Brockman's NFL Powerless Rankings

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Visit chevy.com to learn more. This is the Rich Eisen Show. The Rich Eisen Show with guest host Andrew Siciliano. Dylan Gabriel's pick day two at rookie mini camp. Do you knock Dylan Gabriel?

Yeah, he could have made a better throw. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Or do you praise the 33rd overall pick, Carson Swessinger, the linebacker at UCLA who made a nice play. Earlier on the show, ESPN senior writer Seth Wickersham. Coming up, MLB senior writer for the athletic Jason Stark.

NBA writer for the athletic Mike Vorkanov. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Andrew Siciliano. Emanently we're going to do a lot of athletic things today. Hey everybody, should the Pirates trade Paul Skeans?

No! Jason Stark will be here coming up shortly. Hope you're having a fantastic Wednesday. I'm told the Stanley Cup finals singular and or begins rather this evening. NBA finals tomorrow. NFL OTAs today. Later on this hour, I will breathlessly give you the rundown of Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dylan Gabriel, and Chidor Sanders.

What they did in the open session of OTAs. Who's working? Yes. 7 on 7, 11 on 11. Who's throwing touchdowns?

Here coach, let's go. Does it matter? The answer is yes it matters.

But does it really matter? What's today's date? June 4th.

June 4th. It's my mom's birthday today. Happy birthday mom!

Hey TJ! What's mom's name? Linda. Linda! Happy birthday Linda!

That's awesome! Does she want to call in? Eh, probably not. Ok. We could FaceTime her. I sent her flowers this morning. Ok, of course you did. Of course you did.

It's fantastic. Alright. Well, 25 years ago today was the Kobe to Shaq alley-oop against the Blazers. With Shaq running down the court. Can I tell you guys, I remember where I was, everything I was doing that day. Wow.

I thought the Blazers had that game one, I was so happy. I don't remember where I was that day. Yeah. You guys know the actor Harlan Williams? Yes.

Yes. So my buddy Matt and him are good friends and we were, Matt was house sittin'. So we're watching the game at Harlan's house and I'm going crazy. Cause you know I don't like the Lakers. And that oop happened and I was just like, oh my god.

Weren't they up something like 18 or something? Dude, they were killing them in the third quarter. Then the Lakers just, they made a comeback and that oop sealed it.

Oh man. That was Steve Smith. She wasn't Scottie Pippen on that team. Yeah. He's guarding Kobe on the play.

Oh, Kobe crosses him up. Oh, that's such a thing. Let's introduce everybody. This is live play by play of Chris Brockman watching a 25 year old highlight on his laptop. I just want to bring everyone into the family here.

That is Chris Brockman. Hey everybody. Hey celebrity A1, A2, Mike Del Tufo. How you doing Andrew? How are you sir? Good. Doing well. Thanks for welcoming, welcoming me back into the fold. And TJ Jefferson, whose mom Linda has a birthday today.

Good to see you as well. Yesterday it was, yesterday it was 33 years of the Jordan Shrug game. Yes. Oh, it was?

Yes. Wow. Remember where I was for that.

Me too. I was back at home in Northern Virginia. I was an intern at Sports Radio 570 WTEM.

Now it's 980 in DC. And yeah, I remember coming to the next day as an intern. The local midday show that day was hosted by James Brown as in CBS's legendary James Brown JB. The local show on After It was hosted by Tony Kornheiser.

Let's see. Future Lions play by play man, Dan Miller was your Redskins beat reporter. Who else was there? Steve Colby, the after the, the midday, the afternoon board op went on to be the voice of the capitals.

Mitch Levy Kornheiser's producer and board op went on to be a big talk show host in Seattle. Who else was there? Rich Ackerman was there. Pam Ward was no, no.

Rich Ackerman. Pam Ward was doing updates. ESPN's Pam Ward was the midday update person. I was the intern. It was a, it was an interesting group at 570 WTEM. Where did you say this was?

Sports Radio 570 Washington DC. Yeah. Anyway, that's where I was.

I remember the next day coming in and everyone was talking about Jordan going. Anyway, I digress. All right, let's get to some headlines. NBA, we don't have a new head coach for the Knicks yet.

Just shame on you, James Dolan. Figure out if you're going to fire a good head coach that you have another head coach in waiting. Yeah.

Just figure that out. We do, however, have a new head coach today of your Phoenix Suns. He's a Cavaliers assistant. The Suns are hiring Jordan Ott as the new head coach of the Phoenix Suns. Devin Booker, allegedly part of the process here. Michigan State, Ashiva connections and all that.

Jordan Ott is the new head coach of your Phoenix Suns. In the NFL, what's going on? We have an injury. Donald Parham at ACL reportedly in Pittsburgh, the tight end. So maybe that John Deuce Smith thing may happen. No updated Miami on a Jalen Ramsey trade. No update on a TJ Watt contract nor an Aaron Rodgers arrival in Pittsburgh. That is still very much TBD in Dallas.

Micah Parson says that he will be there for mandatory minicamp next week. Guys, not news. I mean, it is news. It's Micah. He gets fined if he's not there.

Cowboys can't rescind those fines. It's only news when they get a deal done. And it's news if Micah practices in training camp at Oxnard come the third and fourth week of July without a contract that is newsworthy.

And if I'm Micah, I don't practice. All right. Because I want a new deal. I hold in, I show up so I don't get fined and I wait for that new deal. That is how it should be done.

And barring a nine figure commitment from Jerry Jones, eight of which eight of those figures will be guaranteed. I don't go. I don't, I don't go on the field. I just don't. It's the way it should be done these days. Now, could Jerry play it out? He could, but why? For who?

For what? The price only goes up. And we say this with quarterbacks, but now we say it with edge rushers as well.

And we said it last summer with wide receivers. If you don't get the deal done, the deal is only going to get more expensive. So how much of your money do you want to spend? Would you like to buy this car now? Sorry to turn you into a car, Micah Parsons, but just bear with me. Would you like to buy this car now at this price or would you like to buy it in two months and pay more money?

It's a very simple thing. Would you like to pay this is what Jerry Jones does, or would you like in two months to pay more? Well, uncle likes to pay more cause he never pays. Why pay more for the same car now? Why?

And by the way, interest rates may go up. Okay. I can lock you in right now.

I, and I could include floor mats. I could lock you in right now. I'll give you a second year of serious.

Okay. Let me lock you in right now. Do you want the tire protection? Do you want the wheel deal undercoating? Do you want all of that? Right? I could lock you in right now, Jerry, or in two months, if you come back, I guarantee you the price is going to be higher.

I guarantee you, you know why? Because the car on the other lot over there, that car, it wears black and gold and it wears a number 90. It's also a good looking car. It's got more miles on it. It's a little bit older, but I guarantee you that if you don't buy this car right now, which is younger and better looking, okay. If you don't buy this car right now, somebody is going to buy that car down the road and they're going to pay a pretty penny. And then this car is going to be more expensive. So why don't you just buy it now?

You can drive off a lot today. You can take this thing home right now, red bow and all take it home, take it home. It's only a Christmas. Fantastic.

Look at it. Or if you want to come back around labor day, I know you think we're going to have a labor day sale. I'm not come labor day. This thing's going up. Okay. It is getting more expensive. Would you like to drive at home today?

I'm sure the misses would love to see it in the driveway. Nope. Nope. Okay. See you in two months. I'm not going to text you when you leave. I'm not going to tell you that I got to get this off the lot by the end of the month. Cause I don't care if I keep it. I don't care. I'll gladly keep it. Getting back to, by the way, the, me joking about the Browns and their quarterbacks and the breathless coverage. I'm all here for the coverage, by the way, we're all here for it. I love it. I'm interested as well. I got a video of Quinn, Sean, Jenkins making a run.

Okay. And she was just doing a touchdown to Kayden Davis. Who was in chargers camp last year.

Dylan Gabriel took the first set of rookie reps, right on seven on seven 11 on 11, then then should get in there. Anyway, joking aside, the Browns will be the story. I'm happy to be there. And I'm along for the ride.

Happy to be back this summer. NFL network just announced its list of preseason games that it will carry live. Now they're not NFL produced broadcast. They are, Hey, we take the home team feed of these broadcasts. NFL network just announced the 21 games. All three Browns games will be carried live on NFL network.

Interesting. The Eagles game, the Panthers game, the Rams game, all three games will be carried live. Yes, I, I do get to cover a Browns Rams game. I might just go back and forth between the two booths. It would be a blast.

Just do a big group group booth with like six of you group. That's great. Let's get wit on for the first quarter. Then we can go back and then Mina for the second quarter. Let's do it. I am here for it. Just throwing ideas out. You know what?

Let everyone else, the powers that be get together and figure it out. All right, more football coming up shortly. Jason Stark in 12 minutes for baseball as well. But I'm told now that Chris Brockman has the segment you have been waiting for.

And now it's Brockman's power less watching on the TV feed here. Shame is your head on top of right there. I have no idea. Probably, probably some, cause that ain't you. Here's the deal, everybody.

No, I work out. Here's the thing. Everyone loves power, power rankings or the steroid era.

We love the steroid era power, power. No, no, no, no, TJ. Everything's top, top, top.

No, I want to give you the bottom. We did this last year, the bottom 10 going into the year. Way too early, right? Way too early. Powerless rankings, the bottom 10.

Now, last year we did this on June 20th early. Okay. All of those 10 that I told you five ended up drafting in the top 10 this year is 50% hit, right? That's good.

Look at you. That's more than hall of fame performance. Not necessarily indicative of future game. However, that is doing.

Here we go. 2025 way too early. Powerless rankings.

Number 23, because I'm a big fan and they love me down in South Florida, the Miami dolphins. I don't know how good they are. You have them at 23. Yeah.

23 over. They could be, they could be lower. I don't know how good they are. Yeah. I'm with you.

They got all kinds of issues. They're not going to have a tight end soon. He's going to get traded. Their coach is definitely on the hot seat.

I don't care what anyone says. I think he is. Yeah. And I think, look, I, I was banging the drum of the dolphins last year as well.

Like, Hey, you don't necessarily have to pay to it. Maybe I would wait now if they, and look, they're, they're losing a lot of big pieces here and they're, they're in transition. Let's put it that way, but still trying, we think to win. I think it'll be an interesting season.

Not sure. Number 24 Carolina Panthers. I think they're going to be better, but they're in a, they're in a tough spot and they have a tough schedule. I don't know how much they actually have around Bryce Young, but I re I like his development and I think he's improved. Go watch the Panthers video. They tweeted out yesterday behind the scenes on draft day with the trade talks with the Rams about the eighth overall pick with the Rams trying to move up. And then the Panthers taken Ted McMillan. It's a good watch. Go watch. Number 25, the Raiders.

They're only here. I love what they did this off season. I love getting Gino. I love Ashton Gente.

I love Pete. They're in a really tough division and they're clearly fourth in that division. So they could be picking in the top 10 this year. It's going to be fun.

They're going to be improved. I just don't know how much number 26. We talked about him yesterday.

It's it's the tight. It's the Tennessee Titans, but I do think Cam Ward is going to be the guy there and I think he's going to be a really good player. May I interject? I'm surprised you have them this high. The Titans at 26. Well, you want to know why? Because they have a better quarterback than the rest of these teams. I'm going to tell you.

Okay. Kim Ward's better than all these other quarterbacks. Number 27, the Jets. They stink. They've been, they've stunk for 50 years and they're going to continue to stink. I don't care who the quarterback is. It's because of ownership.

They will surprise you this year and how bad they are. Nope. Other way around. Got it.

You will have content with the normal host of this appropriately named show. And the Jets are only above this team because last year when the Jets had this quarterback, who I assume will be the quarterback of the next team, I'm going to tell you week one, they won five games. Okay.

28 to Steelers. They're not good. They're going to be pretty bad and they really need to be bad, bad.

They need to bottom out and start over. Can I interest you in a Will Howard? Yes. Justin Fields week one matchup. I think Will Howard should just start all the games.

I agree. If it isn't Aaron, it should be Will Howard. Number 29, the Colts. They don't have a quarterback either. And they're going to they're there.

Oh man, they're rough. Who is their quarterback? It's either Daniel Jones or Anthony Richardson. I know that I'm asking you which one it has to be. It has to be Anthony Richardson because you've invested a draft capital and you've waited patiently for this guy to blossom. They should just run the tush bush every play with Andy Richardson.

They couldn't stop. Number 30. Andrew, I apologize to you personally.

We're close friends and I love you dearly. It's the Cleveland Browns. They have five quarterbacks, which means you really have none.

And you're going to tell us how cool Chidor is. But, you know, again, I don't know, doing the NFL, it would do it not against Big 12 competition. Here's where I would push back, regardless of who the quarterback is.

Really pick one tough division, tough schedule, tough division, very tough schedule. They are getting back to the 2020-2021 offense, which I like. They're going to run the stink in football. The old line, fingers crossed, stays healthy.

Mike Bloomberg, keep an eye. Remember that name, the former rice head coach, former NFL assistant Bill Callahan was an assistant was an old line coach with with Stanford when Andrew Luck, when they're running power 18 straight times. Right. They're going to run the stinking ball with Quinch on with Dylan Sampson, with Jerome Ford. And they are going to keep that defense off the field where they're not going to have to be on the field for 70 snaps a game. And I don't know that they're getting back to the number one overall defense, although that guy could have a huge say in it, Myles Garrett. But I think the JOK loss is huge. The defense will take enough of a step back towards what we saw in twenty twenty three that this team is better than you. I hope I'm wrong again. Fifty percent of these teams are going to be picking in the top 10, not one hundred percent.

Well, the Browns could with the Jaguars. So last year at thirty one, I had the commanders and they worked out. They worked out pretty good last year.

They worked out pretty good. It's June 4th. OK. Thirty one. You think I'm going to go one way?

I'm zagging. I'm going to say the Saints. They're in a better division than the thirty two team schedule.

Not as difficult. Again, no quarterback could be in the running for first overall if they are first overall. Arch Manning will come out and he will take over the team that his grandfather led way back in the day.

Number thirty two. They have the toughest schedule in the NFL and everybody's on the hot seat. They have no quarterback. It's the New York Football Giants.

And that is your powerless ranking. You really think the Giants are the worst team of the NFL? They're really bad. I don't think Russ is good. Jamis is super cool and he's fun. He's a good quote. And he plays entertaining games, but he doesn't win games.

Yep. And then they have a rookie that, you know, people are confused and conflicted on if he should have been a first round pick or not. And if he was just kind of a system guy with Lane at Ole Miss and then, you know, they have a cool player. Malik neighbors is awesome. But other than that, who do they have? Tyron Tracy? I like they drafted well on defense last year. I don't know.

It's an interesting one. I wouldn't have pegged them as the worst team, but I could see the argument. I mean, they did pick fourth overall.

Yeah. They've been in the top overall. They've been picking in the top ten for a while.

Last year in this spot, I had the Patriots and they were fourth overall. So there you go. Do the pirates trade Paul Skeans.

If you're a pirate fan, would you ever go to a game again? I'm being dramatic. Jason Stark of the athletic right around the corner. This is the rich eyes and show them Andrew. Hi everybody. Let's talk about Brunt work boots.

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Call 562-314-4603 for details. What was it like shooting that scene though with Ray Kinsella and his father? What I did was I went back to when I first read it. And so I become the audience when I read it.

And when I read it, I went, I couldn't believe that it had orchestrated itself to that thing. And I had that feeling on the couch. And so I knew if I played that straight, if I didn't wink at anybody, that these players did come, you know, that's my corn. You know, they kept coming after me. I wasn't going to be able to do that movie. I was going to do Revenge.

And I got into a, finally Revenge kept getting pushed, kept getting pushed. And finally I had to put my foot down and say, look, if you don't get this movie together, I'm going to go to do this movie in the corn. I asked the director, why did you hold out for me so long?

Why? And he said, well, and this is one of the greatest actors we've ever seen. He goes, they wanted me to do Robin Williams. And I said, I said, Robin Williams is perfect. He said, yeah, but when I think of Robin, I think he does hear voices in the corn. And I don't want that. People don't believe you hear voices. That was a, that's a director that makes a save.

That's a Mariano Rivera, you know, it's a save. He saved his movie because of his belief in an idea, you know, not the quality of actor because Robin Williams will never, this is a guy so special, but I, but I was curious. I said, he's actually a bigger star than me, you know, whatever. And he goes, I need somebody that you don't think hears voices. And that would be you.

I've never heard Robin Williams was considered for that role. That's unbelievable. And then you did it. And obviously we're, we're talking about it today. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It had gold dust on it when I read it because I did that little intake of breath. Do you want to have a catch?

And of course I, I wept myself. One of my sports movies last night, center of the Dodger game. One of my favorite sports movies of all time period movies of all time would be field of dreams. Most sports movies get it wrong. Like the natural, believe it or not.

I didn't like the natural. I thought Robert Redford was not convincing as a baseball player. That was like the things I looked at as a kid. I'm like, eh, it doesn't look like it doesn't look yeah.

Field of dreams gets it right. Anyway, I digress phone number 8 4 4 2 0 4 rich at rich eyes and show on all the socials. All right. Full disclosure. I've been reading Jason stark for years. Not to age you Jason from the athletic who joins us now.

I don't know. Maybe back in the Fox sports radio days over 20 some years ago, have I ever Jason had you on a show. So I'm glad we're doing this. How are you man? Andrew, I'm great. Great to be on with you. How are you? I'm doing okay.

Thank you. Went to the Dodgers and Mets last night. Just I'll take it right there. And so Tony who didn't have a great night, obviously, but it was a great game. 10 innings again. Still don't know what happened on that ball in left field, but Hey, the Dodgers got out of there with a win. But after watching the Yankees come in here right last weekend and seeing obviously Oh, Tony every night, I'll get right to the MVP thing, even though it's only June four days. And if you had to vote right now, could you decide between Oh, Tony and judge? Wow.

So we're talking about MVP of the sword. It's June, but what they're doing is also absurd. It's absurd. I would say there's no wrong answers, but if I had to pick one, Andrew, you know, the year that judges having, I don't think we can say it's merely great. It's historically great.

You're familiar with OPs plus, right? Which adjust for players era, the park he plays in. And right now, June the fourth, Aaron judge is rocking a two 48 OPs.

Plus it's a scale of one to a hundred hundreds average means he's basically 150% better than the average player. And you know, in modern history, we've only seen two players have that season. One's Babe Ruth. The other is Barry bonds. They both had left-handed. So this is potentially the greatest season ever by a right-handed hitter. But I just want to mention two up a few weeks ago, wrote a column saying Aaron judge is the best right-handed hitter of the last hundred years because his OPs plus over the last four seasons, 500 games now has been twice as good as the average player over a four year period. We haven't seen a right-handed hitter do that since Rogers Hornsby. That was kind of a while ago. That was a bit ago. Yeah.

Jason, I know it is June 4th. I, as I said, I was at the game last night and with a group of guys, and this was the conversation, right guys putting their feet up and having a beer and a random Tuesday night packed house. Great to see a Tuesday night. Granted, it's the Mets, right? And when New York comes to LA, everyone goes to the stadium regardless of the sport. But that was the conversation last night because you had a group of people realizing that you are witnessing greatness coming through the doors of that building in the last five days and you have to appreciate it.

And we certainly all did. I hope baseball fans everywhere else appreciate the greatness that these two guys bring to the stadium every single night they go out there. And I am not one of these people that says, Hey, drop everything, take the kids down to the ballpark. But for Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, like I, you know, Brockman, you last night were thinking of taking your son to the stadium. Like every chance you have to like to have your kids be able to say, Hey, I went to see that guy when he came to town.

I would do it. You know, the star power that just oozes off the field when the Yankees are playing the Dodgers and especially around those two guys, it's special. It's different. How about the first inning Friday night when Judge hits that bomb and then up steps Shohei and hits a ball that it hit the Hollywood Sun?

I don't know. It, you know, it just felt cinematic. It didn't feel like it could be. We could really be watching this. It felt like somebody wrote that script, but that's really every night in the life of Shohei.

It feels like he's just writing his own script. Yeah. And last night, oh, by the way, as we talked to Jason Stark from the athletic, some guy named Juan Soto, who's not bad as well when it comes to historical contact, also homeward and Max Muncy hit two, including a game tying home run in the ninth inning. It was a good game all around. And obviously the Yankees series good as well. Also yesterday, Jason Polskein's pitched and the Pirates didn't do much to help him out.

I, I, if I were a Pirates fan, I would be sick to my stomach when I hear people even think or discuss the idea that maybe they would be open to trading the face of the franchise. Do, do you think, and again, it's June 4th, that that is at all a possibility. Yeah.

They're not going to do that. Not this year. That'd be team building malpractice, but you could make a case the way they're handling him right now is team building malpractice. You know, Andrew's last seven starts, he's got a one seven seven IRA. He's averaging over six innings to start actually closer to seven innings and six, they're two and five in those games. And it just a, a slice of life around the Pirates right now. And I've been on the soapbox since they fired the manager, fired Derek Shelton a few weeks ago. I just don't understand how the owner, Bob Nutting can look at this and show me he understands what it means to have Paul Skeens on his team. You know, he has to know he's not going to sign them long term unless we have a drastic change in the economic system in the sport. So what's the window for the Pirates to win with this guy?

I don't know how long it is, but guess what? This year is part of that window. And the big free agent signings that Bob Nutting authorized over the past winter were Adam Frazier, Tommy Pham and Andrew Heaney. And then he fires the manager and issues a statement saying they need to show a greater sense of urgency. Tell me there's another contender for the least self-aware quote of 2025.

Yeah. Like it's Derek Shelton's fault. This is why you, this is why you have a draft. This is why you let the bad teams pick early to get the good players. So you have these opportunities to build. And when you have, when you're at the table in Vegas and you have this good of a hand, this is when you spend your money.

This is when you move the chips that you hopefully have into the middle of the table. And if I were a Pirates fan, I'm not, I'm a Guardians fan, Jason. So look, I understand how the medium to small size market thing can work, but they have found a way to spend when they need to, maybe not as much as your average fan would hope for, but they have found a way. They've also developed a farm system that could have a lot better than the Pirates. And it just seems like if I'm a Pirates fan, I would be ill. I have several friends who are big Pirates fans.

Ill is probably the kindest word you could use to describe how they're feeling right now. And see, there's a difference between how the Guardians go about it and the Pirates. There's a difference between how the Rays go about it and the Pirates. Those teams look at life in not just in each individual year and what the revenues are going to be in that year.

They look in periods of time, one year, three years, five years, 10 years. And they understand that when you get one of those groups that has a chance to win, that's when you try to maximize what you've got in that window. You try to win with that group because it's special and they're not going to be around as long as the Yankees core group. It just feels like the Pirates, Bob Nutting, they use their economic situation as an excuse. And I understand their revenue challenge.

Okay. They play in Pittsburgh. That's an issue that the sport probably needs to address sooner than later. But why do you own the team if you're not going to look at Paul Skeens and say, we've got a chance to win around one of the special players who will ever play here and go for it.

They have not even shown a hint of doing that. It's malpractice. It really is. I agree. Jason Stark, senior writer, baseball writer for the athletic. Jason, you got a cool thing going the all century, all quarter century team. I beg your pardon.

And again, 25 years, it's 2025 quarter century team. I find it fascinating. Your picks as, as compared to the, the readers picks, right? The poll here, because for some of them there's recency bias, right?

And for others, it's like, like, wait, what? Like, for example, you're picking right field going back to Aaron judge is, is Aaron judge. I am as big an Ichiro fan as there is outside of Japan and Seattle. The idea that the fans picked Ichiro over Yankee Aaron judge is, is stunning to me. Although it kind of warms my heart. I actually, I was surprised that it was as close as it was.

I honestly thought Ichiro would run away with this. You know, sometimes when you write these columns, this whole thing was my harebrained idea. It's great. I love a column.

Let people vote, let people react. It's been tremendous fun. So sometimes when you do that, you try to make a point and stimulate conversation, stimulate debate that happened. You know, nobody loves each row more than I do. I just felt like, as I just told you, when we watch Aaron judge, we're watching Babe Ruth and we should value what we're watching.

Even though each row did it for 20 acres and got all those hits on two, on both sides of the Pacific. I just thought that Aaron judge was one of those players where I could jump in and say, what we're watching now, trumps that. Even though he plays in New York, I didn't think it would be close. So at least Hart knew it was close.

Yeah. The one that's interesting, we're getting a little down the rabbit hole here. The quarter century team, Jason Stark has on the athletic. The one that's always interesting to me is third base and Adrian Beltre was your pick and the fans, the readers picked Adrian Beltre as well. Adrian Beltre was a fantastic player.

Fantastic. He is a hall of famer that I don't know that anyone ever bought a ticket to see. Like no one ever says, honey, like go back to the judge at Otani thing, honey, Adrian Beltre is coming to town. Want to make sure the kids can say one day that they saw Adrian Beltre in person, whomever he's playing for this year, let's go buy a ticket to see Adrian Beltre. Yet here he is like quarter century team Cooperstown. And it's just one of those where people years from now go, Oh, Oh, Adrian.

Oh yeah. I remember him. You know, he was actually pretty fun player and a lot of people in Texas bought tickets to go see him.

But, uh, I really wrestled with that one. Um, I, when I wrote my column, I thought it was Adrian Beltre barely over Chipper Jones, no wrong answers. But the fact that Adrian Beltre by almost any measure is the second greatest defensive third baseman of all time, um, behind only Brooks Robinson and got 3000 hits and did what he did over such a long period. Um, got more whole of fame votes in any third baseman ever.

Um, that to me was what put him over Chipper and then people voted and Chipper was nowhere to be found. And Alex Rodriguez almost beat both of them. And I found this amazing, Andrew, because I, I, I read the reader comments on my original column and I would say that 80% of them were beating on me for picking anyone that the, the readers thought was a cheater. And I'd Barry bonds on the team, for example. And I read all of this stuff and then Alex Rodriguez won the balloting at third base. And I'm just amazed by how people can rant about cheating and PEDs and yet still love a rod.

Say that to me. Listen, I live in the football world. I am just guy that watches baseball on his couch.

I haven't covered a baseball game since the nineties, like as a credentialed member of the media, actually with a role, but the difference in the two worlds, Jason, it's jarring baseball. You got the PD thing. You will never shake it. I mean, you will take it to the grave, right or wrong football guys can get dinged for steroids for a month. Right? Let's say they're suspended a month by the time they come back five weeks later, nobody remembers why they were suspended.

Like legitimately. They just know that they're out. Oh, they're back next week. Oh, cool. Right. They're back next week. Yeah.

Okay. Wait, why were they out? They don't remember.

They just don't remember. Yes. It's amazing. This has been a topic inside baseball for 20 years. You know that right in football guy gets suspended and all anybody cares about is when is he going to come back and help my fantasy team? Yeah.

But even goes beyond that, like it's for defensive players as well. Oh wait. You say, wait, was it, was it Sarah? It's no way. Wait, was it a DUI?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It was something in the off season. Somebody sued him. Wait, wait. Oh wait.

He's back next week though. Right. Okay. Cool. Good. We're good.

Well, okay. You know why this is right? Because Maguire Sosa bonds, those guys obliterated the greatest record in sports. The home run records that were once held by Roger Maris and Henry Aaron were the coolest, most romantic records in all of sports. And little old ladies walking down main street in any town, they knew what 7 14 men, they knew at 61 men, you know, those were such iconic numbers. And because of the PED era, those records cease to mean anything. And I really think it's the reverence for those records connecting the dots to Dave, to Babe Ruth. That explains the reaction.

And yet we have, we have these black holes in how we look at this. Alex Rodriguez is one of them. I don't know if he's getting in the hall of fame, but it's amazing to me that he almost won in the all quarter century voting. Amazing. Yeah.

Ridiculous. I was in the dugout. I was in clubhouse rather third base clubhouse, Cubs home clubhouse in what year was it? 98 when they, it was 98, right? 98. 98. When somebody asked Mark Maguire, Hey, what's that?

What's that bottle up there on the top shelf of your dugout? It's Andrew. It's Andrew Steendione, right? What is Andrew Steendione?

Well, Andrew Steendione. Well, Google really wasn't a thing. It was, but like, and then all of a sudden and people, I mean, how many movies have been made about that?

How many books have been written about that? Football don't matter. And by the way, maybe baseball is doing it the right way and football isn't.

Maybe, maybe we should care that much and not be so dismissive. They're different sports. One's a gladiator sport. One is not, but whatever. I love the idea of the quarter century team.

It's it's on the athletic still. Jason's got a great column initially. And then afterwards comparing his votes to everyone else's votes. It's good stuff. Jason's great to connect. Thanks for coming on. I promise we will not talk about the MVP in June ever again, but I figured this time it was worth it. Andrew enjoyed it. Thanks for having me. Likewise.

Jason Stark, everybody from the athletic. Good times. Yeah. Yeah. What is that?

It's Andrew Steendione. Yeah. What is it? Helps me recover.

It helps me recover. Yeah. That's what he said. I know. Crazy time, man. Covering baseball back then. Oh, so I was a radio reporter. I was in my early twenties. I just got the job in Chicago as a reporter.

It's basically a human mic stand at the age of 21 for a WMAQ, all news, CBS, ONO, all news radio in Chicago, like sports at 15 and 45. I couldn't have been luckier. 22 years old, right out of school covering the bulls and covering the bears and covering Wrigley Field. I lived in Wrigley Ville.

Greatest job ever. I mean, I didn't ask a lot of questions. I was the youngest guy in the market on air, period. And so I would just be a human mic stand and hold my mic there.

And all the, all the pros that I was intimidated by, they would ask the questions. But pretty cool. Yeah.

Pretty, pretty cool. And it was a different era. Like Mark Grace would stand in front of his locker, Rod Beck, Mickey Morandini, and they would do post-game scrums smoking cigarettes, buck naked, smoking heaters. Gracie would, Mark Grace would hold that cigarette down low. Like he wouldn't hold it up here. You know, talking to local news cameras, hold it down here. But if you were to watch that news coverage carefully that night, you might see the loft of smoke coming up there in the clubhouse back in the day when there'd be two coffee pots over there in the corner, one with the green handle, that one had the greenies in it.

Not coming up next on gap. No, not that greeny, the amphetamines right? Yeah.

That pot of coffee. If you really needed a jolt that day, if Wrigley, Hey, back then the Cubs could only play like 18 night games. There were a lot of day games. Yep. There are a lot of late nights as well.

It's the green handled coffee pot. Different day, way different day. Lucky kid though. I was a very, very, very lucky kid. And yes, I was a kid.

All right. It is the rich highs and show. My name is Andrew Siciliano. Let's talk O'Reilly auto parts. People they're in the business of keeping your car on the road. Oh, O O O'Reilly auto parts offers friendly, helpful service and the parts knowledge you need for all your maintenance and repairs.

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That's O'Reilly auto.com slash Eisen. This episode is brought to you by Navy federal credit union with rising housing prices and steeper mortgage rates. We know home ownership may seem too expensive to be achievable, but that's why we offer a home buyer's choice loan that can open the door to affordable home ownership. Our home buyer's choice loan has no down payment options available, which means you don't need to wait years to save money. And with our no refi rate drop, you may be able to lower your rate in the future without refinancing. Plus while most lenders require borrowers to purchase private mortgage insurance, unless they can make a 20% down payment, we don't require PMI. Finally, we offer fixed payments.

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Learn more at Navy federal.org. All right. First one up, Brian Cranston. True or false?

One of your first gigs was a preparation H commercial. True or false? Oh, come on. That is false. It is. Oh, gosh.

Look at that photo. That's very Roy Scheider. Isn't it? Yeah.

Right there. Roy Scheider. What do you think? Well, what's that? That talk show host who had this big red glasses. What's your name? Sally Jesse. Good call. Good call. Yeah.

So what's the, what happened with this? This is truly, it's called a job, Rich. I know you haven't been job hunting in a while. Oh, mr. Employment, steady employment guy. Well, you're not, you know, actors.

You got to, you got to say yes. Well, this was at least yes. I was a spokesperson. I wasn't afflicted by hemorrhoids. I was afflicted. I would trust you to give me the right.

I would put that ointment on ago. There we go. Let's take care of this little problem.

I didn't mean the administering of the full service spokesperson. We don't just stop with talking about it. Come on. Is that what you, why you brought your, uh, your, your alcohol?

I bring my alcohol so I can soak my, it just kills everything. I don't know. True or false. You did your own stunts on Malcolm in the middle, including wearing a suit of 10,000 live bees. That also is false.

Uh, that never had, Oh God. Those are real. Those are real.

That's a 10,000. I forget the, how many the count it was, but they would extract the, the, uh, pheromones from the queen and they would put the droplets all over me wherever they wanted the bees to go. Then they'd open up the traveling shoots and the bees would just start swarming and they swarm forever in order for them to stay off my face so the camera could recognize me. Yes. You take a little of the, uh, you know, the bug spray off or whatever, and they put it all over my face there so that they, they would crawl.

Oh no, I don't want that. And they get off it. But, but it was about about two inches thick of bees. So I got stung, uh, once in the shoulder when they were getting them off. But once when I was doing that whole thing and I had to stand very still, uh, one got between my legs and I, and I got stung and I said, Oh, I think I got stung because when you're wearing bees, rich, the chance of being stung is pretty hot.

Yes. You're wearing bees for God's sake. So, uh, but what I realized is that the sting of a bee is not really painful. It is mostly the shock that gets you, you know, wow, geez, just something just, but when you're wearing bees and you get stung, it was literally, I think I did I get stung. Uh, I, I, I did get stung and the beekeeper comes over ready with a little credit card thing and the thing to scoop it out. He goes, where is it?

I go in my scrotum and he goes, can't help it. That's exactly what it is. Can't help. Uh, the great Brian Cranston everybody. This is the rich Eisen show. Hi, my name is Andrew sitting in for rich today. You know, I always say, call us and then I don't go to the phones enough. That's that's on me. Eight, four, four, two or four rich. Part of the problem is they're in this tablet down here.

And then I have my papers stacked and I don't know to look like kind of old school TV monitor in the, you know, monitor down here in the desk thing. And I'm going to say turns out Iowa, man. I apologize for making you wait for, Oh, this, this one doesn't show how long you've been waiting, but I know it has been significant Andrew. It's all good. My man. It's good to talk to you guys. What's up, Chris.

Happy birthday to Linda. Yeah. What do you got buddy? Hey, so, uh, we got a couple of things for you, but what I was kind of thinking about with this Tibbs firing, cause I don't necessarily agree with it myself, but it kind of reminds me of whenever golden state got rid of Mark Jackson kind of seemed like that, you know, kind of caught those players off guard. And you know, you kind of luck out by bringing in Steve Kerr. I just don't know if there's another person out there with odds getting picked up already that they kind of gives you that same kind of boost that her did to the golden state warriors.

And I agree with you. And that's what we were talking about to her as though the, if you're going to fire somebody, you better have a plan in place. And I know rich and others went to the socials yesterday to, to tie to, to try to make the NFL analogy. Like what would the comparable firing be in the NFL? And Rich's answer was Sean McDermott, right now, McDermott has taken the bills to the playoffs consistently.

They have never truly gotten over the hump. I think it's an interesting conversation to have here, but if the bills were to fire Sean McDermott, I would think they would at least have an idea of what direction they would go now to be fair. A lot of NFL teams fire their head coach the day after the season ends and they just open up the search. There's the Rooney rule. They got to keep it at open search and keep it open to mind.

It turns out, thanks for the phone call. The NBA is a little bit different and this is a team making a playoff or making a playoff run, a deep run, and then firing the coach. There's always that one surprise we say in the NFL every year, right? And there are always, Todd Bowles was part of that conversation last year. Like during the playoffs, you go, well, this team loses. Could they do something drastic?

Yep. Well, it actually happened in the NFL. NBA Finals preview coming up next. But the NBA is not like the NFL and the NFL in this aspect that we know every year in the NFL, there's going to be six to 10 new head coaches every year.

It doesn't matter. A quarter of the league is going to head coaches are going to be different. We see the picture every year. And you're like, well, six, seven, eight, nine of these guys are not going to be in the photo next year. NBA is not like that in the respects that there's not as many new coaches each season.

But I also feel like there are surprises. The NBA, and maybe I'm wrong, the NBA will fire a coach mid season, like far more frequently than the NFL. That's true.

That's true. The NBA, and again, the players influence in NBA coaching moves is so much more notable and significant of the NBA than it is in the NFL. Partly because of roster size. If you're most expensive players, if you're, you know, eight figure guarantee and well, almost everybody in the NBA makes eight figures.

You get my point. But if you have your stars in the NBA, because they mean more in the NBA than they do in the NFL, by far, if you have those guys that don't like your coach, coach has gone, that's, I mean, that's kind of a lazy bit of analysis, but you see more frequently in the NBA, right? Do quarterbacks get coaches fired? Well, I think so individually walk in with their play, with their play, they get coaches fired, but not just going to ownership and being like, I want a new head coach. I think it's far less likely in season than it is in the NBA. But we do agree that if big name player star in the NBA walks in and says, fire the guy, it happens.

Yeah. And don't want to overanalyze the meaning of the word star, but people in the NBA analyze the league by saying, well, you need two to three stars to win. What does that mean? Like, I hate the word star in the NFL. To me, it just means famous, right? Like when a reporter goes star wide receiver, so-and-so I'm like, Hey, we should be better than that.

Like tell me he want to, he went to the pro bowl. He's an all pro or he, he set a record last year. What does it, it just means famous, right? The NBA, you go, well, you need three stars to win. Then you argue, well, is he a star?

What does that mean? But those players, however you describe them and whatever talents they do have, when they reach that status and we agree who they are, they do have the power to influence ownership decisions. I think in the NBA far more than in any other sport, especially in the NFL, it's just different. And part of it is roster size is a huge part of it. Well, the stars are Tyrese Halliburton and Shay Gildas Alexander. Do we agree?

Great NBA preview finals next. If you're alignment in charge of keeping the lights on Grainger understands that you go to great lengths and sometimes Heights to ensure the power is always flowing, which is why you can count on Grainger for professional grade products and next day delivery. So you have everything you need to get the job done. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click Grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.