REShow: Alan Shipnuck - Hour 2

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Try Dove Men Plus Care Dry Spray goes on dry clean feel all day. This is the Rich Eisen Show. How you doing?

Good Dan, how about you? No complaints, no complaints. That's good, we don't want to hear them anyway so... That'll wrap it up for this show. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

That's a fact. We don't want to hear the complaints. We don't want to hear it.

Absolutely don't want to hear complaints. The Rich Eisen Show with guest host Dan Schwartzman. And now sitting in for Rich... Hit the drop. It's Dan Schwartzman. Hour two of the Rich Eisen Show.

Dan Schwartzman in for Rich on this Friday. I like to think of us as like a really good 24-hour diner. You can always call and talk about something we talked about earlier in the show. Doesn't matter. 844-204-RICH.

844-204-7424. It's like you go to the diner. You can order breakfast all day long. It doesn't matter if it's midnight. It's eight at night. You get that omelet. You want to talk some more baseball?

By all means, hop on the phone lines. We'll chat some baseball. Shoyotani, Aaron Judge, whatever it is. But the golf world rattled by Live and how they are competing against the PGA Tour and they have the funding to do so. In fact they are richer than the PGA Tour.

600 billion dollars of Saudi money backing the tour. As of now I believe eight of the top 50 players in the world have now signed on to play Live and have given up playing in the PGA. Alan Shipnick, author of eight books including Phil. That's making a lot of noise right now when you talk about Phil Mickelson joining us here on the show. Alan, first off, I gotta tell you man that book has made a lot of noise and not only that I love following you on social media. Nothing funnier than the whole Greg Norman thing of the goons trying to kick you out of the tournament him claiming he didn't know anything about it and the picture you have of him actually standing there.

What's come of all this? Do you continue to kind of get slightly harassed by them? Well no, I mean but we'll find out next week in Portland because I'm going to cover the second event on the the Live golf schedule so that'll be revealing.

I mean I think I expect the temperature will get turned down a little bit. It doesn't really serve their interest to be harassing journalists. It's a little too on brand for a golf circuit funded by the Saudis so I mean I would expect a warmer welcome but who knows. I mean it's such a funny mix of personalities. You know you said that eight of the top 50 in the world have joined but you know last year the PGA Tour did this player impact program that's going to kind of measure the social media reach and more or less the popularity of the players on tour. They had all these different metrics and so four of the top eight have joined Live so some of these guys have not necessarily been performing on the golf course in the last six or twelve months like you know Bryson DeChambeau or whatever so his world ranking has slipped but Live has really cornered the market on spiky personalities and needle movers and pot stirrers and some other words we could come up with so it's a very interesting mix of you know somewhat larger than life golf personality than of course the frontman Greg Norman into that category so right now it's more interesting as a news event than a sporting event but we'll see how it develops.

Well you're right Patrick Reed another guy who loves to move that needle as well may not be beloved but he certainly is somebody cameras like to obviously go up to here's the thing though when I was talking to a friend about this recently you know you've had other leagues emerge to try to rival other major sports in America right? USF, XFL, name the different leagues they just don't seem to have the funding the difference here is Live has not just funding they actually have more money than the actual PGA tour in your mind for what they've done in such a short period of time should Jay Monahan the commissioner of the PGA tour and the tour itself be incredibly nervous about their future? Oh well they clearly are and you know to build to build a USFL you need hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of players right I mean right in golf you only need a handful maybe a dozen of stars and that's better than the field at the Bob Hope or a lot of these other existing tournaments so it's a much lower barrier of entry and because players are not you know they don't have these long-term team contracts in golf you know the tour is trying to be possessive but we'll see if that holds up in court I mean it really makes sense if you're going to try and change the sports landscape golf is an easy target so yeah the tour is rightfully worried I mean it's very much a threat to the financial model of the PGA tour and it's long-term sustainability because not only are they losing hall of famers and major championship winners and as we're talking about guys that the public pays attention to but they've also courted the next generation of stars you know they they signed the US amateur champ and they've made a big run at a lot of top college players and you know if if live golf starts to choke off the pipeline of talent I mean two years ago no one had ever heard of Scotty Scheffler now he's number one in the world rankings you know three and a half years ago no one had heard of Colin Morikawa and he's one of the best players in the world you go on down the list I mean every sport needs to constantly be producing and minting new stars and so it's one thing for for the Saudis to to take you know guys who are near the end of their career um who are still a box office but are not competitive you know forces week in week out but if they also simultaneously are sucking up all the really good young players come out of college come out of Europe and that is an existential threat to the survival of PGA Tour so they're they're rightfully worried in PGA Tour headquarters. Alan Shipnick joining us author of eight books including Phil which is obviously making a lot of noise these days joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show Dan Schwartzman in for Rich. Alan you know it's come out over the last few days that Jay Monahan had an opportunity to kind of nip this in the bud when he was approached by some players saying look let's do this let's offer you this we'll offer some tournaments that we control and that will probably end any sort of outside interference from something called live which was at that point I guess just an idea and at that time a few years back he said no I don't think it's a real threat and turn them down is this true what we're reading and two if so is Jay Monahan's job on the line here because he obviously misread this whole thing yeah I mean he's made a series of miscalculations and the biggest one that's kind of the through line for all this is over rating the PGA Tour's value to the players you know I think that the the tour had a certain arrogance about it like we've always been here we've been this great platform for the guys they're not going to leave us you know we just can keep leaking out a little more money and that'll keep them happy but in fact the tour membership doesn't mean as much as the PGA Tour thought it did as we can see by a lot of players just renouncing their their membership excuse me so yeah there was Monahan was very strident and like he's he's kind of staked up with this position that we're the good guys and they're the bad guys and so um it makes it hard to negotiate when you're villainizing the other side um all of a sudden it's hard to go to the to the table and try and meet them in the middle which I think the tour might have to do eventually and so yeah the decision to not even engage with um the the Saudi effort and there's also this parallel tour they're trying to get off the ground the premier golf league right and right you know for the tour not not to really understand what this could mean and to try and co-opt them because Monahan's predecessor was Tim Fincham who was a lawyer and he was a political strategist and you know this is what he did to Norman 30 years ago Norman had this idea for a world tour and Fincham just stole it and created the world golf championships created the president's cup and you know Norman's been on this three decade uh cam you know campaign for vengeance essentially and um you know Monahan could have done something analogous but he he kind of shrank from the moment and I think he was a little he was a little complacent and because the tours and the pj tours never really had competition there's a little bit of an atrophy there and um I think it's showing in how flat-footed they've been in their response how uncreative they've been in in trying to uh you know respond to this threat so I don't think Monahan's job is on the line uh you know he's all of a sudden he's pumping all this money to his players and um but it's it's definitely this was his moment this is the defining test of him as a commissioner and I've given you know probably a D so it's he's he's the war's not over I mean this this is going to keep going uh there's there's there's probably legal challenges there's going to be a lot of wrangling there's all this intrigue with the European tour and Asian tour and where they're going to fit into it so there's still plenty of moves left on the chess board but right Monahan's definitely not off to a great start now he's certainly not off to a great start and I think you're being kind by giving him a D I think many people would just give him an F at this point because of the fact that he's kind of allowed this to fester but he did bring up an interesting point a couple days ago in that press conference where he kind of showed his vulnerability and and acknowledging that this is a serious threat and he kind of mentioned like what's the motivation for the Saudis here Alan do we actually know because they're paying 100 200 million dollar bonuses to players they're losing their shirt at this point is is can they really make this money back I mean financially this doesn't seem to make sense what's the motivation well I mean it's just classic sports watching right there's this reputation laundering they they want to be accepted on the world stage you know I just saw there's a big heavyweight boxing match that's going to go on over in Saudi Arabia I don't think they really care about boxing but right where you can you can bring people over there the more you can just be part of the conversation globally and so I went to this first live event in London and you know the most interesting thing was that the guy who runs the public investment fund for Saudi Arabia which has you know 600 billion dollars in it and not an elected official but certainly one of the most powerful men in the world and he was just swanning around he was so happy to be there the players are dapping him up he's getting hugs from Norman and he's getting all these shout outs and you know the the term was this place called the Centurion Club which is really a very private kind of ruling class establishment for the London elite and it's probably not the kind of place that's going to have a lot of Saudi members right it's like an old boys thing but for that week this guy was the toast of the town and he was it was his show and he was being you know celebrated everywhere he went and that's what the Saudis crave is acceptance and they want to they want to penetrate the highest levels of of society you know in the western world even while doing things their own way and so the notion you know I've said it's been written lately like well the Saudis just may lose interest and this could all go away in a year or two if you saw his excellency swanning around at the Centurion Club you know that they are very happy with the money they spent and this this investment means so much to them because it's all they crave is legitimacy and um and acceptance and they're buying it through sports I mean that's really what this is all about and it's very transactional and you know to pump you know whatever they're gonna wind up spending on this thing a billion dollars I mean um I think probably Americans have spent that in the last couple days on gas like they're they're not gonna run out of money anytime soon so um I think it's clear that they're they're they're getting what they want and so therefore there's there's no reason to think that that they're gonna turn the spigot off anytime soon well I'll be pumping about 80 more dollars to the their way tomorrow when I have to fill up my tank so you know they all pay for a little bit of the next golfer's bonus last question Alan can these two in your mind and you've been around this sport a long time 25 years with Sports Illustrated covering the sport can can two competing big money successful tours live side by side or is this going to end up being one's gotta emerge over the other I mean the basic problem is there's only you know 10 golfers in the world anybody cares about right I mean if that if that yeah exactly there's just not enough star power to go around if you if you if you split it up between two tours they both suffer you know I live in uh in early California my hometown event is is the Crosby clan bake and they really get they get three big names every year Phil, Dustin Johnson and George Spieth and that's it and now the tournament's lost two of them that has a major impact on the enthusiasm locally AT&T which sponsors event they cannot be happy I mean um so you you know as you look at it in that context it's really hard for two leagues to prosper and it's hard to imagine given the level of the rhetoric and all the lines that have been drawn in the sand here but I honestly believe that the best move for everyone is for the PGA Tour to just absorb these Saudi events and you know make they just announce these they're gonna do these big money events in the fall like that would have been a perfect place to slot them in and it would have been a win for everyone in that the players would get even bigger money the tour would would kind of end this existential threat and the Saudis would get get what they crave which is legitimacy you know they're welcomed into the golf world so I still think something like that is possible um it's it can everyone's gonna have to like kind of um you know hold their nose a little bit because neither side has much respect for each other but the it's it's it's I mean it's just it would the live events they're interesting as news events but not as competition nobody really cares about the golf so you have to wonder how long is that sustainable if no one's heart is really in the competition from the fans and the players and certainly the press and um I you know I think they could they could leverage what they have to get what they really want which is acceptance and for the tour it would it would secure its long-term future and they get all the players back in the fold they get all this this influx of money unfortunately excuse me I'm sorry it's the source of the money causes a lot of angst but anyways there is a solution they're they're gonna have to be creative but otherwise both organizations are gonna are just gonna keep take they're both gonna suffer yeah there's just not enough players to go around to make all these tournaments interesting if there's two different tours well you've highlighted Phil Mickelson obviously one of the biggest names who has crossed over the biggest name to cross over with the book Phil I'm sure you can get it anywhere Alan I'm sure it's flying off the shelves great publicity with that book and I'm sure what Amazon Amazon any of the big booksellers any of the local stores have it right oh yeah I mean I would I always try and tell people to go to their local independent bookstore because agreed you know those places were hit so hard by COVID and you're struggling to survive but uh for sure Amazon, Barnes and Noble anywhere anywhere you like your books um actually I read the audible version which was which was a fun challenge and if uh I've gotten more into audiobooks and I think when when the author reads it there's different level of passion and investment people are interested in that you know I wrote that my goodness he's reading me yeah exactly that's awesome I agree with you go to the local bookstore here in New York go to Strand of course places like that support the locals for sure Alan Shipnick author of eight books including Phil long time golf writer with SI Alan appreciate the time my friends and have a great weekend okay thanks for having awesome stuff there Alan Shipnick yeah Phil has made whoo Art Martinez that book has really caused uh a lot of waves there and exposed the true Phil Mickelson that a lot of people never wanted to see over the years yeah yeah that's interesting very very interesting talk right there it is now we're going to get more into it next but first every golf equipment company claims to be longer off the tee but Callaway's new Rogue ST driver is the only one built to completely bomb it it's been speed tuned to be Callaway's fastest most stable driver ever every Rogue ST is engineered with a new tungsten speed cartridge which gives you more speed on off-center hits and provides more forgiveness thanks to high MOI but that's just the beginning because Callaway has engineered a Rogue ST for every player most golfers will fit into the max because of its incredible combination of distance and forgiveness but there's also Max D their dedicated draw model for players who need more shot shape correction now if you need something more low spin there's Max LS which gives you stronger trajectory with a more neutral ball flight but for the true players out there the Rogue ST triple diamond LS is the compact low spin head that the Tour players love Callaway has though has thought through every aspect of speed so all you have to do is go Rogue find your Rogue ST driver at CallawayGolf.com go Rogue I'm going to tell you why this is going to backfire on the PGA Tour with them announcing more money more events more live type of issues with no cuts smaller fields and marquee prize money why it's actually going to hurt them that they're doing that that's coming up next your thoughts as well 844204rich 8442047424 I'm Dan Schwartzman in for Rich Eisen on a Friday edition of the Rich Eisen Show. It's one thing for the Saudis to take you know guys who are near the end of their career who can steal a box office but are not competitive you know forces week in week out but if they also simultaneously are sucking up all the really good young players coming out of college come out of Europe and that is an existential threat to the survival of PGA Tour so they're they're rightfully worried in PGA Tour headquarters. Alan Shipnick author of eight books including the one that's making a lot of noise now Phil just joined us here on the Rich Eisen Show Dan Schwartzman in for Rich on a beautiful Friday.

I'll be here again in a couple weeks July 4th week I'll be here Thursday and Friday looking forward to those two days. You know the PGA Tour keeps shooting itself in the foot and here's the problem that I have with it they just came out a couple days ago and announced that they are going to increase prize money on eight existing events they're going to be adding a few events I believe maybe upwards of four where they're going to use the live format which is smaller fields no cuts and larger prize money you know that's great but if I'm a PGA Tour player I'm actually upset and here's why it took them having competition for them to open the purse more and pay out more right meaning they have the money they were just withholding the money prior now it's like oh yeah we have to compete because there is a real threat here so we're going to actually offer you more money my answer is awesome but where was this money before the whole point is you always want to keep the you always want to keep your guys happy right the product isn't the PGA Tour the product is the golfers right they're independent contractors is what they are they're not teams it's not like an interchangeable team where you can change out the point guard or the first baseman or the quarterback or the the goalie no this is this is golf independent guys and they're flying out renting a place to stay for a week whatever it might be and they're playing and they're putting their own money on the line to try to win more money and for the PGA Tour to now come out and say yeah we're going to increase prize money and add events I would have said well why did it take the live series for you to do that we're the product we're the reason why fans come out to watch not you you're just the organization so why did this money suddenly appear and not be there before if you had maybe been paying us more and had larger prize amounts maybe there never would have been a secondary type of league striving to take over so while it sounds great to me if I'm a golfer I'm a little upset by this it's like they've been holding out you see the point here art like it sounds great that yeah we're going to give you more money which means they've been sitting on this pile of money before and not giving it to us beforehand they didn't think that anybody was going to rival them yes but now you find out as a member of the PGA Tour that they've had this money and they could have increased the prize money prior but they didn't it took competition for them to do that absolutely so yeah they're paying handsomely and yeah I mean pro golfers if you're a good one you're making obviously a great living and you're making money on the course you're making a ton of money off the course but as an independent contract I want to make as much money as possible and by the way I love when people say yeah but did Dustin Johnson need another 200 million dollars he's already making a lot of money that's like the dumbest thing anybody can say because no one regardless of how rich you are is turning down 200 million dollars if I'm making 15 million dollars a year and I'm not but if I was you're close though I'm close I'm about 14.9 yeah but all right if somebody's waving 200 million that's still life-changing money yeah you're living quite the large life anyway but you're playing and your pitch it's it's not like you're building bridges or digging a ditch you're playing a game yeah if somebody wants to throw 200 million dollars and larger prize money and more opportunities to win money because there's no cuts who's turning that down no I hate the argument but he's rich enough he doesn't need the money that's not who are you to say that Dustin Johnson doesn't need the money he's already he has a big lifestyle anyway Paul and Gretzky has an expensive lifestyle she's a Gretzky of course of course right I mean the body so he's making 15 20 whatever who cares what he's making the bottom line is saying here's 10 more million dollars then fine you can say really dude you're gonna leave for 10 million he's leaving for 200 million dollars you don't sneeze at that oh yeah absolutely and this is America you can make as much as you want yeah and who am I to tell Dustin Johnson no turn it down because you have to stay at the PGA Tour no I'd leave for 200 million dollars where do I sign he won his majors who cares they're playing majors not because of legacy they're playing majors and trying to win because of the money why do guys want to make the cut so they play two more days and they make money because they're independent contractors so if somebody throws you 200 million dollars or in Bryson DeChambeau's case 100 million dollars you don't say thanks but no thanks you say where do I sign and the arrogance of golf fans to tell these guys you don't need the money come on dude anybody can use that kind of money regardless of what you already have in your bank account so your grandkids are set up now you set up their grandkids oh you got enough money this does does Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos need more money yeah why not when did you get capped right when did you get capped is how much money you can have or are supposed to have we're not a communist society absolutely no no I love that argument oh Dustin Johnson's greedy he already has enough money says who now what's enough money when you start making that kind of money you live a high lifestyle which means you need more money to support it it's that simple I mean come on it's it's any look I love some okay you say you make 50 grand good for you you make 50 grand you have that 50,000 lifestyle and next thing you know you get another job and they're paying you 200 grand I dare you to find me the guy who doesn't then increase his lifestyle as it pertains to somebody making 200 grand compared to 50 grand very few people would keep living the 50 grand lifestyle if they're making 200 grand right everybody looks to upgrade you'll get a nicer car you'll get a bigger place it's human nature correct and then if you go from 200 grand to a million dollars you probably don't keep living the lifestyle of the 200 grand you live the lifestyle of a million dollars so for Dustin Johnson making a good amount of money he lives a lifestyle that costs a good amount of money that house in Florida isn't a three-bed two-bath house with half an acre you know what I'm saying it's a gated community on a golf course and it's probably eight back you know eight bed nine bathrooms and then he's got the house elsewhere and good for him you want the place in Aspen go buy the place in Aspen if you can afford it and if you have a way to maintain your lifestyle because somebody's going to throw 200 million dollars your way to leave the PGA Tour by all means take it you're an idiot not to take it it's honestly that simple don't put yourself in somebody else's financial shoes I think we do that way too often when it comes to professional athletes or business people we seem to want to dictate how they should live their life and on what budget budget who am I to tell anybody how they should live their life financially I'm not inserting myself in their lifestyle though I always did say at a young age I would love to insert myself into Derek Jeter's lifestyle you know what's fun that must be like imagine being the king of like New York New York the king being loved by New York okay or take but being hated by like Los Angeles and everywhere else well all right who's like the king of LA Clayton Kershaw yeah maybe Mookie Betts uh Freddie Freddie Freeman but that's new how about like the guy who's had like the legacy there of like being beloved what would you say um what's his name just won a Super Bowl Matt Stafford that's only a year it's you know Aaron Donald let's say Aaron Aaron Donald just got that huge contract yeah so let's say Aaron Donald like imagine like if Aaron Don I don't know if he's single I don't know his marital status but say he's a single dude right with a ton of money and he's still a young guy he's what 29 30 years old like imagine hanging out with Aaron Donald in LA for a night where money's not an issue right you want to go to the club you go to the club by the way you get into any club you want without having to wait in line you want the bottle service the you know the five thousand dollar bottle of Cristal guess what and they comp you they comp you anyway and b if they don't what's a five thousand dollar bottle of Cristal for Aaron Donald who's making 40 million bucks right you can afford it so I used to think as a youngster like man imagine like hanging out Derek Jeter he's making like 19 mil at the time and of course he's making millions in endorsements but like a single guy owning New York City as he said he's probably comped everything doesn't have to wait in the line he goes to a club he shows up they let him in VIP section the young ladies are swooning over him right good looking dude like imagine that like imagine that lifestyle man I couldn't imagine it why because I've never lived it weren't there stories about him and Jeter and A-Rod going out together yeah they used to so they used to be like best friends until A-Rod had that article that jealousy article I've got in what publication where he said like if Jeter wasn't in you know he's overrated if he wasn't in New York they wouldn't look at him the same way kind of thing yeah that's right after that that angered Jeter to where their friendship was never the same and rightfully so I mean if he's your friend he shouldn't be talking bad about you especially publicly but they used to be buddies because when Jeter was drafted by the Yankees I believe it was a year before A-Rod went number one overall and leading up to that draft from what I understood and read was that A-Rod kind of reached out through his agent to Jeter and they started a dialogue became really good friends and when the Mariners would play in New York he would actually stay at Jeter's place when the Yankees would play in Seattle uh Jeter would stay at A-Rod's place they'd hang out and party and go out you know two good looking young guys a lot of money hitting the town you know a lot of fun and then obviously after A-Rod pulled that in the article sheer jealousy again that completely changed and Jeter's the type of guy from what I understand that if you cross him you cannot get back like you do something to lose his trust you cannot regain the trust and that happened to A-Rod Dan Schwartzman in for Rich Eisen it is a Friday here on the Rich Eisen show got any thoughts give it to us eight four four two zero four rich that's eight four four two zero four seven four two four and that's what it comes down to again you know it all stemmed from me talking about people trying to tell Dustin Johnson now you shouldn't take the money this guy don't take the money but it's fascinating and I'm not a big golf guy let me throw that out there when it comes to golf I am a Tiger Woods fan okay I am not a golf fan so when Tiger's not playing in a US Open or a PGA Championship or whatever it may be honestly I don't really watch I don't really have a thought on Scottie Scheffler I've always thought Phil Mickelson is a guy that's beloved for really the wrong reasons I never understood why people love Phil so much I always thought there's kind of a phoniness there and you're seeing it now you know uh Tiger's the reason why I would actually watch golf I was always fascinated by his abilities the way that he would transcend the sport the way that he was a legit generational talent it's a term we throw around way too much these days in other sports right oh this guy's a generational talent no he's not all right most guys are not generational talents that we say are generational talents Tiger Woods is legitimately a generational talent so he's always what kind of drew me to golf but as a sports fan who has watched you know I was young when the USFL came around I was too young to follow sports but watching the XFL and all these other little leagues pop up right that tried to somewhat compete with the big boys and of course never had the financing to do it so they couldn't do it and ultimately either just kind of stayed as a minor league novelty type of thing or ended up folding after a couple years because they weren't making any money no one was showing up to the games there were no fannies in the stands the tv deals were nowhere uh worth continuing to play for and they would fold but what's fascinating watching this PGA Tour versus Liv is the fact that you actually have a rival league that financially can compete with that major league which is the PGA Tour and as Jay Monahan the commissioner of the PGA Tour said a couple days ago in fact the PGA Tour can't financially compete with Liv because when you have a monarchy spending or has the ability to access 600 billion dollars OPEC money OPEC money literally it's it's it's you know gold it's black gold money if they have the ability to access 600 billion dollars as much money as the PGA Tour may have guess what they're not even remotely close financially in terms of what they're able to access as Liv is so I'm sitting back and it's watching a prize fight right this is like a heavyweight brawl this is like those boxing matches that uh unfortunately are too rare to see the top two dogs of a division actually fight each other right like fury wilder guys like that rarely do you have the best of the best in each weight class fighting each other because there's too much politics involved here you have a case where you literally have a champion in the PGA Tour that's a heavyweight Tyson it's Tyson you're right and then you have this upstart and this isn't a Buster Douglas one and done type upstart where you're like all right he got lucky and it's never gonna happen again and that was the case with Buster Douglas right he beats Tyson what happens he gets uh a little rich and a little fat and uh he can't win after that he gets knocked out and he literally did get fat but I'm saying is like you know the bottom line is you're looking at a a heavyweight fighter that has emerged very quickly that is now going to step into the ring with Mike Tyson and is equipped to do so I think is the best way to put it Art they are equipped to do so right but here's the thing like their rise is quicker than Holyfield's rise to stardom they're like their rise to stardom is meteoric I mean where were they a year ago they were a concept right now they're a reality and maybe it's just a vanity project at this point considering they're just not you know again and Alan Shipnick put it the best ways like look it's not the golf people are watching at this point right it's everything else the actual golf isn't anything spectacular it's not do people care who wins the live series no you want it's like it's like watching wrestling and knowing it's fake but you love the dialogue and you love the drama and the storylines you're not watching live for the actual match going on in the ring who gets suplexed this and that no one cares you're watching for that guy on the mic who's yelling at Vince McMahon or Triple H or The Big Show whatever it might be that's what you're watching or maybe it's you're watching a train wreck you're thinking it's about to go off the rails here but it's going to be fun watching but how often have we had a competitor that actually has the financial ability and backing to take out the big dog and maybe Liv can do that to PGA all right the NHL Stanley Cup final could be coming to an end later tonight in Denver Colorado Avalanche up three games to one on the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning whose favorite who should be and uh do we care Dan Schwartzman in for rich eyes and it's a Friday edition right here the Rich Eisen Show 45 past the hour Dan Schwartzman in for Rich Eisen the Rich Eisen Show and NHL Stanley Cup final game number five is tonight I always confuse it's the Stanley Cup final and the NBA finals I always confuse the two by the way you know what I love about hockey they just had the awards ceremony right and a lot first of all hockey hair is is alive and well nothing like hockey hair it's the modern day mullet I guess because back in the day hockey hair was an actual mullet now it's like kind of a cooler version it's like the rock and roll long hair right or like the wrestler sting long hair when he was cool sting first had like spiked hair then became like the uh the the guy that was kind of like wearing all black and leather and he had like the long hair that's like the new hockey hair but I love the names of the awards it's not just the MVP award right it's the heart trophy the Vezina trophy the Norris Calder trophy Norris exactly it's still like Jack Adams right it's very British sounding right oh you take home the Jack Adams award in the Vezina you know it's awesome I love it maybe the President's Cup it's not I just had the best record in the league whoop-de-doo it's no you get the President's Cup I love it I like you know I'm a hockey guy I really am maybe it's because I'm an east coast guy I don't know but I do like hockey now who's your favorite team I'm a ranger fan oh so I'm happy with the direction of my team because the rebuild has gone much quicker than anticipated they went further than everybody thought when you have the best goalie it's gonna happen and he's still only 25 26 years old just won a Vezina and he's gonna be there for 10 years so you know you think they could win in 10 years with Igor Shostyrkin but you know tonight's going to be interesting because it's game five it's in Colorado you never want to count out the Tampa Bay Lightning they are down three games to one but you don't want to count them out they did lose the first two games of the series in Denver although game two is much closer four to it was a four to three I think it was four to three game one then oh seven nothing game two but they're two time defending champions and you start to wonder you know the Rangers gave Tampa Bay a run for their money and it was a six game series but every game was brutal every game really kind of came down to the wire there was overtimes I mean it was it was an intense series and the Rangers I think kind of ran out of steam because they had played seven game series prior right with Pittsburgh and Carolina whatever it is they just can't do that you can't right can't take your series to seven each round I think they played 20 games in 40 20 games in 40 days or something that's way too much on your way too much on your body and I think Tampa Bay in a six game series with the Rangers remember they had first swept out the Florida Panthers the series before and they started off flat against the Rangers but then I think the Rangers kind of worked them for six games meanwhile Edmonton you know Colorado swept out Edmonton in four games so they were the more well-rested team heading into the Stanley Cup final and I think it's showing you know you're laboring at this point you've played over a hundred games right or right around 100 games you got to be laboring and any other time if you told me am I going to take Darcy Kemper in goal or am I going to take Andrei Vasilevskiy you would clearly say Vasilevskiy's a better goalie but Vasilevskiy looks winded I mean he does not look like the superstar goalie is if you if you go around the league and say who's the best goalie in hockey they're not going to say Shasterakin because he's only done it really for this year and he showed flashes the year before you're going to say Andrei Vasilevskiy is the best goalie in hockey well he's won two straight Stanley Cups so he's a good answer but he's not playing great hockey right now in fact he's not really out playing Darcy Kemper and Darcy Kemper is not in the same class as Andrei Vasilevskiy but it doesn't matter because I think when you're playing a brutal sport like hockey and people kind of forget the average shift time when a guy's on the ice is under two minutes minute and a half minute 45 seconds 45 seconds to a minute yeah sometimes even less so the reality is these guys go out there and they exert unbelievable amounts of energy going up and down the ice stopping on a dime getting right back to full speed stopping on a dime well Colorado Colorado is so good that they've got so much team speed they roll four lines at you they do they do cadre goes out comes in scores a winning goal you know that's why they're so rested they roll four lines they're so good they're so deep yeah but again again Tampa's really good too I mean look at the star power on Tampa you know Victor Hedman is a hall of fame caliber player you know Stephen Stamkos will be a hall of fame 500 goal 600 goal scorer when it's all said and done Kucherov is a stud uh Braden Point's been banged up he's a really good player right uh Andre Palazzo a good player there's a lot there's so much talent between these two teams right now it's unbelievable right oh they are the two best teams they're the two best clearly the two best teams in the NHL you could actually watch this and say to yourself you are watching the two best teams in the league no one snuck in that wasn't deserving look if the Rangers had won you can say hey a lot of talent on that team hats off to them right but in terms of who actually are the two best teams in hockey you're watching them right now star power for both teams just absolute studs and uh great players and that's why they're both there look Tampa Bay may lose this series but I'm going to tell you right now Art Martinez even down three games to one do I think Tampa could win three in a row absolutely they could win three in a row now they'd have to win two games on the road at Colorado but if anybody's gonna win two games on the road it's Tampa I'm not counting them out oh no not at all they won the last two cups yeah now if I'm a betting man yeah I I probably would pick against him that's just because they're down they have to win two of three well they have to win three of three five my math's terrible they have to win three in a row okay yeah they have to win three in a row yes there you go there's my math they can do it absolutely Tampa Bay can win three in a row but I don't think they will I do think Colorado wins their first cup since 2000 2001 and hats off to them I mean what an unbelievable team they are and I do want to throw this out there any all this talk about too many men on the ice you know John Cooper brought it up the head coach of the lightning and you know I I think it's a little sore loser there anytime when you have line changes on the fly and I do watch because I'm always fascinated how quickly guys go on guys go off right and how they do it the reality is you know Colorado yes they had six men on the ice I believe Tampa had seven at that time because guys were going off as well so it's just a case where if you follow enough hockey and you watch enough games a lot of times during a line change there is that moment where you have an extra guy in the ice who's trying to get off the ice it happens and if they didn't score in that moment guess what no one would have said boo no one would have cared it never would have come up no one would have even noticed it the only reason people are noticing it now is because obviously you know what happened cadre scores the goal they win in overtime and take a three games to one series lead I would have absolutely have preferred Tampa to win because I think this is deserving of a seven game series these two teams as we said the two best teams in hockey going toe to toe guess what it's deserving of being a seven game series it could still be a seven game series I mean Rangers were down what three games to one to the Pittsburgh Penguins in that opening round and they came back one three in a row it can certainly happen here but man what I do love about hockey in the postseason okay and I watch a lot of postseason in every sport what I think hockey does well much better than the NBA they let them play NBA there's too many ticky tack fouls being called I'm always looking at that I'm saying come on really like do you really need to call that just because you anticipate there's going to be contact when a guy drives the lane you're going to blow the whistle come on let them play it kind of ruins the flow but on the other side of it in the NHL when you hit the postseason officials kind of understand to keep that keep that whistle in their pocket a little bit longer and unless it's egregious don't blow that whistle because people want to see the good hockey people want to see that competitiveness and they certainly are seeing it because you're not blowing the whistle and I love love love that all right there's actually news breaking right now in terms of Aaron Judge the Yankees they were in a four-hour supposedly today four-hour arbitration hearing that has changed I'll tell you what it is next as we begin hour three Dan Schwartzman filling in for Rich Eisen on a Friday right here it's the Rich Eisen Show. For the real story behind some of wrestling's biggest moments it's Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson too. All-time Hogan opponents Macho Man's got to be in the conversation where's Andre for you? I've always said Andre was number one. Wow. Because even going back before you know Hulk Hogan was a babyface Hulk and Andre were able to go in and headline at the New Orleans Superdome at Shea Stadium in Japan wherever they went that was an attraction. Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard listen wherever you get your podcasts.