The Dan Patrick ShowDan thinks the Pittsburgh Steelers need to have some pride and move on from Aaron Rodgers already. And he reminds us that just because North Carolina won their play-in game it doesn’t prove they deserved to make the tournament. Basketball Hall of Famer Chris Webber shares the untold story behind the Fab Five's black socks, and explains why he spent $50k on car speakers. And 2024 NL Rookie of the Year, Paul Skenes discusses becoming named a cover athlete on MLB The Show, and creates his ultimate pitcher repertoire.
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The Minnesota Vikings are not pursuing Aaron Rodgers.
It's official.
There are two reports the Vikings are not pursuing Aaron Rodgers. I don't know if the Steelers still are. I don't know if the Giants are. I don't know if Rogers is pursuing the Giants. Is he pursuing the Steelers. We tried to kick the tires on this Viking situation, and I wondered.
I was skeptical, but I thought, Okay, if.
The Vikings are interested in him and JJ McCarthy's not ready to play, okay, then I would take it. I would take a chance on Aaron Rodgers for one year. JJ McCarthy is your future. You trade it up to get him at number ten in the draft last year. But I just didn't know. It felt like maybe Rogers was interested. I just didn't know if it was reciprocated, and maybe internally the Vikings were saying, hey, what about this?
What do you think?
Maybe you talk to JJ McCarthy, maybe you get an update on his recovery time, and then you finally come to the realization we're good now.
I do think they made.
A mistake in letting Daniel Jones go because I'd like to have a little bit of experience there as a backup. Sam Darnold was going to cost you more. I got that, But Daniel Jones, I think you could have kept him there and he would have been maybe okay as a backup. But you're getting somebody who is going to be basically a rookie in playing, but coming off knee surgery, and there's going to be an adjustment period. This is a team that was a playoff team, had aspirations of going to the super Bowl. But now if you're Aaron Rodgers, does Aaron Rodgers want to stay in New York? If you wanted to go to the Steelers, you probably would have gone to the Steelers. I don't know if that's a great fit. It it's just because it's you know, if he goes into Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is the star. He went to the Jets and they're like, what do you want? Do whatever you want? You want to change the Colors.
I don't care. They were desperate.
The Steelers aren't desperate, but it feels like you go in there, that's Mike Tomlin you're dealing with, You're dealing with t J. Watt, Mika Fitzpatrick. Cam Hayward had something to say he's the Steeler defensive lineman on the Not Just Football podcast on what would your recruiting pitch be to Aaron Rodgers to join the Steelers.
I ain't doing that or darkness, darkness, treat, retreat. I don't mean any of that crap, like either you want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler or you don't. That's that's simple. That's the pitch. If you want me to recruit, that's the recruit pitch. You know, Pittsburgh Steelers. If you want to be part of it, so be it. If you don't, no skin on my back exactly.
That's what I've been saying. You're the Pittsburgh Steelers. Don't lower yourself. Oh Aaron, could you please come here?
Move on?
You should have kept justin Fields. At least that gave you a bridge quarterback for the next two years. Maybe he develops into something. Now, what do you have? Mason Rudolph? Okay, are you gonna bring Russ back? If it's true that Russ and Arthur Smith, the offensive coordinator, didn't get along at the end of the season, or maybe he didn't see eye to eye. But you're the Steelers, now, I get it. The Giants, they are going to have to beg to get Aaron Rodgers. The Giants who would have thought one of the blue bloods, and you're waiting to find out what Aaron Rodgers, Please come and play for our team. Feels like the Giants are taking Shadoor Sanders. I don't have any information on that other than it feels like Shadoor has thought all along that's where he was going. Now, can you bring in somebody? Do you bring in Aaron Rodgers and let Shador Sanders sit a year?
Maybe?
But the once proud New York Football Giants they're waiting for Aaron Rodgers.
And if you're the.
Steelers, move on, move on. You might not have somebody as good as Aaron Rodgers, or the ceiling might not be as high, but move on, the Steelers. You don't do this, please, And then Russell Wilson, I still think Kirk Cousins plays a role in this somewhere, at some point, somehow. Now the Falcons, you know, they have him, they're paying him, they want him to be their backup and it feels like every team needs a you know, a good backup. If you're going to be a playoff team, you've got to have a good backup. Chances are your quarterback's going to get inged up a little bit at some point somewhere down the line. Michael Pennix Junior, the third has been banged up in his career, early in his career when he was in Indiana. So the quarterback in carousel, I don't know if it's stopped or but it doesn't seem like it's going at the same speed that we thought it was going to. I thought Aaron Rodgers would make a decision by last Friday, but he's Aaron Rodgers. Maybe he waits. Maybe you wait until after the draft. And this is what I wondered with some of these teams. You're gonna get a quarterback. You might get a quarterback. If you don't get your quarterback, then things change a little bit. Then all of a sudden, maybe there's more people interested in Russell Wilson, Maybe there's more people interested in Kirk Cousins. Maybe he becomes more valuable in it as a trade possibility. There's always the chance that Aaron Rodgers just says I'm done and this came out. I'd love to give maybe it was Dyna Rassini. I'd love to give the credit to the person. But it felt like there is that option on the table, and that seems obvious at his age, what he went through with the Jets. But then we always come back to the phone. Well, you don't want to go out this way? How do you think Aaron Rodgers is going to go out? Probably not on a high note unless he goes to the Vikings. You can't all be John Elway. And if you're going to go to the Giants, how do you think you're going to go out? This isn't Travis Kelsey who played in the Super Bowl. Hey, I want to come back, Okay, Aaron Rodgers does he want to play?
I don't know. Does he know?
But if I'm the Steelers, I make you an offer and you don't want to come we're the Steelers, then I say all right, we move on. Were the Vikings ever really interested in him? Was he more interested in them?
Now?
There are reports that he loves New York wants to stay in the New York area if he's going to play. Whether that's true or not, but he would go from one locker room to the other locker.
Room in the same building, from the Jets to the Giants.
But that's the updated news with Aaron Rodgers holding us all hostage. Not much longer though, right eight seven seven three DP show email address DP Atdanpatrick dot com Twitter handle a TP show. Watched basketball last night and I was curious just how good North Carolina was going to be. And this doesn't This doesn't prove really anything.
I know.
This is where Tarhel fans will say, oh, are you going to apologize today? No, for what I didn't think. You deserve to be in the tournament. It's not the end of the world.
It's okay.
If you're really honest about your team, you probably would say you didn't deserve to be.
In the tournament.
But you take it.
Okay, Fine, you beat San Diego State. Great, maybe you make a run. We've seen teams in the first four end up in the final four and you know they they're on a mission. Here Alabama State at the buzzer gets by Saint Francis Penncil. Not a great couple of days for West Virginia Basket. West Virginia doesn't get in the tournament, thought they deserved to get in over North Carolina, and then to make matters worse, they lost their basketball coach. He went to Indiana. Darien Davrees. I don't know if he would have gone to Indiana had West Virginia made the tournament. After they get bounced, you you eventually go to Indiana. I'm not sure. But Mike Woodson, who got Indiana to the doorstep of making the tournament, got fired. Darien Devrees, who was kind of the I think the guy after the guy to clean up Bob Huggins mess at West Virginia, but he goes from West Virginia. I don't know if the governor holds a press conference and has anything to say today about losing their basketball coach.
Yes, your alma manor yeah.
I think the big part was Bob Huggins. This is kind of after I think Darren Derees. He was, like you said, kind of the guy after the guy.
Yeah, you know.
Yeah, and now going to Indiana. Steve Alford never got a shot. Now Steve's at Nevada, and I thought that that was one of those that was always going to be inevitable, and then all of a sudden it wasn't.
Yes, Marvin, looking back on history, don't you think that's a bad idea? You saw Patrick Ewing at Georgetown and Chris mall And at Saint John's an it's going okay for Penny Hardaway at Memphis, But isn't it tough to be the greatest player in the hit not one of the greatest players in the history of a program going back to be the head coach.
Like Clyde Drexler at Houston.
You can't hire somebody without the thought that you may have to fire them. And with you know, Chris Mallin at Saint John's, Patrick Ewing at George like, these are your all timers, and of course it has to be awkward when you come back. You know, there's there's a Hall of Fame ceremony alumni w and yeah, you're introducing Chris Mallin or Patrick Ewing and everybody's thinking the same thing.
The school fired them, yes, Martin.
And it's hard because those two are easily the greatest players in the history of that program, so everyone's looking for them. Steve Alford, I'm not sure if he's the great. I don't know much about Indiana basketball, so I don't know who the greatest player is that ever went there, but it's got to be difficult if you come back after getting fired.
But this was a guy who played for Bob Knight. He said local, he's an Indiana kid. You won a national title with him. I just and I think Dan Dakisch, who played at Indiana radio hostel join us tomorrow and I can ask him more about this. But it just felt like Steve Alford wasn't considered for that job. You know, he had UCLA at Iowa Nevada, but Indiana now has West Virginia's head coach. All Right, see what's poll question today?
I was gonna go with most sure thing in in the tournament.
Okay, Well, by the way, a sure thing the Dodgers won. They just beat the Cubs and get a load of Roki Sisaki. If you get a chance to watch him pitch his first three pitches hyundi, hundi, hundi, and then his next pitch was ninety nine. Then he had a splitter at eighty two. Sh he It feels like he either strikes you out or walks you. But you want to talk about some electric stuff. They may not need Otani to pitch this year. Imagine if you're in the Nation League West and you're like, damn, we're already two games behind the Dodgers because nobody else has played except for the Dodgers and the Cubs. But they ended up winning Otani Homward in the game. This is just business as usual. But Sisaki has I'm trying to think, who reminds me of Yeah, Pong Nuk.
Lush well, a little three innings, one hit, one in run, five walks in three k Yeah.
But as far as man, he's got some stuff. But they ended up beating the Cubs, you know, and you get sometimes you'll get that Japanese player who might be twenty six or twenty seven each row. I think was twenty six twenty seven when he came over. Uh, Susaki's twenty three. But that's that pipeline. They spent the money, They outspent everybody for him, and they you know, their pitching staff was decimated last year with injuries. And I mean, you have Clayton Kershaw as a luxury. He could be he could be your pitching coach at thirty five million dollars a year. May not need him that much, but I don't think the offense is going to be as good, but they're still going to be the overwhelming favorite to win the World Series. In fact, according to DraftKings, the Dodgers are plus two to ninety the second favorite. The Braves are plus seven fifty, the Yanks he's plus eight fifty. Then it's the Phillies, and then the Mets at plus twelve hundred.
Yes, pum the bas is where there's two men on for Otani and they intentionally walked Otani.
Not a good reaction from the local crowd. No.
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He's Chris Webber, Hall of Famer, five time All Star, former number one overall pick by the Magic back in nineteen ninety three. See Webb joining us who came up with the idea for the Black Socks with Michigan.
Do you remember I do?
I do, Ray Jackson.
I had to interview them from my book Shameless Plug, but I had forgotten. So we were playing in Texas, were playing against Rice University, and you know they when you played with your teammates. Whenever you have a teammate that's from somewhere, when you go to their home, you want to show out. And so we knew we were gonna want to play well for Ray and Jimmy and Ray though he wanted to transfer, and Red had been talking about transferring to me for the whole summer. For the whole year. He felt that he was kind of left out, that he was escapego the coach. He was kind of tired of coach staying on him for a long time. So he and his friends decided to go to the mall. He bought a few different colored pair of socks and he was gonna wear them in protest. But he comes to the room, and you know how it is with your friends. He comes to the room, I'm sleep. He comes back at Jawana's like what is this?
I love it.
We're gonna wear those black socks. And Jalen's like, oh, let's go to the mall. So, Jayleen, Jimmy they ran to the mall, brought me a pair of black socks, and so raised frustration and protests turned into brothers saying, man's.
Shut up, we love you. We're all gonna wear the black socks.
And that's a whole nother story because we get in trouble for wearing the black socks for not including the rest of our teammates. So we have the black socks on, we're excited, we have our sweatpants on. We usually don't warm up with our sweatpants and warm up, you know, usually take them off in the shorts. We kept him on and we all get in the starter circle and coaches looking like what the hell, you know, because it was pretty obvious then and then after the game coach was fine, we went it. But after the game he called me to the side and said, come on, man, you know I was old. I'm the oldest of five kids. And he was like, would you do that with with you know, family members. He's like, no, we don't do that here. Everybody else to wear black sox. So he didn't understand how excited we were that Really what he was telling us is, yeah, y'all can wear them, but everyone can wear them. But Ray Jackson was the Ray Jackson was the start of that. He picked those socks.
What about the baggy shorts. I know Jordan wore baggy shorts, but you guys went Baggier.
Yeah, you know it was Illinois and UNLB have really nice shorts Syracuse. You know, all the guys like Derek Coleman or Anderson Hunt. They would bring us their shorts in the summer and give us a pair of shorts. That was like gifting the guy a car to wear some official, you know short. Back then there was no fanatics and you know, no pramatic pess. You could just get them things like that. And so really what it was a funny story. The day we get to get our uniforms, we're all super excited. You know, that's a moment we get to look at your uniform, put it on. But thanks to Chip Armor and Eric Riley and all of the old heads, because they wanted just regular shorts and we were searching for that extra two inches in the cross in the scene. So we were able to trade with upper classmen who didn't get it yet. And then coach eventually he and Coach Dutcher of San Diego State now Heim Coach Dutcher eventually ordered us some longer shorts. So we were just complaining the whole time about you know, our shorts, you know the term then we didn't want Stockton's and we didn't want to get catch a yeast infection. That practice for a teammate and tight draws on. So you know, coach, he was cool. We had some tough practices for it. That's how we got to earn black socks and everything. You have to have tough practices, but we earned it.
And Alls, well, we were talking about the great nickname, so he had fab five Fi Slama Jam and was great, Hoya Paranoia. Don't know if there's a Running Rebels. Don't know if there are any other team nickname that kind of belongs in that group.
Man, that's good.
I wish I had a time to think about that one, because that's gonna be on my mind. I really loved the Running Rebels. I mean to me, it said at all. Even they're Moniker with kind of the Yosemite Sam type character. You know, I'm in the I think them in Oklahoma get got to carry a gun around there at those times.
But yeah, I don't you know.
I've always said the greatest personal nickname to me is the great one, and then you can go from there. But for the teams, I think it have to be made. Running Rebels back there.
Were you aware of Georgetown with you wing.
Are you serious?
Yes?
Back home, man, I'm with you.
I'm a big sports fan, so yeah, and you gotta remember this well, it was really smart and then talking to Sonny but Carrol for my book, he was a really good guy. But they sluck into our minds early. So when you talk about Georgetown, yes, do I love John Thompson, Yes?
Do I love.
Zoe and all the big fellas they had Ewing and went Tumble, Yes, But what really started my love for him was the blue and Great Nikes. It was the blue and gray Starter jacket. And I don't think then really people remember what an influenced Starter had in our kind of in our life because you kind of got to be a pro before you were a pro and wear what you wanted to wear. So yeah, for me it was it was a really good time of fashion and where we won. But it all started with which you could wear on the street. And that's why I really loved Georgetown because of how cool they were even before I got to see them on the floor.
Yeah, what I was meaning is growing up, you know, because Ewing and Hoy you know, Hoya paranoia was in the eighties and I curious if you were old enough to get gear, if you wanted to get gear from Georgetown or there was some other school, because I think you looked at Duke, didn't you. If you didn't go to Michigan, it was either Michigan State or Duke.
Yes, yes, and so Patrick you and it is a little older than me, and I didn't get Georgetown gear, but you would always see all the cool guys in the neighborhood wearing it. I remember his interview with my father, you know, telling me where Patrick gear was from. And I remember my mother telling me how smart you had to be to go to Georgetown. So I really remember those conversations more so than watching Pat play. But coach Carrill rest in Peace, who was a close close mentor of mine when I got into pros, I heard so many great stories about that Princeton Georgetown game, but those were much later, So no, I didn't really get to see that because I was going to Duke. I was going to Michigan State to be like Steve Smith going to Duke to play with Grant Hill or you know, luckily went to Michigan to play with Juwan j Range, Jim.
The toughest guy you ever faced in college.
Christian Ladner is the best, one of the best college players of all time. I think of great college players, I think of Kareem Walton. Uh, of course there are a lot of others that are mixed in that have one or two great years, but uh, it was it was by far, by far, Christian Laightner for me, because sorry Christian Layner, and big Dalton Robinson, because those two, Glenn Robinson, those two were the first big guys that can put it on the floor, that could dribble, that could pump fake, that could get you in foul trouble, that played outside the game. You know, when you look at the evolution of the game, we grew up when big guys weren't supposed to handle it. And so Layton being able to shoot three of these Laton being able to just do all the stuff that he did from a freshman all the way to a senior, I would definitely say, in my time, I think he was the toughest for me to play play against.
Do you ever have a conversation with him about that rivalry and games you guys played against each other?
No, no, no, but it's it's it's overdue it's it's long overdue. We should have a beer over because I think I've told you this before. My best one of my best college visits, if I had, you know, eight or nine of them, was definitely at Duke and Uh. And later there was my host, so I was very familiar with him when we played. That's why we talked so much junk to each other.
Uh.
And you know he knew my admiration. But the more admiration I have for you, the more to try to kill you anyway. And I think that's the same with him. But now we haven't talked about it, but you know, it'd be fun, fun, fun to talk about it.
It would be it'd be a fun podcast where it's just you two talking about that time. Because you had Duke, the establishment, you guys, you know, freshman and UH going toe to toe with them. Well, you probably had people who liked you because they hate hated Duke so much.
They did.
And also I have people that were mad at me because I didn't hate Duke. I mean, I hate him because I wanted to beat him, but all of the other talk and this that I didn't get into it because I hated him enough just from basketball and I went to visit there, and I wanted to be part of you know, of that team. But you know, Coach K is such a special guy. And you know, when I think about and again keep saying to the book, by God's grace, when I think about Coach K coming to my house and recruiting me, he was an enemy territory. Actually, my friends were screaming one O three seventy three. One O three seventy three. That was the score that they lost against UNLV, And people are outside chanting as while he's walking in my house and all he does is turn around on the fortune of justice ring and everybody's like and so when I saw Coach K's toughness, you know, in the hood, and how he was and you know, respectful affairs and all that, he's always been one of my favorite coaches in the game as well.
Okay, wait a minute, your boys are outside Coach K's walking into your house and they're mocking him of getting blown out by thirty by UNLV.
Yeah.
Dan, I actually got to send this to you because I interviewed my guys on the porch that he walked in and they were saying it. Because my father was like don't tell anybody, you know, Coach K's coming, and so the whole neighborhood dude. And so he gets out of the car and they are just booming. But when he walked back out, people are like, yeah, coach, you know, you know, good job. So he earned our respect. But yeah, coach Coach K was tough. It's not just it's not just an act. You know, he's a he's a good guy in touchs at herd and so he's always had my respect. He is overmind me a lot of each other too, and I consider coaches a very close friend.
Chris Weber, the Hall of Famer member of the Fab five, more concerned about transfer portal or ni L in the future for the sport.
Can you separate him and there be onee out the other? You know, I'm you know, I'm very happy that. You know, any time you're in the beginning of any new system, it's going to be terrible and you're gonna have to figure it out. So I can't wait until the playing field levels and we figure it out. But I think coaches are getting a taste of their medicine. You want to leave your guys and coach and leave well some guys are going to leave you mentally late in the season when you decide that. But also I hope that players start to understand that the same love and passion should be there, but even more than ever, you made a commitment now, and I've talked to a lot of young players and I don't know, I talked to a lot of young players, and we are working through understanding that you're getting paid for this commitment.
Now, so you have no excuse.
But you still need to come with the same energy and inno sense of passion that you would have played with. And how do you figure that out out? And I think some guys are figuring out. I also think some players are looking mid season saying, well, I could I'm averaging eight, I can go average ten here next year in a crazy, unsubstantiated situation, and then they go into the transfer portalando one picks them up.
So you know, it's a it's a it's a difficult time right now.
And I think everyone from coaches players are all kind of getting used to seeing like how is this gonna gonna level out? But that needs to be more discussion and hopefully more leveling of the playing field, so everyone can get comfortable.
Yeah, I'm wondering about that that if you get money when you're in college, does that help you when you go to the pros and get money, because a lot of times you go into the pros and you go crazy because you haven't had this kind of money and you buy stupid things.
Did you do that?
Yeah? Every every every everybody, everybody, Yeah yeah, yeah, everybody's done that. And I thought it was sports until I talked to a lot of my friends in VC and others, and I found out it'saw people that do that. But I definitely, uh, you know, it was one of those guys. But you're going to do that, I think too with guys. Let's take a guy like the Big Fella from Kansas Fixer. He was he was at Michigan.
Uh, And.
I say this, it was he's a really good guy and he plays with passion. He's so hard he wanted to stay at Michigan and he's going, I'm not playing for now. I think he's a pro, So I'm not having that conversation.
He's a pro.
He's a posy pro. But that was the.
Conversation, and the conversation asked to me, who was someone that never been in that position.
What would you do?
You know?
Because my thing was you can stay here for legacy.
You being in Michigan four years of having records and numbers, do you you know what that's light when you get older to be able to come back to Michigan and say that you're a part of it.
This is a wonderful university. And I think that.
I think that that factor has been taking out of the decision making because guys are saying, you know what, I might not make propose, I might not have the luxury of getting a paycheck and buying something stupid. I need to make as much as I can now prepare for a professional career overseas or in coaching. So I think guys are battling with a lot of different decisions that really are they're struggling with that they don't want to have. I was talking with Deon Sanders for a show I'm doing, and he was telling me that the parents were more of a problem with the portal and with NIL than the students, because the students haven't lived life enough to kind of be that greedy yet or order to just not put team first. And so again I think it's a lot of different situations. You know, guys are getting taxed off the nil and didn't know they were getting taxed, and parents for you. So it's it's just so much going on that that hopefully again the dust yoursells.
What's the craziest thing that you spent money on early?
I mean, I'm.
You know, I was smart to begin it because I wanted to get my parents everything so and I had a big family.
But for me, I mean, you know, the day you know, I got.
Drafted, it was I have a chapter in my book called Gators for Everybody. So gators are you know, are a shoe? Now I look at this so damn stupid, but gators are a shot. And back then it was big block gators and you know from guys in the hood, the preachers, anybody had gators.
And so what did I do?
I went and bought gators for everyone in my neighborhood. I mean, even if they didn't have a suit. Hey, Rochi had some gators and take this or you know, oh man, I took friends to restaurants you know that we had never been to. So I got a little across the street from me, Bookie rest of Peace. Uh, just stupid stuff. You go to restaurants, you pork and coche and hot sauce, and you say that guy here, I'll give you five thousand dollars if you eat it, and you're happy because you were gonna give them something anyway.
But you know your friends, you have to bust them up.
And so you know, I've done a lot more worse things, I'm sure in other areas of life. But I remember when I first got it, was that. Oh, one of one of the most fun things I did the probably was stupid.
I went to a music place.
I had a truck of white suburban when they first came out, and I asked him to give me the loudest sounds in the world, and the guy laughed, and I immediately walked out and went down the street and asked the guy for the loudest sounds in the world. He was like, I could do that, and so I took out every seat besides the front two seats I had sixteen twelve, fourteen age.
I'm crazy, and I used to just love driving down.
The street making alarms go off or breaking my window in the back, and so I think that's pretty stupid to you know, cut you know, fifty thousand dollars forty thousand dollars worth of sounds in your truck and only one.
Person could fit in and you can't even put your lugga jambler.
It was a good time.
So it was a good time.
Yeah, but here's your dad who worked factory for all of those years.
Do you ever say, what are you doing?
Yeah?
You know, yeah, yeah, but the storytime LIKEE keep going? I know, sure, I don't want to keep going with the.
Why do you bought him a Cadillac? Right?
But that was the best thing.
I told him Magic was coming to the house, and I went to the and he loves magic. I went to the car dealership and Cadillac, and people started cheering when I went in because they knew my father had worked.
For GM for you know, many many years, and I bought him a Cadillac.
I had to cut the grass meticulously now and you never got to play football on my grass or anything. I drive the car on the grass, did it? My father comes out at six and us it's about seven in the morning. And that was one of the more special moments of my life. Getting yelled at while throwing the keys to my father while he was driving off telling me to make sure I take care of the grass. Is was a pretty cool moment.
Oh, always great. Thank you for storytelling toime.
Chris. We appreciate your time as always.
Thanks, Dan, appreciate you.
He is Chris Webber. He is a Hall of Famer and number one overall pick by the Magic back in nineteen ninety three. A lot of fun. I always appreciate conversations with him. Mark, we'll take a break. More of your phone calls coming up back after this.
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.
Paul Schemes he is one of three MLB The show twenty five cover athletes. This is the twentieth anniversary honoring two decades of baseball history. Elie Delacruz and Gunner Henderson are on the cover as well the Pirates Rookie of the Year joining us on the program. What did you learn from your rookie year or what do you wish that you had known in your rookie year or when you were in the college minor leagues coming up to the Pirates.
Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing I learned from getting to the big leagues is that the game is a lot more similar than I thought in terms of the actual the baseball, you know play everything uh that's added on makes it a lot harder. So traveling across country. We had a couple of cross country flights last year. Our travel within the division is pretty good, you know, our hour long or less than an hour long flights, uh, for the most part within our division. But still, I mean, you got the media in the in the locker room every day.
The food is different.
It's it's better, but there's more of it, so it's easy to you know, overindulge just a lot, a lot of little stuff like that that makes it, uh, just makes it makes it different and probably makes it a little bit harder.
What's the strangest thing you've thought of while you were on the mound?
Man, probably like doing math problems or something like that. I don't know if you've ever seen uh, I think it was Major league or Major League two. The catcher is is, you know, learning to get over the yips, and he like memorizes a playboard magazine or something like that, And I do that with math problems rather than you know, playboard magazines.
But how does that help you?
I mean, because it's it's very so it's very easy to like focus too hard and try to execute a pitch, you know, and then you just completely sail it or like pull a slider or sail a heat or something like that. So like having your mind not you know, solely focused on on that pitch, it like a little bit of distraction is sometimes a good thing.
Give me the guy that you keep an eye on in the on deck circle that you know he's coming to the plate.
It's probably one per team. Usually it's like the three hitter or something like that. Maybe it's to a team, it's because we kind of like bucket hitters a little bit to where we can pitch them similarly to get them out. But there's always like one guy in the lineup that's like, hey, this guy doesn't beat us. So I mean it's the one Soto's the day, Ellie Daala Cruz, Cody Balondrew, those types of guys.
They I mean, you know they're coming up.
What do you do when you disagree with your catcher?
Just shake?
I wear a pitch com too, and and I'll I'll punch it in sometimes, but yeah, just shake.
They're no, there are no hard feelings.
There, but you have final say yeah.
I mean if if I my my experience is generally, if I throw a pitch that I don't wholly believe in, uh, it doesn't end well. So I have to, you know, throw pitches that I believe in out there with you know, full conviction, and then it generally ends ends pretty well.
But when you give up a big hit or a home run in college, it's one thing. But when you have thousands and thousands of people and you know it's going to end up on Sports Center, Like, how do you process that differently? If you can then when you were in college and you gave up a home run?
Yeah, honestly. And I think this is probably more of a change for me. But I think I took it, like, took it harder, took it, took it more personally when I was in college than I do now. And I think there are probably a couple of reasons for that. I've I think I've matured grown up a little bit. But also, uh, we get to do it more often now in college. It's like, you know, the sec is the biggest thing in the world and nothing else matters, Like that's that's the that's what.
They feed you, right.
So when I give up a home run at Ole Miss and the beer's flying everywhere, like, it feels like the end of the world a little bit more than it does now. When I give up a home run in you know, Dodger Stadium or something like that, it's just and I think I think part of that's because it's it's so routine, you know, But I think a lot of it's because I have just like grown up too.
Talking to Paul's schemes and he's one of three MLB the show twenty five cover athletes. You've got Gunner Henderson and Ellie Dela Cruz. Tell us about the honor. How did you find out?
Yeah, I can't remember exactly when I found out. There's something that I think, you know, we were in the talks for for I don't know, probably the last summer, last September around there kind of blends together when we're in season. But it was cool when I, you know, found out that it's you know, no kidding happening. I mean, definitely some satisfaction there is. It's it's pretty cool. I've you know, grown up seeing you know, the cover athletes of the show and seeing the game. It's been a huge part of a lot of people's childhood. I think, as like the game that they want to play when they when they get to play video games.
So what else are you a gamer of?
I'm not.
I'm not really a gamer at all. Really, Okay, so yeah.
So the only time I would play the show because I never had a PlayStation or Xbox or anything. Uh, And the only time i would play the show is when I like went to you know, my my buddy's house or something like that and they had it. But I've always been terrible at it. And if I'm the kind of person like, if I'm not good at something, I just want I'll just stop doing it. Yeah, I'm the I'm gonna take my ball and go home type of guy.
How territorial are you when it comes to the SEC, whether it's football fourteen schools are in the NCAA tournament the baseball with the SEC? Are you annoying to be around when it's conversations about the SEC?
Now, because I'm a I'm a baseball guy first, football, I could kind of care less about I mean, I'm a true beaver that because I'm an SEC guy. But I'm a Mountain West guy too, and I'm a true believer that the Mountain West just breeds winners. So probably more territory about the Mountain West because it's not a you know, people don't people don't know about the Mountain West. But that's where that's where champions are made. I believe that.
Okay, But you're in Pittsburgh. They love their football there. Do you go to games you care about? Do you go to games?
Yeah?
But I mean because I look at college baseball and call and uh and pro baseball is two different sports. I I I never played football. I don't understand what's going on out there. I know that you're supposed to move the ball down the field, but I viewed college football and pro football is two different sports too. So I've gone to a Steelers game. It was it was really cool. I want to go back. I'm a Steelers fan, you know now bleed black and gold.
So uh, but yeah, I don't.
I don't.
They're fun that the games are to go to.
Are you gonna be okay with the automatic strike zone?
Yeah?
Hey, it's not in there. This year, So I'm happy with that. I haven't I haven't challenged anything this spring. It's not going to be in there this year when it comes it comes. I like the human aspect of the game because I think that, you know, there are games where the umpire zone is big and there are games where the umpire zone is small. Obviously catchers. You bring in the automatic strike zone, then it completely devalues framing, which you know, effectively eliminates the catching position. So I have mixed feelings towards it. I do like the human aspect of the game, but there's definitely something to be said about, you know, being objective with the strike zone.
Yeah, but when you're at the plate and all of a sudden there's a you know, a star pitcher and he gets a call, you're okay with that and it's not a strike, but because of who he is, Justin Verlander is going to get that call.
Yeah. I mean I prefer it that way. I don't have to hit anymore.
Do you want to hit?
Uh?
No, maybe BP occasionally, but I don't want to face Justin Berlander. I don't want to face anything. These other guys, they're too they're too uh they're.
Too good if you were building the perfect picture. So you gave me fastball, slider, curveball, change up. Who's using your fastball?
Yeah, I'd like to thank all four of those are you know mine, but uh, let's just.
Not the taste. I'm glad you that way.
Yeah, I mean because you can't use my fastball with like because I would say, like my fastball and Clayton Kershaw's curveball or something like that, but like we're the exact opposite pitchers. Basically, I'd like to thank my fastball Kershaw's curveball for sure, just to straight up and down curveball, change up, Scooble, those are two lefties. Slider man, there's so many good ones. I think a nice like for for me, like a downer, a downer slider, like a to Grom, like a shorter downer slider, because that's something I don't have.
But there's I mean, strider's slider.
There's so many, so many ways, so many different ways to have a good slider, though so specifically a slider.
But it's amazing that these guys can hit this stuff. I mean, hitting a.
Baseball is the hardest thing to do, and they are guys that are hitting one hundred miles an hour and it's like, so what.
Yeah, I don't know how they do it. I'll let them do it. That's why I'm not going to try to try to get back in the box.
Congratulations Opening Day, Congratulations on MLB the show. That's the cover with Elie Dela Cruz, Gunner Henderson, and this is honoring the twentieth anniversary of that. Great to talk to you again, Paul. Thanks for joining us.
Yeah, I really appreciate it.
Paul Schemes
