H1 Monologue, WBC Reaction, Denver makes a move!

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1:02And now ready for Royals All-Star to lift a trophy tonight, Jack Johnson. Right I am. Championship night in the World Baseball Classic. Team USA versus Team Venezuela. And lucky for you, I'm going to preview the show today. I'm going to tell you everything we're talking about in a little teaser. Championship talk is to begin the show. I've got my team USA shirt on. I'm looking forward to this. I've enjoyed every second of the World Baseball Classic. And if you haven't been watching since pool play, you've just been doing yourself a disservice. Because a little bit of our talk in the opening monologue here will be about the comments from Michael Garcia last night. The question from Derek Jeter or Michael Garcia. That's right. I need to start changing that. Repeatedly referred to even in a championship game to be nice. At some point they would figure out that it's Michael. That's going to be a tough adjustment early on the season for me.

2:06Because we've gone three years saying Michael, but it's Michael. Is it Michael? I thought that's what he said. And in the post game, he said it's Michael. Oh, okay. Well, I'm wrong. I'm sure. But see, then again, I always am confused about how long a player can go until they say, well, actually, you've been saying it wrong the whole time. I think he's been called both. Yes. Travis ATN said his name is a Chan. A Chan. And I don't think I've heard anybody say it that way since Tyler Bady played at Mizzou for four years. Went to the Broncos and suddenly it was Tyler Bade. Yeah. You could have told somebody in Columbia this, somebody could have said something. The PA. Michael Dana played his entire chief's career in no one. And when he left, no one knew whether it was Dana or Dana. Maybe that we still don't. We still don't. And maybe never will. As long as they're not offended by it. Yeah. Then I think we're okay. And clearly, I don't think it bothered him too much because for his entire career and still ongoing career in Kansas City, it was Michael.

3:08But I did here in the post game interview. It was, let's put this to rest. What is it? And he said it's Michael. Okay. Because Joe, Joe Davis was saying Michael Garcia and I thought it was one of those things of man, you don't even know how to pronounce the guy's name. Well, that's the pronunciation she they were given. Yeah. But yes, we will be talking World Baseball Classic to open up the show today. Also will spend a little bit of time on NFL free agency. A former chief in Hollywood Brown is now headed to the Philadelphia Eagles. Big trade in the AFC West earlier this morning. Jalen Waddle going to the Denver Broncos. They sent a bunch of picks. They swapped a fourth. The Broncos are absolutely in that win now mode. I'm not sure they're going to care too much about picks where for the better part of a decade, it was about stockpiling picks. They had the 30th overall selection. In the first round, Miami, I'm going to get this out of the way. Miami's going to be really bad this year. Yes. Really, really bad. Because they're going to be without talent and they're going to be really bad caps.

4:11Malik Willis gets the big contract, but he's been a backup, the majority. It feels eerily similar to without quite the same success. But the Matt Castle, 10 year in New England, I've got to showcase himself as a backup. Then he started and then somebody gave him a deal or went out and acquired him. Chiefs did get to the postseason though with Matt Castle. When you sign a quarterback and give him a big money contract and he's still making a tick up less of your cap than the guy you hired, this new guy to replace, you're in a problem area. I don't quite understand what the goal is for Miami, but hey, I'm sure they're okay with getting a lot of picks for Jalen Waldo because he was not going to be around on the next competitive dolphins team. Denver, though, they fall one game short of the Super Bowl. They want to make sure that Bonix has a variety of weapons to be throwing to. So we will be talking about that in about oh, 30 minutes or so.

5:13Then Frank Bol will be joining us in studio. He'll be here from three to four. Sam McDowell will be with us from four to five. And then to close out the show today, we'll tell you what you need to know and get a fantastic interview done with Gary Parish. He's always great. Always great. And there's never, you can go for, it feels like an hour with Gary Parish and you'll still be left going, man, that could have gone for two hours. I couldn't, I had five more questions to ask. Yes. He's so great and he's of course going to have tons of fantastic coverage for March Madness. We know that the first four begins tonight. It will be UMBC, if you can remember them, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the retrievers with the first 16 seed to take down a one seed in the Virginia Cavaliers. And who knows, maybe they have another one in store for us. But first things first, they got to get into the tournament and they know how it was where it all begins. And that and I know they're officially in.

6:17But it can't feel like the tournament until you, unless you get to Thursday. You've got to be part of that where you're in on arena and you're one of eight teams at this particular spot and they're playing all day. That's I wouldn't poo poo making the first four is better than not making the tournament. But it never, I can't imagine it ever feels like if you're a fan of that team that it feels like you're actually in the tournament unless you're playing on Thursday Friday. It's not anywhere close to what it means to be in the wild card, but I do know there are some teams that go, huh, you know, when you're a wild card team and you lose, it's like where you really in the playoffs. Well, yes, you were when the first four, I'm sure for teams that are fighting for a 16 seed spot, they did make the tournament. If you're 11 seed, I can see some pessimistic fans saying, no, we didn't really, we were in the playing game to get into the tournament. And there are people who think that the playing or the first four should just be the 16s. Yeah. I'm the one, I think everybody's looking forward to is Miami of Ohio versus SMU just to see if Miami of Ohio is the real deal.

7:17Are they really 31 and one? And I will tell you, it's going to be a bad look for a lot of mid major teams in those one bid leagues. If they go get smoked by SMU, who was mediocre this year in ACC play, they, in fact, had a couple of buzzer beaters that probably put them over the edge. So they were in the bubble all season long. They'll get Miami of Ohio, but that'll be tomorrow tonight. It is UMBC and Hofstra, I believe is the first four there. It had to go in the Howard Howard. Okay. Yeah, I believe we actually do have, we actually have Texas and NC state tonight. So that should be another fun one as well. Missouri fans are familiar with the long horns this year. NC state, actually K unancy state, NC state played earlier in the year. And Texas, kind of a sleeper pick from a number of brackets to not only win tonight, but to knock off BYU in the first round and maybe even give Gonzaga a run. I know of at least one person who, I think it's actually Jay Billis. Jay Billis has Texas going to the, the sweet 16M getting by NC state BYU and Gonzaga before

8:23falling to Arizona. So he's taking a, he's taking a flyer. That's a risk. You know, Jay Billis doesn't usually throw stuff at the wall, so anything he thinks might happen. I'm like, okay, I'll give that some credence because he's got, he's got proof of purchase. Well, we'll see later on in today's show if Gary Perish feels the same way. If a double did it, see like that, like Texas can make a run to the sweet 16. Okay, let's open up here with the World Baseball Classic again tonight, seven o'clock first pitch team USA going for their first title since 2017, Venezuela going for their first title ever. US is trying to keep pace with Japan. They have won three of these tournaments that dates back to 2006. Dominican Republic has won. This would of course put Team USA over the Dominican Republic and Venezuela is looking the tie. Not only Team USA, but Team Dominican Republic. This has been such a, a wonderful thing for baseball. And I've heard going into the tournament, Curtis, I'd heard a couple of people have some

9:26pushback that aren't really fans of it, but I can understand why because really up until this year, it wasn't promoted like this. A big reason why is a lot of players that were American born didn't really care about it. I'd rather just build up and spring training. I'd rather make sure, make sure I'm ready to go for the regular season where you have players from Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico, they're all saying, this is our world series. This matters to us. In fact, last night, Ronald, Akunye Jr., who yes, he did have the, the torn ACL when the Braves won the world series. He said last night's win was the greatest accomplishment of his career. And you see this often with the Latin American players of how fired up they get, how much this means to them. And here in the States, I mean, if you've got a team that it was barely able to get star players onto the roster, I mean, most people on March 17th are going, I can't wait

10:31for opening day. If the US wins if they lose, I'm okay with it because we have a season to go and watch. And this was the first year that there was that emphasis and especially from the player side of, I want to be out there. I want to go represent the US of a and Mark Derosa did one heck of a job in this area, not so much of the overall rules and the tiebreaker, but recruiting great town. Because in 2023, the US did not have the firepower and their rotation to get past Japan. They ran out of arms at the end of it. They just didn't have what they have in 2026. And when you see that and you see this environment, you saw the game on Sunday night against the Dominican Republic, how loud the crowd was, how much it meant to those players. This is why it's great for the sport because baseball has always had a tough job promoting its sport. And if I'm an average fan, now I care more about baseball than anything else in terms of sports.

11:37But to the average fan, how do you get them to care? How do you get them to go and watch the sport for a lot of people was get the pitch clock involved, right? And make that the pace of play quicker for some people. It was a postseason baseball in the same way that we say with hockey, like, oh, I watch the Stanley Cup. I don't watch any hockey in the regular season. But I will be absolutely sure to watch the postseason. A lot of people feel that way about baseball because it's hard to stay engaged for 162 games. If your team's not good, you tune out rather quickly and we've experienced some seasons like that in Kansas City before. This is one way, though, to get the casual fan saying, oh, now I do want to watch these players in the regular season because you have these stars that are emerging. You're seeing the emotion. You're seeing all these fans care about it and seeing these sold out atmospheres. That's what makes baseball great is it's global, right there. The NFL is the most popular sport in America.

12:39It's not popular in any of these other countries out there, aside from maybe a few. It's grown despite the NFL probably has made more outreach to the world than any of the other major sports, partially because it's needed to. Baseball, their popularity around the country has just been kind of organic. It comes from the players. They have, baseball hasn't reached out to the other countries have reached, reached for baseball. Yes. The reason why baseball is popular in Dominican Republic isn't because of the major leagues necessarily because that's where the players have come from. Yeah. And you can factor into it's the climate in some of these, these countries. If it's 85 90 degrees, right, every single day, you're going to play sports that are meant to be played in warm weather. And when you have had a tournament like this, I understand for people that weren't interested to begin, but it is the baseball Olympics and see how fired up everybody got about USAverse Canada and hockey. Even if you're not a fan of hockey, you were invested in that game. You got invested into the players where even if that was the only hockey you'll watch

13:44all year long, you were engaged with it. And baseball in the world baseball classic had had a tough time early on because it's up. This tournament was 2006. It's not like this thing's been around for 70, 80 years. And most of it was this, hey, you know, send an American team. But who cares if they don't advance? We have the major league baseball season where these other countries, it was we've been waiting three years for our team to get another opportunity. And those players that come over and play in the MLB, they do care about this. And we like to think that the season is all they care about. You know, if you are from the Dominican Republic and you go through spring training, hey, they're focused. They're everything should be what the rays do this year or what the Yankees do this year. I'm not saying they don't care. But we can now acknowledge how important it is to these players in all kinds of countries.

14:44And it's even on the American side now too. Aaron Judge said this atmosphere, atmosphere feels bigger than the World Series is Aaron Judge, a multiple time MVP winner said the atmosphere is bigger and better than the World Series mentioned Acunia. The greatest accomplishment of professional career was beating team Italy last night to get to the championship. Of course, if they win tonight, that would then take over and then the top two moments would be from the WBC. You had Vinnie Pasquantino and is all of his comments about team Italy being the Cinderella story and Jack Caglione and how much it meant to them. And Kike Hernandez who had played for Puerto Rico a couple of times said at times, it just feels larger than the World Series. And most baseball fans can't wrap their mind around that because the World Series is everything. Yeah. Right. And it's here all the time. Yes. It's every single idea of USA. I mean, it's that's USA against USA when it's even if it's New York and LA.

15:45And you see the environments in the atmospheres and how it does seem bigger than the World Series because we can be isolated to, well, you know, it's the World Series, right? Everybody works to get to the major leagues and that is the case here. But when you get to go and represent your country, you are hand picked to be on this team. You get to showcase why your country is the greatest for baseball. That's why you're seeing this emotion and that's what you need for people to care. If it was this, oh, you know, we lost. Let's all go pat each other on the back. We'll see you in a couple of weeks for some of these guys. They're not going to the regular season. This is their showcase to maybe get a contract. One of the great stories last night, Andre Smichado, former Royal store 98, 100 miles an hour with movement. He's not on a roster right now. But he got that opportunity to pitch in a game like that where now somebody's calling somebody saying, well, he can do that.

16:46We can work with that. So it's great for those players of this is my showcase. This is my tryout, but also for the established players to say why it means so much to them. Because they grew up. Mike Elgarcia brought up a great point. I want to say Ron of the Kuni Junior did two in the post game that before I was playing in the MLB. I'm from Venezuela. I was born in Venezuela. This growing up to them was their world series, or I can't really say growing up because it was in 2006, but they were young back then. They were teenagers. They saw this happen. They saw what it meant to put on the jersey and go out there and win these games in front of their fans because we see the support they get tonight. Here's the crazy thing. It's in Miami. It's in the United States. It'll be a road game for Team USA. It was a road game against the Dominican Republic because when you're waiting three years, it's just different. And I'm hoping, Curtis, that in 2029, there is that anticipation. There's that build up of from all countries can't wait for this again.

17:47And it's going to matter what we do in pool plates. Not going to be this. Oh, it's fun to watch. And if we lose, hey, it doesn't matter. This is just all fun and games. This has been such a success that you hear people saying, can we do this every year or every two years? You know, speed up the clock to get this again because I was unprepared for how much, how much I was engrossed by the action, particularly in the knockout stage. I didn't really follow much of it in the pool play and I began to kind of fall into it when it was, will they advance? These games have been engrossing and it's been amazing because I get it when it's the US, you know, the Olympic dynamic takes takes a hold and you're just rooting for USA, USA. But last night, there was no USA, but I every pitch, you're on your edge of your seat waiting to see what happens because it was a competitive game. And part of that comes from two things, one, it's players you're familiar with when you're seeing players that, you know, you see in the major leagues all year, that helps.

18:52It also those players are playing with an intensity that they wouldn't have in an all-star game. So the atmosphere is great, there's a lot of stake and it's players that you're familiar with. It's a perfect storm the way this has played out. And tonight is going to be, you know, the ultimate example of that. It's, I don't remember a time when I've gone in, I will have gone into a major league baseball season more ready to see what happens. And part of that is because the Royals, young players, they've just been so dominant. I mean, even Avala, last, I mean, it's, that's, he's been, that was a great moment. Everywhere, Michael Garcia, Michael Garcia, Michael Garcia, whatever it is, the big hit to put Venezuelan. They're in the middle of every single major moment seemingly that we've seen in the past week or so. So that's helped a little bit. I'm not sure, maybe other cities don't quite have that attraction because they're not watching so many other players on this national level and seemingly to take over the event.

19:56But I did not think I'd be as excited about this as, as I have been, the games are thoroughly engrossing at even more so, I think, than, than some of the world, some of the, the playoff games last year. And I can't wait for this game to start tonight and it'll be on every single pitch. This is a wonderful event to lead into the regular season because most years, I mean, we've, particularly when you're, you live in a town that has three college basketball teams in the area and you come in off the chiefs. Oh, it's baseball season. Let me, let me get into baseball. I'm where everyone who's in this town is into baseball already and when opening day happens next week, they're ready to go. And they know a lot about their team and they can't wait for it to start and it's part of it is the, the Royals are going to be pretty good. But part of it is we've seen so much, you know, we've seen some legitimate, important success from these guys already in spring.

20:58We're usually just, well, so and so is it in 440 and in spring training, let's wait to the regular season. It's going to be so, this city is going to be so psyched for opening day. I don't remember it happening like that for this type of reason. No, it's, it's, it's been a massive success. I'm, whatever the WBC hoped it would be, I think they've probably gone past that with this, with this year's, with this year's tournament. It's going to be tough to top it in 2029, but also it's not going to change the anticipation for it because of how good this has been and it's in players who, they're going to want to come back to do this because, because the players who hadn't done it, before we're ahead and thought about it, got here and went, wow, this is amazing. The feeling they, they get for it from it. I don't think maybe it's, I'm sure some of those players didn't expect that. I'm, whoever's going to be around to be able to play in 29 is going to play because if they're going to remember what this year, this is a transformational to me, a transformational

22:00year for this, for this event. Well, what gets other players and fans invested into this tournament, this event? Seeing the star players show the emotion on the, on the US side, you never got to worry about it from the Dominican Republic or Venezuela or Puerto Rico. They're always fired, no matter who the player is, you'll see Fernando Tatece and the bat flips and, and the dugout, you know, pouring onto the field, you'll see Luis Severino yelling and stomping toward the dugout of the US. And now you get to see Aaron Judge bat flip and yell to the dugout, you see Gunnar Henderson you know, screamed to the dugout when fans get to see that of, oh, this means something to them. Now I care when you got, and I'm not saying you have to be this hair on fire type of personality. Bobby, what junior is that to a tee? He is more of a very mild man, very stoic. And I've seen him get fired up. I've saw multiple videos in the Kyle Schwarber home run against Great Britain. He is the first one to leap over the dugout pounding his chest, going up to Pete Crow

23:04Armstrong and Gunnar Henderson, that's because it matters to them. And to go in and represent the USA and have the Jersey, it now is a bigger deal to them. And it's great with the Olympics coming up and everything, but they've knocked it out of the park. And the energy energy is contagious. It's in any situation you're in positive energy is contagious people, people feed off that stuff. I think the players have fed off each other. That has caused that is spread to the stands that you that spreads to people who are watching the game. I mean, you watched those two teams last night, man, they were, it was like life and death. Every play was was 100% all out. There was no dog in it last night. And when the game was over, Venezuela was ecstatic in Italy was clearly, I mean, that they really wanted that game. And it really means something to them that they're not going to be playing tonight. And that's, you never find that in any other what you would technically call an exhibition.

24:09You know, something that doesn't matter to the actual standings of the team that pays your salary. Phenomenal, what this week is done for, for not just this event, but for the popularity of baseball. I think this actually has, has helped and I won't be surprised if the, if the, the viewership numbers in the popularity of baseball takes a major jump this year because of, of what's happened this last week. A lot of people who maybe had become a little bit cold on baseball, I think probably rediscovered what initially made them like baseball this week. That's my hope at least. Oh, me too. And the other part to this as well is you're not human. If you don't enjoy getting to root for a team like this, when you ever get to see, oh, I get to, to watch my team go from Bobbywood, Jr. to Bryce Harper to Aaron Judge to Kyle Schwarber to Gunner Henderson. You're never going to get that again in the all-star game. You don't care. Like it, there's no stakes for it. One, they don't play very long anyway, usually in for a couple of bats and they're done.

25:10They're out of the game at that point. And I remember because I've, I've never been the type of fan where, you know, your team gets eliminated and now you're invested in some other team. I don't get the same anxiety from it. I don't get the same intensity from it. I will say that on Sunday night and the ninth inning with Mason Miller on the mound and her older Pradoomo at the plate, three, two, I was as anxious as I am for a Royals moment like that. That's how into it. It's brought everybody of that's the most anxious I've been since the last time they were in the postseason. And the crowd's getting into it and you're thinking, man, I really, I don't want this to end. Yeah. Don't groove one. Don't throw one past. Is there a couple or the kind of had to go out and get it and you're like, oh, come on, come on. Don't blow this. Don't blow this. And you get that last strike. And then you just like, yes. Yes. No, it was an audible yell when that happened, even though it was not a strike, but hey, we'll move past that point. Right. Right. And tonight I'm fingers crossed. I mean, look, Italy and Vinnie Pasquantino and Jack Caglione, everybody involved

26:11Francisco Serbeli, they had a tremendous run. They were the only undefeated team left going into last night. What I can say is this though, too. I wasn't ultimately disappointed that we didn't get Italy versus US round two. And here's why it was well known in that game that Italy was going to max out. They were going to put all of their bullets into this game to get to the finals. They'd even said about fifth or sixth inning because they'd used Nola and Michael Lorenzen that it was going to be a bullpen game in the championship if they got there. I'd be as excited as I am right now, but it's a different layer that Eduardo Rodriguez is throwing tonight for Venezuela. They're going to have their full assortment of players. They're going to have the crowd show up and the US is going to have the same there. This is next to Team DR versus Team USA in the championship or Team USA in Team Japan. This is what I would have wanted to see and not to mention you get Salvador Perez and Michael Garcia or Michael Garcia and Louinda Ovalot who did look great last night as well to

27:15see that on this stage. It's promoting the Royals. It's promoting baseball. It's awesome. And the last thing I do want to touch on before we hit our first break, the post game. Garcia is the one that's at the podium with the Fox guys, Derek Cheater, A. Rod, David Ortiz. And I want to say it was Burkhart, too. Yes, Kevin. Yeah, Kevin Burkhart was there, too. Who I think looks like he could be Brian Haney's older brother. And I thought the same exact thing, I think it looks like older Haney. Yes. And he gets asked this question that's gone a bit viral. I thought it was taken not necessarily out of context. It went a bit too far. Derek Jeter, you heard it in the opening intro there saying, no, look around you. Is this compared to anything in Kansas City? And Garcia said, not even close. I saw some Royals fans go out. That hurts. Right. He's saying that we don't have a good crowd. A lot of people went, I hate Derek Jeter for asking that question because why is that even, why would you tie in Kansas City to an atmosphere that very clearly has not happened while

28:17Mike Helgarcy has been there? I get he played in the ALDS against the Yankees, but I'm also going to echo this. It wasn't like that. No, it wasn't like that night. And I'm going to go on record and saying they will not play in an atmosphere, an environment like that. And maybe nobody in baseball will the rest of the way. It's just different when you have Venezuelan fans, Dominican Republic fans, Mexico fans. It is not a, like if you watch a postseason game in baseball, it's 40 degrees. It's cold. People are bundled up. They're loud as hell. Don't get me wrong. That last night was probably the loudest environment he's ever played in before. So did he need to say not even close? No, but I don't care about that because it's probably the reality. He mentioned Aaron Judge who plays in New York. Series in LA and New York. Series one. Yeah. This is the most amazing thing I've seen. Yeah. I mean, it's it's pitch by pitch in the Dominican Republic game. It was the first inning.

29:17The noise of the crowd when Severino would get two strikes. He did so on Bobby. He did so on Harper. He did so on Judge. I mean, maybe they just don't mute the crowd noise like they do on Fox and ESPN when you're watching on TV. They always find a way to turn it down a little bit. That's as loud as I've heard a baseball game. And I don't know how long there's just a different roar. Every single time something big happens in tonight, it will be no different. If Derek Jeter had just said, have you ever been in an atmosphere like this? I mean, the essence of the question he asked was fine. The fact that he says he knew the answer. He did, but the reason why he said Kansas City is because that's where Michael, Michael Garcia plays. Yeah. He was asking the question, have you ever seen anything like this before? And the reference point is that he plays in Kansas City. I didn't really have as big a problem with it as any. I don't really have much of a problem at all with it. No. The fact that it came from a New York guy, that's why I mentioned in Kansas City, I mean, we are a territorial lot.

30:22So I understand, I mean, I don't think anybody's wrong for being bothered by it. I just wasn't because I knew what his point was. I knew. His answer, I think alluded to the fact that that's what the question was. And, you know, it's just a set of two words that people didn't want to hear. I mean, the way the royals have been covered in this tournament compared to previous years is night and day. They are almost seeking out royals players to bring on like, Rod Lecunia had a good game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they pick Garcia. Yeah. Jack Cagliona, Vinnie Pasquantino, have been on the panel before. They've talked about Seth Luga before and Team Puerto Rico was still in it. We've gone from Salvador Perez and the home run Derby hitting 700,000 home runs and they can't stop talking to Peter Lonzo about Peter Lonzo. Yeah. That's what we've gone from to this where it's find the royals player and bring him on the podium or the panel, I look, it can be you can not like the question.

31:24You can not like Derek Jeter, maybe you're mad at Garcia for his answer. The reality is of this, that those environments, everybody's playing it be one thing if everybody's saying, no, this comes not even close to the World Series, it, you know, I've been at Yankee Stadium and it's twice a lot of this star players that have been in the World Series. Garcia has not and have been in some of those massive stadiums Dodger Stadium is the biggest in all of baseball. Aaron Judges played in it. TK Hernandez who said it just has a bigger field in the World Series. He played multiple home postseason games with the Dodgers still would say atmosphere is better here. It's different when you have country versus country. There's the build up the anticipation for three years. There are no flags flying around in the bleachers. There's people that are standing on chairs and they're jumping up and down. Those camera wide shots of like last night, Akunya beating out the ground ball, the tie the game. The shot from the third base dugout and what the crowd looks like.

32:25You don't see that even in the postseason unless it's a walk off in game seven or like George Springer against Seattle and game seven in the LCS. This is for the seventh inning beating out the ground ball to tie the game. And then Garcia, he almost looked like he hit a walk off in the World Series. He's pointing to the dugout. He gets over. He's pounding his chest. That's why this is great. And if you don't enjoy it, I don't, maybe you just don't like that flips and craziness. But hey, I'm not going to tell you how to be a fan. Yeah, if that didn't, if that didn't put some, you know, if you weren't inspired to move by what happened, what's been happened in the last few days in this, in this event, then I don't, I don't say like you, you don't have to, but I have to question how much you actually like sports. It's been just an absolute. The whole point of, of sports is the, the kind of drama that we've had the last few nights. It's walking into an event and saying, I don't know what's going to happen. And there's a chance it might be amazing. Yeah. And it's amazing. I mean, if that doesn't, why do you, why do you follow any sport if you aren't moved

33:26by what happened last night? No. I, I would understand it. But hey, I'll always say, and I want to say Sterling Holmes says this, I'll never tell a fan how to be a fan. I won't tell you how to fan. If you don't want to watch tonight, I guess I can't force you to, but tonight, the championship game, team Venezuela, team USA, the US is going for their first title since 2017, Venezuela, going for their first title ever in the World Baseball Classic. We'll take our first break of the show when we come back. We'll talk some NFL free agency on the program. Back here on the program on sports radio 810, WHB, I'm your host, Jack Johnson, Phil Jennifer Serenpetro. He's back tomorrow, but Curtis, Kyle and I will have you up until six first four action tonight. Mm-hmm. The World Baseball Classic. We just talked about that in the opening monologue. And by the way, the lineup has been released for the final time. Here is team USA's lineup leading off at short, Bobby with junior, batting second, playing first base, Bryce Harper, batting third and right field, Aaron Judge, hitting clean

34:29up in D.H. in Kyle Schwarber, hitting fifth and playing third, Alex Breggman, batting sixth and playing left, Roman Anthony, batting seventh and catching Will Smith, batting eighth and playing second, Bryce Tarrang, and rounding it out, hitting ninth, Byron Bucston, Gunner Henderson, not in the lineup, Pete Crow Armstrong, not in the lineup, and Cal Raleigh, who has had a uncharacteristically baddies hitless in the World Baseball Classic and handshakeless. Did not shake Randy Eroza Rainer's hand, became a big deal, Randy was not happy about it. Yeah. You see the Savannah Banana is kind of, yes, in a eight then hug, that is kind of, yes. Although the money line on this US minus, USA minus 265 and as well, plus 215, so decent favorite tonight. They should be too. The reason to the Gunner Henderson, who has been on fire in this tournament, Pete Crow Armstrong, is not in there in Raleigh. As we said, all lefties and Eduardo Rodriguez is throwing for Venezuela, a lefty.

35:33I'm sure things will change if they are to bring in a right hander, what I loved and what I loved about Team DR. I'm not sure there's anybody in the bullpen that throws under 95. I mean, everybody is 97 to 99 with ridiculous movement. It's, every time I'm seeing even beyond that, the number of guys in the majors who just hit triple digits, like they're just, you know, like it's nothing. Like they're just walking down the street is amazing. I mean, Mason Miller is the, obviously, you like, how, how? It looks so smooth too. Yeah. You see some guys max out. Oh my gosh. I mean, it's so smooth out of the hand at 102 to 104. We'll see if he's out there tonight. I'm not sure if he's available. I don't believe Bednar is going to be available and he's been just so solid in some of those high leverage moments. Seven o'clock again, the first pitch for the championship of the World Baseball Classic. Do you want to talk some NFL here before we have Frank Bull in studio?

36:33Some headlines from around the league, former chief Hollywood Brown signed a one year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles worth six and a half million. And the big blockbuster of this morning, Dolphins trading Jalen Waddle to the Denver Broncos for draft picks, including their 2026 first rounder. So it was a first, a third, and a swap of fourths for Miami. And of course, the Broncos who are going all in, they bring in another wide receiver to add to Cortland Sutton and a variety of weapons on the outside for bow nicks. I will say that being a Kansas City radio station, this is a really good move for Denver. We've seen the chiefs not really make moves like this when they were always picking 31st and 32nd. This is the right move for Denver. It's the right move for them this year, maybe the next couple of years, but a team with the second year will now have a third year quarterback.

37:34Is that a team that you think needs to be all in or should they be trying to extend the window for for bow nicks? I can see why it's it's a half. I'm sure they're Bronco fans that are ecstatic, but I look at and I think guys not, you know, your quarterback is not 30. I can see why a team who's maybe only has a few years left, they think or four or five years left. A team like the chiefs might be maybe making a move like that if they had the cap space. But I'm a little puzzled by by the Broncos. If they're ideas, we got to win now or we got to win in the next two years quarterbacks, not young, but he's going into his third year. I'm not convinced this is in the end going to be a great move for the Broncos. But hey, man, if they get get some to a Super Bowl flag fly forever and they're odds of doing that this year got better. So we'll see. I think it has to. It's on now though. Yeah. Absolutely.

38:34And the pressure was going to be on whether they traded for Jalen Waddle or not. To me, what everybody in the AFC West is going to try to showcase and this upcoming year is that it's not a fluke that we didn't just finally get Kansas City when they were banged up dealt with the Rishi Rice suspension. Patrick Mahomes didn't play in the final four to five games of the season. Travis Kelsey became the main target at 36, 37 years old. The defense had its issues. Like this to me is Denver saying we won the division last year. If Bonix didn't get hurt against Buffalo in the division around, we would have been in the Super Bowl against Seattle. I wouldn't have picked them to win, but you still would have been AFC champions. Something that hasn't happened many times since Patrick Mahomes took over, only New England and Cincinnati had been the teams to be AFC champions. Denver could have done that. And I'm sure there will be a lot of people still picking them, depending on what happens in the draft to win the division again. And this to me is signaling if we want to make sure that Kansas City is not going to reclaim

39:37the crown after one year, we got to make sure we're as aggressive as them because I believe that signing of Kenneth Walker. I was gone all of last week, so I didn't get a chance to talk about it when it was happening. That to me showed that the chiefs are going to make sure that the years of, well, it's a slow start. They'll be fine. They'll be fine. We can well these one score games. We can start off three and four because we'll finish a 12 and five. Those days are going to be behind us. Our goal, whether Patrick Mahomes is already week one or not, our goal is to get out hot before and 1-5-0 and you're always looking up at us in the division. And the best way to do that is to build a badass offense. And I think they believe that when you bring in a new offensive coordinator and two other new offensive coaches in DeMarco Murray and Chris O'Shea, I think it is Chad. Chad O'Shea. I mean, I was going to say, Chad or Chris, Chad O'Shea. And you make the move for Walker clearly, you're like, okay, the offense needs to get

40:39better. The Broncos probably looked at that and went, okay, we can't come back, standing pat when you need to make a move. I just think that if you're going to make a trade like that, you need to strike while you've got that guy or else the window seemed to me to be more open longer. I'm not saying it's a bad move, but I don't know that it's a slam dunk, but it's a great move because, again, they're just kind of starting to move. Starting out, this feels like a move that a team makes one. This feels like a move Buffalo makes a team that's got an all pro quarterback and future hall of aim quarterback and they just need to find one more thing. A Buffalo has made moves like that in this free agency. This seems like more like a move they would need to make. And I wonder too, how much of the, not the Denver would care about what Dan Campbell is saying, but it's never really left my mind. It's been burned into my memory since it happened when Detroit lost in San Francisco

41:41in the NFC championship game. The year the chiefs beat the Niners for the second time in the Super Bowl. And you know, the expectation is when you get to the press conference, all the media members talk about, you know, it was such a great run, right? Remember in Jacksonville with Liam Cohen, it was almost as praise of like, you'll be back. You'll be fine. And I loved hearing Dan Campbell say, well, that might have been our only shot. Yeah. It's realistic. And the line is looking like it might have been, it might have been and that was a team back then. I was going to get one chance. That looked like maybe not the, the young and upcoming chiefs of 18, but my goodness, were they explosive and they looked like a bear going into the post season. They were dominating the Niners for that game and it didn't work out Denver had Jared Stidham starting in that game. But they held, you know, New England's offense down for the entirety of that game and couldn't get one lasting drive aside from one. And that was because of a turnover that New England has. If I'm Sean Payton and I look at the division, which now is light years different than it

42:43was five to six years ago, you still are going to have the chiefs to worry about. You're going to have the chargers, raiders are in full rebuild mode. We know about that. But you want to make sure that it's not a, well, that was a great year, but we just want to get back to the post season. So if I'm in Denver, I'm saying we got to get back to that spot this year is Jalen Waddle, the guy that does it. He helps. I am on board with you where that if it doesn't work out and guys regress and bonix isn't as good and the defense isn't as good and the chiefs reclaim the throne in the AFC West. Now it's a move of oh boy, we gave up basically our day one and day two picks. They did swap the fourth to move up from 30th to 11th. I want to say it was. So that's a nice pick, but you lose your first and your third and those could have been kind of in the wash, controllable players. Now there's no, we'll see what Miami does with those picks. I know we did the same thing with Frank Clark when he was acquired is like, let's, let's follow the career of what those guys do in Seattle.

43:45I don't believe they ended up doing much. And maybe that will be the case. This to me though is that move where Denver saying we're not just disappearing. The one score games that is something we're going to watch in the same way we did for Kansas City. Let's say you make you make fewer one score games by improving on offense. And I to play devil's advocate to some extent and push back on the point I just made. This could be a tacit admission by the Broncos that bonix is limited. And he's going to need, I mean, the windows open, but you know, this isn't the same thing as the window being open for Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen. This guy is going to need a supporting cast and we're going to open that window with that supporting cast as soon as we possibly can while he's at his youngest, he's at his least expensive. We're going to try to get some stuff done now while he's on his first contract. So from that standpoint, it might be a great move. Yeah. And I will always say this that the great organizations out there understand who their quarterback is and what it takes for them to be successful. The last thing you want to do is look at a quarterback who's really good, but not a top three

44:50quarterback in the league and say, well, he is a top three quarterback in the league. He can make others around him better. Yeah. And we've seen that before. We've seen teams just sort of neglect other parts of the team because they say, well, he'll make it work. He can make it work with anybody. Bonix has absolutely exceeded what I ever thought would be possible coming out of the draft. He was a great pick for the Broncos, but I'm not putting him in the same category as Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, when healthy, I can't do that just yet. He was great in the postseason this past year before he got hurt. He beat Buffalo. That's a feather in the cap. I mean, he was, he was the 12th pick. He wasn't the 30th. No, yeah. He was a top 15 pick. Yeah. But this is a move that Denver is kind of signaling, hey, let's make sure we're not putting immense pressure on a year where Denver is going to have a ton of pressure. Not to mention, what do they have for the first place schedule? Yeah. Now, the Chiefs, the third place schedule is still pretty brutal. I know. And you look at it too. The wrong year to finish third because a lot of the other teams that are powers, you know,

45:52I'm still looking at the freaking that team again, seriously. Yeah. The third place schedule. We're still playing you. Yeah. But it will be a step up for the Denver Broncos this year. They do make the blockbuster trade this morning for Jalen Waddle. Also, not that we need to touch too much on it. Hollywood Brown, go into Philadelphia. It was not a good year for him in Kansas City. We'll see if you'll find himself again with Jalen Hertz and the Eagles. Take a quick break. Come back, wrap up hour number one of the program. We're wrapping up hour number one of the program on Sports Radio 810, WHB. I am your host, Jack Johnson, Phil and vice-chairman Petro. For the final time this week, courtesy bolts here. Kyle, call your as well. Not for the final time this week. Am I filling in again? Yes. Oh, yeah. I will be back tomorrow. I was like, oh, throwing things at me left and right. We will have Frank Bull coming up in studio to begin hour number two. Then we'll have Sam McDowell in the four o'clock hour. And we'll have Gary Perish in the five o'clock hour. Much better job today, laying out the show. Because we were, we were flying while we were letting you fly blind. You were so bad at it yesterday, I almost wasn't going to come in.

46:54Yeah. No, I was like, we can't do this again. If you don't know what you're talking about, I'm not going to know what I'm talking about. So yeah, I can understand why it was a little bit more important in this go around. Frank Bull coming up next. All right. What school has the most first round losses as the number four seed brought to you by LeFeta, delicatessen.