Hey everybody, it’s that time. Fred and the Fantastics. Tonight, Fantastic. Laura Snoke, former attorney and a friend of mine since college a long, long time ago. And anything and everything in sports, we will discuss right here on Fred and the Fantastics. And Laura – so much to talk about. To me, of course, the NFL draft coming up next week. A white man can jump, a Cooper Flagg from Duke. Will he leave and take a pay cut to go to the NBA, things like that? Will the Dodgers win the National League West, the toughest division, I think, right now in baseball? Will Jim Nance return to CBS? A lot of people think he won’t, will not, although I think I always thought Jim Nance was very, very good. Will Aaron Rodgers find a place to play? Would you touch Aaron Rodgers?

I’m not sure I would, I mean, I think he’d be a great, I think he’d be a great backup because he has a lot to teach, if he were able to fit into that role, but he’s never really done that. I mean, even when he had an opportunity to teach Jordan Love, he just didn’t, he didn’t do it. He was more jealous than anything, or angry with management for even bringing his successor in. So I don’t, unless you’re a team that really needed, like a Bridge quarterback, and they thought that he could play for a year, maybe. I don’t know. We’ll see what the proof is in the pudding, right? Because nobody’s picked him up yet. I just want to say one thing, too. It’s good to have Fred back for Fred and the Fantastics.

Well, folks, I had a slight injury, I broke my hip. Never break your hip. A couple of weeks in the hospital, a couple of weeks in the rehab, and then I come back for four days. And I fell again, fainted, and had to go back for a day or two. And it didn’t break the second time, but it was still a very, very scary situation. And thank you Laura for mentioning that. Missed the show, and hopefully Art will join us next week right here on Fred and the Fantastics, on BLEAV, and on PodClips. Aaron Rodgers will never accept the backup role, so it’s got to be a team. With Derek Carr going down in New Orleans, there’s some question if he’s going to be able to play at all this year with the Saints. So maybe New Orleans. They had talked about Pittsburgh before, but maybe Aaron Rodgers and his agent, whoever that might be, are negotiating too hard for the Steelers, who, of course, lost both veteran quarterbacks, one to the Giants and one to the Jets. So I don’t think he’ll ever play backup. So he’s going to have to be guaranteed that starting role and $30 or $40 million. And just my comment about that. Cooper Flagg. White men can jump. Woody Harrelson, I’m sorry you’re not the only white man who can jump. That’s one of my favorite sports movies of all time. But Cooper Flagg for Duke. They didn’t win it. But the part of the tournament that I watched the most closely was Cooper Flagg. Your comments?

Oh yeah, I watched. I watched every game Duke played because I was born at Duke, so I have a soft spot in my heart for Duke, always rooted for Duke. Unless they played against UCLA, of course. I don’t know I was thinking, as you were mentioning it, whether he actually is going to declare for the draft. Because he might want to try to win a championship, and since he would be taking a pay cut. He might decide to play another year. But if you had to ask me, if I had to make a bet, I’d say he’s going to declare. Because he’s got so much potential, he’s such an incredibly talented player and has poise for being so young, he’s barely 18.

But he would surprise the world. But everything he does seems on the positive, so a lot of people would think that’s positive, that he’s staying at Duke to give himself a second chance to win the whole thing. So I’d love it if he’d stay.

I’d love it if he’d stay too.

You know, it would be, you know, fantastic. Already, the other forward has decided to jump to the NBA. He’s going to be a top-five, or six, or seven player in the upcoming in June NBA draft. So we don’t know about that. So let’s go back to the football thing again. If you were HBO, which club would you pick to do the offseason heading into this season? Hard knocks. Which team would you pick, Laura, to choose? The most interesting right now? And of course, the draft is next week, so this could change things very quickly. But just off the cuff, which team would you like to see there besides the Rams?

Well, I’m biased, so I’m going to say the Raiders. Admittedly a biased choice. But I think there is a little bit of intrigue in the Raiders with getting Pete Carroll, just, I think, with Tom Brady’s influence. We’ll see, you know, Geno Smith, you know, we’ll see what happens with the Raiders. It should be. It can be an interesting year, but then Raider Nation, we say that every year, so who knows?

No, it definitely should be, and as far as the Rams are concerned, I just threw the name out there because of the loss of Cooper Kupp. I don’t know why I let him go. I mean, he didn’t have a great year last year, he was injured part of it, but I still think he’s going to do wonders for Seattle. I think he’s still one of the top receivers in this league. And sometimes you, you know, think it out too much, and maybe you’re not thinking at all. And I’m talking about the LA Rams. Your comments.

Yeah, great, I don’t know why they let him go either. I mean, he played so great in the Super Bowl, what two years ago?

Yeah. And it’s all about money, I guess, you know, at this point, but we’ll see. I mean, I was hoping maybe the Raiders would grab him, you know?

I agree, but, you know, I think, honestly, the Raiders would be a good pick as far as Hard Knocks is concerned. We’re going to take a break and come back with a little bit more on BLEAV and PodClips. Fred and the Fantastics, right after this.

Hey folks, we’re back on Fred and the Fantastics, on PodClips and BLEAV, and we’re talking this, that, and anything in sports. With the one and the only Laura Snoke who indicated 70. 70? You look like you’re, you know, in your 40s or 50s. You’re much older than me. I’m 39, I don’t quite understand. Any comments?

Well, it’s all about clean living.

I’m going to have a heart attack right here on BLEAV and PodClips. All right, let’s talk baseball. The Giants, playing better than I ever thought they would. Bob Melvin has his team. I’ve watched a lot of their games the first couple weeks of the season. They’re taking the extra base. You’ve got Yastrzemski. Every time I turn it on, he’s hitting a home run to right center field and it’s awfully tough at Oracle to do that. I really like their announcers in Kuiper and Krukow, I think they’re very good. Krukow does not travel, so it’s not quite as good when they’re on the road. But what do you think about the Giants? I think they’ve surprised everybody the first few weeks of the season, but what do you think?

Well, my sister and brother-in-law were big Giants fans. My sister passed away last year. But I have to tell you, I think that there are no worse baseball fans in the world than San Francisco Giants fans.

Why?

They act like they’re going to the opera when they’re going to a baseball game. We went to a game up there and were actually yelled at for standing up. Getting back to the team, being a Dodger fan, not a Giants fan, for sure, forever, but you know, we’ll see. I think the Dodgers are going to win the NL West, I think it’s going to be between the Dodgers and the Padres, really.

Well, again, they’re almost impossible to beat at home. But, you know, in our Sports Overnight America Show, you indicated you’re not a big fan of Max Muncy. I’m going to set the total number of errors for Max Muncy if he continues to start at 25. Over or under?

I want to say over. Well, you know, he’s really a first baseman, he’s really not a third baseman. And of course, Freddie Freeman is going to be, he’s a Gold-Glover winner, so he would be their first baseman, but he doesn’t really have the range. He doesn’t have the arm, he doesn’t have the mobility. I watched that play where Mookie backhanded a ground ball that Muncy should have gotten. I mean, it’s just, you know, Mookie went all the way over from short to back up Muncy and ended up making the play. It just, I don’t know. And plus, he does draw walks, I mean, that is a benefit. He has hit home runs in the past, plus he can’t hit. You know, he’s not a very good hitter.

I think he’s leading the world now, in no joke, leading the baseball world in striking out.

I mean, he strikes out. Every time he comes up, I say he’s going to strike out. I don’t know why Roberts puts him in the order so high. You know, I never understood why he was batting clean-up. I was like, why? I mean, why is he batting clean-up? Anyway? I’m not a fan, I know people don’t always agree with that. But I’ve never been a fan. So we’ll see. I mean, I think that one thing that surprises me about the Dodgers so far this season is their defense. I mean, they had pretty good defense last year, and this year, their defense. If you take away Edman, who’s just been phenomenal. I mean, their defense has not been that great. I mean, Muncy has had a lot of errors. There are errors in the outfield that are not, which is another beef I have with the scorers because they never count errors in the outfield. I mean, rarely is there ever an error called in the outfield. And the last game the Dodgers played Páez, the ball flew out of his glove. I mean, that’s an error to me. I mean, it was a single, I get it, but you know, it shouldn’t have been a double. And it shouldn’t have been a run score, and you know, if I were scoring that, I would have scored it a single. An error with the runner that was on third rather than home, and you know, who knows what would have happened? I mean, it didn’t affect the game, as it turned out. But it could have. And you know, there’s a lot, don’t you think? I think there’s a lot of balls that the outfielders should catch, that they miss and they score them hits. And I think they should score them errors.

No, I agree, but I think part of it is sometimes the game is, the field is so windy that you’re like a little bit off balance. So I think the scorekeeper is giving the outfielders a little bit of room here.

They don’t give the infielders any slack, they don’t have any problem calling errors on infielders and situations where sometimes I think they shouldn’t, you know? I mean, you’ve got a ball coming 110 miles an hour, you bobble it. It’s an error. I mean, maybe not, you know, every time. I don’t know.

All right, before we go, the Mets. New York Mets’ Juan Soto is hitting the low .200s. And I think he’s had two home runs all season long. If you’re the Mets and you gave him 700 million, would you be worried or do you think he’ll turn it on?

It’s long, it’s early in the season. I think he’ll turn it around, but I think, you know, I mean, baseball is such a psychological game. And it doesn’t take a lot to throw a player off. And I wonder, you know, if there’s a little chemistry issue there or something that’s going on, you know? Soto’s never been one of my favorite players, you know? Even when he was at San Diego, I always thought, well, the whole team isn’t one of my favorite teams, of course, but yeah, I think he’ll turn it around, he’s just too talented not to turn it around. I haven’t heard that he’s injured or anything.

You know, he’s a very bad outfielder, so he has to turn it around at the plate or the Mets are really indeed in trouble. So, Laura. Final comments on Fred and the Fantastics, on BLEAV and PodClips.

I’m just looking forward to the NBA playoffs, I’m looking forward to my Lakers going far in the playoffs. I think experience is going to matter. I don’t see Oklahoma City coming out of the West being the top team, even though they are the top team going in. I think the Eastern Conference is really interesting. We’ll see where that Cleveland and Boston matchup ends up if it ends up in the conference finals. Happy Easter to everybody who celebrates Easter out there, and Happy Passover to those of us who are still celebrating Passover.

Laura, stay well. Mario, thank you very much and we’ll see you around the corner on Fred and the Fantastics on BLEAV and on PodClips. Bye, everybody