Hey, it’s that time again, folks. Fred and the Fantastics on BLEAV and on PodClips, Art, Laura, and Mark, and yours truly. And you can email us at [email protected], [email protected]. We will definitely discuss this, that, and anything in sports. All right, it’s Monday afternoon, Friday afternoon, it’s 1 o’clock. Trading deadline is Monday, a couple days straight away. Yay or nay, Art Sorce? Will the Dodgers spend millions and draft picks and minor league stars for a few starts of Tarik Skubal, yes or no?

In that process? And, you know, I think with Mark Walter having a bunch of financial problems, Blake Snell coming back, they’ve got a couple of pitchers coming off the injured list. I know Diaz is looking like he’s coming back. You know, the Dodgers still have a ton of good players, and I’m not so sure they need him. I mean, they will probably go after him somehow, but I don’t think they need to. I mean, the way they’re set up in that division as we head into August tomorrow, you know, you’ve got 55 games left, I think they’ve got a 13 and a half game lead. Shouldn’t they just worry about keeping everybody healthy and, you know, rolling along?

Laura, you’re a long-term Dodger fan. What do you think?

Well, I think the chances are greater. When I heard that Tarik Skubal said that’s where he wants to go. They asked him where he wants to play. If he wants to sign a multi-year deal, that’s a different level of fear. But he wants to play for the Dodgers. That’s what he said.

Yeah.

So, I’m not really worried about Mark Walter and his financial problem. He probably made some deal with, you know, the boss, and that’s not going to be easy. The boss pitched with him in Washington, D.C. That’s why they really went there. So, I think that, I think they’ll go after him. I think he wants to play here. And so, we’ll see. You know, I agree with Art. I don’t think they need him necessarily. But with Ohtani injured, as far as pitching goes, you know, and they really want to win this third-in-a-row World Series, you know, why would they turn him down? I mean, if he wants to play there, they’ve got the money, you know? So, I think I’d bet on it, if I were a betting person, that that’s going to happen.

Mark, your Pirates cannot afford Tarik Skubal. Who are they going to go after?

Well, Mason Miller’s on their radar. They need another bat, and they need to solidify the relief, because they’ve blown,

They need a closer. They do need a closer. Although Montgomery,

Yeah.

Montgomery has looked good the last few nights out, I must say.

Yeah, they’ve blown 19 games this year. So, if they won half of them? But the last time the Dodgers dealt with Detroit, let me refresh the memory. It was Eduardo Rodriguez, who said he wanted no part of Los Angeles. And then was dealt to Arizona, where he’s now 10-3, and he’s beat the Pirates twice. So, we’ll find out if Skubal definitely goes to Detroit. But Eduardo Rodriguez was the last guy that the Dodgers were trying to target a couple years ago, and he didn’t want no part of LA. Remember that one?

Laura, let me ask you a question. How is this possible? Eric Lauer doesn’t throw harder than I do. The Dodgers, when he started, they’re 9-0. He’s 5-0, and the team is 9-0. How is that possible, Laura?

Well, I think it’s not; baseball is tricky. It’s not just how hard you throw. If you throw a 100-mile-an-hour fastball down the center of the plate, most big league kids will hit that, if they’re looking for it. He’s very wily. He hits the corners. He gets a lot of minimal contact. He doesn’t strike out a lot of batters. He’s a good pitcher. I mean, he’s not a Cy Young Award pitcher, but he’s a good pitcher.

Let me ask you something.

It reminds me of Louis Tian in the old days. And Louis, you know, he’s the only guy that could ever take a shower after the game and not get his cigar wet. You know that, right? It was incredible.

Well, let me ask you, Artie. You played the game. What’s more dangerous, a team that cruises through the division and then has to kind of, you know, keep it up the last month and a half, or these six teams that are dangerous as hell in the wild card?

Playing for their lives on a daily basis, developing that great chemistry we all talk about, I agree with you a hundred percent. And I’m going to tell you, you know, Milwaukee is a hell of a ball club. The Cubs, with Pete Crow-Armstrong, another good ball club, solid ball club. And then you look at Atlanta, and you go, wow, Atlanta has got a lot of talent. So it’s not a given that the Dodgers have got to maintain that edge, whatever that edge is.

It’s not a given, for sure. I mean, but I don’t think the Dodgers, other than before the All-Star break, when they lost, I think they lost three in a row or something, they haven’t lost a series since the All-Star. Break. I mean, they’re not, they’re kind of coasting, but they’re not really coasting. You know, Roberts,

Can I ask you a question, Laura? Have you heard what’s going on with my catcher? I mean, I love him. I think he’s the best catcher in baseball, and I like Dalton Rushing and everything, but what’s going on? Is it his shoulder?

No, it’s a neck injury, but he’s apparently making, he’s apparently doing baseball moves. So he might be coming back.

A neck, that’s like a lower back.

How about the guy that got hit by a foul ball by Rafael Devers in San Francisco, and it went right off his head? A fan. Did you see that the other day? He tried to catch it, and it hit him right in the head.

The old Jose Canseco?

Do you know what scares me more than anything going to the games is if a ball comes my way? So here’s what I do. When I sit down, I look around and I see who’s around me and I look for the big guys, and I say, You guys are going to be the designated ball catchers.

You’re protecting me.

So if a ball comes this way, I’m ducking, and you guys are going to catch it. And they love it. They’re like, Oh, great. Yeah, we’ll take the ball.

That’s fantastic.

Thankfully,

I remember when I did. Go ahead, Fred.

I was going to say, thankfully, we have nets now around many of the seats. Go ahead, Art.

All over the field. Yeah, it’s fantastic. Hey, in the old days, when they first built Dedeaux Field, we would broadcast on KSBR, and we’d be right there behind the plate, and the foul fence only went up halfway because they built the press box above where the stadium was. And it would, just you’d get these line drives coming right back at the booth. And I mean, you had to have your game face on because those things would bounce off the back wall and catch you in the back of the head.

You know, I went to a Giants-Dodger game up in San Francisco at the new stadium, not at Candlestick. I think it was about maybe eight or nine years ago. And we had seats, I think, in the second row, right opposite third base. And there wasn’t a net. And it was scary. I mean, you know, we’re right there. I mean, if there was a fly ball and it doesn’t, didn’t have a, there’s not, you know, that would have been hard hit. I mean, it could have been, but,

So I get a little question for you: the best looking uniform in the NFL this year?

Is?

Who do you think it is?

Who is it?

Nobody wants to take a shot? Number three, number three was the Raiders.

I love the Raiders’ uniforms.

Number one was the Chargers.

Eww.

A little baby blue,

They’re ugly.

With the highlighter yellow or whatever they use there?

Baby blue.

I do like the Rams’ throwback white jerseys.

Yeah.

All white uniforms with the navy blue. Those are cool.

I don’t like the new Rams’ uniforms, though.

Those are the Rams I remember. The first foursome. George Allen always licking his thumbs. He was like, getting ready. I love, those were the old Rams for the Coliseum. Those were great games.

As we go to a break, Justin Herbert’s getting married. Back with more right after this.

Welcome back, everybody. Fred the Fantastics. Art, Laura, Mark. And you can email us at [email protected], [email protected]. And we’ll talk about this, that, anything in sports. All right. Let’s talk about the National Football League, the San Francisco 49ers. Tebow’s coming back.

Yeah.

Well, and obviously with the addition of Mike Evans, that’s a pretty solid wide receiver crew. Mark, any thoughts about the 49ers and Brock Purdy and McCaffrey, who I don’t think – look, I think he’s slowing down. He won MVP four years ago, but I think he’s slowing down. Your thoughts.

I agree 100% with you. He’s not what he was three years ago, but who is? The other thing I was going to say is what a great division to play football in. You got the Rams. You got Seattle, the defending National Football League champions. You know, you’ve got the 49ers. You got a situation in San Francisco right now where the head coach got dinged up in a pretty bad car accident. And yet nobody knew about it for 10 days. Am I hearing that correctly? That’s pretty bizarre. My question, my question in the NFL is, as I look at it, are they going to go to 18 games? Are they going to go hide behind the shield and play it on Netflix and only leave pay-per-view choices? Or are we going to get back to making the fans, even if they might not be able to afford a ticket at $400 a rattle, maybe they can at least watch the games on CBS or ABC or ESPN, or wherever?

Laura, you have Netflix, but a lot of us do not. Your thoughts about a lot of the games, as Art just mentioned, leaving the regular networks and having to pay for them, streaming ones. Your comments, Laura?

Well, you know, I try not to stay in the past. And I think streaming is the future. There’s no question. So the issue has got to be not that we get away from streaming, because we’re not going to do that.

No.

But the issue has to be to make it more accessible. And what, you know, maybe the thing to do would be to have each game as, you know, an add-on. If you want to just watch that game, you know, have it à la carte. I don’t know, but as long,

$3.95 or something like that?

You know, as long as the people are paying for it. I mean, they’re doing the calculations. It’s capitalism, so they’re looking at profit and loss. And, you know, if they’re making money, they’re not going to, they don’t care. They’re making money on their Netflix.

Maybe Mom Donahue could do something in New York to help the people in New York by getting the games on.

Yeah.

How about this idea? At least show the games in the home markets on regular TV.

Yeah.

Yes. Like, if the Rams are playing on Apple, put them on Channel 13, or, you know what I mean? Yeah, exactly.

You know what?

That makes way too much logic.

We do have the Raider preseason games on our local Channel 5, I think.

You know, like Howard was saying,

Because the Raiders are really the L.A. home team. I mean, if you guys go to a Raider-Charger game, Charger fans, it’s like a quarter of the fans in the stadium are the Chargers.

You guys know, 20,000 people go from L.A. to Vegas for every Raider home game.

Well, here’s the thing. What I don’t understand,

20,000 people.

Big fan base here.

You know, like Howard was saying, he covered the Rams in St. Louis. I don’t know how these owners get to move teams out of cities. We saw the Raiders in Oakland. Then they went to Irwindale. They went to L.A., back to Oakland. Now they’re in Vegas.

Have you ever gone to San Antonio?

Yeah. How do you commit to a team that just carpetbags to every city there is in the U.S? I just don’t understand.

They are the Las Vegas Raiders now. They found Nirvana in the desert. They really did. I mean, do you realize how much money Mark Davis has made selling little portions of the team to Tom Brady, and to this guy, and to that guy? We’ve talked about the rule of the NFL, where if you’re a legacy owner, original family, all you have to own is 1%, and you maintain control over that franchise.

Well, the same thing with our great producer, Mario. I mean, you have the A’s that were with decades. Nobody’s won three in a row in a World Series like they do. They moved to Sacramento. Now they’re going to Vegas. I just don’t understand how the commissioner doesn’t support these guys.

They should go back to Philly.

Yeah. Stay in cities.

Let me throw this out before we go. AI scares the heck out of me. And I’ll tell you what I’m talking about.

Me too.

But this one, when I found this out, I called Sandy, my wife, and I said, you’re not going to believe this. When I was a little kid, I played for Blanco Park in Culver City, California. Okay. So I go to Google just for kicks. And I wrote in, Fred Wallin scores a touchdown for Blanco Park. This is 60 years ago now. Okay. Wait a minute. And it comes out with Fred Wallin swivel-hipped his way to two touchdowns as Blanco Park won a game. Now, Art, I don’t care what you’re saying.

Oh, you’re swivel-hipped? I’ve always thought you were a scat bag. Scat bag.

Now, tell me that. Would that scare you or not scare you?

You know what? Every time I go on the internet, Fred, honest to God, I read all these articles in sports. And half of the ones I look up are totally false. And that goes for a lot of stuff on the internet. So, I mean, there is so much clickbait out there, everybody. Be prepared to do your due diligence. I swear.

Watch your sources.

They’re going to say something about me.

Check out your sources. I came in late. You still have an option not to do the AI. You know, when you Google something, or you use your search engine, it’ll give you AI, the AI version. And you still have an option to get off the AI version and go to something.

Oh, really? I like that. I like that. I haven’t heard that. Because when I do Facebook stuff, and I’m typing in there, it’ll change the things I say to what they want me to say. It really drives me nuts.

How did they go back to a Culver City local newspaper 60 years ago? Do they have everything else?

Whatever.

Fred, you’re a superstar. Don’t worry about it.

Fred, I’ve got to get your signature on that newspaper so I can do like that Goodwill kid did and sold a Will Chamberlain thing for $89,000. When can I see you this weekend so you can sign my paper?

All right. For Mark, for Laura, for Art, for Mario. Thank you guys and gals for listening to Fred and the Fantastics. Please email us, [email protected], [email protected]. Back with more down the road. Bye, folks.