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Dan Le Batard Fears Giving Away Hall of Fame Vote Cost Barry Bonds

“They made an overhaul of the voting system and one of the things they did was change it from 15 years of eligbility to 10 years.”

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Did Dan Le Batard giving his Hall of Fame vote to Deadspin eight years ago end up costing Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens election to the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Appearing on 95.7 The Game’s Damon and Ratto in San Francisco, Le Batard said his decision led the Baseball Hall of Fame to reduce players’ eligibility on the ballot from 15 years to 10 years. It’s entirely possible losing those five years cost Bonds and Clemens. Many voters still weren’t ready to elect them to Cooperstown, but those two controversial figures could’ve gained support over five more years.

“I didn’t want my vote to be something that kept people away,” Le Batard said. “But they changed the rules when they banned me. I thought the punishment was just going to be to ban me. I’m banned for life; I can’t vote anymore and that would be the end of it.

“But also because they didn’t want anyone else to do what I did in crowdsourcing the vote ever again. They made an overhaul of the voting system and one of the things they did was change it from 15 years of eligbility to 10 years, and I’m guessing that’s part of why Barry Bonds won’t be in the Hall of Fame by these voters.”

Le Batard expressed the same belief on his show, which is what prompted Damon Bruce and Ray Ratto to invite him on.

“I’m not OK with denying someone their excellence because I’m doing jazz hands on being Performance Troll,” said Le Batard.

In 2014, Le Batard’s ballot was taken away after he revealed that he was the writer who gave his vote to Deadspin. The site filled out Le Batard’s ballot based on reader votes, which ended up voting for the three players who were elected to the 2015 class: Greg Maddux, Frank Thomas, and Tom Glavine.

The intention was to make a mockery of Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) voters who had used the process to draw attention to themselves, trying to make statements with their ballots. Additionally, Deadspin wanted to show that fans could do just as good a job with Hall of Fame votes as BBWAA members.

But was Le Batard’s “stunt” really that disruptive? Eight years later, the Hall of Fame vote still causes outrage and resentment. It’s one of the most unpleasant periods in sports media, as WFAN’s Gregg Giannotti said this week.

As Ratto said, Le Batard’s move alone didn’t cost Bonds a Hall of Fame election. But the Hall of Fame did change the requirement for BBWAA voters, stating they must be active with an organization for 10 years. Those no longer working in media would eventually lose their eligibility. Maybe that had an effect on a Bonds vote, as well.

Also making the conversation enjoyable was the chemistry, the sexual tension between Le Batard and Ratto. It’s probably a good thing this interview happened over the phone, not with the two of them in the same room.

Sports Radio News

Doug Gottlieb Details Interviewing For College Basketball Head Coaching Vacancy

“I’ve told people that for the radio element to — for the right thing — I’d give it up. The (podcast), I’m not giving it up.”

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Fox Sports Radio host Doug Gottlieb recently interviewed for the vacant head coaching job at Wisconsin-Green Bay and detailed the experience on his podcast.

“I got a chance to talk to (Wisconsin-Green Bay AD) Josh Moon several times during the year after they had made their coaching job available and my approach to how I’ve done these things — and this is not the first time I’ve gone down this path, but this was a different path,” Gottlieb said on his All Ball podcast.

“This is a low-major, mid-major job, and there’s no connection there. I’ve told people that for the radio element to — for the right thing — I’d give it up. The (podcast), I’m not giving it up. I love doing it and I think there’s a very smart world where if I’m coaching I can still do this podcast and still do it with basketball people all over the country and the world, and it’s kind of like a cheat code.”

He continued by saying that seeing Shaka Smart be successful at Marquette has motivated him to continue to search for the right fit as a college basketball coach.

“That’s what I want to do. And last year when I was coaching in Israel, that also continued to invigorate me…this is something that I would really like to do. It has to be the right thing. It has to be the right AD who hits the right message.”

He continued by saying that a sticking point of negotiations was he wasn’t willing to give up his nationally syndicated radio program for the job. He was willing to take less money for his assistants pool, but also to continue doing his radio show.

Gottlieb did not get the position with the Phoenix, noting that he was a finalist but was never offered the job. The position ultimately went to Wyoming assistant coach Sundance Wicks. Wicks had previous head coaching experience and had worked with Green Bay athletic director Josh Moon at Division II Northern State. He admitted he wasn’t necessarily “all-in” on the job due to the current ages of his children and whether the timing was right to uproot his family to move to Northeastern Wisconsin.

The Fox Sports Radio host does have coaching experience. He has worked as a coach for the U.S. men’s basketball team at the Maccabiah Games, sometimes referred to as the Jewish Olympics.

Gottlieb’s father — Bob — was the head men’s basketball coach at Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1975-1980, compiling a 97-91 record.

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Waddle & Silvy: Scott Hanson Told Us to Lose His Number

“We didn’t call him back, so he set out what he wanted to do.”

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Aaron Rodgers took immense pride in the fact that he told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter to “lose his number” while discussing his future earlier this week on The Pat McAfee Show. ESPN 1000’s Waddle & Silvy said they’ve experienced similar treatment from guests on their radio show.

While discussing the Rodgers interview with McAfee, the pair admitted that NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson once told their producer to stop trying to book him for interviews on the program.

“I believe the presentation was ‘Do me a favor: lose my number after this interview’,” Tom Waddle said. “So he tried to do it politely. Scott Hanson did. Get out of here. That concept is foreign to me. How about ‘Hey, next time you text me, my schedule is full. I can’t do it, but thanks for thinking of me’. ‘Lose my number?’ You ain’t the President, for Christ’s sake. I’m saying that to anyone who would say that. ‘Lose my number?’ We’re all in the communication business. I just don’t know — why be rude like that to people? What does that accomplish? You know what it accomplished? We didn’t call him back, so he set out what he wanted to do.”

Co-host Mark Silverman then mentioned that the show once tried to book Hansen and NFL Red Zone host Andrew Siciliano together in the same block, with the idea of doing a trivia game to see who the supreme Red Zone host was. Siciliano agreed, but Hansen declined.

The pair also confirmed that an NFL Network personality had told them to lose their number, but couldn’t remember if it was Rich Eisen or not.

Silverman later joked that maybe Hanson was getting a new phone with a new number, and was politely sharing with the producer that he could lose the current phone number because he would share his new number in short order.

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Seth Payne: Aaron Rodgers ‘Makes Gross Inaccuracies’ When Calling Out Media

“This is where Rodgers does this thing where he, in calling out reporters for their inaccuracies, makes gross inaccuracies in his accusations.”

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Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers is always mad at the media for the inaccurate things he says they report, but according to Sports Radio 610 morning man Seth Payne, no one is more inaccurate than the quarterback himself.

Friday morning, Payne and his partner Sean Pendergast played audio of Aaron Rodgers responding to a question about a list of players he provided to the Jets demanding they sign. Rodgers called the idea that he would make demands “so stupid” and chastised ESPN reporter Dianna Russini, who was the first to report it.

“Now to be clear, Dianna Russini didn’t say demands in her tweet. She said wishlist,” Pendergast clarified.

They also played a clip of Russini responding to Rodgers on NFL Live saying that she stands by her reporting and it is her job to reach out to confirm that it is true.

“This is where Rodgers does this thing where he, in calling out reporters for their inaccuracies, makes gross inaccuracies in his accusations,” Seth Payne said.

He added that if Rodgers is being serious, he is doing some serious nitpicking. He claims that he didn’t give the Jets a list, but that he spoke glowingly about former teammates and told the Jets executives that he met with who he enjoyed playing with during his career.

Payne joked that maybe he wrote down the names in a circle pattern so that it was not a list. Pendergast added that he could have had Fat Head stickers on his wall that he pointed to instead of writing anything at all.

In Payne’s mind, this is a case of Russini catching stray frustration. Neither in her initial tweet nor in any subsequent media appearance did she use the phrase “demands”.

“What he’s actually responding to in that instance is Pat McAfee is the one that described it as a list of demands,” Seth Payne said.

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