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Most Marketable Athletes In Sports? (Hour 3)

JR Sports Brief / JR
The Truth Network Radio
October 24, 2024 9:21 pm

Most Marketable Athletes In Sports? (Hour 3)

JR Sports Brief / JR

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October 24, 2024 9:21 pm

JR opened hour three by discussing Victor Wembanyama's motivation for this season and the top 10 most marketable athletes currently in sports. MLB reporter & author Scott Miller then joined the show to preview the World Series before ending the hour with a discussion about Deion Sanders's frustration with playing night games.

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It is the JR Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. My name is JR.

It is the JR Sportbree show. I'll be hanging out with you for the next two hours. You can consider this to be right after halftime.

You can say this is the third quarter. This show gets started every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. I'm being joined by super producer and host Ryan Hickey.

He's in New York City. So thank you for listening. Whether you happen to be at home, at work, on the road, whatever the hell you're doing, wherever you at, thank you. You can always tune in for free every minute, every second for free on the Audacy app.

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Do it now. Thank you for listening live on your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. If you got Sirius XM, it's channel 158. And if you have a smart speaker, ask the speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network. Easy, easy, easy, easy.

How about this? We got a guest. He's going to join us, Scott Miller. Scott Miller.

This man has written for The New York Times. He's going to come through in 20 minutes to talk to us about the World Series. We got the Dodgers. We got the Yankees. And Scott Miller will be bringing his expertise.

We've had a busy show so far. We talked about DeAndre Hopkins, the trade is official. He is now a member of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Jamison Williams. He didn't explain. He said, I don't know why I was suspended two games. He says, I don't know what happened.

They suspended him two games the NFL did for performance enhancing drug use. And he said, I don't know what I took. I don't take no vitamins. I don't take no supplements, but he's not appealing. So he took something. He must know something because if somebody said, I took a drug that I did not take, I'd be screaming.

I did not do it. We also got Thursday Night Football in Los Angeles. They're getting ready to kick off minutes from now.

The Minnesota Vikings bring their five and one record to the two and four Los Angeles Rams. Puka, Nakua, Cooper Cup, both of them are returning. We know that Cooper Cup has been in every rumor possible when it comes down to being traded. Kansas City Chiefs reportedly wanted Cooper Cup before they picked up DeAndre Hopkins for fourth round pick.

Oh, he could be a fourth rounder if they go to the Super Bowl. And then also, how about this? We got a basketball game underway. The San Antonio Spurs are leading the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas right now. Yeah, Victor Wambenyama is out there. Luka Doncic is out there. Let's see what these Wambenyama numbers look like.

Giant freak of nature. Oh, not good. Hickey, his number stinks so far. What's he doing? The two points. And that's it.

This is it. Two points and three turnovers. What did he do? Did you know the game started? Man, he's still in preseason mode. Yeah, Chris Paul. Chris Paul, zero points, two assists. Harrison Barnes leading the way.

He's perfect. He has 12 points. He's five for five. Not exactly what you want.

Not what you want. Luka Doncic has three points. Klay Thompson has five points. This is his Mavericks debut. Nobody talks about Klay Thompson in a Kyrie Irving.

He has five. So these will be two teams. You think the Spurs will make it to the playoffs this year with Wambenyama?

I don't think so. I think they're still a year or two away. They're still a year or two away.

I don't know about it. I don't know about a year or I don't know about two. I think they'll be close. But, you know, they got Chris Paul and his guy's like 40 as well. And I don't know, he's bound to get hurt and the team is bound to just hit the skids and hit the toilet. But I'm real interested to see how Victor Wambenyama just continues to develop.

7-4, 7-5 last year as a rookie, rookie of the year, 21 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, three and a half blocks and a steal in 71 games. I would sign up for Victor Wambenyama playing 71 games if he could do it for the next 10 years. And if he can, championship. Like eventually you got to have a decent team around this guy. And if that's what he did in his rookie year, what the hell is he going to do as he continues to get stronger? If there's ever been an NBA player that I just want to see healthy, see him, see his career through, it's Victor Wambenyama. I also appreciate just his attitude. This guy was talking to the media last week and he's just like, oh yeah, I was surprised at how lazy a lot of these NBA stars are.

Like how little they work. Like Victor Wambenyama is having a glass of milk before he goes to sleep. He's reading a book. He's turning off his phone. He's, he's, he's different.

He's a different cat. I appreciate him. I mean, just from this week, Victor Wambenyama, he just talked about what excites him for this upcoming season.

Listen to the Frenchman. What excites me most, clearly, you know, getting a taste of the high level of the NBA, you know, the getting closer getting closer to winning a championship because that's the goal. It's the long, long time goal. Yeah. Being just enjoying that, you know, enjoying the sport. It's simple as that, but like we always want to reach new levels of, of performance. And that's, that's how we, personally, that's how I feel. Yeah, man, come on.

That's where he's going. There's, there's nowhere for Victor Wambenyama to go, but I, and I told you, yeah, they picked up an old Chris Paul and now a veteran Harrison Barnes. They, they had the even things out. The team was too young last year. They, I saw them play in person last year and I said to myself, who the hell are these guys? We don't know who these guys are.

That's how young they are. Disposable NBA players. Well, Chris Paul is not disposable. This man is going right into the hall of fame and Victor Wambenyama. He said, yeah, we got better this off season.

I did too. It feels like kind of everybody can flip the switch. As I said before, staff and players, you know, everybody put their work in during the summer and I see like at practice is different from last year. We set up things, you know, for, for the season that we did not last year, last season, because you know, we get better each year, but if we can be like that and really change this much every summer, we're gonna, we can be great soon. Hickey, I just saw Victor Wambenyama get the ball at the top of the key and put his elbow into Daniel Gafford on the way to the basket with no problem. He didn't make the shot, but that's, I don't think that's something he would be able to do last year. And Gafford's got some girth on him too.

You know, the fact you can get strength beyond just the length, very impressive. He's a dangerous player, man. Yeah, I can't, he looks like I'm watching him right now.

I got, I got Thursday Night Football on one screen. I got the Mavs and the Spurs on the other, and it is crazy. He isn't, just watching him go up and down the court. He is an outlier as an NBA player, which is hard. Like, he stands out like a sore thumb, like he's playing with kids out there. It's just, I just want to see how he continues to evolve.

I've said this plenty of times. If I wanted to look at a future of what the NBA has to look like over the next, you know, 5, 10, 15 years, I want to see, I want to see Wambenyama and Anthony Edwards just going at each other's throats. Like, I want to see that for the next however many years.

So I wish Wambenyama nothing but the best of health. You know, at 7'4", 7'5", you never know how it's going to go. Like, he could be the global face of basketball.

Like, who else is there? LeBron James, what is he going to play? Another two years?

Three years max? LeBron ain't going to be around forever. Jokic? Come on, Jokic is in his prime right now.

He's not all that marketable. Like, the global face. Hickey, LeBron is the global face of basketball today, right? Absolutely. Wouldn't Wambenyama be next in line, right? Easy, easy.

Easily. I'm with you 100%. Oh, just, and then I heard him the other day. He said, ah, winning a gold medal would be more important to me than an NBA finals. It's like, for him, winning an NBA finals is eventually almost a given. And we know the likelihood of him winning a gold medal, man, you only get a chance every four years.

He is just a different cat. And ironically, this is kind of crazy. We just had a release that came out that highlighted some of the most marketable athletes in the world right now. I'm talking all over the place. Sports Pro does a whole lot of business and media. They put out a top 10 list of the most marketable athletes. Hickey, who do you think is number one? All the athletes on planet Earth. Who can bring in the most bucks?

Who can sell the most? Is it Ronaldo? No, he is number nine.

Hmm. Is it Messi? No, Messi is number five. You got, you picked the two soccer stars.

I got some news about Messi anyway in a second. But yeah, Messi is at number five. Is it LeBron? LeBron is number three. LeBron, I can't even say he's the highest.

He's the highest American man on the list. I give I give you a hint. Number one is a woman. Kaitlyn Clark. No, Kaitlyn Clark is number four behind LeBron. Yeah.

Is this is is number one obvious? She's a gymnast. Simone Biles. Yeah. Interesting. Wow.

Yeah. Sports Pro says she is the most marketable athlete in the world right now. And what are the the lines? I'll tell you right now. These are the qualifications. They took a look at at brand strength.

They want to take a look at addressable market. I guess she she checks all the boxes, man. She just I don't know. Wow.

That's just because you don't you know, you see her once on TV every four years for the most part. You think that would hurt her more than help her? That's what I would think so.

No. So here's the here's the so brand strength, addressable market, economics and said those are the three boxes that they check. Simone Biles is one of Vinnie Junior. He's a Brazilian footballer, plays for Real Madrid. He's number two. LeBron James is three. Kaitlyn Clark is four.

Messi is five. And how about another gymnast? She won gold down in Brazil.

She beat Simone Biles for it in one of the events. Rebecca Andrade. She is number six.

Mbappe is seven. Ilona Maher. I don't even know who the heck. Who's this lady?

Who is this person? What sport? Rugby.

Rugby. OK, she's eight. She's eight. She's before Ronaldo at nine.

Katie Ledecky is 10. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Damn. A rugby player. OK. She's an Olympic medalist as well. I don't know these ahead of Ronaldo.

Hickey, I guess, going out to Saudi Arabia. Really? Did Ronaldo win? I don't know. Yeah, that's a good point about that. I think that definitely hurt his brand for sure.

But getting older as well, I don't know. Messi is still here at five. LeBron is the number one American at three.

Kaitlyn Clark big time at number four. Messi at number five. And Messi's profile is, I mean, it's already huge.

I think it's going to continue to grow here, especially in the United States of America. We talked about the Club World Cup. That's going to be here next year. His squad, Inter Miami, is actually one of the two teams in it. We got the Seattle Sounders and then we got Messi with his team.

Inter Miami and they're actually they're going to they're going to kick things off, you know, and being the host. So Messi's profile is going to continue to grow, especially here playing. And he's in the playoffs right now for MLS. He's going to be the star helping out into Miami next year at the Club World Cup. And then we got the big, big World Cup here in America again in twenty twenty six.

So this is I don't know. I think Messi is going to continue to maybe grow up on this list. I would agree. I definitely agree with that, even though he's getting older with age. Yeah, he's like he's like wine. He like fine wine. You like wine. You like you love wine. I'm not a big wine guy, to be honest with you. Oh, crap.

Oh, crap. OK. I thought you love wine. I thought you did. What about me gives off that I love wine?

I don't know. You like wine. I like wine. I love wine.

I love that. You know, disparagingly, I'm just I'm more of a beer guy myself. Damn, I know that I'm not too sophisticated.

No, you don't. You can have a beer tasting that makes you sophisticated. Well, I like a lot of light beer, cheap beer. Coors Light Bud Light. I like Coors too. Coors Light is like water, right?

That's that's what a lot of people say. I love beer. I love beer. I love all beer. If it tastes good, I'll drink it.

I will. I love beer. I love apple pie.

What else makes me American, Hickey? Fill me in. Pizza, right? Pizza. Burger and wings. Hmm.

Am I missing anything? Yankees. I love the Yankees. Yes.

Yeah. Yankees. I don't like the Cowboys, though. OK. Lakers. Can we get to how we feel the Lakers?

You're trying to make me a front runner in America. Lakers, Yankees and Cowboys. There's a certain outfit that goes that you can start wearing, dressing up as. Which one, the Cowboys? Oh, no, I think Lakers, Yankees, Cowboys are. Yeah, there's a certain look, you know, the long jean shorts, the jersey, the jersey, the Jordans, the Jordans on the yes. Or I could just get a Dallas Cowboys jersey with a Yankees cap and get the blue Jordans. I think I'll be good from there. Boom, boom, boom. Yeah. Well, everything all bases and get a Kobe tattoo, right?

Done. You got a 24 on my calf and I I got the trifecta. I'm checking off every box. It's the J.R. Sporbury show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break when we come back on the other side of the break.

It's time to have a guest. We're going to talk the World Series. We're going to be joined by Scott Miller. This man writes.

You can see his stuff in The New York Times. It's time to talk some World Series. The New York Yankees and the Dodgers are going to be going at it for the 12th time. Who does he think is going to win? Is it Judge?

Is it Otani? Who has more pressure? We're going to have this conversation with Scott Miller. You are locked into the J.R. Sporbury show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.

You're listening to the J.R. Sporbury brief. It's the J.R. Sporbury show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. There's so much going on in the world of sports. NFL season in full swing. College football in full swing. We got college basketball getting ready to pop off. We got hockey underway. But we have the conclusion of the baseball season.

It starts tomorrow. It's the World Series. We have the New York Yankees. We have the Dodgers.

They get started in L.A. tomorrow. We have Garrett Cole on the mound against Flaherty who just got to the team in the middle of the season. And we have this World Series matchup that we have not had since 1981.

We have this World Series matchup that we will now have this playoff pairing for the 12th time to join us and talk about what we might see. And a few of the other things going on in the world of baseball is someone who is a contributor to the New York Times. He is an author.

He knows a lot of things about a lot, a lot of things about baseball. It's Scott Miller. Scott, thank you for the time. Hey J.R., happy to do it. How are you? I'm very well.

Good to chat with you again. I guess here we have it. Biggest markets in the United States of America. We got the Yankees. We got the Dodgers. What has really captured your attention about this series? There's so many different storylines.

Yeah, it is. I mean, you know, oftentimes I think, you know, people wind up rooting for underdogs. You know, it's always the Cinderella stories that are captivating.

This is a reminder that a heavyweight title match can be captivating too. I mean, there's nothing underdone about the Yankees or the Dodgers. One thing I like about this World Series is in an age of expanded playoffs where 12 teams out of 30 make the playoffs.

We're kind of back to old school. The two teams meeting for the World Series are the teams with the two best records over the 162 game season. I think that's meaningful that you get through the gauntlet of the season and the two best teams end up standing at the end.

I think that's a great thing. Yankees, Dodgers, the uniforms, the aura, the history, all of it is intriguing. Six former most valuable players will be playing in this series. We've never had that many before in a World Series. Shohei Ohtani versus Aaron Judge, you start right there with how great those two are. But making it even more cooler, that particular match is both are going into their first World Series. Neither Judge nor Ohtani has ever played in a World Series before. Now, here they are going head-to-head in their first World Series.

That's cool. Juan Soto of the Yankees getting there after he helped the Nationals win in 2019. Garrett Cole is going to be huge. He's the one guy in this series that's a throwback starting pitcher, kind of an old school guy that goes as long as he can go versus, oh, we're only going to let him go 80 pitches and pull him before the lineup.

It turns around the third time. The Dodgers top three, Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, that's as good of a one-two-three as there is in the game today. There's just so much about this World Series.

Well, Scott, let me ask you this. We know we haven't had a repeat champ. We have the two teams that were in the World Series last year and the Diamondbacks and the Rangers not even in it. And now this year we got the heavyweights. Is this now pretty much par for the course with the World Series that maybe next year, I don't know, would you be shocked if all of a sudden it's the Tigers and I don't know, fill in the blank, and we don't have Dodgers, Yankees, like when you have all this this payroll discrepancy, isn't this what the new baseball looks like?

Yeah, it is. And it's not just with payrolls though. I mean, as you mentioned, we have not had a backpack champion in the World Series since the Yankees won three in a row in 1998, 99 and 2000. Since then, since 2000, every year it's been a different team to win the World Series.

No repeaters at all. It has to do some with payroll. More than that, I think it has to do with the grind of getting through 162 game season. Then if you win the World Series, you're playing an extra month. So what happens is your pitching gets ground to dust in the next season.

And we've seen this for two decades now. The next season, the pitching is just not that sharp. You know, some guys are off and that's a lot of it, I think. It's so taxing to win a World Series because of how long the season is. And in October, how every pitch is high leverage. And you know, I think that more than anything is why we are not seeing back-to-back championships in our sport of baseball as opposed to the other sports. As Scott Miller is joining us, contributor, author, writer, New York Times. When you look at the series, we got a lot of offense, we got pitching in different forms and varieties.

You mentioned Gary Cole. What do you expect? I see a seven game, but I go back and forth about who's going to win. I think they're that close. Yeah, I do too. I think it's a total coin flip, JR. I think you hit the nail on the head. You know, I've been going, excuse me, the Dodgers in seven because I do see a long series.

I don't see a heavy favorite. And game six and seven are at Dodger Stadium. And so that kind of tilted it to me that I think the Dodgers are, you know, will win in seven, partly because of home field advantage. Partly because I think also the Dodgers have, their team this year is a little different than it's been. You know, I mean, they got to the 2017 World Series and they still do this day feel they were cheated by the Astros, who obviously were in their cheating scandal that year.

2018, the Dodgers lost to Boston. And you know, the last two years they were knocked out in the first round stunned by Arizona last year in San Diego two years ago. And as a result, I think these Dodgers are, you know, they're tired of all that and they are their mental toughness.

Their mental degree. It's as good as I've seen from a team lately. They've overcome a lot of things this year. They've overcome injuries, all kinds of injuries, and they haven't let anything stop them. So, you know, it's a coin flip. The Yankees are really, really good and they've obviously got the mojo as well.

But I'll go Dodgers in seven. Scott Miller is here with us, a writer and contributor to the New York Times. You think about the money that Otani got, even though a lot of it is deferred over half the contract, $700 million.

You mentioned Juan Soto, who is still ridiculous. I think he's only 26 years old. Is he really going to get his hands on a $600 million contract? Are the Mets going to wave that in his face? What do you think his deal is going to look like, whether it's with the Yankees or elsewhere? It's hard to say.

Six hundred seems high. I know he's shooting for the moon and Scott Borris is his agent. Scott Borris is as good as there is.

Borris usually gets it. You know, until this past year, Scott had her off year last winter. But, you know, he traffics in record-setting contracts. But, you know, I don't know. I mean, you wonder, especially, you know, a lot of teams are cutting back because these regional sports networks, like Valley Sports, is declaring bankruptcy. And these teams are worried about where the TV money is going to come from. So, there are some teams that are reluctant to spend. But, you know, $600 million, you've only got about five or six teams that can spend that anyway. You're not going to see, you know, the Chicago White Sox or the Miami Marlins spend $600 and most other teams. I mean, you've got the Yankees and the Mets.

You've got the, I doubt if San Francisco would go that high, but they're a big market team. The Dodgers, but the Dodgers already have Joe Hayotani at $700 million. So, they're not going after Juan Soto. The thing with the Mets, Steve Cohen's got the money. They're going to be really interesting because Cohen, they're one of the few teams that can pay that to Soto and Cohen's got the dough. And until this past year, he showed some willingness to spend.

But the issue here, and this is why I don't think the Mets are going to go after Soto, at least not very hard. I think Cohen learned his lesson when he signed, he got acquired Max Scher, excuse me, Scherzer and Justin Berlander last year and then traded them both. He took a whack at spending big on some free agents and it didn't work. But more importantly than that, but tied in with that, is the front office move he made last winter to bring in as president of baseball operations, David Stearns from Milwaukee.

David Stearns is in the boat. He had great success with small market Milwaukee. As an analytics guy, they look for inefficiencies, players that fell through the cracks, cheaper players. And they didn't spend a lot of money and Stearns had a lot of success. And I think the reason Stearns, or the Mets, Steve Cohen hired David Stearns, it wasn't to run things on the cheap, but it was because he had success on the cheap. So now if you give him a little bit more money, kind of like Andrew Friedman in Los Angeles, you know, Friedman ran Tampa Bay for a long time and did it with no money there.

And then he went to Los Angeles and look what he's done with more resources. That's the model that Cohen's looking for by hiring David Stearns. So I think Stearns, you know, he may spend some money eventually.

Cohen certainly has a lot of it, but it's going to be smart money. And, you know, the analytics people love Soto because of his on base percentage. So maybe Stearns will say, this is the guy we should go after.

But I don't think he's a slam dunk. You could see the Yankees resign Soto, but probably one of the New York teams is the best bet for him. And I say, maybe the Yankees keep him.

Well, Scott, let me ask you this. You ran through a lot of teams and some good, well, most good with a lot of money. We just saw something that nobody listening to The Son of My Voice has ever seen.

We saw the White Sox have the worst season in 124 years. We've heard that. You've heard that Jerry Ronsdorf is just getting ready to sell. Is that like best case scenario for the franchise to move forward?

It may be. I mean, Ronsdorf, you know, he had his day and his place in time. And he loves his team and he's loyal to his guys and all that's good, but he does look like an owner where the game is passed him by. I don't know how, you know, I think they're slow to move into analytics. You know, their ballpark was built early and they haven't taken full advantage of it. You know, they weren't able to, they built their ballpark right before the boom of these new retro ballparks, you know, at Camden Yards and PNC Park at Pittsburgh. So they're not playing in the best part.

You know, they haven't really moved into the analytics movement. And I say all this, these are all reasons why they don't, the right players don't come to Chicago to play for the White Sox, or they haven't been able to either decide to bring in the right players or convince free agents to come in. And so I think it's probably reached a point. I know Chicago White Sox fans are furious and then, you know, I know a few of them personally, but can't wait for Reinsdorf to go. And it probably is reaching that time where it's going to be a good thing for the White Sox when that happens. The question is how soon will it happen or will it drag on? Well, I know for the fan base, they are hoping that they can get back to, I don't know, 500. And it's probably going to take a long time.

That might take years. Well, Scott, let me ask you this. I know you got a new book out, Skipper, while managers are still mad, why they still matter and always will. One of the managers here, what kind of both of them, whether it's Dave Roberts or you want to take a look at Boone, they are always criticized.

People are always calling for their heads. Explain the book and why you got it going. All right. Well, as it's not quite available yet, it's available for preorder right now on Amazon, wherever you go to order books. It's called Skipper, Why Baseball Managers Matter and Why They Always Will.

And it's published May 13th, so we're still a few months away from publication date. And incidentally, both Aaron Boone and Dave Roberts, as you rightly say, get crushed by critics. Both of them I have featured in the book. I've done almost 200 interviews. I talked to Aaron Boone for a while. I spent a lot of time with Dave Roberts. They, among many, many, many other managers, are in the book. It's been something, I think it's just come out of cover baseball for 30 plus years. I've seen the changes in the job.

I've known many of these men personally and seen what they do and what they go through. And I just thought the evolution of the job has reached a point where, you know, it's worth explaining and diving into. And, you know, basically I start the book with, you know, those strongman managers from like the 70s and 80s, guys like Earl Weaver and Sparky Anderson and Billy Martin, who, you know, they had ultimate authority. And then you flip forward to today's guys, and they all have to collaborate, to use Dave Roberts' work, with the front office, with the analytics people. Now, we have computers now that they didn't have back then.

We have data now that we didn't have back then. And so basically the book, it looks at in the era of the strongman manager of Sparky Anderson, Earl Weaver, all that, what the job was then, what the job is now, how we got from then to now, and why we got from then to now. And so it takes us through, you know, the changes, the economic changes in the game. It takes us through the Moneyball era. You know, it takes us through the era where suddenly managers are hired with no experience. Just if you recently played, we'd like to talk to you about managing our team.

You don't need experience. And so all of this, you know, there's a lot of meat on the bone, and I enjoyed doing it. It's been about a two-year project, two and a half years. And, you know, I've talked to current managers, ex-managers, current players, ex-players, current executives, former executives, a whole lot of people to get to the bottom of, you know, what goes on today, what went on then, and how it's changed and why it's changed.

Well, we know baseball is a game that is forever changing. Hey, Scott, where can people follow you and all of your works and publications and the New York Times, your books? Where can we keep up with you? On the platform formerly known as Twitter, I guess it's X now, at ScottMillerBBL, like baseball, at ScottMillerBBL.

That's probably the best place. I've got a Facebook page as well under that same title, at ScottMillerBBL. And usually, yeah, when I put back, I just had a story in the New York Times online yesterday. It's still up there on an appreciation column for the late, great Fernando Valenzuela of the Dodgers. So, you know, yeah, when I write, you know, that's up in the New York Times now.

So, I post that on Twitter and on Facebook and that way. So, there you go, at ScottMillerBBL. Hey, Scott, we appreciate the time.

We'll catch you on down the line. Enjoy the World Series, okay? All right, buddy. You too, JR. Thank you.

No doubt about it. Always a pleasure having a chat with Scott Miller, author, contributor to the New York Times. You're locked into the JR Sportbreeze show coast to coast here on the Infinity Sports Network. There's so much going on in the world of sports right now.

We're going to take a break. You're listening to the JR Sportbreeze. It's the JR Sportbreeze show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.

Thank you so much to Scott Miller, contributor, writer, author to the New York Times. Thank you for coming through and joining us to talk some baseball. Got things kicking off between the Yankees and Dodgers tomorrow.

Game one of the World Series out in Los Angeles. This portion of the show is sponsored by the new 2025 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid that has class-leading advanced safety features like the available blind spot view monitor to make your ride more enjoyable. It's going to be nice if you're sitting in traffic in LA tomorrow. You can ride around in one of them new Hondays. Yeah, you need that. Nice and comfortable.

You'll be sitting in that car for a very long time. You know, Hickey, unfortunately, because I am a Yankees fan, I would I would agree with Scott Miller. I believe the Yankees can win. I really think this is a toss-up game in the toss-up series.

And the only reason that I would would go for the Dodgers is for what he just said. The home games. That's it. Maybe I'm totally off here.

Yes. I don't see how the Yankees make this close. Oh, you think the Yankees are going to bludgeon them?

I know. I think the Dodgers are going to bludgeon them out. I think the Dodgers winning like five Yankees.

No, their lineup has not been very good up at like one through nine. So really outside of Soto and Stan, there's not many guys that truly were you if you're the Dodgers. I mean, you're not the Yankees. You're not the truly were you if you're the Dodgers. I know the Dodgers pitching has been beleaguered, but their bullpen is very, very good.

Now they're well rested. Not many guys you trust on the Yankees bullpen. Not many guys you trust on the mound outside of Garrett Cole for the Yankees, where, you know, you could argue made at the starting pitching edge outside of Cole. I mean, do you trust Rodon? You know, are you going to see Nestor Cortez starting?

Clark Schmidt? Not to mention, they can't run the bases well. They can't field the ball well. They're very sloppy in both those areas. Maybe I'm just wrong. Damn.

Damn. But I think this is I see two teams that are I don't they have offense and we don't know the status of Freddie Freeman and what his leg might look like. And he'll be fine, all things considered, especially with the time off. But these are two teams that I think are pretty evenly matched offensively. We know Stanton and Judge can go off and Mookie Betts and can go off and Muncie and of course, Otani and Freddie Freeman, like they got bats. It really boils down to the pitching. And the Dodgers have just been throwing they just pulling guys out the bullpen like left and right. And they've been having success without having like, hey, this is our shut down guy.

I mean, you're paying Yamamoto all this money and I feel like he's a toss up on what you'll get, you know, kind of game to game. So that's why I'm not I'm not all that sold on the Dodgers pitching. I know it's been more hit than miss, especially what they've done to the New York Mets. I thought the New York Mets were going to have more of a field day against the pitching. It's like, oh, let's have a bullpen game like they'll smack them around. But I feel it's actually gone to their benefit.

They have so many guys that people haven't necessarily seen. I agree, and I think that's going to give the bats for the Yankees trouble. And I think you can feel better about the Dodger bullpen than the Yankee bullpen. No, I'd agree. I'd agree. I think Yankee fans, if they have to see Klay Holmes and they're going to have to see him eventually.

Oh, yeah. They will have a they'll have a fit. We'll see. We'll see what happens.

Speaking of having a fit. Colorado football. This team is five and two. You would think that Deion Sanders is happy right now, right? They just beat Arizona, smack them around.

They got their nest match up against Cincinnati at Saturday night. Like, what is there to complain about? Everything should be good in Deion's world.

But the answer is, is no. Deion found something to complain about. It's the night games. It's playing the games at night. Bruh.

You're West. What are you complaining about? Take a listen to Deion. I mean, you got to change the schedule. You got to prepare the kids because we practice in the morning. So now we got to do body adjustments, time adjustment, sleep adjustments for our young men so that they could start off fairly quickly. We hadn't started off quick in the night games because of that flips our whole schedule. We fared better in day games because that's who we are. But we plan on making adjustments this week to make sure we get the proper sleep, the proper rest, and we're ready and prepared for kickoff.

Hickey, what does he think? Say we're in the Big 12 now. We can't play at night. I mean, this is what they've done forever before he got there.

What's he complaining about? I agree. We're in week nine. You want primetime games. You can't have a noon game.

And at least Eastern, not at 10 a.m.. This is like how. I don't know how they not change the schedule. Why they're so surprised by this. I don't know.

I mean, what does he complain? Hickey, there was a game. I forgot. It was early in the season or maybe it was last year. They played a game in. Yeah, they played a game locally at like 10 a.m. in the morning. Yeah.

Last year against USC. Fox wanted it for big noon kickoff. Yeah. I'm like, this is 10 o'clock in the morning, local time, Mountain Standard.

Like just to put that. What are you doing? Like just this is almost like Brian Cashman earlier complaining about 2017 and the cheating Astros. Just go play the games, man. Like there's so much money getting thrown around. You're making money. Your student athletes, athletes, employees, whatever the hell you call them. They're out there making money. Why are we complaining about the schedule? The time that they have to get up in the morning and get ready? What are they going to get? They're going to fall asleep on Call of Duty. I guess this is part of the process.

Learn how to get them adjusted. Just what it is. Come on now. I am up all damn day. I'm up all damn day.

And I'm not doing rocket science work here on the radio, but it is certainly work. But come on. I work late. All things considered, the people listening to me work late. Get over it. It's life. You're playing football. Give me some money to knock people around.

And now they make money for it. Yeah, I have something. Tell them this study. OK, there's still students, right?

Some of the study on Saturday after they work out in the morning before they play at night. Guys will be fine. Always fond of something to complain about. Be happy.

Colorado is five in the two. And if you all were losing, you'd be complaining about that. Get over it. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break. When we come back, I'm going to give you an update on Thursday Night Football. Who's winning? Is it the Vikings? Is it the Rams? And what's this one Benyama dude doing right now against the Spurs or for the Spurs against the Mavs? I'll tell you on the other side. It's the JR Sport Reshow. Don't move.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-10-24 22:31:13 / 2024-10-24 22:47:49 / 17

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