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Will The Union Start To Rebound? (PST Episode 567) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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What's going on. Hope you're doing well. It's Jeff here, and I
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wanted to let you know that we recorded this podcast episode on Wednesday, May
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twenty second, twenty twenty four. By the time you hear this, some
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things may have changed here or there, but we hope you enjoy the show.
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What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show,
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the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show world eleven years strong. We got
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a great show for you this week. We got a new top three list,
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the top three most stressful Philly sports playoff games. I cannot wait to
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get to that top three list. Got some listener feedback about the Phillies pitching
1:15
rotation, and we're gonna get some NBA talk as well. Given this year's
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NBA draft in the lack of talent there, what might the Sixers actually do
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this year with their first round pick? And then what we're throwing down on
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the table this week, We've got our friend of the podcast, Josh Schuster
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from Philadelphia Soccer. Now he's going to join us for a discussion about how
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this Philadelphia Union team has been looking here in twenty twenty four, as well
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as some some major leag major League soccer storylines that we've been following as well
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with this Union team. So I'm Jeff Warren. I'm here, my good
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buddy, Eric Leonard. Eric A missed you last week, buddy, Glad
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everything is okay with your family? Did you say what happened on the show
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or no? I didn't. I just said that we have an abbreviated show
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this week because Eric had an emergency with his family. That's what I said.
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All right, Glad, you listen. I'm sorry, listen exactly you
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had some things going on. Yeah, I had a little car accident,
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not me, but yeah, exactly. My daughter did. Didn't quite make
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it to seventeen before before her first accident. Yeah, but yeah, it
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was. It was as scary as all hell. Happened in front of our
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house. Had that, you know, the worst moment has apparently oh my
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god, ash okay. Then yeah, in ten seconds, you know she's
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okay. It's just then you go through the whole insurance thing, and oh
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my god. It was just so long, and I was so tired the
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night before I couldn't record, Like, hey, Jeff, can we do
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in the morning in like an hour or no? No, it was that
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night. Ye, and then the next morning I had to get with the
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shirts for three hours. And yeah, so that, Yeah, there was
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no Eric on the show last week because my life was turmoil and still it
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didn't really want to talk about the flyers of coming off seat, you know
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exactly. It was an interview show last week. So but I'm glad she's
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all right. Seriously, I'm glad one of my favorite people in our group
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of friends who it was awesome in so many ways. I'm glad she's okay.
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So she turned seventeen tomorrow, by the way, there you go.
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Well she almost made it to seventeen without a car accident almost a week away.
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All right, Well, dude, I'm not We were talking about it
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before we hit the record button. Two. News came out today that the
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NFL Draft in twenty twenty six is going to be in Pittsburgh. I am.
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We have to go out there. We have to have a time of
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it in Pittsburgh and enjoy that town. You used to live out there with
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your wife years ago, and I believe it was I mean, Sylvia was
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still I'm sorry if I said her name. Have we ever said her name
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on the show. I don't care. Okay, yeah, everybody to protect
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our kids. Sometimes on the internet. No, no, it was me
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and it was me Sarah and still and then that's where Vinnie came from.
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Was Pittsburgh. Yep. I lived there for two and a half years something
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like that. Yeah, and awesome city. And it was one of those
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cities where, like I it was fifty to fifty when I told people,
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yeah, I transferred out to Pittsburgh, and they're like half the people were
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like, oh, it sounds awful, or the other half was like I
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heard, Pittsburgh's awesome. Pittsburgh is awesome. It is the It is the
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weirdest town to walk in. Walk through downtown, yeah, because you'll walk
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past the church that was built in seventeen hundred, and then you'll walk past
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Google headquarters, like not the headquarters, like a Google building, right,
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and incredible food beer. Everyone's really nice. That's the craziest part about that.
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It's like the Midwest. That was the first thing you jumped out of
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me was how nice everybody is. Pittsburgh is an awesome city, and we're
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we're going We're going there, seriously, We're going. Look, I don't
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know about the other guys in the group. I don't know about lhen I.
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I seriously, if they don't want to go, screw them, we're
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going. We're gonna have fun. Yeah, all right, well let's get
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into the show here. I just wanted to mention that off the bat,
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we got a new top three list, the top three most stressful Philly sports
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playoff games. You came up with this idea a little while ago, and
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I'm like, you know what, this is a damn good category because we've
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had a lot. We've had a lot over the years, and I'm gonna
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tell you right now, every single two of mine, I should say two
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of mine deals specifically with championship teams and situations. So as I usually do,
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I'm gonna let you start first. Number three, Eric whis are number
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three most stressful Philly sports playoff game. Let me see the moment. No,
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and I have three good ones here. Two wins and one loss,
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okay, which for Philadelphia is you know, usually it's the losses. Guess
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what I got the same thing, Two wins, one loss. Okay.
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The first one is the loss. And this this stems from being an Eagles
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fan. Starting in nineteen eighty five, we moved to Pennsylvania from California eighty
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four eighty five. I fell in love with the Eagles. My dad took
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my first game lines Eagles in nineteen eighty five. It was a shit show
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of a game. I think it was Cunningham's one of his first starts.
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They lost thirteen NTU eleven. It was awful. It was raining the whole
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time, and I'm like, I'm in love. This is my favorite team.
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Yeah, I can't like that shouldn't have been, but yeah, that
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was it. Buddy Ryan came on board the next year, and nineteen eighty
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eight was his first winning season. They were ten and six, and I
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was not a jaded Philadelphia fan yet. I was still a huge six Ers
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fan. They were still good and good at that time. The Phillies were
6:41
pretty good and the Eagles were. It was their first winning season in quite
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some time, my first one as a fan. And they not only that,
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they just kicked people's asses on defense. The offense was fun. Cunningham
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was all over the place. And then they get to the playoffs and they
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played the Bears in Chicago and around the second quarter, fog just starts rolling
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in their old stadium. Every what's their old stadium called Soldier Field, Soldier
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Field coming off the river in the Soldier Field. By the end of the
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second quarter, as a viewer, you couldn't see the field. I coudn't
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see anything. And I remember at halftime, and you know, I was
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this was I was, Yeah, it was uh I had I was in
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sixth grade when that game was played, so there was no girls, there
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was nothing I liked. I love Eagles and that was pretty much it.
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And my whole heart and soul was into it. And I looked at my
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I remember look at my dad at halftime, going they can't keep playing.
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They can't. I can't see the field, and the game just went on
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and on and on and God bless. I'm sure it was Pat summer All
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and John Madden doing the game. They were just like, yep, I
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think somebody caught it. And I remembered, almost in tears, looking at
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my dad going they can't do this. This isn't fair. Yeah. I
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swear that was my moment of like, oh, this is what it's like.
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This is Philadelphia Phantom. I had no clue that was the day twelve
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years old kicked right in the balls, yeah, or eleven at that time,
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but yeah, right in the nuts, and that was the most stressful
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playoff, not for play by play, but like not understanding what was going
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on. What was was what was becoming of my Philadelphia sports fandom, and
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that's what it was going to be for the next hour many years. Okay,
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I get it now, because I was going to ask you, like
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how it was stressful for you, but you outlined it very well. There
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just the fandom, the stressfulness of being that fan that we have all become
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over the years. Okay, you outlined it well. Because I was thinking
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of myself, I'm like, I'm like, I can see, I guess
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kind of how it's stressful, but from the fandom perspective, completely get it,
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completely get it. Yeah. So all right, well my number three
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and look this may actually be on your list here because I got some pretty
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big ones here in terms of stresses stressful situations during the course of a playoff
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game. Go back to the two nineteen Eastern Conference semifinals. It's probably up
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there. Is it on your list? I didn't put it on there.
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You didn't know. Okay, it's too painful, it is. It's Sixers
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Raptors game seven. Folks, we all know it. But for me,
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when I'm reflecting on that game, Pascal Siakam, he averaged twenty one points
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per game in that series, and he was having a dogshit game if you
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were remembering Game six, and I remember thinking to myself, he is not
9:28
performing well at all, and there is a great opportunity for the Sixers here
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to actually get to the next round advance out of this god awful second round
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here, which we know didn't happen, and we all do remember what happened.
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Of course, Kawhi Leonard hits a shot from the corner over Joe El
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embiid the buzzer that bounced off the rim four times before falling. Given the
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Toronto Raptors that ninety two to ninety victory, and in those moments, in
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those probably ten seconds, those ten seconds right there at the end of that
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game, so stressful for you. I can't even imagine you, the Sixers
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fan that you are, you couldn't even put this on your list. So
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this is number three for me. It's because of the fact that I was
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so convinced because Pascal Siakam was just having a crappy type of he was just
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having a crappy game. You know, after averaging twenty one points per game
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in that series, and I was thinking, all right, yeah, he
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is not performing well. The Sixers is going to be able to get this
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done. It didn't happen. It was so freaking stressful those last ten seconds.
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So there's only there's only a couple of games I turned off, and
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I've never watched a single replay from the game the four Super Bowl against the
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Pats. Yeah, I've yet to watch the highlight or replay that game ever.
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And this is another one right here, Game seven, round two against
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the Raptors. I have it up right here. Tobias Harris for forty two
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minutes, fifteen points, fifteen, oh, Toby with fifteen. Yes,
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And it's such a shame too, because you just talked about it. Toronto
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was kind of shitty. They shot twenty two percent from three as a team,
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and and Ben Simmons thirteen points, five rebounds, forty two minutes.
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Man, what a what a squad. But the sad thing is that was
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that was their one chance in the whole process that actually could have won the
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title and it just kind of fell apart. But yeah, thanks for horrible
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memories. Yeah, sure, no problem. It was stressful for me though.
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It was stressful. What's your number two? Number two is a win.
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It's Game five, two thousand and eight World Series. That's mine,
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Fase, that's mine. We both have the same number two. Yeah.
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And if you think through this series, the first the first the first four
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games not totally stressful. Games three, Game three, Games one and two
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were kind of almost boring. I mean the Phillies won three to two in
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the first one and then lost four to in the second. Then you had
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that weird Game three with that Jamie Moore had basically they said on the area
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diarrhealed really yes, yeah, And it was a huge rain delay. I
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think the only first pitch was like yep, it was really late. And
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then they wound up winning. I think Jews had the game winning run.
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That wasn't even stressful though, because then they came back in Game four and
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Joe Blanton destroyed him and they won ten to two, hitting the ball out
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of the park all the time. And then Game five, what was the
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fifth inning, sixth they stopped the game, Yes, I think it was
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sixth inning, and and we had we had Kid Cole in the mound,
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our best pitcher, the MVP of the team that year and it was like,
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well, so he can't pitch Game five and it was like, oh,
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like so what who do we put in there? And they put together
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a great game plan over there. But that the stress, not even of
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the end of the game, was that the day, the day in between,
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like the Phillies had won one since nineteen eighty. Yeah, I barely
13:03
remember it. I was in California. I remember my dad kind of getting
13:05
happy. I was like four the hell. But it was that day and
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a half of going someone up there is gonna screw us again, like this
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is this is somebody's gonna blue jaysus, somebody's gonna joke carter Us, like
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this is we're winning, but like this is bullshit, Like I I they
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should have finished that game, and like, yeah, they went on one.
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But man, that that time in between, that, not even the
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game, was the most stressful part. It was. It was that ninth
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inning. Brad Lidge is out there, and we know how he performed through
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a lot of that season, just a very very clutch closer, but he
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gave up. He gave up a single to Navarro and a stolen base to
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pinch Runner. I think it was Fernando Perez, but he was able to
13:46
strike out Rakinski to secure the World Series for the Phillies. Yeah, go
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ahead, And the key was the you know that season it was called the
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Bridge to Lidge, like our familiar relief rom Maro and Matt's and they were
13:58
just they were murderers of relief pictures. And Patty Daddy came through. Yes
14:03
you yeah, and I think I think, uh, what's his name came
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in there? It doesn't matter, but yeah, great end of the game.
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But that that day and a half and just listening to six ten w
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I P at the time and reading the Philly Daily News and just being like,
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how's this, how's this going to work? This sucks? Yes,
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you just please win, please please. It's that last that last strike at
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that last strikeout. The stress level I was just I remember I was just
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on the edge of the couch and I was sitting on at the time,
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just like I cannot believe this is happening. Are we actually gonna see it?
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But it goes back to your your number three as fans, the fandom
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just getting completely screwed or like what is gonna happen here? Because again lydch
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gave up some he gave up some stuff there and that in that ninth inning,
14:50
and uh, it was so stressful. It turned out great, though,
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of course. I actually, uh, you know, back in the
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day in Philly, you know, and so South Philly. I'm sure North
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Philly too, But they would beat pots or pants together in the streets.
15:05
And I actually put my window open in Harrisburg and did it. And I
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was like, I want to do this because I've always heard that story.
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And uh, I remember my dad's phone call. It was just him going,
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I can't believe this. I can't believe he was He wasn't even happy.
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It was just like I just I just can't believe this happen. I
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can't believe it happened. It was great. It's like he was still stressed.
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He was shocked. Yes, all right, well let's get to our
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number one here. I'll let you go. Number one. I wonder if
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it's the same one I have, but I don't think so, because mine,
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anyway, go ahead, go ahead, number one. I mean mine
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is a Flyers moment. Oh mine is not. Okay, believe it or
15:46
not. I have followed the Flyers throughout the years at different times, right,
15:50
when I lived down there. I think it was four season when they
15:54
made that nice playoff run. They're really good, and the whole city was
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just into him. Similarly twenty ten when they made their run and lost to
16:03
the Blackhawks unfortunately in the finals, but the series before that against Boston.
16:10
You know, if you look at the phillip look at the landscape of Philly
16:12
sports at that time, the Sixers were in no man's land. I mean
16:15
they were horrible. That was Eddie Jordan's last year as a coach. He
16:19
was horrendous. The Eagles were coming off a winning season, but it was
16:25
mcnabbs last year, and it was like, I think this is over.
16:26
Yeah, like I think that iteration of the Eagles is done. And nobody
16:30
knew what Mike Vick was going to do, so you were going into the
16:32
next season. The offseason rumors were like Kevin Cobb and maybe some free agents,
16:36
and it was like, yeah, that's ugly. So honestly, the
16:38
weird thing is that Philly was a Phillies in Flyers Town in the spring of
16:44
twenty ten, so and Phillies were really good. Halliday had that note that
16:48
perfect game the same month as May, but then the Flyers just kind of
16:51
took over the city. And they were down three to nothing in Game seven,
16:55
after coming back down three to zero, and then they scored that first
16:59
goal, they scored the set call, and you're just like, what is
17:00
this actually gonna fuck You're like, this is gonna fucking happen here, Yes,
17:04
but the stress though of like they can do this with the are they
17:08
going to bring us back that far? And then fucking choke it away like
17:15
it was. It was that it was that up and down, like,
17:17
oh my god, I can't believe this team might actually come back. And
17:19
then they're out there down three nothing and no time against Boston. That's Game
17:22
seven, and it's just like, oh my god. And then they did
17:26
it, and it was like such jubilation, such glee, but at the
17:30
same time, the stress leading up to that, being down three in that
17:33
game after coming back like man, brutal, A lot a lot of beer.
17:37
Yes, right that spring, I'll say, yes, I mean,
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boy, those are the those are the years too, Mike Richard, Jeff
17:44
Carter, Chris Pronger, those that was. That was quite a time in
17:49
Flyer's history. And I think at that at that time and that stressful win.
17:55
We didn't appreciate a Flyers fan, those of us have been like been
17:57
watching this team now for a very very long time, we didn't appreciate what
18:00
that series win actually meant. Of course, it was stressful, like we're
18:06
just talking about, like you just outlined, so stressful. But when we
18:10
look at it, I mean it's fourteen years ago at this point, it's
18:12
like, man, there were some great things happening there. And I will
18:17
say that, folks, there was some great things happening there with that team.
18:19
They weren't able to come away with the Stanley Cup. But again with
18:23
Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Chris Pronger, Danny Briere, for God's sake,
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you know he was on the team. Now he's general manager. Yeah,
18:33
that's how long ago it was, Yes, dude, Yeah, yeah,
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I love it. I love your number one. There, I'm going
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my number one. It's got to be Super Bowl fifty two, super Bowl
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fifty two, last drive of the game. You and I are up with
18:49
up at Penn State with our buddies, and I just look over at my
18:52
buddy Dave, who's been a Jets fan his entire life, so he's had
18:56
to deal with Tom Brady forever at that point, and he just says,
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Jeff, you know how this is gonna happen. He's like, I don't
19:02
want to. He's like, I'm sorry, I don't want to like kill
19:06
this moment. He said, but we've seen this. How many times have
19:07
we seen this? Tom Brady just runs down the field, gets the offense
19:11
in a good position, and he just wins the game. And then all
19:15
of a sudden, Brandon Graham with that a beautiful strip sack, Darren Barnett
19:22
recovering, and just the most st I have never seen Len during a sporting
19:27
event with his head in his hands, just just peeking out of his fingers
19:33
to see what might actually happen. The stress was so high because we had
19:40
we had two thousand and four, we had two thousand and four that were
19:42
I'm sorry that super Bowl, and god, it was it was terrible.
19:47
It was terrible, and it's like we can't have I'm like, I can't
19:49
have that. My heart can't take it. My weak heart can't at that
19:53
point, can't take it. I got a new heart now, folks.
19:56
So it was just it was the most stressful moment for me ever in my
20:03
sports history and my love of sports and following the Eagles, Phillies, Flyers,
20:07
Sixers, and man, that was number one for me. Man.
20:12
And and if you compare it to the rest of the season, including the
20:15
two playoff games, well maybe not the Falcons game because that was actually pretty
20:18
close, but that was stressful. They didn't have a lot of stress that
20:22
season, no, you know, even losing Wentz. You know they had
20:26
Jason Peters. Yeah, and they won that game. They had a lot
20:29
of they kicked they kicked the Vikings ass in the championship game and and like
20:36
not a lot of stress, but like the worst stress actually was after this,
20:41
after the grim strip and they get the ball back and there was like
20:45
forty whatever many seconds were left. Yeah, and that was the worst part
20:48
because you're like, this is the one dude in football that can make a
20:52
miracle play. Yeah, and we're we're going up against him. And I
20:56
had lent on my right where at a bar, I had you and my
20:59
left. Yes, you're you're you're this manic? Yes, where Eric by
21:04
the way, Yeah, Jeff, Jeff's being Jeff and just shaking and freaking
21:10
out. Len has his his hand, his head in his hands, face
21:14
down on the bar, like like like the stock market just crashed and he's
21:17
a he's a broker on the New York City bar, and I honestly I
21:22
had my arm around him the whole time, going, it's okay, We're
21:23
going to do my arm around you times, going we can do this.
21:29
Like it was two ends of the emotional spectrum, and you know, being
21:33
an EmPATH, I'm like, I can handle both of these situations. But
21:37
when it was over, I mean, I think we still have a videotape
21:38
of it, or videotape hold of mine, but a recording from someone's phone
21:41
when it actually happened and one of us is shocked, one of us is
21:48
screaming. Len just still has his head down. He just he can't believe
21:52
what happened. Yes, but you want to talk about stress, if we
21:56
ever ever post that video somewhere like that is the there's the there the reaction
22:00
to distress coming off exactly. Yeah, yeah, one, two, three
22:04
of us right there. Oh my gosh, that was the most stressful for
22:08
sure. For sure. I'd love to know what your most stressful Philly sports
22:12
moments were. Shoot us off an email Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com
22:17
we'd love to read it here on the show and respond to it. So,
22:21
speaking of listener feedback, let's get into some listener feedback that we got
22:23
from our good friend April down in South Carolina. She she sent this close
22:30
to two weeks ago. Get into it now because it deals with some pitching
22:37
and a pitching question that she had for us with regard to the Philadelphia Phillies.
22:41
This was back when the Phillies were playing the Marlins. She said,
22:45
why in the sweet name of Baby Jesus would they put up Swore as player
22:49
of the week and month against the team like the Marlins. I mean,
22:53
I get they want wins, but couldn't they win against a team that is
22:57
worse than the Socks with a pick with a slightly lower profile and save Ranger
23:03
Swarez for the divisional Mets or Nats. This may be showing my baseball strategy
23:08
ignorance, so temper the responses. Having the MLB Network and watching four or
23:14
five games a week has made me an armchair manager. Well, I think
23:17
it's a good question, April, quite frankly, and thanks for sending it.
23:22
I don't think you have any ignorance at all with regard to this question,
23:26
I think a lot of folks, especially on Twitter, were kind of
23:27
echoing this as well. But when I'm reflecting back a couple of weeks ago,
23:33
eric to that series and just what baseball is in general, I think
23:37
consistency is really key for pitchers. And I mean I did even know you
23:41
coaching Little League and just following baseball as long as I have. Even if
23:45
you have a great pitcher, as we have been seeing with Ranger Swarez going
23:49
up against lesser talent and talent you probably know he's gonna win anyway, it's
23:55
still good for him to have that consistency and keep that consistency going throughout the
24:00
season. So my answer to April's email is just that word consistency. Consistency,
24:04
consistency, That's what That's probably why Rob Thompson had him going, you
24:10
know, because you need to you need to keep that arm going. You
24:12
know, you can't you can't really take some time off or you could have
24:15
some serious repercussions in terms of momentum as well. So I think it was
24:22
just from a consistency standpoint, and yeah, you want to beat these teams
24:25
too, because you should beat them if you want to be a ninety win
24:27
team. As we've been saying on this podcast, you gotta be bad teams.
24:30
You gotta beat good teams too. Philly has been beating a lot of
24:33
bad teams of course as of late, over the past month. But I
24:37
don't know my answer to my answer to April's consistency. What are your thoughts
24:41
here, buddy? Well, I can relate to the armchair coaching thing,
24:47
like you know, you coach litle league baseball and you watch the major league
24:49
game, you're like, well, I you know, it's kind of the
24:52
same thing, you know, not even close he spaghetti arm Yeah, as
25:00
far as I've never seen a player in the dugout through dirt in his own
25:04
face or his teammates face and you have to pull them apart, like you
25:08
don't do that to good old Tucker anyway. Now, I like the concept,
25:15
I really do, because on paper, theoretically, you want a Suarez
25:21
to go up against the better teams. You know, could you pull up
25:25
somebody from the minor leagues to start against the team if if you wanted to
25:29
push the rotation back, you know, one player, or try and set
25:33
it up so like you know, Turnbull or Sanchez or even Walker is going
25:37
against like the lesser teams. My one argument to that would be, you
25:42
know, the Phillies have been in the playoffs the last three years, right,
25:47
yea, and but just barely have gotten in. So I know I've
25:52
sat on here a bunch of times, like the Miami Heat of Major League
25:55
Baseball, just they just need to get in and go from there. Well,
25:59
you still have to get enough wins to just get in. So if
26:02
if you have an infeeror opponent, like just step on their neck, get
26:07
the win, worry about you know, maybe your bats get hot against that
26:11
better team. It's a lot harder to bring up a minor league pitcher because
26:17
you start screwing with arbitration rights and that kind of thing to pitch against the
26:21
lesser team. Plus you're screwing, plus you're kind of chirking that kid around.
26:25
Right, Yeah, you're going to pitch against the Marls and you're going
26:26
right back to Redding pal like that kind of Leigh Valley, Right. But
26:32
I also agree with your consistency, like pictures are really creatures of habit and
26:40
like the way, you know, if her example of Swarz is a great
26:44
one, because if if Suarez was having a lesser season, I could see
26:47
it. But because he's so dominant right now, he's having a cy Young
26:52
like I mean, he's probably the favorite in the cy Young in the National
26:53
League. He's not in Oh his whip is you know, he has won
26:57
three six e R's just he's mowing teams down in that. But if you
27:03
watch him pitch, he's like a robot, you know. And that calm,
27:07
consistency, confident thing that he has comes with just I'm going to pitch
27:12
every five days. I know my bats are behind me. I'm in a
27:15
rhythm right now. That's a big thing for pitchers too, like they get
27:18
in a good rhythm. He's in the best rhythm his career. So to
27:22
get to be like, hey, you're not going to start Sunday, You're
27:25
going to start Tuesday because we're playing so and so. You don't want to
27:29
start messing with that. But I honestly understand it's almost like you know,
27:33
pulling a player off the G League or a ten ten day contract. You
27:37
know, in the NBA, knowing you might have a player down and you're
27:42
playing some lesser teams, maybe you do that. But for baseball it's kind
27:45
of a different animal than the sports. It's amazing the season he's having just
27:51
the Phillies in general. The Phillies in general are having a fantastic season.
27:56
And look, I know this team is filled chock full of talent. There's
28:02
so much talent on this team. But I'm gonna say this too. I
28:04
mentioned it on our Twitter account last night. Somebody came at me for it.
28:08
I just didn't respond to the person. But two months ago, people
28:12
wanted Rob Thompson fired. And look, I know there's a lot of talent
28:17
on this team. And that's what the person was saying to like, well,
28:19
tell, like, what do you mean? I seriously don't understand what's
28:23
Rob Thompson doing. All this talent on the team. They should be doing
28:26
this, Like really, they weren't doing this last year at this time,
28:30
we got pretty much the same freaking team. They weren't doing it this year
28:34
or last year like this. You know, there's something to Rob Thompson and
28:37
his leadership. It's not always just about the calls that he's making out to
28:41
the bullpen or whatever. And this wasn't actually meant to be about Rob Thompson.
28:47
But my point is that it's a damn good season. It's fun.
28:52
I cannot believe how fun this Phillies team is. Going back to your number
28:57
one or i'm sorry, your number three on your list. From the fandom
29:02
perspective, I'm waiting for the rug to get pulled out from under somehow,
29:03
like Rangers Sworez breaks his hip, Bryce Harper gets a gets a meat ball
29:08
thrown right to his nose or something, and he's out for a while.
29:12
I don't know. I'm waiting for the rug to get pulled out from under
29:15
us. But it's fun. It's a great season so far. Well we
29:18
already kind of did. Trey Turner was on a heater ya, he's gone
29:22
for like six weeks. Yes, that's a bad one. Like there's a
29:26
lot of wit Maryfield going on the field right now. I don't like it,
29:30
but I know, but he's performing well and that speaks to that.
29:33
That speaks to the coach. And show me the record of the of the
29:37
coach since they got rid of that that moron they had before Thompson came on
29:41
board. What was his name again? It was terrible when you get fired
29:48
and the team turns it around that quickly. Yeah, wow, it was
29:52
on you the whole time, dude, like you were a bad manager.
29:56
So I don't want to hear one argument that Thompson has all the talent in
29:59
the world. It's it's not even argument. Trade Turner's gone for this year.
30:03
Last year, Aaron Nola was in the toilet most of this season.
30:06
They almost made back the World Series. Yeah, like, it's a complete
30:10
bullshit take to Thompson. It should have been. Is not a good coach
30:11
because they have talent? Dumb it is. It's dumb. What a fun,
30:15
fun season it has been. We're gonna talk about the Phillies more in
30:18
the coming weeks for sure, coming weeks and months. And if you're new
30:22
to listening to the PST podcast show here subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're on.
30:27
Also, head on over to Philadelphia Sportstable dot com. We've got all
30:30
of our shows over there as well. And like I mentioned before, with
30:33
regard to listener feedback, we'd love to hear from you, Philadelphia Sports Table
30:37
at gmail dot com. We will read your email here in the show and
30:41
respond to it. Make sure you follow Eric on the Twitter slash x at
30:45
brick pol. You can follow me at Jeffrey underscore Warren in the show at
30:48
Philadelphia PST. We are on threads as well. Eric is on threads at
30:56
slen ten twenty three, the show at Philadelphia Sports Table and me at mister
31:00
Jeff Warren. You gonna take a quick break. We'll be back in just
31:03
a bit. All right, we are back, and I want to get
31:07
into some NBA talk and Sixers talk right now. I'm already looking at this
31:11
upcoming NBA draft, Eric, and I guess, in a normal year,
31:17
the Atlanta Hawks, a team that is essentially always in the NBA playoff picture,
31:22
they've actually earned the number one overall pick via the draft lottery, and
31:26
you know that would be considered a coup I think for a team like the
31:30
Hawks. But the bad news for them is that this upcoming draft class it's
31:36
not all that great. It's not all that great. I guess, Well,
31:38
there's some decent players in the draft. We just wanted to talk about,
31:42
like what our thoughts are with regard to some of this talent and what
31:47
the Sixers might actually do with their first round pick this year. I don't
31:53
know. I know you've been looking at some mock drafts. I know that
31:56
you've been checking out some of the talent that's gonna be coming into the NBA.
32:00
It's not great. It's not great at all. Eric, So,
32:05
I don't know what are you thinking here. I've I listened to a lot
32:09
of NBA podcasts, a lot of talking heads, like but people, people
32:14
that know what they're talking about. Yeah, I really like Ryan Roussillo from
32:16
The Ringer. Zach Lowe was phenomenal with ESPN. I love Eddie Griffin the
32:22
he's the former player, he now he does, he does the main serious
32:25
XM NBA show. Everybody they and they they're they're tied in, they're they're
32:30
kind of keating with gms across the league. Every GM is saying, this
32:35
is maybe the worst draft the past thirty forty years. This is a this
32:40
is an abomination. Like there's a lot of unknowns, a lot of foreign
32:45
players coming out. But that's those days of like not like the days of
32:50
seeing like Yannis playing against like a bunch of five ten white kids in Greece
32:55
not knowing he's not knowing if he's gonna be any good or not. Those
32:59
are done, Like those days are over. Like pretty much everyone's pretty tied
33:01
into like what the form like players can bring, Like, look a look
33:06
at Victor woman Yama, Like everybody knew him in the NBA since he was
33:09
like twelve years old. Yeah, so everyone's pretty like the pretty good at
33:15
the draft. Now. I'm pretty good at taking stock of what's coming out
33:17
and that this is horrendous and I couldn't happen to a better team like the
33:21
Hawks. I still have major sour feelings towards them in the twenty one playoffs,
33:27
wasn't I hate Ben Simmons, But I also hate the Hawks and they're
33:30
they're in a position where you just talked about it. You got they got
33:32
the top pick of the draft. It's the first time they've had the first
33:36
pick since like the seventies, I think seventy five or something, and they're
33:39
on a weird spot because they have they got they got two really got John
33:44
Day, Murray and Trey and they had to make a decision on the one,
33:46
and I think in their in their minds, it was like, well,
33:50
we got the top pick. We compare the top pick with the guard
33:52
we're going to keep and trade the other one away, where maybe we take
33:54
one of the guards and package it with the first pick and we get a
33:58
superstar and the NBA is probably like, no, this is awful draft because
34:04
everyone is the worst thing. I've heard. It was on and Zach Lowe.
34:07
He was talking to Sean Marks, the former GM, and they're saying,
34:08
like the top ceiling for any the best player in this draft is probably
34:14
like Tobias Harris. Yeah, and that was just up tied Tobias Harris's horrendous
34:20
performance against the Knicks Zero Barnes. Yeah. So that that one struck.
34:24
That one stuck out to me a little bit. I was like, wow,
34:27
this is a really shitty draft. Yeah, And just looking at it
34:30
now, it's like, I mean, the top pick is this French kid
34:34
and he's being compared to Harrison Barnes, Alex sar Is. This is the
34:38
second pick's he's in Perth, Evan Mobley is his his comp the third pick.
34:44
The third pick is the seven to two kid from Yukon and people are
34:46
saying he could be the next Rudy Gobert. Maybe I don't see that happening
34:52
at all. I don't either. It's a horrible And then just to compare
34:55
it to like, okay, so last year went Banyama was like Minyama was
35:00
the big deal, like he was going to be the top pick and he's
35:01
probably gonna be the greatest, the best player in the NBA probably two years.
35:07
But just after him, I'm looking at the list now, Brandon Miller,
35:10
Scoot Henderson didn't have a great year, but Derek Lively was picked.
35:15
He's playing right now against Minnesota. Jimi Yakez for for the Heat, he
35:19
was awesome, kese On Wallace was great for the for the UH for ok
35:23
see. Yeah, and it's like they don't even have those players aren't even
35:28
in this draft, Like kase On Wallas probably would have been a top three
35:31
pick in this draft. And these comps were not great either, which brings
35:37
me to the sixers. They have the sixteenth overall pick. I'm sure they're
35:40
gonna I'm sure Morey's gonna want to package it in some kind of deal,
35:44
possibly to get it someone else here, another veteran or something. They're gonna
35:47
go hard after Paul George. That's probably one move, and unfortunately, I
35:53
think that pick is going to be useless to other teams that they're gonna I
35:57
think you're gonna have to give a future pick instead. So I could actually
36:01
see them wind up winding up using it. And at that point I would
36:05
take a huge swing at someone with humongous up size or upside because you got
36:10
nothing to lose. I mean, some of the names I'm seeing in the
36:14
mock draft for them is the Center for Indiana. I think he's sevn Won
36:22
I'm bringing up now or right now, not just him, but Jared McCain
36:28
from Duke, Tristan da Silva from Colorado, kalel Ware from Indiana. That's
36:32
the one kid that has been dagged to them. And I mean, and
36:36
the comps at just dumb. I mean, Tristan da Silva would be the
36:43
next Kyle Anderson, the war kid from Indiana. You're gonna see so many
36:50
NBA teams just trying to package away their picks this year, their first round
36:54
picks, trying to get something. It's going to be really bizarre to see
36:59
because of how bad draft classes people are. More he's gonna, like you
37:02
said, More's just gonna try to package something together. Let's just try to
37:06
get rid of the I don't know, maybe he tries to go for somebody.
37:08
It's it's gonna be really bizarre to see how the business angle of this
37:13
really goes. Yeah, And I think your top line GM top line scouting
37:20
departments are gonna be are gonna be huge in this draft because chances are one
37:28
or two players are going to be really really good. It's not going to
37:30
be a superstar in this in this draft, but you might wind up getting
37:35
the third best player in a championship team in this draft down the road.
37:38
It's just lave of law of averages. It's gonna happen, right, And
37:43
I'm thinking, if you're the Sixers and you're trying to package your sixteenth,
37:46
sixteenth pick into a trade with cap room and and other teams like screw you,
37:52
Like, why would we do this? I would just I would just
37:53
keep it and shoot for the stars. Go maybe this kid will turn out.
37:57
I don't know. Yeah, I think it's it's a good I think
38:00
it's a good strategy given the year and the talent that you were just talking
38:05
about. I mean, you gotta take a swing. You gotta take a
38:07
swing sometimes. That's the one thing I think, you know what, aside
38:10
maybe from Tyrese Maxi and maybe that was just luck. Maybe Tyres Maxey was
38:15
just luck. Probably was. But Darryl Moury really doesn't try to swing big
38:20
too often. I mean, we take a look at his second round picks
38:22
over the years, I don't necessarily think any of those second round picks have
38:25
been like really big swings and guys with a ton of upside. I don't
38:30
know, I could be wrong. Again, you're the basketball expert here.
38:34
I I I haven't seen Maury really do that. It doesn't seem to be
38:38
his style. Yeah, his his drafts are kind of sneaky good if you
38:44
go back and look at him, which in here in Philly, I think
38:50
if you can't move the pick because other teams just deem it up sleet and
38:54
kind of a throwaway. Like I said, I would just I would just
38:58
find the kid with the most subside potential from Greece or whatever country what you're
39:04
looking at, and just I would just shoot for the I would shoot for
39:07
the moon and hope the kid turns out to be like yeah, like not
39:12
MAXI, but someone who comes kind of comes out of nowhere. Yeah,
39:15
rather than trying to be let's just take the best college player here and we'll
39:20
have we'll have the ninth best guy on our team, Like, well,
39:22
why bother yeah, sixteenth pick doing that something I didn't plan on us talking
39:28
about, but the fact that the Timberwolves are where they are right now.
39:30
Boy, you talk, you talk, you talk about fun basketball, and
39:35
also all of us dumbies predicting, Oh, it's gonna be the Nuggets.
39:39
Man, they're going just even a month ago and it's gonna be the Nuggets
39:43
year. They're gonna be going all the way. Like I love where the
39:46
NBA is at right now, man, I love where the NBA is at.
39:50
Where the obvious isn't always going to happen. And what the Tea Wolves
39:54
have done here in twenty twenty four is pretty astonished, you know, kind
40:00
of proving a lot of experts wrong, a lot of us folks that thought
40:04
Denver was just going to take this uh and it was going to be a
40:07
cake walk for them. No, not at all. The t Wolves story
40:10
is fun, it's fun to follow well. And you bring up a good
40:15
point in that that I just talked about taking big swings, and the t
40:20
Wolves took a huge swing through to Go trade. It is still one of
40:23
the worst. I don't care what people say. He's helping them. They're
40:27
in the Western Conference Finals right now, but they gave up too much for
40:30
him, and you know they're there, their their cap is spent so so
40:35
hardcore because of that trade, and they have no picks. So you hope
40:40
if you're a te Wolves fan, you win this year or next year because
40:43
your windo probably not that not that big. But what it shown what for
40:49
me, what it shined the light on, was the the downfall of the
40:52
process and like there's a smart way to rebuild. Yeah, and there's what
40:57
the Sixers did starting in twenty thirteen. Like it when it first started.
41:01
I was all on board too, because I was like, we are going
41:05
freaking nowhere. And but teams like Boston, teams like Minnesota, if you
41:09
get the if you get the right top pick in Anthony Edwards, who's it
41:15
reminds me of Jordan Dude. I'm not gonna lie Runde times. He's not
41:19
gonna be as good as them, but I mean maybe as good as Kobe,
41:22
who knows. But if you nail that pick and he has the personality
41:25
and you put the right pieces around him, and you make those trades even
41:29
if it's a bad trade, you have the right personnel around the right player.
41:34
It just show and Tatum and Brown and for the Celtics. You put
41:37
the right players around them. It just it's it just showed you the process
41:42
didn't work. It's just not how you build a basketball team. It was
41:45
a complete failure. I feel like we say this every show or every other
41:49
show. We got to do a process show. We have to you,
41:52
Len and I we have to do it. And I would love to interview
41:55
again. It was his name, Yarn, the guy wrote the book.
41:59
Oh yeah, you're on. Uh yeah, I'm forgetting his last name.
42:02
Yeah, it's a great book, and I hope he does like a what
42:07
do you call any like put extra chapters and re release it thing. Uh
42:12
oh, like a reissue or something like that. Or yeah, here's a
42:15
term. I don't read books, Jeff, So, I don't really know.
42:20
I read articles. Yes, I read Twitter exactly. I'm gonna say
42:27
this. I actually said to one of my daughters a few years ago.
42:30
I'm like, I'm like, let's uh, let's start having to read some
42:32
more books here, okay. And she's like, Dad, I read every
42:36
day. I'm on TikTok, like that's video and she goes, I read
42:40
the captions. It's hilarious. All my kids have to say, is you
42:46
don't read and be like, yeah, you're right, Yeah exactly. Well
42:51
you got me, you got it, all right, buddy, I'm gonna
42:53
let you go here. Any final thoughts before we get to uh what we're
42:57
thrown down on the table this week? No go Phillies. Man, what
43:00
hell of a run right now? Man? They took three straight from the
43:05
reigning World Series champs. Yep, and they kicked their asses tonight. I
43:08
flipped it on after making Vinnie dinner, and I'm just like, this team's
43:12
up eight to three and just kicking teams' asses. Hell, this is awesome.
43:16
Shoved it right up the braves. Butthole. Oh it's so good.
43:22
Old buddy of mine is tickets for the game tomorrow in a suite. Oh
43:25
I can't go, so damn it. I was gonna say, you can,
43:31
you can go. I could and just ruin her Yeah, ruin her
43:37
day. Yeah exactly. All right, buddy, I'm gonna let you go.
43:40
Folks, We're gonna take quick break. We'll be back in just a
43:44
bit. All right, We are back, and we're gonna get into some
43:46
Philadelphia Union talk right now. Got a great guest. You heard them during
43:51
some of our Eagles postgame podcast shows and uh, we got we got some
43:54
good discussions coming your way with regard to the Philadelphia Union. It's what we're
43:59
thrown down on the tape and now on the table. It's great to have
44:05
back on the podcast to get into this Philadelphia Union team and what has been
44:08
happening with this crew this season, what Jim Curtin has been doing as well
44:15
as the coach. And we've got a great, great discussion coming your way
44:17
here from Philadelphia soccernow dot com. You heard him on some of our Eagles
44:22
postgame podcast shows this past season. If you have been listening to the PST
44:28
podcast show for a little while. He is the one and only Josh Schuster.
44:31
How you doing, buddy, Jeff good to be on, doing good
44:36
and glad to be able to talk some Union. Yeah, it's great to
44:38
be able to talk about this team that has well. I should say this,
44:43
it's great to talk about this team. I mean, it's kind of
44:45
been a little bit of a frustrating season I think thus far. I mean,
44:50
they Jesus, this team was on a losing streak, the first one
44:53
in six years, until they recently beat the New England Revolution. And I
44:58
feel like it was just maybe a few weeks ago, Josh, or maybe
45:00
a month ago that they were number two in Major League Soccer's Eastern Conference,
45:06
and right now they're the number eighth seed in the conference with a record of
45:08
four five and four, And again, I think it's safe to say that
45:13
this team has been a little bit underwhelming here in twenty twenty four. So
45:17
as we get our discussions started here, what's one word as we were recording
45:22
this on May twenty second, here on Wednesday, what's one word that you
45:25
would use to describe this Union season and why? I would simply describe it
45:32
as underachieving. Okay, So over at Philadelphia Soccer now, one of our
45:38
writers over there, Jared Young, put together a great article on the MLS
45:45
releasing their salaries, and there's a couple of things I want to highlight from
45:47
this article. I saw the heat laid out because I think that it really
45:52
speaks to the disappointment. The biggest issue, and I know we're going to
45:55
talk about this in a little bit here is the defense. The defense has
46:00
been tragically woeful, and I had even mentioned it last time that I was
46:06
on it. I was kind of surprised getting into the little bit of concern
46:09
area. I'm in full blown panic mode now. One of the reasons why
46:15
this team is underachieving, and I guess it's not really fair to say that
46:21
they're underachieving. They have the twenty fourth payroll out of twenty nine teams in
46:25
MLS, which is really kind of frustrating because the Union sell out almost every
46:31
game. The Union have been on a run of great success. The Union
46:38
have sold a number of players, and some for millions of dollars. There
46:45
is no reason why they should only have a payroll of fourteen point eight million
46:49
dollars. That is just it's tragically woful, kind of like the defense.
46:54
But the even worst part about all of this is that theon and have invested
47:00
the fourth most amount of money in terms of their contracts on defense and goalkeeper,
47:07
and they're spending six million dollars, So literally almost half of their payroll
47:13
goes to the four positions on defense and the keeper. Now Andre Blake is
47:16
great, he's been hurt. But the problem is when you invest fifty percent
47:22
of your money in something and the return is just awful, the only result
47:28
will be underachievement. Yep, absolutely, I think it's a good word underachieving
47:32
for this team. And you know, slow starts also have been a theme
47:37
to this Union team and the fact that they've lost a bunch of games at
47:40
home, they have a perfect record on the road. It's really bizarre.
47:44
Len and I talked about the slow starts on a couple or a couple weeks
47:49
ago on the show after the game against DC United, which ended up in
47:52
a draw. It's like, thank goodness they actually ended that game in a
47:55
draw after it a woefully slow start. Josh, I'm wondering, first,
48:00
why do you think that we're continuing to see these slow starts game after game?
48:04
And second, you know what can be done to shift this tide.
48:08
My short answer is, Jeff, I don't know, Okay. I mean
48:13
I have attributed the last number of years, and we've talked about this a
48:15
little bit last time, to the fact that Jim Curtin has lost at least
48:20
one, if not two or more significant pieces to the starting eleven every single
48:24
year, and so I can understand a slow start because you're trying to get
48:28
new players involved and Jim Curtain's system we talked a little bit about last time
48:34
that he's trying some different things right. Jiff Curtains system YEP traditionally has been
48:38
a very hard style to play, especially on the defensive end. The problem
48:44
isn't I don't have a solution. I mean there are times where the defense
48:50
this year. I love Gladsness, I love Elliott, but those two people
48:54
look like they're just lost. Are they not getting it? Are they not
48:58
getting Jim Curtin's defensive system here though they should? Yeah, I mean they've
49:02
been on the squad for a couple of years now. I don't personally understand
49:07
what is going on. I really come away from watching each match for the
49:13
most part scratching my head. I mean, even when they were winning and
49:17
they were at the second place in the conference, it was kind of like
49:22
the Flyers, where it was like, they're doing this, but I don't
49:24
know how. Yes, not that I was complaining about them being the second
49:30
place team in the conference, but eventually, much like the Flyers, if
49:34
you aren't going to play at a high level, eventually it's going to catch
49:37
up to you. And that's where we're at now and that's why this losing
49:42
streak has happened. But Jeff, my short answer is I don't have an
49:45
answer for this year. Yeah, it's really frustrating from a defensive standpoint,
49:51
as you're mentioning here and the organization itself, they need to bring in some
49:55
other pieces. They really do. And let's talk about some of the pieces
50:00
of this puzzle that we are seeing out on the field. Nathan Harriel,
50:06
he has been one of the best players on the team thus far in twenty
50:09
twenty four, arguably here his defense. You know, we're talking about defense.
50:14
His defense has been pretty solid I think for the most part, and
50:16
his attacking ability has grown and developed as well. But since he's a player
50:22
that is currently I would say on the quote upswing here in Philly, you
50:25
know, what does he need to do more of in order to help out
50:29
this team, help out even the defense down the stretch here? Josh.
50:34
Yeah, So two quick things with this. The first is the thing for
50:38
Harriel to keep doing is what he struggled with the whole time he's been on
50:43
the Union, and it's consistency. Yeah, he is a man of flashes,
50:47
and he will flash wonderfully and he will flash poorly, and it is
50:52
he just needs to be consistent. Now I think he's added consistency. There's
50:55
not when he plays match to match. He whether he's starting, whether he
51:00
comes on as a sub. It's at least consistent, and I think Jim
51:05
Curtin knows what he's getting out of Harriel now, which is great. But
51:07
the second point is if Harriel and I like him as a player, I
51:13
prefer him more as a substitute option when you need more defensive focus. If
51:20
he's your best player or most consistent player, I think that speaks to the
51:24
state of the team. You know, when I know the Phillies are doing
51:28
really well right now, but at the beginning of the season, when they
51:30
were five and five and you had a bunch of like no name players.
51:34
I mean, I like Brandon Marsh, but he shouldn't be an MVP like
51:37
he had to start the year. It's more of an indictment of how the
51:39
rest of the team is performing rather than Brandon Marsh. Is this incredible players?
51:45
The same thing with Harriel. He's a decent player. But if he's
51:51
like the focus of what we're spending a podcast talking about because he's the most
51:54
consistent one, well that's a problem. And again, I don't have an
52:00
answer on how to fix this, and I don't know that Jim Curtin does
52:02
either. Yeah, another player I wanted to get into as well, because
52:07
again you know he's he's missing chances in front of the net. Daniel Gadzag
52:15
I always mess up the names. Yes, Gozdog I constantly am messing up
52:20
names. As everybody knows. He's the club's all time leading score here.
52:23
But you know, he had a pretty muted performance against New York last week
52:28
against Orlando, as I mentioned, he you know, missed a number of
52:30
chances in front of the net. A lot of inconsistency with his game this
52:35
year. Like, what more should we be seeing from him this season?
52:40
Because gazdag Is has been a key component of this team, but he's not
52:45
getting it done. What are your thoughts with him? I think the problem
52:51
for Gazdog is he came in and was tremendous off the bat, right.
52:58
I mean, he became the Union all time leading score very quickly, right,
53:02
and he passed LA two and LA two is still looked upon as one
53:07
of the greatest players ever. The problem for Gozdag is when you start off
53:12
as well as he did, even when you're having he's having a good season,
53:16
but the problem is he's not having a great season, and you've highlighted
53:21
it. He has missed more chances than he normally has when we've seen him
53:27
playing for the Union, But in the grand scheme of things, I don't
53:31
think he's missing more chances than any regular player. The problem is we've expected
53:37
greatness out of a player that may be really, really good, but not
53:40
great. Every player in any sport can go through a season where again,
53:46
I'll bring on Brandon Marsh Brandon Marsh outperforms Bryce Harper. Does that mean that
53:51
Brandon Marsh is a better player than Bryce Harper? Absolutely not. So what
53:55
we need to figure out with Gonsdog is is this more of the norm where
54:00
rather than him carrying the team, he needs to be in a collective group.
54:05
And so I'm not really going to be very critical because I'm still in
54:08
the figuring out process of how much of it was Gozdog showing all of his
54:14
greatness at the beginning and now he's just come back to who he really is,
54:17
which is a really good, reliable player. Yeah, I wonder how
54:22
much of the losing streak it really played into the sports psychology with regard to
54:29
this team. Sports psychology, it's a theme that we've been talking about time
54:31
and time again here at the PST podcast show. And I do wonder,
54:35
and it's not just with the Union, it's with any professional sports team.
54:38
You go through a losing streak, it does something to you mentally where it's
54:44
that much more difficult to prepare and inevitably that much more difficult to perform on
54:47
the field, on the ice, on the court, whatever sport that it
54:51
is. Josh, I wonder what that losing streak has done to this team
54:54
from a mental standpoint and what they really need to do to get back to
54:59
where they can actually get to Because this team has talent on it. I
55:02
believe they're better than a number eight seed team at this current time in the
55:07
Eastern Conference. I just I wonder what the sports psychology is is or how
55:13
it's affecting them at this point. Yeah. No, I'm going to say,
55:16
I know they're better than the eight seed. Yeah, They've shown it
55:19
last year. I mean they have the same roster as they did last year.
55:24
They are better than a number eight seed. Yeah. What I'll say
55:29
is, instead of the losing streak, I wonder what the sports psychology is
55:34
of finding yourself in a position that you aren't normally in, right, the
55:37
Union have had a long run of success. Now, I normally try to
55:40
bring in other sports because I know that not everybody follows soccer as intensely as
55:45
myself or others. So I'm going to use the Atlanta Braves this year as
55:49
an option. Right. Atlanta has some injuries and different things, but I
55:52
don't know if anybody has seen them the last couple of weeks, they find
55:55
themselves four games back and they are losing games in the ninth inning in just
56:01
like the last night, the Braves lost by some like infield groundout games.
56:07
They should be winning. Who's the game? Yes, And they're finding themselves
56:09
in a position after winning the NL East for so many years that they aren't
56:15
used to and you have to wonder, at what point is this breaking then?
56:19
And it's only what mayeah, I mean, I don't know. It's
56:22
a long season. But it's the same thing for the Union. I mean,
56:24
they find themselves in a position where they aren't in the top half of
56:28
the Eastern Conference. Yes, they've had slow starts, but they haven't really
56:31
dropped out of the playoff race by May. And they kind of find themselves
56:37
in that position now and Jim Curtin may be looking around. And I had
56:39
mentioned this, I think before the season had started. This is really going
56:45
to kind of be a make or break year for Jim Curtin. A lot
56:46
of the fans are over Jim Curtin, and I get it. But at
56:52
the same time, they have the twenty fourth payroll out of twenty nine teams.
56:55
If Jim Curtin can't figure this out, ownership has showed that they really
57:00
aren't going to pay money to be able to bring in players, So the
57:05
only thing left is change manager. Yeah, they're not going to remove Ernest
57:09
Tanner who runs things because he's done so great at finding these really good players
57:15
on really cheap deals. Yep, yeah, what happens. Absolutely absolutely Again,
57:20
folks, we're talking to Josh Schuster from Philadelphia soccernow dot com. Make
57:23
sure you follow him on Twitter slash x at flag Eye Josh ninety one great,
57:29
great follow And as we're continuing with our discussion here, just a couple
57:32
more topics here. Josh. Jesus Bueno was signed to an extension this past
57:37
December with the Union, but we again like we haven't seen much of him
57:42
lately on the field, and that the team and Jim Curtin have some you
57:45
know, they have some decent midfielders, good midfielders to utilize. But wouldn't
57:51
it be a good thing if Bueno could get back on the field consistently.
57:54
I mean, what do you think his presence would give this team from match
57:58
to match in terms of me be giving the team a spark, a jumpstart.
58:01
What are your thoughts. I don't disagree with you at all. Jeff
58:07
Bayna can do some amazing things. The problem is I kind of view him
58:13
as a Jim Tortorella or John Tortorella coach in Jim Curtin, he has his
58:20
guys, and if you don't live up to what Jim Curtin is asking you
58:25
to do, you're gonna ride the bench, just like John Tortorella. And
58:30
so the problem for Bueno is not only is he very good, he will
58:36
make boneheaded mistakes. And I think that Jim Curtin is just at a place
58:39
where he may be realizing his seat's getting hot. I'm only going to rely
58:45
on the people I know, and Jim Curtin has a history of doing this.
58:47
I mean, even with the young guys that now we're kind of seeing
58:50
the payoff of he's been stubborn and subbing in only certain players for other players,
58:55
and being stubborn in only playing a certain style, certain system. And
59:00
that's fine when it works. But when you enter this season and we find
59:06
ourselves where we are, stummornness can often shift to stupidity, right, It
59:10
happens to every single one of us. Yeah, we can dial on the
59:13
hill of something and walk away and be like, well that was really dumb.
59:16
Right, At some point, you're going to have to try some different
59:21
things. I love Alejandra Badoya. He's in my Twitter handle for crying out
59:24
loud. Yes, he should not be starting at his age. There is
59:29
no reason for him to be starting. He took a fifty percent pay cut
59:32
anticipating playing less time. Why are we starting him? That's a great question,
59:38
it really is. It's just there's just so many bizarre dynamics in place
59:45
with this Union team, and I do wonder, as we're closing our discussion
59:49
out here, I do wonder where this middling Union team is going to go
59:52
over these next couple months here, because I think they have the ability,
59:58
as we kind of mentioned earlier, to persevere and pull out some nice wins,
1:00:00
as they did against New England, but then again we've seen where they
1:00:04
can just flop as well. Where I should say, what are your thoughts,
1:00:07
Josh on where this team is really heading as we're ready to close out
1:00:12
the month of May and head into June. What are your thoughts? Well?
1:00:19
I try to be as positive as a cat. Oh boy, hell
1:00:22
boy, it may be a very very long summer if they There's two things
1:00:28
that need to happen. The defense needs to be figured out, and the
1:00:32
second thing is Ernest Tanner has done a very good job, but there's one
1:00:38
glaring mistake, and it's the fact that he signed Michael Uwa to the contract
1:00:45
that he did. Yeah, if I told you that Michael Uwa is the
1:00:49
highest paid player on the union, you probably would not be very happy.
1:00:52
I'm not right, he just if you want to talk about someone who misses
1:00:59
opportunity after opportunity, I mean I have seen Michael Uha stand in a wide
1:01:06
open net and still wind up missing, and as a forward, that is
1:01:10
not good. It's unacceptable. Yes, it's unacceptable. You're right. The
1:01:15
problem is if he doesn't turn things around and he's on pace to potentially match
1:01:23
last year, which wasn't even his best season for the Union. That is
1:01:29
a problem. They need to figure something out. They need to be able
1:01:35
to transfer him or I really have no idea. I mean, they let
1:01:40
players go at the forward position because they expected Quelula to be able to perform
1:01:47
and he hasn't. Right, So they need to figure this out because unless
1:01:52
the defense approves and Ua improves, this team will probably middle somewhere around at
1:02:00
Eastern Conference. We're in eighth place and miss the playoffs. I'll say this
1:02:05
as we close our discussion here. I do have faith in Jim Kurtin.
1:02:07
I do. I know I'm not one of the Jim Curtin haters out there.
1:02:10
I know you're not a Jim Curtin hater. I do have faith in
1:02:14
him, given what he's done with this organization and team in previous years.
1:02:19
Somehow a spark needs to happen. He needs to rally these players. I
1:02:22
think he has the ability to do that. We still we still have a
1:02:25
bit of a ways you know before it's really really crunch time. But I
1:02:30
believe in Jim Curtin right here at this particular point. But Josh, I'm
1:02:34
gonna let you go, buddy. Thank you so much for taking the time
1:02:37
to jump on on our old podcast here this week to get into this union
1:02:40
talk. I'd love to talk to you down the road. Hey, I'd
1:02:43
love to have you on our Eagles postgame shows again every now and again when
1:02:45
the guys are unable to join me. It'd be great to have you back
1:02:49
again, Folks, philadelphiasoccernow dot com at fly Guy Josh ninety one on Twitter
1:02:53
slash x my friend, come back and join us. I'd love to have
1:02:57
you anytime, Jeff more one o'clock games this year. Yes, Yes,
1:03:04
and that's gonna do it for us this week. Make sure to share the
1:03:07
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1:03:10
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1:03:15
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1:03:20
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1:03:23
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1:03:30
Take care and have a great week and we'll catch you next time.