Was Angel Hernandez Retiring The Right Call?

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The one, the only, the Hall of Famer, Bill Walton. Yeah! Here we go! Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I haven't broken any Tesla windshields today on the Rich Eisen Show. What could be better? It's a beautiful day in Southern California.

I'm truly the luckiest guy in the world. Earlier on the show, ESPN NBA reporter Dave McMenamin, Arizona Cardinals radio voice Dave Pash. Coming up, author Harlan Coben. And now it's Rich Eisen. That's right.

That's right. Hour number three of the show Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend edition is on the air. 844204 Rich. Number to dial here on the show. First two hours, man. Lots of stories.

Certainly last hour. Remembering Bill Walton, who passed away at the age of 71 yesterday. Cancer took him.

Man, cancer sucks. And I cannot believe he's gone. We've been telling great stories amongst ourselves. Dave Pash, who spent 12 years in the microphone with him from ESPN, zoomed in from Dallas, where he's calling game four on ESPN radio tonight between the Mavericks and the Timberwolves. Talked about that with Dave McMenamin in hour number one as well. If you missed any of the first two hours, don't worry. We re-air right away right here on the Roku Channel, Channel 210. We're free on every Roku device known to man. We're live on the air as well on terrestrial radio, Sirius XM and Odyssey.

Our podcast, though, is there for anybody who wants to listen to all three hours. I was in Calgary, Alberta, on Thursday night for an event for the University of Calgary Dinos. They couldn't have been nicer. It was great to hang with them. Met a few people who take in our show through our podcast and through our different feeds, Roku. And it was great to meet him. It was a lot of fun. And and I met one individual in particular who follows the show so well, he knows the name of your kid. My children.

No, no. But it's great. That's cool. We talk about our life. Sweet. So we say I say hello to all of our friends now up north. Well, they gave me a silver belt buckle.

They did. First one of those I've ever got wearing that. No, I'm not. I'm actually not wearing any belt. I ran out of the house today without one.

But trust me, let me tell you something about today. Cooper ran a five K yesterday. This was his bar mitzvah project.

You know, you once you're bar mitzvahed, we certainly in our household, certainly in Susie's household for sure, having a project for charity. And Cooper chose a 13 year old Israeli boy who went out for a jog on October 7th. And it saved his life because when he came back, Hamas had wiped his family off the planet and murdered them on that dreadful day. And so Coop, being 13 himself, wanted to raise some money for him and all the other orphans of October 7th and ran a five K yesterday. And it was beautiful.

All of his friends, a lot of his friends came out and family members and what have you. So I decided to run as well. Never run a five K in my life. As you know, I'm a short distance runner by trade.

Running 40 yards in a straight line is tough enough for me, but I decided to run a five K and I made it in about 30 minutes, 32 minutes or so. Nice. Good time. I'll tell you. I walked for a little bit.

Couldn't run it the entire time, but made it through. And boy, am I paying for it this morning. Honestly. Chavs, name muscle. Killis, blods, hammies. Name it. Check, check, check and check.

Your neck and your back. Yes. Hey, name it. So as I sit here, it's amazing I can actually put two words together. So there's all of that.

Anybody got any two cents on how to get through this? I'll be for it. I'm up for it. You know, I see. Hey, listen, we've heard I've heard crazier stories today.

The stories we heard about Bill Walton's life or one thing, another thing as well. Never met anybody in my entire life who decided to have a little bit of plastic surgery. The surgeon decided the work wasn't up to his standard. His standard.

His standard. Wasn't up to the surgeon standard. And said, I would like to redo it for free. And the recipient of the original surgery.

Said, OK, I will accept your your mulligan. I'll give you your money. How bad could it be on my face? It's only my face. And that one is J Feli, everybody.

Nobody. Oh, worst part, gentlemen. I asked Sarah, our makeup artist, to cover it so you guys wouldn't see it and bring it up. And she basically went, hey, Rich, Jason, you still want me to cover that scar? Yep. So are you throwing Sarah under the bus? Don't throw her under any bus, sir.

She she she played. Dude. Dude, you could have basically said I got in a fight. Nobody like, OK, no problem.

Yeah, I like to keep my job. No, please. We wouldn't have believed it anyway. I would have went with that one. Can you put that on our ex-feed? Would you give a plastic surgeon a second chance?

A mulligan. I mean, he just looked at me for a while and went, yeah, I can do better. I don't like it. I can do better. And you said, sure. I said, no, I'm all right.

And he said it was free. Great. By the way, you're lucky Susie's not in the chair because it would be a heck of a lot more crap coming from this direction to you. All right. Eight, four, four, two or four.

Rich number two. Listen. We've been talking about this guy from this chair for quite some time. Because.

When. An official or an umpire. Makes it about him. It's a tough one for us to handle. The only thing that's tougher than that is somebody.

Who's terrible at being an official or an umpire. And seems to refuse to admit it. Not for a single moment.

Is there any sort of. Sense of humility or contrition. In any way, shape or form as they botch something so obviously.

Not that they're ever going to say my bad in the postgame press conference or anything like that. It's just body language, you know, just the sense that you get from this individual. And that this person. Has Supreme Court like tenure in his sport. Or attaches himself to the sport like a barnacle that can't be scraped off.

That doesn't sound good. That person. Will always be a subject of scorn from this chair. Don't know the man personally. But there hasn't been a single soul who's played the sport.

That feels any other way. About Angel Hernandez than the one that I've just described. Long time Major League Baseball umpire who is 100 percent. If you come up in the dictionary of sports and baseball. For the word incompetence. His photograph would be there.

And this is a man who has been all over Joe West forever. A guy who basically at least Angel Hernandez would just lift his arm. High up so everybody could see the call that's being made. Big big celebration. But the number of players that just lost their minds.

With him and at him. That shorter one from last year's playoff. Well Bryce Harper also got ejected because of a check swing call. That Angel Hernandez from third base called as a full swing even though it looked just like the check swing at the pitch beforehand. Exactly the same that Angel Hernandez had called no swing. And then basically having Bryce Harper go from third from home plate to third base to curse him out. To get ejected. Fully knowing he'll get ejected. And then Angel Hernandez sitting there saying you swung. And then you'll see.

Basically tell him you'll see. Meaning the replay will vindicate Angel Hernandez. And the replay showed nothing but Angel Hernandez's incompetence.

But again don't take my word for it or the players word for it. C.C. Sabathia when three calls. Not one.

Not two. But three calls of Hernandez's in a playoff game. Got overturned in a playoff game. Three calls at first base got overturned.

And C.C. Sabathia saying after the game he has no business being a playoff umpire. Don't take my word for it. How bad was Angel Hernandez? How bad was he? Steve McMichael called him out prior to a take me out to the ballgame rendition in the 2001 season. I'll have some speech for that home plate umpire after the game. Is that Mongo Steve McMichael?

Yes in Chicago. And then Angel kicked him out. Kicked him out. Threw him out. That's 2001.

This is 2024. He has retired. Announced his retirement. Which sounds to me like baseball saying because he hasn't umpired a game since early this month. This is baseball my assumption saying we are absolutely done now because in April he had the temerity to have three clear balls called strikes behind home plate.

In a game so bad I came on this show and just went all in on him and it was part of a chorus. It sounds to me baseball just said let's figure out because according to Bob Nightingale of USA Today who first reported this retirement it was part of a negotiation. So my only concern is as always with Angel Hernandez was it the right call? Yeah. Now you might be sitting here saying Rich you've just called him a photograph of incompetence.

The definition of incompetence. He just went all in on this guy. You don't know him.

That's true. I do not know him. Although Will Clark did say that he did buy him beers at one point.

Really? Did buy him beers at one point and as Will Clark said on a podcast after buying Angel Hernandez beers Angel Hernandez was wondering why are you buying me a beer? Like for a brief bit seemingly according to the Will Clark story professionally offended that are you trying to buy me off with some beers after a game? And Will Clark says no I'm just buying beers for you and Angel Hernandez said thanks that's very nice of you. And as Will Clark said the strike zone for the rest of his career with Angel Hernandez buying home plate was this big. He put his hands around his eyes like they were goggles. So Will Clark did in fact make it seem like he bought off Angel Hernandez with beers.

Again so I don't know this guy and I apologize to his family if I'm making this even worse. But how is this once again a bad call because I think Angel Hernandez should have announced he's retiring at the end of the year. And had a Jeter Rivera big poppy type send off where he would show up in every stadium and somebody would give him a gift.

Yeah I'm way behind this. LASIK. Free LASIK. Free LASIK. Behind home plate give him free LASIK.

How about you go to the optometrist they give you one of the you got to do the chart. Yeah. Giant chart.

Big but big. And they're all K's. They're all K's. Literally right down the road.

Right down some of them backwards. Right and you have to sit there cover one eye and K. No. No that's not a K. You called it a K. We could have had these. His retirement ceremony could have been forever remembered this year.

Brought to you by LensCrafters. How about this one? How about this one?

Honestly while we're spit balling here. How about this one? How about Angel Hernandez bobble ball night? Where it's just a little statue of him or whatever. A little figurine of him crouching down.

But he stays the same. The only thing that bobbles is the ball goes in and out of the strike zone. You're watching a TV. There's the box. There's the strike zone and the ball goes. And you have to decide whether there's a strike zone bobble. But as we've just talked about right here.

We just talked about home plate, third base, first base. There wasn't a base from which Angel Hernandez could not maddeningly screw a game up. Couldn't screw up. Honestly. So I couldn't believe it. You know what I mean? I never thought I'd see you this day.

Same thing like Daniel Snyder not owning Washington. What the hell? It was effective immediately. Ouch. It's over. Done.

See ya. We don't even get to boo him one last time. That got taken from us. I didn't get a chance to heckle him at first base. Really? Did he release a statement?

He did. Dead to Bob Nightingale. Okay. What do we have? What's the statement? Starting with my first major league game in 1991, I've had the very good experience of living out my childhood dream of umpiring the major leagues. There's nothing better than working in a profession that you enjoy. I treasure the camaraderie of my colleagues and the friendships I've made along the way, including our locker room attendance in all the various cities. That's nice. I've decided I want to spend more time with my family. Needless to say, there have been many positive changes in the game of baseball since I first entered the profession.

This includes the expansion and promotion of minorities. I'm proud that I was able to be an active participant in that goal while being a major league umpire. He did sue the league unsuccessfully on that front. But listen, if you want to spend more time with his family, that's outstanding. I'm just wondering if within the first couple of moments or weeks or whatever, he gets cursed out also. I hope it's not the way it is in his personal life. I feel terrible saying this sort of stuff, but honestly, it was just so unacceptably poor watching this man call games the way that he did. And then honestly, seemingly, did he ever ask for help?

You know what I'm saying? Like, it looked like he never asked for help. Ever. I'm watching the Bryce Harper bat where he just loses his mind right now. Yeah.

Well, the Schwarmer one is amazing because Schwarmer, like, Gronk spikes his bat and helmet and then goes nuts. Because again, it's one of those things, too, you know, where you ever you're ever in a let's just say a hotel room and you're hearing some sort of a clanging noise. Right. And it for some it's like a pipe that's got the water running through it or something like that. And it happens in a very rhythmic way. Like it's every 10 seconds, every 15 seconds. And you just, you know, you love the peace and quiet, but you know that clangs about to come again and you can't do anything about it. That's what probably playing in a major league baseball game umpired by Angel Hernandez was like where you just knew. And the quiet, the peace and quiet of you just being able to go about your business and doing whatever you wanted to do. You know, would be interrupted by something that was unavoidable. That's what it was like. And watching a game like that was just infuriating.

The umpire auditor Twitter site was thank you. You gave me more content that I possibly could have dreamed. I didn't deserve you. Enjoy your retirement, King. OK.

I feel I very rarely go all in like this, but. So my apologies, Angel, to. You for saying this, but I think it just needs to be said.

And I do hope, you know, if there was any positive contributions, I'm glad you did provide them and do enjoy your retirement because I certain. I certainly with all due respect, with all due respect. By the way, last thing I will say is great call, Angel. Great call. Never said that before. Harlan Coben, think twice, which thankfully Angel Hernandez did not do where he should have. See, you go back and forth. It's like the bobble.

Angel Hernandez bobble ball night. We should make one of those. Think twice.

Available where you get your books. Harlan Coben is zooming in. That's next.

This is the Rich Eisen Show. Man, the hoops finals are right around the corner. How cool would it be to go to one of those games? You might even be thinking that right now.

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Power dot com slash awards only at a sleep number store or sleep number dot com. Sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call click Grainger dot com or just stop by. How many books have you written, TJ? Just one. Me too.

This man is written now is 36 novel. I'm holding it right here. We're slacking and a great background, great zoom background. It's called Think Twice by Harlan Coben.

And the great Harlan Coben is back here on the rich. This isn't back. This is my wallpaper. It's impressive. Very impressive wallpaper. You got the wallpaper just so I can promote the current book. Yes.

It offers you this lovely glow as well on the zoom camera. Harlan, it's impressive. Well, you know, I have put a little makeup on. I don't want to get up your game. Well, we're part of it.

We're part of the same brotherhood. I'm not talking about being an author. I'm talking about, you know, the the follicle challenge. Did you say J. Bill, it's on tomorrow. What one guy. So does that kind of work?

You can't have him on the same day as me. It's our question. Too much of that.

I know it's our it's it's the quotient. We've got to get we've got to hit that one. Man, oh, man.

Only got so much eye candy on the network. Was it was it true? Did you tell a Dickie Thawne story the last time you were on Harlem? I did. I did, because I was the only, I think, Houston Astros fan in the New York region during I think it was 86 series against the Mets.

That's right. And crazily, I went to Shea Stadium to watch the Astros play the Mets in that national league finals. When Mike Scott was pitching against the Mets and everybody was whining about him scuffing the ball. And my biggest memory I were I can't believe this. I wore a Houston Astros jacket sitting in the bleachers at Shea and Dickie Thawne hits a home run. And literally the entire place is quiet.

And I'm standing applauding my while and and somehow still survive that night. Was it the breakout sort of whole design? It was the old school like breakout design for the Astros to start out. It was dark, but had that the orange and orange and orange stripe. It was like three shades of orange that don't exist anywhere. And my son, who lives in Houston, still has it.

Where is it? The Astros? No kidding. Games now.

No kidding. Now. Now it's a throwback. Now ruins like, yeah, man, that looks great. We're going to get one of those.

Then you jogged in it so you wouldn't get hit by a car. People, you know, get airplanes moving to their proper gates wearing that sort of stuff with the cones. So by the way, I challenge your viewers, though, listeners to say who else in the Astros hit a home run to win that game? Besides Dickie Thawne, who is the other Astro that most people may not remember? The other home run. Trivia with Harlan Coben, ladies and gentlemen. OK, just making no up for a living.

Peter Cavillia was basically in high school in 1986. No, we're talking about Jose Cruz. Was it a good one? That's a good shot. Yes, but it was Alan Ashby playing catcher Alan Ashby. So there you got a Dickie Thawne and an Alan Ashby, which about as rare as in the game, I think, as the Rangers the other night winning off of a shot by Lindgren tapped in by Goudreau. Nice. I like that.

By the way, Dickie Thawne and Alan Ashby, you just described my usual pack of Topps baseball cards that I would get hoping to get a J.R. Richard or a Nolan Ryan instead. You know what I mean? Like, come on, really?

I got three of those now. Oh, my God. So wait a minute. You don't think Mike Scott scuffled the baseball in the 86 LCS?

I think I read somewhere that Alan Ashby did it on the side of the shin guard is how it actually worked. They were going nuts trying to figure it out back then. Maybe somebody knows better than I do. But that was the rumor. I didn't care.

I was just having fun at the game. I think part of it was at the time wanting to sort of just poke the Mets fans. But the Mets ended up winning that series. And the World Series as well.

I mean, I remember those LCS as the Angels and the Red Sox had a dynamite one in 86 at the same time. So how do you are you from Houston? Is that is that not I don't know why I was not as long as a weird kid. So what can I tell you?

No longer. But I was an Astros fan when I was a kid. I spoke to I just went to Houston and got to watch the Astros lose to the Brewers, which was kind of fun and old school. And it's been so long since I cheered and I forgot they were now in the American League.

That's how old I am. Yes, they have since moved. Are we catching the Dodgers and the Reds?

Are we going after them? I like it. I like it. Harlan Coben here on the Rich Eisen Show. Thirty six novels in, Harlan. What would you have said if I told you that when you were writing your first?

What would you say? I wouldn't have believed it. I mean, everything's been sort of a dream. Yeah.

Thirty six novels. Think twice. I think it's my best for those who like to challenge themselves. You will not guess the surprise ending of this one. I guarantee it. And it's good to have Myron back.

Myron is a former sports agent who played pro basketball before his injury. And so for the sports fan is a little something there also. Yeah. So how do you how do you if you don't mind without spoiling it, how do you come up with something that you know, where you know the ending, do you start with that and then work your way back? Is that how you do it?

Yeah, I know the ending before I start. In this case, it was weird. I had read an article that since they've been keeping track of serial killers, this is the we have less serial killers than ever right now from the 70s, 80s, 90s. Not because we are mentally healthy.

Lord knows that's not the cause. We all know we are crazier than ever before. But because it's so hard to get away with it, you know, you have now everybody has a cell phone.

No one hitchhikes. So you're on CCTV a hundred times a day. Your car is being tracked. So it's just hard to get away with it. So in my mind, I'm thinking, how can you get away with it? And that's how the book thing twice started. And then how did you come up with the concept of your main character for so many of your books being a sports agent and being a former athlete?

Like, why did you go there? Well, Myron is me with wish fulfillment. He's bigger, faster, stronger. I'm a better dancer, I'll demonstrate later. And I am slightly wiser in the ways of women, knowing your audience and knowing the guys that are sitting in a room with you. This is no great shakes. It's like saying simple.

This is better than gone already. We're not talking about Jesus. Slightly wiser in the way someone's a wordsmith, someone's a wordsmith. And I should point out that I was a collegiate American basketball player, though I will add that I was not picked collegiate all American by Sports Illustrated in the USA today. But I was picked collegiate all American by the Jewish Post and opinion of Indianapolis. Somehow to gain painstaking research, they found five Jews who played college basketball. The what?

What was the name of this publication? The Jewish Post and opinion of Indianapolis. I'm a all American. I picked by them a collegiate Division three all American. So you were you were a punim in the crowd. Is that what you were for? It was me, Heshimoshin, two guys from Yeshiva.

They found five of us who played basketball. Oh, my gosh. So this is wish fulfillment. I love that.

Yes, very, very much so. Myron was a lot better basketball player than I was. And then he got hurt. And so now he runs a sports agency where he constantly gets involved with mystery and mayhem. Fun and laughs, I hope. But it also at the end of this book, as weird as this sounds, I hope you're crying a little bit of a tear also. And after the surprise, I'm trying to give it all to you. I appreciate it. Think twice available now, wherever you get your books. Did you drop some Rangers information on me earlier in this conversation?

I did. You know, I was thinking actually, you know, you guys are talking basketball, but Arkley Goodrow has become sort of the Dennis Johnson. Oh, you know, the guy who sort of doesn't do much during regular season, all of a sudden the playoffs come around and there's D.J. Right.

And there was Robert Horry. Goodrow right now seems to be that for the Rangers. Well, the Rangers keep winning in overtime.

They keep doing that. They'll bring the cup back to the Canyon of Heroes, that's for sure. Are you going any of these games?

Do you go to them? Well, now that I'm off book tour, the Harlem Horror Tour final, I hope to be back at the Garden. But I was actually there in ninety four when they won. I was in the green. Remember the old green seats? Of course, we were still thinking that.

Right. We were talking yellow, orange, red Harlem. We were talking about this the other day that Madison Square Garden used to be, you know, color coded. And the blue seats were were the very top.

And that's how I always refer to anything that's at the top of an arena. Those are the blue seats. And those were the seats that I do believe work the most blue with their chanting as well. Harlan, they were that's where the fans were met for sure. So you were a green seater, though, not a blue seat.

I got upgraded all the way to green, which is the second worst seats in the house. But yeah, so I still think of the garden sort of that way. I mean, we're also showing our age. It's sort of like we're saying we're talking the polo grounds here. No, I know. It's about peach baskets in a minute.

That's exactly right. I know. But those are that I remember going to the garden back in the day.

So I tried sneaking down to red and orange, but rarely got there. So when do you when do you start thinking of novel 37? When does that happen now? Really?

Really? You know, one quick story about 94. The Rangers got there. God was so nervous. Fifty four years since they won the cup and sitting behind two guys were lifers.

You know what I mean? They got the flannel shirts on and one saying to the other, look, I got to remember win or lose. I got a nice wife at home.

I got good kids. They were so nervous. The garden was so quiet at game seven until they won that game.

It was almost more relief than joy. Yeah, because everyone knew that there was a trap door and it kept on opening ever since what? Nineteen thirty seven. Right. Like that was the thing like that. Right. I'm not good with the math.

I know guys do it. Fifty four years and ninety four. Right. So that's nineteen. Nineteen four. No, nineteen forty. That's what I remember. That was the phrase. Nineteen because I remember Islander fans would chant nineteen forty as they were going for their drive for five.

Again, dating myself as well. But that's you know, the blue seats would chant about how pot van sucks. And that's that's the way it was back in the day. So I completely understand that. But it does it does have that sort of ninety four feel, certainly when the Knicks were in the playoffs as well, because that was a year that both of the Rangers and the Knicks made the finals. You know, the Knicks fell up short, but this year, but the Rangers not so much admired this next team. I mean, this was my favorite next team.

I think I got it. I mean, definitely going back at least to the to the Oakley Ewing Star. I would even go back to the Frazier read the Bush or Bradley years. They were just so much fun. They worked so hard. They just didn't you know, they had too many injuries and too many things. But watching them give one hundred percent every night and doing what they could with that town, you just had to love that team.

Hey, man, Jalen Brunson. I put him in my top five favorite Knicks of all time now. I really do. I really do. It was just so much fun. It was so much fun to watch.

Hey, do you want to do that? Do you want to give me your top five favorite Knicks of all time off the top of the dome? I start with Walt Frazier.

I will. You know, even to this day, it's so great. You see Frazier at the Garden. What is he, 80 years old?

He still looks like he can go out there and play. Well, I can't get a funny story to tell. You got it. You have to always start any conversation with him. You know, it's hard to go away from the read the Bush or Monroe of it. And then Bernard King, you got to go Ewing, Oakley, Starks. And you give me five. Harlan, Harlan, Harlan, this is not you're not writing a novel. This is sports talk radio. OK, what I'm saying. All right. I used to be in that brief. Get in this lane here. All right.

We're not we're not editing down pages. All right. Like you got to give me five and it can be only five.

That's the end of it. I need five of your favorite Knicks of all time. Frazier, Reid, the Busher. And I'm putting I'm putting the modern players in there. And Bernard King.

OK. All right. No, you know, Ewing. I'm going to skip the I'm going to skip the Ewing era because I mostly have bad memories of that, too.

You know, just the just missing of it. But Bernard King was my I would go Brunt. I go Brunson. I mean, number one all time is Walt Frazier, even though I barely do remember him playing.

But you got to you know, I do know of him and obviously and his and his years. But I would put Frazier. Bernard King is my second favorite.

Brunson is on the list. Ewing. And I didn't I mean, I did I did this before and I left Frazier off. Right.

Because I just never saw him play. Is that what I did? I did. I read. No, I did.

Here's what I did. Monroe is what it was. I just the ones that I saw play. So I went Bernard King, Jalen Brunson, Ewing, Oakley and Anthony Mason. I loved Anthony Mason. I love Oakley.

I love Oakley and Mason as well. They were hard nosed kind of guys. And you had to just love that. I was the same way. All right. It's funny you just mentioned I just I was just the Roland Garros.

I was at the French Open. Look at you. And they do this stupid thing where they yell things out and the whole crowd yells Olay. And I kept yelling. Pot Van sucks. Quite understood. I was trying to do that whole band.

Olay. I'm like, what the hell's wrong with you? What is that all about? I'm telling you that. And they would used to I was in the old Yankee Stadium when they'd be done, done, done, done, done, done, done. And people would yell Pot Van sucks there. You know what I'm saying? Like they yell at their giant stadium where all Nick fans or Ranger fans used to hang out. Oh, my gosh. I remember all that.

Pot Van once, though, claimed that they're actually yelling Pot Van's cups. Definitely not that. Definitely not that. Definitely not. Definitely not the fans out there that are listening. I'm sure.

I'm sure. So wait a minute. You said you're already thinking of Novel 37. You're already on to the next year. I have to be like I finished this book six months ago or so.

You know, so I have to be in takes the time to print it and all that. I'm already on the next one. I've been working on the next Netflix show we had for me once.

Some you just saw Netflix in January. Yeah. And I have to do a couple of those a year also. So, yeah, it's been a lot of fun. You're killing it. Great to see you. Great to see you. Come out any time.

And you know what? We're going to have you on the most here suit edition of our program. OK, next time you're out here. All right. We're going to have we're going to have the people with, you know, looking like with mullets and everything.

We get security, though, to make sure we keep out the tax from the supermodels that will undoubtedly watch the studio. Yes, Harlan, we'll work on that. Certainly. Certainly.

Let me know what you're out here. Hey, congrats again. Always a great chat with you. Thanks for talking to the great Harlan Coben, everybody. Everybody see everybody get think twice and obviously get it wherever all books are sold.

Harlan Coben here on the Rich Eisen Show. That was a blast. Funny, funny. That's great. Funny, funny. All right.

We'll take a break. One of the best basketball games I have been to in a long time this past weekend. And it was fever sparks. It was awesome.

And Mike Del Tufo was there and he's creeping me out. I'm not going to lie. This is going to be a fun chat.

That's next. This is the Rich Eisen Show. That's Blue Nile dot com. To find the perfect jewelry gift for any occasion.

Blue Nile dot com. Afford Anything talks about how to avoid common pitfalls, how to refine your mental models and how to think about how to think. Paul, while certainly you can mess up on a million dollars a year, it is far less likely than it is on thirty thousand dollars a year. I would meet wonderful people that were struggling with a budget that was super tight. It was one hundred percent. You need to make more money, make smarter choices and build a better life.

Afford anything wherever you listen. We just showed you a Kent Tullo special from back in the day. That was fun. Big word alert. Big word alert.

I guess because I just dropped hair suits. You want to look that one up? You know what that means? Do you know what that means? I think I do. It means someone with a lot of hair.

Not us. H I R H I R S U T E. Hair suit. Hair suit.

Someone who is hairy, shaggy, bearded, unshaven. See, I knew a novelist like Harlan Coben would know that. And I also knew that a complete slacker like yourself would totally not know. That's gross mischaracterization.

Well, I mean, certainly. Mike Scott in 1986. Wow. 2.22 ERA. 306 strikeouts. Won the Cy Young. Really good.

All right. ERA plus a 160. 275 innings pitched too.

Five shutouts. For sure. So everybody should go get game time tickets and certainly in advance of the basketball finals.

If you are in the New England area. Right. Or Dallas? Maybe. I mean, I don't want to jinx it for the fans in Dallas. I might have to go to Dallas next week. Oh, is that right?

Yeah, maybe. Okay. Good to know.

Thanks. You can go and get that game time app I've been telling you about for almost a full year now and get it on a mobile device and start buying tickets. The basketball finals tickets, you can get them even faster and easier using game time and prices on the game time app actually go down. The closer it gets to tip off killer last minute deals all in prices.

That's my favorite feature that you get to see the full price before you purchase views from your seat, which is great. Certainly if you're Mike Del Tufo sometimes and the lowest price guaranteed game time takes guesswork out of buying basketball tickets. So make sure that you download the game time app, create an account and use the code rich for twenty dollars off your first purchase.

Take the guesswork out of buying basketball finals tickets with game time terms apply. Visit game time dot com for restrictions and create an account. Redeem my code. R.I.C.H. and get twenty dollars off your first purchase. Download game time today.

Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Cliff and Johnstown P.A. has been hanging on for a long time. What's up, Cliff? Hey, how are you guys? Thanks for hanging in there. What's on your mind? Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Yeah.

OK. I was just talking about you guys called in on Wednesday by how you guys think Minnesota has the hardest, the hardest division. And I really think that's a long time. I think Pittsburgh has the hardest division. They easily have three, you know, two, three guys in the playoffs, every team in the playoffs every year.

I mean, what, Detroit maybe goes once every other year and then Chicago, I mean, Green Bay and I'm with you. I just feel like I'm with you, Cliff. Really? Yeah.

Don't have the hardest one. But that was my email. I listen to you guys all the time. Thank you.

You on Roku. And yeah. And then I was talking about P.J., what's one of those? What's one of those Texas hot dogs that you wanted me to go to? Because I'll definitely go to the one of those and have one for you. Well, you know, first of all, there's two in Altoona, right? Yeah. I used to live in Johnstown, too, Cliff, by the way. I wouldn't remember.

OK. The one downtown is. But there's one out by the mall.

There's one downtown. Those are the two. Either one. Which one is anyone? They're excellent. Both of them. Fantastic.

And I would definitely do that. My brother, Cliff. Thank you, Cliff.

She's a fan of the show, too. I really like you guys. You guys are awesome. Thank you.

Say hi to the Mrs. for me. That's not hopefully creepy at all. But that's Cliff in Pennsylvania. He's totally right. Were you the one who said the NFC South is is I mean, the NFC North is the NFC North. I think the division. I would say both.

You can't say that. You have to choose both. You have to choose one Friday. So it's not you have to choose.

That's what's more likely your thing. Like you can't have to choose one. Toughest division in football. You have to choose one. AFC North. I agree. Absolutely.

The potential of two rookie quarterbacks in the NFC on the NFC side kind of makes a little less likely. No, it's not. Don't even don't even say that. You can't say that. You can't even say that. You can't say that.

What are we doing here? AFC North for sure. No doubt. Best division in football. Four quarterbacks to Sean Watson and Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson, two time MVP. And then Russ and Justin Fields are what, the weakest link? Yeah, I think it's not close.

Actually, they're kind of a distant fourth compared to the other the other three. Yeah, I think so. I don't know how Deshaun Watson and and Russell Wilson haven't been too far off of each other the last couple of years. I think if you put it to a vote, you definitely want Deshaun Watson instead of Russell. Because everybody's thinking of the latter day Houston Texan Deshaun Watson, who has basically shown up.

I would think. Would you say and again, I'm not a watches all four quarters of Cleveland Browns action like a Browns fan, but his performance against the Ravens to beat the Ravens this year in Baltimore. Best game is a Brown by far. And that's the one where he got hurt. And that's the one where he was either hurt already and finished. And everyone's like, well, wait a minute.

You're like out for a while, if not done for the year. Forgot about that. Seven years younger than Russ. Also, I understand that. I understand that. But yeah, I would say that there. That's what I said.

The weakest link. Goodbye. Goodbye. Friday night. Let's talk about Friday night here in Los Angeles, California.

It was lit inside crypto dot com downtown. Susie and I took Taylor to the Fever Sparks game. Where Caitlin Clark. Had yet to win as a professional basketball player. Cameron Brink, number two overall selection. She was out there for an L.A. Sparks team that had the home court advantage.

But there were a ton of Iowa Hawkeye jerseys walk into that arena. And a lot of people, including our side of the family, with all due respect to the Sparks, we were we were coming to see Caitlin Clark play. My daughter wants to see her play. She was there with a bunch of her teammates from her rec league team. And all we were watching was Caitlin Clark missing shots. The reason why she was missing shots.

I will tell you this. The Sparks treated her like the Pacers and the Sixers treated Jalen Brunson. They picked her up on the floor all 94 feet. They made every minute of her night.

An absolute nightmare. They were all over her. There was no way. I mean, and for her to get her shot, she's trying to come off of screens that either weren't working or they were. They honestly they had two people marking her, it seemed like. And so she missed damn near every three she took. But what she was doing, she was dishing some of her passes. I know she passed Pistol Pete at the collegiate level as the all time greatest scorer. Some of her passes look just I mean, they were just as crisp, innovative. I didn't see that on the floor. She did type of passes.

They were amazing. To the point where some of her teammates weren't ready for it or they were and they're not used to it from her yet. And they would just it would just bounce off their hands and go out of bounds. And she gets credit for the turnover. She's currently, I believe, worst in the WNBA for turnovers per game. She's also, however, number she's got fourteen and a half points a game. That's best as a rookie in the WNBA as we're currently sitting here.

And when. This game turned in the third quarter, they were down by double digits at half. And Kaitlyn Clark's teammates started performing better. But I'm just telling the story straight from the Kaitlyn Clark point of view here with all due respect to her teammates. When it started to turn and towards the end of the game, fevers up by two, they're sensing their first win of the season. Kaitlyn Clark put in two threes that were from way deep and. The place went nuts, absolutely insane. And she gave kind of a shrug. She dapped up your friend Kutcher, who is sitting at half court.

Yeah. And actually, after the win, came out to say hi to him and the place went nuts when she came back out. I mean, absolutely 100 percent playoff atmosphere in that building. It was filled up like a playoff game and it was playoff Lakers tickets on the secondary ticket market type prices.

It was off the hook and her and Cameron Brink had some back and forth as well at some point trading baskets. It was great. Loved it. Can't wait to go back.

Only thing is, we got to get Del Tufo. I can't say a better seat. No, he had a great seat. He had a great seat. His buddy put him right there.

But this is just like, I mean, Mike's just got to just, you know, not look like he's creeping. I mean, look at this. Well, I was watching on TV. TJ, you watch TV. You spotted this before I did. I'm like, I'm just watching a game in this area. And I'm looking and I had Mike had the lead to TV and then the camera pan. I was like, wait, what?

This is just not acceptable. This is the photograph he's taking photos. He said it. But he said a bunch of other ones, too.

Great action shots of her on the floor. Yeah. Get the ball. And and then he texted the whole group.

I easily could have been a sports photographer. All part of the entertainment factor of a great night in downtown Los Angeles for a WNBA game. We are absolutely going back, even without Kaitlin Clark being there. Welcome to talk about the ultimate small rewatch podcast guest star Sarah Carter as Alicia Baker.

Although I didn't really work with her a lot, but Tom did. And they had some real big smoochy scenes. Yeah. Do we talk about that? Could there be any more sex? What was the three page make out scene that just kept going? Good lord, we get it. They have chemistry. Jump in now or catch up on any of the past seasons of Talkville on YouTube or wherever you listen.