Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So I can hear you out there. I can hear you.
It's a clear day, not a lot of humidity. I
went into WHR yesterday to talk a little sports and
I heard Sean Ashe say that the humidity was at
thirteen percent, and I thought, thirteen perfect number four where
I'm sitting right now, and perfect number when it comes
(00:21):
to humidity, because I love when there's no humidity. Air's crisp,
it's clean, it's easy, and you can hear from miles
away right nothing blocking the airwaves. Right now as I'm
talking to you, you can hear me. I can hear you, folks,
I can hear you, and I can hear what you're saying.
With what I'm about to say. You're saying it's a Wednesday.
(00:46):
I'm tuning in to Query and Company on the fan
because the cults are getting ready to take on the
Ratus coming up this weekend, and I want to know
if Kenny Moore is practicing. He is not, by the
way you're saying. It's a Wednesday, and the culture getting
set for the Raiders. And I'm listening to the radios
(01:09):
because I want to hear Chris Berman say this, and
I want to know if Alec Pierce is practicing. He's not.
I take that back. He is going to go through
a little bit of practice. But you want to know
if he's out of the concussion protocol. He is not.
He is still in the protocol. Okay. There are others
(01:32):
Eddie that people are wanting to know if they're going
to practice, but as of right now they are still
on the sidelines watching. Correct.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I wonder what the status of mister Matt Gonzolvez is.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Funny you should ask he is to be determined once
they evaluate as he tries to go through practice this afternoon.
Anybody else you're curious about the.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Guy that I brought up, was it Monday to chap
or certainly last week? The Stephen holder during the conversation
Jalen Carlish, it is eligible to come off injured reserve
this week, and.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Thank you for asking. That is one of them that
also is still being determined and there is no actual
determination on him. So the sounder we would use for
that is correct. Now I can hear you, folks, and
we're going to talk to somebody with boots on the
ground out at West fifty six in just about ten minutes.
(02:29):
Is it boots or shoes, this case boots, because I
saw him earlier today, James boyd.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Oh, he's wearing boots. He is fancy.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
So you're wondering all of those things, and we're going
to get to all of those things. And I can
hear you asking those questions, and then I can hear
you saying, am I really tuning in on a Wednesday
at noon to listen to this guy tell me about
the Colts? Hoping that he tells me about the Colts,
hoping that we get to all of that, and he's
(02:58):
talking basketball, and may answer to you is yes, for
a few minutes, I'm going to Not because it is
media day for the Horizon League at Lucas Oil Stadium
and the Horizon Leagues based right here in Indianapolis. Not
because the Final four is going to beat Lucas Oil
Stadium and now we know the Women's also will be
(03:18):
moved to Lucas Oil because of ticket increase, And not
because all three divisions first, one, two, and three in
the NCAA are going to crown their champions this year
in the city of Indianapolis. That's not why we're talking basketball.
Not because Tyre's Halliburton said at the beginning of the week,
this has been an unbelievable year for Indiana sports, and
I feel like we are maybe we jumpstarted all that
(03:42):
and not because perhaps that jump start that Tyre's Halliburton
did is the reason why people are excited to see
what Indiana's going to do after their bye week when
they go to Oregon, or what Purdue might be able
to do coming up against Illinois or Notre Dame, none
of those things. I'm going to talk basketball for a
few minutes for this season. And I've said it before
(04:04):
and I'm going to say it again. As I've gotten older,
I've grown to appreciate more things that perhaps I did
not when I was a kid. And one of those
things is when you're a younger person and in particular
sports in general. And I think we've lost sight of this.
(04:26):
I think we now live in this culture and this
society where, you know, when I was a kid, I
was convinced I was going to co play basketball Indiana,
and I was convinced. You know, I sat out in
the driveway like most kids, and I shot baskets till
the cows came home. Man, and I loved the game
of basketball. And when I played the game of basketball,
(04:47):
I like most kids, because I had worked so much
on my game individually. When I finally got into a
situation where I was playing team basketball, it was difficult
for me to know that there were players that were
better scorers than I or better rebounders than I, and
that my role might have been more as a screener
or as an auxiliary, you know, like an Aaron Ni
(05:09):
Smith type, a guy that could score but also could
defend whatever else. And I had to do what I
could to keep myself on the floor. And as a
young player, that was a difficult thing to learn, and
maybe I didn't even learn it until retroactively. But I
now can understand and appreciate the things that I learned
in life through sport and the things that have benefited
(05:32):
me as an adult that I learned in sport. And
I think that we now live in a culture and
a society where based on youth sports that have turned
into travel sports and big time business, and parents are
paying money out the wazoo for travel and gear and
individualized coaching and all of those things that we have
(05:55):
gotten away a little bit from the team aspect of
things for young people and epicentered and focus too much
on the individuality of sport and glory and likes and
everything else that comes with society today. And yes, I
can be an old person on the lawn and yell
at those things, or I can simply say, I'm just
(06:15):
going to enjoy sport for what it's. What's at an
old person, yes, well, thank you. I can be that guy, right,
or I can be somebody that looks at it and
says I'm going to, as I always say, squeeze the
juice out of life and enjoy the moment. And so
I love it when sport creates opportunity to not only
(06:35):
allow me the confluence of enjoying sport and living in
the moment, but at the same time reinforcing those lessons
that sports create and that young people can look at
and learn from. And that is why on this Wednesday,
when we are going to talk about the Colts, and
when we're going to talk about Indiana and we're going
(06:57):
to talk about Purdue, We're going to begin today by
talking about what I witnessed last night, which is one
of those things as you're watching it, you say to yourself,
this is something special that I think everybody hopefully is
soaking in. And I'm not talking about Shoeo Tani hitting
a home run to immediately let the Reds know who
is still the king in the National League. I'm not
(07:20):
talking about the Red Sox getting a winner of the ink.
I'm not talking about the Cubs going up one nothing
on San Diego. I'm talking about the Indiana fever. Yes,
the WNBA Indiana fever, and yes they lost, and yes,
there're season's over with. But you know what, I don't
care who you are. I don't care if you're a
CEO of a company. I don't care if you're a
(07:41):
kid average in twenty six a game that's a five
star recruit. I don't care if you are a somebody
that just goes into work and punches a time clock
in anonymity every day, or most importantly, what I do
hope is that you are a nine year old kid,
a ten year old kid, or the parent of one
of those that witnessed what we saw last night. What
we saw last night in this town was special. What
(08:04):
we saw last night in this town was something that
we all can say to ourselves, why not Indiana? And
I love the fact that the Fever are the Indiana
Fever and represent this town and this community, because this
is a franchise. At the beginning of the year, what
we knew was that they had the most famous female
(08:25):
player on the planet in Caitlyn Clark. What we knew
was that they had this complimentary of pieces, some of
which you know, Aliah Boston a number one overall pick,
Sidney Colson, Aery McDonald, Sophie Cunningham, Chloe Bibbie, Kelsey Mitchell,
all of these different players over the course of the year.
But at the beginning of the year, what we knew
(08:45):
was Caitlin Clark, Aleah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell, let's take those
pig thres and Sophie Cunningham the edition. And over the
course of the year, that franchise suffered measurable and almost
in just at times never ending setback. Yeah, not setback
(09:09):
like you lost your house, not setback like someone in
your family past. Not setback like you have a major illness.
I get that, but relative in Sport, Caitlin Clark goes
down and you wonder forever how long it's gonna be
before that means out, and then you find out out.
For the year Sidney Colson, Ari McDonald, Sophie Cunningham, Chloe Bibbie.
(09:34):
The list goes on and on of players that were unavailable,
and yet every single time that a player went down,
that franchise managed to either find another player on the
roster or a player from outside the roster to plug
in and carry out what it was that they needed.
(09:57):
And they went in last night in a Game five
against the Las Vegas Aces, a team that is looking
to win what it's third title in four years? Is
that right?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I go to the I know, go to the finals
for the third time the last four years, and so
but multiple titles for Las Vegas, a team that was
a two seed, and the Fever were not five Olympians
on their roster and the.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
All time leading scorer in Indiana high school history on
their roster. And you're going on the road, and you're
going on the road after already having in this postseason
won three times when your back was against the wall
and you were in an elimination game, and those three
wins the most for a team in a postseason since
twenty twenty two. And the Fever last night go into
(10:44):
that game and they get down and they claw back
and they get down and they claw back, and then
Kelsey Mitchell goes down, and Kelsey Mitchell goes down, and
Stephanie White says to her team, there is no one
better equipped for this than we are. You need to
win for your teammates. You need to play for your teammates.
(11:05):
You need to make plays for your teammates. Yes, for
Kelsey Mitchell, but also for Caitlin Clark, and also for
Sidney Colson, and also for Ari McDonald, and also for
Sophie Cunningham, and also for Chloe Bibbie and on and
on and on, and for those that are on the
floor right now. You need to make a play for
your teammates because everybody else thinks we're out, but we don't.
(11:28):
And the most important thing is not what the rest
of the world thinks, but what we think. And we
try to teach our kids at a young age when
they are facing situations like not getting picked on the
dodgeball team, or having a bully that doesn't invite them
to lunch, whatever it might be. We try to tell
kids at a very young age it's not about what
(11:48):
other kids are telling you about what shoes you're wearing
or what your hairstyle looks like the most important thing
is that you believe in yourself. And we try to
tell people at a young age that, yes, well, it's
important to be the best athlete you can be, the
best student you can be, the best teammate you can be,
you know, the best person that you can be. Sometimes
(12:10):
it takes collectively other people to come together for a
common cause, and you need to figure out what your
role is in that. And what we saw last night,
what we saw last night was something that, Yeah, I
get it. The WNBA is not the level of popularity
of the NBA. I get it. The WNBA is not
the level of popularity of the National Football League. And yes,
the Colts have their moments where they make us proud,
(12:32):
and yes the Pacers had an entire postseason where they
make us proud. But what we saw last night in
Las Vegas was the fact that you had a group
of players that every single time, every one of us,
whether you followed it peripherally, whether you followed it because
you turn on the radio to hear whether or not
Kenny Moore was available, and the guy is actually talking
about the WNBA. Whatever level of knowledge you have of
(12:55):
the WNBA what you do know is this. You don't
have to be an expert about that team, that league,
or any of it to watch that and say to yourself,
what I am seeing before me right now is a
professional basketball team giving an example of what it takes
to be the best version of you by being selfless
and by looking around and saying what can I do here?
(13:19):
And in any walk of life that you're in. If
you're listening to my voice right now on a lunch
break getting ready to go back to the architecture firm,
if you're on a lunch break as a teacher, if
you're on your way into the second shift of the
store you work, whatever it might be, there are always
those moments where you have to look around and say,
how can I make the best of this situation? And
sometimes that means figuring out what the best of the
(13:40):
situation is for the other person you're with, combining your
two efforts and putting it in the best And last
night what we saw from the Indiana Fever. They did
not win that game. They did not, but they won
in terms of what's represented to be the best in
terms of sportsmanlike competition, because they reach deep down and
(14:01):
they literally got every single last good to the last drop.
They should have been sponsored by Maxwell House because that
program and that franchise and that roster was good to
the last drop last night. And the Las Vegas Aces
give them credit. They are a fabulous team with incredible players,
and they were healthy, healthier than Indiana, and they were
(14:22):
able to distance him in the end. But I'm telling you,
it's just like I've talked about with other teams and
other leagues that we have watched in this town. The
Indiana Fever last night looked like Rocky Balboa getting up
off the canvas and Apollo turns around and looks and
is like, I can't believe they're still here. And they
were still there. And yes, there's a lot of uncertainty
(14:43):
with the w NBA in terms of what happens between
now and next season. But what I know is this.
What I know is I love Indianapolis. I love Indiana
because I love the culture and the people in this town.
And last night it was represented by the best of
it in the Indiana Fever, showing the rest of the
WNBA and the rest of this sports world. We just
are a little bit different here because we care about
(15:03):
the collective versus the individual, and that's exactly what you
saw last night. I thought it was awesome. I know
they didn't win, I know that I wanted to see
them win, but with their best player down once again,
it was perfectly symbolic and fitting that their season would
end where yet another player would go down and everybody
wrote them off. And Stephanie White says, in that group,
(15:25):
you've got to look around and do what's best for
this team. You've been here before and nobody's better equipped
than you. And yes they might have lost, but they
represented us in the very best way. And so I
say congratulations to the Fever and thank you on what
was a great season that not just as we talked
(15:45):
about when the WNBA first came about, Hey, this is
great because it's a league that little girls can look
towards and see role models. No, yesterday, what you saw
was young people in general, boy, girl, whatever background, what
ever ethnicity, whatever level of skill, can look at what
the Fever did last night and say that's something that
(16:06):
I aspire to be, whether I want to be the
best baseball player, basketball player, doctor, architect, lawyer, whatever it
might be. That was the example, and I thought it
was awesome. I thought it was awesome. James Boyd talked
about it this morning along with Kevin Bowen and Jeff Rickard.
He joins us now on the program me. Hear him
on the Fan Morning Show, but we want to get
as we talked about his boots on the ground out
(16:27):
at West fifty sixth Shane Steichen talking to the media today,
and then everything gets back underway to now shift and
kind of turn the page towards the Las Vegas Raiders. James,
I'll begin with this. We just talked about it, Kenny Moore,
Alec Pierce. Looks like both of those not going to
be Alec Pierce can kind of go through some things.
Will we see Alec Pierce on the field against the Raiders.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Yeah, it does sound like that is trending in the
right direction. Shane told us today that Alec Pierce will practice.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
He's on the.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Protocol, but that's usually normal just because they we don't
clear the guy until the following week, and so if
things go as planned, I would expect Ale. It appears
to be cleared sometimes whether it's Friday or Saturday. And
then when it comes to Kenny Moore, he said that
he remains out. I did ask him, hey, is this
like a week a week thing, and he was just saying, hey,
when he's progressing well. And that's about all the update
(17:19):
we got on him. And so those are the two
big injury updates I have for.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
You, James. When you look at the defensive backfield for
the Colts, which is clear and look, I'm not even
saying this as a knock on the Colts. I mean
it's their achilles right now, but attrition is a huge
part of that. And Xavier Howard, I mean it does
feel I mentioned last night the Fever were good to
the last drop. I feel like they've gotten the last
drop out of the career of Xavier Howard. And again
(17:44):
it's just it's time, right Do they continue to go
that way or does lou An Arumo now say you
know what, We've got to experiment and go somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
That's an interesting question because we were able to follow
up with Shane today and again they basically are saying, hey,
Olse are two elite receivers last week and Davonte Adams
and Puka and Nakua. So it's gonna be a tough
matchup for any team. But I do feel like you
look at the numbers man, and you can look at
any site, whether it's Pro football focused, Pro Football Reference,
(18:14):
True media, which we use all these different you know
languages I'm speaking right now, who cares all of it
says that he's been bad. And if you use your
regular eyes, you can tell that he has been bad,
and he's been pretty you know, porous on defense. It's
giving up yards, giving up catches. I think the thing
that's probably most concerning when you look at this Jake
is some of the effort at the end of these plays.
You go back and watch some of that tape. Man,
(18:34):
I'm not like a bidy language expert, but you know,
there's a couple couple of times where a pass gets
caught in his vicinity and he's a last guy rallying
to the ball, he's a last guy trying to make
a tackle, and so those things are concerning to me.
So I do think that personally it's time to possibly
try something else, because it really cannot get any worse
than what you're seeing right now. I mean the passer
(18:54):
rating when you're targeting xaving Howard. I believe through the
first four weeks of the season, is like above one twenty.
If it all was listening, a percasserating is one fifty
eight point three, and usually if you're above one hundred,
that's really good. So for it to be one twenty,
it is up, sir.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, it's just you keep going to that side, right,
and then you know the other thing that comes into play,
and James, you tell me or kind of spell this
out for people. I guess if you will, we forget
that Jalen Jones was out. Then you have Kenny Moore
going out, which is your nickel primarily, but you have
to start kind of reshifting guys around. Okay, the Kenny
(19:34):
Moore absence, how relative. Obviously it's relevant, But does it
change or or move around the pecking order, if you will,
of the corners in terms of having to put people
then out of normal position to be able to fill
in where Kenny Moore was.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Yeah, I don't think it's necessarily that too much. Because
they did bring in Mike Hilton. It's got to fill
that role. I thought he was fine in his coach debut,
and so the other cornerbacks are able to kind of
stay where they normally line up. But you know, if
Kennymore were healthy, I think that there would be some
conversations being had, like, hey, is this the guy we
want to play outside a little bit and perhaps have
(20:15):
Mike Hilton playing the slot, But not having Kenny as
an option really just kind of I think puts a
spotlight or a magnifying glass on just how depleted your
cornerback room is. And look, I understand that e Xavion
Howard is struggling and he wasn't their first choice. I'll
give them some grace fare because they've dealt with the
limney of injuries in that room. But now that you've
seen this for a month, I think you do have
(20:36):
to make an adjustment. And if you don't, I mean,
what do you preaching to your guys. I mean, we
heard when lou Narimo got hired. Oh he doesn't care
about resume. He's hard on all his guys. He's tough.
He's hard knows now it's time to be tough. You
believed in this guy you brought up here. He isn't performing,
and so now I'm looking at him and saying, Okay,
you told us you didn't care about resumes when people
got here. You shouldn't care about e Xavion Howard's resume
(20:57):
because as you alluded to Jake, he was a great player.
I do not believe he is a great player anymore.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
James Boyd is our guest, of course with the Athletic
but also on the morning show, The Fan Morning Show,
along with Kevin Bowen and Jeff Rickard. You hear him
on this radio station talking about the Colts James Ady
Mitchell when he came into the league. The question mark
on Adie Mitchell was about maturity. And as I mentioned yesterday,
I don't mean maturity like he's making fart noises with
(21:25):
his armpits, right, just focus in general, right, like attention
to detail type stuff to me. And I want you
to tell me if you disagree with this statement. I'm
going to make a statement and then I want you
to tell me if you agree with the statement. The
maturity of Ady Mitchell is going to be more tested
now than ever because the toughest thing for an athlete
(21:48):
is to be able to carry on and move forward
from a negative experience. And he not had one, but
two negative experiences. And this is going to be the
ultimate test of his res and we're going to find
out a lot about him against the Raiders.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Your thoughts absolutely, And I think the hardest part, Jake,
is that we might not find out what it looks
like on the field for the Raiders. Because I did
follow with Shane Stikeen today and I was able to
ask him will Ady Mitchell play? It was this direct question.
He said, we'll see how we go, and so that
to me says they're at least thinking about possibly, you know,
(22:26):
benching him.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
That's not an injury. There is no injury in play
that we're aware of. Correct, No, you had no injury.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
He's fully healthy. Is just a matter of do we
trust you enough to be out there when we need
you to perform. And so he kept saying today Shane
psyching that is that Ady Mitchell has to earn it.
And so what does that mean, Well, we'll find out
certainly throughout this week and what that means for Sunday's status.
And so to your point, Jake, if he is not available,
(22:54):
how do you handle that? You know, how do you
come back from that? How do you act like a professional,
how do you coach up your teammates, how do you
believe in it? How do you, you know, do all
the things that you're supposed to do when you don't
get what you want. Because right now he's given what
he wants and he's been proven, at least through the
first you know, stages of his career in the NFL,
that he can't be trusted in the big moments, and
(23:14):
so it's unfortunate for him. But also it's not a
career ender. I'm not staying benching for the rest of
the year. No one's saying that. But they sit him
down for you know, a week, considering that Alex Pearce
is also back in the lineup. But assuming that happened,
it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, I think,
to get his attention and also to kind of let
him know we have a higher standard here.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
James. You ever you grew up in northern Illinois, did
you ever find yourself in a situation as a kid
or whatever it might be, when you were playing on
a frozen pond and you were on ice, you ever, like,
you know what I'm talking about, when you're out on
the ice and then all of a sudden you hear
that like and you realize that ice Like you know
what I'm talking about?
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Yeah, I feel like every kid in America probably did
that when their parents sold not.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
To correct, right, So, so you hear that noise and
you know, like, oh my gosh, you know the ice
is not near as solid underneath me as I think,
can you immediately retreat to get off of the ice?
What player for the Colts right now is hearing that
ice and is starting to wonder just how stable things
are underneath them if they don't get things going.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
That's a great question. I think one we already hit
on with Ady Mitchell. Another one is David Howard. For sure,
those two are the ones that really stick out to me,
and for different reasons. I think for Ad it's all
about focus and finishing and being a professional and all
the things that go into you know, making plays on Sundays.
And then for Exavid Howard, you know, it's like the
reaper coming from you is basically he's looking at me
(24:34):
like can I be the player that I used to be?
Can I still be an NFL starter at this point?
Because right now I believe that is the case. And
so those two players stand out for sure in my eyes.
And then you know, not to say like this is
some red you know, flag or some alarm, but I
do think you want to see Bernard Ryman, the left tackle,
bounce back from a poor showing last week. I got
(24:54):
beat multiple times on the edge, had a couple of penalties.
Now he's on the hot seat. I'm not saying he's
to be the doghouse, but you do want to see
him bounce back as well against the Raiders team that's
struggling right now but still have a great pass rusher
in Max Carlsey on the other side.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
You know, it's interesting, left tackle is the one position
to me, James that even the very best of the best,
it feels like that's the one position. And I think
so much of it is just like it's a timing
field position. The very best of the best at left tackle,
it seems very few of them go sixteen for well
and now I guess it would be seventeen go seventeen
(25:29):
for seventeen in a season of a game where you go, yeah,
they were there. They always. It seems like it is
a position very prone to an off day. The elite
ones are simply the ones that make sure that that's
the one off makes sense, oh oh yea.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
One hundred percent. But I think the reason why my
eyebrows are raised and again nine a bad weigh just
in a Hey, they gave you one hundred million dollars,
you have to perform. And I get that. You know
you're going up against the best in the world and
you weren't in All Pro or Pro Bowclayer, and you
might not be. But I still consider BERNARDA. Ramasy one
of the better left tackles in this league. And he
even said to himself he's got to play better. He's
(26:06):
got to bounce back. And one thing I do love
about Bernie is never you know mint his words. He
says it like it is. He takes ownership and usually
he responds pretty well. So I'm excited to see how
he performs. Perhaps and they better like comes Sunday against
the Raiders.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Okay, what else are we looking for today or that
could be big topics for you tomorrow in the morning.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
I think one of them is just looking at Maganzalvez.
They were saying they were going to work him out
today to see if he can practice later on. That
is the starting white guard for the Cold although they
really missed him last week. He's played really well this season,
especially in past protection. So he's someone that you want
to have out there against the Raiders, really want to
have out there every week obviously as a starting offensive lineman.
(26:46):
So that's an other injury update. And then from there,
I think, you know, looking at this offense as a whole,
how do you kind of bounce back from your first
sort of dud. You know, you only score twenty points
to the twenty seven, or perhaps more than that given
eighty Mitchell's blunders. But Daniel Jump, how do you respond
to your first game where you did not play lights out,
You weren't at an MVP level, you had two turnovers.
(27:06):
You know, we've sort of bought into you here in Indianapolis,
But how do you solidify it? And you go out
there and you bounce back and you play well against
the bad Raiders team. So to me, the coach are
very fortunate to be three on one. I know some
people are saying, oh they should be four, and oh well,
you could just easily be Town two given how the
Denver game ended. So you take a three and one,
you come back home against a bad Raiders team. You've
(27:27):
got the Cardinals coming to town the week after that.
They're not a great team either, So you're in a
great position to still control your destiny when it comes
to winning the division and get into the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
All right, James, appreciate it. We'll be listening in the morning.
All right. Appreciate it, brother, have a good one, James
Boyd joining us from the Athletic and the Fan morning show.
All right, when we come back, you might you might
hear it again I mentioned earlier. You know, there's no
humidity in there, so you can hear things in the air. Right,
do you hear the wind of change? There's a wind
of change. And I'm speaking almost aesthetically.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Usually when I hear a wind in fuel wind, Jake,
that means it's something else. He hasn't made a stop
in a while, so I don't know if it's him
or not. He's speaking by chance of our friend Robin.
I know, Robin, the genie is not here. But there
are winds of change taking place throughout Indianapolis. Aesthetically speaking,
And one of those who was behind the decision to
(28:21):
mix things up with one of our teams joins us.
Next summer indeed is past, and now we move on to,
of course October, because September is ending. That's not to
say the Boys of Summer are not a topic of conversation,
and I noticed it.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Whether it was I think it was two days ago
on social media. The new look, if you will, the
new branding of the Indianapolis Indians joining me now to
talk about it. He is the president and CEO of
the Indianapolis Indians. He is also the twenty twenty four
Minor League Baseball Executive of the Year. Randy Lewandowski joins
(29:03):
us on the program. And Randy, I am prepared to
cash out the four oh one K and come to
the gift shop because I love every aspect of it.
But then I thought to myself, the new look of
the Indians, what went on behind it? I thought we
could talk about exactly that. How are you.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
I'm great, Jake, Thanks for having me on. And yeah,
it's normally a pretty quiet time of the year for
our gift shop, but we're open and swing on buy
and we'll help you out.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Okay. So there's a rich and I talked about this yesterday, Randy.
I think people may I think most people know this,
but there is a really rich tradition of baseball in
Indiana beyond just the years, you know, the century of
Indianapolis Indians baseball and some of the great players that
have come through here, but also great players that are
(29:51):
native to hear. I mean everything from Oscar Charleston, you know,
and the Negro League teams and the ABC teams and
the clowns. You guys have kind of paid homage to
all of them in different periods. And this particular new
look for the Indians, getting away from the red and
black and kind of more into a navy color scheme,
seems to kind of tie a lot of that in.
(30:12):
But maybe I'm overthinking it. What was the motivating factor
here of the rebrand?
Speaker 4 (30:18):
No, I mean, you're exactly right. The black and the
red again. This is I just finished my thirty second
season with the Indianapolis Indians, and it's been the same
look and feel for all thirty two because it started
the year before me. So a good portion of your
listeners and Indianapolis in general think, oh, Indianapolis Indians, red
(30:39):
and black. But if you go prior to that, we
had some exposed colors for the six or eight years
we were at the expos in the late eighties and
very early nineties, But prior to that, most everything that
we had was a red and or a navy look.
And when you harken back to the twenties, the forties,
the fifties, the sixties, that was prominent. It's also this
(31:00):
city's primary colors being navy and red. And really that's
what we were leaning into, is the heritage, the nostalgia, the history,
as you said, that we have in the city of Minneapolis. Again,
we've been around since nineteen oh two. That's why we're
Indy's original home team. You're going to see and hear
that a lot because we've been around longer than anybody else.
(31:21):
And that's really what we leaned into as we started
to look into this three or four years ago.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
In terms of and for those that are unfamiliar, Randy
the you have a and all baseball teams do this.
Now I realize like kind of multiple logos, right. So
there's one I've already seen somebody wearing it today of
the interlocking I in d Y that goes it's almost
like a New York Yankees, New York Fire Department kind
of look that spells out India on the hat. There's
(31:48):
another that uses simply and I'm going to speak generically here,
like an old script letter I that's on the hat,
which one first off, will be the primary look.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
We're going to where both the Indie monogram will be
primarily at home we call the black letter I primarily
on the road. That they are interchangeable. We felt like
we wanted to do both to give us some flexibility
to see how they all fit and come together. But
(32:20):
that is the primary focus on those can you talk
about and we'll still continue, you know, we're focusing on
what you've just mentioned, Jake. We'll still continue with our
Circle City brand. We're still going to continue to honor
the negro leagues. We've got something exciting coming from a
Native American perspective. Those are all things that will roll
out in the spring, but right now we're focused on
(32:42):
our primary which is we did a roundel. That's the
circle that you might see, oh gosh on a piece
of paper when your sponsor and event kind of is
your classic look. That's on the sleeve of all of
our jerseys. So that's our prime logo. And then we
have the monogram and then the black lay eye that
(33:03):
you had mentioned. So we're excited about all of them
and really looking forward to getting them out in the
public and we're being more visible than we ever have
been in what we would call the fourth quarter of
the year. We usually go pretty dark, but we're out
there with an ad campaign. We ran a spot during
the Indianapolis Colts game, believe it or not, on Sunday,
and you're going to see us in some other non
traditional spots for us here this fall and winter.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Why the timing on it just I mean, and I
don't mean that in a bad way, you know, I mean,
like you said, it's been a long time, but was
there a significance of the year. Did somebody in marketing
just get bored? Is it a I mean, obviously it's
going to sell out of merch as well. Any specific
reasoning for that?
Speaker 4 (33:43):
I think a couple things. The first one, as we
entered in our partnership with the Miami Nation of Indians
of Indiana in twenty twenty three, we certainly learned some
things about their perspective. And the old logo had a
Southwestern look and feel to it, and that's not really
(34:03):
proper to where we are in the eastern Woodlands and
with the tribes represented here. So if you look at
the roundel, it's got some ribbon work and that's more
native to this area, so that was important as well.
And candidly, the other logo is thirty three years old
and we felt it was outdated and it was time
to give it a fresh look. And we put all
(34:24):
that stuff together and we've worked on it for Like
I said, it's always a long process, and for us,
it's been three to four year of a journey with
lots of input from Native American tribes, from our staff,
our board of directors, season ticket holders. We've done gallery sessions,
(34:44):
jam sessions, lots of different community audiences to give input.
It wasn't just cooked up by our marketing and creative departments.
They led the process, but we certainly was inclusive and
we tried to be as thoughtful as because we made
the adjustment for what we hope is the next thirty years.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
You know, Randy, this will stun you, I know. But
I was looking at the you know, I guess now
the recently retired logo, if you will, of the Indianapolis Indians,
and one of the things that was worn on the hat,
you know it, I guess it's the facsimbile of it.
It resembles an arrowhead, right that particular logo that I'm
(35:23):
talking about. You'll be stunned to know that. I was
fifty three years old, and however, many months now when
I realized that that actually is two letter eyes that
are up against each other for Indianapolis and Indians to
form that I never knew. That. Is that stunning to
you that I didn't figure that out?
Speaker 4 (35:39):
No, it's not stunning. Most people did. And I would
tell you that it was cleverly done and probably too
cleverly done back in the early nineties because that we
referred to it as a double eye, not an arrowhead.
But I mean, I certainly see how everyone you know,
how that has been portrayed and thought of over the years.
But that was it was two eyes that formed together
(36:01):
and then with a little uh some other marks in
there as well, And but it was a little too clever,
I think. So, Jake, You're you're not alone in that regard.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Well, usually on the last to figure stuff out.
Speaker 4 (36:11):
Oh, it's stunner. Never. Never, you're mister Indianapolis, You've been
You've been looking at that thing for a long time.
But it is funny when you start to look at things,
how you just look past.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Well and then once you see it. You don't unsee
it right once you see it, Like, how in the
world did I never know that I wanted to before
we let you go, Randy, and I appreciate it. Randy
Lewandowski is our guest from the Indianapolis Indians. You touched
on something I wanted to touch on a little bit more,
and that is, you know, we live in an era
and a time, and I know that the question had
been brought up of would Indianapolis ever deviate from the
(36:42):
name Indians, And obviously the Cleveland Indians come to mind
a little bit different in the caricature nature of Chief
Wahoo versus say the way that it's been branded in Indianapolis.
But obviously I and I didn't realize this, So I
appreciate you expand on that. There obviously has been a
very concerted partnership amongst a Native American tribe to make
(37:07):
sure that all of this is done within the proper respect,
if you will, of that group of people. And so
therefore the name I would assume continues for another one
hundred years as well.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
We certainly think so. And yes, again, as we forge
that relationship with the Miami Nation of Indiana that has been,
it's been It's just like any other partnership and relationship,
and this one is built on trust and respect and
cheap Buchanan and his tribal Council. They're based up in Peru, Indiana.
(37:43):
It's been a wonderful relationship. We've learned a lot. It's
going to allow us to better educate and further educate
and use our platform to do so. We will not
be the spokespeople for the Miami Nation. We can't be,
and we won't be. Can provide a platform for them,
and that's something that we have done with our Native
(38:04):
American Heritage Nights where we recognize Native American veterans with
a scholarship program, just other things that we can build
in regards to that relationship and that partnership, and it's
been fantastic. They were here Friday night from when we
did the unveiling. We're going to be super excited when
we do again. I mentioned we've got something else coming
(38:25):
that is even more Native themed in the spring, and
they're fully behind all of that and they've been a
great partner of ours and we're excited to see where
that goes in the future.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
And lastly, the partnership with you know, obviously now being
the parent club, being the Pittsburgh Pirates. I'm always fascinated
with how those dynamics contractually speaking, work. That partnership extends for.
Speaker 4 (38:44):
How long that is through two thousand and thirty, so
we've got another four or five seasons left in that,
and really that becomes it's changed a lot over the years.
Those used to change every two and four years. Now
their ten years situations via Major League Baseball. They're more
involved than they ever have been. And so yeah, we're
(39:07):
going to be a proud partner in affiliate with the
Pittsburgh Priors through twenty thirty.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Do they have say in the branding and the color
scheme and that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
They do not. We offered them an opportunity to take
a look, and they're fully aware of what's happening and
they're fully supportive. It'll be a little different when we
wear navy helmets instead of black helmets and everything else,
and as players coming up and down from different levels,
but not all of their affiliates are the black and Gold,
and we didn't think that was going to be appropriate here.
(39:38):
This is still cold country as Spacers country, It's Indianapolis
Indians Country. We didn't think to introduce gold was going
to make a lot of sense in Indianapolis, that's.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
For sure, Randy. We certainly appreciate it. I love the look.
It is well done. I certainly also a tip of
the cap pardon the pun for tying in and letting
our listeners know about the tie in as well with
you know, the Miami Nation and the tribute to that.
In terms of the designs of the look. I'll be
over at the gift shop Friday. My buddy Jeff Ester
(40:08):
and I are coming to break the bank.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
All right, sounds great, Jake, appreciate the opportunity and be well.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I appreciate it. Randy Lewandowski, who is the president and
CEO of the Indianapolis Indians Eddie, have you you said
you have or have not seen them? Seen what the
new look?
Speaker 2 (40:20):
The new I absolutely love the new look. The Indie
hat is a chef's kiss.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
Oh it's pretty. Somebody told me it's too.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Confusing, not at all. I'm a person just need some help.
Maybe they need some glasses.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Jaked, did you know about the double I on the
old logo?
Speaker 2 (40:39):
No, I hadn't been any Honestly, I saw the the
indie hat and I felt too much in love with
that one. I was just like, I don't even care
what the others look like.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
It's pretty awesome. I'm a huge fan. I'm a huge
fan Zach Ostromannostterroman's going to join us in the program.
What time did you say, Eddie for Zach? Fifteen minutes
from now, Jake, fifteen minutes from now, Sam King? As well?
We got a little college football to get into. Will
do it in fifteen?
Speaker 4 (41:01):
Was that?
Speaker 1 (41:03):
So here's the good news bad news yesterday in the
world of sports. And I will get back into my
thoughts on the Fever game last night. Somebody made the
point to me, Jake, I love the passion, but what
nine year old was watching that game when it was
a nine to thirty tip? I get it. I mean,
I wasn't necessarily speaking about like the kids would have
(41:24):
been up right then, but the example was still there
in the way that that team played and everything that
they did. Hoping to have Stephanie White on the program
on Friday.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Jake, I just have to commend Stephanie White for the
job she did, and I know she will never take
credit for it just because that's not the type of
person she is. It's the type of coach here she'll
deflect and say that, you know, all the credit should
go to Ambra Cox, Kelly Crosscoff mil Rains, all the
people above her and then the players below her. But
the job that she did of rallying all those players
(41:59):
together throughout the course of the season, delivering you know,
powerful message after powerful message to empower these women on
the roster to come together, be able to figure it
out on a game to game, night to night basis
on what was working and what wasn't working, while trying
to navigate all the constant questioning of when is Caitlin
(42:19):
Clark coming back?
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Is she coming back?
Speaker 2 (42:21):
All of that stuff, the death in the family that
she had earlier in the season, all of it she
had to overcome so much and she won't never take
credit for it. But the job she did this year
is one for the Ages.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
In my opinion, I totally agree. And look, you know,
we do we have a bias because she comes on
the show. You know, I'd like to think not, but
I guess human nature does come into play a little bit.
But you know, there was a lot of question about
Stephanie White early in the year, right when Kenton Clark
first went out and they were struggling, and the way
(42:58):
that that group and it was literally like five different versions,
you know, the Indiana Fever this year looked like the
San Diego Padres uniform department. Like every game, it's different,
totally different. Look, the Organ Ducks is another one. Yeah, Oregon,
(43:20):
just when he got used to one helmet, here comes another.
And that's what they had to do this year in
terms of the way that they how they needed to look.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
When I do the does it make you think of
Aflak or does it make you think of the organ Duck?
Speaker 1 (43:32):
I think the organ I mean the Orgon Duck's just awesome.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
You know, it's my homie, Yeah it is. There's there's
confliction over the name of the organ Duck. Now, when
I was trying to when I was pseudo stalking the
organ Duck at ross Age Stadium, just name the organ duck.
Numerous people told me his name was Puddles, And I
don't think that's right. I think it's just the orgon Duck, right,
it's the organ Duck. Yeah, I mean he needs he
(43:58):
does need probably a better name than the organ duck,
but he is. When did the Oregon duck become like
the dude? It's a great question, you know what. I mean,
all of a sudden one day we all just collectively
as a country woke up and said to ourselves, like,
you know what, Like the Oregon duck is the dude? Right?
Speaker 2 (44:14):
So they have a live white duck that attends games.
That one is named Puddles. They have a live duck, Yes,
I assume it a cage. I'm not sure to just
waddle them around?
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Is he he's just walking around? That seems like it'd
be dangerous right now? Can you name all of the
flightless birds on Earth? No, the ostrich would be one, right,
The penguin would be one. Is the emu? Is the
emu a bird? Is that a flightless bird? Look up?
(44:48):
Flightless birds? Ostrich? I mean, obviously ducks aren't one of them.
That's why you know, with puddles on the sideline, you've
probably got to keep them relatively caged in. Penguin, Ostrich?
What am I missing? Ostrich? Emu kiwi of the Kiwi?
Of course, that's the flightless bird of New Zealand. Yeah,
a rail excuse.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Me, uh yeah, a rail okay, that's a rare island bird.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Yeah. Interesting because a steamer duck excuse me, steamer duck. Dodo.
Oh the dodo is extinct though, isn't it It is? Yeah,
an elephant burd elephant bird. Yeah, there's there's no colossal
Madagascar bird. Well, that's got to be the same as
(45:35):
the elephant, right, quail colossal part quail Okay, that makes
sense yep. And also a vice president yep. Any others, Oh, yeah,
there's plenty. I'm just trying to you know. Actually that
quail bird is the vice president. Also kind of never
took off, right, but the array r h e a
(45:56):
yeah ray okay, But and also puddles. The Oregon duck
a flightless bird because they want to make sure that
he ain't flying around, right, But he was. He was
cool when I met him. Didn't say a lot.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Well, he's a mascot, Jakie, he's not supposed.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
To say anything. What the you know this year so
far has been twice in the last year has lost
his noggin. Poor guy. I know. I should say they
should have you be the duck because theres once they
get that head thing over your head. There's no way
that thing's just gonna randomly pop off. Thanks. I don't
care how many summersaults he's doing, or backflips or fights
(46:36):
he's getting in with the Stanford Tree, none of it. Right, Yeah,
I needed to belittle bit. Thank you Jake in the NFL.
By the way, do we haven't had the breaking news sounder?
By chance? I don't know you're gonna be nice. The
Cleveland Browns are playing in London against the Minnesota Vikings
this weekend, and people in London are going to say
to themselves, yeah, you know, I thought we were going
(46:58):
to come out and see Jeff Flack. Where's Jeff Flack?
I don't say him, but instead is that guy? Actually
he used to be a doc at Oregon Dot Dylan
Gabriel is now the starter for the Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
Former Boomer sooner as well. And can you name the
third college you played at?
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Oh, that's a good one. Dylan Gabriel should know this.
He finished at okho or Oregon?
Speaker 4 (47:18):
Right?
Speaker 1 (47:19):
He did? He did? Indeed? Lead what conference for the
school in between? Right? Or did he start at Oklahoma
and then went somewhere and then Oregon? Oklahoma was school
number two? Okay did he was it a big leap
for him to go to Oklahoma or a lateral movement
big leap? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (47:40):
I mean the schools, you know, one of those fun
hit schools to go to for football that typically score
a lot of points but give up a lot of points.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Boise State they have kind of sick uniforms. No, not
Boise State. They have kind of sick uniforms. They do,
but they score a lot of points but give up
a lot of points. Are they a boy game like
a bowl team? Usually?
Speaker 5 (48:02):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (48:02):
Yeah? What conference?
Speaker 2 (48:04):
Their color scheme is very similar to produce, but they
just have a lot of unique different uniforms. Well, I
believe they're in the Big twelve.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Baylor. No, okay, go ahead, hits UCF. Okay, yeah, they
might be in the Big twelve now right, they are
at any rate. Joe Flacco has been replaced by Dylan
Gabriel as the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. The
interesting point of that, Shador Sanders still listed as third
on the depth charts, so Flaco drops.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
One spot, and then Arizona. This just announced Trey Benson,
who is taking over to the RB one duties for
James Connor, who's going to be out the rest of
the year. Placed on injured reserve. He's expected to come
back after four weeks with a knee injury. So if
you play fantasy football, yikes.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Speaking of fantasy football, our league three and one, Chicago's pizza.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Don't even get me started on that unbeaten Chicago's pizza
got last week.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
They're unbeaten.
Speaker 4 (49:04):
Man.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
I got freaking elite neighbors going down the first quarter
and Chicago's pizza gets like.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
Them is the breaks. Them's the breaks. Turkeys, by the way,
don't fly right. Just WKRP knew that you think WF
and I does as well. Did you say, Zach.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
Next, I didn't have a I didn't have the last week.
Oh yes, Zach Ostromer. Next Zach Ostraman joins us talks
a little Hoosiers. Next yesterday, driving along, I get the
following text message, this is the the joy. I say
(49:43):
that I enjoy is the wrong word because it sounds facetious.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
I enjoy this. I'm not, don't get me wrong, but
I take it with a little bit, not just a
grain of salt, but like the entire Morton's factory. My
Buddy Jason's wie who I went to IU with, and
he is like one of these the biggest Indiana fan
on the planet. Right. So Indiana could sneak their way
(50:08):
into the NCAA tournament as an eleven seed and in
the opening round could be faced up against the team
with Steph Curry, Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Shay Gilders, Alexander
and Tyrese Haliburton. And his wig's like, dude, I'm telling you,
I think they got him. I think they He sends
me the following says, I got to see an IU
(50:28):
basketball practice and got to meet with coach Lea. Bryce.
Guy is awesome and he runs a great practice team
looks great. I think we're going to surprise some people,
which is all well and good. But at the same time,
by like year three of Archie Miller, you know, I
heard the same thing from people like, no, you just
got to see him in practice. Man, Alan Iverson didn't
(50:48):
like when he talked about practice, And I'm curious whether
those that have been around Indiana think the same in
terms of you can't buy into that just yet because
there is still a lot to be done, but joining
us now on the program from the Indianapolis Star. He
is the Indiana Athletic beat writer. Zach joins us, Zach,
(51:09):
how are you?
Speaker 6 (51:14):
I just can't get to the mute button fast enough.
Speaker 4 (51:16):
I apologize.
Speaker 6 (51:19):
I got the I got the dog shuffling around in
the office with me, and so I muted it and
uh yeah.
Speaker 4 (51:24):
Sorry about that.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
Which dog is this?
Speaker 7 (51:26):
Uh?
Speaker 6 (51:28):
So we have we have two again? Rebel is what
is one of the original that you're familiar with? And
then we have a Pyrenee porter Collie Nix name mo.
Speaker 1 (51:40):
Now for what I'm thinking, there was one? Was it?
Speaker 4 (51:42):
Chewy?
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Was that? His name?
Speaker 4 (51:44):
Chewy was Chewye was? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (51:46):
Chewy was Chee?
Speaker 6 (51:47):
He cast away a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
That's right, Okay, Chewy made a few radio appearances. If
I'm not mistaken. He was not microphone shy, No, he was.
Speaker 4 (51:56):
He was robust, all right, he was.
Speaker 1 (51:59):
He was very football basketball. I'll let you choose which
one you want to lead with here.
Speaker 6 (52:04):
Well, I'm right about basketball today.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
Might as well start there, Okay, So you know, how
is it? It's fascinating. I was out today at media
day for the Horizon League, for example, Zach, and you know,
Au Indy for that matter, new coach they've he's brought in.
It's very James or excuse me, it's very Kurt Signetti feeling.
Ben Hallett. The new coach at IU Indi has brought
(52:28):
in four players from West Liberty where he came and
you know, you got this whole new roster, so nobody
knows right And to an extent, Indiana feels the same
way in terms of we just kind of don't know
the roster yet, but you've gotten indication of it because
they've obviously had an off season of some games together.
(52:50):
What have you noticed that it's going to be different
than a year ago aside from personnel.
Speaker 6 (52:56):
And so far as you're a very different philosophy of roster,
can instruction. You know, by choice, Uh, Indiana's going to
be a fair bit smaller. And I know it, you know,
I know Indiana fans will say, oh, you know, thank god,
we're not gonna you know, be playing big ball, two
big lineups, and it's like, okay, I get that that.
You know, just remember that that had its advantages right
(53:17):
like that, you know, it was hard to bully Indiana
inside and it's not like I think Indiana the last
couple of years has been proof that there is plenty
of quality in the portal if you go looking for
a big man. They chose to really emphasize guards, wings, shooting,
positional interchangeability. You look at the number of guys on
this rosters that are somewhere between six four and six
(53:41):
to eight and can probably guard you know, at least three,
if not four positions, maybe even a couple can guard
all five positions. You know that the reality is they're
starting four man is probably going to be six with seven,
but they're all probably gonna shoot the ball an awful
lot better than what Indiana fans have seen the last
few year. They're obviously going to be a very experienced team,
(54:02):
which I think is going to make a difference. That
you could see that in those games that they had
to come back from in Porto Rico. I wanting to
say the Bahamas because they went there twice with Woodson,
But you know, it is just it is a roster
that is going to look for his shots in different ways,
play defense in different ways, move the ball, share the ball,
(54:24):
score the ball in different ways. I suspect, stylistically, in
ways that are both welcome and in ways that might
take some adjustment for some people. The first few games
of the season are probably going to be I would say,
something of a mild system.
Speaker 1 (54:42):
Shot, okay. And with that, the question I would have
is are they stylistically playing something that cater to what
he was able to put together via the portal or
did he go out to the portal to get people
that stylistically play what he wants to play.
Speaker 6 (55:03):
I think it's probably more of the latter, Like a
lot of what he talked about, you know, when he
talked about kind of his principles and his approach when
he was hired, and certainly if you talk to people
who know him from his time at Drake and his
one year at West Virginia, which admittedly that was a
little bit of a weirder sort of sample size because
he lost his son early in that season and just
(55:25):
kind of I think had to change the way that
team tried to win games. But I think that a
lot of what Indiana did in the portal was informed
by what Debrees wants his teams to be and not
the other way around. Now, you are always especially in
a low volume player sport, and what I mean by
(55:47):
that is, there are just a limited number of you know,
compared to football, compared to baseball, compared to soccer, there
are just fewer players on the floor at any given time.
In basketball, you're always going to be a little bit
more hold into your talent, right, You're always going to
have to adjust based on what you're able to you know,
what you're able to acquire, and you know, this year, obviously,
(56:10):
Indiana's needs were fairly extreme because they had to renovate
their entire roster, at least in terms of the scholarship
spots scholarship players. But I do think that a lot
of these sort of floor spacing, high tempo motion offense principles,
sort of vision that degrees laid out, I think a
lot of these players fit that, at least at a
(56:33):
basic level. I think I think what he does this
year is going to reflect in some pretty fundamental ways
what he wants his seems to be philosophically and structurally.
And again, that will always vary somewhat because you will
always be beholden to your talent to a certain degree
in basketball. But I don't think he necessarily just went
(56:54):
out and got the thirteen best players he could find
and said, you know, I'll once I i've got my roster,
I'll draw up my plan for next year.
Speaker 1 (57:04):
You know. The it's interesting Zach because we didn't know
a lot about him coming in right talking about coach
de Breeze, I the you know, West Virginia. I talked
to some people from West Virginia. I don't remember where
I was recently. I saw a guy wear in a
West Virginia hat, you know, talked to him, Oh, yeah,
we're from Morgantown. And the guy said, he said, look,
(57:25):
we thought he was going to be here a long time.
I mean like he he had that kind of a
feel of really good coach and whatever else. And he said,
I understand why you would leave to go to Indiana.
But so with that said, you know, when you when
you watch or you're around it, does he seem to
be the lead by example, like kind of quiet leader,
(57:49):
just confident type like what we see in a Kurt
Signetti Or is he more of the you know, high energy,
run around frantic Tom Crane level coach or is he
a Bob Night coach?
Speaker 6 (58:03):
So I would say I've gotten to sit in on
I guess three practices. Now if that's right, because I
got to see him once out in Puerto Rico, and
that that one was I would describe maybe as more
of a workout than a practice, but also obviously been
able to see him coach three games. I think what
I have observed of him in practice is distinct to
(58:25):
what I have observed of him in games, and that
is kind of what I was told to expect with him.
He is very competitive in games. Although someone told me,
and I have not had the bandwidth and the desire
to look this up, someone told me he's never been
whistled for a technical foul. I've had that kind of
hard to believe for somebody who's been a head coaches
as long as he has. But he is a very
(58:45):
competitive guy within game like he's a very you know
like I mean, even those games in the I keep saying,
the Bahamas, even those games in Puerto Rico, which anybody
who was on that trip could tell were probably the
low priority of the entire preseason tour sort of apparatus
for Indiana. Once he got into those games, he was fiery,
(59:08):
he was competitive, he wanted to win them. But in
practices he's when I say he's high energy I just mean,
he's kind of all over the place and involved, but
he's not barking in people's faces. There's not a lot
of you know, sort of screaming yelling. You know, he's
not overly demonstrative. Honestly, his practice is remind me of
Signetti's in how efficient they are. They just move very quickly.
(59:32):
He's not afraid to cut a drill short if he
feels like everything that needs to you know, everything that
needs to get accomplished, has gotten accomplished. There's not a
lot of wasted efforts. There's not a lot of wasted movement.
It is much more sort of professional and business like
when you are in kind of that teaching learning practice setting.
Speaker 1 (59:54):
By the way, I just pulled this up an article
from this time a year ago. As a matter of fact,
October fourth of twenty twenty four. This from West Virginia.
I'm mostly calm mostly, and by the way, are we
going with the rezer de rise? I hear both degrees, Okay,
I mostly calm mostly, Derees said, when asked about his
end game demeanor. I haven't had a technical foul yet,
(01:00:16):
so that gives you a little bit of an idea
his son's eyes light up. That is correct. Through two
hundred and five career games as a head coach at Drake,
he had never been given a technical foul. So, assuming
he did not get one last year with the Mountaineers,
than that factoid.
Speaker 6 (01:00:30):
Is he was close a couple of times in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
And the swimming well, listen, there's there's a long history
of Indiana coaches losing their temper in Puerto Rico. So
watch now, right.
Speaker 6 (01:00:41):
I hope someday the film of these game services because
the officiating, and I know it was being played on
international rules and that was part of it. The officiating
was remarkable. Some of the screens that were getting set
would be better described as past blocking. It was, I mean,
and then and but then some of the stuff that
wasn't getting let go. And then you know, there was
(01:01:01):
a play and I'm taking in the weeds now, but
there was a play where a Serbian, one of the
players on the Serbian team looked Trent Sisly and then
fell down to make it look like Sisly pulled him down,
and the referee didn't buy it and blew an offensive
foul and Sisly just just bent over like six inches
from his face and started barking at him. And it's
just all this stuff that you know would never happen
in a Big ten game. That was just absolute sort
(01:01:23):
of summer back.
Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
I want the total mayhem. I what to mayhem of
international play? You know, it looks like these guys are
all playing at the Tabernacle like that with a voight
basketball and people are throwing stuff. It's like being at
an Oasis show. Let's go right, I mean, let's go
go big or go home. Hey, Zach, you mentioned Kurt Signetti.
What is Indiana's I guess schedule or do they deviate
(01:01:47):
from it in terms of a bye week and the
way that he handles a bye week versus a regular week, so.
Speaker 6 (01:01:53):
He'll pull some some of the load off of his players.
You know, practices, and this is I don't think this
is anything terribly uncon Practices might be a little bit
shorter or a lot of what you'll see a lot
of coaches doing bye weeks is that the guys who
get more reps will be the guys who aren't getting
a lot of reps during game preps. So younger players, backups,
red shirts guys like that. So you're simultaneously kind of
(01:02:17):
creating some opportunities for young guys to maybe you know,
grow a little bit and develop a little bit in
ways that they wouldn't get in a game week where
you've obviously got to commit most of your time and
effort to preparing your starters, and then same time you're
also taking some of the physical.
Speaker 4 (01:02:31):
Load off of your.
Speaker 6 (01:02:33):
Ones and twos. And the other thing that every staff
does during the bye week is you know, and this
will also affect how you structure your practices. Coaches are
in and out of town because they're out recruiting.
Speaker 4 (01:02:44):
I've seen.
Speaker 6 (01:02:46):
A host of in particular, I think defensive line offers
that have been tweeted out in the last like twenty
four hours. If that gives you a sense for like
Buddha Williams and Patmos probably are right now, they are
probably not on the practice field, or at least they
haven't been in recent days because they had been out recruiting.
Every staff uses the bye week to go check in
on the guys who are committed, make sure they're still solid,
(01:03:08):
make sure they're still feeling I guess to lago better terms,
feeling the love. And especially because basically all the offers
I've seen today and yesterday have been flats of twenty
twenty seven players. You didn't news to offer juniors this
early in the cycle is often, but now so many
of those guys are committing in March, April, May, June,
(01:03:31):
as opposed to August, October, November, December, or even into
obviously the sort of pre December signing window era where
you went all the way to February. You got to
start recruiting those kids earlier because they're committing earlier, and
you need to be involved with them earlier. In the
bye week I think is important for that because if
we're going to shift the calendar back a few months,
(01:03:52):
then that means when you prioritize where you're going and
who you're seeing in your bye week recruiting visits, you're
gonna need to start really digging into what is the
sort of current junior class as well.
Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
I want to feel the love, you know what I mean?
Like we all want to feel the love, Like Eddie
Win's the last time you felt the love? I have
no idea, Zach like from the general public, tell me
the last time you felt the love. If you're a recruit,
like you're a recruit, Zach, and people are like writing
you letters and they're telling you how great you are,
and they're they're blowing you up on social media. I mean,
(01:04:26):
I got one guy that blows me up on social media,
and it's only because he constantly sends a picture of
me and says queer. That's all I get. That's all,
that's all I love, I get.
Speaker 7 (01:04:35):
I see.
Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
I mean, I will say.
Speaker 6 (01:04:37):
The one time in my life that I understood a
little bit of the rush that athletes get from the
attention is when I wrote Little five, And like the
who the whole frattorney has to be out there to
see you off and everybody's cheering you and everybody's chanting
your name, and I don't get it. I mean, like,
don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
Team were you when you wrote Little five?
Speaker 6 (01:04:55):
I wrote for a frattorney called sigmal.
Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
Fom Okay, Sammy says, we know it right, yes, correct
days you were a Sammy and you you were? Were
you the anchor guy? Were you that? Like in Breaking Away?
Which one were you?
Speaker 4 (01:05:09):
Well?
Speaker 6 (01:05:11):
So the thing is like in Breaking Away, none of
them do anything except Dave Stoler. I was a lap eater.
I wasn't very fast, but I had an engine.
Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
And you know in college I was a lap eater too.
That's funny.
Speaker 4 (01:05:24):
Well I'm gonna leave that one alone, but.
Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
I was.
Speaker 6 (01:05:32):
I was always like on the heavy side for for
a cyclist. But the advantage in Little five is there's
no hills to climb, so if anything, kind of guides
with a little bit more power had a little bit
of advantage just to be able to sit in and
just just turn over and just just like just you know,
over up. Long stretches of the race, and the men's
race in particular is just like a total war of attrition.
(01:05:56):
There are long stretches of that race where it's just
about surviving, not trash, you know, preserving as much energy
as possible, and that was always my strength.
Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
You guys, finishing more last in the average, what place
for you? Geez uh pack?
Speaker 6 (01:06:13):
Now we were, well, yeah, we were. We finished. We
finished in the trophy spots twice, eleventh and fourteen. I'm
gonna guess, I want to say, twenty fifth and twentieth.
Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
I'm going to guess who won it. Your last year,
you're ready, what what year did you run the Little five?
Speaker 6 (01:06:27):
Two thousand and nine, two thousand and six to nine,
all four of those years.
Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
Okay, I'm gonna guess who won it? You ready, uh Fiji, Nope, Cutters.
Speaker 6 (01:06:39):
The Cutters won it my last three years running. That
was part of the stretch of five in a row.
That was the first I'm gonna get people totally.
Speaker 4 (01:06:46):
In the weeds.
Speaker 6 (01:06:46):
Now you've done it, We're gonna this is give me
the rest of the show. That was the first of
the three years of Eric Young, who later won two
i think two USA Criterion Championships and during Pro and
cycling won the Field sprint for Cutters.
Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
Ey as he's known with his friends. Okay, so then
there's one other one. I'm going to go with Pike.
Speaker 6 (01:07:08):
Now, Pike was never any Pike was never really good
when I was there. It was a fraternity though.
Speaker 1 (01:07:13):
Okay, So who was the other one that won it?
Speaker 6 (01:07:16):
Ato Alpha Tallen Nagger. They had a rider named Hans
Arniston who actually lapped the field, which is especially difficult
to do.
Speaker 1 (01:07:21):
That's cool. Yeah, they got booted off cameras when I
was there, so that's cool. Glad to see they rounded
things out.
Speaker 6 (01:07:27):
I think they've I think they've since gone through that cycle.
A few times, so I try to stay out of
the Greek politics of it all.
Speaker 1 (01:07:34):
Hey, can Indiana beat Oregon?
Speaker 6 (01:07:38):
And yes, I think, I mean, you know, we.
Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
Let's rephrase that. Can Indiana still make the College Football
Playoff if they lose to Oregon and also to and
I think they'll beat Penn State, especially if they're ranked
in the top ten. But if Indiana goes in and
is andarrowly is defeated by both Oregon and Penn State
but wins out otherwise, do they still get in the
(01:08:03):
College Football Playoffs?
Speaker 6 (01:08:05):
I think they've got a good chance. Obviously, that will
depend on what happens elsewhere. You know, does a Big
twelve have two teams? Certainly doesn't seem like the ACC
has two teams. I think there might be a more
compelling argument by the end of the year for two
group of five teams in the playoff as opposed to
two ACC teams. I don't think that will happen, but
I think that that is potentially there's a potentially more
(01:08:27):
compelling argument forming there. It will depend, like it did
last year, on how much the SEC cannibalizes itself, you know,
and just how many of those can how many SEC
teams genuinely sort of all themselves above the rest of
the field in that conference. But I think ten and two,
(01:08:47):
with the wins you're talking the wins Indiana already has
and the losses you're talking about this year probably actually
hands Indiana a more compelling resume than eleven and one
last year because the schedule was just so bad and
it wasn't you know, by and large, that wasn't Indiana's fault.
They did everything they could with it. You know, they
only there are eleven wins. They only won one by
(01:09:09):
what was it, fewer than two touchdowns? You know, they
they the reason they got in the playoff was because
of how dominance they were against even a terrible schedule.
But it was a terrible schedule. This schedule is a
lot tougher. The losses will improve. Let's let's live in
this hypothetically you've laid out. The losses will improve the
(01:09:29):
strength of schedule just as much as the winds will.
As long as Illinois doesn't go in the tank, the
winds are going to hold up. Because Indiana didn't just
beat Illinois. Indiana put Illinois through the four like iron
Man and winning at Iowa. Whatever Iowa does. That's always
going to carry a certain amount of weight because that
is one of the most sort of uniquely difficult places
(01:09:50):
in the country to go relatives to its conference and
everything else. Like I said this to somebody on Sunday,
Iowa at Kinnick on a set Saturday, and Big ten
play is the closest thing the conference has to the
option anymore. That's how like distinct the challenge of Iowa
football is, especially in that environment. I don't just mean schematically,
(01:10:11):
I mean like structurally philosophically, that win will hold up
at least to the baseline. Indiana's big thing, I think
in terms of its own playoff candidacy, as you said,
don't go to Penn State or Oregon and just get
completely run out. Now, maybe you could afford to lose
one of those games kind of heavy. Like if Indiana
(01:10:31):
goes to Oregon and loses thirty five to seventeen, we said, well,
you know what, they had to fly across the country.
It's Austin. Oregon might be the best team in college football.
Maybe you can live with that. Just don't do it
against Penn State two. And I think that's it's interesting
because Indiana's not really like like last weekend was the
first time Indiana had won a meaningful road game under
(01:10:53):
Kurt Signetti in a difficult environment against a good team.
This not this weekend, but next weekend next game is
kind of the first time Indiana's played a game under
Kurtzignety where there's relatively little pressure like that, Indiana doesn't
have to win this game. Indiana doesn't even necessarily have
to lose this game on the last second field goal Indiana,
(01:11:14):
which to I'll have state last year that Indiana was
the team in that game everybody had eyes on because
everyone wanted Indiana to prove themselves or not. That doesn't
exist in this game. There is there is a notable
lack of sort of pressure or demand on Indiana going
into the Oregon game. And I don't know if that
makes Indiana better or worse than I find it fascinated.
Speaker 1 (01:11:35):
Zach Osterman is with the Indianapolis Star. He is the
Indiana Athletics beat writer. He also was a lap eater
in college. Zach, appreciate the time as always, and we'll
talk to you certainly as we get closer to the
time when the Hoosiers are going out to take on
the ducks.
Speaker 6 (01:11:51):
Absolutely, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:11:52):
As always appreciate it. Zach joining us on the program
We Come Back. Shane Steichen has spoken regarding Adie Mitchell
interesting comments. We'll let you hear next. You know, everybody
has that T shirt in your closet, you know the
one I'm talking about. You haven't worn it in like
(01:12:15):
three years, but when you're scanning through your clothes hangers,
you see that one T shirt and you're like, I can't.
I can't throw it out because I might there may
be occasion I've got to wear that again, or that
might come back in vogue, or boy, there's going to
be like a Halloween costume where that's going to come
in handy, whatever it might be. But everybody has that
(01:12:35):
one shirt also that you're You're like, you know what's funny.
I've had this sweatshirt forever, and for a while there
looked kind of old and tattered, and now it's like
totally cachet and back in vogue because the you know,
vintage is cool and hip and there for the entire closet. Yes. Well,
(01:12:57):
then he lost all the weight thanks to Premier weight
loss and jamb as well. And now he's got all
the polo shirts from Goodwills. But yes, so who said
just knock the camera? Sorry Eddie. So having said that,
every once in a while you hear something or you
see something that you think to yourself, well, we could
(01:13:18):
have just gone back a year ago and played that
same thing and it would have worked without further ado.
As an example of what I'm talking about, let's listen
to Shane Steichen talk a year ago about what Anthony
(01:13:41):
Richardson needs to do to be able to get on
the field as the starting quarterback.
Speaker 8 (01:13:45):
Yeah, he's got to go through practice and earn it
each and every day. How you know, the meetings, the
preparation and how he prepares and how he practices throughout
the week is what it means.
Speaker 4 (01:13:54):
Will he play he through We'll see all.
Speaker 1 (01:13:56):
The weekhos Okay. Now Shane Steiken talking about accountability and
right then you just heard him talking about Anthony Richardson
last year. Here's Shane Stike in today talking about accountability
within just the locker room and with his team accountability.
Speaker 8 (01:14:15):
He's a big part of this thing and sometimes the
outside world doesn't see the accountability that I talk to
you guys about but it takes place in this building
a lot of times, and it's your actions too. After
something like that happens, how you got to flip a
switch and go prove it because words are words.
Speaker 4 (01:14:29):
Words can change your thoughts.
Speaker 8 (01:14:30):
But actions, you know can change you know, right it here,
so you know it's about action, you know, going forward.
Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
Okay. What's interesting is when he's talking right there about
action and accountability. That first clip I played for you
was not actually Shane Stikeen talking about Anthony Richards in
a year ago. That was Shane Stekeen today talking about
Adie Mitchell. And yet you can bridge marry those two
(01:15:01):
clips and say it's the same thing when he talks
about accountability and he was talking about Adie Mitchell there,
both of those clips are from today when he talks
about accountability and he talks about the things that we
don't see inside the building, the things we don't see
inside the locker room. And then he goes and he
(01:15:21):
talks about what Ady Mitchell needs to do after a
game when Adie Mitchell not only dropped the ball early
but also got the penalty. Play this again, Eddie. Now
that you know that he's talking about Adie Mitchell. This
is Shane Stike and talking as the culture returning to
the practice field about what Adie Mitchell needs to do
(01:15:44):
coming off a disastrous performance in Los Angeles.
Speaker 8 (01:15:47):
Yeah, he's got to go through practice and earn it
each and every day. How you know, the meetings, the
preparation and how he prepares and how he practices throughout
the week is what it means.
Speaker 1 (01:15:56):
Will he play he through We'll see all the week
ost Okay. While I give Shane Styken all the credit
in the world for recognizing those things in Anthony Richardson
and deciding that that's why he needed to go with
Daniel Jones, one would assume that Shane Styken had every
reason to put Anthony Richardson back on in the field.
(01:16:16):
Had in quarterback this year, one would assume that everything
was designed towards Anthony Richardson getting this year to again
continue to grow. But Shane Steiken because of accountability and
what does he keep talking about. He keeps talking about
accountability within the locker room. He keeps talking about the
(01:16:39):
things that you don't see, that we don't see, the
words you say walking into the meeting rooms, the time
that you arrive being on time for treatment, being on
time for film sessions, returning phone calls to people that
are reaching out, that want to help, all of those
(01:17:00):
things that go beyond what you see on the football field.
Shane Steiken's been telling us from day one that about
Anthony Richardson, he all but stood up on top of
the Salesforce tower or bought the billboard on four sixty five,
saying the guy isn't getting it. He'd stop shy of that.
(01:17:20):
It's not to say Richardson's a bad guy, not to
say he's a bad player, but he kept telling us
that over and over and over and now, and this
is where I feel bad for Shane Steikin. Now he's
got to do the same thing when it comes to
the wide receiver, He's got to do the same thing.
He's got to use his press conferences, he's got to
(01:17:44):
use his moments to the media to shout it from
the mountaintops that somebody's got to grow up. I don't
think Ady Mitchell is a bad guy. I don't know him,
had him on this show, seemed like a nice guy.
I don't think Ady Mitchell is running around putting whoopee
(01:18:04):
cushions on people's seats and snickering when they sit down
on them. But I think he lacks the maturity and
understanding of knowing everything that goes into being a professional
athlete and grasping, wait for it, accountability. And I feel
bad for Shane Steichen because after he's gone through all
of this, after he's gone through all of this with
(01:18:28):
Anthony Richardson, now he's got to turn around and go
through all of it again with a wide receiver. The
same lessons, the same narrative, the same answers, the same frustrations,
and it's a fifty three man roster versus a twelve
to fifteen person roster. I get it, so for the
(01:18:49):
most part, apples and oranges. But what if we talk
about earlier today that I was saying, and I will
get back into it in a minute, that I was
so impressed by, in proud to an extent which sounds patronizing,
but impressed by with the Indiana Fever, the ability by
the Fever front office to, no matter how many players
(01:19:10):
went down, continue to plug players in that did what
it is that you need to do for a team
to win as a team. And the Fever had to
go three four five deep in some positions and every
single person that they plugged in. It was the same
thing as the one before, selfless team play, and the
(01:19:33):
Colts have to feel like they are at times running
into a brick wall because once again you move off
of one player where you make the right decision to
go with Daniel Jones. And that has been a stroke
of genius by Shane Steiken and a credit to his
convictions that he was like, I can't do this anymore
(01:19:54):
and trying to get this young player to understand accountability
and responsibilit and everything that goes into playing the position.
So he goes with Daniel Jones and then what happens,
But Daniel Jones has to then make up for on
the field at times or deal with at times the
(01:20:15):
adversity of a player that is putting Shane Stikeen in
the position that he's already been through once before with
the quarterback and Anthony Richardson. And where I feel bad
for Shane Stiken in addition to that is he's being
forced to deal with this with this young receiver of
(01:20:35):
a guy that everyone knew that coming in he was
the eleventh receiver selected in his draft, and it was
in round number two. And why was that? Because anybody
that you listened to, that followed him, or was around
him or coached him early on all said the same thing.
Not a bad guy, not a guy that you would
(01:20:56):
like roll your eyes if he moved in next door
to you, but not a guy that you can rely
on on and count on to consistently play the position
because he hasn't learned yet wait for it, accountability and
maybe now they are trying to finally teach it to him,
but old dog new tricks. And so I feel bad
(01:21:16):
to an extent for Shane Steichen, But at the same time,
there is an element of what the hell did they expect?
Because it's everything that we heard about him, And once
he finally got his number called and he finally seemed
to break through that bubble of whatever was holding him
back as a player, then every label on him came
(01:21:37):
true in the span of like thirty yards, not once,
but twice. But I mentioned what took place last night.
That is something that I think we can all champion
and I will re explain that next. By the way,
my buddy Alex Wolfe, who I do IndyCar radio with
and is a diehard Cleveland Browns fan. I simply mentioned
(01:22:02):
to him that the Browns are now going to go
with Dylan Gabriel and that is since nineteen ninety nine,
their forty first starting quarterback, to which he responded, to
which he responds, imagine this if you're a Browns fan,
he says, And remember that in the time, they could
(01:22:22):
have drafted Tom Brady but instead drafted Spurgeon Win. And
they also could have drafted Russell Wilson but instead opted
for twenty nine year old Brandon Whedon, who got stuck
under the American flag before his first game, just brutal.
I'd forgotten about that. With Brandon Whedon, it would be
tough to be a Browns fan for certain. And you
(01:22:45):
know what I mentioned this earlier. It's a Wednesday, the
Culture getting set to play the Raiders coming up this weekend.
You've got the story of eighty Mitch perhaps being kept
out of the starting lineup.
Speaker 2 (01:23:04):
Is that being overblown? Are we overblowing this Adi Mitchell situation?
Speaker 1 (01:23:08):
Jane, No, I don't think so, because you can't preach
the importance of accountability and maturity for one position but
let it slide at another.
Speaker 2 (01:23:21):
Well, I just think you're comparing two different levels of
importance of position.
Speaker 1 (01:23:28):
Understood. But it let me expand by talking about this,
because it's the same thing. It parlays perfectly into what
I'm getting to last night. So you're looking at the
Colts and you're saying yourself, Adie Mitchell, I mean, you know,
he's a young player and he made some mistakes, but
(01:23:51):
we are we overstating the importance of it. Well, Shane
Stikeen very clearly wants to make it very clear redundant.
I realized that there needs to be accountability across the
board within his franchise and when that happens, and a
little bit of apples and orangs is here because different game,
(01:24:12):
different roster size, et cetera. But last night, and I
know it was late, and I know a lot of
kids were not able to see it because it was late.
I get that. But I am somebody that has the
utmost pride in being from Indianapolis. And I love obviously
(01:24:33):
being from Indiana, and I love the There are things
about Indianapolis and Indiana. Sure, as a city we have
our problems. As a state, we have our problems, I
get it. But the thing about Indiana to me, And
it took me a long time to realize this. When
I was a kid growing up, you know, I wanted
the glitz and glamour of I loved, you know, seeing
(01:24:55):
things in la and the Hollywood Knights and the Hollywood Hills.
And I loved the fast paced and the money aspect
and the grint of the New York's of the world.
And I liked the beauty of the sunset in Miami
and Miami Vice and the boats and those sorts of things,
and then you know, the oil money in the opening
(01:25:17):
montage of Dallas in Texas. I liked all those things.
And I'm like, and I got to live here in
a little old, boring Indiana. But as I've gotten older,
what I've realized is this, in this country, the entertainment
aspect comes from one coast, the money aspect comes from
another coast. The things that fuel things may come from
(01:25:39):
the Deep South. But the things that truly we as
people need to survive, the heartbeat of this country is Indiana.
Our crops are animals like that comes from Indiana. All
the other stuff is all luxury, but the necessity is Indiana.
And it made me real that being from Indiana meant
(01:26:01):
something because being from the Midwest meant something because it's
the fiber and the foundation of who we as a
country are is right here in Indiana. We go in,
we have principles about ourselves, and that comes from the
fact that we are kind of the heartbeat of what
(01:26:22):
the rest of the country gets credit for being. And
it's for that reason that I think that we subliminally
want and appreciate out of our sports teams or those
things that represent us. We want them to have those
same morals and same principles and same values. And it's
(01:26:44):
just different. In Los Angeles. Sure, you're perfectly fine with
going out and buying championships by just using your huge
capital to go out and get the best payroll and
get the best players and whatever, because you got all
the glitz and glamour money there and everything's superficial anyway.
(01:27:04):
But in Indiana, we're just different and we want accountability
because we, for the most part in the Midwest, are
people that go in every day and what we hang
our hat on is the fact that we go to work,
we do our job, we come home and we try
to raise a family and kids to do the same thing,
(01:27:25):
and we just take pride in the fact that we
are a little bit different. And when you look at
this Indiana fever season, and yes, I get it. The
WNBA is a niche sport. I get it, right, I
get it. It's not as big as the Pacers, It's
not as big as the Colts. I totally understand it.
IU is ranked in the top ten. They're getting ready
to go take on Oregon off there by. I get it.
(01:27:46):
Purdue is getting ready to take on Illinois for a trophy.
I get it. Notre Dame is trying to fight their
way back into the college football playoff. I get it.
There's a ton that we can talk about, but what
I want to talk about right now is simply this,
and that is it. Last night I watched a team
that found themselves on numerous occasion trailing in a game
where they were trying to for the fourth time win
(01:28:07):
and an elimination game. They've already done so three times,
the most in the WNBA since twenty twenty two. And
they're on the road taking a two seed and a
team that has championship pedigree and numerous fabulous players, including
one of them that's the all time leading scorer in
Indiana high school basketball history, honest roster and an MVP
level player at a defensive Player of the Year, and
(01:28:29):
all of that all on one roster, and yet the
Fever are going in there and they're doing it. One
went away from going to the WNBA finals, One went
away from reaching the same round that their men, within
the same umbrella of company the Pacers did three months ago.
(01:28:50):
Whatever it was. Caitlin Clark, who is the most famous
women's basketball player on Earth right now, been out for
the majority of the year. You know that, right, Sophie
Cunningham out. You knew that Ari McDonald the point guard out,
You knew that Chloe Babbie out, Sidney Colson out. The
(01:29:11):
number of players that the Indiana Fever have lost due
to injury at no fault of their own, not holdouts,
not like had to cut some point. I mean, Dewana
Botter is one that they brought in big time free agent.
Immediately realized it wasn't a fit. They decided to mutually
part ways. But these other players, it wasn't because they
were head cases. It wasn't because they weren't accountabil accountable.
(01:29:33):
It wasn't because they were late to meetings, they were hurt,
they were injured, and they the Fever just had to
keep on going. And last night they find themselves in
a situation where all of a sudden, you're looking at
it and you're going, holy cow, Like they're down seven
and they just came roaring back. And now all of
a sudden, there were within three, they were down eight,
(01:29:55):
and they come roaring back, and now the game's tied.
At one point late in the game, Nolan's doing the
radio and he actually says, why not Indiana twice? Twice? Right, trademark?
And so people all of a sudden are like looking
at it, and around the country, I would hope people
are watching it and they're like, Wow, look at this
(01:30:15):
group and the person who has led them in scoring
this year, Kelsey Mitchell, who has the highest single season
scoring average in Fever history. She goes down with what
now we know was extreme cramping. She was seen at
a Las Vegas hospital afterwards and has been released. But
(01:30:36):
she goes down and at the time you don't know
what the extent of the injury is. But the players
are rallied around her, and now they come to the
sidelines and they're without Caitlin Clark, and they're without Sophie Cunningham,
and they're without Sidney Colson, and they're without Ari McDonald
and they're without Chloe Bibby and now they're without Kelsey
Mitchell and Aliah Boston's got five fouls and they come
(01:30:57):
to the sidelines and Stephanie White says, no, no one
is better equipped for this moment than we are, because
every one of you has had to dig down deep
over the course of this year. And what does sports represent?
What is the value of sport? And I'm not talking
about youth travel sports and five star recruits and nil deals.
(01:31:20):
I'm talking about when you first get signed up for sport,
when you're six years old, what does your parents want
you to learn. They want you to learn discipline, They
want you to learn practice, and they want you to
learn the value of finding the importance in teamwork, of
putting your own skill to the test, but at the
same time meshing it with that of somebody else because
(01:31:41):
you have a common goal with that person of being
the best as a group. And whether you are today
an architect, or you are today working at home depot,
or you are today working at a medical facility, whatever
it might be at some point over the course of today,
you are going to have to accomplish a goal at
your place of employment, or within your family, or within
(01:32:02):
your neighborhood where you've got to come together with other people.
And last night, what the Indiana Fever did. They lost
that game. They lost it, but you know what they did.
They won the admiration of a lot of people, and
they should have if they hadn't already won your respect
as a representative as the Indiana Fever of representing what
we in Indianapolis, what we in Indiana have always taken
(01:32:25):
pride in that makes us different than the glitz and
glamour and the fake lifestyles of other parts of this country.
Because they said to themselves, we are not going to
sit here and dwell on what we aren't. We're going
to in fact push in on the strength of what
we are. And Stephanie White, I thought, did a fabulous
job over the course of the year of staying true
(01:32:46):
to that mission. I think the Fever front office in
Kelly crosspop and everybody that is involved in it did
a fabulous job of putting people in the right position
that they knew had the moral compass to get accomplished
what it is they needed to get accomplished, and they
did not advance to the WNBA finals. But you know what,
who cares? They absolutely got As I said earlier, they
(01:33:07):
should have Maxwell House Coffee as their sponsor because they
were good to the last drop. They got every single
drop out of themselves and out of the team that
you could possibly ask for, with every single curveball thrown
their way, and they hit every one of them like
Shoheo Tani did last night against the Reds.
Speaker 4 (01:33:22):
On the first name.
Speaker 1 (01:33:23):
Thank you thanks for that. Yeah, I was brutal one
not once, but twice, mind you a Taskar Hernandez twice
as well. I thought it was fabulous. I thought the
fever last night. Hats off to them, thank you for
showing and embodying what not. Just and I know the
WNBA we've talked about this is finally a league that
young girls can look at and see their their role
models and their heroes in an example, not young girls
(01:33:46):
now yesterday, any young athlete, any young person can look
at that team and say that's something that I'm proud
they're from Indiana, and any parent can look at it
and say that's how you should go out and do things.
I thought it was great speaking up Perdue. We're going
to talk about that next. Hell yeah, little Eddie Grant,
(01:34:07):
let's go. There's an Electric Avenue in India, isn't there?
I don't know. I'm pretty sure there is. When I
was in high school, back when I was a less
mature individual, I always thought it'd be neat to borrow
the street sign from electric Avenue.
Speaker 2 (01:34:24):
Wouldn't it be a lesser when you were a lesser
mature or less mature? Don't know what I said, right,
I was at less manure. You're still less mature, but
you're not. That's why I said lesser mature.
Speaker 1 (01:34:38):
Right? Uh? Did you ever Eddie when you were a kid?
The answer here I know is is not. But did
you ever have a camera?
Speaker 7 (01:34:48):
Ah?
Speaker 1 (01:34:48):
Yeah, like a disposable camera? Yeah? Okay, like clicking the
big still photos today? And I realized that they don't
use film anymore. They're mostly digital. But you know one
of the big brands is cannon. Right, yeah, you know
it's not a camera but rather a legitimate cannon. I
think that Purdue and Illinois are playing for this weekend?
Did you know that? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:35:08):
And there was a catchings involved as well.
Speaker 1 (01:35:11):
It's a little that's right. It's a little tiny by
the way, a little tiny cannon that we're playing for, right,
widdle cannon. It would be perfect for the hands of
Kenny Pickett, right hands joining us now on the program.
And I'm sure probably completely confused as to where we're
(01:35:32):
going with all of that. He is the beat writer
for Purdue Athletics. He is with the Lafayette Is it Journal,
Courier or Courier Journal? The first one journal Courier? Right, yes,
Journal and Courier technically, but journal and Courier. And I
apologize for that, Sam, it's a mental block of mind
because Louisville is the opposite, right, yes, I start with
(01:35:52):
an L. Yes, Okay, well it is, am I correct
in saying Illinois and Purdue this weekend play for a
little cannon, right, that is correct.
Speaker 7 (01:36:01):
I don't know if it's functions.
Speaker 9 (01:36:02):
I've never seen it actually fired, but it's very small.
It looks like something you would put on your bookshelf
and your and your den at home.
Speaker 1 (01:36:09):
Yeah, it's basically a paperweight, is what it is, Eddie. Right,
Can Jake just say the L J C LJC.
Speaker 9 (01:36:17):
We call it the Jay and C here, But you know,
I'll call it whatever they want as long as they
keep paying me.
Speaker 1 (01:36:22):
The l J and C. Right, like with so much
drama that is written about in the Lafia. Anyway, Okay, Sam,
let's begin with this. I personally think and this is
an intriguing matchup because I think Illinois is very good.
Indiana obviously, you know, exposed them and ran all over them,
but uh, they are still a stout opponent. But I
(01:36:47):
think Purdue is better than I know. It sounds ridiculous
to say what their record says, but what I like
about Barry Odom's team, and I want you to elaborate
on this. They look like one that maybe is as talented,
but plays within themselves and is disciplined. Now, am I
going on too small a sample size to say that.
Speaker 9 (01:37:07):
No, I think that's fair. I mean you're a third
of the way through the season. Now, I think that's
a uh, you know, considerable simple side to go on.
And you're right when you look at the team that
Perdue had last year and where some of those players
transferred to and what they're doing at marquee programs around
the country, Purdue was a talented team last year and
went one and eleven and this year, you know, maybe
(01:37:30):
not as many high end NFL prospect type players, but definitely,
you know, a connected team and a team that you know,
at least offensively, has looked pretty good for the most
part through four games. But you know, it kind of
was punching against their punching above its its way the
last couple of games, and the score indicated as much,
(01:37:50):
but not a lot of shame. And you know, and
having a chance to knock off USC and then end
up thirty at Notre Dame, you would feel like that
should have you in the game. And uh, you know,
that was a case of where the defense kind of
let Purdue down. But now you get Illinois. That's you know,
has been the last couple of weeks up and down.
Made some mistakes against the USC, but wins it at
the end. I do think Illinois is a better team
(01:38:12):
than what it showed against Indiana. That was just a
case where it was just a downhill snowball coming and
there was no stopping it. And I think the Indiana
realized that was an opportunity to really show the playoff
committee how.
Speaker 7 (01:38:24):
Good of a team it is.
Speaker 9 (01:38:26):
And you know, a school that's not getting in a
lot of respect for what it's done the last couple
of years took advantage of what was going on there.
But yeah, I think this is going to be It
always is a fight. Whether Purdue's good Illinois is good.
There's been years where both of them have been bad.
But it's always a game that seems to go down
to the wire, and that was the case even a
year ago where it was fifty to forty nine and overtime.
Speaker 1 (01:38:47):
I thought, in particular in the USC game, we'll start
with that, Sam, that Purdue was effective and at times
almost impressive, but they had massive problems in the red zone,
and in the Notre Dame they went trickery a couple
of times to get creative. And I think in that
one probably just overall strength and depth of roster does
(01:39:10):
you in a little bit. But in terms of taking
care of the football or trying to be more effective
in the red zone, Purdue has tried to do what differently.
Speaker 9 (01:39:21):
Well, I think Perdue did a better job last or
I guess it's two weeks ago now, but you're right
that USC game, Perdue got in the red zone three
times where it came away with zero points three interceptions
after getting inside the twenty, it's going to be tough
to beat anybody, let alone an opponent that probably has
more talent than you, and pretty kind of took care
(01:39:42):
of that.
Speaker 7 (01:39:43):
I think the number one.
Speaker 9 (01:39:44):
Issue I think in those two weather delayed games that
they've played as of late has been the other team
hasn't had to punt. And you're not going to beat
anybody if you don't have a picture of punt return
team out on the field.
Speaker 1 (01:39:58):
And that's the thing, right they You know, it's hard
to judge though for me, Sam, that's what I said
when I said small sample size, because you know, Southern
Illinois Ball State. No disrespect to those programs, but they're
not SC and Notre Dame, right. And it's weird because
with SC you look at that game and it feels
(01:40:20):
like they were in it. I mean, but were they
you know what I mean? Like, do you think SC
ever really thought to themselves that they were in any
sort of jeopardy against Purdue.
Speaker 9 (01:40:29):
Yeah, it was kind of a weird game because the
weather delay happened in the middle of that game that
took forever, and I think that just threw off probably
both teams, but especially the team that traveled across the
country to get there and thought I was playing a
day game turned a night game. But yeah, it never
seemed like Purdue had opportunities where okay, if Purdue scores here,
(01:40:53):
it gets it to within one score. But it was
never to the point where, okay, this is the game
changing drive where Purdue can take the leader or whatever.
And unfortunately for Purdue, one of those momentum changing possibilities
turned into Ryan Brown getting hit.
Speaker 7 (01:41:07):
As he throw through the ball and a four.
Speaker 9 (01:41:10):
Hundred pound house taking it off and running seventy yards
for a touchdown, and that kind of just defleated, deflated everything.
But yeah, you're right when you look at that and
he throw three interceptions down after getting in the red
zone and you lose by sixteen, you walk away from
a game like that feeling like you know what if.
Speaker 7 (01:41:26):
But that said, there were also.
Speaker 9 (01:41:27):
Some plays that work to produce benefits, one of those
being a double lateral that USC's defense didn't recognize. Was
a lateral that the quarterback just picks up off the
ground and waltz is in the end zone from twenty
six yards or whatever.
Speaker 7 (01:41:40):
It was.
Speaker 1 (01:41:41):
The I like Devin maccabee a lot, Sam Okay, and
I think he is a he can be even like
a pound you between the tackles back. But they're utilizing
him a lot for Ryan Brown out of the backfield.
Do they need to find better balance in terms of
maybe not getting maccaby in the passing game. He's been
(01:42:02):
very good, but his yards per carry I think has
dipped a little bit in terms of the running game itself.
Do they continue with that versatility for him or do
they start using him more as strictly a running back
versus receiving back.
Speaker 9 (01:42:17):
What I think is the case right now is the
line has not been very good at run blocking, and
Purdue has masked it well with what it's been able
to do in the passing game or getting creative at times.
But you're right, Perdue has to be able to run
the football to win in this league. And even though
pretty put up a lot of rushing yards again Southern Illinois,
(01:42:37):
it was still a three point nine yards per carry clip,
which isn't great, especially considering you playing an SCS team
and should be able to kind of impose your will.
Devin Mackaby is a proven talent as a running back
He's picked up a lot of yards, had a lot
of yards per carry, even for some bad teams the
last two years. But yeah, that's the one area that's
(01:42:58):
most concerning so far that Purdue hasn't shown an ability
to consistently run the football and move the chains and
stay ahead of the chains using the ground game when
you have running back the caliber of Devn Mockaby, is.
Speaker 1 (01:43:11):
Purdue going to be the best team in the country
in college basketball?
Speaker 7 (01:43:15):
Man?
Speaker 9 (01:43:17):
I would say if there's a team better, that team's
got to be mighty impressive, because just seeing a couple
of practices so far, this is crazy. I think Purdue's
you know, second unit or you know whoever they deem
is the second five lineup. That team is probably an
NCAA tournament's caliber team alone.
Speaker 7 (01:43:37):
So when you have that kind.
Speaker 9 (01:43:38):
Of coming off your bench, that's deep, and that's you know,
probably even better for practice, you get kind of competitive
Big ten style games and preparation for a Big ten game.
Speaker 1 (01:43:49):
Who has most as you have watched them and I've
watched some practices of Matt Payne or Sam Sam King
is our guest from lof Field. We're talking about Purdue.
I've watched or practices, especially at the beginning of the year,
and it is impressive because it's not like you know,
drill sergeant camp type stuff. It's just consistently going through
(01:44:12):
and kind of setting tempo as to who and what
they want to be. When you've watched it this year,
who has jumped out at you, either that you were
expecting at this point to see a little more or
because you thought to yourself, this guy is going to
break into rotation earlier than we thought.
Speaker 9 (01:44:31):
There's two guys I'm going to give you, and I'm
not sure how much either of them are going to play,
which is just maybe a testament to how deep this
team is. But one is Jack Bnter. He was a
state champion at Brownstown that as the coach there and
he redshirted last year, but even last year just as
a member of the practice team was having some practices
where he was lighting up guys that were getting major
(01:44:54):
minutes for one of the top teams.
Speaker 7 (01:44:55):
In the country.
Speaker 9 (01:44:56):
So he's definitely a talented player and somebody who probably
alleviate some of the loss of Cam Heidi going to
Texas because he's versatile enough to you know, he's a
really good shooter. He can play the three, he can
play the four and do a lot of different things.
The other one is Antoine West, who's a true freshman
and he's looked really, really good in the times that
(01:45:18):
we've got to see him. And the problem is he's
a guard on a team that has a ton of guards.
So you know there's going to be really good players
that maybe play five minutes, maybe you know, come in
and spell a guy for a couple of minutes, and
you have to make the most of those opportunities. But
it's probably not going to be great for your overall
stat line at the end of the season.
Speaker 7 (01:45:39):
But still, if.
Speaker 9 (01:45:40):
Everybody can buy into maybe whatever role they have, even
how small it might be, this team should be able
to win the whole thing, I would think.
Speaker 7 (01:45:50):
But that's a long way to go.
Speaker 9 (01:45:52):
And as Trey Coffman Gren told me last week, you know,
we may be the number one team in the country,
but we haven't played anybody yet.
Speaker 7 (01:45:58):
So he called it he kind.
Speaker 9 (01:45:59):
Of I can get to participation trophies and told me
how much his grandfather hates participation trophies and that they're
getting all these awards and accolades for things that haven't
even happened.
Speaker 1 (01:46:09):
Yet where did things stand in terms of you know,
because there was so much praise and expectation a year ago.
It's interesting, Sam, whenever you know Zach Edy was such
a great player, right, and then when he leaves, automatically
your people are saying, who's the next Zakchety? You know
who is it? Jacobson has the injury and then has
to sit out the year. Where do things stand in
(01:46:29):
terms of the center position.
Speaker 9 (01:46:32):
Well, there's Jacobson is bad, healthy, has put on some weights.
Speaker 7 (01:46:37):
It still looks like he's stanned.
Speaker 9 (01:46:39):
But I think just being seven foot four and nineteen
years old or whatever, that's probably natural. And between he
and Oscar Cluff, you kind of get all of what
Purdue needed last year out of that position Without Zach Edy.
Oscar Kluff was one of the best rebounding big men
in the country a year ago. Granted it was at
South Dakota State, so the caliber competition will be much different,
(01:47:01):
but it seems to be a skill that has translated.
And Jacobsen is the rim protection you didn't have last year,
being seven foot four, being a shot blocker. Both of
those guys also can come away from the basket and shoot,
which is something we saw in the NBA last year.
Zachiet he is capable of, but it would have been
coaching malpractice if Matt Painter did that with him at Purdue.
(01:47:21):
So he just parked in the paint and had field
days at the rim. But I believe between those two guys,
you moved Trey Coppan rent to the four, you open
up a whole new world of possibilities with what Purdue
is capable of. Because Trey Kaupman Wren was so effective
at being the five last year offensively that he's got
a lot of different skill sets there and he kind
(01:47:44):
of acquired this little mini hook that he took advantage
of last year and now produce doing some things out
of that where it looks like Trey Coppan Wren's going
to take the shot and he just kind of loves
it over the top of the defender, and you know,
you don't have to get it too high for a
seven foot four guy to go up and dunk it.
So there's some little wrinkles that or who's adding in there,
And I think this is going to be a really
tough team to defend, and when teams adjust, I think
(01:48:05):
Purdue has kind of the CounterPunch to it.
Speaker 1 (01:48:08):
Lastly, Sam, I want to know what it is about.
And look, I know they lost you know, Miles Covi
And I know they lost Cam Heidi. I get it.
But take a Trey Kaufman Wrenn. You know, here's a
guy that comes in. He's in the same class as
Caleb first, he red Shirts, he sees first getting minutes
right away, he waits his turn, He's got Edie there,
(01:48:29):
He's kind of got to play like alongside but also
behind him, et cetera. And it just seems like with Purdue,
you know, Brayden Smith and Fletcher Lawyer would be prime
examples of this as well. This is a program that
has guys that could probably cash in literally and figuratively
by going elsewhere, but they seem to kind of what
(01:48:49):
I like what I was just talking about with the Fever,
buy into this team concept. What is it about that
program that in fact makes it different?
Speaker 9 (01:49:00):
Well, I think the number one thing is Matt Painter,
and he is brutally honest sometimes and some players don't
want to hear that. They want to be told they're
great and everything else, but other people respond well to
that and he never promised these guys anything. He never
promised Fresh Fletcher, Lawyer, Braden Smith they were going to
come in and be starters right away.
Speaker 7 (01:49:21):
But he said, if you come in and.
Speaker 9 (01:49:22):
Outwork the guys who were possibly going to start, you
will get the job over them, and that that was
the case.
Speaker 7 (01:49:28):
And then the thing that probably has helped is the success.
Speaker 9 (01:49:31):
And guys want to play for a team that has
a chance to win a national championship and for the
last you know, three years anyway, Produce felt like it
was a team that could possibly be in that mix,
and certainly this season, so that helps. Trey Coplin Wren
was one of those guys, like you said, he red shirted,
but he bought in right away that if I wait
my turn and keep getting better, by the end of
(01:49:52):
my career, I'm going to be, you know, an All American,
All Big ten type player, and that's certainly been the case.
So I think it, you know, in a lot of ways,
it was probably easy to buy into the program and
the culture because there's kind of proof in the putting
that what Matt Painter and his staff is doing works.
Speaker 1 (01:50:10):
Jconline dot Com, where you can read all of the
work regarding Purdue from Sam King from the Lafayette Journal
and Courier. Sam, appreciate the time as always, Man, we'll
talk to you soon.
Speaker 7 (01:50:20):
Absolutely, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (01:50:21):
Sam King talking Purdue with us. It is fascinating. I mean,
just you just keep waiting for and you know, it's
like any other team or teams where you go back
and you look at a group of players and you say, man,
in the moment, I thought like there was no way
it could get better than that, And then the next
one comes along, and then the next one, and you
(01:50:42):
just keep getting a little bit better, a little bit better,
a little bit better, and it is impressive, no question,
it's impressive what they've been able to do. You know.
I was thinking about this last night, also, speaking of
teams where you look back and you think, I didn't
think it could get any better, you know, from a
red standpoint, I look at past playoff performances and I
think I didn't think could get any worse. You know.
(01:51:05):
I remember, well, Eddie.
Speaker 2 (01:51:08):
You got the Johnny Quaito incident, Holliday throw on.
Speaker 1 (01:51:12):
I mean that the big one was getting no hit.
Speaker 2 (01:51:17):
I mean, I went, you lose back to back games
to the braze without scoring a run.
Speaker 1 (01:51:23):
Let me tell you what a dork I am. There's
a guy named Jason Berkman that used to be the
PR media relations director for the Indianapolis Ice later the
Indiana Ice. Lance Berkman, good dude.
Speaker 4 (01:51:35):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:51:36):
Lance Berkman was a heck of a player for the Astros, right,
he was different spelling b u r k. So Jason
Berkman Burkie as we called him, one day said let's
get a bunch of the media guys, and courtesy of
the Indianapolis Ice, will take you all down to a
Reds game. So I think Hagen went Rakestraw went I
don't remember if John was there or not. This might
(01:51:58):
have been before. I mean, this was had to be
twenty years ago. So we all head down to Cincinnati
and it was literally the hottest day of the year.
I mean it had to be one hundred degrees. So
we're out there in the outfield and I'm like, hey,
I'm going to walk around for a minute and you know,
get souvenirs whatever. I go in the gift shop and
(01:52:20):
maybe it was because it was the hottest day of
the year, but they were selling They had fifty percent
off the like a letter jacket, kind of like the
manager's coat, but like the a letter jacket with the
Red's logo on it, like the felt and the leather sleeves.
I mean, a good looking jacket. So I buy it,
(01:52:41):
and I carry this thing around with me for like
six innings while it's literally I mean, I'm sweating gravy
and I'm carrying this coat with me. This coach's been
in my closet. I don't wear it often. This time
of year's perfect for it. But the Reds make What
year was at Eddie when the Reds made the postseason
and took on the Phillies. Oh, I can't remember the
(01:53:03):
exact year, fourteen, twelve somewhere in there. I'm gonna guess twelve.
Speaker 4 (01:53:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:53:08):
So I'm all pumped up. I've got my jacket. I
said to Shane. I'm like, we're going out. We're watching
the Reds are in the postseason. Baby, let's go. I
put my coat on. I put on my seventy five
authentic Reds hat, not the with the with the seed
that doesn't have the black bordering around it, but the
(01:53:29):
legitimate mid seventies big Red Machine era hat. And we
went to Rusty Bucket up at eighty six and Ditch
we sit down and I'm dressed like I'm at a
pep rally. Twenty ten, twenty ten, it's been that long ago.
Speaker 2 (01:53:40):
Twenty twelve was the year that they win the first
three games against the Giants, and don't remind me, three straight.
Speaker 1 (01:53:45):
Yeah, it was brutal. So twenty ten, I'm sitting there
and I've got on my hat and I've got on
my coat and We're sitting in Rusty Bucket and I'm like, no,
they're gonna get a hit. I mean, at the very
least going to get a hit. Nada blanked, blanked, right,
(01:54:06):
no hit in the postseason. Yeah. Then I come back
a couple of years later and we went out to
haunted houses. I get in the car just in time
to start listening to the game on the way home. Gosh,
Marty was the best, and this one belongs to the
Reds up one nothing to nothing. I'm talking in games,
(01:54:30):
and then it happens. Everything starts sliding out from underneath
them against the Giants. And I'm doing the show with
Derek in the middle of the afternoon and I'm looking
up and you can just see it you can see
the onslaught coming of the comeback and the Giants come
back and beat him.
Speaker 2 (01:54:48):
And I still have nightmares about Buster Posey.
Speaker 1 (01:54:51):
Yeah, totally right. I mean, and I go back, you know,
I mean, I remember, like I said, if you want
to go way back, way back, I remember that, you know,
the the lack of grasp because I was such a
little kid of when the seventy nine We Are Family
(01:55:13):
Pirates knocked him out and that was the beginning of
the end of that era of Red's players in seventy nine,
and then thinking like, oh, it's okay. You know, eventually
Danny Dreesen and Eddie Milner and Gary Ritis and Paul
Householder and Rod Oster, those guys are going to be
the that's there's your future. But you know, one of
the things, Eddie, that I've always felt about baseball. I
(01:55:34):
just had a conversation with Eric Ritchie about this when
we were talking about the Reds. One of the things
about baseball that I think gets and you know more
about baseball than I. You follow it much more closely
than I. But I've always felt like the thing that
separates sometimes a mid pack team to a playoff team.
You know, most teams in Major League Baseball can go
(01:55:57):
out and put together an eighty five win you know,
an eighty to eighty five win team, yep. But the
thing that separates and yes, you have your teams that
you know are unbelievable that can win one hundred, five
hundred and ten games. You get two or three ace pitchers,
et cetera. But to me, in order to go from
(01:56:19):
if you are the Cincinnati Reds or you're the Kansas
City Royals, or you're the Arizona Diamondbacks, you know, just
a middle tier team. The thing that separates teams into
special seasons. Everybody wants to focus on the you know,
de la Cruz or the the Bryce Harpers, but what
(01:56:46):
really separates teams is when you have guys and you
usually need two to four of them in the same
year to have this happen. Guys that are career two
sixty five hitters that all of a sudden hit have
a season where they hit two ninety. And guys that
are a career eleven home runs per year guy and
now they have a year where their bat in two
ninety with twenty home runs. And if you get two
(01:57:07):
to four of those guys to have that happen concurrently,
that's what lifts you you know, the the ninety Reds.
As great as Eric Davis was and he was unbelievable,
and as great as Paul O'Neil was, and he was
a fabulous player. It was a career year of Chris Sabo,
but more so like Mariano Duncan. You know, guys like
(01:57:29):
that that all that concurrently have career years and that's
what lifts a team from being third or fourth in
their division to all of a sudden. You know, Craig
Pauquette and Carlos Hernandez are having miracle years together and
now all of a sudden, the Cardinals are in the postseason.
(01:57:51):
And I think that's the thing that you have to
cash in on if you will. But there is a
feeling with this particular Reds group, even though it's awesome
they're in the postseason, doesn't it feel like just making
the postseason was kind of the ceiling?
Speaker 5 (01:58:07):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:58:07):
Yes, making the postseason was a bit shocking for me. Jacson, Well, yeah,
I mean they backed into it, right, Yeah, I mean
they backed into it, but they won enough games late
to be in that conversation and the Mets just ultimately
collapsed and yeah, now they're down one love to the Dodgers.
Speaker 4 (01:58:26):
You know, the.
Speaker 2 (01:58:28):
It's not even fair like the Dodgers are rolling out
three dudes that are aces for almost any other team.
They got Tyler Glasnow who's another ace that's just chilling in.
Speaker 1 (01:58:38):
The bullpen, and it's like, come on, but you know,
their middle relief has struggled the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (01:58:42):
Yeah, they're closers. Yeah, end of the games have been awful.
You know, the same is true for the Yankees. Like
you look at the Yankees yesterday.
Speaker 1 (01:58:51):
They were leading Boston for the vast majority of that game,
and then Boston eventually broke through and got it to
the bullpen, and then suddenly the Red Sox, you know
in boom the Red Sox.
Speaker 2 (01:59:00):
Yank, he's had a chance. Bases loaded, bottom of the
ninth didn't score. A first team in MLB history in
the playoffs, did not do that, to.
Speaker 1 (01:59:08):
Not score when you start out with bases.
Speaker 2 (01:59:10):
Loaded, no out's in the bottom of the didn't again.
Speaker 1 (01:59:14):
Right now, by the way, bottom four Guardians Tigers tied
at the game apiece. There's nothing like daytime playoff baseball,
right It's just the best you mean tied at one?
What I say a game apiece? Sorry? Yeah, one one one, yes,
And in that series, Detroit leads one game. Now, who
are you rooting for in that series?
Speaker 9 (01:59:35):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (01:59:35):
It doesn't really matter to me. I like both those teams.
All right? Who are you rooting for? Let me give
you the Who are you rooting for? In the Boston
New York series? Boston? Obviously you're rooting for the Reds Padres? Cubs?
Who you're rooting for? Padres?
Speaker 4 (01:59:52):
Why?
Speaker 1 (01:59:52):
I cannot stand Cups fans? Really? What you got against
Cubs fans? They're awful?
Speaker 7 (02:00:00):
Is it cool?
Speaker 1 (02:00:02):
Have you? Here's what I've always said about Cubs fans,
and it's not a popular opinion. I truly believe it,
though said at the time, I'm going to repeat it again.
Speaker 2 (02:00:13):
They're obnoxious, That's what That's mainly the big thing.
Speaker 1 (02:00:16):
When the Cubs. Okay, Eddie, you have never you have
made my proclamation that was the most hated that I've
ever made on radio, and you just justified it right there.
It is a We're going on almost ten years ago
that I said it, and the pitchforks came out, and
(02:00:39):
the emails came and the letters came, and the text
messages came, and the tweets came. But at the time
I said, I'm right. I know I'm right, and what
you just said right there proved me correct. I'll recap
it and get your critique of my proclamation that now
a decade later, Eddie Garrison has finally verify. I'll do
(02:01:00):
it next. Okay, So back in twenty sixteen, the Cubs
were knocking on the door, and my parents are diehard
Cubs fans. As a matter of fact, my dad is
(02:01:21):
in the steel business and grew up in Indianapolis. Both
of my parents did, and my dad worked at matter
of fact, whereas now Sullivan Hardware at seventy first in Keystone,
that was Jordan Pharmacy. Joe Jordan was the pharmacist. Joe
(02:01:42):
Jordan was the pharmacist that wrote the Indianapolis five hundred song.
The five hundred, The five hundred, the greatest event of
that song was written in a contest by Joe Jordan,
who my dad worked for at the time, and so
my dad was working through high school as a soda jerk.
(02:02:05):
I always feel bad about saying that soda bartender sounds weird,
though and that's when he met my mom, and then
ultimately they got married and my dad got into the
steel business and got a job with a steel company
out of Chicago actually the region, but they lived on
the South side of Chicago. Heck. Yeah, as a matter
(02:02:32):
of fact, it's interesting that and I've told the story
once on Beyond the Bricks. Joe Jordan invited my dad,
because my dad was a really big you know, loved music,
invited my dad to the the record release of that song,
and my dad kept declining, and then finally Joe Jordan
(02:02:54):
as my dad's boss, and my dad was a high
school kid, but my dad didn't have a lot of money,
and Joe Jordan showed up with a suit for my
dad and said, I realized, the reason you don't want
to come to the event is because you don't have
a suit. So my dad's always said that the very
first suit he ever got was because of the five
hundred song, which I just always thought was cool because
of what the five hundred means to me. But at
any rate, when my parents lived in Chicago, my mom
(02:03:16):
was a young mother and the Cubs of course daytime baseball,
and that was the summer of sixty nine when the
amazing Mets came roaring back and took it from the Cubs.
My parents have been die hard Cubs fans ever since,
ever since, and I grew up a Reds fan. But
the one thing about the Cubs. You know, when I
was a little kid and my parents would tell me
(02:03:37):
about the Cubs, and my dad's are the Cubs the
lovable losers? You know, the Norman Rockwell painting of the
Lovable Losers and all of those things, right, And with
all of that, I kept saying in the summer of
twenty sixteen, and in particular in the fall of twenty sixteen,
as the Cubs were getting closer and closer, I said
on the radio Eddie, and people went crazy towards me,
(02:04:00):
and I said, be careful because while I know it
would be unbelievable, if the Cubs are to actually win
the World Series, it would be amazing, don't get me wrong,
But be careful what you wish for, because if they
are to win the World Series, they lose their identity.
And if they win the World Series, they then go
(02:04:21):
from being the fan base that no one could ever
possibly think to say anything negative about, because they were
the lovable losers. And then but I was like, but
as soon as you win a World Series, then you
automatically just become another obnoxious fan base. And there is
a magic about Wrigley, no question about it. Although I
(02:04:43):
wish they put the Torquo billboard back up in right field.
But there's a magic about Wrigley in daytime baseball, and
the rooftops and all of it, and you know urinal
troughs and you know all of it, right, there's a
magic about it, no question. And the neighborhood itself. When
you go up to a game up there, and you
think to yourself, like every when you go to a
Cubs game and you're around Wrigley Field, you automatically feel
(02:05:08):
like a kid because it feels like because it's daytime baseball,
and you feel like you're skipping school or whatever. I mean,
there is a magic and a mystique about it, and
there's no doubt. But now that they've won it, their
fan base, Eddie, you just said it, they're obnoxious.
Speaker 2 (02:05:22):
I mean they were obnoxious before they won, but but you.
Speaker 1 (02:05:24):
Let them get away with it because they never had
anything to cheer about, right.
Speaker 2 (02:05:27):
It was like, Yeah, it was like yeah, you guys
can keep cheering all you want. You just you've never
won anything. Come on, talk when you've won.
Speaker 1 (02:05:35):
But they're pretty good, right, they're okay, They're more than okay,
they're pretty good. They're okay. Yeah, if you went to
handicap right now, putting your heart aside, logistics like legitimately
in your mind the favorites now for the World Series
or who?
Speaker 2 (02:05:53):
I still think it's the Dodgers. Hard argue that track
record of the recent you know, last three to five
postseasons would say that you know a team that like
the Dodgers, they have a lot of great talent, and
you don't have to the week off or the extended
time off from the wildcards of the divisional series. You're
(02:06:13):
not waiting on to figure out who you're playing. You're
able to just go out there kind of playing pick
up right where you left off and start gaming number
one of the next series. Has always been an advantage
of my opinion, versus like Milwaukee or Philly. Now, who
gets some time off? I will say it's pretty close
with Philly.
Speaker 1 (02:06:29):
Though Milwaukee is interesting. I agree on.
Speaker 2 (02:06:32):
Philm I just think this could be the year where
they finally get back out.
Speaker 1 (02:06:36):
Of the I can't disagree with that. Milwaukee's interesting to
me because they've been probably the most consistently good team,
you know what I mean. I mean the whole year
that they've been very, very good, and yet there's nothing
about them that really jumps out at you. Right.
Speaker 2 (02:06:51):
They are just a fundamentally sound team. They timely hit,
They've got good pitching, They play really really good defense.
They don't shoot themselves in the foot by committing a
lot of errors. They make spectacular plays defensively. They they
run the bases the right way, they take the extra
base when they can, like they do everything that you
(02:07:11):
have to do. When you're a team like Milwaukee, you
don't have a lot of you don't have a lot
of players that you have on a high pay roll.
Speaker 1 (02:07:16):
And baseball postseason is crazy, though you just never know.
Speaker 2 (02:07:20):
Like the Red Sox could be an under under the
radar pick.
Speaker 1 (02:07:24):
How about the Blue Jays.
Speaker 2 (02:07:26):
I still got questions they're pitching. To me, it's worrisome
specifically starting pitching. They have Shane Bieber, but outside of that,
they they have a lot to be desired.
Speaker 1 (02:07:39):
And he went straight straight Tim Kirchen there with me,
you know, the funny thing about the Blue Jays and
games in which the left handed starter is playing on
a Tuesday after four thirty their bp I launch angle.
What Okay, H J and V is here? Is he? Here?
Is he on the road today? He is here? He's
on the road the rest of the week, though, J
and V is here. We will do the crossover brought
(02:08:00):
to you by the good guys that love heating and
air love dash HBAC dot com. We'll do it next. Okay,
I think it's the first day of school, Isn't that
What'll be determined? When is this played in fast times?
The words not high we got the beat is the
opening of the movie, and then the first day of school?
I think is Brad drives in is when this plays
(02:08:21):
right raised on the radio? Is played when he is
washing his car. Yeah, up, it's the first day of school. Okay,
that's when you got the TP's going and somebody is like,
you know what I don't feel comfortable saying on the radio,
And well, someone is the four letter word.
Speaker 2 (02:08:39):
Huh, it's a four letter word. You got rat trying
to drink water and it's spewing all over.
Speaker 1 (02:08:45):
His correct jacket. Somebody else is no, Oh yeah, it's
is it Arnold Arnold has the government is locker? Right?
I think so?
Speaker 2 (02:08:56):
No, it's Rat Rat has the Government's locked. Yeah, okay,
and then you got I forget who was who wants
to work at All American Burger. He'll have to talk
to Damel Taylor.
Speaker 1 (02:09:08):
That's Arnold. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was the.
Speaker 2 (02:09:09):
One trying to get his I think it was his
band instrument in the locker.
Speaker 1 (02:09:13):
That's right, Arnold Arnold trying to get his French horn
into the locker. Yeah, he works at Bronco Burger. Yeah,
but on the first day of school, that's when he
walks up to talk to about Arnold, you want to
work at All American Burger and then.
Speaker 2 (02:09:25):
Runs then runs into a dorc is checking out the
bosom of some girl. Hold on, first off, I'd like
to point out that's the first time since nineteen fifty
two that buzzom has been said, I was this radio
show totally in the zone for this radio station.
Speaker 1 (02:09:40):
I mean, really, you could have just said he was
checking out a check right, he walks right into the door.
Arnold is the most underrated character in the movie Fast
Time High Right. Yeah, and and how about this Eddie.
When they're waiting in line, you've.
Speaker 2 (02:09:57):
Got Brad rolling in in his car and checking out everything.
Speaker 1 (02:10:00):
Of course, so when and when they're waiting in line
to presume it, we get their schedules. And that is
when Arnold comes up and approaches Brad Hamilton to see
if he can get him in an All American Burger?
Who is the other Who is the other person that's
standing in line that has no in the regular movie,
has no speaking role, but I believe in the TV
(02:10:23):
version has a line.
Speaker 2 (02:10:26):
I don't know, but can you name the song of
Phoebe Kate's Coming out of the Pool?
Speaker 4 (02:10:30):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:10:30):
I mean, dude, that's like asking if I didn't know
there was a song. It's like asking if you can
name the Chicago Bowl in nineteen ninety eight. That was
the MVP moving in stereo, of course, But honestly, do
you know the other actor in Fast Times that's standing
(02:10:52):
He has no speaking line, but he is and he
also works at All American Burger. He's in the back,
and I think that's where he has a speaking line
in this is it Nicholas Cage? Yes, I remember this.
Nicholas Cage is in there. It really was an Oscar snub, right,
I would agree, Yeah, that's good one. I just watched
it last night Fast Time's George Went High. And one
(02:11:13):
of the things I noticed at the end of the movie,
when Hamilton's working at the Mighty Mart and the guy.
Speaker 2 (02:11:20):
Comes thing that we discussed to Rob, it's we've discussed
this off there, haven't we.
Speaker 1 (02:11:25):
I don't think I've shared this with you? Okay? The
guy comes in, you know, and he says, the safe
behind the done. It's when I'm now now, you know,
and you know whoa and behind him is a magazine rack.
And I got curious because the one magazine that you
could make out is Time Magazine and it has At
first I thought it was Momar Kadafi, but it's Manuel
(02:11:46):
nor Jega on the cover. So I looked it up
and it's from December of nineteen eighty one. So I
don't know if that means that they filmed it when
that maga, Like if they literally just rented out of
Mighty Mart and filmed it and that happened to be
the current magazine, or if they sent somebody out and
then five months later, you know what I mean, they
were filming it, because I think it was filmed in
either late eighty one or early eighty two. But I've
(02:12:08):
gone through, as you know, Eddie, when I've been in
La I've gone and found like as many of the
legendary filming locations as possible. And unfortunately that Mighty mart
where Hamilton worked has been torn down and is now
like a department store.
Speaker 2 (02:12:21):
Yeah, didn't you uh FaceTime me from the point the
point I did?
Speaker 1 (02:12:27):
I did. It's just like some It's the in Sino
California Little League fields today, Eddie. Now that the season
is complete, yep, after a year of being the pre
and postgame host of the Indiana Fever broadcasts and again
Fever conducting exit interviews, I believe tomorrow Tomorrow morning, yep.
(02:12:50):
And then we're hoping to have Stephanie White on Friday.
But it's going to be an interesting offseason for everybody really,
but the WNBA in general, just because the Fever only
have what two players under contract, maybe three, I.
Speaker 2 (02:13:01):
Don't know the exact two, three, maybe four. I don't
know what the status of Lexi Hole and Mikaela Timpson is.
But yes, much like the rest of the league, the
Fever don't have a lot of players underneath contract to
two that are Caitlyn Clarkey and the Leah Boston. How
many of the players that were on the rosters in
the year would you like to see back on the roster?
(02:13:21):
I would say it if Lexi is a free agent,
you would like to see a Lexi hole back. Sophia
cunning Him back. I mean, okay, I think at this point,
I mean Kelsey Mitchell clearly, right yep, Sophie cunning Him
I think is is I hate to say expendable, but
(02:13:42):
I think you can somewhat get away.
Speaker 1 (02:13:44):
But I disagree.
Speaker 2 (02:13:46):
I mean, gotta remember she was starting over Lexi hig
her injury.
Speaker 1 (02:13:49):
I thought Odyssey Simms last night was outstanding, right yeah,
And I know, but I mean that's one that from
a depth piece, I think you'd like to have if
you could. Natasha Howard and obviously Aliah Boston.
Speaker 2 (02:14:04):
Alia is already back, she's underneath contract, right yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:14:08):
But I think you know, they had so many players
that had to come in and fill in and then
played well, and you know you'd be happy with about
any of them, to be honest with you, But I
don't know. I'll be curious to see what they do
do there just because in the WNBA in general is
just kind of at this crossroad after yesterday with the
(02:14:29):
comments about the commissioner, and you know, and now you're
going into collective bargaining agreement and the number of players
that are going to be available league wide. Are there
areas where you can upgrade? You know?
Speaker 2 (02:14:39):
Did you see the report by the Sports Business Journal
last night? It was I think it was right at
the start of the game, or it's got a little
bit into it that Kathy Engelbert the w ME commission
is going to be stepping down after CBA negotiations.
Speaker 1 (02:14:51):
I mean, based on yesterday, one would assume that's almost
a certainty. But why after I would imagine because of
the the new collective bargaining and everything that goes into it,
that you want the continuity that would only muddy those
negotiations and everything going into it. I think you get
(02:15:12):
it done and then you move along. That would be
my guess. But JB has arrived. John is loading up.
Looks like the text groove, big chill.
Speaker 5 (02:15:20):
Proove, it's all right, yeah, it's all right, yeah. I
mean it's just just like email and just like.
Speaker 1 (02:15:27):
No, no, no, I'm sorry, big show lined up by s
oh Big Show.
Speaker 5 (02:15:30):
Yeah, Kirk Morrison, who's on the Raiders Radio network, the
former NFL defensive player, get to join. What else we
all Lance McCallister after the Reds through VP last night
at Chavez Ravine. We'll talk about that in game number
two coming up later on tonight. So it really is
being a Rens fan, and I'm so accustomed to this.
It's like being an Indiana State fan in basketball, because
(02:15:52):
you're going to have, you know, one really surprising, eye
popping fun season out of about every ten because of
the way things are bad or the lack of balance.
Speaker 1 (02:16:02):
So well, I come by it. Honestly, I had to
not you know, not had to snicker. That's the wrong
way of saying it. But I did chuckle to myself
when I literally was I turned it on, I don't know,
mid second inning or something like that. Yeah, and I
heard you saying, like tonight hundred Green like ten strikeouts
run and I'm like.
Speaker 5 (02:16:22):
Fourth pitch, he gives up a home run, And then
yeah he was.
Speaker 1 (02:16:25):
And that's I mean, you can't look in terms of
giving them, you know, giving one up to Otadi. I mean,
that's not a unique fastball hitting team.
Speaker 5 (02:16:33):
He's a fastball pitcher, and they don't have any as
you saw, any difficulty catching up with any of that crap.
Speaker 1 (02:16:40):
Yeah, it was. It was frustrating for certain but that's
why they're serious. And you played more than one. But
the fever last night was fun.
Speaker 5 (02:16:47):
Yeah. Now is there any other league out there to
where you can go from sitting on the couch to
a championship level in a matter of monsters? I'm telling you,
it's like honesty, Sims's tumble. That's the only thing I
mean that's great last night? Does that go to s
told you that they could they can absorb different franchises
because there are still players out there they could play
at that level.
Speaker 1 (02:17:07):
I mean, that's it. In fact that it's just not
you know what I mean. It is so nuanced in
the fact that you only have that half the franchises
that other teams do that you know, think about it.
They contracted seventeen franchises in the NBA, you know what
I mean. Then all of a sudden, the TJ. McConnell's available,
you know, maybe not McConnell.
Speaker 5 (02:17:25):
You remember the franchises that were contracted. Oh boy, great shock.
Oh well then they become told became Tulsa. Did Miami
have one called the Soul or something like that.
Speaker 1 (02:17:37):
The Miami Soul. I mean there have there have been
a couple that have left and come back, right, I
think so.
Speaker 2 (02:17:43):
Did Cincinnati have a team never getting one back?
Speaker 1 (02:17:47):
I don't think Cincinnati did that. Seattle still does, right.
Speaker 2 (02:17:50):
Yeah, Seattle storm. But Dallas did not have a team.
Had a team lost it got it back?
Speaker 4 (02:17:56):
Right?
Speaker 1 (02:17:56):
What about Sacramento? They had a team? Do they still? No?
Speaker 5 (02:18:00):
The Monarchs, the Monarchs, Yeah that's one. Yeah, that's the
Sacramento Monarchs. Is that not who that was? The Monarchs?
Speaker 1 (02:18:06):
But they're not still around, are they?
Speaker 5 (02:18:08):
No?
Speaker 1 (02:18:08):
Huh no? Yeah, so yes, that's right, the Monarchs.
Speaker 5 (02:18:11):
Yeah, the Monarchs.
Speaker 1 (02:18:12):
All right, John's up next. We will be back with
you at noon tomorrow, and I thank you for listening
to the Quarry Company.