The Beat of Sports

One the great parts about about the legend of Wayne Gretzky is that he learned to play hockey by playing on backyard frozen lake. But now climate change is affecting not only outdoor rinks but other winter sports. Stanley Kay of Sports Illustrated joins the show to talk about his piece covering winter sports, climate change and what will happen if people can't play sports where they're meant to be played.

After last nights disappointing loss to the Toronto Raptors, the season is over for the Orlando Magic but that doesn't mean the front office can go on vacation. They have to make decisions on what to do with Nikola Vucevic and Terrance Ross and more. Marc gives his thoughts on what he thinks the team might do with some of their impending free agents.

Kyler Murray looks to be a show-in to be the #1 pick in tomorrow nights NFL Draft, but what quarterbacks will be selected after him? Darin Slack the QB Coach joins the show to talk about the pro prospects of Murray and why Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury wants to select him. He and Marc talk about how Dwayne Haskins will translate to the NFL game and more.

Mel Kiper Jr and Todd McShay have become known for all of their versions of mock drafts leading up to the NFL Draft, so where the first mock draft come from? The long time football writer Howard Balzer talked about the origin of the mock and how it became synonymous with draft coverage.

The Buccaneers have a new head coach but the same quarterback, so what should their draft plans be? Longtime Tampa Bay writer Ira Kaufman joins the show to talk about what they might be doing on Thursday night. He and Marc talk about how the last few years of poor drafts has set the franchise back which has led to so much coaching turnover. Ira also talks about how the need for impact players on the defense should be the main focus at the draft.

During one of his recent runs Marc listened a podcast with Shaq in which the big guy talked at length about his decision to get into other businesses outside of basketball. After that Shaq talked about his time in Orlando why he feels he's the reason that the Magic didn't beat the Rockets in the NBA Finals.

Longtime Los Angeles Clippers radio broadcaster Ralph Lawler has been known for his "Lawler Laws" and one in particular was that in the NBA the first team to score 100 points won the game. Statisticians in the '90s researched how accurate that stat was, well they discovered that 95% of the time it was true. But has that changed with the offensive boom the NBA is currently experiencing? It has dipped to 89%! And to get that number back up to 95% then teams just need to score 114!

After multiple attempts to legalize gambling in the state of Florida has a new avenue been found? The Seminole tribe is now involving with getting sports gambling legal all across the state, so what does this all mean? Daniel Wallach who specializes in the gambling and sports betting news joins the show to talk about the prospects of it becoming legal in Florida.

Thirty 30 years ago one of the most beloved baseball movies of all time was released, Field of Dreams. Marc talks about how some of the stories moviegoers aren't aware of, how JD Salinger played a role in the creation of the story, what the future holds for the actual baseball field shown in the movie.

The NBA lightning rod Russell Westbrook is continuing to draw the eire of NBA media and writers which his antics during the postgame press conferences. All throughout the playoffs Westbrook has treated the media with answers of "next question" or just flat out ignoring them, but should we expect more? Throughout his career he has always been polarizing, if he plays well and gets a triple-double then he's labeled a ball hog or if he has an off night then he's the reason the team lost. No matter what he does the media will paint him as the villain.