Transcript of Hour 2: All Heat And No Light (feat. Al Michaels & Adnan Virk)

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Look at him. One of the best. One of my favorites and one of the best to ever do it. He's got that pen in his hand. He's probably doing a card for next season. He's Probably preparing for game one of next season. It's not a golf card, is it? What's that pen for, Al Michael?

I'm writing checks. We had the refrigerator guy was here yesterday, the landscaper last week. Yeah.

Okay.

Not a Zell guy?

I'm just trying to make sure I'm not overdrawing. Simple as that.

Just writing checks. So you're not doing it the way... So do you object the way I do? I just got into a fight with a valet because they wouldn't take my cash. You like doing it cash and checks. No Zell, no Venmo. Just take my hard-earned American cash.

I am old school. Now, if you want to take a Bitcoin, they've tried to explain to me what this Bitcoin thing is, what the virtual currency is. Sorry, folks. Don't understand one iota of that.

Al, it's money, but on the computer.

It's money, but on the- You know what? You have to mine it. I'm still living in the green stamp world. You guys have no idea what that is. I don't know what that means.

I do. No, I know what you mean, but I, too, am old.

If you collected 48 million green stamps, you got a pillow or something like that. It was crazy.

Put it on the poll, please, @Levitar Show, because Tony just went, What? Put it on the poll. Do you know what it means to collect 46,000 green stamps and get a pillow? Al Michael's as obviously the most miraculous and memorable sports call of all time, but he's been doing football for a long time. It resonated with me, Al, when you said, Being in Chicago, look, I've been here 30 times, but I've never felt this place feel like this. The moments this season that you got, Thursday Thursday night football has reinvented itself. It used to be terrible games, no longer. What are the signature moments for you this year where you felt the strongest and it reminded you about all the things you love about sports?

Well, certainly that night in Chicago, which was a tremendous game, and it looked like the packers were going to run away. I think it was 21 to three at the half, 21: 06 going into the fourth quarter. And that was the night when sound has feel. Having been to Soulja Field, I think that was my 31st bears game since starting back in the mid '80s, and you could feel it shaking, feel the building shaking. So that would be one thing, obviously, that we wrapped up Thursday night football with on a Saturday night. But also, I think the game of the year, and it seems to be a movable feast now, was the Ram Seattle game back in, I think, week 16 in Seattle, the one where the Rams looked like they had it won. Shahid runs back the put, makes it a one-score game. They wind up winning it after the Rams had scored an overtime, a shutdown. Back come the Seahawks, get that two-point conversion. I think people at that point thought that was the game of the year. We've had a couple of more games of the year since then as well.

Are the Seahawks better than the Rams?

I think they are. I think the difference between those two teams right now might be special teams. And that's been the bugaboo for the Rams all season long. Had to fire their special teams coordinator, finally found the right kicker who came in. He did well. But the punt-return situation in Seattle, really, basically, when you think about it, a lot of plays come together to cost you a game, but I think none was bigger than muffling that punt, having Seattle recover and score a shutdown on the next play. I think both teams are so evenly matched. They played three tremendous games this season, but I give Seattle a slight advantage.

Have you heard or seen anything about the Bill Belichick not making the Hall Fame on the first ballot that you have personally found stimulating, interesting, and what are your opinions there?

Well, I think what's interesting, Dan, is that, and I go back to the baseball Hall of Fame in maybe the '70s, and I'll never forget when Willie Mays was eligible, and Willie was in his fifth year of retirement, and he got in, obviously, on the first ballot. But I think there were a couple of voters who did not vote for Willie. One of them was an esteemed sports editor in Atlanta who wrote a column about he did not vote for Willie Mays because Willie Mays, every time he came to town, wouldn't sit down to do an interview with him. He was off putting. He was a prick. So he did not vote for him, which tells me a lot of what I need to know about how this process works. There was another voter when I was working with Dan Dierdorff on Monday Night Football, and Dan eventually got into the Hall of Fame. But a man on the panel who had been a college player and had played the offensive line position, either guard or tackle, and was mad at Dan because he thought that Dan on television had become too much of an entertainer and not enough of an Xs and O's guys, so he didn't vote for him.

So you know how political this thing is? If you get mad at somebody and somebody did you wrong, maybe your little pound of flesh is not voting for him on the first ballot. But obviously, Belichick will get in.

What pisses you off the most about the way sports media coverage has changed?

Well, I think there's just a lot of stuff out there. I mean, I've always been a sickler for really trying to get everything right. Have I, of Of course not. I mean, I've made tons of mistakes for the years. You can't do as many games as I've done and not make a ton of mistakes. But I think right now, Dan, a lot of it is just, how can I make noise? How can I yell? How How can I scream? How can I get into an argument with people? And you see enough of these shows where to me, to sum it up, I guess basically, I would say it's more heat than light. Sometimes it's all heat and no light. I think that's the one thing that's so disturbing through the end. Of course, with the Internet now and social media or antisocial media, it's like everybody hates everybody.

Al, Netflix has the new documentary, Miracle: The Boys of '80, obviously about the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team.

Do you ever get tired of talking about the 1980 Olympic Hockey team and that whole experience?

I mean, it's the greatest call in the history of sports, your call. Well, you would think that I would be, but last week I was actually in Lake Placid. Anheuser-busch put together an event, had 2,000 people in the arena, did a hologram of the game, a holographic, whatever you call that thing. But anyway, they played the game and people on a screen. And during the game, the crowd in the arena that night, when the US would score, would cheer, and when the Soviets would score, they would boo. And then we had Mike Rusioni And Mark Johnson and Jim Cray came in. So the reason I think I don't get tired of it 46 years later is that when people want to talk to me about it, they're always happy. They're glowing. They think back to what it was. And obviously, most Most of the people now in the country don't even remember it live, but now they've seen it through the documentary on HBO, The Miracle Movie, obviously. They've heard the stories, they've read about it. And the Netflix documentary, I've seen it. It is great. And it's great because they brought all of the guys back and brought them into Lake Placer.

They were able to gather the whole group. Now you see them, who they are at this particular point in time and what it means to them. So it's a story that resonates. It's a story that, as I say, is going to be five decades old in four years, but it brings so much happiness and joy to people. That's why I think I never get tired of it.

I'm glad to hear you say that because even now getting to ask you stuff about it, I really love talking about it.

It makes me happy to talk about that. Did you know right after the game that you nailed the call? Did someone tell you, Oh, my God, amazing finish to the game?

And what are the parts of that call that people don't know? What are the untold parts of story and that call that you think are worth knowing that only you know?

Yeah, your question is- To me, I didn't go in with a thought about what would happen. First of all, Dan, I thought that the US had absolutely No chance to win the game. Zero. I'm not thinking about a win. And then they came from behind three different times. Outshot, 39, 16. Soviet space basically dominated the first 50 minutes of that game and I put enough pressure on in the last 10 minutes. So at the end of that game, when the crowd is going crazy, I'm just trying to concentrate on doing the play by play because that game could have ended with the Soviet scoring. So if I come up with a line and the Soviet score to tie the game, I mean, how stupid would that have sounded? So as the buck comes out to center ice, and I told this story a few times, obviously, through the years, the word that came into my head was miraculous, and it gave me a chance to think of something, and it got morphed into a question and an answer. Did I know the extent of what it meant to some people when I said it? Absolutely not, because there was so much franticness in the truck.

What are we going to do? They got to get the Brooks for a postgame interview. The crowd's going crazy. And in those years, it's so funny. In 1980, it's not like it is right now. It's analog television and all of the rest. And in the truck, Rune Arledge, who ran ABC Sports, was worried that since it was on tape delay, they'd play the tape and something, they'd be a technical problem. Sweden was playing Finland right after the US-Soviet game. It was a double header. So the crowd goes out the new crowd comes in that had the tickets for the second game. Arlej made Ken Drieden and me stay there and do the Sweden-Finland game into a tape machine, just in case it was a technical problem when the US was playing the and that was being aird on tape delay. I really didn't have a chance to even go out of the street and see what was going on and watching the people carry on. No. And it wasn't until I got back to the hotel after the Sweden-Finland game, the people said, Hey, that was the perfect ending. I had to think about exactly what I said because it was...

I mean, to me, it was a miracle. The US had no chance to win the game, but they did.

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Don Levatard.

But it's just his titties are sitting on the shelf that is his belly. Stugatz.

He said Titties. It shocked me a little bit.

I wasn't quite prepared for Titties. This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugatz.

Do you have a second favorite call?

There are a couple where I think I did the St. Louis, Tennessee Super Bowl after the '99 season that ended with Kevin Dyson not being able to get in. And I think I said something like, Can he get in? No, he cannot. And the Rams have won the Super Bowl. So you want to nail it at the end. And that's not a memorable line necessarily. It's just it spoke to the moment. And I think I also did, speaking of the Super Bowl that we have coming up, I did 11 years ago, the Seattle-New England game where Malcolm Butler made the interception. And that's one of those games where you just want to make sure you nail it. Otherwise, you live in posterity with what the hell did he just do? But I was able to identify Malcolm Butler, and I think the word that came out was unreal. So you want to capture the moment and not screw it up, basically.

Let's play for Al, Vin Scully's greatest regret when it comes to publicly speaking during games.

Back about my third year, about 1952, the Dodgers were playing Cincinnati, and Cincinnati had an outfielder named Lloyd Merriman.

I'll never forget it.

Lloyd hit a ball foul, and my mind told me to say, Hot shot hit foul.

No, no, no, no, no, And the reason I remember Lloyd Merriman, I started filling.

He's a former Marine Corps pilot, combat in Korea. I did on and on. That had to be considering how young I was. Yeah, that was about it.

You got one of those, Al?

You know, nothing like that. But I mean, Vinnie, of course, had some fantastic calls. None better than the year of the Probably Impossible has happened when Gibson hit the home run in the World Series in '88. The only time I think I got caught, not knowing I was on, we were in a short commercial. It was a game in Jacksonville, and Leslie Visser was our sideline and we came out of commercial faster than I thought. I got the wrong count from the truck. Leslie and I used to kid each other because she's a crazy Boston College alum. I said something like, Oh, Leslie, we just stopped with that Boston College shit already, and it made it on the air. But in those years, it was a big deal. Now, who cares? You watch any number of shows, and that's nothing.

We have, unfortunately, not enough time. I'd like to talk to him for hours. Do you have a Coselle story for us?

A number of them. I think the most famous one, which I've told a number of times, is in Kansas City when Howard had had a lot of drinks. We went to the Savoy Grill, and we're coming back. In those years, there were no budgets. You just did what you had to do. So a transportation was by limousine, and we had a woman by the name of Peggy. Every time there was a Monday night football game or a Monday night baseball game or a college football, like in Lawrence, Kansas, she would drive the ABC crew. And to make a long story short, we were driving back and Howard had an aquarium's worth of vodka at the Savoy Grill that night. And at a stop light, he sees a couple of kids having a fight on the street corner, and they're surrounded by six or seven other kids who are egging them on. And Howard gets out of the car, and he's got the toupee and the cigar, and he's wearing his yellow jacket because Howard always traveled with only the yellow jacket, the Canary yellow. And he comes out of the car, and I'm trying to grab him.

And there's no cell phones. You can't call for help at that particular point. And I'm thinking, Oh, God, they're going to jump him. And he goes, It's quite apparent to this trained observer, the young Southpaw does not have a jab requisite for the continuation of this raid. Furthermore, his opponent is a man of inferior and diminishing skills. This confrontation is halted post-haste. So now you have all these mouths that are agape. They're going, What? And then, fortunately, they recognize them instead of jumping him. Somebody goes, Howard Cossel. Howard Coselle, he pats them on the head. Somehow, a writing utensil gets produced. He signs a couple of autographs on their shirts, and one guy had a hat, and he pats them on the head, and he gets back into the car. It was so surreal. It was crazy. We get back in the limousine, and Howard's got the cigar going and the whole thing. And Peggy gets out of there as fast as she can. I can't say anything. It's so stunning. She couldn't say anything. She gets about two block stops in another stoplight, looks into the rearview mirror and says, Mr. Coselle, I've been driving for 30 years.

I thought I'd seen everything. I have never seen anything like that. Howard leans back and says to her, Pegaroo, just remember one thing. I know who I am. And away we went. It was crazy.

Great story, and he was wearing the yellow Monday Night football jacket.

Yeah, he'd wear that. Howard, he'd love to be in the lobby. He'd be regaling people and all that. And he and Jim McKay, they never really got along. Up particularly well. I think Howard was always jealous of the fact that Jim got to sit in the anchor seating Munich and announced when the hostages were being held and eventually killed at the Munich Olympics. So I'll never forget, Howard is sitting in the... We're doing the Kentucky Derby one year, and Howard's in the lobby, and Jim is checking in, and he's got five or six people around him. And he looks over at McKay and he goes, Jimmy, look, Look at this. There's no place I can go to be alone. And McKay did not break stride, taking his suitcase up to the room toward the elevator. And he says, Howard, did you ever think about your room? Those are crazy days.

He'll be returning to Amazon Prime Videos, Thursday Night Football for another season of NFL coverage in 2026. Always good seeing you out. Thank you for making the time.

Dan, anytime. I really enjoyed that long session we had in LA this the spring. Maybe we do that again.

Likewise. Would love to. South Beach Sessions. Pitchcock, next.

Don Lebetard.

Can I tell you something?

I don't know, maybe like a month ago, and I decided to watch Pitchcock, and I told Jeremy- Stugats This is a good show you're doing.

This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugats.

Did we get promoted to a bigger studio? There's a graphic and everything. We are back. Welcome to the PitchClock. Here's the pitch, a two-part baseball segment combining a nostalgic baseball trivia game and an interview with an expert. This is the PitchClock. It's 2026. Happy New Year. And I can say that because it's the first day of pitch clock, baseball, back here, New Year. Hey, Chris. Hi, everybody. Hey, we still do that. You forget about that bit? I did. I'm glad we brought it into the year 2026. For the podcast listeners, I had to point to myself there to cue Jeremy to toss it to me for that. Well, we brought that back. We also brought Ethan back. Hey, Ethan. Why'd you do that? Some things you want to bring back, some... Some things you don't. Then you bring me back. I get hate over there, and we have to dish it to you over here. So, Ethan, what's our Trivia Game for this very first episode of the Pitch Clock in 2026? We're going to draft a team of seven infielders, and what we're going to do is we're going to add up their home run totals between 2005 and 2009.

We're going right into the wheelhouse, boys. And whoever has the most home runs is the winner. And this is positionally? Can we take all first basement or all third basement? No. I would like for you to select at least one of each, and then you have your pick for three. So four starters, let's say, and then three bench players. That's basically what we're doing for it. And we're only picking infielders. This is a good one. Okay. And this is the seven combined totals, not your starter's totals. Correct. The seven combined total. Yep. So let's knock out. Let's plan on in our first four rounds, knocking out our starting infield. You can use your strategy. I'll use mine. Well, no, we should have a rule for that, where you have to get one of each position. I think get one of each first, and then we'll go three starters. We're not talking about catcher, including infield, right? First, second, third. No. Chris, you get the first pick amongst all of these. Alex Rodriguez. That is obviously a great pick. Yeah, thank you. Aarod hit 202 home runs between 2005 and 2009. All right, well, I'll go ahead and knock out first baseman, Albert Pujos.

Pujos, second in this time span with 206. Keep that engaged. Let me get Jim Thome. Jim Thomey would be the answer there, not Jim Thome. He's doing a thing. Jim Thomey had 141. There it is. 141. I'm trying to think. Going around the league in my brain. I'm going shortstop. Miguel Tejada. Miguel Tejada. All right. I don't think... I just don't know. That's good. It's A-Rod. Well, A-Rod is your third basement. Oh, he is? In that window? Yeah, he's your third. 05 to 09? Yeah. That's why I went shortstop. Because I assumed you- I had A-Rod written down as my shortstop. Just so that I can... Oh, man. Just so that I can go on strategy because this is a huge difference. I think we should be able to... Guys that played multiple positions, you can pick where they were. Well, you should have been able to... Hold on a second. You should have had to say that out loud and declare when he was playing. No, because by the side... Hold on. My whole strategy was to go for a position that you hadn't done attempting to try to get number one. I was holding off on third base for a reason.

Sorry, you just get to make the rules. Yeah, by this time, Aarod didn't play shortstop after '05, and he He played six innings of shortstop in '05. Thank you. So Aarod, I'm going to declare him as your third basement. Oh, six innings? I'm going to declare him as your third basement. No, he's a third basement. This is a house ruling. This is why we shouldn't do the thing if you need one in every position. Just draft seven guys in the infield. What are we doing here? Well, you'll be able to. Yeah, but then you would just draft seven first basements. This is gross. It's our first guest of 2026. He was also our most frequent guest of 2025. The Emmy winner Adnan Virk joins us here as our first guest of the year on the pitch clock. Adnan, welcome to the show.

Jeremy, it's great to see you again, buddy. Thank you. I was so glad I was a featured guest a year ago, and I'm glad you got the Emmy Award winner part in there because that's the key. Joe DeMage, you would not go anywhere unless he was introduced as the world's greatest living ball player, even though Willie Mains is still alive, he's a better ball player than Joe D. So thank you for fluffing my ego. Let's talk some baseball, buddy.

Emmy winner Adnan. I want to talk to you about the four big moves that were made over the last week. Different significance for each of them, but all pretty impactful. You got Mackenzie Gore traded to the Rangers. You got Freddie Peralta traded to the Mets. Then, of course, Harrison Boeder signing with the Giants. And then, of course, you had Cody Bellinger returning to the New York Yankees. Which of those four moves over the last week do you find the most impactful?

Well, it's interesting. Each guy, by the way, Harrison Boeder, my friend Scott Regowski, Kristen the Master, which you're like, What? That's his nickname, Harrison the Master. You're filling the rest. I think Mackenzie Gore is going to be a great number three. For years, everyone said this guy's ace-level stuff, which he is, but he hasn't been an ace yet. But I think on the Rangers as a number three, he's phenomenal because you've got Jacob deGrom and Nathan Evaldi. I think he could be literally one of the best number threes in all of baseball. So that's good news. Bellinger was absolutely vital for the New York Yankees. But the answer is Freddy Peralta. This guy led the National League and wins with 17. They had a 2. 7 ERA a season ago. Tons of strikeouts, great durability. And David Sterns loves him. And you see what David Sterns is doing, just rebuilding this brewer's team with guys that he knows, whether it's Devon Williams, fleecing him away from the New York Yankees, or in this case, getting Peralta. I think he's an absolute stud. I think he's top 10, top 15 pitcher in baseball. He got Cyungvote a season ago.

From Milwaukee, to give him up, that's one thing. We just get used to this. They trade guys away. But for the Mets, that really fortifies their rotation. Now you've got a true blue ace atop there. Senga went from being a Cyung contender to go to a Triple 8, so he completely fell off. You have no idea what you're getting there. Manaya is very inconsistent, but I love Noah McClane. Tong, obviously a second season, so he's got to prove. But you got Peralta. That really helps up that Mets rotation.

So we just talked about the Mets. We added the Yankees to that. I want to talk to you about some of these big market teams here. And maybe I'll have you stack these up for me in terms of their offseason, because the Mets added Peralta. They also added Marcus Simeon. They added Luis Robert Jr, Bo Bichette. They lost Jeff McNeill, Brandon Nimo, Pete Alonso. The Yankees, of course, bring back Bellinger. They trade for Ryan Weathers as a starter, a somewhat quiet offseason for the Yankees, all things considered. Another Marlins pitcher traded. It was Edward Cabrera to the Cubs. They also signed Alex Bregman. And then, of course, there's the Dodgers who bring in Edwin Diaz. They bring in Kyle Tucker. Can you stack up these four big market offseasons for me in Chicago, LA, and both New York teams?

Yeah, I think LA obviously wins the free agency again, which is-Of course. You sign Kyle Tucker, you get Edwin Diaz, you get one of the best closures in baseball and a terrific hitter to bolster that lineup. La wins. Okay, no doubt about that. In terms of the other teams, I think the Mets are at the very least, in I don't know if necessarily better, but they've reshaped the Roche. Apparently, they had a bad clubhouse that's been out there for a while. The locker room wasn't great. So, okay, we had issues with the guards to Brandon Nimo. He's gone. Mcneill, gone. Pete Alonso, I think, is a good guy. I think they just don't really value him as much as the Orials did. So they gave him a five-year deal. He's gone. And then D, I think they would have liked to cap, but he just wanted to go to the Dodgers. So as you said, you get Peralton there who's outstanding. Simeon's a great defender. Bo Bichette is going to hit no matter what. Bo Bichette would have been the batting champion in the American League. If it wasn't for Aaron Judge. He's going to get you 180, 185 hits.

He always delivers. His defense is a little suspect. I don't know how it's going to play at third base. I did talk to Mike Lowell, of course, former Major League third baseman. He said he'll need that two, two and a half weeks in spring training just to figure out the angles. But he thinks that Bo will actually do a decent job acclimating. And obviously it makes sense because Lindora is his shortstop and Simeon is there at second base. I would rank it. Dodgers, one, Met, second, Cubs, third. I'm with you on Cabrera being a good pickup. I do think Breguin is obviously a terrific hitter. And then the Yankees haven't done a ton, but I do think Bellinger was their most important a piece of business. They did that. And weather's those hard. They gave up four prospects to get him. So he's at least a guy that can slot him because Rodan is not available till May first, and Garry Kholwa is not going to be back till June first. They're going to need some meetings there.

I can tell you the Marlins are very excited about both of those trades, and I am very excited about the Mike Lowell reference. Miguel Tejada had 95 home runs from 2005 to 2009. I don't love it, but out of a short stop, I think I'm going to have to take it. That's a pretty good number for a short stop. I'll take it. Chris, you need a second basement in a short stop before you can get to the wild card round.

Chase Dudley.

That's a fun one. Chase Dudley had 146 home runs in this time span. God, that's brutal. I'm going to... All right, remind me, there's another name I'm thinking of later, and I'll bring it back and we'll see. I'm going to go Robbie Canot. He came up at some point in this window. They went to the World Series in '09. I just don't know. He might have not come up until '06. Robbie Canot's career started in 2005. It did. Okay. Let me do some math here. His first four years. It's not going to be Utley levels, obviously. 87 for Robbie Canot. That's not good. I'll just go Hanley for short. Hanley. Oh, I'm a fool. For me? I'm a fool. I'm a fool. He had 103 home runs. Yeah, that's really good. From '05 to '09. I must have just looked past his name. Okay. Third base. Because I have... Yeah, I have Pujos, Tejada, and Canoe. Third base, I'm going to go I'm going to go Adrian Beltre. I love that name. Beltre had 103 home runs in this time span. I'm not even close to Chris. Cody's at 592. Yes, I am. And Jeremy is not close to that.

491, so 101 home runs down. So you got plenty of ground to make up, but there's plenty of time. So now you go three at any position. I'm going to go with Carlos Delgato. Great pick. Delgato is on here. He was 23rd in this time span with 137 home runs. All right, quick one-off the dome. Adam Dunn. Adam Dunn, fourth in this time span. We can go outfielders? Wait. First baseman. Oh, this is crazy. I bet he played more of his games in the first day. Hold on. That's fine. We're going to the ruling. Yeah, it's fine. If he played more, I'll even do majority. It's fine. If he played more of his games in the outfield. Adam Dunn played way too much outfield. Okay, that's fine. That's fine. Way too much. I had him as a first baseman. He played thousands of innings in the outfield. He played hundreds of innings in the outfield. This is gross. He definitely played a lot more first base than A-Rod played shortstop. But that's fine. It's gross. Jeremy's right on that. That was the name that was there. He probably played a third of his games at first base.

He had so many home runs, too. And he had so many home runs. So many home runs. He had 1. 98. But we're doing infielders, though. And if you want to play the word, everyone associates him with infielders. That's fine. That's fine. That's Ryan, I'm not arguing with you. Can I reiterate? Gross. Emu winner Adnan. Let's continue here. We haven't spoken since mid-December. So we've talked about some of these big market teams. We've talked about the moves made in the last week. But can you give me three other transactions that we can look at over the last month and a half or so that have caught your eye that the viewer should know about?

Well, it's interesting. All these moves, we always wait for all the big moves to happen at winter meetings, and most of it doesn't happen with the exception of Pete Alonso and the Edwin Dias. But look at the timeline on all these, Jeremy. January 10th was Bregman, January 15th was Tucker, January 16th was Bichette. But one that was in the radar was Ranger Suarez, which was January 14th. He signs a five-year, $130 million deal with the Red Sox. This is a guy who was a premier lefty a season ago, was so vital to that Philadelphia Philly's team. I think Boston right now, they've got a pretty impressive pitching staff. They've got Garret Crochet, you got Rancher Suarez, you got Payton Toley, Connolly early, Brian Bayo, They got Sunny gray now. It's a lot of depth. It's a lot of depth. I don't know if it's all these guys hit. I'm not sure if it's Sunny gray at this stage in the script. You've got eight starting pitchers there. So Boston, to me, at least they've got depth. I still feel like they're one bad away. They could use an Esox parade to help out their offense, but But at the very least, excellent pitching.

I do think right before that, January 13th, Noah Arnado gets dealt. This is a guy who's an eight-time All-Star. He might go in the Hall of Fame strictly based on defense. He's one of the great defensive third basement of all time, and obviously, he can hit. I know his production has dwindled drastically the last couple of seasons, but I'm curious if a change of scenery will help him going from St. Louis to Arizona. It's an intriguing move for me, at least with him going to Arizona. You mentioned Cabrera as well, January seventh. That Pedro Cabrera trade to me was interesting. The Marlins, we know always are with these arms. They're really good at retooling on the fly. Those are the three to me: Suarez, Arnado, and Cabrera.

Those are all big deals for teams that are trying to find a way to compete and take that next step this upcoming season, and I look forward to watching it with all of them. Again, the Marlins are pretty excited about what they got in return, Owen Casey from the Chicago Cubs. Let's talk about it here. We head into February, and there are always interesting free agents that are still available, especially in the last 5-10 years here at Nantes. So when we go into February of 2026, who's the free agent that's catching your eye? And maybe when and where do you think that guy might sign?

Yeah, we're a couple of weeks away from Valentine's Day. The segment we did in MLB tonight was Most Eligible Starter. So it's obviously Fraber Valdes, who you thought was going to get a huge deal. But I think there's real concerns about his character. September second, throwing his catcher César Salazar. That a move just can't happen. So I think clearly everyone was like, not sure I want to give this guy big-time money. Therefore, it's an overpay for Dylan Seeds from the Blue Jays, who's probably a great number three or a good number two. They give him $210 million. But the point is, I would have thought Framble would have gotten that money, but instead, it hasn't materialized yet. I still think the Orioles make the most sense for them. The Orioles are like one really good starter away from being, I think, A legit team in the AL East. Again, they got Taylor Ward. Good pick up there from the Angels. They got Pete Alonso at slugging first base. When you get Framper involved, that's Nelson. You go, All right, you're pairing them with the Gunner and Henderson's. Hopefully, Ali Rutschman bounces back, Masai at catching.

Then Baltimore is a player again. So Framper is the guy That for me. I know there's questions, like I said, about his character, that's why he hasn't been signed yet, but there's no questions about his talent. He was in the 97th percentile and ground ball percentage of the season ago. He set a 3. 30 ERA over the last four seasons. He did have a bad second half, 6: 05 ERA, but generally, this guy's hovering around three and a half every season, and he's durable. He's going to give you 170 innings. So he's an excellent pitcher. There's no doubt about it. I'm a little surprised. It's February first. He's still up there. Another guy is Zack Allen, who had a great second half, 3-3-2 ERA.

Loved Zack Allen.

Guy, fellow Eagles fan. He's a great guy. He's pitching the World Series. I think he had a bad first half. Some of his half was a timing, but he's a good pitcher. He's out there. And the other one is- Lucas Giolito? Lucas Giolito, exactly. Giolito is still there, who also had a great second half. He had a two and a half year in the second half. When he wasn't available for the play, you saw that sting there for the Red Sox. I think those are three guys, three pitchers right there in terms of Frambo Valdes and Giolito and Zack Allen. I will throw a hitter as well, Jeremy. Eugenio Suarez is still out there, man. This guy has 40 plus home runs. He was so big for the Mariniers. They re-signed Josh Nail. I think it would make sense to re-sign them there. But I can't believe it's almost February first. And A. E. Heneo and a guy who hits home runs like him, still out there on the market.

All four of these guys could potentially influence who ultimately end up being real contenders October, and yet we're headed toward February, and all four of them are sitting out there. It should make for an interesting month next month. And Emy Winter Adnan will probably have you back on this program before spring training gets started. So Emy Winter Adnan, thank you for joining us today with your Emy behind you.

I appreciate it, buddy. We'll never get tired of hearing that. And yeah, I can't wait for the baseball to be a couple of weeks away. By the way, much warmer weather there for you, Miami. We're looking at 12 degrees here in New Jersey. So it's.

It's chilly, okay? I had to wear a cardigan today, Adnan. All right?

A chilly 49 degrees.

We'll see you soon.

Now I need to think for a second. I'm going to go Paul Knerko. That's good. Paul Knerko is 13th. He has 156 home runs. Okay. All right. Chipping away. My first guess was 137, so you gained about 19. All right. Two more guesses? Yeah. Two more each. I feel like I guess this guy's name every time we play any game, and I'm always wrong. I feel like I have my timing wrong on when this guy played. Richie Sexton. I love that. I use him all the time. He's your guy. He is your guy. He had a nice... He definitely was around during this window. He had some all-stars. He had some 29, 30 home run seasons. He hit 106 home runs in this. That's good. Jason Giombi. Giombi hit 128. So I'm still up by roughly... I still need to get 60 more than you. I just need to get someone in the hundreds here. Just a nice solid... You got this. Did you think it's someone good? That's why you're like- I thought I did, but now I'm questioning myself if the window is the right window, but I think it is. Chipper Jones.

That's a great one. I love Chipper. No, that's good. It's the end of Chipper's career, though. I don't know. That is the back end of his career, I have to imagine. 116 for Chipper. You want to beat that. Ryan Howard. Finally, somebody said Ryan Howard, dude. You need to get- It's not going to be enough, but somebody You finally said-It's not like 170, right? The number one home run totaler in this time frame. He had 220 home runs. Then he did beat me. I beat you. Yeah, he beat me. He just beat me. Oh, my God. You beat him. Holy 90s. 96 more. Walk off. Wow. 94 more home runs. Thank you, Ryan Howard, in your endorsement of subway. Wow. That felt good. That was exhilarating. Can I tell you, the face that I made wasn't for Ryan Howard. Who was it for? It was for Rafael Palmero. Then I thought it might be too late. I got to tell you, Chris, you naming someone in the NL East-That probably would have been too late. Just triggered it. It just triggered it in my head. In my brain, I went from... Because who did you just say?

I think I went to... You got Chipper, and I went, Oh, David Wright. Then I went, Who else was around at that time? Even after you said Chase Utley, I didn't think about Ryan Howard. I don't know why I said Chase Utley and not Ryan Howard. Ryan Howard? Final total. I love you. That is wild. I said Chase Utley and didn't think of Ryan Howard. So Jeremy wins by 44 home runs. What a collapse. Just shows never give up, boys. Never give up. That felt really good. Really shitty. None of these games are ever over. See you guys in February.