Ichiro Suzuki has secured his place in Cooperstown with a near-unanimous selection, but the baseball world is buzzing over the lone dissenting vote. With over 4,000 combined hits between Japan and MLB, including 3,000 in the major leagues, Ichiro’s credentials seemed beyond question, yet one mysterious voter withheld their support, leaving Mariano Rivera as baseball’s lone unanimous inductee. Will the reported lunch invitation from Ichiro to that voter lead to a revealing conversation about the standards for baseball immortality?
As Aaron Glenn’s appointment as the Jets’ head coach poses questions about the future of Aaron Rodgers in New York, musical chairs continues to be the dominant theme with the NFL coaches. Ben Johnson heads to Chicago, Pete Carroll’s potential move to the Las Vegas Raiders has generated significant buzz, and the Dallas Cowboys’ consideration of Brian Schottenheimer as coordinator has raised eyebrows across the league. Can Carroll’s experienced leadership style mesh with the Raiders’ culture? Will the decisions facing these franchises upset the delicate balance between experience and control in NFL leadership and reshape the league’s power structure for years to come?
Sports media is undergoing a dramatic transformation as major providers like DirecTV and Comcast unveil streamlined sports packages priced between $45 and $70. This shift comes amid concerning trends in viewership, with the PGA Tour experiencing a 40% ratings decline and the loss of three million viewers during the Notre Dame-Ohio State College Football Playoff matchup notably raising red flags. The NBA grapples with drama of its own as Jimmy Butler, earning $49 million annually, reportedly seeks an exit from the Miami Heat, following the path of previous stars like LeBron James. How will the evolving dynamics of sports consumption and player movement reshape the way fans engage with their favorite teams and athletes, and can traditional broadcasters adapt to changing viewer habits?
With the NFL playoffs whittling down the remaining teams to the eventual pair that will face each other in football’s biggest event of the year, could Kansas City secure an unprecedented third consecutive championship? Or is it the year that Buffalo will finally break through and capture their first Super Bowl title?
Email Fred and the Fantastics with questions and comments at sportsfred@aol.com
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Hey everybody, it’s Fred in the Fantastics one more time, everything and anything in the wonderful and wacky world of sports with Laura, with Art, with Mark, and yours truly, Fred. You can email us at sportsfred@aol.com, sportsfred@aol.com. On PodClips and, of course, BLEAV across America and around the world. Let’s talk about the Hall of Fame. One guy didn’t vote for Ichiro, and Laura, why would you not vote for a guy if you had his hits from Japan? He’s over 4,000 hits, 3,000 hits in the major leagues. Laura, why would you not vote for somebody like that?
I don’t know, why didn’t he? Has there been any explanation? It doesn’t make sense
I don’t know who it was, I don’t know who it was. Hopefully we’ll find out who it was.
Oh that’s right, it’s secret, I forgot.
And final. And they’re supposed to have lunch or something together, Ichiro asked him out to lunch. But again, unanimous. Only I think it’s Rivera, Mariano Rivera, the only guy ever to get every single vote, so it’s awfully tough to do.
By the way, he’s in big trouble right now, too, Fred.
Did I read that correctly?
Yeah.
Why? What happened to him?
Mariano Rivera. We’re gonna, we’re gonna talk about it another time because it’s still in the midst of an investigation. But it had it has to do with, like, whatever.
You know, this whole, to me, this whole world is split apart again. I live in Southern California, folks, and two and a half weeks of these wildfires. And we’ve been packed three times. Well, I’ve never unpacked once we packed. And we get phone calls all the time and get ready to go, and then we don’t go. And then. But a few miles away, there’s a fire. And Laura lives in Southern California, Mark lives in Southern California. They’re very close to it also. And so it’s you got to enjoy every day of your life because you don’t know when it ends. But I will tell you this if they tell you to evacuate, evacuate, you don’t have to prove how tough you are. Because I think what, over 30 people have died here in southern California in the last two and a half weeks.
How do you repay your
Let me ask you a question of all the hires, of all the hires in the NFL, you know? And we know that Aaron Glenn’s going to the Jets and Ben Johnson’s with the Bears. Do you think the Pete Carroll hire is, is one of the better hires in the offseason so far this year?
Yeah, but, but, but, but I the Aaron Glenn one is interesting because you already have Aaron Ego, Aaron Rodgers with the Jets. I’m listening to WFAN and there’s one of the guys is saying, we got to keep, got to keep him. Because even though he’s no longer a Hall of Famer, obviously he’s still a good quarterback in some of the games. On the other hand, Aaron Glenn probably wants to start anew. He wants to start brand new and not somebody 41 years of age. So if Art, if they can get any quarterback and you know, who knows who it might be, is that a better choice for Aaron Glenn, or is Aaron Rodgers a better choice? Art, What do you think?
It all depends on who the defensive coordinator is, I mean, you know, Aaron Glenn is a defensive coach, much like Robert Salah was a defensive coach. So, I mean, you know I, if, I don’t think, I don’t think Aaron, Aaron Rodgers knows what he wants to do quite yet. I don’t think he knew what he wanted to do the last two years, to be perfectly honest with you, that’s just my personal opinion. And I’m not really sold on the fact that he is what he once was. So if I was Aaron Glenn, I would move on. I really would.
Laura, I know you’re a Raiders fan, but be a Jets fan here. What is the bet for the Jets? Aaron Rodgers with Aaron Glenn or a new quarterback with Aaron Glenn?
Yeah, you know, Aaron Rodgers obviously is a Hall of Fame quarterback. I mean, he was great quarterback all those years, he still has a lot of talent. You can see it sometimes, not all the time. I don’t think he had a very good supporting cast this year. Hard to know, I mean, I, I don’t, I don’t know that he knows, he sort of made comments about. Well, if the right opportunity comes up, I think, you know, I’ll still play, but maybe I won’t. You know, it’s kind of equivocal. I don’t know, I mean, who’s gonna be, who are the Jets, gonna get as a quarterback, that’s gonna be better. I don’t know, are you know,
Mark, Mark, let me ask you a question. Would if you’re a coach and you’re a grandfather, so it’s sort of the same thing? Would you want somebody with a big ego like Aaron Rodgers, telling you what to do, especially if you’re a new coach? Your thoughts?
Well, my wife has the show, sometimes the Housewives of Beverly Hills. And I kind of just walk out of the room. Because if I wanted drama, I’d sit there and watch it with her, but I don’t. But I think some of these teams, it’s, it’s almost like hiring somebody that doesn’t really want to work to run your business. And you find out after three months that he really didn’t want to work in the first ten minutes you hired him. So why don’t you go out and get guys that have proven track records that turn franchises around? That maybe can sit down with you and make extra money and pick a coach for you. I don’t know that,
But everybody, everybody became a head coach at one point from being an assistant coach.
Well. But if you look at the flagship or some of the marquee, like Artie brought up Blue Blood franchises, the Lakers picked up Pat Riley.
Let me ask you a question, Mark. Who’s a better defensive coordinator, Aaron Glenn or Steve Spagnuolo,
Steve Spagnuolo.
So is he being harmed by the fact that the Chiefs have had all this success? While all these teams are getting coaches and they can’t, they can’t wait to hire him. That is so screwed up, I’m so screwed up with the NFL. It drives me nuts.
How many of these guys get, get hired as a head coach and fall on their face, and then get hired to be back at defensive coordinators somewhere else in a different city? How many times have we seen that, Art?
It’s a revolving door. They all become friends. It’s, you know, the friends, the friends network, and that’s how it is. In the in the NFL, it always has been that way. But here’s what bothers me, you guys, alright? Dallas is thinking about hiring Brian Schottenheimer. Now Brian’s a wonderful guy, I’ve met him, he’s a gentleman. He didn’t even call plays as the coordinator for Dallas last year and they’re gonna give him the job. And you got guys like Ron Rivera. You got guys out there that are really good coaches,
Ron Rivera?
Yeah, he’s considered one of the people that are,
Ron Rivera killed Washington.
But Art? If you’re Jerry Jones, don’t you want to have total control and wouldn’t you have more control?
What’s that done for you for the last 25 years, Fred, that total control? How’s that done for ya?
Laura, your comments about the Dallas Cowboys, because obviously they are America’s team, haha.
They are not America’s team.
Fred, some teams live off tradition.
They were America’s team when they had Roger “The Dodger” Staubach!
No, I mean, Laura, the, the question would be, do you hire somebody like Brian Schottenheimer, who is, as Artie says, has not done a lot but he won’t bother you? Or somebody who has been a head coach and might have a bigger ego, who would you hire? Laura Snoke?
I just, you know it. It seems to me that, but that the decision ought to be made on the basis of how is, how, what is best to ensure the team have a victorious season.
Amen.
And if everybody is all caught up in this ego and they don’t, they don’t want anybody there that’s gonna make waves, or they’re gonna tell them what to do. You know that that seems to me just a losing proposition. To me, if I were the GM or the owner, I would want to put together a team that I felt could be the best team and the best coaching staff to win the Super Bowl. I mean, that should be the goal of every NFL team.
Well, I think, you know,
I think George, I think Jerry Jones’s ego gets in the way of that.
Well, I think,
I agree 100 percent.
Well, I think, yeah, I think what you have here is you have either billionaire, billionaire, billionaire owners that got so much money, they want to call the shots and play GM and coach. Or they hire puppets to try to turn their organization around. Because these guys ain’t gonna get the Pat Riley’s and the Urban Meyers. They don’t want to pay that kind of money to turn these guys in. We saw that with the Dodgers prior to them winning. They could have went out and got a Bruce Bochy in here to turn it around.
Oh, during the, the “Parking Lot Guy” era, when they didn’t spend any money?
No, Bruce Bochy, he’s the great, great, who has a proven track record.
By the way, The Parking Lot Guy is going with Mr. Wonderful to try to buy TikTok. So how much money does he make on parking at Dodger Stadium?
Are you serious?
What is it now? Is it $40?
Are you serious?
Is it $40 to park at Dodger Stadium?
Yeah, they’re together, going together to try to buy TikTok. Now President Trump, he wants to, to make the, the United States gets half of the profit on that deal for the government. I’m like, wait a minute. This is a little bizarre. You got Mr. Wonderful and the parking lot attendant, Fred, and you said things are a little wild and wacky right now?
They’re unbelievable. We’re gonna take a quick break and come back for more Fred and the Fantastics right after this.
Hey, we’re back on Fred and the Fantastics, on PodClips, on BLEAV. And we’re heard around the world, anything and everything in sports. And I’m big on television, television, television, sports television. As a kid, my uncle and myself went on the roof. We put a high-gain antenna from Culver City, California, so we could get the Ram games from San Diego or from Santa Barbara, as the case might be, and so we had a good time with that. But now, of course, we’re not talking linear, we’re talking digital, we’re talking, websites, DirecTV and other companies Comcast, and Comcast, and DirectTV. Now gonna offer package of just sports and some of the local channels, but not all the local channels, not CBS locally. Between $45, and I think, $70, but you get most of the sports and that’s what you get. You don’t get any of the movies. I’m paying $275 bucks. I know Art’s paying similar dough in Pennsylvania. Art, would you spend to save $200 bucks? Would you get some of the local channels and all the sports and save $200 bucks?
I think the future, I think the future is not linear TV, I think the future is streaming television. I will tell you this, this is a big problem in sports right now. PGA Tours’ down 40% in their ratings. The College football playoff. As great a game as it was. Notre Dame in Ohio State, Ohio State winning. They lost 3 million fans on their Monday night telecast. You know, I just I’m questioning whether sports, and everybody keeps talking about sports and live news being the key. I mean, I was listening to people on CNBC this morning talking about it. But I have to question, you know, how much money is there out there, you know, in the in the in the the marketplace with the price is rising. I mean, gosh, it’s. It’s hard to afford to be able to go to the game. You guys. Laura I mean, you know, you go to a lot of Dodger games. It’s not cheap, is it?
No. It’s not cheap, not to mention it takes two and a half hours to get there.
Laura. Would you change from what, what, what do you? What system do you have? DirecTV?
No, I have, I, I’m a. Let me just say this, if you’re gonna pay for a sports channel, whatever it is or it’s, it ought to give you something that you don’t get otherwise. And, and I have to say, I will make a plug here for ESPN plus, watching the Australian Open, it was fabulous. First of all, you could watch any game you wanted from beginning to end without having to worry about recording it and making sure that you meant, you know, you had all the time. They, the broadcast, the broadcasts of the, of the games that were the matches that were not on the regular ESPN broadcasts were fabulous. They didn’t have all this mindless chatter that the McEnroe brothers do, and like, they’re, you know, I’m stream of consciousness old stoners.
See, I like to listen to Cliff Drysdale and he gets to do the, the tennis from Australia on ESPN Plus. I really enjoy listening to his commentantary.
I love the ESPN Plus broadcast. So, you know, there, there was a benefit to having that subscription, just to pay extra to get the games. Where it’s basically the same feed and the same ads and the same BS, you know, but it, I think Art’s right. The future is in streaming. I said this before. I think we’re gonna end up with the way it was when we were kids, where we had like three stations and the PBS station.
Yeah,
And everything else.
Yeah, okay, hey, hang on Laura and Art, Mark. Maybe one of you three can answer this. Can you record something streaming? Tell me how, tell me how.
But it stays there, you don’t have to record it.
But what if you weren’t home and you wanted us to watch it later?
Well, it doesn’t,
They’ll come up with that technology.
It depends on the service. First of all, with ESPN, you could watch the game from the beginning, you can watch the match from the beginning. Um, I think with YouTube for the Sunday Ticket, you could also. If you wanted to watch a football game, you can watch it from the beginning, or you can get highlights, or you can just, so you don’t really,
You brought up a great point there, and go ahead and talk about it Mark.
No, I said, I don’t like to contribute to inflation. You’re talking about parking prices that I’m not paying parking. We’ll park outside at the Police Academy, walk in with our meatball hoagies and sit in the expensive seats till they kick us out to go to the cheap seats. As I said, and that’s the first thing, the other thing is I don’t pay for this, the, you know, these MLB networks. Yeah, I, I got the audio, $3.99 a month, I can hear all the ballgames, I can listen to my Pirates on the audio, that, you know, $3.99 a month.
See, I do the same thing on SiriusXM. I like baseball on the radio, you guys. I always have.
I’m not a cheap guy. But I’m not gonna contribute to these $300 jerseys and all that, or $50.
I will say this,
By the way, there’s Thursday of this week, Sandy and I usually go Thursday to the market. Eggs are up 27%, yeah, at the local Ralph’s.
I paid $7 for eggs here.
It’s because of bird flu. You know, how many hens have been killed across the country? I mean, thousands, tens of thousands.
That’s bad news for us roosters. So look in the background there. Look who’s behind you, your biggest fan? I see a little black kitty back there.
Oh, is that my cat? Oh.
So we have wildfires, we have bird flu, we have freezing temperatures in the south, and we have a bit of a problem at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
With the fires, Trump is out there today.
Folks, you can email us at sportsfred@aol.com.
All right, you guys, who do you guys like in the games this weekend? Come on, Redskins.
I like, I like, I like Kansas City.
Did the cat get Laura? Oh, there she is, God. I thought the cat got her.
I like Kansas City
I had to let my cat out.
I like Kansas City to win two consecutive games and their third consecutive Super Bowl. Laura, one more time, Who do you like?
Buffalo.
To win the whole thing.
I think Buffalo, and I, I don’t necessarily like it, but I think it’s gonna be the Eagles.
So who wins the whole thing, though?
Who wins the whole thing? It sort of depends on the matchups.
Well, we’re presuming, I’m saying, Kansas City is gonna win the whole thing. Who do you think is going to win the whole thing?
Buffalo. Even though they continue to break our hearts,
Mark,
They have been so close,
Mark, who is going to win the whole thing?
You guys will all be believers after Washington takes out the city of Brotherly Love this weekend.
So who wins the whole thing? Mark?
Uh, gonna be hard, but I as much as I like to see Washington, I think Josh Allen and Buffalo are gonna win this whole thing for the Bills mafia.
All right, so you two think Buffalo and I think, Art and I think Kansas City. Art, correct?
Yeah, Kansas City’s gonna win by 10 Sunday, and I believe,
Oh my gosh.
And Kansas City’s gonna win by three Sunday and the Eagles are gonna win by 10 on Sunday.
And then I think, Kansas City will win the Super Bowl,
How many spam calls are you gonna get in that game too?
As many as I need.
Hey, before we go, Mark wants to talk about what’s happening with the Miami Heat and fifty-million-dollar guy Jimmy Butler. Mark. Make your story. Tell the folks what you think.
Well, according to Stephen A. Smith, he says a guy like Pat Riley needs to adapt. LeBron James got out of town. Jimmy Butler wants out of town, Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard wanted no part of Miami. I think Stephen A. might have to reassess this. LeBron wanted to get rid of Erik Spoelstra. And the guy’s been around 19 years, they’ve had three decades of efficiency that’s worked in Miami, and Pat Riley’s been a winner wherever he’s been. If John Starks hit his shots in New York, he would have won in three cities. So I don’t know he’s got a statue coming to Crypto,
But hang on, but hang on. Jimmy Butler makes 49 million dollars a year, I think. Who would want him?
I don’t know, he’s been out of three cities already, maybe we should shop him around the whole league.
No, I’m asking you. Do you think another team would touch him?
Lakers, maybe?
Why? Do you think J.J. Reddick would touch Jimmy Butler?
I’m not seeing J. I like J.J. Reddick a lot, but you never know if LeBron James or one of those guys get their way. They bring in Jimmy Butler.
Laura, would you want
Can I ask you guys a question?
OK Art, go ahead.
He’s going west,
I just I’m not a big Jimmy Butler fan. I think, you know, 10 years ago, yeah, he was unbelievable. He was, you know, you know, the cat’s meow, or whatever you want to call it. But right now, I don’t see anything special about Jimmy Butler. He reminds me of James Harden, to be perfectly blunt.
Well, Laura, would you want to touch Jimmy Butler if you’re another team?
Gee, I don’t know, he’s such a malcontent, I don’t know what he brings to the, you know, I don’t understand, I don’t understand the whole thing. What? What is he so upset about? I don’t get it. I mean, he’s making what, 50 million a year?
Miami’s a pretty nice place to play, yeah.
Well, here’s the thing. I think Laura, and I think Fred and Artie, and I’m kind on that wave, too. That the NBA has ticked off a lot of people as far as the way they’re running it to a certain extent. I know you’re a big fan of it and I’m a big Bucs fan, but, I mean, I don’t know what’s going on. But it just seems like there’s so many more malcontents in this sport than there are in the other three.
We could all be in Paris now watching Wembanyama!
Art. Final comment on Fred and the Fantastics.
Well, I’m, I’m real excited about the weekend. Obviously. I heard that the Tiger Woods Genesis Invitational is gonna be moving down to Torrey Pines. I also heard that Petey Carroll is going to be coaching the Las Vegas Raiders. I’m excited about that, I’m also excited about the fact that Patrick Mahomes is 16-3 in the playoffs. Leave it at that.
Laura, final comments.
I’m excited about watching the Games, I’m excited about the Australian Open Final. It should be really interesting between Sinner and Zverev. I felt, I really, I’m a big Djokovic fan. It was kind of sad that he got injured because that was starting to be a really great match. And I’m excited about watching the football games on Sunday. I am also very excited about Pete Carroll and what he’s gonna bring to the Raiders. So, we’ll see.
Mark. Final comments. The Penguins to take out Seattle tomorrow, the Bucs to take out the Clippers, Washington to take Philadelphia. And to be back here next week and talk about all those three things, including Willie Stargell, who has two shots on Dodger Stadium.
My final comments would be the following. On Tuesday of this week, UCLA bested Wisconsin 85 to 83. They had an eight-point lead with two minutes to go and Mick Cronin, of course, found a way almost to lose that one, too. After the game, he mentioned that Big Mara, Aday Mara from Spain, sophomore seven-three guy, showed how smart Cronin was. Nobody can tell me that anybody can make Cronin look smart as a basketball coach. He might be good in math, he might be good at something else, but as a basketball coach, he stinks and I don’t care.
That’s a fantastic take, Fred.
I don’t care what I, what anybody says. And the newspapers here locally really don’t go after him hard enough for his squealing, his horrible standing up and screaming on the sideline. It’s like, shut the blank up, you fool. And, of course, the Big Ten’s too tough for UCLA, too tough for Cronin. And that’s the thing I care about the most outside of the Dodgers. So anyways, that’s it for Fred and the Fantastics for Laura, for Mark, for Art, for Mario. Thank you very much and stay tuned for more down the road of Fred and the Fantastics. Bye, everybody.