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Card may be used everywhere MasterCard is accepted. Venmo purchase restrictions apply. I know you gonna dig this. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Here we go again. It started with Clay, Sam, and Mark for believing in me. Enough. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.
Alright, let me lock in. Is this the end of the Super Team era? The Thunder became the ninth different franchise to win the title. Today's guests. Yes Network Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay.
U.S. Ryder Cup team captain Keegan Bradley. Senior writer for the MMQB Albert Breer. And now it's Rich Eisen.
Yes, can confirm it. And here I am. What's up? It's the Rich Eisen Show live on the Roku Sports Channel. Live on this Rich Eisen Show terrestrial radio radio affiliate on the Infinity Sports Network dials.
Good to see everybody. If you're listening on Sirius XM channel 375 or the Odyssey app we greatly appreciate you streaming us. We say hello to our podcast listeners listening to us whenever they want. It's their right to listen to us whenever you want. And the Cumulus Podcast Network, however you get your pods.
Check us out. The Jim Jackson Podcast. The latest episode of that with two guests.
I don't know how we booked them. But O'Shea Jackson Jr. and TJ Jefferson. You chopped it up with Jim Jackson. Yeah, nice little Rich Eisen Show productions collab. Right.
So it's the first ever crossover episode of a Rich Eisen podcast I guess. I don't know. I mean I've appeared on What the Football. But anyway, long story short. That counts.
That counts. Check it out. TJ Jefferson is here. What's up folks? Mike Del Tufo is back in his chair. Good to see you.
Chris Proctor, not McDonald. Who's surprised. Oh my god. Didn't expect to see you here. You still work here. Good to see them. Good to see you guys. Good to see you guys.
I know your badge didn't work with you guys. Mike's never going to miss an NBA draft, you know. No, I love the NBA. So... Who's the first pick tonight, Mike?
Dallas, right? Yes, yes. And what about the player? Keep going, keep going. Oh, its going to be the Duke guy. What's his name? You got it, you got it. You got it.
You got it. I can't think of his name. What's his name? My son's name is? Cooper, it's Cooper.
Cooper. Flag. Yes. Oh my gosh.
How many Gs in Flag? Two. Yes. Come on now.
Come on. I mixed a Duke game. I mixed one Duke game. He mixed a Duke game. Wow. You know who Cooper Flag is?
He mixed a Duke game. Hey. That was that one where Cooper Flag's basket sounded great. It was amazing.
Normally they just look great. Just like Jeff Walker. Yeah, my guy. Fantastic. Boom, boom, boom.
Ladies and gentlemen. Cooper the Duke guy. Cooper. Yeah, Cooper.
He called it. Excuse me. It's the journey that matters. Okay. Well, he took us on one, that's for sure.
It's the journey that matters. By the way, way better than Family Feud stuff that I do. Oh, careful. Careful. No, no.
What I did live. I'm talking about when I rehearsed. Oh, that's, okay. Rehearsals. We're really gracious.
I meant rehearsals, not live. Yeah, okay, very good. Come on, I'm not giving any secrets out.
Don't give any secrets out. Please. That's coming. That's coming in July. Yeah, July.
Oh my God. Wait, July? Yeah, July 10th. Yeah.
I think, right? It premiered. Oh, I didn't. No way. Not us. You see, during game seven of the NBA Finals.
No, I did not. It was a commercial for Celebrity Family Feud. Of course, with each shot, I was like, is it gonna be us?
Is it gonna be us? We didn't make the promo. Ah. But it's premiering July 10th. Oh, fantastic. On ABC, which means you could see it right here in Roku. We didn't make the promo?
Not yet. I imagine they're only gonna cut one promo. And so I'm saying, I mean, T.J. shouldn't worry though. T.J., we are very self-promotional. That's true. As you know. Yeah. I'm tough to shame. So.
You got your name on the mug, baby. There you go. Like, come on. So it's the NBA Draft tonight.
NBA Draft is this evening in the city of New York. And Cooper Flag will go to the Dallas Mavericks, right? We think.
For sure. Well, I mean, could you imagine? Come on.
Paint me a picture, Chris. What would it look like if Cooper Flag doesn't go to the Dallas Mavericks? Oh my gosh. Somebody with an insane Godfather offer. Giannis and seven picks probably to Dallas probably maybe gets it done.
I don't know. I would be stunningly shocked. If that's a phrase.
It would be seismic. He's going to be a Dallas Maverick. He's like minus 20,000. All signs that Dylan Harper will be the second overall pick in the draft. Yes.
Is Proud Papa going to be in the audience tonight? You know what I mean? Cooper Flag is minus 100,000. Are you serious?
To go number one. Excuse me. You're not. I'm not exaggerating.
It sounds like he's minus 11 D-billion. No. Like you're making that up.
It's bet 100,000 to win $100. Okay. So, and Rutgers will be in the house. And then your Sixers are going to be on the clock.
Yeah. We had Brian Windhorst on yesterday. And he said, that's when the draft's going to start. You know, in the same way that the draft started with the Jaguars this year, trading up to the second overall pick from five, that the Browns, we were all looking at that.
That's the first domino to fall. If they didn't take Travis Hunter and they didn't take Travis Hunter, we allowed Jacksonville to do it. Cause we knew.
That was shocking. And more was going first. We know Cooper Flag's first. Everyone believes it'll be the Spurs unless they trade for somebody and give up the second overall pick and the rights to Dylan Harper.
And then it's the Sixers. And- Ricks, real quick, you said his dad? Who's Dylan Harper's dad? Mr. Harper.
Oh. I thought it was someone famous. It is Ron Harper. That's the one. Oh, that is Ron. Okay. That's Ron Harper's kid.
Thank you so much. And it would be great to see Ron. It would. I'm sure he will be there with Bill Zim. But the 76ers are on the clock.
Yeah. And for weeks it's been, this is where Ace Bailey goes. And the question is, is Ace Bailey going to be a Philadelphia 76er tonight? Because the Sixers tried to have him in for a chit chat, a workout and a meal. They wanted to pick up a dinner for the 18 year old. He turns down a free meal. And he said, no thanks. And the word is, he wanted a commitment from the Sixers to draft him before he would agree to show up and hang with them.
That's kind of weird. Now, apparently he did interview with the team at the combine. So it's not like he won't even talk to them.
Like, now I've got to turn my back on you. Gotcha, gotcha. But the idea is, when you're trying to get a gig, right? And anybody who knows a recent college graduate, I do.
Anybody who knows about college graduates who are looking for internships or college students looking for internships, you know, you apply for a job. And even if you're one of the top candidates, you know, you gotta go to the interview. It helps.
And if the future employer says, look, this doesn't usually happen for recent college graduates. Hey, listen, we want to have you meet the entire team and we'll pay for dinner. And you say, eh. Eh. What?
That's not usually giving off the vibe to the future employer that you're keen in being their employee. This might not be hungry. Now, it could be that. He also could have taken what Luke is on as the Witcher hasn't shown confirmed.
He could have been. Yeah, exactly. Spike Zempic.
He could be on Spike Zempic. Yeah, okay. But you have to consult your general manager to see if Spike Zempic is right for you. Listen, there it is.
You just make sure that minimal draft picks are involved. And the Sixers have got a pretty damn big one there overall. Can you see the governor of Philadelphia, Josh Shapiro, who is a diehard sports fan, he apparently doesn't want the Sixers to take Ace Bailey. He's basically said it. Well, he owns the team, so he's- No, no, no, that's Josh Harris. Josh Shapiro is the governor.
Am I sorry? I just heard Josh. The governor of your home state. The actual governor of Pennsylvania.
Yes, yes, yes. You said Philadelphia, my bad. Did I say Philadelphia? Maybe I misheard you. At any rate, and I gotta be honest with you, it does sound like you shouldn't go in this direction. Certainly after you heard this exchange that Bailey had with reporters on Tuesday coming into New York City about why he's taking the approach to the draft of not working out, not giving private workouts. And in the case of the Sixers, basically saying, yeah, dinner, hangout, no thanks.
Unless, reportedly, you commit to me first. Roll it. Ace, how are you tuning out the noise in the pre-draft? And obviously, are you hearing it?
And what's your thoughts on it? Nah, I'm just working on basketball. That's all I'm focused on so far. But do you feel like people have the wrong perception of you? I feel like I can only control what I can control. I mean, you can think how you think, but I can control what I can control. So what can you control? Me playing basketball.
But you could have controlled going to the workout. So I understand why. But focus on basketball, that's my statement. But that is basketball. It's basketball. Oh, yikes. And again, you've gotta take the grain of salt here, okay? He's 18.
Thank you, yeah, that was it. He's 18 years old. He's not controlling any of this.
He's eight, well, I'm not saying about controlling any of it. He clearly was told, he clearly was told going into this press conference, just say, I wanna play basketball. I'm only here so I don't get fined. By the way, Marshawn Lynch was on my flight home from New York on Sunday night. Amazing. We had a great chat with me, Cooper, Marshawn Lynch standing in the jetway.
We're getting ready to board a plane. Wow, that's unbelievable. Soon as to be delayed by two hours. But long story short.
Skittles instead of peanuts. Long story short. But yeah, Rich, he's 18. 18, clearly it sounds like he was told, just go up and say, I just wanna play basketball because his people definitely know that he's giving off the vibe with his approach that he wants to try and control what he can't control. And what it comes across as, he's not interested in playing basketball because he's interested in other things that he can't control, even though it's all about playing basketball.
And for him to basically say to somebody saying, but what about you not performing in workouts? And he's like, I'm just focused on basketball. And the reporter's like, but that is basketball. And he gives another sort of robotic response.
It doesn't come across as great. The Sixers have to look past all this. Yeah. And they've got to look at the tape. They scouted a kid in Piscataway, New Jersey just up the road from them, I'm sure, multiple times as they were looking at Dylan Harper too, who they could have got if a ping pong ball bounced in a different way. That's what's on the Sixers' plate is they have to look past a lot of this noise and who is the kid and can he be one of their guys? Now, Tyrese Maxey's another guy they didn't work out who they drafted. Yeah. So it's not like they have never drafted somebody they didn't work out privately before.
And Maxey's working out very well. You think? Now there's that. But there's also the, you know what, here's somebody who's 18 years old doing something, I guess the nicest way to call it is unconventional. And if he says, I'm not coming to have dinner with you I'm not coming to have dinner with you or I'm not coming to your meeting with your brass unless you give me a guarantee that I'm being picked and then he doesn't show and you don't have that. And then you take him anyway. Are you essentially telling an 18 year old you can have it any way you wish when you come to our franchise too?
Right? I mean, aren't you sipping off that impression that, hey, you were somewhat unconventional in your approach with us. We were just extending our hand and our corporate credit card, putting it on the Harris slash Underhill tab. And we didn't have that meeting. We didn't have that get together. We didn't have that bonding experience. We didn't do all that. And that now if we take you, what impression does that give to the rest of our building and fan base about how we approach these things?
What does that tell the rest of your new teammates? I mean, these are the ways that I would be sitting there in a draft room about, do we take this kid or not? That's how I would extrapolate it out and then take him anyway if talent over everything is the actual decision of the day. If he is that good.
I agree with you. If he is that good, okay, let's just go win championships together. Nick Nurse will figure it out and let's go to work.
But the interesting thing is that there was nobody there to essentially tell him unless this voice was ruled out. If you want the Sixers to take you, if you want a guarantee for them to take you, go to dinner, have a nice meal, knock their socks off, charm the pants off of them, and it's a wrap. You're the third overall pick in the draft. Going to Philadelphia, teammates with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey and Paul George who's been somewhat critical publicly about this. There's no conversation in Philadelphia about what's going on with this kid. The governor of Philadelphia, put that in my head, sorry. The governor of Pennsylvania isn't saying stuff.
Just fascinating. You know, and again, another cautionary tale would be, hey, you wanna talk about somebody who didn't work out who wanted to try and game the system as to who was drafting him? And the tape on this prospect didn't rule the day. Didn't rule the day, and all he did was essentially unimpressed with some in interviews and others ruffle feathers and give out an impression in the NFL. And he wasn't drafted where he wanted to be drafted?
Look what happened to Shadore Sanders. I'm not saying he's gonna drop out of the second round. That won't happen with Ace Bailey, but if he winds up as the ESPN mock draft is with the Washington Wizards, I guess you could be the face of the turnaround of the Washington Wizards, or you could be in Philadelphia.
Where would you rather be to start your career? That's what's up. Kind of a no brainer, but yeah. That's what's up with Ace Bailey. We're 100% convinced though, whatever the Sixers do tonight is going to be the wrong move in the long run.
Oh. No matter what they do, it's gonna turn out to be the wrong move. Hashtag distrust the process. Telling you, man. I don't have any hope for it. From TJ Jefferson.
Well, at least you'll be sticking around to see what the Clippers do. Wait a minute. Yeah, that. Aw, come on. That's VJ Edgecomb the favorite to be the third pick.
That's from Baylor. So that's what's going on prior to the NBA draft this evening. On this program, Keegan Bradley, the Ryder Cup captain, who is now in the top 10 of the world rankings and is now top 10 in the Ryder Cup standings, will he choose himself? And if he does that, will he abdicate his captaincy to do that? So we'll ask him what's going on in his head as he's getting set to try and go back to back on the PGA Tour, just one of the travelers. And he's in Detroit, Michigan for this week's event, which is the Rocket Classic. He's in hour number two. Hour number three of this program, Albert Breer. But when we come back, he's zooming in from Cincinnati, Ohio, where the New York Yankees blew a second consecutive game in which they had the lead.
I know how that goes. Yeah, you watched the Angels beat the Red Sox in extras last night, huh? I was there for the Halo walk-off. His voice is essentially the voice of my household pretty much every night with the S Network. Our buddy Michael Kay will be joining us next to talk about, obviously, what's going on in baseball and the Yankees and then New York sports and more, one of my favorites.
We will see him coming up next. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it, so your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates.
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That's OReillyAuto.com slash Eisen. Let's talk sleep number, people. If you're like me, then you are just not yourself when you get a bad night's sleep. Look, sleep plays an important crucial role in recovery.
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See the store or sleepnumber.com for details. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show on the Roku Sports Channel. Radio audience, we're rejoining just two minutes time.
Let's just bring him in since he was on time. And we probably woke him up to do this in time, even though it's noontime in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he joins us. One of my favorite humans on the planet, Michael K. Good to see you, Michael. How are you, brother? Good to see you, Rich, and happy birthday. Thanks, pal.
And also, thank you for the slate, the picture that, you know, going into break. That was about 20 years ago. That's what I was about to say. That's where I first met you. I might've taken this picture, Michael. I love it, I love it.
Let's keep it there. I might've taken you that picture of you, you know, the night before I showed up in your famed Christmas party. That guy right there. I know that guy.
Look at him. I don't know him anymore. That guy changed into his street clothes. We went to Blondie's. We had a few beers, you know, like that's the guy I knew in the late nineties. That guy right there. And Blondie's is still there, so we can relive that. Is that right?
Yeah. Dude, I just love listening to you with the O'Neill and with, you know, with Cone from certainly back in the day. I'm enjoying you with Girardi now.
I think he's coming into his own as a broadcaster too. Just last night, just you and O'Neill chomping up his days. Where was he? Guys, they had a conversation about where was O'Neill when Dibble was fighting with Lou Piniella in the clubhouse.
Okay. Do you wanna reveal where he said he was, Michael? He was in the shower and Chris Sabo came running into the shower and said, you gotta see this. And O'Neill ran out completely naked.
And when we showed the video, he was nervous that we'd see him naked, but they didn't catch that. Could you imagine if that happened today, Michael? Could you imagine if a manager and his flamethrowing reliever were just wrestling in the middle of the clubhouse with cameras and people around there? Could you imagine? I can't even imagine if it happened in New York when it happened. So the fact that it was in Cincinnati, I think probably downplayed it a little bit, but that's just, I look at some things that happened in the past and go, how would they explode? Like Mike Kekich and Fred Peterson switching families.
Even today, that would be outrageous. Michael Kay here on the Rich Eisen Show, joining us from Cincinnati, Ohio, where he's on the road with the New York Yankees. And of course, Michael covers all New York sports for his radio show that's on the air every single day as well, good to see you, Michael. Thanks for doing this today, sir. Great to see you.
You got it, man, right back at you. Why are the Yankees slumping over the last couple of weeks after what we saw from the first two months, Michael? It comes down to hitting. Everybody has gone into a collective slump. At the beginning of this fallow period, even Judge went into a slump, which was normal. I mean, there had to be a market correction. It was going to be very unlikely for him to hit 400, as great as he is, because he doesn't have the speed to get those infield hits to keep the average up. But if he hits 350, it would still be otherworldly.
But everybody else followed suit. Nobody was really hitting. Paul Goldschmidt's come back down to earth just a bit. Clay Bellinger, Cody Bellinger, rather, has been hitting. So that's kept them a little bit afloat, but they don't get enough, they don't get enough base hits with runners in scoring position. And then you saw last night, Rich, they can't win in extra innings on the road. They just can't.
That's not hyperbole, I wrote this down. In extra innings on the road, since the rule came into play of the Manford Man, they're 13 and 27. And that is the worst record in all of baseball.
This is a good baseball team that's 13 and 27. And I think what it comes down to, when you watch the game last night, they don't know how to play little ball. They just completely always try to hit home runs. So that runner remains second.
And you have a lot of empty calorie outs, I call them, and they don't move that runner to third, and you never get that runner in. That's why they lose road games. And then it just seems that the team continuously has trouble pitching to the opponent's best hitter. I mean, we could go down the list of all the Houston Astros that have torched the Yankees throughout their tenure of the championship window. I'm part of the Yankee fandom that was thrilled to see Rafael Devers go to a National League team that the Yankees have already played this year so they don't have to see him again.
And Elie De La Cruz is just another one. It's just like, hey, do you not know that this is the guy that you can't let beat you? And he beat the Yankees single-handedly on Monday night. And last night had a role in it as well, Michael. It just seems to be an issue with this team.
Well, I guess what you're doing, if I may say, is probably looking at things through pinstripe glasses because nobody knows how to get out judge either. If I'm an opposing manager, I would never fix the judge. What's happening with the Yankees right now where they're playing this poorly, I think they're four and nine in the last 13 games, it's really not on the pitching at all. The pitching has done the job that they're expected to do, especially with the loss of Cole and Heel. But I think what we're seeing now, Rich, is that the bullpen is starting to get exhausted. And we're seeing that across town with the Mets as well. I've always thought this, I understand the analytics and they work, but holding pitchers to a hundred pitches, I don't think it's sustainable over the long haul. You are going to burn out bullpens, you just are. You have to use four relievers almost every single night because you have five innings out of your starter.
And I think that's what happened yesterday. The Yankees have lost a lot of the games while leading after seven innings. They have five losses when leading by multiple runs at the top of the seventh inning.
That's from Katie Sharp. That's not good. And I think that comes through the fact that the starters don't give them length. And it's not just Yankee starters, it's all over the game.
And what stunned me yesterday, and we mentioned it when it happened, Carlos Rodon was great yesterday. And all of a sudden he doesn't come out for the seventh inning and everybody wants to jump on Boone. Why did Boone do that? You look on social media and they want to kill Aaron Boone, Carlos Rodon said he couldn't go anymore.
That it was hot out and he was exhausted. This is how pitchers are trained now. So I just don't know if baseball has to rethink this. Michael Kay here on the Rich Eisen Show. This is the Michael Kay Show, as well as obviously the announcer for the New York Yankees. I'm wondering how many of the 30 teams you've seen this year, a lot of them now with this new schedule, who's the best team that you've seen? Again, I know the Giants were early on in April, so you were able to at least see them obviously pre-devers as well. Which is the best team that you've seen with your own two odds so far this year, Michael?
Well, unfortunately I saw these games on TV because national rights carriers took all the Yankee-Dodger games. The Dodgers are obviously great. And you know, Detroit is a really good team. The first team to 50 wins this year of any team in baseball, I think they're a terrific ball club as well. The Rays didn't impress me, but they weren't playing well when the Yankees saw them. The Yankees took three out of four in Tampa Bay. The Red Sox took five out of six from the Yankees, but they didn't impress me either.
So I think the Yankees' road to the World Series I think has to go through Detroit. And Detroit's one of these teams, they're very analytical, but they also play the game the right way. They run the bases aggressively. They run to first base hard.
They make the plays defensively as well. And they have really good starting pitching. So I think that they could be a little bit of a problem in any postseason series for any team. Who are you hearing that could be in play, a trade deadline, and not just for the Yankees, but again, I'm sure you're hearing quite a bit, maybe through the prism of the Yankees as to who might be available. Who are you already hearing about the trade deadline?
You're not really hearing anybody, Rich, because I think 17 out of the 30 teams are over 500. Very few teams have completely eliminated themselves from that third and final wild card in either league. So we don't know who's gonna shake loose. I mean, if the Diamondbacks decide to sell, they've got a lot of people that you would want, starting with their third baseman, Ayohenio Suarez.
So again, you have to wait for teams to drop out of it. You know the Rockies are not gonna make a run, but they have never shown any inclination to trade into their players. It'd be a smart move for them to probably trade McMahon, but the ownership likes McMahon. So I don't know if there's anybody out there that you could say is available right now, because all of these big deals, Rich, I find they're done in the darkness. Did anybody think that Rafael Devers was gonna be traded?
And all of a sudden he was traded. So I don't think it's really played itself out yet until we know if a team declares they're in the playoffs or not. Michael Kay here on the Rich Eisen Show. Do you have any of the Yankees-Mets Subway Series part two games on your site? Yeah, we do. Amazingly, ESPN decided not to take Sunday. Okay. And Friday we have, I think we also might have Saturday. I don't know if that's a Fox game yet.
Okay. So what do you think about the Mets chances seeing what you've seen? And now Soto's finally getting acclimated, it appears. What do you think about that, Michael?
I was never worried about Soto on the long haul. You know, when the Yankees faced the Mets, the Yankees took two out of three and Soto, I know Mets fans have a deep-seated hatred for me, Rich, because I said that that weekend, you know, Yankee people and Mets people were remarking to me that he was so down. You know, he was just glum.
He wasn't happy at all. And I reported that and people just jumped me, you know, Yankee boy, you're just jealous he didn't come to the Yankees. And I just think that Soto realized what he gave up, but it was gonna take time. And he finally acclimated himself to a good situation with the Mets and he's starting to hit because he's one of the greatest shooters you'll ever see. But I think that they're having problems now. Their run of great luck with their starting pitching seems to have run out. They, as the Yankees have, have also overused their bullpen an unbelievable amount.
And, you know, they imploded again yesterday. They blew a three-nothing lead to the Braves. The Braves have won all five games they played the Mets in the last 10 days. So the Mets have a tough team that they're dealing with in the East and that's the Phillies and the Mets single-handedly are keeping the Braves in an independent chase. But I still think the Mets are too good not to make the playoffs, but obviously they would love to win the division because I don't think you want to play a wild card and then have your season end in three games. So I think the Mets imperative is, it's imperative that they win the East. And you, of course, you do have the Dodgers sitting there, at the end of the day. And you know, they'll add somebody at the trade deadline or something like that and get stronger.
You know, but that's obviously for next month. Michael Kay here on the Rich Isaac Show. Can you confirm that the Knicks reached out to you to coach? But- They did, but both yes and ESPN refused them permission.
Denied, denied permission. Well, hopefully you'll be like, you know, potentially Billy Donovan or Yudoka and use that as a cudgel to get a long-term contract out of your current employer. Hopefully that'll work out for you, Michael, you know? Well, I just heard that Lea Monroe has also reached out to Brian Cashman to talk to Boone. And that was also her boss.
Yeah. What's going on, man? What is happening, Michael?
I still think, Rich, you're going to laugh. I still think my favorite would be Jason Kidd because they reached out to the Mavericks. Mavericks said no, but Jason Kidd has not gotten any extension and Jason has shown an inclination in the past, if he doesn't want to be someplace, he could get out of it. Now, I don't know why I'd want to get out of Dallas because that looks like it's going to be a pretty good situation when they draft Cooper Flagg tonight and when Kyrie Irving finally gets back either in January, February or next year.
So maybe they do extend them, but there doesn't seem to be any urgency whatsoever. And what the Knicks did though in getting rid of Thibodeau, I don't understand it, Rich, for this reason. He took the Pacers to six games. And just because Vegas made the Knicks' heavy favorites look like they got upset, well, they didn't get upset.
The Pacers were really good and took the best team in the NBA to seven games. I think Thibodeau did a great job. And the fact that they felt that they couldn't take the next step with him, I think is folly because what's happened now with the injury to Halliburton, with the trades that the Celtics are making, with the injury to Damian Lillard, the Knicks have a clear path to get to the finals. So whoever the Knicks bring in now has a lot of pressure to actually get to the next level because you're going to be compared to Thibodeau. I don't understand and no New York writer at this point, and they're all really good at this, have come up with the real reason why Thibodeau was fired. I don't know if players spoke against him. We know that Jalen Brunson loves him and he's the most important player on the team. So I'm not quite sure why he was let go.
And it's going to be very intriguing to see who they select as the next guy moving forward. Right, because making a splash to essentially say, see, this is what we were doing this for. And instead, you know, the analogy I made is heaven forbid at some point, Susie and I decide to go our separate ways. My first choice would be to knock on Scarlett Johansson's door and ask Colin Joes for permission.
You know what I mean? Because she's into handsome guys from Staten Island. And that just sounds like that's what the Knicks plan was, to just start knocking on the doors of people who were not available, you know? Well, I guess you could dream, like if Jody left me, I'd be a little smarter than you.
I would not go to somebody who's tethered to somebody else. I'd go to Sidney Sweeney, who's very, very free, and then I'd make my pitch there. You want to workshop that pitch right now, Michael? Or that's for another day? What do you want to- No, no, I can workshop it right now if you'd like.
Sure, so what do you think it would go like? Sidney, listen, I know I'm a lot older than you, but I've made a pretty good living in my career. I'm not going to be around that long.
You're going to get all that money at some point. And that would be the pitch. There we go, ladies and gentlemen, Michael King. Would you have to explain to Paul O'Neill, who Sidney Sweeney is? Oh, I believe he's very well aware of Sidney Sweeney, yes. And I know David Cone's probably very, very well aware.
Notice I chose someone other than Cone to ask that question, you know. Well, it's a good question about O'Neill since, I mean, he's been with his wife, Rich, literally, since they were five years old. Wow, I did not know that.
Wow, okay, all right. And by the way, is that why he's in Ohio? Because he doesn't usually travel much. He just likes going to Cincinnati or what? Well, his mom is 98 and she still lives here.
There you go. And Neville's mom is in her 90s and she still lives here. And the O'Neals still keep a home here. So they do come back and to visit the moms all the time.
They mostly live in Florida. But yeah, he's a home team, home, he only wears the pinstripes. He doesn't really do road grays much. Yeah, I know, he's kind of like, is he a modern day Rizzuto, right? He just doesn't go home in the seventh inning to beat the GWB traffic, you know? I mean, I don't know. I always tell people that he is our modern day Rizzuto.
Is that right? Because he says whatever he wants on the air. Holy cop. I think Paul's a very entertaining, illuminating broadcaster. I really do think he does a great job. Yeah, you do a great job with him. Before I let you go, I want to do some sports talk radio fodder. All right.
Because it is June. If Aaron Judge never played another game, is he a Hall of Famer, Michael? Well, this is his 10th year, so he'd be eligible. Yes, I believe he'd be a Hall of Famer. Okay. So if he just decided, you know what?
Don't want to do it anymore. What he has already done would be making, he would be eligible for the Hall of Fame, you would think. I believe so with two MVPs, 52 home run season, 58 home run season, 62 home run season. Some would say he should have had a third MVP. Yeah, I think he certainly made a pretty good case to be in the Hall of Fame.
All right. And let's just remove the fact that you got to have 10 years. What about Otani? Would he be a Hall of Famer? Hall of Famer. Hall of Famer.
He would be. Hands down. Hands down.
Oh my God. Right? I mean, just because of the- What, three MVPs?
And the eye test, right? I've never seen anybody like him at this point in time. No, he's a unicorn. He's, Major League Baseball is very lucky to have him. Did you see the other day when he got hit after Tatis got hit for the umpteenth time in that series and he just waves his guys back like, I'm all right, let's not do this.
You know? It's like he's above, he's above all the nonsense. He really is.
He's a very special player. I agree. But Judge is right there with him.
Correct? Just in terms of what you've seen. I mean, you've seen them all, Michael.
You've seen them all. Um, pretty much. Well, if Otani doesn't pitch, I think Judge is better than Otani. I think he's a better player because Otani doesn't play the field.
But when Otani pitches and hits, then he's the better player because he can do more things. Pretty much. Okay. Thank you for the, thank you for the time, Michael.
I appreciate it. We'll be watching tonight. We'll be watching tonight. Wait, you're going to be watching the Yankees tonight on your birthday. Shouldn't you be going out?
Shouldn't you be somewhere? Yesterday was my birthday. We went out last night. Yeah, that was yesterday. Oh, okay. It's all good. I watched, I watched the game.
I watched, I watched them tie it at 3-3 before I left the house. Don't ruin your birthday. You're on all, yes, they did. Are they aware of that? I'll tell Aaron today. Will you tell him that, man?
You know, so. I had it written down on my phone that today's your birthday. I'm very angry at myself. Just be angry at your phone. Blame your phone. Blame the technology. You know what I mean?
The phone's smarter than me. Okay. You're the man. Thanks for the time, Michael.
Of course, be well. We'll be right back at you. The great Michael Kay on the S Network and of course, the ESPN family of networks as well. Radio, television, Michael Kay right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Good to have him here on the program. All right, judge, Hall of Famer, Otani Hall of Famer.
But you gotta remove the 10 year. Let's talk about it. We're gonna talk about it. Because you know I've been sawing at this for a segment. You know, like, who wants to be a Hall of Famer?
Right. If you didn't play another snap-down game, another at-bat. If it all ended today. Another tip-off, another dropping of the puck.
If it ended today, is this player in the Hall of Fame? And for the baseball players, we gotta remove the 10 year, you know, you gotta play 10 years. Sure. That's what we're gonna do.
And we'll do it. I like it. This is a great game. This is amazing. Right up our alley. You know I've been sawing at it. Yeah.
This is a great game. We had Jerry on the show just a couple weeks ago, Larry. Savor every last drop of summer with Starbucks. From bold refreshers to rich cold brews, the sunniest season only gets better with a handcrafted ice beverage in your hand. Available for a limited time.
Your summer favorites are ready at Starbucks. We had Jerry on the show just a couple weeks ago, Larry, and I asked him, how come Steinbrenner himself never appeared on Seinfeld? And he said, Steinbrenner shot a scene, but it was so bad you cut it. Is that a true story?
True story, yeah. What was so bad about it? We brought him out, I think for the last show of the 95 season.
I'm not quite sure when it was, but he flew out on his private jet to do the show and flew back that day and okay, he did it. And then I go into editing and I'm watching the show and oh my God, he was so awful. He was so bad.
It was, you couldn't use it. It was much better from behind with my voice, you know, than actually seeing the real guy doing it. Right, so that was a scene where he was with Costanza? He was with Elaine in a restaurant, I think. And I had to call him up and tell him he was cut. How did that go? I called Yankee Stadium. I said, I want to talk to Mr. Steinbrenner, it's Larry David. He got on the phone. I said, Mr. Steinbrenner, it's Larry David calling from the Seinfeld show.
Yes, yes, Larry, what is it? I said, I said, I'm sorry to tell you this. He said, come on, you can tell me I'm a big boy.
I can take it. Why, you slipped back in that voice. Yeah, right, I slipped right back in, right. And I said, I'm seeing, I've been cut from the show.
And I said, it's not your fault, but it's just the end of the scene wasn't working. And that was it. How'd he take it? He was a big boy. He took it well. So he told you how he was going to take it.
And he actually took it, yeah. George Steinbrenner and Elaine, I would never have guessed. I would have thought that there would have to have been a Costanza, George moment. I know there was an Elaine scene.
I don't know, there may have been a George scene. I'm not sure, I don't remember. How did you enjoy playing Steinbrenner? Did you have a blast doing that? Oh yeah, it was fun. Yeah, I had, yeah. What's your favorite one when you were Steinbrenner?
What was it? I think probably something, I remember the Calzones. The Calzones. Yeah. That George had to get the Calzones. Yeah, the Calzones, yeah. That's as great as it gets, man.
Yes, indeed. All of our Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, Michael Richards conversations. And we just had Larry Charles on the program, right?
Who else have we had around here as well, talking about it? They're all on our social media, youtube.com. Oh, Spike Feresten came and told some great stories as well. So, Jeff Shafer, we've gone down many a Seinfeld curb wormhole around here, so.
844-204-RICH is the number to dial on the program. Our radio audience is going to rejoin us shortly here on the show. Good chat right there with Michael King. Sorry, so you were there for the entire- Oh, yeah, we stayed, because the game was cruising last night. Cage wasn't with you, was he? No, he was.
Oh, he was? We all went. Wow, would you get home around 10.30, 11 o'clock in the morning? 10.30, 10.30, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Garrett Crochet was cruising last night, awesome. It was in the eighth inning, and the game's about an hour and 40 minutes old.
And we're like, sweet, this is going to be awesome. Then the eighth inning took a while. They tied it up with a home run. You knew it, you know, right off the bat. Sock score first, and extras, and then, you know, same guy, Moro, hit the home run to tie it. From where we were sitting, it looked like it went off the wall, and then six inches over the wall, walk off. Michael King was talking about how the Yankees are terrible in extra inning games on the road.
What do you say, they're 13 and 27 under the new rules? What do you call it, the Manfred Mann? It's how he referred to the ghost runner that's placed on the second. I actually kind of like it now. I'll tell you what- I don't know what I mean for regular season games. I do not like it, and I have a fix.
I have a fix, because you're playing nine, I know why they're doing it. You can't have games go all night. You don't want to have 15, 16, 17, 18 inning games. Michael already just said that in this day and age where starters go 100 pitches max and you're taken out, you saw Clark Schmidt remove of a no hitter after seven innings, albeit in a 95 degree day.
It's really hot, but you know, he's removed with 100 and some odd pitches in the middle of a no hitter. So you need to have relievers. And if your bullpen is already taxed because starters go five, six innings, now you're going to have them go 15, 16, 17 inning games. I understand why you've got to do it, but it just seems to me after a nine inning game, now we're just going to play a different rule for the 10th inning. Why not give us at least the 10th and the 11th innings straight up? Do the 10th and 11th innings, because rarely do you see the Manfred Mann rule, the ghost runner as it's referred to, lead to anything longer than an 11 inning game. I don't recall, like if we could find out, like when was the last time we saw a 12, 13 inning game in a regular season major league baseball contest?
I don't recall it. So if it's going to go only one or two innings, thanks to the ghost runner more, give me at least one or two innings straight up. And if you win the game then, great. In the same way that after college football's four quarters, we have overtime and it's now only on a third of the field, which I don't like, but at least they have, you give the opportunity to have an extra point or two points to try and win it there. And then after two possessions, you got to go for two because we're not going to be here all night. Why not just keep it the way it is for the 10th and the 11th innings, and then go ghost runner? I'd love to see that because it just seems to me just so stupid and so silly, that a closer gets two outs and loses the game because they were productive outs. One to get the guy over to third and one to knock them in on a fly ball, ball in the hole. It just seems stupid after nine innings. Well, they don't get charged a run if the guy at second base scores. Do they get charged the loss?
I mean, I have to check. I know they don't get charged a run. I think the idea is to have the games not go long. So how much, but how many games, if you do this where there's no second base runner on the 10th and 11th, you're almost guaranteeing that the game is going to go to the 12th inning.
Not really. More often than not, the game's going to go, so it's like, but you're immediately extending the game a half hour by doing that. Whereas, you know, last night games over in the 10th.
Yep. I get why it's done for the regular season. I don't mind it anymore.
I'm glad they don't do it for the post-season, obviously. 844-204 Rich, number to dial. This just has, please take this call written all over it on our very full call screen. Vinny in Long Island, you're here on the Rich. Just anybody, Vinny from Long Island has me at hello. What's up, Vinny? Hey Rich, happy belated birthday. Thanks pal, how are you? Good, I'm just going to say one thing before we start this.
What's this? For the Yankees. Okay. Still think they're going to make it, but it's just one of those bad films right now for all Yankee fans out there. No, it doesn't look good right now. They're going through a rough stretch where they're, the hitting struggles and the non-productive outs where they don't get guys in from third base with less than two outs because they're striking out.
Those are the things that come home to roost in the playoffs and that's been what the Yankees problem has been in October for the last, you know, 15 years. So you want to do the Giants win-loss game, I'm told, Vinny? Is that what you want to do?
Yeah, I want to make my game more depressing. Okay, that's very good, hit it right here. I think Alan Dallas is the only guy that's done it to date.
And that is correct. At the commanders to start, what happens, Vinny? Overtime loss. Overtime loss, okay.
I put OTL down, like it's outside the lines, like Bob Lee back in the day. At the Dallas Cowboys, what's up? Lost. O and two, home for the Chiefs.
Lost. O and three, home for the Chargers. That, I believe that's going to be a win. All right, one and three at the Saints. They're going to lose to the Saints because they played the Saints three years consecutively and somehow, someway, they keep losing to them. One and four at home date with the Eagles on a Thursday night short week.
That's a loss. One and five at the Broncos. Lost. One and six at the Eagles.
Lost. One and seven, home for the Niners. Win.
All right! Two and seven at the Bears. That's a tough one, that's a toss up.
Uh-huh, but you can't, you got to give me something. I know, that is going to be a win. All right, look at us on a winning streak. Three and seven, home for the Packers. Lost. One and three and eight at the Lions. Lost. Three and nine at the Patriots on a Monday night. I'm going to say win.
All right, four and nine off the bye, home for the commanders. Lost. Four and 10, home for the Vikings.
Lost. Four and 11 at the Raiders. Win. Five and 11, home for the Cowboys. Lose. Oh my God, five and 12, Vinny and Long Island. Let's give a big old hug to Vincent. Keegan Bradley coming up hour two.
Oh my gosh, Vinny and Long Island. Is that our first realistic win-loss game that's been played? Listen, look at you calling win realistic.
Just give me a minute here, I'm going through. Brockman, you're trying to say the Browns going undefeated isn't realistic. Well, hold on a minute. Here, hold on a minute. I'm just saying, planted in reality win-loss game. Hold on.
Sorry, be strong. We're going alphabetical order. Baltimore Ravens, Charlie and Orlando 12 and five. Buffalo Bills, Matthew and Oklahoma 14 and three. We've got three people for the Bears. Jacob and Toledo 10 and seven. Andrew in San Antonio 11 and six. David in LA had them going eight and nine. There's a sub five.
Okay, there's one. Cincinnati Bengals, Johnny in Cincinnati. We remember we asked him if he was the last name of Fever. Remember that? 12 and five.
Maybe realistic wasn't the best word. The Miz had 17 and O for the Browns. Alfred in Kentucky had the Cowboys at 12 and five.
Alpha gets it. Fedde in Italy had the Broncos 10 and seven. Derek in Missouri, one of our regulars 11 and six. Kyle in Michigan the other day had a 17 and O for the Lions. Matthew in California had the Packers at 10 and seven. I had the chiefs at 15 and two. Joe in Maryland has the Raiders 13 and four.
That only got us half million views on a reel in Instagram and TikTok. People love that. Mo in DC 13 and seven for the Rams. Hey Mo. Josh Duhamel had the Vikings at 13 and four. Cory in Iowa 12 and five. You Chris had the Patriots 11 and six. Same with Barry in Kentucky. That's realistic.
Optimistic. Allen Dallas had the Giants at 10 and seven. Brian in Williamsport had the Steelers 10 and seven. The Niners, Terzo had them 11 and six. Josh Jackson had them 11 and six. Mike in Long Island 12 and five. Tyler in Melbourne, Australia had the Bucks at 12 and five. Joe in Florida 11 and six.
And Jarrell in Texas had the commanders 13 and four. We just had our first massively sub 500. So I have a pessimistic, I guess, outlook.
That's only two that have been under 500. I love Brian Deball. I think he's going to be the right man for the job with Jackson Dart. And I think the Giants deep down in their bones feel that, but a one in seven start is not going to go over well.
Oh, no, no, no. If that happens. We would see Jackson Dart in a one in seven start. No doubt. I kind of think.
He better be throwing darts too. Look at you, Mike, with a play on words. This is what happens. We're arrested? We're gonna come back?
No, that's what happens when AI makes him skinny. Ah! That is an abomination that you posted that. No, no, no, we'll bring that up later.
I saw that in my sleep last night. Oh, we've got two hours to go on this program. Hour two coming up. The United States Soccer Federation presents the U.S. Soccer Podcast. Inside the opening 45 seconds, what a goal! With that cannon of a left foot.
All even at one. Never miss a game. What a start for the United States. Shot for distance, what a goal! Never miss a moment. Exquisite from Lasandie Yagen. Can he finish? Yes he can! Yeah! The U.S. Soccer Podcast. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.
