March 18th, 2024, the day after the most glorious day of them all.
It wasn't so glorious yesterday.
We'll get into that in a minute.
But welcome back everybody.
Lottie and Mack, the Bristol boys, Kymish, Angry J, busy tonight.
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As promised, special baseball guest tonight.
Major league umpire, Ed Rapuano.
23 year career in the big leagues and we cannot wait to get into this.
But before we get into it, we got to go back.
You grew up in New Haven.
What sports were you involved in?
Did you ever officiate as a youngster?
And then Big Town, what high school you went to and what that experience was like?
Yeah, no.
In fact, not to get off the subject, but the high school I went to is in the Connecticut
state championship right now.
Going to be at college.
East Haven Yellowjack.
I really don't know who they're playing, but Lou Payne is a dear friend of mine.
But anyway, I did go to East Haven High School.
I did not umpire as a young man.
I played ball up until senior in high school, played a year at Quinnipiac on the freshman
team, wasn't cut out for schooling before I went into the military for a few years.
And what my dad was the biggest influence.
He helped build the annex little league in New Haven as a young man.
Baseball has really been the only sport that my two brothers and I have played since we
were very, very young and again, no officiating until he asked me what I wanted to do if I
thought maybe umpiring was an avenue to take because I was working for Yale University
at the time.
President Bart Cheomati was there and president of Yale.
And he said, well, you try umpiring.
I said, I'm firing.
I played all my life.
I played baseball through high school and softball and I didn't know what umpiring was
all about.
But he seemed to think something was, I had something there and he was right.
I hope that was thick skin what you had there.
I mean, what an important job you guys do.
We watch a lot of games at the high school level, mainly basketball and baseball.
But I can't be near some people because they think that that job is easy.
At that level, I'd like to see what these people say when we don't have them anymore.
But thank you for all that time allowing these guys to play.
Your dad did a little reading about your dad.
Lifelong ump, renowned in the area.
What was his connection with the Yukon umpire school?
Was he involved in that with Coach Bleylock?
That I don't know much about.
I know he went to Yukon as a young man.
I'm such a big Yukon fan.
Basketball that is.
I wish they get their football team going in the right track.
But I don't know too much about that either.
I know we've got a good coach though in the Myra kid.
But um, no, dad was beloved in New Haven and in the baseball world.
And he's the one who got me started and he's the one who kicked me in the butt when I got
down for the few years that I was in the minor league.
But it was all him who was my influence.
That's awesome.
So Addy, you just alluded a little bit to the minor league umpire.
Could you tell me like what level you started at and how that came about?
Yeah, I went to umpire school in 85.
New York Penn League, Florida State League.
And then I spent a year each in the southern league, believe it or not, with the way I
talk.
So uh, you know, my English is not that great.
Uh, kind of slangy, you know, and uh, northeast.
And I went to the southern league and you know, Birmingham, Alabama, Huntsville, uh,
Columbus, Georgia, you know, Memphis.
So my uh, my accent didn't go to uh, didn't, well, didn't go too well down there.
But uh, and then from there I spent a year in AAA and then I worked my first big league
game in 1990.
Wow.
So, so Ed, it's, it's Jeff Dawn.
How, how many years in by the time you started really umpiring before you got into the major
league?
Cause I know I met you, I believe it was in the New York Penn League and then down in
the Florida League with Richard.
Like how, how many years was it total?
Cause I know my brother who was, you know, went with umpiring school and did all, went
all through all the steps for him.
He said it was just going to take too long because I know for my future isn't what I
wanted to be.
He wanted to be an umpire, but he knew it was going to take him a lot longer than it
took some other folks.
So what is the total process?
Like from the time you decided to an umpire, you know, by the time you graduated with umpiring
school to the time you got to the major leagues?
Yeah, you know, I um, the, it was five years is the bottom line, but I worked, um, I worked
a few big league games, um, just past A-ball, uh, in winter ball one year in West Palm Beach,
um, Bart, uh, Jamati and, and the National League was bringing Pam Postalma down to West
Palm Beach and I happened to have been into camp.
Like I believe it was Billy McCallum, myself, uh, maybe Angel Hernandez and somebody else.
And um, we heard they were bringing Pam down and to make a long story short, uh, she works
her first game and takes one off the collar bone and goes to the hospital.
And that was the end of her, uh, time down there.
And uh, Ed Vargo had nothing else to do.
So he came over to my field, took a look at me and the following year gave me a half
a dozen games in spring training and went to AA and then he took me, uh, under his wing
in 89 gave me my first big league spring training and my first big league, uh, opportunity.
Hi, this is John Pettit.
I, um, I had a couple of questions.
Hi, John.
Hi, how are you?
Yeah.
I mean, how many of the umpires you were involved with on the, on the, um, beginning levels
were big time players or played in college and how hard is it to get the major leagues
compared to like a player?
I gotta think it's harder to be an umpire, making the majors and fewer jobs as a player.
Yeah.
Uh, that's a good point.
Fewer jobs, but if, if you're asking me about players that I've known, uh, in the minor
leagues, um, you know, it was, it was just a short time, but there were, you know, the
entire Atlanta brave pitching staff, I had them right from eight ball to triple A, um,
Glavin and Smoltz and those guys, uh, just off the top of my head.
I spent many years in the Atlanta Braves, uh, camp up there in West Palm Beach because
we moved down to Florida and 86 and Deerfield Beach.
So it was convenient for me to have spring training here and, uh, they accommodated that
and, um, but yeah, I mean, I've, I've known a lot of them through the years.
There's so many to mention.
I can't think right now, but, um, yeah, guys, I still keep in touch with every, I ran into
Jeff Connine just the other day is his son's playing and Jeff and I, uh, we came up together
and we, we actually, his first all star game, I believe it was his first was my first in
95 turned out to be the MVP there.
That year, matter of fact, in tech in Arlington, where the stars started cast, man, that what
you're right.
That's exactly right.
But I think that was one of the, uh, shortest all star games in quite some time and, uh,
the, I think the score was two to one, three to two, three to one, something and he hit,
I guess the winning home run.
I remember if he, if he even maybe had one at bat and hit a home run, I think they had
to give him the MVP because really there was wasn't much action there, but, uh, and that
was a lot of fun.
But, um, I've made a lot of good friends, uh, in, in over, over the years as far as
players, pardon me, um, Bucky Dent and I, uh, up until a few years back, um, he lived
in the area and we used to play golf together occasionally.
Uh, and, um, he had a pretty big hit in his career, right?
Bucky.
Yeah, just a bit, right?
A little bit.
As they would, as they would say, yeah, yeah.
Great man though.
Great man.
I was going around New Haven around that time.
I was.
I was a little too, yes, I, yes I was.
78.
Yeah.
Ed, um, yes.
You know, we go to a big league game or watching on TV.
We see four guys working, right?
Do you travel as a crew of four or is there another guy as you rotate?
Is there like an, no, in the big leagues you travel as a crew.
You get your crew in April.
Um, as four chief.
Yes.
Normally the crew chief would pick his crew and the league would, would try to, uh, you
know, give him one or two of his picks.
Um, just for the, you know, to be, uh, to be a crew and to know each other.
That's real important.
Uh, when you step on the field, you got to know each other's movements and how the other
works and how the other umpires and his movements around the field in rotations.
And you get, you get that, uh, you get that working with, with another guy or two every
year.
And then you always get, you know, the young guys and who you have to groom, uh, when you
get there.
And it's just what they did to me and what I did to the guys that came up behind me.
Ed, um, I'm sure you've been a part of an umpire going on or not, or just getting sick
or not being able to, to continue.
You just rolled the three man crew after that.
Yeah.
That would be the case in the big leagues.
Yeah.
They have no one on the sidelines.
Uh, you get hurt or something happens.
I mean, you just roll with a three man.
A position, B, is it right?
Is that?
Uh, most of, if, if, you know, if the plate on fire goes down the second base on fire
out, normally, normally would come in.
Yeah.
That's cool.
Has it ever, you ever been involved in a game or went down to two?
Uh, major league game?
Yeah.
No.
I have not.
No.
Oh, I, my first, uh, well, your dad would, Jeff, your dad would remember those days,
we worked two men, uh, in rookie ball in New York, Penn League and in the Florida state
league when I got to the Southern league and naturally in triple A it was three and
four men, three and four umpire, I should say.
That's great.
Ed, going back to, to the minor leagues, uh, for a second, I was just curious when you're
umpiring into minor leagues and did you ever, did you ever see a player that you were like,
this guy is a can't miss all star, you know, maybe a hall of famer in the future.
Did your career parallel anybody else's minor league career where you can just say, wow,
this, this kid you knew right away, he was going to make it big.
Yeah.
You know, I came up, like I mentioned those guys with the Braves, you can see the way they
were, the way they were brought up in, in Greenville and, uh, and then onto, uh, uh,
Virginia, um, not Norfolk, but back then it was Richmond was their farm team.
And you could just see the talent in these guys, you know, power, I kept Jeff Bagwell
comes to mind, um, with some great Brady, Brady, and this will be from Brady Anderson,
uh, struck me in rookie board for the red socks, right?
Yeah.
For the red socks and the Orioles and for the Orioles rather and, um, Larry Walker,
uh, we were together in, in Jamestown, New York independently.
Jeff, your dad remembers him, I'm sure.
Uh, and they had some team Marcus Grissom, you know, yeah.
There was, yeah, there's, uh, you know, there was some teams, there was some players that,
uh, you really, wow, you know, um, and you knew that would, you knew that would get to
the top right away.
Now, when you guys are being trained on, and everything like, um, I mean, I know how hard
the game is at a, at a high school level.
Um, I, I can't imagine that how the talent, you know, in the game moves a little faster
at the big league level.
Um, do, do you get trained to like not get caught up in the talent and to just get it
right and, and focus on like the job?
Um, I mean, I feel bad putting you on the spot, talking about great players because
I mean, you got to get it right, man.
You got to, you know, how does it work at first?
You look at the, is it still like you look at the bag and listen for the, for the pop
of the glove?
How do you get that?
Yeah, pretty much.
I mean, when you dedicate yourself to being an umpire and I tell our, at our camps that
we run every, every year, um, you know, I tell these young candidates, young men and
women that want to aspire, aspire to be umpires.
I mean, you can't look at a player and say, wow, you know, here comes a Barry Bonds.
I'm going way back now, but okay, you look at a player and you say, uh, whoever is coming
up the bat.
You can't do that.
You got to look at it as if, okay, I got to focus on balls and strikes outs and save
fairs and fouls, or am I supposed to be what's coming up?
You know, you always got to, you always got to hit the rulebook.
You always got to keep in the back of your mind.
You know, what may happen?
How am I going to explain this?
You know, according to the rulebook.
And so when you get into this game and, and we see it right away in a young candidate
that comes to our camps or when we go visit the umpire school, you see it right away if
they're dedicated.
Um, and, and they're not, uh, not, I'm not saying starstruck, but if they're just in
it for, you know, just for the hell of it, just to be in part of Major League Baseball.
Just say I'm in baseball.
Yeah.
You, yeah, you, you know, professional baseball, you know, right away who, who really wants
it, who has it in their gut to, you know, want to be an umpire to game doesn't overwhelm
you.
You control it, you know.
Yeah.
Just get it right.
Right.
I love it.
And that's, yeah.
Go ahead.
I'm sorry.
And that same vein, what are the three hardest calls to make as an umpire in the field?
Yeah.
But you know, a tough call for me and I guess that varies from umpire to umpire.
I really don't know.
I hope one of the tough calls for me was working first base of force play and I can get the
short hops okay.
And I can get the, the real close bang bang place, but it's those balls that bounce a
foot in front of home and foot in front of the first baseman and then he sort of reaches
back and gets that big hop, you know, underneath his armpit, you know, when they get that
always threw me off because there was three sound, there was three sounds, ball hitting
the dirt, then a hesitation and then the glove, then the foot in the bag.
To me, that was the, that was a tough one.
And obviously your resume speaks for itself.
You did, you did the all star games.
You alluded to the 1995 game.
There were 17 future hall famers in that game.
Uh, you did the 2008, uh, all star game division series, ALCS, NLCS, World Series.
Do you ever feel yourself like nervous before those big games or it's just the preparation
and your knowledge kind of takes over.
Nervous before every game.
And if any umpire tells you they're not, they're not telling you the truth.
You always have that pit in your stomach, no matter what game, no matter what game you're
working, whether it be opening day or whether it be the last game of the world series.
It's that feeling you get and it sort of goes away.
You know, it's, it's leading up to it and it's in the locker room, especially postseason
when you have, you know, in New York, everyone in the locker room and everyone's there asking
you questions and you got to go through a whole bunch of stuff.
When you step on that field and after those first couple of pitches come in, you look
out, you see your partners and they're all fired up.
They're ready to go.
I think that's when maybe the butterflies start to dissipate a little bit, but, but not a
whole heck of a lot.
Uh, you're pretty nervous right, right through, but I think that's where, you know, you get
your adrenaline, you get your, you know, your second win.
So for say, you get, you get that excitement and that's, I always love that.
Well, that means you care about getting it right.
And that's, that's the job.
Oh, that's the bottom line.
Yeah.
The bottom line is to get it right.
Jeff's brother always got him right.
Yes, he did.
He said, we had some fun.
We had some fun.
So you, you mentioned, uh, at how tough it is sometimes to make those bang bang calls
at first place.
So I got first base.
So I got a, I got a pick on you here now because I was watching some highlights of, uh, a fun,
uh, Blue Jays, uh, Tiger's game when, uh, we went to New York, you and Jim, we went
to Adam for a little while.
Yes, we did.
It was in June of, uh, 2011.
And can you, I watched the video and it's hilarious.
Can you, like, can you tell us a little bit about what it is like to be in that moment?
He's obviously one of the best managers who's ever stepped on the field.
And I mean, you were, you were sparring up, I think you kind of acknowledged right away.
Maybe I didn't see it.
You asked for help.
The call was right at the end.
Like, but what, what is it like in those moments when someone like that's going at
you?
Well, I've not, I knew Jim for a long time.
They worked many, many of his games and, uh, respect, respect the heck out of them.
I mean, you know, future Hall of Famer, I guess he's going into the Hall of Fame this
coming season.
And that's, that was great news.
Um, but it was one of those, one of those calls where I lost focus and, you know, you,
you have that once in a while.
I mean, you know, you just lose focus and the play don't apply.
I think it was Alfonso Marquez.
Uh, as soon as I made the call at first base, I kind of lost sight of the ball.
It, it was a way to play happen.
I just lost focus and Alfonso came right up to me, started walking up to me as, uh,
I think the manager of the Red Sox was, um, I can't remember his name.
He was only there for a year or so, but he, uh, Toronto, I'm excuse me, Toronto.
It was Kevin Farrell, right?
There you go.
Okay. Who was it?
Whoever it was came out and, uh, he said rapidly, he said, and, and now at this time
Alfonso, I said, hang on a second.
I said Alfonso, what do you got?
He says, nah, he, you know, he wasn't off the bag around the bag, whatever the call
I made was, and I says, okay, are you sure he's, it's okay.
We're going to flip it.
And I was the crew chief and, and I said, okay, I'll take this one when he goes, you
sure I got it.
I said, no, I got it.
I'll take Jimmy and Jimmy, you know, it was Jimmy.
And it was, uh, you know, you don't see that too much anymore because of replay, but, uh,
that was actually a lot of fun.
You know, I don't want to say fun.
It was, it was embarrassing that I, that I lost focus and I missed it being a veteran
crew chief, but, but it happens to, it happens to everybody.
You know, it's, it just stuff happens and you're at the wrong place at the wrong time
and you flip a coin and get something wrong and, and here, here it comes.
And you just have to deal with it.
Uh, you own it, you own it, you know, and I told Jimmy, uh, I messed up.
You do what you have to do.
If you could read my lips, that's you do what you have to do.
And he did what he had to do, put on a little show, which, you know, it was a little comicals.
You know, we've spoken many, many times since then and not about that, but, uh, he's a good
baseball man and I, and I'm happy he got elected to the Hall of Fame.
So was it fun when Josh Bard barreled into you walking off, running onto the field when
he overruled one of his home runs?
I don't know if you remember that game, you know, I do, I do remember that.
And it was in Pittsburgh, if I'm not mistaken.
Yep.
Absolutely.
Yep.
He was a catcher for the podcast.
And, and it, it, it, I don't think it was my call.
It was, I believe I was the home plate on Pryor and crew chief and I believe I was trying
to stop him, but I don't think I could have stopped him.
He came running up, but, uh, we, if I'm not mistaken, I'll let you bring him back some
memories.
I'm not mistaken.
I believe our, our crew got the call.
Correct.
Absolutely.
And he was correct and, and he wasn't too happy about it.
Um, but yeah, he knew once he made contact with me that he was going to take a shower
and, and he was fine about it.
If I remember correctly, yeah, boy, that's one I hadn't thought of in a while.
How hard does it add to kind of turn the page when you're in an argument with a guy or just
to keep up hiring fairly the rest of the way?
Cause that's what the job entails, man.
I mean, I mean, you know, you got to be fair.
Um, you got to, there's, there's no, there's no, uh, give backs, Gimmies.
I missed this one.
I'm going to make up for that one.
That's not in our blood.
That's, that's not in an umpire's blood.
You just don't do that.
Your umpire is fair as possible.
Uh, you, you know, you're a judge out there.
You don't play favorites.
Uh, something happens, uh, one day and the next day.
Uh, it's over with, uh, there's no grudges held and that's a, I think our, um, you know,
our, our family of umpires dating back, you know, how many years, uh, 150 years ago or
whatever.
Um, we take pride in that, you know, there's never been an umpire caught cheating.
Uh, you know, we take pride in what we do and, um, we try to instill, uh, in our young
umpires.
I, I supervise our young umpires now getting them ready for the big league and, and we instill
that in them.
You know, integrity is such a big part of our, uh, our family, our umpire family.
That's what we preach.
Uh, integrity holds your head up high.
Do the best you can.
You know, that's pretty much what it is.
But you, you get over, you get over it quick.
You get over stuff like that quick.
I had a question for you on your first major league game, what were the nerves like before
that one?
Is it like a player making his debut?
What did you have to play?
Where were you?
I believe it or not, uh, I was in Pittsburgh and, um, I joined a crew and it just so happened
to be the gentleman, the umpire that I was taking the place of.
It was his turn to work to play that night.
Oh man, let's go.
I'm sitting in the locker room and I, you know, I mean, my mom and dad are there.
God rest their souls.
I'm like, my brother's there.
My friend and his wife is, I mean, I had people from driving down from Connecticut and, uh,
you know, I'm sitting in there and I'm saying, I'm nervous as heck.
And uh, Eddie Vargo is there.
That was his hometown.
He'd love, love to bring guys their first game in, in to Pittsburgh because he'd be
able to be there.
Who were the starting pitchers?
I'm sorry.
Who were the starting pitchers?
The starting pitchers, uh, he won the, uh, he won the Cy Young that year.
That was Doug Drabeck.
Oh.
On the other side, on the other side for Houston was a, uh, a gentleman by the name of, uh,
Jim DeShay's Jim DeShay's Jim DeShay's.
Do you have the scorecard still?
I believe I, I have the line of cards in my head.
My trophy closet, then my trophy, uh, glass case there.
Pardon me.
But uh, yeah, he came down the end of the locker and Eddie said, Hey, you want to work
the plate tonight?
And I didn't even hesitate.
I said, sure.
I mean, if I'm going to do it and I'm going to get it over with, you know, I was nervous
enough.
I may as well work the plate.
And then believe it or not, the, I was a Friday night and the game went fine.
Uh, Jim Leland was the manager and, uh, sent congratulations in after the game.
Um, and Art Howe was the manager on the other side did the same thing.
And it's, it's, it's a big deal when you get your first one.
And, uh, and the next night was a Saturday night, uh, May the 12th.
My daughter was born without me knowing it in Connecticut.
That's why my, my wife couldn't be there.
I wasn't not there for her birth.
She came a little early and she didn't tell me my daughter was coming.
As long as you got it right that night.
Yeah.
It was, it was a great night.
It was a great night.
Ed, I just want to confirm you were part of the crew in the 2001 World Series, correct?
That is correct.
Thanks.
Thanks, Arizona.
Obviously there was a lot going on in our country at that time.
I actually happened to be at, at, uh, game four of that World Series in November 1st when
Jeter hit the home run.
Did you understand in the guys that you were working with the magnitude of that event and
how our country needed it?
And in particular in New York City at that time, um, I can't imagine that it was just
any other, any other, you know, week or week and a half for you.
That there was, uh, again, New York City needed that big time and, and those two teams delivered
an epic, epic World Series.
Yeah.
Now you, um, 100%, 100% we knew the magnitude, um, game three, uh, you saw us all out there
and, uh, when, uh, President Bush throughout the first pitch, um, you know, Secret Service
were in our lock heat, uh, President Bush came in our locker room, cordially sat with
us for 30 or 40 minutes, you know, naturally signing some baseballs and taking some photos
with us.
It was, uh, we asked it.
So a short answer to your question.
We absolutely 100% felt the magnitude of that moment.
Those three games in New York were like nothing I've ever experienced.
Um, and I was, as you said, you were at game four behind the plate was my first, uh, World
Series play job.
And the ground shook when you know, hit the home run.
Yes, sir.
In fact, I saw Tino last week and, uh, he was down him and, uh, George, uh, were playing
a softball tournament for cancer, uh, right near my house there.
So my son and I went and said hello and, and, uh, to him and, and Posada.
And, uh, yeah, when, when, you know, Tino hit the home run, you felt the energy to tie
the game, uh, because we were, you know, one out and when, when, when, uh, what's his name,
uh, right fielder, um, O'Neill hit the little blooper, you know, to base it.
I'm thinking this is my first World Series.
It's pretty good game.
I'm doing well.
Nobody yelled at me and we're going to get out of here.
And then I got two strikes on Tino and that, you know, I got a picture hanging up my wall
of him swinging and the ball going out and me just looking up.
I must have said to myself, holy blank, you know what the heck we got to go extra in it.
But yes, again, um, not to repeat myself, but we understood the magnitude.
Absolutely.
That's an awesome story.
You mentioned instant replay.
So what is your take as an umpire and as obviously somebody who's supervised umpires?
Is it good for the game, bad for the game?
Like what's your, what's your takes on, on that?
And then also the automatic strike zone.
They're kind of a tinkering with a little bit right now.
Yeah.
I've never, the only instant replay I've been involved with, um, in 2000 and I don't
know, maybe 11 and 12 when the home runs, we had to go and look at the monitor.
I don't know that, you know, the only thing I do, I can, I tell our young umpires in triple
A that I, that I train is not to, you know, not to keep that in your pocket to go out
there and umpire umpire the way, you know, you did an A ball and rookie ball and A ball
on double A.
You know, try to get it everything you can right because speaking to a lot of the big
league guys who have worked under me and have worked with me, um, it's not a good feeling
when you get overturned.
So I, you know, I remember when I worked on back at Nightwatch and Sports Center and,
you know, seeing that play I missed and maybe caused the run and I got to pit my stomach.
But they get that pit in their stomach every, you know, every time they overturn a call.
But you'd be surprised, you guys would be surprised how good our guys are and how many
calls they get right compared to the ones overturned.
I don't have the numbers off the top of my head.
They keep those in New York and they do tell us once in a while that, you know, the percentage
they get right is over almost 98, over almost 98%, 98.97.9.
It's amazing how good that they are.
These good young umpires and, you know, they grew up in this world with technology.
Our young guys, I didn't, and Rich, when Jeff Stad went to school, there was no technology
back then.
There was just, you know, Sports Center.
We had one game a week on TV.
That was Saturday and then the Monday, then the Monday night, Sunday night baseball came
on and Wednesday night.
But yeah, I mean, look, every sport has, just about every sport has some type of instant
replay and it's here to stay in baseball and baseball does a fantastic job.
If you're ever in New York, you ought to try to get a hold of somebody inquire about going
up and taking a tour.
It's absolutely, it's magnificent.
You know, it's like Houston, the rockets, what do they call it, Space Command, what
they call that, Don and Houston Space Center.
It's incredible.
I mean, what baseball did and, you know, the technology they have to me is second to none.
Of course, I'm not a real technological guy, but it is incredible the way the angles they
have, the people they have working there, outstanding, bringing us replay.
And we use a lot of their technology for our training.
I happen to be in charge of the positioning and I do a positioning session every year
for the umpires just so they can get an idea.
Maybe they'd like to try a different position somewhere and replays and they send me a bunch
of plays up there.
But I mean, it works.
Fans are happy with it, baseball is ecstatic with it and they do a great job up there in
Rockefeller Center.
Justin Clem is the director, is the vice president of replay and he does a fantastic
job I remember when Justin was an umpire in AAA working with him.
Ed.
Yep.
I gotta be honest, I never liked it the first time they put the K-Zone or that little rectangle
up on the TV screen.
I don't like it.
Baseball is just one of those different games.
The only team where the defense has the ball, you know, these cool things about baseball.
And you know, catchers are trained to steal strikes.
They used to call it framing, whatever.
I'm sure umpires don't like to hear him say, hear me say steal strikes, but that's their
job.
And the guys like Greg Maddox who can methodically stretch that same pitch to make it look like
the same pitch but be throwing it another millimeter outside, you know, I think he deserves
the benefit of that strike zone kind of changing.
And the strike zone is not the same for everybody.
They throw the same rectangle up there for Aaron Judge and Jose L2.
I mean, whatever happened to the old, you know, armpits to the knees and what really
is the major league strike zone?
Like what are the umpires trained to look at?
Well, the strike zone is from the hollow of the knee to underneath the armpit, but it's
you know, people don't realize it's not when Aaron Judge is standing there is six foot
eight frame or, or it's, it's when he lunges at the ball when he, when he, what do they
call it?
You know, when he strikes to make contact.
Correct.
And so that lowers it quite a bit.
I don't know a lot of the technology with the ABS.
And I know that we had it in trip.
We've had it in trip lay for the past couple of years.
And all we tell our own parts is to just focus, focus on the pitch.
I don't know if it'll get to the big leagues or when it's going to get to the big leagues.
I, that's a little above my pay grade.
I do know that all I can do is train our guys to focus on the pitch.
Call the pitch in your head.
If it's they, they have an ear, but in their ear that says ball or strike every three days,
uh, excuse me, the second three days, the first three days are a challenge or I'm sorry,
the second, whatever, either the first or the second three days in a six game series,
they have three games challenge and three games ABS.
And so they really have to focus on, on tracking the pitch and you know, they don't have it
in the lower minors.
So from double A down, so we, we train our young umpires and triple A just keep tracking
the pitch, keep tracking the pitch.
Cause we don't know if it's ever going to make it to the big leagues.
I don't know, uh, be honest with you.
Uh, is it going to be good for the game?
Is it going to be bad for the game?
I, I really couldn't tell you.
I know, you know, the, uh, the thing they put up on, on the screen, uh, a lot of, I
watch a lot of broadcasts or even taking them down.
Um, I don't think it's that big a deal.
I think if they do come to some kind of challenge system someday, I think it'll just be like
this replay.
They'll roll right into it and baseball will, you know, keep up with the other sports and
all their technology.
Uh, you know, in my opinion, the essence, when I sit up there and watch a game, I was
at a game today, Houston played, uh, Miami today and I had a young umpire work in the
bases, um, in a four umpire system and, uh, you know, just watching him and there was
no, there's no replay.
There's no strike zone.
It's just old school baseball, just baseball.
And that's when I could talk to him and talk to him about umpire and this carries over
to him when he goes to the big leagues, even though they have replay, even though they,
you know, they may at some point have an ABS, but to train them and to umpire umpire like
you did when you got to umpire school balls and strikes outs and safe fairs and fouls,
focus, concentrate.
I tell them you're only out there for two and a half, three hours.
You know, don't think about anything else.
Just focus on what you have to do.
Like you guys said before, you got to try to get everything right.
No one gets everything right.
I don't care who you are.
Um, Ed, how immediate is the feedback to a major league umpire right now and um, what
do they get?
Do you get DVDs at one point?
What's the feedback like from New York?
No, every game is uh, you get a zone evaluator.
It's a ZE system.
You know your strike zone score.
Um, according to, according to that system, uh, they get it every day.
That's awesome.
They get play, they get plays every day.
Uh, I do, I don't know.
I do maybe 60.
I do, I've had four crews in the big leagues times, you know, 30, 40 plays a game that I
would go through and grade.
Um, the ones they were overturned, I grade and let them know what I think of it.
Uh, but they get evaluated every single day.
They can't walk on the field without somebody knowing that they're there watching them and
evaluating them.
I have an imagine you guys know that rule book forward, backward and inside.
Now does every umpire carry the rule book in their pocket?
No, okay.
Not to my knowledge.
Is the clicker still used?
Behind the plate, we, we totally a hundred percent ask our, our young umpires.
Yes.
When they get to the big leagues, uh, uh, be honest with you, I probably shouldn't say
this, but I didn't use one.
I just thought it kept me, it kept me in the game.
You wear a cup.
I'm not kidding.
What do you think?
Yes, I'm thinking yes, preserved life.
Yeah.
Of course.
I have three, three children in the field.
I'm still okay in the field too.
I'm, uh, no, no, I, I will say that if you're getting personal now.
No, I didn't wear one on the field.
I want to know.
We're in the field.
You know what, I'm going to tell you that you guys are getting a little too personal
here.
My bad.
I don't know why you want, and a quick question about, uh, after the first year, the level
of success that you think, uh, the rule changes, like where a reliever has to pitch to three
batters or the, the pitch clock or the larger bases in general, how do you think that went
over and what was some of your feedback from some of the, the umpires that you still talk
to?
I'll tell you everything's working.
You know, the larger bases, stolen bases are up.
And if you're sitting where I'm sitting in the press box watching the game, you really
couldn't tell.
I don't watch too much baseball, though.
I saw, I watched the game last night and to be honest with you, uh, I didn't pay much
attention on the size of the bases.
Uh, you really can't tell, uh, the pitch clock, uh, times are, are down, uh, almost 30 minutes,
20, I think last year, the average time in major league baseball was down almost about
28, 29 minutes.
That's incredible.
Uh, especially for yank socks on a Sunday night, especially for the yank socks on a Sunday
night, which is about eight hours.
I've, you know what, funny, you should say that.
I don't know what year it was, but we hold the record.
We had five games in four days.
I think the Yankees swept them and they were pretty close in September and each game went,
I think five out one game went over five hours on a Friday night.
I can't remember the year, but, uh, you guys will probably come up with that stat.
The young guys are good with that stuff, but, uh, we were there.
We grinded it out for five, five games in four days at Friday through Friday, double
header Saturday split Sunday night game, which didn't start.
I had the plate, which didn't start till 10 cause of rain, uh, and then Monday afternoon.
But anyway, um, I remember that series.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So the time clock works, uh, pitchers are, you know, more fluent that they, they got
a pace going that I could see that I could watch.
Uh, I think they, they don't, they don't mind it.
Uh, and again, a lot of these rules changes come from the players in management.
Um, you know, these are not rules, um, tires made up, but they come to us to enforce them
and our, our guys do a fantastic job with, uh, with enforcing our umpires and, and our
management, uh, Mike Hill, Rich Riecker, all the way down, Justin Clem, all the way down
to us, um, do a fantastic job monitoring the umpires, giving them all the information
they need.
Um, you know, the three batter minimum, I, I don't know too much about that.
Um, you know, don't know too much about pitchers and arms and how much they need or what have
you.
So that's more of a strategy thing for the managers.
I guess it would have been a, I guess they had to adjust their strategy.
You may want to ask, uh, if you have a manager on someday, ask him about it, but, uh, we
don't pay too much attention to that.
We just monitor the rule that you have to pitch the three batters.
Um, you know, and throwing over only twice the first base without, uh, blocking your
third time.
I think that, uh, that weighs in heavily on, on pace a game, which is, uh, Rob, which
is Mr. Manfred's, uh, you know, pet peeve.
To get the games, uh, speed it up and, um, you know, more interesting for younger, younger
people and, uh, so I think everything they've done has worked.
And, you know, it's, uh,
Ed, I mean, the passion you have to make, to get it right and, and to have all your
guys, the young guys get it right.
You know, you exude that passion.
Uh, we can't have the game without you guys.
People quickly play in the umpires no matter what happens.
If it's not the umpires, the coach that screwed over the athlete, but man, the integrity
that you take the integrity piece so importantly.
I mean, this is just a pleasure to hear.
Commissioner.
I had a question for you.
You've been a part of a couple of no hitters.
What was it like to do Kent Mercer's no hitter behind the plate?
And when were you aware he had one going and did that influence you at all?
Did you know at all?
Yeah.
No, you know, yeah.
I kind of knew, um, later in the game, I kind of knew.
In fact, uh, midway through the game, I was, I think it was my first play job that year.
I was working with Frank, with Pully, Eric Craig and Greg Bonin.
I think that was the crew.
Yeah.
And, uh, midway through the game was my first one.
You know, I was a young umpire.
What year was that?
Ninety.
94.
94, right?
Oh, oh, opening, opening series there.
If I remember, we opened the San Francisco and then went to LA.
Yeah.
And Frank came down to me halfway through the game and he says, Hey, your timing's a
little, of course I had quick timing.
I was, you know, I'm not a real big guy, but I was pretty, I like to be pretty fiery out
there.
Um, and it slowed on your timing a little.
Then he came after the game naturally when we were, uh, you know, thrown beard at each
other and no hitters are pretty cool in the big leagues.
And, uh, he said, look, what I told you early in the game, forget it, just keep working
like you're working.
So, but yeah, you kind of know later on.
But then you kind of think about it between innings for a quick second and then, then
it's forgotten about.
I, I did know the last three batters I, you guys could probably tell me, tell me who they
are.
One of them was, I think Piazza, Karros and maybe Davis.
I forget who the third guy was, but those were the last three outs, but, uh, Kent stuck
it right up their butts, boy.
With that off speed stuff he had.
Man, oh man, he was on that night and, and they couldn't touch him.
I, I, I, that was a lot.
That was a lot of fun.
So, a lot of fun.
So Rich, uh, made me say, he says, you have to ask him about Shane Victorino.
So I have to ask you about Shane Victorino.
The flying, the flying.
Didn't anybody go to the beach that day?
You had to be watching that game.
Yeah.
He shames a good man.
Um, he just got a little overzealous in center field after yelling at me in the dugout for
10 minutes, calling a pitch on the big fell at first base.
Uh, what was his name?
Howard, Brian Howard.
Yeah.
Cause he was a quiet, he was a gentle giant, good player, good man.
And he, he's yelling at me from the dugout, yelled at me all the way out to the outfield
in between innings and I called a pitch on somebody and he's still yelling and waving
his arms.
So I ejected him.
You know, what are you going to do?
From 250 feet away.
But he, uh, you know, talk, talk to him after talk to both him and Howard after good guys.
And that's part of the game.
You know what I mean?
Look, we're, we're, we're, we're the hated as you know, uh, the hated person on the field,
by either team at some point.
So you know, that's, that's the, that's the job we chose.
That's as an umpire.
You go to umpire school.
That's what you're looking forward to.
That's what you got to, you know, strive to be thick skin.
Like you said early in the broadcast there.
Ed, I only hated one, um, that he happened to do every game I was ever at where the
call said and go our way and of course some of bias, you know, Yankee fan, but, um, you
ever work with Brian on Nora?
Many times I went to school with Brian on our umpire school.
I won't hold it against her.
It's all right.
I know Brian, I know Brian very, very well.
Uh, Brian's still working.
He's God bless him.
What's Terry?
He's our age.
Terry Tatum, great man.
One of my favorite people in the world.
I'm sorry.
Active.
No, I mean, I spoke with him the day before yesterday.
He's working games?
No, no, no, no, no.
That's what I meant.
Okay.
Angel.
Oh, I'm sorry.
No, Terry's long been retired in 2000.
Maybe two, I mean, it was right when we had the mass exit is there.
Let's not get into that.
But, um, Terry's a great man.
Uh, I learned so much not only on the field, one of my mentors, but, uh, being professional,
you know, used to wear, uh, sweatsuits traveling in the big leagues.
Let's go.
But then when I went to work with him, I went to work with him and he said, you know, kid,
that's what he caught.
You know, kid, you never know who you're going to be sitting on a plane next to.
So dress like a gentleman and be a gentleman every time you travel.
Represent the game.
And that moment on, that was my very first year because in the minor leagues, you know,
you dress, you're traveling, you travel on planes in triple A or in cars.
You don't really know that kind of thing, you know, and, uh, but he sent me straight
early and I, you know, the, my young, our young umpires, uh, in triple A, all this information
I give them.
It's nothing that I invented or I came up with all these things that the Frank pulleys,
the Terry Tate, as the Doug Harvey's, the John Kibbler's, all the, the John McSherries,
all these things that they told me 40, 45 years ago, whatever that, you know, in the
late eighties and early nineties when I was going up and down, all these things they told
me, I repeat to these young umpires.
Pass the torch.
So I'm not, you know, inventing the wheel here.
All I did, it's easy.
My job is easy.
I just pass along information and give them my opinions on how they're doing.
Did anyone pass it over negative?
Did anyone pass the information out to Angel Hernandez or is that a sort of subject or
like, is he unduly like roasted a little bit by people or um, what's his deal?
Uh, yeah.
No, I've, you know, I've known Angel for a long, long time.
Uh, our, our two children are, um, are too oldist to his daughter and my son are just
a day apart.
We used to celebrate, uh, when we lived near each other, um, birthdays and holidays and
so forth.
Angel's a good man.
Um, I, that's about all I'll say about it.
You know, he, um, he's a passionate man.
He's passionate about his work.
I will say that.
Uh, and I think that's about all I'll say.
Richie Garcia.
What's he like?
Good man.
Oh, did he get the home run call?
Right.
What's that?
Did he get the Jeter home run call?
Uh, you know what, the, what the technology?
Yeah, I guess, I guess, I guess the kid grabbed it.
You know, I don't, I'm, I'll let you say if he got it right.
He did.
He definitely got it right.
That was all the angles in the technology.
You don't need me to, you don't need me to say that.
Richie's a good man.
Talk, talk, talk me quite a bit actually.
Uh, Richie was an American league umpire and a very good one and, uh, he was our boss
for a little while, I forget what years they were, but uh, you know, and I, and I tell our
young umpires, you could always take something from somebody.
You could always take, I took things from Richie Garcia.
I took things from Frank Boyd, not their mannerisms and how they looked or how they
did things, but what they were, what they were saying and how they worked.
You could take a lot of different things from a lot of different umpires and because our
young umpires work with many different crew chiefs, you know, that they could take a little
something from each guy, uh, as far as the philosophy of umpiring and that's, I enjoyed
that.
Uh, you know, I, I, again, I graduated high school.
I wasn't really an intellect, uh, but I, I'm, I'm a sponge.
I love the, I love all this information and I love giving the information.
I love it.
Eddie, we could do the, we could do this forever, but I know, uh, we're, we're pressed for time
and we do appreciate your time, but a couple more, just real quick hits, uh, before we
let you go.
The most competitive, the most competitive pitcher that you ever umpired or sharpest,
the most pleasure like to have the game going into it.
Huh.
David Cohn.
Love it.
Let's go.
Yeah, man.
David Cohn.
I mean, you'd love to get his games.
In fact, I worked a game, uh, in Philadelphia, the last game of the, last day of the season,
what year was that?
Early nineties.
I think he struck out like, I think he struck out about 17.
Of course he did.
And I, I actually, and he was just wonderful to work.
I mean, he was, I mean, you had a great, great attitude.
You know, look, we missed pitches back then.
We didn't have any boxes or any technology, but, and that's the thing.
You go out there and you bust your ass and 99.9% of them appreciated that, but I just
love working his games, man.
He'd have a good time out there.
Hershey's it was, was good.
And like you said, was accurate pinpoint like all those Atlanta guys or Braves guys.
Hershey's it was good, but he was like a straightforward guy.
He just liked to pitch and get off the mop where, you know, calling would have a little,
would have a little fun with you, you know, have a little fun with it.
Boom, boom.
And, and, uh, it was a lot of fun calling, but that came there.
I actually broke a finger and like the third inning, I took one off the hand and, and they
wrapped it up real quick.
Are you okay?
You want us to X-ray it?
Leave me alone.
I'm out here, Cone's pitching.
I ain't going nowhere, you know?
And so, uh, but he, I don't know if that still is a tight and nationally record or that's,
he's got a lot, I had a lot of strikeouts that day.
That guy, he probably couldn't wait to get to the restaurant afterward.
I don't know about that, but Jamie Moyer, remember Jamie Moyer?
I love him.
The lefty.
He was another good guy.
What a good guy and a good guy to work, a good guy to work.
Gentlemen.
Uh, and we're 20 gentlemen.
Funny story.
We're in, uh, San Diego and he, in between innings, I, I, I, he'd asked for another ball
and I'd be standing off to the side and he'd fired a ball a hundred miles an hour at the
catcher, like near me.
And you know, normally when they asked for another ball to either flip it out, but his
M.O. was the fire at the, and I didn't have the American league that much.
I didn't know Jamie Moyer too much, but I got to know him after that day.
I jumped out of my shoes and just give him a new baseball and he's out there laughing.
So, you know, they're, they're good times.
They're good times.
You remember and, uh, try to pass that on to our young umpires and hopefully some of
your fans that may have been, maybe listening.
Ed, what, what batter had, uh, the, like a command that a strike zone, even though it
doesn't have to, you got Barry, yeah, his walks are up.
No, don't even have this kid.
That kid could do anything, could do anything with a bat.
And swung that little, swung that little bat and choked up.
He could do anything.
Hit it any different direction, hit it anywhere.
Uh, it was amazing.
He was an amazing hitter.
And, and, uh, I will say, uh, red, um, not Reggie jack, Reggie jack, but, um, uh, Orioles
and Yankees and, um, or Baylor, Dodgers, uh, Eddie Murray, Eddie Murray, uh, Dom Baylor.
I'm not, I'm not that old.
I mean, come on, Dom Baylor was one of my fit me past the way.
Got red.
So one of my favorite men in baseball was, uh, was Dom Baylor, but no, uh, bonds and,
and Murray, I mean, these guys could hit these, these guys knew the strike zone, knew where
to hit it, knew how to hit it.
Amazing.
Just amazing to watch them.
Along those same minds, who are your favorite catchers to work with?
I'll tell you a guy who used to give you a real good look was Benito Santiago.
On the one knee.
He gave you a grip.
He, he get down, he don't must lay down.
So you got a great, you know, Mike Fiazza was a little tough.
He was a big Mike social was a, you know, these guys were bigger guys.
Um, but they, they gave you a look, you know, I mean, the shortest I am, I had my system.
I, I did what I had to do to see the, see the pitch.
Did you bump Bobby V on purpose?
No, no, that was a, that was a, uh, that was quite the day.
And it's funny cause that, that day, that day there, my, uh, was a, was a Saturday afternoon
and I invited my children went to the Catholic school here in Boca Raton.
And that day there I invited, I must have had 20 people, you know, from teachers, nuns,
friends of the kids, they were small and they were all there that day.
And that I did not feel too good.
That day and my wife was a little embarrassed.
Yeah.
I didn't bump my purpose and he know he knew that.
Eddie, Eddie, how about that was a good one.
How about greatest venue for like a big time game, you know, whether it was, it didn't
even have to be a playoff game, but you know, a crowd, an intense crowd all the time hanging
on every pitch.
What's the best venue in major league baseball?
Yankee, Yankee stadium.
That's what I want to hear.
Let's go.
That's what I want to hear.
Let's go.
And then when, when, uh, when Jeter hit the home run, what was that 11th, 10th inning,
11th inning, whatever inning it was, uh, the ground ship when I was waiting for him to
the cross the plate, the, I could feel the ground shaking.
Did you see that was in the old ballpark?
Right.
I was going to ask you, you prefer the older ballpark to the newer one.
The right then a lot of locker rooms are in a different place.
There's so much identical.
The only, the only, uh, but it might sound funny or stupid, but the only thing I, the
difference I've seen was the smell.
You smelled new concrete the first year we worked in the new ballpark.
You just knew concrete, you know, feels the same, the dimensions are the same.
Everything's the same except you smell that new concrete.
Who were the most knowledgeable managers you ever came across?
Tony LaRusso.
Yeah.
By far.
Yeah.
Tony LaRusso by far.
That's great.
Most fiery or possibly a little off.
I don't know about a little off.
Tommy was very entertaining.
You know, that I loved what I loved.
I loved them.
I love them.
Um, the sound bites are amazing.
It was pretty quiet.
Lou was pretty good.
I, I enjoyed him.
Um, Bobby was all right.
I mean, you know, we had our differences a couple of times, but he was okay.
Um, last couple of questions.
Thank you so much for your time.
So much a major league baseball is foreign born.
What's the percentage like for umpires?
Are they mainly American born or do we have foreign born umpires?
Oh, no, we, we have a very diverse in the big leagues, especially then with fact, we
just hired our new work today, our first Dominican umpire.
Uh, but we've got him from every walk of life, uh, Dominican, Venezuela.
The fact that a lot of them come to our camps, our camp in Bureau Beach in our school.
Uh, we have Puerto Rican umpire, Roberto Ortiz is the first Puerto Rican umpire.
Uh, the Ramon de Jesus, like I said, is Dominican.
We got a lot of Venezuelans, uh, the Torres and these, these kids down there, man, they
eat, sleep and drink baseball and it's a plethora of talent, especially umpire talent.
Not only as you know, the baseball talent, uh, player talent, but umpire talent.
It's just amazing.
Um, uh, this is the Carlos Torres.
He's, he's, we call him the John Wayne because he's just straight forward, straight shooting,
gets everything right, does his job, you know, and we call him the John Wayne of umpire.
We call him John Wayne.
That's funny.
No, very, very diverse.
Have you ever appreciated a fan hackle or, or even have you had a fan toss because they
don't get it?
No, you know, I, I never did, but I do remember, you know, how in Yankee Stadium when they
go there, when they, when they start the game and they give a, a wave to that, whatever
it is, yeah, a roll call with the right field bleachers there.
Well, they did it to me one time.
Get out of here.
I'm standing next to Jeter and he gives me a shove.
He goes, take your hat off.
What are you?
No way.
My hat off.
Yeah.
So I, I just, I, I went to my brim and I just went like this and that, and they went
to the next guy.
How awesome.
He must have set it up, but though, though, though he, he, he, he, what a good guy.
What a gentleman.
The, the, the gentleman.
Tell me, tell me why.
I mean, I love him.
Just a job.
I mean, he just, he respected the game.
He respected the game and he was a leader.
He was a leader on his team.
His team looked up to him.
Yep.
That's great.
What a way to end it.
Ed, this was tremendous.
Thank you so much for your time.
I'm glad.
Oh, but it didn't take up too much of your airspace.
Could do it all night, man.
Like talking baseball and we can't have it without you guys.
Well, Jeff, Rich did say there'd be something in the mail for me, maybe a $500 gift card
to the stake at Ruth Chris or something.
Is that what he said?
I thought Rich was just going to take you out, he said, and spend whatever you want.
That's what you got to do.
You got to, you got to bear a night with him though.
I hope it was an eyeglass.
That's okay.
I appreciate you guys listening and the questions were great and I wish you all the best of
luck.
Thank you, Ed.
Thank you.
Go Yanks.
Thanks for the mail.
Thank you.
And, and go, you con.
Yes.
One more year.
Back to back.
All right, thank you.
Thank you.
Go ahead.
Thanks.
Yesterday, St. Patrick's Day wrapped up the high school season in Connecticut with five
games at Mohegan Sun.
It's a terrible setup.
You can't have a game at starting at 845 a night on a Sunday night and they wait to
have the highest boys game and highest division girls game for the two last Sunday night game
just to see if they could get somebody in there.
But like, that's a, that's a tough time to watch high school sports after being there
all weekend.
I don't know who it's shame on, but they got to figure something else out.
And there were a few matchups this weekend where I'm like, this game should be a central
Connecticut.
There was one dog fight in, in particular, I want to talk about in the boys side and
that gym would have been absolutely on fire in there.
That would have been loud and everyone would have loved it.
But real quick, let's talk on the girls side.
Starting at the highest division, 615 on a Sunday night, Sacred Heart Academy loses to
Hamden.
What, what a horrible story for those poor Sacred Heart kids with kids from all over
that area and right in town, Hamden, Hamden takes care of them.
Hamden takes care of them.
And the rich kids got to go home, probably blaming the refs or whatever, but like Hamden
took care of them.
And that, that is a heck of a story because Sacred Heart Academy is one of those teams
who started down in like class M or double, whatever they called it.
Now all of a sudden they're in the finals in double L and it looks like, you know, well
first of all, they should have never been in the lower divisions, but you know, people
know better than us and they lose.
They think you're in a role in that division and you meet your crosstown nemesis.
Yeah, and then they'll see a McCrick-Fallet and whose fault will it be to coach the refs,
whatever.
They lost.
And that was number one all year.
Without it.
Oh, they were?
Yeah.
But still, I mean, the writings on the wall with that Sacred Heart Academy, we need an
investigation.
That's Capital Prep 2.0.
In the L division, what a shame again.
Those poor Holy Cross kids got to drive all the way back to Waterbury after getting smacked
by maybe the best coach in a tournament, the Simsbury Girls Coach, the name escapes me.
But the rich kids got to go home again.
You know, the Middlebury kids got to drive all the way back to Waterbury and, you know,
to nothing.
No parties or nothing like that.
No people at the school receiving them or whatever.
No good job they lost.
And, you know, I feel bad for the coach.
What a great guy.
What are you laughing at?
All right.
Double M, Northwest Catholic in class S last year.
They roll in class double M.
So they move up.
This is the Sacred Heart Academy model.
They go up two classes and continue to roll.
Number one, they're good and good for them.
I kind of like their team.
They got good young kids, well coached.
This time the rich kids get to win one.
But they beat a Sheehan group.
That's pretty good.
And, you know, that's a good for high school basketball game.
Both teams probably deserve to be at that level, right?
Sheehan and Northwest Catholic.
M.
Can't wait to hear what you're going to say about the St. Paul
girls.
Geez.
I don't call them the St. Paul girls.
I call them the Olivia Don and Audrey Tice Show,
mixing a little Zola Kujo.
And she didn't play Boys and Girls Club, though, right?
Did she not?
Kelly?
No, she's from Kensington.
Yes, she's a tournament MVP, right?
Or whatever it was.
And then what about the girl who had the Stevenson?
Was she Boys and Girls Club?
Yes.
You had it.
OK.
Yeah, so that's a great story.
We got a bunch of Boys and Girls Club in that team.
You know, I don't fault a team like that,
because four of those guys we just talked about from Bristol.
You know what I mean?
It's not like some of these other places.
So like, whatever, they win one.
And we loved it.
We were all there for that cause.
And they won it.
And they deserved it.
By the way, the Windham Whippets being small but mighty.
They had a stud player.
Number five was tough.
Best player on the floor.
She was fantastic.
Lastly in class S, Summers defeats coach Brian Mozlack's team
on Thomason's home court.
And likely marked the end of a hell of a run.
And I think Mozi did a miraculous job to get to that game.
Because with eight minutes to go, the gas was on negative.
And how they got there, I don't know.
But they had a shot.
They're down 12.
Next thing you know, it's tied.
And credit to Summers.
You know, they overcame the idiocy of their coach's outfits.
And they played a hell of a fourth quarter.
Yeah, pit bull over there.
Yeah, soft boots.
Jeez.
Yeah, pit bull.
Wow.
The only thing he was missing was sunglasses.
Buddy, welcome to Miami.
Mozi did a great job.
For Mozi to get to that final, to beat East Catholic
in the semis was stunning.
If you look at both teams, the athleticism and the strength
and the power of the East Catholic team
versus the little engine that could from Thomason,
he did an impressive job.
We're all very, very proud of him and all those girls.
And such a short bench.
He uses timeouts well for rest, rather than strategy.
Yeah, he's got to think about things that most coaches don't
have to.
Yeah.
Very proud of him.
How much air and water can I get you in 60 seconds?
And can we spill water on the floor to grab an extra 30 here?
Kenny Smith going to be reached for comment.
We're going to jump back in the girls situation
for just one point.
But let's talk about Connecticut High School Boys
basketball.
Wow.
We're going to go from the bottom to the top on this one.
We don't call them SM, double M, and all those letters.
We call it Division 5.
Division 5, I think the boys committee nailed it.
You've got two towns, the town of Coventry and Old Lime.
They meet in the finals.
And the two teams they beat were a couple of miracle stories,
because they're middle of the pack teams in their conference.
Thomason and Litchfield, this was a true old school class S
story.
And the story ends with Old Lime taken down to Patriots
with a 21-year-old first year coach.
Amazing.
Like it's a female coach, the only one in the state, right?
Amazing job.
And Jack.
Oh, yeah.
Lois Hasty is at her name.
And I watched her in the semi.
She has the utmost attention of those kids.
Intense.
Yeah.
Right on top of those kids.
They had a really good team, too.
KG, too, like against Thomason in the semi.
I thought she should have used the time I were to.
She was like, no, let's go.
And they scored every one of them times.
They answered the bell.
So you talk about a KG veteran.
I don't know where she coached before,
but I mean, somebody missed the boat on hiring her if she didn't.
It's good for the sport, too.
It's great.
And then the 21-year-old.
Who has the onions to hire a 21-year-old?
That's what I was going to say.
He was a stud player for Old Lime three years ago.
You remember him?
No, no.
Somebody told me that he was a all-conference, all-state,
whatever the case may be, one of the better players they've had.
And to your point, an athletic director
hires him three years after his high school graduation.
That's forward thinking outside the box,
outside the comfort zone.
I give that AD and whatever administration
was involved, a lot of credit on the hire.
You should retire now, I think.
21-win the state championship.
You know what?
But that's a fun game.
For Class S, it's a very fun game.
That was great.
And it had a crowd still in the middle of a Sunday.
And I was wishing Angry J was here for this because Angry J
was a heck of a high school coach.
We can say it now, he's not here.
I mean, he was a heck of a high school coach.
And the advice we gave him to him too late,
and that's not the reason he tried it,
but tried to jump to the college game.
We always tried to push him because we know how talented he was.
This kid, I mean, high school sports to me is the best.
But if he wants to do something with it, what a great first step.
What a great first step.
It says a Jim Calhoun kind of thing.
Did Calhoun coach at Old Lime?
I think he did.
Definitely coach at Old Lime, yes.
He was either at Old Lime or at Saybrook.
No, it was Old Lime.
Is that a mate?
I mean, come on, man.
Let's go, Jimmy.
Get him a job.
I think he did one a year there.
Jim, get him a job.
I mean, come on.
Got Eric Hayward a job.
I can't get this guy a job.
All right, all right, next division.
Yeah, I didn't mean to use that.
This is a bad example, but I hope this kid does better.
Kevin, we substitute somebody else.
All right.
We substitute John Gwynn for that.
Maybe the best game of the weekend, energy in the arena.
Like, if it was only the lower bowl,
the place would have been like nuts.
If this game was at CCSU, like, John, how many have we witnessed?
Million.
The Cheney Tech crowd and the Innovation crowd.
And you think a tech school and a magnet charter, whatever they
are, like, whatever, it'll be like four kids in a student
section.
It didn't matter who was in the student section.
Their parents made up for it, man.
These whole schools were there.
And truth be told, I'm rooting for the tech school just
for Connecticut High School basketball.
That conference needs a champion.
Number three for them, Stud.
But the Innovation Ravens had everything.
They had every piece.
Mike, what did you think about that game?
Well, I had seen them live a few times.
That's right.
Scouting them.
And I saw them against Cromwell.
I saw them against Weaver twice.
And it's one of the best high school teams I've seen this year
because they have the Consument Point Guard that's
passed first.
Fast.
They got a shooter that's, if he gets his feet set,
it's out of his hand and it's going down.
Is that number five?
Number five.
That's his brother, you know, two and five.
Right, exactly.
And then number 23 is just a slasher he took over
in the fourth quarter, if you remember.
He's kind of like three from Cheney Tech, but a lighter
version.
Yeah.
And then the big lefty, that's like six, five.
That just gets rebounced, finishes with his right hand
around the rim.
They have like a perfect high school team.
And then the fifth guy, they just rotate three guys
into that fifth spot.
I think the coach did a hell of a job too.
He did do it.
Those teams, I like watching them because they just.
I don't know about the sweater.
Now they have athletes, don't get me wrong, but they keep
the game really, really simple.
And they share the game, they share the ball.
That was probably, and I saw half the games live with
Crocker.
That was probably the most fun game I saw because Cheney
jumped out 10-0.
And there was no panic from innovation.
They chipped away, chipped away, tied at half time.
And then, you know, a second half, I think the better team
won.
But credit to those crowds, as you said, they were intense,
but respectful.
It was a great high school game, a great venue.
Imagine at Central.
Wild.
I don't want to like jump anything.
Obviously, the experience at Mohegan Sun, for parents,
especially, before and after games, there's a lot of things
to do.
But the game experience at Central Connecticut, you just
can't beat it.
3,000 seat capacity, lower ceiling.
It's hot in there.
Everybody's on top of each other.
The PA.
Again, we're all biased.
Bobby Mack grew up going.
Johnny, you grew up going.
I definitely grew up going.
I missed that intimacy of the gym.
There's no doubt about it, innovation.
You are number one.
Remember that guy?
Yeah.
Anyway.
When you walk into the gym, I wonder if you're going to go
see.
Yeah.
No, I can't.
It's like, I can sit in the upper goal.
You're looking around like a glorified high school gym,
being like, where can I sit here?
And every scoreboard going on.
I mean, I like Mohegan, but Central is so intimate and so
much fun that I wish they'd bring it back.
You know what?
I think they got to get away from it.
I don't know if they ever will.
They're making money and all that.
Yep.
Hotel, food, drink, everything else.
I mean, I heard that the fan bus for the Division I
boys game last night, the one that went back to West Haven,
I heard it got home at 130.
Excuse me.
The chaperone of the fan bus got home at 130.
Come on.
If you're going to do that, then do it Friday, Saturday.
And if your teams are involved, man, we're taking a day.
We're taking a day off.
And whatever, what are you going to go one more day in June?
I mean, this is exciting stuff for kids.
Sunday night?
Come on, man.
Division III was a heartbreaker.
Our own coach we're going to have on here some day soon.
Ryan Raponi, Isaiah Roscoe, assistant.
They face a Bonnell squad that I saw a few years back
that they're another factory.
They just keep.
Remember Mike Wilson's first year down to Mohican?
Yep.
They ran into some athletes from Bonnell.
And by the way, city kind of school,
but classy, hard players, well coached.
And they're killing mills at halftime.
And it looks like they're going to run away.
A lot of the fans I talked to, former coach and stuff like that,
they're like, oh, I got to go zone.
He's got to go zone.
He comes out and triangle him two.
Two is their best two players.
Number two for Bonnell.
I forgot his name, but I think he only had a bucket
in the second half.
And mills ties it.
And they've got.
They did take a lead by one.
And then they had a three or two to say, watch out.
And I think they ended up losing by five.
Crushing defeat for the area.
But full transparency.
I've never wanted a mills team to win a single game in any sport.
But seeing those basketball kids the last few years,
I want them to win every time they're out there
and let's against the Bristol schools.
And credit to Coach Raponi, credit to Coach Isaiah,
credit to the school for giving them a chance.
And most of all, credit to how hard those kids work.
And they went from the Berkshire League to the CCC
and you're saying, what are they doing?
Everyone was mocking them.
Yeah.
What are they doing?
Oh, wait till they go.
Yeah.
He is one of the best coaches around.
I'm not afraid to say it.
Again, they do simple things really, really well.
Their roles are defined.
When they're open, they shoot it.
When they're tightly contested, they drive it.
The second defender comes, they make the right play.
It's one of the most fun teams, fun programs for me to watch.
Somebody that really loves that kind of basketball.
So congrats to Coach Raponi.
And Coach Isaiah, who could coach anywhere
he wants really in high school, but continues
to stay there as there's a good thing happening.
We go to division two.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The Windsor Warriors.
That guy.
The Windsor Warriors, I think they win by what?
Is it two?
Was it just two?
Yeah, over West Haven.
And what is it with Coach Smith?
You can say he gets the players.
He's an old school coach, tough on his kids.
He gets the best out of them.
What's better than that?
Are they the new Harding?
I think they are.
I mean, those maroon sweatpants, he just goes at it.
If he get off his cell phone, maybe
he'd arrange the guys in a W for the National Anthem.
Like Harding used to be in that H.
Nice run by West Haven.
Oh, they were a 12-seat.
Were they?
Nobody was picking them to go that far.
And were there a three from Beaton Windsor?
And they're definitely the second team in that town, too.
Listen, the Windsor Warriors.
Are you kidding me?
This guy.
You've got 10 guys that can play.
And he shuttles them in and out.
If you're not playing well, next guy up.
That's what he does.
And he calls you out on defense if you mess up, too.
Oh my god.
I think he's an old corrections officer, too, of them, right?
I think he still is one.
Geez, I mean, he don't take anything, man.
No, he's tough.
Old screw, let's go, dude.
All right, so we go to the nightcap last night.
I didn't stay for it.
I just couldn't.
Both my sons are there.
And the stud for West Haven had like six points.
He had two and a half times.
They both said he was getting locked up by St. Bernard.
And the St. Bernard gave it to him.
They gave it to him as best they could.
But this is an old school, two Catholic schools,
and the best game of the weekend matchup
should have been a central.
And let's call the Holy War 265, maybe.
And it didn't disappoint.
Only thing is, and Lottie, you said this, the low scores.
Yeah, I wanted Don Fowler to chime in,
because we were talking about it, too.
But people don't realize, like, St. Berners,
they just started getting good again.
Because in the 80s, they were legit.
You know, it was Harold Presley in the early 80s, late 80s.
They were real good.
And then for about a 25 to 30 year period,
they were nowhere to be found.
So whatever's going on in St. Berners, congratulations.
They've had a 3, 4, 5-year run right now that's off the charts.
And they're going to get one very, very soon.
But Don Fowler, we were talking about this,
the low scores in girls and boys.
I have a few theories.
But what do you think about the just those?
I mean, some of these games are like 45-40.
Some teams aren't getting to 40 in state championship games.
You're looking at the two best teams in the state for girls.
It was, they were both in the 40s, right?
Yeah, it was like 42, 46, something like that, yeah.
I think the beginning of the game, and Matt Coaster,
a handful of times, I think it's the depth perception.
They don't get to practice there before.
I think that would make a difference if they did.
Absolutely.
So they get to warm up for 10 minutes,
and then they get to play a game.
I think seeing everything like as my daughter was
as she was, everything was coming from different angles.
She was like, we were a little nervous for the first couple
of minutes, she said she was, because everything
is a different angle.
She's looking up and the ball is down.
She was, everything is just, there's more room.
Passes in the air.
She had to be hard to follow and track them for a while
in the first half.
We just didn't really get our stride.
Defensively, there's no excuse.
But she goes shooting-wise and long passes.
We're just harder to calibrate.
And that's why she's like, we didn't really
fast break a lot in the first half.
It's almost like in these five quarters,
one to settle in, one, four more to play.
Yeah.
Because the first quarter in a lot of these games,
you guys are right, they're very, very choppy.
Obviously the stress, the bigger gym, the depth perception
to your point, especially in the girls game,
there's such a long layoff between the semis and the finals.
And they're probably watching so much film and tape,
and they take away all your tendencies.
And that can't help either.
Eight days off.
And then the boys are getting, some boys teams
are getting two days off.
I also wonder, how many teams are staying over the night
before?
Some do, some don't.
But most don't.
Most don't.
But what effect does that have with the bus ride,
or staying over in the nerves?
Jeff can talk to it.
St. Paul girls, they did not stay over, correct?
Correct.
They had a 10 o'clock game.
So what was that morning like?
Bus left at 6.30 Saturday morning.
Bus left at 6.30 on a Saturday morning.
So you're getting up 5.30, right?
And trying to prefer.
And you probably didn't sleep a lot anyway.
Right.
And then you're on a bus at 6.30.
That's going to be rough.
And then at the same time, if you're staying there,
you're not in your own bed.
Right.
You know, you're waking up, you're
trying to find yourself.
And I don't know.
It's kind of a mess.
So I guess what we're saying is, we
got to get it back at Central Connecticut.
Again, I understand the run to the sun, all that other stuff.
I just think the basketball product
would be better at Central Connecticut.
Or another gym.
100%, I agree.
You want to have it at University of Hartford?
Quinnipiac.
Or Quinnipiac.
Even but man, when there's a 10,000 seat arena
and there's 1,500 people there, it's just a lot of seats
and a lot of stuff to look at that's empty, right?
Well, according to the OAK, UConn will practice
at the Civic Center a couple of days before a game there.
Right.
To be ready to roll.
And I know some teams that have gone down to that area
and stayed overnight and tried to grab a high school
or middle school gym and just go shoot around.
Not the same thing.
Not the same thing at all.
What did you do when you were there?
You guys stayed over every night, right?
Which time, John?
Well, one of the two times, one of the five times
you were there.
Six.
Six times.
No, honestly, honestly, though.
Six.
There's five in a row and one more.
But honestly, you stayed overnight.
Every time.
Every night.
At first, it was like the generosity
of some rotary members in town.
And then the district was like, they
don't want us to be getting handouts.
So the district planned that if boys or girls were ever
playing that first or second game,
then they would accommodate us.
And we got a small raster anyway.
So they grabbed us five or six rooms.
And that's it.
But every time we did that, and you
got to think you're playing that 10 o'clock game, which
the Lady Falcons had to do.
I mean, you got a bagel and a yogurt and orange juice,
and you're on a bus.
And they left Bristol.
I mean, that's a tough ride.
They were walking in the arena like 805,
where you're getting pictures and videos of the girls walking
in the tunnel.
That's a tough ride.
And one of the years, so we always stayed there.
But one of the years, we got in there
and they wouldn't let anybody on the court
because they hadn't figured out that the three point line was
different.
They were putting legit, like, gym class tape.
And it wasn't exactly perfect.
It looked like you're doing the lines at Ploughboy Stadium.
Junk with Eddie Rapp wouldn't have that.
And so yeah.
I liked not rushing.
I liked not rushing down there.
Like, we didn't care what time it was.
We're going to be there plenty early.
Because we're 10 minutes away.
Did you acclimate to the gym in 10 minutes?
First time we went on the Friday night
back when they had Friday night games.
And no, it's a big place.
It's a big space.
No, there's no acclimating to that space.
Like, even where the scoreboards are,
you know the two big ones.
They're like up there.
And now they got a TV screen on them.
You can barely see where the numbers are.
So I don't know if you notice in the corners,
they have the simple ones.
You just have time and score.
But they also had that digital thing that goes around.
And occasionally they take it off.
So where are these players looking?
Seriously.
I get to think of, I'm shooting a free throw.
I'm looking up at the scoreboard first and saying,
what's the score?
How many files I got?
How many points do I got?
Remember Ronnie Cycley back in the day
when they had his pictures?
That's what it reminds me of.
Now your picture's up there when you're shooting it.
Your picture and your stat lines on those boards too.
Oh, the numbers.
You know.
The files.
The pictures up there.
I'm going over two from the line.
I thought you had mine.
Me too.
If your picture's up there.
I'm going over the night if your picture's up there.
No, but here's the thing.
Like it's a tough grind for both teams,
but they both have to deal with it.
Right.
And like Lottie said, from a family and school standpoint,
there's a buzz down there.
Absolutely.
You're walking in there.
It's fun.
But I mean, I don't know if there are any places.
I don't know if there are any places.
Well, not anymore.
It's way better in there after COVID.
I mean, you could hardly tell.
You get run over by a scooter like 10 times in a way in there.
Oh, yeah.
You got to dodge your scooters.
But Central was something.
And they tried Yukon for the big ones.
Didn't work.
Just for a few years.
I remember I covered for Lottie there.
You did?
Yeah.
Lottie, Lyman Hall.
Is that when they had the Bunch kit?
Yeah.
Bunch and Rashma Vareen and.
Yeah.
Do you remember Trinity Catholic Crosby in there?
Oh, yeah.
But again, there's that.
It's too big for like an environment.
Julio played there.
If that's at Central, that's wild.
But anyway, they all got to figure that out.
We've got to just upgrade Elmer's.
It's the bottom line.
We've got to make Elmer's a destination.
We can do it.
We need to.
Elmer's a little bit of a station when Yukon was fighting.
He didn't open until 7 on Saturdays.
I don't understand it.
I'll tell you, Patrick's Day, probably going to get open
and probably cakes and eggs about 9 o'clock.
I like that.
All right.
So one last thing about this tournament,
and we're going to move on to College Hoops.
I think the boys side, and people complain about it.
There's five schools you're going to complain about it,
no matter what happens.
I think they figured, like, NonoWog, whoever was in S,
or whatever they call it, five, might have complained that
NonoWog said, well, they lost.
I mean, they lost to the team that lost in the finals.
I think the boys team did, or the committee did a great job.
They had a bunch of Catholic powerhouses.
They all had to play each other, and two of them are left.
After that, you got Windsor over a public.
You got Lewis Mills falling to a public.
You got Innovation Cheney.
You got to throw us one more game,
but it's just one magnet and one tech.
Techs usually aren't in there.
And then you get two small towns.
On the girls side, four of the five divisions,
you still got a Catholic school in the final.
I think they got to do something there.
I think they got to follow the boys' model.
And, you know, like your St. Paul girls, Don Father,
I don't think it would affect them.
They're not big enough on that level.
But Northwest Catholic, Holy Cross,
I thought Holy Cross would walk in this game
until I saw Simsbury one time.
And, boy, I feel bad for them and their coach.
I picked Simsbury, not just because I wanted them.
I just think they're a better team.
I know, but if you didn't know anything about it,
and you just were looking at scores all year,
you think Holy Cross is going to go
because Republican Americans does what they do,
and coach doesn't shake anybody's hands and all that cool stuff.
But anyway, four out of five,
and what if they won the four out of five?
Then people are up in arms.
Luckily, the Catholic schools came through.
Or excuse me, the public schools came through.
Except for one.
That's how we do it.
Except for them, well, Northwest and St. Paul.
You know what I mean.
I picked it like, okay, manageable.
Enough's enough.
It's March.
The selection show was on.
It was on with two and a half games left
to go at Moeag & Son yesterday.
Because they got, Jesus, 1.30 in the morning.
Anyway, the feeling in the room, Yukon got screwed.
Boys, what do you think?
I definitely think they did.
People are saying, you know,
they don't have to leave the Northeast
until they get to the final four.
Yeah, that might be true, but look who's in their region.
Auburn won the SEC tournament.
Illinois won the Big Ten tournament.
Iowa State won the Big 12 tournament.
And those three teams are in Yukon's bracket.
There's not another team, especially at number one seed,
that has to go through that gauntlet, in my opinion.
What do you guys think?
All Elite A teams, for sure.
When you look on paper, you're looking right away.
Yeah, if they're in different brackets,
those teams can all be legitimately in the Elite A.
Yes.
300%.
So who's the best number two seed?
If you're looking at the brackets.
I think it's Tennessee or Marquette, personally.
But I think, I'm leading Tennessee.
I have Tennessee going to the final four.
Arizona's a two as well.
Cool.
Arizona.
Arizona and Tennessee are.
I would say Arizona, just me.
Not that I'm rooting for them.
Marquette, I would feel a lot better
if they were a little bigger on that front line.
And we know what's going on with Cole.
Yeah, I mean, the fact that that kid couldn't play
the last few weeks, but that'll bleak.
Now he couldn't play on Friday.
Now all of a sudden, a week later,
he's going to be ready to go.
Well, he said he could have played Saturday night.
He could have played.
I almost thought it was done for the year.
That's a tough injury to come back from.
We've seen that in baseball.
That's an odd injury for basketball.
Right.
Nobody picked the number two.
Nobody picked Iowa State as being the top toughest two seed.
They're a new kind of bracket.
I don't think Marquette gained.
If he played and gets hurt, does it hurt them?
Yeah, they're not jumping to the one, though.
Yeah, and then they lose to the one team overall,
so it doesn't really hurt them.
And I think that's sort of like the thought process maybe
in that scenario, I don't know.
He's fun to watch, though.
He's one of my favorite college guys.
Well, if you're looking at what they do,
the biggest overall, three teams in.
They got host.
They got host, Seaton Hall, St. John's.
I was shocked.
For sure, I mean, is there bias?
I don't know, but something wasn't going.
They treated the big East like it was the A-10, in my opinion.
Like, Seaton Hall not getting in, I can't justify it.
Now, I know there's a million different metrics,
but I watch enough college basketball
that that's a team I don't want to play in the tournament.
Austin Rutgers hurt them.
I read that today.
So they said, yeah.
I mean, what the committee is deciding on, I don't know.
But there's got to be at least four teams from that league
getting in there, I think.
I mean, Big East was really good to share.
I mean, maybe not great teams, but you got, what,
three of the top 10.
Yeah, they were saying that like a DePaul, Georgetown,
like those kind of teams brought the league down.
But I don't know, those middle of the road teams
in the Big East, the Seaton Hall, Providence, Nova, St. John's.
And St. John's, they had the makings of a team
that could win two games in a tournament.
I think he had them playing at a high level.
I know when they got on that winning streak,
they weren't playing the upper national line of the league.
But Kevin Ross will tell you,
UConn doesn't enjoy that matchup.
St. John's plays UConn tougher than any team in that league.
And you look at 95-90 in the Big East tournament.
I mean, it's a lot of points.
It's a lot of points.
Wasn't that what Hurray said?
I don't know what they're looking at.
St. John's is in the tournament.
I don't know what they're looking at.
Here's the thing, three teams.
Last year's national championship was won by UConn.
They dominated almost every minute of playing
an NCAA tournament.
They finished second in that league.
This year they finished first.
I don't care what the other teams' records are.
If you got to play, if you got to play UConn,
creating a Marquette, I don't care who the fourth
and fifth best teams are, I don't care what their records are.
I don't care what the metric says.
It's kind of like baseball, the stupid measuring.
Can we just look at what's happening?
Or even slot teams in?
Oh, well, it's the best conference in the country.
The Marquette or UConn's going to be in the final.
Or one of them is going to be in the lead eight, right?
I mean, in creating two.
In creating two.
I don't know what they're looking at.
I don't know.
They really like the Mountain West, though.
Six teams.
Come on.
I know there was a lot of bid stealers with like NC State.
And you guys can name some of the other conference champions
that came out of nowhere.
But obviously we have some bias toward the Big East.
But I think we're also honest and realistic that it was,
I think it's a travesty.
I really do.
We're all Big Ten fans, right?
I mean, the fact that Michigan State got in in 1914.
Yeah, I'm sick of them.
I'm sick of them.
If you watch UConn play the Big East every night,
it is an unbelievable.
You don't know if they're going to win
and they're best team in the country.
I mean, so that's enough to.
Yeah, they're wars.
Weren't they losing to Georgetown in a second half?
They were losing to Xavier.
It was either two or tied a half.
I mean, they killed them in the second half.
And all these teams are going to get better.
These are legitimate coaches.
DePaul has a legitimate coach now.
You've been saying this for a year.
The Big East is back.
It's definitely back.
There's no doubt about it.
We even got Petino back.
The fact that he didn't get in.
Wait until next year, boys, when he's going to bring it.
He's going to bring about eight new guys.
Because he's got that big-time donor.
They can all move laterally, too.
They can all move laterally.
What do we all think about Kansas as a foreseed with Dickinson
that he's at his back?
McCuller is still hurt.
He dislocated his shoulder, didn't he?
Who, Dickinson?
Yeah.
Self-sight, he's definitely playing.
He's had practice in the fold the last two days.
If he doesn't play, I'll be happy about that.
Because I never want to see that guy play again.
He's annoying.
Give me Matt Garza or Luca Garza.
What was his name for Iowa?
Luca.
Whatever, man.
That guy is annoying, Dickinson.
He thinks way too highly of himself.
You got a dark horse going to the 8 or the 16?
Anything crazy?
Not a dark horse, but one team I love is Tennessee.
I watch them a lot.
Kid Connect.
Unbelievable.
It comes over from South Dakota.
He came in North Dakota.
Something like that.
They're fun to watch.
And he's tough.
He can take over a game.
He's the guy who scares me the most in the tournament.
Well, you don't, Father.
You got a wild one.
Washington State.
They beat Arizona twice.
And if you beat Arizona twice, you're doing something good.
You beat them at Arizona.
They hit the board tower.
They pushed a pace.
At what level?
Anything like in your 16 or 8, that's
kind of just way out there.
I think they're going to beat Iowa State
in the second round.
I don't have a dark horse.
But there's not a great team besides Yukon, Purdue, Arizona.
The number one seeds?
Who's great after that?
Who's a team that can?
Is there any dark horses out there?
But if people were saying that last year,
no one was saying Yukon was great.
They just played great.
This is the time of the year.
And every one of these coaches now with a six-month season,
they're ready for right now.
Yeah, but you're watching game this year.
Is anyone you saw that you were like, wow, this is a team that
could, that's why I like Tennessee.
I connect and I like what they're doing, but I don't know.
I love Tennessee.
I love Tennessee, too.
Krocker, what do you think?
You got a dark horse?
I agree with Tennessee.
I like how they get after it on D.
I see Illinois going quite a ways.
I actually have them in the final game.
Much to the Chagrin of Yukon fans, I know.
Oh, you got Illinois going to the finals?
I do.
But I'm not a huge fan of the team.
Saw them in person last year.
Didn't like the atmosphere.
Didn't like their fans.
Didn't like much about them, to be honest with you.
But I got them going there this year.
Great backcourt, whether you like them, like those guys
or not, great backcourt.
I'm going to tell you what, these guys are crazy.
They're dark horses.
They're two in three seats.
Jesus.
Christmas.
Bob, you got something crazy?
Yeah, in this sweet 16, I think we're
going to get an all-Connecticut matchup.
I think Yale gets it done in the first game.
Get out of here.
I do.
No, East Catholic zone.
Matt Nulling, who I think won a class S state
championship at one point.
Was he playing Mustafa in the class S?
Yeah, right.
No kidding.
And I kind of like Nevada.
Steve Alfred.
Making a little run.
Outside of that, I'm kind of chalk.
I think NC State gets to a big one against Marquette.
Team's hot.
I mean, what are you going to do?
The team's hot.
I got Boise going to the 16.
And this is not a dark horse.
But I got Kentucky going to Final Four,
only because I like watching good offensive basketball.
And they got a young team, and they can all shoot and put
the ball in the basket.
So selfishly, I just want to see them continue.
And I'm not a Cal Pirey or a Kentucky guy.
I just like a team that plays good offense.
None of us also like Houston, right?
I haven't seen enough of them.
I don't know.
They always get to the 16.
I hate them.
I hate them for one reason and another.
Calvin Sampson, because he brought,
are you in the ditch for 20 years?
Well, what he did to the rut that night.
I don't remember that.
I'd like to not remember.
Obviously, there's going to be upsets.
But I don't see a team that's eight or nine
and getting too far.
I don't know what you guys think, but I don't see what.
Let me ask you this.
Who picked what in the Wisconsin James Madison?
I got James Madison.
I got James Madison winning two games.
I got Dukie taking them down in the second round.
But I think Wisconsin stinks.
Yeah, I mean, they caught a little bit of fire over the weekend.
But I would not bet on Wisconsin's style on offense
to beat an athletic team.
I thought that was interesting.
I bet you.
I thought it'd be split.
5'12 usually aren't split that much.
Well, don't forget before the Huskies went crazy.
I mean, you got St. Peter's was one of the most unbelievable
stories.
And what was it last year?
Was it FAU?
Fairly Dickinson.
FAU, yeah.
FAU.
San Diego State was kind of wild card, right?
Guess who's bracket they're in.
Yeah, both of them.
Jesus.
So outside of UConn, we're all UConn fans here.
But we also follow the Big 10 pretty closely.
What are your guys' thoughts on how far Purdue is going to go?
I'm just not a huge fan of them.
They're one seed.
I don't know.
I've had enough of Edie.
It seems like he's been there for 25 years.
But where you got him falling?
Or do you have him falling?
I got him going to the finals only because that's the game I
want to see.
I want to see the big guy from Bristol, Connecticut
going against Edie.
I want to see that match up selfishly.
But I don't think Purdue is going to get there.
Reliede the most, I think.
Donfather?
I agree.
Reliede is where I have him losing, I think.
No farther.
Krayton's in that region.
Yeah, I have Kansas beat him.
You got Kansas, yeah.
Hold on.
I can't.
So where are they?
Where are they at?
Stay hot.
Midway.
Oh, TCU in the second game?
Is that right?
Yes.
You could have just filled out a sheet like everybody else.
No, I tried to look at your phone.
I tried to use the technology.
It failed me.
FAU favored over Northwestern.
I got it now.
I got it.
And they don't.
We're on to the next round anyway.
Did that last year's bracket?
No, man.
We're already on to baseball.
OK, transfer portal, nothing huge today.
Couple schools, guys jumping in.
Within these next two or three weeks,
as exciting as it's going to be to whittle down the college
season to 16, 8, and 4 teams, there
is going to be some names in there.
Boy, somebody was saying to me not too long ago
that it looks like eight out of 10 kids
will enter that portal.
I mean, I repeat, eight out of 10.
That seems a little high.
You got to remember it all a lot.
It's the kids, yes.
It's the coaches as well that are telling the kids
that they're not coming back to their program.
I know a lot of people forget that.
Eight out of 10.
On every team, eight out of 10.
That's 80% of the teams across the country lose it.
Correct.
Wow.
Listen, it's the way of the world.
It's a new way.
What you can do in the pro-rall is going to decide your season.
I looked at some of those names today,
and I'm not trying to make light of these kids.
They could do what they want.
There's kids in the portal that are getting one point a game
that are just throwing their name in there.
Ian, I know Donfather, Crocker, you guys all agree,
because we talked about it before the recording.
Can we wait until after the finals
before you can open up that portal?
Yeah, that's kind of like A-Rod during a World Series saying
he wants to be a trader or something like that.
Shut up, dude.
Now, these are kids, man.
These are 18, 19-year-old kids.
We can't wait.
Come on, man.
And then they could team up and see what
are all going to go together.
I mean, that's where we're heading.
And we got three from Rutgers today.
I don't know.
They're starting point guard.
Not next year.
The portal has become as important as your recruiting
on the road.
It's like, these are where you're
going to get to experience guys, good guys,
who fits your program, who fits your culture.
And then these poor coaches got to recruit the kids.
They want to stay there.
And then maybe not recruit the other ones so much.
I think it's these poor seniors in high school.
We're going to play somewhere in that.
There's not a lot of opportunity for those kids anymore.
That's over.
By the way, I got Purdue bowing out to Tennessee.
And then all the day.
That's what you like to see.
Not to get away from the big dance.
NIT, a lot of these teams are already saying they're not going.
Some teams are saying, if they accepted the bid,
they might only have five kids on the team by that point.
You think the NIT is dead?
It's getting there.
I already said they're not going.
Oklahoma's not going.
St. John's isn't going.
And that's just today.
That's in St. John's backyard.
That's like a ripple effect.
That's what's going to happen to all basketball,
I think, in five years.
We're going to see totally different teams
and totally different tournament.
Because the tournament's going to be 90-something teams.
All right.
I got one for you then.
OK.
NCAA tournament.
It's the thing.
March Madness.
Who sponsors it?
The NCAA, right?
Who is losing a lot of clout every day based on NIL
and whatever else?
Power five, conference realignment.
NCAA.
Imagine if the NIT, like how long ago, Lottie?
60 years ago?
It was the tournament.
Becomes the tournament.
And you've got to get invited and accept the invite.
Instead of going on channel, whatever and saying,
here's who you're playing.
NCAA is the best.
No.
NIT has invited you to play here in the national
invitational tournament.
I think that'd be a heck of a story.
Well, are you saying because there's only going
to be five power conferences and about 80 teams eligible
for the big dance?
So everybody else?
My point being, as the bowl games have lost steam,
the tournament, the greatest dance of all time,
you've got to lose some steam.
And you've got to be invited to something better
that they create, maybe the NIT.
It used to be the national champion.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Interesting.
I'm sick of the NCAA.
I never thought I'd get to that point.
We have a friend who's been adamant about it.
But I'm sick and tired of the NCAA just falling short.
And Robin, universities and kids of money for a long time.
And I still don't want to pay players.
But they should have had the right to make their own money
whenever they could and whatever job they could.
You can't go to a basketball tournament
being an instructor because you're playing on the team.
Are you kidding me?
You should be able to go to that tournament
and whoever's running the tournament
will decide what they'll pay you.
If it's $5,000, it's that.
If it's $500, it's that.
If it's lunch, it's that.
But if you take lunch from that guy back
under the old rules, you're breaking the rules?
NCAA is a joke.
Well, that's why Jay Billis always says,
let the school decide what they want to pay the kids.
Every school has a choice.
Shouldn't be up to the NCAA or this, that, or the states.
Well, the NCAA doesn't have any control over it.
No, he wants to just completely put the power
in the hands of each independent university
and let them do whatever they want with their athletics.
He's been banging that drum for a while.
Like to bang Jay Billis on top of his head
with a drum to the freaking guy?
Well, we need it.
He writes one article.
Now I got to listen to this guy.
We need a commissioner of college basketball.
You need a commissioner for college basketball.
I can apply.
I can't believe it.
There you go.
You're overqualified.
I'm probably.
Guys.
We love the sport.
So we're going to watch and not think about all the other crap,
but it sucks.
But I want to say this.
I want to say this.
This year, I've watched less college basketball games
than I've ever watched in my life because it's not
the interest it used to be.
Duke Carolina, I didn't watch one of those games.
You don't even know the guys?
Might be the first time I didn't watch one.
Right.
This year.
You can remember Big Monday.
Big Monday, I'm going to watch this game in this game.
And I'll go to the play.
Oh, I'm going to be up late because this is on.
It's not the same as it was.
I don't know what it is.
I'm with you.
But why is that?
I just don't.
I think the rivalry is.
I think there's kids that have gone
to three or four different schools.
When we were growing up, Chris Mullin
stayed at St. John's.
Patrick Ewing stayed at Georgetown.
It's not happening.
And it's not going to.
And if you left, you were a sensation to leave early.
Remember, you had to.
You had to.
Now the one in Dunn culture.
It was hardship, remember?
Yeah.
If your family is financially struggling,
those are the guys that went.
Yeah, you were.
Isaiah Thomas at Indiana.
That's why he went.
Hardship.
I think Ray Allen was still hardship, to be honest.
Would you like, didn't they call it that at that point still?
Not sure.
But listen, I love Stephen Cavill.
Automatic NBA guy after one year.
I don't see it.
But everyone else sees it, right?
You look at all those Mod Drafts.
He's top 15.
Everyone.
But Mike, there's top 15 guys that don't play in the league.
And right, of course, they'll get money if he's top 14.
But like, no, first round's guaranteed, right?
Even if you end up in a G-League?
Or do you get a Rathaus spot?
I don't want to speak when I'm not in.
Sign any bonus.
But he's an automatic first round, first year, one year
guy and out.
I don't see it.
I mean, I think he's really good.
But he could use one or two more years of college, I think.
Well, that's the old way of thinking.
And I want to get back to what you said.
Why is it different?
Like, there's times when all of us sitting here
were like, we loved baseball.
We loved NBA basketball when we were younger.
Some of you guys have peeled off before I did.
I'm still kind of into it.
But we loved it, right?
And what ruined it?
The money.
The protection of players, the overpaying of players,
the teams that could stock up before the rules and the luxury.
So what's changed in college?
That.
Now it's the old West.
Baseball was when the Yankees could pay whoever they wanted.
And Dodgers and Orioles were playing
Ritisserie baseball back then, signing everybody.
And what did it do to fans?
It chased them away.
Then you get a couple of strikes.
We don't college players go on strike.
I'm telling you, man, that's what we're adding.
We're not getting paid enough.
We're doing Dartmouth unionize.
Yeah, they just just just said that.
But I think partly is the idea that these guys are going
to be NBA players and they're being told that the money is
there and that they could get hurt.
They could lose the money playing in college.
They could lose that time to prepare to play
for the professional game from the college game.
And I think that's some of the reasons why these guys go one.
Because it's the money, 100%.
But it's also why I think they're being pushed to do it too.
But Kevin, here's the thing.
There's now a system which I don't agree with,
but it allows you to still make the money
while you're there developing.
Like back then, you used to have to roll the dice and develop.
And I think of like a Brandon Roy's career, man.
He probably played four years at Washington.
And then he goes to the NBA and he's spectacular, dude.
Like I'm not saying he's Steph Curry.
Like there's obviously only one of them dudes.
But like this guy was good.
Like he was at least on this and going in the same direction
as a Dwayne Wade to me.
I don't know.
But like he gets hurt.
His career was ruined.
Right.
Now he can stay in college.
What would a guy like Brandon Roy make
at a college university right now?
Yeah.
More than a million dollars.
Definitely a couple of million dollars.
Indiana had the guy that was making a couple of million dollars.
Trace Jackson Davis.
Who could not play basketball like that guy could.
Well, Hasan, they are for the UConn.
They said to him, he needed extra tickets
because they're playing in New York.
And they said, how are you paying for him?
He goes, my NIL money.
Where's that coming from?
I don't know.
You know, who's paying him?
I love him.
Sixth man of the year.
Great player.
Unbelievable contribution of the team this year.
But where's that money come from?
I have no idea.
Well, they had a collective.
Yeah, so they disperse it the way they want to.
But beyond the collective, you're allowed to go out and get
whatever else you want.
Remember, our guest here said, I got to work on my off day
sometimes.
I saw him at four commercials today.
The big boy.
I didn't see any of them.
I got to see them.
I saw my keyboard going to Hartford today.
I saw that.
I'd like to see him in six more games.
I'll tell you that.
I think you will.
Hey, how about the people trying to tell him where to go?
High school and college.
Yeah.
There's a testament.
Maybe just trusted the process a little bit.
I think you did all right.
I think we're going to see less and less of that now,
because the way things are changing.
But it's an unbelievable.
I was looking.
My sons asked me, who are the best player from Connecticut
ever playing the NBA?
He may be, in five years, the best.
Well, I mean, talking.
We got Calvin and Nat.
Yeah, we got Ray.
No, Ray's not Connecticut.
Michael Adams was pretty good for a while.
Camby, nice career.
Charles Smith.
Vin Baker.
Think about it.
I mean, oh, champion.
NBA champion.
Scotty, NBA champion.
Does Lamar come?
He was here for one year.
I can't believe he's still here now.
I see him getting his hair cut in something, then.
He got hair?
He gets hair cut in something, then.
Marcus Campbell.
He had hair.
Tell him about Cammy or Lamar.
No, Lamar Odom.
OK.
Yeah.
Ernie D. Boys.
Jerry D.
Ernie D.
What did I say?
Ernie D.
Providence.
Yeah, Ernie.
Anyway, what an episode.
Eddie Rapp, tournament coming up.
It's got to be all Huskies.
Everybody throw your national champ out there.
Like I did a bracket.
I'm going Huskies.
I'm just going to butt my bracket for playing the odds,
purposes.
I got the flying a line.
Who you got, Lottie?
I got you, Count.
I'm sorry.
Scratch.
You can fly around Illinois here.
Hate the team.
Hate the school.
Hate everything about.
I took them.
Me too.
Carolina.
Come on, man.
You can't Tennessee in national championship.
Huskies went back to back for the first time since Florida.
And we played Tennessee after our first
national championship.
Remember?
We did.
We'd eliminated him.
We lost.
Kevin?
Big question.
I don't know.
Here we go.
He took the Central Connecticut Blue Devils.
He's on the motor.
All right.
Thanks, everybody.
Eddie Rapp.
Great job.
Angry Jay.
You missed out later.
Well, by the way, you seem to be feeling better.