⚾Otani is a god!

Good afternoon, Wisconsin. Welcome to WFHRs. Playmakers.

Welcome to the show. Good afternoon, everybody.

Your host, James J here. I am joined by our head of production,

our co-host, my partner in sports, Seth Habhagger.

Why, good afternoon, all.

We hope you're having a good one out there.

We are your tailgate for high school football as at 650 on 105-5WRI.

We got our pre-game kickin' off from Lincoln High School hosting WASA West.

Randy, Mike Seth's gonna cover that one for you. You know it's gonna sound good.

That's all a fame game today. They're inducting some new Hall of Famers for Lincoln, yeah.

Very excited about that, and thank you for teeing us up, Seth,

because we may be joined by a Hall of Famer around here.

That's right.

You know, certainly one of our Hall of Famers here at WFHR may be joined by them.

We'll also be joined by Michael Comer, maybe a future Hall of Famer for WFHR.

I never know.

We'll have him joining us at some point, too.

Today, who knows where Michael is, but it doesn't matter.

He's had a high school game.

A high school game is actually fair.

Yeah, I was gonna say it might not be football, but that covers it.

Yeah, but he goes to just about everything he can cover.

So, yeah.

We've got some stats of the shows for you as well.

We'll get into all of that.

Talk a little bit about the Green Bay. We'll talk some Brewers.

But we have to kick things off, Seth, with what happened last night?

We have to.

We do.

Breaking down Shohei Otani's historic 50-50 season.

And we want to of course talk to all of you.

715-424-2600. Call up and join us.

With any of your sports takes and feelings and thoughts and ramblings,

you're able to do that thanks to our friends at Quality Plus Pritting,

getting your words out here in Wisconsin Rabbits.

Seth, before we go to the calls,

your first feelings on what happened last night with Otani.

Okay, I'm still kind of processing the whole thing.

I watched all the highlights and everything.

He is something that we have never seen anything like this before.

Okay, he comes to the United States.

He comes, you know, pitcher, hitter.

Okay, wow, we haven't seen that since.

Babe Ruth, you know, someone of this level.

And he excels at both.

He gets his arm hurt, can't pitch anymore.

He's going to be a D.H. Dodger signs a gigantic contract.

Okay, what more can he do?

What, it should be, what can't he do?

Yeah.

This, we are witnessing something that's absolutely amazing.

He, last night, he went six for six.

Okay.

Yeah.

He stole two bases.

He hit three home runs.

That's one of the great single days ever.

Okay, oh, by the way, he stole 50 bases for the season.

Oh, by the way, he hit 50 home runs.

50, 50 club.

No one has ever done that before.

Right.

He's the first player to ever do that.

By the way, he's probably going to win the MVP award for the National League as a D.H.

No D.H. has ever won the MVP award.

Okay.

Oh, and by the way, they're heading to the playoffs and we get to see him for the first time.

Oh, that's right.

And maybe see him pitch.

Maybe.

Yeah, that's on the, that's on the table.

Dave Roberts said that.

Dave Roberts said that.

Yeah.

10 RBIs for a lead off hitter.

Oh, that's incredible.

You're on the air.

Good, and you're in the game.

Good afternoon.

How's it going, man?

Well, Jeff kicked me out of the chair.

So now I have to call on the phone.

Good to have you with this, Jeff.

How's your, how's your after-do go?

Well, the afternoon was going really good.

I mean, it's Friday.

It's Friday at football.

Yeah.

Nice.

I mean, what more can you ask for on September night when it's still 70, some degrees open.

Yeah.

Hopefully, hopefully nobody gets sick playing football the night, you know, even on the football

or anything like that.

Right, right.

We don't need that.

We don't need that.

I'll say, though, if it happens, we now we know what to do.

Just run with it.

No, don't try to throw it.

Don't try to throw it.

No, not try to throw that ball.

That's a great one.

What are you looking forward to this week and what's on your mind today?

Well, I mean, I mean, obviously there's a lot of what I'm speaking.

I mean, you know, the packers are playing possum with, if they're going to, you know, have Jordan

play or not on Sunday.

Yeah.

You know, and hopefully the brewers can gain a couple of games in the Dodgers or the, or the,

um,

uh,

Phillies, the,

maybe get that, that first, uh, that first wrong drive, uh, by, you know, um,

I mean, it's going to be in the next couple of weeks, especially in baseball.

It's going to be really interesting because, you know, yeah, you know, if you look at,

if you look at it, all everybody else in the league, the brewers, you know,

picked only the 76 games being the bottom of the, of the NL Central.

And, you know, and now they were the first team to win their division.

They're going to probably be close to 90 wins, 91 wins.

I mean, it's, I mean, how much more can you, you know, say what this season has been like

with the brewers and, you know, they get the, you know, the three more games here with the Diamond

and then you got three with Pittsburgh and three with other mats.

And, I mean, I really can see them getting, you know, at least the 91, 92 wins,

maybe with these last three remaining games.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That'll be an interesting series of the mets.

Oh, yeah.

Possible, um, uh, matchup in the playoffs, too.

So it might be a little preview there.

So that'd be interesting.

Yeah.

Well, even this weekend, you're getting that preview with them.

Yeah.

You know, they might, if they have to play in that wild car, they might have to play the,

the Diamondbacks.

Again.

Long weeks.

And my dad was asking me about this the other day.

He's like, hey, should I watch the football or watch the Diamondbacks and brewers and everything?

And he's like, I'm like, I think it's going to be more competitive with the brewers and, uh, Diamondbacks.

Yeah.

Uh, it was, uh, that series, uh, Diamondbacks, Arizona keeps, I think, surprising people,

even though they were in the World Series last year.

Yeah.

I don't know, because I think people still are.

Well, the start of their season wasn't very good, but they have really turned it on in the second half.

So.

Yeah.

And, and it's just, it's when you get high.

And then this is the time of year you want to get high these last few weeks of, uh,

Oh, yes.

September.

I mean, in this whole carry over into the, uh, into the playoffs.

So I mean, I mean, the Braves are only two games out.

I mean, I don't think you'll see the Cubs get, I don't think you'll see the Cubs get there.

Um, or the Cardinals.

So I'd say it's pretty much.

There's a four team race right now to be in the wild card with the Padres met Diamondbacks and the Braves.

I mean, yep.

I, um, I thought the Braves would be in the situation.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I find myself such a weird Braves person, like the majority of my life Braves, Braves, uh,

I don't care about them.

Whatever.

Then they go and they lose like a 20 world series, you know, never win one and everything.

They've got the amazing pitching staff.

They have these, uh, you know, handful of players.

I kind of like, I'm like, I could be kind of cool to see the Atlanta win a World Series.

They do.

They win a World Series.

That's enough of that, right?

They're too good and all this.

Um, and now this season, or the last two seasons has been a very similar thing where I'm not rooting for Atlanta.

And then of course they lose all their players.

And they're now they're like the underdog and everything.

And it's kind of like, well, I always root for a hundred dogs.

And now it's weird not to root for them.

It's more, you know, it's, I think it's more than that.

Last year the Braves had the best offensive season a team has ever had in major league history.

Yeah.

And this year, it's, I think they all had career years.

I mean, even before Ronald LeCoon, you went down, he was not having a great season.

All these guys that they have, they not have great seasons that had great seasons last year and they have zero depth.

So I don't see, even if they get into the playoffs, I don't know how they're gonna, you know, how far they're gonna get.

I got a, I got a question for both of you here.

We'll do a little quick survey out of the divisions in the games that are still up for grabs, positions that are still up for grabs in the playoffs.

What is the most exciting race to you?

What division wise?

Because I, I think that there's a lot of, a lot of, you know, we certainly are paying attention to the central, you know, even with the brewers locking it up and everything.

Because we want to see who, if there's going to be a wild card out of there, the east looks interesting.

But I, I got to say the American league east is, is very interesting to me with those big names and those big hitters and everything.

And one of them, somebody's not going, somebody's, somebody's going to be staying home.

Even, even the American league central is fascinating to me with all the moves the royals made, the twins not letting up, Detroit, all the sudden, you know what I'm saying?

We're going to, we're going to be spoilers.

If, if we're not getting to the dance, we're definitely going to be spoilers.

The twins are slowly letting it get out of their grasp right now. It's pretty sad to watch, but yeah.

Watch out everybody. White socks, four and six in their last time.

As long as they don't, I just hope they can avoid the 120.

I don't know if that's going to happen, but I hope they avoid the 120.

And I'm sitting here, and I'm sitting here looking at the, the standings right now, especially in the American league.

I mean, the, the royals and the, and the Orioles are the top two seeds right now on the wild card.

And you got the twins, tigers and mariners and the twins and tigers are actually got the same record.

But they have the twins as the third seed of the wild card must be because of a tiebreaker, maybe or whatever.

Yeah, I think that's right.

But here's a possibility.

You could see two teams out of the central, the American league in, in the, in the playoffs, you know.

So you're going to have, you could have three teams.

Yes.

Pretty wild.

There's three teams, three teams, possibly in the, in the West and the National.

Yeah, the National West, that's right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The AL West, the Astros just keep, you know, doing what they do.

They, they become the braves for me.

In many ways.

I just, I really, I don't want them to win.

I don't want them out of the first round.

I don't, I don't, I don't want them back to the ALCS.

What, how many in seven in a row they've been?

No, I'm tired of you.

I'm tired of them done with it, done with it.

Cap, we appreciate the time before we let you go.

Anything else on your mind for the weekend that you are excited about as far as football or any of that.

I know that we have the brewers.

Badgers are off this weekend.

So we get a break there.

When it comes to the next quarterback, man up, next man up and everything you ex, I don't know.

You're almost playing with house money here in some ways.

The rest of the badger season.

You, you, what is expected of you coming into the season and what is expected now is two very different worlds.

Nationally, I'm not talking about locally.

I'm not talking about local fan bases or even, you know, your GM McIntosh.

I'm, I'm saying, you know, as far as the national perspective of Wisconsin.

Oh, they lost their starting quarterback.

We're not expecting as much.

So in some ways, you're playing with house money and you can upset some people.

You can show some people some things and learn and get some of these younger players some play in time.

Especially this young quarterback with these young receivers.

Because God, they got some good receivers in Green, Wisconsin.

Well, I mean, I agree with you, but it's just, I'm gonna say every town, but before I get to Madison.

It's, it's, it's, this has been, this has just been a hard last few weeks.

I mean, even though they, they got those two wins against North Dakota and Western Michigan.

I just, I'm not, I mean, I don't think all, you, you, you gotta give him a couple of years, but I'm just, I'm just still not a real big fan of these two coordinators because,

I, I, I must still go back to that game last Saturday is you got fourth and inches and you're going from shotgun.

Yeah, yeah.

I, I'll drive me insane.

Why don't you understand or go and do in the touch push?

Yeah.

Yeah.

But I'll never understand the idea of having my running back five to 10 yards back when I need one yard.

Like, why am I doing that to him?

I don't, give me a, miss me with all of the stats or any of these things or with a momentum that he has running with the ball or whatever.

No, I, nine times that much can happen.

It doesn't seem like a fumble the ball.

Yeah, drop it.

He could, I mean, there's all kinds of things that happen.

I'm with you on this and I do think that while you, you're right, Fickle's going to have another year no matter what and everything.

It's starting to, the seed is getting a little warm now.

Even with the quarter with the, everything understanding of what I just said there, it is going to get a little warmer for him.

And, you know, sometimes pressure makes diamonds.

So we'll, we'll see what happens with that.

They've got a nice recruiting class in 2025 already.

And they are not done.

So we'll see where they go with that.

Of course, we'll be covering it right here when the badgers are back in action next week.

Kev always appreciate the time, man.

You have a great weekend.

Are you guys have a great weekend too?

We'll talk later.

All right.

Thanks for joining us earlier today.

Yeah.

That was great.

That was nice.

We got back to back.

Yeah.

Seven one five four two four twenty six hundred or call up and join the conversation everybody.

We're going to continue talking a little Otoni.

The show Otoni actually is in our stat of the show here, Seth.

Oh, very good.

Very good.

My stat of the show for today 1901.

1901.

Okay.

I love it when we go back that far.

Yes.

And so Otoni yesterday not only became the first ever 50-50 player, which is still exciting to me.

Oh, I don't care.

Absolutely.

I understand that it's arbitrary.

We're picking these numbers because they're round and they sound better than 49-49 or 10 fingers.

That's how we do a 10 system, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I marvel at the people who get upset about this.

They're all old-school baseball fans who all baseball is built on is stats.

Yeah.

Made up stats.

Yeah.

Made up numbers that don't really mean anything.

Why is the 300 batting average that big of a deal over a 250?

Yeah.

Why is this?

Why is that?

Why is it 500 home run club?

Why is it 3000 hit club?

Yeah.

We've been making up numbers.

What are you talking about, man?

The person that gets on there, like, and it's a lot of people I respect too.

Like Mike Wilbond or Dan Patrick.

I love those guys.

But I will not understand the old man that sits there.

It's like, you know, it's arbitrary.

It doesn't really mean that much.

What are you talking about?

That's the history of baseball.

That's all it is.

Yes.

Who came down from the baseball mountains and said 3000 hits mean something.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Let's write that down.

We did that.

That's all this is.

That's all it is.

You can't even get out of here with that.

I'm telling you, man.

It says, but, you know, I was thinking about this on the way over.

I mean, he keeps, show hey, keeps doing stuff we haven't seen before.

Or it's been, like, 100 years since we've seen something similar to that.

But we have to start.

Okay.

He had retired today and he, he had waltz into the hall of fame.

Yeah.

And he's not, he's only been there for, what, five, six, how many years has been?

I can't remember how many years have been in the league.

But we have to start talking.

And I know he still has a long career ahead of him.

But we got to start talking greatest of all time.

Oh, yeah.

We have to start.

Oh, yeah.

He's got to start being included in the conversation.

I don't think he's ever going to hit May's Aaron level necessarily.

In part because of, because of the history.

Quite frankly and everything.

The advancement of so many things for me then to now and everything.

But you're absolutely right, brother.

He is in the conversation.

You have to bring him up.

Especially given the fact I hadn't even thought about this man until you just said it.

We've got years of him yet.

Yes.

Hopefully.

Yeah.

Here's hoping.

So 1901, I take us back to 1901.

Yes.

Well, I go back.

There wasn't even radio back then.

Wasn't even radio back then.

I love the old school.

I love the idea of you to go back in time and everybody talked like talks like this.

Yeah.

You're saying man.

Again.

He not only was the first ever 50, 50 player.

But he's also the first player since 1901 to have at least five hits, multiple home runs

and multiple stolen bases in a single game.

Nobody has done that since 1901, 120 years ago.

It's incredible.

That's incredible.

And it might have not happened if you had a different manager on Florida's side, on Miami's

side.

Oh, yes.

I think one of the better managers in baseball and is going to be the biggest free agent

in baseball next year, I think.

For managers.

Yeah.

I think even more than players, man.

Really?

Yes.

Because this guy is good.

He's a former manager of the year.

He's hungry.

He's young players like him.

And let me tell you.

You can have a great team that everybody's talking about is going to win the anal central or

anal central or something like that.

All this talent, talent upon talent.

You bring in a corner, quote, winning world series manager and everything goes wrong, Seth.

Everything.

The bitterness.

The bitterness right there.

So I think a manager is way more important than we realize.

I would normally agree with you except Corbin Burns is going to be a free agent next year.

No, you're right.

He's going to be the top of the list.

Absolutely.

100% right.

I stand corrected.

But I do think that what happened with him yesterday was cool and we don't see this a lot,

especially from younger or from managers in general in baseball.

Yes.

So I think this is kind of cool.

I'm going to play coach Schumacher here.

Thanks to belly sports.

And talking about, they asked him if he thought about not pitching to Otani.

That lasted bad.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that's a bad move.

Baseball-wise, karma-wise, baseball-god-wise, you go after him and see if you can get him out.

And I think out of respect for the game, we're going to go after him.

She hit the...

That was all I really wanted to play.

It goes up for, basically, the same stuff over and over.

But I love that he said that.

I love that he came out, did that.

We get that moment because of it.

Is it at the cost of Marlins and Marlins fans?

Yes.

And I'm sure that didn't feel that great at the same time.

I heard from a couple of Marlins fans today.

And all they could talk about was how excited they were.

Oh, I mean, seriously.

And how amazing last night was.

Yeah, right.

There was a couple of people that I saw that got their tickets for like one person got like a 40-hour ticket,

one person got a $26 ticket.

Imagine that.

26 bucks.

And you've got to see that.

Like, Joe Hayotani have a career night.

Man, it's incredible.

It is.

It's so astonishing.

Hey, I got to give...

And I do give a skip shoe marker a lot of credit there.

He's always been considered kind of old school.

You know, he's one of those guys.

He's kind of those hard-knows kind of...

When he was a player, he was like that.

But, you know, I remember hearing managers talk about this when Joe Demagio was going through his 56-game hitting streak in 1941.

People, they were asking the same question, well, why don't you walk him?

And they would say, basically, that's disrespecting the game.

Yeah.

You need to show.

You can get this guy out, not just walk him.

And there's a lot to that, I think.

So, too, that's why I have never understood the idea of beating somebody that just hit a home run off of you.

So stupid.

Your point right there is my exact point for that.

If you show me up, I want to show you up.

Yeah.

How do I show you up by beating you?

I can even do that.

You can take anybody out of stands that can do that.

Right.

I want to strike you out.

That, to me, is the way to trump that person, to really show that person.

Hey, I got you there instead of, oh, I'm going to hitch in the butt with a ball.

Like, I got, oh, I really showed you.

I know.

He's on base now.

He's got a chance.

The unwritten rules of baseball are stupid.

Another thing that I thought was kind of interesting to come out of the Otani conversation with this is,

one of the things that I feel like I'm one of the few people that has paid attention to in history was stolen bases.

And not just the amount of stolen bases, but the percentage.

How good are you at stealing bases?

That's something that I've always marveled at and I thought was really cool going back to,

you know, looking on the back of a baseball card and trying to figure that out myself.

You know, because they didn't always have that stat on there.

Right.

They would have, you know, a stolen base attempts and stolen bases, but they wouldn't have the percentage.

So I would do it myself and everything.

I've always thought this was one of the cooler, untalked about stats and baseball.

So we continue our stat of the show, diving into that set, where there's some pretty cool stuff here, I think, actually.

I think if one of your stats is who has the highest stealing percentage of all time,

I think I know the answer to that.

Do you want to take it there?

I want to take it there.

Is it Davy Lopes?

Oh, no, but good reference.

Oh, it's not Davy Lopes.

I don't really have Davy on this list.

Oh, good reference, good reference though.

He was one of the best base stealers in terms of percent.

He didn't steal the most bases, but his percentage, if I remember, was very high most of his career.

Some of these are going to be very surprising.

You're going to hear some familiar names that you know and then some you don't.

The guy who holds the record for the highest stolen base percentage in MLB history, 864.

Pretty darn good.

Oh, wow.

Carlos Beltram.

Really?

Wow.

Didn't have that one.

Wow.

I knew he stole bases, but I didn't realize he was that good at it.

That's right, yeah.

Wow.

Second highest is Tim Rock Reigns with 847.

Oh, he's seven.

A little more recognizable.

Love that.

Love that he's on the top.

That's pretty cool.

That is pretty cool.

One of the most underrated players in the 80s.

Absolutely.

I'm a runner set a record for the most stolen bases in a season without being thrown out in 2023.

30 for 30.

That's pretty cool.

That is pretty cool.

I didn't hear that.

I don't remember that.

I don't remember anybody even talking about that.

No, I don't remember that either.

I'm not going to use this opportunity to ramble about one of my favorite players, Ricky Henderson.

But if you know baseball, you know that Ricky has the record for most stolen bases not only in a career, but in a season.

Yeah.

But did you know that Hugh Nicola, Hugh Nicol, holds the all-time record for stolen bases in a season with one of the most in the 80s.

In a season with one 38 in 1887.

Oh, whoa.

So that must have been an all-American association one.

Right.

I don't think the stats count.

Ricky holds the record for most stolen bases in a season with one 30.

He holds the record for most in an in an AL or an or something like that.

But 1887.

138.

That count, no.

Yeah.

You got a wonder, man.

You got a wonder.

Yeah.

Murray Willis led the Dodgers in stolen bases in 1962 with 104 while also winning the MVP.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was the record before Ricky broke it.

Yeah.

George Gore stole seven bases in a game in 1881.

Oh, my gosh.

That's pretty cool.

Oh, don't tell Shohei.

He's going to do that, by the way.

Oh, yeah.

I honestly think he started the season saying I'm going to do 50, 50 this year.

Well, he seems like one of those guys like there's just my goal.

Yeah.

He makes it.

I don't think, yeah, I was going to say I don't think that's very far fetch.

No, no.

This is a guy who really is the definition of a team player and wants to help his team and can help his team in ways a lot of players can't.

Now, if I'm if I can't pitch, if I can't play defense, what more can I do for my team?

I don't believe that he's ever had more than 20 stolen bases in a season or something like that.

He said he said in the 20s before.

So the fact that he has almost tripled that, it tells me that, yeah, this is a strategic plan by him that, oh, I can steal bases.

I can help my team that way.

I know we're kind of flogging the deck horse here with him, but I got that first stolen base he had in the game last night.

He stole third base, the ball beat him, but his slide was so good that the tag was never applied until his toe was on the bag.

This is how smart he is because there's the back corner is the place that you always want to slide to on a bait because where the fielder is,

feeling the ball he's got to reach behind him to try to tag you.

Yeah.

And that's exactly he slid right to the exact spot.

The ball beats him, but the tag is not applied and he's safe.

That's incredible.

What can't he do?

They're going to go back and talk about that one too.

That particular one right there.

Now, on the other side of this, who were some of the worst base dealers in the industry and a minimum number is set for this and everything.

As we get ready to go to break, we'll tell you that Pete Rose got caught 43% of the time.

It's just pretty interesting.

Yeah.

Well, he did try to steal bases, but yeah, Ruth was caught 49% of the time.

Babe Ruth.

Why was he trying to steal?

That's what I want to know.

Lou Gehrig was caught 50% of the time that he was stealing bases.

To be fair, in the like the 20s and 30s, they didn't steal many bases.

Exactly.

There wasn't much running going on.

And this is a minimum of 200 attempts.

Oh, okay.

That's pretty low.

Yeah.

It's pretty low and kind of cool to think of Lou Gehrig stealing trying to steal even 20 stolen bases or anything.

I was very surprised by the Pete Rose things.

We could in Charlie Hustle.

We could consider him a kind of one of his assets of his game was being able to get on base.

To run.

Yeah.

And running on the bases.

But of all these guys, George Burns had the worst.

And not the comedian.

No.

No.

Good night, Gracie.

At 388 with a 38% clip.

Oh, that's terrible.

That's terrible.

Oh, that's terrible.

That's terrible, man.

Yeah.

So not that much better on him.

He was a good hitter though.

I know who that George Burns was and he was a decent hitter, but yeah, he couldn't run.

We are still looking forward to talking to my school football with our friend, Michael Comber,

as we get ready for at 650 today on 10555WRI with Lincoln High School hosting Wasaw West.

That game is going to be covered by Randy Michael and Seth for you.

Just in a little bit less than a half an hour away from that one.

Oh, no, we're a little over an hour and a half.

Yeah, well, a little bit longer than that.

Yeah.

But we'll gear you up for it.

We'll get you ready for it.

And we're able to do that.

Thanks to our friends at Quality Puzz printing.

Getting your words out right here in the rapids.

Seth and I'll be back with more Playmakers.

Welcome back, everyone.

Two WFHRs.

Playmakers.

Seth and James hanging out with you.

Getting ready for some high school football on a little bit.

Yeah.

Looking forward to that.

I feel so good to say that.

I'm seeing some trees changing colors.

Yeah.

Football is upon us.

Mm-hmm.

But before we get to into football, we do get some more baseball to talk Seth.

Okay.

Because I do think you said something in our break there that I think is still noteworthy.

And I don't want to have normalized what is happening right now with Otani

and all of that.

We have been fortunate.

If you are over the age of 15, there are at least 15, I should say.

You have experienced some of the greatest people to ever do their particular sport between

Tom Brady, even going back to what LeBron James has done.

Yeah.

Going into some homebiles of Serena Williams, Tiger Woods.

If you want to go back a little bit farther, Michael Jordan and everything.

Mm-hmm.

We've seen greats.

We've seen goats, legends at what they do.

Not just the greatest of their generation, but you can make the argument maybe the greatest

to ever do what they are doing at that particular time.

Right.

And all of that, to me, just my opinion, pales in comparison to what Otani is doing because

of all of those guys, you know, there are little things here and there.

Well Brady's one more Super Bowls than anybody.

Some homebiles is one more gold than a Michael Phelps is a better example.

Right.

Yeah.

When he's done and everything.

And that being said, nobody's done it in a sport that's been around as long as it has.

Mm-hmm.

And a sport that is so world played.

Mm-hmm.

You know, we got better with basketball and everything.

But you're still not, the world is still trying to catch up to the USA in many ways.

Where there's a big difference of, hey, Team Francis got a couple of NBA players.

We got all NBA players.

It's a big difference.

Yeah.

You know, football is never not even close to what it is.

Yeah.

Well Brady did is impressive.

Don't get me wrong.

But he didn't do that against the world.

Mm-hmm.

Like, you know, I mean, what Otani is doing, what some of these athletes are doing are against the whole rest of the world.

Right.

There is, it is something to do something in a sport that is over what, 200 years, 150 years old.

Yeah.

You can be traced back to like 150, 170 years.

Yeah.

That nobody's ever done before.

Yes.

And not just once, but done it.

We've lost track of how many times he's done something that nobody's ever done before.

Exactly.

It's just incredible.

Yeah.

And it's also, I think, kind of, not just kind of cool and fun and everything.

But it's one of those things where I don't know how you can be, you don't have to be a fan of him.

You don't have to necessarily like this.

But how you cannot not respect it.

That part.

Like, if you don't, I want to hear from you.

You know, I want to hear why.

And I don't want to start a fight here.

I don't want to, yeah.

I'm not trying to do, you know, sports radio, you know, debate talk.

I'm genuinely curious.

What is it about this that you don't find amazing?

Right.

Right.

I do want to also talk about something else unless you had something there.

I was just going to say, and the fact that he makes it look so easy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I, I, people know, hitting a baseball, hitting a round ball with a round bat is probably the hardest thing to do in sports.

And the way he makes it, just watching him last night, it's like, yeah, I'm, I'll just get a home run now.

You know, that's what it's like watching him play.

And he's in the other thing that I find so refreshing.

There's joy.

Yeah.

Every time you see him going around the bases last night, he was smiling.

Everyone was smiling.

Man, he must be like one of the great clubhouse people of all time.

Even though he doesn't speak very good English, right?

Yeah.

That is just his presence.

It seems to be such a positive thing to his teammates.

Wow.

It's, it's remarkable.

Ricky Henderson was 5, 10.

Vince Coleman was, I think, I want to say 5,

11.

Yeah.

They were not tall men.

Something like that.

Oh, six foot.

Tim Reigns was 5, 10, 5, 11.

Yeah.

Shohei is like 6, 20.

Like he's 5.

He's a tree out there pretending to be a human being.

And, and, and still flight of foot and all that.

And that also stands out to me.

Not the fastest man, but he's just really good at stealing bases.

I'm curious to know from the audience what playoff races they're most interested in as

you get closer to the last game of the regular season for baseball.

There's a lot of really cool ones going on.

I really do think the Orioles Yankees thing is quite interesting.

I just have big names and big teams.

It does catch my eye.

I like that.

I like that.

Especially with the way that the Orioles established themselves last year.

And now the Yankees kind of coming back after having a bat down year last year.

It's, it's kind of a fun narrative going on between those two teams.

I, and I'm a, I'm outside of like, because obviously my team's nowhere near it.

I was kind of rooting for the brewers all out and everything.

I really do like the Orioles a lot.

I love seeing the Orioles back in the run-up thing.

So I'm kind of sneaky looking at them too.

But with all, I bring up a couple of these teams.

Because I, I've seen an interesting article the other day from Anthony Kesto, Kesto Vinci.

With the benefit of hindsight, the teams that won the trade deadline.

Oh, okay.

Because we lose our minds about it.

I, I include it.

We lose our minds over the trade deadline of how, hanging on to guys or not to hang on to guys and all of this.

And what teams really get better from the trade deadline.

Not on as far as making the playoffs.

I mean the teams that are selling.

The teams that strengthen their club.

Right.

Yeah.

For future hopeful success.

This article talks about like the teams that made trades.

And, and who really won out the royals as according to him being the best with the biggest winners of all of them.

From the trade deadline and everything.

But I, I do think that what's interesting is looking at do teams actually get better when they sell their talent.

And the stats are showing us no.

That's interesting.

No, they are not.

They are not getting better.

They oftentimes prospects are not working out.

And I, so I'm more and more inclined.

Like why?

Why do you sell off all your talent?

Why do it?

If you got a situation where a guy is on a one year deal.

Sure.

That's what you can for him.

Right.

But outside of that.

No.

I, I say, hey, you go ahead and get, uh, go to somebody else.

You're not, you know, it's, uh, scavenging my team and everything.

Right.

Let's get to our good friend, Michael Comer, who was out there somewhere in the greater such a Wisconsin area.

Covering high school sports.

Michael, how are you doing?

How I'm doing all right.

Are you doing good over here, man?

Were you at today?

Uh, I'm just, uh, just at the Southwood County, uh, what trust bank field.

So, uh, right.

I'm waiting for the wall.

So, uh, four years of Wisconsin rapids.

Red Raiders.

Michael, if you had a chance to talk to anybody so far at, at the field, uh, got a feel for the game or any, uh, headlines from the game so far.

Uh, not yet.

Rapids is still back at the school, getting everything ready, uh, as far as that goes.

What's kind of doing there a little walk through some of our skill positions are, are warming up out there.

Uh, it's just really, I mean, we still got 82 minutes before kickoff.

So, it's not going too crazy right now.

It's pretty thin, but it'll be picking up, especially when Randy Paul shows up.

That's when the party starts.

Absolutely.

We all know that.

They don't call a Randy party.

Paul for nothing.

They don't, you know.

Oh, he got that right.

Uh, we have party.

It's Kesha.

Kesha got that from him.

Yeah, absolutely.

Don't stop till he walks in.

Go ahead and look at the writing credits for that one.

It says Kesha and Randy Paul.

It does.

It does.

Uh, this is it.

I think we talked about this a little bit on Wednesday, Michael, without kind of saying it.

We talked around, maybe not around it, but just, you know, if we're between, in the between the lines,

we're not sure how many games Lincoln can win this year.

Uh, uh, going into this one, this is a winnable game and it's a Hall of Fame game for, uh, for Lincoln and everything.

So with all of that, are you, I'm expecting a good performance day from our Raiders.

Are you looking, are you looking at the same way?

Yes, I am.

I mean, would you play, would you play River Falls, who's, you know, granted two and two,

but they're a very good two and two if you want to put it that way.

Uh, then then Rice Lake, who still hasn't lost and they've crushed everybody they've played.

Uh, then you go into Everest, who's had a very good season and then point who's very good as well.

Rapids, they're, they're a four and four team, but I don't know how much of an own four is realistic.

Granted, someone's got to win, someone's got to lose, but I think they're not a bad own four team.

Mm hmm.

Uh, I know.

It's a nov, the other thing for these teams, whether it is, uh, the Raiders or it's, uh, Port Edwards,

even Nikusa with some of the winning they've been doing, they got so many young players on these teams.

Uh, this is just great reps for them, great experience for them.

Uh, if you're looking at this big picture wise, which I think is what you do as you start to get to,

at the first month of the season and everything and especially in high school or we don't have that much, many games,

um, you, you've got to kind of look at the big picture wise and these kids are getting some experience.

Right, uh, you know, uh, assumptions really the big one to look at for being young.

Uh, they're, they're having another tough night tonight against, uh, more than likely.

I'm not going to rule it out, but, uh, playing number three team in division six, Abbotsford,

Abbotsford actually beat Iowa Scandinavia 13 to seven and, uh, the week two weeks ago,

and Iowa just pounded assumption 41 nothing, uh, last week.

So, uh, I mean, you've got to be honest with yourselves at the same time.

I'm not sold them short, but, uh, from what I was talking to somebody walking up here,

and they might only really have 14, 15 kids suited up tonight.

Yeah, that's, wow.

That's, so that's, that's tough and that's, that's, that's discouraging.

But at the same time, these are young kids.

You know, it's like the old saying you got to spend money to make money.

You know, you got to take some lumps to give some lumps.

And that's where assumptions at right now.

Now, that's barring, you know, uh, program changes that might be coming down the road,

because there's nothing official.

There's nothing official or anything like that.

I'm not giving you the old chapter breaking news or anything like that.

But, uh, there, it is entirely possible within the next handful of years.

So, you know, if you could go to the man ranks,

and that's not something I know the AD or the head coach are really big with,

because they like to stay 11 player.

So, but you got to be realistic, and you got to look at the numbers,

and you got to look at the youth, and you got to, you got to,

you got to be honest with yourselves about it.

Maybe they are better suited at a, a, a player level.

But, hey, if they want to play 11, play 11, go for it.

You know, I don't have a problem with it, but, uh, you know,

Kusa, they're a little more senior laden, I bet,

before your starters now after, they got thrown into the next

freshman when they probably shouldn't have been.

But, um, then, then you factor in, uh, Port Edwards,

a bunch of seniors there, they're banged up a little bit.

I don't know how healthy they are, but they should have a good one up

a new Auburn that that's, uh, I'm thinking that's going to be a lot of points.

It's going to be a lot of like watching a good, good old big 12 football game.

Yeah, I was just going to, man, you took it right out of my mouth.

That's where I was going to go with that one.

I'm, uh, I'm, I'm looking forward to seeing how high that score gets.

I dig, I'm glad you brought up the, uh, the thing about assumption

because I don't think, no, but you're right.

Nobody's reporting about anything, but I don't think you, um,

if we talk to, uh, the fans and the stands at the game today,

I think some of them would say something very similar to what you're talking about there.

Um, this is, uh, as crazy as we get about sports,

as crazy as we get about football, especially.

And as much as we love it and everything,

and we love when our teams win and all of that,

we can never lose sight, especially since we are the adults in the room.

We can never lose sight that these kids, they're health matters.

They're, they're, they're livelihood matters.

And enjoying the game matters.

And you're, it's not as if, um, things are going to turn around next year,

or the year after that, or the year after that,

necessarily, when it comes to some of these teams,

whether it's assumption or some other teams that are kind of in that rough area of,

hey, there's only so many kids in this area,

and only so many that go to this particular school,

how many of them even want to play football,

little owner, good at football.

Uh, it's just being realistic while also trying to use some heart with this

and try to like, hey, they're kids.

Let's be, you know, realistic about this while also having a little heart to it and everything.

I, I think it's the best of both worlds.

If that's what happens, it's better than losing your team completely.

Right.

Or, or having your team swallowed up by another school,

or, or something like that.

I, I, I would think, and you hit something on the head that is also important about this.

This, this is one of the ways schools make money.

And whether you like it or not, whether we want to admit it or not,

business is a part of almost everything in life,

including the education system.

Uh, it, it helps schools.

Even, this is why N.I.U. will get paid a couple million to go to,

uh, Lafayette, and, uh, or not Lafayette,

but take on, uh, Ann Arbor, or what, not Ann Arbor,

take on, go on Notre Dame.

Notre Dame, right.

Uh, and, and play them and everything.

Open, yeah.

Yeah, South Bend, thank you.

It was gonna, I was gonna get there early.

At least seven more guesses I would have got.

Gary Indiana.

Um, I am straight one, straight two, straight two.

I got there, bitch.

We got about 20 more minutes to show.

I got, um, this is, this is the same thing.

Um, I, I think that it's a smart, realistic idea,

and a good thing to bring up, man.

Uh, I am excited about the Nikusa game tonight, too,

because I want to see how they, if they can bounce back from last week.

I don't think it's a matter of, if I think it's a matter of when,

I think the, uh, I, I, I, I'm not gonna give you

a shoe one of the week here, you know,

but, uh, I like that.

It's a segment.

Yeah, I like that.

I, I do, I do believe.

Nikusa is going to take that sting out of the hornets in Watoma,

and then they've just got to kind of get back, uh,

into what they're doing.

So they're gonna have a tough one next week against Wapan,

who's not a bad squad by any means.

They're just about the same record as Nikusa.

I'd have to do a little more homework on them this week,

before I can really comment on them.

But I know enough about Watoma.

Uh, basically, they played the same,

every one of the same teams that Nikusa has.

They've been beat by,

point up.

They've been beat by Westfield.

They've been beat by Boston.

They've been beat by Berlin.

So, uh, I mean, they don't score a lot of points.

They give up a bunch, but last week against Boston,

they lost, I think, by 10, maybe 11, I forget which.

But, uh, I mean, their,

their scores are getting closer.

Yeah.

They're playing better ball.

And that's what you got to be this time of year.

I mean, the writing on the wall,

0 and 5, you've got to really kind of run the table

to win, to make a playoff,

to, uh, present some teams are going to be eliminated

here in the next week or two.

So, so Watoma's really got to kind of get a figured out,

whereas Nikusa is going,

all right, clean up what we screwed up last week,

or what Berlin beat us at.

And not even a screw up,

you just got to get better.

And I think Nikusa bounces back.

Uh, I think Rapids has a better showing,

more consistent showing tonight.

Uh, assumption that that's,

that's such a,

a job ahead of them with the habits bird,

that I end with low numbers.

I think it's going to be really tough for them,

but you never know.

That's why you play the game.

And then of, uh,

poor, poor Edwards,