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It's amazing watching and watching last night, the number of movies that you don't see but you have an opinion on. Like Demi Moore did not win. I thought she was going to and it's for the movie Substance. I didn't see the movie, but I thought she deserved to win the Academy Award, which is really we became experts last night. Over the span of about three hours. We're like, okay, yeah, all right, you know the Conclave. They could come out of nowhere and win. Like I didn't even see the movie.
Yes, you just described every man on the planet modern day. I didn't see what I'm talking about. But I'm an expert only, and I have a very strong opinion that's essentially modern society.
I have no idea. I did see a few of the movies I did.
I saw Nora, I saw Emeria Barrez as well. The best movie, okay, the most impact full movie that I saw it was Wicked. No, it wasn't Wicked. It was The Nickel Boys. The book is incredible, very powerful. I'm glad it got nominated. Hopefully people will watch it or maybe read the book. But you want to talk about an impactful movie story, the Nickel Boys, and you can google it go into the details there of what these you know, poor kids went through. But I saw some
of substance. I saw some of you know how I am my my A D. D kicks in and I'm like, okay, I watched a little bit. I'll get back to it. The Conclave.
Uh.
You know, I thought Timothy Shallabay was great as Bob Billin, so Adrian Brody. I started watching The Brutalist, but it was three and a half hours long, and you know that's gonna take me like a month to get through that. But yeah, everybody had an opinion. I just felt that, you know, to me, Moore, this was her chance. Was she sixty two years of age, You got this role of a lifetime, she gave everything to it. Then all of a sudden you got this twenty five year old
out of Anora. And I thought she was spectacular in that movie Anora is it Mikey Madison?
She was great, great, And it's an.
Indie film and I love that the director Sean Baker did a wonderful job with it. I mean, it's a frenetic pace you're holding your breath. You're exhausted when that movie is over. But I just didn't know if Hollywood would go, yeah, we'll give it to her, but we won't give it to me more. I thought they would reward her, and I thought that that might hurt Timothy Chalomet as well, that you know, maybe too young, which
I don't get that. You know, you'll get around to it, and then you do an al Pacino sensible woman, considering all the great things Paccino did, and guy, we got to give him an Academy Award one of these days.
How about sensible woman? Who?
Yeah, pul what would be the sports comp for de me more situation? An actress who's done it a long time finally gets nominated, probably won't be back.
Is that?
Like Matt Ryan in the Super Bowl, did a lot of good work, got one chance, never got back. Maybe how about this one? Here's a better su question. Okay, Kieran Culkin is the Danny Hurley of the Oscars, the younger, the older brother was super duper famous really early and then just kind of went away. Mcaulay Culkin, he still works, but he was a superstar three decades ago.
Well, yeah, you got Kieran who was in succession.
Yeah, but he had a slow burn to his career. So Bobby Hurley is McCauley Culkin, Danny Hurley is Karen Cole.
You're proud of this, aren't you? Fair? Eat a coward? You're feeling that one.
I thought I thought Kieran Cochan might be penalized for acting like Kiaran Cochan in this movie.
He's a great speech giver.
But now that he played the role is great.
You know, it's a dramedy about the Holocaust, a real pain, and I thought, you know, they had to basically force him to do the movie. Emma Stone is a producer and Jesse Eisenberg did a wonderful job with the script, but they he was not going to get on the plane to go. He did not want to do this movie. And it's you know, you see the movie and he does a great job.
He really does.
But then I saw some columns where there it's like, well, was he really acting?
I don't know. I think I think that's what it is.
But watching that last night, and you know, I tune in not necessarily for the movies, but who's there, who's presenting, who's in the audience, those kinds of Adam Sandler showed up, looked like a mess on purpose, But it was a funny funny bit there, Yes, Marvin.
Every single year I say the same thing when I watched the Oscars. The funny thing about the Oscars is all these awards, you only know four people in those categories. You only know best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and actress, everything else. You don't know the best cinematographer. You might know best song if it's a famous artist, but other than that, who had you know Best Adapted Screenplay?
Well, Diane Warren lost again. Damn. I thought it was her year.
Well, she was up for Best Song. I think she's She's been nominated like fifteen times, something crazy, seventeen, seventeen and never won. Do you go like, after a while, did you just say, Like the Sports Emmys, there's twice where I didn't go and you know, didn't win, but I was like, I don't know, I had something else, and then I just said I'm not going in now. If we were nominated, then I would go in, even though I know we'd lose, but still I'd still go
in so we could lose together. But yeah, It's one of those where you go, you're sitting there and it's years and like, to me, more years and years and years. Nobody's taking you seriously as an actress. You're just a pretty person, pretty woman, but you know, got a good resume, likable Bruce Willis was your husband, you know, and then you get this role and she nails it by.
All accounts, and you're there and you're waiting. You know that tension.
I look, we do it on a small basis of sports emmings, but damn it, it's our Academy Awards. And when your name is called or it's not called, it is so high and so low. And I just can't imagine what to me Moore was thinking. And you could see it. They had the camera on her and she nods and she goes nice, and she's lost the Academy Award. I mean, in her mind she lost it. It's not that somebody else won.
She lost.
Does she get other opportunities now because of this? You know, the way Hollywood is with women over the age of forty, it'll be difficult. You had a movie that really struck a chord with her about being beautiful and then losing that but the opportunity to get it back. But it comes with a price. But everybody's going to be a movie critic today. Everybody is gonna be like, uh, yeah, you know that whatever movie it is, and you're like, I didn't see it. But that guy Ray Fines got
ripped off. He should have wanted for the conclave. Yes, Todd Singsing got snubbed.
How do you not have Singsing win that award?
All right, so we'll just come up with maybe sports comps for some of the folks who didn't win.
Yes, poem, we're working on one for Adrian Brody. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in OH three for the Pianist.
Correct.
Yeah, then it's twenty three years later he wins it again. Is there an athlete who won when they're really young and really old?
Any sport?
Okay, TV twelve Okay, Tim Duncan, Tim Duncan.
Yeah, but they also won in between. Ooh, so I need to have a twenty year GW least at.
Least fifteen sports wise, because we work it down, so somebody won early and then won later.
We'll work on that. This is a sharp on Duncan. It's not bad though.
It's good call.
Yeah, but he won five titles.
Yeah, that's that's yeah, the other three and they're the one and then the one at the very end. All right, eight seven seven three DP shows who always do every Monday best and Worst of the weekend. A couple other things. Matthew Stafford back with the Rams. I thought it was going to take a two year guaranteed deal of one hundred million. I'm not sure the final numbers, but it's probably in that vicinity. The Commanders quietly acquired Deebo Samuel
for the Niners. Yesterday. I'm watching the combine. I'm watching in real time. Boy, nice weekend, Dan, Yeah, I know, but I'm watching Rich Eisen Daniel Jeremiah. All of a sudden, Rich goes, let's go to Ian Rappaport, Baba, and then he goes The forty nine Ers have traded Deebo Samuel to the Commanders for a fifth round pick. Oh well, I immediately text the dan Ets and fifth round pick is nothing. Now you've got to pay his salary. There might be in the final year of his deal, but
you get Deebo Samuel. Here's a trap we fall into sometimes when your team is successful one year, and then you think that success translates into success the following year. Now, what I'm getting at is the Commanders were a wonderful bunch of the NFC title game.
Didn't they win five?
Six, seven games and the final play, final thirty seconds? That is not sustainable in the NFL. And I know it's not in vogue to say, will the Commanders take a step back now? I looked at the Texans cooled off from one year to the next. Now again, they're in a bad division. The Commanders don't have that luxury. But I think they won maybe six or seven games in the on the last play or the final thirty seconds. You're not If you win three of those, that's that's
probably a monumental feat. What I'm saying is the Commanders were very fortunate last year. Great story, but they were fortunate. Jaden Daniels was great, They held on, you know, Fluke play against the Bears like they they had things that fell for them. It doesn't always happen that way. And this is where I think that they have to get better. I didn't think they were a great team. I thought they were a great story. And I'm curious what they're
over under will be for next year. It might be ten wins, but now you can say a lot about the teams that is able to win those games. I don't want to be in those situations. I I'd rather have a quarterback where you go, how many fourth quarter comebacks did he have? Not that many because he didn't need to. But it's nice to know when you have
that situation, you have a team that can win. Deebo Samuel banged up, hasn't had over one thousand yards receiving the last three years, doesn't have to be the man. Terry McLaurin is, Jayden Daniels give you another toy to play with in Cliff Kingsbury's offense. Good if he stays healthy, it's a big, big pickup for them. But are you going to have him for one year? Are you going
to want to extend him? And I think it's you might be getting twenty million dollars, so you always got to play the salary cap game of you and now the Niners. The Niners have gotten to the point where we've spoken about this. You have a window of opportunity. What is their window of opportunity now? Because the NFC West isn't great, but it's not bad. It's competitive, and I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that you look at the Niners like to me, the Rams, they're young,
Stafford's back. I mean, I love what they're doing right now. You got pookin Nakoupa there. But you know, you start to look at these windows, like the Lions window of opportunity, and we always go, well, wait till next year, okay, And then we said that about the forty nine ers. Well, hey, they've got a lot of time. Well now you got to pay. Now, you got to pay your quarterback, and you know, the casualties as a result. This happens to
teams all the time. Happened to Seattle when they lucked into Russell Wilson and then they had him for years. Keep the defense intact. Rock Perty is going to get paid, Brandon Nyuk is probably not going to be with the team next year. Can Christian McCaffrey play anymore? Trent Williams you got one more year there. You start to look and go, you know, George Kittle contracts up, are they're going to extend him? So you have these questions, But I like what the Commanders did be aggressive, and if
I'm the Commanders, I'm all in on Miles Garrett. All in, let's go because you know who is lurking for Miles Garrett, the Philadelphia Eagles. You got full speed ahead.
Man.
Once again, the window of opportunity, Go for it, Go for it. Trade draft picks. That's potential. I can get to that guy right there. You're trading the thirtieth pick. So what go all in because if you don't get him, maybe Detroit gets him and then you're gonna see him in the playoffs.
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Hey Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio. You could catch us weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of course the iHeartRadio app. Why should you listen to Covino and Rich. We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on in the world. We have a lot of fun talking about the stories behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture stories that well other shows don't
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Once this happens, it feels like there's a snowball effect that happens, and it's every year and it goes from week to week where the analyst insiders scounts. They will dissect one player, and that player right now is Shadoor Sanders. Now, cam Ward's going to go through this, You're probably going to get Travis Hunter going through this. That's when they start to pick apart these players. And right now with
Shador Sanders, he's on the clock. There's a report that he was called arrogant and brash after an interview at the NFL Combine. Now, once again this is open to interpretation. What is arrogant If you could be cocky to me, confident to me, brash to you, same thing. And I think that there is a growing concern. Now I can't speak for all of these players, but those who got nil and Shador Sanders got nil in Colorado, that they come in already entitled, that maybe they're spoiled a little bit.
They've gotten their money already, and maybe there's preferential treatment that they got and they expect that when they get to the pros. Whether that's true or not, it's in the eye of the beholder. It's open to interpretation. But Shador Sanders hasn't thrown a football, hasn't played a game
in a couple of months. But you're starting to get the feeling and I don't want to say smear campaign, but it does feel like you start to pile on and sometimes you know the insiders are following insiders and they want to make sure that they don't miss on this, and it you know, it's an echo chamb it's a circle. Now you start to hear, hey, nobody's sold necessarily on should or Sanders being a first round draft pick. I'm like, where did that come from?
That was quick?
Is he a first round We have an analyst on later on who will tell you why he thinks Shudoor Sanders might not go in the first round. If you're not going to take somebody because they're arrogant or brash instead of their abilities, then I would really have questions about you and how you know you're assessing talent at that position. Teams are always looking for their quarterback and if he is that quarterback? Now I said yesterday, I don't know what he's great at. I know he's tough.
I know that, you know the family tree certainly going to be talented. He's not athletic, overly athletic. That was the thing that surprises me the most about him. I think today's quarterback has to be able to extend plays. Can he be a Russell Wilson type player?
Maybe?
But now you're starting to look at people looking at Shudel Sanders saying all right, what's so special? They might do the same with cam Warden. I mean, I watched cam Ward play at three different schools.
He won. I don't know.
I didn't look at him and go, that's a franchise quarterback. I just thought he's really good. And that's the tricky part when you're trying to look and assess talent to go to the next level. Who has it and who doesn't? Why does that guy have it and that guy does it? That guy is so much more talented, but that guy knows how to play. And that's where these general managers and scouts, their reputation, their jobs are on the line of being able to assess that position. And it's an
inexact science. It has been and will continue to be. Are you a leader? Do you want to be a leader? Do you want to put in the time? You know, Kyler Murray won at every level. He was great, dynamic. Does he want to be the leader? Does he want to put in the time or does he just football came easy to him, He didn't have to work at it. Lamar Jackson wonderful MVP and has made himself a better passer.
Josh Allen has made himself a better quarterback. You know, you can go down through history of those who made themselves better when they got to the NFL. I just worry sometimes with nil you might have players who are already treated as pros. They get to the pros and maybe not putting in the time they need to be great. And I don't care what sport. Give me the player who continues to want to get better. And look no further than Michael Jordan. Jordan added to his game every year,
and there's the greatest player of all time. I don't care who it is. Are you adding not subtracting? And it's a long winded way of saying. With Shadoor Sanders, it feels like he's the guy under the micro scope right now. And you're starting to hear people are now saying things out loud that they may have thought. And this could be about Dion, you know, and maybe should or Sanders is arrogant or brash. The NFL will humble you.
The NFL will humble you. This could be other agents like let's this is business, okay, And this is the tricky part when you're trying to get information.
Every year.
I say this to you, I have two people that I've trusted for over twenty five years, and I still trust them. They don't have agendas. Even if they have an agenda, they would tell me that they had an agenda on a certain player or a certain team. But this could be agents trying to, you know, get their client up. It happens, maybe it's a team that wants to get should or Sanders. Later, Hey, you know, I here he's arrogant man. Now, I don't know if these gms react that way, they go, you know what, on
second thought, maybe we don't take him now. Gms do stupid things, But I don't know if it comes down to that. But it kind of struck me. Here's shod Or Sanders, and then next week it'll be somebody else, and the week after that. It feels like each week leading up to the draft, this is what's going to happen, So get ready for it. Stat of the Day brought to you by Panini America, the official trading cards of the program. First TWN, We're brought to you by Maco.
Most cars on the road could use a little TLC. Mako brings your car back to life. Affordable pink jobs, light collision repairs, Get a free estimate today. Uh oh, better get Maco? All right, Seaton, what's the poll question we have today.
Well, we could start right there with the pre draft rumors. What percentage of pre draft news do you actually believe your augs could be one hundred percent, seventy five, fifty or twenty five percent.
I'm probably a fifty to fifty guy, but there's part of me that wants to believe seventy five percent of it because it's far more interesting.
Like I want to be entertained with this.
I hate to be like I got to tell people that this isn't true, you know, but then there's part of you like it'd be fun if it was true, but it's not.
Yeah.
Yeah, a lot of these stories that come out, like right as soon as I saw that Shador Sanders, see it's got a little bit of an attitude.
Oh okay, here we go.
Okay, well let's see what quarterback benefits from Shador Sanders.
Dropping Jackson Dark? Does Jalen Milroe? Does cam Ward? By all accounts and more definitely does cam Moore. I think he's already the number one quarterback to be taken. I think that feels almost universal.
Now.
Could things change at a pro day? Sure when they start to nitpick. Sure, but it felt like and the report out of Indianapolis. Cam Ward, now, he didn't throw it. I think he threw to one of his teammates, but that was to get his teammate ready to you know, go in some passing drill.
It was unselfish. He's there to help other people.
Yes, got it. That's a team player. Yes, that's so selfless, so selfless. But Shador Sanders was a hype guy. He was hyping up Will Howard at Ohio State. He came to his defense.
Uh well, but you know, once again, what one guy is doing and another guy could be doing. But we interpreted completely differently. And with cam Ward once again, I don't know what he does great, and that's usually where I start. Okay, it's a quarterback, what do you do great? He's really good at the line of scrimmage. He's really good arm strength, he can throw to the numbers, okay, capability, durability, okay, like you can check off the you know, check the
boxes here. It's like Josh Allen saw him in college his junior year, saw him his senior year, and then saw him his first year in Buffalo, and I didn't think that he was a franchise quarterback. But he made himself better. And that's another thing you want. I want Kyler Murray to want to be great, not I'm already great. I don't need to know you're good. You need to be great. You got to put in the time to be great. That's what I want out of Kyler Murray.
Yeah, it always feels like a lot of these things too, these kind of reports, there's something that's not like quantifiable, you know, it's not something that you could put on tape and be like see that's what I'm talking about right there, like we're I don't. It just kind of a little arrogant, kind of rubbed me the wrong way, like, okay.
Well only if I saw the interviews, because that's what these scouts, these GMS coaches, they experience an interview with you, and I think that's where at least one coach came away with the he's arrogant and brash and that's all it takes.
It's one. Now, if you're an.
NFL insider reporter, you got something. Now you've got to report. And now maybe you could ask another coach or another GM, hey did you experience this?
No?
Well, and there are other accounts where these coaches and GMS are saying we didn't experience that. Now, maybe maybe shoud Or Sanders doesn't want to go to your team. Maybe he came off as arrogant in bransh because he may not want to go to the Cleveland Browns. But I think the dion part of this, you have to you always have to factor that in. What is the motive, what's the motivation for all involved here draft stock? Maybe
maybe clicks, maybe to help your client. I mean, there's a lot involved in this, and keep in mind the amount of money. It's business and never lose sight of that. It's sports to us, but it's really business. Yeah, Poling.
It's interesting how the words can show if he was considered confident. That's a great word. That's positive. Cocky is somewhere between positive and negative. Arrogant is negative. It goes like a sliding scale, Brash. I was looking at this story and I saw that PFF has should or Sanders sliding to the end or out of round one, which is really.
Hard to picture. But I went back and looked.
Three days before the NFL draft, Gino Smith was the number one overall pick of the draft. In multiple mock drafts, he went in the second round. I found two mock drafts from the year Will Levis came out of Kentucky. Within twenty four hours of the draft, he was in the top five fifteen of three different high end mock drafts. He dropped completely out of the first round. It's happened before. Yeah, not comping to should or Sander's just the coverage.
Yeah, but this is what happens when the real professionals see the tape, Like now this is we watch during the season and then but the scouts aren't breaking down these players. The GM are worried about their teams playing in the NFL. Then you get this. Now they go into the lab and now you really start to break down a player. How healthy is he, how many games did he play? How many did he start? Like you start to look and go, okay, what are the pluses?
What are the minuses? But you don't do it publicly. We do it publicly. You know, Mel Kipro have a mock draft, you know, ready when the season ends. But Mel's not in the meeting rooms. Now you can talk to people. I talk to people, but that's their opinion. And that's the tricky part with this. So this is when the real people are doing big boy things and not somebody who's looking from afar and going, man, that guy's unbelievable. Okay, but it doesn't mean it. You know
Christian Hackenberg, you remember him at Penn State. Oh, if you came out now, I'd be the number one overall pick. Then what happened Josh rosen Man guy franchise quarterback. Okay, we do this every year and we continue, we repeat. You know, you'll hype somebody, but you know, once again, it's not a true assessment of them. Now you're getting that. That's when you go, oh, this guy's got short arms.
He probably had short arms. I don't know last year during the season, I don't know if they got shorter. Now you're hearing that this guy could drop out of the top ten. You got short arms. I'm like, as any always had short arms, Yes, DoD And like.
You're referring to with clicks being one of the possibilities. If you're a reporter and everyone's in love with a certain person, you feel like it's incumbent upon you to be that one naysayer. I'm going to have the column that says something different than everyone else has.
Yeah, well you want it to be true. Hopefully it's true of what you're reporting. Yet once again, all you have to was say, you know what I heard. I heard from an assistant coach. Source said, Hey, this guy is this You're gonna take me to court? Like you know you're gonna do I have to give up my sources.
Well you're not even naming the team. You can't even remotely trace it to anything.
Yes, but that's why you know, when people say they have sources, I'm always usually you have a.
Source when they say, oh, you know, source is close to.
Me, Okay, I got I'm a little curious, skeptical because there are a lot of people that all you have to do is say I got a source and I got a report.
What are you going to do about it? Nothing?
I could do that right now with Shude or Sanders, I can say I got a source who said he was unbelievable in those meetings. He was polite, courteous, and he ordered flowers for the assistant coach's wife. Like, okay, Sometimes that happens smear campaigns. Agent talks to an insider, Hey, you do me a solid here. It happens because where your guy is gonna go. It's money, but here it is. We're early March. I got six more weeks to the draft.
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He's justin Verlander, just turned forty two years of age. When do you feel forty two.
Now? When I'm forty two? Apparently I still feel great. So I get out of bed in the morning. I keep expecting these eggs and pains everybody talks about, but I feel pretty good.
I'd like that you gave me a nice backdrop there at Scottsdale Stadium.
We thought about it. You're welcome.
I appreciate that instead of some sterile room there. I like that got you got a career as a cinematographer.
Here.
Let me start with the automated strike zone, with you having done this for so long, and now you see the younger pitchers who were going to grow up with this adapt to this. Is there an upside in your opinion to an automated strike zone?
Yeah, I think there's upside to it. I I like the appeal system over the full automated zone. And the reason being, I think these umpires are are asked to do a really difficult job and you know, they're also the best in the world at it, even though they they're not perfect, but they're you know, that's that's a that's a tough zone to call, especially when guys are throwing one hundred miles an hour with nasty, breaking balls.
So I don't want to take away the part of the game that I love, which is catcher framing, you know, the picture, hitting his spot and getting a call because everything everything presented correctly and it looks like a strike, and the umpire calls calls it even though it's maybe a you know, half an inch off and the batter doesn't quite know. So in a in a big spot, in a big spot in the game, maybe he challenges. But if it's the first, second, third inning, nobody really
knows if it's if it's actually a baller strike. So I don't want to take away that part of the game. But I think, you know, there's obviously opportunities where it's an egregiously wrong call where you can turn that over or late in the game in a big spot where you know both sides want to make sure we get it right. Well, I say both sides, but you know everybody wants to make sure you get it right.
I saw where Max sus there's not a in favor of this, and then I had to laugh because you guys are veterans.
You know, you guys got calls.
You know, the the umpire might give you the benefit of the doubt, you know, Greg Maddox, Tom Glavin, you sure's are you know, the automated strike zone. They don't know who you are.
You know, I wish they don't. They don't do that anymore for us. You know, you go back, you know when I first came in the game, and you know you had those guys that you mentioned, Rocket Roger, you know, Uh Maddox, Johnson, all those guys. You know, you come into a game and it's like, hey, you're gonna have a little bit biggerzoned today. These guys have earned it,
you know, they tell all the hitters that. And but with the umpire is being monitored now, they they they get even though it's not an automated strike zone, they get they get graded on every single game. So you know, I'm sure some of these older school umpires would like to give us a little bigger zone, but we don't get that advantage anymore. Unfortunately, I would love it.
How important is three hundred wins to you? You're a two sixty two.
Yeah, yeah, Look, I mean i'd be lying if I said it wasn't it wasn't important. I you know, I I see pretty clearly that, you know, unless something changes that I'd probably the last have a chance to do it. So it's something that is off in the distance. Uh, I'm not I'm not saying that. I'm you know, the only reason I'm playing is he at three hundred, I still feel good. I still feel like I can be successful,
quite successful. I don't want to go out there and make a fool of myself just to try to try to reach that goal. But you know, I think the injuries that I sustained the last last year particularly actually I learned a lot from and you know, I I I think I can be the pitcher that I was three years ago when I won the cy Young So you know, if three hundred happens, it happens. But it's something that, like a lot of the things I've I've
been able to achieve in my career. Uh, it just happens because you're out there taking the ball and doing all the right things and just pitching. That's it.
What's the conversation like when you sit down with Kate and you go, well, tell me what the conversations like where you decide you want to play another year?
Yeah?
Yeah, she's super supportive. Man, I'm uh, you know, it's it's getting harder. Our daughter is six now and in kindergarten. Souh, you got real school happening where they can't just pick up and transplant the family for the baseball season. But you know, she knows how much I care and how how much passion I have for this, and and and and My analogy is, you know, I want to set a good example for my daughter. And you know my analogy is like, I've spent my entire life training for
this marathon. I literally since I'm five years old. This is I I picked up at baseball and told my parents I wanted to be a major league baseball player. And here I am living my dream and still feel like I can can play at a high level. So you know, I've I've trained my entire life to be in the middle of this marathon. Here I am running it, and I feel like I'm you know, I don't know how close I am the finish line, but I'm damn close.
And and you know what a disservice it would be to me and my you know, my daughter to to to give up now, So you know, I'm gonna keep playing and working as hard as I can. And and and then talking to my friends, they tell me, Uh, the guys that are retired, they say, when you know, you know, And I don't know exactly what that means yet, so that tells me I'm not there.
He's justin Verlander. And now with the Giants signed a one year deal. Uh do you have to hate the Dodgers more because you're a Giant? Is there a pamphlet that they give you on disliking the Dodgers?
Uh? No, it's more just a vibe, you know. I think you can pick up on it. I'm actually excited. I haven't look, I've had some rivalries, but it's it's it's nothing like this. It doesn't have the history. It's had some just like like you know, in Detroit, there were you know, for a few years, the White Sox were really good and we were battling and then the Indians, and then with Houston the v A's were really good
and the Rangers were really good. I haven't had a rivalry like this, so I think just it just happens when you start playing the games against each other and you just feel it and the stadium, you know, has that atmosphere to it that's just different, feels like a playoff game. I'm pretty excited about it.
If you could take one pitch off, and you know pitchers in your era, So if it's somebody's fastball, somebody's breaking ball, somebody's slider, Uh, give me, give me who you would uh you would pick? And which which pitch?
Geez uh does it have to I mean I would love Lemons splitter. That would be yeah, all right, all right that I have a hard time. Uh, Like, my change up hasn't been a pitch I've been able to utilize much the last like five or six years, even though I I threw it a lot when I was younger. I don't have a pitch that really moves that way. So that would be that would be lovely if I could use that.
Okay, but what about curveball? What about fast I.
Mean Kursh's Curseh's curveball, you know, uh iconic. Can you teach?
Can you teach Kershaw's curveball?
No? I don't think so. I think this is actually a problem that a lot of people fall into. It's a trap where everybody with all of the analytics now you can find out. You can watch video. You can see exactly how he throws it and and the spin that he gets on it, just like any other's any other anybody else's pitch. But I think there's something innate with the way that you throw a baseball. It's like the gate of a horse, you know, like it's just so unique to you, and that's what allows you to
be successful at certain things. You know, you talk about a fastball, I would want. I want my fastball. I think my fastball is one of the one of the best, if not, you know, it's one of the best in the history of baseballs. It's uh so, I think that's just how I throw a baseball though. It's just what I was born to do, and and the way my body works. I can't or a sinker to save my life, you know, I I it just it just it just
doesn't work, you know. But the reason that it doesn't work is because you know, the way I throw creates such a great beneficent forcing.
But if you were coming up now, I wonder the longevity of your career because you would be a different picture.
Very different. I I often wonder about this because I mean, it permeates all the way down now to the to the little league level. I mean you see all these Instagram famous places where you go to to learn how to throw harder, and and you know, I, well, look, they have a place, they do. But for me, you know, if if I look back at my my trajectory when I was a young kid, and I clearly got to the point pretty quickly where my father was like, uh, you know, you're you're past my expertise. I don't know
what the hell I'm doing here, you know. So he found me a local coach, and that coach talked baseball back then, you know, talked about uh mechanics and feel and flow. And his name was Bob Smith and and Richmond, Virginia,
and you know, uh that is gone now. I think I think now if my dad were to be in the same position, uh, he would send me somewhere that teaches me how to be a little more cookie cutter, and try to throw as try to throw as hard as you can instead of instead of learning your own mechanics and cultivating your own movement pattern and and learning how to pitch a little bit more. And and I don't know, I don't know where that leads. Yeah, I
I talked about this a lot. I don't know if I would have been able to have this career had I came up in today's.
Age, toughest out in your career, Like this guy came to the plate and you go, all right, let me just try something totally out of left field.
Salvador Perez has done really well against me in division. Yeah, I would say, you know. The good thing is though he didn't have a ton of homers against me, so in Salvi. Sorry, he's not the fastest guy on the on the face of the earth, so it didn't bother me so much. But if he came up with men on base, it was trouble for me.
But would you rather give up a bomb or one that trickles right over the left field wall?
Great question. It depends on the situation in the game.
Let's say it's just you know, you're up five to nothing.
Bomb I'd rather you're up a homer, like, yeah.
Four hundred and fifty feet, You're okay.
I'm completely fine with it. I at least I challenged you, you know, and you know I can move on from that. We're still up for it. Not then there's nobody on base, I still feel comfortable, a little blooper. And then you know, and then another guy gets a base hitting out's you know you have you know, then a guy hits a homer and it's a you know, chewer run ball game. That's a little different.
Greg Maddox said, I said, describe the sound of a home run. He says, it's like a it's like a car crash.
Yeah, boy, I mean these guys you know it right?
Do you know it right away without even turning around?
Sometimes? Yeah, a lot of times. No, it's kind of like, you know, you just had that reaction where you're like, you know, get down, ere you're in your head the whole thing. You've got a few seconds, so you get down, get down, get down. You just don't you know it's going to be closed. And then some of them you're just like, oh boy, yeah, uh.
When you're not pitching in spring training, what's what do you do? I think, you know, I uh.
There's been a lot of guys here playing chess, so that's been fun. We've been getting some good chess games going on, and we're gonna start a San Francisco Giants Chess club.
Not not in the dugout.
Not in the dugout, No, No, in spring training, you don't really, I mean, especially especially with my tenure, they don't make me be in the dugout anymore. But it's been fun this year. I mean, that's one of the positives of my family not being out here, which has been difficult. Is my first spring training in Arizona, but I've had more time to connect with the younger guys
and and spend some time at the field. So I really, uh enjoy just taking that, taking that all in, you know, and I think the perspective of where I'm at in my career, you know, I think you want to you want to enjoy it a little bit more and realize that it's not indefinite that you get to play this game. And so it's been fun being around and hanging around the park lot.
What happened Will you wear when you go into the Hall of Fame?
Oh? Gosh, uh, you know, I I honestly, I I honestly do not know. I don't think I would tell you even if I did. But it's a good problem to have, justin it is a good problem to have. You're right, you know, who who could have known what would have happened in Houston when I got traded there in seventeen, you know, like like how much success I was able to have? No, like I I couldn't have
forecasted that, you know, no nobody really could have. So you just I just have this mentality that you know, just head down, I'm working hard and however far this career takes me and where it takes me, you know, when the dust settles, when I sit back and I look back, that's that's when I'll I'll ask those questions. But yeah, I mean I get asked. I get ask a fair amount and and and quite frankly, I just
haven't even uh tried to make that decision yet. It's obviously been thought of, but I'm trying not to make the decision.
You still have your tiger uniform, don't you. Of course I did, Yeah, and your Tiger had I have a lot of a lot of gear every year.
Every year, at the end of the season, I send it all back to my house and and just it's like, I'm honestly not looking forward to going through all of it.
Could I get the Mets gear? I mean really, that's nothing. I mean, yeah, I'll send you something. Okay, I'll send you something that's we'll put it in the man cave here.
It sounds good, I'll send it.
Hey, have fun, good to talk to you. Thank you again. How best to your wife? Thank you all right, justin Berland,