Hey, everybody. It’s that time again. Fred and the Fantastics on BLEAV and on PodClips. It’s Mark. It’s Laura. It’s Art. And yours truly, Fred. You can email us at [email protected], [email protected]. So much to talk about. USA Today this week, Sports Weekly, it actually came on time. Dodgers rated number one, the Angels rated last, number 30. Art, comment.

That sounds about perfect from the way I look at it. I think the Dodgers are 62 and 31, or some crazy number. They’re shooting at about .667. I’ll tell you, the team that’s really playing great and is a young ball club, the Miami Marlins, 26 and 8 since June 1st. And I’m telling you, Miami’s on fire right now. They’re tied with the Phillies, just behind the Braves. That’s going to be a heck of a three-team race. The other team that’s impressing the heck out of me, I don’t know how they do it every year, Fred, the Milwaukee Brewers and Pat Murphy. All they do is win baseball games. And, you know, you look up and down that line; yeah, they got Churio, yeah, they got a couple other good ballplayers. But fundamentally, they play the game the way the game was meant to be played. And I love the way they move runners up. I love the way they play, good, strong defense. What are your thoughts, you guys, on Major League Baseball right now?

Laura, can they make it three in a row? The Dodgers?

Well, I think they’re about two and a half games ahead of Milwaukee to have the best record in the majors. And they’ve got about a 15-game lead in the West,

Wow.

So they’re coming in for the rest of the season, pretty much, to get to the postseason. But, I mean, the Dodgers are clearly, if all their pitchers get healthy, I mean, two of their starting pitchers, their aces, have been on the IL all season, pretty much. So, you know, I don’t see any other team really catching the Dodgers this year. But you never know. I mean, injuries, you know, could happen.

Yeah. Blake Snell says he’s as healthy as he’s been in three years. He had that nano-needle process that Tarik Skubal had, where they take the loose bodies out of your elbow. And this is, you know, the technology now, Fred, is just absolutely amazing. But, I mean, you know, you’ve got the White Sox in the American League. But you know, what’s really fascinating, you guys? I looked at the American League hitting leaders. There’s only two American League batters batting over .300 this year.

I don’t know about that.

Yeah, the National League still has eight. But, I mean, for only two American League hitters, Yonder Diaz and Alvarez. And, by the way, Alvarez is on his way for not only a triple crown, but it could be a quadruple crown, if you include runs scored. I mean, he’s just playing out of his mind.

And guess who signed him originally?

You know what’s interesting here, guys?

The Dodgers.

The Dodgers.

Well, yeah, the Dodgers. But, you know, there’s two points I wanted to make. The Brewers have 10 guys in the top 100 in their minor leagues. With Miz, if they had Skubal, which they’re talking about, they would have Terang, Churio, Harrison, all these guys; the Brewers could go into the Dodgers’ backyard and give them a run. But the other thing is here, guys, nobody’s addressing it, but we’re kind of hearing the whispers that if they strike after the regular season, the owners are trying to gear up with minor leaguers. And nobody’s going to go to that. And then we’re hearing Congress might get involved in it and all this. I think if they do strike, they’re going to tear apart a great season that can get wiped out with the Dodgers not winning three World Series, you know, three national titles.

Hey, Mark, do you know who’s going to the White House on July 23rd to meet with the president?

Uh, I would imagine,

Well, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Without Kiké. Without Kiké.

They’re back here now.

I think there’s some players who don’t want to go.

There’s going to be 24 Dodgers. Only two are sitting out. What’s the other one other than Kiké?

I forget.

I think Freeman. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t think.

But I mean, realistically, I know we never want to, you know,

One hundred percent correct.

A lot of people don’t want to address the elephant; they don’t want to address the elephant in the room. But this is an elephant that’s about two and a half months away from getting bigger.

That’s true.

You keep saying during the regular season, though, Fred. I mean, Mark, how are you? Where are you hearing the regular season they’re going to strike?

Well, that’s the only way you’re going to bust the owners, you know, with playoffs and World Series. Why would you strike in December when the winners,

You’re going to hit him where it hurts in the wallet, huh?

Yeah.

Blake Snell makes $38 million. You think he’s going to blow it by going on strike? I don’t think so. Folks, you can email us, [email protected], [email protected]. All right. July 23rd, you’re saying they’re going to meet the guy in D.C.? You think 24 are really going to show up? Art?

That’s what everybody says. There’s only two players that are going to miss it. And Mookie Betts missed it the last time. And he was mad at himself because he realized that it was an opportunity, no matter who the president is, to see the White House, to be honored, and see one of the great traditions of sports, which is when you win a championship you go to the White House.

And get a Big Mac and some French fries.

I don’t know. It’s political, but,

I want to see that pool.

All right.

You’re going to eat the best food in the world, right?

Big Macs and French fries.

So Freeman’s not showing up. Freeman’s not showing up. Who’s the other player?

Kiké. Kiké Hernandez.

Oh, he’s on the IL. In 1988, the Dodgers win the World Series. I was asked to fly to meet Reagan with the club. I was doing Dodger talk. I turned it down.

Wow.

I would turn it down again. And Stu Nahan, I do believe, got a ring. I guess I would have gotten the ring, too. But I still would not have met Ronald Reagan, and compare Ronald Reagan to what we have right now,

Wait a minute. A sports talk host got a ring from the Dodgers?

I think so, yeah.

I mean, you did Dodger Talk on the radio every night after every game.

Yes.

If anybody deserved a ring, it would be you, Fred.

The players didn’t like me, including Steve Sacks. All right,

Wow. That’s bizarre.

When I listened to A’s radio,

Because you told the truth.

Steve Sacks is on there. He’s very good, actually, on the air. But he wasn’t very good to me, that’s all I can tell you. All right. Let’s talk about the All-Star game itself on Fox next week. But the point is, and this is a pretty big point. The Home Run Derby, which is the thing I like the most, is on Netflix. Laura and Art have the money for Netflix. Fred does not. I don’t think Mark’s paying for Netflix.

No.

Art, should it be on Netflix or should we have a chance to watch, in my mind, the most exciting part of the All-Star celebration? Art, what do you think?

You know, I just find this whole streaming-linear argument, I don’t think it should be on there. Matter of fact, I think it should be on ESPN with Chris Berman doing the back, back, back, back, back, having a great time. Even when he and Piazza used to do it, it was awesome. That’s what I would do. I’d throw ESPN a bone, get it out there, get as many people to watch it as possible. That’s just my personal opinion. I just don’t want to pay for things anymore. I’m getting tired of getting nickeled and dimed by every streaming service there is, ESPN Plus, ESPN up my, you know what? It’s like, I’m tired of it. I really am. I just, I don’t want to go back to the days where I could put on, you know? Buy my TV guide at the store on Friday night, open it up, see my Major League game of the week, my college football games. It’s just too much. It’s too many networks. You can’t keep track of where any game is or what’s going on. The only thing I like about the World Cup is it’s on Fox Sports, and it’s on every day at pretty much the same two times.

All right, let’s take a break and come back with a lot more. Fred in the Fantastics with Art, with Laura, with Mark, and with you.

And get off my Lawn.

You can email us, [email protected], [email protected]. Back right after this.

Hey, we’re back on Fred in the Fantastics on BLEAV and on PodClips. Art, to answer these questions, and again, we’re taping this at one o’clock Friday afternoon, folks. Art, you take Prevagen, and does it help you a little bit? Art, does it help you, Prevagen?

Absolutely, Fred. Hello? Hello? Is anybody out there? Yes, it does help you, Fred. And the professional, the new professional formula? Yeah, right. The professional formula. What were we talking about again? No, Prevagen is the great stuff. It’s fantastic. Supposedly, they go through a lot of jellyfish to get it to do its thing, but it does work. And I tell anybody that has any problems as you get a little older, you know, and you walk up to that bedroom and be on the second floor and you go, what did I come up here for? This will help you, believe me.

All right. We are two months away from, believe it or not, the National Football League. Art, are you excited? How excited are you?

I’m so excited, Fred. I even got my new football magazine today.

Wow.

I got Lindy’s on the way, and I got my pro football magazine. I got my college football magazines. And, of course, it still says Sorsby’s going to play quarterback for Texas Tech. Because, you know, they had to probably print the damn thing in April or whatever. But I’m excited for football. The Rams are plus 550, five and a half to one. And then you go all the way to Seattle, who’s 15 to one, who I think is a great potential pick. I mean, I don’t know who does these odds in Vegas, Fred, but it’s the Rams, then the Ravens at 10 to one, Buffalo at 10 to one, Seattle at 11 to one, the Chiefs 15 to one, the Lions 17 to one, the Chargers and Eagles are 17 to one. And here’s a sneaky one. The 49ers, who I think are a good football team with the pickup of Evans, 20 to one to win it all.

Hey, I wanted to bring something up. So the Bills are moving into a new stadium, and they’re not acknowledging O.J. Simpson at all.

No way possible are they acknowledging him.

I’m saying, oh, wow. I mean, they just kind of wiped him off the map there.

A lot of people in Buffalo were upset about this as well, because what he did for Buffalo, I’m not going to condone anything else. I did know O.J. very, very well. I taught him how to play golf. He had a wicked slice, and I’ve said that before. But the point I’m going to make is, the point I’m going to make is, he had one of the great seasons of all time. And to basically, you know, X somebody out, I don’t know. It’s a tough, tough dilemma. But, you know.

Let me tell you something. You know that I collected baseball cards as a kid, and I have an O.J. Simpson one. And for what he did on the field, the card is worth bupkis. It’s worth not a lot. And it’s because of, obviously, his murders. I mean, it’s not worth, if that hadn’t happened, the card would be worth five times or ten times what you can get. I’m not talking about me; I’m talking about anybody. Go to any get-together of collector people. You’ll see that a similar running back would be worth a lot more money, his card, than O.J. Simpson. So, Art, I think the world has spoken. I mean, it’s not just Buffalo,

Yeah.

The world knows O.J. for what he was.

I mean, is he looked at,

Fred. Let me ask you a question. We were talking off the air the other day about, you know, the great collection of cards that you used to have, an even a better collection of cards. What is with the value of these cards as perceived by the actual people who own the cards and the card collectors when you go to try to sell them? I want you to talk a little bit about that.

Well, you know, we talked to Jeff Owens, the editor of Sports Collector’s Digest, on this show. I’ve subscribed to that for like, 20 years, or more than that. Yeah, it’s a tough business because you’re always going to think your cards are worth more than the other side. I mean, their job is to get them for as little as possible. And your job is to get as much as possible. The problem is, there’s sometimes there’s an in-between situation where, let’s say, you’ve got a beautiful card, but it’s not graded. So now you have to get it graded. So you send it to the company, not the company that grades it, but the company that you’re going to split the money with; they’re going to get 7% to 10%. And they’re telling you, oh, it’s going to be an 8 or a 7. And you think it’s going to be a 9 or a 10? The difference between, let’s say, a 9 Jimmy Brown, 1958 and a 7 Jimmy Brown, 1958 can be $100,000 or more, a 7 versus a 9. If it’s a 10, it can be worth $300,000. More if it’s a 10.

And my question is, who puts that value on it? I mean, the way I look at it, to me, it seems like it’s really tilted toward the actual card collectors, not the actual individual at home, who’s the fan who saves the card. To say, OK, the card is worth $25,000, but we’re going to give you $7,000, that just doesn’t seem fair to me.

I mean, the way we’re looking at O.J. Simpson on this, this is probably the way we’re looking at Pete Rose and Barry Bonds.

Yes, yes, true.

Yeah, I mean, these guys, I mean, marquee, I mean, all these guys,

Roger Clemens.

Breaking news has just come over that Shohei Ohtani is not participating in the All-Star Game at all. He’s going to heal his arm, I guess. So that just came over the wire right now.

Wow.

Maybe Wrobleski of the Dodgers; we’ll add him as a pitcher, although, seriously, I mean, he’s pitched very well this year. But Ohtani was just going to be a DH, so I guess they’re going to add another hitter.

How about the Phillies not being able to get Wheeler in the game?

Yeah.

I mean, Wheeler was a little hot the other night and pitched one of the great games I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t even get picked to the All-Star game, and he’s having an exemplary season, Fred. How does that work?

I think Ohtani gets penalized because he’s also a hitter and a pitcher, because with his statistics and the team he’s playing for, he should have gotten a nod in the All-Star game as a pitcher, not just a DH. But they wouldn’t do it. So he’s just there as a DH.

Laura, I’m going to give you credit, because the guy, Wrobleski, should be going at 10 and 2. This guy, I mean, nobody knows him outside of Los Angeles. And Sonny Gray, he’s 10 and 1, you know, wasn’t even picked. I mean, it’s a popularity contest to me. I mean, it’s not like it used to be when,

Wasn’t Ohtani the leading vote-getter in all of Major League Baseball?

You tell me how that would work. Could he be selected in two different positions? I mean, it’s kind of like we’re all in uncharted territory with this guy. We have Ohtani rules for everything, right? I mean, we don’t know, right?

No, they had to change the Major League rules for him, basically.

Laura, I would think, and you can correct me if I’m wrong on this. There’s an advantage in L.A. with the ballots, because the fans, they get 40,000, 50,000, 60,000 in these games. The Pirates are drawing 10,000. Plus, you’ve got the Chinese community, Japan, and all them voting for Ohtani. So you can, there’s a little bit of an advantage here. I mean, I could be wrong, Artie. I mean, Fred.

What about the Blue Jays? The Blue Jays had more; the Blue Jays got all kinds of voting. They have all of Canada.

They’ve got all the hockey players.

Is it your position that Ohtani is not the best player currently in Major League Baseball? I mean, I don’t think that’s disputable, personally. I mean, given that he didn’t get any pitches, I mean, he’s clearly the best player in Major League Baseball.

How about the best player in the last 25 years?

We should have asked Dr. Paul on the other show: Babe Ruth or Ohtani, who would he take? He might take Babe Ruth because he’s a Yankee fan, but I’m going with Ohtani.

I’ll take Ohtani.

All right. Laura, in 30 seconds, what’s happening in the world of sports in your head this weekend?

Well, I’m looking forward to the Wimbledon finals. I was looking forward to watching my recorded version of the semifinals, but somebody gave it away.

I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to. I feel bad about it, Laura. I’m sorry.

It was a response to a request not to tell me what happened. And the World Cup, you know, I never really paid that much attention to soccer, but once I started watching it, I kind of got into it. It’s really a team sport. I mean, I love how,

Did you get a chance to watch the England-Mexico game from Azteca Stadium?

I watched a little bit of that. yeah.

Oh, my God. That was incredible. I mean, I felt like it looked like the Alamo all over again.

7,000 feet straight up. All right. For Laura, for Mark, for Art, for Mario. Thank you for listening to Fred and the Fantastics on BLEAV and on PodClips. Listen to us soon again. Bye, everybody.