Speaker 1: Then we continue on Fred Rogan, Ben mallerin today for
Speaker 1: Rodney on a five seventy LA Sports Dodgers take the
Speaker 1: first game last night against the Phillies. Back at it tonight,
Speaker 1: Clayton Kershaw on the Hill, Ben, Let's welcome in our
Speaker 1: good friend Jack Harris of the LA Times and Jack,
Speaker 1: thanks for jumping on today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no problem.
Speaker 1: All right, Before we move forward, let's go back just
Speaker 1: the mood, the emotion, the feeling you had with Freddie
Speaker 1: Freeman coming back last night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now, that was It was something I think, you know,
Speaker 2: especially for a guy who, you know, when it comes
Speaker 2: to baseball, one of his big things is being in
Speaker 2: the lineup every day, posting every day, being locked in,
Speaker 2: you know, to have that be the guy who went
Speaker 2: through what he went through the last couple of weeks
Speaker 2: with his son being in the hospital and you know,
Speaker 2: them making trips to the er and then the ICU
Speaker 2: to figure out what was wrong with him, and then
Speaker 2: you know, having this, you know, he called it a
Speaker 2: miraculous recovery yesterday. It's one of those stories that I
Speaker 2: think puts a lot of the rest of the baseball
Speaker 2: season in perspective. And you saw all of that come
Speaker 2: out when he returned last night from the pregame stuff
Speaker 2: that his teammates did wearing the T shirts with his
Speaker 2: son's name on it too. Obviously the ovation he got,
Speaker 2: you know, the Dodgers obviously missed him on the field.
Speaker 2: But I think, you know, in his three years here,
Speaker 2: Freddie Freeman's becomes.
Speaker 1: Such a.
Speaker 2: Core piece of the team and the way that fans
Speaker 2: interact with the team that you know, it all kind
Speaker 2: of culminated in that moment and one that you just
Speaker 2: don't really see a lot in the course of a
Speaker 2: normal MLB season or with a lot of players in
Speaker 2: these kinds of situations.
Speaker 3: And Jack, as far as tonight, the big night we've
Speaker 3: been talking about it, Clayton Kershaw, who looked terrible in
Speaker 3: his last start against the Padres. What's the vibe about there, Jack,
Speaker 3: around the Dodgers and Kershaw, what they expect tonight?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think Kershaw is one of the one
Speaker 2: of several kind of interesting wild cards, and in the
Speaker 2: course of the season right now for the Dodgers, there's
Speaker 2: a path where if he looks pretty good over these
Speaker 2: these last couple of months, similar to you know, how
Speaker 2: he looked last year, even when he was battling the
Speaker 2: shoulder injury, that he could be a big part of
Speaker 2: what they're doing in October of how they look at
Speaker 2: their pitching plans, not only to get to the postseason,
Speaker 2: but once they get into the playoffs, and then there's
Speaker 2: another path where, you know, if he looks more like
Speaker 2: he did last week in San Diego, if he's struggling
Speaker 2: to get above ninety miles per hour with the fastball,
Speaker 2: if he's struggling to keep guys off the slider, it's
Speaker 2: going to make him a difficult guy to count on
Speaker 2: in the big picture this season. So, you know, it's
Speaker 2: still early. This is only his third start back from
Speaker 2: his offseason shoulder surgery. His first start was sharper both
Speaker 2: in terms of the results and the way his actual
Speaker 2: stuff looked. But until he strings you know, two, three,
Speaker 2: four of those kind of outings together, there's going to
Speaker 2: be this question about where is he at, just stuff wise,
Speaker 2: at the stage in his career, and is he still
Speaker 2: somebody that the Dodgers can count on, you know, in
Speaker 2: the way that they've been so accustomed to over his
Speaker 2: even you know, the latter stages of his career. The
Speaker 2: last couple of years.
Speaker 1: Jack, I'm no doctor, although some people thought I was
Speaker 1: a trainer many years ago, but I was not there either.
Speaker 1: I played that in high school football. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: If the guy is struggling, he's at eighty nine in
Speaker 1: his third start, struggling to get over ninety miraculously, is
Speaker 1: his arm and his shoulder going to come around and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden he's gonna be throwing ninety five
Speaker 1: miles an hour. Don't you think it gets worse, not better?
Speaker 1: And I really don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you're not going to see ninety five. I
Speaker 2: think you're gonna be lucky to see ninety Two's now
Speaker 2: with somebody like Clayton Kershaw, who you know, when it
Speaker 2: just comes to the art of pitching, knows it and
Speaker 2: knows how to navigate it as well as probably anybody
Speaker 2: who's who stepped on a big League mound before. No,
Speaker 2: if he can be ninety to ninety one with a
Speaker 2: sharp slider and you know his trademark curveball and mixing
Speaker 2: in changeups, like there are still ways that he can
Speaker 2: be successful on the margins again, like he was pitching
Speaker 2: through a serious shoulder injury last year and had like
Speaker 2: a two five VR and was an All star pitcher.
Speaker 2: Like he knows how to pitch even with diminished stuff.
Speaker 2: The question is how diminished is it now? How consistently
Speaker 2: can he get that extra tick or two out of
Speaker 2: his fastball? Can he still snap the slider the way
Speaker 2: that you know he has so successfully over his career
Speaker 2: and two starts, I think you've seen one start where
Speaker 2: he did that a little bit better and one start
Speaker 2: where he couldn't really do that at all. And that's
Speaker 2: why the Dodgers, because they still believe in, you know,
Speaker 2: just his his veteranability and his track record and you know,
Speaker 2: his kind of an eight way of getting guys out
Speaker 2: with whatever he's got. They're gonna give him some runway,
Speaker 2: as Dave Roberts likes to put it, to try to
Speaker 2: prove that he's still a reliable guy, to try to
Speaker 2: prove that he's still you know, one of the better
Speaker 2: pitchers or in the game, or at least somebody that
Speaker 2: you can count on in a postseason environment. But he's
Speaker 2: at the point of his career now where he does
Speaker 2: have to prove it right where it's not a given
Speaker 2: anymore that playing Kershaw is going to be in the
Speaker 2: Dodgers postseason rotation or anything like that. So, and I
Speaker 2: think there's a couple of pictures on this team that
Speaker 2: are going to be in that same boat, whether it's
Speaker 2: Gavin Stone, whether it's Yoshinobu Yamamoto when he returns from entry.
Speaker 2: And that's what makes I think the whole pitching dynamic
Speaker 2: for this team over the rest of the season interesting
Speaker 2: to follow, because outside of Tyler Glasnow and Jack Clarity
Speaker 2: right now, there's not a ton of guys that you're
Speaker 2: probably feeling great about as it pertains to starting games
Speaker 2: in October. So or they're going to give Kershaw opportunities,
Speaker 2: they're going to give other guys opportunities because they need
Speaker 2: to figure out who can they trust once they get
Speaker 2: to the playoffs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and with that said, if they don't trust him,
Speaker 3: let's let's assume we'll go the worst case scenario that
Speaker 3: Kershaw just can't get guys out consistently. Would they even
Speaker 3: put him on the playoff roster? Jack, if they don't
Speaker 3: trust him to start and he's throwing in the high eighties,
Speaker 3: would they go that direct?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean maybe, I think it's definitely on the table.
Speaker 2: I think it's also one of those things that you know,
Speaker 2: they're still pretty far away from having to make that decision,
Speaker 2: and the short term they still need them to make
Speaker 2: starts and eat innings and give some coverage to a
Speaker 2: pitching staff that's been dealing with absences all year. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean the makeup of this team, not just when
Speaker 2: it comes to the rotation, but the roster at large
Speaker 2: is right now they have once they're fully healthy, they're
Speaker 2: going to have more bodies than spots to sell a
Speaker 2: playoff roster. So for somebody like Clayton Kershoff or guys
Speaker 2: at the bottom of the batting order, some of the
Speaker 2: utility players that move around a lot bullpen, same thing applies,
Speaker 2: Like there's a lot of guys that have a lot
Speaker 2: to prove over these last couple of months, you know,
Speaker 2: if they do want to be in the Dodgers' long
Speaker 2: term plans and want to be key contributors for a
Speaker 2: team that's trying to get to a World Series. And
Speaker 2: I think honestly that's where you know talked of like
Speaker 2: pressure or urgency or those sorts of things. I think
Speaker 2: it's coming internally more right now for this team than
Speaker 2: it is from the standings or anything else. So yeah,
Speaker 2: it applies to Clayton Kershaw that he's not performing over
Speaker 2: the last couple months of the season. He's probably not
Speaker 2: somebody that Dodgers will be counting on in October. But
Speaker 2: it applies to a lot of a lot of other
Speaker 2: players on this roster too. Is they try to figure out,
Speaker 2: you know, what their best twenty six man group looks
Speaker 2: like over the final two months.
Speaker 1: Here. They got the Pros win last night, so I
Speaker 1: got to three tonight, is this a must win series
Speaker 1: for the Dodgers? Jack?
Speaker 2: And I mean nothing is a must win when you
Speaker 2: have like a four or five game lead in the
Speaker 2: division and you know, you seem pretty safe in terms
Speaker 2: of making the postseason, even with how they've been playing
Speaker 2: the last month. I think though, that coming off the
Speaker 2: road trip that they had last week, given the fact
Speaker 2: that the division race is tightened, and given the fact
Speaker 2: that they have a lot of tough teams coming up,
Speaker 2: this is an important series to win. It's one that
Speaker 2: I think would fully steady the ship after what was
Speaker 2: a pretty bad July for them. That would be a
Speaker 2: statement either within the room or just you know, externally
Speaker 2: around the league, like, hey, they've maybe the Dodgers have
Speaker 2: Freddy Freeman back, they have Tyler Glass now back, gonna
Speaker 2: get Mookie Bets back soon. And look, they just beat
Speaker 2: the Phillies in a series like they're back to themselves.
Speaker 2: I think that's what they can accomplish this week. And
Speaker 2: it would be a good time too, because the rest
Speaker 2: of this month is a pretty tricky schedule, and I think,
Speaker 2: you know, if this month goes south on them, then
Speaker 2: suddenly you know, we're not just talking about the division
Speaker 2: race being tight, but you're talking about maybe being in
Speaker 2: a real dog fight with the Padres, with the Dbats
Speaker 2: getting into September. So you can take two or three
Speaker 2: from the Phillies this week, or maybe all three. I
Speaker 2: think it sends a message about, Okay, the Dodgers have
Speaker 2: gotten over what was a bad stretch of play when
Speaker 2: they were missing a lot of guys. They beat the
Speaker 2: best team in the NL, and they're in a good
Speaker 2: spot going into what's probably the toughest stretch of their
Speaker 2: season the rest of this month.
Speaker 3: And we're shaut with Jack Herrish. Jack, what about the
Speaker 3: situation of the bullpen? Is it's going to be a
Speaker 3: rotation at closer by how's this going to play out playoffs? Obviously,
Speaker 3: the bullpen is massive in October because the pitchers go
Speaker 3: five innings, But how do you see this shaken? How are
Speaker 3: they going to rotate guys at the end of games?
Speaker 2: But right now, that's basically what it is. It's trying to,
Speaker 2: you know, Dave Roberts is effectively going into every game,
Speaker 2: not saving any particular arm for the ninth but rather
Speaker 2: knowing which parts of an opposing lineup he wants to
Speaker 2: match guys up against, knowing, you know, at the highest
Speaker 2: leverage moments of games, which guy on that night he trusts.
Speaker 2: And I think the Dodgers, you know, as they've they've
Speaker 2: dabbled with this a few times since Kinley Jansen left
Speaker 2: the organization a few years ago. They're comfortable not having
Speaker 2: a designated closer now. Dave Roberts will be the first
Speaker 2: one to tell you that life's a lot easier when
Speaker 2: you have one guy in the night that you trust.
Speaker 2: When you had Evan Phillips down there, you know, converting
Speaker 2: saves and pitching, you know, like a reliable guy like
Speaker 2: he was up until you know, a month and a
Speaker 2: half ago now, But in the absence of that they
Speaker 2: don't want to force anybody into that spot either. Now,
Speaker 2: I think over the last couple of months, if one
Speaker 2: particular reliever emerges, maybe it's Evin Phillips, you know, regaining
Speaker 2: the role. Maybe if it's Daniel Hudson who has gotten
Speaker 2: the plurality of save opportunities since Evan Phillips was removed
Speaker 2: from the closer's role. So they're not opposed to putting,
Speaker 2: you know, to designating somebody as a closer again and
Speaker 2: having a set ninth inning option. And I think in
Speaker 2: an ideal world for them, they will have that by
Speaker 2: the time they get to the end of the season.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, they think that, you know,
Speaker 2: they can win games just as effectively by identifying matchups
Speaker 2: and picking specific moments for guys and not necessarily saving
Speaker 2: any one arm for the night. So that's the mode
Speaker 2: that they're in right now. There's a lot of time
Speaker 2: for things to change, and I think there's a lot
Speaker 2: of potential candidates, whether you know, Bruce dar Grat or
Speaker 2: all Is coming back. That's a guy that I think
Speaker 2: people have always looked at as a potential closer. You know,
Speaker 2: Blake Trying's done it before. So there's a lot of
Speaker 2: routes they can go, but there's not That's not something
Speaker 2: that they're eminently trying to address. I think they're more
Speaker 2: kind of letting it play out. And again, like with
Speaker 2: a lot of the rest of this team, seeing who
Speaker 2: performs and who doesn't down the stretch this season, Well.
Speaker 1: It's good Groatorol's coming back because now they put Trenton
Speaker 1: on the IL and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he goes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, Trining is so good. I wonder
Speaker 1: if he'll ever be what he once was.
Speaker 2: Jack Yeah, I mean even this year, you know, his
Speaker 2: fastball has been down. He used to be a guy
Speaker 2: that was ninety six ninety seven. Now he's more ninety
Speaker 2: four ninety five on a good day.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Again, he's a pretty talented pitcher. He's an experienced veteran pitcher,
Speaker 2: and he knows how to work with what he's got
Speaker 2: and get guys out, which is why you know, he
Speaker 2: was having a pretty good year even with somewhat diminished
Speaker 2: stuff from where he was a couple of years ago
Speaker 2: before his own shoulder surgery. I think the bigger point
Speaker 2: with the bullpen is and somebody like trying in somebody
Speaker 2: like Daniel Hudson somebody like Alex Vezia, Like they all
Speaker 2: fall in this category. If you have a lot of
Speaker 2: guys that are having good seasons, but they're doing it
Speaker 2: with lesser stuff in terms of fastball velocity and just
Speaker 2: you know, overall swing and mis capability than they've had.
Speaker 2: Like one of the interesting things about Michael Kopeck joining
Speaker 2: that group, you know Michael Kopeck came to the Dodgers
Speaker 2: is you know, not having a great year with the
Speaker 2: White Sox and he's really talented but is inconsistent. But
Speaker 2: then he gets on the mound and he starts throwing
Speaker 2: one hundred mile per hour fastballs up in the zone
Speaker 2: and getting swing and miss, and you go, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, the Dodgers haven't really had a guy like that.
Speaker 2: I think Crews, our Grat are all same thing. Like
Speaker 2: you're going to get a real hard thrower that is
Speaker 2: an important kind of guy to have in an October environment.
Speaker 2: So that's where the makeup of this bullpen is interesting
Speaker 2: and why I think there's still a lot that could
Speaker 2: change in terms of roles and who's getting leverage situations
Speaker 2: and who could potentially become a closer, because just the
Speaker 2: makeup of stuff is going to look a little bit
Speaker 2: different down the stretch, and the Dodgers hope is that
Speaker 2: they're going to have more options and more ways to
Speaker 2: get match up against opponents and neutralized hitters and and
Speaker 2: and utilize that group down the you know, over the
Speaker 2: rest of the season.
Speaker 3: Chat with Jack Yreson with the Times covers of the Dodgers. Obviously,
Speaker 3: hey Jack, last one for me. We were singing the
Speaker 3: praise as I was. And Fred likes him too. Ti
Speaker 3: Oscar Hernandez, but he's only on a short contract. Is
Speaker 3: this just gonna be a fling? Is he going to
Speaker 3: go somewhere else next year? What are you feeling? What
Speaker 3: are you hearing on Hernandez? Is he going to be
Speaker 3: here in the next couple of years or is this
Speaker 3: just a one and done situation for him?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's certainly possible. Part of why the
Speaker 2: t Oscar Hernandez signed the deal that he did with
Speaker 2: the Dodgers this year was the way he put it,
Speaker 2: It was like a bet on himself, right, Like he
Speaker 2: didn't have a great year and Seattle last year, he
Speaker 2: didn't get the kind of offers on the free agent
Speaker 2: market he was hoping to get, and so rather than
Speaker 2: settle for a you know, less annual salary on a
Speaker 2: longer term deal, he decided to take a one year
Speaker 2: deal with the Dodgers and hope he could rebuild his
Speaker 2: doctor the league while also contributing to a winning team.
Speaker 2: He's certainly doing the former. I think, you know, he's
Speaker 2: probably looked at as the biggest deal of this past offseason.
Speaker 2: The long term repercussion of that, of course, is he's
Speaker 2: going to be more expensive and he's going to be
Speaker 2: one of these players I think falls into this category of,
Speaker 2: you know, do the Dodgers look at him as, hey,
Speaker 2: he was a great one year piece for us on
Speaker 2: a pretty good value, and now we can try to
Speaker 2: figure out, you know again, for a better value, play
Speaker 2: some other direction to go with one of the corner
Speaker 2: outfield spots, or do we want to lock him up
Speaker 2: long term and make him an integral part of this
Speaker 2: team moving forward and trust that, you know, his performance
Speaker 2: will be sustainable. So that's a decision the club's going
Speaker 2: to have to make over the next couple of months.
Speaker 2: I think it's one they're definitely going to entertain, given
Speaker 2: how well he's played, you know, to me, it's almost
Speaker 2: like a plus version of Jason Hayward and Miguel Rojas
Speaker 2: last year, and those were guys that the Dodgers brought
Speaker 2: in on short term deals and then extended both of them.
Speaker 2: So I think that's definitely a possibility with Oscar hand As,
Speaker 2: especially what you start. You know, if you're not going
Speaker 2: to plan to have mookie bets in the outfield long term,
Speaker 2: and maybe you don't trust some of your young guys
Speaker 2: to be ready to step up into full time roles yet.
Speaker 2: But that's probably also a decision that they're going to
Speaker 2: wait till the off season, see how his market looks,
Speaker 2: and see if it makes sense for them financially to
Speaker 2: sign him to what will almost certainly be a longer
Speaker 2: term and much more lucrative deal than they got him
Speaker 2: on this year.
Speaker 1: Outstanding, Jack, Thanks for coming on man, love the info.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks guys, Thanks Jack.
Speaker 1: Dodgers back in LA to take on the Phils tonight,
Speaker 1: the first pitch at seven ten. You can listen to
Speaker 1: every play of every Dodger game an AM five to
Speaker 1: seventy LA and stream all the games in HD on
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app. The keyword is AM five to seventy
Speaker 1: LA Sports and it's powered by LA Care for all
Speaker 1: of LA five hundred thousand dollars a day. Anybody worth that, Hey,
Speaker 1: figure it out.
Speaker 4: Hey, if Don's listening, i'd like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, well, first time doesn't listen. If he did,
Speaker 1: I don't think he'd agree. That's coming up next. Ben
Speaker 1: Maller is in today for Rodney. Okay, have you watched
Speaker 1: a lot of the Olympics.
Speaker 4: I've watched some.
Speaker 3: I have it on you because of the time difference
Speaker 3: when I'm doing the overnight show their events going on,
Speaker 3: so I've watched it while I'm at work. Mostly I
Speaker 3: watched the basketball fact they're playing today, Fred, But I
Speaker 3: think right now exactly, yes, I have that on the background.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that's about it when I work in the
Speaker 3: basketball What about you.
Speaker 1: You know, it's so weird. For so many years I
Speaker 1: did the Olympics.
Speaker 3: I know you were a staple the Olympics. Fred, That's right.
Speaker 3: I remember watching you back in the day.
Speaker 1: I'll bet you I've watched five minutes. It's weird. I'm
Speaker 1: not doing it and for whatever reason, I'm just not
Speaker 1: inclined to watch it, and I don't know why, but
Speaker 1: I know this. These games for NBC are doing in
Speaker 1: today's world exceptionally well. Numbers are way up over the
Speaker 1: Tokyo Games. Of course those are weird games, but they're
Speaker 1: way up and people are consuming the content differently. And
Speaker 1: one of the big reasons ben is something they call
Speaker 1: the gold zone, and the gold zone is like, what
Speaker 1: is it? Red zone?
Speaker 5: A red zone for Olympic cover?
Speaker 1: Yeah, right's red zone for Olympics and they have the
Speaker 1: red zone guys doing it for.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I have Chris Hansen and uh Sicilianowa I think
Speaker 6: is in there as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really good. In other words, when something is
Speaker 1: going to happen, they're right there. When somebody could win
Speaker 1: a medal, or there's going to be a point of decision,
Speaker 1: they're right there. It's really good. It is doing exceptionally
Speaker 1: well for them on Peacock. And when you aggregate all
Speaker 1: of the numbers, unlike when you and I were growing
Speaker 1: up and you could watch TV, now all of these
Speaker 1: numbers are put together, so whether you're watching on Peacock
Speaker 1: or NBC or USA Network, they all get put into
Speaker 1: a big bushel and people are consuming this and they
Speaker 1: are watching it now.
Speaker 3: If I had a question for you like that, the
Speaker 3: numbers on the streaming How do we know those are authentic?
Speaker 3: I'm always I always wonder that, like, how do we
Speaker 3: know how many people are actually watching this? I know
Speaker 3: they give numbers out and ratings, but how can those
Speaker 3: be validated?
Speaker 1: Ratings or streaming numbers?
Speaker 3: I'm talking about streaming numbers. I just feel the same way,
Speaker 3: Like I do a podcast on the weekends too. This
Speaker 3: show's podcast that you know you do my radio shows?
Speaker 3: How do we know how many people are actually listening
Speaker 3: to it?
Speaker 1: Though? It's pretty simple. The streaming numbers are far easier
Speaker 1: to work with than ratings because you're streaming numbers. Somebody
Speaker 1: clicked on it, and that registers.
Speaker 4: But how long do they listen?
Speaker 1: Well, and that, by the way, is fair, And that's
Speaker 1: also determined because in the metrics they use, if they
Speaker 1: listen to your podcast for twenty minutes, they'll know because
Speaker 1: the person left, they're gone streaming TVs the exact same
Speaker 1: way they click on their watch and it just shows
Speaker 1: when the person leaves. So, by the way, how are
Speaker 1: your podcast.
Speaker 4: Numbers surprisingly good? I don't know why, but there are?
Speaker 1: Right? So you love this this is spreen.
Speaker 4: Well, I guess, but I don't. I've always thought, I
Speaker 4: don't know, because you could just make them any number.
Speaker 3: How to Like, what I'm saying is how how it
Speaker 3: comes to be validated, Like like I watched My wife
Speaker 3: loves Netflix, right, watch a lot of but how like, how.
Speaker 4: Do you know how many people are?
Speaker 3: Actually I know that they have the numbers, but can
Speaker 3: somebody They can just make any number up they want,
Speaker 3: right right, if they wanted to, they could say there's
Speaker 3: ten million people watching, and there's.
Speaker 1: No in theory. They could in theory. But when advertising
Speaker 1: agencies spend money and buy spots, those numbers have to
Speaker 1: be quantitative. You have to give them the number because
Speaker 1: you're selling it on that and you're promising them a
Speaker 1: return on that. So if you're promising them a three whatever,
Speaker 1: then that has to Those numbers have to be a
Speaker 1: three or these people are getting their money back. So
Speaker 1: that's how the numbers work.
Speaker 4: Gotcha all right?
Speaker 1: One thing NBC is doing differently this time, And I
Speaker 1: always thought it would have been fun when I was
Speaker 1: doing it, but you know, oftentimes it's the wrong time
Speaker 1: for things. Kind of lighten it up, kind of lighten
Speaker 1: up the coverage because it is a sacred, sacred event.
Speaker 1: The Olympics at NBC, and there was not a lot
Speaker 1: of time for you know, have a laugh, goof around.
Speaker 1: That didn't exist when I was doing it. It was
Speaker 1: very serious right down the middle. When I would try
Speaker 1: to do things, sometimes I went, now, we're not doing that.
Speaker 1: We're not doing that, because that's not what the Olympics are.
Speaker 1: This go round, it's very different and there's far more
Speaker 1: personality from the people on the air. It's less structured
Speaker 1: from the perspective of everything is really serious. And one
Speaker 1: of the guys that they use and he did it
Speaker 1: last time and it worked, so now they've given him
Speaker 1: a bigger role is Snoop. Snoop is an integral part
Speaker 1: of the primetime coverage. And what are they paying him?
Speaker 1: Five hundred dollars a day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the story that's being reported. Five hundred thousand
Speaker 3: dollars a day. And the Olympics last I did some
Speaker 3: malord math on this. But so the Olympics last what
Speaker 3: eighteen days?
Speaker 4: I think? Am I correct on?
Speaker 5: Officially sixteen sixteen days?
Speaker 4: Oh okay, so my math is wrong. Let me do
Speaker 4: this again. Here, I gotta I got my calculator out here,
Speaker 4: So let's do the math.
Speaker 3: On day, so he sixteen days, So that means he's
Speaker 3: getting Snoop Dogg for the sixteen days.
Speaker 4: Eight million dollars, right, good work if you can get it. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but it sounds but it doesn't.
Speaker 3: I eight millions great, but five hundred thousand dollars a
Speaker 3: day it sounds even better, right, I mean five hundred.
Speaker 3: Now I've watched a little bit, like I said, overnight
Speaker 3: when I'm doing the show, and it's like I've seen
Speaker 3: Snoop around Paris, wandering around doing different things and whatnot.
Speaker 3: How many people are tuning in because of him?
Speaker 4: How do you know?
Speaker 1: How?
Speaker 4: You can't? You can't measure that, can you?
Speaker 1: No, you can't. I mean their primetime numbers are good.
Speaker 1: You can't specifically say, although they do all kinds of research,
Speaker 1: how many people are tuning in specifically for him?
Speaker 3: Like you could argue he makes it more enjoyable, right,
Speaker 3: because he's Snoop Dogg and all that, But five hundred thousand,
Speaker 3: my goodness, who's his agent?
Speaker 1: Fred? Well?
Speaker 4: I gotta get his agent.
Speaker 1: But look at it like this. Do we know if
Speaker 1: they're tuning in for him? We don't, But given their rating,
Speaker 1: we believe they're not tuning away to get away from them.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're waiting for him. I mean, the Olympics are
Speaker 1: in primetime coverage of the Olympics, especially when everything is completed,
Speaker 1: you're just telling stories now. And NBC was very serious
Speaker 1: with that in primetime in the past, when everything was done,
Speaker 1: you still have to do the primetime show. Now they've
Speaker 1: given it a little pizzazz, little personality. I've seen some
Speaker 1: of Snoop stuff, and I think in my five minutes, honestly,
Speaker 1: I think I've seen him three times. Some of it
Speaker 1: I like, and some of it I think is okay,
Speaker 1: But it's Snoop and people like Snoop.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, for sure.
Speaker 3: So this is now because of the success. I know
Speaker 3: the Olympics aren't over yet. It's fair to say when
Speaker 3: they come to LA a few years that they're gonna
Speaker 3: bring Snoop back or will he be too old at
Speaker 3: that point?
Speaker 4: Are they gonna have to find the next Snoop?
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no no no. That's one thing.
Speaker 1: If it works, they'll do it. You'll the difference. The
Speaker 1: difference with the LA Games though, because it will be
Speaker 1: on the West Coast. It'll all be live. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: only tape so you'll get tapes on the West Coast,
Speaker 1: probably starting at nine o'clock at night, which is late
Speaker 1: night on the East Coast, but they'll call it Primetime
Speaker 1: Plus here and then everything will be done basically, so
Speaker 1: they'll go to tape. But the West Coast Olympics, that
Speaker 1: will blow the roof off everything because everything will basically
Speaker 1: be live. You don't need to tape anything. It's all
Speaker 1: gonna happen live.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is annoying because I don't know when I'm
Speaker 3: watching the Olympics often, whether when I'm watching already happen
Speaker 3: or I know when I'm there at night doing the
Speaker 3: overnight show. I know that that stuff's going on because
Speaker 3: of the time preference, but sometimes even during the day,
Speaker 3: like I don't know, Like I have the basketball game
Speaker 3: up by the way, the US team kicking the snot
Speaker 3: out of Brazil.
Speaker 1: Fred.
Speaker 4: I know you had that.
Speaker 3: I don't know if they're going to cover the spread,
Speaker 3: but I don't know. I'm not sure, Like I'm like,
Speaker 3: is that live? Is this has already happened. I hate
Speaker 3: watching sports that have already happened. I don't want to
Speaker 3: do it. I want to watch it live or else.
Speaker 3: I don't want to watch sports. That's just so I'm wired.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I also, by the way, that's why I haven't watched
Speaker 6: the primetime coverage because by the time prime time has happened,
Speaker 6: literally everything is done right at the final event over there,
Speaker 6: I think is finished by like one o'clock in the
Speaker 6: afternoon our time.
Speaker 5: So by the time we're off the air here, Ben,
Speaker 5: you'll know everything that happened today already.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm right there. I can't do it. I can't
Speaker 4: watch it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But that's why the LA Olympics will be so
Speaker 1: highly rated across every platform because you'll be able to
Speaker 1: see everything live. The other thing I want to say
Speaker 1: about the games coming to LA in twenty eight and
Speaker 1: there are people concerned, what's it going to do? They'll
Speaker 1: be cost overruns and the taxpayers will have to make
Speaker 1: up for it. There's a good chance there'll be some
Speaker 1: cost overruns. Yeah, that's going to happen. And the other
Speaker 1: thing is traffic's gonna be a nightmare. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: a nightmare getting around everywhere. It's awful. It's going to
Speaker 1: impact everybody.
Speaker 3: Spoiler alert, Fred, It's always awful, Fred, It's always terrible.
Speaker 1: Right, that's the spoiler alert. Here's the reality. When the
Speaker 1: games are here in eighty four, everybody said the same thing,
Speaker 1: this is going to be a nightmare, worse than it
Speaker 1: normally is. So try not to travel, try to stay
Speaker 1: off the roads. For sixteen days, nobody drove anywhere. For
Speaker 1: sixteen days. You could go from La to San Diego.
Speaker 1: It seemed like in fifty minutes, no one was on
Speaker 1: the road. Everybody stayed off the road. And I gotta
Speaker 1: tell you, I think a lot of that is gonna
Speaker 1: happen when the Games come in Los Angeles in twenty eight.
Speaker 1: I don't think, oh God, this is gonna be awful.
Speaker 1: We've already had this one and nobody was on the road.
Speaker 1: I'm dead serious. It looked like a ghost.
Speaker 3: Well remember a few years ago, I guess been a
Speaker 3: few years of many years, we had Karma Gaydon. They
Speaker 3: were closing out of the four h five and I
Speaker 3: think the company got me a hotel room because they
Speaker 3: were worried I would not be able to leave the
Speaker 3: studio in Sherman Oaks.
Speaker 4: And no, nobody's on the roads that day.
Speaker 3: But the thing, also, you talk about the Olympic experience,
Speaker 3: we mentioned this last week when you were traveling go
Speaker 3: to baseball Gainst me and Jonas, we were like, they're
Speaker 3: going to clean up like all the a lot of
Speaker 3: the things we hate right now, like you know, people
Speaker 3: down on the skid rows everywhere these they're going to
Speaker 3: clean all that up, right for the Olympics that they're
Speaker 3: going to clean up the entire city. It's gonna be
Speaker 3: amazing in twenty twenty eight because they're going to present
Speaker 3: that to the world and so they're gonna get rid
Speaker 3: of a lot of things that are just annoying to
Speaker 3: us on our day to day lives.
Speaker 4: They're gonna clean all that up.
Speaker 1: Well, they're going to try to clean it up. This
Speaker 1: is another complaint that the coverage will not truly reflect
Speaker 1: what la is. So here's the thing you have to understand.
Speaker 1: NBC coverage always No, they're not going to show homeless
Speaker 1: people on the street. They don't do that. They're going
Speaker 1: to show the motest picturesque shots they can find. The
Speaker 1: Hollywood sign, right, it's going to be a travelogue. It's
Speaker 1: going to be a picture postcard. And that's what will happen.
Speaker 1: If you think they're going to show some guy knocking
Speaker 1: off of seven to eleven and acting in a freeway chase.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna happen. Well, you're not being fair and
Speaker 1: you're not being honest, and you're not showing what it
Speaker 1: really is like here. Well, first, to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: no one cares. No one around the world cares. If
Speaker 1: there are people on skid row. It's terrible. We don't
Speaker 1: want them there. But do you really think somebody watching
Speaker 1: in Brazil wants to see homeless people on skid row?
Speaker 1: So no, they're not going to show that. And yes,
Speaker 1: every angle of everything they shoot is going to be
Speaker 1: from the perfect angle because that's what they want to portray.
Speaker 1: You can't get into a situation where you think, well
Speaker 1: this is just as an honest, honest to who honest
Speaker 1: to you? Well, maybe they don't think what you feel
Speaker 1: as important is and I read that, Well, they're just
Speaker 1: not going to be on about what the city is.
Speaker 1: They're gonna be honest. They're gonna give the world the
Speaker 1: view of La that La wants the world to see.
Speaker 1: And there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 3: Really, Well, they're doing it right now in Paris. Right,
Speaker 3: you see things on the internet that are not being
Speaker 3: reported about certain issues in the local community there in Paris,
Speaker 3: they're not being talked about. So the same thing's going
Speaker 3: on there.
Speaker 5: That they didn't soach you as well.
Speaker 6: By the way, well documented the issues out there a
Speaker 6: few years ago for the Winter Olympics.
Speaker 1: When we would go when we would go to the
Speaker 1: Olympic seminars and Dick Ebersol was still in charge, and
Speaker 1: it would stand up in the front with David Neil
Speaker 1: who now runs Fox Soccer and he was the executive
Speaker 1: producer of the Olympics, would dig and they would have
Speaker 1: this meeting and they would tell us every single time,
Speaker 1: you don't work for NBC News. That's not why you
Speaker 1: are here. NBC News will be here and they will
Speaker 1: cover news. You work for NBC Sports and NBC Olympics
Speaker 1: and we will do the Olympics. That's our job. So
Speaker 1: don't start making political statements, are talking about things that
Speaker 1: you have seen that you think are wrong, because that's
Speaker 1: not why you're here. We have a whole news department
Speaker 1: to do that, a news division, and if they choose
Speaker 1: to do it, they will and that's really how they
Speaker 1: do it. They tell you ahead of time, you're here
Speaker 1: for the games. That's it.
Speaker 3: And the political stuff. I agree, you want to unplug.
Speaker 3: I'm old school for it. I watched my sports. I
Speaker 3: want to unplug from all the nonsense. Yeah, watching the game.
Speaker 3: I don't want to hear about it. I don't want
Speaker 3: to have it shoved down my throat.
Speaker 4: I'm good.
Speaker 3: I can make my own decisions when it comes to that,
Speaker 3: and I don't need you to you direct me one
Speaker 3: way or another.
Speaker 4: So I'm all right. I'm fine with that.
Speaker 1: All right, here's a question. Yes, let's say your one,
Speaker 1: for argument's sake, five hundred thousand dollars. We're just talking
Speaker 1: about that. You wonderful, Ben, congratulations, you want five hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Yes, and your family member comes and says,
Speaker 1: give me some of that money because I'm in trouble.
Speaker 1: Do you do it?
Speaker 4: How close a family member are they?
Speaker 1: Fred, We'll have to get into that.
Speaker 6: By the way, since Ben did ask twenty seven minus
Speaker 6: twenty seventh, the United States was against Brazil. There are
Speaker 6: currently up by twenty nine late in the third quarter.
Speaker 4: Oh, it's gonna be a nail. By the lot of
Speaker 4: time left, A lot of time left, a lot of it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, a lot of degenerate sweating right now, there.
Speaker 4: Back door cover, possibly backdoor cover for Brazil.
Speaker 1: Listen, so many people interested. You're right, Brazil USA Olympic basketball.
Speaker 1: I think the United States will cover. That's my pick.
Speaker 6: Okay, yeah, you also with that, Anthony Rendau won't be
Speaker 6: healthy the rest of the year too, So I'm not
Speaker 6: taking confidence in your bets there, Fred.
Speaker 4: I'm taking. I'm taking Brazil plus the points as am
Speaker 4: I record.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, well fine, don't listen to me. But
Speaker 1: then again, I'm never right, so you shouldn't listen to me.
Speaker 4: What's that.
Speaker 1: Is it? Ben Maller in today, Rodney, Ben, we really
Speaker 1: appreciate you sitting in.
Speaker 4: It's good to be here, Fred, it is what are you?
Speaker 4: What are you laughing at? I laugh at?
Speaker 1: I no, And we do appreciate it. All right. So
Speaker 1: here's the deal. On Reddit, we found this story. You
Speaker 1: tell me what you would do.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 1: Woman wins a lottery. She wins five hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: pre tax. All right, She's going to use that money
Speaker 1: to pay off some student loans, do some stuff. She's
Speaker 1: twenty eight years old. Her brother her Her brother calls her.
Speaker 1: He says, hey, you know what, I got my own problems?
Speaker 1: Give me thirty grand. Give me thirty grand. I need
Speaker 1: thirty grand. The woman thinks about it and says, well,
Speaker 1: he's been struggling financially for years. He can't manage money,
Speaker 1: He's had some bad luck, he's got a ton of debt.
Speaker 1: He says, I've seen him go through the money before.
Speaker 1: The sister said she sympathized with him, but she's not
Speaker 1: sure giving him a large amount of money will solve
Speaker 1: the problem in the long term because she's seen him
Speaker 1: blow through it. She said she was willing to help
Speaker 1: him create a budget plan, give him a smaller amount
Speaker 1: like five grand to help with immediate needs, but then
Speaker 1: he got upset. There are people that suggested she was
Speaker 1: being selfish and not caring about the family. What would
Speaker 1: you do?
Speaker 3: All right, So, based on what you told me, Fred,
Speaker 3: I think she's right that if this guy blows every family,
Speaker 3: my family, all my friends, we all have at least
Speaker 3: one or two people that are really bad with their
Speaker 3: money and make poor choices and end up going broke
Speaker 3: and messing around. And so if he's that person for
Speaker 3: the family, I think she's doing the smart thing not
Speaker 3: giving him thirty thousand, because they'll just blow through the money.
Speaker 3: But if you set him up, if you set him
Speaker 3: up on some kind of plan where like, if you
Speaker 3: you're discipline, you'll get more money. I think that's the
Speaker 3: way to handle situation. Absolutely, I say you should do it.
Speaker 1: Okay, but that makes her look selfish, and that makes
Speaker 1: her look controlling, and that makes her look like she
Speaker 1: doesn't love her brother because her brother needs the money
Speaker 1: and she didn't give it to him. By the way,
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I agree with you.
Speaker 4: You're on the right side.
Speaker 1: Fred, Yeah, I do. You know you have trouble managing money.
Speaker 1: You've blown through your money. Granted you've had some bad luck,
Speaker 1: we all have, but you're basically pissed through your money.
Speaker 1: You know people like that. I know people like that. Sure,
Speaker 1: you give somebody ten grand and two weeks later there's
Speaker 1: no money left, you know people like this. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, the first thing you do is you take the
Speaker 3: tax money out. That's the first thing you do, right, so.
Speaker 4: That it's five hundred thousand, But after how much is
Speaker 4: that after taxes?
Speaker 1: Right, it's gonna be about two seventy.
Speaker 3: About two seventy al right, so you have two seventy
Speaker 3: to play with. Then he wants thirty thousand, So now
Speaker 3: you're down to two forty. But she probably wants to
Speaker 3: buy house or put it down pay I know where
Speaker 3: she lives, but put it down, payment down or something
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 6: Now she, by the way, Ben, she had already calculated,
Speaker 6: so she's gonna get about five hundred thousand after taxes.
Speaker 1: So get.
Speaker 5: How much he's taking from after taxes, that's all you get.
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 3: All right, Well that changes a little bit, but still
Speaker 3: it's five hundred thousand, and money's not what it used
Speaker 3: to be today.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I still would.
Speaker 3: I would put him on a plane and say, hey,
Speaker 3: you got to follow the rules and then you'll get
Speaker 3: more money.
Speaker 1: But instead of saying thank you, you know what, I
Speaker 1: need help. You're gonna give me a little bit to
Speaker 1: get started here, and then thank you, I need help.
Speaker 1: The mindset is, well, why are you being so cheap?
Speaker 1: Just give me all the money?
Speaker 4: How do you How do you find out about it?
Speaker 1: Though?
Speaker 4: If you win the lottery, shouldn't you not tell anyone?
Speaker 1: If well, she told her family.
Speaker 5: She told her parents, and her parents told her brother.
Speaker 5: That's how he.
Speaker 4: Found out the parents the parents.
Speaker 1: I mean, what would you do?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 1: Listening there's a less Think about it for a second.
Speaker 1: What would you do? You win money? Family member comes
Speaker 1: to you and says, give me some of that money.
Speaker 1: You know I'm in trouble, but you know the history
Speaker 1: of the family member, and you know that they're really
Speaker 1: gonna blow right through that money and be right back
Speaker 1: to where they were. You come up with a plan.
Speaker 1: I'll help you, I'll help you get to where you
Speaker 1: want to be. And the other person says, well, now
Speaker 1: you're being selfish. I'm not a child, you can't control me.
Speaker 1: Just give me the money. What would you do? Listening
Speaker 1: right now, I'm gonna just I'll give out the number.
Speaker 1: Maybe somebody will call after the break eight six six
Speaker 1: nine eighty seven two five seventy. You one family member
Speaker 1: needs help. You agree to help them with conditions because
Speaker 1: you know how they've been. They say, you're being selfish
Speaker 1: A six six nine eight seven two five seventy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what would you do? Oh if they'll be along next
Speaker 1: hour as well with the high coup and we have.
Speaker 3: A you know what Vick would do. He'd just give
Speaker 3: out the money. Wouldn't he just say you get money,
Speaker 3: you get money, you get money. He'd just give all
Speaker 3: the money, Yeah, exactly, he'd have nothing left. He'd have
Speaker 3: to win the lottery again, right, and with his luck
Speaker 3: he would