Good evening. Never read by there. I don't vollue you, but I'm
fired up because we are on fire up. I hope you had a great
weekend. Segue intended, you know, that's what it is. Good evening.
Everybody in My name is Scott Morgan, ROTHELM Motor City, Madmouth.
Glad to have you on to night, and our main focus of conversation night
we're gonna be recapping the Kentucky Derby. We're gonna talk about handicapping spring football,
and we're also going to talk about the National Hockey League and the NBA
the two games that went in overtime. With that said, so I hope
you can stay. Well, it's the entire broadcast. I'm going to introduce
a crew right to left, all right, smoking, Jeremy Be welcome back,
my friend, glad to be here, Ray to talk some sports.
And Chris Peartle welcome back. Been off a little bit of time, but
we're gonna get him back in the regular rotation, right CP. Thank you,
Scott, good to be with you tonight. And John Ryan. I'll
tell you I could drag him in anywhere when my instincts start telling me we
need to bring this cat On Man and we got the show for him tonight.
John, hope you had a good weekend. Glad to be here,
and yeah, looking forward to talking about the weekend, all right. And
last one, I'll leave George Iikorn, good evening, Scott and Fellow's good
to be on. Thank you George Iikorn, fresh off of basketball's yesterday,
and hello Will Vocal, good evening to you. I'm sure that Will will
provide some time and comments in the chat room. But let's get right to
it, all right, Jeremy, We're gonna do a little bit of recapital
that Kentucky derby. By the way, I'm wearing a little Kentucky hat that
I got over at the truck stop. Going off, you can see the
big state of Kentucky, but it's on there anyways, So signify that when
you get a hat, you never know what it's going to come into play.
All right, Jeremy, go ahead, let's recap this all right.
At fourth place, we had Disarm. At third place, we had Angel
of Empire in second place. We had two fills in first place, by
a whole length was made. Angel Empire was a half link behind two Fills,
and Disarmed was a half at lenked behind Angel of Empire, so it
was a very close knit race at the top. So did you wash a
race smoking? Yes, I actually did lorior overall impressions of that race.
It's always fun to watch horse racing because I used to ride horses myself.
I never raced them, but I did ride them. But it looked it
looked a little different than what I remember. That's all good, All right?
Well, John Ryan, you know this is your business here, handicapping.
So what I want to do John, before we talk about this Kentucky
Derby, why don't you recap what you talked about last Monday night when we
were previewing the race. Well, you know, we recapped to recap the
race. We had five scratches that most of them occurred after our show.
So for the first time many many years, my handicapping, you know,
for the show, even on Tuesday and Wednesday, was going up in smoke
and I had to like restart and what I found more difficult and more of
a challenging this year than any other Kentucky Derby, was am I super effectives?
Who am I going to put in that third and fourth row? There
were so many fifty to one shots, and which is that one that's gonna
you know, you know wreck most of the pyramids and you know, most
of all help mine. And I think I might have, in hindsight,
put too much focus on that. And I didn't see Maje as a winner.
Honestly. I don't think any anybody really, you know, saw that
coming. But it happened. And you know, at fifteen to one,
that was a horse that I had in my second row, I had Angel
of Vampire to win. I hated it when I got I got Angel of
Vampire right after all, right before our show last Monday, at ten to
one, So that was one of the one of the favorites. I had
Forte as well, and I don't like playing favorites, as you know,
you know, all you guys know that. You know, I just feel
like I'm making a bad decision right away. And then all of a sudden,
Angel Vampire, because of the scratches, becomes the favorite, and I
just was like, oh this, this is not feeling good. But I
went through the research again. Angel of Vampire, you know, very fast
horse, great closer. But in watching the race, like Smoking was saying,
it was different. I literally I was watching with a couple of buddies
and families, and I literally blurted out on the on the home stretch where
the heck is Angel of Vampire, And then all of a sudden, you
know, Angel Vampire appears and unfortunately, I think if the race would have
gone fifty more yards, who would have had a different winner. But that's
not what the race is all about. Point I'm trying to make is I
think Angel of Empire, if they have the same jockey has now the experience
Pimlico is going to be an eighth of a mile shorter. There's not that
pressure for the jockey to determine when he's going to let the horse, you
know, go and release at full speed to chase down everybody. And I
like Angel of Empire already, even though the race is almost two weeks out.
So that was my number one takeaway was that, Yeah, it was
monumentally different to handicap, very difficult to handicap because all the scratches and unfortunate
desks that occurred during the week. That's sad enough, but um, you
know, for the for the Preakness, I gotta think Angel of Empire is
going to be very high on my list. Hey, John, I was
going to add, ask you too, what about the track conditions. How
crucial is the track conditions whether it's going to be wet or are dry or
muddy. Sometimes that's also tough to predict, obviously if you're a pronosticator.
Oh, it is absolutely an Angel of Vampire on a muddy track. I
don't think I would have had Angel Vampire to win. And I was watching
the weather because the weather forecast a week before the event was forecasting for you
know, showers and possible thunderstorms, and it was a concern. It definitely
impacted my decision making going into it. But then as the as the week
war on and you saw that it was going to be cloudy, overcast,
possibility of a shower went down substantially. Then I became more bullish on the
closers and the faster horses. I honestly, I would have loved to have
seen Forte an Angel of Vampire go head to head and just to see who
would win, because I think if Forte would have been in you know,
we will never know the answer to it, but I do think each horse
would have benefited from each other had they known you know, okay, well
I know that horse, all right. Well that's a good horse for me
to be following, and it would have been a totally different race. I
think Angel Vampire was just out there on an island and I was just listening
to the commands of the jockey, and you know it didn't work out.
But a great win for Mage too, I mean it was, it was
fantastic. So take away. I mean this might be a little controversial,
Scott. I hope it's okay to say I didn't mind not seeing Bob Bafford's
face on TV for ninety percent of the time. Well, you know,
it's funny how you just say that, John, I don't just about that.
Ask question baffort. So that's controversial. You found the GMT eight thing
great mind think of like So all right, so let's go ahead and let
me follow up with what you just said, John. Okay, the Bob
Badford the fact, okayna be about it, because obviously we know why he
isn't there. But was it refreshing not to see Bob Badford there? Or
maybe you might have I don't know whether it's called leveling the playing field,
but it certainly felt different. Yeah, I agree. I don't even know
how to put that into words or even try to quantify that fact. You
know, part of me thinks that there are horses that maybe we're trained a
year ago by him, that now are with a different trainer who may have
been able to enter the race that way, where the owners actually leave that
trainer and go to somebody else, but somehow Badford still involved. I don't
really want to believe that that's true, because that really is even worse against
the rules than why you suspended. But it's like so many other characters we've
had in all organized sports, especially at the professional level, there is polarizing
people that we just don't like, you know, George Steinbrand or go rest
the soul. You know, people either loved him or they absolutely, you
know, abhorred him. There was no in between, like, oh,
yeah, George is a good guy. Yeah I like George, He's all
right. It was either one or the other. It was either I love
him, he's the greatest guy in the world, or he wasn't. So
I think Badford has, you know, become that type of character and in
the big events of horse racing, and you know, you'll never be able
to take away his credit from all the races he has won. All right,
he wasn't disqualified those races. And it kind of brings up, you
know, the steroid era in baseball. Yeah, they broke records because the
commissioner, in my opinion, Bud Selig, knew that steroids was running rampant
through baseball. And anybody who knows sports, I think would agree with me
that everybody knew what was happening. But we wanted to see it. We
wanted to see those five hundred and fifty foot home run. We wanted to
see the record broken. And I think Badford is kind of the same guy.
When you know, he had all those horses every year, he was
the favorite every year coming into that Kentucky Derby, he'd beat. You know,
he'd have three horses in it, and one of them would probably be
a top notch favorite. Yep, ye him there. But you know,
the mistakes made with the performance enhancing drugs cannot be denied. And he's serving
as a sentence now. So that's my that's my takeaway with him. And
well, you know what, before I put Chris Peurtle out there, let's
get this comment of little Vogel and you know, what John read it.
I agree with what you said about Badford. Mister Ryan, see a lot
about Badford. Which which comment is he referring to? Probably a lot of
what you had to say. All right, Chris Peartle, you've been patiently
waiting in the wings. So would your thanks about to Kentucky Derby? Well,
I must be honest, I didn't watch it. I was in Louisville,
Kentucky, two weeks ago, so that's about as close as I've come
to the action at Churchill Downs. I do have to ask this, John,
was there anybody any horses anywhere? I should say that you saw it
relatively around twenty five to fifty to one, that you liked going into the
race. I'll be honest, I did not. And that's what made the
handicap me so hard. When I do these super effectives and even the EXACTA
kind of proud to say my next door neighbor actually hit the exacta on a
twelve dollars ticket for nineteen hundred bucks. And you know what they the family
picked the horses by the name that they liked. He picked the favorite,
and then who came in third, and then the other two were picked by
his wife and the young kids. Well, maybe that's the strategy I should
use next year. Well, you know what, I gotta tell you guys,
a really really fun story when it comes to greyhounds, I really do.
And then as soon as I do that, I'm gonna give of ourselves
a little station identification first. Okay, but I remember going to a baseball
convention, not so much convention, but a seminar out in El Paso,
Texas. I go to War's dog tracing track, you know, across Wars
Mexico. I saw this dog called Bill Walton, and I decided, what
the heck, I don't only see if the dog Bill Walton would be better
than the one that busted up later on? I beat at him and lost
my boy. It certainly was worth the story that I could tell each of
you guys. So the greyhound was as bad as the guy that was latter
part of his career all busted up? All right? What that said before
I proceeded further. The audio version of Fire Up can be heard on iHeartRadio,
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the word we gets it done? We are live on Facebook's LinkedIn, Twitter
and YouTube. Anybody else have any closing thoughts about the Kentucky Derby. The
floor is wide open for anybody to say something about it. Well. I
read in the article I read about it that if you hit the trifect on
a dollar bet, it had been nine hundred and thirty two dollars. If
you added the super effect fourth place of disarm, it was fifteen thousand,
one hundred and thirty two dollars and ninety eight cents on a one dollar bet.
That's why I played a super effectus. Hey, listen. The only
time I ever been on horse racing is when I was actually covering the Florida
Derby. That was that here in Helendel, Florida. All right, well
we'll go over to the Great Iron, shall we? So, John,
let's talk about handicapping spring football. You know, you have a lot of
unknown players in the United States Football League in the ESFL. Is there a
trick to do it? And how do you do it? Because everybody loves
to go ahead and bet on football, but now you have two leagues where
you know you have guys that are looking to get to the next level.
Well, I'll be a short and suite on this one, Scott, because
unlike my long talk about the Kentucky Derby, I really led it to the
you know, the scouts, they know what they're doing. Those are the
players are going to get put on the NFL rosters. And then once they
are on the roster, then it becomes an attention getter. And then I
go back and look at the history of that player. So too for me
to spend time, you know, trying to analyze like which players may get
to the NFL or which ones should get there. I have found to be
a little bit of a time consuming effort and endeavor that I don't really like.
I love watching the games, I love betting on the games, especially
live in game betting. But to determine, like what the spring football means
even at the college level, Scott, it's like, you know, watching
Penn State football or watching the spring games of Georgia or the big programs.
I watch them. I'm very impressed. But what matters to me is who
the coach then puts on the varsity roster to start the season, and those
names that are new names on those rosters. I will then go and research
their history at the high school level and whatever level they played at. So
that's my take on that. All right, Jeremy, the spring football.
You're talking about USFL and XFL and all of that, right, correct,
Well, I do like what they're doing in the games because you can actually
watch the line change as the score changes, which is really cool. And
also if it doesn't change, you over under you will watch that thing plummet.
Then the first time somebody scores a touchdown, it jumps back up by
like ten points, so that it's really cool to see the live betting aspect
while you're watching the games. But for the most part, I wouldn't bet
on teams where I don't know half the rosters. Good point, it doesn't
make a whole lot of sense. Okay, Chris Pearle must be off.
I must have losses transmission, No problem, We'll do too well, you
know, Scott. I'll take the next jab at it. And I agree
with Jeremy. I don't know enough about the roster. I mean, look
at the Michigan Panthers. They started two and oh a lot of optimism.
They get home those two first ones on the road, they get home in
ford Field, their new home, they lay an egg, and now they
laid another egg, lost to a team Memphis who was winless this year.
Now I'm gonna go to my first game, guys, this Saturday, and
I'm expecting a better effort by those Panthers. I wasn't able to cover the
last two at home, but I am going to go this Saturday, May
thirteenth. That's a twelve to thirty start. By the way, folks,
and you people in Michigan go out there and support this team. Tickets are
so cheap, and I know I want to go so bad. Ten bucks
only Jeremy even your boys can afford that, right, I can afford it.
I got to head the day off work. I know, I know
you do. But anyways, I'm saying, and that's what I mean,
John. It's so hard to predict because, like Jeremy says, you don't
know who's on the field one time to the next. But it's exciting because
those guys are trying to earn jobs, and they're right, they're trying.
They're trying to make scouts a look at them so they get a shot at
an NFL training camp or an invite. I don't know what Mike Novak is
that Mike Nolan is doing at quarter back, but from what I've seen these
last two games, he should have left Carson Strong end. Yeah, yeah,
I kind of sense that. Yeah, because Josh Love looks good in
the beginning, but once he comes back in after sitting and Carson Strong's in
a rhythm and looking good, they pull him and put Josh Love back in
and he looks lost, like a babe in the woods throw out overthrowing guys
by ten yards. Yeah that's bad. Yeah, that's not good. It
makes me think of that one guy that always plays the goofy guys in the
movies with the cross eyes and doing stuff like this. That's what it reminds
me of watching him throw the football in the second half. It's funny.
Yeah, I mean the Panthers have looked awful the last two weeks, and
the saddest part about it is they're actually playing in there on their own field.
So yeah. And Will Vogel brought up a horse last week on our
Kentucky Derby show. I wanted to give him an honorable mention. He did
place tent so he was in the middle of the field. Will's got a
comment too, Scott, I see about the USFL. Yeah, you know,
I'm gonna put it up. Have you get to read it? Oh?
Okay, I like seeing USFL games and leagues like that. Some of
the players are former NFL players trying to get back to the NFL and some
of our guys trying to make an NFL roster. And he's absolutely right.
Yeah, do you do you know some of the greats that started in the
USFL the first time go around? Steve Young, Steve Young, Reggie White,
yep. I mean there was some che Walker, Bobby Bobby Abe,
remember, Scott and John her Rod smart. He hate me from the kicker.
Well, let me tell you're forgetting about Jim Kelly and Denny Carter.
Mm hmmm yeah Jim Kelly, Virshall Walker right, yeah, Walker. Ye
oh, here's a bunch of There's a ton of wide receivers too. Some
of the names don't come to mind, but most of them ended up being
special teamers or third and fourth wide receivers in the NFL. Anthony Carter.
And there was one other one you mentioned that was the big ones that came
in and made an impact because they were either a wide receiver two or a
wide receiver one. Warren Rocket Ishmael. He went straight to the NFL,
I thought, and then just it was a bust. Yeah, it will
put away. Warren Moon went from the Canadian Football League over to Houston Oilers.
Yep, with you Cambels. Yeah, so now that's okay. Well,
you know, I mean they're Canadian Football League before these other leagues actually
went out there. Yeh. Canadian Football League has been around what half as
long as the NFL. I believe over one hundred years, isn't it.
I know the NFL has been around over one hundred years, so I think
Canadian well, I think the Canadian Football League's played over a hundred years as
well, if I remember right, So yep, no problem, Yeah,
it doesn't matter. But you know what before you had the USFL, XFL
what not. You know, guys are playing Canada and trying to do what
they've got to do. So yeah, I mean the first thing with the
USFL produced a lot of players mentioned, Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Doug
Flutie, herschel Walker, just to name a few. And I had a
good fortune of going out there and covering the league. So it was really
pretty good. Or I'm glad it's back. I really really am. So
yeah, I hope they actually do something. It looks like they got some
good sponsorships. The CFL is sixty five years old. Okay, thank you,
will okay, thank you? Well is it sixty five years old?
Yeah, but they've had a Great Cup around over one hundred years, haven't
they. Yeah, but the Great Cup was their college football championship before it
became professional. I didn't know that. Well yeah, okay, well whatever,
but all right, well thanks for the research. He's pretty good at
research and stuff anyways. All right, so any closing thoughts on the USFL
springing football in general, or we feel we've covered it. I hope it
makes it further than it did last time, because it was a lot of
fun to watch. But we got to get fans out there. They want
that Lower Bowl filled and then they'll get better sponsorships. So if that Lower
Bowl doesn't fill for the home games, guess what next year, Detroit won't
have home games for the Michigan Panthers. They're going to bounce it around for
a little while until they get either stadiums of their own or they get a
good deal from an NFL stadium. Yeah. The thing you should feel good
about this USFL is Fox owns it, so Fox wants a programming And to
me, that's a good situation that Fox owns the league and NBC's a partner
in terms of actually sharing the broadcast. Mike Brera is doing all that so
very good. All right, Well, we have two other sports I want
to get to while we have an opportunity. Last night, what an incredible
game. The two games we're going to talk about tonight will be overtime games.
First, Florida Panthers had three or two in over the Toronto maple Leae
three nothing to lead as and over time tell you what the Florida Panthers are
proving that like anything else, if you ride a hot goaltender allah Sergey Robrosky,
they're dangerous. If you don't believe that, the Boston Bruins will tell
you. I don't believe that the Toronto maple Leaves are about to find out
being down three or nothing. All right, John, you want to talk
to NHL in NFL. There you go the NHL game. You know Panthers
are the real deal. Certainly I wrote them three or four wins in the
Boston Bruins game. My models came up with them, and I believe me,
I looked at it and I was like, this can't be right.
So sometimes you go back and check, you know, the math, and
make sure that everything is entered right and that it is actually a recommendation to
bet on a dog of two twenty in a playoff game against a team that
set the all time record win percentage in the regular season. So that's where
the numbers helped me overcome my subjective personality. Might you know, it's human
nature to think, well, there's Florida Panthers have no chance against the Bruins.
You kidded me, they're not gonna win, But that's kind of where
I've learned over twenty eight years, where the opportunity may may lie. And
I think, you know, I said it yesterday before Game three, I
had actually a top rated play on the under and nothing better, guys than
having a two, two overtime game with a total of six and a half.
I mean, it really doesn't get any better than that. But that
was a game that's set up where if Toronto was going to get back into
the series, they really had a play defense, and they did. They
actually did play quality defense. They played much better in the first two games,
but it still didn't work out because Florida has that magic wand that you
said, the goaltender and the goaltender, you know, the you know,
like in baseball sometimes that baseball is a hitter looks like the size of up
beach ball. Well, the puck right now to the Florida Gold Center,
it looks like the size of a beach ball. He can save everything.
And you know, confidence in any sport level, whether you're eighth grade basketball,
or whether you're a senior in high school quarterback, or whether you're at
the pro level and the top of the world in the in the sport that
you're playing. Confidence is everything. You're seeing it in the Tampa Bay Rays.
You saw it a little bit with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Maybe they bounce
back, but these teams, they get on a roll, they get the
chemistry, they like each other, and Florida has it. So you know,
three zero now that series is pretty much done. Yeah, all right,
well let's go ahead. Well Loogal says Leaves advanced the second round,
says two thousand and four. Yeah, they are looking foolish and the Panthers
are really underrated team this year, including a regular season. Well, part
of that's the tribute to that the coaching change, Paul Marie's took over and
the team oviously began to play better at the right time. And then we'll
go to Will's other comment, and then I'll turn over to George. All
right, well, let's let's take the other one off and then put the
other one up, because this is one that I think we can all agree
with. Okay, my my opinion, the NHL playoffs are the best professional
sports. Well, that's an exclamation point. You're nailed at spot on.
Yeah, well, I mean, I agree with everything that's been said so
far. I told you guys a couple of weeks ago when I was on
the show, when when Scott took a break and Candy filled in, and
you know, I made that fabulous, absurd prediction that Florida was going to
be the Eastern Conference representative in the Stanley Cup finals. You know, one
thing you got to really think about here, And yeah, you can say
they scraped their way in, but they competed to the very end to get
their way in. So there's a lot to be said for a team like
that, as opposed to Austin wearing this crown and winning and winning and winning
and setting this record and that record and then setting everybody exactly now Toronto.
They were competing too. Of course, they're competing different levels of competition.
You're competing for home ice advantage, You're competing to win the number two slot
or the number one slot. I mean, there's different levels of competition.
But all I can do is give Florida a lot of credit. And Paul
Maurice, and you know Scott, he has roots back to Detroit with some
of his coaching way back when I always admired him as a head coach when
he was involved with you know, the minor league team that was here in
Detroit playing at Plymouth the Plymouth Arena. And you know, I tell you
what, you know, the Florida It's it's like a magic It's like a
magic carpet ride, like we're watching Aladdin. Here the Panthers, the way
they're going. Well, last Wednesday's edition of The Sports Exchange at nine o'clock,
I told you, guys, I felt this series to go four or
five at the very most. And I really told you, yeah, yeployed
four. I mean, let's face it, the Toronto may believes good year,
you know, but if the Panthers are able to take out Boston in
Toronto, you're thinking how many the two teams that they elimited point wise?
Oh, they go unbelievable, And you're right. And in Toronto, my
gosh, the fans have been waiting for this, I believe nineteen sixty seven
since they won their last Stanley Cup. I mean, it's incredibly bad and
they have some of the best fans them in Montreal, probably the two best
fans fan bases ever. But all I'm saying is that Toronto, Brendan Shanahan
President Shanahan. Uh, something's wrong here, buddy. He's not happy.
He's not happy. Yeah, that's true. You're right, Jeremy, all
right. So any closing thoughts on the NHL. I know, John,
what do you think can the Panthers pulling up the futureist market for the Panthers
and they're really still not getting the respect that they deserved their number two to
win it all at three seventy five. I can't even remember what they were
when George made his call that they were going to be the Eastern Conference representative.
But that's let's say it probably had to be probably fifteen hundred plus fifteen
hundred at least. You know, the Hurricanes are plus four hundred. You
know, they have their hands full of Golden Knights were smoked in their last
game. I don't know why. They're actually ahead of the Edmonton No,
not ahead of the Edmonton Oilers, but they got smoked. They should be
lower than the Devils and lower than the Stars, or at least lower than
the Stars in terms of pricing. So I think if all those teams of
the Golden Knights are probably the most over valued, and you know, the
Panthers, in my opinion, still at three seventy five, offer a good
value bet. All right, So what I'm gonna do is the last question
I have before we go onto our final topic tonight. And the last several
years of Florida Panthers haven't been able to sniff a national telecast very much.
I mean, let's face a reputation doesn't help many and you get the Red
Wings even in rebuilding, being Original six, they get on more than the
Panthers. I'll start off with Jeremy. Do you think the Florida Panthers will
be on more national television next year? At Jeremy, it didn't work for
him. The first time they want to a Stanley Cup, they went up
by three games the Florida Panthers. I'm talking about, Yeah, the Florida
Panthers. I'm talking about the Florida Panthers. They go to the Stanley Cup,
not that win back around their inception, like their second year in the
league. Right, and then the next year they only got three or four
more national TV games. Right, it's not a market for national TV.
I don't know what it is about the Florida place, but because of it
being mostly Michiganders. You know what plays more in Florida than it was in
Michigan, Detroit Red Wings. Oh yeah, and about that amazing? What
about you, George? You think the Panthers are getting more. I think
they'll get a couple more appearances next year, Scott, based upon what happened
this year. But but you guys are right. I mean they love they
love that Eastern New York Rangers, Washington Capitalist, Pittsburgh Penguins. You know,
you know that Philadelphia in Detroit. I mean they love that same diet
of games I'm saying, And you're right, Scott. They always liked the
original six of Chicago at Detroit and course, But I mean there's a heavy
diet always of that Eastern Seaboard influence. I call it the NHL on no
matter what network, pick your network, ABC, NBC, Fox, whoever
is carrying the games this particular time, ESPN, TNT, they always love
those Eastern games. But you're right, Jeremy, they don't draw well when
they have a Florida or at Tampa Bay as there as their main game.
All right, John, I had to put it in betting terms, what
do you think the odds are that the Florida Panthers get a national TV next
year. We gotta see, there's here's the way we gotta do it,
Jeremy George, and then we have to put John the betting man here to
quantify what we're talout. I probably lighted at plus two fifty that they get
more games on national TV, but my heart would want to say they deserve
it. I was thinking about the Buffalo Bills after they lost four Super Bowls.
They were kind of out of touch with national TV, and it's the
markets that they're in. The Florida Panthers are not in the Northeast where the
Flyers and the Rangers and the Islanders, and that's unfortunate. But eventually a
team becomes as good as the Florida Panthers and they win that Stanley Cup,
people are gonna, like hockey fans are gonna want to see them next year
year more so than they did this year because they missed out. And that's
kind of how I feel about the Buffalo Bills now, because you know they're
primetime, you know, Sunday night eight o'clock football team, and I think
that's where the Florida Panthers belong. If they win this Stanley Cup this year.
Yeah, you just nailed it there, John. If they win this
Stanley Cup, they're going to force the national TV networks. Do you think
it's the finals right if? Yeah, well that too if they don't,
Yeah, sorry, folks. The Red Wings are gonna do it, and
also Ran if they're in that Stanley Cup matchup. I predict it will be
two to four games. They get more next year in the national spotlight.
If they win it, it could be as much as eight. Yeah.
Well, I can tell you this much. I said as much. I
didn't say it would be for my South Florida people, Craig Minervini and Jessica
Blaylock. They'll have more time to do a lot of things. And God
loved Jessica. She's an absolute sweetheart. Craig has been a good pal of
mine. So all right, final topic of the night. NBA Philadelphia seventy
six ers. The man wearing a hat is JR. Ryan Okay one sixteen
fifteen Boston overtime, That series a deadlock, that two and two. All
right, John, you wanted to talk basketball, give me your assessment on
this one. I don't know what even wear to begin with it. Personally.
You know, I always emphasize with my client's discipline, you bet the
same amount every single game, whether it's a five unit or five percent or
an eight percenter. I had an eight percent on the sixers, and I
decided, even though it won, I decided foolishly to up it a little
bit. You know, I kind of got a little bit full of myself
with the numbers and thought, this is a really great opportunity. The reason
was that one of the trends that Philly came into was that Boston made sixteen
or more three pointers in each of the last two playoff games. Team that
have done that and then been favored in the next game were one and ten
straight up, one and ten against the spread. So I saw that and
I just I, you know, I violated my discipline. I went a
little bit overboard, well not overboard. I just added to it instead of
betting in game. And of course I'm feeling proud as a peacock at my
excellent intelligence to increase my bed during three quarters. So I decided that the
game was over in my mind, and I left to run some errands.
And my last errand was stopping by the restaurant to pick up food. I
walk in and the place is going crazy, and then I look at the
score and you know, it's those you know, hashtag WTF moments where you
just like, am I really seeing this? Boston is winning well? Adding
to it, I love the Patriots, I liked the Bruins. I hate
Yeah, that's a strong word. I don't like the Celtics. I haven't
liked the Celtics since Larry Bird played Julius Irving. I haven't liked the Celtics
since Larry Bird probably played, to be honest, but that's my own opinion.
He's a great player. He's in the Hall of Fame. But the
one thing I hated most in this game when I was starting to get caught
up on it, was the officiating has been just atrocious and it's been inconsistent
on both sides. I'm not saying that the Sixers were robbed of a game
potentially, or that the Celtics were robbed of the game potentially, but the
one play that really stuck out in that fourth quarter was where Jason Tatum had
the ball against Maxie and elbowed him in the chest like pretty hard. And
Maxie isn't a big guy. But he goes flying backwards, no call.
Tatum steps back, makes the three, and then looking at the ref,
didn't I get the end one. That's part of NBA right now I don't
like. And it seems to be running rampant across the board in all the
games where these guys are either I mean, I don't want to say they're
making it up, but it does appear just so inconsistent that it is affecting
the quality to play on the on the floor. One other thing I would
mention quickly is MB looked gassed in the fourth quarter. From the time that
I left, I had a perspective of not watching it, and the first
thing I saw was that he looked like he, you know, was done,
like physically, just exhausted, and you know, he trusted his teammate.
At the end. They're Harden to make that three. That's all that
was. And normally MB would take Horford and Tatum and stuff that in the
basketball through the through the net. But he was four feet from the basket
and I'm wondering, like, why isn't he putting this up. He dishes
it out to Harden on a contested shot. Harden makes it fortunate six Ers
win. Now, granted I had plus two on the bed, and I
added later because there was a ton of money coming in from smart money on
the Sixers. It took the line down to pick him, and I thought,
you know what, this this is a special situation. So that's where
I added at pick him. But still when it went to overtime, I
mean, my goodness, if you weren't, you know, on the eight
years worried, then you're you're not. You're a you're not even an amateur
better I guess, or a fan. Okay, So let me go over
a couple of things that we'll well, we'll talk about hardness finally showing up
in the playoffs, well better late than ever, and and B is playing
like the MVP that he deserves this year. Yeah, but you know what,
you're right about that. But like John said, his gas now well
as a special request for you, John. So we're gonna put that up.
We're gonna turn it over to George and then Jeremy. Okay, I
talked too much. Oh no, you're fine. If you didn't talk too
much, i'd worry. But I'm not. Okay, So here you're talking
so much that this guy would like to know if you want to come on
an initiation of basketballs because they don't we don't like today's NBA. So just
so you know, it comes on Sunday night around seven thirty or so.
If you're interested in coming on, we'll talk about it later or okay,
Sunday nights. Are you know that's good? I mean that's that would work.
Yeah? Okay, Well, John and I, well, we'll talk
about it and then we'll get it set up from there. There you go.
Well, you got your question answered, all right? So as one
more than Scott if I may, Yeah, it drives me crazy when people,
especially in the Philadelphia and New York markets, are abusing Hardened for not
showing up in Games two and three. He has eleven games in his career
in the playoffs of forty or more points the guys had. He's never not
had a season where he wasn't in the playoffs. So to say that he's
not showing up, I think if you look at the whole ball of wax
of each series he's played, especially with Houston, he's more than showed up.
And he still has shown even at his age now that he can still
do it. And we'll just have to see you. Tuesday's gonna be very
tough. That the trends in the angles, I'll tell you right now work
in Boston's favor. But I think when you win a game by one point
in overtime and now the pressure is all on Boston, Boston's the better team.
The media and Boston's telling them you're the better team. How can this
series be two two against the lowly seventy sixers as seventy sixers have a chance
here to pull the upset and getting seven seven a half points right now is
pretty attractive to me. And not because I'm wearing the hat or that I'm
a home or anything like that. The number feels right to me to put
some dough on the Sixers on tomorrow night's game. Okay, fair enough,
all right, George, Oh you talk about dragged Oh my god, knock
down, drag out affair. I'll tell you what. This series is incredible.
And I do agree though with a lot of the people that are jumping
on Harden's case, because you know, yes, he had a great Game
one and a great Game four, Game two and three not so good.
You brought up a good point, though, John, Okay, he's a
crafty vetter, and he's been in the league a long time. He's got
some age on that that frame has obviously he's been around quite a while,
and you can't put everything on his shoulders on his on his frame. I
will say this though, I mean, oh my god, could you imagine
Beantown if Boston does go down losing the Ruins and then they lose the Celtics
too, Holy kyl. I wouldn't want to be a fan there. I
don't want to be a fan there anyways. But all that being said,
it's just been one hell of a series. But I do agree with you.
I think I think this next game is going to tell a big story.
Because Boston does not come back and win this game and they will be
favored, then it could be lights out for them. They gotta win.
They have to win Game five. The Celtics, in my opinion, agreed.
Okay, Jeremy. I am one of those ones that jumped on hardened
because I've watched him in consistent playoff games. He'll have two or three good
games and then fail to close out. In his history, he's had good
games here, good games there, but it required the supporting cast to do
what they have to do to close the games out to make it to a
next round. And he hasn't done it pretty much since that year that they
had that run in Oklahoma City when it was Westbrook, Hardened and Durant.
So since then he hasn't In half the time, he's injured through the playoffs
and they don't make it past that next round. So he playing as he
needs. This is his best chance. But he has to play better than
okay ball the rest of the series. If he does his average, and
I'm not talking about the forty points. If he's putting up that twenty five
to thirty points a game, six to eight assist and two to four defensive
stats, along with the rest of the complimentary pieces with the seventy six ers,
it'll be great. But he cannot do it consistently, is the only
thing I have to say. All Right, well, I'll close it out
this way. Number one, Doc Rivers, don't worry about losing your job.
You're not gonna lose it, okay. Number two, I wouldn't be
surprised to see a Harder return to Houston at some point. There's talk about
it. I have a feeling that he may wind up there at some point.
We all know that Philadelphia is a tough place to play, we really
really do. But let's say, so reality, that's seventy six ers haven't
won a title. George Hong has it been? I want to say nineteen
eighty three? Four was at eighty three or eighty four three season? Eighty
three season? Yep? R Jay was still playing right exactly. No,
but no, there's nothing to laugh about. That's how starve these fans are.
Oh I know, yeah, I would love it for Philly. Yeah,
I think it'd be a great story. And you know what, I
was actually happy that Joel Embiad won the MVP. This guy here, to
me has overcome a lot injury wise, and think about it, he's a
heck of a center. Joel Embiid is one of those kind of players that
could play in any era of basketball. Well do you get that? Okay?
I know you're probably still listening and maybe it'll trigger another comment out of
here, But the reality of the situation is Joel Embiid could play in any
era of basketball. So so you know, you know what was neat about
this shows we were able to touch on a lot of different things. I
like to mix it up a great deal anyways, and and to be able
to talk about the Derby Spring Football and to any two overtime games both in
the NHL and the NBA was a real nice fitting in to what I considered
a pretty good sports weekend for sure. So you know, it's a great
job at you four. I know Chris had a lot of major technical difficulties.
Perhaps when the time comes that should he be invited back. Okay,
we'll find out, but time will tell. At the moment, we just
focus on doing the best we can to make sure that we give everybody what
we need to do, and let's try to give you different perspectives and as
a result, you know, we talk about the different sports. But what
I have enjoyed this broadcast as I do with a great crew. So but
that said, okay, Jeremy, let everybody know how they can get a
hold of you. You can find me on the South Florida Tribune dot com
underneath the MotorCity Tribune hitting with the list of authors like Scott Morgan Roth and
George Iicorn. You can also find me on kneecap Biting was Smoking Jeremy b
on Wen every other Wednesday, on Friday, every Friday, and every other
Saturday. Now I'm doing another Lions Fans show with a couple other podcasters.
Then you could find me whenever Scott needs me, whether it's Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, or Thursday, right here on the South Florida Tribune YouTube channel.
Well, don't worry, You'll be busy this week. Both Jeremy and
George be really busy this week. I can care to you the heads,
all right, that's okay, I know, break sure hard, okay,
that's okay. And your laugh is nobody can ever duplicate that laugh. It's
good, all right, John are let everybody know how they get hold of
you, pretty simple, John Ryan Sports and the number one on Twitter.
I started an Instagram with the same handle a couple of weeks ago. So
both places provide a lot of situational angles and trends that are free and you
can use them as you see fit. I try to give out the best
to the best and hopefully make you more stupe better at least than making your
decisions. Of course, you can get my plays just by direct messaging me
and finding out how to do that, and the predicted playbook dot com is
where I have myself and a bunch of other guys I've known for many many
years that are pretty darn good professional cappers. We all go through losing streaks.
No smoken mirrors here and no bs. You know we will have our
n H streak, promise you over the course of a season, but over
the longer term, I think you're gonna like how the results come out for
you. And also I should add that as time goals on, John's only
been on two times a month, but that narrative is going to change as
especially as we get closer to football season. I knew that there are a
lot of good events leading up to football season, so it would behoove me
not to allow John an opportunity to break in with the network here until things
really get more and more busy later on in the year. So John's one
of those kind of guy where have I gontact them on Twitter and needed tomorrow
forget about next week. John did the politically correct thing with time, and
that was always had to do. Then A get a lot of guys on
this crew are able to come on in short notice, which makes it even
better. All right, George, you have the longest one, so oh
yeah. And by the way, but before you do that, everybody as
George a happy anniversary, and I was at his wedding another lifetime ago.
Thank you, thank you, Scott, appreciate it all right. Try sports
broadcasters on the air, yeay and Scott Morgan roff in another lifetime a long
time ago with hair with I shouldn't talk Scott because I had hair. But
don't worry. Mine grows fat faster than anybody, it sure does. But
great stories, great traditions of Michigan sports broadcasting, including pictures with Ted Williams
and Ernie Harwell and Hank Aaron and Muhammad Ali and Jimmy Connors are talking to
Scott in his two interview photographs. It's a great story. I hope you
can think about purchasing a copy and time for Father's Day as a gift.
There's a link on the South Florida Tribune website which I write too, as
Jeremy mentioned under Motor City Tribune, and I have a link right at the
end of there, at the end of my column rather that you can order
a copy of the book. You can reach me at giicorn att Yahoo dot
com or George Ikorn on LinkedIn, and you can reach me on Twitter at
SNG Sports ninety nine. You can find me on the Sports Exchange, on
fire Up on one hundred eight Stitches, and once in a while I'm a
guest on Basketball Bros. And once in a while on Pigskin. So I
really appreciate being out here and being on all these great podcasts. George,
come on, you've been around forever. Anyways. Here, all right,
I'll go over my information. But if you're on Twitter, feel free to
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So you want to talk about an MVP behind the scenes, Kendy Ebling?
Is it so i Bean? Half a Smoking Jeremy B John Ryan, George
Einkorn. My name is Scott Morgan, Rontham, Motor City, Manmouth.
Thank you for joining us on this edition of Fire Up and we will catch
you the next time. Good evening everybody,