I mean, he was definitely somebody that did not hold back as far as like, you need to go at it 100%.
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% on and off the field, and some of that stuff got him in trouble.
But in the end, you know what I mean? He's a legend to our sport. And like I said, I think he's deserving of being in the Hall of Fame.
I think Roger Clemens is deserving of being in the Hall of Fame. I think Barry Bonds.
I think Alvaro Rodriguez. You can put an asterisk around their name.
It doesn't matter, but you can't tell a story, in my mind, of baseball without having these individuals in the game. Well said.
Look, I'm going to bring something up that I've been getting a lot of heat about. I'm to try to keep it short I've made this pitch before Matt thinks it's the most ridiculous thing he's ever heard and I really don't think you're going to love it but I have some questions for you based off it So, lifetime baseball fan grew up as a kid, my first love Yankee fan, all that and I still watch as much as I can but I got two little kids so it definitely cuts into the you know hundred and something game season I want to know for you especially all right when you're with the Marlins and you're going to New York for the World Series just that the weather change of you're used to playing in these conditions I think about this all the time since I was a kid one day on the east coast it's happening right now here you wake up it was 80 last week and you wake up and it's 40 and the leaves are on the ground and that it's happening right now.
Here, you wake up, it was 80 last week, and you just wake up and it's 40, and the leaves are on the ground, and that's happening. You've been playing 162 games a certain way.
Now you're walking into the Bronx, and it's 40 degrees and freezing cold. Is that an entirely different game than you've played the whole season, or does it not matter to an athlete? It absolutely matters.
And so, you know what I love about you New Yorkers? There's always a little home field advantage i never told this story but when we placed them in the world series it was freezing it was like almost like november at this point so it was freezing so you know i'm looking like an eftemol like no disrespect like you know i'm freezing because like all of a sudden i'm in the bullpen and they they had tears in the bullpen so then the cold air would come in. So we're all around the heater.
And meanwhile, we're looking at the Yankee bullpen and they're all toasty and all that. So I love that New Yorker home field advantage and what have you.
But once your adrenaline kicks in, man, you warm up like a microwave very fast. And I remember I warmed up in game one.
I threw eight straight balls in the bullpen and I'm in the game. Eight straight non-competitive pitches.
Like I'm like my heart rate, you know, I'm a 21 year old pointing in the game. And so all of a sudden, by the time I ran all the way out there, I was sweating like Patrick Ewing in the fourth quarter.
Like 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. But I like what you New Yorkers did with a little home field events.
Make these South Florida boys freeze a little bit in the prom. 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.
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. And I'll tell you what, we're on the sideline and we have these big jackets on and we have heaters in our seat and we have like fans and like you're putting your you know, you're putting your hands right next to that.
and we look like a bunch of little five-year-olds, dude, who never been in cold weather, man. It is hilarious.
You know, you're almost looking like who's making s'mores in the bullpen, and all of a sudden you hear the phone ringing, and they're like, Willis. I'm like, what? Like, they have the wrong answer.
Next thing I know, I'm literally out there, and Jack McKeon's like, well, Big D, go get him. And I'm like, this is Jason Giambi.
I didn't hit 30 home runs after the Braves and stuff like that. 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've got to be New York tough.
You've got to be Northeast tough, man. And so that's why I think a lot of injuries start to play both sides, whether it's the Mets or the Yankees.
Also, I think being in that car for two hours a day and that traffic doesn't help your body either. But, you know, I think there's something to be said about the weather.
You know, we were talking off air, too, about golf. And that's why I was asking, because I even know, all right, I'm going to go play golf tomorrow.
I'm not going to hit the ball far. I'm going to lose like seven yards because it's just the weather.
But even just when did it do anything to your pitches, not even you physically, but just the weather do anything, nothing. It matters zero percent.
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 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 up.
But again, in that situation, though, like, I mean, Maddie can play the national title game in Coats and still be warm enough to where once you're in the huddle, it is what it is. And so, you know, when you're in the game, man, and you're in the World Series and you're in the Bronx, and not in New Yankee Stadium.
New Yankee Stadium is too nice. There's too many martinis.
I'm with you. This is old Yankee Stadium where the rats weren't afraid of humans and stuff.
This is like, you know, it was a home-filled advantage. And so for me, being a West Coast guy, I thought this was like the Cathedral of Baseball.
You know what I mean? Like we're in the World Series against the Yankees, bro, so it could have been a blizzard. We'd have been ready to compete out there at a high level.
I was a pitcher growing up. It was my first love.
I tore my arm when I was 14, but I think, and Jerry, you know, being a lifelong baseball fan, I think all kids dream of pitching in the World Series, man, like Game 7, bottom of the ninth, and you go through that moment in your head. You lived it.
You won it. Take us back to that, man.
What is the celebration like, the team, the locker room? It's got to be up there all time. You know, I mean, for us to play the Giants, the Cubs, and the Yankees, you can't script that any better as far as anybody that loves baseball.
And so, you know, being part of the Barkman game, if anybody knows baseball about that in Chicago and what happened, overcoming the Cubs. I mean, could you imagine it was the Cubs-Yankees World Series? I mean, now that I work at Fox, I'm like, I'm rooting for that.
Right, you want that World Series. But again, it was just surreal.
And we really felt in our locker room that we could be world leaders. And we get to the Bronx and there's just countless videos of this, like their history.
And you see Yogi Berra. You see all these guys.
And it's like, okay, this is when the road is going to end for the Marlins. This is the Disney movie that they go up to New York and they get killed.
You know what I mean? So we took that personal, man. And we knew we had some talent.
We knew we had to take the crowd out of it. But it was fun to be able to be in the box, man.
To me, when I got in game one, I tell everybody who was out of body. I know I was there, but I couldn't believe that I was seeing the people like Bernie Williams and Gary Jeter.
I 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, 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.
When we won it, I never touched the trophy because it was too big for me. It was just like, I can't believe we did this.
I'm on my flip phone like, Mom, did you see us waiting? Star tack. We're all like the same age.
I'm the oldest guy in here. Again, I never touched the trophy.
I told everybody I boxed 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.
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 rassle up the fans and stuff like that.
But they got 27 titles. They can give us one.
So, you know, you mentioned playing in that, you know, everyone calls it the Bartman game. Little do we remember, it was also game six, right? Which is a huge game, right? You call it game six.
And we all know the Cub fan reaction and everything there. And I don't think we really heard much on the other side.
Like, you know, we know it was like some of the Cubs have spoken out. You know, when you're're there and you see that is it so quick that you don't quite know what happened and it 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 if moises aloo who's a good friend of mine you cannot bring this up to moises like i wouldn't i wouldn't dare you ever see moises in any of the car signing do not bring this up.
You ever see voices in any of the card signing? Do not bring this up because he has a vantage point from the first base dugout. He had that ball.
He had it. He timed it jump perfectly.
And when that happened, this energy came out of the stadium like, what just happened? And all of a sudden, we started getting base hit after base hit after base hit. And then the crowd just started throwing stuff.
Like, you know what I mean? They're not even paying attention to the game anymore. And so, everyone kind of thinks that that Bartman game is really a game seven.
Really, it was a game six. And so, when we won that game, we were all at the bar at the left and drinking like we wanted.
Because we were like, they messed up. They messed up letting us forks a game seven.
Because anything can happen in game seven. Yeah.
So it was so real. It felt like the Cubs series felt more like a World Series than the Yankees series, to be totally honest.
Like, the intensity of the city, the fan base, they're finally there to where they can break a 100-year curse. And now this draggy-ass Marlin team is in their way.
It was surreal. And so for us to be able to overcome that, beat Mark Pryor and Kerry Wood, who no one wanted to face back then.
They were the two best pitchers in the game at that time. And to be able to do that, I remember warming up and I tell everybody the story of the Cubs intensity.
I remember warming up and I saw this lady with something on her lap and I was like, what is that? The lady had an urn. Who let the lady up with an urn? Like the lady had an urn, no cap.
Like they let her take her with this urn. Like it sent me shockwaves to be like, oh my God, this is the team.
This is historic where a lady got earned and got down to this radio. Just seeing that, 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.
You talked about some of the best pitchers, you know, Kerry know carrie wood mark prior usc guy um really felt like that postseason was kind of a coming out party for your old teammate miguel cabrera i you know 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 uh a legend and i love that people got to really see his personality towards the tail end of his career because he's hilarious he's a funny guy and he loves messing with me even to this day he sends me photos hey negro don't think no meaning i'm super hungry you know i mean like he's he's a great teammate um i played with him. I mean, the guy was hitting, the day I got called up to the big leagues, he was in double-A with me.
He was hitting 436 in double-A, which is a joke. You know what I mean? He was always just the best player.
I have a lot of cool stories. So I don't know if I can say on air.
But, no, you know, it's great. I think you could give us one.
You can give us one. I'll give you two.
The first day he gets called up. He's like, Oh, for two with two pays.
And I'm sitting on the bench. It's like, he's fine.
Even as I'm looking, I'm like, he's fine guys. Don't worry.
Cause 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 and the rest is history.
history. You know what I mean? And I'm the guy on the bench.
I've seen him do this shit all the time. He's obnoxiously good.
He's that good. So another one.
He's going to kill me for this. But back in our day when we were young, we were playing the Atlanta Braves.
And how can I say this? Events from the night before were blurred into the day game. Have you heard of him? Sure.
Yeah. Yeah.
That happened. Oh, Biggie.
Yeah. He shows up probably an hour before game time with the stuff he has on.
So he walks in. The walk of show.
Band club. Band.
Band of the bar and everything. Stamps.
No, hold on. So I'm the captain of the team, so you know we're already up Schitt's Creek anyway.
So I grab him and say, hey, get in the shower. He gets in the shower.
He throws up everywhere. He throws up absolutely everywhere.
And so, he's still in the lineup. So I begged Joe Girardi not to take him out of the lineup.
Joe Girardi, you know Joe Girardi. He's fuming.
He's turned red at this point. He gets in the first to bat.
He doesn't even sniff the bitch. He has some monster getting out there where he homers twice.
You know what I mean? He did all this did all this while he was half asleep. You know what I mean? And so get on the plane, and he's my, like, plane mate, and he sleeps on the plane all the way back to Miami.
And I'm just looking at this guy like this dude is an X-Men. He's not a bus.
You know what I mean? This dude can do it at the highest level. And so I've never been to Cooperstown before, and I promised him I would go when he gets his speech in because he's a really big brother of mine.
I love the dude's personality, but he's a legend in his own right of what he's done on and off the field. Dude, Eric Carroll, I told you, Eric Carroll, so you know EK well, tells the greatest story about, and he would love telling this, about being, facing Greg Maddox one day.
And he was like, dude, I couldn't touch this guy. 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.
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. And he was like, Matt, I thought I wouldn't even touch the dude.
You baseball guys are crazy, man. Cause when I was in Arizona, I used to hang out with like Connor Jackson and Burns and Chris Young was, was those years.
And like, they would party their ass off the night before, like a 7 o'clock game the next day, go to the clubhouse, hit the sauna, hit the steam room. And they're playing, dude.
I was like, if we did that in the NFL, I would get cut the next day. Yeah.
You know, 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 your mind around that it's like yeah you basically start at the 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 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 meme out. You know what I mean? It was a system that our body got used to and what have you.
But yeah, sometimes I see guys and I'm like, I'm not a gambling man, but if I saw guys now, I'm like, yeah, they're not doing shit tomorrow. So let me do it.
I've lost money that way before, Dontrell. Not going to lie, there was a rumor one time about a player, not going to mention the name, that was spotted out the night before a game and had to be, like, carried out.
Yeah. And let's just say he was a pitcher.
He's pitching the next day. Oh, wow.
We all bet against that pitcher who threw a three-hit shutout.

You know what? Three-hit shutout. I took Torrey Hunter out.

I will tell him myself. I took

Torrey Hunter out, who's a big brother

of mine. I took him out to the Hard Rock

Cafe in Fort Lauderdale. I took him

out all night. All night.

He comes the next day, and I

look at the lineup. I'm not

pitching. So I'm sitting there eating

sunflower seeds, half a seed.

He literally gets four hits

Thank you. He comes the next day, and I look in the lineup.
I'm not pitching. So I'm sitting there eating some fire.
He's half a seat. He literally gets four hits off of five pitches the next day.
And everyone's like, hey, was I with you all day? I was like, he is. I threw up twice.
You know what I mean? So, yeah, some guys are just wired that way to where they can still perform at the highest level even after a nice little win. We want to get into Otani, but before we do that, you had a lifetime batting average 244? Is that accurate? Close, yes.
That'd be like third in the NL right now. By the way, I looked up, I was like, alright, we're going to talk to D.
I looked up the best hitting pitchers of all time. And not going back to Babe Ruth and that, or Madison Bumgarner, Zach Granke could rake.
Dude, you could rake, dude. You could rake.
You know what? I was a baseball player in a posture syndrome of a pitcher, to be totally honest with you. I just love the game of baseball.
I'm a diehard Oakland A's fan. I grew up right around the corner from the stadium.
I just love competing at a high level. And whatever I could do to stay on the field, I was going to do it.
And so I was a utility All-American in high school where, you know, you play two positions. And I just hated sitting on the bench.
And so, you know, whatever I could do to try to win a ball game, I was sincerely going to do. And I remember Bobby Cox used to talk to me about sliding head first.
I'm like, Bobby, you don't want to see me slide free first. He's like, well, damn it, D-Train, your left arm is going to break it.
I'm like, well, so be it. You know, this is the way I play the game.
You know, and so I always love, you know, playing the game. And when I got a chance to meet Shoei Latani, Dave Roberts introduced me like he used to be you.
And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I was the lunch portion Otani.
You know what I mean? You were the dinner portion of it. You know, so, but I just love playing the game of baseball, man.
It's really a sport that saved my life. Well, you said the O word.
You said Otani, right? So a couple of things first, because you said something earlier where you said you'd 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 early Thursday.
So there's games going on. But just from you in the studio, who would you want? Not even giving analysis, just pound for pound entertainment.
What's the best fan matchup, you think, for entertainment for the World Series this year with the teams? Again, not knowing who might get bounced out. For your money, who's the best matchup? Well, for the National League Championship, I want to see Padres Dodgers.
I mean, what they've done down there in San Diego, they've turned Pecco into, from a tourist perspective, to all of a sudden one of the most daunting places to win a ball game. And the intensity is there in San Diego.
And they're tired of being a little brother to the Dodgers over there. You know what I mean? So I would love to see that.
Yeah, absolutely. And so, the World Series, obviously it'd be Yankees-Dodgers.
I mean, just running for time. I mean, I got a chance to call that game where Yamamoto went up against the Yankees in Yankee Stadium.
You would have thought it was a World Series. How many media personalities and how many people were there at that series? It was a level of intensity.
It was a nice barometer to see where both sides were. And both sides wanted this matchup.
You know what I mean? And so we know the fan bases. They travel.
You know what I mean? We saw a lot of Dodger fans in the Bronx. I was a little worried about that.
You know, but everybody didn't know what he was. But I think that will be a really big-time matchup to see Judge because Judge has been absolutely phenomenal.
I mean, the year that he started being horrible and then all of a sudden having another MVP-type year and Shohei Otani is the biggest thing in sports right now. I've never seen, I'm a huge LeBron fan, but I don't think I've seen anybody have this much impact in Los Angeles on their first year.
Like far, getting on the team and being one of the best players. I'm good friends with Mookie Betts and Mookie, I I was like, Mookie, you seem like a soccer bitch now over there, that team out of...
Seriously. You can't even take the first one because that's how good Troy has been to the point where we don't even remember him playing for the Angels, and he's one heavy beast for them.
Listen, thank God he's not with the Angels anymore. I can't.
I grew up in Orange County, man, and I mean, talk about, you got Mike Trout, right? Who in our generation would go down. He has to stay healthy.
Maybe one of the greatest to ever do it. You have Otani who is this phenomenon and might go down as the best to ever play when it's all said and done.
And they just like, just, they can't figure it out over there, man. And it bothers me, but how, I know Jerry spent some time with like Jeter and some of those boys at his event last week or a couple of weeks ago.
And, um, just so Tani, 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? How would you describe what we're seeing in baseball now with him? Well, you know, a lot like Steph Curry, he's inspired another generation because now you're seeing a lot of kids that are two-way players getting drafted high.
You know what I mean? To be empowered, to be two players in one. How I would pitch him is, first of all, a lot of prayer and belief.
You know what I mean? He covers the baseball. I mean, he hits the ball out to left center like he's right-handed.
I mean, it's truly remarkable to see because he doesn't hit on the field. So for him to all of a sudden hit in the cage where no one gets to see him and then go into live pitching where you're the primary factor of everybody wanting to shut you down, and every time a pitcher makes a mistake, I mean, he's hitting it onto the pavilion.
I mean, it's truly remarkable. His power, speed, play coverage.
I believe the over and under for him to steal bases was 19. And the guy still 54.
Nuts. Bananas.
He's impactful uh a phenomenal teammate um understands the responsibility of the brand and uh not only for himself but for a whole nation i mean it's not everything he's been doing and so it's truly fun to watch him continue to be the best player in the world um and stay healthy doing it and so it's going to be scary hours next year. And if they make it to the world, he might come out of that bullpen and throw for the Dodgers.
Could you imagine? Oh, will he be back? Will he be back? We'll see. We'll see about that, but he's fun to watch.
And he's a phenomenal teammate and he's great for the sport. Ah, you just gave me chills though., thinking about him coming out.
Could he be healthy enough to pitch? Mm-hmm. He's already been tough.
He's been trending. And so that's kind of been the talk of this him being healthy enough.
Now, they're going to have to do sim games because obviously the AAA season is over with. But if he's able to throw strikes in command, could you imagine him versus Aaron Judge coming out of the bullpen? Dude, just inject that into yeah, give me all that.
Could you imagine? We need pitchers. It could be 10 times bigger than him facing Mike Trout in the WBC in the final.
I mean, you remember that type of energy. As a baseball fan, I hope to get a chance to see something like that.
Oh, man, that would be awesome. Yeah, I don't even know where to go from there.
I want to ask you a question about hitters. The toughest hitter you ever pitched against? Man, oh, that's a great one.
You just couldn't get it. You're like, God damn it, I got to pitch against this guy.
Well, that's a big trap first of all. A lot of guys that have my

number.

Albert Pujols hit two

home runs off me in one game and then took me

to dinner. I obviously made him pay.

This second lot

was on him.

You know what I mean?

You hear me?

I'm going to give some Mac and Jetta,

all that stuff.

Give me that dessert menu.

Yeah,

give me all that.

So,

no,

I was blessed

to be able to

play against

the Larry Walkers

and,

you know,

all these guys

that are getting

into the Hall of Fame now.

That's my era.

That's cool.

So,

seniors,

you know,

the Chipper Jones

of the world,

the Jim Tomei 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,

but Albert was just a machine,

man. Like, he could cover the baseball,

never made the same mistake

twice.

Big Papi was the same guy, as far

as you couldn't continue to beat him the same way. It was one of those things where those guys, you had to get the guys out in front of them so they couldn't do the damage to take over the game, if that makes sense.
Playing against these guys like Albert and Poppy and Ramirez and guys like that where they can win by themselves, It was fun to watch. But I got them as much as they got me, though.
They'll tell good stories about it. I'll let them know on the field.
I'm like, yeah, you owe me. But Barry Barnes was a hit above all of them.
Barry was the best hitter of all time. And so, if I had it against each other, if I got a chance to strike him out, he'd have to sign and so Barry didn't always sign his own stuff so you know inside the stuff right now Barry always sign the stuff but I struck him out when he was one home run from tying the record and he comes down to the game and gives me a big hug and said young man you wouldn't got me in the back of like, yeah, dude.
Stuff like that. So it was fun to be on the same field with guys that were your heroes, but Barry Barnes was by far the best job everybody gets.
So you said it was right. He was one shy of tying.
So is that going through your mind of like, oh, great. I'm going to be a trivia question.
I'm going to be a trivia question. My family, they didn't even care about the game.
So I'm from the Bay area. So they didn't even care about the game.
They were like, are you going to pitch the barrier? I'm like, grandma, I'm going to pitch the barrier. Okay, grandma.
You know what I'm saying? And so like the intensity of the whole stadium was there. I mean, that water looked like a bowl of cereal.
It was so many people in there because people didn't need to give it up. You know what I mean? And so, you know, we had an open base and all of a sudden they had to switch out the balls because the balls had special bar codes on them and stuff like that.
So this allowed the stadium's energy to get up. And the first time I kicked my leg up, I almost fell over because it was like the whole stadium took pictures at the same time.
So it was like, I was like, oh my. And so, you know, again, another power body experience to be involved in this.
So 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. So if I was going to be a game show answer, he was going to get it.
I was going to give people my best. And so he was part of that.
It was pretty cool. Pretty cool.
Oh, that's awesome. Unbelievable.
Well, we're going to let you go, man. I know you mentioned golf.
One of these days, I don't know if I can call you D-Train yet. I don't know if we're quite friends, but can we get on the golf course soon? Because one of my main objectives in life is to get Matt golfing more.
We got to get him golfing. You know, he down there in Manhattan.

We get it somewhere out there.

We'll get on from the East Country Club.

I love to do that, man.

That would be awesome.

You're the man, yeah.

So thanks for joining us, dude.

And keep up the great work.

You're awesome on Fox.

Enjoy the playoffs and amazing career

and amazing things going forward, man.

That was awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you, man.

Thank you, guys.

I appreciate you guys. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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That was great stuff from Dontrell Willis. Didn't know that he was almost part of Barry Bond's legacy there.
But listen, yeah, for a moment, before we move on, we do have to just point out one thing. Obviously, we've all been watching what's going on in the South, in Florida, in the Carolinas, and all over.
So I just have to point this out that Sinclair will be partnering with Salvation Army for Sinclair Cares, Hurricane Helene Relief. The Salvation Army has teams operating in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and Florida.
And their highest need is clean water as well as food and cleanup kits. So to donate, please go to SinclairCares.com.
Any little bit helps. And again, all of our thoughts are with everybody over there and what's going on.
Yeah. It's just been just devastation.
And, um, actually got, you know, we got married in Nashville, North Carolina. So then we have some, some friends or a family out there.
So just sending our love and hope everybody is doing okay. And again, um, Sinclair's dot Sinclair cares.com to donate.
Yes. Thank you.
Uh, okay, okay Matt you're not off the hook just yet I think this ends it this will put a bow on it although this might live on forever but we did have our poll we put on the throwback show socials about the poll was about basically the question was do you agree with Matt Leinart by the way Matt Leinart QB what a badass social handle I'm jealous that you get to put that in there Yeah, we all get it. 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. We all get it.
Do you agree with Matt Leinert that grown men shouldn't wear other grown men's jerseys? After the poll, we got a few thousand responses, I believe. No was at 66.8%.
It's actually a closer margin than I thought. And yes, was obviously 33.2%.
So it's over, man. That's not that close.
That's 70-30. 70% don't agree with you.
All right. You ready for the unrelatable story of the day? I have an unrelatable story.
Yes. I say this, folks listening and watching on our YouTube channel.
I say this knowing this is completely unrelatable and might make me sound like a D-bag

and will probably never come up again in my lifetime

and most people's lifetime.

But I went to a Yankees-Angels game.

This is probably in 08, maybe 07 with Kevin Connolly.

Shout outs to Entourage's own Kevin Connolly.

We went to a Yankees-Angels game.

We'd always try to catch the Yankees

when they came to Anaheim, not in LA. And I wore, I want to say it was a Jeter jersey, I think, but I wore a jersey to the game, something that 66.8% of people agree with me on.
And I want to say Connolly got a text. Now, I got to know Jeter over the years and I go to his charity.
We know that. Connolly knows him a little, you know, they've been friends for a bit.
And Connelly got a text like, hey, some of the Yankees are getting together after the game if you want to come by. And I'm like, we got to go to that.
And for all you out there, this was not some wild, crazy – I'm sorry to break your hearts. It wasn't some wild, crazy party.
It was a few people gathered together. It wasn't some wild Hollywood after party being said, you know, you're in there.
It's Jeter. It's Clemens.
It's all these amazing Yankees. And I'm in there like who let the fan in with my Jeter.
And I couldn't take it off, Matty, because I had like a tight white shirt and I was still Chubby Turtle. I wasn't a big turtle yet.
So I couldn't go Chubby white t-shirt guy. So I had to rock the Yankee Jersey in front of the Yankees.
You, and I guarantee you that when you step foot in wherever the restaurant, wherever you were at, you thought that that was in your, that was in your mind. You're like, I cannot be wearing these guys Jersey.
They're going to think I'm a fan boy. Yeah.
You want to go meet the Yankees? I'm like that's exactly my yeah i get it but how often is that gonna again being self-effacing that's not gonna come up often for people was it a pinstripe what was it was it was it i think 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 i i the good news is no one remembers that but me. That's the good news.
That's what you think. But you lost.
You're going to be hearing about that for a while. All right.
Now we're getting on to some fun. We mentioned earlier, you know, we started thinking about old school throwback athlete nicknames.
These are not the current ones. And I think the current state of affairs is in trouble, but we're going to do our top three throwback athlete nicknames of all time.
Okay. Now my disclaimer is I did not go with the obvious like Air Jordan, Tiger.
No, me neither. These are, these are like my childhood personal favorites.
And I encourage of you, go look through some of these nicknames. Do you have them in a specific order? I, I, uh...
It doesn't matter. We can just go one by one.
Okay. We'll say number three.
I'll say my favorite for last. Okay.
Number three, Matt. Who was your number three throwback? This is the throwback three.
This was so hard. I would say two of my three are baseball because I was a baseball kid.
Baseball has some good ones. I'm going Mr.
October. Cool.
Yeah. I mean, of course.
I mean, I wasn't a Yankees fan, but to have a whole month of baseball named after you, the most important month of the season, and just Mr. October.
Like, I just was like, and I was even too young to even watch him play. But, like, I just thought that was pretty cool.
I almost, out of sentimental reasons, put Mr. November for Jeter.
Because if you remember when they lost to Arizona the 9-11 year, all the games got pushed back and he hit the walk-off after midnight became November 1st. So he hit the walk-off on November 1st, but that's a great one.
Mr. October.
Baseball has great ones. Yeah, baseball has great ones.
I went with a fun one. I don't even think this athlete cares that this is his nickname or likes it.
This is the one that made me laugh that my friends and I have been quoting for years. It is Eric sleeping with the B enemy.
It's a Chris Berman special. I'm sorry.
It's my number three. It gets the most attention.
I love Berman. I did not think you were going with that.
Eric sleeping with the B enemy. Berman had some bangers.
I'm going to just read you a few quick bangers before we get to our number twos. Greg Mathematics.
Awesome. Bert Be Home by 11.
Bert Blyle. Blyle.
Incredible. Moises.
We mentioned Alu earlier. Dontrell.
Moises skipped to my Alu. Yeah.
Joseph Live and Let a die and my personal favorite jake daylight come and we got a del ome jeff brown paper bagwell honorable mention but that's my number three oh god i'm pulling up some of these okay so that's good i was i didn't think you're going with it it meant the most to me as a kid we talked about that so. Who's your number two? This was one of my favorite players because I was a pitcher.

I'm going with Randy Johnson, the big unit.

Yes.

6'10", maybe taller.

I actually met him in person one time.

I was like, holy shit, dude.

And I'm 6'5".

6'10", throwing 100 miles per hour.

Literally, when he threw a pitch, he was halfway down to home plate um the sidearm and just the big unit and you can take that name however way you want to do it but yeah the big unit and i 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 just the most intimidating pitch yes by far right yes uh before Before my number two as well, honorable mention, we mentioned it earlier, but yeah, Mount Mutombo, one of the all-time greats in Charlie Hustle as well. All right, my number two.
My number two. You ready for this? Yes.
It's a baseball one. It's the kid.
Oh, yeah. It's Ken Griffey Jr.
I think I love that one too because I was a kid watching Ken Griffey Jr. I think it was the first junior anything.
First, basically, kid of a player I once knew who was playing. And now I'm at the age where I'm going to start seeing grandkids start playing in the league.
But the kid, I mean, the swing, the shoes, everything, the kid is a perfect nickname. I feel like he, cause we're the same era, right? Same.
I feel like he was every kid in our generation's favorite baseball player. Easily.
Right. Easily.
Like Ken Griffey Jr. Like I actually had an autographed baseball by him.
I forgot. I don't even, I think my dad got it for us and we had, we kept it in like the little case and then that upper deck.
Cause I collect the upper deck rookie card, which was like the most famous card to get back in the day. Yeah, the kid.
Oh, Griffey was the best, man. Yeah, I really, he wasn't at the Jeter golf event this year because I wanted to talk to him if he was there and just say, we got to remake your baseball shoe and basically make it into a golf shoe.
That's become very popular. You can get Kobe's now and they could put some spikes on the bottom so you can rock kobe's on the golf course but to rock the griffey's uh yeah the kid man he's definitely one of my like i would have like i met him i actually met him and on the field he was a hitting coach i think for somebody a couple years back and i was on the field at a dodger game i think it was the reds yeah i mean and we were.
I was like, in my mind, I'm like, dude, I am just the biggest, like my, the little kid in me. It was the coolest moment.
Okay. My number one, number one, here we go.
Drum roll. The throwback three, Matt liner.
It's number one throwback athlete nickname. Iron Mike.
Okay. Does that not give you chills? Just think.
Okay. So, so maybe the greatest fighter of all time, but Iron Mike Tyson.
Every time he stepped in the ring, and that was like my childhood. The fight was over before he stepped in.
Five, nine, little, but built like a brick house, Iron Mike, man. He's just one of my favorite.
Just, oh, I can't even describe it. Like he's another one.
I actually met, I met him in Arizona and I was like, my jaw like fell. I was like, holy shit, that is Mike Tyson.
Yeah. We had, he did a cameo on Entourage.
Couldn't have been nicer. I watched a fight with him in Vegas.
I'm trying to remember what fight I watched. It might have been a Floyd Mayweather fight and I sat ringside ringside just happened to sit next to him yeah by far doing this exercise boxers have the best nicknames it's not close golden boy sweet pea pernell whittaker marvelous marvin yeah well the greatest um you know marvelous marvin haggler tommy the hitman hearns just some of the best the best i left boxers almost out because theirs are the best but iron mike is just.
Just quick and to the point, just Iron Mike. I was like, yep.
All right. He was a badass.
You ready for my number one? Which would not be anyone's number one because I don't even think this is a Hall of Fame player, but this was an iconic nickname that led to also a business model, Penny Hardaway. Oh, yeah.
If you think about Penny Hardaway, okay, and and those commercials you remember with chris rock voicing little penny and then sneaker launch just as a brand an athlete with a nickname i mean obviously michael jordan did it at the highest all-time level i thought it was so smart of course you know anfernee hardaway as his name but everyone as penny hardaway yeah and i was an icon icon when he came in an injury is obviously shorted but Penny Hardaway. Yep.
And I don't know if he- He 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.

Well, it wasn't a throwback back then.

Those jerseys were sick back then. And I still remember, dude, I still remember that draft.

And again, this might make us old heads and throwback,

but Chris Weber goes one to the Warriors. Penny Hardaway goes three to the Magic and they trade on draft day I don't know if we'll ever see anything like that again it sort of happened with Tatum and Fultz yeah although it wasn't draft day it happened before but on draft day Weber for Penny Hardaway Penny's going to play with you.
ever done the the thought in your head like what happened if C-Webb stayed on the magic and it was C-Webb and Shaq well dude remember if uh Kobe got drafted by the Hornets Hornets I mean yeah and then went to the Lakers I don't think he was ever playing for the Hornets but uh Penny 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 Penny was Penny was a freak man yeah they made the finals and then it's just an unfortunate situation so that's my number one I have a couple I have a couple I have a list I'm gonna name a couple because I really I want everybody to to hit us up send us their favorite nicknames but I got honorable mentions honorableorable mentions. 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. Sweetness, Walter Payton.
The Glove, Gary Payton. That's a great one.
By the way, Primetime, Dion, who now goes by Coach Prime. Like, that's kind of badass.
Like, he doesn't go by his first name anymore.

Say, hey, kid, Willie Mays.

Like, go down the rabbit hole, and you will be like, oh, yeah, I remember this guy.

I remember this guy.

That was awesome.

You see what I'm saying, though, right?

We had it good, and this is non-existent now.

No, no, this era, it is, yeah.

We need to step up.

Well, let's bring it back.

I'm with you, dude.

We are with the Red Hammer.

The Red Hammer, Sam Darnold.

Good luck to the Vikings.

I mean, I think. Alright, two last things, Matt.
Number one, where are you going? Where are you off to? Where are you heading? We are going to Penn State. UCLA Penn State for a barn burner.
But listen, Penn State's going to be a fun place to just go. Penn State's great.
Happy Valley's great. Fans are always great.
Penn State top 10 team, really good football team, have a chance to make the playoff this year. They have, obviously, UCLA this weekend, and then they come to USC next weekend, which is a massive, massive showdown.
That might be the first. Would you say maybe that's the first game? We haven't really said this in college football yet, like playoff implications.
It's not often we use that in other sports. Yeah, we had Bama, Georgia last week.
It's early, but you had Michigan, Texas early on. These two teams that might not get it, right? They're fighting for their lives.
For sure. Next week, slay the games.
This is when you saw the meme and going around, like don't get married on October 12th. Like.
Like this is that weekend. You got OU Texas, SC Penn State.
You got LSU Ole Miss. You got like four or five ranked games.
Like it's going to be fire. It's so funny you say that because I like a month ago I got invited to several watch parties for October 12th.
Like a month in advance. That's never happened to me with college football or really any sport.
Ohio State's going to Oregon next week too. So there you go.
I got invited to the 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? Honestly, I'm watching the doc on Vince McMahon. Oh, you're going to count.
Okay. I finished it.
So I didn't finish it. So I, I started two episodes this week.
Um, a lot of travel for me this weekend. So I'm going to finish it.
I'm, I, I grew up a wrestling fan. Yeah.
Um, and kind of just then like, didn't follow it for a long time. And then kind of slowly got back into it again, just because it's just, it's just incredible's just incredible.
I'm fascinated so far the first couple episodes. The Hulk Hogan and all that.
Yeah. How it all started.
Keep watching it. That was before my time.
So that's what I'll be watching. How about you? Yep.
For me, playoff baseball for sure because it's really when I start to wake up. Playoff baseball.
And then one of my buddies is in this too and I've been super curious about the Penguin. The sort of one-off for the penguin character, Colin Farrell playing the penguin.
I'm hearing it has like Sopranos vibes because the penguin in the Colin Farrell version in the movie, he's like a mob guy, right? 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

baseball. Shout out my daughters, baby.
Let's go.

Let's go. It is our time.

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