Cincy 360 w/ Tony Pike & Austin Elmore -- 5/22/25

Tony and Austin chat with Ken Anderson, Keegan Nickoson, and Mo Egger. Plus, they take your calls and TalkBacks on ESPN 1530!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sponsored in part by Skyline Chile. Stop by Skyline Chili
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It's Skyline Time. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
God Blessed Football, Absolutely, God Blessed Football. Ulcome in. It's
the latest edition here of Cincy three sixty on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. We're a service of our
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it's always Skyline Time. Also, thank you if you're listening
via the iHeartRadio app. Thank you for whenever you are listening.

(00:35):
And at the same time, make sure you hit that
microphone button, leave us a talkback and we'll get to
those an hour two. Obviously, we're gonna vote on best
talk Back of the Week tomorrow and that talkback will
win a Cincy Shirts gift card A lot to get
to today. No Reds game this afternoon, so we will
recap what we had to see with the Cincinnati Reds

(00:59):
yesterday and some talking points going forward with them. There's
also more on the Trey Hendrickson proposal that was turned down.
Will dive into that. I think it's a good time
to do a little bit deeper dive into the guard
position for the Cincinnati Bengals and what that is going
to look like going forward. We also have the unenviable

(01:20):
task today Austin of at the end of this show
talking to Moegger, and I can't imagine what Moe is
going through. I can't imagine what mo went through last
night as the New York Knicks blew a late fourteen
point lead at home to the Indiana Pacers, who come
back and win it in overtime eight to one thirty five.

(01:47):
There's so much you could dive into from last night's game,
But the statistic is going around out there that NBA
teams were zero and nine hundred and seventy, So nine
hundred and seventy opportunities for teams down fourteen or more
in the final two point fifty of regulation in the

(02:07):
playoffs over the past twenty seven years. That's what the
Knicks had last night, fourteen point lead under two fifty
left in regulation. No team in the last twenty seven
postseasons has lost that record now stands at one and
nine hundred and seventy. The New York Knicks were the

(02:28):
team last night to lose in heartbreaking fashion to the
Indiana Pacers. Unbelievable, unbelievable stretch run last night for the
Indiana Pacers. This, of course, came right after the news
and the unfortunate news for longtime Colts owner and CEO
Jim Ursay, who died yesterday at the age of sixty

(02:49):
five years old. So obviously a huge loss for the
Indianapolis Colts. I believe Austin one of his last trees,
or his last tweets, was something in line of go Pacers.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
His very last tweet just a few hours before he
died was go Pacers.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, unbelievable. The scenes at Madison Square Garden and the uh,
the stars who were in attendance and what they witnessed.
I don't know that I've ever seen something quite like it.
Richard Jefferson, I'm sorry. Jason Williams called it the biggest
choke job in NBA playoff history, and you gotta feel

(03:29):
bad as our guy, Mowagar, Austin. Jason Williams white chocolate, No,
Jay Williams, Sorry, Jay, Oh Jay, the dude from ESPN, Yes, gotcha.
Biggest choke job in NBA playoff history, said Jay Will.
That unfortunate because Moe also had to live through one
of the biggest collegiate choke jobs when UC lost the
twenty two point lead in Nevada.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, you said earlier, it's the biggest postseason meltdown of
all time, and I said, uh, Nevada.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
No, you were quick on that. Hello, you had that
one up to sleeve and then you were like collegiate collegiate. Yes.
Other news. Hello. Last night, down to their final out
and down two runs at Prasco Park, the Xavier Musketeers
get a two out RBI single that drove in two

(04:16):
and Xavier comes from behind in ten innings to beat
yukon eleven to eight. That means that the Xavier Musketeers
move on to face number one seeded Creighton at six
thirty PM tonight at Prasco Park. Other happenings in the
college baseball world. Yesterday, the Cincinnati Bearcats, the number eight

(04:40):
seed in the Big Twelve Tournament, went toe to toe
with the number nine seed Texas Tech Red Raiders, and
U See came out on top six to five, meaning
that you see advances and they at twelve thirty this
afternoon will take on the number one seeded West Virginia Mountaineers.
So as we sit here today Austin, I'm looking at

(05:02):
Baseball America and I'm looking at their tournament bracket updated
just a few hours ago. Their field of sixty four
contains both Cincinnati and the Xavier Musketeers. Right now, according
to Baseball America, they have UC as the two seed

(05:23):
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, OH taking on number one seed
at LSU. Number three is Louisville and number four is
Kent State SEC Big twelve ACC and MAC Action. Down
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, it has these Xavier Musketeers and Auburn.
Number one seed is Auburn. They have Wake Forest out

(05:46):
of the ACC as the two, Xavier three and Oral
Roberts as the four. So how about the college basketball
or college baseball world with UC and Xavier as we
start the day off, both looking good for their NCAA tournament.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Hopes, and not to mention that the Northern Kentucky Norse
Tone I'll have their third consecutive thirty plus win season
on the baseball diamond in Highland Heights, first time in
the D one era that they've had thirty or more
wins in three straight seasons, and for the first time

(06:23):
in school history, they just won the Horizon League Championship.
So the Mighty norseman some good baseball as well. We
are a hotbed of good baseball and the collegiate ranks professionally, Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Is in right now. Man, You think any of those
teams could could put together some better at bats than
than the Cincinnati Reds. Yeah, for sure. We do have
to talk Reds today, and I don't want to. I
don't want to beat the dead horse here, but it
it stops me. And I know you alluded to this.

(07:06):
I think going into the game yesterday you talked about
the night before. It's just so hard when you when
you cover a baseball team that you don't want to
overreact to two different outcomes. I mean, obviously this team
had a disaster stretch and then they won five in
a row and you start to feel differently, and then
they lose a series to the Pittsburgh Pirates. But I think,

(07:28):
to sum up kind of what you had talked about
with it as well, Austin, it's hard to take this
Reds team seriously when they lose series in the way
that they did to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where the pitching
in a a in a series loss, gave up five
runs in three games and you lost the series. Yep,
it's hard to do.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, it's even like, you know, coming up this weekend,
Hunter Green comes back and like that's cool. I'm excited
to watch Hunter pitch. He's my favorite player on the team.
But it's like does it matter?

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, And I like, I hate thinking that way too,
because I love baseball, right and I want the rest
to succeed.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
I'm just in a spot now where it's like they
this is who they are, Like I always use the
fifty game barometer, yeah, and it's like, all right, they're
not really that good, So let's see if there's some
great individual performances the rest of the way. And I'm
sure there's people out there that are like, you know,
you're nuts. There's one hundred more games to play, and

(08:31):
I get that for sure, but through fifty stinky. So
I'm just kind of at the point now where I'm
like trying to evaluate moving forward, like what's the next step?

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah? Right, which has unfortunately been the conversation for many
years now, and to me it is.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
How much longer does the whole Nick Krawl experiment go,
Because you know, everyone gets all hot and bothered about
questioning Terry Francona. Terry Francona is getting a little hot
and bothered about it too, which I take issue with.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, we're gonna talk about his response to our guy Charlie.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
But I get it, like he still gets the benefit
of the doubt. I'm going to question him, I'm going
to criticize him, and he's not going to be right
all the time, but he still gets the benefit of
the doubt. They paid him a lot of money to
come out of retirement, a lot sure, and the whole

(09:30):
way they sold him and the vision that they had
was to come out and win right away. They are
not doing that. Even if they're fully healthy, they would
not doing that. Would not be doing that because the
players that are supposed to be productive on this team
are not being productive. There have been some decent signings

(09:52):
that have provided a spark at times, but the most
important and influential players in the organization and have taken
a step back. And so I'm at the point now
five years into the Nick Krawl era, where I'm ready
to wash my hands of him and what he does.

(10:13):
Baseball operations, guy, I get it. You know he wants
to blame and he will blame ownership and the budget
and all that. And that's fine, and that is a
part of the equation. But you knew that coming in yep.
And there are guys that have done more with less.
And I'm just at the point now where I don't
have any faith in Nick Krawl and Brad Metter to

(10:34):
actually do what's necessary to turn this thing into a winner.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
And that's what I want to know from the listener today,
I via talkback or call in. If you are on
the opposite end of how we feel, what is it
about what you've seen that leads you to believe it's
going to change, right, Because that's what I'm looking for,
because I don't want it to be apathy. That's not
good in this world, the radio world. I want them

(11:02):
to be relevant. I want them to be winning. I
want them to have storylines that you talk about and
build into. But if you think that the Reds are closer,
or if you're not in agreement with where we're at,
then tell us why, Because I'm genuinely looking for those reasons.
I'm genuinely looking for a way and a path to say, well,

(11:22):
hang your hat on this outside of their pitching's been good,
Because their pitching's been good now for fifty one games,
and that doesn't matter. They're under five hundred. Pitching alone
isn't going to get it done. What have you seen
that would lead you to believe that this is going
to be any different. We're going to talk to Ken

(11:45):
Anderson today at one o'clock. Let's go. Ken Anderson's got
an awesome event that he puts on Kennon friends. That
event is coming up. We're going to talk about the event.
We'll talk about the Bengals, we'll talk about some Joe
Burrow as well. Ken Anderson will join us at one
o'clock Kegan nickoson, Let's go, kee We'll get us up
to speed on all things with UC Baseball. That game

(12:07):
will be in progress, but we'll talk U see baseball,
We'll talk a little basketball. We'll talk a little football
as well with Keegan Nickoson a Bearcat Journal dot com
as we go this afternoon as well. UH phone lines
will be open five to one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. There was a h a bill Barnwell article
this morning on uh on superlatives for each AFC team.

(12:36):
Do you want to know what the superlative for the
Bengals were? It was sure the Bengals superlative is most
likely to hope their biggest problem just forgets about being mad. Okay, yeah,
dot right now would be Trey Hendrickson. Uh huh. We
have to dive into the Trey Hendrickson Mike Florio piece

(12:57):
on on what the Bengals are willing to offer where
the Bengals were willing to go from an offer standpoint,
But that is it? The most likely to hope their
biggest problem just forgets about being mad. Now other superlatives
if you're wondering. The Baltimore Ravens most likely to sign
a post June first free agent. The Buffalo Bills most

(13:21):
likely to stay the course that doesn't seem like a
bad one. The Pittsburgh Steelers most likely to wait until
the last possible second to buy a critical gift, not
a suppellative you won. The Houston Texans most likely to
apologize with a flurry of gifts. Hey, I did this wrong.
I'm just gonna buy you a bunch of gifts to

(13:43):
apologize for it. Did you see that Aaron Rodgers went
on the Joe Rogan podcast. Oh no, I didn't.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
Well, he did, and there was a Jets guy that
listened to it to see if they talked about the
Jets at all, and they didn't talk about the Jets
or football at all. But he did write down all
the topics that they discussed. Oh are you ready for
some of these?

Speaker 2 (14:06):
Please?

Speaker 3 (14:07):
Frog, embryos, an Iraqi, Sesame Street, the Diddy trial, Jeff Epstein,
COVID vaccines, nanobots in vaccines, pyramids, George Soros, UFOs, horse
based medicine, cars that run on water, fluoride, and toothpaste,

(14:33):
Canada being the fifty first state Olympic doping lead in gasoline.
Of course, ear pieces during presidential debates, crisis.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Actorssh mind control, what are we doing? If you want
to know why people aren't lining up to sign Aaron Rodgers,
there you go. There's a list of reasons why. Oh
my god, isn't that awesome? That is phenomenal. I very
rarely listened to the Rogan podcast. Everyone's why I was

(15:06):
really good guest. I think he's a good interviewer, But
I saw that list and I was like, Yeah, I
don't think I need to listen to anything Rogers has
to say on any of these. I'll be good right now.
I was reading a couple more of those superlatives. How
about the Browns most likely to pepper the wall and
just hope something sticks. Yeah, love that mentality. It's pretty

(15:27):
much it. You probably find something the uh the Kansas
City Chiefs most likely to slide their past protection left
protecting the backside. Yeah of one.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
Patrick Mahomes, speaking of backside, Oh, did you see the
picture of your boy?

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (15:46):
Boy?

Speaker 2 (15:47):
I did? I know what you're gonna say. I know
what you're talking about, thoughts there was.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
That's what peak male performance looks like. I hate to
admit to a lot of you are just on the
same page.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
You're talking about the photo of Travis Kelcey after one
of his workouts getting into the car.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
Yeah, he doesn't have a shirt on, yep, wiping himself
off with a towel yep.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
And there's some hair on the back, I would say,
patches of him. I just retweeted it. You can check
it out at audio More. I don't really know what
to think of it. I'm not one to body shamee.
I mean, look at me, right, but I figured Travis

(16:31):
would maybe have that cleaned up. Yeah. I don't know
what to think of it, because you're you're into the
portion of the off season where you've not quite ramped
up to where you need to be yet. And I
think when you're on the level of what Travis is,
you enjoy some of the off season. I also don't
I'm not saying he's out of shape, no, but you

(16:52):
just kind of maybe you let the hair grow a
little bit. He's on kempt, is what I'm tracking to see.
He's uh, I don't think he's in peaked like four
right now. He looks a little bit like a werewolf. Disheveled. Disheveled.
That's good. It's a uh yeah, I was taken aback,
that's your guy. I was taken back. But uh, maybe

(17:12):
that's what Taylor likes. You ever had your back hair waxed? No?
You know, I've I've been I've been blessed. I'm not
a I'm not much of a hairy individual. Really never
had to really worry about it. You don't have hair, no, Wow,
I do, at least not in places I can seem
sure mayor would tell me about anything else. But uh,

(17:33):
I mean, I got a couple that's sprout up on
my chest. This is probably tam I, but I got
my back hair waxed. Really would you recommend it?

Speaker 3 (17:41):
I did, Like it wasn't as bad as I thought. Okay,
but I was bruised. Hmmm, like nasty bruises. There's part
of those though. I don't know if the person that
did it just did it badly, but I walked out
of there thinking, oh, I could do that again.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
There's part of me that wonders in the picture that
that you retweeted of of Travis, like did did someone
start waxing his back? That's what I thought too, And
then he was like, shoot, I have a workout I
got to get to and then like he's going back
to finish up the job.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
It's like he shaved as much as he could with
his hand without you know, Taylor there to help him. Yeah,
you want to talk about intimacy, There is no greater
love than someone who shaves your pre's You're back? Yeah,
m all right, Well that's a Thursday Thursday opening segment.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
This is a Thursday can we get a pole question?
Do we got a pole question.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah, I put a poll question up because I know
we're going to talk about guards, So I said, what's
your confidence level in the Bengals guards? The pole question,
of course, presented by Revived Fitnessystems dot Com coach PJ. Street,
what's your confidence level in the Bengals guards? Option one?
Zero whatsoever? Option two, new offensive line coach, let's see?

(19:05):
Or option three extremely confident right now? Sixty three percent
say new offensive line coach, let's see. Okay, twenty seven
percent say they have zero confidence whatsoever, and nine and
a half percent, which I'm assuming is Cody Ford, Cordell, Vohlsen,
Lucas Patrick, those guys voting extremely confident.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, I just caution at the voting to say, new
O line coach, let's see. What does let's see mean? Like, well,
just let's run it out there, and if he takes
a couple hits, he takes a couple of hits, I'm
not in that camp. I think that's something that I
think and let go.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
I think that means I'm willing to forget about how
bad the guard play was last year. And Alex Kappa
is gone, and with the new offensive line coach, maybe
they'll improve.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
Okay. I think that's what let's see means.

Speaker 3 (19:58):
Okay, if it was Frank Pollack is still the coach
and Cordell Volson and Ox Capper of the Guards, I
would be voting zero confidence whatsoever. But there has been
a drafted player, assigned a player, and a new offensive
line coach that make me think, Okay, maybe there's something
there's room for improvement there, or maybe they are already

(20:19):
marginally improved.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah. I we'll discuss this as the show goes on
today when we come back. There's one thing that I
have tried to carry with me from you know, playing
football into what I do now. It's the old mentality
you take care of your own. You make sure that
that your people are taken care of. And yesterday Austin,

(20:43):
it felt as if the manager of the Reds went
after one of our people. I want to play the
audio of Charlie Goldsmith's question Terry Francona's answer and react
to that when we get back. This, of course, after
another Reds loss yesterday. That are off today. Cubs come
into town this weekend. But uh, we'll talk more red
when we get back. We'll also open up in this

(21:04):
hour the phone lines five, one, three, seven thirty thanks
to Skyline Chili. This is since he three sixty on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Now your chance to
win one thousand dollars. Entered this nationwide keyword on our website.

Speaker 5 (21:18):
Green.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
That's green. Enter it nowy thing.

Speaker 6 (21:28):
He's in the lane, he nearly lost, and he backs
up and unloads to three.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
That you don't happen and hit the back of the rim.
Hit my tie into the air and it dropped gently
through the net. The scoreboard shows one twenty five one five.
It's called a two point shot gently through the net. Man,
What a call, What a moment. Pacer storm back take

(21:57):
game one in overtime New York in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Tough one to come back from. We'll spend some time
on that with Moager and quick Hits today. I'm sure
he's looking forward to that greatly. Uh to close the
door on another disappointing series for the Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Reds, Tony quickly. That was Mark Boyle from the Piacers
Radio Network. Yes, the Reds lose yesterday three to one.
Pirates got one in the first, Reds tied it in
the third. On an Austin Hayes two out RBI single.

(22:35):
The Pirates then got one back in the forth and
then they added a insurance run in the eighth Austin
in the eighth inning.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
It made it three to one. It felt like that
insurance run in the eighth made it ten to one,
did it not? Yeah, of course, you just didn't feel
like the Reds were gonna have a chance to do
anything at that point, coming off the sweep to the
Cleveland Guardians, not facing Paul Skeins, Reds lose the series

(23:06):
to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a series where the Pittsburgh
Pirates offensively scored five runs in three games, five runs
in three games, and beat the Cincinnati Reds two out
of three times the bengalor the Reds fell to oh
to twenty one when trailing after six innings one runner fewer.
Now in fourteen games. We have talked about what's coming

(23:28):
up next, that is the Chicago Cubs. And I saw
this from Lance McAllister yesterday Austin when dropping the series
to the White Sox and the Pirates. That's two series
lost to teams in the last week that began the
day combined thirty one and sixty seven just not the
type of series you lose if you want to be

(23:50):
taken seriously. I thought Brady Singer battled yesterday. I don't
think he was crisp, but he battled. And let's face it,
if you go five innings and give up two runs,
you're still doing enough for a normal baseball team.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, he's a win a game. You'd take that every time.
And he had good defense behind him. The defense played
really well yesterday because the Pirates did hit some balls
hard against Brady Singer, but multiple times the defense, you know,
showed up in a big way, went and made a
big play.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
Defense was great.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yes, yeah, So I mean when you that, we always
talk about like the defense transit translating to the offense,
especially in baseball, like if a players not playing good
in the field, then he's thinking about it when he's
at the plate or whatever.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
You know.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
I was hoping that that would give the Reds a
little bit of energy, pick them up a little bit,
and see if they could turn that into something.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
But it just never happened. On top of all of that,
you had more missed opportunities in the sixth innings. Spencer Steer,
who was on first base, got thrown out at the
plate trying to score from first. Will Benson came on
in the seventh, got hit by a pitch, then got
caught stealing, and TJ. Friedel in the eighth inning popped
a bun up to the pitcher. They continue to just

(25:06):
not do enough.

Speaker 7 (25:08):
This.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
Let's not fool ourselves. This is about the offense and
the lack thereof. I saw the breakdown from Lance three
runs this year, seven times two runs this year, four
times one run this year, six times zero runs this year,
eight different times. And you look at those stats, and
you look at the numbers and the failures of this

(25:31):
team win trailing after six innings to win a game,
and you wonder, man, it's not so bad that they're
one game under five hundred. How have they managed twenty
five wins? Could be a question. When you then look
at the batting averages of Matt McLain and Spencer Steer
and Elie de la Cruz, you think how they stolen
twenty five games? Well, the pitching has been phenomenal, the

(25:53):
hitting has exploded on a few different occasions, but the
consistency is not there. It was, It's my understanding, and
Austin you can weigh in on this. It's my understanding
that our guy Charlie Goldsmith yesterday was not trying to
ask anything to make Terry Francona look bad. It was
just an honest question about the lack of consistent hitting

(26:16):
and hitting late in the game for this Reds team.
Did you think there was anything unfair about the question?

Speaker 3 (26:20):
No, I thought it was a good question from Charlie,
And I don't mean to single Charlie out, because you know,
the last couple of days Francona has been a little
bit testy, and it just so happened to be that
it's questions that Charlie asked, which is not a surprise
because Charlie asked good questions and he kind of responded away.
Yesterday that had me a little bit surprised, or two

(26:42):
days ago that had me a little bit surprised about
Santiago Espinal on the ninth, and then again yesterday with
Charlie's question.

Speaker 2 (26:52):
Towards the end of the press conference the Espinol we
mentioned the Espanol question yesterday where it felt like Terry
Francona was almost surprise about the question. In this situation. Yeah,
like he hadn't thought of that, And to that point,
I don't even know that it's that he hadn't thought
of it. I don't think it was ever under consideration,
which to me that was foolish on Terry's part. But

(27:18):
you know, he's backed it up and said repeatedly, Espinal
puts the bat on the ball, he's good in crunch time.
That's their belief, and that they wanted him at the
plate in that situation and just so happy to hit
it right to the second basement for a double play.
That I can at least accept that explanation and why
he felt like he did what he did. Let's play

(27:41):
give me a little bit of the Francona from post
game yesterday so we can get the contact with it.

Speaker 8 (27:46):
I mean, he competed like crazy and he had to
because he think he's won four walks, five hits in
five innings and still kept him where we had a chance.
But it was it was worked for him right from
the get going.

Speaker 7 (28:00):
And then offensively, we've kind of seen stretches like this,
especially over the last two games, to where would you
kind of diagnose maybe where the offensive problems have come from.

Speaker 8 (28:09):
Well, I think there. I think it's again, I keep
it to today's game. You know, we made him work.
We made him throw a ton of pitches, kind of
like that. You was saying that we just didn't have
much to show for it, and you know that that's
that's difficult. You know, we didn't get a lot of hits.
We did make it work, and you'd like to hope
that that gives you a better chance to win.

Speaker 7 (28:32):
You guys haven't had that late come back in the
final winnings you have this season? How would you like
to see the team kind of approach more can do
to maybe breakthrough in the final linings.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
In general, there's no magic potion, I'm telling you.

Speaker 8 (28:45):
I mean, it's it's just baseball. Those things will happen.
That's not a lack of wanting to and things like that.
If you think that's the case, I don't know. If
you know the game, it just.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
That's the game. Okay. So if the if the answer
had cut off right before the end there, I wouldn't
have had a problem with it, Austin. But to say
if you think that then you don't know the game,
I think is a little bit of an overstep.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
And he had just given an answer to Annie which
I thought was a BS answer to because she was
talking about I think trying to say, fifty games in
you guys keep having these offensive issues. How do you
diagnose that problem? Great question, great question, yep.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
And he talked about a single game, and they're approaching
a single game again.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
This is what managers do. They dodged the bigger question
they got that happens deflect. He deflected the big issue
over the course of fifty and narrowed it down into
one a one game. This is how our approach went today.
Charlie follows that up, asking him about an approach to

(30:03):
the later innings.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
They're on in twenty one when when trailing after six.

Speaker 3 (30:06):
That's the context of Charlie's question, and a fair one.
You remember the rally rets they used to exist. It
used to feel like game was never over. You just
said it a minute ago. A three to one lead
felt like a ten to one lead. So that's the
point of the question there, as if to say, Okay, well,
you know you just talked about the approach you had

(30:27):
today against Andrew Haney. What is the approach that you
can do to maybe get more out of the later innings.
That's a great question. It's a fair question. You're owing
twenty one when you're trailing after six and then says, oh,
there's no magic potion. That's just baseball, and if you know,
you don't know baseball, if that's the case, like right,

(30:48):
that I thought was a weak answer by Terry Francona.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
Yep. I thought that sounded like someone that was unhappy
that a tough question got asked, and not even a
tough question. They're on in twenty one after six innings
when trailing.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
I don't even know if that's the case, as much
as I think the dude's just having a rough week. Sure,
you lost, but two out of three to the White Sox.
You'd lost two out of three to the Pirates without
having this case to face. Paul skeins. This sandwiched in
between a sweep in which it felt like, okay, maybe
we finally turned the table here. You've been traveling, okay, whatever.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
And you gave up five runs in three days, yeah
and lost a series. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
So you know, it's just that sort of stuff I'm
gonna pay close attention to, you know, because for the
last five years, you could play any David Bell post game,
they all sounded the exact same. To Terry's credit, he
at least gives a thoughtful answer. He at least is
you can see the direction he's going. I like that,

(31:47):
But to me, I thought that was I thought that
was a weak answer. And I would say that if
it was Charlie asking the question, if it was Gordon
Wittenmeyer asking the question, if it was Jason Williams asking
the question, Yeah, that is lame.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
I thought it was weak. Off day today, game tomorrow,
game Saturday, game Sunday. If you were going into a
series against your division rival and the team leading the
Central and who you're looking up at, at least from
a pitching standpoint, Austin, I don't think you could line
it up any better than Hunter Green Andrew ab At, Nickelodola.

(32:26):
That's what the Reds will be doing this weekend. Y
think pitching has not been the issue. But if you
were to be able to hand pick your three, I
think those would be the three you pick for this series.
And obviously that opportunity will present itself. And then it's
a road trip to Kansas City, a road trip to
the Cubs. Here come the Brewers, Here come the Diamondbacks,
you go to Cleveland, you go to Detroit, who's leading

(32:47):
their series, their their division? That the Twins come in,
who just went on e eleven twelve game winning streak,
the Red Hot Saint Louis Cardinals, and then the Yankees, Padres,
Red Sox and Phillies on the schedule. I have a
couple stats when good luck when we get back. Let's
do that when we get back. We'll also take some
phone calls. Five on three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty
at Cincy three sixty thanks to Skyline Chili. You kids

(33:10):
don't need a super PN fifteen thirty Welcome back sincey
three sixty thanks to Skyline Chili. Uh. Before we went
to break Austin, you said you had some numbers for
when we came back from the well.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
We were talking about how the schedule gets a little
bit tougher for the old Red Legs uh in the
next couple of weeks, and I thought it was strange.
At times last year they played their best baseball against
good teams, and I went back to look at the
numbers and it wasn't as good as I thought. Oh,

(33:45):
I think we think back to the Dodgers and at
one point, sweeping them. Yeah, sweeping the New York Yankees,
the Phillies.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
They so here you go.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
They were four and two against the Braves last year.
Braves were a playoff team. They were four and three
against the Dodgers last year Dodgers were a playoff team.
They were four and three against Philadelphia last year playoff teams.
They also swept two playoff teams, the Houston Astros and
the New York Yankees, three games to none each of
those two teams. However, they were swept by three playoff teams,

(34:18):
the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Royals, the Baltimore Orioles.
It combined zero to nine against those teams. They were
one and three a year ago against Cleveland, another team
that was in the playoffs. And then of course the
Milwaukee Brewers. We know how bad they were. Milwaukee made
the playoffs last year. The Reds were four and nine

(34:38):
against them. They were two and four against the New
York Mets. So it's a mixed bag, but there is
at least some history in which, in a big moment,
the Reds have stepped up. Last year, by the way,
they were eight and five against the Chicago Cups, again,

(34:59):
last year is not the The players are different, the
coaches are different, a lot of things are different. But
they have had some success against the Cubs in the past.
They have had some success against good teams in the
past when they've needed to win some series.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
You know, I don't know why. I remember so vividly
that out of all the series last year, the Tiger series, yep,
because that was the one where they had a chance.
They were making a little bit of a run. Tigers
were coming in at forty and forty eight, so they
weren't dominant, and they got swept. And I remember being
down there, I think it was a Friday, thinking, like, man,

(35:35):
the energy's in the stadium. There's a feeling that you
get when the Reds are playing good baseball that the
city comes out and they support everything about this team.
And they just got swept and it felt like that
was it.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
It was over two seasons that went in opposite directions.
After that series, Oh my good, Tigers took off in the.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
Reds field off and not only seasons, but since then, yeah,
I mean, Tiger's said the best record in baseball, yeahs
enter today thirty three and seventeen, the most wins in
all of baseball. Red's have a weekend set in Detroit
coming up in guil they do. Let's take a couple
of phone calls, Greg, what's happening?

Speaker 9 (36:14):
I was a going, guys, you know the thing that
really bothered me in yesterday's game. Okay, one out in
the seventh inning, we're not hitting, blah blah blah, and
Benson gets hitting the foot. I mean, the guy took
a shot because I saw it. He had a little
he had some little extra time to walk it off,

(36:36):
but for him to try and steel second base, we
only got one out. Yeah, we got freedom love next.
I just thought that was to me, that's just kind
of like a homination the way this team's playing, you
know why they're oh and twenty one or whatever you
guys said. I mean, I just thought that was a
really and I'll tell you, I saw him going out

(36:58):
to the outfield, you know, the bottom and the seventh
and he was still favoring that leg. Yeah, So to me,
was that on him or was that on Tito? Yeah,
that didn't make any difference.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
That's that's a good question. I mean, is that one
of those situations where you leave it up to the
player and the player thought he could get a jump
or was that actually signaled from the third base coach
to to try to get a runner into scoring position,
just knowing they had struggled so much offensively. But I
think so much of that Greg comes back to there's
just not a confidence from a power standpoint on this team,

(37:33):
because if you felt like somebody was up at the
bat that could put the ball out of the ballpark,
you're only down two to one at the time. Instead,
you do you run and I get at the same
token because when when that happened, there was two outs
in the inning to that point, but it was a
two to zero count to TJ. Friedel. So if I'm

(37:53):
gonna run, I'm not gonna run on one of the
most favorable hitting counts that a player can have. On two. Hello,
Freedo looks at strike going down the middle, throws out
Will Benson. It does give the opportunity that Freda leads
off the eighth, but at that point it just didn't matter,
and you could tell that the momentum was lost. But yeah,
it was a little unique and odd to me because

(38:15):
of where he had just been hit by the pitch.
For sure, Yeah, all right, thank you, Greg, appreciate it.
Jeff is calling in as well. What's up, Jeff.

Speaker 10 (38:27):
Happy Thursday, Jen, thank you. Briefly. On Aaron Rodgers, never
forget one thing. He hates his family, and his family
hates him at his core, at his doore. There is
something really really wrong with that guy.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
Apparently he's been, you know, working on family issues all
over the offseason, so hopefully that's getting changed. But I
wouldn't I wouldn't hold my breath. That's a good point, Jane.

Speaker 10 (38:54):
I think the guy puts the term weird into weird definitely.
So for NBA guys last night, would you rather have
had Kevin Harland or Mike Greene calling that bouncing off
the flange?

Speaker 2 (39:05):
I'm a Kevin Harlan guy. Yeah, but that bang you
could have got, Yeah, for sure. I don't know. That's
a that's a good question.

Speaker 10 (39:13):
You think Bring would do the bang giving his Nicks
lineage and everybody would be like, oh, he shouldn't be
calling the game or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
I bet he to go to it.

Speaker 10 (39:22):
Yeah, yeah, well, hey, shout out to mo. You know
Son's going to come out some point in time, right,
you know, So you'd hope something. Yeah, I think you know.
One thing on Tito and the Reds. I think Austin,
you were on this like three days after they signed him.
What did they tell him to get him to come
out of retirement?

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Yep.

Speaker 10 (39:41):
And and you've been on that pretty regularly since then.
And like you said, maybe it's just they've been on
the road. Maybe he's just frustrated, but maybe he's like, hmm,
I wonder if I'm doing the right thing here or not.
And I would love to see them just hop on
a bus someday, go out the who Care, Redding Mole
or Indian Hill, whatever, Just watch a high school team

(40:02):
drill fundamentals for two hours, you know, and just pay
attention to what they're actually doing and get Jr. House
out of town like yesterday they possibly can. I'm the
king of the dead horse on that. I know that, Austin.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
But yet one yesterday.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
I understood, I at least understood that SIMD. Because nobody's hitting.
You got a chance play at the play, Okay, I
get it, But you're right, it's it's another dysfunctional part
of the organization.

Speaker 10 (40:33):
Well, and again back to Tito, you think for somebody's experiences.
He is the baseball IQ of this team. He's got
to be sitting in his office just like what am
I doing here at some point in time, you know
type of things. So all right, well I have a
good Thursday.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Jens, appreciate it. Jeff, thank you. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
That's the thing too, is you know, I watched and
listened to basically every single Terry Francona interview from the
time they hired him until Opening Day and basically still
through now, and he kept getting asked about why why
did you come out of retirement, and he kept saying,
it just felt right. I talked to Nick and the

(41:10):
vision that they had, and Brad and then Bob, and
it just felt right. This isn't right where they're at
right now, who the organization is, the players, the depth
that all of it is not right, and so that
I have a hard time buying that this was the vision.

(41:31):
Of course, you expected to hit better, absolutely, And yeah
there's been some injuries that stuff. Hitting there's no excuse
for like, Okay, these are big leaguers.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
Let me ask one question. With the hitting, It's not
like they're just missing. How many times this year have
we questioned their approach? To the plane correct? How many
times were we their game plan going in not adjusting?
So at what point and I know we say, if
it's so many hitting coaches, at what point is us fila,
You're gonna have to to fall on a sword here? Yeah,
I know he played for the Reds. I know that

(42:05):
was cool and it's it's a great story. But this
team has regressed. What hitter has not regressed from last
year to this year for the Reds. Inside this organization,
Kevin Lux came from outside, Austin Hayes came from outside,
Jose Travino came from outside the organization.

Speaker 3 (42:21):
The only one I would say is is TJ. Friedel,
But he's basically the same guy, has always been, been healthy.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
No one has progressed. And they look Ellie looks lost
at the plate. McLean looks lost, like they don't even
know what to look for watching strike three. At some point,
when you're underachieving it the way that you are, someone
has to be held accountable. That would be Chris Fileaka.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
The other thing too, is like there were moments during
spring training that it's like, oh yeah, I can see it,
Like I can see what they're doing. I can see
what they're hammering down, and it was like, all right,
there'll be some adjustments that have to be made during
the regular season because pitchers are better and you're not
facing a bunch of minor league guys all the time.

(43:08):
But that I think is one of the bigger issues
is it really doesn't feel like they've done a good
job adjusting to the way they're being attacked. And that
to me is a scouting issue, yep. Is a teaching issue,
is a coaching issue. It's like, Okay, yeah, these guys
aren't that good, but are they this bad?

Speaker 2 (43:27):
I don't think so. Yeah, that would fall on the
hitting coach. Let's take one more break here for our
number one. We'll quick touch and go and we'll get
back and then Ken Anderson will join us to kick
off the second hour of Cincy three to sixty. Of course,
thanks to our friends here at Skyline Chile on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
Sports stationy Cincinnati make us the number.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
One welcome back since he three to sixty ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Thanks to our friends at Skyline Chilli.
Just setting me up real quick here for the rest
of the show. The last two hours. We'll get things
kicked off in just a few minutes with Ken Anderson.

(44:09):
Got some awesome stuff coming up for Ken and pick
his brain a little bit about everything going on with
the Cincinnati Bengals. We'll play that into talkbacks. We'll obviously
go to our number three where Keegan Nickoson is going
to join us. The Bearcats get underway against number one
seeded West Virginia at one thirties. We'll talk some UC baseball,
We'll talk some hoops football and more with Keegan, and

(44:30):
then some Cincinnati Bengals topics as well, leading it all
the way up to Moegar for quick hits and passing
the baton to the Moeggar Show. All of it's still
ahead on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Back next
with Ken Anderson.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Kwise Cincinnati, make us the number one pre set on
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Speaker 1 (46:03):
Are from Cincinnati, sponsored in part by Cincy Shirts Cincy
Shirts All Cinci All Day. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
All right, welcome back, Welcome into our number two Cincy
three to sixty. Thanks to our good friends at Cincy Shirtz.
Thank you for listening on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Your talkbacks come up in just a few minutes. Before that,
awesome opportunity to hear, opportunity to talk to one of
the best to ever do it for the Cincinnati Bengals.
I had the chance Austin I was doing the schedule

(46:37):
release show with Lance last week at Smoke Justice and
Ken Anderson was there. He was in the building, he
was hanging out. Got a chance to talk to him
there and he was sharing a little bit about a
really cool event that he's got coming up, and thought
it'd be great to connect with Ken on the air,
pick his brain a little bit about the Bengals, but
more so with what he's got going on right here

(46:58):
in Cincinnati coming up. He joined right now former Bengal
Great quarterback Ken Anderson. Ken, how are you? I am
doing great?

Speaker 4 (47:06):
Thanks for having me on today.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
I am. I'm always excited to talk to you Canon
before I pick your brain about the Cincinnati Bengals for
a moment. You've got the twenty twenty five edition of
Ken and Friends coming up. And I know this is
a big deal. We talked about it a little bit
last week at Smoke Justice. But for those that are
new to this, for those that don't know exactly what
this is, explain what's going to be happening.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
Well, this is the second annual and that's thanks to
Teach you All Foundation for putting us on for the
second year in a row. But we did it last
year and I got some friends together, we kind of
told some stories and we said, let's do this again,
and so I set the hard rock Casino. It's June sixth.
This year's theme was kind of Bengals turn broadcasters and

(47:52):
so Bloomersias is coming in. We've got Bob Tumpy, who
was the original for sports talk shows and Cincinnati Dave
Lapham and Solomon to Wilcots. So that should be a
lot of.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Fun, phenomenal cast and I know as well a fantastic
initiative as well. I know that proceeds from the event
are going to benefit the Ken Anderson Alliance. Share a
little bit about what the Ken Anderson Alliance does and
how that's building back into the community.

Speaker 4 (48:22):
Well, we're just trying to make the lives of adult
with developmental disabilities a little bit better, you know, they
they can form lasting friendships and be part of the community.
We do at our facility a lot of adult daycare services,
whether it's music based, whether it's arts and crafts. We
do job training, job placement, and we do a lot

(48:43):
of engage outings, whether they're during the day or in
the evenings, going out to the community, going out to dinner,
going out to movie, going out to play putt butt,
or going out to volunteer at another nonprofit. So all
in all, we're servicing about three hundred adults a month.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
You mentioned the panel and the guys that you're able
to get back for this event. Is that something you
guys are doing often? Are you keeping in touch as
much as as you like to is it keeping in
touch a lot? Is it partly seasons? How much do
you keep in touch with former guys that you played
and have been a part of this organization as well?

Speaker 4 (49:18):
Well, you know, fairly often. In fact, we just had
a little get together. Pat mcinal r, punter moved back
into town a while ago. We hadn't seen him, so
we had Chris Collins with and Jimmy Breese, Tom dickla
I got together with lunch for him. We have NFL
Alumni and Players Association meetings periodically. This is the time

(49:39):
of the year we kind of get together more often
because you see a lot of guys at golf undis.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
You I'm sure that when you guys get together you
talk about this current edition of the Cincinnati Bengals. When
you think of Joe Burrow and t Higgins and Jamar
Chase now here for the foreseeable future and not worrying
about the contract situations. Can you even put a ceiling
on how high this offense can be from an elite standpoint?

Speaker 4 (50:05):
Well, you know, I think you've talked a lot about it.
I think a lot depends on the offensive line, you know,
and how they can protect him and let them do
what they want offensively, at least in the passing game.
You know, I'd like to see him get back to
the running game a little bit more, which I think
opens up some play action passes down the field. But
you know, all in all, I think you know, you

(50:25):
talk about those three of theirs as talented as anybody
in the National Football League.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
How did you view things when when you were a
player or even now from watching the obviously that the
Trey Hendrickson situation is going on. And I know as
teammates you always want what's best for your teammate. But
does it ever get to a point or has it
ever gotten to a point for you where those distractions
can can start to creep into the locker room or

(50:50):
maybe even get in the way of the work that
needs to be done. How do you view distractions from
a standpoint of of what the Bengals are going through
very early in this process.

Speaker 4 (50:59):
Well, you know, I think from a player and a
teammates standpoint, when it's about money, you know that's not
an distraction. You know, a player's got to look after himself.
But you've only got so many years that you can play,
and and you know, it's always about you know, it's
his business and it's not a hard business, and you
understand that.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
How do you view an offense like the Bengals had
last year in a defense that struggled a little bit,
What is that dynamic like from a locker room standpoint? Again,
you are you're supporting everyone and you're trying to build
everyone up. But if one side of the ball is
pulling more of the load, does that creep into that
locker room atmosphere at all? Well?

Speaker 4 (51:41):
I think a lot depends on the team and the
makeup of the team, and I think certain teams that could.
But I think one of the things that that Zach
and they and the team I've really scribed about it
is to getting good people in the locker room, getting
people that are accountable. And so I think they and
those understand those things. They know that their teammates are
doing the best they can and you know, sometimes we

(52:02):
just may have to score one more touchdown.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
As a As a a guy that played quarterback at
a at a very high level, uh, Jermaine Burton had
a rocky first year. How important is that that development
and the the veteran presence in the locker room to
be able to put your arm around the guy and
and try to build them back up into a meaningful
player that can play meaningful snaps for this team.

Speaker 4 (52:27):
Well, sometimes it's more than putting your arm around him.
I mean he putting your arm around his neck. Some
of the times they got back in line. But you know,
I think you know they they suspended him last year.
He didn't travel at times last year. Hopefully the points
got across because I think the guy's got some talent
and you can always use an extra speed guy.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
Uh, go back to the to the event a little
bit for me here when when you talk about uh,
your panel and and having greats that that are that
are going to be joining you like a Dave lapham In,
a boom Iasin and Trumpy and Solomon, are you is
it more of a discussion that you get to just
get together and tell stories of the past. Are you

(53:09):
talking about the present team? Or you had a little
bit of both. What does that format look like for
those that would want to attend.

Speaker 4 (53:15):
I mean I think a little bit of both. I
mean I want to know why Trumpy called me rookie
all those years, you know, I want to know Bloomber
when he came in. I think he will admit that
nineteen eighty four he was a little bit brash. I
want to know from him when they drafted you, how
quickly did you think you were going to take my job?
You know? So, I think there's a lot of these
questions that I've got to get answers to, I think

(53:38):
in this thing, and those are easier to take.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
Those are easier questions to ask now than back then,
for sure.

Speaker 4 (53:44):
No question about it. But you know, one thing I
wanted to bring up to Tony is that we've got
a great live auction. I've got an original seatback from
Riverfront Stadium, signed by all the league MVPs that played
in there. For football it was Boomer and I. For
baseball it was bench Rose and Morgan, George Foster and

(54:05):
Barry Larkin. Wow, which is trying to find one of
those around? We've got a suite at the Reds game. Uh,
for a Reds game, I should say that I'm going
to host and I'm going to bring in dun Flinn
Hope another couple other former Reds to kind of entertain us,
you know, for that day as well. Who would you

(54:26):
say are the two the biggest names in sports in
Cincinnati right now.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Tony probably Joe Burrow and maybe Ellie Day La Cruz.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
Uh, that's what I would say. I happen to have
signed jerseys from both those guys. We're going to autograph.
We're going to auction off as a as a pair,
so that will be a lot of fun. We've got
the opening opening day tickets in the orchestra section for
the Broadway Series at the aeronof Center, which is a

(54:58):
great lineup this year include the Whiz that includes the
Lion King. Uh, it includes Hamilton. So we've got a
couple of great live lots and I it's gonna be
fun as well.

Speaker 11 (55:08):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
From a health standpoint, I know you had a uh
was it a knee surgery or some type of surgery recently?
How you feeling from a health standpoint, I'm doing good.

Speaker 4 (55:18):
I had my left knee replaced about nine weeks ago now,
so I'm ready to go out and hit that little
white ball and see if I remember how to do
that at all. You know, we got we got a
lot of my teammates have a lot of outings coming up,
but I gotta be ready to go for those.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
That's right, that's right. The again that the Ken Anderson
Alliance is doing so much good for for opportunities for
for so many adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, right
here in Greater Cincinnati. Why why was it so important
for you, you know, you finish your playing career here.
Why was it so important to establish something like the

(55:54):
Ken Anderson Alliance and and continue to give back to
this great city.

Speaker 4 (55:59):
Well, it all because my wife and I have a
nephew that said really autistic, and we are trying to
make his life a little bit better. And as you
work towards this and you kind of expand a little bit,
and we merged with another group and it kind of
morphed into what it is today. And uh so we've
had a lot of support, you know, from the community,
and like I say, you know with TQL, they jump

(56:20):
right in last year when I called them to be
are presenting sponsor. They followed it up again this year.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
And you know, if.

Speaker 4 (56:27):
Anybody wants to know more about the Kin Anderson Alliance
or wants to get tickets for this event, just go
to Knanderson Alliance dot org and you'll be right there
on the first page how you can number one. Get
tickets for this event, find out more about us volunteer.
If you just want to make a donation, we would
appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
This again is at the hard Rock Casino Friday, June sixth,
Uh coming up here very quickly, Ken Anderson, Boomerosias and
Dave Lapp and Bob Trumpy, Solomon Wilcox and a night
of absolute fun. I cannot thank you enough for sharing
that with us today. Ken. I always appreciate getting to
catch up with you, and I look forward to doing

(57:03):
so again very soon.

Speaker 4 (57:05):
Well, Tony, thank you everyone us good seeing you the
other night, and then we hope to talk again more soon.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
Love it. Ken, thank you very much. Man.

Speaker 4 (57:12):
Thanks guys.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
That is Ken Anderson always always great to catch up with.
Ken always has energy, Ken Man, endless energy and a
new knee. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
And you know the other night I was talking to
him off the air and he was going up and downstairs. Yeah,
so I mean that knee is not an issue.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
You think of that cast of characters, that panel that's
going to be up there, I'm sure from the just
the story lines themselves, it's going to be a fantastic
night for sure. Mentioned to Uh to Ken a little
bit about Trey Hendrickson, and obviously that that is a
topic here that that we've talked about a lot, and

(57:52):
we wonder about the distraction and what that looks like
when we get a little bit more of the the
clarification here as to what it looked like. I know,
we talked about the Florio side of it, where you're
looking at twenty eight million dollars. Do you get a sense,
Austin that the more people see and learn the details

(58:14):
behind this, the more you start to feel a shift
to the side of the Bengals in this, because there
was a long time where I myself and I know
others were kind of like, welly, you got to pay him.
You can't win a Super Bowl without him. The more
clarification we get, do you find yourself citing more and
more or knowing people that kind of take the side
of the Bengals.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
Now, I've been with the Bengals from the beginning on this,
and mostly everybody that I've talked to for months has
been on the side of the Bengals with this. It
was basically for the last couple of years Tray screwed
up by negotiating and accepting contracts the way they were structured,

(58:54):
not valuing himself the way he was supposed to, a
trade request that had no merit, continuing to come back
to the table right after the Bengals had rewarded him.
And I think the Bengals kind of got to a
point where they're just fed up with it. It's like, listen, man,
We're not going to keep doing this every single time.
Here's the best we can offer you if you don't

(59:15):
like it, okay, And you know, I think internally there's
probably some of that too, Yeah, in terms of the
locker room, because you know, I keep going back to
what Joe said yesterday two days ago, that Trey is
one of the most, if not the most unique person

(59:35):
I've ever met. He's just a different type of dude.
And again, I think a guy that players on the
team kind of struggle to relate with and kind of
rocks to the beat of his own drum has different
priorities than other people. And that's cool, Like football locker
rooms are a melting pot of different personalities and backgrounds.

(59:56):
But I don't know that they look around and they're like, gosh,
without Trey, were screwed, And maybe they are but I
don't know that that's how it's viewed in the locker room.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
You know, I come back to what Trey originally said
about wanting that security for his family. You are essentially,
if you're the Bengals offering a twelve million dollar raise
when you didn't have to offer a race, right, you
could have very easily said no, you're playing on your
current deal. To offer twelve million dollars more to a

(01:00:27):
player who's about to be thirty one is substantial. And
I also look on this side of things, and we
haven't talked about this much, which player right now is
the face of the Cleveland Browns? Miles Garrett?

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Yeah, I think to their chagrin, it's probably Deshaun Watson. Sure,
but who they want it to be. Yeah, they don't
want it to be Watson. I think most people they
say to Cleveland brown do you think, oh, those are
the guys that signed to Sean Watson? But it's it's
Miles Garrett from an actual player standpoint. What about for
the Raiders, who do you think of Max Crosby?

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
Right? So honestly, Tom Brady, Yeah, but it comes down
to a point that those two contracts that were signed
this offseason. They're paying their franchise guys. Those are their
franchise players. Is Trey Hendrickson this the Bengals franchise player?

Speaker 3 (01:01:22):
He might be third on the list. Yeah, so you
had the fourth on them.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Correct. You have to take that into account too, if
you're the agent, and if you're Trey Hendrickson, you are
not the end all be all here.

Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
I'm guessing you know, it still comes down to length.
I'm assuming that the twenty eight million dollars would be
this year and next year at that rate. Yeah, I'm
assuming that's what the deal is. That's the only thing
that makes sense. Extension onto this year twenty eight million

(01:01:55):
per most of it guaranteed.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
Bang.

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
Yeah, probably wants more than one year. And if that's
the sticking point. I don't have any sympathy for Trey, Yeah,
I really don't. And I don't want to come off
as like mean about this, but the whole thing about
him and his family, that's so lame to me.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
Yeah, so it's about your family, but you're turning down
twelve million extra.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
Well, not even that, he's like he always keeps talking
about stability. Buddy, you're in the NFL. You signed up
for this life. And if you do get traded, or
you do sign somewhere else, or you whatever, you have
millions and millions of dollars and the resource is necessary
to make a move or a change in your life

(01:02:45):
much easier on your family. There are people across the
country who have to work and get their lives uprooted
because of work, that have to move across the country
to do something or have to go somewhere else because
of different challenges in their workplace. It's no different in
the NFL, except you're making millions of dollars that allows
you to have the resources too easier to more easily

(01:03:11):
go through those things. And it's not like Trey has
a bunch of young kids that are in school. They're
not right, Like, I get wanting to have stability. Everybody
in life wants stability, but you kind of throw that
out the window when you decide to become a NFL
football player. Your stability can be taken away on any

(01:03:32):
snap in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
Is that's what it is? You know that? And if
it is about yeah, you're the perfect example, Like if
you know that, if this is about guaranteed money and
injury protection, sure, like I get that, and the Bengals
have done better at giving onto that, and Trey has
accepted these deals in the past. If it comes back

(01:03:55):
to the family thing and wanting to know where we're
gonna be, correct, buddy, that's a crap excuse. Yeah, listen,
the Bengals came and said, we'll give you a two
year extension. We'll put it out about twenty eight million
dollars a year, and he didn't run to sign that.
I don't know what he's waiting for. What you want
thirty million a year for three, four or five more
years at thirty one years old. I think you're not
going to get that anywhere in the NFL. Here's what

(01:04:15):
I think though. I think they're offering a one year extension,
so this year and next year total of one year
added on to the contract. And he doesn't want that. Sure, okay,
I get it. But also it takes two to tango here.
They're not going to give you two years. They're just not.

Speaker 3 (01:04:34):
They've kind of showed you the direction they're going with
how they're going to build the team, and.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
Like, noally not the franchise player that Miles Garrett and
Max Crosby are you're just not and and if twenty
eight's on the table, my advice would be go take it,
because no one's going to give you a long term
extension when you're coming up to thirty one. It's just
the nature of the business. It is what it is. Uh.
Let's take our break here. First, breaking our number two,

(01:05:04):
thanks to Ken Anderson for joining us. We'll talk some
Bengal Guard play as well as as we get into
our three. We'll also talk to Keegan nickoson Bearcats and
Mountaineers about ten minutes away from first pitch in their
Big twelve tournament meeting, and your talkbacks come next. Thanks
to Cincy Shirts on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
Now your chance to hear every show at ESPN fifteen
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Speaker 12 (01:05:30):
It's the Temple to best pressed the microponentcord your message
for us standing down.

Speaker 13 (01:05:38):
Please keep it clean and don't be mean at a
spring gospoddrip owish that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
Temple do best.

Speaker 11 (01:05:48):
It's our favorite part Us and Surrey three six days.
Stay play that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
On your screen and try not to sabitize it. It
is a time for talkbacks, which means time for you
to have an opportunity to win a Sincy Shirts gift card.
We will vote on the best talkback tomorrow after talkbacks,
and that talkbacker will win a Sincy Shirts gift card.
We're able to do this each and every Friday, thanks

(01:06:17):
of course to our friends at Cincy.

Speaker 6 (01:06:19):
Shirts, Tony Tonell and Al Jebrio, Jaboy, Alex and Silverton.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:06:25):
Last night we talked about Mount Rushmore of coultry. Significant
deaths in your lifetime. Oh my goodness, my list would
be Kobe Asalombi Lauden, the Queen of England in Harambe.
I'm curious of what you guys' list would be. Telling
you got a lot more to choose from just because of.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
How old you are. But what do what you guys think?

Speaker 3 (01:06:48):
Oh my goodness, I mean Kobe and Bin Laden for sure. Yeah,
I mean twenty sixteen, that summer it started with Harambe
and life really has not been the same since.

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
Yeah, I don't know how you leave a rob. I'm
trying to think there's gotta be Robin Williams was one
for me. Robin Williams shocking, devastating. What was you know?

Speaker 3 (01:07:13):
He said, the Queen of England? Does that really have
an impact on our culture. No, is that like culturally
like a big thing.

Speaker 2 (01:07:18):
I don't think so. At the United States, I don't
think so. Prince Prince aig of Prince Man, Yeah, I don't.
I don't know.

Speaker 14 (01:07:32):
Happy Thursday, everybody covid an artikitacky here. Sorry, guys, New
York Knicks moment there figured out we want our Bengals
to stay here. I believe they will stay here. But
if the Great State of Ohio can basically fund a
Brown Stadium or a good portion of it, then why
can't they do something like that for our Cincinnati Bengals?

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
New York Knicks. You know, I was also thinking Austin,
just because I loved the movie Heath Ledger. Heath Ledger.
Matthew Perry was a crazy one. Matthew Perry recently, okay,
just throwing out people. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:08:14):
If you know Michael Jackson, I remember that being a
big deal when he.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
Died screeched from Saved by the Bell. I don't know
who that is. Mac Miller music guy.

Speaker 3 (01:08:23):
Did you see the letter that the Bengals sent to
Hamilton County yesterday?

Speaker 6 (01:08:27):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:08:27):
Scathing, some would call it. Uh, it felt like things
were going in a good direction. That's what I thought
Hamilton County. That's now going a long way. Hamilton County
then fired somebody who had been negotiating a lot. So
you guys can correct me if I'm wrong, if you're listening,
this is my interpretation of it. Bengals in Hamilton County
were making progress towards a new lease agreement. That's why

(01:08:51):
they came out with that memorandum of understanding and all that,
and it had to be done by June thirtieth, okay,
And then Hamilton County fired a guy by the name
of I believe Tom Gableman who had been negotiating back
and forth with Hamilton County and the Bengals and had
worked on this extensively. And I think he was fired

(01:09:11):
because Hamilton County didn't trust that he was doing right
by them and was kind of bending the need to
the Bengals. That's again my interpretation. And so then that
kind of derailed a lot of the progress, and the
people since then have not been The Bengals have not
been as cooperative with Hamilton County. Hamilton County has not

(01:09:33):
been as cooperative with the Bengals. And then it kind
of turns into a urinating contest and everyone's talking bad
about one another. And then the Bengals sent this letter saying,
here's all the stuff we've been doing, and you guys
haven't been participating or saying this or or whatever, and
so now it feels like it's all kind of in
the tracks, you know, stop dead in the tracks. And

(01:09:53):
I don't know what the next step is.

Speaker 15 (01:09:57):
Hey, Tony A.

Speaker 16 (01:09:58):
Austin, Jeffanu Richmond, thanks for the birthday wishes you guys,
blew out the.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
Candles fifty years old.

Speaker 15 (01:10:05):
The only thing I wished for was for my blood loss,
for John Cunningham to be satisfied, and an other than that,
just just happy in health for for this next specific thank.

Speaker 2 (01:10:16):
Me birthday, Jeff.

Speaker 6 (01:10:18):
How come you?

Speaker 3 (01:10:19):
By the way, my dad chimes in, Steve Irwin, that
was a big oh yeah, Chris one Barley, Yeah, those
are good ones.

Speaker 17 (01:10:29):
How come you are you clowns? I'm talking about the
Great American Race this weekend and at the b the
brickyard in Indianapolis, Indiana, which is in Indy And uh,
I mean, who do you like a new garden? What
about sovereignties?

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
Also?

Speaker 17 (01:10:44):
What you got the you know, they do milk at
the end. So, are you a tony, You're like two percent,
You're like half and half, You're like fool you like
Auten probably liked the the almond milk you got strawberry.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
Your thoughts, Thank you, I'm a two percent guy. Sovereignty. Yeah,
oh my lord.

Speaker 3 (01:11:07):
That is uh that was left by Phil Dennison. It
says Phil, Phil.

Speaker 6 (01:11:13):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:11:14):
It is great to hear from you.

Speaker 18 (01:11:18):
Nothing the situation where the rest really come down to
the simple fact that they just aren't very good, and
we're hoping for them to all play over their heads
and that's the only way they're going to have a winning,
reconsistently winning record. I don't think Bob Castellini wants to
win enough that he wants to have to spend money

(01:11:39):
to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
Your thoughts, it's hard to disagree with that. That's hard
to disagree. I do think that they they did think
that some of these players were going to be certainly
better than what they've shown to this point. Yeah, I
agree with that. There's a little bit of both.

Speaker 19 (01:11:53):
Hey, guys, talk back matters guy, Happy Thursday, great show.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
Thanks.

Speaker 19 (01:12:00):
I want to talk about the Reds. As you know,
I'm a Dodgers fan and a Raiders fan. I still
love the Bengals and still other Reds, but I'm saying
nick crawl number failures. I understand they have a budget,
like you said, but Terry Francone is a winner. I
know that it's just fifty games, but they knew they
needed a big bopper and didn't do nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
At all, did not address need for big bopper. I agree. Hey,
Aston and Tony, this is Gina. You were talking about
Harry bax and shaven and waxing.

Speaker 7 (01:12:34):
Well, I had competed in bodybuilding back when I was forty.

Speaker 20 (01:12:38):
You had to do the night.

Speaker 7 (01:12:39):
Before was you had to wax your body and I
had to wax my bikini line.

Speaker 2 (01:12:44):
I got one side done.

Speaker 4 (01:12:46):
It was so painful, I said, the heck with this,
so I just shaved the rest.

Speaker 2 (01:12:50):
Of the way. Yeah, that wasn't fun, but I did
win my contests.

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
Championship Culture for Gina, well done body building at forty Okay, girl.

Speaker 21 (01:13:03):
Yet another great opening segment. But I couldn't help but
picture Austin getting his back wax and screaming random phrases
out loud as he's in pain. Nit Cross sucks. We
don't need Trey. Hell, he's just mediocre.

Speaker 2 (01:13:25):
Oh okay, all right, I never said that. Golly yeah,
I wonder what what would be your go to disappointed? Uh?
Probably the hill You'll die on. Something about truck is.
I always say stuff about about Zach Taylor. I always
say something about the not Sox ballers, not Zax.

Speaker 22 (01:13:46):
Ball Yeah, disappointed, Francona. Charlie's just asking a couple of
normal questions.

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
Don't cross Charlie.

Speaker 22 (01:13:56):
Shout out to me. What a brutal loss for the
next man Towns. He's got to hit that free throw
at the end. They missed four free throws in the
final minute. You just can't do that. Uh, go, you
see baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
You know last year I kept saying it wasn't David
Bell's fault. Yeah, oh you did. Tito, better watch out.

Speaker 10 (01:14:22):
Nobody talks to Charlie that way.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
We're going to do more than still a silly scooter.
What's yourself, Tito? Yeah, man, we got we got people
in the streets there, team man, let's go now. Thanks.

Speaker 3 (01:14:37):
Oh yeah, thanks for playing that sleepy Tito audio.

Speaker 2 (01:14:43):
That was very exciting. I could listen to that guy
talk all day.

Speaker 19 (01:14:47):
I heard you guys talking about backwaxing. I myself get
it done every couple of months, shout out crazy Dawn.

Speaker 2 (01:14:57):
She's in Montgomery. She takes care of me. She always
he stays north of the equator.

Speaker 7 (01:15:02):
I one time did get a Brazilian but I didn't
pay for it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
You know why. It was a total rip off. Yep, yep,
well done. That That is something I could never do.
Well done, could never go south Tony.

Speaker 16 (01:15:20):
Is it true that Joe Daniman has a team in
the three and three this year? I thought I heard
that somewhere. He would be true, but that'd be cool.
I'm prepared, We're ready my squad. I think if our
fourth guy shows up, you might be in deep trouble.

Speaker 2 (01:15:36):
Maybe all right, I did play. Did I see that
Danman won another award? I think so? I mean, you
know now now he's taking this dance that. Uh let
me let me say a couple of things about this one. Uh.
We had Jeremy Rowl on yesterday to talk about that
Burrow and his family. That was awesome watching that last
night and having the chance to to talk about that

(01:15:58):
leading into it. Uh, it more than delivered. But earlier
today Jeremy rowse said, he tweet, He's gonna hate me
for doing this. Uh, Fox nineteen Joe is gonna retire
one day as one of the best storytellers in local
TV history. Seen his work for twelve years. Uh it
is an excellence in writing award. Okay, that I saw

(01:16:19):
for Joe Danoman. You know, ah, another just humble nature
of Joe Danaman.

Speaker 3 (01:16:25):
Do you think his house is kind of like the
Borough House where there's just trophies everywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
That's a great, great question.

Speaker 3 (01:16:30):
The floor scattered about. He's got me awards and sportscasters
of the years.

Speaker 2 (01:16:37):
He's got a better chance to win the Nobel Peace
Prize than to come to the Moorial Day Tournament win
a tournament like that. Did you just say Noble Nobel
Peace Prize. He's got a better chance to winning any awards.
He's got a better chance to win that than to
come to Redding and get a basketball and from the
Noble piece. From the Nobles standpoint.

Speaker 23 (01:17:00):
It's God Happy Thursday. Way to cheek it up, Reds,
Way to cheek it up?

Speaker 2 (01:17:05):
Oh man, you.

Speaker 23 (01:17:06):
Could say the Reds got cheeked by the cheekiest hmmm.

Speaker 12 (01:17:14):
Uh okay, Hey guys, it's Boomer Drew from South Bend.
So okay, let's say we signed Trey Hendrickson in Week three,
he stresses his knee and he's out for the season,
so we have zero chance at a Super Bowl if
that happens. I'm not buying it, guys.

Speaker 2 (01:17:28):
I agree.

Speaker 24 (01:17:29):
The question would be what did Trey Hendrickson do against
very good teams? What do you do against mediocre teams?
And what do you do against crappy teams? Moreover, what
did he do? And the Super Bowl against the Rams?

Speaker 2 (01:17:41):
Thanks? Guys, have a great day. Okay, Yeah, you don't
think much about Trey's appearance in the Super Bowl.

Speaker 18 (01:17:48):
Tony b Stick.

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
It's the mail man out here with.

Speaker 15 (01:17:53):
A little drizzled drizzle, drip drip.

Speaker 10 (01:17:55):
Kind of day.

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
Where are they?

Speaker 15 (01:17:59):
Are?

Speaker 6 (01:17:59):
We just deston never to have a championship team ever?

Speaker 18 (01:18:06):
The last time I saw a championship team.

Speaker 23 (01:18:08):
Was in high school when the ninety Reds won a title.

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
Are we just deatened for misery for the rest of
our lives? What are you talking about?

Speaker 17 (01:18:16):
You guys?

Speaker 3 (01:18:17):
Have another It was like fifteen years ago yesterday that
the Cyclones won the Kelly Club Cup.

Speaker 2 (01:18:24):
Carla Lantalone shooting.

Speaker 25 (01:18:26):
Trip bull bugget Yeah, Hey, guys, who's gonna have more success?
Combined the twenty and fifteen Cincinnati Bengals with twelve wins
and the two thousand and fifteens Cincinnati Bearcuts with seven
compared to this team in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
She low gray, She looked great. What is going on?

Speaker 7 (01:18:56):
Hey, guys, it's Jeff. I was listening to Brenda Mian
and Joe was on baseball this morning, and Marty was
talking about how he thinks the Reds are actually trying
to win. And I know we're all sort of apathetic
right now, so that no reason to be optimistic. But
I'm curious why he is. So he's not a company

(01:19:22):
man anymore. Does have to toe the line.

Speaker 3 (01:19:25):
It's not like he towed it when he was a
company If Marty says that, I believe him, okay, and
he's certainly more connected than me. My thing is, I
do think they're trying to win. I've never said they're
not trying to win. I don't think it's their top priority.
And I think the systems that they have put in

(01:19:46):
place to build the thing into a winner have failed them.

Speaker 2 (01:19:51):
Yeah, I I don't think it's they're not trying to.
I just don't think I've seen anything that would lead
me to belie that they can win right now. Yeah,
I think that's it's a fair way to put it.

Speaker 26 (01:20:07):
Robin Williams, Prince and David Bowie and Harambi. They come
in force, especially if they're throwing missiles. Sorry, I actually
I was listening to a podcast of yours from a
few days ago and responding to talkbacks on that this
is Steve down in Parkland, Proward County resident.

Speaker 2 (01:20:27):
Yeah, we're a little slow down here. That's all wrong,
or at least I am.

Speaker 26 (01:20:30):
Saw the missiles that are being thrown by the Cuban girlfriend.

Speaker 2 (01:20:34):
Later Raphael for call was throwing a missile at somebody's
That was a Florida man. Talk about that's good.

Speaker 18 (01:20:43):
Without much more significant.

Speaker 2 (01:20:46):
Yeah, have suck it up And I couldn't understand that.

Speaker 5 (01:20:53):
Hey, yeah, any chance that they're going to keep proud
on this team always linebackers is the Does Golden have
a scheme? I mean he ran that hybrid deal and
Notre Dame. Is he got some kind of NFL tape
scheme for that too? Then that's why Hendrickson isn't such
a pressing matter for him.

Speaker 2 (01:21:12):
I mean, I don't know, just throwing it out there,
I think there's about a less than one percent chance
that Jermaine Pratt.

Speaker 3 (01:21:19):
Which makes it even weirder that he's still here. I
think Jay's explanation the other day kind of made sense.
Maybe somebody gets hurt. Maybe you know, something happens, a
team needs a linebacker, you know, sure, Yeah.

Speaker 13 (01:21:35):
Tony Hey Austin. With the passing of the beloved George
went Norm from cheers, who would you say is the
most beloved athlete in your opinion.

Speaker 2 (01:21:55):
Cincinnati or otherwise beloved athletes that's passed or still with us, Say, well,
he's talking about George because he just passed. If you're
talking about someone that has passed in Cincinnati has just
had hied with Pete rose Ye nationally that the Kobe
stuff is still crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:22:13):
Yeah, from a national level. In terms of dudes that
are still with us, Bill Russell, you know up there
Celtics legend been around the NBA for a long time.
I'm not trying to, you know, name people that are
gonna die soon. I don't know, but just think of
some of the older guys that have been around for
a long long time. Yeah, like Jerry West when he

(01:22:34):
passed away. That was a big hit to the NBA.
So those type of dudes come to mind.

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
All right, that was it? All right, very good. We'll
catch you up on a brief injury report. I know
there's some transactions that the Cincinnati Reds have made today.
We'll touch on those. We'll come back and wrap a
second hour up, and we've got Keegan Nickoson who will
join us to kick off the third and final hour
of since He three to sixty. All of this still
ahead thanks to Sincy Shirts on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati

(01:23:02):
Sports Station, Live baseball coverage, Oakley Greens.

Speaker 27 (01:23:06):
Hey Alexa, what's going on in baseball?

Speaker 2 (01:23:08):
Getting ESPN fifteen thirty from iHeartRadio. Welcome back, since He
three to sixty ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, thanks

(01:23:29):
to Sincey shirts. We've got time now for our Postman
Law injury report delivered by Postman Law. Injured Postman delivers.
We uh, We've waited and it's it's been quiet around
some of these initial injury reports for the Cincinnati Reds
that that we've we've talked about. We we know that

(01:23:49):
Jamer Candelario on May fifteenth played catch at Great American Ballparks.
O Jamutt really gotten an update since then. We know
Rhet Louder is now a Triple A Louisville. Nouelve Marte
was a scheduled MRI moved up a week because they've
been pleased with his progress or we're waiting on more
results for noulve Marte. Hunter Green is going to start

(01:24:13):
as of right now for the Cincinnati Reds tomorrow, and
a move that was made just earlier this afternoon Austin,
the Reds have announced that Christian and Carnacion Strand will
begin a rehab assignment today in the rookie level Arizona
Complex League's go So with that, the Reds also optioned

(01:24:37):
to Triple A Louisville right handed pitcher Lion Richardson. This
from the post game from yesterday. So that is where
the Reds are right now from an injury standpoint and
a transaction standpoint. But obviously good news on a guy
in Ces that I believe didn't with the back. He
originally went on just a ten day injured list. It's

(01:25:00):
been quiet since then. I know he got a second epidural.
I think that was like last June he went on
the injured list. He's hadn't played since ye So, yeah,
there's that you want to talk about. A disappointment that dude,
yep oh never really turned into anything, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:25:16):
I thought he would be one of those guys that
could hit the bottom of the ballpark and just just
really hasn't done it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:21):
Also, yesterday they did reinstate Sam Mall from the fifteen
day injured list. They optioned him to Louisville. They optioned
right handed pitcher Chase Petty to Louisville. And yesterday, also
as we mentioned, they reinstated Ian Jabbo from the fifteen
day injured list.

Speaker 3 (01:25:35):
He looked sharp yesterday. Yeah, he did look like Ian Jibbo,
look like anything about Ian Jebou that you could call Sharp's.

Speaker 2 (01:25:45):
A good point. Let's let's break, let's come back, let's
finish up the hour. Let's update where we are on
our poll question, because we will talk a little bit
more Bengals in hour three, especially the guard position. We'll
also kick things off with Kegan Nickoson at the top
of our Umber three and then Mowagger at the bottom
with quick hits all still ahead. Since he three to

(01:26:05):
sixty your phone calls welcome at five, one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. Are listening on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (01:26:12):
Cincinnati to make an ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station,
make a strong one.

Speaker 2 (01:26:24):
I gotta have some fun tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:26:27):
Can't help but think about the possibility of being at
the dakery deck oh one.

Speaker 2 (01:26:34):
As the Bengals play the Browns.

Speaker 3 (01:26:37):
The big news, of course, breaking late yesterday, the Bengals
renegotiated that Cordell Volson contract. Basically means he's going to
be on the team. It's basically a guarantee. Can Cordell
Vulson beat out Dylan Fairchild or Lucas Patrick or perhaps
even Cody Ford so that it's not Ford and Volson

(01:26:59):
the starting guards in Week one? I don't have to
make a trip to Tampa, and I just wonder if
if that's the case, you know, what what would you
go with? Would you go with Old Faithful to deck Diesel?
I don't know what any of that is, oh man,
I have no idea. If it's Diesel, I don't think
I want it.

Speaker 2 (01:27:17):
Yep, that's what you want. I don't know. If I
want the way they typically play in Week one, I
might need a couple of them. Well, if you get
there for happy hour? What's with the entire the entirety
of sound like you just a game? I mean, just
thinking about it gets me slurring my words.

Speaker 10 (01:27:35):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:27:36):
Got a stat here from David and David, I'm sorry
if I say this incorrectly. I believe it's Stuben Rock
who is the Xavier statman all right? He says he's
the status according to his Twitter the statistician for Xavier
men's and women's basketball, Bengals football, NCAA Final four. So
this guy knows what he's talking about. David, he says,

(01:27:59):
I know there's a lot of people that want to
believe Cincinnati is the saddest city when it comes to
missing championships, but in fact, we're not even top five. Oh,
Minneapolis has had one hundred and twenty four major seasons
in the four big sports without a championship, and Buffalo
and San Diego have not seen one in fifty nine years.

Speaker 10 (01:28:20):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:28:21):
So so that's a good perspective from David. Dare and
thank you for tweeting that stat at me, you can
tweet it me at Audiomar as well that maybe it's
not not so bad compared to some other places. Revivefitnessystems
dot com poll question, what is your confidence level in
the Bengals guards to circle back to that conversation right now?

(01:28:43):
Seventy three percent say new offensive line coach, let's see
what happens. Twenty three percent say they have zero confidence whatsoever.
In three point one percent say they are extremely confident.

Speaker 2 (01:28:56):
Are you surprised by those results? No, because I think
we have a smart fan base. Okay, I don't think
we're full of idiots. Okay, so no one is essentially
extremely confident, but the majority are willing to see. Okay,
what's what? What can a new a line coach and
some small additions help make this team become for sure? Okay,

(01:29:18):
we'll spend more time on that in our number three,
but you uh'll go ahead. I just have a bunch
of topics here. Did you see this about Texas and
Ohio State?

Speaker 26 (01:29:27):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:29:28):
So you know it's a noon game, right yeah? Yea yeah, stupid.

Speaker 3 (01:29:32):
According to sources on both sides, this is Patrick Murphy
covers Ohio State for twenty four to seven Sports. Ohio
State proposed moving the Week one game with Texas back
to a later kickoff time. Texas said, nah, nah, really,
the Longhorns do not want to play that game at night. Okay,

(01:29:54):
and for some reason they get a choice in the matter. Okay,
what's the put that?

Speaker 15 (01:30:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:30:00):
That that doesn't make much sense to me? Is I mean? Okay?

Speaker 3 (01:30:04):
Let me put my Ohio state bias aside. Let me
ask you this question. Texas scared question Mark sent tweet soft.

Speaker 2 (01:30:13):
Great question. I'm asking you. Do you think that's soft
by Texas? Yes?

Speaker 16 (01:30:19):
I do.

Speaker 2 (01:30:19):
Okay, I think that is a soft response. Okay, let
me tell you what's not soft, and that's the Cincinnati
Bearcats bats top of the first Austin lead off walk
from Big twelve Player of the Year Carrington Cross double
before you can even get to your seats. It's one
nothing right now in the Big twelve Championship against top seat.

Speaker 3 (01:30:38):
In calling Carrington Cross the savior just because of his name.
I like that carrying Cross.

Speaker 2 (01:30:45):
I like that. That's all Jesus did. He carried the cross.
Did you see those videos out there as well from
John Halliburton? Yes, they did, you know? Yeah, drinking the
NIXT tiers last night. I'm seeing movement, and I've seen
this from a couple spots. Now, no, nope, let's say
he needs to be back in the building. Doesn't in
game three? Can you imagine him next to Mulager like

(01:31:08):
sitting courtside? Is Reggie Miller? Yeh, mister Halliburton and Melbagger
and James Rapine. Yeah, sign me up for all of that.
Keg and Nickison joins us to kick off the third
hour next Cincy three to sixty on ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station. Thanks to Cincy Shirts.

Speaker 20 (01:31:24):
Hey, it's Mulagary Mount Cincinnati from Cincinnati, spontered in part
by Pennstation East CoA subs, handcrafted hot grilled subs, fresh
cut fries, and lemonade. It's all about good taste.

Speaker 1 (01:31:36):
Pennstation East Coast Subs order online today. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:31:45):
Welcome back our three thanks to Penn Station. Thank you
for listening. On ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Let's
get right into it. Let's talk some Cincinnati Bearcats. Here
with the man covering the Bearcats for barcat journal dot com.
Good friend of the show, Keegan Nicholson. What's up, Keegan?
Nothing much, I should say, good friend of the show

(01:32:06):
and someone who actually had my back last night when
Austin tried to come at me on social media a
little bit. So let's get that out of the way.
That was certainly appreciated from you, Keegan, as it was
for attending ball and brew last night.

Speaker 27 (01:32:19):
You know what I have to stand up for. You know,
the brotherhood that is the Cincinnati Bearcats media beat, and
you are a part of that brotherhood, Tony. So we
definitely know Austin isn't knowing his allegiances and where those lie.

Speaker 2 (01:32:34):
So how to stand up for my guy, Keegan. That's appreciated, man, Sanity.
Enjoy your interview, Keegan. Let's start with what's happening right now.
Red's Bearcats take a lead in the top of the
first Carrington Cross draws a walk, you get a double
after that one nothing Obviously West Virginia the one seed.

(01:32:55):
There's a long way to go in this but from
a bigger picture, from a season standpoint, going back to
back thirty win seasons, by all accounts, it looks like
this team is trending in the direction of making it
into the NCAA tournament. Just talk about this overhaul that
this baseball program has seen in the last couple of
years now culminating with this run they're on right now.

Speaker 27 (01:33:16):
Yeah, I think it is such a testament to how
much playing for a coach that you enjoy playing for
can impact the success of a team. And Jordan Bishell
is that. I mean his kids, they love playing for him.
They place super hard. They've bought into his way of playing,

(01:33:38):
and that's bunting, it's stealing bases, it's doing all the
small things, putting pressure on opposing defenses and filling up
the strike zone, and they've really had a lot of success.
And I think that that was shown yesterday when you
had a play where Carrington Cross kind of pops it

(01:33:58):
up into no man's land and right field down the
line a Texas Tech. I think it was the second base,
the kind of pops in and out of his glove,
and it touches love when he was in fair territory,
But it didn't matter to Carrington Cross because he was
sprinting the whole time and got in the third with
the triple, and then I think he scored on the

(01:34:19):
next batter and it ended up being a one run game,
so you know a lot of people could jog it out, well,
it's either going to be caught or it's gonna be foul,
and you know, end up with the single. But Carrington
Cross did all the way to third and it's just
a great hustle play and then they get a big
win to get closer at least to locking up a tournament.

Speaker 2 (01:34:38):
Did do you feel at this point like they've done
enough to I know nothing is ever certain, but from
a resume standpoint, do you believe they've done enough to
earn their spot into the tournament?

Speaker 17 (01:34:49):
I do.

Speaker 27 (01:34:50):
I think I think they were something around thirty four
in the RPI yesterday before that win. I think a
win today would obviously lock it up and prevent them
from any bid Steelers going crazy throughout the rest of
the country, because you really have to look at this
like a basketball scenario. If you're on the bubble, you

(01:35:11):
never know what could happen. There could be six teams
going a crazy run steal a bunch of bids. But
I think just comparing to where they were last year
and what they needed to do last year, which is
basically when I think like three to four Big Tell
tournament games. The win against Texas Tech put them in
a really good spot.

Speaker 2 (01:35:29):
You mentioned their playing style and what makes them so tough.
You also add in the best player in the league
in Carrington Cross. It gives them a chance to compete
against absolutely anybody. For those that haven't followed as closely
the story of Carrington Cross and how good he's been
for this team, can you even put that into words?

Speaker 10 (01:35:52):
Not really.

Speaker 27 (01:35:53):
I think we talked to him in Landon Bitterick on
our five to one three day stream and you know,
I'm from hamil saying I went to Ross High School.
Landon Viderick went to Bade and I think he's three
years younger than me, and I had heard about Landon
Viderick like this kid is a two sports stud really
good baseball player because they're like ninety in high school
off the mound. But he's a better hitter quarterback for

(01:36:15):
the Rams. And you know, seeing him have success at Cincinnati,
knowing how good of an athlete he was, you kind
of expect it. Carrington Cross was not really in the
same boat. He's from Brownsburg High School. Obviously a talented
high school baseball player to earn a scholarship.

Speaker 2 (01:36:31):
At U see.

Speaker 27 (01:36:32):
But you know, just the steps that he's been able
to take throughout his entire career, all while being a
chemical engineering major, which John Cunningham mentioned last night, which
is even more impressive. But you know, he had a
really good year last year, really was the catalyst for
that team getting close to the tournament bid. And he
had a lot of expectations this season and he blew

(01:36:54):
them all out of the water. And I think this
team goes as he goes. He's a huge energy piece
and you add in the talent that he has and
it just takes it.

Speaker 2 (01:37:04):
To the next level baseball in action right now, Keegan,
let's switch to what we were able to talk about
last night, the football program. By all accounts, most people
have them in that five to six win range when
you look at a over understandpoint. But there's no real
runaway team right now in the Big twelve. When you

(01:37:26):
look at the makeup of this team, let's start on
the offensive side of the ball. Do you believe that
the pieces are in place that they can compete with
anyone in the Big Twelve from an offensive standpoint?

Speaker 27 (01:37:37):
Yeah, I think just like last year, they took another
step forward. I think the biggest thing at the end
of last season was the struggles in the passing game,
and it was brand Soorsby making mistakes. A lot of
people have blamed their receivers not getting open, and that's
definitely something that you can look at. But there was
also some really catastrophic mistakes made by Brendan Sowersby. Think

(01:38:00):
about the West Virginia interception, the fumble at the end
of the West Virginia game. I mean, they gave them
seventeen points in that game. They gave West Virginia seventeen points,
and then the Kansas State game. There were some really
bad mistakes. So you have to address that first. And
I think, as we've talked about, the year two jump

(01:38:20):
is something that I think a lot of people need
to keep track of. And you know, I thought about
this this morning. I'm in no way comparing Brendan Sowersby
to Joe Burrow, but the year two jump that Joe
Burrow made at LSU ended up him being one of
the best college football players of all time. And U
SEE does not need that out of Brendan Soorersby to

(01:38:40):
compete in the Big Twelve. They just need him to
be what he can be, which is probably the best
quarterback in the Big twelve, but he doesn't have to
be one of the best players in the entire country.
And then you look at the receivers. I think that
they are much better at receiver. They have speed and
Cyrus Allen and Caleb Goody, Jeff Cauldwell as that six
to sixth frame and a really good straight line speed.

(01:39:03):
And then on top of that, you know Joe Royer,
who had to remind everyone that he's still he still
thinks that he's the guy in this receiving corps having
the record broken, the Travis Kelsey record broken. I think
they have four guys that could go for a thousand
yards this year, and I wouldn't be surprised. I don't
think all four of them are, but they have four
candidates to kind of reach that mark.

Speaker 2 (01:39:25):
Obviously a lot of depth added in the receiving corps,
but if you look in the running back room and
you look at prior coming back and the explosiveness, that's
what they were lacking last year. Their most explosive player,
and Evan Pryor is back. Is the running game. When
you look at the additions to the old line as well.
Is that going to be the strength in your opinion
of this offense or will it still be the passing game.

Speaker 27 (01:39:49):
I think the running game will still be the strength.
I don't really think it'll be Evan Pryor. I think
going to be Tylie Walker. I think this kid could
have a more productive season than Corey Kiner high last
year because I think he brings a similar, if not
the same amount of physicality and ability to break tackles
at the line of scrimmage. But he's faster and you

(01:40:12):
see that on film when he was with Wisconsin, you
see it when he was with Oklahoma, just the amount
of physicality he plays with. And then you kind of
balance it off with Evan Pryor, who can take passes
out of the backfield go eighty yards. He can use
that counterplay that they love so much that he's scored
against Miami Ohio last year on that sixty yard touchdown,

(01:40:33):
the yin and yang that they had in twenty twenty
fourth Kiner and Pryor. It's basically copy and paste, and
Tylie Walker might really be the catalyst on this offense
that a lot of people aren't really talking about because
Jess Caldwell has gotten so much attention. Rightfully, so Cyrus Allen,
Caleb Goody the same thing, because the potential that they

(01:40:55):
have if Soorsby can take that year two jump, is
through too. But I think in a zone run scheme,
and they take so much pride in their offensive line
with Joe Cotton and Tarren Tyer joining the fold, I
think it'll start in the run game and then the
play action will open up spots down field and they'll
be able to take advantage.

Speaker 2 (01:41:17):
How important is year two on the defensive side of
the ball in a brand new scheme? Obviously Tyson Vite
comes in. You switch from four down to a three
down look, which is completely different. But it feels like
at times last year, and I've talked two different coaches
about this, they weren't able to play the full playbook
because they just couldn't get that much installed. You have

(01:41:38):
year two of a new coordinator, Dante Corleone's back. I
think the strength of the defense lies at linebacker. What
do you view from an upside standpoint for this defense
this year?

Speaker 27 (01:41:51):
Yeah, it's interesting because I have a series coming out
where I talked to all the assistant coaches and kind
of break down their position. And I talked the Tyson
bite yesterday and one of the more interesting things he said,
which I'll elaborate on more, and the piece that I
write is they had to play certain guys certain places

(01:42:11):
last year because it was best for the team, but
it wasn't necessarily.

Speaker 2 (01:42:16):
Best for the player.

Speaker 27 (01:42:19):
So a lot of players were playing out of position,
especially in the secondary. And now that they have depths,
now that they have guys that really fit the three
three five scheme, they can put people in places where
they need to be to be successful, both for the
player and the team. Logan Wilson probably should have been

(01:42:40):
a corner last year for what's best for him, but
for the entire team, it was better for him to
be at safety, and you can label that with other
players on the defense as well. And now you have
Logan Wilson back at corner where you know, if I
had to make a prediction, I would say he'll probably
be the cornerback too, next to Matthew McDoom to start

(01:43:02):
the season because that's just how much experience he has
at that position and the talent that he has there
playing it at both Kansas State and North Texas and
then you add in Christian Harrison, who can play I
think he plays boundary safety and the star safety.

Speaker 10 (01:43:18):
In the middle.

Speaker 27 (01:43:19):
Xavier Williams could actually be the starting star this year,
and that's a surprise because Jakwan Sinks and Antoine Peak
had such good seasons last year. So there's going to
be a lot of competition come fall camp, and they
have a lot of dudes, and they have a lot
of starting candidates.

Speaker 2 (01:43:36):
I think that's the.

Speaker 27 (01:43:37):
Best way to put it that I wouldn't be surprised
if a lot of people had the opportunity to start,
especially seeing what we see through fall camp. But you know,
the linebacker corps is definitely deep. I think they have
about eight guys right now that Courtney Braswell would be
comfortable putting out there. And then the defensive line, you know,
you have a fully healthy on Donte Corolla. You know

(01:44:00):
Micah Coleman coming off the edge, Jalen Right McLain coming
off the edge with that, which I think a lot
of people should be excited about, Jalen Might McClain. And
then you have the depth of Jalen Hunt and Elijah
Guhn and Isaiah Elijah Johnson coming on the inside as well.
So everything is lining up to take another step forward,

(01:44:23):
at least on paper. And I hate making off these
in predictions, but it should be better at the end
of the day, and I think you can agree with that,
and if not, then there's there's gonna have to be
some answers.

Speaker 2 (01:44:36):
We spent entirely too much time last year talking about
bad plays. From a special team standpoint, do you think
the pieces are in place in a more solid fashion
that that special teams. I'm not saying they've got to
be the best special teams unit in the Big twelve,
but should we see a substantial jump in the special
teams category?

Speaker 27 (01:44:56):
I think so because Luke Pascal is a really, really
good special teams coach. They brought him on a few
weeks ago, and you know, one of my sources told
me that they're special teams at Middle Tennessee State, where
he was. He also spent some times sometime at UMass.
It was creative, it was fun. They did a lot
of different things, and to be able to do different

(01:45:19):
things and be creative, you kind of have to have
the fundamentals taken care of because you have to be.

Speaker 2 (01:45:23):
Able to take the extra step.

Speaker 27 (01:45:25):
So having Moke Pascal there kind of being I'm not
sure what his entire role will be, but just being
focused on special teams I think will be a big plus.
And then the retraining game will also be interesting. I
would guess Another prediction I'll make is that Matthew McDoom
will probably be the punt and kick returner. He had

(01:45:45):
a really good year at Coastal Carolina last year as
their returner, and we know that that's been a huge
problem for UC the past two years because, I mean,
you don't have to get twenty and thirty yards returns
all the time, but having those every now and then
it just helps the hitting yardage battle, which I'm not
sure if they won it a single time in the

(01:46:06):
latter half of last season.

Speaker 2 (01:46:08):
Keegan, to round off this conversation, we've hit on baseball,
We've hit on what football is doing. I've been impressed
with watching Wes Miller put a roster together this offseason.
Now at the same token, I was impressed with the
roster going into the year last year for men's basketball
as well. But when you look at the pieces that

(01:46:29):
have been added, and most recently Bobba Miller has been
added to this roster. I know they're talented, but the
pieces that they're getting, do you feel like they fit
together better than maybe what we saw last year and
how that team operated.

Speaker 27 (01:46:45):
Yeah, I think going back to Wes's first year and
now looking at the roster now, I think the roster
makes sense for the first time since West has been
the coach here and the Baba Miller edition coming so
might be one of the bigger ones of the cycle
for u see, because he doesn't really take anything away

(01:47:05):
from anyone. He can really fit into his own niche
and play what he wants to play. That doesn't take
away minutes from a Mustapha Sham or Jalen Haynes or
Jalen Celestine or a Tyler McKinley. That was to fill
a need and to get a talented player like that
who had kind of been on draft radars. I think

(01:47:28):
it was a massive get for you see, and I
think just piecing together you have two really good on
ball defenders and Dade Thomas and Cyncia Harris, and then
you have some scores and kerkrisa, Seanabayev and Gisel James,
and then a lot of size with Jalen Haynes and
Mustapha Cham and Jalen Haynes.

Speaker 2 (01:47:50):
It isn't just the size for me. I think it's
how he plays.

Speaker 27 (01:47:52):
He's extremely physical, he's extremely confident, and he's extremely aggressive.
When he gets the ball, he goes at the hoop
and he's either going to score or get fouled a
big chunk of the time. I think they brought in
a lot of experience as well, so I'm looking forward
to this season. I think, you know, last year they

(01:48:14):
might have been more talented, but the pieces didn't really fit,
and especially I don't think they fit together, but especially
in terms of what is demanded in the Big twelve.
I think that's another thing that Wes Miller really improved
on with this roster.

Speaker 2 (01:48:30):
Kicking man, this has been awesome. You're the best I know.
You're keeping up with what's going on with UC Baseball
from a listener standpoint, anything you got coming out. Obviously
you've teased a couple of things, but anything to keep
an eye on and what's the easiest way to follow
along with everything he got going on?

Speaker 27 (01:48:47):
Yeah, I should have I'd say about eight stories coming
out over the next eight weeks with all these assistants.
I got to have some stuff in the tank, frohen.
I'm gone for ten days in Hawaii on my honeymoon.

Speaker 2 (01:48:59):
So when is when's the wedding? When's the wedding?

Speaker 27 (01:49:05):
June twentieth, it was? I think it's twenty eight days away,
maybe twenty nine days away.

Speaker 2 (01:49:10):
So you guys haven't seent invitations yet.

Speaker 27 (01:49:14):
You know what, Tony, you might you might have to
make a lay to day.

Speaker 2 (01:49:20):
Who you backed last night?

Speaker 18 (01:49:21):
Keith?

Speaker 6 (01:49:22):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (01:49:23):
Is Chad Brendle going to be there?

Speaker 27 (01:49:26):
Chad Brindle is gonna be there. He's a big reason
why the wedding is happening financially.

Speaker 2 (01:49:31):
Goodness, So wedding to put in a smoking section for Chad.

Speaker 27 (01:49:41):
Yes, it'll be a circle of duct tape outside and
that's where he has to stay and smoke.

Speaker 2 (01:49:48):
Well, regardless of not getting invited to the wedding, we
still appreciate you, Keegan, Thanks so much and we'll talk
again soon.

Speaker 27 (01:49:54):
All right, Thanks guys, to see you later.

Speaker 2 (01:49:56):
There he is Keegan nickoson wedding and ten days in Hawaii.

Speaker 3 (01:50:01):
That's pretty good. What did you just call it Hawaii?
You said kawhi like kawhi Leonard? Now Hawaii.

Speaker 2 (01:50:07):
He's missing. I can't wait till they donate your brain
to sign once. Uh, once you eventually get to that
point you tie the knot what uh, what's gonna be?
Trey Hendrickson signed a four year extension twelve million a year. Yeah,
he takes a pay cup for four years. Uh what
what's uh? What would be your dream travel destination? Oh

(01:50:28):
that's a good question. M Let me think about that.
You know, I'm still I've still not had a chance
to take Mari on a honeymoon. Really, yeah, I have
a story for that. Okay, let's share that when we
get to do it next. Let's en sixty ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station thanks to Penn Station.

Speaker 1 (01:50:50):
Now your chance to three sixty is back on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:51:09):
Welcome back since he three sixty ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station, thanks to our friends at Penn Station. As
we roll along here on a Thursday afternoon, no Reds
Baseball to worry about today, we do have the Cincinnati
Bearcats and action right now. In the Big Twelve Tournament,
Xavier takes on number one seeded Creighton in the Big

(01:51:29):
East tournament at six thirty tonight at Presco Park as
well Austin. Did you decide where your destination would be?
I thought of two places. I'm not a big like
beach guy, so I would want to go to like
bamp Oh up there in Canada. Okay, Hey, what hey

(01:51:51):
that's Canada. Oh, I say, up there in what an,
Alberta or Calgary bamp Okay that or probably like Majorca, Spain. Man,
So you're getting out of the country. Yeah, probably you're gone.
I mean I would love to like explore northern California,

(01:52:11):
the forests up there. I think that'd be cool. Okay,
I don't know if that's honeymoon worthy. It depends. So
I got married.

Speaker 4 (01:52:24):
This is.

Speaker 2 (01:52:26):
I got married October fifth, what was it? Five years ago?
And now already five years I've been married. I got
married not in COVID. Yeah, I didn't know that I
got married, and uh, well twenty nineteen, so this would
be yeah, so six so it was twenty nineteen. We

(01:52:47):
got married in twenty nineteen, Okay, so not five years
October of twenty nineteen, gotcha, So we I knew that
she wanted October. She wanted to do like a fall wedding,
but I also was doing sideline reporting at U SEE
at that time of the year, so we knew that
we weren't going to be able to do an actual
like honeymoon honeymoon yet. So the plan was and our

(01:53:10):
rehearsal dinner Austin was actually on the Friday night when
Sauce Gardner had the pick six against UCF. I remember,
so I missed that game for our rehearsal dinner, got
married the next day, and then that next weekend uc
was on a buy. So we knew we weren't going
to do the whole honeymoon thing. It was just when
football season ends, then we'll do our honeymoon. But I'm

(01:53:33):
a sucker for Gatlinburg. She likes Gatlinburg. I was like, well,
at least let's go do like a long weekend in Gallenburg.
She agreed to it, and somehow, some way along the way,
Big Stephen Devin decided they were going to come down
as well. It's like, after a day and a half

(01:53:53):
at Mari and I were down there, like, hey, do
you care if we come down? We're like, no, not
really because it was fun, but our actual honeymoon, if
you call it that was spending Gatlinburg with my dad
and brother for a couple of days. Yeah, so I
don't call it a honeymoon. She doesn't either. The problem is,
if you fast forward, by the time the season was over,
she was pregnant, and so it just kind of became

(01:54:17):
like now there's a baby, and there's another baby and
another baby, and there was never really a chance to
have the actual honeymoon. It is on my list, So
I do need to get around to an actual honeymoon
in which she can go and enjoy. But yeah, we
haven't done it yet.

Speaker 3 (01:54:35):
So October fifth, twenty twenty five, will be your sixth
wedding anniversary.

Speaker 2 (01:54:42):
Yes, so we've been married five years. We're coming up
on so now is the time to plan a honeymoon.
This is true for your anniversary. This is true. I've
already planned a trip for October, right, I mean, now's
the time. Correct. That being said, its football season, also true,

(01:55:06):
and as we know, there's a little more in the
in the pockets during football season. So I don't know
if that's Bengals are at home on October fifth against
the Lions. Damn it. That one might be hard to do.
The Bull keeps getting in the way, so it might
be hard to do.

Speaker 3 (01:55:24):
Obviously, we'll have super Bowl duty this year, so end
of February, you know what, take her out to Arizona
and then we'll have you call in. You'd be a
correspondent for spring training there it is. Uh, yeah, take
her out to Arizona. Have yid man set you up
with a couple of places, and you can go hike

(01:55:44):
Cammelback Mountain.

Speaker 2 (01:55:45):
Oh wow, you do that. Let me tell you what.
If I know her and I know myself, you go
to the Grand Canyon. If you get on a honeymoon
and you got three little ones at home, the last
thing you probably.

Speaker 3 (01:55:54):
Want to do is go on a hike. Okay, well
you don't have to do that. I want to sit
by a pool. You could probably get when those cabins
like you, I can get them all good. The Grand Canyon,
Man like a Grand Canyon mule. I'll tell you what.
There's I've said this before. There's nothing like the Grand
Canyon at nighttime. Love it, Yeah, love it. Let's take
a break, let's come back.

Speaker 22 (01:56:14):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:56:14):
Obviously we've got a couple of phone calls. Now we've
just made this a whole thing. So we'll take a
couple of your phone calls as well. Five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty thanks to Penn Station on ESPN
fifteen thirty, Hey, it's Mulager having a party. There's three sixty.

Speaker 1 (01:56:28):
Continues on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. It's time
for since he three sixty Quick hits on ESPN.

Speaker 2 (01:56:37):
Fifteen looking for Mo. Still haven't see He's not in
here yet. He's still outside. I don't know if he's
just gathering himself here feet away for quick hits. You
need that extra deep breath here. Was looking for Mo.
Still looking for Mo. It is since he three sixty
Thanks to Penn station, No Reds lineup to discuss for today.

(01:56:58):
No game obviously for the Cincinnati Reds today They're off
and then it is Hunter Green Andrew abb at Nicolodolo Friday, Saturday,
Sunday for the Cincinnati Red Legs. Was looking for Mo.
Big opportunity this weekend for the Reds. FC Cincinnati coming
up over the weekend as well.

Speaker 11 (01:57:17):
Do we know?

Speaker 2 (01:57:17):
Is it is it at Atlanta? Is that where f
C Cincinnati is?

Speaker 3 (01:57:20):
That's a good question. I got the schedule right, here
to my left. Do we know that it is Atlanta?
United is on the road, on the road again. May
so we have that tomorrow night birthday bash at the
boats are night Hunter Green celebrating my birthday. It's gonna
be fun. Moses is yes, hi, are you mo?

Speaker 2 (01:57:42):
Yeah, I'm good. Yep, yep. That's that is good. Thanks
a lot for man to hit that sounder today.

Speaker 11 (01:57:50):
How the Chicago Bulls doing this year? You're still still
watching the Last Dance?

Speaker 2 (01:57:57):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:57:57):
Man?

Speaker 2 (01:57:57):
Do you remember the Last Dance during COVID. You're Michael
Jordan poster you're watching? Yeah, look at that.

Speaker 11 (01:58:03):
Yeah, we did legitimate reading the Jordan Rules by Sam
Smith again, are you?

Speaker 2 (01:58:10):
I think we did like thirty minute segments on Last
Dance episodes during COVID. Thirty minutes in three hours, kidding
me before we dive into anything. It's also lost in
those episodes as well. You know, uh, well, let's do
what you got coming up on the show today. Let's
start with that. I don't know, all right, that's fair

(01:58:33):
tell you today that I got Trey Hendrickson on the brain.
Oh huh.

Speaker 11 (01:58:38):
I think there is a very important part of the
social construct in the United States that I have become
acutely aware of more than at any point, that comforts
me in these troubling times in our country. And I'll
tell you what that important part of our social construct
is is. Yeah, so we're going to spend some time

(01:58:59):
on that. Also, what if the Bengals start too and
zero and Trey Hendrickson isn't playing Oh oh oh, Trey
Hendrickson team guy rooting against his teammates because the only
way he gets more leverages if they start oh in two?
Is Ellie Dela Cruz the Red's best player?

Speaker 2 (01:59:21):
Man? No Hunter Green is? Okay? Is he their best
position player? I don't think he is as of right now, right,
but most would say he is.

Speaker 11 (01:59:33):
Can you really be that good if the guy who's
supposed to be your best player isn't among the best
at his position. Yeah, Like it's that this team is
built around Ellie Dela Cruz and Matt mcclan. I think
being really really really really really good. When's that going
to start? What'd you make of Terry Francona's answer to
Charlie's question. I mean they're only twenty one when trailing

(01:59:53):
after the six, and I had no problem up until
the answer until he kind of finished it with if
you think that, then you don't know baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:59:59):
I thought it was a fair question, a totally fair question.
I didn't.

Speaker 11 (02:00:03):
We played that on the air and I said, that's
sort of a crummy way of approaching Charlie Goldsmith from
Terry Francona. That's a legitimate question. Like Terry Francona managed
in Boston, right, yes, yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:00:15):
Where didn't get asked any tough questions there.

Speaker 11 (02:00:17):
Where they You know, that's frankly that the media horde
around the manager is larger, and frankly they have bigger
fangs than he experiences here. He can handle a question
like that without taking a dig at our guy, Charlie.

Speaker 2 (02:00:31):
Team Charlie too, Charlie versus Tito. I'm taking Charlie too.

Speaker 11 (02:00:36):
Is he mad because Charlie is the one that reported
about the pigeon that apparently got Will Benson bench for
two games?

Speaker 2 (02:00:42):
You think Will got benched or do you think he
just couldn't emotionally deal with those I.

Speaker 11 (02:00:46):
Don't know if they let you go in the bereavement
list if you're distraught over the death of a pigeon,
But in the absence of that we just bench him
for a game.

Speaker 2 (02:00:56):
I also looked pretty like banged up going down to
first after getting hit in the leag with a pitch
and then trying to steal still second we're doing. It's
got the confidence of the hitting right now. Oh my god,
Willie b Uh, you have had the unenviable task of
living through. In my opinion, what's two tough losses. Jay
will on ESPN today said it was the biggest NBA

(02:01:16):
postseason choke job in the history of the league. I
can't disagree. You witnessed that last night, you and I
know you have this muted. You also witnessed the UC
Nevada loss when you see blew the twenty two point
lead as you sit here today and you had to
digest last night, which one is harder to take.

Speaker 11 (02:01:35):
Well, the you see Nevada game end of the season
last night, I mean, I think it's over.

Speaker 2 (02:01:40):
Well, you know when Reggie did the choke thing, they
lost that series.

Speaker 11 (02:01:43):
They did they did which, by the way, like I
hated that he made the shot, I thought him doing
that was cool last night. Yeah, I thought it was
a cool homage to Reggie being in the building, them
being at Madison Square, Garden and the Knicks Pacers like
it took me this morning to kind of chuckle at it.

Speaker 2 (02:01:58):
Yep, but I couldn't imagine what thought of it last night.

Speaker 11 (02:02:00):
No, he thought he made the game winning shot, but
like I thought that was cool as hell. I had
no problem with that whatsoever. The you see Nevada game
number one, like last night was just like, wait a minute,
what did I just see? Do you see Nevada?

Speaker 21 (02:02:14):
Thing?

Speaker 11 (02:02:15):
I'll never forget. I was in the arena when Nevada
cut it to sixteen. I thought, oh, here we go,
and that was like a slow death. Last night was
just like being shot in the head. Like last night,
it was just like, boom, you're dead. Your team choked.
Give Indiana a ton of credit, man, which we will
talk about today. But there's at least going to be
a game too, and then there's theoretically at least a

(02:02:36):
best of seven series, although I think it's going to
be a sweep.

Speaker 2 (02:02:39):
Wow Pacers in four doesn't bode well for you Tuesday.
I have hatched an escape route.

Speaker 11 (02:02:46):
Okay, I will still go to the game, but like
I went to Bengals Chiefs Part two AFC Championship game
as soon as that kick went through the goalposts. See ya,
I'm not sticking around for the Lamar Hunt Trophy presentation,
right A zero percent chance I'm gonna be there for
the Bob Coosey Trophy.

Speaker 2 (02:03:03):
President. I to see you sitting right next to Halliburton's dad.
I don't think we would get along.

Speaker 4 (02:03:08):
Is he back?

Speaker 2 (02:03:09):
Is he allowed back? Pushing for that? Okay, folks are
pushing for him to be able to get back in
the billion. Charles Barkley was talking about that last night,
that he should be able to go.

Speaker 11 (02:03:16):
I don't have a problem with that. I don't want
to sit by him, though, But the Nevada game was worse.
Number one, Like, I don't think the Knicks are going
to win the NBA Championship. I thought that UC team
could go to the Final four. Yeah, and that felt
like how it played out after that. Yeah, And I
think even then you knew like Gary Clark is gone,
Jacob Evans is gone, cam Beron was back for one

(02:03:38):
more year, but a lot of the Kyle Washington was gone.
Like that was a really good team of two seed
and all those guys were leaving. That felt like the end.
The NBA is a little bit different.

Speaker 21 (02:03:47):
Now.

Speaker 11 (02:03:48):
That was game one of a season that I would
still go a success, and I don't think it's the
end of the Knicks being decent.

Speaker 2 (02:03:54):
At least the Nevada game.

Speaker 11 (02:03:57):
There was to me such build up to that, such
build up for that season, for that tournament, for their
final four chances. The bracket kind of fell their way.
The U See Nevada game as an adult is the
most disappointed I've ever been after a sporting event as
an adult.

Speaker 2 (02:04:14):
I can I can see a highlight or I can
see Brad Musselman. Yeah, and I immediately am like thinking
of that game, and it takes me back to that
moment well like.

Speaker 11 (02:04:25):
So the three wors for Eric, the three wors for
me were twenty twelve Reds, twenty fifteen Bengals to the Steelers,
and that twenty eighteen U See team. I still look
back on the twenty twelve red season with a great
amount of fondness, and I don't think about blowing three
straight to the Giants. I still remember that twenty fifteen
season with a great amount of fondness, and I don't

(02:04:48):
think so much about how it ended. When I think
of that season. The twenty eighteen you see Bearcats. Yeah,
I kind of don't think about what they did, winning
the regular season championship, winning at Wichita State the final
regular season game, winning the conference tournament when uh Rob
Gray threw the ball out of beat. Like I, when
I think of when you say twenty eighteen Bearcats, my
mind goes to that night in Nashville, and that's not

(02:05:08):
so much the case with those others. And honestly, like
my guess is Indiana's gonna win the series in six,
which is what I said yesterday. If that ends up
being the case, I'll still look back on this nixt
team with a lot of fondness because of the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (02:05:21):
They hadn't been there in.

Speaker 11 (02:05:22):
Forever, beaten the celt likable team, beating the Celtics, beating
the Pistons the way they did.

Speaker 2 (02:05:27):
But that doesn't mean that last night wasn't an absolute
gut punch. Were able to just nestle up and go
to bed right after.

Speaker 11 (02:05:33):
So I sat there for a few minutes, and then
I thought, Okay, what can I do to get my
mind off this? I had wanted to watch the Brett
Favre documentary, and then I watched that for about ten minutes,
and realized I don't care about Brett Farv. And then
then I thought, I'm gonna go lay in bed. Yeah,

(02:05:54):
And I laid in bed and I read a few
things that have nothing to do with sports, and then
I tried to close my eye. That didn't work, and
so I eventually a La Rocky and Rocky four. Decided
late at night drive just go somewhere. So I drove
around Cincinnati for about an hour and fifteen minutes early

(02:06:14):
this morning.

Speaker 2 (02:06:15):
Where did you go? Like anything? Did you go see
any landmarks? Get a view?

Speaker 11 (02:06:19):
I stopped off, stopped off at a speedway, and I
bought a fountain coke and two rolls of Sweethearts and
drove in silence listen to music. I took a coke.
At one o'clock in the morning, I turned on ESPN radio.
That was fruitless, zero chance in hell. I was listening

(02:06:39):
to Red Eye Radio, so there's no podcast I wanted
to listen to. So just drove in silence, eat my sweethearts.

Speaker 2 (02:06:51):
Early Thursday morning. Who'd you rather have up to the
plate in a meaningful about right now? Elie Day La
Cruz or Carrington Cross, Krington Cross? I feel right here? Uh,
We're done, mo is next, plenty still to go On
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati. Like a place that you stop
off at if you're in Great Britain. Yeah, you drop

(02:07:13):
off at about three in the morning when you need
guidance after a loss, most hours of fun. Can't wait.
Let's go Great Thursday Afternoon's next On ESPN fifteenth.

Speaker 20 (02:07:51):
Ky Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (02:07:53):
Make us the number one pre said on your car
radio and on the free knew it improved, iHeartRadio ad
free never sounded so goodP in fifteen thirty

Speaker 2 (02:08:01):
Maxed out on credit cards, Struggling with high