JR SportBrief Hour 4

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That's BetterHELP.com slash positive. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. And I'm going to be hanging out here with you for one more hour. I get started 10 p.m. Eastern Time, 7 p.m. Pacific coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia.

Thank you to everybody listening all over North America. My folks at work. My folks leaving work. My folks just relaxing. My people driving them trucks. My people making deliveries.

All my people who work in health care, people who work in protecting people, keeping folks safe. Thank you so much for hanging out here with us. If you missed a minute of the show, you can always hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. That's A U D A C Y. Thank you. Super producer and host Dave Shepherd. He's holding it down in New York City.

And we've had a busy day. What else is Rick Pitino announced to a crowd of tons that New York City, Madison Square Garden, Rick Pitino, now the new head coach of St. John's. Unfortunately, Willis Reed, NBA legend, New York Knicks legend passes away on Tuesday at the age of 80. We had a great conversation with his former teammate on that second championship squad, 1973, former UCLA Bruin, three time champion there, coach at USC. And in just about a decade in the NBA, Henry Bibby, he joined us.

If you missed that conversation, you can hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. And then also big news tonight. USA, Japan. The WBC final that took place in Miami, Florida. And this was a winner take all situation. You win. You are the champs. You lose.

You are a loser. Or at least you got a silver medal. In the United States of America, they walked away with the silver medal. In Team Japan, they are WBC champions for the third time as they win three to two.

And this was an exciting finish. You know, I told you for the past couple of days, I'm not interested or have not been interested in the WBC. It doesn't move the needle for me. It's here today. It'll be gone tomorrow.

Not all that interested. But I was excited about the final frame. Why? Because we had two teammates who were opposing each other. Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, both of the Angels, two of the biggest stars in baseball. Ohtani was on the mound. He wasn't scheduled to pitch. It was said that he would not pitch at all today. And then this afternoon we found out that he would be available in relief.

And he was. Shohei Ohtani not only batted today, which he got a hit. Shohei Ohtani came out to be Mariano Rivera.

They were up 3-2. Mike Trout was at the plate trying to keep Team USA alive or maybe tie the game. And Shohei Ohtani basically did this.

I want you to listen via Fox Sports. Ohtani's ready. Trout's ready. 3-2. He struck him out! Ohtani strikes out Trout and Japan's back on top of the baseball world.

They've spent six years preparing for this. And this incredible moment to finish it off as Shohei Ohtani strikes out Mike Trout. And Japan beats the United States 3-2 in the championship game. A classic in every sense.

That was fun. How often are you going to see teammates out there just striking each other out? Let alone two of the best in the game. So congratulations to Shohei Ohtani. He actually won something. Yeah, he ain't winning much of anything with the Angels. They keep talking about how they want to hold on to him throughout the course of the season.

I don't even know if they'll do that. And so how about this? The Defensive Player of the Week is sponsored by the Navy Federal Credit Union who proudly serves the Armed Forces, DoD, veterans and their families. Their members are the mission.

You can learn more at NavyFederal.org. Shohei Ohtani is the Defensive Player of the Week defending another WBC title for Team Japan. They walked away with a gigantic ass trophy and Team USA got silver medals that no one will ever wear. Because who wants to celebrate being in second place, especially when you're playing professional baseball?

Nobody. Hey Shep, have you ever won anything in second place and decided that you wanted to show it off? Second place is pretty damn good, JR. Is it?

Yeah. I can't remember ever finishing first in like a major event, you know? You've come in second. I've come in seventh. I've come in tenth.

I've come in... Yeah, but we're not talking... Seventh place don't get no medal unless you're really participating in something that's for losers. What you trying to say about people who run marathons, JR? No, but you've got one person that finishes. For marathons, it's three people, right? No, we all get medals.

It's just certain people go on the podium that are finishing the top three. Well, that's different. Gotcha, gotcha. If I'm playing... I get it. This is the WBC. Right.

The person who wins the World Cup, the team that wins the World Cup, do they want a silver medal? I mean, JR, if you're Ken Griffey Jr., we think of 90... You remember... I don't want to bring back bad memories, but you remember what happened in... Oh, Yankees. You remember what happened in 95 when Edgar Martinez drove Griffey in and the Yankees were up 2-0 and that was the end of Buck Showalter and Penn Stripes, right? That's the furthest he's ever been. So this is...

So now you fast forward 26 years or so, I should say 28 years later, right? Junior is competing and equivalent to a World Series. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Ken Griffey Jr. leaned over tonight and got a silver medal. Correct. Shep, keep talking. I gotta sneeze.

I gotta put my dumb butt for a second. Keep talking, Shep. Alright, the point is Ken Griffey Jr. is an individual who we know he's been injury-plagued, but he's been devoid of team success. He couldn't win Cincinnati. He couldn't win when he went to Chicago. He couldn't win when he went back to Seattle.

This is the closest that he has ever been to a championship. No, no, no, no. Hold on, I think I'm... I'm like Willis Reed.

I'm allergic to the BS, Shep. Keep going, keep going. Are you going to count what went by association with his father winning with the Reds? And so, I mean, this is the closest Griffey has ever been to winning a championship in team sports. You know that.

Ken Griffey Jr. Yes. Now, I don't know.

Maybe I'm allergic to everything you're saying because I'm sneezing like crazy here in the studio. Bless you. Thank you. Ken Griffey Jr. don't want no silver medal, brah. I don't... JR, I don't...

I don't know. Who wants a silver medal? I don't want no silver medal. If you're Bill Russell and you've won 11 championships in the NBA and two at San Francisco when you were in college, if you're Kareem and you won three at UCLA and six in the NBA, I can understand why a silver medal doesn't really hold its proper gravitas. But if you are Ken Griffey Jr. and you've never won on a team level professionally and this is the closest you've ever come and you are now 50... I want to say he's 53 years old. He didn't even play.

Well... It's not like he played. He's just a coach there. He's just there. So it means, yeah, so it means he couldn't get injured stretching them because God knows that's what Griffey was doing his last five years in the MLB.

It seems like he got hurt when the wind blew the wrong way. So the point is, JR, you get what I'm saying. I do.

If you're Ken Griffey Jr. and you've never come close to winning and you played in the dojrums of Seattle, this has got to feel good. Nobody remembers second place. The person who comes in in second place doesn't care. Let's think about this in different terms.

Sure. And the only reason they're giving them silver medal... Team USA got a silver medal today for losing the World Baseball Classic. Could you imagine, I don't know, could you imagine the Phoenix Suns when the Bucks beat them up? Could you imagine, like, Chris Paul and everybody sticking around to get a silver medal? I mean, JR, but like in all seriousness, like, I mean, there have been movies made about rivalries and guys falling just short. McEnroe and Boar come to mind. JR, and you know this, and I know, listen, I know people aren't the biggest golf fans on CBS Sports Radio. But you know the name of this. What's the guy who lost to Tiger in 2008 when he was really Tiger Woods, his last stand being Tiger.

In 2008, U.S. Open, he was playing on one leg. You know the guy's name. Well, who was it? He's a second place loser.

Who was it? Rocco Mediate. And he is a household name and he has never won a major championship, but that was such an epic back and forth.

Just like this went down to the wire at the WBC between the U.S. and Japan. Rocco Mediate is known in golf. He's going to go down in golf allure for the rest of eternity.

He is. The duel in the sun. Watson and Nicholas back in the late 70s.

And the British. I'm not talking about no rivalry. I'm not talking about greats. I'm talking about participation trophies.

I don't care what you do. Let's think about team sports here. When we get to the Final Four and we get the Monday night, whoever loses, they don't want no stinking second place medal.

All right. In the NBA finals, whoever loses in the NBA finals, they don't want no stinking second place. Whoever actually wins the World Series this year, the losers opposite them, they don't want no stupid medal.

If I played baseball or if I played sports, think about this. The Super Bowl. I don't want no stinking second place medal. Like what is I can appreciate the process of getting there. Right.

But why do I want? I came in second place. Who cares? Who cares?

Nobody. So Brad Stevens did not become the Boston Celtics head coach because he was runner up two times? First to Duke, then to UConn? That is a personal achievement. If you want to talk about the achievement of actually winning a championship, it's not what you can do for yourself. It's the fact that I went somewhere, I had a goal, I didn't accomplish it. Let me try again. That's it. There's no to me.

There's no there's no in between. You can learn in failure without a shadow of a doubt. Most of us learn through failure.

But that's not to say that you celebrate it. Ah, man, I got second place. Oh, thank God I got second. No, if you want to keep going for first, just just go do it. This sucks. I'm sorry.

Go for number one. WBC, you got a silver medal. These guys will take this silver medal. They're going to put it in their sock drawer.

They're going to give it to their kids. And I'm not I'm not exaggerating here. I'm not being facetious.

I'm being honest. I would venture to say these Team USA baseball players who got second place, ask them where the medal is next year. They don't know. They give it to their kids and it's under the bed and they don't care. Nobody at this level gives a damn about second. Have you seen the World Cup losers getting the medal? Like, why are we here? We lost.

You know, France don't want that crap. 8 5 5 2 1 2 for CBS. It's 8 5 5 2 1 2 for CBS. Craig is calling from California. You're CBS Sports Radio.

AJ, I love your show, but I think you're on the wrong side of this one tonight, man. You know, this isn't like what you want. What do you want the USA players to do? They came in second out of I don't know how many teams win this tournament, but you want them to go bad news bears and throw the trophy back at the Yankees. I mean, they lost. It was a great game. And I guess second place, they get a medal.

OK, I don't care what they do with it. But I was entertained by this World Baseball classic. You know, in Japan, 96 or 7 percent, 97 percent of the TVs are tuned into this game.

So we can't be all, you know, America centric here and just think about ourselves. It was a great it was a great theater for, you know, from what I can tell. You know, USA played some great games. They had some good fans down there.

They beat Venezuela in a classic game. You know, we come up short today, but that's the way it goes. And so like I ask you, what do you I mean, did you play sports? I played sports at a high level.

You know, yeah, you want to go for first, but you can't always get first. You can play great in defeat, you know, and I think the USA team did that. We lost by a run. You know, congrats to Japan.

They deserved it. But I'm like your point. I don't get your point. You didn't even hardly watch the dang thing. And you're sitting here ragging on it. And you're a sports talk guy, man. Come on, JR. Where's the love?

The stupid silver medal doesn't matter. It don't matter to you. Are you listening to me? I let you speak. I'm listening to you.

That's why I call, bro. Come on, but I'm responding to you. I let you speak uninterrupted for one minute and 25 seconds. I did not say a word and so I wasn't sure if I was cut off or not. So yeah, what I mean now, I'm here now. I'm responding to you. So listen, I am telling you the players appreciate it. See, you said a whole lot there and maybe I'm not clear that I'll try to be clear. The players do not care about this second place silver award that does not take away from their experience in the World Baseball Classic.

You can experience it and you can enjoy it, of which I'm sure they did, even though they lost. What I'm saying is the symbolism for the stupid silver medal is a joke. Okay, and one point, well stop. I'm not done yet.

Thank you. The point that you made about why are we being so Ameri-centric, this is a show broadcast to North America. I'm going to be American-centric and I don't have to sit down and watch or experience every moment of the WBC to look at the symbolism of a silver medal and go, this is ridiculous. I have watched and experienced enough sports in my life at multiple levels, whether it's the World Cup or whether it happens to be the NBA Finals or the Super Bowl. There is a reason why people getting a stupid silver medal, they're kind of just flinging it around afterwards. So like say the Olympics, should they just have a gold medal and nothing else?

I mean, is that your point? No, the Olympics are very different. The Olympics are actually a sport. This is different than the World Series, yeah?

No, no, no, no. This is the difference between an Olympic Games and a WBC. And I explained this and I tried to explain it yesterday. Okay. This has almost no historical context.

This is new. If we can have this conversation 50 years from now and the WBC has been a raving success on a global scale, and when I say global, I'm not talking about Latin America. I'm not talking about the United States of America. I'm not talking about Japan. I'm talking on a global level. Then maybe, then maybe there might be a little bit more significance where we can actually put it in the same conversation as an Olympics Games, where you can have someone from any place on planet Earth, whether it is, for instance, a boxer or a sprinter.

Someone from, I don't know, Africa, Europe, the United States of America, Australia, anywhere on Earth. There's a little bit more significance there than in a baseball tournament that is still in its early stages. I agree. I agree with that point. You're spot on with that point. But, you know, I guess what prompted me to call was when you called them losers, you get second place medal for losing. Well, you know what?

There's a lot of other teams that didn't even make it there tonight. Well, they're losers too. What do you want them to do? Give the medal back? You know, maybe they'll never steal it.

Maybe they'll be in the closet. No, Craig, you're thinking way too hard about this. Listen to what I said. I think you're thinking way too hard about it. Why can't you guys enjoy it? No, no, you don't get it.

Listen to the words that I say and stop over analyzing it. The symbolism, the symbolism, you don't have to, but listen to me because you're putting words in my mouth or thinking too hard about it. The symbolism behind let's hand out silver medals to these guys for guys who don't want it or don't care about the symbolism behind the medal is ridiculous to me. How do you know nobody on the team cares about it? I mean, you haven't asked anybody. You're assuming that. No, I'm not assuming. I agree with you that it's not that big of a tournament, you know, worldwide.

Well, I can make, I can make an educated assessment from all the years that I've watched sports, from every interview, from everything that I've read and seen. Typically, when you have professional athletes who come in second place, if you go ahead and Google what they do with the silver medal or second place, a lot of them have said over time, I don't know. Or I gave it to someone or I don't know where this is at. There's a symbolism.

And thank you, Craig, for calling from California. There's a symbolism in these these these trophies. It's not about the stupid ass trophy, especially for second place.

It's about the experience. These dudes don't want the stupid silver medal. They hand it off to somebody. A lot of professional athletes, I'll tell you this, from walking in some of these guys houses, they have awards and trophies for things that they have won.

OK, from high school on. When you start, hey, man, what, where's that second place for when you lost? I don't know. Sometimes these dudes don't even know where the winning trophies at. Some of these folks win at such a high level, they start giving these things away. And so to me personally, it is absolutely hilarious to see Ken Griffey Jr., one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Lean over after a defeat and they're putting a silver medal on him.

And I'm just like, oh, no, not what is this? I'm like, Ken Griffey Jr. don't want this damn thing. And there's a difference between treasuring the experience and looking at the stupid silver medal.

You think Mike Trout, you think Mike Trout is hanging up that silver medal in his house? Stop it. Right.

He's making the playoffs every year. So, yeah. Oh, well, oh, man. Oh, I can't make the playoffs.

I won a silver medal in the WBC. Exciting. Come on now. Mike is calling from San Francisco.

Your CBS Sports Radio. AJ, I think I'm a little more on your side, but not completely. I think it is an international versus American thing or a professional American thing that has second, third places and third, fourth games for the bronze medal and things like that. And that's fine.

But my personal view, I think, is in line with you. I'll give you an example. When I was, I don't know, 17 years old, I was and this is not sports like physical sports, but I was playing in the chess tournament and I came in tenth nationally, which was far better than I had ever done. That's amazing. I had that trophy on my shelf, you know, for three years. And then I would win a trophy for polling or for a little league or for, you know, something else. When I got to like 20, I just didn't care.

I just put all my trophies in the box. You know, I like the fact, though, that it preserves the record. Like, say, Jack Nicklaus has whatever it is, 19 or 20 second place finishes in addition to the millions of titles he's got. You know, or so-and-so won 10 gold and four silver and seven bronze, you know, in his career, like a Michael Phelps or something. I think it adds to the legacy of people, but the physical trophy or medal doesn't mean the damn thing. I think when you look at team sports versus singular sports, it's different.

I think there's a big difference between mano a mano because it's any given part in the phrase, but thank you, Mike, for calling from San Francisco. Any given Sunday in an individual sport, you ain't winning all the time. You're not. You will not win all the time. But when you want to start thinking about team sports and you're going through tournaments and you're going through it with your dudes and your guys, it's just like, ah, second place. Yay.

No. Especially for no stinking ass, just symbolic second place. And I'm sorry if you came in second place, you lost. You ain't win.

What am I sugarcoating? You lost. If you lost, you're a loser.

The United States of America, they're losers here in this tournament. That's it. What what else? What I'm supposed to say. They're winners. That they try. Congratulations. Come on.

What's everybody being so damn sensitive about? The United States of America went to the WBC. They came in second place.

There's only one winner. It's Japan. I ain't saying nothing.

That's a lie here. It's the JR sport brie show on CBS Sports Radio eight five five two one two four CBS. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief on CBS Sports Radio. Your credit to your profession. You are one of the rare personalities that actually balances facts with whatever college called me. But I'm also called up apparently in Texas.

So apparently in Texas loves you. Call in now at eight five five two one two four CBS. It's the JR sport brief show on CBS Sports Radio. The WBC. It's done. Japan beats the United States of America. The final score is three to two.

A pretty awesome ending to it. You have Shohei Ohtani. He puts his teammate down. He strikes out Mike Trout to end the WBC. Japan now wins its third WBC championship. And congratulations to Japan and congratulations to Ohtani.

He's about to take money from whoever the hell is going to pay him might be the first half billion dollar athlete here in North American sports. And I said that the image afterwards of Ken Griffey Jr. being bestowed a silver medal. It just looked ridiculous to me. And I'm not talking about you at home. I'm not talking about your weekend warrior. I'm not talking about your son. I'm talking about a professional athlete running around just just taking a silver medal.

These guys, for the most part, don't want it. And I just found it like, oh, my God, you're giving Ken Griffey Jr. a silver medal. What's he going to do with that? He's going to give it to his dog.

Is he putting it under his bed? The symbolism. And it's just it's odd to me.

We have that in World Cups and and the guys who get the silver medal in the World Cup, they look miserable as hell. What are they going to do? Go home and display it?

They don't. It's just hilarious to me. And so some people agree with what I said and some people are just, oh, you're stupid and curmudgeon. No, you lost.

You're a loser. What's there to celebrate outside of, you know, the actual experience? Like the symbolism is in the medal.

Celebrate the experience. But who gives a damn about a silver medal here? 855-212-4CBS. Ed is here from Annapolis. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. Good morning from the East Coast, JR.

Thank you. Go ahead, Ed. Hey, Jerry Seinfeld once said that of all the of all the losers, you come in first and be in second.

I'm probably mispronouncing them a little bit, but the symbolism is there. You know, you didn't win. I mean, as an amateur athlete, I didn't like second place trophies. It reminded me that I had to do better. But what I wanted to talk to you about this morning was the Lamar Jackson saga. And this just gets out of hand. Personally, I think that the Ravens should get together with them and say, OK, look, you want out? Sign this contract and then we'll get you traded to Indianapolis or whatever and just move on from the whole thing.

What do you think? Well, Ed, right now, and thank you for calling from Annapolis, I think it's a negotiating ploy. I heard the same thing you heard about Lamar Jackson's representative saying that Lamar Jackson is ready to move on. I think it's a negotiating ploy. Negotiating ploy.

I don't think he's necessarily done. Danny is calling from San Diego. You're on CBS Sports Radio.

What's up, Danny? Hey, JR. Just want to say I love the show and as much as I love the show, sometimes we disagree with people we love and wanted to air out kind of how I feel about it. You know, I actually love your take and I think what's really fun to kind of admire or look at this whole world baseball classic is as Americans, we just have a different approach to it. You know, when I look at this, I see it kind of like, why is getting the second medal or the second place medal any different from getting like the Lamar Hunt trophy and then going on to lose in the Super Bowl? I think we just do these awards a little bit different out of order, but we see people celebrate winning the NLDS, NLCS and then go on and lose the World Series. It's like. I don't see how it's different, so I kind of want to just weigh in on that little thing.

Yeah, nobody nobody cares about those awards either. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But it's just but we still celebrate it.

And because we get it out of order. No, I would disagree. Here's the difference. Yeah. Yeah. Winning organization.

See, this is when it gets real nutty. This is why when you are used to losing, you celebrate the small stuff because you're used to being a loser. There's a difference between saying I'm going to celebrate my championship victories. OK, not everybody we know will be the Lakers and the Celtics where you know what they do? They hang banners for championships.

There are up. There are other teams who celebrate things like, oh my God, we won the division and let's do it. I'm a Padres fan. I know all about celebrating all victory. Who cares about winning a division unless you're a loser? You're not used to winning. I think I think that's a great commentary on perspective, though, because like being being a Padres fan my whole life.

Right. Never had a, you know, a pendant to like claim to our own all that jazz. But I can tell you how that feels when we do get those wins. You know, it's like watching us win in the NLDS last year was one of the best sensations I've ever heard.

Yeah, I've never felt when in the world championship. But I think that there's a little bit of a different perspective. You guys can make fun of us Padres fans or whomever it is for all, you know, just like, yeah, you hung a banner for winning an NLDS. It's like, man, you can't, you also can't take that away from me. And like I know you're not trying to, you know, but I think that's just an interesting perspective. Just kind of like we come from it from different places. And I think that's an interesting thing. Okay, there are people there Pete, there's there's a simple perspective.

There are people who win and there are those two teams that go out there and lose. That's that's it. Owen is calling from Atlanta. You're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, JV? I told you I'm gonna call tonight, man.

But listen, man, I'm listening at this conversation and some of these people sound egregious. No, if you are a competitor, you want to win. You don't want to, you don't train hard to come in second place. I played ball too. I didn't train hard to come in second place.

I hurt my knee. I want to come back and be in first place. Did old Tony out there, did Japan, did they want to be in second place?

No, they didn't. So what makes it all right for you to want to come in second place? I can even relate it to some of my students at school. ABCDF students, even those students want to make A's.

Who want to make a B when they can make an A? That doesn't make sense, man. The conversation that these people are calling in on your show does not make sense.

It doesn't make sense to me, JR. What you think about that, man? Well, thank you, Owen. It's very, it's very cut and dry from my perspective. Cut and dry.

Cut and dry. If I want to talk about life, there is learning through the process. There is learning how to win. Unfortunately for most of us, learning how to win means coming in last, coming in second place before you hopefully win.

That's it. That's that's the game of life. You better learn how to lose. And you find the victories everywhere that you can because you ain't winning all the time. If I'm talking about competitive sports, ain't nobody think about no damn second place medal. Sorry. They're not. You can appreciate it.

But you ain't run around waving that sucker. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio.

You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. I'm going to get off the radio and just want to let you know I commend you for what you're doing, JR. That's great what you've been doing, speaking, engaging and talking to these college students. We need more of that.

Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. Hey, make sure you subscribe to the Agents of Inclusion podcast every single week. Every Wednesday, a new episode drops. I talk to a different Special Olympics athlete who is doing something absolutely amazing. Today's episode, which will actually drop in a few hours from now, is really a recognition of World Down Syndrome Day, which took place yesterday, Tuesday, March 21st.

And we're going to have a conversation with an artist. She happens to be from Canada. She's also a Special Olympics athlete. Her name is Laura. And we get a chance to figure out, you know, some of the amazing things she's able to do outside of having Down Syndrome.

It has not stopped her from doing a damn thing. Make sure you subscribe to the Agents of Inclusion podcast, brought to you by Odyssey, Special Olympics and JR Sport Brief Productions. Go ahead and check that out. We got a bunch of callers on the lines.

Some people agree with me on the silver medal. Some people don't. Let's talk to them. Let's try to get on as many people as possible.

Let's start off with Jim from Cleveland. You're on the JR Sport Brief show. Hi, Jana. You know, I think I agree. Hi, you there?

Yes, I'm here. Go ahead, please. OK. OK. OK.

I thought you couldn't hear me. There, you know, being an attorney's son, there's precedent set in the 70s men's Olympic team when they got totally screwed out of the gold medal, when they refused to accept the silver medals. But on the other hand, there's another Olympic example. Nancy Carradine, when she got her knee hammered by that gluely guy. And then she ended up with the silver medal. I think she should be pretty proud of that.

Yeah, well, I mean, that's an that's an extreme case. Well, you know, hey, shop, can you hit me in the back of my knee so I could be happy about my silver? No. OK. Never do that to you.

Oh, just checking. Well, you can pay somebody to do it. You don't have to. You don't have to do it. But never want that result for you, no matter what, JR. That's how Tanya did it. Like, you don't have to do it.

You pay somebody else to do it. Yeah. And he's referring to 72. And that was the Soviet Union, by the way.

And they got cheated like five times in that game. It's different. It's context. Yeah, he's he's he's he's going.

He went to extremes. Who do we have here? Austin calling from Tennessee. You're on CBS Sports Radio. Yes, sir. How's it going? It's going well.

Austin, what's on your mind? So I do agree with you about being second place. You're the loser. I agree with that 100 percent. But honestly, if I'm the positional players for the United States of America, WB World Baseball Classic team, I'm happy because the pitching rotation, the pitching bullpen was trash. I mean, if the best you've got is sending Brady Singer out there. 42 year old Adam Wainwright. I mean, I don't know why none of the I mean, even semi good pitchers in the major leagues didn't want to play.

But I mean, I kind of feel bad. I mean, it was a hell of a lineup for the you know, for the USA. I mean, well, Rob Manfred, Rob Manfred made an entire point. Thank you, Austin, for calling from Tennessee. Rob Manfred made an entire point about how he wants to see better starting pitchers or just pitchers in general participating in the next go round. Maybe they will.

Or maybe they'll take the approach of Max Scherzer and go, I'm playing in this now. Got to get ready for the season. Renee is here from Michigan. What's on your mind, Renee? Go ahead. Quickly. Yeah. Hey, JR. Glad to hear from ya'll.

Shelf Marco. I was listening, JR. And if I'm not mistaken, did Muhammad Ali throw a medal in the river? I think it was Ghost, one of them.

But the point is, he just threw it in the river. And also, JR, I want to get my condolences out to the NBA and that guy that passed, the 80 year old guy. He sounds like he had a spectacular legend.

And I wanted to get that shut out. And real quickly, JR, I want to say this for the Patriots. Is it any kind of type of way that Lamar Jackson can go to the Patriots, Bill O'Brien going over there to help Bill O'Jack? Because to me, Mac Jones, he's still a great big question mark.

So, anyway. Well, that has been the rumor that maybe the Patriots can sneak in there and grab Lamar. We're going to find out. Give it until I'd say June or July before they hit training camp.

I believe July 17th is the time. We're going to find out soon enough, Renee. Stay tuned, okay? Yes. Okay.

Thank you so much for calling from Michigan. And we've heard data about Muhammad Ali. And it didn't necessarily have so much to do with him winning or losing.

He came back to a country that he wasn't necessarily a fan of and how they treated him and others. And he reportedly chucked it. Let's get one more call in quickly. Mason from North Carolina. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show.

Hey, thanks for taking my call real quick. Hey, it was irony that you mentioned that Ken Griffey Jr. And he was the one that was accepting the gold or the silver medal. And you also mentioned that you walked into other people's houses and other people or other people don't like celebrate second place. But the irony is, Griffey's never won anything. So for him to be... No, no.

Ken Griffey Jr. won an MVP award. No, as a team. As a team. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He never was smart. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm saying is the irony is like, oh, dude, I've done something as a team. I mean, yeah, he's a Hall of Famer and all that. But as far as like... That's why I'm saying, that's why I'm saying the image of Ken Griffey leaning over to accept the silver medal.

Yeah, yeah. When he's not even, he's a coach, not even as a player, it's just like Ken Griffey Jr. don't give a damn about this silver medal. He don't care. Like, what does he care?

He's like, man, I done had a good career. I wish I was healthy. Give a damn about no silver.

It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Hey, listen, people. I don't want you out here winning no damn silver. Go for gold.

Please. OK? Don't settle. Try to be the best.

Try to be like Shep. Hey, Shep, thank you for an amazing night. Thank you everybody all across North America for listening. We'll be back tomorrow 10 p.m. Eastern Time, 7 p.m. Pacific. We'll also be giving you a new top six list.

The JR Sport Brief Show here on CBS Sports Radio. It's a wrap. Don't move. We need Laura. She's coming up next.

She's gold all the way. No one. Consider this friendship that you just learned we had officially over. Finally, it's easy auto trader. Last year, you may have made some smart decisions and you may have made some not so smart decisions. Like maybe you had a little too much confidence in that one crypto exchange. The good news is making smart financial decisions is easier than you think. We'll see you on the podcast.

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