No Off Days with Scott Smith
Grestling. In sports, if you want to be the best, there are no off days. I feel like I have crispy cream remnants on my lips. Am I Am I good? Am I The way the way you inhald that donut just before we started taping. How could there be any crumbs left? Welcome into the Nod Pod. Uh I’m Scott Smith. This is Chris Ko. BK’s in the booth. We’ll catch up with you momentarily. You did bring crispy cream donuts in. So, uh, part of your, uh, ever popular 7 p.m. The Florida Tonight Show. Yeah. So, what was that segment for? Why did you I don’t know why we were eating donuts on TV, but sometimes you just do, you know. We had a big debate a couple weeks ago in the sports office about how many donuts, how many boxes of crispy cream donuts you could eat. And I think the time was, I think it was, was 10 minutes. And I, and I said, uh, I think I could eat four boxes. Four box. Four dozen. Four of just the basic crispy cream glazed. They have to be the warm ones that run out because I think they dissolve into nothing. They do. It’s like cotton candy. It disappears in your mouth. 48 donuts. Speaking of, you would be so sick. I think four bucks a Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I wouldn’t want to do this. It would, you know, I’d have to be paid. I’d have to be compensated in some way. Kind of like our friend Joey Chestnut. 16 mustard belts. Congratulate. Nobody pays greater homage to the World Eating Federation’s uh champion than we do. And Joey Chestnut did it again. I mean, he he just he 70 and a half dogs in 10 minutes. Um, so he he honored our great country while desecrating his own bowels. And uh we commend you Joey Chestnut. He got it done. Um that is uh now 16 mustard yellow belts. He did uh he did kind of share some of his training tactics, techniques maybe we should say. Um, and and it includes includes neck raises with a 16lb bag attached to leather straps that hang from a mouthguard. Okay. Okay. So, you’re lifting you’re lifting 16 pounder jaws. They call them jaws. Yeah. So, you got that and then uh he does some uh burping exercises. I do those every day. Homer, I wonder how far through the alphabet he could burp. What do you think he gets to Could he do it the whole way? Well, you know, it’s Joey. He’s going to do it the whole way and then some. And does it become belching? When does it go from a burp to a belch? I don’t. Oh, I think he’s all belch. It’s all belch. Yeah, it’s not going to be all belch. Uh, then he uses an electric stimulation machine on his abdomen to relax his muscles. Oh. So, it’s like, you know, it’s kind of flowy. You know, he’s ready to go. I’d never leave the house if I had one of those. I want the full body. Must the strength to move. And then he says he channels his inner anger. And uh I think if you watch him chow out on those dogs, there’s a lot of anger towards those hot dogs. What did those dogs ever do? Yeah. Right. No doubt. There actually is a a a challenge that has come about now in the days after the fourth. Uh that is if you eat a hot dog and run 100 meters. So you eat the hot dog, run 100 meters, who would win? Usain Bolt or Joey Chestnut? You start at the same time. Start at the same time. We got to eat a hot dog and then run 100 meters. We’ll bring BK in on Welcome in BK. Um, so this is a nice little challenge to think through a little mental exercise for your podcast day. Uh, so eat a hot dog, run 100 meters. Who wins? Usain Bolt, who I believe ran a sub 10sec. I think it was like a 95 or something like that. 100 meter dash. Uh, but of course Joey will inhale a hot dog in in a fraction of under eight seconds. According to a Tik Tok video, he can eat one dog in under eight seconds. So, he’s getting how much of a head start on under eight seconds. No, no, he could do it faster than that, don’t you think? Joey Chestnut 8 seconds be faster. I mean, we could do the math, but yeah, it’s especially just that one. I mean, that one you just he averaged eight and a half seconds per dog when you go all 70 and a half dogs. Yeah, but that but that his first he was averaging like Oh, I see. He’s faster in the beginning. All right, so let’s say let’s say it’s 7 seconds or 6 seconds. I think it’s like 3 seconds. Three or four as well. I was going to say yeah. So my money’s on chestnut. I know he he’s probably not a great sprinter, but I think by the time you probably have to swallow. I think that’s part of the the test here. Oh, you have to swallow. I think you can’t run with the hot dog in your mouth. You got to eat it. So, you got to consume the hot dog and he’s just gonna put that thing down like a garbage disposal. I mean, it’s gone and he’s taken off. And I think Usain Bolt is gonna he might choke on it, you know. He could. I don’t know if he’ll be able to pick up the ground. So, my money’s on uh on Chestnut. I think Chestnut wins by probably 10 seconds. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. 10 seconds. I’d like to see his running form, though. That’s the thing. You don’t I want to see him run after 70 hot dogs in his stomach. What does that look like? I think he would leave quite the trail. Easy to follow. We got a clean up on lane six. Yeah. Oh, not very good. Uh, welcome in BK. Um, and happy uh postmortem on the 4th of July. Did you guys have fun? Did you blow up some fireworks? Did you do any of that? Didn’t do any fireworks this year. No, no, it was it was kind of raining, too. So, I think they’re still shooting them off in my neighborhood. Are they? Yeah. It’s just It never ends. Freedom celebration. It’s a week long at least. Independence every night there. Yeah. Yeah. Ah, well, what do we have on today’s big program? Hey, another friend of the program. We keep rolling them in here. We got Ken Rosenthal. There we go. Yeah. Fox Sports, Major League Baseball reporter, insider. Talk to him about the We got the All-Star game coming up right here on Fox. Yeah. Yeah. Collector of bow ties. He loves the bow ties, doesn’t he? Yeah. Yeah. Good cause, too. So, yeah. We’ll talk to him. He’s a good guy. I mean, he man’s got some knowledge. I’d like to get his thoughts. See what he says about the Rays. If D’s going to make a move here in the second half, do they need to make a move? Yeah. Got the big trade deadline. Uh got, you know, we talk allstars, what he thinks of, uh, the young gun junior camo. Yeah. And will he be competing in the home run derby? That’s what I want to know. Let’s hope so. As of right now, we don’t have the word, but he he deserves a spot. I think he deserves and probably Allstar game, too. Cool. And then at the end of the program, what do we got? Uh, how about the July edition of the Nodpod Gazette, guys? Okay. Did we miss a month? Do we I don’t know. Have we been paying our subscription? Well, the Gazette has had some massive layoffs. I don’t know if you’ve seen, but print not doing so well these days. So, they don’t they don’t run monthly anymore. Okay. Kind of every six weeks or so by yearly. Yeah. By then the headlines like you know Ukraine invaded by Russia, you know, it’s two years later. Thanks, Gazette. Yeah. We try. We’ll try Becca. Yeah. Very good. We’ll do it. Yeah. All right. Thanks, BK. Thanks, man. If you’re listening and you want to watch, go to fox13news.com/nodpod. If you’re watching and you want to listen or subscribe, you can take out your phones, tap the QR code on the screen, and head to our show page. Feel free to leave comments on the YouTube channel or a fivestar review on iTunes. Please subscribe. Fox13news.com/nodpod. All right, so the uh I love a good Netflix series, a good Netflix doc series. Uh and they always poop cruise. You like the poop cruise? The poop cruise. Yeah. Have you seen the poop cruise? No. Is that the name of it? Yeah. It’s called is the series where it’s these horrible things happen and they’re real things that happen and this cruise ship that went out I don’t know in 2010 and got stranded for a number of days with people at sea and uh anyway there’s a reason it’s called the poop cruise. There was there was some plumbing issues aboard. Yeah, sounds like it. That’s not what’s gotten you through the summer though, huh? There’s no hot dog eating contest on that ship. Ah, that would be bad news. Um no, uh although that does sound like it’s going to go in the queue. Uh, no. The the new Netflix quarterback series is out and uh I have yet to catch an episode, but uh there are some headlines coming out of it that I think are quite compelling. Uh Kurt Cousins on it yet again. So, you know, he everything seems like the come up roses for for Cousins. I mean, over the years, well, yeah, I mean, he’s he’s had a nice long career in the NFL and uh he’s he’s f for starting jobs and put up some good numbers and had some good stops along the way. Uh but yeah, his latest decision to to head to Atlanta was probably not the best, although he’s still getting paid. I mean, to this date, he has not been traded or or sent away. So, um but he he said that he feels like he was misled by the Falcons when they drafted Michael Pennix in the first round of the draft last year, which um they he said, you know, it wouldn’t have surprised me had they taken a quarterback in the draft. He kind of expected that to happen, but uh to take one so early, he did feel misled. And uh yeah, I think so. Right. Like that that should have been I don’t know why why they don’t disclose that. But then again, maybe they didn’t feel like they needed to until those the cards fell their way. But again, they made a jump for Penn. So I think that that was probably their plan all along. But well, it turned out to be the right call, right? because Kirk’s still coming off that Achilles repair and he wasn’t himself last season. He just didn’t have the mobility and Pennix looked pretty good when they put him in there at the end of the year. I don’t know. I don’t know. I I He did say that if he had to replay it back that he might not have left Minnesota. Minnesota did offer him another contract and he uh turned it down and said went to to Atlanta. And I just wonder what what might have been if he stays in Minnesota and JJ McCarthy gets injured. So now he has the starting role back again in an offense that he’s comfortable in and a place that he loves to play for and and team he loves to play for. Uh you have no Sam Darnold breakout which means that you don’t have a Gino Smith leaving Seattle most likely. I mean he probably stays there instead of going to Las Vegas. So, we have a little bit of a a Kurt Cousins butterfly effect here because of this decision. It sounds like it. But what if he stays in Minnesota and plays? I still believe he was diminished after returning from that injury. If he doesn’t play well, then maybe you still have a Sam Darnold situation perhaps. I don’t know. I think it would have taken a lot. You know, the thing is is part of it was an adjustment, I think, to the Atlanta offense, but he, you know, Cousins played right out of the gates and the Bucks faced him and he put up 500 yards on He played well against the Bucks, but that’s about it. Yeah, two times. I mean, it I don’t know. I I didn’t I think he was slowed a little bit by it, but um yeah, I don’t know what what might have been. Also coming out of that ne Netflix series is uh Joe Burrow is another one of the quarterbacks in this. And he you know, he talked about his the home burglary that happened last year. And uh you know, that’s no laughing matter, but he did say that like the issue with that is it made him think again about the big purchase that went viral that he was going to make. He was gonna buy a $3 million Batmobile replica and he says, “You know what? Now, now I can’t even do that.” And that’s a shame, you know, like he really should get the Batmobile. Is it because he doesn’t feel secure anyway? He can’t. I think so. I think that’s part of it. Uh, you know, wouldn’t a driveway though keep you safer? Wouldn’t burglars be less likely to go after your home if you had the Batmobile parked out there? No. I don’t know. I I think uh I think he’s misplacing his his Batman uh f you know his his fondness for Batman is misplaced. He needs a bat cave cuz a bat cave won’t get burglarized and then you can park your Batmobile in the bat cave. Yeah. Who’s going to steal from a batcave? In college football news, uh, Urban Meyer, he he has mentioned that he was offered a college football GM position and he entertained it for about a half a second. So, he didn’t disclose what college that was that offered him this, but he said that, you know, he he goes into the meeting and he’s like, you know, they they reach out. I’ll give the time a day to at least listen to their pitch. So, he says, what what’s the job description? and they say uh it’s basically you meet with agents of 17 and 18 year olds and then Meyer he said u for like after a half second of thought he says I’d rather step on a rusty nail and pull it out myself. Oh. So yeah, not a ringing endorsement. It’s uh yeah, I think I’ll politely decline this opportunity. I I do wonder though like what is the appeal of the college football GM? I mean I know that if like you’re in that track, right? like you’re in kind of a front office mode, then yeah, of course that would be a great opportunity for people. But if you’re a co if you’re a coach, especi specifically a college football coach, what’s the appeal of being the GM for that? Like because it seems like in the NFL at least, there’s an appeal of like if you are coach like Bill Bich, like coach and general manager of the Patriots. So I get to coach the players and then I also get to pick out the groceries. that that’s nice. You know, I get to fill my roster out the way I want to. But college football coaches already do that. Like, they’re already in charge of their own recruiting and getting who they want. So, really, the GM role is is the part that you don’t want. And that’s negotiating with agents, right? Yeah. And then maybe having a bad taste in your mouth about some of these player negotiations and how it plays out, right? I mean, I would I totally understand Urban Meyers kind of like kind of wincing at that. Well, I you know, I think for Urban it doesn’t make sense because he has accomplished he’s won three national championships. He’s made millions of dollars coaching college football and his brief stent with Jacksonville. So, yes, this would be a lesser role for him. He has no interest in grinding and no interest in talking to those agents of the 17 and 18 year olds. But perhaps a coach who has not reached that level of accomplishment in his career, perhaps this would appeal to him. But I think what you’re seeing is more of these major college football programs, they’re not hiring coaches to be their GM. They’re hiring guys with front office experience. Jim Nai with Oklahoma is probably the best example. Has been in many NFL front offices, never any college football experience, but he’s been in many NFL front offices, was the director of the Senior Bowl, uh, which is all about player evaluation, right, and evaluating these guys. And he’s not making a killing. His salary 1.5 million at Oklahoma, but I could see the peanuts, right? I could see the appeal though for someone like him to go into a program with that kind of reputation as Oklahoma and try to reshape the roster, you know, and you said that, well, the head coach is already in charge of the roster. Yes and no. I mean, I think now with NIL, there’s less of that there. Coaches have less control because it does come down to negotiations and now you have this revenue sharing where you almost have a salary cap in college football. So, you’re going to need a guy who can move some of those numbers around. But you can target whoever you want. That’s my point. Like whether you get them or not, that’s a matter of how we work out the contract details. But every head coach in college football can say, “We want that guy. We want that. We want all these five stars. We want all these four stars.” Now, whether they’re going to get them or not is another matter entirely, but but you get to pick it out. Like in the NFL, you cannot do that, right? So, a head coach can say, “Yeah, I I want um you know, I want Baker Mayfield to be my quarterback, but you know, he’s under contract with another team.” And and you know, maybe the GM says, “Well, we can’t afford him.” Whatever whatever it might be. So, I I think that maybe the appeal is to those either that have front office experience or like a a former coach like Urban Meyer that maybe doesn’t have to put in as many hours. Like maybe it’s a little bit more cushy gig. I I don’t know. Yeah, like it doesn’t require We know that college football coaches work around the clock. Uh, at least most of them. We’ll get to that story in a moment. How about UNCC donors? They they are very angry at Bill Bich reportedly. Uh, so numerous emails obtained through a public records request show a stunning Chris a stunning lack of support for the Tar Hills new football coach. Um, and most the heart of most of these emails seems to center around uh Mr. Bellichic’s love interest, Jordan Hudson, uh, and her kind of high visibility position within the school and at practice and and social media, whatnot. Uh, some of those complaints are about maybe the overpayment of like what the school paid to get Bellich. Um, some about the hiring of his son to coach the defense and its nepotism, whatever it might be. One one email actually said that Bill Bich is a disgrace to UNCC and I’m just like uh Bill Bichc is it? Now I I understand this is a little bit of a blot, you know, because it’s garnering so many so much attention off the field which is been so antithetical to Bill Bich’s whole career. Right. Right. He’s so he’s he’s just about the ball. Right. Right. And so this is like this big turnabout in his career. So it is drawing a lot more attention but a disgrace. I remind me the last time UNCC won a national championship. Yeah, that would be that would be never. Remind me of the last time they won a an ACC. I had to dig this up. It was 1980. So, like I get it. Like I understand like this is there’s an aversion to all the off the- field stuff, but put that aside. Like to call Bill Bichc a disgrace or whatever he’s doing. Like let the guy coach a game, you know? like let him get through his first season and this this guy won six Super Bowl titles as a head coach like and eight overall as an assistant too. Like it’s just like what are we talking about? You’re UNCC. Like you’re a great basketball school. Yeah. Like but you’re you have not proven anything on the football field. So I don’t know. I I think like Bill B is what is the measure of success? What will tamp down some of these angry emails? If anything, there’s one thing and it’s the cure of all things. It’s winning. What is that? What is that magic number? Number. Is it a Is it a bowl win? Is it like What is it? Well, you know, I’ve looked at Vegas. Vegas says seven and a half is the win total for the Tar Hills. I think you have to exceed that. You have to get to a decent bowl. I I’ve said on this show before that I would like to see him in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl so that he wins and he gets the uh the gallon of mayonnaise dumped on his head, but no, I think you’ve got to you’ve got to make a strong showing in an ACC that is winnable. Just looking at their schedule here, pretty manageable. You got you get you have to play Clemson, but they’re coming to you. But you avoid U Miami, you avoid Florida State. Um so I think I think nine wins and you show people what’s possible there. I would agree. Yeah, I think if you hit right around nine wins, I think that quiets some of it. Some people, you know, will never be satisfied that the whole point is not even about the on the field success. It’s just they see, you know, this target and they think, “Oh, this is unbecoming of our program or whatever it might be.” Or maybe they’re not even football fans. Who knows? But, um, anyway, he’s catching some flak there, uh, up in Chapel Chapel Bill. Old Chapel Bill. All right, finally, uh, our last college football coach story. Uh, Hugh Fes is also under fire. Uh though his golf game is on fire. It is info right now. Chris, he has posted 10 rounds of golf since the start of June. Uh and he’s actually maxed out the number of public rounds that he’s allowed to when trying to get your handicap score. So um meaning that he’s at least over 20 uh golf rounds in the calendar year, which I wouldn’t say 20 rounds in a calendar year. Where are we at? Middle of July. It’s probably not ridiculous, right? But um but you take into consideration like he is a college football head coach competing in the SEC. Uh and so he did just struggle a little bit with this latest recruiting class. I think they had a handful of decommmitments. They did that might have coincided with a round or two of golf. And so people are saying, well, what is this guy into more? Getting his handicap down to single digits or making us into national title contenders again? Yeah, it’s definitely drawn the eye of some Auburn fans and it’s become kind of a punching bag. You’ve seen Lane Keifin trolling him on social media as Lane does very well. He’s very good at that. Uh but I think it boils down Well, first of all, we don’t know what all these golf outings were like. I mean, you do have to still rub elbows with big donors and boosters, right? I mean, who’s to say he’s not out playing rounds with guys that he’s going to be asking for more NIL money from? He better be. I mean, I would think that that would that would make a whole lot of sense. But I think that the thing is is like he’s he’s he’s actually very good and I think his handicap is like a 7 something 78 I thought they so he’s he’s a he’s an he’s a good little golfer and um he’s a good he’s a good little golfer and so uh but yeah it sounds like that is like the ambition here. So maybe he is the these are he’s mixing company and pleasure you know business and pleasure for these golf outings. Either way, I think when you’re looking at your recruiting class finishing 86th in, you know what? That’s uh for the Is that the class? 2026 class. I think though you have to So, is this going to lead to a lot of these coaches that like to play golf um not posting their scores under their real name? I I That’s what I would stop doing. I’m I’m just going to say, “Okay, well, I’m not going to play as Chris Ko anymore. I’ll be Scott Smith when I go out next I would say probably most wouldn’t have to worry about it because they’re probably not playing as much golf as you. Um, but you know, that being said, I I guess the question is is would you rather have the 86th ranked recruiting class and a seven handicap or have a top 20 recruiting class and, you know, be a triple bogey golfer? Well, if I’m a fan of that program, I want the top 20 recruiting class. You’re the head coach. If I’m the golfer, if I’m the coach, if I have an 86 ranked recruiting class, I’m not going to be a head coach for much longer. I mean, Hugh knows this is a pivotal year for him. This is year three. He has nothing to show for in the first two years, not even making a bowl game his first two years, and he’s got a roster this year. That’s the thing. Like, we’re talking about the 2026 class, but this team this year, he’s got some talent at wide receiver. Yeah, maybe he’s confident. Yeah, he’s and he kind of said that the other day at a news conference. He kind of said, uh, once we start playing games, all this stuff will shake itself out. So yeah, I say give me the 86th ranked recruiting class and a seven handicap because I want to be golfing a lot longer than I’m coaching and I want to feel good about my game. I want to be able to roll in there and be able to, you know, rip some straight drives. Steve Burer and other old coaching golfers like that. No doubt. No doubt. All right, coming up on the No Off Days podcast, we’re going to talk a little baseball as we approach the All-Star break. Going to catch up with one of the baseball greats for Fox. Ken Rosenthal joins us next. [Music] Are you more into the home run derby, Chris, or the All-Star game? Let’s do this last week. The All-Star game, Scott. Okay. It’s the best one in major sports. It is very good. I’m a big home run derby guy, but I do love the All-Star game as well. You know why I love it most? Because it’s on Fox, and I always get to look forward to seeing Ken Rosenthal in his bow tie. uh digging up some good stories, some great conversations. We’re going to have one with him right now on the Know Offace podcast. You know, where many leagues have kind of tinkered with format and substance of their All-Star games over the years, what is it about the MLB All-Star game that kind of still resonates and actually generates excitement from the fan base? Well, actually MLB has tinkered with it, too. Remember for a number of years, Scott, they had that this time it counts thing where determined homefield advantage for the World Series. They’ve since abandoned that. But what makes the game unique is seeing all of the teams represented and seeing all of the best players in one place on one stage. Now, this year, we’re also going to see the players in their real uniforms, not phony all-star uniforms, but their actual teams uniforms. It’s something a lot of fans were upset about when they were doing those generic American and national uniforms. Now, you’ll see the Tampa Bay Rays in the Tampa Bay Rays uniforms. So that is a positive thing for this year. But it’s just seeing the best players, the best matchups. Scooble versus Otani for instance. If Scooble starts the game for the American League and faces Show Otani leading off, that would be something to see. And there is a level of effort that it seems is generated in the MLB game that maybe we don’t see in in some of the other showcases, right? because at the end of the day, um, you know, the this it seems like an allstar nod carries more weight to a player’s resume. Uh, and what they do in it really has an opportunity to to kind of showcase their brand. I mean, we look at this Rays team that now sends three. Uh, you got Junior Camro, Jonathan Ronda, and Brandon Laauo. Not necessarily household names across the landscape. Uh, but when they go into a game like this, they really have an opportunity to make a name for themselves as they get that national audience. Is is that kind of how you see one of the differences here with this all-star game? I do agree with that. And in the case of Camro in particular, he’s a guy who is young. He is rising as a star. He is probably not the player he’s going to be as opposed to Aronda who you can make the same case for that he’s still improving. Brandon Lowi is who he is. Really good player. So for Camero, yeah, it could be a showcase. It could be a coming out party for a guy like that and other young players as well. We saw it last year. Paul Ske started for the National League. People knew who he was, but they got a greater understanding of Paul Skins after watching him pitch. One of the things that, as you mentioned, that they’ve tinkered with is the now recent addition of the automatic balls and strike system to this All-Star game. Uh it seems this is an inevitable kind of snowball down the hill, but u what is your are you a fan of the technology and and how quickly do you think it’s going to be implemented during the regular season? I’m a fan of it on a limited basis, which is how it’s going to be used in the All-Star game and how it would be used if MLB adopts it next season, which I entirely expect the league to do. With the challenge system, a player can challenge two times a game. If you win your challenge, you get to retain it. It’s just like with replay. And what it will do, what it should do is correct egregious calls, egregious misses by the umpires. And there’s an element of strategy with it as well. Do you use your challenge early? Do you risk it at that point or do you preserve it for later in the game in perhaps an even more important spot? On balance, it’s going to be good for the game. It’s going to be an adjustment. The strike zone is going to be different with ABS than it is right now. It’s going to be a little shaped differently, but again, players have a good way of adjusting to innovations like this. They adjusted to replay. They adjusted to the bigger bases, to the pitch clock, all these things. And they’ll do it with ABS as well. All right, we’re going to take a quick timeout, Chris, but on the other side, more our conversation with Ken Rosenthal. [Music] Welcome back to the Off Days podcast. The All-Star break is nearly upon us and uh boy, it’s it’s been an interesting ride for your Tampa Bay Rays the first half of the season. Some downs, some ups, real high real high ups and uh and hopefully that kicks off what will be a great resolution in the second half of the season, but um they’re going to need a little break right now. A little breather. We just had a little breather in our conversation with Ken Rosenthal from MLB on Fox. Is there a question you would like to direct his way in the next portion of our interview? Uh worst question he’s ever gotten from an interviewer. Okay, I’m probably going to deliver that right now. So, this is the third time that Atlanta has hosted. It’s been three different venues each time. It seems like there’s a like a two decade plus gap between each one, but truest park is the location. When you get to go to these all-star games, it’s I got to imagine it’s pretty cool to roll into a city and see the proverbial red carpet and literal red carpet that they roll out for an event like this and how it’s an opportunity for not just the baseball team to host, but it’s how you see like the city kind of getting getting behind it between the signage and all that they do to really show off their city, right? Totally agree. And Atlanta has been waiting for this. Supposed to be in Atlanta in 2021. It got moved out. So this is going to be a big celebration and Atlanta has a great history of baseball. Hank Aaron and so many others. So from that perspective too, it’s going to be really cool. Truest Park is kind of a model for the newer ballparks. It’s the one that kind of Tampa Bay wanted to build in St. Petersburg when the Rays were still looking at that because you have not just a stadium but you build a neighborhood around it with shops and restaurants and all these things that kind of enhance the experience for fans. So from that perspective alone, it’s going to be fun in Atlanta and I’m sure it’ll be hot down there, but I’m sure it’ll be a blast as well. So wait, Ken, are you telling me that Steinbrunner Field is not the model? That’s that’s that’s not that’s not the model. Steerfield is not the model, but it is interesting to me. I don’t want to cause any controversy here and get this whole argument started, but they’ve done fairly well in Tampa. Granted, with a limited capacity ballpark, that is where there is significant interest in the team. Not that there isn’t in St. Petersburg, but you build a ballpark in Tampa, maybe you’d have a better chance of seeing that team draw better. But to to that point, you know, there was a recent um uh I guess article about the league’s um kind of weighing and contemplating the decision what to do. You know, I know we’re still only halfway there, but should the playoffs roll around and the Rays are hosting games, uh that maybe there’s a different venue or they have to kind of outfit Steinbrerfield a little bit differently to to the capacity and and all that comes with the hosting the ALCS or even potentially the the World Series. What do you think the best remedy is should that situation actually pop up? Well, I was the one actually who wrote this and what I understand and what I wrote is that for the first two rounds, the wild card round and the division series, Steinbrer Field would be adequate. You could do it there. It’s not ideal. It’s not a major league facility. We all know that. you don’t have the camera angles that would you’d see in a major league park. But in terms of capacity, in terms of just getting the event off the ground, those two rounds, you could do it. The problem becomes in the ALCS and World Series, MLB devotes a certain number of tickets to partners, sponsors, broadcasters, media, all kinds of different people. And for the World Series, it’s 7,500 tickets per game in a park that seats 10,000. and that’s not going to work. So, they would have to move it at that point. Again, my understanding, Miami would be the obvious location. I don’t know that it would be the preferred location of Tampa Bay Rays fans, but it seems like something along those lines would be the way that they would go. Yeah. And if there’s ever an incentive to travel, obviously it’s with the game with stakes as is high um for the fan base. Um all right, back to we got we have home run derby first on deck. Uh, do by the way, do you have a pick in the home run derby? I don’t know if the whole field is set yet, but it’s not completely set. O’Neal Cruz is a fascinating guy. He is the king of exit velocity. He hits some home runs very fast and very far. So, I’m interested to see him in this event. Cal Raleigh, of course, has 36 home runs as we sit here today. And certainly, he’s going to be someone looked at very closely. It’s always fun, and I’m sure it will be again this year. um to to zoom into the second half now as we make this turn. Rays have, you know, locally they’ve started a little slow, red hot in June. We saw what this team is at least capable of doing. Cooled off a little bit here recently. What do you make of of this team as we approach this trade deadline? Are they a team that is going to be buyers going into the market? Do they need to address the bullpen? How how would you size that up? They definitely need to address the bullpen, but to classify the raise as a buyer or seller is always a dangerous thing to do because more often than not, what they do is both. And they will trade players as they start to make money, trade players from a surplus if they have a surplus. And then that they will also acquire players that they need. And you mentioned the bullpen. That seems to be for sure the area of need. So, could I see them parting with a player who is on their club right now and contributing to get that help? Yeah, I could see that. I could also see them trading younger players to get that need. A guy named Zack Latell is a very interesting player. Now, Mlanahan’s coming back. Zack is a good, competent major league pitcher at a time when teams desperately need confident starting pitching. So, could he be traded for help in another area? I can definitely see that happening. All right, Ken, what’s the bow tie choice? Can is that a secret or can we get a sneak preview as to what the bow tie choice is going to be? Not a secret. It’s going to be Stand Up to Cancer, and I’m going to be wearing it in honor of two baseball writers who recently passed away. Scott Miller was one. He lived out in the West Coast. He worked for CBS Sports Line, New York Times, other publications. And Jim Henman from Baltimore, a guy who kind of raised me in the business. He is another one. Very good. Well, we are uh we are looking forward to the big game and seeing you out there and I’m sure it’s going to be it’s going to be a blast as always and hopefully Junior Camiero puts on a little show at this home run derby and then the the young fella gets noticed here. Ken, we appreciate your time. Thank you, Scott. It was nice chatting with Ken Rosenthal. I bet you know I I didn’t look through his uh his old Wikipedia page, but I’m guessing he probably did some years at a newspaper. I’m guessing he’s got some news. I don’t know if he ever worked for the newspaper of Illreute. That would be the Nodpod Gazette. We’re going to get into our headlines next in our fun block. We’ll bring BK in coming up on the Nod. Ken Rosenthal newspaper. No, I don’t think so. [Music] Welcome back to the Northace podcast. You’ve waited long enough, folks. It is our fun block. It’s time to bring in Brian King, Mr. Fun. Here we go, BK. All right. You have uh curated all the top headlines coming out of the Nod Pod Gazette headquarters. That is correct, Scott. I have. And what I’m going to do is give you these headlines. Some are true, some are false, of course. Yes. You and KO got to determine which is which. Let’s get our truth sniffers out. Who Who is managing this paper these days? I don’t know, man. I mean, it’s they don’t care about fake news. I was off that three weeks and it was Oh, it went to Do you think we can use Grock to uh to figure out if these are true or not? I think Grock wrote these. Grock may have written very well may have written these. Grank Grank wrote them. Yeah. You ready for the first one? Yeah, let’s do it. Okay. Headline number one, a return rescue. A man is rescued twice after trying to retrieve his phone. when a man in Japan had to be rescued off Mount Fuji twice in 4 days when he returned to go get his phone that he left behind. Is this true or false, guys? Oh my goodness. You know, this happens to all of us. You know, you climb a mountain, you get back down to the bottom, and you Hey, start checking your pocket. Where’s my Yeah, I got to text my wife and tell her I got to the bottom. Oh my gosh, I got to go back up. All right, we’ll see you guys. Now, where am I going to find my Hierro Sherpa app? Oh my gosh, I just put that white case on there, too. I’m going to It’s going to be tough to find it. Uh yeah, there’s no way that is true. I mean, if you Yeah, a phone is not that valuable. All that stuff, unless he did not subscribe to additional megabytes of iCloud space, then all of his stuff might just be on his phone. So maybe he has like everything. There could be. Yeah. Everything b like pictures of his children growing up and and he never stored it anywhere. All of his passwords. I can’t imagine a person that is is thought through every conceivable way of getting up and doing one of the great human feats of climbing Mount Fuji. Fiji. Uh Mount Fuji. Okay. Fiji is very it’s much it’s an island I believe. Yeah. It’s and they have delicious water too. Um I want to say it is face is fake news. False. All right. Not true. I think it’s absolutely true. I think we are that um idiotic as a society now where we don’t know how to function without these rectangular pocket computers that run our lives. So I think he got to the bottom, did the biggest ah exasperated sigh ever and turned his butt right back around and climbed back to the top. He he got into his car and tried to punch in Google Maps to find his way home and he couldn’t. That’s what he realized. I think it I think it’s true. It is absolutely true. 4 days after being airlifted off the mountain, a 27year-old made another emergency call after he suffered altitude sickness when trying to go back and look for the cell phone he left behind. So he was airlifted he was rescued the first time and and that’s when he Okay. And he had a Did he make it down the second time? Yeah, but another climber had to find him and he was the guy was up there unable so he had to be rescued twice. Twice in 4 days. Uh how about that? You’d think the phone would have told him how to get off the mountain at my phone or something. Yeah. Yeah. Get an Apple Watch, you know, or something. Yeah. Stop climbing mountains. That hobby. Oh my goodness. All right. Headline here. Inflight U-turn. A passenger’s violent bout with diarrhea. Oh boy. That was what poop. This is the poop cruise. Very close to it. forces a plane to turn around 2 hours into a flight. True or false? I mean, these things have happened before. You’ve heard of medical emergencies turning planes around. That is not a medical emergency. Uh about with violent diarrhea. That sounds like a medical emergency. It’s not. There’s no pilot that’s going to turn a flight around because one, did they say one person? Now, if the whole if everybody had the fish, you like the movie Airplane. Was that Was that um What was it just one person? Did the story give that information? Yeah, just one person. No, no, no. They’re not turning around. Sorry. You’re on your own. That’s why we have bathrooms back there. But what if this person I’m going to trap you in there. You’re not coming out of that bathroom. But yeah, you’re they’re not turning a plane. Well, too often the lavatory is full. And this guy, if this is a case of explosive diarrhea, he’s got to go in. So it it already is the fireworks. Trying not to be too descriptive, but yeah, you then you got a full-blown contamination situation with with other passengers possibly getting exposed to this stuff. I think it’s true. It’s just a I think this was not the poop cruise. This was the poop flight. Oh, no. I say no. It’s not. There’s no way that can be true. It ko is dead on it. It’s absolutely true. What? A plane in route from Atlanta to Barcelona was first was forced to return after an onboard medical emergency causing a messy trail of diarrhea left behind a by a struggling pass. They ate at varsity before they left. That’s what they did. They went and had one of those creamsicle milkshakes and one of those nasty chili dogs. Yeah, just like Ko said, it ultimately created a biohazard situation. They had to turn the plane around, go back to Atlanta. Crews had to clean up the plane. Took them 5 hours. They had to replace the carpet. This was this was a mess. Boy, this guy was he blew. Was the passenger’s name Chestnut by any chance? Not have been. But after the delay, all the passengers got back on the plane. No, including the guy who was sick. Oh. Oh. Imagine having to sit there with that look of shame for an international flight. It was not the same plane though, right? It was. They had to replace the carpet. Yeah, they had to replace the carpet. Imagine that delay. Wow. And you know, you know the guy who did it. So, this guy, he has wrecked everyone’s vacation. They’re supposed to be in Spain already. They’ve had to turn around and he’s got to sit there with all these Oh my god. Sorry. All right, here we go. Two left feet. A man in Kansas is arrested after a string of shoplifting thefts where he was caught stealing only left shoes. Left footed shoes. Left footed shoes. He wouldn’t take all shoes. He was just taking the left ones. True or false? Okay. Now, this I is is believable. I don’t know why. I don’t know why you’re stealing only left footed shoes. Uh but those are probably Are those the ones on display? Probably. Yeah. Okay. So, he’s stealing them off the shelf thinking that maybe he can sell them one at a time to a one- footed person out there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there’s, you know, people not everybody has two feet there. Chris, I know that this picture is misleading because there’s nobody that has First of all, those feet are disgusting and dirty. And why did you why did you pick those pictures, right? Only free ones. Okay, they were I can see why they were free. Look at that. But no, first of all, all four small toes are the same size and then there’s a one giant big toe. Is that Is that what your foot looks like, Chris? Let’s not make fun of people’s the shape of their toes. I think the problem here people don’t have But the four toes are different sizes, right? They’re not all four the same size. And then you got a big one sticking up here. I think that is the guy from Mount Fuji. That looks like Frostbite. That looks like Frostbitten feet. Okay. Uh to to the answer here, I’m gonna say that this is true. Um yeah, I think people steal just one one tennis shoe. Yeah, I think they would. Um I just don’t you know, I’m playing the odds. He’s given us two TRs in a row. I think this one is Brian’s more clever than to come up with this. No, he Look, he used the That’s actually not two feet there. That’s the same foot side by side. I know. Yeah. So, I’m going false. It is absolutely false. Good job, KO. And that is Ron Mullen modeling the feet. Ron’s feet. I’m joking. Oh, Ron, put those shoes back on, Ron. Oh my gosh. He takes them off in the audio booth. You know that he does. That’s what he runs the board with. Right. Let him breathe. Yeah, he has his feet up. Sliders have his four toes. They’re all the same length. Weird. Hey, fellas. Want some kitty litter cake? Look what I’ve baked up back here in audio. I’ve been mixing it in the mixing spoon with my foot. How did we turn him into an old southern lady? Oh, bless your heart. Here, take take a bite. Take a bite. Oh, boy. Okay, that was awesome. Uh, all right. So, is there any way I can redeem myself? We have one more. I got one more chance by taking your own shoes off. That’s okay. Sitting bull. A Nebraska man is pulled over while driving with a bull riding in the front seat. True or false? Oh, did we don’t have a make, model of the vehicle. Uh, a bull sitting in the front seat. I I can’t imagine any vehicle that would fit a bull in but this Well, maybe it’s not an adult bull. I don’t know. A bull is an adult male. Maybe it’s one of those. You’ve seen the miniature the shaggyhaired cattle. One of those. Maybe it’s one of those. Maybe it was a Chicago bull. Little play on words. Yeah. Or a USF. Was it Was it Luke Longley? No. Will Purdue. Well, I don’t think the fit truck. It was an actual boine. And what uh And what state did we get a state? Uh Nebraska. Nebraska. Okay. Yeah, Nebraska. Well, they do have bulls there, I’m pretty sure. Okay. A lot of corn. Okay. Bullseye. Uh, I am going to Why don’t you go first? Yeah, that’s not been working well for you. You going first. I can’t be I can’t be Can I sniff out if this is bull? Um, I mean, it’s plausible. It’s plausible. But the horns. Yeah, the horn. But you got a window. Stick your horns out the window. Right. Um, I’m going to say it’s true. This guy was um in a position where he could not he didn’t have his cattle trailer this day, right? But he had to get old um Bessie. Old Bessie. And that’s not a name. Old Bossy Fred. Old Fred. Had to get old Fred to the to the vet or to the slaughter house. He had to get Fred to the slaughter house and he said, “Okay, since Fred, this is your last day on earth. You get to ride up front this time.” I say it’s true. Okay. Uh I’m going to go opposite. I think it’s false. Um I think the bull was driving. That’s what I think. I think the bull was driving this vehicle. That’s what they do in Omaha, guys. It is absolutely true. All right. Roll a VO there. That’s Lee Meyers. He modified his 1996. Wow. Crown Victoria. So his 2200lb bull Howdy duty. Howdy duty. Shotgun with him. Just look at it. Those horns are enormous. He drives it. He takes him in the car to various parades and fairs. Police said he didn’t violate any laws, so they just told him careful while just be careful while driving. Look, he’s wiped off the words of his car. It said Arnold lice on the side. It was the actual police car that he cut the roof off and put a little gate on the side. Yeah. Yeah. That that bull doesn’t look like it’s enjoying itself very much. You know, you got to swing through the drive-thru at least once with with old Howdy Duty in there, right? Go through the Starbucks drive-thru. Howdy Dudy’s like, “Can I can you just let me go in the field?” Like, “Do we have to do this thing again?” Like, I’m crammed in here. I’m obviously not able to move at all. Not only that, but I have to go to the bathroom and I need you to take a U-turn before things go real south. You don’t tailgate that guy. Yeah. I’ll show you why they call me Howdy Duty. Yeah. He didn’t look very comfortable there. All right. Wow. Wow. Did I go over? You went over for Oh my gosh. It’s been That’s because it’s been too long since we played the Nod Pod Gazette. Well, thank you very much, BK, for embarrassing me today. Uh I appreciate that. And uh much thanks to our guest Ken Rosenthal, friend of the show. He’s a nod pod fod and he was back this week. Uh we appreciate his insights. Of course, you can watch the All-Star game right here on Fox next Tuesday night. Um and much thanks to our crew. We got Rochelle over here on the jib. We got Chris on the ones and twos. We have his twin brother James on the audio board tonight. Plus, we got BK in the booth for Chris. I’m Scott. Until the next time we are on there. No, off date. I thought Ron was on audio. Shoeless Ron. No, he was he was picking out left footed shoes. Oh, yeah.
FOX 13’s Scott Smith and Chris Cato talk all things sports.
Welcome to the full video episodes of the “No Off Days with Scott Smith” podcast! FOX 13 News Tampa Bay’s Sports Director Scott Smith is joined by news anchor and part time funny man Chris Cato, plus producer Brian King, to talk about the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay Rays, and Tampa Bay Rowdies. The guys interview sports legends and major players from FOX Sports, plus discuss the state of play in everything from golf to goalies. #nodpod #nooffdays #sports
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