Tag: Baseball | No Filter Sports

Episode 214: SB to Lions and Tigers, GARY MYERS has Ya Covered!

February 4, 2021 01:31:30

Welcome to No Filter Sports Podcast with Eli Zaret, Denny McLain and Bob Page!

On Super Bowl weekend are any of YOU making bets the size of “Mattress Mack’s?” Let alone on the underdog?
GARY MYERS thinks Mack is gonna be right. The highly-respected NFL writer/broadcaster joins us from New York!
Jim Harbaugh and staff land another big recruiting class on national signing day — but with HIM, will it matter?
The Pistons get their (sudden) marching orders: turn that video OFF, boys, and get back to the hotel!
Tom Izzo and the Spartans are back home. Did a “moral victory” start to turn their fortunes around?
The Wings’ fortunes are in the dumper with NHL TV commentators now questioning their effort. Is The Blashill Watch on?
Angels pitching coach Mickey Callaway: GUILTY til proven innocent? Bob asks, “whaddya EXPECT?”
Brandon is aghast that Baby Boomer Bob has no idea who “Stone Cold” Steve Austin is!
Baby Boomer Bob is equally aghast that his Gen Y partner has never heard of Haystacks Calhoun or Dick the Bruiser!
‘Scusin’ me, bloke, WHAT was the score a that bleedin’ football match agayne?!
Those stories, a Michigan-born HERO in our necrology, YOUR mailbag segment and much more — right here!

Episode 213: Not by TURGENEV, Our OWN “Fathers and Sons”

February 1, 2021 01:17:27

Welcome to No Filter Sports Podcast with Bob Page and Denny McLain!

“Write what you know:” the author’s mantra. And few know Detroit and its teams better than author TOM STANTON, our guest!
Matthew Stafford TRADED! You’d expect the feckless Detroit sports media to love the FLs’ Big Deal — and BOB to be a skeptic.
Can’t we please just play the damn game?! Still MORE Super Bowl hype all week for us. Are you Super BORED yet?
In a crazy sports year few things could be crazier than Tom Izzo not making the NCAA Tournament field.
Yet come to think of it, what could be crazier than MICHIGAN supplanting Tom’s MSU program so quickly?!
NCAA basketball is “modern-day slavery,” huh? It isn’t if the “slaves” would only take advantage of a FREE education.
The Wings’ LATEST skid is six games. Brandon McAfee says firing Jeff Blashill wouldn’t make a diff. Bob disagrees.
Yet maybe our young producer is right about this too since Bob seems to be coming around on Bonds and Clemens as HOFers.
Curt Schilling as well? Yes? Just think what this whacko might SAY standing on the podium at Cooperstown!
Denny was off today. Wonder what he’d say about the Brewers hiring an ex-GIRLS SOFTBALL PLAYER as a hitting coach?
Those stories, our necrology featuring a Detroit Tigers boyhood hero, YOUR mailbag and much more — right here!

Episode 212: Our Guest? One of Detroit’s Greatest Sportswriters!

January 28, 2021 01:31:03

Welcome to No Filter Sports Podcast with Bob Page and Denny McLain!

The Baseball Hall of Fame has elected NOBODY this year. SHOULD they have?
TOM GAGE, in the writers wing of the Hall himself, is a long-time voter and, boy, does he have a LOT to say to us!
Bob wonders if you were thinking what he was last Sunday: did Belichick actually WANT Brady to win?
How much “justice” can you afford? Brady’s former boss can afford a LOT, as it’s turned out!
Producer Brandon McAfee has an interesting suggestion for the Lions in their quest to deal Matt Stafford.
Remember that guy, Tom Izzo? Seems like AGES since he and his MSU basketball team have played.
Yet the NBA is having even more COVID issues than Michigan State did AND that Michigan basketball now has.
Don’t be a smart-aleck! The Pathetic Pistons are NOT gonna halt their season. Who would ASK to play for THEM?
Denny: “If there’s a lotta fish on the table somebody’s gonna start eating ’em.” HUH?! He, um, DOES explain.
What’s this — Al Avila with a smart free-agent signing? The boys all agree on something — for once.
Those stories, answers to questions you may now have about this show in YOUR mailbag and more — right here!

Episode 211: Denny and The Hammer

January 25, 2021 01:21:12

Welcome to No Filter Sports Podcast with Bob Page and Denny McLain!

Super Bowl LV is set: Tom Brady VERSUS — “the greatest quarterback ever?” At least according to Denny!
Matthew Stafford is OUT as Lions quarterback. Good for MATT! But what now? Is SHEILA really gonna make the call?!
Who better to comment on the death of the great HANK AARON than a former Braves teammate named DENNY McLAIN?
But Denny reveals a shocker from that era when asked if he and Hank ever had a few pops together out on the town.
Are the Wings dead — already?! They sure played dead in Chicago over the weekend.
Sunday’s loss saw the debut of ex-coach Mike Babcock in-studio on NBC Sports. Bob rips NBC’s Empty Suits a new one!
Sure was great to see the storied Wings-Black Hawks rivalry renew. Wait’ll ya hear THIS story about Stu vs. Probie!
U-M basketball WAS rolling but now has to sit down for TWO WEEKS — a victim of its OWN administration.
C.Y.A. (“Cover Your Ass”) may be a military term, but it sure looks like Jim Harbaugh is buying into it.
The Tigers’ Al Avila keeps buying into his own, as Bob puts it, “Bum of the Month Club.”
Mercy, mercy, ME — still another black eye for a once-proud athletic department which USED to be just “The U-D!”
In YOUR mailbag segment, a listener turns the tables on Denny: “So, did YOU ‘ever think about coaching?'”
Those stories, Brandon on The Big Fight, Mr. McLain back on the appearance circuit — and much more right here!

Episode 210: Never Fear — Our GAMES are Still Here!

January 21, 2021 01:17:51

Welcome to No Filter Sports Podcast with Bob Page and Denny McLain!

We all agree: the world SUCKS right now, but at least we still have sports — AND its knuckleheads — to entertain us.
What team gets a home game in the Super Bowl? None EVER! Tom Brady hopes to change that in the NFC title game.
And another ex-Michigan star quarterback could also make headlines in Sunday’s AFC title tilt.
Are you betting the games? You can now do that LEGALLY in Michigan starting Friday.
The Lions unveil their LATEST five-year rebuilding program, so optimistic they gave their LATEST coach a SIX-year deal!
Why do younger Lions fans also seem so optimistic about their sad-sack team? Brandon McAfee RANTS on that!
SWEATING and SLOBBERING all over each other? The NBA’s okay with that — but handshakes? No WAY.
Bob’s sweating out Friday, hoping COVID doesn’t cancel Michigan at Purdue. Like all of us, he needs something to do!
Why are the Pistons so pathetic? ONE game tells part of the story: a guy they have and two guys they should have had.
Is Tigers G.M. Al Avila signing all these bums just to irritate Denny? If so, he’s doing a great job of it!
Is the Baseball Hall of Fame ready to put Clemens and/or Bonds in next week? Should they? Hear our spirited debate.
All those stories, YOUR mailbag segment and much more coming up right here!

Episode 209: One TRUE BLUE Ohioan!

January 18, 2021 01:34:36

Welcome to No Filter Sports Podcast with Bob Page and Denny McLain and Bob Page!

U-M star, Olympic gold medalist, first-round NBA draft choice — the long basketball life of guest PHIL HUBBARD!
What a quarterback dual: Brady vs Brees! But as often happens with great pitching match-ups — a DUD.
The boys recap the weekend’s NFL playoffs, look ahead to this Sunday’s title games AND to the Super Bowl.
The WHAT Bowl? A foreign concept, of course, to the Lions — now embarking on their LATEST rebuilding program.
Should they have hired Robert Saleh instead? Or Urban Meyer? Bet that if a mistake can be made, the FL’s will make it.
A great goaltender? At times. A great Detroit Red Wing? Always! And now HOWIE hangs ’em up.
Bob warned it might happen. Denny pooh-poohed him, but Michigan did indeed go down at Minnesota.
Now will COVID allow U-M to play Maryland or MSU to play Illinois? Bob asks, no, BEGS, the Big 14 for just one thing.
Denny rips his former team — again — for stubbornly sitting out free agency without a splash.
And he rips baseball’s Hall of Fame for continuing to snub one of his greatest friends and Tiger teammates.
Those stories, a top Detroit sportscaster skewered in YOUR mailbag segment and more — right here!

Episode 208: POLARIZING Sports Figures? WE got ‘EM!!

January 14, 2021 01:28:28

Welcome to the latest No Filter Sports Podcast with Bob Page and Denny McLain!

“How to be Miserable on $39 Million a Year.” If that’s not the title of JAMES HARDEN’s book someday, it SHOULD be!
The NBA’s chief malcontent engineers his own trade. Now he gets to play with K.D. AND the NBA’s chief knucklehead.
So many games canceled, so many Draconian new rules leave one NBA player asking, “Why even bother?”
COVID comes to Michigan sports as the Pistons miss out on another loss and MSU misses out on a likely butt-kicking!
“Butt-kicking?” Is there a term that goes beyond that? If so, you’d use it to describe the U of M’s ROUT of Wisconsin.
College football: The boys offer some thoughts on Monday night’s national title game in our first show since then.
Get ready to clean up because Denny’s gonna make his NFL playoff predictions. YOU’LL bet the other way, of course!
URBAN MEYER leaving his cushy broadcast gig and moving to the NFL? Bob has only one question: WHY?!
The Wings finally have a formal team leader, yet ESPN says the more things change, the more they …
A BIG change for former Red Wings coach MIKE BABCOCK, but can this career shift possibly end well for him?
And on a show that NEVER pulls any punches, why should WE change now on GIBBY or on FRANK BECKMANN?
Those stories, Bob with perhaps the strangest story in Detroit Tigers history, YOUR mailbag and more right here!

Episode 207: INSIDE the Jim Harbaugh Deal

January 11, 2021 01:16:18

Welcome to No Filter Sports Podcast with Bob Page and Denny McLain!

As Ohio State and Alabama go at it for the national title, WE look into a local college football story:
The Jim Harbaugh contract extension. U-M reporter/podcaster Michael Spath takes us behind the scenes!
A big football gambler? Or just nothing better to do during the pandemic? You REALLY watched ALL those playoff games?
If the former Cleveland Clowns can get to the NFL post-season, can the LIONS be far behind?
Bob provides a primer on how NOT to run an NFL team via a franchise even worse than the FL’s!
The Pistons are off to a brutal start, but Tom Gores worry? He’s about to make more billions on PAY TOILETS!
Yes, we all were outraged over the storming of the U.S. Capitol, yet the NBA’s chief KNUCKLEHEAD is taking it too far.
And speaking of “knuckleheads,” how about James Harden and what one NBA all-time great said about HIM?
It’s a Big Week in the Big 14! At least for Michigan and Michigan State. The boys sing Juwan’s praises.
Tigers fans say “good riddance” to two guys who’ve tormented them in recent years.
While Denny says good-bye to Tommy LaSorda AND comments on MLB’s new pitching scandal.
Those stories, the Red Wings are BACK, YOUR mailbag and much more — right here!

Episode 206: That’s DOCTOR Billy Taylor to YOU!

January 7, 2021 01:39:18

Welcome to No Filter Sports Podcast with Bob Page and Denny McLain!

“Get Back Up!” The title of a book by BILLY TAYLOR and, boy, did he ever! The great U-M running back is our guest.
For ONCE — and hopefully the last time ever needed here — the boys DO do politics on the show.
The NFL Playoffs kick off this weekend. Our producer Brandon McAfee has a bold prediction for you!
Meanwhile, Tom Brady had a bold — and stupid — challenge from one of the league’s top young stars.
Did the Eagles actually tank that game against Washington Sunday? One thing’s sure: their players did not.
Michigan basketball is ROLLIN’ and fun to watch — so what a bad time to have to SIT thanks to COVID.
Of COURSE MSU alum Bob loves our former guest, Tom Izzo — but he still drives Bob nuts at times.
Is there potentially big news for Michigan State football? MAYBE.
The late, great Detroit sportscaster Al Ackerman was right: Detroit’s NBA team is indeed “The PP’s.”
The Tigers have landed free agent Robbie Grossman! FYI: he is NOT Jewish. FYI: he is NOT the answer.
And, desperate for revenue, can the Wings and the NHL be blamed much for what they’re about to do?
Those stories, YOUR mailbag and much more right here!

Episode 205: Bear Bryant’s Last Captain: Steve Mott

January 3, 2021 01:33:22

Welcome to No Filter Sports Podcast with Bob Page, Denny McLain — and that’s IT!

A new era for the show begins after Eli’s self-imposed “retirement.” WE hope he comes back to us.
Meantime, ex-Lions center STEVE MOTT, one of the great players in Alabama history, joins us on THE Big Game and more.
FREE BEER? This is what Lions fans are left with after ANOTHER disastrous year?! The FL’s are even messing THIS up!
Is Matthew Stafford coming back? Who’s the new GM? The LATEST head coach? So MANY questions.
And who speaks for YOU? A famous voice from Texas, through remarks intended for a different team.
They’re partying in Columbus and the Bama game hasn’t even been played. WHY? Jim Harbaugh’s staying at Michigan!
No Eli? Producer Brandon McFee may be just as opinionated! He and Bob tangle over a big issue in college football.
After destroying the fleabag Duke’s Mayo Bowl, somewhere Mr. Z is smiling. The game came to a fitting — and hysterical — climax!
How good is U-M basketball! How good is U-M freshman Hunter Dickinson?! Bob says enjoy him while you can.
Dave DeBusschere must be rolling over after a WUSSY move by his once-proud alma mater.
Dumped by a phony girlfriend — then rejected by the Pistons too! But guess who’s getting the last laugh?
Those stories, Denny remembers MLB’s seven HOFers we lost in 2020, YOUR mailbag and much more — right here!