Longhorns Baseball, The NFL Draft, and More

Craig Way talks Longhorns Baseball, The NFL Draft, and more. It's all right here on The Craig Way Show!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
He's a Texas let you the Hall of Fame broadcaster,
the voice of the Texas Loghords, and your host of
the Craigway Show. Here he is now Craigway.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Went raining, dreary, kind of a messy day to day,
coming off of messy weekend for log board baseball. Good afternoon, everybody,
welcome to the program here on thirteen hundred of zone.
My name is Craigway. Glad to have you with us today.
Be careful out there if you're driving through rain. I
was coming down Mopac and the usual swerving in and

(00:55):
out of lanes happened. Not me, I do that when
the weather's dry, but folks for doing that, you know,
coming out on the wet road. So be careful out
there if you're doing that sort of thing normally the
way it has gone during the course of the season.
Coming off a weekend, our producer Cameron Parker had like

(01:16):
compiled a highlight montage of some big Texas plays coming
off a weekend series victory and in some cases a
weekend series sweep. Well, there was a weekend series sweep
this past weekend, but it wasn't on the plus side
for Texas first series they've dropped this season, and the
first time they've been swept in a while, certainly the
first time this year is they lost to the Arkansas

(01:37):
Race Back. There's another reason as well. Cameron will be
back tomorrow. We have the inimitable Ronald Savage Junior is
our producer here today. Glad to have Ronald on board
and also glad to kind of reset the stage in
the in the scene for Long Worn Baseball and for
other things as well. This afternoon. There are a lot

(01:59):
of things to get to on the program coming up.
In a few minutes, I'm gonna shift gears a little bit.
There was a pretty important event last night that I
was very happy and honored to be a part of,
where the thirty third Annual Awards Dinner of the Greater
Austin Chapter happened for the National Football Foundation's Austin Chapter

(02:23):
Scholar Athlete Banquet. Some of the outstanding scholar athlete football
players of the Greater Austin area were honored last night,
and I'm going to review a little bit of that
coming up. But included in that group certainly was vandergriff
High School, and that was George Farley, who was their honoree,

(02:48):
but their head coach Drew Sanders, who of course is
coming off wing a state championship. We'll join us here
in a few minutes, so we'll visit with Drew just
to talk about some of the off season things and
also the important things that have happened with his program,
and the importance of this dinner as well. All right,
Also in the four o'clock hour, we'll talk to Major

(03:11):
League Baseball. Geene Watson, our resident Baseball inside it from
the Chicago White Sox front office, will join us to
talk baseball. His team, by the way, is playing much
better too. We'll ask him about that. But we'll ask
him about the Rangers. They made a move certainly with
their coaching staff, and maybe it'd helped yesterday they kind

(03:31):
of broke out of an offensive slump and won their game.
The Astros had a bizarre game yesterday, got up and
then the White Sox came back and got a lead,
and then the Skies home it up, and the Rains
came to couldn't finish the ball game and went seven innings,
so rain shortened game to seven innings. White Sox were
the winners in that one. But we'll talk Major League Baseball,
with Gino coming up in the four o'clock hour as

(03:53):
well in between time. Also, what we will do is
take a look at the college baseball scene and the
college football scene too. Just about everybody is done with
and off of spring football practices, so a little bit
of an examination is in order of the programs that
will be doing that sort of things. We'll do that.

(04:16):
NBA playoffs continued yesterday and last night and over the weekend.
One side was finishing up, another side was getting started.
In the Eastern Conference. It was a little bit of
an eye opener, what with the Indiana Pacers beating the
top seed, the Cleveland Cavaliers in game one of their series.

(04:41):
And so it did. And it was Tyrese Halliburn, who
I think could be a players in their own confidential vote,
voted the most overrated player. But he had twenty two points.
He had thirteen assists, He added some big plays, had

(05:02):
some big plays on the defensive end. He had a
steal and three blocks, making the first player in Indiana
Pacers history to have that kind of production in a
playoff game. So Andrew Nemhard had twenty three points in
the ball game and the Pacers were able to take
advantage of the Cavaliers missing their all star Guardarius Garland

(05:25):
for a third straight game with that toe injury. So
they're probably going to be better once they get him
back on the floor, but until he gets until they
get him back on the floor, they're playing at a disadvantage.
Even with Donovan Mitchell, we had thirty three points in
the game, but the thirty three points here a little
bit of a misnomber. He was thirteen for thirty and

(05:47):
one of three. Let's see well, thirteen for thirty and
one of eleven from three point range. So that was
in the East. In the West, we saw Denver survive
the seven game series with the Los Angeles Clippers, and
that happened on Saturday to finish them off. Now tonight

(06:10):
Denver plays Oklahoma City. The thunder with the overall best record,
they've got home court advantage throughout the playoffs. Meanwhile, the
Minnesota Timberwolves had been sitting around catching their breath and
relaxing a little bit after beating the Lakers. They're playing
Golden State. How about this in the conference semifinal, you
have the sixth seed against the seventh seed. Because the

(06:33):
Lakers were a three seed and the Tea Wolves knocked
them out in five games. And last night the Rockets
had a real early lead and that was it and
the Warriors pretty much controlled that. The Warriors, remember, had
to win their way through the play in and did it.
And now they beat the Rockets last night in Houston

(06:53):
one three eighty nine to win that. So in the West,
their final four, the Seeds held the form the one
against the four Oklahoma City against Denver, and the bottom
part of that is the sixth seed in the seventh
seed Minnesota and Golden State. In the East, it's all
held to form. It's been chalk the Calves and Pacers,
even though the Pacers the four seed, took game one

(07:15):
and yesterday in Game two is tomorrow. Game one of
the other Eastern semifinal series is tonight. A lot of
folks really are looking forward to this one because anytime
it's Nick Celtics, it carries a little extra juice. The
two seed Boston the three seed New York, New York
finishing off Detroit the other night in six games. Boston's

(07:35):
been catching up on its rest after finishing off Orlando
in five, so that starts tonight Boston and New York,
and then in the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. What an
unbelievable weekend, especially Saturday and Sunday in the West. We'll
get to all of that, and the Dallas Stars advancement,
an incredible third period comeback. Now they play the one

(07:57):
seed in the West who had its own incredible Game
seven comeback, and it included overtime as well. So we'll
get to all of that and more coming up. You're
going to text the programming Texas. Text the text line,
text the word Texas followed by your question and comment
to eight one five to three zero. Standard Messaging and
Data HS may apply. And up next we'll visit Drew Sanders,

(08:20):
head coach of the Vandergriff Vipers, here on a Monday
on Am thirteen under the zone. Continue here on the
Monday afternoon at two fifteen. Glad to have you with
us here on the program And like I said, stay dry,
stay safe, all of those kinds of things. Hopefully things
are going well for you. The last several months could
probably not have gone much better for the Vandergrift Vipers

(08:42):
and won the school's first ever state championship meeting South
like Carolin win a six eight Division two title. Additionally,
last night, and I mentioned this at the top of
the program, the thirty third Annual Awards Dinner, the Greater
Austin Chapter for the National Football Foundation held its annual
awards banquet. It's athlete banquets, and had he had several

(09:04):
outstanding student athletes recognized, and we're gonna we'll get to
all of those and recognize all of them during the
course of the program. One of those, of course, was
wide receiver George Farley of Vandergrift. And this is an
example what I'm talking about. Here's the the bio on
him that as the MC I was working from him said,

(09:25):
and this just just this is really just the cliff
notes of him.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
He's headed to the University of Rochester to study business.
Academic and athletic accolades include first team All District, second
Team All State Honors, First Team All State Academic Honors,
Team Offensive MVP GPA of five point zero. In addition,
played baseball at a tremendous effort on the field the
other night against west Lake and the by district ground

(09:50):
elected to the leadership council at Vandergrift that's the kind
of guys that Drew Sanders gets an opportunity to coach
and he joins us on the on the hotline right now.
And when you got a lot of seven, you've got
several guys like that when you get there, I'm coaching
a little bit easier, doesn't it.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
Yeah, it really does.

Speaker 5 (10:08):
I just I tell people all the time, like the
kind of guys I coach are what keep me continually
at vandergriff It's just like I'm literally coaching the next
group of leaders of the world. I mean, these guys
are so I mean, I'm not dogging the guys I
grew up with in Mahea. Maybe a couple are listening
right now, but I mean, we just weren't built like this.

(10:28):
These guys are topping their class, their elite, elite athletes
and multi sport athletes, and they're going to go and
achieve great things. I mean, it's just it really is inspiring.

Speaker 4 (10:39):
I think that's a really great word.

Speaker 5 (10:41):
To use about the guys I get to coach. They
inspire me to be.

Speaker 6 (10:45):
Better every day because they're trying to be better every day.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
And when I was listing off George's outstanding athletes, I
mentioned the fact that he called what is the UIL
six A Division two record state championship as that eighty
four yard touchdown pass that that got your group even
there late in the first quarter. And that was a
pretty quick scoring drive for you. That was a pretty

(11:08):
important first score for you.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
Wasn't it really was.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
I mean, it just settled everything down for those that
haven't got a chance to do that. I mean, you
say you're relaxed, you say you're okay, but.

Speaker 6 (11:19):
It's the state championship, like it's the culmination.

Speaker 5 (11:22):
Of everybody's dreams, hopes, desires from the very first time
they strap on a helmet. And so, you know, we
we were anxious. I'm sure south Lake was to it
didn't show. It went right down and scored easily on
several several screens and then a nice throw by their
all you know whatever quarterback.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
He was amazing. And then so for us to be.

Speaker 5 (11:42):
Able to go down immediately and answer back.

Speaker 4 (11:44):
With like a kind of a fake lookie pay play.

Speaker 5 (11:47):
Or whatever you want to call it, where we act
like we're looking to the sideline, then we snap it
while the defense is looking. Just caught that corner flat foot,
and and and my quarterback, Miles C. Decki and George
Farley made it look easy.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah, out of bet Aufstin is bang bang here and
early in the ballgame you got it tied at that point.
The reason I also wanted to have you on to
talk about this several things. First of all, for folks
who didn't know, not only did Drew coach Vandergrift to
a state championship, it's first ever state football championship. As
the guy who's being the athletic coordinator on campus, so

(12:20):
your athletic programs overall across the board are having what
almost unparalleled success right now.

Speaker 5 (12:30):
Yeah, Yeah, we've never scored this many points in the
ul lone Star Cup. Lone Star Cup is what they
call it for, you know, all organizations of a school,
all kind of combined scores, and whoever is the best
school you.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
Win the Loan Start Cup.

Speaker 5 (12:43):
We won it in five A and fourteen and fifteen,
but since we moved to six A and sixteen, we
have been top ten pretty much every year. But it's
just hard to get that number one spot, and we
have have been doing a great job and I just
think it's such a credit to our school because.

Speaker 6 (13:01):
In our leadership because you know, a lot of the schools.

Speaker 5 (13:04):
If you look at the schools that typically win this,
they're single horse towns. You know, they're the West Lakes
of the world, the Allens of the world, the South
Lake Carols of the world, and so Highland Park multi
school district.

Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yes, Island Park.

Speaker 5 (13:16):
And to be able to accomplish what we've done is
even more impressive.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeah, no doubt. Let's see you named off. I think
everyone that's probably one multi argyle I guess would be
another one. There's a lot of those who have done that.
And so what does it take to have the totality
of an athletic program reached the kind of heights. I
speak from this perspective as the play by play voice
of a college program that's doing the same thing. Now

(13:42):
almost you're in, you're out. It was announced this morning
Texas has already clinched they all SEC Sports Championship up
there this year. Yeah, and they're in great position to
win the Director's Cup, which is the NCAA version of
what you just talked about about, the uil Loan Star Cup.
To be the best stobo athletic program in the nation
collegiate I think for the fourth time in five years

(14:04):
to do it, and I know the type of commitment
that it takes from the coaches and the athletic staff
and the athletic department and most importantly the student athletes.
And I would imagine it's the same for your group.
To be that annual contender for the Lone Star Cup
is to have a group of committed coaches as well

(14:25):
as student athletes, training staff, staff, everybody that's a part
of it.

Speaker 6 (14:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (14:30):
Yeah, I think that One of the things that's interesting
that people may not know listening is, you know, I
have been at vander since the very beginning, and so
it's a very unusual place for me because I got
a chance to hire every single coach, good or bad.

Speaker 4 (14:43):
You know, the bad stuff too.

Speaker 7 (14:44):
It comes on me.

Speaker 5 (14:45):
And I'm just really proud that I was able to
convince or hire the right people because obviously we have
right people leading the programs if every one of them
is being successful.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
You look at our volleyball.

Speaker 5 (14:56):
Program made final for our boys cross country finished second
in the state only the South Lake. Of course, the
girls soccer for third in the state. Boys won it.
You know, girls basketball won almost thirty games, and so
I think it's good people.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
Your golf program has also been good.

Speaker 6 (15:15):
Yes, golf program just finished a second in the state girls.

Speaker 5 (15:19):
Did you know you've got that? And then then you've
got very committed young people like these These kids here
are driven like they only they like you know, George
is a great example, but they're driven not just academically,
they're also driven athletically. They want to be the best

(15:39):
version of themselves. It's it's it's very cool to see.
So I think a combination of that is kind of how.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
We're here visiting with Drew Sanders, head coach of the
Vandergridt Vipers, the state champions in sixth A Division two.
You brought up something in it and I was thinking
about this yesterday and I've never asked you this before,
but but I ask you now. I remember, obviously when
you were a young coach starting out at Travis, and
I remember it's broadcasting the game on this radio station.

(16:06):
You got them to the playoffs and and of course
you were on the Riot. And then, like you said,
you started when Vandergriff started. You built the program from
the ground up. You've been there all the way through.
Could you have foreseen? And I'm not even talking about
the state championship, but I'm just saying, could you have
foreseen with what was available in the four points area,

(16:28):
the potential the possibility to have the sustained success that
you've had with football and that the athletic program has
had overall, but especially in your position to it because
a lot of coaches when they start out young coaches
have told me that I think I'll be here at
one place for two three years, and then I'll probably
find somewhere where I can build again, and then maybe

(16:50):
somewhere else. Could you have foreseen back then that you'd
all of a sudden become a Vandergriff lifer, so to speak.

Speaker 5 (16:58):
You know, that was my prayer. I remember visiting with
my wife, Janet. You know, we've been married twenty seven
years now to this point, but at that point we
were just hoping. We had moved a lot. You know,
we had moved a lot, probably six or seven times
in the first nine to ten years of my coaching career,
and we when we got to vander we just felt like,
what a wonderful place to be and what wonderful school,

(17:22):
and this could be.

Speaker 4 (17:23):
A great place to have our kids here graduate from here.

Speaker 6 (17:26):
And everything.

Speaker 5 (17:27):
So our prayer was that we could do that. But
on that's a double edged sword because you got to
win enough, and you got to treat people right. You've
got to do a lot of different things to you know,
continuing people to support you in our unique role, and
fortunately been able to do that and for us to
the second part of that is, did I think I
could sustain football success this long?

Speaker 4 (17:48):
You know?

Speaker 5 (17:48):
I looked at what Cedar Park had done and thought, man,
what a great program they have. So I figured if
they could do it, then it was possible that I
could do it. And then at that point, like Travis
was kind of doing some things there and Westlock, of
course is always good, but they were going to start
getting going here pretty quick. But so I kind of
felt like that it was I was going to be

(18:09):
get going against great competition, but if I could just
kind of hang for a couple of years, I did
feel like we could build this into something that that
could last a long time.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Okay, So now the flip side question of it not
to put you on the spot or anything. Can you
see yourself anywhere else at any point, even years down
the road, coaching anywhere else than at Vandergriff.

Speaker 5 (18:31):
Man, that's hard to picture. You know, that's really hard
to picture. I love Vandergriff. You know, I always tell people,
if you cut me open, I think I bled black
and silver. You know, somebody misspells Vandergriff, my blood starts boiling.
So you know, I've just been very fortunate to be
here and coach every single kid that's ever Warner, Vandergriff, Jersey.
I mean, what an amazing thing to be able to say,

(18:53):
at least in my heart, you know, to be able
to say that every single kid here I coach. You know,
it's been in the programs, So yeah, it's I don't know.
You know, there's been several different people over the years
that have talked to me about different things, and I
continually choose Vandergriff because of my community here. You know,
my principal is amazing, mister Charlie Lyttle. Our admin support

(19:14):
is tremendous. They really do support us well. The families.
I mean, man, I can't even begin to name all
of the families that just love Biber football. I'm going
to tell you when we went to State both different times,
we had just as many people are close to just
as many people as the Dallas school that we were playing,
and so there's a great contingency that's very supportive of

(19:37):
what we do and not only that but how we
do it and are very thankful.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
So you know, I'm locked in, all right.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
So since your lockdown, that leads me to this here,
I want to get from you an early thought about
your group with springball and what you have coming back
from the Follenwood and you know the difficulty of what
you have set up for your non district schedule and
what it ultimately means getting ready for the twenty twenty
five season.

Speaker 5 (20:03):
Well, I mean, we've we've got a lot of guys
back on offense, so that's always good. Starting with our quarterback,
you know, the state game, MVP Miles Tiadecki, and.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
So excited about that.

Speaker 5 (20:15):
One of our leading receivers brought Chiltern's back. I think
he almost had a thousand yards receiving. Three of my
offensive linemen, all of them all district, are back, So
it's such a you know that, it's such a great start.
Several other receivers have got the playing time, some running
backs that got some playing time last year, and so
that's a great.

Speaker 6 (20:35):
Start on the offensive.

Speaker 5 (20:36):
Defensively, we've got to kind of work kind of what
we do around here. You know, we the last three
or four years, we've replaced seven to eight starters every year.
That's our task again. But I do have some good
stuff to build it around. I got alignment that's back
that's going to do a really good job, Hugo to
Lavarra Vasquez. We've got a couple of linebackers back, so

(20:59):
that's great free safety back. So we've got about four
guys that started multiple games for us, and so we'll.

Speaker 6 (21:06):
We'll have enough.

Speaker 5 (21:06):
And then of course we we finished as district champs
or second place in the district again with all teams,
and so we've got some good talent coming up and
you would hope some some culture, uh you know, applies
to that and they can you know, understand what it
means to be a viper and play like that.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
This year, yeah, no doubt about another tough don district schedule.

Speaker 5 (21:30):
Yeah, yeah, we're the same as last year. Now who
knows what happens after that. You know, interesting thing, we've
got Cedar Park. Well, first of all, we tripped in
Cedar Park. Then we go into district, you know, because
HUDDO is now in our district, so as Manor. But
the interesting thing is, and then people may not know this,
but there's some moving of lines in the l I
SD and so we very likely could have some movement

(21:52):
from some five A land or I sed T teams up.

Speaker 6 (21:56):
To six A.

Speaker 5 (21:56):
So that could really change some things. So we're I'm
really interesting to see this next realignment and what happens
with that.

Speaker 6 (22:05):
You know, we could have rowse back up to six A.

Speaker 5 (22:07):
You know, Cedar Park is rumored possible, So it's going
to really change some things.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Wow, all right, looking forward to seeing how all of
that goes. The last thing I wanted to ask you
with regard to that is, in shall we say, the
advanced stage of my career of covering high school football,
what I have seen over the years is the most
successful programs at the largest classification, the most successful programs

(22:35):
are the ones who have had tremendous commitment from their
middle school programs, the feeder programs. We're running similar, if
not the identical systems offensively, defensively, the coaches being a
big part of that. I saw that up in the
Metroplex for years. I saw it happening with the West
Texas schools. I saw it happening obviously with West Lake

(22:57):
and Lake Travis and some of the others. Safe to say,
you have that type of investment from your middle school
programs and your staffs that that that work for you
in the in the middle school programs as well as
what you have on university staff.

Speaker 4 (23:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (23:11):
I went by to the middle schools just last week
and was talking to them and complimenting my two coordinators.
You know, I've had the same coordinators for almost a
decade each side, or longer than a decade in one
school and almost a decade in another school. Glenn Bridgewaters
and Seth Simmons, and those guys will you know, they
won't get famous probably one of these days coaching football,
but I will say they're famous to me and we

(23:32):
we could not do.

Speaker 4 (23:33):
Anything without them.

Speaker 5 (23:36):
These guys come up from their program, They come up
knowing all of our basics and and but the best thing,
they're tough and they also like get them to us.
You know, may some manytimes middle school coaches, you know,
they'll they'll accidentally run off a kid just by there,
you know, and maybe not being fair or just being
inexperience with things, and we had just a very experienced

(23:58):
staff because they're there's not a lot of people lining
up to be a middle school coach. It's a very
non glamorous job with not a lot of pay. And
so I'm very thankful for our staffs that have contributed.
They'll be getting championship rings here at our championship rings
ceremony coming up on the fifteenth.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
Excellent. And you would say that continuity within the coaching staff.
I've heard Sark talk about it other coaches. I mean,
that's a huge piece of sustain success in it.

Speaker 5 (24:26):
Yeah, I mean I hired an almost new and you
knew this, an entire.

Speaker 6 (24:30):
New offensive staff, and I can't.

Speaker 5 (24:31):
Tell you how thankful I am to them, but I
will tell you it was a lot of work because
I was always like I would have to tell them, no,
we don't do it like this, we do it like this,
and then I'd say, hey, I'd have to have meetings.
I'm like, all right, this is what this looks like.
This is what this looks like. And so it's great,
but at the same time, it's a lot and the
other guys that have been here, they know and they're
teaching people how we do things while it goes.

Speaker 4 (24:54):
But man, it's so nice when we can just go, all.

Speaker 5 (24:56):
Right, everybody ready for practice today. Are we good with
what we're installing? We've done this with for et cetera.

Speaker 6 (25:01):
Et cetera.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
That's terrific. The other thing that I needed to mention, obviously,
I loved how Glenn West and the Texas High School
Coach Association ambushed you in the middle of work either
to present you, present you with a Coach of the
Year award thing you didn't know that was coming.

Speaker 5 (25:18):
No idea, no idea. I mean, that was really cool.
That was really cool. I had no idea.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
I love the video of that, the look on your
face about.

Speaker 6 (25:27):
What a lot of people out there too, Yeah, it was.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
It was very cool. Hey, I appreciate you taking the time.
Congratulations on that and the continued success of the Football Pro.
We'll visit again before we get going for the And
by the way, you kind of launch into your duties
as president, don't you the THC.

Speaker 4 (25:49):
Yeah, yeah, I bet you'll be.

Speaker 6 (25:50):
There at some point.

Speaker 5 (25:51):
But yes, we July seventeenth or eighteenth, something like that,
and all of a sudden, I'm president. So I think
you may have to call me O presidente or something.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Ever, once in a while, you'll get it. You'll get
it for sure. Hey, I appreciate the time. Thanks a lot,
and I will see a coaching schol Okay, I'll see there. Thanks,
all right. Thanks. That's Drew Sanders, head coach of the
Vandergridt Vipers. And with all the hard work comes the accolades.
Like he said, and Drew is no different from a
lot of successful coaches who say the old thing, it's

(26:23):
amazing the success that can happen when no one cares
who gets the credit. That kind of thing. That's how
that program is. That's how a lot of the programs
in the area are. Right now is Vandergrift's time because
they've had done really well and they've won to stay
title and they've been highly decorated and all that stuff
well deserved. So it's and it's a busy time. And

(26:45):
I'm sure Drew would say that, you know, the more
difficult challenge will be to stay on top. And that's
that's the charge they have going into twenty twenty five,
all right, going into the next segments up next, I'm
thirteen under the zone second hour, of the program on
AM thirteen under the Zone, Craig, wait with you on
a Monday rainy after. I'm looking outside now it looks

(27:08):
like the rain has almost stopped out here by the
iHeart Compound, hard by the Pennypacker Bridge and you know,
a stride Lake Austin. So good to be with you
on and Monday alongside the producer, and that would be
Ronald Savage Junior. Cameron Park will be back tomorrow on

(27:30):
this coming up in a few minutes, the impact of
the weekend in college baseball nationally inside the SEC and
also as it affects the Texas Longhorns as well, So
that is coming up, and some college football notes as
well coming up this hour, last hour, first hour of

(27:52):
the program. Drewce Handers, the head coach of the Vandergredt Vipers,
was on with us. It was kind of a little
bit of tribute to him in his program for what
he's done, but also to get people caught up on
some things. And one of the things I mentioned, it's
a very important thing that's done here every year, the

(28:14):
National Football Foundation's Greater Austin Chapter and its Scholar Athlete Banquet,
and we had that last night on the UT campus.
And you know this, this goes back years. I mean
Bruceter Andrews is the founding president. Noble Doalls Senior was
a founding board member along with Myne senior, Fred Boemar,

(28:36):
James Saxton's senior Jim is on the board now also
Frank deinius A, Marian Doser, Ron, Franklin, Eddie, Joseph Bill
Little now Matthews, all of whom have passed, but they
were initially in on the ground floor of the mission
of the National Football Foundation in the Austin Chapter, which

(28:58):
was to promote and develop the power of amateur football
in developing the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and
the drive for academic excellence in America's young people. And
there's a large representation of former long worn football players

(29:22):
who are in the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame.
Those who are deceased include Hub Bechdel coach, Dana Bible,
Bobby Lane, Budd McFadden, Tommy Nobus coach, Darl Royal, James
Saxton Senior, Harley Sewell, Kenneth Simms who we just recently lost,

(29:42):
Budd Sprague and Harrison Stafford. Those are individuals who are
no longer with n Steve McMichael as well, And so
those are ones who are no longer with us. Then
there are those who are very much with us, and
they're in the College Football Hall of Fame, Coach Mac Brown,
Earl Campbell, the Lost Dodds, Doug English, who serves on

(30:05):
the Board of Directors along myself and several others, Chris Gilbert,
Jerry Gray, Derek Johnson, Johnny Johnson, Roosevelt Leaks, Bob McKay,
Jerry Sizemore, Ricky Williams, and Vince Young and Michael Hoff
will be enshrined this fall in Las Vegas at the

(30:28):
awards banquet. So that's a good thing. And then in
addition to that there's all manner of recognition for these
scholar athletes. There was also the dk R Coaching Legends
Award that was handed out Jerry Vance, who many remember

(30:49):
what a great job he did at Liberty Hill and
won back to back three A state championships in two
thousand and six. In two thousand and seven he was
awarded the dk ARE Coaching Legends Award as well. And
then additionally there was the Textcasts and Sportsmanship award that
went to Austin High for their efforts as well. And

(31:14):
then there were the scholar athletes themselves who were honored.
Many of these everybody earned us some gifts, some very
nice certificates. Because their names are listed in the National
Football Foundation's College Hall of Fame, that's a given. Then. Additionally,

(31:39):
there were eleven one thousand dollars scholarships handed out and
three twelve hundred dollars scholarships handed out. And that's part
of this mission of what we do with the Austin
Chapter every year is to honor these outstanding student athletes.
So here are the ones who were honored this year.
This is the list, going in large ley alphabetic order

(32:00):
by the school. Jamari and Carter of Akens, Ed Small
of Anderson, Will Peeler from Austin High, Andy mccarriss of bastrov,
John Martino of Bowie, Owen Renter of Cedar Park, Jackson
Mills of Dripping Springs, Austin Castro from Eastside Early College,
Jackson Claulas of Elgin, Devin Sedwick of Georgetown, Pierce Lowman

(32:25):
of Hendrickson, Ali Scott of LBJ was also part of
that great track finish on Saturday at the UIL State
Track Meet, Tristan Tell of Lago Vista, Cameron chance Brooks
of Lake Travis, Calvin Kessler from Leander, Marcus Maldonado from Lehman,
Garrett Lindren from Liberty Hill, Nathaniel Gonzales from Lockhart, Mark

(32:46):
Sanchez of McCallum, Joshua Williams of McNeil, sin k Keara
of Northeast Early College, Keelan Thompson of Flugerville, William Long
of Agents, Call Dodds of Round Rock, Mason Rieger of Ralse,
Michael Martinez of Stony Point, Jordan Travis excuse me, Jordan

(33:08):
Davis of Travis, George Farley of Vandergriff ben At Wilkin
of Westlake, Kyas McCoy of Westwood, Rees Brooks from Cedar Ridge,
and read Line Weber of Wimberly. That's the honoree class
of twenty twenty five. So congratulations to that group outstanding
young men with some incredible accolades that were detailed at

(33:32):
the awards banquet last night. So that was something that
we do every year, that awards banquet, and then I
always congratulate the winners for that on the air for
what they do. Also, congratulations to Greg Popovitch. Pop did
call it a career. He will transition into a team
president role. But today Pop spoke publicly for the first

(33:58):
time really since suffering the stroke six months ago, and
at the news conference where the Spurs formally introduced his replacement,
the new head coach, Mitch Johnson, who had been the
interim head coach while Pop was out, but now he
is the permanent head coach, and Pop pretty much said

(34:21):
the time was right to make the move. His quote was,
things are getting better by the day, but it's not
good enough for what we plan ahead, so it's time
to make this change. Tim Duncan was there, Monuginobli was there.
Pop did speak, They said a little more softly than
he has in the past, but he said his health
is improving and that he fully believes in Johnson. Popovitch

(34:44):
is going to remain with the Spurs, his team president
in the leadership of the team, which includes r. Cbu
for the CEO and the general manager Brian Wright. That
isn't changing, and Pop says the team's ideals won't change either.
The quote was, that's the goal to make sure we
keep it going. Adding he will do everything he can
to help Johnson going forward. He took off a jacket

(35:07):
before he brought Johnson to the podium and he had
a T shirt on with his new title. As he says,
el Heatha, the Spanish phrase for the boss. He said,
I'm no longer coach, I'm l Heatha. So Johnson said,
I'm I'm honored by this opportunity and even more humbled
by the people that I'll be able to partner with

(35:29):
and serve as well. So uh and and uh. Victor
Wemballana was there as well. The managing partner, Peter Holtz,
spoke to the news conference and Johnson talked about He said,
I can't be him or el Heathe, he said, but

(35:52):
to be able to commit and invest in people and
relationships they could be having. That could be having to
yell and hold some on account. That can be to
put your armor on someone's shoulder and love them. And
he did it better than anybody that's ever walked the sidelines,
and I will attempt to do it my way, whatever
that looks like going forward. Of course, Pop is the
NBA's all time wins leader as well, so good news there.

(36:17):
Pop also thanked several of those who were involved in
his rehabilitation, some of whom were at the news conference
that was at the training facility at the rocket Lineka Terra,
and he talked about Tim Duncan and Minu Genobli. He said,
Timmy and mine, who have been here for all of
my workouts here at the Rock, they say it's because
they love me and they want to be there in

(36:38):
case a fall and they want to catch me. That
sort of thing, I call it payback. They give the
rehab people new ideas for things to do to me.
They're not fooling anybody as well. So he thanked former
players and coaches for being there, and he noted that
everyone in the Spurs organization, including the in game time
out performers, those in the ticket office, the custodians, windows washers,

(37:00):
and everybody else plays a role in their success. He
also allotted the fans for the years of support and
vowed that the Spurs won't let them down. We all
have a part in this. It's not just the players
and the coaches. So uh and Johnson said that the
core principles that the Spurs have of doing things the
right way, honoring continuity, always welcoming former players back in

(37:24):
the full will remain in place, he said, the theme
of the book isn't changing. So again, God speed going
forward for Greg Popovich as el hefe as the team president,
and to Mitch Johnson, the new head coach. All right,
up next we shifted college baseball and uh the what

(37:45):
was the what was the movie that was so popular?
I guess it was back in uh the eighties, called
the Remains of the day. All right, so the remains
of the weekend, the things that happened to the long
Horn baseball program and the college baseball because Texas was
not the only team that was highly ranked that took

(38:07):
a shot or two over the weekend. And that is
why from the Texas perspective, the poll ranking remained unaltered
in some not all. We'll talk about all that coming
up when we continue on thirteen under the zone. Glad
you're with us on the money afternoon here on thirteen

(38:30):
under the Zone. A couple of responses here to some
questions and posts on the text line. Somebody said, weren't
a number of horses directly linked the secretariat and then
followed up by saying, in fact, every horse, every horse
that was in that field had some sort of and

(38:53):
you're right, it dependent on the particular bloodline of the
may with regard to the sire blah blah blah, so
and so forth, that kind of stuff. What was said
about sovereignty was that it was a direct line descendancy.
It's a secretariat, a fifth generation, you might say, whatever, descendancy.

(39:19):
And I certainly do not pretend to be an authority
on the sport of kings, the science of the equine,
but that's in the stories and things and reports that read.
That's what I saw there. Okay, to the person who
said el hefe means the chief, because that's in response
to the Greg Popovich t shirt, l hefe said I'm

(39:40):
the boss and he said the chief. Pull it up.
Dictionary dot com says the definition for he fa Spanish
means leader, chief or boss. He said he was the boss.
In Spanish speaking countries, it's a military or political leaders
leader chief. So as the phrase goes, it is possible

(40:03):
for both things to be true. There on that, So
glad you have you. And then there was somebody this
is from this morning This wasn't from the afternoon show.
And I don't know if somebody was just grumping because
they hadn't had their coffee, or or maybe didn't know
the background on all of this. It said, for far
too long, the University of Texas serves as some other

(40:25):
teams steppingstone the greatness. Now, what's happened in beach volleyballs?
He's he was national champion thanks to Texas, thanks a
lot long horns. You just lost to a bunch of
toads and cockroaches. And if you don't know what I'm
talking about, go back to nineteen sixty one Southwest Conference
football and Darrel Royle's posting comments after his team lost
to TCU and see national championship hopes go up and smoke.
He did in nineteen sixty one. He said, it's not

(40:48):
that cockroaches are a threat to kill you whatever, It's
just they get in and mess up things or something
that went on to that. Now, with regard to the
person who texted that, either your tongue was in your cheek,
which I hope that was the case, OVA's tongue in cheek,
or you just didn't follow what was going on in
beach volleyball. This was the first year that Texas was

(41:10):
even eligible to compete in the NCAA Tournament in beach volleyball.
They just started up the program. TCUs had the program
for several years, and they finally won a national championship.
They had been coming up short in the past few years.
For Texas to win not only get to its first
ever NCAA tournament, to win its conference tournament title, get

(41:32):
into the NCAA tournament and then advanced to the quarterfinals
before falling to the eventual national champions has nothing to
do with being a stepping stone to somebody else's greatness.
The advancement of this program that Stein Metzger did this
past year was incredibly impressive watch and given what they'll

(41:56):
have coming in in the future, I think they're going
to be a national player for you, just like rowing
what they've done with a couple of national titles. Beach
volleyball is definitely trending upwards. So hopefully the Texter was
just kind of fun and around and that's the case.
That's cool, I get it. Otherwise, I think it's kind

(42:18):
of important to do a little research on that before
you kind of make that kind of that kind of
caw because this is a program that's come a long
way in a short amount of time. Okay, Now I
wanted to get to college baseball and get to the

(42:40):
results of the weekend. Texas, of course, losing all three
games to Tar Kansas nine to nothing on Friday night
where just a tremendous job by Root and what he
did at Texas only managed two hits against Arkansas pitching
on Friday. Saturday a lot more of the same, but

(43:01):
it was a little more self inflicted. And then Sunday
was very much self inflicted. Even though the long run
bats came alive. They scored eight runs. That should be
enough to win pretty much any baseball game, but not
against an Arkansas team that's going to take advantage of
your mistakes, meaning the walks, the hip batters, in short,
the free passes. It makes a difference. And this is

(43:24):
how much of a difference it made in the course
of the weekend. There's no doubt that this I think
was going to be one of the big things. There
were thirty one free passes. Get I think the final
total was twenty two walks and nine hip batters, thirty

(43:45):
one free passes. This was a team, by the way,
Texas that was second in the nation and Era going in,
So that's important to keep in mind. Now, Arkansas scored
twenty eight runs of the weekend. Fourteen of the runs,
half half the total were scored by players who either
walked or were hit by a pitch. Because what it

(44:07):
did was it set in motion the offense to then
follow up with their bangers to hit home runs. And
the long runs had home runs. Jalen Fores had a
couple well, Gasparino had won on Saturday, but Arkansas had
an early two run homer. Then they had two more

(44:30):
two run homers in a four run fourth, and so
they had six runs off three two run homers, and
then they wound up getting six more runs off a
pair of three run homers before they ended up adding
one late run as well. So and it's not to
put it all on the pitching either, because the bats,
like I said, really struggled on Thursday night and Friday night,

(44:53):
the first two nights of the weekend. So it was
a team shortcoming, if you will. So what does it
mean in the grand scheme of things? What is it?
First of all, let's let's do the micro and then
out to the macro, the micro being the sec Arkansas
with the sweep of Texas picked up three games on

(45:14):
the conference standings. This is why, going coming off of
the sweep of Texas A and M last weekend and
Arkansas dropping two out of three at Florida, that it
was pointed out that Texas had built a cushion, some insurance,
some padding, and that they might well need it. And

(45:37):
they do and have needed it as a result of
what happened this past weekend. Now, if you're asking me
if I thought the Long Words were going to get swept,
I would have said no. If you're asking me, did
I expect them to lose the series, I would have
said I don't know. Depends on what happens with the
third starter. It depends on what happens to I would
not have thought that there would have been thirty one

(45:58):
free passes a huge factor in the game, in the
games throughout the course of the weekend. So the insurance,
the padding that they needed at that league atop the
SEC standings has largely been utilized now because Arkansas has

(46:18):
closed within two games, so there's really only two games over. However,
there are only six remaining conference games. Long Runs have
seven games left in the regular season Tomorrow evening they
host Lamar, a good Lamar team that is thirty seven
and fourteen, but the team is not going to win
the Southern Conference, believe it or not. The team that
almost certainly is going to win the Southern Conference is

(46:40):
a team the long Rune Run ruled earlier this season.
Ut Rio Grand Valley UTRGV has a really good RPI,
as does UTSA, which is going to win the American
Conference title, and of course UTSA owns win over Texas.
RGV does not. But ut RGV is probably gonna win

(47:04):
the South and Conference and are in the driver's seat
to do that. But Lamar can pick up another RPI
building win if they can come up with a win
over the Longhorns tomorrow night, and and they're in the
league where by and large, the conference tournament champion is
usually not always, but the majority of the time, the

(47:28):
college the conference tournament champion is the one that winds
up winds up getting the only bid from that league.
This year. In both the Southland and the Sun Belt,
there's a good chance there could be multiple representatives in
both of those. So, for example, if you look at
today's RPI, Texas did because of the sweep series loss

(47:52):
to Arkansas fall from the number one spot to number two.
We would talk about the value of the row and
what it means. Georgia played a series at Missouri. They
swept Missouri. Missouri is o and twenty four in SEC play,

(48:13):
but Georgia picked up enough rowed RPI points to move
past Texas into the number one spot even th other
four games back in the long runs. In the standings,
Vanderbilt is third, Auburn is fourth, Arkansas's fifth. Here's Arkansas
getting three wins of the number one RPI team in
the country and they could only settle in at number five.

(48:35):
They went up from seven to five because of playing
at home. Florida State is six, Clemson seven and LSU
was eight, North Carolina nine, and Oregon State is ten.
Alabama's thirteen, Tennessee is fourteen. Florida will come in probably
at number fifteen in the RPI. That's where they are
right now. Ole miss salvaging one win at Oklahoma is seventeen.

(48:58):
Oklahoma is twenty two. UTSA, by the way I mentioned,
is they're twenty one in the RPI right now. So
all of those things matter. Texas A and M took
a big step four. They're up to thirty five now
in the RPI and in really good shape nowt to
land a spot if they don't win the automatic bid

(49:21):
in the SEC tournament to land an at large spot
as well. So those things are out there. But with
regard to the SEC standings and what the long Wrorns
have to deal with right now, they have a two
game lead on Arkansas with six to go. Here's the
way it lays out for Texas. One home series remaining

(49:43):
and then one road series remaining. The home series is
against Florida, a surging Florida Gator team. And I say surging,
this is still a team that's eleven and thirteen in
conference play, but they won four in a row. Then
they'll probably win their midweek tomorrow night and then come
in having won five straight. Texas holds a two game

(50:05):
edge on Arkansas and then tied for third four games
back er Georgia and LSU teams against whom the Longhorns
own the tiebreaker if it gets to that, having won
the series against both. They swept Georgia and they took
two out of three from LSU. Tennessee is then next
at fourteen and ten, along with Vanderbilt, then Alabama, Auburn, Ole,

(50:27):
miss and Oklahoma are all thirteen to eleven in the league.
Florida eleven and thirteen. Kentucky, Mississippi State, and Texas, A
and M are all ten and fourteen. Then South Carolina
five and nineteen in Missouri ish and twenty four. As
I mentioned, for those who say, well, and I saw
this a lot on social media, it was expected that,
you know, once he got on the road, played a
tough team on the road. Then Texas showed its true

(50:51):
colors and got swept. Well, it's definitely difficult to win
on the road at that place. It's probably difficult to
win on the road at most places in the sea.
My only additional thought, and I understand where that perspective
comes from, and I do not disagree with it, but
I think it's important from a balance perspective to point

(51:11):
out with If that is so important, then tell me
why teams like Arkansas, Georgia, LSU, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Texas, A,
and M all have had struggles at times at home.

(51:31):
The only one who has it is Texas. They've only
lost one conference game at home and that was their
conference home opener against LSU SO and overall or twenty
four and three at home. Tennessee has lost seven home games,
including losing two conference series at home Auburn over the
weekend and Kentucky and Texas A and M. Six of

(51:54):
their seven losses at home have come in series losses
as well. So if you can't protect your home field,
what does that say about your program as well? I
think it's important to examine both sides of both sides
are correct and have merit. I think it's important to
point that out. All right, coming up, I'll tell you

(52:15):
what it means in terms of the national perspective and
the polls. We'll do that when we continue on thirteen
under the zone. All right, Before I go further, I
just want to tell folks that I know a lot
of people know someone or a group of people that

(52:37):
run a small business. And this is National Small Business Week,
so hopefully it goes well for those who small business.
It's a big part of obviously what are economy is
all about, and really what the US is all about
as well. So congratulations all the small business owners out there,

(53:00):
owners and operators as well. Hopefully it goes well for you.
All Right, there's There's something else that I've wanted to
get to, and that is you know, we try to
give away things on the program whenever possible. So for
those of you who are in two let's just say

(53:22):
the metallic side of the music scene. And I wasn't
talking about metallic in specific, but throughout the course of
this week, you can have a chance to win a
pair of tickets to see Judas Priest and Alice Cooper.
Now that's some rock and roll legends. They're they're performing

(53:44):
in October on the twenty fifth at the Germanian Insurance Amphitheater.
And if you want to have an opportunity to win
a parent tickets that here's what you got to do.
First of all, if you don't already have the iHeartRadio
app downloaded on your smartphone, go ahead and do that

(54:05):
because it's free, it's easy to download, and that's your
pathway to being in the hunt to try to win
a pair of tickets, not only for this show. Maybe
this particular program or this particular concert doesn't appeal to you,
but someone else might. We give a lot of country
music artists shows tickets to those and other ones as well,

(54:26):
so we usually throw in quite a bit of variety
on that. So here's what you do. Download the iHeartRadio app,
the new and improvement if you haven't already done it,
and then once you have it downloaded, you search AM
thirteen hundred the zone. You just put that in the
search bar comes right up, and when it comes up,
you'll see two buttons there. One is a white arrow button,

(54:54):
and that's if you just want to listen to what's
going on in the air, you push that. The other
one is a white button, but it's got a red
microphone in it, and you tap that button and that
activates our talkback feature, and then you leave us a
voice message up to thirty seconds. That had to be
thirty seconds, it'll be ten seconds or whatever. Just say, hey,
I heard on the Craigway Show about that Alice Cooper

(55:14):
Judas Priest concert and that I'm supposed to give you
the keyword to be entered in it. Today's keyword is
live or live live, so you can say live or live.
So there it is. That's today's keyword there. So that's too.

(55:35):
When at pair of tickets, download that iHeartRadio app, search
AM thirteen under the zone, tap that red microphone button.
And tell them here's my message. I want to be
in the drawing. And the keyword today is live, l ive,
or live however you want to say it. So there
it is, and we'll have another one. We'll have one
every day this week. All right, I told you I

(55:58):
would let you know what the impact from the NASH
perspective was on the polls. First thing you need to
know is that the Loghorns, in terms of national rankings,
of course, they went into the week into the weekend
number one in the country. They're still number one in
the country, at least in the D one baseball dot

(56:18):
Com rankings. You say, how does that happen? Well, there
was other attrition that happened, including LSU dropping two out
of three to A and M. They dropped one spot
from two to three. Florida State took two of three
from prior number to Clemson and moved up three spots
from five to two. North Carolina LSU is third. They

(56:39):
dropped one spot in North Carolina held it spot at
number four. Oregon moved up a spot from six to five.
Georgia moved up three spots from nine to six. Arkansas.
Where's Arkansas? You said, then, they just sweep Texas. Yes,
they were ranked eleventh. Remember they dropped three consecutive conference series.
They dropped four spots to number seven. Auburn went up
a couple of spots to number eight. Clemson fell three

(57:00):
third to ninth. Oregon State rounds out the top ten.
Vanderbilt is eleven, followed by West Virginia, u C Irvine
Coastal Carolina, Tennessee is fifteenth. NC State, Oklahoma is seventeenth,
up four spots. Then it's UCLA, Troy, and Louisville in
the final five. Southern Miss, Arizona, Alabama, Ole Miss, and

(57:20):
UFC Kansas fell out of the time. So Texas is
still number one in D one baseball, which is normally
viewed as being kind of the leader on those bowl
But there's other polls as well, and that also includes
on three their rankings. They kept Texas at number one.
It said talking about the struggle at Arkansas, Texas does

(57:47):
hold firm at number one because they had some cushion
when we spoke of that cushion. Florida State is second,
LSU third, North Carolina fourth, Oregon is fifth, Georgia number six,
Arkansas number seven, Roburn eight, Clemson nine, Oregon State ten.
That's identical there to D one Baseball's rankings. Then the

(58:08):
National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association rankings are also pretty widely respected,
and they dropped Texas from the number one spot to
the number two spot and moved to Arkansas past them
to number one. So Arkansas, according to the NCBWA is

(58:31):
the new number one team Texas to LSU, third in
North Carolina, Florida State, Clemson, Georgia, Tennessee, Oregon State, and
Oregon rounding out the top ten. Other SEC schools, Auburn
is twelve, Oklahoma fourteen, Olms fifteen, Vanderbilt sixteen, Alabama eighteen,

(58:51):
and that's the other And by the way, Dallas Baptists
still in that poll at number twenty five. So DBU
could be one of those schools that could could conceivably
come to Austin as a two seed for regional if
not maybe TCU. I would imagine that when we see
the regional projections this week that tc will drop out

(59:14):
of a host spot after dropping to a three to
Arizona over the weekend, but still in contention to host,
and I think the same can be said for Dallas Baptists.
For DBU. I think those two programs are the ones
that have the best chance in the state of Texas
other than Texas, of being able to host a regional
those two as far as other teams wanted to get

(59:37):
into the tournament field. Baylor had some damage done to
it by dropping two out of three in its series
to Arizona State, and that hurt the Bears hopes they may,
you know, maybe if they sweep their last two series.
They have Oklahoma Stated at home this weekend, and then
they have an RPI, believe it or not, an RPI

(01:00:00):
building game when they host UTRGV next week. I mentioned UTRGV,
a team that Texas beat earlier this year eleven to four.
Ut Rio gram Valley is actually thirty one in the
RPI and probably going to win the Southland Conference. Baylor's
RPI right now is sixty three, so they're in need
of RPI building wins just to build a resume for

(01:00:21):
consideration as an at large if they don't win the
Big Twelve tournament in Arlington. So that's how it is
in terms of other schools from the state of Texas
who have a shot. Again in UTSA we mentioned is
probably going to win the American and their arepis like
twenty one. They stend a great chance to be in
the field, whether they win the American Conference Tournament or not.

(01:00:42):
I think UTRGV is still probably in the situation where
they may need to win or at least get to
the finals of the Southland Conference tournament to be considered
for an at large birth if they don't win the
tournament title. All right, so there's a look at the
national scene on college baseball. We'll be back on thirteen
under the Zone, third and final hour, another broadcast day

(01:01:03):
here on this program on AM thirteen hundred of the Zone.
Craig Way with you alongside the producer today is Ronald
Savage Junior. Cameron Park will be back tomorrow, glad to
have you with us, and coming up in a few minutes,
we will discuss some Major League baseball and talk with
Geene Watson from the Chicago White Sox front office. Somebody

(01:01:27):
asked me, are you going to the Tadashi Trucks Band
concert Thursday. I am already booked for another engagement on Thursday,
but I would have to tell you that I'm at
a disadvantage here. You would have to tell me a
little more about the Tadashie. That's if I'm pronouncing it correctly,

(01:01:47):
Tadashee or Tadashi trucks band concert and where is it
on Thursday. I'm a little bit curious about that, now
that you mentioned that. I try to keep an open mind,
if possible, with regards to various musical influences, bands, artists,

(01:02:11):
things like that. I mentioned this the other day. When
we get to the summer is when we reopen the
music survey and we have different folks doing the music survey.
I'm telling Ronald I produce of this because Cameron Parker,
City's really curious to have you take the music survey.

(01:02:32):
We're all we all do it and it's it's just
a list of questions where well, for example, I'll tell
you what the the list of questions are and and
and he goes in this order. Band or artist I hate.
I always say hate is kind of a strong word there.
I mean, you know, for me to say a band

(01:02:54):
or artist, I air supply by the way. Uh you know,
it's just it's one that when you hear it the
band or artists, you immediately change the station or something
like that. Okay, so band or artists you hate. UH,
band or artists you think is overrated. Band or artists
you think is underappreciated. Band are Now these next four

(01:03:17):
are ones that could all mean the same thing. But
with the survey, you're only allowed to use one band
or artist one time, so you can't say, you know,
Beatles and then Paul McCartney. So Wings was a separate
band that McCartney was in and we would allow that.

(01:03:37):
But you know, so band artists I think is unappreciated.
But these next four band or artists I love. Band
or artists I can listen to over and over. Band
are artists that made me fall in love with music,
and band are artists that change my life. It's four
different questions, but in my case, there's probably one or two,

(01:04:00):
two or three artists that could fit any one of those,
and so that all goes into it as well. Okay, Uh.
Then there's banded artists that surprised me. Then your guilty
pleasure band or artists one that you probably don't tell
people that you really enjoyed listening to. UH. I mean
that you enjoyed, but they might not. Band or artists

(01:04:20):
that surprised me. I said that band or artists I
should have seen by now. For me, that was Beyonce
when I did the when I did the survey the
first time back a few years ago. We're gonna re
up it and everybody's gonna do it and then uh
a great band or artist to see live. So that's
the music survey, and we'll have that coming that's starting

(01:04:40):
next month where all of us are going to take
the survey that includes Mike Card, Bull Harge, Mark, Henry
uh and and and we get all of our producers
to do it as well. So we'll present that to you, Ronald.
That'll that'll be coming up next month. We'll do that
as well with the music survey. So that's I say.
I like to keep an open mind when somebody asked

(01:05:03):
me a question, like, for example, the Tadashi Trucks band concert.
So you'll have to educate me on that, all right.
I want to educate myself on this, but it might
educate some other folks on things. I mentioned this right
at at the start of the show. I said I
would get to this and if you are a star Wars, geek, nerd,

(01:05:31):
whatever term you want to ascribe to it, and I
fit the category, by the way, and you're into obviously
all nine of the feature films, but maybe you're into
the series as well. One thing that's come up with
this and or that just came on recently, and there's
been The Mandalorian, and there's been their other series, the

(01:05:55):
Rebels series. All these is where it all fits in
the timeline, Where it all fits in the constructive list
of when it started all the way to its last
installment in terms of, you know, the birth and the
growing up of Luke Skywalker and then ultimately as the

(01:06:16):
older the older Statesman of the Jedi and all that
sort of things and all the other support characters. And
I've had people say, well, where exactly does Rogue one
fit in terms of a film? Where does that fit
in the timeline? We know what happens before what we
came to no as Star Wars. It's really called a
New Hope is the actual tit. It's episode four in

(01:06:39):
the deal, but we all knew it in nineteen seventy seven,
May fourth, May the fourth be with you, But it
came out in nineteen seventy seven, and that's that's when
it was released, and that was what is now known
in the three trilogies, as at theisode four A New Hope,

(01:07:02):
but we all knew it as Star Wars. Okay, So
the question came out and a lot of folks said,
well where does everything fit? Well, this was one that
came from wishes and wayfinding how to watch every Star
Wars movie and series in order. Now there's two different

(01:07:22):
orders to watch, one in the release order. I know
a lot of people that would just assume watch it
in the release order. Me and maybe this is my
OCD at work here. I'm more into the chronology of it,
so I would like to see things as it developed
in the chronology. So if you want to know, this

(01:07:43):
is how it would go in this order. The first
would be The Acolyte, then would be The Phantom Menace,
then Attack of the Clones. So you got the first
two movies and then you get to the Clone Wars series,
Slash and movie on that, then Revenge of the Sith,

(01:08:04):
then a series called The Bad Batch, then Solo, then
Obi Wan Kenobi series, Star Wars Rebels, and or Rogue
one A New Hope. That's the one that I like,
I said, we all got to know is Star Wars

(01:08:24):
Really it's a New Hope. Now that's twelfth in line
in the chronology by the way Empire Strikes Back, Return
of the Jedi, then The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba,
fet Skeleton Crew, Ahsoka, Star Wars, Resistance, then the last
three movies in the third trilogy, The Force Awakens, The

(01:08:45):
Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker. So it you
know it follows all the way from starting to end.
For example, it said this obviously follows the movies as
the story plays out, starting from Anakin Skywalker's humble beginnings
on Tatoeine and The Phantom Menace to Ben Solar's tragic

(01:09:06):
death in the Rise of Skywalker. With chronological viewing, you
have more context going into each movie. For example, you
understand how Darth Vader became the villain, and therefore you
appreciate him returning to the light side before he dies.
If he didn't watch the prequels before the original trilogy
or trilogy, Vader's death doesn't hit you as hard. So

(01:09:27):
but then there's also a way you can watch it
in release order as well, starting with a New Hope
all the way back in nineteen seventy seven to Skeleton
Crew in twenty twenty four. So anyway, so that's if
you need a little guidance on there, there's a way
to do that to figure that out right. Up next,
we go back to baseball and Major League Baseball, and

(01:09:47):
we'll visit with Geene Watson from the Chicago White Sox
front office to talk about paint, the rise of the
White Sox, they've been playing better of late, and a
lot more. We'll talk MLB topics when we continue on thirteen.
Under the zone, so trainy and wet, cloudy and murky
and damp and all that stuff here in the Greater
Roston area. Bet it's not where Gene Watson is. He

(01:10:10):
joins us from the desert out from Phoenix on the hotline. Now,
it did rain a couple of weeks ago out there
in Arizona. I don't know if that means they won't
get any more rain for two more years, but GINO,
I would imagine it's hot and sunny out in the
Valley of the Sun.

Speaker 3 (01:10:25):
It is a beautiful day, and after a cold, rainy
weekend in Saint Louis, it's great to be out here
and looking forward to being I actually was worried about
it this morning and forgot that we play indoors.

Speaker 7 (01:10:35):
Out here, so it's not into at all, so that
it'd be a great week.

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
One of the biggest surprises of my baseball ballpark experiences,
and I've said this on the air before. You of course,
have been to every major league park, and I think
every minor league park in America. And I've been to
all of the all of the major league parks that
were built in nineteen seventy or later except for five

(01:11:01):
of the newer group, and I'll try to get to
one or two more of those this year. But one
of the biggest surprises ever got was when I went
to a game at Chase Field and I went with
my youngest son, Jason. We were driving back from LA
to Phoenix and then we were going to fly home
and we go to the game, and I was visiting

(01:11:25):
with Tim Healy, the Arizona State play by play voice,
a long time friend. But he was absolutely amazed, and
so that meant I had to be absolutely amazed. There
was a game in June, in June in Phoenix and
the roof was open. He said that never happens here.
And it was about ninety five I think out which
was for June. That's pretty good for Arizona was actually

(01:11:48):
pretty pleasant. They had the ac blow and fuller last
I guess it was all right. It wasn't too bad.
So it's a beautiful day out here today.

Speaker 7 (01:11:55):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
We're hoping that the roof's open today. Yeah, okay, so
let me ask you. First of all, let me start
with your ball club, because there's you know, already with
the ten wins in the bank, and I think most
baseball experts that said the White Sox are going to
win more than what they did last year. And also
I've had the propensity to have shutouts of late as well.

(01:12:17):
I know that's surprised some folks. What about some of
these young guys as well as your veterans have stepped
up for the White Sox.

Speaker 4 (01:12:24):
Well.

Speaker 3 (01:12:24):
I literally hung up with Zach Manassein Junior, the girl
Andrew the Giants, right before I got on this call,
and you know, Zach was saying, you know, you're ten
and twenty four, and yet it just feels completely different,
and that that's when you know you're getting better is
when your peers are watching it. Our fans are certainly
watching it. But there's an old adage, as I learned
a long time ago. They don't ask how, they ask

(01:12:45):
how many, And at the end of the day, you're
still judged by the number of wins you have.

Speaker 7 (01:12:48):
And so with that in mind, we.

Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
Still have a lot of work to do, but we're
certainly excited about the return that we're starting to see
from some of the trades that we made last year.
With Miguel Bargas about extremely well right now. He was
in the Fetti trade last year that involved the Dodgers,
and we've got some younger guys Edgar Aquero, who was
our first international sign with the Angels, who they acquired

(01:13:11):
from the Angels in the trade. So we're starting to
see a light at the end of the tunnel. Chase
Meads of Off who we got in the Garrick Crochet deal,
there's now starting to be a light at the end
of the tunnel. The division is still extremely tough, but
we're pretty excited about the gradual steps that we're taking
to move forward.

Speaker 2 (01:13:27):
What would it be safe to say that, and it's
it's difficult to forecast. You know, we're in very early
May and so we're still almost two full months away
from the trade deadline. But that while it is the
considered opinion of most who followed this game from a
professional level that the White Sox will continue to try

(01:13:48):
to build for the future, and that some of the
more productive veterans I know at Luis Roberts' names come up,
and then others as well, that the White Sox might
still whind up being sellers at the trade deadline and
continue to build for the future. Is it safe to
say that that philosophy is still on the table depending

(01:14:12):
on how much rise that your ball club has over
the course of the next six weeks.

Speaker 7 (01:14:18):
It has to because it's so different now.

Speaker 3 (01:14:22):
You know, we're going to celebrate the ten year anniversary
of the twenty fifteen World Championship in Kansas City next Thursday,
and the way we built that team through the draft,
through international, through trades, through waiver wire.

Speaker 7 (01:14:35):
It's completely different system now.

Speaker 3 (01:14:37):
So that has to be a part of it because
you only have so much, so much capital when you're
talking about payroll, and so, you.

Speaker 7 (01:14:45):
Know, you've got to be willing to do what we've done.

Speaker 3 (01:14:47):
So far and make great trades, be very very good internationally,
be very very good in the draft. But it's just
such a different landscape now than ten years ago. When
you're talking about building this thing out. You can throw
money anything, but that doesn't guarantee success. You've really got
to have a strong foundation. You know, your best players
have to be your strongest leaders. You've got to create

(01:15:08):
that culture before you go out and you try to
add the pieces externally that are going to put you.

Speaker 7 (01:15:13):
In the game.

Speaker 3 (01:15:14):
But we feel very good about where it's at. It's
an extremely difficult division, and you know, we feel like
this time next year we're gonna start trending, you know,
towards five hundred and then the twenty seven the push
will begin to reach the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
Yeah, okay, since since you mentioned the Royals, I wanted
to get your thoughts on the retirement announced today for
Ross Stripling, now that he had signed on briefly with
the Royals. He was released following a month long trial.
For folks who remember Ross Stripling, he was an outstanding
pitcher at Texas A and M, and there were some
good battles between the long Words and Aggies when Stripling
was pitching for the Aggies. He had two hundred and

(01:15:49):
forty eight appearances with the Dodgers, Blue Jays, the Giants
and A's. He was an All Star in twenty eighteen,
and between going between the starting rotation and the bullpen.
I'll always remember, I guess when he was a rookie
and and and got out there and had an opportunity
of the Dodger with a no hitter and got lifted
the eighth inning and a wow, wait, wait, wait, what's
going on here? But I know you were well acquainted

(01:16:11):
with Ross Stripling.

Speaker 7 (01:16:13):
Love Ross Stripling.

Speaker 3 (01:16:14):
I got to spend a lot of time with him
in the twenty three offseason.

Speaker 7 (01:16:19):
You know, he worked out at Rice every day and
I would be down there.

Speaker 3 (01:16:22):
And you know, Ross was kind of a guy much
like Bryce Elder with the Braves. You know, he beat
the system when it came to you know, the pitch shape,
pitch design. Ross could just really pitch. And he was
a great competitor. And I remember seeing him in twenty
one at the trade deadline.

Speaker 7 (01:16:39):
I believe he was in Philadelphia, and.

Speaker 3 (01:16:41):
This guy just really knew how to pitch and a
great competitor and a great person. And you know, he's
in that thirty percentile of guys that play more than
five years of the major leagues. He's going to get
nine years in and just a tremendous career and a
tremendous person.

Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
Since we're talking about pitchers and tremendous careers. Was announced
that the Blue Jays today, but Max Schur's are on
the sixty day IL. They say that they're hoping to
be able to get him back as the summer progressed.
I know it's been a long road back for him
trying to get it back before you you still believe

(01:17:18):
Max Scherzer, and this is with a thumb injury. You
still believe that he can be a guy who can
win at the big league level. He'll be eligible to
return at the end of this month, and he did
recently throw off the mount after he got a second
Corterzone shot in the thumb, but he got transferred to

(01:17:38):
the sixty day IL. How about your thoughts on Sureser, Well, I.

Speaker 3 (01:17:43):
Put Max and Justin Verland are kind of the same category.
They're just in Clayton Kurshall for that matter. Yep, they're
just such great professionals and they know what it's about.
It's about October and everything about being ready to go
on October. And I'm sure that you know Max went
to the Blue Jays and said, look, let's get this

(01:18:03):
thing right. The last thing you ever want to do
with any injury at the major league level is let
it nag throughout the season.

Speaker 7 (01:18:10):
And so many times.

Speaker 3 (01:18:11):
Players will have an injury and they try to play
through it, and it just gets worse and worse.

Speaker 7 (01:18:16):
Everything is a pre cord to the next injury.

Speaker 3 (01:18:18):
And so I'm sure that Max said, look, we've got
a good team, we've got a great system.

Speaker 7 (01:18:22):
Things can happen for us for the second half.

Speaker 3 (01:18:24):
Let's just get this right so that if we are
playing October baseball, I can be a big part of it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:30):
He certainly would be talking major League baseball with team
watching from the Chicago White Sox front office here on
thirteen hundreds. And I've been waiting to ask you this.
I've been waiting to get your thoughts because you are
as knowledgeable and as invested and vested in the promotion
of young talent through the minor leagues more so than

(01:18:50):
anybody else I know. So with that in mind, I
wanted to get your thoughts on the fact that George
Lombard Junior was promoted to double A by the Yankees yesterday.
This is a guy who, folks, you didn't know, his
first round draft pick in twenty twenty three, of course,
the son of former Big leaguer George Lombard. He hit
three twenty nine with a homer, eleven stolen bases, twenty

(01:19:13):
four games at Hudson Valley and that's in Hi A ball.
So now he's going to double A in that Trenton
I guess is double A and then for them and
he'll be the third youngest player in Double A behind
Rangers shortstop Sebastian Walcott. He's seen as a top five
prospect Angels outfielder Nelson Rada as well. And that's that

(01:19:34):
draft that had Paul Skeens, Dylan Cruz, Wyatt Langford, Jacob Wilson,
r At Louder, you know, and on and on for that.
So this is this is your wheelhouse, guys that you saw,
that you evaluated and are now rapidly moving up the chain.

Speaker 3 (01:19:53):
Well, what's really unfortunate about George Lombard Junior is that
I was with the Atlanta Braves when we drafted George
Lombard's senior.

Speaker 7 (01:20:01):
And so.

Speaker 3 (01:20:03):
Gray on the side of the hair is certainly sticking out.
But what a tremendous talent. He's certainly been a player
that we've talked about at length in trade discussions with
the Yankees, and you know, at nineteen years old, he
the biggest thing about George Junior is that, you know,
his father was a tremendous, gifted athlete that had a

(01:20:25):
nice Major league clear career, but not maybe the career.

Speaker 7 (01:20:29):
That that he expected.

Speaker 3 (01:20:31):
So the guardrails have been up from a culture standpoint
for Junior his entire career about staying humble, continue to
work hard, continue to make adjustments. And this is just
a dynamic player that's got great makeup and and and
he's certainly the Yankees you know, price prospect right now,
and it'll be it'll he'll be in Summerset, and that'll
be interesting to see how it goes there in Somerset

(01:20:53):
for him.

Speaker 7 (01:20:53):
But just a tremendous young player.

Speaker 2 (01:20:55):
Okay, all right, the other guys wanted to ask about
the other on Sebastian Walcott the Rangers organization and Nelson
Roda from the Angels. You're certainly familiar with him, those
other guys coming out of that draft that had the
guys like Schemes and Dylan Cruz and Wyatt Langford.

Speaker 3 (01:21:14):
Yeah, and you know, you've got some variants there. You've
got the young international players that are middle of the diamond,
very gifted players, and then you've got the very talented
college performers. Dylan Cruz is arguably one of the best
players in baseball right now, and you know, a tremendous
college performer. Whyat Langford was one of my favorite players

(01:21:35):
at the University of Florida. And so you're kind of
seeing the blend of what's going on with the game,
the fast track college performer that's getting to the big
leagues a little bit.

Speaker 7 (01:21:46):
Quicker than they used to be. Now.

Speaker 3 (01:21:48):
The thing that I guard against and say every day
is the gap between Triple A baseball and the major
leagues has never been greater when you talk about the
information that exists at the major league level analytically and
in game planning and game prepping. So if you look
at what Jackson Holiday did last year, the great numbers
in Triple A, he goes to the big leagues and
really struggles and he's got to go back out.

Speaker 7 (01:22:10):
Look at Evan Carter.

Speaker 3 (01:22:11):
This year having to go back to Round Rock and
now he's performing at an extremely high rate. And when
he gets back up he'll be more prepared, and so
you never really know what in these guys are going
to do until they get up there. And it doesn't
matter if they start hot early or cold early. There's
gonna be adjustment period either way. But certainly, you know,
the game has to be excited. Fans have to be

(01:22:33):
excited about the amount of very good young count that's
impacting the major league level right now.

Speaker 2 (01:22:39):
Well, the Dodger fan in me will add James Autman
to that list that you just talked about.

Speaker 3 (01:22:44):
Guys that James Altman, Ferris. I mean, the Dodgers have
a number of guys that they just do. Everybody wants
to look at the Dodgers and say it's.

Speaker 7 (01:22:54):
The money, and it is not the money. This organization.
Nobody works harder.

Speaker 3 (01:22:59):
They have a huge shouting staff, they have a huge
R and D department, they have a huge sports science department.

Speaker 7 (01:23:06):
They are a well oiled.

Speaker 3 (01:23:07):
Machine and they just continue to produce great players. But
the money part of it is just a small part
of who they are as an organization.

Speaker 2 (01:23:15):
Uh, let me let me get your thoughts on what
the Rangers did in the announcement obviously that they brought
in Brett Boone to replace Donnie Eckers as the new
hitting coach and another Rangers have had their struggles before
yesterday and they put eight on the board against the
Mariners and they play a series starting at Thinway tomorrow

(01:23:35):
against the Red Sox. How about that. And you've known
the Boone family a long time. Brett Boone now is
the is the new hitting coach for the Rangers.

Speaker 3 (01:23:44):
You know, I was talking to executive from the Rangers
this morning, and what is really It's just like, when
you think back, how crazy it is now. They won
the World Series two years ago and Donnie Ecker was
a big part of that team's success, that organization's success.
And I remember when they hired Donnie Way for the Giants.
What a home run it was for them as a
higher but as an industry. That's really how turbulent it

(01:24:08):
is to be a major league coach right now, in
a hitting coach in particular, because the hitting coaches, you know,
the players roll on the ballpark, they get into the cages,
they go out on the field, they do their early hitting,
they do a lot of video work, they do their
regular batting practice. But a lot of these guys, these
players have their own hitting guys on the side, and

(01:24:29):
so you don't know, you know, when the come to
the ballpark, he may have been at another facility earlier
in that morning and he's already got two hundred swings in.

Speaker 7 (01:24:36):
So as an organization, it's something that we.

Speaker 3 (01:24:39):
Have really tried to wrap our arms around and tell
our players, hey, let's work together and all this, because
ultimately your performance is what matters the most. However we
get there, but it's really a difficult time to be
a hitting coach at the majorague level. Donnie Eckert didn't
stop being a good hitting coach in two years.

Speaker 7 (01:24:58):
After a World championship.

Speaker 3 (01:25:00):
It just gets to a point with most organizations where
the shelf life can get a little stale, the shelf
light can run out a little bit, and you get
to a.

Speaker 7 (01:25:08):
Point to where you feel like you just have to
make a change.

Speaker 3 (01:25:10):
But Donnie Eckard is still arguably one of the best
hitting coaches in all of Major League Baseball, and that's
not going to change simply because the group he was
working with right now didn't perform.

Speaker 2 (01:25:21):
Bigger surprise right now simply because of the record and
what they're doing at the moment A's at nineteen and sixteen,
Reds at eighteen and seventeen, and that's after losing to
in a row, or even the Nationals who have won
a couple straight and they're up to sixteen to nineteen.
Which of those three really kind of surprises you were

(01:25:43):
raises your eyebrows more.

Speaker 7 (01:25:46):
Well, I think it's a little different.

Speaker 3 (01:25:47):
I mean, the Nationals have a very good young core
group that they're not going to be far away from
competing in that division. You know, they're six out right now.
They're probably not going to factor in the end when
you talk about the Mets and the Phillies and the
Braves will probably make a run at some point, but
they have a very good young cores, as do the

(01:26:07):
Oakland Athletics.

Speaker 7 (01:26:09):
And Oakland's not going to go away. They're going to
stay in this thing.

Speaker 3 (01:26:12):
And I think Oakland is really kind of in the
bill for what they're going to be when they eventually
get to Vegas. But they are a team to be
reckoned with, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

Speaker 7 (01:26:23):
Right now.

Speaker 3 (01:26:23):
In the Cincinnati Reds, anytime you have Terry Francona as
your manager, I'll bets are off because he's going to
have those guys prepared and ready to play every day.
And I look for these guys to stay in this
thing all season long. I looked them for them to
be very aggressive into the deadline and improving this team.
And Terry frank Cone I could promise you went through

(01:26:45):
every player on the forty man roster research evaluated, has
a plan with ownership as to how to get the
team better. And he's not coming out of retirement to
not be competitive and not win, and they're certainly doing
that right now.

Speaker 2 (01:26:59):
I love how you still call them Oakland, you know,
I know, because it's locked.

Speaker 7 (01:27:05):
To I still calland Indian.

Speaker 2 (01:27:09):
That's you're a baseball lifer. He's Geen Watson who joins
us each week to talk MLB GINO. I appreciate the time,
and we'll do it again soon. All right, that is
Gene Watson. All right, coming up, We've got some football
notes to get to when we continue on thirteen under
the Zone. Thanks again the Gene Watson joining us to
talk to Major League Baseball. We jump to the NFL. Uh.

(01:27:34):
I was saying this to my wife the other day
that maybe and unless you're you know, really dialed into
every single round of the NFL Draft, which I am not,
but like anybody else, I'm certainly interesting what goes on
the first round. We do that big draft day show
out of Twin Peaks. Had a great time with it

(01:27:55):
this year, but unless you're into every single around and
watching every single pick, and my schedule doesn't allow me
to do that even if I wanted to, and I
wouldn't want to watch all of it. In fact, the
New York magazine published at Will Leach take with a
straightforward headline, the NFL Draft is actually boring as hell.
Now I don't know that it's incredibly boring, but it's very,

(01:28:18):
very regimented, and of course it has its routine. And
so the night of the draft, I was actually once
I got home after our Draft Day special, I was
watching the draft, but I was flipping over in between
picks because I knew there was a ten minute window
and everybody was going to use almost all other ten

(01:28:38):
minutes every time, and watching like the Georgia Oklahoma baseball
game that was going on that night. But I was
interested in seeing when it was all done, how teams did.

Speaker 7 (01:28:50):
So.

Speaker 2 (01:28:50):
The draft grades have come out and Gennaro Felice for
NFL dot Com did one, and he did a ten
thousand word draft analysis. Now I'm not reading the ten
thousand words. I'm not even going to read it in private,
let alone read it out loud. But I'm going to
tell you what the draft rankings he had were, starting

(01:29:13):
now at the bottom of the list. I have to
make sure that Andrew Zimmel of our group knows this
because he's the big minister of Vikings fans. He's got
the He's got the Vikings draft rated C minus as
the worst in the NFL. Bengals at thirty one with
a C minus, Saints with a Sea at number thirty,

(01:29:37):
the Falcons at twenty nine with the Sea, the Rams
at twenty eight with a C and he says, don't
fret about this. Great Rams fans at Los Angeles entered
the draft with limited draft currency, and then they flipped
the twenty six overall pick to Atlanta for a whole
that included a twenty twenty six first rounder. So today's

(01:29:58):
it said, the draft of efficiencies could be it's at
today's deficiencies could be tomorrow's boon. With regard to that,
the Colts at twenty seven with a C plus the
Dolphins at twenty six with a C plus, the Panthers
at twenty five a C plus the Packers at twenty

(01:30:18):
four a C plus. He lists, by the way, his
favorite pick being Matthew Golden and his sleeper Baron Cerell,
the two Longhorns. He said, golden selection wasn't the only
fun moment for the tenets of Title Town. Not included
among the draft's original list of attendees, Sorel was a
surprise presence in the green room when the Packers called

(01:30:40):
his name on Day three, giving Saturday the kind of
spectacle that's usually reserved for Thursday night. A high motor
edge who started forty games at Texas, Cyrell could significantly
outproduce his draft slot. That's what teams are always looking
for anyway. Number twenty three was the Lions with a
B minus twenty two of the Broncos also B minus

(01:31:00):
the Bucks at twenty one a B minus, the Steelers
at twenty with a B minus, the Chargers at nineteen
a B minus, the Commanders at eighteen with a B,
the seventeenth best rated draft, the forty nine ers a
grade of B, the Jaguars at sixteen with a B.

(01:31:21):
The t Texans at fifteen with a B, the Bills
at fourteen with a B, the Chiefs at thirteen with
a draft grade of B, the Ravens at twelve with
a B, the Eagles with a B plus at eleven,
and then into the top ten number ten Arizona a

(01:31:41):
B plus, the Cowboys at number nine a B plus.
I'll point that out to Cameron tomorrow on the program.
And by the way, his sleeper for the Cowboys draft
is Jayden Blue, and he says mock Draftable is a
fun resource that tracks measurements and testing from the combine,

(01:32:05):
providing historical comparisons to players in a database that goes
back to the ninety nine draft class. And if Cowboys
fans want to have fun, they should check out their
new running backs top match with Devana chan all right,
ah number eight, the Raiders an A minus, the Giants
at seven and A minus, the Browns at six an

(01:32:28):
A minus, the Titans at five and A minus. Number
four is the Jets with an A. Number three, the
Bears with an A. Number two, the Seahawks and A
and the best draft and the entire draft the New
England Patriots with an A. So there's some Draft Day rankings.

(01:32:50):
There one other NFL bit of news. Well, there's a
couple of things. First of all, the Rams and Matthew
Stafford to finalize their contract terms. He's going to get
forty four million dollars for the twenty twenty five season.
That negotiate That contract was negotiated during the combine, but

(01:33:10):
they didn't get it fixed until now completed. There's a
lot of talk that the Rams might trade him and
they might do something else, but they finalized terms on
a deal that will pay him forty four million dollars
this year. He has already been paid four million this season,
and the other forty million is fully guaranteed, according to Ian
Rappaport of the NFL Network. And in addition, if he's

(01:33:34):
on the roster at the start of free agency in
twenty twenty six, he'll walk in another forty million dollars.
So there's another thing there. And then on the opposite
end of contract things is Justin Tucker. The former long
one released today by the Baltimore Ravens, and it was

(01:33:56):
described by general manager Eric DaCosta as a foot decision.
His quote was, sometimes football decisions are incredibly difficult, and
this is one of those instances. Considering our current roster,
we made the tough decision to release Justin Tucker. Justin
created many significant and unforgettable moments in Raven's history. His reliability, focus, drive,

(01:34:17):
resilience and extraordinary talent made in one of the league's
best kickers for over a decade. We're grateful for as
many contributions. We sincerely wish him and his family to
bear it very best in the next chapter of their lives.
Those are keywords, next chapter, because if you have followed
what has happened, and there would be those who would
say that maybe the Ravens released him about more than

(01:34:39):
just football, because he's been the subject of that NFL
investigation in allegations of improper conduct during massage therapy sessions.
He's denied any misconduct, said that there were reports that
by the Baltimore Banner are completely false and have no

(01:35:00):
as at all, and his attorneys are saying the same thing.
The Ravens did draft Tyler Loop of Arizona in the
sixth round, and so that made him the first kicker
selected in the draft in Cardinals' franchise history, and he
was the highest rated kicker going into that so, and

(01:35:23):
it would be only fair certainly to point out also
that while Justin Tucker holds the league's record for the
longest made field goal at sixty six yards, and that
he won Super Bowl forty seven with Baltimore as a rookie,
and he has an eighty nine point one career field
goal percentage, the most accurate kicker in NFL history, seven

(01:35:45):
Pro Bowl nominations. It is also fair to point out
that he's coming off his worst season as a pro.
He had career lows and field goals made with twenty
two and field goal percentage in seventy three percent. That
was thirty first out of thirty two kickers. That's why
his career field goal percentage dipped below ninety percent, which

(01:36:06):
was far and away the best percentage in history. But
now all of that certainly up in the air as
he continues to be the subject of the NFL investigation
and release today by the Baltimore Ravens. All right, we'll
wrap up today's edition of the program. On thirteen hunder
the Zone