Thanks, Ronnie.
Hey, it's Monday.
Yes, it's a Monday in November.
Uh.
It got a little chilly last week, but now the sun is shining and it's warm and it's wide. We live in southern California because it's beautiful out and it will be beautiful all the way through Thanksgiving and through Christmas and the holidays and everything that you can think of. It is Monday. Got a lot to unpack. Fred Rogan is out, but my man Ben Mollin is in the house today.
Benny, Ben, this is the first.
I've worked with Fred a few times, but I've not worked with you first. So this is the maiden Boy, how can I possibly screw this up?
Fine?
I will try not to screw it up, Rodney, I will attend to stay the course. Okay, I was actually I was at the Charger game last night. I'll say that later when, yes, when Eric is in here and all that stuff. But I was there and it actually felt like a Charger home game. I've been to a lot of Charger games. It didn't normally it does not
feel like that. Is that more of a testimony over the lack of people from Cincinnati that live in southern California or I don't know, but there were more many more Charger fans than Bango fans.
That is kind of cool.
That is encouraging if you are a Charger fan, you're a LA resident, because you don't want to see that. I don't even I don't even care, Ben, And we will get into it a lot more when Eric Dickerson joins the show at one o'clock for NFL Spotlight the Ford NFL Spotlight at one to three. But I think it is also a you know, a good thing for LA people in general, LA fans in general, because that
is the rap Ben. That is the rap on LA is that uh LA fans are front runners and only if you're doing well and teams come into LA, whether it be so Fi, We're not so much Dodger Stadium, but it could be some other places, even even the Coliseum of the Rosebow from time to time that they'll get drowned out by the opposing teams that come into town. So that was that's that's kind of encouraging to hear that.
The Chargers and and by the way, as we mentioned, we'll get into it, but by the way, the Chargers are kind of slowly kind of grooving into being a really good team that's about to be a playoff team. Bennie.
Yeah, they are.
Looking like a playoff team, though I am confused, and I only get too much into it now because I know there's other stuff we have to talk about. But we'll get to it.
You know.
The Charge w win that game last night and everyone's like, well, it's a culture change and all that, but they win it because the idiot kicker for the Bengals missus two kicks. Yeah, is that really a culture change? Was it just they were worse than you were. You know, we'll get we'll get to it. How about that the Tyson fight?
Oh, let's talk about that.
We got to take it off.
Now. Do you have a party, Robbie, I don't know. Did you have a fight party? Like old school fight party?
No?
Ben, You know, normally I would either either have the party or go to go to a party. I wasn't sure you know what I was gonna do. Uh this this weekend obviously, uh SC and Nebraska was homecomings. Had a lot of friends that that were coming in town that lived out of state that were coming back for homecoming. Is kind of a tradition thing that that that most most schools do. Most schools will have their homecoming and people will come back and visit, whether they live out
of town or from there. And even when I say live out of town, there's a lot of folks that live in San Diego, Orange County that come up for homecoming and that's like the one game that they go to. So there's there's a little bit of a reunion that you get to see some some people that you haven't seen in a long time. And that was that was
the case on Saturday. And thank god USC came out with a win, and we'll talk about that too, but uh, you know, kind of getting themselves right beating a Nebraska team, which is a you know, not they're not great, but to get that win at home with a new starting quarterback and the new era, it looks like it's starting to begin at USC. It was good, But going to the to the the Tyson Fight the night before, I was I was looking forward to it. I didn't want to go to any big parties because I didn't want
to be let down. I don't want to be let down by by the by the fight itself. I mean, the hype obviously is the hype. It's on Netflix. You know, it got postponed from back in July and then got you know, moved to November. There were questions about Mike and his health and was he going to be able to be and and be ready to go and and whether this was stage or fixed or all of those kind of things. So I didn't get into the big party thing, and at least for me hosting it, I didn't.
And then you know, I did get invited to a couple of little parties, but I just wanted to watch it and kind of be quiet with my My son came over and we just we we watched that thing, man, and I was thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly just disappointed.
You didn't like watching statues.
Oh my god, it was disappointing, you know, And everybody tried to make comparisons to Oh, look, you know certain guys can do this at fifties. George Foreman came back and did it. You know, this is the first time, you know, Dave Paul's going to really fight somebody that's like legitimate and can legitimize his little boxing career. No, no, no, he fought a fifty eight year old Mike Tyson, who yes in the Instagram and TikTok clips can look great and look like he is a fierce Mike Tyson of
the nineties. But man, after the second round, there were no legs left to Mike Tyson and I felt.
That, yeah, he had four minutes. He was a four minute man. That was it.
And I actually I had a friend in town, not homecoming or anything, buddy. My mine was in town from Dallas, so we went out. But I was very rude, Roddy. I was watching on my phone. The power of Netflix, you know, is not a pay per view thing, so I can watch it.
Wherever I want.
So I I was my face was planted in the phone watching it.
I actually planned to stay home and watch the fight. I'm glad I didn't because it was so It was so bad.
It was exactly you know, you don't want to waste a Friday night and all that, So I watched it on my phone. I was anti social, but I'm introvert anyway, Rodney, so I don't really talk to him anyway. So I watched it on my phone and I was like, okay in my heart, you know, because we're kind of around.
Same ajor, right. I was like, I wanted Tyson to win, right.
I was like, this is I covered some Tyson fights back when I was early in my career and he was at the end of his boxing career, and I have fond memories of when I was was much younger, the you know badness man on the planet Iron Mike, and I thought, like, you know, some way, it's kind of like when I watched al Michaels do a game on TV. I flashed back to my childhood, right, because I grew up watching.
Your head exactly right.
So I think like I flashed back in time to when I was, you know, however old I was at that time. And so watching Tyson, I was like, oh man, this is gonna be awesome Mike Tyson. But then as as we got closer to the fight, I watched some of the sparring I don't know if you saw any of that leading up to the fight, and he just looked slow. He just looked like he didn't have anything. And it's a sparring match, that's that's supposed to be a sizzle reel.
And and then and.
Then you watch the fight and you're absolutely right, right, I mean two rounds in your Tyson won the first two rounds and then after that. I mean you look at the punch numbers, which aren't always accurate. Mike Tyson landed in eight rounds of boxing, Rodney.
Do you see how many punches he landed.
You see the stat eighteen punches in eight rounds. Yeah, he averaged two point twenty five punches. And I would argue if you saw on the glove, then oh, then those puffy gloves. They had the puffy gloves, which is you know, the whole thing.
Was to distract him. Was it like the thirty six ounce gloves that they used. Yeah, they clubs eight ounce clubs that they used in that fight. I don't know, you know he was, Yeah, he was biting the gloves
the whole fight. And it was again, you know, the hype before the fight, the slap, you know, at the way in, you're like, okay, this is on, and everybody believed that it was gonna be you know, Okay, you can say what you want about Mike, but man, he's a guy that you do not want to get in the ring because he will revert back to nineteen nineties. And I'm with you in the nineties. Going to a Mike Tyson fight was that was it. There were a lot of things, but it was must see, must go to.
If you had a chance to go to Vegas and watch Mike Tyson fight, Ye, man, that was that was That was, That was it, and you better get there and get in your seats early because it could be over in one round, could be over in two rounds. And Mike was as dominant as there ever was from
a heavyweight standpoint. We hadn't seen anything like that. And that's what you kind of hold on to as as people of a certain age like I am and like you mentioned, like you are, that you hold on to those memories that maybe there's gonna be a glimpse of that, maybe there's gonna be a moment where Mike can bring it back for a moment that he can show people that you can't get in the ring with Mike Tyson. You know, Mike is a real deal. This is not
a joke. This is not one of those things where you can be a YouTuber and fighting UFC guys that are out of their prime and not at Boxing's not their number one skill set and you can beat those guys up, but now you're fighting Mike Tyson, and I don't care if he's fifty eight, sixty eight, thirty eight, whatever he is, He's still Mike Tyson. And a part of you was feeling that, please let that come out. At least for me, it was. I don't know about you, but yeah, yeah, it was it. And it never did
it never, it never reared its head. It never got to that point and there was there was never any danger for Jack Paul and that fight and almost was which I hate to say that Jake Paul took took pity on Mike Tyson.
Yeah. Well, I'm annoyed by Jake Paul. Roddy.
I did I want someone to actually beat him up. He's very annoying to me. I do not I do not like to stick at all. And I will give Tyson and and Jake Paul their due.
I hate doing that.
But they in the lead up to the fight, and it's the old PT Barnum stuff. Without promotion, uh, something terrible happens, which is nothing. They were able to do a great job promoting the fight, right. They They did all the usual things in boxing where you mentioned Tyson slapping Jake Paul, which is a standard at the way in that's like the standard boxing stuff, you know, screaming.
This that I'm gonna kill you, all that stuff.
I mean that they had all of that, but ultimately, you know, Jake Paul is the whole boxing thing. He's a he's a guy that's found a hustle. And and I guess we're suckers because we we didn't pay for I mean, we pay for Netflix, Roddy, but I don't know that I would have paid for this if it had been you know, been charging for ye yeah, maybe I would have. But listen, Jake Paul made forty million dollars forty million, which I did the math on this.
He landed seventy eight punches. This is the most amazing thing here, Rodney. So Jake Paul going against the guy and Tyson at this point camp move. He's in his late fifties, and Jake Paul threw two hundred seventy eight punches and landed seventy eight. That's less than thirty percent
against an immovable object in Mike Tyson. But he made Jake Paul made five over five hundred thousand dollars per punch landed in that fact, and Tyson, he made even more because he only landed eighteen punches, so he made.
Me what did did Mike make the same amount? No?
He actually, well, according to what I read on the internet, and I'm never wrong about these things. In Los am Tyson made twenty million. But there's also there's some other money that could come in later. But Tyson twenty million.
Exactly.
So he eighteen million punch. So that's one a little over one point one million per punch landed by Mike Tyson.
And and so there you go. But Jake Paul, Who's he gonna fight next? Rodney?
I don't know. That's the thing, you know, because this this for whatever thought process that that Jake Paul had, that this was going to give him, you know, credibility and boxing, it took a step back because it didn't. And and and I don't know where he goes other than fighting a top ten, top twelve contender in the heavwaweight division. You you can't go from what we just saw and expect to get any kind of legitimacy if you don't fight somebody real that's a real boxer, a
real contender, and boxing is their science. It's not mixed martial arts, a guy that's hanging on it's a finishing his career in MMA, and and all of a sudden he wants to get in the ring and get that one last payday. It's got to be a guy that is a legitimate contender in boxing, a w B, a BC, whatever it may be, IBF. It's got to be one of those guys in order for it to be even credible for the next time, because I don't know who.
First of all, yes, Netflix partnered with them and they made a lot of money and people tuned in and was great for Netflix and they hyped it up. But if this goes pay per view next time, I don't know who buys this unless it is a legitimate contender. Yeah.
So I don't think Rodny, based on my knowledge of this, that Jake Paul has any interest in being legit. He's in the interest of making money.
I get it.
He's making tons of money here and he's found a hustle, and I guess this pays better than being an.
You don't think he wants to, you know, after this it is like the questions and the pride and all that kind of stuff. You don't think that he wants to let me just go fight somebody that's real, and I see this happening. He wants money grab.
He wants the guy who's the other guy who can he can sellcready. Yeah, Connor McGregor's McGregor's a great showman. Remember that Mayweather McGregor. He was also a sham fight because Mayweather didn't.
Do any.
Exactly, yeah, exactly, Like he's like, all right, the bunny of the people have got their money's work and they Mayweather decided a box and and it was a disaster for for Connor McGregor at that point.
But that the news conference.
I remember doing the overnight show Rodney and we had so much fun with Connor McGregor, and they were doing that national tour around North America.
It was so entertaining.
Both of them are the same guy.
It was so good. It was so any day.
So, yeah, you put McGregor and Jake Paul together, that would be entertaining.
That wouldn't be good boxing, No, it would be terrible boxing. But it doesn't matter. They'd make a lot of money.
And and people said they questioned, and I talked about this a little bit last night last week. Rather we were talking about a previous show they did on the Overnight about the box and they were like, well, this Tyson things, it's ruining boxing. And you know, Rodney from from following the fight game over the years, this is what boxing is. Muhammad Ali at the end of his career fought a wrestler in Japan.
Because he made a lot of money, right I mean.
And two football guy at too Tall Jones became a boxer at one point and then went back to football. There's always been things like this where guys have have futzed around and and you know, people saying it's disrespectful. No, in the fact that people exactly and people fall for it, and I'll follow it. I openly admit I was not entertained.
I did not. Do you have any stream issues, Rodney, I did not have any stream.
Issues on it. I had it early on where it was buffering. I know a lot of people talked about the buffering. There were a bunch of jokes and memes and going around with the buffering thing. I had it early before the fight started, but after that I didn't. I didn't have any issues with it. It was it was clean.
I got lucky. I did not have issues. I wish I did. I could have complained about Afflix, but I did not. I saw everyone else complaining. I was like, it was fine for me. I mean, I had no issue at all. So I don't know what happened. Where does Mike Tyson go from it? What does Mike Tyson take away from this? How does he go forward? Because he's gonna get asked. You know, Mike is out there. He's been very active on social media the last few years.
You know, he's really rebranded himself and and people will love to see him and hear from him, and he and he goes on eight million different shows. How do you think he responds to this and and comes off of this performance.
He'll just go is he making money? Hand over fist selling marijuana?
Right?
Oh?
YEA sold for him?
You know it's great. This is good prom otion. He made some more money, and he'll go back to doing what are you doing? Maybe he can sell that. I saw the story about the toad venom. Maybe he can sell toad venom to the masses. Rodney, you can he commercially distribute toad venom to major stores around the country so we can all enjoy tod I'm sure you guys why talking to this last week, But the the Tyson Mike Tyson interview with that little girl, the kid reporter.
I still laugh at that. It's been a few day, but this kid reporter asked Tyson about his legacy. Tyson goes in this very ghoulish, macabre rats about it. We're just dust, And I mean it was very I mean, it was a little sweet little girl it.
Tyson went.
He went very dark at that moment, and it was I still a truggle.
And he talked about.
Almost dying after the fight back in June. Remember that medical situation.
Yeah, yeah, it was like.
He had a bunch of blood transfusions and it was much worse than had been.
Reported and all that.
So he's not gonna you can't imagine he's gonna do anything more with boxing at this point. He's fifty eight.
And fifty eight and yeah, other than you know, one of these you know, two round whatever exhibition they might do, or the clinics or whatever he might but to do anything competitive after that, it was clear that he had no legs. Fifty eight caught up to him father time. As we everybody said, undefeated. I know that first hand. I tried to do some things with my kids and though, man, my mind is telling me I can do it, but but damn, I can't even I can't do it. I can't anger.
The other thing too, Rodney is the thing that everyone was talking about. The viral moment from the fight was the locker room interview that Mike did when he was walking around and he showed me like that, You like, well, I mean, I've always wanted I always want to look at Rodney's bear took hs.
I am honored that he showed me.
And uh, how how upset you think he put the like the director at Netflix was Rodney, which because they didn't anticipate Mike walking away like that, probably.
They did not know. I guarantee you they did not. They did not. That was not part of the package. That was not part of the interview or Mike turns around, kisses his son on the cheek and walks walks off off for the world to see.
All all the backside of Mike.
H No, that was that was definitely not part of the planet and it's Ben Mahler in form Fred Rogan on a Monday lots to get to just talked about some Mike Tyson, but we want to actually, you know, Eric Dickers is gonna join us at one o'clock.
But I want to get into some Dodger talk, man, because obviously hot stove free agency talk and and what's gonna happen with the Dodgers after they just won the World Series. I want to get into, you know, kind of what they may do this offseason with you man, because they got a lot of options.
Yeah, and there's some big meetings going on while we're doing this show, Rodnie at the Scott Boris Compound in Newport feature. I think you're actually at a hotel I heard in Newport.
But there there's.
A lot of meeting and greeting with Juan Soto.
Yeah, the Dodgers are involved in that. Yeah, we'll get into it.
Yes, as I mentioned Ben Maler and for Fred Rogan, let's get into some Dodger talk. What's Walker Bueller gonna do? This kid Susaki from from Japan? Is he coming? He's done? Uh, he's cheap. You can get it for cheap right now. Did the Dodgers go after him or do they go a big name, big name pitcher like a Corbyn Burns or Blake Snell or Max Freed or something. This money money, Rodney, deep pockets.
Give me some of that.
I give me some of that. Hey, the man, Hey in five seventy l a sports right back at you.
Oh yes, it is a Monday Rodney Pete and my man, Ben Miller, host of the Fox Sports Radio Sunday to Monday, eleven PM to three AM.
Ben Miller on AM five seventy. That's right.
See that sounds better than saying overnights. It sounds better three, not overnights. Baby, we're late night, eleven to three.
I gotta ask you this though, Man's yes, yeah, Benny versus the penny.
Oh, that's my baby, Benny versus the penny.
Right, yeah, yeah, Peacock, tell me about Benny versus the penny.
Yeah.
So I used to do this bit on the radio back in the day, Rodney. I did it for for years on radio, and then a couple of years ago I got approached by one of the big executives at NBC. They say, hey, we like this, we want to make this a TV show. And I was like, are you kidding? I thought I was getting punked. I thought, and there's no way, right, there's no way, they're going to turn
this thing into a TV show. And sure enough, one of the big executives over there is a big fan of the show and my overnight showing stuff, and he wanted to do it, and I said yes, and so I the last two years the show actually got picked up Rodney, which I thought, well, they'll give me the show, but once the show's broadcast, I'm not going to pick it up for a second season. There's no way. And they actually did. And so I do it every week. I go in. I spend a lot of my time handicapping.
You know, you know you played in the NFL, so you know the ins and outs of it. But as an outsider, I handicapped the games. I tell you what should happen, and then I get all games. What are you picking? You jumping from sport to sport?
No, No, it's all. It's all NFL, every NFL game.
It's during the NFL season, so we we have shows schedule all the way till a week after the Super Bowl.
So it's it's just during football season.
It's a seasonal show and we flip the penny up in the air and if it lands on heads, it's the home team's strategy. Yeah, well that's the penny, but no, my strategy. No, no, here's the problem. So I spend I do the overnight show during the week, and then after the show around wrapping around the show, I spent a lot of my free time obsessing over trends and numbers, and I look at it and then I go out
and I challenge myself. I pick every game against the point spread, and then I determine, you know, what I think is gonna happen. I give my picks, and then the penny. We flip the penny up. One of the executives at the network flips the penny up, and that's the pennies picks and I'm.
Getting smoked, Rodney, I'm getting I'm.
Getting destroyed by an inadamant object. It's so embarrassing, like I'm like, what am I doing here? Why am I wasting my time handicapping these NFL games? And it went, you just flip a penny up in the air, and like things that should happen don't happen. It's very very right. Sometimes, Oh, the paty has been great this year. You actually have won money if you take in the pays advice. But the season is not.
Over, Rodney.
It's not a game left.
Yeah, We've still got many weeks to go. I did very well in the playoffs last year. I actually won last year. But this year, I am I'm embarrassing my ask you, Benny, let me ask you this.
Yes, yes, I mean, because you just mentioned you spend a lot of time handicapping, looking up stats, injury reports, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, are you? And I always I When I played, I was amazed, and even more so now that I'm retired, amaze how accurate Vegas is when it comes to picking these games and how close the lines are. Are you amazed at that? Or is it a science that?
I mean?
How do they get it so right most of the time.
Well, I don't want to go deep state conspiracy Rodney and say it's all it's just some funny business going on, but it is.
It is they.
They they're maestros of it the way they've been able to They're always within And I wait.
Wait before you say that, because I say that, you say I want to get a conspiracy because I can say this from from a guy that plays, Yeah, that there was no like And I was a guy who played in the position and quarterback that could control a lot of things and control what was going on. And I never never would get you know, beforehand, someone talked to me, Oh, this the line is three, it's probably gonna be three. That's where it's gonna be, and blah blah blah. You guys are gonna do this and the
defense is going to do that. But it was so accurate that you would think, man, they got somebody on the inside, but really in essence because again from a guy that played was in there, there was nobody on the inside. But they figured it out of how to create these lines and get it right. Most of the time, yeah.
They're always within a few points of the points spread, except usually there's one or two games a week that's a blowout that's lopsided they get wrong. But other than that, everything is pretty much within the margins. And it's the thing about it that blows me away is you base this. A lot of the handicapping that I do and more those people do is based on what has happened. And as the old sportscaster Dick Stockton told me years ago, say his stats tell you what has happened, not what's
going to happen. But you make these picks based on what has happened, and then there's all these other variables, as you know, Rodney playing quarterback for the lines back, and then guys get hurt. You know, you have backups coming in and yet they're still within the number most of the time.
It is.
It is wild, and it's it's a little hobby that I've had here handicapping the games, and I had some really good.
Years just on radio late at night.
I did it on the podcast for a while, but I've done it on TV the last two years. And I won last year, but I was not impressive. I did not meet my standards. And this year I'm doing the Walk of Shame on a weekly basis fun. It's very embarrassing to me that just yet, I feel like, what am I doing. I spent all my time handicapping these games and all that, and then our things happened. Yeah, and there's some pillars that I have that I've used over the years. Or you know, anytime the divisional games
seven points or more, you take the underdog. Usually things like that, these divisional games usually close, and those things have usually worked out for me. But Yeah, it's a it's a weekly struggle. And every week I'm optimistic though, righting. Every week i walk into that TV studio over at Universal, I'm like, Oh, this is gonna be this is gonna be my week, this is it. And then I walk and by the end of the weekend, I got my my tail between my legs and I'm like, what.
A loser I am.
It doesn't it doesn't go A week doesn't go by if I'm even you know, I'm a homebody nowadays, but I don't get out that whole you know, a whole lot. Yeah, when I do, we doesn't go by. It's like, you know, somebody's running up to me. I who you like this week with the Rams cover? Where what about sc got cover? I don't know. I don't have no idea, you know, go with my gut and tell you where my heart is. But but I have no idea. But yet these guys
absolutely know. Man, it's uh, it's it's pretty incredible. I won't pick your bank brain about that a little bit later. But but but let's let's go get into the Dodgers man, because you and I haven't had a chance to really do brief and talk about that and maybe we'll you know, throw in some calls here because here we are hot stove free agent time. Dodgers just win the World Series. A lot of people are like, well, why why are we making noise in the offseason when you just won
the World Series? Just bring everybody back and call it a day and and and try to win another one the next year. But that's not how it works. You know, Guys, contracts are up. Guys contracts may be coming up. There are guys that you may need that even though you want it, are a little bit of a weakness for your team. So you you want to try to improve to continue this. Uh I'm gonna call it dynasty yet,
but it kind of contruved. You know, can can continue this wave that you had of making the playoffs every
single year and possibly win in the World Series. That being said, are are you a guy that goes and and really tries to be aggressive like the Dodgers can be when they had all the money and free agency, or do you don't play the name game because Fred hates the name game, you know, as you know, yeah, and try to keep your team intact regardless of who's out there, like a Wan Soto or whomever else might be out there. Yeah.
So I growing up a Dodger fan. They never spent that much money, Roddy, So I always like, I love the fact that we're now in the goldilocks here for the Dodgers, that they are the what the Yankees used to be when George Steinbrenner owned the Yankees. His kids aren't to say, but that's what's essentially what the Dodgers are. They've got, you know, anyone they want, they can pretty much get because of the TV deal and the fans that have supported the team so much.
So I love this.
I don't want to poo poo this, but.
The fact that they did win the World Series.
It was like Tommy Edmund and you know Walker Buehler who had two Tommy John operations and went out there, you know Tony because he was hurt or whatever.
He didn't play that great in the World Series.
It was pretty bad in the World Series and they still won the championship. And that's usually what ends up happening when they When they won back in the COVID year in twenty twenty, there were guys that stepped up. Ay Hernandez and some other guys that year. So, but you'd rather have the big name players. I mean, from a talk radio standpoint, Rodney, it makes our job more fun to have interesting characters to talk about and all that.
So I fully support it.
I love they have endless amounts of money because I know this is not gonna last forever. At some point they're gonna ownership, whether it's this ownership or they sell the team, whatever, They'll be like, you know, we're not gonna spend the money anymore.
So I want to enjoy this. I want to soak all this up.
He's great, do you I've been on the soapbox about this forever that you know. As much as I am a huge Dodger fan, have been for a long time. Love my Dodger, love the Dodger fans, But the Dodger fans are are spoiled in the essence that the Dodgers are in the playoffs every single year. They may, you know, people want to fire everybody. Obviously, the Dave Roberts fire ever happens every other week in this town. But they
are in the playoffs. In the conversation every single year, and you can't say that about other teams around the League, maybe other than the Yankees, and and uh and now you know where Steve Cohen owns the Mets, He's gonna try to make them as relevant as possible. But you see other even iconic franchises like the Boston Red Sox win a World Series and they're gonna they ship out Mookie Betts and they get rid of everybody else and say we're gonna lose for the next five years and
then we'll try to get it back. Not the Dodgers. They continuously are in the conversation and and the Dodger fans sometimes, you know, I don't think are appreciative of what they have and ownership and the way the Dodgers have maintained this level of excellence of being in that conversation and win a title every single year.
See, I'm gonna.
Defend the fans, right because the fans job is not to appreciate. The fans job is to expect.
More and more and more and more and more.
And uh, listen, the Dodgers of all the fans, like the Lakers have you know much demise me.
I'm a I'm a Clipper, guy.
Rodney, I'm not a lay But the Lakers have support. But no one, no one has more support in this town than the Dodgers.
It's not even just like taking over. You saw the parade and you knew, okay, yeah it's a smashing Dodgers and then everybody else.
Yeah, like like as far as like some of the moves in the you know, the offseason they're gonna make. Walker Buehler is the one that's a lot, you know, a lot of getting a lot of buzz right now, Walker Buehler.
There's a bunch of teams.
That are attempting to to swow or wig I should say, uh, you know, to get get Walker Buhler to come to their their team. And you know, he's been linked to the Braves and the Cubs and a bunch of other teams. This this last couple of weeks here as free agency gets going in baseball, and I got an unpopular pan. I love Walker Buhler. Last year, have you not loved me? He didn't running the World Series and no earned runs in the World Series and was a key factor in
them winning the championship. But if he left, I'd be okay with that. I don't know that he can sustain. I would bet against him sustaining that during the regular season. But he was the most dominant Dodger postseason pitcher that we've seen in many years.
And they're in the.
Playoffs every year, Rodney. But to see a guy dominate like Walker Butler did at the end there was awesome. It reminded me the last couple of appearances of Madison Bumgarden of the Giants when they were winning the World Series every other year, and how dominant he was. Bueller was great and wonderful. But if he wants to go he's from the South. If he wants to go play for the Braves or whatever, go to the Cubs. More power to you. Knock it out of the park. Hope he gets paid a ton of money.
Yeah. Yeah, So but you're you're saying you're you you'll be okay yeah with them, not really. I don't only say aggressively, but be competitive in the Walker Bueler sweepstakes. You'll be okay letting him walk.
Well because of the injury history and and the other thing is, I know greedy Dodgers will as a Dodger supporter, they will just go sign somebody else. Roddy, Right, So you have Walker Leaves they'll whether it's Corbyn Burns who I don't know. If I'm all all in on Corbyn Burns, I think that's that's risky business based on his age and what could happen going forward.
So, uh, you know the.
Picture from Japan, I mean there's there's they're going to sign someone, whether they you know, whoever it might be, and they'll they'll be a'll be a good pictures, likely healthier. The other thing that's frustrating Roddney, I don't want to get into that here is that whoever they sign, it's like last year they made all his moves and Glass now wasn't even there in the playoffs because he got hurt.
So it's like, you sign these guys, you trade for these guys, and you don't even know if they're gonna be there by the time October comes around. And this Dodger team that won the World Series, they had more players on the injured list, it seemed, than they had who were actually on the field and they still won. So but they all the big name like many of the big names weren't even o there.
They weren't even playing. So we'll see how it goes.
But I love the fact that this is continuing on here the Dodgers ownership fully committed to bringing in the top players and they're not just resting on their laurels, like hey, wait, wait won now two World Series. We're no longer the Atlanta Braves of the Knights were better than that, and they're like, no, they want more. They're greed. You gotta be greedy, ridy, right, you gotta. It's like me back in the day. It's a buffet. You gotta be greedy, man, you gotta go for it.
I love it, Yeah, absolutely, yes, But what does that greed end? And as uh as they say, you're a gambling man? Yeah, sure, all money not good money. And we'll get into that when we come back. Oh yes, Today's afternoon Delight is Texas by Blake Shelton. The country star dropped this single last weekend, and what is its first release since leaving Warner Music for the BMG Music label. The singer said that his time off from recording music
and being a judge on the Voice reinvigorated him. When talking about the song, he said, the thing that struck me about Texas immediately was how different it sounded from me. And I'm always looking to push myself else. I think there's something really special about this record and important for me again. Today's Afternoon Delight is Texas by Blake Shelton. Uh Ben Mahler joins us, spreads out, Hey Ben so staying with the Dodgers. Yes, and by the way, Eric Dickerson.
Dickerson is going to join us for the Ford NFL Spotlight coming up at the top of the hour at one o'clock and we'll get into the Rams charge and the rest of the NFL. But right now, going back to the Dodgers, there's some there's a obviously a lot of name's been thrown out there about who the Dodgers may bring in the free agency. We talked about some of the pitchers. One name comes up and has been
coming up is Carlos Korea. Now they the Dodgers have already said that Mooki is moving back to the infill and most believe that he's going to move back to second base. We did the uh he played, you know a lot of games that shortstop, got injured and then went back to right field. But they are saying that
he's gonna come back to the n FILM. Most believe that he's gonna come back and play second base, which leaves a lot of questions for guys like Gavin Lux, Key k even Chris Taylor, Uh, what's that gonna look like going forward? And then a couple other names. Willia Domas has come up as as far as the Dodgers
bringing them in play shortstop full time. You know, obviously we love Mickey Rowe, but he had his share of injuries last year and wasn't able to play in the postseason as much as uh as he to have liked. And then another name, Carlos Carre is starting to pop up. When you hear that name as a Dodger fan, and as many Dodger fans are out there, you know, and I could, I guess I could feel their stomach starting
to turn a little bit. But when you hear Carlos care or anybody from that Astros team that beat the Dodgers in well that cheated.
They did beat them.
Rodney, Yeah, when you hear names like that, Carlos Korea possibly the Dodgers looking at how does that make you feel?
I don't believe it. I think I do not believe that. I know they've won now two World Series since twenty twenty.
I get that. It makes me want to puke in my mouth.
Carlos Correa was one of the headliners on that cheating episode. The back and forth between him and some of the other guys on the cheat they both went really oh yeah, they definitely went at it. But I want nothing to do with Carlos Korea.
Keep them away.
There are plenty of other options. If you're the Dodgers, do not open up that wound again. You do not want to. You don't want to touch any of those guys that were part of the twenty seventeen Astros, the core of it, Altuve and Bregman and those guys. I want nothing to do with those guys. I don't care if it's been seven or eight years, whatever it's going to be by next year. I want nothing to do with those guys. And the Dodgers. I don't believe they think this is fake. I know I saw the story
over the weekend. I don't buy it. I think that was started by Correa and his camp to try to
get out of Minnesota or whatever. But I do not believe they're gonna now they are gonna trade a bunch of guys right because as you said, Mookie Betts is gonna go back to the infield, and so there's a numbers game there where Gavin Lux likely is on the outside unless they move him somewhere else, and they you'll move him, change, have him changed positions, so he's likely gonna get traded and they're gonna have to fortify the bullpen. And I saw the story that Gradarol is gonna be
out for half the season after you shoulder Surgier. Last last week he came out, so you know, you're gonna have to shuffle the bullpen yet again. So they'll they'll trade some of those guys for relief pitchers. I like Tommy Edmond. I put him out there. Tommy Edmond was great in the plus. That's the kind of guy that that you want to have.
In the plus.
He's not he's a big not a big money guy, Rodney, but we saw him in the NLCS when he absolutely dominated against the Mets.
So uh and and and you know, as you jas, obviously you got you know, getting older, got you got got injured, got banged up and was injured, you know a lot of the postseason. But you're okay with having you know, maybe bringing bringing you know, having him there along with the Tommy Edmond that could be your regular shortstop. And you guys, you know they the Dodgers live with those two guys as your regular shortstop and let Mookie
play play second base. It's still you know, obviously, like you mentioned, leaves uh leaves Gavin Lux out of the cold, but as shortstop, that wouldn't be a bad combination. Have those two guys play shortstop throughout the season.
But it would not.
And the other thing too, we have to remember and we've learned this last few years and it's been this way for a long time at baseball. They identify an issue in the offseason, but it's really for the first half. Whatever moves they make you for the first half because then the trade deadline, they've got to fortify the roster.
Yeah, and they've got to bring new players in.
So you're really building the roster for late March, early April until the trade deadline, which is in some times it was a.
Different name, if it was a different name other than Carlos Correa, would you be okay with them entertaining bringing in and a guy of that quality because he is top shelf when it comes to shortstops in this league, would you be okay with them looking at him?
Yeah, Listen, there's other infield, Willia Domas. I'm fine with Willia Domas. Like will William Domas is a good ballplayer, and I think he'd fit in well with the Dodgers if they were to bring him in here. And he's a name that has been tossed around. He played pretty well for Milwaukee last year. He's right around I think he's almost thirty or close to it or something like that.
So a guy like that, yeah, I'd be fine with.
And he doesn't, you know, see Rodney, he doesn't have the cooties of Carlos Cara. That's I kid, Okay, my boardop at the time.
Roberto is now a fine bus driver.
He's still paying off his World Series. Take us in twenty seventeen to watch the team from Houston cheat in the World Series.
It still bothers me bad task. It's one thing to have the bad taste right in your mouth about that team. But he, like you mentioned, he was one of the more vocal guys about throwing it in the Dodger's face or anybody else's face about them cheating. There was no remorse, There was no like you know, listen, it was no no, he was, he was, he went, he doubled down on it didn't matter. We want any way.
Well, he was walking.
Around like a peacock rider. It was like he was look at me. He had all the arrogance and Shulman ship and all that. I mean, there was no sense of, well, maybe I screwed this up, maybe this was not should be quiet? Yeah, exactly to just be quiet. He got on megaphone, it was going to how annoys. He's like a professional wrestler from back to the day Rodney.
Right, yeah, absolutely so. So in that respect, what do you feel about like Alex Bregman, who's one of the big you know, free agents out there. He's an ass, was on that team the whole deal, but not as arrogant as.
He but he's right there, cut out of the same clothing. I want nothing to do with Bregman, no to do again. Let him go play wherever, go to Toronto like another cheating asscro went the world series MVP of that that you're playing the outfit of the bitches. But listen, I don't want any of those guys, And to me, none of them are in the Hall of Fame.
Rodney.
People talk about al Tuba is Hall of Famer. I wouldn't put him in. You know, you don't put Pete Rose in for cheat. This was a fixing World series of the Astros. There's some of these steroid guys. I don't want to get in that conversation with Bonds and Clemens can't get in the Hall of Fame. Altuba shouldn't get in the Hall of Fame. I think he's the only one this really got a shot to go in
the Hall of Fame. As far as the position players on that team, yeah, L two and from the twenty seventeenth I don't and Bregman almost saying.
He's all of it. I don't. I don't.
It doesn't seem like a Hall of Famer to me. But in all candor, though, there's so many other guys out there. You don't need to bring in Bregman or care or any of these guys. Go get somebody else. There's plenty of other players that are either younger or just as good and uh, and go out and get one of those.
Guys, Benny.
I'm with you, Man, don't need them, don't need them.
Don't want them, don't need them. We don't need them.
Yeah, all right. On the other side, man, let's get into some football. We'll bring in the Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson for that Ford NFL spotlight and talk about the Rams and they're winning. Chargers hold on after trying to be doing what the Chargers always do is blowing a lead. But they didn't do it. We'll get into all of that on the other side, AM five seven, the LA Sports