It is the JR Sportbreeze show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in, locked in all over North America. Happy Friday to you. I'll be hanging out with you for two more hours. This show gets started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.
I'm in Atlanta. Thank you to our producer in New York City, Ryan Botcher. The NBA draft is done. Ace Bailey apparently is going to show up tomorrow to participate as the Utah Jazz get ready to start their Summer League training camp.
Cooper Flag with number one overall. Masawu Juri was fired by the Raptors. We learned today that the NHL is gonna be adding two more games to its regular season.
We know the NFL, damn it, they want to get to 18. And the NBA, we know their players, they just don't want to play any basketball. Not a surprise. Anyway, Jake Weinbach came and had a chat with us about the NBA. We just talked about Bill Simmons and Kendrick Perkins having a media beef. About what? Nothing. Bill Simmons thought the coverage of the draft stunk.
Kendrick Perkins took offense, decided to fight back on Twitter using this video camera. Yeah, we live in 2025, people. Just people learn how to beef in different ways. Anyway, as we continue on with the show, no beef here. If you want to call me up, you can. The phone number is 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. You can find me online everywhere at JR Sport Brief. We have so much more to get into as the show continues on. At the end, of course, we'll talk about a few things that took place this day in sports history. It is Friday.
People like to get loose. I'm going to take some of your jokes. Yeah, it's the Friday Funny. You got something funny to say? Feel free to go ahead and call us up.
We'll get into the Friday Funny. And then, well, now that the NBA is, I don't want to say done. The draft is done. Free agency will get going in a few days. Summer league will get popping. It's about to be baseball's time to shine. We got a couple of reports in the baseball space, especially surrounding All-Star, which is going to take place right here in Atlanta, Georgia. So I'm going to tell you in a little while a couple of the guys that we know are going to participate in the home run derby, which should be a lot of fun. And then before we even get to that, I have to tell you about a legendary major league baseball player who will be immortalized with a statue. That's how you do it in sports, right?
What is it? Next month, a month and a half, Tom Brady gets his own statue, 12 foot tall statue outside of Foxborough. We saw Dwayne Wade. He got himself an ugly-ass statue, you know, right down in Miami. It's tough getting a statue. Kobe's statue is decent. I like Kobe's statue is all right. Batro, who has the best statue?
Anybody? Who do you think has the best statue? Oh, I haven't really looked up best statue, but I know who isn't good. Ronaldo and Dwayne Wade.
Those two are one of the worst I've ever seen. I'd assume. Doesn't Shaq have a cool one where he's like Duncan? Yeah, he's there outside the, uh, what was that stupid thing? Crypto.com arena.
It's like him hanging off of the back, well, him hanging onto the rim with the backboard there as well. Yeah. I just looked some up. Yeah. Does Jordan have one right now? Yeah. Yeah. Jordan has, yeah.
He's taking flight outside the United Center. Yeah. That's a cool one.
Yeah. Well, I mean, could you imagine Jordan having a terrible statue? You think he'd let it stay up? Ah, you should probably have a statue at almost every stadium.
Oh, I mean, well, let's see. Well, not, not in every stadium. I said, could you imagine him having a bad stadium? Michael Jordan wouldn't stand for it.
Oh yeah, no. He'd probably pay for himself. He'd be like, what are you doing? No, he wouldn't. He'd demand whoever put it up.
Hey, take that down and put a new one up. Michael Jordan, not about the BS. Dwayne Wade has an ugly statue and he pretty much said, uh, I'm fine with it. You know, I worked with them through the process of it going up.
Okay. Dwayne Wade, whatever you want us to believe, but somebody else getting a statue might be one of the more controversial sports statues. We have Jerry Richardson, former owner of the Carolina Panthers. Well, he had a statue outside of America or excuse me, bank of America stadium in Charlotte. And then he had the issues that forced him to sell the team, sexual assault issues, inappropriate behavior, I should say. And ultimately he sold the franchise, passed away and his statue.
Well, it got the boot. That's controversial. Somebody who has hit more home runs in major league baseball history than any other human being alive that has lived is getting a statue.
Yes. Barry Bonds is getting a statue courtesy of the giants. I want you to listen to Larry bear. He was on 95 seven, the game out in the Bay area and he told everybody, or he made the announcement that Barry Bonds, he may not be getting in the hall of fame, but he is being immortalized.
Listen to this. Uh, you know what we know disagreement for a month from us on that topic, uh, on the radar, I would say on the radar statue is, uh, you know, certainly Barry's deserving of a statue and, uh, you know, I would say it should be next up and we don't have, uh, the exact location of the exact date and the exact timing, but, uh, you were not, you're, you're saying things that were totally in sync with. So, uh, we, you know, you probably noticed Barry's around a lot more recently and this year and last year as well.
Um, I think, you know, that he has great relationships, you know, across the team, Pat Burrell, he's known forever, uh, both grew up in the peninsula, uh, Melvin known forever, both grew up in the peninsula. So, uh, so it's, you know, it's coming. All I can say is it's coming. Wow.
Wow. When you think about Barry Bonds and his accomplishments, there's not a damn thing. Well, when you think about the accomplishments on paper, you can't take anything away from what Barry Bonds accomplished in his career. One of the greatest baseball players of all time, a seven time MVP, a 14 time All-Star 762 home runs. Those numbers will get you a statue right out of the gate. Okay.
You get you a big old statue too. Now, unfortunately for Barry Bonds, it's not, and has never been just about the numbers. It's been about how he got to those numbers. This man was found guilty for obstruction of justice. Okay. A jury found him lying to the court about his, uh, his drug usage.
Okay. Barry Bonds, just a couple of seasons ago, a couple of years ago, both he and Roger Clemens, they were never elected, failed to go into the baseball hall of fame. They had 10 tries to get in. Now they have to wait for one of these, uh, these baseball writers associations.
They have to wait for one of these committees to get them in. And that may not even be the case for Barry Bonds. Okay. We know he got a little bit of help. I think it's widely known that Barry Bonds looked at Mark Maguire and Sammy Sosa, who just last week was kind of, uh, you know, reintroduced into the Chicago Cubs family. Barry Bonds looked at those guys and said, how come they're getting love, but not me, Barry. I mean, well, damn it. I think all these years later, it was only a couple of seasons ago that Barry Bonds spoke to the media and said, listen, when I played, I was a jerk.
Yeah. Well, maybe that's one of the reasons why you didn't get the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the writers took a chance and looked and said, this guy's a jerk.
Why do we want to go ahead and do him any favors? And then knowing that he went from being the size of a, of a number two pencil into being the size of a, I don't know, I don't know. Boccia, what's, what's bigger than a, a marker. I don't know.
Expo. I don't know. Yeah. He got big. People knew that he was juicing. Who gets bigger in reverse?
Okay. Like everybody, most people get bigger as they age. Barry Bonds turned into the incredible Hulk and then he became a better player.
Like life is not supposed to work that way. LeBron James isn't the same player he was years ago, but he's still good. Tom Brady at the end of his career, which he concluded at what, 45 years old, but Tom Brady was still good, but he wasn't the guy he was in years past. Barry Bonds just turned into Benjamin Button.
And it was widely known basically that he was out there getting a little bit of an edge. Okay. That's why he's not in the hall of fame. And if the San Francisco Giants thought so much about him and they, if, if, if they didn't have a worry or care, they would have put a statue up of this man years ago, but he carries a little bit of stink on him.
Okay. And so now he's a little bit older and we're a little bit far removed from when he played. It's a little bit easier to, to show him some love. I mean, we just had Pete Rose who passed away. Pete Rose passed and we see was not inducted into the baseball hall of fame. And now that he passed away, he's now off the commissioner's ineligible list because he's not alive.
So why have him on the list when he's not even alive. And now Pete Rose may go into the hall of fame and he's gone. I don't know if Barry Bonds will see the same fate, obviously Barry Bonds younger than Pete Rose. But yeah, man, when you have that scarlet letter on your chest, when you're the outcast, you have to wait. Barry Bonds may not get into the hall of fame, and the San Francisco Giants, they waited on showing him any type of love because man, they needed to wait for the turd surrounding him. And they had to wait for the turd to flush.
That's basically what it is. It's a hard knock life and Barry Bonds, God bless him. I hope he's here for a long time. I don't know how much love he's going to get when he's gone, especially widely being recognized as a, well, a cheater.
And I guess it takes one to know one. Because another guy who got a little bit of an edge, Alex Rodriguez, the new owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves, the other guy who admitted, well, Alex Rodriguez admitted to using steroids. A-Rod was at the Fanatics Fest.
A-Rod was on WFAN. And A-Rod talked about Pete Rose, who also didn't get in the hall of fame. A-Rod said, man, let me tell you, I love Pete Rose. I love Pete Rose.
You have no idea the effect of wearing the Scarlet Letter, what it does to you. Let's know what A-Rod said. Pete Rose, a great friend of mine. It just breaks my heart that he's going to get in now. But I actually feel that if he would have got in, he probably would have lived another five years.
Really? Because I've never met anyone that loves baseball more than Pete Rose. And it broke my heart that he couldn't get in while he was alive. But baseball is tough, right? If it's a lifetime sentence, it is a lifetime sentence. I got to do my time and live it forever.
But then I have to pivot and take that energy into something else. Wow. Yeah, he's right. Alex Rodriguez knows. You want to know who's not in the Hall of Fame?
Alex Rodriguez. He's going to have a billions and billions of dollars soon. Bacha, how long is he holding on to the Timberwolves? 15 years? 20 years? He's 15. I'd say until he's very old.
Yeah, 15, 20 years. And he's cutting out now. I'm not mad at him. Great investment. Congratulations, A-Rod. If I had a choice of making a few billion dollars or being in the Hall of Fame, the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, they can kiss my ass, OK? Anyway, Barry Barnes has probably already taken that approach.
Barry Barnes has taken the approach his entire career, telling people to kiss his ass, whether he verbally said it or not. And now Barry Bonds is being honored, as you just heard from the president of the San Francisco Giants, with a statue at Oracle Park. Is it going to be outside? Is it going to be inside?
Is it going to be out in the water at McCovey's Cove? I have no idea where they're going to put this statue of Barry Bonds. And I don't have a problem with it, OK? Because it's a statue. It's a symbol. It's not a hateful symbol. It's not a symbol where, you know, people are going to feel terrible. It's a statue of Barry Bonds, who used steroids, who used drugs, who used performance-enhancing drugs, who used PEDs to accumulate his stats.
Now we all know and understand this. Barry Bonds was great regardless. Barry Bonds was an awesome player before his body and his head blew up. Barry Bonds was amazing before he had to sit in a court of law. Barry Bonds was great. Great baseball player, with or without the drugs. And so I don't got no issue with them putting that statue out there.
But if it were me, I wouldn't bother. Like, it took you this long to do this to San Francisco Giants. Almost 20 years after this guy wrapped up his career, there's a reason why you had to wait. Because he was controversial, OK? Because the issue wasn't so much about him having a drug issue or, you know, oh, well, he got arrested once or twice.
No, no, no, no, no. Barry Bonds just made you go, well, what about the integrity of the game? The San Francisco Giants can do whatever the hell they want to do.
I wouldn't put up no statue of that guy. They honor him, I believe, enough. And I know there's plenty of people in the Bay Area. They love Barry Bonds. Barry is their guy. They love the time.
They love the home runs. But this man is also no longer here. I found him to be a great example of class and dignity, even throughout everything.
That's hammering Hank Aaron. I've said this before, I was so happy and thrilled to have met him not too long after he had passed. He was just a sweet man. You could tell he was a sweet man.
It didn't seem like he had a bad bone in his body. Hank Aaron had to watch Barry Bonds obliterate his records, obliterate the record books. And even throughout the course of those records being knocked down, regardless of how he felt about Barry, he was still classy enough to just congratulate him, regardless of how he accumulated those stats and those numbers. Hank Aaron could have said, screw this, man, I ain't dealing with that jerk. You got Hank Aaron feeling a certain way about you? Come on, man. I wouldn't put up no statue of Barry. Good on you, the San Francisco Giants.
Good on you. What are they gonna do, put a syringe in his hand instead of a bat? I don't know, man.
They can do what they want. Next time I'm out there, I'll walk on by, I'll take a photo and I'll keep it moving. I'll probably shake my head. It's not exactly Roberto Clemente outside of PNC Park in Pittsburgh. 888-710-4ISN.
888-710-4ISN. It's a simple question. Do you believe they should put this statue of Barry Bonds up in San Francisco? Does Barry Bonds deserve a statue? I mean, what's next in Austin, Texas? Are we getting a statue of, uh, oh, well, I don't know, does he?
Oh, man. Lance Armstrong? Lance Armstrong getting a statue in Austin? Is Roger Clemens gonna get a statue in, in Houston? Mark McG- oh, forget Mark Mcguire. Is Jose Canseco gonna get a statue outside the Coliseum that nobody plays it anymore in Oakland?
I don't know. Yeah, we setting a bad precedent. Let's give all the cheaters statues.
Why not? On to the cheaters. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. Do you think Barry Bonds deserves this statue that they're gonna put up in San Francisco? I'll take a look at your calls on the other side of the break. I'm gonna get the thoughts of our producer, Ryan Botcher. I'm gonna tell you about, speaking of home runs, the upcoming home run derby. Looks like we have some participants who will be set and ready to go home. I'm going to tell you about the upcoming home run derby.
Looks like we have some participants who will be set and ready to compete here in Atlanta, Georgia. You're listening to the JR sport re-show coast to coast on the infinity sports network. You're listening to the JR sport brief. It is the JR sport sports network. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. And before we went to break, we talked about Barry Bonds, who has, it's been revealed from the San Francisco Giants that ultimately he's gonna get a statue in Oracle Park. Yeah, Barry Bonds, who's pretty much known as one of the greatest baseball players ever, but also got a leg up and a little bit of help in the process, is gonna get a statue. I'm not gonna pitch a major fit about them putting one up.
I wouldn't do it. I just think there's too much controversy attached to his career. And it's like, hey, if Barry Bonds gets a statue, is Roger Clemens getting a statue out in Houston, Texas?
Is Lance Armstrong one of the greatest cheaters of all time? Is he getting a statue in Austin as well? I mean, it just, I think it sets a bad precedent. There's a reason why the San Francisco Giants haven't honored him in such a way. It's because of all the controversy.
So now with the time heals everything, it's easy to put one up? I don't know about that. Batra, what are your thoughts about the Giants putting a statue up of Bonds? I'm perfectly fine with this. If he can't even get, so he can't get into the Hall of Fame because of the steroid use, we all know it. I'm okay with him getting something in return that's not the Hall of Fame, and I'm okay with the statue for his time spent in San Francisco. You can't deny the fact that he was probably one of the best baseball players ever, with or without the steroid use. So in a way you can remember, like, remember him, but not putting him into the Hall of Fame, I'm okay with the statue. So this is a consolation prize for Barry Bonds? I think it is. It's a small prize for not being able to get into the Hall of Fame.
Okay. Yeah, it's interesting because obviously that's the Giants, that's their choice. Like, they can certainly go out there and do whatever the hell they want to do, but we know getting into Cooperstown, that has absolutely nothing to do with the San Francisco Giants.
And so maybe they want to throw him a bone and say thank you. And the other element and thing to keep in mind here, this probably makes sense for the San Francisco Giants from a business perspective. The San Francisco Giants, I mean, whatever day they do this botcher, they'll be able to fill up the ballpark. They'll be able to sell tickets. The ratings for that day will be great. They can probably have ancillary merchandise surrounding Barry Bonds and his appearance as he's immortalized.
It's a big business boon as well. And of course he had stink on him for the past several decades. That's a more difficult thing to do. So I'm looking at the Giants kind of cross here with the situation, knowing that, hey, this isn't the most honorable of individuals. Do you think he's ever getting into Cooperstown?
Maybe I would say it would take a couple, a long time, I'd say like 15, 20 years at the minimum, just because they have to get through everybody else. So I'd even say Pete Rose, gambling on your team is a less severe offense than taking steroids, to me personally. To me, I think gambling on your team when you're not even a player on the team is less severe than taking steroids. So an athlete gambling versus an athlete cheating, you think the gambling is worse? No, I think I think steroid use is worse.
That's why he's going to get put in later. Steroids is worse than gambling. In the case of Pete Rose, I think it is. Well, Pete Rose, and who knows? Pete Rose reportedly only gambled on his team to win.
Does that really matter? I'm just going to go no. Ultimately, gambling is gambling. And we saw, I don't even know the guy's name, John Tate Porter. This man has been banned and kicked out of the NBA for gambling and trying to fix games over and under. How many minutes am I going to play?
Oh my God, my foot hurts. I got to exit. Bingo. Somebody wins some money. Both issues between gambling and steroids obviously are no-nos because you're messing with the integrity of the game. If you sit down and play a game, you're expecting people and all the participants to go out there and play within the rules. Why do I want to participate? Why do I want to put my all into a game, into a match, into anything where the odds of me winning are not evenly distributed?
If I want to lose, I'm going to lose on my own merit. I suck. I lost. I had a bad play. I struck out. I missed the shot.
I dropped the ball. Whatever the case might be, if I lose, I want to lose because I gave it my all. And at that moment, that day, that game, I wasn't good enough. And if I win, I want to win.
I want to have the joy of, hey, I got the job done. But we know sports is a big business. You can make tons of money and get the adulation and all of this. And yeah, maybe some would say the game is a way for me to make money.
I don't care. I can understand, hey, these ain't two kids playing in the back lot. I can make millions of dollars of doing this. And if I put a million dollars of drugs on my backside, I can make five or six on the other end. Hey, people get their money. However, they get it. That's a tough one, botch.
I've never thought about that. Steroids versus gambling. Damn.
That's a tough one. Just because I think steroid use, it's only seen to benefit yourself and to put yourself ahead of the competition. Gambling, it's like more motivation based unless you're in an underground ring like Jontay Porter. So it depends on the case, especially because like if Pete Rose bet on his team to win, you can still like mismanage a bullpen, take out a starter. But does that, but it doesn't matter if he who he bet on the fact that he can we just betting is bad, right? Yeah. Betting on your team or an athlete that you work with is not good.
Yeah. If you have anything to do, there's a, there's a reason why the NFL doesn't want you betting on anything because it opens up Pandora's box. If you are too close to the situation, this is no different than insider trading. Like if you are too close to the situation, if you're a part of the situation, if you can change or alter the outcome of the situation, then you should not have a say and you should not be able to go ahead and put money down on something that the general public is not aware of and about. And so gambling is terrible because it turns the entire game into a sham. So I, I, yeah, I think, I think gambling is worse. I think gambling is worse. Cause like you said, if you, if you are an individual and you taking drugs, yeah, you screwing up yourself and yeah, it's not fair to the competition, but I don't think it's as wide reaching as someone who can, you know, alter, alter everything really. Like if you gamble, you're not just spooking people and you're not just damaging yourself, your teammates. You can alter the entire league on gambling and people's interpretation of it. Like it's one thing to single out a guy for gambling. Oh, you see that, you know what guy over there, he was cheating and he broke all these records and he was a jerk. That's one thing. But when you gamble, you make everybody look at the sport.
Like it's now the, the WWE, like it's a, like it's a sham. And so, you know, I, yeah, if somebody, if one is worse than the other, I'm going to say gambling is worse than the, any of the drug use. Let's ask Ack. Ack, we're talking about Barry Bonds getting his statute out in San Francisco. And it was thought we brought up Pete Rose as well.
And Pete Rose we know just passed away and he's not in the hall of fame. Do you weigh one as worse than the other, gambling versus drug use? No. You know, they both tarnished the game.
They both took something pure. I think it's, they do it in different ways, but the strange thing for me for Bonds is Bonds was on a hall of fame trajectory before he started all that stuff. Yeah. So you cool with the statue he's getting? I'm not in love with it, but I get it. You know, the fans seem to, they look when he, when he broke Hank Aaron's record, everybody loved him. So. Well, people in the Bay area, I don't know if anybody outside the Bay care, right? So I, I, I just think that, you know, if they, if they were okay with him, you know, back then, they, why would they not be okay now? Yeah, it took, well, it took the Giants almost 20 years before they said, you know what, let's just, let's just do it now.
Okay. It's, it's a wild world. Maybe they need to really move forward with that, that steroid league that these guys are trying to create in Las Vegas. Just create a separate league and have people out there are doing drugs. Keep, keep the cheaters over there.
I guess is the, it's a thought process. Wild world we live in. It's the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network, 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. We come back. I'll tell you who is going to be participating in this year's major league baseball home run Derby.
No drugs assisted. And then also, man, this really stinks. She's hurt again.
Kaitlin Clark is hurt again. We'll get into it. We have more to do, but right now let's get into a newsflash. Here he is. You heard his voice. It's Rich Ackerman. You're listening to the JR sport brief. It is the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network.
Man, we've had one hell of a conversation. The San Francisco giants are giving Barry Bonds a statue. It was announced yesterday via their president. He says, we don't know when, we don't know where we will put it, but Barry Bonds is ultimately going to get a statue. A little controversial depending on how you feel about Barry. We know that he had his performance enhanced and now he's being rewarded about 20 years later with a statue. Well, I mean, if he didn't have no problems, if he didn't have any issues, if there wasn't a little bit of a stink surrounding how he procured his records, man, they would have put a statue up at his guy from day one. They did not because he was assisted. They did not because he was assisted. Now, I'm not going to pitch too big of a fit. I just know if it were me, I want to put no statue up at his guy or maybe I would because it looks like the giants are just trying to make a whole lot of money off of the situation and why not?
Isn't that why these teams exist to make money? Barry Bonds, does he deserve a statue? Should they give him one?
Is it a bad idea? 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. Mike is here from Maryland. You're on the chair of our sport reshow. Mike, what's up? Hey, Jay. All right.
Longtime listener, first time caller and we are going coast to coast. I'm a Baltimorean. Okay. I'm 58. So I grew up I grew up loving Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr. I'm going to say 80s, early 90s. Okay.
But we didn't have the everyday TV like we got now. And then a year later, I see Barry Bonds pop up and he looked like Aaron Judge looks today. So if you're going to give the man a statue, maybe, maybe since he enhanced and put so many balls out there in McCovey's Cove, why don't you make the statue a nice buoy, put it right out there in McCovey's Cove and people get out there in the paddle boats, go take their pictures and yada yada. Whether he deserves it or not, maybe, maybe because of what he did before.
But I don't think you, uh, you give people stuff without without anyone paying some kind of price for what they have done. Ah, so you think his statue, his statue should be out there floating in the damn water? Why not? Why not?
That's kind of be the verse, right? It would. I mean, yeah. I mean, the only thing I can think about being in the water is the time Tom Brady almost, uh, almost threw the Vince Lombardi into the, uh, the Bay. Um, you're right.
Why not? Hey, Mike, I give you credit. You are creative. I'll give you that one. Well, back in the day, my first sports show talk I talked about was Brady Anderson and I told him to get him a pink wavy towel.
But that was just me at the time for what I heard was going around. So I'm sorry. You know, sports. Why not? Yeah. Brady Anderson.
What year do you, what are you, 47 that year? Yeah. But for a while, I mean, besides him hitting home runs, there was a lot of a controversial stuff about men and women that, you know, so I said, give him his little pink towel. That's true. I don't know.
I didn't know if it wasn't, it wasn't, but it was, it was rumors going around in Baltimore years ago. Oh, okay. All right.
Well, I'm going to stay out of that one, Mike. Hey, thank you. Yeah. I love you, brother. Thank you. No doubt about it.
Shout out Mike from Maryland. Yeah. I remember Brady Anderson. He all these years, he was just an average home run hitter. Had no home runs.
Yeah. It wasn't 47. I shorted him by three 1996. Brady Anderson woke up and said, here are 50 home runs before that throughout the span of his career. Like you really think about him getting some at bats.
This man had, what is this? Nine home runs. His first season is rookie year.
Then he had 16, 24. Oh, excuse me. I'm way off. What am I smoking?
Nothing. Don't worry about that. One home run, four home runs, three home runs, two home runs. In 1992, he hit 21. He went from two home runs to 21. Then he went to 13, 12, 16. Then he exploded for 50. Then he had 18 home runs, 18 again. He's in his mid thirties now, 35. He hit 24, 36. He hit 19, 37 years old. He hit eight.
And in Cleveland, his final pretty much season of his career, he only had one. Yeah. Brady Anderson just, yeah. I don't know. Where did he get his power from?
I don't know. Maybe he was eating his spinach like Popeye. 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. Mason is here from San Diego. You're on the JR Sportbree Show. Mason what's up? What's up, JR? Big fan. Love you brother and appreciate you. Big time.
Thank you so much. What's on your mind? Hey, real quick. Hey, the Barry Bonds thing. Yeah, yeah.
He does deserve a statue. And the thing that's funny is that, that thing that was going on with Major League Baseball back in that era, they knew that everybody was juicing. When Mark Maguire, Mark Maguire shows up looking like the Incredible Hulk one day and then Sammy Sosa shows up looking like the things from the Fantastic Four and they're doing that home run chase, they was eating it up.
Like wow, ratings are up and wow. And then Barry Bonds shows up later looking like a bobble head and he starts blasting. I think he had like 80 home runs. I've never, you know what, even though he never tested positive. That's one thing too. But we all know that.
Yeah, but he was found, he was found to have cheated. We know that. I just threw that out there. I mean, come on.
I know we're in this new time. We saw Sammy Sosa for the first time back with the Cubs last week. Okay. It took him up until December, a couple of months ago, six, seven months ago to tell everybody, even in Sammy Sosa's statement. Yeah, I did some things wrong and I'm sorry. And he didn't admit to doing drugs, but he kind of, he told everybody.
He's like, yeah, I'm sorry. Now the Cubs let him back in. I don't think he's getting a statue outside of Wrigley, you know?
So why? And you're right. Baseball didn't know all these dudes were using, but it just feels like Barry Bonds was late to the party after, and this stuff wasn't even illegal, a lot of it at the time. But we found out after the fact that these dudes were using and Barry Bonds kind of jumped on the bandwagon after, and then he got beat up for it.
Yeah, they are really, just be honest, in their lifetime, in your lifetime, my lifetime. Do you think you ever see somebody hit like, didn't he hit like 81 home runs? He did not hit 81 home runs.
And no, I don't think so. How many home runs did he hit? I think that top year he hit 73 was his top. Well, come on. Okay, well that. Do you think you're going to see somebody at 73?
You still have to have the hand-eye coordination. Well, yeah, I think Aaron Judge, what, a couple of years ago, he hit 63, I think was the max in the American League, I think that's the AL record of 64. You said 80s?
You asked me, do I think we'll see somebody hit 80-something? Man, he was bombing so hard, I thought he might have hit 100. Yeah, and I hated the Giants. I lived in Oakland at that time and I was an A fan, so I was rooting for like Miguel Tejada, which I guess he was decent to.
Miguel Tejada, oh my God. And he was a user too, wasn't he? Yeah. Well, damn it all, everybody. Jason Gionbi was using all these guys. Yeah, I was an A fan, but yeah. Right on, JR. Hey, love and appreciate you, brother.
Thank you, Mason, for calling from San Diego. Damn, Mason just ran through everybody he mentioned. I'm like, that guy was a user and that guy was a user and that guy was a user. Aaron Judge, when he hit the record, damn, it was 2022, I feel like yesterday. Aaron Judge, 62 home runs. Yeah, that was the year that got him his new contract. How about that?
What a way to go out there and earn your money. Aaron Judge letting everybody know that's what it is. Botcher, we got a couple guys who are going to be in a home run derby.
They're not users, right? I'd hope they're not, just because how one of these guys' seasons is going so far, it's been incredible. And the other guy has been an All-Star multiple times already. Well, we got Cal Raleigh, who is just unbelievably cranking out 32 home runs. This man is a catcher. You ain't supposed to even be out there on the field all that damn much to be cranking out 32 home runs before we've even gotten to the All-Star break.
And so of course, people are on record watch, even though it's June. This is what Cal Raleigh had to say if he'd be in the home run derby. This is on part of my take.
If they asked me, I think they'd be pretty funny. Okay. I think you should be in the home run derby. We got a guy you got to take down. Christian Yellish. Is he going to be in it?
He's flirting with him. We cannot let him go poo-poo. Yeah. That's a no-go for us. No?
If he wins the home run derby, we have to eat each other's ****. That was the rule? Yeah. It's like a seven-year bet now. Yeah. It was a long time. Has he been in it?
No, he's never been in it. There was the one year where he was geared up to do it and he hurt his back. Listen, we're simple. We can do the easy way. You could just beat him in the home run derby, or we do the hard way and you could just beat him with a baseball bat before the home run derby.
Whichever one you want to do. I think it'd be more fun to at least make you guys a little nervous. I'll beat him in the derby. Okay. Well, he's in the home run derby. Well, good. We don't know about Yellich or anybody else, but we only know of one other individual who will be in a home run derby and he's going to be in his hometown. Well, the city that he represents, that's Ronald Acuna Jr. Home run derby is taking place here in Atlanta and Ronald Acuna, via his translator, of course, was on ESPN and said, hey, I'm in a home run derby.
How do I feel? Listen. I hear that you have some news that you want to share with America and you want to break it right here on SportsCenter. So tell us what you got. I'm just happy to announce that I'll be participating in this year's home run derby.
And I'm even more excited to be doing it at home in Atlanta. But you mean it's only that was not Ronald Acuna speaking? Very clear there. English. Well, he learned English very well. Not to say he learned English. This man knows English. He just doesn't speak it in public. I mean, why not?
I mean, if you have to talk to the media or you have the option of saying I need help and I don't got to answer anything. Why not? We all know things can get lost in our translation and kind of bringing a point on home. Yeah, I don't think Cal Raleigh is on the Juice. I don't think Ronald Acuna Jr. is on the Juice either.
Good on those two guys. We're going to find out who else is going to be in a home run derby. Of course, it'd be a dream if we saw Otani. He ain't going to do it. It'd be a dream if we saw Aaron Judge. I'm not so sure he going to be out there swinging a million times. So, hey, enjoy the guys who are going to go out there right up the road for me.
About 15 minutes up at Truist Park a couple weeks from now where we get the Major League Baseball home run derby. Hey, Basha, I should go, right? No, should I go?
100% you should be there, especially on the outfield, too. No, I ain't catching nothing, Mark. I'm not doing that. I did that one time in Kansas City and I wasn't even in the stands.
I was like in the Concourse doing YouTube videos and I'm like, I ain't catching no balls. Forget this. I couldn't even tell you who won.
No, remember. And shout outs to Kansas City, Gates Barbecue, and shout out to Gates. It's the JR Sportbreeze Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about everything that we've discussed so far in this show. I told you, Kaitlin Clark is hurt again. Let's see if we can get some clean jokes for the Friday Funny. We'll talk about a few things that took place this day in sports history. It's the JR Sportbreeze Show, the Infinity Sports Network.
