The Best of The Dan Patrick Show

Published Sep 25, 2024, 4:16 PM

Dan and the Danettes discuss the worst franchises currently operating in professional sports. Four-time All-Star Tommy John joined the show to discuss his Hall of Fame chances given his resume and having a famous arm surgery named after him. And MLB Network and Fox Sports Analyst Tom Verducci stopped by to break down some of the most exciting races for the postseason as well as Shohei Ohtani's record breaking season. 

You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.

A lot of baseball. Last night, the Padres clinched their playoff spot in dramatic fashion over the Dodgers with a triple play to end the game. Shoheyo Tani, who was in the on deck circle, now has fifty three home runs fifty five stolen bases, so he didn't add to those totals last night. The White Sox hold off infamy, but don't fret. There's still time for them to lose one more game to become the worst franchise in baseball history. And the Astros do not go away. It's been like eight years. They do not go away. They clinched the American League West. The Orioles have a postseason spot as well, so there's a lot of fun things happening in the final days of the season. The Astros beating the Mariners to clinch the West, so that's four consecutive American League West titles. Orioles Padres have clinched the top wild card spots in the AL and the NL, so sixteen still alive for the remaining two spots currently held by the Royals and the Type. I think the Tigers had less than one percent to be able to make the playoffs in August, less than one percent. It's been a great story. Three teams are fighting for two spots in the Nation League, Mets, Diamondbacks, Braves, all separated by one game. And if you look back now, this is recent history. Of course, Arizona made the World Series, they won eighty four games, struggled to get into the postseason. The Phillies finished third in the East. In twenty twenty two, they made it to the World Series, and then the twenty twenty one Atlanta Braves a losing record at the All Star Break and then they were able to win everything. It's always interesting. I bring it up those teams that are in playoff mode before the playoffs are always a dangerous out and we've seen that the last three years. All Right, poll question Today we say good morning to our radio affiliates around the country, numbering over four hundred cities. What's the poll question for hour one?

Well, we were kind of going with a positivity Wednesday. That's rare, so I'm gonna spin this into a positive in the you can only go up from here whole question. Franchise in the worst shape Hey, you can only go up from here.

That's great.

The franchise in the worst shape. The Carolina Panthers, they seem to be in real disarray.

Well, I don't know, after that big win against the Raiders, maybe they are back.

That to me just shows how lost they really are. The fact that that happened, well, one of us wasn't surprised with that. With the red rifle now obvious. Okay, I would say so Carolina Panthers. Yes, the Chicago White Sox clearly in not great shape historically. That by the way, they haven't heard this very often this season. This is how it sounded last night with the White Sox game with the Angels.

This trip, Donderson will walk on a first ont of history.

You'll have to wait because the Socks would have comeback of the kid. They get the three to win.

And win the opener.

All this three game series.

Courtesy of NBC Sports Chicago. And yes, the home crowd is booing because the White Sox ended up winning the game.

They're booing because they won. Yes, classic, that's fantastic.

It's like, damn it, we're here to see history. You screwed it up. They actually had a decent crowd last night for the game against the Angels. All right, so we have the White Songs, we have the Panthers. Who else you're throwing in there?

We're putting the Oakland A's in there for sure. Boy, the Oakland A's are just a disaster.

Would you rather be an Oakland A's fan or a Chicago White Sox fan? White Sox all day, all day?

M Okay, yes, tod It's an embarrassing season, but at least they're staying there and there's better times ahead and they're not leaving the city altogether.

At some point they're going.

To turn it around. I think there were chants of selling the team last night in Chicago, so they they may be staying, but it's one of those we don't want you to stay, yes, s.

Yeah, Chicago is kind of a one team town too, you know what I mean the Bears. You have the Bears, you have the Bulls. Then baseball is split between the two.

Yeah.

Still it's a Cubs town when it comes to baseball because of the atmosphere there. But I mean still it's a it's a Bears town. Stat of the Day brought to you by Panini America the official trading cards of the DP show. All right, who else are we adding to the list? Well, we have room for others, for sure.

It doesn't I was trying to go through NBA franchises and it doesn't feel like any are quite on the same level as these teams. Like the Pistons are down right now, but they're not like train Wreck. The Wizards are sort of always a punchline, but they have a little bit of steady like Arena drama I think too.

But they're not. No, that's NBA purgatory. When you're bad, like you've been a bad boy, they send you like not a bad boy, Piston bad boy. When you've got in trouble, you're not good, We're gonna send you to the Wizards. It's like getting Caball's equivalent of a timeout. You go to the Wizards.

It's like big paycheck, big attitude, low performance, go to the Wizards.

Come on out the rest of this contract. But it does feel like the Clippers should be in there because the Clippers haven't done anything. There have been expectations, and I know that they're a playoff team. I saw Kawhi Leonard had another knee procedure I guess in the offseason he's had as many as I have. Man, But it feels like the Clippers, even though they're good, we we kind of lump them in there because they're the great underachievers. But they're you know, seem to be moving in a good direction, right are they, Paul George, not there anymore Kawhi knee issues. You're in the shadow of the Lakers. Not to get a fancy plow, Yeah, like a fancy arena to watch your team underachieve. Yes, Pauline sham Sharania.

Just this morning, to throw a little sprinkle in here, Clipper star Kawhi Leonard underwent a knee procedure in the off season. Sources told him. The franchise said Leonard will be limited to strengthening his knee during training camp. That seems like a schedule tweet, by the way.

Yeah, game management. And here we come with with Kawhi.

I would I'll throw the Brooklyn Nets into a hopeless situation. They're considered one of the worst teams. They seem three years ago they were one of the more interesting, compelling, talented teams in the NBA and now they're floundering.

But I think Ben Simmons has been working on his jumper. Stop it.

Yeah, it worse with Chris uh what's his name, Chris Brinkley. Yeah, yeah, he is back.

Okay, Yes, it's a tradition unlike any other Ben Simmons summer workouts.

Yeah, a plus content.

Yeah. But also with the Nets, no one cares if they win the NBA title the parade in New York. So the Knicks day in Lane.

Okay, but what's the Clippers parade gonna look like if the Clippers win? Steeke Palmer, well, yeah, that'll be entertaining. Kawhi'd probably miss it due to a you know, parade parade. Man, I'm gonna have to get the next one. I'm not ready for this one. I'm gonna sit this one out. Yes, Paul, it does feel.

Like over the past generation or so, the Clippers have developed a nice fan base. Clearly you can't be the Lakers, but I bet a lot of people started following them. They could get tickets there when the Lakers were hard to get a ticket, and they seem much more relevant than the Brooklyn Nets on the East Coast.

I think, well, I think because there's expectations, then there's there's more disappointment. There's no expectations with the Nets, so you can't say, man, I'm disappointed Carolina Panthers. You can't say you're disappointed. Your expectations can't be very high. So I think that's where the Clippers you kind of lump them in there a little bit because they've been bad. They got good. We thought they were going to be really good, and then they disappointed year in and year out. You know, you have the hardened experiment and playing Paul George and then Kawhi and you know, we we thought they'd figured it out and then we realized that they hadn't. All right, So that's a possible poll question for our first tower. Okay, I think we run with that.

I'd also be curious to know which, if we had to only choose one, which one is in worse shape? The White Sox are the A's of those two?

Well, I think the A's going to Las Vegas. Eventually they're going to be in Sacramento. But if you eventually get to Vegas, it's almost like you kind of wash away everything, like you're a new team in a new town and hopefully you know, well, we're gonna find out if they're going to embrace baseball there. But I think that might be a better situation. I think financially, you're tapping into a whole new market there. Everybody won to get to Vegas. The NBA wants to put a team in Vegas. There, We've got a football team in there now, baseball is going to be there. So I would say I'd probably rather be Oakland. The artist formerly known as The A's going to a new town with a lot of potential. Yeah, is the A's.

Leaving Oakland getting enough attention?

I don't think they got enough attention even when they were there. So the attention they're getting is because they're leaving. But you're lump it in with the Raiders, you lump it in with Golden State, and I mean that's devastating for what was once a great sports city. Yeah, I think because they're not good. If Oakland was good and didn't draw people, I think that might be a little bit more interesting. But just nobody has cared for a few years now, and I think, yeah, all right, they're leaving, see you later.

Now.

I know there's diehards there that truly love watching baseball and have a tradition with the Oakland A's going back to the seventies. But I think because they're bad. I just and they're doing it during football season too, where you know, a lot of stories, you know, go to die during football season. Yes, Pauline.

One thing with the A's, there's a lot of teams that have been worse on the field over the past decade. Though the A's have made six playoffs in the past fourteen years, there's a lot of franchise that would take that. I'd like to throw the La Angels into this pole question.

Shoot.

Three years ago they were a five hundred team with Shohyotani and Mike Trout. Now Mike Trout is career I don't know where it is, and shoe Atani is the biggest player on earth for the crosstown team.

Yeah, I think they're talking about Mike Trout probably changing positions because of all the injuries, and there's even talk of could the Angels get out from underneath that contract and what it would cost them. I mean, that's that's a fall from grace. But we saw this coming. We kept saying, if you're ardi moreno, either sell the team or make sure you get something for Sho Heo Tani because he wasn't going to stay. Coming up a little bit later on Tommy John. Tommy John, was it fifty years ago today that he had Tommy John's surgery? Ton?

That is correct, exactly fifty years ago today. The injury happened in July seventeenth, but the actual surgery happened today fifty years ago.

Maybe we can get him to into the Hall of Fame. Two hundred and eighty eight wins for him, But I don't know when Tommy John goes in. He doesn't go in and say, hey, I want to have the Tommy John surgery. Give me the me what was the Tommy John surgery called before Tommy John? So Tommy will join us coming up next hour, and with he has over five hundred decisions, wins and losses over five hundred. I think he's two eighty eight and two thirty one, and he's not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Contributions to the game and two hundred and eighty eight wins seems like that would be enough to get him in, But we'll talk to Tommy coming up. Yes, Todd, would you take pride.

In the surgery being named after you or be like, ugh, I wish it was called you know, job surgery or anything other than my name.

Because good things have come from it. Yeah, but it was a it was considered a negative thing. If you went in for Tommy John. That was like back in the seventies, going in for ACL surgery, you're pretty much done, you know. Gail Sayirs goes in. He had had three great years and then blew out his knee. I think he had one good year after that got into the Hall of Fame. I think because of how he got injured and the fact that what he could have done, what he could have been sort of like Terrell Davis a little bit there. But yeah, that was that was pretty much a death sentence for a picture if you had to go in for that surgery. Now it's almost like a badge of courage, like, hey, you're going in for a TJ surgery. Yeah good? Oh your third one okay?

Yeah.

Yeah, it's like preemptive now where you just get it younger and younger to get it out of the way. Tommy John surgery. But yeah, I wouldn't imagine that you would be happy with your name being attached to something that makes everyone immediately grimace, you know where you're like, oh yeah, Tommy John. Uh, you don't really think of the pitcher first. You think of the surgery. You know, I don't know, it just seems tough, do you.

I wonder how he feels about a surgery named after him, because it's made him relevant, but it kind of overshadowed his career. That and he pitched in big markets. He pitched in LA pitched in Chicago, and two hundred and eighty eight wins. Now you can say, okay, he's a compiler, but still Frank Gore is a compiler. But Frank Gore has what thirteen thousand rushing yards gonna be a Hall of Famer. And I still think Tommy at two hundred and eighty eight wins should be in the Hall of fame. And his era is like three point three to one or something like that. Yes, time, but now.

From a positive standpoint, you can say it up. I thought my career was over, but thanks to Tommy John surgery, I live another day on the mountain.

I'm not done.

And you ever, he wasn't able to cash in. You know, if it was happening now, he probably do you know one of those commercials where Hi, I'm Tommy John, and I can help revitalize your career if you have the Tommy John surgery. Yeah, maybe not.

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Tommy John. He spent twenty six years in Major League Baseball, won two hundred and eighty eight games. He has a podcast called Rubbing Elbows with Tommy John. His website Tommy John twenty five dot net. His number was twenty five. His Facebook group is Tommy dot John Cooperstown, which hopefully we get him into Cooper's TWN. Tommy, good to see you again. You have the oddest type of fame. When did you embrace that your famous kind of for Tommy John surgery.

Oh god, it was a long.

Time after I was out of baseball and everybody Tommy John surgery, Tommy John surgery, Tommy John surgery.

Again.

I didn't name it Tommy John surgery. Doctor Joe did, and so he's the one that stuck me with that.

Do you know what it was called before you had the surgery?

It wasn't called because it had never been done.

But like they just said, you're getting owner surgery. Like when getting over, the.

Name of the surgery was owner collateral ligament replacement with the Paul Merris longest tender. And after they got through and I served, you know, then doctor Joe, that's most orthopedics do, went out and talked to other doctors and he said, I just got tired of saying that that's such a long drawn out name. And I came down with, you know the surgery I did on Tommy John. You know the surgery I did on And then they cut it down to you know, Tommy John surgery.

Why there it is?

Did you almost not do it?

No?

Because I wanted to pitch again and the only way I was going to pitch again was to have the surgery.

Maybe, how did it catch again?

How did it feel after you had your surgery? Was there any difference in how you pitched or you know, how hard you knew, or any improvement.

I have no idea how hard I threw before surgery, because thank god, we didn't have radar guns. And you see guys out there now with radar guns that don't know squat about pitching, but they go, oh, man, look at.

That's he's good. And he's good because he's got numbers on the gun.

Well, yeah, and we've we've hatched a whole new generation of throwers, not pitchers. And it almost feels like, hey, if I blow out my arm, I can always have Tommy John surgery or multiple Tommy John surgeries.

Well there's four or five guys that have had the surgery twice, and you know, I don't know the wherewithal about that, but.

Obviously they were doing something wrong.

Does the surgery or your name attached to this surgery help or hurt your Hall of Fame case?

I think it hurts it because when you look at two eighty eight and I had one hundred and eighty eight no decisions, the most in baseball history. So he take two hundred and eighty eight wins and one hundred and eighty eight no decisions. There's a lot of wins and those no decisions.

Well, if you get in, and I hope you do, and I've said this before, you had whatever five hundred decisions when you pitch your e er and erry respectable. But can we have instead of your bust or a plaque can we just have you know, maybe the arm, Yeah, your arm? Can we do a statue of your arm if you get into the Hall of Fame, Tommy.

Yeah, that somebody will come up with that.

But you know, I have the the cast that doctor Job put on me after the surgery, and my wife Cheryl and I decided that we wanted to donate it to a charity, and we donated to the Smithsonian Institute. So if you go to the Smithsonian and go to their sports Hall of Records or whatever, you'll see the Tommy John cast autograph. Oh by all the Dodgers, then Scully, Jerry Dogget Danny Murtaw because back in that period of time, I wanted to go sit on the bench during the ballgame, and you had to get the okay from the opposing manager. So I go up to him with my arm in the cast, and I said, Danny, I just want to sit on the bench and watch the game.

Can I?

He said two things. Promise me you won't go out on the field during a fight and hit somebody.

With the cast.

And I said okay, and he said, secondly, I want to sign it. So the first person to sign my cast was Danny Murtau the Pittsburgh Pirates.

How soon after your surgery did the second pitcher go in for surgery?

The second pitcher was Brent Strong and Stramy is a longtime pitching coach with many teams. But I think it was like a year later, year and a half later.

Well, you're you're Neil Armstrong. So Stramy is the second person on the moon. You know, I'm try we yes, we remember you. I thought contributions to the game. Now, I would have thought to eighty eight would be enough to get into the Hall of Fame. But if I attached contributions to the game, do you feel like you've contributed to the game because of the surgery that you had?

Oh my god, yes, I'm with you.

If TO eighty eight can't get you into the Hall of Fame, then I don't want in.

I'll just stay outside. And uh and and look, I don't mean that, but.

Don't say that. Now. There's a campaign to get you in next next year.

Well, you know, here's what my wife, Cheryl believes this. My number was twenty five, and if I go into the Hall of Fame, it'll be twenty twenty five.

And what's the other twenty five. Mabe.

Oh.

The address of the Hall of Fame is twenty five Main Street, Cooperstown.

I like that. I think that's awesome. But you know what, if you're not successful, then we don't have Tommy John surgery. So that's that's where you won twenty games. I think you had one twenty one season. I think after you had Tommy John surgery. Is that sound right.

After surgery?

Yeah?

I think I had three.

Oh, you didn't have any prior to surgery.

I don't think so.

Oh okay, because I think he won ten games the following year, and I thought you I was ten and ten.

Yeah, I was ten and ten, and then that was seventy six, seventy seven, seventy eight. I may have squeezed twenty out of there.

Do people ask to see your elbow your arm when they meet you.

All the time?

What's it?

And what's it?

You know?

And I make them I'll make them pay me.

Is there a scar? Uh?

There was a very visible scar and now it's kind of pulled back and uh it's you got really got a look to see it.

Also, But Tommy I don't know if he's proud of this. He managed to make three errors on one play? That was what when you were with the Yankees.

Yeah, yeah, it takes quite a feeldor.

To do that.

How did you commit three errors on one play?

They hit the ball back to me, I mean between the mound and first base, and I come charging in and I picked the ball up. Drop it, pick it up, drop it, pick it up, drop it. Then why I did what I did? I picked the ball up and I underhanded through it to first base and threw it by the first basement, way out in the left field. Well, that's air number two. And the right fielder gets it and throws it in and misses the cutoff man, and I'm just standing there and I pick it up and they go home. And I turned and I fired it by the catcher's ear like that, and that's air number three.

Well, congratulations.

You know you got to if you're going to go down in baseball history, go down doing something good.

But you were around big personalities, like what's your favorite story, whether it's in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, where you run into a celebrity or a player.

I've got two quick ones. I'm going out to the car. This is with the Dodgers because Yankees. The only people that would go out to the ball game would be the mob.

The mob.

Oh okay, you you ran into the mob.

Oh yeah, because I had Italian friends.

That okay.

But I'm I'm going I'm leaving the ballpark and I had just fetched that day, and I'm going to the car and I hear Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, and somebody's waving a turn around and I go, holy, it's Carry Grant and he comes up and you know how I I You know, but when I was with the Dodgers, I'm sitting on the bench and the clubhouse kid comes down and he said, Tommy, you're wanted up in Losorda's office. Well, I turn and I look to my right and the Losorta's down on the end of the bench standing. So I go up and the door's locked, and I knock on the door and the door opens, and here standing in his tidy whiteies as Don Rickles and come in and lock the door. And I said, Rickles, I'm not that.

Kind of a guy.

I said, do you think everybody just And he said get in here, you puttson, and he said, look, you're the only guy I could count on. He was going to be ball boy, and he wanted to be dressed properly, so I dressed him, make sure all this stuff, and he leaves and he pats me on the button. He said, I owe you Palt. Okay, fine, Well we go out in the first game of the World Series.

I'm pitching, and I lose and we don't play very well, and the sword is coming in.

So the next day, get in there, get down here and set out. He said, you guys play, yes, say you played terrible?

You know what?

He said.

I went out and I called around and I got the best sports psychologists in the world that's going to work with you guys, and we go, oh see done. So the door opens and then walks Rickles. He was he just got everybody laughing and giggling. And so I'm the clubhouse at Dodger Stadium was laid out alphabetic and I'm right there with Bird Houghton, Charlie Huff, Tommy John. And he goes, you know, Bird Houghton, Bert F and Houghton, Charlie Huff, Charlie f and Huff, Tommy John, Tommy F and John TETs paid and he went and the guy said, what did you do? You know that he didn't rail on you. And I said, oh, you're not going to believe it. But we had a good time with Rickles. And the other guy that was really good to me was a guy named Sinatra. Yeah, my mother was dying of cancer and I wanted to get her down to the cancer hospital in Houston, Texas, and so I was making plans on chartering a plane to fly her down and I get a call from Lesorta. He said, Tommy, Frank wants to Frank wants to bring his plane in to Terre Haute and fly your mother down to Houston.

It's on him. And I went, oh that is how nice is that?

Well, my mother passed away before we could get the plane there and get down, but I think Frank, but that's the way it was playing for the Dodgers. You had Brickles, you had Sinatra, carry Grant, you had all these people were up in the stands.

He's Tommy John. His podcast Rubbing Elbows with Tommy John. The website Tommy John the number twenty five dot net, and his Facebook group is Tommy dot John Cooper's tim. I hope you get positive results, Tommy. It's a long time coming and good luck with the campaign.

Oh thank you much.

Hey, could I say hi to a seven year old boy that skipped school so watch you and me? His name is Braxton Bent and he's seven years old. If he lives southern California, he's a huge baseball fan. But he skipped school today specifically to.

Watch you and me.

That's awesome. If yeah, that's great, Thank you, Thank you, Tommy, good to see you.

You got it, buddy.

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.

Tom Berducci, He's got the Yankees Orioles tomorrow on MLB Network Showcase, part of the network's day long coverage on Sunday. There's a new feature that he has on show. Hey o Tani on SI dot com and he knew Bryce Harper feature coming out tomorrow. Tom thanks for joining us. Let me start with Tommy John the Final push contributions to the game. If he's not not successful after the surgery, then we probably are looking for a different alternative here. So, as a Baseball Hall of Fame voter, how much can you factor in contributions to the game to go along with winning two hundred and eighty eight games.

Yeah, I think you have to look at that, Dan, I mean, whether it's a player who's kind of a borderline candidate who goes on to be a manager. I think you look at that. I think you look at pioneers in the game, and you can make a case that Tommy John is a pioneer of the game, although the medical community would say doctor Frank Job is the one who's the pioneer. And it's interesting. Doctor Job was such a humble guy. He did not want that surgery which he pioneered named after him. That's very unusual in the medical field. I mean, you think about the Jarvick heart and all these kind of breakthroughs in the medical field, the doctor who pioneers it normally has his name on the procedure, and instead Frank Job was such a humble guy he said, no, put Tommy John's name attached to that. And you're right, the fact that Tommy John, if he just comes back and maybe throws a game or two or a year, he actually had a better career. It seemed like after the surgery. I don't think the impact would be as great. And besides that, Dan, I mean looking at his record now, pitching all those years, all those innings. It gets better as the years go by. Man, I mean, no one's catching like half the fourthload of Tommy John. And by the way, I'm old enough to have covered Tommy John. And I once saw him make three errors on the same play. A pitcher who made three errors on the same play. I mean, I don't know if that gets you in the Hall of Fame, but it's notable.

He did describe it. I asked him about that half hour ago, and he said, yeah, I bobbled it, threw it away, got the relay, threw it home, and I got charged three errors on one play. Yeah, I mean two hundred and eighty eight wins. I know that we have compilers, but still you have to be pretty good to win two hundred and eighty eight games, to stay healthy enough to pitch and have over five hundred decisions and a very respectable era. And he pitched for big market teams as well.

Yeah.

I like that point, Dan, because you know, Jack Morris to me was one of those candidates as well. And I voted for Jack Morris, and people looked at the era and said, well it's way too high and had a Hall of Famer, But to pitch that many innings and to be the game one starter for a couple of different teams and obviously the big moments in the World Series, But to me, it was about He's I know, wins are not as important as they were, right, we understand a lot more about context. But you still have to pitch enough innings to keep your team in the game to qualify for the win. And if you do that, year after year after year, you get two hundred and eighty eight of those. So we say compiler like it's an insult. I actually think longevity is a skill.

Well, you bring up Jack Morris. I remember a former manager saying he pitched. You know, it didn't matter how many runs he gave up, he would be there to pitch. How many innings do you need? You need me to go seven innings? He didn't get caught up. In my era, is over four take me out or I'm getting blown up here. It was what do you need me to do? And then I will go out and try to do that. And that's why I always thought, if you're the ace for three different teams, I mean, there's something to be said for that. And I don't know. I guess the nostalgic part of me looks at Tommy John and says, it's late in life. He's done an incredible thing. He was successful, won twenty games three times after the surgery. What's the downside of putting Tommy John in the Hall of Fame?

Yeah, I mean that's the question I ask, why not? Right, you certainly can make a case for him, but making a case against him, that's hard to do for someone who devoted his life to the game. And yeah, I think he was one of those guys. In today's game. We talk all the time about third time around the lineup, right, these starting pitchers don't even get the chance to pitch third time around. Your era is going to go up if you pitched, in his case, fourth time around two. But he never wanted to come out of the game. And Jack Morris was the same way as well. I mean Jack Morris once literally stopped Sparky Anderson in his track. Sparky was coming out to the mound and before he got to the foul line, which is a second mountain visit where you have to come out. Jack Morris stopped him and basically said, get your butt back in the dugout. Whoever you got in the bullpen ain't any better than me. That's old school.

No one hundred team win teams this year? Is that a good thing?

Uh?

Yeah, I guess you could say, because we have more balance. But I think teams like the Dodgers did it figured out that there's really not a great reward for winning like one hundred and ten games. You're better off not putting that accelerator to the floor, giving your guys rest, especially your pitchers, not going all out to win a boatload of games because you're winning your division and they're not there yet. Don't get me wrong, but you win the your division, you don't get anything extra from winning one hundred and ten games. So I think there's a lot of that going on where teams have noticed in the postseason tournament baseball. Man, it's like American Legion baseball, the best team isn't going to win. We pretty much know that going in. The hottest team, the one that has breaks go their way to a small staple or going to win. So I think teams are realized let's go I want to say easy on the regular season, but we're not going to try to win one hundred and ten games because we want to get to October with our guys healthy. That's the biggest thing.

Yeah, well, you know the San Antonio Spurs, Greg Popovich made a career out of this. The regular season didn't really matter. Let everybody else have bragging rights. We're going to be ready to go in the postseason. We're talking to Tomas aw Right load management. He was ahead of his time. We hear that all the time now, But yeah, you're right. You've got a new feature on Shohyutani out on SI dot com. If I would have told you in March, which number would surprise you more, fifty three homers or fifty five steals?

The steals to me, I mean, I thought, with this guy's power, I actually thought he had a chance to break the home run record. Maybe not Bonds is, but you know the the number by judge to get over sixty two sixty three, get in that area. I thought that was possible, just the way he was trending and tracking. But these stolen bases. No, didn't see that coming at all. Didn't think he would run this much as he has and I know, Dan, people are gonna say, well, you know, the stolen bases are easier now with the new rules. Look around the game. Who else the stealing bags at the rate he is. I mean, it's what ninety three, ninety four percent over fifty stolen bases. It's one of the greatest years in baseball history stealing bases. So I did not see him running this much. It's probably the result of not pitching. Like I don't see him running quite as much next year when he's back.

On the mound.

But this guy, Dan, he he's actually like one hundred and fifty guys in baseball pure speed who are faster than show. Hey, he's not a complete burner on the base. He's fast, don't get me wrong, But he's stealing bases because he's smart. It gets great jumps.

I brought this up earlier this week when we were looking for a camp for Oto with that performance when he had three home runs and joined the fifty to fifty club. And the only other game that I thought of, let me take Don Larson out because it was a perfect game. So nothing can be better than a perfect game. And that's Ted Williams at the end of his four h six season when he chose to you know, to play in both games of the doubleheader. He could have rounded up to you know, four hundred to three to ninety nine point five, but he said, no, I'm going to play. Even after he had gotten over four hundred, he said, I'm going to play the second game of the dough hitter. I find that, you know, comparable to Shohei Otani. What about you.

Yeah, that was one of the greatest days ever and the Red Sox were out of it. The difference here is show he's playing on the team that actually clinched the playoffs spot in that game when he had the six HIX ten RBIs three home runs, So it's it's probably statistically the most prolific offensive game in the history of baseball, given the stolen bases, the home runs, the hits, the all those things which like you know, planning a bingo card, I mean bingo twenty times over. So I think it is the greatest prolific game offensively in baseball history legendary as far as Ted goes, it probably doesn't top that one. That probably is like as far as legends go, as big as it gets.

Are the White Sox fascinatingly embarrassing.

Or just to know that's the problem. I don't know that people are gonna be writing books and telling tales about the twenty four White Sox the way they do the sixty two Mets. I don't know if there's anything level about them. They were just a bad team out of the gate and got worse and I'm not sure what their future is, but they're a long way from really competing. So yeah, I just think that we kind of just dismissed them as a really bad team. But I don't think we were fascinated by them. You know, this race to speak down the stretch with the sixty two Mets, I don't think it's captivated anybody.

It's hard to be that bad, it is. I mean, there's been a lot of bad teams, but they're gonna end up with more losses than anybody in the history of the sport. And three years ago it looked like the future was extremely bright.

Yeah, I mean it it happened pitching. They had Verdon, they had Giolito, you know, a guy like Luis Robert being compared to Mike Trout. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how it all fell apart so quickly, but the player development system just kind of stopped. There was nothing coming there. It's a good question, Dad, I agree with you. It's hard to be this bad. The Royals last year lost one hundred and six games, and look where they are this year. Right, they may get the postseason, but I just didn't see I don't think anybody saw this level of ineptitude coming. And guys like Ben and Tender were supposed to be good players, just fell off.

Cliff.

Everything went wrong for this team.

Give me your World Series matchup if you were picking today. Wow.

I like San Diego a lot, Dan, and my pre season pick was Phillies over the Orioles in the World Series. So I shouldn't jump off of that. But if you're asking me which team right now looks the most dangerous to me, is the San Diego Padres in the American League? I would go with Houston Astros right now for the same reason. I mean, the Astros know how to run the marathon, they know how to get through the season, and they started twelve and twenty four and here they are. They're probably gonna wind up back in the ALCS like they own the joint, and I do think that their pitching is that's what you look at right when you get the postseason. Is better than New York's better than the Yankees. So I think, to me, right now, i'd say, if I had to pick right now, I'd say San diego over Houston.

Houston doesn't go away. No, they don't. They know what they're doing. It's pretty amazing.

Yeah, for all those.

Teams, all the people who wrote them off at twelve and twenty four. You know, you just it's like you've seen this with great players.

Dan.

You always always give the greatest the benefit of the doubt. And to me, that's show Hey.

By the way.

You know, I know people are saying, he's never played in the postseason before, what's he gonna do? Well, let's you know, wait until we say, what more do you need to see? This guy's playing on a winning team for the first time in his career and he goes out and has the best September of his life. I mean, I'm about you, Dan, but I'm looking at this guy and I think we have to start thinking about show Hey as the greatest living player. I mean, I know it's a mouthful, but I'm not talking about career, but his talent. You've got Griffy, You've got Ricky, you got Bonds, you got Clemmens. You know now that Willie Mays his past. You know that Mantle is out there greatest living player, and to me it really is show. Hey, Tony, this is a guy who can compete year after year, except for this year. He's hurt for both the Cy Young Award and the home run title. Think about that, the same guy competing for Cy Young and the home run title.

Great to catch up with you as always, Tom. We'll talk during the postseason. Thank you, love it.

Dan.

Thanks

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