The Dan Patrick ShowOn today's Dan Patrick Show, DP recaps all the action from the MLB playoff games last night. The legendary Chris Berman shares stories from the early days of ESPN. FOX MLB Analyst John Smoltz discusses Aaron Judge's playoff struggles.
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.
It's our one on this Thursday, Dan and the dan ET's Dan Patrick Show. It's a big day today. Chris Berman stops by. John Smoltz was on the call with the Dodgers and the Padres last night. He will join us as well Baseball later on today tonight. Football tonight the Niners at the Seahawks. But we begin with Todd Fritz ten ten, same day, same year, Brett Farv. How about a round of applause and a happy birthday, Happy birthday, thank you very much. Guys, you thought we forgot, didn't you.
I did not.
You know how much birthdays mean to me. Unlike Paul, I revel in the attention of the birthday.
Think all right, well, congratulations Todd.
Better than the alternative, is what they said.
Yes, we purposely did not say anything this morning. All morning long.
I had a feeling someone was behind you. Let's see it and make them sweat it out a little bit.
And pretending, well you did kind of walk around wait for people to say happy birthday.
Very nice day today, isn't it. Yeah?
Yes, just you know, I completely forgot, and so much so I was writing up the rundown today. And as Todd and I were sitting here, go Firstie, what's the day day the tenth yep? I was like, why did you say yup like that?
And I completely forgot?
Why was I walking around with balloons and like fake presents in my arms? That's just kind of weird looking for attention?
Would you like a cake today?
Would I like a cake today? I don't want to ask for a cake. If a cake happens to a pier, I would enjoy taking a piece.
Ready, all right?
It was also to appear, I would enjoy taking a piece of that as well.
It's not for me to say, get me a cake.
It's just a yes or no, that's all.
If a cake appears, I will have a nice big piece of cake. But I won't be offended.
If we don't have cakes, okay, then no cake because you didn't really?
Oh no.
If Fritzie asked for a yellow cake with chocolate frosty, he did.
He did.
There was actually like a marble cake with a lot of confetti and whip cream and stuff.
I'm going to ask you one more time, do you want a birthday cake today? I would like a cake Okay, that's that's not dip.
But I'll talk about like an ice cream taker that's a little crunchies.
If that's what you want, I'll send one of the brgs out to get you.
Yeah, I'd go ice cream take on one of those marble cakes.
Okay, all right, Happy Birthday, Times your Day, All Day, Your Day. Stat of the Day brought to you by PENAI America, the official trading cards of the program. So we'll talk to Chris Berman forty five years at the Mothership and John Smoltz on the col last night as the Dodgers win that one, and they won it convincingly. Eight pitchers in that game. Mets beat the Phillies Francisco Lindor Grand Slam. They advanced to the NLCS. The Tigers are up to one on the Guardians. I liken this matchup to you know, sometimes we'll have that game at noon on Saturday and it's Rutgers against Maryland, a football game. That's what this feels like. They're kind of, you know, hiding it away a little bit. You have to kind of go out of your way to find it. But the Tigers, they are fun to watch. Yanks up to one on the Royals and Jim Carlos Stanton, come on down again. I didn't know where you were with Aaron Judge not hitting well, but you know, I'm looking at his home run rate. And I have a couple of friends who are Yankee fans, like, why are you so tough on Gim Carlos Stanton. I go, I would never pay three hundred, two hundred, one hundred million for Giancarlos Stanton. But he had three of New York's four hits, including a home run in a double and they lead to two games to one. So he has twelve home runs in one hundred and nine postseason at bats, so that home run rate is nine point zero eight. The only player with at least one hundred postseason at bats to homer more frequently than Gen Carlos Stanton. Babe Ruth, Babe Ruth.
Whooo how stat.
Of a day?
Stall of a day?
Stantata day, scant outa day. This is the stant of the day. So my apologies to GM, Carlos Stanton and the Stanton family. This first hour brought to you by the hottest Rookie's biggest superstars, the all time greats. The only place to collect them all Panini trading cards, the official trading cards of the Dan Patrick Show, instant classics, autograph cards, memorabilia cards, rare inserts and more. Starter continue collection now at Paniniamerica dot net.
Good morning.
If you're watching on Peacock, thank you for downloading the app and our radio affiliates around the country. So play the day, poll questions, stat of the day, all of that coming up, and your phone calls each seven to seven three DP. Show operator Tyler is sitting by to take your phone calls. It was a fun day of baseball. It's one of those where I was driving home and all of a sudden, I'm flipping channels and I got and the Tigers will go to the bottom of the six and I go, oh my god, forgot all about my Tigers. And then all of a sudden go home and watch the ninth inning, and then I got Mets in the Phillies, and I'm going, all right, this is good. I like this. And then the Dodgers blow out the Padres, forcing a game five. You got football coming up tonight, the Niners at the Seahawks. The Seahawks are getting three and a half, so Guardians, Tigers, Yankees and the Royals, but the big night was Francisco. Lindor came back from his back injury and has been on a tear. So eleven games since coming back from a back injury, he has three homers, eleven RBIs, six multi hit games in those eleven games, including the grand slam last night.
Now the Pitts swinging a drive towards the Capital light set and let's pretty deep.
It's back there the wall.
It's gone, It's gone, Francisco. He may have just outdone himself.
He has hit a grand slam into the Phillies bullpen and right center field.
The Mets are leading by a score.
Of four to one.
They were famished for the.
Big hit all night at Francisco.
Lindor just provided a feast Mets four, Phillies won here on the sixth then eight.
I believe that's the Mets radio call. I believe checking because this is how the Phillies radio call went.
Two and one.
Here's the pitch swung on, belted up the olley right center and that ball is gone Francisco, and the door turns the game around.
A grand slam for the door.
Mets lead four to one here in the bottom of the sixth.
Though, think you're wrong.
I think you have them switched. I think the more we just played was the Mets call.
Really gets pretty excited. No, it's Sara already had the joke. We had the joke by Bert.
They don't give me a hard time.
It's a nine oh eight, a long day anying.
Eight about that.
How he rose, he was into it. Thank you, you're annoying, so Lindor. Of the Grand Slam, the Mets advanced to the NLCS as they beat up on the Phillies. I like that you have these like inner division games because there's already that build in rivalry. But the Padres and the Dodgers, although not as much last night, but the Phillies and the Mets, Tigers and the Guardians maybe not as heated, but still that familiarity. That's what's fun watching this. Uh, the Yankees and the Royals. I mean, the Yankees will be lucky to survive because this Royals team is a good team. The Yankees do have star power. But you know, even watching last night, you're just it feels like they're not a great team. But they did come up with a couple of big hits. You only have four hits and Gen Carlos Stent was the star of that game. And then the Dodgers. That series with the Padres is all tied up. You know. It was Mookie bets early and all of a sudden that kind of set the tone there of the Dodgers, and I kept waiting. I kept waiting for you guys got to go after this because this Padre team and that atmosphere and it felt like, oh boy, you better do something early. And then they did, and then the Padres never recovered. But the Dodgers using eight pitchers, I mean, get used to this. This is this is the new norm where you're like, I got a starting reliever is what you have. And it's not like the Dodgers have a great pitching staff, so they you really have to piece this together. It's almost like a jigsaw puzzle of that guy goes there, and then he'll go this number of batters, and then this guy goes there, and then all of a sudden, you're kind of piecing it all together n Erubik's cube. But you really have to manage this. And they gave up seven hits and end up blowing out the Padres. Yes, Paul.
It's such a weird thing because if you see a box score where a team used eight pitchers, they got beat like thirteen to one back in the old days, and now it's smart managing. Smoltz was walking this through it last night, like this guy will pitch to these two guys and he's done, and it was like he's orchestrating it.
Yeah, but you're seeing it and it's way too I know Tony larusa ushered this in a long, long time ago. It just takes away that this guy is on the mound second time through the lineup. I you know, analytics, I haven't embraced it because I think there's more to baseball than just this is what the numbers say. Because I'm guessing your numbers are going to say the same thing as the opposing manager's numbers. You both have the same analytic in analyts in front of you. What you don't have is your gut feeling or I'm gonna go with this guy. I'm going to keep him in there instead of Nope, you've gone eleven pitches and that's it and you go sit down here. We're going to bring in the lefting. I don't like that. I mean, I love that atmosphere of he's staying in to face this guy.
Yes see right where you're showing up that like one on one battle. It's like it's always the pitcher versus the batter. But there are times where it feels like, all right, this is the matchup we've been looking for, you know.
And Derek Jeter brought this up the other night post game, and he said, when you get to the postseason, it's still about starting pitching. Now, not as much, but because if you have it, it's such an advantage if you have the guy who can go five or six and then take that pressure off your bullpen because you know, Game five for the Dodgers Padres, it's all hands on deck. You know, you're trying to get your guy a little bit of a break there, or hey, can you eat up some innings here so we can hold off because we're gonna need these guys in Game five. Yes, set.
And the crazy thing too about using that many pitchers is that you're requiring each of them is required to be on that night. You know, there are some nights that you just reach back and it's not there. You can't find the plate or the ball's not moving the way you want it to.
Whatever that is.
There's a million things that can go wrong for a pitcher.
You're requiring each of those five, six, seven, eight guys to be on that night.
And you're asking them to throw thirty pitches or less. But the preparation to get ready for your thirty pitches or less, that's the stressful part. It's not I mean you have to go through your normal routine to pitch. Not hey, you're not pitching tonight, good, it's you're gonna be ready to go now. You know you've got to prepare accordingly, and then you're gonna have to do that again for Game five. So it's not just hey, go out there and face a couple of hitters. It's do your prep that you normally do because you're going to be in the lineup at some point tonight and you have eight pitchers here the Tigers they use six pitchers a combined three nothing shut out of the Guardians. This is what's happening now in baseball. It's kind of get to the fourth fifth inning and then all of a sudden, here comes the arms in there. I just wonder what this does for salaries with starting pitchers because it used to be well in some cases you had got Verlander and Scherzer and kershawm Garrett Cole. I mean they're making some coin. I would not be paying my pitchures not. You know, unless it gets back to that you're you're actually concerned about somebody's arm, and that it doesn't have to be one hundred miles an hour, then you might get back and you know, maybe it's cyclical. Maybe baseball comes back to this years from now, and they say, you know, it's not about it's about location, because I'm watching last night, and if you put it in a certain spot, no matter how hard you throw, they are going to wolf it down. They are going to They're going to make you pay for it. That's why you still have to have location. If you have movement in location, I'll take that over velocity any day. But we're so drunk with velocity exit velocity. I don't care. I just care where did you put the ball? And I'm watching last night in the Phillies and the Mets, and all of a sudden they just wait you out. They're waiting for one pitch and you're going to eventually make a mistake and when you do, they're going to make you pay for it. But those pitchers who have location and some movement, boy, that's what I would be my scouts. That's what I'd be saying. I don't care if they throw a hunting because I'm going to lose you for a season. If you throw one hundred miles an hour, I will eventually lose you for a year at least with Tommy John. If I have somebody who is ninety five with location control, that to me is where I would go. It's nice to have that guy. I mean, everybody throws close to one hundred miles an hour. It's like it almost feels like, man, we're going to really screw them up. This guy's only gonna throw ninety three. Well, ninety three is still fast. Just letting you know if you've stepped into the batter's box. But that's now a slider, a ninety three mile an hour slider. I think baseball eventually gets back to we have a starting line. You know, we have starting pitchers who can go six innings. God forbid, they could go seven innings.
They'll be on a pitch count of corn. Yes, Pum, I just looked it up. At how they're demphasizing the starting pitcher. This year in baseball, fifteen pitchers pitched two hundred or more innings. Twenty years ago, forty seven pitchers pitched.
Two hundred or more innings.
That's not I mean, that's a while back, but not long ago.
That's not the eighties.
I know. And look, I've said baseball has had a good year. I just wish we still had some starting pitchers, because that's what the postseason is about. It's about starting pitchers and your closer. I got guys who are coming in and they're like, uh, you know, he's gonna throw nine nine pitches? Why nine? That's his limit. He's gonna throw nine, like nine pitches.
Okay.
I hope we go back and find that it's okay to have somebody who doesn't throw a huntie. All I know is when Mark McGuire faced Randy Johnson, and Randy Johnson threw it a hundred and Mark McGuire hit it two hundred, and I went, you know, it's it's hard to hit a home run if somebody is not throwing it hard. But when you throw it hard and you make contact and you're a major league hitter, it'll go, it will go.
Yeah, And that's like a battle of like titans, right, I mean, look at the two names that you just put the put out there. That's like you don't get that as much now, but that that's like a man.
But that's what I miss, Like I love like this school old kid with Detroit. I mean he's a beast. I mean he really is. And then you're thinking, this is the way pitching used to be. You would have a guy who's gonna go seven and just deal. I do miss that. I do miss that deal. Alrighty, let's take a break. Todd's birthday today ten ten ten, ten.
Ten months, same day, same year, right.
Ten ten wins. We'll get a cake in here at some point today for Fritzy, and if you want to wish him a happy birthday, you can please.
All jokes all the time, ten ten wins.
Thank you. See, I don't try today like today day?
You know?
Is that trying too?
You said ten ten wins.
They say all news all the time. I said all jokes all the time. You call me the Minister of humor. I thought that fit nicely.
There.
Got to be pretty familiar with what ten ten wins is.
Yeah, that's that's really, really, really local.
It's very New York. Yes, but they do say it's the most listened to news stations in the countries. I guess people are listening online somehow.
Are they still in existence?
CBS is not eight eighty Am does not do news anymore.
Let's take a break here. Back after this.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live.
Chris Berman, Hall of Fame broadcaster, Chris and Booger McFarlane, host of NFL Primetime every Sunday night during the NFL season on ESPN Plus. And Chris Berman alhen is forty fifth year at the Mothership. Wow, how you doing?
I'm good, Hey pal? How are you proud of you? Listen? I mean I had the wide shot just before we started. I was trying to identify all the do dads in front of it, you know, in front of your microphone. But that would take several hours of inventory, wouldn't it.
Would you like to donate something to the man cave?
Let me I have rooms here which the doors closed that I can't get in anymore. So I'm sure there's something there of interest. I'm not sure what I'll get back to you.
Dan.
You know what I would love if you'd be willing to do this one of your famous jackets that you wore on Sports Center, Maybe an autograph mauve sport coat that I could that I could that I could frame and put up here in the man Cave. Would you be well open to that?
Yeah, well, I have to check that. That's a whole other closet. The one that you really wanted is it was before even you were with us for the Getting Red. We look like Marriott Bellman, you know, for a while there in the eighties. And the thing is you wouldn't need as large a frame for those jackets as you would now, So you're you know, I'll look into it.
All right. I appreciate that. But when you look back, how wild was the Wild West when you first got to ESPN, Because I got there a few years after you guys launched, because I was at CNN at the time. But the guys who were there talked about it was was it the wild West when you guys were doing Sports Center?
Well, it was the Wild West? In which we at the very very beginning, there were what you know, the seventy or eighty of us in the hole that did everything from president of the company to someone that kept track of the tapes. We were all just about all of us really young twenties and thirties. We were rebels without a clue. We but we got to do sports all the time. And it's hard for a lot of your you know this, but it's hard for a lot of your under forty, especially listeners viewers. Dan understand the table for Yeah, he asked that twenty four hour sports, what do you guys, nuts Walter Kronkite gets thirty minutes for the news of the entire world, and you're gonna talk about tennis and budapets com for five minutes, are you so? I mean, I'm kidding a little, but but it was more. Would Cable even make it? But we didn't. I don't want to say we didn't care. I mean my dad would say, you think it's gonna make it, Chris, I went, if it makes it two years. Personally, I'll be I'll be I'll know if I'm any good and at her or not. And in the meantime, I'm doing the show at two thirty in the morning Eastern nice drive home at four A during a snowstorm. The plows didn't come to five. But it was just sports, so there was a camaraderie that's like startups that make it, but it was more this and I'll end this answer with in retrospect, we rode cables coat tails, as did CNN, which started in nineteen eighty. We were seventy nine at MTV when it was MTV was what eighty two something like that. I think, so those three used to pick out a few road cables coattails, but then Cable wrote ours at CNN included you know. So it's kind of an interesting progression and a straight up progression, which now, of course Cable is not what were. We had over one hundred homes, one hundred homes, a hundred million homes, but back then I wouldn't trade it for anything. We were just we were just like I said, we were Lewis and Clark without a compass. But we loved every minute of it.
And I don't know if there was a moment that all of a sudden it changed At the ESPN, was there acquisition or college basketball felt like Big Monday was a big deal. But do you remember if there was like that, Oh my gosh, if not for that, then maybe we don't have ESPN.
Okay, so the answer I was going to go with, but it wouldn't apply here eight years in when we got the Sunday Night Football eight games and prime time went or not that I would do in the show, nothing could do with it. But that was the we're really going to be a major Maybe not at the time networks are a major player. So that's not the answer. I don't know. College basketball was the good idea along with Sports Center Dan that you and Keith progressed from where Tommy and Bob and George and I could go on and on and on, and so many others contributed to it. We had college hoops on, you know, in the middle of the week, right out of the gates, and that was let alone the tournament, and so that was a hmm. And then I don't want to say the NFL Draft because we'd have it on Tuesday morning at eight am. But again, it was a thing that you had to kind of find us if you really cared about it. But was there an a one aha moment I'll give you it's not the answer, but you'll find this interesting because you probably don't. So the year sailboat racing not normally something that I would go to you and I talking about, okay, the year that the America's Cup fell to the Australians with the Wayne Keel in Newport at nineteen three. Now, of course this was like a Cuban election, the America's Cup up to that point, like we would win, okay, Like they'd have to sail across from Europe. It couldn't build the boat over here. I mean, that's one of the many rules that you don't think they were starting as a fifteen point underdog. Of course, of course they were. But it was the seventh and deciding race, and a Providence station had a helicopter or two and we picked up the feed on a Tuesday, I want to say a Tuesday after on at three o'clock Eastern and the ratings, which whatever they were at the time, were through the roof. I mean, it's not the Super Bowl, but you mean people are finding ESPN. They heard and somebody called someone in their own hey watched the seventh and deciding race of the America's Cup. And the offsees beat the Americans, and that was a moment to myself that I went, you know, maybe we're actually onto something. So that's not the defining moment, but there's a moment that you and I didn't think we would be talking about ten minutes ago.
How much gambling was going on in the early days of ESPN.
We were all interested in the games. We didn't have a lot of money, myself included, so as far as it being dangerous and getting out of whack, you know, there were a few that I better hit the Monday night game, and that's what I'm nervous about to this day when anybody can do it at any time. But it was more fun. Here's the fun that we had one time. So we had our our softball team that played at ten am, right because we worked either at all three in the morning or at least midnight or one. And it was with a couple of bars in Hartford Post Office, the night post Office group, and I think the fee was twenty five bucks dan to play as a team, you know, each person and we want to play, we got to put up five on it whatever it was, and it was on me, which is a lot of pressure. Okay, we need a this is February or March. We're gonna put whatever. It was a lunch back, like, okay, we're all going in for twenty five bucks on on some college basketball game or an April baseball game. A lot of pressure. I was three for three, So I was a hero, I guess, not because I might be able to hit the ball, but to be honest with you, it's more like for fun. It wasn't. It wasn't a lot of and I'm glad it wasn't. I mean people at mortgage payments later on and shouldn't be doing that.
We're talking to Chris Berman. The Hall of Famer. You got the Pete Roselle Award? Was that twenty ten Hall of Fame?
Yes?
Can we get Brent Musburger in the Hall of Fame for contributions to the game for the Pete Rose one.
He should have been in there long before me. I mean that's for sure.
I mean he started the pregame show.
Yes, I wanted to be him, to be honest with you, one of the goals I have, Boy, if I could, if I could be Brent, that'd be pretty cool. Wherever it was that I was going to beat Brett. I'm not and I don't think I ever became Brant. I had his quote job. So that's that's crazy. I don't know what it. Maybe it was because I don't know why I'm not on. You know, they don't. We're not on any committee dan that you know, former winner winners or what. Do you think we're not asked. I'm not saying we should be. I'm not sure how that selection goes. They obviously let a lot of things slide when I got in. But but but yeah, the fact that I I just assume. I know he's not, but I always assume. Of course, yeez, he invented the job the NFL today was for us growing up. But you know it's amazing. That was half an hour. Yeah, we went on on game day at the time, you guys going to do an hour and then an hour and a half. It was, oh my god, the earth, the sky is falling. So yeah, he should has a good comment. I mean, I'm sure you've debated on your show, Pete Rose, baseball, let alone bonds and clements, but Brent, for this is not at the he is at the same level in our business at all time Giant. I know you agree, Yeah, I do.
I was wondering about this with the Jets. Why are certain franchises cursed? You've been a Jets fan for a long time.
I grew up at Chase Stadium. I wore white shoes into home room in eighth grade the day after they won the Super Bowl. The bad news that was the nineteen sixty eight season. Okay, so it's not like they've never you know, Rex Ryan herm at him in the playoffs. I mean, it's not like they have the tarp in Miami. I mean, the Jet fans know all this. I don't know that we could put our finger on it. It's not that they're I still think they're probably more Giant fan than Jet fan, but than they could do with it. I don't know. They're like, you're right, They're like pig pen in Charlie Brown, right, like they there's a cloud. And I don't know that this lifts it. With the coaching change, will see, because they've all in with Aaron and they my godd, he's the Hall of Famer and let's see what he's got. But however, this year it turns out and I know he wants to play longer. I'm not. I'm not. I don't have a solid answer for fifty plays, you know, and then the longest drought of getting in. There's a lot of eye rolling with the Jets. And there are the Jets, right, I mean, and they've had good teams, they have a great fan base. But and they everybody spells j Ets correctly. I think spelling be right.
What happens first, you retire or the Jets go to the Super Bowl?
Oh, I retire? I think. I mean that sounds like I'm not. I don't think they're going to get there this year. They could. I mean, they put all in and then wherever Aron takes him this and or next year, and then when he's out, they reshuffle the decks so that it's not looking good. I'm not doing this till I'm seventy years in the business. Stand I mean, I you know, I may not do it till fifty. It's not the point to put the point wouldn't to be at ESPN for fifty years. I didn't think of it till the summer. Actually, when hey, you're going to be forty five years really means I'm old. So that's like the Casey stenkl quote, which you remember nineteen sixty two the forty and one twenty New York Mets. It's a good question. I thought of this as soon as you asked it. With a forty and one twenty, which the White Sox lost more games, but at forty one and one twenty one, their percentage is still a little better than those Mets. So they didn't quite get out of the book. By the way, Casey said the manager man will walk on the moon before the Mets win the World Series. Yeah, of course he was right, but it was only seven years later, nineteen sixty nine summer they walked October They one, Yeah, no, they'll They're probably in the waiting room for a while. Still. I look, I may not get that far I got. You know, who knows if they'll have me. I hope. So that's I like what I do still, and I think I think prime Time is still fun for people to watch. I mean, I still hear about it and I do some other things, and it's not about me. It's like, I still think the one thing about Prime Time, and I went to Jimmy Petero a while ago, I said, you think we can get the rights for this is ESPN plus thing is new twenty nineteen. It's a big impetus. Maybe that's the last thing I can help you put on the map. You know, I'll come back and do it. And it's not us alone. But they're in thirty five million as opposed to three million homes. Well three million homes is what we were in one nineteen seventy nine. To get back to your question. So I feel fulfilled and that it helped propel one last thing. It's not really about me, it helped us. Uh what do you think? Uh, I'm not retiring. I mean, I ain't going past fifty. I can't even see that Jets win a Super Bowl in five years.
No, probably not, I hope before I let you go. The nickname that youth, that is the most underrated one of your nicknames that you use during doing Sports Center down the highlights.
Well because the famous Berkeley homble eleven. You're not talking about those, Julio, won't you let me take you on a sea cruise? I mean, I mean that's the fund underrated ones that applied to where a player play. And you know you don't you can't invent those. Royce Clayton was a shortstop of San Francisco, Royce o'rony, Clayton Creek, and then this was actually being an American history major. Again's a good question. Carlos Piego was a really good player, mostly with the Indians, right, I can still say the Indians, that's what they were. But he came to Boston late in his career, and I'm like, okay, one of Carlos, one of pie Land, two of by Sea, three of Fire, and I thought that was that was fitting at Boston. Yeah, those are the kind of ones that took a little extra maybe twenty seconds of limited brain power rather than ten seconds. I know I'm not bad, right, Yeah, Yeah.
Hey, great to see you. Forty five in counting. Go get them?
Uh what's your number? How long you've been in the business?
Close to me, I've been doing it forty years. So I got a I got an endgame. Though. Christmas Eve of twenty twenty seven going to pull the plug on this show.
I mean, all the Christmas lights go out, you just do it?
Yep.
What happens to this stuff in front of the gesk though, I'm concerned.
This is the Dansonian and we're just going to let people come in, I guess and take a tour, you know, see all the stuff that I've compiled for forty years, and they'll be able to see your jacket, the autograph jacket that we're going to get from you soon.
I want to see it. Mauv is still it's a word. It's a color that's kind of gone out of style, so therefore I'm not looking to wear it. Listen, I'm proud of where you've gone, not since you with us, but I've told you that before Sports Illustrated writing for while these shows you're still must listen, so people enjoy you, people enjoy your point of view, the guests you're able to get other than this one, and I much appreciated, proud of you. And look, we're survivors, Dan. Not quite sure how we are, but we are.
We're dinosaurs, well that's for sure.
And we may not be t Rex. We may be like Stegosaurus.
That's okay. Yeah, thank you, Thank you, Chris.
Nice to see you, Chris Berman.
You can see Chris and Booger McFarlane NFL Primetime every Sunday night during the NFL season on ESPN Plus.
Be sure to catch the live edition of the Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Let me get to John Smoltz and then I'll try to bring back those emotions or memories there kind of a blur, painful, don't want to get emotional here in the final hour, it's Todd's day. It's Todd's birthday. John Smoltz, who shares a birthday with me on the call for the Padres Dodgers. Now we got Game five in La coming up tomorrow. Explain the Dodgers pitching strategy last night, John, because I likened it to a jigsaw puzzle or Rubik's Cube, where you Dave Roberts had to make all of that work and somehow did last night.
Yeah, they're limited, right, They put a roster together, They're supposed to have a great pitching staff and that's been beat up. So they got to the postseason best record, all the pressure in the world on them, and then they really don't have a game for starters. So I've always said in a vacuum, you could do it one time. It's hard to do it all the time. You just need one guy to mess up, but give him credit. Every single guy came in. The score was lopsided. He's stick with He stood with those guys, even though he could have gone a different direction. And I think part of it is he didn't want the Padres to get any momentum, any rally, anything going, So that Game five is a total different atmosphere now, even though everyone knows the Padres offense can explode. So he did a great job last night and sold the bullpen.
Normally it used to come down to starting pitching. It doesn't anymore. What do you think game five comes down to?
Well, Game five and elimination, winner take all always comes down to the shortest leash for starters. So whatever starter goes longer, you think puts that team in a better chance to be successful. Look, the Mets have had great starting pitching. They've moved on. You've got teams that are trying to like the Tigers, they're at the I mean every game is a miracle game. They've been playing momentum baseball. We've seen this new playoff format put a lot of stress on the teams that have had rest. Their offense doesn't get going. There's a lot of things in the mix, and for the Dodgers. Really, Game five comes down to can they do the things and the top of their lineup, whether Freddie's in there or not, to match what the Padres have done in the first three innings. It's been a simple formula. Padres explode early, they win, and last night they didn't.
Yeah, you know that atmosphere I thought in San Diego, I mean that that was Can you maybe compare another atmosphere that you had in San Diego these last two games, you know, Philadelphia, Philly, You're right, they were.
This is a stand all the time. It doesn't matter what the score is. Something's a rally. Two zero counts a rally. And I said in the postseason, the teams that handle the cleanest innings and don't allow some hiccup. You know what, rallies were starting with two out walks. They were starting with a walk. So I love it. I think San Diego's atmosphere la will be raucous. I mean, these two teams don't like each other. It's well known, and they're now kind of sparking this rivalry because they're both good. I can make the argument that the San Diego Andres have the deepest roster and maybe the best roster in the postseason. But now they're going to have to find a way on the road to get by.
The Dodgers a better chance of making mistake to Bonds and not paying for it or Otani.
You know, Bonds was in an unbelievable world of his own. But what Otani's done now is early Bonds would steal a base and make you pay for walking around him. Otani will steal a couple bases, right, He'll just absolutely beat you on the path. So they've shown and he's shown that he is vulnerable to certain pitches. But here's the problem in the game today. There's a few pitchers that can go three times to that spot. We've got such a max effort and great stuff, but every hitter today is looking for that one mistake. And when Otani gets it, you mean I get it back.
And you bring up a great point. I brought this up earlier. I sound like the guy who says, get off my lawn. If I was developing pitching or looking for pitching, I want to see somebody who can you give me legitimate velocity but has location and movement. If you give me that, I'll let you throw a hundred I don't care, but if you give me location in movement, and that's what I don't understand that, And we're not going to be developing these pictures because everybody's throwing a hundred. You got to throw a hundred, and yes, I mean that's to me. God, I would love to have those kind of pictures.
Well, rule changes will come again to effectively change that. Again when you think about the way the game is operated. Look, I understand it's harder to hit today than ever before because velocity is at an all time high.
But we're no rule changes are you talking about.
They'll be pitching rule changes that will change the philosophy. To get you more to what you're saying, because if I'm having every picture break down and we're having this epidemic of pitching injuries orizational philosophy is not going to change unless there's a rule change, and that could be anywhere from you tie in your starting pitcher to the DH to roster manipulations that don't happen. You can only have so many relievers on a team. There's ways to affect the game, no different than two years ago. But your point is well taken because if I don't have to teach a guy command and I just have to teach him how to throw that nasty stuff in that box. Then the hitting styles are going to stay the same. Swing for the fencers hope to connect, and you're only going to find a few elite pitchers that can throw a ball in the area that gets a pitcher out, that gets a hitter out. A well placed pitch still gets a hitter out.
But it is the kind of philosophy that we're dealing with, and right now it takes more pitchers than a game to do that.
Talking to John Smoltz, John will be on the call of Friday Night that'll be back in LA. Game time is eight eastern on Fox. Are the Mets a good team, great team or team of destiny?
I think they are a team of destiny. You could make a statement that this good team, which is on a great run, believes in itself that after two months of the season it looked horrible and they stood the course. And I really got to give them credit. That leadership inside and management took a took a hard look in saying what direction are we going? Many people maybe complained that they didn't go out and make a whole lot of moves before spring training was over. But what they did is establish themselves in the pitching rotation.
Again.
It comes down to a healthy starting rotation that now looks pretty good and a team that has gone through the gamut. You cannot have that roadmap and predicted they would be in this spot going to one sixty three. Well, in essence an extra day after the season playing a doubleheader. So I give them a lot of credit. That town's going to be on fire. They've been waiting a long time, and you've got really two teams kind of mirroring each other between the Padres, build it up, tear it down, Matt spend All kinds of you know, tear it down. And now look where both of those clubs back with a chance to go to the World Series.
I know that they're not musty TV, but the Tigers are a fun and I know you grew up a Tiger fan. It's fun to see and scooball might be the best pitcher in baseball. If they get to a game five, then he'll be pitching. But just to see that, I mean, it's weird because you're like, oh, the starting pitchers still in the game. John, It just does I mean he's that good that he's breaking the mold of what we have with starting pitchers.
Now.
He is that good. He pitches off his fastball, he's a big, strong down the hill, good mechanics. It's refreshing and it's one of the things that they said they were not going to do is trade him. They traded other pieces. This was not supposed to be their year. I know, I've done a few events in Lancing, Michigan, and they asked me how far are the Tigers. Away said they're not that far, and they're like, really, this was two months ago. I said, I think they're building something special there. A J. Hins done a nice job. He's got them to believe, and it seems like they're just burning the candle at both ends, trying to get just one win, just one win, and they're finding ways to do it. You might not have some wholesale names yet, but you're starting to develop some of that.
And their bullpen's been great.
Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Aaron Judge is probably going to the Hall of Fame when it's all said and done, but he is not a good postseason performer. He's batting two hundred. You know he's striking out every third time in postseason?
How does that?
I know there's certain guys who just do well in the postseason, maybe not the regular season, But how do you explain Aaron Judge struggling?
Yeah, I would say the attention and the over magnified approach to Aaron Judge is going to be hyper focused in the postseason. When every starter or every pitcher gets the scorecard, the lineup card, and they circle Aaron Judge. They don't pitch them that way in the regular season. It's too long of a season. He's facing too many different pitchers. He's a great hitter that when he gets unlocked, I think we'll be able to handle what's coming at him because there's so much expected of him. The narratives in the postseason are like the worst things in the world if you're not able to put them aside and do your thing. And what I would say, not for everybody. And we know heart beats are different. If you're mechanically sound at the postseason, the game's easier. If you're struggling, you're off, you're pressing, the game's harder. You're asked ten times more about your mini slump than you would be in the regular season.
I have you what five career home runs, three career stolen bases regular.
Seasons and I got I got a couple in the postseasons.
Okay, of course, could you see yourself as in o'ton Were you Otani? They just wouldn't let you be Otani when you were when you were playing for the Braves.
You know, that's a great question, Dan, and it's probably trending towards yes, But I don't want to spend a lot of time on the fact that I was not given that opportunity. In all seriousness, I hope this opens the door for more open mindness towards players who are talented. Maybe not like him, but I rooted for him to stay healthy on the mount because people have yet to see how great this guy is on the mound, and hopefully he can show it over the next five years and stay healthy and avoid the injury.
Great to talk to you, Thanks for joining us, Safe travels my pleasure.
Yep, same to you.
It's John Smolt, Hall of Famer, World Series champ on the cy Young and of course the lead analysts for Fox. They don't have their Game five coming up at Dodger Stadium on Friday night,
