The Beat of Sports

On the eve of the Orlando Magic making their first playoff appearance in years Marc Daniels has a message to fans after enduring the rebuild for so long.

Thirty years ago this week one of the best baseball movies and some might say sports movies ever was released, Major League. We take a look back at the making of the film, including the director wanting to make a movie showing his favorite baseball team win.

Mike O'Donnell joins the show to give us a recap of the National Championship game on Monday night. He and Marc discuss the coaching carousel with Mick Cronin leaving Cincinnati to take the job at UCLA, they throw out some names of who could take over for the Bearcats. Then they talk about the rise of graduate transfers in college basketball and if new rules requiring the transferring player to graduate from the new school is necessary to limit the amount of player movement.

When Magic Johnson made the announcement Tuesday night that he would be stepping down from being President of Basketball Operations for the Los Angeles Lakers one of the reasons he said was that he wasn't having fun and couldn't commit to the time. Marc brings up that Magic just missed be a celebrity and the fun guy that everyone wanted to be with. Basically Magic just missed being Magic Johnson.

Tuesday night Magic Johnson stunned the basketball community when he decided to step down from his position with the Lakers. Our master of basketball knowledge Brendan Suhr joins the show to give some more details behind that the decision. He talks about how some people don't realize how much of a time commitment working in a front office is and that is probably what happened to Magic. Then he and Marc talk about the Orlando Magic making the playoffs, Brendan gives credit to the front office for identifying Steve Clifford as the right guy to help the rebuilding franchise get to the next level.

Rick Reilly joins the show to talk about his new book Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump. He talks about how President Trump has become notorious for cheating on the golf course and going so far as to use secret service agents help him on the fairway. He and Marc discuss how golf has become such a popular sport for many Presidents and more.

One of the best hours of gameshow television happens every weeknight with Wheel Of Fortune and Jeopardy. But what happens when a sports gambler ends up on Jeopardy and is in the midst of winning streak. David Purdum of who covers gaming for ESPN talks about what is happening right now on the show. He and Marc also talk about the rise of people wagering on scripted television shows like the final season of Game Of Thrones.

The hitless streak continues for Chris Davis and now the question is being asked, should the Orioles just try to get rid of him and his contract? Marc wonders what the right thing should be to help fix this situation, should he keep getting more and more chances at the plate or should the team come up with an injury to take him away from baseball for a few days and get his confidence back.

Josh Robbins from The Athletic joins the show to talk about how the season for the Magic got them into the playoffs. He tells Marc about the things that surprised him the most including the roster buying into a defensive mentality. They talk about how the benefited from making smart moves and how the smartest move was not making trades involving Vucevic and Terrance Ross. Then they talk about the weird Magic Johnson situation going on in Los Angeles.

In what was one of the weirdest moments of the NBA season last night Magic Johnson abruptly stepped down as the Lakers President of Basketball Operations. Marc talks about how this is what happens when legends for a certain team go from being beloved to hated, and the player can't deal with that kind of criticism. He cites names like Dan Marino who lasted a week in the same position with the Miami Dolphins.