Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to WFHRs. Play Macars.
Welcome to the show. Seth and James here with you. We hope you're having a great start to your
work week out there. Happy Monday, everybody. Yeah. Hope it is going well. It's like blow out
your eardrums. That's right. That's why I can adjust it here. That's the thing. Very cool.
Very cool. We got a cool show lined up for you. Everybody, first and foremost, we want to take
your phone call 715-424-2600-424-2600. Nobody made a highlight from the sidelines getting the
game. We went here from you and what is on your mind. As we are going to do today, we're going to wrap
up a couple of things. The Wisconsin Rapids Raptor season will wrap up. Hold on. Yep. We'll talk about
the Olympics and wrap that up as well. And we're also going to spend some time today talking about the
winter games as well as our WFHR Sports Schedule for this week, which should fill up, okay, we're done.
That rare week where we have nothing. Yeah, that does not happen very often. No, we don't get that
happening very often. No, but we do get calls coming in all the time and we appreciate that.
Good afternoon. You're in the game. What's on your mind? Well, I guess I can get it started.
I appreciate it. It's also reluctant. I guess. We called them up. We called them up.
The hitter that doesn't want to play. Like, oh, right. I got to move. All right, I guess.
Well, I'm going to just say for Packers,
three plays. That's all I'm going to say about the Packers, just three plays.
You know, just beginning the game and that's what we're going to see the rest of the year. So
I don't think we need to dwell on the Packers so much on now. I did have some bear fans come up to me
and sit there and say, oh, Caleb Williams, that Caleb Williams, that's at my three plays.
That's all I'm going to say. And I walked away from him. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
I don't know what they're wasting their energy on. I understand that there's a lot to be hopeful for
and I'm one of those hopeful, foolish ones. But the idea of bragging about three plays right now.
And I wouldn't expect that anymore from Commander fans and Jaden Daniels or anything and any of
these guys. I wouldn't be I'm not going to be bragging about Caleb Williams no matter what happens
this season because this guy's got a couple of years yet. And I would also throw in their Jordan
love because it's not like Jordan love has given you years and years of showing you what he is. He's
giving you about eight, ten games. Right. So there's plenty to be hopeful for. There's a lot of
excitement in Green Bay and throughout the football universe because that is whether people
realize it or not. I think we do here. That's the closest you have to America's team in the Green Bay
Packers between the way the fan base travels and the way that it is the actual franchises run
in all this and how it's owned. I don't know how you get more American. I don't know how you can
deny that whether you're a bear fan a packer fan or any other fan. But there is there's also I
would I would hope even in the most rosy colored eyes the idea that it's still eight to ten games.
That's a lot to put on this guy and expect from him. He's given you plenty to go on. Yeah.
And there's more than enough reason to be hopeful. And more reason to be hopeful about him
than some of the other quarterbacks I mentioned. But I wouldn't go I wouldn't go bragging. I wouldn't
go naming your first born love. I don't know about that or anything. That's kind of a cool name.
I mean, this is the first name. It sounds better than A-Ron. It sounds better than A-Ron.
I can't I can't say too much about A-Ron because I do have one of those A-Rons.
It's a great date. But it's good for him.
But you know, for both teams or for any team,
they're one injure way for the season to be pretty much done.
That's just that you know the sickest joke of all this. Yeah.
Yeah, it can really change the whole thing. But I guess what I might have my focus is because I
know Seth like this too is baseball. And we had a couple of weeks coming up here for the brewers
that could really solidify where this team could be playoff time. Yeah. So tonight,
I mean, they start the four games series with the Dodgers. They're a game and a half behind them
for that second place spot. And what the two and a half or two behind Philadelphia for that
number one spot and fill it off in our last 10 games. They're kind of they're only four and six.
Actually, I was just telling James before we started that since the All-Star game,
discounting the White Sox because you got to kind of leave them out of it right now.
The team that's played that has had the worst record is the Phillies. Since the All-Star break.
The White Sox are actually going to have to play in the mid-coast division next year.
Yeah, they're actually going to be a triple A team.
Yeah. But the Braves and the Maths, they're, I mean, it's kind of the same thing with the brewers.
The brewers were only pretty much played five hundred since the All-Star break. And St. Louis and
the Cubs really can't, they haven't done much, I mean, the Cubs lately. I mean, they've won either
last 10, but I'm with you. I'm going to throw this out there. Right now, the East is crumbling.
All three top teams are not playing well right now. The Braves lost to just an awful game
yesterday to the Rockies, where they had a seven run lead and they blew it in the eighth inning.
You've got the Dodgers who are up and down right now. So many injuries they're dealing with.
Mookie Betts is coming back, but he's playing right field from now on. He's not going back to short anymore,
so they can bring up Nick on meds. Anyway, but I'm not sure what that's about.
I think the brewers have a real chance, man. Oh, yeah. To have the best record, to have
home field advantage throughout the playoffs. And to think he played the way they have been,
they might end up with the top spot. It's not outside the realm of possibility.
If you heard our friend Mike Clemmons, all they got to do is do 500 baseball and they've got this,
especially with, as you mentioned, the East crumbling. The West, there's a couple of,
I mean, really three teams doing pretty well over there with Arizona, San Diego, and San Francisco.
But they're going to devour themselves in much in many ways as the schedules looking towards
out, just peeking at it and dissect it, but just peeking out of the head just looking at this
conversation. It does look like they've got it. They're going to be playing each other quite.
Yeah. It's going to be a tough go. So they'll probably, like you said, they'll be beating each other
up. And while we're not in the playoffs, boy, if there's anything of a manager loves in sports,
it's a playoff atmosphere. It's the idea and the feel of it and everything. And you've got exactly
the team that is perfect for that right now in the Dodgers. And they're world beaters. They're
incredible. They have the greatest player in baseball and the whole world on that team. And at
the same time, they're beatable. They're not anything to be scared of. And if you get out of this
series, two, two, three, one, something like that at the end of this, you got nothing but momentum
pulling you going forward. And this is why when I talk about Brewer fans should be excited
and everything. And keep hopeful about that. It's because of some of these things and the end
of the schedule, the way that it looks for them compared to other teams. Yeah, but like you said,
you kind of, you even jumped ahead for our conversation. September doesn't look that good for
the Brewer's because they mean they play the Cardinals at the beginning of the month. But then
you got to giants, the Diamondbacks, the Phillies and Diamondbacks, and then the Metz that
and I'll round it out. So September is going to be a tough form, but that that's where they
can separate themselves. Exactly. Exactly. That's exactly what the Diamondbacks come in
because chances are they could face those guys in the playoffs. Yes. This is exactly what I mean.
They could face any one of those teams. I really think so. If I'm Pat Murphy, I'm salivating at
that schedule. I'm excited about September because if you're worth anything, this is with teams
you want to beat, teams you want to play, teams you want to figure out, even if you get slaughtered
by them or something in a series, teams that you want to figure that out about right now,
let the other managers show their hands and everything. You're playing for the big game here.
You've been in first all pretty much all year. You've been in the driver's seat. This is the
chance for you to step on the gas. This is the chance for you to do that. Nobody wants to wait
into playoffs to do that. Start now. Start now and keep pressing. And hopefully this ends with
some really, really exciting playoff baseball for Milwaukee and a lot of cool playoff games
here in state late in the fall. Something like it. And they've got every, this is one of those
things where if you don't want to listen to your fellow Brewer fans or anything like that,
I'm championing this. And I am not a Brewer guy, but I see this just from a third perspective.
And I saw Devaleem's collect his first save the other day. That felt good. I got to think as
Brewer fans. That's great. There's a lot. And especially when you start doing this to you two
are doing really well comparing them to other teams specifically in the NL. Who else has better
things to feel about right now? Any of these teams even looking at the West. I don't know
anybody that has this kind of good vibe going into this part of the schedule.
Well, even, you know, as you look at it, though, too, I mean, you got DL Hall back yesterday.
He's, I mean, he's been so bad. I mean, but he's pretty good. You get obviously you got
Devaleem's back to buy to buy us my ears. Oh, he's a good young one. Yeah, he's been fun.
And then tonight, I mean, can you really say that because can you really say that Clayton Kershaw
is dominant anymore? Oh, no. No, no, you can't. Especially by fantasy purposes.
No, the bitterness. What was I thinking? You know, if the props I can get out of the first
couple of meetings, I mean, and the brewers can get out of the address right away, I can see these
guys, you know, went into night and they got culinary going tomorrow night. You know,
who else would throw a really good game his last time out too? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Who isn't
from Milwaukee right now? I don't know. Who isn't throwing good for them right now? Yeah. That's
I think that's a harder question to figure out than who's who's been having good games. They've
been on a run here. Right. So I mean, could they take three or four? Could they take all four?
I mean, look what they did to the braves. I mean, they scored 30 what? 33 runs against the
braves. I mean, who'd ever thought of that? Yeah. I mean, that just let me need that. I'm still
trying to wrap my head around that one a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. And then they, you know, they
score all those runs and then they turn around and on on Saturday only score one, but the one
run was a big run there and he's sending from Hoskins and he's starting to swing the bat pretty
good too. I mean, he's got to what up? Boy, what a good time for him to get hot right now. Yeah.
Nice to see Bryce terrain. Mm-hmm. You know, one thing that I did want to note about this before
we get to in anything else or wrap up with you, Kev. I've really admired some things about Pat
Murphy's managering style because it feels like more and more, especially with baseball,
we're seeing managers have less and less to do with the game. And I feel like he's obviously
a throwback in a lot of ways, but one of the ways that he is is his interacting with players and his
belief in players. Now, every manager, every coach in every sport from Little League on up is going
to back their players 99% of the time where you used to see in that, but that's a front. They're
telling you, hey, Bryce Trang's going to be okay. He's going to be okay at all that, but then
they're binging him, you know, or something like that. He's stuck by a lot of these guys. Oh,
yeah. We're struggling and keeping them in the starting lineup, letting them work through it.
Like I've seen all the great NBA coaches in name, any NBA coach, Chuck Dalyanda, Eric Spulstra,
every one of them will leave a shooter in the game and go over 13 sometimes a John Stark situation
before they will take them out because you take them out and boom, there goes your connection with
that player. There goes that player's confidence and you don't know what you're going to get the
rest of the season, let alone the rest of the game. I think that more and more and more managers
and more sports need to do this and stand by these players and let them play through it. Now,
it's easy for me to say that my job is not on a line. I fully own that, but I do, I do think the
evidence speaks for itself in literally every sport you can bring up. It does seem to be better to
let the player get through a slump, get through those bad times, you bench them against a lefty
or something like that. I'm not talking about that. I mean, taking them out of the starting lineup,
everybody knows what that means. All of a sudden, there's somebody new at second base every day,
you know, that kind of thing. It's the fielding part of baseball that keeps this in check too,
because you keep the chemistry with your players on the diamond, which is so vital. There's
never been a playoff that you've ever seen. I don't care if you're five or 105. You've never seen a
baseball playoff where defense didn't come into play in the playoffs. At some point. Absolutely.
So important. Keeping these guys in there has been something to Pat Murphy has felt out knows
these guys well enough and like, you know what? I'm going to be all right. He's going to be okay.
I mean, Cammy Tams, though, the the pundits say that they should have sent
Cheerio down this year. Right. Right. Right. And that's why they're pundits. That's why the pundits
and they don't get to wear cool jersey and watch these games from the best seat in the house.
Perfect example. That was the one that was popping in my head. And you know what the great
thing about that is he's young. He's 20 years old. Yeah. You give him a chance to do it now.
He's going to be able to learn take what he's learned this season of having to go through a slump
like this. This is I don't think people understand how big this is because it's it's one of those
things where you're you're always when you're young and a baseball player any sport, you know,
you always win. You're always the best at what you do. You never fail and all of a sudden,
you fail and you fail bad when you get to something like this. There's nothing like striking
out. Let alone at that level and losing confidence. There's so easy to lose your confidence doing
that. They stuck with him and they are now it is now paying dividends because look at what he's
doing. Man, it was it was a great decision. Yeah. I think he's pretty much making his way for
the rookie of the year. I mean, I really do. He's he's going to be one of the top ones. Oh yeah.
He's got a lot of competition this year. Another Jackson Jackson Merrill out in San Diego. He's doing
really well right here. All these Jackson's wear all these guys come from Jackson holiday. It's
one of those names. You could think sons of Ann Arkey. I do think that another thing too about
this coming into this season. Pat Murphy gets the job. I do you do remember hearing and it was very
early on in the process. I do remember hearing similar things to lame.coach or bridge coach or
or manager or or some of those things. The Brewers organization didn't feel that way about him
and believed in him. And he is returning that into the players and believing in them and standing
by them. And it's a really cool thing to not only see that in an organization. I would be saying
this if they were 20 and a hundred. But to see them winning with this model. If they love parody
and sports, let's see some people parody this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. And I agree with you on
that one. So any final thoughts, man? And not not really. I mean, you're going to say that just
it's going to be it's going to be an interesting next couple of weeks here and hopefully that we can
you know turn turn it tied a little bit against winning teams and and and you know and keep
right on going. I think the confidence of sweeping the braves might be that confidence moves
that they can know they can beat better teams and and hopefully they can keep a keep this run.
And like you said, like I think we talked about it on Friday a little bit. It doesn't take much
to get a run going and once they get that run. Yeah. I mean, it can go a long ways. And if they can
take three or four from the Dodgers, that would be huge. That would be speaking of confidence. That
would be massive. They asked me. Oh, he's good talking to him. And I agree. So yeah. All right,
guys, you guys have a great night. You too. You too. Thanks so much for the call. Best listeners and
radio. Thank you so much for joining us. Feel free to call up 715 424 2600. I'd love to hear
from every one of you. We'll take our quick time out. We'll come back and we'll talk some
rafters and Olympics and much, much more here at un. Oh boy. I just want to say I'm labeled
nice. Well, that one. I don't know where. Oh boy. It is playing shows here at WFHR. This one
sponsored by a good friends of quality plus Britain. Getting your words out right here in Wisconsin
Rapids. Welcome back everyone to WFHRs. Playmakers.
Seth and James here with you. We hope you're having a good one out there. Thanks so much for
joining us. Phone lines are open. 715 424 2600 424 2600. Football is in the air. We'd love to talk
to you about that. Give me any opportunity to talk football. We'll do it everybody. And I don't
mean just the pro game because of course here at WFHR, we are your home for Wisconsin Badger
Football. That's true. We are. They released the top 25, which of course means nothing, but
we can talk about it and it gives it can sports shows like our station. You got to do it. And
that's exactly why you're right. Just to get people to yammer about this stuff, complain about it,
you know. We will look for any opportunity to talk about football in June, you know. And
in so contracts and a lot of these things come up. And this is a very similar thing with college
football where we're so close and we're etching for it so badly that we will. Hey, this is
out there. They did. Well, this team beat this team last year and how could they do this and all
that? And none of it means anything. Not a bit. Not a bit. Not a bit. By week one, a team will be
upset and this whole thing will change and the dominoes will fall. And this year, it really,
it really means even less than it's ever meant in any year college football because you have
not only for the first, you know, for the first couple of years here, really. We've been doing
it. We've only been doing this for a while. You actually have a playoff where you're actually
deciding a quote unquote champion. Right. But you're also you have it opened to 12 teams now. Yeah,
it's insane. Yeah. So you've got March Madness going on in college football now. So you all you
used to, I mean, even just used to be as in like last year back in the old days back in the old days
you had to be one of the top four teams and you go back another 20 years and you had to be
undefeated. Yeah. And they actually voted on it. Isn't that weird now thinking about that? They
voted on it. It's, it's kind of ridiculous that it took this long to have a playoff. But it is,
it does make, you know, it took money to make it happen. It's always the right amount of money.
Yeah. But it is exciting. And once again, WFHR was the home of Wisconsin Badger football this season.
We're looking forward to playing those games for you and talking about them. Ooh, got to,
got a big one against Alabama. Huge. That is so cool. I don't know if, and I should look
this up, but I don't know if the Badgers or win the Badgers last played Alabama or if they've
ever done it before, they've never played, never played. That's so cool. That's awesome. And they'll
be, I believe it's a home and home. I believe they'll be playing in Alabama next year. Oh,
or do I have that reversed? Okay. Well, one of those two things. We'll have it here on the radio.
Yeah. That's for sure. And we will also be talking a little bit later about some of the things
going on with Wisconsin as Luke Fickle is going to be in the headlines a lot this year,
win or lose. Fickle's playing the long game with his offense. And I was going to talk about that
a little bit. But I wanted to make sure we got this in Seth. We want to thank our Wisconsin
Rappets Raptors for amazing season. Thank you for a great 2024 Raptors, 2024 Summer. Yes.
It feels like such a comfort to have Raptor baseball around. And even when we don't have them around,
there is something still in the air, still in the town about this team. We all know what I'm
talking about. Maybe you can't put it in the words, but you know what I'm talking about when
January rolls around and you're thinking about getting to Winterfield in the summer. And the
things to look forward to that this team gives us. Now, current season certainly didn't go the
way we wanted it to. Now, they rarely do. You know, that's the baseball. That's the baseball. Maybe
there's being a sports fan. Your team don't get to win every year. Young New England fans.
You know, they can imagine being like 12 and being a New England Patriots fan.
What is it? They're now being last couple of years.
It's like, what is happening? What is my world happening? It's completely flipped around on them.
With the Raptors, when or lose, we fill that ballpark. And even when there's construction
going on all around it, we feel that the whole season there was the whole the road in front of the
stadium was tore up. And still, Beth and I went to the last game on Saturday. And there was over
1,000 people. 1,100 people showed up for that. I mean, I'm telling you, for a town of 18,000 people
or whatever we're at right now, that's amazing. That's a large percentage of the population.
There's a number of teams in the Northwoods league that would kill for those fans. That type of
that type of cross with that type of numbers that they collect. And there are at least one MLB
team that would on the south side of Chicago. I'm going to take my shots at you all. I can
Ryan's door every chance I get. Maybe get a gritty size more now. Yeah, which is weird, but
we're talking about that too. Okay, all right. Well, shoehorn that in at some point. I am excited
and proud of the Raptors 2024 season. Thank you to these players so much for coming to our town,
hanging out being great citizens, being wonderful people, and also adding to the benefit of our
town and our economy, which is not lost on us here. Quality of life, everybody. Shout out to,
of course, that managerial staff that I will take above any other in the Northwoods league,
and that includes the front office. And certainly big thank you to the ownership and the organization
itself. There's nobody that can deny, no matter whether you're a part of the Raptors or you're
just a citizen of this town or a citizen of Wisconsin. What this team means to this area, what it
does to this area and what the mutual beneficial relationship that they and us have. You know,
one way to look at it, if you're someone who's not really into baseball, you know, or, you know,
they don't follow the Raptors that closely, which is fine. You know, there's nothing wrong with that.
But I tell you one thing, what James just said, everything James just said may not seem like much,
but what would happen if the team left? Right. You would feel it. Absolutely. There would be a
gigantic hole here, even if you didn't care much about the Raptors when they were here. It would
be felt by the entire community. So we should be very thankful that we do have this team. And you'd
be feeling it in your tax dollars. You'd be feeling it in a lot of places. Seeing in the economy,
the businesses that are around that establishment and what that, what are you going to do with that
ballpark? The jobs for the kids there. I mean a million. Big employer too. And again, mutual
beneficial relationship. They win. We win. It's good for everybody and a big thank you to everybody
involved in that. Do you want to send a special shout out to the host families out there? Yes.
Really appreciated hearing from Kev this morning. And even earlier, of course, too, in the show,
touching on that, whenever we get a chance to talk to people that were host families,
I think it's not only creates more host families out there. I have not heard one bad word
about all you hear about us, how great it is about being a host family. Big thank you to the Raptors.
Yes. We're looking forward to 2025 already. Roll rats. Oh, as forever, WFHR will be the home of
Raptor baseball. Roll, saying roll rats and all that. And we do shift gears to River King's hockey.
We are going to be getting excited to talk River King's quicker than you think. Yeah, GM and head
coach Paul Peckman going to be joining us with the fourth period of here. Of course, as we get
closer to the season, we'll talk to coach looking forward to covering River King's and certainly
high school athletics. And I say athletics as we are going to cover as much as we can. Yes.
I'm looking forward to that. Thanks to Pam giving me a heads up that the high school football looks
like our calendar will start on the 22nd. That is correct. Hoping to cover River Falls at Lincoln
high school kick off the season. It's going to be very fun. We got our own friend Michael.
It's going to be joining us covering high school sports along with Randy, of course.
Yep. I'm looking forward to that. So we get a lot of a lot of sports to talk.
Oh, we do. Oh my gosh. We're hearing everything everybody. But again,
thank you to the Wisconsin Rapids Raptors. Make your plans for next year at NorthwoodsLeague.com
and follow them on social media. It is an amazing follow. It is.
We say goodbye to the Raptors, of course. And along with that saying good, good, we'll see you later.
Not goodbye. We'll see you next year. Yeah, we'll see you next year.
We say you'll see in a couple of years to the Olympics.
The Olympics are done and team USA is prevailed. What did I, I don't do this. I never do this.
But I'm telling I'm doing it right now. What did I say? Oh, yeah, we were going to run game in Paris
and baby, did we run game? You know, 126 to 91 total metal count. We had more silvers
and bronzes than anybody more moments than anybody outside of maybe the guy with the gun
that the stay-at-home dad that came that showed up with the gun with the great hair from Norway,
I believe. Okay, his mommy. Maybe he had a bigger moment, but baby.
Okay, you were right. You did say all those things. James, I'm so sorry.
But if there was any, there was no doubt in my mind that they weren't the underdogs.
Yeah, they were the favorites. I'm doing, I'm doing whatever good football coach does.
They're all against us. The whole world. We were underdogs.
That was the best impression of Joe Doomars for the 1992 Olympics.
Like no one believed in us. No, I'm like, Joe, what are you talking about?
Yes. Yeah. No, it's, you know, it works. It works. It's crazy, but it works.
It is a really, really fun Olympics. This is going to be one of those memorable ones.
One of the other things, and maybe we've touched on this before with other sports, but we haven't
gotten to it with the Olympics yet. This is our first real chance to do, cover the Olympics
right on playmakers. Sure. What this does for young people and young kids watching this.
Think about just your everyday fans like a lot of us are, how do you watch for the Olympics
at first? You watch with your parents. You watch with your brothers and sisters and friends
sometimes, but mostly family. And oftentimes there's a spark that comes. All of a sudden,
well, that doesn't just look cool. That looks like something I want to try. And all of a sudden,
you see my sister doing gymnastics in the living room and things. Now add talent to that and think
about that. Think about what the dream team did to basketball around the world and what we just
got to see because of that. Yeah. We not only got to see the USA win in men's and women's,
but we got to see good games. Yeah. It wasn't just rolling over everybody. It was a challenge.
They were both teams were behind in the game. Yes. Yeah. It was rewarding. You see this in all
the sports. Usain Bolt dominates and a young Noah Liles and others are inspired by him and
everything. So to think of, that's your average Olympics. This Olympics was times a thousand,
as far as the ratings and the amount of eyeballs that we know for sure we're seeing it. So think
a statistically alone five out of 10 kids are going to be inspired to maybe go and do something
for their country. That is pretty cool to think of. Along with the fact that all the other great
moments we had from these Olympics and all the cool stuff that happened. I would love to hear
from anybody out there your favorite Olympic moments. What were the standout moments to you? Feel
free to share them with us at one five four two four twenty six hundred four two four twenty six
hundred. For me, the number one thing I think of is Simone Biles smile. After she was done with
her routines. Not on the not out there. That's that's the smile for everybody. I'm talking about
the real. Yeah. The genuine joyful smile. Right. A gigantic shout out to Katie Ledecki not only
with her performance in what she did and bringing home gold and everything, but her special shout out
to a young fan as she was leaving the pool once. That's cool. Pointing out to that young lady
and that little girl three or four talking about sparking something. That girl fainted. She was so
that's my favorite Olympic moment. One of my top five favorite Olympic moments. She literally
freaked out. It was awesome. It was awesome. Shout out to Miss Ledecki. Let's go ahead and find out
what you think. Good afternoon. You're in the game. Yo, do Mars was on the dream team in 92. Yeah,
he was. Yes, he was. What was that? You think of a shooter? I mean, he was a good shooter.
It's like at his moments. Yeah. Yeah. And he's doing it. They had like Latener on that team too.
Yes, they did. Yeah. Every team, even ours have some players like that in there. You know,
Michael Reds, Olympic gold medalist, you know, and that's not a shot at Michael Red. I just
don't think that a lot of people think of him as one of the top 12 players in the world. Yeah,
we had his time. Yeah. That's kind of what I'm thinking about. Joe do Mars too. That kind of
dreamy for a loop there. That's with the deep cut. No, talking baseball, though. Where is
Niger Morgan? We could use Niger Morgan for the playoff push here. That's I'm I'm
against guarantees probably playing in some weird foreign country. No, he's probably not playing
anymore, but or he's in jail. Well, Franco is still playing. Not only that.
Yes. Yes. Bartola Colon is still pitching somewhere. I know that. I was just going to say Bartola
Colon definitely is. Yeah. He's 50 years old now. Yeah. Niger is playing for the Hanhaw Eagles,
the Hanhaw Eagles. He actually is playing the Hanhaw Eagles or he's coaching or something.
He looks like he's a player. Oh my god. South Korean professional baseball team. Yes, he is.
Nice. That's a good call. Seth nicely done. Awesome. Niger. How he was so much fun. Oh my gosh.
Now to the Olympic sports. And I want to make a local tie-in because I don't know if you've
been over to Robinson Park, but they've installed permanent cornhole fixtures by the Pavilion.
Which makes me question how long until cornhole is an Olympic sport.
Matt, did you get the preview of the show outline? Because man, I wanted to get into this.
Nicely done, sir. Thank you so much. You guys are segueing me perfectly today. Transitions
all over the place. Good stuff. This is actual legitimate question. This is it's a fun question
and you know, we can have some fun with it. I don't mind that or anything, but you know,
me, I'm going to take it serious if I get a chance. And with break dancing and some of the other
things that have been allowed into the Olympics recently. Yeah. It's a pro sport now. Yeah.
And the biggest thing that the Olympic community cares about ratings. Yes. It's
huge cornhole tournaments are huge unlike ESPN Ocho. Like they're getting good ratings on it.
Yeah. So you know, if they're going to allow break dancing in, I could see them doing this. I
could see a number of different things like this being on the table. That's on the Ocho. Is that
right between the Niger Morgan and Julio Franco games? Yeah. Right there. You can't miss it.
The really old timers game. They use their A team for that one. Great commentators on that.
All right. I'll let you guys go. You too, man. You too. Appreciate you. Appreciate you.
As long as we are touching on this, I do want to just tease ahead the 2028 games because there
are some sports that are going to make a debut. And I do think they are some of these are noteworthy.
Maybe one day we will see cornhole in there, but we are going to be seeing flag football.
Flag football is a variant of American football whereby players will remove a flag, of course.
That is going to be in the 2028 games in Los Angeles premiering there. Cool. Squash is going to be
back. I didn't know that was one before. Wow. So that's cool. They're also introducing that one.
And the baseball. There wasn't any baseball in Paris in 24, but unsurprisingly, it will be back
for the games in the USA. Yeah. And because they're going to be in Southern California, they will
have the facility. Think of any baseball stadiums there are in Southern California. You can play
anywhere. If they wanted to have the Olympics every year in LA, I would understand. Yeah.
They have. They would have the facilities for everything. Yeah. Softball is going to be back.
Yep. It was around from 96 to 08, but was dropped for the 12 London games and the 216 Rio games
made to come back in 2020 in Tokyo. Yep. And then left again this year. That was the London games
pure spite. Yeah. It really was. It really felt that way. And I forgot about that until right now.
Man, they really do. It seems so. Like they could be good at it. Yeah. I think the majority
I there's actually and I know this for a fact that there are some very passionate minority of
baseball fans that I've spoken I've spoken to one of them. And man, is he passionate? Holy cow.
They're they're it's still funny to me. Some of this stuff that exists that I believe only
exists because of the way this all started. That it's really going back, man. That's really
going back. It's it's like us with soccer. Yeah. Like there's like almost this like think
subconscious thing where we won't like it because well, we left that country and all this and
everything. It's it. I'm joking. But I mean, that yeah, right. You know, if if some scientists,
some great psychologists figured this out, I wouldn't be shocked. I wouldn't be surprised.
Look, boring game like cricket, make it baseball. See, that's better. Speaking of cricket,
we'll be back in the 2028 games. Of course he will be cricket has only ever been
contested once before and that was in Paris in 1900. After 120 years, it will be included once
again in Los Angeles. Wow. Along with La Crosse. La Crosse is coming back to LA for the first time
in 120 years as well. That's got to be another facilities thing. Yeah. All of those now they have
the space to do it. And I think that's probably why. And this is well, this is incredibly serious
for the athletes, for the coaches, for the families and all of that. I know that I get all
homerists about it and everything. And I enjoy them and love them and everything. And at the end
of the day, this isn't something as far as like what's a sport and what isn't a sport. The only
people taking that serious are the are necessarily the people that need something to take serious,
that need something to talk about. Like what are you really getting upset about? Yeah. What did it
cost you money? Did it did affect you somehow personally? We were really, really. I actually
talked to somebody that was actually upset that breaking was in the Olympics. And how does this
affect your life? Did you? Was it only on your TV and you couldn't flip the channel? Did they
take money from your pocket? Yeah, right. Like how did this affect you? Like in what possible way?
It's the Olympics games. They're going to last certain longs anyway. Can I make an outrageous
prediction? Like does totally off the wall outrageous prediction? And I think it's just because
it's starting to gain ground here. I think at some point it may be many, many decades down the road.
I think flag football will replace regular football as the major game in town. Wow. I totally
believe that's going to happen at some point. It would be especially if if the trend starts up
of families not letting their kids play football. It's what killed boxing. Everybody wants to talk
about, but you know, there's no prize fighters anymore. Why do you think there aren't any prize
fighters? Because moms felt more comfortable letting their kids play football than that. Yeah,
then getting their heads knocked in. I mean, it's you're absolutely right. There's totally a reason why
it went the way it went. And I can't, I can imagine, I can imagine football going the same way.
Not doesn't mean it's going to happen, but I could see a scenario where that does happen. And then
what's going to fill the void? People like what are the things that people like about football?
I mean, some of it's the hitting, but a lot of it's the big plays and the excitement and all
these guys of things. So I think that there's a chance someday, someday flag football might be the
replacement. We, we will mark that down. That is a take. That is a take. How's that for?
Steph Curry's clutch performance in to secure the men's basketball gold medal Saturday
since shock waves throughout the basketball world. Even non basketball fans were sending me stuff
about it and everything was very exciting. I also caught the attention of McDonald's in France
as the French team cut the United States lead down to three points. The US came back and
by that, I mean Steph Curry, the greatest shooter of all time. And go ahead and please debate me on
that. Please. I would love to have a debate on that one with anybody about a Ray Allen.
Oh, the heck is Reggie Miller or Larry Bird or anybody else? Because every one of those guys has
gone out of their way to, including Larry Bird is going out of their way to say they've never seen
a better shooter than Steph Curry. No. So even if you're fighting for them, are you going to
fight them on that? It's like trying to argue that Bobby Or is the greatest beat of hockey player
of all time. Yeah. Yeah. Get out of here with that. I'm sorry. Sorry. But it's only one. Come on.
Legendary hockey player, a Hall of Fame hockey player. One of the greats, but not the great.
Not the great one. Sorry. It's not good. No. No. But it was interesting to see the McDonald's in
France. Go to try to change their name to their hot sauce to Curry sauce. Well played by them.
That was good. And the French market was very supportive of it, even though their team was losing
and lost the game. I thought that was quite interesting, too. That is the staying power of a
curry right there. This is not bad. Not bad. I'll give you that one. Thank you.
This might be, we should mark this year, though. This might be a turning point.
Yeah. For what? For basketball, world basketball, because in 2028, the tables may turn.
And this might be it for team USA for a little while. We'll see. Imagine getting a bronze or a
silver in LA. Oh, that is not going to feel good if that's how this plays out. And it's not
surprising to what you're saying. Because if anything else, if you are looking, if you are one of
these other teams, and you're looking at high points and stuff, Serbia, okay, Joe Kick by then
is probably going to be too old to play in the Olympics. But you know who's not going to be
Victor Wimbanyama. Victor Wimbanyama is going to be in his prime at that point.
Yes he is. And as long as he is healthy, that young man is a, is a bother. Unless you are a
San Antonio Spurs fan, that man is a bother. That kid is only getting better, only getting stronger.
And again, you know, God bless him health wise. He's okay in everything. That is going to be
a problem alone, let alone whatever else they have on that team. And you know he's going to play.
He's going to want to play. He's going to want to beat everybody with team France. Yeah.
Not to mention, well, you're going to lose a knucklehead like go bear and everything.
You're going to be gaining two of the top picks in the NBA draft this year. They're going to be
I'm probably that team. So yeah, France along with Canada, Canada is another, I was actually more
worried about Canada in some ways than France this year. The home country always does well.
Yeah. So I wasn't shocked to see France get where they were. But I was very surprised to see
Canada go early. That team is only getting better and stronger. So yeah, you're right, man.
It's enjoy it while we can on the lady side challenge. Maybe you have a little bit longer,
but maybe not. Who knows. We will take our final time out of the show, but that's okay. We
will make it to the end of the game. We'll be all right without timeout. I feel comfortable with
this. We're going to use our challenge flag. And we'll be back with more playmakers,
proudly brought to my quality plus printing, getting your words out right here in Wisconsin Rapids.
Welcome back everyone to WFHRs. Playmakers.
Seth and James hanging out with you. We'll take you to the top of the hour. Looking forward
to having some fun with all of you. Call up and join the conversation. 715-424-2600-424-2600.
Programming note, no playmakers on Wednesday. We will be live on the air, but we'll only be talking
sports if you really want to. We'll do some partying here. We got a party going on and remember
that. We had the WFHR, WIRI, parking lot party happening this Wednesday, noon to six. Stop on by.
Yeah. The whole time or just part of the time, whatever we works for you in your schedule.
We got a lot of great things going on here with that. We're looking forward to interacting with
you, hearing your feedback along with bringing the kids down, letting them try some of the
cool things that we'll have around here. Different radio jobs. We'll have Edge VR. They're going
to have a headset down here. That's going to be pretty cool. We'll have food if you want to
purchase some. I'll taco. Social food truck will be here. Big shout out to them for being here.
That's going to be fun. We got in the very cool USB bracelets that we will put the recordings on
for if you decide you want to give it a try. Kids out there, you can grab it, take it home and
play it for your family and friends. It's going to be pretty cool. Yeah. We have to get to our
stat of the show set. Okay. We are a sports show. Every sports show has to have a stat of the show.
I didn't know that was in the contract. It is in the Bill of Rights of Sports. I looked it over
very closely. 1.2 million. 1.2 million is your stat of the show. That is how much Pitbull will
be paying the school of Florida International University for naming rights to their stadium,
which is now known as Pitbull Stadium. The singer, entertainer, big, big artist. Pitbull
has a college football stadium named after him. If this was an onion headline,
you would be laughing your tail off. Are you sure if not, the fact that it is real, it just makes
you shake your head. This is actually one of those weird situations where this could really
actually as silly as it is be a win-win for both people. Pitbull, a very Miami centric guy,
based guy, does a lot in the communities over there, does a lot of good over in the Florida area,
specifically the Southern Florida area. Florida International University is a small school,
but looking to make a name for themselves and schools do this all the time. There's been a
couple of stadiums, including a Boise State that colored their grass, different colors. Green.
I mean blue, yes. Western Michigan or Western Eastern Michigan. One of those two.
They went red. So there's things like that that's teams do all the time. As silly as it might
sound, one of the biggest recruiting tools that teams have, especially if you're Oregon,
and you're going to get kids to come all the way up to the whole other side of the country,
and all that. We got these really cool jerseys. We got these amazing jerseys, and guess what?
Every year they change. Exactly. We have the state of the art facilities and everything. What it
takes to bring these young talented kids and their families to allow them to come to these places.
It's not surprising. So I thought that was quite interesting seeing that that Pitbull
is going to have a stadium after him. That's weird. I mean, I get the whole
naming it after a corporate thing now, of course, everyone naming rights and all that,
and I remember back in the day when they named it after maybe a local person who had something
to do with building the stadium or whatever. That makes sense to me. But it seems kind of,
I mean, I know he's from the area, but still, that seems kind of random.
Pitbull, because I don't associate him with football.
Right. Right. I don't know. You might now. Maybe I will. I've been good at him.
It's a five-year deal. I don't feel like this could be a lose-lose for either side.
Yeah. It seems like they got it. They got a pretty cheap too, actually.
It's $1.2 million. That's it? Yeah. That's good. I've asked him for more.
You add on even another mill, and it might be saying some different, but given the num money and
everything, and it ain't my money. No, it's not my story. You can afford it.
So I think good on ball. Good on all of them. Wish them well. I hope that this leads to more
celebrities doing this. That is kind of where we're going to go with this, because what
stadiums like, let's, you know, any stadium you want, any sports you want,
give me a celebrity to name after that team. And I think that we could have some fun with this
stadium-wise. Certainly, you're going to be talking about this, and you're going to say,
well, there's some classic stadium names and everything, Riggly Field or something like that.
Keeping in mind, they're going to keep Riggly Field, but it would be, you know, John Cusack
Riggly Field. That, you know, I did that kind of thing. That would be hilarious of John Cusack.
He would never do that. The Gary Sinese Field at Riggly Park or something like that.
Yeah, right. They could probably get the white socks a lot cheaper.
Oh my God. I could get the white socks. I could get the white socks. The James Bailoff,
the, the Fire Jerry Rinesdorf, sell the team Jerry Stadium. That's what I would like to do.
Sell the team Jerry Stadium. For the love of God, if you've ever loved baseball in the city of Chicago,
please get rid of the white socks. Thank you for the Segway Seth, because I did want to touch on
at least one for a minute, and I'm timing myself. I got a minute to talk white socks. All right.
The pickup of Grady Sizemore as their new manager, bringing a different energy to the park,
did lead to a loss in his first game managerial game, which is understandable.
Yeah, right. I am not hopeful as a white sock fan. I'm the exact opposite of what I am as a
bare fan as a white sock fan. As long as Jerry Rinesdorf has signed the checks, I don't feel good
about anything going forward. I'll be honest with everybody a couple of years ago when people were
talking up the socks, I was not one of them. You had your doubts. I did not feel good about that.
I wanted to feel good about it. I did not. It took a punch to basically end that run and end
the career. Well, pretty much. I don't even think he's in league right now. He got dropped by the
Marlins. So yeah, he's not even there. But Grady Sizemore, great player and a nice career and does
seem to be very liked in that dugout. I'm hopeful that he keeps this job. I'm hopeful that they
keep him here, that they keep somebody in house that knows the franchise, knows these players,
has a connection with the GM, and they can build on something because there's nothing to build on
right now in the south side. So I'd like to see that and I'm happy for oh, I'm a person,
even if it's a player I didn't like as a player. I don't know, I'm always happy to see these guys
get jobs like this. There's not a ton of jobs in sports. I know we think nowadays,
oh, everybody goes into commentating. Everybody goes into this. That's a handful.
They were talking like three, four percent of a former players that get to do those things.
They're no retirement plan for these guys. It's cool to see. Yeah, you know, it's funny.
His story is actually really similar to Rocco Bell Dulles, who's the manager of the twins right
now. They had similar careers. They were both really, really good players that got hurt.
They're both of their careers ended early because of some really weird
disorders that they had. Grady Sizemore was great. He was an awesome player, but the injuries
piled up and he had to quit. Sadly, because of that, same thing with Rocco Bell Dulles, man,
this could be something similar because he's got a real similar feel to it. I don't know,
personality wise, I'm guessing they're completely different. But if Rocco's done pretty good,
his manager of the twins, he's done a really good job over the last five, six years. Let's see
what happens. You know, you never know. I'm going to give him a chance, though. I would like to
think so. We'll see. We'll see. I did want to get real stats of the shows and I was just
messing around with that one. I could go with Nolan Ryan's 5,714 strikeouts and 2,795 walks
as far as unbeatable stats. Yeah. I believe, and you can break this down and play it back 20
years from now or whatever. Ricky Henderson's 1,406 career steals. Let alone his 130 steals in 82
will never be touched. Let alone beaten. No. I don't even think those are going to be even touched.
Not even close. No, no, no. Even you know, the kind of resurgence like Elie De La Cruz this year,
stealing a whole bunch of bases. Yeah, no, that's not going to be enough. We can mention the big
Bambinos. Babe Bruce, 177 runs scored in 1921. That is still not even been touched.
Bonds got close, but never scored 150 times in the season. John Bagwell got close with 18152,
but nobody has been closer than in that one. No, no, no. So there's those that are pretty good,
but the one I want to go to Seth is Joe Sewell's three. Oh, I'm sorry, no, no, no, I apologize.
Oh, I know, I know what the status. I know what this is. Joseph three strikeout season 32. Oh,
no, no, no. Okay. I'll think of something else. Sorry. Well, I wanted to mention, uh,
Jody Davis is 89 base runners caught stealing in 1986. What? Davis total ties for 166th all time,
but everyone ahead of him played before the end of World War II. Uh, the and and in my
integration and everything. Yeah. Davis raced past Eri Carter's 75th caught steal throws in 1983.
That was the closest there was. It was 75 and no other backstop has reached 70 since Tom Paganazi
in 1991. Oh, there's a good name for him. Got a good name in there. Boy, Tom Pagan had a great arm.
You know what? And that was in the the height of running in the 80s, man. That's when you had the
crazy, uh, Cardinals just running all over the place. How many times did they have to throw?
Think about that 89. That's how many he caught. Yeah, which means there were a bunch of guys. He
didn't. That's like 200 throws in the sea. Wow. They have brought back crazy and bases,
but not that much. No, it's not even close to what it was in the 80s. Yeah. As far as
unbreakable stats, especially for backstops, it's going to be one of them. You know, especially,
they don't, I mean, most guys don't even play that many games this morning. It's a platoon for a lot
of these guys for a lot of these teams. I mean, uh, at that position. So it would be interesting.
Yeah. And the three strikeouts in a season. That's never ever, ever, ever, ever happening again. Yeah.
Well, yeah. I agree. I agree. Uh, we will, uh, we will be back on Friday with you.
Everybody have a great week until then. And meet us here on Wednesday for our WFHR
WIRI Parking Lab Parties. Yes. Great show. You too. Have a good day, everyone.
This is locally grown radio WFHR 1320 AM W24 ADE Wisconsin Rapids and always streaming on the
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