Thursday, July 10, Hour 1

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services in
sure your most prized possessions.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hey, good afternoon, everybody.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Welcome to Iye on the Ball here on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. Eating with me today is
Blake Eager from Southerners On a sports tourism and film authority.
How's it going, It's going, it's going really well.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
You're busy.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
I'm trying to track you down while I'm in meetings.
I'm doing this, doing that.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
You yelled at me for not texting when I was
in Santa Fe last week.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Oh, I was very upset. But we'll get to that.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Ray has control of the show, so the screws up,
it's Ray's problem.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
Sure, Ray, I'm going to say this because I'm listening
to the show two days ago with Dave Silver. You
might want to get on the opposite side there at
some point and get on the mic man like, well
he is on the microlos. Your your voice translates, you're smart,
you're intelligent. You put it through. So what you do
with me and people don't have to look at your hair.
It's perfect man, it's a I'm I'm an idiot. Yeah,

(01:08):
well I made a whole career out of that. So
you got a chance, you got a good chance. Good
put that on your resume, you.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Know, indoors by indors.

Speaker 4 (01:20):
You might want to not do that, but you're Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
So how was Santa Fe? You know it was Well,
did you see my video I sent to you?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I did?

Speaker 4 (01:29):
Okay, Yeah, so that's how Yeah, it was. It was great,
great weather. Yeah, it was a great time. We uh,
we stayed the night in truth or consequence going out there,
did the hot springs one night and then and never
done that. You haven't never done that, you know, I'm
gonna I'm gonna plug this. You don't have to go
to truth or consequence. We have hot springs, and I
went to truth or constant, Okay, to do that, to

(01:50):
do the hot we always do stopping there. But if
you want to do in the state of Arizona two
hours away, you've got Safford, Arizona. There's multiple hot springs
there and it's phenomenal. Yeah, yeah, I might have to
do that.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
You should. It's awesome.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
They've got they've got an area there, they've got a
place here that actually has a lake, Hot Springs Lake,
so you can go swimming at a lake and then
sit in the hot.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Is it cost costly? What's it's easy? Okay, I might
do that. Yeah, it's like a day morning trip.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
And you've got Mountain Graham, which is a you know,
tallest free standing mountain out there.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Let me set you up.

Speaker 5 (02:20):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
So we had an argument two weeks ago, maybe less time,
kind of like a debate.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
So did you enjoy the food?

Speaker 6 (02:27):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (02:28):
Yeah, I mean listen, I think from the culinary aspect,
it's two suns still has better options.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Oh yeah, because it's a much bigger city.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yeah, and just overall, I think there's different things, but
I don't what's thes we went there? Unbelievable. Yeah, really
my number one choice for people.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
So good.

Speaker 7 (02:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
So we, uh we walked up to the train station.
They they people were in line for this train, and
I was, you know me, I get curious and I'm
a chatty kathy. So I walked up and I was
like what is this. They're like, it's a sunset train,
and so I was like you any more room? And
they had two more spots they got found as too,
So we were able to do.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
That, and where did you go?

Speaker 4 (03:05):
It was Yeah, it was just it took you down
in a railway in the middle of the city forest
and you just watched the sunset. Oh yeah, it was
super cool, really really cool, and we just felt, you know,
but backwards in that. And then we were able to
go to afterwards and they have a sign in there
which is crazy that it says you cannot sue them

(03:25):
for the heat of the chili's because the one chili
is so hot that people have tried to do that
in the past.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, super cool. And you went to the plaza.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
I'm sure went to the plaza yet, spend a lot
of time that we actually saw a bunch of stuff,
went a bunch of the art museums. Okeith the art
museums unbelievable. The actual Santa fe Art Museum is really
really cool. Yeah, Georgia Keith.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Saw the cathedral right there in the heart of the plaza. Yeah,
and you'll love this.

Speaker 7 (03:47):
You know.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
We were on that train ride. I uh, when the
train stopped, I told Amber, Uh, I get it.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Your wife, my wife, Yeah, not just so random.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
I told I found this lady out there, said lady,
my wife say yeah, but I get it.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
It's a cool place. It is. Yeah, it's a cool place.

Speaker 8 (04:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Expensive, it's a touristy.

Speaker 4 (04:08):
It's a yeah, it's a toursty trap, but once you
get to get out of it, most tourist places.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Did you go to Towis? Did you take a drive?

Speaker 1 (04:13):
No?

Speaker 4 (04:13):
No, we didn't have time. We were pretty back to back,
but I love tows. Tows is amazing white water rafting there.
Did I tell you that story?

Speaker 3 (04:19):
No?

Speaker 4 (04:20):
So this is it's a pretty funny story. I think
chose right how it shows people out on my am.
So we had like a group of five I think
it was a group of five people. Year is a
long time ago. This is in the fall. I was
probably twenty three, twenty four. Yeah, thanks for pointing that out.
So I said, hey, you know, we were looking and

(04:42):
we always tried to do like one adventure trip. And
I don't know how I found it, but it was
white water, white water, white water rafting and tows, and so.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
I said, let's let's go.

Speaker 4 (04:50):
It's about it'll be like five and a half hours, right,
it's a nine hour drive by the way from here.
From here, and so there was five of us and
we all had gear. We're going camping, and I thought, oh,
we'll just fin this Honta civic four door. That didn't work.
So luckily our friend Danielle had a truck, so we
piled in the truck. We get there and it's nighttime,
so we have to set up our tent in in Tows.

(05:11):
At our campsite in Tows a little cold little chili right. Also,
we bought a bunch of fireworks because it was illegal
I think at that time in Arizona, but it was
legal in New Mexico. So we were all excited to
go into the grocery store fries.

Speaker 5 (05:23):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
But so we set up our tent.

Speaker 4 (05:25):
Right and then you know, we kind of hang out
and then in the morning we get this like somebody
like you can't knock on a tent, but essentially knocking
on a tent. And we opened up the tent door
and it's a park ranger and we're like, hey, what's
going on. He goes, what are you guys doing? I said,
we're camping. We you know, we put our slip in.
He goes, no, where what are you doing? And I go,
I don't know what you mean. He goes, you set

(05:46):
up your tent in the middle of the parking lot
and we get out and we're literally surrounded by cars.
And we had set it up in the night before.
We were like, why aren't these steaks going to the
This is not an asphole park a lot. By the way,
I'm not that dumb. The steaks would like literally would
not go in the ground. Yeah, so we woke up.
We were in the middle of a parking lot. It
was pretty embarrassed.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, so, I'm sure he just told that story a
few times, tis, But I do want to talk about
the fireworks because we were all excited. So we bought
all these fireworks, right, and you know, we get in
this area, we pull off to the side of the road,
we put in the middle of the street and we
light and we all run and we're like, oh my god,
Oh my god. They were sparklers. Oh you guys weren't
very bright.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
No, no, not very bright. But it was a good time.
Oh cool, Good for you. I'm not very bright for you.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
You just got to run this show. What I do,
what I don't do. Yeah, well, welcome here. There's a
lot to talk about. We're gonna have Damian Alameda from
Channel thirteen, talk to see what's going on this big,
big twelve thing and talk about that. See how busy
or boring it is in the middle of July. Uh
And then at four seventeen, we're gonna have Lamont Honeley.

(06:52):
Have you been on what I've had Lamont?

Speaker 4 (06:53):
No, but I've I've met Lamont through theirs on ball
a couple of times. Well, yeah, one of the good dice,
one of my big really lucky to have him in
southern Arizona.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
He's pain in the neck for me, but I'm a
pain in the neck for him. I think you probably
give it back.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
So yeah, we'll have him talk about just you know,
the projections and stuff like that for Arizona and what
he hopes to see. Brendan was pretty enlightening yesterday. I
don't know if you saw some of this stuff, you
know kind of you know, it was on me, and
you know, I didn't handle some things properly. This year
it's gonna be different, which to me is like allelujah,
because he needs to. You know, once you you know

(07:28):
you have a hard time, you got to say okay, yeah, hello, Steve,
I'm an alcoholic a blah blah, blah, you know whatever
I meant to whatever.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
The counterability factor. We talk about it all the time.
It's good to see. That's refreshing. Yeah, no, so that
was yesterday. By the way, I'm not an alcoholic. I
just try to make an analogy.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
I'm a dumb ass, That's what I'm a dumbass.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
It's pretty good.

Speaker 4 (07:52):
I think probably some of our listeners are like, yeah,
I can say that. I'd rather call that true. He's
only on the four step, guys. I'm still waiting for apologies, so.

Speaker 8 (08:02):
Anything, just call my son.

Speaker 4 (08:05):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's a downtime in but we've
got the fall is going to be jam packed.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yeah, you're you're busy. Yeah, are you already working on
w WBC? What's the WBC won't happen again? So you
were kind of playing it through. You've got the CBA
next year with Major League Baseball, the players Association and
the owners to see how that shakes out. And then
you've got the Olympics in twenty eight, so the next
go around is most likely going to be twenty nine. Really,

(08:32):
so I think it's four years anyway, isn't it. No,
it's three every three year year next year's the actual WBC.
But uh, there is some things we're working on the
back and for some spring stuff next year that hopefully
that doesn't Does it include the current baseball team, the
Tucson unnamed baseball team, it does not.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Well, good for you job security, hopefully.

Speaker 4 (08:54):
Well, it's for the community. If I don't have a job,
but we get this, it's still worth it, that's honest truth.
I think I told you that during the World Baseball Classic. Yeah, okay,
and then there I think I can announce another thing
here in the next I think you do this to me. No, no, no,
we got confirmation two days ago, and I think I can.
Now I'm gonna announce it here first, okay, after I

(09:16):
announce it on three other shows everybody else, Yeah, just
uh yeah, no, something that's really I think I think
we'll all be the fall.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
For the fall. Okay.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
Well, god, we we have tour, we have garment, we
have the football season, we have a lot of different things.
Basketball late in November, so another edition, which another edition? Yeah,
so the Sugar School, Sugar Schulls. What we have, the
hockey road Unroadrunners, yeah. And the baseball team.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
Two on baseball team starts October sixteen against Ermaio. You
couldn't have asked for a better Is.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
That you already have the schedule scheduled out?

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yep?

Speaker 4 (09:54):
Was the first first series. Okay, yeah, we just I
just had a meeting with him a couple of weeks.
What you say, right, that's not what you're going to release. No,
I will just say October Eleven's is a date that
everybody should put in their calendar to hold off on
doing anything.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Okay, what day is that?

Speaker 5 (10:08):
Friday?

Speaker 2 (10:09):
It's a Saturday.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
Okay, October eleven? Football game that day? There is that night? Yeah,
on the road. No, they're home home. Wow, look at you.
It sounds like movie one word. Yeah, I'm terrible at
that game. It sounds like two words.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
I don't know. Yeah, okay, so good, good to see you. Like,
were you here last week?

Speaker 9 (10:29):
No?

Speaker 2 (10:29):
I wasn't here last week. Yeah I showed up. I
showed up.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
No, that's no. It's similar today where you let me outside.
It's only one hundred and twelve. You let me outside
for twenty minutes, and I came in here like I
just got your text, my text, I did I need it?

Speaker 2 (10:44):
You're welcome.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
I'm driving yeah, yeah, yeah, anything else. Did you pay
attention yesterday's Big twelve stuff? I did it? No, I haven't.
I haven't caught up on that. Explain, explain to me. Well,
there's no vote, there's no vote. We don't know where
they're going to finish. We thought maybe if we were
to vote, maybe to twelve.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, eight to ten to twelve, twelve the football team.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
Yeah, yeah, I know. This recruiting class intrigues me a
little bit, though. I think they brought it. It's better, Yeah,
it's better eight to twelve. You think eight to twelve,
I think twelve on the well, twelve on the lowest.
That's what yeah, uh eight. I think he's going to
be generous. But but we've gone.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
Through the schedule last two days and we've kind of
went six and six at the worst five, yeah, seven
and five right at the best, seven and five, the
best seven and five, And that's some wiggle room with
a couple of games that maybe could go either way,
but six and six at the very least, so.

Speaker 10 (11:40):
We're hoping for I mean, yeah, just looking at it,
that's what it looked like, you know, just I mean
there's some tough games that it's like.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, and we don't know. We don't know. I don't
know how you're going to pitch that day. You know what?

Speaker 3 (11:50):
We can say, we're gonna go against the Blake Eager
and he's not that good, but we.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Don't know how we're gonna Most people used to say that.

Speaker 4 (11:56):
And then he said, surprise that five six innings, that's incredible,
and he struck somebody out, wild stuff, throwing eighty poo
up there.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Where did that get come from? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (12:04):
Yeah, I did want to talk about this though, And
I don't know if you covered it yesterday, but the
offensive tackle from Texas.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
Tech, Yeah we did. You did have the Texas Tech
guy on two days Monday, yeah, Tuesday, okay.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, yeah, five million dollars. Yeah, the three year deal.

Speaker 4 (12:19):
I think I know j Billis brought this up, but
it's got to be the way the world moving forward
in an IL.

Speaker 10 (12:25):
Right, Yeah, I mean Dion's asking for a salary cap too,
so yeah, I think you know, yeah, I mean it
makes it tough either way.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
I mean, money's money's gonna talk.

Speaker 11 (12:36):
Well.

Speaker 10 (12:36):
What always bothers me is like, especially with college sports,
it's like a new rule comes out automatically.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
Looking for a way around it. Yeah, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 10 (12:45):
It's like, oh, okay, we're gonna we're gonna do revenue share,
and it's like, okay, sign everybody for the most money
right before, and it's like, dude, we're trying I mean,
people are getting paid or trying to make it better
or trying to make it legitimate, and it's like we
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
Well, that's the whole thing. When there's that is that.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
But the athletic had a story today, and I'm gonna
try to pull it up where it's gonna be. The
the collectives are gonna have a harder time because now
they're getting paid X amount of money two hundred thousand
probably minimum.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
Whatever.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
Now if your Jim click, I'll just throw a name
out there because everyone knows it. Asking Jim to contribute
even more money, well, he's already making two hundred thousand.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
What are you coming to me? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (13:23):
I mean, why would I help you when you've got
to come up with that money and I'm already contributing
to something else.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
I mean, I wouldn't I bought your groceries. I already
bought your groceries.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
What you need more groceries? Yeah, because I don't think
you can. I mean, you somebody like Jim Click can
justify the return on investment, I guess more than our
general public, like you, like the three of us. Yeah,
but what am I getting out of that? But you know,
look at this.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
Headline that just came up today. Read it out loud
if you will.

Speaker 4 (13:49):
New NIL enforcement targets collectives deals must serve valid business purpose.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
Right?

Speaker 4 (13:56):
So yeah, so you can no longer just get the money. Yeah,
but I think I I thought you had to be
attached to an event or something like or like an endorsement.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah, yeah, I haven't read it, but but you're getting
they're gonna get paid a lot of money. It's funny.
We were driving in the car yesterday and uh, and.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
I teased one.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
You know he's out now and Juan, Hello, congratulations, you
just graduated. Can you send us, say you got a
new job. Can you send us one hundred two hundred dollars?
You know two years these guys are making he's making
x a lot smaller than two hundred thousand. Can you
help us keep these guys happy? What about keeping me happy?

Speaker 4 (14:34):
Well, we talked about that with one when one night
he's like I've already got emails. Yeah, it doesn't even
job host. You're like, what am I doing? But it's
like student loans. I mean I think when my wife
graduateds you they were trying to collect money in six
months and then our loans getting sold to twelve different things.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
You can't like.

Speaker 4 (14:52):
Yeah, it's a it's wild to me, like any other
business like doesn't like could you imagine going to McDonald's
and then twenty months after you finished eating, they're like, hey,
can you give us mon We're not going to give
you any food, but you like the hamburger? Can you
give us money? What does that mean? Here's a toy,
here's a toy. We're already to the person.

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Speaker 1 (20:18):
This is I on the Ball with Steve Roverra on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera in with me.
Today's Blake Eager. Now on the phone, we have Damian Alameda.
You got it from Channel thirteen. I was gonna say,
Alexander with Alameda, how are you doing, old buddy, Hilpal.

Speaker 5 (20:40):
I'm fantastic, guys. How are you?

Speaker 3 (20:41):
We're doing well? Has summer been good to you? There's
kind of a lot, but then not a lot from
time to time.

Speaker 6 (20:48):
You know what, as summer has been fantastic for me,
And I'll tell you why. I just got back from
Christmas in June. It was like eighty degrees in Anaheim, California,
and the Angels were still celebrating Christmas, so we went
to southern California about a week and a half ago
visit my folks and our first off, we literally drove

(21:10):
from Tucson to Angels Stadium to catch the Angels.

Speaker 5 (21:15):
Post the Nationals.

Speaker 8 (21:16):
It's Christmas in June, so they.

Speaker 6 (21:18):
Got the carollers out that got this like one hundred
foot Christmas tree dead between the huge two Angels caps
in the center.

Speaker 8 (21:25):
Have you guys ever been to Angel Stadium?

Speaker 6 (21:27):
YEA, yeah, okay, so you kind of have an idea
where I'm talking about then. So we show up there
and like it's been probably.

Speaker 8 (21:36):
I'm from selling California, so.

Speaker 6 (21:37):
It's been probably about fifteen years since the last time
I went and saw an Angels game there. And I
turned to my son, who's never been to Angel Stadium,
and I said, hey, we're here to see Mike Trout
because at one point he was the best baseball player period,
And my son, like, he knows baseball, he's a baseball player.

Speaker 8 (21:57):
He's a big show, hey, towny fan.

Speaker 6 (21:59):
So I'm trying to like to him up on like
the significance of Trout and the Angels and mostly Trout
and wouldn't you know it, man like second at bat
after he strikes out in his first at bat, second
at bat, Trout Homer's oh wow, everyone goes crazy. My
son even goes crazy. He's the one shooting the video

(22:19):
and I'm like, dude, he's been in the slump for
a little bit.

Speaker 5 (22:22):
He just homered.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
This is amazing.

Speaker 5 (22:24):
The only thing that would be as amazing.

Speaker 6 (22:27):
If not a little bit more, is if in a
couple of days, when we go see the Dodgers play
show Heyo Tani Homers because Show hayes my son's favorite ballplayer.

Speaker 5 (22:37):
So a few days later, we visit Dodgers Stadium, Dodgers
are hosting the White Sox. When you know it, show.

Speaker 6 (22:43):
Heyo Tani also hits a home run. So in a
period of like four days, my son and I that's.

Speaker 5 (22:52):
The whole family. But really it was most significant for
me and.

Speaker 8 (22:54):
My son Mike Trout Homer and.

Speaker 6 (22:56):
Show Heyo Tani Homer, and it was incredible, like made
my entire I don't care what happens the rest of
the summer, like being there to witness that.

Speaker 5 (23:05):
Awesome, awesome.

Speaker 4 (23:07):
How can you not love baseball team, especially with the
memories right with the Sunday Yeah, I'll think about that
from Damian, that's like the perfect father son trip, especially
in the summer.

Speaker 6 (23:15):
Yeah remember back in Yeah, Well here's the thing, here's
the funniest thing about that. So Dodgers visit the d
Backs last September, and you know, show Hay is right
there in at the time, He's right there in the
middle of the forty forty run which would obviously end
up being fifty fifty run. But so I take my
son up there and I'm like, Yo, whatever happens today,

(23:38):
I can promise you something special will go down with show.

Speaker 5 (23:42):
Hey.

Speaker 6 (23:43):
Either he's going to steal another base, he's going to
hit a home run, or something just something cool is
going to happen. In that game, Otani struck out three
times and popped up one. It was a bad thing because,
like I turned to my son, he's got this dumpe
sounded look on his face.

Speaker 8 (23:59):
And I'm like, dude, this is awesome because this never
happened last time Atani stuck out three times.

Speaker 5 (24:05):
This is great.

Speaker 6 (24:06):
And so than to follow that up nearly a year
later with Otani hitting a home run in Dodger Stadium,
which was my son's first time at Dodger Stadium, which
was even cooler. Uh, and then also the significant of Trout.
I was like, dude, this is the World Baseball Classic
all over again. Kind of sort of but yeah, no
it was. I was so juicing and he was juicing.
It was just the perfect perfect in Phoenix.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
Dad, you've disappointed me again. You made these promises and
it didn't happen. How old? How old is your son?

Speaker 5 (24:33):
You don't take it personally. My boy's ten.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
Oh so he's yeah, that's great age, a perfect age. Yeah,
because you get into all that stuff. You just created
a core memory. He's gonna have for it.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
So what he's our age?

Speaker 3 (24:42):
She'll say, I don't give a crap about that.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
No, Dad, I feel like, what got you that trip? Demian?

Speaker 4 (24:52):
Just if we can stay on show really quick, I
make the argument, and I know it maybe a little
of a blasphemy right now in the he's at and
I don't know what he's going to do for the
rest of his career. He's going to be when I'll
send and done if he keeps somewhat in this trajectory,
the greatest baseball player of all time?

Speaker 3 (25:09):
Yes, well, let me ask you both, who is right
now in your mind? I mean, baby, Ruth is always
getting It's not the stats thing he was. I think
in my mind, you guys can correct me up, I'm wrong.
He's the only player that was ever bigger than the game.
So I think, no matter what, bab Ruth is always
gonna be.

Speaker 5 (25:25):
Wow, that's that's an interesting argument.

Speaker 8 (25:28):
That's an interesting argument.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
Set that aside. I would say, Willie mays.

Speaker 6 (25:33):
Okay, see so yeah, so then you throw yeah see
all right, Well that's that's interesting.

Speaker 5 (25:38):
I mean I can totally buy I buy that to
a point.

Speaker 6 (25:43):
But to the previous point, yes, across as far as
I'm concerned, Otani, I.

Speaker 5 (25:50):
Mean, he's the unicorn man.

Speaker 6 (25:51):
I mean, people like.

Speaker 5 (25:51):
Toss that phrase around, especially with him, but it's true.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
Fifty fifty from a back on the five months.

Speaker 4 (26:01):
He's six four.

Speaker 8 (26:02):
There's no reason what's so cover that a.

Speaker 5 (26:04):
Dude six four.

Speaker 8 (26:06):
Should be as quick and as fast and as.

Speaker 5 (26:08):
Loose as he is.

Speaker 4 (26:09):
Oh, by the way, Damien, his first outing back, he's
just pumping one hundred miles per hour, No big.

Speaker 6 (26:13):
Deal, one hundred, one hundred point three or.

Speaker 4 (26:18):
Right.

Speaker 6 (26:21):
So so having the opportunity to see him in person,
you better believe my boy and I both we were
like geeking out over this, like so focused on his
at bats, watching him place the bat down to face
the third base line, you know, watching his stance and
just the sheer consistency that he shows each and every

(26:44):
not just that bat, but every swing, and how he
does everything the same all the time. It's like yo,
with the Angels, he was a robot. With the Dodgers,
you can see that he's let loose a little bit
and he's just having fun.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
Give or take this like nine.

Speaker 8 (27:00):
Game losing losing streak, but that aside, uh.

Speaker 5 (27:03):
And it's just so cool to see.

Speaker 7 (27:05):
Man.

Speaker 5 (27:05):
We uh we actually we don't have Apple.

Speaker 6 (27:07):
TV, but you better believe we got like the free
months just so that we could watch the Yankees Dodgers
World Series documentary.

Speaker 5 (27:16):
I don't know if you guys caught that. And it
was great. It was great, and it was.

Speaker 6 (27:21):
It was especially great because not only you know the
Dodger love and know Tani and all that, but Austin
Wells gets a lot of love in this documentary for
do go Uh, he's got a he's got he makes
a few comments and then obviously at the very end,
but it was just cool to see Southern.

Speaker 8 (27:36):
Arizona connections and then just so tani.

Speaker 6 (27:40):
Uh speaking freely and just about what he does, how
he prepares. It was just really fascinating to both of us.
And you know, I'll be honest, and I think if
I told you this before, Like I, I was much
more of a football guy until like my boy decided
like baseball was this thing, and I was like, cool,

(28:00):
I'm going to switch gears here, kind of follow his
lead on this, and I'm so happy I did.

Speaker 5 (28:04):
Because We've picked a great time to do it, because
like I'm.

Speaker 8 (28:07):
From La, so you know, Dodgers have always been there.

Speaker 6 (28:09):
I like I the day after that Dodger game, we
were sitting in Delhi and they were airing a nineteen
eighty A documentary on the nineteen eighty eight Dodger team,
and my boy's memory of Freeman's.

Speaker 8 (28:20):
Hit and his walkoff in Game one.

Speaker 5 (28:22):
Is so vivid still, and.

Speaker 8 (28:23):
I was like, yo, look at that screen, look at
this right now.

Speaker 5 (28:27):
When the commentator.

Speaker 6 (28:28):
Said, give me me Freddy, this is what he was
talking about, and so my boys eyes when I mean,
it was just it's just.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
It was fun.

Speaker 5 (28:36):
It was great.

Speaker 4 (28:36):
I think I did the the Kirk Gibson rounding first
base that forever playing ball in the backyard and like, yeah.

Speaker 5 (28:46):
Absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 6 (28:47):
So that's one of those moments edged in time and
the Freddie Freeman hits a moment to my son's mind.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
Let me tell the audience a secret, but let me
ask you the question first.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
So when you were back home, did you eat ten
jug had burgers or whatever the hell you guys ate
when we were last with you in Anaheim or southern California? Yeah?
Shock head, the dude, have you seen dam? He's like
a number two pencil And then he's like like he's
the whatever he is?

Speaker 5 (29:17):
Blake, Blake, Remind me?

Speaker 8 (29:17):
Are you from southern California?

Speaker 4 (29:19):
No, No, I'm from Tucson. I've been all over the
place though.

Speaker 5 (29:21):
Okay, okay, are you familiar at all with Slater's fifty
to fifty? Have you ever heard of that restaurant?

Speaker 7 (29:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (29:26):
Of course? Really? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (29:28):
Okay, because well what have you heard of it?

Speaker 17 (29:31):
So?

Speaker 4 (29:31):
I So I played with a bunch of guys in
college and pro ball baseball for a long time, and
they were all LA A lot of them were LA guys,
and uh, we had a second basement that would talk
about it all the time.

Speaker 6 (29:46):
They created this half beef, half ground beef, half ground
bacon burger.

Speaker 8 (29:56):
And basically, this burger.

Speaker 6 (30:00):
As far as I'm concerned, is the single best burger
west of the Mississippi. And I only say that because
I haven't had many burgers east of the Mississippi. Right,
they fine tuned their recipe for this burger and made
it big.

Speaker 5 (30:13):
Before that combination jumped the shark.

Speaker 8 (30:16):
And I was back there in Anaheim.

Speaker 6 (30:19):
It was it was the twenty eleven Elite eight run, right, Yeah,
that was my first introduction through the Slater's fifty.

Speaker 8 (30:27):
To fifty, which is their namesake burger.

Speaker 6 (30:28):
The fifty fifty percent Crown Bacon. And I was like,
if I die, if I go to Heaven Tacos and
this burger, that's all I'm asking for.

Speaker 4 (30:41):
Last meal, last meal, no eternal meal. That's all you're
eating desert Island.

Speaker 5 (30:47):
The problem is is that like my wife, she liked vegetables,
not so much on the meat. So like we go to.

Speaker 6 (30:53):
Anheim, there's no way we're stepping here. But like the
second time around, on that the other sweet sixteen of
Lead eight trip, we were on the road for fourteen days.
Thirteen of those fourteen days, because we went to San
Diego and.

Speaker 5 (31:11):
We went to Anaheim and there was in both markets.

Speaker 6 (31:15):
I ate Slater's fifty to fifty thirteen days out of
the fourteenth days, and the only reason I didn't eat
it on the last on that fourteenth day was because
we were at my mom's place and she made ribs.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
Oh my gosh, how'd you feel after those thirteen days?

Speaker 5 (31:29):
So no joke.

Speaker 6 (31:30):
For whatever reason, I thought it why to schedule a
doctor's physical like a week and a half after I
got back, and they took one look at my cholesterol
levels and like you could see the red.

Speaker 5 (31:44):
In his face, yeah, and the wordy. He was like
what happened?

Speaker 6 (31:49):
He was like, he's like he was befuddled. He was
looking at my levels from a year ago to then,
and he was like, what have you done? And I
was like, well, doc, don't I have the story for you?

Speaker 5 (32:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (32:01):
Wait, wait, I need to know this. So, Damien, what'd
your doctor say when that? Because I had the same
thing after I came back from Oklahoma on that four
day concert festival thing, and I had the same thing, Damien.
I had blood work like the next day and I
went to my primary care physician and she was like,
uh what everything like doubled or tripled and she's like,
what is wrong with you? And I was like, well,

(32:21):
this is what happened. And she was like that shouldn't matter.
So what did your doctor tell you?

Speaker 5 (32:27):
Wait?

Speaker 8 (32:28):
Your doctor said that shit.

Speaker 4 (32:29):
Matter, so it shouldn't matter. Yeah, but no, I had
to go to a specialist. And my specialist is like, no,
it definitely would have mattered, like that you put like
oil into gasoline and it doesn't. Like So what'd your
doctor say?

Speaker 5 (32:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (32:42):
I mean he looked at me and he was like,
can you explain yourself? And I was like, absolutely, I can't.
My body weight whull.

Speaker 5 (32:52):
Of half crowned beef, half ground.

Speaker 6 (32:55):
Bacon burgers for the last thirteen days, that's.

Speaker 5 (32:58):
What that is.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Ribs. Yeah, never mind the ribs.

Speaker 8 (33:03):
But yeah, never never mind the ribs, never mind the
carry but with a.

Speaker 5 (33:06):
Straight face, with a straight face, and I remember this.
He looks at me and is like, don't ever do
that again.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
Yeah, that's what I remember back in the day because
he's another two pencil. So let's talk about sports for
a couple of minutes that we have left. Did you
once you get out Yesterday's big twelve press conference with
the Brennan.

Speaker 5 (33:29):
Not much. I mean, it was all pretty much what
he said before. H full of accountability, which is how.

Speaker 6 (33:34):
He rolls, talking about how no fafite is, his regression
is his fault, talking about.

Speaker 8 (33:41):
The lessons learned through year one about how you know what.

Speaker 6 (33:46):
He what he really wants are players who absolutely buy
into the program, buy into the culture, and who want
to be here. And I mean what he's what he's
not saying, but what he means is players who aren't
gonna go and chase the bag.

Speaker 5 (34:00):
Which there.

Speaker 8 (34:04):
The one thing I found most interesting though was and
I want.

Speaker 5 (34:07):
To I want to know what your guys.

Speaker 8 (34:08):
Take is, because it's along those same lines of what.

Speaker 6 (34:11):
Brennan was getting at with what Kay Dillingham said the
day before his quote about recruiting is dead, retention is alive.

Speaker 5 (34:20):
Did you guys see that?

Speaker 17 (34:21):
No?

Speaker 3 (34:22):
I did not, But he mentioned that indirectly. Yeah, that
he'll know you know who wants to stay here and
be part of it. Blah blah blah.

Speaker 11 (34:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (34:30):
And Dilly Hamp's thing was all about, you know, it
doesn't matter how how many great recruits you get in
the program if you can't retain them. It doesn't mean anything.
It's right if you bring in all these draft picks,
but then one year later they all leave, what's the
point right, right, And so he was saying and in
emphasizing that, So basically his priority is retention. It's not

(34:51):
necessarily recruiting. You're going to get those guys in. What
you want to do is make sure that hey, you're
not gonna you're gonna come here, You're not gonna want
to go anywhere else because we're gonna take care of you.
We're gonna take care of you financially, we're gonna take
care of you emotionally, spiritually. On the fall field, that's it.
You're not gonna you're not gonna want to go. Retention
of our players is a number one priority, which.

Speaker 5 (35:14):
You know, in this era.

Speaker 6 (35:17):
Makes a whole lot of sense, and you know, Wildcat
fans across the board can probably get on board with
with that velosity. I think, I don't know what do
you guys think.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
I think football has to be.

Speaker 4 (35:26):
It's probably the most important sport college for real questions
because of the growth over those years and the team.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
Yeah yeah, well you can't. You can make him better,
then go somewhere else. I mean, that's gonna happen everywhere
because you're you're chasing the portal round.

Speaker 4 (35:40):
Yeah, I just I also mean, like you see young
men turn into men in four years in football, and
I think that means a lot in the development on
the football side.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
Is a four year growth.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
Let me ask you, David real quick before we got
to go, uh is there, give me the level of
pressure he has to to win at and you know,
six and six, seven.

Speaker 8 (35:59):
Five, what's the what's the scale?

Speaker 2 (36:04):
Uh ten, slate, Slater sandwiches or whatever.

Speaker 6 (36:08):
Yeah, okay, if the scales one to ten, I'm saying
probably like a billion.

Speaker 8 (36:11):
Yeah, Like unfortunately, that's just kind of.

Speaker 5 (36:15):
The situation he's in right now.

Speaker 8 (36:17):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (36:18):
You know, Desre brought him back amidst a lot of
you know, fury from from the fan base that I'm
still hearing about. Yeah, which you know, in my opinion,
like give him, give him that shot.

Speaker 5 (36:30):
He deserves at least like.

Speaker 6 (36:32):
A full season of being able to sit down as
the coach and prepare accordingly, not having to deal with
those two transfer portals and trying to like run around
like a chicken with his head cutoffs. He deserves that chance.
Now he's got that chance. Uh, he's got you know,
Deggy in as that offensive coordinator. He's got Gonzales.

Speaker 5 (36:49):
Now he's a new DC. Okay, now, now prove prove
that you're worth it.

Speaker 6 (36:56):
The question will be and this is where it gets
This is where it gets interesting, and where the answers
get divided. Is what will you, I guess, define as success?

Speaker 8 (37:09):
Right, which I think you might have been suitting.

Speaker 5 (37:11):
What is success? Is five hundred success? A bowl game success.

Speaker 6 (37:16):
Given where they were two years ago, given where they
were a season ago.

Speaker 8 (37:20):
Like, that's to be determined, right, I know you're right.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
I totally agree with you. Okay, thanks for joining us.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
We'll get you again sometime soon, maybe when practice starts
here in a few weeks.

Speaker 5 (37:32):
Sound good, guys, Thanks much, Thank you.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
Amy. Yeah, if you will digest that food, we'll come
back real quick. We're already a little over from If
you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been
successful for nearly forty years.

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Now.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
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Speaker 11 (38:13):
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Speaker 1 (41:38):
This is I on the Ball with Steve Rovera on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on
the iHeartRadio app just search Iye on the Ball.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
Hey, welcome back to Eye on the Ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. You're Blake Eager.
You got ready under control, So he's gonna have his
eye on the call. That's right where anybody wants to call.
Good to talk to Damian. We really didn't talk sports
to the end, but those are funny stories. Yeah, I
mean for I mean, that's thirteen thirteen burgers thirteen taking

(42:13):
his son who's ten years old. Yeah, to not one
but two watching you know, the former best player in
the league to now the current best player in the
league and seeing him head home run. That's that's a
really cool that's a cool road trip.

Speaker 5 (42:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
Well you said Christmas and June. Yeah, Christmas in July.

Speaker 5 (42:31):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Yeah, Okay, what else is going on, Blake Eager? You
are you busy?

Speaker 3 (42:37):
Summers are? Summers are slow here for most people. Are
you just getting set up for the fall? You said
you're gonna be busy.

Speaker 5 (42:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (42:44):
I'm getting back into the thick of every everything right now.
And today was jam packed with.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
You said we were trying to get tell me Brie
Brie Lopez from visiting on stors.

Speaker 4 (42:54):
Yeah, she's, uh, she works on a lot of projects,
so she'll be with us next week. Yeah she I
think she's actually gonna come into the studio. Great, and
we'll talk about some of the projects or whatever they have.

Speaker 7 (43:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (43:02):
I think the background it's good for you know. I
talked to Michael guy Minto, who's uh now it's Southern
Arizona Chamber, but he was the president of the Tucson
Metro But he's a huge baseball guy. He was at
the World Baseball Classic doing scorekeeping every game. I think
he's that intent he is a huge baseball guy. Yeah,
that in soccer, so we get along, except that he's
a Cardinals fan. I'm a Cubs fan, so we dislike

(43:24):
each other just for that. But I think it would
be good to get him in and that because they
work on a lot of different things in the community
and let the listeners know kind of you know, we
hear all these things and we were the same way
growing up. You hear all those things. But to actually know,
like some of the entities that are working on these
projects and get to show them, I think it's the
borrowing the scenes. Yeah, yeah, absolutely make things happen. That's
very important. Yeah, and Felipe Garcia visit. Tucson's doing a

(43:45):
ton of great work. And Breeze, you know, Breeze doing
a great job.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Yeah, okay, and you're partly just like we had your
guy here yesterday, Eric Rhodes, right, Eric, and there you
know it's it's every day is an adventure, trying to
get ready like US four l War and him for
the Arizona ball Yeah.

Speaker 4 (44:03):
And you know they've expanded I mean think think thankfully
they've expanded out because of our partnership and our relationship,
you know, because they were such a big piece of
the World Baseball Classic. There's such a big piece on
Major League Baseball stuff that we're working on right now.
And uh, so I think you're going to see them.
I think you see a lot of cool things come from.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
So we had this argument too about Albuquerque and I'm
not a fan of albut I'm just gonna drive through
to get the f And as you drive through, ye
during the day, during the night, when.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Did you do it during the day?

Speaker 3 (44:33):
So you saw so you saw top golf, right, and
you see a lot of the things, bright lights and
blah blah blah. And people say, well, two songs better
than to me, they're very similar. And one can say
they're more progressive than the other whatever, But to me,
they're very similar. Just one has snow and one doesn't.
I don't know if you see that or how you

(44:54):
feel met that. Oh man, no, I use you don't
have to agree with me, how I want to disagree
so bad. I'm not Aque Mexico at the University of
New Mexicool, I'm not a graduate.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
It can't can't even fall to the feet of the
University of Arizona.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
It just can't athletically.

Speaker 4 (45:13):
Otherwise, I I see the similarities driving through it. In
my mind, I go even my wife was like, oh,
this looks and I was like, no, I get it.
I'm not gonna say it. I will say two Sons
much prettier, right, Tucson's much pretty. You've got the soorros,
You've got you've got the mountains surrounding it. They've got Taos, right,

(45:33):
and it's elevated. They've got tows. You got to tell
what they have. The Sandia is as Sandi is, but
on the other sides, it's somewhat of a plane when
you're going down. I think tu Son's pretty well. Once
you pass one of the guest let's we have a
national park.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
Come on.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
Once you well, once you passed or ce R, get
through Blend and get to that point.

Speaker 4 (45:49):
It's a very pretty state, really pretty. Then Northern New
Mexico is very and I say that all the time.
Northern New Mexico is very pretty. And it's totally different
than totally I mean similar to Arizona.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
Right.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
Yeah, it kills me to say this. Man, there's a
lot of similarities.

Speaker 3 (46:06):
Yeah, to me, there's it's just that you know, Arizona
University of Well, they used to be in the same
league forty years ago, Mountain West or wax.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
So, and Arizona was dying to get out and got
out and it's fine. And you can tell who the
step brother and step you know all that stuff is.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
Yeah, I listen.

Speaker 4 (46:24):
But I this is a question I ask all the time.
How are they so successful in the sports world, in
the sports world, especially the professional sports world, comparatively to us. Oh,
you're talking about pro soccer and pro soccer. They've got
to play baseball that I do not know.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
So successful question the balloon festival that they took from us, Like,
great question, I mean, yeah, go ahead, we got a call, yep, okay, Hello,
you're on the air and one on the ball.

Speaker 5 (46:49):
I see I Blake.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
How you guys doing it done?

Speaker 1 (46:52):
Hey? Gone?

Speaker 9 (46:54):
Hey?

Speaker 21 (46:55):
Well I had a comment.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
I was good.

Speaker 21 (46:58):
I was calling in on a comment on the statements
that Dillingham had made, and I kind of I agree
with his focus is on retention, but he's not completely
going away from recruitment, because I think that it's a
lot more important in football that you have guys that

(47:21):
have tenure in the program to know what they're doing
when they're doing it, how they do it, why they
do it, as opposed to trying to mix in new
guys all the time. Because it's a lot easier with basketball,
it's a lot it's probably a lot easier with baseball
because you do your job. You know, I think basketball

(47:42):
is a little bit more heavy and flowy, whereas football
is a lot more technical of the sports in my opinion.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
Yeah, no, I hear what you're saying, and you're right.
You do need to get the recruiting to some degree
very successful, right, because you need to have the grass
roots stick to the program and if you can.

Speaker 21 (48:00):
Keep if you can keep your guys, you don't have
to recruit so many guys. So then if if your
numbers of recruits is down, the ranking of your class
is going to be lower. You don't have as many guys. No,
we might and Northern New Mexico is a lot prettier.

Speaker 4 (48:21):
No, yeah, yeah, I agree. Do you think done this?
This is a good question too. You know, a lot
of the coaching staff you hire coaches sometimes because they're
great recruiters. Are you going to see a trend now
where you hire a coach because he's great at retaining players.

Speaker 21 (48:38):
Is probably it's probably almost one and the same. I
would think you're re recruiting your same guys. So you know,
you got to have the guys that the players can
talk to and that you know, maybe they're upset with
the coordinator or they're upset with the head coach, but
you got to have that coach that can talk them
down and say, no, we're not a games too. We

(49:01):
want you here, we need you here. You know you're
one of us, and you know that sort of thing.

Speaker 5 (49:07):
Done.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
I don't know what you do.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
I strangely, I don't know what you do for living
if you're not retired.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
If you want to say I'm not retired, no, okay.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
So let me say this. I think I think that
some of us. I've said this on everything, pretty much everything.
We live in a people person world. You have to
be a people person. You you know, honest, straightforward, YadA YadA,
uh and some places that doesn't happen. Blake, I think
you're a people person, right. I think I am done
you calling it the show a lot. I really don't

(49:37):
know that that part of you. But you know what
I'm saying. If you're b asking people, they can get
they get it. They said he liked to me or
doing these things. You need to be a people person
and recruiting at the lifeblood. That's how you get the kids.

Speaker 21 (49:52):
Well, I agree, I think you got to have. I mean,
if you're selling you know, if you're selling snake oil,
good at that, these kids are gonna If you're good
at it, you're gonna get some kids. But then you're gonna.

Speaker 8 (50:07):
Lose those kids.

Speaker 21 (50:08):
And not only those kids, You're gonna lose those kids
that the ones you already lost. You're gonna lose the
kids that they know because they're gonna say, you can't
trust that guy. And even if you tell the second
or third guy the truth, if you're telling him the truth,
they're not going to believe you anyway. But that's that's
why I think that you've got to have. You've got

(50:29):
to have recruiters on staff that understand the plan that
that he the head guys have going so that they
can you know, resell it to the players that they
really want. Because, like you say, Steve, the head guy
has to be the CEO, he has to be the
stern one, he has to be the one that hey,
this is the standard, this is what we do, and

(50:52):
it doesn't always come off so nice to players ears
or even parents heres, So they got to have somebody
else that says, yeah, this is a program. But you know,
he's a gruff dude, he's but he's a head coach.
He's got to make those decisions. But we still want
you here, we need you here. And I think that

(51:13):
I think you still got to. I mean, you're always
recruiting your own guys, Like Brent Brennan said he could.

Speaker 5 (51:19):
He said it on the.

Speaker 21 (51:21):
His first month on the job. He was kissing ass,
trying to keep the roster together. And when have you
ever heard a coach say that?

Speaker 3 (51:29):
No, no, and that's just the way it is. In fact,
we kind of all knew that under our breath because
he had to keep these kids happy and that kind
of maybe he lost some power with that.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
And he yeah.

Speaker 21 (51:42):
And I think that. I think with the changes he's
made for this year, I think that that as long
as the improvement is there, I think a lot of
the naysayers need to, you know, maybe walk some of
their comments back, because if he gets back to five
hundred this year, I mean, I think that was the
best case scenario last year to be five hundred. Yeah,

(52:06):
so I'm thinking I'm thinking this year as a reset. Yeah,
we'll see what back to five hundred and build from there.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
Yeah, we'll see. We'll see if Desre feels the same way.

Speaker 3 (52:14):
You gotta go, Thank you, done, okay, see done.

Speaker 21 (52:17):
Thanks guys,