5/19/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

The Reds swept the Guardians thanks to Will Benson and great Reds Pitching. Plus, Mo wants to help and offer his services to both Trey Hendrickson and the Bengals.

Episode Transcript

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That's money. Enter it now, money, money. What's up? It's
five minutes after three. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. My
name's Mullegar. I appreciate you listening. My thanks to Chad
Brendel for pinch hitting on Friday. Do we have a
full week this week? No days off? Full week this week?

(00:29):
That's right. Show previews available on Twitter at mulegar a
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I have often, over the years on this show lobby
to be the Cincinnati Bengals Director of common Sense. And

(00:50):
typically when I do that, it's it's been about coaching.
It's been about in game decision making, game management, clock management, timeouts,
challenge calls, go go Ford on fourth down, don't go
Ford on fourth down, go for two, don't go for
to the director of common sense. The director of common
sense position. Some teams have it, many teams have it.

(01:11):
It's like game management analyst or something like that. I
prefer director of common sense, the director of common sense's
powers could extend be on the sideline. I'll tell you
how we could extend them. Coming up a little bit
later on the weekend was awesome. This was an awesome
weekend if you're a fan of the Cincinnati Reds for

(01:33):
a lot of different reasons. But just think about where
we were, man. We were Wednesday night. So Wednesday night
was Pete Rose Knight. And you know, we all know
what happened on Pete Rose Knight. We all know against
which backdrop the Pete Rose stuff happened. But Wednesday night
was Pete Rose Night. And unfortunately, the celebration of Pete

(01:53):
was I don't want to say dampened, but it wasn't
what it could have been because instead of winning in
front of a packed house at GABP, the Reds laid
kind of a clunker, lost their second consecutive games to
the Chicago White Sox and fell a season high four
games under five hundred and So let's be honest, man,

(02:14):
Late Wednesday night last week, or on Thursday morning before
the Reds were getting ready to play a twelve forty game,
another one against the White Sox, a team that came
to Cincinnati seventeen under five hundred. That game felt big.
Now they went on to win it. We were on
the air of that afternoon, we talked about how big
that game felt. But it felt that morning like, you

(02:34):
know what, We're not even to Memorial Day yet, and
this could get out of control. This could get away
from the Reds before the season even begins. This could
get out of there, This could get out of control,
and we can be talking about the Reds being seven eight,
nine games out of first place, having to leap frog
a whole bunch of teams before we even get to

(02:55):
Memorial Day. That's I think where so many of us
were on Wednesday morning. On Thursday morning, I should say
what a difference four day makes. They win Thursday, and
that started a stretch by Will Benson that has been
something to behold. Two hits and a homer in that
last game against the White Sox on Thursday, two hits

(03:18):
in a homer in the five to four win over
the Guardians and the opener of that series on Friday,
another homer on Saturday, and then yesterday two of them,
three hit day for Will Benson. Reds win all three five, four,
four to one, three one, and they go into this
week starting a series against the Pirates, who are not

(03:39):
very good, a series that, by the way, they will
not see Paul Skeins. They're back to five hundred. They're
not only back to five hundred. That's important. They're not
only back to five hundred with a bad team on
their schedule tonight, that's important. They're not only back to
five hundred with some games over the next two weekends
against the Chicago Cubs coming up. That's important. They're back

(04:02):
to five hundred and they've done it on the strength
of some really clean, crisp, well played baseball. You start
with the starting pitching, which Friday and yesterday, in particular
with Andrew Abbott, you talk about teetering on the brink.
I wasn't sure Andrew Abbot was gonna get out of
the first inning yesterday. Unfortunately he only gave him five.

(04:23):
But in the first inning where he walks a guy,
he hits a guy, walks a couple of guys, and
it feels like this may get out of hand and
a team that had to use a bullpen day the
day before might have to go to the bullpen on
Sunday earlier than they would like. Andrew Abbott gets out
of trouble, Andrew Abbott spends his five inning side stepping issues.
He buys some time for Will Benson to do some

(04:44):
Will Benson things. The Reds got good starting pitching. The
Reds got really good relief pitching, highlighted by the game
on Saturday, a bullpen game. A bullpen game with the
Reds start Brent Souiter. He's good. They then turned things
over to Lion Richardson. He was good enough. Luise May,

(05:04):
you talk about somebody that they have sort of stumbled
upon here. Luis May was good enough on Saturday too,
And pardon me for doing this, actually earn a big
league victory. I will throw a dollar into the fine
jar for mentioning a pitcher's win. Then Graham Ascraft, then
Tony santi and then Amelia Pagan. The Reds used the
bullpen day and gave up just one run. They win

(05:26):
the game on Saturday. More than anything, though, I think
what you saw this weekend was a pretty well played,
crisp three days of baseball. You know, we've we've talked
a lot so far this season. They're nearly at the
fifty game part. At fifty game point, we've talked a
lot this season about how, you know, God, the twenty

(05:47):
twenty five Reds have felt a lot like the twenty
twenty four Reds. Or there's a different manager and there's
some different characters on the team, but we're still talking
about the Reds not doing the little things that well,
we're still talking about too many defense miscues and not
errors necessarily of those, although those matter. But like you know,
the game in Atlanta where the Braves tie the game,

(06:08):
Stuart Fairchild running from third because the Reds either don't communicate,
or Matt McClain goes through vapor loock in the ninth
inning and doesn't know what to do with the ball.
Stuff like that. It doesn't necessarily show up in the
box score, base running, defense, little things, execution, you know
we made fun of I think it was last week,
maybe the week before, I don't know, some days run together,

(06:29):
where Terry Francota was talking after a loss about how
hard his team competed. I think this was one of
the games in Atlanta, how hard his team competed. At
My take was, we should be beyond that. We should
be beyond talking about how hard your team is competing,
and instead we should be talking about how well they execute.
Give them credit. This weekend they executed really, really well.

(06:51):
So the highlight of the weekend was Will Benson. And
Will Benson is a fun story and I think a
really easy are root for of all those guys that
got here two years ago when the Reds suddenly burst
into contention in the summer of twenty twenty three, and
we just saw this steady stream of guys get here

(07:14):
and contribute. McClain, Ellie Abbott, Cees, Noel ve Marte. Will
Benson was the guy that, for reasons that are probably
not easy for me to explain, I was just drawn toward.
I think a guy who represents kind of a cool story,
one of those stories that you're root for right kind
of given up on by the Guardians. He comes to Cincinnati,

(07:35):
he gets a chance in twenty twenty three, and he
takes advantage of it. He cashes in on it so
much so that by the end of the twenty twenty
three season, you were being fair if you thought, you
know what, Will Benson can be a piece moving forward.
And then last year it was a disaster. Like Will
Benson was atrocious last season, a strikeout machine. You could
not put him in the game against a left handed pitcher.

(07:58):
You could not put him in the game again, left
handed pitcher. And it's not like you were dying for
him to be in the game if the other pitcher,
if the other team's pitcher was al righty A last season,
he struck out way too much. And as the offseason unfolded,
so many of us talked about the Reds needing an autfielder,
a corner altfielder. Why because the guys the Reds had

(08:18):
last year weren't good enough. And then spring training starts
and they send Will Benson to Louisville weeks before spring
training ends, and then he gets a very brief cup
of coffee up here earlier in the season because of injury,
and he's here for one day, and that one day
he was here was a disaster against the Giants on

(08:38):
the road, oh for four, four punch outs. Something happened
during that stretch though, that I think was interesting. If
you remember Benson got called up, he was here for
a day, or he was with the team for a day,
he went oh for four, he strikes out four times.
They sent him back. When you're in that situation, when

(08:59):
you're a player who's getting sent to the Triple A
or to Double A. You get three days to report,
and it's you know, it makes sense, right, there's logistics,
there's maybe, you know, getting over the emotional blow of
being demoted. You get a couple of days. Will Benson
went right back to Louisville and went right back to
hitting and hit well enough that you couldn't help. But

(09:20):
wonder when is he going to get another chance. We
talked about this when the Reds were in Atlanta and
they had like a thousand guys get hurt. They called
up Jacob Hurdabes, and I mean, like, there are a
handful of us that complained about that, right, Like, wait
a minute, you're calling up Jacob Hurdabes and not either
Rees Shigns or Will Benson. Will by the end of
that disastrous road trip, they had called up both Reese
Hines almost helped them win a ballgame on that Thursday

(09:43):
in Atlanta, but Will Benson was back too, and you
just had a sense maybe this was going to be
his last shot. Well, so far he has taken advantage
of it. He has gotten a hit in all but
one games, In all but one of the games he
has started, and what he has done over the last
four games, He's been on an absolute tear. What does
this represent? Is it the start of Will Benson taking

(10:08):
off and solving what is for years been a problem
for the Reds, which is finding a right fielder. Is
Will Benson about to establish himself as like an everyday player?
Is Will Benson only now going to ascend at the
age of a soon to be twenty seven years old.
He turns twenty seven in less than a month. Is
he going to start the quick ascension to superstardom? Is

(10:30):
is he going to be a building block for the
foreseeable future? Is he going to be a guy that
spends the rest of the decade anchoring right field for
the Reds, hitting in the middle of the order, hitting
home runs, making All Star teams, and carrying the Reds
to postseason glory? Or is he going to end up
being a flash in the pan? Is he gonna end

(10:50):
up being this year's version of last year's Reese Hines
or this year's version of twenty nineteen's Aristena Zechino. Is
what we're seeing from Will Benson gonna prove to be
a footnote? Is it going to prove to be an
outlier or is it going to be proved to be
the start of something sustainable. I do not know. There
are two things I do know. Number One, while it's happening,

(11:13):
ride it, like while Will Benson is on a heater
right now, you absolutely gotta ride it. Number Two, I
don't know if it's sustainable. But what I saw the
Reds do this weekend in the field and on the
bass pass and on the mound is sustainable. And if
they do those things, if they execute, they play defense,

(11:35):
they don't give up outs on the bass pass, that
they do the little things like Santiago Espinal on Saturday
Night with the Butcher Boy play the fake bunt, fake buns,
by the way better than real bunts. If they do
that stuff, if they continue to get good relief pitching,
if the starting pitching continues to be the asset that
it has been for most of the season, well then

(11:56):
this team's got a chance to hang around and then
can take advantage of these brief bursts of production, whether
they come from Will Benson or Ellie Delacruz or anybody else.
I don't know if the Will Benson part of this
weekend is sustainable. He's not going to hit a home
run in every game, But can we see production at
least somewhat similar in twenty twenty five to what the

(12:18):
Reds got from him in twenty twenty three, when the
guy's OPS was eight sixty three, when he hit eleven
home runs in fewer than three hundred and fifty played appearances.
He struck out a lot, but he was still pretty
good at drawing bases on balls and got on bas
a close to a three to seventy clip. I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know if if I should

(12:39):
believe that what we're seeing from Will Benson is sustainable
or if he's going to revert back to what we
saw last year, which was frankly a non big league hitter.
I don't know. I don't know. What I do know
is what I saw this weekend. If we see that
level of execution in the field, on the basis at

(13:00):
the plate, if we see quality at bats, if we
see this team execute the way they did this weekend,
this team can hang around. This team can stay in
the race. This team can get us to a point
where by Midsummer we're not asking are they buyers or sellers,

(13:20):
but we're demanding they buy. We'll say that. To me,
the Will Benson thing was a lot of fun and
I'm thrilled for him, and time will tell whether or
not he's the guy. Like there's a long list of
players who have gotten to the big leagues, gotten another
chance of the big leagues, and in a short amount
of time, done a lot. But the bigger thing for me,

(13:44):
the big question about this team this offseason was are
they going to play a better brand of baseball, a cleaner,
crisper brand of baseball than last season. For much of
this year, the answer has been no. This weekend, the
answer was if that becomes the norm, this team's got
a shot. We'll see nineteen minutes after three o'clock. Five

(14:07):
point three, seven four nine, fifteen thirty and eight six six,
seven oh two three, seven, seven six are our phone
numbers at Moleggers. How you can hit me up on
Twitter thanks to Delta Dental. Delta Dental is building healthy, smart,
vibrant communities for all good at Delta dentaloh dot com.
Lots of Reds. Today, Red's sweep the series against the Guardians.

(14:27):
They go to Pittsburgh start a three game series tonight.
Come right, back home this weekend and pretty big series
against Chicago Cubs, and then another one at Wrigley Field
next weekend. We will see. On top of all of this,
there's been some Trey Hendrickson news items out there that
we have to discuss, and more than anything, I just

(14:50):
want to appeal to both sides to be the director
of common sense. We'll spend some time on that a
little bit later. On nineteen after three five point three
seven four nine, fIF teen thirty is our phone number.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

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Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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with traffic.

Speaker 5 (15:41):
One two swinging a long rock deep the right field,
looking up as Noel that is out of here and
way out of here. A two run blast for Will Benson.
Two nothing reds, Oh my goodness, it's another breaking off Chris,

(16:06):
this one about mid Die in her half and again
Benson turns on it and hammers it out of here
to right field.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
His home runs leave no doubt. That's Chris Welsh Tommy
throw Red's Radio Network Yesterday afternoon seven hundred WLW one
of two Will Benson bombs on the day twenty six
after three, ESPN fifteen thirty. I mean like, I have
no idea, I have no idea what to make of
Will Benson. I'll be I'd love to sit here and

(16:38):
tell you, Yeah, you know what, what we've seen in
this week and a half burst from him is indicative
of the fact that he is poised to take over
right field for the foreseeable future. And I would love
to tell you that I don't believe for a second
that this is a flash in the pan that's going
to be forgotten about it in a couple of weeks
when Will Benson forces them to demote him back to Louisville.

(16:58):
I don't know, I know it's a lot of fun,
and I certainly allow for the possibility that a guy
like Will Benson, who you know, let's be honest, the
Guardians gave up on him, and I think you could argue,
maybe with with good reason, they gave up on him.
The Reds gave him a chance last year, gave him
a chance, he didn't take advantage of it. Went to Louisville,
was up for a game, came back and you know,

(17:20):
we said this on the show when he got called up,
which was at the tail end of that series in Atlanta,
that this felt like perhaps his last chance at least
here like to really stick, to really prove that he belongs,
that he belongs not just on this year's team, but
belongs in the conversation as you know, players that this

(17:41):
team is going to move forward with and can be
a part of their core. And maybe maybe he hasn't
totally answered the question as to whether or not he's
one of those guys by having a really good week
and a half. But number one, they certainly have badly
needed what he has provided. Number two, you know who
knows you know. Barry Lark on TV this weekend talked

(18:01):
about the adjustment that Will Benson had to make, which was,
you know, essentially moving his hands lower. And if it's
a matter of just him making that one mechanical adjustment
and he stays with it and he ends up, you know,
he's not going to hit five home runs in four games,
but if that helps him stick, then awesome. But I
don't know, man, I think there's always room for a

(18:22):
fun story. A fun story would be a guy Will
Benson's age twenty seven years old June sixteenth, using that
demotion to kind of figure it out and be a
part of this team moving forward. I don't know. I
don't know if it works, don't know if he sticks.
Certainly I'm rooting like hell for him to stick. But
more than anything, what I'm hopeful for is that the

(18:44):
way the Reds played these last four games, yes, winning them,
but the way they played these four games where I
don't know about you, I didn't get mad at plays
in the field. Ellie had a throw. Was it yesterday?
I think it was yesterday? Where do you went? Okay,

(19:08):
it'd be kind of cool if you would stop making
throws like that. But beyond that, like this was I
think the first four game stretch in quite a while
where there weren't those There weren't that many of those
moments where you either want to throw your remote or
hit the seat in front of you or punch or
steering wheel while you're driving because the Reds do something
not great. I'm not talking about like not going to

(19:30):
hit in a big situation. I'm not talking about like
giving up a run or two in a certain situation.
Talking about the shrinking the margin for error, which this
team has been really good at for a while now.
They didn't do that this weekend. And so we can
look at Will Benson in wonder like, Okay, what does
this mean, What does this mean for right field? What

(19:51):
does this mean for the outfield? What does this mean
for the rest of this year's team, What does this
mean for the roster moving forward? Like, man, that'll kind
of play itself out. Does this prove to be a
really fun hot streak or does this prove to be
the start of something that the Reds could build around
and that Will Benson can build around. But more than anything,

(20:11):
what I'd like to think is, and this is what
I hold out hope for that by the end of
the season, we'll look back in the first forty to
forty five games. As that period of time where the
Reds had to get the twenty twenty four out of
them was topic we did last week. Right, the twenty
twenty five Reds look a lot like the twenty twenty
four Reds. Maybe they have gotten the twenty twenty four

(20:32):
out of them, And what will come to define this
team this year is the fact that they played cleaner baseball,
more fundamentally sound baseball, better on the base pass baseball,
better defensive baseball, and wide in the margin for error.
We will see and Will Benson obviously can't have something
to say about that too. Three point thirty on you.

(20:52):
And by the way, Will Benson in the field has
been terrific starting on I think it was Pete Rose
Knight where he was awesome in the field. He made
a really nice catch yesterday, like Will Benson has been awesome.
But the team has played really well too. It's only
been four games, But like this team was twenty and
twenty four, let's just say they split the last four.

(21:14):
Twenty two and twenty six would have felt like they're
kind of running in place, stuck in the mud. Right now,
they don't feel like they're stuck in the mud at
Muger on Twitter, I will help the Bengals and Trey
hendrickson I'll try to help them. We'll do that. Coming
up in the four o'clock hour. Sports headlines are next
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

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Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Speaker 1 (22:12):
This report is sponsored by Mel's Auto Glass. Mel's Auto
Glass is that clear choice for your audio sports headlines
or a service of Kelsey Chevrolet Home of Lifetime powertrain
protection and I guarantee credit approval from their family to
yours for life, kelseyshev dot com, reds and Pirates tonight,
first of three in Pittsburgh, Nicolodolo pitches against one of

(22:36):
the worst offensive teams in the sport against Mitch Keller.
Buccos are fifteen and thirty two swept this weekend by
the Phillies in Philadelphia. Six point forty is tonight's first
pitch on seven hundred WLW. Reds currently owners of Major
League Baseball's longest active winning streak at four. Your starting
lineup tonight, TJ Friedland center, Santiago estpin All at third base,

(23:00):
Elie Dela Cruz is a short Austin Hayes and left
Lucks's d aging. Spencer Steer is at first base Tonight.
He is hitting six Will Benson and right field, looking
for a homer in his fifth consecutive game. Tyler Stevenson
behind the plate. Matt McClain bat's ninth. He is playing
second base again six forty tonight on a seven hundred.

Speaker 6 (23:21):
W l W.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
Let's take a look at today's Postman Law Injury Report.
It is delivered by Postman Law. If you're injured, Postman
delivers on top of all the good stuff that happened
this weekend. Hunter Green through thirty five pitches in a
bullpen session before yesterday's game, and all indications would suggest

(23:43):
he is on track to start Friday, when the Reds
host the Cubs at GABP. Green will throw another bullpen
this week, but he reported after that session yesterday that
he felt pretty good. Jamercandelario, who has obviously been dealing
with that lumbar spine strain, is in Arizona. He is
working out before rehab assignment. He started baseball activities in

(24:03):
Cincinnati before being sent to Arizona. RHTT Louder made his
third rehab start on Saturday, and the first at the
Triple A level. Unfortunately, he did not make it to
the first inning of the start against Indianapolis. He gave
up four runs on four hits, with a homer and
a walk. He recorded just one out, it was via strikeout.

(24:23):
He threw twenty nine pitches. He was taken out because
of his pitch count. He continued to throw as the
game unfolded in the bullpen. He is going to pitch
again his next time in the rotation for Triple A,
but he is going to be limited to somewhere between
seventy five and eighty pitches. According to Terry Francona. He

(24:44):
was gonna throw seventy five to eighty on Saturday, and
obviously that didn't happen, So we'll see what goes down
with Rhet Louder in his next rehab start. Ian Jabo
is coming off that right shoulder impingement. He has pitched
in four games at Louisville on his rehab assignment, has
given up a hit in a walk. He has struck
out five over four innings, had back to back scoreless

(25:04):
outings on Saturday and yesterday, and Sam Mall made a
scoreless appearance on Saturday for Louisville, gave up two runs.
He has made ten rehab appearances, ten rehab appearances for
Sam Mal unfortunately for him. As era is six point
five two. That is today's Postman Law injury report. It
is delivered by Postman. If you're injured, call eight four

(25:27):
to four Postman. Also over the weekend, FC Cincinnati earned
a point, not at their best in Columbus. Den k
scores the early goal and then offensively not much of
anything from the Orange and Blue. I thought Roman Sanlentano
was awesome on Saturday and FC Cincinnati earns a I'll
say a hard fought point against Columbus on the road

(25:48):
and the hell is real Derby. Also, I don't know
that the Bengals have sent out a press release, but
voting is now underway for the twenty twenty five Bengal
Ring of Honor. If you're a season ticket holder or
a suite holder, I'm guessing you can vote now if

(26:09):
you have the Bengals app. I do. I'm looking at it.
And there's Jim Breach who has been on the ballot
since year one, James Brooks who has been on the
ballot since year one, Chris Collinsworth who has been on
the ballot since year one. Twenty twenty one was the
first Ring of Honor year for the Bengals. David Foulcher

(26:30):
on the ballot, as he has been every year since
twenty twenty one. Max Montoya on the ballot, which he
has been every year since twenty twenty one. Dave Lapham,
who should have gotten voted in already on the ballot
as he's been every year since twenty twenty one. Same
for Lamar Parrish on the ballot, which he's been every
year since twenty twenty one. Bob Trumpy returns and Reggie

(26:52):
Williams as well both Bob and Reggie. Yes, you guested
on the ballot, as they have been every year since
twenty twenty one, so all nine of these men are deserving.
What is interesting to me is this is the This
is the fifth year, right, this is year five one two, Yeah,
year five of the Bengals Ring of Honor voting, and uh,

(27:15):
they haven't added anybody new to the ballot. So it's basically,
you know, two people come off and then you know,
we vote on everybody who has left. So this would
suggest to me that at some point these nine men
are going to go in. I asked this last year.

(27:36):
I'll ask it again. What is the harmon just putting
all these guys in? Because I don't know. We're not
talking about a guy here. I'm thinking the player on
this list who most recently played for the Bengals would
have been either Breach or Fulture, and we're talking about

(28:00):
almost three and a half decades ago. If you acknowledge
all nine of these men are Ring of Honor worthy,
why are you making them wait any longer than they
already have? Why not just clear the ballots so you
can number one get these men inducted and given an

(28:20):
honor they should have been given decades ago. Number two.
If you're not gonna do that, at least add some
new names to it, like Geno Atkins, AJ Green, Andrew
Whitworth or Carlos Dunlap and maybe a handful of others

(28:42):
from that era. I don't know. Voting is underway if
you're a Bengal season ticket holder or a suite holder
on the Bengals app. And again, I love the fact
that they do the Ring of Honor. I think there's
some really fun, interesting discussions to be had.

Speaker 6 (28:56):
You know.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
I ranton and raved about this last year, and obviously
he didn't and I thought it was ridiculous. And I
still think it's ridiculous that they don't just put Dave
Lapham in last year commemorated his fiftieth year or fiftieth
year since being drafted by the Bengals in nineteen seventy four.
How a guy who has been with your club for
almost exactly a half a century is not just put

(29:18):
in the Ring of Honor makes no sense to me.
And so this should have happened last year, it should
happen this year. I don't know what the harm is
and just putting all these guys in instead of making
some of these men wait. Like there's nine guys here,
we're gonna vote two every year. So we're talking like
one of these dudes is gonna be still waiting five
years from now at this rate. I don't know how

(29:39):
that makes any sense whatsoever. Five point three seven four nine,
fifteen thirty is our phone number. More on the Reds
this weekend. One or two leftover thoughts from midweek last week. Uh,
and I'm I'm gonna help I'm gonna help the Bengals
and Trey Hendrickson. I'm also taking Trey Hendrickss's pseudo threat

(30:01):
very seriously for a very simple reason that coming up
in the four o'clock hour on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 4 (30:16):
Bick Center from Pregnancy and Menopause to help the aging.
The women's health experts that you see help offer personalized
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(30:38):
Montana and Wardall Avenue and Hamilton Eton Road. It's an
accident between Spring and Elkton Road. I'm at Ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
This report is sponsor Bar.

Speaker 7 (30:49):
Nuggets.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
This season's over Nuggets. Season's over for the Nuggets. Seasons
also over for the Boston Celtics. Yeah. We had a
caller early last I think it was early last week
who asked, like, why are you a New York Knicks fan?
And I was sort of outlining when I was a
little kid, we moved to Jersey for a few years

(31:12):
and dad took me to go see the Knicks on
Christmas Day in nineteen eighty seven, and I became hooked.
And you know, when we moved back, you know, we're
Reds fans, We're Bengals fans. And I was a UC
fan and my dad was a Kentucky fan, and I
became a UC fan a to sort of spite him,
be because the Kentucky coach was Rick Patino, who had

(31:34):
been the Knicks coach. But I, you know, I just
I sort of assumed, like I'll lose interest or I'll
become a fan of the Pacers because the Pacers are
close to home, and so like I, I never did that.
I never adopted the Pacers. And I was, you know,
back living here when the Knicks and Pacers were playing
against each other in the playoffs in the nineteen nineties,

(31:55):
and you know, knew a lot of Pacers fans back
in the day. I don't really know many now. I
have been offered on social media a lot of opportunities
with Pacers fans to make wagers on the Eastern Conference Finals.
I appreciate the interest. For the most part. I'm gonna

(32:17):
say number one, I don't love making bets on and
I like I love sports gambling, like I love sports wagering,
but like like betting on the Bengals in the Super Bowl,
I did not do that. That was going to be
a stressful enough day. And Bengal I did. I bet
on the Bengals against the Titans that year because I

(32:41):
thought they were gonna go on the road to beat
the Tennessee Titans. I thought they were the weaker, the
weakest AFC one seed we had had in quite a while.
But like, that's already gonna be stressful enough. Do I
need to add to the stress by making a wager?
Plus there's just something to me like making wager with
strangers on the internet, which I've never in my life done.

(33:06):
Making a wager with a stranger on the internet would
to me set me up to not be able to
collect if I won. So I've been offered a lot
of that. I've also had a lot of folks and
like I watched the game out, I was at the
Holy Grail downtown. I went to the Reds game and

(33:27):
then watched Nick Celtics Game six on Friday, and I
had a swell time, and I was the only Knicks
fan in the bar and had friends of mine with
me that were happy for me. It was kind of fun.
I saw the scenes in New York City where Knick fans,
if you didn't know better, you would think they had
just won the NBA championship. And I saw some criticism

(33:50):
of that. Number one. I have never understood why an
outsider would care about whether or not someone is celebrating
too much something that's not quite a championship, like if
you're not harming anybody who cares, Like we dealt with
this here. I remember forgetting even the Bengals and Raiders,

(34:10):
which was a scene in and of itself. Remember Clinch
Miss Night twenty ten, Clinch Miss Night. Jay Bruce hits
a home run off tim Berdack. Reds beat the Astros
three to two to clinch the Red's first Division title
in fifteen years and their first playoff appearance in fifteen years.
And I remember being at the ballpark that night and

(34:32):
there were you know, maybe I think thirty thirty two
thousand people. It was a good crowd. It wasn't exactly
a packed house. But what I remember most about that night,
and there's lots that I remember fondly about that night.
That was the first time the Reds ever had a
tweet up. And this is back when like you kind
of wanted to meet the people you were interacting with
on Twitter. But the Reds had a tweet out that night,

(34:55):
and so I remember that. I remember Bruce hitting the
home run, remember the celebration inside the ballpark, but more
than anything else. And this is twenty ten, so this
is you know, this is before the Holy Grail or
the banks or really anything had popped up. The Grail
would pop up in March of that year, and so
you know, you kind of had to walk aways to
go find a place to celebrate, and a lot of

(35:16):
people did. And I remember that night ending up on
Fountain Square and as we walked to Fountain Square, this
is to clinch a National League Central Division title. Watching
people that night high five each other, It's one of
the happiest nights of my life because you were just
watching total strangers embrace in ways I had never seen

(35:40):
total strangers embrace after a baseball game before. Well, that night,
they didn't win the World Series, they didn't clinch a
birth in the World Series, they didn't win the National League.
They essentially clinched being able to play in the Wildcard round.
And yet that celebration that night was about more than
what they had clenched. It was about the Catharsis of

(36:02):
essentially fifteen years of nothing and that drought ending. And
I remember that I had the Bengals beat the Raiders
to advance in the postseason, and I watched that game
from Wichita, Kansas, and it's one of the few times
in my life that I've I've genuinely wished I was
wherever I wasn't not that I was unhappy to be

(36:25):
in Wichita with the UC basketball team, but I watched,
like all the scenes unfolding outside the stadium and at
the banks, in downtown and in bars and in people's
homes when they the Bengals had done nothing more than
when a wildcard game. And I remember even talking about
this that that year six teams. I think that was
the first year of the seven teams per conference in

(36:47):
the postseason. I think, so that year there were six
teams that won wildcard games. And in no city was
there a celebration that came close to looking like the
libration for winning a wild card game looked in Cincinnati.
And it wasn't so much about advancing in the postseason.
It was about the exorcism and the cleanse that came

(37:10):
with advancing in the playoffs for the first time in
over three decades. It wasn't about getting to the divisional round.
It was about, this is something we haven't had a
chance to experience. We're tired of hearing about and like
we would do this every year, right, you got tired
of hearing about what the price of gas was in
January of ninety one, the last time the Bengals advanced

(37:32):
in the postseason. And so that celebration that night was awesome,
but it was reflective of the long wait between playoff advancement. Well,
what they were doing in New York the other night
was very similar, and so I that looked and felt
a lot like outside the Bengals Stadium in January of
twenty twenty two and the scenes unfolding downtown in September

(37:56):
late September of twenty ten, where it wasn't so much
celebrate what they had accomplished, but it was sort of
like just going through this emotional cleanse slash exorcism slash
catharsis of our team hasn't done this in so long,
and so we're gonna make it to be a bigger
deal than it actually is. So that's what was happening

(38:17):
in New York the other night. And if they somehow
beat the Pacers, who I think should be favored in
this series, then I'm sure we will see another version
of that. We will see, I do think, Tarren, I've
got to find a place to do the show from
Indy next Tuesday. I've looked at the list of iHeartRadio

(38:38):
stations in Indianapolis, and I don't recognize any of these people.
We'll see ice chests. I could find an ice chest
in Indy. Yeah, don't know what the weather in Indy
is gonna be like next week. But Game four is
next Tuesday. I found a ticket that is it's expensive,

(39:03):
but it's not like I don't have to mortgage anything.
I don't have to sell anything to go, and so
I'm hopeful to maybe do the show from like an
iHeart station in Indy, but I don't I don't know
any of the people on these radio stations, Like the
only Indianapolis radio guy I know, I don't think likes

(39:24):
me very much and he doesn't work for iHeart, so
we can't use that studio. So that's that's my project
for the next day or two seventy three early predictions,
Well they can change, but seventy three degrees next week,
seventy three degrees in Indie next Tuesday, I could find like, oh, Tuesday, Wednesday,
next Tuesday, next Tuesday, twenty seven, sixty seven, sixty seven.

(39:45):
I can do sixty seven morning showers. I mean I
went up there for a game in twenty thirteen. It
was Pacers Nicks and Indianapolis blew them out or Indiana
blew them out, And I went to Indianapolis and there
there was like a block party outside. Surely I'll be
okay if I just you know, post up and my
you know, a little radio equipment and I've got my

(40:06):
next T shirt on, and nobody will bother me at all.
If I just find a ice chest to broadcast next
to in Indie next Tuesday, I'll go security. Just stand
there and be my muscle. Yep, see see see if
we can get it done. But yeah, I was really
excited on Friday. And uh, I've watched a lot of

(40:26):
bad basketball over the years, and so to watch them
not just win Game six, but when it in the
manner in which they did, where they blew them out
and in the fourth quarter, you could just sit back,
relax and celebrate them advancing to the conference final for
the first time in a quarter century. It maybe wasn't
Apples to Apples Bengals twenty twenty one beating the Raiders,

(40:49):
but the feeling was similar. And I heard from a
lot of you that were quite happy for me on Friday,
and so thank you. Five one, three, seven, fifteen thirty
is our phone number. We have more on the Reds
who had an awesome weekend, More on Will Benson who
had an awesome weekend. Let's help Trey Hendrickson and the
Bengals have a great summer. Next ready entered this nationwide

(41:14):
keyword on our website.

Speaker 8 (41:15):
Bank.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
That's bank it enter it now bank.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
What's up?

Speaker 1 (41:19):
Four or four? ESPN Fifteen to thirty Molegger. Thank you
for listening today, Bregiman and Jones on baseball's coming up
in just about forty five minutes. By the way, something
we mentioned about a half hour ago in our post
malaw injury report, Hunter Green, who pitched off the mountain
yesterday thirty five pitched session. We talked about how the

(41:42):
expectations seemed to be that Hunter would be good to
go to pitch on Friday against the Cubs. Our buddy
Charlie Goldsmith, whose newsletter is a must, reports from Pittsburgh
that Terry Francona says Hunter Green is scheduled to pitch
on Friday. So there you go. That could be a

(42:02):
big series. Reds Cubs will be a big series Reds
Cubs on Friday, hopefully made even bigger by the Reds
having a good three days in Pittsburgh. They begin a
series with the Pirates this evening. Also something to pay
attention to tomorrow. This schedule has not changed. Joe Burrow is
a scheduled to pitch pitch, He's not scheduled to pitch.

(42:22):
Joe Burrow is scheduled to talk tomorrow to the assembled
Pro football media here in town, and Zach Taylor is
as well. And I am going to imagine in both
instances the name Trey Hendrickson is going to come up.
And Trey did not talk again this week, he didn't

(42:43):
meet the media again this week. I don't think he's
gonna come to practice tomorrow. Bengals have another one of
those offseason workouts that the media can cover tomorrow. My
guess is Trey is not going to be there, but
we will see. I I want to try to help
I want to try to help Trey. I want to
try to help the Bengals. And UH, we'll tell you

(43:06):
how we're going to do that in uh just a
few minutes. UH five point three seven, fifteen thirty is
our phone number. Let's grab a phone callar too, because
I don't like making people wait. Uh, DJ, you're on
ESPN fifteen thirty DJ in afternoon. How are you no? Well?

Speaker 2 (43:23):
MO?

Speaker 8 (43:23):
How are you man?

Speaker 1 (43:23):
I'm good man? What's going on?

Speaker 6 (43:26):
All right?

Speaker 8 (43:26):
Man?

Speaker 2 (43:26):
I hear you talking Eastern Conference Finals. Some of the
big Pacers fans. I'm all sinci everything right. Love my Bengals,
love my Bearcats, love the Reds. Yes, had had to
pick up a team, picked up the Pacers about fifteen
years ago. They drafted Lance, so.

Speaker 8 (43:42):
They're rocking them every since. Uh.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
Man, I got a question, man, is uh do the
Knicks fans they hate the Pacers like the Papers fans
hate the Knicks. Not gonna lie.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
I can't stand the Nick Yeah, I think fans of
a certain age do. I mean? You know they they
played each other in the playoffs in ninety three, ninety four,
I've ninety eight, ninety nine, and two thousand, and the
central villain was obviously Reggie Miller, and so Knicks fans
of a certain age and Pacers fans of a certain
age who remember those playoff series hate the other team, now,

(44:14):
you know, let's be honest. Since then, and the Knicks
and Pacers played in the Conference finals in two thousand.
Indiana won that series and would go on to play
the Lakers and play it pretty tough in six games.
Since then, the Knicks have been irrelevant. You know. From
two thousand and one. Through twenty twenty two, they had
won just one playoff series, and so the Knicks and
Pacers didn't meet in the playoffs until last year. A

(44:38):
really good series. Indiana won it. A better Indiana team
won it. The Knicks dealt with a lot of injuries,
but the Pacers get a lot of credit for coming
back from down two to win that series and winning
a game seven in New York. I don't know if
younger fans of the Knicks and Pacers hate the other team,
but I could promise you this, by the end of
this series, DJ, no matter who wins it, that hatred

(44:59):
is going to be rekindled, and uh, it's going to
start a new regardless of what age range we're talking about.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
Well, listen, the Pacers were in there last year to
the Master and.

Speaker 8 (45:09):
Didn't play that series. We never hear about that. Yeah,
got throw that out there.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
So he wasn't all the way healthy.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
It's a it's a remarkable series from this standpoint. The
Pacers want to play fast, the Knicks do not. The
Pacers play eleven guys. The Knicks ideally, if Tom Thibodeaux
has his way, they play seven. So you know which
style wins out. Can Can the Knicks slow Indie down?
Can Indy force the Knicks to play up tempo?

Speaker 6 (45:37):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (45:38):
Can Indy take advantage of having a deeper team where
where they could basically play an entire second unit or
does you know what the Knicks have done in their
first two series? End up working the injury factor? The
Knicks are remarkably healthy right now. Every possession I hold
my breath because playoffs are so often shaped by injury.

(45:58):
Is there an injury fact for at some point in
this series? But it's it's a remarkable series from the
standpoint of these two teams can both be really efficient offensively,
India at a quick pace and the Knicks at a
very slow pace. Which at which pace is this series play?
That's what I can't wait to find out starting on Wednesday.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
And he's pretty physical too, so I think between the
pace and how physical they are, that contributes to a
lot of the injuries that teams have.

Speaker 8 (46:25):
Yeah, they play the pacers, Yeah, but.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
I don't know, we'll see, it'll be a fun series.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
They just come at you in waves offensively, man. I
mean the what they did against the Cavs in particular
Games four and five. I don't know how I slow
them down. I have no idea how to slow them down.
But it's gonna be a lot of fun. All right,
call again, DJ will do for sure? Right now it's
gonna be It's gonna be a fun series. I'm looking
forward to it again again. Like I'm forty seven years old.

(46:51):
I remember, you know, all those playoff series in look, Indiana, Indianapolis.
The Pacers are are the closest NBA team Tonati, So
I understand there's a a pocket of Pacers fans here
in town, and I'm sure they hate the Knicks. And
that's okay. Ten away from four o'clock. So was it

(47:14):
six days ago? We had the Trey Hendrickson show at
Bengals practice, and there was a lot going on last
week between Pete Rose Knight and the Reds, and we
did our show from UC on Tuesday. I don't know
that on this show we dove into the tray thing
last Tuesday to the extent that maybe I ordinarily would have.

(47:40):
And I can't wait to see and hear. I'm sure
Zach Taylor knows what's coming, and I'm sure he's going
to handle as he has handled every question that has
come his way about a contract dispute. I'm sure he's
going to handle that tomorrow very well. I'm sure he's
ready for it. And you know, like I think you
have to give that credit for last summer, as the

(48:02):
Jamar Chase situation was taking on a life of its own.
You know, Jamar Chase wasn't answering questions. Duke Tobin wasn't
answering questions. Mike Brown and Katie Blackburn weren't answering questions.
Zach Taylor had to answer questions every day, and I
think he did so with good humor. He was good
natured about it. He acknowledged the elephant in the room,
so to speak. He really didn't say anything, and I

(48:24):
would expect something similar tomorrow. Joe Burrow in his comments
about his teammates and their contract situations, he has been
a little bit more direct.

Speaker 6 (48:35):
You know.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
He did not mince words when it came to questions
about t Higgins, and so I've got to think he's
got some questions coming his way about Trey Hendrickson, and
it's going to be really interesting to see a how
he answers them and then b if his answers move
the needle in any direction. Mike Florio Pro Football Talk

(48:56):
wrote over the weekend quote the Bengals, we've heard have
offered twenty eight million dollars per year, whatever the amount
parentheses and as importantly that the structure he wants more
Mike florioprofootball talk dot com. So a couple of things here.

(49:17):
Number One, I could be dead wrong about this, and
in fact I don't. I don't know that I'm dead
wrong or dead right about this. Trey Hendrickson's a different guy.
That's that's not a criticism. I think he's kind of
a guy who's wired a little bit differently. And if
you don't believe that to be true, I don't know

(49:39):
how you could have any other takeaway after watching last Tuesday.
I mean that is, we had Paul Danner Junior in
studio with us on Thursday of last week, and he's
been covering the team for a very long time, and
I asked him, like, in terms of just scenes you
have witnessed, things you have covered, like where was that

(50:01):
on the list of surreal moments? And he had it
at or near the very top, and just you know,
covering the team, watching the team, being a fan of
the team. No matter your perspective, I don't think there's
been anything like that scene last Tuesday where Trey as
his teammates are practicing, is kind of airing it out,

(50:23):
letting the world know how he feels, explaining his side
of things. You may have thought Trey was totally in
the right. You may have thought that Trey made a
fool out of himself. What you have to acknowledge, though,
is that scene was different. I think we're talking about
a different type of guy. So when we discuss whether

(50:46):
or not Trey is gonna leave money on the table
week one, I take that threat a little bit more
seriously with him than I have other players, just because
I think we're dealing with a different type of guy here.
I certainly have no creed ideas to whether or not
when push comes to shove September seventh, Bengals are in Cleveland,
if he'll legitimately not play, or if he'll say at

(51:08):
the very last second like I'm going to show up
and play, or if he's sticks to his guns, misses
the first game and then we started talking about how
long is this holdout going to be? I have no idea.
Maybe Tray himself has no idea, but I do take
a little bit more seriously than I would with other players,
the thread of him not playing, just because by all

(51:29):
indications here we're kind of talking about a little bit
of a different cat. The other thing here is what
Florio reports where he writes he's heard the Bengals have
offered roughly twenty eight million dollars per year. Now that
represents for the twenty twenty five season, if we're just
using the raw numbers here, a twelve million dollar pay

(51:52):
raise from what he is supposed to make right now
under the contract that he is currently under with the angles.
A twelve million dollar pay raise. Now, there's other stuff here.
There's guarantees, there are structure, there's all of that. But
the raw dollar amount here is something we have kind
of guessed about, and you know, to be fair, and

(52:13):
Mike is only speculating about. I guess where I would
like to intervene as the director of common sense, would
be all right, Trey, listen, like, here's here, here's the deal.
You're not You're not gonna get Miles Garrett money. He's
he's making for it. You're not gonna get it. Like

(52:35):
the market blew up with Miles Garrett, We're probably not
legitimately gonna go from twenty eight to forty. Uh And
so if if you're clinging to the idea that they're
gonna be like the highest paid guy because you led
the league in sex, yeah, you know that's that's just

(52:56):
probably not realistic here and then he come to the
Bengals and go In the short term, you're trying to
win a title this season, you're trying to go through
the first distraction free training camp that you've had in
quite a while. You obviously want trade to play for

(53:20):
you this coming season. You haven't traded him, could argue
you should have. You haven't traded him. You want him
to play for you this year. You want to win
a title this season. You want to give the coach
of your team a chance to legitimately, like you know,
get off to a good start, actually win a game
in September, maybe get off the hot seat, that sort

(53:42):
of thing. Isn't there some sort of middle ground, by
the way, middle ground would be thirty four mil, right,
if we're just doing average annual value twenty eight here
here thirty four splits The difference puts a bit Nick Bosa,

(54:06):
Nick Bosa, prior to this offseason, was the only edge
rusher making more than thirty million dollars a year annually.
The director of common Sence would say to the Bengals,
is this worth not moving off of your current offer?

(54:29):
Is this worth not moving off of? When your team
is trying to do what it hasn't done since twenty
twenty one, which is get off to a good start,
when your coaches maybe on his warmest seat that he
has been on since he got here, when your quarterback
is paying very close attention to how well he is
going to be equipped to win and have his best

(54:51):
seasons not wasted, and when your franchise as a whole
hasn't enjoyed a distraction free training camp in quite a while?
Is this really worth not moving off of? Is it
really worth you know, standing pat not budging and leaving
us all with the Well, he's just gonna have to

(55:12):
be happy with what we've offered. Take and then for Trey,
like I'm dramatically oversimplifying both both sides here, All right,
try you're not gonna get forty, you're gonna get more
than sixteen. Isn't there some room for you to come

(55:34):
down a little bit here and meet in the middle,
and thus guarantee that you're gonna double the pay that
you're expected to get this year, not put yourself at
the risk of hitting free agency, not putting yourself at
the risk of something going wrong this season, not putting
yourself at the risk of hitting the open market after

(55:56):
maybe a down season, or hitting the open market after
an injury this season. And you might have to suck
it up and not be the highest paid guy, and
you might have to suck it up and not be
the second highest paid guy. But do you know what,
You're gonna get a pretty damn healthy extension, a pretty
damn healthy raise, and you don't have to deal with

(56:19):
the uncertainty that's gonna come with this coming season, what
may or may not happen, and how it could impact
your free agency moving forward. Like when I saw this
twenty eight MIL, I just thought, like, I don't know,
these sides can't be as far apart as maybe we've
made them out to be. So maybe like a third
party like myself could intervene, apply some common sense, and

(56:40):
go for what everybody wants to accomplish. Here, the Bengals
won a distraction free training camp, Trey Hendrickson doesn't want
to deal with uncertainty anymore. Like I think you can
combine those two things and aim them at a common
goal of getting a deal done. I would like to
think that Trey Hendrickson is not so inflexible that he'll

(57:03):
only settle for defensive end money that makes him the
highest paid guy by the way he is pretty much
said as much. And I would like to think then
in a year that is going to be defined by
the Bengals having a chance to win the whole thing,
and their chances of doing so are enhanced by them
getting off to a fast start, and their chances of
getting off to a fast start are enhanced by having
a quote normal training camp and offseason. To the degree

(57:26):
they can, you mean to tell me they can't find
any common ground, any common ground at all. That's somewhere
there between the forty that Garrett is getting in the
twenty eight they have offered. There's not some place they
can arrive at that Trey gets what he wants, which
is to avoid free agency, and the Bengals get what

(57:48):
they want, which is their best defensive player in camp,
not missing games and not being a distraction. I just
I refuse to believe that there's not somewhere they can meet.
Now it requires, you know, the Bengals to actually come
to the bargaining table, and it requires trade. Maybe swallows

(58:09):
some pride a little bit and suck it up and
recalibrate his expectations and maybe not go on anymore shows,
maybe lose Pat McAfee's number, Maybe not show up a
practice that you're not actually practicing in and find some
common ground. And I'm willing to offer my services as
a mediator, as director of common sense, as somebody who

(58:34):
sees the value and compromise as it relates to Trey
Hendrickson and the Bengals. You cannot tell me there's not
some good common ground here that they can meet at
that make both sides happy. And again, if he's dead
set on being the highest paid edge guy in the league,
I can understand why that's not gonna happen. But I
certainly can't understand why he wants to see the Bengals

(58:55):
adjust to the evolving edge Russia market. So if the
if the end goal here is for trade and I
hit free agency from his perspective, and for the Bengals
to have a distraction free camp, which is maybe not
their stated goal, but I'm sure it's what the coach wants.
I'm sure it's what a lot of the players want.
There's lots some room here for them to meet. Twenty

(59:17):
two minutes after four, more of your phone calls are
coming up. In five point three seven four nine, fifteen
thirty and eight sixty six seven oh two three seven
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Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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The three right lanes blocked off from an accident on
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(01:00:01):
thirty five minute The laid back from Stuart Road on
northbound seventy one. It's an exident at Redbank Roade onto
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that ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
This report a sponsored milking that for all we can Huh,
this is ESPN fifteen thirty on my edar. We should
take another phone call or two? What do you say?
Five show? Is that why it's the fourth best show
because we take phone calls? Yep, it's not because of

(01:00:34):
the extraordinary talent of the host. We know that's not
the case, and today's show would be a primary indicator
of that. Uh. Steven Montgomery, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Good afternoon, Steve. How are you doing well?

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Me?

Speaker 7 (01:00:49):
How are you doing all right?

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
What's going on? Well?

Speaker 7 (01:00:53):
I wanted to chime in on trade contract situation.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
Sure.

Speaker 7 (01:00:57):
I think one thing that's being missed here is the
Bengals have the right to tag him after this next year.
And the tag head for twenty twenty six for a
defensiven is projected to be twenty six millions. So the
Bengals really could have him for two years sixteen this year,
twenty six nights the year after for forty two million,

(01:01:20):
and they're offering him twenty eight million a year, fifty
six million, and he's saying no, that's fine. He can
say no. And if this market is what he thinks
it is, he can play one year at sixteen million
and next year go out and get whatever ridiculous money
he thinks he's going to get. But I'd really be
curious to know what money was being thrown around by

(01:01:42):
other teams. Because Trey's a great defensive end. He's definitely
an impact player. But he's not in the same universe
as Bosa or Miles Garrett. He's not He's not a
run suffer. He's a guy that got really fat stats
on a couple of really bad tackles. There were some
games where he had almost no impact at all. That's
not Miles Garrett, that's not Nick Boson. And I really

(01:02:04):
hope he is a Bengal this year. I hope he
comes to camp on time. The one option he has
is he can hold out not lose eight hundred and
eighty thousand dollars a game until Week eight. He would
have to play for this year to count toward his
free agency. So basically, he would cust himself about nine
million dollars to not or I'm sorry, about seven million

(01:02:25):
dollars to not play this year to go to free
agency next year. Or he could take twenty eight million
this year and a year after and we can't fault
the Bengals for being tentative. Geno Atkins was an all pro.
He should be in the Hall of Fame. He's throw
off a cliff at thirty. It's not unheard of.

Speaker 8 (01:02:46):
So if Tredy thinks he's going to be the Zax murderer.

Speaker 7 (01:02:49):
When it well into his thirties, prove it. Play the
next two years on a contract, or play this next
year on a contract, and let's see you do it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
Yeah, they see an asset that is likely to depreciate,
and it's funny. You know. I hate the term one
trick pony because that makes it sound like he's a
specialist who's only good at one thing, but he's not
great against the run. I have no issue with him
putting up a bunch of sacks. You know, if you're
gonna have seventeen and a half sacks, chances are it's

(01:03:17):
not like you're gonna have one per game. They're gonna
come in bunches. That's fine. I have no issue with that.
But I but I do think relative to some of
the best at his position, there is those other guys
have more tools in the bag than Trey has. That
doesn't mean he's not awesome at this one thing. What's
interesting about the one thing that Trey is awesome at
is the Bengals themselves have told you this offseason they're

(01:03:40):
not that concerned with sacks. They really believe in Miles Murphy,
who had zero last year. They just drafted a guy
who had a whopping four and a half. So they're
telling you that, yeah, the sacks are nice and we
want them. We're we're not We're not drafting people, we're
not selecting people. We're not keeping people. We're not paying
people based solely on their ability to pile up sacks

(01:04:04):
or not pile up sacks. We're looking for deeper bodies
of work. We're looking for a wider skill set. We're
looking for players who can impact the game in other areas,
and I think it is fair to say that in
some of those areas, Trey is going to fall just
a little bit short, certainly in relation to some of
the best players in his position.

Speaker 7 (01:04:24):
Completely agree, and like I said, I hope it gets
resolved because I think the team is better with him
out there, fully prepared and having a normal offseason. But
if he doesn't, I really think he's either getting bad
advice or not understanding that the Bengals hold all the
cards beyond this year and he can sit out a
franchise tag year and not get paid again and that
doesn't count toward his free agency. So I don't really

(01:04:46):
understand this. If he's really posturing for Miles Garrett type money,
he's definitely been you know, he's on planet delusional.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
Yeah, I mean it's why Steve, thanks good stuff. I
can't help but say, like, let's let's say this reporting
reflects reality. Twenty eight mil. And again, there's the structure,
there's the language, there's guarantees. Like I understand all that,
but if this is true, they're giving him a seventy

(01:05:18):
five percent raise from what he is doing to make
right now, I'm sure over multiple seasons. Like that's yeah,
But Paul asked me this last week, if you were Trey,
would you just you know, sort of swallow your pride

(01:05:39):
and go, you know what, this beats the alternative, This
beats hitting free agency. This speaks playing out the year
and not knowing what the future holds. Like again, I
don't know what the guarantees look like here, none of
us do. I certainly believe there's some wiggle room here
if if one numbers, if the highest the market is forty,

(01:06:01):
which Tray is not gonna get, and frankly Trey shouldn't get.
And the floor is now twenty eight, Like, you can't
tell me that there's not some room there in the middle.
But I don't think this is the Bengals if this
is true here, I don't think this is the Bengals
low balling Tray. I think it's them giving him a
significant chunk of money, a significant amount of security over

(01:06:21):
the next couple of seasons, while hedging their bets a
little bit against him, depreciating a little bit here, like
their position all along has been perhaps fairly, perhaps not.
I tend to think fairly we think his best years
are probably behind him. There are not many circumstances where

(01:06:47):
a pro sports franchise would essentially acknowledge we think your
best years are probably behind you. But you know what
we're gonna do. We're gonna give you a seventy five
percent raise. Oh we're late twenty six away from five

(01:07:09):
o'clock five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty reds
lineup and uh, well, you need to make sure you
do by the middle of this week coming up on
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
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Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station. Sports headlines are a
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three tonight at Beautiful PNC Park Free plug for PNC

(01:08:20):
Nicko Lodolo and Mitch Keller on the Hill, Rad's Jess swept.
The Guardians have baseball's longest active winning streak at four
consecutive games. The Pirates lost five out of six on
their recent road trip, including three in Philadelphia this weekend.
Six forty is tonight's first pitch. You'll hear it live

(01:08:43):
on seven hundred WLW. Congratulations to my man Will Benson,
you're National League Player of the week. He went ten
for nineteen. That's a five to twenty six batting average,
hit five homers, drove in ten, and ops during the
week of nineteen nineteen fifty nine ops for Will Benson.

(01:09:05):
Two weeks ago, many of us were complaining, and justifiably
and understandably so. In fact, it wasn't even two weeks ago.
It was two weeks ago tomorrow, wasn't it. Yeah, two
weeks ago tomorrow, many of us were complaining that Will
Benson hadn't gotten the call up from Louisville and instead
Jacob Herdebes had and that didn't make any sense at

(01:09:27):
the time. It makes even less sense now. Congratulations to
my guy Will Benson. Meanwhile, your Red starting lineup for
the evening, Are you ready? Of course you are, yes, yes, yes,
Will Benson is in the starting lineup tonight. He is
playing right field and batting seven freedoman center espinal at third.
Eli de la Cruz at shortstop, Austin Haysen leftfield, Gavid

(01:09:50):
Lucks is dhing and batting fifth. Spencer Steer is at
first base, Will Benson and right Tyler Stevenson behind the dish.
Matt McClean is batting ninth and playing second base. Uh five, one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty, Mike, go ahead, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.
What's up? Mike's elation? Thank you? Can you take me

(01:10:14):
off your speakerphone?

Speaker 7 (01:10:18):
Yeah, I can't move it.

Speaker 8 (01:10:21):
I can't move real fast.

Speaker 1 (01:10:23):
I understand. Take your time. It'll just enable us to
hear you better if you don't have us on a
speaker phone.

Speaker 8 (01:10:31):
Is that better?

Speaker 1 (01:10:31):
That's much better. How you been, Mike? What's up?

Speaker 8 (01:10:36):
I don't want to get into all that, but's thanks
for asking, Okay. I really appreciate it, totalest, very very kindly.
I'm glad you had a great weekend. I love the
name cause it's so cool, so many memories that cross
the field. I can't even.

Speaker 1 (01:10:50):
Again celebrate birthday, eighth birthday this weekend, Mike.

Speaker 8 (01:10:54):
That's so awesome, dude. It seems like one hundred years ago.
My kids today, but they are certainly the best memories
of all, no question. Sometimes you crack me up. You'll
go listen, man, I'm forty seven years old. So those
guys that are listening, they're going, damn, I'd like to
be forty seven. It sounds really good. Forty seven sounds

(01:11:16):
so fricking awesome that you're in the prime. Baby, you
are in deep prime.

Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
Prime of what? Prime of what? Though? My athletic prime?

Speaker 7 (01:11:27):
What?

Speaker 1 (01:11:27):
What problem are you in all of it? Well?

Speaker 8 (01:11:30):
Your career, your marriage, your your fatherhood, all it sounds
like you got it rocking and rolling seventh and eleven
right now.

Speaker 1 (01:11:37):
Marriage, marriage, yes, parenthood yes, Career debatable.

Speaker 7 (01:11:43):
I don't know what.

Speaker 8 (01:11:44):
You seem pretty damn locked into me, and I'm happy
for you. I know you get some job security at Reach.
It appears to you anyway. Do you think NBA here
and then there is Do you think it seems to
me Jokic is getting manhandled a lot and just does

(01:12:04):
not get caught. It seems not to you man mode,
he gets hot and held hot. I mean, damn he.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
There are times where I feel like players his size
you're allowed to do more to them than you are
players who aren't quite as big, and I think he
suffers from that.

Speaker 8 (01:12:30):
I do too, because he's still a basketball player. You know,
It's not like he's just some moose underneath there, like
Moses Malone just dunking the ball and getting a little
layups from five foot away. I mean, the guy's a
great assist player. He's bringing the ball up to four
like a point. But boy, when he gets down in
that post, watch out because they're holding in grabbing him

(01:12:51):
smack anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:12:52):
Auld Yeah, I think there's something to that. I also think,
just as a general rule, over the last five to
ten years, more so the last five than that, you're
you get away with more in the NBA than you
did five years ago. Like I I think, I think
if you look back a decade ago, they had taken
a level of physicality out of the sport that they

(01:13:13):
have allowed to creep back in. And I think for
the better, quite frankly. But but do I think he
at times, you know, bear bears the brunt of that
a little bit too much. I'll grant you that.

Speaker 8 (01:13:25):
Yes, So we know one thing's for sure. The networks
do not want Okac in Indiana in the final. I
doubt it. Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:13:37):
Well, look, I mean, I'm I'm sure, I'm sure that
ABC would prefer the New York Necks be in it. Yes,
I don't know. I mean, look, Minneapolis is a bigger
market than okac. Uh Anthony Edwards is a marketable star.
I think uh Shay Gildess Alexander is as well. I
think what what ABC wants is a long serier. You know,

(01:14:00):
last year they had the Celtics and they had the MAVs,
and those are two pretty big markets, but they didn't
have a very good series. They had a five game series,
you know, two years ago Denver and Miami wasn't a
great series. I think more than market size, they're looking
for a series that is more competitive than we've had

(01:14:22):
over the last couple of years, because I think there's
enough star potential among any of these four teams. And look,
we're talking about something that you know, it makes for
interesting stories. Oklahoma City has not won an NBA title
as Oklahoma City. They did as the Seattle SuperSonics in
nineteen seventy nine. The Minnesota Timberwolves have not won an

(01:14:42):
NBA championship. One of those two teams is going to
go to the finals for the first time. Okay, see
as the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Indiana Pacers have never
won an NBA championship, the New York Knicks haven't won
one in fifty two years. And there are stars on
all four of these teams. There's interesting storylines with all

(01:15:03):
four of these teams, And so I think more so
than look, it's it's not gonna be Nicks Lakers, right,
It's it's not gonna be Celtics Warriors. But I do
think there's the potential to give ABC and give the
league something that the finals the last couple of years
have not, which is length, which are some interesting storylines,
and which are some franchises that have fan bases that

(01:15:26):
are absolutely starved.

Speaker 8 (01:15:28):
And I and I'm sure that that the viewing, the
viewing audiences up because of the just the greatness of
the playoffs so far, that's got to have spurred a
lot of interest. I would I would think even the
casual fans Halliburton might be the least of the known stars.
But I really wanted to get to this, what of difference.
How cool would it be at the next Julius Randall

(01:15:51):
is the unsung hero. I know Morton gets told them,
but if Julius Randall. Without him, you're not there.

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
Julius Randall doesn't play for the next anymore. But Karl
Anthony Town's done. But he did, but now he's with Minnesota,
and Julius, former Kentucky player, had some great years with
the Knicks, and Mike get a chance to play his
former team, which would be cool.

Speaker 8 (01:16:15):
And boys, he's been something else. I mean, I don't
remember Julius Randall contributing this much on this type of
stage to anybody, even the Knicks.

Speaker 1 (01:16:24):
Yeah, he was kind of known. He was kind of
known for some disappearing acts in the postseason. I'll acknowledge that.

Speaker 8 (01:16:31):
Yeah, he was. And I like the fact he's left handed.
That's even more interesting. I just get a kick out
of that. I was looking at the Red schedule and
it looks like towards the end of June things get rough.
I think it starts with Detroit and Minnesota. Maybe I'm
going by memory, then the Cardinals then, or the Yankees

(01:16:52):
and the Cardinals and the Philly You got it there?

Speaker 1 (01:16:57):
Well, yeah, I mean, look, they've they've got in the
short term here, They've got six games against the Cubs
in a nine day stretch. They played the Brewers, who
have had a lot of success against the Reds and
who are currently neck and neck with them in the
NL Central. They've got a series another series against the Guardians.
Obviously the Reds just swept them, but Cleveland's pretty good.
They've got to go to Saint Louis, who has been

(01:17:17):
red hot recently. They've got the Twins coming here, who
have been red hot recently. The Tigers are good. They
have to go there. They have to play the Yankees here.
The Yankees are good. They have to play the Padres here.
The Padres are good. So yeah, look, they've they've got
some tough teams on their schedule. Now, we've talked about
this a lot. We've broken down the schedule and said
they got to take care of business against bad teams.

(01:17:39):
In some instances they did did so against Colorado, in
some instances they did not. Lost two of three to
home to the White Sox, lost two of three to
the Miami Marlins. They play a bad team starting tonight,
an awful offensive Pittsburgh team. The one thing they have
going forward is Paul Skins, and the Reds don't see him.
It's great that they up the series against the Guardians,

(01:18:01):
get two out of three against Pittsburgh and then take
your chances this week against a pretty good Chicago team.

Speaker 8 (01:18:07):
I think that's the second series in a roading this scheme,
didn't it. I'm pretty sure it is.

Speaker 1 (01:18:11):
Yeah, it is the first time. Yep.

Speaker 8 (01:18:14):
But that's a beautiful thing. And I'll leave with this.
I'm with you. I love Will Benson. I felt so
sorry for him all this time. He'd brings so much
enthusiasm and a light to that dugout, and to see
him hang in there and do what he's doing is unbelievable.
It really is.

Speaker 1 (01:18:33):
What I love is the fact that Mike, thank you
as always for the phone call. What I love about
the fact. What I love about Will Benson is the
fact that when things didn't work out for him last year,
and when it was clear weeks before opening day that
he wasn't going to make the Big Club, by by
all accounts, he didn't sulk, he didn't turn into a
pain in the neck, he didn't try to force his

(01:18:55):
way out of the organization. He went to Louisville and
worked on stuff. And that work is paid off. It's
paid dividends for him and certainly paid dividends for the Reds,
Brendaman and Jones on baseball is next.

Speaker 3 (01:19:08):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 4 (01:19:13):
From the UC Health Traffic Center from pregnancy and menopause
to healthy aging. The women's health experts that you see
help offer personalized care with the newest treatments. Learn more
at ucehealth dot com slash women. It's found two seventy
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(01:19:36):
left lane blocked off from an accident after Ribolt and
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with traffic.

Speaker 5 (01:19:44):
This report is sponsored introduce Nation Yekeyward on our website.

Speaker 8 (01:19:49):
Fun.

Speaker 1 (01:19:49):
That's fun, Entering now fun. You know what's fun is
the Amicelo Ultra five o'clock Happy Hour on ESPN fifteen
thirty eight, thanks to our friend and yours at michelob
Ultra Premium Light Beer, Premium Taste. You know it's Monday, right,
It's Monday of Memorial Day Week. It already feels like

(01:20:11):
a Thursday, So crack open a nice call, mic Ultra.
We are lifting one today in honor of Will Benson,
this week's National League Player of the Week. My guy,
Will Benson, thanks again to mic Ultra. Five point three
seven fifteen thirty is our phone number. We've we've had
a lot of fun today. That that Brandanman and Jones

(01:20:31):
on Baseball segment was like right after my heart because
I was thinking about this. They did the segment there.
If you missed it, they talked about box scores, and
if you're of a certain age, I'm sure you can
remember what it was like to look at the I
think in newspapers they they may have called it the
Baseball at a Glance page, or in some cities the
agate page, but it was just all the box scores

(01:20:54):
from around baseball. And I remember as a kid, you know,
Cincinnati a two newspaper town. Uh, my grandma was a
Kentucky Post subscriber, which meant you got all the late
night West Coast box scores, which was really helpful when
the Reds were in the National League West and they
would play, you know, nine road games every year against

(01:21:15):
the Dodgers and the Padres and the Giants, often late
at night, and so you would have to wait till
late late morning or early afternoon in most cases to
get the West Coast box scores. And if you're of
a certain age as a baseball fan, this is what
you did. You perused the newspaper for all the box scores.
And what's interesting, you could still do that, like you

(01:21:38):
and I right now can still do that if you
want to go back and look at yesterday's box scores.
It's never been easier. And yet I think all of
us would admit that having all the box scores on
a piece of paper in front of you far better
than having access to all of them but having to
click on each single one to peruse them. Like I

(01:22:00):
was thinking about that, I was having a We were
talking about newspapers from back in the day, a buddy
of mine, and you know, we were talking about box scores,
and it wasn't just baseball box scores. I used to
love on Monday morning to look at all the NFL
box scores. In fact, I'm old enough to remember the
first time I was in a fantasy football league. That's
how we tracked our fantasy football teams. Looking at all

(01:22:23):
the box scores in USA today on the Monday after
an NFL Sunday, and you could still go and look
at all these things. Who who went back, you know,
goes back a certain number of years to you know,
remembering what it was like to look at box scores
in the newspaper. Who has done that on MLB dot

(01:22:44):
com or ESPN dot com or NFL dot com. Sadly
I have not. It is fun, though, to look at
Will Benson's box scores. I mentioned this a few minutes
ago the National League Player of the Week. What a
difference a handful of days make, because because maybe you're
different than me. But Wednesday night, when the Reds lost

(01:23:05):
the second game of that series to the White Sox,
you know, let's be honest that the Pete Rose Night
celebration kind of pushed what the Reds are doing in
real time to the back seat. And so on Wednesday night,
it wasn't so much that the Reds had lost another
game to the White Sox. It wasn't that the Reds
had gotten their homestand off to a bad start after

(01:23:27):
a disastrous road trip in Atlanta and Houston. It's all
about Pete Rose. And I like, I get why, because
it wasn't just Pete Rose Night. It was the Pete
Rose story taking another turn on Tuesday of last week
when we found out that MLB had taken him off
the band list. But once you kind of put Pete
Rose to the side, and once you kind of moved

(01:23:47):
on from Pete Rose night, it was pretty sobering to
look at where the Reds were because that trip to
Atlanta and Houston was awful. The first two games of
the series against the White Sox were awful. This team
was sitting at twenty and twenty four. They had just
lost two games to start a home stand against a
team that came in seventeen under five hundred, one of

(01:24:09):
the worst teams in baseball. And on Thursday morning, we
all woke up thinking, I think, at twenty and twenty four,
with the White Sox here for the final game of
that series, the Reds really needed to win that game.
I know I did. I hate to attach must win,
you know, you hate to do that to any game
in the middle of May, but but I know I did.

(01:24:31):
I looked at that game as a must win, like
you can't dig yourself so deep of a hole that
you can't come out of it. And yet it felt
like with the Guardians coming to town with one more game,
against the White Sox, that the Reds were in danger
of kind of digging themselves into a hole that it
was going to take a huge chunk of the season

(01:24:52):
to get out of. And yet here they are less
than a week later. They haven't lost since they did
win that last game against the White Sox, and then
they had a three game sweep of the Guardians. And
this was it felt to me like a really important weekend.
And you know, we've done this earlier this season. We've

(01:25:14):
we've looked at certain games the Reds have won or
lost and thought, Okay, maybe that'd be one we go
back and look at. I think the first time we
did that this year was with that Monday night game
in San Francisco where Hunter Green nearly pitched a complete game.
And sometimes when you do that, it's like there's a moment, right,
there's there's an individual moment. Maybe it's a huge comeback, right,

(01:25:35):
or maybe it's a walk off hit, or maybe it's
some sort of dramatics authored by an unexpected hero. None
of that really applied this weekend. They didn't stage any
sort of massive late game comeback. They didn't stage any

(01:25:56):
sort of late inning rallied to win a game that
seemed like it was lost. There were no walk off heroics.
They just played three really good baseball games. Now, the
star of the weekend was Will Benson mentioned this twice now,
the National League Player of the week. Five homers and

(01:26:16):
four games. There is the Will Benson story, which we
need to talk about, and which I love talking about
because I really like Will Benson. But the story of
these last three games, to me, wasn't that the Reds
won three baseball games. It's not that they won three
baseball games against what we think is a pretty good

(01:26:38):
Cleveland team. It was the relatively unremarkable way that they
went about winning them. Solid pitching, solid starting pitching, solid
relief work, really good bullpen management on Saturday by Terry
Francona and the pitchers doing their job on the mound.

(01:26:58):
But season long, to this point, many of us have
been wondering, when is the twenty twenty four season going
to end? And when is the twenty twenty five season
going to begin? I asked at one point, I think
it was during that road trip, It might have been
early last week. What has changed? What has changed about

(01:27:19):
the Reds since we keep talking about the same things.
Again and again and again and again, defense, base running,
doing the little things the Reds consistently getting in their
own way. When's it going to end? I don't know
if this week means the twenty twenty four season has ended,

(01:27:42):
but these last three games, and I'll fold that last
White Sox game into the conversation if you wish, which
was a relatively lobsided seven to one game. But over
the last four games, I don't know about you. I
haven't gotten mad at base running. I haven't gotten mad
at defense. I haven't wondered why does this team continue

(01:28:06):
to do things that last year's team, unfortunately was known for.
They played crisp, they played fundamentally well. They played esthetically
pleasing baseball. I'm not sure there was anything prettier than
Santiago espen All on Saturday night, uh pulling off the
butcher boy play where he squares to bunt and then

(01:28:28):
ends up getting a hit. By the way, fake bunts
are better than real bunts. They made the plays in
the field. They didn't give up outs, they didn't give
up bases. They didn't make me want to throw a remote.
They didn't want to make me punch the seed in
front of me when I was at the game on Friday.
They didn't send me into some sort of hard to

(01:28:50):
decipher tirade about something that they had done that continues
to shrink the margin for error. What this weekend was
about to me was not just them winning four straight games,
not just them sweeping the Guardians, but doing it in
relatively unremarkable fashion. That's not to say that the individual

(01:29:10):
performances were unremarkable. Andrew Abbott sidestepping all that trouble early
and giving them five innings. Look, you want more length
from your starter than five, especially after a bullpen day.
But for a while in the first inning, I wasn't
sure he was gonna throw a pitch in the second inning.
The bullpen performance on Saturday in the game that Brent

(01:29:31):
Souter started was terrific, and I thought Terry Francona did
a very good job of kind of managing that game
and managing the bullpen. They got a more than passable
start on Friday from Brady Singer and then some really
good bullpen work subsequent to him. They got some decent hitting,
but they just played a bunch of crisp, well played,

(01:29:54):
fundamentally well played baseball games. I am hopeful, and I
would imagine if you're a Reds fan, you are too
that that becomes the norm. The Will Benson thing. Dude,
I have no idea. I have no idea if this
is one of those fun stories that happens across the

(01:30:17):
sport every year that's happened here where it's Derek Dietrich,
or it's aristida'z akino, or it's Will Benson two years ago.
I have no idea. I have no idea. Number One,
I think things like the Will Benson story are part
of what makes baseball fun. Number two, I give that
guy an extraordinary amount of credit for bouncing back, like

(01:30:39):
that's what this game is all about, is what life
is all about? Man, this guy got demoted like this dude.
We did not mention Will Benson's name once this past
offseason because who wanted to Who wanted to talk about
him being a part of the plan. Who thought he
was a part of the plan. We spent all winter wondering,
are the Red's gonna go get another outfielder because we

(01:31:00):
think Will Benson should be a part of the mix.
We didn't think Will Benson was gonna be a part
of the mix. The Rads didn't exactly show a huge
vote of confidence in Will Benson when they sent him
to Louisville in early March, Like it's not like he
was a last minute cut. It wasn't like he was
on the cut line. Boy could be Will Benson. He's
either guy number twenty six or guy number twenty seven.

(01:31:22):
They made it known weeks before opening day it ain't
gonna be a part of the team. He got called
up briefly earlier in the season, had one game, struck
out four times and four at bats, And that was
a part of me wondering, like, dude, when when's Will
gonna get another shot? Is he gonna earn another shot? Well,
he went to Louisville and worked, and went to Louisville

(01:31:43):
and worked and listened and made adjustments and put his
head down and ended up playing well enough that the
Reds got to a point where they had pretty much
no choice but to call up Will Benson and Reese Hines. Now,
in the short term, Will has been awesome and maybe
the foreshadows, to use Trey Hendrickson's favorite word, him being

(01:32:05):
a big part of this team moving forward. Maybe he
holds down right field and he's the starting right fielder
for the rest of the season and he puts up
great numbers. And maybe he's the starting right fielder for
the rest of the decade and he puts up great
numbers and he appears in All Star Games and he
has big postseason moments. Or maybe he's sent back to
Louisville in three weeks. Maybe he's not with the Reds
next year. I have no idea. I can't wait to

(01:32:26):
find out. I know what I'm rooting for. I think
there's something about Will Benson's personality that I just I'm
drawn to. And if that sounds hokey, it sounds hokey.
I don't know what to make of Will Benson. I
do think we know what to make of how the
Reds won these games this weekend. Will Benson doesn't have

(01:32:52):
to hit five home runs in four days. He doesn't
have to hit a home run every game. He doesn't
have to have a week whereas Ops is close to
two thousand. But what the Reds did on the field
this weekend with Will Benson a part of it that
has to continue. These last four games have to be
how they play. Look, the reality is offensively, they're a

(01:33:15):
low ceiling team, and so maybe they rely on these
brief bursts from individual guys like Austin Hayes a few
weeks ago, like Will Benson, and maybe that's what they
have to do to get by. But what needs to
be sustainable is the continued excellent starting pitching, the continued
excellent bullpen work, and the newfound crispness with which the

(01:33:39):
Reds played this weekend. This weekend, they did not shrink
their own margin for error. They did not make you
yell in frustration about throwing the ball to the wrong
base or vapor locking on the field, or making a
low baseball IQ play or giving away a ton of
outs on the base pass. God knows, they weren't perfect,
and we're not that far removed from last Tuesday, when

(01:34:01):
it felt like they were running the bases like a
team that had just learned the sport. But I hope
Will Benson's production is sustainable, and I hope he solves
a right field problem that has been there for a while.
And I hope he holds down a spot on a
regular basis where you know he can prove once and

(01:34:21):
for all what he can or can't do during a
season in which he turns twenty seven, and I certainly hope,
for his sake and for my sake is his fan
that by the end of the season we look at
Will Benson and go twenty twenty six right field, or
Will Benson and he's getting the job done with the
glove and he's not striking out as much, and he's
hitting for power and he's just a positive contributor offensively,

(01:34:43):
or it's a flash in the pan and the dude
is in Louisville in a month. I have no idea,
but what I know is how this team played against
the Guardians, which was unremarkable. They didn't have to stage
a late game come back this weekend. They weren't relying
on some one moments. They just played three and I'll

(01:35:07):
make it four really good games, crisp games, clean games,
well executed games. And so maybe this is the weekend
with the twenty five season really started, because it was
the weekend where we finally stopped seeing things that plague
the Reds in twenty twenty four. If that ends up

(01:35:30):
being the case, this team's got a shot. If that
ends up not being the case, then well what we
saw this weekend, that's the flash in the pan. We'll
see if it continues tonight. But I love the relatively
unremarkable way in which the Reds won those three ballgames

(01:35:50):
five point three seven four fifteen thirty and eight sixty
six seven h two three seven seven six at Moegger
on Twitter thanks to Delta michelob Ultra five o'clock Happyre
twenty two. After five o'clock tomorrow, Joe Burrow is going
to talk, and Zach Taylor's going to talk, and we're
going to talk about all that with our buddy Paul

(01:36:11):
Danner Junior. The Trey Hendrickson stuff this weekend was limited
to a piece by Mike Florio indicating the Bengals have
made an offer. It's one of them's worth roughly twenty
eight mil per. That's kind of interesting. We've spent some
time on that. A few more thoughts on that story
as well between now and six on ESPN fifteen thirty

(01:36:32):
Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:36:33):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 4 (01:36:39):
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Traffic stop and go back to Kellogg Avenue and Hamilton Avenue.
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Speaker 1 (01:37:10):
This report is sponsored by the Greater Cincinnati for a Deal.
Twenty six after five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
My names Mowager. Thank you for listening. Uh, we got
folks waiting. Let's talk to him. Tommy and Montgomery. You're
on ESPN fifteen thirty. Tommy, what's up.

Speaker 9 (01:37:32):
No, it's always a pleasure to talk to you, buddy.

Speaker 6 (01:37:35):
You're awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:37:35):
Well I don't know about that, but thank you. Nonetheless,
Now you.

Speaker 9 (01:37:40):
Do a great job. Lit'sten. I want to tell you,
first of all, I'm so impressed with your New York Knicks,
very very impressed, and you deserve it. I think they
have a great shot at possibly moving on and winning.

Speaker 6 (01:37:54):
The whole thing.

Speaker 1 (01:37:55):
Uh, it's wide open. I think the smart money would
be on OKAC gotta beat Indiana first. The Pacers offensively
are terrific. They have been so efficient these first two rounds.
They they can force anybody to play at their pace.
You just asked the Cleveland Cavaliers. They just came at
Cleveland wave after wave after wave. But the Knicks have

(01:38:20):
taken some pretty big punches in these first two rounds.
They will have home court, and so I'm excited to
see what starts unful beginning on Wednesday.

Speaker 9 (01:38:28):
You got a great chance anyway. Also about the Reds.
First of all, if I could turn the page back
to Wednesday, Yeah, what an amazing site for the Pete
Rose event. I was overwhelmed. I mean very much overwhelmed.
And the only thing I wish the Reds would have
done is what the tenants and at three o'clock instead
of later. Wow, what a what a crowd packed house?

Speaker 1 (01:38:52):
Yeah, my god, it was. It was awesome to see
the park filled on a Wednesday night. I do I
do wonder if maybe they should have anticipated people lining
up well in advance the way they did because the
gate the gates opened at five point forty correct, Yes
that's right, And there was a giveaway. Everybody got a
jersey and that tends to slow things down, And I'll

(01:39:15):
try to say this gently. I would imagine you had
some folks in attendance on Wednesday who are not regular
attendees of Reds games, and thus maybe weren't ready with
their tickets or didn't know what they could or couldn't
bring into the ballpark. And I just I did our
show from the Holy Grail, and then I had to
come up here, and so I walked past a long
line of people who were entering the ballpark, and I

(01:39:37):
just I wondered if maybe they could have made an
adjustment to when the gates opened to ensure that everybody
got a chance to be in their seats by six forty,
which is obviously when the ceremony started.

Speaker 9 (01:39:50):
And you know that was only one side. The banks
was a mile I mean, it was past first light.
It was unbelievable. That's all I gotta say. But one
word have changed.

Speaker 6 (01:40:00):
This of it completely.

Speaker 7 (01:40:01):
Yeah, what if you can get.

Speaker 9 (01:40:03):
Some thoughts later on in the week or later on
the next couple of months for the NFL, What are
your thoughts on taking Game seventeen of every team and
put them in a different city inside the United States?
Who needs to go worldwide? They could put it in Nebraska,
they could put it in Georgia, all these big college

(01:40:24):
schools games. They would fill up one hundred thousand seat
stadiums like that make seventeen game seventeen just a unique
game for the NFL period.

Speaker 1 (01:40:35):
I'm not opposed to it because I think you'd have
some pretty cool visuals like Nebraska, like Tuscaloosa, you know,
I mean, could could you play a game at Penn State?
Could you play a game at Columbus? Philosophically, here's why
I don't love it, for the same reason why philosophically
I don't love the international games. Most of these stadiums
are funded by taxpayer money, and so to me in

(01:40:59):
this is maybe diving and getting a little a little
bit too serious about it. To me, it's like if if,
if we're going to be on the hook for the
next version of pay Corpse Stadium. To me, there should
be an implied deal there. That's fine. We get either
nine regular season games or eight regular season games every

(01:41:19):
single year now we And look, I'm hypocritical because I
did go see the Bengals play in London because I'd
always wanted to go to London. But there was a
part of me that goes, you know what, as long
as we're building stadiums for NFL owners, then NFL owners
should at least keep the games in the stadiums we
build for them. Now that said, do I think I

(01:41:41):
would wonder this in major college football areas right in
most of the South, in college football hotbeds, after one
NFL game came, would the novelty wear off? And would
fans actually show up in those areas that I don't
know I.

Speaker 9 (01:41:59):
Think they were, but I think they would. You'd have
possibly the Bengals against the Chiefs playing in Georgia, or
the Steelers and the you know, Brown's playing in Nebraska.
They sell out on the heart beat.

Speaker 1 (01:42:11):
Well, the thing that I think would be cool is
like there's a lot of those venues that let's say,
a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals who's not a huge
college football fan is never going to go see. But like,
you know, you're a fan of the Bengals and they're
going to go play in LSU, all right, now you're
gonna go see LSU stadium. You know that's kind of neat.
I don't know that you would necessarily replicate the LSU
home game but yeah, I'm not. I'm not entirely opposed

(01:42:34):
to it. But but again, there is a part of
me that goes, you know what, if we're building stadiums
for owners, then the people who build those stadiums should
get every game conceivable. Yeah, but would I'd rather see
a Would I rather see a game in Lincoln, Nebraska
than Brazil? Yes?

Speaker 8 (01:42:53):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:42:54):
Would I be? Would I be more interested in seeing
the Bengals play in Oregon Notre Dame Stadium that I
am in Munich? Yeah, sure that'd be I think. Yeah,
I think there'll be some cool novelty to it, but
I don't know. We'll we'll see if if the NFL

(01:43:14):
can figure out a way to make that happen financially
to their benefit, they'll be open to it. I could,
I could. I could tell you that.

Speaker 9 (01:43:23):
Just remember no life is too short and enjoy every moment.

Speaker 1 (01:43:26):
Yes, I think we all are damn straight. Tommy, Thank
you very much. Where's live by call? Again? Thank you?
I don't know, I have believed that for a while.
And like I'm I'm ind midtedly completely a hypocrite here,
because if the Bengals played in Munich, I would really
want to go. I didn't have a huge interest in

(01:43:48):
Madrid and probably could have swung it anyway. But like
I went to the London games and they were cool.
But yeah, there's I mean, they're gonna go international at
least in twenty twenty seven. There is a huge part
of me that feels like, if we're gonna build, if
we're gonna build stadiums for owners, we should at least
get all the games that that team plays that are
home home games. And I'm sure that's not a the

(01:44:11):
majority opinion, but we'll see. Twenty seven away from six,
we are late five one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:44:20):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 4 (01:44:26):
From the uc Health Traffic Center. From pregnancy and menopause
to healthy aging. The women's health experts that you see
help offer personalized care with the newest treatments. Learn more
at UCHealth dot com. Slash women. A vehicle fire now
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(01:44:49):
after fight for road in accident is off onto the
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I'm at Ezelk with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:44:58):
This report is sponsored advice as you're looking at the
home of lifetime powertrain protection and a guarantee credit approval
from their family to yours for life kelsey chef dot Com.
Will Benson NL player of the Week in the lineup
tonight for the Reds as they start a three game set,
or as a normal person would say, it's series against
the Pittsburgh Pirates. UH six tonight on seven hundred wl W.

(01:45:21):
Pittsburgh is awful. The Reds are okay coming off a
three game weekend series sweep of the Cleveland Guardians. Would
you like a Red starting lineup for tonight? The answer
is probably yes, so I'm gonna go ahead and give
it to you. But what you are probably suspecting is

(01:45:43):
true that I'm fumbling for the lineup here it is.
I found it. I found it here, it is. Are
you ready?

Speaker 9 (01:45:50):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:45:51):
Freedom and Center Espinal at third is La de la
Cruz is a shortstop Hazen left Gavin Lux's dhing, Spencer
Steer first Benson and Wright Tyler Stevenson behind the dish
and Matt McLean is batting ninth, that second base or
alternate leadoff. That's what we're calling the nine hole now

(01:46:12):
to I guess sue the feelings of the nine hole batter.
You know, not a very busy news day in terms
of headline. So instead we'll talk with our friend Bob. Bob,
you're on ESPN fifteen thirty high Bob. How you doing?

Speaker 8 (01:46:27):
Hey? Well, I'm good. How about you?

Speaker 1 (01:46:29):
I'm awesome, Bob. What's going on?

Speaker 8 (01:46:32):
Hey?

Speaker 6 (01:46:33):
The topic of Tracy and Marty and you speaking about.

Speaker 1 (01:46:37):
The box scores, yes, really intrigued.

Speaker 6 (01:46:42):
Me and got me thinking. I graduated from Bellevue High
School in nineteen seventy five.

Speaker 1 (01:46:49):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:46:50):
One of my classmates was a guy named Tom Greshen. Oh, Tom, Yeah, Tom,
Tom and I would each day we would we would
sit in a class in a classroom he was in
either one period after me or vice versa, and we

(01:47:11):
would leave notes on the desk, sometimes written on the desk,
of what happened with my team the previous day, being
the Cardinals, or what happened with the Reds, and we
would have like the Cardinals had a guy named Ken
Maritz who was a third baseman who got off to
just magnificence. Starts every year and wound up hitting two

(01:47:32):
thirty at the end of the year. But and it
was so much fun. And also I was thinking. My
dad and I went to quite a few games at
Crosley Field and he kept score.

Speaker 8 (01:47:51):
And a few years.

Speaker 6 (01:47:52):
Back, no, I found about, oh gosh, probably ten or
ten different scorecards where it would have the scores, you know,
each play on there. And I cannot remember the website
that I got on, but there's one out there where
you can go back and actually put pull the game
up and and see kind of like a box score

(01:48:16):
and what happened, who won all that.

Speaker 1 (01:48:20):
You can do that with Baseball Reference, and you could
do that with retro sheet.

Speaker 6 (01:48:26):
Oh okay, okay, but anyway, I did that on a
few of those, and one of them, one of the
one of the really cool scorecards, Pete Rose is in
the stands in Crosley Field in uniform signing autographs. Well,
some years back, Pete did a game with the Florence
Freedom where he coached, and I was able to get

(01:48:46):
that scorecard to him. Uh he signed his name right
where he's standing and passed it back up to my wife.
I was in the press box at the time, but
she got it and it still is one of my
prize possessions of of of Pete.

Speaker 1 (01:49:07):
So that's pretty cool. So it was a it was
a filled out scorecard from a game that he played
in a Crosley.

Speaker 6 (01:49:13):
Field, correct, and the game was against the Cardinals and
Bob Gibson and I remember and I can't remember exact mo,
but that particular game, Pete was of course leadoff and
had either three or four hits in the game. And
of course, if you can imagine baseball back then I'm

(01:49:35):
sure Gibson probably pitch.

Speaker 1 (01:49:36):
State or nine in I'm sure, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:49:38):
Yeah, and uh but yeah, just just the whole box
score thing. I I like you, I don't want to
go through all the misery now of going back and
finding all that stuff. Plus you can watch highlights of
every game, so you don't need to.

Speaker 8 (01:49:51):
But yeah, but it really was cool.

Speaker 1 (01:49:54):
Yeah, you know, you talk about scorecards. I collect old
red scorecards, right, and one of the things that I like.
You could go to a Reds game now and if
you go to the fan accommodations booth, and I will
admit this might not be the case, but I suspect
that it is. It's been a few years since I've
either tried this or told somebody to go do this,

(01:50:14):
but for a number of years here recently, if you
go to the Reds Fan Accommodations booth and ask for
a scorecard, and they will give you one, and which
is kind of cool. You can get a free scorecard,
but there's no character to it, right, It's just a
blank piece of paper and you've got to with a
grid and you've got to fill it out yourself. I'm
of the age where you could get a scorecard and

(01:50:36):
the scorecard was separate from the yearbook, but it was
either depending on what timeframe we're talking about here, like
if you go back to the fifties and sixties, crosley
Field scorecards might have an ad like you might have
an add for fifteen thirty wcky on it, or might
have an ad for Frishes, or might have an ad
for you know, Lucky Strike cigarettes or for Shaneling or

(01:51:00):
something like that. And then a scorecards kind of evolved
in the seventies and eighties and nineties. They came with
a little magazine and there might be an article, but
there was a scorecard in it, and if you were
really lucky, you would get the starting lineup stamped inside
it so you didn't have to fill it out yourself.
I'm a real nerd when it comes to stuff like that,

(01:51:21):
and my dad was the same way. My dad would
keep score, and so I A few years ago, maybe
ten years ago, I was that Great American ballpark and
I was with one of my cousins and we ran
into a two young ladies standing out there in right field.
They were keeping score, and I thought, here are two
ladies after my own heart. I'm going to keep score

(01:51:42):
the next time I go to a game. And so
I go to the ballpark, I go and ask for
a scorecard. I brought a pen with me, and I
maybe kept score for an inning and a half before
I said to myself, I don't want to do this anymore.

Speaker 6 (01:51:56):
Oh yeah, I know what to say my my dad
and I'm lucky. Luckily for me. We went to the
last game at Crosley Field, and I wish, I wish
I'd kept a ticket or that scorecard or something, but
I didn't, and I really regret not having something from

(01:52:18):
that last game. But but yeah, it was to me
like I'm very much like you in that regard. I
kind of a kind of a nerd on that kind
of stuff. But it meant a lot to me too.
But I do I miss it?

Speaker 1 (01:52:32):
Yeah, I Bob, thanks very much. I missed that as well.
I my dad. When I was a little kid, I
couldn't not keep score. And I mean it would drive
me nuts. It would drive me nuts if we had
to go to the to the bathroom or go to
to get something to eat, if I would miss a play.

(01:52:53):
And you know, this is the eighties, so you're in
the early nineties. I guess as well, you're not looking
on your phone to see what you miss. You don't
like you have to ask somebody like, oh you know
what did NICKOSASKI do? I flew to leftfield? Okay, right?
A seven? And then so again, this is like nine
ten years ago. I went to a business day special.
I was off work. I grabbed the ticket and I'm like,

(01:53:17):
I'm gonna go to the game and keep score. And
I think, like after nine outs, I'm like, yeah, I'm good. Okay.
You know they don't need my official record of this game.
But as a little kid, I did not go to
a game where I didn't keep score, probably between the
ages of seven and thirteen or fourteen. But yeah, that

(01:53:39):
box score conversation by Marty and Tracy brought back I
brought back memories. Hey, we're Friday of this week is
a big day because we're announcing the winner of this
year's moor Long contest. You've heard me talk about this
for weeks. We're finally getting close to the finish line.
But there's still time to sign up. I think you'll
be able to sign up until when day. And so

(01:54:02):
if you have no idea what I'm talking about, where
have you been? We're given away On Friday at four
thirty five. On this show, I will announce the winner,
and the winner will get a brand new lawnmower from
Baxla Tractor. Brand new steel push mower retails for six
hundred and nineteen dollars, a really cool piece of machinery.

(01:54:24):
But not only are you gonna win that, you're gonna
win tickets to every River Bend show this summer, every
single one, which is a great prize in and of itself.
But then you add to it a lawnmower. Can you
beat it? So you win both prizes, and then I
deliver the prizes to your house and that that may
be not worth it. I mean, you're allowed to say,

(01:54:44):
you know what, I want the lawnmower and I want
the tickets. But since I'm the winner, can I just
have mode not come like that. I would not be offended,
but I always offered to cut the grass, mow the lawn,
so to speak, and this year will be no exception.
So we're going to announce the winner on Friday four
to thirty five in the afternoon, and uh, you have

(01:55:06):
a chance to still sign up. You can go to
the contest and Promotions page at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com.
And I can also find a link on my social
media as well at moweger good Luck. Thanks to Baxlatractor
and Riverbenmusic Center. It's mow your lawn. Sign up and
you might hear your name on Friday at four thirty

(01:55:26):
five here on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:55:30):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:55:34):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center from Pregnancy and
Menopause to help the aging, the women's health experts at
you see help offer personalized care with the newest treatments.
Learn more at ucehealth dot com slash women. The right
lane remains blocked off from that earlier vehicle fire on
eastbound two seventy five between five Mile the Road and

(01:55:55):
Beachmont Avenue. Traffic getting by using the lapt two lanes
right now now southound seventy five. It is an accident
on the ramp to two seventy five that he Zell
like with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:56:06):
Hopefully we have we have some great people who cover
the teams in town, and you know we're big fans
here of Charlie Goldsmith Charlie's Chalkboard newsletter, which is a
sponsored by Holy Grail. Charlie's there in Pittsburgh getting said
for Red's Pirates, and he reports that in batting practice today,
a Reds player, an unidentified Reds player, hit a pigeon

(01:56:30):
with a line drive, and unfortunately Charlie's originally reporting was
that the pigeon passed away immediately. He has since updated
his report to tell us that the pigeon is alive
but essentially on life support. So I don't know what
that means for the player. I guess I kind of

(01:56:51):
know what it means for the pigeon, But you're gonna
want to make sure you're following Charlie here for the
latest on the pigeon at P and C Park and
the Reds player who hit him with a line drive.
At some point that player's identity should be revealed. I agree, right,
I mean, I think Charlie could give us the full
story here, don't It was an accident. I mean, I'm

(01:57:14):
sure whoever the batter in the batter's box during batting
practice didn't mean to do it on purpose. But I
think for the sake of transparency and complete reportage here,
we do need to know specifically who the player was
who struck this pigeon with a line drive and has
this poor pigeon within an inch of his or her life.

(01:57:36):
I don't know, follow Charlie. Maybe they'll have it on
the radio broadcast tonight, Tommy. I don't know what the
radio pairings are this weekend. Maybe Tommy throwb will have
something on the pregame show or yet on the pregame
show about what's going on with the pigeon in Pittsburgh.
But that's the scene at P and C Park right now,
a pigeon clinging to life after being struck by a
line drive at batting practice today. Tomorrow is going to

(01:58:00):
be interesting because, on top of Red's pirates to talk
about tomorrow, barring some sort of change, both Joe Burrow
and Zach Taylor are scheduled to talk meet with the
media for sure this time. Well, I have not seen
an updated schedule saying that neither is gonna speak. Last

(01:58:22):
week it was gonna be Joe Burrow on Tuesday. They
moved that to tomorrow, and so we will see and
hear what Joe has to say when he is asked
about Trey Hendrickson, because you know he and it gonna
be funny if they don't ask him about Trey Hendrickson
or Zach Taylor. By the way, like Zach Taylor is
gonna be put in a tough spot because not only

(01:58:43):
does he have to answer questions about Trey Hendrickson, Trey
Hendrickson when public with a text exchange between Zach and
his player which say what you want about Trey I
think is complete in total bs. But we'll see. That'll
be an interesting day tomorrow. Paul Danner Junior, because it's Tuesday,
joins us in studio to discuss that anything you might

(01:59:05):
have missed on this show go get on the iHeartRadio
app or my page at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com.
Podcasts of this show are a service of a Long
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great place to post up and watch the Reds this
week or this weekend. Long Neck Sports Grill, it's been
the michelob Ultra five o'clock Happy Hour. Thanks to our

(01:59:28):
friends at michelob Ultra. My thanks to Tarren Bland for
producing this show, and my thanks to you for listening.
Have an unbelievable night. We'll talk to you tomorrow starting
at three oh five. Don't forget since E three to
sixty comes your way tomorrow at noon on ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station Live baseball coverage Oakley Green