Tuesday, June 25, Hour 2

GUEST: Jerry Stitt, Former Arizona Baseball Coach

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Streaming live. I mean, iHeartRadio. Wat. This is I on the
Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalezon Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey,
welcome back to Eye on the Ballhere on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
Steve, he's Jay. Now wehave Ryan with breaking news. This is
Eye on the Ball Breaking news onFox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm gonna start

(00:24):
a little bit of University of Arizonanews. Former Washington catcher Sydney Stewart commits
to Arizona softball. I guess,I guess. I don't know if it
was their their catcher from this yearsenior? Do we know or yeah,
I don't know. What what's yourbackground? Does it say? Well?
The good thing is they need playerslike this. They just yeah, they

(00:45):
need to quality players. See whathappens, you can kind of sense that.
I think that coaches getting stuff figuredout, and and and and maybe
it's gonna take a little while,but it's going the trend. It's trending
up right. Well, Yeah,I mean, look, you know she
you know, they got to asuper regional and in their situation was just

(01:07):
really about pitching. If you know, if she can just get some pitching.
I think she'd be just fine,but they need that, and and
three years into it, they stillhaven't had decent pitching. Does anybody know
where that Stanford pitcher is going.That's the one thing. The Stanford pitcher
who was fantastic to the player.I think she was going to, Oh,
here's the money, here's the bag, come here. Yeah, I

(01:27):
mean, I sure hope she gotthe degree from Stanford, uh before she
went to Oklahoma. But because Imean, why would you give that up
for any amount of money? I'mpretty sure I'm looking at right now.
I don't remember her name. That'swhy I said something Kennedy or something like
that. Okay, go ahead.R So, Emily step is a catcher,

(01:52):
she's returning from this past season.And then they added Emma Kevinaugh.
But they're saying that they still needsome like Corn Rangel spots and does many
players. I think that's a kindof reason they wanted to add Stuart right
right. You don't have tickets tosoftball, do you? Do you?
I didn't go to a single gamethis want I knew that I want you.
I want to get They're not veryexpensive, and that's a good money

(02:15):
money situation if you want to spendsome time out at the ballpark. So
I am I looking to Yeah,no, I you don't. This is
the first time in a long timethat I have gone to at least one
game. But I don't know.I don't. They just never lined up
with one. I think, well, we're here a lot. I mean,
we're here during that time. Isaid. We talked to coach last
week or two weeks ago, CoachBrennan that we couldn't get to practice because

(02:37):
his practices were exactly at this time. Yeah, yep, yep, all
Rightick switch over to some NFL newsX Raiders Defensive End Chandler Jones. Please
no contests, I may avoid Jael. Let me go over the d for
a little bit. So he pleadedno contest on June seventeenth to a domestic

(02:57):
violence charge, and we'll avoid alltime if he meets certain conditions. You
see the ninety day Chelseonitz charge willbe dismissed if he stays out of trouble
for the next six months, hasno contact with a victim or you know,
except for the family court order accordingto records. Is that your side,

(03:24):
God bless you? Was you knowcan we just not Can we just
not beat up our girlfriends? Please? You knows tough, that's all.
That's it. Just you know,you got got all these you know,
we saw here, we saw herefor you know, remember rich Rod with
his guys, and you know you'vegot all these great opportunities. You know,
you're in a position that not alot of us get to be in.

(03:46):
All you got to do is notbeat up. That's the last thing
they think of. I know,that's the last thing. I know.
When you're an athlete, I wantto be I want to be kind here.
When you're an athlete and you've beengiven a lot because you can play
a sport well where you're going,you you think you can do a lot
of stuff. Yeah, and youand and I've seen it where you could
do a lot of stuff because theyfixed it. Yes, yeah, might

(04:09):
telling you people took carrige, peopleto carry. There's a point though they
can't carry, cannot take care ofyou anymore. Yeah, yeah, No,
you're right. It's just it's Iknow that's just the way it is.
But it shouldn't be. No,I know, I know, I
know, I know, I know. I'm going back to this picture Najari

(04:30):
Stanfford, Stafford, Stanford. Shehas not committed and she has not committed
anywhere, although there is an itemthat says she has ain't some sort of
an ni L deal with some organization. So but I'm not seeing if she's
or she is in terms of herit's been a while time at school,
if she's gotten her degree, ofwhat the deal is, because if I

(04:51):
my, if my, if myStanford student softball player jumps into the portal
from Stanford and doesn't already have adegree, I'm tying that kid to a
rock over on the Scafford campus andsaying, you're not going anywhere. But
that's just me, okay. Espe'sover to a little bit of NBA news.
Knicks guard O g and Anobi hasopted out of his contract and he's

(05:15):
going into free agency. According toreports, signed a four year, seventy
two million dollars deal with the Raptorsback in twenty twenty with the player option.
So he did he oh, hewas acquired by the next from the
from the Raptors and he declined theoption is what you're saying, Okay,
So he's going somewhere else. He'sgoing to go to free agency. He
doesn't want to be with the Knicks. I don't go ahead, just like

(05:40):
the Lakers thought the name there,you'll go to the Lakers. We'll talk
about the Lakers in the second afteryou finished. That's that's really what I
happened. That's all. Yet.Okay, did you what did you listen
to or see the new Lakers coach? I did not what a fantastic press
conference? He left two F bombs. Two f bombs in there. You
know what you know, people peopletalk about me, not coaches. I

(06:00):
don't give it an f I don't. I'm here to coach man. Yeah,
I don't give it. Hey,look, you know he's got the
job. You know, it's upto him to go out there, show
right right right, and if he'sconfident in himself, then help everybody else.
I played under coach k I hadfifteen years in the league. I
do what I've done for a longtime. I think. I'm okay,

(06:21):
yeah, you know, and letme ask you this. Let me say
this to you, because you've beena boss. You've been a boss,
and I don't know if you're apeople person to one hundred percent, they'll
go there that if you you knowthe game. You know the game,
right, And I use Steve Cursan example, and he's a one off.
He's just an exceptional guy. Heknows people, knows how to treat
people fairly, and otherwise he wasHe was a perfect transition into his job,

(06:46):
right, did all these things.He never had a coaching job on
any level, and here he didbecame what he became. Did he have
a good team, Yes, Buttell me that it's not difficult coaching those
egos. Got ego guys, notone, not two, three, four
or five of them. It's hard. It's harder than you think. Look,
nobody taught me how to be aboss again, Okay, I mean
so I went to some management schools, but not to a school that said,

(07:08):
okay, in this kind of acrisis between two employees, this is
what you do. I never gotany of that. It just is a
fielding. No exactly. Okay,So this is where I was going with
it. If you're a good peopleperson and you could read a room and
know who to massage, who notthe massage, and hug on times and
kicking the ass on another others,you're gonna be okay as a coach.
You're treating people fairly and all peoplewant and that's all people want, and

(07:31):
especially in sports, especially in sports. That's why Steve did the transition very
well. I think Reddicks is goingto do very fine. He's in a
tough situation, right but anywhere,anywhere, anywhere, Look look Tommy Lowy,
the guy here, perfect demeanor forthe situation. He came in in
a tough spot after Sean. Seanwas a one way guy. And I've

(07:51):
said this to to coach Tommy whenI did the story for you guys last
year, is he was the perfectguy to replace Miller after what Miller had
been had done. Does that makesense? But the way he ran program
and and you know what, justjust the way it worked. Yeah,
no, I hear you. Andthat's what me ask you. Have you
have you had bad bosses who didn'tknow people? Oh? Yeah, how

(08:16):
did that go? Not? Well? Exactly exactly. That makes my point
even more because you could be agood boss, but if you don't know
people, you're not a very goodboss there. And you know there are
a couple of a couple of peoplein you that I just thought, how
did you get to be a no, no, no people? Fall forward.
What did you get people for sucha term? People fall forward because

(08:37):
they don't. It's like the it'slike the the malcontent eleventh grader who beats
up kids and just doesn't care aboutany thing. They move them out because
they don't want them with them,they don't want them eleventh grade. The
faster he's out, the faster he'sout. Right, No, I yeah,
no, it's it. And look, there's nothing easy about being a
boss, a coach or whatever.But what is easy and what should be

(09:00):
easy, I guess, and maybeit's easier for some people than this for
others is to be, as yousaid, just somebody who understands people and
treats people in a way that youwould want to be treated. And that's
you know, it's it's simple.I mean, the whole the whole golden
rule thing. I don't want toget all religious, but the whole thing
of just treat people the way,you know, And that's what I That's
what I told the first time Ibecame a supervisor at at t EP,

(09:22):
when when I mean all of asudden, I was I was in charge
of people who I was appeer to. Right, I got promoted in that
department, And these are all peoplethat we were all the same. Now
I'm their boss. And at theat at the first staff meeting we had
after I got the promotion, Isaid to them, said, I promise
you I will just try to bethe boss that I would want to have.
That's why I'm going to try andbe. And I said, and

(09:43):
and the other second thing I toldhim was I don't think I'm smarter than
any of you in this room,so I'm relying on you to make this
thing work. How did and howdid that went? Well, that's what
That's all they wanted to hear.That's all they wanted to hear. It
worked really well. Fair be aparent or a transparent blah blah blah,
and that's it. I just Ijust never believed that I was smarter than

(10:07):
anybody or you know, I'm likeI was. I was almost embarrassed to
be their boss because like we're allcame from the same place. Yeah right.
The thing about it, like withKerr, he had a good team,
he also had a bunch of egos. How do you besage? And
look, I was at teasing likelypower. I wasn't doing the Golden State,

(10:30):
Golden State warriors, you know,when you got guys like you know,
Draymond Green and those kinds of guys. Man, there's there's a lot
of work that goes into having beingable to manage those guys, even under
your conditions of telling the guys orand the women, I'm sure, I'm
just me. I'll try to bethe boss that you want. You know,
I want to be from me.Did you have people who try to

(10:50):
test you? Eventually? And probablyI Eventually I eventually hired a guy who
was just a big p We talkedand we talked about that, and you
had to let him go with Yes, I ended up firing the guy because
he was just too much of apain in the ass because he was commanding,
you know, all my attention andtrying to get this guy to be
a good teammate. Yeah, hewas your dream on Green. Yes,

(11:13):
eventually, did say enough for Iscrubbed him from the department. Yeah,
I mean, do you know thatwas a quantity that could have been a
consequence it. No, it wasvery sudden. I finally just said I'm
tired of your crap, and youmust have had the OK from above,

(11:35):
So there you go. I hadI mean, I had, you know,
I had uh what do you callit, you know, kept track
of stuff, your documentation. Andthen finally there was a there was one
final incident that just said that's overthe line. You're you're fired. And
it was a hard thing to dobecause on the one hand, I liked
the guy, you know, hewas he was a really smart guy and

(11:56):
he was really good. On theother hand, there was a third he
was a big giant piece of stuffthat was just he ruined our department.
Yeah, and you can't have peoplelike that. And every place, every
place, a lot of places havethat guy or girl. Yeah, no,
you do you end up with oneof those. And I guess I
should have known that when I hiredto me. It's just fascinating. Oll

(12:18):
he doesn't have any experience. Heknows the game and if you know people,
yeah, you're halfway. Well.Again, with the amount of time
that JJ Reddick has put into basketball, I mean, you know, since
he was probably a little kid,you figure he's he's seen enough, been
around enough coaches to know what makesa good coach, what makes a bad
coach. Probably if he's a smartguy. And since he went to Duke,
I'm guessing he's a pretty smart guy, you know, knows the x's

(12:41):
and oh and that's what he said. You know, I played with the
coach k I played in the leaguefor fifteen years, Luke Luke wont same
type of deal. He'd filled infor Shot Steve Golden State. It was
fantastic. Went to the Lakers,not so much because of the dynamic of
the players. Yeah, and youknow, now you know he's out.
He was with Cleveland for a while. Because you can be a great coach
and be in a horrible situation wherenobody would succeed, you can, Yeah,

(13:03):
you know, I mean, howmany coaches have been crap coaches in
one place then they become great coaches, you know, at another place.
You know, there's coaches like that. You know, Nick Saban couldn't coach
in the NFL, and all ofa sudden he goes back to Alabama and
he's arguably the greatest coach in thehistory college football. You know. So,
I mean it's just some things workin some places and some places they

(13:26):
don't work. That's just the wayit is. And it's coaches they kind
of figure that out and kind ofsee, Okay, I gotta do this
I gotta do this without giving upwhat they sort of stand for and how
they want to do things. Thoseare the ones they are successful. I'm
sure Steve Kerr had some nights whereyou went home and said, what the
hell? No one going on?When he called the other day when we
talked to him, I said,yeah, there were times when I wish

(13:48):
I could be Steve Kerr. ThenI realized no, not so much.
So much. In fact, oneof our readers or listeners just texted me
Kerr saw how the Bulls were massagedby Phil and he used this as right,
right, I mean, think aboutthe Yeah, the job that Phil
Jackson did with the guys that hehad over there, and he won six
championships with him. Yeah, sothere you go. Todayn't easy. It's
not. If it was, anybodycould do it. Okay, let's take

(14:11):
our break. We're going to comeback Jerry Stitt. We'll talk to some
old Arizona baseball, maybe some otherstuff. He's now in the administration over
at Pima, but just get asense of what he's up to and some
of his thoughts on where we arewith the college sports these days. So
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(19:07):
Salas. This is I on theBall on Fox Sports fourteenth. Hey,
welcome back to Iying the Ball hereon Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve
Rivera. He's Jacin Sauce. Nowin a hole. We have Jerry Stitt
from Arizona baseball coach, now anadministrator. That Pima great Pima coach.
How are you? I'm doing well? How are you guys doing? Before

(19:30):
we ask you how to hit ascrew up or a curveball up the middle,
we'll go to the questions because whoknows. I wish I could do
that. I wish I could dothat. I could help you, I
could help you. Yeah, Iheard James said that you taught his wife
out of here. I remember thatyou are slow pitch softball team. I
think Ray Martinez got you to teachteach our wives how to hit. We
won a couple of titles out ofthat, so that's right. We've won

(19:56):
those big giant trophies that nobody wantedin their house. So we gave him
my dad, who used to cometo all of our games anyway, just
a little side thing there, thegood days. So coach, you had
a tribute, are you about WillieMays? Could you kind of elaborate on
what that was? Yeah, Ijust really was my idol growing up when

(20:18):
I grew up. I grew upin Phoenix, and we were always I
was always a huge Giants fan withmy dad, but unfortunately my brother liked
the Yankees. But yeah, wewe would go to spring training games and
watch him, and we had Giantson the radio, Russ Simmons, you

(20:38):
know, and just every night Iwould when I could, I'd listen to
the games on the radio. Ihad I kept score I had a scrap
book. He was my guy,and uh, I saw him play a
few times. And the one clearestmemory of it was down at the old
Municipal Stadium then on South Central andwe're at a spring training game and and

(21:03):
he well, he was up andwe were down the left field bleachers,
kind of between the third base andthe foul pole and hit he hit a
pop up all over quotes to usand and my dad reached for it,
couldn't get it, and it bouncedand came in it and he caught it.

(21:26):
He gave it to me and anduh, you guys got all of
it. This is this is atreasure for me. But like all kids,
it was it was the next dayit was sandlot a brandy. Literally
we were hitting that baby around insteadof putting it putting it up on a
shelf. And but as I,as I grew up, you know,

(21:49):
he'd always watched him and loved himand read every book was ever written about
him. And uh, and whenwhen JT. Snow was was was with
the Giants, I was up visitingmy friend Dennis Romley, who was the
catcher on our high school team,and he lived up just I love Stanford

(22:15):
in Palo Alto, and and we'regoing to go to a Giants game.
Is his son Timmy was playing.He was he was thirteen and playing pony
and so, oh yeah, SoI called j T, see if we
get in early in the batting practice, and so, of course sure,

(22:36):
So the next day we went downthere. He met us at the gate
and walked us in and he saidto me, hey, whatever you do,
don't even look at Berry today.Don't don't, don't say a word
to him. He's in one ofthose moods. And that was that was
very bond. You know. Whenhe was in that mood, you better
watch out. So we went touh PP and we're standing right next to

(23:06):
the lane that runs from the dugoutto the to the to the plate,
you know. And and Barry finishedhis last round and he and he walks
out towards the dugout and I trynot to look at him. Of course,
here's here's Timmy with with his verybonds jersey on and gloves with bonds

(23:27):
written all over the bedding clothes.And so he walks he's walking out and
he says, hey, coach stehow are you doing? And I said,
I said, I'm doing great,but not as good as you.
And he said, yeah, Ican always do better. And he looked

(23:48):
at Timmy. He says, who'sthis guy. I said this, this
my my friend's son, Tim TimmyRomley, and he says, he says,
hey, when you come in,when you come and the locker room
later, I'll give you a pairof batting gloves. Kimmy was like just
floating on air, you know.And you know, we had recruited Verry
out of high school and I sawhim play a lot of times and visited

(24:11):
his home and Coach Kendall was reallygood friends with Bobby his his his father,
and of course he ended up goingto Issue and but still, you
know, he was very cordial toboth Coach Kendall and I as long as
I remember. And so that waskind of a special moment that a he

(24:33):
remembered me that b JT had toldus that you know, you better watch
out. Yeah, I don't evenlook at it. So JT finished his
round and we went He went downthe cage hit some teas always did this
after BP hit some t's make sureeverything was right. So we were walking

(24:53):
down the tunnel getting to the lockerroom. And then I looked in Dusty
Baker's off and there was Willie sittingin a chair talking to Dusty in front
of his desk. And so Isaid, hey, hey, Willie.
I said, hey, JT,that's Willie May. He says, yeah,
come on in, I'll introduce youto him. So we walked in

(25:17):
and you know, there's Dusty andI'd met him a few times Dusty,
and he kind of gave me thenod your hands, eyes, his head,
toothpick in his mouth of course.Feet up on the desk and JT
walks up to Willie and he says, Willie, I'd like you to meet
Jerry Stip And he says another surpriseto me. He says, I know
who you are. You coach withJerry Kendall, and you coach this guy

(25:42):
too, you know, pointing toJT as this that's true. And then
he says, I'll never forgive Jerryfor pulling the hidden ball trick on me.
Oh wow. He says that wrigglyField, I'd hit a double off
the ivy. I'm staying on secondbase. You know, Jerry took to

(26:03):
throw in and and act like hethrew it to the picture and and we're
both standing on second base and Istep off the bag and he tags me
out and and then he says,and he was a rookie. I had
to laugh. Here's the greatest playeron Earth. And j K pulls hid
and bal trick on him as arookie has a pretty pretty good moment too.

(26:29):
So he was my idol, youknow, like I say, just
every every special that was ever onuh Netflix or Amazon whatever, I'd watch
it and and and always just besidebesides the number, the numbers, you
know, the incredible numbers he putup, and it was it was just

(26:51):
how he played the game and justuh, it looks like he was loving
every single minute of it. Andand and that's what That's what I think,
more than anything attached me to Andand I was. I was actually
watching the game on the Game ofthe Week with with Dizzy Dean and Buddy

(27:14):
Bladner when he when he hit that, when he hit his four home runs
against Milwaukee. So a lot ofgood memories about Willie. And in my
in my study right now where Iam, I have four pretty good pictures
of Willie. One, uh,a very of large black and white of
the catch. Oh yeah, thatis signed by Willie. So I got

(27:40):
some pretty good memories of a man. Well, Jerry, and we're talking
to Jerry Stiff from Arizona baseball coach. Jerry. You know when we were
kids, right, we had guyslike that, you know, you know,
to me, right to me,you know, it was Sandy Kofax,
you know, And I mean Iwas I was seven years old when
his career ended. Yet you knowthe two or three years that I can

(28:02):
remember, you know, watching himstill stand out to me, you know,
sixty years late, nearly sixty yearslater, and we had guys like
that. You had Willie Mays.You know, we talked to you know,
our friend Greg Hansen had Mickey Mantle. I you know, Steve had
you know, Pete Rose and JoeMorgan and those guys. We had those
guys. I don't know if it'sthe same today. And I don't mean

(28:23):
to be the get off my lawnguy. Yeah, people love show,
Hey o Tani, but you knowwho's who are guys that when you think
about growing up, you think aboutguys like that. For you, it
was Willy Mays. Yeah's right,it was always well in Like I said,
my brother was a Yankee fan,and I love Mickey Mantle and you
know, I love Mickey too,what a great player. And you know,

(28:47):
coach coach, coach Ken Drea.He has a whole room and how
dedicated to Mickey Mannell and the Yankees. And he has he has some Memorabiley
and I'm sure it's worth of butit is. It's incredible, you know.
But you're right, you attach yourselfto see your idols and and you
just just kind of stick with themalways. And that was that's so true,

(29:14):
I think. So Okay, sowe want we want to get a
little into a little bit of adeep conversation here that that was pretty deep
too, though. But I waslooking at your I was looking at your
bio on your Hall of Fame pageon the on the air z on a
website, and the last line saysthat your doctor says his doctoral dissertation presented
the case for aligning athletic department goalsand objectives with educational and social mission of

(29:40):
our universities. I thought, isthere anything more timely than that right now?
And that that's kind of what universitiesare having to do because of the
finances of stuff they're having to absorbthese athletic departments that have long been kind
of separate. Is that kind ofwhere you were going with that? That
you know it has to be itall has to be together. What what?

(30:03):
I'd love to hear some of yourthoughts on that whole thing. I
know how long ago that was youdid that, or if you still think
about it, but it seems verypertinent to what's going on right now.
Yes, I do think about it, I and I and I do bring
it up often, you know.I talked I talked to Chip not too
long ago about about part of partof a big part of it was the

(30:32):
vision, mission and goals, partof what what the athletic department is doing.
And as I learned, and asI learned in my research and interviews
with lots of athletic directors and coachesaround the West, is that the mission
statement isn't worth the paper is writtenon it. It's how it's how the

(31:00):
athletic director, the president of theuniversity see the role of athletics within the
community. And so often we gotwe get caught up and what are we
doing right now? But the visionpart of it, and this is what

(31:22):
Chip is doing so well is lookingforward and where are we going to be
in ten fifteen years. I'm surethis was a magical year. I mean,
it was an unbelievable year that theCats had. But how do we
build on this? And how dowe make the players appreciate and love being

(31:45):
Wildcats and want to be here morethan any And that's part of it.
It's the co curricular part of it, not just athletics and not just academics.
It's how the community perceives that theplayers, uh and the coaches as

(32:06):
as part of the community, andand so often that is missing. But
I think I think in your earliersegment about the comment about the coaches and
how at the u A and howhow dedicated they are to the community and
and and what we're trying to buildhere, I think that's that was the

(32:30):
biggest point of of my dissertation.What do you make of? What do
you make of today's n I Land so many things going on in the
financial situation that your your former schoolknows such thing as a former Wildcat.

(32:52):
Yeah, you know, the niL money is uh, it's it's out
of control and and uh it doesn'tlook like anytime soon that it will get
back under control. I think oneof the best things the n C two
A could do would would be wouldto put a limit on the time that

(33:13):
the transfer portal is open. Butas we know now, it seems like
forever that it's open and kids canyou know, hang out, hang out,
hang out, and then five weekslater they can dive into the transfer
portal. I think like a twoweek open period would be good. But
just like you look at some ofthe schools that that susy, you look

(33:38):
at Tennessee and I watched I watchedthe post game UH last night with coach
Fatello and and it's it's astounding thething that you hear. It's like,
oh, here at Tennessee, wehave everything we need. We have we

(33:59):
have the finances which we have,the players, we can get any just
about anything we need. And whathe means by that is is we can
pretty much get any player we want. And we've seen you look at the
transfer portal from Jay Johnson at LSU, how many kids he's gotten out of

(34:22):
the transfer portal and who knows howmuch he's paying those guys. And for
me, some of those kids thatget money in IL money that's the most
money they're ever going to make inbaseball. They don't know that, right,
but you know, they get onehundred and fifty thousand, and by
time they pay their agent and taxes, you know, they might clear eighty.

(34:45):
So it's one of those things thatit's almost tragic in my mind.
And and you know, when Arkansaswas bounced out of their regional and their
coach Van Horne, who's he Iwatched. I watched his post game too,
and he said and he and itwas incredible to hear him say that

(35:07):
we just need to get better players. We're just going to get better players.
You know, how does the coachput being bounced out of the regional
on the players? How about,hey, coach, how about saying I
should have done a better job ofcoaching. We the staff, we should
have done a better job of preparingfor this, which is exactly what Chip

(35:30):
said when they were bounced. Hedidn't blame it on the players. He
said, we just have to doa better job of preparing and we will
in the future, so that wejust can't. We cannot compete in thel
nil race and we've lost kids already. Trying to get him out of the
transfer portal because we just can't givehim the you know, one hundred and

(35:53):
fifty, two hundred and fifty whateverthey're getting from these other schools. So
that's kind of where I am withthat. I think that the NT two
A and the schools have lost control. As they used to say, the
inmates are running the asylum and thekids are in charge. Yeah, yeah,

(36:14):
I know you're right, coach.We appreciate your time. Thank you
very much. Always you bet anytime, be well, be well, thank
you. Okay, yep, thatwas Jerry Stitt, coach, Jerry stick
I still need to know how tohit a curve ball up the middle.
That'll be for another day. No, that's not that happening anymore. I'll
give you that ham streaks are tooold to be right. Well, tries

(36:37):
swinging a bat. Let's see seewhat you do to yourself. Let's cut
them off, cut that mic offand that's going to break. All right,
Let's take our let's take our lastbreak. We'll be back. We'd
love to take your cause. Fivetwo zero four one six seventy four forty.
If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for
nearly forty years now take a lookback at the Ludelson era in my new
book, Lessons from Loot. Itwas a labor of love through the eyes

(36:59):
of twenty five former players, coachesand friends to give insight to the coach
and the man who led them,competed against them, and inspired them.
Twenty five chapters for his twenty fiveyears as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from
Newton is an insight to how hebuilt the program into a national powerhouse.
What one email me at Steve dotRIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com.

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iHeartRadio app. This is I onthe Ball with Steamer Ryan Ja Gonzalez on

(40:01):
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey,welcome back to Wying the Ball hero Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve,He's Jay, You're Ryan I got thirteen
minutes. He has been all day, thirty three years of his life.
He said, I'll be Ryan tomorrowtoo. You'll be Ryan tomorrow. You'll
be here tomorrow, right tomorrow,I'll be Okay, I remember that.

(40:22):
I remember that. Hey, well, anybody want to call? Uh,
I just got a text. Wehad a good interview with coach stitt YEP,
funny story about all his Barry Bondsand yeah, you know, you
know you forget right. I meanBarry Bonds went to ASU. We saw
him play here. Uh, youknow I hated him then and still hate
him. So that's the way.That was definitely the good old days of

(40:42):
baseball. Oh you know, so'sArizona Asu. Yeah, the rivalry there
during the you know, during thesix pack years. And do you remember
Bob Horner? Oh yeah, Iwas like thirty seventy he was he was
late seventies. No, yeah,I asked because he put down a good
play. Yeah, Bob Horner.I hated that, to be my doll.
Hated that guy too. You don'tlike anybody. Floyd Banister hated that

(41:04):
guy too. There were a bunchof those guys, you know, and
you think of the guys that camethrough here as part of that. You
know, Mark Maguire came through hereplaying for playing for USC, you know,
Mike Mussina. Uh, there weresome guys that that that we saw
come through here. I didn't hatethose guys as much as I hated you
guys. Yeah, they were.They were loaded, and there was some
incredible, incredible intense baseball games amongthose two teams. You know, in

(41:31):
the years, you know a lot. You know, before they expanded,
uh uh what became Sansett Stadium.You know, they would move the series
to High Corbett and uh, youknow they would play over there in front
of thousands and thousands of people,and uh god, those are those are
such fun games. You know,later on in your years, you didn't

(41:52):
realize what at that time, youdidn't realize what you're seeing, what you
were seeing until you thought about itlater on, thought, wait a minute,
I remember that. Now. Thata big deal. Right. Let
me talk to you real quick aboutthat Texas A and M thing. So
he loses last night against Tennessee.The coach I didn't realize he had a
connection to del Conte. He washis coach at TCU before he left.

(42:15):
So last night the question was asked, I guess later in an interview after
the game about leaving or the probableinterest in Texas, and he blew up
and says, I took the jobat Texas a and m to never take
another job again, and that hasn'tchanged in my mind. He said,
that's unfair to talk about something likethat. I gave up a big part
of my life to come and takethis job. I poured every ounce of

(42:36):
my soul into this job, andI've given this job every single ounce I
could possibly give it. So writethat less than twelve twenty four hours,
he's gone. He's gone again.You're just again. Just don't answer the
question. Yeah, it says toknow and let people speculate all they want,
right, Just don't answer the question. Let people because then now he
sounds and appears. Look, he'sgot no credibility mine. You know,

(43:01):
he's got great ability for the Texasfans, but everybody else thinks that guy's
an idiot. You know, justif you're in a position like that,
just say, you know, Imean, like like the thing we go
back to the thing with jet Fish, right, yeah, I mean he
was like, where does that comefrom? Oh? What Torres just you

(43:22):
know from you know, you thinkabout jet Fish and he was I'm here
here for the long haul. Yeah, and then you find out he was
looking for a job the whole lastseason. All of last season, he
was looking for a job during theyear. I don't know what this,
but there and Torres, one ofour guys on the radio every now and
again. Uh, he leaves forTexas in an all time scumbag move.

(43:44):
You can say that because that's whathe does for a living. Jed,
We kind of knew that would happenat some point, right. Look,
he is what he is. He'sa he's a maverick Bega Mount. He
came here, he was here forthree years and he left. Yeah.
Hey, I'm perfectly fine, getright. He put perfectly right situation,
perfectly fine with it. But alongthe way, quit dropping the breadcrumbs like

(44:07):
saying I'm coming back, you know, instead, just shut up about it.
Yeah you said, I'm not talkingabout any of that stuff. I'm
trying to coach a season. Yeah, do that. It was mishandled at
the end, it was, itreally was, you know, And then
you know, then he should youknow, when when the ad said,
you know, I'm gonna come toyour house. We're gonna film this,
we're gonna put it on on socialmedia. She said, yeah, you

(44:29):
know that's not I love you guys, and thank you for you know,
thank you for the offer. Canwe not do that because I've got some
people that maybe I don't want him, right, right, No, no,
sensible right. And if the athleticdoctor said no, we're going to
do this, then I say,well, then you know what, go
hire somebody else because I'm you're notI'm not your kind of guy. He
wouldn't have done that. And thena month or so later, I don't

(44:51):
know the timeline, the AD's gone. Yeah, right then that guy's gone,
who had just gotten there months before. Right, So you know,
all these guys just just don't sayanything. And I know it's hard,
right, you know, you go, you go back to the you know
when when uh uh Nick Saban saidI'm the coach of the Miami Dolphins and
I think less than forty eight hourslater he was the coach at Alabama.

(45:12):
Just deflect the question and if youwant people gonna speculate, let him speculate.
But if they don't have an answerlike that, you know, if
you don't tell people I'm here,then you leave. You don't look stupid.
And that's part of the problem ofbeing not a problem, but being
a journalist. We asked the questions, you give us the answers, and
this is what you say. Well, he said, well he didn't.
You know, what's he get that? Well, that's what he said.

(45:34):
Yeah, you know, do youlove your wife? Yeah? I love
her very much, and then allof a sudden he's divorcing. Oh I
met the soulmate. Shut up,shut up, I met my soulmate.
You know, I didn't know shewas around the corner. Well I kind
of did, but they didn't.Right, as far as you know,
I didn't know she was around thecorner. You'll just they'll say, yeah,
you know you again. I meanI love that. And the what
do you call it an all timescomeback from tauris? Yeah, that's pretty

(45:58):
good. Now we've seen this before. I'm come on, Uh, basketball
specifically call the party moving from hereto there? Yeah, it's let them
do with it. Yeah. Yeah. The thing is, the questions have
to be asked, right, uh, And it's not on them for you
to ask. If you decide toanswer it, then be willing to stand
behind the answer. And if youdon't want to have to stand behind something

(46:21):
that's gonna make you look stupid,then don't answer it that way. You
know, he could have just said, look, guys, just want to
ask, I just lost the NationalChampionship game. I'm not talking about that.
Boom. Yeah it's over, it'sover. Yeah yeah, no exactly.
Good answer, because again, journalistsask questions. Your job is to
win games, and that's it.No, exactly. And then christ Connie

(46:45):
running around like a like a wolf. He's up everybody. He's like to
do on the monopoly table, thelittle guy with the mustaches, and he's
buying all the property. Buy anotherproperty. Hey, you're gonna have Baltic.
I'm gonna take the other one.I'm taking digging board, yeah,
turking board will take it. Allthose fancy places. Well because I have
all the money. Yeah, prettymuch. Him and other people, well,

(47:07):
good for him, good for youknow, it's convention. You sit
down the road, do they youknow, are they are they on the
spending spree that you know he's goingto catch up with them at some point
or are they I'm still going totry to track him down because he's one
of my boys from northern New Mexico. Out of this kid, this little
Mexican kid, Hispanic can become delConti. We'll see if yeah. Oh

(47:27):
yeah, yeah like big Spanic.Yeah sounds like Italian. No, no,
no, he's he has said that. He makes he sounds more Yeah,
you know the people. Yeah,yes, he's I wouldn't have thought
that. Yeah, from the hillsand cows tows in northern northern towns.

(47:50):
Yes, okay, okay, Solet's try to get him on. Give
him grief because he knows I wantto give him grief. It's what we
do, you know. We're likethe Hispanic group and we're good grief and
then we go have beers later exactly, you know, and then laugh about
it exactly. I mean, it'snot it's not what we do that we
bring people down to our level.That's why George Lope was because of George
Loan, exactly. We bring peopledown to our level. We always do.

(48:12):
Always. Hey, look at you, look at j J. Meana
Noma. He got a manager jobat TP. He thinks he's full of
it. He thinks look at howhe walked, didn't walk like that,
even dresses fancy now like he worksat Dylan's. I can. I could
tell some stories of it, butmy brother and for Kanye, I'm gonna
telling the story because this this isa yessence of it, right, my

(48:35):
brother and for Kanye Attorney. Andhe's down there in our old neighborhood south
of south of Valencia Road, offthe freeway, going door to door,
all right, campaigning door to doortalking to people. You run for Kanye
Attorney, you know, but yeah, yeah, And he answered the door
and some guy said, I'm notvoting for you because you left the neighborhood
and you don't care about us.That's perfect hispanic. And I'm like,

(48:59):
okay, so you're gonna go votefor, you know, the lady who
really doesn't give a crap about you, all right, doesn't even has never
been south of twenty second Street.You're gonna vote for her instead of the
guy who used to live here becauseyou're mad because he made himself better and
got out of the neighborhood, that'swhat you're gonna do. And basically that

(49:20):
was his any that makes sense,right, you you got out, you
made yourself better than me, SoI hate you, and so I'm gonna
go vote for somebody else who doesn'tgive one crap a lot, right,
but I know it. That isthe essence of that. Go listen,
go listen to the George Lopez concerts, the early ones and Neil there's a
whole segment about that about how howI'll give you a reason to cry?

(49:44):
Yeah, yeah, how we youknow we we can never congratulate people on
making themselves better. We always wantto bring him back down to our level
because it makes us feel better.No, exactly, it's a crab mentality.
You ain't leaving this bucket. IfI'm not going, You're gonna pull
your butt down exactly, and nodisrespect. We'll go have drinks later exactly.

(50:06):
Okay, yes, we have threeand a half minutes. Anybody want
to call give us a break,give us a break, give us a
call, and give us a break. I don't know how you can tell
him back. Uh. That wasa good interview with coach Stitt. Uh
nice one. This uh this firstpart with with uh uh ray fortis a
lot of people, a lot ofconcerns about what's going on at you.
Let's see how they get out ofit. Uh. We hope to get

(50:29):
uh desiree on the show to talkabout stuff about what's going on. And
you know, my one of myquestions I think has to be, did
you did you know this before youtook the job? Did you have any
sense that this was going to happen? Because she's up against it, man,
look at look at you. Ithink she got the job because of

(50:49):
this. That they asked her todo this job, because I mean,
they had to know. And ifthey didn't, here's the the u A.
Yes, here's the deal. Ifthe u A knew and didn't say
and didn't say, well, okay, stop there. Do you think there's
a chance that happened. No,really, I think there's a chance that
I do not. Okay, sobecause it would have been on her also

(51:12):
on her to do her due diligenceto find out what's the financial decision?
Are you going to do? Ithink they brought Steve, They brought her
in to fix this. That's whyshe's here. I think I think that
that they felt that she could fixit, and they didn't think they could,
so that's why they made the change. That that's why she's here.
She's here. We'll ask her thatquestion because uh, because it's important.

(51:32):
I think, I mean, wouldyou have taken this job knowing that?
We asked her that, Steve,remember she said she took you in our
interview with her, and at thepress conference she was asked about that.
She said, you know, I'mcoming here to you know, to change
all. You mean depression, notthe one that we had with her.
I can't remember that. I didn'tbelieve. I believe if i'm my memory,

(51:54):
I know it's mostly my memory isthat the financial situation was already you
know, the deficit, all thatwas already known, and that the idea
was that they had to bring insomebody who could fix it. There was
a reason they fired Dave Hike,and she had to ask that why okay,
why why are you making this change? Is it? Well, we

(52:15):
got this financial situation and I'll tellyou if they didn't tell her that,
then then the uvas, you know, really bad people. But they had
to have told her that. Ibelieve they had to have told her that.
Yeah, Okay, we'll ask her. I'll ask her again. You
know, you know what we had. All we got to go do is
look back at the news reports.Is too when all this stuff came out

(52:36):
and when she got hired. We'llfigure that out, we'll do I think
she had to know. I thinkshe had to know. It's a tough
situation, and uh so we'll see. Uh, we'll see what happens from
this, because it's a lot ofwork. Yeah, because I think she
she said she relishes the challenge ofcoming into a place like this and in
fixing things. I think I thinkthat was part of her part of her

(52:58):
main press car welcoming press conference,that she's looking forward to this quote unquote
challenge. You know, what elseis you going to say to fix I
know I want out of here.Well, she could have said, I'm
not taking that job because there's noeffing way anybody can fix it. Right,
I can say, effine can't.I you said you can't. We'll

(53:19):
be here tomorrow. Let's tell it. I said, you didn't say else.
Okay, let's get out of here. We'll be back tomorrow. Uh
we yeah, Scott Scott Thompson theArizona basketball Well we'll be back tomorrow.
See later.