It is. Yeah. The JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast. on the Infinity Sports Network. Coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia.
Much love and many thanks to everybody listening all over North America. Happy Friday to you. I'll be hanging out with you for the next two hours. This show gets started every weekday at six p.m. Eastern.
Three Pacific. I'm in Atlanta. Thank you to our producer in New York City, Ryan Botcher. We've had a busy show already. We've talked about Michael Parsons and his trade request.
from the Dallas Cowboys. We just talked about the Miami Dolphins. Tyree Killer's like, Yeah, yeah, I'ma be a better teammate, I'm gonna be a better teammate. Yeah bet. Until October, November rolls around and he wants out again.
Hey, thank you so much to Lindsey Rhodes for joining us. Covers all things NFL. For Sumer Sports, where they got all your numbers and stats covered in about twenty minutes. We're going to have a chat with Bill Madden. Author A former a baseball columnist for the New York Daily News.
He'll be here with us in twenty minutes to break down the trade debt line. We talked about Rob Banfred. Rob Manfred, he announced today that the Major League Baseball All-Star game in 2027 It's going to take place at Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs. Marcus Strowman got released today by the New York Yankees. Here to day, gone to morrow.
I guess having an ERA above six. doesn't help you keep your job. We talked about the Hall of Fame. Yeah, it's to morrow night, the NFL Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony is to morrow night.
In Canton, Ohio, And we have more to do as the show continues on. Of course, at the end, we'll talk about a few things that took place this day in sports history. Gilbert Arenas apparently says he's He's fine. He he's not in no trouble. Gilbertarina says he is ready to snitch.
Oh, he must have some eye.
Some good lawyers. He feels real confident to even be saying that. Anyway, If you want to be a part of the show, You can, you can call up 888-710-41. 4ISN is the number. That's 888-710.
4ISN. You can find me online. I'm on the internet at J.R. Sport Brief. That's on Twitter.
and Instagram, and Facebook, all of the places, at JR Sport Brief. You can always listen here on the free Odyssey app, your local affiliate, SiriusXM375, and a smart speaker. If you have one. I feel bad a little bit. Bacher and I had this conversation yesterday.
I am not going to be tuning in. To the Hall of Fame speeches. I will not do it tomorrow night. I will not. Three hours, four hours, four and a half hours, it could be two hours.
I am not watching. I can get the Cliff Notes version, just by opening up my damn phone and Seeing what Sterling Sharp, Eric Allen, Jared Allen, Antonio Gates, I could. I can open up my phone. and get the best moments without having to sit down for four hours.
Now congratulations to everybody going into the Hall of Fame. I mean, we've had some interesting callers who've already hit us up about guys they think should be in a Hall of Fame.
Somebody said, Hey, you know, what about Mark Clayton from the Dolphins? I'm like, Come on, man, no. Let's put Duper in at the same time. How about we just put The Marks and just dumped them into the Hall of Fame. Not really.
And then we had another caller who took issue with uh Joe Namath being in. He threw more interceptions than he threw touchdowns. Brah Get a damn he did this in the sixties, okay? Like uh relax. They weren't out there just throwing a rock around.
He ultimately won. He won the Jets a Super Bowl. Like that has to count for something. I mean it absolutely does. But anyway, speaking of the Hall of Fame, They actually had the Hall of Fame game.
last night. It opened up the preseason. We saw what happened, or maybe you didn't. I don't blame you if you did not. We saw the Chargers.
Take on the lions. And what was a uh Bacha, how how would you describe the game? I I gotta watch my words here. Typical preseason game. Yeah.
The the charge is one. thirty four. to seven. And this is what I remember. as I sat here in the studio like I am right now.
And watch this game in the background. I had mentioned. Just by watching and looking at the screen. Kyle Allen went out there. and threw two interceptions back to back.
This is the game of backups. What a day. I know Dan Campbell was not thrilled with that. All the Lions did was just turn the ball over.
Meanwhile, congratulations to Trey Lance. He looked like a football player. He had two touchdowns against backups. He completed 13 or 20 passes against backups for 120 yards. Against backups good for Trey Lance.
This guy's only started five games in four NFL seasons. He only played 19 games at North Dakota State. That's why the 49ers decided to uh. you know, give him a spin, give him a run. They actually traded all those picks to pick him up, but He can't stick with anybody.
He's with Dallas for two years. Come on, man.
Now Trey Lance is going to try to be a backup. With the chargers. Good luck on that one. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe Herbert will Sprain a toe or something, and he'll get a chance or an opportunity.
This is what Trey Lance had to say last night about being on the Chargers. It's been fun to be here. I've really enjoyed it. Like, just the joy that guys around the building have, the joy the coaching staff has. Coach Day and Justin are a huge part of it as well.
But yeah, every place is different. I don't know if I could put my finger on necessarily one thing other than it's just a joyful place to be. People really enjoy it, and I've enjoyed being here. Aw.
Well, before the game, his new head coach, Jim Harbaugh, basically bigged him up. He's like, look, all I want to do. is give Trey Lance an opportunity to actually go out there and play football. listen to what his coach Jim Harbaugh had to say about his performance last night. Big night for Trey.
Just played calm, played cool, collected. Uh ran the operation, thought he threw the ball really well. Yeah, good night for him. Good night for him againce. Third stringers.
or fourth stringers. Yep. fifth string or six is there such thing as a sixth string Abacha? Uh only for like Or not receivers maybe. For DVs.
We typically stop at third string, right? Yeah, and then you go. Undrafted free agents, all that practice squad. Yeah. Yeah, damn.
Hey, good on Trey Lance. He made the most of his opportunity. He could have gone out there and pulled the Kyle Allen. He could have gone out there and thrown. Two interceptions.
And the only way that we're going to talk about any of these guys in the regular season. is if somebody like Jared Goff gets hurt, Or I think more likely than not, every now and then Justin Herbert gets nicked up. Uh outside of that don't don't have any expectations. Hendon Hooker did get a chance to play yesterday for the Detroit Lions. He completed three or six passes for eighteen yards and an interception.
Yes, the Lions couldn't hold on to the ball. You just heard how calm and and soothing Jim Harbaugh was, right? Dan Campbell, always sounding aggressive, like he's going punch you in the face. Uh Dan Campbell said, Yeah, we suck. The story of the game is we turned it over five times and then we didn't get any takeaways.
So that's hard, you know. Just from a that standpoint, when you put your defense in that kind of position, man, that's tough. Yeah, come on, Dan, but it's a preseason game. And forget it being a preseason game. It's the Hall of Fame game.
Who's thinking about this game, Dan? Like if find a bright is there a bright side, Dan? Tell me. We're going to learn from it. We're going to be able to coach off of this tape and help some of these guys get better.
And that'll serve us well and I would expect us to play much better next week. Yeah, he knows th th th that last night's game is going to help him figure out who gets cut and when they get cut. Simple as that. I know we got the Buffalo Bills coming up on HBO Hard Knocks. Bacha, I could watch Dan Campbell.
They could follow him around all season long. I'd pay attention to that. I wish The Lions themselves just did their own mini hard knocks, just with Dan Campbell's speeches. That's it. Why can't we just get?
Like, we got what is it on Netflix as quarterback? Why can't we get Dan Campbell on Netflix?
Well, I think it'd be very boring to say the least of seeing a guy be a parent wake up, drive into the the practice facility and just watch film for a couple of hours. That'd be pretty boring. No, but we're going to get him yell at the players. We're going to get him crying and cursing. He will go he goes from crying.
To yelling at his guys in like five seconds, to hugging him. He gives you all of the emotions. We'd see everything. Yeah, but that that everything happened so quickly for him. I don't know how Netflix Would make a whole episode out of it.
Like, for like quarterbacks and receivers, you can jump around.
So like Different parts of the day, maybe you're hanging out outside of things, like you're streaming, you're doing something cool. Dan Campbell is just probably at home. watching football twenty four seven.
Well here's here's a better idea. How about we get Dan Campbell versus Mike McDaniel in the Octagon? Mike McDaniel would flattened in Not even around. Oh, okay. Night, I'm trying to think of ideas just to get more Dan Gamble.
Let's see what the Lions do. I don't think people are going to be as high on the lines as they were in And in past seasons, knowing that they've lost both of their offensive coordinators, Aaron Glenn to the New York Jets, and then you got, of course, Ben Johnson, now the new head coach of Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears.
So not a lot to see there. I think the Lions, pardon the pun. I think they ought to fall a little bit further. Back into the pack. God bless em they'll have Aidan Hutchinson back.
Which I just realized. He is six. Watch, he's six foot seven. Did you see? Did you know that?
He's six, seven. He's pretty. Yeah. Fluid for his height to say then. He is six foot seven.
Why? Genetics? I don't know. Oh, yeah. Genetics, yeah, but I mean.
Yeah, he's six seven two seven he's Aaron Judge. Oh, by the way, Aaron Judge's expect to be back next week. Uh well good luck to the Lions. Their fans have deserved. better.
At least they have a a competitive team. And we'll see what happens there. Last night wasn't just the debut. Of the NFL for the 2025 season, even though it was a preseason game. We also got the debut.
of this I don't know what they're calling it The virtual botch, a virtual measurement system? What is this? I just call it Skycam for measurements. I'm just calling Skycam.
Okay.
Well, Skycam is the camera above the field.
Well, I need a nickname for this because saying the NFL virtual measurement. technology is so drawn out. This is the technology that is semi-retiring the. What do we call these guys? Chain gang.
The chain gang. The guys in the fancy pajamas who Can barely jog on to the field. and every now and then get their legs broken. Um they'll still be there. But now instead of spending 15 minutes trying to figure out whether or not the ball crossed the damn line.
The NFL is now utilizing technology. They've come into the 21st century, just like a lot of other sports, to figure out whether ball is in or out. Of course, in the NFL, it's less about in or out, but more so about whether or not the ball crossed the first down marker, and the NFL is utilizing technology to do so. And so they had an opportunity to test it out for the first time last night. Take a listen to this on NBC.
It's a first down, as you see there. There's the virtual measurement. And there was the line to gain.
So the Lions have a first down. If it is short, you're going to see how short they were.
Well I mean, obviously you can't see it on the radio. Uh but they showed like the computer graphic that showed the football, it showed uh the first down marker, it showed the football pass then.
Now, if the technology isn't working or it is oh so close, The chain gang is still going to be there. as a backup. I'm glad these guys still got jobs. The NFL didn't completely tell these grandpas to go ahead and take a hike. I like the idea.
But I saw that though some people were not in favor of it. Bacha, did you see some of that? There's no reason not to like it because the amount of times there's been questionable measurements. By the refs? It's insane.
So if you're hating on this, You're hitting on the future of the sport. Remember a couple of years ago? These uh it wasn't even a guy from the chain gang. I think it was one of the referees, one of the umpires was out there. He had a he he used an index card.
To try to measure whether or not the guy had a first down. You remember that? Yeah, that that just shows you how embarrassing the idea of measuring a spot is It's that they've had this technology for a couple years now. They should have just put it in. and work through the issues as they went along.
What y you're correct? Who the hell knows the the dimensions of an index card? Like what type of sick freak weirdo? Do you have to be? To know how long or wide the index card is, you know, the measurement between the.
Who knows that? Who knows that? What is it like, uh... Four by two.
Something like that? I don't know. I haven't seen an index card since elementary school, man. I don't know of it. I haven't seen.
Where do I buy an index card today? Staples. I haven't been in Staples in years. They're still open, too. Yeah, Staples is Staples is still popping.
They've got a ton of technology. What are you buying out of Staples? A chair, a desk? Ink. For printers.
Yeah, what am I supposed to do, not print something? Man, you sign everything. You sign stuff through DocuSign. You don't even need to print out contracts. I mean, come on now.
I know. I like printing out, like. tickets to put in a scrapbook, stuff like that. Oh, you're you're analogue now, huh? No, not all, because now there's like an app that actually tracks down all of that.
So I really don't need to print them anymore, but I have an old ticket book where all of the previous concerts and sports games I got into are in there. Yeah, that's old, man, and I'm talking about now. Ain't nobody going to no disrespect to the people, uh, wonderful people at Staples, but ain't nobody going to Staples, okay? Go to st if I need a chair, I'm getting it from Amazon. I'm not even going to Staples for that.
Shout out to Staples. Anyway, It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you, Coast to Coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We come back. Yeah, the Hall of Fame game wasn't the only thing yesterday. Of course, the Major League Baseball trade deadline, it came, it went.
We're going to have a conversation with author, former New York Daily News columnist Bill Madden is going to join us. And of course he has another book out. It's the JR Sport Reshow Coast to Coast on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infiniti Sports Network.
Hey, last night Hall of Fame game for Pro Football on Sunday. We had the induction into the baseball Hall of Fame into Cooperstown for Major League Baseball. We had the trade deadline take place last night. We're getting ready for the stretch run as things are really starting to heat up. On the baseball diamond.
Joining us right now is someone who has covered baseball for a very long time, someone who has written books and articles for the New York Daily News, has a book out right now, a baseball memoir, Yankees Typewriter Scandals in Cooperstown. Joining us right now is Bill Madden. Bill, how are you? Thank you for the time. I'm good.
How are you? I'm very well. Thank you for being here. I mean, we had so much that has taken place just over the past forget twenty four hours, just the past week we've had so many trades. What has really captured your attention as we headed to and then also after the trade deadline?
Well, I think the most one of the most interesting parts of the whole trade deadline was the fact that almost every team involved was looking for bullpen help. Um Granted, there were a lot of teams looking for starting pitching as well. The problem was there were no starting pitchers available to be traded. The best ones, Sandy Alcantara down in Miami and Uh Mitch Keller and uh and um In um Um Pittsburgh and uh Joe Ryan and and uh Minnesota were The word was out that they weren't going to be available.
So all these teams looking for starting pitching didn't get it.
Well, everybody just about everybody got the relief pictures they wanted. And of course we all know in October The name of the game is relief pitching and closers and and Lights out, late inning pitchers. That's why everybody was looking to stock up on them.
Well, Bill, what does that say to you about the the state of the game and how it's evolved? I mean, we know that starters are no longer going out there, top of the line guys giving you seven, eight and nine. Everything is more of a bullpen game. How has the game and how it's constructed changed?
Well, that's what it is the analytics People have turned it into a bullpen game. You know, it all started with the pitch counts. And, you know, a hundred pitches or whatever. And then. And then people started to realize that the analytics people came up with this whole credo about.
Not Facing the batting auto a third time around. And before you know it, all of a sudden the average Innings per game for starting pitchers. was lowered from six to 5.5 to five point three to five point two and now it's barely five innings. It's under five inch per startup, I'm pretty sure. And that's what's happened.
I I was very good friends with Tom Seaver, who wrote his book. And uh Siever was at the end of his life, he was really lamenting the emasculation of starting pitching. He just couldn't understand it. He says, Let these kids out of the corral the minute they sign them. out of college or high school, they put them on a pitch count and He was just beside himself as to what's happened.
You look back and. The history of baseball. I mean. A 200 inning pitcher was commonplace.
Now it's a freak of nature if we have more than one. 200 starting 200 inning starting pitcher in anywhere in baseball. And what we're going to see soon is We're going to be electing people to the Hall of Fame. That never had 200 innings. As a starting pitcher, And um you know back in you know, the Stone Age when Seaver and Gaylord Perry and And all the Don Sutton and these other pitchers were pitching.
Three hundred endings was not the commonplace, but it was it was There were a lot of pitchers pitching 300 innings. And now we don't have anybody, hardly anybody, pitching even two hundred innings. Baseball writer Bill Madden is joining us here on the JR Sport Re Show Coast to Coast. You talk about how the qualifications or who might get into Cooperstown, how it has changed and will change. I mean, there were folks who looked at Cece Sabathia going in as a pitcher this past Sunday and going, Well, why is Cece here?
But as you mentioned, it has changed. It will continue to change. What else is there left to change about the game from a pitching perspective? God, I hope nothing more. It's bad enough as it is.
Um Yeah, I think Cece got elected largely from the fact that people looked at him as one of the last. of the uh of the durable multi-inning starting pitchers. because you're not going to see them anymore. Um and um It's sad. It really is.
Well, Bill, knowing that whether it's the bullpen or the starters, we had multiple teams try to go for it. The Texas Rangers adding Kelly to DeGrom and Evaldi. You think about the Padres and the Mets and Yankees beefing up their bullpens. What teams are you favoring right now to go on a run? We know it takes time.
Who gets hot in September and maybe even late September, but who are you favoring? Who's well equipped?
Well, that's an interesting question I think You know, this has been such a streaky season. I mean, anybody who watched the Yankees over the month of July. And from mid-June over the whole month of July, he would say, this is not a very good team. They were bad fundamentally, they were bad defensively. And the starting pitching was not that Certainly wasn't that deep, especially when Schmidt went down.
And um and their bullpen was pretty bad. And yeah, here they are. After the trade deadline, one of the things Brian Cashman did, he couldn't change all of that. Yeah. I mean, it's hard to change a team that's fundamentally deflawed.
or a team that's defensively flawed, but He did go out and really bolstered that bullpen and as we were talking about before. That's the name of the game in October is Bullpens. And over on the Mets side, Davis Cearns did the same thing. Both teams needed starting pitching, and they couldn't get it. And Stearns Stearns went out and, you know, helped himself with uh Boasted his bullpen.
really well with Elsley from the from the Cardinals and And uh the uh side armor from the Giants. And Um There Oh in pretty good shape now even though especially in the Yankees case, you know, I think now the Yankees may be able to actually win the American League East. I wouldn't have said that a week ago. Wow. Bill Madden is here with us on the J.R.
Sport Reef Show. You talk about them winning the American League East. The Blue Jays have even gotten themselves. I don't want to say it's an embarrassment of Richards. He's coming off of Tommy John and Shane Bieber.
Their rotation is stacked. Their offense has been rolling. You think that the Blue Jays, you're confident or don't feel good that they'll maintain that lead?
Well Um I the last time I looked, they were losing tonight, but this is only one night. Um No, I think the Blue Jays still probably have the best team. For a lot of reasons. I have a good friend of mine. Buck Martinez, who is the Blue Jays broadcaster.
And he brought this point up to me a couple weeks ago when the Blue Jets were playing the Yankees. The Yankee Stadium and the Yankees Blue Jays won two or three of those games. They should have won all three of them. And he made this point. He said, you know, the Yankees, the problem.
The difference between the Yankees and the Blue Jays is The Yankees are a one R1 one hip uh a one homer tango They're a team that has to win the games with home runs. That's their style of play. Whereas the Blue Jays put the ball, they have a bunch of players who put the ball in play, and they can beat you 10 different ways. Whereas the Yankees can only beat you one different way. And it was kind of an exaggeration, but it wasn't all raw.
And he said, on top of that, Because the Blue Jays put the ball in play and the Yankees have all these defensive issues. With Volfe at shortstop, at the time they had a third base problem. Outfield all these things and he said No, it it You know, it's a combination of, you know. of uh a car up. a combination of uh the difference between these two teams because This is how the Blue Jays can beat the Yankees on a regular basis if they play themselves on a regular basis.
So Um I still think the Blue Jays Um Have the best team in the division for that reason, but I'm not counting out the Yankees anymore. Because of what Cashman did with that bullpen. Bill Madden is joining us here on the JR Sport Reef Show. You talk about the Yankees, your new memoir, a baseball memoir: Yankees, typewriters, scandals. in Cooperstown, a memoir of my fifty years writing baseball.
Why now, Bill?
Well, it's a funny story. I've written about eight books, I think. The last one being Tom Seaver's biography. My agent came to me a couple of years ago and he said, What's your next book? And I said, I think I'm booked out.
He says, No, no, no, you've got another book in you, Bill. And I said, Well, Tell me what it is. He says, your own book. I said, my own book. Who wants to read about my life?
And he says, no, no, no, it's not about your life. It's about all the great stories you have. from covering baseball all these years and all the people you've known in the game. And I said, well, look, I'll tell you what, I agree with you. I do have a lot of great stories that I haven't put in my previous books.
If you can sell it, I will write it. And he sold it, so I have written it. And uh it's a It's a different kind of it's a memoir, but it's not. It's not about me, it's about my experiences and the people I've known in the game. There's one chapter that a lot of people don't know about me.
It's uh I call it the uh the great the great baseball cart explosion. In the 80s, I was a major domo in the baseball cart business when I was hired by Don Russ. when um tops lost their uh monopoly on baseball cards uh in uh nineteen So in nineteen uh eighty And two companies, Don Russ and Fleer. Got Into the baseball card business, and I got to know that I was introduced to the president of Donruss. They were a little confectionery company down in Tennessee.
And um A subsidiary of 3M. And I called the guy to congratulate him on getting a license from the Players Association. And he said to me, he says, well, I have a confession to make. We don't know anything about baseball down here. And I told him, I said, that's going to be a little bit of a problem.
He says, yeah, I know. Do you know anybody who can help us? We need somebody who can write the bios and introduces to people in baseball and it And And select the players for us and And I said to myself, As a matter of fact, I do know someone. He said, Really? Who was that?
I said, me. And It's a long To make a long story short, he hired me and I wound up in We had a whole bunch of different things we did at John Russ, which I was very proud of. Among the things were our rated rookie cards, which became a big hit. In the baseball card industry, And at the time I had a meeting with his name was Stuart Lyman, and I had a meeting with him. in 1980 before they had started putting their set together.
And I told him, I said, There's one thing you need to understand. You need to come up with a concept or an idea. It's going to separate the Donruss cards from the FLIR cards and the Topps card and make you a set that all the kids want to buy. And he said, well, what do you think we should do? And I don't know if you ever saw the graduate, the picture of the graduate, it was one of the great pictures of all time, but there's a scene in the graduate.
Where Dustin Hoffman plays as graduate and And he's having a graduation party at his house, and one of his father's drunken friends comes up to him and he says, I have only one word for you. Plastics. And I thought of I just thought about that sin and I said, Stuart. I have only one word for you: rookies. And listen.
What do you mean? And I said, well, my idea is to flood our sets with rookies. Because this is what the kids want today, rookie cards. And this is at the same time. That the Pete Rose rookie card from 1963 was somehow, I have no idea why.
had sold for something like a hundred thousand dollars. Even though there were millions of them printed. And that started the whole rookie card uh further that s goes on to this day. And that's what we did at Donras. I said, forget about all these utility infielders and backup catchers.
We don't need to put them in the set, the kids don't want them. What they want is ki cards of people that they've never had before. And that's what we did. Yeah, you wanna g you wanna get in and people who are are cool, hot and Yeah, it is still to this day. even in different ways, digital, physical, all the ways.
Well, Bill, thank you so much for the time. Please tell everybody where they can get their hands on on your latest book, The Memoir. Yeah, it's called It's called Yankees Typewriters Scandals and Cooperstown and you can get it anywhere I Go to Amazon. books online or Barnes and Noble books online. and it's in most bookstores right now because it's new it just came out in uh in uh April.
So, um That's where you can get it. It's available. Readily available. All right.
Well, we're going to go ahead and check that on out. Bill, thank you so much for the time. Enjoy the rest of the baseball season. We'll catch you down the line as well, okay?
Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. That Bill Madden, a baseball writer columnist, and his new memoir out: Yankees Typewriter Scandals in Cooperstown. He's not discounting the Yankees from ultimately jumping ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays. It's the J.R.
Sport Re Show here with you, coast to coast, on the Infiniti Sports Network. 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. Man, there's a lot of things jumping around on the television right now. We got Savannah Bananas on ESPN.
You gotta be kidding me. We're gonna talk about that on the other side of the break. But right now, it's time for a newsflash with Rich Ackerman. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast.
On the infinity Sports network. Hey, thank you so much to Bill Madden for joining us in the last break. This man has written books about baseball. He covered baseball forever for the New York Daily News. And so we appreciate Bill Madden for coming through and sharing his expertise as his latest memoir is out.
His latest book is out, Yankees, Typewriters, Scandals and Cooper's down. If you missed that conversation, all you have to do? Go ahead and hit rewind on the free Odyssey App, A U D A C Why? As I Look at this. Cowboys signing, re-signing Lyle Collins, especially with a.
Well, the entries to the offensive line over the past week, what a shock, what a surprise And as I sit here and read this news and information. It is a Friday evening. It's a Friday afternoon. THE SAVANA BANANAS are on ESBN. You gotta be kidding me.
Now we have seen cornhole, We've seen Cornhold basically preempt the Major League Baseball All-Star announcements, and now on a Friday. Botcha, there is nothing else that we could have on ESPN but the Savannah bananas, there's nothing else going on? You could run a rerun of Sports Center. This is why Major League Baseball doesn't want to Deal in the same place with ESPN. This is why they're renegotiating with them right now.
The Savannah bananas on a Friday night? Who'd think that the MLB would have a Friday night baseball game? It's on Apple. They're not. It's on Apple, yeah.
Yeah. Apple T V has the exclusive for the Friday night game. I think NBC has the Sunday morning baseball game. Baseball is doing everything it can possible to just make sure that people can't find its product. I have never seen the savannah bananas.
This is the closest I've seen. It looks like all the The mashups and clips that I've ever seen online. Bacha, is it bad? The most entertaining thing I've seen watching this in the studio? They did the baby race on the first baseline.
Is that bad? That's the most entertaining thing? That is probably the. Most I don't know, I would say the most entertaining part I've seen so far. I can get around.
this if you have no idea what baseball is. Yeah. But other than that, this is a mess.
So it's the Savannah Bananas. Versus the firefighters, is that correct? Yeah, where I have no idea where they're from. Are they the Savannah firefighters? I don't know.
What is this? The guy's dancing. He just got a double. He doubled in the inning ended. I don't get it.
The inning is over? Yeah, just at the end of the seventh. Oh, maybe because he didn't hit a home run. I don't know. It's just.
See, it makes no sense. And the game has a clock, it has a full timer for the entire game, right? Yeah, so it's a it's a two-hour maximum for the game, so you you're not getting any more than two hours. Yeah, and so there's 20 minutes left in this game. I don't know what I'm looking at.
I don't know what the score bug. Are the bananas leading one to nothing, or what is this? They have two points. Over the firefighters. What that means.
I have no idea. I think they go by Like p Pieces of innings. I I don't know if it's like the first three innings, whoever has the most or runs gets a point. or something like that.
Well, look, the Savannah Bananas got more people in the stands in Baltimore. than uh the Orioles do.
So They're selling out football stadiums, they're selling out baseball stadiums, so obviously They're doing something they're doing a whole lot of things correct. Uh So l they they're making money. They just got this new deal with TNT. And so, maybe this will be the last of what we see on ESPN. I have no idea.
Congratulations. To the Savannah bananas. And then also, speaking of ESPN, ESPN is now going to be broadcasting the NFL Red Zone. It hasn't been officially announced. The NFL sends Red Zone.
To ESPN in a billion-dollar agreement. And as a part of this, The NFL is going to have a piece. Of ESPN.
So if you thought That there was no more NFL influence on ESPN that you could possibly have, you're gonna have more. You thought ESPN was just Pat McAfee and. What's the other guy's name? Stephen A. Smith.
You thought these guys had just batteries in their backs all damn day? It'll be. Stephen A. Smith in the morning. Pat McAfee in the afternoon.
And then just NFL talk. the rest of the day. In hilarious fashion. This is pretty funny if you ask me. Michelle Obama was sitting down.
On her podcast, because even the former First Lady has a podcast, and she basically said, ESPN. Is a bunch of people yelling back and forth all day. It reminds her of the real housewives. Listen to this. If I listen to ESPN for an hour, it's like watching the real housewives of Atlanta.
I mean, you know, it's the same drama and they're yelling at each other and they don't get along. You know, I mean, Stephen A. Smith, he's just like every other post-real housewife. He would be. Right.
He'd be amazing.
So that's why I'm like, what's the difference? It's just, you know, it's just sociological drama.
Well? He does is it Days of Our Lives, General Hospital? Which one does he come on? He's on. Two he's on Lawrence Order.
And he was on general hospital. He's he's expanding his portfolio. He is on law and order now? He he was an agent. I think a corrupt agent, a sports agent, in one of the episodes.
Wow. Good for him. Good for him. Well, He we already know his show, First Take. He's on every day and Yeah, well now we know who's not on there, Shannon Sharp.
And uh but Monty Jones said, you know what, even though Shannon's not there anymore. It's Stephen A. It doesn't matter who he's yelling at. Do I think that first take needs Shannon Sharp? No.
I think they could find Somebody that is a reasonable facsimile. Like, I mean, First they didn't need Skid Bayless. That's right.
So, when I say a reasonable facsimile, I don't mean like find somebody who is like Shannon Shark, but a person who fills a very similar role and who gets on well with Stephen A., because that's what it would really come down to. A show like that is just about how well you get, the other person gets on with the star of the show. Right. And so, if they can find somebody that gets on, like, you know, Chad Johnson has joked about how he can do the show now. You know, he's been trying to get on for the longest.
Maybe he works. They sprinkle Cam Newton there. I don't think that works as well as it works with Shannon, for example. Yeah, but I don't I don't think That show needs anybody other than Stephen A. Smith.
I mean, it it is his show, all things considered. I mean, before Stephen A. Smith got fired, a lot of people forget that. He got fired more than a decade ago and had to come back. Like it was pretty much his show.
They were setting him up. And I I agree with Beaumonti Jones. Like Who cares who's on the show? I'm not a fan. I'm not sitting around watching that for two hours a day.
I know the news. I've got to come here and talk about it later on in the day. It's very few and far and in between that, you know, just like everything else. I see the clips. Like, I don't sit down and watch much T V at all.
Pretty much none. I barely watch the news just to know what's going on. E even that I can just get online.
So he had Max Kelleman, he had uh Skip Bayless, he had Shannon Sharp. He can have a rotating cast of what he has now. and the shore will already be safe. And then he he just got a contract extension. Bacha, what is he getting, like, twenty mil a year for the next five years or something like that?
Very close to it. And that's only through ESPN. I don't know what he's doing with his podcast and other stuff. Yeah. Well, we know the bigger money is coming from ESPN.
So let's see what he does. He's constantly teasing a a presidential run. Oh, who knows? I hope not. I hope not.
It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. And we got more to do. A couple of things that took place this day in sports history. Gilbert Arena said he is ready to snitch. And then the last time I checked.
But Micah Parsons still wants to be traded. We're going to get into it all. It's the JR Sport Reshow on the Infinity Sports Network.
