Hey everybody, it’s time again. Fred and the Fantastics, the fantastic Laura Snoke, Art Source, and Fred. You can email us at sportsfred@aol.com. Heard on BLEAV and PodClips, and, of course, we’ll discuss anything and everything in the wonderful and wacky world of sports. Laura, NBA playoffs so far, we’re taping this Friday afternoon, folks. Laura, any comments about the NBA playoffs, which apparently are getting good ratings? Not in my house, but they are getting good ratings. Laura your thoughts?

Well, I love NBA playoff basketball, I love it and I’ve been watching as much as I can. I think a lot of the games have been great, the Indiana-Cleveland series has been fantastic. I’m surprised, you know, that Cleveland has lost in the last seconds in two games. But I’m sorry about the Lakers going out in the first round. I think that was a disappointment, but I think the playoffs have been great.

What do you think about the Celtics? The Celtics and the Knicks. Did you see that Laura?

Yeah, the Celtics are down two-nothing.

Yeah, you know, I’m listening to WFAN in New York and they didn’t think the Knicks could do it even one game.

And even after they won the first game they were talking about. Now the Celtics will win the next four. And the Knicks, as we do this, are up two games to a zip as far as the Knicks and the Celtics.

Brunson’s been clutch.

I love the Knicks.

You know, he reminds me a little bit of a gentleman who just passed away lately. Dick Barnett with the feet-up jumper. Brunson reminds me a little bit of him as a left-handed catalyst.

OK, but you know, it’s interesting. In my house, I’ve got the Major League Baseball package. I’m watching a Major League Baseball game. Let’s say between Colorado and Detroit, which means nothing versus the NBA playoffs. Why might that be, Art? What do you think?

Well, you love those Tigers, that Tiger. The Tiger team is one of the best teams in baseball right now. I mean, they just,

I’m serious. I know the ratings are up.

I know you are, I know you are, but can I tell you something, Fred? Sometimes, at least for me, you know, I like to watch the last six, seven, eight minutes of an NBA game. For a while there I was down to two minutes, that’s how bad it was. But now, you know, playoff basketball, like Laura and I were talking about, they seem to have a little more tempo, there’s a little more excitement. I love listening to Charles and Shaq. Did you see Shaq take it down wrestling the other night? It was hilarious. I mean, he had Barkley on his back and Barkley’s kicking his leg up. I mean, oh my god, it was so funny. I thought Ernie Johnson Jr. was going to fall over along with Kenny, but it was fantastic. But I think the NBA ratings are up like 10-12 percent. I’m interested in the streaming versus linear, you know, I mean the Paramounts, and you know, the Netflixes, and what’s going to happen to sports on television? MLB TV network. You can get that on the internet now. I mean, you saw what happened, you know? There’s so many things going on in sports, it’s very interesting to see how it works out.

You know, it’s interesting. You mentioned, let me just say this. You mentioned that you can watch the NBA six or seven minutes, and now it’s getting a little bit better. There was 47 seconds, I believe, left between Cleveland and Indiana. Cleveland was up by four. I turned it off and I went to, like the fifth inning of a regular season baseball game. I swore to God. And then, of course, I didn’t know until after.

We really want to know how you feel about the NBA.

30 minutes, 30 minutes later, I found out that Indiana came, Indiana came back in the last-second jump shot and I didn’t watch it because I was watching the fifth inning of a baseball game.

I’ve been a closet Rick Carlisle fan for years, so I like to see Indiana play well and that was a great upset. I mean, they’re playing great basketball right now, so are the New York Knicks. And I’m going to tell you what, you don’t want to catch Oklahoma City on the wrong night. They’ll put some points on you, 145 points the other night. I was like,

You know what, I disagree with you, Fred. I love NBA basketball, I think there are some games, certainly during the season when they get to be a little tedious. But playoff basketball is great and I would watch any of the playoff games over the Detroit-Colorado game, you know, in a heartbeat.

Live from Coors Field.

Let me ask you a question, why don’t we go 10 out of 19 or 11 out of 21 in the NBA playoffs? Because they used to go two out of three, then three out of five, and then four out of seven, now they go every series is four out of seven, why don’t we just stretch it even more? Come on 10 out of 19.

It’s all about the Benjamins, Frederick.

Honestly, it drives me nuts again. It makes the regular season okay.

Did they have a league on Mars?

Yes, they did.

Okay, and was Sterling one of the owners of the teams up there?

Wonderful Donald Sterling? Yes, no question, you know, talking about that, since where you live, this is right on target. Daniel Snyder’s out, of course, with the former Redskins. And Josh Harris is in and he’s going to move the team closer back to his people. Your thoughts about that, Art?

Well, you know, I was amazed that Mayor Bowser in the city of Washington has the $1.3 billion to throw into that $4 billion project. But I think it’s great. I mean, what the Commanders accomplished last year with Jayden Daniels and the new front office, the new ownership. God, how long had it been, 22, 23 years since the Joe Gibbs era, where they, you know, they won three world titles? So, I mean, I’m all in on that.

I think that’s fantastic, you know? And I do like seeing the owner take, you know, probably 70% of the money to build the stadium. Because it’s only going to make his franchise if he owns the stadium. You know, up into that $10-12 billion specter, I mean, you got to think, what’s a team going to be worth four years from now? We’ve watched exponentially how they’ve increased in value. I mean, it’s ridiculous, almost to that point.

Laura, what about your Raiders as we head into the middle of May, now? What do you think about the Raiders heading into the season?

I’m always forever hopeful. Like everybody in Raider Nation,

I love the new running back, Jeanty, got to love Geno Smith. 11 draft picks. Fred and I said one of these kids, this kid named Grant. They got in the third round for William and Mary.

Wide receiver.

Yeah, he’s supposed to be something special. Well, we’ll see,

We shall see, we shall see.

But Pete Carroll gets the Kool-Aid going, he’s going to get the kids believing, they’re going to be working hard. He’s got a good staff, I think Spytek works well, plus you got Brady, Brady knows what he’s doing, and I think that, you know, less Mark Davis, more Brady, more Pete Carroll, more Spytek. I think that’ll help the franchise and Reggie Bush, of course. Hey, we’ll take a quick break right here on Fred and the Fantastics. Back with more,

Hey, back with more on Fred and the Fantastics with Laura, with Art, with Fred. And I want to talk about Houston today. All this week, I had a lot of articles on the future of horse racing after the Kentucky Derby.

Fred. Does it really have a future?

That’s the question. I don’t think so. The average age, depending on where you read, is somewhere between 55 and 60 for a horse racing fanatic, horse racing fan. Where in baseball, it’s 45, and in basketball it’s younger than that. So, Art? Is there a future for horse racing?

On a limited basis. Do you know that in the recently run Kentucky Derby that somewhere in the bloodlines of every one of those horses was Secretariat? That’s an incredible statistic if you think about it, but we’ve gone back and forth. I used to love the horse races. Too many bad things happened at Santa Anita in tracks around the country in the last five years. I think, you know, you might have the Triple Crown and maybe 12 other races leading up to it. But I don’t think you’re going to see the proliferation of horse racing like it was 10, 12, 20 years ago.

Laura, Sovereignty wins, Journalism is second, now Sovereignty is not going to run in the Preakness, so we can’t even get a Triple Crown race. I mean, with a horse winning the Triple Crown, Laura, your comments about the future of horse racing?

Well, if anybody’s heard me before, they know that I don’t support animal, I think it’s animal abuse. I think it’s going to go the way of, you know, the orcas in the Sea World. And dog racing and dog fighting and all the other quote-unquote sports where the athletes don’t have a choice to make about whether they want to participate. So I hope it does go by the wayside. I appreciate the beauty of the magnificent animals, but I just think it’s animal abuse and should be abolished. That’s my,

Watching the part of the Kentucky Derby, and again, I used to watch all four hours or five hours. I watched the last hour. And I was wondering why Mike Tirico wasn’t there and he had bowed out early because of a peanut allergy. Laura, any thoughts about, the guy that took over was fantastic, but Tirico, of course, I mean, was very, very sick. I mean, his allergies got to be very, very, they’re worrisome. There’s no question you could die from something like that. Art. What do you think about peanut allergies?

Well, I developed one when I was, like, in my late 50s. I used to love peanut butter and banana sandwiches on whole-grain bread. That was a staple for me, and just all of a sudden peanuts and certain shellfish. I mean, you have to really know. There was a great book written by a doctor named Adamo years ago about eating for your blood type. Certain kinds of food work with everything. So I really had to learn a lot about that, plus that was one of my minors in college, the study of aging, which is gerontology. I always thought it was fascinating, and now that I’m 137 years old.

I thought you were 127 years old? I got 10 years, you just aged 10 years.

Look at the gray hairs, look at them coming out.

Laura, do you have any allergies?

I’m allergic to sulfa, an antibiotic, but I don’t have any food allergies. I think that’s unusual to develop an allergy. Usually, they arise in childhood. But part of it, I think, some of the research has shown that people that have pets that grow up around animals, like kids that grow up on farms, have no allergies. It’s kind of interesting.

Your body becomes immune to it, yeah.

It’s sort of like the science behind vaccines. You get a little exposure and your body develops protection against what could be a pathogen. We always had animals growing up in my house, we had dogs and cats and chickens and I mean all kinds of stuff. Because my mother was a teacher, she always used to bring home little baby chicks. In those days, they just ran rampant all over the place. I don’t know maybe that’s an answer, but you’re right, they can be deadly, those allergies. It’s scary because you don’t really know what’s, even if you’re allergic, it’s hard to know if there’s, some things are manufactured in a factory. Or that there’s cross-contamination with a lot of nuts, especially that you wouldn’t think it would be.

It even says it on the can. Yeah, even though you’re eating almonds and you’re okay, there could be other nuts in the same machinery. Mike Tirico’s a pro, but I thought Ahmad, the kid that replaced him, I thought he did an excellent job. It’s a good call by you, Fred.

No, I agree,

I didn’t watch it, so I can’t comment.

Ahmad Farid, I believe, is his name.

It’s interesting you mentioned peanut butter and banana sandwich, those were my favorite growing up. I can’t eat them either, but not for that reason. Kidney stones. I cannot eat any nut. My favorite food on earth is peanut butter. I’ve been going now 15 years. After three times. With kidney stones, we have a list of things I can’t eat in the kitchen, and it’s like 20 deep because of kidney stones. It’s un-blanked-believable. All right Art. Final thoughts on Fred and the Fantastics.

I think the great thing that’s going to happen here is. I’m looking at the world of sports, I’m looking at the transfer portal, I’m looking at NIL. I’m seeing college football as an NFL subsidiary, basically, same thing for college basketball. I’m wondering where it’s going to end up. That’s one of the things I was thinking about. I’m enjoying May. May is fantastic because you know what’s coming? Summer. I love spring and I want to wish all the moms out there the very best Mom’s Day, too.

Laura Snoke, on a Friday afternoon, what are your final thoughts on Fred and the Fantastics?

Well, I’m really looking forward to continuing to watch the NBA playoffs, seeing if the Knicks can beat the Celtics, which would be quite amazing. Or did I get that right? Are the Knicks playing the Celtics?

Yeah! You know, darn well, they’re playing the Celtics.

And Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there and looking forward to. Hopefully. In Southern California, we’re having kind of a warm weekend, but it’s been really chilly and it’s supposed to get chilly again next week. So hopefully we will have a little bit of a respite until we get into our June gloom and May gray here in southern California.

All right for Laura, for Art, for Mario. Thank you, guys and gals, for listening to Fred and the Fantastics. Bye, everybody.