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This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. We are killing it online. Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons 3 to 7 on WSJS.

We've made it! To a Friday Drive, it is WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad. Some call it a Football Friday. We call it a Rhinestone Cowboy Friday. But whatever you call it, we're glad to have you.

However, wherever you are listening or watching, we have a lot to do. Let's talk Carolina Miami. The NFL game.

Not the college one this weekend. The Carolina Panthers are two touchdown underdogs against the Dolphins. Here's how they should be viewing Sunday.

Run your own race. That's all you want to do. You're 0-5, the only winless team in the NFL. They should approach this game the way Roy Williams approached basketball in the first half of games. Just ignore the score. Don't look at the scoreboard.

Apparently, he wouldn't look at the score one time until he's going into halftime and getting the stat sheet when he's walking through the tunnel. Just worry about yourself. Worry about what you need to do. Then you can look up at the scoreboard heading into halftime and hopefully, you're where you need to be or close to it. The Panthers should be primarily concerned about playing a clean game against the Dolphins. And if they do that, and simply don't beat themselves, that'll be progress going into the bye, regardless of what the final score says. Bryce Young, he hasn't had a turnover free game yet.

So this isn't an easy thing to do. This won't be easy to accomplish against Miami. Two picks in Atlanta. A key fumble in Monday Night Football against the Saints. That catastrophic fumble against the Vikings. Two picks in Detroit last week. Now to be fair, he hasn't had great protection.

We know that. It's a bad offensive line. It's been banged up. Brady Christensen out for the year after the first week. Austin Corbett hasn't returned yet. He's not going to return this week either.

Chandler Zavala went down last week. Bryce Young's been sacked 15 times over the first five games. So it's not completely Bryce's fault.

We get that. But playing clean isn't just turnovers. It's also penalties too. Carolina is dead last in the NFL in penalties committed per game. 8.2 penalties per game. They had seven in Detroit. They haven't had a game with fewer than six. So here's my challenge to the Panthers.

Can you have five or fewer penalties in a game? Again, run your own race. Just take care of yourself. Don't worry about the Dolphins. Try to ignore the score for a bit and play a clean game of football. Let's not turn it over. Let's not beat ourselves. Let's not have more than five penalties in a game.

If you do that, I think it could be a competitive football game. However, given what we've seen over the first month of the season, it's unrealistic to expect that's going to happen. Because, again, Carolina's offensive line is bad. And Miami has dudes up front. Miami is tied for third in the league in sacks.

The injury report? Not doing Carolina any favors either. They get Dante Jackson back after missing three-fourths of their secondary last week. So that's good, right?

Wrong. Von Bell injured at practice. So one guy gets returns from the secondary and another guy goes down.

It's that type of season for Carolina. Ryan Burns? Questionable to play. Derek Brown? Questionable to play.

Miles Sanders? He's out. Six guys are out. Four players are questionable.

It's not good. The Von Bell piece is a big deal because Jalen Waddle and Tyreek Killer on the other side. Here is Frank Reich on what Carolina plans to do without Von Bell. No, it's obviously losing a player like Von Bell is a big deal.

His leadership, his playmaking ability. Confident in our depth. Sam Franklin will continue to be back there. Matthias Farley will start at the other position. Obviously Jamie Robinson will be a depth player there as well. So those guys have been getting lots of reps ready to go.

Matthias, who? That's the type of place the Carolina Panthers are at. So the Dolphins, they're going to score. They're probably going to be turnovers because of how bad the O-line is and how Miami can rush the passer and Carolina being on the road. But it can be a lot closer than this if they do play a clean football game. Give me Miami 34, Carolina 17. On Twitter at WSJS radio, you can tweet the show there.

It's also where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. Will Dalton, the executive producer of this show. W.D., I just realized I like both Miami teams to beat Carolina this weekend. Is that bad?

No, I mean, it's not bad. I mean, it's understandable against the Panthers. I don't know about that Tar Heel game. I'll be in Chapel Hill for that. You'll be at Duke and NC State. Let's move on to baseball very quickly.

Darren Bhatt, he's going to be joining us, joining us in just a bit. The Atlanta Braves, they became the latest 100 win team to fall out of the playoffs in the divisional round last night. And full disclosure. I'm still a salty Baltimore Orioles fan. Acknowledging that on the front end. But even with that being the case. These playoff results are not something we should be celebrating right now. And yet that's all I see.

I see. Oh, look at these upsets. America loves an underdog.

Please. Everybody. It seems like every professional sports league wants their playoffs to be like March Madness. Look at the randomness and all these games.

And it all leads to this. And March Madness is great. It's the best postseason tournament. I believe there is an American sports. However, a misnomer is that we love watching Cinderella pull off all these upsets and get far into the tournament.

I don't think that's true. Now, upsets are great early on. For the same reason, it's great to watch American Idol when William Hung is singing Ricky Martin and ha ha, he got through.

But if he gets to the Final Four to the Final Five, part of you starts wondering, I don't know if I want to hear that guy sing anymore. Look at the ratings. Lowest rated national championship game. Butler playing against UConn. Lowest rated Final Four. Butler playing VCU that same year.

Oh, but we love Cinderella. You know what the highest rated wins are? Duke playing Kentucky. Duke playing Carolina. North Carolina playing Kansas.

Hmm. Sounds like that people like it when Blue Bloods play each other. It's not good for baseball that the three 100 win teams are all knocked out and the five best records in the sport are knocked out before you even get to the Final Four. And it's clear that the 100 win teams, the teams that had the buys were compromised.

That's the part that bothers me. They combined for one division win the five best records in baseball. One in 13. The leading, the four leading National League MVP candidates combined to hit six of 43 in the playoffs. The Orioles couldn't hit. Seems like that layoff really affected teams offensively. The wildcard teams, not so much.

And this isn't just a one off. Last year, the same thing happened. Top two teams in the National League knocked out. Five of the eight buy teams this year and last year combined. See, we've only had eight divisional series since the playoff format change. Five of the eight won by the wildcard team, not the team that had the buy, not the team that had the better season over a 162 game sample.

And what's crazy is, you know what the advantage that you get, they tell you you get when you play in the divisional round is? Well, you get game five on your home field. Not one of the eight series made it to a game five.

Not one. So these aren't even close. These series, these wildcard teams winning.

Now, am I supposed to believe that's a coincidence? That all these 100 win teams are just frauds when we have this massive sample size that suggests otherwise? Or is it fair to say that this is the playoff format and that something needs to change? Because now we have an LCS with two teams that have won 90 games or fewer playing each other. And you know how many times that's happened to Major League Baseball history?

Two teams with 90 wins or fewer in the regular season meeting in an LCS. It's never happened in the history of baseball. Don't tell me it's a good thing.

It's not. Nobody wants to watch the DBACs play the Rangers in a World Series. It's not what the people want. They want to watch the big dogs play each other. They want to see the Braves. They want to see the Dodgers get there. That's what they want to see.

And they're not going to get that. Something has to change. The wildcard, maybe you move it back a day.

Maybe that solves the problem. Somebody suggested you treat it like Little League, where if the favored wildcard team wins the first game, then that's the series. And if the lesser seed wins, then you get a game two that decides everything, kind of like the play-in tournament for the NBA. Whatever it is, something needs to change because this isn't it. The regular season used to matter, and these teams that win 100 games, they used to be rewarded in a way that they're not being rewarded anymore.

And I think that they should. I'm so appreciative of our first guest today because I wrongfully assumed, as one of the busiest guys on the planet, that he wasn't already calling NBA games because we're in the preseason. So I thought it'd be a good time to ask him to come on because he's got the call. CBS, Panthers, Dolphins on Sunday.

But I was wrong. He's in San Antonio right now getting ready to call Spurs Heat preseason that you can watch tonight on TNT. The great Kevin Harlan is back with us. Kevin, sorry about that, but tell me, how much fun is Victor going to be to follow night in and night out in the NBA?

Hey, Josh, great to be on with you. When Benyama is going to be, if he doesn't get injured, he's going to be a story all season long. Last year we had Chet Holmgren who was coming out of Gonzaga and he fractured a foot before the season even began and didn't even play last year for Oklahoma City. And he's come back now healthy for the Thunder and the other night he and Benyama were on the floor at the same time. And Benyama is 7'3 and Holmgren is 7'1 and reading the accounts of the game, people were thinking like, what are we looking at?

This is so strange. In a league that is like a 6'8 size, fly up and down the court type of league with outside shooting and fast break running and everything else. And now you bring these two guys in. The thing was, both of these guys play like they're 6'8 and they're over 7'. So it's going to be fun to watch him tonight.

I'm looking forward to it. Somebody wrote the other day that after he had kind of talked to a lot of scouts in the league, that if LeBron and Benyama were coming out of high school at the same time, that Benyama would have been drafted ahead of LeBron. And that's pretty high praise. Then I got to thinking about Sam Bowie of Kentucky being drafted before Michael Jordan.

And I said, well, let's wait and see how this story kind of pans out. But Wim Benyama is a transformational type player, especially for this San Antonio team that was one of the worst teams in the NBA last year with 22 wins. They've got a Hall of Fame coach, Greg Popovich, who has steered great players like Wim Benyama in the past, namely David Robinson and Tim Duncan. And five championships ensued. And so he's a pretty good guy to take on this phenom from France under his wing and see if he can give it one more shot at another championship. But everything you hear about Wim Benyama is off the charts.

You're not going to believe what you're watching. Did you shake his hand? Did his hand drown yours?

I'm sorry, you broke up there. Did you shake his hand? Did his hand dwarf yours? Well, we did not talk to him. We only watch him from a distance. And they are very careful with his appearances and his exposure right now. He's had a lot thrown at him, and he's got a lot ahead of him.

And I think they're trying to really regulate it. I think our sideline person tonight, Stephanie Reddy, who you know in those parts, Steph, may have had a chance to see him, but I don't anticipate that we're going to get many chances to visit. We'll meet with the head coach tonight, Greg Popovich, before the game, and I'm anxious to hear what he thinks about him. Getting to Sunday, Kevin Harlan's going to be calling Panthers Dolphins.

You did your fair share of Colts games when Frank Reich was there and been in production meetings with him. Now you've got him with Carolina visiting Miami. From a Panthers perspective, what's most intriguing about this game? Well, if Young can continue to show what he showed last week, I thought he looked more comfortable last week. And I know the turnovers and the interceptions came back to bite the team, and they got down early.

But, and they're playing Detroit, by the way, is a terrific ball club. But there are times when Young is really impressive. And it's just going to take some time. I mean, there's not a rookie quarterback that has stepped in this league and had all the answers.

I don't care who you're dealing with. And that is where he is right now. And he, quite frankly, the line, we know that they've struggled. Adam Thielen is kind of saving him as a receiver. He's got maybe enough firepower in the backfield.

But this is a process. And I don't know where Bryce ranked over Stroud at Ohio State and who should have been taken first. But there are a lot of people that think that Bryce Young is a terrific quarterback with a very high ceiling. And that the perfect guy to take him at this stage is Frank. You know, he's had good quarterbacks before. He's been to a Super Bowl and won one with Philadelphia as their offensive coordinator. He's incredibly patient.

He's got the right temperament and the right voice. And you need that with a young quarterback as you build to the future. I guess more the question is, will the organization stay patient with all of this? You know, they've had a lot of changes here over the last couple of years, and that's a recipe for some real issues.

And kind of staying the course might be the best course of action right now and letting this thing play out. And seeing what you've got at this quarterback as you spent so much to get him with draft capital and everything else. And you brought in a coach who's good with quarterbacks. Let's let this thing kind of take seed for a while. Kevin Harlan is with us here.

He's got the right voice. After the Spurs game on TNT tonight, Panthers Dolphins on Sunday, you'll have the radio call Monday Night Football in L.A., Cowboys Rams, which you could listen to right here on WSJS. On the way out, our buddy Wes Durham has told us about some of the close call stories he had to make, you know, going from a college game to try and make an NFL broadcast.

What's the best one you can share for us? Share with us the closest call of you going from one place to another to try and make a game. When I was doing the Minnesota Timberwolves back in the 90s, we lived in Kansas City. My wife is from the south.

We raised our family there. So I would get on a plane literally every day and commute back and forth between Kansas City and Minneapolis. And on the incoming flight, one game to take me from Kansas City to Minneapolis.

The airplane had a bird strike and it cracked the windshield of the cockpit. And so the plane was delayed and the flight was delayed. And I finally got up there about six thirty for a 710 tip. And they had an escort for me.

The team had organized a police escort from the Minneapolis airport to downtown. We were playing the New York Knicks that night. And I literally put on the headset and sat in the chair as the ball was being tossed up. The game's going on and we hit our first commercial break and I take off the headset and finally say hello to who I'm working with. It may have been Kevin McHale. And Marv Albert is about three seats down from me and passes a note.

And the note, as I open it up, says, Glad you could make it. So that's about the closest I've come. Now listen, Wes is trying to thread Saturday night games with early Sunday starts in the NFL. That's tough.

That's very difficult. Yeah, Wes is going to be at Duke on Saturday and then he's got the Falcons the following day. But I just love the image of people thinking the president might have been in Minneapolis. But no, it's Kevin Hartland getting a police escort. Like, can you imagine? Get out of our way, please. The broadcaster's got to get to his game. Like, please. This is American television.

Scram. Move to the side. Like, like, are you kidding me? Like when that guy, I literally got off the plane and the cop was standing there at the gate and said, I'm taking it to the game. I said, what? It was.

Yep. Come on, let's go. And there were two of them and they walked me through the concourse down there and I looked at the clock and it was like six thirty two on my watch. And it took us about 20 minutes to get down there. And then I had to go through all the different ways just to get in the building and got in there and the ball litter.

Honest to God, it was being thrown up and I sat in the seat and put on the headset and said, all right, here we go. The Timberwolves and the Knicks, you know, and that and that was it. What? Watch Spurs tonight. Spurs heat on TNT Panthers Dolphin Sunday and the radio call Cowboys Rams. Kevin Harlan, thanks for making the time for us. It's good to hear your voice, Josh. Always great to be out with you, my friend. Take care and look forward to hopefully crossing paths with you in person.

Not not over the over the phone like this. But thanks for having me on. Always fun. Our high school football game of the week, Oak Grove at Ledford and the man who will be calling that in just a few hours from now joins us in studio. Dave Pulaski, what appealed to you about this matchup? I mean, it's tough to go wrong when the two teams are a combined 13 and one on this season, right?

You know, Oak Grove coming in at six and one, Ledford seven and oh for a second straight year. And we did this matchup last year in Midway. And it was an atmosphere unlike anything I've experienced as a play by play announcer in any sport at just about any level. Really? The stands were full full an hour before kickoff.

Wow. So I'm expecting it to be much the same tonight for that matchup. It's a rivalry game, four and a half mile separating the two schools didn't take very long for this rivalry to really come about since Oak Grove's literally only six years old at this point. But it's it's come a long way in a very short period of time. It's crazy to think we're already in mid-October. There are only a few more weeks until you get to playoff time. Who's shaping up to be some of the best championship contenders we have in the triad? In the triad, I would put on a top tier.

I would have Grimsley and Dudley. Both are undefeated so far this season. There are two of four remaining undefeated teams in the triad. I would put on that next level below East Forsyth. I would also throw, I'm trying to think of who else, West Forsyth I would throw in that mix as well. The Central Piedmont Conference is really just a log jam at the top of the standings because you have a three way tie for first place. Could very well have come down to East Forsyth against West Forsyth in the final week of the regular season, another game that we're going to have by the way. So I would put them in that upper tier. I would always put Reidsville, of course, in that middle, in that second tier of championship contenders. There's a whole host of schools that are in that third group where if they get the right matchups they could go on a deep run. We're less than three hours from kick of Ledford, Oak Grove, Dave Pulaski here with us.

7.30 kick, 7 o'clock, pregame start. I want to let you in on some of the other conversations we've been having today. This is not salty Orioles fans speaking. This is somebody who loves baseball and loved baseball even when the Orioles were bad. I don't think it's a good thing that in this new playoff format, five of the eight teams that received byes and were division winners did not make it to the LCS and none of those series even made it to five games. Right, none of the teams that won 100 games made it past their first round.

I just don't think that's a good thing. Now, I know the Gen Z community and all that will probably tell me, oh, OK, old guy, the regular season and all this history, you think that stuff matters. It's all about the playoffs.

This is the thing that matters most. You know, you want the randomness, make everything like March Madness. I'm still at the belief that winning 100 games should get you something more than, all right, you're going toe to toe with the team that won 15 fewer games in a five game series. And here you go, you get one more home game if you get to a fifth game that hasn't happened the last two years. And didn't we kind of see that coming, though, where baseball is a game of rhythm.

You're playing almost literally every day for five months a year, and now you're asking a team to take a week off. And that really hurts one specific part of the game. We could talk about pitching advantages and stuff like that.

And you can do intersquads and everything like that and try and stay sharp. But I mean, it's just different. The hitting piece of it. I didn't realize this until Ariel Epstein shared this stat with me. The leading, the four leading in a National League MVP candidates combined to hit six of 43.

Wow. Six of 43 in the playoff games. These guys can't hit. You're gone.

You're not playing for a week. They can't hit. The Orioles couldn't hit either.

And that was a problem. I mean, I'll say that that number is probably a little bit extreme. I would expect the number to come down a little bit, because when you get to the playoffs, you're facing the best pitchers. You're not facing the Rockies fifth starter on a day in, day out basis.

You're getting the best of the best at this point in the year. So you'd expect the numbers to trend downward at least a little bit. But six for 43 is pretty extreme. It is extreme.

And I thought about that with Ronald Acuna Jr. at the plate last night with the bases loaded against Philly. It just seems that some. Now, you could say that this is a problem. Is it something that should be changed?

Should the have we seen enough or is the sample too small? I mean, I just don't know how you change the format. Do you make it do you make the wild card a one game winner take all again, which which nobody really liked. I brought I brought I brought this up earlier. It was a suggestion that someone gave me last night that I really liked.

And it's something I hadn't thought of. How about you bring back the little league format and you have if the higher seed wins, kind of like we see in the play in tournament with the NBA. If the higher seed wins, they advance the lower seed wins. They play game two and it's a two game series for the wild card. So that way it's shorter. It's a longer layoff. You do get an advantage if you're the higher seed in a wild card series. And that can shorten it a little bit. I suggested moving it from Tuesday to Wednesday so that there's no way you could throw your ace in game two of a series the way that the Rangers were able to in Baltimore.

Those are just a couple of things that come to mind. I mean, do we do we do the college baseball regional format to throw four teams into a pool? I don't like pool play. No. OK, you're a jet fan.

Yeah. Still, I'm looking at Sunday's NFL slate. It doesn't look awesome.

We could talk more about that in a bit. But I just have this sneaky suspicion to unbeaten teams going on the road. The Eagles going to New York to face your jets. The forty niners going from the West Coast to the East Coast to play the Cleveland Browns who are going to be without the Sean Watson again.

Terrible weather expected in both these games. Are the Jets going to be the team that beats an unbeaten team this weekend or at least gives them a scare? You want me to really say yes? I mean, I'm not as a Jets fan.

I'm just not going to go there. I mean, the the Jets are 0-13 all time against the Eagles in regular season play. What? If I if I pretty sure I'd assume that's all time. Did they did they ever play in a Super Bowl?

No. OK, so it's only been one and they beat the Colts. We're 1-0 in the Super Bowl. Why did you say regular season play as if they're going to meet in the playoffs? Because they meet in the preseason every year. Oh, OK. I didn't know they kept tabs on preseason.

Oh, wait. The Baltimore Ravens acted like that streak mattered. So it's not going to be the Jets. I'm going to say no just from history and me being a Jets fan in general. I like the way that they played against the Broncos last week. Maybe Zach Wilson can turn into Mark Sanchez, where as long as you don't do enough to mess up the game, the defense is good enough to where they might carry you by. And if they can get to if they can somehow pull this off against Eagles, they'll be three and three, which is where I was hoping they would be going into the bye week, even when they had Aaron Rodgers. I said if they could go three and three in this first stretch of the season with that schedule, I'd be OK with that. Dave Pulaski, have a great call tonight.

Ledford, Oak Grove, hope you have the great environment and hope you get a close game. It's going to be awesome. I really I really think it's going to come down to the last minute. By the way, the last four meetings between these teams all decided by one possession.

So that's a trend that we hope to continue. That's what we call a nugget that you might expect on the broadcast tonight on WSJS. Seven o'clock pregame, 730 kick. That's Dave Pulaski. I imagine this is what they're going to be jamming to at Bulls Tavern like five hours from now.

Feels good on a Friday. Darren Vaught's in studio. Get goosebumps when I see the videos of Phillies fans belting this out like they did last night after taking out the Atlanta Braves. The main event, Darren Vaught, is with us here. We've had a few other play by play announcers on the show. Dave Pulaski, voice of our high school football game of the week. Darren Vaught, new voice of ECU basketball. We could get to that in a second.

So you mostly do in college sports. And then, who was the third guy on this? Oh yeah, Kevin Harlan, voice of NBA on TNT. I'm glad to hear that. He and I actually, I caught up with him for like 30 minutes on the phone the other day. He told us.

Did he? Very happy. Very happy for Darren Vaught.

Kevin's my guy. We are, and we can get to that in a bit. But speaking of dancing on my own in the Phillies, not just because I'm a salty Orioles fan. So salty. I'm of the belief baseball has a problem with this postseason format because a hundred games needs to mean something.

We don't need five of the eight division winners with buys not making it to LCS the last two years. Are you a believer, especially when you look at how the hitting seems to drop off after missing so much time that there is a problem here? No. Thank you. Emphatically no.

Thank you, Darren. So this is all just a coincidence. It's less of a coincidence and more just how things go, Josh. I don't, like, teams have always emerged from the wildcard spots. There hasn't even been a game five yet in this format.

Two years. There hasn't even been a game five out of these eight series, and you're going to tell me that's just a coincidence. Or that's just not, these teams that are amazing all throughout the year aren't even getting to game fives.

That's a them problem. Look, like, like the top five regular season records in Major League Baseball not advancing is one thing. That's a good thing in your opinion. I hear people say, I'm not saying it's a good thing.

I'm just saying you're looking in the wrong place. I think it's bad for baseball for the same reason. I hear people say, we love the underdog, and we love March Madness around here. We love college basketball. Look what the lowest rated national championship game of all time is. It's Butler playing UConn.

Look at the highest rated ones. Kansas playing North Carolina. All this talk of, we love an underdog. Until you get to a certain point. It's like American Idol. We love watching William Hung singing, you know, Ricky Martin.

Oh, she bangs, she bangs. Until you see him in the final five and you're like, why is this guy still here? We love an underdog to a certain point. You're making a huge, huge leap to call the Gordon Hayward-Butler Bulldogs William Hung.

I'm just going to start with that. I'm calling the Arizona Diamondbacks William Hung, a team that won 84 games. But they're the youngest in the field. This is something that always happens. We've literally never seen an LCS with two teams that had 90 wins or fewer playing each other in an LCS. That's literally never happened to baseball history. Which is also part of my point. It can't happen once and then you claim it's a problem. That's not it.

You're looking in the wrong place. I think you can nitpick the playoff format, but there are other things that we should investigate while we're drumming up theories here. The top five regular season records in the postseason not advancing to this point is one thing. And none of them can hit. Them going a combined one and 13. That's them getting walloped. Is an extra day or is moving the schedule up one day going to change that?

They got smacked, Josh. There's no changing that with a couple of days difference to me. I don't think so. Since this, not this format because we're two years in, but because of the wild card, the one game playoff started in what, 2012? Since then, the nine years that that has been a new, right? Five of those nine years, the top two seeds in the National League have not made it to the CS. It's what happens in baseball.

I get it. You're a fan of a 100-win team for the first time. I really think you're being salty here. I think we do it in other sports. We are open to the idea of this roster is constructed to be a good regular season team. Now, this is a good playoff team, right?

We do it in other sports. The teams like the Celtics. They picked up Drew Holliday. That is a playoff team in the NBA. The Miami Heat is probably the best example of that.

The Heat is a great example of that. We resigned to, they're a regular season team. The Dodgers, I am not going to make excuses for that. That's just what they do at this point, is not make it to where they should based on how good of a team they are.

I'll get off my soapbox then. Let's look at these LCS. Which LCS are you more excited to watch between the All-Texas showdown between Houston and Texas or the Arizona Diamondbacks facing the Phillies? Look, this is the seventh consecutive ALCS for the Astros. They're a great team. They're fun to watch.

That, to me, makes it a little more boring. I was not a believer in the Rangers, and they since have turned a massive corner. If they get Mad Max back in the LCS, that's a big deal, obviously. Bruce Bocci said yesterday if he comes back, he will be a starter. Yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned Bocci. Bocci's sort of like a Dusty Baker type story, whereas I was really happy for Dusty to get the World Series with the Astros. I would be ecstatic for Bruce Bocci. He's just good for the game. He's been around a long time.

He is a solid guy. That said, I like the NL Series. Dude, the Diamondbacks came in, youngest team in the field. They've played great, and the Phillies are just the most exciting thing in the playoffs right now.

They're just like, it's unreal. They're playing country songs in the locker room, like Dixieland Delight, a song I can't say the title to right now, but if you know the song, you know what I'm talking about. How about we transition things to unusual questions? Last week, guys, everybody made it out that I got mad at Josh, and I left the press conference.

That's not right. I thought it was an unusual question, and it's okay. It's time for unusual questions with Josh Graham.

Since I've forgotten to do this up until this point, let's get weird real quick. First person to call WD right now at 336-777-1600 gets tickets to see A Perfect Circle in Raleigh next April, and gets a pair of tickets to the Renaissance Festival, which is going on right now, and will be going on for the next month, I think in Mooresville, Huntersville, I think. Huntersville. Have you guys ever been to a Renaissance Fair? No.

I've heard about it, though. Something of the sort. At 336-777-1600, you get a pair of tickets to both those things, the first person to call right now. This is not my unusual question, but I'm always reminded of the cable guy with Jim Carrey. Stephen.

Oh, Stephen. Because they do the Renaissance Fair, and he gets them the little showdown. I've never been to one. That's my impression of one.

I'm on the fence as to whether or not I would want to go or enjoy it, but this sounds like a blast. I'm going to steal a question from WD. I don't know if this is WD's question, but I just know it probably is WD's question. It's something I've been talking about and thinking about all week long. Al Michaels has been a bit curmudgeon-y. Last night, he's talking about sideshows with Taylor Swift and not wanting to pan over there, even as the game was terrible 19-8. But he made national news in recent weeks when interviewed by Chris Wallace, and currently he's said this over the years many times as well and has become proud of it, that he's never had a vegetable. He says he's never had a vegetable. It's gotten to the point where he is now indignant that you don't need vegetables in order to survive and live between 75, 80 years old.

So happy you went here. If you had to go without fruits or vegetables for the rest of your life, one or the other, which do you cut out? Probably fruit. I love fruit, but in terms of what's necessary, I like vegetables too. I can get some simple sugars from things other than fruit. I think I like fruits more than vegetables, but my wife loves vegetables more than fruits. I think because she does a lot of cooking and meals involving vegetables, I feel like I'm going to need, this is me thinking and being a good husband, I'm going to cut out fruits and instead have vegetables the rest of the way. Look, dude, you're here every day. Are we just going to ignore the way he's saying the word vegetables?

No, we're not. Vegetables. You guys. Vehicle. Every time you say vehicle. What is a vegetable? Vegetable. Vegetable. Like a vestibule? Like a place where you... Vegetable.

I knew Darren would hear this and point it out. It's vegetable. Vegetable. Vegetable. Vegetable. Vegetable. Vegetable.

The G has never made that sound. Ever. Fraud insurance. Fraud insurance. Fraud insurance. Vegetable.

What are you talking about? It's a commercial. Vegetable. Vegetable. You're doing it on purpose. There's no way you're serious. This is what I say.

It's like the family guy cool whip bit. Vegetable. That's what I say. I've been saying it my entire life. Vegetable. Is that what I'm supposed to say? Yeah.

Because G makes the J sound. Vegetable. You're ridiculous. No one's ever called me on this ever in my life.

They should. I will eat vegetables the rest of my life but perhaps I might pronounce it incorrectly the rest of my life too. Is it a veggie for short? Veggie.

Veggie tales. There you go. There you go. You got it. You're saying it right now. Somebody ask an unusual question before my head explodes.

Darren you got one? Alright so it's Friday the 13th. That's true. Darn right it is.

In October to boot. Uh huh. Is uh superstitious about anything? I don't know that we've ever had this conversation. No.

I'm not. I don't get scared like that except I wake up in the middle of the night thinking someone's in the house about once or twice a month. He does do this.

He this is. I get out of bed. I stand near the window.

The thing that happens. He peeks out the blind. It's the most narcissistic thing ever that I think that somebody cares enough to break into my house. Somebody's after me. Somebody's after me. But it's the middle of the night.

It's two in the morning. And probably. Josh's major major main character syndrome kicking in. At the beginning of this year we had that issue with our tower and people the FBI was looking into it and all that and we had the conversation which fan base would be most likely to get so mad at Josh that they'd commit a federal crime.

I don't think we found an answer on that but probably Tar Heel fans. Probably. Love it. I'm not superstitious but my. But I'm a little stitious. My father is like crazy. So he when he was a teenager used another kid's crutches at school right and they say that this is a thing you can't use another person's crutches if they're actually hurt because then you will get hurt.

That's just like the way. You can use other people's verbal crutches though. All the time. Yeah. I mean physical crutches like you tuck them under your armpits and you catapult yourself around the hallways at school very awkwardly. Anyways he did that. Anyway great verbal crutch. And then. And then like a couple of days later he fell out of a barn and had to have like metal put into his leg.

My dad's got a metal femur because of this and he swears it's because he he used the kids crutches. So like you can't walk under a ladder with him. He sees a black cat.

His day is over he's going into bed. I'm not really at superstitious. Now we don't cross bats. We don't cross bats do we Darren? Sure. And I'll allow it.

Split poles. That's a thing for Sarah Bradford. You don't like you don't step on the foul line if you're on a baseball field. Yeah.

But like if I did. Don't step on the logo in the locker room. It's not the end of the world. Right. That's a big thing in pro sports. I'm at field level a lot and like instinctively I'll just step over a line.

But if I step on it I'm not. What's your what's your unusual question. If you could create a new holiday what would it be. Day after the Super Bowl. I'm with you on that. However however if the NFL schedule expands to 18 which a lot of people think it's going to with the CBA the Super Bowl will be the day before President's Day which means we might actually see that happen in President's Day just so happens to be the day that everybody takes off and becomes that national holiday because it's the day after the Super Bowl. I'll tell you what the second that that happens you're going to get that Monday as a national holiday right.

Because people are going to get used to it or whatever or they're going to have it and see how nice it is and then it'll be just like an upheaval. I remember asking the former governor of the state of North Carolina who was it. It was Pat McCrory. I remember asking him would he consider this and he looked at me like I was so stupid. He's like no. The day after the Super Bowl.

Like not even jokingly like oh no it's so dumb. I bet I bet our guy Roy Cooper would. He'd consider it. Absolutely. Next time. I have two I have two answers to this. One or the other.

I would either do daylight savings time that day should be a holiday that we all get off and enjoy the day or the first day of the seasons. What. What's what season.

Hold on. Like all of them. Like spring summer. Yeah.

All of them. The first day of each season. Oh I thought you were talking sports like opening day. We all have the day off. That could.

No that's. If we don't get the Super Bowl we're not going to get opening day. But yeah like the first day of fall winter summer spring to enjoy the day.

Kick off the season. Why daylight saving? Because that shouldn't exist anyway. No it shouldn't but if it has to we should make it a holiday. We should be done. That's what we should do.

We should take the the the changing of the clock nix that and just give everybody the day off instead. Like why worry about it. That's been unusual questions. But Darren here new voice of ECU basketball but you need to make something clear to the people. That doesn't mean that you're not going to be calling high point games this year.

So yeah wacky circumstances there is surprisingly little overlap between ECU men's basketball schedule and high points home men's basketball schedule. How much purple is in your closet? Enough although I assume I'm going to get some gear. So like. A lot of purple. There will be more.

There will be more. So to your point I am effectively and this is where it gets weird I am effectively going to be the voice of two men's basketball programs. What up.

This season. I don't travel with high point but like I'm doing coaches shows and stuff like that and all their home games. There might not be anybody in America that calls more college basketball than Darren Bond. There might. I've got ACC games too. I've got like I've got a couple of women's games already on my schedule.

So like there literally might not be. I don't know. The only guy more busy than you might be Kevin Harlan who was with us earlier. He's got Spurs tonight on TNT preseason basketball. He's got the Panthers Sunday and then he's got Monday Night Football.

I thought it would be a light schedule. He's like I've got about ten minutes I could call you in between talking to Wimby and talking to whomever. That's dude that's the way when he and I catch up it's just like spur of the moment. He's like hey I've got a few minutes in case you're not busy. Not a joke. It is. He has a few minutes. That's it.

That's how he is to plan his life. What do we got to take it to the house on this Rhinestone Cowboy Friday? If you live in Bridgeport Connecticut you might live next to an axe murderer. I've been to Bridgeport Connecticut.

If you live anywhere you might live next to an axe murderer. I've been walking these streets. Rhinestone Cowboy Friday an abbreviated ticket to the house because Darren thought could be a bit long winded.

It's true. Darren you feel uncomfortable getting the words to this right? I'm just I'm here to vibe. I've just figured it out like I'm just vibing.

That's right. Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel and to our podcast channel. Thanks to Kevin Harlan and Dave Pulaski and Darren Bott for being here on today's show. Before we take it to the house we sing it and we belt it out. Shout out to the folks in Boone who came up to me at the App State game and said I love it when you sing Glen Campbell.

Sometimes I even cry when you sing. Stop. Thanks. Here we go.

Not a joke that happened. Like a rhinestone cowboy riding out on a horse and a star spangled rodeo. Like a rhinestone cowboy getting cards and letters from people I don't even know.

We don't know them. The only show in America to finish on Fridays with Glen Campbell and a trick daddy. One two punch. And Stan Cotton. Yeah that too. In Bridgeport, Connecticut, a man is being released after spending 10 years in a psychiatric hospital because he killed a man with an ax and ate his brain and eyeball. I think it's actually common practice for people in medicine that have to like go into like know what it's like to work in the psych ward. I say that as someone who's married to someone in the profession and there's some interesting stories that can come from that.

I think there's like a psych rotation that's required for like PA students. Yeah. My wife.

Your wife, yeah. So there are stories that come out of that that I won't share here. Well apparently this guy was sentenced to 60 years but I guess because he had good behavior for 10 of those they're letting him out.

Look man like I guess like in theory that's what the psych ward's for. They're letting him out. That's good news. That's it. Working. Shout out. Hey the man's eyeball.

Shout out psych wards. Darren. Thanks for being here buddy. Have a great weekend. You guys too. We'll see you. KCC baseball etcetera.

You know Darren. All right. Have a great weekend everybody. I'll be at Carolina Miami tomorrow. Not the Panthers Carolina Miami, the college Carolina Miami and then we'll talk to you on a Monday drive.