SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
And now it's time for sports.
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SIMON: Baseball's pennant race. And NFL football is back, but is it trying too hard? Howard Bryant joins us. Good morning, Howard.
HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott Simon. How are you?
SIMON: I'm fine, thanks. I hope you're well, my friend. Look, baseball playoff picture - National League - two titan defending champions, LA Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves, set to win their divisions. But the best record in baseball belongs to the Milwaukee Brewers. The team has never won a World Series. Is this their year?
BRYANT: I hope so. It's been a weird year, Scott. I mean, you've got some really, really great baseball this year. Milwaukee's been terrific. There have been a lot of good teams out there. You've also got some...
SIMON: PCA.
BRYANT: ...Really bad baseball.
SIMON: PCA.
BRYANT: And then, of course, you have some really good players as well, like Pete Crow-Armstrong, who could win the MVP with your Chicago Cubs. You look at the AL West, for example - you might have a losing record after 162 games. A losing record may win that division. The...
SIMON: Yes.
BRYANT: ...AL Central with your Cleveland Rocks - they're back in first place, but they're only a couple games over 500. And so, you know, the AL East is obviously always good. You know, Boston. You know, Tampa Bay is the best team in there. The Yankees, but you don't have Aaron Judge. He's got a calf injury.
But to me, it all comes back to the Milwaukee Brewers. And why is that? They just won the - you know, 90 games for the fourth straight year. They're probably going to win a hundred games this year. They've never done that in their history. And I know we talk about money, money, money. We talk about all of these things. And so much of this baseball season has been spent on whether or not there's going to be a lockout and that there...
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: ...May not even be baseball next year. So so much of this conversation is about money. And obviously, the Dodgers are a great team as well. But at some point, you also do have to do it on the field. And the Brewers have been so close. I mean, let's think about last year, for example.
They were a 90-win team, 95-win team. They were 6-0 against the Dodgers and then got swept in the playoffs. And so as much as we talk about all the money and the inevitability of the Dodgers, the bottom line is that - when is it going to be Milwaukee's year? They are a great team. They've had a wonderful year. They don't play in the best division, but they don't play in the worst.
And so I'm not going to say it's put up or shut up for the Brewers. But it kind of is because they've done everything but get there. They haven't been to a World Series since 1982, when they lost to the Cardinals in seven games. And maybe, for all the talk about everything else, it's just go time. You know, go out there. Win it for your fans. It would be a fantastic...
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: ...Way to end the season.
SIMON: On to the NFL. Season kicked off last week in Australia - the LA Rams and the San Francisco 49ers.
BRYANT: Where?
SIMON: Australia. The Rams lost. And this week, their head coach, Sean McVay, said he hopes never to play there again. It didn't mean he didn't like, you know, Australia, but because of how much travel it requires. There's also going to be games this year in Rio, London, Paris, Madrid, Munich and Mexico City. This is only Week 2 of the regular season. So far, we've already had games on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. I mean, this used to be - on any given Sunday. The NFL is by far the most popular sport in America, but is the league taking things too far and putting what they put on the field at risk?
BRYANT: Yeah. I think so. I think there's a saturation point here. But this is what happens when you feel like you're too big to fail, right? And it's a record. The game was in Melbourne. And what's crazy about all of this - they've got a record nine international games this year. And I get it. The NFL is the monster. It's the machine. It's the thing that controls all the ratings. But one of the reasons why it was so big was because it was something that you could count on. You didn't have to know where the games are. Now you're not sure. Is the game on Netflix? Is the game on Amazon?
SIMON: Yep.
BRYANT: Is the game on local TV? And so they are running into the same thing. Maybe less is more. People love the NFL because of where and how situated it was. What did Albert Brooks say in the movie "Concussion"? It's the only sport that owns a day of the week.
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: I don't know...
SIMON: Well said. Yes.
BRYANT: ...If football on Wednesday is really sort of what the fans are looking for. But once again, sometimes you have it too good, and you don't realize how good you've got it. The NFL has had it better than anybody. Let's see what they do with it.
SIMON: Still remember how my father used to say to me, well, pal, it's Bears Sunday.
BRYANT: (Laughter) It's Football Sunday.
SIMON: Yeah. Howard Bryant, thanks so much. Talk to you soon, my friend.
BRYANT: Oh, my pleasure, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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