Sho-Time Shines Again (Hour 4)

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Take advantage of exceptional lease and finance offers today. Let's talk about the stats until we're blue in the face. I've never and you've never, no one has ever seen what Shohei Ohtani has been doing. Last night hits two home runs, strikes out ten batters. I was reading somewhere that Ohtani is the first MLB player to reach base four plus times and hit two plus home runs Strike out ten batters all in the same game since June 10th of 1890.

Think about that. So no one on the planet has seen what Shohei Ohtani is doing right now. And you go through the stats. He leads Major League Baseball in home runs, RBIs, total bases, OPS. Pitching wise, he has a seven and three record. Casual 302 ERA, 127 strikeouts in 95 and a third of an inning, 12 strikeout rate, which is the best in the AL, second in MLB. The perfect word to describe Shohei Ohtani right now is unicorn. That's what he is. He is a unicorn right now.

And when you look across the landscape of the four major sports, there are four players that we refer to, one in each sport. If you were to pick them as a unicorn for the NFL right now, out of all the active players, it's Patrick Mahomes. His unicorn moment is the way that he makes those no look passes and he's scrambling around the pocket and he's extending time. And then he fires the ball downfield or he's down like 20 points and just in a snap of a finger, he's able to lead that comeback.

You then look at the other potential unicorn players. If we take care of the NFL, we know Major League Baseball, Shohei Ohtani. In the NBA right now, it's Nikola Jokic because Nikola Jokic doesn't have something that you could stop right now.

You could only hope to contain what Nikola Jokic does. And then in hockey, he should have won the MVP for the second time of his career in unanimous fashion. It's Connor McDavid, where if you look how much better Connor McDavid is than everyone else in the NHL. And shame on that dopey Pittsburgh writer for the Hart Memorial Trophy who did not vote him number one, cost him being unanimous MVP for the second time of his career and then voted him fifth.

I don't get how you explain that. This is a guy that everyone else understands how great he is, where if you look at the total points in the NHL, McDavid led the league with one hundred and fifty three. The second was his own teammate, Leon Draisaitl of 128.

After that, David Pasternak and Nikita Kucherov both had one hundred and thirteen points. McDavid is just on a different planet right now. So, Hickey, when we look at the four unicorns, the four players who are the best players in the four major sports right now, it's Otani, it's Mahomes, it's Connor McDavid. And right now in the NBA, it's the Koliokic. And you know how much time we spend talking about Patrick Mahomes on this network?

You would think if I'm asking a question, who's the best player in the four major sports right now? It's Patrick Mahomes. And this is not a knock on Patrick Mahomes. We love Patrick Mahomes. But even though we said for McDavid and Koliokic and Patrick Mahomes, he's done things that we've never seen. Literally, Shohei Otani does things night in and night out that we've never seen. This would be the equivalent if Patrick Mahomes, through what he did last night, striking out ten batters and then also hitting two home runs, if let's just say Patrick Mahomes played defense two, he threw for five touchdowns and then at two interceptions and one of them was a pick six.

That's the equivalent. Now, we all know Mahomes doesn't play defense for a good reason. So Otani right now is the best athlete, is the best player across the four major sports in America. And it's crazy when you get a player who's hyped up to be the guy. And most of us never seen him play before he came over to the U.S. And then he gets here, overcomes some injuries. But now the last few years, he's been playing at an unprecedented level. And it's just awesome to see. And I mentioned this right last week.

I mentioned early in the show. You talk about the NBA. That's why I said I hope Victor Wambunyama could have a Shoei Otani type of impact that he's had to Major League Baseball.

Not a lot of times we're talking about the games of the NBA regular season or the games in a Major League Baseball season. But when Otani is on the mound or when Otani's at the dish, it's a must talk about event because he continues to write history and chapter after chapter of history. And if Victor Wambunyama, who's what, 7'5", 7'6", and supposedly can do things on the basketball court that we've never seen before at a height that we've never seen before, you could potentially have that Otani type of impact.

Now, we got a long way to go. Let's see Victor Wambunyama actually playing an NBA game first. But what Otani's doing right now, he is the best athlete in the United States. And he is the best player because he does two things at just such an incredibly high level on the mound and in the batter's box.

And we've never seen anything like it. Like, you know how people talk about Babe Ruth? You almost think that Babe Ruth is this mythological character. Hickey, 50 years from now, 100 years from now, when people talk about Shoei Otani, it's going to be that way when you talk about someone, you talk about him so much about how great he was that people wonder, was he even real? Right? When we were growing up, which is not that long ago, and years and years and years, years and years and years after Babe Ruth ever played baseball, even was alive. You hear so much about Babe Ruth that he gets put at this level where you don't even think he was an actual human being. And he was someone that was made up in like some TV show or some movie. Right?

That it's like a dream and it's a mythological character. And that's what Otani is doing right now. And that's how he's going to be talked about if he does continue this. And if he does stay healthy because I've never, never, ever, ever, ever seen anything like this.

Same. And that's why I think even just like the unicorn phrase in and of itself is only fitting for like him and him only because he's truly doing something we've never seen before. And he's doing something in a sport where no one's really done, you know, played two ways in a sense or do two jobs that are, or that have been up to this point, mutually exclusive.

Right? You don't see any NFL players scoring touchdowns at receiver and then playing defensive back and locking people down like Darryl Revis. You don't see in the NBA. I mean, the NBA is tough.

Nicole could just sort of, and we haven't really seen a big man with his passing skills, especially. So that's, NBA is a little tougher in terms of trying to, you know, talk about it, but hockey, same thing. Like we never seen someone score five goals in the third period, dress up to be the goalie and stop 10 shots and get the win there.

You know, when your team needs you most. Gretzky didn't do that. I thought Gretzky did everything.

What are you talking about? Here's the take. Hot Take Hickey takes a swipe at the great one, Wayne Gretzky. You know, Wayne, see you put a goalie blocker on him. You could tweet at him.

Ryan underscore Hickey three. Make sure you trash him. Shut out the wings.

Get at me there, Wayne. But yeah, it's truly, it cannot be overstated what he's doing. I think it's really possible to use hyperbole when talking about what he's accomplishing.

And that's why he is by far going to be the highest paid free agent we'll ever see. And last night is such a special night where he hits two home runs. He has 10 strikeouts.

And you know what the weird part is about it? None of it's surprising. You kind of expect performances like this now by Shohei Ohtani. I'm not saying I'm not appreciating the greatness.

You appreciate it. But when I read last night that he had one home run and a bunch of strikeouts. Before you want to flip on and go tune into the game and fire up the MLB app. It was, oh, I'm not surprised by any of this because what this guy has been able to do the last three years where now. I don't know if accepting is the right word, but expecting Shohei Ohtani to just continue to dominate the sport like this. Do you know what his averages in games he pitches? Just batting average. Batting average in games he pitches?

No, I don't. This year. 300? Over 400.

Oh, my goodness gracious. He is hitting over 400 in games he pitches in. Just pitches in this year.

It's insane. You would think he'd be more locked in when he's not pitching. OK, now just focus on hitting. He's literally going out there striking out guys and going right to the plate and hitting. Well, you got to do it all with the Angels. We've seen them have Mike Trout for 10 years and they tried to make him do it all for all those years.

And it was an absolute disaster. Well, you talk about surprising. That's actually the only thing that was surprising yesterday was the fact that the Angels won the game. Right. How many times this year have you seen Ohtani did this, Ohtani did that, and then they still lost the game? Six innings, 10Ks, two home runs, and they lose 5-4.

OK. But this is a team right now that they're in the third wildcard spot. Major League Baseball is as open as it's ever been. The only team that really does spark fear in my eyes are the Atlanta Braves. That's no disrespect to a team like Tampa Bay or to Baltimore. But when you look at all Major League Baseball, the one team I fear the most right now are the Atlanta Braves.

You look at the Angels. I want to see Ohtani in the postseason. I want to see him in the postseason. But I look at the rest of that pitching staff. It is pretty brutal. And how many years have we talked about it with Trout?

All right. You have Mike Trout. Now you got to go get pitchers. Now you have a guy that has exceeded Mike Trout. Not only is he a great pitcher, he's also a dominant force at the plate, and they still haven't figured out their rotation hickey. That's the disappointing part to me. And that's why, unfortunately for Angels fans, he will probably not be back. It's been a lot of spin in the wheels. It's been a lot of doing the hardest part, which is always getting the star right in any sport.

Always the most difficult part is getting that transcendent star. Now the Angels can claim for over a decade they have had the best player in the sport on their team and it's resulted in one playoff appearance and zero wins. Here's the thing, though. Everyone assumes that he's leaving the Angels this year. Is that because people have heard that he's going to leave the Angels or people are just fed up with the Angels? Where, give them credit, they're 44 and 37 this year. They're not dreadful.

They got a shot to go make the playoffs, especially with that extra playoff spot. But is this more so that we've just all programmed ourselves? Because I do agree with you. If you asked me before the year, is he leaving? Oh, without a doubt, he's definitely leaving. But is that through people saying, oh, I have inside information that he's leaving and that's what the talk is? Or is that more so, man, I just hope he leaves because we've seen Trout there for basically a decade only make the postseason once get swept out of the first round.

And now we don't want to waste this incredible person, this incredible player in Shohei Ohtani. So is it more so that people are expecting him to leave and there's actually talk of that? Or is it just more wishful thinking that he's going to leave?

And that's a difficult question. At this point, probably wishful thinking because it's not like we hear a lot from Shohei Ohtani, especially about his free agency. He said something before the season started that he's only focused on the now, which could be spun in many different ways. That could be, oh, he's saying the right things and he wants to come back to the Angels, but he's going to keep it close to the vest because he's going to be the most sought after free agent. So the price only goes up or that's not a yes. Therefore, he's definitely going to leave.

So that was a very ambiguous thing that he said. And you got to look, you assume teams like the Dodgers, maybe the Padres who seemingly are operating with no budget. The Mets with Steve Cohen, the Yankees possibly.

You want to talk about a disappointment, by the way? The Padres are 37 and 42. Yeah, they've not been good. And look how much talent they have on that roster. We're getting Fernando Tatis Jr. back, you got Juan Soto, you got Manny Machado, you got Xander Bogart.

And I could name like a bunch of other players. That NL West has been awesome this year. The Diamondbacks have taken that next step. Right now, they're 16 games over 500. The Giants who two years ago were really good then fell off a little bit last year.

They're now back with Gabe Kapler, 45 and 34. The Dodgers, I would still say, are probably the best team in that division. And they're still three games back of the Diamondbacks. The Rockies, no surprise what they're doing this year at 31 and 50. But the Padres, there was a lot of buzz about them.

They're 37 and 42. You got to think in the second half of the season. I know their division is murder as row, but they just have too much talent to not go on a run. Them and the Mets have been the two teams that made the biggest headlines in the offseason in terms of money spent. And they currently both now have sunk. Yeah, you're not wrong in terms of money spent.

But the talent on the Padres is just a lot better than what the talent the Mets don't have. They went all in. They went all in.

I give a lot of credit. They've showed you, by the way, that the small market BS that a lot of these GMs and owners try to peddle to the fans is not true. Because San Diego is not a big market whatsoever. And they had no problem blowing out the wallets to bring in Juan Soto, to bring in Xander Bogart, to bring in Manny Machado.

They had no problem giving out money. So that's an encouraging part for fans going forward. That just because you're in a quote unquote small market doesn't mean your team has to act like one. But I'm with you. I do expect a bounce back from the Padres just because it feels like, and I hope it's not like the housing crisis a few years ago, too big to fail. You'd think at least the Padres are too good to fail.

I think you're going to go, the rent is too damn high. Who was that guy? Well, that too. I forget. Well, that was his party, I think.

I forget what he was running for. I think he passed away the rent is too damn high, guys. Really? That's a shame. Yeah.

Let's see. The rent is too damn high. Was it President Mayer? I forget what he was running for. Jimmy McMillan. He got a lot of national rent for it. I believe that's his name, Jimmy McMillan.

That might be the universal cause everyone can get behind. And he is still alive. Oh, good for him. So sorry. Hopefully he'll run it back. I'm trying. You think about it. Who's not voting for him?

That's what he's standing on? The rent is too damn high? Outside of the landlords?

Who's saying I'm not voting for this guy? My rent for my apartment renewal time only went up $200. And I consider that a big time win that it only went up $200 in my apartment in Hickster. Not to brag, mine was $30.

Big win. I don't want to sound like a douche here. Does your building have any amenities? Does your building have anything to offer? No. Okay. So you live in a walk-up? Yes. Yes, sir. No gym in the building?

No gym. Okay. So $30, that's nothing. I agree. That's where I was staying.

Yeah. I thought $200 was nothing. That's why I'm staying too.

At least I have a doorman that does the mail and I have a gym and a steam and sauna as well. So I enjoy that. But I was surprised.

I thought it was going to be a lot more than $200. But you're not wrong. The rent is too damn high. Now anyway, real quickly before we get to Christian Walker. I think there's a conversation to be had where you go through the AL. The Rays have been the best team in baseball from a record standpoint. You look at Baltimore.

They're 18 games over 500. The Blue Jays have been underwhelming with all the talent that they have, only 43 and 37. Let's see what happens with the Yankees when they get Aaron Judge back.

The Central stinks. The West the Rangers have been very good, even though DeGround's been hurt and he's out for the entire year. And Avaldi has been really good for them. The Astros have not been dominant.

You look at the Angels, they're 44 and 37. I don't believe in their pitching rotation outside of Otani. But if you're the Angels, I think you got to run that risk that Otani walks and you get nothing. And you keep him there. And you obviously hope to re-sign him. But until he tells you that he definitely doesn't want to come back. If that trade deadline is there and it'd be different if there were all these games out and they didn't have a chance to go make the playoffs maybe.

But even so, if that was the case. Until he tells you and gives you any indication that he doesn't want to be there. I'm not the one that's getting rid of him to maybe hope that the four or five prospects that you will get back. That one or two of them pans out and none of them will even be in the same level or even close to the same level of showing Otani as he's one of one. I can't get rid of Otani. I would rather have him walk and get nothing back.

If he's going to be 50-50 on this or not communicate what he wants to do. Then just trade him for prospects and have what probably three out of those four prospects end up never even being anything and amounting to anything. The Phillies were the last team in last year made it to the World Series. The Braves have stunk halfway through the season. The Nationals were under.500 halfway through the season before picking up and winning the World Series. There's plenty of examples in recent time in baseball where teams have gotten hot late and have made deep runs in the playoffs. They either got into the World Series or won the World Series. That is to me a way better risk to take if you're the Angels rather than trading Otani and really never giving yourself a chance. They haven't won a playoff game the Angels since 2009. Go for it.

Go for it. Get yourself and the fans something good to feel good about. Maybe that playoff run inspires Otani when he otherwise thought I'm going to go somewhere else and he actually stays. I just don't right now see the downside in keeping him and going and making a playoff push this year. So you're telling me Max Scherzer is going to be pitching for the Angels and he's going to get dealt there. I was reading some report that Max Scherzer could be talked into waiving his no trade clause with the way things are with the Mets right now. Now if the Angels want to trade Mike Trout for Max Scherzer, I don't know who's saying no there on either side and that's a trade I would accept if I'm on the Mets.

Okay. Sarcastic delusional hickey at his best right there. You always find a way to make your team win in these crazy scenarios. Angels ain't pitching and you're not wrong.

They are thin on pitching and what do they say in order to get? You got to give. You know what show you would do good on? I feel like Shark Tank you'd do really well on. If someone gave you the idea just to sell the idea, I think you would be able to find a way to sell it. Now you may get a little nervous, you may get a little stage fright, but once you get past that if Cuban doesn't toss you off the stage or Mr. Wonderful, I think you could convince a bunch of really successful people that what you're selling does not stink.

Cuban you need pitching look. Any good dealer knows you got to give a little to get a little. How much money have you made?

What's your business plan? All right, no I haven't had sex with any animals. Mark, what are you asking? Whenever there's an awkward moment now or a question that you just don't want to answer, I feel that we take the Bill in Tennessee line who joined us earlier and called in earlier 855-2124 CBS and he told me he was about to go in the shower and then I asked him a question. He was like, no, I don't have sex with any animals.

I feel that is the awkward moment response here on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Mr. Wonderful, you want a hundred percent of my company? No, I don't have sex with animals. Why would you ask that question? That's delusional.

Christian Walker from the Red Hot Arizona Diamondbacks joins us next. Do you hear that? That is the sound of BMW performance without a single piston or cylinder. A generation of all electric vehicles designed and built like no other. The BMW iX, i7 and i4 revolutionize every drive into a thrilling opportunity to feel the pure rush of BMW 100% electric.

But isn't that what you'd expect from the ultimate electric driving machine? Take advantage of exceptional lease and finance offers today. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. Joining us is the first baseman and big time slugger for the Arizona Diamondbacks in Christian Walker. Christian, it's Zach Gelb here in New York City. Appreciate the time as always. How are you? I'm great, Zach. Thanks for having me.

Well, thanks so much for coming on. So some way to start off that game last night. Just tremendous energy in that stadium when you and also Corbin go deep back to back. Yeah, that was great. You know, it's cool knowing the Rays are coming in.

Obviously, we understand what they're capable of and what that offense can do. So, you know, to be able to go out and get off to a good start and jump out to an early lead. Yeah, that was cool. It was exciting. I didn't know if your home run was going to clear the fence or if it was going to get brought back. When you were rounding third, it looked like you had some words or there was some confusion maybe with the third baseman. What happened there when I was watching that replay early this morning? Yeah, just confusion.

I've seen a Rosarena do that before where he ends up catching it and then kind of just sits on the ground there. So I was honestly just trying to figure out if it went out or not or if he had it in his glove. I couldn't tell. And then Diaz was just, he was just letting me know that it went out when I was rounding third. I was trying to look past him to look out into the outfield and we made eye contact and he just gave me the home run sign. So once he said it went out, then I was pretty confident. Yeah, I was wondering if you guys were talking smack there for a second.

No, no, no. That was a good interaction. Christian Walker here with us. So Corbin Carroll has been a huge storyline for you guys. We got to see him a little bit last year. He's been unbelievable this season at the age of 22.

Looks like he's going to win the NL Rookie of the Year. Just how do you describe what you're seeing out of him day in and day out? Yeah, it's exciting. It's fun to be a part of.

It's fun to watch. He's the real deal, man. He works hard. He's got a great head on his shoulders. He's humble. He's smart. He understands. Everything's intentional. He doesn't do things without it. You know, having the proper intent. He's a professional.

Everything about him from top to bottom. It's a lot of fun. I'm glad we're getting the chance to be teammates and obviously hitting behind him is awesome as well. You know how it works in this game? It sometimes takes a while to get going. I know what you just said about him, but at all is it a little bit surprising where the hype was that he's been able to meet it and also exceed it so far? You know, it's not a matter of him being capable enough. It's kind of like you said. It's just like on the stage, you know, at the high level, it's like the game is hard. There's no doubt he was going to figure it out eventually. But to get off to the start, I mean, it's just a tribute to, you know, how much of a rock solid mindset he has. Christian Walker here with Dust. You guys are going to play your 81st game of the season tonight.

You're 48 and 32. It's been a tremendous season for the Arizona Diamondbacks so far. Going back to spring training, there was talk about you guys could be good and your team is young and up and coming. You have the right mix of veterans, like a player like yourself.

What type of team did you think you had before the season started? Yeah, I mean, honestly, this was kind of all part of the plan. It's hard to tell exactly how your team is going to respond in the heat of battle.

When you need to run late or when you need to put up to zero. Those are the details that you kind of wait for the season to see how we shake out. To me, that's the team's identity. The resiliency we've shown this year has been great to be able to tack on runs late. Our pitching staff has been great, keeping us in a lot of games. But just overall, I'd say we're not surprised.

This was all part of the plan. I don't feel like we're doing anything outside of ourselves at the moment. We're playing clean games and we're a really good team.

You know how this is going to work? Right at the halfway point, people are going to ask the question, Will they continue this success in the second half or are they going to come back down to earth and maybe not be as good as the way they played through the first 80-81 games of the season? Why is the moment not going to be too big for this team down the stretch in the second half of the season?

That's a great question. I think when you show up every day and you expect a certain product on the field and you set a standard for ourselves, for each other, and then you go out and you execute, it doesn't feel like we're getting lucky. It doesn't feel like things are just going right or the baseball gods are on our side. Yeah, it takes some fortunate things to win a baseball game. Winning a baseball game is an extremely difficult thing. But that being said, I feel like feeling like we can win even when we're not at our best just gives confidence in those moments. When you need the big game, when you need the big run, I don't think we're going to be trying too hard. We're going to be prepared and we're going to be confident and we're going to be stoic and it's going to fall into place. Do you feel like you guys have all the pieces to go make a run this year and be playing in the Fall Classic in October?

Yeah, I don't see why not. Personally, I've never been on a World Series team. I've never really gone too far into the postseason.

So, being brutally honest, I don't really know what to expect. So it's hard to say, yeah, for sure we have what it takes. But based on what I've seen so far, I'm really confident in this team. I love my teammates. I love the staff we have around us. It's a lot of fun showing up to the park every day.

And I think when it's truly fun and you enjoy it, I think those are the things you can hang on to to take you late into the season. Well, Christian Walker, off of that, we know Evan Longoria has seen basically everything that the game has to offer. And he's 37 years old, hits the home run up against the Rays.

We all know what he did in Tampa many years ago. What does he bring to this team, bringing in just a solid veteran like that that could still be productive on the field? Yeah, he's great. He's everything. I grew up watching that guy play, so I'm like, man, I'm looking forward to get to know this guy and I'm excited to have him as a teammate.

And then you get to know him and everything even gets better. He's a great communicator. He's a professional. He treats everybody the same. And like you said, he's got the experience. So when we need a veteran voice or when you got a question about something, to go to Longo and know that you're going to get a no judgment answer, it's going to be a really good answer and it's going to be helpful and it's corrective. It's just a great, great guy to have around the clubhouse for sure.

And on top of that, he's hitting the crap out of baseball. How crazy is this for you? Is it kind of surreal? Because you're 32 years old right now. You're a veteran leader on this team.

We all know the college career that you had as a gamecock at South Carolina winning the two college baseball World Series championships. To now be a seasoned veteran where you're on a team that looks like they can go make a run, is that kind of crazy how quickly life has hit you? Yeah, for sure, man. It's good. It just adds to the perspective. I feel like it's helpful when I look back and I can appreciate how fortunate I am to be in this situation and to have gotten the opportunity from the Diamondbacks to show what I can do. It's humbling, man. It's humbling and it's exciting and motivating.

It's all the good things and hopefully I can do it for a while longer. Give me a little vibe here, Christian Walker, on the importance it could tell Marte to this team because he's reached safely now in 20 straight games. It's the second time he's done that this season. He's been unbelievable. He's great. Another guy knows his role.

He's not going to try to go above and beyond. He's going to be rock solid for you in the moment when you need it. His defense has been great.

His offense obviously is there. He's a guy who doesn't say much. He kind of lingers in the shadows a little bit.

I think it's intentional. He's a private guy. He's a great teammate.

He doesn't take the game too seriously, very lighthearted, but a great teammate as well. Christian Walker, sometimes a team's just ready to go take that next step. Last year you guys were 14 games under.500 when the season was over. Right now at the halfway mark, you're 16 games over.500. For you, what's the biggest difference when you look at this team having a good understanding of the locker room, the biggest difference from last year to this season? I would say confidence, overall confidence. I think when you're winning games and you can prove to yourself that you're a good team, the outside noise doesn't matter.

You don't care about people's opinions or you don't care about the latest story or the latest drama around the league. It's about you and your brothers in the moment and going to battle every night and having each other's backs. When I think about this team, it's a close-knit group and we have a lot of fun.

It's very lighthearted, but when the bell rings, we'll be there. Last thing I'll ask you, Christian Walker, I just want to bring up Shoy Otani. Last night hits two home runs and 10 strikeouts. You're playing right now in a game where Otani's doing things that we've never seen before. As someone that's a student of the game and being able to watch this and following it, I'm sure guys in the clubhouse are talking about what Otani's doing out there with the Angels. How do you process this greatness that we're seeing right now in the sport? It's amazing. As a hitter, it's so impressive to watch what he's doing.

The consistency, the power, the average, the play discipline. On top of that, he's an ace. It's kind of hard to wrap my head around sometimes just to witness what he's doing. He deserves all the credit he's getting and all the attention. He's an amazing, amazing player. I'm looking forward to competing against him here in a few days. He's Christian Walker, has 16 home runs on the year, 54 RBIs.

Arizona Diamondbacks right now sitting on top of the NL West and having a tremendous first half of the season. Christian, appreciate you doing this. Good luck the rest of the way. Thank you.

I appreciate it. You're listening to The Zach Gelb Show. Another day is in the books and we're taking stock of the sports world. It's time to find out who's up and who's down. Let's end the day right and hit the closing bell.

Only on The Zach Gelb Show. The Arizona Diamondbacks, you just heard from Christian Walker. Got a victory last night against the team with the most wins in Major League Baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays. But the Diamondbacks have been sensational this year.

They're 48 and 32 right now. Corbin Carroll's been a stud for them and is going to win Rookie of the Year. And basically halfway through their season, they're on top of a very good NL West. And the Diamondbacks a stock up. Shoei Ohtani last night strikes out 10. Also hits two home runs. Angels win, angels win, angels win. Gives Shoei Ohtani a stock up.

Okay, let's get to the negatives. So the NHL draft is going on right now. Here is Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price forgetting the draft pick's name.

This courtesy of ESPN. Now let me ask you this, Hickey, I think we've all been in that moment before. Where you're talking to someone and you forget their name.

But the difference here is it's not for the entire world to hear. Like it's different when you're in the office, right? And someone's talking to you, Hickey, and you just have no clue what their name is. Or you're in a social setting, someone comes up to you.

Hey, how you doing? And you just don't know where they are. He is announcing a draft pick, David Reinbacher. And he forgets his name. Now, when the NFL does this, there's a card, they give you the name and then you read it off the card.

I have not seen the video of this, Hickey. But could he not read the handwriting or did the ink try on the typing when they printed it up on the card? Or was there no card to begin with?

Or did he just try to big shot it here? Carey Price, I don't need a card. Tell me the pick. It's David Reinbacher. I'll get this right. From the video, it does not look like he's reading from a card.

So it does not look like the card is present. It sounds like he sort of knew then, like he said with some of the R. David, R, R, R, Shimmery Timbers. Reinbacher, Reinbacher. Did you hear the drunk guy in the background of the crowd?

Reinbacher. Yeah. Some combination of that. I guess he was deathly afraid of just mispronouncing it.

So he figured I'm not going to say it at all. That happened to be once on the radio. I was at the AAC basketball tournament, the American Athletic Conference basketball tournament, when I was in college.

And they bring over, I believe his name was Dan Leibovitz, who is the associate commissioner, former assistant coach for Temple. And I've talked to Dan like numerous times. And I'm introducing him like, all righty, welcome back in. We're inside. It was somewhere in Hartford.

Or maybe it was in Orlando. And now joining us. And I'm like hoping my co-host would pick up and he just did it. And I'm like, how you doing? And then eventually, my co-host is like, all right, we're talking to Dan Leibovitz and reset.

And then it was good. That was a big broadcasting blunder that I once had, Hickster. So I have sympathy for Carey Price. And you're sitting next to Coach, right? So that's even maybe even tougher than just announcing David Reinbacher's name, because at least you're not next to him as he's standing. Like he's in the crowd watching you. At least you're not two feet away from you sitting there like, waiting, like, we're going to get it out. You know, right here.

Hello. So I'm going to give a stock up to Carey Price just to make him feel better real quickly. But in reality, he's getting a stock down. Real quickly, Bill in Tennessee, I got to give him a stock up as well. He called us earlier, told us how much he loves the Packers, then told us the Packers are going to go ten and eight this year.

Yep. Then said how much he loves Hendon Hooker. Did sing Rocky Top for us. And then when I asked him when he told us he was going into the shower because he's a plumber and he needs to shower after a long days of work, he goes, no, I don't have sex with animals.

Just what an all time line. Give Bill in Tennessee a stock up. So our morning show on the network, the D.A. show with Damon Amanda Laura. Peter Schwartz, I guess, was doing updates today. And he shared an awkward encounter in the newsroom with Jack Stern, who's actually in the newsroom right now. So Jack is listening. This may get a little bit awkward, but this is about two minutes.

It's long, but you got to hear the entire thing. As I walk by, Jack goes, what do you have there? And I said, some Chinese food.

He goes, oh, that's not healthy. I'm going to come to your house and cook for you. And I said, no, no, no, that's OK.

I got everything under control. No, no, no. I want to come and cook for you and your family. I said, no, no, it's it's OK. My wife's I want to teach your wife how to cook. And I said, Jack, that's just not going to happen. You're not coming anywhere near my house. And he continues to berate me all night about wanting to go to a game with me, come see a Long Island Ducks game. I'm like, I'm like, you've got to stop this.

This is this is not. Then he starts getting into pay. Like, what do you get paid for a shift?

What do you think they get paid for a shift down the hall? It became a whole financial conversation. I said, I said, Jack, I'm in the middle of getting ready for the next update.

I can't have this conversation with you. This is why I'm just curious. I'm trying to learn like like. So what do you make for a shift?

Why didn't he ask the boss like so like, why can't he go to the appropriate people? Correct. And then this this conversation probably total lasted like 20 minutes, 25 minutes.

Wow. So finally I got I lost it on him. And I said, Jack, the last 20 minutes or 20 minutes of my life, I will never get back. And he looked at me with this like like dead stare. I know my social skills aren't very good, but I will take it as a cue to walk away from you right now. And you don't get mad at anybody. I don't get mad at the fact that he knew that you had snapped on him. Yeah.

It was finally the awakening that maybe he needed. Shut up. It's enough. Go away.

You're not getting anywhere near my children or my wife. He did this tomorrow the other day asking him about how much he gets paid. Who? What co-worker asks that?

So a few things here. That's pretty offensive stuff. Like Peter Schwartz is trying to eat some Chinese food. He gets told by Jack Stern that you're eating unhealthy. Then he assumes that Peter Schwartz's wife does all the cooking and that she can't cook. And he wants to teach her how to cook. And then he asked Peter Schwartz how much he makes here. And you find out that he also asked how much mores makes here.

Those are like a lot of no, no, no, no, no, no. You can't be doing that stuff, Hickey. And you've been in that spot before. Young guy in the newsroom, happy to be here.

And you handled yourself the proper way. Peter Schwartz has been here, whether you like him or not, he's been here forever. And also hate to break it to you. If you're a part time employee, it's a union shift rate. Jack, you do updates. So you should know what the union shift rate is.

That's different from Mraz getting a promotion and right, that's negotiated stuff. But all that stuff makes no sense to me, Hechster. If you had a checklist or if you had just a list written out of things not to ask your co-workers in general, maybe you can just ask people in general. You look like crap. Your wife doesn't know how to cook.

And how much money are you making, by the way? Yeah. Hey, he hit the trifecta.

And those are all anyone listed out there. Do the opposite of what you just heard last two minutes and you are good as gold. Oh, Tony strikes out ten batters hits two home runs. Jack Stern tells Peter Schwartz he's unhealthy. His wife can't cook.

And how much? Ask him how much money he's making. Give a stock down to Jack Stern. And that's all the time we have today on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Big thanks to everyone that called, listened and tweeted to the show. Big thanks to Hot Take Hickey for producing this extravaganza.

And Christian Walker from the Arizona Diamondbacks for joining us. We'll be back tomorrow at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific on CBS Sports Radio. We out. Bye bye. We'll be back tomorrow at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific on CBS Sports Radio.