It is a parody song, right?

In honor of Labor Day, right? You guys all work together and everything else.

We've known each other for a long time.

So Mike Reese was involved in this a little bit.

John, yourself.

So it's a little different.

All right.

Well, this

One of your

competitors.

Yeah, he's the best.

He's one of your competitors.

No, he's not.

TC and I have been with each other for 25 years, so it's all good, Fred.

You've been with each other? Well, you know what I mean.

This guy might be the best defensive shortstop in baseball, and you're telling him, you Bobby Valentine, like, yeah, fringe major leaguer, telling him

That's why I had them at 10-7.

And that's the tremendous challenge that this team has.

That's what Vrabel throws right at them, right? If I'm Vrabel, I'm looking at all these predictions and everything else.

To me, it's as simple as health.

That's it, right? Before the season, you say, okay, if they can get this guy, this guy, this guy, keep them healthy, then they have a really good chance to be a really very good team.

If they don't and they have those breaks and bad luck and what have you, then that's the difference in going 12-5 or 13.

It's just the beginning of the season is so hard.

It felt like when the Eagles were

And I don't know about you guys, but it just seems now like the goal is to get to the finish line and get as many people healthy as possible.

I think they're trying to manipulate the roster as best they can to get guys rest.

Mandatory rest.

Contreras goes on the I.L. Sonny Gray, they skipped on Tuesday.

You can see it.

Chad Tracy, they're just trying to get it.

So they can kind of breathe for a second here and then pick it up again as they come down the stretch.

And it was an independent investigation.

So those are the guys who really have something to play for tonight.

And when I watch games, when I watch practices, I kind of look for flashes of numbers.

Like, what number are you seeing having a good day or a lot in the back? Holmes is one of those guys, 58 and 59.

Khalil Jacobs, right? Another guy that you're starting to see flash a little bit more and more.

And then if you watch, if you're there every practice...

By the time you're done training Kip, you get a sense of, yeah, I can understand why the Patriots might take a chance on him or bring him back on the practice squad.

Or like Ponder, just keep him there, keep him there, and he just keeps growing on you.

He's been through a

[laughs]

I think it's been a developing relationship.

Couple weeks ago, A.J. said he was 90% into the playbook.

Feels like he's up to speed on it now.

It was fun to watch the battles between Christian Gonzalez and A.J. Brown so far in camp

campBeen good stuff to see-

I, I figured if I was on the Disney site, and it all seemed pretty, like, concrete of, like, I don't wanna stay at Animal Kingdom.

But I would, I would just would've said to you, like, "Hey," pick up the phone to call and say, "I'm on the Disney site.

Oh.

Who will blow us away.

We saw one star rise.

On this glorious day.

So let's start talking.

And we just won't stop.

Gotta keep on talking.

I know, I, I got Sudfeld, so, so thank you.

They look great for five weeks, and now they look god-awful again.

I don't think anybody knows, right? That's the, the bizarre part of this season.

You would think that a team that goes, what, uh, 32 and six or so- some ridiculous number would be that type of team if they level off.

Uh, but we saw the flip side of it the first two months, where they couldn't get out of their own way.

Now they've lost five straight.

They play ...

The, the good thing is they're playing the Jays for the final time this season of the 13 games, uh, against the AL East team.

Yeah.

... powered by Valvoline Instant Oil Change on 98.5 The Sports Hub.

Okay, for this show, I guess the sounder would be worth it.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has placed Mike Lombardi, GM for the Carolina football program, on paid administrative leave effective immediately.

As is standard procedure with personnel matters, leadership, staff, and student athletes are prohibited from addressing this topic further and has no reflection on the merits.

I'm not exactly sure what that last part means, but Mike Lombardi has done something to upset the school in some way, shape, or form.

So Bill Belichick's barnacle has been plucked off.

He is barnacle free as of right this second.

Yeah, everybody thought they'd get a huge haul for Brown.

You're installing someone at second base who has played six games there this year, and I think that's just a question that people have is, how is that gonna work out?

How much of a risk is this for Breslow at this point? Is, is it because, uh, you could tell us, do you think the, the, the, the sell- it's a seller's market, it's gonna be hard to put together...

You know, you have to give up so much to get another right-handed batter, whatever.

How much of is this a risk/reward type of thing right now for Breslow, where this team's at, what they've done with this hot streak and got themselves back in, and, and kind of show of faith to the team and the fans here at this point?

[laughs]

I didn't even know.

I couldn't think, I couldn't think of a song.

I was stuck, mental block thinking of a song for it and everything like that.

Go ahead, Danny.

No, that's spot on with you, Fred, is the sense of...

Think big picture with Craig Breslow and what he's been through, what he's been through with this team.

He fires his manager.

You know, it's going to be this whole driveline type of thing.

They get rid of some of the driveline people.

Organization says we got to focus on now competing and winning.

The other part of the weekend was that the Patriots signed second-round draft pick Gabe Ackes and put him on the non-football injury list, but no bad storylines to start.

Just Meyer in general, would you play him if he comes back? I'd start him in

AAA.

I'd start him and see what he did in Worcester and kind of get him back in that right mentality.

And then just see where you're at with all these guys that are coming in and playing way above anything they've done before like Siegler.

And just see, like you said, Fred, at some point he's going to level out.

Maybe that's when you reinforce it.

Maybe that's this year.

And

But for the right team that might need, they're not thrilled with their number two or number three guy, Sonny Gray could be a difference maker in that regard, don't you think?

Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Right? Because a four-man rotation in the postseason or three, he's perfect.

He's absolutely what you want because he's going to give you innings.

He may give up anywhere from one to four runs, but you're almost guaranteed to get six or seven innings out of him.

Schuble is one of those guys, if you're a big market team and you think you can sign him long-term, then maybe you go from thinking that investment.

Will the Red Sox move on from Sonny Gray, considering Jake Bennett and Peyton Tolley are out there most innings ever pitched?

All right, Danny, what's the game?

All right, so with all the Scots in town, a little bit of fun, so let's kind of have some fun with some trivia.

Ready to play a game.

It's the World Cup.

Hey, Fred, what's up? Is John a smarty? Even without Hardy.

Oh, Dan.

Oh, great World Cup.

We're going red

Pat, go ahead.

I once did that.

Huh? I once did that joke to David Ortiz.

Did he even understand? So it's getting ready for game four of the Red Sox Colorado World Series in Colorado.

And one of somebody from the Red Sox front office said, we need David to relax a little bit.

So I went running out to the batting cage where he was hanging on to get ready to hit.

I said, hey, David.

That's a coach's dream.

So, Danny Roach, what did you have for our friend Bert Breer from the MMQB?

I think all the expectations are for the Patriots.

Okay, they could be better than they were last year, but the record's not going to be near what it was because of everything else.

But if you treat Drake May as, and I'm not going to say Holmes, Mahomes, that level yet, or Josh Allen or what have you, but if you look at his record, you know, When he started out, his record was 2-1.

12-4, 11-3, 14-1.

4-9.

I think with the... 1, 2, 3, 4.

You were talking about where, like, the...

With runners in scoring position, Dan, over their last three games, I defy you to find something good about this team.

I can't.

I can't today.

There's too much to unpack, even in just those highlights that you played from start to finish.

Right? I think...

Fred, you're on the game.

You know the game, John.

What do you got? So

[laughs]

Why am I incurring more wrath than the other two?Well, let me see, Hardy.

Um, you didn't get back to me with the text.

At least I got the, I got the, "I'm the last guy on the bench, I'll send you in for the final 30 seconds" text from John, uh, very late in the game, which I, I, I appreciated that, getting back.

Freddy, you know, Freddy is Freddy.

And, and then you threw me under the bus with Mark Daniels to ask if, you know, if there was any, uh, thick with two Cs questions or anything like that.

It's not good.

Yeah, no, he, so what he's talking about is Matt Ri- Matt Rife literally takes him out by the knees.

You got duped? [laughs]

Me being [clears throat] the idiot that I am, the naive one, I was, uh, watching practice with, uh, uh, a member of the media, and, um, we were watching Drake Maye.

And we were actually watching the whole practice and what have you, and then I just said, "Hey, uh, you know, Drake, uh, uh, he looks a little bit, like, thicker.

You know, he looks like he's, he's put on some weight, look, but good weight." And, uh, she said the s- same thing.

"Yeah, he looks, he looks good, especially, like, in person.

You can see him." Uh, she was at an event with him, I guess, a couple days before and said that you can notice it, and especially in the face and what have you.

So I said, I said, "Yeah," but I said, "If, if you ask him about being thicker, it just doesn't sound right.

Do you think there's any way Lomu doesn't start when the season begins?

Everyone's too far

away.

Exactly.

Sad.

Mm-hmm.

All right, here's your question.

We'll make these multiple choice for you too.

He's not paying

[laughs]

And that's the same thing with, like, the Giannis trade for Jaylen Brown is that it might not make sense, and I'm not arguing that it does, but the notion of never breaking up Brown and Tatum, the m- the older I get, the more I realize that that's usually how I would feel about things, and I was always wrong.

Like, we got, d- d- we got to...

But every year that goes by that they don't win is an opportunity gone, right? And it, and, and it's just another year into it that you're n- you haven't done anything.

And maybe if you can switch things up and even just steal a championship, that's a championship.

This Trout thing's completely different.

But let's think of it this way.

So you're saying that, that it's too cheap.

He's not gonna be back before June.

No, I always go back to Tito, right? Tito used to always say, "Bro, ch- just use common sense when it comes to injuries.

When I say that a guy's throwing off flat ground, think about the progression that he has to go through." Yeah, he hasn't been on a mound yet.

He has to get on a mound.

He has to throw a bullpen.

He has to throw a live BP, maybe a rehab start.

So figure that whatever that time is, add four weeks to it, or what have you, all, things like that.

... teaching them how to play the position.

Why should I feel that this beginning of the season isn't a sign of things to come.

I'm going to say, and I'm not saying they're not going to have a good season.

I'm not saying they're going to have a great season or anything.

I think that if you look throughout baseball, it's just the way things have started.

It's been kind of bizarre.

The Toronto Blue Jays are 8-13.

Got a lot of pitching injuries, though, the Blue Jays.

And shocker, it's playing out this way.

What's the best part of the course? When you ran it, what was the coolest? I mean, obviously getting to the finish line, but was it the turn onto Boylston? Was it Kenmore Square? There must have been a time where you felt like you could conquer the world.

The right on Hereford and the left on Boylston is the greatest.

You know what I mean? Because it's quick.

But then at the same time, when you turn, when you look, and when you see, that's like what you've seen watching it for so many years or being on the finish line with other people.

To see it that way was just really, really cool.

Then I'd go second to get into Kenmore Square and to see Fenway.

You know the Red Sox playing in that.

I mean, just a lazy turnover, you know, trying to move the puck out of there.

The second Buffalo scored that second goal, I was like, this game's going... three overtimes i'm gonna stay up and i'm gonna watch them lose in three overtimes no no they just continued the collapse they continued the pants crapping last night so that is the only that is the only solace i take away from it is the only silver lining from last night is i didn't have to stay up any later than i thought i was going to because that game was won and then it was lost and i i'm still stunned by what i saw

Well, I think, yeah, I think everybody is.

And I was going to say it was a great weekend up until that Bruins game last night and up until that third period with about eight minutes left to go and then the barrage of four goals and the Bruins are done just like that.

It was just strange to watch.

By the way, I want to say hi to anybody that's in the buses.

Yes.

or in their cars driving to the starting line right now is that's one of the worst feelings in the world because you have a pit in your stomach knowing you have to run 26.2 miles a little bit later on you'll drink so much water you'll be 15 times somewhere around here too and all the porta bodies but yes that was the one thing i i had a fun weekend brewing celtics practices working the channel for anchoring and then yesterday got up bright and early nine o'clock hit the garden read the papers in the morning at the Garden, then went over to see Pedro Martinez at an event that he's hosting for the Pedro Martinez Foundation.

So to me, it's tackle, it's edge, and