- 2 days ago
Barry Svrluga joins the show to recap the UFC event at the White House and the Nationals hot streak.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Joining us now, the never rude Barry Sferluga from The Athletic.
00:04What'd I be?
00:04I'm getting used to saying it now, Barry. I'm working on it. How are you, dude?
00:07I'm doing all right. I'm still getting used to it myself. Thanks.
00:11So there's a lot of ground to cover, and it's one of the things I always enjoy talking with you
00:15about
00:15because you can cover a lot of ground.
00:17But I want to, you were at those fights last night at the White House?
00:22Yeah, I mean, I did not have a seat on the White House lawn.
00:26There were only, I think, 18 of those, but I was on the Ellipse and down there
00:32and talking to fighters and all that stuff.
00:34So I can't say it was my comfort zone. I can't say I will never forget it.
00:38It was wild.
00:40What was the crowd like on the Ellipse?
00:42You know, it was interesting. It was very much not a political event.
00:48I shouldn't say very much. Obviously, there were people with Trump hats and all that kind of stuff,
00:53but it really was a UFC event.
00:55There were tons and tons of people wearing UFC gear, not just from the merch from the fight,
01:03from the card last night, but from fights over the years, supporting different players.
01:10And there was obviously a curiosity factor, like that some people were not UFC fans,
01:15but I would say it was like very calm, kind of like a chill music festival.
01:21The downtime between the fights, people were talking.
01:25But when the fights were on the big screens, like that's what they were there for.
01:30They love this stuff.
01:31It's not necessarily my cup of tea.
01:34But you also couldn't, I mean, the reason to be there and the reason to write from my perspective,
01:39we had people who were covering the actual fights, is, I mean, you could argue that this was,
01:46I mean, put a label on it, the most bizarre, the most surreal sporting event that the country has ever
01:53seen.
01:53And I don't really think that's hyperbole.
01:56I mean, I could see the claw, the 600-ton stage that was taller than the White House that President
02:06Trump and Dana White,
02:07the UFC CEO, you know, wanted the view to be able to be from the back of the White House
02:15through to the Washington Monument.
02:18I mean, we're all really familiar with the geography down there because we live in the city.
02:22But for people nationally, you know, you don't always know the orientation.
02:27So it made for quite a visual spectacle for sure.
02:32And then just, you know, some of the unapologetic kind of craftiness that these guys handled themselves with,
02:41they were not going to dial that back just because of the setting that they were in.
02:47It was a wild, wild night.
02:48Yeah, I think that's the thing JP and I was talking about, you know,
02:51seeing guys in their little attire walking through the Oval Office.
02:55It was a level of respect that was thrown there.
02:58And I think that it was kind of disrespectful if you have the same love for certain things in this
03:04country as a lot of people do.
03:06Yeah, and I think, Brian, that for the most part,
03:09they walked the line between political event and sporting event pretty well.
03:15There were a couple obvious places where they went over that line.
03:20I will say that Dave, who has been a friend of President Trump since the early part of the century,
03:28when Trump really helped him build UFC because it was a time when a lot of places wouldn't give him
03:36a place to stage his events.
03:38He would put them at his casinos and hotels.
03:43White afterwards was like, and as he had said during the run-up, was like,
03:46look, this was my President Trump entrusted me with an event to help begin the celebration for the 250th birthday
03:57of the country.
03:58And that's what I was trying to do.
04:00I was honored to do that, and he really kind of steered it around anything political.
04:05But just spectacle-wise, guys, I guess I wish I was inside the South Lawn where it was mostly military
04:15personnel
04:15and then high-level, you know, cabinet people, congressmen, celebrity types.
04:21But just being there as somebody who's lived in the city for, you know, coming up on a quarter of
04:26a century,
04:28it just, it's kind of a signature Washington moment, a signature American moment,
04:35whether you think it was appropriate or not.
04:37Talking with our friend Barry Sverluga from The Athletic here.
04:40Yeah, I'll be honest.
04:41So I went to a concert last night.
04:43The fights were completely off my radar until I ended up, shout out to our friend Mark Buecher,
04:48I ended up at Medium Rare in Columbia, Maryland for like 40 minutes waiting for an Uber,
04:53and the fights were on.
04:54So it kind of then was on my radar.
04:55And I had, just driving by the White House, just driving to the Navy Yard Studios all the time,
04:59like I had seen the claw go up, get erected, if you will, Brian.
05:03And it looked bizarre, but it looked kind of cool.
05:07And then the last fight last night, when it was the American dude, I think, versus the Spanish dude,
05:12that fight was wild.
05:13So I did kind of enjoy that.
05:16Kind of glad it's over, and I doubt we'll ever see something like that again.
05:20And I agree with you, your point about it being surreal.
05:23And it was odd, but kind of cool, kind of terrible at the same time.
05:29Moving forward, though, Barry, I did at least want to give, I think the UFC fights at the White House
05:35were overshadowed by the Knicks.
05:38I think even the Canes winning last night, I think everything is overshadowed by the Knicks
05:43breaking through and winning in five against the Spurs.
05:47What do you make of this series?
05:49What I love is that, like, it is truly time to celebrate Jalen Brunson,
05:55but you also just, Victor Wemben-Yama might be emerging as, like, a villain,
06:00which I wouldn't have expected two, three weeks ago.
06:03I think that's a really interesting storyline, and it'll be interesting how it plays out for him
06:10over the course of next season, because they'll be, you know, along with OKC,
06:14right up there as favorites again, in part because they have him.
06:19Is he a dirty player?
06:21Does he need to be dirty?
06:21All of that stuff, I think, when the playoffs began, he was, like, still somewhat of a curiosity,
06:28but the kid who hadn't been through the real wars before, he comes out on the other side,
06:35and people are questioning his style, and again, is he dirty?
06:43I didn't think he could be cast as a villain so quickly.
06:47I do think I'm somebody that kind of prefers or believes that a franchise should go through
06:55some scar-making times and get that scar tissue before it breaks through and wins a championship.
07:02Obviously, different iterations of the Spurs have won championships.
07:05We're not talking about Tim Duncan and David Robinson.
07:08This is a new, you know, a completely new cast.
07:12So I almost feel like the Spurs winning would be kind of too much too soon.
07:17I think with the Knicks, and not necessarily with this roster per se,
07:22and certainly not with Mike Brown as their coach, but there's the scar tissue, man.
07:27When you haven't won since 73, like, there's a reason why the city is reacting like it is,
07:34because they've been through all the disappointments.
07:37They've been through stretches of, like, really irrelevant basketball.
07:40They went through the tough, you know, almost their Patrick Ewing, John Starks years
07:45when Jordan was always in the way.
07:49So that's, I think, when you get a market like New York,
07:53and you can either hate the celebrity factor or love the celebrity factor
07:58or be indifferent about the celebrity factor,
08:00but there's no doubt that that kind of gets a lot more eyes,
08:06non-sports eyes, on what's going down at Madison Square Garden.
08:09Like, it kind of, you're right, it overwhelmed what, if you think about it,
08:14was a crazy sports weekend, because you mentioned the Canes winning last night
08:19and the Knicks winning in the fights.
08:21I mean, that doesn't even get to the World Cup on Friday night.
08:24Yeah, the American team is on.
08:28Exactly.
08:28The dream start by the American men.
08:31All sorts of late goals and craziness across the board
08:35in an event that, if you ask the rest of the world,
08:40like, it would be the clear number one over all the other mess that we just talked about.
08:44So I was, you know, in terms of, like, a mid-June weekend,
08:49I know it's, you know, every year basically the Stanley Cup Finals
08:53and the NBA Finals are going on at about the same time,
08:57but this just felt like a very intense weekend
09:02with a lot of really meaningful stuff, and we haven't even gotten to the Naps yet.
09:07Mary, you can probably get this accomplished
09:10because you're so good at so many different things.
09:13I've been wondering since I was a guy in high school and college,
09:17why do people have the mindset to tear up stuff in good moments?
09:22So you can talk to sports people and psychiatrists,
09:25and there's a good column right here,
09:27and just please explain why do people want to burn up stuff and tear up stuff
09:32when your team won and you're supposed to be happy.
09:35Ask JP whether he's ever lit a couch on fire in college.
09:39See, I know he's crazy.
09:40I plead the fifth.
09:41There are so many amendments.
09:43One, two, three, four, five.
09:45Fif, Fif, Fif.
09:46I know JP's a different dude.
09:49Some people don't know him like I do.
09:51It just makes no sense.
09:53I'm not that anymore.
09:54You steal that.
09:55It makes no sense to me at certain times.
09:57Well, so I agree with you, Brian,
10:00and I don't want to pontificate before making those calls that I would to psychologists,
10:07but I think there's almost no accounting for the psychology of crowds and a crowd mentality
10:15and how the herd kind of overtakes individual thinking and celebration.
10:23I don't know why it can't just be joyful and people hugging, and there was a lot of that.
10:28I mean, for sure.
10:28People weren't asking, Knicks fans weren't asking if you supported the mayor or who you voted for for president.
10:36They were Knicks fans, but I don't know why pockets of that stuff developed.
10:42And then, of course, and somewhat rightfully, it overshadows the thousands and thousands and thousands of people
10:50who had nothing to do with any of that.
10:53New York is such a crazy place.
10:57It's just so big with so many people.
10:59Even at its quietest moments, it's louder than D.C.
11:04It's disappointing for sure, and I'm not qualified to provide an answer for why that happens.
11:13Yeah, and you wonder if it's like the amplification of social media makes it seem that we're watching more of
11:20that
11:20than what we're probably, possibly, like hundreds of thousands.
11:23When y'all were doing it, we heard about it.
11:25Yeah, yeah.
11:28The big riots, I was in Atlanta.
11:30I wasn't in College Park for it.
11:31There were other riots that may have been around.
11:33It wasn't filmed in real time, though, in 2002 when the Terps were winning the title.
11:39Now it's like you know that's happening almost instantly, and there's got to be some sort of like, you know,
11:48it's like a flame with dry leaves.
11:51It just kind of spreads.
11:52Yeah.
11:53Totally.
11:53Talking with our friend Barry Sferluga here on the Rude Guest Hotline.
11:58Barry, of course, you can read his work in The Athletic.
12:01Barry, I want to make some time for the Nats.
12:03They win another series over the weekend.
12:06They're now 37-35.
12:08If they were, and they're not, but if they were in the AL Central or the AL West,
12:13they'd either be in first or second in the division.
12:15Really?
12:16Yeah, dude.
12:17The Mariners are leading the AL West at 37-36.
12:21Like, this Nats team is good, and we're now, I don't know, close to 80 games into the season.
12:27Like, it's mid-June.
12:30This is not a hot start anymore.
12:32Like, the bats are real.
12:34James Wood is an absolute weapon.
12:37And I hate that whenever I want to talk Nats, it's like I'm celebrating that they're good,
12:43but I know these questions are coming.
12:46Where are you with this Nats team?
12:48Let's talk about the good.
12:49How surprised are you?
12:50How impressed are you?
12:52I'm both surprised and impressed.
12:54I just, you know, if you said 30 games ago when they were leading the sport and one scored,
12:59I would have said this is way better than I would have guessed, but it's probably not sustainable.
13:05Now, as you said, we're approaching half a season.
13:08They just scored 18 runs in the last two games.
13:12And to beat the Mariners, win another series, move forward.
13:15When you win six series in baseball, you win two out of three.
13:18It might not seem like much.
13:19You're a playoff team if you win two out of every three times.
13:22You're the best team in the league if you win every two out of three.
13:25And that's what they've been doing marching forward.
13:27I think this was an interesting week because it was impressive in a couple ways.
13:33They went, they got swept by the Marlins at home to fall behind 500.
13:37They went on the road, won two of three in Arizona, took the first two from the Giants.
13:43And then on Wednesday, the last day of the trip, you know, they had the 9-1 lead into the
13:48eighth inning
13:49and somehow lost it on a walk-off grand slam, then came home on Friday night and lost to the
13:55Mariners.
13:55And you thought, well, this might be the pivot point where, like, the roster's not as talented.
14:01It's playing above its head.
14:03They're really doing well with Blake Butera in the front office playing matchups and odds.
14:08That's been their strength.
14:09But how long can that sustain a winning team?
14:12I think bouncing back and beating the Mariners by a combined 18-4 over the next two days is like,
14:21no, this is who they are.
14:22They are pretty resilient, and they're not going to wobble because, you know,
14:29they blew a game they should have won or they got thumped on a Friday night.
14:33They show up the next day.
14:34And the thing that I've said over and over about this team is, like,
14:38just watching them compared to the last couple years, there's a level of preparation
14:45and then a level of competitiveness in each at-bat, in each inning, with each pitch,
14:52that is really making a difference.
14:55Like, they are a nuisance to get through the lineup.
14:59And part of that is because Wood is just an absolute monster, and C.J. Abrams,
15:04though he's dipped a little bit lately, has played an all-star offensive shortstop for the first half of the
15:10season.
15:11But they're also getting contributions all over the place.
15:14I mean, I think I said to somebody, you know, K.Bert Ruiz, who homered yesterday,
15:20if you had said you can bet $1 that K.Bert Ruiz would have an OPS over $800 in mid
15:29-June,
15:29and I'll give you $100 to $1 odds, I would have said, no, I'll keep my dollar, please,
15:34because that just didn't seem possible.
15:36So they are developing at the major league level pieces that had some promise
15:42but had, frankly, struggled for a while.
15:43And the whole package makes them just more compelling to watch
15:47and brings, you know, meaningful baseball into the summer in Washington,
15:52which hasn't happened since those glory days with the playoff teams.
15:55When this season started, we all felt like they would be getting rid of this player,
15:59that player, whatever.
16:00If this path continues, will we see this team change their approach
16:06and start thinking about, hell, we can go for it?
16:08So, yeah, I think the way somebody described it to me this way,
16:12the way that you get a rebuild ahead of schedule,
16:17and this is obviously right now ahead of schedule,
16:20and you can't say it's not a full season, they haven't, you know, gone 81-81,
16:24and 81-81 would get you on that.
16:27It's only a few wins from a playoff spot given the expanded playoffs.
16:31But the way that you kind of get yourself ahead of what you thought your schedule might be
16:37is steal wins from the future.
16:40What does that mean?
16:40Well, James Wood last year was like a three-win player, if you go by war,
16:45wins above replacement.
16:47What if he develops into a six- or seven-win player this year,
16:50which is what he's on target to do?
16:52That's four wins he didn't have, but you didn't change the roster.
16:55What if C.J. Abrams, who was a three-win player last year,
16:58is a five- or six-win player this year?
17:01What if Jacob Young, who was a one-win player, becomes a three-win player?
17:05Now you've got, like, you're cobbling together wins without making any moves
17:10and without trading off pieces to get prospects for the future.
17:14That's pretty compelling because if you get to a situation where you thought you were going to win 75 games,
17:20but now you've got, you've found nine wins in your roster and you're like 84,
17:25well, you're right on the cusp of the playoffs.
17:27And I think most people would say you don't assume anything about what the future of a rebuild would be,
17:35what the window is.
17:36Like, if there's an opportunity, you've got to get in.
17:40You've got to try to get in.
17:41So my mindset is like, well, right now there's no talking about trading C.J. Abrams.
17:46They've got him for two more years.
17:47Maybe their competitive window is closer to reality than anyone thought.
17:53But the reason you would trade him would be because you wouldn't be competing for postseasons
18:00during his time in Washington.
18:02Well, now it appears like with some smart additions and actually some cost-cost spending,
18:08like, they could be competitive in his time in Washington before he's due to become a free agent.
18:14So I think what we've seen is enough to shift the mindset a little bit about where they are,
18:20what they have, who they can be, and how quickly it all can happen.
18:24Barry, I'm going to say something here.
18:26I don't mean this lightly.
18:28The Nats have a homestand tonight, next three games at home against the Royals.
18:33Tonight and tomorrow are 645.
18:35They've got a matinee on Wednesday, which means we have an early show, B, on Wednesday.
18:39Hey!
18:39That's a one o'clock.
18:41I don't know how often you go to games not working.
18:44I would love for us to go to a baseball game with Barry, preferably in the MGM seats,
18:51if you're listening, and just watch a game and eat hot dogs and drink beer.
18:54Are you up for that, Barry?
18:55I have just, you know, it's funny.
18:58I don't go to many games like that.
19:00And I was just thinking my daughter's going out of town for five weeks,
19:04and I live within walking distance of the park.
19:07And, like, that is something I want to do during the early part of this summer
19:12because it's such a nice way to spend time.
19:16And when the product is compelling, and maybe it's not 3 million degrees yet,
19:22although the weekend would suggest that it's going to be 3 million degrees,
19:26like, I'm totally, totally up for that.
19:28All right.
19:28The boys are going to go to a ball game.
19:30We'll set it up.
19:30Barry, thank you for the time, man.
19:32Appreciate you.
19:33Appreciate you guys.
19:33See you out in Asford.
19:35All right, man.
19:35That's our friend Barry Sferluga can talk in-depth
19:39and with real reason, logic, and interest about anything.
19:44I love chatting with Barry.
19:45Nobody go anywhere.
19:46It's B. Mitchell Finley.
Comments