7/17/24 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty at iHeartRadioStation. Some decisions in life are really
really hard, others quite easier.A deeply unpopular person has a decision to
make. I'm going to help themwith it. The All Star Game took

(00:25):
place last night. Hunter Green didnot pitch well, and it's it's okay
to say that I don't need Idon't know that we need to go any
further. But I'll tell you what, thinking about Hunter Green, it made
me realize that a career decision thatI was thinking about making, I am
completely and totally ill equipped to make. Also, the NFL has confirmed something

(00:50):
that I suspected about a current BengalWe are going to get to that and
Pat Brennan's going to join us becausenobody's talked to him in a while to
discuss Tonight, it's FC Cincinnati battleagainst the Chicago Fire that coming up in
just about thirty minutes. Good afternoonon Moegar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
I hope you're having an awesome Wednesdayafternoon, and we thank you for

(01:11):
joining us. Show preview posted onx thanks to Emory Federal Credit Union,
your credit union with Heart since nineteenthirty nine. Go to EMORYFCU dot org
and if you want to play golfin the Emory Federal Credit Union Golf Outing,
there's room for you. I'll bethere playing August twelfth. Sign up

(01:33):
now, EMERYFCU dot org. Thisis not hard. This is not hard.
If you're the Commissioner of Baseball RobManfred. First of all, you
have found a way to mess upsomething that is unmess upable. You have

(01:55):
found a way to take something thatwas either beloved or ignored, and you've
turned it into something that has becomea bit of a punchline. That's hard
to do. It's not hard tofix it. It's quite simple. You've
got an All Star game. Letthe players wear their regular uniforms. I

(02:19):
know I've harped on this. Iknow I put a lot of tweets out
there last night about this during thegame. But man, in life,
sometimes you got to take the easywins. The easy win is today you
announce look moving forward. Starting nextyear, the players are gonna wear their
regular uniforms home whites and road grays, depending on which city is hosting the

(02:45):
All Star Game and what league they'reaffiliated with. Sometimes you got to take
the easy ones. This is theeasiest. This is more than a layup.
It's a two handed dunk. Whenyou're eight foot six and there's no
one anywhere close to the paint.You want to talk about something that would
be met with almost unanimous approval.It's like a teacher walking in on Friday

(03:10):
saying there's no homework this weekend.Right, It's like your boss walking in
and saying, everybody gets an extratwo weeks vacation. No one's going to
object. No one's going to objectif you go back to the way things
used to be, like last nightwas a really fun showcase. Lots of

(03:30):
young talent, lots of cool youngtalent, pretty good ball game, pretty
entertaining ballgame. And yet all anyonewas talking about last night were the uniforms.
The American League players look like theyworked at Roy Rogers in the seventies.
The National League players looked like theywere wearing bad baseball themed pajamas.

(03:53):
For generations, whether you go backto like the sixties, whether you go
back to the eighties, whether yougo back maybe just ten years ago,
for generations, the two coolest partof the All Star Game, The two
coolest parts of the All Star Game. Number one, players play hard.
This has never been in doubt.The Major League Baseball All Star Game works

(04:17):
better than the NBA All Star Game, better than the Pro Bowl, better
than whatever they do in the NHL, which they've tweaked. Because the players,
for the most part play as hardas they do in regular competition.
It looks like a regular season baseballgame. In fact, I went to
the All Star Game in twenty fifteenwith a buddy of mine and we said

(04:39):
to each other, like a rightaround the fourth inning, like you know
what, this has kind of turnedinto just a mid July ball game.
That's the beauty of it. That'snumber one. Number two the players wore
their regular uniforms. I can't explainwhy this is cool. My wife asked
me last night, like big deal, and I'm like, I don't know,
man. There was always, alwayshas been something so cool about seeing

(05:02):
that collage of uniforms, whether it'sin the team picture or on the baselines
when they're introducing all the All Stars, or when they show the dugout or
maybe a meeting on the mound,there's always been something cool about that.
Maybe you like that less than Ido, but everybody liked it. Instead,
they had these guys out there lookinglike their parents grabbed the last Halloween

(05:27):
costumes from like Kmartin or something.What are we doing? So? If
you're Rob Manfred, you're deeply unpopular. A lot of players don't like you.
I would imagine some owners don't likeyou, most fans don't like you.
This is a layup. This isan easy win, Rob. I'm
here to help, very simple.You don't have to have a press conference.

(05:53):
You don't have to you don't haveto go on a media tour.
Just issue a statement, a coupleof sentences, maybe a full paragraph.
We're going to go back to theway things were and in our All Star
Game, our Midsummer Showcase, wewant the conversation to be about how cool
it is. And we want theconversation to be about the game itself and

(06:13):
not what they're wearing. And iffanatics doesn't like it, if the league's
apparel partners don't like it, whatever. This is the easiest decision any commissioner
in all of sports will ever haveto make. Eleven minutes after three o'clock,
ESPN fifteen thirty LM. Mowager,I'm thrilled that you're here today.
Devin Kerr from MLS Season Pass AppleTV is going to join us coming up

(06:38):
at four oh five, and we'regonna give away more Thomas Rhet tickets in
the five o'clock hour by request.By request, we're going to test your
knowledge of the two thousand and nineBengals that coming up in the five o'clock
hour. I don't have it inme to offer a real hardcore Hunt Green

(07:00):
take. Look, he threw battingpractice last night, So what it happens.
It's a bad inning. If it'sa bad inning in a regular season
game and it's his first inning ofwork, he's probably still in the ballgame
for five or six more innings.And if it's a bad inning in a
regular season game, we chalk itup to guy had a bad inning,

(07:23):
guy had a bad outing. Iguess I don't know the people who watch
Hunter Green rooting for him to fail, got what they wanted last night.
I know those folks are out there. They were probably also hoping Elie Delacruz
would strike out every time he cameup. The adults in the room,
like me, The adults in theroom took his performance for what it was

(07:46):
completely and totally meaningless, a funchance for him to pitch in an All
Star game, and it won't behis last. I mean, I gotta
be honest with you. I don'thave it in me. This is why
I'll never be able to replace SkipBayless and I'll never be on one of
those shows that are really hot taky, because if I had that in me,

(08:07):
I would have woken up this morningand I would have crafted some sort
of hot Hunter Green take how embarrassingit was, how he shouldn't have been
an All Star, how it wasa bad look, how this was the
beginning of a poor second half.I can't do it. I can't manufacture
it. I can't create something that'snot there. There are people who do
that and do that very well.I will never be one of them.

(08:31):
I can't be one of them.For you. I can't be one of
those people who chooses to be firstto say something about how the start last
night for Hunter Green was an embarrassment. I got that on social media last
night, or this is why heshouldn't be an All Star. I got
that at MO at ESPN fifteen thirtydot com. Now, I think enough

(08:54):
of the folks who call this showto believe that I'm not gonna hear from
either today. But I'm also notcapable of doing it because I don't possess
that hot take gene. All Ican tell you is I was disappointed because
I wanted to see Hunter pitch well, he didn't, and then I almost
completely forgot about his performance before thegame ended. It's a meaningless exhibition game

(09:16):
where he's pitching against really good guys, and he didn't have it last night.
He grew fastballs over the plate.He looked like one of those batting
practice pitchers from Monday Night. Ifyou are making more out of it than
you should, you possess a genethat I simply do not have. Our

(09:37):
phone numbers are five point three sevenfour nine fifteen thirty and eight sixty six
seven two three seven seven six.You can send a tweet or an X
whatever it is at Moeger thanks toa Delta Dental. Delta Dental is building
healthy, smart, vibrant communities forall good at Delta Dental oh dot com.
It's list season in the NFL,which Penn is doing list top ten

(10:01):
players at every position where Jamar Chaseis feels about right, but that's not
the player whose name I was lookingfor. That coming up here in just
a bit. Also Pat Brannon onFC Cincinnati the Orange and Blue taking on
the Chicago Fire tonight, trying tobounce back from that performance on Saturday evening
the game live on ESPN fifteen thirty. Pat Joins is coming up at three

(10:24):
thirty five. Also, the tradedeadline is approaching. Is anything really gonna
change? And Xavier is retiring thenumber of one of its men's college basketball
legends. I have a question lotsto get to between now and six.
Glad you're with us. Quarter afterthree, ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports

(10:46):
Station, Cincinnati. I have pollquestions on x Thanks to United Heartland Insurance.
They will help you save mo moneyon whatever your insurance needs are.
If maybe it's your car, maybemaybe it's your motorcycle, Maybe it's your
house, maybe it's your vote,maybe any life insurance, maybe it's business
insurance, whatever it is, UnitedHeartland Insurance. The website is very easy

(11:11):
uhi ns dot com. They've gotoffices in Hamilton, Cincinnati, and Burlington
in North Kentucky, so check themout. Uhis dot com. We have
two pole questions I'm gonna work backwards. The second one is about Hunter Green's
appearance last night. Four choices votenow at Moeger Hunter Green's bad inning in

(11:33):
last night's meaningless exhibition was a embarrassingb concerning ce silly to even think about
beyond how unfortunate it was that theymade him wear that ugly uniform and d
I've already forgotten that he appeared inthe game. Twelve point one percent say
it was embarrassing, embarrassing for whohe pitched a poor inning in a game

(11:58):
that the result has already been forgotten. Who is supposed to be Is Hunter
Green supposed to be embarrassed? HunterGreen? Who is starting to deliver on
the promise that came when he wastaken by the Reds in the twenty seventeen
draft. He is supposed to beembarrassed because he had a bad inning in

(12:18):
an All Star game? Really?Am I supposed to be embarrassed? Are
the Reds? Is the city who'sembarrassed? The other questions about the uniforms.
I'm having fun with this, Let'sbe honest. I'm having fun with
this. But come on, man, just take the easy w take the

(12:39):
easy win. When when life givesyou easy wins, take them. Don't
overly complicate things. Part of thecharm of the All Star Game it's there
are things that as sports fans welike that are hard to explain to people
who aren't sports fans, including maybeyou're emotional attachment to a team. One

(13:03):
of those things, for me andfor a lot of us, has always
been the All Star Game. Itlooks cool when you see all those uniforms
out there, but if you're gonnamake them wear the same uniform, if
you're gonna homogenize the entire thing,can you at least put him in attractive
uniforms? The National League uniforms wereslightly better than the American League uniforms.

(13:24):
The American League uniforms were one offour things and you can vote right now
at moeger A what Roy Rogers employeesprobably wore in nineteen eighty three. B
the costumes the actors wore in aReally Bad School musical about baseball in nineteen
eighty seven. The eighties featured alot of brown see baseball theme pajamas,

(13:50):
and d what a teddy bear wouldwear if his name was Slider. Vote
now at Moegar. While you're onthe internet. Good stuff. On yesterday
show, if you missed it,Paul Danner Junior was with us to a
preview Bengals training camp, which isgetting closer, Paul covering the team for
the Athletic We talked about some positionbattles that are going to unfold in the

(14:11):
coming weeks and a few training campstorylines, most of which did not involve
Joe Burrow. I think there's somereally interesting roster stuff that will happen with
a team that kind of feels likeon the surface, most of the roster
questions have already been answered. Gofind that. It's on the iHeart app
also my PAGESPN fifteen thirty dot com. And we also had two people who

(14:37):
I love to get on to talkabout the draft, the baseball draft,
Arm Layton from Jess Baseball, who'salways terrific and measured, and he's a
guy that cropped up popped up onour radar two years ago when he was
a fan of some of the Redsor some of the players the Reds acquired
in the trades involving the likes ofTyler Maley and Luis Castio. Before that's

(15:01):
Sunny Gray Et cetera. So hetalked about the draft, and then our
guy Chris Crawford from NBC Sports.He says the Reds draft class this year
is his favorite, this year hisfavorite of all the other teams. So
if you want some good optimistic Redstuff, go get it. iHeartRadio app

(15:22):
Also my PAGESPN fifteen to thirty dotcom. Podcasts of this show are a
service of Longneck Sports Grill, whichsummertime at Longnecks is the absolute best locations
in Wilder, Hebron and Richwood.I'm gonna spend a few minutes on this
a little bit later on in greaterdetail. So it's list season in the

(15:45):
NFL. We're different outlets list youknow, quarterback tiers and top ten running
backs and top ten outside linebackers,and some of that stuff can be for
me at least a little fatiguing.Some of that stuff I think is pretty
interesting. ESPN is running a serieswhere they have looked at or are looking
at, every position as training campgets closer. And what they have done

(16:10):
is they have surveyed league executives,coaches, and scouts to rank the top
ten players at eleven different positions.They do this every year. This morning
they came out with their top tenwide receivers atop the list to No.
In surprise, Justin Jefferson, numbertwo, Tyreek Hill, number three,

(16:36):
Jamar Chase. You can go readthis at ESPN dot com, and you
know we can split hairs. Thereality is, who among us wouldn't like
one of those players. If youthink Jamar is better than Tyreek Hill,
fine, Jamar Chase is among thebest wide receivers in the sport. That's
not why I bring this up.What's interesting to me is they ranked the
top ten, and then they rankor list some honorable mentions and a lot

(17:03):
of players too, Cooper Copp,Deebo, Samuel Garrett Wilson, Jalen Wattle,
DeVante Smith, Nico Collins, AmariCooper, DJ Moore. Then they
have the also receiving votes category,and that's where t Higgins is not in
the top ten, not in thelist of players named as honorable mention but

(17:29):
also receiving votes. Now, Ithink we would all agree Number one,
T Higgins is a good football player. Number two, these are subjective rankings.
I'm sure there are some in NFLcircles who believe he's a top ten
guy. He is coming off.We know this too, he's coming off

(17:49):
for him a down season. Butduring the endless amount of time that we
spent talking about t Higgins this offseason, I mentioned, and I'm not the
only person to do this, byany stretch, mention that I believe there's
a sense that in NFL circles there'sno real consensus that you can find people

(18:14):
who aren't entirely sure he's a bonafideNumber one, perhaps through no fault of
his own, because with the exceptionof his rookie season, he has played
the bulk of his time with JamarChase opposite him, But that I wondered
if maybe there was a sense inNFL circles that he's not quite in that

(18:37):
just upper tier, which means you'renot going to give him a salary commensurate
with the upper tier. This wouldreflect that. Again, I'm sure there
are people who are like, yeah, top ten, dude, And by
the way, maybe by the endof the season, there's a lot of
people who feel that way. Butwhat I see from this would confirm that

(18:57):
what a lot of us have believedis the case that there probably are some
who, whether it be because ofthe season, that he had last year,
or who he's been paired with.They're just not quite sure he's one
of those just bonafied A listers.I'm sure everybody thinks he's a good player,

(19:18):
but not one of those bonafied Alisters, Which means if you're wondering,
God, what could the Bengals havegotten in the trade for him,
Well, if there's a fair amountof people in the league who believe he's
not quite one of those A listers, that would have shrunken the pool of

(19:38):
teams interested in giving up something forhim and then extending him long term and
paying him like an A lister.More on that in a bit, but
first, Pat Brennan FC Cincinnati ChicagoTonight. He'll join us next. Cincinnati's

(19:59):
is PM fifteen thirty to traffic fromthe UC Health Traffic. We are broadcasting
from the ESPN fifteen thirty studios,powered by Greater Cincinnatis roofing and exterior restoration
experts made Well Restoration dot Com.FC Cincinnati tonight that home against the Chicago
Fire. The Orange and Blue tryingto rebound from an uneven performance on Saturday

(20:23):
Night. Again, Charlotte covering FCCincinnati for the Inquirer and Cincinnati dot Com.
A guy, boy, we haven'theard from this guy in a while.
On this radio station, Pat Brennanis with us. How are you,
sir, Well, I'm doing okay. Thanks a lot for having me
on, buddy. It's always goodto have you on. It's always good
to find out that you're gonna beon with this, So thank you for
doing this. Is Luca Acosta goingto play tonight. I don't think so.

(20:47):
I don't think so, partly becauseafter the game on Saturday against Charlotte,
after he picked up this injury.You know, some of the stuff
see in the locker room, theconversations are on the record. Some of
the stuff you see with your owneyes. It's not always on the record.
But I feel comfortable saying like thatwas as gingerly as I've ever seen

(21:11):
Luco moving around. His baseline isplaying with little nicks and knocks and little
nagging injuries. This one seems tobe a little bit more than that.
Chicago is not a great team,and I think you could pretty convincingly reason

(21:32):
that they should win this game withoutLuco. Just rest, give him some
rest, get him ready for amuch tougher opponent on the weekend at New
York Red Bulls, and I won'tbe offended, disappointed, or otherwise as
an objective observer of the game tonight, if I don't see Blucho out there,

(21:55):
and I think it would probably bemaybe in their long term interest to
not play him. That makes sense. What happened in the first basically the
first half against Charlotte, Yeah,this is f c. Cincinnatis didn't show
up, I wrote after the game. I thought it was the worst home
performance of the pat Noon in era. Now, there have been end results

(22:21):
that were probably more crushing. Alot of people reminded me about the Eastern
Conference Final last year. But Cincinnatiwas competitive in that game. They showed
up and looked perfectly capable of winningon those nights and other nights when the
end result has been not what fanshere would have wanted. But they just

(22:44):
they didn't show up for the firstthirty five minutes. It was very strange.
Usually this team will at least getshocked back to life if the you
know, a lesser opponent, whichas most opponents, opens the scoring,
you know, scores the second goalto make it to nothing. In the
case of Charlotte. Usually f CCincinnati will kind of shove back in at

(23:08):
that point, but they didn't.Charlotte almost made it three and four nothing
after that. It was really strange. Never really seen anything like it from
this like ultra successful era of fC Cincinnati soccer. It was more reminiscent
of like twenty nineteen through twenty twentyone, those horrible years. Yeah.

(23:29):
So, yeah, they just didn'tshow up, mom. I mean,
there have been matches they've lost whereI felt like they just got outplayed other
teams better. Other team is justhaving a better night, including in maybe
the last half or two thirds ofthe Eastern Conference Final. Watching on Saturday
was the first time that it feltto me like what they were putting on

(23:49):
the field was inferior to what Charlottehad out there. Yeah, it was
lame. It was truly lame.And you know Charlotte's you know, MLS
is a league of parody. Itis one of the league's where truly any

(24:10):
team can beat another on a givennight, even with huge talent gaps and
disparities and FC Cincinnati being a biggerspender in the league than Charlotte probably is.
You know, Charlotte any team canbeat anyone, but you know,
and Charlotte is one of the betterdefensive teams in MLS, and that made

(24:33):
it even more disappointing from my pointof view. I think that knowing that
if you get down two goals atany point in the game, let alone
in the first twenty minutes, yeah, you'll have more time to fight your
way back into it. And TomC Cincinnati's credit, they almost did,
but Charlotte, being the great defensiveteam that they are, ultimately prevailed in
the game. And you know,the awareness that f C Cincinnati had or

(24:59):
should have had that you can't getdown multiple goals against that team. I
was just really surprised that they weren'tshot back to life by the first goal
and then the second goal and everythingthat came after that. And there was
a little flourished from FC Cincinnati andkind of the middle thirty minutes of the
game, before and after halftime,but it wasn't enough. It was too

(25:19):
late, and like Pattnan said afterthe game, the team that deserves to
win one and that was Charlotte.What was jarring about it was it came
on the heels of what we hadseen the previous Saturday when they looked like
the best soccer team I'd ever watched. So the contrast was striking, you
know, That's what was interesting tome. They have dealt with injury on

(25:41):
the back line and you know nownot having Miles Robinson, which good for
him he gets a chance to gorepresent his country in the Olympics, and
good for FC Cincinnati for signing offon it. But is there a concern
that you know they've gotten by Butboy, there's only you can only go
so long without your key guys,and maybe that's going to catch up to
him at some point. Ah,yeah, I think that's probably fair to

(26:07):
say. I think you're always worriedabout that. Like, look, injuries
are a part of every season.No team in any sport is going to
get through a season, regardless ofhow many games you play in that sports
regular season with a you know,one clean bill of health. It's injuries
are going to happen. I thinkit's about luck in terms of when they

(26:29):
happen and how severe are they,how quickly can you get the guys back,
and like you just said, howhow important are the players impacted?
But yeah, it's yeah, evenlosing you know, Luciano LaCosta for a
night could be impactful in this racethat they're in for the supporter Shield,
because it's it's about it's about fouror five teams wide right now. It's

(26:53):
super tight. You could see itgoing down to the last weekend of the
regular season and Little dropped points hereand there like he had against Charlotte,
like you could conceivably have tonight.A flu show doesn't play, or even
if he plays at less than onehundred percent strength, these things will accumulate

(27:15):
by the end of the year.Matt Miyaska is a huge loss, Nick
Haglins, you know, so somepeople don't think he's a great player anymore,
but he's important to this team.I'll tell you that right now.
And you know, Miles Robinson beinggone as much as he is, you
know that starts to basically have thenet effect of an injury, even though
you'll get it, hopefully you'll gethim back healthy after the Olympics, but

(27:36):
while he's away representing the country,and that is good for him, and
it also has perks for stually Cincinnatitoo, But you know you want him
on the field at the end ofthe day. He's not there, so
that you lose him for different reasonsand that becomes to feel like the net
effect of an injury. Yeah,you can only go so long. We're
talking about all star caliber players here. You know, you can only lose

(28:00):
so many of those guys for solong before the hits start to a mass.
And maybe it doesn't look like it'sa mass yet for f C Cincinnati
obviously because they're still in first place, but you know that stuff will bear
itself out over the long haul,and I think you'll start to see,
if you know, if Luciano Acostawere to not play tonight and they were

(28:22):
to lose, you know you canYou'll be able to go back when f
C Cincinnati's four or five points shortultimately in the supporter Shield race and pick
out two or three games, evenjust a handful of moments that these players
could have impacted and made a differenceand say, yeah, that was the
difference. Pat Brennan Cincinnati dot Comcovering the FC Cincinnati Chicago Fire till tonight.

(28:45):
Follow him on x at p brendanian Q. I have two more
questions. Number One, you haveyou have been in attendance, if not
for every FC Cincinnati home game sinceyou started on the beat, at least
the overwhelming majority anybody who's pulled thesword ever gotten booed. So we're really,

(29:08):
it's tough to say, we're reallystealed in behind some thick glass up
in the press box. Yeah,so I don't know if I can speak
that with one hundred confidence. Justfor the record, I've only missed one
game. It was in twenty eighteen. That was for my brother's wedding.
Oh okay, and I would haveI probably, and I probably would have
skipped it if I had, youknow, not been named the best man.

(29:29):
But that's a high honor. Sono, I don't think anyone's been
booed. I don't think anyone's beenbooed. What's the next question? Uh?
In an effort to go back intime and win the twenty thirteen NBA
title, the Philadelphia seventy six ershave acquired Paul George. Are you excited?
No, I'm not. No,no, no, it doesn't.
That does nothing for me. Look, well, this is a franchise that

(29:52):
has been chronically mismanaged for I toldyour producer twenty five years. It's really
more like forty five years. Anduh, you know, the edition of
Tired Haggard Paul George does. Itdoesn't make them better than then Bucks,
Knicks or Celtics, and you knowwho cares after that? If you're if

(30:15):
you're not a top four team inthe East, you're truly irrelevant in modern
NBA, I think. So that'swhere we're at, all right, And
you know, I just I didn'tmean to cut. I thought the next
question was going to be about youpulling the sword tonight. Look, you
put the pressure on yourself by hypingthis up, like thirty six hours in
advance. If you stumble. Ididn't hype it up. I was.

(30:36):
Friends of mine got mad at mefor not telling them I was doing it,
and then when they found out Iwas doing it, they said,
well you should. You should announceit. So I did. I mean,
dude, even Cam Taylor Britt lastweek he was awesome A thirty six
hours well he was, yeah,but he didn't. No one knew thirty
six hours in advance though, Sothis this is highly irregular. Am Taylor

(31:00):
Britt doesn't have to do self promotion? Okay I do, right? Can
Taylor Britt doesn't need someone to go, hey, look at it? And
with our marketing budget. I do, like legitimately, friends of mine were
they like they sort of words frickleout and they're like, well you didn't
tell us. I'm like, Idon't know, and that big of a

(31:21):
deal. So then I'm like,well maybe I should, maybe I should
put it out there, And thenI did, and now I I kind
of regret it. Well, look, George Foster has pulled this sword.
Yes, yeah, I mean theyin Fairness Efty Cincinnati. It feels like
these rituals are a little bit mandatedand cookie cutter in that way, like

(31:44):
everyone has one in MLS, butthey've done a really good job with theirs.
And you're on that list. Nowyou're on that list now, I
mean, so you got to makeit happen tonight. You It's it's big
pressure. I don't know what youdo. Don't hurt yourself with the thing.
But you gotta you gotta bring theflair. You gotta you really have
to bring it tonight. Not abig deal. I'm not a flair guy.

(32:07):
That's the thing. I'm just youknow, here, here's the sword.
Let's play the game. I mean, oh, that sounds fun.
That's a great way to helpe upthe crowd. This will be great.
Yeah. Wait here, Okay,I'm gonna I'm going to schedule a bathroom
break. It sounds fla. Okay, you guys are right to play some
soccer. Here we go, here'sthe sword right well, and and then

(32:30):
in that case we will have somebodywho gets booed. All right? Are
you doing any more radio shows today? No, that's it. I think
uh. I'm open to uh,I'm open to taking more on. But
no, I think that's all right. I guess Lance is all booked up
tonight. You're the best. Thankyou as all. Thank you. Have
a great night. It's our goodluck. Thank you very much. Pat

(32:51):
Brennan, Cincinnati Inquirer and Cincinnati dotCom. The match tonight on ESPN fifteen
thirty. Pre game starts at UHat seven o'clock. See where we're going.
We got more. We got DevinKurrz got the game tonight on TV.
He's gonna join us in like seventeenminutes. Our numbers are five win,
three seven four nine, fifteen thirtyand eight six six seven oh two

(33:12):
three seven seven six. The AllStar Break, the All Star breaks not
over. It's four days now.The All Star Game is over, which
means we can we can start tofocus our attention on the second half of
the season, and UH and thetrade deadline and UH more on the t
Higgins thing, plus Trayvon Blow It'sgonna have his number retired by Xavier,
which is awesome. I can't helpbut ask a question not about Xavier either.

(33:36):
It is twelve now, eleven awayfrom four. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, the oldThis is ESPN fifteen thirty. The Bengals
just announced a few moments ago thattomorrow they will announce their twenty twenty four
Ring of Honor class. Tomorrow morningwe find out whose season two GET members

(34:00):
and SWEE holders voted in tomorrow two. I think I can say this.
I don't think they'll get mad atme for saying this. I'm not doing
this show tomorrow. Lance is off, and so Tarren correct me if I'm
wrong. I think Chad's here tomorrowcorrect, Yes, yes, so I'm
doing Lance's show six to nine.I will have one, and I have

(34:22):
not been told who it is.I will have one of the Ring of
Honor inductees tomorrow night at six'ten on seven hundred WLW we talked about
this. The thing that I lovemost about the Bengals having a Ring of
Honor is it creates fun. They'resupposed to be fun, at least fun
conversations about who should get in,who should be on the ballot, what

(34:44):
future Ring of Honor classes might looklike. I feel very strongly that I
think Dave Lapham should be in theRing of Honor, very strongly. And
then with my other vote, Ichose Lamar Parrish acknowledging that there's a lot
of people on that that if theyget in, awesome, so I feel
strongly about it. I have noidea who's going to win. I have

(35:07):
no idea who the two inductees aregoing to be. But like I love
All Star vote, I love Hallof Fame voting baseball, football, and
basketball in particular, Baseball, Ithink is the most talked about Hall of
Fame when it comes to voting results. One thing that I get at least

(35:28):
a little bothered by is when theresults are announced, the focus immediately shifts
to who didn't get in, andI think to a degree that's a real
disservice to the people who did getin and have earned it, and so
I have no idea who gets in. Selfishly, I hope it's lap because
I love Dave Lapham, and Ihope it's Lamar Perrish because I lean toward

(35:49):
the older players. But my focustomorrow, whether it be just talking about
who got in, chatting with whoeverI get a chance talk to, tomorrow
night, my focus is going tobe on who was voted in, and
I think those two men deserve thattomorrow, and then talking about who didn't

(36:10):
get in and what's next for meat least that really that's for another day,
so we'll find out tomorrow. DevinKerr has the night's match for Apple
TV. He joins us next onESPN fifteen thirty. This report in fifteen
thirty Cincinnati's sports station. All right, it's four to four ESPN fifteen thirty

(36:34):
on Moeger. Thank you so muchfor joining us. I hope you're having
an awesome Wednesday. FC Cincinnati onthe picks the night at home against Chicago.
That match starts at seven thirty.Devin Kerr is on the call for
MLS Season Pass Apple TV. Andyou get a broadcaster, whether it's a
play by play person or an analyst. You get them three hours before they

(36:57):
go on the air. That's that'spretty special, Devin enough to join us
as he gets said for a matchto night that I think it's going to
be quite interesting. It's good tohave you, Devin. How are you
appreciate you having me? You letme know when you get that person three
hours there we're three twenty six,so I don't fall into that that amazing
category. Just yeah, buddy,great to be back, man, how's
life? Life is good? Youjoined us mid May before FC Cincinnati took

(37:21):
on Saint Louis, and it kindof felt like, boy, they were
they were just starting to get goingand that Yeah, that momentum had been
pushing forward for a while and itkind of came to a crescendo the previous
Saturday a week ald go this thispast Saturday when they blew out Miami and
then man, for a lot offans, it felt like the air came
out of the blue and against Charlotte. What happened, Well, I would

(37:42):
say it's a couple of things.Most people are going to look at it
and go, oh, it's ahangover and and that is a possibility,
right. You ride such a highfor such a long period of time,
and the peak that is the sixto one victory over into Miami kind of
all the air comes on. Yougo, okay, job done, and
you kind of hit the brake alittle bit. I didn't say breaks,
because there was a twenty minute windowat the start of the second half where

(38:04):
there was full blown gas that weregoing one hundred miles an hour and they
had a chance. They just didn'thave the energy nor the quality to sustain
it. That's something that is goingto happen when you lose someone like Matt
Miasga off the back line. Thatquality on the field, for sure,
but just to maintain that overall cohesionwithin the group. I understand it's been

(38:25):
a couple of games, but sometimesit takes time. Of course, Miles
Robinson towards the tail end of thegame gets thrown out. Nick Haglin unavailable.
Right This is as a pattern rightnow, No one's fault of their
own that causes a trickle down effect, but it does present opportunities, and
so I think for that game againstCharlotte, they were just a little bit

(38:45):
lacking on the energy side. Charlottedefensively has been very, very good.
They had some quality opportunities and theymade Cincinnati pey. Yeah, you know,
just to really flat first thirty thirtyfive minutes. And it wasn't like
the entire game was non competitive,but I was saying this early or it
just it felt like coming off ofthat Miami game right where they were so
good and so dominant, say whatyou want about who Miami didn't have to

(39:07):
then follow it up with that performancewas very deflating. Yeah, I don't
buy that narrative. By the way, It's something that always frustrates me when
it comes to, oh, well, they didn't have Messi and they didn't
have Geordi Aba. Last I checked, they're not the only two players on
the field. And while certainly theyare some of the best in MLS and
on the roster for Inter Miami,Sergio Busquetz was still there, Julian Greussel,

(39:30):
the wonder Kid, was still availableon the lineup, the All League
player when Messi is on the field, Robert Taylor was there, the youngster
Kramaski. They still had plenty oftalent, including United States men's national team
pool goalkeeper Drake Callender, who likesticks into the back of that on that
field, and yet you still broughtthem into home established momentum in an arena

(39:50):
that to be fair TQL, theyneed that momentum. It's kind of weird
to see Cincinnati team be so dominanton the road and not have that compliment
at home because being at their homevenue for the past couple of seasons,
especially last year, unbeatable, right, like one of the most difficult places
to play in MLS. And Isuspect we see the return of something like

(40:13):
that tonight, just based upon myconversation with Pat Noon, and he was
very clear about the fact that theeffort will just use that word politefully,
because I know this is a thisis a family show. The effort wasn't
good enough, right, and sothey are held to a different standard in
that locker room. And historically thingsgo pretty well coming out of a loss

(40:34):
under Pat Noon, and specifically inmidweek games. So I think all gloves
are going to be off. Chicagohas a little bit of momentum themselves.
They've got some goals, but withthe lack of options available for this FC
Cincinnati team coming off that loss,I don't care who's on the field.
I wouldn't want to face them onthe road, even if it is a
Chicago team that feels like maybe they'vegot a little bit of identity heading their
direction. Obviously, the question markabout whether Lujo Acosta is going to go

(40:59):
tonight has over the run up tothis game. When you joined me in
May, I asked you, arethey maybe a little bit too dependent upon
him? And we kind of kickedthat around. How do you feel they've
evolved over the last two months Sincethen? I would say that throughout all
of these injuries that they've occurred,as well as I might add with Miles
Robinson though he suspended for the matchthe international duty with his departure earlier,

(41:22):
and they picked up Nick Caglin's injuries. Since we spoke with all of that
that has gone on, I thinkthat they've evolved in a couple of ways.
Number One, defensively, it givesyou a different shape, the way
that they can drop themselves a littlebit deever deeper, excuse me, the
midfield shape specifically flatten itself out.So if you look at a front line
that they used in the iteration,I believe it was the inter Miami game

(41:45):
where you had Cubo, Lucco andOdigiano on that front line. Akasa is
always going to be the focal pointof that. But when you add Odigano
and Cuba onto the front line,these versatile pieces, it gives you that
ability to flatten out that midfield shape. You get a little bit deeper,
You keep the game in front ofyou, and that allows a couple of
things. You can shift side toside a little bit faster. You're not

(42:07):
necessarily as worried about the space inbetween, because the gaps are tighter when
they play a little bit higher,and you've got two dedicated forwards. In
that situation, Luco's always going toRome, so you run that fear of
when he's out of position. Nowyou need two strikers to work down underneath.
Strikers don't want to do that.They want to say high and they
want to score goals, right,So if you bring a little bit deeper,
you get guys that can play onthe outside, specifically in this instance,

(42:30):
Kupo and Ortizano, and you providecoverage for a back line that needs
it. It takes the pressure interms of distribution and also marking off a
back line that in about a month'stime went from arguably the best in MLS
to lacking that star started cast andjust trying to find a way to get
by. Now, certainly moving intothe final thirty gives you more options as
well. You get higher, youcan possess the ball a little bit more,

(42:52):
And if Luco is unavailable tonight,yeah, you're definitely going to get
a different look in terms of thenine and who becomes that creative piece underneath.
But they're not looking to recreate Lucco. They're just looking to have that
contuitive effort that you get out ofa ten minus Lucco at a secondary piece
in there, who can pick uppieces over three or four guys on the

(43:13):
pitch over the course of ninety minutes. That might be the most nuanced,
in depth piece of soccer analysis we'veever had on this show. You'll get
that. Get more of that tonight. mL Season pass Apple TV. FC
Cincinnati hosting Chicago, Devin kerr withus for another couple of minutes. I
go back to about this time ayear ago, we kind of felt like,
you know what, FC Cincinnati mightnot only win the Supporter Shield but

(43:35):
run away and hide, which theydid. They may win it this year.
I don't think they're going to runaway and hide? How do you
handicap that race? I would makethe argument that last year, at this
time, I could definitively say thatFC Cincinnati was the best in MLS at
that time in terms of teams thatI had seen. The argument is a

(43:57):
little bit thinner now. I wouldsay that in terms of courquality of football
on the field of play. AndI'm sure the locals are going to love
what's about to come out of mymouth, but the noisy neighbors right around
the corner, Wilford Nanceen the ColumbusCrew. They're very, very good and
the patterns of play that they've beenable to put into their team, especially
coming out of their loss in theCONCACAF Champions Cup Final, it's not the

(44:21):
letdown that people thought it was goingto be, and they've only gotten better.
So they're very difficult to play.They attack in such a variety of
ways. And right now, tome, it's really four teams that and
I know people are going to laugh, Oh that's a lot, but it's
three in the Eastern Conference and onein the Western Conference. It's Inter Miami,
it's the Columbus Crew, and it'scertainly f C Cincinnati and in the

(44:43):
Western Conference LAFC. Now, whenI make those comments, I want to
be very very clear. I'm talkingabout the quality of play that I see
on the field. There are teamsthat certainly can get into this conversation.
LA Galaxy can be right there.We also, like is another team that
possesses a ton of quality. I'vecertainly seen some defensive escapades that have bitten
some teams from Charlotte seasons. Sinnatijust dealt with that. But overall,

(45:07):
to me, it's a four horserace at this point in time, and
C Cincinnati is the leader in theclubhouse, so they say, But remember
Columbus have two games in hand onboth inter Miami and FC Cincinnati and LAFC
have a game in hand as well, I would say, selfishly being a
neutral and getting an opportunity to watchthis race. It's been quite some time
when we've been this deep into theseason where it was very difficult to predict,

(45:30):
you know, who was going towin it. Usually it was one,
two, maybe you got three.All of a sudden it's four,
with the possibility of a couple ofoutliers. It's a dream for an announcer
to be fair. I know youhave a lot going on. You've got
to get over to TQL Stadium.I appreciate the time, man, thanks
so much. Well, always apleasure. Good luck to you and your
fans tonight. Cheers, Bud,they'll need it. Devin Kerr, The

(45:52):
match tonight Apple TV starts at sevenpoint thirty. He's an MLS Season Pass
match analyst and could watch it onMLS's and pass on Apple TV, and
of course, of course, ofcourse you can listen to the match live
on ESPN fifteen thirty. Tom Glater'sgonna join us. We haven't had Tommy
on in a while. He's gonnajoin us on the broadcast booth, coming

(46:13):
up at five twenty thirteen a halffor four o'clock on Mawegger. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you forjoining us. Reds have a lot of
injuries we have to sift through.We will when we do our weekly segment
with one of the experts from OrthoSincy. We've got Luke Manley's herniated disc
and Nick Martini's thumb, and CarsonSpeyer's impingement and whatever the hell's going on

(46:38):
with Graham Ashcraft's elbow. Plus we'lltalk to Nick Haglin too. Doctor Nick
Early joins us, coming up injust about twenty minutes, speaking of the
Reds, so that the second halfis coming, which means the trade deadline
is coming. I think we alreadyknow the answer to the question that everyone
is gonna start asking very loudly.This incredible sports talk radio take is next

(47:05):
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Stations. Been in Jones on baseball, coming
up in in about thirty five minutes. A little slow jam here from Tarn.
Whenever you play music like this,I feel like I should be standing
up against the wall watching everybody elsedance. Come to that tonight when you

(47:28):
put left us away, stand upagainst the wall. Yeah. We also
are gonna get doctor Nick Early onwith us to talk about a bunch of
Reds who are hurt before we beforewe get into the Reds, which we'll
do here in just a second.Congratulations to my favorite Cincinnati institution, Skyline
Chili. You know how much Ilove Skyline. Skyline a tremendous partner of

(47:54):
ours at ESPN fifteen thirty, justdropped off yesterday hot met cheddar Cone and
today reading the Cincinnati Enquirer, SkylineChili named the number one regional fast food
chain in USA Today's ten Best readersChoice Awards. So regional chain, not

(48:16):
a national chain. Regional chain ofwhich there are many and many good ones.
Skyline Chili number one. The readersof USA Today are very, very
smart. It is in their seventyfifth anniversary year, an unbelievable honor.
It's very cool the folks at Skyline. Look, we love the food,

(48:39):
love the restaurants, love the folkswho work at Skyline. On a corporate
level, there's no one better.And so it's such a cool thing to
see them get honored for to seethem get such large scale recognition, it's
really cool. So congratulations to allthe folks at Skyline Chile. I saw

(49:00):
this and I was I nodded alongand said, well, yeah, of
course, And then I thought,you know, that's more than just something
you read in the paper. That'sa really cool honor for an unbelievable company.
So congratulations to the folks at Skyline. Second half of the season starts
on Friday, and so you knowwhat we're gonna do, right, You

(49:23):
know how this is gonna work.So we just did the what the thirteen
game stretch that was going to definethe season. Well, now Reds open
up on the road. They're notgoing to be at home forever. They
open up on the road. Nineon the road, post breakthrough in Washington.
On Friday, they go to Atlanta, they go to Tampa, so

(49:47):
there's nine games. Then they comeback and play the Cubs on the twenty
ninth, and then on the thirtieth, that's the trade deadline. I don't
know why it's the thirtieth this year, but the deadlines at four in the
afternoon. They have a game thatnight. So you know what, this
is ten games? Ten games todefine the season. Ten games, and

(50:14):
so chances are if you're a Redsfan, maybe you've had conversations with people,
you work with, your buddies,whatever. Are they going to be
buyers or sellers? Are they goingto be buyers or sellers? What's the
next week and a half gonna do? Is the next week and a half
going to determine whether their buyers orsellers. Let's let's be let's be honest

(50:37):
about this. Where the Reds arenow, which is in a large collection
of teams that's a stone's throw outof a playoff spot. Where they are
right now is probably where they're goingto be on July third. Mathematically,

(51:01):
they're three games out of a wildcard. The New York Mets right now own
the last wildcard spot. They arethree over five hundred. In between Cincinnati
and New York, Arizona, SanDiego, Pittsburgh, San Francisco. The
Giants and Reds have the same record. Chicago is a half came back Washington.

(51:22):
I mean, it's it's illustrative Iguess of how baseball works. Watching
the All Star Game last night,I think it was small who mentions,
well, you know, here comethe Nationals. It's like, really,
they're nine under five hundred, butjust six games out. Let's be honest.
Where the Reds are now, I'mnot saying three under five hundred or
three out of the wildcard spot,but where they are now is probably basically

(51:45):
going to be where they are inthirteen days. Ten games is not likely
to change that. Now. Ifthey go one and nine, it changes
it. If they go nine andone, it changes it. What would
you be more likely to bet onsomething like five and five or six and
four or four and six or onein nine and nine and one? So

(52:10):
we know what they are. Weknow what this team is, They've played
ninety seven games, we know wherethe injuries are the most impactful ones.
We're probably not going to see thoseplayers returned for still quite a while.
I mean, you know, peoplekeep bringing up Matt McClain. I hope
Mat McLain comes back and plays great. They're targeting targeting a rehab stint starting

(52:35):
August twelfth, So we're like morethan a month still away from him maybe
being able to play for the bigleague club. So what am I getting
at here? As we discuss whatthe strategy is going to be. Let's
just let's accept what the strategy istoday is going to be what it is
on July thirtieth. This team isprobably not a rental player away from being

(53:00):
dramatically better. Now. They mightbe a rental player away. Plus Will
Benson being good again, or TylerStevenson catching fire, or Eli de la
Cruz being even better, or SpencerSteer being even better, or offense coming
from some unforeseen place. If allof those things happen, then yeah,
maybe that rental can make a difference. But a rental on his own is

(53:23):
probably not gonna make that much ofa difference. So, all right,
do we want rentals? Not gonnasay no as a general rule, but
the preference should be, well,the type of player that we have talked
about on this show for the lastfew weeks, a guy that you get

(53:45):
for the remainder of this season andthe beginning of twenty twenty five and maybe
even beyond. They're probably not goingto play so well that you're thinking,
good God, go all in handover a bunch for a dude for two

(54:07):
months. And even if they tradeit away a player like a Jonathan India
or some of the relievers or aFrankie Montass, it's not like they're going
to go into fire sale mode becausethey have too many young guys that they
want to move forward with. Sowhat should they be looking for? Whether
the Reds win the next ten orlose the next ten, or whether the

(54:30):
more likely outcome occurs, which isthey're sort of where they are on July
thirtieth, where they are on Julyseventeenth, try to find way to acquire
players. And this sounds really easy. I know it's not. I know
it's really not easy. Try toacquire players, regardless of what they do.
Starting pitchers, bullpen guys, positionplayers, they need, outfielders,

(54:52):
whatever it is. Find guys thatcan help in the short term but can
primarily help next year. The examplethat pops to mind is the one that
I keep using. It's Trevor Bowertwenty nineteen. The twenty nineteen Reds made
a deal at the deadline for TrevorBauer, knowing the odds were they were

(55:13):
not going to be a playoff team, and they never came close. But
did Trevor Bauer make them better?Sure? But he was also on the
team in twenty twenty, and youcould use him as a piece that made
your team better down the road,but also in the short term gave you
a better pitching staff. Now.To be honest, Trevor Bauer stunk in
twenty nineteen. He was awesome inthe shortened season of twenty twenty. It's

(55:36):
not about Trevor Bower. It's aboutthat type of player. I don't know
that the next ten days are goingto dramatically change that the most realistic outcome.
Does that mean that you're gonna lookat the Reds and go all in,
Bye bye, bye, load upmortgage the future straight away? Probably

(55:59):
not, And they're also not gonnahave a fire sale the trade deadline strategy
for me all along, and frankly, I would say well before the trade
deadline, because they should have beentrying to acquire players like this already,
Players for the now, players forthe later, players for today, players
for tomorrow. Give me the sameplayers again, like, were they even

(56:25):
in on Luis or Eyes? Havethey kicked the tires on Luise Robert?
Have they made an inquiry into JazzChisholm? Those are You might like some
of those players more than others,you might not like any of them,
but they are guys you get forthis season and beyond the traditional by mode.
Reds aren't going to be in thatmode where we're gonna give up a

(56:47):
long term piece for a guy thatcan only help for a couple of months,
not worth it, not worth goingfor it. And they're also not
going to unload a bunch of guys. They may strategically get something for Frankie
Montas, fine. They may strategicallyfind something for Jonathan India, fine.
They may strategically find something for oneof their relievers, fine, But the

(57:08):
traditional buy sell mode that we talkabout so often, I don't think this
team's gonna fit. I think they'regonna be just like a whole lot of
teams, which is gonna flood themarket, right gonna be a whole lot
of teams looking for the same thingright now in the National League, and
there are probably two teams that arelegitimately out of it. The American League

(57:29):
is a little bit more. Whatthe red should get today is gonna be
the same thing they should be tryingto get on July thirtieth, and the
same thing they should be trying toget pretty much any day of the year.
Players who could help today, playerswho could help tomorrow. Those players
can be the same person. We'lltry to squeeze in some phone calls in

(57:50):
a bit five one, three,seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty
and eight six six, seven ohtwo, three, seven seven six.
Right now, though the Reds aredealing with a slew of injuries, so
is fcsons will discuss some of themwith doctor Nickerley from Orthosinc. Next lines
are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet Homeof Lifetime powertrain protection and guarantee credit approval
from their family The Yours for Lifekelseyshev dot Com f C Cincinnati Home Tonight

(58:15):
for Chicago Matt starts at seven thirtyPregame coverage on ESPN fifteen thirty begins at
seven pm. Bengals Today announced thatthey will announce tomorrow who the two to
twenty twenty four Ring of Honor inducteesare. Xavier University Today announced via the

(58:36):
Sean Miller Podcast that they will makea series of announcements to celebrate what they
call an elite shortlist of names ofmen's and women's basketball players that have been
chosen to have their jersey numbers retired. The first name revealed or first number
revealed. I guess number five.Trayvon Blewett consensus second Team All American selection

(58:57):
as a senior, one of thebest and most decorated players in Xavier basketball
history, finishing second in the school'sall time scoring list. Treyvon blu had
had a marvelous career, Friend ofthe Show because he joined us about a
year ago, and he will joinByron Larkin, Tyrone Hill, Brian Grant,
and David West among men's basketball playersat XU to be given this honor.

(59:22):
It is very well deserved. Itis awesome. See, it's not
that hard to do, is it. It's and I if you're a Xavier
supporter, alumni fan, this issomething you should celebrate. I don't think

(59:45):
you'll be mad at me for mentioningwhat you probably already know. My rooting
allegiance is across town where if youdare mention anybody possibly having their jersey number
retired, you get side eye,you get looked at. It's like,
and by the way, let mejust clear this up. The previous athletic

(01:00:08):
director tried to pretend that there wasa hard criteria for who gets their numbers
retired. There never has been.And yet if you mentioned Steve Logan or
Sean Kilpatrick or it's it's like sacrilegiousto even mention it. Like you know
you they're not gonna pull down theother names and they're not Xavier. They're

(01:00:31):
not going to take down Byron Larkinsjersey number because they're putting up treyvon Blewetts.
It's not that hard. I mean, the moment Trayvon Blewett left Xavier
and wrapped up his college career,I think we all thought like that,
that's a dude that'll have his numberhung in the rafters at the Cinta Center.
But if a similar type of playercomes through. U see, Oh

(01:00:52):
my god, oh boy, thelooks of consternation you get. We can't
do that. Why it's not thesame as Oscar. Okay, it's a
pet peeve of mine. I'm sorry, I'm whatever. I bring this up.
It makes you see people really madand I we all care about the

(01:01:15):
same thing. I just you don'thave to throw up every player's name up
there, but you are allowed toretire some more. It'll be okay.
It's not gonna water down the process. It's not gonna dilute with the other
guy. There's still plenty of numbersto go around. Trayvon Blewett's number five
can be retired, which it shouldbe. There's some digits we could retire

(01:01:38):
across town and I'll sit back andlook at my inbox and read all the
nasty emails I'm about to get.On Wednesdays, we talk injuries with one
of the experts from Ortho Sinsey.The great thing about Ortho Sincy is they
have specialists and locations throughout the triState. They offer walk in or athipede

(01:02:00):
urgent care weekdays nine to nine andSaturday's nine eight to one p Learn more
at orthosinc dot com. That's Orthoci n Cy dot com. Doctor Nick
Early from Orthosincy is with us.Uh, there's a lot to talk about.
Let's begin with Carson Spiers pitch lastFriday night. Threw really well,

(01:02:20):
struck out the first six guys hadnine punch outs, and then less than
twenty four hours later he's on theinjured list with a right shoulder impingement.
Let's begin with that. What isan impingement, So you can think about
this like almost a pinching in hisshoulder. So the way your shoulder is
built is that you have your shoulderblade kind of comes up on top of

(01:02:44):
your shoulder, and you have yourbig muscle or your delta in the outside
of your arm there and underneath thatthere's almost there's a space, and then
deepen your shoulder surrounding kind of theball part of the ball and socket.
They're your barrotiercuff can And oftentimes yousee this in people who are very active
with any kind of overhead stuff,especially throwers, you can get impingement where
basically you get pinching of those rotatorcuff tendons and the tissue that's kind of

(01:03:07):
deep in the shoulder and these stuffthat's kind of surrounding it. And so
it's kind of a way of youknow, phrasing an injury or a problem
such that there's not a lot ofstructural damage, but they're just kind of
an irritation and you know, itcan cause you know, some difficulty with
with throwing or other you know,strength activities that would require kind of stabilization

(01:03:29):
of the shoulder as you're going throughthe motion. So he pitched in the
game on Friday despite feeling some discomfort. Could that have made this worse?
Yeah, and definitely if he wasalready having some symptoms, you know,
and he pushed through and obviously,like said, he was very effective with
throwing hard and everything. Afterward,he probably you know, just had an

(01:03:49):
increase in his symptoms that were justnoticing, Okay, something doesn't feel right.
But it was you know, notthat necessarily something was really significantly damaged,
as much as there's probably some inflammationand you know, and things are
just kind of more out of controlfrom what was already going on rather than
something new being injured. So let'stalk about the timeline here. The Reds

(01:04:10):
are expressing optimism that this is thesort of thing that paired with the All
Star break is going to mean thathe doesn't have to miss a lot of
time. Does that feel realistic toyou? Yes? Yeah, hopefully,
Like I said, given that hehad a clean MRI, you know,
with this type of thing, alittle bit of rest, you know,
smanti inflammatories and doing physical therapy exercisesto kind of get the shoulder moving and
also kind of stimulate those muscles tojust kind of help stabilize thing. You

(01:04:33):
know, a lot of times youcan turn the round pretty quickly. Now
that's said, there's also the otherside of the coin, which is sometimes
this can be an ongoing thing whereyou're kind of dealing with it off and
on. So but hopefully it wasgood timing for him having a few days
off there. This news came onthe heels of finding out that Graham Ashcraft
has had to go on the injuredlist. He is dealing with an elbow

(01:04:54):
strain and this this has played outin sort of a weird way. So
he pitched against the Yankees back onJuly the second, felt something still pitched,
they went to send him to Louisville, and then they rescinded that because
actually, well he's got an elbowstrain, and so they've put him on
the injured list. The initial planis to give him a PRP injection.

(01:05:17):
They've determined he's going to be outuntil September. I think a lot of
people look at this and feel likemaybe they're just delaying the inevitable and he's
ultimately going to have Tommy John surgery. Is that maybe a rush to judgment
that's unfair, you know, andit's hard to say. I would tell
you that that would definitely be aconcern, you know, with that when
you're talking about a strain or you'restarting to see, you know, reasons

(01:05:40):
why you might do a PRP injection, you are a little bit more concerned
about, like structural issues. Now. It must not be to the to
the point where it's concerning that it'slike, Okay, he definitely needs it.
Oftentimes you will try some conservative stuffwith rehab and medical treatment, such
as an injection first, and thereason being is because if you go the

(01:06:00):
route of okay, we're gonna doyou know, Tommy John surgery, that
he's basically you know, at allnext season, you know, for the
most part, or at least ata good portion of it potentially, and
so you know, if you lookat that, if you can resolve this
and avoid that, that's definitely youknow, preferable. And so you'll know
in a in a relatively short amountof time over the course of you know,

(01:06:23):
weeks to months with the conservative treatment, if you can, if you're
looking like you're going to get someimprovement, and if not, you know,
you may have lost some time theretowards the inevitable uh surgery. But
you know, if you if yougo that route, you're definitely missing a
significant amount of time. Can canyou walk through exactly what the PRP injection
does? Yeah, So PRP standsfor platelet rich plasma. Basically, what

(01:06:46):
you do is you you take someblood from the patient. You actually then
spin it in this large machine thatkind of separates the components of the blood.
And in your blood you have partof the blood's called plasma and part
of the plasma that has platelets init. The platelets are you know,
part of the blood that kind ofproduce a lot of growth actors. They
do a few things are involved withclotting, but they produce a lot of
growth factors that can actually aided healingand so yeah, out of that volume

(01:07:10):
of blood, you actually then injecta small volume of the plasmas the platelets
in it into an area where there'sdamage. And we do this for a
lot of different things, and thiscan actually induce healing and really help,
you know, with with some ofthese types of conditions. All Right,
we have another thread to talk about. Nick Martini recently had thumb surgery.
They're holding out hope that he canmaybe still play at some point in late

(01:07:33):
September. Based on what we knowabout the strain, it's the ucl of
the thumb. Does it seem realisticthat he could actually come back and help
this team this year? Yeah,potentially. It kind of depends exactly on
the degree of injury. A lotof times, you know, you will
need some time for healing after asurgery like that. For the most part,

(01:07:58):
you know, it's just a matterof like kind of letting things kind
of scar down and heal after thesurgery, and then the rehab is not
you know, too crazy. Youget your motion back pretty quickly, and
it's more about kind of supporting it. So if he heals up well,
you know, potentially towards the endof the season, it still might be
difficult, just because he'll need atleast a period of time there for healing
afterward before he could you know,grip a battle hard or do anything like

(01:08:20):
that. Like, there's going tobe some some period of time we have
to avoid stress on it. Butonce that period of time is over,
then you kind of start ramping thingsup and hopefully, you know, get
him back, but you know,the timing of that will be somewhat in
question. You watch it off baseball, you see a lot of guys,
maybe Elie de la Cruz most notably. I actually see a lot of kids

(01:08:41):
rocking this, and I think theydo it for cosmetic reasons more than anything
else. But they they where whenthey get on base what looks like an
oven mit, and that's kind ofwhat it's called the protective oven mit that's
become so popular. Would you recommendthat, if you're a base runner,
you put that on to avoid somethinglike this? Yeah, you know,
honestly, I think in today's youknow game, where as many head for

(01:09:02):
slides, as you're seeing everything,there's no harm in doing it. Like
you said, it looks cool too, so there's that. But but yeah,
I mean I don't see it downside. You know, really, I
don't think it would it would bea problem. And yeah, these little
injuries that happen to hands and stuff, it's just it's a shame when it
happens, because you got u's afreak thing and if you could avoid that,

(01:09:23):
then hey, yeah put it on. Uh. Doctor Nick Early from
Orthosinsia is with us one more redLuke Maley is dealing with a herniated disc.
They are also holding out hope thathe'll be able to come back sooner
rather than later. Let's start withthe injury. What is a herniated disc?
So you have these disks in betweenthe bones and your spine. Okay,

(01:09:43):
they're called intervertubleed discs, and they'rekind of squishy there at the outside
is a more firm part of theinside a little bit squishier. And what
can happen is that you can getlike a little herniation or like a little
weakness in the outside park is alittle bit more firm, and the squishy
inside part can kind of push outout, and we call that a herniation,
and it can push on nerves thatcan push on on things that can

(01:10:05):
kind of cause pain. It's actuallyvery common for people to have herniated discs.
Sometimes they're very symptomatic and cause alot of pain and push on a
nerve, and that makes somebody reallymiserable. And sometimes it's it's not too
bad. As we age, ourdiscs become less healthy. So if you
were to look at like an Xray of an eighty year old person's spine,

(01:10:25):
it would look very different than asixteen year old spine in terms of
their disk spaces and just the waythings look. So naturally, you'll get
some damage to those discs over time, but you can actually have kind of
a traumatic herniation too, where let'ssay it's a person with a young,
healthy spine and they twist or dosomething a bad way and that kind of
pushes out some of that disk materialand they can push on the nerve and

(01:10:47):
cause potential problem. So he gotan injection that was the original of the
initial treatment. Is is that goingto be sufficient? Do we feel like
it's realistic to expect that look comesback sometime soon? Yeah, you know,
kind of going back to some ofthe other stuff. The first thing
you do for hernia disk is isconservative treatments. You're looking at like medications,
physical therapy stuff, and then oftentimesan injection. That injections usually a

(01:11:11):
steroid injection around the area of thedisc, and you're kind of around the
area where the nerves are trying todecrease the swelling and the area of the
disc and the nerve trying to decreasethe symptoms that somebody is experiencing. The
position that he plays make him moresusceptible to dealing with this again potentially,
you know, just all the youknow, squatting and standing up and everything

(01:11:33):
like that. But like I said, you know, honestly, this can
happen, you know, to peoplein everyday you know, occupations and everything
as well. But you know,I don't specifically known anything. I would
say, like you know, catchhe would be more likely to have it,
but you know, their body getbeat up, So it wouldn't surprise
me if there's some reason why thatwould would have contributed, No question one

(01:11:55):
more. It's an FC Cincinnati favorite, Nick Haglan had goal ligament damage and
so had ankle ligament reconstructive surgery.That's very that's very very verbose. I
guess that sounds complex what's involved.So yeah, it is a complex issue,
and depending on what's going on,you know, oftentimes what this is

(01:12:17):
from is from recurrent sprains, likemultiple injuries to the ankle, where you
have damage to the ligaments and theykind of heal, they either don't heal
well or they heal kind of stretchedout, and so that there's this kind
of chronic instability of the ankle andsomebody will experience, you know, kind
of recurrent strains pain, they'll havepopping in their act We'll have all sorts
of different symptoms like it's swelling andit's just a it's a problem. So

(01:12:42):
once it comes to surgery, you'relooking at either repairing some of those ligaments
by tiding them up and also oftensometimes augmenting those either with some kind of
surgical device which can help with that, or potentially even using like cadaver tendon
to construct some of the ligaments.And there's different techniques for that, and

(01:13:03):
it can be pretty complicated, butmost of the time actually people do fairly
well. Haglan is thirty one yearsold. I know he wants to resume
his career next season twenty twenty five. Do we feel like that's a realistic
possibility or could this be the sortof thing that threatens at least the beginning
of next year. You know,I would say it kind of depends on

(01:13:27):
how his rehab goes. There's ahope that, you know, he would
be able to make it back.I would say, you know, the
older you get, the harder itis to rebound from these types of things.
You know. With that said,you know, looking at his ankle
health overall, like if this isone of things where he doesn't have a
lot of other stuff going on,I mean, there's not a lot of
damage to cartilage, is not gettingany art price in the ankle or anything

(01:13:49):
like that. You know, ifyou if you look at the you know
how people tend to do after thesereconstructive, you know, ligament surgeries in
general, they do fairly well.Now getting back to an occupation like being
a professional soccer player, though,it is a completely different level of know
how you're going to do. Soit's always difficult to get back after something

(01:14:10):
like that to your pre injury levelof performance, especially at you know,
as you continue to age. ButI think it's realistic to hope at least
to say, Okay, there's achance here that he can get back and
perform well and be able to geton the field and do what he needs
to do. We've been doing thesesegments for a couple of years now.
I think we've set the record withfive injuries. Awesome. As always,

(01:14:31):
I appreciate the time man, thanksso much, of course, Yeah,
thanks a lot. There you go, doctor Nick Early from Orthos Sincy.
We say this all the time.The great thing about the people that Orthos
since he is specialists and locations acrossthe Tri State. This includes walk in.
Walk in means you do not needan appointment. Walk in orthopedic urgent
care weekdays nine a to nine p. Saturday's nine a to one p in

(01:14:55):
both Edgewood and Anderson. It's easierand it's definitely cheaper than going to in
Er whenever you have an urgent orthopedicinjury. And remember when my daughter broke
her foot, what we did wentto ORTHO Cincy. You do the same
Orthosincy dot com. That's Ortho cI n c Y dot com. Uh,
we're a little bit late here.Here's what we're gonna do. Tom
Goletter is gonna join us at fivetwenty. We're gonna give away Thomas rhet

(01:15:19):
tickets. We're gonna test her knowledgeof the two thousand and nine Bengals by
request. We're we're gonna take phonecalls at the top of the hour,
but we we're gonna try to dosomebody who was listening today a solid We
need we need to put out theAPB for Jeff from Virginia because we have

(01:15:41):
a caller off air. They're Taran. They're gonna go see the Reds play
the Nationals in Washington. Yes,so that is the ballpark that currently is
the one that I want to visit. I've never been there. Uh,
I've spent very little time in mylife in Washington. I've never been to
that ballpark. So we have alistener. Did they say their name?
No? Did they say they wouldbe listening moving forward? Yes, all

(01:16:04):
right, we have an unknown namedlistener who's going to the games this weekend
and want it called the radio stationto see if we had any dining recommendations
correct around the ballpark, around theballpark where the Nationals play. I've never
been there, so I don't know. So Jeff from Virginia has been to
that ballpark a bunch. So weneed Jeff in Virginia to call us to

(01:16:29):
tell this person. Was it aman or a woman. It was a
man, all right to tell thisguy where he should eat before or after
Red's Nationals this weekend. Correct,yes, all right, not that he
needs the number, but five pointthree seven four nine fifteen thirty. Or
if you happen to know anything aboutthe area near the Nationals ballpark where to
go to get something to eat,maybe get a drink, let us know

(01:16:50):
and we'll pass that on. OrI'm not going to pass it on.
The person who called in said theybe listening, so hopefully we can help
because I am of no assistance.Breniman and Jones on baseball. Next,
the medal of honor is the periodof serving You found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
We were late. Sorry, Idon't know how to read a clock,
and this is ESPN fifteen thirty onMoegger it's the mikelob Ultra of five

(01:17:13):
o'clock happy hour, Taran, Isthis your last hour of work before you
start vacation? Yes, it is, so we really should have planned ahead
and got some mic ultra. I'lltell you what you've You've maintained a sense
of professionalism even though it's your lastday before vacation. That I commend.

(01:17:34):
Yeah, so there are a fewbetter happy hours than the one right before
you go on vacation. Mikelobultra isperfect. It's perfect for vacation, it's
perfect for when you're not on vacation. Proud sponsors of the michelob Ultra of
five o'clock Happy Hour. Nothing soundsbetter right now than a nice cold Mick
Ulture. We have a lot happeningthis hour, Okay, like there are

(01:17:56):
a lot of radio shows and podcasts, but I just I want to highlight
for you that this is a showthat's really about the people. Number One,
we have been giving away tickets allweek long to go see Thomas Rhett,
who's going to be playing after areds A's game on August the twenty
ninth. So a funfilled evening ofentertainment, a gabp Right, And so

(01:18:23):
what we've done is on Monday weasked Red's related home run derby questions,
and then yesterday we asked Red's relatedAll Star game questions. And so we
didn't know what we were going todo today, and I got an email
from Ryan that said, I havea request do your giveaway. And there's

(01:18:45):
a lot in here to this email. But he points out that I mentioned
a few weeks ago the Bengals aregoing to be on hard Knocks in the
season with the other AFC North teams. And I was talking with a guy
who makes hard knocks, the guyin charge of the project, and I
mentioned, like that nine team,there's a lot of us who hold that
team a special place in our heart. And it was a good team,

(01:19:08):
not a great team, but itwas a team that overcame just an avalanche
of adversity, won ten games,swept the AFC North, and when the
playoffs got here, you got thesense that they were running on fumes and
they lost to the Jets. Butstill is a really fun season. And
he suggested, because this is thefifteenth anniversary of the Nine Bengals and this
year's teams is going to be onhard Knocks, two, we should five

(01:19:31):
trivia questions about the two thousand andnine Bengals. So you know what,
That's what I've done. Five thirtythree will test your knowledge of the two
thousand and nine Bengals a little bitrandom, but that's okay. Also,
and we have forty one minutes.We have put out an APB for Jeff
from Virginia, who is one ofour most loyal listeners, one of our

(01:19:54):
most frequent callers, because we havea caller in need who needs to know
where to go before and after theReds play the Nationals in Washington this weekend.
So as you could tell here,we we really we do this show
to serve. We do this show. We really serve at the at the
whim of you, our audience.Tom Glader is going to be on the

(01:20:17):
show coming out Band about ten minutesas well to talk about tonight's FC Cincinnati
tilt. Right now, though,we're going to talk to people on the
phone, starting with mister Ace.Hi, mister Ace, you're on ESPN
fifteen thirty. Oh my gosh,it's mo. I believe when you pull

(01:20:39):
the sword out of the rock ordo whatever you do. I think you
should do a shimmy. You needto show up in a Viking outfit with
the Rids scene on the top ofit, Viking out And yes, you
should take a fake Austin Elmore stuffanimal and shot its head off with the

(01:21:00):
other team's mascot on it. Wow. Maybe with for Ohio State and that
Columbus football team that plays soccer andjust to crate that and stick, you
know, I would I would likeI would like this appearance tonight to be

(01:21:20):
free of controversy. I I don'twant to have to wake up and have
to apologize. I don't I don'twant to have to wake up and feel
like, oh, oh, somebodyis mad at me. So I'd like
for this to just come and goand for it to be as as forgettable
as possible for everybody else involved.It'll be memorable for me. It's kind
of cool, but I I don'twant to create an incident. I'm I

(01:21:42):
I've I've made enough people mad inmy life. I don't need anybody else
mad at me. Well, Imean sometimes you look like the ride of
controversy at the station man good,but I appreciate the fact that you actually
will get down and dirty and grittywhen you need to. When I'm not
talking about the dance, I'm talkinglike you'll do real reporting. I mean,

(01:22:05):
you have too many people right nowwho are concerned about followers, the
friuds, the fakes, the internetsnakes. They're out here trying to do
snap chat and what else Instagram andFacebook, yeah, YouTube, so that
they can get some fans and havesome people on their only fans site,

(01:22:30):
whether it's legitimate or not. Andyou have people calling themselves models or we'll
even say brand ambassadors. And Iuse that very loosely, but ultimately I
do believe you bring it, man. You bring it on multiple platforms.
Man. You bring it in themorning, you bring it in the noon,
and you bring it in the nighttime. So it's like, YO,

(01:22:53):
got to give you the props.Man, mister, have you fooled beyond
giving me a mound of compliment?Is there anything else on your mind?
But in my mind is this theReds need to have at least I think
three to four players, maybe evenfive players really get hot, particularly hitting,
and I will ball a phrase fromthe Great Major League Baseball Game movie,

(01:23:18):
I think Major League two where theysold Willie Mason page you need to
learn how to bunt, and Ithink that Ellie Day La Cruz bunting and
throwing down some surprise blunts instead oftrying to hit a home run every time
would be a helpful surprise. Andadd to I think a few more hits,

(01:23:38):
bumpets, average up a little bitmore, maybe cut down or strikeouts
a little bit more, and surprisethe other team because it adds a whole
nother dynamic where he can spray somehits in opposed to always swinging for defenses
majority of the time. Not tosay he has not ever bunted, or
not to say he hasn't done someinfield hits and shoot, I mean he's

(01:24:00):
run outs some stuff that most peoplecould not and would not be able to
run out because of his hustle.But definitely, if the Reds get a
couple of additional hot players from thebad side and their pitchion holds up second
half, I mean we could havewith a playoff team. For me,
a successful second half would be theReds making the playoffs, sneaking and winning

(01:24:24):
some series in the first round,and then possibly making the second series interesting.
I mean, considering where we've comefrom, considering the injuries we've got,
and considering that Mole will show up, most likely in a Viking hat
or over. I'll take this stepfurther. Mo might show up in a

(01:24:45):
pirate outfit, be a Cincinnati Redpirate that they are. You know what,
the postseason, I will show upCincinnati Red's pirate. I'll put I'll
put that in the file here.We'll bring that back out in October.
Mister A is always good to haveyou. Thank you very much. Got
a loten slander for wins mo lutenslander. There's a lot there. Look,

(01:25:13):
a lot of guys have to gethot offensively. This was a below
average team in the first half ofthe season. There's no getting around it.
Some guys hit better. Ellie dela Cruz had a good first half.
Jam Or Candelario got off to arough start then hit really really well.
Spencer Steer did some really good things. By the way, Ellie has
tried to bunt for a hit onfour different occasions. Twice those bunt hits

(01:25:40):
moved a runner over and he wasthrown out at first base, and then
the other two times once he madeit out. The other time he got
a hit Offensively, you are beingvery fair if you wonder offensively, can
they really vault themselves into serious contention? I think you're also being reasonable if

(01:26:00):
you feel like the starting pitching isgood enough to keep them at least afloat.
Can the starting pitching be good enoughto help them overcome a below average
offense. Let's be real about this. They may acquire a bat, they
may get healthier. It's probably atvery best going to be essentially a league

(01:26:24):
average offense. Now, maybe somedudes have some killer second halfs and they
put up numbers that you know,you you ordinarily wouldn't predict. Maybe that's
the case, but you know,it's not quite like last year, or
at the trade debt, or ata trade deadline close to the trade deadline.
It's not like last year where thistime of year you could state definitively
the starting pitching is a bona fideweakness that's not going to get better.

(01:26:46):
It's not quite like that, Butwe know what this team is. They're
starting pitching heavy for the most part. They've got an offense that leaves a
lot to be desired. If thatcontinues to be the case, it's hard
to imagine this team getting too enoughwins to keep playing in October. If
that gets fixed somehow by better health, outside acquisition players just playing better,

(01:27:10):
awesome, But I think we knowwhat this team is. FC Cincinnati is
trying to bounce back Tonight. TomGoheder has the call on ESPN fifteen thirty,
and he joins us from the broadcastbooth next Cincinnati's esqafter five ESPN fifteen
thirty. I want our our offair caller to know that Jeff from Virginia

(01:27:32):
has answered the APB and he's goingto provide some assistance. So stay with
us, and Jeff's going to helpyou out. That's coming up in just
a few minutes. But first,let's go to TQL Stadium, FC Cincinnati's
home third straight home match tonight,taking on the Chicago Fire. Pregame coverage
with Tom Giletter and Kevin Mcluskey startsat seven o'clock, with the game beginning

(01:27:57):
at seven thirty. Let's go tothe broadcast booth where Tommy g is standing
by. It has been a whilesince we've had you. What is going
on? Oh good to hear fromyou. Appreciate you taking some time to
chat with me. I can tellyou right now anticipation at TQL Stadium.
There's nobody in the crowd yet,but there is a buzz in the air
tonight, anticipating about seven twenty five, seven twenty eight, when the legend

(01:28:21):
that is Maurice Eggar will make hisway out to the pitch and for the
first time, what time do whattime? To Gatespy Wide tragedy will come
to a close and Moegar will pullthe sword. What time do the gates
open? And are people lining upoutside already ensuring that they're in the re
seat? Oh wow, okay,yeah, Dave Abbott just actually made his

(01:28:44):
way up here from the parking lot. He told me the lines. Yeah,
and they're wearing a lot of thosethrowback Moegor Church Festival T shirts.
We're gonna bring those out of outof retirement for the event. Those are
those are a good fifteen years old. Man. Yeah, I'm telling you
there's gonna be I think they dida t fow for you. Wow,
it's gonna be an event tonight.Has anybody ever been booed? Uh,

(01:29:06):
that's a great question. I don'tthink so there was who odd? Yes,
actually Seohn Miller, get right right, people, the UC fans were
upset. Yeah, and uh andand and and then I think West did
it last year, so that thefans are upset. So that's what that

(01:29:27):
one's a little silly, I thinkto booth in that situation, we're all
still cheering for the same thing.I don't think. I don't think they'll
be boozed to night. I thinkit's gonna be twenty and thirteen on their
feet. Sure, and you willbe the energy that provides the spark to
this team to bounce back. Uh. Just just don't like stumble or anything
when you runner the bailey. Youknow you know who you're talking to,

(01:29:48):
right, there's always a good chanceI trip over my feet. Yeah.
Correct, That's why I'm relaying thismessage. Just slow, slow, and
steady wins the race tonight. It'svery good. So. Uh, the
last time I was there the Miamimatch, and I thought it was fun.
I thought I've just watched the greatestsoccer team of all time. Yeah.
And then I watched on TV onSaturday night against Charlotte, I thought

(01:30:08):
this is not the greatest soccer teamof all time. What happened, Ah,
just a bit of a letdown,honestly, And and Pat was nervous
about that all week, and hetalked to his team about it before the
game, and he owned a lotof it and saying that he didn't put
the team in the best situation towin the match. But they came out
flat and there wasn't a lot ofenergy in the first thirty minutes. And
you could tell now, to befair, the team kind of got back

(01:30:31):
into it the last fifteen minutes ofthe half. It was two to one.
Then they come out and you geta penalty kick. Great, it's
even. It is game on now, and you're gonna win this game against
Charlotte, there's no question. AndLuco's pik gets saved. I didn't think
it was the best pk that hehas ever taken, but okay, moments
later it looks like Luca Orshano hastied the match at two. Great,
game on again, there's still halfan hour to go. But they go

(01:30:53):
back in the build up and Idon't know, five six touches before he
scores. Uh, Emil saw itas an offside position, comes back and
touches the ball so that one getswiped out, and then everything just flips,
you know. Charlie gets another goal, Miles Robinson gets sent off,
and the game was over for allintents and purposes at that point. So
a little bit, a little bitof a frustrating night, a little bit

(01:31:14):
of a let down. Unfortunately,there's been a couple of those at home
this year, which is just headscratching. After how good this team was
last year. They were dominating inthis building and then took care of business
often enough on the road that theywon the Supporter Shield. It's been the
exact opposite this year. They're dominantaway from TQL Stadium and have done more
than enough at home. I mean, six four and two is not a

(01:31:35):
bad record, but four losses athome feels like the sky is falling in
some ways. Yeah, you know, you go back a year ago,
it felt like this time of yearyou can make the case pretty definitive they
were the best team in the league. Now I think you say they're one
of the best teams in the leagueright, which is not a bad place
to be. So how do youhandicap that that crunch of teams as they

(01:31:58):
vibe for the Supporter Shield? Man, Look, there's a third of the
season left, and when you wentin the League's Cup last year and Cincinnati
came out of it, they reallyseparated themselves at that point, you're right
and ran away with it. Ithink this is going to be a fabulous
race down the stretch. And Columbusis really really hot and scoring a bunch
of goals, so they're now inchinginto the race as well. But you
have Miami obviously there. LAFC hasbeen fantastic. They have a game with

(01:32:21):
Miami coming up August twenty fourth.They'll see LAFC in late September in this
building, so that should be ashowdown. And obviously see Columbus again in
September in this building, and Iimagine that Columbus will be in the race
now. Obviously, a big questionfor Miami right now is the long term
status of Lionel Messi, because theyhave revealed that he has some ligament damage

(01:32:44):
in his ankle that doesn't sound reallygood. I can't imagine that he's back
for that August twenty fourth game,but they haven't put any type of timeline
on his recovery, and I thinkit'll depend largely on if surgery is required
for the you know, is itligament damage that can heal without surgery or
is he going to need some typeof surgery and be out long term.
But Miami also has been really goodwithout him, aside from that game that

(01:33:05):
you talked about when FC Cincinnati lookedlike the best team you've ever seen play
soccer and and rolled to a sixto one victory. So I think this
team has all the pieces and Ithink the big advantage for f C Cincinnati.
Is that tomorrow the window opens,the transfer window, and Chris Albright,
I haven't seen him. He's beenhustling right which which everybody would expect,

(01:33:30):
So I don't know where he's been. I don't know who he's talking
to. But I would imagine withthe window opening tomorrow, reports will start
to come out this player, thatplayer may be coming, you know.
Obviously, with the injuries to Mattand Nick, they need some reinforcements on
the back line, so I wouldn'tbe shocked to see a center back come
join the team and help provide somedepth there. Miles Robinson now will be
out for the Olympics, so he'llbe back when when league play resumes in

(01:33:53):
August. But yeah, no,I think this team has the pieces.
Obviously, they have the coach,and tonight another opportunity to get a win
and continue to chase another supporter shield. I'm not gonna watch Luco tonight.
Oh we'll see. You know what. It's five thirty, so about an
hour from now, the lineup cardwill come out. You know. In
that early media portion yesterday, itwas reported that he wasn't out with the

(01:34:14):
group, But Luco's also insanely tough, and he's battled through injuries all year
long. And there's been times thatI've kind of said after a game or
in the week leading up, like, hey, I don't expect that I'll
see Luco in a match, andthen you know number ten is out there
doing what Luco does and influencing agame. So it takes a lot for
him not to play. The lasttime f C Cincinnati did not have Luco

(01:34:36):
due to injury, of course he'shad a suspension between then, but the
last time they didn't havem Doe toinjury was Gift Go all the way back
to April fifteenth of last season,that match at Saint Louis. So he's
battled through You remember in the NewEngland game he came off the bench.
It's the only game he hasn't startedthis year, and certainly influenced that game
as f C Cincinnati got a win. So, look, he's as tough

(01:34:56):
as they come and as a competitorand wants to be out there. So
if he doesn't go tonight, obviouslyit'll take a lot to keep him away
from the pitch. And if hedoesn't go, then there's other guys that
are gonna have to step up andfill that void. Why don't they just
let him pull the sword if he'snot gonna play, Well, that's well
because you are lined up obviously.I mean, how would you feel if
you got bumped at the at theeleventh hour? We're two hours away from

(01:35:19):
this big event finally happening, anduh, I mean your daughter would probably
be crying for weeks. No,like my dad didn't get to pull the
sword because because Lucho got to doit. So I mean, but remember
last year and Nick had a prettypretty great sword pull when he came out
of the crutches and ditched the crutchesand that was pretty Also the bar is

(01:35:41):
high, is I mean, regardlessof who else has done it, the
the bar has has been set highover the last year and a half with
this tradition. I'm glad you're I'mglad you're gonna be part of it.
See see if I can live upto my responsibility. All right, man,
have a good call tonight. Thankyou as always appreciate you, Mo,
and Uh. I can't wait forfor seven thirty or so two hours
until Moe pulls the sword. Itreally is you could you could feel it

(01:36:05):
could feel it here in ken WoodTon Gletter, Kevin McCloskey, you have
the match to night seven pm isthe pregame show on ESPN fifteen thirty.
I know we're late, but wedid put out an APB for Jeff from
Virginia because one of our listeners neededhis help. So Jeff has answered the
call. Did Tarran explain to youwhy we need you to why we needed

(01:36:26):
you to call in? Yeah?And I responded with that, do we
have a location in a cuisine type? Well, you know, Aran,
how much information did the caller giveus? They're just some guy going to
the game to see the Reds playin Washington this weekend? Say what type
of fool you just say? Justrestaurants around the ballpark? Restaurants around the
ballpark? First of all, arethere a lot of restaurants near the ballpark.

(01:36:47):
Yeah, that whole area has beenso built up. It's exactly like
the banks. There's there's a placecalled Mission right across the street from the
centerfield gate where most people go inh four or five blocks down the road
is a place called Blue Jacket Brewery, but it gets pretty crowded. There's
a really good Italian restaurant named somethingsomething Tratoria okay that I forgot the name

(01:37:13):
of. There's a big open areawhere they have a live band. It's
called the Bullpen, where you canget cheaper hot dogs and stuff. Then
you get on the inside. There'sa really good pizza place on the walk
up. I'll be there Friday nightin my seat. So let's let's say
this. Let's let's pretend this whoevercalled in because I didn't get a chance
to talk to them, they're gonnago Friday and Saturday. So they have

(01:37:35):
two nights and they're gonna go tolike one pre game place for a meal,
one pre or post game place fora drink, and then the same
on Saturday. What would you recommend, just understanding your taste and not theirs.
Yeah, I would go to Missionright across the street from the ballpark,

(01:37:55):
and then go to Blue Jacket ifyou want to get a drink and
a nice beer before the game.They have pretty good food and Blue Jacket
actually all right. And you know, if you're in the downtown area you
want a steak, go to BourbonSteak. And some of the best Indian
food in the United States is ata place called Risika r A S I
k A. All right, verygood, Jeff, this is we knew

(01:38:16):
you would answer the call we need. I was not okay. I've never
been to that ballpark. I've notspent a lot of time in Washington.
So as soon as I found outsomeone needed assistance in relation to their trip
to the nation's capital to go watchthe Reds, I knew you were the
guy. Thank you on behalf ofthis person. Thank you very much.
Wait, great luck pulling out thesword tonight. Mode. Don't pinch your

(01:38:39):
shoulder or throw out your back.Well, I just don't want to cut
myself. Jeff, thank you,Thank you very much. All Right,
there you go. See we weaim to serve the people show. Well
this is the show about the people. Now we have to give away Thomas
Rhett tickets by request. We we'regoing to test. We need the two
thousand and nine Bengals. They wentten and six is fifteen years ago.

(01:39:01):
Uh. If you think you knowa lot about that team, if you
think you know a lot about thatseason and you want to go see,
uh Thomas Rhett after the Reds andA's play. And by the way,
this isn't one of those deals wherehe comes out and sings three songs and
says gonna he's gonna do a fullset, right, So you get reds
A's and then you get Thomas Rhettand I mean, come on, and

(01:39:25):
you get to go on our time. Five point three seven four nine fifteen
thirty. Uh, we'll get youin. We need two contestants. If
you're a Bengals fan, we're gonnaI think these are easy. I've said
this all week long. I haveI don't want to say I've dumbed down
the questions we use, but Ilike these are I believe if you're even
a casual Bengals fan and can rememberthat year, and I know maybe some

(01:39:47):
younger fans can. I think theseare I think these are doable. I
think these are gettable. So weneed two contestants. Five point three seven
four nine fifteen thirty eight six sixseven oh two three seven seven s and
Taren doesn't like it when I callit dumb trivia, but there they're trivia
questions that are dumb. Right,Okay, we'll do that. We'll give

(01:40:08):
away some Thomas Reht tickets and more. ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station,
since and This is a good Thomasrhet song. He's going to be playing
a great American ballpark after the Redstake on the A's on August twenty ninth,
and we're seconds away from giving awaytickets. I really could be like

(01:40:29):
a rock DJ or a country Wedon't have a country station. So but
before we give away tickets, sportsheadlines and service to Kelsey Chevrolet, home
of lifetime power train protection and guaranteedcredit approval from their family to yours for
life Kelsey chev dot com. Bengalstoday announced that tomorrow they will reveal the

(01:40:51):
two Ring of Honor inductees for theclass of twenty twenty four. That's going
to be tomorrow morning and then andI I swear on my father's grave.
I have no idea who's made it, but I do know that I am
talking with one of the inductees atsix' ten tomorrow night on seven hundred
WLW. We also have the personwho made that Pete Rose documentary everybody's excited

(01:41:15):
about. And we have Caine Broome. That's tomorrow night down the hall.
Speaking of college basketball, Trayvon Bluwe. It's number five gonna be retired by
Xavier University, which is awesome,by the way, as predicted. I
got an email because I said,why can't you see do this? And
no, Jack Twyman was not NationalPlayer of the Year. What else?

(01:41:38):
F C Cincinnati plays to night againstChicago. That match starts at seven point
thirty live on ESPN in fifteen thirty. All right, the thing I got
to read I left across the room. Join the Reds Thursday, August twenty
ninth for a postgame benefit concert featuringThomas Rhett. All fans in attendance can
stick around after the game for afull set from Thomas Rhett. A limited

(01:42:00):
number of pitfield passes are available soyou could enjoy the concert on the field.
You can't enjoy the game on thefield because I think they you get
hurt or something. I don't know. A portion of proceeds from each ticket
sold benefit One International, which provideslife saving care to families in Uganda.
You can get your tickets right now, go to Reds dot com slash Thomas

(01:42:24):
Rhett. Chances are you know thisRHTT is spelled r h e T T.
Al Right, very good. Twothousand and nine Bengals, Taran,
Are you excited? I'm excited abouttwenty minutes. Yeah, your vacation starts
in seventeen minutes, so you're you'rereally excited. All right? Who do
we have playing dumb trivia? Notdumb, but uh dumb trivia? You

(01:42:45):
have true? Why? Hi,Drew? How are you doing? Hey?
Mom? Hey? So up?You're ready to play? I am
ready to wait? So Thomas redtickets. It's a great day to be
alive. Very good? All right? And uh? Who else do we
have? Tarren? Tony? Tony, Hi, Tony, no man,
I've never been better? All right? Uh, Tarren? Who we haven't

(01:43:06):
called? The coin in the air, the virtual coin. Let's have a
drewe Drew? Give me heads ortails? Tarren flipped that bad boy?
Go ahead, Oh wow, good, catch its tales. It's tails?
Drew. You want to play?You want to do nothing? He wants
to play? All right? PutTony on hold. Drew is excited.

(01:43:29):
Drew. You a Bengals fan fan, and take it hold? Not very
good. The two thousand and nineBengals fifteenth anniversary of a team that surprised
a lot of people by winning theAFC North and making the playoffs. Of
course, are you ready? Allright? You got to get best three
out of five. Here we go. There's the music, all right.

(01:43:50):
The two thousand and nine season forthe Bengals got off to here's a big
word, an inauspicious beginning, becausethey lost at home in Week one to
the Denvers on a tip pass thatended up in the hands of Brandon Stokely.
Denver wins the game twelve to seven. Who threw the pass? Threw
A Kyle Orton, B Jake Plummer, C. Chris Simms, Hey,

(01:44:15):
Kyle Orton, Kyle Orton, Tarrn. Yes, all right, drew one
for one. You got to gettwo of the next four. Correct.
I like this the fact that weno longer have to explain how this works
because that took like an hour anda half some days. All right,
here we go two thousand and nine. Bengals go ten and six. Carson
Palmer started all sixteen regular season games. His backup QB did make an appearance

(01:44:39):
in three games. Who was he? Hey, Ryan Fitzpatrick, B Jordan
Palmer or C. J. TO. Sullivan? Was it Ryan Fitzpatrick
Arran? No jt O. Sullivan? A guy whose name sounded like the
name of an Irish bar. That'sall right, you're one for two.

(01:45:00):
Two, you've got to get twoout of the next three. Here we
go. The Bengals that year theywent ten and six on the strength of
a six and zero record in theAFC North. They obviously beat the Steelers
twice. Their second victory over Pittsburghcame with them scoring their only touchdown on
special teams? Who scored it?A Kwan Cosby, B Andre Caldwell or

(01:45:26):
CE Bernard Scott? Bernard Scott?Can I get to Bernard Scott Tarander?
Yes, eighteen twelve victory over theSteelers. They actually flubbed the pat The
only touchdown scored on a kick returnby Bernard Scott. All right, you
got two out of three. You'vegot to get one of the next two.
Correct. Are you getting nervous?I am yeah, I am too.

(01:45:50):
The Bengals in two thousand and nineclinched the AFC North with a Week
sixteen home victory versus Kansas City seventeento in the final score, the win
was sealed on an interception by thisBengals defensive back A Jonathan Joseph, B
Leon Hall or C. Chris Crocker. Show a six? What do we

(01:46:20):
got? A O? It wasLeon Hall. That's okay. It all
comes down to this, all right, Truma, what's that drama? It
is drama, I said, drunkme not yet? All right, here
we go, Drew. It allcomes down to this. You can feel

(01:46:42):
the tension in the air. TheBengals first win of the two thousand and
nine season came in Week two onthe road against Green Bay. Bengals beat
the Packers thirty one to twenty four. This Cincinnati player led the way on
defense with five sacks. Was ita Antoine Odam, b de Honey Jones

(01:47:02):
or c Ray maul Luga? Youthrowed him? I think I heard Antoine
Odem Tarren. Do I have anAntoine Odum? Yes, Antoine Odam has

(01:47:24):
five sacks. That does like theonly good game he ever had. Uh,
and then he committed wire fraud andsome weird stuff happened to Antoine Odam.
But I'll always have that day wherehe had five sacks at lambeau Field.
Drew, congratulations, you're gonna gosee uh Thomas Rhett stay on hold?
But wait, wait not you,Drew. You know I'm not here

(01:47:45):
tomorrow neither, so Tony, guesswhat you're gonna go see Thomas htt too
awesome. See see you had todo nothing. We made Drew sweat it
out and this was one of thoseinstances where both dudes were gonna win,
but you know, we had toplay the game for the benefit of the
rest of the audience. So bothof you stay on hold, hangtight,

(01:48:05):
and uh, if you want togo see Thomas Rhett, you can buy
tickets reds dot com slash Thomas RettTara. How much time do we have?
We have about two and a halfminutes. Two and a half minutes.
Mike, whoa, whoa, Mike, what's going on? Somebody be
playing room door time? Oh great? Hey. I love the ORTHOSINSI spots

(01:48:27):
because they remind me of my premed orthopedic desires when I was going to
cal poly Pomona. Really okay,that's over listed. Those are good spots
though, and I learn a lotwhen I listened, because I do have
a based knowledge of orthopedics. Uh. Listening to you talk earlier today about
what the red shoogar shouldn't do?Uh, well, should listen to you

(01:48:50):
because you're preventing presenting some pretty goodarguments about what the team may or may
not do. So I think youshould. I'm sorry, somehow get a
hold of the guy. And I'veoften believed that Nick krawl should listen more
closely to my advice. Does theCastelinis have decisions in these player moves?

(01:49:15):
Do you think I think they have? I think they they have. I'm
trying to figure out the best wayto put this. They may tell Nick
Crawl to go in a certain direction, or they may tell him what additional
payroll they're willing to to to tofoot Uh do they make the moves?

(01:49:36):
Do they v I do believe BobCastelini in the past has veto to trade.
I think they would have traded BillyHamilton well before they did, but
Bob Castelini got in the way.That was a generation ago. I don't
think Phil does that. I thinkwhat ownership does now is they tell Nick
Krawle essentially, here's what we wantthe direction to be, and then within
those parameters he he does his job. Okay, thank you, mo,

(01:50:00):
and I got a good and badreport on things though, Send you an
email and tell you about that.I'm really thinking right now, real quick,
that we're twelve overall in pitching.Our bullpen is the fifth best bullpen
in the MLB. So people cantalk about certain guys aren't getting a job
done. They're getting a job doneoverall. They really are. Yeah,

(01:50:21):
I think, but I think there'sa cause and effect there. I think
the fact that the starting pitching hasbeen more reliable has made it easier for
David Bell to manage the game.And he hasn't always done a great job,
but he hasn't had to go tohis bullpen and the fourth and fifth
inning as much. You know,he can. He can plan on getting
six innings from his starter and thenall right, he's got a pretty good

(01:50:44):
menu of options and innings seven throughnine. Email me let me know what.
I hope there's more good news thanbad, but let me know.
Okay, thank you, Lo.All Right, we got to go.
H Terren's on vacation starting now.I am working tomorrow, but I'm doing
Lance's show, so Chad Brenda willdo this show and then I'll be gone

(01:51:04):
for a while. My thanks toTaran for producing, Thanks to you for
listening. Have an unbelievable night,and uh we'll talk to you tomorrow.
Night down the Hall. This isESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station

All Episodes

7/17/24 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

Episode Transcript

Mo Egger News

Popular Podcasts

Crime Junkie

24/7 News: The Latest

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}7/17/24 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

Episode Transcript

Mo Egger News .css-1q01m3q{margin:0 0 -2px 0;}

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Crime Junkie

24/7 News: The Latest

Stuff You Should Know

All Episodes