July 30, 2025 • 19 mins
Christine Brennan is an award-winning columnist for USA Today who will be at the Mercantile Library Wednesday night discussing her new book On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports. She joined us on ESPN1530.
Register for the event at mercantilelibrary.com.
Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
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Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
Register for the event at mercantilelibrary.com.
Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I found out she's actually in Cincinnati. She is appearing
tomorrow night signing her book at the mrcantil Library on
Walnut starts at five am, reception at five. You don't
need to pay for tickets. It's a free event, but
you do have to register. Go to mrcantil library dot com.
The name of the book is on her game. I
didn't know this until I just said high off air, Christine,
you're in town.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
You're actually a Reds fan.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Hey mo, thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Well, I grew up in Toledo, so at that other
end of I seventy five from all of you wonderful
folks in Cincinnati and the surrounding area, and we did
look north mostly for the Tigers Michigan football. I know
not o't how to say it's fun, but I went
to Northwestern, so I'm totally you know, now it's all
purple for me at Northwestern. But but seventy five, seventy six,
(00:50):
I mean, I'm certainly following the Reds all the way through.
But as a girl growing up in Toledo, I could
get your signal in Toledo in my bedroom and.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I can picture.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
In fact, I still own our family home in the
suburbs of Toledo in Otawa Hills. I own that house
and I was there a week and a half ago
for my book tour, and I sat in that desk.
At that desk, I would listen to the radio, transistor
radio or plug in whatever, and I'd listen to Marty
Brenneman and those incredible teams seventy five of course, that
World Series and seventy five amazing seventy six steamrolling the
(01:21):
Yankees in the World Series. But all those summer nights,
Johnny Bench, obviously, Tony Perez, you know, Sparky Anderson, on
and on and on, it goes, Davy Conception, you know,
I mean, everyone incredible. So that that was a huge
part of my childhood. And I'm so honored to be
talking to you and be on your air.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Well, it's awesome to have you. And welcome to Cincinnati.
Let's talk about Caitlin Clark specifically, because look, this is
not a WNBA town. There's obviously a lot of folks
listening to this conversation who are just like me who
started paying closer attention to the women's colleg game because
of Kaitlyn Clark.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And I've told this before.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
When Iowa plays Yukon in the Final four in twenty
twenty four, I met an establishment with buddies of mine
in the sort of place that you would never imagine
women's basketball being on, much less every patron watching while
the Reds are playing, not even paying attention to the baseball,
instead watching this game between these two titans of college hoops. Obviously,
(02:26):
Iowa won that night, Caitlyn Clark got the best of
Paige Becker's and there have been other mile posts along
the way, but I remember that night going, wow, this
isn't the women's game that I grew up watching, and
quite frankly for the most part.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Not watching, right, Well, you and millions of other people, right,
and especially men, which is great, right, I mean guys
who didn't care. You know, it was just it was
and not because you're bad people, but you already were
fans of so many other sports and now we're shoe horning,
you know, the WNBA and in the late nineties, mid
to late nineties, and you know, obviously it was a small,
(03:01):
niche kind of sport and that's what it was. And
then Caitlin Clark comes along, and it truly is Caitlyn Clark.
And in the book I give all the statistics and
talk about her, and ill said, logo threes jumping off
the page. Mo. You know she's quoted. She answered forty
to fifty of my questions. She's terrific, better than you'd
hope for in person. Takes everything on. As I say
(03:22):
in the book, twenty two going on forty or fifty,
just a mature gets racial questions thrown in, her political questions,
handles them beautifully better than an athlete.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Twice her age.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So that's Kaitlyn Clark. But here's what it was.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
And at least I in my opinion, and I go
into this and on her game quite a bit, the idea.
She's a basketball player, obviously, but she's also an entertainer, right,
she's the high wire act when she's chucking it from
the parking lot and it's going in right when those passes,
those beautiful passes, when it's the run and gun offense.
So she's just sprinting. She goes, I love sprinting. I
(03:58):
sprint around my house, I my living room sprints.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Sprint, sprints.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
She's very funny too, and she talked, but it's Kaitlyn Clark,
you know, sprinting, eyes up, those beautiful passes, just you
know again logo threes. You know, next couny over, she's
hitting it. How can you not You can't take your
eyes off her. And that's that's women, that's sports fans,
as w NBA fans for years, but it's also all
(04:22):
the new fans, millions and millions of new fans. You
and many people listening to us.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Right now.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
I've met these wonderful people. I've been in Iowa, book,
my book tour, Indiana, Ohio, even DC merrily. Everyone loves
Caitlyn Clark, and especially men love to tell me how
much they love it. They're with their daughters like you
watching it is it is, really it.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Has taken hold.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
And again, Kaitlyn Clark isn't just one of our most
famous athletes in my opinion, she's one of the most
famous people in the country.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
That's how big a deal she is.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
And in session organic matter, not forced on us, but
rising out of Iowa Big ten network right seeing her
on TV, people falling in love with her game, with
her team and the way she plays. And again that
right now, of course she's injured, but it's certainly carried
over last year, the year I chronicle that first amazing
(05:17):
season with the Indiana Fever.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Well, you know, from where I sit, and you've obviously
spent a lot of time, whether she just from where
I watch, has always struck me as strikingly normal, you know,
for somebody who has, you know, maybe not grown up
in the public eye from the standpoint of being you know,
eight nine years old, but you know, going through a
really important time in her life, really carrying a sport
(05:39):
to a large degree on her shoulders. She is always
to me, come off, as I've always said this about
Lebron James, like weirdly normal.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Is that a good way of putting it?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah? Oh, absolutely yeah. And you know, obviously.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Lebron James another Ohioan, right, and the way he I've
covered him, and I remember that first year, his rookie year.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
I mean, anything could have.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Gone wrong, right, I mean, a young man out of
high school, and he had the most amazing adults around him.
I mean it was brilliant. Whoever was in charge of that.
A woman I talked to was this financial person. Boy,
the guidance, the help, you know, I mean the worst
thing Lebron's ever done is say that he was taking
his talents to South Beach, right, yeah, I mean right,
(06:21):
what could have gone wrong for any athlete? I mean
I've covered all these tennis players, figure skaters, you know,
too much, too soon, right, no leadership, no guidance, no
one around, and boom they get into trouble or things
go you know, haywire again. Lebron, for sure, Caitlyn Clark
is certainly different in the sense she went to college,
had those four years of college. Of course, has a degree,
(06:43):
super smart, and I think Lebron isn't he is, but
didn't come out of just high school the way Lebron did,
so you've got you know, But Kaitlyn Clark is even
her size. I mean, she's six feet tall. I'm like
five eleven and a half. So we look at, you know,
each other, basically eye eye. She's not imposing, right. You know,
some of the wonderful players in the WNBA or women's
(07:05):
volleyball players whatever, you know, they're six four sixty five, great, fabulous,
I mean, we love that. But but Caitlin Klark looks
kind of like every person, right, She's kind of her body,
her build and so I think that even makes it
more interesting. It's kind of a mixt of earnestness and effortlessness.
As I say in the book, you know that the
(07:27):
way she's she's like a.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Kid, like, you know, just run, go, go.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
And then it's also fluid and beautiful and also so approachable.
I mean those autographs, that is real. I watched her.
There's some pictures in the book. You know she she
wants to sign for every girl and every boy, and
that's a key statement. She's a role model for girls
and boys. I covered Tiger Woods the length of his career.
Tiger didn't want to sign autographs. Great golfer, Probably what
(07:54):
a delight for me to cover him, couldn't care less
about autographs, kept his head down, didn't look at the kids.
Caitlyn and Tiger on that front, completely opposite one hundred
and eighty degrees moo. In terms of Caitlyn wanting to
spend more time. I've watched a kid, a boy, actually
she missed him, no fault of hers, just a lot
of arms and hands and little kids pressed together before
(08:15):
a game.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
And the kid had a jersey and she didn't sign it,
and he started crying.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
By ten year old boy. Well she goes all the
way to the end of line. Now she's working her
way back, and she had no idea. And then she
saw him signed and literally the emotions from such sadness
from this boy to such joy as I watched, and
again she didn't know. She just got him and finally
signed it and moved on.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
What a delight. I'm sure she saw his tears, but
she had no idea what had happened.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
But that's Caitlyn Clark. She cares so much about being
a role model. I don't know that there's a more
publicly appreciative person in this country and what she's been
given the role she has, the difficulty, how hard it
can be sometimes and she just every time on the court,
off the court, spending time with kids, wanting to give
(09:06):
back her foundation, her charity. Wow, I mean again, you
know she is and she's twenty three years old doing
all of this. It's it's truly amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Christine Brennan is with us tomorrow night Mrcantile Library on
Walnut Street, Reception at five, conversation at five thirty about
on her game, her bio of Kaitlyn Clark, which is
a book that's about Kaitlyn Clark. But there's also a
lot of other things that Christine writes about, and we're
going to discuss some of them. You know what you
just said about Kaitlyn Clark. I didn't get a chance
(09:36):
to watch her in person in college, but I did
watch Paige Becker's because Connecticut played Xavier, And what drew
me to her was some of the same stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
She came out after the game they won by forty
five points or whatever it was, and I watched her
take pictures and sign autogram and I just watching from
afar and it's like, I think that kid gets it.
So she's now with the Dallas Wings. Caitlin Clark is
with the Indiana Fever, just up the road from us.
And so, as a Newish fan of the WNBA, I've
(10:03):
got an eight year old daughter who loves basketball.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
We're gonna like this league.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I feel weirdly stiff armed by it, like I feel
weirdly not entirely embraced. Can you make that make sense
for me?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Well? I try in the book, and I deal with
all of it.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
This is it, by the way, an unauthorized biography, which
sounds ominous, but it's not it's not it's what you want.
It's me as a journalist, all these years of covering sports,
I give you my best stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I give you.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Behind the scenes reporting, I give you. You know, there's
breaking news in the book. The Olympic snub. That's a
chapter title. I broke that story last year. What a
disastrous decision, and I put her on the Olympic team.
I have new reporting news in there that people wouldn't
necessarily wouldn't know until the book.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
You know I did that. I continue to follow.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
It the story and absolutely throughout the book, I have
anecdotes reported. It's my journalism. It's you know, no holds barred.
You know about what the WNBA has and hasn't done.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
They I will say it this way, and I say
this in the book.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
I'm totally unprepared for the moment, utterly unprepared for the
greatest thing to ever happen to it. Caitlin Clark either
not believing it could happen to them because they've gotten
short shripp for years from the male dominated sports media
and never got covered the way that we would have
been great if Maya Moore was a household name, or
(11:30):
if Chryl swoops. I mean they were names and sports,
but not people talking about them in the produce section
at the grocery store, the way they are about Caitlin Clark,
or planning their evenings around her schedule, the way they
did around Tiger's sea time, you know, in golf when
he was at the Masters or.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
What have you.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
You know, that's where you transcend a sport. And here
it was an anecdote, I can tell you that's in
the book. The day after, Catherin Clark announces that she
is going pro and that means, of course everyone knows
she'll be drafted by the Indiana Fever, which is a
perfect spot for her. As you know everyone knows in Cincinnati, Indy,
you know, just the perfect town, a big but not
(12:05):
too big, love of sports, civic pride, She loves her
boyfriend's there, she loves Indiana, six hour drive from Iowa City,
I mean, made in heaven.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
The best place to have her go.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
So I make a phone call to a WNBA official
I've known for a while, and I said, do you
realize how big a deal this is? And this person
said back to me, yeah, this is probably the biggest
thing to happen to the WNBA since Maya Moore, And
I said, what I mean, Maya Moore's great person or
a fabulous person. Four time WNBA champ deserved to be
(12:40):
a household name around the country, but she is not.
Miyamore could not sell out the Minnesota Links, you know,
Target Center, she could not. She could not sell out Arenas, right,
I mean, Caitlin sells out everywhere. Paige Becker sadly cannot
even sell out eight thousand seat Dallas Arena. So Page
is a great basketball player, She's not an entertainer. Caitlyn
(13:00):
takes it to a whole new level, obviously. And I'm
not denigrating Page. I'm just saying, this is the amazing fact.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
About Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
She has turned the Indiana Fever into the equivalent of
a male men's pro sports team, you know, with that
stame kind of love and coverage which we've seen so
the WNBA, going back to that Mayamora little moment and
no idea, I mean, how can you be watching the lines,
which of course we know we're in Big ten country,
you know, in Ohio obviously, and where it isn't Big
ten country anymore now coast, but traditional Big ten at
(13:33):
Ohio State. People lined up for hours in January and
February in the cold Marya University of Maryland, my alma man,
a northwestern smaller arena. People lined up again fifth games
in the winter in the cold, like it's a Taylor
Swift concert or bands or you know, or Springsteen, and
they're all lined up in these huge arenas for the
(13:54):
barnstorming act of a basketball player who happens to be
a woman. We have never been able to say that before,
ever in our lives. And the WNBA utterly unprepared. You've
got a seventy four percent black league and you've got
a white superstar. You and I are living in the
United States of America, as are all your listeners. We
(14:14):
know we are a polarized society. You also have this
set against the backdrop of an election, a presidential election, right,
We know that there are going to be issues and
thoughts and concerns, especially with a majority black.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
League and a white woman.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
If I know that, and if you know that, and
your listeners know that, how on earth was the WNBA
not prepared for the moment? And by that, I mean
it's not me In the book I have the great
doctor Harry Edwards, black man, civil rights leader, sociologists, one
of the great smart people on this subject in our country.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
I quote doctor Harry Edwards.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Talking about these words, and he literally says, the WNBA
failed the players. Harry Edwards loves Caitlin Clark. He says,
what you do when you've got a moment like this,
not because these are damsels in distress.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Now they are great.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Athletes, the college graduates, but they've never had anything like
this happen before, and they're going to watch the spotlight
come on a white woman in a black sport, right,
a predominated black sport. Obviously obviously not entirely clearly sure,
So be smart is what Harry Edwards is saying. Have seminars,
have zooms, talk to players, have them be able to
talk about their get prepared for the moment. The WNBA
(15:25):
MO did none of that. So as a white woman,
I know what I know and I know what I
don't know. And as a journalist the same. So I
have these tremendous voices, black and white talking about the
failure of the WNBA to meet the moment, and we're
seeing it even now. That was why you know my
book goes all the way to April, right, so it's
(15:46):
really current, really fresh. You relive Iowa, you relive all
the negative and the controversies, and of course all the
Caitlin Clark magic and the season last year with the fever.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
But this year it's almost worse.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
They apparently have learned nothing about the meaning of Caitlin Clark.
And the best stat I can give you, so she's
been injured for the first time since sophomore year of
high school, which is so unfortunate and obviously so disheartening
to see her in this position. But when she missed
those first five games with that injury earlier this season,
(16:18):
she disappeared for five games, so did more than half
of the television audience of the WNBA. Not just the fever,
the WNBA, more than half that is falling off a
cliff that is absolutely devastating to the financial future of
the WNBA.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
It's one person. We wish it were more, but it
is her facts. Funny thing about fact moo.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Facts are facts and data is data, And people get
mad when I talk about this. Some of these people
out there whatever, well get angry.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
But these are the facts.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
This is how important this one person is, and the
spotlight shining on her shines on all these other players,
most of them black women, who deserved attention, ever got it,
and are finally getting that attention because of Caitlin Clark.
And yet you see them trying to steamroll like Marina
Maybray freight train run into her. What is going on,
(17:12):
the lack of leadership? Kathy Engelbert, I like her personally,
I wish her well. She's the commissioner of the WNBA.
The lack of leadership here is extraordinary. Now going into
a second season of the WNBA not understanding the magnitude
of this moment, not because Caitlyn can't dish it out.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
She doesn't need you or me.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
It's not a victim, but you've got to be smart,
right Jordan rules Tiger Rising tide lifts all boats.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
The men's golfers figure that out really quickly.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
No social media, so that would have been different with Tiger,
But here it's like it's a struggle, like they want
to keep the small things small and they should be
embracing you. As Geno Arima said, delusional fans I said
back to Geno, First of all, aren't all fans by definition.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Delusional in some way.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Secondly, would the NFL be saying no, we don't want
certain fans what leak says that?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Right?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
But yet Gino a i Ema called it fans delusional,
as if he didn't.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Want people potentially like you and millions of men and
their daughters and women and their daughters and sons. You
don't want them in a league? When have we ever
heard of that except with this? And I do explore
as I said all of that in the book.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah, the best way I could put it is I
don't feel welcome. Everybody was welcome though. Tomorrow night Mercantail
Library on Walnut Street, which is a wonderful place. Christine Brennan,
the great USA Today columnist and her book. She'll be
talking about it tomorrow on her game about Caitlin Clark.
It's a free event. Got to register go to Mercantail
(18:43):
Library dot com. Reception at five, conversation at five thirty
and should be a great event.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
It's a great read.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Cannot thank you enough for doing this, good conversation, appreciate it,
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Well well, thank you, and you know, especially if any
girls in uniform want to show up tomorrow, we'll do
pictures or something.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I would love that. And moms and dad.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
This book is for everyone and kids can read it
as well. So thank you, Moe, thanks for all you
do for Cincinnati sports. And I'll just say it, go
Red huh.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
There you go. Love it, Christine, thank you, thank you
very much.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Mo
I found out she's actually in Cincinnati. She is appearing
tomorrow night signing her book at the mrcantil Library on
Walnut starts at five am, reception at five. You don't
need to pay for tickets. It's a free event, but
you do have to register. Go to mrcantil library dot com.
The name of the book is on her game. I
didn't know this until I just said high off air, Christine,
you're in town.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
You're actually a Reds fan.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Hey mo, thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Well, I grew up in Toledo, so at that other
end of I seventy five from all of you wonderful
folks in Cincinnati and the surrounding area, and we did
look north mostly for the Tigers Michigan football. I know
not o't how to say it's fun, but I went
to Northwestern, so I'm totally you know, now it's all
purple for me at Northwestern. But but seventy five, seventy six,
(00:50):
I mean, I'm certainly following the Reds all the way through.
But as a girl growing up in Toledo, I could
get your signal in Toledo in my bedroom and.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I can picture.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
In fact, I still own our family home in the
suburbs of Toledo in Otawa Hills. I own that house
and I was there a week and a half ago
for my book tour, and I sat in that desk.
At that desk, I would listen to the radio, transistor
radio or plug in whatever, and I'd listen to Marty
Brenneman and those incredible teams seventy five of course, that
World Series and seventy five amazing seventy six steamrolling the
(01:21):
Yankees in the World Series. But all those summer nights,
Johnny Bench, obviously, Tony Perez, you know, Sparky Anderson, on
and on and on, it goes, Davy Conception, you know,
I mean, everyone incredible. So that that was a huge
part of my childhood. And I'm so honored to be
talking to you and be on your air.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Well, it's awesome to have you. And welcome to Cincinnati.
Let's talk about Caitlin Clark specifically, because look, this is
not a WNBA town. There's obviously a lot of folks
listening to this conversation who are just like me who
started paying closer attention to the women's colleg game because
of Kaitlyn Clark.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And I've told this before.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
When Iowa plays Yukon in the Final four in twenty
twenty four, I met an establishment with buddies of mine
in the sort of place that you would never imagine
women's basketball being on, much less every patron watching while
the Reds are playing, not even paying attention to the baseball,
instead watching this game between these two titans of college hoops. Obviously,
(02:26):
Iowa won that night, Caitlyn Clark got the best of
Paige Becker's and there have been other mile posts along
the way, but I remember that night going, wow, this
isn't the women's game that I grew up watching, and
quite frankly for the most part.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Not watching, right, Well, you and millions of other people, right,
and especially men, which is great, right, I mean guys
who didn't care. You know, it was just it was
and not because you're bad people, but you already were
fans of so many other sports and now we're shoe horning,
you know, the WNBA and in the late nineties, mid
to late nineties, and you know, obviously it was a small,
(03:01):
niche kind of sport and that's what it was. And
then Caitlin Clark comes along, and it truly is Caitlyn Clark.
And in the book I give all the statistics and
talk about her, and ill said, logo threes jumping off
the page. Mo. You know she's quoted. She answered forty
to fifty of my questions. She's terrific, better than you'd
hope for in person. Takes everything on. As I say
(03:22):
in the book, twenty two going on forty or fifty,
just a mature gets racial questions thrown in, her political questions,
handles them beautifully better than an athlete.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Twice her age.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So that's Kaitlyn Clark. But here's what it was.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
And at least I in my opinion, and I go
into this and on her game quite a bit, the idea.
She's a basketball player, obviously, but she's also an entertainer, right,
she's the high wire act when she's chucking it from
the parking lot and it's going in right when those passes,
those beautiful passes, when it's the run and gun offense.
So she's just sprinting. She goes, I love sprinting. I
(03:58):
sprint around my house, I my living room sprints.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Sprint, sprints.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
She's very funny too, and she talked, but it's Kaitlyn Clark,
you know, sprinting, eyes up, those beautiful passes, just you
know again logo threes. You know, next couny over, she's
hitting it. How can you not You can't take your
eyes off her. And that's that's women, that's sports fans,
as w NBA fans for years, but it's also all
(04:22):
the new fans, millions and millions of new fans. You
and many people listening to us.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Right now.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
I've met these wonderful people. I've been in Iowa, book,
my book tour, Indiana, Ohio, even DC merrily. Everyone loves
Caitlyn Clark, and especially men love to tell me how
much they love it. They're with their daughters like you
watching it is it is, really it.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Has taken hold.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
And again, Kaitlyn Clark isn't just one of our most
famous athletes in my opinion, she's one of the most
famous people in the country.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
That's how big a deal she is.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
And in session organic matter, not forced on us, but
rising out of Iowa Big ten network right seeing her
on TV, people falling in love with her game, with
her team and the way she plays. And again that
right now, of course she's injured, but it's certainly carried
over last year, the year I chronicle that first amazing
(05:17):
season with the Indiana Fever.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Well, you know, from where I sit, and you've obviously
spent a lot of time, whether she just from where
I watch, has always struck me as strikingly normal, you know,
for somebody who has, you know, maybe not grown up
in the public eye from the standpoint of being you know,
eight nine years old, but you know, going through a
really important time in her life, really carrying a sport
(05:39):
to a large degree on her shoulders. She is always
to me, come off, as I've always said this about
Lebron James, like weirdly normal.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Is that a good way of putting it?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah? Oh, absolutely yeah. And you know, obviously.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Lebron James another Ohioan, right, and the way he I've
covered him, and I remember that first year, his rookie year.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
I mean, anything could have.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Gone wrong, right, I mean, a young man out of
high school, and he had the most amazing adults around him.
I mean it was brilliant. Whoever was in charge of that.
A woman I talked to was this financial person. Boy,
the guidance, the help, you know, I mean the worst
thing Lebron's ever done is say that he was taking
his talents to South Beach, right, yeah, I mean right,
(06:21):
what could have gone wrong for any athlete? I mean
I've covered all these tennis players, figure skaters, you know,
too much, too soon, right, no leadership, no guidance, no
one around, and boom they get into trouble or things
go you know, haywire again. Lebron, for sure, Caitlyn Clark
is certainly different in the sense she went to college,
had those four years of college. Of course, has a degree,
(06:43):
super smart, and I think Lebron isn't he is, but
didn't come out of just high school the way Lebron did,
so you've got you know, But Kaitlyn Clark is even
her size. I mean, she's six feet tall. I'm like
five eleven and a half. So we look at, you know,
each other, basically eye eye. She's not imposing, right. You know,
some of the wonderful players in the WNBA or women's
(07:05):
volleyball players whatever, you know, they're six four sixty five, great, fabulous,
I mean, we love that. But but Caitlin Klark looks
kind of like every person, right, She's kind of her body,
her build and so I think that even makes it
more interesting. It's kind of a mixt of earnestness and effortlessness.
As I say in the book, you know that the
(07:27):
way she's she's like a.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Kid, like, you know, just run, go, go.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
And then it's also fluid and beautiful and also so approachable.
I mean those autographs, that is real. I watched her.
There's some pictures in the book. You know she she
wants to sign for every girl and every boy, and
that's a key statement. She's a role model for girls
and boys. I covered Tiger Woods the length of his career.
Tiger didn't want to sign autographs. Great golfer, Probably what
(07:54):
a delight for me to cover him, couldn't care less
about autographs, kept his head down, didn't look at the kids.
Caitlyn and Tiger on that front, completely opposite one hundred
and eighty degrees moo. In terms of Caitlyn wanting to
spend more time. I've watched a kid, a boy, actually
she missed him, no fault of hers, just a lot
of arms and hands and little kids pressed together before
(08:15):
a game.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
And the kid had a jersey and she didn't sign it,
and he started crying.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
By ten year old boy. Well she goes all the
way to the end of line. Now she's working her
way back, and she had no idea. And then she
saw him signed and literally the emotions from such sadness
from this boy to such joy as I watched, and
again she didn't know. She just got him and finally
signed it and moved on.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
What a delight. I'm sure she saw his tears, but
she had no idea what had happened.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
But that's Caitlyn Clark. She cares so much about being
a role model. I don't know that there's a more
publicly appreciative person in this country and what she's been
given the role she has, the difficulty, how hard it
can be sometimes and she just every time on the court,
off the court, spending time with kids, wanting to give
(09:06):
back her foundation, her charity. Wow, I mean again, you
know she is and she's twenty three years old doing
all of this. It's it's truly amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Christine Brennan is with us tomorrow night Mrcantile Library on
Walnut Street, Reception at five, conversation at five thirty about
on her game, her bio of Kaitlyn Clark, which is
a book that's about Kaitlyn Clark. But there's also a
lot of other things that Christine writes about, and we're
going to discuss some of them. You know what you
just said about Kaitlyn Clark. I didn't get a chance
(09:36):
to watch her in person in college, but I did
watch Paige Becker's because Connecticut played Xavier, And what drew
me to her was some of the same stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
She came out after the game they won by forty
five points or whatever it was, and I watched her
take pictures and sign autogram and I just watching from
afar and it's like, I think that kid gets it.
So she's now with the Dallas Wings. Caitlin Clark is
with the Indiana Fever, just up the road from us.
And so, as a Newish fan of the WNBA, I've
(10:03):
got an eight year old daughter who loves basketball.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
We're gonna like this league.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I feel weirdly stiff armed by it, like I feel
weirdly not entirely embraced. Can you make that make sense
for me?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Well? I try in the book, and I deal with
all of it.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
This is it, by the way, an unauthorized biography, which
sounds ominous, but it's not it's not it's what you want.
It's me as a journalist, all these years of covering sports,
I give you my best stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I give you.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Behind the scenes reporting, I give you. You know, there's
breaking news in the book. The Olympic snub. That's a
chapter title. I broke that story last year. What a
disastrous decision, and I put her on the Olympic team.
I have new reporting news in there that people wouldn't
necessarily wouldn't know until the book.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
You know I did that. I continue to follow.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
It the story and absolutely throughout the book, I have
anecdotes reported. It's my journalism. It's you know, no holds barred.
You know about what the WNBA has and hasn't done.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
They I will say it this way, and I say
this in the book.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
I'm totally unprepared for the moment, utterly unprepared for the
greatest thing to ever happen to it. Caitlin Clark either
not believing it could happen to them because they've gotten
short shripp for years from the male dominated sports media
and never got covered the way that we would have
been great if Maya Moore was a household name, or
(11:30):
if Chryl swoops. I mean they were names and sports,
but not people talking about them in the produce section
at the grocery store, the way they are about Caitlin Clark,
or planning their evenings around her schedule, the way they
did around Tiger's sea time, you know, in golf when
he was at the Masters or.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
What have you.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
You know, that's where you transcend a sport. And here
it was an anecdote, I can tell you that's in
the book. The day after, Catherin Clark announces that she
is going pro and that means, of course everyone knows
she'll be drafted by the Indiana Fever, which is a
perfect spot for her. As you know everyone knows in Cincinnati, Indy,
you know, just the perfect town, a big but not
(12:05):
too big, love of sports, civic pride, She loves her
boyfriend's there, she loves Indiana, six hour drive from Iowa City,
I mean, made in heaven.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
The best place to have her go.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
So I make a phone call to a WNBA official
I've known for a while, and I said, do you
realize how big a deal this is? And this person
said back to me, yeah, this is probably the biggest
thing to happen to the WNBA since Maya Moore, And
I said, what I mean, Maya Moore's great person or
a fabulous person. Four time WNBA champ deserved to be
(12:40):
a household name around the country, but she is not.
Miyamore could not sell out the Minnesota Links, you know,
Target Center, she could not. She could not sell out Arenas, right,
I mean, Caitlin sells out everywhere. Paige Becker sadly cannot
even sell out eight thousand seat Dallas Arena. So Page
is a great basketball player, She's not an entertainer. Caitlyn
(13:00):
takes it to a whole new level, obviously. And I'm
not denigrating Page. I'm just saying, this is the amazing fact.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
About Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
She has turned the Indiana Fever into the equivalent of
a male men's pro sports team, you know, with that
stame kind of love and coverage which we've seen so
the WNBA, going back to that Mayamora little moment and
no idea, I mean, how can you be watching the lines,
which of course we know we're in Big ten country,
you know, in Ohio obviously, and where it isn't Big
ten country anymore now coast, but traditional Big ten at
(13:33):
Ohio State. People lined up for hours in January and
February in the cold Marya University of Maryland, my alma man,
a northwestern smaller arena. People lined up again fifth games
in the winter in the cold, like it's a Taylor
Swift concert or bands or you know, or Springsteen, and
they're all lined up in these huge arenas for the
(13:54):
barnstorming act of a basketball player who happens to be
a woman. We have never been able to say that before,
ever in our lives. And the WNBA utterly unprepared. You've
got a seventy four percent black league and you've got
a white superstar. You and I are living in the
United States of America, as are all your listeners. We
(14:14):
know we are a polarized society. You also have this
set against the backdrop of an election, a presidential election, right,
We know that there are going to be issues and
thoughts and concerns, especially with a majority black.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
League and a white woman.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
If I know that, and if you know that, and
your listeners know that, how on earth was the WNBA
not prepared for the moment? And by that, I mean
it's not me In the book I have the great
doctor Harry Edwards, black man, civil rights leader, sociologists, one
of the great smart people on this subject in our country.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
I quote doctor Harry Edwards.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Talking about these words, and he literally says, the WNBA
failed the players. Harry Edwards loves Caitlin Clark. He says,
what you do when you've got a moment like this,
not because these are damsels in distress.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Now they are great.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Athletes, the college graduates, but they've never had anything like
this happen before, and they're going to watch the spotlight
come on a white woman in a black sport, right,
a predominated black sport. Obviously obviously not entirely clearly sure,
So be smart is what Harry Edwards is saying. Have seminars,
have zooms, talk to players, have them be able to
talk about their get prepared for the moment. The WNBA
(15:25):
MO did none of that. So as a white woman,
I know what I know and I know what I
don't know. And as a journalist the same. So I
have these tremendous voices, black and white talking about the
failure of the WNBA to meet the moment, and we're
seeing it even now. That was why you know my
book goes all the way to April, right, so it's
(15:46):
really current, really fresh. You relive Iowa, you relive all
the negative and the controversies, and of course all the
Caitlin Clark magic and the season last year with the fever.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
But this year it's almost worse.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
They apparently have learned nothing about the meaning of Caitlin Clark.
And the best stat I can give you, so she's
been injured for the first time since sophomore year of
high school, which is so unfortunate and obviously so disheartening
to see her in this position. But when she missed
those first five games with that injury earlier this season,
(16:18):
she disappeared for five games, so did more than half
of the television audience of the WNBA. Not just the fever,
the WNBA, more than half that is falling off a
cliff that is absolutely devastating to the financial future of
the WNBA.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
It's one person. We wish it were more, but it
is her facts. Funny thing about fact moo.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Facts are facts and data is data, And people get
mad when I talk about this. Some of these people
out there whatever, well get angry.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
But these are the facts.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
This is how important this one person is, and the
spotlight shining on her shines on all these other players,
most of them black women, who deserved attention, ever got it,
and are finally getting that attention because of Caitlin Clark.
And yet you see them trying to steamroll like Marina
Maybray freight train run into her. What is going on,
(17:12):
the lack of leadership? Kathy Engelbert, I like her personally,
I wish her well. She's the commissioner of the WNBA.
The lack of leadership here is extraordinary. Now going into
a second season of the WNBA not understanding the magnitude
of this moment, not because Caitlyn can't dish it out.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
She doesn't need you or me.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
It's not a victim, but you've got to be smart,
right Jordan rules Tiger Rising tide lifts all boats.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
The men's golfers figure that out really quickly.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
No social media, so that would have been different with Tiger,
But here it's like it's a struggle, like they want
to keep the small things small and they should be
embracing you. As Geno Arima said, delusional fans I said
back to Geno, First of all, aren't all fans by definition.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Delusional in some way.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Secondly, would the NFL be saying no, we don't want
certain fans what leak says that?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Right?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
But yet Gino a i Ema called it fans delusional,
as if he didn't.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Want people potentially like you and millions of men and
their daughters and women and their daughters and sons. You
don't want them in a league? When have we ever
heard of that except with this? And I do explore
as I said all of that in the book.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah, the best way I could put it is I
don't feel welcome. Everybody was welcome though. Tomorrow night Mercantail
Library on Walnut Street, which is a wonderful place. Christine Brennan,
the great USA Today columnist and her book. She'll be
talking about it tomorrow on her game about Caitlin Clark.
It's a free event. Got to register go to Mercantail
(18:43):
Library dot com. Reception at five, conversation at five thirty
and should be a great event.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
It's a great read.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Cannot thank you enough for doing this, good conversation, appreciate it,
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Well well, thank you, and you know, especially if any
girls in uniform want to show up tomorrow, we'll do
pictures or something.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I would love that. And moms and dad.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
This book is for everyone and kids can read it
as well. So thank you, Moe, thanks for all you
do for Cincinnati sports. And I'll just say it, go
Red huh.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
There you go. Love it, Christine, thank you, thank you
very much.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Mo
Mo Egger News
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