Andy McCullough: The Ohtani Story Changing Is Interesting

This is The Rich Eisen Show. Can I change the subject? How bad? Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

How much can I follow? I'm supposed to know who's on drink? I mean, this is crazy! It's at Valparaiso! I know names on Valparaiso! Today's guests, Senior MLB Writer for The Athletic, Andy McCullough, Oakland guard Jack Golke, Michigan running back Blake Corum, actor and producer Ty Sheridan. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

Yes, it is. Welcome to this edition of The Rich Eisen Show, still having echoes of our fun final hour of Thursday's show of Larry David's outstanding all-time great appearance on this program and you can catch on the Roku channel Rich Eisen Show collection page or our YouTube page if you missed it. We're thrilled to be back here on this Friday with tons of March Madness to talk about the madness of what's going on with Shohei Ohitani or not.

We'll hit on that subject matter. There's a pro day at my institution of higher learning that I adore and ride or die for at the University of Michigan, 18 combined prospects, over 150 head coaches, coaches and scouts are there. It is a record for a pro day. Blake Corum will be joining us from the University of Michigan once his workout is done. That's in the third hour. Ty Sheridan, the actor, a lot of folks may know from Ready Player One. He will be hanging out here in studio with us at that time.

And then the star of the show of March Madness, day one, Jack Golke of the Oakland Golden Grizzlies who bounce Kentucky. He'll be joining us in the second hour of the show. Good to see you over there, Christopher Brockman. How are you? I like that Golke hit him with the MJ shrug last night. Dude, when he's banking him in, that's what you got to do.

I mean, it was amazing. DJ Mikey Diaz in Deez Nuts, good to see you, sir. Good morning, Rich. Good to see you.

The Latte Larry Cup that Larry David signed for you, I am glad it's positioned like that because he called you a curse word when he signed that cup. Yes. Very good. Wow. Good to see you over there, TJ Jefferson.

How are you, sir? Still reminiscing over yesterday, man. That was fun. That was an all-timer. That was great. Amazing. My side's still hurting from that one.

And then the madness of last night. I know. Great day.

Right? And I guess let's start that way. This is how we'll start. Larry David, when he was here, he was talking about his brackets. That kind of went a little viral. Drake. If I'm not mistaken, it showed up on the Today Show today. Really? And we appreciate Carson Daly for throwing that out there. Yeah, yeah.

The Valparaiso. He's just like, I'm supposed to know who's on Drake? Drake?

And I guess you could just fill in the blank. You're supposed to know who's on Oakland? Yes, no. You're supposed to know who's on the Golden Grizzlies? You're supposed to know who Jack Golke is? No, you're not. In all seriousness. It probably took a few Golke threes for folks to realize that Oakland is not from Northern California.

No. They're from Rochester, Michigan. And that's who wound up showing up last night in the first round.

You know, Pittsburgh, PA is a drive from suburban Detroit. So a bunch of Oakland Golden Grizzlies fans showed up and they started getting loud and they couldn't believe what they were seeing. In case you're just wondering what the hell hit Kentucky, it is a blizzard of threes from a handful of players, but mostly the guy on your screen right here, Jack Golke, who's got his tongue out and he was putting his guns in his holster. And then he was Michael Jordan shrugging and why not? Because the threes that he was throwing in were like off of screens that he had no business firing away because he's going against the grain. He's trying to avoid somebody who was flying off a screen in his face and they were dropping. Half of them were dropping. And when I say half of them were dropping, he threw twenty threes at the hoop last night and ten of them hit.

Seven of them in the first half. And in case you're wondering, you know, if that's part and parcel of Jack Golke, well, you know, let's tell you who he is. He's a twenty four year old from Pewaukee, Wisconsin. If that location sounds familiar to you, it's because he went to Pewaukee High School, the same high school of the Watt family. And his performance last night caught the attention of J.J. Watt, who tweeted in Golke's direction with a photograph of Golke, I guess, back in his high school days as a Pewaukee pirate in 2016. And Watt, who's, I guess, out there for his his soccer team, says, woke up in London to see that a kid from Pewaukee Torched Kentucky to lead Oakland in Rochester, Michigan, he puts in parentheses, in a massive fourteen over three first round March Madness upset. Hell of a performance.

And then he added Jack doing the hometown proud hashtag pirate pride because there's a they're the pirates, the Pewaukee Pirates. And you know, if you want to look up who Jack Golke is, normally you'll you'll you'll see a 247 sports profile from his high school days to see. How good he was there and who might have been knocking on his door. The answer is from Division one, nobody, nobody knocked on his door. If you're looking for his 247 sports profile, you won't find it.

It doesn't exist. He wound up going to Division two, Hillsdale College, also in the state of Michigan. And in case you're wondering how he did there in Hillsdale, go to his college sports reference dot com page. And you don't know they don't they don't have the stats from Hillsdale saying he never played.

Is that what this is? No, you can see that he was there. The red shirt in his first season of 2018, 19, but the next four seasons, they don't have the numbers. Then you see him there when he went to Oakland. The numbers are there from Oakland. They kind of put him on the radar screen there. But you can also see he's been at it six years.

That's crazy. And apparently when he was in Hillsdale College to make ends meet after games, he would hop in a car and had every ride share app at his disposal for him to perform the duties of the driver, Lyft, Uber, all of them. And he would drive around and he'd go to other colleges, college towns. So he would drive people home from the game that he was playing in? Well, I don't know if he did that. We can ask him when he joins us an hour or two.

That would be amazing. But this is what he's doing. And then he decides to give it one shot elsewhere in the only program, D1 program, that said come here was Oakland. And boy, did he go there. And taking a look inside the stats to see, finally, 10 of 20 from three.

And by the way, no two-point shots, none at all. He's allergic to them. He's not going to trifle with such things inside the arc. Get out of here. It's too close.

It's too close. He on the season, looking at the stats we know about, attempted 347 threes and made 131 of them. And of the two-point variety, he attempted the grand total of eight of them. Eight two-pointers. This guy is my spirit animal. So he's definitely not cherry-picking.

Eight two-pointers made for him, shooting 50% from the floor inside the arc. Gulkey. I love this guy.

As does most of America now. Even though I had Kentucky to win the whole thing. Well, I mean, and it'll be interesting. It's so rare for you to personally meet your bracket buster. Yeah, exactly. As you will in hour two. I love it. But as soon as he did this, and I learned about him, and thankfully our booking staff top notch, I'm like, bring me Jack Gulkey. And here's what's so great about March Madness.

The second round game to advance to the regional semifinal in the south region is 11th seeded NC State, which as we all know, went on a run in the ACC tournament. And they have their own new favorite player of America. And mine. You love this kid, right? Oh, he's my new favorite guy. JC Brand. Pardon me. JC Burns.

Pardon me. DJ Burns. DJ Burns. DJ Burns.

Start over, Rich. Here's a lot of names we weren't familiar with until about 330. The crazy thing is I saw the kid play in the ACC tournament and I was with a buddy of mine who was, you know, a Virginia Cavalier grad and he's just like, this isn't fair. Rich, you're not supposed to know who plays on NC State. NC State?

I should know. But the crazy thing is I've watched him play and we talked about him before the game, before the show. But at any rate, this is a team that's on its own magical run and is an institution that is synonymous with magical runs in this tournament.

The most magical run. NC State versus Oakland. DJ Burns v. Jack Gulkey, the guy who lives inside the paint versus the guy who doesn't venture. He probably doesn't use paint. His house probably has siding. There's no paint.

He knows nothing from paint. Rich, you know the funny thing about this Oakland thing too, real quick, they didn't mention the whole thing. Oakland, if you think is in California, it's not to Michigan, but played the game in Pittsburgh at the Pitt campus.

The Pitt campus is located in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. That was never mentioned yesterday whatsoever. So that in itself is incredible. There you go. Needed somebody with inside knowledge right there. East coaster that knows. East Coast knowledge. That's East Coast knowledge. But that's what this is all about, isn't it? That's what this is all about, is a team from Oakland featuring a kid that nobody had ever heard of outside of Pewaukee and Hillsdale and Oakland, Rochester, Michigan, or anybody else who might have been driven by him over the last five some odd years.

Just lighten it up. And as you called him, Chris, that's my spirit animal. So many people in rec leagues who just shoot the minute they enter the gym, way to go. I've been cosplaying this dude my entire basketball career. And he didn't start. He got in the game at the 1555 mark of the first half, missed his first two threes. Missed his first two.

And then I've got him written down here. His first three gave the team their first lead of the game, 8-7. His second three gave Oakland their second lead of the game. His third three gave them another lead at 16-13. His fourth three gave Oakland their first two possession lead of the game at 19-13.

And that's the first time you're going, oh, OK. Especially since this guy is red hot, he checking everywhere from any point on the floor, deep behind the three-point arc, or coming off a screen right to his left, and then with an immense amount of momentum still taking him to his left, where I think he landed out of bounds past the baseline. When he came off the screen at the top of the arc, it felt like, he throws that one in. The team is second two possession lead of the game at 22-17. At 449 left in the first half, he gave his team the lead again, 28-25. And then the seventh one, where you're like, OK, this may just not be Kentucky's night, even though we're still in the first half. Down by two with a minute 55 left, he banked in a three. You could see Coach Cal on the Kentucky bench just throw his hands up.

And that's what Golke did, too. He gave sort of a Jordan-esque shrug, and you're like, uh-oh. Then he had three more threes in the second half, including his final one, giving them a two possession lead at 67-62. He popped in two free throws when he was fouled on a three to give him a six-point lead. But DQ Cole was the one who threw in the most daggerish three after Kentucky made it a one-point game with a minute to go. With 37 seconds left, this kid just splash went in from the corner. And then Kentucky was absolutely on its final throws. And then the final shot of the night was just a desperation down two possession anyway. And you know who grabbed the rebound and who had the ball in his hands with no time left was Jack Golke. Can't make it up. Can't make it up. That's why we love this tournament.

And of course, whenever there's a Cinderella, there has to be, I guess, to mix metaphors, the giant that gets slayed. I guess if you are the David, there has to be the Goliath of this story and the Goliath of this story for the second time in three years getting bounced out as it was a two-seat couple tournaments ago, and now as a three-seat, it's Kentucky, again, Coach Cal. And I saw an interesting point from Jay Wright on the postgame where he said in this day and age where kids are staying in college longer and you're taking on teams that have more veteran presences, and he ascribed it to NIL keeping kids in school where they're not going to leave to try and get a pro career that they're probably not going to go and make the same amount of money that they could make it with NIL. Clearly, Jack Golke's not, you know, maybe he can start making some NIL money.

I'm hoping people are calling him up today, you know? And so that said, he said that the way that Coach Cal has been going about his business getting a ton of young players all together and getting them, you know, hopefully up to speed enough to win tournament games in a row and win the whole thing and cut down nets before you cut them loose and send them to the NBA where they're going to be outstanding. I mean, take a look at the NBA. There are Kentucky Wildcats from Coach Cal's program everywhere, absolutely everywhere. And you want them to in the same way that, you know, the Eagles are all over Georgia Bulldogs, right? You if you can get a Kentucky Wildcat, get him.

So that's understood. But unfortunately for Kentucky, that doesn't work anymore. Jay Wright said basically that the one and done teams are dead.

They're dead. Just that's not the way to go about it anymore and he's wondering if Coach Cal might realize that and go in a different direction. And now there's even conversation that Kentucky might cut Coach Cal loose because, you know, Blue Blood programs aren't used to this sort of like in the same way that Jack Golke's your spirit animal and you still, you know, are are rooting for a kid who just busted up your bracket. I'm sure Kentucky's like, we don't we don't care about this Cinderella story, right?

You know, yeah. So this is what Coach Cal had to say after the game. This one hurt because they are the kind of team you love coaching. And you know, I wanted them to advance because of all that they've been through. And I wanted them to have a chance to relish and cherish this event.

I've been through it 20 sometimes. My teams have done really well. We've lost a couple of these now.

But them, this is their time. We're better than we played, but you got to give Oakland credit. I mean, they they out rebound. They got 16 offensive rebounds. Come on. One of them was late. Come on. I mean, we've had that issue, but you know, there was some breakdown stuff, but you know, we had our chances. They did.

And if you're going to give up offensive rebounds like that and have a kid like Golke go heat checking all over the place and throwing in 10 of 23s and then other players performing up to their speed and they believe. I mean, FAU just tipped off against Northwestern to start Friday's March Madness insanity. And FAU, as we all know, who the hell had them in the Final Four?

Who had them? Right? And now all of a sudden, I'm looking at Florida Atlantic thinking maybe Northwestern could do Michigan a favor and bounce Dusty May right now so we can call him up. I'm serious. That's the March Madness now.

And Blue Bloods, as I told you yesterday, we went off the air, I'm like 5'12". That's the old upset, you know, seeding matchup. Now I said, look out for 314. And three got got by 14 out of Oakland, which yes, folks, we all learned yesterday isn't in Northern California. You know it now. Is the school near Michigan?

It's close enough, but I don't know if it's close enough to drive your car there and start Ubering around. So big week, big week for upsets, man. Just got started and it got started against Kentucky again. And you got to wonder if Coach Cowell is going to start reconfiguring the way he builds a team.

Because they got got again. Jack Golke is going to join us, top of hour number two. It's a What's More Likely Friday.

We'll get that. Blake Corum, top of hour number three. The actor Ty Sheridan in studio, hour number three. But when we come back, we get the latest on whatever in the world is going on with Shoei Otani, his interpreter, and a gambling syndicate down here in Southern California that wound up with $4.5 million of Shoei Otani's money in it.

It appears personally by Shoei Otani to it. Andy McCullough of the athletic senior reporter who is on this, senior writer who is on this with Ken Rosenthal. He joins us next, 844204 Rich, if you want to have a chat. If you need to hire, you need Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors according to Indeed data and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast. And Indeed doesn't just help you hire faster, 93% of employers agree Indeed delivers the highest quality matches compared to other job sites according to a recent Indeed survey. With Indeed, everything hiring is all in one place and it makes it so easy. Leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences each day, Indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences.

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You need Indeed. Welcome to Talkville, the ultimate smallville rewatch podcast. Final Transference aired October 27, 2004.

Director James Marshall, writers Todd Slavkin, Darren Swimmer. I really liked this episode and I'm surprised that you don't like it as much as you thought you did. I actually respect your opinion more than I respect my own in general. When you say things are good and I check them out, they are.

Jump in now or catch up on any of the past seasons of Talkville on YouTube or wherever you listen. So your bracket's no longer perfect. I got five wrong. I was crushing it before that. By the way, I had Samford. Oh, you got they got so they got hosed.

So I had Samford over Kansas and was what I was. I was monitoring the situation. They got so job. They did. That was a total.

We'll talk about more of it later on. How many did you get wrong? TJ, do you know? You haven't checked? Oh, did you check my bracket? What about you? Four. Four. That's a good start.

That's not bad. And Cooper was monitoring all night long. He was monitoring how many perfect brackets are remaining on the ESPN side of things.

You know who's won? I saw this. Bijan Robinson. I know. Isn't that crazy? Look at him.

Look at Bijan. 16-0. 16-0, man.

16-0. Do you have that job? No. I got rid of that. Yeah. He has Texas winning it all.

Who knows? I missed four yesterday. That's great.

I missed five. He's got Texas going the whole way. But for the moment.

Look out. Bijan is on Warren Buffett's radar screen right now, right? Is that still a thing? I think it is, isn't it?

Really? If you get a perfect bracket. Berkshire Hathaway gives you a gajillion dollars? 10 million bucks. I think so.

Am I wrong? I don't know. I can't imagine he would stop doing that.

It's not like you're giving it away every year. See this? See, he can score if you give him the opportunity.

Are you holding on to Bijan in your league? Oh yeah. You are? Oh yeah.

16-0, man. There he is. He's like the second or third ranked player coming into the year. Is he really? Yeah. Come on. What? Overall or running back?

Yeah, overall. Come on. Ain't no way. Ain't no way. I got to see how things look before I go in that direction. Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, I'm sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk for Burnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

So call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Let's get the latest on whatever the heck's going on with Shohei Ohtani. And that, I mean, do you call it a scandal or it's an Ohtani, I think KO calls it either an Ohtani gambling scandal or an Ohtani adjacent gambling scandal. Either way, his name's getting attached. His name is attached.

Yeah. And so to discuss the latest on all of that, our friend for the first time from The Athletic joining us here, Andy McCulloch. How are you, Andy? Hey, thanks for having me. You bet, Andy.

So let's get right to it. What is the latest as far as you could tell with the Shohei Ohtani gambling scandal that appears to be? Yeah. It's been a bit of a holding pattern, I think, and it might be in that sort of state for a little while, just because the way that Major League Baseball is saying that Ohtani is not facing any sort of discipline. They're reticent to say he's even under investigation, I think, based on there's competing narratives out there.

Right. The terrific story from Tisha Thompson at ESPN from a couple of days ago outlined two basically timelines presented by Ipe Mizuhara, who's Ohtani's interpreter, who sort of admitted to gambling with an illegal bookmaker in Southern California. In the first version of the story, Ohtani paid off the debts basically as a favor, and in the second version of the story, a day later, Mizuhara recanted and basically said Ohtani knew nothing about any of it, wasn't aware of all of it, it's all his fault. And subsequently, Ohtani's camp said that Ohtani was a victim of massive theft. They're sort of moving forward and having the federal authorities look into that. They haven't even said exactly which authority they're pursuing charges with, but they are made clear that they are pursuing charges against Mizuhara for the alleged theft.

And so it's kind of going to grind on for a little bit while we kind of, there's just this weird sort of void of no one really knows what's going on, right? Yeah, exactly. So how would Ohtani face no discipline with four and a half million of his dollars winding up in the hands of a Southern California illegal bookmaker under federal indictment? I guess the only way that I might've answered my own question to you, Andy, is that's where suddenly everyone in his camp says, no, no, no, no, forget everything that the interpreter told Tisha Thompson in his first interview, he, he's a thief. Is that, is that the, the reasoning do you think behind the change in story?

Well, I can't speak to that. I mean that, you know, I can't, we can't explain why the story changed, but certainly the story changing is very interesting to say the least. And yeah, I mean the reason that he is not considered under investigation is, you know, the way major league baseball has framed it is it's possible he's the victim of a massive theft as he and his legal team are alleging. And so in that case, you know what you're investigating him for theoretically being the victim of a crime. But they're very clearly, you know, they're monitoring the situation.

I think they're going to defer to, you know, the, the federal authorities in terms of looking into this and sort of getting to the bottom of it. But, but yeah, but when you look at the first version of events that Mizuhara put forth that Otani, you know, transferred the money to an illegal bookmaker, yes, that would certainly put him in Otani theoretically in some legal exposure in California, in addition to exposure to, you know, punishment of some form for major league baseball. That was my question for you is that the first version of events, the Tuesday story out of the interpreter Ishei Mizuhara, that Otani was a good guy who helped him cover four and a half million dollars of debt, which was just a staggering amount of money, Andy, for somebody who supposedly made topped out at half a million dollars in the year. Like it really is for in terms of his own salary that if that was, in fact, the story is that Otani being open to suspension from major league baseball just because his money was in the hands of an illegal bookmaker, regardless of how it got there, right, unclear if it would be this expansion there is so the way that rule 21 works, which is sort of governs major league baseball's policy on on gambling is if there's a huge distinction of whether or not the bets were placed on baseball, right, if you bet on a game that you're not involved with, it's a year long ban. If you bet in a game in which you are involved with, it's a permanent ban.

And if you bet on with an elite, if you place bets with an illegal bookmaker, you're subject to a sort of nebulous commissioners discretion punishment. As of right now, there's no evidence, you know, that Otani bet on baseball. Mizuhara did say that in the account that he subsequently recanted. But he did say, you know, there's no one has come forth and said there's any evidence linking Otani or Mizuhara or anyone involved in this to betting on baseball.

But that is the distinction is like there's this three prongs of rule 21. And if it is proven, and again, this is very speculative, because it's on his campus suggesting this is what did not happen. But if it is proven that he, you know, paid off debts with an illegal bookmaker, then it gets into a gray area of how do you interpret the third prong of rule 21, you know, is paying off a debt the same as placing a bet, etc, etc. But it would put him in, you know, some sort of jeopardy there. The most recent precedent that the league office has pointed to is a player named Jared Kozart, who was fined in 2015, for placing some illegal bets on non baseball, but that was, you know, a fine.

This is obviously a much higher profile case. And I think there's a lot of confusion, or at least speculation for people around the sport about why the league is not being more aggressive and saying that he's under investigation. Their stance is that they he always says he's a victim of a crime. So we shall see. Andy McCulloughs, the senior writer from the athletic joining me here on the Rich Eisen show. So what are the Dodgers saying?

What are you hearing out of that end of things right now? They they're not going to be commenting on this one, I think. I mean, it's it's, you know, Ken Rosen all and I had a had a, you know, piece up today just kind of outlining all the unanswered questions. And part of it is because, you know, Tony did not speak after the game. You know, Mizuhara has not been available, you know, it's not responded to request for comment in the days subsequently to giving the two differing accounts to ESPN. You know, Nesbilello, Otani's agent, has declined comment. Dodgers officials, you know, Stan Kassen and Andrew Friedman declined comment. Dave Roberts, the Dodgers manager, you know, kind of has to go out there and talk because that's his job is he has to talk to the media twice a day. But even he is kind of unable to get into the meat of it.

As of right now, you know, the Dodgers are kind of just going to seem like they're going to try and roll through it and play with Otani as their T.H. And, you know, I suspect that he will not be addressing this in any meaningful fashion. He's a very private person to begin with, you know, very reticent to reveal details of his personal life.

And it's hard to imagine now is the time when he suddenly opts for transparency. But, you know, I was very surprised that, you know, Ipe Mizuhara gave that initial account to ESPN. So, you know, anything can happen. It's not a story I expected to be covering this week.

I'll tell you that. Well, nobody did. That's why I'm asking about the Dodgers. They had no inkling, obviously. They must be stunned.

They must be absolutely gobsmacked as to what's happening right now. Yeah. I mean, and one of the things, you know, we, you know, Ken Rosenthal and I were writing about today is this is the sort of thing that the Dodgers should have known. Is it something that in their due diligence, should they have been aware that, you know, at the very least, Mizuhara was tied up with, you know, a Southern California legal bookmaker?

Hard to know. I can sort of understand it both ways that, like, how would you get that versus, you know, it's the sort of thing that people talk about. It's a shocking sort of story, for sure. And they, you know, my understanding is the Dodgers were caught off guard by it. I'm sure they were.

I guess, would you vet anyone in his circle? I mean, of course you're not doing that while you're battling the Blue Jays and everything else as you're trying to keep everybody, you know, under wraps, quiet, because any false move would blow the opportunity to get the greatest player that baseball has to offer internationally, nationally, for anybody that would cut through the noise in our sports world for, why would you think anything was up with this guy that was untoward, although unless you plugged into the gambling community, because that was the piece that kind of, part of the piece in ESPN that shocked me is that the gambler in question, the bookie in question, didn't disabuse any of his clients of the notion that Otani was a client. So people had to be talking around these parts here.

Right. And that's the counter to your initial point is like, yes, obviously, you know, how do you find this out? It's like, well, this guy was letting people know, it appears, that, you know, he was taking bets from someone, you know, either Otani or someone representing Otani. That seems to be the way that, you know, that they presented it in the reporting from ESPN. And so, yeah, I can see it both ways. I, you know, you can also argue, like, if you just hear, oh, you know, he's involved with a guy who's been gambling too much. It's like, well, okay, it's Shohei Otani.

He's, you know, he's the modern day Babe Ruth. That's a risk we can take. I suspect you were not imagining it to be a scandal of this magnitude. And it's still, you know, it's still so much that needs to, like, unfold.

We just don't know what happened, you know, and it's really hard to get our arms around. And so you have a narrative that is sort of established as what actually happened here. And, you know, anybody that's sent money from their bank, you know, website, which is most anybody who has money in one of the major banks of the United States, which is maybe most everyone in the sound of our voices right now, Andy, knows that if you send money, you're going to get like a code to your phone. You got to plug it in and, you know, I've I've never straight up wired the amount of money that Otani was wiring. I can only imagine the number of bank representatives that would have to be involved with a wire of this size. And by the way, if it was the same amount every time, that's nine times he sent this amount to the same guy, you know, the same individual.

Wouldn't that set off an alarm bell somewhere? You know, I was going to say, you know, your career seems like it's going better than mine. So you probably have more experience theoretically sending that sum of money. So we're on the same page. Right. Yeah. I mean, that's that's another, you know, part of this story that sort of needs to be vetted out. Right.

Is because ESPN, you know, based on the reporting and bank documents they had, they had, you know, Otani's name going to, you know, Matthew Bauer, the, you know, alleged bookmaker. And so how did that happen? How did the theft occur is something that is going to need, you know, if the theft occurred, how did it occur? How did you get past that sort of, you know, thing that we all know of just trying to transfer, you know, five hundred bucks from in between bank accounts. Right. It's not the easiest thing in the world. So it's another thing that sort of needs to be vetted out and, you know, hopefully we'll have more clarity on it.

But yes, you raise a great point that it's something that does not immediately pass the smell test, I guess. And I can call here on the Rich Eisen show from the athletic joining me here, the senior rider for baseball right here on the Rich Eisen show. And I guess we're going to find out just how well Otani can block out noise for the first time in his career.

Negative noise. Right. I mean, there's always been people pulling him in so many different directions. I know he is active on Instagram or he's out there and he'll see all the memes and all the jokes and the fact that there is a guy and honestly, you know, a guy named Betts in front of him in the lineup, you know.

And so I hadn't thought about that. It's all out there, Andy, you know. And so what the Dodgers, I guess, were the first ones to kind of keep the reporters at bay.

What is next here? They've got a series with the Angels this weekend, don't they? For spring training before it all starts? Yes. Yeah.

The freeway series. Yeah. And then and then spring training will excuse me, then the regular season will kick off later in the week. Yeah. It's going to be a circus. It was already going to be a circus. You know, I was there, you know, at Camelback Ranch, you know, covering the Dodgers a little bit this spring and it was already very crowded, very intense, you know, a ton of attention.

And now, you know, you take a player who was already an international superstar and merited so much attention and you throw a national scandal on top of that. Yeah. It's going to be a significant sort of I'm like I tend to downplay like media, not downplay, but I just kind of disregard like, you know, media related controversy like, oh, there's all these reporters here. You know, it's a distraction. These guys are professionals, right?

Like they they tend to be good at blocking out the noise. But this is a level of noise that's a bit different than just, you know, a bunch more reporters they're asking you about, you know, going one for four instead of three for four. It's I think it's going to be, you know, a bit more of a challenge than it would have been just in a normal season. And but, you know, it's the timeline of how quickly this will move, how much information will come out at, you know, at what pace.

So it's just hard to know right now because it's it's somewhat of a bit of an unprecedented situation. Well, how soon? Last one for you, Andy. How soon do you think until a certain 82 year old resident of, I believe, Las Vegas, Nevada, who once upon a time resided in Cincinnati, Ohio, raises his head and comments where is Peter Edward Rose in this whole situation, Andy, because I suspect you could find him. I mean, if you just reached out to his people, he'd be happy to come on the show. You know, that's an interesting thought. Don't you think he's got he's got some thoughts?

I mean, I think even though it's patently unfair to say that this is exactly what Otani has done, but there's there's so many unanswered questions and, you know, nature abhors a vacuum. When when is he when is he going to pop up? You know, I, you know, give it give it time. That's like, you know, what's the it's not Groundhog's Day because that doesn't always happen.

I don't know. It's it's I think it is interesting, you know, that this story occurs as Major League Baseball along with so many other sports leagues just become more entangled in the world of gambling and accepting money from bookmakers and things like that to, you know, having sponsorships and you turn on a television and you see all these ads. I mean, we're a while, you know, my phone is just lit up constantly with ads for, you know, betting on stuff. And I don't I play poker, but I don't like sports bet. And so I'm just getting flooded.

And so, yeah, I mean, I think that it's it's it's a really it's a bit of a slippery slope, you know, and you starting to see some of the ramifications of it, you know, and that you can see how like even folks who have, you know, access to significant income or, you know, can get enmeshed in it. Andy McCulloch, before I let you go, tell me about your book coming out in May about Kershaw and how much time you spend on it. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. So it's a book about Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers pitcher.

It'll be out May 7th. It I've spent the past couple of years working on it. I was the Dodgers be writer for the Los Angeles Times for several years. And so that sort of forms kind of the you know, how I initially got to know Kershaw and just thought that he was a player who in this era there really was, you know, someone worth exploring in a full scale biography in the way that, you know, he was the central figure of postseason baseball for about a decade, you know, sort of his quest to try and win a championship was the animating question of every postseason basically is like, is this the year that he can do it? And I thought just sort of charting, you know, getting to talk to him about that process about, you know, what it has been like sort of operating under the pressure that he has operated on really for the last 20 years of his life was worth, you know, exploring.

He was, you know, generous with his time. We talked a bunch over the last couple of years for it. And so I'm excited for folks to read it. You know, it's it's yeah, it's been it's been a long process, but we're getting close to, you know, coming out. And so I'm looking forward to for people to get to get a chance to read while that's coming out on May 7th. And again, I guess I should have reached out beforehand before the books already probably in print and getting ready to come out. But had we spoken earlier, I would have told you to look into to see if it's true. If Clayton Kershaw played on the same high school as Matthew Stafford, I heard that.

Maybe you want to run that one down, Andy, for yeah, for the paperback. You know? Yeah.

Matthew Stafford once got an almost concussion on Clayton Kershaw's trampoline. Oh, now there you go. Look at you advancing the story.

There you go. I had no idea. Did he have a breaking news? Was there a blue tent in the backyard for him to get checked out? I was told that he toughed it out.

An independent observer that sat him down for a couple of a couple of bounces. OK. Yeah, exactly. Thanks, Andy.

Maybe that was his first concussion. Thanks for having me. Appreciate your time, sir. Appreciate your time. That's Andy McCulloch of The Athletic right here on The Rich Eisen Show again.

Get his book, The Last of His Kind, a biography on Clayton Kershaw, available on May 7th. So there's all of that. All right. All of the NCAA men's tournament games up and at them. And we'll talk about that. Set up the final couple of hours of this show. There's a pro day going on. You know there's a pro day going on? Handful of them. But there's one in particular I'm interested in.

And so is the rest of the National Football League, it seems. That's coming up. Named one of the best personal finance podcasts, The Stagging Benjamin Show with Joe and His Friends makes financial literacy fun. I got an email today from the LenPenzo.com HR department. I find it really interesting. I'm an employee of one at this company. But somebody from the HR department sent me an email telling me that I had a raise.

If I just opened the attachment, I could see how much my raise was. Make sure you click on the links that are in there, too. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I can't wait. I'm excited. Find out more by searching The Stacking Benjamins podcast, wherever you listen.

Hi there. Sorry for the interruption, but are you enjoying this show on Google Podcasts? You should know that the Google Podcasts app is going away this spring.

That's right. Going away gone as in no longer available. You can still enjoy this show elsewhere, though. Try out Spotify or Amazon Music or maybe TuneIn is more your style.

Whatever app you switch to, be sure to follow so you never miss the next episode. And thanks for listening wherever you listen. Sometimes Twitter is still good for something or X or whatever. Every once in a while it is, because you just go and see the reactions to things. It is still, on occasion, a good news gathering side, and it is where you find also something that will just make you laugh out loud. And I'm sorry, Kentucky fans, Rex, and all of our other Kentucky friends, but this one is A plus.

From the host of the Memphis Grizzlies, Jessica Benson tweeted out, big month for UK disappearing acts, Kate Middleton and John Calipari. Wow. That is just so harsh. That is what's called next level, A plus plus, I mean, there's not enough pluses, can't plus it up enough. It's funny. I could teach A plus it. Oh, you could.

That'd make it even funnier. That is, and of course the left being the photoshopped, the infamously photoshopped. What is going on with Kate Middleton? What is happening?

Oh, it's insane. Nobody knows where she is. And there was that video where she was apparently out shopping. That was not her. And that was not her. Definitely not her. No, it's not her.

That was a stand in. Not her. Look at us spilling tea right now, huh? I don't know. We're dishing. Are we officially dishing? Are we dishing?

Are we dishing? I don't know what that is. That's... R.M.Z. That is... R.M.Z.

UK disappearing acts. R.E.M.Z. Wow. That, I saw that.

I'm like that. I got to retweet that one. That was a good one. That wound up in my timeline. Yeah. That's funny.

Ooh. I'm sorry. I mean... Kentucky Wildcat fans, man. I'm not about that. You're not? No. Out of all the teams I do like, they're one that I don't.

They're my only sweet 16 team out so far. Ooh. Good job, Rich. Champion. Champion. Wow. Out.

Sorry, Kyle. Back on The Rich Eisen Show. We're here, hanging out, having a good time. All right. Updating some games that are happening right now in NCAA tournament action. My other alma mater, Northwestern, graduate degree from the Medill School of Journalism.

Yes, I am one degree shy of being doctor television. Ooh. Oh. Florida Atlantic. New York, Cinderella, is up by just a bucket, 14-12, six-minute mark of the first half. And Baylor is up by seven on Colgate. That's just tipped off there. That's your March Madness update.

How'd I do? Well done, Rich. ESPN now has a perfect bracket tracker.

I told you, Cooper isn't monitoring that. Yeah. I didn't realize this was a thing. This is cool. This, as we were at Taylor's All-Star Game semifinal last night. She won that one.

Nice. And her team won that one. I've got an early morning Saturday championship game that I'm attending. It's her third championship game of her young career, of the last four months. Okay.

Yeah. She's one and one in championship games. Taylor Ionescu. Taylor Ionescu. Well, Taylor Clark, we can go that way too, because she's gonna play the game, then we'll go home.

Noon tip-off of Kaitlyn Clark's first round matchup on ABC, 3 Eastern, noon Pacific. Taylor's still out there shooting away? She's shooting, she's dishing, she's doing everything. She's a glue gal. Nice. Glue gal. That's what she is.

She does all of that. Now I'm just crowing, listen, it's kind of funny, you know, that I forget it from time to time, but there's a big pro day today at the University of Michigan. And I cannot believe, it still just blows my mind that they're national champions in college football. I still can't believe that happened. I still just, even just being at the combine where there were 18 Michigan Wolverines, and I know the draft is gonna be in Detroit, for crying out loud.

I still can't believe it. One hundred and fifty scouts and coaches apparently descending upon Shembekler Hall, and you've been there, Chris, there's enough room for everybody. It's big. There's enough room for everybody in that indoor facility. A hundred and fifty plus are coming to see, including your Los Angeles Chargers head coach, Jim Harbaugh. He's familiar. He's going to be there. I'm just wondering if he's going to stop by, not just the old haunt, you know, his old office, see how Sharone Moore's changed the place up a little bit. And then perhaps once he's done with that, he'll go down the street and check on the proceeds of the garage sale, is that what he can check on? Maybe. See if anybody can check.

I have no idea. Did anybody, you know, buy the lava lamp, the sewing machine, pick up the lava lamp? You know what, I should find out, we should find out, wouldn't you want to buy, see right behind the sewing machine, a Jim Harbaugh lava lamp for the studio would be a perfect addition, don't you think?

Like what would, out of everybody on the screen, out of anything on the screen, what would you want to have in this studio more than anything else? I want the thermos. I don't know, that might not be for sale, dude.

That might just be somebody who just put it down while they were browsing. You know, it's on the table. You know, it's fair game. That's right.

That's right. I saw that in Toy Story. I wouldn't know who bought that Michigan football t-shirt back there. It looked like somebody was holding it or whatever it was on.

Just seeing you, touching the material, seeing what's the right size. I think the lava lamp is perfect just for what we got going on in here. Don't you think?

Yeah, we have a lot of stuff around here, a lot of knick-knacks, a lot of... How do we make sure we do that now? I'm sure it's gone. I think that picture's a week old.

Is it really? Yeah. Did he just start giving stuff? Look at that in the back there. There it is. Like the snow globes.

If no one took them, he'd just start giving them away. Snow globes. If you bought that lava lamp, call us.

Yeah, that's true. A snow globe would be cool too, actually. Is that a toaster? Is that a toaster? Yes.

Yeah. It looks like it right here. It looks like, in the front middle, yeah, it looks like it. That's a toaster. It's like a little candle holder thing.

It's a candle holder? Yep. What's the thing that looks like a G? A G?

Yeah, I saw that too. That's interesting. I don't know. Is it like a Google charger thing or something? It's a charger?

Oh, you know, it might be like a home AI thing. Charging thing? Yeah.

A little portable printer, I think, is in that box. Okay. But we're zooming in. I like the zooming. Thanks, guys.

Appreciate it. There's like a glass urn on the ground. An urn.

I don't know what that is. No, I think that's a thermos. It's like a pouring cup. It's like a thermos. It's just a picture.

Mike, do you think Thriller is in those records? That's an iron. There's an iron on the right side. That's an iron. Oh, yes.

Sitting right here. Yes, Rich. Good. That's an iron.

You know, because you got to iron things out. What's behind the white thing that's laying near the snow globes? I don't know. That little like...

But that lava lamp. We should get it. Yeah. Like I said, if you buy it, call in. Do I ask Blake Horm? Do you know? Why don't you just text him? Hey. See if he's got the lava lamp.

Can I get a price on the lava lamp? I don't know if he's changed his phone number yet. There's no way. Why would he? All right. Am I going to text him right now? Yeah.

He's got too many people. Hey, Jim. Congrats on the garage sale. Just wondering. Just checking to see... Hold on a minute.

...lava lamps still available. Hey, Jim. Sorry to bother, right? Sorry to bother. I know you're in our arbor for the pro day.

Sorry to bother. Congrats. I'm excited. I know you're... But... ...you're back at the ranch... Yeah. ...for pro day, right? Yeah. Uh-huh. We're on the air right now, right? We are.

Yeah. But we're on the air right now. We're on the air. I got to say, I'm on the air. I don't mean to leave you out. No, no.

I just meant like I was confirming that, yes, you are. But I'm on the air right now and seeing your... right now and seeing a photo of your garage sale? Yeah, yeah. Wondering how the garage sale went. Of your garage sale. Curious if the lava lamp still for sale. Okay. Right now. And curious... Let me... Hold on a minute.

Talk to Texas. And curious to see if the lava lamp is still for sale. Yeah.

It's still available. Yeah. And available. Yeah. Period.

Hope you're well. Go blue. And go bolts. There you go. Right? Bolt up. Oh, bottom up. Why do they spell that as gets?

I don't know why that is. Okay. And send. Done. Great. Okay.

And send. Yeah. Yeah.

Or if it's not his number anymore. And this is a total waste of time. Oh, wait a minute. I'm still talking to text. Wait a minute. I hate it when that happens. Gotta stop it. It's dangerous.

This is dangerous. Should people change their number when they move because like you and I still have our East Coast numbers? I don't know.

This could have been a Michigan issued phone and now... what, you don't think the Chargers are giving them a phone? You don't think so? That didn't work out well for Tom Brady. Understood. You know what I mean? Guys.

You guys. Okay. Okay. Let me make sure I didn't just send him the... okay.

Very good. He might be moving. I mean, if he had the garage show last week... He's at Ann Arbor right now. He's there right now, dude. He's no doubt like checking out J.J. McCarthy spin it. Blake Coram's on in an hour. That's the one.

Bilake is running routes for McCarthy right now. Love it. Love it. Boom. By the way, I can't say his name is Blake.

His name is Bilake. Always and forever. Go blue and go bolts, right? Bolt up.

Bolt up. I didn't hit send. I had not hit send. I mean, we're still talking to text.

I mean, Rich. Oh, goodness. All right. I'm on the right now and seeing a photo of your garage sale. Still going. This is amazing.

Oh, and it says, and talk to text. Got to get rid of that. Got to get rid of that. Yep.

And curious to see if the lava lamp is still for sale and available. Hope you're well and okay. Go blue and go bolts. There you go. Nice. All right.

Send. And available. Because I want it for my studio, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah.

That's true. He might just send it to you. For show. For show. I don't want. Please. We'll give him something, right? No way. We got it. Yeah. That's from Curb. Hold on.

How much does a lava lamp cost? Remember, Vince Vaughn just gave JB the jacket. It sent.

It sent. And it's blue, by the way. Wouldn't it go green if it was a different number? No. Green would have been Android. Android phone. No, I understand.

Well, that's why the DOJ is suing them, right? We'll see. All right. There you go.

Lava lamp cost about $75. Jack Cokie's coming up, baby. Let's go.

From way downtown bank. Bang. Movies, TV shows, books, podcasts, and more. It's What Women Binge with Melissa Joan Hart and her friend Amanda Lee. We have Lauren Bosworth with us.

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