12/25/24: The SportsTalk Year in Review

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 6 (01:32):
All right, well, come in. This is big. It is
the sports Talk year in review and look ahead. We
are packaging twenty twenty four with twenty twenty five. The
foursome is all here, the round table of sports conversation.
This is big because rarely are the four of us
in the same room. There should be like a designated
survivor plan of some sort. If the world ends, who.

Speaker 7 (01:56):
Had Brendel's sitting outside ready to go the next.

Speaker 6 (01:59):
Three hours is Dad Bredna will argue with Xavier Fans,
I'll tell you welcome in. Moving left to right on
your radio dial. Let me set this up. I am
Lance Pacallister. To my left is Austin Illmore in the
center bringing donuts this morning? Is Moegger. Into the right
is Tony Pike. Should we be completely transparent and pull

(02:19):
back the curtain and admit we are? Should we? Should
we admit to our our current status of time of
day and on the count we probably should.

Speaker 8 (02:29):
Should I was gonna say we could do thirty minutes
on how Moe found a place open for donuts on
Christmas morning?

Speaker 7 (02:34):
Well, you know I've got some pull, that's true. I
just Lance, I think you missed the show last year.
I was said, yeah, so it's good to have you back.

Speaker 6 (02:43):
Yes, well as Tony Will. I came walking in and
I not that I sanitize this whole room sanitized the
first time of the year that's happened.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (02:52):
All right, Our task is over the next two hours
to look back at twenty twenty four and look ahead
at twenty twenty five. And I'm sad to begin from
this standpoint, because I feel like I'm the grinch. Usually
I try to put together, like, you know, the best
team in Cincinnati in the year, the best coaching job
of the year. And I looked around and considered all
the disappointment we have all dealt with and talking about

(03:13):
how the Reds losing season, Bengals right now, a losing season.
FC Cincinnati flames out in the first round. You see
Xavier Northern Kentucky missed the NCAA playoffs. You see football
doesn't go to a bowl game. We all took a
beating this year, let's admit it. Yeah, only only the
Democratic Party had it worse.

Speaker 9 (03:33):
See, so how far we're about two minutes in. We're
on the We're not on the sports station today.

Speaker 7 (03:41):
It really was a year marked by, you know, constantly
us waiting for something that that didn't happen, happened all
year along with the Reds. Really kind of felt like
it happened all year along with f C Cincinnati. And
as we sit here today, the Bengals are obviously making
a late season push, but that wasn't the idea for
us to be sitting here with this team under five
hundred going into the second to last game of the season.
You see, football at one point was five and two

(04:02):
and we were wondering could they could They entered the
Big twelve championship race and then they never won another game.
Neither local college basketball team made the NCAA tournament. It
was a year marked by I think profound disappointment.

Speaker 9 (04:15):
I'm I'm reminded when I think of the disappointment, how
short of a time ago. The Bengals are in the
Super Bowl AFC Championship games. The UC Bearcats are representing
the college football to playoff in a four team group.
You know, FC Cincinnati is playing, you know, winning a
supporter shield. Like all these things that have happened in

(04:38):
actual recent years feel like decades ago, because when you
go through these types of season, it just drains you,
and you know, it's it's kind of marked by what
it's been in the past. The Bengals dig themselves a
very early hole. The Reds struggle early on in the
season or out of it by you know, essentially the
All Star break. So it's not only the losing season,

(04:59):
it's how it came about. It was taking that life
away from you so early and you're reminded of of
just how long ago it was completely opposite.

Speaker 8 (05:08):
In January, the Bengals lost to the they beat the
Browns to go nine to eight at home, and it
was a season that just never got off the ground.
And then you fast forward a month later to the
Reds and they have all these spring training injuries and
you're thinking, is this going to be a season like
the Bengals that just never got off the ground, And
it was. They lost in all these close games, and

(05:31):
eventually David Bell gets fired and you've got the emergence
of Eli daily Cruz.

Speaker 6 (05:35):
But that was another big disappointment.

Speaker 8 (05:37):
And as you know, Lance mentioned deftly since any kind
of the same way, just nobody could get off the
ground over the last twelve months.

Speaker 6 (05:43):
Think of the themes. How many times if we had
a dollar for every time any of us mentioned one
run losses for the Reds or one score losses for
the Bengals that defined both seasons. I don't know that.

Speaker 9 (05:55):
Or man, if they can just get to five hundred
by this game, yeah, how many times I.

Speaker 6 (05:59):
Got done that?

Speaker 9 (06:00):
The Bengals and the Reds so much I can if
they get their watch out, because now things get interesting.

Speaker 6 (06:05):
And now it's well, nobody wants to play the Bengals
if they get in the playoffs.

Speaker 7 (06:09):
And you know, all of that in face of some
really awesome individual performances. We're wondering if Joe Burrow is
going to get MVP votes the team is under five hundred,
Jamar Chase might win the wide Receiver triple crown. Ellie
Deyla Cruz was an All Star this year, Hunter Green
was an All Star this year. Early in the season,
it felt like Luco Acosta was the best soccer player
I had ever seen. And yet despite all of those

(06:32):
awesome individual performances, we're sitting here talking about a year
that was kind of defined by discipline.

Speaker 8 (06:37):
That's the thing to me is like, for the first time,
there is significant star power at all levels. Ellie Day,
La Cruz, Luciano Acosta, Burrow, Chase, everywhere you look, there
is serious, serious star power players. Yeah, Sadderfield. Of course,
Brendan Soorsby was fantastic down the stretch. So those sorts
of players, you know, those sorts of players, and then

(07:00):
the results don't follow.

Speaker 6 (07:01):
It is a tough pill to swallow. I was trying
to think of if we were to define as as
sad as everything is that we've talked about to this point,
if we were to find a feel good moment of
the year sports wise, you know, Corey, Dylon and Tim
Krumrai going into the Ring of Honor was a really
cool moment. I don't know if it's the best. It
might be the best moment, but I think we all

(07:21):
looking from whether Dylan was a favorite player or crumbrise,
you know, lunch pale mentality kind of defined the Bengals.
That was a pretty cool moment and it has to
be somewhere near the top of this year.

Speaker 7 (07:33):
Yeah, the Reds didn't have a Hall of Fame induction
this year, Dave Parker getting that they're elected in the
class of twenty twenty five, and Cooper's town is very cool,
the Cincinnati guy.

Speaker 6 (07:43):
But yeah, you're right.

Speaker 7 (07:43):
I guess with with Dylan specifically, it's it feels like
it's maybe always on shaky ground. But the relationship between
Corey and the Bengals as of today is good, and
I think that's always a good thing. But yeah, there
really weren't that many, you know, feel good moments for
the season.

Speaker 9 (08:02):
I thought it outside of feel good moments you try
to find, you know, feel good players that can help
turn things around, like we have it with Joe and
Jamar Chase. We know that you have it with Elie
day La Cruz. But I'm thinking, you know, I feel
really good today as we sit here about Chase Brown.
And I didn't think that or think I would be

(08:22):
thinking that months ago. I think there are more players
like that emerging. You hope, you know, for the Reds,
can can Matt McLain? You know that's the thing with
the Reds. We just assume that all these you know,
star rookies, we're going to take that that leap in
the second year and Matt McClain misses a whole season,
and now you hope, okay, can they can they catch
lightning in a bottle?

Speaker 6 (08:42):
There?

Speaker 9 (08:43):
Who are the players you can build around? And I
think even though the Bengals as we sit here today
are seven and eight, you feel week in and week
out like you're finding more Marius Mims, players that that
are young that they can still build around.

Speaker 6 (08:55):
I don't think quickly think of what you just mentioned. Uh,
the mergence and Mixon was a fan favorite traded India
fan favorite traded McClain becomes India's successor. Mixon is replaced
by Chase Brown, and we feel good about Chase Brown's.

Speaker 8 (09:12):
Yeah to me, I don't know that there was a
real feel good moment that I point to, but there
were two things that made me feel good. Hunter Green
gets a big contract and is an ace and pitches
like it all season long. And then the other thing
is we were talking to you, Tony every day during
training camp and you were worried about Joe Burrow's wrist.
Turn come to find out the risk is fine. He
sees having an incredible season, and I feel pretty good

(09:33):
about that.

Speaker 7 (09:33):
I don't know that it would be categorized as a
feel good moment, but he's certainly an iconic Cincinnati sports figure.
Joey Vada retiring and yes, as a member of the
Toronto Blue Jays, I felt good that I didn't have
to watch him play major league baseball and look like
a shell of himself, which I think was going to
be the case had he gotten back to the big leagues.
And then it kind of felt like, as weird as

(09:54):
it was when he left, we could all spend that
time celebrating the career. The Cooperstown career that I my opinion,
at least Joey Vado had.

Speaker 6 (10:01):
Yeah, and certainly the sadness late in the calendar year,
the passing of the hit king Peter Edward Rose, all
part of twenty twenty four. All right, let's take a
time out. When we continue, let's get into the reds
of twenty twenty four and trace the steps of expectations
into disappointment, and eventually, later on in our second hour,
we'll look at the local teams and the outlook for

(10:21):
twenty twenty five. Austin almost called you, Tony Mo, Tony
Lance sports talk here and review and look ahead, show
Lean seven hundred double LW.

Speaker 10 (10:33):
It's our pig skin present to you. It's a Christmas
Day double ahead. After first the Super Bowl champion Chiefs
take their game to us.

Speaker 6 (10:43):
Steelers got the hungry dogs over here.

Speaker 10 (10:45):
Then Lamar Jackson and here's a raven light it up
with C. J. Stroud and his Texans job. Christmas Day.
This is where they'll play. This is exciting and the
beginning today at twelve thirty, I'll go get another one seven.

Speaker 8 (11:00):
Hundred In today's Marketers Report, Eric and Taylor Keith Marketing
officer of jen Intech, weighs in on audio's ability to
read the first.

Speaker 6 (11:13):
Oh, now, this doesn't get you in the mood. I
don't know what would welcome back into sports talk the
year in review in Cincinnati Sports. I look ahead to
twenty twenty five, Lance McAllister, Austin Elmore, Moegar, Tony Pike.
You know, I before we get into the serious stuff,
I think we've missed an opportunity. I'm thinking next year
live on Christmas morning with a live video stream from

(11:38):
Tony's living room with the kids opening the presence and
the dogs running loose. Mayor fixes his breakfast and we're
all good to go.

Speaker 8 (11:47):
I fell down the stairs last night, and let's say,
somebody's got to fix his wrists down the stairs.

Speaker 9 (11:51):
I had a big present to put together. Now I'm
just trying to carry it down the stairs slipped. So
did the kids think Santa was there? When they heard
you fall down the stairs? I was a little alarmed.
There wasn't more alarm raised for my wife and kids.
I was down for a couple, you know, seconds, and
I didn't hear anything. Hey are you okay?

Speaker 6 (12:08):
What was that? But I'm good. Here is the gift. Okay,
as far as.

Speaker 9 (12:13):
I know now, I'm putting it together still, so probably
not because it's still yet to be seen.

Speaker 6 (12:18):
But uh yeah, live live from the house would be great. Sure,
I would love that. Thanks for hanging out with us
on this Christmas morning. Appreciate you being with us. We've
got the ground to cover and we'll recap the Reds specifically.
In twenty twenty four in Austin, you alluded to it,
the sense of there was such a hype in a
build up of they went from sixty two wins to

(12:41):
eighty two wins. We're thinking the next jump is the playoffs.
I'll never forget doing topics on Vegas had had posted
the Reds number somewhere around seventy eight to eighty, and
everybody was like, oh, Vegas, they don't know, what do
they know that? They don't know? Why are they say
seventy eight to eighty? And then is the news of

(13:01):
the Marty suspension and then the McLain injury and just
that sinking feeling. This thing really went off the trail
like Polar Express. It went off the how about that
for a Christmas conference? Off the tracks very early on
for this.

Speaker 8 (13:17):
Yeah, and like to me, I still have a problem
with that Vegas number. I still thought they were going
to be better than that, and Vegas couldn't predict McLean
getting hurt and Marte getting suspended and Friedle going down
like who is the Red's version of t Higgins? And
then there's you know all the others, well in my
wrong Christmas hamstrings and all the time, yeah I heard

(13:38):
all the time. You know, it's just and on top
of that, you know the Christian and Carnossi on strand
as well. It was just they were stuck in neutral.
The entire season could knock get out of it.

Speaker 7 (13:47):
And there was that stretch of time, especially early, where
it was hey, Nick Martini, remember hit the home owner.
He's really funny in the clubhouse, like can he hit?
And then it was Mike Ford not good enough to
make the team out of spring training, and then he
was the savior. They signed him off the streets in
New Jersey and he was batting third and Jacob heard

(14:08):
a beast right like this Connor Cable you remember, yeah,
Reese Hins, which was fun for about five minutes. But
what was remarkable about this season was the thing that
went wrong the previous year went right. This year, at
least until September when everybody got hurt. The starting pitching
was really good. Hunter Green was an All Star. Nicolodola
when he pitched, was really good. Andrew Abbott had some
terrific starts.

Speaker 6 (14:29):
RT.

Speaker 7 (14:29):
Louder came up late in the season and wasn't a revelation,
I guess. And that was the really frustrating thing about
the entire season. This one thing that was horrible the
year before was really good, and yet the team as
a whole was worse.

Speaker 9 (14:42):
Got to spend so much of the season trying to
get to five hundred. Talking about the Pythagorean theorem. If
you go by that, they're really good. There was a
you know, the plus minus the run differential. They were
really good. It's like we spent all year trying to
find ways that it was going to turn around. You thought, Okay,
maybe eventually water will find its level. Maybe they've lost
so many one run games that that is at some

(15:02):
point gonna turn But it to me was a season
that it never got off the ground with injuries, and
when they had chances, they just shot themselves in the
foot with basic baseball fundamental stuff. That at every single
level of baseball, you're being taught the base running, fly balls,
the communication. It just it felt like you were watching

(15:25):
a team that was disjointed from the start. And whether
that was the culture in the locker room or to
play on the field, or maybe they were just missing
a veteran presence more than any of us, let on
and realized, you know, I always go back to the
years of like Miguel Cairo.

Speaker 6 (15:40):
And Scott rolling on the team.

Speaker 9 (15:41):
Well, they weren't that great in their baseball career anymore,
but in the clubhouse, you just felt like they could
kind of keep the ship moving in the right direction.
I don't know necessarily if that is Tyler Stevenson and
Jonathan India, and now with Jonathan India gone, who does
that become.

Speaker 7 (15:56):
It's also a year where it felt like every other
day they were playing shorthanded because they had a lot
of injuries. But the injury situations were always weird. You know,
there was always like, well he's he's okay, and then
actually he's gonna have season ending surgery. Yeah, Cees got
injured in April, got cut on I think in early
July or so.

Speaker 8 (16:12):
I found another fracture that nobody apparently knew about.

Speaker 6 (16:16):
How does that happen? And CS is like, oh, I
don't know. What a weird year in that regard. Let
me give you two words to sum up the Red's
twenty twenty four season. If you're ready contact play.

Speaker 7 (16:29):
Oh my god, gosh, please know you know, if Terry
Francona does anything in twenty twenty five, that has to
be an eliminate.

Speaker 6 (16:38):
I mean it was, and what was?

Speaker 7 (16:41):
It actually gave us something to talk about, at least
on our show where I hate the contact play, and
I would go through why I hate it, And yet
you know, some frustrated former little leaguer would call up
and talk about, how well, you know, hey, back when
I was playing for Taylor mill Pharmacy, we used to
run the contact play. It's like yeah, because you would
hit the baldwoo guy who didn't know what which handlewhere.
At the big league level, it doesn't work. It was

(17:04):
a summer spent debating the contact.

Speaker 9 (17:05):
But the irustrating part is like it felt like it
happened fifty times normally It's like, okay, handful of times.
It felt like every other night they got beat on
something like the contact play or base running air, and
you're just like, how how is this happening with a
major league team who somehow plays really good against good
teams that that they played as.

Speaker 8 (17:26):
Far the worst fundamental baseball team. He's not even close.
And yet to your point, they were great against the Phillies,
they were great against the Dodgers. Ye, they were great
against the Yankees. They were so good against the best
teams in baseball, but couldn't get out of their own way.

Speaker 6 (17:40):
What is it?

Speaker 8 (17:41):
Dave Lapphamoy says, take yourself off your schedule, or as
we're fighting with themselves every day.

Speaker 7 (17:46):
To me, the ironic part of the season in September,
and let's face it, a lot of people that kind
of stopped paying attention. All the starting pitchers were hurt,
and they were playing pretty well, and I thought David
Bell was doing great work. Like I thought it was
the first time during his tenure you could say like together, man,
he's holding this together.

Speaker 6 (18:00):
And then whacked their rotation. You know, it's funny you
say that, because I remember looking at the game notes
the Red sendad every day and they list three starting
pitchers by name, and then the fourth slot would be TBD,
and the fifth slot would be TBA. And they went
through a rotation with openers like twice through the rotation
each time. And yet and I wrote down the sequence.

(18:21):
They went through a stretch where they swept the Yankees
and then got swept by the Tigers. They went through
a stretch where they swept the Cardinals and outscored them
nineteen to four, and turned around and got swept by
the Royals, outscored twenty eight to three. I've never seen
anything like the Jecklin hide of how things went.

Speaker 9 (18:37):
I remember the Tiger Series was here. It was a
weekend series, and they had just come off the sweep
of the Yankees, and that was again one of the
moments throughout the week where it's like, all right, take
two out of three from the Tigers, and we're right
back in the thicke of things. And they get swept.
And it felt like so many instances over the season
where they were close and then it just felt like
it completely unraveled.

Speaker 6 (18:58):
Now, Tony, you mentioned it before.

Speaker 7 (18:59):
We spent May and June and July just you know,
referencing these dates like, hey, just get to get to
July fifteenth, you know, at five hundred. Just get get
to August. If they could just get to August and
the deadline, just get to the deadline, go get that piece. Yeah,
I mean I even said one day the Brewers are
a house of cards.

Speaker 6 (19:17):
Yeah, never last, right about their head. They'll come back
to the back to the right.

Speaker 9 (19:22):
That deal at the deadlines and novel concept too, what
a deal at the deadline.

Speaker 6 (19:29):
Now, we did learn in their defense, we did learn
that Tyler Stevenson evolved into it a guy you could
count on as a top line catcher.

Speaker 8 (19:38):
It was a question about it. I was about to say,
I have this stat pulled up. Tyler Stevenson had the
best f war which is fangrafts or for a Reds
catcher since Johnny Bench. Literally the best season from a
Reds catcher since Johnny Bench played.

Speaker 7 (19:54):
Now there's somebody listening to us right now, is like
a couple who you just said, Tyler Stevenson's is good
Johnny Bench.

Speaker 8 (20:00):
Yeah No, that's not what I said. Ready for that
he had the best season since Johnny Bench. That's been
like fifty years of Red's catchers. Wow, Tyler Stevenson had
the second highest war altogether on the team last year.

Speaker 6 (20:12):
Behind Ellie Daily Cruise and now we just hoped that
the future with Terry Francona is bright. For the record,
if anybody had Austin dropping f war on the regard,
we have a winner Oscillations. That's a gift for everybody.

Speaker 7 (20:25):
On Chris, you could spend the second half of the
show explaining what the hell that is?

Speaker 6 (20:29):
No, thank you, that's segment four. Hang on yourself well
continue Sports Talk Year Review and look Ahead show on
seven hundred wlw oh. Come in Sports Talk Year Review
and look Ahead Show, Lance McAllister, Austin Illmore, loeger Tony Pike.
We appreciate you hanging out with us in the spirit

(20:50):
and in the theme of this. I feel as though
I need to incorporate some aspect of Christmas into all this.
Did I'll start with you?

Speaker 7 (20:55):
Mo?

Speaker 6 (20:56):
Did did Crosley visit with at perhaps the mall or
another staff? Plish made Santa Claus this year? She did?
How did it go?

Speaker 7 (21:03):
It went fine? We saw the one at Newport on
the levee because it's free, it's not bad. I guess
the best deal in town. I'll just I'll put it
to you this way. She approached him with some degree
of skepticism, that's all I'll say.

Speaker 9 (21:19):
Oddly enough, the kids would not go see Santa. But
I took my two oldest to the Grambling uc game
and the bear cat was dressed as Santa perfect, and
they wanted it. They were all about it, all right.
They got to chat up with the bear cap when
he was dressed as Santa.

Speaker 7 (21:34):
In the second half, we have on our mantle a
picture of her every year, starting as an infant, every year,
and so she we broke him out. And so she
looked at it and said, I guess I got to
get my picture taken with Santa. And I'm like, you know,
you had a lot more enthusiasm.

Speaker 6 (21:47):
For this half of the years ago. So she did.
But again some skepticism.

Speaker 8 (21:52):
I don't have kids, but I was at the Kenwood
Town Center a couple of nights ago and Ryan Rico,
the Bengals punter, was there. He was doing an event,
a chair or anything. There was a longer line for Ryan
Rico than there was for Santa, which maybe explains the
grip that the Bengals have on this city.

Speaker 7 (22:08):
Also, probably by the time you saw him, everybody had
seen Santa. Yeah, we have seen him before. Everybody gets
that deal out of the way early. Maybe maybe see
Ryan Rico once. It's a good point. That's a good point.

Speaker 6 (22:20):
Kelly sat on my lap this year and told me
what she wanted, and they all right, let's get into
the Bengals. Let's retrace our steps. Because remember in training camp,
we we wondered if Joe would have full range of

(22:41):
motion in his wrist early on, and he was coming
off the the fashion show with the backless shirt, and
then his hair was colored, and people wondered if he
would be focused and able to lead the Bengals. And
I think it's from his performance it's turned out okay.
But it was a long journey. Yeah, you know, everybody was.

Speaker 7 (23:01):
Tony was down there every single day, and I think
I asked him more questions, how's Joe's wrist, how's he look,
how's he gripping the football?

Speaker 9 (23:07):
Is he throwing the past four subject around Cincinnati as well?

Speaker 7 (23:10):
Yeah, I rest it was every single day, But it
was also an offseason spent talking about, you know, two
players asking for trades, the Jamar Chase saga, which lasted
literally up until right before kickoff of the first game,
and then us constantly talking about can they avoid the
slow start, which they did not.

Speaker 9 (23:32):
It was a training camp unlike any other because it
made me question everything about football that I thought I knew,
because there were days that training camp on like, this
defense is really good, Don Bell and Geno Stone on
the back end looked really really good. Turns out when
t Higgins doesn't practice every day and Jamar Chase doesn't
practice at all, the defense probably starts to look a

(23:53):
little bit better. But how weird of a training camp?
Trent Brown remember him, Oh, yeah, you know he's he's
going to be the tack here's Marius Mims. And then
Mims goes down and you're like, well, that's gonna put
him way back this season because he doesn't already have
the reps from a college standpoint. But you know, you
hit the nail on the head. It was a training
camp where the emphasis I thought was figure out a

(24:14):
way to start fast. You can't afford these slow starts.
And then to value you're like, and they start with
New England, so this is going to be an easy transition.
They're gonna get off to a better start. Next thing,
you know, they're one and three and they've got all
these questions the defense, we're questioning the offensive line at
that time when they're one and three. You brought the
stat earlier this week, Mo, what do he have four carries?

(24:36):
Chase Brown had four carries in the game against New
England six touches. So there were so many questions and
a lot of those have played themselves out in a
positive but seeing what we saw at training camp and
how the season started, it just didn't correlate at all.

Speaker 8 (24:51):
And on top of that with the slow starts, Zach
Taylor actually made changes to the way he approached the offseason.
The starters played in the preseason where they that they
have any the head coach. It was a much more
physical camp. Practices were longer. He was trying to do
all the stuff and make up for the you know,
extra month of the season that they didn't have to
play that they had been for the last two years.

(25:12):
And yet they still came out and started slow. And
it's one of the biggest criticisms about him. And again
here we are at the end of December kicking ourselves
for how they started the season.

Speaker 6 (25:21):
At the beginning, we had Jermaine Burton no show for
a walk through, and then the the chaos of cat him,
suspend him, move on from him, and he calmly returned
to the stadium the next day wearing his pajama bonds,
and everything's even be ok.

Speaker 7 (25:35):
No one has ever made a weirder initial splash into
the NFL, because if you remember that first preseason game,
Jermaine Burton's out there just looking like the greatest wide
receiver of all time late in the game. And the
story wasn't after the game, wasn't how well he played,
It was why he played when he did, because well, actually,
this dude.

Speaker 6 (25:52):
Has no idea what he's doing meetings.

Speaker 7 (25:55):
I'm not sure he even knows how to get to
the games, and it just it's sort of forced shadowed
the weirdness that would become Jermaine Burton's rookie season. But like,
and we'll talk about twenty twenty five later, I'm really
interested in full off season.

Speaker 6 (26:09):
Does the light bulb come on? Does he kind of go? Okay?

Speaker 7 (26:12):
Now I get what being a pro is like, because
I'm always gonna wager on the talent that kid has talent.

Speaker 6 (26:17):
Yeah, I thought it was interesting.

Speaker 8 (26:18):
Jamar Chase said earlier this year that when he was
a rookie Tyler Boyd was all over him all the time,
constantly pushing him, constantly getting up in his face and
trying to make him into a pro. And he's been
trying to do that with Jermaine Burton. Everybody has different personalities,
so maybe it's working, maybe it's not, but there is
at least two really good guys in Chase and Higgins

(26:39):
for him to kind of to look up to in
the locker room.

Speaker 6 (26:41):
Consider it this point, and we've all run through the
scenarios of how they make the playoffs, and the numbers
and the deck is stacked. But they're in conversation with
a Broncos team with a rookie quarterback and ninety million
in dead cap money, a Colts team that benchins quarterback
because he said he needed a break after running around,

(27:03):
and a Dolphins team that lost to of for how
many weeks to the concussion. And yet the Bengals, and
we tend to think of it as Burrow and the
offense more than the entire team, but that entire team
is in a scrum fighting for their lives to make
the playoffs. Over All, those those three teams, with those
three scenarios, which the Bengals seem should be so much

(27:26):
better than any of those three scenarios, and yet the
deck and the numbers say they're not going to make
the playoffs.

Speaker 8 (27:31):
The Bengal scenario is they've got the worst defense I've
seen since twenty nineteen.

Speaker 6 (27:34):
That's it.

Speaker 7 (27:36):
And also, you know, part of the story of the
season was, and we didn't get the fair resolution to it,
was Evan McPherson, Yeah, you know, and the struggles that
he went through this season and how we talked about, like, God,
what happened to Moneymack? But Lance, you you referenced all
those teams, and yet as we sit here today, their
chances might be remote. But if you ask the Buffalo Bills,
of the four teams, who do you want to play

(27:58):
the least shot? Yeah, he ask the Kansas City Chiefs, Hey,
down the road, you might face the lowest seeded team.
And let's say it's the seven Bengals, Colts, Dolphins, or Broncos.
Who do you want to play? I promise you it
ain't the Bengals.

Speaker 9 (28:13):
You hate to play the what if game, but there's
been six different instances where if they just find a
way to win the game. This is a completely completely
different conversation. What I think is is fascinating. You know,
they lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Joe Burrow makes
a statement, you know, when all seems lost, we're gonna
find out a lot about who the guys on this
team are. And I think to their credit, this team

(28:33):
has responded, albeit against some pretty poor competition. But to me,
it's about Joe Burrow. He makes that statement and then
right after that, we have assumed all season that this
is this is it for T Higgins, He's moving on,
and all of a sudden, here's Joe Burrow. He's in need,
He's not a one. I'm gonna be disappointed if this
franchise does not bring T Higgins back, And it is

(28:54):
completely shifted how we view the future now of the Bengals.

Speaker 6 (28:58):
Now it's okay, I think T is going to be back.

Speaker 9 (29:02):
How do they fill all the other holes on this team?
Because Joe Burrow carries that power and when Joe speaks,
the last thing I want to do is say, nah,
we hear you, but we're going to move in a second.

Speaker 7 (29:12):
Well, that's also one of the stories of the season,
Joe taking on this role of letting everybody know how
he feels on the sideline, in the postgame press conference
and in other places. Plus he bought the batmobiles.

Speaker 6 (29:24):
Instead of guns, which could be another topic. We've done politics,
we could do gun control. Let's well talk about the
border at segment six. You keep getting ahead of things.
Up next little UC football and review FC Cincinnati, and
I want from each of you give me one present

(29:45):
toy from your childhood at Christmas that stands out. Can
we do that as we continue with Sports Talk the
Year in Review and the look Ahead show on seven
hundred WLW. Very Christmas, everybody, and and thank you for
hanging out with as Sharon Burdie at Christmas with us.
It's the Sports Talk Year in Review and we're looking
ahead at twenty twenty five as well. Lance McAllister, Tony Pike, Moegger,

(30:09):
Austin Elmore, give me a in the spirit of the
season of the day, Austin, give me a present from
your youth that brings a smile to your face. It
was two thousand and eight.

Speaker 8 (30:21):
I got a pair of Air Jordans that was like
the first pair that I ever had.

Speaker 6 (30:25):
And it was a rough year. And then I got
some Air Jordan's. That was awesome. They were black and blue.
They were so sick.

Speaker 7 (30:32):
Nineteen eighty nine, my mom got me a driveway basketball hoop,
and in nineteen ninety my dad actually installed it.

Speaker 6 (30:43):
True story, like the Gorilla took a year. Was like
a gorilla hoop. Yeah, that was mine. Had the glass.

Speaker 7 (30:48):
The plex was the only one of the neighborhood with
like the glass NBA backboard.

Speaker 9 (30:51):
I always thought like my parents had a perfect driveway
for a basketball hoop. And as I was starting to
get older and play, that's what I wanted. And he
got the one of that and he installed that and
the light above it.

Speaker 6 (31:03):
But the the chain link net, yeah awesome. All was hooping. Yeah,
we were hooping out there. I'm about twelve, and I
got a reds starter jacket that's said the red, the
shiny satin sat red with the white Cincinnati across the
front of it. And rolling into school, I could not wait.

(31:23):
I was one of the few kids who wanted Christmas
break to end so I could roll into school wearing
my red Starters. They still rocked. The uh still fit
it probably.

Speaker 8 (31:32):
Does you know there's one there is a jacket like
that that has been sitting in one of the studios
here for months, and I think nobody's taking it.

Speaker 6 (31:43):
And I think often about just taking that with men.

Speaker 9 (31:49):
I have a ton of photos with the like the
boomeras Ias in Jersey and the Bengal helmet that you
could get for like the kids sizes. I would have assumed, Mo,
as we get ready to talk about the Bearcats, that
maybe a trip into New Orleans or Miami would have
been one of your favorite Christmas memories.

Speaker 7 (32:03):
Well, those are New Year's memories and I did my best.
Are we doing a New Year's show?

Speaker 9 (32:07):
Blur the memories, the team, blur the memories and those trips?

Speaker 6 (32:13):
All right? You see Bearcats? Well do uh? You see football?
Will do FC Cincinnati in this segment? You see at
one point was five and two, And I remember doing
the topic on Sports Talk for callers. Were you are
you ready to admit you were wrong about Scott Saderfield?
Have the Bearcats turned the corner at five and two?
There one went away from Bowl eligibility. They've already exceeded

(32:35):
their win total from a year ago and won more
in the Big Twelve than they did a year ago.
And then they lost their next five of the season
and we're back to wondering, you know what, what the
heck the future is with with Scott Centerfield and what
happened to the UC football season.

Speaker 9 (32:47):
I have no idea what the future holds, but I
do remember as you see is I want to know.
As Mose pointed out, against college football playoff teams this year,
they are want to know. But it was after that
Arizona State win where for the first time and interviewing
him post game, Scott Sadafield brought up the Big twelve
race and talked about we've put ourselves in a chance.
And if you looked at that moment, it was a

(33:08):
tough loss at Texas Tech and a loss where you
blew a twenty one point lead to Pitt and you're thinking, well,
they've been in every game, they should be six and one.
Maybe there is something here. Sworsby's playing great. It felt
like the defense. They bring in Tyson Vite and they
go to the three, three, five, It's like, Okay, the
defense is starting to find their footing. Dante Corleonez is

(33:30):
in the middle of it. They have a tight end
Joe Royer, who will be an NFL guy. Corey Kiner
in this this running game with Evan Pryor and Corey
Kiner and oh, by the way, Xavier Henderson Mason Fletcher.
At that time, they were making field goals and you're like, okay,
this this feels like a team that can make that
run and maybe surprise people. And they completely fell off.

(33:53):
Sworsby's play went in the wrong direction. Special teams went
in the way want wrong direction. And there are still
bright spots that we can elude on. But five and
two to five and seven and missing out on a
bowl game is a tough, tough way to end a year.

Speaker 7 (34:09):
I've never seen an offense without a lot of injuries
regress the way UCS did. Because you talked about that
Texas Tech game. They scored forty one points and you thought, boy,
this is a big twelve offense. This is an all
league caliber quarterback in Brendan Soersby. You and I talked
on air and off Tony about how difficult they're going
to be to defend with an NFL tight end and

(34:30):
all league caliber wide receiver, really good running backs, and
as the season unfolded, Brendan Sowsby went in the wrong direction.
The offense had no explosiveness whatsoever. I've never seen anything
like it. And you talk about like the air coming
out of the balloon and a fan base in bad
need of a jolt. Maybe they get it for their
home game in Kansas City Week one, But Scott Sadderfield

(34:54):
has his work cut out for him, not just getting
the performance on the field turned around getting people to
buy in, because right now I don't know nobody who
has bought it.

Speaker 9 (35:02):
It was a it was a tough and and for me,
growing up a huge Bearcat fan, it was a bad
feeling that final game. The crowd at Nippert Stadium, that's
a crowd that that I remember growing up and watching
games with crowds like that, And to me, that's that's
the most worrisome part. You're a You're in an era
where you better raise money, and you got to sell tickets,
and you got to sell your coach, and you got

(35:23):
to sell the roster and the transfer portal and that
that scene that I remember from the final game is alarming.

Speaker 6 (35:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (35:30):
And on top of that, I mean we had Scott
Saderfield on our show during it was on National signing Day,
and the inability for them to get hometown players is
a major major concern for them moving forward.

Speaker 6 (35:43):
Nineteen signings. Nobody from Cincinnati remarkable. It is.

Speaker 9 (35:48):
It is staggering, and it's different in the NIL landscape.
I get because you got to pay players for that.
But if i'm UC, Dante Corleone's coming back, he's a
cole Ran kid. Joe Royer is coming back, He's an
elder kid. He just set the all time single seat record.
You have homegrown talent. Corey Kiner just finished an amazing career.

Speaker 6 (36:05):
Yep.

Speaker 9 (36:06):
Why aren't they on billboards in Cincinnati? Like, hey, went
to school high school in Cincinnati. Now we're going to college.
And I know in NIL you gotta pay kids to
do that, but that's a pretty good recruiting tool for
high school kids driving up and down the highway seeing
ho those three guys all went to school here in Cincinnati.

Speaker 7 (36:21):
And what's remarkable is there's an established blueprint because Tony,
as you well know, Mark D'Antonio showed up and started
recruiting locally. And I think in two thousand and eight
you guys had thirty seven local kids. Luke Fickle came
in and expanded things a little bit more beyond Cincinnati.
But got a ton of Cincinnati kids as well, and
said day one, I'm gonna recruit this area Scott Sanderfield
day one said, well, I've tried to recruit this area Louisville,

(36:42):
and I didn't work. And unfortunately that pattern seems to
have continued.

Speaker 6 (36:47):
There were, to your point, on billboards, there used to
be billboards touting the hometown players representing UC football FC Cincinnati,
And as I put together some notes on it, the
thought occurred to me that they have become so good
and expectations raced so high. They made the playoffs and
then flamed out the postseason, and it feels like a

(37:09):
really big disappointment compared to you know, the other teams
in the town. It's just weird how to think they
got where everybody wants as a goal but then flamed
out and it feels like failure. They had moments, but
you know, Brandon Vasquez was never replaced. They had injuries
to Matt Miaska, the gruesome leg injury, and the defense
just wasn't the same and it was just kind of
a hit or miss season that never felt like it

(37:32):
shifted into gears for that well.

Speaker 8 (37:34):
And the inability to replace Brandon Vasquez has now upset
their star player at Luciano LaCosta, and they made a
little bit of headway on that towards the end of
the season. But then you look at the playoffs. Miami
goes down first round, Columbus goes down first down, Cincinnati
goes down first round. If you are able to get
out of the first round, you like your chances with
that team to actually make a run at MLS Cup.

(37:55):
But you're right, much like the Reds and Bengals, never
really seemed to get off the ground, inconsistent at all stops.
And you know, for a while they were at the
top of the table again before Miami goes on their surge.
But yeah, it just more inconsistency.

Speaker 7 (38:09):
It was not a hit or missseason for Aaron Boupenza.

Speaker 6 (38:12):
It was hit. Oh oh god, it was, wasn't it.

Speaker 7 (38:14):
They had a game in early July, they played Miami
and MESSI didn't play, but FC Cincinnati beat them, I
think six to one. Yes, and I commented at the game,
this might be the best soccer team I had ever seen.
And from that point forward it just went. It was
like UC football went in the total opposite direction, so
much so that Lance. I remember listening to you and
you were talking about FC Cincinnati. It didn't feel like, God,

(38:36):
you know what, the three seed, this team has a shot,
you know, and yet it didn't feel it. It was
the first time of their three postseason entries that I
felt like the air was out of the balloon well
before the postseason even started, so that when they lost
the way they did, it wasn't surprising.

Speaker 9 (38:53):
They to me feel like this year's version right now,
the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL feels like a team
that peaked too early because middle of the season watch
out and it was crazy because they stumbled so badly
down the stretch and you looked up third place in
the East.

Speaker 6 (39:08):
Like, man, they're right there.

Speaker 9 (39:10):
They still got a good opportunity, but it was can
they find their footing and they never did that going
into the playoffs.

Speaker 6 (39:15):
Still ahead, let's take it to the hoop UC Xavier,
Kentucky NKU. What has what we've learned to this point
and what we might learn about this these teams in
March in various forms as we roll on with our
Sports Talk Year and Review and look Ahead show right
here on seven hundred WLW.

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Speaker 12 (41:35):
One Merry Christmas.

Speaker 6 (41:46):
Welcome back in at the seven hundred WLW Sports Talk,
Year and Review and look ahead. Joe, I'm Lance the Callister,
hanging out with Moegor, Tony Pike, Austin Elmore, shifting through
what we learned in twenty twenty four and what we
might learn in twenty twenty five. Let's do some basketball, mo,
what have we learned and as we moved to conference
play the evaluation process of what we've seen from teams

(42:08):
around here through non conference. What's the sense, what's the feel,
what's the vibe of UC basketball?

Speaker 7 (42:15):
Arrow pointed upward. It feels like right. And I go
back to when they walked off the floor in taror
Hoad after playing Indiana State in the NIT we all
wondered who's coming back? And I think if you were
to that night, list the players that you wanted to
come back from from top to bottom, the guys at
the top of that list all came back. They've gotten
some high end transfers. I think we would all acknowledge.

(42:35):
Even if you're not quite sold on west Miller, I
think you would acknowledge he has done a very good
job building a roster and recruiting getting the program back
on solid footing. I thought last season, if you're to
look at January, February March, that part of twenty twenty four,
they fit in in the Big twelve, a really good
Big twelve, the non conference portion of the schedule. I

(42:56):
think this season we would say was mostly a success.
The one slip up, and now it feels like the
arrow is pointed upward. But when we flash ahead to
twenty twenty five, there will still be a lot of
pressure on Wes and this team to get to March and.

Speaker 9 (43:08):
Win in March, finishing so many games last year in
the Big Twelve where they were there at the end
and didn't finish. You know, my fondest memories growing up
were going to basketball games at U See with my grandpa,
And when I watched this team this year, I get
a sense of the teams I grew up watching because
they are physical and they defend from the opening tip on.

(43:29):
I mean, they're not making a ton of shots right now.
I think the shot selections good. I think the shots
will start falling, but you can count every time they
take the floor that they are going to defend. They
have two guards in Gigsel James and Dade Thomas who
take opposing guards out of their offense. You have shooters
in Siemas Lukashis. I love the way they built the roster.

(43:49):
They go out and get Connor Hickman. They get one
of the best athletes I've ever seen put on a
UC uniform in Dylan Mitchell. They can defend down low
with a zz bandego with Dylan Mitchell. No, I know
you're high on year two, part two of a player's
college season. That's Arrington Page if he can take the
next step and look out. Because they didn't play well

(44:10):
against Xavier, and one they did not shoot the ball
well against Dayton and one Dayton is a really good
basketball team. They're gonna play a lot of really good
basketball teams as Big twelve play gets started. But I
love the makeup, and I love the defensive intensity and
physical nature in which his team played.

Speaker 8 (44:26):
Perfect schedule for them, the way that they had to
fight for some wins before they go into Big twelve play.
And you mentioned it not playing well, still finding ways
to win, and to me, it just jumps off the floor.
Side speed athleticism entirely different than it was a year ago.

Speaker 6 (44:39):
And that's gonna help him a lot. And Wes had
to beat Xavier, he had to beat Dayton. Fans needed
to see both of those. They got both of those.
I will say I thought, I think they're shooting around
thirty five threes. I thought they'd be a and I
think I'd be willing to bet they'll be a better
three point shooting team going forward, Yes or no?

Speaker 7 (44:57):
Yes, now, I think that was our ta away from
the Ohio State scrimmage they played, was well, look at
this team, how they defend, but also look at how
they shoot. I still feel like I feel like, just
in terms of half court execution, you got to do
more than throw lobs. But I also feel like half
court and even in transition, this team hasn't even yet
scratched the surface as how good it can.

Speaker 9 (45:18):
Be shooting the beast and they dodged a bullet in
a sense of Dan Skillings and the knee injury.

Speaker 6 (45:23):
Yeah that he was able.

Speaker 9 (45:24):
To make it back so quickly Dada Thomas, and they
dodged another bullet with Gigsel James going oh for eleven
in the Crosstown shootout and still finding a way to
win that game.

Speaker 6 (45:31):
Yeah, I will say from Xavier's standpoint, I think it's
taken a turn for a rather at least for me,
an ominous feel now because they suffered the big injury before,
right before the season started. Now Freemantle goes down to
add to that, they've gone through this stretch of three
straight against Top twenty five. They lose all three in
gut wrenching fashion by a total of ten points. You

(45:53):
look to the big the Big East now and the
lack of fire power and the way the rosters put together,
I think it could be a very turbulent run from here.
The rest of the way for the most just feels
like they don't have enough guys.

Speaker 7 (46:07):
And I kind of feel like the Lassina Treori injury
foreshadowed this, not so much the injury, but how effusive
Sean Miller was and talking about the impact of that injury.
I've never seen the coach go is overboard to explain
how important this guy was gonna be. Not that he
was wrong, because I believe him. Yeah, I think what's
interesting about Xavier is, you know, Sean Miller, year one

(46:30):
of his second tenure gets sou le boom. They get
to the Sweet sixteen. Last year kind of felt like
Conference USA All Star team. This year's sort of similar.
So this is maybe not the most fair comparison, but
you see gets a guy from Dylan Mitchell, from the
Big twelve, instant impact. I wonder from a Xavier perspective,

(46:52):
you know, Dante maddox is a nice player, comes from
the MAC. Ryan Conwell's a nice player, was on a
very good team at Indiana State last year. Comes from
a level where he's going to step up to play
in the Big East in the Portal era. Are they
going to be able to get an impact guy who's
coming from a high major program. And until the answer
is yes, I just feel like the results are going

(47:14):
to be kind of unpredictable. As great of a coach
a Sean Miller is, so Lance's point, I worry about
the mental Now. You go through the shootout loss and
you lose Zach Fremantle, and before you can even take
in that loss, you got to go on the road
to Yukon and you play so well and you take
it to overtime and you fall short. And then you
erase a fifteen point deficit at home to Marquette and
you fall just short. What does the mental ramifications of

(47:37):
that dude going forward to a team now, it's not
like old times, like you don't have the culture built in.
You got a bunch of guys. How do they respond?

Speaker 9 (47:44):
And what I think is interesting about this era of
college basketball when you start to look towards the future.
They have one freshman on the roster. Yeah, one freshman
on their roster. They're not recruiting freshmen. They're going out
and getting transfer a guy, and that makes it very
interesting from a roster construction standpoint on how you can
build that going forward.

Speaker 8 (48:04):
They're pretty good in transition, but the book is out
slow them down, and they don't have enough size and
athleticism on the inside, and so to me, it makes
them an easy target, especially as Mo mentioned going into
Big East play, and I have to agree with Lance.

Speaker 6 (48:18):
I think it's going to be a tough stress.

Speaker 7 (48:19):
And what's remarkable is if you go from really the
late eighties to twenty eighteen and NCAA tournament mainstay. If
Xavier doesn't make it this year, that's one appearance. Granted
they went to the Sweet sixteen. One appearance since twenty eighteen.
That is remarkable for that program. And it's odd Tony
to wrap up on Xavier. You brought up a great
point about it's a more veteran roster and Sean purposely

(48:40):
did that. And yet in their losses they have turned
the ball over so many times in the final two
to three minutes of games. With veteran players turning the
ball over. It'd be one thing if it was the
freshman or doing it, but they've been getting, whether it's
UC or TCU or Marquette, turnovers in the final two
minutes from veteran guys with just it killed this.

Speaker 9 (48:58):
You can make an argument outside of the Michigan game
where they got beat up, they had a great chance
to win all four other losses. Yeah, and they've lost
all of those with a veteran team who's crumbled down.

Speaker 7 (49:07):
And I know we're gonna have Xavier fans listening to
this who say, yeah, we've gotten a tough whistle, and
they have, most notably at the end of that game
against Marquetteeah and k U North started the season and
I think we all went, WHOA wait a minute, what
one in five?

Speaker 6 (49:21):
They were in a hole. Sam Vinson was was clearly
not himself coming back from the knee. But now they've
put the pieces back together, they've won five in a row.
Competition has helped that. But whenever we talk in KU,
I always defer to Darren Horne, whose famous phrase three
days in March, because everything builds to three days in March,
no matter what happens in non conference, raven in the conference.

Speaker 8 (49:43):
Death taxes in the Norse in March, that's really what
it comes down to. And he was not thrilled at
the beginning of this season with the way that their
schedule was created. He would you know, they didn't really
The way he said it was, we don't really want
to go to Charlotte, but it worked out that we
could go to Charlotte and play with Chris Max team.
He didn't love it, and I think he was really
trying to test his team.

Speaker 6 (50:03):
He was.

Speaker 8 (50:04):
He was not happy with them in the early parts
of the season, but they appear to be turning a corner,
and as they always do, once the new year rolls around,
they'll be all right, especially in the Horizon.

Speaker 9 (50:12):
You understand, in the Horizon League it's about you have
to win your conference, yep, and you challenge yourself as
much as possible in the non conference, and as you mentioned,
he's built up so much equity, How do you not
trust him when March comes around? You know, you know
when this time of the year rolls around, outside of
when Doug Gottlieb's Green Bay team comes in. Thankfully Doug
Gottlieb is in the conference, it's going to be It's

(50:34):
gonna be allowed to watch.

Speaker 7 (50:34):
I think I think the one difference this year, this
season compared to last is they had Mark has work.
Ye Mark uez Work the school's all time leading scorer.
That'd be kind of a feel good moment right where
he broke Drum McDonald's record. But I think there have
been times, and I've heard Darren talk about this, where
there were times last season in tough games in the
Horizon League, Mark wez goo win it for us?

Speaker 6 (50:55):
Do they have that guy this year? Right? And and
Sam Vincent coming off surgery dealing with that? I'll tells
in a quick thought on Kentucky because I think the
most fascinating thing with Kentucky, at least to me, is
how the fan base was so hungry for something other
than cal the embrace and the hug of Mark Pope. Now,
how much that changes if you if you lose games

(51:16):
like they did to Ohio State will be different, but
the fan base wanted to love Mark Pope.

Speaker 7 (51:24):
Yeah, it's it's the perfect storm, right, it's the Kentucky
guy who played there, who is more about substance than
the style. I think what was so interesting about how
things unfolded at the end for John Caliperry was when
they lost to Oakland. It wasn't surprising. Yeah, and the
juxtaposition of how Mark Pope's team's play offense versus John

(51:45):
cala Perry's has been striking.

Speaker 9 (51:47):
Also, just the weird hiring process where you have the
coach of Saint John's showing up in Kentucky gear and
this is the guy.

Speaker 6 (51:52):
This is a guy, this is a guy.

Speaker 9 (51:53):
It's just a It was a weird stretch, but early
on it's a different team. They have a veteran team.
They're not being led by five star freshmen. It's gonna
be interesting to watch Kentucky as the season unfolds.

Speaker 6 (52:03):
All right, let's put twenty twenty four in the books.
Let's flip the calendar and look ahead to twenty twenty five.
First for the Cincinnati Reds, as we continue seven hundred
WLW Sports Talk yearine review and our look Ahead Show.
Thanks for hanging out with us. Merry Christmas, everybody on
seven hundred wlw.

Speaker 7 (52:19):
Arnold Schwarzenegger is many things, but did you know that
he was once the director and.

Speaker 6 (52:25):
Oh my request for mo Hagar, Ry Christmas everybody. It
is the Sports Talk, Urine Review Show and look Ahead Show,
Lance McAllister, Moegar, Tony Pike, Austin Elmore. We appreciate you
hanging out with us on this Christmas morning. As we
have sorted through twenty twenty four and we'll look ahead
to twenty twenty five. We'll do that front and center

(52:46):
with the Cincinnati Reds, and clearly the biggest change going
forward is the impact of Terry francona. I think everybody
had him a top their wish list, but I think
most said, well, who's next in the list, because there's
no way Terry francon is coming out of retirement. I'll
be danged. He is, and he's here, and I think
everybody's waiting to see the impact he's gonna have on

(53:09):
his baseball team accountability. I mean, he's talked about it.

Speaker 7 (53:12):
He's talked about it and discussing his conversations he's had
with players We know we talked about David Bell, who
I think had a lot of great attributes. But if
you watch the Reds last season, you wondered are guys
being held accountable? I listened to you on extra innings
talking about benching Ellie de la Cruz after one of
his many brain farts. I'm really interested in the first time,
whether it's Ellie or someone else where there's a base

(53:33):
running mistake, a mental error, a guy throwing to the
wrong base, is there visible, tangible accountability because what I
hear would suggest the answer is yes, But does that get.

Speaker 9 (53:44):
Put into practice. I think of accountability and I think
of the word development. I need to see some of
the younger players develop in a way because this team
has taken a couple of risks. You know, you look
at what the Bengals did. They move on from Joe Mixon.
It seems like a move that has been better for
both parties. Mix has been great, but the Texans Chase
Brown has been great. Here you move on from a

(54:04):
guy like Jonathan India, the development of Matt McClain and
the development of cees and development of these younger players.
Spencer Steer, it has to be there because this franchise
is counting on those guys developing. They stormed on the
scene and it was so fun, but you also had
this backdrop of when they struggled, just call somebody else

(54:24):
up and that'll get the fans excited.

Speaker 6 (54:26):
You don't have that anymore. They're all here.

Speaker 9 (54:28):
Can you develop these players into a legitimate contender? And
to Mo's point, when they're not doing that, how do
you hold them accountable at the big league level?

Speaker 8 (54:37):
All of us for one hundred and sixty two games
a year. Here people talk about how they can't stand
the manager, and they're complaining about the manager and it's
the manager's fault that they are that bad. And some
of that is true, most of it is not. Now,
though you get a legit guy, a Hall of fame
guy that is here to lead this team, is he
going to get the benefit of the doubt? What happens

(54:58):
if they don't come out sharp early? The accountability thing,
and to me, more than anything, let's eliminate all those
fundamental issues. How do you change the process that gets
them out of those bad habits early? And that obviously
starts with spring training, starts with the new coaching staff.
We'll see what takes effect and how exactly he plans
to get over that. But for me, you know, you

(55:20):
gotta be able to do the little things right. And
for you mentioned David Bell kind of doing a really
good job of like piecing the pitching staff together. That
was one of his strengths. I felt like the bullpen
especially was one of his strengths. How And where is
Terry Francona different in the way that he handles the
bullpen and most notably the starting pitchers and length especially

(55:41):
that they go into games. How's that gonna have a
trickle down effect for this time?

Speaker 6 (55:44):
And Guys, I'll be honest, one of my biggest concerns
is this organization just falls back on Terry being enough
to make this team better enough, and it I hope
they don't think he makes them ten games better by
being Terry Francona. And I'm gonna say this until I'm
blue in the face. And I know people didn't like
David Bell. This isn't a manager thing to me. This

(56:05):
is a talent thing. To me, they need more talent.
They've got a gaping hole in right field. And there's
a bit of a hidge your bets thing because they
almost have to find out about Cees at first, they're
stuck with Candelaria at first, they have to find out
about Marte at third, and yet you have to have
backup options if those guys aren't what they hope, and
that's a tough spot.

Speaker 7 (56:25):
It also feels like they've weirdly decided we don't want
guys who can hit home runs why, which I don't understand.
I mean, I've talked all off season long about like,
can can we find somebody that can hit thirty to
thirty five homers? Maybe Ellie can be kind of cool
to have a second guy you could do that, And
it just seems like this this franchise, I don't know
if they don't want it or if they just have
determined they can't afford it. To me, is Hunter Green

(56:47):
going to give him thirty two starts? Is Nicolodolo going
to give him thirty two starts? Is Andrew Abbot going
to give him thirty two starts? What's Graham Ashcraft's role?
Is rhet loud? Or the real thing? Is Chase Petty
gonna come up? Like they have one established starting pitcher
and Brady Singer who they just got, who has gotten
through a full big league season, so the expectation this
year is challenged for a playoff spot. Can can that

(57:07):
happen around a group of starting pitchers who has Each
of those guys has shown promise, but can they stay healthy.

Speaker 9 (57:12):
I don't think the expectations challenged. I think the expectations
make the playoffs. That's that's where this team needs to be.
My only concern is kind of what Lance alluded to. Hey,
look at this shiny new object here in Terry Francona.
Look at look at this, look at this, look at this.
Don't look at the way the roster's not being handled
in the offseason. We have for years sat at the
deadline with a Reds team more often than not, at

(57:35):
least in striking distance. Man, this team needs this, this
team needs this, And the deadline comes and the deadline
goes and they don't make a move, and you're just
left saying you said it last year, just wait till
these guys get healthy. That was gonna be the big
deadline acquisition, right, Matt McClain's gonna be healthy. That's better
than anything you could go get in the market. And
Matt McClain never was healthy. So here's here's Terry francona

(57:59):
look over here year, when in reality, it's this roster
that still is missing a glaring piece, which is a
power back.

Speaker 8 (58:06):
I do not trust the Reds, and a lot of
Reds fans do not trust the Reds because they have
screwed it up over and over and over again. And
it is my belief that they will look to twenty
twenty five and say, last year we got hurt, and
last year was David's fault, and we're gonna run it
back mostly with the same crew, same crew. We're gonna
spin minimally, and you're just gonna get a second chance
with these guys while healthy. That's what I think they're

(58:27):
going to do right, wrong or indifferent. That's what they've
shown me who they are time and time again. That's
what I expect. What's my favorite trade deadline trope.

Speaker 7 (58:36):
Hurt guy coming back is going to be the best
trade deadline acquisition. I have a feeling that's going to
be the same of the all season hurt guy coming back.
And by the way, last year, it wasn't just that
they had a lot of injuries. They weren't built to
withstand them, which is why we have the steady stream
of Mike Ford, Jacob Hurdaby's connor cable at all.

Speaker 6 (58:52):
Well, you know they lost great in Japan.

Speaker 9 (58:55):
They lost so many one run games that that's going
to even itself out this coming year.

Speaker 6 (59:00):
You'll get that too. You'll get that too. Who's going
to close for this team right now? It would be
Alexis Diaz until plans change. I also think we're in
that interesting I hate to de fall back to the window,
the Joe Burrow type window, but there's an Elle window.
Whether we like it or not, there's an Elle window.
And I don't like looking ahead to what he's a
free agent in twenty thirty. But you have to do

(59:21):
your thing now while you're smack dab in the middle
of that window. Yeah, exactly too. You just can't can't
let it.

Speaker 7 (59:28):
And you use the word when and I tried this,
We all tried this. Let's just reconcile ourselves with the
fact that Ellie deler Cruz is going to leave after
the twenty twenty nine season. Do you want him to
leave having been on a steady stream of fourth place
teams or would it be kind of goal? And if
you want to maintain any hope of keeping them. Players
like to win. Players like to plan the biggest stage.
Perhaps the biggest component in maybe having a shot to

(59:50):
pay them a billion dollars in twenty twenty three, twenty
thirty is to win while you have them.

Speaker 6 (59:55):
You know what's crazy is he might actually get a
billion dollars. Oh, yes, like that, that's the goal.

Speaker 8 (01:00:00):
I know we're up against the clock, but like Juan Soto,
who's a good player. Yes, just signed for seven hundred
and fifty six million, sixty whatever it is a few years.

Speaker 6 (01:00:09):
From Ellie really might sign for a billion dollars.

Speaker 7 (01:00:11):
I said that because I believe that's the goal. Someone
us now targeting that number, and Ellie de la Cruz
is on the short list of players that can get there,
the first billion dollar player.

Speaker 6 (01:00:20):
A lot of questions, a lot of money that ties
to the Bengals as well. We'll do the Bengals twenty
twenty five outlook as we continue. Thanks for being here
with us. Merry Christmas everybody. Seven hundred WLW Sports Talk
Year in Review and our look Ahead show continues on
seven hundred WLW. Yeah, taking our way through a Christmas morning.
You are hanging out with us Thank you. Moeger brought

(01:00:43):
donuts this morning and I beat most of them. He
was late, he was one minute late, but he brought
donuts this morning. Thanks for being here, Lance McAllister, Austin Elmore, Moeger,
Tony Pike. We've wrapped up twenty twenty four. We're looking
ahead to twenty twenty five. In my goodness from a
Bengals standpoint, Where to begin from still the dangling hope

(01:01:05):
of the playoffs to an off season of what happens
to Jamar, what happens the tea, what happens the tray,
Who do they draft? What coaches are back? As I
say all that, we're certainly gonna have plenty to talk
about related to the Bengals.

Speaker 7 (01:01:19):
Yeah, I think it's the most It's the longest off
season to do list they've had in quite a while,
with the roster, with getting extensions done, with making key
decisions about players who have been here, the draft, free agency.
I mean, I can't recall an offseason in the Borough era,
at least where you went into the offseason thinking this
team has this many things to address.

Speaker 9 (01:01:40):
Look, if this team falls short of the playoffs, you
will waste some of the best individual season performances of
all time in the National Football League. And then your
job becomes making sure that that never happens again. That's
pressure now, that is on the franchise. Trey Hendrickson leading
the league in sacks, Jamar chas in line for the
triple Crown, what Joe Burrow has done. This if they

(01:02:02):
fall short of the playoffs, will go down as wasting
some of the best individual seasons in the history of
the game. And then you say, okay, if it doesn't
get figured out, you're wasting the prime careers of some
of the best players to play the game. The t
Higgins thing looms large for me. What I think is
even more important is figuring out between now and the end.
Whenever the end is, who are guys you're riding with

(01:02:24):
next year? You know, defensively against weaker competition. In the
last couple weeks, some of those young defensive players have
played better McKinley Jackson, Chris Jenkins, Josh Newton, Cam Taylor
Britt has played better. Miles Murphy at times. Jordan Battle
is one of those guys as well. You better figure
out who are guys that you're going to bring back
and build around and who are guys you're going to
fill the void because this team has so many holes

(01:02:47):
and at the top because you didn't get it done.
This year is going to be a monster deal for
Jamar Chase.

Speaker 8 (01:02:52):
It starts with Jamar Chase, and you hope that they
learned something from what happened last year in the sense
that they can get this done away.

Speaker 6 (01:03:00):
They said.

Speaker 8 (01:03:01):
Jamar said they came to him in February of last
year to say, okay, or earlier this year, let's work
on this deal. If you're the Bengals, you got to
get this done. First things first. You cannot let it
drag into training camp again. I know that's how they've
done it in the past, but they cannot allow that
to be another distraction going into training camp. And once
you figured that out, it also opens up the path

(01:03:23):
for the rest of the offseason. They have thirty seven,
thirty eight, thirty nine players on contract for next year,
roughly one hundred million dollars to spend. There is a
path there to be able to get it done. The
way the NFL works, another third place schedule they're going
to have, they can turn this around quickly. They don't
need their defense to be top five in the NFL.
They need it to not be thirty thirtieth, thirty first

(01:03:44):
and thirty second. Make it a little bit better. Flip
it around quickly. It starts with Jamar Chase. If they
can get that done by April, that would be the
ideal thing for me.

Speaker 6 (01:03:52):
See, I'm not a capologist, and I don't pretend to
understand the inner workings of the cap. If you can
tell me they can sign upgrade the interior of the
offensive line and upgrade the defense enough to be a
mid of the pack defense, then I'm good to go.
If not, then there's a very difficult conversation everybody's gonna
have to happen. Yet, I go back to I can't

(01:04:13):
imagine this offense minus T Higgins right now. I can't
imagine telling Joe, Hey, Joe, we know you went through
all of what you did last year, Now go through
it this year without T. I don't know how you
look Joe in the face and tell that.

Speaker 9 (01:04:25):
And we had the Burton question already, Josebash has not
really taken the next step forward. Who is going to
be if it's not T, who's gonna make that emergency?
You asked me this a couple of weeks ago. Mo,
what's the best offensive line? Joe Burrow's playing behind. Everyone
does the same thing. When you're watching the game. You
see him get hit and no matter what the result
of the play, everyone's holding their breath. Okay, flashback, let
me see Joe off the ground. You know a lot

(01:04:48):
of times he's getting up by himself. You know, the
line's giving up hits and they're not even helping the
guy up some of the late hits. But this offensive
line as constructed not good enough. It's not been good
enough since he's been a Cincinnati Bengal, and he's still
doing amazing.

Speaker 7 (01:05:01):
They haven't had a legitimately good offensive line now in
ten years. In twenty fifteen was the last time. But
the T Higgins thing is fascinating for a lot of
different reasons, not the least of which is he got
hurt again this year. He missed multiple stints of games,
and that's part of the conversation. So yes, I watch
the Bengals with T Higgins and I go, boy, I
don't want to live without that. But I also know

(01:05:23):
what Tea's injury history is, which is one of the
reasons that they haven't signed him. You cannot discount that
you can sign him for next year. I'll bet you
he doesn't play seventeen games. And by the way, with
two years left on his deal. This past offseason, Trey
Hendrickson not publicly so much, but made noise and asked
for a trade. Now, with another very good year behind him,
one year less on his deal, we think he's gonna

(01:05:46):
not say anything to the Bengals a better trade this offseason.

Speaker 8 (01:05:48):
I think that's something that they have to seriously consider. Agreed,
Trey Hendrickson is a good player. He's not a great player.
He doesn't do what Miles Garrett does. He doesn't do
what TJ. Watt does. The only time he gets tackles
for loss win their sacks. All he does is sack people.
He doesn't tackle people. He's not good in the run game.
He's really good to getting to the quarterback. He doesn't
have this great plethora of pass moves. He really has

(01:06:10):
a rip and he's got speed. Other than that, is
he somebody you're gonna build your defense around as he continues.

Speaker 6 (01:06:15):
To get older.

Speaker 7 (01:06:16):
You drafted Miles Murphy with the idea that he was
probably gonna replace him.

Speaker 6 (01:06:19):
One day.

Speaker 8 (01:06:21):
Yeah, well you can say that about about four positions
on the defense. That to me is the big thing
is their inability to draft and develop. The blueprint is there.
Kansas City, Buffalo, they all got younger and cheaper on
defense and put their money into their offensive line and
their playmakers. The Bengals have to do better at doing that.

Speaker 6 (01:06:38):
And Tony, you're there every day during camp and it's
brought up to you every day about how they look,
how they're preparing. And we know they tweaked the preseason
in camp a little bit last year. They're gonna have
to tweak it more because they can't start slow again.
Can't start slow.

Speaker 9 (01:06:52):
And I think there needs to be a serious conversation
this offseason about is there a disconnect from a player
evaluation standpoint, to the scheme to the coaching level, because
it hasn't messed the draft picks, hasn't messed with what
they're trying to do, The free agents haven't meshed. It's
not like the organization's not spending money. They are, they've
spent it the wrong way the last couple of years.

(01:07:14):
And what I think is extremely interesting, what type of
pressure pressure will the organization feel because if you look
at the AFC, Chargers are just gonna get better under Harball.
Kansas City's not going anywhere. Austin, I know, is bullish
that the Las Vegas Raiders are a couple players away
from competing. Denver and bo Nicks is right there. Go
through the AFC South. The Texans are gonna get healthy,
the Colteva rookie quarterback, the AFC Nor's going nowhere, right.

(01:07:38):
The Steelers are gonna get better, The Baltimore Ravens are
gonna be there, Miami's gonna stay healthy. The AFC is
a monster, and the depth of the AFC is not
going anywhere. These teams are gonna keep getting better. You
can't just sit back this offseason and say we've got
number nine and we've got number one.

Speaker 7 (01:07:54):
Well, and we talked before about how one of the
stories of the twenty twenty four was Joe Burrow showing
more of himself, expressing himself. If we're sitting here doing
this show a year from now and the Bengals are
in the same position, what sort of noise has Joe
Burrow made externally and internally.

Speaker 6 (01:08:13):
Final note on the Bengals for twenty twenty five, we'll
be looking at the Ring of Honor eventually, and I
hope and I continue to defer to the Ring of
Honor as they were so far behind and the catch
up he's never going to catch up, But I just
hope there is respect paid to. Let's be honest, the
older player, Lap Lamar, Parrish, Bob Trumpy. I want guys

(01:08:35):
like that to see, feel and experience this honor, sadly,
before it's too late for the older player.

Speaker 7 (01:08:41):
I don't want another Ken Riley situation, both his Ring
of Honor induction and his well deserved Hall of Fame induction.
His son gave a beautiful speech. He should have been there.
Take all of those players and put them in this season.
I continue to ask this question, who are we harming
if we took Lamar, Lap Trumpy and a whole slew
of guy from back then and put them in at once.

Speaker 6 (01:09:02):
Do one guy per game?

Speaker 7 (01:09:03):
Put them all in, get rid of the backlog, because
you're only going to have newer players who are eventually
going to be up for induction. Whitworth aj green guys like.

Speaker 6 (01:09:11):
That Amen still ahead our final segment, I'm going to
give you names and we're going to talk about whether
it's expectations or pressure or the spotlight or the white
hot pressure on them as we look at twenty twenty five,
and we'll head down the stretch with that. Next it's
the Year in Review, Sports Talk, Year in Review and
look Ahead show on seven hundred WLW.

Speaker 7 (01:09:32):
The new and improved free iHeartRadio app is finally here.

Speaker 6 (01:09:40):
Heading down the stretch of our year in review. Merry Christmas,
everybody appreciate you being a part of it. We've reviewed
twenty twenty four in Cincinnati Sports looking ahead to twenty
twenty five Iliance Butcalister along with Austin Ellmore, Moeger, Tony Pike.
Thanks to Tony Bender for producing today as well and DJing.

(01:10:01):
Absolutely yeah, great music has been good. My family will
be seeing a movie on Christmas Day? Are we okay
with going out to a movie on Christmas Day?

Speaker 8 (01:10:10):
Yes?

Speaker 6 (01:10:10):
We did that when I was growing up for years
and years and years. It was fun. I'd love to
do whatever the hell you want, man, it's Christmas.

Speaker 9 (01:10:16):
Good buddy of ours does waffle House with this whole
family at the I got.

Speaker 6 (01:10:19):
No problem with that all that. I love that.

Speaker 7 (01:10:21):
If I'm at a movie theater today by myself next year.

Speaker 6 (01:10:25):
This year Live from waffle House, his dead one.

Speaker 7 (01:10:29):
For Christmas. He wants to go to the movie. He's
wants a new Sonic movie by himself.

Speaker 6 (01:10:34):
I didn't take mo for a Sonic fan. All right,
let me let me toss out some names and just
we'll kick around some instant reaction to how they fit,
if they fit in what they're looking at for twenty
twenty five. Sam Hubbard? Who wants Sam Hubbard?

Speaker 8 (01:10:48):
I think Sam Hubbard played his last down as a
Bengal and it was a touchdown catch in Tennessee. I
hate that that's the case. Uh, we don't know that
for sure, but to me, his body just continues to
betray him and he has just not been nearly as
productive as he was.

Speaker 7 (01:11:01):
He's been in the league a long time now. He's
the last guy left from the Marvin era Pittsburgh Steeler.
Sam Hubbard beefed up twenty pounds, moved to the inside
ye chiller Justin Smith two point zero.

Speaker 6 (01:11:12):
If he goes out on that, it'd be you talk
about a way to go out, touchdown pass for your
final play, representing your hometown team and your NFL career.
But Scott's Sadderfield, Tony Pike.

Speaker 9 (01:11:23):
Bowl Game or bust. And I hate that it's at
six and it should be around seven or eight. But
at the bare minimum, if this team is not playing
in a bowl game this upcoming year, then Scott Saderfield
is not going to be the head coach.

Speaker 7 (01:11:36):
I think it's going to be almost impossible for Scott's
Saderfield to win people over this season.

Speaker 6 (01:11:40):
I was just gonna say, mo, I don't think six
six wins, seven wins. I don't think it's gonna make
a difference because I don't think it's gonna move the
fan needle. Nope, not at all. Lucho Acosta, man, think
of what think of what it will if he's not here,
the void and the the truest star or that club

(01:12:01):
has ever had, who would lead and for all the
good that they have done as a club. What would
it say if their greatest player ever because he's unhappy,
walks away in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 7 (01:12:15):
Well, I'm sure whatever it says, Jeff Birding would do
a great job of explaining it.

Speaker 9 (01:12:21):
It's hard the face of your organization. You know, one
of the best players in the MLS. If he doesn't
want to be here. How do you keep him here?

Speaker 7 (01:12:29):
And it was interesting going back to their playoff exit.
That became the story right almost immediately, not the game itself,
not how they lost, but his very weird post game
and there hasn't been a resolution.

Speaker 8 (01:12:41):
Eight or nine months after he took out a full
page ad in the paper talking about how much he
loves Cincinnati. They did go and get Kevin Dankey, the
guy who's supposed to be the replacement for Brandon Vasquez,
that's supposed to be reaching out the hand of Christian
fellowship to Luciano Wacosta. We'll see if it actually works.

Speaker 6 (01:12:56):
I'll give you a guy a name, and you talk
about a lynch pin or a flipping point of how
the season may go. I have no idea what to
expect that of Noelve Marte. I wouldn't put any amount
of money on either side of boom or bust, but
he's going to be a major factor in how the
Reds twenty twenty five season goes. If he goes and

(01:13:17):
is big one thing. If he's a bust, I don't
know who plays third base for this team.

Speaker 7 (01:13:21):
Yeah, I'm not sure what was more disappointing the fact
that he missed half the season or when he played,
how poorly he played.

Speaker 8 (01:13:26):
Yeah, my bold prediction for Noelvi Martees he gets traded
between now and opening day.

Speaker 6 (01:13:31):
Who that?

Speaker 8 (01:13:32):
Yeah, I just don't know if you know he's in
the good graces of the organization right now. Somebody wants
the potential upside of him, and the Reds have needs
elsewhere not you know, third base absolutely is a need,
but there are at least more guys on the team
that can play that position.

Speaker 6 (01:13:46):
They need other positions. Maybe they'll make a trick you're
putting in your bottle. Would be the ultimate cell low move.
It would be it would be be ten cents on
the dollar. Lou Ederumo is lou Heedarumo this team's defensive
coordinator in twenty twenty five or or do they seek
a different voice and a set of eyes looking at
and executing this defense. I think he is.

Speaker 9 (01:14:07):
I don't think he should be, but I do think
he will remain the defensive coordinator. It's hard not to
get this screen pulled over because they've played so well
defensively in the last three but they've played against horrible
offenses with bad quarterbacks that should not steer you away
from how bad they've been against competent teams. They haven't
beat a team with a winning record yet. I don't

(01:14:28):
think he should be, but I think he will be.

Speaker 7 (01:14:30):
I have a weird feeling that if they were going
to move on from him, they would have already.

Speaker 6 (01:14:35):
Yeah, I think that's true.

Speaker 8 (01:14:38):
There appears to be a disconnect between the type of
player that Louis and Arumo needs to run his defense
and the type of player that the Bengals have acquired.
The von Bels, the Mike Hiltons. Those players aren't growing
on trees, and it feels like he needs very specific
types of players to run his scheme, and we don't

(01:15:00):
know how exact how many of them are out there
for the team to acquire. And that makes me wonder
if they'll think about going in opposite ways this year.

Speaker 5 (01:15:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:15:09):
I don't believe Lows become a worst coach. And yet
there's something to be said for a message getting stale
or a new voice needing to be heard. And if
we're being honest, his his defenses the last two weeks
have done what they did. They were never great top
ten defenses, but they made enough plays at the right time.

(01:15:29):
Whether it was a Von Bell punch out or a
Jermaine interception. Yeah, exactly that, and they've gotten back to that.
But Tony's point of the competition, I think it'll be
a real interesting TOSA.

Speaker 8 (01:15:40):
So we always had those conversations though, Is that sustainable? Yeah,
and maybe it's not. Maybe we've reached the point where
it's not sustainable.

Speaker 7 (01:15:46):
Look, they throw a lot of money at the defense
in twenty twenty, in twenty twenty one and reap the
benefits in twenty one and twenty two.

Speaker 6 (01:15:52):
It's not quite as easy as it used to be
building a defense.

Speaker 7 (01:15:55):
When he got an offense that collectively is making the
coin that's making.

Speaker 6 (01:15:58):
Matt McClain, if he's in the opening lineup on opening Day,
will have gone some eight hundred days since his last
regular season major league baseball game. I hope he's healthy.
If he's healthy, I'm comfortable thinking he's going to be
really good. I just hope he's healthy. I think it's
one of the biggest questions.

Speaker 9 (01:16:19):
We don't know what he is great rookie year, missus
all last year he felt like the one guy that
I thought when he came up that he was good. Yep,
and then the scattering report got out on him, and
then he adjusted to the adjustments. I thought he did
that better than any of the young players. But he's
missed a lot of time. Now, how do you come
back from that? And what do you look like?

Speaker 8 (01:16:38):
Not just the shoulder as well, he had the little
oblique injury that kind of nagged for a little while.
Is he able to clear himself up off that stuff?
And you know it's on an opening day, he'll probably
hit one off the riverboat in the place will go crazy.
I just need consistent production injury free from him and
a lot of guys.

Speaker 7 (01:16:54):
He might hit one off the riverboat and then trip
on second base round in the bass the time.

Speaker 6 (01:17:01):
That could be a bobblehead, the tripping Matt McClain bobblehead. Gosh,
you could have done an hour on bobble head. Sadly,
our time is up. This was this was a blast.
We certainly appreciate everybody spending part of their Christmas morning
with us guys. Merry Christmas to you, Christmas Mary, Chris boy,
this has been fun. I look forward to this every year.

(01:17:22):
Glad Lance can be back with us. Yeah, it's good
to have plans healthy, Yes, glad to have mo here
even next was eight thirty one. Yeah you are.

Speaker 7 (01:17:31):
Most people who show up late here and there aren't
many don't bring donuts.

Speaker 8 (01:17:37):
Yeah, they usually just have Starbucks for themselves and an excuse.

Speaker 6 (01:17:41):
On that note, we are done. Merry Christmas everybody. It's
been the sports Talk Year in Review and look ahead
show right here on seven hundred.

Speaker 5 (01:17:48):
W l W.

Speaker 13 (01:17:49):
You wake up, put on your ray Ben metaglasses. You're
living all that. You realize you need coffee, so you say.

Speaker 14 (01:17:56):
Hey, Meta, how do I make a latte?

Speaker 6 (01:17:57):
Threw two shots of espresso.

Speaker 13 (01:17:59):
After Meta AI gets you caffeinated, You're ready.

Speaker 6 (01:18:02):
For some beats.

Speaker 14 (01:18:02):
Hey, Meta, play hip hop music.

Speaker 2 (01:18:04):
You had to meet some friends but can't remember the place.

Speaker 14 (01:18:07):
Hey, Meta, call Eva.

Speaker 13 (01:18:10):
Ray beIN metaglasses, the next generation of AI glasses.

Speaker 6 (01:18:14):
Just say hey Meta.

Speaker 13 (01:18:15):
To harness the power of Meta AI, shop now at
Meta dot com slash Mark glasses.

Speaker 1 (01:18:20):
Deciding on what to listen to was hard. Using Zoomo
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Speaker 2 (01:18:30):
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Speaker 1 (01:18:31):
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Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
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(01:19:11):
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Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
Can't be home for the game God for the Touchdown.

Speaker 11 (01:19:24):
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Tonight was definitely there night.

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