Yeah, you know, it's we had to play our a game. It's you know, it was this or we go on vacation. So I thought the group did a great job of not pressing, letting the game happen. The flow was there. We've done this in the first three games. It's just we haven't been able to capitalize. We've made the mistakes and they've capitalized on that. They shot the three well. We tried to keep them off
the free throw line tonight and not giving them second opportunity. So I thought they did a really good job of being able to execute the game plan and let the game come to us. We made some shots. Finally, you know, our role players stepped up and made some threes, and that's what we needed tonight. That's Jason Kidd, the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, who will try and bring the series back to Dallas with a five win tonight. In Boston, three games to one, the Celtics lead the series.
I was talking with my oldest son yesterday and he said something along the lines of, you know, Boston completely owning the series. I know, the final scores don't necessarily indicate that the last Boston win was by seven points. Game two was a difference of seven points. Game one was a blowout,
right one twenty four to one oh three. So I guess I don't think it's fair to always look at the final score, because sometimes teams do stage comebacks, and sometimes teams do have certain moments where they either struggle or they're really successful toward the end. How competitive do you think this has been? Has it lived up to what you thought it might? I thought Boston
was clearly the better team going in. I didn't think there was any question about that, not just based on regular season, but look at the postseason two and I think, trust me, I'm no Celtics apologize or anything like that, but I think what happens a lot of times is we get caught up in our personal feelings and we want to take something away from a team
that maybe took something away from us. And some of us who are a little bit older and remember what happened to the Pistons in the mid eighties against Boston still hold it against the Celtics, or may say, you know what, They've won seventeen championships. I don't want them to win another one. I've seen them enough through the history of a BA basketball Okay, fair enough, But what you cannot deny is how good they have been all season long.
And when people saw what they did in the postseason, what they saw what they did against Miami without Jimmy Butler and Cleveland with without you know, a star player there for the most part, and what they did against Indiana without a star player there tyres Helberton, then Donovan Mitchell and Cleveland is what I'm referring to. Then you want to say, well, they had an easy path. It's kind of like it's kind of like what happened in the
US Open yesterday if you watched any of that coverage. And I'm not a big Bryson or Shamblee fan, he's the guy who's on the Golf Network and he was part of the NBC broadcast yesterday, and he was almost you could make the case. I hate to put this on somebody and not know who they are or truly know their personal feelings, but you could make the case
that he was openly rooting for Rory McElroy. Just some of his comments, you know, the good fortune of Bryce and Deshambeau instead of giving him credit. Just little things like that, that make you a little leery of his objectivity. But you have to you have to take everything under consideration, but without taking things away from a team accomplishment. And even though I don't necessarily like the Celtics, I do give them credit for being able to do what
they've done. So beating teams like Miami and beating Indiana and beating leveland not in that order. You'll you'll sit there and say, well, they those teams were without their superstar player. Okay, but Boston can't do anything about that. But what they can do is beat them, and they did, and they beat them decisively, right, Okay, there, There's there's nothing
you could say about them about the Dallas situation. Dallas has been healthy, They've got their players, and as good as Luka Doncic has been scoring wise and Kyrie irving in the last game, Boston has withstood everything that Doncic could provide to them or for them or throw at them. And they're up three games to one, and I expect them to close them out tonight in Boston.
I'm not necessarily rooting for it. I would like to see more games in this series, if for no other reason gives you and I something to talk about. I don't have a dog in this proverbial fight, but it does keep more sports involved for you and I to discuss. That's another reason I want the Stanley Cup to continue. You're going to see Game five of that series tomorrow night in Florida after Edmonton blew out the Panthers in the last
game, and you wonder where that's been. But that's been. I think that's been a little bit closer series, I think than the NBA Finals has been. But I mean, when so many people want to just burn the Celtics, and I'm not even speaking nationwide, I'm talking more locally in Michigan based, they can't. They can't pull themselves to give them credit because of past experiences. There's a part of me that has done the same thing with teams of the past. And you know what, it may happen even later
on this year. You may be watching up San Francisco. You may you may be watching the San Francisco forty nine ers later on this season, and you might be looking for every possible you know, deficiency that that team has and try to take it away from him. So what makes your team look a little bit better that may be the case because they broke your heart last year, frustrated you to no end. Same with me, absolutely, but
in the end you do have to give them credit. I would hope you're you understand that, and I would hope the same thing for this This Boston team again, not that I was a huge fan of any of those Boston teams in the past. Couldn't stand Danny Ainge, didn't like Robert Parrish, right, just like Boston didn't like any of the Piston teams. Don't I
don't like any of those Boston teams. I respected certain players Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Dennis Johnson for a period of time, you know, Cornbread Maxwell for a period of time, respected how good they were, but couldn't stand them. This Boston team, and maybe it's again it goes back to personal experience. It's not like they've denied the Pistons of anything. I think it's hard not to like a guy like Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum. I
think they're really good players. And Drew Holliday for what he does and brings to a team. Something to be said for that. Phone number in the Meyer hotline is eight six six eight three eight forty eight forty three. You could text the program sports Radio to twenty one thousand. There was an interesting, what I considered an interesting article through the New York Times and The Athletic the other day, and it will go back to baseball. They wanted to
redraft the twoth and fourteen draft. Here's the reason why it takes in baseball a little bit longer to recognize, you know, what a player is going to be. I'll give you who the Tigers drafted that year, who they should have drafted, and who this article suggests the Tigers should have drafted. They're all different, and I don't agree with it, but I'll give it to you because it did affect this team long term. There's no doubt about
it. It's another example of what the hell was wrong with this team's inability to draft the right player and develop them. We'll get to that when we come back on X's and Bros. On a Monday morning throughout the Great State of Michigan on the Michigan Sports Network, Ready Set Drop with Soaring Eagle, Casino and Resorts, Clinko Craze get in on the action every Friday in June
every hour from ten am. To ten PM. Two lucky guests, We'll take the plunge and drop three pucks down the Clinko board to win up to three thousand in premium play Go crazy and win big with a Clinko craze only at Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort Your getaway reimagine visits Soaring Eagle Casino, doc confert of rerules and details. As of late, the Tigers have been ridiculed for a lot of their draft, and my argument to that has always been,
it's not that I necessarily disagree with it. My issue is that, well, quite honestly, you haven't really you haven't been paying attention. It's it's not recently, It's been happening for a while now. The athlete, excuse me. The alphletic came out and they redid a draft of twenty and fourteen, and that is the year. This is a good example here, folks. That is the year that the Tigers drafted won Derreck Hill out of
Elk Grove High School in Sacramento, California, twenty third. Overall. They could have had Matt Chapman, a third baseman out of California State Fullerton, Derek Hill, and he had. You know, people raved about his athleticism, Okay, his speed, all right, the tools that he could have provided, so never had more than forty nine games played in the majors.
He's in the Texas organization. Now. He went from the Tigers organization and he only played three years in Detroit and ninety five total games, and then went to Washington for a year where he only played thirteen games in the Nationals. And now he's in the Texas organization. And I'm not suggested at the age of twenty eight he hang it up, keep that dream alive. But the thing that Tigers and a lot of teams I think fail to recognize when
drafting players or drafting in general, is the heart of players. We look at strength of arm, speed, ability to hit, maybe a hit for power, you know, the five tools that we constantly bring up when it comes associated with baseball. And I think the other quality you would like to have in a player is the heart, the want to, the desire.
How you measure that is really up to each individual team, I suppose, But those are the kinds of things I've talked with many of X player who were tough as nails, and that's what they would like to see, They would like to almost be in on a lot of those conversations with players. You know how you before you draft somebody, you're not just looking at tape and then saying, you know what, I'm gonna take this guy without really
talking to them. I'm not saying every situation is like the NFL draft, where you're bringing Jack Campbell into a room and asking them to go over various film. What do you see here, what's your responsibility, what are you calling out? So on and so forth. But when you're drafting a guy in the first round, like the Tigers did with Derrek Hill in twenty fourteen, you better know that person. You better get to know them quickly. It's a massive investment. It can't be just hey, you know what,
I watched you play in high school and you dominated. Well, no kidding, you should dominate. You're going to be a first round pick in the Major League Baseball draft. You should be dominant. I want to know what's going to make you want to be dominant at the next level and then the level after that. You've got to get to know the player. Anybody who had seen this guy play, yes, was impressed to a certain extent with his ability, but what about the ability to fight through injuries or fight through
adversity. That's the kind of player you want to It's always it's not always easy to find that combination. Tigers do think, in fairness, they do think they have that in a guy like Max Clark, who they drafted in the first round, third overall year ago. They feel like that's the makeup of him now. Wyatt Langford had the same makeup when he was playing in Florida and is doing it there in Texas right now. I think it was Friday or Thursday night had a couple of RBIs. Friday had an RBI.
He's not going to win Rookie of the Year, but he's playing pretty regularly and that's going to be the measuring stick. With Max Clark, He's always going to be compared to Wyat Langford because so many people wanted him there. Jackson Job will be compared to Marcella Mayer because so many of us wanted him the shortstop to be a Tiger rather than the high school pitcher. It's just every player shouldn't say every A lot of players have that link to them,
Okay, Dylan Cruz and Paul Skens. You can bring up baseball guys moving forward and you can look back at it the same thing we're all well aware of. You know, the Darko Milicic comparisons. It didn't happen right after the first season. It happened going into that season because so many other people wanted Carmelo Anthony, or maybe you were a Chris Bosh fan, or perhaps
it was Dwayne Wade any or all the above. I'm not saying you and I would know Derek Hill was drafted head of Matt Chapman, and that's the guy that Tigers should have and his career is going to be compared to him for the rest. No, I'm not going to claim to know that Matt Chapman was the guy back then, but we do know that there were questions about Derrek Hill's how shall I put this commitment okay to being the best he can be? Are you willing to put in the work to do it?
And how quickly? How quickly did the organization recognize that that was not there? Really good organizations recognize certain things about certain players and cut bait if it's not their kind of player. We made a mistake. Let's move on tough to swallow, really difficult to swallow by the way, same topic or same sport, different topic. Mookie Bets was hit on the hand yesterday. Did you see that show here? Tani Yard twice? Freddie Freeman hit a bomb.
Mookie Betts was hit on the hand. Who knows how long he's going to be out. I don't know the Dodgers farm system. I don't know what they're going to do at shortstop. I doubt they bring Chris Taylor in and play him at shortstop. He's had a really bad year. These are situations that upset me even more about the Hobby or Baio situation, because that
might be a viable option. Had he been any halfway decent of a player this year, had he been better than he is right now, a little bit more than marginally better, you could possibly get out from underneath it with a team that needs a player like that, and can go into a situation where he's not the guy when there are so many other guys that people want to talk to. Very similar to his Mets situation or Cub situation would have
been ideal. Keyword there would have been because he's it's impossible, because how bad he's been all right. Quick time out and then we'll take your calls on the Meyer hotline eight six six eight three eight forty eight forty three. The text line is Sports Radio twenty one thousand. Here on Exes and Bros. Day with us. The Freddy the Pizza Man Foundation is dedicated to providing
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What's up, Michigan. You're listening to my good friend Shep. The Huge Show is coming up later today at three right here on the Michigan Sports Network. All right, back with you on Exers and Bros. Glad you're with us. Our poll question on our Twitter page or our X page. Did Bryson Deshambo win the US Open or did Rory McElroy lose the US Open because McElroy bow gave three of the last four holes he played. Either way, however you choose to vote, I thought it was a phenomenal way to start
slash cap your day of Father's Day. The shot on eighteen. I don't know if people saw this. I'm sure you have by now. The shot that Dsham had on eighteen was simply incredible. Not the t shot because that was brutal, not the second shot that wasn't a whole lot better, but the third shot. Watching that play, I thought to myself, therein lies the essence of golf. You could be it's what makes the sport great,
but it also makes it extremely frustrating. I mean, you could have on a par four, you could have three really good shots and then screw up the putt and you'd leave frustrated. You could have three bad shots but hit something at the very end to salvage the hole, and you could walk away feeling pretty good about yourself. De Shambo went way left on his drive. The ball was in sand, but not in a trap near a tree.
Route he punches it out. I think he was trying to get it to the center of the fairway could be wrong there ends up going pretty far and into a bunker side trap or a green side trap, I should say. And it's a long bunker shot, which is one of the more challenging in all of golf, The long bunker shots, not those in the fairway. Those guys don't mind that. It's the bunker shots that require you to that are around the green, but require you to get it pretty deep to reach
the flag. Not one player from that bunker of that distance was able to salvage par at the US Open until Bryce and Deshambo did it on eighteen on Sunday for the Championship. He nestled it up within four feet, sank the putt and one by one shot. That's a hell of a play. I was watching him with some folks yesterday and somebody was complaining about Bryson Deshambo's putting style. And this is after he had bogied one of the holes. See, I don't like the way he putts. And I said, but what
I have you? Why do you wait until like the sixteenth hole to complain about it when he's been knocking down putts all day an all tournament long. I don't understand that, And I said to somebody else, you watch if he doesn't win this tournament or if it goes to you know, extra holes,
if it's a playoff hole. I said, people are going to complain left and right about his being a radical off the t changing the driver head before the round, and his putting style because as they mentioned during the broadcast, the margin for air the way he puts, the margin for air is very small, just because the requirement of his style where he stands over it, has his arms wide, has an extended putter in length, all that stuff. Anyway, that's our poll question. You can go to follow us
on on X or on Twitter at x's and bros. Ben I know. We got some more texts. Yeah, fire away. It says she now that the DH is full time, is there a stereotype that an NL pitcher can't come to the AL and pitch well, or an AL pitcher can go to the NL and pitch great? Yeah, good question. What's the stereo? Do you think the stereotype before was that National League pitchers could go to the American League and have greater success than the other way around. I think
that's what people believed, because yeah, they didn't have to bat. I would be interested to know how much it has helped Pictures, and I do believe no longer are people. I don't know if it's the stereotype. Okay, let me just say that, I don't know if it's shystereotype, but I do believe there are more people thinking out there that there isn't the necessary advantage that there used to be. The adjustment is a little bit easier.
So that's a good question. I'll have to ask Pictures that next time I'm down there to see if indeed that is a thing with them. I know, Look, I don't know how people feel about it. There's a purity that people believed existed in the National League when a pitcher had hit. I never liked it. There are certain things. This happens in every sport, but there are certain things in baseball, especially that I never liked and I
still don't. And there are certain things I didn't think I would like and I did with the new rules, for example, never thought I would like the seven inning doubleheaders, but I did. Never liked the ghost runner at second base in extra innings, and I still don't do not like the rules of disengagement for pictures when there's a man on and I'm never going to like that. I think it's an unfair advantage for the runner. I think it's
bs okay with the DH or pitchers hitting. Never liked pictures hitting, even though Mickey Lulich was had one of the biggest hits in the nineteen sixty eight World Series. Never never liked it. Just never thought. I mean, it's not what I don't think it's what people pay to see. I think people pay to see pictures pitch and hitters hit. It's it's not enjoyable watching a pitcher stand in there and look completely overmatched on three or four pitches.
Yes, there is the exception to the rule where somebody may actually turn on one, close their eyes and get a hold of it, and sure there is a picture or two. Who thinks, you know what, I wasn't that bad if people let me handle it, I wasn't that bad. You know who? You know who was like that? If you look at Zach Greenkey and that was That's always been the example used. You know, Zach Greenkey was a really good hitter, and this then and the other thing.
Okay, that's fine. I think with Zach Greenke. If you took somebody else and you said, all right, this is what this hitter. I know he's a pitcher, but the argument had always been from a hitting perspective. I want to see pictures hit. Why, well, look at Zach Greenke. That's a guy who betted you know, two twenty five in his career. Okay, i'd reiterate it's two twenty five. Anybody else who hits two twenty five you don't want to watch. You don't want to watch him
hit. You look at two twenty five and you're thinking this isn't good enough. He shouldn't be playing, And you're right, And I know Zach Greenki brings something else to the table for whatever team he was playing with. I'm just giving you the example of hitting because this is what people use as the bar for pitchers. Cole Keith hitting better than two twenty five, and there's
a lot of people who think he should be sent down. So I was never, and I never will be a proponent of pitchers hitting, just like I don't want to see position players pitching. I don't want to be snobby about baseball, but I feel like it's a mockery of the game. I can't say that I ever remembers a game is so bad where managers brought in a position player to pitch. I just, I just I can't remember.
I don't think Gene Mauck way back in the day ever thought, you know what, I'm gonna have Rod Carew eventually pitched today if things get out of hand. Wrong answer, not the way you want it to be. Anyway. That's kind of how I feel about baseball. It's a it's a good text, and I appreciate it. We get another one. Ben Yeah says, would you consider these moves for the Tigers if Saint Louis and Colorado move on from them? Charlie Blackman and Paul Goldschmid, that's from well, first
of all, really like them both. Okay, I think a lot so much depends on that, ready, and here's here's what it is. Because Charlie Blackman, who I think has been an outstanding hitter, but he's thirty seven. I don't know his contractual situation. I just know he's up there in age. I think he's about thirty seven. What you would have to figure out, more than anything else. First of all, he's an outfielder,
so tell me where he fits. You're gonna play right field for you at the age of thirty seven, on what type of contract and all that other stuff. Right, then you got to figure out. Okay, when he's at coors Field, he's a three thirty one hitter. I'm not trying to take anything away from him. When he hits away from coors Field, he's a two point fifty eight hitter. That's a big difference on base percentage. Three ninety one at home, three seventeen on the road. Slug's five
point fifty four at home, slugs four to ten on the road. Right, he's more of a he's more of a hitter. He's not a power hitter. I don't consider him a power hitter anyway, but he's been a hell of a hitter. I would not. I don't think that's what they need. Paul Goldschmidt is thirty six. He's got great pop. Does he still have great pop? I mean twenty five homers a year ago? How
long are they going to sustain it again? So many other questions need to be asked and cannot be answered, like how long are you going to keep him? What do you have to give up? If anything, What is the contract situation going to be? You know, those are the different things. I've always liked Paul Goldschmidt. He's an incredible defensive player, four time
goal glover, and he's been a consistent offensive stick. This is the hard thing I think about baseball, because you are under team control for so long, it's hard to find that guy. That's why drafting and developing is so vital for a team's success. You draft a guy and you develop him. Now, Paul Goldschmidt was drafted by Arizona, actually drafted by the Dodgers first and then Arizona, and he's a he was a late round pick. He
was an eighth round draft pick. And Kirk Gibson was part of Arizona when Paul Goldschmidt was brought up, and Gibby and I have talked about him quite a bit and give me his set on more than one occasion. He just he loves everything about him. Everything about that guy reeks of professionalism and hard work. He would be such a good example for the young players of the Tigers. He'd be fantastic. This is his last year, This is his last year in Saint Louis. He's maybe twenty six million bucks. So I
just found out this is his last contract. Contract is up at the end of the year. Is he a guy you would want to go get? Could serve as a first basement for you, could serve as the designated hitter for you, But that would then force what Carrie Carpenter to play on a regular basis, unless you want to have him as the DH Well Goldschmith plays first base and Torklsen gets a day off. And yes, I'm still believing that Tarkosen will be part of this franchise. I hope. So I think
it's important. He's got to prove himself. I'm not giving it to him, but it's really important. We use Paul Goldschmidt as an example. Paul Goldsmith twenty four. At the age of twenty four, he was in his second season. He only hit twenty bombs. Spencer Torkolsen already has exceeded that. I'm not saying Toorkosen is going to be as good as Paul Goldschmid. I would love for that to be the case. That's asking an awful lot.
I don't think that will be the case, especially defensively, which has been a little bit of a bummer because I thought Torklosen would be better defensively. He has not been. Anyway, I digress. That's how you'd work that in. You have to look at it in more ways than just one. It can't be just well, he's going to be your first baseman and we'll figure out what we're going to do with Torkolsen. Cause again we're talking
about drafting and developing guys for extended period of times. You're not going to be able to just go out and pluck a guy who you think is going to fit your franchise for an extended period of time. At the age of twenty six. You want to make some trades. Okay, maybe you get the next rendition of a Miguel Cabrera trade. Don't think that there's one out
there, but how great would that be? It'd be great. Remember this, when you traded Cabrera, though you gave up a lot of your high draft stock, cam Maybman was a high draft pick, right People viewed him as a big deal within the organization. Same thing with Jacob Turner. Anyway. Bottom line is I would say no to those I just don't see the productivity. I would not want to get caught up in a lengthy, extended contract not even sure they'd come here. Has nothing to do with the city
of Detroit. Has everything to do with whether or not you can win. But I don't want to get caught up guys who are thirty six and thirty seven years old, giving them a two year deal if they'd even take that, and suddenly they're on the cusp of almost forty years old. Again, No thanks. You've got to be your scouting staff. Your crew has to be better at identifying players who can help you in different ways at a younger age. This ballpark, because you're playing half your games is this ballpark?
I always talk about power, and I think they need it for sure, you know that. But there's other ways to have power, not just home runs. Can we get somebody who's a little bit more tailor made to the ballpark in terms of finding gaps, hitting doubles and triples. They bring in runs too, you know. But it's a good question. I like the
way you're thinking. Final hour of X's and Bros. Coming up. The Meyer hotline is open for you six eight three, eight forty eight forty three, or you can do what a lot of folks have already done this morning. Text the program Sports Radio to twenty one thousand, stay with us. What's up Michigan. I want to give some love to Ben Glaze producing another great SHEP broadcast Superflies producer My show later today at three, The Huge Show
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