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: NBA final regular season games. I mentioned Fernando Mendoza is going to sit this one out, and I don't know, you know, it might have to do with his mother not being able to travel, but he wants to spend the time with his family. I remember covering Barry Sanders, and Barry Sanders was going to be at home with his family. He didn't go to the draft, but you know, Barry wasn't the number one overall pick. Now, if I'm the NFL, I'm like, okay, how do we get Fernando Mendoza. It's like you go to a play opening night and the star is not going to be there. He'll eventually be there, but he's not going to be there that opening night, and this draft is void of star's name recognition. You have Jeremiah Love now he's the other big name, but you know this was about Fernando Mendoza. And if I'm the Mothership and you want to have features, you know, your lead up to the draft, the Raiders are on the clock and Fernando Mendoza walking in with his family. What's he wearing? And you know, then you get that opportunity get an interview with him. He gets drafted, he gets to hug the commissioner, and then you talk to him again after he gets drafted. So you get to spend you know, a good hour on Fernando Mendoza leading in, you know, to that first night of the draft. Speaking of Jeremiah Love, I had him as a second on my Heisman list. I thought he was wonderful this year. I thought he was must see TV. Here's the problem I have, and I guess it's a good problem. But the Tennessee Titans at number four, they're the ones that a lot of these mocked drabs have them taking Jeremiah Love, the Notre Dame running back. And while I love Jeremiah Love, I don't want to take a running back unless I know my team, like that's the missing piece.

00:01:58
Speaker 3: Now.

00:01:58
Speaker 2: This is why I thought the John taking Saquon Barkley it was a smart move. It was at the end of Eli's career. I thought that they were ready to win and he was going to be that safety valve. He was going to give you twelve hundred, fourteen hundred yards. He was going to catch, you know, forty or fifty passes and he was going to be a weapon. But if you take him that high, you got to make sure that you're able to use him on a good team because you don't build around a running back now. Years and years and years ago, you could build around a running back, but that's not the case anymore. The Raiders they drafted Ashton genty and while I loved watching him in college, I didn't think he played well. I didn't think he was a threat. He had nine hundred yards nine to seventy five, and he averaged a three point seven yards per attempt number six pick. Overall, Well, he might be the right guy. It just wasn't the right time for him because the offensive line wasn't any good. If I'm Tennessee, I think long and hard about Okay, take Jeremiah Love. How is my offensive line? Because if we're confident our line is pretty good, not average, then take Jeremiah Love. But if you're not confident that that line will be opening up holes for him, you're gonna have him for four years and then you might be getting better and then you're gonna have to pay him. But if I'm taking Jeremiah Love like Washington, to me, is the destination because they had a down year injuries, and you put Jeremiah Love in there with Jayden Daniels. Now we got something. We got something going on. But I got to have the right team around him. It's just like a quarterback, and I have to have the right team ready to go for that running back. And I don't know if Tennessee is that team right now, because you might waste him. And he gets you know, a thousand yards, which isn't a big deal anymore, but a thousand yards and your team wins, you know, six games. You have that missing piece and it's like, man, I got a home run threat right there, because that's the guy. Because if I'm the Titans, I have the fourth pick. Do I trade out of that? Can I trade out of that? Can I get alignment that I think is worth that pick? And alignment makes more. You know, we don't like when our team takes alignment a defensive lineman an offensive lineman. We like when you have that pick that everybody knows, Oh my god, mil Kuiper loved that pick.

00:04:30
Speaker 4: You know.

00:04:30
Speaker 2: It's when you get some guy, you know, Jimmy Lipper out of NC State and you go, yeah, but then you get to the playoffs and then all of a sudden, they're saying, Oh, this is how they built their team. They got that center, and then they got this guard, they got that tackling free agency. That's how you win championships, that's how you advance in the playoffs. It's nice to have the shiny pieces, but if they're covered up, you know, the gold looks like pewter. And that's the big difference I have with this going into this draft. Jeremiah Love is a home run waiting to happen. But I got to make sure that I have a team that can allow him to hit home runs.

00:05:10
Speaker 5: Yes, Marvin, Yeah, I think the best case scenario was maybe ten or so years ago when the Cowboys drafted Ezekiel Elliott fourth overall and he had a great offensive line, and he came out like gangbusters, and I think he led the league in rushing.

00:05:21
Speaker 2: You know, that's the best case scenario.

00:05:23
Speaker 5: That's the time when you get a running back with the fourth pick and the draft, when you have your offensive line solidified already.

00:05:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then they got to the next contract and I said, don't re sign him. You got five years out of him, let him go and they re signed him, but you know, the Titans with a new stadium, I mean, you want to roll into this with some momentum. Cam Ward, by all accounts, is a franchise quarterback. But the more I look at these mock drafts, Jeremiah Love is probably going to be a top five, top six, top seven pick. Maybe I think the Commanders or they had seven, And if that's the case, I would gobble him up if I'm Washington. But they're in a different position than Tennessee is. But you know, this isn't one of those drafts where we're going to look back on all the big names, even the wide receivers. Like there are some wide receivers where you go, oh, yeah, I remember that guy. This is lacking star power, but that doesn't mean we won't look back and go, yeah, they got that guy in whatever slot, whatever round. And it might be a guy that is an offensive defensive lineman, maybe an edge rusher in here who turns out to be great. But that's where it's tricky. You know, we don't have the star power with quarterbacks, and the quarterback is not showing up for the draft, and ty Simpson is probably going to be a first round pick. Even though there are a lot of draft of valuators, including my friend who said I don't have a first round great on him. That doesn't mean he won't go in the first round because there are people are still looking at eras own of the Jets or the Steelers. Those are the three teams that everybody has been told they could be drafting Ty Simpson. So, look, I'm going to the draft. We're gonna be there for three days in Pittsburgh. We look forward to it. We love the atmosphere. You get to talk football in April. Nothing wrong with that. I just don't I don't know if the focus will be completely on just the draft, because you're gonna have to be introducing people to some of these players, which is fine. I love doing that. If you find that guy and you go keep an eye on him, and it feels like every year where you go, man, I love that guy. And this might be one of those drafts where it's somebody you not quite sure about or you haven't heard, but then you remember, oh my gosh, yes they talked about him on Draft nine. Yes, Marv.

00:07:47
Speaker 5: The NFL Draft ESPN, NFL Network. They got to put a montage of defensive lineman making big plays in the Super Bowl and in playoff games, just to let teams know this is what wins championships because the name name recognition alone is not going to move the needle.

00:08:01
Speaker 2: Well, you go back to Aaron Donald. When Aaron Donald was taking they didn't know what they had. They're like, you got a short guy out of Pittsburgh and then all of a sudden he became one of the best defensive linemen in NFL history. You don't know. And that's where you go. Where that can I go to school or how did he end up there? It doesn't matter as long as you end up in the NFL and you get your chance.

00:08:25
Speaker 6: Yes, Pauling and what you're saying about running backs, I just picked a draft from a couple of years ago, twenty twenty two. Okay, the best running backs from the twenty twenty two draft, the three best. James Cook middle of the second round, having a very nice place with kim Alott, Kiren Williams out of Notre Dame like the Rams. It was a fifth round draft pick. He's basically almost free. And then Kenneth Walker, the third Super Bowl MVP, taking the middle of the second round. You don't need to draft a running back high and it's actually dangerous.

00:08:53
Speaker 2: But Jeremiah Love his different right.

00:08:55
Speaker 6: Like Bjon Robinson.

00:08:58
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I would play him on that level Jamiir Gibbs, but he can be a kick return I mean, Jeremiah Love ninety yards like he's in scoring position when he's ninety yards out. There aren't that many players in recent memory who are in scoring position ninety yards out. But he's fascinating. I just don't know if I would be taking him if I'm Tennessee at number four, unless I am sold that my offensive line is good.

00:09:30
Speaker 6: Yes, Pauline, Tennessee last season had the third worst rushing offense in the league, so clearly they're looking to help it. But you know what the worst rushing offense in the league, the Las Vegas Raider.

00:09:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're wow. It's about your offensive line, really is. And I think what happens is I don't know if we're developing offensive linemen that can play at the next level because college is different than the NFL. With the style that you're playing. How many good teams are you playing and but having a great offensive line or guys who are really good at playing their position because we don't talk about that. We talk about edge rushers, you'll talk about cornerbacks, you talk about quarterbacks, wide receivers. It feels like that's the group that we talk about, certainly quarterbacks, wide receivers, and then the edge rusher, but we don't focus on is there a plethora of really good offensive linemen And I don't think that there are. I don't know, and I've talked to Ross Tucker about this before. Ross played offensive lineman, But I don't know. If we develop them with the skill set to be ready to play in the NFL, they're developed to play in college football. It's like, you know, quarterbacks getting under center. These guys are having problems, like Fernando Mendoza hasn't been under center. You're going to have to learn how to be under center. But that's what's kind of interesting, Like you couldn't play the position unless you got under center. Now you're in a shotgun all the time. But if you have an offensive coordinator or a head coach where we want you to be under center occasionally, you're not learning that in college. I don't know how many quarterbacks played under center in college, even for a few plays. Because you'll hear a quarterback go, well, I got to learn how to play under center. Well, it is a learned skill. You got to You're at the line of scrimmage, you're calling your plays and all of a sudden, getting the ball now backing up if you're going to throw seven yard drop, five yard drop. But I always thought that quarterbacks would benefit being under center because now play action is more deceptive that the you know, the defense can't really see everything. If you're in shotgun, I can see you when you're going back to pass. And I like when you're going back to pass because you're kind of going back and surveying the higher field there. Now you might say, yeah, but you still got to go back seven yards. You got a plant step up in the pocket. But I just thought when you're under center, I can do a lot of different things there. If I'm in the gun, it's you know, if I hand the ball off, there's no real deception there. And I always thought, like Boomer Sizon was wonderful with play play fake play action. He was great, one of the best that I ever saw. And I always thought that that was such a benefit for the offense. And you know, a detriment to the defense because they're like, I can't really and these you know, these running backs, if you're around them on the field, they're like five to nine. I mean, nobody's six feet tall. Eric Dickerson is not coming through that door. But well, Derrick Henry, he's coming through the door. He's unique. Yeah, he's daring, he'd be breaking open down the door. But these guys are small. Why not take advantage of that deception? And Fernando Mendoza, Now you get Ashton Genty with a legitimate quarterback, they'll bolster the offensive line. I got Brock Bowers is my tight end. Now there's promise there. And your head coach just won a Super Bowl with Seattle. But these are all the things leading into the draft that I'm always curious about the philosophy of what somebody is looking at when they're looking at that player, and who trades down. You might get gms making really smart decisions this draft. Seaton brought this up earlier this morning. He goes, there's no guy you're really going to go, I'm going to reach for that guy. It's man, We'll just take that guy right there and that's it. Although we yes, yeah, that's no fun. A shiny fun object over there, all right? Get the tackle? Yeah, all right, so just some football there, Randall. Shamblee is going to join us from Augusta. Get ready for the Masters. I never thought i'd see this in my lifetime where we would say this goal for against the field versus the field. But this is where we are with Scotty Scheffler. Scotty is entering that Tiger, Hey, Tiger or the field, Scotty Scheffler on or the field. I'll always take the field, even with Tiger. I had to take the field, even though that that pick would come back to haunt me pretty much all the time. They're like, damn he did it again, Yeah, Paul.

00:14:28
Speaker 6: But Scheffler and Woods are the opposite on the course, it's like.

00:14:32
Speaker 2: And off the course, right and off the course. Yeah.

00:14:34
Speaker 6: But like Tiger would wear red on Sunday, Scotty Scheffler would wear like a beige B neck on Sunday, his beige V neck.

00:14:41
Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, the best thing that ever happened was when he got arrested. Oh yeah, Scotty. Best thing that happened when Scotty got arrested. And yes, but do we know this got rebel man. He's got a secret life. I just had another kid, you know, probably as a mini van. You know, two of them, Yeah, both beije.

00:15:04
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 w app. Fox Sports Radio is taking over YouTube and you can be a part of it. Just go to YouTube and search Fox Sports Radio, hit that subscribe button and smash that notification bell and catch all the videos from your favorite shows.

00:15:26
Speaker 7: Two Pros and a Cup of.

00:15:28
Speaker 1: Joe, Dan Patrick, Colin Cowherd, Stu GOTTSID Company Live, Cavino and Rich, The Odd Couple with Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington, The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon, and The Ben Maller Show. Fox Sports Radio on YouTube.

00:15:40
Speaker 2: Subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon and comment away. Randal Shamblee on loan from Golf Channel joining us in AUGUSTA. I didn't think in my lifetime I'd ever say a golfer against the field, but here we are. It feels like with Scotty Scheffler. Is that fair to say it's Scott Ever? Is the field at the Masters.

00:16:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think he separated himself, not quite to the extent that Tiger did. But to your point, I didn't think i'd ever again in my lifetime see a golfer with such complete control tee to green as Tiger Woods had, And that's what we're talking about with Scott. He's not quite the putter that Tiger Woods was, so he doesn't distance himself quite to the extent that Tiger did.

00:16:21
Speaker 8: But I think that's a fair statement.

00:16:23
Speaker 7: Dan.

00:16:23
Speaker 2: The familiarity of coming back to these same course. Now, I know they change it, they tweak it, but is that why Cinderella stories don't usually happen at Augusta.

00:16:35
Speaker 8: I think that's part of it.

00:16:36
Speaker 4: I think you know, Augusta is such it's a unique golf course. You don't play Hillary Helly or golf course.

00:16:44
Speaker 8: On the PGA Tour.

00:16:45
Speaker 4: Every lies either above your feet or below your feet, So you've got to have, for the most part, an upright golf swing to pick it off those weird lies, and you got to hit the ball so high to get it to stop below the hole on those devilish greens. So they're not that many people that can do those things. They're just not that many people that also have a blend of power and finesse around the green. It is really a place where the best players go to show off, and so there's not much room for anybody else. The average world rank of a winner there the last ten years is around ninth. So that's a trend in the game of golf generally, but more specifically at Augusta.

00:17:24
Speaker 2: I didn't know how Rory's game was going to react after winning last year, because that's the exhale. That's when you can go out and just play now, and nobody's going to say, hey, you've done everything, but you haven't won the Masters. Well, now he's won all those, he won the Grand Slam, but I haven't seen that exhale. Now I can go out and just play. Why.

00:17:49
Speaker 4: Well, I think he's reset his goals. You know, he kind of stated at it at the end of last year. You know, he said he he wanted to win an a way Ryder Cup. He said he wanted to win the Grand Slam again. So he's sort of reset his goals. You know, he's thirty six. The window closes pretty fast. I mean, okay, he's in this era we've had Tom Brady, and we've had Federer and we've had great examples of longevity in the game, and he looks like he's head in that direction. He's got great team around him from a fitness standpoint, so maybe he's got another ten years and if he does, maybe he can win the Grand Slam again.

00:18:24
Speaker 8: And I think he's I think he's hungry again. This week. He's you know, he's certainly having a good time.

00:18:29
Speaker 4: He said he he said he could never wait for the Masters to start in the past, and this one he wished would never start.

00:18:35
Speaker 8: So he's really enjoying himself. I don't know if.

00:18:38
Speaker 4: He'll play with quite the intensity that he has because of the you know, the enjoyment that he's getting out of this week. So that's enough to make me, you know, probably not pick him this week.

00:18:49
Speaker 2: I don't know if PGA Tour can declare victory. But it feels like that with Livetour, that you know what, there's no big names in the last what two or three years who've gone to Live and it just feels like they're going to, you know, have their tournament, like the fight is over. Maybe there's still curiosity there, but did PGA Tour win they did.

00:19:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean even when live events are broadcast in the United States, and even when they're broadcast and finished in prime time on the East Coast, they garner thirty five fifty thousand views. More people watch pickleball than that on TV. So and these are the best players, I mean bryceon Deshambo, John Rohm playing on the East Coast finishing, then they're just not galvanize anybody to watch them around the globe.

00:19:37
Speaker 8: They'll get a few people out. They make it easy for people to come out.

00:19:42
Speaker 4: But you know, brooks Kepka leaving Live Tour was a boon for the PGA Tour. Patrick Reid leaving the Live Tour was a boon for the dp World Tour with the PGA Tour. And you know, if you listen to bryceon De'shambo, he's trying to play both sides against the middle. He's asking supposedly for five hundred million dollars. I don't think he's going to bite there. I think has a pretty much an inflated view of his value because.

00:20:06
Speaker 8: Again, people don't watch him on TV.

00:20:08
Speaker 4: They may go to his YouTube videos, but they're not watching him on TV.

00:20:12
Speaker 2: Ris Into Shamba Golf Channel leads, studio analyst and live from the Masters must see TV before and after the coverage. You haven't said anything that's got you in trouble here this week, have.

00:20:24
Speaker 4: You No, I've been on my best behavior, Dan, Why well, I don't.

00:20:29
Speaker 2: I don't like that, you know, no drama there. I'm always like, well, let's have Branda on he said something.

00:20:35
Speaker 8: I ruffled a few feathers here and there.

00:20:36
Speaker 4: But you know, there's there's the decreasingly less controversy in the game of golf. That's probably not good. It's better when we get a little controversy. The great thing about Majors, Dan, is that it does bring live players back, so you get this sort of ryder cup feel. You know, Patrick Greek comes in here playing great. John Rahm comes in here on a tear, and so does briceon to Shamba, so it's likely we'll have this great back and forth between one of them and you know, one of the popular players on.

00:21:02
Speaker 2: The PGA Tour A month ago, did you think Tiger was playing in the Masters?

00:21:07
Speaker 8: I did you know?

00:21:08
Speaker 4: Well, two weeks ago, I thought he was playing. I'd heard he was practicing. I heard he grinding away I saw him hitting balls at the TGL event. He looked, he looked okay, and uh yeah, I thought he'd be here. It's it's sad, and I think everybody in the sports world hopes he goes and gets the help that he needs.

00:21:26
Speaker 2: What's his future as a golfer?

00:21:30
Speaker 4: You know, I just don't think he should play anymore personally, I mean, you know, I mean, obviously he's a golfer. He wants to get out there and he can play the Champions Tour and get the cart and go play with his best buddies, Fred Couples and Steve Stricker, who that sounds really fun.

00:21:43
Speaker 8: But he's you know, he pushes himself to his physical limits.

00:21:48
Speaker 4: So if he goes back to practice and he goes back to grind, the same thing's gonna happen. He's going to push himself to his physical limits.

00:21:54
Speaker 8: He's going to get injured.

00:21:55
Speaker 4: It's going to require surgery, it's going to require prescription pain medicine, and you know, it's it's hard not to imagine.

00:22:01
Speaker 8: Him getting on that treadmill again.

00:22:02
Speaker 4: So he's done everything you could ever possibly do in the game of golf. Every other thing in the world is open to him, from designing golf courses to the governance of the PGA Tour, et cetera, et cetera. So you know, personally, I I you know, we will miss him as a competitor, but he gave us so much.

00:22:18
Speaker 2: Dan, if Tiger never started lifting weights, any sad sentence, he.

00:22:25
Speaker 4: Would have probably won one hundred and twenty five golf tournaments and twenty five majors. You know, if you go back to when he was a wispy teenager and Jack and Arnold played with him in a practice round here I believe it was nineteen ninety five or six, they said he's going to win more Masters titles than us combined. Well, Jack won six, Arnold won five, so they were predicting eleven plus Masters titles. He averaged three hundred and forty six yards off the tee then, and that was not with a solid core golf ball, and that was not with one of these big headed long drivers. Three hundred and forty six yards off of the tee. That's what they saw in him. He traded speed for strength. Maybe it helped him think he deserved it, Maybe it helped him be intimidating. And you know, I'm sure, he wanted to treat golf like a sport, so but his body broke down pretty quickly, and don't I just don't know that he was training properly or he got the proper rest.

00:23:18
Speaker 8: Either way, I don't think it did him a whole lot of good.

00:23:21
Speaker 2: I think you wanted to look like an athlete brandall exactly.

00:23:24
Speaker 8: I do too.

00:23:25
Speaker 4: You know, you could say that's vanity, you could say, but when you look at him, he was very intimidating, and you can't. I don't think we can disregard the intimidation factor when when people would get paired with Tiger, they would always say, you know, I want to get paired with Tiger, And I'm.

00:23:38
Speaker 8: Like, well, really do you? Because the cost of playing with Tiger was okay. So if you got pair with Tiger.

00:23:45
Speaker 4: On Saturday and Sunday, and this was you know when I looked this up, maybe like two thousand and five, so it was damn near a decade. If you got parabim on Saturday and Sunday, you were ostensibly playing as good as golf as Tiger, otherwise you wouldn't get paired with him. And then the difference between what you had shot and what you shot with Tiger was three and a half shots. So the cost of playing with Tiger was three and a half shots. There's never been a more intimidating golfer than Tiger Woods.

00:24:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the vanity part of it as well. You look at those old videos where you know the shirt it's like draped on him. You know, now, if you didn't know what he did for a living, you'd say, is he a football player? I mean he looks like he's a defensive back.

00:24:30
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's who he hangs out with. You know, those are his buddies.

00:24:33
Speaker 4: And he did help turn this this game into a sport. Rich Lerner told me he did an outing with him like a year a year and a half ago.

00:24:41
Speaker 8: He walked up to him and, you know, patted him on the back.

00:24:44
Speaker 4: He said it was like patting a piece of brind Like he absolutely.

00:24:48
Speaker 8: Rock hard ripped.

00:24:50
Speaker 4: And you know, he did make the sport look cool and he looked awesome. And you know, you can't argue with the rect fifteen major championships in eighty two ternaments, but the injuries changing his golf swing this kept him from being the all time major winner.

00:25:09
Speaker 2: Was it worth it?

00:25:10
Speaker 8: Brandall. I don't think so. But you know, if Tiger was sitting here right now, you're an idiot.

00:25:16
Speaker 7: It was a sport.

00:25:17
Speaker 4: You got to train. And I'm not saying training is not necessary at all. That's not what I'm saying.

00:25:22
Speaker 2: Why isn't Scotti, Scheffler jacked.

00:25:25
Speaker 4: Scotty trains differently. I think they learned from the mistakes that Tiger made in the gym.

00:25:30
Speaker 2: Rory's jacked.

00:25:31
Speaker 4: Rory trains differently, though. You know, there's more big movements, more fast movements. If you look at the exercises they all do now, there's nothing like what Tiger used to do. I mean, Tiger was on the cover of Fitness, Men's Fitness or something and he went back and looked and it was not the stuff you always you go along, you learn, you learn how to train, and these guys learn how to train for fluidity of movement and speed, not necessarily.

00:25:55
Speaker 8: You know, Tiger looked like he could lift a buick off of and these guys just like they could.

00:26:00
Speaker 4: You know, they look like speed swimmers. They look more like gymnasts than Jim rats.

00:26:05
Speaker 2: Have you ever been in the building during the champions dinner? No, have you ever tried to look, are there windows where you can look into the Champions dinner?

00:26:16
Speaker 4: Well they they you know, before they go in there, they have cocktails on the patio, so we have cameras leering in it. Look they're having an Azalia, who's having a bourbon up there?

00:26:28
Speaker 2: Why will you walk in and just grab like a drink off of the waiters tray and you know, just act like you belong there.

00:26:35
Speaker 7: I think I would be escorted off problem at last.

00:26:37
Speaker 4: You ever seeing me go live from We're always sitting on our set, Dan just you know, antificating about the menu and the wine and frivolous things like that.

00:26:47
Speaker 2: When I played in the mid nineties and I went into the players locker room and you got to see everybody's I don't I wasn't supposed to go in there, I don't think. But you see the name plates. And I remember looking in jack locker there were two green jackets in there, so yeah, they it wasn't locked. And I just remember I went in there and I was like, well, I'm here, I might not get back. There wasn't any security, and I thought, you know what.

00:27:18
Speaker 7: Why not?

00:27:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm a big deal. I'm on Sports Center. Of course they're not going to throw me out of this place. But I remember looking in the locker room like, oh my god. I remember touching the jacket and like I better get out of here. But they didn't. They showed me the wine cellar. Now, I was told that you always wanted to get an assessment, like you always wanted to get your letter, because then it was a good thing to be told you, oh, this this amount of money, because when you don't get it, then you're not going to be coming back to Augusta. So one guy says to me, the guy who was my host was I don't know, he's probably seventy five years of age. So his dad made him joint many many many years ago, and he said, somebody brought up, why don't we have a wine cellar. Well, that guy got a letter from Augusta saying you're gonna pony up for the wine cellar, because it was a makeshift wine cellar. I went down there. There was a large bottle of champagne and it said ike, So it was Eisenhower had some wine champagne down there, and there was no wine cellar at Augusta. And this guy was told you're gonna pay for the wine cellar.

00:28:35
Speaker 4: You know, you down there's probably when you know, a gift, you know, when he liberated France or something. It's rumored to be the best wine cellar in the world. And yeah, be careful what you wish for. You're likely to get the bill for it. But if I don't know, if you saw Rory's menu, yeah, and I don't know if you if you're a wine lover, but if you're a wine lever and a buddy of mine's got great Psalm friends and they were like, that's the best wine list they've ever seen.

00:29:01
Speaker 8: A Champions dinner.

00:29:02
Speaker 4: Rory knows his why, Yes, and it was you know they they they at Augusta Country Club where we're at when we're getting ready for the show before we go over to Augusta National, they recreated the Champions dinner for us last night, minus the wine.

00:29:16
Speaker 2: Is gonna say, was that a Chateau Lafitte?

00:29:22
Speaker 8: I think I had a duck horn.

00:29:24
Speaker 2: Alow, Okay, that's all right, all right. If not Scheffler, then who.

00:29:30
Speaker 4: If not Scheffler, you know, I would go with Ludwig Oldberg. First, Ludvig comes in here, you know, playing his rear off the last three events, and I think because he hasn't won sort of keeps him hungry. Twice he's played at the Masters, and he's finished second and seventh. Uh. And if not, Oberg, I would go Cameron Young, who similarly comes in here playing his rear off, has played twice at Augustin finished seventh and ninth. And then below that, just below that, I'd go Fleetwood and Matthew fitz Patrick. And if you're looking for a nice bet on a first time or I'd go Chris Gottter Up.

00:30:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, got her up. Played well. He had a stretch there, played really well, Oberg. He has had three straight top five finishes.

00:30:14
Speaker 8: There you go.

00:30:14
Speaker 2: You got the cheap seat, Yes I do. I did some homework here. Absolutely, we'll be watching my best to rich Lerner and it's MUSSYTV live from the Masters. Before and after primetime coverage, Golf Channel recap analysis. Randall says something to gets you in trouble.

00:30:34
Speaker 7: Okay, okay, Dan, let's try thank care.

00:30:37
Speaker 1: That's Randal Shambly. 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.

00:30:50
Speaker 2: Make Way for the Commissioner Major League Baseball. He's been there since twenty fifteen. Rob Manfred back on the show, Commissioner, Good to see you. How's morale, Hey, Dan, morale is very high here at MLB.

00:31:03
Speaker 3: Off to a great start, great World Baseball Classic, and really good start to the season.

00:31:09
Speaker 2: I'm curious about you had the fight last night and when that does that get to your desk of you getting involved in that?

00:31:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, usually that kind of on field incident, Mike Hill will handle. He makes a recommendation, and you know, we kind of go from there. Though, only if it's a really kind of out of the ordinary problem would I get involved.

00:31:35
Speaker 2: When's the last one you got involved in that?

00:31:39
Speaker 3: Gosh, I can't even I think the last one I got involved with involved a player and a fan incident.

00:31:45
Speaker 7: It was several years ago, and I can't tell you the player or the team, true.

00:31:50
Speaker 2: But good sign.

00:31:51
Speaker 7: It's rare.

00:31:52
Speaker 2: It's rare the ABS kind of letting that kind of trickle into Major League Baseball. How would you say reaction has been so far?

00:32:02
Speaker 3: I think the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.

00:32:07
Speaker 7: You know, I thought that.

00:32:09
Speaker 3: My expectation was that the players would really like it, the opportunity to, you know, correct a miss at a crucial point in the game. What actually surprised me, Dan is how popular it's been with fans. I don't know if you've been in a ballpark yet, but you know, the challenge happens.

00:32:27
Speaker 7: Everybody's kind of glued to the jumble John. It's amazing.

00:32:30
Speaker 2: Oh I love it. I guess my only if you want to call criticism would be the umpire. They can't be taking this too kindly. That they're being embarrassed might be a strong word, but they're being judged by everybody. Everybody is reacting to that umpire. What kind of reaction have you gotten from the umpires on this?

00:32:55
Speaker 3: I think the Empires have reacted with professionalism. I mean we had a lot of conversation with them about the implementation of this. I think it's important to bear in mind, and it's important for me to say.

00:33:09
Speaker 7: Publicly, you know, they're right.

00:33:12
Speaker 3: Nearly ninety four percent of the time, which is an astounding number when you think about how difficult it is, and most of the challenges our pitches that are in or out by less you know, less than or about half an inch, So.

00:33:28
Speaker 7: You know, you can't be too critical of people.

00:33:29
Speaker 3: I mean, I understand, you know, you do get fans, they get on them, but I think they knew what to expect, and in general, our umpires want the game to be as good as possible, and I think they see it as an improvement in the game.

00:33:43
Speaker 2: When do we get to full time?

00:33:46
Speaker 3: You know, look, I think that we're a few weeks in to implementation. I think that we made a good decision by you know, listening to fans listening to players, that we should do a challenge system, we shouldn't go to full ABS. So we're just too early in the process for me to even think about any change to the system.

00:34:09
Speaker 7: Right now. I think we're pretty satisfied with where we are.

00:34:12
Speaker 2: And I like the element of the stadium with the fans, and I would be dressing it up. You know, it's like a game show, you know, you know, was it right, was it wrong? You show it, the crowd reacts. I think it's it's a fun element where you're you're you're treating with something serious, but it is a fun element with that, and I think that it's got overwhelmed.

00:34:34
Speaker 7: I agree, it's a I think it's a you know, a former fan engagement.

00:34:38
Speaker 3: The other thing I think that it is important to keep in mind is, you know, we pull our fans about these changes, you know, routinely before we do them, after we do them, and you know, the challenge system was the one that our fans overwhelmingly favored.

00:34:56
Speaker 2: What do fans not want when you do these polls with them.

00:35:02
Speaker 7: Oh, there's things that they a lot.

00:35:04
Speaker 2: Trust me, there it's number one. What's number one? Where you go, boy, they don't like this?

00:35:10
Speaker 9: Yeah.

00:35:10
Speaker 3: Look, I think of the things that we've done, the one that's the most controversial among our fans is the extra ending world the run around second base. That's the one that is you know, the most evenly split among fans.

00:35:24
Speaker 7: I hated, but you know, it is an interesting thing.

00:35:30
Speaker 3: I think that overwhelmingly players like it. You know, it does prevent the eighteen inning game and the prospect of somebody who's an outfielder trying to go up on the mountain pitch and getting hurt. I really do see it as a health and safety issue. But in recognition of your view of the world, our most important games that are played off games we play them out still.

00:36:01
Speaker 7: Yeah.

00:36:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm the you know, get off my lawn guy that it's just it's still a weird visual where you go and we go to the tenth inning and you see some guy at second base?

00:36:15
Speaker 7: Is it?

00:36:16
Speaker 2: Is it here to stay?

00:36:19
Speaker 7: Look? I think that it is here to stay.

00:36:21
Speaker 3: I think the health and safety concern, the popularity of it among the players, I think it's one that is going to be with us.

00:36:30
Speaker 2: He's the commissioner Major League Baseball. Your contract expires January twenty nine. Yeah, yeah, early in twenty nine, right, okay, but you could sign up before then if you wanted to extend correct.

00:36:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, I could sign up before then if I wanted to extend. Rarely, you know, as commissioner's contracts in baseball gone all the way to the end. But you know, I was up front with the owners when I did my last deal that this was going to be it for me, and I'm pretty committed to that position.

00:37:01
Speaker 2: Are you involved in approval of stadiums?

00:37:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's certain The Commissioner's office has certain requirements for stadiums that are reviewed to make sure they're in conformity with you know, Major League requirements in terms of what a stadium must be.

00:37:18
Speaker 2: But as far as you know, a roof retractable like.

00:37:22
Speaker 3: Those are local decisions, you know, in terms of whether they're going to be retractable, the basic design in the stadium, those are ones that clubs make.

00:37:32
Speaker 2: But what happens if a team says, you know what, we want to bring our fences in, they have to check.

00:37:39
Speaker 3: With the office to make sure that the dimensions of the field still conform with the minimum standards that we require.

00:37:48
Speaker 2: Labor issues are never good content for radio or TV. But let me just ask you, from a fans perspective, what is it that I need to know about Major League Baseball moving forward with the potential labor issues.

00:38:04
Speaker 3: I think the most important thing for our fans to know is we're going to provide them a great twenty twenty six season, and while they're watching that great twenty twenty six season, we're going to be working hard to get a labor deal done.

00:38:17
Speaker 2: What's the big hold up? What could potentially be the big hold up?

00:38:22
Speaker 3: Just not at a point in the process where I can really give you a good answer to that.

00:38:27
Speaker 7: Dan, it's just too early.

00:38:28
Speaker 2: Man. You're shaking me off here. You're like you're like, kershaw here, what's going on here? Usually you give me a little bit of something. Listen, listen to your own introduction. There's nothing good about this conversation, right. What sport do you learn the most from? Aside from baseball?

00:38:48
Speaker 3: Oh, I pay a lot of attention to football and basketball. I think that you know, I'm a fan of both of those sports growing up, and you know, pay a lot of attention to what they're doing. You know, for example, like NBA games, I watched their instant replay carefully because I think it's something that runs contrary to an issue that we've been very aggressive about, which is time a game. Obviously, you want to get it right, but you don't want to interrupt the flow of the game or delay the game make it longer. So, you know, that's an example of something we pay a lot of attention.

00:39:26
Speaker 2: And that takes me back to the ABS. Because you want to speed up the game, you're slowing down the game because you're going to review it, as opposed to it's going to be on the jumbo tron with every pitch eventually, and therefore you know it will keep the game moving that we won't be slowing down so how how important does that tap the helmet and get that review? How quickly you get that review?

00:39:51
Speaker 7: Yeah, it is an issue.

00:39:52
Speaker 3: It is the one topic on ABS that I've raised in the last couple of our staff meetings.

00:39:59
Speaker 7: In the data show we're like a minute and.

00:40:01
Speaker 2: A half.

00:40:03
Speaker 3: Longer associated with ABS. That's a price I'm prepared to pay.

00:40:07
Speaker 2: Who came up with robots like that? That to me was the negative part of this. People go, are you gonna have robots behind home plate? And I go, no, they'll be umpires? Like, but who did the media do this?

00:40:20
Speaker 7: You can believe the media did that.

00:40:21
Speaker 3: We I mean we as a matter of fact, if you kind of look back when people are asking me about it, when they asked me about robo umpires, I uniformly correct the fact that it is a system that assists a live person in doing his job better, his or her job better. You know, we always call it ABS, and I agree with you that the moniker of you know, robot or the overlay of referring to it as a robot is a negative thing.

00:40:52
Speaker 2: When's the last time your phone rang after midnight East Coast time? Baseball wise, it's.

00:41:01
Speaker 7: Been a while.

00:41:02
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, there's periods of time where it happens, but it has been a while and certainly not during the twenty twenty sixth season yet.

00:41:09
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, Well we're off to a good start.

00:41:12
Speaker 9: No we have you know, we have been kind of you know, look, we had the little uproar in the Angels Bradge game last night, but you know, it's been pretty quiet so far.

00:41:23
Speaker 3: In terms of the play of the game on the field. The games have been great and you know, mostly positive so far.

00:41:31
Speaker 2: The WBC. I hate that we're going to lose momentum on this again. Can you do it every two years?

00:41:40
Speaker 8: You know?

00:41:41
Speaker 7: Look, I think that we're going.

00:41:43
Speaker 3: To have a meeting on the WBC, which we always do after it is completed.

00:41:52
Speaker 7: I think that the event was so successful this.

00:41:55
Speaker 3: Time that we need to talk about frequency, the regularity of schedule. You know, we haven't even I mean, it's one thing to not do it every year. Our problem because of COVID and labor negotiations whatever, it's it's not even you can't even say it's every four years. And you know, we do need to get into given how popular it is, we need to get into a regular rotation. I think the most important reason for that is fans. But I'll give you another reason.

00:42:26
Speaker 7: You know, our.

00:42:26
Speaker 3: Broadcast partners were out in force at the WBC Partner Finals, and you know, I think this is going to be a piece of our national broadcasting agreements, and obviously to do that, it has to be on a regular schedule.

00:42:44
Speaker 2: All right, Well, we'll keep an eye on you. We're grading you all the time.

00:42:49
Speaker 3: As you should, as you should, Dan, you know, I mean, you know we, like you said, you got umpires who are subject to scrutiny.

00:42:57
Speaker 7: I certainly should be as well.

00:42:59
Speaker 2: I go back a Booie que. I was there Booie's last day in office. Really, yeah, I went when he was packing up.

00:43:08
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm I missed Booie. But I was.

00:43:13
Speaker 3: Actually when I first started as an outside lawyer, I was in a meeting where Peter, you were off, Fay, Vincent Bartimadi, bud seal Leg and I were all in the meeting and there were only seven people in the room, which you think about that's five out of ten.

00:43:30
Speaker 7: Right, that's pretty good.

00:43:32
Speaker 2: Okay, last day you get to take one thing out of the office.

00:43:38
Speaker 7: You know, I have a I'm going to betray myself.

00:43:42
Speaker 8: I have a.

00:43:44
Speaker 3: Drawing of Mickey Mannle that a fairly well known baseball artist did sort of as a I had done a speech for them, and it was the honorarium for doing the speech. I grew up a Yankee fan. My very first game was in nineteen sixty eight. It was mantles last year, but believe it or not, he hit two home runs in the game, one from each side of the plate. It was the last time he ever did it. And I'm taking that Mickey Mantle drawing with me no matter what.

00:44:19
Speaker 2: Thank you, Rob, good to talk to you.

00:44:20
Speaker 7: It's great to talk to you Dan. As always, I always enjoy

00:44:23
Speaker 2: It, and so the Commissioner Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred