Hey, it’s that time again, BLEAV and PodClips, and Fred and the Fantastics with Art, and with Laura. And you can email us at [email protected], [email protected], anything and everything in sports, and a little bit more. And folks, we’re taping this Friday afternoon, about 1 pm, Pacific Time. College games on Thursday night, college games tonight, and college games through the roof on Saturday. Art, it’s here. Any comments?

I just, you know, I’m looking forward to college football, I’ve always loved it. To me, it’s a little tainted now with the NIL and, you know, the transfer portal, but I try to overlook that a little bit. You know, I did read an interesting article the other day, you guys, about the top 25 people in college sports. And number one was actually the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, Greg Sankey. But what blew my mind was number two was the president of ESPN, Burke Magnus. And I’m like, well, how does that work? And I realized that if you watch all the Bowl Games at the end of the year, the 40 Bowl Games, ESPN carries 38 of them. So they’re huge when it comes to this, this, this televising of college sports, and I’m just excited that football’s back. And you know what, Fred? Maybe UCLA will have a chance to duplicate their 1954 National Championship under Red Sanders this year.

Well, they did trade quarterbacks with Tennessee, so anything is conceivable, but I don’t really believe that’s the case. Laura, does college football mean as much to you as it did before the transfer portal and NIL?

You know, when they’re on the field, I don’t think it matters, you know, I mean, I just, I think everybody is just playing the game. And yeah, I mean, it’s if I think about it in the abstract, but I, like Art, I try to. I don’t even think about it when I’m watching the game. I’m really looking forward to that game tomorrow, the Texas-Ohio State game. I mean, I was telling Art before the show, I take a class on Saturday mornings, and it’s from 9:30 to 10:30 on Zoom, so I’m like, I’m not going to miss my class. But I’ll just watch the first part of the game, and then I’ll record it so I can come back to it. But yeah, it should be a very interesting game. Really looking forward to seeing how Arch Manning plays.

Do you think the coaches were excited when they saw the schedule pop up a couple of times?

Oh my gosh,

Oh my god, I got to go where? You got to go to Ohio Stadium? No thank you.

Folks, Fred and the Fantastics.

A big test for young Arch Manning.

Yeah, OK, so to me, you know, I disagree with both of you. I think it bothers me a lot that I can’t see these guys grow up at the same school. I mean, as a UCLA fan, I want to see a Kenny Clark play the three or four years, I think.

Waiting for the broadcaster, Fred, to say, And you know, this is our first round, you know, number one draft pick? He played at Cal, he played at UCLA, he played at USC, and at Ohio State. Wow. He had a four-, seven-year career in college with four different teams.

L.A. Times this week, an article about a guard, a good guard by way of Southern California, but he played three years in New Mexico. They played against UCLA last year, Donovan Dart, who transferred to UCLA, and they’re talking like he’s going to make a difference. Folks, one more time. With Cronin the coach at UCLA, it doesn’t blank matter. They can’t win the championship; they only won 11, but they’ll never win another one with this guy. If they win, he’ll take the credit.

The leader of the Cronin Marching and Chowder Society, Fred Wallin.

If they win, he’ll get the credit, he’ll take the credit, and when they lose, he’ll blame the players, and then they’ll transfer out. So it’s a done deal. Donovan Dart may be a fine player. I did see him a few games at New Mexico, but the point is nobody’s going to help UCLA. They’re going to win their 15 to 20 games, they’re going to go out in the first or second round. If they get in the tournament. And talking about that, let’s go back to football for a moment. We’ve got 12 teams this year, 16 teams next year in the college football tournament at the end of the season, right? They’re now talking about going to 28. What are we talking about here, folks?

And then the schools are getting $4 million for each victory in the playoffs. And Nick Saban said, Well, what about the players? Shouldn’t they get, like, a little bit of that money? Oh, there’s a concept.

Laura, you think 28 teams is enough?

I think it’s going to just destroy the Bowl system, right? I mean, how can you have a Bowl system when you know?

The first round games are going to be like the Liberty Bowl or the Gasparilla Bowl.

Or the Pro Bowl. Yeah, I mean, if you’re a coach on a team that’s in the playoffs, you’re not going to want your best players to play in a Bowl game. Or even the championship games.

But I think they’re going to use those early round games as Bowl games, kind of like the Gasparilla Bowl or the Fenway Bowl, or the Pinstripe Bowl in New York. In other words, those semifinal games are going to probably be absorbed into the bowl system. I hope.

I think we’ve got a mess, and they’re talking about 28. Why are you in there? How about 56, 64 max?

Max should be 16 max, and I still like 12 or 8, to be honest with you, folks. Email us at [email protected] [email protected]. Back with more on Fred and the Fantastics Right after this.

Hey folks, we’re back on Fred and the Fantastics, Art, and Laura, and Fred. You can email us at [email protected], [email protected]. We also do Sports Overnight America. We talked about wagering at casinos on the Little League World Series last week, 11 and 12-year-old kids competing. All right. We’ve got the World Cup coming here, and we’ve got the Olympics in 2028 coming to the United States and Southern California. And, of course, the question about gambling has to be concernable from that aspect. Art, I mean, you know, everybody’s gambled throughout history. I don’t think there’s any question about that. But now that, and I’m a

You mean, the old chariot races?

Yeah, the old chariot races. I grew up gambling at the age of five. My dad was having poker games every week at the house. Age of six, I knew every game in the world. My grandmother, my dad’s dad, my dad’s mom told me how to play everything,

And I knew I was in trouble when I learned what lowball was.

There it is, my favorite game. And so, and at 16, I was at the, when I couldn’t get to the track. Before I was 16. I grabbed my aunt, and come on, Sally, we’re going to the track. So I didn’t know how they treated the horses. So I’m not anti-gambling, but Laura, are you worried about the Olympic Games and the World Cup being controlled by gambling?

I’m actually more worried about what’s going to happen with ICE, if, if there’s a lot of, a lot of people that aren’t going to want to come to the United States from Latin American countries,

The visa programs and all that kind of stuff. Yeah.

Yeah, they’re afraid they’re going to get plucked off the street because they’re brown. And I mean, that’s happened, it’s, it’s happened already. So I don’t know that gambling is going to be any different this year than it has been in every year. I mean, there’s always gambling on these world, you know, world events.

Up until the last few years, it wasn’t accepted and legal in most of the states in the country. Now it is, so it’s a lot of people.

I know, people did bet anyway, even though,

You know, there’s a, there’s actually a gambling house in England called Ladbrokes.

Yeah,

Think about that name. I get a kick out of that name.

I think that says everything.

Last week there was the Fred Masters, a bet, Fred Masters, brought to you by Sir Nick Faldo. Whoo!

And who’s the only guy in history, I think, to go bankrupt on four casinos?

Charles Barkley?

Donald Trump?

Guess again.

I don’t know how you lose money on a casino. I mean, you have to really,

Lose money on four casinos? Our dear president, number forty-seven.

Right?

Yeah.

That’s what I said, Donald Trump.

Yeah, totally shocked, it’s impossible, four casinos, and he didn’t pay the people that he owed.

I have to apologize to Charles Barkley because there’s only two casinos where he had trouble.

All right, let’s talk about something close to my heart, which is .300 hitters in Major League Baseball.

Oh boy,

So few there are. Why? We talk about the pitchers, you know, this and that, and they only go five innings,

Because everybody’s trying to hit home runs. Hey, Freddie Freeman is leading the National League with a .302 batting average. Nobody else in the National League is over the three-hundred mark. In the American League, there’s only four hitters, Judge is hitting .327, and I believe you have to go back to, like Yastrzemski when he hit .301 in his Triple Crown year, for somebody to be that low and win a batting title, so maybe they have to lower the mound.

I think they have to introduce aluminum bats.

1968, Gibson’s got an ERA of slightly over one. And they lowered the, they lowered the mound the next year because he was so overwhelming. Now I read that, I hear that Sandy Koufax might be ill. I saw a picture of him in the hospital. Again, you know when you see something,

I haven’t heard that,

But when you see something like that, Laura and Art, I’m not sure if it’s AI or fake or what. I’m not sure if it’s real.

That’s the things that I see on the internet, you guys, I have to research,

Yeah,

And I mean, half of them are just clickbait. It’s to the point where you really, as a journalist, you have to substantiate what somebody says before you print it, because it can make you look really stupid. You have to get your, go right to the source, as they say.

Is that true about Sandy Koufax?

I don’t know, I really don’t know. Somebody on Facebook said Dave Roberts wasn’t going to be in the Dodger locker room because he’s flying to see Koufax in Florida. I knew that was fake because he’s not going to miss the game.

That doesn’t sound right.

But so. But they did have a picture of Koufax in a bed in the hospital, so I don’t know what’s going on.

There’s a, there’s a,

Could be a deep fake. Who knows?

There’s a thing, there’s a thing on the internet, Rams, I don’t know what, what you’d call it, but they’ve been lying about everything that they come across, I mean, it comes across as being really official, looks official. Matt Stafford out for the year? I’m like, he’s not out for the year. I mean, where do they come up with this stuff? It’s crazy, you guys. And now, I was thinking the other day, we have artificial intelligence coming, burgeoning its way into our lives, but isn’t that only as good as what you feed into the computer?

Yeah,

I’ll tell you something, I have not, I have yet to, I have yet to institute a Google search that has an AI answer that is 100 percent correct.

Thank you. That’s my whole point.

And I got into an argument with my brother’s girlfriend, who’s not Jewish, who says that verklempt is a word of joy. It isn’t, let me ask you, Fred. Is it a word of joy?

No. Isn’t it anxiousness?

And yeah, it’s stress,

Yeah,

It’s just like, going crazy. And she was saying she was verklempt over the announcement of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement. And I wrote back to her. I said, You’re going to get kicked out of the Deli, girlfriend!

All right, so you just mentioned Taylor Swift and Kelce are going to get married. But in the Buffalo bills, you’ve got Josh Allen and Steinfeld,

Hailee Steinfeld, yeah,

Hailee Steinfeld and she’s a fine actress, and I really haven’t seen her, I haven’t heard her sing, but I know she’s a fine actress. So you think publicity will go in that direction, too? Or basically just with Kansas City?

No, this is all, this is all about, all about,

Taylor Swift is the biggest pop star in the world. Hailee Steinfeld is an actress,

They’re saying that she brought 30 million more viewers to the National Football League, you guys.

I love it!

30 million. That’s a lot of fannies in the seats, a lot of eyeballs on TV.

All right,

I thought she was really, either of you heard her on the podcast? But, she said when she first met Travis, she said he was, they were playing against Philadelphia, and she said, How does it feel to be face-to-face with them on the field? And you had to tell her, Well, you know, we’re both on offense.

Yeah, we don’t really,

We don’t play face-to-face.

Chuck Bednarik would have been on both sides in the old days.

Art, I’m going to put, I’m going to put you on the spot before we go, on,

I love it.

Fred and the Fantastics. So, Ohio State, Texas, on Saturday, we’re taping this on Friday, folks. Who do you like?

I like Texas, and I like the over.

What’s the over? What’s the total?

48.5.

Oh, I like the over too, then, yeah. Laura, you have any thoughts about Texas, and maybe the Heisman favorite going in, and with Arch and Ohio State?

What are the odds?

Minus one, Texas opened as the two-point favorite, and it’s gone all the way to Ohio State by one, now. That’s the latest odds.

That’s too close. I think Ohio State’s going to win the game, but I’m really looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

My only problem with Ohio State, and they’ve got great athletes, is they only have three returning guys on defense, and they’re starting with a quarterback that’s never started a game before. Now, you know, he’s awesome, he’s from California, Julian Sayin, unbelievable quarterback, but you know there’s gonna be, that, that, that, I think there’s gonna be some big mistakes in that game early. Because that place is crazy, a hundred thousand people, the college football season. Lee Corso, you know, they’re going to be doing the final, the final thing on the ESPN game, game day, you know? And I got to tell you something. I’ve been a Lee Corso fan for years. I thought he brought a lot of beautiful things to college football. And I’m going to miss him, and I mean, what a great career he’s had.

I don’t think there’s any question. A lot of, a lot of time. And yeah, sorry to say, say goodbye to Lee Corso. No question about that. All right. Final thoughts, Art, before we go.

Hey, just a great weekend for sports. You got the U.S. Open tennis, you got college football, college football on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Got Notre Dame visiting Miami, you got some big games out there. Great way to start Labor Day. Hey, and it is all about labor and getting what you can out of your hard work. And I just want everybody to have a safe and sane Labor Day weekend.

Laura, I have a question for you. Freddie Freeman’s slightly over .300 in the National League, the only .300 hitter in the National League as we speak. He’s got a back ailment. Maybe he doesn’t come back this year so he can finish at .300? What do you think?

I don’t know.

I’m kidding.

There’s too many, there’s just too many, if you’re a sports fan, there’s just too many sports on. I don’t know how you guys,

The last time we had that situation, Ted Williams played in a doubleheader, and he actually wound up with four or five hits in the doubleheader to shoot .406, I think it was?

.406.

He could’ve sat it out and would’ve hit .400. So that was pretty strong.

For all you sports fans who may want to do something else, there’s nationwide demonstrations on Labor Day against the current Trump administration. In every city in the country, so check it out.

So, what are they focusing on, the demonstrations?

We’ll be starting out with billionaires against workers, because it’s Labor Day, right?

Right.

Is George Soros going to be there?

Only his son.

So, where is it in Los Angeles, Laura?

There’s there’s two downtown, one in the morning at Grand Park and one at four o’clock, which sounds really fun. It’s kind of going to be a block party at Heritage Park, they’re going to have DJs and music,

Uh oh, somebody’s at the door.

And then there’s one in Palm City, there’s one in Playa Vista. I didn’t look in the Valley because I was looking for near me. So there might be something out your way.

Let me just say this. Next door. They’re doing construction on their pool, and the guys have been here for like, three weeks. I am really wary, really worried. No joke, because they’re speaking Spanish, that an ICE truck will be running down the guys.

Have you seen any in your neighborhood?

I’m sorry?

Have you seen any trucks in your neighborhood? Because they are unmarked, half the time.

Not yet. But what I’m just saying is that it’s a corner house and there’s like 15, sometimes different.

There’s an app called ICE Block that will notify you if ICE is in the neighborhood.

Wow.

And then you can go demonstrate.

Folks, this show’s a little bit more than just sports, as Laura. By the way, is Ed on our side politically, or is Ed on a different side?

Ed, my husband?

Yeah.

Well, do you think I’d live with him if he wasn’t?

Well, but I mean,

You actually got him trained. I like that, that’s well said, Laura!

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