Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to another edition of the Game Sports podcast. The Game Sports podcast is powered by 91 n. I am the host of the game, David McCaig Junior. In the first segment, I will be discussing WrestleMania, NHL, NHL playoffs, just being right around the corner, as well as March Madness recap. In the second segment, I will be joined by Connor Henderson where we'll be discussing all things in the world of baseball, such as the MLB and a little bit of local love as well. Let's go.
Booyah. And it's time for the Game Sports podcast. It is your host, David McCaig junior, and who does it ever feel good to say those words here on the Game Sports podcast? Booyah. I gotta say it one more time. It's been a couple weeks since we've had a news podcast edition of the game and we apologize to you, the listeners and viewers for being away for a couple weeks. However, due to scheduled conflicts as well as other projects going on in the background for the game and even a little bit of the battle of the flu, there's been a lot going on with the game that's had to pulse a from the show for a couple weeks. Nonetheless, we are back and get back to our consistent schedule of one or two new shows per week for you to enjoy. For this segment, you already know the agenda, especially if you heard the intro, but it is going to be just yours truly for the opening segment here. And there's a lot that I want to get to in this opening segment before we welcome Connor in for the second segment. And this first segment is going to go all over the place, okay? And I want to make sure that you keep up, all right? Make sure that you're interacting, make sure you hit like follow and subscribe and all the platforms of the game, audio, the video, the social media, wherever it is. But I think there's going to be a lot of clips that I'll be able to use that's going to attract you to this show. And I'm very excited to talk about, well, there's a few topics in particular, but everything I'm going to bring to you here in the first segment. And just to remind you, the game sports podcast is powered by 91 n. That's 91 network. Head on over to 91 n YouTube channel. Great content for you to enjoy on there, including the Game sports podcast. And that's all video podcast content for audio. You can check us out anywhere. Nonetheless, as I said, it is just yours truly, but anyone who knows me knows that I can probably talk to myself for hours. Heck, look what I'm doing right now, looking into a camera. But technically I'm not talking to myself, I'm talking to you. But it's kind of a different approach when it just have yourself opposed to having co hosts or guests. It's a different approach. But here in this segment, I get to be just free with where I want to go with whatever topic, and it's just me, my opinion that you're going to hear. All right? And I want to go to WrestleMania first. All right? I'm a little upset, but one thing, and that one thing is not regards to WrestleMania. I ordered a undisputed championship bet belt, okay? And I was expecting it to be in today, so I could have had it on during this segment. And I plan when I get that I'm going to be wearing that belt every time we talk about the WWE here on the game because I'm going to be so excited for that belt. But let me tell you, I know one person that is very excited about their belt, and that is Cody Rhodes. Okay. Cody Rhodes defeated Roman reigns in night two of WrestleMania. And every year I watch WrestleMania, I try to get in touch with the rumble. A lot of games you can play with your friends when it comes to the Royal rumble, the WrestleMania is the year, is the event that I ensure that I attempt to watch each year. That is the meat and potatoes for the WWE. That is where a lot of the big events happen of the year. The big matches. Obviously, there's great matches throughout the year, but in particular, this WrestleMania had so much excitement and so much promotion, and it all had to do with the rock. Okay? And I'm going to get to that in a few moments here. But in night two, in comparison to night one, I will have to say that I did enjoy night two a bit more. Granted, I didn't get the opportunity to watch a lot of night one because I'm currently participating in my playoffs, my men's league hockey tournament, which I'll throw a little choke to when I start talking hockey in this segment. But I got to watch the entirety of night two. But I did, of course, watch the recap of night one. And I did like the storylines in both events. And I think it was kind of not really a secret that we knew Roman Reigns and the rock were going to be Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins. It's honestly seeing the people's elbow and seeing the back and forth of it. It was great entertainment. All in all, you have to give WrestleMania between night one and night two. I have to give it an eight and a half out of ten, okay. And a big thing where I'm leaning towards, well, an eight and a half, okay, is because I feel like the matches could have had a little bit more into it. In particular with the main event with Rhodes and with Roman Reigns, that it could have had a bit more consistent action where at the beginning there was a lot of, like, it was slow, right? A little bit slower. I have to give it an eight and a half out of, out of ten, that is. And I'm thinking that maybe that's a little bit too critique. I know there's a lot of people who think it's going to be a ten. There's going to be people who believe it's a nine, people who think it's less. But I feel like the matches could have been a little bit more than what it was.
But mainly I'm looking at the main event of night two. That could have maybe put it to a nine and a half. But truly night to the main event, I think helped, in my, my perspective, propel it to an eight and a half because it was like the end game, right? It was like the Avengers endgame for the WWE. You had Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, Cody Rhodes finishing his story. Obviously, you had, you had the, the come the appearances of the rock. You had John Cena, you had the undertaker, obviously not in that order. You had the undertaker give the choke slam to the rock. You had the rock give the rock bottom to John Cena. After John Cena does his thing and after he gives him the rock bottom, he says, get that out of here. Right? It pulls out the belt to get ready to hit Cody Rhodes that he's been abusing Cody Rhodes with for the last couple weeks. And ultimately, that was so exciting to see in the match. It was so fun to see that. It was great to see the nostalgia. And I know the fans chanting, thank you, Hunter. I was even saying that from my couch. I was so excited. But my predictions were, I thought Stone cold Steve Austin was going to come out. I thought maybe Hulk Hogan would come out. Look at his. I believe he had a tick tock, if I remember correctly. But maybe that's, maybe that would have been a little too far fetched. But Stone cold Steve Austin, I think, would have been cool to have come out to or some more wrestlers fight and. But then it would have gotten to be a little too much, right. Having the undertaker is a very interesting touch because the undertaker is so known for. WrestleMania took him a number of years to before he even lost at WrestleMania. There's somebody who is a legend of WWE, of course. And ultimately, you know, there's the lights go down, the lights go off. It just made sense maybe that it was the undertaker. I still think Stone cold would have been a really good touch to come out and give the rock the stunner and the rock does his exaggerated flip in the air, that maybe somebody comes out and fights stone cold, Steve Austin, or gives him the chokeslam, like, maybe it's somebody else. Then. Then the undertaker came out. But then again, it's a little bit too much, right? Ultimately, a lot of things did occur. You had McIntyre, who you believed was going to be a crown, a new champion, but then after he got a little bit conceited with CM Punk, you had money in the bank, get cashed in the, the women's championship belt with Ripley, I think her and lynch had a very good match as well. But Ripley is just absolutely a great entertainer and she's a great champion. The tag team match for the tag team titles were very entertaining, and it's great to see the belts that exchanged and changed hands. That's what I liked, this event. You saw new champions. You saw obviously some champions be retained, but see the championship belts mostly being moved around. Right? And Zayn, you know, Sami Zayn win that, that was such the fans rooting for him, the commentators getting into it, and ending the reign of a longtime intercontinental champion. So that is great to see, right? And Kevin Owens, Randy Orton, Logan Paul. That was a very entertaining match. I have to give that a plus. I think it could have been a bit more again off the start, from start to finish, have that pure excitement, but it was slow builds. A lot of the matches, I feel were slow builds as they gradually went to the climax of the match where it got really picked up and ultimately, I think getting exciting towards the end. So the reason why, going back, if you wanted me to rate WrestleMania, I give WrestleMania a very strong eight and a half out of ten. And ultimately, again, to summarize it up, it is because I feel like they could have done more in the consistency of matches. But overall, the event was arguably one of, if not the best, Wrestlemanias. My twelve year old self was absolutely excited. It was like the Avengers endgame type for WrestleMania when you had the come outs of John Cena, the Rock, and the undertaker. As I mentioned, it was so fun and the fans were so involved, and you had Jason Kelsey show up in the match with Rey Mysterio. Like philly, fans were put in for a treat. With WrestleMania and eight and a half may seem a little bit low, but I ultimately feel that that's the fair assessment for WrestleMania, given some areas of improvement that could have occurred. And I feel like the main event, though, when night two really pushed it to that point. And night two was ultimately better than night one, in my opinion. But comment below on what you feel. Obviously, since WrestleMania, we've had some more wrestling occur, especially between the Rock and with Cody Rhodes. What did the Rock give Cody Rhodes in that handshake? What was that? Obviously, it comes out with the people's champ belt. He wants to hold the.
He wants Cody's belt. He's looking at Cody's belt. He's. And he's just holding the. Cody's holding the people's champ belt where the Rock really values because of the connections with Ali, and then gives it back and says that our story has just begun. Look, I'm going to start saying it right now. Cody Rhodes, the Rock. Next WrestleMania, book it. There'll be a title match there and it's going to be a very electric matchup. And maybe Roman Reigns does a show up there. Maybe Stone Cold shows up at that one. I think Hunter Triple H is really diving into the Attitude era, which is very exciting to see. I love it. That's where you can attract my generation, if not a little bit older, older. You can start getting us back into that. And if you start having the rock, the undertaker, these people make their surprise appearances. You can probably get that more of a buy in. And ultimately, we know it's fake, right? Let's just say it how it is. We know that wrestling is real, but let's appreciate the athleticism that these individuals have doing the flips, doing the moves they do. It is not easy being a professional wrestler. Doesn't matter if it's scripted or not. You consider it a tv show or a movie, whatever way you want to go. It is entertainment at its finest. And we are seeing it at a prime and it was at a prime. And that note, that's not a thumbs up towards Logan Paul's drink. I'm just saying we're seeing it at a prime with a lot of these athletes. Randy Orton still looking in terrific shape. I think the rock, despite how he had some criticism with him being in shape. The man's in shape, okay? He's in freakishly good shape. Roman reigns longtime champion. You got to give a round of applause to that. Despite how you feel what a story is, he was a terrific champion. And for a long time, a champion and a lot of names that he was in company with, such Hulk Hogan and so on. So he was at a different level. And Cody Rhodes, I think people knew that this was going to be his time to win. And the way that they did, that they did that match was perfect. I just wish it was a little bit more exciting right from the start. Like roman reigns playing with him a little bit and taking it slow and getting conceded. Now I want to keep seeing the action. I want them to be getting fully involved with everything from start to finish. But again, these are men that are in the ring for a fairly long period of time that are performing and doing these moves and try to do it safely, but also trying to perform it would get tiring. So there's that aspect that we got to watch. I know I just went a little bit longer with what I wanted to for WrestleMania. But again, in summary, eight and a half out of ten for WrestleMania, for me, I think it was one of, if not the best wrestlemanias, which maybe you may think my score is a little bit low, but nonetheless, I believe it's a fair assessment. And night one, night two, that's everything all combined. Overall, two great nights of entertainment was provided by WrestleMania. And again, I would like the fans say thank you, Hunter. And with, with the Rock and Cody having this little, little teaser saying that the Rock's going away for a while, but he's going to be back and the story has just begun for him and Cody. It's going to allow fans to now wait anxiously for the Rock, his next return all of a sudden, and for the next story to begin with the Rock and Cody, because it seems like the Rock is invested in getting committed back to wrestling. And that's great to bring back some of that attitude era so we can attract my age group and older. What is your score for WrestleMania? What is your thoughts about wrestling as of late? I'm back. I'm fully invested. And hopefully by the next podcast I got a belt to show off to you because, well, it won't be Cody Rhodes is official title, but I'll have my own. I'll feel like that I'm a champion when I'm holding on to that. I've always wanted my own belts and I haven't had one before, so it's gonna be really cool. So yeah, I'm a little bit excited. Speaking of being excited, my twelve year old self was, would have been pumped. My wife was watching WrestleMania with me and when I heard the Undertaker's music come out, I was pumped. John Cena's. I was pumped. I knew the rock was gonna come out, but the way that he acted. Get the out of here. What do you. It was hilarious. Everything was just so well put together with all the, with all the commotion and with all the involvement from so many wrestlers. But I was a fan of the, of the Logan Paul match, of course, and Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns match. Those are my two favorite matches of the weekend, of course, next to the tag team match between Rollins, Rhodes and the Rock and Roman Reigns. Let me know what you think about WrestleMania. Let me know what you thinks next. And especially for Cody Rhodes, is he going to have that title for a long time? Think that it's gonna be stripped from him early and he's gonna have to battle back to get it. I think Rhodes is gonna be a champion for at least a year. I think you're gonna see him hold that title at least till next WrestleMania, where maybe he does retain it, maybe he doesn't. Only time will tell. Very exciting stuff.
I'm gonna take a breather, and I just sit here, take a nice little sip of my usual show beverage. I'm gonna go to the NHL. There's a few topics that I wanted to press on before we go to a brief break, and then I welcome Connor onto the podcast here. The NHL, the NHL in general, it's been quite interesting the past few weeks. The wild card has gotten very interesting over in the east about Washington, with Pittsburgh, with Detroit, and it's all going to come down right to the final game of the season. It is going to be impressive, to say the least, from what we see from the teams going down the stretch. Are we going to see, are we going to see Toronto overtake Florida for whole ice? Are we going to see the Pittsburgh Penguins actually squeak into the, sneak in, say the right terms, sneak into the playoffs? Are we going to see Detroit get into the playoffs? Obviously, we know Tampa, the last wild card, is going to be very interesting. If you look over in the west, is it going to be Vegas against the Oilers? Is it going to be the Kings against the Oilers? Who is, who is Vancouver going to be playing? Are they going to ensure to stay ahead of the Oilers to clinch the division?
What's going to happen between stars and Avalanche? Obviously, the Jets, a little bit of a fall off, but it's going to be interesting. It's right down to the end, and what I think the most competitive conference is and what's going to be maybe a bit more exciting, and this may be a little bit of a surprise, given who I cheer for. But I think the Western Conference is going to have a lot of surprises. Right. To depend on how the playoff format goes, you have Vegas, who we know is going to come down that tunnel in game one. Mark Stone will all be back game one. We know that, and Vegas is going to activate their players and they're going to have their official roster that they corrupted around the and worked around the ltir rule. The the Oilers might be in tough. I'm thinking if I'm the Oilers, you don't want Vegas in that first round. Maybe it is good to beat them, but it doesn't matter who you play. But you know the Kings, you know how they play. You've beat them before. You know, maybe there's that edge, and then you can be prepped for the round two match. If it pause maybe against Vegas. Because if Vancouver has to pay Vegas, it's going to be tough. I do hope that it is Vancouver that goes on. And truly, I don't think Vancouver is a bust. I don't think this is a team that's going to be out in the first round. Do I think they're a Stanley cup team? No, I do not. I'm sorry. When I look at them and I see them comparison to Colorado, seven game series against Dallas or Edmonton, I feel like it can go either way. But there's something about Colorado that just seems like when Nate, when Nate Dog is going to be on on his game, he's going to be something special and Colorado is going to be something special, and they're very, very, very well built on the back end with some with some good, consistent goal tending. So I feel like Colorado's got to be the favorite coming out of the west, but it's going to be, I think, a more entertaining playoffs in the Western Conference that it is in the east. I hope I'm wrong, because I am a Toronto fan. I hope that if I am wrong, that I'm wrong because the Leafs made it exciting over there in the eastern side, but the east.
Look, I've talked about this on this podcast for a number of years, and of course, if you're listening to this podcast, you probably already are a fan of the Spit and Chiclets podcast, and you probably listen to Ryan Whitney and Paul bisonette talk about it where they wish it a different format. And I've said it on the show for many years. I know they've talked about it before. I know that biz and wet have their dream about a one in 16 seed matchup for the. For the playoffs, which we know, which will never happen. That's my dream too. But what I like to see everything go down to one eight. Absolutely. I know the intention of why they did it this way for Wyberry building for cause. Kind of a change in the format.
I don't agree with it. I truly think that if you are first in the NHL, first in your conference, whatever it may be, you should be playing the quote unquote weaker team that gets into the playoffs. That's the reward that you have for the season. Or nonetheless, why does it matter? If you win a division? Who cares? Who cares? You finish second or third, even if you want whole mice or not. Who gives a shit? You just want to get into the playoffs and you just want to make it. Because either way, you're going to be playing against someone who is absolutely gross. Especially if you're in the Atlantic. If it's Toronto against Florida, if you're Toronto against Boston, if you're Toronto against Tampa, it doesn't matter. Boston has to probably play the Tampa Bay Lightning. It's looking like in the first round, pretty, pretty sure it's going to be the Tampa Bay Lightning. Barring any leaps over the Toronto Maple lease or Florida or vice versa or something happening. But Tampa, Tampa's been hot. You think Boston wants to go up against Tampa in the first round? You think they'd rather up go up against Pittsburgh, Washington, Philly or the Islanders?
But if you're at it from a Toronto fan, who cares? You got to beat team to get there anyways, right? But think about this. The Florida Panthers last year get in as a wild card team. They beat Boston. After they beat Boston, they beat Toronto. After they beat Toronto, they beat Carolina. Sweep Carolina. Actually the only team that got swept, Carolina. Just thought I'd say that. Sorry, Carolina fans. You get to the Santa Clara final and for some reason, Bobrovski isn't the same. You have that little bit of a break in between, then you're playing the west. And let's just say it, I think Vegas had an easier road in terms of roughness, in terms of being. In terms of being more prepped for the finals, I think. And that can go both ways. You can take it that they had an easier road or a hard road, but Florida, at the end of the day, was in a different situation after that layoff in between, and they just couldn't compete with the playoff performance that Vegas had. They were likely, probably exhausted coming out of the east. I don't care if you sweep the Carolina Hurricanes? Those weren't easy games for Florida to win. Those were tough games. Every game was tough, especially that seven game series against Boston. That doesn't matter if they played Toronto in five games, though, that was still a tough series the Toronto played. I think Toronto played Florida tough despite what the outcome was. And I think even though it was a sweep, I think Carolina played Florida pretty tough. Either way, whatever conference you come out of this year, those teams are going to be exhausted and that ability to be in shape and take care of yourself, to not get injured, is going to be imperative for each team that gets out of their respective conference. The Stanley cup finals. I'm talking a little bit of the playoffs here, getting a little bit preview for the playoffs as we get set for playoff time. It's so exciting. Go. Anyway, as I said, I wanted to make sure that there was discussion about the playoffs and the playoffs around near the corner. And when Dan and Alex are able and potentially Justin are able to join me before a playoff preview show, we'll get into more discussion. But ultimately there's been a lot of news when it comes around the National Hockey League, especially today. And if you want to go back and listen to one of my clips that I discussed, feel free to do so because I did discuss relocation. And in one of those relocations I discussed a couple teams, I mentioned Houston. I said Kansas City, but there's one team that I said and one city, sorry, that would get a team and that is Utah. And based on Frank Ceravalis social media posts today, it seems that Arizona is very likely to potentially be relocating to Salt Lake City, to Utah. How exciting is that? I think that is great. I don't think Arizona should have a team. They play out of a college arena. They haven't had a strong fan base. They're looking at wanting to build a massive arena in a new location. How are you going to, are you going to get fans all of a sudden? Are fans going to come to this games? Are these games all of a sudden despite if you ice a team that's strong, competitive or not, obviously in the playoffs they were selling out pretty good. But still season, they don't make money and there's no that interest, I think in Arizona has done, it's completed, it's time to move the team. I think Salt Lake City is a terrific place and a terrific starting point for a relocation. Also in terms of that, we have heard that potentially there could be expansion to 34 teams. So if Arizona moves to Utah, that still remains at 32 teams. That means two more cities are likely to be expanded into the national Hockey League in the very near future. And teams city stories that I've mentioned, Houston and Kansas City. I feel like that's a fit. Ultimately though, we shouldn't even be starting a conversation without mentioning another canadian team. And no, not Hamilton. Not Hamilton. I have said this before. It needs to be Quebec City. I think that's a good spot. Or heck, I think they should try to look at Halifax. There's a lot of doubts in Winnipeg because this the of them being a bit smaller of a city for a national hockey team. Think of it over in the east coast. I think that there is an opportunity to attract that side of Canada. The travel cost maybe a little bit more than some teams, but you can still play them on the east coast. A team in Halifax. Why not another canadian team? You know that team is going to get more bums in seats than likely the Florida Panthers do. Sorry, Florida. And of course to the Arizona Coyotes and some teams that are already at the bottom. I think that's a start. Would they do it? I don't know. They would need to build a rank. I think there needs to be some, some more process to that. But it seems like ultimately that we are going to see another team in the National Hockey League from a relocation standpoint. That's Arizona to Salt Lake. Not confirmed. It might change tomorrow, might change right now in the event that when I'm recording, but ultimately we are going to see a team it looks like join National Hockey League based on a relocation. That's Arizona to Utah. Let me know what you think. I'll tell you what I think very simply. Utah. Hell yeah. I want to see it. I think it's a great idea. I think they have a great plan. I think they will get a good fan base and ultimately anything is better than playing Arizona. And I'm sorry, Arizona fans, you've had the opportunity. It hasn't worked out. Let's move on. Things I think will be on the better side in Utah. We won't be doing a redraft today because I'm not going to do a redraft by myself. I don't really think that's necessary. With our last Redraft, which is on our recent social media post, you can check that out on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. It's a 1987 NHL Redraft, the year the Sidney Crosby was born. So you could check that out and give us your feedback. We'll be doing a redraft at the next segment of the Game sports podcast. And of course on this recording, we are recording on April 10. So that is a Wednesday. This will be released on Thursday. So there might be some news that I'm off on and if I am, I do apologize. I hope that isn't the case. But ultimately we will have a show next week. We do plan to have one on Monday and or Wednesday next week. For the time being, for the remaining month of April, we are going to be remaining at one new show a week. As we look to approaching the playoffs and things occur more, we will go back to two shows a week, but as summer approaches, we will going back to one show a week with also special edition uploads on top of that where a lot of our special edition shows are uploaded in the spring and summertime going into the fall. Speaking of special Edition shows, our next ones with Rob Black.
You don't want to miss that look. He is fantastic and friend of the show, friend of me, of mine in with Brooksie. Terry Ryan had a picture with him on social media and I had to share some of my comments on that. It was great to see two friends of the game sports podcast upload a picture and Rod Black is going to be a fantastic show. You definitely don't want to miss a lot of memories that he has from the booth. That should, that will be out next week. That will be with Rod Black.
I've talked hockey. I kept it very simple with the hockey discussion.
I want to go to one more segment before I bring in Connor and wrap up my points. My thumbs up. Okay, I'm going to do a thumbs up. I haven't done this in many, in a couple years. Obviously, Scott and I used to do a thumbs up segment. Scott, myself, EJ, Butch used to do a thumbs up segment at the end of the show and I want to bring this back just because it's me here and I want to bring a few thumbs up. I'm going to go with two hands, but it's going to have multiple topics. Number one, the March Madness. I think the storylines in the March Madness were great. Zag Edie, the storylines. That guy took Purdue to the final. He was an absolute stud in the March Madness tournament. The kid is a stud. UConn, obviously getting the win over Purdue and Yukon's just looking like a unbeatable school program right now. They're looking solid. Things are still looking good for a future standpoint. They won back. They've won. They've won. They beat Purdue. I thought obviously this year I was siding with, with EJ. I thought Houston, this was their year to do it. But I gotta say, I'm a Duke fan. And to see Duke do what they did, I thought it was very, very impressive. NC State, you can't take that away for what they did. But ultimately, March madness going to, for the female side, South Carolina. For the male side, you got UConn. But Purdue with Zack Edie getting the loss. Guy the guy took was a work, was just an absolute stud in the game. Caitlin car Clark over in the female side, losing with, with Iowa, absolute stud, declaring for the draft. She's going to be in the WNBA. She's going to be Emma Sabrina. She's going to be the greatest female basketball player of all time. I'm going to say that right now, she's. When she's done playing, we're going to start. We're going to say that about her. She is unbelievable. And they're going to be retiring her number in Iowa, number 22. And the season just, just completed. Okay, that's got to be one of the quickest turnarounds for Jersey retirement. And it's well deserved. So thumbs up, march Madness. Thumbs up, Zach Edie and Caitlin Clark. And I guess I should give double thumbs up to Yukon and of course to South Carolina for pulling off the win there at March Madness. What a great tournament. My bracket was completely wrong after the first day. And obviously EJ's predictions were incorrect. But I got to also give a little round of applause on a thumbs up to the program I cheer for. Duke was a great step forward. I thought. I didn't think they'd go as far as it did despite the seed that they had. I thought maybe another couple years away before we start looking at Elite Eight final, that type area. But obviously, when you lost to NC State, kind of a little bit of a wake up there. But NC State was a little Cinderella story for you to see to a degree. And overall great to see. So I got to give a extra kudos, a little bit of bias to the Duke Blue Devils team that I cheer for.
All right? I've talked WrestleMania. I've talked hockey. I've talked March Madness. It is time to take a break. And going to be talking about baseball. Yes. Connor and I are going to be talking about 1015 minutes, about the world of the MLB as the season has begun. And we're about ten to 15 games in for teams. It's kind of a wide range, mostly around the 1213 14 mark for a lot of teams. And there's been some interesting storylines up to this current point, but the season obviously is still very early and there's a lot of games to go for some teams, 150 something's 148 147. Lots of baseball to be played and there'll be a lot to talk about throughout the year. But we want to make sure that as we have new shows that we have Connor and myself bring you that baseball content regularly. Now, I didn't forget, and I know there's some people that may be tuning into seeing if I hear this part, so I may as well say it. I do play men's league hockey and the men's league team that I'm on before I get into bringing Connor. So I apologize if you expect that. I was going to take a break and give you 60 seconds of something that you may like to hear. The world of hockey, yours truly still does play hockey, of course, and 32 years old, been playing hockey after my junior days, ever since I stopped playing because I obviously can't stop playing when you stop or when you play it your whole life. And I play in a league in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario called the mayors and we play in the open division and it's a very competitive division. Very good amount of hockey players on division. Every team has players that has played junior college, maybe not even, but are still very good hockey players. Have some ex pros x oh ers. It's very, very wide range. And yours truly actually plays with Brendan Brooks, who's on the game sports podcast. The special edition shows for the most part. But the, this tournament, the team that we play for, we averaged about five or six guys a night. That's what we got in our, in our games. And we won three games all year. And we got absolutely spanked in every game. Spanked. Like some games were close, but for the most part they were not close. It was a tough season to grind. Now in this tournament, we finished our round robin today. Yeah, we finished two, two and one. Yes, there was a, there was a tie. Very interesting. Zero, zero, tie. It was. It was fantastic. Men's league game finishing zero, zero. Can't get any better than that. But we did lose our last round robin game today. For the last four games, yours truly has been playing defense. Yes, I play forward. Anybody that knows me playing d is you would never have thought that. But for some reason I think I channeled my inner Brian McCabe. There's a little nostalgia for you and getting some points on the blue line, playing some d, playing well at it. Until today. Um, I was told that as I was making jokes in the locker room. I got walked about three times today. Uh, mostly because I was watching the puck and kind of just got walked around. And when they dangled me, one guy went top chat backhand. The other guy walked out, deked out the goaltender. The other one, the guy stripped. The guy was a nice, he just buried it. It was a nice shot. So I got walked, and I kind of had a wake up call that, you know what? Despite how well I feel like I played on d today, I realized that I'm not a defenseman. It was quite embarrassing on my end. So I was told that I should make this episode called I got walked. I won't be doing that, as you'll see in the title, I think, well, maybe I will. If I did do it, then you know that I changed my mind. But no, I don't think I should do that. It's not, this is not about that game. But I'm sure that me telling the story about me playing defense in men's league and how good my team has turned around at season. Look, if you're on a men's league team and you're just about to hit your tournament end of season tournament, if you've had a bad year, look, anything can happen, okay? My team that I'm with is currently going to semis. We play tomorrow in the semis against a very good team. Every final four teams are obviously very good. It's going to be a challenge, and it's all overall going to be good hockey. But if you played competitive hockey, I do hope that you're still playing, and hopefully you're one of those guys that the boys need you to go on d. You go on d and you sacrifice it, especially in the end of the year tournament, look, all for the marbles to the win, right? You got to have that pride. You got to be known that you won the mayors. If you're in Sault Ste. Marie, that's the old little running joke. But ultimately, always be a team guy. That's my message for the day. But hopefully next game, I'm back up front because today there's a very, very big eye opener that despite what the success I've had the past few games, it's time for me to move back up to the offense. I think I got walked. That took me more than 60 seconds. So it's almost a minute and a half, two minutes. I'm going to take my break now and little sip of my beverage, and then Connor is going to be joining yours truly here on the game sports podcast to talk a little baseball. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back to the Game Sports podcast. I am joined by Connor Henderson, the man, the myth, the legend, the rookie of the year. If you know, you know. Connor Henderson, my friend, feels good to say your name. It feels good to have you on here today. It's been a couple weeks as I talked about the beginning since we have it and have had a new show and you were involved in our recent news show, so that shows it's been a few weeks. Absolutely. So welcome to tonight's show and we're happy that you're here to talk a little bit of baseball with us today.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: Yeah, it's good to be back, Dave. And we've got the start of the regular season well underway now. We're about ten or eleven games in for most teams and we've got a lot to chat about. So I'm looking forward to sneaking this segment in here right before we all get ready for bed. It's getting late at night.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: It is. We are recording a little bit late here on the game. That's because of yours truly's hockey and also because I dragged the other segment on a little bit longer. But again, we are recording a little bit late, but lots of baseball to get into and it's kind of challenging, Connor, to be honest, to talk about baseball day in and day out. Right. Unless you're talking about it the morning of, then the next morning of, then the next morning of. Right. Obviously with our show, we're pre recording. This is going to be uploaded at some point tomorrow, mid afternoon. Given the time and editing that we have to do that, yours truly does his own editing now at this point for a majority of the shows. Spoiler for everybody.
No, I will not edit your stuff. I will help you though. Just kidding. But again, you know, there's baseball, not world. The games happen every day, right. Teams are playing 162 games so we don't dive into games more. So we just talk about the hot news that's going on for each show. So just so everyone knows, if you're new to visiting us, that's what we're going to be talking about here. And I already alluded that the opener. But again, just to remind you and Connor, as you mentioned, we're just a dozen ish bit more, bit less games in and teams have started this season and some teams have started as expected, aka the Chicago White Sox. If you want to talk about one team, the Miami Marlins being one and eleven at this point, didn't guess that. I thought maybe they'd be closer to maybe 500, but yikes. That team is, yikes. I don't, I don't, I don't know if the tie of Marlins fans, I'm so sorry. It's just not looking too good for you. But the Pirates, nine and three, didn't have that on my docket. The, the San Francisco Giants, five and eight, maybe I had that on my docket. They got Rockies being three and ten. I absolutely had that on my rocket or my docket. The Rock, the Dodgers being ten and five. I thought they'd be actually probably perfect record. I thought to be 15 and all at this current point, not ten and five. If you're looking over at the AL, the Yankees, ten and two, really dislike saying that at this current point, but they're good. Their top five live, their lineup is absolutely gross. The Orioles, six and four, guardians, nine and three, Tigers seven and four. Love that start for the Tigers. The, the, obviously the American League west, seeing the Astros at the bottom. Gotta love it for a team that's been good last few years, time to maybe start being on the other side of things. But, Connor, it's been a hot and cold start and a mess start for a lot of teams. And for, if you're a Blue Jays fan or if you are a Tigers fan, I think if you're a Tigers fan, you're happy at this point that you're in this position. If you're a Jays fan, you're like, here we go again.
Season of where you don't know if it's going to be up, down, and we're, it's only 13 games in. At this current point of recording, people hold the brakes. Okay? There's still a lot of baseball to be played, but Connor, it's always important to be hot out of the gate. And your Tigers, they're roaring, if you will, out of the gate.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: It's true. And the Tigers have been notoriously terrible in April over the last three or four seasons. Basically, as soon as AJ Hinch has taken over the team, they've struggled to get off to a good start. So it was critical this year for them to have that good April. And you can't discount the games just because it's early on. As you mentioned, it's a hugely excessive and long season. But these games matter, especially when it comes down to the dog days of summer and you're creeping into September and you're in a dog fight for first or second place in your division, and you start thinking back, man. If we could have had one or two more wins in April or May, that would have been fantastic. Tigers fans are feeling great about their pitching, especially their bullpen.
Their hitting is hot garbage, but a lot of their guys are young and that's what you get when 40 or 50% of your batting lineup is in their first or second season in the MLB. There's just simply not a lot of experience in their lineup. Some fans are pissed because the team didn't spend this off season and that's justifiable.
Some people are especially pissed, saying that the fandom as a conglomerate as a whole has sort of let ownership and management off the hook for not being more aggressive that they didn't spend. But so far early on in the season, the results are positive. They can't possibly keep winning a bunch of one run games and their bullpen can possibly continue to shut out every single batter they face.
[00:39:37] Speaker A: But steady as she goes, I think the hot start so imperative in baseball because when you get down to the middle and the end of the season, sure, everyone talks about how you finished, right? But there's those games in a season where you're going to lose those games you should have won. There's going to be those games that you win that you shouldn't have won. And these games at the beginning of the year are very good because they help set you up. Right. But let's look at the Yankees. They were hot last year out of the gates, if I'm remembering correctly. I was looking back, they're really hot this year out of the gates. And if you look at their top five in their lineup, that's a scary five that, that's hard for any pitcher to, to play against. But the Tigers in general, this is a young team with a lot of young talent. Thorkelson, look at Green list goes on. I'm a school ball fan.
I'm a fan of his and I would love to see Casey Myers get back to or, you know, that's somebody who you had a lot of hope if you're a Tigers fan, right. And there's more, obviously, but I'm not going to get into the list. I just think that the bullpen has been so impressive for the Tigers to start out. I think a hot start's been pretty big. And I think you, when you mentioned fans not being happy that they didn't sell, it's a lot different than any other sport when it comes to baseball.
I don't know why the Tigers didn't spend. I feel like there's a lot of room. The JT Martinez is right. When he was still available, I don't think they would have maybe looked at Blake Snell. I don't think that's something that they were maybe in the market for, but I think a bat was something that they were in the market for. Right. That would have been a nice addition with Meggy getting out and maybe adding another nice DH like Martinez would have been nice to bring in on a one year deal and if you're not in a playoffs by the deadline, you trade them for some assets. I am a big fan of asset management. I know baseball is a, is completely different than other sports with that, but I'm a firm believer asset management, if you can trade somebody for future assets, prospects, whatever it may be, that can help your team. Baseball so unique where you don't have to draft someone in the first round for them to turn out to be a stud. They could be 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, does not matter. Those picks can be very important in your draft as long as you have a strong scouting. And I think the Tigers do have strong scouting. Look at what they have drafted. Right. I think there's some players that still have to break out if you're a Tigers fan.
[00:41:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
I think one of the players like most notably to break out is Colt Keith.
[00:41:56] Speaker A: He is.
[00:41:58] Speaker B: Yeah. They're starting second baseman. And the neat story for those listening who don't know is he signed a six slash, nine year old contract extension before he ever played a game in the MLB, which is one of those trendy new deals that you used to never ever see this in baseball. But now teams like the Tigers are trying to be economical and say, hey, listen, we will back up a dump truck of $30 million and you can take it right now.
And if your career pans out, you're probably underpaid, but you're guaranteed that floor. And worst case scenario, you could be the worst player ever. You're getting 6789 years of pay and until you're 31 years old, your family for generations is set for life. So that's one guy who, he can mash the ball, his defense is, but he can mash the ball and he's got great play discipline, great power, and he's one of those guys they drafted in the fifth round out of high school in the Casey Mys draft who just tore his way through the minor leagues and now he's been batting 6th for them. And this is his first ever season and he's already on a, on a long long term deal. Hopefully that pans off, that pans up for the Tigers.
[00:43:17] Speaker A: That's so, that's so smart to do. And you're seeing training deals now. Look at, look at Shohei's deal, right? There's, we talked about his name, but it's true, right? It can't be mad. It's, it's, it's the way that you find loopholes around contracts. And that's why you have analysts, you have salary specialists, you have people in those positions and even scouts that are recommending to the GM that, hey, look, look at this guy. Tear up the miners, give this guy the, give this guy the dump truck back up. Give him the money. Give him what we can now lock him up. Give him this sales pitch for it so we can sell it. Go to his agent. If his agent agrees, likely he's going to agree. Right. Because they're going to be a team. He's a young guy. But if in baseball in general, for Keith and for other players, a lot of the big paydays don't really come until you hit that 30 30. Look at George Springer. Right. Like he was playing on, don't worry. Don't get me wrong, he's making some good money in Houston, but he got that big payday once the Blue Jays paid him after he was successful, won a World Series. He was. But he was 30, 31, right. Believe he's 33 now. If I have his age, correct, I don't have it up on screen, but don't at me if I'm wrong, okay? I'm pulling this out of a hat, okay? And this is somebody who's making $25 million a year. You get your payday when you get to a certain degree. So when Keith gets older, he's in, this contract's done, and he's still, if he is a stud, the way is, it turned out to be, he's going to get a payday again from the Tigers or someone like the Dodgers, someone from the Yankees. I'm sure they're still going to be annoying as hell in the future. They're going to be buying them. Maybe the Las Vegas A's at that point are going to be, whatever they're going to be at that point will be. They'll give him the bigger money at that point. But I think the Tigers are very smart. The Blue Jays did a similar thing with Lotus Guriel junior when they had him. Right. They originally signed him as a second baseman. He ended up resorting to left fielder, but they signed him for five plus year deal. And I think that was a fair deal for him. And every time I bring him up, I think of Gabrielle Moreno. Such a stupid trade.
Anyways, just being smart with contracts and players develop differently in baseball. It's very unique. Scouting is a whole different animal in baseball. So, Connor, I, I know we just got a few minutes, and I don't really got. I know we talk Jays and Tigers pretty commonly on the show, but I'm going to go to another team in this division that we've talked about a little bit that are in the AL east, the Orioles.
Jackson holiday gets his debut right at this time that we talk, it's his first hit on a field as choice or, sorry, his first RBI on a field is choice. He's wearing number seven, Ripken's number, and they're fine with him wearing it. I'm sorry, if I'm holiday, I wouldn't be wearing any number that somebody wore that was a legend. I'm not a fan of that. But again, I don't care what blessing you get to wear it. There's no way that if Mario Lemieux called me and said, david, you can wear 66, I'm not wearing 66, I'm not wearing 99, you know, allowed to wear it. Anyways, from talking hockey in baseball, I'm not wearing number 42, Jackie Robinson, because I called Jackie Robinson's kid and got permission. Okay, you can't. But again, I'm not a fan. If I'm enjoying a team that's a legend, like number 19, Jose Bautista, I think that's a very important number in Blue Jays history. A lot of moments in Toronto. I don't think anyone should wear 19 with the Blue Jays. No one is. But if I'm a baseball player, I wouldn't go wear 19 with the Toronto Blue Jays. Okay? It's just, it's just a thing you don't do. Jackson Holiday is a phenom. He's going to be a stud. And the Orioles are going to be so annoying in the next few years with, with Connor's cousin that I say every. It's not Gunnar Henderson, but Jackson Holliday, Colton Kauser. I'm already forgetting a few names. Oddly, oddly, Russ. Okay. Can't forget about Adley. Like, they, they're going to be gross. They're winning a World Series. There may be more than one World Series, that team. But we're in number seven. Connor, I got to tell you. No, no, no, no. Should have 77. Maybe. Maybe you could have went with 77 or just any other number that nobody has. Like, I feel like that's. You got to be a pretty big name. I know Jackson is a phenom. I get it. But I feel like we're, number seven isn't the right choice. But you gotta admit, the Orioles, despite being six and four at this point, when we're talking, this team is going to get hot soon, and they got a very exciting young team. You cannot, it's hard to dislike this team. It's really hard because of what they have. Yeah.
[00:47:34] Speaker B: They're fully loaded and they're young and they're good. It's a deadly combination.
My dad trained me in the Cal Ripken way growing up. That was, that was the coaching school that he, he beat into me as a young child, metaphorically, like, with ground balls and hitting stances, not, and, yeah, so it was, you know, a lot of love going, going out there that way. But, yeah, no, it's an exciting team to watch. I just realized the jersey number scandal is very small in terms of the baseball scandals, and we don't really have time to dig into this right now, but maybe on our next show, we can see if there's any more developments, since all we do is talk about scandals on this. To the Shohei oh, Tawny, your best friend, and the, the gambling scandal. We'll be digging into the investigations on that.
[00:48:25] Speaker A: Yeah, we've only dived into it a little bit in our brief. We just brought it up because we're waiting for more. And you're right, we didn't allow time for it on this segment. But next, next episode, we're going to talk not only just jersey number scandals, let's bring up the Shohei oh tani scandal here. Because the gambling.
I'll say it. He did. He's in the wrong. Shohei did something in the wrong, and Shohei should still should be suspended to pending investigation. I said, I said, I know you're guilty. You prove your instant of proven guilty. Right. That, that's the thing. But the same time, pending investigation, there's no way, Connor, that he had no idea money was coming up his bank account. I know we don't have the time, but there's, there's, I'm sorry. We'll leave it at that. We'll leave it at that. But let's. Definitely next week or the week after we have you on, we'll continue it.
[00:49:14] Speaker B: Dave, this baseball, our baseball segment is just gonna turn into, like, a true crime baseball podcast. All right? Like, from now on, we're just, we're doing steroids. We're doing gambling. That's it.
[00:49:24] Speaker A: All right. The biggest upset that upsets me in baseball is Pete Rose. How he's not in the hall of fame. That does upset me. I know I'm not alone with that. I know I'm not alone with the Pete Rose stuff. But the last thing I want to say, con, before we give a little bit of love to local thing, I want to give a thumbs up and I think you'll agree to the Pittsburgh Pirates hot start. Nine and three. You know, McCutcheon's looking like a little younger. They got a lot of young talent on that team. I'm an O'Neal Cruz fan. The guy's a beast. That guy can hit bombs. That guy can hit from Pennsylvania. And I'll see it in my backyard. Key Brian Hayes. That guy in the field is platinum level. That that third baseman skill plus he gets on base. He's a strong hitter. You got to get credits, credit to the Pirates. I don't know if they're going to sustain this. I didn't see them being the team to do so. But it's good to see a team that's usually dog shit. Sorry, going to say it, don't. There's the swear first. Shit first where of the segment and the only, I promise you, but the Pirates got to give them credit, Connor. Got to give them credit. They're looking hot out of the gate. Just like the Tigers looking hot. Still a lot of baseball left. Look, 140 plus games to go. Okay. They can lose every game up, too, but this is, this is a good start for them.
[00:50:39] Speaker B: No, absolutely. Got to enjoy it while it lasts. You know what I mean? We'll see how long they can sustain, but it's fun to see.
[00:50:45] Speaker A: Will the Marlins lose 150 games this year? Yes.
[00:50:49] Speaker B: Yeah, they're on track. They're on track to lose, what, 155 games? I say they do it.
[00:50:57] Speaker A: I over or under? Let us know below. Over under. Marlins losing 120.
[00:51:03] Speaker B: I have, they just have. If they believe in themselves, they can, they can do it.
[00:51:08] Speaker A: They can lose 120. Make me and Connor very happy. Do you think the Marlins will lose 120 games? More or less? Comment below. Interaction on TikTok is great. We'd love it here on the game sports podcast and social and instagram and all social medias. But don't hesitate to hit that. Follow if you're doing it. Connor. I want to get to a little bit of love before we wrap up because I know we're a couple minutes over local baseball.
We don't go into too much local here. What we do, we do as much as we can. We talk a mix.
And the only thing that I'll say from my local front, I want to give you the floor briefly on the local front is men's league baseball is soon to start. A month and a couple weeks, I believe May after May long, I believe is when we start or just before, give or take. The 91 n pandas looking for three peat without Connor on the official roster again.
[00:52:00] Speaker B: You cut that dead weight and you just never lost since.
[00:52:04] Speaker A: Oh, Connors a stud in baseball. Hopefully everyone knows that on the show, but friend of the show and annoying team member. I said it, love them. And I'm sure I'll get flack for that response on here if he listens. Jokes aside, he's a very good baseball player. His name's Ashley Hoff. Got to give him credit. Words do. He is very good at baseball, despite how he likes to chirp and get under people's skin. He bought a sweater with our panda logo in our chat. And in the bottom left of that logo, it's a 91 n. And on the back of it, if I can put it on the screen, I will. If I could figure that out, if at the time I'll put on screen for you without showing his face, I don't have his approval.
Says back to back at my wedding, this guy was yelling back to back during speeches up there. And he, Nathan Inch, another friend of the show, and fake wrestle the show, wrote on our wedding book, back to back on every page. On the back of the page. Okay, this is Hoffs. This is Hoffs. Go to here. Okay. Baseball. He got a sick sweater. I gotta, I gotta give him credit where it's due. I think that is. That sweater is awesome. I think maybe the team should get behind that. We should have team sweaters this year. I love that. It's not in the sponsorship money, just so everyone knows.
But nonetheless, baseball season is around the corner locally for men's league and the 91 Mpanders are defending their title. If you're in Sue Samarine, you want chirp us. That's great. If you join the league, great. We do have another team in the league this year. JJ Bergamin, former panda, made a team. You got another team there. You gotta love it. Gonna be competitive. If you're in a. In a community that doesn't have hard, hardball, fast pitch, whatever way you want to call it, you should start it. It's very entertaining. Con, I want to give you the floor with some local. I know the Black Sox have started their season, much to my surprise. I totally did not track that it did happen. And they had some success this past couple games. Yeah, yeah.
[00:53:57] Speaker B: They had their first two games today, actually, and they're 20. They played against Boyne City in Michigan on an away game set for the doubleheader, and they don't have their overagers with them yet. So some of the familiar faces that we've seen both star for the Sioux college Cougars and on a couple out of town college programs were not playing for them. So this was their high school only roster that picked up these two wins, and they're off to a great start on the season. It's really exciting to see Mike Lebel back at the helm for the Black Sox and the U 18 program, and a couple familiar faces we'll hopefully hear from throughout the course of the year, but a great start so far.
[00:54:35] Speaker A: Definitely hopes for the show is that we'll cover some, but it'd be nice to get some people on the show as a guest to give them a little bit of feedback. And obviously, there's a lot that we try to get into here on the game. So if you are a part of the program here in the sewer or you have a program that you want us to promote, let us know. We will definitely talk about it in more detail. I know we just gave it a couple minutes here, but we do usually do more just with time constraints on tonight's show. Given the time of this recording. You gotta be mindful of that. And Connor, speaking of the time, it is time to wrap up the show and it's also pretty near bedtime. I'm a pretty tired lad today. I'm sure you're getting there, too. It comes with the age. Nonetheless, I appreciate you taking the time. It's always a pleasure, especially in the summer. You and I get to connect more if it's weekly or bi weekly. I know last year was monthly. It won't be like that. This year. We hope to have more of a weekly bi weekly because more to talk about with baseball in the summer than there is hockey, football and basketball. So there's. So there's a lot to talk about baseball. So season just getting started. There's a lot of good storylines already, such as Jackson Holiday, Shohei Ohtani's scandal. There's a lot to get into, but we'll dive in more hopefully next week or the week after. My friend, thanks for taking the time tonight.
[00:55:46] Speaker B: Thanks, Dave. Have a great night, too.
[00:55:49] Speaker A: That's Connor Henderson the one only rookie of the year. If you know, you know, if you figure it out, let me know. Again, I want to thank you to you, the listeners of the Game sports podcast, viewers, audio wherever you are like follow subscribe comment goes a long way for us. The interaction on tick Tock, especially with the 100 assist 70 goals. Listen, over 6000 of you viewed that tick tock. Don't hesitate to hit follow when you when you feel those, okay? Or maybe there was a lot of comments, but don't hesitate to put more comments, okay? Nonetheless, the game Sports podcast the next episode for the game, we do plan to be next week, so keep an eye out for that and we will have a special edition upload up coming again as well with Rod Black, famous Sportscaster, which would be very exciting for you to for us to upload to you. Until next time. David McCag here with the game Sports podcast on behalf of Conor and everyone here with the game, I am here to remind you, keep your stick on the ice, swing your bats, catch your touchdowns, ring your threes and shoot your shots. Booyah.
