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Get six times longer lasting freshness plus odor protection with Downy Unstoppables and wash scent beads. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Super producer and host Ryan Hickey. He's coming to you live from New York City. Thank you to everybody tuned in and locked in coast to coast all over North America. That includes over the border.
Shout out to all our friends in Canada. This show gets started every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. You can always listen on the free Odyssey app, your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate, Sirius XM Channel 158.
And a smart speaker, if you have one, ask the speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network. We've had a busy show. We talked about Team USA Basketball knocking off a South Sudan 103 to 86. They didn't take him lightly this time. We talked about Bill Belichick and his new job.
Another one. Not a coaching job. He has a new coaching series with the Underdog Fantasy Network.
It's like he got all these pop-up appearances on ESPN and Belichick needs more work. We talked about the NFL testing new goal line technology. Not even goal line. Spotting technology.
Get the first down right utilizing cameras from Sony. They're going to be testing it out over the preseason. Speaking of the preseason, it kicks off tomorrow. We talked about the Chicago Bears giving D.J. Moore a contract extension.
Four years, $110 million. We won't see D.J. Moore. We won't see Caleb Williams tomorrow. None of the Chicago Bears starters will play against the Houston Texans in the Hall of Fame game. Not happening.
Won't take place. And of course, also, it is Wednesday. I just gave you all a top six list last hour. We took a look at some of the worst fan bases in pain right now.
Let me rephrase that. I gave you a top six list of suffering fan bases in sports. What fan bases are just being tortured by the teams that they love? If you missed the full list and the entire explanation and the fancy audio and hearing from some of the players and the news, you can hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. At six, I gave you the Jets. And number five, I gave you the Pistons. And number four, I gave you the Panthers. And number three, I gave you the White Sox. And number two, I gave you the Marlins.
And at number one, I gave you the Oakland A's. Soon to not be the Oakland A's. Next year, they'll be in Sacramento as I don't know what. And then eventually they'll be in Vegas. And who knows when that happens, because they don't even have full paperwork on their deal to move to Las Vegas.
You can't make this stuff up. You know what? A matter of fact, joining us in about 15 to 20 minutes, we're going to have a conversation with Scott Miller from The New York Times. How many baseball teams on my list? White Sox, Marlins, A's. We'll talk about the trade deadline. What can we expect from some of the teams that picked up talent like the Padres, the Yankees, the Dodgers? And what about these miserable teams that just sell everybody? What about the Marlins? What about the White Sox? Sad situation.
White Sox can't even sell some of their talent away. Before we do that, let's get back to the phone lines. 855-212-4227. And then let's quickly talk some USA basketball. Alan is here from Toronto. Alan, I need you to do me a favor. Just follow my directions very carefully. First of all, Alan, how are you? Yes, sir. I'm on the I'm not on the freeway.
I'm home now. So I'm relaxed. I'm not on the freeway. I'm glad. I'm glad. Well, we don't want you to go 100 miles per hour.
I need you to answer me very succinctly. What team is it? Give me the team name. That's it.
Washington Nationals. They were no, no, no, no, no, no. Well, that's not. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hickey.
Hickey. I said it in English, right? You did. Oh, my God.
Oh, my goodness. I said it in English. I said, just give me the team name.
Trying to help myself here. Let's try again. Alan from Toronto. Alan, how are you? Yeah, OK. I'm on the line now. I wasn't on the line before.
You were you were on the line. I asked you, how are you? Oh, great.
OK. Enjoy my retirement. I've been retired for four years and I'm beautiful driving all over the nation.
And it's beautiful. I'm glad that you're retired. Now, listen to me very carefully. You ready? Sure. I want you to just answer the question specifically with no additional information.
OK. OK. Let's try again. We're talking about fan bases that are suffering. Just give me the team name and nothing else.
Washington Nationals. OK. Thank you. Yes. I know what they play for. Yes. I know who, what and where I've been there before. I know.
Thank you. OK. Tell me, as it stands today, why are the Nationals fans in D.C. suffering today? Because they haven't been above five hundred for the last five years. They're currently at forty nine and sixty. They're 11 games below five hundred. Two thousand and twenty.
They were eight games in the strike lockouts, strike shortened season or lockout season. They were twenty six and thirty four. Two thousand and twenty one. Sixty five and ninety seven. And actually pathetic in two thousand and twenty two. Fifty five and one hundred and seven. And last year they were a little bit of an improvement.
They were seventy one and ninety one. They refused to fire Dave Martinez. If anything, they gave him a contract extension. I'll tell you this, Alan, and thank you so much for calling from Toronto.
At least they got prospects and at least they won a damn World Series in twenty nineteen. OK. I don't know. Is that suffering?
They could suffer today, but there's I think there's more pain. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven Thomas calling from Buffalo. I think I might know what Tom is going to say.
Tom, you on the J.R. sport show. Yeah, it's the first time caller. Thank you. The team is the Buffalo Sabres. Oh, yeah. Even though the Jets have been without the playoffs for 13 years, the flavors have matched that record. Yeah. Two years ago, they teased us. They missed the playoffs by a point. Yeah. Last year they regressed and we just have to wait another year.
See what happens now. You got well, you got the bills, right? At least they go to the playoffs. Well, yeah. The Google owns both teams. He's doing pretty well at the bills. I don't know what's happening with the Sabres.
Fourteen years without the playoffs. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Good luck. Maybe the maybe the bills will get over the hump this year.
Maybe. I hope so. Good luck.
Good luck with Keon Coleman. Hey, thank you, Tom. All right. All right.
Thank you so much. Yeah. Have hope with the bills. Joe is calling from Florida on the J.R. sport show. Hey, J.R., love the show.
Long time listener. How instead of a team, can I name a specific player in his fan base? No, give me give me a team, man. Give me a team that is suffering. I need a fan base, man. Come on. The fan base as the team is Tampa Bay Rays.
OK, at least you get a new stadium coming. Now go ahead and give me this individual. OK, Randhio Rosarino. He was a fan favorite. He had his own section in the left field. He would interact with fans all the time, even opposing teams. He was very friendly.
He escaped persecution in Cuba, came through Mexico where he found a new family and he was just loved by all. And he's gone. And, you know, we're all really bummed about it. You know, you don't want to move to Seattle.
No, it's a little it's quite a ways, but you can move. You can. I prefer the sun over the rain. Oh, boy. I understand.
Well, I mean, let me let me be honest, man. Why do you even keep in a team? And I understand they're going to move them to the other side of the bay. They got approval to build a new stadium. Are people now going to show up because they're going to be on the other side? What do you think? Well, I hate to correct you, but they're not moving to the other side. They're staying in St. Petersburg. So nobody's going to go?
Nobody's going? The the the issue is, as sad as it is, St. Petersburg gets the growth that it's seeing. There are condos exploding all over Pinellas County, so there's a chance we'll be able to fill it pretty well. The threshold's about two million a year or twenty five thousand a game or so.
Wait, wait, wait, wait. The new seats in the new place is only going to be twenty five. Those will be thirty five. Twenty five. The threshold for successful first couple of years, they're saying is twenty five thousand. So as long as they reach that per game on an average, it's a success. What's the capacity expected to be of the new place? I don't know.
And I've been a race fan watching the stadiums. We're going to build it. We're not going to build it. We're not going to build it. We're going to build it. So I will believe it when the last brick is placed.
That's when I'll know. You know what they need to do? They need to call them the Devil Rays and they need to move them out of town. It didn't work for our record, but I did love the name. Now, bring back Devil Rays. I'm fine with Devil Rays.
And they tried to get too cute. Hey, thank you, Joe. Appreciate you, man. Thank you, Jared. I've loved you for years. Have a good day. I appreciate you, man.
Thank you so much. Oh, man. This we can't get you know what fans have so much power and influence and sometimes we don't we don't use it. We don't.
When you start thinking about some of the moves and. Some of the protests, protests, dare I say protests. When it comes to soccer and football. Outside of the United States of America, the fans don't go for crap. Like they will literally let you know outside. They won't buy tickets.
They'll be outside. We don't have the for lack of a better term, we don't have the gumption to do so. Like we're all sheep. You know, we have the fans in the states have so much power to influence change. And it's it's purchasing power. But everybody wants to buy a hat and everybody wants to cheer and root.
It's just like you don't have to. Your dollar speaks more than everything, because outside of that, everything is just a number. How much money did you spend? How much of the game did you watch? What ticket did you buy? How much did you spend on parking? How much beer did you get? We just suck it up and complain and do nothing.
Hickey, what do you think about that? I guess just like in terms of like what are you supposed to do? You don't spend a dime.
You do what the fans and you do what the fank the fans in Oakland did when it was too late. Simple as that. But I get it. I don't like it works overseas.
Hickey, I guess that's part of I've never seen it work. It's it's community overseas. The manager isn't performing. We ain't buying tickets to show up.
We want this guy out of here. You don't you don't see that. The most noise that you get is online. It's it's it's people complaining. It's media people. But there's such an ecosystem surrounding complaining. Nothing actually happens. Like here in sports, this fandom in the United States, this fandom like we're fans, you're a fan of this team. You're a fan of this player. You buy, you purchase, you support, you complain, you suck it up, you complain, you just buy, you still root.
They don't play that like an overseas. I want to say I can't even say the closest thing that we got. You know, before the New York Knicks hired Phil Jackson almost more, I guess now a decade ago. Like Nick fans were through. They were getting ready to have like, I don't want to call it a riot, a demonstration outside of Madison Square Garden. Well, you know what the owner of the Knicks, James Dolan with Mr. Rabbit is, you know what he doesn't want. He doesn't want a bunch of Nick fans standing outside the garden saying that you need to go, that you need to leave. And so he just hires Phil Jackson as like a pacifier. Like fans have so much more influence, but trying to get fans a fan base altogether on the same page in the United States of America is almost a moot exercise.
The closest that we got was what has taken place in Oakland. And if a team is bad, don't go. That's it. Money talks. That's every single thing in life.
Money talks. We there's so much more community surrounding football outside of the states. Picky, before we we bring on our guests in the next break, is there a fan base that you think is really, really suffering? How about the I mean, it's kind of similar to the A's, the Raiders. I feel like they got a fancy toy.
And they moved to Vegas. So you go away from your home and sure that nice stadium team stinks. You have an owner that has no idea what the hell he's doing. They have been a laughing stock, an awful haircut, drink some million gallons of water. I'm not even sure that's the amount of water he drinks.
I'm not sure how good that is for you. But vodka in there, you know, maybe that's waking some of the decisions he makes, like hiring Josh Matandos, maybe that's, you know, validates that. But like quarterback.
Head coach, competency. Oh, boy. Feels like it's lacking with the Raiders for it's been lacking for a while. Ever.
Ever is fair. Is this son ever going to turn things around? The son of Al. Hard to believe that's the answer is yes.
I mean, we have a good amount of evidence now, right? I can't trust anybody with that haircut on purpose. I can't. He has a dumb and dumb haircut. Yeah. Scary. That's the haircut.
He has a dumb and dumb haircut. I mean, it's hard to see. Hard of seeing. I don't know.
Legally blind. Has anyone ever asked? I don't know. Shave. Shave. Whatever.
Well, did you see that one meme that had him shaved head with him? Yeah. I wish it was real. Same. If I if I have a dumb haircut, let me know, OK? You got to be the first to tell you.
All right. If you have a dumb haircut, I'll tell you. I know you won't be shy. I'm not. I won't. Either way, we'll both have better hair than that guy.
I do. Man, what a guy. Anyway, it's the JR sport we show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break when we come back. We're going to have a conversation with Scott. Miller covers all things Major League Baseball for The New York Times.
I'm going to ask him about the franchises that have sold guys off and the franchises that have. Well, they're trying to go for it all. They're going for the commissioners trophy.
They're going for the World Series. We'll have this conversation with Scott Miller on the other side of the break. It's the JR sport show. The Infinity Sports Network. You are listening to the JR sport brief. The JR sport show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network.
Major League Baseball trade that line. It came. And it went and it's over. Now we just have to see what teams are going to stay in competition, what teams are going to fall flat, flat on their face. We've seen some moves, some teams got better, and then we even have some fan bases as we discussed.
They just continue to suffer to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly. We're being joined by Scott Miller, who covers all things baseball for The New York Times. Scott, how are you? How about yourself? I'm terrific.
Thank you for taking the time to join us. I also understand you're actually watching two good baseball teams right now. The Dodgers and the Padres. I'm looking at the game on in the studio. You got it live in front of you.
I do. It's been a rough start for Clayton Kershaw. I gave up four runs in the second inning and the Dodgers need some pitching, both starting and relieving. And their hope is that Kershaw rounds into some kind of form. But he's a little rough in his first outing last week. You know, barely made it through four innings.
I see today in the second inning, so we'll see. Well, listen, we know both the Dodgers. You talk about the pitching that they need. It seems like every starting pitcher that they brought in over the past several years, they've fallen flat.
They bring in Jack Flaherty. We know about Tanner Scott, now a member here of the Padres. Do you think you're watching a preview of the NLCS?
It's hard to say. I mean, I know the Phillies have had a rough two weeks, three weeks. They haven't been playing well lately, but I like the Phillies a lot.
You know, Atlanta, I wouldn't discount Atlanta either. But, yeah, it could be a preview of the NLCS. The Dodgers, they've got to figure out their pitching. They got Jack Flaherty with the trade deadline and they got Michael Kopec, who will help their bullpen, I think. But their bullpen's a mess right now. They don't have a closer. And, you know, last night they hung a five spot on the Padres in the first inning. And they ended up blowing the game at the end. Blake Trainon gave up a couple home runs in the ninth and the Dodgers went on to lose it in 10. So they've got some leaks right now that they've got to patch.
We'll see how that goes. The Padres have a really good bullpen, no doubt about it. With Adam's acquisition from Tampa Bay, Tanner Scott, as you mentioned, from Miami, they've got Robert Suarez to close. The Padres have a couple issues with their rotation. But their hope is that they can, you know, if they can get the lead after six innings, that they've got enough bullpen to lock down the seventh, eighth, and ninth.
Scott Miller is joining us from the New York Times. You talk about the Padres, A.J. Preller, in past seasons, whether it's bringing on Soto, earlier this season bringing on Cease, there's so much aggression there. At what point does it run out for the Padres? Is this like the final year of them having to go for it before the chickens come home to roost?
Pretty much. They need to win this year or at least next year. The issues are, you know, starting like two years from now, the contracts for Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado go high. Like up to 30 million or so a year. Machado, Tatis, and Exander Bogards, those three are going to make about $90 million to buy starting in a couple years. So you still got to have 23 other players on the team.
And you've got to figure out how to pay for them. If three guys are taking up 90 million, you know, it's going to be really, really difficult when that hits for the Padres to field a competitive team. So, yeah, they're trying to win before Machado gets older, too much older, before Bogards gets older, before the chickens come home to roost in the payroll.
And also AJ Preller, you know, his first year was in 2014. And, you know, he's to the point where he's on a little bit of a hot seat. He needs to win or they'll make a move. So the combination of Preller on the hot seat, as well as everything I just said about the payroll, yeah, they're all in right now. That's why, you know, you go back to spring training when they acquired Dylan Cease from the White Sox, Louisa Rice, the great hitter from the Marlins, and the two leaders they got this week. They traded nine of their top 15 prospects away this year.
So they're all in right now. So, Scott, if we will get to the Marlins momentarily, if we go further north up into Seattle, they've added some bats. You bring in Randy Arozarena, you bring in Justin Turner, regardless of what state of his career he's currently in. What are your thoughts on how they're going to compete here and the stretch was the moves they've made to improve the offense? Yeah, I mean, they've got to figure out a way to score some runs because their pitching has been really good. The Mariners' issue, you know, it's hard to believe, a couple weeks before the All-Star game, they had a 10-game lead in that division, and that's all melted away. So the heat is on, the Mariners, their pitching is really good, but, you know, they had to retool some things. You know, I mean, they let go of Ty France, the first baseman, a couple years ago, his bat looked pretty good, and he just faded.
So they cashiered him. As you mentioned, they got Randy Arozarena from Tampa Bay. They got Justin Turner, the veteran's bat, from Toronto to be a designated hitter. You know, one thing that's hurt the Mariners is, you know, their outfielder, Julio Rodriguez, who's been a superstar, has just had a terrible time offensively this year. They've got very little from him, and he's on the injury list now, as is shortstop J.P. Crawford. So they need to get Rodriguez. I mean, it's well and good to get Arozarena and Justin Turner at the trade deadline, but they need to get Julio Rodriguez back healthy and hitting, and they need to get J.P. Crawford back on the field. And, you know, they do all those things, you know, they've got enough to compete and maybe, maybe win their first American League West title since 2001. It's been a long time, more than two decades, since the Mariners have been atop the A.O. West.
And, you know, Texas is playing better now, and Houston's been playing better, so it's going to be a horse race here down the stretch. New York Times contributor Scott Miller is joining us, and he is live from San Diego as the Padres have a 4-0 lead over the Dodgers. If we go out east, you had mentioned the Marlins and Luis Arias leaving not too long ago.
He was one of the first shoes to drop. We see Jazz Chisholm move on. What are the Marlins doing? I feel like they, since their history, World Series or not, they're in a perpetual rebuild, again, under new ownership, again. Yeah, I mean, this is the team that made the playoffs last year, and then they stripped things down. They're an embarrassing franchise, and it looks like they're going to try to follow the Tampa Bay plan of two players and analytics.
But, you know, baseball probably made a mistake years ago when they expanded and went down into Miami because, you know, that's not a well-run franchise, and you feel badly for the baseball fans down in Miami. Well, when you think about the teams that actually have a chance to surprise people this year, we saw what happened with the Diamondbacks, we saw what happened with the Rangers. What teams do you think have a chance to just surprise folks maybe this upcoming postseason now that so many people are buyers? Well, the interesting thing to me is the Cleveland Guardians, and I don't know if you count them as a surprise or not, given that they've got, as of the other day, the best record in the American League. I mean, the Guardians are 65-42, and it'll be interesting, you know, first-year manager Stephen Vogt taking over for their retired Terry Francona, and, you know, it'll be interesting to see what, you know, Cleveland's for real come playoff time, but, you know, they've got a lot of good things going for them in Cleveland, including, it sounds crazy to say this after all these years, but Jose Ramirez, underrated as all get out.
Now, if you're a hardcore baseball fan, you're like, Jose Ramirez is a great hitter, and he is, but he doesn't get credit nationally for just how great he is. But, you know, they've got Steven Juan has come into his own this year as a leadoff hitter, batting for the, battling for the batting championship, the batting title, pitching has been good, Tanner Bybee, Ben Lively, Gavin Williams, the bullpen, you know, closer, Emmanuel Classe is locked down. So, you know, it'll be, for me, the Guardians are a team to watch, you know, the Kansas City Royals, they're 11 games over 500 right now, 60 and 49. This team lost like 106 games last year. I'm not saying the Royals are going to win the World Series this year, but they're a legit contender for a playoff spot, which is stunning after the year they had last season. So, those are two teams I'm keeping an eye on.
Okay. Well, Scott, I want to ask you this in finality because they have certainly been in the news for how bad they are, a 16-game losing streak. How bad can it be?
How bad can it get? Can it get worse for the Chicago White Sox? Well, I'll tell you what, not to be a smart aleck, JR, but it's already gotten worse since what you said. You mentioned a 16-game losing streak. Well, they lost today, so make that a 17-game losing streak.
It just gets worse and worse. You know, they're going to have to completely strip things out, and I don't know if Jerry Rhysdorf has it in him, but they're going to have to just gut that team and franchise and start over. They're embarrassing. You know, I really like Phaedra Grafalle as a baseball guy, but he's their manager. He's probably going to be, I don't think he makes it through the season. I mean, they're just so bad. I think they're going to have to placate their fans by at least sacrificing the manager before the year ends, and then they're going to have to get to the heavy lifting when the year does end. You know, their chief baseball officer, Chris Goetz, you know, he was just in the position last winter, so it's awful early to fire him, but they did not have a good trade deadline, and it's hard to see where the White Sox' plan is right now.
Yeah, it involves the toilet, that much I know. Hey, Scott, thank you so much for taking the time to join us, especially as you're live at the game out in San Diego between the Dodgers and the Padres. Where can people follow you in all your amazing work with the times and elsewhere?
I'm pretty sure on Twitter, as I still call it, or X, whatever it is, at ScottMillerBBL, like baseball, at ScottMillerBBL. OK, well, thank you so much, Scott. Enjoy the rest of the game, OK? Tell Shohei Ohtani to send me one of those jerseys, all right? I'll work on it, JR. Thanks, buddy. Thank you so much, Scott Miller from the New York Times, for coming through and joining us. Yeah, his tag, ScottMillerBBL.
Yeah, go ahead and check him out. It's the JR Sport Reshow here on the Infinity Sports Network, 855-212-4227. There's something very important I need to let you know, and I'm going to do it right the hell now. You need to thank O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs.
Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. We're going to take a break when we come back, talk some Olympic basketball, wrap up the show, share with you quite a few things that took place this day in sports history. This is the final day of July.
July 31st, we'll go back in time. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you to Scott Miller from the New York Times calling to talk some baseball. He was live at a baseball game. The Padres and the Dodgers. Four to nothing, the Padres were leading the Dodgers. Thank you, Scott.
I appreciate the time. Hickey, that's what you call multitasking at its finest. That's impressive because I definitely could not do that. You couldn't watch a baseball game and talk on the phone? No, I couldn't. I would be distracted. I either miss what's going on in the game because I'm invested in the conversation, or I would be watching the game and forget the question. You do like 20 things at one time while we're here on the air.
Right, and sometimes it burns me. You're good at it. What are you talking about? You're great. You're awesome. You're amazing. Spectacular. Tremendous.
That is very kind, but yeah, my multitasking skills can definitely improve for sure. Not true. All right, so how about this? Remote broadcast. Let's get you to a game.
Who, me? Yeah, do the show from... The Braves?
Yeah, Braves or Falcons Monday night game or Thursday night. No thanks. No? I'm not going to do any work.
I'm being honest. I'm not doing any work. Get up and wander around. Stick a fan in the seat and sell them to do the show. Nah, that would be interesting. Just let a fan? An over-served fan. Oh, now we're talking. Yeah, now there'd be no show after that. Be a good way to go out of the industry, I guess. What, let a fan do my job?
Yeah, I'm out of game. I'm just going to go watch the game. This guy next to me is going to take over.
See you guys later. All the listeners think that they can just walk on the radio and do the job anyway. Why not let somebody do it, right? Good point. Good point.
Why not? Everybody is good. Nobody's bad at what they do, at least in our business. Nobody's bad. Everybody's great. Tremendous stupendous. It's up for you. You really are, Hickey.
Don't worry about it, okay? Noted. You're welcome.
You're welcome. You know what? Speaking of tremendous stupendous, I got to remind everybody, Team USA, they beat South Sudan earlier today. There were no games, no jokes, none of that stuff. They beat them. 103 to 86, Bam Adebayo had 18 points and 7 rebounds. Jason Tatum was in the starting lineup. He had 4 points.
Well, Hickey, what happened? Steve Kerr said he's switching it up again. Yes, after the game, because maybe he saw the reaction of Jason Tatum getting benched, he made mention right away that for the game against Puerto Rico, he will go back to the original starting lineup, which means Joel Embiid will start the next game just like Jason Tatum did after getting benched. Which means Joel Embiid could treat Puerto Rico like he's Shaquille O'Neal.
That's basically what it is. Maybe that's why Steve Kerr's doing it, to have him feel better about himself. Yeah, didn't I say that earlier?
Confidence boost? Maybe he was listening to the show and said, you know what? That's a good idea.
I'm going to steal that. I hope he's asleep right now, right? At least. Well, yeah, it is pretty late out there. Was it six hours? Six hours?
Yeah, it should be sleep. The game ended, well, okay, it started at three. Nine o'clock?
No, that's not true. What time was the game? Three o'clock? Yeah, three o'clock. Nine o'clock there. Oh my god, wow. Damn. Yeah, he should be asleep.
I hope he's asleep either that or having a glass of wine. Anyway, it's time for us not to look forward to Saturday as the United States of America will likely crush Puerto Rico. It's time for us to go back in time. Today is July 31st.
Yeah, by the time you wake up tomorrow, it's going to be August 1st. But we ain't going forward. We're going backwards because it's time to take a look at a few things that took place this day in sports history. Back, back, back, back. Back in the days when I was young I'm not a kid anymore. But some days I sit and wish I was a kid again. It's time for this day in sports history.
You see, back in those days we had radio and you couldn't see anything and it was primitive and lousy and we liked it. On the JR Sport Brief Show. I wish I was 50 years younger and I'd kick your ass.
I love when he says that. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here on the Infinity Sports Network. It's July 31st, 2024. But let's go back to July 31st in 1973 because a broke, a broke ABA team. They had to trade Dr. J, Julius Erving, to the New York Nets.
They were talking about the Virginia Squires. They sent Dr. J to the Nets in 1973. A few years after that the Nets joined the NBA in 1976. No fancy audio for that. Let's go back July 31st in 1990.
We got audio for this. Nolan Ryan won his 300th game. OK, the Rangers beat the Brewers 11-2-3. Let's go back courtesy of MLB. Arensberg's pitch. Fly ball center field.
This should do it. Pettis makes the catch and Nolan Ryan and the Rangers are victorious. Nolan Ryan his 300th career victory and you can charge up the bus for Cooperstown. Nolan Ryan officially has had his ticket validated.
Oh, come on now. This man pitched another three years. He quit at 46 years old. He left with only 24 more wins.
That's not a lot of wins over three years. And he punched Robin Ventura in the head. Great career. Great career. Nolan Ryan got his 300th victory this day in 1990.
July 31st, 2007. There's a man who left the woods and he went to Boston. His name. Kevin Garnett.
I want you to take a listen. He was traded from Minnesota to the Celtics on this day in 2007. He told everybody I didn't want to leave Minnesota, but they sucked. This is probably been the hardest 72 hours I've dealt with since I've been in the NBA.
Initially, I had no interest in leaving Minnesota. And I let that be known. I guess at the end of the day, I'm loyal to a point where I feel like if someone's loyal to me, then I have no problem with that.
But when that changes, it's pretty easy for me. So after that, going through those stages, which was really tough, I thought this was probably my best opportunity to win in the ring. So I took the big steps to make those adjustments. And here we are. And a few months later, in 2008, in June, he won a championship.
Yeah, anything is possible. Let's go to July 31st, 2012. It's Olympic time, right? I was in London when he did this. Michael Phelps. He got 19 medals. This man helped win a relay. 19 medals at the time.
Let's take a listen. Courtesy of the Olympics. USA with this huge lead over France is 2.84.
It is insurmountable. So Michael Phelps here with Yannick Arneault chasing him home. It's history of the best kind. So in over 100 years, nobody's won as many medals at the Olympic Games in any sport than this great champion, Michael Phelps. He makes it 19 tonight and a 15th gold.
It's a place that nobody's been to before and maybe we'll never get to again. And he kept going and going and going and going. This man is now retired.
God bless him. He has more medals than anybody who's ever competed at the Olympics. 28 medals for Michael Phelps. The human fish or just a fish that took place in 2012. Winning that 200 meter relay. Let's go back a few years.
July 31st. Also an Olympic feat. Katie Ledecky in 2021. She won the 800 meter freestyle. She won some gold in Tokyo.
This is also courtesy of the Olympics. Katie Ledecky, we're expecting to set her pace early by about the 200 meter mark or 150 meter mark. Ledecky should be in front. Ledecky on the charge.
Titmuss trying everything to come back on level terms, but this is going to be a procession now. 25 meters to go. Ledecky looking across the pool and what she sees is clear water. Titmuss on the charge in the final 25 as is Ledecky. Ledecky can sense the Australian coming back to her. Gold for Ledecky and a historic 800 freestyle. Ledecky has won three in a row in this event. Man, she won again today. She won her eighth gold, 12th overall.
1500 meter freestyle today. She told everybody she plans to come back in 2028 in Los Angeles. Good for Katie Ledecky. All she does is win, win, win no matter what. And you know, Hickey, did you hear her talk about the clear water?
Oh, at least the man. Did you hear him say that? The clear water in the pool? Yes. They actually had them people swimming in that Seine River today. Did you see the guy throw up after he crossed the finish line at the triathlon? Oh, no.
Really? I didn't see that part. This guy was running the race. Could you imagine having to swim through some dirty ass water? And then, and he just got to throw up. They were like, the water's too dirty. There's E. coli in the water.
You know what? My accent is too American. It's too northern. Let's listen to Sky News. Let's listen to an English voice from Sky describe the waters. It was at three thirty this morning. This water was tested again.
The data showed risky levels of E. coli bacteria again. And it's no surprise the Seine is dirty. For a century swimming was banned until the Olympics came here.
But plans to promote Paris have turned to embarrassment. The men's triathlon postponed hours before it was due to start here. The sports boss blaming days of downpours. The man said the water was dirty for 100 years. Now, a human being could swim in the water for 100 years. And now all of a sudden they spent a billion and a half dollars to clean the water just so people could swim in it? I saw the mayor swim. You're telling me when she was in there that it didn't mean the water is automatically clean? Oh, she's still alive, right?
I don't know where. Oh, that's nasty, man. You see what some of the swimmers said about the water? Tell me. Said it tasted funky. Called it brown. Oh, God.
Couldn't imagine. I saw one guy jump into the water and all of a sudden it splashed up green and brown. That seems clean to me.
Some of the cleanest water I've ever seen in my life has always been green and brown. Anyway, the JR Sportbreeze Show here on the Infinity Sports Network is done. I'll be back with you tomorrow to close out my week tomorrow at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. Hickey, I'm going to miss you. I'm going to miss his next two days, JR. Don't miss me too much on the other side, all right? You're doing your show on the weekend? Yes, I'll be back early Sunday morning from a bachelor party, so that Sunday night show should be interesting. Oh, nice.
Where can people follow you? Ryan underscore Hickey and then number three. Yeah, go for it. Have a good time, Ryan Hickey. I will. I will act accordingly. My last day of the week will be tomorrow, where I will talk about football players apologizing to radio hosts. We'll talk about the NFL Hall of Fame game.
We have some guests as well. The JR Sportbreeze Show here on the Infinity Sports Network is done. Don't move. Coming up next is Dave Shepherd. I love him. He's in place of Bart Winckler tonight. He's holding it down. I'm gone. Don't move because I said so. Thank you so much to Ryan Hickey. Have a good show, Shaq.
