6/14/24 Hour 2 Segment 2 CWS conversation

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Back to the Craig Ways. Connectswith Craig through the text line by texting
Texas to eight one five gree zerofollowed by your message. Standard message and
data rates may apply. Continuing onthis Friday afternoon. Get you updated on

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the College World Series in omahak Thefirst game is at the seventh inning stretch
right now, and it is Virginia, the twelve seed, leading the four
seed North Carolina, two to one. North Carolina scored a single run in
the first inning, but Virginia hascome back with single runs in the third

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and the fifth and fifth on thesacrifice fly. And that's been the difference
of the ballgame right now. Thesetwo teams about it is evenly matches you
get. Their records are almost identical. Carolina's forty seven and fourteen, Virginia
is forty six and fifteen. They'revery, very close. Virginia for a
while was playing good enough baseball wherethey entertain notions of and it was certainly

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the possibility of them even being atop eight national seed. They had a
late season slump and then kind ofpulled themselves up by the bootstraps. It
was just the opposite for Carolina.They were kind of plotting along earlier in
the season and then really got hotlate in the season, and then obviously
in the postseason. They have morethan listed the flare for the dramatic,

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with a walk off home run inthe walk off Grand Slam in their first
game of the Regions against Long Islandto win that eleven eight. Then they
had the late the ninethe inning tieup in the regional final game against LSU
when they were on the verge ofbeing eliminated, and then one and on

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a walk off. Then in theSuper Regional against West Virginia, a walk
off home run and then another andthen held on to win in that last
game. So they've had that flarefor the dramatic, but Virginia standing toe
to toe with him right now andin fact has the lead the Cavaliers up
two to one. They go tothe bottom of the seventh inning in that
one. Now again, the winnerof that game will play on Sunday evening

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against the winner of the game tonight between the overall number one seed Tennessee
and the number eight overall seed FloridaState. Both these teams have been really
hot all the way through, althoughTennessee was pushed to a final game in
their super regional by Evansville. BigCinderella story, Evansville finishing as the runner

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up of the Missouri Valley Conference toIndiana State, who was thought to be
in line to host a Red galbut Evansville upset them in the conference tournament
that sent Indiana State not only outof terahood to Indiana, but they had
to go to Kentucky where the numbertwo overall seed Kentucky played very well and
swept through that and swept through theirSuper in Kentucky is in Omaha for the

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first time in school history, butEvansville got in and won the regional in
Greenville against the East Carolina, thenumber sixteen seed. It was a controversial
selection of ECU, even being aregional host. A lot of folks thought
they did not merit it, didnot deserve it, and they did nothing
to change those folks mind by whathappened, losing in their own regional twice

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to a number four seed. Evansvillewas a four seed and they won that.
And then they go not only asthe four seed to a higher seeded
team in the Super they go tothe number one overall seed Tennessee and pushed
them to a final game before thevolunteers blew them out in the last game.
So here's Tennessee the number one overallseed and they're playing Florida State tonight.

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Florida State has kind of swept througheverything and won all of their games.
They are the eighth overall seat.But here's the footnote, and here's
the interesting wrinkle about all of this. Nineteen ninety nine was the first year
that the NCAAA went to a sixtyfour team bracket for its postseason tournament,

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with the regional and super regional conceptbeing employed. In the prior years,
it had been done in different ways, usually forty eight teams making the field
in the most recent years running upto ninety nine with six teams at eight
regional sites, and those eight winnerswould then advance to OMA eighteen tournament,

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just like you have today in Omaha. Texas was a perennial player in that
usually at home, you know,at Old Clark Field in the fifties,
sixties and seventies, and then atUFCU dishfalk Field it was just dishfalk Field
and opened to nineteen seventy five,all the way through up to nineteen through

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ninety eight was the forty eighteen field. They would call it district play,
and Texas quite often was in Districtsix. And then, as I mentioned,
in ninety nine, they went tothe superregional concept, sixty four teams
in the field, so you wouldhave the sixteen regional sites with four teams

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in each regional. Then the winnersof those sixteen regional sites would advance the
Superregionals, in the top eight nationalseed would host of super regions. That's
the concept and the plan that hascontinued today. Here's the interesting wrinkle and
note about that in nineteen ninety nine, the very first year they went to

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this format of sixty four teams andsixteen regional sites and also top eight national
seeds being able to host super regionalif if they advanced through their regionals.
Since they put that format in,they put it in in nineteen ninety nine,

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that very first year, the MiamiHurricanes were the overall number one national
seed, and they looked the partall the way through. Miami won its
regional, then the Hurricanes hosted theSuper regional. Miami won that. Then
it was onto Omaha and Miami wenton and won the national championship. They

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swept through wire to wire once thetournament began as the number one overall seed
and one its regional, won it'ssuper regional, and then won the national
championship in Omaha. The College WorldSeries, they the over number one seed.
You know how many times that's happenedsince then? Zero zero? The

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number one overall seed has not wonthe national championship since the very first year
of this format nineteen ninety nine,and that includes a year that Texas was
an overall number one seed. Numberone overall seed has never won the national
championship after that very first year whenMiami won it nineteen ninety nine. Why

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well, obviously when you get toOmaha, a lot of things go into
play there. There's you know,a lot of factors that go into it.
But that's a big part of it. There is just the competition is
tougher once you get Tomaha. Butit hasn't happened since that first year.
So again, the onus the microscope, if you will. We'll be on

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tennessee to see how the volunteers respondto this being the overall number one national
seed, which has not won thenational championship since the first year of the
sixty fourteen format, the regional superregional format in nineteen ninety nine hasn't happened
since, so we'll see how itgoes from there, and we'll see if

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indeed it's a situation where they playthe part and look the part of the
number one overall seed all the waythrough and win it, or if they
fall. But it hasn't happened sincenineteen ninety nine. I mentioned last hour
the Astros releasing jose A braw today, so they cut ties with him.

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Here's a guy who was a formerAmerican League MVP, came up with the
White Sox in twenty fourteen. Threetime All Star during nine seasons with the
White Sox, he was the MVPduring that pandemic shortened season in twenty twenty.
He was the American League Rookie ofthe Year in twenty fourteen after defecting

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from his native Cuba the prior year, and once he joined the Astros,
However, his production had dropped off. He hit two thirty seven last year.
It was the lowest average of hiscareer, had eighteen home runs and
ninety RBIs career two eighty three hitter, two hundred sixty three homers, nine
hundred and sixty RBIs in eleven seasons. So the Astros cut ties with him

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today. They released him. Hewas less than halfway through a three year,
fifty eight and a half million dollarcontract. Abreu, who was thirty
seven, was batting one twenty four. He had only fourteen hits the entire
season, fourteen for one, thirteen, two homers, seven RBIs. He

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spent some time in the miners downat their minor league complex trying to fix
the swing. So they cut tieswith him. But you know how it
is in base all what contracts beingguaranteed. So he was less than halfway
through a three year, fifty eightand a half million dollar contract. So
the Astros own some money, right, Yeah, the Astros, Oh,

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Jose Abra, you thirty million,eight hundred and twenty two thousand, five
hundred and four dollars, including elevenmillion, three hundred twenty two thousand,
five hundred four dollars remaining from thisyear's salary. So think about that for
a moment. They just you know, wrote him a check to have him

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walk away. They owe him elevenmillion, three hundred twenty two thousand,
five hundred four dollars. And oh, by the way, they still own
him for twenty twenty five nineteen anda half million dollars not to play for
them next year. Now what doesit mean? Does it? I mentioned
last hour you'd have to believe thatsome team will probably take a chance and

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sign a bray You, figuring theycan fix his swing, or that he'll
figure it out or something will turnfor him. So what's it going to
cost a team to go after Josea brave any team, let's close to
this, any team can sign aBrave You for a pro rated share of
the major league minimum of seven hundredand forty thousand dollars. So that's probably

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about four hundred thousand bucks right nowbecause it's less than half of the season
has been played. So any teamin baseball can probably get him for about
four hundred thousand dollars. The Astroshave to pay the rest of that eleven
million, three hundred twenty two,five hundred and four dollars this year,
and again they owe him nineteen anda half million for next year as well.

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Life's good to be in the bigleagues. I suppose that's just the
way that works. We'll have someNBA Finals notes coming up next when we
continue on Sports Radio AM thirteen underthe zone of the iHeartRadio app.