It is! The JR Sportbrief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I am coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in all over North America. Thank you for being here. I'll be with you for one more hour. This show gets started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.
I'm in Atlanta. Thank you to our super producer and host, Ryan Hickey, holding it down for us in New York City. We've got a busy show. Unfortunately, yeah, Victor Wenbanyama out for the regular season. It stinks.
Thank you to Dr. David Chow for joining us to talk about it. Hey, we got the Four Nations Face-Off Finale. That's going on in Boston. Team Canada. Team USA. Team Canada is leading one to nothing.
Yeah. Team USA, they're playing in Boston. Come on, fans, rally them up and together. And thank you to Colin McHugh from the NBA on TNT.
Or, excuse me, Liam McHugh. Thank you to Liam for joining us, who covers all things NHL on TNT. We talked about some other things. Some good, some bad. Bobby Portis suspended for almost the rest of the season. He mistook his drugs, mixed up his drugs. Poor guy. Speaking of a poor guy. He got a college football player. Man, he got he got robbed. Carson Beck got robbed of both his cars down in Miami. Aaron Boone got a contract extension.
And I guess I spoke this into existence in Team USA. They just tied the game up. One goal apiece here before we get the conclusion of the first period. I'm trying to see who scored that. Oh, oh, was that a Kachuk brother, Hickey? Brady Kachuk, brother of champion Matthew Kachuk. Coming off with the assist from Matthews. They equalize and tie this game up in three minutes to go here in the first period. Canada one. Team USA.
One. And fans in Boston about to get rowdy. They're about to start turning things up.
Good for them. Like I said, I'll be here with you for one more hour. You want to be a part of the show?
You can't. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. That's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. Find me online. I'm everywhere at JR Sport Brief. We've certainly had a busy show with this four nations final between Canada and Team USA. And then, like I said, we talked about the unfortunate news surrounding Victor Wenbanyama. Nothing good.
Take a listen. This is what CBS News helped break earlier today. Continuing to follow that breaking news out of the NBA, San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wenbanyama is expected to miss the rest of the regular season. The team says Wimby has been diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder, which was discovered after he returned from the All-Star game this past weekend. The 21 year old, of course, was having a fantastic sophomore season, averaging 24 points, 11 rebounds, nearly four assists. He was the front runner for DPOY, and he was also leading the league with three point eight blocks per game.
It's going to suck. Chris Paul, man. We know he don't got a lot of basketball left in him, you know, I think he's trying to pass John Stockton.
I don't think it's going to happen on the all time assist list. Chris Paul is what he said, learning that Victor Wenbanyama is gone. First and foremost, I think everybody understands that, you know, basketball is what we do and not who we are.
You know, so life and everything is so much more important. But for us, we know losing a big part of our team like that is by committee. You know, and trust me, you can't replace Vic.
You know, I can't stand on a guy's shoulders and block every shot that comes to the rim. You know, and aside from his basketball ability, his charisma and what he brings into the locker room, I think is what we'll miss the most. Yeah, it's sad tonight down in Austin, Texas, the NBA and the San Antonio Spurs. Well, I guess you could say they still have a treat for everybody down in Austin. You know, Austin, Texas is not far from from San Antonio. And so the San Antonio Spurs were hosting scheduled to host a home game that's going to tip off in about 30, 40 minutes from now. The Phoenix Suns and Kevin Durant, a UT alum, spending that one year down in Texas where he dropped about 26 points a game.
This is supposed to be a homecoming. A little bit of the life has been sucked out of that game with no Victor Wenbanyama. As I told you, we spoke to Dr. David Chow, who's been a head physician in the NFL for a long time, the NBA. He said that all things considered, this is only a season ending. And unless something else is found that Victor Wenbanyama should be OK, of course, when it comes to health and medicals without reviewing them.
And even so, you never know. But he's going to take some time off to rest and get better. And Dr. David Chow believes that if unless there's something else that pops up, that he's going to be able to continue on with his career.
So that's some positive news. It's bad because you want to see Victor Wenbanyama, one of the more exciting players in the league. We we just got to wait and hopefully he can get his health together and be a healthy human being before he's a healthy basketball player. Now, one conversation that was had and I got into this this week and it's a response my own to Stephen A. Smith saying that he doesn't believe that an international player can be the face of the NBA. Stephen A. Smith basically said, how is an international player going to resonate with an American audience? He said that the NBA is an American sport. It's not basketball.
It was started by a Canadian fellow. The NBA is an American league that has embraced international players. And I pretty much said that, man, people respect game like if you can ball out and you try your hardest, people respect that. If you respect the fans, people respect that, too. So it's real simple. It doesn't matter where you're from. You could be from France, like when Benyama, you could be from anywhere. If you are going to bust your ass and you're going to show love to the fans who pay to see you. I don't think they care where you're from.
It's as simple as that. Well, you want to know who else had a response because Charles Barkley was back on TV today ahead of this game. Kevin Durant and the Suns down in Austin, Texas, to take on the Spurs. No, when Benyama, of course, Charles Barkley had something to say, and this is what he said to Stephen A. Smith on TNT. I saw some guys on another network the other day talking about face of the league.
And I was so annoyed just sitting around watching. And, you know, Jerry started with Kevin Durant was talking about when we benefit. First of all, you don't give anybody the face of the league. Am I right, Shaq? Shaq took being face.
When Matty Johnson and Larry Bird came in, they're like, we're the new sheriffs in town. Shaq took it. Kobe took it. LeBron took it.
Steph took it. But I get so annoyed when I hear these guys like, you don't give somebody something. That's one of the problems we got these idiots want to play an all star game. We've given them so much.
They have no respect for the history. But you don't give anybody the face of the game. You take it.
You don't anoint them. It's just, it becomes. You take it. Yeah, it's what the player is made of and what the player wants. And to counter what Shaq's saying, they, whoever they will be, they will try to put somebody as the face of the league. They do that. But, you know, Shaq makes a great point.
You have to go take it. And, you know, while they're sitting saying to him, John Moran is thinking something different. Luca's thinking something different. A lot of young guys say, OK, you're going to make him. Matt is thinking something different. Matt is thinking something different.
So, you know, it's just them against us in the room. Yeah, well, I mean, Anthony Edwards made it very clear how he feels. He's like, let it be one Benyama. And ultimately, hey, one Benyama probably is a prime candidate.
He actually he seems affable, his personality a little bit more relatable. Like the conversation has kind of been beat into the ground right now. My overall thought process is. It doesn't matter where anybody's from. If you can play, you can play.
You need an example, not necessarily an equal parallel, but close enough. The face of the league on the Dodgers. The face of Major League Baseball on the Dodgers. It's Shohei Ohtani.
Come on. What does he do or say, Hickey? We saw him park in a car the other day. That's how that's how exciting he is. He's parking a car and TMZ is like, oh, Tony parks a car. Crazy. I don't think I've ever seen a headline from TMZ star athlete parallel parks downtown.
Well, here's some. Have you ever seen Shohei Ohtani eat a meal? You ever seen him eat food? No, I'm honestly shocked he drives himself. I couldn't believe it. How about that?
I was shocked, too. I think someone like, you know, would drive him so he can optimize that time spent in the car by doing whatever. Recharging his batteries, recharging, right, plugging in, maybe reading, not reading. Does he does he have a USB on his side somewhere? Like, does he physically plug into the car? I would think so. Right.
That seems the most efficient. Probably drives an EV. Nothing wrong with that. But only the only time I've seen him drink is during the home run derby.
And that was kind of shocking, too. You're saying drink something that's not water. Was he drinking Gatorade? I don't know. I don't know.
The Shohei Ohtani drink. He was on. Was he? Oh, shoot. I don't know. I don't make this up now because they were there was definitely cameras in the locker room.
And the Dodgers went to the World Series and won the World Series. Wait, wait, wait, wait. You're about to say, does he drink? Has he been caught drinking a beer? He had a shot in his hands. Now, I don't know if he took it and maybe they just gave him. He's going, oh, yeah, I'll take the cup and I'll take the shot.
And, you know, as a ceremonial move. But you guys have booze out, you know, stick with water, my Ohtani juice, whatever he's got about this. I don't know if this is real or fake. I thought he drank 2023 Shohei Ohtani has a tequila party. Last Sunday, Shohei Ohtani caused a stir with an attention grabbing celebration by pretending to be drinking a shot of tequila.
Pretending. How about this? A week ago, Shohei Ohtani turns green tea into a bigger business. Mm hmm. Yeah. So he's one of one with these headlines.
No other athlete, if they do any of this stuff, are people writing about it, nor do they care. Wait, wait. Here we go.
October 2024 because TMZ has it all. Shohei Ohtani pounds beer sprays teammates. An epic, an epic NLCS celebration. And so drinks, Shohei Ohtani drinks a beer. Wow.
Twice a year, maybe three times a year. Shohei interrupted mid interview for some very important business. Oh, OK. Oh, well, somebody was pouring a beer on his head.
He opened his mouth for five seconds. All right. OK. Yeah. OK. Good for him. You know.
Oh, boy. He's a type of he's the type of guy, Hickey, where it's like, hey, I want to see him do something. I don't want to see him go off the rails.
Me and you had a conversation off the air about how some of the players just all over the place get into some terrible things. I don't want to see Shohei do anything terrible. Can we get something like that? Can he accidentally walk out of the supermarket without paying for a stick of gum? Can we get that from him? Could you imagine we had a Jamis crab like situation 2.0?
It took time. Has he ever gone into a supermarket? The cops come to the stadium pregame. He's pulled off the field. Oh, wow.
The closest he'll be to criminality is allowing that. What do I call him? Interpreter. Right.
Letting that interpreter. Rob him. Right. He had nothing to do with that. He just he was the victim of the robbery. Him having like a Scottie Scheffler moment. I think it could be good for his brand.
I think Scottie definitely benefited. What, getting pulled over on the way to work? I mean, obviously, you don't want to do anything crazy.
Like I said, just accidentally walk out of the supermarket with, I don't know, some crab legs. But I think all of a sudden, like if it's like Shohei Ohtani, three hours before the game, arrested. Right now, there's a picture of him like there's a mug shot.
And all of a sudden, like an hour later, there's like ESPN following the car. Shohei Ohtani is going to the stadium. Never. He's he's in the lineup. Oh, my God. He's playing.
Yeah, I think it'd be great for him. I think we're great for baseball, honestly. Never. Petty crime.
Never. He's like he's like Ichiro. What the hell did Ichiro ever do? Nothing. Just hit a baseball, right?
And apparently speaks perfect English, but no one will ever know. Hickey, let me tell you something. Top six list. Oh, I guess that was yesterday.
Damn. It feels like eight years ago that I did the top six list. Yesterday's top six list was taking a look at some of the best international players to ever participate here in North America.
I included Canada. I had Ichiro on the list. We had a guy who called up. I forget his name.
Hickey, he he he said, I don't agree with Ichiro on your list. I would put Hideo Nomo there. And I had to go, what? I had to go Hideo Nomo.
I said, are you serious? Like I know what Hideo Nomo did and what he meant. What's the comparison? Like who who had a better career? Was it Ichiro or Nomo?
And I just I needed a smoke when he told me that yesterday I needed a smoke. Was there any explanation like numbers wise or just like, hey, you know, he wasn't unanimous, so he sucks. Is that the explanation? Like there was no explanation really outside of Hideo Nomo was here first and helped open things up. And I'm like, OK, he had a great rookie year. He had that funky ass wind up.
Yeah, it was cool looking. But did you see what I actually made the point that you just made? I said that he must be best friends with that one guy who didn't vote Ichiro into the Hall of Fame. That's it.
That's it. And oh, by the way, yeah, Ichiro apparently does speak perfect English. But Hickey, I must have looked at every single clip when he was inducted and introduced and honored and interviewed upon his, you know, well, the announcement. You want to know how many words I heard him speak in English? Zero.
Like two. Ken Griffey Jr. sent him a verbalized a message to him and Ichiro was just like, thank you. I was like, Otani, did he say thank you, fans? That was it.
Yeah, I love you, Dodger fans. This one's for you. Something like that. Thank you. Thank you. Boom. OK, that's it.
Yeah. When he did last year, he won the MVP again. He read Otani that we actually still might have this in the system from yesterday. Maybe Otani read us. He read a prepared speech from baseball writers of America and he read it in English. And it was just very apparent that he was reading it. And he's just like, he thanked everybody for the award. He apologized that he couldn't be there due to the wildfires in California. And he wanted to thank the Dodgers and the organization. Yeah, it looked like they said, hey, show. They said, show.
Hey, read this. And he did it. You can speak English. We heard a lot of English from a lot of other athletes this week. Did you hear Rafael Devers this week, Hickey? I heard him. I heard his teammates.
A lot of English from the Red Sox dugout. Yeah. Devers.
Devers. You want to move? All he said, no. He said no. Same thing. Vladimir Guerrero Junior had an interpreter for his entire conversation.
Hey. And when they asked him whether or not he felt that they were getting close to negotiations, his answer was no. And so I guess if if it's not thanks or no. Just an interpreter. Let's see if we get show he's speaking more English this year. I doubt it. Guy probably doesn't want to be robbed.
I can't blame him. It's the JR sport re show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven.
That's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. Hey, we told you about the extension of Aaron Boone in New York Yankees. Yankees extending him another two years.
Well, how about this? Out west in Arizona, the Cubs, the Dodgers. They were guinea pigs. They utilized the automatic robo ump's today. Yeah. Major League Baseball is testing this out.
And apparently it did its job. Technology's taken everything over, including baseball. I'll explain that on the other side of the break. And someone who probably hates technology is Bill Belichick. He had something very let's just say it wasn't nice.
Not nice to say about the Jets. We'll get into that. Of course, before we roll out, we'll talk about a few things that happened this day in sports history.
There's a lot more to do. It's the JR sport re show coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR sport brief.
It is the JR sport re show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven eight. Shout out to everybody listening in the north right now. We got the north versus the south. We got we got the ballot North America. We got Canada, USA tied at one goal apiece here.
Things just getting underway in the four nations face off in the second period. We'll keep you up to date. Marco Balletti will be here in a few minutes to give you the full update on everything going on in the world of sports.
Right before we went to break. You know, we talked some some baseball. We talked about Shohei Ohtani and the attention that he's getting. Aaron Boone getting a contract extension.
I got to bring this to your attention. We know things have changed in baseball over the past several years and seasons. Larger bases. We got a pitch clock.
This is a lot going on right now. One thing that Major League Baseball has been testing in the minor leagues over the past few seasons is a system that can basically automatically measure a ball versus a strike. We know umpires are kind of crazy. Some are worse than others where you can look at a ball clearly over the plate and umpire goes ball.
You look at a ball that is clearly outside the zone and the umpire will go, man, that's a strike. And you got to go, well, what the hell is he looking at? Does umpire have four eyes? Does he have eight eyes? Is he a spider?
Does he have six eyes? And the players don't they don't have any recourse. Well, now they do. This is a system that Major League Baseball has tested, like I said, in the minors. And this is the first time that they are now testing this here at the major league level in spring training. The Chicago Cubs, the Los Angeles Dodgers, they're going to be heading out to Japan to start the regular season. And so as a result, they've already started playing in exhibition games.
They started today. And this was the first day that the system was available to the guys in the majors. Now, in essence, this system isn't calling every ball and strike. The umpires are still there to do their jobs, but the players have the opportunity to challenge a call if they should choose. Only the pitcher, the hitter or the catcher can decide to challenge. The guys in the dugout can't do it. The manager can't decide to scream and yell and go challenge, challenge, challenge is not like the NFL. We won't see Bill Belichick throwing a flag out of his sock.
We'll get to that in a minute. This is different. And so the umpires still have a job, but the players can pretty much say, hey, I want to play call.
You only get two challenges a game. And so today, as the Dodgers played and the Cubs played, Cody Poteet, pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, he had a ball thrown that he did not agree with. And ultimately, he said he wanted to have that call challenged. And well, it was overturned. I want you to take a listen to this.
I think we should probably get used to it. This is from Spectrum Sportsnet earlier today. One pitch inside one ball, one strike. The other thing we discovered about Max Muncy is that Dave Roberts had a discussion with the guys about the ABS and how we're going to challenge everything else.
However, everybody at the green light except one. He's at home plate right now. They're being Max Muncy. And he was told not to challenge it. He just challenged. Yeah.
So, so here we go. The Cubs challenged that one. So it wasn't Max.
So he's on the hook. Home plate umpire Tony Rondazzo. Here's here's what it looked like. So it was a strike. So the Cubs challenge, guessing that it was the catcher, Reese McGuire. And it was overturned like the umpire basically went out there and said, hey, this is a ball. It turned out it was a strike. And then Max Muncy, he ended up striking out.
So it worked in their favor. I'm fine with this. I can deal with it. You get two of these a game. Do you want to use it early?
Do you want to add it late? I know this sounds nuts because this goes against everything that I feel baseball stands for. There's mistakes in baseball. There's discretion in baseball. This is a different element of strategy that actually includes technology like base.
Like let's be real. Baseball is a sandlot game. You're playing baseball on dirt.
You're playing baseball on grass. And can we add computers just to get a flat ball or strike? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. We can.
There's no going back. I get it. And as much as I'm not fine with it, I'm an advocate for it. Like, I'm being honest.
Yeah, I still think there should be a human element to it. I personally wouldn't mind if we just had robots calling the strike zone for what it is. I mean, there's so much discretion from umpire to umpire. What's a ball? What's a strike? What's in?
What's out? Who's friendly to pitchers? Who's friendly to hitters? I just I just call it even. I get it.
We're not getting rid of the umpires because everybody needs a job and we have the union for umpires. I can live with. Hey, you got two challenges.
Use them. You want to use a challenge in the first inning? Probably not. Do you want to start using it later in the game? Yeah, maybe.
I'm cool with this. It's not going to be in the majors this season. They've been testing it in the minors.
We could see it as soon as next year. You imagine a major league baseball game getting help. This is like VAR in soccer. This is like watching like tennis. Is the ball in? Is the ball out? It takes two seconds to look on a stupid computer. And everybody can be justified.
Major League Baseball statistics say that there's a 50 50 chance based on what we've seen in the minors. That a call gets overturned. So you got to be careful when you utilize the challenge as well. It could be a waste of damn time. Picky, what are your thoughts? You like this system? I do. I do. It gets the call right.
And it's quick and efficient. You reference tennis. And that to me is exactly what this is reminiscent of. Almost exactly to where like obviously we couldn't see because it's well, we heard it. But the TV call we just played when they were talking about let's see how it looks. It's a strike. It essentially is the tennis replay of it in or out. It's the ball coming across.
You have the strike zone and either hits it strike or misses it ball and shows you how much it missed by. It's pretty black and white. It's pretty easy. It's like you said, it's pretty quick.
That was just what 30 seconds. You challenge it. OK, calls either confirmed overturned new count counts as the same. Let's move on. I think this is great.
I'm looking forward to being implemented. I like that. It's also, again, two times a game. So it's not going to be every single pitch. Let me challenge it to you.
Let me challenge it there. Let's take more time to, you know, try to get lucky. And maybe the strike I thought was there was actually not whatever. I think this is a great use of technology that will help the game of baseball.
Is it inevitable? I mean, we we got sick. I hate the pitch clock. I get it. I understand it.
It needed it. Guys are taking too damn long. I hate the fact you can only throw over, but so many times.
But whatever. This is just an added layer and level like baseball is the last sport you think about when it comes to being technologically advanced. Like, let's just play on a dirt, hit the ball you run and keep it moving like there's so many intricacies to the game now that they've implemented over the past few years.
What happens when we get this in like a world? Can you imagine the tension in a World Series game? I guess it's good. It's good for entertainment.
It's good theater. I'm sure the umpires don't particularly care for it, but you still got a job. So I guess the umpires got to just go ahead and suck it up. It'll be here sooner than later.
And the majors, I should say, on a full time basis. Marco, how do you feel about this future implementation? What's going to happen? I love this one. Again, the fact that it's quick, the fact that it's somewhat simplistic and you can get it done quickly and you can actually help out a call. And it's true, you can't have it where you have it every at bat because then we're going to get to the point where we abuse it, which is the reason why we have pitch clocks to begin with. Players need to take a couple of seconds to breathe in between pitches. There's a lot going on. You took too damn long, you abused it for too long, and now we have a clock because you wouldn't get in the box.
You have to do something where you have to keep it inside a box. I don't know about two times a game. That seems to me a little... Oh, to each team.
Each team gets to challenge. That seems a little small, but it's fine to begin. I feel like you can make that a little bit more. But you can't start with, you know, say one per at bat because then it'll be huge.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's overkill. I think two is OK because it's going to prevent people from just, you know, you got to use it late in the game. It becomes strategic.
Yeah, no, I get it, but I also want it to be right, though. Yeah, but either that or, you know, what happens? We got an ace pitcher on the mound and, you know, he's laboring through the first inning. He's thrown 30-something pitches. They need him to go five or six. He's getting his ass whooped and guy's on base now and he's just like, oh, man, I threw a strike.
I need to get the hell on out this inning. I mean, could that be an instance where you go, I'm going to challenge that to get out of this inning? Probably. Maybe. But for the most part, when you only have two challenges, I'm going to think you're going to use them, you know, in the latter thirds.
I would think so. And that's also partly where you talk about strategy, because it's not going to be the managers that are calling for it. It's the players. So a guy in the box in the fourth inning that thinks he drew ball four and he's getting called, you know, called out on a 3-2 pitch. You think he's going to be able to say, you know what, I'm going to save this in case the seventh inning, another guy, no, no, he's calling for it. So the idea that it's going to be twice and that's it and it's going to be strategic the whole way through, it's not.
They're baseball players. If they think, especially a guy with a good eye, if he thinks that ball is a foot outside and he knows damn well it is, he's not going to wait. He's not going to look to the dugout. You got to do it quickly.
Hand to the top of the head. He's going to want ball three. Well, let's also be clear. Baseball players are cheaters, OK?
Well, that could be part of it, too. But we already got we got guys. Oh, I'm not going to say people are going to be banging trash cans, but the fact that only the pitcher, the hitter or the catcher can go out there and call for the review.
Like how long? I mean, of course, somebody is going to be in a dugout trying to relay a sign to the guy. And he's like, hey, we need to call that when you're not supposed to. So everybody is always going to try to be ahead of the curve. I mean, the Yankees got in trouble for watches.
We got a team that got in trouble for trash cans. That's just it's going to happen. I'm here for it.
I'm I'm embracing the technology. The game is different. It's what it is.
What can I do? I believe also to answer your question, Marco, how it works is this. You get two challenges, but if you get it right, you keep them. I get that.
And that's important, too, because not with the NFL. Well, you know, you got to get them both right to get the third. I get it.
That's good. However, even if you keep it at two, if you use you get both of them right, you get to keep what both of them. So every one of them that you're right, you really think you can hold this in your pocket in the third and the fourth and the fifth and the sixth. There is no way that a starting pitcher is going to care about what the reliever needs to do in the eighth inning. There's no way. Again, there's no way that a guy batting whatever in the lineup is concerned about his walk or his strikeout is going to say, you know what? In the sixth, we might need it.
He's not going to care. Is that good for you? I think one of the things I'm good with when the first year, if you want to keep it like that, I'm good. If we see that it's working, then I think it should get more and more and more of it. Again, not to be abused because you if you start it with it's almost like a kid, you give him too much leeway. He's only going to ask for more.
It's the same nonsense with baseball players and any other league. You've got to start small and give them more because if you do it the other way, it never works. But we have to get more than just two once we find out this works.
And I think we're going to find that it works because it worked in the minors. All right. OK, more. What's next?
But like umpire is going to have a laser to shoot you if you get it wrong. I don't know. Now we're talking, you know, it's like, hey, you skyrockets the number one sport in America. Yeah, you I got it right. You were wrong. And so now I'm just going to shoot a laser out of my head at you.
I don't know, man. Look, you're right. But at the same time, like and I'm a I'm a baseball guy at heart. It's the first sport that I ever play is the first sport I ever loved all that. But it's it's failing. It's failing compared to the younger kids. It's slow. It's not exactly the game that everybody loves. And let's be fair, it's also really difficult to bet on. So that's part of it, too. And it doesn't have that same appetite that forget football. But even like a basketball, you have to do things to be able to get eyeballs on it.
If this helps, so be it. I don't like the clock. But if that gets more people to watch it, then you either got to adapt with it or you got to let it die. But like you can't sit here and tell me, well, I liked it better 30 years ago.
No kidding. I would love if Ricky Henderson was leading off for my favorite team and they actually ran and they hit and run. Like, I would love that game to come back.
It's not going to come back. So you either got to figure it out or you're going to sit there and watch it die because everybody's sitting a buck 90 trying to hit home runs. And it takes six years to get a pitch to come through.
Marco, I'm not getting closer to being born again. So I mean, well, anyway, there's a million ways that can go. Hey, there's a lot going on. You are listening to the J.R. sport brief, the J.R. sport brief show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. How about this?
Yeah. Team USA is still leading Canada in the four nation final two to one. If the score should change in any type of way before we get out of here, I will certainly let you know. Speaking of change, right before we went to break, we talked about the implementation of the automatic ball and strike system in Major League Baseball. They're testing it out right now in the preseason games, the spring training games. They've been using it in the minor leagues for the past few years, and it may be at the major league level as soon as next season. There's another change that's going to take place very, very quickly for Major League Baseball. This news actually came down the line while we were here on the air. You don't want to miss this.
I will tell you exactly what it is. But before we get to that, it's time to get to a few things that took place this day in sports history. 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. It is the JR Sport Brief Show on the Infinity Sports Network.
Today is February 20th, 2025, February 20th and 1998. You might remember her name, Tara Lipinski. She became the youngest Olympic champion in figure skating history. She was 15 years old in Nagano, Japan, walking away with that gold.
Listen to this, courtesy of CBS. Tara Lipinski, congratulations. You're the new Olympic champion. Oh, my God, that feels so good. I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine what it's like. And right now I'm like in shock.
I can't believe I'm an Olympic champion. You said you've dreamt about it so many times. Is this how you imagined it would be?
Oh, just like this. I went out there and it was perfect. The lighting, everything. I felt so good doing my program. You know, I just forgot about everything. And it just seemed to work.
Hey, from one prodigy to another. February 20th, 2011. Kobe Bryant won the MVP in the All-Star Game. Of course, it was the All-Star Game was February. Hey, the West beat the East 148 to 143.
They held on. Kobe Bryant. This man had 37 points. Hey, listen to David Stern. Give Kobe Bryant the award.
They're not here anymore. Unfortunately, listen to this NBA. We saw some spectacular display of basketball, but there can only be one MVP, Kobe Bryant. And he now has his fourth All-Star MVP tied for the most in NBA history. Being around so many young players just kind of gave me so much energy to see them bouncing around and all this stuff.
It just re-energized me for the night. Yeah, Kobe Bryant. Great. God rest his soul. Same thing for David Stern.
He's the one who helped make this league international for what it is today. Pretty amazing. Great stuff. Right before I told you what we went to break. I had mentioned we were talking about the changes in baseball. This news is actually broke while we're here on the air. This year, this season, the 2025 season is going to be the last year that Major League Baseball will be broadcast on ESPN. It's crazy. OK, I could think about Sunday night baseball.
I could think about it all. It's going to be over on ESPN. Commissioner Rob Manfred noted he has not been pleased with the minimal coverage that ESPN has given MLB on its platforms.
Is that a shock? I mean, you turn on ESPN, you flip around, it's a lot of NFL. Well, a lot of NFL. A lot of NBA. Not much else in between. Right. This you think about the premiere show, I guess on ESPN would be first take this heavily NFL and basketball.
Not a lot of not a lot of anything else. ESPN has been paying Major League Baseball five hundred and fifty million dollars a season to continue to distribute MLB games. And I know I couldn't even tell you what their their show is. Hickey, what's the show called when they got to show a half hour show in a year? Is it MLB the show? I don't know.
MLB baseball tonight. That's right. Yeah. And that does that. Does that.
And that doesn't just come on on Sunday before the Sunday night baseball. That's throughout the week. Right. I don't know. I don't think so.
It's that I guess that leads to Rob Manfred's point. Right. I think so. Yeah. Outside like maybe like I think they do like a Wednesday game, maybe. Oh, my God. Outside of that, I think it's just Sunday night.
And that's it. You could find Major League Baseball everywhere. It has been on ESPN. They had a distribution agreement with NBC.
They had that Sunday morning game on Apple TV. I don't think Amazon has any base. Did Amazon touch that yet? Baseball?
No, not yet. It's just Roku. Roku had a game.
Roku had a. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Every Sunday. Base. I don't I don't know. It's just going to be odd to not. So Turner Turner has baseball.
We know that, too. Like trying to watch a game, especially when the playoffs start is like, is it on ESPN? Is it on Turner? Where do I find a game? I think that's an issue for baseball. That's one thing to take money from everybody and then complain that ESPN doesn't highlight us. Can you make it easier for us to find the games in one place? I get it. You want to take everybody's money.
Can you make it easier for us first? Picky, who do you think picks up Sunday night baseball? Can't be NBC doing basketball now. I hope Fox like their presentation of baseball. How do I forget that Fox has baseball?
Oh, my God. Well, easy, because I think they only do playoffs like they do like Saturday. That's classic. They've been doing. Sometimes they do double headers on Fox, too. No, they've stopped that, I think.
Wow. I mean, I would rather have Fox on Sunday night than Saturday night. Fox Sunday night baseball.
I think I'm interested. Doesn't Fox run cartoons during that time? Exactly right. Yeah. I don't know if they're going to switch that up.
That's great. You think cartoons is better advertising? Are you saying like they're going to get rid of the cartoons to run baseball? I don't know.
I was thinking reruns. No, I know. No, I don't think so. Hey, this is bad news for Team USA. Canada just tied the game to all. So it's two to six minutes to go in the second period.
And we got a little bit of a barn burner starting up here in Boston, the finale between Team USA and Canada, the four nations. You've been listening to the J.R. Sportbreeze show here on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you so much to Dr. David Cho for joining us. Ciao.
Excuse me. And also Liam McHugh from TNT, NHL on TNT. I'll be back on Monday. Hickey's holding it down tomorrow. J.R. Sportbreeze show done. Bart Winkler coming up next.
