Live from the police show, yet not overly ostentatious, studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to another week and a Monday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, and that free Odyssey app. 855-212-4CBS, number to jump on in.
855-212-4227, you can always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Gelb. That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Kevin Wall on the other side of the glass, producing these extravaganza all the way up until 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific. Hickey's being really bougie this week. He has taken a vacation, which he's allowed to do.
I'm not going to vacation shame him on the show, but he went to a very opulent and bougie place, which is very ironic to me because he always bitches about how he needs to be paid more. And then I asked him where he was going and the response, which I will keep to myself because I don't want all the masses to go running over and ruin hot take Hickey's vacation and start shaming him for being on vacation. If you did hear though where he's going, you're gonna be like, hmm, I didn't know Hickey was in that bracket.
Neither did I, but it must be good to be hot take Hickey. A whole lot to do today. Dean Thomas is going to join us, the former UFC fighter coming up 20 minutes from now. We'll recap all the great fights, which was a tremendous card out in Las Vegas from Saturday night. We'll be joined by JP Crawford, Mariner's shortstop. All-Star Game is out in Seattle. You have the home run derby tonight.
Julio Rodriguez, JP's teammate, will be participating in that as that comes your way at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific. And we'll talk about the Mariners second half of the season. And then at 8 20 p.m. Eastern, 5 20 p.m. Pacific, Deebo Samuel from the San Francisco 49ers is going to stop by. Had a monster season two years ago, then regressed in a big way last year. But the 49ers always in the thick of things and they're trying to get over that hump and bring a Lombardi trophy back to Santa Clara, San Francisco.
That area has the stadium, as they're called the San Francisco 49ers, but the stadium is in Santa Clara. It's probably going too much into detail, but we'll chat things up with Deebo Samuel later on in our number three. Alrighty, let's start the show off with someone that we're going to be talking a lot about this year. And it's good for the NBA. Like you have the All-Star Game tonight in Major League Baseball. There's not a lot of times on this show where we're talking about Major League Baseball regular season, but you're starting to see some stars really take over the sport, which is enormous. And this is in a year where Aaron Judge has basically been a non-factor with him being out for the last month. You know, when he's on the diamond, how lethal Aaron Judge could be. And he's been an MVP for years with the Yankees and you see where the Yankees are without him in the lineup.
There's no one that you really are threatened by, but you look at Major League Baseball in the last month, I would say, ever since you got Elie De La Cruz up for 30 games, he's been sensational. He gives you a reason to want to tune in to Major League Baseball's regular season. And what he did over the weekend where he gets a base hit and then on two pitches steals second and then steals third and home is so exciting and makes you want to watch whenever Elie De La Cruz is playing, which is a ton for the Cincinnati Reds. You look at Shohei Ohtani, it's been this way for the last few years. Ohtani has been the biggest name in the sport.
He's been the best player on the planet. He's elite on the mound and at the plate. And you want to tune in to go watch Shohei Ohtani. And that's important for Major League Baseball fans to want to tune in during the regular season and for the sport. And for years, right, it's how can we increase the pace of play? Don't get me wrong, the pitch clock and the implementation of the pitch clock is very important and it's enjoyable. And it gets you the bullpen quicker in terms of when your starters are on the mound, the game time just goes by so much quicker with that pitch clock.
And then you have changes where reliever's coming in and it slows it down a bit. But that has made it a more enjoyable regular season product. But really, the stars are what get people in the stands and to the television sets. And the same could be said with the NBA. Now, the problem the NBA has is the regular season is kind of very pedestrian because a lot of these players don't participate as much as you would like them to in the regular season.
And there's an effort problem and also a load management problem. But for this year heading into the NBA season, this is where we'll start the show. We talked about the stars, the newer stars like a Shoei Ohtani and Elie De La Cruz.
They make you want to tune in for Major League Baseball. In the NBA, there's not going to be a bigger, more covered storyline this year in the regular season than Victor Wambunyama. And you got a little taste of the Victor Wambunyama fever in the last 48, 72 hours with these two games in the summer league. Now, the Spurs announced today they're going to shut down Victor Wambunyama. He's done for the rest of the summer league. And I can't say I'm surprised by that because I thought it was the right plan by the Spurs in a relevant summer league to give a little taste.
And that's what they did and slowly acclimate him. And you have certain hurdles that you need to climb to get Victor Wambunyama at the level that you think he could produce at when the Spurs are going to be methodical and the Spurs are going to be very careful in his rookie season. But the hype is so large. And I don't want to say it's like anything we've never seen because the Zion Williamson hype was ridiculous. Remember he had Barack Obama at the Duke UNC game when he burst through his shoe. Zion Williamson. We all know what the hype was surrounding LeBron James. What makes Victor Wambunyama so neat is I know everyone tries to pretend to be an expert in this business and tell you every single thing there is to know.
No one's really a Victor Wambunyama expert right now because the majority of us if you're being honest and you're not just lying we haven't really seen him play. So it was cool over the weekend to see him play a little bit. And on Friday night he didn't play all that great. Only had nine points eight rebounds was two at 13 from the field. But the other day and what ends up being his final summer league game because they're going to shut him down the rest of the way he shows you what he could do with 27 points 12 rebounds. And he was a very effective 9 of 14 from the field. So it was good to see a little bit of him.
I don't think you have to go nuts and play him in every summer league game which the Spurs won't do. And I'll tell you this probably won't be popular but I said this last week when I was in on Maggie and Perloff when you see the highlights of him. Any time I see highlights or any time I got to see the two times he was playing in the summer league my only thought and this also registered when I saw him in person right before the draft when he was here in New York City and I was sitting two to five feet away from the guy is that there's a lot of body there even though he's not thick. He's just so long and he's like a toothpick like the biggest toothpick you've ever seen at 7 foot 5. There's a lot of body there and it's a skinny body that could get injured.
And that's the only thing I could think of. And I know that sounds wrong because I want to see Victor when Benyama be a star. I want to see him take over the NBA not just from a coverage standpoint where the hype is right now but because he's going to be as good as advertised and it may be impossible for him to be as good as advertised when you get people like Chris Broussard getting on FS1 and saying that even if he's Hakeem Olajuwon or even if he's Kevin Durant that would be a failure that would be a disappointment. We're talking about guys that have won finals MVPs, NBA MVPs, world championships and they're gonna well one's already in the Hall of Fame the other will be whenever he retires and we're saying that would be a disappointment. But in a weird way I kind of got what Chris was saying even though I rolled my eyes and thought it was ridiculous because the way that people are talking about him right now is that he's going to be the way that we look at a Michael Jordan right now or the way that we look at a LeBron James one of the two greatest players of all time.
And I don't think that's fair to put that on anyone but life isn't fair. And sure a lot of us would love to swap lives with Victor Wambunyama and know the money that you're going to get and see if you can handle the pressure and see if you can meet what those expectations are. But I'll tell you this and I'm not a fan of the summer league I usually don't watch the summer league but the Victor Wambunyama factor and effect is real where I'm so curious what the heck is he actually on a basketball court and I want to see him in some level of an NBA game that I was into these last two games when he was playing in the summer league. So yeah part of me goes it's a little disappointing that he's not going to play the rest of the summer league but the other part is that it is acknowledging that it is the right decision here by the San Antonio Spurs. And I probably would have thought and now looking back at this I do think it and I do think this way that if Wambunyama would have been out of this world in the first summer league game you know maybe because there was a lot of people in Vegas and ticket sales and all that maybe they would have played him regardless in that second game but I do wonder if the Spurs if he was just out of this world in the first game would have just shut it down right there. And I know pop just got that new contract extension and all that but that was something that I did think maybe they would have just shut him down after one game because the goal was to get him a little bit of a flavor of the NBA. But you look at some of the overreaction after the first game and I know people are idiots on Twitter that's why I call it a cesspool but people actually say oh this is why he's going to be great or this is why he's going to be horrible.
Like what the heck are you doing. And you saw both of those takes after the first game you had and that was right after all the Britney Spears stuff which is one of the more overblown stories I've ever seen. And I get it maybe a lot of it was in a fun nature in some of the Victor Wambunyama ripping where people go into the defense of Britney Spears. I'm talking about in terms of the way that people want to just go after him after his first game but after his first game you would have thought as if his career was over and he was a bum. But that's just the society that we live in and then after he plays the second game it's oh all hail Victor Wambunyama he's going to be incredible.
There's going to be a lot of people that are going to put their foot in their mouth when they discuss Victor Wambunyama this year and they're going to look just like complete jackasses because what we're going to do in the NBA is something that you can't do. And what I mean by this is what we're going to do this year in the NBA is we're going to treat it like it's the NFL where everything is live and die. Everyone's careers made game by game because every game matters in the NBA. Every game doesn't matter. Heck the players even tell you that.
And you had to have the commissioner Adam Silver say if you want to go win an award you got to play at least 65 regular season games and how many times players miss games. But we're going to do a Victor Wambunyama is every game at least it feels this way right now maybe it changes and it probably will is going to be this means he's great and he's he's on his way to the Hall of Fame or this means he's going to be one of the biggest busts in the NBA. And I hope he ends up meeting the hype but just getting a little flavor in the last three days of people on an emotional roller coaster ride over bleeping summer league with the way that they're reacting to this guy. Part of it's going to be fun to see how this plays on out.
The other part of it is just going to make me sick because people are going to sound really really stupid. So we'll see what happens with Victor Wambunyama the rest of the way. And when you see him on a court next but it won't be for the rest of summer league. But the hype has already started. We knew that headed into the draft.
We knew that during the draft. And then you get a little taste of Victor Wambunyama over the weekend. And next time he's on a basketball court it's going to be the biggest story in the NBA because right now evaluating all the storylines nothing's going to top Victor Wambunyama his regular season. And I hope he stays healthy.
We'll see if he wins Rookie of the Year and what is the immediate impact he can make on a San Antonio Spurs team that for now isn't really going anywhere but getting Victor Wambunyama may expedite getting the Spurs back to where they belong. It is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio eight five five two one two four CBS number to jump on in eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. We come on back. We recap the big UFC card from over the weekend. It was wonderful. I was all locked in on that Saturday night. Dean Thomas is going to join us the former UFC fighter when we return in five minutes. All right.
We continue. This is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. What a card that was over the weekend. UFC 290 out there in Las Vegas. Let's go out to the guest line right now and talk to someone that knows what it's like to not only talk about the UFC but also be in the Octagon and that of course is Dean Thomas kind enough to join us Dean appreciate the time as always. How are you. I'm great man.
How are you doing. Listen I'm I'm more than great coming back after a card like that one over the weekend has got me all excited. I'm pumped up. It was fantastic. I don't know if we've had a card like that in a while with so many different storylines. Yeah I'm a casual fan but I've become more and more of a fan really the last year or two and it just seems like each and every card keeps on getting better and better Dean.
Yeah I mean every card gets better. And when you look into the crowd and in the audience it's just like celebrities and it's like a big party. It's more than just a fight.
It's an event now and I think that the more and more this thing grows. Goodbye football. I'm sorry.
You can pump the brakes with that. Nothing will ever take out football. OK OK. I'm a hockey hockey. Come on I love hockey Dean.
What do you do in here. Can we at least have squash. I'll give you a squash.
You could take away squash. Let me get to Volkanovsky. So after the fight he says he needs surgery on his arm. That's incredible how dominant he was in the Octagon.
And now he needs surgery. He knew that going into the fight. Listen we're looking at a very special talent here what we're looking at and what you guys are getting to witness is what we've seen back with GSP you know five 10 years ago Volkanovsky is a special special athlete. He's not just beating guys but he's beating different type of guys in different type of ways and his ability to adapt to situation is just absolutely miraculous. We're looking at a special talent one of the generation type talent and we're lucky to have a guy like Volkanovsky at our you know at our disposal. And Daniel Cormier after the fight said he's the best pound for pound fighter in the UFC right now. I'm assuming you agree with that.
Oh there is no doubt about it. There is without a doubt the best pound for pound fighter in the UFC currently and probably in the last while. Let's get to Pantoja because I love the emotion after the fight that he showed telling us his story. And then today I saw he did an interview with Ariel Helani and two fights ago he was driving for Uber Eats. What's not to like with this guy. Yeah you know I mean we spoke with him today with Matt Serra and Pantoja was talking about how he worked so hard for this moment and everybody was booing him and Matt said that he couldn't even he had to turn it off because he was so emotional watching Pantoja just spill his emotion out and watching his kids cry and just the whole scene was just so emotional.
And I used to work with Pantoja a little bit. He's a good guy a good human being but the problem was he was going up against a guy that everybody loves Brandon Moreno. Brandon Moreno was the guy that everyone loved everyone to see win but to watch Pantoja take that from him it was kind of hard but I think at the end of it all Pantoja won the crowd over. He did and there's one thing to win the fight there's another thing to talk your way on the microphone and when he was getting booed I go this absolutely stinks but then when he starts to say that his mom raised him and then dad are you proud of me now I thought a lot of people understood the human side of that which started to turn some of those boos into a round of applause.
Well if you notice the first thing that he said was if you knew my story you boo me and from that moment on that kind of grabbed everybody's attention it was almost like a well thought out plan that he was but you could tell he didn't think that out because he doesn't this English is a second language so he's like if you knew my story you wouldn't boo me and then when he gets into that human element that element of I should be a failure but look at me and my father abandoned me but are you proud of me now I mean the whole place had to stop and pay attention to that. Dean Thomas here with us so du Plessis gets another victory then Israel Adesanya takes over the Octagon and you had that exchange what did you make of what Israel Adesanya did after the du Plessis won? I couldn't have laughed harder I'll tell you what you know I'm fortunate enough to sit cage side and I was sitting side with David Goggins and he was in a ball of laughter like we couldn't just stop laughing because for whatever reason it's just funny to us it's just really funny to us what he was doing I know it's very insensitive and it almost kind of cringy I would say but it was just kind of funny to us but I will say this Drikas handled that like a professional Drikas is an absolute professional he shut a lot of people up myself included I have to swallow my words but Drikas handled that like a professional he did exactly what he should have did and but Izzy he man he just doesn't care and you got to respect that about him whether you like him or not or not you got to respect that he doesn't care the thing that I was laughing about was he couldn't even deliver his punchline he went from 36 of me to 26 of me when he went 23 of me that was the funny part to me Dean well yeah that was kind of funny too because I thought when he first said that I thought maybe there was a different one but apparently he probably had that all planned out so like that's the thing he probably had that planned out and messed up so yeah that was definitely kind of funny you said that Du Plessis has won you over would you pick him whenever that fight does happen against Adesanya you still rock and roll with Adesanya you know I'm not sure I'll tell you I'll tell you this Zach you know I pride myself in being one of the best in the world at what I do but I am terrible at picking fights I can tell you what happens afterwards but in terms of watching these guys on film and seeing what's going to happen when they fight each other I'm terrible at that I think this weekend I mean I think a lot of people busted this weekend but I went like one for eleven this weekend I just I can't pick them right so I don't know how to pick that fight as of right now I'm still thinking that Izzy should win but the way Drikas looked he's so durable and he's so hard to hurt that it just seems like he might be able to just run through everybody D Thomas you know this no one could ever really decide how their career is going to end but to get that moment for Robbie Lawler that was something really special oh man and you couldn't have you could have scripted that any better I've known Robbie's entire career in fact I remember watching Robbie do his thing way back in the day and just we've trained together we've been on the same team together he actually did an episode of the Dean Diaries and he never does media so he allowed me to come into his house and film it and talk to him so I'm always in Robbie's good graces but to see him go out the way he did in a fight in which he was the underdog but I said you know this is a winnable fight for Robbie this is not a bad matchup for Robbie and Robbie went out there didn't take any damage didn't take any punishment got it over with and the UFC gave him a proper sendoff a sendoff that he deserved and he should be happy he is happy I know that I spoke to him afterwards but it's just it's just great to see Robbie get the recognition that he deserves especially for a guy who didn't have to talk trash in order to get fans you watching Bo nickel what should you have see fans know about him and his future in the sport you know the thing is he's a he's a four-time you know national champ all-american or whatever he is in wrestling but what he understands more than anything else is combat and he understands how the body works and he understands and I remember speaking to Johnny Evelyn about him a while ago and he was just saying that his wrestling is like doing jiu-jitsu with a guy because he's so different he's so unique and that's really what it is with him he's got the work ethic of wrestling but he understands fighting and combat in a different way to most people do so he's long he's got a good body for fighting he's long he's got a good reach and he's not going to make dumb mistakes did a lot of fight writers do because he understands fighting he really does have a bright future ahead of him I'm sold on him completely I wasn't completely sold on him until this weekend and how he handled that situation and just his vision and awareness when he was throwing those punches that showed me a lot wrap it up with Dean Thomas do you think we'll ever see McGregor against Chandler I sure do hope so I hope so because if not then this whole tough 31 was all just a big infomercial for Conor McGregor's brands and that's unfair to Chandler it's unfair to the viewers it's unfair to everybody so I hope Michael Chandler gets the opportunity to fight Conor Conor on the show when he's with the guys he seems very enthusiastic about coming back so I'm just we are all praying and got our fingers crossed that Conor comes back and fights Michael Chandler I just have no expectations for Conor moving forward he's lost three out of his last four fights and we haven't seen him in the octagon fighting since July of 2021 I said this is Dana White last time I saw Dana at the Super Bowl I don't even think that fight would be close you know it's weird because when you hear Conor talk if you if you watch the show when you hear him talk he's brilliant he's got a brilliant mind for fighting he understands it he's great at it it's just execution is he willing to execute and go through the training camp and be a fighter and that's something that I question because when you're as rich as he is he doesn't have to do it so I question whether he's going to be willing to put himself through a training camp to fight a guy like Michael Chandler. And then we found out over the weekend that we're gonna get Stipe and Jon Jones at November at the world's most famous arena MSG that's going to be unbelievable yeah that's unbelievable we get to see Jon Jones come back and see Stipe's probably last fight I think it's kind of a mismatch but on paper it sounds great but um you know at least at least we're getting the big fights I mean that's the thing is it UFC will always deliver the big fights or at least they'll do what they have to do to try to make the big fights happen and this year was indicative of that so whenever there's a law of action you know the UFC's got something up the sleeve with a big fight. Well Dean always appreciate the time keep up the great work thanks so much for doing this today. Thank you my friend I appreciate you.
There you go Dean Thomas joining us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio and I'm telling you the UFC it's very addictive I remember when I first was first watching I was like why the heck would anyone ever watch this and then I slowly started to watch it more and more and more and you know I've told this to Dana White throughout the years I never thought I would end up becoming a UFC fan but this has now been a bunch of pay per views and I think the pandemic did this sport wonders where we knew where it was before that and I've watched UFC before the pandemic but Dana White was the first guy to be like hey we're trying to go through this and we're going to find a way to entertain people and give people something to watch forming that fight island and I think that did make a lot of fans who were maybe on the fence or who never really watched it that much religiously before really get hooked to it because they were appreciative of what the UFC did a few years ago at least that's the way that I felt about it I had a chance to go to the Adesanya Pereira fight which was the I believe it was the the second one it was one at MSG back in November and going to Madison Square Garden for a UFC fight that was awesome and when they come on back in November assuming I'm free that weekend I would definitely go but Saturday night I didn't have any big plans because I made my plans around UFC 290 and it was a really really good card and I got to give credit to Peter Hoffman who works around here because I saw Pete at the Yankee game on Saturday and he told me about some of the guys they liked in the card so I made one bet I put a hundred dollars down on Pantoja and Volkanovski in a parlay and Pete ended up winning me some money so good job by Peter Hoffman who used to actually do UFC shows on this network those late Saturday nights after the the pay-per-view they used to put him in and Ike Feldman who used to produce after hours for Amy Lawrence and run Amy's board they would team the two of them up together because they used to do a UFC podcast so got to give a little tip of the cap to Pete Hoffman for winning me some Benjamins over the weekend and I'm sure I just opened myself up for act to steal my wallet probably during one of these breaks because it wasn't that long ago I left my wallet out and then act just five finger discount in my entire wallet got to teach you a lesson well you know what I'm actually on to something here two weeks ago you were out and and welcome back by the way I know we welcomed you back since but I woke up and $1,200 was spent on my credit card and iPhone did you get a new iPhone recently no okay I was just told me about this you mentioned this oh did I mention that to you I was just making sure I wanted to make sure that act wasn't stealing my credit card somewhere no no you were the thief no no not at all next thing you know that the police could be knocking on act store in the middle of the night I'd like to know though you Mr. Met Van wearing a Met hat today yes and the black one which I don't like because that's they're not it's not in the original color scheme but what are you doing at Yankee Stadium oh one of my buddies is a big Yankee fan he wanted to go the game he knows I have the hookup for the ticket so I took him to the game and also I was I was hosting Sunday locally in New York so to prepare and be a great talk show host act and actually watch the games it's a lot of these bozos in our business now don't do I said instead of watching that boring ass network broadcast I would go out to the stadium okay got myself a hot dog there you go Lobel's steak no no no there's a good chop cheese stand in center field that I tried to last time I was there as well but I had a hot dog had a beer few french fries watched the game and then got back on the the subway back and then you know where I went yesterday you would have liked this Peter Lugers I went well the close but no I went to Brooklyn and I went to the big three that's run by ice cube and I had courtside seats for that that was fun saw Jason Richardson play Joe Johnson play and you know who was coaching the doctor dr. Julius Irving so I was right behind where the doc was coaching and it was I was pretty neat to take a walk over to juniors afterwards I did not but I knew you were gonna say that I thought about that on my way home I had dinner plans for later that night but I said I know act if I tell him I attended the big three at the Barclays Center he's gonna ask me if I got a slice of that cheesecake over at juniors because oh and I have good burgers there too I've got great food I have dined there before yes and I remember the story you told me not that long ago was it for Mother's Day or was your mother's birthday we went for my mom's birthday one year no no no recently you told me this story how you ordered a cheesecake yeah that's all that yeah and the UPS driver screwed over your mother's day yeah or your mother's mother delivered an empty box ain't the entire thing I'm just saying act my credit card has an issue your mother can't get the cheesecake maybe you took my credit card and also took your mother's a slice of cheesecake no because I was gonna partake in the cheesecake so I was equally disappointed when it did not arrive act act stuffed his face and then said ma there's nothing in the box oh terrible I gotta go call the uh the UPS and figure out why the heck they didn't deliver your cheesecake yeah no no no it's a long walk probably from the the act estate to the mailbox you probably went right to that mailbox ate the cheesecake and go mother I wasn't I wasn't even home when it arrived oh you weren't no all right all right maybe we'll let you slide on that one and we'll believe act act seems like a very noble person I don't think he would lie on the radio all right we'll take a time out is that gil show on CBS Sports Radio all-star game tomorrow and I kind of wish that we would make an exemption and just throw someone in the all-star game that I would love to see even though he's only played 30 games this season tell you that is on the other side update time first here he is a man that's not a thief even though we're investigating that maybe we'll have an update tomorrow alrighty JP Crawford from the Mariners gonna join us coming up at 7 20 p.m. Eastern 4 20 p.m. Pacific Debo Samuel from the San Francisco 49ers at 8 20 p.m. Eastern 5 20 p.m. Pacific on a very busy Monday edition of the Zach Gelb show I want to try a little exercise here I'm gonna go to Kevin Wall who I know is a big baseball fan because I saw something this morning I forget who was tweeting about it or who was writing about it but I woke up earlier this morning and I try not to go to my phone right away but even when you try your hardest it's just some days that you wake up and it's like putting your foot on the floor like even before you do that you just grab your phone because it's we're all connected to cell phones and we're attached to cell phones and that's when I lay in my bed for probably an hour longer than I should but I was perusing the cesspool that is Twitter you know checking Instagram going on Facebook I have not joined threads yet I am not on threads yet we'll see if that eventually changes I got to see if that really does take off I know where the subscribers are through the roof and all that but I want to see if people actually start to actively use it before I set myself up to just get abused on another social media platform but when I'm scrolling through Twitter I saw someone was advocating that Elie de la Cruz who's only played 30 games in the big leagues should be in the all-star game coming up on Tuesday night tomorrow in Seattle so I'll give you my reaction my first thought was in just a second but Kevin Wall you being a big baseball fan you being a very serious human being and a very serious sports fan no funny business and you don't like to have any fun you're all strictly business when it comes to your sports team that's right baby when you hear that Elie de la Cruz there was someone advocating for Elie de la Cruz only played in 30 big league games to be an all-star your thoughts are no not yet I mean the average is there obviously the plays have been there we saw what happened the other day three stolen bases but it's not it's not there yet it's kind of like Gary Sanchez you know in 2016 his rookie year people were saying you should be working here when he came in in August it's like no you can't have it's only 30 something games so by the way how how much AC do you have pumping on that other side oh I like it cool I like it I could barely hear you you sound as if you're a NASCAR driver in the pit with the cars zooming past you it's 85 degrees outside I get it I have this I have the AC down to 67 here in this studio and always get on hickey cuz hickey keeps it like 74 there because he's crazy but that AC is pumping there I heard more of the AC than you 67 in here also so I don't know we may have to get we might have to get some custodians in here too or whoever checks the AC I don't know but I'm thinking just because yeah he's batting 325 yeah you see him potentially being one of the good players in this prime in the next five years but 30 something games it's not there yet alrighty I have to tell you to turn off your microphone I don't know if I'm gonna go to you for the rest of the show because my brain is going in 9,000 different directions when it sounds like Kevin Wall is just in the ocean and and sitting right next to the peach with all the background noise I had a similar reaction to you I go oh that's just someone looking for some clicks that's someone looking for some downloads looking for a little attention look at me Ellie Dela Cruz should be an all-star and as the day did go on I said not only am I gonna agree with it but I'm gonna do a sports minute about it tomorrow on the day of the all-star game and I'll give you a little preview of that right now exclusively right here on the Zach Yelp show on CBS Sports Radio we are programmed as sports fans to view things from a traditional way we grew up our fathers would tell us our mothers would tell us all the all-star game is so important blah blah blah blah blah the all-star game means nothing every team has at least one representative in the all-star game and the all-star game isn't taken as seriously as it once was what the Major League Baseball's turn the all-star game into and I don't have a problem with it it's to market their stars and when you look at Ellie Dela Cruz right now even though it's only a minuscule sample size he's one of the more entertaining players in the sport he already has 16 stolen bases you know he's batting 325 in 30 games but what he did the other day up against the Brewers where he gets on first base then he steals second and then the next pitch he steals third and home that was absolutely ridiculous out of this world and you're not wrong K wall when you say oh it's embarrassing no 30 games that's not an all-stars from a traditional standpoint everything you said absolutely right but this is not the all-star game from 15 years ago this is not the all-star game from the 1980s and 1990s in the year of 2023 it's not about putting the best players in the game right they've been the rules throughout the years now everyone gets an all-star all that stuff it's about marketing the sport and there's few opportunities where Major League Baseball gets to not only market their sport but also get people to care and have it in an isolated window and you look at the regular season a lot of it's regionalized we don't do a lot of Major League Baseball here unless someone does a bat flip and you have some old guy freak out and go crazy or if you have a big fight or if the Astros are cheating things like that usually the drama is when we talk about it in Major League Baseball's regular season but the two times that we've talked about or the two topics that we talked about Major League Baseball in the regular season so far on this show has been sent around to people that's whenever Shoyo Tani does something that we've never seen before because we've never seen anyone like Shoyo Tani and then it's Ellie Dela Cruz the last few weeks with the Reds now being sort of back and Ellie Dela Cruz putting I don't want to say the Reds on the map but making people care about the Reds again and that's why and you gotta remember it was an empty stadium they could they couldn't get anyone in the stadium in April and May I love you but I can't talk to you today I really can't I'm not kidding I'm not being dramatic maybe the listeners can't hear it but every time Kevin Wall turns on his microphone you got to change the which way the vent is pointed or you got to lower that AC because every time you talk this is all I hear as you try to make a point that that's all I can hear in my headphones now you lowered the AC a little bit let's let's try it out now what I was saying though is that better not really a little bit it's a little less obvious but I don't know what the heck you've done back there dude I always put in the same temperature and this is the first time where someone is complaining about how high or how loud the AC is you left and then you came back you know I don't know if they changed something with the way they used to do it probably not because they never touched this studio in a thousand years but getting back to L.A. Dela Cruz it's about marketing the sport and that's why I would not have a problem if Rob Manfred who I can't stand and he is a terrible commissioner if it wasn't for Adam Silver and also the pitch clock Rob Manfred would be and he's been for years but I've recently changed on that he would be the worst commissioner in sports I would have no problem if he came out tomorrow morning and said you know what we made an exemption we made a change we flew out L.A. Dela Cruz from Cincinnati to Seattle and he's going to play in the All-Star game because I want to see him and that's the only reason why I tune in to the All-Star game like I'll watch the home run derby tonight because I like the home run derby and it's so much better than what the NBA puts out there in the dunk contest but I know Mac McClung performed well this year but no one knew who Mac McClung was before that he had Jericho Sims as well you're getting a bunch of no names you're not getting the stars at least when you pop on the home run derby tonight you'll see Julio Rodriguez in Seattle you'll see Vladimir Guerrero Jr Mookie Betts you'll get Pete Alonso I appreciate Major League Baseball stars that want to operate and want to navigate year in and year out the home run derby and people ask why does the NBA slam dunk contest usually stink it's because they don't get the stars in there and that's a big time problem but when you get to the All-Star game tomorrow night I don't really have an incentive to tune in I don't but I will tell you I think it's important when they're miking up players you're showcasing players personalities you know Shelly Otani won't pitch tomorrow because of what happened to his finger and we see now the Otani story even though it keeps on getting better and better we've seen it just continue to be awesome but for Ali Dela Cruz he's one of the hottest items in the sport right now and it's a shame even though it's only 30 games and you're like oh from a traditional standpoint he shouldn't be in there it kind of stinks with all the guys that they allow into the All-Star game the Ali Dela Cruz even though in a very small sample size with how quickly he's overtaken the sport is not going to be in Seattle playing in the All-Star game in some capacity tomorrow night alrighty we have breaking news right now I just want to make sure that this is verified but I did see it pop across the television set that is right in front of me yes from Pete Thamel Northwestern has fired their coach in Pat Fitzgerald we're going to talk about this on the other side we're up against the break and there's a lot to delve into in the Pat Fitzgerald conversation but originally because of hazing which they said he did not know about that he was suspended for two weeks of the summer which for a college football coach that's like alright you're on vacation I know you have the season that's about to start up with people coming back after the spring games and things like that and you have the the media days but you're just not going to get paid so that was originally what happened and then more information did come out there was conflicting reports about what actually did happen and from the announcement of the two week suspension and then what I saw yesterday was one player former player anonymously say what actually did occur you were wondering what was going to happen with Pat Fitzgerald Northwestern who from the start it seems like they tried to sweep this entire thing under the rug and protect Pat Fitzgerald according to Pete Thamel they have now five fired their head football coach in Pat Fitzgerald so a whole lot to do we will talk about this on the other side also you have Bob Huggins who we all thought resigned after his homophobic slurs and then the DUI he's saying not so fast I didn't resign and he's trying to get his job back so there's a lot of things to talk about a lot of disgrace to talk about in college sports we will unpack the Pat Fitzgerald situation now he's out as the head football coach at Northwestern when the Zach Gelb show does continue in five minutes. 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Whisper: medium.en / 2023-07-10 22:38:32 / 2023-07-10 22:56:07 / 18