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Transcript

The BIGPLAY Cleveland Show 07/06/26 · BIGPLAY Cleveland

0:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the Big Play Cleveland Show presented by Fandwell.
0:02
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm Gabrielle Cruz, alongside Chris McNeil, Big Shoutout to Nick Padoon.
0:06
[SPEAKER_02]: He is enjoying his honeymoon.
0:09
[SPEAKER_02]: You and Cam, congratulations.
0:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I know it was a big weekend for them.
0:11
[SPEAKER_02]: We are joined on the show today.
0:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Scoop B Robinson, MBA Insider here, to talk a little ball with us specifically.
0:19
[SPEAKER_02]: The Braun James Watch.
0:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for joining us, Scoop.
0:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me get to see you all happy a couple days after 4th of July.
0:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I hope you had a good holiday weekend.
0:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Big stuff, we got the Taylor and Travis wedding, but listen, Cavs fans are mostly fixated on the LeBron situation.
0:36
[SPEAKER_02]: This is our big deal here, and with every rumor and report that comes out, one thing that seems to be a constant is the calves are still in the conversation scoop.
0:46
[SPEAKER_02]: So what's the latest you've been hearing about this?
0:49
[SPEAKER_01]: When everything that I've gotten so far, there are about five or six teams.
0:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like this is a memory go around last summer when we talked about four teams before he was an actual free agent.
0:58
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the 16's that are on his radar.
1:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Do include the click, click, and Cavaliers, as well as the Philadelphia 76ers of Golden State Warriors.
1:08
[SPEAKER_01]: The Minnesota Terrible and I haven't had my morning coffee, but there are 16th total of the Miami heat also is included in.
1:17
[SPEAKER_01]: That level of of interest and from what I've heard specifically relating to your region, the Cleveland Cavaliers is that they are in the conversation.
1:27
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact.
1:28
[SPEAKER_01]: James Hardin has not signed or restructured his contract out of respect to Lebron because of where the salary cat will lie.
1:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And so every indication that I've gotten is that they're in the conversation as I've told you throughout the course of the season.
1:46
[SPEAKER_01]: But there are some things that are better, definitely.
1:49
[SPEAKER_01]: changing and are interesting.
1:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Number one, you look at the Cleveland Cavaliers.
1:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Their former GM is now the president of basketball operations of the Philadelphia 70s and Mike Gansy and both LeBron and Mike have a relationship.
2:01
[SPEAKER_01]: They're predates their high school days, the both being from Northeast Ohio.
2:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything that I've gotten from the Golden State Warriors currently has stated that They are more of a team that that LeBron and Kletcher are using for leverage and that they're not a serious contender in fact I've gotten some fun goals about the Warriors.
2:32
[SPEAKER_01]: They work a bit surprised that LeBron was interested And they've done their due diligence calling around asking people just different things and doing their homework But the Cavaliers is a little bit more nuanced.
2:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll add
2:45
[SPEAKER_05]: So I assume now that we're looking at six teams, it's probably come down a little bit from the whiteboard rich Paul who's LeBron James's agent famously put 10 teams up there.
2:55
[SPEAKER_05]: Are we looking at six?
2:56
[SPEAKER_05]: Is that a realistic number of who's really in this thing?
2:59
[SPEAKER_05]: Or do we think it's even whittled down more than six?
3:03
[SPEAKER_01]: If I had my druthers, I would say it's three and those three would include and no particular order, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Golded State Warriors, and the Minnesota Timbles.
3:18
[SPEAKER_05]: Now break down, break down the timber wolves for me, because I kind of understand the other two situations.
3:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Obviously I understand the calves quite a bit, but I don't quite understand Minnesota and why that would be a fit right off the bat.
3:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, look at what Minnesota has added to their roster.
3:36
[SPEAKER_01]: You look at the fact that they brought M-Lons of all that point guard.
3:39
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
3:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I've reported all in the notion that the Minnesota Timberwolves were looking for point guard.
3:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Two other guys that were on their roster included Kyrie Irving and Javarant, of course, Javarant heading over to the Pacific Northwest Plank for now, the Portland Trailblazers.
3:56
[SPEAKER_01]: But anytime you're pairing,
4:00
[SPEAKER_01]: someone of LeBron's caliber alongside an Anthony Edwards to me and in the way that it's been intubated to me is that this is like Duane Wade and LeBron in reverse when LeBron came to the Miami heat back in 2010 when he took his talents from Cleveland to South Beach and anytime you look at LeBron he's always going to pair himself on long side some players that are young with some potential because you have some years there.
4:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Minnesota, not only has La Mello ball and Anthony Edwards, but you also have a center and Rudy Gobert that can play defensive juggler not, if you will, I was disappointed that they did not
4:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think that that gives them a strong starting point from those those those key positions point guard shooting guard at center LeBron playing out of the three of the four spot there but every indication that I've gotten this that Minnesota is definitely in the conversation and I say golden state with hesitation because I think that's just an hour from a fight from
5:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Los Angeles, where he LeBron and his family currently reside, and just thinking of it as a parent, you know, you have a daughter that's still in school, you have a wife that's in Los Angeles, the daughter and you know that that's a high skip and a jump, but to me Cleveland has a familiarity.
5:38
[SPEAKER_01]: and it makes sense and not just from, you know, I said this on you guys this program and cried quite a bit, you know, Cleveland has not made a single move other than signing Thomas Wright to, to, to, to a, I think it was a one-year deal.
5:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm at level deal or a smaller deal, but,
5:56
[SPEAKER_01]: There are some things that stand out, one, and being from Northeast Ohio, too.
6:01
[SPEAKER_01]: The cabs' GM position, as I've reported feverishly, it's still open.
6:06
[SPEAKER_01]: My guess, of course, leaving Cleveland and becoming, you know, from GM and Cleveland, to become the president of basketball operations in Philadelphia, Brandon Weans, the assistant GM, they're in Cleveland currently.
6:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Those will brown very well.
6:21
[SPEAKER_01]: They played the same events at St. Mary's High School in
6:23
[SPEAKER_01]: together and as well as a friend to LeBron.
6:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't even put the ethics of him being at LeBron's functions as a reason why.
6:31
[SPEAKER_01]: But Kobe Altman is not crazy.
6:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that the calves are looking to, and this is that reported this back in May.
6:39
[SPEAKER_01]: The Cavaliers are looking to promote folks internally within their front office, and I'm hearing that Brennan Weems could be that poker chip for LeBron.
6:50
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm also told that David Griffin, who was familiar to LeBron and the cash fan base as well, is someone that is an option if the Weems thing doesn't go the way, but that many believe that it will.
7:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I just know that there are some movement moving pieces there and within the Cavs organization and that the Cavs are hopeful that LeBron will be there and this has been something that last year that's been talked about internally.
7:15
[SPEAKER_01]: They're hopeful that LeBron will, I don't want to use the farewell to it because I think LeBron can play till he was 50, but I do think that at this juncture, they're hopeful that LeBron will return to Northeast Ohio.
7:29
[SPEAKER_05]: This is our very first LeBron watch.
7:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Obviously, we've been through this a few times, and in terms of timelines, back at 2010, he made the decision on July 10.
7:41
[SPEAKER_05]: He came home to Cleveland in 2014 on the 11th of July.
7:44
[SPEAKER_05]: He went to L.A. in 2018 on the 1st of July.
7:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I've gotten, every indication I've gotten is there's no rush.
8:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I've gotten a timeline, I haven't gotten a date.
8:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to rally all up because you guys are on my side this time.
8:11
[SPEAKER_01]: But as it comes, I Twitter and my website are definitely where you'll get that information, but I do think that I do think that he, even at 41 years old,
8:26
[SPEAKER_01]: LeBron has found a way to capture, captivate, troll, meet people in suspense in a way prior to social media being at a Zema from now.
8:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
8:37
[SPEAKER_02]: He scooped, so how much of LeBron chasing a championship does this whole process take into account?
8:47
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, at this considering where he's at in his career, considering what these teams have to offer, how much is this about a championship?
8:55
[SPEAKER_01]: who doesn't want to retire on top.
8:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember a conversation that I had with Kobe Bryant his last year of the league, and this was shortly after, paid manning and then for Brockles won their Super Bowl against the Carolina Panthers, so we're talking 2016.
9:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember saying to Kobe, how cool would it be to write out into the sense that similarly the way
9:20
[SPEAKER_01]: As an elder statesman talking to Kobe, as an elder statesman, just like Peyton did, he goes, uh, elder statesman, that's nice.
9:26
[SPEAKER_01]: He's older than me.
9:27
[SPEAKER_01]: He joked and then he said it would have been great, but it wasn't in the cards, but I've also, uh, one multiple championship and VP's all star games Olympic gold medals and more.
9:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I take that and I raise you this.
9:39
[SPEAKER_01]: LeBron has the vantage point of having played for the very organization that Kobe Bryant was
9:48
[SPEAKER_01]: and in a world where we're constantly making comparisons to my goal and and LeBron broke current of the older broads record and as a Laker and he watched Colby Bryant right out to the sunset in 2016.
10:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I would imagine that LeBron is going to make his decision based upon being the antithesis of not having a losing season, which is what I believe the Lakers would have gotten
10:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Blues clues, if you will, and you apply them to those teams that LeBron is looking at, you'd imagine that he wanted to be the exact opposite of what many MBA viewers saw with Kobe back during that time.
10:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And you pick a Golden State, you pick a Minnesota, you pick a Cleveland, you pick a Philadelphia.
10:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And so,
10:40
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to leave on top?
10:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if you got New York is home for me and you guys are Cleveland.
10:46
[SPEAKER_01]: However, the common ground that we all find in watching sports is we rule for an underdog.
10:51
[SPEAKER_01]: We saw the 52-year drought with Cleveland when they didn't win championships and then in 2016 LeBron, Kyrie Irving Kevin, loving the calves they won, right?
11:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And then so you take that and you raise that and you look at what the New York next did.
11:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I I said this one one of your programs LeBron will be watching the calves and the nicks and the in the eastern conference finals and then he watched the nicks and the finals and you saw the drop at New York City had in the amount of championships that they lost and 99 and and also 94.
11:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, if you're an observer of calves basketball or just, you know sports and you know the drought, you know the hometown significance of LeBron being from accurate planning for the Cavaliers and then all of that and you know the brown likes the genetics and the fairytale one is going to make you wait to if he comes it's going to be some special in three add and magic that he bring out the stars with them and so while we are talking about Cleveland and that's the local show.
11:48
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not the only team that LeBron has played for before.
11:51
[SPEAKER_01]: You know that the Miami, even LeBron have some significant history.
11:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And they got a guy in Miami, then Jan is out to the Compo, and a guy named Bam out of Bio, and Tim Hardaway Jr was on that team.
12:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And so is this a scenario where
12:07
[SPEAKER_01]: He's been a Cleveland twice.
12:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Now he goes and returns to Miami and you know, people believe that he a Pat Raleigh do not have a relationship anymore.
12:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm here to tell you that if you watch LeBron and then Gilbert repair their relationship,
12:21
[SPEAKER_01]: a compete for championship and they wanted in 2016.
12:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that he could decide, hey Miami has this shiny toy.
12:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Pat Rally and I can put aside our differences in by the way, Pat Rally is now an owner.
12:33
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a team president.
12:34
[SPEAKER_01]: You still got to answer to somebody higher up and I'm sure they can work those things out, but like I said every indication that I've gotten so far has suggested that LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers could be a thing.
12:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you think that Cleveland becomes a team to beat in the Eastern Conference, or you know, you mentioned the next and their success?
12:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Do they still deserve that title?
13:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll answer that question this year like I answered it going into this season to be the champs you got to beat the champs.
13:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Many people ask you that question about the Oklahoma City Thunder and the next has supplanted them as the champions and I think an answer to your question.
13:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think that when the finals ended, many people thought that the Eastern Conference would be a cakewalk and there are many teams in the Eastern Conference who have improved since
13:28
[SPEAKER_01]: The Cavaliers have the potential to improve.
13:33
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the Celtics are competitive.
13:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that they took a step back by bringing in Paul George and Exchange from Jalen Brown.
13:39
[SPEAKER_01]: But I do think that Cleveland on paper does have weapons.
13:45
[SPEAKER_01]: You have like none of the Mitchell has played fairly well throughout the course of the season and the playoffs.
13:50
[SPEAKER_01]: The James Harbin slander.
13:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe him taking less money could put him on the path
13:58
[SPEAKER_01]: that Chris Paul wasn't if the calves are able to go to the finals and win it.
14:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think the Eastern Conference just like the Western Conference is right open, but I do think LeBron James joining a calves team does make them a competitor.
14:12
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you think LeBron's already made his mind up?
14:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I think LeBron made his mind up but he was leaving the Los Angeles legaries last summer.
14:20
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
14:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and how about his next stop?
14:24
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you think he's made his mind up on that one?
14:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I think prior to Yanis joining the heat, I believe that the calves were probably more affordable and conclusion than now.
14:44
[SPEAKER_01]: But I do think that one, the brown broke up with her Ramona Sheldmore say this a day or two ago.
14:51
[SPEAKER_01]: She said the brown broke up with the lakers before the lakers could break up with them.
14:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Black, I think LeBron has two old joints he could go back to, Cleveland or Miami, and it's take your pick.
15:06
[SPEAKER_05]: interesting.
15:08
[SPEAKER_05]: Very interesting.
15:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you think has he had some conversations with anybody on the cabs team currently or in the front office there?
15:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I reported that I reported that in May.
15:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Dr. McPhil and James Harden and LeBlanc have had conversations at different points throughout the course of the season of the three of them teaming up in Cleveland.
15:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they have that conversation.
15:29
[SPEAKER_05]: It's just wanted to make sure I apologize for not being all over your reporting their scoop, and that was not meant to be a diggin' you.
15:35
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if I'm going to slap you, I don't know if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, I don't know if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm going to slap you, if I'm
15:55
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a case of LeBron has unfollowed the calves on my IG, but he's still looking at their stories and saying, hey, big head.
16:05
[SPEAKER_02]: That's amazing.
16:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Scoop, we appreciate you.
16:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for your time.
16:08
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll be keeping out on this whole saga.
16:11
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, cleaveterers, we just, we live for this kind of thing, man.
16:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, we appreciate all of your incredible reporting and stay in on top of it.
16:18
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we got all eyes on you.
16:19
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you, what do you need to plug for us to keep up with you?
16:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Check out my latest episode of the pull-up of Scoop P series that we debuted back in May, Antoine Walker was the second guest for his guest with Kendall Gil.
16:31
[SPEAKER_01]: We drop in episode every month, so be looking out for episode three at the end of this month.
16:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And just check out all my stuff at Scoop P.com in the blog section and on my Twitter account at Scoop P, as well as Instagram at Scoop P, as well.
16:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me.
16:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I absolutely love it.
16:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks, Scoop.
16:46
[SPEAKER_02]: This episode brought to you by Smart Choice Bats.
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17:11
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to take a quick break.
17:12
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll be back with more.
17:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Big play Cleveland right after this.
17:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to the Big Play Cleveland show.
17:16
[SPEAKER_02]: We're bringing the heat with Jensen Lewis.
17:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And we got to talk about this big white socks series.
17:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Jensen, of course, we would have loved to have won the series.
17:23
[SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, we end up with a split there.
17:25
[SPEAKER_02]: There were some high notes.
17:26
[SPEAKER_02]: For a second, I thought we were going to have three back to back to back walk offs.
17:31
[SPEAKER_02]: They put it out there a little bit at the end, but all things considered, I mean, they really pushed it.
17:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Going into extra innings, going late, I wish the ballpark happy for the July twice.
17:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Because we were in their past midnight, and then we came back and we were there again.
17:43
[SPEAKER_02]: It was like Groundhogs Day.
17:45
[SPEAKER_02]: But what was your takeaways from this series?
17:47
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and, and I think Gabby, you nailed it right.
17:50
[SPEAKER_04]: You had the first two wins there and could have gotten real selfish and thought boy, that's exactly, you know, the way that you want to be situated knowing got a chance at least a two pack to be able to have.
18:03
[SPEAKER_04]: the opportunity to win that series if not set yourself up for a sweep.
18:07
[SPEAKER_04]: But you hold serve a little bit.
18:09
[SPEAKER_04]: The way you finish the series, having to force Chicago to really hold on for dear life, I think is great for the morale of the group.
18:17
[SPEAKER_04]: And still knowing that you're in that entire series without Jose Ramirez and Alhamdulillah, Martinez.
18:23
[SPEAKER_04]: you get great contributions from Stephen Kwan here the last couple of weeks chased a lot or what that was a mammoth home run of who we can do really a huge bomb that he hit and I'll be honest to you know you kind of see some reinforcements in the back end of the bullpen that you start to get a little more optimistic about so all in all you hold serve you do what you have to do and you know you're still here entering play this week just a game out of first place.
18:47
[SPEAKER_05]: Did anything you saw this weekend change your opinion on who might win this division, whether it be the White Sox, whether it be the Guardian, or might it be the twins that looked pretty good in the last two games against the Yankees in New York over the fourth?
19:00
[SPEAKER_04]: Great, great question, Chris, it was hosting on Ellen Network Radio with Jim Bowden over the weekend and we sort of had that discussion of, yeah, how wide open can the American like central be and Jim was very, very bullish on on the outlook for for Cleveland knowing that you're going to get Ramirez and on Hell Martina's back here soon and if you can sort of tread water still to this point and to be honest, guys, not only have the guardians done that without their best player.
19:27
[SPEAKER_04]: but they've also kind of shown and we may be had to discuss that a week after the injury had happened.
19:33
[SPEAKER_04]: Guys and young guys are going to get opportunities.
19:36
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's see what you have and let's also now try and learn how to win when Jose Ramirez is not there.
19:42
[SPEAKER_04]: Because it's easy when he's back, that's as good a blockbuster addition as you can have for this group.
19:48
[SPEAKER_04]: So I think the learning curve, Chris, to sort of round about,
19:53
[SPEAKER_04]: I think it emboldens the group to know that they've been able to really perform pretty well considering the circumstances and still be in this position in the division.
20:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And you mentioned that young guys, Jensen, how cool is it to see chased a lot or playing well on both sides of the ball since coming back from the injured list, just making awesome plays out in the outfield.
20:13
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, how encouraging is it to just see him impacting the game the way he is?
20:17
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, he's got a little great size more to him.
20:20
[SPEAKER_04]: If the guy that I played with, who we thought was kind of that second coming of King Murphy Jr., the way he hit Homer's, the way he played, so well defensively in the outfield.
20:30
[SPEAKER_04]: He was such a lightning rod and a spark plug for us.
20:32
[SPEAKER_04]: And the way that CDL has done it and coming back off the injured list guys, we've had several discussions through the last couple of years of
20:40
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, when you're a young player and you miss that amount of time, trying to come back and get back to game speed, you can do all the rehab work you want, you can do all the minor league stance, but trying to get yourself ready, but it never replaces what it's like facing big league pitching.
20:54
[SPEAKER_04]: So to that end, really encouraging to see the power come right back to him and also, you know, looking at where Travis Pazana and he at the top of this order.
21:04
[SPEAKER_04]: have now started to form a little bit of that dynamic duo that we had alluded to once you moved Bazana back up to that upper third.
21:11
[SPEAKER_04]: So really encouraged from CDL.
21:14
[SPEAKER_04]: I think two guys you have to be encouraged with Steven Kwon.
21:17
[SPEAKER_04]: We've really highlighted him the last handful of weeks.
21:20
[SPEAKER_04]: It has been as arduous as it gets, trying to see him turn the corner.
21:25
[SPEAKER_04]: I think we can kind of say he's done that now.
21:27
[SPEAKER_04]: The last two weeks, that's as good as Kwonny has looked in some time.
21:31
[SPEAKER_05]: Hey, another young guy here, Cooper Engel, you know, famously we put him now in left field.
21:36
[SPEAKER_05]: He had a rough and very rocky start here, not knowing the number of outs and then missing an easy fly ball.
21:43
[SPEAKER_05]: Some questions with the arm out there.
21:45
[SPEAKER_05]: How fair is it to move a guy who's been a catcher in the minors out to left field when he's up here in the majors?
21:52
[SPEAKER_05]: And what do you think about the prospects of him going forward?
21:55
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, Chris, it is really a trial by fire, right, and he was thrown right into it, not easy to be able once you get to the big league level.
22:04
[SPEAKER_04]: If you're not a day to day outfield or the adjustment is absolutely ridiculous.
22:09
[SPEAKER_04]: So I think we give him some grace there, you know, the mental mistakes.
22:13
[SPEAKER_04]: not was standing.
22:14
[SPEAKER_04]: He's now learned from that.
22:16
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sure, you know, down the line here, once they get to the end of the season, they'll have a little fun and look back at that and say, hey, you know, one of those things, the growing pains of becoming a big lager, but obviously it's the bat, right?
22:28
[SPEAKER_04]: Everyone is looking at that.
22:30
[SPEAKER_04]: Once it finally gets there, and Chris, I think we've talked about it two together, I like to give guys at least three to four weeks, especially young players,
22:39
[SPEAKER_04]: the quality of pitching.
22:40
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't think the common fan realizes how ridiculously good the caliber of pitching is at the big league level.
22:48
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, you got some great arms at Triple A, but it's nowhere near what you're facing day in and day out.
22:54
[SPEAKER_04]: So I have confidence that the long game here is the goal and just getting him really some confidence here in the next week or so.
23:04
[SPEAKER_04]: Even if he has a nice couple of series here against Minnesota and into Miami, you're going to face great pitching there.
23:10
[SPEAKER_04]: Even if you have a couple of those games in each series where you start to see the ball come off the bat, the way you didn't trip away, I think that's a really good outcome and good optimism, excuse me, for him headed into the second half.
23:22
[SPEAKER_05]: Talk about up and down.
23:23
[SPEAKER_05]: How about Gabrielle areas, you know, one of those guys you can't figure out whether this guy's really going to be good, whether he's going to be bad.
23:30
[SPEAKER_05]: He goes through these long bad stretches where you say, why is this guy even on the team.
23:34
[SPEAKER_05]: And then he goes out hits a key home run or does something where you say, hey, there's some potential there.
23:39
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know what to think of the guy where we at with him, Jenton.
23:42
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't think any Chris, I don't think anything's changed since our last dance moniker that we kind of gave him.
23:47
[SPEAKER_04]: And just when you're ready to write him off, and as you mentioned, he hits a big three round homer and it changes a game with one swing.
23:55
[SPEAKER_04]: That's the optimism that you want to hold in the lightning in the bottle that you want to catch.
24:01
[SPEAKER_04]: In then, you know, there's the issues that he's had defensively at third and some of the mental mistakes throughout his tenure.
24:07
[SPEAKER_04]: What do we make of it at this point?
24:09
[SPEAKER_04]: He's got to stay just because the bodies that they have to to kind of pivot to are really not there, but I think we're all excited for when Jose Ramirez comes back to the hot court.
24:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Jensen pretty remarkable that we've got two rookies going to the all star games.
24:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
24:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Is this a sign that our next core has arrived?
24:29
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I think the Bazata won and even, I think he alluded to it, right?
24:33
[SPEAKER_04]: Guys, he was kind of caught off guard that he was selected and and boys, that a good surprise and and just really a a great reflection of how quickly he's been able to adapt to the big leagues and usually number one overall picks, especially position players have so much scrutiny on them that it could take a little bit of time to get going.
24:54
[SPEAKER_04]: Doesn't really feel like there's been a need to onboard much longer than what Pazana had for the first handful of weeks.
25:01
[SPEAKER_04]: He looks pretty comfortable for a 23 soon to be 24 year old.
25:06
[SPEAKER_04]: What can you say about Parker Messick?
25:07
[SPEAKER_04]: We've talked about him all year.
25:09
[SPEAKER_04]: Where would this team be without him and Gavin Williams at the top of the rotation?
25:14
[SPEAKER_04]: He has a joy to watch, such a throwback dude.
25:16
[SPEAKER_04]: The high socks, the challenge you fastball.
25:19
[SPEAKER_04]: No, it's not 98 to 100.
25:21
[SPEAKER_04]: man is he efficient you can make dinner reservations on the night that he pitches because you're not waiting around you know it's it's really fun to watch him be able to work there and then you know what else do you say about Kate Smith I mean this guy is about as good as it gets in the back end of bullpens and has been for the last handful of years so very bright future for the two rookies and I think it's just a prairie to think to come with the amount of young
25:49
[SPEAKER_02]: It's interesting what you've mentioned about Bazana and just his Comfort ability so far.
25:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you think that easy acclamation has more to do with the athlete and their mind or the environment that they're stepping into or maybe a combination of both?
26:02
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, again, I think the world baseball classic went a long way for for Travis Pazana.
26:07
[SPEAKER_04]: You're on that kind of big stage.
26:09
[SPEAKER_04]: You're facing essentially all star teams from each of these countries.
26:13
[SPEAKER_04]: And then you can even go back to his development at Oregon State.
26:16
[SPEAKER_04]: And of course, we saw this was Steven Kwan, you know, finding his way through Adley Ruchman when, you know, he was one of the top draft picks years ago.
26:25
[SPEAKER_04]: There is a system in place in a lot of these big time college programs where
26:30
[SPEAKER_04]: you're essentially because of the conference opponents.
26:32
[SPEAKER_04]: We say it a lot in the SEC.
26:34
[SPEAKER_04]: You're facing double a pitching basically every weekend.
26:37
[SPEAKER_04]: So you're understanding what it's like to play to professional level, even as a college player.
26:42
[SPEAKER_04]: But I do believe, as you said, the mind that Travis Bazana has just the ultra confidence, the belief in the work ethic and the ability,
26:52
[SPEAKER_04]: And then, quite frankly, it's slow in the game down in the biggest of moments.
26:56
[SPEAKER_04]: And whether that be defensively, where, yes, there's still some work to be done there, and you don't expect to be a finished product right away.
27:02
[SPEAKER_04]: But, man, that was the big, big advertisement.
27:05
[SPEAKER_04]: And when he was selected first overall, that this wouldn't be a quick translation, that he could really run through the minor league system and be a key cog atop this lineup.
27:14
[SPEAKER_04]: I think we're getting some early returns and some great ROI.
27:18
[SPEAKER_04]: Really when we needed it without Jose Ramirez, you were shifting to other guys and trying to find a spark.
27:23
[SPEAKER_04]: I think Pazana has been that an end song
27:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, one of the neat stats right now is he's the first rookie position player for the tribe or then the since since that time the guardians now what were the Indians since sandy alamar junior back in 1990 and of course sandy still with the organization now and that really brought on johnson just some great years in Cleveland with that started it that kind of kicked off what would become us through the 90s and those amazing teams.
27:51
[SPEAKER_04]: And I would even remember, you know, early 2000s, right, was C.C.
27:55
[SPEAKER_04]: Savathia, and really then ascending through the 2010s where we became that pitching pipeline, of course, Corey Clubber, the couple of Saoyung awards, and then just the dominance of the rotation, Carlos Carrasco, Danny Salazar in spurts there, you know, what we saw with Shane Bieber, my Clevver, Trevor Bower.
28:14
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, you can look back, really at some of those bona fide mid-2010s rotations,
28:21
[SPEAKER_04]: that if you had the consistency of the offense, which we eventually did in 2016-2017-2018, yeah, that's kind of the dream.
28:29
[SPEAKER_04]: And to grow it in your own system, I think is more an indicator.
28:34
[SPEAKER_04]: Guys, we've been screaming for years.
28:36
[SPEAKER_04]: Can we produce position players?
28:38
[SPEAKER_04]: Can we develop them?
28:40
[SPEAKER_04]: When you pick at the top of the draft, you should be able to get a few of those right, and I would say that the calorie is coming as far as the big physical middle of the order bats.
28:50
[SPEAKER_04]: The kid lobby alert, listen, I'll watch him and Texas say him, get ready.
28:55
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to have some homegrown thumb here pretty soon, and that's really exciting for this fan base moving forward.
29:01
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
29:02
[SPEAKER_02]: We look ahead to the twins, not much time to dwell on the
29:09
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, they're going to have to be really good at run prevention.
29:12
[SPEAKER_04]: GAD, this is one of the top scoring offenses in Major League Baseball and to say that out loud before the All-Star Break, that the Minnesota Twins would be that is wild to wrap your head around.
29:21
[SPEAKER_04]: But Derek Shelton's crew has been very consistent in the run producing department.
29:25
[SPEAKER_04]: I would say the advantage is to the guardians as far as the pitching probable is there getting
29:30
[SPEAKER_04]: Joey Cantillo and what's late to Coney has done, of course, Gavin in the series finale.
29:35
[SPEAKER_04]: I really like the matchup, but Target Field has presented challenges for this group.
29:40
[SPEAKER_04]: And for whatever reason, it always feels like these are really close games at the end.
29:44
[SPEAKER_04]: So it can be great for seven innings, but our bullpen is going to have to mind their peason cues.
29:48
[SPEAKER_04]: There's a lot of different ways the twins can beat you.
29:51
[SPEAKER_04]: You really have to finish out this series and be able to get one that would go a long
29:59
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, we're kind of scheduling quirk there.
30:01
[SPEAKER_05]: You got Minnesota on the road, then Miami, then the All-Star game, and then you come home to Pittsburgh, but it's going to be a little while there on the 17th and 18th with Pittsburgh.
30:11
[SPEAKER_05]: So, can a team lose focus, especially a young team like this?
30:15
[SPEAKER_05]: You've only got a few games we talked about before until the All-Star game, in this case, you're going out at town, and then eventually you had that All-Star game, then a few days off, is there a potential that some of these young guardians might lose focus,
30:27
[SPEAKER_04]: they better not because the probable is in the Miami series you get all three big dogs in Saniel Contra you're he Perez just through seven perfect innings against the athletics and Max Meyer who's slated right now to start that that series finale has been arguably one of the best pictures in the national league that no one's really talking too much about yeah you're you're going to have to be ready to go Miami is for real.
30:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Most winds of Major League Baseball since June 1st, their dynamic offensively, they got a guy going for the batting title and auto-low pests.
30:58
[SPEAKER_04]: The middle of their lineup is really, really solid and they're super athletic on the base path.
31:03
[SPEAKER_04]: So real tough challenge, Chris, I would say that this group will need to be focused and I think they certainly are.
31:09
[SPEAKER_04]: This was kind of that playoff atmosphere that you needed in July with the white socks.
31:14
[SPEAKER_04]: I think knowing the pedigree of teams you've got in this road trip alone, they'll be ready to rock and roll.
31:20
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, the other thing we talked about Minnesota potentially coming up.
31:23
[SPEAKER_05]: We saw them play a couple of good games against the Yankees there in New York.
31:26
[SPEAKER_05]: You you face them seven times here in the next three weeks, Jensen.
31:31
[SPEAKER_05]: So that's going to go a long way to deciding whether they're actually going to compete with us for this division title, right?
31:36
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, we say it all the time, right?
31:38
[SPEAKER_04]: And regardless of when you play the division series, this division somehow comes down to that final week and those
31:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Man, if we would have taken at least one more in a series on the road or, you know, we gave away a game that we shouldn't have, it all comes down to those kind of executional priorities.
32:01
[SPEAKER_04]: And so this, this will go again, another long way.
32:03
[SPEAKER_04]: I know we joke that that white socks here's all big a series of the year.
32:07
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
32:07
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, this one on deck, you're going, you're going into a alliance den of a team that has probably really surprised some people on the national level, but I think Minnesota firmly believes they belong in this race.
32:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Denson before we get you out of here.
32:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Where do you think LeBron's landing?
32:23
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, the prediction markets would tell us that it looks a lot better here for us in Northeast Ohio.
32:28
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's kind of a change there.
32:31
[SPEAKER_04]: Since what we saw with Golden State, I don't trust the Philly rumors at all.
32:35
[SPEAKER_04]: I think they got their big splash in jail.
32:37
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a lot of mouths to feed over there with M.B., entire U.S. Maxi and now Brown.
32:42
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know how LeBron would go there.
32:44
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll say we got a better than a puncher's chance
32:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Love it.
32:49
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
32:49
[SPEAKER_02]: He's dancing with me.
32:50
[SPEAKER_05]: Wait, second question for him.
32:52
[SPEAKER_05]: We do have soccer tonight.
32:54
[SPEAKER_05]: The USA playing in Belgium.
32:56
[SPEAKER_05]: I know that you've been following this Jensen.
32:58
[SPEAKER_05]: I know you've probably got a thought on it.
32:59
[SPEAKER_05]: So what do you think is the USA going to get it done tonight?
33:03
[SPEAKER_04]: Listen, I've covered West Virginia in the college baseball postseason.
33:07
[SPEAKER_04]: So I've got my United States flag here.
33:10
[SPEAKER_04]: The mountaineers is everyone knows the country road song has now graduated to becoming the men's national
33:18
[SPEAKER_04]: I firmly believe we will hear country roads blaring through loom and field later on tonight.
33:24
[SPEAKER_04]: Give me maybe the draw in 90 minutes and then we win it in extra time and we advance into the quarter five.
33:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, a dramatic fashion.
33:33
[SPEAKER_05]: I love it.
33:34
[SPEAKER_05]: Kind of like the Guardians.
33:35
[SPEAKER_05]: The first couple of games of that white socks series got to be a walkoff got to be one for the dramatic and it would be great to see it on the biggest stage with the USA.
33:44
[SPEAKER_05]: I love it, Jensen.
33:45
[SPEAKER_04]: Amen.
33:46
[SPEAKER_04]: Amen.
33:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Boom!
33:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, he's Jensen Lewis.
33:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for bringing the heat with us.
33:50
[SPEAKER_02]: We got to take a quick break.
33:51
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll be back with more Big Play Cleveland right after this.
33:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to the Big Play Cleveland show.
33:55
[SPEAKER_02]: You can step off the sidelines and into football's biggest weekend with VIP access from Jimmy.
34:00
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34:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, we'll go back, let's talk a little browns, and on cue, we got the top dog joining us right as we spoke it into existence, McNeil.
34:49
[SPEAKER_02]: We got top dog coming in, go ahead, take a seat at your garage, be your throne.
34:53
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, just as we break the huddle here, he's coming in off this time.
34:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's go it on.
35:06
[SPEAKER_00]: it was perfect handford that bark is always there that bark is always always diet coke in hand the important bases are covered yes yes and i'm i'm i'm i'm happy somewhat a little bit
35:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Disappoint it, but happy here.
35:25
[SPEAKER_00]: We split with the I know you guys probably already mentioned this, but I haven't mentioned it We split with the white socks so a little bit upset about that because I I think we love a lot of runs out there But that's all right with the guys that we're missing we're gonna be all right, so I'll leave that one alone
35:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we figured you were keeping up with Garnt's ball and ball.
35:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Look at his cute t-shirt.
35:44
[SPEAKER_02]: No, that's the teddy bear.
35:46
[SPEAKER_02]: We're looking at yours.
35:47
[SPEAKER_00]: You got a nice little ad, too.
35:49
[SPEAKER_02]: You have a good fourth of July.
35:50
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what?
35:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I did.
35:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm probably like everybody else, uh, eight too much.
35:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, let me tell you what.
35:58
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the food of choice?
35:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I got to get that.
36:00
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you, what did you mention that?
36:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to give a shout out to a city barbeque.
36:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, you guys you you want to go barbecue go to city barbecue.
36:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I went to the one in Avon, Ohio, but I'm telling you they're baked beans.
36:13
[SPEAKER_00]: They're chicken.
36:14
[SPEAKER_00]: They're ribs.
36:15
[SPEAKER_00]: They're Brad, I mean just literally everything, but I cook some All the greens.
36:21
[SPEAKER_02]: I know that that's what I mean
36:25
[SPEAKER_02]: That's one of his specialties.
36:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I have, you know, I can't stop through my own anatomy.
36:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Right before it came out of my mom, you just hit me with it, but you're exactly right.
36:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I cooked some collagreens.
36:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I even cooked some cornbread and made some potato salad.
36:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
36:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll tell you, my greens are just so good.
36:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I just, my mom just told me,
36:54
[SPEAKER_00]: over and over again, bless our soul.
36:56
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think, eight, some more.
36:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And let me tell you this.
37:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I went to, do you, and you, I think I mentioned this to you before, sweet potato pies?
37:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
37:07
[SPEAKER_00]: There's Lady and, uh,
37:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And Cleveland, East Cleveland, and she cooked these sweet potato pies, called on all these sweet potato pies, and I'm telling you they are just absolutely delicious.
37:21
[SPEAKER_00]: She's got to be 90 years old, and I call on the phone, and I said, do you have any sweet potato pies that she said for you?
37:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
37:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll go over there.
37:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, I pay her for.
37:31
[SPEAKER_00]: But I go over there, and I pick up two sweet potato pies, and she just want to talk and go on and on and on and on and on.
37:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And on and you, which I do, I talked to her a little bit, but, uh, and it's just, you know, you know, the holidays like the Fourth of July and everything is just great.
37:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And then what made it really, really special, I mean, we were celebrating, uh, 250.
37:54
[SPEAKER_00]: you know America so and and I watched a little bit of that parade with all the tall ships that was just going down and I think that was out of New York I want to say but all the tall ships and everything that was there and I was just that make you feel proud to be an American so the fourth did you like something I always look forward to and put the weather I mean it was hard did you
38:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I tell you what you can see my, uh, you can tell I got some raise, you know, I'm a little dark in there.
38:29
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're laughing when I said I'm a dark, I'm a little shade darker.
38:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a little shade darker.
38:36
[SPEAKER_00]: But what did you do for the fourth?
38:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I worked at the ballpark all weekend.
38:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I watched that.
38:40
[SPEAKER_02]: That's right.
38:42
[SPEAKER_00]: That was
38:43
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a long one too.
38:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Chris, I don't know if I mentioned to you guys, but like during the week, Lakewood was having a lot of power outages.
38:49
[SPEAKER_02]: I know that other cities have been affected by this tooth throughout northeast Ohio, but there were three straight days, no air conditioning, a fight in a cold, we're going into extra innings.
39:00
[SPEAKER_02]: It's long hours in the heat, like all week.
39:03
[SPEAKER_02]: It was we went weekend, week weekend.
39:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And that is
39:06
[SPEAKER_02]: a long stretch.
39:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was a grind and shout out to our fans who ended up staying.
39:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I mentioned it earlier on the show Hanford, but I wished the ballpark happy July 4th twice.
39:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Did you?
39:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Because we played so late on third or Friday night.
39:21
[SPEAKER_02]: That was past midnight.
39:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Then we came back and felt like I had never left.
39:25
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a good time though.
39:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, you didn't pass out over there, did you?
39:28
[SPEAKER_02]: No, barely, barely.
39:29
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like, hungry.
39:30
[SPEAKER_02]: I was tweeting people.
39:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like, anybody got any food?
39:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I have a question for Chris.
39:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, do you think that we should have changed the pictures?
39:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, are you think it was okay to let it go out there after warming up twice?
39:50
[SPEAKER_05]: Which one, Hanford?
39:51
[SPEAKER_05]: I didn't catch that.
39:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Our picture, starting picture.
39:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, during that game, the delay, I say, do you think oh, you be the yesterday yesterday, yesterday's game.
40:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, with Tanner by people, you think it was okay to let him just after warming up twice, let him just go ahead and pitch that game, or you think we should have started.
40:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know the bullpen has been beat up a little bit.
40:14
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
40:14
[SPEAKER_05]: But he just can't get a break, right?
40:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
40:17
[SPEAKER_05]: What ends up happening with that guy?
40:19
[SPEAKER_05]: He's going to end up on the short side of the stick.
40:22
[SPEAKER_05]: And in this case, you know, he's our legitimate starter versus the white socks.
40:26
[SPEAKER_05]: They have kind of like a bullpen committee thing going anyway yesterday.
40:30
[SPEAKER_05]: So it wasn't that big of a deal, but yeah.
40:33
[SPEAKER_05]: the warning track out there, just would not dry off and I was wondering whether they were going to end up like canceling the thing or something just because they couldn't figure it out.
40:42
[SPEAKER_05]: They finally do.
40:43
[SPEAKER_05]: He goes out, gets warm like you said, hamford twice and you have to bring them out.
40:47
[SPEAKER_05]: He just can't catch a break these days.
40:49
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know.
40:50
[SPEAKER_05]: I guess you still run them out there because that's the spot and you just say, okay, we got to kind of deal with it.
40:55
[SPEAKER_05]: But I got to feel for the guy not only does he not get support for us, but then you have to go out under conditions like that with which is so, and you know, this is an athlete, right?
41:05
[SPEAKER_05]: The guys talk about it all the time.
41:06
[SPEAKER_05]: You like routine, right?
41:08
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sure you had a routine before games.
41:11
[SPEAKER_05]: there are certain things hamford that you would do.
41:13
[SPEAKER_05]: And if you would go out there without doing it, you probably didn't feel a hundred percent or at least.
41:18
[SPEAKER_05]: And if there's any doubt in your head as a professional athlete going up against other professional athletes, that makes it awful tough for you, right?
41:26
[SPEAKER_05]: Because the margin of error is just so small.
41:28
[SPEAKER_05]: So you hate doing that to the guy, but I don't know that there's another option unless you decide, hey, we're also going to do a bullpen day.
41:37
[SPEAKER_05]: So you do have that option of okay, maybe then we can get things set and we could still be straight going forward, but I don't know, I guess you just white knuckle it.
41:46
[SPEAKER_05]: That's what we ended up doing obviously that was the wrong choice.
41:49
[SPEAKER_05]: He ends up giving up some key hits and really looked out a source the entire way to be honest with you, Hanford.
41:57
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know.
41:58
[SPEAKER_05]: That's one of those, you know, every once in a while, God gets in the way if you're a plan.
42:02
[SPEAKER_05]: And this is one of those.
42:03
[SPEAKER_05]: We get that rain delay.
42:05
[SPEAKER_05]: It ends up just not working out for us.
42:07
[SPEAKER_05]: And that's too bad.
42:08
[SPEAKER_05]: Because we had those two games to start off this series that was so promising we had so much more momentum after that after those couple of walkoffs.
42:17
[SPEAKER_05]: You thought Saturday, okay, that's the one just kind of put that one off to the side.
42:22
[SPEAKER_05]: I understand
42:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm going to say this and again, you guys know I'm very superstitious and you write players or creatures of habit.
42:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we have certain things that we do before ball game and we want to continue with that routine.
42:40
[SPEAKER_00]: But on the walkoff game, I mean, I turned the TV because I couldn't watch it.
42:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't watch it.
42:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't learn to the next day.
42:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I was staying away from all avenues of something that was going to tell me who won that game.
42:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I was talking I was talking to someone that I sneaked and said well I want to know about the Guardians they said what they want they want I said get that hell out of here So then I would go back and I would watch the part that I missed because I wanted to see it all over again but
43:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though we scored six runs yesterday, guys, we left so many runs out there.
43:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think, you know, you can't do that.
43:19
[SPEAKER_00]: It gets the team like the white socks because when they score, they score in bunches.
43:23
[SPEAKER_00]: They have so many players on the team that have hit 20 plus home runs.
43:31
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think we have I think the most that we've had we may have someone at 10 or something like that, but we just we just don't have that power that they have, but we and then we got a tough series coming up coming up tomorrow.
43:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this is going to be you.
43:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm in total.
43:48
[SPEAKER_05]: Are they third Chris right now?
43:50
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, you are.
43:51
[SPEAKER_05]: They are.
43:51
[SPEAKER_05]: They had a nice series.
43:52
[SPEAKER_05]: We talked about it earlier with Jensen Lewis.
43:54
[SPEAKER_05]: They had a nice series there with New York went into New York.
43:57
[SPEAKER_05]: One a couple of games there.
43:58
[SPEAKER_05]: So they're tough.
44:00
[SPEAKER_05]: We play them seven times hampered in the next three weeks.
44:03
[SPEAKER_05]: So we're going to find out a lot about us and a lot about Minnesota and those games.
44:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, we know that Hanford's a big guards guy, but we got a pivot and talk a little rounds here to hit our bases, pun intended.
44:14
[SPEAKER_02]: But how about this, Hanford?
44:16
[SPEAKER_02]: ESPN's field Yates recently called the Cleveland quarterback battle, the truest quarterback competition in the NFL.
44:22
[SPEAKER_02]: so what do you think that says you know because he's talking about whoever performs the best in training camp should earn the week one starting job and I feel like that's a major statement considering you know Browns have invested heavily in multiple quarterbacks and they're entering Todd Munkins first season as head coach so do you think this says more about the shons inability to lock down the starting job or more about should door Sanders making this a difficult choice for Munkin.
44:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it should do our sanders making it a very difficult choice for foretodd because when you look at it obviously Watson it's been here for a while and then a map because I'm talking about our quarterback Watson, but you didn't give me a chance to talk about Watson with the guardian But I'll leave it but I'll leave it.
45:02
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'll leave it so far off.
45:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it so far off.
45:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it.
45:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it.
45:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it.
45:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it.
45:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it.
45:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it.
45:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it.
45:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it.
45:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it.
45:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it.
45:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it.
45:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it.
45:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it.
45:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it.
45:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll leave it.
45:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll leave it.
45:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll leave it.
45:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll leave it.
45:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll leave it.
45:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll leave it.
45:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll leave it.
45:12
[UNKNOWN]: I'll leave it.
45:12
[UNKNOWN]: I'll leave it.
45:12
[UNKNOWN]: I'll leave it.
45:13
[UNKNOWN]: I'll leave it.
45:13
[SPEAKER_00]: But, uh, you know, I think it's more about that because, uh, anybody would come and, well, I'm not gonna say anybody would come and sense, but if you're looking from the outside in, you could see that Chador is a guy, he's a young guy, he's a guy that we haven't really given the,
45:30
[SPEAKER_00]: opportunity to show what he can do with this football team, especially with the new weapons that we have coming into this ball club.
45:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not saying anything bad about the Sean, but you know, the Sean's been here.
45:42
[SPEAKER_00]: We paid him a lot of money.
45:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, and what have we gotten?
45:47
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I don't think, as far as a return, I don't think we've gotten anything.
45:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not to say that he's not going to do it this coming season, but I just don't see him starting at quarterback, because what happens, I mean, if he goes out and say, he plays a little bit, have a decent shot, I mean, the shot is getting older.
46:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know we're not going to give him a one of those long term contracts.
46:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I know if I was the owner.
46:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to pay him that kind of money again.
46:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'll just watch my hands up and say, you know, good luck wherever you go and whoever you decide to play with.
46:21
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think it's our time right now.
46:24
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a gift, should do our every opportunity to start with this ball club.
46:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go out, let's see what he can do because when you look at it, we've compiled, we have so many draft choices that we have at our disposal that we could do things with coming up with this, I'm coming draft.
46:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are some players coming up in this draft that we can go after that we quarterbacks, I mean that we can go after and I think of franchise quarterbacks.
46:49
[SPEAKER_00]: But first of all,
46:51
[SPEAKER_00]: What a luxury if should doer is that guy if should doer comes out and he plays the way we know Should doer can play and if he we don't have to go off to quarterback we can use all those draft choices in other areas or even pull off some trays or something like that to make this team better So uh, you know, I don't listen to all that crazy stuff they be printing and what they're saying But I would love to see should doer get an opportunity
47:18
[SPEAKER_00]: to play, get an opportunity to start, get an opportunity to show what he can do.
47:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And I honestly believe if this kid is given the opportunity to show what he can do, I think he will, he's going to surprise us and he's going to probably end up being the starting quarterback of this football team.
47:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, what do you think should matter most?
47:38
[SPEAKER_02]: The training camp performance, preseason games, or the previous NFL experience?
47:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, you know, you want to say the previous NFL experience.
47:50
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we go by the previous NFL experience when it comes to Watson, we got to go back to Houston.
47:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, because that's really the only time he's shown us that he could play.
47:59
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we made the trade to bring in here because of what he did in Houston.
48:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if you look at the NFL experience that if you had here,
48:06
[SPEAKER_00]: let's just fake.
48:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, let's just be honest.
48:08
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been heard and he hasn't played well, but I think it's a combination of all of those that you mentioned.
48:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I think all that should matter, that's why I want to see this kid should do it.
48:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm to fire with some bona fide weapons and some of the guys that we bought in.
48:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think if we see that, I think he's going to
48:33
[SPEAKER_05]: Is there any advantage do you think of having a first year coach like this with Todd Mark and coming in with his regime or he isn't tied to any of these guys, you know, he didn't recruit, he didn't advocate for, he didn't draft, he didn't bring in any of the guys that are in the quarterback room outside of, I guess Taylor and Green now who was brought in in this last draft, but.
48:55
[SPEAKER_05]: really he's not married to any of these guys so you should in theory get a real fresh look at it unbiased and that's probably a good thing for the Cleveland Browns, right?
49:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah and and I think one thing where we can get taught a lot of credit we all know the taught he's not supposed to be an offensive guru.
49:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he is one.
49:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this guy I mean obviously look what he's been doing with
49:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think he's going to do a pretty darn good job here.
49:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's one of the reasons I think one of you guys may be mentioned this last week on the show, the reason why we hired him is because as head coach is because of his offensive background and what he can do with all fences.
49:42
[SPEAKER_00]: So, and that's where our team really needs the help.
49:45
[SPEAKER_00]: We need the help on office.
49:46
[SPEAKER_00]: We didn't need the help on defense.
49:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, our defense has always been solid.
49:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Our defense has been playing extremely extremely well.
49:53
[SPEAKER_00]: We just got to get our offense.
49:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think what's going to happen now, especially this year with Miles Garrett gone on that defense, our offense is going to have to pull the defense out of some situations, just like the defense was doing with the offense last year, so
50:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Todd is excellent offensive coordinator, head slash head coach, and I can't wait to see what he does with this offense.
50:21
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, if one quarterback clearly out plays the other or the others in August, should the Browns announced the starter immediately or kind of let that play out through the final preseason game?
50:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I think a good question.
50:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you should announce it right away, because I think it's very important for the team, those guys and everybody to know who the head guy is.
50:48
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... head quarterback is uh... on this team i don't think you should uh... i don't think you should delay that soon as you you understand as soon as you know who the guy's gonna be just go ahead and name him the uh... name him the starter because uh... i think that's very very uh... important because uh...
51:06
[SPEAKER_00]: The quarterback as we all know, that's the top top position with on a football team.
51:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, not just on offense, but overall, it's the top top position.
51:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And, and should do it, I think he's starting to prove that he can handle the job.
51:21
[SPEAKER_00]: You look at it.
51:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he's been doing all the right things.
51:24
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been showing up.
51:25
[SPEAKER_00]: He's showing up early.
51:26
[SPEAKER_00]: He's he's doing it on the field and he's also doing it off the field.
51:31
[SPEAKER_00]: in the community.
51:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don't even want to know how many jerseys we've sold.
51:37
[SPEAKER_00]: What numbers?
51:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Is he going to wear number two or I think it's number two or 20 or something like that?
51:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, whatever number he decides, he decides to wear.
51:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we're selling so many of those jerseys.
51:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So, but to answer your question, I think we should announce this thing right, right off the bat.
51:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can't wait guys.
51:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Traini Camp starts coming up here pretty
52:00
[SPEAKER_00]: pretty soon.
52:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And let it give us something to talk about because he's damn browns, you know, we all know now.
52:05
[SPEAKER_00]: We can say we want to say about the guardians.
52:07
[SPEAKER_00]: We can say we want to say about the calves.
52:10
[SPEAKER_00]: But we all know this is a Browns town, baby, Browns town.
52:15
[SPEAKER_05]: That's your switch and from number 12 to number 2 there, Hanford.
52:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, yeah.
52:20
[SPEAKER_05]: Now talk about a lot of the talking heads and, you know, media types like to talk about quarterback competition as it's a big distraction for the locker room and they really make a lot out of that.
52:33
[SPEAKER_05]: You've obviously been in those locker rooms.
52:35
[SPEAKER_05]: You've been around this stuff before.
52:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Is it really a distraction for the other players on the team if you know that
52:42
[SPEAKER_05]: Hey, we don't know who the starting quarterback is going to be week one, but at the same time, they're still doing their work, or, you know, is this something that really can linger, really can create some problems for the locker.
52:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I don't think being in, like you said, being in the locker room, I don't think it's a distraction as far as because, you know, everybody's trying to, that's what training camp is all about.
53:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Training camp, as you guys know, is to get you ready for the start of the season.
53:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And everybody's concentrating on their position, what they have to do in order to get themselves ready for the football season.
53:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I think when it will become a distraction,
53:23
[SPEAKER_00]: for instance because in that locker room players know who should start and who should not start.
53:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Players know who should play and who should not play.
53:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I think if the players know that pretty much should doer should start a quarterback and we decided to start Watson, that's going to be a problem.
53:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's when it'll be a problem in the locker room.
53:47
[SPEAKER_00]: But like I said, as long as you start, who you supposed to start in the guy, and that's the guy who ever wins the job.
53:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying just give the job to Shoulder.
53:57
[SPEAKER_00]: You gotta win the job.
53:59
[SPEAKER_00]: You gotta deserve the job.
54:00
[SPEAKER_00]: You gotta be the guy.
54:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you are the guy and if players see that we're starting somebody else over him, I mean, that's a problem.
54:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Just like last year.
54:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I thought it was a problem because you see what we did because we drafted.
54:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Dylan in the third round we pretty much gave him the backup job.
54:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, gave it to him.
54:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, and we saw even if he wasn't performing, we still kept him out there and he still got all the reps.
54:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's a problem.
54:29
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't do that.
54:31
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't do that.
54:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And you just got to start the guy who's supposed to whoever wins that job.
54:36
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, that's got to be demotivating to see Dylan Gabriel.
54:39
[SPEAKER_05]: You go, okay, we've seen this guy in practice.
54:41
[SPEAKER_05]: He can't throw the ball
54:44
[SPEAKER_05]: you get into a game you're like, okay, we know we're severely limited before we even kicked the ball because of who we got back there right now.
54:50
[SPEAKER_05]: That's got to be tough as a player because you know, you've seen it.
54:54
[SPEAKER_05]: You've seen the top end for whoever the quarterback happens to be, you know what it's going to look like when you get out there.
55:00
[SPEAKER_05]: So it's just a matter of it happening on Sundays because you've seen it Monday through Friday already.
55:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, Chris, here's something that's really crazy with, uh, I thought that, you know,
55:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, I hate to get my comments on Dillon because I wish nothing but the best.
55:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to see him do well.
55:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to see him make it in the national football league.
55:26
[SPEAKER_00]: But I mean, obviously, at quarterback, you know, as height, that's against him.
55:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so I thought coming in this whole thing, I said, well,
55:35
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, maybe the kick and throw and maybe he can scramble and after me watching him, it didn't take me long to figure out that, you know, he's not very fast.
55:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, because, you know, when you see a guy as his size, normally he can, he can scatter.
55:53
[SPEAKER_00]: He can get away.
55:54
[SPEAKER_00]: He can get away from the lineman and do those, and he's, he's not very good at that.
55:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And his arm is,
56:00
[SPEAKER_00]: is not great and I'm not you know I'm talking about like I said I'm not to say that that's not gonna change for him and I hope it does change for him because again I want to see him make it in the national football league but we it's gonna be really really tough for him with this football team now because obviously we got should doer
56:20
[SPEAKER_00]: We got Deshawn and like you mentioned Taylor Green.
56:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this kid is a monster.
56:25
[SPEAKER_00]: We've talked about his size 66.
56:27
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about his weight 235 and we talked about his speed which he runs like a 4 3 40.
56:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if we take this guy, see, that's why I hope should do her
56:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Show us and surprise is everybody because I think this kid Taylor Greene if we bring him up the right way I'm telling you guys this kid is gonna be unbelievable because he's got all the tools Hey, it's for before we get you out of here.
56:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
56:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Is LeBron coming home?
57:00
[SPEAKER_00]: You know you know what?
57:03
[SPEAKER_00]: LeBron didn't go up there in July and Firestone, cut your club for nothing.
57:06
[SPEAKER_00]: LeBron, got the golf bug.
57:08
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, let me just say this.
57:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope he comes home because nothing would please me more than to see this kid finishes career right here in Cleveland.
57:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know anyone.
57:22
[SPEAKER_00]: that I've ever talked to about LeBron James.
57:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't love LeBron James.
57:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he's just a great athlete, great player, great score.
57:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think he can help this basketball team.
57:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would just love to see him come home and be back.
57:41
[SPEAKER_00]: in that Cleveland Cavaliers uniform.
57:45
[SPEAKER_00]: LeBron, if you listen to us, come on, babe, come on, big doll.
57:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, come on, back to Cleveland.
57:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, we need you.
57:51
[SPEAKER_00]: We need you, we need you, we need you, and we love you.
57:55
[UNKNOWN]: Woo, woo, woo.
57:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Perfect.
57:57
[SPEAKER_05]: If you're out there at Firestone, you're playing behind LeBron and a Forseum, and he continually leaves his cart in front of the green and his plain slow.
58:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you hitting into him or are you gonna say anything?
58:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying a damn thing to LeBron.
58:10
[SPEAKER_00]: He can leave that cart wherever you want it.
58:11
[SPEAKER_00]: That it getting back into Cleveland.
58:13
[SPEAKER_00]: He can leave that cart where he wants to.
58:16
[SPEAKER_00]: As long as it's not on the grid, I'm okay with it.
58:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello, it all right.
58:21
[SPEAKER_02]: We're taking a quick break.
58:22
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll be back with more big play Cleveland right after this.
58:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to the big play Cleveland show.
58:27
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to talk a little baseball.
58:28
[SPEAKER_02]: We've got friend of show Vince Grary in studio.
58:31
[SPEAKER_02]: He's going to be talking to us about a really cool event coming up for all you baseball lovers out there.
58:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Cleveland's going to become the the universe for baseball with this big event.
58:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Tell us about events.
58:42
[SPEAKER_03]: I am.
58:43
[SPEAKER_03]: It is.
58:44
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm going to talk about the Society for American Baseball Research, specifically the National Conference is coming to town at the end of July.
58:53
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to be over at the Hilton on Lakeside, and it is the first time that the conference has been in Cleveland since 2008.
59:01
[SPEAKER_03]: So we're going to get a wide variety of people who know a wide variety of things about baseball here in town and the conference.
59:08
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, we'll get some special guests.
59:10
[SPEAKER_03]: We got a panel of some players from the Indians from the 1990s.
59:16
[SPEAKER_03]: We got some some people there from some other people there from the team.
59:19
[SPEAKER_03]: But one of the largest parts is they present.
59:22
[SPEAKER_03]: People present research that they have done in presentation form and poster form.
59:30
[SPEAKER_03]: topics.
59:31
[SPEAKER_03]: I myself presented about 10 cent beer night a couple of years ago for the 50th anniversary.
59:37
[SPEAKER_03]: I remember we had a guy there talk about.
59:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Andy Warhol, art of baseball players once, we had people talk about, you know, various.
59:48
[SPEAKER_03]: Some more like traditional baseball stuff, but really it's no shortage of topics and one of the things that's become a real favorite too is we do a card break every year, a bunch of saver members, our baseball card collectors.
1:00:02
[SPEAKER_03]: So we all get together and sift through baseball card packs from the 80s.
1:00:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, McNeil, I'm only used to do the card packs.
1:00:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, yeah, the junk wax back in the day.
1:00:15
[SPEAKER_05]: Those are, that's a lot of fun.
1:00:16
[SPEAKER_05]: That's a lot of fun going through those old packs and reminiscing about those old players.
1:00:20
[SPEAKER_05]: There's always stories.
1:00:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Now imagine, like, you're the master of all of those stories, too.
1:00:25
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sure you have more than a few.
1:00:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Now imagine a hundred of those guys and everybody going, oh, cool.
1:00:30
[SPEAKER_03]: It's Kevin McRenalt.
1:00:34
[SPEAKER_05]: only in that circle, I love it.
1:00:36
[SPEAKER_05]: And for people who don't know what Saber is, they probably have at least heard about it through money ball and Saber metrics.
1:00:44
[SPEAKER_05]: Talk about Saber and how has it come to more of the forefront in the last 20 years or since the movie at all because of money ball and kind of a newfound interest in these statistics and in the analytics behind
1:01:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I tell people that sabre metrics is in fact a part of sabre, but it is not the entirety of sabre.
1:01:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Like I don't even balance my own checkbook and I am a member.
1:01:11
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm one of the history members because reading old newspapers is my idea of a good time.
1:01:16
[SPEAKER_03]: But yes, the organization was founded in the early 1970s by a bunch of baseball fans who did like to do research on a variety of topics related to baseball and baseball research
1:01:29
[SPEAKER_03]: then was far more difficult.
1:01:31
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you didn't have any kind of computer databases.
1:01:35
[SPEAKER_03]: You didn't have any kind of, you know, any kind of digitized access.
1:01:40
[SPEAKER_03]: So basically, you had to scroll through microfilms of old newspapers.
1:01:44
[SPEAKER_03]: But that, you know, it kind of in in one respect it did become a numbers game a very early member of Saber was Bill James, he of the historical abstracts.
1:01:54
[SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, he would get into crunching numbers in, you know, kind of in that quest to find out who really is the best baseball player who really was the most undervalued baseball player.
1:02:08
[SPEAKER_03]: And that, like you said, kind of led into this idea of,
1:02:13
[SPEAKER_03]: what teams are paying for and what they are getting for their money and how they can get more value and money ball is is probably the shorthand that everybody recognizes because one of the things that they said you know you remember the famous scene where they said we're going to lose this player but we can you know recreate him in the aggregate.
1:02:31
[SPEAKER_03]: It's, you know, you look for certain levels of production and certain inefficiencies that can be exploited.
1:02:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Another thing that Sabre talked about was, or Moneyball talked about was Kevin Eucleus.
1:02:41
[SPEAKER_03]: He was the Greek god of walks, and, you know, those are kind of the things that we look for.
1:02:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Unfortunately, you know, sometimes it's very hard to watch baseball today.
1:02:51
[SPEAKER_03]: because it feels like you are slave to what is called the three true outcomes.
1:02:55
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's the only three outcomes that involve just the picture and the hitter, which is a walk to strike out in the home run.
1:03:03
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, for people who are more casual fans because a lot of this is statistics and history, what can the most casual fan be looking forward to about this convention?
1:03:15
[SPEAKER_03]: uh... being able to talk with other baseball fans uh... and that's you know because uh... every every baseball fan really every sports fan has some strange thing that is only of interest to them or it feels like it's only of interest to them and if you have one of those in baseball
1:03:31
[SPEAKER_03]: And you are a member of Sabre, you will quickly realize it is not only of interest to them.
1:03:38
[SPEAKER_03]: There are a variety, one of the other things that they do at the conference is they have committee meetings.
1:03:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And there are a variety of committees, there are a variety of chapters.
1:03:47
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm the president of the Cleveland chapter here.
1:03:50
[SPEAKER_03]: But there are committees related to topics, two minor leagues, two baseball cards, the black socks of 1919 have enough interest that they have their own committee.
1:04:01
[SPEAKER_03]: And there is a lot of research into a lot of varieties of topics, Negro leagues, winter baseball and the Caribbean, women in baseball, so it kind of reaches across all strata.
1:04:17
[SPEAKER_03]: What's the coolest women in baseball fact you can rattle off for us since I know you're an encyclopedia of every uh... babe didrickson actually played two games in spring training with the cleavond Indians in the early 30s she played a couple of games with the Indians it's played a couple of games with uh... i think the athletics as well so you know she actually did get in and uh... face some major league pitching and and she was a pitcher herself so she threw to some major leaders as well
1:04:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow, so a woman played for our Cleveland baseball training in spring training.
1:04:49
[SPEAKER_03]: I feel like I got it.
1:04:50
[SPEAKER_03]: I got to make that play.
1:04:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's not pretty cool.
1:04:54
[SPEAKER_02]: How about the guest speakers people can look forward to we got some big names coming.
1:04:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, yes we do.
1:04:58
[SPEAKER_03]: We have a panel from the team, you know, and that one of the things that we always try to get into, and I can't think the team enough they're very good at providing speakers for our chapter meetings and for, you know, and they will obviously be providing speakers for the,
1:05:19
[SPEAKER_03]: for the event as well and they will talk a little bit about, you know, the front office and their philosophy and all of the things that the guardians are doing because it is kind of amazing when I go to these they talk about, you know, there are people that are jealous that we have a decent relationship with the team.
1:05:37
[SPEAKER_03]: I would say we have better than decent relationship, but you know that they get, you know, there are a lot of people who understand
1:05:43
[SPEAKER_03]: that what the guardians do and and if we're being honest do it fairly well I mean you know they they are built to be a reasonably good team every year and sometimes that pans that doesn't pan out but more often than not it does.
1:05:58
[SPEAKER_03]: we're going to have an interview with Saber's oral history project with Tom Hamilton who obviously was honored by the Hall of Fame last year.
1:06:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Like I said, there's going to be a 90s panel with some of the players from, with Mark Hargroves going to be there and some of the players as well, by Hargroves going to be there, Kenny Lofton's going to be there.
1:06:18
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, it's
1:06:20
[SPEAKER_03]: a lot of fun.
1:06:21
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to take a bus trip.
1:06:23
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to go to league park and see some other baseball themed sites throughout the city.
1:06:29
[SPEAKER_03]: And the highlight for a lot of people is we're going to go to a baseball game Friday night against a Diamondbacks.
1:06:37
[SPEAKER_03]: So we definitely do have a lot of plans.
1:06:39
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a lot of research oriented stuff, but it's a lot of fun as well.
1:06:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and there's, you kind of mentioned, but there's events outside of this too, including going to the Guardians game and different things that attendees can look forward to just outside of the conference.
1:06:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, and people can, I mean, and there are a lot of people who are interested in, you know, maybe venturing off on their own.
1:07:04
[SPEAKER_03]: I've already gotten questions about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is obviously near by, I've gotten
1:07:09
[SPEAKER_03]: A couple of questions about the new Superman Plaza that's right behind the conference center as well.
1:07:16
[SPEAKER_03]: There's going to be a baseball themed art exhibit at the arcade.
1:07:21
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's going to open right before the conference starts in fact.
1:07:25
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's going to be no shortage of anything.
1:07:28
[SPEAKER_03]: To do and that's kind of one of the appeals of the saber conference as well is it's usually in the center of the city wherever it may be and they get So you can venture off and and if you want to see something you can go you can go and see it night I feel like that's one of the things that You know people are excited about as well what you can see in Cleveland while you're here
1:07:51
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it looks like a fantastic lineup.
1:07:53
[SPEAKER_05]: Like you said, the guardians are very heavy into this.
1:07:56
[SPEAKER_05]: You got Chris Santonetti, of course, current president of baseball ops for Sandy Alemard Jr. going to be there Carlos Bayerga.
1:08:03
[SPEAKER_05]: They do mention Tom Hamilton that you mentioned.
1:08:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Mike Hargrove, Kenny Lofton, Charles Nagy, Paul Hoynes, who is also going into the Hall of Fame famously, David Ward, Kyle Burris, so a lot of guys.
1:08:18
[SPEAKER_03]: from the from the Cleveland Guardians here locally support us that's I've got about David Ward he is the director of major league and we're going to have a special viewing of the movie with him.
1:08:31
[SPEAKER_05]: That's fantastic.
1:08:33
[SPEAKER_05]: I love that.
1:08:34
[SPEAKER_05]: So you're open a little bit of major league, a little bit of the comedy.
1:08:37
[SPEAKER_05]: I just love the fact that that was based on, you know, the Cleveland teams back then for people like my kids don't understand what the Cleveland Indians were like in the 80s, you know, before the 90s.
1:08:50
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, absolutely.
1:08:50
[SPEAKER_05]: A start thinking about the Cleveland Indians in the 90s, you know, these days.
1:08:55
[SPEAKER_05]: And they think of those great teams with, you know, guys like Kenny Lofton, guys like Carlos Bayerga, guys like San Diego, and Marginio, you take it back to the 80s when I started.
1:09:04
[SPEAKER_05]: I was born in 79, right?
1:09:06
[SPEAKER_05]: When I started watching the Indians, man, on Channel 43, those were bad teams back then.
1:09:11
[SPEAKER_05]: Those were real bad.
1:09:12
[SPEAKER_05]: And it was a rough watch to go through watching those teams in the old stadium and you go to those games with 2300 of those high friends.
1:09:20
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, and you know as well as I do and you try and move down Vince if you you get tickets up there in the upper deck and you try and move down those damn Usures would push you back up and make you sit in your seats for God awful baseball that we did for years So that major league film was more of a documentary.
1:09:37
[SPEAKER_05]: I felt in a comedy at times and what a fantastic way to really highlight What we've got in Cleveland what was you know prior to those great teams and have a little bit of fun with this conference
1:09:49
[SPEAKER_03]: And Ward himself is, I think he's a Cleveland area native.
1:09:53
[SPEAKER_03]: He definitely grew up as an Indian's fan.
1:09:56
[SPEAKER_03]: And this movie was kind of like his love letter to Cleveland and the Indians.
1:10:01
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, it's, you know, the scenes at the beginning where it's as great big stadium and you're there with a couple of thousand people, those were closer to reality than I think a lot of people younger than us realize.
1:10:16
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
1:10:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, absolutely.
1:10:18
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, that was so true to it.
1:10:21
[SPEAKER_05]: And I mean, just, and it was all set up for football, really.
1:10:25
[SPEAKER_05]: And, you know, obviously the stadium was built for much more than even football back when they originally put it in.
1:10:31
[SPEAKER_05]: But I mean, you still had that feel.
1:10:32
[SPEAKER_05]: When you go to a baseball game in the middle of summer, it felt like you were going to like a preseason game, because you were parking in amongst the cinders.
1:10:41
[SPEAKER_05]: You were walking up there in this large,
1:10:44
[SPEAKER_05]: stadium where it just didn't feel that intimate feel that you get if you go to progress of field, you know, with parking that's right there adjacent and things like that and all the creature features that you come to kind of associate with baseball.
1:10:57
[SPEAKER_05]: It was really absent in that stadium.
1:10:59
[SPEAKER_05]: So that was what was one of the neat parts we got the new stadium.
1:11:02
[SPEAKER_03]: And they played in the yodel dirt dream.
1:11:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
1:11:06
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, because they literally played football there.
1:11:08
[SPEAKER_05]: So you'd have half the year, you know, you'd have an outfield or you'd have the infield that's there for the Browns, you know, you'd have the infield for the Indians that was set up for Brown Stadium.
1:11:18
[SPEAKER_05]: So pretty wild.
1:11:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Then how can people attend this conference come up?
1:11:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Saber.org, backslash convention.
1:11:26
[SPEAKER_03]: And as all the pertinent details you want, the schedule, the rates to come to the conference, what else you need to know, obviously, if you're local, there are some travel tips for people who are coming from across the country.
1:11:42
[SPEAKER_03]: And I already sounds like it's going to be a pretty good crowd.
1:11:45
[SPEAKER_03]: I think they said they're up over 500 people for
1:11:48
[SPEAKER_03]: conference, which is kind of the goal, kind of what they've gotten the last few years as well.
1:11:54
[SPEAKER_03]: It sounds like it's going to be a real good crowd and like I said, it's going to be at the Hilton on Lakeside right next to the Convention Center.
1:12:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Awesome.
1:12:02
[SPEAKER_02]: How about any work of yours you'd like to plug before we get you out of here?
1:12:06
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you're always working on something.
1:12:07
[SPEAKER_03]: I am.
1:12:08
[SPEAKER_03]: I really am Saturday the 18th.
1:12:11
[SPEAKER_03]: I will be at Southern tier brewing talking about 10 cent beer night.
1:12:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Come down.
1:12:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Have a beer.
1:12:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Please don't streak.
1:12:18
[SPEAKER_03]: And we'll have a good time.
1:12:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Awesome.
1:12:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Appreciate you.
1:12:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Vince Gareri.
1:12:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks again for coming into our studio.
1:12:24
[SPEAKER_02]: We got to take a quick break.
1:12:25
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll be back with more big play Cleveland right
1:12:27
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1:13:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright Chris, you're still keeping up with soccer?
1:13:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Where are you watching the game tonight?
1:13:14
[SPEAKER_05]: absolutely big game tonight.
1:13:16
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm actually going to watch it out by the pool.
1:13:18
[SPEAKER_05]: We got a TV out there.
1:13:20
[SPEAKER_05]: So we'll watch it by the pool.
1:13:21
[SPEAKER_05]: So nothing beats that in this heat being able to take in a game while pool side end right now.
1:13:28
[SPEAKER_05]: USA, of course, is favored tonight.
1:13:30
[SPEAKER_05]: So I like our chances.
1:13:32
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm hoping that we can continue our dominance right now of the soccer landscape.
1:13:37
[SPEAKER_05]: It's so much fun to be hosting this stuff.
1:13:39
[SPEAKER_05]: and be able to be as successful as we are as we know, Canada, Bounce, Mexico, Bounce, so we're the ones that are left, holding the flag right now as a host country.
1:13:48
[SPEAKER_05]: So, good luck, good luck to the team out there tonight.
1:13:52
[SPEAKER_05]: I think, you know, I've seen a lot of buzz for this.
1:13:55
[SPEAKER_05]: A lot more buzz, I think, than I would have anticipated coming into this, you know, entire tournament, you know, how big.
1:14:02
[SPEAKER_05]: the world cup it is you know how big FIFA is but at the same time you don't know what it's going to be quite like when you get to host it as a country and it's been absolutely huge.
1:14:11
[SPEAKER_05]: They're already talking about when they're going to bring it back and the way the rotation works, it looks like they're they may gain the system to get it back in the states sooner rather than later because they're actually making so much money off of this thing.
1:14:24
[SPEAKER_05]: FIFA is just making money hand over
1:14:27
[SPEAKER_05]: because, of course, everybody's so excited about it, here's state side and then we've seen all of the stories online and people traveling in from other countries, discovering the sites and sounds that are America and falling in love with it in many cases and certainly spending a lot of money along the way.
1:14:45
[SPEAKER_05]: So FIFA likes that.
1:14:46
[SPEAKER_05]: It's been good for them.
1:14:47
[SPEAKER_05]: It's been good for the country.
1:14:48
[SPEAKER_05]: It's been good for
1:14:50
[SPEAKER_05]: full stadiums that are out there and it's been a heck of a lot of fun to watch and I'm going to continue that tonight and hopefully it doesn't end for the U.S. tonight.
1:14:57
[SPEAKER_05]: I think we can get it done against Belgium.
1:14:59
[SPEAKER_05]: It's kind of funny where playing Belgium because that's my secondary team.
1:15:03
[SPEAKER_05]: I traveled there a few years ago.
1:15:06
[SPEAKER_05]: My father fought or my grandfather fought in World War II and I was over in Belgium and unfortunately my
1:15:14
[SPEAKER_05]: my uncle, my great uncle, was killed in the war and his, his tomb is over there in Belgium.
1:15:20
[SPEAKER_05]: So we had a chance to visit Heinrich Schappelle back in the day and, and so they've always kind of been my secondary team.
1:15:27
[SPEAKER_05]: But not tonight, it's all USA.
1:15:29
[SPEAKER_05]: So USA get it done beat up on Belgium and get this thing.
1:15:33
[SPEAKER_05]: over and moved on to the next stage because I'm excited to watch what may be next up for the United States.
1:15:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there should be a good matchup.
1:15:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Belgium survived that thrilling free to win over Senegal and you know they got one of the deepest squads left in the tournament and didn't
1:15:50
[SPEAKER_02]: the USA.
1:15:51
[SPEAKER_02]: So I have I've been bits and pieces able to pay attention, but somebody from USA got red carded and does that mean he's out?
1:15:58
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, but Lugan did.
1:16:00
[SPEAKER_05]: And that red card was overturned, at least this suspension was.
1:16:04
[SPEAKER_05]: So he will be playing, you know, right more.
1:16:06
[SPEAKER_05]: I think Donald Trump is taking some credit for that.
1:16:09
[SPEAKER_05]: But
1:16:10
[SPEAKER_05]: for whatever reason it was overturned he is going to be playing so that is absolutely huge news here for USA so pretty wild pretty wild there's so many stories here gab you get kind of the secondary kind of
1:16:26
[SPEAKER_05]: you know drama around the game and that's really what makes you get the game which is just exciting to watch but then you get the drama that's around the game and of course the biggest drama right now surrounds the U.S. team and that red card as and that just seems completely on point with everything else going on in the world so perfect culmination of things and we'll see now that we get him back to see what the USA team could do tonight.
1:16:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Cool.
1:16:50
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
1:16:51
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll have to pay attention myself.
1:16:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for watching Big Play Cleveland.
1:16:54
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a wrap for today.
1:16:54
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll see you back at it tomorrow.