5/25/23 - The Mo Egger Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
No one covers the Bengals like ESPNfifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station. All
Right, good afternoon, I'm aleggar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Thank you so much for listening.It is just spectacular outside, and I
know I have said that to startthis show for the better part of the
last week, week and a half, maybe two weeks. Gorgeous afternoon.

(00:24):
Thrilled that you're spending part of itwith us. Reds are right now batting
in the bottom of the ninth inningday trail two one. Cincinnati has just
finally dented the scoreboard on a StuartFairchild RBI single. By the way,
Stuart Fairchild made a really nice catchand right field earlier. So it's a
two one Saint Louis on a daywhere the overunder was nine and a half.

(00:48):
And well, Luke Weaver and MilesMichaelis had a terrific pitching duel this
afternoon, and it's been a fungame to watch, and perhaps the Reds
can come back. And when itis two to one Saint Louis bottom nine,
Luke maylee at the dish force Cincinnati. We will update you over the

(01:08):
course of the next few minutes andmaybe if the game goes thirteen fourteen innings
across the course of the afternoon onwhat's happening at GABP and we'll have instant
reaction to the series finale, theseason finale. Red's trying to take a
series from the Cardinals who came toCincinnati red hot. Obviously the Reds pounded
them last night. If they cancome back and win this game three out

(01:30):
of four against Saint Louis is prettydamn good, nice little bounce back after
the series against the New York Yankees. So we'll update tune. In fact,
Luke Mailey has just struck out,so never mind what I just said.
Cardinals win the ball game two toone. An interesting game, a
very well pitched game, kind ofa frustrating game, a game that featured
some base running questions, some baserunning mistakes, some outs on the base

(01:57):
paths, but a very good performanceby Luke Weaver nonetheless goes for not Reds
Lewis ball Game two one Saint Louis. In this game I mentioned got a
terrific pitching performance from Miles Michaelis.This was and there's a pretty damn good
chance you already know this, butthis was a scoreless game going into the
eighth inning. Lucas Sims, whohas been kind of up and down,

(02:22):
gave up both runs in the eighthand the Reds couldn't do anything until they
got a run in their half ofthe ninth inning. Cincinnati is off to
Chicago, where they start a threegame series tomorrow afternoon against the Cubs at
historic Wrigley Field. We'll have DavidBell, will have instant reaction from GABP
as a Reds fall to a twentyone and twenty nine and fourteen and fourteen

(02:44):
at home. There you go.Pat Brennan's going to be on this show
coming up in just about twelve minutes, covering FC Cincinnati for The Inquirer.
The Orange and Blue with a roadtilt, first of consecutive road tilts on
a Saturday night as they take onColorado in a game you'll here live on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Looking forward toa chatting with Pat. We have two
soccer guests today because United States UnitedStates Soccer icon Kobe Jones is going to

(03:09):
be behind the microphone for Apple TVon a Saturday evening, and he is
going to be on this show talkingabout the team in the season with me
at four twenty. So we're we'restoked about that. I'm gonna I'm gonna
violate something that I kind of promisedon the show preview video we do on
Twitter at Moegger. By the way, twitter feed a service of Delta Dental.

(03:31):
Goota Delta Dental, oh dot com. Delta Dental is building healthy,
smart, vibrant communities for all.I said this was going to be a
T free Thursday because we've talked aboutt Higgins so much. This, to
me, what I'm about to sayis not so much about te Higgins.
It's about where you want to beas a franchise. So it's May twenty

(03:55):
fifth, free agency. The bulkof free agency is coming gone, not
that the Bengals can still sign aplayer or two. The draft is coming
gone. Pretty drama free draft forthe Bengals. All the players have signed,
which is kind of the norm thesedays. And so you know,
there's really there's really only a handfulof real storylines. Maybe maybe they still

(04:17):
move on from Joe Mixon, althoughI don't think that's going to happen.
Maybe they agree to a newly restructureddeal with Joe Mixon, and we'll talk
about that, but it's really whendoes Joe's deal get done, what does
it look like? And what's theripple effect both on the Bengals roster but
also across the league? And thenare there other contracts that get done as

(04:40):
well? Logan Wilson perhaps, teHiggins perhaps, And I think sometimes and
this point has been made not somuch by me, that we talk about
these things so much that we kindof failed to acknowledge that like in Logan
Wilson and t Higgins case, thoseplayers are under contract for this coming season
and there is absolutely no incentive foreither to not play football this coming season.

(05:02):
But the Burrow contract triggers a discussionabout how it's going to impact the
rest of the team and are theygoing to be able to pay their other
good players and what's this going tomean for Tea And can they keep both
wide receivers and Joe Burrow? Ifthe answer is yes, how do they
keep the team vibrant and solvent?I don't know why I'm using those words.

(05:24):
How do they keep the rest ofthe team good? How do they
keep the rest of the roster good? And if they move on and t
Higgins signed somewhere else, Well,then what's gonna happen? I think I
talked about this with in regards toNick krawl It's great to have options,
it's great to be envied. NickCrawls got some options when it comes to

(05:45):
prospects who play the middle endfield.Duke Tobin's gonna have some options here.
Like I boil it down to basicallythat, right, he's got the option
to throw a huge chunk of moneyat t Higgins and maybe slightly even over
pay if you will, that thisginormous chunk of dough that they have probably

(06:06):
set aside to pay te Higgins,and if he accepts the offer, then
you are going to get a premiertalent at wide receiver pairing with a terrific,
skilled, elite level quarterback and involvedin the same offense as a guy
in Jamar Chase who's all world andprobably even a little bit better, if

(06:26):
not a lot better than te Higgins. That's pretty damn good. Or they
don't get a deal done with tand then there are a whole bunch of
other players on this team that youwould be interested in investing in or resigning
or there I think, and ifyou read some of the comments by Orlando
Brown to Jeff Hobson and Bengals dotCom this week regarding his free agency and

(06:49):
how much he wanted to play here, and how his party reached out to
the Bengals before they ever reached outto him, and how desirable a place
this is turning into playing. Ifyou're Duke Tobin, you could possibly have
any number of options available to youto replace t Higgins at wide receiver,
to fill in the roster in spotswhere they need some help, to add

(07:10):
some depth, maybe a wide receiver. To be a part of a team
that is winning, to be apart of a team that is going to
be relevant for a while, tobe a part of a franchise that seems
to be doing things correctly. It'sgreat to have options in life. I
kind of boil it down to that. I certainly hope t Higgins signs his
contract extension, would love for himto be with this team and build around

(07:33):
this just huge bona fide strength.But if that doesn't happen, I think
Duke Tobin's in a pretty good placeman, in large part because he's already
done a pretty good job, andmore than anything, because they have a
really good quarterback. They're going tohave lots of different things they could do
with that money. It's great tobe in a place where you're not backed

(07:53):
up against the wall. And Idon't think Duke Tobin is, I don't
think the Brown family is. That'snot a bad place to be. That
doesn't ignore the player himself, butthat's really not all that bad of a
place to be. So I kindof wanted to get that out of the
way because we've talked about it somuch all week long. Our phone numbers
are five point three seven four ninefifteen thirty and eight six six seven o

(08:15):
two three seven seven six. Again, you could tweet me at Moegger on
the Delta Dental twitter feed will throwa couple of poll questions up for you
this afternoon as well. Instant reactionfrom gabp. Reds lose a tough one
too one of the Cardinals. Theysplit the series. They go three and
four on the home stand. They'reoff to Chicago to play the Cubs tomorrow

(08:35):
afternoon. Meanwhile, FC Cincinnati almostcan't lose. They advance in the US
Open Cup. By the way,the details for the next match against Columbus
have been set. That game isgoing to be at the stadium on the
West end of Cincinnati on June thesixth, and they're killing it in MLS
play where they have the most points. They hit the road for the first

(08:56):
of two consecutive road games on Saturday, taking on Colorado. Pat Brennan will
be there, but first he'll joinus to talk about the Orangeine Blue next
on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati SportsStation. We will head to GABP here
momentarily in the aftermath of a Red'sloss to the Saint Louis Cardinals. Two
won the final score this afternoon atgabp Redstick get the winning run to the

(09:18):
plate in the bottom of the ninthinning. Nonetheless, the series sweep against
Saint Louis and a two and fivehomestand there's They're off to Chicago. FC
Cincinnati is off to Colorado. They'llplay there on a Saturday night, a
late night. TILT nine thirty iswhen it starts. You'll hear it live

(09:39):
on ESPN fifteen thirty. It hasbeen a little while since we had on
our buddy Pat Brennan from the CincinnatiEnquirer to read him at Cincinnati dot Com.
You could follow him on Twitter atp Brennan e n Q and uh,
you know, we don't have likethe six Ers and NIXT to talk
about, so I don't know howlong the segment's going to go. But
nonetheless, it's it's good to haveyou with us. It's been a what's

(10:00):
up. Well, I'm doing great, Thanks for thinking of me. And
I don't I honestly don't think I'mready to talk about the Sixers. Um,
that was really bad and I tookit worse, So I'm not ready
to talk about that anyway. Wellyou took it worse, like what did
what happened? Would you do?You know? I actually went back for

(10:20):
Game six. They were up threetwo in the series and they were winning
in the fourth quarter, and thatwas like one of the you know,
I don't have a lot of contactwith the NBA and in my professional life,
so I can really I can reallylet my hair down, yeah with
the Sixers and just be a realfan, right, And that was that.
That night ended up being a hugescar on my sports heart. You

(10:43):
know, you said something that II explained to somebody when the Knicks were
still alive, and uh, youknow I said, and I'm not a
journalist, but I'm like, youknow what, here's the thing. It's
great in this job to have ateam where I could watch and I don't
have to have a take, likewhat I say about them. I'm not
gonna make them media relations guy,mad I'm not gonna I'm not gonna threaten

(11:03):
our relationship with that team. Idon't really have to be held accountable.
It's fun. I could just watch. I don't have to have an opinion.
I can be irrational and that's Ithrew myself into that, and so
I can respect where you're coming from. Yeah, and I'm just in a
lot of pain right a lot ofpsychic pain right now from the Sixers and
it's ongoing. So I can understand. I can understand. Yeah, the

(11:24):
the US Open Cup starts right andit sort of feels like there was a
sense I'm conveyed by some and maybeI misinterpreted, like it's you know what,
this isn't that big of a deal. This team's killing it in MLS.
The League's Cup is later this summer. Yeah, it's cool if you
advance in this, but it's notthat big of a deal. But they
keep winning and now they're gonna playColumbus and they're three wins away from winning

(11:46):
this thing. Did I read thisright? Was this maybe not kind of
a big deal and now it sortof is. Well, you know,
it's it's tough for these MLS teamsbecause obviously, like we saw in twenty
seventeen, when you're you know,basically in American soccer's minor league systems,

(12:09):
there's a lot of incentive to goand try to win this trophy because along
the way you're going to encounter biggerteams MLS teams and the chance to knock
them off even if you don't endup winning the tournament, which those teams
never do. It's just it's ahuge carrot out there for those smaller clubs.

(12:30):
Like you were just saying, Ithink the Open Cup really complicates things
in a material way for these MLSteams. They've got thirty four game regular
season. MLS is geographically vast,and you know that is typified by the
kind of game FC Cincinnati is goingto play on Saturday, you know,

(12:50):
at altitude in suburban Denver, andthere are multiple trips like that coming up
for FC Cincinnati, and it's reallytough, so to add on more games
to that, Yeah, it's it'snot something that the MLS clubs typically go
all in on for the early roundgames. But like you also just said,

(13:13):
atually, Cincinnati's now halfway through theirroute to winning the whole thing,
and they've come to an interesting pointin their internal conversation about this where they
really have to think hard about goingall in and trying to win this thing.
Alec Can, the goalkeeper who iskind of the hero against the Red

(13:37):
Bulls on Tuesday night in the latestwin in the tournament, said, you
know, we've come this far,we might as well go win the whole
thing now, very you know TomBrenger Major League from him there. So
it's just they've gotten to a pointnow where they don't have to play their
backups and just try to survive,and they are very close to doing something

(14:05):
really special, which carries with ita lot of incentives and rewards, all
of which they would welcome. Sothey are at the point where now where
they can really start to go forit. All Right, this is probably
a really stupid question, but it'snot the first time I've asked you a
dumb question. So the game,the other night ends in penalty kicks.
Now it has to because it's atournament and somebody's got to advance. In

(14:28):
the MLS regular season, we havedraws, we have ties. I have
no issue with ties or draws inany sport. I'm for them. I'm
not for them. But but theydon't. They don't bother me like they
do some sports fans. At thesame time, penalty kicks are entertaining.
I want as much entertaining content aspossible. Why can't we have penalty kicks

(14:48):
in the regular season? You know, I think there is a large group
of people penalty kicks and soccer arepretty polarizing, and we're obviously, just
to be clear to everyone listening,we're not talking about like the in game
and fraction player gets tripped up inthe box and is awarded a penalty.
You know, I think everyone acknowledgesthose are important, and you know,

(15:13):
you like what you like it whenthat happens for your team. You don't
necessarily like it when an elimination gameis decided by penalty kicks, because it's
kind of a lottery. And ifyou look at this from the Red Bulls
perspective, the other night, theteam that advanced from that match was not

(15:33):
really indicative of who was the betterteam in the game by any stretch.
The Red Bulls were dominant. Soto dominate the game, and sure,
you have to, you know,kind of underscore your own dominance by scoring
goals. And the Red Bulls sufferedfor not doing that, but they did

(15:54):
dominate the game. And then allFC Cincinnati had to do, and I
say all they had to do,it wasn't easy. They dragged the extra
time, the thirty added minutes,basically over time, they drag the Red
Bulls through that couldn't separate the teamsfrom each other. And then you get
to penalty kicks, and it's justit's totally different. It's a totally different

(16:15):
proposition from the one hundred twenty minutegame that was just played where the Red
Bulls dominated. Now it comes downto everything but the eleven players versus the
other eleven players. Now it's aboutcan the goalkeeper guests right, Will the
player hit the ball cleanly and notscuff it, Will he place it in
the right spot. It's just alot of people think of penalty kicks shootouts

(16:38):
as kind of a lottery and thereforekind of an unfortunate way a lot of
times to decide these really really importantgames. You know, the NHL introduced
the shootout and people love it.Yeah, maybe there's something what you're saying
there. Well, I mean likethe World Cup Final came down the penalty

(16:59):
kicks, and I know there's alot of folks who after that game,
which for my money, it's thebest soccer game I've ever watched, they
thought it kind of cheapened what itunfolded for the previous I don't know,
two two and a half hours,two hours and forty five minutes, And
I understand that. But my thingis like, if the World Cup Final
can be decided on penalty kicks,then a regular season game between the San

(17:19):
Jose Earthquakes and the Portland Timbers canbe decided on penalty kicks. Right,
Yeah, you're probably right about that, And you know, there's no secret
that the game is still growing inthis country. I will say there was
a time early MLS kind of itdoesn't include this era, this like three

(17:41):
four year period in what it considersits modern era, but there was a
time when not only did MLS havea version of a penalty shootout to decide
regular season tie games. MO itwas. It was like a running start
penalty kick where the goalie could comeoff his line, the player would charge

(18:03):
in on goal from like something likethirty or twenty five yards out and it
was wild. But no one elsein the world does it like that.
And I think, you know,Major League Soccer wants to assimilate into the
world's game, so for a while, that was a cool gimmick to bring
people in. And I think ifthe game, if people at MLS ever

(18:27):
decided, hey, we're really strugglinghere to sell this thing to, whether
it's Apple TV or you know,broadcast companies for broadcasting rights, and if
people were really losing interest, maybethey'd go to something a little more gimmicky
like that. But these games aren'tdecided that way in the rest of the
world. MLS wants their games totranslate directly to what you watch in England

(18:52):
and Spain and all over Europe andfor it to just look the same way,
So they're not going to decide theirgames that way. But I hear
you, you you've sold me.I wish they would settle the games that
way. Perfect good And by theway, you can still award a point
for a penalty kick loss. Youcould still you can still do the point
system. We do that, yesfor that. All right, So they're

(19:17):
coming off in MLS play the Columbusmatch, which was uh, but it
felt like the sort of match theylose last year once they blow the lead.
But what I want to talk aboutis the game before that against Montreal
with everybody excited about hell Israel uhtheir home and it was a dominant performance.
I even put on social media thatthat felt like that game was decided

(19:41):
by by more than three goals.And so I watched them improving on offense,
they're still often dominant on defense.They don't make a lot of mistakes,
as we saw with the game winninggoal against Columbus. They can seize
on your mistakes like I don't.I don't know what the biggest question mark
for this team as currently constructed isright now, do you? I think

(20:03):
they have some questions about themselves.But I agree with what you're saying.
I mean that that Montreal game wasvery impressive. I mean even in FC
Cincinnati itself, there were you know, kind of marketing arms of the organization
that we're already looking ahead to hellis reel you know, earlier that week
they had some local media out totry some hell Is Reel inspired insanely spicy

(20:30):
food and stuff like this, Soyou know, you've got the organization itself.
If I was a player, I'dprobably be more in tune to that
and concerned about that than anything else. But it didn't matter. They just
this team is so good and it'sso cliche, but their ability to focus

(20:51):
on the task at hand. Youknow, even when we brought up that
Pittsburgh River Hounds will be the nextopponent in the Open Cup, that's not
for two weeks or thereabouts, youknow, twelve days, whatever it is.
Um, they didn't want to talkabout that too too much. Today.
What FC Cincinnati wanted to talk aboutwas the task that is right in
front of them, which is theColorado Rapids. And it's it's just what

(21:14):
it's. It's one of the giftsof this team. I think it's one
of the things. It might bethe the thing that is separating it from
its peers in the league right now, which is the fact that they can
just drill down so hard and focuson the task in hand. You know,
as far as you know, theteam is not perfect they're dealing with
some injuries right now. One wayor another. Brenner is going to be

(21:38):
out of the picture for sure ina month. And I think he just
me speaking for myself, I thinkhe's probably played his last game for FC
Cincinnati. Um, you know,they're a little bit thin at the striker
position at the moment, so it'snot like this team doesn't have anything to
worry about. But um, it'stough to you know, it's it's tough

(22:00):
to see it if you're a casualfan parachuting in to tiqu Off Stadium for
a midweek game or a weekend game, and you should just see these the
way this team rattles off wins andtakes care of its business. So professionally,
it's really hard to imagine, youknow what what FC Cincinnati could possibly
be struggling with right now. Yeah, because in the grand scheme, it's

(22:21):
not a lot. Yeah, you'renitpicking, and as a fan, we
all do that. But that's that'swhat you want to do. You want
to you want to pick nits.Do you think they should have fired Doc
Rivers? Yeah? Probably. LikeI told you months ago, they were
the Sixers are allergic to the secondround um Doc had at the path to
an NBA finals and maybe a championshipwas right there, and they blew it.

(22:45):
You can't you can't allow him tostay around after that. Gotta go.
I understand. Always good to haveyou. It had been way too
long. I appreciate the time asalways. Uh, we'll bother you soon.
And I'm sorry about your nixt twomo. We didn't get to talk
about that, but thank you forhaving me. They they they won forty
seven games, and they won uhsix games in the playoffs. Man,
but for the Knicks, they shouldhave had a parade in the Candy and

(23:07):
the heroes down there in New York. He kidding me. Hope they can
do that. And then if theymade merche that said we won six playoff
games, I'd buy it. So, I mean, you know, for
me, that's that's pretty damn good. Yeah, yeah, you're right.
I appreciate your outlook there. Iought to take that. I'm really down

(23:30):
and out about this. I cantell I'm a little worried about you.
All right. Well, we'll brightenyour spirits next time we have you.
Thank you so much. FC Cincinnatiis playing the Colorado Rapids on Saturday,
night. That game starts at ninethirty Pregame coverage on ESPN fifteen thirty at
nine o'clock. Pat's coverage at Cincinnatidot Com in Your Morning in Choir,

(23:52):
and as always on Twitter at PBrendan e n Q he is. He's
one of my favorite people to haveon We are late. We're gonna hear
from us some of the particulars atGABP today is the a Red's fault of
the Cards two to one. It'stwenty five from four. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station. Noone covers the Bengals like ESPN fifteen thirty,

(24:14):
Cincinnati's sports station nineteen away from fouro'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
on Moegger. Awesome stuff from PatBrennan. Will jump back in FC Cincinnati
with Kobe Jones from Apple TV MLSSeason Pass. He's got the game on
a Saturday night. Looking forward tothat. In just about forty minutes,
Red's lost today to one of theSaint Louis Cardinals. If you're like me,

(24:38):
and for the most part I hopeyou're not, specifically after the explosion
from the Reds last night, offensively, you kind of thought, you might
have a high scoring game today,Luke Weaver, Miles Michaelis neither guys necessarily
having a great year, and insteadwe had a scoreless ball game going into
the eighth inning. Saint Loui wasscores twice in the eighth. Our Reds

(25:02):
did play the run at the bottomof the ninth inning. They actually brought
the winning run to the plate withtwo outs in the ninth Luke Mainley striking
out too and the game Cardinals winto one. They split the series at
g A BP Reds roff to aChicago. Luke Weaver was really good today.
He threw a lot of strikes,He worked ahead, he didn't throw
a ton of pitches. He wasefficient six and a third, gave up

(25:25):
three hits, walked to guys,struck out six. Here he is with
reporters after the game. Best pitchmixsistently with that many innings twice sometime depends
how a long time. It wasn'tthat definition, But to answer it,
I would say, yeah, Iwould say it's everything's been feeling really good

(25:48):
in my audience. I feel likethere's good stretches in the games, and
then we see kinving any that unfoldsa little bit, maybe he gets a
little sloppy, right, maybe I'lllose a pitch. And my changeup has
really been frustrated me because that's ago to pitch and it's just not doing
what it's supposed to do. AndI put a lot of work in this
week to try to tweak that,and today it kind of came to life

(26:11):
with some swings and misses and competitiveand three two counts except for the last
one, obviously, But that's thecompleteness of the arsenal being able to throw
curveball, slider and changeup. AndI wouldn't disagree and say that was probably
the best that's been in a while. Luke Weaver after his best performance,

(26:33):
clearly his best performance in a Redsuniform this afternoon. Reds did lose the
game two one. Things unraveled forLucas Hims in the eighth inning, and
he actually got off to a prettygood start in that inning, retiring the
first two batters on a strikeout anda pop up. Lars Knupar hit a
single. He then goes to secondon a wild pitch and Lucas struggled with

(26:56):
that in the eighth inning. Inparticular, so with a two hours to
the guy on second base, NolanGorman hit a ball down the right field
line. It when it when itfirst leaves his bat, You're like,
there's no chance this ball is goingto be fair, and yet it was.
Turns out to be a double atscored now bar they intentionally walk a
guy and then Norman Norman Gorman,quite alertedly, if you will, steals

(27:18):
third base and then scores on asecond wild pitch by Lucas Simms. Uh
So, two runs in the eighthinning, and that was basically all she
wrote for the Reds. Mentioned theydid score a run in the ninth,
but nonetheless fall of the Cardinals twoone. Here's David Bell with reporters afterward
the game. Would you get astart like that from Weaver and it's just

(27:41):
there for the taky you can't quiteget there is frustrating. I guess some
days like the sure, you know, I feel like we're really close to
winning that game, and you goon every day believe they know we're gonna
win each game. So especially whenyou get a start like that from the
luting Cubans as good as we've seenhim and gave us every opportunity to win.
You win that game. But onthe other hand, Michaels pitched not

(28:04):
stand the game as well. Theywere going back to work for sure.
Can anybody get close to a microphoneor tremendous a pitch anybody, younger guys
just watching someone like that? Yeah, absolutely, I mean he I want
to see microphone close to David Bell'sface change out really good to anybody.
But he also would get ahead withthose two pitches and then finish with a

(28:27):
really good passball. They so madeit very unpredictable, located, his pitches,
changed speeds, and he has goodstuff too, So um, it
was great to get him deep intothe game, very efficient game. So
absolutely can can learn from that.In the last two guys with Then and
Love a room noise. You knowthey're not the exact same guy, but

(28:49):
they kind of went about it thesame way. Have you ever sat next
to somebody on an airplane and you'retalking to him and sometimes it could be
hard to hear them because there's airplanenoise tearing. Give me a little that
audio that that's kind of what DavidBell. It sounds like you're sitting next
to David Bell on an airplane.You know, there's just that low level

(29:11):
he'll go give it to me reallyclose to win a net game and everything.
I'm half expecting somebody to interrupt himbecause they're gonna ask if you want
some peanuts and a PEPSI like,what are we what are we doing?
Can we can we get the microphoneclose to David Bell? Thank you?
Or at least turn the microphone up, or turn the microphone up or do
something, or or don't do iton a moving airplane. I mean it

(29:34):
sounds like what you're going to getnext is the captain telling you to fasten
your seat belts or something. Anyway, David Bell after the game, Red's
lose two one. One of mypet peeves in baseball manifested itself in this
game this afternoon, and who knowswhat happens if it doesn't. So in

(29:56):
the sixth inning, the Reds hadsomething cooking. Tj who we like,
he gets a hit, Matt McClain, who we really like, He gets
a hit, first and third,nobody out. You're thinking, okay,
here we go. Reds are ebittenessit's the sixth inning. Maybe one run
wins the game. So the Redsdecide to play some little ball. So

(30:17):
what do they do? They puton the contact play where Jonathan India is
the next hitter, hits the ballto third base and Friedel immediately runs and
he's thrown out at home. Weused to make fun of Brian Price for
this play always going wrong. Thisplay has become the shovel pass of baseball.

(30:40):
Or yes, on very rare occasion, it works, but usually it
leads to disaster. When the ballis hit the third base contact play can
work if it's being hit to shortstopperhaps, or maybe the second base hit
to third that's not gonna work.No, I know. The alternative is

(31:00):
maybe they turned too but but Istill got the guy at third base.
I hate making the first out ofthe inning at home. I hate making
the first out of the inning athome, especially as soon as the guy
takes off. You know he hasno chance of scoring. He's running for
the sake of running. He's runningtoo at the at the very best,
keep you out of a double play. I just I don't like I don't

(31:22):
like it. Who knows. Fraleyflew out and then Stevenson hid into a
six four fourth out to end thesixth inning, and the Reds don't score,
and you just kind of had asense at the end of the sixth
inning that they they let that opportunityget away and that was going to come
back and bite them, and youknow, who knows how the game unfolds.
I just I hate that play.I hate the contact play. I

(31:45):
hate I hate running into an out. I hate unnecessarily running into an out.
By the way, takes a lotfor a guy to turn a five
four double play, especially with anyof the ball wasn't hit that hard.
I just I don't like the contactplay with the ball being hit to third,
and it feels like that works aboutas often as a shovel pass does.

(32:06):
Eleven minutes away from four o'clock,our phone numbers are five one three,
seven, four nine, fifteen thirtyand eight six six seven o two
three seven seven six. The Redsare probably not gonna contend this year.
I don't agree with the contention,however, that the winning and losing doesn't
matter. We're gonna spend some timeon that. I also want to know,
what would you do if the Redsmoved. I don't think the Reds

(32:30):
are moving. Nobody wants the Redsto move. This is not something being
threatened. This is not something that'simminent, but I have been thinking about
it because of what's happening in Oaklandand Las Vegas. And I'm curious as
to your thoughts what you would doif the Reds moved that coming up in
the four o'clock hour. Also KobeJones from an Apple TV on an FC

(32:52):
Cincinnati. It's exactly ten away fromfour o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati sports station. Hey Google,who got promoted getting ESPN fifteen thirty from
iHeartRadio. Don't forget anything you mighthave missed. You can find on the
iHeartRadio app, including a conversation fromearlier this week with Sam Dikestra from MLB

(33:15):
Pipeline. Extensive conversation about Ellie DelaCruz. You can find that on the
iHeartRadio app, also on the podcastpage of ESPN fifteen thirty dot com.
And our segment this week with PaulDaynard Jr. Was outstanding as always as
we talked about the relatively lax natureof the Bengals offseason, T Higgins,

(33:37):
and so much more. We also, excuse me discuss the Bengals Ring of
Honor voting, which is underway rightnow, and u NFL rule changes,
including a step toward eliminating kickoffs.That and so much more on the iHeartRadio
app and on the podcast page ofESPN fifteen thirty dot com. Don't forget
our podcast. Keep this place inmind, especially as we get closer to

(34:00):
the weekend. Long Next, sportsGirl three locations north of Kentucky. You
got Wilder, you got Richwood,you got Hebron, each one of them.
Awesome beer selection each one of them. Terrific menu, great wings,
and an outdoor area that you willlove. Long Neck sports Girl, three
locations in northern Kentucky. The Redsare probably not going to be in the

(34:22):
playoffs this year. It doesn't meanthat winning doesn't matter. Let's spend a
few minutes on that. Next onESPN fifteen thirty, no one covers the
Bengals like ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati's sportsstation. All right, it's four minutes
at for four o'clock. This isESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, I'm
Moeger. Thank you so much forjoining us. Hopefully you're having a terrific

(34:44):
Thursday afternoon. Toby Jones, USSoccer Icon can I go with Lacon I
think I can. And current AppleTV analyst who has Saturday nights Tilts FC
Cincinnati and Colorado is going to joinus at four twenty. That's right,
two soccer guests today. Former Universityof Cincinnati A D. Mike Bone is

(35:06):
being written about. I guess Ishould say he has been written about in
an in depth piece in The Athletic. Justin Williams contributed to it. It
documents some things that were happening atthe University of Cincinnati while he was here,
specifically with him that could have perhapsforetold, if you will, what

(35:29):
was ultimately going to be his fateat USC where he is no longer the
director of athletics. There just aquick thought on that coming up. Plus
Brenneman and Jones on baseball. Ifyou don't know, chances are you know
in this day and age, it'ssix minutes after four o'clock in the afternoon.
The Reds game ended like exactly anhour ago. Chances are you know

(35:51):
the results of the game. ButI'll mention it nonetheless, REDSLUS two one
very well pitched game. But LukeWeaver was terrific this afternoon, and it's
it's easy to see. It's easyto kind of draw that conclusion by looking
at the box score he was.I mean, it goes without saying we've
we haven't seen him throw as wellas he threw today all season long.
He was fantastic today. If Icared about picture wins and losses, I

(36:13):
would say he deserved a better fate. But given how he pitched, you
certainly would have liked the thought that, especially after last night's eighteen hit explosion,
the Reds could have played it atleast a run or two and maybe
he gotten out of there with awin both this afternoon and in the series.
As it is, they head offto Chicago. I've said on a

(36:37):
number of occasions when talking about whatwhat the Reds are doing, and maybe
it's with Tyler Stevenson. Maybe it'swith Ellie de la Cruz and not bringing
him up or promoting Matt McClain,which which, by the way, Matt
mcclin looks really good at the plate, has more than held a zone at
the field. Matt McClain looks likeit's early, tiny, tiny, tiny

(36:57):
sample size. That dude looks likethe real deal. Now real deal doesn't
mean thirteen time All Star. Realdeal just means guy who's better than whoever
he was replacing and can help thisteam win doing what he does. That's
it. But whatever direction we'd takethe conversation with how this season is playing
out, it comes with the caveatof look, they're not winning this year

(37:22):
or they're not contending this year.You've you've probably heard me say this a
thousand times. It's like with theTyler Stevenson plan, which I'll admit I
was fully on board with. Istill think I'm on board with it.
But let's be honest, Tyler Stevenson'snot producing consistently, and he certainly isn't.
He certainly isn't producing to the extentthat you would expect your first baseman

(37:45):
to producing. Maybe he'll still dealingwith the after effects of a busted collar
bone. I don't know. Butwhen we talk about that plan, for
me, it was, look,the Reds are going nowhere this year,
so don't run him into the groundby having him catch one hundred and twenty
games or one hundred and twenty fivegames, because I think we acknowledge it's

(38:05):
really hard to imagine the Reds contendingfor anything meaningful that doesn't mean that winning
and losing is irrelevant. Tony Pike, right at the beginning of the season,
in a conversation with me on hisshow, used the phrase the normalization

(38:28):
of losing. Losing has become thenorm with this franchise. That's not me
being critical, it's it's a factthat only a handful of winning seasons over
the last twenty five years. Theway you get out of losing being normalized
is to win. I believe winningis learned. I believe to a degree,

(38:52):
winning habits are contagious. Winning matters. Now, I think we all
acknowledge it's going to be really hardfor this team, which is playing four
twenty baseball, to end the seasonwith more victories than losses. It's hard
to imagine this team playing in thepostseason. It's hard to imagine this team

(39:16):
being in the thick of a pennantrace or a playoff chase in September.
But first of all, if youwant to end the normalization of losing,
stop losing, stop losing with theregularity that you have been losing an inch
closer to the normalization of winning.But also especially given the fact that there's

(39:39):
you're starting to see some turnover,and look, Ellie Dayler Cruiz isn't here
yet, and I wish he was, and Christian and carnassion Strand isn't here
yet, but I wish he was. But there are a whole lot of
other guys here who at least havea chance to show that they belong long
term. Start with quote the BigThree, continue that through Matt McClain,

(40:06):
Jonathan India, perhaps maybe Spencer Steer, perhaps Nick Senzel. Well, the
most tangible way to see that whatyou're doing is working is to look at
the win loss totals and see improvementfrom last year. Because Ella della Cruz

(40:27):
could get called up and could hitfour hundred and whole people with his speed
and his throwing arm and his rawpower, and Matt McClean can get on
base a bunch. But if thosethings aren't being translated into at least incremental
progress in the win loss column,and they have a win loss record this
year that looks like last year's,you're gonna really have a hard time feeling

(40:52):
great about the direction the team andthe franchise as a whole are going.
So yeah, I do kind ofwrapped up in the wins and losses.
First of all, I just Ienjoy the wins when they occur. Last
night watching the Reds beat the Cardinalsat a laugher, a game that was
over by the middle innings, LikeI put it in cruise control and watch

(41:12):
them just batter the Cardinals around.Man, sign me up for that.
There have been way too many nightswhere the exact opposite was the case for
me to not enjoy. And Ithink if you're a Reds fan, to
not enjoy a night like last night. But yeah, I do concern myself
with how many games they win,because quite simply, that's the most tangible,

(41:35):
easiest to wrap your brain around,metric that shows whether or not progress
is being made. There are alot of guys on the team right now
who might not be destined to behere in a couple of years, but
they've got a shot. Don't youwant to feel better about those guys?
Gonna feel better about those guys ifthis team is sitting on ninety five or
ninety six or ninety seven losses,of course not. You know, I've

(42:00):
probably not the first time I've madethis comparison. I remember very very vividly
for reasons that have less to dowith baseball than others. The end of
the two thousand and nine season,the Reds went I think they went twenty
seven and thirteen over the last fortygames, and by then, like Joey
Vado had kind of established himself asone of the best hitters in the National

(42:22):
League, and Jay Bruce and JayBruce. That season honestly wasn't great,
but but you were starting to geta sense that a lot of those guys
they brought up were starting to reallyestablish themselves and it translated into winning.
Now. I think anybody who saidat the end of that year or you
know, looks back and says,yeah, by the end of that season,

(42:42):
I knew they were going to goto the playoffs the next year is
probably not being very honest, Butthere was a sense, you know what,
this is working, The post Griffy, post done era is taking shape,
and you know what, you couldstart to you could start to see
a pretty good team starting to form. I want the back end of two
twenty three to kind of feel likethat maybe they're not going to have a

(43:05):
stretch where they win twenty seven outof forty games, probably not going to
win the division next year. Iguess like the two ten team did.
But you're really going to start tofeel like this is working when you see
it starting to work and translate towinning. It's the you know, we
get so wrapped up in what someof these individual players are going to do.

(43:29):
And yes, you can document,you could chart their progress based on
how they're performing statistically. But Ithink the only way this really starts to
take shape and make most of usfeel really good about the direction the Reds
are going in is if it startsto lead to incremental improvement in how many
games the Reds win and do theyhave large stretches where they play well enough

(43:53):
to win a whole bunch of gamesin a short amount of time. Yeah,
I think the winning part of thisabsolutely does matter. You know.
Now, look, the Rents couldcall up De la Cruz, and they
can call up Cees, and thoseguys could have nights where they just rake
and some back of the bullpen dudewho's washed up and not going to be

(44:14):
here could blow it and you're gonnago, Okay, we'll forget the result.
But I don't know, man,Like I want to see Hunter Green
pitch well enough that it starts tomatter and and and starts to help the
team win. And I want tosee Graham Ashcraft start to pitch well enough
again that it starts to matter,and it matters in terms of how much

(44:36):
they win. You want to breakthe habit of losing. Let's let's let
let that happen now. Instead ofwhich you don't want is just the acceptance
of, h yeah, we lostagain. We're losing again. We're destined
to lose a lot of games again. I do think it matters, and
so when it happens, I getexcited about it. When it doesn't,

(44:58):
yeah, it's frustrating because I wanthinggible evidence that this is working. And
yeah, there are individuals that youcould look at and say, okay,
you're seeing progress. Hunter Green haspitched well at times this year in games
that the Reds haven't won. ButI just I refuse to accept the suggestion
that whether or not they win iscompletely irrelevant. That's not the case,

(45:21):
and I don't think that was thecase the last time the Reds started to
build a core around homegrown players andstarted to see genuine progress in terms of
how many games they won. Ifyou agree, terrific. If you disagree,
I got open phone lines five,one, three, seven, four,
nine, fifteen thirty. Kobe Jonesfrom Apple TV on the call.

(45:45):
He had FC Cincinnati in the playoffslast year against Philadelphia. I won.
His thoughts on the team he watchedlast October versus the team whose game he's
gonna call Saturday. Will chat withKobe next. It is twenty one minutes
after four o'clock. This is ESPNfifteen thirty Almoegger, Brenneman and Jones on

(46:05):
baseball is coming up in just aboutthirty minutes. Red's loss this afternoon by
a score of two to one aGABP. They are off to a Chicago.
They start a three game series againstthe Cubs tomorrow afternoon. Meanwhile,
FC Cincinnati is back in MLS playafter advancing in the US Open Cup on
Tuesday night. They'll play Columbus againon June sixth. They're back in league

(46:30):
play on a Saturday night a thefirst of consecutive road games as they take
on Colorado. That game starts atnine thirty our time. United States Soccer
icon Kobe Jones will be on thecall for Apple TV's MLS Season pass package
and nice enough to give us afew minutes of his time to talk about
the Orange and Blue. Kobe,It's it's awesome to have you. Thank

(46:52):
you so much for joining us.How are you. I'm doing great,
and thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. I appreciate you're
coming on. You had and correctme if I'm wrong. You had FC
Cincinnati in the postseason last year intheir game against the Philadelphia Union. So
from then to now with a teamthat has the most points in Major League

(47:13):
Soccer, give me an idea ofwhat you've seen this year that maybe you
didn't see from that team a yearago. Well, I would say it's
it's a growing confidence, you know, in the side, and still a
pretty young team as far as withinMLS. And I think what you're seeing
is seen to see a group thatstarted to really get to know each other,

(47:34):
a group that's faced kind of likethe obstacles and the hurdles together.
And when you have that, whenyou come close to getting to where you
want to be and then you don'tmake it, that whole offseason gives you
a little bit more of a focus. It gives you more of something to
really look ahead to as a group. And I think that's really brought the
team together from a mechanical standpoint,And we talked a lot prior to the

(47:59):
season about how you know, theythey made the playoffs last year kind of
in spite of its defense, andthis year the turnaround, UH in that
end of the game has has beenhas been remarkable. And not only are
they not only are they not allowinga lot of goals, they're creating mistakes.
They're starting to turn that into legitimatescoring opportunities. UH. From from

(48:20):
your standpoint, what has it beenlike watching this team evolve on the defensive
end. I think it's been prettyfantastic to watch. And you know,
when you look at this side andyou see Leah I was getting there,
you know, is one of theone of the stalwarts holding things down.
Just kind of that leadership in theback, I think where you see when
they played three in the back andsometimes they you know, which really leads

(48:40):
to five at times with the outsideplayers coming back. It's an understanding amongst
every single one of them what theyneed to do. What Pat has done,
you know for the side I thinkis great is how he has them
moving up the field a little bitmore and and starting that defensive line winning
the ball higher up the field.That just makes a shorter distance you know,

(49:01):
to go and join into the attack, and that benefits the strikers.
So it's it's a little bit ofthat team defense type of mentality that's allowing
them to have all this success.This it's such a long season, as
you well know. The the FCCincinnati regular season started three months ago today
and we're really just entering the heartof the schedule. So they have the

(49:22):
most points in the league. Ithink to a degree, they've exceeded a
lot of people's expectations, certainly defensively. What's what's the biggest question you have
about this team moving forward? Uh, there's Look, when a team's hot,
you know, you gotta go withit. Uh look, you you
look at Cincinnati. They've been fantastic. They've been getting results. They haven't

(49:45):
played every game like in that ohjust completely dominating presence. You know,
maybe that's the one question. Canthey get it to where where everything's starting
to click just a little bit more, you know, amongst the team and
playing a exactly how they want todo want to play strategy wise, and
look, there's always something that youcan work on, but right now,

(50:05):
you know they're doing a good jobof grinding out when needed. You mentioned
Pat noon in and I've been I'vebeen fortunate enough to chat with a lot
of your colleagues at Apple about aboutthis team, and almost unsolicited, they'll
they'll talk about Pat, the impacthe's had on the team. Uh,
you know him, you know himwell, you've been around him. Give
us, give us an idea ofthe things you like most about him as

(50:29):
a coach. Calm. He's verycalm, And I think that's one of
the biggest things. Where when youhave a situation where where the times start
going tough and the panic can starthappening and fingers are pointing, you know,
Pat is always kind of like thatcalm player. He looks at it
analytically of what needs to be doneand starts the process of getting to work.

(50:49):
You know. I think that's kindof a little bit of a testament
to how he was as a asa player, as a striker, where
he was he wasn't that superstar,you know striker that's getting all the attention.
He was that other one that wasdoing the work that was necessary to
make everyone better. And I thinkthat's what we're seeing from him as a
coaching someone that's allowing his team toget better. He's doing putting the work
in to find out where he canimprove every single player on the team.

(51:13):
They have the most points in MajorLeague Soccer. You know, there's a
lot of us here. We watchFC Cincinnati very closely. We know what
they're good at. We kind ofpay attention to their awards. I think
some of us really don't necessarily havethe proper perspective of how they fit in
with the rest of the Eastern Conferenceand the rest of the league because we're
focused so much on the team herehandicap their chances because it's easy to say

(51:36):
right now, given how many pointsthey've accumulated, Yeah, you know what,
they're the best team in the East, or they're one of the best
teams in the league. They canwin the MLS Cup. Legitimately, from
the standpoint of somebody who calls adifferent game every week sees everybody in the
league size them up against the restof the better teams in this league.
I think they're definitely in that topprobably three to four, you know,

(52:00):
maybe five, that's what we're lookingat right now, and as well as
they can continue right now it's it'sa it's a numbers game. It's statistics
to trying to see if how manywins you can get as compared to the
opponent. The issue is going tobe it's like now we're really starting to
get into those dog days of summer, and this is where we'll see if
they can stay healthy, if theycan get rest for the necessary players and

(52:23):
pick up those points. I thinkthat they will. They will do all
right. Some of their big competition. Competition is definitely going to be teams
like LAFC. You know, youhave Nashville starting to sneak in there as
well, New England, so alot of East Coast, but you also
have Seattle. But for all thoseteams at the top, it truly is

(52:45):
about health because on the other side, if you look at teams at the
bottom of the table, a lotof them are having a lot of injuries,
a lot of them have players thathave gone through like the U twenty
World Cup. You know, allthose situations play into it. On these
dog days of summer, awesome stuffwe will be watching staying up late on
a Saturday night. Have always followedyour career. It's awesome to get a

(53:08):
chance to us spend a few minuteswith you, and I hope we could
do it again. Thank you somuch, Kobe. Yeah, thanks for
having me appreciate it. Kobe Jones. Apple TV MLS Season Pass. I've
said this pretty much every single weekwe've had one of their broadcasters on.
There's two things that stand out.One, all of their commentators love pad
noon in Number Two, their productionof the games. I know you have

(53:32):
some folks who maybe you weren't Applesubscribers, or they're not subscribers, and
they go and watch them somewhere.Production of the game is terrific. And
their MLS three sixties show, whichthey've streamed on YouTube. I think the
last two match days is it's topnotch. It's really good. Kobe Jones,
who has the record for most USmen's national appearances of all time,

(53:55):
has the match on a Saturday night. It starts at nine thirty. Of
course, you could also hear iton ESPN fifteen thirty with pregame coverage starting
at nine pm. It is almostfour thirty twenty nine after four five win
three seven four nine fifteen thirty andeight six six seven O two three seven
seven six I've been thinking a lotabout the Oakland A's, which has made

(54:17):
me think a lot about the Reds. We're going to spend some time on
that. I'll make that make senseafter five o'clock. What if that I
couldn't help but think of when Iwas reading what I read today in The
Athletic about a former uc A dI think I just tied the record for
the longest tease on radio history.The payoff is next on ESPN fifteen thirty.

(54:43):
This is Dave Laplock and you're listeningto the Home of the Bengals,
ESPN fifteen thirty. It's down tothe County hero in two. T J.
Friedel has been on four times,waiting in the on deck circle the
O two pitch, swinging a mess. He struck him out. It was
another slider down and that's all.Red's fall two to one to the Cardinals

(55:04):
in a tight ball game today atGreat American Ballpark. The series ends in
a draw, each team taking twogames of this four game set. Tommy
Thrall Reds Radio Network seven hundred wl W final out this afternoon, Giovanni
Guyego striking out Luke Mailee with thetying run on base two, won the
final scorer. GABP Sports Update serviceof Kelsey Chevrolet, home of lifetime powertrain

(55:27):
protection and guaranteed credit approval from theirfamily to yours for life Kelsey chev dot
Com. You heard Tommy mentioned thedetails two won the final score. Reds
and Cardinals split for Cincinnati. Offto Chicago a day game tomorrow against the
cub That's a Cub the plan onlyone. Yeah, the Reds are gonna

(55:49):
take on Ian Hap tomorrow. Redsand Cubs tomorrow in the beginning of a
three game set. I still takea in hab You know what Ian happ
destroys the Reds, destroys the Reds. I'm going to that game tomorrow,
tarn You want me to call infrom the bleachers? Sure, I mean
need a segment of field that'll beentertaining. Luke Weaver through today for the

(56:13):
Reds, and he was terrific.Six and the thirds, six and the
third. What am I doing?It sounds like I'm in the bleachers right
now, six and the third,three hits walked, a guy struck out
six, kept through that change upand through it great. Today Jeff Brantley
was raving about Luke Weavers change upand understandably so. Unfortunately for the Reds,
Miles Michaelis was also terrific. Hewent seven shutout innings. Saint Louis

(56:36):
scored twice off Lucas Sims and theeighth Reds did get a run home in
the ninth inning, brought the winningrun to the plate in the bottom of
the ninth inning, but you heardwhat happened there two and won the final
score. Reds at the fifty gamemark are twenty one and twenty nine and
fourteen and fourteen at home. Ijust I, just as I was looking

(56:57):
at the box score here on mycomputer, there is an emailer who has
he has confused me for another hostwho works for this company, and I
have gotten this is the tenth,the ninth or tenth email in four days

(57:19):
about this one particular non sports topic. I don't know which host he thinks
I like. If I knew whichhost, I'd write him back and go,
buddy, you want Mike McConnell,or you want Brian Thomas, or
you want Bill Cunningham. I assureyou what this guy is emailing me about
has never been a topic on anyone of our shows, because it has

(57:40):
zero to do with sports. It'sculture wars related, which you know what
we don't do here culture wars.My guy, Brian, if you're listening,
send it to the guy or theperson that you're angry with because I
talk about baseball, football, andbasketball games and soccer games. Please,

(58:02):
what else do we have? Tonight? On ESPN Radio, the NBA Playoffs
continue. Game five Eastern Conference Finalsseries shifts to Boston. Celtics trail three
one. But because they won Gamefour, everybody in the national media is
doing the can the Celtics do whatno NBA team has ever done? Thing?
Now, had it been to onein favor of Miami and Miami wins

(58:28):
Game four, then when nobody's doingthe can the Celtics win this series,
everybody's writing Boston off. But becauseyou have to react solely to the most
recent thing, now, everybody's jumpingon board the can the Celtics become the
first NBA team to ever bounce backfrom down three h which, by the
way, I think they have apuncher's chance because I do believe they have

(58:51):
the more talented team. I thinkMiami's going to close it out, probably
in six. But it isn't eightseed. It is a Miami team that
is relative to what it was inthe regular season, playing kind of shorthanded.
I give him a shot. Lastweek, was it? Last week?
We were on the air when wefound out that former UC athletic director

(59:14):
Mike Bone was no longer going tobe the director of athletics at USC,
and in real time we read thestory, Mike released a statement, I
want to spend time with my familyand want to deal with some health issues,
and you know, you do wantto take things at face value.
But the departure was effective immediately.There was no interim ad named, and

(59:38):
it wasn't like, well, he'she's going to be done here on May
thirtieth or June thirtieth, or atthe end of the academic year or at
the end of the calendar year.Done. And I don't know, most
of us have kind of now beenaround long enough to understand, Okay,
there's probably something sort of weird goingon there. Well, in a lengthy

(59:58):
piece published by The Athletic, wehave seen some details emerge. And I'm
mentioning this not because I expect youto really care about the ad job at
USC, but there was an investigation. The La Times report of this late

(01:00:22):
last week that Bone resigned following aninvestigation into workplace culture at USC, where
a quote four current and former USCemployees said that the staffers inside the athletics
department had raised concerns to the lawfirm about Bone. Well the reporting in

(01:00:42):
The Athletic, and our buddy JustinWilliams was among the many great writers who
contributed to the piece, which ifyou subscribe to The Athletic, I'm sure
you either have already read or youcould very easily access. Some of the
issues regarding bones conduct also came upduring his stint as the ad at the

(01:01:04):
University of Cincinnati, and I don'tI'm not going to read the whole piece,
in part because that's boring. Alsogo read it reward the people who
did the actual work. But thestory kind of details what some of the
complaints were regarding Mike Bone. Whenhe was at UC. A woman by

(01:01:28):
the name of Karen Hatcher, anexecutive senior associate a d who alleged quote
discriminatory and other professional misconduct against Bone, which prompted an investigation that was completed
after Bone had already left UC togo to USC. The investigation described a
series of racially and sensitive remarks madeby Bone, including Bone telling Hatcher quote,

(01:01:50):
I'd be careful with diverse pools inregard to Hatcher hiring for a development
position in the fall of twenty eighteen. Karen, if you don't know,
is an African American. Cher toldthe investigators that Bones quote repeated racially charged,
disrespectful comments, caused distress to herand others. Bone told Omar Banks,
a blackmail and former CFO at Cincinnati, that Hatcher quote was only successful

(01:02:15):
in athletics because she is an AfricanAmerican woman, and challenge her knowledge of
the position. According to the document, the investigation also described a meeting with
senior athletic leadership during which Bones statedthat other universities were only interested in conductive
job interviews with Banks because he isblack. Banks also told investigators that due
to bones negative treatment toward him,he felt quote devalued, and left UC

(01:02:38):
for an opportunity at another institution earlyin twenty seventeen. So that was one
investigation at UC and it's worth mentioning, the investigation concluded. After Bone had
already left. He left in OctoberOctober early November of twenty nineteen. There
was a second investigation into Bones athleticdepartment at Cincinnati that was characterized the characterized

(01:03:00):
the department as quote having a toxicatmosphere. Additionally, he was accused by
a former associate AD and senior accountantby the name of Kim McGraw of offering
her male colleagues a larger raise thanshe was set to receive in twenty seventeen.
There's lots of other meaty stuff regardinghis time at USC that you can

(01:03:22):
go find if you have an Athleticsubscription or you basically right now type in
Mike Bone USC in your search engine. It's it's interesting, and the piece
in the Athletic also makes an allusionto there being sort of some discreet early

(01:03:42):
maneuvers made at the upper levels ofthe school aimed at maybe moving on from
Mike while he was still the adat UC. It's it's worth a read,
and it's certainly not going to havemuch of an impact moving forward at
UC. Many Mike Bone staffers arestill there, many no longer are.

(01:04:03):
It has been three and a halfyears since Mike Bone left the University of
Cincinnati. We were kind of jokingabout Mike Bone on this show last week.
We had a pleasant relationship with himon this show. I had a
pleasant relationship with him as part ofthe UC broadcast crew while Mike was at
UC. And I will though saythis, it was striking to me it's

(01:04:26):
been three and a half years,which you know, really in college athletics
and really in life anymore, isan eternity. It did strike me when
when Mike announced that he was leaving, it didn't really seem like that many
people at UC were all that upset. I do with that what you please,
And it's obviously easy for me tosay that now as opposed to three

(01:04:49):
and a half years ago. WhatI do think is maybe to a degree,
kind of an interesting part of allthis, Mike Bone and mc cronin
had issues. Mike Bone was stillhere and hire John Brannon when Mick left
for USC or I'm sorry for UCLA. And obviously Mick has a great job.

(01:05:13):
He's done a great job. He'sgot one of those gigs right now
that I think is near the topof the list of like prestigious destination college
basketball jobs. He's making a tonof money and he's had a lot of
success, and I think mcronan oneday is going to win a national title
at UCLA. But I do thinkit interesting what if, given the kind
of dynamics in play there, thenature of their relationship, so that unfolded

(01:05:38):
Mick left for UCLA in April ofnineteen, Mike Bone was gone basically a
half year later. I do thinkit is interesting to ask how would things
unfolded with Mick cronin, specifically,had there been a different director of athletics
than Mike Bone. I guess there'salways a very good chance he still would

(01:05:58):
have gone to UCLA because it's UCLA. At the same time, it wasn't
exactly a secret that there was adeterioration in the relationship between the coach and
the athletic director. These things weretalked about quite publicly four years ago and
even prior to that, when Mickwas flirting with UNLV a few years prior

(01:06:21):
to him actually leaving UC, andI think it would have been interesting to
see how things would have unfolded witha different athletic director. And it certainly
doesn't seem like mccronin is the onlyperson who had a not so good relationship
with the former ad at UC thirteenaway from five o'clock, it's been if

(01:06:44):
you care about UC athletics, thisstory, and again, this doesn't really
have much of an impact on theathletic department as it's currently constructed. But
then there's the weirdness of the baseballstory, and there just sort of paying
attention to stuff with the two staffersbeing let go for gambling related reasons,

(01:07:05):
but that don't appear at least tobe situations in which the two people who
got let go were directly gambling.But you know, who knows what possible
NCAA rules they may or may outof violated. I don't know. I
do know is this ain't good forUC baseball. It does not appear to

(01:07:28):
be the best of news for ScottGoogin's who I wonder, who's a guy
that I also really like. Iwonder what kind of ice he was on
to begin with, also gathering thatthis might not be the only college baseball
program in which this becomes a story. And obviously all of this on the
heels of the Alabama gambling story wherethe baseball coach there got whacked. I

(01:07:53):
just I've talked to a handful ofpeople who have suggested that we could be
seeing more stories like this on thecollege baseball level, which will be interesting.
So kind of a weird couple ofdays from a UC perspective. Meanwhile,
they have correct me if I'm wrong. The baseball team got eliminated in

(01:08:15):
the AC Tournament yesterday. So unlessthere's a game or a contest that I'm
not aware of, I think theUniversity of Cincinnati's athletic obligations to the American
Athletic Conference are over. They don'thave a softball team. I think all
the other spring sports have finished up, and so I think yesterday's rain delayed

(01:08:40):
loss to ECU in the AC Tournamentwas their last ever game by any sports
team in the American Athletic Conference,which is that is reason to celebrate.
Ted Away from five o'clock Brenneman andJones on baseball coming up and what would
you do the Reds moved that?Coming up at five o five on ESPN

(01:09:02):
fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports station.No one covers the Bengals like ESPN fifteen
d Cincinnati's sports station. It's afive minutes after five. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, I'mawega. Thank you so much for listening.
I you know, Taren, youand I always joke about when we're

(01:09:23):
on on Fridays, how it feelslike nobody's ever working by the time we
go on the air Friday at threeo'clock, and not not just in our
building, but I mean just everywherelike that, they're just it feels like
tumbleweed is blowing through offices across Cincinnatiand really the entire country whenever you get

(01:09:43):
to like two o'clock on a Friday. I mean, you might have some
folks who like they blow off lunchon a Friday and they'll they'll stay a
one thirty or two o'clock, Butby the time we're on the air,
I feel like, aside from essentialfirst responder employees, were the only only
people working. That applies to adaylight today. Right tomorrow, Yeah,

(01:10:04):
tomorrow is the Friday before Memorial Day. I'm not working tomorrow. You get
the Friday before Memorial Day. Sofor a lot of people, not everybody,
but for a lot of people,it's it's a long weekend, and
uh, hopefully during that weekend youtake a few minutes to at least think
about what Memorial Day is is reallyall about. But I gotta I gotta

(01:10:25):
think there are a whole lot offolks listening to us right now who for
tomorrow. They ain't happening. Sonow it's five o'clock on the Thursday.
What percentage of our audience at thismoment do you think is actually I mean,
let's let's not kid ourselves. It'snot like we have real jobs.
But what percentage of our audience doyou think is actually working? I'm gonna
say about forty percent. You weregonna go higher than me? Very good?

(01:10:50):
Uh, if you don't know,chances are you do. Red's loss
to day to one of the CardinalsLuke Weaver was terrific. Unfortunately, Lucas
Sims was the exact opposite. Theysplit the series with the Ords. They're
in Chicago tomorrow to start a seriesagainst the Cubs. We have Tarn Bland,
my producer. We've had guess we'vebeen doing a whole bunch of other
stuff. I've been droning on andon and on about Mike Bone, Yeah,

(01:11:12):
Brent him in and Jones on baseball. Tarn has had the phone on
lock and key, and I commandedhim during the top of the hour to
unlock the phones. And now wewill talk to our vast listening audience,
starting with Jeff, Jeff, you'reon ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon,
how are you. I'm heading tothe beach tomorrow, MO. And thank
god today there's one bridge between usin the eastern Shore. Yeah. And

(01:11:36):
the eastbound span was closed today becauseof a horrible wreck. Imagine the southbound
span of brent Spence was closed becauseof a horrific wreck on a getaway weekend
type of things. So well,hopefully, hopefully I get's cleared up and
you have a great time. Hopefullyit doesn't carry over tomorrow. A couple

(01:11:57):
of things I would love to havea private chat with chat about Mike Bone,
Um, non public Just what didyou know and how much of it
is true? I think that wouldbe interesting. Um. And on the
Reds, I think you hit ona couple really really good points. Um.
The call up issue has moved frombeating a dead horse to the glue

(01:12:17):
factory. There's there is nothing else, you know, Nick Crawl took the
fire extinguisher to any of the callup talk on Sunday, and when it
happens, it happens. Everybody needsto put that to the side for now
because it's not going anywhere, right, it's and it's it's not like those

(01:12:38):
players aren't going to get to Cincinnati. It's not like you're not gonna have
La Dela Cruz will play for theReds, and chances are it's going to
happen this year. I would preferto for it to have happened yesterday or
last week. But all right,there's there's there's some patience that's needed here,
even if we don't want to exhibitmuch patience. And your other point,

(01:12:59):
you know, there's twenty six guyson the roster, there's a bullpen,
and every three times a week todayfirst and third, no outse guy
on third base, whether the coachtold him too or whether he want on
his own went on contact. Ihate it. I hate it. You
don't do I mean in Cyo inhigh school baseball, you would be running
laps around the outfield if you didsomething that's stupid. Yeah, this was

(01:13:24):
a hallmark we used to make funof a Jeff. This was a hallmark
of the Brian Price regime. AndBrian Price never had a chance to show
whether or not he was a goodmanager. But we used to make fun
of like find find somebody who lovesyou as much as Brian Price loves the
contact play. When the ball ishit to third base, it never works.
I'm all for aggressiveness, but thereis a line between aggressiveness and stupidity.

(01:13:46):
What I saw in the sixth inningtoday was stupidity. If I'd have
had something in my hand, Imight have thrown it at the TV.
And you know, we all ofus, we talked about two or three
managerial decisions a week, bullpen problemstwo or three times a week. And
you know, it might be great. You bring up these two or three
guys. You might bump up attenance to seventeen to twenty K and night

(01:14:09):
you'll sell some extra beers and allthat good stuff, which is great.
But once they call these kids up, they're up. It's sink or swim
and there's none of this. Youknow, we'd have to get rid of
Jonathan India because there's no space formthat. When that talk came up the
other day, I was like,that is exactly like we can't sign t,

(01:14:29):
Chase and Joe all. At thesame time, I was like,
it's the exact same stupid argument,just with the other team. Yeah,
I mean you know the Jonathan Indiathing. First of all, there is
a DH. The DH is notgoing anywhere, so you need someone to
be the DH. And ideally,you know, maybe not the same person
every single day, but that's justnot going to be a depository for a

(01:14:50):
random dude. You're not going toplay that's that's gonna be a bona fide
position. Right, So if youdecide that Jonathan India is not going to
be a middle infield, or whycan't he be the DH, you're just
gonna move on from somebody who hasyears of team control when you have no
guaranteed money on the books because hegets squeezed out. Or how about starting
the process now toward that guy eitherlearning a new position or getting used to

(01:15:13):
dging. Oh, I agree,I think you know there's these are good
problems to have, but they aren'tgoing to start until somebody gets in their
right mind to just bring these guysup and let them see what they can
do. So all right, havea good afternoon, mo Jeff, you
do the same. Thank you somuch. Yeah. I mean, like
I want Ellie Dela Cruz and Christianand Carnassian Strand to be here, but

(01:15:38):
they're not they're not coming might notbe to my liking. I just okay,
they should be here. I wantto see them as as soon as
possible. I want to see themas quickly as possible. The absence of
them being here, I don't know, doesn't compromise my enjoyment of the team
when they win. And it justif that's the only thing you're gonna harp

(01:16:04):
on, you're probably gonna probably settingyourself up to be really, really angry.
I guess twelve minutes after five o'clock, I've been thinking a lot about
the Oakland Athletics and I I'm notreally sure why. We've seen MLB teams

(01:16:26):
move. We've seen all sorts ofsports franchises move. I saw somebody on
Twitter a few weeks ago who whowas getting mocked for referring to the Oakland
A's as a storied franchise. AndI was watching them go back and forth
with somebody, and I'm like,I don't know what the definition of a

(01:16:48):
storied franchise really is. That's somehistory, some historical significance, some cultural
significance. But I wanted to chimein, and I rarely chime in on
people's public conversations like, hell,yeah, that's a historic franchise. That's
a franchise because you've been nomadic andthey've gone from Philly to Kansas City to

(01:17:15):
Oakland and now they're on the doorstepof moving to Las Vegas. Because you've
moved around doesn't mean you're not storied. Many would say the Las Vegas Raiders
are storied. I'd say kind of. They've moved a bunch, so the
Oakland A's are probably gonna move.That is that's a franchise that goes back

(01:17:36):
to the very early nineteen hundreds.They've won nine World Series, They've they've
been in fifteen World Series and evenmore recently, man like in the nineteen
seventies, the Reds were probably themost culturally significant team, but the A's

(01:17:56):
were probably the most colorful by theway. They won more World Series,
including head to head against the Redsin seventy two. They were sort of
like the you know, the antiestablishment team because sort of the anti Reds,
the facial hair and weird colored uniformsand a colorful owner who tried to
use yellow baseballs in a game once, and he was also a huge cheap

(01:18:17):
ass and uh, you know,other clubs like the Reds and Yankees,
who were also dominant during that time. You know, a little bit more
conservative, no facial hair. Everybody'sgonna wear the same black shoes, that
sort of thing. By the way, there's room for both. I think
of like me as a kid,and they're gonna be folks my age,
especially because the Reds won the WorldSeries in nineteen ninety. Who are are

(01:18:39):
going to deny this, but butI was here for the late eighties.
I like that's in my wheelhouse asa as a baseball fan, as a
kid in uh eighty eight, ineighty nine, and yes, even in
ninety every thirteen to fifteen year oldboy had an A's hat except for me,
Like the Bash Brothers. That wasa big thing. Like everybody liked

(01:19:00):
the A's the nineteen ninety World Seriesvideo, which so many of us love.
Some kids who have their A's hatson. Chances are those kids had
never been to California. And obviouslyin the twentieth century, they were the
basis of Moneyball the book and thenMoneyball the movie, and they've had some
degree of success, at least gettingto the playoffs. That's that's a that's

(01:19:23):
a story franchise. It's an importantfranchise. It's a significant franchise. You
cannot You could tell the story ofMajor League Baseball and exclude some teams.
You could exclude the Texas Rangers,sorry, if there's any Rangers fans in
the audience. You could exclude theMiami Marlins. Probably can't exclude the Oakland

(01:19:44):
A's sorry. So they're gonna moveto Las Vegas. And I don't know
why I've been thinking about this.What would you do if the Reds moved.
Now, I'm not saying they should, God knows. I don't want
them to, don't think they everwill, don't think Baseball would really ever
allow that to happen. But backwhen the Bengals were bad, and we

(01:20:05):
would talk about like, well lethim, let him move, And I'm
sitting there going no that, becausethen I probably wouldn't have a job.
So please don't um I think footballteams. I was thinking about this the
other night. We were at theReds game. It was Austin's birthday,
and I met a guy from SaintLouis who listens to our radio station,

(01:20:27):
and I he's a Cardinals fan,but he's also a Bengals fan, and
I asked about, like, wellthe Rams, you know, how does
anybody still care about the Rams there? And we got to talking about it,
and I thought, like, ifyour favorite NFL team moves, there's
still there's still lots of ways thatyou could really engage as a fan in
football. Maybe maybe your your emotionsfollow your team to its new city.

(01:20:51):
Chances are that doesn't happen, ormaybe you just decide to rout every week
for whoever your team plays. Imet a Rams fan in California for the
Super Bowl, who that's what theydid. They were run for the Bengals
because they're playing the Rams. Andthey actually weren't there for the Super Bowl.
They were just Rams fans from SaintLouis and I don't recall what they

(01:21:14):
were there for, but their SuperBowl happened to be happening in LA and
the Rams were in it, andso were the Bengals. The gambling is
a huge component in football, soyou know, it's you lose your favorite
team they leave, but you couldreally throw yourself into gambling and every week
have specific teams and specific players toroot for. Fantasy football is a big

(01:21:35):
part of this. You could maybefind a team where they've got guys from
your favorite college team, right likeif the Bengals didn't exist. I'll be
honest with the EDBA Falcons fan rightnow because Des Ritter plays for the Falcons.
If your favorite baseball team leaves,no, it's a everyday sport,

(01:21:58):
chances are you're not emotionally following themto where they go next. It'd be
a little bit more exhausting to everyday throw yourself into rooting for whoever your
former favorite team was playing. Gamblingin baseball is fun. It's not like
football. Fantasy baseball. I've neverplayed, and I don't know how people

(01:22:21):
do that, but I've never playedit. It's not as many people play
fantasy baseball as they do fantasy football. Will you do if your favorite baseball
team? Do you just adopt somebodyelse? People have brought this up with
football before, and like Saint Louisas an example, I've heard from folks.

(01:22:42):
I've never really met anybody, butI've heard from folks. Well,
yeah, I'm a Chiefs fan now, and it just so happens that since
the Rams left, the Chiefs havebeen really good, so I guess that
helps. And some have gravitated towardIndianapolis because the Colts are close ish to
Saint Louis some Chicago. Maybe.I've always said if the Bengals left,

(01:23:02):
I don't know that I would haveanother favorite team, but I'd still be
a huge NFL fan. I'd stillwatch it every week. There's gambling,
there's fantasy football, there's bearcap playersin the NFL. Baseball, I legitimately
don't know what I would do.Still love the sport. I don't know

(01:23:23):
that I could just adopt another team, Like hey, suddenly I'm a Pirates
fan. Suddenly I'm a Tigers fan. Like baseball gambling as much as I
like football. So like if you'rean Oakland if you're an Oakland Raiders fan,
by the way, a lot ofthose folks just follow the team to

(01:23:45):
Las Vegas, and there's other teamsin California. I guess there's gambling,
there's fantasy football, there's I thinkit's probably still easy to really engage in
and invest in this sport. Butif you're an Oakland A's fan, and
you know, granted they don't drawmany people and historically kind of never really

(01:24:08):
have. There is a team acrossthe Bay and the Giants, You're just
gonna suddenly gravitate toward them. Iguess you could do that. But if
you're a baseball fan in a citylike this, I gotta think most would
just say screw it to baseball.And I'm kind of just thinking out loud

(01:24:29):
here, but I tell me whatyou would do if the Reds left?
Would you just be done with baseball? And I've been thinking about this a
lot as it relates to the A'sbecause we've had, you know, a
handful of NFL teams have moved inrecent years, not so many in baseball.
We had the Nationals moved from Montrealin two thousand and five. I
don't know, to the top topof my head, I don't think we've

(01:24:49):
had a baseball team move since.But we're about to have the Oakland Athletics
move. But like, I hateit. I don't like that. I've
never been to Oakland. I haveno real desire to go to Oakland.
All the sports teams have left Oakland, so there's probably no real reason for
me to ever go there. Butthat's that's a franchise that's not insignificant.

(01:25:10):
And so like if you're my age, when you're an A's fan, and
you had him in the eighties andthey were really good for much of the
two thousands, or even if yougo back further to when they were winning
World Series titles consecutively in the seventiesand they leave, What do you do?
What do you do if you loseyour baseball team? Five one,
three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty. If you want to
chime in and like, you know, I think there would just be such

(01:25:32):
disgust with MLB if that were tohappen in a city like this, that
you'd have people who are like,I'm never watching a Major League Baseball game
again. I don't really think thathappens with football. I don't really think
people who lose the NFL team justyou're not going to watch the Super Bowl,
really not gonna watch NFL playoffs.Of course you are, and the

(01:25:53):
TV reading the TV ratings say asmuch. Baseball feels like it would be
different. Twenty two after five atMoeger on Twitter. By the way,
this is the Neutral Happy Hour,thanks to our friends at Neutral. If
you're like so many that we sortof talked about at the top of the
hour and your weekend is basically startingnow, and it's going to be four

(01:26:15):
days and you're gonna be outside,you're gonna be doing stuff. You gotta
grab some Neutral vodka Seltzer. Itis the best vodka Seltzer you will ever
have. Comes in a bunch ofdifferent flavors. I'm partial to the raspberry
orange just came out. Pineapple isgreat, watermelon is awesome. It is
perfect for barbecues, and it isideal for pool days. Neutral it's the

(01:26:40):
one with the umlaut twenty three afterfive o'clock. Well hear the soccer insights
of Pat Brennan coming up in justabout twenty minutes on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station twenty eight after five ESPNfifteen thirty. I was talking a little
Jeff before about like, you know, you just you beat the dead horse,

(01:27:02):
about Ellie should be called up orCees should be called up, or
you know whichever guy, and Ijust like, I want these guys to
be called up. I don't knowthat. I I'm kind of burned out
on screaming and yelling that the guy'snot being called up. They have their
reasons. I'm sure they're mostly baseballreasons. I don't think any of those

(01:27:23):
guys are gonna make a major difference. Do I want to see them,
Yes, they'll be here at somepoint. I'll be patient. I just
I don't know that I can doit anymore. I'll tell you something else
because I'm I watch people do itearlier. Today. I'll tell you what
I can't do anymore. And thisrelates to the Bengals. I think the
Bengals are gonna be really good thisyear. I think they're gonna go thirteen

(01:27:45):
and four. I believe they willwin the AFC North. They will be
in the mix to win the title. Thirteen and four may or may not
get the one seed, but they'llhave chances head to head to beat the
Chiefs and beat the Bills. Andfor what it's worth, the Jaguars have
a chance to play all three divisionwinners from a year ago. You're thirteen

(01:28:06):
and four with head to head winsagainst those teams, you're getting the one
seed. I think that'll happen.I also understand not everybody is going to
agree. We did this to adegree a year ago in the preseason.
It made sense because I didn't likehow a lot of folks went out of

(01:28:29):
their way to discredit what the Bengalsdid in twenty twenty one. So let
a year ago at this time,as folks start to look ahead to the
next season, there was a youknow what, they're kind of flukey last
year, they kind of got lucky, or is that going to repeat?
And you know, by the way, it's it's always fair to wonder,
like, can can the things thatgo that went right for this team go
right that the next season? That'sgood. What I didn't like was either

(01:28:53):
the insinuation or the downright assertion thatthe Bengals in twenty twenty one got lucky.
It wasn't fair, and by theway, it wasn't really accurate because
they had a losing record in closegames during the regular season, And I
just I thought it was a totaldiscredit to what they with the team they
were able to build, how theyplayed, how they came together at the

(01:29:15):
right time, what their assets were, how they overcame their liabilities. I
didn't like it. And so toa degree, you would find somebody who
you know, just made made theassertion that, well, they're not going
to be as good this year becauselast year kind of got lucky. And
I often on this show and onsocial media. Fought against that. Not

(01:29:39):
because I found it agreedious to suggestthat maybe the Bengals weren't going to go
seventeen or no, maybe they weren'tgoing to win the Super Bowl. But
I didn't like I didn't like howwhat they accomplished in twenty one was was
kind of being discredited. So Iengaged in that. What I don't know
that I can do anymore because we'regetting into we're not quite there yet,
but we're gonna be getting into prognosticationseason, and we're going to be getting

(01:30:02):
into NFL hot take season, wherewe got to come up with something because
we have to talk about the NFLeven though there's nothing going on where maybe
somebody believes the Bengals aren't going towin the AFC North, or maybe somebody
thinks, you know what, Ilike the Bills to go to the super
Bowl this year. I like theJets to go to the super Bowl this
year. I like the Chargers ofthe Chiefs or the Ravens. I might

(01:30:26):
disagree with some of those takes.I don't know that I can do.
The so and so is not ashigh on my team as I am.
So let's get mad about it thinganymore, just as kind of a general
heads up. And if somebody comesout this summer and it's like, you
know what, I think the Bengalsare gonna go four and thirteen, I'm

(01:30:48):
getting that, dude on because allright, how are you coming up with
that? But if it's yeah,you know what going under they go ten
and seven. I like Cleveland alittle bit more like Baltimore, I might
have a discuss and I can't.I can't do I don't know that I
could do. The so and soisn't as high on the Bengals as the
consensus, or so and so likesthis team more than I do, or

(01:31:12):
so and so is higher on thisteam than everybody is here. I don't
know, man, that I justI don't know that. That's my thing
this year, just like not everybody'sgonna like your team as much as you
do. Not everybody's gonna love theBengals chances as much as I might,
or as much as you might.Again, if there's like extreme opinions,

(01:31:33):
you know, we had Connor Oron the show two years ago prior to
twenty twenty one, when they wonten games and went to the Super Bowl.
He thought they were gonna go threeand thirteen. I remember getting him
on, and we got him onwhen he made the prediction, and we
also got him on after the Bengalswent, well, be on three and
thirteen. Because that's kind of extreme. So like, if if this year

(01:31:56):
it's man, this guy thinks theyshouldn't sign Burrow, like, Okay,
that's that's a weird opinion. I'minterested in that. But if if it's
like, hey, you know what, I think Mahomes is better, it
feels like now and this happened Ithink during the second half of the season
last year, where if there wasanybody who said even the slightest, not

(01:32:21):
even negative thing, just maybe didn'tthink the Bengals were quite as good or
thought this team was a little bitbetter, we pounced on him. And
as the season went on, Ijust to me, it got kind of
exhausting. Now, there were thingswhen the NFL did the whole coin flip
thing in the aftermath of the DamarHamlet thing. I hated what the NFL
did there because it ripped up itsown rules. But as we get into

(01:32:45):
the time of year where folks aregoing to start making predictions, I don't
know that that's going to be myemo this offseason. I don't know that
that's going to be my thing betweennow and September again. And if there's
you know, somebody who believes theBengals are a sure bet to finish in
last place, well that's kind ofodd. Okay explain. But if it's

(01:33:09):
you know what, I think theBengals this year, maybe they take a
little bit of a step back becauseit's hard to win twelve games every single
year. I may disagree. Idon't know that we're going to do opinion
shaming the way we did last year, because I don't think at this point,
if you believe the Bengals aren't goingto be quite as good, that
you're discrediting what they did a yearago. I think that just might be

(01:33:30):
based on the fact that you likea certain team's personnel a little bit more,
or you just think it's their time, or you're worried that the turnover
in the secondary with the safeties isgoing to catch up to them, or
they haven't addressed running back the wayyou hoped, or whatever it is.
But I was thinking about that today. Like last year, especially toward the

(01:33:51):
end of the season, there wasthis like guy on a TV show says
he thinks the Bengals are gonna losethis week. Let's mock him. If
you do that enough, at somepoint you're gonna mock somebody who ends up
being right. Not everybody's gonna loveour team as much as we love it.
Twenty five away from six o'clock,we have a pole question out on

(01:34:13):
Twitter thanks to Backslet Tractor. Wewill update it and we'll chat with our
buddy Pat Brennan on ESPN fifteen thirtyCincinnati Sports Station No One covers the Bengals
fifteen thirty Cincinnati's sports station Sports Updateservice at Kelsey Chevrolet, Home of lifetime
powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval fromtheir family to yours for life, Kelsey

(01:34:38):
chev dot Comrade's loss to one ofthe Cardinals, Luke Weaver was terrific.
Six and a third shutout innings.Lucas Simms started terrific, and then what's
the opposite of terrific? Horrific?He was horrific in the eighth inning.
Cardinals scored twice, held on towin two one reds and Cubs tomorrow at
Wrigley Field. I don't know thatI have any other local sport sad lines.

(01:35:00):
We do have a poll question thanksto Backslidtractor and Batavia and Seamen go
to backslidtractor dot com. Speaking tobackslttractor. Last night, I dropped off
the lawnmower and all the Riverbend ticketsto our new friend, Derek Duncan from
Fort Mitchell. And Derek was awesomebecause we show up at his house,

(01:35:21):
we delivered the lawnmower, we showhim the tickets. Derek has has two
young children and his lovely wife,and we were and we were just about
ready to kind of pack it up, and he said to me, I
want to come inside for a beer. Now, it is very rare that
the answer to that question is goingto be no. But the key is

(01:35:45):
he never made me do any yardwork. I got the beer. I
didn't have to cut his grass.I didn't have to mow his lawn.
If you go to my Twitter feed, I we shot a little video.
The funniest moment of it comes atthe one eleven mark where he goes to
shake my hand and I am completelyoblivious. The pole question vote for it

(01:36:10):
while you're there. What would youdo if the reds or whichever your favorite
MLB team is left town a staywith him, be pick a new team.
See route for my MLB bet slashfantasy team d bail on the sport
entirely. Nearly twenty percent of yousay if the Reds or whichever your favorite
MLB team is moved, you wouldstay with them. I couldn't do it,

(01:36:32):
man, I don't think this willever happen. Reds move, Bengals
move. I'm done. Sorry,onto the next sell my fandom. Good
news is, I don't think weever have to worry about that. FC
Cincinnati jumps back into a MLS playon Saturday night when they go to Colorado.
Well, they're not going to goto Colorado on Saturday. Chances are

(01:36:55):
they'll do that tomorrow. They'll playthe Colorado Rapids on Saturday night. That
game is on ESPN fifteen thirty.Pregame coverage starts at nine o'clock. FC
Cincinnati is coming off another win inthe US Open Cup Round of sixteen.
They'll take on Columbus on the sixthJune sixth, at the Stadium on the
West end of Cincinnati. Pat Brendoncovers all things FC Cincinnati for the Inquirer

(01:37:17):
and Cincinnati dot Com. I wantto start with that because that event,
that the US Open Cup, whenit started, I got the sense to
a lot of people that really didn'tmatter. You know, they're really good
in Major League Soccer. They've gotthe League's Cup coming up later this summer,
like US Open Cup in there,done that, not that big of
a deal. Now that they're inthe round of eight, I sense things

(01:37:39):
have shifted. Is this tournament shouldI Does it really matter that much?
Well, you know, it's it'stough for these MLS teams because obviously,
like we saw in twenty seventeen,when you're basically in American soccer's minor league
systems, there's a lot of incentiveto go and try to win this trophy

(01:38:03):
because along the way you're going toencounter bigger teams MLS teams and the chance
to knock them off even if youdon't end up winning the tournament, which
those teams never do. It's justit's a huge carrot out there for those
smaller clubs. Like you were justsaying, I think the Open Cup really

(01:38:25):
complicates things in a material way forthese MLS teams. They've got thirty four
game regular season MLS is geographically vast, and you know that is typified by
the kind of game FC Cincinnati isgoing to play on Saturday, you know,
at altitude in suburban Denver, andthere are multiple trips like that coming

(01:38:47):
up for FC Cincinnati and it's reallytough so to add on more games to
that. Yeah, it's it's notsomething that the MLS clubs typically go all
in on for the early round games. But like you also just said,
actually Cincinnati's now halfway through their routeto winning the whole thing, and they've

(01:39:12):
come to an interesting point in theirinternal conversation about this where they really have
to think hard about going all inand trying to win this thing. Alec
Can, the goalkeeper who is kindof the hero against the Red Bulls on
Tuesday night in the latest win inthe tournament, said, you know,
we've come this far, we mightas well go win the whole thing now.

(01:39:34):
Very you know Tom Berenger Major Leaguefrom him there. So it's just
they've gotten to a point now wherethey don't have to play their backups and
just try to survive, and theythey are very close to doing something really

(01:39:56):
special, which carries with it alot of incentives and rewards, all of
which they would welcome. So theyare at the point where now where they
can really start to go for it. All right, this is probably a
really stupid question, but it's notthe first time I've asked you a dumb
question. So the game the othernight ends in penalty kicks. Now it
has to because it's a tournament andsomebody's got to advance. In the MLS

(01:40:18):
regular season, we have draws,we have ties. I have no issue
with ties or draws in any sport. I'm for them. I'm not for
them. But but they don't.They don't bother me like they do some
sports fans. At the same time, penalty kicks are entertaining. I want
as much entertaining content as possible.Why can't we have penalty kicks in the

(01:40:39):
regular season? You know, Ithink there is a large group of people
penalty kicks and soccer are pretty polarizing, and we're obviously, just to be
clear to everyone listening, we're nottalking about like the in game and fraction
right player gets tripped up in thebox and is awarded a penalty. You

(01:40:59):
know, I think everyone acknowledges thoseare important, and you know, you
like what you like it when thathappens for your team. You don't necessarily
like it when an elimination game isdecided by penalty kicks, because it's kind
of a lottery. And if youlook at this from the Red Bulls perspective
the other night, the team thatadvanced from that match was not really indicative

(01:41:26):
of who was the better team inthe game by any stretch. The Red
Bulls were dominant. So to dominatethe game, and sure, you have
to, you know, kind ofunderscore your own dominance by scoring goals,
and the Red Bulls suffered for notdoing that, but they did dominate the
game. And then all FC Cincinnatihad to do, and I say all

(01:41:48):
they had to do it wasn't easy. They dragged the extra time, the
thirty added minutes, basically over timethey dragged the Red Bulls through that couldn't
separate the teams from each other.And then you get to penalty kicks,
and it's just it's totally different.It's a totally different proposition from the one
hundred and twenty minute game that wasjust played where the Red Bulls dominated.

(01:42:11):
Now it comes down to everything butthe eleven players versus the other eleven players.
Now it's about can the goalkeeper guestsright, will the player hit the
ball cleanly and not scuff it,will he place it in the right spot.
It's just a lot of people thinkof penalty kicks shootouts as kind of
a lottery and therefore kind of anunfortunate way a lot of times to decide

(01:42:34):
these really really important games, youknow, And the NHL introduced the shootout
and people love it. Yeah,maybe maybe there's something what you're saying there.
Well, I mean, like theWorld Cup Final came down the penalty
kicks, and I know there's alot of folks who after that game,
which for my money, it's thebest soccer game I've ever watched, they

(01:42:55):
thought it kind of cheapened what itunfolded for the previous I don't know,
two two and a half hours,two hours and forty five minutes. And
I understand that. But my thingis like, if the World Cup Final
can be decided on penalty kicks,then a regular season game between the San
Jose Earthquakes and the Portland Timbers canbe decided on penalty kicks, right,
Yeah, you're probably right about that, And you know, there's no secret

(01:43:20):
that the game is still growing inthis country. I will say there was
a time early MLS kind of itdoesn't include this era, this like three
four year period in what it considersits modern era, but there was a
time when not only did MLS havea version of a penalty shootout to decide

(01:43:45):
regular season tie games. Mo itwas it was like a running start penalty
kick where the goalie could come offhis line, the player would charge in
on goal from like something like thirtyor twenty five yards out, and it
was why but no one else inthe world does it like that, And
I think, you know, MajorLeague Soccer wants to assimilate into the world's

(01:44:09):
game. So for a while,that was a cool gimmick to bring people
in. And I think if thegame, if people at MLS ever decided,
hey, we're really struggling here tosell this thing to whether it's Apple
TV or you know, broadcast companiesfor broadcasting rights, and if people were

(01:44:29):
really losing interest, maybe they'd goto something a little more gimmicky like that.
But these games aren't decided that way, and in the rest of the
world, MLS wants their games totranslate directly to what you watch in England
and Spain and all over Europe andfor it to just look the same way.
So they're not going to decide theirgames that way. But I hear

(01:44:50):
you you you've sold me mo.I wish they would settle the games that
way. Perfect good. And bythe way, you can still award a
point for a penalty kick. Youcan still you can still do the point
system. We do that, Wedo that in hot days. Yes,
un me up for that. Alwaysgood to have you. It had been
way too long. I appreciate thetime. As always. We'll bother you

(01:45:11):
soon. All right, we're done. Shows over thanks to Pat Brennan.
Also, Kobe Jones joined us earliertoday from Apple TV. We'll have that
podcast on the iHeartRadio app thanks toa long neck sports grill James Rapine.
We'll be hosting this show tomorrow.I am off to US Star Day four
day weekend, headed to a gonnago watch the Reds tomorrow Wrigley Field.
So excited for that. I wantto thank my guy Taren Bland for producing.

(01:45:35):
I am back on Tuesday. Wedo have a thirty minute version of
the best of the Moegger Show.We only we can only come up with
thirty minutes worth of stuff That ison Monday at three oh five. Have
a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend. Thank you for listening, and we'll
talk to you again live on Tuesday. Have a great weekend. Thanks to

(01:45:55):
a neutral for supporting the Neutral HappyHour. This is ESP and fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station,

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5/25/23 - The Mo Egger Show

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