March Madness, Texas Baseball, and MLB Spring Training with Ty Harrington and Gene Watson

It's a Fire Me Up Friday on The Craig Way Show! Craig Way and Cameron Parker discuss the latest results from March Madness and preview the Texas Women's Basketball opening round matchup against William & Mary. Hear from Vic Schaefer and players as they discuss what it will take to make a deep in run in March. 

Ty Harrington and Gene Watson join to talk College Baseball and MLB Spring Training.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the program here on AM

(00:03):
thirteen under the Zone. My name is Craig Way. Glad
to have you with us and very pleased to be
with you in the if you will out of doors,
so to speak, because the scene is UFCU dish falk Field.
So we're here at the ballpark at UFCU dish falk Field.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
And tonight what a ball game.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
What a matchup for the Texas Loghorns, who will be
in action and they will be taking on the number
one team in the country. It depends on the poll
because there's a couple of different poles, but one of
the polls has one SEC team in it as the
number one team in the country, and a couple of
the others have the other.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
SC team C team.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
The two teams that I'm speaking of are LSU and Tennessee.
LSU is number one in one of the polls and
number two in the others. Tennessee is number two and
one one and number one in the others. Now that
might change. Tennessee lost its series opener to Alabama last
night in Tuscaloosa, but the Tigers are here to take

(01:11):
on the Texas Loghorns, and of course we'll have the
game for you this evening here on thirteen hundred the zone.
It'll come your way six forty five air time. It
is a seven o'clock first pitch. Normally, of course, Friday
night games here at UFCU dish Fogg Field are six
thirty first pitches, but this one is a seven o'clock
first pitch, so we'll be on the air at six

(01:31):
forty five and then the first pitch at seven o'clock.
Loghorns will have Jared Spencer going two and oh in
the two three six era and for LSU they're outstanding
left hand or Kate Anderson who is four and oh
and a two five seven earned run average.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
So we have that for you tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Joining us in the studio the producer of the program,
Cameron D.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Parker.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
The D on the birth certificate stands for Dallas, but
of late it could have stood for Dayton or delayed
return to the area. But now Cameron is back in
the studio. How odd as well as comfortable must it
be right now to be back in the comfortable confines
of the iHeartMedia compound in Austin, Texas.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Well, you know, Craig I was thinking about it driving
in it's It's been probably two weeks since I was
in this studio. I did a Monday show, I think,
before I headed off to Greenville, South Carolina for the
women's SEC tournament.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
So it's been quite some time.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
I mean me and you, and we've been on the
road for pretty much a month, going back to the
women's trip to Starkville. Of course, the men's follow that
up the next week, and then I was in Greenville,
I know you were still here, and then went to Nashville,
and then we were in Dayton.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
I mean, we had.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Twelve hour turnaround from watching this election show to leaving
on a plane for Dayton, Ohio. And unfortunately it did
not work out for the text Long Orange basketball team.
But it's good to be back. I forgot how bad
traffic is in this city. Three sixty right now going southbound.
Do not get on it. It's ridiculous. And I left
my headphones at my house, so a little rust I

(03:15):
need to knock off a little rusty here, Craig.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
But glad to be back with you. Yeah. He also
left out the fact I was.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
In Starkville last baseball we get after that, we had
baseball over there. When the long Warts had their three
game weekend series sweep Mississippi State there in Starkville. So
now back home, log Worts had their seventeen game winning
streak snapped on Tuesday night and twelve innings by UTSA,
they lost that ball game. So there's seventeen and two

(03:42):
going into the game and LSU was twenty one and
one coming in.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
So this this will be a really.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Good test for the Longhorns, no question about it, coming
up this afternoon, but there's so many other things to
get to and certainly we'll discuss by the way, we
will talk from college baseball in the three o'clock hour
with our colleague Ty Harrington, who is working on the
Texas Studios SEC Network Plus telecast of Longhorn baseball games.

(04:12):
He won't be working tonight's game. In fact, tonight, our
own Keith Moreland will pair up with the LSU legend
Ben McDonald to work that telecaster. Roger Wallaso joined me
for the radio broadcast of the game here on the Zone,
but Ty will join us in the three o'clock hour,
right around three fifteen to talks some college baseball and
where things are here in the early stages now that

(04:34):
everybody's in the conference play. It started a little quicker
for the SEC than it did for some other leagues,
but everybody's starting to play because they're playing more conference
games now as a result of that. So as a
result of that, that's why you're seeing more and more
conference games per leagues, because they're just adding more teams

(04:56):
and so they're starting conference play. They're having to start
conference play a little bit earlier as a result of that.
So anyway, we'll talk college baseball with Tye Harrington in
the three o'clock hour, four o'clock hour some major League baseball.
We are just about we're one week out from the
start of the Major League Baseball season for every team

(05:22):
not named the Dodgers or the Cubs, because they played
their two games in Japan this week, but then they
come back and then next week everybody begins play. So
we'll talk to some major League baseball with Jean Watson.
But of course we've got March Madness to discuss. It's
already been action underway. Baylor survives in advances to the

(05:43):
second round, defeating Mississippi State in an eight nine matchup
seventy five to seventy two. And in all probability they're
going to face the Duke Blue Devils, Duke getting ready
to take on Mount Saint Mary's. Alabama really got pushed
the number two seed and they were reaching, really got
pushed by Mount Saint Mary's, I mean, excuse me, by

(06:04):
Robert Morris, and they did eventually prevail. They pulled away
to win ninety to eighty one. So there was a
close call there, but Alabama was able to go out.
And there are other games getting ready to start, and
we'll keep you updated on that. Obviously, the long worn
season has drawn to its conclusion, and I know a
lot of folks probably are interested in discussing the future

(06:27):
of the program and who will be leading the program
in the future. You know, there's been no word. Everything
has been quiet from the UT campus, and I would
have expected it to be that way for a number
of reasons, one of those being that Rodney Terry and
Crystal Comfy have not even had a chance to meet yet,
or if they did, maybe this morning, but didn't have

(06:49):
a chance to meet through yesterday. We didn't get back
with the basketball team until late afternoon yesterday. What was
it cam about five point thirty when wheels touched down
at the airport. And that's because in the NCAA tournament,
you are at the travel convenience or inconvenience, depending on

(07:12):
your point of view of the NCAA and its travel companion,
its travel agency that arranges the flights and the planes
and all that sort of stuff. And even though they
knew that there would be two teams going home on
Thursday morning, which turned out to be American University in Texas,

(07:33):
they only had one plane available. And as a result
of that, because American had the earlier flight and a
closer distance to travel, they got to fly home first,
and so everybody to wait for the plane to come
back and then pick up the long Horns and take
them home. So we were not wheels up from Dayton

(07:54):
until about think about three little after three three fifteen
something like that yesterday afternoon, and did not touch back
down at Austin until five point thirty. So there were
no meetings, I'm pretty sure yesterday. So there would be
conversations and meetings and things like that going forward for

(08:15):
the state of the men's basketball program. And there are
many reasons. Let me just put it to you this way,
and I don't really know. Obviously I'm not privy to
conversations and things, but I would tell you this that
no matter how you feel about the direction of the
program or the current coaching staff or whatever, there are

(08:36):
a lot of things, a lot of factors that will
go into determining what the direction of the program is
and who will be leading it in the future. Yes,
by and large, a lot of it is financial, but
not all of it, so there are other things.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
There are other factors involved in this.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
So this may take a little longer than some folks
think it should or would or could appearance that that
it could that it that it might take a little
longer because there there are things that have to be
discussed and arrangements and all sorts of things. So that's
that's about all we know right now. We don't know
anything else. I understand all of the speculation, the reports

(09:18):
that have come out, especially from the fan driven sites
as well as the newspaper sites and things of that nature.
I get all of that, and I understand the work
that those individuals who work for those agencies and sites,

(09:40):
the amount of responsibility they have in terms of turning
out content and what they think is going to happen.
So there are things that have to be written and
published and put out on social media. There are things
to do that whether anything has happened or not with

(10:01):
regard to the university. But those those individuals who have
to report and write things, you know, they have their
own deadlines, and they have the pieces that they're responsible
and content they are responsible for creating. So some of those,
if not the vast majority of those pieces, might be

(10:25):
more opinion and speculation driven, you know, than normal as
a result, because they've got people telling them, Hey, I
need a story, and blah blah blah, where do you
think it's going to go?

Speaker 2 (10:38):
Just write down what you think is going to happen.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
And so that's that's where a lot of that content
is surfacing right now. Obviously we'll all find out, you know,
in short order, what the direction of the program is
and things of that nature, and everybody will go ahead
and print those things and write those things and publish
those things at the appropriate times. But if you're wondering
why you haven't seen anything else in terms of concrete,

(11:02):
like I said, there are a lot of things to
be worked through, and then even beyond that, there's there's
other elements and considerations involved. So anyway, just wanted to
put that out there. That's that's where things are, and
that we don't know anything else, and when we do,
we'll certainly let you know. All right, We've got a
lot of things to get to on the program, will
update the NCAA tournament scoreboard for you. We do have inconceivable.

(11:26):
We do have inconceivable on a Friday, Cameron Parker. We
have inconceivable on a Friday. You know what that means.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
Man.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
It's been a long time, but I still remember we
traveled to the more flaccid of the lower forty eight
states and reach for that low hanging fruit.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Baby.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
We've got a couple of low hanging stories of felicidity
to bring you. So we'll have that with Florida man
coming up in that. In that end, we also have
our junk food Fast. I've got a story that will
interest certainly Cameron Parker, if not others me as well.
So we'll get to that, and like I said, we'll

(12:03):
talk from college baseball in the three o'clock hour, we'll
visit with Ty Harrington Geene Watson to join us to
talk major league baseball. On the four o'clock. We'll keep
you updated on the basketball. It is a Friday and
we're happy to have.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
You with us.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
We're also going to obviously preview the Texas women in
the NCAA tournament. Their tournament journey starts tomorrow night, and
I was at the playing game, if you will, the
first four game last night between High Point and William
and Mary to see who would win and would play Texas.
We'll talk about that and a lot more here on

(12:37):
this Friday afternoon at UFCU Dish Fronkfield here on AM
thirteen under the zone. Thing I forgot about is Cameron's
fire me Up Friday. So that's why you're getting fired
up with a little bit of Fleetwood Mac there to
start us off with on a Friday afternoon.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
Correct, exactly right, you know.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
It's a little bit of fire me up slash feel
good Friday. And hey, as you mentioned, Craig, it's what
seventy five degrees outside us out Texas Baseball opens up
Southeastern Conference to play the night at the dish.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
It's a feel good Friday for sure. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
First ever SEC Conference home series for Taxis. Of course,
they had their first ever SEC Conference series period on
the road last weekend, opening up with the three game
weekend series sweep of the Mississippi State Bulldogs. But this
will be their first ever UMSERS and what a time

(13:28):
for it against a team that's number one in a
couple of poles and number two in a couple of poles.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
LSU coming into town.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
All right, we'll get to all of that, but we
wanted to bring you some of the news conferences that
happened just a little bit ago over at Moody Center
previewing the Texas Women's NCAA Tournament. They're the number one
seed in what's called Birmingham three Regional, meaning they're the
number three seed overall, and they're going to play the

(13:55):
Tribe of William and Mary. Head coach Vick Schaeffer was
sitting there the Scouts area press row along with assistant
coaches Lindsay Wisdom, Hilton, and also Sydney Carter, and had
the players. A lot of the players were there taking
in the game last night. So here's part of it.
We'll bring you the rest of it later, but here's
a part of the press conference with long WRNS head

(14:17):
coach Bick Schaeffer.

Speaker 5 (14:19):
Coach, congratulations for your successes today, and if you would
like to start with an opening statement.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
We'd love to hear from you.

Speaker 6 (14:26):
Well, first, I'm going to congratulate you and thank you
for your service to women's basketball.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
I know this is your final year correct.

Speaker 5 (14:36):
Of full time employment. I'm playing it rewirement coach, so
I will still be around.

Speaker 6 (14:40):
Okay, Well, congratulations, and again, thank you for all you've
done for our great game. And I hope you have
a great This is the last go round for the
NCAA tournament. I hope you have a great experience here
in Austin.

Speaker 7 (14:53):
Appreciated coach.

Speaker 6 (14:54):
Yeah, yeah, Just to start, I'd like to congratulate Dickerson
Davis and her team as well as High Point. What
a great game that was last night. You know, two
teams that really competed at a very high level. You know, again,

(15:14):
I think y'all have heard me say this. My local
media has heard me say this. The thing about this
time of years, you've got to get hot, and you've
got to get got to have a little luck. Well,
and William and Mary's really hot. I mean they're playing
so well, and coach has done a great job with him,

(15:34):
her and her staff. They're playing at a very high level.
So we certainly they have our attention, and so finally,
I guess today we finally know who we're going to play,
and so we'll have a much more specific defensive practice
today than than we have had. We've had to kind

(15:55):
of cover two different teams, and I'll even go back
to high point bore. They are way different than the
team we saw last year in the Virgin Islands, and
their coach and their staff have done a great job
I think with their team and their program as well.
So for our kids, you know, this is what we
work for, and what a great opportunity. So proud of

(16:18):
them to be able to host to play in front
of our fans. I think I've been told we have
three hundred tickets left for tomorrow night, which is outstanding.
Just want to praise our community and our people here
at the university for their efforts in.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
You know, promoting and supporting our kids.

Speaker 6 (16:39):
I mean, as I've said all along, if I can
get you to come one time, I think you'll be back.

Speaker 7 (16:44):
And I think that's what's happened, especially with this team.

Speaker 6 (16:47):
They're such great kids, they have great personalities, they play
the game the right way, They honor the game, they
respect the game, and so again the gauntlet that they've
gone through to be thirty one in three. You know,
I don't have time to pay attention to what everybody thinks.
I get phone calls or texts all the time from

(17:08):
friends going, well, so and so saved that said this,
and so and so said that, and I don't really
have a lot of energy, time or effort to put
any credence in that. All I'm going to tell you
is I live in the Southeastern Conference. That is a really,
really tough In my opinion, it's the biggest, baddest conference
in the country. We have to play the best of

(17:30):
the best every night and for us to survive that gauntlet,
and they have gone through it the way that we've
done it against some of the best players in all
of college basketball.

Speaker 7 (17:41):
To be where we are.

Speaker 6 (17:42):
We've lost two games in the state of South Carolina
and one game in overtime at Notre Dame. And I
say that to say this, my kids are tough.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
I'm proud of them.

Speaker 6 (17:56):
I'm excited about the opportunity that we have, and they've
worked really, really hard to get to this moment. So
as I've tried to encourage them. You don't want to
take things for granted. We've worked really hard to be
in the position we're in, but you know, now's the
time to not lose focus, and so I'm sure they'll

(18:17):
be focused again today and very intentional with how we
work out.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Thank you, coach.

Speaker 5 (18:23):
Our first question here in Austin will come from Jim
Ratuna of the Associated Press.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Jim, coach, you.

Speaker 8 (18:28):
Talked about how you're going to have a specific defensive
specific practice today. I want to talk about Rory as
a defender a little bit.

Speaker 7 (18:37):
Not bad issue.

Speaker 8 (18:38):
Well, describe her for me as as a defender and
what she gives you game in and game out.

Speaker 6 (18:44):
You know, I'm so glad you asked me that. You know,
she's up for the National Defensive Player of the Year
and I'd again not taken anything from anybody else in
the country, but nobody.

Speaker 7 (18:58):
I'm telling you, I look at this kid every day.

Speaker 6 (19:00):
I've coached some great, great players in my time, some
great defenders. Rory Harmon's the best I've ever coached. She's
not only great on the ball, she's a great help defender,
and she's a great seiler. She takes away driving lanes
while still being able to cover out on her own player.

(19:25):
I look at her every day and again, I've had
some really really good defenders in my day, but she
does so many things well. And again, what she does
on that end and the impact that she has on
our team, and she'll take a charge, she'll get run
over by freight train, but then she does what I

(19:46):
want her to do on the other end, which is
go run my team, make a big shot, make a
great decision.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
And so again.

Speaker 6 (19:58):
I'm just telling you she's really really special, and she's
really good on the ball, off the ball.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
She's just got it all.

Speaker 6 (20:07):
And I know there's some really good defenders across the country,
but man, I look at it every day. I'm telling
you she impacts our our team on that end of
the floor so well.

Speaker 7 (20:21):
And you know what she does it because she plays
her guts out.

Speaker 6 (20:25):
And again, you show me somebody else that picks up
ninety four feet every night, does what she does and
then goes and runs their team on the other end
and is accountable on that end with her, with her
coach and her team, and we can talk.

Speaker 5 (20:42):
Next question comes from Dennis delly Painted from Fox Sports.

Speaker 9 (20:45):
Hey, coach, you know you talked earlier on Selection Sunday
about we need to be the hunter in this thing. Yeah,
because that you're definitely gonna be the hunted. Are you
seeing it? You know, Rory's a perfect example her mentality.
But when you're looking in your locker room and you're
seeing a bunch of hunters as you start this thing, you.

Speaker 6 (21:01):
Know, it's funny you asked that because my thought for
the day today. You know, I pulled up a thing
and I've closed it out with we've got to get
our edge back. I thought we lost our edge in
the second quarter in the championship game, and we've got
to have that hunter's mentality. And so again I try

(21:27):
to help them keep that. It's kind of what I
feel like our job is as coaches to keep that
hunter's mentality. We know everybody's coming for us, but I
think you got to That's when I say you got
to keep an edge. That's the edge. The edge is
I'm coming for you, I'm hunting you. I'm not on
the defensive because you're coming after me. I thought we

(21:49):
got on our heels a little bit in that second quarter.
And again, you have to give South Carolina credit because
they make you feel that way a little bit and
then have fourteen thousand people screaming at you.

Speaker 7 (22:00):
That'll get you even more, you know, on your heels.

Speaker 6 (22:01):
But I think we got to have that because you know, again,
I don't have time to pay attention to all the pundits,
but you know, there's people that don't give us a
snowballs chance in hell, and that's okay.

Speaker 7 (22:14):
I'm fine with that.

Speaker 6 (22:16):
I've kind of lived with that a lot, and so
but I want my kids to embrace that, you know,
I want them to have an edge and take it
a little bit personal because it is for me. Again,
I know, thirty one and three in the Southeastern Conference,
with a schedule that we played in non conference, you
got to give me a break.

Speaker 5 (22:36):
Next question from Sam Ferris fan sided Sam, Hey, coach.

Speaker 10 (22:40):
Good to see you today. You only have three losses
on the season. That enough you can write the rest
of the year off and you have a bunch of success.
How do you keep your players motivated to keep winning,
to keep pushing farther and drive through the tournament?

Speaker 6 (22:52):
Well, again, I think our kids see the bigger picture.
They know we're after a really big fish right now,
you know, so speak we're you know, we're not satisfied,
and my job is to help them not be satisfied
if they're feeling that way. Again, it is such a long,
hard grind living in the league we live in to
go through the schedule We've gone through, and it's easy

(23:17):
right now to again, your friends are on spring break,
they're skiing, they're at the beach. What are you doing.
You're sitting here in Austin, Texas. You're practicing a couple
hours a day, and and then what you know, So
it's easy to get kind of in that for some
of them.

Speaker 7 (23:31):
I'm not telling you all of my kids are like that.

Speaker 6 (23:33):
I got and so, but I think for us, I
think the overall mentality of my team right now is
and I've tried to remind them of this every day
for the last two weeks. We are good enough now again,
all it takes is one bad game. You know, we
had a bad game last year in the El Day.
That's the worst we had played in a long time.

(23:55):
Give in See State credit. I'm not taking anything from them,
but we picked up game to shoot it bad. We
had some really good looks in that game in the
first half that we didn't make that we've been making
all year long. This is not the time of year
to be playing bad. If you do, you're gonna get beat.
But so my message to them is, hey, we're good enough.

(24:20):
It'd be a shame to not give this our full
attention right now where your feet are live, right now,
in this moment, because this is not guaranteed.

Speaker 7 (24:32):
I know we all take it for granted. It's what
we've done, it's what we've done in the past. We've
been here.

Speaker 6 (24:38):
Before, YadA YadA, YadA, yah. It still doesn't matter. It's
not guaranteed. I think the crazy thing, or one of
the things you have to commend my team on is
it's two years in a row now that we've lost
a starter. This year we've lost potentially two starters in
Layla and liah Moore. Last year we Rory Harmon, and

(25:01):
yet my team, our kids, have been able to gather
up and figure out a way, along with my staff,
to go win thirty something games.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
It's crazy. I'd like to get through.

Speaker 6 (25:15):
A year with everybody intact, just once before I decide
not to do this anymore. I just like that my
whole team that I start with in August, everybody together
in April.

Speaker 7 (25:24):
But sometimes in athletics, this is what happens.

Speaker 6 (25:28):
But that's what's crazy about, you know, these past two years,
and so I'm ultra proud of them. You can tell
I get excited about this group again. We got to
go do it, you got to go live it. You know,
talking to talk and walking the walks two different things.
But I want them to embrace where they are right
now because this is not a given.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
Yeah, I'm always good to hear that kind of stuff
from Vick Schaeffer, and we'll hear some more coming up
in the four o'clock hour. That was from the press
conference just a little while ago over on the UT campus.
Next hour in the three o'clock hour, in addition to
talking some college baseball with Ty Harrington, we'll hear from
Longhorn players from.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
That news conference.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
But up next inconceivable for a Friday afternoon, that's next.
When we continue on thirteen under the Zone, we get
ready to plunge headlong into a.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Very active, busy weekend.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Longhorn baseball team coming out on the field right now
to do some preliminary warm ups to get ready for
the series opener, a big matchup tonight, Game one of
the three game weekend series with LSU LSU number two
and most of the polls number one in a couple
and so Texas will play LSU tonight. The Longhorns will
of course send their transfer lefty Jared Spencer to the mound,

(26:45):
and it'll be the Tigers countering with the left to
of their own, their sophomore Kate Anderson, who's four and oh,
he'll go to the mound Jared Spencer two and oh
as he takes the mound tonight for Texas. So you'll
be able to hear the game here on thirteen hundred

(27:06):
the zone. It'll come your way beginning six forty five
of the pregame. Star time in the first pitch is
at seven o'clock. Texas women play tomorrow evening at Moody Center,
the number one seed in that Birmingham three region, and
they'll host first and second round. Actually a Booty Center
long Worn's take on the sixteen seed, the tribe of

(27:26):
William and Mary, who won the first four play in
game last night at Moody beating high point sixty nine
to sixty three. I got to tell you one thing, Cameron,
and we'll hear some more from Vick Schaeffer coming up
next hour. We heard from Vic last hour mainly about
his own team, and while that continues to be the
theme is make sure your team is ready to go.

(27:50):
He'll also address some things about William and Mary since
he watched them last night.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Well, one of the things that.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
I've found interesting about William and Mary was, and if
for no other reason, no other reason, I'm interested in
calling this matchup between Texas and William and Mary. For
no other reason, Cameron Parker because of a guard for

(28:20):
the tribe of William and Mary by the name of
Monet Dance. Any Time you get a chance to call
a basketball game in this month of March and one
of the players has a name Dance in March, then
you're living right.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
You know, you're fortunate, You're lucky.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
So I consider myself fortunate and lucky to get an
opportunity to call back. It's William and Mary, by the way,
their first ever trip to the NCAA Tournament. And this
is a basketball team cam that won eleven games during
the regular season, Wow, eleven. They were in ninth place
in the Coastal Athletic Association. They went six and eight

(29:07):
in conference play. But like many teams do in March,
they caught lightning in a bottle. They won four games
and four nights in the Colonial Tournament in Washington, d C.
They won that tournament, played their way into a play
in in the NCAA Tournament, and they found a way
to beat a good high Point team last night. So
they beat high Point and so they're one to zero

(29:29):
all time in NCAA tournament place. They'll play the Longhorns
tomorrow evening. We'll be on the air at eight thirty
in the tip off at eight forty five between Texas
and Hey Kreb.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
Yes, did you notice how the William and Mary Pep
band referred to themselves last night?

Speaker 2 (29:49):
I did not? What did I miss? What I miss? There?

Speaker 3 (29:52):
Well, they have the self moniker most attractive pet band.
Can you confirm? Can you deny that?

Speaker 1 (30:02):
Well?

Speaker 2 (30:03):
Are you looking at them at all?

Speaker 1 (30:05):
I mean I looked at them a couple of times,
but you just look like a band. Mea see anything
you know? Highly unusual? They look they look like a band.
They didn't. They didn't put it this way. I didn't
see any striking characteristics that would have me going, Wow,

(30:27):
that's an attractive band.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
You know I didn't.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
I didn't really, but now you you've got my interest
piqued on this, and you're gonna have to do it
as well. When we're over there tomorrow night for the game,
you're gonna have to look over and find out why.
Maybe you, an intrepid reporter, could go over and ask
members of the Tribe band why they refer to themselves
as would would you say the most attractive band?

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah? Most attractive pep band? Okay, all right, well, maybe.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
You know I think about her friend over at kix
A and Roger Wallace and Ill Gross. I mean, yeah,
you know, they are more journalists than I am. You know,
maybe this could be a piece for them.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
To work on.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
I'll bring it up to Rogers and I too. Okay,
so maybe you'll go do that. Okay. So anyway, we're
gonna hear from Texas players coming up a little bit
later on this hour. Coming up in a few minutes,
we'll visit with ty Harrington Longhorn men's basketball excuse me,
former law Texas State baseball coach and former Longhorn baseball player,

(31:34):
and Tye will talk college baseball with us, and we'll
talk about this big weekend series between Texas and LSU,
but also around the SEC. I don't know if anybody noticed,
twenty and one Tennessee is now twenty and two Tennessee.
The Volunteers lost game one of a three game Thursday
Friday Saturday series to Alabama. Don't look now, but the

(31:57):
Crimson Tide are four and oh in the SEC, coming
off that sweep of Texas A and M. And by
the way, since we're on the subject of the Aggies,
they dropped the series opener in a Thursday Friday Saturday
series matchup with Vanderbilt playing in Nashville.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
Vanderbilt won five to three.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
The Aggies, the preseason number one team in D one
baseball dot Com, are oh and four in SEC play,
so they're still trying to find their way through it
right now. And they are oho and four in conference play.
Alabama is four to zho. I don't think anybody would
have expected either of those numbers to be like that.
They would have expected Tennessee and LSU to be very good,

(32:42):
and they are. And I think it's been a pleasant
surprise to a lot of folks as to how good
Texas has been at the start. But that's all going
to very much be put to the test as they
take on this really good LSU team, an LSU team
that comes in batting three forty five as a team,

(33:05):
three forty five, and they're in batting three sixteen over
the weekend series sweep they had last weekend, and and
and their ERA is three three two, so collectively, so
it's a real good team.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
All right, we need to break. When we come back.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
Ty Harrington will be with us, we'll talk some college
baseball talk about this series and other matchups as well
in his early observations from this twenty twenty five collegiate
baseball season. We'll keep you updated on the NCAA basketball tournament.
Colorado State is on the threat, on the verge of
pulling off another twelve over five surprise as the Rams

(33:46):
lead the five seat Memphis seventy three sixty four. They've
got ninety seconds to go in that basketball game. With
Colorado State in the lead of that game against Memphis,
We'll keep you posted on that as we continue from
UFCU just falk Field under the zone, Colorado State advancing
in the West Region, and Seattle in the first round
beating the five seat Memphis. The final score in that

(34:08):
one was seventy eight to seventy. Right now in Milwaukee
in the South Region, Ole Miss leads North Carolina fourteen
to seven. They've played about five minutes in that ballgame.
I'll make it fourteen to ten.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
RJ.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Davis just buried a three, so it's fourteen to ten
Ole Miss in that one. Joining us on the hotline,
our good friend, lifetime long worned, former long horned assistant
coach twenty years the head coach at Texas State. He
has transitioned seamlessly into the semi undersided, underbelly world of

(34:42):
television and radio broadcasting.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
That would be Ty Harrington.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
Oh okay, all right, well we'll just after I gave
him that nice intro, we'll try to I've been another
NCAA tournament update for you. Vanderbilt on top of Saint
Mary's twenty seven eighteen. That's a ten seed versus seven
seed matchup there and uh.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
And that one's in Cleveland.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
If Vanderbilt wins that game, if I'm not mistaken on
my bracket right in front of me, I should pull
it out. I believe they would play Alabama in the
second round. He'd have an allD SEC matchup on that.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
We'll see that.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
So all right, So Ty Harrington is on the hotline
with us. As I said, he has transitioned seamlessly into
the uh really nasty underworld of college broadcasting in radio
and television.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
But he's done. He's done that seam.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
See how's your N seed basketball tournament bracket look right now?

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Ty? Well, not very good.

Speaker 11 (35:46):
Really, It's gonna look a lot different heres based on the.

Speaker 12 (35:50):
Fact that I didn't fill that now, So it's not
gonna look very good at this point.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
For some reason, I like personer and everybody talking about it.

Speaker 12 (36:00):
And launch it and hear about it, and this is
really my favorite time.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
Here for college basketball part of it, and.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
I just didn't fill it out.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Yeah, well that's that. That's a very smart and salient point.
Is why why even bother, you know, stay away, because
all of our bracket's going to be busted here before long.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
It's going to bring it be. Uh.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
The first final score of the day yesterday ensured the
fact that I would not have a perfect bracket, so
you know, uh, and I'm gonna I'm in a family
group uh bracket thing, and uh, none of us are
doing very well.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
So I don't worry too.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
Much about that, all right, Uh, let's talk some baseball
and uh, I'm going to just jump right into some
sec with you, and then we'll talk about some mid
majors as well.

Speaker 13 (36:52):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
I mentioned this earlier. I don't know that too many
folks would have.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Believed at the start of the season that early in
the conference season you would have Alabama four and oh
in league play, in Texas A and M oh and four.
You would you would not have have have picked that
in any kind of prognostication, would you.

Speaker 4 (37:13):
No, that would have busted my bracket from the get go,
And certainly now I would not have ever gotta thought
that going into the season. Golly, And I'll tell you.

Speaker 11 (37:24):
What, because after watching Alabama and A and M play
last weekend and then peeking back in and watching, uh,
the Crimson tied again last night.

Speaker 12 (37:36):
They were really physical, I mean really physical, offensively good
looking club and matched up you know last weekend mat
step A and M at different times.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Okay, I'm sure, and I'm still connected here, so we
may have, uh, we may have false tie. Try to
get him back here momentarily. Let me update a couple
other scores for you. Vanderbilt up on Seeing Mary's. They're
inside a minute remaining in the first half. It's twenty

(38:08):
nine to twenty. In that one I mentioned the old
Miss North Carolina game. It's fourteen ten Ole Miss. They
played about five minutes there at the half. Duke on
top of Mount Saint Mary's fifty four to twenty eight.
So it looks like it's gonna be Duke and Baylor
in the second round of that matchup.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
Cameron, do you have me and have we lost tie?
I got you and we'll work on getting tied back here. Okay,
all right, okay.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
In addition to the Alabama Tennessee series that started last
night with Alabama winning, and the Vanderbilt Texas A and
M series with Vanderbilt winning that series opener last night
five to three, there's always going to be And this
is another thing for Loggorn fans to get accustomed to experiencing, and.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
That is the fact.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
That every week in the SEC you will at least
have at least have two series that start on Thursday
that go Thursday, Friday Saturday instead of Friday, Saturday Sunday.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
The Longrornes have a couple of those this year.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
A couple of Thursday Friday Saturday series, So they've got those,
and there's some other ones. However, most of the series
will take place as Friday Saturday Sunday series.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
And in the SEC.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
The other series that start tonight, number four Georgia playing
number thirteen Florida. That's a big one in Gainesville, tenth
ranked Ou hosting Mississippi State, Auburn is playing at Kentucky,
Ole Miss plays at Missouri, and Arkansas hosting South Carolina.

(39:57):
So those are all Friday Saturday Sunday, all right, ty Incos.
Back of this, Ty, you were saying that you would
not have had that in a in a bracket of
Alabama being four and oh and a and m O
and four. Let me go back to the Crimson Tide
you started to talk about. You you got a chance
to watch them last night against Tennessee. I was pretty
impressed to see what the Crimson Tide did with its
pitching last night.

Speaker 4 (40:17):
Yeah, look, hey again, even you know last weekend, I
thought they were able to match up the Aggies well
at different times when they needed to both right and left.
But then they hit a great mix and last night
as well. To your point, they've got a great mix
of high velocity arms. And then if you watch them,
they go to a lower velocity eighty eight to ninety

(40:39):
one with different two different pitches with a couple of
their bullpen guys, but the majority of them all through
strikes and commanded secondary and but they gave you different looks.
And again I was impressive again last night. Defensive play
and right field last night was really good. And then
of course their shortstop Lebron is a really nice, really nice,

(41:03):
really good looking player. And again they are really physical
Alabama is.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
And but then again when.

Speaker 4 (41:12):
You go through and you start watching all the SEC teams,
the majority of them are really physical looking, athletic looking
baseball teams.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
Okay, all right, And then and then on the other
end of that, I wanted to get your thoughts on
A and M, because the Aggies look like at times
are getting some good pitching, but they seem to be
lacking something they had in large abundance of last year,
the timely hit, a late a late game hit, an
important hit with runners in scoring position. All programs want

(41:47):
more of that, clearly, including the long horns. Even they
Jim Slastangles said he wants to have more of timely
hits with guys runners in scoring position, but it's that
seems to be eluding Texas.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
A and M. And then they've had some problems in
the field as well.

Speaker 4 (42:01):
Defensively, well, I think there's two pieces to that. So
pee peel back the lineup from a year ago that
played for a national championship, and you can argue either
way on what I'm about to say.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
You take Montgomery on the lineup.

Speaker 4 (42:15):
And you saw what happened when they got to the
championship series. He weren't able to win it after he
got hurt. And then you take your whole back out.
And I'm not making excuses, but when you start peeling
back two of those types of hitters out of last
year's lineup, which kind of fed into where they were
going to be ranked this year, and then you take
their whole back out this year from you know, being
on the front end and or the coverage on both

(42:37):
sides of Lobolette, I think paid it's really been a
big issue for them offensively and defensively. If you go
into last weekend, there were two times in the in
the series with Alabama that their defense failed them.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
There was a.

Speaker 4 (42:52):
Second base play that wasn't made. A misplayed at flat
ball and left field and I'm sorry right field, a
sunball play you know that was played, and so both
of those leading to runs that ended up splitting the
game in Alabama's favors. So the detailed part of playing
defense has also come into play for them, where a
year ago they didn't have those types of issues and

(43:14):
if they did, they were able, they were able offensively
to overcome them. Again, going through that lineup a year ago,
eight MS lineup. When you start talking about and I
think coach Loosenengo would agree with me on this at
different times as coaches, timely hitting comes from the fact
that you have a really balanced lineup that's a good
piece of it. Like a lot of guys will go

(43:34):
through there in the course of a year, not just
one weekend, not just one game, but to the course
of a month, a year, a season, the balance part
of your lineup starts to really filter and you get
to see it when you come up with what we
call timely hits, when you come up.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
With two out hits.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
Because the guy who's coming up is good, the guy
who's coming up right after him might even be even better.
And so and that angles all the way through one
through nine through a lineup and we'll ten.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Look I say this about Texas lineup today.

Speaker 4 (44:05):
Now, they could get injured, you know, hopefully not.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
There's a lot of things that can happen.

Speaker 4 (44:09):
But you try to go through that Longhorn lineup four
times right now and a fifth time, and it's hard.
It's really hard because there's such great balance to it,
you know, from one to nine. And that's why I
think even this weekend it's gonna be such an exciting
and fun test for them because ls u's arms are

(44:30):
really good. I mean, it's a it's a creative you know,
power arm off the mound from them.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
Now.

Speaker 4 (44:36):
The one thing that I guess would be an achilles
for l s U at this point, possibly as a
lot of the runs have been scored off of walks
and they've had a lot of they've had some walks
off the mound that has led to some of.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
It as well. I guess that ty.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
I guess what that does is it speaks to LSU's hitters,
I guess, being pretty disciplined at plate where they could
take a walk if the bases are loaded, or in
a situation where they could put somebody in scoring position,
which in turn doesn't it put pressure on the other
team to make sure there's strike throwers.

Speaker 4 (45:12):
One hundred man, there's strikeout. Their free base ratio on
the offensive side has been so good to answer that.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Yes, I mean it's not even close.

Speaker 4 (45:24):
You know, what you would love to have at the
end of the year is for your free base and
strike out ratio to be flat, meaning similar, equal or
even just but you know, your number of strikeouts to
be just a little bit above it. You would be
more than happy as as a coach. So that's not
even close to them right now. Offensively, their free base
part of it is way bigger and way better than

(45:46):
their strikeout ratio, and that that has it. It puts
pressure on the defense, It puts pressure on the pitchers,
It puts pressure on everybody that they will.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Go deep into counts. Much similar to what.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
You and I talked about, you know, similar dates almost.
I guess it was a year ago that A and
M came in in March I think it was, and
they're striked out and their free base ratio.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Was unreal at that time as well.

Speaker 4 (46:12):
They would take the walk, they would take the hit,
batsman whatever they had to do to get into counts
and the game basis, but also to to you know,
find pitches that they could swing at that they could
and they were disciplined. And now you know, and people
can argue with me on this if they want, and
I love the debate about it, but the idea that

(46:32):
the umpires are being tested and graded on track man
has now led to a much more offensive game because
of the number of walks they're making them throw the
ball across the plate. Now, that day when you were
watching some of those umpires, you know call strikes three
balls off the plate, no longer exists anymore because they're
getting handed you know, a test grade at the end

(46:55):
of it that says, man, you miss nineteen pitches, you know,
whatever that looks like. And so people that train to
that are taking advantage of that and the disciplined part
of hitting now as opposed to a couple of years ago.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
I think LSU is.

Speaker 4 (47:09):
Doing it, Texas is doing it, the good teams are
training to it, and I think it's changed in the game.

Speaker 7 (47:14):
A little bit.

Speaker 4 (47:15):
And then they all debated, which you and I've talked
about before, a lot of people talk about the college
pitchers are throwing the ball harder than they've ever thrown
velos up, more than that it's ever been.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
Mean, I'm watching guys.

Speaker 4 (47:25):
You'll see some guys this weekend on both sides, both
Texas and LSU, and some young arms go out there
and be ninety five to ninety nine, and man, that
is a lot of veto. But because of that, also
there are a lot of guys that's, you know, grip
it and rip it right. There's not the command and
the efficiency on the mound like there was at some
point in time in college baseball.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
Interesting, so you think, do you think there is a
direct correlation between track man technology and college baseball conferences
are using now that's kind of like looking over the
shoulder at umpires seeing what their ball strike callto is
and if there's a large discrepancy about what the what
the TrackMan shows in calling and therefore making them set

(48:10):
or putting them even under a little more pressure, and
therefore the result is a positive one for offenses for
collegiate baseball.

Speaker 4 (48:18):
Agreed, I think guys, I think guys know hitters now
know more than ever what they feel like the strike
zone is, and they're making them do that, and I
just think, you know, hitters and coaches are training to it, uh,
and the disciplined part of the game. It is similar
craik to we didn't know it when we played for

(48:39):
coach guys. Now it was a more intended you're taking right,
you you had to take in a two zho three
one count more times than you didn't. But now it
is it's proven that you know, you've got this certain
box that these guys are having to throw the ball into,
and you know guys aren't consistently doing it, and they're

(49:00):
willing to teach that part of it. So yeah, I
think there's a direct correlation between training for it and
understanding what the strike zone is it pitches that are
going to be called strikes and others that are I
think umpires are more apt to call a strike a
ball now than they were five years ago. Seven years ago,
they would call a ball a strike. Yes, I do
believe that.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
Interesting, Okay, final thing here, the seventeen game winning streak
got snapped in twelve innings on Tuesday night. Was it
too early in the season for any guys on the
ball club to feel any pressure about that wind streak?
And whether there was or not. Do you think it's

(49:40):
a little bit of a relief that that's out of
the way. That happened on a non conference game, even
though you want to win every time you go out
to have that cleared and they start fresh with this
LSU team coming in.

Speaker 4 (49:50):
I think it was college baseball that just happened Tuesday night.
My personal opinion, I got to watch the last three
innings of it, and I just you know, I mean,
Ruger Riojas.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
Was really good.

Speaker 4 (50:02):
I mean he really was, and people could say he
made a mistake, but the reality was the ball was
down in a way, the guy got out in front,
hooked it up him to win, and uh.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
It pulled out.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
And by the way, a really good uts A game team.
So I think if you know they went on the
road to beat A and M, they've they've done some
good things. They've got a Phillipine club, they were able
to match up you know, Texas with the arms. They
went to their starters, you know, their Friday Saturday starters
to extend the game. And that's a choice that you

(50:32):
know min majors will make every once in a while.
I've made it before, others have made it before. Other
teams have done it. When it's your bullpen day on
a Tuesday, you'll bring your Friday guy out and so there.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
I think it was just a good team.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
I think I think Texas was playing as hard as
they played, they just weren't able to come up with
some things maybe earlier in that game off the mound
uh to to try to help them, and uh, I
think it was just a college baseball game.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Got in the way is what they got away. Happened
on Tuesday night. He's Ty Harrington.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
He'll be on the call working tomorrow in the weekend
as Texas will take on LSU. Hey, I appreciate it.
We'll see you out here at the ballpark. I appreciate
you taking the time time.

Speaker 4 (51:15):
I appreciate it always and look forward to being autural
Saturday Sunday. But I got to tell your crowd and
you're on it real quick. The fact that you're doing
a basketball game and a baseball game mixed in just
fascinates me to no ends that you're able to do that.
I got to be honest with you, the preparation that
goes into that. I've plugged you for it because it
is a lot. But You've got a lot going on
with the women's basketball and now baseball, and so I'll

(51:38):
as always I'll be listening to the games that you're
doing as well.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
Hey, I appreciate it. Thanks time. We'll see out here.
You got it.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
That is Ty herringson and he works those ESPN SEC
Network Plus telecast.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
He'll be on Tomorrow and Sunday. Keep more.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
Littill actually work tonight's telecast with Ben McDonald, the former
LSU All American and Rodger Rowls to join me tonight
Roger and Keith love the call of tomorrow night's game.
I'll be across I thirty five with the Texas Women's
NCAA tournament game, working with Kathy Harston on that, and
then Keith and I will bring you a Sunday's game
here at the ballpark. The series finale against LSU coming up.

(52:16):
We're going to hear from some of the Texas women's
players when we continue on this Friday afternoon on thirteen
under the Zone, third and final hour of the program
here on thirteen under the Zone, Greig Ay with you
from UFC, Dish Fogg Field and Camera Parker in the
studio as he joins us this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
We have one more hour of the program to go.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
Coming up in a few minutes, we'll talk some Major
League baseball Jean Watson from the Chicago White Sox front office.
Major League season a week away from getting underway. In
full of course, that doesn't count the two games that
we're played in Japan this week between the Cubs and
the Dodgers, but we'll talk about.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
Those things with Gino. We'll take a closer look at
this match.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
We're also going to hear some more from Vick Schaeffer,
Texas women's basketball head coach as they prepare for their
NCAA Tournament opener. Texas the number one seed in that
Birmingham three regional you want to call it that, meaning
they're the third number one seed. South Carolina, by the way,
is well on its way to winning today it's first

(53:15):
round game. They're in the Birmingham two region. Those two
would be on a collision course if they were both
to reach the final four, a meeting in the semifinals.
Spokane number one region, as UCLA the number one overall seed,
and usc Spokane number four regional, that's the second one there.
They would be the number four overall seed. And again

(53:37):
the significance of those things is there are two regionals
being played at each of those two cities, two in
Birmingham and two in Spokane. So if it were to
play out with the seeds winning all the way through

(53:59):
to the final four, or you would have two Big
ten schools facing one another art rivals no less in
UCLA and USC, and you would have two SEC schools
in South Carolina and Texas meeting. There are plenty of
schools who could have something to say about that. The
number two seeds, including Yukon which is in that Spokane
four regional. Of course, the number two seed in the

(54:21):
Birmingham three regional where Texas is is TCU, but the
three seed is noted Dame, so that's another team that
could really fight for. Ohio State is the number four
seed in that Birmingham three regional with Texas and Tennessee
is the number five.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
So it's a quality region.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
All of them have some quality teams right up at
the top of a Texas to play William and Mary,
and again that's going to be an eight forty five
right around there for the tip off will be on
the air at eight thirty on one oh three point
one AFM. Here it'll be long worn baseball both tonight
and again long worn baseball tomorrow evening on the zone

(55:00):
and Sunday afternoon at two o'clock. Tonight six forty five
pre game start time at a seven o'clock first pitch
and Texas against LSU. And then tomorrow evening it's a
six o'clock first pitch, five to forty five air time.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
Roger Wallis and Keith Mortland have the call on that
one for you.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Roger will joined me for the call of this one
a night and then Sunday Keith will join me for
the call of the third and final game of that series.
So it'll be interesting to see how Texas does against
this really good LSU team number one in a couple
of polls, number two in the rest of those Poles
and the Tigers one of the nation's best teams of
absolute certain We visited with ty Errington last hour to

(55:39):
talk about that, about how good this LSU team is,
the things they do very well, and how they find
a way to get on base and draw walks and
things like that. So the long words will have to
be active in the strike zone all right. Up next
it'll be time to talk to Major League Baseball with
Geene Watson from the Chicago White Sox front office when
we continue on this Friday afternoon on thirty under the Zone.

(56:01):
But it's seventy six degrees beautiful sunny. Skuys in great
weather for a series opener between Texas and LSU joining
us on the hotline to talk Major League Baseball.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
Our good friend Jean watch them from the Chicago White
Sox front office.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
And before we get started with any hardball conversations, Gino,
I know from personal experience in the late eighties in
early nineties when I was a younger reporter working at
KRLD at Dallas, and I was sent to Rangers spring
training for six straight years from eighty eight through ninety
three in Port Charlotte, Florida. The one thing that was inescapable,

(56:37):
the one reality that was inescapable, was that the players
were very very much in the NCAA basketball tournament pools,
and they were following what was going on and giving
each other the business when one guy's team lost or another.
Were you involved in those things? Did you watch a
lot of those guys? You just only had to walk

(56:57):
in the clubhouse to see how wound up guys like
Pete and Kavillion, Bobby Witt were for the Rangers, and
and even Nolan Ryan and those NCAA tournament pools.

Speaker 14 (57:09):
And you know what I've actually I'm actually up already.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
We have one where you get you get.

Speaker 14 (57:14):
A home team and a visiting team, and I'm a
home team.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
I'm I'm a I'm a winning team.

Speaker 14 (57:19):
One and then a zero team, uh, A losing team zero.
So I've won one hundred dollars already the first day,
except the A and M money I wouldn't accept. I
sent it back and I donated, I wouldn't accept.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
I wouldn't accept that money. So okay, I'm great. I'm great.
It's always good to visit with you. Uh and uh.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
And of course this is a big weekend series. I
know you had some other duties take you away from this,
but I know you're keeping an eye on what's going
to be happening between Texas and l s U this weekend.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
Oh man, it was. It's a star studded weekend.

Speaker 14 (57:50):
I was so excited to be coming in to to
see the Anderson kid from l s U and and
Blou from Texas and others, and uh, the today is
really important day from a spring training roster standpoint, a
lot of opt outs, player opt outs, and so I
just couldn't get away, but was really looking forward to
seeing that series.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
And we'll see both teams along the way at some point,
no doubt about it.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Okay, I want to ask you about your ball club
before we get into some other things, since we're headed
down the home stretch. ESPN did a pretty extensive piece
on your team today and it was entitled predicting the
White Sox lost total and the other worst teams of
twenty twenty five. Now, what I read from guys who
know real well and our friends with like Buster Olney

(58:35):
and Jesse Rodgers and David Schanfeld, those guys, they all
painted a pretty optimistic picture of your team, you know, Yeah,
still finishing a lot below five hundred and still in
the rebuild. As you have said from the outset, this
is a rebuild that's going to take some time. But
they were pretty optimistic about it. And I know you've
been pretty optimistic about the.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Direction that the ball club in the organization is taking.

Speaker 14 (59:00):
Yeah, and you know, Craig, it's really it's really bizarre
because this is my fourth rebuild, and this one feels
so far advanced from others in a time when the
vehicles to acquire players is a little tougher. You know,
we were very fortunate to make Garrett Crochet a starter
last spring, and and that turned into four very nice
prospects from the Boston Red Sox. We've done a great

(59:22):
job in the draft through our first draft. We did
a really good job internationally. So we we rule five
Shane Smith, who is going to make our club and
has been arguably the best one of our best starters.
And so while it's going to be another long season
in Chicago, I was just talking to some of our
media members out here, like it just doesn't feel as
bad because there's so much optimism on the horizon with

(59:44):
really impactful players, and in one year we've done a
lot to improve this organization.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
Well, I remember both the Rangers and Astros going through
all of these things, and and and from a fan perspective,
and and yeah, I root for a team that's that's
uh kind of a gun the gold standard right now,
and we'll see if they repeat as World Series champions.
But I remember it wasn't that long ago when the
Dodgers were having to go through rebuilds too, and other
teams were as well. And I think from a fans

(01:00:11):
perspective that all they're really asking for you. Yeah, they
want to contender and they want to win championships, but
they want to see the team ownership and management demonstrate
a real abiding interest in building a winner and not
just there.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
I think that's the problem that a lot of Cowboy
fans have with Jerry Jones, is that they don't see
any real positive movement toward building a championship caliber team.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
And I know fans in the past and some.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Years past might have felt that way about the Rangers
and the Astros, but we both seen each of those
clubs win World Championships in the past five years. So
they both have ownership and management teams in place to
want to move the ball club in that direction. Is
that what you come in ConA with fans. They want
to see the ownership, the front office, the management care

(01:01:05):
about progress in building a winner.

Speaker 14 (01:01:09):
Yeah, and our fans are super passionate in Chicago. I
have absolutely love our fan base. They're very hard, but
they're super and I can't wait to win for them.
The thing the separator when you talk about the Astros,
I mean Jim Crane is arguably the modern day George Steinbrenner.
The expectations drive the results, and he expects to win
every year.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
Chris Young, who is on our.

Speaker 14 (01:01:30):
Twenty fifteen World Series seen in Kansas City, one of
the most fierce competitors that I've ever known in any sport.
Chris expects to win, and the Rangers won a World Series.
And when the expectations drive the results and its competition
over process and finance, you have a chance to separate
yourself very quickly from a lot of other organizations because

(01:01:53):
a lot of other organizations are let's get in the
first round, let's win a few games, let's have great
things built up set about our system. Let's let's draw
two million, and if we can do that every year,
we call that a success. And in every organization I've
ever been a part of, winning a World championship was
the goal. And so when you get to that definitive
moment in the field where it's like, Okay, we can

(01:02:17):
stay where we're at and we can be competitive.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
But do we really have a chance to win the
whole thing?

Speaker 14 (01:02:22):
And when you put your eyes on the prize and
you're willing to push in with prospects, push in financially,
even on type you do all that right, you got
to have a lot of luck in October. You got
to be playing well in October. And that's certainly what
our goal is in Chicago. And there's you know, there's
probably half a dozen teams out there that feel that
way as well.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
Talking Major League Baseball with Geen Watson here from the
Chicago White Sox front office here on thirteen hundred the
Zone today MLB called the Tokyo Series between the Dodgers
and Cups is the largest standalone international event in MLB history.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
And of course where you have Showe.

Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
Aotani and and of course with the with the newbies
and also with players of Japanese descent on both sides,
that it was it was going to probably be a success.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
Certainly in Japan.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
It drew an average of more than twenty five million
viewers across all platforms, making it the most watched Major
League Baseball game ever in Japan, and the two game
series averaged more than twenty four million viewers that eclipse
the series in Soul Korea the year before. By nearly
seven million, so merchandising sales up all of that, the

(01:03:34):
fan fest drew more than four.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
Hundred and fifty thousand.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
Whether the Dodgers and were the Cubs or other teams
that have a Japanese attraction and ties to the nation
of Japan on their roster, you think this is the
thing to stay going forward, or at least in playing
more international series.

Speaker 14 (01:03:56):
And I do believe that this is just going to
create more interest in the Japanese players coming over to
Major League Baseball. To become a global entity and to
be able to market yourself globally, it is just enormous,
and you know, we we feel like moving forward, we're
going to be very involved in Japan. I'm going to
Japan in August for the first time and we're going

(01:04:16):
to be in that market. And it's just something that
Major League Baseball has done such a great job with.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
And it's becoming more and more of a global game.

Speaker 14 (01:04:26):
But when the Japanese stars come over here and they
have a chance to go back over there, it just
creates so much interest for them individually in both nations,
and it's something that's going to continue to go moving forward.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
I'm trying to picture you in a come on them.
I'm trying to trying to see if I can picture
that something. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
I think maybe you go and get one of those
big sumo cuts or something like that. Yeah, okay, all right,
uh let me let me get your thoughts on injuries,
John Gray, tough break there, literally and figuratively.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
With the Rangers.

Speaker 1 (01:04:59):
You darve she's going to open the season on the
on the eel for the Padres as well.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
We've seen some guys get injured. We've talked about obviously.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
I don't think we've because I've been traveling so much,
haven't had a chance to have you on the year
since Garrett Cole the announcement coming down that he's been
shelved for the season. What about your thoughts on how
the injury buck has really reared its ugly head during
the spring training days.

Speaker 14 (01:05:26):
Well, it's really unfortunate and what you're really hoping for,
and you know, we we've had one as well with
Mason Adams.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
Going down our number one starter arguably.

Speaker 14 (01:05:35):
And what you're really hoping for is the long term
injury not taking place, because you know, most clubs last
year used between thirty five and fifty pitchers on their roster,
and that number is going to escalate this year, and
so you're going to see a lot of teams out
of the gate just trying to sustain inventory and have

(01:05:56):
conversations with pitchers that have out to say, hey, look
just look at the numbers from the last three years
and the number of injuries.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
You're going to get your opportunity here.

Speaker 14 (01:06:03):
The problem is is other organizations have a greater need
than you have, and so they have opportunities in other organizations,
and so it's really going to be a musical chairs,
especially through the summer when it eats up of just
a revolving door of one any relievers that are out
of options bouncing from team to team, and you're just
trying to catch lightning in a bottle of performance. But

(01:06:24):
we have a real issue from a supplied demand standpoint
in our game with a number of injuries that are happening,
the pitchers that are going down, and the real unfortunate
ones are when they're long term injuries of twelve to
eighteen months and you have to pull out from the
minor leagues and independent leagues because then your product goes down,
and so it's something that's going to have to be
addressed by the league and years to come.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
Do you you feel that there will be any.

Speaker 1 (01:06:52):
I don't know of change in philosophy is the proper
phraseology for this.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
But you've talked about it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
You've spoken eloquently about in the past that the demand,
the absolute demand of ball clubs and organizations to have
hard throwers. You think is the direct correlation between what
has happened with that and with the rise of UCL
injuries and Tommy John surgeries and things like that. Do

(01:07:20):
you foresee any kind of I don't know if change
in philosophy is the right way to put it, but
maybe some alteration in terms of some of the thinking
in how it goes for a ball club and an
organization trying to build with good arms yet not run
the risk of damaging those arms.

Speaker 14 (01:07:42):
Craig I would speak from the rooftops to our amateur
coaches and the amateur system in the United States of America.

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
That we have to stop chasing velocity. We've got to
stop with the pitch shape and the pitch.

Speaker 14 (01:07:55):
Design and the chasing velocity and having thousands of pictures
can throw ninety five to one hundred. But none of
them can throw strikes, none of them control the running game,
none of them can none of them can land a
breaking ball for a strike, none of.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
Them have thirty pitches.

Speaker 14 (01:08:10):
And we're just we're just running our arms out of
the game in a chase for velocity because most people
will tell you if you don't.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
Throw hard, you don't have a chance.

Speaker 14 (01:08:19):
And I non prospect ninety five miles an hour every day,
every day. But the messaging within our amateur system across
the United States is that if you don't throw hard,
you won't get a look, which is completely false.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
One.

Speaker 14 (01:08:32):
But secondly, there's so much more to being a good
pitcher than just having velocity. But the message is velocity,
pitch shape, pitch design. And when you say.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
That, you're kind of the old man in the room.

Speaker 14 (01:08:45):
But we've got more sports science than we've ever had,
we've got more money than we've ever had, we've got
more information than we ever had, and we also have
more injuries than we've ever had. And it's something that
I think that we have to look at from an
amateur system and just slow the train down on the
velocity chase, and let's get back to teaching kids how
to pitch and not just chase velocity.

Speaker 1 (01:09:06):
Do you think it's becoming all or nothing, no in between?
On that because of the chasing velo and wanting to
see hard throwers, that the direction in coaching pitching and
teaching pitching has gone away from developing third pitches or
fourth pitches or whatever, and holding runners and PfP and

(01:09:29):
all the other important elements that make a good pitcher
a complete pitcher.

Speaker 2 (01:09:34):
That maybe some of that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
Has been set aside in the name of chasing more miles.

Speaker 14 (01:09:39):
Per hour one hundred percent because it's about money. And
if I can take a kid that throws eighty five
and make them throw ninety five, I'm going to profit
off of that, not only with that player, but also
with my resume in you know, showing other parents, Hey,
look how much harder I can make your kid throw.
But they don't learn the little things about being a

(01:10:02):
good pitcher, controlling the running game. They don't learn how
to land a breaking ball. It's all about, you know,
a vertical ride and inverted break and spin rates. But
but you can't throw strike. And I probably get one
hundred videos sent to me every day of independent league
guys guys are out of the game that are released
and they're sending me videos throwing ninety five to one

(01:10:24):
hundred and it's a ten pitch video on nine of
the pitches or balls, and and you know, so it's
just we have to refocus it as an industry what
we think is important. Velocity one hundred percent, it's important,
but there's so many other attributes to being a great
pitcher that involved that we have to like rewire the
system and change the way people are thinking about pitching overall.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
He's Geen Watson from the Chicagana White Hots front office.
We talk Major League Baseball during Are you finally ready
to get the season underway?

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
Now? Finally starting playing games that matter? Yeah, one hundred percent.

Speaker 14 (01:10:58):
I'm gonna be back in Houston for the weekend Sunday
and then fly to Chicago for the Oprah Thursday, and
then I'll be on the draft trail for about three
weeks and hopefully I'll run into you somewhere.

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
Yeah, I hope.

Speaker 1 (01:11:08):
So absolutely, Thanks Gine, I appreciate it. Have a great weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:11:12):
Treig Hoo, come see it. You bet. That's Gene Watson
from the Chicago White Sox. Front office.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
All right, we've got more coming up. We're gonna hear
more from Vick Schaeffer, Texas women's head coach, from that
pre tournament news conference today. That's up next here on
thirteen under the zone.

Speaker 3 (01:11:26):
It's almost time for the Texas women's basketball team to
take the court in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Here's more sound from fix Schaeffer and his media availability
earlier today as Texas preveyors for William and Mary tomorrow night.

Speaker 13 (01:11:41):
There was a period of time where the NCUBA took
the first two rounds away from campuses put them at
neutral sites. Obviously, it's back home now. With the interest
in the popularity of women's basketball now, should the nc
DOUBA consider moving the first two rounds back to neutral sites?

Speaker 6 (01:11:58):
You know, you know, it's been a while since we
did that. I think by giving teams the reward of
being able to host, I think we're in a good
place with that. I would like to see us go
back to four sites for the regionals. Having eight teams

(01:12:21):
at one place is problematic.

Speaker 2 (01:12:23):
You know, we experienced that last year.

Speaker 6 (01:12:26):
From practice times available to shoot around times available, and
you've got eight people trying to run through there before
that first game. So I would like to see us
go back to regionals. Plus, I think you can then
keep teams in their region a little bit right now,
you got them here and there.

Speaker 7 (01:12:43):
You know, at least this year we do have a
semi Midwest.

Speaker 6 (01:12:47):
I mean it's a whole lot more Midwest than up
you know in the East, where you had West Coast
and East Coast. So but again, if I had a vote,
which I don't and they're not calling me to ask,
but if I had, I would like to see us
go back to four sweet sixteens, you know, where you
have four teams at a place.

Speaker 7 (01:13:08):
But you know, again, because.

Speaker 6 (01:13:11):
Of our sport and because there's so much attention and
so much support for it right now, I think it's
an evolving thing that they have to look at each
and every year.

Speaker 7 (01:13:22):
I just like, well, no, I'll leave alone.

Speaker 2 (01:13:24):
Thank you for that, coach, Next question please, Travis Rachel,
Spectrum News coach.

Speaker 3 (01:13:30):
I was just talking to Kyla in the locker room
and she was telling me a couple of years ago
she had a pretty serious health scare that changed her perspective.

Speaker 2 (01:13:37):
What do you see from her attitude and effort every day.
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:13:41):
I went up to her yesterday and said, man, I
am really glad you're here at Texas. You know, Kylea Is,
she's just a wonderful young lady. You look at her,
You don't get to see what I get to see
every day. She's got a personality, she's she's just a

(01:14:03):
special kid, you guys, all y'all see is that look?
You know, that that she's got when she's playing and
on the floor. And I see her a lot differently,
you know, I get to see her in so many
different ways, but she is you know, I've told the story.
She's the only kid I've ever recruited that asked me
to work her out on her visit, you know, And

(01:14:26):
she just a special kid.

Speaker 2 (01:14:27):
Man. I love her. Her teammates love her.

Speaker 6 (01:14:31):
She's a She's becoming more and more comfortable as a
vocal person. I look for her next year to be
one of our vocal leaders. And uh, you know the
thing about it is she can back it up physically too,
and so it's, uh, you know, she's she's gonna be
great when times she.

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
Gets out of here.

Speaker 6 (01:14:50):
You know, in another year, she's going to be another
one that's going to go on and have a great career.

Speaker 15 (01:14:57):
We have time for one more question, Chip Chip Brown
Horns twenty four seven VIC in the LSU game here, Uh,
Bree and Jordan came in and kind of gave the
team a spark.

Speaker 2 (01:15:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (01:15:12):
Can you talk about the chemistry of those two in
the fact that they're like that's friends.

Speaker 6 (01:15:18):
Yeah, you know, that's Uh those two are.

Speaker 7 (01:15:25):
There are energizer bunnies.

Speaker 6 (01:15:27):
You know, if you pay attention over there on the
bench now, they're living and dying with everything that happens
on the floor with their teammates.

Speaker 4 (01:15:33):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:15:33):
They celebrate everything good over there. They are animated. They're
such good teammates. They're the energizer bunnies.

Speaker 2 (01:15:44):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:15:45):
And then you know they they come in the game
and usually change it. You know, they're they make plays
there in their plays they make y'all. You know, bring
on a Preston, she's roaring on steroids. You know when
it comes to a speed and in quickness thing. I mean,
Rory's really fast, like Preston is electric. You know, That's

(01:16:06):
how I described those two. And you know, I just
think that both of them have meant so much to
the success of our program this year, They've provided depth
that I haven't had, you know, my whole time here
at Guard.

Speaker 2 (01:16:22):
And you know.

Speaker 6 (01:16:26):
I've heard, you know, Coach Harston mentioned to me, you know,
early on back in the summer about Man, you know,
talking about Preston Man. That's your kind of Guard Vic,
you know, just uh, just talking. And then of course
Jordan Lee, when we were recruiting her, I knew she
was way ahead of the curve defensively. She was a

(01:16:48):
great help defender. She's really good on ball. She communicates,
she talks, and and so she provides that that most
freshmen don't do.

Speaker 2 (01:16:59):
You know, they just don't.

Speaker 6 (01:17:00):
They're not either confident in doing that or it's not
something they're they have a habit of doing. But Jordan
was did that in high school and she brought that
with her. She is a confident kid. She doesn't worry,
you know, about whether that's.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
Cool or not.

Speaker 6 (01:17:16):
You know, kids, hear me tell them all the time, Hey,
this ain't about being cool or playing cool. You know,
cool don't win. And she's man, she's both. Those kids
have been so special and have added a really uh
dynamic and uh necessary dimension to our team. And again

(01:17:38):
that's the to me, that's our future.

Speaker 7 (01:17:41):
You start thinking.

Speaker 6 (01:17:42):
About those two in in in book, our guards for
the future are are really really you know, I think
we're in a great place right now. And uh and
so again, those two kids are I don't want to
say they're the class clowns, but they're they're there are
a lot of fun to be around, you know, and
they keep things loose, you know. I'm telling y'all, they

(01:18:05):
got all the dance moves, like it is. I told
them this one time, joking like, if they ever take
anybody with them to the club to dance, that'll be
the last time anybody goes with them, because those two
ain't coming off the floor.

Speaker 2 (01:18:20):
And by the time the two o'clock.

Speaker 6 (01:18:22):
Horn sounds and you gotta leave, they'll be wanting to stay,
and the other person will be going to no, we
have to go now, because they will absolutely wear them out.
They are just full of juice and energy and they're
just a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
To be around.

Speaker 6 (01:18:36):
They're great kids. And again you have to give their
parents credit. They come from wonderful families, absolutely wonderful, wonderful families,
and that's why those kids are as solid as they
can be.

Speaker 1 (01:18:50):
All Right, there it is Vic Schaeffer with his comments
today from that press conference and again the game tomorrow
night's gonna tip off right out about eight forty five
will beyond the air already one of three point one
FM as we bring you the Texas matchup against William
and Mary. We'll be back to wrap up today's edition
of the program from here at UFC a dish fault
field on thirteen under the Zone. Our our good friend

(01:19:13):
and our colleague, our our partner from thirteen under the Zone,
Mike Hardball Harge is here a host of course of
the morning kickoff with Mark, Henry and Uh. I wanted
to give you the opportunity to pass this word along
because you are much closer to the situation and understand it.
But we've had the tragic loss of a lifetime long warning,

(01:19:36):
one of the greatest to ever play the game of
football at ut.

Speaker 16 (01:19:39):
No doubt you know it was unfortunate passing of one
Kenneth Simms, the pride of Grosbeck and Cassi. Texas missed
a two five fo as I like to call him,
but back then when he was growing up, it was
eight one seven, that's right, But yes, it was a
kind of a chilling day if you wanted to put

(01:20:01):
it in words, because of the fact that we all
know who Kenny Simms is, and you know, one of
the most jovial guys that you'll ever meet, but when
you saw him on the field, you knew he was
there to handle that business.

Speaker 7 (01:20:12):
And I got a call today that.

Speaker 16 (01:20:15):
There was some things going on and I had to
go over and wanted to check in myself. And it
was unfortunate that when I got there that they said
that he had passed away peacefully. But it was still
one of those things it's really hard to believe because
here's a man that lived life to the fullest, and
you know, his story is well documented, but he was

(01:20:38):
one of those guys that would definitely give you his
shirt off his back. He was one of those guys
that really loved Texas athletics. He was pride and joy
of Texas Athletics. And I was glad to be a
part of his journey into the College Football Hall of
Fame because I was invited by Kenny Simms to go
to the College Football Hall of Fame with him with

(01:21:01):
his family, my family, and it was one of the
proudest moments that I ever got a chance to see
him be recognized for his excellence.

Speaker 1 (01:21:11):
Yeah arrived on the UT campus as a freshman nineteen
seventy eight impact performer. He recorded three hundred twenty two tackles,
twenty nine sacks, fifty tackles for lost, fifteen force fumbles,
seventh FuMB recoveries, three block kicks, and earned consensus All
American the first team All Southwest Conference honors in each

(01:21:31):
of his final two seasons as Texas and finished eighth
in Heisman voting and received three first place votes in
nineteen eighty one, and then, of course selected by the
New England Patriots the first the number one overall pick
in the.

Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
Nineteen eighty two draft.

Speaker 1 (01:21:48):
Played eight seasons with the Patriots, including the nineteen eighty
five AFC championship team when they went to the Super Bowl,
and finished his professional career with seventeen sacks at seventy
four games, and trined in the Texas Athletics Hall of
Honors the class and part of the Class of nineteen
ninety seven, and of course, he into the College Football
Hall of Fame. As Harts has told you, in twenty

(01:22:09):
twenty one, he was sixty five.

Speaker 2 (01:22:12):
And he will be missed because he was he.

Speaker 1 (01:22:15):
Was a part of so many things that that was
going on with UT athletics.

Speaker 16 (01:22:18):
Yeah, and you know, he also started a scholarship program
for the women's basketball team. He was really proud of
the women's athletics. Him and Jody Conrad were really good friends.
And he did everything. Him and Chris Plonski, they always
did something for the ladies. And you know, as I said,
he's a gentle giant, but he was.

Speaker 2 (01:22:39):
More than that.

Speaker 16 (01:22:40):
I mean, he was so intelligent and was always helping
and giving back and trying to support the kids. And
and he's definitely going to be missed. I know I
speak for a lot of people that know him. My
family is hurting today because we lost a great man.
And not only that, he was more of a mentor

(01:23:02):
to me about this business that we're in right now
because he was a guest host on so many people.

Speaker 1 (01:23:09):
But you brought him out for the NFL Draft party,
and that will say that was a great show.

Speaker 2 (01:23:13):
We had a lot of fun last April, right.

Speaker 7 (01:23:15):
We had that.

Speaker 16 (01:23:16):
And then you know you talk about Brian Jones and
Derek Johnson and and and Norm Watkins, guys that he mentored,
and then you can go all the way back to
Stony Clark and all those guys. But it was more
than just the football part of it. It was the
life aspect that he brought to everybody every single day.
And I, you know, I had I had to make

(01:23:36):
that call to uh a lot of his friends and
and it was one of the hardest calls that I
had to make. And I had to make that call
for our our late great friend Shawn Adams as well.
And it's just one of those things that when you
lose guys like that, you know, Shawn Adams and the
the the Kenneth Simms, not you don't. You're not the

(01:23:56):
only one hurting. It's the people that admired him as well,
So you don't know all those other people that had
a relationship to him as well.