Hey everybody, it’s that time again, that’s right. Fred and the Fantastics on BLEAV and on PodClips, anything and everything in sports, and a little bit more, along with art. Along with Laura and I am Fred. Again, email us [email protected], [email protected]. We’re taping this about one o’clock Friday afternoon, folks, a week before Thanksgiving. So I must say this: UCLA Athletics and I’m in Southern California, Laura’s in Southern California. Art’s lived a lot of his life in Southern Cal. So maybe we’re slanted one way or the other, but UCLA Athletics down the sewer pipe is all I can tell you. On Friday’s version of The Daily News, they had articles about USC, they had articles about the Rams, the Chargers, and everybody else. They didn’t mention UCLA. Now, wait a minute. Tonight, Friday night, UCLA plays Presbyterian. Why don’t you mention it, Daily News? I’m very disappointed. Art, what’s going on with UCLA Athletics?

UCLA Athletics is in big trouble, and I hope they go out and get Jedd Fisch from the University of Washington, who they had at one point in time. They’ve made a series of poor hires. If you really want to know the truth, they should have kept Jim Mora. Jim Mora Jr. was a real good football coach, but they went in different directions. But I will tell you what I’m excited about. I think the Rams have the best team in the NFL. I think the Trojans are going to play Oregon tomorrow at Autzen, in the rain. They have a chance to actually put themselves in position. It’s a quasi-CFP playoff game. The winner of this game, I think, is going to go on to get in the tournament. The loser goes home, maybe goes to a, whatever, Las Vegas Bowl. But then, you gotta look at the Chargers. What the Chargers did at Jacksonville last week, Fred, scared me. I mean, I’m a Herbert fan, I’m a Harbaugh believer in his coaching ability. They didn’t even show up. One of my arguments in sports, modern-day sports, the athletes can look so good one week and then the next week, it’s like, put out an APB for them.

No, I agree with you, Art. Laura. What do you think about UCLA, USC, and what Art just said?

You know, I mostly watched, as a kid, UCLA basketball because my dad was a huge UCLA basketball fan. And in those days, they used to delay the games, so they started, I think,

At 11 o’clock at night, yeah.

And he used to take a nap and wake up at 11. And sometimes I would actually wake up, even when I was a little kid, and watch UCLA basketball. And it’s just so disappointing to see what has happened. And the demise of the Pac-10 or the Pac-12. And into this, you know, the Big Ten, which is I don’t know how many teams now, 16?

Eighteen.

Eighteen. I mean, it’s insane, plus having to fly, travel all across the country, you know, it’s crazy-making to me, but you know, it is what it is. But it’s very disappointing to see the downfall of the UCLA athletic program, including football and basketball.

What about Martin Jarmond, the athletic director? Should he stay or should he go?

Oh, he absolutely should go.

Send him back to Syracuse.

I mean, he absolutely should go. I mean, people are measured by their performance, and when you’re talking about sports,

It’s a meritocracy.

It’s the performance of the teams. Yeah, it’s ridiculous. He should have gone a long time ago.

He has made a series of hires, a series of hires athletically, including your favorite coach at UCLA basketball. You know, I mean, it’s just it’s to the point where, you know, I mean, you’ve got to realize that you’re talking about an athletic program that had the most National Championships ever. And now, they can’t get,

I think it still does, I think it still does.

I believe you’re right.

They have 24.

Yeah. And I mean, now we look at an athletic program that, other than women’s softball, and I believe, women’s outdoor volleyball. That’s about the only thing they really compete on.

Well, the women’s basketball team is pretty good, that’s true.

Yeah,

But I watched the last game, they played it just, they lost the game in the last few minutes.

Arizona,

I think they had an eight-point lead or something. With a few, like, a minute left, I couldn’t even believe how they lost the game.

Arizona,

I mean, they just couldn’t hit a shot.

Okay, you’re talking, you were talking Mick Cronin again. And here’s the bottom line. You’re talking about the Arizona game last week, right?

Yeah.

Okay, they had the lead, and they blew it, as they usually do against good teams. But I don’t know if a lot of people realize this, but on Tuesday, when we had the challenge at MSG, Madison Square Garden, and the four of the best schools historically in basketball, UCLA was playing Sacramento State. And because nobody watched it, it was on the Big Ten network. But, because they lost to Arizona, Cronin blamed his players. He only started one starter; he only started one regular. Four guys who would never play started against Sacramento State as like punishment for playing poorly down the stretch.

He is horrible. He’s a horrible coach.

Cronin takes the credit when they win and he blames the players when they lose. And that can’t be, it simply can’t.

He’s a horrible coach and a horrible person.

I like that.

Okay, all right, you know, other than that, he’s not bad.

All right, Art. This is the true test of a football fan, and, growing up a UCLA fan, it’s a true test. Saturday night, 10:30 your time.

I’ll be watching.

UCLA-Washington.

Well, you know why I’m gonna watch? Because this quarterback for Washington, this Williams kid, he’s surreal. I gotta tell you, I look at the quarterbacks of the NFL, the, you know, potential NFL guys. Dante Moore from Oregon, I love, I like Mendoza. he plays well above the Mendoza line for Indiana. And I mean, if I had my Heisman ballot right now, I’m telling you, I think Mendoza might be the pick.

He might be. The quarterback for Ohio State is in the running. But you mentioned Williams of Washington. I talked about this in one of our previous shows. He’s as quick as any quarterback out there,

Man, you better have two spies on him.

All right. We’re gonna take a break and come back with a whole lot more on Fred and the Fantastics with Laura, and Art, and Fred. You can email us: [email protected], [email protected]. Back with more right after this.

Welcome back, Fred and the Fantastics with Art, and with Laura, and with you. You can email us at [email protected], [email protected]. All right, I know the baseball season’s over, but to me, the baseball season is never over. Let’s talk about some of the players that are out there and where you think they may go. Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia, Laura, power hitter, capable of 60 home runs. Where might he go, Laura? Would he leave the Phils?

I don’t know. But how about the rumor that the Dodgers might get Mike Trout? I mean, that’s,

Mike Trout and/or Bellinger, I heard.

I mean, that’s incredible, I don’t know, I mean, Mike,

Schwarber’s going nowhere. I have a friend of mine that covers the Phillies, you know, he’s the beat writer for them, he loves that whole clubhouse. He loves the team. He’s going to sign an awfully big contract. It’s going to be probably three years, bordering near $100 million or plus, so he’s going to stay there. But what excites me is Bellinger might, you know, they’re thinking about the Mets, the Yankees, or the Dodgers. For him, you can’t go wrong either three ways there.

Well, the Dodgers, obviously, he can play any of the outfield positions, he can play first base. He’d help him in all ways; he’s got a great arm, and I don’t know what his feelings are right now about the Dodgers. But if I’m the Dodgers, and I could pay him a mere $35 million times five versus Kyle Tucker a mere $50 million times five, I would go with Bellinger because he can also play first base.

Absolutely.

And they offered Tucker, what, a three-year deal because they don’t want to give these long-term contracts anymore?

Laura, what do you think, Bellinger or Kyle Tucker?

I think Bellinger, I agree with you. I loved Bellinger. I was sorry to see him leave the Dodgers. I think he’d be a great fit; obviously, he knows a lot of the guys already; he knows the front office guys. I think that’d be great if Bellinger came back.

You know, you mentioned, Art, you mentioned the Angels before and the Mike Trout deal. They traded, a couple of days ago, the L.A. Angels, Artie Moreno, traded Taylor Ward and his 36 home runs for Grayson Rodriguez, who, two years ago, was a pretty good pitcher for Baltimore. And I said to myself, Why would you make a deal like that? And then I looked at Taylor Ward’s salary of $14 million, and then I looked at Grayson Rodriguez’s salary, the minimum of $780,000. So the Angels are saving $13 million. And you asked me why the Angels don’t draw like the Dodgers draw. Listen, I can’t get into his pocketbook, Artie’s pocketbook. He seems like a nice guy. But the bottom line is, why trade away 36 home runs for a pitcher you don’t know can pitch?

Two franchises are cheaper than cheap. The Pittsburgh Pirates, sorry, Mark Mancini and the Angels, and the Angels,

Right, okay.

And if they could get new ownership for either one of those franchises, with the players they bring up and the players they have and augment it and put the money into the farm system, which is the true way of building a team. Hasn’t changed since Branch Rickey. It really hasn’t. It’s great to augment your team with a free agent here or a veteran here. That could teach the young guys how to act properly and all that. But the bottom line is, Fred, you know, you don’t need to spend like the Dodgers or the Yankees or the Red Sox, but you need to develop players in your system. You look at the Astros. You look at the Braves. You look at the Orioles now, even Toronto. They bring young kids up, and they play, and that’s still the secret to baseball.

Well, not only that, but they can use those players as bargaining chips to get,

To get what they need.

Sure. I mean, it’s the perfect. It’s like the Dodgers, they have this great farm system. They want to go get Kyle Schwarber or Cody Bellinger; they’ve got pieces they can trade. I mean, so it goes both ways.

My question to you guys is this, all right? Big weekend of NFL football. Are the Kansas City Chiefs, and/or the Buffalo Bills, toast?

I think Kansas City’s got a better shot of going further because I just have a hunch that Mahomes will find a way. And again,

You know, you still got six games to play, and I hear you there.

The Buffalo Bills’ offensive line is just horrible at this point. And again, the eight sacks on Thursday night are hard to believe. I want to throw this out very quickly. Peter Seidler, the former owner of the Padres, passed away two years ago. Of course, Seidler, the nephew of Peter O’Malley, and now the Padres, apparently, are for sale. The Seidlers won out. And this is what we’re talking about, folks. There’s going to be, in 2027, there’s going to be a player strike or there’s going to be a lockout, whatever the case might be. There has to be a way, OK, to limit how much you can spend, but there has to be a way where you have to spend so much. And I think the Padres had their wish, and you mentioned the Pirates and the Angels. If the Padres had their wish and their new ownership, maybe they won’t spend anything. So, you know, I’m totally confused what’s going to happen.

They’re making so much money by being mediocre, Fred. That’s the sad part of professional sports right now. It used to be you needed to win to put fannies in the seats and, you know, and make the money. Now, you know, with these contracts, look at the new Major League Baseball media deal. They just did ESPN, NBC, and Netflix $550 million for ESPN to do a Sunday night game, along with NBC, $200 million for NBC for one game a week, which goes back to our days. And Netflix gets $50 million, $800 million to go with the previous deals they already have. So, I mean, when you have teams like the Lakers who are worth $10 billion, and they have the same owner as the Dodgers, now, you know, I got to tell you, at some point in time, there has to be a limit. And like you said, Fred, there should be a minimum; you need to be able to compete, to have parity in Major League Baseball. You need to have. These teams have at least a minimum threshold to be able to compete against the Red Sox, the Dodgers, the Yankees, the bigger teams.

Sunday, five o’clock Pacific, eight o’clock in the East. The Rams at home against Tampa Bay. Rams, a six-and-a half, seven-point favorite. Art, you indicated you think the Rams are the best team in football. Can they cover a seven-point spread?

That’s gonna be tough, but they’ll win that game. You know, so many injuries on Tampa Bay; you watched what they did against Buffalo the week before, and we know that Buffalo is not what they once were. And they actually got thrashed pretty good by Buffalo in Buffalo in a real high-scoring game. Matter of fact, the first time there’s been a score, that score in that game, 42 to, what was the final score? Anyway, it was the first time in the history of the NFL, 106 years, that two teams scored that many points in a game. Which I find really bizarre, when you consider all of the games over the years. But, yeah, I really like the Rams. I think Sean McVay might be the best coach in the NFL right this minute.

Okay, Laura. The 49ers against Carolina. Carolina is six and five on the season, very surprisingly, the 49ers, seven and four. Laura, the 49ers, a seven-point favorite. Who do you like, Carolina or San Fran?

I like the 49ers. I think they’re going to cover the spread, sure, I think that, I, it’s at home, right? They’re playing in San Francisco or Santa Clara?

Yeah,

Yeah, I think the 49ers are going to win that game.

All right, before we go. I have to bring this up. College football. There are congresspeople, senators who are now indicating they want to take away the income tax exemption from college football, the NCAA. Art, you played college football,

For the players, like in the NIL situation?

Yeah, they want to take, they want to take the exemption.

So you’re telling me these kids are not paying taxes?

Nope, I don’t know if the players are paying taxes. The NCAA is not paying taxes; the teams, the schools, the conferences are not paying.

I mean, let’s be honest, Fred, it’s pro-college football.

Yeah, so do you think they should have to pay taxes?

Yeah. And I don’t think coaches should make more than governors of states, either.

Laura, you’re a lawyer, what do you think? Do you think everybody should be paying taxes? Considering that the Big Ten’s been offered what, $2.8 billion by this investment firm to basically own the Big Ten Big 18?

$100 million for each school, $100 million for the investment firm, and $100 million for the league, wow.

Laura, what do you think about the exemption?

Well, I mean, it’s just, of course, they should pay taxes, just like major corporations should pay taxes.

Everybody should.

And billionaires should pay taxes. And Elon Musk, who’s going to be a trillionaire pretty soon, pays virtually no taxes.

He doesn’t even have a house, from what I hear. Talking about America’s guest.

That’s an interesting thing you say, because, you know, who also doesn’t really have a house is Donald Trump. He only lives where his businesses are. Think about that.

At the resorts.

He has no real home. I’ll leave it to you all.

He’s got some pretty nice places to go to, though, I must tell you.

He does, but still,

That’s bizarre.

That’s a good call.

All right. Laura, okay, you brought it up. I’ve got to bring it up.

Uh-oh.

Oh, this is sports and more right here.

Hey, Mamdani and Trump look like they were smiling in the press conference.

Yeah, well, because Trump is a wonderful human being, there’s no question about that, but I have to throw this out. Six congresspeople who served one way or the other in the military have indicated that soldiers don’t have to agree with illegal orders. The Republicans and Trump, he’s gone crazy, they’ve gone crazy, they want to, he wants to hang the senators and congresspeople who have done the commercial. You don’t have to follow illegal orders. I feel like I’m in Germany, Berlin, 1933 to 1945. You know, people that followed orders ended up being executed, too. Art, what do you think about Trump’s comments and the Congresspeople’s comments?

That’s a bizarre situation. You know, part of me says, they’re kind of both wrong, because I believe that there is a chain of command. And if you’re forced to do something that’s against the Geneva Protocol or something of that nature, I don’t think you should have to do it. But to want to put people to death for something, for just talking about it, I don’t think that’s sedition, in my personal opinion,

For stating the law. Because that is what the law is, that’s the code of military justice.

You know, I’ve got to tell you,

Even if it wasn’t the law, they shouldn’t be put to death,

Laura. We live in a country where the hatred for the leader, POTUS, is, I’ve never seen in my lifetime, 127 years, anybody more hated than the leader of our country. And I think this is really divisive for a great country. And I don’t mind people saying negative things. But when you cross that line, and they talk about getting rid of people, whether it’s on either side of the aisle. Hey, he was legitimately voted president of the United States. You may disagree with him. State your concerns, do your thing. But, you know, I never liked Obama, but I also thought he was President of the United States, and he deserved the respect of a President and a person who led our country. Whether I agreed with him or not, he was our President, and if he said something, I said, You know what? There’s a reason he said it; it must be a good thing. But that’s just the way I think. Your thoughts, you guys?

Laura, take it away.

I think Trump is a unique case. I’ll just leave it at that.

There’s no doubt about that.

I want to go back to, though, you know, I’ve been dealing with this a lot. In another context, that laws, whether something is against the law or the law allows it, does not necessarily mean it’s the right moral tack. And we learned that, as Fred said, at Nuremberg. Because, realizing that the laws that Germany passed were followed, that was their defense. They were following orders, they were following the law. And the Western world, at least at the time, said, no, that is not going to be acceptable. You cannot follow illegal orders.

Laura, can I ask you a question straight up here?

Let me finish. So, the uniform code of military justice that this country follows basically says exactly what those Democrats said. That you, as a member of the armed forces, you take an oath to defend the Constitution, the same oath I took when I got my license to practice law. I didn’t take an oath to defend the President or the Governor; I took an oath to defend the Constitution of both the State of California and the United States. And also, you have an obligation not to follow illegal orders, so the question is, how do you evaluate what is an appropriate legal or illegal order? And that’s because you can’t have laws in a vacuum; you have to have a value system that supports those laws, and that’s what’s breaking down. Because think about it, think about all the court opinions that courts have labored for, 100-page opinions.

Can I ask you a real key question here? When you look at the Democratic left, the progressive left, what are your thoughts on the anti-semitism that are coming out of the young kids that have been educated in our system? Really, because I know both of you are Jewish, and I mean, I have trouble with it, and I’m a Catholic.

You know what? There’s anti-semitism on both sides. And you know, it’s kind of like the horseshoe that the very, very far left kind of meets the very, very far left,

The back end of the spectrum.

And they’re kind of the same. You know what was really what struck me today, that I read? I’m not sure where I read it, but that Mamdani actually said that there was, you know, there’s a principle in the state of Israel, if you read their Constitution and their declaration of independence. It is a refuge for all Jews, so any Jew can go to Israel and become an Israeli citizen. There’s obviously protocols involved, but, and what that is, it’s called Aliyah in Hebrew. And Mamdani? There was a synagogue in New York that was talking to the congregants about making Aliyah, and Mamdani said that it violated international law. That happened, I think, today or yesterday.

Wow.

So I am not, I’ll, just I am a leftist, but I am not a Mamdani fan, necessarily. I think the ADL is, you know, keeping a big, a good watch on him. I think he’s not going to be able to,

Does it scare you guys, though, seeing what you’re seeing, about a third of the kids are coming out of school systems have this predilection of being, you know, anti-Semitic? I mean, that really,

Of course, because you know, antisemitism is the canary in the coal mine.

That’s it. Then it leads into everything else.

It starts with antisemitism.

Let me just say one thing. Um, three or four weeks ago, Trump is making a speech and he uses the term Shylock. Then afterwards,

Which is a bookie guy, a guy that comes after,

Wait a minute, then afterward, people said, You know, that’s an antisemitic comment, because of course, Shakespeare and the whole thing, and the word Shylock. He said, I didn’t know that. Folks, he knew it,

Please, of course he knew it.

He’s going to plead ignorance.

Believe me, he knew that. He’s as antisemitic as,

I don’t think Trump has any value other than himself. I don’t think he’s an anti — he’s against anybody who’s gone against him. And he will use antisemitism for his benefit, and he will use pro – causes,

He uses anything he can for his benefit.

But I’ll tell you one thing: there are a lot of anti-Semites in his cabinet and among his supporters. And he has not denounced Fuentes,

Including Stephen Miller,

Who is Jewish,

Including Stephen Miller,

And Laura Loomer, who is Jewish.

It’s like hating yourself, right? How could you do that?

All right, that’s it for Fred and the Fantastics. Sports and more, obviously. Thank you, Mario, thank you, Laura, thank you, Art. Stay tuned for more.

Thank you, Fred.

Around the corner on Fred and the Fantastics on BLEAV and PodClips. Bye, everybody.