Hour 2: What’s More Likely, plus Royals 1B Vinnie Pasquantino Talks WBC and Jets

20:06Rich Eisen:That's real on the left. On the right, my God, no. What's the answer? Hoax more people believe in, I think, is the moon landing. All right, let's take it. Well done. Well done. What's more likely is brought to you by Pella Windows and Doors. When it comes to your home, Pella Windows and Doors always have the winning game plan. That's why your neighbors trust them. Visit Pella.com slash Aizen. One of our favorites, Vinny Pasquantino, is zooming into this show next. He's out there in Arizona getting ready for the Kansas City Royals and Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic.

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22:48Rich Eisen:Visit HyundaiUSA.com for details. Back with the Rich Eisen Show on ESPN Radio now. Vinny Pasquantino, Kansas City Royals first baseman joining us here on the program. How you doing? You must be psyched to get a uniform back on again, right? Today's my first day in pants. If I could go full body, I'd show you. I'm back in baseball pants. I'm very excited. Hitting in shorts and doing stuff in shorts is very strange. So it's nice to be back in pants and full go. Wait a minute. I saw you at the London game. You were wearing pants in London. Yeah, I was wearing pants in London. What a time. Rich, what a dinner we had that night.

23:21Rich Eisen:We had a nice dinner. And I told you and your lovely wife last time I'm picking this check up because you hit arbitration, man. I'm not picking up another check with the Pascotinos ever. Yeah, that's fine. Hey, I'm more than willing to front those bills now. So now that we've made it to that point of my career, no problem. We'll make it happen. I love it. I love it. All right, I'm going to ask you a couple questions that I know Coop would want me to ask you. The ABS, are we ready? Are we ready for ABS? What do we got? Man, I don't know. I've never done it. Never. Never. Last spring we did it, but we weren't really trying to use it because we knew it wasn't going to happen last year.

23:55So this year spring training is going to be a little strange because we've got to, like today, when I get off this call, we're going to do live at bats. We'll get Trackman Strike Zone, but that's a different one than the ABS Strike Zone. So we don't really know what the zone is. So we're relying on the younger guys, the guys who are in AAA, AA to tell us what the strike zone is as we learn through this process.

24:16Rich Eisen:Yeah, man, because you've got to also – you can't just tap your helmet because you want to, right? There's a certain limited number of those, and I imagine your manager, and there's going to have to be a plan as to – like you're going to have to look over there and figure it out, right? Yeah. Isn't that the way it works? So I guess we haven't had any meetings about it just yet since camp hasn't officially opened, but I believe you get two per game. But if you're right, you get to keep it. So if you use one in the first, I don't know if you guys can hear that. That's all the fans yelling for Bobby to sign autographs for him.

24:47But watch, I can honestly be able to walk because nobody's going to ask me for an autograph. Okay. Oh, come on now, Vinny. Come on.

24:54Rich Eisen:Come on now. It's perfect. But yeah, I think you get two. But so like if you do one in the first inning and you're wrong, it's kind of a waste. And let me tell you, pitchers should not be allowed to do it because they don't know the strike zone at all. so if a pitcher does it there might be a fight in the clubhouse because those guys don't know the zone at all that is real talk right there that is real talk right there okay so bobby how many people are asking bobby for autographs right now what do we got every person that's here so however many people that are here right now that's how many so i think they just got him a cart and he was able to able to scoot down to the bottom fields all right i like it another question that cooper would want me to ask is you know the about the world baseball classic and and how how into it are the players because it looks like to me from the last time this means a lot for real it does yeah it's well it's fun because it's it's like a little league tournament in terms of you know what you have to do to advance you got to be in the top two but then there are different tiebreakers you know run differential run scored runs allowed different things that's what we had to deal with in 2023 for italy we won our we finished second in our bracket even though everybody had the same record so our last game we knew we had to score at least like six runs but also win by at least three it was a it's it's like nothing else I mean it's about as close to playoff baseball as you can get and sometimes it's a little bit more intense because like if you play the Dominican down in Miami or something that place is going to go nuts so um yeah it's uh it's a special environment I'm honored to be a part of it who's on team Italy with you um he middly uh jack taglione who's about to take some pp right now he's about to lose some baseballs okay so uh michael lorenzen who was with the royals last year he's going to pitch for us aaron nola with the phillies um i'm trying to think of kyle teal who's the catcher for the white socks i'm missing people i know there's a lot of young guys it'll be super cool so um it's going to be a really special tournament and we're really excited for it dude oh man i'm excited for too.

26:52Rich Eisen:All right, so let's get into this here, Vinny. Who were you rooting for in the Super Bowl? Who were you rooting for? I was rooting for Sam Darnold. Yeah, you were. I was rooting for Sam Darnold. Are you kidding me? Dude, Sam Darnold won a Super Bowl beating the Patriots. First career win against the Patriots. How about that, Vinny? He waited for the biggest moment. Everything leading up in his career was leading to that. Really, if you think about it, the Jets picked the right quarterback. Yeah, they did. They got him in the league, you know, and he cultivated that caper you know through three other teams uh just to get there but you know leonard williams another former jet another guy you rooted for how many former jets could there be in this game it was insane it feels like everything feels like an attack at the jets all over the place oh this guy played for them this guy they ruined this guy they ruined this guy they ruined this guy oh sweet guys sweet you know if i had rabel there's a tweet on my twitter yeah oh last year when they interviewed variable i just said please like don't let him out of the building right um and i knew he was playing him i knew he was i knew he was the whole time but and i get it but yeah well yeah yeah i was rooting for talk well part of the reason why you're on here today uh i'll take you anytime obviously was in our text exchange um that we still have going from our guillotine league our buddy Jeff Berman who I don't think you've met him yet he's one of my dear friends I don't know why he decided to choose this particular violence and put it on our chain but what is this Chris?

28:30Rich Eisen:Some place in Korea? There's a gym in Korea they have murals and photographs all across the gym of the Jets players and with the quotes this will be your team if you don't finish that set inspiration what i i just crazy that korea is throwing shots at the jets i mean it what is happening you know we're worldwide really if you think about it in a good way so we're so famous but i mean that we're in korea not to not to nitpick here but the jets aren't choosing first overall they weren't the technically worst team they tried to be and they were bad at that too yeah but maybe this is korea's way of saying that they want an NFL game.

29:14So next thing you know, we're going to Australia. Yeah, exactly.

29:18Rich Eisen:So this gym spot, right? He pops that on there. And then what happened next? Yeah, so then after that, there was kind of like, oh, this is awesome. You asked Vinny how he felt. Yeah, I asked you, how do you feel about this? Yeah, and then Smidge threw out. This is the only motivating Jets photo ever taken. And it's Joe Namath poolside before Super Bowl III. Right. We got that one. Yeah, there it is, by the way. Look at Brent Musburger there on the left, wearing his pants, sitting there in his shirt sleeves. And then what happened next? And then Jake, our social media maven, he was like, no, this one's pretty good, and it's the butt fumble.

29:53What the hell? Which is just insane. I mean, just insane. Vinny. Vinny. It's just getting started. I thought we weren't allowed to talk about Mark Sanchez anymore. I thought that was. This is going to live forever. And then Cooper chimed in with a Photoshop of Kyler Murray in a Jets uniform. Pretty motivational photo, he said. It's Kyler Murray. Captain.

30:19Rich Eisen:Captain. Dude. Captain. Kyler Murray on the Jets does not strike me as the way to go. No, me either. But I have an idea. Yeah, and then I said, well, then, Rich, you were like, you guys think you're all so funny. Yeah, you're so funny. And I'm like, Coop, now do Derek Carr. Yeah, and I think I responded like, my son is not some AI monkey machine for you. Yep, and sure enough, Coop delivered. There's Derek Carr as a jet. I think that was when he was flirting with the Jets a few years ago. Okay, I got it. All right. Vinny, you asked for Joe Burrow. Yeah, to Cooper, right? Yeah, yeah. You're ripping my son in.

30:54Yep, then he couldn't find it. But then, well, then I was like, wait, Coop, do Aaron Rodgers, which I thought was pretty funny. and then Jake did find one of Joe Burrow in the Jets. There we go. Is that your idea? So we got five first-round picks, five first-round picks, and how many years can you trade draft picks? It doesn't matter. Give him, Cincinnati, all of your first-round picks the rest of his career and just do it.

31:16Rich Eisen:Do you think Joe Burrow would want to go from the Bengals to the Jets, Vinny? Seems like a fashion guy. Seems like he would enjoy that scene. Why not? Isn't that pain for more pain? He was at the Super Bowl. Double negative equals a positive, Brockman. That's true. That's true. I saw that movie. I saw that movie. Joe was at the Super Bowl hanging with Costner. Exactly. He's rubbing elbows, man. The Rams have their quarterback for next year, so can't go there. Might as well go to the Jets. Dude. Why are you a Jet fan again? Vinny Testaverde, baby. That's right. Okay. But he spells it a different way.

31:55Yeah, it doesn't matter. Still the first person I ever saw was my name. So I said, yep, that's the one.

32:01Rich Eisen:TJ Jefferson, man. Anytime that the Cowboys aren't getting trolled on, you're just sitting back, like, chilling. Yeah. I don't want to turn any of it towards us. DJ, are you excited for CM Punk and Roman Reigns at WrestleMania or what? I truly am. Hey, Vinny, you know, we had Punk on the podcast last week. Yeah, he consumes no contest wrestling. I don't assume. He does. He told me. Always assume with me. Always assume. I also got a text from someone that said, you know, Vinny's a huge wrestling fan, which I kind of knew. And he mentioned that you've been to the last three World Rumbles. And I was like, yeah.

32:34Not this year, though. Couldn't go this year. Yeah, it was kind of a trip, Vinny. You couldn't make it. But let me just ask you, who do you got in that matchup then? Roman Reigns. Does that guy ever lose? That's a good point. He really does. Yeah. When he shows up to work, he wins.

32:48Rich Eisen:So do you, buddy. So do you. Good point. And so last question for you, Vinny. When you put your pants on, is it one leg at a time? yeah one leg at a time okay i got one leg i go left leg first and right leg okay well i mean that you're you're a lefty if you're in a slump vinnie do you ever switch it up go right leg first and then left if i'm in a slump i will do whatever i need to do to get out of it doesn't matter there's different ways to put on pants like it i'll do anything to get out of okay uh can you share with us the craziest thing you have done that worked to get out of a slump well it's not that crazy but last year i went with contacts decided that maybe i couldn't see so i changed my eyesight um yeah so from like may 18th on that's when i had contacts i'm still getting used to putting them in i think i'm just terrible at it okay it's hard man oh the weirdest the dumbest one is changing my back color i went from the light color to black and i'll never i'm only using black the rest of my career i will never change well you never go back after that You never go back You know You could say that One could say that I'm saying bat color Very good Alright so just walk me through the rest of your day You're taking your bat Are you done for the day or are we wrapped I'm about to go hit live at bats I'm going to walk down there right now See what we got We had our first day yesterday So we're going to go for day two today and see what happens All right, Vinny Pasquantino.

34:16Rich Eisen:Get it, man. Go get it. Go get him. All right, thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Ladies and gentlemen, the Pasquatch right here on the Rich Eisen show. There he goes. Off he goes. Rich Eisen here. The tax deadline will be here before you know it, and you just want to know your taxes are actually being handled. But the old way, you hand everything off, and then silence. Days pass. Weeks pass. You start wondering, should I send another follow-up email? It feels like you're chasing updates and getting nowhere. But now, taxes are different because your taxes are done for you by a TurboTax full-service expert.

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36:01Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. I love that guy, man. Vinny had 32 bombs and 113 RBIs last year. Not a lot of slumps.

36:12Rich Eisen:You wanted him in that. Many good people. I wanted him in fantasy. You wanted him in that. No, not fantasy. In real life. Oh, I wanted him in real life, too, also. Yeah. Yes. You wanted him in Boston. Yeah. Well, look, he only signed a two-year with arbitration, so. Here we go. Fingers crossed. I mean, let me ask you this question. Would you ever want to leave Bobby Witt Jr. of your own volition? Not unless there was someone of equal. Would you ever? Yeah. No. Would you ever? Like, what a guy to have. like how many RBIs he had last year? Who? If any? Yeah. 113. Is there a way to find out how many of those 113 plated Bobby Wood Jr.?

36:48Rich Eisen:Probably, yeah. Would you say it was half? Bobby Wood Jr. scores a lot. He does. A third. A third to a half. Let's see what the AI machine can pump out here. You know what I mean? Would you ever leave him on your own? Would you ever? Unless you're at Shohei. If you are teammates with Aaron Judge, would you ever leave him of your own? Oh, wait a minute. Somebody did. Oh, wow. You know what? The thing about that group, you like that one? Do you like that one? There's one guy I know who had a great spot. That was good. Great stuff. That was good. The thing about that group chat, right, is Coop's 14, and he gets to interact with a major league player.

37:34That would be like for me back in the day getting on the group chat with like Howard Johnson or, you know, Daryl Strawberry or Mookie Wilson or one of the Mets. Like, I'm sitting there. Coop gets to actually converse with a guy who gives it back to him.

37:48Rich Eisen:The apples to apples would be if Vinny was a Yankee. You're talking about Mets. Well, I'm just saying. Coop's just in general a baseball fan. But he's a Vinny fan. But for Vinny, Vinny gives him just crap. And didn't he give something back to him too? No, Coop gives him. They go back and forth, really. Top rope it. Coop comes up with some stuff, too, that's like, oh. Their text relationship is very fun. And I think there's no doubt they're the two children of the text chain. Those two, Vinny and Coop, are the two children. For sure. And Jake is just a little bit north of that, our social media maven.

38:24Rich Eisen:Jake's just a little under Vinny. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so cool, though, right? Yeah, I'm just a ball almost hit me. Bobby Wood's going to protect me. Okay. because he protects Bobby in the lineup. Do we have a number on that or we couldn't figure it out? Couldn't figure it out. I bet you it's like, why the hell would he leave? Why the hell would he leave? I mean, Boston's nice. I know. Ron Anthony's good. It's the hub of New England, as we discussed yesterday. Well, it's the center. Well, it's the only place that people associate with New England. Queens, New York is also nice. I don't particularly think that's true.

38:54Rich Eisen:All right. Let's take a break. Phone calls, everybody. We empty the phone banks as we finish up our ESPN residency for this day. ESPN2 and Tim Hardaway Sr. on the other side.

39:11Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast. On the Rich Eisen Show, the Hyundai Hope on Wheels campaign I talk about is still going on. 27 years it's been going on. 27 years. Every Hyundai sold has helped fund life-saving pediatric cancer research during that time, thanks to the awesomeness and largesse of over 850 dealers nationwide. Together, they've raised more than$277 million, supporting over 25 ,000 kids in their fight against cancer. Visit HyundaiUSA.com and search Hyundai Hope on wheels to learn more. At Hyundai, hope is an optional. It comes standard. 844-204-RICH-NUMBER-DONEL. Peter in Cleveland's been hanging on for almost two hours, first in, first up.

39:55Rich Eisen:What's up, Peter? How are you? I'm great, Rich. First off, I'd like to thank you for not spoiling Wordle and listening to the knuckleheads and getting pressured into ruining it. Can you imagine I did something like that? I don't understand what my old colleague from the NFL Network was thinking about. I'm going to do it right now. You know, it has to do... You're a mensch, Rich. You are a mensch. Which is one letter too long for Wordle. but it's okay. Yes, it is. All right. Reason I'm calling is everyone knows that the NFL is eventually going to go to 18 games, and people are like, how are they going to do it, blah, blah, blah.

40:33I think I came up with a fantastic, although controversial, way of reimagining the schedule to get rid of some of the weird arguments that happen at the end of the season, like a division champ being in the top four versus the fifth or sixth seed that has more wins, et cetera. You got to give me some latitude, though. So the first thing you do is in the conferences, you get rid of the divisions, okay? Just hold on. Listen to me. Yeah, Peter, so you can't see me,

41:06Rich Eisen:but right now I have a face of skepticism. I understand. I told this to my mother-in-law. She loves the NFL, massive Steelers fan, but she found it very intriguing. So you get rid of the divisions, And then based off of how everyone finished last year, the teams are grouped. The top four teams are one group, then the next five through eight, then nine through 12, 13 through 16. And then basically everyone in the conference plays each other once. That's 15 games. And then you play the other three teams in your group a second time. That's 18. That way you can have more parity. That means the bottom teams that finished last year will play each other twice.

41:50They have a better chance of playing like bad teams and moving up. And the top teams would play each other twice and get really exciting games and lead to a little bit more parity. Now, I understand that get rid of conference cross-conference games. We don't need them. It's fine. That way, also, the Super Bowl, AFC versus NFC, baby. It's the best of our best. Let's see who can win it. I hear you, Peter, but, you know, I appreciate you having an idea.

42:20Rich Eisen:I appreciate you having the confidence to deliver it. I'm telling you, man. I'm telling you. I think it's a good idea. No, no, no. And I appreciate your mother-in-law is a skeptical woman because I don't like this idea at all. I understand that. I understand that. But you rank them. Everyone has a head-to-head. So the eighth or ninth team or whoever, they have a head-to-head. So whoever won that game is higher ranked. If they split a head-to-head, say they play twice, whoever has the better strength of victory or point differential gets the higher seed. That means teams will be working harder even throughout the season for better positions.

42:58Yeah, but the NFL does not have, Peter,

43:01Rich Eisen:the NFL does not have a tanking problem. They don't have a problem with teams not trying anymore. And they fixed all of that by putting division games on the back end of the schedule. That's why division games matter. Division games. As a Browns fan, I know what tanking looks like. No, hey, brother. But at the end of the day, you know, what keeps players from tanking is the fact that they could be out of the league with any snap. I mean, it's a different sport in that regard. Yeah, but the organizations can make, you know. No, they remove players from rosters. They sit players. They're questionable and suddenly don't play.

43:41Put them on IR.

43:43Rich Eisen:I know, but even the Raiders who are trying to tank by telling Max Crosby to go home beat the Chiefs on the last day of the year. And, Peter, we're up against it, and I appreciate your two cents. So how do your mother-in-law afford it? I know. You know, 18 games, I know why the league is interested in an 18th game. It's more revenue. And if you add an 18th game, this Sunday would be the Super Bowl. Well, it will be next year anyway. Well, next year is because it's Valentine's Day. Yeah, it's on the 14th. Yeah. Is President's Day weekend the following weekend? I bet it is. Yeah. I bet President's Day is going to be.

44:27Rich Eisen:Sorry, I was doing wordle. The 22nd, February 22nd. What's the word, Brock? of next year, I'd imagine. I don't know. Because the NFL has been attempting to put the – has been ever since I started with NFL Network. Now, President's Day is the 15th. It's on President's Day weekend. So the NFL is going for it, and I don't know how it's working out this way. I guess there – is Labor Day just starting later? Labor Day is on the 7th. That's right. The NFL, since I joined the NFL Network 23 years ago, I have spoken to multiple people, never the commissioner on this subject matter, but multiple people who are like, we've got to get the Super Bowl on President's Day weekend.

45:12Rich Eisen:Like that would be the goal because everybody you talk to would be, you know what would be great is if there was a national holiday after the Super Bowl. Well, guess what President's Day weekend would have? That. And so Super Sunday is Valentine's Day next year. That'll be sweet. And then the next day is President's Day. So there you have it. And the league's trying to do that. And one way to do that is to get 18 games or to have Labor Day be so late in the calendar that this happens. I just think that so many injuries. Like, you're going to play an 18th game? How does that work? How does that work?

45:55I don't know.

45:56Rich Eisen:But if there's anybody who would make it work, it's the NFL. That's true. For sure. Tim Hardaway Sr. is in our green room. I have not seen him, and he's about to start our next hour, our final hour of the week, which is going to be seen on ESPN2 as we finish up our ESPN hour here. And I haven't seen him since we did – He was a guest analyst on SportsCenter. And when I just chatted with him in the commercial break, he did, in fact, try and kick the tires on the media during the playoffs when he was out. Once eliminated from the playoffs, he went to Bristol and he was a guest analyst. And that's where we met each other and that's where we worked together.

46:40You know?

46:41Rich Eisen:And he's here for the All-Star weekend. Huh? Everything old is new again. Everything old is new again. And this would complete the triple play because Chris Mullen has zoomed in. Mitch Richmond has appeared here. Sat right there. And we're about to complete the Run TMC triple play. Before there were the Splash Brothers people, there was Run TMC. Look at them, man. They put him work back. Did they ever. Wow. And I'll never forget my father. May he rest in peace. He really wasn't a big sports guy. He calls me up one day after SportsCenter. He goes, how do you say Mitch Richmond without slipping up?

47:16Rich Eisen:That's a tough name to say so fast. How do you do that? How do you do that? And I almost just did it. Mitch Richmond is not easy. And when I, before SportsCenter, I worked up in Redding, California, the local ABC affiliate there, and the basketball team that we covered, the Sacramento Kings was down I-5 from us, and there was a large San Francisco fan base up in the north state of California. I would be cutting up those run TMC highlights and delivering it. So Tim Hardaway Sr. is about to join us. The Ridge Eisen Show Podcast. Shot clocks, big shots, upsets, aces, TGL playoffs are here. First, Atlanta Drive starts their repeat run against Los Angeles Golf Club.

47:59Then, Rory's Boston Common Golf and Tiger's Jupiter Lynx face off in their playoff debuts. Who will advance? Keep up. It's playoffs. Tune in Tuesday, March 17th at 6.30 p.m. and 9 p.m. only on ESPN and the ESPN app.