You're welcome back. It's still ballot 2023 and tomorrow is the governorship and state house of assembly elections and if you ask me that is even the most important one because that is the government that is closest to the people. We're looking at the lessons we learned from the presidential and national assembly elections and how that will translate into making or marrying the election of tomorrow. I did promise you that we're going to be joined later on by Reverend Father Raymond Annolieffo. Well he has joined us now. He's the director justice development and peace center, J.D.P.C. Lagos. Welcome to the program Father. Thank you very much. Okay so I've spoken with O.O.M. Woye who is a tech expert and also we started off with Mr. Shagun Shoputon. Now that you're joining us J.D.P.C. What lessons are you carrying from the last election into the second election that is a governorship and state house of assembly elections? Oh thank you very much. Thanks for having me. In the last election, the presidential and the national assembly elections, we were out there on the field and we deployed observers across the length and breadth of Lagos state and then together with the Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria we had well over 3,000 or 4,000 observers across the country. So it was a beautiful one. It was of course there were heightened expectations. A lot of persons suspected a lot of things out of this election. I think the INEC promised us a great deal and we see the youth bulge in the election as well that characterized this election leading up to the election. There was a lot of interest even from the international community and then of course from OSEA in Nigeria. It was also the interest was very high. So I'll say give and take. At that point we all expected that this election would be what is shared in our democracy and it was neither here nor there for us at the JDPC. It neither here nor there in that the one thing that we all looked forward to with regards to the beavers, supposedly being the game changer, I don't think our expectations were adequately met at the presidential and national assembly elections. We felt a little disappointed especially with regards to uploading of the results using the beavers on to IREV. That wasn't comprehensively done across the 36 states plus FCT and here in Lagos of course we had pockets of violence in some parts of Lagos that also mad that that election but that said I think going forward tomorrow's election INEC has something to prove that they are credible that they are capable and they are willing of course to right the wrongs of the presidential elections and we are quite hopeful we're optimistic we'll be there tomorrow again to observe the elections for tomorrow. So we are optimistic and we are hoping that all will go well and this time INEC will deliver on its promises. Has there been any interaction with INEC since the presidential and national assembly elections between the JDPC and INEC? Yes but not directly in that of course between this period INEC had also met with civil society organizations of which we have been part of it and we have also given a press conference in early after the elections just to to let Nigerians know exactly what our findings were while we are out there on the field. So basically INEC has promised not only the civil society organization not only the JDPC but the entire country that they will do better so we there is a there of course there's a trust deficit in our system at this time the trust deficit but rather than throw away the baby and the bathwater let's let's give them a second chance I would say that let's give them a second chance I'm optimistic that they will probably want to right the wrongs of the of the presidential elections between 5th February elections and we hope that the their beavers and IRA of course will serve the peoples for which it was designed for which was created and I would say that was really the toast of the election that a lot of people believe that their votes will count and so we are hoping that tomorrow the votes will actually count. Shegoon you also have dealings with the civil society you're part of the civil society what also what is the strength of your confidence in tomorrow's exercise knowing what transpired at the national assembly elections and the presidential elections and the time in between well I mean pardon me so we've seen a lot of interactions between INEC and and the various stakeholder groups civil society the politicians or the political parties security agencies and even the electorate and you know INEC has said a lot of things in terms of trying to maybe assuage fears lift the confidence but the old saying is that the taste of the pudding is in the eating you know so what we ate on the 25th of February was not tasteful at all you know so tomorrow INEC simply has to do better I don't want to mince words you know without equivocation 25th of February was a disappointment you know for some of us especially for some of us in civil society who had embarked on a lot of voter education you know and all of that encouraging people trying to build their confidence trying to work against voter apathy that you know we've experienced over time as a result of their lack of trust in the system you know it was almost as though we put our personal integrity on the line you know as organizations and to come to the process and find that INEC failed to follow the unprocessed you know was very disappointing tomorrow INEC must do differently they must do better it's very simple I don't think anybody including the main political actors would have too much to say with regards to the result if the process is transparent and if the process is credible and the use of technology was the major basis for the confidence that we all had and for all the good things that we said about INEC about their preparedness about the process that they've laid out you know the guidelines that they sent forward the wonderful in quote provisions of the electoral act you know all of that needs to come together tomorrow we need to see an interplay of all of those factors effectively and ensuring that the process is credible so this is an opportunity for Professor Mahmood Yakubo in particular because you know when we talk about INEC it's an institution but the institution has a head and it is his name that people are calling and I think it's important to let him know that you know posterity and history will judge him one way or the other you know so it's critical that at this point his legacy is one where he can look back and be proud at the moment he runs the risk right now of competing with the 2003 and 2007 commission and the chairman of those commissions which you know is the most ignominious in the history of Nigeria right now Mahmood Yakubo is running the risk well but he has always insisted that he didn't fail Nigerians well maybe we'll come back to that well oh you're still there and we're concerned this same technology that failed us in the last election do you see that it needs an improvement or that same technology can deliver on the promises that were made by INEC to Nigerians tomorrow the same goes fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me I think the biggest mistake made and I've said this in many for a the biggest mistake we made in the last 25th of February was trust in INEC and as a result I don't think anyone should believe what they say and consequently interestingly last week my team built a product called Collette.Africa so the whole idea is simple to replicate what IRF was supposed to be because people when I just thought about it now when Father Anolefa was speaking people said their votes should count yes it actually counts at the polling unit but it's not collated right it's when it's time for collation that we have the theories the stories because the whole essence of IRF was that it goes directly from PU straight to HQ to the headquarters and it could not be manipulated but however I was seeing a case where the tally even on IRF of river states says something completely different a party didn't score up to 25 percent and it was declared winner based on the statistics on IRF today not based on people's own collection aggregation and I think one of the biggest mistakes was in trust in INEC so when people went to the collection center they hadn't prepared to collect images of PU's from their agents or from the third parties so everyone was dependent on the IRF system and when they say couldn't upload and people had gone home only for people to go home and go to the website and see that after 24 hours less than 10 percent of the polling units had had the results uploaded which is a mandatory aspect of the conduct the guidelines for this election so I think many organizations have created their own parallel IRFs and I think every Nigerian that votes tomorrow must as a matter of obligation take a picture of their the the form is it and find a way to upload it so we build something called collate collate dot Africa there are other ones out there but it's very important that we do not trust this time okay we'll come back to how that collate dot Africa works I'm interested because if there's something else that INEC will be afraid of that we should know it not just INEC but when we're talking about people who are serving the public there should be something that we should be looking back and saying okay if we misbehave it is going to fire back at us maybe they didn't have that in the last election and that also goes through the civil society organization and the Jetty Jetty PC it's like when you're having traffic wardens on the road people behave drivers behave so when you're monitoring I'm sure the places that you monitor there will be some sort of order so even with the disappointments that you had in the last election what are your plans for tomorrow the jetty pc okay thank you very much now let me just quickly make that very short clarification here there's a little there's a bit of a difference between the monitor and the observer we were observers only INEC and INEC officials per se are allowed to monitor elections and while we are expected to observe and so going out there on the field our business was to observe that is to watch what's happening to gather information on what's happening to collate those information to analyze them and of course in the end to make a report of what we are found if you ask me if you ask me about the 20 the February 25th election we we actually did go out it was a beautiful one it started very well almost across Lagos State for example where I was the director it started pretty very well and somewhere along the line pockets of orchids came around and regardless of the order that was there you know mayhem broke out of course before then there was the very rife delay in the electoral officers arriving the polling units considerably I think from our statistics only about 30 to 35 percent arrived at about 8 30 a.m the remainder came very late and of course we know what happened it affected the the proceedings and so while we dealt with that on the one hand then violence came but at this point I must say that we were also grateful of the for the security measures that were put in place where they adequate no they were not but they were there was a marked improvement from 2019 there was a marked improvement for the first time I remember in 2015 uh 2015 elections I remember I did I did mention on one of the um media houses that I was at at the time that we should not militarize our elections but I saw myself eating those words in in 2023 I was excited to see the military you know I was excited to see them out there and they they give a lot of confidence in some areas where I was in particular and I'll mention them uh through leary it was some areas were just catastrophic and I could tell you elections would never held in those places if the military did not intervene the military did we at a point in time we were all dispersed from the police stations um bottles were thrown at us it would be a great deal and I thought that we're in my clerical where I'll be accorded some some respect but uh I was very wrong I had to also take cover you know but thankfully we reconvened again when the military came and hopefully and then the elections went on smoothly till the end and of course we observed everything I was there till the end and up until when nobody was going to upload the results and that was when another mayhem almost broke from the electorate who didn't want the annex officials to leave the electoral office has to leave I had to even implore on them that one has to go with them to the world collision center and see what we can do with regards to uploading uh we did take photographs we had photographs of uh the the from eca but of course that was not enough and of course I did check what I had tallyed with what was on iraq at the end of the day uh from my from if you pull it pulling units where I observed of course we also found some where they were a couple of discrepancies which I'm sure they are all out there on social media spaces so I don't need to bore you with that so basically I think I told the line of my brother here and also as well trust has been a problem but to say we are not going to trust um I think I'm an optimist we may not trust fully maybe we'll save benefit of doubt that this time now anek would do what they are expected to do the one single assignment they had to do to deliver on the promises they have made they need to do that iraq the the pulling unit results must move to iraq from the pulling units and not afterwards and of course the observers will be there just to do their business they are not to interfere with the process we are only there to observe the elections and to gather the piece of information we have to to aggregate them analyze them and of course submit a report of also to inek so that they can improve on their on their processes going forward so we are quite ready for tomorrow we're quite ready okay well father they know the fear face you had to take cover it made me laugh sorry well um but this beautiful bride that was the bride that was supposed to be beautiful turned out not so beautiful and she's coming back to ask for a second chance like father has said what conditions are you giving this bride which is inek at this moment uh for this second chance that you're giving what are the conditions that you would like to see tomorrow um just an improvement in the process um first of all the logistics so as of yesterday inek had assured that non-sensitive materials had been moved had been deployed as at wednesday and then the sensitive materials started getting deployed as at yesterday in some places and then you know continues into today um so we expect for example that officials should arrive at the polling unit on time it's a very critical part of the process because there are polling units that have more than a thousand um registered voters there are polling units that have reportedly five thousand you know registered voters how do you process five thousand people in one polling unit when the process will take maybe two to three minutes for each person to finish you know so they need to start on time um of course i think you know rebrand and my brother on on on zoom has also said this the use of technology has to be in place we cannot have stories and excuses about the failure of beavers to upload you know um you know these things are perfect uh the beavers i think like oh i said look this this technology is basic there is nothing spectacular about this machine it's an it's a part it's just a tablet um you know saying that you can't upload on its smacks of some sort of mischief if i may say you know so we'd like to see the technology used we'd like to see inek respect their processes very crucially something happened um pervasively um on on the 25th of uh february a lot of people were disenfranchised a lot you know it's it's it's a you know it appears as though it was a significant number of people who were on the queue as at 230 in line with the provisions of inek of the guidelines and who never got to vote because uh of the effliction of time you know at 6 p.m 7 p.m 8 p.m in some places the inek of shell simply packed up and left with a huge number of people having failed to have voted yet in some places the uh you know the registered voters uh took uh things into their own hands and refused to like that allow the inek officials to leave and they voted till 4 a.m till 5 a.m you know in some instances we have to ensure i think we need to call on inek that they respect their own guidelines what the guideline says if somebody is on the queue as at the closing time of the polls that person must vote you know so this is very crucial i saw that and was very painful um so you see for example that in the result if we're to take those results for what they are on the face value um turnout has been the lowest i think possibly in our history you know 20 20 29 percent or something like that it's it's it's terrible you know and it appears as though turnout was far more than that there was some measure of suppression either deliberate or or perhaps just as a result of processing efficiencies or what have you uh we have to ensure that those things don't happen again we'd like to see a greater turnout tomorrow we'd like to see that turnout results in votes that are counted and like oh said that are collated you know so so there's so much expectation for tomorrow would appeal to inek to just allow this process be let the outcome of this election tomorrow be a reflection of what the people of nigeria all over the country want to see let me just digress a little bit but still remain with you um the presidential election we've not heard the last of it we at least we know political parties that are contesting this in court is the civil society organizations or other civil society organizations in nigeria also having a say and following that case oh yes i mean look the the election um election nearing process um starts long before election day and ends long after election day and um as a civil society organization whatever your role might be in in the value chain of the election process you do have to stay in touch with all of that till the end um so the the ongoing legal challenge and you know what's happening in in the courts in various places let's not forget that it's not only the presidential elections that have gone to court a lot of candidates for you know senatorial districts and constituencies in the house of reps have also gone to courts to try and reclaim mandates that the believer being stolen you know so that process is being followed and we hope and expect to see the judiciary play the role that um the constitution provides for them being the last hope of in this case they're not so common you know but being the last being the the the the the temple of justice where if people that are feeling aggrieved can't get redressed now this is crucial because where that fails you leave room for people to take the law into their own hands and you leave a risk you run the risk of allowing anarchy to rail and you know i'm sure you've heard some of the things that are circulating now about protests and all of that it's simply because people don't trust the judiciary so that process of redress seeking and all of that needs to go through to the end um we hope that the judiciary will not disappoint and we hope that justice will be done okay let me come to you for a word of advice to inek and the people you've already told the people that if you want justice if you want things to be transparent be sure you take photographs of the process and the end results and all that but what does inek have to look out for last time we remember that they claimed that in some places there was no network even when we were promised that they were not even going to use the network providers around nigeria they were going to use network a network that will never fail which we didn't see on that day well some of some of the pointers to inek if they have to look out for things that might hinder the process what are they uh if they're listening now to know i'm usually there's a saying again that goes that you should not attribute to malice what can be explained by ignorance um i can confirm that inek is not ignorant on what should be done i think um father um anole for is is quite uh but i say he's he's quite generous with his expectations um i i don't think the we should ever be comparing our elections with bad with wars 2019 terrible we should have a standard of elections someone scores 20 another person scores 27 over 100 we should not be celebrating or even looking in any in any case favorably at the person that scored 27 both are bad we should have a standard 70 percent is the past smack and for quite a long time we have had slight progress but is no longer enough there has to be leapfrogging now the thing is there's really no consequence for bad behavior so i i i don't want to seem antagonistic towards inek i keep on saying that but enough like when nigerians we can do much better than this why why are we giving these excuses it makes no sense to transmit accounts you count 10 for someone and just transmit that information it can be transmitted with an sms there are too many technologies that could fix it so i wouldn't be i keep on saying i wouldn't be trusting it doesn't mean that we could we would not respect or accept grudgingly i don't need to even accept it but we would not we would not be bound by the outcome but we have to take a stronger position on saying that no it's enough this this is soiling our name we saw the the the the outgoing uk ambassador katrina liang saying oh we have come along with infantilizing nigeria in brazil the elections result the election results are concluded that very night in ours two three hours after closing 90 something percent of the results are in so that's the that's where we should be we should be operating i have no advice if i were to advise in in technology we normally do something called post mortem if something goes wrong and you want to end back trust you'll be public about what happened this is what happened this is what we did wrong and this is what we are doing to ensure it doesn't happen again now we're talking of the irf no one knows what happened so who says it's not going to happen again how can you go and just hope inek would not do it again we should go and want them no consequence nothing nothing happens okay so let me let me call you there so that you you have time to tell us a little bit about this collate dot africa that you said is does it have the capacity to make inek sit up for instance just tell us about it first of all so collate that africa is basically everyone having irf so anyone can put in this course and upload the form e68 a sheet simple now it is now it has been democratized so what we're saying is that at any point you could you just come go online collate to laate collate dot africa you register your point units on the day of the election you take a picture of the result sheets president gubernatorial whatever state you upload it and put in this course how can you how can you make sure of that many how can you make sure that this course that are uploaded authentic so because we're not we don't have the we don't have the rights or we don't we're not backed by law what we're optimizing for is transparency so at a polling unit five different people can upload their results so if five of them decide to lie well what I have seen from experience is that Nigerians are not bad actors at scale right so what you would happen is 10 people upload a result one person might be a bad actor nine of them will be correct um for the annual level set when he went online he saw that it was actually the result that was uploaded mine in my case in abba in nanombra states it was the accurate result uploaded but two weeks after um so what we're doing now we have already built something in a week right using our own personnel funds in a was giving a budget of almost a billion dollars three hundred and i mean a hundred billion dollars to build this and they had yes so i next should be i i don't know how they should feel now that individuals could come together and build what they were giving and mandated to do are you all we're doing oh are you all nice built this definitely all Nigerians because it gives me joy to find out that our Nigerians can do what uh we go out we're looking for something in so koto when is this in ashok koto that's not what ashok koto yeah yeah so what built it is agnostic um teams can use it so um you can use it for their teams uh okay thank you thank you oh um because we are out of time right now father let me come to you talk to the people because tomorrow a lot of people will be dragging their feet but from what you have seen from what you're hoping for talk to legutions and everybody in every Nigerian who is watching this right now how you you would like for tomorrow to be like neutrality does not favor the oppressor it doesn't favor the oppressed sorry rather it favors the oppressor um to lie down resigned to fate is madness says olarotimi in his book the gods are not to blame uh so i would say we all have to come out we all have to come out people are disappointed a lot of persons have said they may not be turning up for the elections and with the with the seeming threats and um suppressions and and statements out there uh yachukudi and all of that that we've heard in the last 24th for the 8 hours it has also heightened the the whole thing i would still urge people to come out but i would want to appeal if you remember very well the the the last time we had an engagement i said there are two institutions that need to deliver inek and the security agencies the security agencies are supposed to go after all those who have made overheated the polity in the last one or two weeks leading up to the so that people can actually come out a lot of persons don't want to come out because they are afraid because they think that they may be hot and the security agencies will not be there to protect them but i i i want to appeal we all come out en masse we stay there from the beginning till the end there is a lot of security in number so but if you just allow a few persons to be scattered across the polling units it probably becomes very difficult to um ward away any form of um aggressor that comes but Nigerians should please come out and vote and guard their votes jealously and then inek fulfill your responsibility your task you have only one duty deliver on it okay i share with you well i mean look um i think it's important that Nigerians understand very clearly that this election in so many regards is far more important than the 25th of every election because you are electing governors and um status of assembly um uh representatives who will be making laws that impact you directly in your locality um the local government elections for example is probably even more important than this but guess what this governor that you're electing and the house of assembly guys that you're electing are the ones that determine whether you get actual local government executives or not you know so we can't joke with how important this election is and i think that the only thing we can say is that people should go out go vote and protect your votes go with your phones um you are protected by the law to use them go with your phones and you know um exercise your franchise and protect your votes and then let's hope that inek will do their own part okay ladies and gentlemen boys and girls whoever's watching us right now we're hoping that tomorrow you will go out if you are of voting age we've been we've been talking on the ballot the studio's just open today and tomorrow morning we'll be here to monitor what is happening our reporters will be on the field also giving us information what is happening step by step information we've had father remond annulier for director justice development and peace center here uh with us we've also had shagun shokuton who is a public affairs analyst he's also the chairman of accountability candor and transparency network and he's calling for transparency in tomorrow's election we've had also uh who is a technology executive and i'd like to thank you gentlemen for coming on the program today thank you very much pleasure thank you i wish you all safety tomorrow as you monitor the elections and wish Nigerians safety as well and may the will of god be done until we meet tomorrow morning on the ballot again my name is nyam gul aghaji have a blessed night


You know how great a player is based on what their peers say about them, their former teammates and their competitors. Players like Mike and Jordan, Magic Johnson and of course the great Larry Bird are NBA legends, but it's not always because of the brilliance they displayed on the court, it's because of the stories and the debates that NBA fans still have decades after they retire. Not only have Larry Bird's teammates come out and praised him for what he did during his career, but players from other teams still continue to marvel at what he used to do on the court with countless stories. In other words, when the best of the best continue to talk and marvel about what you did on the court, it just shows how great Bird was compared to everybody else in the league. And there are so many stories about the trash talking hard working legend that is Larry Bird. But these stories in this video sum up Larry Bird completely. Both stories include Larry Bird's famous line, I told you so. And you guys seem to love these types of videos, where I include interviews and clips and piece them all up together to make a story, one story so you can follow and you get a clear understanding of what was happening during that time. In this video we combine ESPN's 30 for 30 on the Celtics and the Lakers, and an open court segment recorded in 2018 where Chris Bosch asked Kevin McHale for a Larry Bird story. Then later on in the video we look at another story which includes Larry Bird trash talking Xavier McDaniel on The Dan Patrick Show and also a documentary on Larry Bird. We combine all these interviews up together and the story all flows together. You guys seem to love these videos so I'd appreciate if you guys could leave a like on this video to show your support. It literally takes 2 seconds of your time and it would really help my channel out. If you are new around here and enjoy these types of videos feel free to subscribe and lastly I have plenty more videos just like this one on the channel for you to sit back, relax and enjoy. I hope you're all staying safe and let's get it started. We're playing Phoenix and we're way ahead okay. The Celtics were playing the Suns and we're down in the old saddle dome that they had outside right right and Larry you know we're playing good as a team Larry has the worst force quarter known to man I mean he's throwing the ball the other team I'm like good lord we have like a 15 point lead next thing you know we're down to it and I'm like how in the world are we going to lose this game man.   And I'm like birdie it's just getting to overtime I'm going to go to Robert. We need to get into overtime man try to get this ship right because we're sinking man. The Celtics are down by two points and Bird is out by the three point line and he's being guarded by a guy named Johnny High and Johnny High is sort of backing away from Bird and Bird said hey Johnny you better come up and guard me a little closer I'm just going to get the ball and shoot a three and games over.  So Larry not only tells me that he walked by the bench and says you know typical birdie just real slow. So he tells us tells the Phoenix bench tells the coaches yeah I'm just fixing to bust a three on you guys and just go home I'm tired of this.  And you know Johnny High sort of sort of smiles and laughs about it so he breaks the play and then the ball comes in to bird he just turns around and shoots a perfect three. As the ball is in the air he kind of turns towards the Phoenix bench and yells told you so.  That was birdie and just he had the confidence man that dude had so much confidence he talked to the coaches he talked to everybody he was talking trash all the time but fun great competitor man I just started laughing I was like oh man you know I just one of those ones where you just kind of he has such supreme confidence and it was just but I that's the one when you were back in and Larry went in and said well I won the game in the first three quarters and I lost at the third quarter and the fourth quarter excuse me then I won at the end he goes my record tonight is two and one we all just kind of laughed about it. Larry legend is simply remarkable the fact that he not only told Kevin McKell that he would break up the playing shooter three in his face but the fact he also told the Phoenix Suns players and coaches and then went on to actually do it it just speaks volumes to how good Larry the legend was not to mention he also dropped 38 points and hit the game winner in that game. Larry was always one step ahead of the rest he knew this and the NBA knew this but it wasn't because he just was great it was because he really worked hard to be the greatest at the time it was Magic Johnson or Larry Bird Larry Bird wasn't anything special either he wasn't athletically gifted he wasn't quick he wasn't fast he just put the work in he was the guy that wanted to take the game-winning shot and he practiced and practiced and practiced that and that's what he eventually became one of the clutches plays in NBA history one of the best plays in NBA history and one of the best trash talkers in NBA history because he could back up whatever he said on the court in an interview he stated why he wanted to take the last shot and what separates the best from regular NBA players a lot of players in this league that can score the first three quarters of game but you get down the fourth quarter when you need a basket you can separate the men from the boys it's been like and it's always gonna be like that you always gonna have the guys that come up with the attitude that they can make the last shot or make the big play I don't know what makes a player do that just your competitive nature and their will to win and if it comes down to one shot I want to be the guy to take it and since we're on the topic of Kevin McHale and Larry Bird stories he is one more including a game winner in Xavier McDaniels face and saying the exact same thing I told you so it was a tie game they had the ball and DJ was stalling the basketball you know Larry was kind of standing out spot behind him like denying him the ball and they call the time out and he turned around and looked at me and said I'm a school rat here on you and I said I know you will I'll be ready during the time out I'm going through a play and about that time Larry steps in and says a coach up won't you just give me the ball and tell everybody to get out of the way that's Larry he wants the ball he wants the ball after the time out we walked back on the court then Xavier was guarding so he tells Xavier says I'm getting the ball X I'm gonna get the ball right here and I'm gonna take a jumper right in face I'm gonna make it and I said I know I'm gonna be waiting and he said I'm gonna get it right here I'm gonna shoot it right in your face and then he gets the ball takes the shot right in front of Xavier McDaniel and makes the shot and he came out we're happy about that exact spot and shot a shot right in my face I just look back when the ball just went in hit all net and uh he said uh I told you so and you know he was like I didn't mean to leave two seconds on the clock he wanted to shoot it with zero seconds on the clock I walked back to the side line like tape you know and and X tells the stories like he did exactly what he was telling me he was going to do there are so many stories of people saying that Larry Bird told me he was gonna do this and then he actually did it this was just one of them but I can make many more if you haven't seen them let me know if you've heard of these stories before I doubt that many of you have heard the Phoenix Sun stories because you actually can't get any of that game on YouTube so unless you go through documentaries and interviews it's actually hard to find footage of what happened during that time so I doubt many of you would have heard the first story the second story of Xavier McDaniel is more well known but still it's an amazing story with the same line I told you so and I hope you guys enjoyed the video if you did and you enjoy these types of stories I have plenty more on the channel be sure to hit that subscribe button and go on the channel to see if you enjoy any more like this I'd really appreciate if you guys could drop a like it takes two seconds of your time and I'll catch you guys in my next video I am out peace


If you are looking for safety in your pitchers for MLB DFS, you have come to the wrong slate because night's late for MLB DFS is Lacking in that department by a pretty wide margin. There are There's maybe one pitcher I would justify or a classifies being quote-unquote safe for tonight and that guy Isn't even that safe because a sample on him being quality is a little bit lower So if you're looking for a quality safe pitcher for today, I got bad news for you We're gonna break things down though run through which pitchers we can justify despite the red flags and get you set for Friday night slate of MLB DFS welcome on into the solo shot. That's right here on the fan dual podcast network and number fire dot-com My name is Jim Sonnis. I am a senior writer and analyst for a number fire dot-com here to break down today's 14 Again main slate with lock set for 705 four to night and unfortunately There is more rain in the forecast where today We could not get the Toronto Blue Jays in their great matchup last night today more rain for the Metson the Pirates up in New York It's possible. I would check back on that one later on It's better today than it did yesterday So we'll see if they're able to get that game in but it does look better today than it was yesterday at least Rain is in Boston for the Red Sox and Phillies, but it should be rolling out before first pitch So looks like they'll be good to go there. I check back on that one Later on to see what the timeline of that rain is but as of right now I would expect that game to be good to go So the two main rain spots for tonight are in New York and Boston check back on those later to see if we are able to Utilize players in those games, of course yesterday. We did talk a lot about rain in the 4 p.m. Show Should be a topic once again for today that is 4 p.m. On the Fandle YouTube twitch Facebook and Twitter pages You can ask any question you've got there each day on the Fandle YouTube twitch Facebook and Twitter pages to get set for MLB DFS back on once again today at 4 p.m To get you set for tonight's site and take your questions live on air make sure subscribe there But also check out the number fired daily fantasy podcast feed We've got of course this podcast, but also we have a UFC 264 preview via Austin Swain that is posted right now getting you set for the McGregor versus Dustin Poirier matchup Once again matchup number three between those guys He gave this loss in that matchup and the entire card that is already posted NASCAR podcast coming up later on today That's on the Fandle YouTube page at 10 30 a.m. And then on the number fired daily fantasy podcast feed after that make sure you are subscribed wherever you get your podcasts Hey soccer fans this season Fandle and Captain Morgan are teaming up to give you a one-of-a-kind soccer contest Introducing Captain Morgan soccer pick-up a weekly fantasy contest that is entirely free to play the contest is simple All you have to do is make quick predictions for Saturday games of soccer season You'll earn points for each correct pick and compete for a chance to win up to $3,000 in prizes every single week head over to Fandle and enter the captain Morgan soccer pick-up today Must be 21 plus to participate for more details of the Fandle calm or download the Fandle fantasy app Eligibility restrictions apply and don't forget to make your game day more enjoyable and delicious and sub in the captain Let's go through our pitching preview for today here in MLB DFS Alec Manoa is the highest a salary pitcher on Fandle for today Of course, he was scheduled to pitch yesterday got pushed back to today now facing the rays. He is ten thousand three hundred dollars Charlie Morton is facing the Marlins. He checks in at ten thousand dollars on Fandle Zach Thompson in that exact same game is ninety six hundred dollars Taiwan Walker is ninety five Wade Miley is ninety two and then Alex Cobb Logan Webb and Cole Irvin are the others at eight thousand dollars or higher And as you can tell there, there's no I mean, I guess after last night should be classified Darvish and Scherzer is being like safe probably not but like there's no name aces on tonight's slate the closest guy to that in my eyes is Charlie Morton and He's facing the Marlins for a second consecutive start and it's his third time seeing them since June 11th to me That's hyper annoying. Those are big negatives big red flags and it means that that's why Morton does not belong in the safe bucket. We were talking about before I Do still think that Morton should be high on our list for tonight Everything else lines up really well for Morton here He hasn't had a ton of change in his movements numbers since the sticky stuff discussion began Which means we can expand the sampler go back to his past ten starts in that time Morton has a three point four seven skill interactive ERA with a 28% strikeout rate his bad of all data has always been tremendous and it's been very good in this sample as well It's also a good match up for righty the Marlins have a 90 WRC plus versus righties with a 139 ISO They are willing to strike out with a 25% strikeout ray versus righties and that's a good thing Now it's worth noting. They've done well versus Morton. They've scored four runs Against him in both those recent starts one again June 11th and one last week. So that's really enticing From their perspective no other team though in this time has scored more than three runs across the past ten starts against Morton And there have been some whiffs against Morton with the Marlins He has a sixteen point seven percent swinging strike rate his last time out So I wish this weren't a repeat matchup I'd feel very confident with Charlie Morton if it were not then he'd be a no-brainer as it stands right now He's solid. I can't go more than that the problem is that on this slate solid is the number one pitcher on the slate So I think that that's kind of what we're dealing with here And I think that Morton does deserve to be number one for us for tonight against the Marlins at ten thousand dollars Now when we were talking about yesterday's slate I had Taiwan Walker and things to watch as opposed to the pitching section the reason that he was there was because Partially because they were what I thought were good alternatives in Scherzer, Darvish and Malley and Obviously I didn't quite work out all that well But that's why he was down there The other reason was because I was concerned about a lack of upside against the Pirates who are a low strike out team on This specific slate things are pretty radically different and I think that that's enough where Walker Does deserve to be number two for us tonight at ninety five hundred dollars as mentioned he's facing the Pirates They have an eighty five WRC plus versus righties this year very minimal power a one twenty nine ISO versus righties So you could probably check the box of Walker being safe I don't because like our sample on Walker being really really good is not super expansive So I try to be cautious there, but he is pretty close given the matchup with the Pirates He's also been very good. We talked about this yesterday on the show, but the most relevant sample for Walker is over his past four starts he's been using fewer splitters and That can be a red flag Sometimes I will be wary of pitchers that they're throwing their off-speed stuff last because it could mean they're not a full hell Especially now with the sticky stuff discussion It couldn't mean they can't get a grip on it with Walker lowering the usage on his splitter That's not actually a terrible thing because the splitter has not been a great pitch for him so far this year So over his past four starts a three point one seven skill interactive eRA 28% strikeout rate and a 3% walk rate those are all really good numbers and They're putting them up against the pirates for today the pirates not a powerful offense They have the lowest WRC plus on the slate outside of the Rockies who don't really have a scheduled picture against them as of yet So it's a good matchup. He's at home We do have to navigate the weather because as mentioned there is some rain concern for that game for today But if we get the all clear with the weather I do think that there is enough working in Walker's favor to make in the number two picture and tonight's slate behind Mort I will say too that like if you have too many concerns around the matchup between the repeat match between Morton and the Marlins, it's justifiable to go Walker over Morton. They're in the same tier to me So to me it is Morton one walk or two But they're kind of a 1a 1b type of situation and it's not like you must go Charlie Morton No matter what as far as a value play There's no safety with Kenta Maeda because we have not seen the full Kenta Maeda until last week last week It was old school Kenta. He had 10 strikeouts over six shutout innings I'm not sure if that will stick But it does mean that he has upside and if we're looking for upside in the slate We're not gonna find a whole lot of it So I think we should at least give Maeda a look here given the good start he had last week We got four starts on Maeda since he came back from the injured list and he's been leaning more on his forcing fastball in that time The velocity on his slider is down But the movement on it is up quite a bit and when I see that it says to me He's probably made a change in the way throwing that slider from what he was doing before. That's interesting I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have reduced velocity might actually be kind of interesting because in those four starts Maeda has a 28% strikeout rate. He's letting apart contact just 23% of the time So that's all great It's not all sunshine and daisies Which is why I said I wasn't sure if it would stick because Maeda is walking too many guys He did let up seven runs two starts ago Plus the Tigers aren't a prime target for pitchers that they were before there They've been playing a lot better offensively recently. So there is risk here But again, he has a path to a ceiling game and that's not super Abundant on this late guys who actually have a path to a good game for tonight So Ken to Maeda $7,300 on Fandal for today really low salary. I think that helps a lot So I do think that Maeda despite the concerns is worthwhile for today. So to me It's more than one Walker to Maeda the top value play There's no safety among those guys outside of maybe Walker, but I do think that they all have upside I think that's enticing for me on this specific slate So with pitchers being kind of shaky that should mean that the stacks are a bit easier to get to and they are which helps The Phillies are gaining a DH today. They're going to the Fenway So an American League Park, which means they get a DH I talked about Brad Miller as a guy who never plays and I never could talk about him any yet I think three home runs last night. So Hopefully he's in there today. It does stink I kind of wish he hadn't done that because outside of lines where I had him in You know, I'd like to get him at the lower roster rate, but hey either way I think we should like the Phillies here against Garrett Richards Richards is someone who talked plenty about with regards to the spin rate discussion he was very vocal in being against the enforcement and we can see why we're up to seven starts with Richards having less movement on his foreseen fastball and his skill interactive VR raise up to 5.46 with a 14% strikeout rate. He is allowing a 55% heart-hit rate He's leveled off a bit recently where the bleeding has started to slow a bit But that's all relative to where it was before he still let up multiple home runs earned runs in each game He has not had more than three strikeouts in June 6th. You let of three home runs to start to go So although it's been a little bit better it's still obviously ain't great and we have reason to think that those struggles will continue So the Phillies they have plenty guys who want to use now that DD's back now that Maybe we'll get Brad Miller in there, Odeba Herrera is occasionally hitting decently So I think that the Phillies are a team we should be good going to for today Part of the reason I like the Phillies is DD Grigoris being back as we talked about I like looking at plate discipline numbers when a player comes off the injured list and DD is looking pretty good there Drunk good number of walks making some hard contact I think it's easy to feel good about him at $2,500 filling shortstop for today So I think DD Grigoris someone who wants to be we should have in our our Philly stacks for sure We might not need all the salary savings But hey, it makes it easier to get to Bryce Harper, etc, etc DD is someone I'm very willing to turn to you for today The twins are facing Matt Manning tonight And I'm not sure how long he'll be out there because he went to 60 pitches last time out and They are limiting Casey Mies right now to try to make sure he can pitch the entire year It could be a short stint for Manning But I think the twins have good upside for when Manning is out there Manning's first few starts in the big leagues have been pretty rough He is up to four starts there He has a 5.85 skill interactive ERA with just a 7% strikeout rates and his walk rate is 6% That means he's letting up a ball and play 84% of the time Which is exactly what we want for sacking and you would need an outlandish batted ball Profile to get away with such a low strikeout rate Manning is more middling He is allowed a 42% hard hit rate with a 32% fly ball rates and as we discussed when he first came up Those struggles were there in the miners too. So I'm not expecting him to turn things around Given the combination the peripherals with what he did in the miners. That's especially true against a decent twins offense They've a 186 ISO versus righties. They got a plenty of dingers in those bats So I think we should stack the twins tonight even with Not a ton of clarity on how long Manning will go for today Sacking the twins against the right He does mean we get to use both of their fun rookie lefties and Trevor Larnack and Alex Kiriloff Larnack has a 198 ISO against righties Kiriloff is 158 But he does make a lot of hard contact and I think if I had to take an over under on the 158 ISO I take the over going forward for Kiriloff Larnack is $2,600 Kiriloff has $2,700 so that makes a lot of sense help you get up to Nelson Cruz So I am very into Both those guys for tonight as part of a twin stack, but also as one also you need to fill an outfield or utility slot Finally for the third stack the White Sox are facing Jorge Lopez and Lopez was doing some nice things earlier in the year And those things have come back to earth and I think that it makes a ton of sense to stack the White Sox tonight against him Lopez Does seem to have been impacted by the sticky stuff discussion He's had less movement on his foreseamer over his past six starts in that time He has a 5.04 skill interactive ERA with an 18% strike outright and he's walking a lot of guys He's also letting apart contact 49% of the time and the results have been rough to see our rain the time is 7.28 Lopez has faced some good teams in that time We can sometimes see opponent strength dictate stuff like that But the White Sox are fights you to they got a 108 WRC plus versus righties they draw a lot of walks so I think they will get a lot of runners on base here and That could lead to a lot of upside the White Sox against righties do not have as much power as they do versus lefties But I think the base runner angle the volume angle I think that that's enough to make the White Sox a good stack for today And the team that I want to go to one of the exceptions to the White Sox have less power versus righties discussion is Brian Goodwin It's still a small sample, but he's been lighten it up He's got a 360 ISO in 60 plate appearances against righties. He's shown some flashes of power in the past still no You know guys not back yet from injury a little hymen is just starting his rehab stint for right now So I don't know if good one will keep up this specific pace But I wouldn't be shocked if he continues continues to be a viable bat for DFS going forward So Brian Goodwin $3,000 someone I think we should feel great about in terms of stacking the White Sox Just because the power he's shown seems decent So I think that we will be hard on him for today against Lopez Let's finish up here with things to watch starting off with a guy I was surprised to see near the top of the salary pool and Zach Thompson. He is squaring off with with the braids for today at home and I Think you can consider Thompson because his numbers and his first five starts are really good He has a 32% strikeout rate and a 3.25 skill interactive ERA The reason I won't be going there is a length In his five starts he's gone 55 66 73 91 87 pitches and the Marlins are pretty conscious of how much they use their pitchers there, especially the younger guys and we saw them I Think that we could see a situation where Thompson doesn't get to go super deep in games yet He was like a twinning guy for the most part in the minor leagues before he got called up So I think you can justify it because 90 pitches of a 32% strike area It's pretty good, but I have concerns around the length and it's a tough matchup So Thompson is someone I'm okay just watching for tonight and not being in on from a DFS perspective Two of the stacks I like here are the Red Sox and the Dodgers the Red Sox are facing Vince Velazquez and Velazquez is Coming back a little bit here over his past six starts with more forcing fastballs He's allowing a 47% fly ball rates not a ton of hard contact, which is weird for Velazquez But strikeout right down to 21% Red Sox a very good offense versus right. He's the one or two WRC plus a lot of power So both sides of the Red Sox Philly's game very much in play from a stacking perspective the Dodgers facing Taylor Weidner and He had just one rehab start before he came back up and he didn't look all that great in it Now he's coming back up to face the Dodgers The Weidner wasn't terrible I guess that the way I'd phrase it in his first stint as a starter in the big leagues But definitely was not enough to scare me out of stacking the Dodgers here So stacking for today pretty easy got the Phillies twins White Sox Red Sox and Dodgers I am fully on board with all those Hopefully that helps compensate for the lack of safety at pitcher for today to make it a better slate than it Would be without those good stacking options Okay, let's finish Friday on a high note. We got Eric Haas for the Dinger call last night He did go deep. So let's try to keep the streak going here The boring home run call for today is Nelson Cruz facing Matt Manning a lot of balls in play Nelson Cruz Has some power. We'll go out and live and say that I think we can say that by now So we'll go Nelson Cruz for the boring one for the fun one. We will go back to Boston and talk about Didi Gregorius lower salary guy It's a bit lower in the order It should keep the popularity off of him and he's looked decent enough in his first couple of games back So the home run calls for today Nelson Cruz and Didi Gregorius going out on a high note for today Going out in a high note for the entire first half because the all-star break coming up next week We will not have a show obviously until next Friday for that one time Becky will be on with you because I will be heading to a wedding. So Tom will be with you on Friday next week I'll be back with you the following Monday to get you set for the second half of MLB DFS Make sure you are subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcast And as always if you like what you hear leave us a rating and review as well If you have questions for me before the 4 p.m. Stream for tonight, I am on Twitter at Jim Sonnis J-i-m-s-a-n-n-e-s you can also follow the fan dual podcast network at fan dual podcast big Thank you to everyone for tuning in for today. Good luck With your MLB DFS launcher tonight enjoy the all-star break enjoy the weekend. We'll talk to you once again in a couple weeks This has been the solo shot right here on the fan dual podcast network