Hour 1: MLB Home Run Derby Reactions, plus Taylor Twellman Talks World Cup Semifinals

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0:51Rich Eisen:Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody. Can't get enough of The Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on Disney +, from noon to 3 Eastern. Miss the show? We've got a podcast, so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash richeisenshow, and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. Hola. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Thank goodness I have this job, because I sure can't play golf. You hit that guy! Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

1:39Today's guests, Apple TV lead MLS analyst Taylor Twellman, ESPN senior NFL writer Jeremy Fowler, 10-year NFL head coach Jason Garrett. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

1:57Rich Eisen:I cut here with unlimited swings because I always Homer on my last swing every single day right here on the Rich Eisen show on Disney plus the ESPN app ESPN radio Sirius XM channel 80 for all those that are out there at Rich Eisen show is our handle on so many spots X threads Instagram Tick-Tack everybody it might be the Rich Eisen show their Facebook so much more there's Rich Eisen shop.com. If everybody wants a piece of our gear, we appreciate that. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial right here on the program. We have got ourselves a heck of a show in store for all of you. We greatly appreciate anybody that's out there to hang with us over the next three hours.

2:45Rich Eisen:Taylor Twelman is going to be first up to talk with us about everything that is going down in the World Cup. France and Spain later on today, as soon as we're done. It's basically when Toad touches football. And that one, Taylor is going to join us on this show shortly. And then we've got football on the brain. Why not? Jeremy Fowler, whose article on the top ten quarterbacks in the National Football League as sussed out by unnamed coaches and scouts and front office executives has gotten a lot of people talking. Jason Garrett will join us in hour number three. So we'll clap for him when he comes on this program.

3:25Rich Eisen:Don't be this way. We clap for everybody when they join us on this program. I don't get what you're... You know what you did. You guys know what you did. That was pretty good. Anyway, good to see you over there. What's up, Rich? Good to see you. How are you over there? I'm great. What's going on, Jason? Hey. You have the new gear. I hope you don't mind. I just kind of helped myself do it. You grabbed it. You grabbed it from our green room. I was passing your room and went, oh. So you're just like, I'll just take that one. There was a plethora. Okay. Okay, richeyesenshop.com, I greatly appreciate you.

3:55Rich Eisen:There's some of the gear that I rocked at the American Century Championship this weekend. Nice material. Hopefully you'll finish better than 88th today. Good to see you over there, TJ Jefferson. What's going on, man? How are you? You, well, 88. That's Mike Irvin. Yeah, that's right. I'm an 88 clubber. You're an 88 clubber. And I was using a club. Look at the positive side. I will. Thank you, sir. I mean, it's very negative for golf, but don't look at it like that. Do we count you beating Miles Teller because he withdrew? Oh, did he really? I didn't know he withdrew. Yeah, count it. He withdrew.

4:22Rich Eisen:So he's 89th? I think he had to get to Philadelphia because he did something for the All-Star game last night, actually. So you're saying he's 89th, really, Chris? I don't know. Hey, guess what? We were talking about this yesterday, hearing about the new home run derby rules. And I digged it. We were talking about last night getting rid of the clock and what that might mean. And we just thought, though, that it would lead to fewer home runs when you're just limiting the first round players to 20 swings and then the second round combatants to 15 and the final combatants to 15. And we did not know that if you homered on your last swing, you get to keep going until you don't homer again right we also didn't know that they would be throwing multi-colored baseballs at that home run combatant just to add a little bit of a extra twist to them having to hit something that's spinning and then turning different colors but it turned out to be awesome I really did enjoy it last night certainly when a handful of unforeseen circumstances arose.

5:48Rich Eisen:Like, say, players doing their best to homer in front of paying customers who normally would cheer those players on because they're hitting tape measure home runs for the pleasure of those who put down harder and American dollars to get in the stadium. Normally they would fet those combatants, certainly since many Major League Baseball stars that we would love to see grab a bat don't. And these guys who grab baseball bats and say, I will participate in the home run derby, unlike NBA stars who do not dunk a basketball in that contest that's always associated with the home run derby, the slam dunk contest.

6:34Normally we would cheer for those players unless they're going against the Philadelphia

6:38Rich Eisen:Philly and Philadelphia fans well got things going Wilson Contreras for instance was the first one to take on Kyle Schwarber and he hammed it up he was a good sport he was a great sport uh certainly since he was the first one to grab a bat last night and punched his ticket for the second round almost on the spot because of how well he performed in the first round but he was going against Kyle Schwarber so the cheers that we heard for Wilson Contreras was when he did not homer and I got to tell you the first couple of times I I I heard that I thought to myself well that's kind of crappy but then I you're like we're in Philadelphia we're in Philadelphia I'm from New York City that's just up you know the Acela that's just up the turnpike you get it and I kind of got it and I mean, it did add to the atmosphere.

7:39Rich Eisen:And Contreras was getting into it, and he got a chance. Oh, he was so close. He got a chance to get to his last swing and continue on with just a couple more home runs to get past Schwarber, but couldn't do it. and Schwarber advances to the final, and who does he face after cranking out 11 home runs in 15 swings? Well, actually, it was 16 swings, because I do believe, as you see on the screen here, he did become the first one to take care of what was called a magenta ball and deposit it outside the playing surface. and field. No one else had done it. And Schwarbert did what everybody in Philadelphia wanted him to do.

8:37Rich Eisen:Make the finals. Step up. Take his first cuts. Set a standard. Set a number. Light up the crowd. Light up the scoreboard. Light up the baseballs. And then who steps to the plate? Ladies and gentlemen, first time all-star Jordan Walker steps to the plate and he now has the honor of trying to tell Philadelphia fans, stick it where the sun does not shine. I hear your boos. I understand you don't want to see me win. I understand the guy that you want to see win just came up with 11 home runs in 16 and 17 swings. And sure enough, Jordan Walker steps to the plate with just six home runs and three swings left.

9:36Rich Eisen:You can do the math. He needs to basically keep homer. He can't he cannot miss once. That's pressure. That is pressure. And he steps to the plate and he homers. Seven home runs. Two swings left. And he steps to the plate and he homers. eight home runs one swing left and you could do the math he needs to homer here and then he needs to hit three magenta balls out of the yard and only one human being had hit a magenta ball out of the yard all night and it was the guy who was trying to beat any homers any homers any homers and he now needs to hit one more home run to just say we're not even going to go to a swing off.

10:27Rich Eisen:We're going to end this thing right now. And I got to tell you, I was on the edge of my seat. I'm like, this is what it's all about with this cockamamie clock that I'd never even seen before until a few years ago, as they were trying to spice up this tournament and this evening. And he homers again and his dad's pitching and his family's in the crowd. And those seem to be like the only two, three people who were rooting him on along with his fellow all-stars unbelievable i was i was cheering i'm like this is amazing yeah and he wins a one million dollar prize and because he's on his first major league baseball contract that's 201 000 more than he's making this year for an entire season so that's like times x what is that chris uh he made 125 percent of his salary like that yeah because you know i can't Oh, the gambler knows all the money.

11:27Rich Eisen:It was pretty awesome. Dude. His dad was so hype. His dad's like, he swings like me. You know, well, they told the story of his first ever home run and how it hit his grandmother's car. Like, it was great. Everything you wanted about it last night, it delivered. Awesome, awesome, awesome. And this is what Jordan Walker had to say about winning the home run derby. I know to expect coming to this home run derby. And there's guys who've done it before. Their approach was kind of to take something away from them who've done it before as it was going on. So, and honestly, I had a lot of fun with it.

12:08That was what it was. I can try to get my best swing off. But just watching their composure as well helped me towards my game, you know. No matter what, they were staying composed even when, you know, their swings weren't going their way. They took their time and they went about their business. And I'm just excited to see more of that as this All-Star Week is going on.

12:25Rich Eisen:Do you want to talk about crazy stats here? Or nuggets, facts? He's the first St. Louis Cardinal to win the Home Run Derby. And I'm like, wait a minute. Mark McGuire didn't win the Home Run Derby in 1999? He did not. It was Ken Griffey Jr. over Jeremy Burnitz. And I was there covering the 1999 Home Run Derby. Interviewing any American League All-Star. who had just homered because Stewart had the National League. Trust me, I was sitting there going, he gets Maguire and Sosa, huh? That's for a future this was SportsCenter. But, yeah, I forgot it, and I was on a field in Fenway Park. Yeah, the Cardinals have had some great players.

13:08Rich Eisen:How about Pujols never won? Dude, Maguire, I'll never forget that 99 All-Star game. Although I did, I just did. You did forget. I'll never forget this fact about it. good one thank you for calling me on on it immediately um he had 13 home runs in his at-bat his first at-bat and he broke his bat in the middle of it really yes and and and i do believe at one point during the at-bat pedro martinez tried to steal the bat from him because he kept on parking it over the green monster and he refused to let the bat go because he was hitting home runs with it, even though he had already broken it. Wonder why.

13:54Rich Eisen:And he didn't win. But this young man did, with all of Philadelphia rooting against him. My thought was Philly's brutal. I mean, honestly. But I think it's pretty special because they love their players, you know. And that's what you want, you know, from your home, like where you play. I mean, I'd never hear people cheer so loud for like, you know, Schwarber and Harper and those guys did their thing for sure um but you know I can't hate them because that's their hometown that's their that's their guy so I just got to play the game I love it good for him and he's wearing his his Netflix MVP jacket jacket that's right there listen I love the format I like the format yeah huge win the only there's just a couple of changes if I because I can't help myself not tinkering here.

14:47Rich Eisen:How do we shave a half an hour off this thing? Yeah. Well, the intros took a while. Listen, I can't blame Netflix for trying to, you know, it's their first crack at it here. Yeah. And eventizing it as big as they possibly can. I assume they got Michael Buffer because this is Philadelphia, the town of Rocky. Is that why? No, I assume. I think Michael Buffer, if you put the bag in front of him, he will. No, I understand that. But the only, like to bring sort of a boxing element to it. He's from Philadelphia. Okay, see what I mean? So we're putting it all together. I understand they've got Will Ferrell's new show that's coming out, and they're trying to put everything together.

15:27Rich Eisen:As a matter of fact, during Jordan Walker's interview last night, right after winning um netflix treated this like it was the end credits of any of the shows that i'm watching did it did this happen to you that they put it zoom in the top left corner and they gave you all different sort of new things that you should watch including will's new show which comes out this week which is great and i'll i'll watch it but like i wanted to see the the jordan walker interview full screen with his dad same so a couple times i was trying to tinker with it and I once got out of the app. See, that's weird. I saw that full screen.

16:00So listen, if we shave, what do we do?

16:05Rich Eisen:Make it 15 swings and then 10 and 10? We could do that. Oh, interesting. Okay. So these guys aren't all gassed? They were getting a little, you can tell, a little tired at the end. Because I do believe the entire event was like two hours and 40-something minutes. Let's just say if it was two hours and 40 minutes. Okay. I looked it up. the Philadelphia Phillies have played 20 baseball games, actual games in that stadium so far this year, shorter than that time, 20 games. They played 20 baseball games in a shorter amount of time than the home run derby took place in that stadium. So I'd shorten it up a little bit.

16:45Rich Eisen:And then in terms of the Netflix presentation, was that Hunter Pence who was screaming the entire night? And I understand you're trying to give some sort of energy, but when he was screaming in Contreras' first at-bat, I'm like, someone's got to get in his ear and tell him, there's going to be at least 200 more home runs tonight, man. A lot of dick. And I like Rizzo and Vaskirgin. Yeah, they did a good job. You know what I mean? And they had Bonds and Pujols, right, with L. Duncan, and there's all different sorts of voices that they tried to work in together. but the one thing that we got to change is like listen if you're directing the home run derby i might even know the director so i apologize for saying this i don't know who directed it but let's take the scorsese and fellini out of it i don't need to see the the hero shots from down low when the the series when when the events on the line here i need to see the pitch come in and leave the frame.

17:47Rich Eisen:I cannot tell. I am a diehard baseball fan, and I have been watching baseball for half a century, and I cannot tell a home run swing from a fly-out swing if I cannot see the pitch leave the frame. I can't. Can you tell what a home run swing looks like just by zooming in on the player from down low? I need to see the pitch come in, and I need to see it leave the frame So at least I can tell, oh, that's at a certain angle that that could be gone. Only if it's Schwarber, you can tell. Brother, I don't know about that. There were a couple swings where it was just like, and he goes, oh, that's why I know it's not going to be a home run.

18:28Rich Eisen:Right. Because I can't see the ball come in or leave the frame. I got you. You know what I mean? Some of those shots, though, after we saw, like, when it was from down low from behind home plate and you watched it leave. Yeah, it was awesome. Beautiful. Yeah. Beautiful. But even that, showing that live, you could tell if it's a home run. But if you cannot see the ball leave the frame, the viewer at home can't tell what's happening. So ideally, what shot would you like to have? I want to see just like a baseball game. So center field. Yes, certainly if it's down to you have to homer, that happened twice.

19:07Rich Eisen:Contreras and the eventual winner, Walker, needed to keep homering to win. So for those, just give me behind home plate. Or, I mean, from center field. Yeah, I want center field, and I'm going to cut to home behind so we can see. Maybe. I don't know. Or don't cut. Like, just give me straight up. It's the same thing when I'm watching a football game on a kickoff. Like, why do I need to follow it on a Skycam? But then again, I might be showing my age here. That's the way it looks like a video game. That's the way most of everyone in the demographic that they're trying to get to buy stuff. is used to watching a game from at any rate um i i thought it was um uh just a great night overall i'm i'm nitpicking now um what netflix picking i don't know i'll bet uh perfect primer for tonight's game it was it was awesome it was exciting uh i'm sure kids were into a cage when we were dialed in it was great great night for baseball it was awesome but if cage was on the east coast though pal i mean this is almost 11 o 'clock like that's what i'm saying like we got to let's shave some time off.

20:14Rich Eisen:I tell you, I got confused. I'm watching, you know, Monday Night Raw on Netflix on Monday. I was looking for the Home Run Derby, never realizing that it was also on Netflix. Well, I mean, that's also part. I missed like the first 20 minutes. That's part and parcel of our world right now, right? I was like, it's not on ABC. Right. So I missed, like I said, I missed the first 15, 20 minutes. Well, I tell you what, man. It was, I think, a successful net overall. It's something that we just led the show with. now it's time to talk about world cup taylor twelman's going to join us when we return here on the rich eyes and show should we hydrate now we should no wait because i i think he's going to pull the usual drill okay well i'm gonna have fun get but get your water ready so about you know a third and two thirds through the interview we're going to start drinking water water

21:28We'll be right back. and jump on the bandwagon. We're undefeated. Lays, the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Oh, oh, oh, O 'Reilly.

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22:50The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

22:53Rich Eisen:Rich Wellman here on the program. But you want to know, Rich, real quick, real quick. If the camera, I don't know if I can get this. This is the coolest gift I've ever gotten. So these two balls right here. Baseballs, not soccer balls. Yeah, so my grandfather played for the Yankees, Tigers. I didn't know that. Yeah, yep. So he won. If I'm not mistaken, this is one of the Detroit Tigers ball. Is that 84? 1950. Oh, 50. 56. Okay. And then this is a Yankees. This is the Chicago White Sox. There you go. Chicago White Sox that he played for. So he played 11 years in the majors. So that was when he passed away.

23:29All of us got like some memorabilia. So one of those balls, I think it's this one, was one of the Yankees teams that he got traded from midseason. They won a World Series. And yet he still got a ring and all of that. So it's kind of cool.

23:43Rich Eisen:So if he won a championship with Hank Greenberg, that is the most successful combination of a 12-man and a Jewish guy since this very conversation, I would think. How come that didn't translate to hold 12 this week? Uh-oh, Taylor. We'll get to that in short order. All right, sir. France and Spain, break it down for me. What do you got? What do you got? This is as good as it gets. Before the tournament started, Rich, I said this would be the World Cup final. Now, I don't know if I fully believe that because I think England is playing at a level that they've never played at. There's a belief within that group.

24:23And then Argentina obviously has Lionel Messi and everyone else just playing above their caliber to send them out in the right way. Now, this French team is as athletic as any team I've ever seen. And if you listed the top 10 attacking players in the world right now, I think they have three of them. Obviously Mbappe, Dembele, but Olise has been absolutely brilliant. He's been arguably the best provider in this entire tournament. And so when you throw in Mbappe, Dembele, and Olise, now the Spanish team is really going to have to deal with something. Now, they've only given up one goal. So the issue will be, it comes down simply to this.

25:05And I've said this since 2010 when I started covering the Spanish team. It is a death by a thousand passes. Okay? They do not care where they are in the field. They will pass the ball to death to make you miserable, to have you chase the game. The problem with that is this, and this is going to be the number one issue for Spain today, is when they lose the ball, can they collectively swarm the ball, try to press the ball, and win the ball immediately back? If they don't, France has the athleticism. France has the dynamism to really expose them. So I get it. The Spanish team's only given up one goal this tournament.

25:44It was in the quarterfinal to Belgium. But I'm not sure they have faced anyone like this French team, and I'll be shocked if France isn't in the final.