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NASCAR hits the Windy City, While Mo's seat gets hot
94 Plays1 year ago
Results of the Grant Park 220. The Birmingham Stallions win a second straight USFL title. MLB gets ready for the All-Star game and are Mo and Ollies's seats getting hot?
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Transcript
Introduction and Show Details
00:00:00
Speaker
Well, hello there and welcome to the bleachers. Hope you had a good 4th of July. I'm glad you could join me today. This is the spot where I just sit and talk sports. So come on up, bring your favorite koozie. I'm Don Glenn. This is Talking Sports on the Bleachers. You got to get it done. This is Gateway City Sports. The rumors are true.
00:00:26
Speaker
This is Talking Sports on the Bleachers with Don Glenn. A confident young man. A superb athlete. A look at the sports issues of the day. Grab a seat, pop a cold one, and let's talk some sports. See, that sounds kind of interesting. Gentlemen, start your engines!
00:01:01
Speaker
Grown on the shotgun, here's the snap, Romo looking, dumps it off, breaks that, and her sentence! And her sentence was goal-lined by the Woodson! And there is your Gallagher! Rule, with a wide spread stance, arms out over the place. Bickford from the threat. The one-half hit. A play, and there it goes! Backfield! 25!
00:01:44
Speaker
What is this? What is this? Playoffs? What are you talking about? Playoffs? You kidding me? Playoffs? Are you crying? There's no crying! There's no crying in baseball! You don't understand, I could have had class.
00:02:13
Speaker
I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody. Holy cow! Hey, Dad?
00:02:46
Speaker
You want to have a catch? I'd like that. I'm really glad to stop by today with some NASCAR to go over and I'll talk a little bit USFL. We've got the all-star game lineups and just how hot is John Mazzalock and Oliver Marmole seats getting? All that coming up. Talking sports on the bleachers is a proud part of Gateway City Sports.
00:03:14
Speaker
and at GatewayCitySports.com. At Gateway City Sports, you're going to find articles and podcasts that cover sports in and around the St. Louis bi-state area. Check it out at GatewayCitySports.com.
NASCAR Chicago Race Issues
00:03:27
Speaker
All right, well NASCAR held the first ever street race in Chicago with the running of the Grant Park 220 Sunday, July 2nd. It was a 2.2 mile course that they laid out through the streets of downtown.
00:03:42
Speaker
I don't expect you to know. You might be from Chicago to listen to this. I don't know. But it kind of went up a street called South Columbus there. And then it turned on the Lakeshore Drive and then came back down. And then there was a little like a cul-de-sac type thing. It was a wild little course. I'll tell you that right now. But anyway, they ran two races. They ran the Xfinity race, as they usually do in NASCAR on Saturday.
00:04:11
Speaker
It was called the Loop 121. Now, that was supposed to go 55 laps, but they postponed the race at lap 26 due to a lot of rain. And the rain just came in and just made the course very dangerous. Lightning was in the area and they didn't want the fans to be hurt, so they put the race on hold. They tried to do it Sunday morning. That didn't work because they woke up to three inches of rain. Flooding was all over the course.
00:04:41
Speaker
They were trying to get it in, trying to get it in, and finally they decided if they were going to get the NASCAR race in, they would not be able to run the XFINITY race. There was some discussion running the XFINITY race on Monday, continuing it on Monday, but at 26 laps, they were almost halfway.
00:05:02
Speaker
two and a half or a lap and a half, something like that, from being halfway. So they decided that they would just go ahead and call the race then because they didn't want to, which I thought was actually kind of, it made sense, but it was also kind of stupid. They were talking about just doing it Monday to get the
00:05:26
Speaker
amount of laps in to make it a legal race, and then called at that point, which I think would have been stupid, if they're going to run the race on Monday, they would have, to me, run the rest of the other 29 laps. But I think they did the right thing, because then you're tying up a work day of traffic in Chicago, and they already lost one, well, not maybe not a whole work day, but they lost part of a work day when they were setting up everything on Friday for the Saturday race.
00:05:55
Speaker
You know that I think they made the right decision and just calling it at that point The Race finish was a Cole Custer was declared the winner with John Hunter Nemechek second Justin Algaier third Brett Moffat was fourth and Austin Hill was declared the fifth place finisher now I said the NASCAR race it ended up being delayed it was supposed to go off at four o'clock and go off till five and
00:06:23
Speaker
Denny Hamlin had to pull Tyler Reddick was right behind him because they ran the race in a single file start instead of traditional Side-by-side start and they ran all the restarts out all the restarts were single file
00:06:37
Speaker
So, and let's see, Shane Van Gisbergen, who made his Cup Series of You was the third place, was started third in the field, ended up being the winning out of Van Gisbergen, excuse me, is a three-time supercar, V8 supercar champion, that's what it is.
00:07:02
Speaker
And that's a race, a series that's run I think in New Zealand, Australia, that area. The race did start out under very wet conditions. As a matter of fact, you didn't see racing slicks on the NASCAR cars. You saw actual, treaded tires. They had to use those to get gripped because normally a NASCAR, when you've got a dry track condition,
00:07:28
Speaker
You have what they call the slicks. There's no tread. It's just a slick or a flat rubber surface on the tire. Now, that is because as that heats up, it provides more grip on a racetrack at higher speeds. Well, that only works if it can have the grip. Well, if you've got a wet condition, it's not going to have the grip. So they had to go with something like you and I have on our personal cars.
00:07:55
Speaker
a tire that's going to channel the water away from the tire and so keep more tire surface on the road. The slicks would just hydroplane and you wouldn't get anything and you'd have a lot of issues. But even with those, they were kind of tiptoeing, I mean you could see it, I watched the racing, you could see as they were going into, even going down the straights, now some of the straights were, you know, only granted a couple blocks long, excuse me, but
00:08:23
Speaker
even going down the straights, you could tell they were not really getting into the throttle, so to speak. I mean, they were kind of laying off, laying off, until about 20 laps. Then you saw, well, actually a little earlier for Tyler Reddick, he made a move, I think it was like lap three or four on Denny Hamlin, and just walked right around him.
00:08:50
Speaker
and then to take the lead early in the race. Like I said, most everybody else was just kind of walking around a little bit. Then when you start to see parts of the track dry up, then a few drivers here would go to slick. Then a few drivers here, when eventually all the guys were on slick, I think right around lap 28, I think, somewhere in there, they were all
00:09:14
Speaker
gone to gotten rid of the treaded tires for the slicks because on the treadeds they weren't getting the grip and the speed on the dry part of the racetrack as opposed to what they were going to get with the slicks because there's more grip again when that tire heats up it gets a little sticky and it sticks to the track better as opposed to a treaded tire like you and I use.
00:09:35
Speaker
So what was funny too is the most NASCAR tracks, of course, even like at Pocono and stuff like that, or Long Pond, I guess is the name of the course, the barriers are concrete or something like that. And they had concrete barriers, but they also had a lot of tire barriers set up around the course. That's a good thing to have some of those tire barriers there because one corner, especially, corner six, the turn six,
00:10:05
Speaker
coming off of South Columbus on to Balbo before they headed down to South Michigan. That corner, I mean a lot of guys had trouble in that corner. A lot of guys slipped and slid and four drivers actually went into that tire barrier. Two or three of them had to be pulled out. Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott all made contact with that barrier. I think Busch and Elliott had to be pulled out and
00:10:33
Speaker
Hogg Gregerson, or Gregson, man that guy was the unluckiest sucker of the day. He hit that barrier four times. Twice had to be pulled out. Now of course every time they had to pull somebody out of that barrier, of course they had to full course caution. So there was some cautions for that. A couple of the other barriers took some hits, but those safer barriers really came into play because
00:10:54
Speaker
Just about every car that hit that safer barrier was able to just get back on the course and roll right along. So kudos to NASCAR for putting up those barriers in that respect.
00:11:08
Speaker
Now, as I said before, Hamlin started out with the lead at last at about three laps, I think something like that. Tyler Reddick went around him on turn one, or going into turn one. Later, after I think they finally switched to the slicks, Christopher Bell would take over the race for the most part. And it was in control of a good portion of it. And then, matter of fact, he won the first two stages.
00:11:33
Speaker
Then at about lap 45 or so, NASCAR made the decision they were going to shorten the race from 100 laps to 75 laps because of darkness coming in. They didn't think they were going to be able to finish it before it got too dark to race because while there are street lights in Chicago, I mean, that's obvious, but they're not the same kind of lights and don't give you the same
00:11:59
Speaker
feel or view or vision of the course as light at some of these super speedways do. So they made that which changed a lot of guys pit strategy. I mean they're already working on what the next fuel stop was going to be or change of tires and stuff like that.
00:12:18
Speaker
So some guys elected to stay out. A lot of the leaders, Hamlin, Van Gisbergen, Elliott, all those guys came in, which kind of led to then Justin Haley taking over the lead of the race in the late stages. And he would command the race for a while until his tire started to go away, but he was in a no-win situation. At that point, he comes into pit. He's going to lose track position. He'd probably never get caught back up.
00:12:47
Speaker
So they tried to run it out and hope they could make it work. But Van Gisbergen would take the lead with five laps to go. But an accident on the last lap, or the last second cause of two lap overtime, I think it was right before the actual white flag came out. So they had to go into overtime. If the white flag had been out,
00:13:15
Speaker
they would have just finished under caution at that point. But the white flag hadn't flown yet. So right before that, an accident happened. That's when they determined. And so it went into a two lap overtime. On the restart, Gisbergen, Van Gisbergen just took off. And it was like everybody else was racing on slicks in water because he just bolted ahead and just never looked back. Now, one of the coolest things of the whole race
00:13:45
Speaker
And it was cool because nobody got hurt, but it was more funny than anything else. It was a 14-car pile-up. It occurred on the turn going into Michigan Avenue, and William Byron had spun, and Cory LeJo and Kevin Harvick kind of touched as they were trying to avoid him. Well, they ended up spinning and in turn blocked the entire road or course. And then all you see, all these cars just
00:14:13
Speaker
Nobody hit hard, no damage really to anybody. I think Swore has maybe caught some fender damage on it. All these cars just look like a Monday afternoon traffic jam of five o'clock.
00:14:29
Speaker
A lot of the accidents weren't that bad because most of them happened in the turns of spinning out or hitting the barriers. And going into those turns, a lot of them were fairly sharp, so they're only doing maybe 35, 45 miles an hour going into those turns.
00:14:46
Speaker
All in all, it's a pretty decent race. Hopefully, if they do it again, they'll be able to run the entire race. I think I would have loved to have seen that play out with another pit stop or two in there. Now, as the race for the playoffs goes, they have 11 drivers that are qualified by wins. The playoff system in NASCAR now is not the old school system, it just points.
00:15:12
Speaker
Now, if you have a win, you're automatically in the playoff, 16 car playoff. So there's 11 drivers that have wins. So that's 11 spot. Then the next spot or another spot would go to, um, the person with the most points. So if you have say 16 drivers with wins, but one of them is not.
00:15:36
Speaker
does not have the most points, the one with the least amount of points of those winners gets knocked off in favor of the guy with the most points because that's the way it's set up. So like if you have the 11 drivers are qualified by wins, then you have Kevin Harvick who leads in points with drivers with no wins. So there's 12. That leaves a pretty slim group that's right in the
00:16:08
Speaker
388, 350 point range somewhere in there in terms of race points. You've got Bubba Wallace and Ty Gibbs are right there at 387 to 378. And then you've got guys like Daniel Suarez, Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger, Alex Bowman, right on their heels.
00:16:31
Speaker
And then you got another group a little further down, Justin Haley, Al Austin, Sindrick, Corey LaJoy and Chase Elliott. They're within range and they're, but they're going to need some good finishes to close the gap. So, uh, could be exciting. We'll have to see how that goes out or plays out. And, um, you know, I always kind of like NASCAR, you know, but I don't know if I could be a driver or a crew chief.
00:16:55
Speaker
or even a car owner. I mean, man, you talk about stress. You're there on race day. I can just imagine the stress going through, you know? Because I think buying a car itself is stressful. And these guys are buying race cars, okay? But hey, there's one place that's trying to make car buying stress-free.
USFL Championship Highlights
00:17:19
Speaker
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00:17:23
Speaker
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00:17:51
Speaker
Check them out and tell them Don Glenn from Talking Sports on the Bleachers sent you. All right, it was the USFL Championship on July 1st in Canton, Ohio, the site of the Hall of Fame for NFL. And in the second year in a row, it was won by the Birmingham Stylians and they defeated the Pittsburgh Mallers 28 to 12. Stylians were led by a wide receiver Deion Kane who had four catches for 70 yards and three touchdowns.
00:18:19
Speaker
Also 102 yards returning punts gave him a total of 172 yards, which was enough to get him the MVP honors for the game. Now could just have easily gone tight, think to Alex McGow, who was 18 to 25 for 243 yards, four touchdowns, carried to ball nine times for 64 yards himself. Two other stallion receivers had good numbers. Jay Sternberger, three catches for 65 yards and Davion Davis, three catches for 55 yards and a touchdown.
00:18:50
Speaker
The Stallion's defense, it sounds like they were rocking and rolling. They had six sacks and nine tackles for a loss. Keyshaun Camp led the defense with two sacks. Lorenzo Burns and D'Andre Tillman each had two tackles for a loss. JoJo Tillery would lead the team in tackles, 10 tackles total, six solos and one sack.
00:19:13
Speaker
And the interesting thing is neither team threw an interception. Nobody intercepted a pass. So at least the quarterbacks were throwing decent. For the maulers, the offense never really got going. Trey Williams was 24 of 37, but only 143 yards. They were kind of kept denying him the deep ball, plus also running for his life. I don't think he could throw the deep ball.
00:19:36
Speaker
He was also the leading rusher for the maulers with four carries for 38 yards. On defense, the maulers did manage to sack McGow twice. Their leading tackler was Kayava Tazino with 13 tackles and nine solos. Pittsburgh got all their scoring, got the scoring started, I should say, with a 37-yard field goal. All their points came off of field goals. Second quarter's die-ins would get the first
00:20:04
Speaker
touchdown and then the field goal By Pittsburgh then the Birmingham father. He's kind of traded back and forth in that they had Burt me it was a touchdown field goal touchdown field goal Birmingham had the Birmingham had the touchdowns Pittsburgh had the field goals that gave him a 14 to 9 halftime lead Pittsburgh would get their final field goal in the third quarter Birmingham Birmingham was scoring the third and then ice away in the fourth
00:20:32
Speaker
As I mentioned, this is the second championship in a row for Birmingham, who are now 21-3 since the USFL was restarted last year. Birmingham had the league's best record at 8-2. They led the league in scoring at 28.7 points per game.
Year-Round Football and Player Insights
00:20:50
Speaker
They only gave up 19.6. Now by contrast, the Maulers were only 4-6.
00:20:56
Speaker
as was their entire division. The entire division with the maulers ran, and I don't have all four of the other three teams, but all four teams in that, I think it's the Eastern Division or Northern Division, I think it is. Anyway, all four of those teams had the identical four and six record. Nobody had a winning record in that upper division. Matter of fact, there's only two winning records, I think, on the entire league, and that was Birmingham and
00:21:25
Speaker
I think it was New Orleans is the other team that had a record or winning record. But maulers were only four and seven. They were seventh in the league in scoring with 17.7 points a game, but they boasted the league's best defense, only allowing 17.8 points per game. You know, Arden Delaney was telling me that with the way everything's going out now in football, you've got the NFL, you've got the XFL, you've got the USFL. You've got football pretty much 24 seven, 12 months out of the year, because
00:21:54
Speaker
Yes, their game is over, but now you've got the cancer starting up for the NFL, and pretty soon, I think mid or late August, no wait, it's August 3rd, I think, is the Hall of Fame. Yeah, August 3rd is the NFL Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio. I think it's the Bengals and somebody, and I can't remember, the Jets, Bengals and the Jets, I think, are playing in that Canton, Ohio game. So you got that starting in August.
00:22:22
Speaker
You know, and now you're right in the NFL season. And of course that goes until late January, February, then XFL kicks in in March and it's over by April and then April, the USFL starts and they're over in July and then you're back to the NFL. So it's going to be a 24 seven football thing. And you know, some of these GMs have got to be looking, NFL GMs I'm talking about. They got to be looking at the XFL, the USFL players. They got to be trying to figure out
00:22:52
Speaker
If there's somebody they can maybe pick up to augment their team or give themselves a little bit of an insurance policy, if you will, you know, trying to protect the assets they've got. Because we all know how important it is to stay protected. I mean, just like in the NFL, a quarterback stays in the pocket to stay protected or hopefully stays protected unless he's sacked six times. But you need to protect the things in your life.
00:23:20
Speaker
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MLB All-Star Game Analysis
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00:23:49
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They'll help you with an insurance quote right over the phone because that's just how they roll people. Again, that's 636-764-6294. Now you can give them a call if you just want to talk sports because I heard they do that too. With working kids and social functions, we all have busy lives. I mean, we're going constantly nonstop. So you can email Sean, SeanWiley at Allstate.com. Talk to him about your coverage options. That's S-C-A-N-W-I-L-E-Y
00:24:19
Speaker
at Allstate.com. And remember, you're in good hands with Allstate. Well, next week is the All-Star Game and the rosters are out, barring any late injuries or defections as that happens every now and again. The AL lineup was voted in and the Rangers have four players in the starting lineup. Johanna Heim, I think it is the catcher, Marcus Simeon, second base, Josh Chung at third base,
00:24:49
Speaker
and Corey Seager at shortstop. The Rays have two players and Yandy Diaz at first base, Randy Rosarina in the outfield. The Angels have two players on the roster with Mike Trout and Shohei Houtani, Trout in the outfield, Houtani at DH. And the Yankees have Aaron Judge.
00:25:10
Speaker
In the lineups now both judge and trout are injured. So they're not going to make be making the start Um, i'm not sure who's starting in their place. That'll be up to the manager Also for the american league yard and alvarez is out So replacing these guys, uh our shortstop wander franco from the rays outfielder julio rodriguez from the mariners and outfielder kyle tucker of the astro
00:25:40
Speaker
Now, as far as reserves, three players from the Blue Jays are on the reserve roster with Ladd Guerrero, Witt, Merrifield, and Beau Bessette. The Orioles have multiple all-stars for the first time since 2016 with catcher Ashley Roosterman.
00:25:55
Speaker
Rutchman, excuse me, outfielder Austin Hayes, pitchers Felix Bautista, and Yanner Cano, Adolos Garcia, the Rangers, Luis Robert Jr., the White Sox, Jose Ramirez of the Guardians, and Salvador Perez of the Royals round out the position players.
00:26:12
Speaker
As for the pitchers, you've got Garrett Cole from the Yankees, Luis Castillo from Seattle, Sonny Gray from the Twins, Nathanial Baldy from the Rangers, so they've got a total of four guys in there, Kevin Gausman from Toronto, so there's another Toronto player, Vambert Fromber Valdez of the Astros,
00:26:34
Speaker
Michael Lorenzen from Detroit, Kinley Janssen from Boston, Emmanuel Kloss from the Guardians, and of course the two pictures from Baltimore that I already mentioned. Now due to injury... Oh, pardon me, I read that wrong. Shane McClanahan is out, he's on the roster, but due to injury, he's not going to be participating in his spot to be taken by George Kirby of the Mariners.
00:27:05
Speaker
So, in the American League, the red socks, white socks, twins, and tigers only have one representative, or else it has multiples. In the National League, there are three Dodgers on the starting roster. First baseman, Freddie Freeman, Al Prudel, Mookie Bettson, D.H., J.D. Martinez.
00:27:27
Speaker
There are also three Braves on roster catcher, Sean Murphy, shortstop Orlando Arcea, and outfielder Ronald Cooney Jr. Nolan Aranato from the St. Louis will play third and Corbin Carroll will be in the outfield representing the Diamondbacks. National League reserves has three more Braves on it with Matt Olson, first base, second base, Ozzy Albee's third base, Austin Riley.
00:27:51
Speaker
The rest of reserves are catcher Will Smith from the Dodgers. First base, Pia Lanzo of the Mets. How? It's Lanzo and not Goldschmidt. I got no clue. Short stop, Dansby Swanson at the Cubs. Out through to Lourdes Gouriel with the Diamondbacks. Nick Castellanos of the Phillies. Juan Soto of the Padres and Jorge Soler from Miami.
00:28:12
Speaker
The pitching staff breaks down that the National League includes two Cubs, Justin Steele and Marcus Stroman, though I just heard that Stroman is not going to participate. I do not know who the replacement is for Stroman as of yet. Two Braves with Spencer Strider, Bryce Elder.
00:28:30
Speaker
Now, due to Clayton Kershaw being injured, the Pirates have two pitchers because Kershaw was selected. But the Pirates have two pitchers of Mitch Keller and now David Bednar, Zach Galen at Diamondbacks, Josiah Gray at the Nationals, Alex Diaz of the Reds, Josh Hader of the Padres, and Camillo Duvall of the Giants round out that pitching staff.
00:28:58
Speaker
Now for the National League, the Phillies, Mets, Giants, Cardinals, Rockies, and Reds only have one representative. American League holds the all-time advantage in all-star play with a 47-43 and 2 record. They have won the last 9 straight. The all-star game is going to be in an American League city. This is not boding well for the National League is what I'm trying to tell you folks. Who knows who's going to win this one?
00:29:28
Speaker
I kind of, the all-star game to me has kind of lost itself. Now, I know, I'm an old fart so I remember things differently than a lot of you old people do, but back in the day, and I'm talking way back in the day, the all-star game was fun to watch because they did not take it serious. They were having fun, well, except for Pete Rose, bowling over a catcher,
00:29:55
Speaker
Uh, you know, you had guys, uh, like John Kruk. Um, and I, I, I remember the, uh, Randy Johnson, I think it was, he was pitching for jail. Anyway, he threw behind Kruk, you know, cause there was, there was, there had been something about throwing at batters and whatnot. So Randy Johnson, you know, just for the fun of it, threw a ball behind Kruk, nobody on base, nobody gave a damn.
00:30:19
Speaker
and Cruc sat there and laughed about it. He turned around in the batter's box and had his back facing the plate. He said, if you're gonna throw it out here, throw it off the bat this way. I mean, you had things like that. It was a lot of fun. And now it's, I don't know, it's just turned into a popularity contest of overpaid cry babies, if you ask me. And I've always thought they could do something more than just a home run derby as far as
00:30:49
Speaker
You know, cause the home run derby is
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00:30:50
Speaker
fine. It's fun to watch. I admit, I do like watching the home run derby when I can. It is fun to watch. Uh, but you know, I'd like to see them have maybe a fielding skills competition, um, or, you know, something of that nature, something to kind of just live in it. I mean, cause I know I think in the NHL, they do have a, uh, a couple of different skills competitions.
00:31:18
Speaker
I know in the NBA you've got the slam dunk contest, you've got the three point shooting contest. So, I don't know, baseball, if they want to invigorate the brand, I mean, yeah, the home run derby is fine, but it's boring.
00:31:34
Speaker
I don't care how you change it up, how you make it competitive, matching this guy against that guy. I don't care how you do that. It's boring. It is a boring thing to watch. I think a better batting competition would be to have lanes out on the field and have batters hit into those lanes. That would be fun to watch.
00:32:03
Speaker
guys actually using their bat for they're supposed to have a bunt competition. You know, there's just a lot of because I know I know in Japanese baseball, you know, they have that they have a little target set up and they have a bunt competition. You know, who can
00:32:20
Speaker
Keep it the furthest away from the mound or whatever it to me. This is the all-star weekend is a waste of time All-star game and the all-star week or three days or whatever is a waste of time to me I'll probably try and tune in if I can if I can't I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it. I just put it that way So how has summer been treating you folks?
00:32:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's been hot. Yeah, it's it's getting it's summer supposed to be hot, you know, 90 degree days, high humidity, stuff like that. You know, we have some storms rolled through and knocked a bunch of stuff down on a yard, took out some patio furniture. You know, I spent three days out there cleaning up. You know, made sure I stayed hydrated though, because hydration is important. And let me tell you about hydration multiplication. It's called liquid IV.
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00:34:41
Speaker
See what hydration multiplication can do for you. Try Liquid IV. Okay. Well, for the last couple of weeks, I've been saying that Ollie Marmo and John Mazalock should be feeling a little bit of heat. And I really do think they are. I can't watch this past Sunday.
00:35:00
Speaker
Mo did admit that just maybe they didn't do enough in the offseason to get the job done. Now, quoting Mo now, he said, I do think that some of the decisions we made, some of the guys we were trying to give opportunities to, it just hasn't worked. It's very fair to say we should have done more or could have done more. And hopefully you learn from that. Mo, you've had two years to learn that, okay? You could have done more in 2021 when you had
00:35:30
Speaker
You were trying to make KK a starter when you had My old Michael us on the on the IL at the start of the season and you were depending on a Carlos Martinez who had off-season shoulder surgery. I mean, you know and then in 2022 Flarity is coming off injury Hudson's coming off of injury You know, give me a break mo I
00:35:59
Speaker
You haven't learned yet, so what makes you think you're going to learn now?" And when it came to Adam Wainwright's recent stint to the IL, he said, I think we have to see some adjustments on his end being made. Otherwise, maybe we will have to make some changes on how we go through things. Just what the hell does that mean? Just what does that mean? I don't understand it.
00:36:26
Speaker
I mean, is he trying to say that it's Adam's fault? Well, and he's somewhat right. I mean, everybody, you know, I'm not trying to diss Adam. Don't get, I love Adam Wainwright. Love me some way no. Okay. But the way he's pitching, if he has in fact been injured and dealing with a problem, why didn't they address it two, three weeks ago?
00:36:55
Speaker
when it showed up. Why are we just addressing it now? And why is it Adam's fault we're addressing it now? Did he withhold that he wasn't feeling well? I don't think so the way he was talking, but you just don't know. So I don't know what he means by that. Well, here's what I hear out of what he just said. A,
00:37:23
Speaker
We overvalued the ability of our pitching staff. You know, when he makes the comment of the decisions we made in the tries we were trying to give opportunities to, he overvalued the staff, overvalued what he had. Just like he did in 21, just like he did in 22. And then B, way too slow to recognize the issues. That in dealing with Adam Wainwright.
00:37:50
Speaker
Way too slow to recognize that Wainwright's got an issue. Let's fix it. Matt's the same way. They waited way too long to do something. They waited 10 games before they tried to do something about Matt's. They waited now what, a half a season before they're trying to figure out what's wrong with Wainwright. Lack of urgency. And I said many occasions, Moe is an arrogant SOB.
00:38:19
Speaker
And he thinks the fans don't have a clue and can be fed any amount of chum and slop and they're going to enjoy it. He's managed to get away with this mismanage of the team's instruction in the last couple of years because back in 2021, Mike Shilt, love him or hate him. And I personally liked the guy. I've never met him, but I mean, I personally liked the way he managed. I liked the way he handled the team. I, I don't think he should have been fired.
00:38:45
Speaker
But he took that 21 team and got them going. Now, we didn't make it far in the playoffs, and maybe that's on him, maybe it isn't. I mean, that can be debated another day, and we're not going to get into it here. But the fact remains, they were playing very good baseball, fundamental baseball, under Shilpp. And it showed. Last year, you had, you know, you had Aronado and Goldsmith both having great years.
00:39:14
Speaker
And a big second half surge by pooholes. I mean, that's just the emotion on that team. That carried a lot of guys through. You didn't have a huge amount of big injuries. Even though the pitching staff wasn't ready and the addition of Quintana and Montgomery, there was some makeup there that that happened. And I'm not saying Mo hasn't
00:39:42
Speaker
tried to fix the situation in the last two years but he shouldn't have had to fix the situation is what I'm saying. He can't get away with this year. You're seeing it. He's got a manager that cannot manage without a Yadier Molina behind the plate or an Albert Pujols walking in and saying hey, Ollie,
00:40:10
Speaker
why don't you let him hit against a right-hander or you know bouncing an idea off a guy like that or you having having a Mike Maddox in you know on your bench let's skip sumacher on your bench you know sumacher leaves
00:40:35
Speaker
goes and I don't blame him I mean you know you're you're going from bench coach to manager I'm taking that deal any day of the week Mike Maddox says he's gonna retire not leaving baseball he just gonna take a step backwards and in less than a month he signs to be the pitching coach of the Rangers and you know at first I didn't think that was all that odd
00:41:03
Speaker
Uh, because he does live in Texas. He lives, I think it's like a half an hour from the ballpark. So I didn't think it was all that odd. But then you add Jeff Albert, who was about to get as was Maddox was about to get an extension. And he leaves because he doesn't like being the, uh, focal point of the team's hitting issue.
00:41:31
Speaker
And so then you go out and you get Turner Ward, who's okay. He's been around for a while.
00:41:41
Speaker
So he's got some experience. You lost Brian Eversgird as a bullpen coach. And I think in some respects, I think that may have as much to do with the pitching as the change from Mike Maddox to Dusty Blake. I'm going to get to Blake in a minute. Because he sees those relievers. He knows he can get the field. He can call in and say, hey, no, no, no, you don't want him. Let's go a different way. Let me get somebody else up.
00:42:06
Speaker
You know, I think Eversgird was kind of an unheralded, quasi, assistant pitching coach, if you will. So I think you had that. So now you've got Julio Rangel out in the bullpen.
00:42:30
Speaker
Who's been around? He's been a pitching coach before so he didn't or shouldn't be any big deal But you go and you put dusty Blake a guy with no MLB Pitching coach experience or even pitching experience. He's never thrown an ending in the major leagues He was a pitching coach at Duke University. Oh, wahoo
00:42:55
Speaker
and you're going to make him the pitching coach to handle guys like Stephen Matts, Miles, Michael, Elizabeth, Adam, Wayne Wright. Now I got no doubt he can deal with some of the younger kids. Being a pitching coach in college, he can deal with the younger guys like your Hickses and, and, uh, uh, Thomsons and guys like that. But the guys like Verhagen, uh, Stratton and the guys, the other guys I mentioned, you know, what's he going to tell them that they don't already know?
00:43:24
Speaker
Now he was supposedly the pitching strategist for the Cardinals the last few years. Just what the hell is that? I'm sorry. Here's what I think is going to happen. And I've said people, you know, well, hang on. Let me one more. I got one more to throw in there. Then you got Matt Holliday. You got Matt Holliday.
00:43:51
Speaker
signs on to be the bench coach. And, you know, got all a Cardinal nation just turning handsprings and doing Ozzy Smith flips. 30 days later, he says, well, you know, let me think about this. I want to spend more time with my family. Well, now wouldn't that have been a concern before you signed the contract? So what changed? What changed?
00:44:22
Speaker
Why did Maddox leave? Why did Albert leave? What's the real reason for leaving? Why did Holiday say yes and then no? I can only... It's speculation, it's circumstantial, and it wouldn't hold up in a court of law. But I blame Ollie Marmal. I think Ollie Marmal
00:44:53
Speaker
did not want to be shown up by better coaches. Like Mike Maddox. Like what Matt Holliday. Matt Holliday has forgotten more about baseball than Ollie Marmo will ever know. He has. Bank it. So is Marmo the problem?
00:45:23
Speaker
Or is Mozaillock the problem? Because if I'm looking at it from Bill DeWitt's point of view, I'm looking at it saying, okay, Mo, you assembled this team. This is on you. Now Mo comes back, well, but the manager's not doing, you know, he's, he's not, he doesn't have the, okay, well, Mo, who hired the manager? You're dead.
00:45:53
Speaker
So guess what? It's on you again! So if I'm building with it, and I'm looking at this, and I see the way the roster was constructed, and then I see my manager calling players out publicly, and then trying to blame the pitching on a catcher, which
00:46:23
Speaker
I will say, in all fairness, Contreras does shoulder a little of that flame. Not all of it, because if you look, yes, some of the pictures did perform better with Kiesner behind the plate.
00:46:41
Speaker
But the difference wasn't that huge. I mean, we're talking maybe half a point on the ERA, you know, 0.5 on the ERA. I think there was one, I can't remember who it was now, I think it was Montgomery, pitched to like, has a much better ERA with Kiesner than with Contreras. But, you know, that's gonna happen from here, from time to time. I mean, look how many years, you know, Steve Carlton had, Tim McCarver is a sketcher.
00:47:11
Speaker
because he didn't really like pitching to anybody else. So that's going to happen. But by and large, the pitching staff was not that different between Contreras and Kistner, yet Ollie and Moe tried to make it on Contreras that he needed to learn how things worked internally.
00:47:37
Speaker
What does that mean? And to me, that was the philosophical differences line that he used with Shilt. You guys can disagree with me about all this, and that's fine. I don't expect everybody to agree with me. Everybody say, hey, you're right. Because I don't know any more than you guys do, really.
00:48:03
Speaker
Um, you know, I, I try to read up on every report that comes out. Some, I just look at it and laugh. Some of I look at it and go, well, you know, but if you are looking very objectively, if you're looking as if you're looking at this team, not as a Cardinal fan, but as a baseball fan, you can see this team has a lot of positives. Aeronado, Gorman, Goldsmith, um, Montgomery.
00:48:33
Speaker
Even Michael, this is a good bright spot, Edmund, Walker, this team's got a lot of positives to it. But you're also looking at it as, okay, they're not playing like, because if you remember Cardinal teams from back in the 70s, when they had their last long losing skid, or playoff drought, if you will, or whatever,
00:49:00
Speaker
You know, there was a period of the entire, you know, from 72 on till the 71, 71 to 82, where the Cardinals couldn't smell, couldn't smell a division title. If they, if somebody walked up and handed it to them. Now, sometimes they got beat by better teams. I mean, sometimes they were, they won 85, 90 games and still got beat, but then every year they didn't. But the one thing they did was they still played fundamental baseball.
00:49:29
Speaker
They showed up, they played. Sometimes it didn't work out. This team's not doing that. They're showing up. They're playing like they're on a sandlot. I mean, don't give me a, I love Jordan Walker too. I think Walker is going to be a stud. Let me just say this again. Walker is going to be a five tool stud.
00:50:01
Speaker
He's not there yet. We know that. And he played a lot in right field in the minors when he was playing, when they converted him from third base. So they bring the big leagues and they put him in the left. Now a lot of people know what's different. There actually is a difference. The way the ball comes off the bat, the way you see it, the way you angle, a lot of it's different. Now he's had a lot of time in the left right now to get to learn and get better.
00:50:31
Speaker
And he will don't get me wrong. He will But right now he's not that good in the outfield. So you got to find a different way to deal with him And I know because Tyler O'Neill's hurt, you know, he's He's not there to put in left field So you can't hide Walker's the DH and then just work on the fielding, you know in the off time But they're gonna have to come up with something
00:51:00
Speaker
He's going to get better. Don't give me your own. But the whole team, though, is just not playing with the same type of fundamental commitment that you've seen out of the St. Louis Cardinals. Now, we had this going on once before under Mike Matheny. Going in before La Russa left, Cardinal baseball was fundamental baseball. Matheny took over, fundamentals went out the window.
00:51:27
Speaker
You didn't see any bunting, you didn't see any base running, you know, any aggressive base running. Menthini gets fired. They bring in Shilt. You start seeing a turnaround. The guys are stealing bases. The guys are taking extra bases. The guys are bunting. You're seeing fundamental baseball. You're seeing it in the field. I mean look at the gold gloves they won under Shilt. Now you got Marmal.
00:52:01
Speaker
And the fundamentals are gone. The fundamentals are gone. And again, that's because he's managing from the spreadsheet and not what he needs to be managing from what the skillset of the players are. Well, if any changes are made, here's what I think is going to happen. I think they're going to, Mo and Ollie are going to
00:52:27
Speaker
have their sacrificial lamb and they're going to lay the pitching blame on Dusty Blake. Blake will get fired. They'll probably promote wrangle from the bullpen to pitching coach. And then they'll call it all good and make a few other player moves and say we'll deal with this in the off season.
00:52:54
Speaker
I do look for a few guys to be traded at the deadline. But I think as far as what's going to happen with the staff and how that's going to get changed, it's not going to happen until John Moselak's gone. I mean, let's face the fact. As long as Moselak is in place, we're going to have this continuous
00:53:24
Speaker
lack of attention and lack of urgency in the way they deal with it. And the way they deal in the off season, the way they deal with issues coming up in the regular season. This is what we are probably going to have to come to expect unless Bill DeWitt steps in and tells Moe, enough is enough. Get ahead of this thing. We'll see. Like I said, am I a hundred percent right? No.
00:53:55
Speaker
I'm not even sure I'm 50% right. You can agree with me or you don't.
Listener Engagement and Show Promotion
00:54:02
Speaker
That's up to you and I'm not going to fault you if you don't agree with me. That's fine. It's just my opinion as a fan. You've got your opinion. And you want to know something? I want to hear that opinion. I really do. So I'll tell you what. Hit me up on Twitter, at Tsotbgcs, or you can email the show
00:54:25
Speaker
at psotb.gcs at gmail.com or you can go to Gateway City Sports and leave me a message there. But let me know what you think. I really want to know. And speaking of Gateway City Sports, you say you need to find a place with news and opinions on sports in and around the St. Louis area
00:54:48
Speaker
then I've got a spot for you. Head over to GatewayCitySports.com. At Gateway City Sports, you're going to find news and articles about the Cardinals, the Blues, the Missouri Tigers, Fighting Illini, and even some high school action. Soccer too! You'll find articles and content from guys like Russ, Uncle Frank Robinson, Brian, Papa Swope, Gene Bonds, Derek King, and even I put out an article or two. You want more podcasts? Well, where you're in luck,
00:55:14
Speaker
If you're a Cub fan, if you have a Cub fan, excuse me, in the family, or you've got a neighbor to Cub fan, invite him over, have a couple brews, and listen to the team of rivals with Ron Nottle, Pete Gettys, and Elliott Dewey. If you prefer mostly Cardinal talk with some interesting guests thrown in, then give a listen to That's All Winner with Ryan Jenkins and Josh Brown. Now, you say that's not enough Cardinal content for you?
00:55:35
Speaker
Well, there's more. Check out the two for three with the mighty moose, Mike Stevenson. Coming back by popular demand is the Derek King sports show with the man himself, Derek King. So head on over to gateway city sports.com. Look us up. As always, if there's a sport you follow and we don't cover it, let us know. We'll see what we can do for you.
00:55:57
Speaker
Alright folks, well that's going to do it for me today and remember to tell your friends about the show. We can be found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts. You can find it on zencaster.com. You can also go to gatewaycitiesports.com and find it there. So until next time, I want you guys to have some fun. I want you to stay safe and we'll see you again when we can talk sports on the bleachers.
00:56:24
Speaker
Goodnight everybody. Thanks again for joining us and you have been listening to Talking Sports on Bleachers. Here's hoping you have a great sports day.
00:56:55
Speaker
you