And we're off and running. On a Thursday afternoon, It's the Rogan and Rodney Show minus Rogan and Rodney, as the eight oh five and the eight one eight are taking over the Blowtorch A five seventy LA Sports Tim Kats along with the great Jonas Knox here from noon to three today.
What's up, Jonas? Oh man, this is gonna be a lot of fun. By the way, Who's who who gets to be here? Are you Fred? Or you Rodney? I was told I was Fred. I don't want to be Fred, but unfortunately I have to be Fred today. Yeah, but you were a much better athlete than be I think you should be I think you should be Rodney. Yeah, I think you should be Rodney. I'll be Fred. Well, I'll take one for the team. Nobody wants to be Fred, so I'll do it. This is a long time coming, Jonas.
The two of us doing great sports talk here in Los Angeles, in southern California, two guys from the area, two guys that know LA sports better than anybody else here in this building, and we're together finally. Yeah.
I mean listen, this isn't like, you know, somebody who grew up on eight mile like Fred and was a die hard Tigers fan when he was a kid, you know, walking around with some cecil field or blow up doll in his closet. And then he comes out here, tour it to Phoenix and starts hanging out in Phoenix, and then he makes his trek over to to Luca Lake and then thinks he can take this place over for four plus decades. No, no, no, no, no no. We are
born and raised here in southern California. That's right, that's the way it should be.
Absolutely talking LA sports from two guys born and raised here in southern California. We got a busy three hours. Jonas Vinnie Bontignor is gonna join us next hour. Dylan Hernandez from the La Times was at the Baseball Winter Meetings along with our own David Vesey in Dallas. The last three plus days. A lot happened, but also a lot didn't happen in Dallas, which we're gonna get into. We're gonna get into the whole Bill Belichick situation at
North Carolina. And he had his press conference about an hour ago and didn't really say much as expected from Bill Belichick. But I'm just glad we're both here together. You work three am to six am on two Joe's and a cup of but is it.
Two pros and a cup of Joe's? So you probably had it better the first time, to be honest, with two pros and a cup of joe so you're light on sleep. I woke up this morning feeling like Cameron Fry from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Here comes Kevin Figures, texting me like Ferris Bueller, saying are we going?
Are you coming? Can you do the show? And I was dead to the world. I was absolutely out this morning. I had taken night quill last night. I got home from sports in at La last night. My throat was killing me. Feels like razor braids in my throat. And I woke up to Kevin's text and I'm like, man, I just can't do it. I just can't do it. And as soon as I sent the text, I laid there and I thought about, wait a second. Jonas just worked three hours from three am to six am, probably
working on little sleep. The guy works six days a week and then during football season seven days a week. How am I supposed to just lay here with a little sore throat and some sniffles and say I can't join Jonas from twelve to three today, so I slapped myself in the face. I took some of regan o' oil and here I am okay.
Now let me ask you question how much of that had to do with the fact that niq Will, much like Booze great when you're having it, makes you feel good, and then you wake up the next morning and you feel groggy. Because the last time I had Nike Will was the last time I'll have niq Will. It just did not land well with me. I felt like craft
the next day and I had to walk away. No offense to anybody from Nike Will who might be listening to the show on the iHeartRadio app our apologies, but I'm just letting you know, man, when you wear it the next day after after you take niquill the night before, you're going through it.
I felt good this morning, though, because I was able to sleep despite the stuff. He knows, the head feeling congested, the sore throat, the ichy body. Last night. I woke up this morning, three of the four were gone, the sore throat still lingers, and Jonas I got to tell you something that has saved me today in the last few months is a regan O oil. I don't even know if have you heard about this? No, I have no idea what that. Well. I don't want to chronic
taco myself. And that came back from a couple of years ago on the Petrols some money show on how was your Weekend? I talked about this taco place I went to here in Burbank called chronic Tacos, and Matt and Petchels are like, dude, you're an idiot. It's all over Orange County. Just because it just came to Burbank and you just discovered it doesn't mean it's new. And so now anytime somebody has something but it's already been around for a while, you get chronic taco. That's kind of the right.
Yeah, but it's new to you, So that's the most important.
That's exactly. But if you bring up something on their show that they already knew about or it's been around for a while, it's chronic taco. So I don't want a chronic taco myself with a Regano oil. But I don't know how many other people out there listening you can tweet at us. A Regano oil, you drop it in your throat. It's an ointment. Little drop, It burns and it feels so good. After a few minutes, your sore throat is gone because of a regan O oil.
Your breath smells, your throat is just on fire, I mean like on fire, but you feel so good.
Well yeah, I mean I've never heard of that. I would look into that. And also just going back to one thing that you said of it that well, he's on lack of sleep or whatever, like this is Look, you've had kids. I was just talking to Kevin Figures.
Kevin Figures is going through stuff. Everybody listening is going through stuff like the lack of sleep conversation like I don't ever want to be a part of because the way I look at it, you know, we're blessed to be able to have any job period and if you're working, like you know, be thankful that you that you have
the ability to work. But the fact that we get to do it and we play grab ass and talk about you know, the winter meetings and Belichick take it over at North Carolina and his personality and the Dodgers and what the hell's going on with the Oscar Hernandez and all of a sudden, Cody Bellinger is on the move potentially and everything else that goes along with it like that, I just look at it and go a man, like I would be doing this anyways, So I just do it on a little bit less sleep.
You're making me feel really bad because about an hour ago I was still out. I actually thought about it, took a shower, and I text Kevin like if you need me, I'm in because I just didn't feel good. And now you're making me feel like an absolutely idiot.
And now but you do uh almost show. It's not like you haven't done shows on little sleep. You do scam. You're working every single day. You're doing like when when football seasons here, we got UCLA post game, like you bust your I was telling Petros this the other I was him tim buss his ass like he's always working hard. Uh, especially during football season with UCLA and everything else that comes along with it. To no, man, I mean, look,
this is this is the life we chose. Sometimes we get thrown into you got to step in and you know we called the this is the bullpen game for the Rogan and Rodney Show. Here, we'll call it that today here on the show with Fred and Rodney both out.
And you know what, the bullpen games were successful for the Dodgers, that helped them win a championship. We're gonna help make this great today here on.
By the way, was it I was talking to Fred about this last time? Was the the bullpen game? Was that Mark Pryor's idea? Or was he the one who said, all right, if you want to do a bullpen game, then I will strategize exactly how it could look if we were to do a bullpen game? Like, whose idea was it to go to it?
So frequently it's a collective effort, Jonas, It's not one person making the decisions. It's not Dave Roberts making the decisions or Mark Pryor making the pitching decisions. It's a collective effort from Andrew Freeman in the brain trust to Connor McGinnis assistant pitching coach. It is everybody combined that puts this together in the play together and they all map it out on how it hopefully goes. And then Dave Roberts is the one who's like that book, you know,
choose your own adventure. He's the one who's supposed to go to the next adventure depending on what's happening in the games.
It is kind of amazing how the conversation around Dave Roberts has chained though, oh right, every single offseason it was he's got to go, Dave Roberts can't get it done, blah blah blah blah blah. And I think, you know, we talked about it whenever I was filling in. By far and away, I think the best job he's done as a Dodgers manager this year, dealing and having to navigate all the injuries and everything else that came along
with it. He was steady the entire time. You never heard a complaint, You never heard just steadied the entire season. Got to the postseason, they were putting difficult spots, elimination games against the Padres, bullpen games. You never knew who was going to be out there from one minute to the next. You had injuries pop up, you had Freddie Freeman's injury, and he was the constant throughout the entire year.
And so now it is nice seeing him kind of get his flowers that he should have gotten a long time ago. How about the victory laugh for Dave Roberts last night speaking to the Boy Scouts of America. He was at the Winter meetings in Dallas before that. He's over at Okinawa, Japan, going back home to where he was born to get his flowers from the people over there. He had a family vacation over in Europe right after the World Series. He has been celebrated everywhere he has
gone across the globe. And you're right, he's won fifth inneen away from not maybe a World Series or not maybe going out as we thought it was in Game five and the way they did in New York winning that game. But man, how about Baseball America Yeshua getting it right naming him the manager of the Year in twenty twenty four because of everything he did from the
start of the season through the postseason. The Manager of the Year award given out by the writers is a regular season award, and because he's on, you know, managing such a great team, Jonas, he'll never win that award, like Phil Jackson only won it once in his entire career. Well, and he deserved it from the sense that people can look at it and maybe push back and say, well, I mean with all that talent, of course they should
win games. Dude, you didn't know who was going from day to day, Like you had no idea like Mookie Bets maximun See, like you could go through the starting nine on a day to day basis and find who was healthy the entire year, like who didn't have something
pop up or missed a significant amount of time. So the fact that he was able to sort of you know, play the strings right, plays cards right now, vigate all that he absolutely deserves it, and then to go off and finish it off in the postseason, Man the moon in this town when they were down to the Padres that Sunday night game where the Padres were just raining home runs, like everyone thought it was a foregone conclusion, like,
oh it's over, They're gonna lose again. Dave Roberts is going to be the one to wear it like this. I mean, this is a disgrace. How do you not have your team ready? And then next thing, you know, he starts talking about you know, Manny Machado throwing a ball at him, and that stirred things up and you're looking at it and go, oh boy, he's getting really desperate now and they just took off from there and never looked back. Like it's a wild conclusion to a
wild tenure with the Dodgers. So good for him. He should be celebrated.
It was cool hearing Andrew Freeman last night on Dodger Talk with David Veasse from Dallas, and Dave askedon what's it like being Andrew Freeman walking through the lobby of the Winter meetings now as opposed to like the last two years or years in which he came close to winning a World Series and didn't, And he said it was awesome. I mean you walk around, people look at you differently, people recognize you because of what your team just did.
I mean, look, there's been a lot of knocks on the Dodgers as far as okay, well they've never won a legitimate World Series, and you know, the twenty twenty season didn't count, like you can't take anything from him this time, and now they're just like what a luxury to have to where it's like, all right, we've already taken care of a big need, you know, another pitcher, another arm on the team. We've already gotten that done.
And then you just go to the winter meetings, and it's like, all right, let's let's try and figure out whether or not we can keep tail, whether or not we can you know Sasaki is going to be in the mix, which it feels like that still looks like it's the most likely occurrence it's going to take place. And then he just kind of cruises around and goes, yeah, I still got the best team in baseball. Not a bad look.
We were kicking it around on Access Sportsnet Dodgers last night on Sports at LA about what other teams so far Jonas have caught up or closed the gap on the Dodgers since the World Series? Are there teams that have done something in free agency so far? And it's still early, we haven't got to the holidays yet, but has anybody closed the gap just a little bit? Has anybody gotten closer? Like the Giants signing William Doomas and maybe Corbyn Burns signing with the Giants now, that would
close the gap a little bit in the division. And the more and more I thought about it, the gap hasn't closed because, Yeahjan Soto's gone to the Mets, Garrett Crochet has gone to the Red Sox. Max Fried's gone to the Yankees. But the Dodgers brought in Blake SNeW so they matched those moves. And then they signed Michael CONFORDO, okay, you know that's a good signing, and they bring back Blake trying it, and they signed Tommy Evan to extension. So all these other moves that teams are making Jonas
trying to close the gap. The Dodgers just keep widening themselves from everybody else in baseball.
Well, like the one team last year going into the regular season that was it on par with them as far as some of the betting odds in certain places was the Atlanta Braves because everyone thought Atlanta, that's a deep roster. They've got the staff, the bullpen, they've got all that talent. And then they just got crippled with injuries last year and nothing went right for him and everybody seemed to go down and fall apart, especially down the back end of the season. And then you're like,
all right, well, maybe Atlanta bounces back. They're not gonna have the injury misfortunate that they had. Then they just lost Max Freed, so okay, so now what So yeah, I'm with you. I think the gap is widened. The team that I think still will make some noise, But just because they play them so tough, now is San Diego Like, that's just always going to be a good matchup.
And if you're Major League Baseball and you've got a pair of balls and half a brain, you put Dodgers Padres in as many primetime games as you possibly can. Do what you did with the Yankees and the Red Sox for years and years and years when you were shoving them down everybody's throat. Make that the matchup because
that team plays them well every single time. Don't have to like them, don't have to be a fan of how the Padres do it or Fernando tattoos sticking his tongue out at fans when they're up to one in a series in the playoffs. But the fact is that's a great, compelling matchup every single time, and that should be featured as many times as possible if they can.
I'm trying to go off memory here, but I don't think they play the Padres until a couple of months into the season. I don't see him in April looking in May. They don't play them in May of twenty twenty five, they don't face them unless I miss them. They don't face them until June ninth, tenth, and eleventh, a Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in San Diego. And one of those is a getaway day one o'clock in the afternoon Wednesday, Dodgers Padres.
Come on, Yeah, it's a lost time.
Oh then they come back to Dodgers Stadium a week later and play them for four more. They're gonna play seven of the thirteen head to head meetings Dodgers and Padres in a two week span in June. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, come back to Dodger Stadium and guess what Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday at the Revine. Yeah, that's a missed off weekday games. Come yeah, that's a missed opportunity. I mean, look, it's good for Will the NFL ever do this, Jonas?
No, No, the NFL. I mean, look at what's happening to the Kansas City Chiefs. They're playing, you know, the Chiefs, the Ravens, and the Steelers are all playing three games in eleven days. Because the NFL's got to the NFL's got to make sure they get you know, the Netflix Christmas games in right, you know, you got to you
gotta feed that beast. And so when it comes to this, Major League Baseball is like, no, listen, it's more important for us to worry about which teams are going to send over to Japan to start off the air than it is really counting, especially that time of year when you have an opportunity to showcase teams in better spots, like you've got one of those games at one o'clock in the afternoon on a Wednesday. That's that's a blown opportunity by Major League Baseball.
Outside of the NCAA tournament, and maybe if the Lakers make the playoffs, which quite frankly that may not happen. Los Angeles, Southern California is going to be baseball centric from spring training all the way through October, and the fact that they don't play the Padres until June is pretty unbelievable. He is Jonas Knox. I'm Tim Kates in
for Rogan and Ronnie on this Thursday afternoon. The Baseball Winner meetings have wrapped up, The Dodgers have made their moves, other teams around baseball made their moves, and right now as we speak, Jonas Juan Soto is being introduced to the New York media in Queens at his introductory press conference with the Mets. And guess who's sitting shotgun right next to Juan Soto. Oh, Scotty b Scotty Bee. Yes,
Scott Boris is agent sitting right next to him. The last time we saw Scott Boris was at Dodger Stadium a week and a half ago. Oh yeah, for the Blake Snell press conference, in which how many questions did Scott Boris get?
Settle zero?
Just sat there the entire time. And here he is sitting on the podium again, next to Juan Soto and his seven hundred and sixty five million dollar contract.
Now I'm just wondering is he got the same outfit as he had a Dodger Stadium, Because I was telling Fred and Kevin he looked like cousin Eddie from Christmas vacation. He had that blue that blue leisure suit, you know what I mean. I was just waiting for him to pull out like a a moose glass and start drinking eggnog during the entire events. I'm trying to get some visuals of Scott Boris here sitting next to Wan so
who By the way, credit to Scott Boris. I think there was a lot of people who just assumed that, listen, his time has passed, his strategy has passed. This whole You remember it was the Bors four last year that you know, they all had to wait till late, and people thought the way that he goes about his business is not the way it's done nowadays. And you have
Blake Snell get what he got. Juan Soto got seven hundred and sixty five million dollars, which is and if you're a Yankee fan and you're pissed off at Juan Soto, you should be thankful. The best player on your team is Aaron Judge. You were just about to give Juan Soto four hundred million dollars more than the best player on your team. You got out of that with the ability to go add in different places, Like Juan Soto
is a great player. I don't think he's an Otani type that moves the needle from you know, from a a buzz and an interest level. From that standpoint, it makes it interesting in New York because of the bad blood that'll be there. But dude, fifteen years jesus, I mean Scott Boris is getting paid.
How would that have gone over though, with Aaron Judge knowing that Juan Sota would have got paid more than him and they were gonna start giving him a suite if they would have caved into his demands that he wanted, which we hear about now after the fact, I can't imagine that would have sat very well with Aaron Judge, who's supposed to be the leader mister Yankee now here in the twenty twenties, and to have Juan Soto get just headed everything he wanted in free agency, that wouldn't
have not soaut well.
Four hundred million dollars like I could understand if, like you know, Aaron Judge gets three sixty and Wan SODA's like, no, no, no, listen, I want three sixty five, right, I got you four hundred million dollars more for a guy who's not as good of a player as Aaron Judge, who you've built the organization around. I don't get it, but look, there's a lot of people out there that all of a sudden they are signing their kids up for fall ball and winter ball and everything else to go along with it.
Think and that's the retirement plan, and who knows, maybe I'll be one of them. Keep throwing, son, keep throwing. Don't stop. No, your arm hurts, keep throwing. Throw through it, dude, throw through the pain. I mean what Max Freed got? What two hundred and eighteen million guys paid left handed starter in baseball history, Max Freed? If you need them, all right, I mean you know, I mean you know. That's why I don't when people show up at five in the morning for an Otani bobblehead doll with his
dog and they're sitting in line at Dodger Stadium. I mean, Vassa pulls up to Dodger Stadium the same time every day. I think it's like one thirty. He pulls up there every single time, same time every day, and you've got a mile long of fans trying to get an o tawny bobblehead in gold with his dog on the side so they can go sling them on on eBay afterwards. I mean, I don't get I don't blame him. Do with the prices, you're gonna be charged the city field
with the Mets every time you get a bobblehead. I mean, you should be slinging that and a slice of pizza from down the street for as much as you can get, because it's gonna cost a fortune to go to their games.
There By the way, Scott bores not rocking the blue blazer. He has got the traditional black suit coat.
All right, let me see this. I'm trying to see God, because it was I mean, I look, it wasn't you know, taking a shot at Scott Boris. It's a hell of a look with that. With that, uh, I mean, at least he could do if he's gonna go full cousin Eddie, at least go turtleneck for Christ's sake, Like, if you're gonna do this, go all the way. So I'm trying to find, uh see what the the outfit is there
for Scott Boris. But you know, and you know what's gonna happen to They're gonna find And this is what this East Coast biases that that people can try and deny and say doesn't exist. It absolutely exists. So Dodgers Padres is a better matchup, like it has been a better matchup. It's more compelling, the beef is real, et cetera, et cetera, So that one's gonna get the day game treatment at certain times. I promise you every time the Yankees and the Mets play each other, that will be
featured every time, every single time. And it's just such a short sided approach because nobody on the East Coast wants to keep their lazy ass up a couple extra hours so they can watch the two best teams in the NL. Instead, they want to sit there and just grovel at the feet of New York Baseball and talk about one guy who left to go across town for four hundred extra million dollars and turn it into something that maybe it's not it's disgusting.
So Wan Soto's a met He's being introduced right now. Scott Boris is his agent. We're going to tell you another agent. You need to know more about him because he controls one of the biggest names in free agency right now now in Major League Baseball, Bill Belichick. Will it work at North Carolina? Also coming up next, Lebron taking some time away from the Lakers.
Huh.
Rogan and Rodney not in today, but I did see Big Boy the Company Christmas party a couple of days ago. Tim Cages Jonas Knox in for Rogan and Rodney and big Boy is not big boy anymore. He is a small boy. He is not a big guy anymore. You know that, Jonas, I've heard that that he's lost a significant amount of weight. I mean we're around the same age. You remember Big Boy from years ago when he first got into radio. He was a big boy, big.
Boy on all the billboards everywhere around town that you would see. It's my favorite.
My favorite one is when he was the billboard where he was laying basically button naked but just had a towel over his unmentionables. I told Big I.
Said that one stood out to me.
He was like, yeah, man had the desired effect, didn't.
It, If you say so.
I saw him and I did a double take him like that's that's not big boy anymore. That is that is certainly a big boy small now.
But by the way, you know, I've never been to one company holiday at Fox Sports Radio.
Didn't you guys just recently have yours?
Yeah? Last week? Never, Like, I've literally never been to one.
Ye, I've been there. You guys have a cool one. Did you guys go to like an arcade or something and rent it out?
Is that I don't I don't even. I'll be honestly, I don't even the last the one last week was at a place in Sherman Oaks across from the station, like a Mexican place. I think it was called Freda or someplace like that. And but the problem is, like all the events that are catered there, like they'll do even some stuff at to where they'll have you know, giveaways or have some employees that'll go to California Adventure.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's probably coming up or either just passed. The problem is all the events you don't qualify for when you wake up at one in the morning, No, it doesn't. Your social life is toast, like it's over. I remember talking to Doug Gottlieb about this one time I saw him at Super Bowl and Doug's like, all right, so like your Friday, your weekend starts at you know, I mean you're off at six o'clock. It starts at six o'clock. I was like, no, man, like I need
to get some sleep, right, Like, it doesn't. You can't train your body, especially like during the summertime when it's light out until eight thirty. You can't train your body to go to bed at five to wake up at one to get your eight hours. It just doesn't work that way. So you just so every time there was a company holiday party, I either was working or I was in that time slot to where it's like, by the time I beat traffic get back home, I've already
got to go back to bed. God forbid. I've had, you know, a little bit of the liver loop while I'm out there trying to hang out with people, and next thing you know, you wake up and you're not feeling great when you got to do the show. So yeah, like like company Hall, I'm hoping to get to one one day. Just hasn't happened yet.
We had ours a couple days ago here for iHeart in Burbank, and all the stations got together, and I don't know half the people there. I'm not very social as it is, so I don't really know about ninety five percent of the people that were there, especially with all the turnover we've had as well here in the building. But I went there for the prizes. Jonah and I got a hard time for Petros to mad for wanting the prizes because there were some cool ones. There was TVs,
there was a trip overseas. They were given away. There was a local trip you can take on a cruise. They were giving away a lot of funds of Dodger dugout tickets, clippering tickets. You're seeing like three rows off the court, including parking, parking seventy bucks in US do it don't yea. So these were cool prizes that I went over to try to win, and of course I didn't win anything out of the fifteen prizes.
That they had.
And you had raffle tickets to put in the boxes. Everybody got four raffle tickets. I figured with diminishing returns here as far as nobody left in the building, most people that are left aren't coming back to a building company party. So my odds were pretty good. I was gonna win a prize. I was really excited about that.
But I didn't win a single thing. And of course the prizes that are like a value that are really nice gifts prizes, people who make a lot of money in this building are then the ones that winning those prizes.
Well, I mean looks, that's how this goes. And by the Petros to Matt are probably giving you a hard time because they have access to all that stuff.
Absolutely, that's what I was trying to get in it. I was a little piece of their world.
No flas TV, trying to get on their level. And you know, if you knock on, you know, Dave Weize's door for anything, he just slams it in your face and pretends like he's on a phone call.
I don't even know that guy anymore. The Dave Weis, I knew he doesn't exist anymore. He is just out of control.
Nobody fakes a phone call like Dave Weis, Like he's one of those guys. Like he'll pick up any object, put it next to his ear, in his mouth, and just keep you hold up his finger and say give me one second. Like if he's if he doesn't have a phone nearby him, he'll pick up a Direct TV remote, put it to his face and say give me one second, like he's on the phone with somebody. He is.
He is so good at that. Speaking of being on the phone, apparently the agent for ta Oscar Hernandez and the Dodgers are on the phone because Ken Rosenthal just was on Foul Territory, which is a production he is a part of online and the quotes are coming out from Ken Rosenthal MLB Fox Insider, and he said, quote, I fully expect tay Oscar to be back with the Dodgers. David Veasse. It hinted about a week ago that they were getting close and still hammering out details, but it
was progressing in the right direction. And now Ken Rosenthal, who would know as well, says I fully expect Taoscar Hernanez to be back with the Dodgers. That is an awesome thing to hear today.
Well, it's like when Max Montsy says, you know, if it means, you know, acquiring Nolan Aeronato and how good he is. An other's talks that he could go to first base or whatever the hell's going to go on with that. But like, I mean, you can't keep track with half these rumors that are out there. But like when you like Max Mounts, he's like, oh, I just
want to be here. Just you don't think ta Oscar Hernandez realizes this is the best place for him, Like he can go somewhere else, like he could go potentially to the Yankees, which, by the way, I think also part of the reason why maybe he's not interested in the Yankees. You gotta shave I don't know if there's a lot of guys are in all that with that outdatial rule that they've got the no facial hair thing.
But in all seriousness, I look at it and I go, why would you want to go anywhere after how well this year went? And you could say, well, you know this is he was a free agent. It was you know, he was a contract year. He was trying to get paid. It's not like he hasn't had good years before in Major League Baseball, like he was just waiting to find the right spot. And if you're him and you're looking around and you realize, man, look at the protection I've
gotten the lineup. I'm gonna get a ton of opportunities here, and I'm in a place where they like me and I like them. I'm celebrated here. Dude, stick around for another four years and if it's all about the length of the contract, but you know, find out you know a way that you can get that done. But for him, at this point in his career, I don't think it makes any sense to go anywhere else.
It's refreshing to hear guys like Blake Trinan, who after the sea was in over was over told Andrew Freeman, Hey, I want to be back next year. You take away your bargaining ship there any leverage you have, but that says a lot. You want to be back, you want to be wearing a Dodger uniform. So I'll take whatever is out there at a competitive rate. To hear guys like a year ago, Kicky Hernandez say, Hey, I'm waiting
for the Dodgers to open up some space. So I'm gonna wait during spring training what I have offers out there. Because I so much want to go back to LA and play for the Dodgers. I'm willing to wait a few weeks in order for that door to happen. It's refreshing to hear that. And then you hear something like this Fromjue Soda today asked about signing with the Mets.
I mean, the Mets is a great negotiation, and what they have done in the past couple of years showing uh all the ability to keep winning, to keep growing a team, to try to grow a dynasty is one of the most important teams. Definitely, what you were seeing from the other side, it was unbelievable, and the buds and everything in the field and the future that this team has. It has a lot to do with my decision.
Okay, uh huh, Yeah, you decided to sign with the Mets because you like what they're doing in baseball operations and the product they're putting on the field.
Dude, they had a rap song and a McDonald's character as the star of the team this past year, like like, I mean, what's like what are you doing? Like what's is Dan the Del Taco guy gonna throw out the first pitch at half the home games? Like what? Like, what's what's next for New York with the It's the
second class organization in New York. It just is and it makes me wanted, like when we're sitting here talking about because I'll say it right now, after the World Series is over, you know, like that, like these betting odds will come out after every championship is over and they'll go, all right, so, well, who's most likely And usually it's the teams that were just in it to get most of the love. Right in the NFL Kansas City, of course, as long as Patrick Mahomes is there, they're
going to get most of the love. The Dodgers, of course, they're gonna get most of the love Well, the Yankees were just in the World Series. I remember thinking to myself, I don't see them getting back, like I just I thought, you know, And this was me thinking the entire time, Juan Soda will return. I was like, but I just don't see them making it back. And I just wonder
Wan Soda. We're talking about guys like Taskar her Nan and Blake Trin and and you know, guys like Keik Hernandez and and all these players that Max monts who was winning to move around because they don't want to leave. What does it say about the Yankees that Juan Soto left for basically the same amount of money in the same town, Like it's not like it's not like he left as a man. I really want to try Canada out, like I've heard. I've heard a ton of stuff about
Tim Horton's I got to get out to Canada. I want to be a Blue Jay like he stayed put, Like he's in the same town. And it's I think it's the same conversation that should be had about Shoe heey O Tony. What does it say about the Angels organization and where they're currently at that you would leave there just to drive an hour up the five to go play for the Dodgers and and the con It's good. But the difference with this is that the Angels are
seen as the second class organization in southern California. No offense to Angels fans like Juan Soto didn't reverse like he left the the organization to go. It's just a weird situation that I think we're gonna look back on and barring you know, two three World Series and MVPs to go along with it, I think he's gonna look back on it and regret it, regret his move. I don't think it's gonna land well historically.
In ten years, in seven years, this Mets team, I don't think they're gonna be in the same position they are in right now. I know Stephen Cohen likes to spend a lot of money, but at a certain point you can only spend so much and get to that luxury text. And with that being said, the Phillies are still the best team in that NL East. They won the division by six games. They won ninety five games
in twenty twenty four. Did the Philadelphia Phillies And yeah, they got snake bit in the first round of the playoffs and didn't move on. The Braves caught fire, they beat the Brewers, they went in in the NLDS. They get to the NLCS and they fight against the Dodgers and just didn't have enough against them in the end. But the Mets were a wild card team that finished
tied for second in the division. I don't think Juan Soto is a big difference maker that puts this team over the hump that all of a sudden now they're challenging with the Phillies in the division.
And also you've seen like the Dodgers are an organization as staying power to where you know a result that you'll see happen in the postseason, you can expect that same result the next year. And look, you being a Raiders fan, you can remember a few years back when the Raiders won at one year, it might have been twenty sixteen like they were. That's when they went to the playoffs and Derek Carr got hurt late in the season, right, And I think it was Connor Cook who started a
playoff game at Houston against the Texans. It was like a Saturday playoff game and you looked at it, and he said, all right, well, at least they've got building blocks. You've got Derek Carr, you've got Khalil Mack. Like, at least there's some things to feel good about. And then you went back and you actually looked at the season and you go, yeah, but they won a lot of one score games, and there was a lot of bounces that went their way, and sure is s next year
they were back to the Raiders. The Mets won a lot of games down the stretch that I find it hard to believe that you just run that back again and get the same result, like, you know, like them getting as far as they did in the postseason. I don't see it like they were on the brink several times. They were down this year for several times. The idea that all of a sudden, you can expect the same
results and the Mets are going to be back. In contention, he's a great player, but he's one guy, and I don't know that he's the greater player that would just all of a sudden impact the pecking order of the National League based on the seven hundred and sixty five.
You gave him. So you're saying the new York Mets are the Arizona Diamondbacks. Good one year, bad the next.
Oh.
I love little baseball talk with Jonas Knox. Get you out of that football world that you're in every single day. Jonahs, f those jocks when we come back. The Lakers may not have Lebron James tomorrow night when they retake the court. He's taken a leave of absence. Huh, we'll get into it. Rogan and Rodney, Knox and Kates a Fi seventy Elight
Sports Jonas Today's Throwback Thursday edition of Afternoon Delight. I Got You by James Brown, the most recognizable song ever recorded by the Godfather of soul, and of the ninety one James Brown songs that he charted.
You know This, Jonas.
This was the highest charting song, peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot one hundred charts back in December of nineteen sixty five. In edition to being used in a multitude of TV shows and movies. This song is ranked at number twenty one on VH one's Greatest Rock and Roll Songs of All Time and is seventy eighth on the Rolling Stones Top five hundred Songs of All Time. Again today's Throwback Thursday edition of Afternoon Delights. I got you.
I feel good by James Brown. By the way, he was a wild man. Yeah, there are some stories about him.
He was out.
That guy could party, you know, like a little different than some of the parties we're hearing about lately, but just saying, you know, he liked to get after it a little bit, did James Brown?
Yeah, speaking of those parties. Lebron James is staying away.
What what?
Lebron James is staying away from the Lakers right now, taking a leave of absence, and according to JJ Reddick may or may not play tomorrow nights when they put the Timberwolves in Minnesota. Sham Sharani has says it is unlikely that he will play tomorrow night, and it would give Lebron some rest for his foot soreness, and it would allow eight days in between games for him to rest that foot. But yesterday he missed practice not because of an injury, it was because of personal reasons. So
I'm not sure if he's at practice right now. We'll get an update, I'm sure in the next couple hours here when practice ends and JJ Redick and the players talked in the media before heading out, but Lebron James right now, not with the Lakers team, and a Lakers team, by the way, there's lost seven of their last ten Jonas and a Lakers team right now that is looking to get some ways to get back on track. On the outside looking into the top six teams in the.
Way, I mean, it's just interesting to there's a lot of things that have just seemed a little interesting about uh le, like you know, going off social media, Like I don't know why you would want to go off social media all of a sudden, you love the place, you can't get enough of it, you know, announcing your going off social media, and then you know, I want to play every day, that's the goal. I want to play all lady too. And then now it's like I'm going to take time away for personal reasons.
You know.
I hope everything's okay. Yeah, you know, I just just you know, you know, there's just been a lot of speculation out there at the timing is a little odd that you know, there's some other names that are also out there in the news, and you know, some accusations that have been levied.
Yeah, the internet solusor are trying to connect the dots on maybe why the leave of absence. But if you look at his play on the court, I mean, averaging twenty three points per game, shooting about fifty percent from the floor, he's only shooting thirty five percent from three. I mean he's still averaging twenty three, nine and eight at the age of forty. And yeah, his play the last couple of games was down. He was at a stretch where he was oh for his last nineteen at
one point from beyond the arc. Certainly the start that he got off to at the age of forty opened a lot of eyes. Jonas like, Wow, this guy looks like he's the best player on the court, and he is by far the oldest player on the court no matter who they're playing. He's come back down to earth a little bit. But when did this whole notion of eighty two games he's going to try to play in
all of them throughout the course of the regular season. Look, that's the part that I missed, something like that's the part that seemed weird to me because everybody talks about you know, load management, load managem right, and they go they go back to Lebron as being one of the guys who was the sort of the voice for load management and take your time and pick and choose when you want to play. And then all of a sudden, this year it's like, no, no, no, I want to
play all eighty two. And it just seemed it just seemed a little weird to me. It seemed like it was a little bit of miss. It wasn't anything that we had heard from him before. And look, Jordan did it his final year in the NBA where Jordan was with the Wizards, and he played every single game. So I don't know if this is a well he could do it, you know, his towards the end of his career. I'm going to be able to do it towards the end of my career.
At this age and this stage of his career, this would be the time when load management would make the most sense. Like I don't think anybody would be critical of ay, he needs he needs a breather here, he needs to blow there, like he needs like whatever. He's got to take some time. Totally understand. But it was the whole We're going to play all eighty two And
I'm okay, But why why now? Why this year was the year, and I just wondered, and you know, JJ Redick has not been shy about calling out the team and call it and I just wonder if Lebron James looks at the setup with JJ Reddick and he's like, all right, well, I'll just play all eighty two. Then, you know, because they're having to move around so much more, and now you're seeing this team sort of fall apart.
There was a lot of opt mism, you know, Connect had you know, one great game where he hit like nine threes and you got everybody run into social media going, I told you that was the steal of the draft, and he's gonna win Rookie of the Year. It's okay, all right, man, like you know, it's it's one of eighty two. But okay, just this the whole start of the year feels weird. The mystery surrounding getting away from social media feels odd. The I'm gonna take some time
away for personal reasons feels a little strange. You know, some people have you know, wondered, could this have anything to do with you know, some parties, sure, you know that might have gone on again, not me, not me. Just a lot of speculation out there I think somebody did send us over a picture that I'm I'm assuming it's photoshopped.
Yeah, kind of, that can't be real.
I mean, if it's real, that gives Oscar de la Hoye a run for his money, Oscar's own in the year since. Yes, and a lot of people that Oscar himself blames Fred for sort of his demise.
I blame Fred for a lot of things. Anytime I get in trouble with anybody, I just blamed Fred wrote, did you ever did.
You hear that story? Yeah? Fred was on with Oscar de la Hoya was on with Ariel Hawani and Oscar dala Hoya said that you know the story about he was doing it for his you know, his dying mother's wishes or whatever, and wow, he specifically pointed out Fred Rogan is the guy who kind of stirred it up and started running with the story.
He didn't. Let's hear it, Kevin, are you Jonas, is this really happens? It's absolutely happened to have the audio guy.
Gosh.
So the first lie that really weighed on me was my mother her dream. Supposedly I I dedicated that gold medal for her because she asked me to it was her dying wish. Oh, it wasn't like that.
You know.
When I when I got back from the Olympics, being eighteen years old, I get out of the ring after listening to the national anthem, I'm on the podium for place. I get out of the ring and Fred Rogan at the time, I believe, tells me, so, you did this for your mother. It was her dying wish.
How do you feel?
And I was like, I feel great.
Yeah, And from there it just caught fire and that was the story. Yeah, you know my mom's dying wish. And I didn't say anything about it. I didn't do anything about it. I just thought, okay, well that's what it is. And it caught fire.
So Fred with a leading question to the witness about his mom's dying wish, and it stuck and let him down the path of wearing women's clothing. Congratulations Fred, that put that on the mantle. I have never heard that before.
That is unbelievable for Oscar to pull that out and just put Fred right there at the center of it all.
Like what fifteen twenty years later, whatever it was, it was, what a memory, I mean, a lot has happened in Oscar five years later. Yeah, just rattling off like it just happened yesterday, Fred Rogan to blame. Yeah, uh, Fred, Like I remember when Kevin and I presented that to break it. I sent it over to Kevin. I was like, hey, I was listening to Aria Hawani show. He had Oscar on.
You gotta check this out. And Kevin's like, all right, I haven't said and Fred was like no, no, he tried to deny it, and then Oscar blatantly specifically said Fred Rogan, it was the one who led me down that pass.
Listening to that podcast, did you spin out? What are you're ever drinking?
Like?
Fred?
Well, I was. I was laughing because I knew I was working that day with him, and I was like, oh, this is glorious, like like we've yeah, yeah, the content we've got. You know, you can sit here and argue about you know who the Dodgers should go with, you know, to clean up the Seventh Inning woes, or we could talk about Oscar de la Jolla blaming Fred Rogan for spreading ali about his dead mom all these years. It's kind of kind of wild, but nonetheless, uh Lebron James.
You know the pictures that that that that we were sent over, I'm assuming that's that's photoshop. No way they can be real. But hopefully he gets back because it is like everything you need to know about the Lakers is that Lebron James at his age is their best player, and like, if that's the case, like you might have some long term problems here when it comes to this year.
Let's not forget the trade rumors that happened seventy two hours ago, the talk that Lebron James could waves no trade clause if you were approached about being traded and going somewhere else. Okay, all right, it feels like a lot of distraction surrounding Lebron James right now, maybe a good time to kind of just reset.
Right, Yeah, we're not even at Christmas and all of a sudden trade rumors and party rumors and everything else to come along with it. It's like, all right, I guess we're just gonna play this game again, and we're just gonna go down this road again. And while everyone's sitting there talking about what do you expect from the Lakers, I'm like, just like, what's part what do they normally do with Lebron there outside of the bubble year, they
normally struggle to get in the postseason. They get in, and you just hope that they get a good matchup in the first round.
If I'm Lebron James, I just blame Fred. Coming up in the two o'clock hour Dealan Hernandez from the La Times was at the Baseball Winter Meetings with our own David Say. Coming up next though, Vinnie bon signor the Raiders are selling off pieces of ownership. What's gonna happen with the silver on black? And can the Rams go up to Santa Clara tonight Jonas and beat the forty nine ers