The Best of The Dan Patrick Show

00:00:00
Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.

00:00:04
Speaker 2: We begin with the NBA on NBC and Michael Jordan makes his media debut, and it was fun. Oh this is music to Todd's ears. Oh the best. It was always Bob Costas bringing you in to watch the NBA on NBC. Now it's Mike Cherico. Charico sat down with Michael Jordan, and as Paulie likes to say, Michael Jordan is Jaws. He's he is the Shark. He's the Shark and Jaws. Now, if you remember the movie, it takes a while before they actually show you the Shark, and that's Mike. They waited, they waited, and you know whatever, how many minutes, how many you know, forty five an hour in then you got to see Mike sit down with Mike Cherico and they talked about a variety things. Now wasn't a long conversation. I'm gonna guess maybe they're sitting down hopefully and having an hour at one point and then maybe next month another hour. I hope it's more like details with Kobe Bryant, where we can understand what Mike sees, how he played the game, saw the game and you know, maybe shed some light on what is it that made him so great and what he sees in other players. Here is Michael on why he decided to join INBC.

00:01:28
Speaker 3: So you let us bring a camera to to your place here to talk to you about basketball.

00:01:33
Speaker 4: Why do you want to share what you're thinking about basketball?

00:01:36
Speaker 2: Now?

00:01:37
Speaker 4: It's pay it forward?

00:01:38
Speaker 3: You know, I have an obligation to the game of basketball, not financially, I'm okay. I mean I think more or less from them from as a basketball player is to be able to pass on messages of success and dedication to the game of basketball.

00:01:55
Speaker 2: Okay, once again, Kobe was wonderful with this when he did here show details. You know, Mike usually don't doesn't let you in. He doesn't need to do interviews. He says he's going to pay it forward. He's going to get paid paying it forward, I'm sure by NBC. But it's still great to have him around the game. And Mike asked him about his love of today's game.

00:02:21
Speaker 4: I still love it, love it like you wouldn't believe.

00:02:23
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, honestly, I wish I can take a magic pill, put on shorts and go out and play the game of basketball today because that's that's who I am. That's that type of competition, that type of competitiveness, it's what I live.

00:02:38
Speaker 4: For, and I miss it.

00:02:40
Speaker 3: I missed that aspect of playing the game of basketball, being able to challenge myself against what people see as great basketball. But it's better for me to be sitting here talking to you as opposed to popping my achilles and I'm in a wheelchair for a while.

00:03:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can't replicate that. You can't replicate the competitiveness that you get from a sporting event. All of these great athletes talk about that. That's why they try to find other things that bring them something close to that. You know, Peyton Manning's successful businessman. Tom Brady is an announcer, but he's also an owner. You get golf involved in this for Mike, you get gambling involved in this. With Mike. That gets his creative juices going. But it was good. It was good to have him there associated with the game. I thought it was just a great performance by NBC and bringing that back and it felt bigger, And I think that's what the goal is, to make this bigger. This is network TV, and that's the way it used to be in the nineties that you had Network TV, but you had Marv Albert, and you had Bill Walton and Bob Costas, Steve Snapper Jones, you had that music. In fact, John Tesh, I think, is going to join us this week, Todd, Is that right?

00:04:01
Speaker 4: You should be Joners probably on Fridays?

00:04:02
Speaker 2: Okay, all right? Is he going to play the NBC theme music?

00:04:07
Speaker 4: I understand that he will be playing some round ball.

00:04:09
Speaker 2: Rock for us. Okay, oh boy, you're gonna be geeked for that.

00:04:13
Speaker 5: We're having John Tesh on to play round ball rock.

00:04:16
Speaker 2: Yes, we're back. Yes, yes.

00:04:19
Speaker 5: If we don't win an Emmy this year, I quit.

00:04:21
Speaker 2: That's it. Stat of the Day brought to you by Panini America, the official trading cards of the program. The Joe Flacco T shirt is available. Yep, you didn't ask for it, but you got it, and you can go to Dan Patrick dot com. You'll find the Flaco Flacco around and find out T shirt.

00:04:38
Speaker 5: Yeah, Seaton, sorry, I'm not off of John Tesh yet.

00:04:42
Speaker 6: People will pay tickets to go to a concert to go see John Tesh perform with like a live orchestra, a whole live band, and he'll be like, and here's round Ball Rock, and he'll play that song and then he'll be like, and that reminds me of when I wrote the Entertainment Tonight theme.

00:04:57
Speaker 5: And then he'll do that theme. That's people go and they watched that as a concert.

00:05:01
Speaker 2: Hey, maybe we can get a two for Maybe we could get a two for an Entertainment Tonight and round Ball Rock.

00:05:07
Speaker 6: Now it's for USAT of the Day.

00:05:12
Speaker 2: That's a great idea. Do you think I could ask John Tesh Live? You can ask could you do stat of the Day? John? And then maybe we give you some examples and then he could go, Sure, I could do that. Maybe he could do it to Entertainment Tonight or round Ball Rock. First Hour brought to you by Rapid Radios, the official walkie talkie of the DP show Push to Talk nationwide LTE network, No subscriptions. Business owners, stay connected with your employees anywhere. Visit Rapid Radios Dot come up to sixty percent off basketball. Last night, the Thunder beating the Rockets in double overtime and the Warriors over the Lakers. LUCA went for forty three, but the Lakers in their last nine home openers or openers, I should say nine openers, one in eight and you don't have Lebron there, and you start to look at the roster. I wanted to see how DeAndre Ayton was going to play, because Lucas said, you got to get me a big man that I can get in the lane and I can throw lobs to. Okay, it's only one game, but I'm not quite so sure about DeAndre Ayton. I think I penciled him in as a sixteen to ten guy. I figured that's not asking a lot. Sixteen to ten guy. Number one pick in the draft, and you're gonna need it. Golden State is still dangerous. They're probably one of the three best teams out West. You still have staph. Jimmy Butler went off, Draymond got a technical six minutes in, so right on Q they got some depth there. It's an odd mix. It's still weird to see Jimmy Butler because he he doesn't flow in the way the Warriors normally do or we're accustomed to Hey come down in transition hitting threes. Jimmy is more mid range, get to the hoop kind of guy, and he had a big night again last night. But you still have Steph being Steph, and that'll be enough to keep you in the upper echelon out west and the West is stacked and okay, see is great. Okay see. Now, you know, we haven't had a team repeat the last seven years. We've had a different champ all seven years. And if I was betting, I would probably say I'll take the bet that will have a different team winning the NBA championship. It's just hard to repeat. But you do have a young team, might be the youngest team still in the NBA. They have depth, you have Sga chet Holmgren looked really good last night. And you know they're a balanced team, good team defensively, a really good team as well. But we'll see what Minnesota has to say about this, Denver has to say about this. Houston. Houston's got an odd roster, got a lot of tall guys, but they don't have a point guard. Fred van Vliet injured out for the year. You need a point guard on that team because Read Shepherd is not your point guard. He's a guy that you point to and you uh, you say to the opposition, go after Read Shepherd. That happened last night. Marvin's texting me, he goes, uh, they're going after your guy, Read Shepherd. They were. They were singling him. Who is the guy with OKC? Who's going after him?

00:08:29
Speaker 5: Case and Wallace?

00:08:30
Speaker 2: Of course you have case and Wallace going after Red Shepherd. And I went, oh, they're putting him on an island. Yes, Marvin, Yes, I'm watching the game last night. Caseon Wallace has the ball and they're literally clearing out for him. I was like, when did they clear out for Caseon Wallace?

00:08:42
Speaker 7: Oh?

00:08:42
Speaker 2: Read Shepherd's guarding him. Uh but okay, See, you know Sga is just he has that inate ability. There's something about certain players where you go, I don't know how he does it, but he does it, and he does it on a consistent basis, and he gets you clutch points when you go for thirty five, but you give me eighteen in the fourth quarter in overtime. You know that's a star. When the game is on the line, I want you to have the ball. And that's why they got Kevin Durant. But they didn't go to Kevin Durant late in the game. But that's why you got Kevin Durant. So you have that closer. They didn't have the closer last year. They had talent, but that's why you got him. I want Kevin Durant, although this first time I watched, I looked at him and I go, man, he's older. He's older.

00:09:33
Speaker 1: The light up top.

00:09:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know, Mike made being bald, you know, famous, but I would just go bald. You know, same thing with Lebron. But that didn't make you older. It just felt like Durant seemed older for the first time. I mean, you got Lebron with sciatica. That's what I would have, not one of the great athletes in the world. What's next Bunyans dnp NP, Bunyans, but great night, fun night basketball. You got a full slate coming up tonight. The odds for the World Series Dodgers Big Favorites show Hey Otani big favorite to be the World Series MVP, followed by Vlad Guerrero, then Freddie Freeman and George Springer. Otani off one game got the National League Championship Series MVP because he didn't do much prior to that, but he did a whole lot in Game four to be the MVP of the NLCS. I don't know who else you would have given it to. I would have given it to Blake Snell. I think he set the tone for the entire series was starting pitching had the one hitter. I thought that that was like, oh wow, okay, and then the rest of the pitching staff followed suit. But I think Otani on the name plate had them put team effort instead of show hey Otani, I believe and his way of saying, yeah, it probably shouldn't be the MVP. We all are the MVP. All right, Seeton Pole question for hour one is what we.

00:11:08
Speaker 5: Got two options for you here? Best part of the NBA being back on NBC is Michael Jordan or the music?

00:11:14
Speaker 2: Okay, I would expect the music.

00:11:16
Speaker 5: To win in a landslide. Oh I'm just saying.

00:11:18
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah. I want to see what else they do with Mike. I want to see how excess, you know, because Mike Cherico's got to go down to Mike's place and it's basically Mike's home court advantage here. And how often is Mike Cherico going to be able to go there and do a sit down with Michael Jordan? And what exactly are you talking about things that happened maybe last week? Are you talking about kind of a bigger picture with players or teams, or maybe his assessment of Lebron not necessarily something that happened, So I don't know how timely it's going to be. That would be my biggest concern is are we talking about things that are happening right now in the league or is it maybe a broader spectrum for Mike.

00:12:02
Speaker 8: Yeah, Pauline, it does feel like it's gonna be less analysis and more just riffing with Mike and seeing what you got. But he's probably the least accessible superstar of the past quarter century. He does commercials but not interviews, and I find it even last night that the story about shooting a free throw at a rental house. I don't know if it was impressive or sad. He's a mixed character. I got kind of bummed out. But because it feels like he'd pay a billion dollars to be Michael Jordan again for one year. He'd write a check for half his net worth to be thirty again for one year, which I think everybody would, but it felt like he brought it up, He grinded him.

00:12:40
Speaker 2: Oh, I wouldn't spend that money. I think he would in a second, I think no, I think Mike Mike loves his money. I think if you said, hey, Mike, would you spend one hundred million dollars to be you for one more year? Maybe not a billion. I have his net worth is three point eight.

00:12:56
Speaker 5: He could skip a bill.

00:12:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, he ain't skipping anything. Mike gets paid. Mike's still get If Mike didn't have Air Jordan, if he didn't have his brand, Mike would be more accessible. He might be more like Peyton Manning. But he doesn't have to work. He plays golf and probably goes to a couple of board meetings, maybe Zoom calls and that's it. Like Larry Bird disappeared, Like that's a recluse. Mike disappeared just so he could play golf and he doesn't have to work. Larry doesn't want to do anything. He probably just wants to drink beer and you know, hang out in French Lick, Indiana. Yeah, Larry tried for.

00:13:38
Speaker 5: A minute, he did, and then I.

00:13:41
Speaker 6: Decided either he decided he didn't want that, or that decided it didn't want him, you know.

00:13:46
Speaker 5: But then he is like I think I'm good.

00:13:48
Speaker 2: But magic is there? Magic with his business empires Like there's certain players Joe Montana's not around. I mean, he was pouring drinks in South Bend, you know, with a Guinness sponsorship. But he does interviews, he's available. But Magic has a business empire here and you know he was doing stuff on First Take in the NBA. So and I'm curious about Barkley and Crewe with their debut on the Mothership. And you know, now you have, you know, some comparisons here, you got NBC and now we're gonna go, Okay, let's see what the Mothership does. You bring in Shack, You're bringing Charles and Kenny Ernie and they'll make their debut tonight.

00:14:33
Speaker 1: 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.

00:14:42
Speaker 2: Hey it's me Rob Parker.

00:14:45
Speaker 9: Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes of piping hot baseball talk, featuring the biggest names the newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe in analytics or the I Test, We've got all the covered. New episodes dropped every Thursday, So do yourself a favor and listen to Inside the Partner with Rob Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.

00:15:12
Speaker 2: The popular Ross Tucker CBS Sports Westwood One, NFL college football analyst and host of the Ross Tucker Football Podcast. He'll be in the radio booth on Westwood one for tomorrow night the Vikings and the Chargers. Good to see you, Ross. Let me start there. We're starting to get to that point in the season where Carson wentz JJ McCarthy, something better happen here soon for the Vikings, certainly in that division.

00:15:40
Speaker 10: Well, there's a lot of fascinating aspects of it because think about this for a second, Dan, they initially wanted Sam Darnold back by multiple reports as their quarterback because I think they were uncertain about just how ready JJ McCarthy was to start Week one, and that maybe he would need some time or maybe this year wouldn't even happen for.

00:16:04
Speaker 4: Him coming off the injury.

00:16:07
Speaker 10: I thought it was really telling that Tom Pellisero from NFL Network came on my show, the Ross Tucker Podcast in the offseason and he said that the Vikings actually offered Daniel Jones more guaranteed money than he took to go to Indy and so a few weeks ago for CBS when I called that Colts Titans game. I asked Daniel Jones about that, and he said he felt like the opportunity was better in Indy because of the quarterback situation.

00:16:38
Speaker 4: So that's a crazy dynamic to me.

00:16:41
Speaker 10: Dan that the Vikings knew that they thought Daniel Jones could play pretty well, and they wanted to have a good quarterback. They weren't sure about McCarthy, so they offered Daniel Jones over fourteen million guaranteed. But Daniel Jones knew, Hey, McCarthy's going to be their guy. He didn't want to have that over his shoulder. He could tell the Colts were kind of moving on from Richardson. So he goes to Indy. The Colts are unbelievable. He's a legit MVP candidate. Darnold's playing fantastic. I have the Seahawks as the fifth best team.

00:17:15
Speaker 4: In football right now.

00:17:17
Speaker 10: Meanwhile, the Vikings are letting JJ McCarthy get a one hundred percent healed from this high ankle sprain and they're going with Carson Wentz and he has been up and down, which is pretty much the story of his career.

00:17:32
Speaker 2: Woody Johnson got in front of a microphone and took a shot at his quarterback, Justin Fields. This is what it sounded like yesterday. It looks like he's turning around parts of it.

00:17:45
Speaker 7: You know, it's hard when you have a quarterback with you know, with a rating that we've got, you know say, I mean he has the ability, but something just is not driving. But if you look at any any head coach of the quarterback like that, you're going.

00:17:57
Speaker 2: To see similar results. If you across you have to play consistently.

00:18:02
Speaker 7: At that position, and that's what we're going to try to do well. But you can just complete a pass, it would look good. You know, you got to complete some power. You got to convince them that you could do something.

00:18:12
Speaker 2: Okay, who is the person who signed Justin Fields to that two year guaranteed contract that they're still on the hook for I think thirty million dollars supposed to make twenty million? He approved it, right, He's the one who brought in Justin Fields, right.

00:18:29
Speaker 4: Well, at a minimum.

00:18:32
Speaker 10: He hired Darren Muji, the GM, the new GM and Aaron Glenn and Mouji made the decision to go ahead and bring in Justin Fields. And you're right, Dan, he has ten million dollars more guaranteed next year. So whether or not Mouji had to run it pass Woody Johnson, my guess is, when you're signing a guy to be the franchise quarterback, you probably do talk about that with the owner. I just I have no idea what he could think he was possibly gaining by that, Dan, I think the goal was to defend Aaron Glenn. Yeah, and to support Aaron Glenn, which I really respect. Why would you feel the need to throw Justin Fields on under the bus to that level. I mean, listen, even if they want to move on from Justin Fields, maybe somebody else would want him if they have an injury or in the offseason, like maybe you're trying to trade the guy.

00:19:39
Speaker 4: All he did was make his.

00:19:41
Speaker 10: Own GM look really, really bad. And by the way, Woodie, the team is zero to seven. They're the only team that hasn't won a football game.

00:19:53
Speaker 4: Go ahead and look up all the other quarterbacks in the NFL and some of.

00:19:58
Speaker 10: The guys that have won games this year. As starting corporate, you could have had Mac Jones. Mac Jones, I think is like four to one. You could have signed him if you wont I mean, there's plenty of other quarterback.

00:20:10
Speaker 4: Joe Flacco.

00:20:10
Speaker 10: You ever heard of him? I think he's played for your team twice already. He went out there to Cincinnati and won a game right away. So this whole notion that it's all because of the quarterback is a little bit silly, especially when you consider some of the coaching decisions, like I'll never get over whatever that was at the end of the first half for Aaron Glenn in the game against the Broncos in Europe, when they just let thirty five seconds go off the clock and just stood there and went to halftime at midfield. It's bad, and Woody Johnson just made it worse.

00:20:47
Speaker 2: You had the Bengals and Steelers last week.

00:20:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was awesome.

00:20:51
Speaker 2: Okay, they're just asking Joe Flacco, we're going to protect you and then just throw the ball. Right Why couldn't you Browning do what Joe Flacco's doing.

00:21:04
Speaker 10: You know, being around a lot of those people there, Dan, they're still trying to figure that out because two years ago in twenty twenty three, when Burrow went down, Browning played really well and because of that he got a new contract there.

00:21:19
Speaker 4: I mean Browning. They thought they had a top five.

00:21:23
Speaker 10: Certainly top ten backup quarterback in the NFL. And it's almost like when Burrow went down this time. I don't know if it was the pressure or the weight of it, but Browning just didn't play very well.

00:21:36
Speaker 4: You know.

00:21:36
Speaker 10: Maybe he thought it was his opportunity to become a starter somewhere and put too much pressure himself.

00:21:41
Speaker 4: That's the beauty of Joe Flacco. He just doesn't care it, does Joe.

00:21:46
Speaker 10: I mean, he's made two hundred million dollars. Okay, the guys won a Super Bowl MVP. Joe's out there just slinging it. And that was a hilarious game, Dan, because I'm in the booth and I said, they should just throw the ball to Jim Chase every play, whether it was Ramsey or Darius Slay or he was getting four or five yards of separation.

00:22:08
Speaker 2: He had twenty three targets. They threw the ball to Jamar Chase twenty three times.

00:22:14
Speaker 4: Not enough.

00:22:15
Speaker 10: If you ask me, I would throw I would be the most hilarious offensive coordinator in NFL history.

00:22:23
Speaker 4: All right, throw the ball to Jamar again. Throw the ball a Jamar if they bracket him or did.

00:22:27
Speaker 10: It a couple times, then throw it to one of the other guys like t Higgins wide open or Josie.

00:22:32
Speaker 4: Bosh or Fan.

00:22:33
Speaker 10: I mean, I would say this, I've been a little skeptical at times of just how much wide receivers get paid now and Chase making whatever he's making thirty six million dollars a year. That was a game where I totally saw it because he was unstoppable. And then when you went out of your way to bracket him, which means the corners on outside of him, the safeties inside of him, then you're leaving the middle of the field open and Yo, Si Vosh has a big catch, Noah Fan has the touchdown.

00:23:05
Speaker 4: I really thought.

00:23:06
Speaker 10: That was a little bit of eye opening, even for me in the just the value that you can have created by a receiver that's as unstoppable as Jamar Chase is.

00:23:16
Speaker 2: Ross Tucker, CBS Sports, Westwood One, NFL college football analyst and host of the Ross Tucker Football podcast in the Westwood one Radio booth for tomorrow night, Vikings and the Chargers. How did Mike McDaniels hold on to his job this week?

00:23:33
Speaker 10: Well, probably because the owner has one of two schools of thought.

00:23:39
Speaker 4: So there's the.

00:23:40
Speaker 10: School of thought that when you want to move on from a guy, just move on from him, cut bait.

00:23:47
Speaker 4: And move forward.

00:23:49
Speaker 10: There became a few years there, and I want to say it was maybe twenty twenty twenty twenty three, where owners became very hesitant to fire coaches in season because they were nervous that the interim coach would turn things around and lead the team to a bunch of wins, and that the pressure would then be on them to hire the interim head coach.

00:24:21
Speaker 2: The Raiders a couple of years ago didn't happen with the Raiders.

00:24:25
Speaker 4: Raiders Antonio Pierce. That's exactly right.

00:24:27
Speaker 10: Twenty twenty three, they fire McDaniels, Pierce comes in, they have a lot of success, and there's a lot of pressure on Mark Davis to keep him because remember a couple of years prior to that, he had fired John Gruden middle of the year, gone with Bisaccio, and the Raiders made the playoffs, and the Raiders were in the playoffs and almost beat the Bengals in the.

00:24:50
Speaker 4: Year the Bengals went to the Super Bowl.

00:24:52
Speaker 10: He didn't hire Bisaccia, he hired McDaniels. He regretted it, so he felt like he had to give Antonio Pierce that chance. That is what Look, I don't know a single person that thinks might mate Thaniel will be the head coach of the Miami Dolphins in twenty twenty six. Not a single person. So and my guess is Stephen Ross included. So he's electing to not take a chance that he makes Anthony Weaver the young, you know, well thought of decordinator the head coach. Weaver goes on a run. All the players say, we want Weaver, we want Weaver. I don't think Stephen Ross wants to have to deal with that.

00:25:33
Speaker 2: John Harball is taking away all the locker room toys with the Ravens. According to the Baltimore Sun, what is what is that going to do for this team?

00:25:42
Speaker 4: Oh? Man? That you know what's amazing? It's so funny, like we.

00:25:47
Speaker 10: Got to google this or maybe you guys can talk about it. Depending on whether the team is struggling or when the new coach comes in, I've seen reports on.

00:25:58
Speaker 4: Both of these over the years.

00:26:00
Speaker 10: A new head coach comes in, he brings in a ping pong table and in the player lounge, and it's such a positive for the team because the guys are all hanging out together and they're competing, Like the Eagles have ping pong tables everywhere, and Hurts likes to do it up and pool and Hurts does it and he competes to the other guys, and Sirianni loves it because they're harnessing their competitive edge and they're spending time together. But then there's also the flip side where they take it away and oh, now we're getting serious. It's funny, I mean to me, it just kind of makes me up. I will say this, I once played with a player that was definitely top thing. It might have been a top five pick. The most animated I ever saw him in three years was when he was playing video games in the player's lounge. I mean way more animated playing Halo or whatever that thing was called than he was on the field in a real NFL game, like a real game with eighty thousand people and this other guy trying to embarrass you.

00:27:08
Speaker 4: That didn't really stoke his fire, That didn't do it for him.

00:27:11
Speaker 10: But being on a big leather couch, you know, in the player's lounge playing Halo, that's when he would get really animated and fired up. That team who will remain nameless, should have gotten rid of the whole player lounge or at least the video games, or at a minimum, banned that particular player from being able to play video games.

00:27:31
Speaker 2: Well, do we want to guess? So you played for Washington Cowboys, Bill's Patriots, any other team.

00:27:43
Speaker 10: No, but it's pretty obvious if I gave you top ten, top five pick and was there for three years.

00:27:51
Speaker 4: I mean, if you go.

00:27:52
Speaker 2: Get your laying down here, I can solve the mystery. I think Pauli's on it right now. So Ross didn't spend too much time in a place, especially three years. Yeah, Paulie has to be Washington. Yeah, that's what I thought.

00:28:10
Speaker 11: Tell me, No, oh, three oh four. Well, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. You guys got to figure it out. Okay, PAULI get the item on.

00:28:22
Speaker 2: Polly'll work on that. By the way, Sean Payton taking a shot at Russell Wilson and uh, this is what the Broncos coach had to say.

00:28:32
Speaker 12: I have a ton of respect for that organization. I spent four in my early years there coordinating Super Bowl, first first game in this stadium, before nine to eleven close with the marrit Tish family, and you know they found.

00:28:47
Speaker 13: A little spark with that quarterback.

00:28:50
Speaker 12: I was talking to John mayeror not too long ago, and I said, we were hoping that that change would have happened long long after our game.

00:28:57
Speaker 2: Okay, so he wanted to face Russell Wilson, his former quarterback. Russ sent out a tweet classless but not surprised. Didn't realize you're still bounty hunting fifteen plus years later through the media and of course the bounty gate that cast Sean Payton an entire season in twenty twelve. What do you make of this?

00:29:19
Speaker 10: Well, Russell certainly escalated it, that's for sure. You know, you could have spun Peyton's comment as being primarily a compliment for Jackson Dart and now he didn't want to have to face Jackson Dart.

00:29:37
Speaker 4: You could have made that the emphasis. Certainly.

00:29:40
Speaker 10: I think there was a dig at Russell Wilson in there, and that that was intentional, but the media took that and really made it seem like it was all.

00:29:52
Speaker 4: About Russell Wilson.

00:29:54
Speaker 10: Russell obviously didn't appreciate it, was offended by it.

00:29:58
Speaker 4: I would be two.

00:29:59
Speaker 10: I don't know if I would have gone where Russell did with it. But you know what, there are people that have the mindset if you're gonna you gonna take a shot at me, I'm gonna come back twice as hard and bring up your lowest worst moment.

00:30:13
Speaker 4: I don't care.

00:30:14
Speaker 10: I'm not a fan of the Giants or the Bronco. It's to me, it's just entertaining. Get your popcorn ready and guess what. He was right, because the Bronco should have lost that game. I mean, I can't believe. I still can't believe the Giants lost that. I've never seen that before. Thirty three points in the fourth quarter, but Dan, it was twenty six to eight Giants with a little over five minutes left in the whole game. The Giants scored a touchdown in those remaining five minutes.

00:30:45
Speaker 4: That still lost the game.

00:30:47
Speaker 10: I mean, give me the probability ESPN probability things or whatever like. It must have been off the charts, I can And they had the redhead kicker miss two extra points. He got fired yesterday, I mean, just day wild games. I guess on some level, Sean Payton's right, because I do not think Russell Wilson would have put up thirty two points like that out in Denver.

00:31:07
Speaker 2: Oh, Paulie looks like he's got an answer here.

00:31:11
Speaker 8: This is the Ping Pong player that played harder at ping No video game video games than he did on the field. Ross with the Bills high draft pick. I'm gonna go offensive tackle out of Texas, Mike Williams.

00:31:23
Speaker 4: I think that's all the time I have for you, guys.

00:31:25
Speaker 2: Wait, is it an offensive tackle or was that the defensive lineman? Offensive tackle?

00:31:34
Speaker 4: So listen.

00:31:35
Speaker 10: I'm not telling you, guys the answer. I gave you plenty of hints. I'm pleading the fifth. I'm not saying yes or no. I'm just saying I played with a guy during my career that I got more animated playing video games than he did than he did on the field.

00:31:53
Speaker 2: Have fun tomorrow night, Vikings, Chargers, Westwood One, and thanks for joining us.

00:31:58
Speaker 4: As always, absolutely you, guys.

00:32:00
Speaker 2: That's Ross Tucker.

00:32:01
Speaker 1: 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.

00:32:13
Speaker 2: We bring in Don Mattingly. The numbers the official numbers are five and thirty one games over thirty six seasons as a player, coach, manager, and you're going to your first World Series. How's it feel?

00:32:26
Speaker 13: It feels pretty good.

00:32:27
Speaker 10: Dan.

00:32:27
Speaker 13: How many shows you probably got the similar amount of shows?

00:32:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, and I haven't won either.

00:32:33
Speaker 13: I haven't won to owe you one for sure.

00:32:38
Speaker 2: What's your role as a bench coach for the Blue jaysh anymore?

00:32:43
Speaker 13: It's getting It just fills less and less. I think when I first came here, John was, you know, in his first year of first full year of managing. I thought, you know, I felt like my role was to come in and just be a voice for him and be another set of eyes as he went through it. It feels like it's getting less. I kind of look to Marlow Hale and myself for here. We're both over sixty, and I call us the perspective coaches. We've got to keep things in perspective. As the season goes and it gets a little crazy, you lose a couple of games and got to try to keep it in perspective. But in general, you know, going through the game with John and staying up, I do more of the offensive side of Hey, you want to pinch it here, we want to run, you know, just kind of staying on top of a few things. So he's usually thinking about pitching or what he's going to do next inning or whatever, and I just try to make sure I'm just kind of keeping up with the game for him.

00:33:39
Speaker 2: Love is going through your mind when you're trailing in Game seven.

00:33:44
Speaker 13: Uh, you know what, trust? This has been a team that all year long, like through this postseason, we've came down to like, we need to win last day of the season to give ourselves a few days and get healthy, get our pitching together. Uh, we get down a couple of games, we lose the game in New York, we got to lead, it could have could have turned And all year long, this has been a team that I could sit here and go, you know what, I trust these guys. And that doesn't mean it's going to work out, But for the most part, these guys show up and they play. They're a team and they are really fun to be around.

00:34:23
Speaker 2: Of all the teams that you're going to face in the World Series, and it happens to be the Dodgers, what are you thinking when you go back to Los Angeles, what kind of feelings, Uh, no, good.

00:34:35
Speaker 13: I had a great run there in LA and walked away from there, you know, feeling good, didn't feel like, you know, any negativity towards those guys, and and then going back it's it's really more it's kind of like going to New York at this time of year. It's like, hey, what do we have to do to win a game? Right? And it's it's business. It's it's pretty much that for us. Obviously, I've never been in a World Series, so I'm gonna enjoy this. I've been enjoying this ride with this team.

00:35:09
Speaker 4: Again.

00:35:10
Speaker 13: It's a fun team. It's a team you can trust. It's probably the best word you can say as a coach or a manager is that you can trust these guys.

00:35:18
Speaker 2: What's it been like though, all of those years where you're watching somebody else win a World Series or go to a World Series.

00:35:26
Speaker 13: You know, different phases of that. Obviously, early earlier as a player, you always feel like you're going to get there. Always felt like we were going to win it. You know, any level that I've ever been, we've won, and I always felt like we were going to win. In New York as a player, I felt that way as a coach, I felt that way a coach in LA I felt that way. Miami maybe had one year there, we had a little run, but it wasn't quite as good as I would have liked there. So yeah, I've always felt like I was going to get there and have a chance to win.

00:36:01
Speaker 2: What's it like now to have a younger son. I think you have three grown boys, but now a younger son watching dad on the big stage in a World Series.

00:36:13
Speaker 13: It's been a lot of fun watching him go through this and the difference I think with my older boys, you know, we never got on this run, so they didn't do this, you know, extra month of baseball where you get to go and you get to have the celebrations and you get to go through, you know, losing the first couple of games here and having to you know, have some must win games and different spots on the road. But to have him go through it and kind of see his love of baseball grow. And that's what's been kind of fun this year is he's just really kind of gotten into baseball. You know, Kirk Gitt's a couple of homers. The next thing, you know, Louie wants to be a catcher, you know, and then it's like this is great, you know, so it's been fun to watch him go through it.

00:37:04
Speaker 2: But go back, and this is what ninety five, when you hurt your back or you may have to make that decision that you're going to retire, and how old are your boys? Then like, if it doesn't happen, you're going to continue to play for a little while longer. And that team was going to World Series, so you may have held on even longer, but you wouldn't have been at home with your boys at that time. So I don't know, can you look at it as a blessing that you did get hurt and then you retired so you could be at home.

00:37:37
Speaker 13: One hundred percent? I don't. I feel like I had a choice at that point in ninety five and I was actually starting I finally had kind of found a routine, you know, with my back that I was able to start to figure out, Okay, I can play, do this much work, and I stay fairly healthy. Right, So that part I'd kind of figured out. But the family part I couldn't figure out. Because all I was doing in ninety five and really ninety four I probably would have retired after ninety four, if the strike didn't come along, all I was doing Dan was in Jersey. The kids weren't really coming anymore. They were at an age where they were starting to play Little League and they didn't want to come to New York and sit around and do nothing. So all I was doing off the road was come I'd go home, I'd go to the bedroom, I'd go down through the kitchen, grab a cup of coffee, and go to the ballpark and rinse and repeat every day. And that just wasn't enough at that point. And for me, so the baseball part I still loved. I still felt like I was starting again, starting to get where I could produce again. But that other side of it, like the thought of my boys me trying to play more and not being a part of their lives, I just couldn't do that. And I'm so glad I did what I did, and because I don't think they would have known me near as well if I would have kept playing. And yeah, I lost out. You know, at the end of the day, I didn't get rings I may have had a chance for but I would do I would not I would not change it at one one bit.

00:39:18
Speaker 2: Don Mattingly, the Blue Jays bench coach and a former batting champion. You know, we met in nineteen eighty three, and there is actually a report that I did on CNN on you. I think it's from nineteen eighty four. It's on YouTube, and I will say, I look pretty damn good back then. But you you had that mustache. You look pretty good back then.

00:39:46
Speaker 13: I don't even want to look at those pictures because you feel you feel good on the inside, you feel the same, and then you see the mirror and you're like, ooh, the skin. The skin was a lot tighter in those days.

00:39:57
Speaker 2: Did you How did you feel about Donnie was a nickname?

00:40:02
Speaker 13: You know what, I didn't mind it because at number one, it came from Kirby. It was just awesome, awesome guy who kind of he started this baseball baseball baseball thing at a dinner we would do.

00:40:13
Speaker 2: And Kirby Puckett gave you that nickname Kirby oh wow.

00:40:17
Speaker 13: And it started in Rochester, New York. We did a dinner uh for Kenny Kaiser Uh passed away, got the rest of soul. But we do it from every year and you kind of hang around afterwards, you know, you might have a few drinks and Kirby talking then gets going and Donnie baseball, baseball, Donny baseball, and it just kind of hit and it stuck somehow. I don't know how it got passed on. But then I thought later, I said, you know, I've probably been called a lot worse, So I'm like that I should Probably that one's that one's okay.

00:40:48
Speaker 2: Critique, well not critique, I guess analyze. Show he Tani at the plate.

00:40:54
Speaker 13: Oh, I probably shouldn't do that. Probably shouldn't do that. But I mean, I haven't looked at him really really close. But I think, like anyone, there are places to go to get him out right, And it doesn't mean you can go there all the time. That means you got to find different ways to get there.

00:41:17
Speaker 2: But the strategy of having him lead on, could you imagine in today's game you might lead off?

00:41:24
Speaker 13: Yeah, yeah, I mean I think it's it's different, right. I think it depends on your lineup, right. I think the year, one of my biggest years, Billy put me in a two hole and that was ahead of his time, you know, hitting in front of windfield behind Ricky, so that was a great spot to hit it. I always felt like the two hole was probably the best spot to hit in if you have a really if you have a deep lineup, and that means you're eight to nine guys are getting on base, which for me in that year iank was Willie Randolph hit ninth with maybe a four hundred on base and then Ricky. It was just a perfect spot. But yeah, the game, I think we've seen it with Atlanta when they did it was so lair. In the World Series, they threw him in the one hole. He hits some big homers, it gets him an extra at bat because that spot comes around if it's a close game in the ninth, you're getting to the ninth, that spot's probably coming around for the extra at bat. And who do you want to get at, You know, a leadoff guy that may be a high own base guy, but or do you want the guy that can change the game right there.

00:42:27
Speaker 2: So you don't want to give me any secrets. You don't want to give the Dodgers any secrets on what you think about Tony.

00:42:33
Speaker 13: I mean probably the whole league tries to do the same thing Dan with the information that they have today. You know, everybody knows where you can go or where the spots are to get him out. But that doesn't mean when he's swinging good, he doesn't get there. And it doesn't mean you can just keep going there, right, You can't just keep doing it. You got to find different ways to get to that spot or those spots, whatever they are. And that's that's what makes it tough. It makes him tough. Mookie. I mean, Freddy, they got a club now, so you know we're gonna show up and play. So it'd be a series.

00:43:12
Speaker 2: What's your favorite Ricky Henderson's story?

00:43:16
Speaker 13: Uh, I probably look at think of it differently. I think not necessarily a story, just memories right of you know, when we go to Oakland, Ricky would he invited me out. We have lunch his house with his girl and just seeing his place, and I remember he had this beautiful weight room. I'm like, man, this equipment's nice, and I said, you use this in the winter. He's like, nah, basically do pushed ups and sit ups and run sprints. So he had this beautiful weight room that he never really used. But I just have memories like that, just him and I just kind of hit it off, you know, on the field and off and I thought that was That's what I think about.

00:43:56
Speaker 2: Did he talk in third person to you?

00:43:59
Speaker 13: No? I mean I think we all kind of like take this stuff a little further than it needs to go, right. But you know, Ricky, Ricky was sharp for me. He was a he was a player that knew what he was doing and and and was smart. I felt like off the field too, Uh, wasn't doing crazy stuff.

00:44:18
Speaker 12: Uh.

00:44:18
Speaker 2: Do you feel like an underdog in this series?

00:44:22
Speaker 13: Yeah, a little bit. I mean I think you have to. I mean the Dodgers have got experience. Uh, you know, they won last year. They've showed it. You see a little bit of the bulls like in Michael's years with the regular season doesn't really it's like if they get in, who wants who wants to play them? So they've got that experience in that pedigree. But the great thing about our club, and I say I've said it a couple of times, they just show up and play. It feels like sand Lot with our guys. I mean, I'm okay, they look like they're having fun. They've always just showed up and played. We lose two or three in a row during the regular season, they show up play. We won five or six in a row. They look the same. They show up and they play, and I think that's what we'll do. I think we'll show up and we'll play. We played pretty good baseball. We catch the ball, we run the bases decent. We can put it in play a little bit. Their starting pitching is really really good.

00:45:17
Speaker 4: Uh.

00:45:18
Speaker 13: Those those you know, the four guys they threw that last series, they're all number ones. So I mean it's it's gonna there's gonna be a battle.

00:45:27
Speaker 2: Do you think about the Hall of Fame?

00:45:29
Speaker 13: Uh?

00:45:31
Speaker 8: Now?

00:45:31
Speaker 13: And then more when people bring it up, only you know, and I've started. I think I've changed over the years. You're kind of like, man, whatever, I've played my cards or whatever. But I think I look back at it now and go, you know what, there's not a guy in there, a pitcher in there that I don't think I could hit. There really isn't. There really isn't. There's never been a guy that I didn't think I could hit. And I know that if I was on the field with those guys, I wouldn't be out of place. And that's but after that, I don't what am I gonna do?

00:46:04
Speaker 2: You keep going, Yeah, but we put in guys who got injured and their careers cut short. We do this in all sports, especially football.

00:46:14
Speaker 13: Yeah, Dan, you know what, you know, I'm not gonna politic. I'm just going I basically did what our club does, showed up and I played. Now I'm raising boys and getting along in baseball, getting older. I think I'd be just as happy being a bench coach or advisor or coaching Louie's TENU team. You know, it's just like and just get a different perspective over time. So that part of my life is those cards have been played. But I do feel like, like I know, I wouldn't be out of place on a field with any of those guys.

00:46:52
Speaker 2: So Randy Johnson, Steve Carlton, no no problem, bring them on.

00:46:57
Speaker 13: No, yeah, I say bring them on. I don't say no problem.

00:47:02
Speaker 4: You know what I mean.

00:47:03
Speaker 13: There's guys that give you problems that but you figure them out. You got to try to figure it out. And Randy was kind of the opposite. Hit Randy early really well, as he started to get the slider over, he'd give me more and more trouble, all right, And that doesn't mean that like Carlton, I faced him, but he was he was kind of past his prime. Why I didn't get to see the nasty slider and all that. But I just think I just know that I figured it out. I figured it out. I've never felt like anybody really ever overpowered me, and nobody that I felt like throw too hard for me, any of that kind of stuff, and just kind of always figured it out.

00:47:43
Speaker 2: Great to talk to you again. Congrats, have fun, we'll be watching, and uh, thanks for joining us.

00:47:49
Speaker 13: Thanks Dan, It's always good to talk to you. And I didn't get thrown out of a game this year. I know.

00:47:53
Speaker 2: I thought I could have gotten a uniform, a Toronto uniform. I got your Dodger uniform over there, still on in the mannequin, and I have your Hitman poster in the man cave as well.

00:48:07
Speaker 13: I like it. I like it. Damn all right, you guys have a good one. Thank you.

00:48:11
Speaker 4: Don