Elliot Johnson, former MLB player, joins Adam to talk about Aaron Judge and if he is on a Babe Ruth level?

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Visit us at Capital Financial USA.com. This is the Adam Gold Show. We actually said the quiet part out loud yesterday in that, and I hope this is not true going forward, but it does bear just keeping in the back of your mind when you look at the Panthers offensive line going forward. That there were many people in the lead up to the draft, many people that insisted that Iki Iquanu was a guard and not a tackle. That doesn't mean he can't still be great, but there are a lot of people that thought that he was better suited to guard. He is so far not a good pass blocker, and you can't play left tackle if you cannot protect your quarterback's blind side.

Can't play it. So, we're going to give it more time, but for right now, just keep it in the back of your head because it's possible. It's possible. Hopefully it won't be necessary. Hopefully they won't have to slide Iquanu because it's tough to find a left tackle. The reason why there are certain positions in the NFL that are premium positions, left tackle is one of them. Quarterback's the most important one, and I know Panthers fans watched Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts play last night and went, man, why can't we have one of those?

I feel seen. Yeah. Yeah. Even Jalen Hurts, who's not Josh Allen. Like, God, we take that.

Uh-huh. He might be really good. He might be really good.

He actually played really well, and he's been dynamite through two games. All right, let's do a wall of sound, and then we have some other things to do. Elliot Johnson is going to talk Aaron Judge with us in about 15 minutes.

The wall of sound is a function of this studio. There's no doubt about it. All right, we're going to do in chronological order. There was a doubleheader on Monday Night Football last night. We had Titans-Bills that started earlier, like 7 or 730, and then Eagles and Vikings started at 830, the first on ESPN, the second on ABC. And let's start with Sean McDermott, the Bills head coach, who will bore us with head coach things about how they won the football game. Both coaching staffs with the defense, offense, special teams, they did a great job. Good game plans, players executed. I thought it was good fundamental football. I thought we were a little maybe erratic early, you know, and we settled in and started playing good discipline football for the most part. I should say fundamentally strong football.

We still need to add some discipline into what we do there. I'm sorry. I almost fell asleep listening to Sean McDermott. Let's go to the quarterback, Josh Allen, who, as all good quarterbacks do, recognize when... Now, Josh is a special football player, undoubtedly, but good quarterbacks recognize when somebody else is also special. He is what he is.

It's Stefan Viggs. You know, we know he is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, you know, receiver in the game right now, and I trust him implicitly. I love that guy.

He works his tail off. And I'll tell you what, on that long touchdown drive, I can't praise him enough. You know, he ran a deep go. He came back. He ran a quick out.

He got a look. He's on the sideline running. And to have that stamina and that want and that will to keep going, not taking a play off there, you know, and he got rewarded. But again, I can't praise him enough for that because he just put his head down. He worked tonight. He's awesome. Stefan Viggs is amazing. And it's not Allen making him amazing. I said several times that I think Aaron Rodgers made Devante Adams.

Stefan Viggs ready-made. He is tremendous. The losing head coach yesterday, Mike Vrabel. Now, I think he's a very good head coach.

Tennessee could have a really tough year. It does not reflect to me on Vrabel, who I think is excellent at his job. But maybe as good head coaches do, taking the blame for last night. Playing and play calling go hand in hand. You know, there's always going to be some plays out there as a player that you wish you had back.

There's always going to be calls as a play caller that you wish you had back. Now is not the time. We've never done it.

It's not going to be about one person. We got our ass kicked. Plain and simple. They out coached us. They outplayed us. And that's the definition of it. And so we're going to get back to work and we're going to figure out a way to win a football game. I think they're a decent football team, Tennessee.

I think that's as far as it goes. They were the number one seed in the AFC last year. And I can easily see them missing the playoffs.

And the biggest, there are other issues for this. The injury to Landry, the defensive end before the season, a former BC guy. That hurts because he's one of the best pass rushers in the league. But their issue is that offensively, they are so mediocre because Ryan Tannehill is a quarterback that needs a running game to be successful. But in order to have a running game, you need more of a threat in the passing game.

You can't be one dimensional. And when they traded AJ Brown because they didn't want to pay him, I just didn't know he's the perfect wide receiver for them. Perfect. Robert Woods, couple of years removed from a pretty major injury. Maybe last year from a pretty major injury.

He's really good, but he's not AJ Brown. And I just thought that was a bad mistake. And I think they're being exposed offensively. And they, frankly, kicked the game last night, the way they played. They were terrible last night.

They're not 34 points worse than the Buffalo Bills. All right, the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, winners last night, Nick Sirianni, who, by the way, when Alec was here, we made a ton of fun of Nick Sirianni for some of the stupid things he said last year. The whole, we're going to compete.

We're going to play rock, paper, scissors. He's a heck of a head coach. Right.

Right. I mean, the stuff we made fun of was jokable, but he's a heck of a head coach. And he's got, he thinks, a heck of a quarterback. He's put in so much work. And of course, you know, it has, it's slowing down, but it should, right, for him at this point because, you know, he's a year out. He's a year ahead of, you know, he's a year further into his process.

And we're talking about getting better every day. And he lives that. He's one of our captains. He's one of our leaders. And he lives the theory of getting better every day. And that's why you're seeing major improvements because of the type of person and the type of player he is.

Like, I've said this before, the person matters here. Think, just remember this, Jalen Hurts was at Alabama and lost his job to Tua Tungavailoa at the end of the season. They needed Tua to win, I think it was a playoff game. They needed him to win a playoff game.

Hurts, very steady, very solid. Tua, at that time, very dynamic. And maybe he's dynamic now. But they needed what Tua could bring versus what Jalen Hurts was bringing. He didn't leave, stuck it out, played the entire next season as the backup, and then went to Oklahoma. And he played all year under Lincoln Riley. And that was really good for his development as a quarterback. And he goes to Philadelphia and he sits behind Carson Wentz and even Nick Foles, I think. I think he's waited his time.

Now he's getting his shot. And solid guys like Jalen Hurts can be winners. Keyshawn Johnson recognized what I did in Place Your Bets. You look at where they're at in their schedule, they've got a cakewalk into the bye. And even after the bye, they got the Commanders, the Jaguars, the Cardinals, the Cowboys, the By, the Steelers, and the Texans.

Come on now, their schedule is set up for them to have the number one seed in the NFC. I mean, that could be true. Schedules matter. I always hear, well, it doesn't matter who you play.

Yeah, it does. It does matter who you play, especially in the NFL where schedules are built based on where you finished in your division. It's the way the league is structured. It's all part of the grand plan to have as many teams with similar records as possible.

So we call it parody. Now Keyshawn did get out over his skis about Jalen Hurts this way. I don't give a damn about all the other stuff that people care about at this position. I care about football players. Can that young man help me win?

That's all I care about. And he showed me that he is one of those guys putting in another bucket. And he is in that bucket with the MVP candidate for me as of right now in terms of Lamar Jackson and Kyler Murray. I'm sliding him right over there. We're two weeks in. We can't be having MVP conversations two weeks in.

But if we're going to have it. Well, he's the MVP. So or Josh Allen is the MVP, right?

So I can't I can't too soon. We're talking MVP, right? OK, Elliot Johnson, we talked MVP with Elliot Johnson last week.

Judge versus Otani. We are not going to discuss MVP, but we are going to discuss Aaron Judge and maybe some performance enhancing that has nothing to do with Aaron Judge and baseball in general with Elliot Johnson next. It is remarkable to me that somebody is plus 150 to hit a home run in a major league game. Exactly.

It might be on the other one, Victoria, as I go, as we give people behind the scenes, we're going to be joined by Elliot Johnson in the second. The only thing I can compare it to is there was a time when Tiger Woods to win a major golf tournament was even money, even money. In other words, Tiger had as good a chance to win as all of the other players combined. It's never happened before. Aaron Judge is plus 150 at a home run against the Pirates today before we get to Elliot Johnson.

Quick correction. I don't know why O'Neill Cruz left handed batter, not a right handed batter shortstop. I don't know why I assume he's right handed hitter, but he's not left handed batter and he's got some pop. He's got 17 home runs in less than half season. And I have him to Homer tonight as well. Elliot Johnson, Bulls, Rays, Royals, Guardians legend and Braves as well.

Thank you very much for your time. Let's talk about Aaron Judge. Not in the context of MVP or anything else, but just in the context of the season that he's having. You sent me the stat the last time somebody was over 300 batting average, over 400 on base, over 500 slugging and Judge blows them all away.

Was Barry Bonds and I believe 2003 was it or 2004. What do you make of what Aaron Judge has done this year at bat? Pretty impressive, hasn't it? I think that one of the think of this stat here, Adam. And in the Statcast era where we are now, you know, and hopefully a lot of your listeners can appreciate where I'm going to go with this.

So you have leading market indicators and lagging market indicators. So a lot of your listeners will be tied up on batting average and so on, so forth. But trying what's being taught today and any of the people that want to play this game at a high level, your only focus, your only goal is the things that you can control. And so it's actually you're trying to influence how you hit the ball, how hard you hit the ball for a couple of reasons. One, because the harder you hit it, the less reaction time that the defense has.

Two, we know that a ball hit within a certain parameters of launch angle and leaving the bat at 95 degrees or better has a 65 percent chance of resulting in positive result for the offense. OK, right. So Aaron Judge had five balls hit above 110 miles an hour in one game.

I mean, it's never been done before. It's unbelievable. So for him to be doing what he's doing right now and he's only getting better. I think his O.P.S.

I think his O.P.S. plus or you know, is above 200 for the month of September. It's unbelievable. He's 100 percent better than an average Major League Baseball player. So I mean, my favorite thing I can't you know, and you know what I like to do when I'm on here is make fun of Yankees fans.

Sure. The fact that the Steinbrenner family, Cashman, Levine, whomever you want to choose to point the blame at, blowballed him so badly they're going to be licking their wounds if he leaves and goes to the Mets this off season, then the fans should call for somebody to be to have their head roll because obviously he loves the pressure. He's in New York for a reason.

And they they try to get that on guys like Joey Gallo that couldn't handle it or whatever the case may be. He relishes in it. He loves it. He wants it. And now you're gonna have to pay that man. And the annual average value better start with a four.

Yeah. Look, you and I talked about this before the season started, and I was shocked at how it was discussed by the writers in New York. Judge turns down X like not many turned it down because it was a terrible contract for Aaron Judge. The Yankees were trying to get a get away with a hometown discount, which I get. But you had somebody going into his walk here who was probably going to get the biggest contract we've ever seen, even if he was just normal Aaron Judge. But now we have supersized Aaron Judge.

I don't even know where the numbers should start. I think it's going to be a four hundred million dollar deal. He's already twenty nine. So it's going to be hard for it to be longer than a 10 year contract. But my gosh, with the D.H. and if he stays in good shape and I have no reason to believe he won't, he's a great athlete. Man, this guy this guy might age well.

Well, he's getting better, Adam. So he's still within the prime of his career the next three years. So you're going to have to pay him relatively close to market value for those years. And you're going to have to overpay him as he starts to age because it just is what it is. So he's going to mix in an injury or two.

It's going to happen. But the nature of this is where the Yankees were playing with fire. Instead of offering him what he felt like he was worth something closer to what he felt like he was worth. They they completely lowballed him because the market both ways and try to leak out to the media that, oh, we offered him this wonderful deal and he didn't take it. We tried. No, you didn't.

No, you didn't burn for it. And they're they're going to be really, really upset if he's wearing a mess jersey next year. Yeah. Personally, I think he stays with the Yankees because they will pay him because they can. Now, maybe to stay under the luxury tax and the luxury tax came out and Steve Cohen did get past the the Steve Cohen tax, the fourth level of the luxury tax. Congratulations to Steve Cohen. He doesn't care.

It's just one player. Twenty nine million dollars in a luxury tax penalty. He'll happily pay it as long as the Mets are good. I mean, the Yankees can afford that, too. They print money in the Bronx. OK, so I know I want to put the season that he's having in this historical context with his last home run.

The word was the words were uttered. He's one away from Ruth. Now, Babe Ruth doesn't hold the Yankee record for home runs in a season. He doesn't hold the all time record for home home runs in a season. But in one hundred and fifty four games, he's the only man who ever hit 60. And that's about to fall unless Judge goes into a pretty big slump over the next week or so.

The what is that significance for Judge? And is that going to be recognized, do you think, as the actual record? No, I don't think it's going to be recognized as the record.

You remember Asterix for Maris's purposes, just because ended it from 154 to 162. So, you know, we removed that. I don't think you know, I think history is what it is and we're going to need to move past it.

So the record is 73. It is, you know, I understand that that's a debate to be had, but, you know, we don't need to have that today. But I think for in terms of Aaron Judge and what he's doing in the Bronx. I mean, he's up there. You know, he's anytime you utter your name and Babe Ruth, especially the way I was raised. You know, I was driving my kids to school the other day and and my daughter, Skylar, said, hey, I was arguing with somebody because they told me that the best player was I can't remember. They tried to say Mike Trout. And I told him Babe Ruth. I was like, good girl.

That's my girl. Best player. OK. And we can have debates over, you know, Ted Williams, if you want. Willy, you want to. And Garen, if you want.

All of them are great people. But I mean, we're talking about a season in 2022 where we're talking about Ruth type things and Maris type things. It's exciting. It's wonderful. And I'm happy as can be for the guy. And not only, you know, as it gets closer and closer, what he hit, you know, a couple more recently. You know what?

Last night, for goodness sake. So, you know, he's enjoying the heck out of it. And he's going to have to figure out what it's like to get pitched around here pretty soon, because I don't think anybody's just going to go ahead and just throw it up there for him to hit 150 miles an hour.

All right. So without Elliott, Johnson is joining us here in the Adam Gold show without getting deep into the the performance enhancing drug debate. The the home run record was obviously it was bastardized by what Maguire and Sosa did in 1998, which is still one of the most exciting summers I have ever experienced as a baseball fan in real time. And then five years later, when Barry Bonds took it to 73, we all understand how those things happened.

But they are the rules. And is it this is the way I look at it, whether I like it or not. I don't think Barry Bonds or Maguire or Sosa was doing something that all I don't even know what percentage 40 percent of their competitors weren't also doing, including pitchers. So I mean, it is what it is, but the record is 73. Is that a fair way of looking at it?

It is. It is so that the you know, and really where we're running into now, Adam, if you think about it. So I mean, you know, so both pitchers and position guys were doing it. OK, so we Roger Clemens was doing it. Well, you know, I mean, unless you ask him right now.

So he misremembered. I would argue that today's game, today's pitchers are better than they were in the steroid. Adam, I would say there's more velocity than less.

I would say there were expertise on how to figure out how to get guys out. There's a better feel for spin and how to utilize it. So I would I would make an argument that what Aaron Judge is doing today is in some ways better than what's been done in the past, simply because the competition on the field. And you can quantify the velocities increase in velocity. You can quantify all those different things. I mean, imagine trying to chase home runs when you're facing DeGrom every fifth day. So, you know, I think that that's something to be said for historical purposes as well.

I don't like taking anything away. I think we're witnessing history and I'm excited that Aaron Judge is doing it. He's a whole lot of fun to watch. And then also, I love the way he puts his head down and just runs.

And not to say that I don't like guys that backflip and do all that and make it fun. But the reason behind it is because he hit a ball off of the wall when he was younger, when he pimped it. And he said he made a commitment to himself. He would never do it again.

And he's held true on that commitment to himself. I hope he pimps number 60 and 61, though. And I wouldn't I wouldn't hate it if it came tonight against the Pirates. Elliot Johnson, my friend, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. We'll be watching tonight.

Pirates at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx for what could be historic. Maybe I'll go hit two more like he did on Sunday. Thank you so much. We'll talk again very soon. Thanks, Adam. You got it.

Elliot Johnson. Justin Fields comment, and I'm not going to say more about it other than, you know, the Bears lost. They're just one in one, folks. The Bears lost a game to the Packers, which day ends in a Y. They always lose to the Packers.

Always. Right. So they lost a game. Fans get mad. Fans say things on social media. Justin Fields says this. I mean, it hurts more than like the Bears. I mean, because at the end of the day, they're not putting any work.

I see the guys in my room every day. I see how much work they put in. So that made people mad, big, mad, very mad. Because why would you be mad at that? People like to be mad.

You want your the athletes who play for your team. You want them to care. And then when they explain to you that they actually care more than you do. You get mad. And then we make excuses.

Dan Graziano, ESPN. Here's what he had to say. Obviously, what he's saying is like, like if you're like the players and the coaches take this harder than the fans do it. And I'm always amazed that fans don't believe that. But it is true. It's just there's no reason to say it like there's no benefit to the professional athlete to say something that's negative about the fan base. Or it's just you got to you got to find a different way to express it.

And I mean, like, again, it's just it can be as simple as, look, trust me, we're taking it as hard as you guys are. I mean, I listen to the comment. There wasn't anything negative about the fans. He didn't say, what the hell do the fans know? He didn't say that. He just said, I understand the fans, but we want it more than they do, basically.

Pretty much. I don't have a problem with Jay Williams, also from ESPN, Keyshawn, Jaywill and Max every morning on ESPN radio. When you come from a situation at Ohio State where you're used to dealing with success and now you're coming to a franchise in which you're dealing with a ton of failure. You want to show that it means more to us in the locker room because we care. We want to win.

Now, the slight blunder came off the fact that Chicago is a hard working, blue collar town where people pay their hard working money to come to games and they want to win rivalries, too. Right. But it's easy for media to draw that correlation. That's not what Justin Fields meant. That's not the type of leader he is. That's not who I've known him to be since seeing him at Ohio State. So I think that the young quarterback should get a pass here, even though other people will make this to be out more than what it actually is. He doesn't.

Justin Fields doesn't need a pass. Justin Fields didn't say anything wrong. He didn't say fans are idiots.

I mean, unless unless there's more to that than what he than what he actually said there. He didn't like the fans. They go to games. They work hard in their lives.

I get it. They just go to games or watch games. These are the guys in the locker room that are putting in the work and they want to win. Yeah.

Physically, that's their livelihood. I think people are definitely taking it personal as though he's saying that the fans don't care as much as them. And I don't know. I mean, if Justin Fields went on a diet, it's just a diatribe. But the Bears fans are stupid fans as you go back to their Italian beefs and hardening their of their arteries and leave me alone. They didn't say that.

No. Come on, people. I had no problem with Justin Fields saying it. I have more problem with the way we're talking about it. What he said was fair. Absolutely fair. And if I was a fan, it'd be good that he cares. Yeah, you hope they do.

My gosh. Because in a lot of cases, not all. In a lot of cases, it's just a job. You want to win, but it's just a job.

Just a job. All right. There's one more story that look.

Not to be. I try to avoid being selfish about the things that we talk about. And there are things that I care more about than a lot of you do.

At some point, though, they become interesting stories to bring to everybody. Like if we were just talking about my interest, we would have spent twenty five minutes today talking about Mets beating the Brewers Braves also winning the National League East race, which we haven't discussed at all. Really, Mets and Braves tied in the loss column. Both will play tonight. Braves are at home to the Nationals.

Should have no problem there. Mets are in Milwaukee and how people should drive in Costco. Oh, yeah. You know, I'm providing a public service there.

Right. So we could do that. I could have spent the last 20 minutes talking about the US men's national soccer team, which has a game on Friday against Japan and then a game next week against Saudi Arabia as they're getting ready for the World Cup.

Or I could talk about why Liverpool isn't nearly as good as I want them to be, but not necessarily broad appeal. So for the last month or so, I've spent very little time here talking about live golf. But there is a couple of things that have happened over the last couple of weeks that are worth bringing up, including today, in which players on that tour wrote a letter to the official World Golf Rankings. It's an organization made up of the major tours of the world and asking for not only immediate world rankings points, but retroactive points for the five events they have already played on their tour. And there's a bunch of quotes in there.

And the quotes are, in my opinion, misleading. There's no question there's great players on that tour. I am not. It doesn't matter if the tournaments have been good. There are a lot of corn fairy tour tournaments that are really good. It doesn't matter if those events have been good or not. There are a lot of very good players on tour that are seeing themselves slip in the World Golf Rankings because their tour does not yet meet the criteria to get world rankings points.

And that's what this is about. Here's the way you get world rankings points. Well, there's a lot of ways you do it, but your tour currently does not meet the criteria and it falls way short of the criteria. First of all, got to have a cut. Got to have 72 holes.

Got to have an average field size of at least 70. The live series does not even come close to meeting any of them. So, once you are compliant, then there is a year waiting period. All of the other tours that get world rankings points, and most of them get barely any, but all of the other tours met those criteria. So, what Liv is really asking for is, treat us differently.

Treat us special. And no, that's not the way it works. So, there's that. Now, I do believe that Liv events will eventually get world rankings points. They'll have to alter some of their criteria for those events, which they're going to have to sell that to the players, because they sold them a different format, but I think they will eventually get world rankings points, where it might be a year away from that, but I think they'll get them. So, patience.

But the other things that have happened over the last couple of weeks are really fascinating to me. One, Greg Norman, in a story I think at the end of last week, touted enormous TV network interest in broadcasting Liv golf events. Okay, I don't know what enormous means, but CBS isn't going to do it, NBC isn't going to do it, ESPN isn't going to do it. Golf Channel, which is owned by NBC, isn't going to do it. So, we're left with one network, Fox.

Maybe. Fox might do it, but with no other competition for it, I doubt it's going to be all that much money either way. We'll have to wait and see what Norman is talking about when he says, enormous interest in broadcasting Liv golf. Remember, right now, Liv has no broadcast network and no sponsors. They're taking in no money other than from ticket sales and whatever merchandise they sell with Liv golf logos on it. Norman also said last week that he is no longer interested in coexisting with the PGA Tour. Phil Mickelson, the next day, said how the PGA Tour and Liv golf need to coexist. Phil had some right, some smart things to say, that the best players in the world are no longer playing on the PGA Tour. I would argue that they are, more of them are, but there are clearly a lot of really good players at Liv.

Nobody's disputing that. Greg Norman then went to Capitol Hill to complain about the PGA Tour being anti-competitive. Why is the PGA Tour supposed to help you?

Defeat them. Because that's the plan of Liv golf. It's always been the plan of Liv golf to become the big player in golf at the expense of the PGA Tour. Why should the PGA Tour help you do that? That's dumb.

Very dumb. Go about your business. And Norman said yesterday the reason why he was going to Capitol Hill is because, well, our tour is working. Then what's the problem? If your tour is working, then don't complain about the PGA Tour being anti-competitive. They just don't want to help their competitor. Coke doesn't help Pepsi. No. Coke doesn't say, hey man, you know what, our Coke Zero is way better than your Pepsi Zero sugar.

So here's the formula. They don't do that. They just say, we're a secret. I can't tell you. You figure it out. They even went the whole new Coke route way back in the day, which was a complete bruise.

But fine, everybody's got corporate games. Gosh. Insanity. So anyway, I think Liv events will eventually get World Golf rankings points because they'll deserve it when they get to that point. It's going to be a viable tour.

It will be. It's fair. Yeah, I got no problem with that.

Zero issue with people leaving, except when they lie about why. Exactly. Shouts to Harold Varner for never shying away from why he left for Liv Golf.

A financial game changer for him. I get it. I get it.

Even though he was making a good living on the PGA Tour, he wasn't making that living on the PGA Tour. Anyway, well, I'll leave. I'll leave Liv there.

By the way, the President's Cup starts Thursday and the international team has been decimated by players leaving for Liv. No Cam Smith. No Mark Leishman. No Louis station. No Abe answer.

No Joaquin Neiman. Those are five players who would have definitely been on the international side that are not. It is potentially a massacre. I mean, it could be it could be historically bad. But then again, it's golf and the difference between the best and somebody who's like one hundred and fiftieth in the world. Sometimes it and all that. This is the Adam Gold Show.