The Drive with Josh Graham - Jon Beason

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It's brilliant. I know we've got college football tonight, and we'll certainly get to that in a second, but one of the saddest triad sports stories I can remember in the last two decades just got a little bit sadder today. The teenager who killed Chris Paul's grandfather all those years ago was stabbed to death in a Food Lion parking lot last night. Now, your first reaction to this might be good riddance or to dismiss anybody who takes another human life, and that's understandable. I'm not going to say that sentiment is not legitimate. However, let's not forget that Darryl Brayboy was 15 years old when he and four other teenagers were arrested.

This is all heartbreaking. There's nothing positive you take away from this story, and I'm somebody who probably isn't the best reference point on what things were like when this happened in 2002. At the time, I was living just outside the city of Wake Forest rather than Winston-Salem and adjacent to Wake Forest University like I am right now. Desmond, you were at UNC Greensboro probably when this was happening in November of 2002.

Do I have that right? Yes, I was a junior at UNCG, and I was actually living in Greensboro at the time. Do you remember how big it was around here? Because being just outside the Triangle, it was something that I remember was massive, and it wasn't just regionally. It was nationally, too, because it's all tied up in one of the premier players to ever live in this area and one of the premier athletes who's still going right now in Chris Paul. When people think sports around here, they think basketball and specifically college basketball, and Chris Paul just might be the very best one to come from here. Yes, my recollection of it from back then in 2002 was that the community, Winston-Salem in particular, was very hurt by the suddenness of it, not so much because it was Chris Paul's grandfather, but to be honest, at the time, Chris Paul's grandfather was more well-known in the Winston-Salem area than Chris Paul.

He ran a service shop, I understand it. The timeline, as I remember it, in 2002, CP3, he signs a letter of intent to go to Wake Forest, and it's the excellent feel-good story that everybody wanted. The kid who grew up in Clemons is going to play for Wake Forest as a five-star player at a school that very rarely lands five-star talents, even though they've had Tim Duncan and many other great players come across into the program.

Skip Prosser, he got CP3 to come to Wake Forest. It was a feel-good story until it wasn't. The day after was when this happened.

Nathaniel Jones was his name, 61 years old, and he was killed at 61. Five days later, you might just remember it, and it's been mythologized, I think, a lot. It's probably going to be the story that people in this county, or in Forsyth County, talk about for decades on end, pretending or saying that they were in that gym. In the gym the night in 2002, Chris Paul, late in the game with less than two minutes left to go, scores a basket with a foul, and he knows he has 61 points and decides to intentionally miss the free throw as a tribute to his 61-year-old grandfather who was murdered just days before. It is amazing how some of the best memories we have, some of the most meaningful, I should probably say, memories we have in sports often are spawned from tragedy.

When you think about George Bush throwing the pitch after 9-11 and that World Series and the feeling around here when that happened, that's something that sticks out. And around here, that Chris Paul story is something we're talking about in 2019 because of how good of a player he ended up being, sure, but also what he did five nights after the tragedy and it lining up with 61 points in that kind of athletic performance. Yeah, it was a lot of raw emotion attached to that week, of course, because again, there were a lot of people in the community that were very, very close to Nathaniel Jones, who was Chris Paul's grandfather. He went out of his way to help a lot of people in the neighborhood and surrounding areas. He was very well known here in the community.

And Chris Paul, I mean, he's a part owner of the Dash. He's still a very vital part of this community. He is somebody, and the Winston-Salem Journal has done an excellent job reporting this story.

It's something that is still developing as we speak. Apparently, they don't have anybody as a suspect at the moment. They're still trying to track that down, police in Winston-Salem are. And where? Walkertown Road, Food Lion. It was the Food Lion shopping center off of New Walkertown Road. It's in Winston-Salem. I drive past that once or twice a week.

I'm in that parking lot every weekend. So that's something that's happening as we speak. And I'm sorry we start things off on such a sour note, but it just had me thinking about regionally and heck, even nationally, things that happened around here, just how big that story was 16 years ago. Tonight, we have Clemson and Georgia Tech, ACC Network, 8 o'clock. We're going to be hanging out after the show at Kickback Jacks, I guess around 7 o'clock because I'll be there watching Panthers, Steelers, preseason game number four. And there's other college football being played aside from this game featuring the number one Tigers and what many people believe to be the worst team in the ACC. Jeff Collins taking over for Paul Johnson and Georgia Tech.

So feel free to come out, say hello. We're going to be giving away a pair of tickets to North Carolina Wake Forest in a couple of weeks. That Friday night game on September the 13th, we're going to be giving away a couple of tickets to that.

Also, we will have a couple of Kickback Jacks gift cards that you can win as well. So we have a lot of fun in store for you. It's something we wanted to do because every single time we did live shows out on location, I never really get an opportunity to meet many of the listeners. And that's every time we go out there. There's always one, two, three, four, five different people who come out saying, hey, we listen to the show every day and just want to talk sports, quite frankly. And there just isn't time allotted for that when we're doing the show live on location.

So we thought this would be a neat idea. It's a watch party for Clemson, Georgia Tech, but also the Carolina Panthers are going to be facing the Pittsburgh Steelers, too. And there's going to be other college football on as well. So it's the new Garden Road location, Kickback Jacks.

We hope to see you a little bit later on tonight. I'm looking at the point spread and it says thirty seven points still for Georgia Tech and Clemson. Clemson is a thirty seven point favorite over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

This isn't a hot take. It shouldn't be a hot take because this is power five football. It's ACC football. But I don't think Georgia Tech is going to lose by more than thirty seven points. I'm on Georgia Tech tonight. Friday, I give away my picks and my picks were very strong last year against the spread.

But here's a free one. Georgia Tech plus thirty seven tonight. Clemson. They very well might be the best team in America.

I'm not going to dispute that. Georgia Tech. They might be the worst team in the ACC, but it's game one. There's no preseason and college football.

We saw this last weekend. Miami had a new coach. Miami's working in a new quarterback. Florida had all the returning talent continuity with Dan Mullen going into year two. They are the top 10 ranked team in the country.

And it's just a slot fest. It's sloppy and Miami's hanging in the football game and they probably should have won the football game. Now, Miami has a lot more talent than Georgia Tech does, but by principle, thirty seven points in the power five.

It seems like a lot for week one. Georgia Tech still has some good players on the roster, players who stuck around from last year. Georgia Tech was seven and five in the regular season a year ago.

Now it's a different scheme. It's a different head coach. That's the reason why everybody's down on Georgia Tech. Wait, you're running the triple option and now you expect these players to run a different kind of offense altogether and still have success? Pass on that. These are still good football players.

Right? We saw players coming out of Georgia Tech and have great pro careers despite playing in the triple option. Stephen Hill was OK at wide receiver just a few years ago. Calvin Johnson is the prime example of this. They produce decent wide receivers out of the system.

So I'm not convinced just because you're playing in the triple option doesn't mean you can't play a different kind of offense. Now, Clemson is an incredible football team, but 80 or so of the players are underclassmen. They lost 36 Letterman from last year. Those players who are still on the roster, those 80 or so underclassmen, they're still immensely talented players.

Just an experience. Which means if Clemson's going to lose this year in the regular season, it's got to happen weeks two or three. Texas A&M coming in. Maybe you knock them off the D line.

Hasn't quite figured it out. And maybe Kelly Mond can have some success. Syracuse in week three. Syracuse bringing a lot back. If it's not one of those two games, Clemson's going to run the table in the regular season.

But early on, there's a chance the guys aren't as sharp. And if the reserves are in and it's a blowout, I think that's where Georgia Tech can maybe get a few scores and backdoor cover this sucker. Georgia Tech plus 37 tonight. Book it.

Your thoughts are welcome. 336-777-1600 on Twitter at sportsubtriad. Joe Weil is going to be with us on today's show, which means it's the last time we're going to have Joe on this season. Last week of Winston-Salem-Baseball. So get in your movie lines now on Twitter at sportsubtriad.

Send those in. Will in Winston-Salem has a thought on this Chris Paul grandfather story that has a sad development today with one of the kids involved in the murdering of Nathaniel Jones being murdered himself, stabbed in a parking lot last night. Will, what do you have for us? Yeah, man, I grew up in a neighborhood off Carver Road. Mr. Jones, this is what we call Chris Paul Granddaddy. His shop was at the corner of the town road and Carver Road. And he worked on practically our whole neighborhood car. If it didn't have the money, then he would say, I'll pick you in a way to come back and get it. And I was a pretty decent athlete at Carver. He had all my stats and any pictures that was in a newspaper up in the shop. And before I went to NC State to play football, he gave me a check for $1,000. And I mean, it just broke my heart when I heard what happened to him.

But like you said, he was more popular than Chris Paul was in the city because of his heart. But I appreciate y'all bringing it up and I love the show. Hey, thank you so much for listening, Will.

Appreciate you sharing your thoughts today. The Drive brought to you in part by our friends at Pie Guys Pizza and More. Try the Gram Slam Pizza.

You guys know the deal if you've been listening any period of time, like Will has apparently. Try the Gram Slam with the Texas Pete Bays chicken and bacon on top. It's delicious. Or they have many other options, depending on what you like with pizza. Stan Cotton, the voice of the Deeks, was handed hanging out in studio just a few weeks ago. And he took one bite of the Gram Slam and said it was too hot. But then again, he thinks Texas Pete is too hot.

So there's a lot of other options. Stan, he is a Stan for Pie Guys Pizza and he makes it known, but not just just not about the hot stuff. It's not really I don't want to scare the listeners.

It's not like one of these Diablo super spicy type of joints. Albeit, if I had my choice. Oh, it'd be on. Yeah. Yeah.

We'd make that happen. But I don't. They're still trying to sell this thing. And apparently they do sell a lot of it. So order online pie guys dot com located in the Kinnaman Village Commons right off of Lewisville, Clemens Road. Coming up. Three things to watch for tonight in college football that have nothing to do with Clemson. This is the drive. Come on, let's go. You're on the drive with Josh Graham, the sports hub at A.M. 600 A.M. 920.

We're sharing with Darren Vaught from the David Glenn Show. Darren, I want you to tell me which of these popular sports topics matters least preseason football. The draft combine college football, AP poll or the NBA regular season. Which one matters least? Man, this is tough because there's really only one that does matter much.

Which one matters? The NBA regular season does. It doesn't really matter. Yeah, it does.

I'm sorry. And that's of course it does. That's in that sport. No, it doesn't.

It certainly does not matter. And the games played so differently in the playoffs than it is the regular season that the games that are played in the regular season that the teams are good. It doesn't often translate to the postseason.

When you look at, say, the Raptors before Kawhi Leonard arrived, all those years that they were number one and number two in the East, and the Milwaukee Bucks learning very quickly that games are played differently, and the Houston Rockets seemingly every year learning that the games play differently when they go to the playoffs. But there are always injuries that impact the playoffs in the regular season. Same thing for preseason football. But are there always?

I don't know about always. Yeah, sometimes there are, and it stinks for teams, but there are very, very rare occasions in NFL preseason football where an injury changes the complexion of the season at large. OK, so if you take NBA regular season off the board, then you leave college football, AP poll, the draft combine and preseason football, which of these things, all of which are drummed up?

Which one matters least carries the least amount of substance? I hate the amount of attention that we give the draft combine, but I see its utility. I think I'm going to go with preseason football because the AP again with the top twenty five in similar fashion, I hate how it's used, but it is used in preseason football is just is just worthless.

It is. It's on the Mount Rushmore of popular sports topics that simply doesn't matter. The NFL is king.

August is a content wasteland. And when you look at what we cover during preseason camp, the big stories, most of them aren't stories in September. Most holdouts get resolved. All this stuff with Zeke Elliott. You still see guys like Jay Glazer putting up on the athletic today that he still expects him to play week one. And the Cowboys still believe that, too. So most holdouts get resolved.

Don't matter much. There are exceptions like Le'Veon Bell last year. Most injuries, as you mentioned, don't really happen much in the games as much as they do in practice. And most of the players who play in preseason, they aren't going to be major contributors in the regular season. So I might say preseason football, but man, the draft combine is completely useless and it might be the bane of my existence. I think the coverage of it is even more useless because we get one step further away from its actual purpose.

Right. I mean, scouts, if scouts are doing their jobs, they're not talking about the same stuff that we're talking about coming out of a combine. Like hopefully, hopefully they know more about how to evaluate a player at a draft combine than we do. So they're they're digging a little bit deeper than than 40 times or stupid stuff like that that we analyze until until something else comes along that does matter that we can talk about.

So, again, I see its purpose, but in an indirect way, the way we use it is way dumber than it's than it's actually used. Hopefully, Joe Wiles final appearance this year will be in just a little bit. The voice of the Winston-Salem Dash will take movie lines from you, the audience that you can send in on Twitter at sports hub triad. Speaking of movies, Darren text me this last night. I'm looking at my phone. I'll read you verbatim what Darren texted me. Can I get self-esteem by the offspring as a bump? Appreciate this.

Heard that on the way in. And we're absolutely sharing about Pretty Woman. It's a crime. You'd never seen it, but I'm glad you did. Last night, I watched Pretty Woman for the first time. It's a movie that was my mom's favorite movie. It still might be my mom's favorite movie.

And now I see why. So many times in my childhood, she quoted things from this movie that I now am realizing are quotes from Pretty Woman today. So today is a pretty big day in my life.

Why is this a big deal to you? It's one of the great love stories of our time. And I'm not going to lie, Josh, it might be it might be. And I get into a Dickie V mode sometimes where I'll be like, it's what sports radio, a life in sports radio has done to me.

I'm like constantly anything that I encounter in life. It has to be a top five or a top ten. I have to rank it. I have to rank it.

Pretty Woman might be top ten for me. Film of all time. Wait a sec. I thought he was going to actually come up with something.

It might be. You don't have to deliver the take right. It might be in my top ten. I'm not here to deliver takes. I'm here to qualify why I say things the way I do in the form of maybe top ten, maybe not top ten, and then say it.

I didn't promise a take. You said top ten movie of all time, like all genres, like everything? Yeah. No, sorry, dude.

I don't lump myself into like the superhero camp and that occupies my top 30 because it's an oversaturated market. Boom. Sorry. I can't judge you. I said Big Trouble in Little China was the best movie of all time like just earlier this week. So yeah.

Do what you got to do, man. Do you want a few observations from somebody who just watched Pretty Woman for the first time? Julia Roberts is magic. That's what she is.

I mean, there are two women I've ever watched on screen and then just immediately fell in love with them watching a movie. And Julia Roberts in this movie is one of those. And she's a prostitute. That's incredible. She is a prostitute.

With a heart of gold. Let's not forget that. But like how how they made us fall in love with Julia Roberts upon watching this film. We've all been there. It's incredible. We've all been where?

I mean, I think T-Pain once wrote a song about that. I don't know if this movie gets made in 2019. If it does, it's probably going to be a lot darker, like sinister and probably doesn't have the happy ending of spoiler alert.

Siri, open Voice Memos app. Idea. Pretty Woman remake. That's in the hopper for later in my life.

The fire escape to save the day as the knight in shining armor. The other woman that did this for me is Keira Knightley. I believe both Julia Roberts and Keira Knightley's smiles can cure diseases. I believe that. Yeah. When was the last time you met a Vivian?

Wow. Are we making Vivian's anymore? I don't think we are. I don't think we're making Frank's either.

I was talking about this with someone the other week. Vivian. What other names are we not making anymore?

This is great sharing. Edna. Oh, that's a good one. Nobody's having a kid and saying Edna. Gertrude. Beatrice. Why are we just doing names?

What are the guys name? Are we still making riches? Yeah.

Anything super simple or biblical. Rich is a way to shorten Richard. There are plenty of Richards around. 3-3-6-7-7-7-1-600.

What names are we not using anymore? I'm still kind of amazed that you guys have just now found Pretty Woman, a movie that came out in 1990. Well, it's just me. No, it's just me. Des, I've been on this train for a long time, dude. Ah, gotcha, gotcha.

He was telling me at lunch. I was really excited. Really? It's an exciting moment. And I also like old movies. It might be the best thing that's happened to Josh this year.

This calendar year. Breakfast at Tiffany's is a movie I really like. So, watching Breakfast at Tiffany's and then also them watching this movie and seeing the influences there, it's very cool. It really is.

So, I'm all in on Pretty Woman and Julia Roberts. I'm a big fan of that. So, I want to figure out other names, though, that we're not really using anymore. Like, are we still making Winstons? Mmm, good ol' Winston. You know Winston down the block. Wilber's?

Winston. Wilber. My, uh... Wilber's an interesting one because there are plenty of Wills. William. But are they short for Wilber?

Yeah. My, uh... I've never walked down the street and met a Wilber. That's like a pet name. Wilber. That's like the pet, like, uh... Pig.

I mean, there's the pig, obviously, but you could name a dog Wilber. My wife, Jen, is listening in the car and she contributed Earl and Mary. Wow! We're making Marys still, but Earl, that's an excellent one. Marys are still around. Earl's a great one, yeah. Yeah.

Wow. Who's the most recent... Like, going back to Frank, name a Frank right now. Like a young Frank?

No, no. A Frank who's still at it right now. Is there any Frank? Frank Martin and that's it. I got Frank Martin at South Carolina and that's it. I defy you to tell me another Frank that matters.

I'm literally scared to type in famous Franks into Google. I don't know. Probably hot dogs, Des. Get your mind out of the gutter. Get my mind out of it. Yeah.

Or hot sauce. It's research. It's research.

We're going into the screenwriting business and we're making Pretty Woman 2. Yeah, you're gonna get Sinatra and you're gonna get older ones. We got Frank Gore. Oh, well, okay. I'm wrong. He's still out there. I'll just take the L on that one. Yeah, that's a good one. Brent tweets in, Myrtle, Ethel, Donna, Fred and Jim for Men. Fred and Jim. Jim's a lot of winners. I think Jim's gonna make a comeback. There's a lot of basic people that only love The Office and watch that show. So there's gonna be a lot of Jims.

Jim's gonna make a comeback. Yeah, I love The Office, but you're right. Yeah, that's true. Right.

It's super basic. The Office has become the cappuccino at Starbucks. That's what it's become. Which is tragic because as someone who watched it when it was on TV. Look, I don't watch shows that come on at a certain time on television. It's against my religion. I just don't do it. I don't let network TV run my life that way. Doug Gottlieb Millennial over here. So, but I was one of those that watched The Office from the very get-go and I was on board immediately. And call me a hipster for saying that. I was.

I was on board immediately. Loved The Office. I claimed like five years ago it was like my favorite comedy of a show. Like sitcom comedy. I don't know what you would categorize it as, but anyways. It's kind of a shame that it's become like the basic thing. A funny thing that we should do.

Yes, that right there. I'm sorry? I accidentally hit the clip and then stopped it.

Let me play that again. Shorts on backwards. Shorts on backwards.

That's really what he was describing. Doug Gottlieb. Every time Doug Gottlieb is mentioned on this show, we definitely have to play this clip. Shorts on backwards. Shorts on backwards. In fact, Scooter was something that we talked about yesterday. If somebody comes up to me tonight and Kickback Jackson calls me, Scooter, I'll give you a, I'll buy you a beer. Give him an opening slap. I'm also going to add shorts on backwards.

If somebody says that to me, it's a key word for you to get beverages. So this is going down tonight. Tonight. Shorts on backwards.

Shorts on backwards. Join us for a watch party. Clemson and Georgia Tech. Also the Panthers preseason.

It's the New Garden Road location in Greensboro. We're going to be throwing movie lines one last time this year at the Voice of the Dash. Joe Weil send them in at Sports Hub. Try it. It's next on the drive. Shorts on backwards.

Shorts on backwards. Can we talk here? Can we talk here? Let's talk about.

This is the Sports Hub at AM 600, AM 920. Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. An entire season has come to this. We are sharing with Darren Vaught and looking for the Nickelback all stars of Major League Baseball. It's the best way we have to explain what it is we've been doing all year. It's been one of the most popular segments we've done on this show. We're not looking for the best players in Major League Baseball in the 2000s when Nickelback was a popular band. Even though they're not a good band.

But we are looking for memorable and Nickelback certainly is memorable. We need to figure out a template for what we're going to do here. Or at least we need to set some ground rules for how this is going to go. Because I believe I want to put my team up against the team that Darren has put together. We haven't talked about which players we're going to have. So there's a chance there could be overlap here.

Although I hope there isn't. And I think Des, I think we name each position. 1 through 9. 3 outfielders and a pitcher. Are we doing designated hitters? Should we do the designated hitter? Yeah, I feel like my designated hitter is crucial to my success. And a DH. And Des will tell us after each one which one's more Nickelback. That's a lot of responsibility.

And then we can put it up on social media and then let the audience decide themselves. Alright, let's start with catcher. Darren, you want to go first?

I will happily go first. I think it's fitting that this guy, he might be a top, see I'm doing it again. He might be a top 5 Nickelback of Major League Baseball. Of the Philadelphia Phillies, Mike Lieberthal. Okay, so you got Mike Lieberthal. And I think we have the office to blame for his bump in Nickelbackness because he's Dwight Schrute's bobblehead. Mike Lieberthal's good.

I'm going to match your Mike Lieberthal with, from the Atlanta Braves, Johnny Estrada. Ooh, not bad. Man, we left some good ones on there. I had such a hard time. I agonized over these decisions.

I did too. I have a piece of paper and there's about 8 names on each position. Yeah, I've got a big board and it's massive. Right, was Johnny Estrada on your big board? Because I don't have Mike Lieberthal on mine. He was, but I also had... Javi Lopez and Brad Osmas I had written down.

Okay, I had, Lieberthal was a close victory. Paul Leduca was just a hair behind him. Wow, Paul Leduca. Dez, where are you going?

Where are you ruling? Mike Lieberthal, he added the office note in there. I got Braves catcher Johnny Estrada. Well, kids, Lieberthal was a two-time All-Star and a Gold Glove winner. Estrada was a one-time All-Star and a Silver Slugger, but he also played for six teams during his career.

I think I'm going to go with Estrada. Yes! Yes!

He's not immortal in the form of Dwight Schrute's bobblehead? Yes! Take the L! Take the L, I'm up 1-0! I'll take it, I'll take it. And also, Johnny Bravo was big in the 2000s and Johnny Estrada, I mean, I'm all about guys named Johnny.

Let's go to first base. Do we have Johnny's anymore? We still have Johnny's, right?

Yeah, we still have Johnny's. Doug Mikavich. That's my first baseman, too. No!

It's a draw then. There was really no other way. Doug Mikavich is my first baseman. I don't know how to spell his last name. Let's go to second base. Darren, you go first. Atlanta Brave, Marcus Giles.

I've got Marcus Giles right now! Stop! No! I didn't know if this was going to happen, so I guess that's a draw on second base, too. Damn it! Did you guys just become best friends?

I think so! Shortstop! I know you don't have my shortstop. Kansas City Royal, Angel Barroa! Oh!

Come on, now. Angel Barroa! Yeah, I deserve to take the L. Whatever it is, I mispronounced his name. I have former Golden Spikes Award winner and Clemson Tiger.

Absolute bust. Khalil Green. Who's Khalil Green? Too obscure. I knew it would be too obscure, but I wanted him to play my shortstop. Did I win this one because he was too obscure? No, of course you did. I submitted shortstop so that I could squeeze Khalil Green on my roster. Okay, so I'm up 2-0. He already submitted.

Oh wow, can you do that, miss? Angel Barroa! Now, Angel Barroa is a great one. I'm worried.

When we list these on Twitter, I wanted to be able to say Khalil Green so that people would reply and be like, I've got a feeling me and Darren both have the same third base. I've got a feeling. Is someone keeping track of these before you go too deep? I am. I'm up 2-0. We got this. We have our teams written down, guys. I have a feeling me and Darren have the same third baseman.

I really feel like we do here. There's no way. I'm so confident. I feel like we can say it at the same time. It'll be the same person. I don't know. I feel like I initially thought of the guy that I think that you have, but I chose differently. Never mind.

Never mind what's not doing at the same time. You start out. Who do you got? Oakland Athletic. Eric Chaves.

Stop. That's not who you have. I'm gonna match it with Seattle Mariners' Scott Spezio. Scott Spezio.

Scott Spezio looks like a member of Nickelback. Spezio could have qualified for a number of different positions here. Yeah, I faced the same problem with Brandon Inge.

Yeah. So I bumped Brandon Inge out for Scott Spezio. Alright, so we'll just say Spezio's on my big board, but he didn't come close to getting third base. Yeah, I didn't have Chaves, even though that's a really good choice.

Dez, what do you think? Well, Chaves only played third base. Spezio actually played first, second, and third. Yep, just established that. Yeah, so... I was over here knee-deep in facts.

Yeah, so who are you taking? Useless facts. Who's more Nickelback? He seems like he accomplished less.

Look at this photograph! Well, no World Series. He was a better player. Up 2-1. I'm still up 2-1 on Darren, but we gotta go to the outfield. In fact, we're just gonna make this one category. Three outfielders, I'm gonna go three outfielders, you're gonna go three outfielders.

And we'll figure out which one's better. Here are my three outfielders. Andi Chaves, Aaron Rowand, and Xavier Nady.

That's not bad. I saw the video of Rowand as a member of the Phillies running into the wall. Ran into the wall, got bloodied, and he was great for the Giants, too. So Aaron Rowand there and Andi Chaves probably had one of the greatest postseason catches of the 2000s. They lost that NLCS to the Cardinals in 2006, but he had the catch at center field.

Also, this is an aside, I wanted to make sure someone on my list played for the Montreal Expos. And Andi Chaves is the guy. I think I'm gonna murder you here. Whoa! I think I am.

Wow, bro. All right. We have a very diverse outfield for this team that I've composited.

Let's give me the outfielders! That's great. The Japanese hitting champion, Matt Merton, formerly of the Chicago Cubs.

Yeah, that's a good one. Also a ginger. Yes, he is. Wait, he's Japanese? No, he's not Japanese.

He is the Japanese league. We've been over this. Matt Merton's really good. Matt Merton.

Coco Crisp. Wow. MVP. If we did a Nickelbacks league, probably the MVP. Damn.

The third outfielder. Who made number 99 cool before it became in vogue with Aaron Judge in recent years. Sota Gucci. Sota Gucci doesn't do anything for me, even though I know who Sota Gucci is.

No. There's no way Sota Gucci doesn't do anything for you. Coco Crisp is so strong, I'm gonna give it to Darren. Coco Crisp is the only one out of that whole batch that I even knew. That's what I'm talking about.

That's a shame that you feel that way. Two to two, the score. I feel like that I got you a starting pitcher. What do we have? Starting pitcher, designated hitter? Starting pitcher, designated hitter. Do you have a reliever? I think I got you a starting pitcher. I don't have a reliever. Okay. I prepared a reliever, but that's okay. Okay, we'll have a reliever as a tiebreaker if we tie. Wow. Alright, I like it. I feel the tension.

Right. I'm going pitcher. Actually, you go first. I'll stare you down. This one's maybe the most predictable on my list here.

Yeah, I think I know where we're headed here. Bronson Arroyo. Bronson Arroyo, yep. You both had him? I had Bronson Arroyo.

He looks like the lead singer of Nickelback. I told you, I told you, I'm not here for my team to defeat yours on a baseball field. Okay, so I think it's gonna come down to the designated hitter, actually. We have three of the same players.

Wait a minute, so you're not constructing a team to beat his team? No, we're making hit records, Dez. And Bronson Arroyo put out a covers album. He did.

In the early 2000s, I owned it. That's right. He does look like he could be in the band. Oh, it was him strumming an acoustic guitar. He played Stone Temple Pilots, Goo Goo Dolls, and the Verve Pipe.

And it was awful, but man, I loved that I owned it. I was jamming to Freshman by the Verve Pipe earlier today. Great song. That's the one he covered. Designated hitter.

I want to hear that. By the end of this segment, Dez, can you find Bronson Arroyo covering the Verve Pipe's Freshman? Stand by.

Alright. Designated hitter is going to decide this. This entire year of us doing Nickelbacks for the 2000s, even though that's kind of redundant.

Nickelbacks of Major League Baseball. There you go. That's what we're doing here. Designated hitter is going to decide this because we are at odds. We are at a 2-2 deadlock tie at the moment. And I'd be stunned if we have the same designated hitter.

I'll start it off. Designated hitter, Demetri Young. Ooh. That's good.

God, that's good. I actually have a Demetri Young bobblehead over at my office space randomly. I'm not a Demetri Young fan. He's with the Nationals. I'm not a Nationals fan.

But it's there. Demetri Young. Not to be confused with Delmon Young. Correct. Alright, my designated hitter has been mentioned already.

Which I think should add some points. No. I was talking to Dez. I bet you were talking to Dez. Just as Bronson Arroyo is going to play rhythm guitar and be our lead vocalist, bassist on my nickelbacks of Major League Baseball team.

Also my designated hitter, Scott Spezio. Oh, wow. Oh, wait. Can you do that?

Wow. Did you just find a loophole? Scott Spezio is his designated hitter. That's what he's doing.

Demetri Young or Scott Spezio? What? Didn't you? Wait, no, that was your Spezio.

I had him at third base. Oh. Deal. Wait, who's winning? Oh, that's, uh, that's Darren. So Darren just won? Yes!

No! Did you find Bronson Arroyo covering the verb pipe? This will be your celebration song, Darren.

Kind of like, around the horn, you have 30 seconds. You have 30 seconds to let us know how you feel. You have Bronson. We need to get Bronson Arroyo singing the... They've also got a song called Dirty Water on there. Kevin Millar provides backup vocals. Wow. So many great musicians in the 2000s. Is that what this is supposed to be?

Des, what is this? This is The Freshman. By who? Bronson Arroyo? Bronson Arroyo singing a... That's incorrect. He did an acoustic version.

I'm telling you, man, like, 15-year-old me blasted that stuff in my Walkman. Congratulations, Darren. You have won this game.

I'm trying to stall as well as I can to try and give Des app time to do something that's just utterly ridiculous. And that's trying to find The Freshman by verb pipe, Bronson Arroyo. By Bronson Arroyo. My favorite thing about the cover album is that he led off.

His first track on it was Slide by the Goo Goo Dolls. Wow. Which is another baseball play on words, obviously.

It's called Covering the Bases, which is actually really funny because that's the name of the USA Baseball podcast that I... I'm amazed that you know this. Oh, wait. Oh, man. All right, Darren. Take your 30 seconds.

It's your victory tour. Damn it, Des. Damn it, Des. Just blast this.

I don't need my 30 seconds. These belong to Bronson. For the life of me, I cannot remember. Think that we were wise and we never... God, this was great. Bronson got me into the verb pipe. He's actually not terrible. What is happening?

Like, what is this? I love that the cover to this album, too, he's sitting at Fenway. Maybe he's on top of the dugout, but you can tell it's definitely Fenway. He's wearing like a Paisley button-up shirt with one button too many unbuttoned.

And he's got his cornrows. Congratulations on your win. This has been a fun year of Nickelbacks. Thanks, man. I'm just basking in the Bronson Arroyo verb pipe magic. I can't think of a better way to send us out than Bronson Arroyo singing Freshman by the Verb Pipe. Wake Forest or Appalachian State football, who's better? I'll tell you next.