NBA Finals, Upcoming NBA Draft, MLB

Craig Way talks all things NBA, MLB, and more. It's all here on The Craig Way Show!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kisa, Texas legend, a Hall of Fame broadcaster, the voice
of the Texas Longhords, and your host of the Craigway Show.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Here he is now Craig Way.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Hello, Friday afternoons. So good that you have arrived. Welcome
to your arrival of the program here on Sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred of Zonoe. My name is Craig Way.
I do thank you very much for joining us. US
today includes our studio producer, Ronald Savage Junior. He is
at the controls today. Cameron Parker, our regular producer, will

(00:41):
be back on Monday. He is. He has family in
town and so he'll and DEALI have himself. Good weekend,
and then we'll be back with us on Monday. As
I always say, on Friday, I hope if Friday is
truly like a lot of them, it'say, most a lot

(01:01):
of the working world thinks about Friday being the end
of the work week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and
then you get a couple of days off on the weekend.
If that's the case for you, good on. You're good
for you, and I hope good for you, and I
hope that your weekend goes well, for those of you
for whom Friday is more like Wednesday, they got to
work through the weekend. Listen, you know, hang there, you're

(01:22):
on the on the back side of it. And for
those of you who are coming off, say you're off
days being Wednesday and Thursday and Friday is the starting work.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
We go.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Hope it gets off to a rollicking start, and hopefully
we can contribute just a little bit on the program
this afternoon. We've got, as usual on Friday, a wide
array of topics to discuss. Among those, last night's Game
one of the NBA Finals, not Game one, Game six

(01:51):
of the NBA Finals. We'll get to that in a moment.
The uh, we're just around the corner from the NBA
Draft as well. We'll take a look at the latestetions
on that. For the NBA Draft. The Major League Baseball weekend.
There were more fireworks in Los Angeles last time between
the Dodgers and Padres, mainly because the balls that were.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
Fired app players hit batters.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
In the three o'clock hour, Gene Watson from the Chicago
White Sox front office, we'll join this our weekly conversation
about Major League Baseball. I believe he told me this.
I believe Gino was actually in the Dominican Republic. There
are developmental games going on down there. But he will
join us coming up in the three o'clock hour and
we'll talk Major League Baseball, the recent trade of Rafael

(02:39):
Devers from the Red Sox to the Giants, that stuff
going on. So there's plenty today. Sho Aotani back on
the mound pitching for Los Angeles.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
He was the other night.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
He's scheduled to go on Sunday when they play the Nationals.
So Major League Baseball.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
One of the topics.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
College World Series is down to its national championship matchup.
The highest remaining seed in the tournament is LSU and
they are the number sixth national seed. The number one
seed Vanderbilt went out first weekend on the regions. Number
two seed Texas of course went out first weekend on
the regionals. Number three seed was Arkansas, and LSU just

(03:17):
took them out on Wednesday night to win that bracket championship,
that semifinal and to get ready for the and to
get ready for the National Championship. The number four seed
in the National was Auburn, which was taken out by
Coastal Carolina in the Super Regionals. The number five seed

(03:41):
was North Carolina, which lost at home to Arizona in
the Superregionals. As I mentioned, LSU, the highest remaining seed
than the number six national seed. The number seven seed
Georgia went out in the regional round on its home field.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
The number eight.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Seed Oregon State made it to the semifinals of the
College World Series, but was knocked out in are the
quarterfinals rather and was knocked out by Louisville. The number
nine Sea was Florida State, which was beaten in the
Superregionals by the eighth seed Oregon State, one of the
few seeded matchups that held the form after.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
The opening weekend.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
The ten seed was Old miss which got knocked out
by Murray State, which made it all the way to Omaha.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
The eleven seed.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Was Clemson, which got knocked out at the regional level
by Duke won the Georgia regional. Rather, Clemson got knoed
out by West Virginia. The twelve seed wasn't think of
the twelve seed would have been that was Let's see
who did Arizona takeout? Was the twelve seed to get there,

(04:49):
but North Carolina ended up losing the Arizona. Anyway, in
Arizona won that over the twelve seed. The thirteen seed
was Coastal Carolina who beat the four seed Auburn and
and then of course got to Omaha and they haven't
dropped the game. In fact, Coast of Carolina has won
twenty six consecutive games going into the National Championship Series.

(05:10):
That is a record for NCAA, turning the College World
Series most consecutive wins going into the National Championship round
and twenty six. The record was eighteen by USC back
in nineteen forty eight when they didn't really have regionals.
They had some district play and then it was on

(05:31):
from there to Omaha or in those days nineteen forty
eight would have been witchtalk Kansas.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
And so anyway, of.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
All of the seeds that were left, there's two of
the sixteen were left, the sixth seed LSU, the thirteen
seed Coastal Carolina. So those were the seeds remaining, and
those are the two teams that will play for the
National Championship. We'll have some analysis of that coming up

(06:00):
in the four o'clock hour. Ty Harrington, our resident college
baseball analysts, the twenty year head coach at Texas State
and himself a former Longhorn College World Series participant and
the head coach of the national Championship Junior college team.
Tied with great pedigree as always, and the coach will

(06:21):
join us in the four o'clock hour as we take
a look at this national championship. See, he has had
his eye on Coastal Carolina the entire season because they're
in the Sunbelt Conference where Texas State is. And of
course he in addition working some of our broadcasts of
Long Horn Baseball and some of the Texas Baseball telecasts

(06:41):
through the Texas Studio folks for SEC network. Plus he
also still works Texas State Collection in Texas State Telecast
for ESPN PLUSS. So anyway, Ty harringtonill join us in
the four o'clock hour to do that. We do have
Inconceivable coming up this hour. Inconceivable, of course, where said
not only runs down some of the most unusual stories

(07:04):
that have gone over the past several days or weeks
or whatever. We also include in that the fast food
junk food update. We'll have that in there. But also inconceivable.
We know what inconceivable means on Friday, that is Florida
Man Friday. So we've got Florida Man Friday for you
coming up in Inconceivable as well. And as always, of course,

(07:28):
we open up the text line for your questions, your thoughts,
your comments, whatever you'd like to get to feel free
to do that. You can text the program simply by
texting the word Texas follow by your question or comment
to eight one five three zero. So you text the
word Texas follow by your question or comment to eight

(07:52):
one five three zero. Standard messaging and data rates may apply.
And then one other thing. I wanted to make sure
we get to it today and get to it early today.
And what we have been doing is giving you an

(08:13):
opportunity to win tickets to all throughout the course of
this week. We've done this, in fact, giving folks an
opportunity to win a pair of tickets to see Jason
Alden and that comes up on August the sixteenth at

(08:34):
Moody Center. And what we do here is to give
you the opportunity to get yourself and what basically is
a limited drawing because it's up to you to participate,
you have a chance to increase your chances whenever we
do these giveaways, and we give away lots of tickets
to lots of different shows. Regular rock and roll, classic

(08:58):
rock and roll, country music, older country, younger country, heavy metal,
hip hop. We do all genres basically. And so we've
got a couple of pair of tickets. We've got a
pair of tickets to see Jason Olden and Moody Center
on August the sixteenth. And the reason why I say

(09:19):
that you have a chance to increase your odds is
because it involves some of your participation. If you participate
in this, then it definitely increases your odds exponentially. How
do you participate? Pretty easy. First of all, you pick
up your ding dang's smartphone. If you don't already have

(09:39):
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Speaker 4 (09:54):
You're Android, whatever it might be.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
But if you don't have it downloaded, go ahead and
downloads really easy. It's free, no obligations or costs or
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great programming and things like that. Now you download the
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(10:16):
zone real easy to find.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
And for those of.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
You you know watching they're on our stream, you can
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then what you do is you push that button and
leave us a message up to thirty seconds. You can
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(10:40):
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I like to be in the drawing. Here's today's keyword.

(11:00):
That is the separator. That's what gets you into that
elevated opportunity to win is mentioning the keyword on the
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Speaker 4 (11:08):
So, if you.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Don't already have it downloaded, download the iHeart Radio app.
Search AM thirteen under the zone. Then when it pops
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You say he and you leave us a voice message,
you say I heard. You're giving away tickets to Jason
Alden Craig Way Show. Today's keyword is.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
Truth.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
Truth, because we always try to tell the truth here
on this program. So truth is the keyword. So you
leave us that keyword in your message. Do that, and
you're going to go straight. You're going to bypass a
lot of things to get right into the elevated chance
to win the drawing for a pair of tickets to
see Jason Alden a little under two months from now

(11:56):
August sixteen. Give you plenty of time to plan for
that August sixteenth at Moody Center. All right, so table set,
letting you know what's happening up next. We're going to
review last night's Game six of the NBA Finals. That
it is all square now Oklahoma City and Indiana. For
the first time in nine years, an NBA Final is

(12:17):
going to go the distance. It's going to go seven games.
The last time it happened twenty sixteen, was the famous
year Lebron who had returned to Cleveland the whole Blublo
that when he came back and he led the Cavaliers
back from a three to one deficit against Golden State,
and they came back.

Speaker 4 (12:38):
And won the championship.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
That's the last time at NBA Finals went to a
decisive seventh game, and it was necessitated by the fact
that they were down three games to one and Cleveland
came back and won it. This will be the first
time since then that an NBA Finals series goes to distance,
goes all the way to.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
A seventh game. I'm excited.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
I always liked game sevens, whether it's World Series, these
Stanley Cup Finals, NBA Finals, always enjoyed a best of
seven series on that. So coming up we'll review that,
we'll get some of your questions and comments on the
text line. It is a Friday, and we're happy to
have you with us right here. I'm thirteen under the zone.

(13:17):
We are also your station for Round Rock Express Baseball.
The Express back in action tonight. They'll play the Oklahoma
City Comments tonight at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
That's part of that six game series they have.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
With them, and then after the weekend through Sunday, they
come back home Monday, is to travel day. They come
home awful Monday, and then they start a six game
homestand against the Tacoma Rain Years with two dollars Taco Tuesday.
That's pretty cool. Got dollar hot dog Wednesday and Thursday.
Thursday always got something going on out of Dell Diamond.
So anyway, Round Rock will play at Oklahoma City tonight

(13:58):
and you can hear the contest here on thirteen hundred
the zone beginning at six fifty.

Speaker 4 (14:03):
Okay, to the NBA Finals we go. And this.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
The game last night looked again, this is three minutes
into the ballgame, really, but it looked for all the
world as though Oklahoma City was going to close it out.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
They jumped to an eight to two lead.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
The Thunder had hit some shots early, Jalen Williams throws
down a dunk. Indiana meanwhile, had missed its first six shots,
and in fact, the Pacers would actually wind up missing
their first eight in the ballgame. But after the first

(14:48):
six shots were missed, Rick Carlisle called a timeout. We
came out of the timeout and got on the roll
and normally, and I asked this question of student athletes
a lot after say a Texas game, when after a
time out whenever it would come midway and the second half,

(15:10):
early second half, first half, down ten, down twenty, whatever
it was, and they come back and win. And I
would ask the student athlete or the head coach in
a post came interview what was said during the time out,
whether much was said, whether a little was said or

(15:32):
almost nothing was said, whatever it was, it worked.

Speaker 4 (15:37):
The effect work.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
Sometimes it's just a clearing of the mind and settling
down and reassurance with your teammates. Right, we're doing this, right, Okay,
you've got him, We're going to run this. And then,
you know, sometimes it's just that because you're kind of
getting you know, a quick whirlwind of things, all of
a sudden, you look up, you're down.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
And that was the case. But they came out of
that timeout.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
Pascal sie come, he hits a free throw line jumper,
then he just did a great and one. Andrew nem
Hard then nails back to back three pointers. All of
a sudden, the Thunder, which led by as many as eight,
now was trailing. And then they turned it around and
then and they were still it was still close ballgame

(16:20):
until early second quarter, and I believe the run was
thirty to nine by Indiana, and they led by twenty
two at the half. There was an incredible play at
the end of the first half in the final seconds.
The lead was twenty for Indiana and Oklahoma City was

(16:44):
playing for the final shot of the half. It was
sixty two to forty two and Oklahoma City was playing
for the final shot, and he missed. They shot it
a little bit earlier, missed. Pacers got it down the
floor quickly, and Tyrese Haliburton, and he's an entirely different
topic on all of this, and we'll get to in

(17:05):
a minute, flips a quasi no look pass while spinning
at three point sixty into Siakam, who throws down a
thunderous dunk. The building is alive. It's a twenty two
point lead at the half for Indiana. In the second half,
they continue the onslaught this long run, build the lead

(17:26):
to over thirty, and then wind up settling for a
seventeen point win.

Speaker 4 (17:31):
It was one of eight. Ninety one was the final score.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
But from it really started, really from that first time
out three minutes in the ballgame that they it was
kind of the wake up call, and then after that
they really kicked it in the high gear. Of course,
the key to all of it was going to be
Tyrese Haliburton, and yesterday he was still listed as questionable.

(17:55):
He had that right calf strain was very limited, and
I think he'd hit in Games four and five combined.
I think he was one for eleven from three point range,
and I think three out of seventy on the arc
last night. But he was the flashpoint, the trigger man
to get Siakam and Miles Turner and them Hard and

(18:15):
O'Connor and all of those guys into gear and they
basically ran Oklahoma City out of the building. And like
I said, it was all the sum of the parts.
Haliburton was one of six players to score the double
figures after missing all six shots that he took in

(18:35):
Game five in Oklahoma City. Indiana had seven players make
at least one three pointer. The Pacers became the first
team in NBA history to have at least eight the least.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
This is an interesting number.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
I haven't heard a number quite like this before, mainly
because it has to do with the postseason.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
Simple water here and in the postseason.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
The postseason over the years has changed, you know, going
all the way back to The forerunner of the NBA
was called the BAA, the Basketball Association of America that
was nineteen forty six forty six forty seven. It ended
up merging with the league called the National Basketball League

(19:24):
the NBL that had the Minneapolis Lakers in it, who
one day would become the Los Angeles Lakers, and had
some other teams like that, But the BAA had the
Boston Celtics and most of the other New York Knicks,
most of the charter franchises that are in today's NBA
prior to expansion. Point is postseason back in those days
might be a total of three rounds of the playoffs

(19:49):
and shortened rounds at that you'd have Eastern Division in
Western Division. They can go to conferences until I think
the seventies, and they would play each would have a
division semifinal that might be a best of five. In
the real early days it was the best of three,
and then might be a best of five, and then

(20:10):
the best of seven in the division finals, and then
won best of seven series in.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
The championship round.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
Because for many years you only had eight or nine
or ten teams in the league, so that's all you
would have for that so this number can be that
I'm about to give you could be a little bit skewed.
Eventually it expanded over time, and then, of course we
know what the NBA is right now with sixteen teams
making the playoffs. Actually it's not sixteen teams, it's twenty
because you have the play in, you have the tournament,
so twenty of the teams make the playoffs total. Now,

(20:41):
obviously the Pacers were not in the play in. Still,
in all, this is a really impressive number. Indiana had
seven players make at least one three pointers. I mentioned
the Pacers last night became the first team in NBA
history to have at las least at least eight players

(21:02):
score at least two hundred points in a postseason. You
think about that for a moment. If you have eight
guys scoring at least two hundred points in the postseason,
even if the postseason is in elongate And obviously the
Pacers aren't in the play and they were better.

Speaker 4 (21:19):
Than that, but.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
If you have eight guys scoring at least to I mean,
you know, listen, math was not my strong suit in school.

Speaker 4 (21:28):
I readily admit that, but I know that eight times
two was sixteen.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
So if you have eight guys score at least two
hundred points, are getting at least sixteen hundred points in
a postseason, so and it was all balanced.

Speaker 4 (21:42):
It's been balanced.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
That's how the PACER's been able to reach this point.
Oklahoma City had a close out opportunity game. It did
not go well for them. SGA shake Gilgess Alexander the MVP,
and rightly so. By the way, he had a fabulous
regular season on which the MVP balloting is based, and
they were one seed the overall best record.

Speaker 4 (22:04):
He deserved it, he definitely was.

Speaker 3 (22:07):
He had a career high eight turnovers last night and
only three players SGA was one. Jalen Williams was won.
Isaiah Hartenstein scored in double figures. That's it, only three
guys in double figures. And the Pacers had more quality possessions.

(22:27):
They finished with eighteen more shots. So now it's three
games apiece.

Speaker 4 (22:33):
And it's.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
Going back to Oklahoma City for the first NBA Finals
Game seven. And I mentioned this right before the break
since twenty sixteen, and that was a tremendous game, that
Cleveland Golden State game, and that was in Oakland at
Oracle Arena, and that's the one, they say, you know,
really cemented Lebron james legacy because he brought Cleveland its

(22:57):
first championship and its.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
First pro sports world.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
Championship since nineteen sixty four, the Cleveland Browns winning the
NFL title in the twilight of Jim Brown's career running
back for the Cleveland Browns that they beat the Baltimore
Colts in the NFL title game, that's the last time
they'd won a world title. The AFL had a championship

(23:25):
game Buffalo in San Diego then, and there's been all
kinds of interesting historical what if studies done if when
the AFL had started, had the two champions played the
AFL and the NFL, and the AFL certainly.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Challenged the NFL back then.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
And looking at those early winners in sixty sixty one,
sixty two, sixty three, sixty four, and sixty five, those
were six seasons where the NFL champion did not meet
the AFL champion. It was the merger in sixty six
that set up Super Bowls, and even though was called
the Super Bowl until Super Bowl three, it was still
the AFL NFL World Championship. He had the NFL champion

(24:05):
against the AFL champion. The Packers, as we know, won
the first two to beat Kansas City in Super Bowl One.
They beat Oakland and Super Bowl two. Then he had
the colossal upset Jets of for Colts in Super Bowl three,
and Kansas City beat Minnesota favorite Minnesota team in Super
Bowl four. So they wound up in the NFL AFL
era the decade of the sixties, wound up deadlock to two.
They said, well, what would have happened if they played
those other six games those other six years.

Speaker 4 (24:28):
I think the NFL would have won five of them.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
Nineteen sixty I think the Philadelphia Eagles would have beaten
the Houston Oilers to win the first what would have
been the first ever nineteen sixty one, I think the
Packers would have beaten the Oilers, who repeated as champs
in the AFL. Sixty two, I think the Packers would
have beaten the Dallas Texans, who had won in double
overtime at Houston, and then, of course the next year

(24:52):
would relocate to Kansas City and become the Chiefs. I
think the Packers would have handled in the sixty two Packers,
who were one of the best pro football teams ever.
If you, you know, stack it up pound for pound.
Sixty three is the one year I think AFL champion
would have beaten an NFL champion. I think San Dio Chargers,
who had that unbelievably explosive offense. They had great running

(25:13):
backs in Paul Low and Keith Lincoln, and they had
of course Lancealworth as a receiver, and they had a
young John hadl with Babe Perilli, they split quarterback duties.
I think they would have beat a Chicago Bears team
that won the NFL title. The Bears had great defense,
they did, but their offense wasn't very good at all.
In fact, they won the NFL title over the Giants
fourteen to ten. They kind of struggled to do that
and it took an interception to set it up. But

(25:35):
I think the Chargers probably would have won that one.
But both of the Buffalo teams won in sixty four
and sixty five. They would not have beaten Cleveland in
sixty four, and they would not have beaten green Bay
in sixty five, a green Bay team that had knocked
out Cleveland in the championship round. So the point is
that was the legacy for Cleveland against Golden State with

(25:58):
Lebron James bringing Cleveland first championship since that nineteen sixty
four season I mentioned, and they were down three games
to one. The Warriors that year, if you remember, set
the record won seventy three ballgames. So we're going to
find out, you know, one of these two teams, Oklahoma
City or Indiana.

Speaker 4 (26:18):
Will host the Larry O'Brien Trophy for the first time.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
And in the case of Oklahoma City, they have an
ancestral franchise history world title, the Seattle SuperSonics in nineteen
seventy nine. But they're not claiming that, folks Oklahoma City
thunder would win the franchise's first title. And that is
true even as much as the Cleveland Browns moved to

(26:43):
Baltimore and became the Ravens and they won Super Bowl
thirty five in the two thousand season. And for those
who claimed that for Cleveland, you're mistaken on that. That's Baltimore.
The franchise move. Same story here, Seattle lost the sign
of Clay Bennett, moves from to Oklahoma City. They have
not won a title yet. They'd only been in one

(27:04):
other finals and that was in twenty twelve when they
lost to Lebron and Miami. So it's gonna be interesting
Sunday night. It's gonna be appointment television because there's not
much else going on other than, you know, than baseball.
Even if Game two of the National Championship Series is played,

(27:25):
and it will be played between LSU and Coastal Carolina,
that's a day game on Sunday, so the deck will
be cleared for the National Champion for the World Championship
Game that night for the NBA title Oklahoma City at Indiana,
and we mentioned Oklahoma City's ancestral franchise with Seattle winning.

(27:48):
Indiana has always been the Pacers, but it goes back
to the ABA days where they were the pre eminent
team in the ABA. As a kid who grew up
in North Carolina and I went to see the Carolina
Cougars play in the ABA, I saw some against those
great Indiana Pacers teams that have Melton Daniels and Roger
Brown and Don Musey and Rick Mount Billy Killer, that

(28:10):
had tremendous teams and coached by Slick Leonard. Those were
great Indiana Pacers teams. They won more ABA titles than
any team in ABA history. They won four but they've
never won an NBA title. In fact, no former ABA
team has ever won both an ABA title and an

(28:32):
NBA title. Four teams from the ABA were absorbed into
the NBA via the nineteen seventy six merger. Those four
teams all have won titles, but only in one league
or the other ABA championships won by Indiana. They won four.

(28:53):
The Brooklyn Nets who were for they were the Brooklyn
Nets when they were in the NBA. They were the
New Jersey Nets. Before they were the New Jersey Nets.
When they were in the ABA, they were the New
York Nets. And actually and truly before they were in
the New York Nets. The first year they were in
New Jersey, they were the New Jersey Americans. They played
in a tiny little building called the t Neck Armory.

(29:15):
And then they moved to Nassau County in New York
and played the Nasau Coliseum as the New Jersey Nets.
That's where Doctor Jay was part of the final ABA
champions when the Nets beat the Denver Nuggets. Speaking of
the Nuggets, they were one of the teams as well.
They never won an ABA title. They won an NBA
title two years ago. They never won an ABA title,

(29:36):
and then, of course the four team is the Spurs
San Antonio, whose ancestry in terms of its franchise lies
with the old Dallas Chaparrals, who were a charter member
of the ABA, but who moved to San Antonio in
seventy three. The Spurs have, of course four NBA World titles,
but they never won one in the ABA.

Speaker 4 (29:56):
So Indiana.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
And the Brooklyn Nets are the only two teams still
with a chance mathematically to win both an ABA title
and an NBA channel because Denver never won in any
of the ABA, and neither did neither did the Spurs,
So that's what's at state for Indiana their own legacy
as well. All right, coming up next here on thirteen

(30:23):
under the Zone Power number two of the program, Glad
to be with you on a Friday afternoon, and I
hope your Friday's going all right and that the commute
home or out of town or whatever it might be
might be okay.

Speaker 4 (30:34):
Also, I know.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
This is really going to sound like it but like
it helps much, but the area's meteorologists have told us
that really we're kind of on a cooler end of
what we could be dealing with regularly in terms of
heat instead of being well in excess of one hundred degrees,

(30:59):
which it could happen quite a bit. It's only been
in the mid nineties. And I think I saw you,
like yesterday on more than one of the local newscasts,
that the high temperature was going to be and this
was going back to Wednesday, Wednesday ninety six, Thursday ninety six,
Friday ninety six, Saturday ninety six, Sunday ninety six, and
then go back up ninety six. Is hot, but not

(31:19):
one hundred and three, not one hundred and four. I
know hot is hot, So anyway, I hope it's all
right for you. The Indiana Pacers were hot last night.
The Oklahoma City Thunder not hot. Big turnovers that hurt them,
and the Pacers had a twelve to two edge in
turnovers at halftime, and going into Game six, Oklahoma City

(31:42):
was a plus one twenty six in that category in
the playoffs, easily the best turnover margin for a team
during a postseason since the ABA NBA mergin. We were
talking about the Indiana being a former ABA team last hour.
I mentioned TJ McConnell excellent game twelve points, nine rebounds,
five assists, Tyrese Haliburton fourteen points, five assists, two steals,

(32:06):
Indiana's tenth win as an underdog this season. Clearly, if
they win on Sunday night in Oklahoma City, it's their
eleventh win because the Oklahoma City is going to be
favored and perhaps substantially at home Game seven.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
But they've been they've been pretty good.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
The Pacers have been on the road, but the Thunder
almost certainly will be favored to win Game seven at home.
But again, it's the whole thing of Game sevens. So
what makes it really really interesting is Game seven.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
It's one game.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
How do teams respond in game number seven? Also, we're
gonna update you on.

Speaker 4 (33:03):
Afternoon.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
Baseball is just the one game going on, and then
here's the other story. And then we'll take a break
in the Gene Watson's going to join us to talk
to Major League Baseball now.

Speaker 4 (33:13):
And I found this interesting.

Speaker 3 (33:14):
This was a piece in The Athletic that I was
reading this morning by Enosaras and Aaron Glenan and Tim Britton.
They researched what they consider and I like this the
way this is put. As they head toward the trade
deadline on July thirty, first, they have what's called their
big Board, the top thirty players in a post Devers

(33:40):
trade world, meaning Roefaeld Devers of course, is already gone.

Speaker 4 (33:42):
He would have been the top target.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
So now that that's happened, how does that affect our
bigger names now available just because of that? Well, here's
the names that they have listed on this. Dever's Boston
teammate Jared Duran listed to the top of the list.
Freddie Perrault THEWS, Cedric Mullins of the oriol Sandy Alcntara
of the Marlin. Seems like his name is mentioned every year.

(34:05):
You Heneo Suarez of the Diamondback, Zach Gallon of Arizona,
Will You're a brave You of the Red Sox, Luis
Robert of the White Sox, Geene Watson's Ball Club, Zach
Efflin of the Oriols, Josh Naylor of the Diamondbacks. That's
the top ten of that, and there's thirty names on that,
including a Texas ranger on that.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
So we'll get to all of that and more.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
As always, we're happy to take your questions on the
text line. Just text the word Texas follow by your
question of comment to eight one five three zero, so
text the word Texas followed by your question of comment
to eight one five three zero standard messaging and data
rates they applied up. Next, we visit with Gene Watson,
who I believe joins us from the Caribbean. We'll talk

(34:50):
some Major League baseball with him next on thirteen under
the zone. Glad to have you with us here on
this Friday afternoon. And I hope you're getting ready for
the weekend. I hope things are going well for you.
And uh, it is on Fridays when we have the
opportunity based on his travel schedule, but he jumps through

(35:12):
hoops and makes a yeomen's effort to be on with
us by our request every week. That's Gene Watson, the
director of player personnel for the Chicago White Sox. He
joints is on the hotline from did you tell me
you are currently in the Dominican Republic?

Speaker 4 (35:26):
Is that right? Bokachika? And I didn't know it was
Friday until you just said.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
That, So thank you for getting my calendar straight because
I had no idea it was Friday.

Speaker 3 (35:38):
Well, I almost said Wednesday, and my mom used to
say a slip of the tongue is no fault to
the mind. But I almost I almost said Wednesday. If
I said Wednesday, would you have.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Believed me that I have no idea what day of
the week it is, because it's moving pretty fast right now.

Speaker 4 (35:53):
But everything's great. Well, that's cool. See.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
And I used to say this, and you know this
from because you've been to the College World Series. But
when you get in Omaha, the days kind of all
just kind of run together because it's usually eighty five
to ninety degrees every day under sunny skies. You get
the occasional thunderstorm, but you get up in the morning
and you have breakfast, and you go to the ballpark,
and then you might have a night game or whatever.

(36:16):
Then you go to some Italian restaurant or a steakhouse
where it's an Italian steakhouse, and you eat dinner, and
then you go back to the hotel and you do
the same thing all over again, and if you're really fortunate,
you do it for two weeks because your team is playing.

Speaker 4 (36:27):
Really, really well.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
So I understand that, and I would imagine also that
it's kind of like that in spring training for you
in the GENO and then when you are on assignment
as you are right now down in the Caribbean, down
there viewing, viewing players and evaluating talent, that the days
kind of all end up running together.

Speaker 4 (36:46):
It all runs together.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
And by the way, you and I had a great
breakfast in Omaha a couple of years ago, Yes, we did. No,
It all kind of runs together. In short of a
Sunday day game. If you don't get that Sunday day
game to kind of set your clock, every day feels
the same.

Speaker 4 (37:01):
It's early Groundhog Day.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
Okay, all right, So, speaking of Sunday games, and these
were the two leadoff things I wanted to get to
with you. Speaking of Sunday games, it was last Sunday
I was driving back from the Dallas Fourth Area with
Linda and we're listening to a ball game and the
word comes down that Raphael Devers has been traded from

(37:25):
the Red Sox to the Giants.

Speaker 4 (37:27):
That happened on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
Ward also comes down on Sunday that Showeotani was going
to go back to the mound and pitch, which he
did all of one inning the other night. Otani is
scheduled to pitch this Sunday against the Washington Nationals, but
the Devers to the Giants trade is still a buzz
and low and behold here are the Red Sox getting
ready to play the Giants in San Francisco this weekend.

(37:50):
It just, you know, life is just funny that way.
First of all, I want to get your analysis of
that trade, and then there's some some other things to.

Speaker 4 (37:57):
Get to as well. Well. This is when you know
a team is really doing their work.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
And Buster Posey and Zach Manascion Junior did a tremendous
job of recognizing that there was a star player on
a really good team, and the principals were unaligned. The
Red Sox and Raphael Devers had been unaligned since spring training,
really since the hour they signed Alex Bregman. And you know,

(38:23):
kudos to the Giants for recognizing this isn't working out.
He had the game last week where he didn't run ball,
run the ball out down the line. You know, they
asked they'll play first base, wouldn't do it. He's taking
grounds with balls at shortstop. So it was really becoming
just really unaligned principles. And the Giants recognize that they
had lost out on Aaron Judges, they had lost out

(38:46):
on Carlos Korea. They had lost out on many other
superstars in free agency, and this was a challece to
you chance to them to use their prospect capital within
their organization. They had the financial resources to take on
salary in a division that is really it's all star power,
and so they were able to add, you know, one

(39:06):
of the brighter stars in the game of baseball in
to what is already one of.

Speaker 4 (39:10):
The toughest divisions in the game of baseball. And it
was just.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
A perfect fit and a job well done truly by
both teams, because Boston truly did get some good players
back as well.

Speaker 3 (39:19):
And in the case of Devers, who at his introductory
news conference a few days ago in San Francisco, then
turned around and said, I'll play anywhere they want me
to play, which I'm sure probably had Red Sox fans
rolling their eyes thinking about this guy who did not
want to play first base or or whatever. So, you know,
the Giants get what they want in the Red Sox,

(39:40):
I guess get what they need in that case as well.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
With Chapman still being banged up for the.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
Giants, you know, obviously Devs will play some third, but
do you see him playing some first base or will
he largely be used as a DH what what do
you think might be?

Speaker 2 (39:58):
I think it's going to be a little bit of everything.
And I think this was purely on principle. When you're
a star of a team and your team goes out
and gets another star without it even asking, I think
it's on principle. And I think the last time we
saw something like this was when the Texas Rangers signed
Will Clark, when Rafael Palmarow was trying to sign an

(40:19):
extension and the Rangers said, Okay, you want to do this,
We're going to go get somebody better. It's just when
an organization and one of its star players are unaligned,
it's a really, really.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
Difficult situation for both sides.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
Yeah, I sort of say it's kind of difficult, you know,
San Francisco, kudos to them, like you said, for what
Buster Posey and Manassi and all the rest of that
group did to hop on this, recognizing the situation in
the case of Boston, how difficult is it to make
sure you get fair market value for a guy, a

(40:52):
three time All Star who has a three hundred million
dollar plus contract. And let's be honest, you know there
are people this week. There were national analysts this week
who compared what the Red Sox got for Devors to
the Luka Dodge's trade for the Mavericks to the Lakers. Now,
I don't think it's anywhere on that level, but you know,

(41:14):
extreme reactions.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
Are going to come back.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
So my question is how difficult is it for an
organization that knows they have to make that move, but
they've got to get fair market value for the guy.

Speaker 4 (41:24):
I don't think you're ever getting fair market value.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
I think you do the best that you can to
recoup what you can, and the financial means of that
contract being moved, first of all, just creates endless opportunity
for free agents this year. And the Red Sox have
a tremendous, tremendous system all hitting.

Speaker 4 (41:43):
The major leagues right now.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
When you talk about Christian Campbell and Marcelo Meyer and
Roman Anthony and all the young players that are being
ejected to that twenty six man roster right now, now,
you're given financial resource to even prove.

Speaker 4 (41:58):
The team more through free agency.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
I think they would look at it as a winning
James Tibbs and Kyler Harrison are.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
Two very very talented young prospects.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
So I think when you look at it in an
industry that's so process oriented and finance oriented right now,
this has truly turned out to be kind of an
old school trade where you know, both teams kind of
saved face and got what they needed.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
Talking Major League Baseball with Gene Watson from the White
Sox front office here on thirteen hundred the Zone, this
was a story I took a look at this morning
from the Athletic and I know you've been busy you
down at the Dominican and your evaluate talent, so you
may not have seen this, and if you have, it'll
be reviewed. But I guess lists like these always come up,

(42:44):
especially when we're six weeks out from the trade deadline,
and they call it the top thirty players in the
post Devers trade world. Now, I'm not going to ask
you about the prospects of whether the player A gets
traded or player B.

Speaker 4 (42:58):
What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna list.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
I'm just gonna to rattle off some names to you
and get your thoughts on what organizations are thinking about
at this time of year as they go forward. For example,
they put Jared Durant at the top of the trade list,
they got Freddy Perrault to there, Cedric Mullen, Sandy Alconzara, You, Heneoswarrez,
Zach Gallon, Will, You're a A Bray, You your guy,

(43:23):
Luis Robert, Zach Eflin, Josh Naylor. That's just the top ten.
And then they got Taylor, Ward, Edward Carbrera, Ryan McMahon,
Ryan O'Hearn, Merrill Kelly, a role As, Chapman, Adolice Garcia,
Nick Martinez, Walker Bueler, Chris Martin, Jake Berger, Andrew Heeney,
Alec Thomas, j n Mancatta, David Bednard, Tyler Mayley, Rehys Hoskins,

(43:45):
Austin Hayes, Ramon Urias, and Reed Debtmers.

Speaker 4 (43:48):
So that was like a top thirty.

Speaker 3 (43:51):
And I don't know if that's a wish list or
a target list, But do organizations begin to as you
get closer to the trade deadline start look, can it's
at names similar to what I just mentioned, There may
be some outside that, there may be some additional ones,
and say this is a need we have. And then
how does the process go about when they start doing

(44:13):
the fact fighting to see if one of those players
like the ones I just mentioned are even available and
where it goes from there.

Speaker 4 (44:19):
So what I'll tell.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
You is, I was in Chicago last week's setting up
our board, and what I will do is get with
our general manager Chris Getz, and say, Okay, who do
you think we have fits with? Based on your conversations,
I'll get our seven scouts on a conference call. They'll
go through every tall twenty nine other clubs, what are
their needs, and then we'll take the potential players that

(44:42):
could fit those needs and we'll put them on the board.
And then we'll put their top thirty prospects on the board.
And then on the twenty first of July, I'll begin
to have three four or five hour calls a day,
rolling through every organization talking about players countlessly, like our
scouts are exhausted from talking about players over and over

(45:04):
and over again. And what that does is iron it
iron ends your baseline of what you would accept in
a trade. And it also this is the minimum, this
is what we would shoot for. And then as you
line up, okay, five teams for say a Louis Robert. Okay,
now of the five, which deal would you like the best?
And I'll tell you at the winter meetings on Garrett Crochet,

(45:25):
we had five teams on the board when we went
to bed at midnight on a Tuesday night at the
Winter meetings, and Boston called at two o'clock in the
morning and up to the Anie and they they became
the number one team on the deal and it was
done by twelve o'clock the next day. And so it's
really just transparent conversations with every organization. But what you're
going to have a year like this year is you

(45:47):
got to because so many teams have been streaked. They
win seven in a row, they lose seven to a row,
they win a out of ten, they lose eight out
of ten. I think it's still yet to be determined
if clubs really truly believe that they're in that upper
echelon of the Dodgers of the Yankees and saying themselves, Okay,
if we make this deal, does it really put us
in contention to compete with those teams, Because the prospect

(46:10):
capital that's going to cost to make this deal may
not be worthwhile over the long term. And so still
very very early in the process. We've begun the process.
It's why we're here as the staff and the Dominican.
But the conversations are ongoing, and I reach out to
all twenty nine other cleaves the teams at least once
a week to see where things stand as we move
into July.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
What you just said about scouts getting tired of talk
about it, exhausted on that deal is fascinating because it
invokes in my mind. And you tell me if there's
any correlation or similarity what we first became familiar with
this phrase coming out of the pandemic COVID fatigue, and
then there was something else, fatigue. And I almost seem

(46:52):
to think it's like it becomes dealer fatigue after a while,
or prospect fatigue, because the guys have talked about so much,
and you really do kind of after what, get a
good night's league, get get a couple of days away
from whatever to come in or with a fresh mind
and a fresh approach before you make a deal, right.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Yeah, And you want you want the room to be very,
very quiet, because everybody wants to inject their thoughts or
their ideas at the last minute.

Speaker 4 (47:16):
And really the job is to be.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
There to answer questions and and and the Crow and
the Crochet deal that didn't go down with the deadline
last year with the club, the club called back on
another player and we were so familiar with the players
that we've been talking about that we asked for the
fourth player and the deal and they said yes, and
we were super excited about that. And so it's really

(47:40):
it's really creating comfort for the general manager to know
the players and here here the conviction of the scouts
and the research and development team and the sports science team,
and know that so that when it's time to make
that decision and you've got five trades lined up in
the final hour and it's moving really really fast, your
knowledge of the players and the work you've done really

(48:01):
really slows everything down.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
How much does that exhaustive work that you and the
staff have done in preparing for the draft, and once
your draft is underway and you've got your prospects, how much,
how heavily impact does that make an impact on what
you might be open and willing to make a deal
come trade deadline, Because we're talking about the veterans, major

(48:25):
league veterans, as opposed to guys that you've just signed
or going to sign coming out of the draft, where
you're going to be starting them out in the minor leagues.

Speaker 4 (48:34):
Does one affect the other?

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Yes, And I would tell you that Hagen Smith was
probably a result of us knowing Garrett Crochet would eventually
be moved you backfield with another ceiling starter.

Speaker 4 (48:46):
This is such a unique draft this year. The top ten.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
We picked ten in the draft, and the top ten
is so scrambled once you get past two or three
that I think you're looking at ten, are really starting
at about seven. Do we take our pool and do
we fire one bullet on this player at seven, eight, nine, ten,
or do we take maybe a player that there's very
little separation between seven and ten because you're picking forty

(49:12):
four and you try to play pay more for a
player at forty four and you.

Speaker 4 (49:16):
Kind of get a two for one.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
And truthfully, that's what Houston did to build up their system,
and that's what Michael Laives did a tremendous job of
doing in Baltimore, is spreading the money over two or
three picks rather than firing one bullet for number one.

Speaker 4 (49:28):
And so there's a lot of strategy that goes into that.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
Talking Major League Baseball with Gene Watson here on thirteen
hundred s, Okay, let me jump to Dodgers and Padres.
I want to start, first of all, with the four
days of Kerfuffle. I watched almost every inning of all
four games, and eight total batters were hit by pitches
in the game. Fernando Tatis Junior was hit three times,
Showe Aotani was hit twice. Andy pie Has was hit twice.

(49:53):
So you had guys that were hit quite often eventually,
and you kind of knew it was going to kind
of spill out where guys just kind of came out.
Nobody knowed there was no real incident, although it got
pretty tense last night. I was struck by several things
because I watched the postgame coverage for both teams. Dave
Roberts said that he and Mike Shild had just had

(50:14):
the conversation prior to that last game yesterday, and he said,
I had a real good, friendly conversation about what was
intentional and what wasn't, and we were all good with everything,
and then this happens. You know, he goes, we've got
a rookie making his major league debut and he doesn't
have glove side control, and so he hits Tattis and
then he says, Mike comes out and it's almost like he's

(50:35):
wanting to challenge me and then he goes and I
took it personally, Okay, So that's heat of the moment stuff.
What I want to get you to comment on here
is because I saw a lot of this on social media,
and I think you and I have had this conversation before,
and I know I've talked about it with Keith Morland before,
and it's the words control versus intent, And you know,

(50:55):
the Dodgers can make the case all day long, and
I believe them about, hey, we got a rookie out there,
he didn't have glove side command and blah blah blah,
as opposed to say, a Padre's pitcher, there's no doubts
whereas was trying to hit Otani, who I thought did
a fantastic job of calming things afterwards. But on a
certain level, eventually it doesn't matter where whether intent was

(51:19):
there or not, does it, Gino? At one point the
teams are going to finally say enough is enough, whether
you're trying to hit the guy or not hitting the guy.
If you're hitting the guy, there are consequences.

Speaker 4 (51:29):
One hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
And what I would say this is as bad a
blood as I've seen since the Yankees Red Sox in
the early two thousands.

Speaker 4 (51:36):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
I was actually at the game when Pedro Martinez threw
Don Zimmer to the ground and it was chaos, and
I don't think I've seen anything since then. Number One,
the league does not want its best players on the il.
This has been bad blood for a while. It's beyond personal,
but the league in itself has to protect its product.

(51:57):
And anytime a Fernando Tatis Junior or a show he
Otani are out because there's bean ball going on, that's
not a good thing.

Speaker 4 (52:06):
Number Two, it's a player's game.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
And while you see all the emotion and drama that's
going on right now, these players have an immense amount
of respect for each other. I think you saw show
Hey when he walked over to the Padre dug out.

Speaker 4 (52:20):
You saw that.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
And you know my son who works for the Padres.
I've been telling him for a week to get ready
for September. And it's not even September.

Speaker 4 (52:28):
It's June. And this is going on, and this is
this is going to continue.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
This is gonna be bad blood because in my opinion,
these are going to be the two teams standing to
go in October, and so this is not going to
go away, and this is going to be the hottest
ticket in baseball. To be honest with you, Craig, I
won't watch it right now because I can't wait for
the end in September October and so, but.

Speaker 4 (52:49):
The players will police this.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
There's gonna be a lot of conversations behind the scenes
between players that know each other well and the respect
that they have of each other. As he meant, and
don't get this work out eventually, but the drama for
the fans is really really good.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
Yeah, Heck, the next time they meet is in August.
That could be juicy as well. The last thing we
want to ask about is Otani because he is going
back to the mound.

Speaker 4 (53:15):
He threw twenty eight pitches the other night, gave up
a run.

Speaker 3 (53:19):
I had, I think what they said, Seventeen of the
twenty eight pitches were at ninety five or above. He
topped one hundred I think three times or whatever. He's
going to pitch on Sunday against the Nationals. What about
your thoughts on him and his return to the mound
and how it affects him as a DH because obviously
when he's in the ballgames a pitcher, he's going to
be that old pitcher slash d h thing where he

(53:41):
can stay in the ball game as the designated hitter
even after he's done on the mound.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
Well, Craig, if I said you'd be a great golfer
and you play golf every day, and then I said
you had to play tennis with it, you probably wouldn't
be as good at golf because you're doing both. And
that's kind of the analogy I use with people. I
was with show A twenty twenty one obviously, and I
saw what the workload was. The man is a machine.
It's unbelievable. The athlete he is, the mind, he is,

(54:09):
the talent he is. But it's a little bit different
when you show up to the ballpark and you do
your workout routine. You're stretching, your massage everything, and then
you go get your swings off the cages. You take
your batting practice. Show Hey doesn't ever hit on the field.
You take your batting practice inside and you get ready.

Speaker 4 (54:26):
For a game.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
It's a lot different when you're doing all that and
you're long cossing and you're doing your band routine and
you're working on pitch shape, pitch design, which is a
lot of mental stress in between pitches.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
And I just think and.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
Believed all of last year that was probably going to
be the highest offensive output we would ever see for him,
because it was it was when he was hitting only.
So I would say that his offensive numbers will certainly
take some dip how much knowing show, Hey, it wouldn't
surprise me a bit if it was just a little,
but it's certainly a different data day routine for him

(55:01):
and where his mind goes throughout, you know, the given
six hours prior to first pitch every day.

Speaker 4 (55:07):
Yeah, no doubt about him.

Speaker 3 (55:09):
Hey, Gino, I appreciate the time as always, the great
insight and wisdom there.

Speaker 4 (55:13):
How long are you in the Dominican.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
You know what.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
I'm gonna be in Round Rock next day to Sunday
covering the Tacoma Rainiers and the Express.

Speaker 4 (55:21):
Okay, maybe we'll come in and see you a lot.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
Very good. Hey, thanks for the time. I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (55:27):
Okay, take care guys. All right.

Speaker 3 (55:28):
That is Geene Watson from the Chicago White Sox. Friend
off is always great Major League Baseball insight from GENA.
All right, We've got some football notes to get to
when we come back on thirteen under the Zone for
in final hour of the program. Here on thirteen hunder
the Zone, Craig, wait with you. On a Friday afternoon,
this starts to become the escape hour. You know, for

(55:50):
some folks, maybe they're the eight to four thing. Then
maybe they get out of the door at four o'clock,
done at the office, done at the job site, done
wherever the place of business might be. And if that's
the case, that's good. And drive carefully. You know what

(56:12):
is it they used to say, arrive alive?

Speaker 4 (56:14):
Do that? Just drive, drive carefully. Here around the city
is the city.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
We all know this invariably has a great deal of traffic,
so be careful with that. And I hope your weekend
goes well. Okay, I wanted to get to some football notes.
One note is just about goals unrealized. The other stuff
is jurisprudence, but any interest of keeping up with that

(56:44):
will do that. First of all, renewed goals. I would
not say that this individual was the most reported on

(57:07):
and covered NFL player last year. In fact, it was
probably his teammate that was the most covered and most
reported on. However, one guy who drew an incredible amount
of attention in covered size there was Travis Kelcey Chiefs

(57:27):
tied dad. Probably his teammate Patrick Mahomes drew more attention
than anybody, and then, of course when the Eagles ended
up running over him in the Super Bowl, a lot
of that attention. Obviously, it was building up during the year,
obviously with Jayalen Hurts and then Saquon Barkley having the
absolute incredible season that he had, But Mahomes was always

(57:53):
in the spotlight.

Speaker 4 (57:54):
I didnt.

Speaker 3 (57:54):
Travis Kelsey was never far from it, if only because
not only his play is one of the best type
ends different play, but obviously the ongoing relationship with Taylor
Swift so drew a lot of attention. But the Chiefs
in general and Kelsey one of those in specific, did

(58:16):
not play well in the Super Bowl, and Kelsey went
as far as to say at mini camp this week
that he didn't play well pretty much all season. The
quote was last year, I think I failed, especially in
that last game that would be the Super Bowl, and
being a leader and being the one that could step

(58:37):
up and make plays. I'm just setting the bar even
higher for myself this year than I had in the past.
He had three touchdowns, that was it during the season,
eight hundred and twenty three receiving yards. He did have
one touchdown in the postseason, and he caught four passes
in the Super Bowl loss to Philadelphia for thirty nine yards.

Speaker 4 (59:00):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (59:03):
He says he's lost weight, he's put in more off
season work. This will be he be his eleventh season.
The quote was, this year I got some time to
really focus on some form running and some things early
on in the off season that I just didn't have
time for last year. Certainly, I'm feeling good and I
think it'll pay off. Speaking of Patrick Mahomes, as were

(59:25):
a few minutes ago and we just saw him, or
I did back in May when him seeing the Texas
High School Football Hall of Fame banquet in Waco and
Patrick Mahomes was inducted. He and RG three were two
of the headliners that were inducted into the Texas High
School Football Hall of Fame, and Patrick and his wife
Brittany did come in for the banquet and he was

(59:47):
asked about Kelsey and he said, I expect Travis to
be Travis Man and obviously the play on the field
is going to be high. He's going to go out
there with the mentality, and we're trying to win the
Super Bowl this year. He has one left on that
two year deal that he agreed to April of last year,
thirty two hundred and fifty thousand dollars that made him

(01:00:10):
the highest paid tight end in the league. He has
spent his entire career in Kansas City since being selected
in the third round of the twenty thirteen draft. He
plans to stay put a little while longer, he said,
I can't see myself ever playing anywhere else, So we'll
deal with that down the road when the time is right.

Speaker 4 (01:00:27):
But right now, I'm focused on winning a championship this year.
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:00:31):
So there's some comments from Travis Kelcey on that. As
I mentioned, the other football notes that we had for
him today were more really of the jurisprudence category, and.

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
Let's go in reverse order. Really.

Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
First of all, we mentioned Shudeur Sanders getting stopped and
issued a citation early morning Tuesday morning for driving one
hundred and one in a sixty mile an hour zone.
Now it was near Strongsville, Ohio. Instantly, what came into

(01:01:16):
my mind when I heard that was I seventy one,
and sure enough, that's what it was.

Speaker 4 (01:01:23):
So it wasn't interstate.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
It just happened to be in a sixty mile an
hour portion of an inner state. It wasn't a residential
street or in a residential street would have a sixty
dollar an hour limit anyway. But it was on I
seventy one. That's out near the south east side of
the Cleveland areas where the old Richfield Coliseum was where
the Cavaliers played for a long time, and I called

(01:01:45):
a lot of indoor soccer games in there. The Dallas
sidekicks back and they played in the Cleveland Force and
then later the Cleveland Crunch in that big twenty thousand
seed arena that is no longer there. But it was
right near there on I seventy and got stopped at
twelve twenty four a m. That was on Tuesday. Police

(01:02:05):
say he was doing one on one into sixty. He
was cited for that. He can appear in court to
fight the ticket or pay a fine. And I know
there were a lot of people that said, all, well,
he should have been taken to jail.

Speaker 4 (01:02:19):
That's not the.

Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
Way that their law their works. It can be you
pay the fine or you can go to court to
do it. But it's not the first time that he
was cited for allegedly speeding since joining the Browns. According
to a Medine, Ohio Municipal Court record filed back last
or at the first part of this month, on June sixth,

(01:02:42):
he was pulled over by the Ohio State Highway Patrol
on June fifth and Brunswick Hills. He was not doing
one hundred and one on that speeding thing. He was
doing ninety one in a sixty five.

Speaker 4 (01:02:58):
He also.

Speaker 3 (01:03:00):
Did not appear for an arraignment for that ticket or Monday,
and he owes two hundred and sixty nine dollars in
court cost. Brown spokesman Peter John Beptize said, he's taking
care of the tickets. It's two high speed tickets there
for suar standers. So it wasn't his first one, but

(01:03:20):
he's had two. He has clearly felt the need for
speed and then and this one kind of goes back
a little bit. But Richard Sherman this week was charged
with a dy stemming from that arrest back in twenty
twenty four in Seattle. Happened in February twenty twenty four,
since a year and a half ago it was a

(01:03:43):
what's called a gross misdemeanor charge one day after the
results of the blood test he took were received from
the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab. The test showed his
blood alcohol level that night was zero point one point one.
You know, point oh eight is the legal limited washingtons
point one one is what he did. The statute of limitations,

(01:04:06):
by the way in kitchen winning on a gross mistbe
intercharge in the state of Washington is two years after
its commission, is the way they describe it. He is
scheduled to be arraigned a week from this Monday. So
a little bit of jurisprudence, the highway variety there, all right.

(01:04:26):
Coming up, we shift to college baseball. The National Championship
Series begins tomorrow night in Omaha between the number four
seed LSU and the number thirteen seed Coastal Carolina. Ty Herrington,
our resident baseball analyst, which win us next to break
it down. We continue on thirteen under the zone I
mentioned earlier in the program that we would update you

(01:04:47):
whenever there's games going on. We aimed to please a
big turnaround in Wrigular Field. Today Mariners beat the Cubs
nine to four. Chicago scored three in the first and
they were up in the ball game three to one,
and it was still five to two Chicago before the
Mariners score two and the six two and the seventh
three in the ninth.

Speaker 4 (01:05:05):
They ended up winning it. Nine to four was the
final in that one. All right. That's Major League baseball.

Speaker 3 (01:05:11):
Of course, college baseball has now reached its final games
of the year and it's the best two out of
three series for the national Championship. This setup, this format
for NCAA baseball was put in play in nineteen ninety

(01:05:35):
nine with the Super Regional format when they when they
expanded the field from forty eight teams to sixty four
teams and went away from just the eight sixteen Regionals
to sixteen four team regionals, followed by the eight Super

(01:05:55):
Regionals and then the College World Series in Oma. So
now it's down to the for the two seeds remaining.
The sixth seed LSU the highest remaining seed in the
thirteen seed Coastal Carolina. Here to talk about the College
World Series once again. Our college baseball analysts are good
friend Ty Harrington, New joints. You remember when that format

(01:06:16):
went to the super regional concept in ninety nine, and
then you were on board in two thousand.

Speaker 4 (01:06:21):
What'd you think of it at the time, since.

Speaker 3 (01:06:23):
You played and were an assistant coach in the format,
the old format of the sixteen regional before they went
to the super regional alignment.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Well, I thought it was interesting because we had been
as you mentioned, we'd been under the old rules of
old rules, old format, and so I thought it was
I thought it came some other teams a chance, you know,
because you're trimming it down to you know, smaller regionals

(01:06:55):
and then it's two out of three, which is what
you're accustomed to playing on a weekend series, whether it's
a conference series or something like that. And so I
think everybody you know like it, likes the format.

Speaker 4 (01:07:07):
I still do. I think it gives everybody a chance.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
You you don't have to run through those sixteen regionals
on the pitching side of it, and I talk like
that was always, you know, an opportunity for some teams
not to have so much pitching depth to it, and so.

Speaker 4 (01:07:24):
I liked it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
I think everybody's used, you know, most people that are
probably listening to your show. I mean, you've got to
dig back into your memory to remember those days and
to what it was like. And you know, most people
look at it and remember it as what the you know,
how it's set up in the format is today.

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
I want to ask your opinion on this, and I'm
going to tell you up front for the record, my
answer is I'm not in favor of this.

Speaker 4 (01:07:50):
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (01:07:51):
But there are people who are saying that they think
because of the way the postseason has played out, or
LSU and Arkansas, which you and I a week ago
felt were probably the two best teams in the field,
but they were going to have to play each other
right out of the gate, and they did, and then
they played again and had an absolutely uh just mind

(01:08:15):
boggling ending to it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:16):
And we'll get to all of that in a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:08:18):
But there are people out there saying that the field
should recede when you get to Omaha.

Speaker 4 (01:08:24):
How do you feel about that? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
I mean, that's a oh man. Now, So you're so launch,
you have a selection of teams and they are seated,
and so they have a lot of you have a
committee already involved, and then you're asking a human element

(01:08:48):
to come back in to play again. I don't know.
I'm gonna see you on that.

Speaker 4 (01:08:52):
I'm not a huge fan. Look, I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
I don't have one hundred other things to tell you
to back it up. I know you research everything, need more,
you know, mindset behind it, but I don't because it's
just you know twice and so I think you set
it out, you lay it out, and if the committee
has done their job, everybody's good, then that's the way
it's supposed to be. Let's go, let's go to town

(01:09:16):
report we've gone.

Speaker 3 (01:09:17):
Yeah, listen, uh Louisville, uh, you know, ends up winning
that Nashville regional. They and where we're Vanderbilt was the
number one ourall seed. Uh UTSA wins the regional, Austin
the number two seed. Now, uh UTSA did not make
it out of Los Angeles and their season ended that
but Pat Hallmark had a fabulous here but uh, but

(01:09:39):
Louisville was able to earn its way to the College
World Series. There are those who believe that you should
even recede the field out to the region around that
where that would make that could make for some absolute
travel nightmares for schools to try to get teams to some.

Speaker 4 (01:09:52):
Of the other when you knew.

Speaker 3 (01:09:53):
That, hey, you might get to host a UCLA knew
that once Texas was out they were going to get to.

Speaker 4 (01:09:57):
Host a super regional. So I'm I'm with you on that.
I don't. I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:10:01):
I'm not in favor of that. I think if you
play your way through it, you earn where you are,
you shouldn't have to go. And oh, by the way,
you knocked off the number one overall seed Vanderbilt, now
you got to knock off the number three overall seed Arkansas.

Speaker 4 (01:10:14):
I don't see that so anyway, so much for that.

Speaker 3 (01:10:18):
When we last visited a week ago, we talked about
the field, So I want to kind of run through
this in a little bit of review. First of all,
the first two teams to get knocked out were Arizona
and Murray State. I think most everybody thought that Murray
State's great, great Cinderella run. They had a fabulous year,
much like UTSA did, but it was probably going to

(01:10:38):
come up short of being in the National Championship or
playing for it or whatever, and it did. Arizona kind
was kind of viewed on as being a rising dark horse.
They had gone into Chapel Hill and won a decisive
final game against North Carolina. Did anything surprised about either
of the first two teams that got knocked out?

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
No, Look, I thought Arizona overachieved. I saw him early
in the year, and I thought, you know, Chip Hill
and his staff and trip cops did a great job
of getting their team to where they were having to
go on the road and beat North Carolina.

Speaker 4 (01:11:11):
I thought North Carolina was really good.

Speaker 1 (01:11:13):
Current idea that I saw him multiple times, and they
had the stats to back it up and wins to
back it up.

Speaker 4 (01:11:19):
But I thought Arizona.

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
Overachieved to get beyond that quite frankly, and they did.

Speaker 4 (01:11:26):
But so now I wasn't surprised. I mean, I think
that's still the order of what.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
If I was somebody who's gonna ask me, Howard, who
are going to be the first to unfortunately go out,
it would be again, both having tremendous seasons to get
to Omar Halls. Unbelievable, But yeah, I thought that was
the way.

Speaker 4 (01:11:43):
It was going to play out.

Speaker 3 (01:11:44):
The next two teams to get knocked out were Oregon
State and u c l A. UCLA had not dropped
a game at all even through their first game in
Omaha when the beat Bory State, and then they went
to and out after that, and Oregon State of course
had the heartbreak of what happened against Louisville after they've
beaten them once in that other game, and they rallied
back the tie, but could had runners at second and

(01:12:05):
throw where nobody out couldn't get the go ahead run
home and and then we'll wind up falling. How about
your thoughts on that that? Those two teams UCLA which
was kind of looked at as being dangerous, but they
weren't as highly regarded going in. They were the number
fifteen overall seed going in. How about your thoughts on
Oregon State and UCLA going out next?

Speaker 1 (01:12:25):
Yeah, I thought u c l A was a was
an interesting team. John Savage, who's an unbelievable coach. Right,
you've been around his teams before and you understand his
how good a coach he is and how good the
program is. I thought it was a typical John Savage
team without having that one age power arm that they
didn't normally have.

Speaker 4 (01:12:46):
You know who you're gonna lose to.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
You're not gonna beat any kind of thing, which is
what he's used to when they won a national title.
And then they always had the back end guy that
was special, whether it was ticking side arm or whether
it was slighter and you know, fastball type. And I
just wasn't surprising to me. I didn't get to see
them as much either.

Speaker 4 (01:13:08):
This year.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
I was going based on who they beat more than
I've seen and who I'd seen them beat. But they
were a great example of if you played great defense
and you drove the ball in the strike growing and
then you're able to runners ninety feet which is what
they like to do, and the type of offense they
liked to play, they you could succeed, and they did that.

(01:13:29):
We're here stayed. On the other hand, I thought was
a really power oriented change and power arms, but what
like you see in the SEC power arms and power backs,
and you know, I thought that day for Vanna to
have been so attested thirty seven times away from their
ball pork to play, I thought could come in to

(01:13:52):
play for them, and I would would not have been surprised.
I don't think people have been. I would not have
been surprised. In the head they lead it to the follow.

Speaker 3 (01:14:02):
Louisville, Damn McDonald's an outstanding coach, but he about squeezed
everything he could out of that team to get him
to the final four, didn't he He did?

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
They you know what they did. So their number one
guy was really good, really talented, and you know there's
harder to me. You knew you were gonna get into
there twice. And the bottom line was they didn't have
enough depth up on the back end out of the
bow pas but Squins every ounce of it. They absolutely did,

(01:14:34):
and their offense really got going. They lost more. I mean,
you go back in there, Squens out there stats the
last month, how many blush nineties they had a little
stolen bases and the next up the free base and
being able to get in the scoring position and opportunistic
and how they were able to score their outfanch I

(01:14:54):
think carry them, you know, the last look of the season,
along with their number one guy.

Speaker 4 (01:15:01):
But yeah, he's in great way.

Speaker 1 (01:15:03):
But in every every patch, every patch, every moment you
can get out of your seam this year, uh.

Speaker 3 (01:15:10):
Which brings us to the last three and I'm gonna
and I'm gonna keep it on the two three sixty
seven side of the bracket because it has caused the
most conversation, and that's LSU and Arkansas. I want the
record to show because I know how you feel about this,
because you were a player and a coach and as
a broadcaster, I share a lot of these same feelings.

Speaker 4 (01:15:33):
You you never wish for.

Speaker 3 (01:15:38):
And tragedy is a strong word, but I mean the
tragedy of baseball to happen the way it did to Arkansas.
I will, I will say that up front, and and
I don't have a dog in the hunt on this
thing on on either Arkansas or LSU. Just you feel
bad for the kids involved. I was in Fayetteville and
I saw the Heava Loy play top top level baseball,

(01:16:02):
and I completely agreed that he should have been the
SEC Player of the Year. And he was uh uh
and and and then uh davel on the left fielder
he slipped. It happens, and so I felt really bad
for him. But let let me let me go back
to I guess the first thing we should talk about
in that momentous bottom of the ninth inning for l

(01:16:23):
s U Robinett, they had the communication thing on the
play at first and winds up getting and I've heard you,
if I've heard you say it once time, I've heard
you say them thousand times.

Speaker 4 (01:16:33):
Communication on the.

Speaker 3 (01:16:35):
Field, even for high level teams like a Dave Van
Horn coach team, sometimes it can escape you in the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
So let's start with that was the beginning of that inning, yes,
and show what people I know. You notice what people
don't always understand about defense. They don't always understand the
value of defense until they understand it, until they see
it right.

Speaker 4 (01:17:01):
They take it for granted. And when you get into.

Speaker 1 (01:17:04):
Moments like the last inning for Arkansas, by the way,
LSU had done the exact.

Speaker 4 (01:17:10):
Same thing the enning before. Yeah, they didn't. They didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:17:14):
They didn't come up with two plays that they could have,
and it looked like it was going to fall on them.
But the value of defense is just so incredibly important
and the game can get really fast.

Speaker 4 (01:17:28):
So to me, two things happen.

Speaker 1 (01:17:30):
Robinet was aggressive, I'm gonna go get this well the
moment he did.

Speaker 4 (01:17:36):
That's people don't.

Speaker 1 (01:17:37):
Always know this if you're not around the game a lot.
There's an infield communication as the same as a live
ball communication in the outfield. You'll hear infielders all are
ball ball ball by my mind, saying things they know
the distance that they can go. Nowadays, with the shift,
it becomes incredibly important that you understand that communication and

(01:17:57):
where your whereabouts are and your position and station to
be able to make those plays. He got over aggressive.
The second piece of that was after he went after it,
we made an unfortunate mistaken It's a tough play. What
I'm about to say, really tough play. He actually become
an NFL quarterback and throw the ball at the back.

(01:18:19):
Don't throw it at the picture. You throw it at
the bag. And he do it at the picture and
you don't do it. And that was a second piece.
It was a I think would have been an easier
place again that moment. I think he was trying to
I gotta go get this, I.

Speaker 4 (01:18:31):
Gotta make this play for our team.

Speaker 1 (01:18:34):
And next one gets a little bit more challenging when
you look what he did and short stock did I
think he personally and I'm guessing now, Look, I have
no idea what God said. This is a part of
the game that really gets sped up in big moments,
right and it becomes more recognizable camp by the way
they would have been recognizing if they were playing markings
on a little rock on the Tuesday ninth, but it

(01:18:56):
did an actual TV with millions.

Speaker 4 (01:18:57):
Of people watching.

Speaker 1 (01:18:58):
The runner went in front of him, the ball is
into one step or two u of his right. Took
a little momentum going that way, but.

Speaker 4 (01:19:06):
It was not pressle.

Speaker 1 (01:19:07):
He didn't get the ball underneath. It didn't pann him
down or anything like that. So he had options at
that point. That runner going from second to third meant nothing.
So what he meant what I mean by nothing? It
wasn't gonna change the game, weren't gonna tie the game.
So he saw it go in front of me, He's like,
I'm gonna just get it out and it puts us
one more how to wait from it? Right, I'm assuming

(01:19:28):
that's what it. The game just gets so fast late
in the game and the value of defense comes into
play and becomes exposed, and then unfortunately you use the
word right, I mean, it's heartbreak, actulute heartbreak if you're
an Arkansas razorback man. I watched Davan Horne after the
game and the postgame comments, and I've known Dave forever.

(01:19:50):
I mean, he'd not broken in this industry. He's a
little bit you know. I mean he's a tremendous coach.
But the value of defense in playing at a high
level and the biggest moments.

Speaker 4 (01:20:00):
So important, and.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
Everybody throws it around like singing defense.

Speaker 4 (01:20:03):
They thrown around, but then all.

Speaker 1 (01:20:05):
Of a sudden it really became expelished for them.

Speaker 4 (01:20:08):
And you know this because you've been you've been.

Speaker 1 (01:20:11):
Mostly attached to Texas teams. You've been mostly attached to
different teams in your life.

Speaker 4 (01:20:15):
You know, the Dodger fan, all these things. When you're
mostly attached.

Speaker 1 (01:20:18):
To something, the heartbreak that goes with it is just admitted.

Speaker 4 (01:20:22):
This game can be cruel, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (01:20:24):
It really can be cruel, and if you don't take
care of the baseball, it will definitely become even more
cruel than you can imagine.

Speaker 4 (01:20:31):
Yeah, no doubt about it.

Speaker 3 (01:20:33):
And that's why I prefaced all of this by saying
I had no dog in the hunt and I felt
for Arkansas. Now having said that, you correct me if
I'm wrong.

Speaker 4 (01:20:39):
Tie.

Speaker 3 (01:20:41):
Unless the second basement drops the ball, that's a six
four to three double play eight days a week, isn't it.

Speaker 4 (01:20:46):
And the game's over. Yeah, the game's over.

Speaker 1 (01:20:49):
You're assuming that it's going to be a great transition
he's going to make a great fee second basement is
going to make an accurate throw. Although let's huge second
base of at first base, when you know that they
return the favorite eating before, right, But yes, they've done that.
They've done that so many times, so many times. Right.

Speaker 3 (01:21:07):
Yeah, Okay, So now we have this National championship matchup.

Speaker 4 (01:21:10):
You have talked at link.

Speaker 3 (01:21:12):
You and I were talking about Coastal Carolina back in
March and you said, watch out. This team does a
lot of things, and I thought it was a great
and I'm really curious to get your thoughts on this.
I thought it was a great comp a great comparison.
Kyle Peterson was asked after that game the other night
when he was almost Scott Van Pelt on Sports Centers.
Kyle Vaanpelt asked, kp do you what.

Speaker 4 (01:21:36):
Is there any team or program? What does this team have?

Speaker 3 (01:21:39):
This Coastal team had, and he said it reminds me
of the Augie Garrito teams at Cayl State Fullerton and
at Texas that they may not have spectacular guys, but
they do everything very solidly and well. They pitch well,
they play defense well, they hit enough, they steal bases enough,
things like that.

Speaker 4 (01:21:59):
Do you agree with that? Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:22:02):
Yeah, like you know, you and I have this conversation
early likes you said in March about the pitching side
of what they do. They got an answer. They've got
an answer from a starting, you know, pitching perspective. They've
got an answer of mid relief, and they've got an
answer on the back end, and.

Speaker 4 (01:22:19):
In multiple ways. They don't just do it from right
left side. I mean, they've got both answers to that.

Speaker 1 (01:22:25):
They're not even starting their All American on first games.
They're starting as All American historically in the second game.
Now they may change it this league, but they've done
that all year long.

Speaker 4 (01:22:36):
You know where he was their.

Speaker 1 (01:22:37):
Second guy out on Saturdays and they played really really
good defense. But what they're capable of doing is playing
defense at a high level a huge moments, like I've
seen them turn double play. They did it already in
the College World Series. They closed out a game with
a double play. They've been able to come up with

(01:22:58):
great plays in the outfield's this series already balls that
if they get by the out there their doubles RBIs
the above maybe changes their fortune, but they're they're constantly able.

Speaker 4 (01:23:10):
To come up with the defensive side of the game.
And I tell you why.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
And this is interesting yourself. If you if people love
playing a drinking game, whether it's water or whatever, they're
drinking choice, don't play first strike drinks with them in
a count.

Speaker 4 (01:23:24):
You're gonna you're.

Speaker 1 (01:23:25):
Gonna have a bad day, You're gonna have a long
night or or or a bad morning, one or the other.

Speaker 4 (01:23:29):
Because then I mean it is strike one.

Speaker 1 (01:23:32):
I'm punch them, and it's with all three pitches. Now
I say what else they do.

Speaker 4 (01:23:36):
It's just interesting their free.

Speaker 1 (01:23:39):
Based ratio, it's through the roof.

Speaker 4 (01:23:42):
To me, the game comes.

Speaker 1 (01:23:44):
Down at you, and this series possibly can come down
at you whether L s U cannot give up the
free base, because if you give them a free base,
they do something with it. They've been opportunistic. They'll bunt,
they'll drive, they'll hit, run, they'll hit, they'll hit a double,
had a ton of power, sixty plus hors. Nothing crazy,
but not likee typical coastal teams that are back playing

(01:24:05):
balls and hit them all of the part. But they're
opportunistic and their premats they've been hit one hundred and
seventy eighty and eighty times, I think by now, and
so their freebase is what to me is going to
be a driving or could be a driving force in
this series between them and the LSU.

Speaker 3 (01:24:23):
Yeah, okay, all right, well, and I was was curious
that you thought about that. And do you feel then
solidly enough about what Coastal can do defensively against Jared
Jones and against the rest of that LSU power offensively?

Speaker 1 (01:24:39):
Yeah, but again, if you go if you look at LSU,
you remember we had this conversation before LSU came to
town into Austin, is.

Speaker 2 (01:24:48):
That Jay Johnson is a.

Speaker 4 (01:24:52):
West Coast guy.

Speaker 1 (01:24:53):
He kind of quizy but halpily through this season. I said, hey,
I had them in early in the year in February, right,
and then again in Often I was like, hey, you
change your offense.

Speaker 4 (01:25:04):
You're you're hitting and running.

Speaker 1 (01:25:05):
They double They've already tried to double steel already in
a College World Series. They fight it with a runner
on second and not first, second runner on second, And
so his offense right now, in his mind is built
that it doesn't necessarily just have to be about power.
That they're able to move people ninety ft.

Speaker 4 (01:25:23):
They're steel, they'll hitt and run.

Speaker 1 (01:25:25):
They'll do a lot of different things now trying to
stand away from John Jones in the middle part of
that lineup and his power and opposite Bill power. Yeah,
but I would tell you this, I don't be surprised
if Coastal takes the fastball and they start trying to
put the ball underneath You know this, over the next
couple of games. They're trying to because they ain't got

(01:25:46):
ninety ninety three, but the majority of their right handed
pitchers craik.

Speaker 4 (01:25:50):
For two seamers. They're not fourt seen guys.

Speaker 1 (01:25:52):
They're gonna be two seen guys trying to run the
ball underneath him and trap his barrel. But the bottom
line is, I think LSU because you you know this,
because you've been to Omaha as many times as anybody
now with a new ballpark, that's a big ballpark, and
if the wind decides and I don't know, I've looked
and see what it is.

Speaker 4 (01:26:10):
If the wind decides.

Speaker 1 (01:26:11):
To blow in that ninety plus me becomes huge in
these games. And trying to figure out how to score
runs with bass hits and singles and doubles as opposed.

Speaker 4 (01:26:19):
To trying to hit with power in Homers.

Speaker 3 (01:26:21):
Yeah, it does. He gets real big when the wind
is blown back at hey. And by the way, I
think I know you well enough to do this, and I,
like I said, I've got a lot of respect as
you do.

Speaker 4 (01:26:34):
And I know you know Dame Van Horn a long time.
But you're not pitching to Jared Jones.

Speaker 3 (01:26:39):
That's situation in the ninth are you with a base open?
You're not pitch into him, are you?

Speaker 1 (01:26:45):
Now? You know what they were trying to do. If
you go back, this is what I think they were
trying to do. Obviously, can't say you one hundred percent
what I think they were trying to do. And if
you go back and watch, you at that they were
trying to allow him to get himself out and keep
the ball off the plate, watch to catch her. If
you go back and watch your replate, he right legged
outside the plate area and they were trying and the

(01:27:08):
ball that he hit was off the plate probably six inches.
But he likes hitting the ball the other way, right,
And I don't know, I'm not advance. You know the
second Basemer didn't don't too early, But again it was
a discussion point that I think that they thought if

(01:27:30):
they got headed I'm sorry. Behind an the count, they
would blink and move on, but they were going to
try to see if he would hero ball himself, meaning
he would speed it up and try to hook a
ball and try to hit the ground and possibly hit
a blowball to left field of ground ball to short
And but it's definitely is a discussable you know at

(01:27:50):
any time, or debatable is the right word for it
as to whether you do or you don't one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (01:27:55):
So what you're saying is is Jared Jones did to
Arkansas Whatsappwood did for Texas Softball against Nigerie Canada on
the three to zero pitch.

Speaker 1 (01:28:05):
Yeah, but a different way of doing it right in baseball.
You know, in baseball, you watch the catcher, the coaches
and going, hey, we're gonna set up off the plate,
don't let the home run back to the plate. We
want to see you get himself out, but we are
not going strikes to him.

Speaker 4 (01:28:19):
And David just said we're gonna throw this like and
there was a slider of.

Speaker 1 (01:28:22):
Probably six inches off the play. It looked like to me,
slide our six inches off the plate to see if
he would get himself out. He haul on it day enough,
he capt it. But he's so strong that Hey, that's
the part, that's the part that's standished.

Speaker 4 (01:28:37):
Is what happened.

Speaker 1 (01:28:38):
He's strong enough that he can hit the ball off
the cap and still get it over.

Speaker 4 (01:28:42):
The infield series. Wow, great stuff. Hey, I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:28:46):
Listen, enjoy the championship series and will chat Agan real soon.

Speaker 4 (01:28:49):
I appreciate you taking the time today. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:28:52):
Always, And I'll tell you what if we if it
gets you that third game on Monday, coming back, yeah,
let me know, and I'll gladly come back going and
talk about what's happened on the first two games, because man,
he gets the game seven or game three in college baseball,
I just you know this and how much I love
college baseball and how much you've done for college baseball

(01:29:12):
and the popularity of it. But I mean, it has
drawn and it is so much fun and so exciting
right now. Nothing would be I think would be any
better at this point than a Game three on that
night to see how many people are watching college baseball.

Speaker 4 (01:29:28):
Let's do this. Let's plan on it Monday.

Speaker 3 (01:29:29):
At the same time, even if it's over, it'll be
a recap of the entire season. Or to be a
preview of the final game Monday at the same time.
Does that work sound like a planned Thanks? Ty, appreciate it,
all right, thank you. That's Ty Harrington, and so we'll
talk to it on Monday. It'll be a recap of
the first two games and either a preview of the
championship final game of the year or just a recap

(01:29:50):
of the season as a whole. We have more coming
up here on thirteen Under the Zone.

Speaker 4 (01:29:54):
Thanks again to.

Speaker 3 (01:29:55):
Ty Harrington joining us on the program to talk about
the College World Here's one note here, and then we'll
hit a find a break. I mentioned this earlier in
the show that Coastal Carolina is carrying a twenty six
game winning streak into the National Championship Series. That's the
longest winning streak in the history of college baseball going

(01:30:18):
into the championship round of the College World Series, dating
all the way back to nineteen forty eight US he
had an eighteen game streak going in this Blue Pass
that they're at twenty six games. If you're wondering when
was the last time that they lost before they launched
into this twenty six game winning streak, it was April
twenty second Coastal loss to the College of Charleston.

Speaker 4 (01:30:42):
Now the two schools.

Speaker 3 (01:30:42):
I know this because it's right the area where I
go to vacation and we'll be next weekend is along
the coast of South Carolina. I stay about thirty miles
north there, up North Carolina, just across the state line.
But they but Coastal Carolina's in Conway, which is about
ten miles inland from Myrtle Beach to Charleston. Is in Charleston,
that's about seventy miles south of Myrtle along the coast.

(01:31:05):
The two teams, the programs play each other every year
multiple times. They're not in the same conference, but they
know each other very well, and the coaching staffs are very,
very friendly. Chad Holbrook is the head coach at Charleston.
They won the game that night, and when he was
walking over to shake hands with the head coach of

(01:31:29):
Coachal Carolina, Kevin Schnall, he saw the coaches huddled gathering
and the players were already on the bus, and the
coaches looked like they were not having fun at all.
So Holbrook went up to him and said, why are
y'all so mad? And he said what are you talking
about we should have won the ball? Again, we didn't
win the game, and they said, why are y'all so mad?
You've got one of the best teams in the country,

(01:31:51):
You're going to host a regional, probably be a national seed,
and you're probably not going to lose the rest of
the year. Holbrook later said he believed all of that,
even the not losing thing might have been a little
bit hyperbolic, but he thought they had a really good
shot at it, and Kevin Schnall was asked about it
at today's news conference and he laughed about that and

(01:32:12):
he said, yeah, we were disappointed that we didn't play well,
but we were more regrouping and making sure we're on
the same page for the weekend ahead. That's where he is.
He's first year head coach there. He learned a lot
from Gary Gilmore, the head coach. He won a national
championship there in twenty sixteen. Wrap up today's edition of
the program on thirteen Under the Zone