7.8.24 - JR SporBrief Hour 2

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It is. The JR Sport Brief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love and many thanks to our super producer and host, Ryan Hickey, holding it down for us in New York City. And thank you to you for listening.

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It's 855-212-4227. You can also find me online. I'm everywhere I exist at JR Sport Brief. Knock yourselves out. First show back, first day back since the holiday. And naturally, a lot has taken place. Major League Baseball All-Stars were announced last night. Talked about some of the guys who made it, some of them who did not. In 20 minutes from now, we'll have a conversation with Matt Snyder from CBS Sports. Covers all things Major League Baseball. We'll find out who got screwed. A couple of the Orioles, a Met. I think we've had a Diamondback who got screwed. Yeah, we'll talk about that with Matt coming up in 20 minutes.

If you missed the first hour of the show, all you gotta do is hit rewind on the free Audacy app. Talked about the San Francisco 49ers and their inability to pay everybody. Just trying to push every button possible that can get him out of San Francisco.

Out of the Bay Area, I should say. And out east, teamed up with his former teammate, Jayden Daniels. Talked about some of the moves that have taken place in the NBA already. Paul George moving on from the Los Angeles Clippers and is now a member of the Sixers. There's a lot going on.

And then I told you right before the break as well about two stars. One is trying to prove something. And there's another star trying to let us know his son isn't trying to prove squat. Talking about Joe Burrow, he's trying to prove to everybody that, hey, I'm still one of the best quarterbacks, even though I'm always hurt. And LeBron James, as LeBron James is pretty much taking the space of cheerleading his son as he should.

But it's crazy how it has been such a 180 over the past several years and naturally it would, right? I mean, Bronny James was hyped up and then he got hurt. Well, he didn't get hurt.

The poor guy had a cardiac arrest. God bless him that he's still here. And then he's in the NBA right now.

And so everything has kind of been toned down by LeBron. And so two stars, two different thought processes, as we talked about Brandon, are you let's let's get to Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow is getting ready for training camp, just like everybody else in a couple of weeks. He's not in training camp. He's traveling the world.

He's in Paris Fashion Week. He's all I hope he is is healthy because Joe Burrow, his history here in the NFL, unfortunately, it hasn't been healthy. Guy comes in and ACL tears, MCL tears feel like last year. I think it was his appendix right before the season started.

Then he had the calf strain and then he had the wrist. Let me remind you here. Joe Burrow is making fifty five million dollars a year as a quarterback. And we know about a championship pedigree coming out of LSU. We know that Joe Burrow is one of the best quarterbacks in the game. He wouldn't be making fifty five million bucks if he didn't actually take the Bengals to a Super Bowl. I know it sounds dirty to say that actually happened. He needs to be on the field if the Bengals are going to do anything. And so Joe Burrow, he sat down with the folks from pardon my take.

And he says, yeah, I got something to prove. I've been hurt. I've been injured.

I've been gone. And so people haven't taken the approach of, well, he's still one of the best. Listen to what Burrow had to say. Do you think people have forgotten about Joe Burrow? I believe that. Yeah. That's what happens when you get hurt, though.

You don't play football. People forget about you. Yeah.

Which I kind of, I like the spot you're in right now because I feel like I love the spot. Yeah. Like AFC, everyone's like, Oh, well, you know, you know, Josh Lamar and Patrick, CJ Stroud's like, you're forgetting one guy. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. But again, that's part of the game. You don't, if you're not out there and people aren't watching you, then there's nothing to talk about. So I'm going to give people talk about something to talk about this year.

Well, I'm excited about it. Well, at least Joe Burrow understands the realities of it. And a lot of times we know that professional athletes have to find whatever mechanism that they can to motivate themselves. Like what else is what else you're going to motivate?

What else is going to motivate you when you make it 55 a year? And I get it. Football ain't no sport for watch my words here. You got to be tough to play football.

All right. I don't think anybody is waking up and just just going out there to do it, taking the abuse and the pain without the financial gain. But then also you got to love it, right? Like you have to want to play football.

And if you don't, you're going to suck and you're just going to be out of a job and you're going to be hurt and busted up and bruised and broken as a result. And so whatever Joe Burrow has to find to motivate him, then fine. I think most people look at him as one of the best quarterbacks in the game. But when you're not playing, what is there to talk about?

I'm glad he understands that part, but whatever gets the gears going. And we already know about the AFC North and how competitive it typically is. And, you know, what happens when you have a healthy Deshaun Watson? OK, you know what happens out with the Ravens now that Derrick Henry can spell Lamar Jackson? What happens with the Steelers and their two quarterbacks? We'll find out. I don't think anybody would be shocked if the Cincinnati Bengals, maybe they were the cream of the crop. We'll find out soon enough, as Joe Burrow said.

On the other hand, Joe Burrow's like, yeah, you're not around, you get forgotten. In the NBA right now, Bronny James, after making his debut over the weekend, just with one game, people are already starting to draw conclusions. Bronny James had four points in his summer league debut over the weekend, four points, two of nine shooting, two rebounds, two assists, a steal.

He did it in 22 minutes. He did not play yesterday. Well, because he had a sore knee. He's expected to play again on Wednesday. And everything that Bronny James does will be analyzed, especially when the guy has a guaranteed, what, $7 million contract?

As the number 55 pick? Everybody's already paying attention to see if he can actually pan out and play. And so LeBron has, I want to say, come to the defense of his son. But LeBron James has said that Bronny, his approach is to not have to prove anything to anybody. Listen to what he sat down and told ESPN about criticism, how Bronny just takes criticism.

Listen to this. I don't know if people really understand Bronny. He doesn't care. I actually cared a little bit when I came here.

I wanted people to like, like me and some of the things that people were saying about me kind of bothered me early on in my career. I let it get to me. Bronny doesn't give a ****. He doesn't.

Bronny plays. He works his tail off. When he's done, he goes home and plays a video. He does not care about nobody. He doesn't even listen to that stuff.

He's like the complete opposite of his dad. His dad will say something. Bronny does not care.

OK. Does he? Is that truthful? Like, I'm sure he just goes and plays video games. And first of all, I think, Hickey, I think it's a good thing that we don't know Bronny because the guy could have grown up to be a spoiled rich kid. And I think they've actually done an excellent job of kind of isolating him from from the media as best as possible.

What did you say? So you're right. Yeah. I mean, everything LeBron does is newsworthy. And to your point, I mean, he breathes and it's a story.

So you're right. The fact that we know so little about him. They have done a really good job at kind of as best they can in that situation, keeping them kind of at least allowing his private life to be private and kind of as much as can grow up to be a normal kid. As much as you could be a normal kid, one of the most famous human beings on earth, one of the wealthiest athletes, one of the few active athletes that's walking around with a billion dollar net worth. And his son is playing a game with him. I mean, now, is Bronny not on social media? Is he just playing video games? The guy he it's impossible.

That part is impossible. Is he, I don't know, obsessing over it. Nobody knows. But to think somebody. Who is he can't even buy a drink yet.

Isn't paying attention or doesn't hear what's being said. Bronny doesn't go on IG. Bronny doesn't go on X.

He just not on TikTok. He doesn't. He has to know now whether or not he can, quote unquote, take the criticism or just let it roll off of his back.

That's that's something else. I think we also have to understand that when you're in a household with LeBron James. Maybe, maybe Bronny has learned a thing or two watching his dad's career like you would think he'd pick up something here or there to kind of shut things out. You think that maybe from what LeBron James just said, hey, when I was a younger player, all I did was obsess and listen maybe a little too much to what people had to say. Maybe, maybe he's learned that. But I'll tell you this. It's impossible in the world that we live in. When you are just at their level.

To not hear anything. Bronny James living in a bubble is Bronny living in a box. He does have something to prove. He does whether he wants to admit it or not. He's distanced himself as much as he can from his dad just over the past month. I don't want to play with my dad. That wasn't my dream. I'm looking to prove things for myself that this is what he said out of his own mouth.

I'm trying to be my own man. We'll see if it happens. I just know right now. Four points in the debut shorts a debut.

He could have 10 points, 15 points. In the next game. But the fact of the matter is. We live in a world.

Hey, if you go out and you're in public. You have opened yourself up for criticism. We'll see what happens. By the way, his teammate Dalton connect to his draft at a number 17 overall. He's been averaging 12 points. Okay, we've seen enough of him. Hickey, do you believe that that he's not taking in or absorbing credit? He doesn't care, I guess is the word I was going to say. I mean, he definitely I'm sure sees it. I think it's impossible not to. We don't.

I mean, I don't know. I could see him not care. I could like to your point, like every LeBron was criticized for so long about so many stupid things that I feel like after a while. But like you said, just seeing your dad deal with it, you learn, OK, this really doesn't matter. And what people say about me does not impact my career or not. I could see him more than most kids at his age in his position, truly not.

Caring about what is said. Oh, well, damn it, if that's the case, and that'd be that'd be a nice skill that if we could use that and other facets of life, we'll see. It appears that he's not even going to he's on a guaranteed contract, not expected to even spend a lot of time with the Lakers, which is just I don't know. The story just gets weirder and weirder and weirder. We know why he has the job. We know why he has the gig.

And just nobody knows what the potential is on the back end. But we'll find out soon enough. Good luck to Bronny and good luck to Joe Burrow, too, who, by the way, Hickey, did you see how big he got? He looks and I know he'll go through the summer and he'll sweat and the season will start. He'll sweat and run around.

You look kind of he looks kind of Jack, doesn't he? He does. I mean, look, said himself, you know, his off season started earlier than everybody else's. So, you know, he's had a lot of time in the weight room, a lot more time to lift weights than everyone else is playing in November and December. Well, I certainly hope that he's he's healthy. Just detailing some of his injuries just over the past several years. It's just when is Joe Burrow going to get hurt?

How's he going to get hurt? Is it a knee? Is it an appendix? Yeah, you can't control that.

Is it a wrist? He's always been kind of on the slight side. But then so was a guy like Tom Brady. But Tom Brady, outside of his own knee injury, was was pretty durable.

But throughout the course of his career, we saw how long that guy lasted. OK, good luck to Joe Burrow and good luck to Bronny James. It's the J.R. Sport Reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven is the number we are going to take a break. Speaking of things to prove, I told you there are thirty two first time all stars that will be participating in next week's MLB All-Star game. Out in Texas to talk about this and who made it, who did not, what the rest of the season is going to look like. Is Houston going to keep scorching? Are the Yankees going to turn things around? Who the hell are the Marlins selling off next? We're going to have a conversation with Matt Snyder, who covers Major League Baseball for CBS Sports. We'll have that on the other side.

You're locked into the J.R. Sport Reshow on the Infinity Sports Network. You can host the best backyard barbecue when you find a professional on Angie to make your backyard the best around. Connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well inside to outside repairs to renovations.

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And guess what? They're probably on Auto Trader, whether you're into timeless classics or the latest trends. Did somebody say solar powered, eco friendly, vegan leather wrapped, aromatherapy scented, disco ball equipped self-driving car? If you see it on the road, you can likely find it on Auto Trader. Big cars, small cars, blue cars, new cars and used cars, electric cars and one day maybe even flying cars.

With millions of options to choose from, buying a car becomes a whole lot easier. See it, find it. Auto Trader. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It's the JR Sport Brief show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Last night, I guess, wrap up the holiday weekend, Major League Baseball decided to share with us. The All-Star starters. Who's pitching? Who's catching? Who's hitting? And probably the best All-Star game out of the major sports here in the United States of America. Major League Baseball still has some juice to talk about who got left off the team.

Some of the guys who made it. Joining us right now is Matt Snyder, covers Major League Baseball for CBS Sports. Matt, thank you for taking the time to join us. Hey, sure thing, man. How are you doing?

I'm very well, thank you. I guess my first question is, and this is more of your opinion, 32 first time All-Stars. What does this mean for the game? Are we in, there's a little bit of surprise or can we move forward with future stars?

What are your thoughts? Some of it is a coincidence where you have players like Seth Lugo, a 34 year old for the Royals having a career year. Some of it is also that there's just some amazing young talent.

Coincidence, some of that, yeah. But also, I think that we started on this path of guys being so good so soon. A little over a decade ago, 2011, when Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, and Mike Trout took the league by force. All rookies in 2011. And then the next generation was Juan Soto and Ronald Laconia Jr. debuting in the same year as teenagers.

And on through right now, where you see guys coming up and dominating right away. Paul Skeans, for example, the first number one overall pick to be an All-Star the very next year. So some of it is that, and some of it, like I said, is guys like Seth Lugo who are just putting it together as veterans, jerks, and pro part of the Padres having a career year at age 31.

It's just been a weird year with the coincidences like that. And Matt Snodessy with us from CBS Sports. You talk about Paul Skeans giving people a reason to go ahead and really pay attention to the Pirates.

Why? What makes him different? I mean, outside of throwing gas, what makes him different than guys who show up one year and then the next year, boom, they're here in the All-Star game?

His stuff is off the charts good. And you see when guys have never seen him before, for example, one of his first starts came against the Dodgers and Mookie Betts, one of the best players on the planet, to his third swing on a strikeout, he looked just completely lost. Like, I've never seen anything like this before. And same thing with Shohei Ohtani who struck out after that. Now, Ohtani got him next time for a home run, but it's when you've never seen him before, and he's thrown over 100 with the fastball, and he's got a sinker that moves so much people think it's a splinker, which is a combination splitter and sinker, but it's not. I asked him personally, he said, no, it's just a sinker.

Guys haven't seen stuff like this before. That's just how talented he is with the raw talent. He just learned the sinker this year.

He didn't even use it in college. Being that big and strong gives me hope that his arm isn't going to break down. I mean, he's probably the most hyped starting pitcher since Steven Strasburg, and we know what happened with Strasburg's career. It was a mixed bag between being absolutely electric, winning World Series MVP, being inside on contention, and being hurt almost all the time.

So hopefully, Skeans is big and strong enough that we'll avoid that pass. Yeah, listen, that Strasburg contract that they gave him, that wasn't too bad now at the end. That wasn't too bad. The Nationals, not so much, but for him, not too shabby. Matt Snyder's here with us from CBS Sports. When you talk about the young pitching, we know there's a lot of young bats that we'll see next week as well, and then there's some that are left off. The Orioles certainly have a little bit of a beef.

They have so many bats in the rotation. I guess it was a matter of, what, did they eat each other up in regards to the voting? Maybe. I mean, there's some level also of every team gets one representative, so some slots are going to get used up in that fashion.

I'm not sure. Look, David Fry for the Guardians is a great story. It's cool to have a utility man who is also a catcher, but I'm not sure that he definitely needed to be there instead of Jordan Westbrook or Anthony Santander. It just seems like the Orioles probably deserve more than three players. They've got Adlai Rushman and Gunnar Henderson, who are both deserving starters. Corbin Burns, probably good enough to start the game for the AL, and then that's it. This is the best team in the American League, and they've just got their three best players, and that's it.

So, we'll see. There might be some injury replacements. We know that everybody who pitches on Sunday has to get replaced, but that only opens up spots for other pitchers. I don't know if the Orioles have another pitcher. Grayson Rodriguez would probably be a little bit down the line behind guys like Joe Ryan and Ronel Blanco. So, I'm looking at the AL roster right now. I don't know if anybody's definitely going to be hurt. So, yeah, Westbrook and Santander might be left out in the cold. Now, let me ask you, Matt, not just in the American League, but in the National League, who do you think has the best chance of making a roster between now and next week as one of these replacements, whether it be because a guy just pitched or maybe, you know, you want to say anybody gets hurt?

Who might be next stop? Well, Bryce Harper is in the starting lineup. I don't know if he's going to be back or not. If he doesn't make it back, I think Christian Walker is an easy add there.

He's having another great power year. He's never been an all-star before the Diamondbacks won the NL pennant last year, so that's probably an easy replacement there. Pitting-wise, Zach Wheeler is scheduled to pitch on Sunday, which means he'll still get a go to the game, but he has to be replaced on the active roster, so that might open up a spot for his teammate, Christopher Sanchez, who has been really, really good this year. Those are the two that come to mind, but I don't know that there's going to be that many other replacements.

Every time I do this snub, I get people back like, oh, this is stupid to do this snub because there's going to be like 20 guys at it anyway. I don't think there are going to be that many. I can only think of two starting pitchers that are going to go on Sunday and one obviously injured player in Bryce Harper. Okay, Mookie Betts, two injured players. So there will be two additions on the National League position player side and one starting pitcher in each league, and so far that looks like that might be it, so there's not going to be that many guys at it.

Matt Snide is joining us from CBS Sports. We know kind of the, I don't know if I want to call it the appetizer prior to the All-Star game, but we have the home run derby, and Major League Baseball has kind of switched up the rules, or at least I'd say the order again. Big deal, small deal, no deal, people are still swinging for the fences, right? It's probably not going to be that noticeable. I think they ran into, a lot of these exhibition pitchers were throwing it before they were supposed to throw another pitch, and then they were getting so many swings in the early rounds.

The guys were getting tired before we got to the late rounds, so it was just a little bit of a tweak, but I don't know how much we're going to notice it. And I know that there are some people who don't really care about the event, and that's perfectly fine to each his or her own, but I absolutely love it. I think it's great. I think that a lot of people who are not diehard baseball fans will tune in to watch that, and it's just mindless fun.

So I absolutely love it. If you've never gone to one in person, at least now in the clock era, I think that it was terrible how many pitches guys were taking before they put the clock in, but once they put the clock in, they saved it. And if you ever get a chance to go, do it.

It's amazing in person. Well Matt, once we get done with all of the All-Star festivities, the home run derby, the actual game out in Arlington, we get back to baseball, man. I'm not saying we're running into the dog days, but time is flying by. The Yankees have been faltering, the O's are sitting at the top of the American League East. Talk to us about what the hell is going on here. Can the Yankees kind of steady things out, or are they going to be chasing the Orioles the rest of the summer? Well, they were playing out of their minds way too good. They were getting amazing starting pitching with Garrett Cole on the shelf.

You probably knew that that wasn't going to continue. And then all that regression has happened within the last 20 games, and they've been pitching terribly. Offensively, they need a lot more than just Aaron Judge and Juan Soto to a lesser extent. They need a lot more from Verdugo. They need Anthony Volpe to look like he did in the first couple weeks of the season when it looked like he was going to have a breakout year.

Maybe Ben Rice is legit. That will help with the lineup depth. They're going to hopefully eventually get Giancarlo Stanton back.

That'll help. Glaber Torres, no idea what's going on there, but he should be way, way, way better than this. They need a lot more help from their non-stars. They're in the starting lineup.

And again, the pitchers, we've seen guys like Marcus Stroman and Nestor Cortez and Carlos Redon be very inconsistent. They're in the bad part right now. They need to bounce back and be better.

They have the horses here. They just need to be better. Matt Snyder joining us from CBS Sports.

When you talk about a Yankees boogeyman, all you have to do is look to Texas and not Arlington, but out to Houston. They've been able to turn things around as of late. What do you think the Strobes are going to do the rest of the year? I think they're going to win the division. I think it was early May. They were 12 and 24, and then they got hot. And I was like, yeah, they're going to be in first place by the All-Star break.

I don't know. It's going to be close. They're two down with just a week to go. But I do think that they're a safe bet to win the division. The Mariners just don't have any offense at all. I don't know how much they can help that in front of the trade deadline.

It's hard to see how many bats are going to be available. And the answer is they need to piece together their pitching. They are banged up. They've lost Sertiti and Christian Javier for the season. Who knows what's going on with Lance McCullers Jr. Justin Verlander is over 40. He seems to be hurt a lot, and he can't count on him. But they'll find a way to piece it together.

And offensively, they're just humming along right now, and they're doing it without their arguably their best player in Kyle Tucker. So I think the Astros are going to win that division. You talk about the MLB trade deadline. Oh my goodness. We got that at the end of the month. Are the Marlins going to have a baseball team by August 1st?

Or should I sign up? What's going to happen? Yeah, it'll resemble a Major League Baseball team, but not be a good one at all. I don't think they're going to move Jazz to them, so they'll still have kind of a star player that a bunch of people will like. Josh Bell's probably going to get traded again. Pitching-wise, if they have anybody who can stay healthy at all. Maybe Trevor Rodgers goes, but he's not having a good year at all. Taylor Scott surely is gone.

The all-star closer. Yeah, they're not going to be very good at all. They have a lot of work to do in the offseason moving forward. It's crazy. As long as the Marlins have existed, it doesn't matter if they're just coming off a World Series 1 or they just stink. They're going to sell everybody. That's all they do every year. It doesn't matter.

Yes, it's sad. Matt Snyder, as we start to wrap things up, it seems like for years now, when we get to the end, I can typically look at the National League and go, okay, what are the Dodgers going to do? What are the Phillies going to do? We know the Braves have dealt with some injuries, although they have some amazing starting pitching.

What do you foresee happening in the NL? The Phillies will win the East, the Dodgers will easily win the West, and the Braves will be the top wild card. I think that the Brewers are probably going to hold on in the Central, but I wouldn't count the Cardinals out there. The Cardinals will probably be one of the wild card teams. And then the last spot, I think the Padres are going to stick.

Man, that's boring though. I just named the six teams that are in playoff position right now. I do think that Diamondbacks are going to hang around. Very interested to see what happens with the Mets, because they looked like one of the most obvious sellers, and then they got really hot, and now they're on the cusp of contention. It's David Stern's first year at the helm.

He probably wanted to reshape the organization, kind of how he wanted it. It's easy to start with trading Pete Alonso there, but they're only two games out. He has to endure himself to the fans if they're that close to contention, and he has to try to go for it. So it'll be really fun to watch what happens with the Mets.

Well, if the Mets bring back grimace in every game, then I think they'll keep on winning. Sounds simple to me. Thank you, Matt. Where can people follow you and all your great work with CBS? CBSSports.com slash MLB.

A lot of good stuff there. If you want to hit me up on X, I'm Matt Snyder, CBS there. Awesome. Well, thank you, Matt. Enjoy things down in Arlington.

If you catch a home run, bring one back, okay? Will do. Take care, man. Thank you so much. That Matt Snyder of CBS Sports has a great article about a lot of the snubs and individuals who should have made the All-Star team, guys who might make the All-Star team, and appreciate Matt for taking the time to join us. 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4227. Everybody's looking at Paul Skeans and just going, this guy's crazy. Like when he was at LSU, just sitting around watching his games, just, just, just who's not, you really, really got to sit around and be a fan.

Maybe you're in SEC country. It's tough keeping up with college baseball outside of the World Series, but to see Paul Skeans at LSU look like he was major league ready and then a year later actually see him in the majors and not just in the majors, but dominating and destroying guys. It's something to be seen. So I'll be paying attention to what he does next week. Maybe goes out there and strikes out the side.

We'll find out soon enough. But Paul Skeans is not the only phenom right now. Young phenom in the world of sports. Yes, Angel Reese and Kaitlyn Clark continue to give people the business as they rack up some early experience in the WNBA. I want to fill you in on what they've been able to do recently as they've been able to set some records.

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Talk to your pediatrician or visit why vaccines dot com brought to you by Merck. You don't just live in your home. You live in your neighborhood as well. So when you're shopping for a home, you want to know as much about the area around it as possible. Luckily, homes dot com has got you covered. Each listing features a comprehensive neighborhood guide from local experts. Everything you'd ever want to know about a neighborhood, including the number of homes for sale, transportation, local amenities, cultural attractions, unique qualities, and even things like median lot size and a noise score.

Homes dot com. We've done your homework. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief. It's the J.R. sport show here with you on the infinity sports network. Thank you so much to Matt Snyder from CBS Sports for joining us in the last break to talk about the Major League Baseball All-Star game. Who got snubbed? Who made it?

Who did not make it? I'm going to I'm going to sit and watch the game. I'm going to be live on the radio. I have the game on in the background.

Damn, Hickey, I could say the same thing for the home run derby, huh? Both. Yeah, that's right. And some callers will be upset that you won't be able to do both at the same time. Yeah, I'll I'll do play by play of the game and do the radio show at the same time. I'll work on it anyway. I need you to think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs.

Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Major League Baseball hoping that a Paul Skeans becomes even more of a star next week as he stars for the National League. And it's a stark reminder that this is this is a time of year we get Major League Baseball with this All-Star game. At the end of the week, we have the the ESPY awards.

How about this? People actually looking at the WNBA All-Star game that will take place next week out in Phoenix, Arizona. And why is this WNBA All-Star game a little bit those special, more special, more attention?

Well, because we're heading out to the Olympics, well, they are heading out to the Olympics. The WNBA All-Star game is going to be Team USA versus the WNBA All-Star. So basically all the best players that didn't make Team USA, they're going to go against each other. Now, Team USA is probably going to wax them, but we got two players who are going to be going to be teammates for the first time.

And the world might explode. If Kaitlyn Clark passes over to Angel Reese and it's some fancy fast break, the world might lose its mind. But that's one thing that we have to look forward to next Saturday. I can't remember the last time I said to myself, oh, my God, I got to watch a WNBA All-Star game. But next week, we'll go ahead and be that week. And let me tell you something.

Since the beginning of the season, both Angel Reese and Kaitlyn Clark have, quote unquote, found their grooves. And this is what happens when you're a rookie. It doesn't matter what the sport is. There are very few players who just respond and play like a bat out of hell. You got to get smacked around.

You got to get beat up. You have to get acclimated to the game. And in the case of the WNBA, the college season, at least for some of the stars and teams that did well, like Kaitlyn Clark's squad, as well as Angel Reese's LSU, it took a while. They didn't have too much of a gap or break between college and playing professionally. But they're breaking records. Angel Reese, as of yesterday. When her Chicago Sky beat Seattle, they beat him 84 to 71. Angel Reese now has a WNBA record. Of 13 straight games with a double double. This best Candace Parker, who did it spanning over two seasons, Angel Reese on the year is averaging 14 points and 12 rebounds. She's a double double machine. The ball comes off the rim and comes off the glass.

She's grabbing it. 13 straight double doubles, 14 points, 12 rebounds on the season. As a rookie, it doesn't matter how you feel about Angel Reese or what she's done, what she said, she can ball and she ain't no scrub here. Take a listen to what Angel Reese had to say about breaking Candace Parker's record. She's the go. I mean, I've had conversations with her, her family, her mom.

I've talked to them before, before I even came to Chicago and built that relationship before. And I've always respected CP, CP3. And I try to even just take some things from her game and try to add them to mine. And just being able to be named with an amazing player like that is always going to be special to me. Angel Reese breaking records. Meanwhile, Kaitlyn Clark breaking all types of records when it comes to box office and seats and sales and ratings. Kaitlyn Clark is doing on the basketball court as well. The Indiana Fever beat the New York Liberty 83 to 78. Kaitlyn Clark is the first rookie ever in the WNBA to record a triple double.

83 78 was the final score. Kaitlyn Clark's line. 19 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists. I mean, damn it is Kaitlyn Clark throwing up the the Steph Curry-esque numbers that you thought you might see in college?

No, but I don't know. What is she just Jason Kidd out here? For the season, Kaitlyn Clark is averaging 16.6 rebounds, seven and a half assists. And with these triple doubles, or at least this triple double, you don't think she's going to get another one?

Come on now. Kaitlyn Clark said, oh, yeah, it's cool. Obviously, it's really cool.

I mean, my teammates have been finishing the ball really, really at a high rate, like my assist numbers. That's because of them, like just finding them in positions to be successful, whether it's A.D., whether it's Liz. We've done a really good job of that.

But yeah, I guess it's cool. There you go. Kaitlyn Clark always sharing the credit.

And why not? This is what the point guard does, right? If you're going to distribute the ball, you might as well distribute a whole hell of a lot of the praise. And Kaitlyn Clark is is certainly a pro at media.

You know, for someone who is, I don't want to say new to this, but the scrutiny just keeps going further and further. How she has not had a breakdown. Man, credit to her. She wakes up in this beef. Now, Hickey, we did talk about this. I think is at some point while you were gone. I said it would be awesome.

And just for the hell of it, just for just for conversation. And yeah, we're not even done yet. They should give the MVP. Well, not the MVP. They should give the Rookie of the Year award to both of them just to tick people off and get them talking.

Well, that would cause a lot of controversy if you split the award. Yep. They should do it. Grant Hill and Jason Kitz style.

They should. Yep. Cut it right down the middle to like give only half an award. Like really just go all out. Hey, well, they're giving away half of an award or they just say here's a gift certificate. Just having I think it's marketing. It's like sales one on one. And granted, this is this is WNBA basketball. This is not a boxing match. But you got to have two people opposing each other if you want to have people tuning in. That's what we got when they were in college. And so I think the WNBA to not have and I'm not trying to say that they should rig it. But if they continue on this trajectory, is is Angel Reese going to have double doubles for the rest of the season?

I don't know, but it's probably unlikely. And I can expect that Kaitlyn Clark is going to have some some excellent games. Maybe she has another triple double.

Maybe she doesn't. But they're both playing at a high rate. They're playing very well. I just say for the attention's sake, for money's sake, for box office sake, for conversation's sake. When it's time to give out the Rookie of the Year award, you say they both won and just people will lose their minds. If the WNBA needs anything, it's for people to talk about them. That's it. You're right. And this rivalry is really, you know, really brewing.

It's a real thing. I mean, I believe I don't think any any game has surpassed it, but one of the most watched games ever was the last time these two teams played after the whole hard foul controversy. So people clearly, like you said, are tuned into this rivalry. They want to see these two great players go at it. And it would just add another level to this already, you know, strong and intense rivalry by saying, you know what, you both have been so great. You both get the award. Yeah, it'll tick people off and that'll be great. That's fine.

Shoot, it might take them off, which is fine and great, too. You know, put some put some additional fire, you know, fuel to the fire and let's keep it rolling. So we'll see what happens. Just good on both Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese for having the impacts that they've had so far at this stage of their careers. I would have loved to seen them play for Team USA. I just don't think it's ridiculous that they didn't add them. I think we know why. In the case of Kaitlyn Clark, I think a lot of the players and management didn't want her going out there and garnering attention, whether it was going to be good or bad or. It was just a stupid idea. They should have had her on the team, even if it's just to learn and have the experience. We've seen it done in the past.

Guys like Christian Laitner. We got Cooper flag right now. No, he's not on the Olympic team. But this man's on the select team, scrimmaging against the best. And what is Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese get? Oh, we get to play in the All-Star game.

Picky, it would be great if they let him up. Now, that piece. Now, wouldn't that be something that's looking at? Same thing. Imagine both of them just tearing up Team USA. Listen, Team USA. And I think the the general manager of the team is I think she's the GM of Connecticut. She oversees she oversees one of these teams. And it just seems like a conflict of interest to me. It's just wild.

I'd love to see it. They need to go out there and just let the two of them ball out. I think that'd be the price of admission, worth the price of admission. And I think a lot of people will go, this is why you should have added them to the team.

It's the entertainment factor. I don't think too many people are concerned that the women's team is not going to return with gold. OK, I think they could have put third string WNBA players out there and they would have walked. They will not walk.

They would have flew back home with some gold from Paris. But we'll see what happens. The closest we'll get is next week at the All-Star Game in Phoenix. It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network.

Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. Speaking of the Olympics. We got all the NBA guys together representing Team USA. They did a lot of talking over the weekend. Even Steph Curry.

This man is going to Paris first time. Crazy stuff. We'll talk about it.

Anthony Edwards and more. It's the J.R. sport re-show. Don't move. Infinity Sports Network. Look around. What do you see? Cars? Lots of them. And guess what? They're probably on Auto Trader.

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Auto Trader. Here's why April chose to vaccinate her child. I think actually meeting someone who was not vaccinated and now has a lifelong struggle with a childhood disease really cemented for me that it's super important that we as parents continue to vaccinate our children. Talk to your pediatrician or visit YVaccines.com.

Brought to you by Merck. You don't just live in your home. You live in your neighborhood as well. So when you're shopping for a home, you want to know as much about the area around it as possible. Luckily, Homes.com has got you covered. Each listing features a comprehensive neighborhood guide from local experts. Everything you'd ever want to know about a neighborhood, including the number of homes for sale, transportation, local amenities, cultural attractions, unique qualities and even things like median lot size and a noise score.

Homes.com. We've done your homework.