Rick and Tom on the World Baseball Classic, Video Reviews and Getting Ejected From Games

0:00Looking for soccer analysis, more knowing than a Carlo Ancelotti eyebrow raise, with the World Cup around the corner joining me, Max Rushton and the Guardian's expert soccer journalist on football weekly for all the latest soccer action and news throughout the week. We'll cover more ground than Drew Bellingham and a Champions League final with conversations sharper than an Arsenal set piece for fine margins, fun debates and full blooded tackles football weekly. Listen wherever you get your podcasts and watch the full episodes on YouTube. Happy Friday to you. We've got Tom Jones, former columnist at Tampa Times, also a former radio partner now with the pointer institute of media studies to join us here in just a minute. It's March Madness, baby, Florida at Benchmark Arena playing tonight. Sometime between, I guess, nine, 30 and 10 o'clock. Who they going up against, Steve Hyatt? Who's it? Prairie View, A&M. Prairie View. Yeah, they won the play in game, right? Yeah, they beat Lehigh on Wednesday night. So congratulations to them, which is actually, it's actually very,

1:00important for the schools. And a lot of people think that it should all be 16 seeds that are these playing games. Or, or, or there's others that say it should be all the last, the last at large bids that do it. But for the 16 seeds that play in it, every game you win in the tournament, your school gets $2 million. Oh, wow. So 16s rarely win. That's happened what twice that they've beaten a one seed. But when you play in these playing games, some of these schools are getting that's big money for them, athletic programs and stuff. So oh, my gosh, yeah. Every game you win in the tournament, you get paid some of your school. So, you know, this playing games actually help these smaller schools that play in them. Yeah, if you can, if you can win the game. So yeah, it's a, it's a huge win fall. And then in Florida wins, I think they play the winner of Iowa or Clemson, I think is next on the, on the docket. So looking forward to seeing the Glacier's course, they had an early exit or early exit that they wanted to against Vanderbilt and the SEC. So, and I'm heading out today to Valspar, day two.

2:01Oh, yeah, Valspar championships. I'm taking the boys out there. They're on spring break. So, you know, that's a great, I've done that probably half a dozen times. I love that tournament. I'll tell you one thing, though, and the kids will notice this or maybe they won't. Like when you get out there and I had, I used to live out that way. I had an apartment for a while. But when you get out there and you walk that course, it's hilly. It's hilly folks. You feel it, you feel it in your legs, you really do. Yeah, we went last year for the first time. The boys loved it. They're like, we have to go back, have to go back. So we're going to go out that afternoon. So, yeah, no, that's a lot of fun for sure. So we got time. Jones coming up here in just a minute. But first I want to make sure you guys get on down to Breitling boutique. That's an international plaza mall. We've talked about our sponsors for a long time. The Breitling companies have been making Swiss watches now for going on. What, 140 years they've been at international plaza for six years. Now, what I, you're going to love about it is a customer service. Go in there and spend some time, right? They're going to pour you a drink and they're going to tell you about their great products. Men's watches, the Navatimers, the Chroma mats. They have watches for women as well for your wife, your girlfriend.

3:03These are sports watches that are incredibly beautiful, durable as well. She could choose from just an array of different colored wristbands. And what's really important is as you approach the store while supplies last, look to the left, the last case, you're going to see the NFL shield. And that's because inside are some NFL team watches. There actually are 32 teams and 32 different team watches. While supplies last, commemorating the NFL's 144th anniversary in Breitling, boutique, international plaza. I saw the Buckeneers team watch, the Jacksonville Jaguars team watch. Now, these watches are Chroma watches. They have the team colors on the face of the watch, a logo inside. I mean, they are gorgeous and just collectors items if you've ever seen one. It's Breitling, boutique, international plaza. Make sure when you go, you tell them that you heard about it right here. On Sports Day Tampa Bay. Hi, this is Pablo Torre from Pablo Torre finds out. And today I want to talk to you about boost mobile because we spent a lot of time analyzing inefficiencies in sports, overvalued contracts, money tied up in

4:07the wrong places and so on, but those inefficiencies aren't just on a roster. Sometimes they're in your own monthly expenses. Boost mobile says switching to their $25 unlimited forever plan can unlock up to $600 in savings a year. That's $25 a month for unlimited data, talk and text when you bring your own phone. If that money is trapped in a pricey phone bill, it might be worth a second. Look, visit boostmobile.com to learn more. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience lower speeds, customers pay $25 per month as long as they remain active on the boost mobile and limited plan. Savings claim based on a January 2026 boost mobile survey of a thousand Americans with single line unlimited plans comparing average annual payments of major carriers to 12 months on the boost mobile and limited plan. For full offered details, visit boostmobile.com. I had special treat my long time radio buddy, long time columnist for the Tampa Times now with the pointer institute of media studies. He has his own podcast. Tom Jones joins us today.

5:10Tommy, what's up, buddy? What is going on, my friend? Yeah, I got my own podcast. Talking to big movers and shakers in the media world. All right, I'm ready to pick up some names. Go ahead. Let's go. Hit it. Hit me. Hit me now. Shackie's been on. Chucks hot has been on. I just had Sarah Fisher from Axios. Oliver Darcy's been on. Wow. Look at you. Yeah. I know. I know. I Tom Yamis, the anchor from NBC Nightly News has been on. So yeah, how about that? Jen Sockie. So quick story because that's all we do here. She's on by the way, Jen Sockie's awesome, but go ahead. Yeah, I I think she's really awesome. And so when the bucks won the Super Bowl, I've been to the White House. Yeah, I think just twice. That's more than Trump of late. The old one that is. Yeah, they were true. They didn't have a ballroom back then. I saw that this wing when it was still a bowling alley, you know, that stuff in the theater where Clinton used to watch basketball, whatever.

6:11But and I told this story, I'm not going to repeat it, but I yes, I went into the oval office and behind the resolute desk, it was unbelievable. So, but when Tom Brady went up there and they had won the Super Bowl and that whole thing, you know, with Biden, the law and all that stuff, before we could go outside, you know, we kind of put our stuff in what is the press room, you know, that you see Jen Sockie and others come out the White House. The White House Briefing Room, yeah. Briefing Room, yeah, thank you. I think it's called the James Brady Briefing Room. You're exactly right. It is. And so it's kind of like how, you know, how life is smaller in reality than you see it on TV. Absolutely the case. Like this is a, this is one of the most cramped rooms of it. Like the bucks interview room is like massive compared to the White House Briefing Room. Like really? You would, oh yeah, you wouldn't think so, but it's the White House, you know? Like it wasn't built yesterday. So you're in there and there's not, there's like a kind of folding chair,

7:15rows of folding chairs and stuff. And we just, I just wanted a place like I had this big backpack. I wasn't going to carry this stuff around. So I was like, hey, can we, can we like just, you know, put our stuff? Oh yeah, just put it in the briefing room and we're going to walk outside, you know, around past the Rose Garden or whatever it was. And Biden's going to put on the jersey and the whole thing. So we did, that we did the interviews and then it was time to, you know, get our stuff that we weren't going to work there per se. Right, right. Because they really didn't have us, you know, room for us to do that. But, you know, had my stuff because I had flown in from Baltimore someplace and wanted to go across the street, some coffee shop. I was going to file, get on a plane, dull us and go home. And so we went back to the, to the briefing room and Jen Saki was having her thing. And yeah, it was cool because I got to kind of stand there in the corner. But the whole time I'm seeing my back and I'm going, could you, could you guys just, hey, could I have that back right there underneath your chair? Yeah. Hey, Caitlin Collins, can you, exactly, exactly.

8:19That's, that's what I felt like, like, you know, calling out these guys. And I, and it was annoying because for whatever reason that press, that, that media scrum went so long. Oh my god. She wasn't known for like extraordinarily long ones like they are today sometimes. But, um, but it was cool. It was really cool, um, you know, seeing that room and being part of history and all that. But, yeah, I've never been to that room. I've never been to the White House. I've been, you know, obviously, on a perimeter White House. But I've never been inside the White House because no team I ever covered once, one, one championship. But, um, I remember going there years ago when I was working for the Tampa Tribune. It was one of my first trips into Washington. And Tim Buckley was working for the Tampa Bay Times. I'm sure he times at the time, covered late. So we decided to take a walk. We walked around the White House. And all of a sudden we see this. We, like, we're over by, I guess where the press comes in and out. And the great Helen Thomas. I don't know if you know. Oh my god. She worked for the Associated Press. She was the core, or UPI at one point. UPI at one time, yeah.

9:19Correspondent while White House Christmas. And the tradition was she used to get the first question. So whatever they started. For Helen Thomas. So here comes like Tim and I are standing there. And we're like, I think that's Helen Thomas coming out. And it's like, it's like seven to six o'clock, seven o'clock at night. And the sun's already down, you know. And she's coming the other way and we're standing there. And as, as she's walking out, Tim says to her, Hey, Miss Thomas. And she was just the coolest thing. She's like, hiya, boys. And just thought walking like the whiskey voice going on. Yeah, hiya, boys. And it just kept on. It was like she couldn't have been like, that is so cool. Like she knew that like, yeah, I, you know, who I am. I know you know who I am, but she wasn't going to stop and chat. Hi. Is it she about four and a half feet tall or was? Yeah, yeah, very tiny, very tiny woman. But definitely like, what a, so people say like, like who are some of the coolest people you've ever run? Like, Helen Thomas, like just the vibe she gave off was so awesome, you know. Oh, yeah, that's big time.

10:20That's she was kind of the Whitney Johnson of our of our era. I guess she would say when Joe Madden was here. They got the first question, right? Didn't Whitney always get the first question. Yeah, he got a gang rock and roll. That's the way that that's funny, that's funny. But yeah, so the White House. But anyway, yeah, well, good for you, man. That's a yeah, that's kind of a cool moment. So since you've been gone a few things have happened in the world of sports a little bit. I wanted to get your thoughts because I, so I kind of got into this a little bit and I'm not sure I should have. World baseball classic. Okay, and I would say just, and this kind of goes to another realm as far as like, you know, what we should do with all star games and things like that. You know, we've seen, you know, in hockey them, you know, obviously the Olympics is its own deal,

11:21right? But then they did the 14 tournament and all that. First of all, what did you, what did you catch any of that? What did you think of just loved it? Loved it. Watched it. Loved it. Thank you. And here's the thing like I did not think I would get into it. Because for me, I'm a huge, obviously I'm a huge hockey fan. So I'm this hockey season, you know, and we're coming down to the stretch. And I'm an NBA fan also too. I've watched a lot of NBA. So I thought, yeah, I do. I like the NBA. And I'm used to be a much bigger college basketball fan, but I'm not as, I'm less so these days. But anyway, so for, I thought that spring, I really don't get into spring training. I rarely go to spring training games anymore. I'm not in a bit. It takes a lot to get into baseball. I wait to opening day to get into baseball. So I'm thinking I'm not into this tournament. And then I tell you when I really locked into it was I get a text from my son, my youngest one Andy, he says, Italy's killing the United States. Are you watching this chunk? And I'm like, what do you tell? I need to know what it was talking about for a second.

12:23And then I realized, oh, that world-based, you're talking about the world-based world-based world-classic. And from that moment on, I got locked in and I watched everything. And so I watched every picture of the game against the Dominican Republic. And then I watched every picture of the game against Venezuela. I also watched the Venezuela Japan game. So totally into it, totally loved it. And I didn't think I would. And the other thing about it is it was one of those tournaments that it was fun to get on the edge of your seat. But at the end of the day, I didn't care that much. You know what I'm saying? Like it's a weird, like I wasn't like upset when the United States lost. So I could enjoy it while also like sort of getting into it at the same time if that makes sense. Yeah, it was interesting that Italy was actually was so good. I mean, apparently if your name ended in a vow, you could play for Italy. Is that how that worked? I mean, pretty much or if you're from Jersey, I guess or New York, you know, those guys were. Yeah, yeah. But I love it. I love that tournament. I thought it was, I thought it was just so much.

13:24It felt like every game was a game seven to the world. No, you know, it was funny about that. Not to interrupt, but I just did it. Aaron Judge said the exact same thing. He said it was, he said it was bigger in some ways than the world series in terms of just, you know, the atmosphere was bigger than any world series game he had played it. I loved the, I did, I did love the jitter was such a kind of a, kind of a Debbie Downer about they asked before the game against, you know, the United States in Venezuela. They said, he was asked while he was on the Fox free game. Like, hey, some people say this is a, this is bigger than the world series. And you said, yeah, the only people to say that are people who never played the world series. Which I, yeah, I got it literally, but I kind of agree. But then there's the, there's the current captain of the Yankees. And Aaron Judge saying it was bigger than the world series. And I think if you were to like a lot of the guys who played in that game, I think it was a bigger deal. You're like, you watch how Venezuela reacted to it. Oh my god. For as much as I remember Bryce Harper at some point during this tournament said,

14:27oh, it's it's not quite, you know, it's really, it's not quite the Olympics even, but it's really, really cool. But then I watched him hit that game tying home run the other night. Yeah. And he was just jacked up as anybody for that. So look, I think everybody was into it. It was the only thing obviously was that I worried about was could you, I didn't know if you'd be able to duplicate the pitching that you would normally see. But apparently you could because no one hit in this whole tournament. And along those lines, I think this time of year pitching is always ahead of the hitters, as I say, in the spring trains that I've been to. And what's interesting is that, and I don't know if this is true. I heard, heard it. So if somebody said it, maybe it's true that some of the players on these other countries started ramping up their batting practices or at bats and things like that much sooner than than the American players who come to spring training as you know, Tom, like they get two, three, four at bats a day, you know, they do their work. They're done, right? They want, they got so many before they get to the regular season, whether that's 50, whatever it is.

15:30And they're not worried about results necessarily. I mean, they want results, but there's a process thing. But then you saw what happened in the World Baseball Classic. And none of these guys on the American team were hitting at all. And it kind of like, I don't know that you can really pin that all on just the process of spring training and how Americans view it versus how these other teams did. But the bats, even though these are the best players in the world on the US team, they weren't, they struggled to score. And I don't think it's because the pitching was so dominant on the other side. I just think they just weren't ramped up to regular season speed. You know, you barely get to spring training and then boom, you're playing games in high leverage situations. Although I will say like the stuff that we were watching in the last couple of games, the stuff from that. Oh, yeah, it wasn't that filthy. Yeah. I mean, guys coming out throw, what did they do from what's his name? Miller threw 100 and hit 102.

16:30Yeah, no one was going to hit him on any day. Yeah, well, that's the thing like the other thing, the other thing that's fun about these tournaments and I'll go back, for example, to the hockey, the Olympic tournament is that it's the one time where you get to root for guys that you normally don't like at all. You hate, you know, like it like the Kachak brothers. No, who likes the Kachak brothers? Nobody except for the Florida Panther fans and the Ottawa standards fans. Yeah, right. Other than that, like everybody hates the Kachak's until they put on the American jersey, you're an American and you watch the game or whatever. So that's the way I looked at this tournament is if you live around here, you don't, you're sick of the, you don't like the Yankees if you're a race fan. So you never root for judge. Kaushwerber, you never root for because it's Philly or whatever. And it's fun to have a game where you can, like those guys are on your team for a change. They're on your side, yeah. And yet it gets you, it makes me even angrier when they go two for 10 with six strikeouts or whatever it was.

17:31Well, that was hard for until that big home run. Exactly. Yeah. So I mean, so there's that's almost enjoyable too is like you could, you could dump on judge or ensure that when those guys don't do anything either. So I don't know, I loved it. I thought it was great. I wish there was a way that I don't think there is. You mentioned all-star game. I wish there was a way you could shut down the league in the middle of the season. To have that tournament because I think it would even be more exciting. But I just don't think, I don't just don't think it's possible. You can't shut down. Well, my injury, is that because of an injury? Yeah, I don't so think you could shut down pictures around baseball for, for however long it would take to play a week or so. Could you make it like, like hockey did that one year where it's just four countries? I don't know. Again, like say, say you're, say you're the Tampa Bay race and none of your pictures make it. I mean, can you shut shame a clan of hand down for eight days or whatever? Like, I don't know. I mean, he's working. I mean, we don't have any. I mean, maybe, yeah, I mean, maybe some bullpen's during that time.

18:33I don't know. During that time. Rest of doing good. I think Jason Stark had the idea of doing the round robin part in spring training. Okay. Okay. And then the 18th. And then play the championship. The eight teams that advance. So the all-star week basically, Monday's home runner, Ruby Tuesday's all-star Wednesday is the quarter finals. Thursday, Friday is the semi-finals. Saturday, Sunday is the final. And it's all within a week there. But you do like the round rob, kind of like the Champions League and Soccer, where, you know, they're playing throughout the year. It's not like one tournament that happens in a two-week window. It's, you know, a couple games here, a couple games here. And you play throughout the year. Like, do the round robin part early, spring training, whatever, you get your eight teams that qualify. And then do the quarter finals, et cetera, around the all-star game. And so basically, baseball shut down for a week there. But it gives you that in tournament in the middle of the season. It wouldn't be like hindering it for two or three weeks to shut down.

19:34Now, you could make the argument like why, why even do that? Because the whole reason that they came up with this four nations tournament and the whole reason why the Olympics work so well in the NHL is because the all-star break has become useless, in my opinion. Like, yes, that's correct. Like, do you have the skills competition, same thing with the NBA? You have the skills competition and you have the game where nobody plays defense. You're trying to come up like the NBA. The NBA actually pulled it off a little bit this year. I thought the games were a little bit more competitive and there was a little more defense. It gives Victor Wombayama to come up there and decide I'm going to play defense in this game. But other than that, like, baseball doesn't have that problem. The all-star game is actually still a pretty good product because it's because you're still playing the real baseball. Yeah, a reasonable game. But if you made the whole week a celebration of baseball from Homer and Derby to the all-star game, to your futures game, to then the the world baseball classic finals or, you know, the quarter finals on, like, it may work. Oh, so you're saying keep the all-star game and just add the yeah. Yeah, so then so the all-star game is to the Homer and Derby's Monday,

20:36the all-star games Tuesday, the quarter finals are Wednesday, maybe Wednesday Thursday, the semi-finals Friday, and then Saturday or Sunday is your championship. So basically for one week there, instead of a three-day all-star break, it's a week long. But you get the world baseball classic, you know, the quarter, you'll get seven games there. Interesting. Well, I'll tell you one, actually, good idea. I kind of like it. I mean, I would definitely watch that. I'll tell you one thing that I came away from these few games that in the world baseball, WBC, we saw Junior Kim and Arrow is that dude. That guy, and I've met him one time, Tom, dropped some names. I was at Joe Madden's, like, Thanksgiving, whatever that was, 100 years ago. It seems like now. Yep, got it. Thanks. It wasn't just him. There was also, I believe, I met my guy, Ryan Pepeo, was with him. As I was singing there, having drinks with Ronda Barber. Anyway, anyway, you got it, I got it. I also saw Ken Babby that night. It was a great night.

21:38What can I say? But Junior Kim and Arrow, first of all, I don't know if he's 22, but God bless you. You look a little older, but, you know, if you are, my Lord, I mean, he hits the baseball so hard, you know, and I don't know if he's going to do it the trap. You know, we, Stephen, I've talked about that. I think Steinbrenner was a very generous home field for him as far as home runs go. But this dude, everything he hits is 116 miles an hour. It's incredible. The bat speed this cat has. Call him a kid. He's grown ass, man. But I'm just saying, right, right. I mean, we might be looking at a mic trout type talent, maybe not defensively, but like just, you know, and it's only been a year. I get it. You know, you hit what, 45 home runs. Um, but he could hit 50, 55 like he's got that kind of just ridiculous strength. What I like about him and what I like about a lot of the, I mean, really every player in

22:39baseball these days is you can't throw a pitch by anybody. I mean, every, I mean, God, God strike out. Don't get me wrong. But at the same time, a picture could throw it 100 miles an hour and a guy turned on it and hit him. And that's the way baseball is these days, which is, I get it. It's, it's a lot of feaster famine these days. It's the home run strike out game. I that I don't always, I'm always crazy about. But yeah, watching him, and it was weird. That's another thing about these tournaments, Rick, is did you watch a game? You want to see him do well, but you're, but he's playing for the team that you're rooting against. And so it's kind of fun to watch somebody have success. It's like, oh, somebody's got in a home run. I got it. It's that guy, you know, yeah, that's another thing. It's fun about these tournaments. Or if you're watching, for example, when I was watching the, either the four nations tournament a year ago or the Olympics this year, how could you not root for Brent, you know, for, for, for Hagel, you know, oh, yeah. And, and get excited when he makes a big player, makes a big hit or something like that.

23:40It was kind of like that in the Olympics a little bit. I mean, John Cooper was coaching Canada. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I don't dislike. I don't necessarily want to see him lose. You know what I mean? And you had lighting players on Canada and all that. That's a little bit different. But yeah, now I was, I love those performances. I'll say this too. So tell me again, why Miami is a bad baseball city. I know, right? I mean, did you see the passion? I realized people international flights, you know, come from everywhere, right? And there's probably a pretty good Latin American community down there to say the least. Sure. But it didn't matter what was Venezuela, the Dominican Republic. You name it. USA. Mexico. Mexico. Like, I don't know if Mexico played it. They may have played it. They may not have there. But like, it didn't seem to matter. That place was on fire. You don't see that. And that's what Judge was talking about. Like, you know, I played in World Series, man, this, this energy is unbelievable. And for baseball,

24:44like, it was, to me, that was the coolest thing. That was just like, I mean, you get the sense of that don't you, Rick, I think the last couple of years, and I think the pitch clock has a lot to do with it. Either that or the narrative is something to change. But it feels like baseball is, like I said, it's back. It's not back to the way this poppers was in the 70s or the 80s or anything like that. But, but doesn't it. It feels like a pirate. We are a family, baby. No, there you go, man. But it feels like it has a bit of a renaissance lately. Don't you feel like I would agree. And I'll say the one thing that I'll say about baseball that other sports probably need to emulate is just real quick. You know, sound like James Earl Jones, just for a second. There he knows. baseball ray baseball ray. It's roll to like people almost definitely come. That's right. They will come. They most definitely will come. What I was going to say before I lost my train of thought. Before I lost your train of thought, sorry. Yeah. Is that it has not been afraid baseball, the game, maybe with this commissioner too,

25:53to change for the better. In other words, we need a pitch clock done. Let's do it. Let's try it. Let's go, right? You know, you bring a reliever and he asked the face three guys. Yeah, you guys, you can't we can't be changed guys for every hitter. We got he's got face three batters. You know what? I'm tired of the shift. You can't the second baseman source. I have to stay on their side of the bag. I don't care. You can't try to pick up the holder runner to throw over two throws. And that's it. Next one, if you don't get them, he's at second. Like, so what do we do? The stolen bases back in the game, right? You can hit the ball through the infield again. You don't have to launch like it got to the where it was like home run strikeout. That's all anybody was doing, right? Launch angle, all that stuff, right? Now you can actually use the athleticism of your team. And so more balls are put in play. The game is faster, which is the best thing I can say about any of it. Those other sport, a lot of these other sports time,

26:54they don't try stuff. They don't they don't try to make their game more appealing to the consumer or today's consumer the way I think baseball has done. And they've been successful. And if there is a renaissance happening, I think that's why I agree 100%. I I'm not crazy about the the pitch the building. No, the ability to this upcoming season, if you want to challenge us a ball or strike. Oh, I'm not sure I'm crazy about that. But I think teams will I don't know. Maybe there won't be as many checks as I think that I'm worried that there will be. All right, along those lines, though, the game against the Dominican Republic ended with a pitch that was clearly a ball. And he punched the guy out and the Americans won, right? Which I'm great with. And then it was a controversy. You're fine with that. It's a controversy for a day and a half. It's something people to talk about. I told you know, my friend, if you're in the Dominican, it's a controversy for the rest of your life. The worst thing that happened to baseball. In my opinion, the worst thing

27:56happened in baseball the last year with all the changes, all the great things. The worst thing that happened was Angel Hernandez leaving. Like I loved Angel Hernandez. Because you love to see how pathetic of a call he can be because once a week a manager or our pitcher or somebody was going to lose their minds, argue with him. And it would it would make John Boy videos. I'd watch John Boy videos until three in the morning. Him catching everybody lip syncing. I cannot get enough of that stuff. And that's what I'm worried about with this new pitch zone thing that you can challenge pitches that there will be the only thing we have now to argue over is called strikes and balls because we have replaying the infield on tags and all that. So I want there to be arguments. Not a good thing is if you challenge early and you lose your challenge and you lose, you lose the challenge, then there could be some arguments after that. But well, Steve's very anti rep. I think

28:56it's Steve's anti-replay. I don't know. I could be putting words in his mouth. That's right. Yeah. And I don't disagree in this sense. Like what I think the unintended consequence of technology has been is that I don't need to know that the guy was out by literally a millimeter because his left index finger was up and got tagged before he hit the back. Like I don't need to see that slow of a process to know if he's out or safe. I'm 100% with you. And what has bothered me about replay is that and I understand why they do it. It's you don't want however many people are watching the game at one time. If you're watching a football game on a on a on a Sunday at 4.30 I don't know how many people watch that second window on on the national game, but it's usually around 25 million or something like that. 20 million. You don't want 20 million people saying oh that guy actually tapped his second foot got down. And the one guy in the world who didn't see

29:59it called it out. Was a guy standing there. Yeah. And that's why ultimately you know technology became so good that we you had to actually go to replay. I take the one rule that drives me crazy when it comes to replay. And Steve I don't know if you agree with this or not. I wish if I had if I could be commissioner of the NHL I would eliminate replays on off-sides calls. I don't think we should do it. I those calls are so minisculey close. But that rule came into effect because in a playoff game there was one that wasn't close that got right. Right. And that's when it was a lighting right. Yeah exactly. Against the drawing against Montreal. Well, well that one, a couple years before. Oh, that's right. Yeah. It was way off. But I think like 99 out of 100 of the replays that are where they overturn it in hockey. It's they have to break it down almost framed by frame. And the bottom line is even if the guy was off-sides by just a you know by hair.

31:01It didn't really affect the play ultimately. Most of the time it doesn't. They didn't gain an advantage. They truly didn't gain an advantage over because of it. And that's where I just wished it. I'll tell you what Steve I go back to Jonathan Drew and play. I'm telling you right now the lighting win that game and they go on to maybe win a cup if Jonathan Drew and doesn't get caught from that off-sides. And it literally like they had to look at it over and over and over again to the side. Oh, he was barely off-sides. But I'm telling you if the and it didn't affect the play. They scored the gold. They they would have scored anyway. It's not like all because he was off-sides they were able to go on and score. And here's the other thing I don't like about it Steve is say they say you come in and you're barely off-sides. But it does result in a scoring play but it does result in a face-off in that team zone. Or you skate in and it results in a penalty and you get a power play out of it. That you can't go then go back and and and say oh wait and I think they were off-sides.

32:02So the face-off should come back outside to zone. Like you know we only kind of on goals being scored. So we're going to kind of challenge it whenever you want. I don't know maybe I just I just don't like I just I hate that I hate the outside role. I hate it. Yeah and I think like along those lines like with football like I've had people say to me that oh I think the officiating is the worst it's ever been. And in reality it's still pretty damn good in getting the speed of the game and all that. It's just that we see more now because of technology. And what's weird about football is that it's the old or you could call holding on any play right. And now every year they sort of open that Pandora's box and say you know what we're going to now suddenly look at face-best penalties because there'll be a play and the guys obviously grabbed the guys face mask and there was no call right or you know I mean you name it. There's any number of things that they're trying to expand

33:04that replay to to to encapsulate and even worse even worse. We've had calls now with this you know instant review thing right where some nameless faceless person maybe back in New York is buzzing down saying no no this is an instant correction. We got we got this you know what I mean and they just tell the referee or the umpire hey you know move the guy didn't make the first down move move the ball back two yards you know like whatever just happened it we're undoing it from somewhere which is really weird right. Yeah. So yeah I just think it's you know we kind of gone through the looking grass on some of this stuff. But the technology is just so advanced that you just the leagues at the end of the day don't want people at home to see what happened and have it not count on the field. And not just at home but they have these big damn giant scoreboards in the stadium that gets people a little fired up too. But by the way going back to that Dominican

34:07game. Yeah. Swing the batman. Swing the bat. Oh yeah. That pitch is that pitch was hitable. I get it was low. That's why he took it. I would agree with but with that as well. Yeah. At the same time boy championship in that situation. You know God I can hear my dad anytime we got two strikes. All right. And my I go to bed at sleep. Swing be aggressive. Aggressive. That was his word aggressive. You played baseball Rick. I've always thought that the only the only time a batter truly has a complaint when it comes to an umpire calling strikes is if that umpire gives the outside corner like a little too much on the outside part of the plate because as a hitter that's the one pitch. I cannot hit. Yeah. That's what it becomes unfair. If I even swing the bat I'm going to try to find it. Yeah. I can't reach it. Now if you call it inside or you call it high you call it low. I could at least get a bat on that. I can't get the one on the outside. Don't get

35:09don't get. If you're going to be at the pitch or something don't give a mat because that's cheating at that point. Yeah. No, I agree with you but but I had a couple college umpires that were notoriously bad on playing on the parts and one guy swear to God would call a pitch at your ankles like you can be low but you can't be that damn low right like even if I hit this ball I'm going to pound it into the dirt so hard in front of the plate right that I got to hope that it's a ball to more chop some place because you can't you can't get under a baseball or on top of a baseball that's below your ankles or below your knees so far that you know you're just going to dirt it so I've seen it I've seen the up-down thing go in I guess you can miss it up too but but yeah no if you can't reach it if you can't no if you're on top of the plate already and you can't get the outside pitchers off the corner by three inches but wasn't that you know where Greg Maddox lived for his entire career. He said y'all for me for certain. Yeah. If they had a case on these days

36:10and they executed that with Greg Maddox what was his record have been. Oh yeah no no a little different right. Half of what it is yeah. I was watching I saw it was a thing to pop up on one of my social media feeds the other day and it was an old ACC I think a former ACC basketball referee and he was talking about different coaches over here and he was asked about Shoshewski and he said they said how was how was Shoshewski. He's like actually he was pretty respectful to officials. He said the big thing with Shoshewski was that he goes I would make a call early in the game that was that might have been maybe a bit of a touch touch. You know touch. Yeah. Yeah. And he said Shoshewski would call me over during the first time out and say I just want to know is that how we're calling this game tonight. Just let me know and I'll tell my guys but don't don't call it now and then don't call it in 10 minutes now from now. That's good point. Did you make a mistake on that one and you shouldn't have called it or that's what we're calling

37:11today. And I think that's the way you probably feel about umpires Rick is that. Yeah. As long as you're going to give him that pitch. It's a pitch now then it's got to be a pitch on our side and it's also the same ball or strike in the seventh inning. You know. And guys can miss stuff right down the plate. Only time I almost got thrown out of a game in college we had a pitcher and I swear to God he threw two center cut I swear to God like I don't know that you could have like between the knees and the in the thigh over the middle of the plate like put a spot back there that he couldn't have hit. And he threw this ball twice to the same spot catch I swear to God as much didn't move. Both times the umpire called it a ball. And I just I was dumbfounded. I'm a second bass and I go throw it there again. He can't call it a ball all night. And the the bass umpire wanted to run me for that. And I said I'm talking to him. I'm not talking to you. Me in the pitcher. Did you write? He goes the one more one more word

38:11and I go I'm talking to him. He didn't buy it. That's the old that's the old pitching coach who gets thrown out he goes out and talks to the pitcher and he stands there and waits for the umpire to come out and break it up and then he says something to the pitcher and then he said what I was talking to him. I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to you. You never you never got you ever get run from a game ever. No that's it. I came really close though. I mean my dad was notorious for it but he managed but he's always getting run. I told you the story. We got a call one time this is years ago. I was working at the time to get a call from a guy who said I once through I was an umpire. I once throughout Derek Jeter and again I think it's the only game Derek Jeter's ever been injected in in pro baseball in pro baseball. Wow. So I go really and Martin family was working at the Tampa Tribune the late Martin family. That's almost a damn story and he ended up talking to the guy. So the guy comes in to the times. Wow. And I interview him. We take photos of him every day. He tells me the whole story about this game that happened when Jeter was in I forget even which minor league it was double a single a whatever and that he threw Derek Jeter

39:15out of a game and he tells me the whole story about what happened. It was a over a strike call or something like that. And I was I said we did this whole thing. So Mark Topkin from the times is going to he's going to be in New York and I said hey man do you think you could go to Jeter and ask him this one question about this time he got ejected from a game. And Topkin said yeah I'll try you know. So he waits out the New York media and Jeter's standard and he does Mark a little bit and he and Mark said hey I get him to odd question for you because I went we're doing a story on the one time you got eject the only time you've been ejected from a from a baseball game to what do you remember about Jeter's like never happened. He's like what? Because it never happened. I was never ejected from the game. What? Topkin's like wait no no it happened in whatever double a whatever league. Jeter's like never happened. Didn't happen man. I don't know what you're talking about didn't never happen. So Topkin calls me back. He goes he says it didn't happen and I'm like well

40:15is he gaslighting us like so I go well we got to find I so all of a sudden I go back to the umpire now at this point right. But well we go back to the umpire is like no I remember it just is what it happened. So we somehow I got we start going through and we find like the minor league record book and we find the game that this guy was talking about. Yeah. And we look at the box score from that game and in that game Jeter had two at bats and was replaced in the fifth or sixth inning. Curious. And I'm like he came out of a game after like the sixth inning and another guy came in. So he did leave the game at some point. So maybe he was ejected. And then I somehow get a hold of the other umpire in the game. You found the other umpire. I found it because it's listed in the box score whatever it was. Sure. I find the other guy call the other guy and the guys like I had it was a long time ago. I don't remember that. Now of course like you didn't know

41:20then even though Jeter was a top pick and all that you wouldn't necessarily you know he wasn't Derek Jeter yet. Yeah. Yeah. He was just a minor league or so. And the one guy was like I don't maybe but I don't I can't remember I don't I'm not I think there was an argument. And eventually we did not write the story and and it was it ended with yeah I don't think he was ejected. Wow. We tried calling other teammates that were in that game and they're like yeah I don't remember him getting ejected but I don't want to think I mean do you think if Jeter had been ejected he would have told you. I don't that's the other part of this. He has such a pristine reputation and I think it already been out there that oh he's never been thrown out of a game. But I also like I think he's and he's he's a man of integrity. I don't think he would lie about I don't think so. I don't know why I would miss I mean you know he's a pretty good reputation so I mean you get thrown out one game and it might be funny like if you say yeah one time I'm on top of it said but the guy at the umpire I could also tell you that he was such a

42:25like a believable guy too he was a nice guy so I end up going back to him and I said hey man we're not going to run the story because Jeter says it never happened. It didn't happen yeah. And the guy was like okay like I understand why you're not doing it he's like but and he goes I'm pretty sure he and then he started second guessing himself like was it another guy threw up but oh no it was like the whole thing was the most bizarre it was the most bizarre non-story I ever wrote like or a story that I never wrote the report is the day that Jarek Jeter did or did not get thrown out of it you cannot believe how excited I was when I picked up with the guy who was the other umpire in the game oh you tried I got this now I got this five years ago right called and the guy is like hello I'm like hey is this you know is this Joe Schmohl and were you were you a minor league umpire he's like yeah I was like I was so it's like I was breaking watergate I was like you probably thinking you were outside the door like you called me out and threw me out of a game I'm out here in from your front yard right now oh my gosh it was but it was one of the more bizarre but fun story so anyway that's so you were never kicked out

43:30maybe you were never kicked I don't have to go check your records I was not I mean if you find an umpire that tells you I was then sure go ahead and go for it but it came I came very very close that same umpire by the way came to find out um the home plate umpire that was really bad angel Hernandez yeah exactly he that guy was angel Hernandez no he um he was a he turned out he's kind of a drinking buddy with my college coach may rest in peace and so after the game I go in there and I'm kind of mad at this guy because he's been bad at the plate he was bad for us on the mound you know and we probably lost and and I'm in there and I'm I'm changing you know and showing all that stuff and I look inside the coach's office we had a very small kind of field house type thing underneath the stage and the guys in there drinking beer with the home plate umpire my coach and I'm like well wait a minute like I'm sure they know each other he umpires other games and college for us and stuff but I'm like we're just crack a beer here like what are we doing

44:35I was like did you see how bad he was against us today like me so you're bad at your coach I'm mad at the coach because he's friends with the dude who's such a lousy umpire and if they were friends and they're going to have a share a case of beer after the game which happened a lot with my head coach back in the day um couldn't you get better calls right I mean he's like hey I got a butt if you'll just call it a strike like once in a while you know like bring it up you know you used to say that to the hey bring it up um you know right right right but it was like cheese bring it up I haven't heard that phrase anyway well listen this is great having you on of course there's always and by the way you mentioned your podcast briefly there what's the name of it where do we see it the pointer report podcast so it goes to pointer p o i n t e r dot o r g and uh yeah and there's

45:35uh we've had four seasons worth you can also find it on you go to youtube because it's also video video and i don't like it uh pointer report uh i hear all the kids watch video when they watch youtube they don't listen to you they don't listen to you watch i guess how works they they they listen to it on youtube it's weird or they watch podcasts as my son does yeah yeah so it's great idea all right Tommy pointer dot org go check it out um and uh i don't know a little birdie told me maybe you want to come back tomorrow let's do it come back or i should say Monday how about Monday i'll do it sounds great all right we thought twice would be uh just as nice Tom Jones going to join us again on Monday busy weekend in sports obviously the NCAA first and second around tournaments here uh in Tampa florida at benchmark arena the lightning have a couple games on the road as well Steve right have been ten in Calgary saturday and sunday night late night games so last weekend a spring training baseball because opening day is next week ever so close to opening day so appreciate you guys joining us go see our friends at brining boutique as always let them know

46:38you heard about it here on this podcast four steeper stick i'm extra the 10 bay times have a great weekend everybody here's how to stay alive longer so you can enjoy boost mobile's unlimited plan with the price that never goes up you're not mistake a wasp nest for opinionata stay alive and switch now at boost mobile after 30 gigs customers may experience lower speeds customers will pay $25 a month as long as they remain active on the boost mobile unlimited plan