Speaker 1: I'll start Toyota Presents off the Bench with Jacob Hester
and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 2: Say Hester and Hester.
Speaker 1: From carrying each other to and Natty to carrying each
other on the air Control Live from the Mercedes Benz
Baton Rouge Studio.
Speaker 3: It's off the bench, all right, Welcome back again our number.
Speaker 4: Three sports Sports.
Speaker 5: Hey, welcome in to all of you hungover folks. Just
walk up, Welcome into the show.
Speaker 4: Hi, Yeah, welcome in.
Speaker 6: If you're in Omaha, Nebraska and you're enjoying the festivities
there as you should welcome into the.
Speaker 5: Show'm all the all the millions of listeners on the
West Coast too.
Speaker 6: Who's to say that we're not big on the West Coast.
I give love to the Chargers all the time.
Speaker 4: Here on this show.
Speaker 6: We've got dozens of Charger fans listening right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I kind of hate on California, though I don't hm.
Speaker 6: I put San Diego in a different category than I
do a lot of California. San Diego very misunderstood. It
gets put into a spot with the rest of California
where San Diego is actually a military town, like it's
got some real grit to it. I mean you've got
Mira mar You've got Pendleton, Like you've got some of
the biggest bases right there, Cornado where I mean where
the Navy Seals are trained.
Speaker 5: I'm not disagreeing with you, but no, San Diego, like
with grit, doesn't off the tongue.
Speaker 4: I did it. I believe you would you say that
it's where.
Speaker 6: Look you got you got the marine base, you got Cornado,
where the seals are trained, you got Pendleton.
Speaker 4: It's got it.
Speaker 5: So San Diego, you would put it like in a
different category than California, kind of like Shreveport in Louisiana.
Speaker 4: A lot of people do it. A lot of people.
A lot of people do it.
Speaker 6: A lot of people want those Southern Amerkansas, which I
don't really understand because if you're gonna throw shade at
it again, like twelve minutes to Texas, an hour to Arkansas,
it feels like it's actually wrong.
Speaker 4: Yeah it's East Texas. I will put up East Texas
a beautiful place. Yeah it is raised great. You know. Look,
I've said this before.
Speaker 6: If you want to put like a team of all
three one eight ers together that played at l SU,
I'll put that squad A lot of people.
Speaker 4: It's a good group. Good a lot of people. Now,
I've also had to play at LSU.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, you put a squad together for sure, trying
to think here, the Russian rifle is going to be
our Qbrey good, Yeah, I mean Kyle Williams, Devin White,
Trey White, Charles Scott, I move you.
Speaker 4: I mean we could do this eight three one great.
Speaker 5: Damn lot of them then yeah, if you do just
all star team like took the l s U portion
out of it, brought Berlin, Uh, Terry Bradshaw probably still Terry,
probably Briber Lynn.
Speaker 4: He was National Player of the year. Hmm. There's a
lot of options at quarterback.
Speaker 6: Joe Ferguson, I mentioned the Russian rifle, Patrick Ramsey, who
was the first round pick of quarterback.
Speaker 5: You could just go a little bit west into dipping
of Texas a little bit and get ya or Matt Flynn.
Speaker 4: Well yeah, yeah, Marshall's a little closer to report. I
mean Marshall Lake.
Speaker 6: I bet, I bet people in Texas called Marshall Louisiana
right there.
Speaker 5: Well, it used to be we used to have to
play them in our district for a little bit, and
then we have in your district. But you that was
a long haul for those Tyler boys. Forty five drive,
that was that was big for us.
Speaker 6: Yeah, reading some of the chat here, trying to catch
up a little bit. That's been good, all right, say chat,
say no, say Fellas.
Speaker 4: Ladies first one. I read damn it at Landra.
Speaker 6: You know what that means. But you know you're talking
about I don't know what you do.
Speaker 4: They are asking for like a punk rock day.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm switching it up.
Speaker 8: Okay, yeah, but we can do like a full punk
rock day Tomorrow, perfect, Tomorrow, Thursday.
Speaker 7: I don't know what day it.
Speaker 4: Is tomorrow for of the reason that.
Speaker 7: Shut what But I'll do the I'll do the rest
of the show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and Friday, we do Friday.
Speaker 7: Maybe I might be headed.
Speaker 4: Ah wait, you're gone again.
Speaker 8: I told y'all that if LSU makes the finals, I'm
going to Omaha.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna start calling you part time, Peter Burns. That's fine, goodness.
I mean we're trying to we're trying to create the
foxhole here, and the foxhole keeps going places party. It's
a good name to be fair.
Speaker 8: I was supposed to be back yesterday. Things out of
my control happened, and I let y'all know. As soon
as LSU made it to Omaha, I said, if they
make the finals, me and Rivers are going.
Speaker 4: So y'all knew this sounds like official business.
Speaker 7: Though, Yeah, we're going to go make a bunch of contents.
Speaker 6: So I also put it out there last week that
if els you made the Championship Series, if you have
a private plane and you want to take me and
Flynn up there with you, let's catch a ride.
Speaker 7: I mean, do y'all want to come in RV in
our r.
Speaker 4: V you know the r V S four.
Speaker 2: Drive.
Speaker 4: You know. I was thinking like pop in pop out.
Speaker 6: That sounds bougie, pop in pop out, you.
Speaker 4: Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: That's why I like because I got other shows that
got do But like if I could like take one
day off like Boom one game, Boom.
Speaker 4: Back Little Din and dashed Little Quit.
Speaker 8: There's a hint and quit.
Speaker 4: Like what you say, hit it? Quit it?
Speaker 6: Wow it is sir, It is nine in the morning.
Speaker 4: Hit the College World Series and then quit it? What
are y'all thinking about? Not that?
Speaker 5: Speaking of big hits you brought, I told y'all I've
been a big baseball guy. So I wanted you to
I brought sure, Sure.
Speaker 4: Relax, I got two baseball cards you do in your hand.
Speaker 5: And I know you're gonna think, oh, these nerds talking
about co herds again, blah blah blah. Well guess what
off the break, guess he's got the microphone me. I'm
gonna talking about some cards.
Speaker 4: Ever, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 6: I'm just wondering.
Speaker 7: It's my head.
Speaker 5: Those of all who thought I just went silent there
Lona turned my mic off.
Speaker 4: I'm talking about cars.
Speaker 5: I'm sitting here like I just in my headphones. Hey,
you know I see squirrels a lot of it. So
before I get to that check this out, I want
to give a shout to my kids.
Speaker 4: Father's Day that lift that check that ankle. So my
kids they drew a picture so.
Speaker 5: Well, I've had like, draw picture anything you want, and
they take the picture and they send it to this
company and they printed on whatever color socks you want.
Speaker 4: So check this out.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, my four year old HEMI were these ones
all right? Where where all the socks for the rest
of the week.
Speaker 6: I don't like how you're struggling to keep that leg
out there.
Speaker 4: Both well, let's see. It is so uncomfortable. You always
see me moving around. This is terrible.
Speaker 5: The big ankless huge ang And I said they're strong, Okay,
so they wait strong, they're not fat?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 5: Baseball cards check this out. You ever heard the twenty
twenty three LSU Tiger baseball team?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Have you ever heard of Paul Skins? Day's all right,
check that out. Skins a ten great a ten.
Speaker 6: Oh, Dylan Cruise a lot out on the Dying Cruise autograph.
Great autograph. So many times you get cards and like
if their name is like Jordan's something, it's just like
a J yep J. I'm like, man, when you and
I were signing them, they would say I need your
full auto Like, yeah, you couldn't do initials.
Speaker 4: You couldn't.
Speaker 6: I don't know why they got away from that, but
you could not do that.
Speaker 4: You see it some on these cards, some initials like
Caleb Williams be like cee.
Speaker 5: W whatever, Yeah, I remember you remember, like you would
have to your agent would be like you got it.
Speaker 4: They want you to write anything else like MVP or
like it's like got a payper letter or whatever. I
was like, nah, dude, I'm just gonna write it.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was like, we're just gonna do this.
Speaker 5: So I'm gonna you'll checked out the video yesterday we
filmed after the show.
Speaker 4: Breaking Jars, watching LSU Baseball. I was like, check this out.
I got this box. Yep.
Speaker 5: This is Top screm Football twenty twenty four. This great
box right here, great cards. It's called a Breaker's Delight,
all right. That means, now, I don't it means for
this company.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 5: There's one pack in here and it's got ten cars
a single pack, one single pack. But you know what,
I'm guaranteed to hit two autographs in this thing. And
this is the only company that Jayden Daniels and Capabilliams
signed for. Who you don't know are the most valuable
people out there right now because you're pulling their rookie cards.
Speaker 6: Yeah in the car in the card world, those two
JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 5: And Michael all the quarterbacks. But like in Drake May,
but Jaden Daniels is like the and then ticket for sure.
Speaker 6: And then there's a tier of elite neighbors Brian Thomas
Junior and Marvin Harrison Junior.
Speaker 4: Yeah, sure for sure. And so I've opened up one
of these boxes before b Nicks. Yeah, bo Nix in
there too. Last time I did this, I pulled a
Jaden Daniels autograph.
Speaker 6: All right, so seventy you said ten cards total in
the ten cards subtle.
Speaker 4: So we got a couple of segments left. So what
I thought we would do is we would open it
and just pull like a couple of cards every segment
of First we've got Ben McDonald's coming on. Yeah, we
won't do it during him. Yeah, but we'll open the deck.
Speaker 6: Can we open one like to go to this break,
and then we'll open another one coming back, and then
we'll open one after Bim McDonald. Then we'll open another
one for ask the bench absolutely at least four cards. Well,
then we'll do and then we'll do the rest.
Speaker 5: What I'm gonna try to do is I'm gonna try
to get if I if I see that anything's gonna
be cool, I'm gonna do.
Speaker 4: Check this out.
Speaker 5: It's a little holder in this box and everything. Yeah,
all right, so we're gonna do this.
Speaker 4: Oh look at these nerds pulling cards. Yeah.
Speaker 6: I don't think he might says anymore. You don't have
to keep saying that. I think everybody enjoys the card.
Maybe I'm just like, uh, that's just what my wife
saying at the house right now, shaking her head like like,
oh my god, I'm married that human.
Speaker 4: All right, So all right, just show the top one,
the top one right here? All right? Who we got there? Oh?
This is Brian Westbrook. You know where he played college football?
Speaker 6: Actually I don't, Landre, do you know where Westbrook played?
Brian Westbrook running back, Philadelphia Eagles. Hey, Tay, I actually
do not know this basketball power, not a football power.
Speaker 7: Gonzaga.
Speaker 4: No, they don't have football program, but I like your head.
Speaker 7: They don't have a football program.
Speaker 6: Though I have Villanova Villanova, Okay, I do remember this
now Villanova he win that like, probably not have a.
Speaker 4: Zaga. I don't know.
Speaker 6: They're good in baseball, yeah they are, but no football.
They got like they're private Catholic school with about four thousand.
Speaker 4: Students, so that's probably why.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's kind of like Streetport evangel Like we had
like fifty students, but we all play football and we're
really good.
Speaker 4: I love how you are now calling it Streetport. Just
I can't help it anymore.
Speaker 6: I know you've called it that for so long, like,
I don't know why I do it, because you'll do
it in Texas because you have so many schools. All right,
can we at least get one more? Because that wasn't
all right, We'll get more.
Speaker 5: So so what I found with these tops is there's
a lot of like retire just like legends, filler, a
lot of filler, but even these base look at this's
So we'll go one down and then I think after
that one starts like the autograph, So I'm just gonna
I'm not going to go any further than this.
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, here we go. Check this out? All right?
What we got now? Both Detroit.
Speaker 6: Billy Billy, Yeah, trophy winner Billy Sims actually did an
autograph signing with him in Treeport last summer. It's a
great human being. Yeah, great human being sat there and
talked to my sons, and I was just very gracious
with this time.
Speaker 4: Shout out Billy Simms. What you said he's been trophy winning?
Yeah he was. Wait year, what's cool?
Speaker 6: Yep, I'm gonna say, Oklahoma, you would be cre are you?
Speaker 4: You? You? I did?
Speaker 6: All right, we will take a break. We're gonna open
some more cards here, not open we already opened it.
You some more cars. We've got Ben McDonald's set to
join us in fifteen minutes from now. If you want
to follow along our card journey at Off the break
l A is the handle on X Instagram.
Speaker 4: I believe it's the same as well. I don't know.
Speaker 6: I'll check that out X. I know I say Twitter
most of the time. I don't really care. You know
what I'm talking about? More of this when we come
back off the bench. Speaking of big Hits award winners,
Tommy's windows seems like every year right siding, it literally
is hang the banner. Lebron lied to you people when
he said they were going to win back to back
to back, not one, not two, not three. He lied
to you. They only won two. Tommy's they don't lie
to you. Twenty sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen twenty.
Speaker 5: E LSU Baseball. You just need a billboard now instead
a bunch of banners. Intimidator, big billboard, and it's going
to be a big window.
Speaker 6: The intimidator with Tommy's gonna have every year they've won
every award because that's what they do, including this year
twenty twenty five. The advocate best windows Tommy's Go Tommies
dot com, Gaux Tommies dot com.
Speaker 4: Go their website, look at what they can do.
Speaker 5: See their gallery the beautiful pictures of the work that
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doors signing help your house become more energy of fishing.
That's Go Tommies dot com. Two two five, two five
eight eight o eight.
Speaker 1: From Players to Legends, Hester and Flynn breakdown l s
U Football like only champions can.
Speaker 9: Inside tell you cause gosh just too wine this week,
Lion the Glass.
Speaker 4: This is definitely uh is it?
Speaker 6: Lake Broad Pray y'all lived in y'all had that house
where you have.
Speaker 4: A king pong table in the garage?
Speaker 6: Oh yes, yeah, this was definitely the vibe when you
walked into that house.
Speaker 4: And then you would, let me tell.
Speaker 6: You, my wife would have ping pong battles and the
rest of us aren't as good as y'ahn. We just
walk inside because yeah, we're gonna.
Speaker 5: Battle arguing about Lake Go Prey might be the greatest
neighborhood ever created. In our house, there.
Speaker 4: Was the place to be.
Speaker 6: He was a good house.
Speaker 4: We had some pretty epic parties there. Who was that
with y'all.
Speaker 2: At me?
Speaker 4: Peter Peter was never at Lake bot Prey so Peter,
so Pete. We lived at Peter. He had the house
in the Garden district. You're right, so we lived there.
Speaker 5: It was me Ryan Miller, josh A Sherry Miller. I
remember watching Craig Steltz walk hound at a at one
of the party.
Speaker 4: I think it was my birthday party.
Speaker 9: One.
Speaker 5: I had gone to the local snow cone stand. I
was like, Hey, I need to buy me a block
of ice, big one.
Speaker 4: Yeah. They used the big blocks ice to make ice. Yeah.
So yeah, we we cut a little slide, made a
little ice luge. Yeah.
Speaker 5: And Craig Stells walked around with oven mits on. He
was the holder of the ice block ice lodge, and
we were pouring rumpelments down at like super responsibly.
Speaker 4: Yeah with uh. I think it was Hershey's chocolate Chasers.
That sounds awful, But I remember Craig.
Speaker 5: I mean if he if he carried around for five minutes,
it might as well have been two hours. He had
it the entire night, Oven mits on ice lange shoulder.
Speaker 4: He's like, come on, let's go.
Speaker 6: Oh man, some great times. We weren't supposed to go
out on Thursday nights. Yeah, and less had he would
have gas and weight room staff go out to the
bars to make sure we were out.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: And the only time I ever went out on a
Thursday night because I was like I was, I was like, like,
I ain't losing my spot because I was out drinking
it at Bogies.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, Like, hang on, all.
Speaker 6: Right, But Katie really wanted to go out one Thursday night,
like really really wanted to. And I'm like all right,
and so me, Flynn Dixon, we all end up at
Bogie's and we have a night like, actually, I have
a picture from the night. Maybe I can find it.
We'll put it up on the screen. We had a
couple of cold pops the week of the Florida game
two thousand and seven, the only time that I went
out on a Thursday, That's right, guess what happened and
had you know, had the game of my life.
Speaker 4: So you know, jokes on, we were just built a
little different, you know.
Speaker 9: Uh.
Speaker 4: So it was the three team, so I was watching
the three team got it in.
Speaker 5: So I was watching the uh, the Red Sox documentary
on Netflix. It's so good, right, So it's about the
three to four Red Sox they you know, breaking what's
it called Breaking the Curse is the name of the documentary.
That team reminded me so much of our teams at
LSU because they were just they were crazy. They had
this awesome relationship, but they were just like super loose,
different than all the other teams. They had this like
real special special bond that like really brings the team together.
But the part that really made it was when they
were down three games the Yankees, they started doing Jack Daniels.
Speaker 4: Shots before the games.
Speaker 5: So right before the game they started just shooting whiskey
and they won the game. So that was their thing
after that, We're gonna shoot whiskey, We're gonna party, We're
gonna be crazy. What they call They called themselves idiots,
is that right? They called themselves idiots, And we often
refer to ourselves as idiots. I mean other people refer
to us as the same. Yeah, they did.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna find this picture though now like on a
mission of that I'm talking about, you'll see.
Speaker 4: I think it was.
Speaker 5: Was it the picture that was like my old school
like MySpace picture.
Speaker 4: Or something like that. I think I had it on
social media at one point.
Speaker 7: But seriously about documentaries.
Speaker 6: A documentary is so I'm sending sure.
Speaker 4: Are you really? Yeah?
Speaker 7: Mm hmm.
Speaker 4: What happened?
Speaker 9: No?
Speaker 7: I loved Derek Jeter so much when I was growing up.
Speaker 4: He loved gift baskets.
Speaker 7: I would have loved to get a gift basket from
him and sign I'd sign it.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 6: I sent this picture to Taylor. We'll see if and
get on screen. But uh, we stopped at Billy Simms.
Oh yeah, we gotta we gotta go one morning here.
Speaker 5: If you don't know that Billy Simms's winner from the
University of Oklahoma, I know, right, sports, guys, So what
I'm gonna do right here? I think these next two
cards underneath Billy simms autographs. Pull these to the side.
All right, Okay, we're gonna do that. We all do
with that. Yeah?
Speaker 4: Oh all right?
Speaker 5: So underneath we got a little refractor here, rookie car
and a c NRC.
Speaker 4: All right, so guys, we're got to be cheering. Oh,
Kamari Lassiter who played four He plays with the Tucans.
Everybody knows that so much.
Speaker 6: Oh, you know, what we should have done with Mint
because he was talking ish one time when we were
doing Hanging with Hester and he was doing like radio
and Shree Report, and you know, our show was syndicated
at the same time as as whatever. Doesn't matter, but
it's when we did Flynn and the challenge of naming
all the SEC coaches.
Speaker 4: And at the time there was fourteen.
Speaker 6: Flynn named seven of them and like, we look pretty good,
We're idiots. We had fun with it that night. We
made it a whole bit whatever, and he was so mad.
MINSI online was like if I did that on my show,
I'd have no credibility. You know, former players get away
with blah blah blah and whatever. Like you know, for
a while, I'm like, cool, but we should have told
him and had you name all sixteen SEC coaches because
you just did that.
Speaker 4: Jokes on Ben Mint, Yeah, jokes on him. I could
definitely do that right now. Jeff Levy, Jeff Leby, that
one is like, I feel like that's trigger for everybody.
Speaker 6: Uh oh, look at these two hydrated idiots.
Speaker 4: You got to drink in hand drinking.
Speaker 6: That's probably Jack and Coke, I probably and Fitch hat
on there looks like some some kind of graphic t
shirt on on my body and affliction shirt Mobby. Maybe
not affliction, but it's something adjacent to it, Oh for sure.
Speaker 5: Roger Creed So Roger Kreeger Texas country music. Well, the
guy that sings a hit song ever Clear.
Speaker 6: Yes.
Speaker 5: He We used to be able to see him, like
early on in college at the Varsity five dollars tickets
on like a Tuesday night and it was an incredible concert.
Speaker 7: I really like him.
Speaker 8: We tried to get him to play at the Long Branch,
my grandparents' bar, but he's on the stage was too
small and I was.
Speaker 7: Like, man, whatever, I'll get too big for your bridges.
Speaker 4: He's played the Vosity.
Speaker 7: I mean, Kevin Fowler played there and he wouldn't play.
Speaker 6: Jamie in the Chest says dumb and dumber. I'm definitely dumb.
He's definitely dumber. Yeah, some would say one of the
greatest comedies of all time.
Speaker 4: Though I always try to figure out who was who
in the movie Lloyd Christmas.
Speaker 6: Definitely Lloyd Christmas was dumber, so I always thought that.
But Harry was dumb enough that he went along with
Lloyd's ideas, So like was he actually the dumber when
I was was always confused on the.
Speaker 4: HM. Whoa t pal? Where did jaw lines go? Uh?
Speaker 6: They're still here, Bud, Yeah, I got I do it.
I do a jaws aer size every day.
Speaker 5: I say, that's stupid, stupid workout thing, the contract, the jaws.
Speaker 4: You have the thing that you bite on. Yeah, bring
it in. I'm a meathead. You put on the front,
you put on the front, teeth you, Yeah, that's what
you do?
Speaker 1: Do it?
Speaker 4: Serious? Yes? I do it? Daring breaks of my series
six show, Do you have a thigh Master?
Speaker 6: I'd love shake weight Susan and Summers a grip ball
with a like a finger grip ball shake Waight? Those
were popular? Those are popping for know where they went?
Speaker 4: Di Master.
Speaker 6: I'd do that during the show, you know I would.
I would get it right and.
Speaker 4: Get it tight.
Speaker 5: I I you have the squeeze ball that you bite on.
Speaker 6: Yes, the jaws are side. Stop disrespecting it.
Speaker 4: Are we trying to like prevent concussions? No? I got
one left. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 5: It's like a cap with one life left. That's an
interesting guy. This is this says a lot right now.
I mean, are you can we pull can you pull
a picture of that thing? You even know what it's called, Jasie,
Is it really.
Speaker 4: All right? Look, we gotta go to break.
Speaker 6: Uh Nacho Man says, this show turned into Beavis and.
Speaker 4: Butt Head for us nine o'clock out love Beavis and
butt Head.
Speaker 6: It's where I learned a lot of the music that
I didn't know back in the nineties, like Henry Rawlins
liar and.
Speaker 5: I think these people are trying to make fun of us,
but they keep like bringing out bangers, dumb and dumber
and Beavis and butt Head.
Speaker 4: Yeah, don't act like y'all don't love it.
Speaker 6: Also C T O T B one hundred. That's pretty good,
without question that we we were thinking about renaming the
show when we first started. We missed an opportunity with
that one.
Speaker 4: Yep. Notcho Man said he's got a squeeze ball. You
can bite him.
Speaker 6: Uh, Paul's we will take a break, Ben McDonald ESPN
when we come back here on OTV. Off the bench,
all right, go to get Gordon dot com. Get Gordon
dot com, Gordon mccurnin Injury Attorneys. You can go to
the website. You can have a chat right there on
the website. Homepage. Love Chat gonna pull right up as
soon as you log in. You can also give them
a call. It is your area code in Louisiana. Doesn't
matter where you're at Louisiana. If you're on the north Shore,
laughy at if you're in New Orleans, certainly here.
Speaker 4: In Baton route doesn't matter your area code.
Speaker 6: Followed by eight eight eight eighty eight eighty eight Get Gordon,
get it done. They get it done every single day
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the information on the website. Get Gordon dot com.
Speaker 5: Accidents happen to all of us. It doesn't matter what
it is, car accident, truck accident, workers comp offshore, wrongful death,
whatever it is. Give Gordon a call. Get part of
the G team. They are so instrumental with what LSU does.
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If something's wrong, see how they can help. Get Gordon
dot Com two two five eight eight eight eight eight.
Speaker 1: Eight Tigers turn Talkers. This is off the bench, all.
Speaker 6: Right, welcome back again, OTB one four five ESPN Baton Rouge.
Very excited as always to catch up with our next guest.
It is boots On the ground from Omaha, LSU, Legend, ESPN,
SEC Network, He's everywhere. Ben McDonald joins us again here
on the show. Ben always appreciate the time, sir, Hope
you're doing well this morning.
Speaker 2: Oh, always great to think with you guys. Yeah, man,
everything's good here in Omaha. The sun is shining. Hopefully
we don't have any weather. The leg is the man
what we are down to the final four, so it's
it's getting pretty dag gum exciting. We've had some really
good ball games.
Speaker 6: Oh, no question about it. Has certainly been a get
that keeps on giving. And yesterday right LSU, they got
to come back, they got to resume the game early
in the morning, and a lot of us been were
wondering how they were going to handle it, and they throw.
Speaker 4: Case and Evans.
Speaker 6: Jay Johnson was not taking any chances on not closing
the door on UCLA, and there was a lot of
people who maybe thought maybe you would go to a
different arm and try to piece it together, but Jay
Johnson said, no way, we are going to go to
our guy right now. What did you think of that
decision to go with Cason.
Speaker 2: Evans, Well, you know that's kind of what we thought
he was going to do because I mean, if Felis,
you had to lead when the rains came right and
you walk in with a lead and you got to
hang on to that lead. And Cason Evans has been
your best this year. When you talk about coming out
of the bullpen, he's got some starts under his belt,
but the freshman has been unbelievable. He came in and
did his thing, you know, and so it's good to
see how you know, we always thought that's what Jay
was going to do, to come to try to win
that ball game and get that cat bird seat. Now
it's a little bit disadvantaged for l issue because obviously
the game would have continued, LSU would have won, and
then you get two days off, but now you only
get to one day off. You got to come back
to play, you know, And so that's the only bad thing.
While Coastal Carolina on the other side, was kind of
sitting back letting everybody play into them. You know, they
got there too and out of the way early and
had a couple of days off and they'll be ready
to go to day against Louisville.
Speaker 4: Ben.
Speaker 5: I know all the coaches for tonight's game. They're going
to keep their cards put pretty close to the chest
as far as pitching goes. But when you look at
this game, when you look at the matchup, this team's
you know, very familiar with each other. LSU and Arkansas.
What are the like the key matchup points? Are the
key differentiators that you see going into this first game?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, look, I mean you're talking about, to me,
the two best teams here on paper, you know, Arkansas
and LSU. And look, it's a different subject, but I'm
all for reseeding. What you get to the College Rule Series.
In my opinion, there's no way these two teams should
be on the same side of the brackets and macking
up in game one as the College World Series. But
that's what happened, and that's a whole different topic. But
you know, look, Arkansas to me, is the most complete
team in the country. If you look at their numbers
from batting average, for runs per game to e er
the fielding percentage, they lead the country a fielding percentage,
pitching its top ten, right behind LSU. It's a really
complete team. They can do a little bit of everything.
For you. You know, there was a concern with LSU going
into regional play, as you guys know, they only average
what about five point eight runs per game their final
eleven games a year before regionals begin, and they have
really picked up the offense. And that's what you know,
everybody wanted to see from LSU. You knew the picking
was strong, you knew that the defense has been really
strong this year, but could the office begin to match
everything else? And they have, And they ran through regionals
and had a little bit of a scare and super regels,
you know, and all that kind of stuff, but they
made it here to Omaha and the offense looks really,
really good. So look, it's gonna come down like it
always does when you get these two kind of powerhouse programs,
one big hit somewhere, you know, one pitch made or
not Paie, maybe one defensive play made or not made,
you know, and so those that's what this game's gonna
come down to. The question is who's gonna start, Who's
going to do their thing? And I don't know who
ELSEU is gonna start. So people thinking, you know, that
they're gonna run Anthony Iamton back out there, I don't
think that's gonna happen. I think Anson is going to
be saved for the back end of the bullpen kind
of what he did in regionals. And if LSU's got
to lead going into the eighth inning or the ninth inning,
I think you see Iyason. If LSU doesn't have a lead,
they're trying to hang on, then you save Ayanton for
a potential game tomorrow, you know, to get you to
the College World Series Finals. That's what you're looking at.
So I don't know who the star is going to be.
You know, Nuke's got to start, Zak Cowen's got to
start in post season play. So fifty one and two,
those two guys, you make it a bullpen day, and
you see where you're at. About the seventh for the
eighthen you know.
Speaker 6: Been for Arkansas having to play an extra game and
then for Root to only last thirty eight pitches in
game number one about as best case scenario for what
they have available. Knowing they've played the extra game because
of what they've gotten in the performances they've gotten over
the last couple of days.
Speaker 2: Well, no doubt in Arkansas it's worked out firstally for them.
I mean it started off with wood, right, I mean,
would throws a no hitter, you only lose one pick,
you only use one picture, and then you roll into
yesterday and you're able to bring back your number one
guy who picked really really well. In Root, they only
use the him and Az with a couple of other
pictures to kind of get to the game. So it
is a deep, deep fifty stand at Arkansas had. It's
a lot like Yel's use the tie velocity, big time
stuff at the back end of the bullpen, and they
got some dudes back there, man, And so yeah, it
worked out perfectly. I mean, adirell As Shuger were sitting
back hoping Arkansas would burn a few arms the wood
throws a no hitter, you know, and then all of
a sudden, Yesterday don't burn many arms either at all.
So look, it's it's kind of all hands on deck
right now. I think everybody's pretty much at full capacity
as far as their bullpen pieces go, you know. So
it's gonna be a great game, man, It's gonna be
a really really good game.
Speaker 4: Ben.
Speaker 5: I'm sitting there watching the game last night, Ucla versus Arkansas,
and as a former athlete, I'm all for being aggressive,
and so this is kind of like one of those
situations in football. It's like you go for it on
fourth down. If you get it, it's great. If you don't,
blah blah blah. I'm so they're watching the first inning,
faces loaded, two outs, they get caught with their pants
sound stealing home What'd you think about that move? What
do you think about that call? It's one of those things.
If it works out, great, If it doesn't, kind of
looks bad. But I'm all for being aggressive.
Speaker 4: But what do you think?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, it's one of those scenarios. You got
a left handed pitcher on the mound and you got
a left handed hitter at the plate. The left handed
hitter is not hitting very wall off left, so I
think if you look at it, you go, all right,
he's got two strikes on it. Maybe we could steal
one right here, you know, and you try and look.
I mean the replay I saw the replace it in
the hotel room, and it was so close. But I
think if the call would have been the other way,
it would have stood the other way too. But it
was a held up because it looked like it was
just bang bang at home plate. So they tried to
steal a run right there. And you know that's the
thing about us LA here is their offense. Man, it's
pretty good. They struggled to score run here at the
Alma Hall. You know, I think they were just trying
to the matchup. The matchup hold you that you probably
weren't going to get a hit with two strikes, we
might as well try to steal one.
Speaker 4: But it was.
Speaker 2: Certainly a huge momentum swinger in that case for sure.
Speaker 6: Been one of the things we've talked about throughout. You know,
the postseason has been Bear Jones and certainly he's been up,
he's been down, but coming off of five strikeout performance
and you know, staying after with Jay Johnson. We all
saw the videos there and for him to come up
and have the home run that he had against UCLA
after they scored three in the first and I mean,
you're in the danger zone and he certainly breathes life
back into the game. Gives LSU the lead as a
baseball player, because look, Flynn and I were football guys, right,
and so like baseball deals with failure every single day,
every single game. It's about the next step bat, it's
about the next pitch, and you've got to really like
just clear it from your memory bank there. How impressive
was that to you that bar Jones was able to
do that after getting a five strikeout game, to come
back and lead his team to victory like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, and me, I always say it's about baseball players. Man.
You can't have star tissue because every you know, you
get the laser right back out and go to mark.
You can't carry good or bad what happened to you
the day before, previous days. You got to flush it
and be able to flush it. I'm happy for Jered Jones.
I mean he's been through a lot in his career.
You know, you remember his freshman year. He was an
everyday player. Early got the SCC player, got out matched
a little bit, pretty much rode the bench the rest
of the year, made some big time adjustments. Last year,
hit twenty eight home runs, could have turned pro turned
it down, came back to l This is his draft year, guys.
And look, that's pressure too that not many people are
talking about, because we see this all the time with players.
They know it's their draft year, they know they're gonna
go play pro ball. They want to have a good year.
You put a little extra pressure on yourself in your
draft year and sometimes they can get a little sideways
for him, and Jered got off to a great start
this year, but then he started to expand his own
a little bit. McKenna. It was more about mechanics than
I saw the clip like you did. And that's kind
of what we were seeing was, you know, he was
opening up his front side and when he opens up
his front side, the bat disc and it's a big
bottom to stop swing, meaning you got it, he's not
on plane with the baseball, so it's a lot of
swing in this there. And you can see in that clip.
Day was talking about where your s front shoulder is
staying on the ball, staying through the ball. So it
was good to see him have a really nice swing
and hit to the backside. Because let's be honest about something, guys,
if Elisu's gonna win their eighth national title, Jared Jones
is gonna have to be a big part of it.
He's gonna bean. He's the big bat in that lineup
that can just change the game in one swing like
he did the other day, and so you need his
confidence to be high. You hope mechanically he's stealing pretty
good about where he is right now, he's gonna have
to be big. It feel like she's gonna win number
eight cause.
Speaker 6: You know, with Ben McDonald here on OTB, Ben, we
talk about the pitching staff and like a lot of
us are wondering what's it going to look like tonight,
and there's a lot of different ways you could format it.
But that's not the only thing when it comes to
LSU baseball that we're wondering.
Speaker 4: The lineup.
Speaker 6: I mean, Jay has done a really nice job beforematting
the lineup based off who's hot, based off matchups, and
there's been a lot of movement there, but it's come
up big. Like if Ethan Fry doesn't hit second in
the Regionals in that final game, I don't know the
LSU is still playing. I mean, he came up big
when Lshue did not come up big in game number
six of the regional and Derek Curry have is somebody
that he's been a lead off all year, but they
moved him to the sixth hole and they're facing a lefty.
I've been so impressed, Ben, with not only Jay pushing
the right buttons, but the players being big in those
moments when they've been shifted when they've been moved around
in the lineup and not feeling sorry for themselves or
not worrying about it too much. And like for a
freshman in Curiel to be a leadoff guy gets moved
to the sixth hole and then have the ad bats
that he's had on that kind of stage, that's as
impressed if it is anything I've seen in Ola.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look, Jay kind of runs his lineup
like a big league lineup. You know, it's it's lineup.
You know, it's matchup base and moving Curry all down
is a good move. I mean, he tried it for
most of the year and in curiy all we know
the numbers. He didn't like four forty off varieties and
didn't two hundred off lefties, And so it makes sense
when you face the left handed starter if you kind
of push him down towards the bottom, you know, and
you move some right handers up towards the top. I mean,
that's just a baseball decision. That's what Jay does. And yeah,
I kept the captain the boys, and you know, Jay's
always had the fuls of this team. He always teaches,
you know, what's on the front of the jersey, not
on the back of the jersey. And this is a
team that is a team. This is how we're gonna
win number eight. And so the guys have bought into it.
He has been able to get with those guys and say, hey,
it ain't about you, it's about us. The best potential
of me is we if we do well, you're all
gonna get your stay in this thing. And they bought
into that, man. And so no matter what the lineup is,
no matter where people are playing, it doesn't matter. This
bunch is going to go out and play the game
of baseball the way they know how. And they've bought
into what James been teaching them. Man. So it's it's
been good to see. And again this offense, Man, this
offense looks really good to me. It looks like the
offense that we saw early in the year middle part
of the year. That's going out there, and with this
pitching staff that LSU has. Man, I'm telling you what
if they can just put some runs on the scoreboard
and Arkansas is gonna hit, man, and look, they can
swing it. We saw that last night yesterday, you know,
against UCLA. They're a really stout team. And so it's
like it's two heavyweight guys. It's gonna go blow by blow.
And we saw the you know, the difference. The difference
in the first game was that Root hit two batters,
you know, walked a couple of guys whatever he did.
LSU was able to get three runs on the scoreboard
that inn Again, that was the difference in the ball game.
And so it's gonna be a fun game.
Speaker 4: No doubt about it.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 4: And last one for you, Ben.
Speaker 6: We always appreciate the time when you're facing a team
that you know so well, like LSU and Arkansas. Do
they've played four times this year, when you're trying to
decide who's going to start the game for you, do
you go back to when you played them in the
regular season and say, hey, Zach Cowen through three innings
scoreless baseball, didn't give up a lot, talk to a couple,
but struck out three. Or do you say this is
what it is right now, this is the player that
I feel good about right now?
Speaker 4: Like what is that decision like?
Speaker 2: For j Johnson, I think it's all the above. I
you know, I think he's going to factor in. I
do I think he's going to factor in the success
that they've had against one another. He's going to factor
in who's hot and who's not for Arkansas, who he
feels like, where his pockets are, to bring certain guys
in to be able to give him the platoon advantage
wherever he can, and that and and I think you know,
Jay is a thinker as you guys. Though I always
say this about Jay Johnson, he is the most prepared coach.
He will beat himself up a million times over trying
to figure this thing out, but he prepares his guys
the best way to go out and have success. So
I think Jay is factoring a ton of different things
along with they get to the pitching coaches try to
figure out, you know, what's going to give them the
best chance to succeed. And he's broken and I'm sure
he's broke it down a million times, a million different
ways all the way through the game.
Speaker 6: All Right, there he is our guy, Ben McDonald, doing
big things there in Omahall as always been. We appreciate
your time, man, look forward to hearing you again and
enjoy the scenes there in Omaha.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, always good to talk to you, all.
Speaker 6: Right, Ben McDonald, LSU legend, and uh you know, for
my money, the best to call games.
Speaker 4: I mean, just so easy to listen.
Speaker 6: To allow the college talent to call the college games.
Speaker 4: I wish he was calling more than only few games.
Speaker 6: I mean, give me lynnon Ben up there in Omaha.
At least they know the players and they know the situation.
You got pro guys up there, just.
Speaker 4: Men, you do it?
Speaker 5: You ready, we'd crush, We would absolutely crush.
Speaker 6: You're gonna be the play by play. You're gonna be
the color analyst. I could probably dabble in both. All right,
set the scene for me.
Speaker 4: Go ahead. No no, no, no, not ready. Just you
said you could do both. Oh, I have a lot
of many hours to prepare if we were doing it tonight.
Speaker 6: All right, we are going to close out the show.
Speaker 4: Do you want to go? You wanna give one more card?
Are you?
Speaker 6: Are we saving that? I mean you left us, He
left us on a base car.
Speaker 4: Here.
Speaker 5: We're gonna pull this last one from the bottom, from
the bottom here, all right, so yeah, from the bottom.
Speaker 6: All the toy holt okay, all right, little Saint Louis
Ram check that out. We'll throw it back. He's saving
all the good cards for the last.
Speaker 4: You think Ben likes car portion of it? I mean,
I don't think he doesn't like him. He probably didn't know.
Speaker 6: I mean he probably has some in his collection. I
mean every every youth athlete that played in the pros
like has a deep love for the sport they played.
Speaker 4: I bet he's got some coll ones of himself. I
bet he does too, one of one. Do you have
any of those? No?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm still I'm still trying to bid on that one.
That guy wants five hundred bucks for that.
Speaker 4: That's not worth five hundred What do you think it's worth?
Fifty bucks?
Speaker 5: It's worth It's worth more to you than anybody anybody else.
Speaker 6: And I'm trying to give you fifty bucks for it,
my guy, I'm just trying to give it to my children,
trying to give it to my daughter, Okay, so she
can have a dad one of one that when she
has children she can pass it down to little Johnny.
Speaker 5: Guys has to realize that it means more to you
than anybody. Yeah, so you're you're the top, You're the ceiling.
Speaker 6: I know he can get more than I can promise
you that you'd been pretty generous offering that all right,
We're gonna close out the show like we do every
single day. Ask the bench right here, O TV mop
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That's two to five, four three, three one five.
Speaker 1: From players to legends, Hester and Flynn breakdown LSU football
like only champions can inchase.
Speaker 3: God doesn't shot the good.
Speaker 4: Words to big things, right, but it's.
Speaker 3: The wrongs the words come to life.
Speaker 4: We could get these guys. We could definitely get these guys.
Who are we getting on them to backyard Party?
Speaker 7: Fallout Boy?
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh this is fine. The same thing.
Speaker 7: Yeah, same thing. No, I mean we could get Fallout
Boy to them.
Speaker 4: It's the same thing.
Speaker 8: Isn't it so funny that like Pete Wentz isn't even
the singer, but he's like the main person.
Speaker 4: In the band, So weird.
Speaker 6: Pretty hard to do, Pretty hard to be the main
person when you're not the main lead singer.
Speaker 4: I got a question, I got a little observation.
Speaker 6: Jase was definitely a lead singer and sing without doubt,
definitely lead vocalists.
Speaker 5: What let me get us back on track here. Observation?
I asked him about stealing Home yesterday. Yeah, why the
guy that stole home?
Speaker 4: Why didn't slide his oven? Mit?
Speaker 5: Why is he wearing an oven mat if you're gonna
slide with the right hand forward?
Speaker 8: Yeah, maybe the oven that would have got him because
it was literally.
Speaker 6: Like literally the slide fet first again, if Bradleydale piveto
taught us anything. That inch is important?
Speaker 5: Is it only to like when you're trying to get
picked off at first base? Is and only for that slide?
Speaker 4: I don't even know you would go with your.
Speaker 6: Left Maybe he left hand, he throws right handed.
Speaker 4: You want to protect your throwing hand. I didn't think that.
I don't just take the oven mits off there, dumb,
I just use it, at least if you're going to
have it on.
Speaker 8: I know soft on baseball aren't the same, and I
know that they're playing like at a way higher level
than I ever did. But whenever, like we were taught
to bunt, not actually bunt, but like show bunt and
then like pull it back in the catcher's eyes to
like distract them from from the thing. So I feel
like maybe that batter should have at least tried to
But I don't know.
Speaker 7: But I don't know anything.
Speaker 4: Huh tripped and fall?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Favorite ballpark snack?
Speaker 6: Yeah, hot dog popcorn?
Speaker 4: If not, my kids will dip.
Speaker 6: I'm playing, let's pull one of those good cards, one
of those time.
Speaker 4: Here we go.
Speaker 5: We're gonna go with another rookie card under here, people,
all right? Michael Paul Junior, The classic Browns rookie.
Speaker 4: Okay, I have done a lot of card breaks. I
have never seen him.
Speaker 5: Michael Mark. But now we are, we're off the fractors.
Now we got a green one in here. See this rookie,
all right.
Speaker 6: James Harrison, God, nightmares seeing that card. He is a
terrifying human being. If you want to see the other cards,
follow us at Off the Break l A on Instagram,
on Twitter. James Harris, God, he was a drone man.
Still is he walking around the Super Bowl. I'm like,
I'm gonna go the other way here. There's a big
fellow've had a lot of batles with, and I'm seeing
eye to eye with and that's not good for me.
See tomorrow off the bench.