Where are we at in society today? Come after me. I'm a man,
I'm forty. Go ahead, make my day every single week. I
put my freaking heart and soul into this. I don't go out there and
laugh. It's not funny. Nothing's funny to me. I don't wanna go
out there and get embarrassed on Monday night football fun of everybody. I think
this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. So I ain't nothing changed from
yesterday. Still the same person I was yesterday, and I got the same
thing for you that I had yesterday. You know why I'm here. You
play to win the game. You don't play to just play it. That's
a great thing about sports. You play to win, and I don't care
if you don't have any wins. You go play to win. When you
start telling me it doesn't matter, you can retire, get out because it
matters. Back for another week here on Exus and Bros. I hope you
had a great Father's Day. I really hope that you had a chance to
spend it with your father, or you as a father, you got a
chance to spend it with your kids. That's what it's all about. Man.
Now we begin the work week, very similar fashion when it comes to
baseball, another Tiger's loss. Thirty four up and thirty seven down. Now
for Detroit, Houston beats him full to one to win the weekend series.
Somebody told me before this series began, they said, look, I Meanton
is not the Houston of years gone by. You know, they're very susceptible.
They're not very good. There's certain players. For example, Jose abray
You, who hasn't been there very long, was waived by Houston the other
day, which was interesting. But they still have Jose l two. They
he had a three run jam. They still have Alex Bregman, they still
have Kyle Tucker, they still have Jordan Alvarado. They still have guys on
that team that you would take over guys on your team. So they may
not be the team they once were. They may not win that division,
they may not make the playoffs. They're nine games back right now of Seattle
in the West. But they still have better players than Detroit does. So
the Tigers lose the game, they lose the series. They were no hit
through seven innings, and there was great disappointment, borderline disdain for the inopportunity
or the opportunity to see a no hit or throne runout. Blanco had the
chance to do that, but he was pulled after ninety four pitches. Strike
out a season hot, season tying high eight only allowed three base runners via
the walk, and afterwards he told the media, I wasn't going to finish
that game anyway. Why did it matter so much to even Tigers fans to
see a guy try and complete the no hitter? He's six outs away.
It's emotional this one. And look, you've been listening to this long enough
with me, and you know, I get tired of the pitch count.
It's not the way it used to be. I know, not everything can
be the way it used to be. I'm not going to bring up the
great pictures of the past and the number of pitches thrown. I'm not going
Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton and Mickey Lolich and Tenny McLain and Bob Gibson.
I'm not doing that, all right, in this situation, knowing the pitcher
a the situation. Okay, through seven innings at this time of the year,
already at ninety four pitches, how deep do you need him to go?
For me? I didn't have an issue with it. I wonder why.
I understood why. Joe Espada said, you know what, we're going
to go to the bullpen. You got good enough guys out there anyway,
Ryan Presley, Josh Hater. Bottom line is Houston got the win. You
can talk all you want about wanting to see a no hitter. You're being
selfish, You're being shortsighted, You're not being realistic. Ninety four pitches through
seven innings, he's got at least six more batters. I know you're hoping
that it's one or two pitches per at bat not going to be the case.
So it's fine. We're kind of clinging onto very thin threads here as
Tigers fans. The bigger story should be trying to determine whether or not you
think Houston is all that, and losing another series to Houston, losing another
series in general, that should be the concern. We said this, and
we've said it for a long time and we will continue to say it that
how do you get back into things. You get back in by winning series.
That's how you do it. And Detroit beat the Rangers in a series.
They split with the Red Sox in a series, all good stuff.
Beat the Blue Jays in a series. Very happy, very proud, should
be, but it's not consistent enough. It's just not They just don't have
the lineup. And when kent to Mayada is on the bump and he gave
up four runs and six innings yesterday, and by the way, he threw
ninety four pitches. We look at Blanco and they're like, hey, ninety
four pitches through seven, he's got a no hitter. Kent to Mayada threw
ninety four pitches through five innings. He's not around the plate that much,
fifty five strikes. It's just not a good mix, not where it should
be. So there's your situation with the Tigers. It is borderline. It's
getting to the point now where you and I are like, okay, whatever,
we shrug our shoulders. When we move on. The word apathy comes
to mind. It's getting there. They're in Atlanta tonight for a series against
the Braves. Rhys Olsen will throw for Detroit, Max Freed will throw for
Atlanta. But that's what it's, that's what it's become. You look for
the score. You might peek at the overall record to make sure you know
where you're at. There are eleven games back. By the way, you
might click on the wild card situation, they're five and a half out there
with teams like now. Toronto's ahead of them, Boston is ahead of them,
Minnesota is ahead of them, Tampa is a half game back of them.
The defending world champion Rangers are a game back of them. You feel
comfortable with that, You feel like people who are writing, Hey, this
is where they are in the wild card. Do you honestly believe that this
team has a chance at that When you look at the numbers, there's a
part of you that says, yeah. But I want to know, deep
down inside inside your gut. You've watched this team on a regular basis.
You've seen them when they've played well, you've seen them when they've played poorly.
I'm not saying this just because they were no hit through seven inning yesterday.
Okay, other team's trying to win too. I get it. I
completely understand, and you gotta give Blanco and the Astros credit. But at
some point you're gonna stop tipping your cap. Okay, do you honestly believe
this team is a threat? Not is, but is a threat to be
a playoff team. Ask yourself that, but be honest with yourself. Our
phone number on the Meyer Hotline is eight sixty six eight three eight forty eight
forty three. You can text the program sports Ready to twenty one thousand.
Just getting started on a Monday morning on XIS and Bros. Why Best Plays
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Disappointment is a is a tough word. I mean, we did battle.
We obviously couldn't get anything started against him. The three walks. You
know you have a chance with two outs, but he wiggles out of it,
and then he just continued to hit spots and throw a lot of different
pitches. I mean, he's been really good all year. He's kind of
having a breakout year, so we knew we were gonna need to try to
create some pressure on him, get some innings going, and with no hits.
It's it's hard. You know, we're just trying to get get guys
on base to try to get back in the game after they hit the big
three run homer, So you know, I didn't know I saw that they
started warming guys up. I didn't know if he was going to go try
to get further deeper into the game. But we're just trying to get get
hits and get and get runs. I mean, that's the whole point.
I mean, we're trying to win the game. So I don't think it's
getting through five or grinding to get through five has anything to do with Atlanta.
We wanted to win today, I mean it. You know, the
walk to McCormick that set up the al two v at bat and then we're
down by four. Him settling in gave us a chance to to still be
within striking distance for the game. So, you know, obviously we're in
the middle of this road trip. We had a chance to win the series
and we didn't. A J. Hinch following the Tigers four to one loss
in Houston years today, the courtesy of Valley Sports. It stings more for
a J. Hinch when you lose at Houston you're ex teams, no doubt
about that. You could tell he's reaching though, he's trying. He's trying
to find some type of reasoning behind this, and you could make the argument
that he's trying to find some type of reasoning to keep his team on the
upswing as a positive. I know it's a really long season. You know,
you play one hundred and sixty two games. Listen, I've lived it.
It can wear on you, There's no doubt about it. But you
see how quickly it can sneak up on you. Suddenly you know we're mid
June, obviously, suddenly you're seventy one games deep. You're almost at the
midway point. Now, we used to talk about giving teams players time,
right we've said let it be until what the Sparky Anderson forty games in and
even at that point, if you recall, I said, look, we're
about the quarter pole. I'm going to give it a little more time.
When is your judgment? When are you recognizing Nope, this ain't it.
Because I'll be the first to admit I'm wrong. I expected, I suppose
expectations, and what you think is going to happen. They could be two
different things. But I expected this team to win the division. And there's
a part of me that is a little naive still in the sense that because
it has been so long, and because this team has not been good and
not been built the right way, nor has its farm system, I truly
believe, you know what. I'm tired of being patient. I'm tired of
suggesting it's going to be another year. I'm tired of preaching to you that
the young kids have to develop and it's time for something to happen. So
I said before the season began in the offseason, thinking that they were going
to do more than they did. Quite honestly, I'm not giving myself an
excuse, but I thought they were going to do more than they did.
I said they're going to win the division. Yes, part of that is
based off the other teams not being as good as they have proven to be.
Did not think Cleveland would be this good, especially under our first year
manager, a guy who's never managed at any level, Stephen Vote. Yes,
Kansas City has greatly improved. Did not expect that. Minnesota's about where
I thought they'd be. I thought that would be Detroit's stiffest competition in the
division. So yeah, I miscalculated, There's no doubt I think most people
did with Cleveland and Kansas City. But that's no excuse. I don't think
it should be a bad thing that my expectations were for this team to win
the division. Some people may say, you set yourself up. You're the
one who thought it was going to happen, and you should have known better.
My argument to that has always been, why don't you expect more of
your team? Why don't you think this team should do more to force the
narrative. We have enough, especially with writers, we have enough people saying,
well, you know, you've got to understand where they are. Oh,
I'm fully aware of where they are. I just think it can be
changed quicker than the way it has been, and there are reasons for that.
The biggest reason, let's face it, I mean, without putting too
much pressure on the kid, the biggest reason this offense has struggled is because
Spencer Torkelsen has not been that guy this year, and he's been doing very
well at Toledo, So give him credit there. But that's that's huge.
Okay, that is a There are a lot of their offense, a lot
of what expectations were going into the season, were based on his productivity not
getting it. Okay, can you overcome the underdevelopment of one player? You
should be able to. You should have an enough to make that up at
least in the short term. Maybe not in the long term, maybe not
all season long, but in the short term, through a few weeks,
maybe a month. If that player struggles, you should have enough to overcome
it until that person can either a get back on track or be you can
find someone who can. It was a mix, and I should have recognized
this. It was a sensitive mix that forced you to require a lot of
different unproven pieces to be proven. The expectation was Riley Green would be as
good as you think he can be, and perhaps he is. The expectation
was Spencer Torkulsen was going to do something similar he did to a year ago
and put up those types of numbers he has not. The expectation was Cold
Keith was going to be the type of player you signed him to that contract.
The expectation was Carrie Carpenter was going to be a power bat in your
lineup. That's a lot to expect of younger players, and I'm blaming myself
here. Carpenter's injuries. Green's been pretty good, Torkosen underperformed, Keith underperformed.
Nothing has really hit. The ability to overcome that then rests on Geo
Orschella, Mark Canna, Matt Vierling, Andy A Banyez, Javier Baiez and
the dual catchers. What's the proving entity there? It isn't There isn't one.
You may like certain names that I just mentioned. Andy A Banyez for
example, not an everyday player. Markana for example, has improven it,
but one year Geo or Schila tough to stay healthy, Matt Vierling has improven
it as an everyday player, Javy or Bias major disappointment. Neither catcher done
the either. That's that's the sensitive mix I'm referring to. I haven't even
mentioned the pictures. I know we got some texts on this. We'll get
to that when we come back. Baseball discussion continues, an incredible US open,
A lot of things to talk about on Exies and Bros. On a
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Eagle Casino dot com. All right back with you on exus and Bros.
Thanks for being with us on this Monday after Father's Day. A belated Happy
Father's Day to those of you celebrating such a holiday. No greater gift as
far as I'm concerned than being a dad. Ben is our producer. I'm
Matt Sheppard. You can give us a call on the Meyer hotline eight sixty
six eight three eight forty eight forty three. You can also text the program
Sports Radio to twenty one thousand. We will get to some of that interaction
here coming up. Never got through the uh well, the sports headlines because
we got caught up in a tiger's discussion there and for good reason. Bryson
de Shambo, did you epen to watch that theater? He wins the one
hundred and twenty fourth plane in the US Open the Dramatic Power on eighteen to
edge Rory McElroy by a stroke. It was De Shambo's second Open championship.
McElroy missed a putt on sixteen from what they measured at two point six inches,
and then missed a four foot putt on eighteen. The weird thing about
that is there was a graphic afterwards that indicated McElroy had made four hundred and
ninety six straight putts of was it three feet or four feet or less,
and he missed that two point six footer. So he ends up bogeying three
of the last four finishes as a runner up for the second straight year.
Meanwhile, Deschambeau, who at one point was widely hated by those who follow
golf, seems to have won them over with some genuine interaction with fans.
He becomes the fourth player since two thousand to win multiple US Opens under the
age of thirty, Ernie Els, Tiger Woods, Brooks, Koepka. He's
also the twenty third player ever to win multiple USO Opens. Here's my question
for you, and Ben's going to put this out on social media if you
follow us on X's and bros up it's up. Thanks Ben. Here's the
question, did Bryson, did Shamba win it? Or did Rory McElroy lose
it because Royal McElroy. He made some clutch putts and made some big time
shots down the stretch. He also miss some putts those two that I referenced.
De Shambo was erratic off the tee. It's not like he went in,
swooped in and captured it and took it away or anything like that.
I suppose with McElroy on eighteen more than anything else, which by the way,
was not an easy putt. It was a left or right bender,
even from four feet. But I suppose that's the reason people would look at
it like that. You know what, he choked it away? I hate
that word. Royan McElroy has won four major championships. He knows what it
takes to win. Do you really think he choked or he missed a putt?
Now I'm not a huge fan, but and I sure as hell don't
like the way he ended things. I'm sure you saw that did not talk
to the media, would not join NBC for their postgame conversation, and wouldn't
even talk to the general media. He just got it his car and stormed
off. The optics for that are not good. He looks like he looks
like a baby, looks like a sore loser, looks like a poor sport.
I understand the emotion. You're ticked off. You don't want to deal
with all these questions. It comes with the territory. Man, this is
all part of it. He should know better. I thought the coverage is
pretty damn good from NBC. Either way, Deshambo is your champion. And
there's a there's a term called scrambling and golf. All us golfers out there
recognize it. You're not at your best and you're doing everything you can just
to preserve and get through the round or find your stroke. It seemed like
that was rather constant for Deshamba all day long. Just could not find the
fair way with any of his drives. I so there were a couple of
things that I thought was this was going to happen had he lost, and
he obviously he won, but had he lost, this was what I think
was going to be the theme. A. They had a great shot of
him on the practice tee changing his driver head. So he has one of
those tools, as do many of us who play the game. And you
can take one head off and put a new head on, or you can
adjust you know the degree of loft. There's a lot of different things you
can do with it. He completely changed it out and it turned out to
be it sure didn't look like it benefited him by the way he hit the
ball off the team. So that's number one. Number two is why do
you keep going to the driver when you're spraying it right and left and it
was more right than left. Why are you constantly going back to the driver.
This is a guy who hits his three with three hundred and fifteen yards,
so why not just use three wood? I was thinking about when he's
getting ready to win that tournament. I said to myself on Thursday, when
we were broadcasting live from the tenth Annuel Meyer Classic, I said, this
is a course, this is a course that does not suit Bryson Deshamba very
well. And I actually picked Oberg and I felt pretty good about that pick
until late Saturday. He was in the lead and he looked unflappable, and
then he crumbled, ended up with a triple on a hole and then struggled
mightily and never really regained his focus or game in general. The speaking of
the LPGA Classic, Lilia Vu won it in a playoff over Lexi Thompson and
Grace Kim fifth career LPGA Tour win for vu last time. We will see
Lexi Thompson at the Meer Classics. She's retiring at the end of the year
and boy, what a gracious young woman she is. It was great to
see her there at the Blackfield Country Club. Lions has signed a kicker,
Jake Bates. They ink him to a two year contract. He connected on
twenty one of twenty eight few gold attempts for the Michigan Panthers this past year.
That included a couple of sixty yarders won sixty four yards away to win
it all. Lions fans have got to be fired up over that. Let's
see if he wins the job first and foremost. And Game five of the
NBA Finals is tonight in Boston. Celtics up three games to one. Some
say somebody one of my son's friends said that they feel like Boston lost on
purpose so they could clinch it at home. And I thought that that is
the biggest load of crap. Players don't do that just so they can sell.
They're going to get a parade for crying out loud. They may go
back to the arena first, wherever the parade route might be, you wrap
it up as quickly as possible. Everybody knows that you don't try and mess
around and decide, you know what what we're gonna do. We're gonna lose
this game. We're gonna go back home, and we're gonna win it in
front of our fans. What if you don't not working? It's not the
way it works. Sorry, all right. We gave you the poll question.
It's on our Twitter pool. We invite you to vote as often as
you like, and we'll give you the results before we get out of here
on a Monday. Then, I know we've got some texts regarding the Tigers,
so fire away, buddy. Yeah, we got one and says I've
got a feeling that if the Tigers had faced Justin Verlander pitching on Saturday,
they would have been swept by Houston in the weekend series. That's a good,
good point. They put up a lot of hits, a season high
nineteen, a lot of runs as well. One would that would lead you
to believe, yes, all right, So I'm gonna somewhat concur with you.
I just you know I'm not gonna I'm not giving it all to Justin
Verlander shutting Detroit down because strange things can happen. I mean, look at
Trek scoobl in Game one. Okay, So but I hear, I hear
what you're saying, and I tend to agree with it, because you know
ver Lander, especially pitching against his old team. At some point, it's,
you know, perhaps that we move on speaking of that real quick.
It's it's made me realize something regarding Justin Verlander. And I've said this for
a while. He's he seems bionic to me. He's simply amazing. It's
been fun to watch such a Hall of Fame player. He's is this year
seven in Houston, I believe, Yeah, year seven. It's it's really
six and a half because he spent a little bit with the Mets, right,
okay, so seven years in general with Houston. He spent thirteen in
Detroit. Justin Verlander's going in the Hall of Fame. We know that he
has won two Cy Youngs, one with Detroit, one with Houston. Right,
forget about the All Star stuff, but whatever the case may be,
this is a guy who's how many times he won the nine time All Star?
Okay, do you think he goes in as an Astro or a Tiger,
an Astros player or a Tigers player. He's won two World Series with
Houston. Okay, granted, Oh he's won three cy Youngs. I'm sorry,
Okay, Yeah, he's won three cy Youngs, two of them in
Houston. If you were him, be honest with yourself. Okay, try
to take your the heart of Detroit out of you. I know that's impossible,
but just try to. He's won Rookie of the Year in Detroit.
He's won an e He's won a couple of E r A titles, one
in Detroit, one in Houston. He's won two Cy Youngs in Houston.
He's won two World Series in Houston. Forget the All Star stuff, because
that's that's not as important as the other ones. Fair to say. Okay,
he's won an ERA title with each team. Who you going in as,
honestly, who you go in as? You're trying to tell me you
go in as a Tiger just because they've drafted you. If you had gone
to Houston and played three years, I understand why you would think that.
But he's accomplished more. Yes, I understand. The dominance really began as
remember the Tigers. Yeah, he's accomplished more as a Houston Astros pitcher or
as much, if not more, than he has as a Detroit Tigers pitcher.
Twice. As the Tigers, he led the league in wins twice.
As a member of the Astros, he led the league in wins three times.
As a member of the Tigers. He led the league in strikeouts two
times. As a member of the Houston Astros, he led the league in
strikeouts. When people bring up Justin Verlander, I think of Detroit as well,
because we're from here and because he was the first round pick in two
thousand and four out of old dominion. Yeah, I'm with you, totally.
Still hard to believe the Padres took Matt Bush over him, but yeah,
number two overall. Absolutely, I'm I'm just looking at it from a
player's perspective, and I would ask you to look at it from a very
objective perspective. Have some perspective. Are you thinking he goes in as a
Tiger only because you're from here and it's your favorite team, or are you
looking at it objectively and saying where were his best years? And don't tell
me about the individual accomplishments, even though I've already given you that they're as
many in Houston as there were in Detroit. Don't give me the individual perspective,
because you and I always come to this conclusion, where did you win
or did they win? That's what you'll tell me. You'll tell me the
difference between this guy, Charles Barkley and that guy, whoever it is you
want to bring up, Dennis Rodman, number of championships, Ted Williams,
Joe Dimagio. This is what you get Tom Brady, everybody else. Here's
the difference. Tom Brady won seven rings, Okay, this guy only won
one. Well, hold on a second. If you're going to use that
analogy, and it's fair, if you want to put the difference between one
player and another, I think it's fair and I understand it. But if
that's the case, then why wouldn't you use it in this situation. His
championships, his wins, his winning seasons, they were in Houston, not
in Detroit. So if we're going to use that criteria, then the criteria
has to be consistent and it has to begin and end with him going in
as an astro. That's my belief. That's how I look at it.
If you're trying to differentiate best quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers. Well,
Rogers has only got one MVP member. We said this last week,
who's it? Wasn't our idea. Somebody brought it up on social media they
said whose career would you rather have? Or somebody asked that of c J.
Stroud and c J. Stroud was talking about I'd rather have the championships,
not the MVPs, like Aaron Rodgers. Remember that. Okay, how
is it any different here? The difference is he's one of us. The
difference is he was a Detroiter and he was drafted and developed by Detroit.
That's what the difference is. But you have to take that out of it.
And that's what I keep bringing that up. I keep trying to remind
you of that. That's the emotional side of things. I need you to
take the emotion out of it. And it's the reason he should go in
to see Houston astro. And it pains me for me to say that,
but that's what I believe. The Meyer hotlines open for you eight sixty six
eight three, eight forty eight forty three. You can text the program Sports
radio to twenty one thousand. This is Exies and Bros. The second hour
of our program. On the other side, huge cheer from my good friend
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