FiredUp Network
Monday, July 15: The Sports Wrap
welcome into sports wrap on the fired up network I'm Gerald Bentley joined by the root dog himself Rudy our Reyes and you can watch us wherever you get your apps just download that true TV plus apps easiest way to get the fired up network a big week we're coming up on the all-star week in baseball the latest one ever it's an international break for most of your soccer leagues we got the euro championship coming up later today we have the COPA championship and it's only days away now from the official start of the national football league that we didn't even mention the major league baseball draft is going on but nobody knows major league baseball drafts going on because they haven't figured out that it's actually good TV content yeah I mean my god what the hell's around that what's your biggest home road yeah I mean biggest take away is there's just so much to unwrap it's almost is almost funny and that's why you're on the sports app yeah I think that the Joker joke of it not to be confused with the Denver Nuggets Joker but the joke was basically on him back-to-back wins for all karas at Wimbledon sure that that says a lot about the resilience of Al Karras how he was able to find himself not only has he done it once but he's done it twice to the Joker so it makes you wonder is yokovic in his time of dominance over with where where does he stand he didn't bring his a game he didn't have his a game the entire game and Al Karras just capitalized on every opportunity from volleys to being a front-of-the-core to just you know basically slam in the door shut on any possibility that Joker may have had to get back in this game well you know time catches up with everyone and tennis is no difference there is always that next generation coming up everybody part of it eventually eventually falls to age because you can't teach you you know and you lose speed and the people who are supposed to make big runs make the runs there was a big presence of US players in Wimbledon for the first time in a long time so maybe maybe that international sport is shifting a little bit back to America and a huge huge international sports time because the Olympics are coming up right around the corner right here two players from sporting Kansas City the team I cover regularly are departing and already in the US Olympic camp before the Paris Olympic start Jake Davis and John Pulse camp starting midfielder right back for sporting and the backup goalkeeper they're going to be joining team USA and multiple players from the Kansas City current the women's team that I cover are departing to join their nations Olympic teams Canada Brazil and I believe the Netherlands are all represented by current players and in the US team Claire Hutton is an alternate so you got a lot of international feel going in sports right now plus that COPA America final that's happening at Hard Rock Stadium and my bold and daring prediction from last week has already happened we didn't have to wait for Greg Berhalter to lose to Canada in the first match back for the US national team after their disastrous COPA he's already gone the US national team said okay that's what we need to do something we got away so we're Halter done see you and we actually talked about that too because I think that he he he had a presence and that's one of the reasons why they went ahead and hired him but somehow he just lost not only lost the game the initial against Uruguay but I think it was more about losing the locker room losing the guys trust and enabling them to ultimately say you know what the morale is not what it should be and we need to change and go a different direction and of course it always goes down to the head coach in any major sport we talked about that too but I think moreover I think it was a good move maybe not a great move to let him go at this particular stage I would want to see what he does for mittably with personnel changes in groupings and you know they're trying to mix and match to get the right guys in the right position against Canada but you know it is what it is he's gone he's done time to turn a new leaf maybe get somebody in there who's been there done that for team USA years ago or you know I honestly don't know I don't know who's part of the hiring decision but the final officer needs to make a change in regards to who they look at and the reasonings that would put them in position in order to be a better and more integral part of winning for this men's national team. Well I think it's interesting too and in a lot of cases you see this when a team is a team a national team a program in college is debating whether the coach should stay or go they should go as soon as you start asking the question should this person be back the answer is probably going to be no because unless they win a championship unless they advance to a final there is nothing that's going to make it work and when they got into the back-and-forth with Berhalter and Claudio Reyna one of the US legends and we weren't playing Gio Reyna who's one of our best players because they were arguing back and forth he should have been caught down there's no reason to bring him back they had another search committee they decided you know what we got the right guy we're bringing him back that was mistake one and now you got a two-year run up to the World Cup so it's go time because when you look at national teams all of these guys play in a major high-level league be it MLS here in America a lot league out league one the EPL the Bundesliga you don't have that much time with them you really don't so the clock is ticking I know two years seems like an eternity but they literally just hired a director of transportation here in Kansas City to try and figure out the logistics to get the international fans are going to be attending the World Cup matches here and the three teams that are going to be headquartered in Kansas City and get the people from the airport to sporting's facility the US national team facility in Casey K which is about 20 minutes on the highway from the airport the Kansas City Currents facility which is about 15 minutes from the airport and the KU Jayhawks facility which is a a nice 45-minute jaunt from the airport and there's going to be open practices there's going to be tremendous amounts of logistics because unlike California unlike New York Boston Chicago the mass transit in Kansas City consists of a streetcar that goes from the river market to the country club Plaza and that's it and as I stated none of these locations are anywhere close to those nor is Arrowhead Stadium which is about a 35-minute drive with traffic from the airport with no public transit so the city of Kansas City the region the Sports Commission they're already on full court press getting ready for the World Cup and worried they started too late so the US national team is looking at it from that perspective they've already started too late now it's go time because you don't want to waste the potential of Christian Pulis second is prime Tyler Adams in his prime Joe Ray in his prime Timothy Way in his prime this is the best shot the US has to advance somewhere they're playing at home these guys have grown up together I mean let's get on let's go time yeah I think this is the final of the final I mean if they can't get it done in some way shape or form and save face from that loss against York way this is basically Salavi for a lot of these guys a lot of the a lot of the veterans the ones that carry the leadership label that they get that they wear so well on their you know as a badge of honor if you will on their on their uni's on their shirts on their sleeves with their emotions all tied up together this is going to be a very very important match do they have a leg up against anybody else coming into the area maybe maybe not that's that's you know it's kind you know playing at home it is cool but do you have a real home field advantage you know probably not but again I guess we'll find out if that ship will sail that direction the minute the game kicks off literally I mean they'll they'll get completely agrees with me on that one yeah I mean they'll get to play against some inferior competition they'll have they'll have the opportunity to knock some winds out but they will get an easy draw but you know for most of these guys they they're gonna be here for a couple of world cops for Timothy Ream he's 36 this is it I mean it's this is the end of the road so motivation should be really high it should be high as well as the morale that rush would be a good route yeah it's got about and they'll be a boost right they'll be a patriotic boost they'll be okay but it's time to make that change hey I wanted to ask about we'll get back to the the baseball draft coming up today how the world we've talked about baseball being out of touch and what is it gonna take for baseball to become America's pastime again let's do a little let's do a little comparison one of these things about like the other like these to do on Sesame Street you know one of these things is not like the other one of these things this isn't the same the NFL draft draws a half a million people is the number one rated show on TV for two nights the NBA draft is on three networks prime time draws millions of viewers sells out in arena the major league baseball draft is a wall cast that's available on MLB.com streaming channel nobody knows the names of the guy being drafted nobody has any idea for years if the pick is good or bad and nobody watches it and they degraded the draft even more by lumping it in to all-star weekend so the general managers who are running the draft aren't even at the all-star game they're doing it from their stadiums via webcast so there there isn't even a media event to cover if you wanted to what the hell are they doing it's insane you know there there are a lot of things you can take away from this and one of the things that I can kind of stem back to historically speaking you look at the NFL and they've been around a long time not as long as major league baseball but still very formidable in regards to the audience the marketing the merchandising even though they have to pay billions of dollars to direct TV because of the failure of the Sunday ticket well I mean it's probably pennies in the bucket for for the NFL but again it's one of those things they have to contend with and clearly they're going to appeal it however I just think they have the viewing audience they're targeted they know they have done so much in that regard from a media standpoint of acquiring all the outlets knowing it's a money maker knowing it's a viewer maker that's just what it is baseball on the other hand has almost like the the moniker well placed by saying that we're no longer America's pastime why well there's there's a few reasons behind that first of all they have a horrendous partnering and partnerships with LGBTQ plus as an example promoting some radical ideologies associated with that or other entities and the sad part is that could they be changing their ways about how they do business maybe but they haven't and they probably won't anytime soon could could the American public the viewing audience demand more for major league baseball they should I think baseball deserves to be demanding more from their internal organizational repertoire to say you know what we need to do something different we need to hold ourselves accountable for the mistakes that we continue to make now look at by all by all means they've done banning the shift pitch clock designation maybe a designated hitter in a universal capacity there's so much debate going on right now as to what when how and why I think more importantly when you look at the backlog to all of this that Rob Manfred engineered just barely two years ago supporting the 2021 all-star game out of Georgia after the state passed legislature because of election and integrity measures so I mean there's just a lot of questionable moves that major league baseball has ultimately done to almost put themselves in the corner we say don't put baby in the corner well me MLB is the baby in the corner right now in the room and are they going to be able to compare to NFL viewership no are they going to compare to NBA viewership no and sadly well they should but look numbers don't lie I mean there are millions and millions of viewers for NBA and per every 15 people ones watching baseball mmm right so you look at this and take yourself how can how can major league baseball get back into the spotlight so so let's look at the solution components we've already looked at the problems that they face but the solution components are this they need to do a lot better internal or organizational demands from within the hierarchy of major league baseball front offices Rob Manfred all the moving parts and pieces player personnel things of that nature and have that trickled down you you have to follow success and a major league baseball is not following success what are they following what are they creating what what nuances and ebbs and flows are they going to incorporate to put America's pastime back into the America's viewership and on their TV screens and their handheld devices and everything they're in you mentioned a major league baseball draft I didn't even think about that until you mention it yeah so you know I know because yeah exactly because I'm so stuck in and forward looking for the NFL season and training camps and rookie show up throughout the US for that matter from Florida all the way to Minnesota you know never were down to California and Texas you know so that there is so much going on speaking of Texas that's where the all-star game is for those that don't know it's okay you know you have you have the home run derby which I always enjoy watching no matter what I just think that there's a lot that baseball can actually do and without words because words without actions are just well words and they're not going to change people's minds as to what they're going to tune into or they're not going to tune into unless they make efforts to again follow what's working and not digress into what's not working because that puts themselves in the corner well and they they need to get on the same page because I think a huge thing that's helped the NFL the NBA and Major League Soccer is that they collectively negotiate the owners are in it together all three leagues have salary caps hard salary caps all three leagues have shared media rights shockingly all three leagues have parity where small market teams are able to consistently compete because you can keep your stars it's not a guarantee that when somebody's a superstar player they're gonna fail out or it's a major new story when somebody re-signed like Bobby Wood Jr. re-signed with the royals for eleven years that was that was a shock because that hadn't happened in Kansas City in years the reason the royals went from winning the World Series in 2015 to seven years journeying through the desert to get here is because their guys were coming up on the end of their first contract the window was closed and they only kept one player out they kept Alex Gordon and Salvador press everybody else is gone and the replacement levels weren't there because they traded their prospects in order to get over to the top to win which hey great man you win the World Series you can't take that away but you sacrificed five years in the process of doing it and that's happened in baseball as well and then you look at the fact that people just can't see the game I mean here Bobby Wood Jr. this year and I didn't even know this and I'm in Kansas City is the first player in Major League history with 50 extra base hits and 20 stolen bases before the all-star game first person ever do it he has the second best offensive season ever in terms of bases and extra base hits by the all-star break second only to Ian Kinzler which I didn't even know Ian Kinzler had that season and he's from Missouri he was an all-american for MU and then played for the Rangers but you have superstars like a Bobby Wood Jr. like Paul Skins with the Pittsburgh Pirates you're wearing the Pirates hat how about this insanity Paul Skins goes out there throws seven innings of no hit baseball he's at 99 pitches the guy's a machine he's a metronome just keep him out there he's just gonna keep firing him get your no hitter give him the next start off who cares he got through the seventh inning on six pitches he wasn't tired they pull him and put in you know Sparky the reliever so you go from being possibly a historical game nationwide news to putting your clown suit on and the red nose because you pulled the guy who's a dominant star was the number one pick of the draft last year so where you can elevate the draft to actually being something important because it was like an NFL draft you took the guy number one and man he's an immediate impact not gonna go play in Omaha or Columbus for six years and now you're de-emphasizing him to be in just like one of the other starters and magnify to the point that you can't see him pitch anyways because the games are all tied up on these greed induced contracts with these regional sports networks I can't get out of their own way like Valley sports so nobody can see the players anyways tear point about Paul Skins I think that it was it was a great disservice to to hear him pull I listened to it on on serious exam because they have the rights and that's just what they do I used to work for serious exam and one of the things that I do know is that they keep their top markets they make sure that you know that the guys who are doing the audio like I was making sure that everybody heard the commercials and the cut-ins and the cut-outs and all that good stuff it back to the game itself I think it was it was a disservice to Paul Skins who's done so much for this franchise and it very early its first rookie year where he holds numbers that no prior pirate starter had ever done and then you pull him for what you know you talk about player management the NBA well this is this is time management right because you recognize that you have enough time to throw so many pitches I didn't even think he hit 70 pitches I don't think he didn't know right but what I'm saying is that if he was giving up hits runs you know committing errors okay you're probably giving it a little bit too much time in 99 pitches to make to write that chip right but and then to put on someone else who basically lackluster player in in his stead wasn't exactly the right move in my opinion so I question for and going back to your your media point nobody would be able to watch that no all you can do is hear it well I'm a visual guy I like to watch the I'm I'm on television I'm a news reporter at a TV station so when I want to see something visual what do I do I turn on the TV I don't want to hear it I want to watch the game but because of the mishandling of contracts and negotiations didn't quite go over very well with a lot of the Valley sports or your NBC or CBS your your your your channel 11 your your Fox syndicates basically they just blackballed the American public of being able to watch the games because of these inflated contracts that basically went nowhere they went south dallies couldn't even pay their bill for the first month this season this season and you had MLB picking up the slack for these guys who could not get out of their own way who continually don't know how to get out of their own way what are they doing with money what are they doing these millions of dollars that they received just within the first year of operation very questionable at best well keep in mind Valley sports is ran by the same people that who used to run Sinclair broadcasting sports that that's who it is a Valley's is only a title sponsor and they're gone after this year as it continues to limp through bankruptcy they sold at a time when the WWE just pocketed billions in TV money when all the elite wrestling is going to get a massive contract from time Warner especially with the NBA leaving time Warner going to the streaming apps time Warner's gonna keep at all the late wrestling they're gonna get a ton of money Sinclair broadcasting Valley sports they couldn't figure out a way to make money on pro wrestling they sold ring of honor wrestling which is the number three promotion in the country at the time had a national TV contract they sold it for 40 million dollars conservatively it was estimated at being worked somewhere around half a billion dollars so they sold it for less than 10% of its value that's not that's a not good business and they did that so they could pay some of these baseball fees but you know it shows where greed isn't always good because local teams took the guaranteed rights fees from these regional sports networks and locked themselves into long contracts which let them miss this wave of huge huge television rights fees because the only thing that's going up on TV is sports broadcasting that's it live events everything else is down in every leaks getting a ton of money MLS got over a billion the NBA just signed a $76 billion contract they're gonna get $7.6 billion per year to split among the teams football their contracts doubled even with the salary kept going up it's gonna have to go up even more next year because they're gonna have so much more TV revenue the national women soccer league their ratings are up 95% the WNBA is up over 7.10% yeah and baseball nobody can see it if you watch a local baseball game you're gonna see commercials for a traffic attorney if you're in a state with legal marijuana you'll see some marijuana dispensary commercials a couple random beer commercials maybe a plumber some local AC company they're not getting advertising revenue so the whole model is so utterly broken it's it's really a shame and it's gonna take a few years to fix because they're stuck in these contracts and they're at the mercy of the court to let them out well I'm going to add on to that national sponsorship from a nationwide viewing audience is also not working for them the types of contracts are very similar to the to the local right because predominantly when I was running boards for for serious exam they're no local spots at all whatsoever we're talking national right we're talking serious exam spots as well now there are some instances where I was running you know I had no reason to touch the board whatsoever because they were running in spots for the local media your plumbers your turnies your pest control your your eateries your pizza restaurants things of that nature I had no reason to touch the boards for for national but there were those games that were slated between two hot teams with two very good records who historically have played extremely well all kinds of national spots right so I think that would you think about this segmentally what is it going to look like from a larger gamut for running national sponsor would do national sponsors want to run on things like serious exam they clearly would have to answer that question I cannot you know your your Foxes your CBSes your MBCs you know what does that look like from a national perspective even the station that I work at you have a national sales manager there who's very nice by the way any kind of explain little the ebbs and flows of national marketing which brings in hundreds and thousands of dollars on any given weekly basis add that up time 30 days add that 60 90 120 365 you see where I'm going here so so from an economic standpoint a lot of the national advertisers are staying away from the local media because they realize that they're only reaching a certain targeted audience even Nielsen rankings go constantly haywire at times and I say constantly haywire because that's really kind of where they're at they're either accurate or they're not accurate they immediately baseball has an uphill battle the climb in regards to what they're going to do moving forward to get in those national spots those national companies your your terminax pest control or your pizza chains or you know your your national plumbers and and your your Larry each parkers you know you're gonna have to you know find ways to to work around it work with what you have I think it's a it's a really steep hole majorly baseball is trying to crawl out of well and they make it harder on themselves because since the only national games are a small package on ESPN a small package on Fox then the playoffs are scattered across all sorts of different outlets you're not really selling much national ads and you're not creating superstars I mean I just read Bobby Whit Jr. is having the second best offensive season in terms of total bases in the history of Major League Baseball and I don't think anybody knows it I don't know it and I live in Kansas City and I've covered the royals this year but I actually can't watch the games unless I'm going to them because I can't get them on TV and I can't get the app to work on the TVs I have in the house so I mean it's it's a huge problem and they're not making themselves a easy target for advertisers if I'm advertising for a national car company and I know I can call one person and get my hat on every MLS game every NBA game every NFL game I'm going to do that way before I'm going to call 30 different companies to figure out if I can run ads on baseball games and then determine okay well hang on I understand you're this size market but your your contract only allows you to reach 15% of the viewers in the city I'm not interested I'm out and that's how you get games where your biggest advertiser is if you've been in a traffic accident call me you don't pay a cent until you went and that advertising isn't covering the bills no it's not effective at all there's one way each team right of course each team could potentially put enough money aside and I know that the teams like like the pirates maybe contemplating working in it to where their app would include being able to pay for local games for those that cannot attend a game same thing for the Royal same thing for the twins same thing for the Reds if they would incorporate creating their own broadcast entity with which by no means there's so much and there's so much involved in that entire process but to tap in to the audio feed maybe not quite the video feed but the audio feed while you're showing the video for each team to be responsible for that or to incorporate something like that is possible but but do they want to do that do they have the funds to have they allocated what it's going to take most of these guys that come in are freelancers I take nothing away from their work because they do exquisite jobs and a lot of the games that I hear on on Fox or I hear on ESPN most of those guys are freelancers to play by plays and the color of animals and so they don't get paid as much so you can work with that model and say well these are freelancers well what would it take to incorporate these freelancers to work for us or get a second pair of freelancers that will be in a booth maybe next to them on the top tier like say is Angel Stadium right so so I know a couple guys that that currently work up there but you can shift over to the room next to it over a little bit to third baseline or a little bit over to first baseline and so be able to call the game so if each team respectfully is able to navigate around what is currently blocking their local demographic from watching these games then I that can easily be solved in turn you've got to do you have to perform marketing advertising put the dollars where it counts because without dollars it makes no sense right so put that money into those areas contribute to your local people watching the game remember when we did not have cable we had air channels well those air channels are still being used but they're used for a different purpose now right so utilize an air channel maybe a non-digital channel if you will or you just be able to get baseball you should be able to get Major League Baseball and listen to a Dodger game on an AM transistor radio those days are gone now you have to have a subscription well that's great wonderful but incorporate a component side of the app that gets people closer to the game that would bring up the numbers a viewing audience or listening audience run with that for an entire baseball season it's not that long but it's it's relatively long and see what that looks like by the end of it do you have the subscribers do you have to raise the prices can you lower the prices you know what can you do to get the viewing audience in your demographic to watch your games and if they can do that well they could do that that would bring in so much more additional revenue that they can certainly find a way to put back in the system and to just keep working with what's working who knows Amazon may bail them out if Amazon takes over valleys because here the the MLS season pass the way it works every games on TV with a national broadcast team but if you want to listen to the local broadcast for every team they kept their radio broadcast so if you want to listen to former sporting goalkeeper John Kempen break down the game you can watch it on Apple TV and you can pick the local announce feed and you get the radio announcers that are covering the game and watching that video feed so they have the same replace it's not rocket science there's I was like stewing it already hey up getting into another sport because I really can't even talk about the all-star game because I'm honestly outside of Shohei Otani Gunnar Henderson having a good year in the Yankees killing it until having a cold stretch I honestly don't know much about any of the teams the blue Jays have been a disappointment there's the baseball run down but there's a lot to do but there's also a lot of a lot of winners yeah the rails the rails need to win five more games to match their total of all last year an amazing turn around it's not good at all you're right and and the pirates need just two more games especially if they win today and tomorrow but for the all star game the all-star break in back at 500 of Paul schemes named named named the NL starter for pitching and it deservedly so because he's been nothing but short of lights out against every amazing taste so get one of those things that people really need to know about really need to hear about the all-star game is happening in Arlington Texas you have a you have tons of starters you have guys that have been this game a very long time and when I say a long time maybe not in baseball years but in human years that's a long time there's a lot of wear and tear you know your Bryce Harper from the Phillies you have Aaron Judge who who's part of you know some of the players that are being elected there there are ten teams representing the the all-star line-ups with the Phillies leading the way because well look at their record they have the best record in baseball so I mean there's there's players from the Guardians of Brewers the Padres are sending two guys the D-backs of course the Dodgers with the highest payroll immediately baseball history the Blue Jays are sending guys as we just yeah everybody's got one I mean yeah everybody at least has one all Pirates have to which predominantly that's kind of what they get they're one of the smallest markets in Major League Baseball they have one of the smallest caps in Major League Baseball and for the most part they don't get the viewing audience you have to go to a PNC in order even to watch a game unless you're a local guy and in local they believe in sending out local signals to local people and so you're able to watch your game with the icy light sponsorship and things of that nature and Iron City beer which has been around there for over a hundred years so I mean you there's so many different ways that the all-star they're a group of individuals designed to build the all-star game to what it should be I think this is probably going to be at least from a hopeful realist perspective a way to turn Major League Baseball around back to back to the larger viewing audience in relation to that we were just discussing that but I mean you have guys who have killer RBI's you know you have 55 RBI's 15 home runs or 26-year-old batter in the AL Gunnar Henderson and Rushman you know these guys have been the no names I remember that that hit by pitch during that Yankees Orioles game just the other day where you just basically charge off the mound and you've seen the you've seen the manager Skipper coming out of the Yankees dugout you know all benches clear that kind of thing and you're going to see that you know you're just going to it's not like it's hockey we're gonna carry around sticks hopefully don't bring the bats in because that could hurt even worse than a hockey stick but you know there's there's so many different things like Blod Jr. you know he's an all-star fourth year in a row guy who's proving here after he's an all-star on a team that seems to need more stars if you're the Toronto Blue Jays and of course you know they don't get a lot of love why cuz they're up north north north like north of Minnesota north when I say Minnesota I mean Minnesota you know the mid-summer classic I think is one of those unheard of anomalies and they need to get back into the spotlight I love watching the homerun derby playing the most favorite favorites for me is watching the homerun jury these guys hitting Dinger's you know 400 feet in the second tier just knocking the lights out and fans just going crazy I mean there's just so much alike about the all-star game as as Gunnar Henderson in his first all-star appearance you know ever maybe he'll get another one maybe he'll play again you know in the following year Jose Ramirez from the Guardians you know this is his third all-star game there's just a look to like there's so much to like how can you not like this I do and I love the homerun derby the all-star game I don't know you're gonna really have to put the screws in me to get me to watch that it doesn't make for the most entertaining baseball now because you're gonna run out eight starters for six innings going Fogo for an inning it makes it really hard to score so yeah hey let's shift over the Olympic games are coming up really soon and are you excited for the Olympics in Kansas City we got a little bit of a jumpstart because Kansas City homegrown player the player who just signed a big long-term extension with sporting homegrown players gonna be here for a long time Jake Davis named to the Olympic team he was one of the extra additions to the team after the the buildup been starting MLS his best friend is on the team Jableg Obusio is a former sporting player so should be an easy transition here's what Jake said about getting named to the Olympics obviously Olympics is humongous I guess I've never had the chance to represent United States and where the Jersey so I think it's special for me especially being this old I guess it's different like when you're younger and you go to youth camps and stuff I mean that's same thing but now you know I'm a grown man and I'm going to the Olympics and I think that's it's truly an honor and you know he's talking about being a grown man I believe he's 21 but he's gonna go there and he's able to follow in the footsteps of his head coach Peter Vermees who did the same actually we have those two and we also have boots going you know so we have three we have three guys you know currently involved in that group so I'm happy for them it's it's uh I had a chance to represent you know the United States and the Olympics in in 88 in Korea and so I think it's a it's a proud moment for them it's a proud moment for the club and the other thing too is I as I told both of them he's got to be ready because you never know something can happen really quickly with somebody and next thing you know you find yourself starting so so be ready for that are you excited as the patriotic fever started building up so it's getting really close it's extremely close I think I'm I'm more concerned about the water in no I say that because there was a story about a 75-year-old man who decided to take a swim you know one of the in one of the lakes and of course they're always concerned about the murky waters and murky waters doesn't exactly spell clean you know to me murky cleaner to completely different day I mean probably a lot to do about nothing right I get that yeah but but at the same token I think that when it comes to the games and I think that when you look at the Americans involved in it it's starting to build a little bit I mean it's not a full-blown quite yet I'm not gonna walk around the house and red wine blue I mean Lord knows there are days where I dress for work and it's red wine blue just by default you know because just kind of goes together right I'm actually quite excited for the Olympic games I think the Americans pull out quite a few golds and what events that remains to be seen maybe even water polo you know that that could be won and there's and right now it's it's summer it's summer it's just it's beautiful there right now and how can you not like it the Americans are going to be dominant on the on the run tracks you know there it's just what what's interesting to me is is that we have gone so far as to win the games that were supposed to win but not win the ones that we were expected to win right because of the expectations I guess that are said maybe a little bit too high in regards to who's playing who's going and Olympic trials let let's put this into some type of some type of context right so you have your Olympic starters then you have those people who qualified to be on that start was but didn't quite make it on the start was they're like an alternate right we hear about alternates all the time there sometimes cases where the alternates are better than some of the starters maybe a little bit younger than some of the starters and when you look at places like Ukraine which will have people entering the Olympics which is shattered as their country is you kind of wonder you know it could it could happen anywhere it could happen here as well so for those that are fighting for freedom for those that are fighting from tyranny and trying to escape their you know with their thoughts and and prayers to their their homeland now having to switch focus on trying to win an Olympic game with a set of individuals or if you're a solo track you know runner or whatever the case might be a relay runner with other people you know you have to somehow turn the table and say I need to focus on the game and and winning this match or winning this relay or winning this this track me or this swimming contest you know I don't know how they do it I don't know how any of these Olympic guys or gals happen to have things went on their lives and be able to turn that into winning that's got to be the hardest mental challenge I think that they're gonna have to overcome in regards to what happens in their personal lives and not allowing it to affect their on well it's to say they're a Olympic game that they're participating in well and I'm sure we'll see some great cover some great final pieces by NBC and Peacock because that's that's part of what makes those Olympic games so special is getting the backgrounds and the the up-close story about the athletes not just America but also some of the other countries and the the people that are stretching to get their Olympic moment countries that may not even win a medal but just getting there is the win which I'm sure for a lot of those a lot of those athletes representing Ukraine other countries that are you know not in the position that America Britain Canada, France is where they're highly paid professional professionally managed programs and they're just getting it done and just trying to make it in those are always great stories of the Olympic spirit and that's coming up soon we'll be able to talk about that a little bit more well it's about time to go ahead and wrap it up and go to weekly champions brought to you by the wrestling spotlight let's get ready for that with Tyia Valkyrie and then we'll go to the champions. Hey what's up guys this is Tyia Belkriula with Alonka and you are watching wrestling spotlights. So got the wrestling spotlight belt. Rudy who's your champion of the week? My champion of the week is Katarina Tumman Geeks if I said that right if I apologize I didn't know if I got that right or not but I certainly tried there was a portrait of her sitting inside of a rubble building with where she used to practice that at the Polytechnic Sports Complex that was destroyed by a Russian rocket attack and the fact alone that she wanted to relive that by being there by showing her frustration with a look on her face and the palm on her face certainly set the stage for someone who I'll be looking for and ultimately rooting for her as an individual in her respective sport so just being able to turn that story around and make it a winning story for her life and hopefully give spirit to those around her and hope for a positive and bright future for Ukraine. So that is my that's my champion of the week. That's tough to beat and I won't beat it but I was at the quarterfinal for the Lamar Hunt US Open Soccer Championship the US Open Cup. It was sporting Kansas City against FC Dallas. The game was Wednesday at Children's Mercy Park started at eight ended at about 12.30 at night because of an extended storm delay. We had some pop-up thunderstorms lightning and it rained in buckets on Sporting Park. The game resumed after about a two-hour delay and this is what broke it open. Swinger from Russell. Free header. Danny Rossello. Is that the game winner? Does that send it to the semi-final? Sporting certainly feel like it. There's the classic wide world of sports. The joy of victory, the agony of defeat. Sporting held on to win that game two to one. It lasted over four hours. Danny Rossello punching it in to get the game winner. It's his fifth goal of his sporting career and first goal in the US Open Cup. They advanced now to play the Indy 11 in the semi-finals so there are only two games away from a championship despite having a difficult season. So Danny Rossello for punching it in and you know showing the fight because it's hard to stay focused after over a long rain delay and playing the third game in seven days. Quality went and they went two to one. With that we'll ramp it up here. You can watch more sports and entertainment coverage right here on the fired-up network. See us on the true TV plus service and also on sports.tv, the largest streaming sports platform in the country. It's all free and those apps are available wherever you get your apps. For Rudy Reyes, I'm Gerald Bentley. Thanks a lot for joining us here and have a great week. We'll see you again.