The Nationals are Fun

WSPN Washington. ESPN 630, the sports capital. Washington's new home for sports. The Andy Pullen Show. We've got to go after this with everything we've got. They're going to come with everything they've got. I'll start off by saying I'm bored, I'm broke, and I'm back. The Andy Pullen Show on ESPN 630 starts right now. It's kind of very happy. Cinco de Mayo looks like a beautiful day out there, supposed to be in the high 60s, maybe 70s. Finally, May is starting to act like May. I mean, it was acting like March there for a while. But acting like May, that's good. So, Cinco de Mayo, I lived in San Antonio for three years. That's a big deal there. Cinco de Mayo. That's huge. You go down on the river walk and there's a parade, a water parade, like boats. It's great. And you have margaritas and you just have a great time. So, if you've never had a margarita, have a margarita today, today's the day to do it. Also missed out on yesterday, a tribute to my mother who loved puns, and I didn't say it, but we all know it. May the fourth be with you, which was, you know, funny, like in 1978, I think the movie came out in 76 or 77 Star Wars, the original Star Wars, and that's when people started saying, May the fourth be with you. Ha ha ha. No, it's old and it's tired and we're not even on the fourth anymore. We're on the fifth. I want to get to what happened last night in Golden State in San Francisco, which I guess shouldn't be a surprise. But those who were thinking, oh boy, warriors are cooked. They're not big enough to stay with the Lakers. Another story there. But I want to begin with this. I'm going to play this later on, Hunter Dickinson, who was like teasing Maryland. I don't think he was ever really going to go to Maryland, but he's leaving Michigan. He was upset at Mark Turgin for not recruiting him hard enough when he came out of Dematha. And so he would try extra hard when they would play Maryland and he'd run by the bench and say snarky things to Turgin and things like that. And what did he do at Michigan? He was a good player, really good player. Was he a first team all American? No. Second team? No. Third team? No. He was second team all Big Ten this past year. But he decided he was going to act like LeBron before he took his talents to South Beach. Made this big, big deal about this. And if you check it out on Twitter, we're going to play it later on. It's not as easy to follow with just the audio, but it starts out with him shooting baskets in the gym and he's got his Bluetooth on and the phone rings and it's like, oh, decision time. And, you know, he goes into his car and he's driving and he's talking about the pressure of all of this. And then he tells Bill Self that he's going to Kansas, probably because he got the most money. Candice Buckner, good column about this today where she describes all of this and, you know, talking about when he goes into the ballroom. I don't know why it's a ballroom, but he goes into a ballroom and he tells Bill Self that he's coming there and Self gives him a big hug. And then the action, she says, slows to the capture of the Jumpman logo on Dickinson's Jordan's. You have to expect Self to turn towards the camera in a Dickinson t-shirt while holding a bloomin' onion. Lucky for us, Self holds onto his dignity. Well, in some respects, yes. Perhaps the video wasn't just a shameless exercise in product management, she writes. And Dickinson, 22, may not be a brand ambassador for everything featured in the video he released Thursday morning. Yet the way Dickinson chose to punctuate the end of his extended tour in the NCAA transfer portal gave us an unvarnished glimpse of life of a superstar in college sports. And, look, I mean, these guys deserve to make money. I don't think anybody's begrudging them. But when the NCAA had a chance, and this is me speaking, not her, but when the NCAA had a chance to get some parameters around this, they spent all their time in their money fighting this. And finally, it went to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court said, no, this is slavery. You can't do this. They got to make money. So now, it's, you know, a complete free-for-all there. And you go where the most money is. And she writes, well, Dickinson searched for a new college team dragged on. He continued to update his status while making paid appearances on his Barstool podcast. This week, Dickinson said he was struggling to pick a program where he felt most comfortable. And I would insert cash where he felt the most comfortable and the most cash. He spoke with a familiar unease last fall before the start of the season in Michigan, where he cut deals with a custom t-shirt line and outback steakhouse among others. It's probably added a lot of stress. He said it's like the other aspect of your life that you have to deal with, like companies contacting you, asking you for contracts. You have other things you have to do with these contracts. Oh, God, the problems of a college kid, people throwing contracts at you. What do you do? He says there's some added stress to the NIL, but I really like it because it provides you with a little bit more money in your pocket. How about a lot more money in your pocket? How about millions and millions of dollars in your pocket? Well, I don't know if he's getting that, but he's, he may be tickling a million dollars if he's going to Kansas. That's, that seems to be, you know, the, the talk, the going rate for, for him. And there was even, there was even some discussion that Bill Self was trying to negotiate two years with him. And he's two years of eligibility. And I assume if he plays really well, he's going to try the NBA or go play in Europe, where maybe he can make more money than he would staying for another year at Kansas. But I mean, we're, we're at that point. So, so let's just, let's just make it legit. Let's just have the salary cap for every college team and pay these guys, take taxes out, make them paid employees of the university. Why not? More from Candice Buckner. That recruiting world has evolved into a thunder dome free for all with the twin sea changes. Both of them long overdue of loose and transfer rules and money from name, image and likeness deals. When Angel Reese transferred from Maryland to LSU, she found more opportunities for NIL sponsorship. Her popularity blossomed even more throughout the season. And by the time LSU reached the final four, Reese had not only had Virginia Tech in Iowa to scout, she had companies to endorse in the corresponding stress that comes with it. Well, you know, that's, that's part of making money. You know, those of us who've been in the working world for a long time understand that. And now she's got to deal with Mercedes Benz and she put out some video on that. So, Rex and I, Rex Minton here, have been kind of talking back and forth off the air about this Dickinson thing, as it's been unfolding for the last couple of weeks. So, what do you take away from what happened yesterday? Of course, you went to Kansas. Yeah. That's where the most money was, right? And that's just the type of guy he is. You think he was really taking the last glamorous spot? Yeah. And do you think he used Maryland for this? I think he did. I think he, I think he was actually considering it. Really? I do. Yeah. I think, I think this was actually a pretty well crafted move because he's had this villainous relationship with the school for all these years. So now he's saying to the fan base, here I am. Yeah. Do you want me? Do you want me bad enough? Come up with the cash and I'll come here. And apparently there wasn't enough money here. So he goes to Kansas. The second I knew he wasn't coming to Maryland was in that podcast. He was like, well, even if I don't go to Maryland, I think they like me better now. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm glad he's out of the big 10 for one. And two, he's probably got a better, but he does have a better chance to win a national championship at Kansas. And that ultimately means more money. You know, I think, I think the quaint notion that we used to have of guys going to a school because, well, they like the school or mostly they like the coach or they had the best chance to win a championship, I think is, is, is an old notion now. It's, you know, what can this do for me? What can this, what can this ultimately bring me in dollars? I think that's what can be fun. Yeah, Maryland be and look, you know, even with him, they were not going to be a national title contender. There could have been, but more than likely they won't be, but they'll be good. They'll be a good team next year. And as we say, Gug is in, go ahead and get your money. All right. Last night, one of the splash brothers stepped up, not the Steph Curry was bad last night. He had a fine game. He had 20 points and he also had 12 assists. So he was, he was fine in his fellow splasher. But Clay Thompson was the one and he came out hot last night. He was eight of 11 from three wound up with 30 points, 11 of 18 on the night and talked about it after the blowout win. And I think this was a game that really was never that much in doubt. Yeah, the Lakers were up seven at the end of the first quarter, but Golden State out scored him 41-23 in the second quarter, twin by 27, 127-100. This is Thompson with Lisa Salters after the game. Well, we realized we let one go in game one and we've been having to bounce back all year from the first and not a better group to do it with the these guys. So came out, our offense was flowing, turn over to low, hit an open man. We keep it simple. The plug games can open. It's for you and your game just once felt good to you tonight. This one felt great. I didn't shoot the ball particularly well last few games. So to come out here and get hot in the early beginning, I mean, I watched film in the first game and I feel like I rushed a lot of great looks. Now I utilize my pump fake. I was patient and I'm gonna try and take the same flow to LA tomorrow. It was next man up for Michael Green just described the impact that he had. So proud of Jay Mike. Not playing much in the first series. Come out here and having such a huge impact. What a great shooter. His physicality. I mean, he showed him why he's a 10-year event. And he's so important for us in this series and going forward. So, just in his teammate, I'm incredibly proud and so grateful for us before this tonight. And I know that a win is a win, but what does a win like this? What kind of messages that send to them to you guys? I don't think it sends much of a message because we know the broadest scene at all. ADC to all. It's 1-1 at the end of the day. So we gotta go to LA and get one and go up in there. Yeah, we don't want the error of recency just because what happened last night happened at Oakland or San Francisco now doesn't mean that's gonna happen in Los Angeles tomorrow night. It's all about adjustments in the NBA playoffs. Jamical Green, yeah, he got the start last night because just before the game, about two hours before the game, Steve Kerr got word that C'mon Looney was ill and wasn't gonna be able to give him many more than 20 minutes. So he didn't start him. He started green and green was huge last night. Hit three of six from three. Some really early three pointers to get them going like in that second quarter finished with 15 points. Looney off the bench was solid. He gave him almost 12 minutes and six points and what do you have? Eight rebounds too. So he did his job off the bench and they will have him hopefully well for tomorrow night and rested. But Thompson was the one that really did it for them last night. You know, if you've got two guys who can shoot like that and he had a poor shooting night in game one but came back last night and was firing. And then one legler, pretty damn good shooter himself won the three point shooting contest when he played for the bullets back in the 90s and was on last night with Scott Van Pelt with analysis of how this blowout happened last night. Start with Clay. Alright, the ultimate co-star. He had his back tonight. He had Steph Curry's back. He knew he was gonna show up in a big way. I love what he just said because it's so important as a shooter to watch yourself on tape and visualize what you need to do to slow things down. That is the one thing about Clay Thompson sometimes. He rushes because he squeezes it too tight because he wants it so bad. He came out early in this one and got into an incredible rhythm. Look how fast this ball is from the cradle to release. There's never been anybody faster including his teammate Steph Curry. But what this does for a team to relax knowing that one of those two guys is this hot in the first half. And Steph was very willing to take that on, take on all that pressure, all that attention, facilitate and that's what it led to. But Clay Thompson, I think having that good of a start to the game was so critical. It was really good early offensive. First quarter they were fantastic. Clay was matching them, kind of keeping them in it until they could make their run and they did that later. So he's the headliner from the night offensively and why this became such a blowout. And he's an energy provider, but Michael as well. I mean it gets a chance Kavon Looney not feeling well so you give a vet a chance and how does his impact, he outscores Anthony Davis by the way in this game something else we'll get to. But how does the energy from players like that and deep in Shenzo play into how this thing gets away from the Lakers? Super interesting because they're kind of forced into making this decision because Looney wasn't right so they go into Michael Green. He played as many minutes tonight basically as he has in the entire playoffs. But it's ironic because it actually created incredible spacing for them early in the game. Because he just had one big on the floor. He could just go camp out in the corner. It negated some of what Anthony Davis was able to do defensively to this team in the first game. When he basically shut off everyone's water in the lane, well here's the answer to that. Now let's just go put that other guy who would have been Looney camping out around the basket. Let's just go stick a three-point shooter in the corner. Now it's one thing to stay ready as a pro and clay alluded to it. Right, staying ready is one thing. Right. Actually executing the shot making is entirely different on this stage with a lot of pressure. You get out O2, you're probably cooked. So for him to rise up was phenomenal. David Chenzo gave them huge minutes. His energy is hostile with defense. She's making plays that will not show up on the stat sheet that led to offense. Can't say enough about those two guys as role players having a major impact. About Davis. Let's give, let's give Draymond credit for defense for sure. Yeah. But there's a word with him, Davis I'm speaking of, that I'm hesitant to use because I feel like it's loaded. If I say engage, it sounds like it means he doesn't care or he's not interested. And that's not what I'm saying. But he was so spectacular in game one and then in game two just doesn't impact it. What's a fair way to describe what he was or wasn't in this game? Couple things. We're going to give Draymond Green a lot of credit. I'm going to collectively give them credit because of the way they were converging on him on any sort of dive action. Okay. But it's almost like Anthony Davis sometimes comes to the arena after having a great game and saying to himself, well I guess I'm going to see a different defense tonight. So he's almost prepared already to take his foot off the gas and let somebody else do it. Now he had some decent looks in this one early that he didn't convert. But one of the things you'll notice on all of these clips that we just showed on the previous highlight when Darvyn Ham had been talking, all of those were the same action. High ball screen dive to the foul line. Take a short jumper. Where are plays with his back to the basket on post up action? Were you giving him the ball deep? We can shoot a turn around jumper or use a power dribble to draw people. Where is he on the offensive glass? Non-existent tonight in those regards. So this is a guy that when he doesn't add those to his game and show you the full package, he is bailing out someone because of his length, strength and skill. If you don't see all of it, then you have a chance to defend him and that's what happens tonight. All of it was high ball screen dive to middle lane. Either he gets a shot or he doesn't. That's pretty much all he did the entire game. So I'll put some of it on the Lakers, not utilizing the same way, but also there's just that less effort than you see some nights and Golden State needed this out of Anthony Davis to have a chance to get back in the series. Because he shows you the ceiling and when you see it, you're reminded that there are very few who can hang, if any. And then a game like this where it just feels pedestrian. And I just wonder, you heard the question about Memphis, right? Like the script is similar. You win the one then you get blown out in game two, but you're not playing Memphis. How dangerous a game is it if you're the Lakers to try to play the, well, it'll be like the Memphis series. I'll tell you one thing stood out to me tonight Scott, based on the difference between two teams. Lakers got gas tonight. They were gassed. That's interesting, isn't it? The commitment to the way they played them defensively in the first game was just not there. It did the same commitment and there's a reason. When you play in Memphis, it's static sets. You've got to deal with high ball screen with Jaa, low to lane. Every now and then we'll throw it into Jared Jackson in the post. Okay, we'll deal with that. And then some action for Bayon off screens. That's it. With the Warriors, it's chaos. It's constant chasing. It's make a mistake. We're going to make you pay. So how committed are you? Are you committed for a game? Great. You were in game one. Are you committed for a series? Possession after possession, it's exhausting. And I saw the Lakers sort of cave when the Warriors hit them a little bit of running the third quarter. They were not up for the fight tonight to commit to the way you have to play that team. Neither Scott nor Legler wanted to use the word quit, but they're dancing real close to that. And you just look at the numbers. I mean, LeBron didn't go to the free throw line. Did not. You had 23 points. Okay. Seven rebounds. And Anthony Davis, who had, what, 30 points and 23 rebounds in the first game. He had 11 points last night and seven rebounds. Didn't spend as much time on the floor because the game got out of hand as Golden State scored 84 points over the second and third quarters of the game. And Davis shot just one free throw last night. And that analysis from Legler, it's, you know, just sort of the way the NBA works these days. But that's a, that's a hell of an indictment as far as I'm concerned that a player who is spectacular in game one comes to the arena and says, Oh yeah, well, I guess they're going to adjust for me tonight. So I'm not going to keep my foot on the gas. That's a superstar. I guess that's the way superstars operate in 2023. And it's a seven game series. Everybody understands that. So, you know, it's, it's the Lakers leaving. Oh, leaving a, I keep saying Oakland leaving San Francisco getting, getting it done. Really? I mean, if you win one of the two on the road, that's good. But still, I mean, where, where is, where is the pride? Where's the effort? Just seems to be missing. And that's, you know, that, that's not something that, that anybody should embrace. Oh, yeah, I got a great game in game one. So I guess they're going to be ready for me in game two. I'm not going to give it everything I have. I want to get back to, to more on, on what happened last night in the NBA. But what happened yesterday afternoon was that Mike Boudenholzer was fired as coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. Now, he got them their first championship in 50 years, only two years ago. Now, the problem with, with being a coach of a team with a lot of talent, including arguably the best player in the league, Janus Antadikumpo, is the expectation is that you're supposed to win. So, if you don't win, and especially if you go out in the first round, that's it. It's, you know, it's, it's what have you done lately. And, you know, who knows what's going on behind the scenes and maybe there's some friction with Antadikumpo? Who knows? But, you know, here's a team that, that, you know, last time they had won was with Oscar Robertson and Karima Abdul-Jabbar, who were both in their late 70s, Oscar maybe 80. And so, so, you know, he finally breaks through. And now two years later, he's out. And, and I thought of, of this, we had something similar here back in the late 70s and early 80s. Dick Motta became the coach of the Bullets. And, and really, there was a pattern of this for several years with the Bullets. They went to the Finals in 1975 and were actually favored against Rick Barry and the Golden State Warriors. The Bullets had a great regular season. I think they won 60 games. And the Warriors struggled. They had a bad start. They started to pick things up at the end, but they went seven tough games with the Chicago Bulls. And the Rested Bullets were expected to beat them. And what turned out, what, what it turned out was that the Golden State was just too deep. And the Bullets, because they had had an injury to Jimmy Jones, who was like the sixth man, a really good guard who'd come off the bench and give him some points. They were, they were depleted, really. And, and at that time, this was somewhat new in the NBA. Al Adles was playing nine guys. You know, most teams were playing six, maybe seven. And he was playing nine. And he just wore them down game after game. And they wound up with a sweep. The Bullets who went in in his favorites were swept in those Finals. Casey Jones coaches one more year. And then he's fired, or they don't renew his contract. We want to look at it, but he wasn't back. They bring in Dick Mata, who had coached those Bulls to the seven game series against the Warriors a couple years earlier. And Mata has to do some tweaking of the roster, but he's still got the, the Stars and Phil Chineer and Wes Unseled and Elden Hayes and he gets Kevin Greavy and Mitch Cupjack. And they put things together late because they didn't have a great regular season in the 77-78 season. I think they won 44 games. But they got hot in the playoffs. They knocked off Philadelphia. They had knocked off Boston. And so they get to the, get to the Finals and they go seven games with Seattle and they win, the one and only championship. The next year, they're even better during the regular season and they lose in the Finals to Seattle. And then they had beat for the championship the year before they lose to them. Mata comes back for the 79-80 season. They go 39-43. And in those days, they had a, a best of three series to open up rather than the best of sevens that they have now. And they lost, they lost the two games to, to observing in the 76ers. Oh, two. So, Mata, whether he was fired or whether he left, he, he left the team. He, so two years after being in the championship and only three years after winning it, he's out. He goes to the Dallas Mavericks. Gene Chue takes over. They finish the same 39-43 and then Unseled retires and Hayes goes to the Rockets and this, you know, kind of a wandering in the desert really ever since then. They haven't sniffed the Finals since then. They have not made it to the Eastern Conference Finals since making it in the, in the 78-79 season. And, you know, you just look at a guy like Bootenhulls, or I guess, you know, they look at a young star in Antutu Kupo and they can't waste many more seasons. But 271 combined wins over the past five years, that's the best in the NBA. But, you know, this is a league where changing coaches is something that you do. So, Mike Bootenhulls is out and somebody's going to wind up with a hell of a job there. Somebody's going to, somebody's going to get a great job and get to coach a great player. I was wondering about this happening and it has happened to a degree. I don't know what the long-term ramifications of this are going to be as to how they redo gambling and maybe they won't. Maybe they'll look at this as an isolated incident and say, hey, we got our arms around it. But this happened last week. It was something that was flagged last week that there seemed to be an enormous bet that was made on an Alabama LSU baseball game. And, you know, nothing unusual about huge bets being made on Alabama LSU football, but this is baseball. And so, the sports book flagged it and they investigated it. And surveillance video indicated that the person who placed these large bets was communicating with Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannen, who was fired yesterday. This alleged activity, this suspicious activity, took place at the sports book at the Great American Ballpark. So think about this. Two teams from the SEC play in a baseball game and there's a huge bet being placed in Ohio in the middle of the country. And there's surveillance video that shows the coach of the Alabama team is talking to ever put down this bet. The scheduled starting pitcher for this game for Alabama, Luke Holman, was scratched just before the game because of what they said was back tightness and replaced by sophomore Hagen-Batt. And it was off more Hagen-Banks who had not started since March 16th. LSU was up big. I think they were up 8-1. They held on to win 8-6. And this is going to be something that probably is going to pop up again and, you know, how, you know, legalized gambling is here to stay. But these are the kind of things that were feared once the floodgates opened for this to happen. Bohannon had been the coach at Alabama since June of 2017. He'd made one NCAA appearance in 2021. So he's not like, you know, an old legend there who'd been coaching, you know, for 30 years. But this is a real concern. And because of the regulation of gambling, it's not that they worry so much about an LSU Alabama football game being fixed. It's more so like this. And here's a, you know, what does a baseball coach make? $150,000 a year? You know, if you're sliding them $50,000 on a bet that you're going to make and it's a fixed game, that makes a difference. You know, this is what happened in the 1950s. The betting scandals at CCNY that you had college kids who weren't making pup gifts. And they were slid, you know, $5,000, $10,000. That made a difference and the gamblers were cashing in. And it cost guys their careers. It was a very, very serious thing. That's when gambling was not legal. Now it's legal, but it's illegal for a coach if, in fact, he did. If in fact, Brad Bohannon took a bribe. But it's opened up for that because of this. And it's not that you have to worry about Nick Saban doing this. No, no, no. It's the baseball coach who's probably making, you know, one tenth, less than one tenth of what Nick Saban makes. So it's a concern. And I wonder if maybe they'll limit this to non-revenue sports. You know, maybe, maybe, I don't know. I don't know if they can do that, but it's, you know, it's certainly a red flag when you go, Oh, look at that bet on a baseball game, a college baseball game. Who bets on that? Well, somebody did. All right. Coming up in the next hour, Rob Long is going to join me from one oh five seven, the fan in Baltimore. The news conference yesterday for Lamar Jackson, a couple of things to pick out from that. And how about them? That's not fun yesterday. An hour and 55 minutes to great. Stay with us. Andy Polin show, ESPN six thirty. The ending Poland show. We got to go after this and everything we got thinking they're going to come with everything they got. I'll start on by saying I'm bored. I'm broke and I'm back. The end the Poland show on ESPN six thirty starts right now. We started nine every day. We roll through the ten o'clock hour every day and sometimes through the eleven like today Tony readjusting his schedule this week. I think it's the same for next week to then back to his, I guess usual Tuesday and Thursday off. So roll till noon today and we're going to talk to Rob Long coming up in about twenty minutes. I watched the news conference yesterday that Lamar Jackson had and it's funny. All that drama, especially since the end of the season. Oh my God. He's going to turn the NFL upside down. Dan Snyder is going to sign him to a guaranteed contract and give the middle finger to the other owners as he goes out the door. Lamar Jackson is going to be Kurt Flood and he's going to stand up for principal and won't sign a contract unless all the money is guaranteed. Then boom. They get the draft. Oh yeah, got a deal. Got a deal. Everything's good here. So we'll get to that here in a second. But I thought we should have a little bit of fun because it's not going to be a lot of fun this baseball season. I mean, let's face it. This team is going to lose. They may lose a hundred games. You know, maybe they'll lose ninety games, but you know, the nats are not going to be in the playoffs. But we're having some fun now. They're in a pretty good stretch and they bring in the Chicago Cubs. Now I've been to a number of Cubs, Nat's games over the years because I've told you this before. My son was growing up and I kept promising. We were going to get a baseball team here. He would come home from school and come home from camp and watch the Cubs on WGN and cried when Harry Carey died and all that. Anyway, we didn't get a baseball team here until he was about 14. So it was too late. He was already a Cubs fan. So I've gone with him to Cubs games over the years and they generally draw big crowds. Now a weekday game for teams that are not very good, especially the nats. I still think I thought that they would have had more than they had yesterday. They had 18,500. But those who showed up got a real treat. One, they could get home for dinner. It won a clock game and it went an hour and fifty five minutes. And as Bob Carpenter called it, this is how it ended. Potty, wake up, Bobby. Freeze. And there it goes down the line. See you later. Game winner. How about that? You can't rob that. Alex Cog is the fastball down the middle of the plate first pitch. And he won to end this before two hours there, Bob. Wow. How about your nats? You know, all that stuff about baseball being timeless. How about that? Everybody's focused on the time now. Look, a two hour baseball game is great. A two and a half hour baseball game is fine. A three hour and forty minute baseball game is too long. So he ended that and he ended it in a perfect way with a walk off home run. And look, this is Alex Cog is 28 years old. He's a journeyman guy. Starting to lose his hair, you know, but for one shining moment, he had that yesterday at Nats Park and talked about it after the game with Dan Coco. Alex, what do you feel in this moment? I mean, my injury, my whole life, hitting a walk off home run in the big leagues. Oh, you're a great game by our team, but man, this is just an amazing way to cap it off. I mean, speechless. Praise God. Were you looking to ambush there? First pitch against Boxburger. Low key, yeah, I was, but I just wanted to get a good pitch and oh my gosh. Worked really hard on just really getting on the fastball, getting on the fastball, getting on the fastball all day today, you know, working with DC and the guys in the cage and I got on the heater right there. So we win. What a ball game for your team overall. Kyle Finnegan pitches out of a huge jam there in the top of the ninth after Patrick Corbin had gone seven tremendous innings. Let's start with Corbin. He was using the change up more today. I don't know if you could tell from out in center, but what is this guy giving your team this year and especially today? I was awesome to watch. I mean, he was mowing him down, taking care of business, you know, quick innings and then we were going out there and having confidence he was going to fill up the zone and make plays behind him and, you know, then, you know, Finne coming in and getting those outs, even though they had first or second and third, but nobody out or whatever. And, you know, just a total team effort today and it was a fun win. Alex, you guys have now won three of your last four series. You take three of four against the good Cubs team. What type of confidence is your group playing with right now? I mean, we know we're going to give it all we have every game. And like I said, a million times before, we got a lot of good players. We play great defense. We're pitching really well and we're going to get the hit when we need to and we're going to keep grinding out at bats and keep going for it and we're going to keep rolling. You dreamed all your life at this moment, Alex. Congratulations. Yeah, thanks, Dan. Yeah, good, good Cubs team. Game under 500. Nats, five games under 500. As a matter of fact, they're not the worst team in the National League anymore. Colorado is worse than they are. St. Louis. How about St. Louis? 10 and 22? That's a big deal. St. Louis is a baseball town. I've been there and people are probably pulling their hair out about the Cardinals being 12 games under 500. Nats, five games under after that. And Barry Ziriluga was out there yesterday, wrote a column about it and he points to their least improved play in the last few weeks to defense. He says the Nationals are playing crisp and clean infield defense that has transformed a team that was at this point last year, essentially unwatchable into one that at least defensively is both palatable in the present and full of potential for the future. The difference between Washington's infield defense in May of 2022 and May of 2023, Night and Day, says manager Dave Martinez. He says, forget Washington's record. It's why the brand of baseball the Nats played early last season. Michael Franco, booting balls at third. Luis Garcia overwhelmed the short. Cesar Hernandez looking old at second. Felt so disgusting. It's why the brand they're playing now. C.J. Abrams having calmed himself a short. Garcia moving to a more fitting position at second. Ymir Candelario, cleanly stepping in at third and Dominic Smith scooping everything at first seems so digestible. Dominic Smith nuts his great hitter, but okay, playing pretty good defense. He says this is not to say the Nationals infield is full of gold glovers. Abrams who began the season with a three-error opening day has seven errors total more than anyone in the National League. Garcia is too slow-footed to be an elite second baseman as a group. They don't rate favorably with the advanced defensive metrics, but on a daily basis, they're making plays that they're supposed to make. Is that a low bar? Maybe, but anyone who watched the 2022 Nationals can appreciate the visceral difference now. An obvious weakness that has become a subtle strength. So, you know, the point is that they may not be very good this year, but we're seeing fundamentals being developed with young players and, you know, maybe down the line, they'll be pretty good and can add some players to that roster to make it better. So yesterday Lamar Jackson showed up for a news conference that they had at the team facility, the Ravens team facility in Owings Mills. John Harbaugh, the coach was there, Eric DeCosta, the general manager, and went quite a while, it went about half an hour. And one of the things Lamar said, now this is this, you write checks like this, you better be able to come close to caching him. He's talking about how they added receivers for him. Now, his side of it is that he didn't say to the Ravens, go out and sign these wide receivers and I'll work things out with you. He's saying they called him and said, oh yeah, Ravens would be a good team. He says he always wanted to come back. There was never a doubt that he wanted to be a Baltimore Raven, but they have added Odell Beckham and Nelson Aguilar and they drafted Zay Flowers with the 22nd overall pick, took him in the first round, and he said, I want to throw for like 6,000 yards with the weapons that they have. We have. He said they have? No, we have. He said we have. Here's the contract. Here's the contract. Set league highs in bonus, 72.5 million. Most money in the first three years of a deal, 156 million. And an average per season of 52 million. He also received a no franchise tag and no trade clauses. A source told ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. So with this deal at the end of it, it's five years. So what is he 26? So he'd be 31. He'd be in his prime if he completes it. And you know, he's got to play really well because there are off ramps for this. You know, it's really, it's a five year deal, but it's really like a three year deal and possibly even a two year deal depending on how he plays. But the reality is he's not going to serve out all five years at 260 million. They'll work things out for cap purposes and things like that. But at the end of it, they can't hang the franchise tag over his head and he's got a no trade clause in this. That was helpful, of course, to Deshawn Watson who had a no trade clause in his contract with Houston. And when it came time to shop him around, he was willing to wave that as long as Cleveland came up with the guaranteed money. So this is another leverage point down the road, but they're worried about the future, immediate future right now. Now, a lot of talk about Wallace was going on and it was a two year process. You know, who negotiates a contract for two years, but they were doing this for two years. And over the course of it, Lamar never had an agent and you heard things from people who covered the league like Mike Florio. Oh, this can't get done without an agent. It's too complicated. He's got to get himself an agent. We got it done by himself without an agent and said he would do it again that way. It's a business. It's a business that in the end of the day. And if you're going, if you're going to represent yourself, you know, you got to have a strong mind. I want to say you get out there and put your feelings in it because it's not about feelings. You know, you can't take things with a, oh, yeah, I don't like what you said. I don't agree with this. You know, it's like what they feel is how you feel. You know, it's a grown man thing at the end of the day. So you got to be a grown man if you come out of business. Yeah, you got to keep your feelings to yourself. This is Eric Dicosta who did the negotiations and said all the right things. I think the conversations were great. I always understood where he was coming from. And I always think he understood where I was coming from. Certainly, we always didn't agree necessarily. We would have got to deal down a lot sooner. But the respect has always been there. The appreciation has always been there. You know, we both love the Ravens and we both love this community. And it took some time. In the end, it was really two people, you know. And I was dealing with Lamar Jackson, the agent, very impressive patient, demanding, honest, straightforward. You know, it wasn't always easy. You know, I'd rather deal with Lamar Jackson, the player, I think. But in the end, it was just Lamar and I talking, texting, emailing each other, trying to get a deal done. They would really know what the factor is involved. Well, this was the most curious part of the news conference for me. As you know, the Ravens gave Lamar the non-exclusive tag. So he had the right to talk to any team he wanted to. And either compensation would be worked out to first round picks going to the Ravens. Or he could agree to a deal with another team and the Ravens could match it. And they said, you know, we did that to let him see what the market was for him out there. This was the question about talking to other teams. Did Lamar talk to other teams and what did he find out when he talked to him? Read between the lines here. It sounds to me by this answer from Lamar that he never talked to anybody else. That either he turned down the opportunity to talk to another team or nobody called. This is listen to this answer from Lamar. To be honest with you, I really didn't care for other teams. Really, I just really wanted to get something down here. Like, I wanted to be here. Like, man, okay, other teams cool, but I want to be arranged. And like, I said, I said something 2018, you know, I think it was April 26th of I'm not mistaken. And I meant that, you know, I'm standing on that until I get it done. So I really wanted to get this done before anything, before I even want to before my time up and branch off somewhere else. You know, I really want to finish my career here. I want to super bowl here. To me, that's what that sound like to you, Rex. That's what I'm like. He keeps talking to other teams. I think it's just kind of like once you sign a contract, it's all sunshine. Like, try to make the Ravens fans feel. But I think the Ravens knew that he wasn't going to get a lot of teams because you don't think one team kicked the tires. Well, kick the tires. But again, you have to give up the compensation. And you've got now, whether this is true or not, but this has always been out there that he's demanding guaranteed money. So do you want to talk to a guy who starts the conversation with every dollar that you put in that contract has to be guaranteed? Yeah. And so, and also teams are used to dealing with agents. And this took 27 months to get it done. Other teams don't have time for that kind of, they got to move on. And I think the Ravens were ready to move on too. This is why this deal got done on draft day. Because I think they were thinking they were going to draft a quarterback if this just didn't happen. And further put pressure on the mar. Yeah, I think so. I'm going to ask Rob Long about this in about 10 minutes. Get his thoughts on it as I'm sure he's discussing it on his show this morning. But it sounds to me like, you know, there really wasn't a lot of interest there. Now he does incredibly well. I mean, you know, who among us wouldn't want to be guaranteed that kind of money, a signing bonus of 72 and a half billion dollars, an average per season salary of $52 million. But I just think that I think the Ravens played it right on the non-guaranteed because they're non-exclusive. Because it allowed them to shop around and see, yeah, nobody else is going to give you that either. That the Deshawn Watson contract is an outlier. And the guaranteed money is just not going to happen. Here's something else too. He's one in three in the playoffs. He's missed 10 of Baltimore's last 22 games because of injury. So if that trend continues over the next two years, this is not going to be a five-year deal. It's going to be a two-year deal. And they will find a way to get out of it. But when he is on, man, he is something spectacular to watch. And one of the things that John Harbaugh said at the news conference yesterday was that Lamar has this ability to see the whole field. Like when they go through film sessions after he's had conversations with Lamar, it's exactly on film as he saw it. So he's got some great knowledge of the game. He's got a great understanding of the game, great handle on the game. And probably all great athletes, the game slows down for him. So he's able to see things develop on the field. And now, after not having weapons for a long time, now, we'll see what they're going to get at at Odell. I think that's something of a wild card that, you know, last time we saw him was with a knee injury in the Super Bowl. But if he's got something left, that's going to be big. And Nelson Aguilar has been a great receiver. And, you know, you always wonder about draft picks. The luck that Washington has had, Terry McClure and aside, has not been good with wide receivers drafted in the first round. He was drafted in third round, actually. So first round wide receivers really have not worked out well for Washington other than last year. Dotson coming out of Penn State so far so good. But he missed a couple of games with injury too. So good luck. Good luck. I think it's great for the Ravens certainly. And now you just got to see what, you know, if he's that guy. They said all the right things. Oh, he's the best quarterback in the league. And, you know, he's got a great relationship with the fans. They love that. He loves the fans. All is good now. But now he's at the moment, the highest paid player in the league. And he's missed 10 of the last 22 games with injuries. So he's got to be on the field and he's got to perform well. The pressure ratchets up with this deal. We'll talk to Rob Long about that and a lot more. It's the Andy Poland show ESPN 630. The Andy Poland show on ESPN 630, the sports capital. Hi, we are efforting Rob Long, a 105-7 the fan in Baltimore. I want to talk to him about the Lamar Jackson news conference from yesterday. We just played some of the highlights of that. Also about the Orioles. We're just amazing. I mean, if you have hard issues and you're a diehard Orioles fan, it's been that kind of season where you go, oh, better make sure I have my medication all set. They were up eight to one yesterday in Kansas City. Kansas City's bad team. They're terrible. And they're up eight to one and the Royals came back. And then the Orioles scored again. They scored three runs in the ninth and they won the game 13 to 10 and held on. And they're playing really, really well. Well, I mean, you give up 10 runs in a game to a Kansas City team that isn't good. You could say, well, they're not that good. But on the other hand, they got the second best record in the American League. And next week, I think it's next week, they're going to have a showdown. It's kind of a showdown in May, but you're going to have a chance to play Tampa, which has the best record in baseball. And that is something that I think that you have to say is really remarkable for a team that is not expected, let's say, to contend for the title, but they're doing well. So we have all the games here and they move on to Atlanta tonight and we'll see what happens. Hey, we got things figured out. So Rob Long is with us. Hello, Rob. What's going on about all about what that was? OK, well, telephone technology, I'm older than you are, so it baffles me. But anyway, we got it figured out somehow. Yeah. Amartas, why was your Navy? OK, great. Yeah, it's whatever it is, it's worked out. I want to talk to you because we play some of the cuts from the Lamar Jackson news conference. And I think that the big question is, why did it happen when it did and why did it take 27 months to get that done? Geez, man, I'll tell you what, that 27 months to get that done, something that could have been done long before. I think both sides are at fault. The Ravens are at fault because they have a franchise quarterback. And you see the other teams, they care that franchise quarterback long before that. If they didn't think he was worth it, then why now? That's what a Ravens. All Lamar, listen, he got a great deal. I took my hat to him because he ended up getting in no trade and no sack clauses in his contract. But if he has an agent, this is very quick. Lamar Jackson refused to talk during the season. That's part of the 27 months. If he has an agent, then he doesn't have to talk during the season because that's what his agent is doing. I think it's a combination of both sides being at blame and at fault for this. Why did it happen when it happened because Jalen Hurtside and Lamar Jackson has a flare for the show for the stage. And I think he would love, he loves upstage in the NFL draft, but it happened during that time because Jalen Hurtside and I think the, you know, the right was on the wall for. Now this was the day of the draft that they announced this. Had this not been done, do you think the Ravens would have taken a quarter back in the first round? No, there's no way. I don't think that the Baltimore Ravens knew they were going to the season with Lamar Jackson either franchise tagged or signed on the long-term deal. I didn't think it was right. I didn't think it was rather quarterback in the first round. I thought they were going to wide receiver one way or the other because in going wide receiver you pull Lamar Jackson and even more. I think they would have used that pick to help the lower Lamar even more. I think now that it kind of played to me either way, but I don't think it was the first round quarter back now. Okay, and he said, now this is one of the most curious things I took from it yesterday, he was asked about negotiating with other teams and which he had the right to do under the non-exclusive tag. And he said, now I was always focused on the Ravens. It sounded to me like nobody called. Did you get that feel? I got that. Well, I think there's some point during the press conference he said he had some calls to know that was from agents, right? Yeah. I don't think other teams call because I think if I have another NFL team Andy, why do I want to negotiate for the Baltimore Ravens? Right. Right. It was obvious to me that the Ravens were able to use that in their favor. I don't think they were quite new, but the market was. What is the last time the Ravens have played paid a franchise quarterback Joe Flacko after the Super Bowl, 2013, but the market wasn't quite what it is now. It's ridiculous money now. So the Baltimore Ravens and the uncharted waters, I think they wanted somebody else to negotiate for them. What they did, but they did it with Jalen Hurts. I think most guys were very lucky to have that happen, but I don't think any other team was trying to reach out to a bar because I don't think anybody thought that a bar would be with another team. Just to illustrate that, I mentioned yesterday, yesterday is five years since Matt Ryan signed the contract that made him the $30 million quarterback and they went, oh my God. And so now, you know, 50 is the number he got there to 52. The question is when he's healthy, he's certainly worth that, but he hasn't been healthy. He's missed 10 of the last 22 games for the Ravens. So how confident are they now that he's been paid and he has that security and the injury that, you know, may or may have been strong enough to keep him off the field won't keep him off the field now. I'm hoping that there's something so close that we don't know about it. I'm hoping there's something that they know that we don't know because I can't tell you they won't be Andy. The Monge action, by the way, gets hurt in the pocket, not really running. You know, the one time he got hurt running, he got a concussion from getting kicked by his left tackle in the head. That was it. I was in that with Monge action, he was hurt in the pocket. I don't have, I can't tell you the guy won't get hurt again. Neither can I tell you any other quarterback. Now, he's more vulnerable to that because of his recent history. That's real. You know, Ravens fans, Lamar fans get a little defensive when you say that, but it's real. It's not something that's made up. It's not like you did a little quarterback just planned 15, 16 games a year and only missed a one or two. And you, what if it gets hurt? Well, he's only missed a one or two games. You're doing a little quarterback who's missed 10 games over the past two years, including the playoffs. That's real and that's my number one concern in all of this. And I can't guarantee that it'll stay healthy. And until he plays 16, 17 games again, which he has done, he played 16 before, he's just one game before. I tell you this is the situation again. I'm always going to be concerned about it. Yeah. And now he's got the other thing about the receivers. And we'd mention this got Odell Beckham and Nelson Aguilar and free agency. And they drafted Zay Flowers in the first round. And, you know, he also wrote a check that, I don't know if he's going to have any. It's going to be easy for him to cash where he's talking about throwing for 6,000 yards, where he's never gone over 3,200 in his career. But he now has weapons, which he did not have before. And how much of it was him talking to the team saying, get me these guys? Or did it just happen to work out that way that they were trying to entice him by signing these guys? Well, Jim, number one, I'm going to go to the 6,000 yards thing. I think I said this on my show today. I'll show today. I respect the spirit of what he was saying and not so much the letter. I think the spirit of what he said is, let's open this thing up and go to football round. I don't, I don't, I just missed that 6,000 yards. I just, I just, I just, I just say. Now, I heard it from a rival source before the press conference. And what he said at the press conference backs it up. He never made any demands. When he started those guys were available, he asked, is there any way we could get those guys? And that's how that conversation opened up. The word on the street was that he made the man. And from my source and from the mall yesterday confirming that basically, you didn't make a demand. He said, these guys are available. Why can't we go after these guys? Mm hmm. Okay. We're talking Rob Long, 1057, the fan. What, what do you feel like this will do? Because this is a good organization. They run things well. Terms of salary cap, which some say is, is overrated and how you handle it. But you're still paying a quarterback a ton of money. Do you think with the supporting people that they have around him that they will be able to a protect him well enough and continue to put the kind of defensive players on the field that has, you know, been there, been their trademark for 20 years. And what outside the corner back yesterday, that was that big need. They have young players who are ready to step up. They've already signed Rokon Smith who turned this entire defense around after the bear's trade. Yes, they had the pieces. The cap is not going to be an issue right now. Maybe in a couple of years, the cap will be an issue. That's when you go to a little more. He said, let's get you some money up front. We worked this cap for some years on the back end of a new creative things like that. Things that you'll probably see the Chiefs do next year with badger in the homes. But as of right now, the Ravens, if they goodness for this, are in all in mode. And they needed to be because they keep flirting with it and flirting with it. They're trying to nickel and dime their way through in terms of the offensive side of the football. Ravens aren't cheap, but they've been nickel and dime is my pick on the offensive side of the football. You know, we've never had nice things like this on offense. And now they do in Baltimore. And I think I think what you're seeing is seen realizes that the NFL has changed since they last won the Super Bowl. Now, it wasn't ancient history, but the NFL has changed. It's a passing lead. You're not going to win with the style of all you wanted to win with. You're going to have to keep up with the rest of the league and be able to score quickly. The definition of good defense in the NFL now is getting stops in the fourth quarter. That's good defense in the national league, man. Get fourth quarter stops. You're not winning by shutting teams out. Ravens needed to catch up. And I think they did. And I'm happy they did. You know, the point you made about all in, that's another thing that goes along with these contracts. You see five years, but the reality is this could be two years. And I think really Rob, don't you think that in the next two years they got to find out which Lamar they're getting? Are they getting the guy who's missed 10 games over the last 22? Or are they getting the guy who's been playing 16 games before that? And I think that's why the next two years, the all in that you talk about, I think that's what's highlighted there with the money they're paying them. They got to find out if he's going to be that kind of quarterback that can lead them to a championship. Never have true words been spoken because if you look at the three years, that salary cabinet is about $70 million. Yeah. And that's where you get to the point where you either let them go because you want to pay that kind of money. Or you say, you know what, this has been a great relationship. And that's extended this so we can save some money under the cat and it's a good relationship with Lamar. So he'll take the extra money in his pocket and do it. So you're right. This is one of those relationships where, you know, we're going to all in right now. We'll give you all this money guaranteed up front, but we also believe ourselves will ruin the any event that is not worth. We can get out of this. All right. Last thing with Rob who also does pre and post game on mass and for the Orioles about this team, which is remarkable so far. They are never out of a game and they're never necessarily in a game that's put away with an 8-1 lead yesterday. They managed to win 13 to 10. I'll tell you one thing. They have been a hell of a lot of fun to watch and the record is the second best in the American League. The question is, can you sustain this kind of play long term? What are your thoughts? You know, I think you can sustain this kind of a play long term, but they're going to have stretches with a picture. It's going to be OK. They're not as stretch as with the pictures. It's not that good. They have to go out and make a move. We all know that. One move they make. Who knows? You know, Eduardo Rodriguez is playing on a bad team right now. He has an opt-out after this year, which means you have to give up something for him. But the opt-out may bring what you have to give for him down. And I thought not like that out there. That's the kind of move that they may have to make in terms of the staff. Later on in the season, people keep talking about John Means is coming back. John Means is coming off of Tommy Johnson. He's going to be treated with Kit gloves. He don't rely on him for a pin race. You might get two or three innings out of him when he first comes back. They need to get somebody else in that rotation or solid. That's going to be fine. They're doing what they're doing right now. Without going to Henderson really turning it up. Without Anthony Sonta on there, who was a 30 plus one run guy last year doing what he normally does. So offensively, I'm not worried about it. The bullpen has been outstanding, including Kanhou who came out of nowhere. This guy was horrible last year. He came up with paternity leave in the Chicago White Sox series in Chicago. And all of a sudden, you know, now he's a set-up man. So the bullpen's fine. The offense is fine as well. But the one thing they have to address is going to have to be starting pitching. They're not horrible, but they need a bulldog in the middle of that rotation with the front of that rotation. They get them through. You can't rely on young Grayson Rodriguez. And I don't know who Dean Kramer is. I don't know. He's a Dean Kramer of last year. But a Dean Kramer that we have seen so far this year. They need someone solid and consistent who can eat up innings with an ERA under four. Yeah, well, those guys are in big demand. So good luck in finding a butt. You know, it's been a long time since the Orioles have been buyers. And, you know, if you're going to do it, this is probably the year to do it, don't you think? This has to be to get it. It's the year to do it for so many reasons. It's the year to do it for the organization. It's the year to do it for the fan base. And it's also the year to do it for your managing your players in the clubhouse for what's away. You know, we don't talk enough about Brandon on my opinion. What is the last time you see the manager take a team to rebuild and see him through it on the other side? Good point. It only doesn't happen. You normally get the sacrificial lamb that starts to rebuild and you get rid of him for a big name. Brandon Hyde has seen both sides of this rebuild. Get him a piece. Let him have somebody in that rotation to help him out a little bit. Because I think that guys endured a lot. We got just the opposite here. We had Davey Martinez joined a team ready to win, did win, and now he's going through the rebuild. You don't see that both sides, right? That's unusual what you just talked about and then the reverse that we have here. So kind of interesting by two teams. Good to talk to you. Thank you very much. We'll work out the phone situation next time a little bit better. Thank you. Thank you. Always. I take care. That's Rob Long, 105-7, the fan. And then you see him on Masson doing Orioles pre and post game. And thanks to Rob Long. Once we got the telephone problems straightened out with him on the Lamar Jackson press conference yesterday. Thanks to Rex Minton for running the show. Thanks to all of you. Listen. I will see you Monday morning at 9 a.m.