Tuesday, November 28, Hour 2

Tuesday pod, Hour 2
− BREAKING NEWS: Last week’s Arizona-Michigan St. game was the most-watched college regular-season game in the last 15 years.
− GUEST: Blake Eager of the Southern Arizona Sports, Tourism & Film Authority updates on efforts to draw professional sports to Tucson.
− The football transfer portal is open and active.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Breaking down all the exes at OH. It's Steve Lavera and Jagen Salaz.
This is I on the Ball onFox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome
back to IM about your old FoxSports fort fifty MC. He's Jay Kevin
with some breaking news. This isI on the Wall, breaking news on

(00:23):
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. All right, so we do have some breaking news.
We're gonna go ahead and start withArizona versus Michigan State is the most
watched college basketball game in the lastfifteen years. Wow five records season one
eight million. Wow Wow. Becauseit was through the well two things.

(00:44):
Two things. One, it wason Thanksgiving Day, Okay, it came
right after the Lions game. Somepeople watching the Lions game Thanksgiving football led
right into the game. But thenit was still you know, it was
a great game. One wants Dallasplay. Yeah, yeah, And the
Cowboys were playing then, and itwas a good game and it was a
great game. But yeah, you'reright, the Cowboys are playing the Commanders.
I mean, what, who thehell wanted kick out of them?

(01:07):
Ye? So, but still,man, five over five people watch that
game. And I don't know ifyou saw the arena Palm Springs, where,
you know, it was pretty Iwas talking to some family about that
because they were like, there's alot of people at this game, isn't
it Thanksgiving? And I was like, yeah, but this is Arizona,
Michigan State. Yeah, people don'tcare. It's some the day off's go

(01:27):
to the game. No, theguys that went to the Peterson's and the
shut said it was a good crowd. A lot of people in Michigan State.
Yeah, I mean I knew evenI knew a few people who said,
yeah, let's go to Palm Springfor Thanksgiving and they went to the
game when they did a Thanksgiving dinnerand boom and it made it made a
trip of it. But I thought, I think it's pretty cool for Arizona.
You know, again, all inin the interests of Arizona being a

(01:53):
blue blood. What did you drinkbefore you show up? Sounded better?
On that note, On that note, that's not that's that's fun. We're
gonna we're gonna throw it back tosome more Arizona sports news. Uh.

(02:14):
Former Cardinals head coach Cliff Kingsbury apparentlyhas emerged as a favorite for the Houston
Cougar's job. That would be thatwould be the good ship. That would
be good, right, kind oflike Texas Tech. Yeah, good fit,
get fired in five years. Gethe he wants to me, he
doesn't. He doesn't fit in thepros. Crap. You know they look

(02:35):
at me, Get away from mewith your giant house and fire. Give
me a perfect example of that.Did you know how bad Detroit is in
the NBA? Like bad, bad, very bad? Fourteen four and thirty
eighth, it's last year. Well, you know the coach Williams, he's
not they're not playing for him.He's four and they're like two and thirteen.

(02:57):
Yeah, three and twelve. It'sjust crazy. And for a guy
who's one of the highest paid coachesWilliams, I think he is, and
he's not getting across. Dude,dude, if they're not going to listen
to you, they're not going tolisten to you. Yeah. Yeah,
And part and part of it isthe roster issue too. They have one,
maybe one too many guards on thatteam. But that's that's another that's
another story. We have more collegefootball stuff to talk about. Iowa's first

(03:23):
half over under for their points isset at just half point. The second
half is also set at half apoint. Now, if you're a value
better, you can get Iowa firsthalf over half a point plus one hundred
guys. Oh okay, so what'sthey're over under for the game? Two

(03:46):
and a half? Let me letme check that the Michigan team total for
the second half was twelve and ahalf. The first half is sixteen and
a half, so under thirty fiveish thirty five and a half in Michigan's
all of those by by themselves.Yeah, this is unbelievable. And they're
ten and two. Yeah, theirrecord. The record is good. I

(04:08):
was ten and to the record isgood. And think about it. They
had that game, they had thatgame where remember the fair catch got called.
They said it was a fair catchand it wasn't a fair catch,
and and and and and I thinkwas it was? It was it?
Uh? God, who are theyplaying playing? Was it the records game

(04:30):
was? I can't remember who they'replaying to remember? I do remember.
It was a punt and the guywaved, and the guy waved it all
away from the punt. They calledit a fair catch. He returned it
and then yeah he returned it.Oh wait, he had picked up the
ball and returned it, and theycalled it back, saying he called a
fair catch because they didn't score.But speaking of unders, I don't know
if you guys talked about this yesterday, but the unders for the NFL season,

(04:53):
uh now thirteen and one on MondayNight football to the under total,
as well as twenty nine and nineand night games, which is honestly shocking.
But it kind of speaks to whatBrady was talking about with the mediocrity.
No one's putting up points and it'snot because of these great defenses.
For the most part, I'm stilltrying to look up this Iowa what the

(05:14):
Iowa line over under is just forthem. While you guys do that,
I will throw at you. Theformer Washington QB Brock, who are Heward
Hewart says that cam Ward has upto ten one transfer offers from schools like
Oregon, Washington, Notre Dame,Texas, A and M and Auburn.

(05:36):
This is the exact problem with collegeathletics right now. It's not about nil
deals and mobile it's paid for play, simple, simple and easy. Well,
there was a really funny, uhfunny response to that by yo,
you're raight because because Michael lev retweetedyou know that that says that he's got

(06:00):
you know, ten one million dollaroffers, and god, dang it,
I can't. I wish I stillhad this up here. And Michael said
something. Michael Left said something likethis is free agency, okay, and
then and oh here it is,here it is, here is and then
Yogi Rots Michae Left says, thisis basically free agency. Yogi Rots says,
basically even worse, it's tampering meetsfree agency, meets while meets zero

(06:26):
penalties for collectives and schools, meetsridiculous, meets good for him meets CAM
isn't even in the portal. That'swhat I said. As we came in.
I was like, well, he'snot even actually transferring air quotes yet.
Yeah. So, and he's thereason the kid why de Laura left
right at the end of the day, he's he's ready to get out of

(06:46):
there. Man, this is theworld we live in. Oh, let's
pay the kids back to what that'smaybe full circle moment, maybe, I
mean, this is the world welive in. But then somebody posted,
uh that, he said, theperson that's posted this, it's called blue

(07:06):
Blood's bias whatever that is, saysthat it's been confirmed. I'm just reading
this okay, because I don't evenknow who this guy is. That Miami,
Ohio State, Texas, A andM, Washington and Auburn are all
interested in Yeah right, yeah,yeah my listing. Did it also include
Auburn and Oregon? It was Oregon, Washington, Notre Dame, Texas,

(07:30):
A and M and Auburn. Yeah, Oregon is losing. Bonis the ancient
quarterback. Speaking of full circle,we kind of brought how Jane delore might
you know, jokingly go full circleand go back to jazuo h. Bobby
Petrino is has that agreed to returnas offensive coordinator and a deal is being
finalized. Sources tell ESPN, youguys want to talk about Petrino behind you,

(07:55):
I saw the universe Markets has apolicy that if you've been I've just
read this, if you've been firedfor cause from a job at the university,
you can't come back. He's notgoing wait, except with special special
permission from the president of the university. Would be a football coach exactly.
So they're gonna bring this guy backwho embarrassed the crap out of them.

(08:16):
He's the one who got riding hismotorcycle with with with a young employee of
the of the of the football officethey hired that he had hired. So
obviously there was a little something goingon over there. Rex his motorcycle with
her on it, and he youknow, then they fire him on believe
she was also a member of thevolleyball team before she graduated. What what
price fase? What not? Whatprice fame? But what price victory?

(08:39):
You know, why not? Goahead? Unbelievable. So I guess he's
sounds like he's going to get thatspecial permission from the waiver from the president
to get to take that gotta win, gotta win baby. The thing is
the nerve the nad of the Arkansasfootball program to do, say screw all
you, I don't care what youthink. We're going to take this guy

(09:01):
who incidentally was on the staff ofa football coach that just got fired,
you know, because they why,because they couldn't generate enough offense. They
were only twenty five, they werejust top twenty five. They were fine.
You know, it's not good enough. I know, we were just
talking football. Justin Jefferson has beenactivated off the off the I the day

(09:24):
light, Yeah, one day latefor sure for Jays, for Jays more
help God, could you've seen moreworse football game than last night? Wasn't
that? I immediately after the game, got got a text from from my
brother said that had to be theworst football game I've ever seen. He
goes, I want all my moneyback that I bet on that game because

(09:45):
he lost, but because it wasn'tfun to watch on a clear day.
I mean, there was no snow, there was no rain. You know,
you see those games on the snowday. This was a perfect game,
and they couldn't move the ball,or they did, but other people
got it. The scoring was five. That's awful. It was just awful.
I mean the amount of that.That was the most text I've received
talking about I'm just thankful it's footballon because in March we're gonna be wishing

(10:11):
we had this game. But Iwas like, I'm not even sure I
wish I had this game in March. Conversely, Arizona's most watched game,
this might have to be the mostleast watch. It was horrible. It
was awful. People, I waslooking for the weakest link. You know,
you're gonna change it to snap.That's quality television. I was in
on that decision. We're talking likedatelines, little brother, it wasn't even

(10:33):
date line. Like you said,you kind of have a good life.
Tiger Woods is making his next comebackat the hero World Challenge this week.
He was talking about how his anklefeels a lot better. He's a little
more sore in other areas because ofthat, but overall he feels like his
health is in a good place tocompete right now. You know, as

(10:56):
I've told you guys before, Iwhy I look at ik talk for an
hour or two every time you hitthe sack. Just keep you young,
keep you young. Right. ButI and you know, it's one of
those things where whatever you see,you then start seeing more of it.
So I get a lot of TigerWoods on my thread. And you go
back and look at the things thathe used to do to you know,

(11:18):
you look at him today and yousee what he did back then, you
go the guy was inhuman. Hewas not human? Yeah uh. You
know shots that he hit or roundsthat he had, or you know,
just things that he did and yougo, you know, how does this
guy? How was this guy ableto do these things? And how did
we we knew we were seeing somethingspectacular. But I don't think we realized

(11:41):
how spectacular it was, how rarewhen it was happening. Exactly exactly you
were watching something special, but youdidn't know we might never see this come
back around. You know, there'scertain talents where you're like, oh,
this is this is great, thisis all time. But well you never
know that until till Nicholas and allthese other guys, and you look at
Tiger Woods, Notine, you go, you know, there's nobody like that

(12:03):
and there, and maybe there neverwill be me. Maybe his kid will
be I don't know, yeah maybemaybe maybe you know, but the kid,
wouldn't that be something? Huh yeah, that would be That little kid
really pisses me off because oh,that's what he does. That's all he
does. It's like, it's likethe Europeans coming to play basketball. What
do you do for living? Playbasketball? Go to school? Play basketball,

(12:24):
go to school, play basketball atschool. Last last bit of breaking
news has to do with basketball.Last night, Lebron James and Lakers suffered
a forty four point loss that wasthe worst loss of his entire career.
Uh, they are missing a tonof guys, but that Lakers team is
just not up the snuff right enough. And something closer to home, the
Golden State Warriors. Holy crap,it's like Peyton Place every day. Peyton

(12:46):
Place every day. I guess KelaCommie, I don't know if you know.
Kelakami is pretty good. He hada great column on on Klay Thompson
because Clay jumped him on a question. It's just a great story about nothing,
you know, great story about nothingbecause Clay's not playing well, Wiggans
not playing well, and Steve KerrGod help him because he gets a lot

(13:07):
of money to deal with this stuff. Yeah, I mean it's not about
basketball now. He's been dealing withnon basketball stuff for a lot. About
it. Steve has always been ableto handle it, handle it, yeah,
but it feels like it's gotten sobad that even he can't. And
dream On is not even involved,yeah, because well he's not involve because
he was involved, right, he'snot involved because he had his neck around

(13:28):
or his arm around with Yeah.He comes back tonight, so and they
play they play sacrament Sacramento, right, yeah, right, the beam more
power to him. They get himmillions of dollars. Good luck with that.
I guess I would put up withit too, you know. You
know what, he give me fivehundred K and I'll just sit next to
you and I'll fight all these guys. And he's coached tam USA for a

(13:50):
long time too, so he's beentalking to all these guys. All right,
we're going to talk to some justsome Arizona sports or Southern Aarson Sports.
And he's with the the head ofthe Southern Arizona Sports Tourism and Film
Authority efforts to get spring training backhere if to see if there's anything going
on Triple A bas awesome changes wouldcause by the yoaklan Ase moving to Vegas.

(14:13):
Uh, just whatever's going on overthere. So the types of things
they trying to do sort of anupdated on what we might have going on
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(19:29):
This is I on the Ball withSteve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox
Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcomeback to Eye on the Ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Out ofSteve Rivera, he's Jacobzaus. Now in
the four we have Blake Eager fromthis Southern Arizona sports tourism and film authority.
How you doing, Blake, I'mdoing great. Thank you guys for

(19:51):
having me. Sure sure you guysare busy? Guy up there? What's
going on? Any breakthrough with anypossible spring training news? Oh? We're
just jumping right off, just jumpingright into it. Huh yeah, we
we we we're planning our Southern SouthernArizona International Baseball Event for twenty twenty five.

(20:11):
It's currently being championed by the ArizonaDiamondbacks and Derek Hall. We're hoping
to have one to two teams fromMexico. There'll be housed out of Keino
Stadium, uh, you know,sports Complex, and we'll have teams from
the Cactus League come down and playhopefully multiple games. So we'll create a
similar aspect of spring training back inTucson in Southern Arizona. So there's a

(20:36):
lot of movement around the big leagueswith the Oakland A's moving to Las Vegas,
and is there will there be someother shuffling, I mean, like
are some Triple A teams going toget shuffled and things like that, and
you know what, you know,is there any potential there for us down
here? Yeah, that's a greatquestion. So we've we've actually gone down
that path a little bit looking atthe potential of bringing back a Triple A

(20:59):
team to tuson on it. There'sstill talks to be had. There's a
lot of moving parts until everything's confirmed. As you know here in a couple
of weeks or not too far away, they're going to have the GM meetings
Winter Baseball Meetings. We should knowsome more information after that, but we
are going to continue to work onanything from the professional base class that we

(21:21):
can do down here in southern Arizona. So how optimistic are you? You
know, it's funny. I'm atwoson in right, born and raised.
I've moved and lived all over withmy career path, but I've always come
back, and optimism has always comeback to bite us in the butt here
a little bit in Tucson. ButI am. I am fairly fairly optimistic

(21:42):
that something special is going to happen. And we've got a lot of help
from our Phoenix partners in this,and we've got a lot of help on
MLB from MLB and MLB International andfrom Mexico. Tucson is a perfect landscape
and a perfect place for professional baseball, and we're hoping that we can make
all the right connections and get thisthing off the ground and and create a

(22:03):
sustainable event for the long term.You sound like Jay, who's an Arizona
football a little fan who's good doesn'twant to go there because you never know,
and it's guys hesitant. He's beenbidden enough times that you know to
be optimistic. But good for you, good for you. Well, you
know what's you know, what's funnyis that I probably wouldn't be so optimistic,

(22:25):
but we were able to get thisthis bill passed through and become an
official authority. Our big brother authorityis the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority in
Maricopa County, and they own andoperate the State Farm Stadium, so they
bring in the Cardinals and the FinalFours and the Super Bowls, Taylor Swift
concerts, if you may. So, we've been very fortunate on that.
And our sister bill was a wasa film and centive bill in the state

(22:48):
of Arizona. So we were able, I should say Senator David Gallen was
able to do uh we call itpolitical jiu jitsu, and get both our
bills passed through. So optimism isat the forefront right now. For me,
it's awesome. So you know,look, we've got a long history
of baseball here dating back to youwhen the Cleveland Indians came here for spring
training. It's kind of always beena part of who we were. But

(23:11):
you know, obviously, you know, we lost that, you know,
over the last you know, severalyears. But I mean we still have
that, like maybe that core ofpeople who would love to see baseball back
here, don't I mean, whatwhat what you know? How are you
reading the tea leaves out there asfar as that goes? Yeah, I
mean for me, I'll and behonest every time I talk. You know,
for our authority, we cover sixcounties and all the tribal nations amongst

(23:33):
them. We have four distinctions.We have sports, we have tourism,
we have film, and we haveworkforce development. First question that I always
get is spring training, baseball,professional baseball. So I think everybody's really
excited. We're hungry. We wantto make sure that we're supporting professional sports
in southern Arizona. We've got agreat relationship with the current professional teams down
here, and we're here to supportthem. I think I think we're hungry

(23:56):
to have a professional baseball back downhere. Yeah, you know, I
mean it was great when they're youknow, the UFA baseball team moved to
High Corbett, but they're done inJune, you know, and you've got
the whole rest of the summer,and there's that gap from between when they're
done and football gets going, andwe've got to have something down here,
whether it's you know, Triple Aor whatever. I mean, there's got
to be something going on here asfar as sports goes, because I think

(24:19):
we are a sports town in ourown way. I mean we're not you
know, New York or Pittsburgh orone of those, but you know,
we've got our own way of watchingsports, and I think having something like
that, you know, we weshould be ready for something like that.
Our our people here should want that. Yeah, and jac if you guys

(24:41):
both know this, But it comesdown to supporting what's here. You know,
when we're lucky enough to get something, we've got to make sure from
a public standpoint that we're willing tosupport it. Summer is always going to
be tough. I mean, we'rewe're not blind to the fact that it's
taught down here. But you know, if we're able to pull something off,
we need to come together as acommunity. And I'm not just talking
about Tucson, but I'm talking aboutsouthern Arizona and coming out here and making

(25:04):
sure that we can stand in apositive movement to maintain, create something and
sustain it for the long term.There's a couple other different obstacles that we
have in our way. You know, from a Triple A standpoint, a
lot of those teams have signed thelong term lease to the current stadiums that
they're in, so we're actually lookingat different routes and that could be potentially

(25:26):
bringing a Summer League team from Mexicoto Tucson or a Winter League team here
to Tucson and the Winter League teamis the one thing that I think is
it would be really impressive we're ableto pull that off. That's a great
time of year, that's a hugemarket. It gives you the opportunity to
compete and play in a Caribbean WorldSeries. There's a lot of things there
that would happen. So we're reallytrying to turn over every rock we possibly

(25:49):
can along those lines. What elseis going on, what's really well.
I had a meeting, I've hadseveral meetings with Bob Hoffman, the than
from the Tucson Roadrunners. We wantto make sure that we're prepared to support
uh them in any way possibly can. But also the NHL preseason game that

(26:10):
they had last year, about bringingthat back. I think it's a huge
event. So anything from that natureis important. Uh, hopefully start having
some conversations here soon about potentially bringingthe Phoenix Suns down here or even maybe
the Arizona Cardinals. Anything that's onthe table we want to explore. You
know, we're we're a new eventorat this standpoint, we're a political sub

(26:32):
body of the state of Arizona.Our job to really promote, market and
assist in anything we possibly can,and that's what we're here to do.
So besides, obviously, you know, some of this obvious stuff aout getting
pro sports and stuff down here.But what what other what are what else
are you tasked with from a sportsstandpoint, because that's obviously what we're most
interested in. The other types ofthings, you know, whether it's youth
tournaments or you know whatever, whatare the kinds of things that you have

(26:56):
targeted as far as stuff like that. Yeah, so we're talking about p
MAC County only, but working withPMC County, City of Tucson or visit
Tucson on the event that they currentlyhave, or essentially going after new events
and uh, were we'd be thesponsors of those or help help be the
sponsor of those. One of thoseis the n j C Double A Soccer

(27:17):
Championships. We were a sponsor ofthat. You know, looking at any
of those avenues as we possibly canto bring them here, making a connection
or being a partner with large nationaltournament organizations. One of those is Pathway,
which is baseball or prospect Wire.That prospect Wire was just here.
Hopefully they're coming back two times ayear. I don't know if you guys,

(27:38):
if you guys know this, butPhoenix is kind of the mecha on
the coast for youth baseball and yousoftball, pretty much anything youth sport,
youth sports tournament wide. We wouldlike to we would like to be involved
in that market and make sure thatwe're able to to have some of those
tournaments come our way. Well withthe new building, I don't even know
of the update on the one.Yeah, well, yeah, the the

(28:00):
facility that they're talking about building outdown there by Keno, you know,
hockey, hockey rinks and all thatkind of stuff. How's that going.
So we we had a meeting withFrank Nott the other week for the Mosaic
Quarter. It's it's I got tosee the new rendering. It looks phenomenal.
He's got a three phase approach towhat's going to happen there, and
if if we're able to be luckyenough for it to succeed and get built

(28:22):
here, we're going to be veryfortunate. It's unlock anything else in the
United States, and you pair thatalong with what's currently it's the Kino Sports
Complex, we would be very verylucky, and we would be high on
the high on the market list foranything youth sports wise. We'd be able
to handle anything you can think of. So let's maybe take away, get

(28:44):
away from sports a little bit.Today's one of those marketing days for Tucson.
What's seventy five nice great weather,the reasons why you're here? What
is going on with that? Anyany films being planned things like that.
Yes, so there's there's a lotof movement, so I hope everybody's aware.
But the strikes have ended in Hollywood, so it is it's o season

(29:08):
right now for any potential film projectsbeing filmed in the state of Arizona and
in southern Arizona. So our filmchair Peter Catalanotte, who's also the film
Tucson, is extremely busy fielding thosephone calls and doing just a phenomenal job
of making those connections. So there'sa lot of things moving there. I
don't know if I can stay specificon that, but we're really excited to

(29:30):
see what's to come. I justhad a meeting this similar this morning with
Tony Sanders from Old Tucson. They'vegot things happening there, a lot of
good things and potentially growing some projectsand different events. So we're we're really
excited with where that's going. Tellus break it to us, because no
one listens to us. No,it's just between us three are we are

(29:53):
we pulling at Howard's start on me? Am I going to start opening up
and crying on the radio. Idon't know how many specifics I can get
too, because I don't want tocrush any projects. But let's just say
you guys will be excited to seewhat's coming. Do you do you get
to or do you have an opportunityto work at all with the with the
U of A, with their facilitiesthat they have here, try you know,

(30:14):
long ago, I mean they usedto do stuff with Michale. We
all know about that concert back inthe seventies that was at the stadium.
Are they just not interested in doingthat kind of stuff anymore and keeping their
facilities to themselves? How's that relationship? Yeah, so, because we're so
new, we've met a couple oftimes, but we we haven't got down
we haven't gone down that road.Are One of our our first big sponsors

(30:36):
sponsorship was the Arizona Bowl, whichis the second largest event in southern Arizona.
They have a great relationship with youof a they use the football facility,
so I know there's there's Uvey's greatto them and they've they've had a
great partnership and a relationship. Soall I know from that end is is
what I hear from that side.So I know you as I know you've
Ay's opened two different things, andwe would love a strong partnership. You

(31:00):
know. The Old Guard, we'reall old enough to remember the Old Guard
is kind of a separatist movement,and you know, we don't like Phoenix,
and Phoenix doesn't like us. Thisis ours, you don't touch it.
We're at day and age now wherewe all need to come together and
it's not a Cumbia kind of moment, but it's it's a sense of,
Hey, if we can help eachother out for the greater good, that's
what we're here. And we're hereto make sure that the community that we

(31:21):
represent has a strong workforce and astrong future in everything that we possibly can
do. Is there anything on thewish list that you guys want to happen?
Oh? Man, Yeah, there'sa there's a big one. For
me. It would be to figureout a way to, let's say this,
if Major League Baseball expands to twomore teams, finding a way to

(31:45):
build a new facility, hopefully springtraining facility, youth multi use facility,
and drawing one of those teams downhere as one of our own in southern
Arizona. That would be on myThat would be a big thing on my
wish list. I think that's abig thing on a lot of people's wish
lists. Again, those of uswho've been around a while and used to
love going to those spring training games, you know, you know, breaking

(32:07):
away from work or whatever and youknow, going and catching a game on
a March afternoon. I mean thatwas like a thing, right you know.
So yeah, we would love tohave something like that. You know,
you mentioned the authority that's up inPhoenix and them owning us the Cardinal
Stadium, them being the ones thatbring in the final four. I mean,

(32:30):
that's that's huge, that's big timestuff. Do you get involved with
you do you help out with anyof that? How involved can you be
in that type of stuff? Yeah, we're we can't be involved so much.
So. The counties that we representare panal Pima, Santa Cruz,
CoA Chise, Greenley, and Grahamand then all the tribal nations within So
Maricopa Counties out of our jurisdiction,but we would support it and they need

(32:53):
from our counties down here are wewere formed a little differently. They were
formed through props, so they werethey went into with the authority. We
we started as a taxing authority,but we don't have we currently do not
have the ability to tax the accountantiesthat we're in and uh, it's not
you know, we're looking to doin the near future. We want to

(33:15):
be able to create a sustainable revenuesource so that way we don't have to
go out for voting rights at thiscenter or a campaign and uh, and
make sure that we're we're strong withwhat we're doing before we ever go out
for that. On your website itsaid something that I was interested in.
You talked about amateur sports with thekids and stuff, but you talked about
pro sports. Do you do youkind of bring together pros or x pros

(33:37):
for events, autograph sessions and stufflike that. Well, so the autograph
sessions we haven't gone down. We'rewe are. We're really not in the
realm of creating our own events currently. We're more of sponsoring events or helping
promote events. One of the eventsthat we helped promote just not it's just
in October with an event called TennisCongress. So they bring tennis amateur tennis

(34:00):
players, anybody can go out therefrom around the world and they bring in
top notch coaching instructors, They haveseminars, they have nutritionalists on hand,
and it's a three day event thatthey host at Elkin Keithsber And I was
out there. It was a phenomenalevent. You had amateurs on the corporate
you had professional coaches or professional levelcoaches out there coaching them. I think

(34:22):
those are the kind of events whenwe're talking about merging merging amateur and professional
sports together is what we're looking at, or we've talked about potentially putting on
youth clinics when we do bring professionalteams out here, would speak to that
at a greater need. Okay,makes sense. Well, thanks so much,
Blake, Thanks for joining us.We'll probably touch base again. You

(34:43):
and Edgar have been very good tous. Anytime you guys anything you let
me know, it's a pleasure.I'm honored to be on the show.
I listen to you guys all thetime. You've done such a great job
of keeping everybody informed on what's goingon. I can't thank you enough,
and I don't think the community canthank you enough. You guys are can
checks in the mail, checking themail. Thanks so much. Guys,

(35:05):
have a great day. Thank you. That's nice. So people do listen
to us, they do, Steve, at least at least one person firm
used to look, I'm gonna Iget text pretty much every day about something
stupid that I did on the radio, and sometimes that guy that guy,
Yeah, thank guy again. Howcan you remember that? But you can't

(35:27):
remember the guy that they talked toyou? Right? Okay, Well,
were right back. We'll close itout, give us a call five to
zero, four, one, six, seventy four. Forty would love to
hear from it like the ceiling canhold, like the ceiling can If you're
an Arizona Man's basketball fan, youknow it's been successful for nearly forty years.

(35:49):
Now. Take a look back atthe Ludolsen era in my new book,
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(38:20):
our new and improved Arizona football team. I know Edmund Marcus is. He's
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security dot net. This is Ion the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay
Gonzalez sound Fox Sports fourteen fifty.Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio

(39:30):
app just Surgeon I on the Ball. Hey, welcome back to Whying the
Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay got Kevin
with us today about thirteen minutes.If you guys want to call in please
do we have plenty of time foryour calls. One of the things we
didn't talk about yesterday, Jay andmaybe happened after the fact. But today
you kind of mentioned Stevie Rocker hitnow entered the portal, did not play

(39:52):
this year? You remember they werereally he came out early. Yep,
he came in and they were veryhigh on him and his potential. A
good kid, obviously you're very dynamiclooking. Uh, but but has decided
to move on. Let me askthis, and I don't even know halphrase
it, because you know, whateverlocal kid comes to his maybe dream school

(40:13):
and it doesn't work for him,no, you know, sorry to hear
that, but it happens. Andthen you have the two kids who say
yes and then they say no.That's kind of the dynamic of local kids
at their local university. I meanin terms of should they go, should
they not go? Am I gonnaplay? Am I not gonna play?

(40:34):
You know what I'm saying, it'sa very difficult situation. Well, well,
in Stevie Rockers case, I mean, it just became a case of
where the program just got better.And you know, Stevie Rocker would not
be recruited today by Arizona, youknow. So, I mean he was
a guy that you know, hadpotential. Uh, he fit, he
fit with the level of talent theyneeded, they needed, you know,
a kid like that. You know, he was local, he had an

(40:58):
opportunity. But you know, likelike I mean, even jade Delora pretty
much god recruited over by Noah Flafida, right because he's you know, he's
so damn good and we didn't knowit at the time, but you know,
Jadeen delare is not gonna play atArizona anymore because no Fafida is.
You know, as as a programgets better players, you know, I
mean, think about some of thebasketball teams, right, they had guys

(41:19):
and then all of a sudden,you're bringing another guy and he's way better
than the guy who maybe even startedlast. I'll give you one right now,
Gilbert Arenez comes in, a RubenDouglas decides this kid's good. Yeah,
he's really good. So you knowthat's gonna happen. So you know
what, what you just hope isthat it's a good parting of the ways,
right, that that Arizona does whatit can to help get these guys

(41:40):
another opportunity. Say thanks, youknow, we appreciate what you did,
but you know what you're you know, we've kind of lapped you a little
bit. And and that's what happens, you know, when the program,
you know, starts getting better.I mean, think about those early guys
that that you know started Arizona underlud Olsen. Right, he Williams would

(42:00):
not have been you know, recruited, you know, eighty nine ninety ninety
one by Arizona. Yeah right.And he was an undersized center and big,
you know, physical dude, goodplayer and really well did well what
he did. But there's two guyshim and Steve Kerr. Yeah again,
Yes, Steve Kerr a slow youknow, a slow guy. He shoot

(42:21):
that hell out of it, butcouldn't guard anybody, right, that kind
of thing. Let's take this call. Hi, you're on the air and
I on the ball. Hey,Jay and my buddy Steve. What's going
on? What's that powered? Okay, I gotta I can't talk long.
I got a meeting. I'm walkingto my car. Go wild Cats,
Go Sons. Oh okay, Ihave so much stuff to talk about.

(42:46):
But you know, I've been toNew York once. I was on the
outside of Madison Square Gardens. TheSons pretty much crushed him. But I
was on a Zoom meeting and theyin the Nicks came back. But I
wanted to tell you, Steve,I'm going to agree with you one hundred

(43:06):
percent or ninety nine point nine thatthat's a dump because the city outside is
a dump. And you've been insidethe Messice Square Garden. I've been there
five times. I hate it.It's all five times. I think you
know it. Hey, Steve,You've been about over coming the small and
the big venues at least ninety venuesaround the country, right, yes,

(43:28):
yes, at least yeah place.And the reason I went to Duke was
there's one place I hadn't gone to. The next one would be Kentucky.
And I think I completed your arenato your point, Howard people. Then
they carried the dome right or thewhatever it's called, to your point.

(43:50):
I went to Yankee Stadium like threetimes, the old one, the old
one, the original, and nowthe hell Yeah. I mean you you
got there and you thought, okay, this is Yankee Stadium. Damn.
I went to Soldier Field before thebefore the renovation. Again you go,
and it's because they were old ComiskeyPark. I went to Comisky Park,
the old Kmisky Park, and Igo to the bathroom and something's dripping on

(44:12):
me from the ceiling. And Ilooked up. I'm like, I hope
this isn't a two story, youknow, bathroom and I'm getting leaked on
because you know, I mean thatkind of thing. But you know,
but then you go to Fenway.I went to Fenway, and Fenway was
clean and you know, not modern, but not a not a not a
decrepit in any way. Right,Hey, Jay, did you say you
were Soldier Field. Yes, Iheard in the old days, probably even

(44:37):
before you were there. I heardthey had because I'll make construction, they
had it shored up with like twoby fours and two by sixes. It
was ready to fall down. Wellyou know what, I went on a
day that was so cold, Ididn't even look around. Uh but that's
underneath the stadium. Yeah, yeah, they hold it up. They held
it up with two by six isand two but short up that's what it

(44:58):
means. Sure you put Oh yeah, you're there to make sure it doesn't
fall down. Yeah, I wentI went to a I went to an
NFL playoff game with the forty nineers and it was had a wind chill
of minus twenty seven. Now imaginethe Tucson guy going to a game like
that, But I stuck it out. But I was born there so I

(45:19):
could. My blood is finally startingto sit out after being here for more
than fifty years, you know.And we're and we're getting old because I
love the cold, but well I'mgetting I'm getting more mature. We all
three are sure. I'm sure,Well, okay, thanks that I don't
care. But really he does makea good point though, some of those

(45:40):
same I mean, right Masson SquareGarden. It's like I gotta go there,
you know, Yeah you said Ihad to go yeh, yeah,
yeah, God those places were justdumb right right right, Well, because
you there and you have this iswhy you don't meet your heroes. No,
no, right, you don't wantto meet your heroes because they don't
turn out to be the guy youthought you did be. Go to the
bathroom, just like they're just dudes. They get dripped on in the bathroom,

(46:04):
just like, Yeah, did youused to think that your elementary school
teachers didn't go to the bathroom.I never thought about it. I thought
I really did. I hadn't thoughtabout where they live like that. They
you know, these teachers, they'relike these figures, you know, and
you go, they don't. Theydidn't even go to the bathroom. That's
funny, thoughts. I took usinto the gun or literally sixty years ago.

(46:29):
It was not quite but okay,where were we going? Oh well,
you know again, it's just youknow, that's just the the evolution
of a program. Yeah. Theguys that you would have recruited back then,
you don't recruit now. And andyou know, and again I know
one I would say, knowing,but thinking what we think of Jed,

(46:52):
you'd like to think that really he'sdoing whatever you can to help him getting
you know, get another place,good references, all that kind of stuff.
Because he was a good soldier.Right, we had one of the
original soldiers to come here and likegunder Cruise, right, Gunner Cruz,
who we all were pulling our hairout watching him play. He's a graad
assistant. No, he's gone nowbecause he got gone there. In fact,
he was at the game an issueand the President, Bobby was talking

(47:14):
to him. He was talking aboutworking somewhere abroad. Now, Uh,
you know, he's he's your he'syour typical, your typical airport dude,
looks great in uniform. But andthen they got a five foot nine dude
who's just killing it. Who's killingit? There's I hope that kind of
squays your mind from the airport.Does uniforms are precise? Doesn't know.

(47:37):
I'm happy with no FA And butI was. I was skeptical. Was
why why because he's so sure?No? Yeah, but we saw him.
We saw him. We go tothe practices in August, and he
looked fantastic physically. We just didn'tknow if he'd find a way because Jane
was the guy right or or wejust didn't know if that could translate onto

(47:59):
playing at USC and Washington and allthose guys. Oh and here you go,
here you go. I think thatMurray, who I give a lot
of grief to because he is thesame size about and he's running around,
he's real almost getting killed every play. But not Fafita. Well see,
because Kyler Murray. I don't evensay this right now, in terms of

(48:19):
operating a passing game. Yeah,no, ifl Fita is a better quarterback,
he's because Kyler Murray, he looks, doesn't see somebody in you run
right, his game is to berunning around or no, if a Vida's
game is to find a receiver andget him the ball. I'd rather have
that guy, Oh of course,right, of course, I'd rather have
that. And that's what's stunning aboutwhat Fafita does is that you know when

(48:43):
he's going to complete a pass theway he steps into a throw, right,
he steps into throw and says,Okay, there's a guy out there.
I was watching the sixty minute versionof it, and in that in
Arizona's first drive, they had likea third to twelve and he goes back
to throw and he turns and hesteps into a throw. You know they're
going to get the first down here, and they did. You know,
because you you in that flash ofan instant that you your mind can well

(49:07):
can translate that. He looks likehe's found to receive. He knows the
purpose, he has his purpose.There's there's only one flaw I think is
from time to time he overthrows guysbecause he can't throw the long b he's
right, And Jed was asked aboutthat. He said, he just,
you know, he's It's a thingthat you you get with experience because he
you know, he's missed some guys. Although he dropped one into Jacob Cowings

(49:30):
hands at the end of the atthe end of the second I remember that.
It is like, how did thatpass not result in the touchdown?
Right? Even the throw he madehim McMillan. McMillan was off by himself,
just a nice throw on the run. Didn't have to come back and
get it. Nobody in the neighborhood. Nobody in the neighborhood. Yeah,
that that game was fifty nine whatever, that could have been very well,

(49:52):
seventy to seventy to something. Well, they two touchdowns that they didn't get,
that they that they should have gotten, and that could that would have
put him at seventy three, whichso fun. I was thinking about that,
like about halfway through the game.I was like, what if we
drove seven zero it was seventy sixon p seventy six to sporurteen maybe yeah,
early, Yeah, that's what Iwas thinking. I was like,
what if what if that happens?Like that would be ultimate revenge on that

(50:15):
sun. I still I still believethat's what his purpose was because he was
passing with passing and passing with fortypoint leads. You know, he wanted
that back. Oh yeah, youknow he wanted that back. Yeah did.
All right, I'm gonna change thesubject on you. That's a relationship.
Comeback Player of the Year award,Okay, okay, I thought Comeback
player of the year in baseball,right, in baseball, you win that

(50:37):
when you had you come back froman injury, you had some sort of
a tragedy, something that happened toyou that that costs you a season or
whatever, and then you come backthe next year and have a great year.
The American Lye Comeback Player the Year, Liam Hendricks, you know,
cancer survivor comes back, you know, he gets your ward, and then

(50:58):
nationally they give it to Cody Bellinger, who all he did was sucked last
year, right, he just suckedand then he had a great year,
not even a really really good year. Yeah, and that's all he didn't
have. He didn't break a leg, he didn't blow a knee, he
didn't you know, lose a familymember, he didn't have a disease.
He just sucked and now he's theComeback Player of the Year. I don't

(51:19):
get that. Yeah, maybe Idon't. I don't agree with that.
Was that was the field just weakerin no options And look, I love
Cody Balinger. He was a greatDodger, helped him win a World Series.
Nothing against Cody Balinger. I'm justit's like, you have to do
more than suck then to be ableto get Comeback Player of the Year.

(51:40):
And you know, the people aretalking about it for Russell Wilson, that's
all he did was sucked last year. Why should he get Comeback Player of
the Year. Give it to somebodywho really had something bad happened to him
that he had to come back from. And it's kind of like it reminds
me of the conversation that always yearafter year gets had with the NBA's Most
Improved Player award when they really justgive it to a thirty year guy who's
making the expected deep. It's like, wait, isn't most improved the guy

(52:05):
that was horrible and now he's amazing, Not the guy that was pretty good
and now he's great. Yeah exactly. Yeah, a guy who he thought
this guy's not gonna be in theleague very long and all of a sudden,
man, he you know, heimpacted the team. Yeah, most
improved. I'm a little disappointed.Yeah, I mean that's fair to be
a little disappointed in that one.I think, especially especially because of the
circumstances in which they was given up. Yeah, okay, well, good

(52:27):
show today, all right, BlakeEager, thank you for giving us the
lowdown on what's going on sportswise herein southern Arizona. And then John Whitaker,
the Big Game Boomer. Big GameBoomer likes Arizona. Dude, he
likes Aazon. He's gonna have ashot at Arizona when his Oklahoma Sooners player
zone in the Elet know, Bolt, that's the one game that everybody's saying.
That game is like satin. Youknow, it hasn't been finalite,

(52:49):
but it should be a fun onethough. I think I'll be real watcha
road trip on the ball road trip. All right, thanks for being here,
everybody. We'll be back tomorrow.Uh spite where our Facebook page says
this isn't the last show of theweek. We'll be back tomorrow. Dok
to you tomorrow. Stom On HoldWayne