Afternoon, Wisconsin. Welcome to WFHRs. Play my cars.
Seth and James hanging out with you. We hope you guys are having a great Friday out there.
We're going to have some fun with the show today. Take some calls. We'll get into some baseball talk.
We're talking baseball. We'll talk rafters as well. I got some fun stats and weird stories of the show.
Story of the show is what we'll get into that story of the show as long as it's weird. I'm on board.
That's our that's our real house. They really is. If it's weird, we cover it. That's right.
Thanks for joining us. Everybody. Phone lines are wide open. Hit us in the numbers. 715-424-2600.
Looking forward to talking and hanging out with all of you guys out there.
Don't keep those sports takes inside. They spoil. They go bad. Start to smell bad. Yeah, you don't
need that. You don't need that in your life. Hit it out of your system. Call up and join the
conversation. You just a touch of two away on the Civic Media app. Appreciate you downloading the
app everybody. Got some baseball. I want to talk with you Seth. Certainly, if I have any
opportunity, any wiggle room to talk about the NFL draft, I will take it and not apologize to a
soul. We will get into all of that, but I actually want to start with some basketball. All right,
let's do it. And we're a little bit late on this one, but the Lakers traveled to Dallas to
take on the Mavericks. And of course, the biggest headline of this going into it was the biggest
most awkward, weird trade any of us have seen. Maybe in our lifetimes, outside of the
Herschel Walker trade. That's what I'm possibly. That's what my brain went to immediately.
I will say, when I think of bad deals in the NFL, that's pretty low on the list right now for me.
It actually is. It's still in the top five, but I cannot stop the Dachon Watson move.
Well, oh, like that one is going to be so bad for so long that every Minnesota fan should
be thanking that owner. Finally, yes, yes. But obviously, the trade of Dallas trading that
do Luca doncha to the Lakers. Right. And with some time to breathe about this one, I was curious
to see how emotions would be, how Luca would be. We were talking, actually, Michael and I were
talking about this and it loosely came up about Luca. A lot of the things that I've read about him
over his career, but I always a prodigy. And oftentimes, prodigies don't take no very well.
And that's come up a lot with him because he can be a bit of a whiner to the refs.
This is one of the most remarkable athletes I've seen. I don't know how he does some of the stuff
he does with that body. I feel like I could also be talking about the Joker as well,
right? Well, a joke, but either one of these guys, the gigantic difference, of course,
being their character the way they're on the court. I don't know much about Luca Doncha
as a person. No, not at all. One of the things I enjoy about basketball is not only the lack of
mask or helmet or hat or anything like that. So you get the full experience of the facial
aggression, emotions and everything. But it's the way that the, no matter how big the stadium,
the fans are right on top of you. They're right there. And there's no hiding from them.
There's no getting around it. You're going to feel that. And when LeBron goes back to Cleveland
or Shaq goes back to a certain name, because he played a lot of places, it's always interesting
to me. It's storylines. I like to see how these guys perform. I'm always curious of how the talent
performs under pressure. And then we see this game play out now. For those that we're not paying
attention, the Dallas Mavericks in a weird way doubled down, but not because they put out
all these shirts on every seat of Luca in his Slovenian language of like thank you. And it says
thank you in Slovenian, I believe. And like, I mean, just to talk about above and beyond moves,
like you would think that Luca had retired or like they had caught him and he went to another team
or it's like a clip tops in situation or something. So they're clearly hearing the fans and trying
to appease the fans more than Luca, I think with this. Sure. And then they show the video of it.
And this video looked like Spielberg and Scorsese went in and I'm directing it together.
It's incredible. It's beautiful. And it's got a lot of personal moments in there that weren't
available to all fans. So it's like really like low key, you know, directors, cut footage and everything.
And Luca's getting emotional. He's he's crying on the sideline while this is happening.
They have not even introduced players yet. Wow. All of this for a regular season game.
And it just it doesn't happen very often and it was kind of cool. And it was kind of cool to see
how emotionally, how much it meant to him and that he did not want to leave Dallas. This was not
what this young man wanted to do. And you could definitely tell, I don't think the Dallas Mavericks
organization realizes this by all of these actions of theirs. It didn't look classy. It looked like,
oh, we messed up. Yeah, it did. Oh, we messed up. We are so sorry. Is there any way we could, hey,
hey, David Stern, come on. It's such a bad trade. This got to be like Chris Paul thing. We're
in such a bad trade trade that David Stern nixed it. Yeah, we can come in there. Please, please,
even two weeks later, three months later, whatever it is, yeah, all this. And then Luca plays.
And he played lights out, played lights out, played, played his tail off. But the fans,
I've never seen this before where and this is part of why I watch and I only watched the first two
quarters where he had like 31 points or something like that. The fans were cheering when he would
score and also cheering when Dallas would score. So it was almost like this complete like constant
cheering going on. So bizarre. It was it was it was wonderful. It was awesome. I want more of this.
I am tired of booze. I'm tired of yelling and crying and whining in sports. I'm so tired of
whining in general, especially in politics. But that's another day. Yep. I am tired of the
whining in sports. I'm tired of of kind of what I'm talking about with Luca. And the the second
that I hit the ground, I'm looking at the ref. I'm not even looking at my teammate to pull me up.
I'm looking at the ref. It's no different than in sports where they're talking about my homes
or Alan or any of these guys where they can't get a fly lands on them and they're trying to ask
the referee. Well, there's got to be a penalty there, right? So I love this. I love the positivity
of it. I thought it was cool. I thought it was unique and I don't think we'll ever see anything
like it again. I don't know because in part because when's the next time you're going to see a 26
year old, a 25 year old talent like this, get traded for what? Right. Yeah. It was just a cool
moment. I just wanted to bring attention to it. It's in you. It's unprecedented. I met that it
needed me to bring attention to. But no, it's an interesting idea because you so I remember back
in the day and I'm talking baseball here where you would have a player that was traded. I mean,
they weren't didn't sign as a free agent. They were traded to another team. They come back and
they get booed. Yeah. Even though it wasn't nothing to do with it. They were traded by the team.
And they're booed. You know, you know, whatever that kind of thing. Well, people have finally figured
out. It's like, no, we should be happy for what they did while they were here. Now we get a lot
more of that. So they come back, you know, and there's cheers, you know, they get to stand outside
the batter's box for a second and soak all the cheers in and then just go about to their business.
But this, this is create, I have no, what is going on at the Maverick's front office right now?
What are they doing? That is just a mess. I feel really bad for the fans of, I haven't
spent a lot of time, but I've spent some time in the Dallas, Houston areas. And you dug about
great fan bases, you know, whether it was the Astros or the Rockets or the Texans at the time,
Texans had just gotten the team when I got over there. Great fan base, great people as far as that
goes and supporting their teams and everything. And not only with this trade, not only did that,
but if they don't see it coming, you know, somebody make sure that they hear this down there.
That team's moving. They're doing this to move that team. It's what it sounds like. It's classic
what you do. If you want to move a business, if you want to, if you want your business to end,
hey, I want to make my money overseas. It's cheaper. So I'm going to kill my product here so that I
can build it up over there. This is the, you know, businesses have done this for decades in its
centuries. And this is what they're doing. They're tanking this team, like not just the wins losses,
like the, you know, portfolio of this team and the worth of this team in order to move it.
Where does that sound familiar? Oakland fans. John, I was going to say they're pulling a John
Fisher is exactly what they're doing. They're not investing. That's the whole reason they traded
them. They did not want to pay him the, I mean, and he would be worth top salary, of course, because
he's one of the best players in the game. So you got to play him. They were just not willing to do
that. I find it not only classless and, and, and, you know, bad business, because it's not a good
business model. It's not a proven business model. Right. It may have worked back in the days of,
we're going to, we're going to take the, you know, the Baltimore Colts and the, in the middle of the
night, right? It might have worked. It wouldn't have worked even in the 90s, let alone now.
Right. So I, I don't know, I hope they had a good moment there, Dallas fans, because I don't know
how long, how much longer you're going to have professional basketball. I am, I'm going to,
boy, the, the Dallas fans have, I mean, they've had something to cheer about with, you know,
the Rangers, because they technically, you know, they're in Arlington, which is right next to Dallas,
you know, that kind of thing. They won the World Series couple years ago. But man, he took the
Mavericks out of Dallas. That is like ripping the soul out of the city. They all love the Cowboys.
I get that. But it's kind of a love hate relationship because of Jerry Jones. Yep. And he drives
them all cowboy fans crazy. He drives them crazy. They still love the team. But because of that,
this, the Mavericks, because they've won, you know, a title and they've won a couple of things.
And they're so close to that team, man. That would be just a disaster. I can't even imagine.
I feel bad. And I don't really like Dallas as a sports city, just personally. Yeah. I would feel
bad because of that, even though they have my stars. Yeah. But that wasn't their fault. That
wasn't the city of Dallas. But you're right. No, that's true. I would still feel bad for it.
I, I'm curious how that develops when it plays out. The few Dallas people that I know that are
friends of both like teams and all the teams you just mentioned there and everything. I,
and Grant, we're talking like maybe four or five people. Right. Like it is such a separation
for them with the Cowboys. Yep. And Jerry Jones and the Cowboys and the difference of that. And
there's almost this, if I bring up NFL football, they immediately want to talk like Texas,
like university. Like they don't want to talk Cowboys. They don't want to, man, they won't talk
Texas. They haven't gone that route because of the rival. Well, just Texas, just Texas. That's
all I got to say. Yeah. Right. But they, they will, they will talk college, they will talk
college with you or maybe their respective team, you know, Baylor or whatever it might be.
Well, it's because Jerry Jones never cared about the fans in Dallas. Yeah. He cared about
everyone wanting to be loving, loving the Cowboys. Maybe the people in Dallas.
Seth, one of the things that I brought up with Michael the other day was superstition in sports.
Ooh, love it. It's one of my favorite topics. And I was like to hit it early in the baseball season
so we can look out for it. I am not old man yells at cloud about maybe anything. I mean,
there's got to be some stuff. I am because I am 48. But there, but I can't think of anything
of my head. Well, I got one at least. I got one. All right. Where is the superstitious sports athlete,
modern athlete? Where is the superstitious modern athlete, Seth? Where is our Mitch Williams?
Oh, man. Where is our guy? Is there Turkwendl? Yeah. Thank you. That they couldn't touch the diamond
unless his shoe laces were a certain color or something like that. These kids nowadays
with their rationality. And I can look up anything on the internet. So I can find out the truth
of anything in a second. Wait a minute. You mean I just have to work at my craft?
And I don't have to work for shame. For shame, younger generation. You're missing out.
Too serious with the work. Geez. I love the ideas. Somebody actually, you know what he's right.
He's right. Now this article that I came across, one of the articles I came across and I encourage
anybody to look into this one. It's fun. Baseball has, you know, I would say over the years
of doing this topic, easily the most amount of superstitious athletes. It really seems that way,
yeah. But not the only ones. And one that I don't think we've brought up before is Bjork Born,
who of course legend in the tennis game. Right. All the all-time greats. Didn't don't remember
seeing him play, but we've watched plenty of highlights of him to get the idea of why everybody
talk about beer. Oh, okay, that's why. Yeah, and they see him built for this. It's a Swedish machine.
Unlike other athletes, Bjork Born had superstitious, was superstitious that related to one
specific event, Wimbledon. Oh, known as the ice man for his steady confidence on the court.
Born would always prepare for the annual tournament by growing a beard and wearing the same
fiela shirt. These quirks helped him in an amazing five straight Wimbledon titles. When five
straight Wimbledon titles, just a reminder of that in there. And surprisingly, Stockholm's
native Lucky Beard has become one of the sport's most popular superstitions. The Lucky Beard,
really? Certainly something that we see in hockey all the time, but it's made its way to football
and almost every other sport. Baseball's done it too, yeah. So I don't know if that's where it started,
but I don't know if there's any other superstitions or anything else we bring up on in this
conversation that actually got it going and is still relevant because that's the closest I could
come to as far as modern athletes in superstition. Nobody cares about wearing the number 13 anymore,
or any of these other kind of ones that used to be around forever in sports. There was a part of
me that going through this and doing this research and everything was got, became a little sad.
I went into it all excited like I love this topic. This is funny because for the audience,
it has an army ramble about it before. My mother is the most intelligent person I've ever met. She
is a literal genius. Her SATs will tell you that. At the same time, she's superstitious. And this
is boggled my mind since birth. How you can be such a rational minded person and still be superstitious.
And I love seeing it in athletes. I think it's interesting. I'm not superstitious myself in
any way, but I find it an interesting topic. I was a little let down. I could not find a modern
athlete that was very superstitious. Yeah, I know. It's not nearly, or maybe they're just trying to
keep a secret. Maybe they don't want people to talk about. They saw what happened, Turkwendol and
all the other guys that were superstitious. Do you think the Wade Bogg story is one of the more
famous? Oh my gosh. The chicken man. Breed Boggs had to have a bucket of Kentucky fried chicken
before every game. Actually, that's been exaggerated a little bit. I heard him in an interview say that
he had a 14-day menu that rotated of chicken dishes when he was playing. So he had it all worked
out. So you didn't have to eat the same thing over and over. It always had to be chicken.
But he was like, you know, I might as well put some variety into it. But you may have not
known about these other ones. He always took batting practice at 517 and ran sprints at 717.
And drawing the word chai, which for those who don't know is life in Hebrew, in the dirt before
coming up to bat. Okay. He got 12-time old star. 12-time old star. He also, this is another question
they asked him in an interview. They said, you keep your bat separate from everyone else's.
Why is that? Because they can pick up bad habits. That's what he said. Oh my god. He said a great line.
Oh, he said a great line. Baseball players have the best lines. Oh, they have some of the best man.
Wade Boggs was and the fact that he was so good. I mean, he was a wizard with a bat man back in the
80s. He could do anything he wanted with a bat and that's just insane. I love, I was big bogs
fan. But I also love got athletes like that that we don't seem to have anymore. No, he had a
person out. That and he walked into this room and it wasn't like he was a freaking nature-size
line or anything like that. He was a normal guy. But somehow he was a freaking nature on the field.
Also, really quick. I liked him, but I don't know. There's something about not only some of the
stuff that with the Red Sox and how he would stand up for players long before they won a world
series. I was thought that was really cool of him and everything. But then he didn't always
sunny in Philadelphia episode. Oh, really? That I was blown away that they got him to be it on it.
He was great. He was fantastic. That man's always got there. Oh, yes. So there's some fun ones
out there. We're going to keep this topic going, everybody. We're not done. We'll keep this one going.
There's superstitious players out there throughout the baseball season. And I want some
our cup reporters out there to do some reporting on this one. Are there any superstitious players
out there that I might have missed? There might be. We just never heard about him. I didn't want
you to miss this story, Seth, in case you might. So I had been saving it. And this is from February.
Oh, wow. Okay. As about Brian Bucston. Oh, okay. I run Bucston.
Byron Bucston. Good health begins at home for Bucston. Him talking about going into the 24 season,
a 25 season, wanting to stay healthy, wanting to have his healthiest season yet, which has been a problem
for him. Yes. And some of the regiments and some of the things he's done there and everything to do
that. I did. This story came out, of course, before, you know, he's, he, well, he got hit by a
pitch and he's okay from everything. But then he went home for some personal matters and some other
stuff. It seems like everything's rolling right now for him, okay? But I find him and I would do
this story if he played at any team, but I will say because you're a twins fan and the connection
there, it becomes even more interesting to me. Right. Of what? He's 31. And that's knockup on me.
I know. I'm reading this story and that was the thing that stood out the most to me. And I give him
so much credit. His old off season was about staying healthy. Yes. I mean, we don't give these athletes
a lot of credence when it comes to, you know, you got hurt doing this. You got hurt doing that and
everything. This guy was working so hard in the off season, like, I'm not going to move
unless it's to work out. Yeah. Right. Just wanted to keep his body healthy for his team and his
in the game and everything. His, we have to, once you, especially in certain, there's certain
benchmarks in sports, especially in baseball for me. And a guy gets 2930. It can mean, oh, he's
right about to hit his, oh, he's hitting his prime. Right. He is in his prime and all that. Or,
well, this is where the rubber meets the road and where the wheels come off or something. Yeah,
with injuries. And with his history of injuries, it makes you worry. He hasn't played a full
season since the 2017. Right. That's coming from Bill Ladson here at MLB.com. Right. But we're used
to that. We're used to talented guys that are, that, you know, that can't stay healthy or whatever.
My city is full of it with Derek Rose and some of these other athletes. But the, the, the, the,
the skill and the talent that this guy has, the way he shows up in record books out of nowhere.
It's, and it's all gone. It's all been undercover. It's all been, nobody's really talked about him.
When's the last time anybody at MLB.com or anybody else outside of these articles online,
really take any time to look at him. And I, so his legacy is not going to get the do that I think
it deserves. Right. And it's also, again, a shame on journalism and, and, and the MLB community
for not really highlighting this guy enough. And it's, it's a little late now. You know, he's,
even if he has a full season healthy, he's not, and he's not necessarily in his prime prime.
Right. Because we've seen that. And Buxen and his prime, what couldn't he do? Exactly. He was,
he was the one of the best players in, in the game, when he was at his best, he was the,
the, maybe the best player in the game with all the tools he had, you know, he's, he's a platinum
winning, glove winning centerfielder, one of the best centerfielder's of all time. He's,
he had power speed when he was, when he came up, he was the fastest person in baseball. And he
still has a lot of speed. Of course, he's been full of injuries. I mean, they used to time, you know,
his, his, his, his home to first. And it'd be like insane, you know, I can't even remember the
numbers. But, um, the, the talent was always there. And this is one of those very unfortunate
stories for a man who wants so badly to do well, who wants so badly to help his team, someone
who wants to play every day. And he can't. And it's been, it's just rough, man. It's, um, for him,
I'm, I'm, I'm really happy to see he's found a, a good place because I know there've been times
when he's gotten really down because he can't play. It's, it's, it's one of the toughest things in
sports. I gotta imagine. Um, it took, it's an assess point about his speed and how fast they
in the used to time and all these things. And the top five inside the bar comb runs fastest
times of all time. He's the top two. Yes. And it's not even close. Um, some people may look at
that three tenths of a second. That's not even close. It's not even close. No, not in this.
This is a speed from third to second, our second to third or something like that. That's, that's
not, it's insane. Yeah. What that guy was doing. And we haven't, we didn't talk about his
batting average or his fielding. Yeah. Or any of that. He's feel, I mean, again, doing things
that you, I mean, on the field, that was this. And that's the best part. And one, one quick thing.
And, and I have appreciated his conversations about mental health and that. But I've also
appreciated, uh, everything I was saying before about whining, complaining, not a peep on him.
He hasn't ever heard him complain. He's been frustrated, but he's been frustrated because he
can't play. Yeah. But he's never whined about it. You're right. He's never done that. And maybe
that's part of the reason why he's getting us the Skittles, um, uh, cleats. Uh, that was the
last thing I wanted to show you for him. It turns out, uh, he's a gigantic Skittles guy like
Merchon Lynch. Oh, cool. Yeah. And, uh, and Skittles heard about this and made him his own pair of,
you know, just custom cleats. Oh, nice. Oh, those are great. My only complaint is why are they in
twins colors? They should be in twins colors. Yeah. Yeah. I suppose. Actually, I think they're
enough. There's the twins have a blue, uh, uniform that might work with that. So maybe we'll see
that. Maybe we'll see what am I saying? Everybody's got every color jersey now. Yeah, they do.
Yeah. Come on. Everybody does. The city can act and all that other stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, all right.
So a couple of, uh, quick stats of the show when we get back in stories of the show, really,
this is something we were talking about the other day, Seth. Every sports show has a stat of the show.
Uh, I don't, you know, we, we will keep those coming in everything, but I want to do a story of
the show. All right. And we've got that coming up for you here on Playmakers, probably brought to
you by family, not your foods and quality plus printing on WFHR.
Well, come back, everybody. Playmakers here at WFHR, locally grown radio. Thanks for hanging out
with us. Seth and James here with you. Phone lines are wide open. Hit us in the numbers.
715 424 2600. Um, would like everybody to know on Monday's Playmakers, we're going to be talking
a little bit about some, uh, programming, uh, you know, uh, adapting that we're going to be doing
around here. It's good word for it. Yeah. I'm using any word, but change. Any word, but that, um,
we're going to be having, uh, we're rearrangement. Oh, we'll get into it on the morning show and
we'll touch on it on Playmakers a little later in the day. We'll be doing that on Monday's show,
be sure to catch the morning show from, uh, nine to, uh, from eight to nine. I got eight to 10.
Uh, uh, I got a lot of times going through my head. You do. You do.
Seth and Melissa and I will get into that. Um, let's go ahead and do our favorite thing on this show,
take one of your calls. Good afternoon. You're in the game. Hey, okay. Hey, man. Hey,
I, I was curious if you were going to call up today and I'm really curious because you always
got a great staff for us or something like that, man. Um, I'm curious if, if one of us is going to
steal each other's story or stat today. Oh, okay. So you go first. You go, if you got something.
Okay. Well, you know on Wednesday, I said something about, uh,
people hitting home runs in the same game. Okay. Well, none other than Wednesday,
I saw the name Joe Adele. Yeah. Hit two home runs in the same game. That's crazy. I saw that. I
thought of you right away. Yeah. So I'm, I'm predicting this weekend. Someone in the major
league is going to hit for the cycle. Oh, nice. Nice. Now that, that is a prediction. I don't know.
I don't know who. There. I don't know where. But I think that's my prediction for this weekend.
So let's see it, boys. Yeah. Oh, I would love to see it now. Oh, man. Oh, yeah.
Totally. Uh, and I want more of this. Yes. Uh, every week, I love one of these.
Okay. You guys remember the show cheap seats, right? With the Scalar brothers. Absolutely.
Gosh. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. They had a segment. It was called, did you know?
I got a couple of, I got a couple of, did you know? It's here for you, boys. Perfect.
Did you know that shoeless Joe Jackson was sued by the Chicago American League Baseball Club
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1924? I remember hearing a little bit about this. Um, but no, no,
I missed that one. I don't think I know the full story.
Okay. Well, I don't have the story. No, right. Right. No, that's fine. Now look at
things. You know, I'm going to, I mean, he doesn't, he could have told me every word of it.
He could have given me the court recordings and I'm still going to look it up. Yeah.
Yeah. Googler. Yeah. Googler. Yeah. Okay. And uh, Babe Ruth called shot within the fifth inning
in 1932, but it was at Riggly Field. It was. Not a lot of people know that. I don't think I
knew that. They're playing the Cubs in the World Series that year. Yeah. I, uh, yes, the Cubs were
in the World Series in 1932. I actually, I don't think I knew that it was in the fifth inning either.
That's really, that's just as interesting. That might even be more interesting to me. Yes. I know
he just assumed it was the end of the game. Oh, no, I'm sorry. I always assumed it was the first
at that. Sorry. Oh, right. He'd already hit a home run in that game, actually. That was his
second home run. Yeah, though. And I think, I think I'm not sure. I think Ty Cobb hit one
after him in that game. I'm not sure. Not Ty. Uh, Luke Eric did. Yes. Luke Eric won after him.
Yep. Yeah. There. There you go. Um, Ty Cobb, not a big home run here. Oh, and he never played
for the Aiki. So, uh, one of the few. Yeah. Uh, I got a, I got a bunch of Josh Gibson quote,
because I know you guys like to talk about Josh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He had a quote. He had a
quote. It's epic. It says when I came to the plate, I'm in scoring position. Yes. It's
which I thought was one of the greatest match talk. Oh, and he could do it too. It's so good.
Yeah. It's such a good line. Such a good line. Um, uh, side note, I, I, I had a good conversation.
I'm trying to find ways to cheer up my dad and everything. I'm like, Dad, let's do the Italian
sports Mount Rushmore. Oh, who's on there? We're going through these names and, and, and
Babe Ruth came up, of course, uh, at everything. And we're about 10 minutes into this conversation.
And my father brings up Rocky Belboa. And the, the, the conversation went a different direction
after that. Let's just say and put it that way. Like, Dad, you can't, you can't know. He doesn't,
Jimmy, what do you care? You kidding me? Like, look at what that movie did for boxing. What
it did for, no, no, no, no, no, no, you can't have fake people. No, we're trying to get
legitimacy here. We're trying to get representation. And no, no, father, no. Uh, what do you think?
Hey, do you know who my favorite Italian American baseball player is? Roy Campanella.
Oh, good one. And, and a sneaky one there. Yeah. Because his, his mother, I believe, was
Italian. His father was African American. His mother was Italian. That's, I mean, no, it's the
other way around because I couldn't remember. So I was, because that thing was Campanella. But
yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that's a sneaky good one right there, man. It's a trick question.
Um, I, I, I don't know who my favorite one is, but I can tell you my favorite one to say,
no ma, no ma, no ma gasi appara. Yeah. Not even Italian. Not even Italian. But
God, do people Italian? Love to say his name. Uh, we love talking. I thought you were going to
say, I thought you were going to say Fumagalli. Oh, Fumagalli football players. Yeah. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Fumagalli. Uh, absolutely. Good to talk to you, man. You have a great weekend.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I, I, I see everyone in the mad at Raptor games and everything.
We'll be talking a little rafters a little bit later, everybody, but getting into our story
of the show. Um, and, and, and I actually didn't cross over on this one. So I got two of them
forever. Okay. And both are wild to me. Um, Emory and Boyd became the first minor league player in
at least 20 years to steal six bases in a game without getting a hit. Oh, that's a good one.
He was, uh, pulled off the feet from a high a, uh, balloitte Wisconsin against Cedar Rapids. So
this one also has a local tie there too. Yeah. But that is a wild thing to me. And they said,
first time in 20 years, I didn't think it had ever been done in the first place.
A few times, a few times. So he must have been walked a few times hit, uh, hit maybe once or twice,
maybe, uh, uh, hit into an error because that's not a hits either. So, but he got on base.
That was the important thing. Such a wild thing in sports. Uh, and, and nothing, uh, one of the
more wilder statistics in sports is like, is this happening? Right. Or when you see a guy who has runs,
has no hits, but runs. Uh, you know, and, and because I just, I love that about baseball. I think it's
a funny thing. This is even more crazy though. Okay. Uh, imagine a baseball game ending after one
pitch. Oh, hello. This just happened the other day to, uh, Liberty. It ended up being, uh, the, uh,
so, um, Liberty had to forfeit their conference USA game because of a rare rule that has,
that has a team that has to forfeit if they don't, if they have using an eligible player. Oh no.
So the, uh, managers got to get the roster to the umpires, right? Like I think 24 hours before
the game. I used to think it would, I don't know, this varies maybe for different conferences
differently. Probably. Yeah. But I would do, I'd always heard like five, ten minutes before the
game. Here we go. And they're rushing it up there. That would be the lineup card. But yes. But the,
the rosters they didn't need to know where all the players are at. Thank you though. That's a big
difference though. Yeah. I appreciate that. Um, so this was wild to me. So they get the roster to
this guy. They, they're starting pitcher was an eligible, an eligible player. So he throws the first
pitch and the game's over. Game's over. Liberty loses. Just wild. Just because of this road, just
because the ump, I mean, if you're a baseball manager and it's one thing to be in charge of grown
men, but grown men actually might understand it a little bit better. Yeah. You're in charge of
kids and you're trying to get their respect. Like I don't know much about the Liberty manager,
you know, head coach or organization or anything like that. But I don't know how you go back to
that locker room, that dugout. Like I'm, that happens to me and I'm up there talking to the refs
what's going on? Why you ended the game? Well, actually, you got, you used an eligible player here.
I'm not even going back to the dugout. I'm going to my car. I'm, I'm going to get my
fleet still on. I'm in the car looking on LinkedIn and career builder for other jobs and maybe
even another career choice. Maybe trying pottery. Maybe I should try something else. Yeah,
what the what, man? How do you do that? That was a crazy, uh, crazy one to me. That was that was
my story of the, uh, story of the show. Oh, here's a fun little fact about baseball. And I don't
know if this is still the thing. Do you know what the official score is when you forfeit a baseball
game? No, no, nine to nothing. That's what I, that's, that was in the article here. Oh, was it?
I just breathed past it. Oh, that's why it was nine, nine to nine. Nothing. I didn't understand
that. I was in the official score when the game is forfeited. Yes. There's the story of the show.
There you go. Now, you know something. That's really interesting. So few games get forfeited
these days. It's, it's not most people probably know that. So, yeah. Uh, I wonder, uh, look,
that one up to when the last MLB game was a forfeited. Yes, that'd be an interesting one.
Speaking of majorly baseball, uh, which we're putting our focus on today, but we will take the
focus any way you want. 424, 2600 touch or two way in the civic media app call up. You direct the
show, everybody. Um, looking at baseball standings right now. I'm seeing that, uh, the Yankees are
in first in the east guardians in the, uh, central, uh, Houston out in the west. You know, this might
as well be 2024, uh, you know, the last four years, yeah, the last four years or whatever and
everything. Um, or I'm sorry, that, that was last year. This is, uh, the tigers are in first in
the central. Yeah. Rangers are in first in the west. Um, and then over in the national league,
the Mets are in first in the east. Cubs in the central brewers right behind. West the Padres.
Giants and then Dodgers. The Dodgers after their hot start have kind of cooled off a little bit. Um,
it, interesting to see for one that baseball is still alive and well because I, I, I, I,
all I had heard as the sky was falling because the Dodger signed everybody and this is going to be
one of those fall. Their first eight games and then everyone was dying. Yeah. Because that, but
look at what happened. No, but I also have long season, man. Seth, I'm not seeing torpedo bats on
the standings here. Um, so where we're used to ESPN and the mouse network and all these things
over covering stuff. Um, uh, this one was new to me and, and it stood out to me for a number of
reasons and I couldn't put my finger on why and I do want to actually give the mouse network credit
as well. Oh, because they helped me find this. There was an interesting article at ESPN.com, um,
about the history of torpedo bats in the history of, um, of experimentation and revolutions in
the, with the modern bat. Yes. Yes. And one of the things that I found, I came across was a,
I story that my papa talked about when I was a kid, uh, about we, Willie and the wood wars and
the wild west of bat experimentation. Woo. And, you know, obviously early in the, during the late
1800s, early 1890s, um, there were no regulations. There were few and far between. Is it made of wood?
Go ahead. You know, um, is it sort of stick like, you know, yes, right? Well, to that point,
some hitters used flat-faced bats that were supposed to help with bunting, but looked more suitable
for, you know, hammering nails, right? Or a cricket or something. Right. It looks like I got like, uh,
a cricket, um, they call those bats. I don't remember. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good point. Um, but
they also were a ton heavier. Oh, I'm sure. Um, sometimes the style of the knob varied,
then was different. But, uh, long story short, and I do encourage people, uh, to read the article
and everything. It's, it's interesting. If you find that stuff interesting, um, long story short,
I've, again, you know, a much to do about nothing. Yeah. The torpedo bed has not ruined baseball.
It is not that big of a story. No. And, uh, it's not the first time we've done this. Um, there's always
something in the past that's happened before. Yeah. Um, I don't, I don't, uh, you know, do a lot of
fantasy sports talk or anything like that. But I have mentioned before that, uh, you know,
I'm in a league that, uh, you know, Seth and I are both in and one of the things that I thought was
interesting that, um, you know, it's, you know, it's a, you know, it's a story when fantasy sports
catch on to it. And I only say that you can laugh at that you want out there. Anybody that is an
into it. Sure. It's the biggest, most growing thing industry in almost all of industry. Huge.
Fantasy sports was gigantic. And then they legalized all gambling. Yes. Not even bigger. Yeah.
It's just a gigantic. It's, if you don't realize it, take one little Google or search and you'll
see exactly what I'm talking about or, or watch the brewers on the fan dual network. Yeah. Yeah.
There you go. That's all you need to know. So when it comes to when fantasy sports do something
about it, it is noteworthy. And it's interesting to me on your, uh, if you have a player like, uh,
I have LA De La Cruz. Yep. And he uses a tor tor tor, torpedo brat bat. And I know that,
and I can't say it. Um, because there's a little tour, a tornado by him. What? Yeah. Yeah.
There's a little tornado, but I couldn't figure out what this was. I took a picture and had to zoom
in to figure out what it was. Oh, no. I mean, that's how crazy this, this phenomenon, this storyline
has gotten. Um, and it's really been much, it hasn't really accomplished that much and done a lot
of things. Now I will say I'm double checking right now because I have, uh, Jackson Turio and
Kristen Yelich and Bryce Turang on my team. And not a single one of those gentlemen use a,
uh, one of those bats. Right. Um, and, and I think that's noteworthy one because the brewers have
been hitting the ball so well, like crazy. Yeah. And in fact, the other day, my phone was going crazy
at nine thirty four at night. Turang hits a four six year at nine forty. Yelich hits a four
twenty seven. And then, uh, Wilson Contreras, uh, well, I also have a hit of three. I did not plan
on having that many brewers, by the way, everybody. I didn't even realize I did it when I did it.
Kristen Yelich hit a four hundred and seventy nine foot home run on Wednesday.
No tornado, no torpedo, no nothing involved in this. It did help that he was in Colorado.
That was the one thing that did help on that one. But you only know about that. If you hit a ball
far in Colorado, that's what happens. Um, interesting. Just another one of these interesting
storylines to me when we're talking about baseball bats have been changed, you know, they used to
all be made out of ash, you know, back for many, many years. And then they became maple because
that, you know, there's more spring and they're talking about that and all this stuff. Yeah.
Bats have gone through the, uh, the, uh, the ringer. They, the, the, actually, what would they do?
That the firing thing they had to, yeah, yeah. Um, and, and, and a, a quick note about this to
wrap it up and everything. This isn't the last time we'll talk about bats changing. No, I mean,
they're going to, you know, whether it's a month from now or two years from now, they'll,
the next thing, the missile bats. I'm waiting for the clown hammer bat. That's a, that's a
thing. I want somebody. Well, I got one with a clown hammer. That'd be great. Uh, I, I don't know
where you'd buy. I don't think that's legal. One of those little big toy bats. Yeah. Just a big
wipple bat. Just go up down. Hey, I'm just trying. Man, I'm, I'm gonna over the huge swamp. Yeah.
They tried something. Uh, we can't talk baseball and not talk Wisconsin rapids rafters. Oh, yeah.
We are so close to the season. May 26th opening day. Uh, looking forward to it right around the
corner. Everybody. And if you haven't seen the promotional schedule from the rafters, I encourage you
to check that out. Got some really cool events coming up. Fun stuff this year. Yeah. A lot of great
ones, a lot of great ideas too. Yeah. One of the fun things when you get some new people in that
front office, they got ideas that they've been itching to do and, and just you bring in new minds,
new, uh, it's nothing that gets previous regimes. It's just a fresh take on things, fresh eyes.
So they got some fun stuff lined up for you, uh, including, of course, the United
Ways United Weekend event, which I'm looking forward to very much. That was highlight of the year.
Along with other, uh, plenty of other great things and, uh, the things that you have come to know and
love about the rafters, uh, like their military Mondays that they do with Ho-Chunk Gaming,
shout out to both organizations for that. Um, and you can get packages right now for tickets.
Um, I think that if you are going to have a bar mitzvah, there is no better, uh, there's no
event any event you're going to have over there. Exactly. Uh, and right now they're doing a great
giveaway where you can get a game used rafters jersey. Just sign up for their tech service to enter.
Uh, wow. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. Uh, I do wash it by the way.
Yeah, they do. Yes, that's really cool of them by the way. That's a very nice move. Um,
I worked, we're excited about the season and, and, and part because that I think the rafters,
like, uh, the River Kings, and I give a credit to both of these teams, uh, with their front offices and
their, um, you know, their public relations and their teams and their, and by that I mean a
person, usually, yeah, this level and everything. It's usually one person, yeah, that handles that.
I give them a lot of respect because we get such an update on the off the, off the field,
off the off season stuff that's going on, um, and the signings that are happening. And
everything I've seen from the rafters all off season long has been nothing but an exciting
team that they're putting together here. Yeah. Um, we're looking forward to meet your bringing,
meet your rafters back and all that stuff. We got a really fun season of rafter baseball
right around the corner everybody. As, uh, we have every hit, every pitch, every winter rafter
baseball right here at WFHR home of rafters and right where it belongs. Exactly. Got a good
feeling about this season. Mm-hmm. Take that, uh, for whatever you want because it's me. Well,
um, I do feel good about it. I'll say that. Uh, we'll take time out our final one of the week,
but that's all right. We make it to the end of the game without our timeouts. When is that ever
come back to hurt a coach? We'll be fine. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. Some people've lost
their jobs over anything, you know. Playbakers coming up. Welcome back, everybody.
Seth and James taking you through the last 10 minutes of playmakers for the week. That's all right.
We'll be back next week with more show. Looking forward to hanging out with you in a big,
thank you to quality plus printing and family natural foods sponsoring this hour. Head on over to
either of those businesses for any needs you might have at those places. Um, by local support,
local everybody. Support those that support this community like our friends over there. Indeed.
So Seth and, uh, I was going to talk NFL draft. I'll be honest with everybody, but you brought up
something that I did mean to talk about, but I forgot to pull up on my, uh, computer here. Um,
the firing of Mike Malone by the Denver Nuggets and, and the wildness of this is, you know,
timing and everything about its wild. Yeah. Um, now it's happened before in history, but it's so
rare. And I don't know that it's happened to a winning coach. Now to hockey fans out there,
you're like, what are you talking about? This is a Wednesday for us. Um, I, I wish I could remember
the Buffalo Sabers coach. I always use him as the example because the Sabers had a coach that,
I don't know if he, I don't remember if he went to the Stanley Cup or, or what it was. I know
they had an amazing season and they fired him like a day later. Um, and I believe he was like
native or, or, or something along those lines. And there wasn't certainly even today. There's
not a lot of those structures out there. So I remember this story very much and that's nothing
new in sports, but in this scenario, it's so wild and it's so different because as I was talking
to Seth, you see these things on paper and where we started today with the Luca trade and you see
that on paper and you're like, well, Luca wanted out. And then all of a sudden you read the article
and you're like, Oh, wait a minute. Luca loved it there. He wanted to play his whole career there.
He wanted to move there after retirement. Oh my gosh. To Dallas. Um, by the way,
saddest part of all of this whole thing the other day with him playing in L.A.
He's in Dallas and he's talking to the announcers and they're asking, Hey, how do you feel?
He's like, well, it's great. I get to sleep on my own bed tonight. Oh gosh. Like, oh, man.
It's so sad. Oh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, and then if that didn't throw your
NBA mind, uh, you know, crazy or anything, the Denver Nuggets fire, uh, you know, um, Mike Malone.
Now, and their GM two, I think, right? Yes. They fired both of them. Yeah. Which they didn't even
doing the same press conference in the press, same press release, which makes all of us think
that they didn't plan on firing the GM and then they just did or or something. Now,
Memphis had fired their coach a little while ago too, who was pretty good. Uh, but not Mike
Malone good. Not I've won an NBA championship good. Right. With this core group. By the way,
the same guy is basically, yeah. Now that you see on paper, you're like, well,
Nicola Jokitsch, the best player in the whole world wanted him gone. So that's why that happened.
No, they never even told the players they were doing this. In fact, most of the players found out
when they were getting interviewed about it. Shocked. They must have been shocked. I mean,
really. So what we have going on, uh, in sports and we're going to get more and more of these
stories is is something with the push and pull of you have this, these games being played by players.
Yeah, it's a job for some of them. Yeah, they're getting a paycheck. Yeah. They're doing this because
at the at the young age of whatever, they found this sport and a spark went off and on a journey
that led them to this point 10, 15, 20 years later, whatever it is. Right. You're never going to be
able to get that person to be like, Hey, I need you to hold back a little bit. Hey, I need you to
pull the fight. Hey, I need you to we're tanking. But there's plenty of front offices that look at
this as numbers. And they're like, well, we don't have a team that can win. We might as well be bad
because the only thing worse than being bad is mediocrity. Yeah. You got to be bad. You're
better off being bad than mediocre. Um, and there's almost no sports franchise or sport where
they it's different. Uh, please call up and correct me if I'm wrong. Cause I generally do want to
hear that. I would love to hear an argument for the other side of that. I don't believe that there's
ever a case where there is one. Um, you're, you've got this push and pull and it's only going to
happen more and more. And it's only going to get it become a bigger divide in sports. Yes. Because
front offices are going to be quicker and quicker to pull the trigger. Yep. When we were kids
as an NFL coach or a coach in general, you had three to four years, everybody understood that.
Yeah. No matter what happened, no matter how much you hated forest Greg or any of these coaches
or anything like that, you know, well, he's here for a couple of years. Absolutely. In this day and age,
I don't know if I'm a coach. There's no way. I don't care if I'm Steve Kerr. I'm renting.
I don't care who I am. I'm renting. There's no way I'm owning. So that the divide with this is only
going to happen more and more. And I find it to be one of the more fascinating storylines in all
of sports of where this goes and where it develops and where you might get players, you know,
having protests against their own teams. Because that's the first thing I thought of if I was in
those shoes. Right. And I worked my whole life to get to this point. And you're telling me as a
front office, you're going to fire my coach when we're getting ready for the playoffs. Yeah.
There's no, there's no spin you can put on that that does not tell me you don't believe in us.
How am I supposed to go out there and risk injuries that could end my career in millions of
dollars and all this stuff and everything. And it's a job. It's a job. I get that better than
most. I understand it. But at the same time, you're talking about a difference, a different business
model. Yes. The business model that we in the front office are doing. And then there's a business
model for you players that doesn't work in business. There's no, there's no tech industry out there
that has two different business models. Nike doesn't have two different business models.
They're trying to go at the same time. It wouldn't work in anything. Right. Talking out of both
sides of the mouth here and they get away with it. And it's just another one of these stories.
And maybe I'm getting really burnt out of millionaires getting away with stuff. And it's bleeding
into sports for me. Well, there's a lot of billionaires in sports. But it is something that I cannot
take my eyes off of in sports. And I cannot wait to see where this goes. I wonder, you know, and
it's just trying to the thing that I know one of the things that almost all the sports leagues don't
like is tanking. They have rules against it. They have incentives not to do it, right? Lottery
picks and all these things. It does not seem to be working. Teams are still doing it in every sport.
I don't care what sport you're talking about. It's happening in all of them. So what do you do
about that? Do you have to do like maximum death penalty thing? If we catch you doing this,
you are next year, you're done for the year. You don't play at all. Is that the kind of thing
they have to do for these kind of to get them to not do it? Personally, I don't know if I don't
have any strong feelings when we're the other about tanking. I mean, unless you're a fan of a team
that's doing it, which really stinks. But I guess I don't know. Sometimes it works out,
because then you get a whole bunch of great draft picks, right? So I don't know. There's some
people, some fans that are okay with it, I'm sure, some that aren't. But I know that there's no
player that is. And that's the thing that I find the biggest push and pull in and how that's going
to go. With the fan bases and everything, we just got done talking about Dallas and some of these
shirts. But with the players and organizations and ownership and everything, that is where it gets
very interesting to me. And how managers and coaches are stuck in the middle of that. Right,
just a couple of really quick things before we get out of here for the week. This Tuesday,
435 on our sister station, 105, 5WRI softball Auburndale versus assumption. Mike and Seth
going to have that one for him. Yes, indeed. Looking forward to bringing that to you, everybody,
that's going to be a lot of fun. Looking forward to a long spring, summer of high school baseball
and saltball to you, yeah, after baseball and everything. And just one last baseball story. And it
involves LA Day La Cruz. And this one you can also find at MLB.com, the incredible 23-year-old talent
who is so much fun to watch play has been doing something a little bit in the shadows here that
they brought a little light to where he is taken upon himself to learn English. And he will not
do interviews in Spanish at all. He will not allow himself. He won't want an interpreter or anything.
And he has had a teacher helping him with this, a literal Caitlin Beltray, the Red's education
coordinator who has known Dale La Cruz since he was a teenager in the Dominican Republic.
And stood just five foot six. What? He was five foot six at one point. Thank you, Seth.
Thank you. God. What happened to him? What happened to him? I breed this article and man,
this is really cool. He's doing all this. And I keep going back to. He was five six at one point.
Oh my gosh. That doesn't seem right. That's a great article. Encourage people to check it out if you
get a chance. And a big tip of the baseball cap to him. Yes. Yes. I don't think that he has to do
this or anything. But I think it's cool of him. And I do think that it's something that we don't
get these good stories a lot. We don't hear about these things. And he's doing really good with it
by the way. Yeah, which is cool. I'm sure he'll be able to pick it up actually pretty quick.
I have a come fun update here that we've become, I don't know, one of my pet things, I guess.
The Women's Pro Baseball League has announced their player registration for the 2025 summer tryouts.
They are now open everyone. And it's open till May 7th. They're going to have
in July and August of this year. Their first season will be next year. So they're starting to get
their players together. And I think I saw something, something like they've got at least
expecting up to 200 participants will be invited to the draft in October. So for all those
lady baseball players out there and they're all around the world, this is your chance to place
a pro ball in the United States. Thanks for bringing attention to that. Keep up on that story.
I want to keep following that. See where that goes. I'm really excited about the idea of
that. I love it. Dad and everything. She is way too busy. I don't think she would have any
interest. But let's just say into some parallel universe, Melissa tries out what position?
What position do you put that? Because I got her at shortstop.
Really? Yeah, she's got some range on her. And she's such an attention to detail person.
I feel like, oh, you got to put her there. I can say this because I know she's not listening.
Pitcher. She's a control freak. That's too good. That's too good.
Love you, Belle. Love you. Looking forward to hanging out with you on Monday.
Real quick, I did want to throw this one out there too. And I want to shout out Alan Goldschir,
who does some really nice reporting around football. And he's done some focus on number
teams and everything. I think he's even broke some stories before or at least brought some
additions to broken stories. But I'm just thanking him for selfish reasons because he is an NFL
analyst and he urged the Chicago Bears to take a pass on Ashton Gentie. And if I know anything
about the Bears to do the opposite of this. So as a person who the anything the Chicago Bears could
trade Caleb Williams. But if they drafted Ashton Gentie, you're not going to the first thing you're
going to hear out of my mouth that Monday. Is that really? I love this kid. I'm not serious.
But I do love this kid. I've watched him. I think three seasons at Boise State. And I think
he's just such a pure wonderful running bag. That's a great talent. Absolutely. He's going to end
up on some team not Chicago because I'm not that lucky. And neither is Chicago. He'll end up on
the Raiders probably. That's where a lot of people are projecting him. Him and Bowers. Oh man.
They're going to get wild and she knows over there now too. Yeah, actually man. And what?
That could be a really fun offense. Yeah, putting those things together, pairing those two up
and everything. But we will talk a little more NFL's next week. I got it. Literally the
last 30 seconds. I got it. That's a win for me. Oh, brother. Thank you all week long. Everybody
for hanging out with us. All your calls. A big thank you to our guests. And of course, our co-hosts
can do the show without all of you. And of course, our sponsors, family, natural foods,
quality plus printing, quality plus printing, family, natural foods and all of the above.
We appreciate you so much. Yes. We'll be back next week with more show. Everybody have a good
week and be good to each other. This is locally grown radio WFHR 1320 AM W24 ADE Wisconsin Rapids
and always streaming on the Civic Media app.
